LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 05/2018
Compiled &
Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave
room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,
”says the Lord.
On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him
something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
"Romans 12/01-21: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s
mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this
is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the
grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly
than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance
with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has
one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the
others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If
your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is
serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then
give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do
it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Love must be sincere.
Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love.
Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your
spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction,
faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice
hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with
those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not
be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right
in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at
peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for
God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay, ”says the
Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty,
give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his
head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 04-05/18
Is Hezbollah Eating the Iranian People's Bread/Yves Mamou/Gatestone
Institute/January 04/2018
The Iranian people deserve a more dynamic system of government that revives the
country’s fortunes/Con Coughlin/The National/January 04/ 2018
Soft sands and stormy winds in the Arab world/Amr Moussa/Al Arabiya/January
04/18
Our sick neighbor/Adnan Hussein/Al Arabiya/January 04/18
The vanity of social media/Fahad Suleiman Shoqiran/Al Arabiya/January 04/18
Avoiding the Bitcoin trap/Mahmoud Ahmad/Al Arabiya/January 04/18
Iran Sends More to the Gallows/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/January 04/2018
Egypt: State-Run Media vs. President el-Sisi/A. Z. Mohamed/Gatestone
Institute/January 04/2018
Iran's Crisis is Deeper than the Price of Bread/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/January
04/18
Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on
January 04-05/18
Marcel Ghanem Interrogated as Protesters Brave Rain to
Show Solidarity
Government Earmarks LBP 50 Billion for Parliamentary Elections
Reports: 2 Foreigners in General Security Custody after Raising Suspicions in
Dahieh
Nasrallah Downplays Iran Protests: There's Nothing to Worry About
Hariri Meets Aoun, Says Efforts Ongoing to Resolve Berri Row
Geagea Slams Nasrallah for 'Acting as if There's No Lebanese State'
Hariri Says Govt. Solidarity Intact as Cabinet Convenes amid Aoun-Berri Row
Arrest Warrant Issued for Maria Maalouf in Nasrallah Libel Case
Israel Warns Hizbullah any Confrontation 'Will Shock You'
Berri Orders Opening of Nejmeh Square for Pedestrians
Report: Hariri to Visit Riyadh as Part of Gulf Tour
Is Hezbollah Eating the Iranian People's Bread?
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on January 04-05/18
CIA, Israel, Saudi Arabia Are 'Main
Designers' of Iran Protests, Tehran Legal Official Claims
Bannon Says Trump 'Great Man' despite President Verbal Attack
Saudi-Led Strikes on Yemen Kill Dozens
More Pro-Regime Rallies as Iran Declares 'Sedition' Over
Paris Says French Jihadist Wives 'Should Face Trial in Syria'
Israel Minister Calls for More Settlement Approvals
Clashes in Syria Rebel Bastion over Surrounded Regime Base
28 Civilians Killed in Syria, Most in Russian Air Strikes
Russia Says 2 Troops Killed in Syria, Denies Warplanes Destroyed
Israel Opens Probe into Death of Wheelchair-Bound Palestinian
Israeli Jets Hit Gaza Site after Rocket Fire
Latest Lebanese Related News published
on January 04-05/18
Marcel Ghanem Interrogated as Protesters Brave Rain to Show
Solidarity
Naharnet/January 04/18/Prominent TV talk show host Marcel Ghanem on Thursday
appeared before Mount Lebanon First Examining Magistrate Nicola Mansour in
connection with a controversial episode of his Kalam Ennas show, as protesters
braved heavy rain to express solidarity with him outside the Baabda Justice
Palace. Ghanem’s lawyer, MP Butros Harb, meanwhile filed procedural defenses
that were accepted by Mansour and the session was adjourned to February 2. The
solidarity rally was attended by Information Minister Melhem Riachi and
Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh, Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel, the MPs
Nadim Gemayel, Ghazi Aridi and Nabil de Freige, ex-MP Fares Soaid, a Progressive
Socialist Party delegation, and a number of political, syndical and press
figures. “There is a political plan to muzzle voices and Marcel and LBCI are
being targeted to pass on the message,” Harb said after the interrogation,
stressing that “Lebanon will remain the country of freedom.”Ghanem for his part
thanked “everyone who came to express solidarity despite the rain.” “They came
to say no to repressing free speech and we will always stand by free speech,”
Ghanem added. “Our battle will continue and no one will be able to intimidate
us. We will never be lenient in the battle for freedoms in Lebanon and we will
not let the blood of those who were martyred for freedom go in vain,” Ghanem
vowed. A subpoena had been issued on December 14 for Ghanem to appear before the
judiciary. According to LBCI, Harb's procedural defenses argue that Ghanem's
prosecution “is not based on a legal text.” Harb had warned that “accepting such
type of prosecution would mean accepting the eradication of freedoms in this
country.”Ghanem is accused of hosting Saudi journalists who branded the Lebanese
president and parliament speaker as "terrorists" during one of his show's
episodes. “I'm not supposed to defend anyone. I'm a talk show host. I don't
regret what I did on air and I only managed the episode. What is my crime?”
Ghanem had recently said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television.
Justice Minister Salim Jreissati has said that Ghanem was only supposed to give
his testimony and that no lawsuit would be filed against him. Jreissati had
asked the country's prosecutor general to launch an investigation against the
two Saudi journalists who appeared on Ghanem's Kalam Ennas talk show, one of the
most watched weekly TV programs in Lebanon. The minister wrote in a two-page
letter to the prosecutor that the two men, Ibrahim Al Merhi and Adwan al-Ahmari,
had engaged in libel against top officials including President Michel Aoun and
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. The move came at a time when tensions were very
high between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia over the resignation of Prime Minister
Saad Hariri, announced from the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Government Earmarks LBP 50 Billion for
Parliamentary Elections
Naharnet/January 04/18/The Cabinet on Thursday approved all items on its agenda
and decided to earmark LBP 50 billion for the May parliamentary elections, the
information minister said. “Until now, we do not have the results of the
investigations into the issue of (Iraqi militia leader) Qays al-Khazali’s entry
into Lebanon,” Minister Melhem Riachi added, referring to Khazali’s
controversial visit to Lebanon’s border with Israel. Riachi also announced that
President Michel Aoun and Premier Saad Hariri “voiced their complete rejection
of any attack on freedoms” in Lebanon. According to the minister, the Cabinet
also decided to create a national holiday for “the martyrs of the judiciary.”
Reports: 2 Foreigners in General Security
Custody after Raising Suspicions in Dahieh
Naharnet/January 04/18/Conflicting reports emerged Thursday about the
“disappearance” of a Dutch man and a New Zealand woman in the Beirut southern
suburb of Haret Hreik, a Hizbullah stronghold. Some media reports said the two
foreigners were held by Hizbullah before being handed over to General Security,
as other reports said the man and the woman were arrested by General Security
guards near one of the security agency’s checkpoints. The wife of the Dutch man
told MTV on Thursday afternoon that her husband “has been handed over to General
Security” and that he would be freed “within hours.”The TV network had reported
that the two foreigners had “disappeared while passing in Beirut’s southern
suburbs,” describing them as aid workers. The reports said the man and the woman
were held after “raising suspicions” over their presence in the area.
Nasrallah Downplays Iran Protests: There's
Nothing to Worry About
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 04/18/Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
said overnight that U.S. President Donald Trump's "hopes" that the protests in
Iran will snowball and lead to regime change or chaos will be dashed along with
the hopes of "the Israelis and Saudis."In his first comments since protests in
Iran broke out, Nasrallah said protesters with legitimate grievances have been
exploited by political factions who attached political slogans to their
protests. Nasrallah, whose group is funded extensively by Iran, spoke in a TV
interview with the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen station. He said the protests across
Iranian cities are being dealt with "calmly and wisely" by Iranian authorities.
He said the protests are nothing like the massive protests of 2009 in terms of
scope and demands, adding that "there is nothing to worry about."
Hariri Meets Aoun, Says Efforts Ongoing to
Resolve Berri Row
Naharnet/January 04/18/Prime Minister Saad Hariri met with President Michel Aoun
after Thursday’s cabinet session as part of his ongoing efforts to resolve the
latest spat between the president and Speaker Nabih Berri. “Talks tackled
several issues, including solutions for the issue of decrees, and efforts are
being exerted in this regard,” said Hariri after meeting Aoun in Baabda. Aoun is
engaged in a spat with Berri over a controversial decree granting one-year
seniority to a number of officers. After the decree was signed by Aoun and
Hariri, Berri and Finance Minister Khalil insisted that the decree should have
also carried the finance minister's signature. Aoun and his aides have argued
that the decree did not require Khalil's signature because it did not entail any
“financial burden,” a point Berri and officials close to him have argued
against. Ain el-Tineh sources have meanwhile warned that the decree would tip
sectarian balance in favor of Christians in the army's highest echelons. The
officers in question were undergoing their first year of officer training at the
Military Academy when Syrian forces ousted Aoun’s military government from
Baabda in 1990. They were suspended by the pro-Damascus authorities until 1993
before they resumed their officer training course as second-year cadets.
Geagea Slams Nasrallah for 'Acting as if There's
No Lebanese State'
Naharnet/January 04/18/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea lashed out Thursday
at Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah over the latter’s overnight remarks
to al-Mayadeen television. “Sayyed Nasrallah always acts as if there are no
Lebanese people, a country called Lebanon or a Lebanese state,” Geagea said in a
press release. “I wish he had tasked the ministers of his party and his allies
in the government to raise in Cabinet all the issues that he mentioned in his
interview, so that all government components can take part in the discussions in
order to shoulder their responsibilities before God, history and the people whom
they represent,” Geagea added. He stressed that “the first precondition for the
success of any defensive or offensive act is national unity, whereas Sayyed
Nasrallah always disregards this element and acts without an authorization from
the people, in a blatant encroachment on legitimate Lebanese
institutions.”“Should there be a preemptive defense plan for Lebanon in the face
of Israel and other forces, the Lebanese Army should be in charge of devising
it,” Geagea emphasized. He added: “It is not the first time that Sayyed
Nasrallah mentions the issue of bringing non-Lebanese fighters into Lebanon, and
this matter is totally rejected by us and by the majority of the Lebanese
people.” “I hope this will be the last time that he tackles this issue, because
Lebanese sovereignty does not belong exclusively to him, but rather to all
representatives of the Lebanese people,” Geagea went on to say. Nasrallah
announced overnight that Yemen’s Huthi rebels have expressed their readiness to
send fighters to support Hizbullah in any future confrontation with Israel.
Hariri Says Govt. Solidarity Intact as Cabinet
Convenes amid Aoun-Berri Row
Naharnet/January
04/18/Prime Minister Saad Hariri reassured Thursday that “solidarity will
continue among the government components,” as the Cabinet convened in Baabda
amid an ongoing spat between President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri. The
Cabinet has 43 items on its agenda, topped by a request from the Defense
Ministry to refer the case of the Arsal, Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa clashes to the
Judicial Council, Lebanon’s highest state security court. Baabda sources said
Hariri “has not proposed anything regarding the seniority decree,” ruling out
that the controversial issue would be raised in the Cabinet session. “There is
strong keenness on the proper functioning of Cabinet,” the sources added. Asked
whether he would raise the issue, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil told
reporters before the session that he would only speak if someone else raises the
contentious topic. “Solidarity among the government components will continue and
any dispute can be resolved to secure the country’s interest and protect
stability,” Hariri said at the opening of the session. “The importance of the
Cabinet is that it was a work team that protected the country and safeguarded
political stability and security. This team made a lot of achievements last year
and it has an agenda to implement ahead of the elections,” the premier added.
Aoun for his part called on the government to continue the administrative
appointments, complete the preparations for parliamentary elections, and begin
studying the 2018 state budget.
He also called on the Defense Ministry and security agencies to finish their
preparations and papers for the International Support Group for Lebanon meeting
that will be held in Rome. Separately, the president stressed his keenness on
freedoms as well as on “the law and the respect of the judiciary,” in reference
to the judiciary’s summoning of prominent talk show host Marcel Ghanem. Aoun is
engaged in a spat with Berri over a controversial decree granting one-year
seniority to a number of officers. After the decree was signed by Aoun and
Hariri, Berri and Finance Minister Khalil insisted that the decree should have
also carried the finance minister's signature. Aoun and his aides have argued
that the decree did not require Khalil's signature because it did not entail any
“financial burden,” a point Berri and officials close to him have argued
against. Ain el-Tineh sources have meanwhile warned that the decree would tip
sectarian balance in favor of Christians in the army's highest echelons. The
officers in question were undergoing their first year of officer training at the
Military Academy when Syrian forces ousted Aoun’s military government from
Baabda in 1990. They were suspended by the pro-Damascus authorities until 1993
before they resumed their officer training course as second-year cadets.
Arrest Warrant Issued for Maria Maalouf in
Nasrallah Libel Case
Naharnet/January 04/18/An arrest warrant in absentia was issued Thursday for
firebrand journalist Maria Maalouf, who is accused of “libel, defamation and
incitement” against Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. The warrant was
issued by Beirut First Examining Magistrate Ghassan Oueidat after a lawsuit was
filed by the lawyer Ashraf al-Moussawi and a number of other lawyers. An
indictment issued by Oueidat said Maalouf “published writings that stir
sectarian sentiments and subject Lebanon to the threat of hostile acts.”
Israel Warns Hizbullah any Confrontation 'Will
Shock You'
Naharnet/January 04/18/Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee voiced threats on
Wednesday warning Hizbullah to refrain from waging any aggression against Israel
“because we are going to surprise you if you dare,” he warned. “Maintaining
stability in the region is a common interest of the Israeli and Lebanese sides,
but if you dare, we will surprise you,“ said the Israeli official in a video
footage. He added that “Hizbullah has been working as an Iranian arm in Lebanon
and sacrificing Lebanese to foreign interests.”Hizbullah has been hit hard in
the Syrian war and “its support in Lebanon and the Arab world continues to
decline,” he added. The official warned that Israel is “closely monitoring what
Hizbullah is doing as well as what is happening on the border and beyond.”
Berri Orders Opening of Nejmeh Square for
Pedestrians
Naharnet/January 04/18/Speaker Nabih Berri has given instructions on Wednesday
to wide-open all the entrances around the Parliament’s premises in Beirut's
Nejmeh Square for pedestrians convenience. Berri said the roads leading to
Nejmeh Square will no more be restricted for pedestrians, and the movement will
return just like it was before tight security measures were imposed “for safety
reasons.” Berri asked business owners, restaurants, hotels and offices in the
area to resume their businesses after closing down. Whenever Lebanon's
parliament is scheduled to go into session, security measures are implemented
and the the roads around the premises close down prohibiting vehicles, motorists
and pedestrians from passing. However, this measure turned into a permanent
routine and the area became a permanent security zone cordoned-off with concrete
barriers and barbed wires. Berri's move came a few days after the Square
witnessed the biggest celebrations on New Year's Eve as part of an initiative
for the revival of downtown Beirut.
Report: Hariri to Visit Riyadh as Part of Gulf
Tour
Naharnet/January
04/18/Prime Minister Saad Hariri is expected to embark on a tour to Gulf
countries that will include Saudi Arabia, signaling a “diplomatic breakthrough”
after strained ties between the Kingdom and Lebanon, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyasah
reported on Wednesday. Quoting unnamed ministerial sources, the daily said they
“expressed satisfaction” with what they described as “diplomatic breakthrough”
between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, following what appeared like a diplomatic
tussle that caught Lebanon's ambassador to SA and his Saudi counterpart over
representation. On Tuesday, the Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid al-Yaacoub
presented a copy of his credentials to Lebanon's Foreign Minister in preparation
for presenting them to President Michel Aoun, ending months of delay. Saudi
Arabia named its ambassador in September. Ambassador Walid al-Yaacoub arrived in
Lebanon in November, but still has not been sworn in by the president. Lebanon's
ambassador to Saudi Arabia was named to the post in late July and was only
accredited late in December in Saudi Arabia. The delay highlighted tension
between SA and Lebanon following the bizarre, now-reversed resignation of Prime
Minister Saad Hariri from Riyadh. Lebanon was thrown into a political crisis
after the Nov. 4 resignation of the Premier which he delivered in a televised
statement read from the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Hariri has since withdrawn his
resignation and returned home nearly three weeks later. The resignation was
widely perceived as Saudi-orchestrated, and part of the kingdom's high-stakes
rivalry with Iran.
Is Hezbollah Eating the Iranian People's Bread?
هل حزب الله يأكل خبز الشعب الإيراني
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/January 04/2018
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=61607
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11666/iran-hezbollah-financing
Ironically, Iran's receiving more than $100 billion in frozen assets succeeded
in breaking the solidarity between the Iranian people and the Ayatollahs' regime
better than the sanctions did.
Without Iranian money, Hezbollah would not exist. At least, not exist as an
Iranian foreign legion, militarily engaged against Israel and in other Middle
East regional conflicts. Without Iranian subsidies, Hezbollah would be just a
narco-mafia.
Hezbollah has developed deep connections to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels,
directly to facilitate the distribution of drugs throughout the Middle East and
the US.
In the holy city of Qom in Iran, on December 30, 2017, anti-regime demonstrators
shouted "Death to Hezbollah", "Aren't you ashamed Khamenei? Get out of Syria and
take care of us", and "Not Gaza, or Lebanon".
In an Islamic country, whose official slogan is "Death to America" and "Death to
Israel", to see Iranian people shouting "Death to Hezbollah" is totally surreal.
By wishing "Death to Hezbollah", Iranians demonstrators were not only protesting
a "rise of the price of eggs" as the Ayatollahs' propaganda machine tried to
claim. The demonstrators were demanding that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei spend Iranian money for Iranian people -- and only for Iranian people.
Ironically, Iran's receiving more than $100 billion in frozen assets for the
hapless "nuclear deal" succeeded in breaking the solidarity between Iranian
people and the Ayatollahs' regime better than the sanctions did. During the
tough time of sanctions, the Iranian people stood by their leaders. The people
only broke with their leaders when they saw that the "liberated" money was
benefiting everyone but them.
Is Hezbollah eating the Iranian people's bread? The answer is yes, absolutely.
Hezbollah is an Iranian foreign legion, a tool of an imperialist Shia war being
conducted in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and against Israel. This Arab Shia army was
created in Lebanon by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1982,
right after Israeli defense forces expelled the PLO from Lebanon. The aim of
this Arab Shia legion was to demonstrate to Sunni Muslim Arabs in the Middle
East that Shia Iran was a better fighter against the "Zionist entity" than any
Sunni regime.
Over the years, the small militia of 1982 grew to an expensive army, with more
150,000 missiles targeting at Israel, and able to defeat ISIS in Syria.
How much money is Hezbollah costing Iran? Before quoting an amount, please
remember that Hezbollah is not only a 30,000 to 50,000-man fighting army.
Hezbollah is also a social system with hospitals, welfare institutions,
well-diggers for farmers, religious schools for boys and girls, a media
conglomerate (television channels, radios, websites), a private
telecommunications network inside Lebanon, and with the cyber-warfare capability
to destabilize countries or companies. Hezbollah, in other words, is a state
within the state of Lebanon, and the "patron" of the Shia community there.
Until 2005, experts guessed that Iran was giving about $200 million a year to
Hezbollah. Matthew Levitt, a specialist on Hezbollah, wrote:
"Recently, Western diplomats and analysts in Lebanon estimated Hezbollah
receives closer to $200 million a year from Iran... Some of this financial
support comes in the form of cash funds, while much is believed to come in the
form of material goods such as weapons. Iranian cargo planes deliver
sophisticated weaponry, from rockets to small arms, to Hezbollah in regular
flights to Damascus from Tehran. These weapons are offloaded in Syria and
trucked to Hezbollah camps in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. In the wake of the death
of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Hezbollah reportedly received an additional
$22 million from Iranian intelligence to support Palestinian terrorist groups
and foment instability."
Different Iranian "charitable" foundations, many of them controlled directly by
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, also fund Hezbollah's hospitals and charities in
Lebanon. The amount of money difficult to quantify because it does not appear in
any official budget. It certainly represents many millions of dollars. Of
course, as the military role of Hezbollah expanded, the cost of funding it
increased, from $300 million to $1 billion annually.
In short, without Iranian money, Hezbollah would not exist. At least, not as an
Iranian foreign legion, militarily engaged against Israel and in other Middle
East regional conflicts. Without Iranian subsidies, Hezbollah would be only a
narco-mafia. It is a characteristic of this Shia militia to have been able to
find alternative financing to compensate for the ups and downs of Iranian
financing each time it was necessary.
Another source of Hezbollah's funding is cocaine-trafficking. Over time,
Hezbollah has developed deep connections to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels,
directly to facilitate the distribution of drugs throughout the Middle East and
the US. The Obama administration quashed a huge Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) investigation into drug-running, arms-smuggling, human trafficking, and
other criminal enterprises from which Hezbollah was profiting around the world,
according to a bombshell report by Josh Meyers in Politico in December 2017. For
the Obama White House, blocking the DEA investigation was a decisive move to
help finalize its "nuclear deal" with Iran.
How much money does Hezbollah make from cocaine? Again, it is difficult to say.
From 2007 to 2011, for example, Hezbollah networks were involved in a
$300-million scheme purchasing used vehicles in the U.S. to ship to West Africa
for sale. Earnings from the car sales were commingled with drug profits and sent
to currency-exchange houses for laundering.
Among other trafficking, according to Interpol, Hezbollah also counterfeits
goods (car brakes, clothes, pharmaceuticals, money). As early as 2003, Interpol
warned of links between counterfeiting and terrorism, and between counterfeiting
and Hezbollah :
"In documents prepared for his testimony on 16 July before the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on International Relations, INTERPOL Secretary General
Ronald K. Noble, said the problem may become more serious in future and he
called for enhanced efforts, including a new partnership between industry and
police, to combat it...
"The INTERPOL document presented to the Congressional Committee indicated that a
wide range of groups - including Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Chechen separatists,
ethnic Albanian extremists in Kosovo, and paramilitaries in Northern Ireland -
have been found to profit from the production or sale of counterfeit
goods."Hezbollah also raises funds from the Shia diaspora communities in Africa,
Europe, Northern America and is running
"an extensive network of commercial and illicit businesses around the globe,
including in South America and Africa, which may morph into new enterprises to
avoid scrutiny. By using shell companies, and by renaming companies to avoid
U.S. sanctions, Hezbollah-linked groups can continue to access the international
financial system and transact with an ever-growing network of companies. The
U.S. Treasury Department has designated dozens of Lebanon-based firms for
supporting Hezbollah, including real estate firms and auto care companies. It is
likely the group will continue its money laundering operations, growing into new
fields and businesses in the future."
Even if Iran cuts its subsidies to its proxy, Hezbollah's 150,000 missiles will
presumably remain in Lebanon as a permanent threat against Israel. Meanwhile,
the Hezbollah Shia drug cartel will just have to work harder to feed its
fighters.
**Yves Mamou, is an author and journalist based in France. He is the author of
"Hezbollah, dernier acte", ("Hezbollah: The Final Act").
© 2018 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on January 04-05/18
CIA, Israel, Saudi Arabia Are 'Main Designers' of Iran
Protests, Tehran Legal Official Claims
Iranian prosecutor general says
that CIA planned to turn the protest into an 'armed' insurrection by
mid-February, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution
The Associated Press Jan 04, 2018
Iran's prosecutor general has directly named a CIA official as being the "main
designer" of the protests that have shaken the country. The Trump administration
has denied having any hand in the protests and the CIA declined to comment.
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri's comments Thursday, carried by the state-run IRNA news
agency, said the CIA official headed an operation that had Israeli and Saudi
support. Montazeri alleged that the CIA planned to turn the protest into an
"armed" insurrection by mid-February, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.A senior Trump administration official on Wednesday disputed the
notion that the U.S. played any role in instigating the unrest in Iran, saying
the United States had not expected them to occur. The official said: "The
protests were entirely spontaneously generated."The official spoke on condition
of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
Iran's interior minister said earlier that some 42,000 people took part in the
week of protests that roiled the Islamic Republic. Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said
in a statement Thursday that the figure was "based on precise statistics we
have."Fazli said the continuation of the protests during the past week was
because of the "leniency, restrain, tolerance and interaction" of the
government. He did not elaborate. This is the first time authorities have given
a figure for the total number of participants in the protests. On Wednesday,
Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the chief of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard,
said the biggest gathering included some 1,500 protesters. The protest began
last Thursday in Mashhad and quickly extended to other cities. Unrest
surrounding them has killed at least 21 people. Claims of more protests in Iran
dropped overnight Wednesday after a week of unrest that killed at least 21
people. It wasn't immediately clear if the drop on Thursday meant that the
demonstrations are subsiding or that the Iranian government's blocking of social
media apps has stopped protesters from offering new images of rallies. In
Tehran, streets were calm and clear at the start of the Iranian weekend. On
Wednesday, Iranian state media covered massive pro-government rallies in dozens
of cities across the Islamic Republic. The protests began on Dec. 28, sparked by
Iran's flagging economy and a rise in food prices, before morphing over the
following days into calls for the downfall of Iran's theocratic government.
Hundreds have been arrested by authorities over the unrest.
Bannon Says Trump 'Great Man' despite President Verbal Attack
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Former White House chief strategist
Steve Bannon is heaping new praise on Donald Trump, after the president
scathingly dismissed him as insane and irrelevant for disparaging his family in
published remarks. "The president of the United States is a great man," the
executive chairman of right-wing news website Breitbart told SiriusXM late
Wednesday. "You know I support him day in and day out, whether going through the
country giving the Trump Miracle speech or on the show or on the website."Trump
reacted with outrage after the release of explosive excerpts from a new book in
which Bannon described Trump's eldest son's meeting with a Kremlin-connected
lawyer as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic." "Steve Bannon has nothing to do with
me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his
mind," the Republican president said in a statement.
Bannon was one of the main architect of Trump's upset victory in 2016
presidential elections, and the president's chief White House strategist for six
months. A Trump lawyer, Charles Harder, has sent Bannon a cease-and-desist
letter accusing him of violating a non-disclosure agreement by speaking to the
author of the book.
Saudi-Led Strikes on Yemen Kill Dozens
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Saudi-led air strikes have killed
dozens of rebels and civilians in the past 24 hours in Yemen's flashpoint
province of Hodeida, medical sources said on Thursday. Saudi-led coalition
warplanes carried out nine air raids overnight on positions of the Shiite Huthi
rebels in the Red Sea province, local sources told AFP. The strikes killed 36
rebels and 12 civilians, sources at four hospitals in the provincial capital
said. Fighting between the Iran-backed rebels and the government of President
Abedrabbo Mansur Hadi supported by the Saudi-led coalition has intensified in
the past few weeks, causing a rise in civilian casualties. Last week, the U.N.
humanitarian coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said coalition air strikes
on December 26 killed 68 civilians in Hodeida and the neighbouring province of
Taez. The coalition accused McGoldrick of bias towards the rebels, but did not
deny the civilian deaths. The military alliance intervened in support of Hadi's
government in March 2015, after the Huthis took over the capital Sanaa and much
of the rest of the country. But despite the coalition's superior firepower, the
rebels still control the capital and much of the north. More than 8,750 people
have been killed since the coalition intervened, according to the World Health
Organization.
More Pro-Regime Rallies as Iran Declares
'Sedition' Over
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Iran saw another day of large
pro-regime rallies Thursday after authorities declared the end of deadly unrest
and turned attention to addressing economic concerns that fueled protests. A
week after the demonstrations broke out, there were no reports of fresh protests
in local media overnight, while videos on social media suggested only limited
unrest in provincial towns which could not be immediately verified. As
Washington suggested it may be looking to impose fresh sanctions on Tehran,
Iranian authorities were weighing options including blocking unpopular measures
in President Hassan Rouhani's recent budget. State television showed huge crowds
marching in support of the government across 10 cities early Thursday, including
Isfahan, Ardebil and Mashhad, where the protests first erupted last Thursday.
"We are together behind the leader," chanted the crowds, in reference to supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "The revolutionary Iranian people have responded
in time to the enemies and trouble-makers by coming out on the streets," Ali
Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Khamenei, told the semi-official ISNA news agency.
"The people's main demand now is for the government and officials to deal with
the economic problems," he added. General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of
Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, on Wednesday announced the "end of the
sedition." A total of 21 people died in five days of unrest that began on
December 28 as protests against economic grievances quickly turned against the
regime as a whole, with attacks on government buildings and police stations.
Jafari told state television that "a large number of the troublemakers" were
behind the unrest, saying many had been arrested and would face "firm action."
'Grotesque intervention'
The unrest -- the biggest challenge to Iran's Islamic regime since mass protests
in 2009 -- caused international concern, with the United States in particular
accusing authorities of a crackdown on dissent. A White House official, who
asked for anonymity, said Wednesday that Washington would look for "actionable
information" to try to bring fresh sanctions on those responsible. U.S.
President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly tweeted his backing for Iranian
protesters, wrote: "You will see great support from the United States at the
appropriate time!" The question now is whether Trump will continue to waive
nuclear-related sanctions that were suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal
between Iran and world powers. Under the deal, Trump must actively waive certain
sanctions every few months and the next deadline falls on January 12. Iran --
which has long accused the United States and Sunni Arab rivals led by Saudi
Arabia of interference in its affairs -- said external "enemies" were behind
recent unrest. Its U.N. Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo said in a letter that the
U.S. government had "stepped up its acts of intervention in a grotesque way in
Iran's internal affairs" and accused Washington of violating international law
and the principles of the U.N. charter. Online messaging and photo sharing
platforms Telegram and Instagram remained blocked on mobile phones, having been
interrupted soon after protests began. Telecoms Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari
Jahromi said Telegram would only be unblocked if it removed "terrorist" content.
- Parliament responds -I
ran's political establishment has closed ranks against the unrest, with even
reformists condemning the violence. But many have also called on Rouhani to
address the economic grievances that drove the initial protests. There have
already been moves in parliament to block the unpopular budget measures
announced last month, which included cuts to welfare and fuel price hikes. "As
concerns petrol prices, we must absolutely take into account the situation of
the people because the tensions are absolutely not in the interests of the
country," parliament speaker Ali Larijani said on Wednesday. Rouhani came to
power in 2013 promising to mend the economy and ease social tensions, but high
living costs and unemployment have left many feeling that progress is too slow.
Rural areas, hit by years of drought and under-investment, are particularly
hard-hit. On the streets of the capital, there is widespread sympathy with the
economic grievances driving the unrest, particularly an unemployment rate as
high as 40 percent for young people. "People have reached a stage where they can
no longer tolerate this pressure from the authorities," said Soraya Saadaat, a
54-year-old jobless woman. But some Tehranis said claims from the U.S. that they
were desperate for freedom were overblown. "We do have some freedom in Iran,"
Hamid Rahimi, a 33-year-old bank employee told AFP. "If the people of Iran have
something to say, it's about economic problems. They want to see their demands,
what they voted for, fulfilled."
Paris Says French Jihadist Wives 'Should Face Trial in Syria'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Female French jihadists arrested in
Kurdish-held parts of Syria should face justice there so long as they can be
guaranteed a fair trial, the French government said on Thursday. Debate has been
swirling in France over the fate of women who went to Syria to marry Islamist
fighters and now find themselves in custody, not least following heavy defeats
for the Islamic State group. This week Emilie Konig, a 33-year-old Muslim
convert from Brittany who became a notorious jihadist recruiter, became the
latest of a string of European women to plead publicly for repatriation. But
French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux indicated there are no plans to
bring her home. If "there are legal institutions capable of guaranteeing a fair
trial assuring their right to a defence", women arrested in Kurdish-held Syria
should be "judged there", Griveaux told RMC radio.
"Whatever crime may have been committed -- even the most despicable -- French
citizens abroad must have a guaranteed right to a defense," he added. "We must
have confirmation of that."Konig, who features on U.N. and U.S. blacklists of
dangerous militants, was arrested last month and is being held in a Kurdish camp
with her three young children along with several other French women. "They have
been arrested, and as far as we know they did not surrender of their own
accord," Griveaux said. "They were arrested in combat." Konig's lawyer Bruno
Vinay argued Wednesday that France must repatriate her under its "international
commitments."A policeman's daughter who converted after meeting her first
husband, Konig set off for Syria in 2012, leaving her first two children in
France to join her new partner, who was later killed. She frequently appeared in
propaganda videos and French intelligence intercepted messages to her contacts
at home urging them to attack French institutions or the wives of soldiers. Some
30 French jihadists, both men and women, are currently in the custody of Kurdish
and Iraqi forces, according to a source close to the investigation.
'Must face justice for crimes'
Of some 5,000 EU Islamists believed to have gone to fight, around a third have
returned home, according to the Soufan Center, a U.S.-based NGO that conducts
research on global security. So far, France, Germany and Britain have tackled
returnees on a case-by-case basis. The Syrian Kurds' representative in France
told AFP that authorities in their territory, covering swathes of north and
northeast Syria, were ready to either take the women to court or send them home
with their children. "With France, an allied country, we can come to an
agreement that works out well, bearing in mind that the priority is that these
terrorists are held accountable for their crimes," Issa said. No foreign
national has yet appeared in court in Kurdish-held areas, Issa added, adding
that their forces on the ground have some 1,300 "terrorists" in custody
including foreigners. Kurds currently hold just under a third of Syrian
territory -- including the Raqa region, IS' former "capital" -- while the regime
holds around a half, following the multi-sided civil war which has raged since
2011. France is part of the U.S.-led international military coalition that has
been carrying out air strikes against IS.
Israel Minister Calls for More Settlement
Approvals
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor
Lieberman has summoned a meeting of top Israeli planning officials for next week
to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, his office said
Thursday.A brief statement said he had convened a session of the Supreme
Planning Council for Monday "to approve new programs for the planning and sale
of housing units in all parts of the (West Bank)."It did not give details. The
Hebrew-language statement said the move was "part of the policy of Defense
Minister Avigdor Lieberman to strengthen settlement in Judea and Samaria," the
Hebrew biblical term for the West Bank. Israel occupied the territory in the
Six-Day War of 1967. Today more than 600,000 Jewish settlers live there and in
annexed east Jerusalem among 2.9 million Palestinians, with frequent outbreaks
of violence between the sides. The settlements are deemed illegal under
international law and widely seen as a main obstacle to peace. The central
committee of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party on Sunday
passed a resolution urging its MPs to work for annexation of the West Bank
settlements. Taking such a measure could effectively end prospects for a
two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as there would be little
area left for a Palestinian state. But a significant number of members of
Netanyahu's right-wing coalition say that is precisely what they are seeking and
openly oppose a Palestinian state. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday
harshly condemned the Likud vote and criticized the United States for its
silence. "We hope that this vote serves as a reminder for the international
community that the Israeli government, with the full support of the U.S.
administration, is not interested in a just and lasting peace," he said. The
prime minister says he still supports a two-state solution with the
Palestinians, although he has also pushed for Jewish settlement expansion in the
West Bank. According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, Israel advanced plans for
6,742 settlement units in the West Bank in 2017, the most since 2013. Israeli
right-wing politicians have seized on support from U.S. President Donald Trump
to promote measures seen as further damaging remaining hopes for a two-state
solution.
Clashes in Syria Rebel Bastion over Surrounded
Regime Base
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Syrian regime forces on Thursday
battled to reach troops trapped in rebel bastion Eastern Ghouta, as a monitor
said at least 28 civilians were killed in Russian and government
bombardments.State television said "army units had launched an assault to break
the siege" of the Armored Vehicle Base where some 250 soldiers are believed to
be cut off. On the outskirts of Damascus, Eastern Ghouta is one of the last
remaining opposition strongholds in Syria and has itself been under government
siege since 2013, causing severe food and medicine shortages for up to 400,000
residents. The regime base on the edge of the region was surrounded by rebels at
the start of the week after an offensive that involved Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an
alliance dominated by a former al-Qaida affiliate, the British-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said
"violent clashes were taking place" Thursday close to the base, the only one in
Eastern Ghouta still held by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
Dead and wounded
Ahead of the government operation, Abdel Rahman said at least 29 civilians were
killed in Eastern Ghouta Wednesday by Russian and regime bombardments. Twenty
were killed in Russian air strikes in the town of Misraba, while the remainder
died in regime raids and shelling in other areas. Seven children and 11 women
were among those killed, said the head of the war monitor, which relies on a
network of sources inside Syria. Victims were taken to a hospital in Douma,
where an AFP correspondent saw rescuers bringing in mostly women and children.
Medical staff tried to revive a child who had been pulled from the rubble, but
without success. A young girl among the wounded received stitches for a serious
injury to her face. A medical source at the hospital told AFP: "Among the
wounded were two women in their 20s. One of them lost both eyes and the other
lost one eye." Eastern Ghouta is one of four "de-escalation zones" agreed by
Russia, as well as regime backer Iran and rebel supporter Turkey, to help halt
fighting around Syria. The deal excludes Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but other larger
rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta are part of it.
Attack on Russian base
The latest fighting there comes as regime troops backed up by Russian airpower
battle rebels and jihadists on the edge of northwestern Idlib province, the only
one still fully beyond government control. The government push near Idlib --
also a "de-escalation zone" -- follows two months of sporadic fighting that the
United Nations says has displaced more than 60,000 people. Meanwhile, Russia's
defence ministry on Thursday said two servicemen were killed in a New Year's Eve
mortar attack by Islamist militants on its Hmeimim airbase in Latakia province,
but denied media reports seven military planes were destroyed. Moscow has
declared its mission in Syria largely completed after a two-year intervention
that has shifted the conflict firmly in Assad's favour. Russia says it has
carried out a partial withdrawal but it will still keep soldiers and bases in
Syria. The war in Syria has killed more than 340,000 people and displaced
millions from their homes since it began in 2011 with the brutal repression of
anti-government protests.
28 Civilians Killed in Syria, Most in Russian
Air Strikes
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/At least 28 civilians have been
killed by bombardment in the besieged Syrian opposition stronghold of Eastern
Ghouta, near Damascus, most of them in Russian air raids, a monitor said.
Nineteen were killed in Russian strikes in the town of Misraba on Wednesday,
while the remainder died the same day in regime strikes and shelling in other
areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Seven children and 11 women
were among those killed, according to the head of the Britain-based war monitor,
Rami Abdel Rahman. Victims were taken to a hospital in Douma, where an AFP
correspondent saw rescuers bringing in mostly women and children. Medical staff
tried to revive an infant who had been pulled from the rubble, but without
success. A young girl among the wounded received stitches for a serious injury
to her face. A medical source at the hospital told AFP: "Among the wounded were
two women in their 20s. One of them lost both eyes and the other lost one eye."
Eastern Ghouta, one of the last remaining opposition strongholds in Syria, is
controlled mostly by rebels from the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) group. It
has been under government siege since 2013, causing severe food and medicine
shortages for around 400,000 residents. According to the Observatory,
Russian-backed regime forces have increased their bombardment of the enclave in
recent days in response to jihadists and rebels attacking regime positions near
the town of Harasta. The monitor relies on a network of sources inside Syria and
says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location,
flight patterns and munitions used. - 'Troops gathering' -The bombardment comes
despite Eastern Ghouta being one of four "de-escalation zones" agreed by Russia,
as well as regime backer Iran and rebel supporter Turkey, to help halt fighting
around Syria. Jaish al-Islam leader Mohammed Alloush on Thursday accused the
regime of preparing an assault on the opposition stronghold. "The regime has
been gathering its troops especially on our fronts for the past month to attack
(Eastern) Ghouta," he told AFP.
The Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the government, on Thursday said the
army was gathering its troops on the outskirts of Harasta. The war in Syria has
killed more than 340,000 people and displaced millions from their homes since it
began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. The latest
raids came after at least seven civilians, including five children, were killed
Tuesday by air strikes in northwestern Idlib province, the last outside
government control, the Observatory said.
Two Russian servicemen killed
Government and allied forces backed by Russian warplanes have been battling
jihadist fighters and rebels for more than a week in an area straddling the
boundary between Idlib and Hama provinces. The government push on the edge of
Idlib province -- also a "de-escalation zone" -- follows two months of sporadic
fighting that the United Nations says has displaced more than 60,000 people.
Russia first launched bombing raids in 2015 in support of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's forces. The strikes have helped Assad regain control over much
of the war-ravaged country. Russia's defense ministry on Thursday said two
servicemen were killed in a mortar attack by Islamist militants at the Hmeimim
airbase in northwestern Syria on New Year's Eve, but denied media reports seven
military planes were destroyed. The news came a day after the ministry announced
a Russian helicopter crash that killed two pilots following a technical fault as
it was flying to Hama, in northwestern Syria, also on December 31. Russia's
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu last month said the military had completed the
partial withdrawal from Syria ordered by President Vladimir Putin, but Moscow
would maintain a presence in the country, including three battalions and two
bases. Moscow acknowledged in recent months that its special forces are also
active on the ground in the offensive against Islamic State group jihadists.
Russia Says 2 Troops Killed in Syria, Denies Warplanes Destroyed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Russia's defence ministry on
Thursday said two servicemen were killed in a mortar attack by Islamist
militants in Syria on New Year's Eve, but denied media reports seven military
planes were destroyed. "As darkness fell, the Hmeimim air base was subjected to
sudden mortar shelling from a mobile group of militants. As a result of the
shelling, two servicemen were killed," the defense ministry said in a statement
to Russian agencies. The Kommersant business daily reported seven military
planes had been "practically destroyed" in the attack, citing two
military-diplomatic sources, but the ministry said the report was "fake."The
news comes a day after the ministry announced a Russian helicopter crash in
Syria that killed two pilots following a technical fault, also on December 31.
With four fatalities this is one of the deadliest single days for the Russian
army in Syria since it entered the conflict and brings the total number of
officially reported losses to 44. Security around the Hmeimim base was being
stepped up after the mortar attack, the defence ministry said. "The Russian air
force in Syria is combat-ready and continues to fulfill all intended tasks," the
statement added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Syria last month where
he ordered the start of a pullout of Russian troops, saying their task in the
war-torn country had been largely completed. Three battalions of military police
and officers of the Russian Center for Reconciliation would remain in Syria, as
well as two Russian bases, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on a subsequent
trip. Russia became involved in the multi-front conflict in September 2015, when
it began an aerial campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad's military.
Moscow acknowledged in recent months that its special forces are also active on
the ground in the offensive against Islamic State jihadists.
Israel Opens Probe into Death of
Wheelchair-Bound Palestinian
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Israel's military said Thursday it
was opening an investigation into the death of a wheelchair-bound Gazan man,
with Palestinian officials saying he was shot by a sniper during clashes with
Israeli forces. Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, a 29-year-old whose family said had lost
his legs in a 2008 Israeli strike, was shot in the head by a sniper during
protests and clashes along the Gaza border on December 15, according to the
health ministry in Gaza. The United Nations' human rights chief said he was
"truly shocked" by Abu Thurayeh's death and demanded an "independent and
impartial investigation."On Thursday, Israel's military announced it was opening
a probe into his death, after previously saying it was not able to determine
whether he had been killed by its soldiers' fire. "As stated previously, the
IDF's (Israeli army’s) operational review concluded that no live fire was aimed
at Abu Thurayeh," it said in a statement. "Based on the information gathered
during the review, it was not possible to determine whether Abu Thurayeh was
injured as a result of riot dispersal means or what caused his death. "In order
to further examine the case, including information received from organizations
operating in the Gaza Strip, it was decided that the circumstances of (Abu)
Thurayeh's death will also be examined by a military police investigation."AFP
photographers have seen Abu Thurayeh at multiple demonstrations in recent years.
In video footage recorded the day he was killed, Abu Thurayeh could be seen
carrying the Palestinian flag and waving the victory sign at Israeli soldiers
across the border. The protest on December 15 was part of unrest that has
occurred in the Palestinian territories since U.S. President Donald Trump's
recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Fourteen Palestinians have been
killed since Trump's December 6 announcement, most of them in clashes with
Israeli forces.
Israeli Jets Hit Gaza Site after Rocket Fire
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 04/18/Israeli air strikes targeted a site
in the Gaza Strip overnight in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian
enclave, with no injuries reported, the military and Gazan security sources said
on Thursday. "In response to the projectiles fired at southern Israeli
communities throughout yesterday from the Gaza Strip, IAF (Israeli air force)
fighter jets targeted a significant terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip,"
Israeli forces said in a statement, without providing further details on what
was hit. Security sources in Gaza said empty land was targeted east of the city
of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, causing no injuries. Palestinian militants
in Gaza have fired at least 20 rockets or mortar rounds at Israel since U.S.
President Donald Trump's controversial December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as
the country's capital, at least six of which have been intercepted by the Iron
Dome defence system. No Israelis have been wounded by the rocket fire. The
projectiles are often fired by fringe radical Islamist groups, but Israel holds
Gaza's militant rulers Hamas responsible for any attacks from the territory and
retaliates by targeting Hamas positions.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published
on January 04-05/18
The Iranian people deserve a more dynamic system of government
that revives the country’s fortunes
Con Coughlin/The National/January
04/ 2018
الشعب الإيراني يستحق حكومة تستعيد ثروات البلد
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=61584
A new sanctions regime would send a clear message to the ayatollahs that the
will of the Iranian people cannot be ignored
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blames foreign foes for nationwide
protests, although there is no evidence to support that claim
Ever since Donald Trump came to power a year ago, he has attracted considerable
derision over the hardline stand he has taken against North Korea and its
pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Critics have accused the US president of being a modern-day Dr Strangelove, a
man hellbent on provoking nuclear armageddon by directly confronting North
Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and threatening his country with total destruction
if he continues with his attempts to build nuclear weapons capable of hitting
the American mainland.
But in their desperation to lampoon Mr Trump, the crucial point these critics
appear to have overlooked is that Washington’s uncompromising stance now appears
to be paying dividends.
After decades during which American diplomacy has done little more than appease
North Korea, Mr Trump’s approach is having a profound impact on Mr Kim’s
conduct.
Having initially dispatched a fleet of warships to intimidate Pyongyang, the
Trump administration then brought further pressure to bear by persuading the UN
to impose tougher sanctions, while at the same pressuring China to use its
influence to bring its troublesome neighbour – and long-standing ally – to heel.
The result is clear to see in the conciliatory tone Mr Kim adopted in his New
Year address when he offered to reopen communication channels with South Korea
and even raised the prospect of sending North Korean athletes to compete in the
winter games Seoul is due to host next month.
It remains to be seen just how much this new spirit of detente between Pyongyang
and Seoul will accomplish. But the fact these two long-standing foes are now
talking to each other for the first time in years is a vindication of Mr Trump’s
no-nonsense approach.
And if Mr Trump’s robust tactics can deliver results with a rogue state like
North Korea, then why not adopt the same tactics against another of the world’s
leading rogue states, namely Iran?
It is now abundantly clear from the statements made by Iran’s supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as major-general Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head
of the Revolutionary Guards, that the Islamic Republic has no intention of
heeding the calls of the anti-government protesters, who are demanding economic
reform as well as an end to Iran’s military involvement in Arab states such as
Yemen and Iraq.
As has become the custom whenever the regime experiences opposition, Mr Khamenei
has simply denounced the protests as the work of the “enemies of Iran”, while Mr
Jafari, the Revolutionary Guards chief, sought to play down the scale of the
protests, making the rather bizarre claim that only 15,000 people had been
involved in the protests nationwide, although reports from the cities involved
suggest the figure is infinitely higher.
But in an authoritarian regime like Iran, it is virtually impossible to gain a
definitive picture of the scale of the protests. Similarly, given the
uncompromising measures the regime uses to crush any form of dissent, the
anti-government protestors have little likelihood of prevailing with their
demands for change without some form of outside help.
It is for this reason that, unlike what happened during the 2009 Green
Revolution, the major world powers are not turning their back on Iran’s
protestors and instead applying intense pressure on the regime to accommodate
their views and undertake wholesale reform.
As recent events in Pyongyang have proved, economic sanctions can deliver
results – as long as they are properly applied. Indeed, one of the main factors
in president Hassan Rouhani’s successful election in 2013 was his commitment to
deal with the crippling sanctions that had been imposed on Tehran regarding its
wilful non-compliance with the international community over its nuclear
programme.
At that time the sanctions were so effective that the Iranian economy had been
brought to its knees and Mr Rouhani was almost forced to beg the major powers
for a nuclear deal to get the sanctions lifted.
The controversies over whether the major powers should, in return, have secured
a better deal with Tehran have been well-aired. But the key point is that the
sanctions implemented against Iran until 2015 worked to devastating effect –
and, with the right political will, could be made to do so again.
For this to happen the world needs strong leadership from Washington. It was
former president Barack Obama’s decision to turn his back on the Green
Revolution that allowed the agents of repression in Iran – the Revolutionary
Guards and the Basij – to suppress the revolts.
But the Trump administration has made it clear it has no intention of repeating
the mistake and is already pressuring the UN to address the matter.
The implementation of a new sanctions regime against Iran would certainly send a
clear message to the ayatollahs that the outside world is no longer willing to
tolerate their refusal to acknowledge the will of the Iranian people. Nearly
four decades after the creation of the Islamic Republic, the ayatollahs’ warped
interpretation of what an Islamic government should look like appears tired and
anachronistic.
What the Iranian people desire and deserve is a new, more dynamic system of
government, one that revives the country’s fortunes and fulfils the enormous
potential that lies within.
The economic landscape of the modern Middle East is changing fast. Iran’s
predominantly youthful population only needs to look across the tranquil waters
of the Gulf to see what can be done when benign Arab governments allow the true
spirit of entrepreneurial endeavour to flourish.
**Con Coughlin is the Daily Telegraph’s defence and foreign affairs editor and
author of Khomeini’s Ghost
Soft sands and stormy winds in the Arab world
Amr Moussa/Al Arabiya/January 04/18
The year 2017 witnessed important developments linked to the ongoing movement of
change in the Arab world. Some indicate that military clashes and terrorist acts
will decrease, such as in Iraq, Syria and Libya, while others indicate that they
will continue, such as in Yemen and terror attacks in Egypt’s Sinai.
On the other hand, international efforts have intensified to reach political
solutions that are still incomplete and expected to take shape in 2018. This is
applied to the turbulent situation in the Fertile Crescent region, southern
Arabian Peninsula and Arab countries in North Africa. Based on the above, the
Arab world is unstable and so are its neighbors in the Horn of Africa and the
Sahel region. As for Iran, Turkey and Israel, they complete the picture of the
Middle East and they lie in wait to reap any rewards. They stand in a position
of power, have smart administrations, strong tactics and the ability to maneuver
that enables them to achieve strategic visions. These are assets that are
completely absent from or partially available to other regional countries.
This is a very brief introduction to the situation in our region at a time when
we bid farewell to an old year and welcome a new one. The welcome cannot be
complete without acknowledging that the reconstruction of Arab societies,
through real and comprehensive reform (in the fields of education, economy,
justice and administration and imposing the rule of the constitution, law and
democracy…), has not taken place. Its real beginning has not even started yet,
which deals a blow to the movement of change or at least slows it down.
It weakens the Arab strategic position at a time when regional balances are
being assessed to see who can be a partner and who can be fragmented or
indefinitely destabilized.
This situation demands Arab citizens to call on governments to exercise caution.
The region is headed towards a new reality and the search is on for the “new
regional system,” which will unavoidably be established. At this point a very
honest proposal needs to be made.
A united Arab stance, should we reach it, will mean a political weapon that is
greater than allying with this major power or that regional country
Mistakes of the past
Arab governments, or Arab rulers, do you want to keep on correcting the mistakes
of the past or do you want to build a new Arab system that is based on a modern
vision of Arab solidarity and that takes into consideration the factors of the
21st century and the aspirations of our mostly youthful societies?
Conditions should be prepared for them because this century will reject and
defeat all who remain frozen in a certain mentality or who believe that what
took place in the 20th century can be replicated. Or have you determined to put
an end to the collective Arab life and each go your own way to achieve your
interests and safety, even if it may be temporary and superficial? On this note,
let me say the following: One: Whoever seeks the protection of major powers will
remain exposed because in reality, this was never about protecting a country or
its interests. It was about the more powerful pursuing their interests and once
they are achieved, then the weaker player will be cast aside (we saw what
happened to the Shah of Iran and the figures that were toppled in the “Arab
Spring”, all of whom were thought to be “protected”).
Two: Whoever believes that he can use Israel in a plan or policy against Iran,
for example, will discover that Israel is manipulating him and that Iran and
Israel may at any moment reach an understanding that totally disregards Arab
stances and their interests. The possibilities of this happening are clear to
all who are aware of political games and their complexities.
Three: Those who believe that the US holds all cards, or at least 99 percent, of
the regional game are mistaken. The situation is no longer the way it was in the
20th century. The cards have been distributed and several of them are being
seized. The Arab world must obtain some of them. The ways to do so are well
known in political science and it can happen, even if through certain
conditions.
Four: Abandoning the Palestinian cause and claiming that we have more important
problems would be a “grave strategic error.” The cause that we are clinging on
to could create for the Arabs important political cards through which fair
regional arrangements can be reached for the Palestinians and all the Arabs
within a peaceful framework that falls in line with the new regional system. In
this regard, we should closely examine the aftermath of Trump’s decision on
Jerusalem.
Five: As for Iran, it is a country that has a long history in the region where
Arabs make up a majority, either in countries or population. There is no doubt
that old and new disputes exist on the Arab-Iranian scene. There is also no
doubt that Arabs generally refuse the export of the revolution and the majority
of Arab support the rise of a civil state, whose authorities are the
constitution and laws and nothing else.
Declaration of ‘victory’
Senior Iranian officials’ proud declaration of victory and boasting that Tehran
now controls four Arab capitals was very negatively received in the Arab world.
In addition, concerns have been raised about the threats of Iran’s ongoing
pursuit of its agenda to impose its hegemony over the region.
At the same time, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif’s call for
dialogue should not be disregarded and it should be viewed from a peaceful
perspective. Time should be given to determine whether his call reflects a
change and development in Iranian policy or if it is a political maneuver.
The relationship with Iran should be viewed from an Arab angle and it should be
approached while keeping in mind the past, present and future dimensions of this
relationship. A united Arab stance, should we reach it, will represent a
political weapon that is greater than allying with this major power or that
regional country. Neither alliance will harbor good intentions towards the Arabs
and neither will honestly take their interests into consideration.
Six: As for Turkey, its ambitions to restore some of the power it enjoyed over
the Arab world during Ottoman rule is emerging, through a 21st century approach.
In this regard, Turkey will be seeking to achieve its interests, which do not
necessarily coincide with Arab ones. It will seek to do so through a strong
Turkish military, economic and political presence and in playing, as much as
possible, an effective role in reshaping some regional countries and
governments.
In this regard, Turkey is forming its alliances and is being selective in the
locations it sets up base. We have seen several examples of this. It has a
military base in Qatar, meaning the Gulf, and a dominant presence in the
Sudanese island of Sawakin, putting it in the Red Sea.
Ankara has a strong strategic political stance on Kurdish regions in Syria and
Iraq, and alliances with extremist regional and international organizations,
starting with the Muslim Brotherhood, all in coordination with Iran and its
regional policy. In addition, Turkey is enjoying a positive policy with Russia
and a special position with the United States and various other western
alliances.
Given the above, Turkey has managed to garner very special strategic positions
that are bolstered by its strong economy and successful management, even if
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest policies raise several questions.
In reality, we should be wary of Turkey’s ambitions, especially in regards to
its alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood and its efforts to achieve a regional
system with an Ottoman or religious identity. We as Arabs, starting with Egypt
and the Gulf, must closely and diligently study Turkey’s actions that make it a
force in the Gulf and Fertile Crescent.
Seven: Israel. Our problems with Israel are related to the establishment of a
Palestinian state, whose capital is East Jerusalem, ending the occupation of
Arab land and thwarting its dreams of expanding to the Nile and the Euphrates.
The reality is that the 2002 Arab initiative that was launched in Beirut is the
key to reaching peace, ending enmity and paving the way for stability in the
region.
At this point, we as Arabs should declare a clear stance against Israel’s
obstruction of the two-state solution. We should propose a peace agenda that is
based on two possibilities, either this or that, within a timeline and
transparent international authority. With that I mean establishing an
independent Palestinian state or one that brings together Israelis and
Palestinians alike. Israel must choose.
The Israelis and Americans have made the Palestinian state option a mirage for
Arabs to chase while Israel colonizes and “judaizes” Palestinian land. The
one-state option should be on the agenda of any negotiations table along with
the option of the Palestinian state. We have negotiated over the latter for over
a quarter of a century to no avail. Negotiations, should they be held, must be
within a timeframe. Once they end and talks of a Palestinian state end, then so
will talk of a Jewish state. We can then begin serious discussions on a single
state for all Israelis and Palestinians.
Yes, it is time to officially and internationally propose the one-state option,
regardless of Israel’s rejection of all fair peace options.
Eight: Ethiopia. It is considered a major country in the Horn of Africa, which
includes the three Arab countries of Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti. Ethiopia also
enjoys strong strategic ties with Egypt, which are represented now with the
Renaissance Dam project and its threat to Egypt’s share of Nile waters.
Arab and Islamic family
There is no doubt that Ethiopia is part of the Arab and Islamic family that
spans the Asian and African continents. Common interests should therefore be
taken into consideration and problems with Addis Ababa must be resolved,
starting with the Nile dam dispute. The dispute should be tackled through a
major development and investment operation within a new regional framework. The
above is not simply a recap of 2017, but it is a preparation for the new year.
It is a brief and quick examination of the rapidly moving regional situation
that stands on soft sand and is being blown by stormy winds. The region is
filled with demons, who are drawing a terrifying scene.There are however some
glimmers of hope that can only be strengthened through restoring Arab
consciousness and having leaders assume their responsibilities towards the
current and upcoming generations according to a clear vision of the future.
Experienced Arab leaders could help in drafting this vision within an Arab
proposal for an Arab and regional security system. In this regard, it would be
best to review the proposal that was made at the 2010 Arab League summit to set
up a league of Arab neighbors or study the possibility of setting up a regional
security and cooperation system in the Middle East. These proposals have their
conditions and demands and their establishment requires creating suitable Arab
and regional factors, starting with Iran reconsidering its regional policies and
actions, Turkey going back on its Ottoman ambitions and Israel ceasing its
rejection of Palestinian rights. Can we as Arabs rise to the occasion?
Our sick neighbor
Adnan Hussein/Al Arabiya/January 04/18
There is no doubt that Iran is a sick state. The frequent popular protests
defying oppression every few years are a proof of that.
Iran’s friends and supporters in Iraq would be upset by such opinions as the
Iranian regime is sacred to them. However, if they really have their friends’
best interest at heart, they must inform them of the truth. The truth is that
Iran is a sick state whose main problem lies in its totalitarian regime.
Ten years after the Iranian revolution toppled the Shah, the world began to
clean up totalitarian regimes. Later on, the regimes of Saddam Hussein, Moammar
Qaddafi, Ali Abdullah Saleh and Taliban collapsed. The Assad regime is
faltering, and if it hadn’t been for that strong and flagrant Iranian and
Russian intervention, it would have collapsed years ago. It’s well-known that a
large percentage of oil revenues, as well as other revenues, is being used to
cover military expenses and to support groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and other
countries. Iran desperately held on to the totalitarian regime, and it now
resembles someone who is going to Mecca while pilgrims are returning. Eight
years ago, the large-scale popular uprising calling for freedom was violently
quelled. Those oppressed included prominent members from within the regime
itself, such as former President Mohammad Khatami, former Parliament Speaker
Mehdi Karroubi, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and hundreds of other
reformist figures and thousands of ordinary people who aspired for freedom after
three decades of totalitarian governance which turned Iran that’s rich in
natural resources into one of the poorest countries in the world.
Economic crisis
In October, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli submitted a report
to Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei and included detailed numbers about the economic
and social crisis that has been worsening for decades. The report showed that
the unemployment rate in some cities reached 60 percent, which is unprecedented
during the Islamic Republic’s history. Rahmani Fazli said at a press conference
that the current unemployment rate is 12.5 percent and noted that the rate is
higher in other areas such as in the Kurdish Kermanshah and Arab Ahwaz and in
the Baluchestan Province where it reached 60%.
The report also said that 11 million Iranians live in marginalized areas, adding
that there are 1.5 million drug addicts and 600,000 prisoners. These numbers are
huge for a country that exports more than 4.5 million barrels of oil a day and
that is almost self-sufficient in terms of nutrition. According to unofficial
data, the annual inflation rate is very high as it’s between 6.8% and 8.7%. It’s
well-known that a large percentage of oil revenues, as well as other revenues,
is being used to cover military expenses and to support groups in Iraq, Lebanon,
Yemen and other countries.
It’s not difficult to resort to armed force to quell the current protests but
can this force put out the fire beneath the ashes? Iran’s experience states
otherwise.
The vanity of social media
Fahad Suleiman Shoqiran/Al Arabiya/January 04/18
If we draw ourself away from the current technological development for hours or
days, we will realize how much time we waste in watching ridiculous videos and
following up on silly matters. Poor products dominate the scene as the number of
apps have increased. Vanity has been sponsored and packaged as a product that’s
worthy of exporting and recycling, thus tempting consumers. This is what can be
seen from the fact that many social media stars became writers or media figures.
This is dangerous because they dominate the scene as figures who mentor our
children.
Armies of vanity
Two decades ago, publishing an article or appearing on television was difficult.
Amateurs needed to train and refine their talents and then walk a long and
bitter path to venture into the field of publication and media. Social media
made this much easier now. Some even laugh at prominent journalists and
intellectuals because they are not familiar with technology and do not use
modern apps like Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram. This rising category
is trying to destroy cultural and media achievements, considering they are
“remnants of the past.” Armies of vanity are thus trying to eliminate some of
the real and solid achievements, through social media. Amid the current wave of
entertainment activities in Saudi Arabia, there are two major developments
pertaining to the conflict between the real product and the fake one. The first
one is the importance of no longer hosting social media stars and hiring them to
act or lecture or narrate their success stories. The second one is to base work
on the sophistication seen at poetry and musical events. The latter must direct
other entertainment events in the kingdom in order to cleanse reality after
these “stars” dominated the arena amid the absence of critics, poets, authors
and composers and after a bunch of ignorant men, who spread vanity as a
comprehensive product worthy of appreciation and praise, took over several
platforms.
Two decades ago, publishing an article or appearing on television was difficult.
Amateurs needed to train and refine their talents and then walk a long and
bitter path to venture the field of publication and media. Social media made
this much easier now.
Societies which protected their aesthetic taste maintained their real products,
such as art or music. When an opera in Riyadh opens – hopefully very soon – the
events held there must meet the standards of other events across the world. If
we do not do so, opera houses, theatres and others will be mere buildings void
of meaning. They will lack a spirit that refines them and guards them. There are
successful models of opera houses in the UAE, Oman, Kuwait and other countries
which we can benefit from.
Sweeping wave
There was a time when we feared that social media will affect crime rates. Now
that there are security measures to address this in cooperation with the owner
of these apps, we must protect ourselves from the repercussions of these
destructive tools which waste our time, worry us and drag us all the way down to
vanity. It’s a sweeping wave, like a tsunami which we can warn of but cannot
stop. It’s a warning which wise men can make use of and it’s very important that
we do. as without it societies will act like obedient herds that head towards
existential demise. Some researchers, academics and reasonable men, in addition
to fools, fall for this and walk down this spiral of vanity. Commenting on
social media, Italian contemporary writer Umberto Eco once told the Italian La
Stampa daily: “Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they
once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community.
Then they were quickly silenced, but now they have the same right to speak as a
Nobel Prize winner. It’s the invasion of the idiots.”
Avoiding the Bitcoin trap
Mahmoud Ahmad/Al
Arabiya/January 04/18
People are always attracted to, or run after, new investment opportunities.
Sometimes they do this without due diligence. They run after every chance there
is to make a profit in the simple hope that they will be able to double or
triple their investment by making a quick buck in a new or uncharted venture.
This is human nature and that’s what people who offer these investment
opportunities hope to play upon. Only educated persons or expert investors who
calculate every step and evaluate the risk and study the market before making a
new investment are the ones who usually succeed.
However, an inexperienced person, who is blindly running after wealth thinking
that his money will double without any risk, will on many occasions part with
his money rather than make more. His only calculation being making a profit
without understanding the scheme, the market or the risk involved. Many fall
into the trap of such questionable investment schemes, and one currently making
the rounds is the Bitcoin scheme. It is said that the simplicity of this new
currency system is what makes it a possible currency of the future. People think
it is better to invest early in order to make gains before buying Bitcoins
becomes harder or more costly. What is a Bitcoin? It is a cryptocurrency and
worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the
system works without a central bank or single administrator. The website
dollarcollapse.com states: “It came in 2008 after a mysterious person or group
using the apparent pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto unveiled it.
The Bitcoin system tracks each piece of currency from buyer to seller,
eliminating the possibility of one person spending the same piece of currency
multiple times before the counterparties catch on. The network is distributed,
with no central clearinghouse or bank holding everyone’s money and imposing
rules.
The investor first needs to be tech savvy and must inquire about how foolproof
mining, transactions and the buying and selling of Bitcoins are
‘Miners’ creation’
“Miners” create more Bitcoins by solving complex algorithms to add more Bitcoins
to the system, with the difficulty of the number crunching increasing as the
quantity of Bitcoins grows, thus keeping their supply rising at a steady,
predetermined rate until it reaches its preordained limit of 21 million a
century or so hence.” I am not an expert in investment or in banking systems,
nor am I someone who fully understands potential economic opportunities. But I
am a citizen who looks at past experiences and can forecast, as a citizen, the
danger on the horizon of a possible bad investment.
Despite the awareness efforts of responsible authorities warning people against
such bad investments, there are a good number of people who fall victim to them.
The Bitcoin scheme could be another one of them. The Saudi Arabian Monetary
Agency (SAMA) recently issued a warning against this digital currency because of
its high risks and because it is not being monitored by an authority. There are
international gangs that target people who are searching for quick wealth. They
take advantage of people’s lack of awareness of their tricks and of investment
in general and the good intentions of the general public to lure people into a
trap, stealing their money and leaving them high and dry. The sad memory of SAWA
investment is still fresh in the minds of many people who were promised a huge
financial return by investing in SAWA calling cards. Some scammers managed to
collect hundreds of millions of riyals while others managed to collect over one
billion through this investment scheme. At the end of the day, victims were left
with nothing.
Market operation
The same happened with the stock market when people bought shares without any
knowledge or even a clue of how the market operates. The dream of becoming rich
fast blinded the eyes and minds of many people, despite their lack of investment
knowledge, information and risk assessment.
At the end of the day, many people lost everything — savings and land wealth. I
personally have met many who went through these investment experiences that left
them poorer all because they were driven mainly by ignorance and greed. More
awareness is needed about Bitcoins because we do not know who is behind this
scheme. I hope it is not an international gang that is hiding in deep cyberspace
hunting for victims. Bitcoins raise more questions than they answer. As they are
not monitored, then if an investor lost his Bitcoins, to whom would he complain?
The Bitcoin currency bypasses the established banking/regulatory system, making
it free of government oversight, as was described by the website. In addition,
the lack of understanding of how the digital currency works may contribute to
further complications. People need to understand the method of transfer of the
currency and how safe it is. Furthermore, in the process of the erosion of
value, are there ways for investors to recoup their earnings as in the stock
exchange? Then there is the fact that being a digital currency, the investor
first needs to be tech savvy and must also inquire fully about how foolproof the
mining, transactions and the buying and selling of Bitcoins are, because today
every technology has to play catch-up with hacking and hackers. It is in this
hazy scenario that I express my doubts about Bitcoins, which need to be analyzed
by technology and economic experts who understand the way this scheme works
before people venture into the unknown and get their fingers burned.
Iran Sends More to the Gallows
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone
Institute/January 04/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11674/iran-political-prisoners
Iran's judicial authorities "continued to impose and carry out cruel, inhuman or
degrading punishments that amounted to torture, including floggings, blindings
and amputations. These were sometimes carried out in public." At least one
woman, Fariba Khaleghi, remains under a sentence of death by stoning. — Amnesty
International.
What is worse, the vast majority of those put to death in Iran have not
committed crimes that would be punished with that severity (or at all) almost
anywhere else in the world, least of all in Europe, Israel, or 23 states (and
the District of Columbia) in the USA.
Even before their trials, individuals accused of anti-state convictions are
mistreated, tortured, kept in solitary confinement for months on end, and denied
access to their families and lawyers. "'Confessions' extracted under torture
were used as evidence at trial. Judges often failed to deliver reasoned
judgments and the judiciary did not make court judgments publicly available." —
Amnesty International.
As for the mullahs, they brook no criticism from any quarter and intend to keep
Iran and its people under their iron grip forever, even if that means putting to
death every dissident voice.
At the end of December 2017, something almost without precedent happened in
cities across Iran. It started in the largest shrine city of Mashhad, then moved
to Kermanshah, which had not long before suffered a major earthquake in which
some 600 people died and where survivors had been neglected by the state. After
that, large-scale protests moved to Sari and Rasht in the north, the clerical
city of Qom, then Hamadan, and by the December 29, Tehran itself. In the
following days, people were on the streets across the country. Starting on the
third day, protesters were challenged by massive turnouts of pro-regime
marchers. Anti-government protests, which these were, had not been seen in this
quantity since the brutally-crushed risings after the 2009 presidential
elections. By January 2, at least 20 protesters had been killed and more than
450 arrested. It was reported on the same day that Iran's Chief Justice, Mousa
Ghazanfarabadi, claimed that protesters might be considered "enemies of God",
and executed.
On his website, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
"accused unnamed foreign enemies of meddling in Iran's affairs, using money,
weapons, politics and intelligence apparatuses 'to create problems for the
Islamic system'. The clerical elite is congenitally incapable of admitting that
native Iranians, chafing under their harsh rule, might have genuine reasons for
civil unrest."
President Hassan Rouhani, a fake "reformist", identified these foreign enemies
as "the US, the regime occupying al-Quds [i.e. Israel] and their cronies".
Nothing deterred, US President Trump tweeted on January 1 that:
"Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the
Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many
years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the
wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!"
Complaints are, indeed, many, including condemnation of the regime's foreign
policy, which led to the country spending billions of dollars on its aggressive
foreign adventures; supporting the fighting in Yemen and Syria; bolstering
Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria; paying the Shi'i militias in Iraq; funding Hamas
in Gaza, and, in general, financing and participating in terrorism worldwide.
Why, these protesters asked, were these billions not being spent on Iran's own
people? Despite modest growth in its economy since 2016, following sanctions
relief, the country still suffers from inflation. Should President Trump's plan
to re-impose some sanctions take effect in 2018, another economic downturn is
likely. Inevitably, pro-regime demonstrators blame everything on the United
States and Israel and carry placards calling for death for their supposed
enemies.
Loud as these protests are, they are highly unlikely to lead to real reform.
Iranian citizens may have limited freedom to go onto their streets, chanting
slogans, but they have no concerted or strong political opposition behind which
to rally. Even with only limited freedoms, there is evidence of a strong
political purpose: to free Iranian citizens from the dictatorship of the
one-party state apparatus. One Persian-language tweet cited by the BBC comes
from Tehran University, where protests have taken place. The writer addresses
Ayatollah Khamenei insultingly by name, writing: "Sayyid Ali, be ashamed of
yourself. Leave the country alone (mamlakat-u raha kon)".
Significantly, among the calls for change aired in tormented Kermanshah, was one
that targeted the impossibility of forming a political counterbalance to the
regime. According to The Guardian:
About 300 demonstrators gathered in Kermanshah after what [the quasi-official
news agency] Fars said was a "call by the anti-revolution". They shouted
"Political prisoners should be freed" and "Freedom or death", and some public
property was destroyed. Fars did not name any opposition groups.
There were no opposition groups present because there are no serious opposition
groups. The reason for that is expressed in that call, "Political prisoners
should be freed". Iran is choc-a-bloc with political dissidents who languish in
its prisons.
It is no secret that the Islamic regime, which has ruled Iran since 1979, has a
well-deserved reputation as one of the world's greatest abusers of human rights.
In its 2016-2017 report on Iran, Amnesty International records innumerable
instances of gross legislative and functional domestic abuses of women,
religious and ethnic minorities, foreign nationals and Iranians with dual
nationality. Political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, human
rights defenders, and reformists have been imprisoned in large numbers,
tortured, subjected to five-minute trials without visible evidence or even
lawyers to plead their cases. Others have been held under house arrest for many
years.
The United for Iran group publishes a detailed online resource, the Iran Prison
Atlas, in which data about a wide range of political prisoners is made available
to researchers and the public. Prisoners are classified by religion, ethnicity,
the charges made against them, how they have been mistreated, and the nature of
their sentences. Currently, there are 645 political prisoners in detention, 1914
who have been released, and 82 who have been executed. Under different rubrics,
the atlas lists 671 members of religious minorities, 529 supporting or belonging
to dissident groups, 379 facing other religious charges, 262 ethnic activists,
and sundry bloggers, pro-democracy activists, civic activists, labor rights
activists, human rights defenders, journalists, artists, writers, people accused
of collaboration with foreign governments, and women's rights activists. These
numbers stay more or less stable. [1]
The current Amnesty report details:
"Judicial authorities continued to impose and carry out cruel, inhuman or
degrading punishments that amounted to torture, including floggings, blindings
and amputations. These were sometimes carried out in public."
Later, the report exposes an equally horrendous breach of human rights:
"The authorities continued to use the death penalty extensively, including
against juvenile offenders. Hundreds of executions were carried out after unfair
trials. Some executions were conducted in public".
At least one woman, Fariba Khaleghi, remains under a sentence of death by
stoning.
In 2016, Gatestone writer and Iran specialist Majid Rafizadeh identified Iran as
the world's leading country for executions:
Since January 2016, Iran has executed at least 230 people, that is at least one
person a day on average. The number of executions has recently increased and
Iran ranks first in the world, followed by China, when it comes to executions
per capita. Iran executed approximately 1000 people in 2015.
Given the size of Iran's population (81,588,534 as of January 1, 2018) compared
to that of China (1,412,298,946), this is an astonishing statistic. What is
worse, the vast majority of those put to death have not committed crimes that
would be punished with that severity (or at all) almost anywhere else in the
world, least of all in Europe, Israel, or 23 states (and the District of
Columbia) in the USA.
This overuse of execution, coupled with its often public exhibition, serves the
regime well as a means of frightening the public and deterring any signs of
opposition to the regime. In 1988, for example, a fatwa issued by the late Imam
Khomeini, Iran's Supreme Leader, led to the killing of an unprecedented 30,000
prisoners, many as young as 13, during a purge of the country's prisons. Six at
a time were hanged from gallows in an effort to scare the public witless. One
former official from Tehran's notorious Evin Prison later testified:
Every half an hour from 7.30am to 5pm, 33 people were lifted on three forklift
trucks to six cranes, each of which had five or six ropes. He said: "The process
went on and on without interruption." In two weeks, 8,000 people were hanged.
Similar carnage took place across the country.
The notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. (Image source: Ehsan Iran/Wikimedia
Commons)
That countrywide massacre was intended to frighten off anyone who might lean
towards opposition to the regime. Prisoners were asked to identify their
political stance. Those who answered by supporting the Mujahidin-e Khalq or
other anti-government movements such as the communist Tudeh Party were sent to
die, while those expressing loyalty to the state were spared.
There are no show trials in Iran as there were in the Soviet Union under Stalin.
Instead, "trials" are held behind closed doors, are adjudicated by special
courts, and are politically and religiously biased. According to Amnesty
International:
"Trials, including those resulting in death sentences, were generally unfair.
The judiciary was not independent. The Special Court for the Clergy and the
Revolutionary Courts remained particularly susceptible to pressure from security
and intelligence forces to convict defendants and impose harsh sentences."
Even before their trials, individuals accused of anti-state convictions are
mistreated, tortured, kept in solitary confinement for months on end, and denied
access to their families and lawyers.
"'Confessions' extracted under torture were used as evidence at trial. Judges
often failed to deliver reasoned judgments and the judiciary did not make court
judgments publicly available."
As in Stalinist Russia, fake "confessions" have been used to impose lengthy
prison terms or capital punishment. A recent example of this is the case of
Iranian-Swedish doctor Ahmadreza Djalali, whose death sentence was confirmed by
Iran's Supreme Court on December 17, 2017. Dr. Djalali was a researcher at
Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, where he worked on improving emergency medical
responses to armed terrorism and radiological, chemical and biological threats.
When in Iran, he had been on the faculty of the Natural Disaster Research
Institute, working on HAZMAT emergencies for the country's Ministry of Health
and later heading the Disaster Management Section of the ministry of Welfare and
Social Justice. A useful, even essential, man, one might have thought.
Moving to Sweden, where he obtained his PhD, he settled down with his wife and
two children, while holding positions at research centers in Belgium and Italy,
and was a well-known name in the disaster medicine field in Europe. He was
arrested by agents of the notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security in
April 2016, while participating in scientific workshops in Iran, and sentenced
to death on October 21 that same year by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.
According to an "Urgent Action" report by Amnesty:
Iranian-born Swedish resident Ahmadreza Djalali, a scientist, medical doctor and
academic, has been sentenced to death and fined 200,000 euros after being
convicted of "corruption on earth" (efsad-e fel-arz) [sic] following a grossly
unfair trial before Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The court
verdict alleged that Ahmadreza Djalali had worked as a spy for Israel in the
2000s. According to one of his lawyers, the court produced no evidence to
substantiate the claims against him. The court also failed to provide a copy of
the verdict and instead summoned one of the lawyers on 21 October 2017 to read
the verdict in court.
Why was the Ministry of Intelligence -- effectively, the secret police --
interested in someone like Djalali at all? Was he really a spy for Israel -- a
typical false accusation by the Iranian authorities -- or were there other
reasons? In an article about Djalali for the Washington Examiner last November,
Eugene M. Chudnovsky writes:
A source close to Djalali revealed that in 2014 he was approached by agents of
the Iranian military intelligence that asked him to collect information on
Western chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear sites, as well as on
critical infrastructures and counter-terrorism operational plans. Djalali
refused.
Chudnovsky adds details to the illegal procedures used to extract a false
confessions from Djalali:
For three months Djalali was kept in a solitary confinement, interrogated daily
with no lawyer present, and tortured to extract false confessions. Later he was
placed in an 80 sq. ft. cell with three other prisoners. He was not allowed to
speak with a lawyer. In December 2016 he began a hunger strike. It lasted 42
days. In February 2017 he started another hunger strike that lasted 43 days. His
health has deteriorated. In July 2017 he was taken to a solitary confinement to
prevent his contact with ambassadors from European countries that came to visit
him in Evin prison.
Djalali himself has provided testimony to the pressures placed on him while in
prison. According to another Amnesty report:
In a voice recording that was published on YouTube on 22 October, Ahmadreza
Djalali is heard saying that, while in solitary confinement, he was twice forced
to make "confessions" in front of a video camera by reading out statements
pre-written by his interrogators. He says that he was put under intense pressure
through psychological torture and threats to execute him and arrest his children
to "confess" to being a spy for a "hostile government". In the recording, he
says that his academic beliefs have been used to convict him and sentence him to
death. He also denies the accusations against him and says they have been
fabricated by Ministry of Intelligence interrogators.
Given that Djalali's is far from the only such case, Chudnovsky ends his article
thus:
The case of Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali is the most horrific among recent cases of
scientists accused by Iran of "collaboration with a hostile government". In 2011
Omid Kokabee, a doctoral student at the University of Texas – Austin, was
arrested during a family visit to Iran and sentenced to 10 years in prison by
Judge Salavati after he refused to work for the Atomic Energy Organization of
Iran. He was released in 2016 after developing kidney cancer in Evin prison.
Princeton doctoral student Xiyue Wang, who went to Iran to study ancient
manuscripts, was arrested in August 2016, accused of spying for the United
States, and sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2017. This is a large part
of the context in which we must understand the appalling limits placed on any
meaningful participation in domestic politics in Iran. One of the greatest
threats to political engagement is the regime's deliberate silencing of anyone
with potential for leadership, whether for outright opposition to the clerical
elite or for reform within it. The best-known opponent of the system is Mir
Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister and presidential contender who led the
brutally suppressed Green Movement in 2009, for which he was named in 2010 by
Time magazine as the world's most influential leader.[2] Since 2011, Mousavi,
now 75 and ailing, along with his wife Zahra Rahnavard, herself a leading
opposition figure, have been detained under house arrest in Tehran.
Similarly, the eminent reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliamentary
speaker, now aged 80, has also remained under house arrest for the past six
years. Significantly, although a former student of the Ayatollah Khomeini and a
leading figure in the 1979 revolution, Karroubi has supported civil rights for
women and ethnic or religious minorities. He could very well have served as an
intermediary between the clerical elite and the secular younger generation, but
has instead been kept out of public life. Although there are younger potential
leaders of the opposition to Iran's regime, they remain in exile. There is, in
effect, no space in Iran itself for opposition leaders to emerge without being
arrested, imprisoned, and, in all likelihood (given current threats) hanged.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Mark Dubowitz and Ray Takyeh sum this up
well: "The regime is at an impasse. It has no more political actors — no
establishment saviors — to offer its restless constituents". As for the mullahs,
ayatollahs, mujtahids, hujjat al-Islams, marja'-e taqlids of Iran's bloated and
selfish rulers, they brook no criticism from any quarter and intend to keep Iran
and its people under their iron grip for ever, even if that means putting to
death every dissident voice.
The clerics' days, however, may be numbered a lot sooner than that. Writing in
Tablet Magazine on January 4, Edward Luttwak, a senior associate at America's
Center for Strategic and International Studies, describes Iran as an
impoverished country run by a corrupt clerical elite and dominated by
over-expenditure from its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and innumerable
bonyads ("charitable" foundations), while leaving the population in dire
straits.
What can be done to accelerate the collapse? Broad economic sanctions are out of
the question, because they would allow the rulers to blame the Americans for the
hardships inflicted by their own imperial adventures. But there is plenty of
room for targeted measures against regime figures and their associates. The
State Department list of sanctioned individuals is far from long enough; many
more names deserve the honor.
Let us hope the US administration imposes those very sanctions, and quickly
provides further help, in time to save the people of Iran.
Denis MacEoin has an MA in Persian and completed his doctorate in Persian
Studies at Cambridge in 1979. He is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at
the Gatestone Institute.
[1] In 2010, Amnesty reported that "Out of the 600 prisoners: 173 are kept in
the Evin prison; 354 are serving sentences and 246 are in detention waiting
trial. Of those who have received sentences, 94 got more than 10 years. There
are 63 women kept in various prisons and 38 journalists". It also commented that
"When some of the prisoners are set free on bail, others are detailed and the
number keeps its balance".
[2] For a detailed and well-sourced account of the 2009 rising and their
suppression, see here.
© 2018 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Egypt: State-Run Media vs. President el-Sisi
A. Z. Mohamed/Gatestone
Institute/January 04/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11678/egypt-state-media
Egypt's state-run press persists in the practice of condemning the United States
and Israel -- an attitude that contradicts President el-Sisi's positions and
vision for reforming Islam.
This is one of the conflicts that still beleaguer Egyptian society -- or perhaps
signs of a growing power struggle.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi responded to U.S. President Donald
Trump's official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital with cautious
pessimism. He warned his ally in the White House not to take measures that would
undermine prospects for peace in the Middle East. The delicate balancing act he
has been performing, to avoid jeopardizing his relationship with Washington, and
at the same time not antagonize the Palestinians and much of the Egyptian
public, was probably to be expected.
Not expected was the depth of extremist anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment
spread by Egypt's state-run media. Two particularly jarring examples illustrate
this disturbing trend.
The first was from television host Ahmed Moussa, on the Sada Elbalad network,
who proceeded to denounce the United States as the world's bully, an
international thug that supposedly both manages terrorism and manipulates it to
justify its policies. He claimed that it was Egypt that led the world against
Trump's Jerusalem declaration, and that the U.S. was trying to control Egypt by
lodging false accusations of human rights violations and discrimination against
Christians. He actually said this in spite of "what have now become regular
assaults by Islamic militants on the country's Coptic community."
The second, and even more disturbing, example was a broadcast by Al Nahar TV's
Gaber Al-Armouti. First, Al-Armouti celebrated a prayer delivered during the
Friday sermon at Cairo's Al-Azhar Grand Mosque, by its imam, Mohammed Zaki: "May
Allah doom Trump with defeat." Then he said he wished that the imam had cursed
Israel, its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and all of its people. He
subsequently praised the female teenage Palestinian provocateur, Ahed Tamimi,
who slapped an Israeli soldier and called him a "moron and son of moron." When
her father, during a phone interview with Al-Armouti, said that his daughter's
attorney is Israeli and trustworthy, the host ignored the comment, and
repeatedly yelled, "Zionist occupation," and "Zionist enemy," referring to
Israelis as kelab (the derogatory Arabic word for "dog.")
Al-Armouti also decried that many Egyptians and other Arabs follow the IDF
spokesman to the Arab press, Maj. Avichay Adraee, on social media, and share his
"vicious" tweets, posts and news items. He then cursed Adraee, and expressed the
wish that he be burned "in life and the afterlife." He also denounced all
Israeli normalization initiatives as fake, claiming that their goal is to
destroy Arabs and their countries; and said that ISIS has clear connections with
Israel, which he called the "first, last, worst, and most dangerous enemy" and
"son of bitch."
He concluded by stating, "Our enemies are not Qatar or Turkey; ultimately, we
will reconcile with them. Only Israel will always be our enemy." He finished off
with the prayer: "Allah, our God, kill Netanyahu and destroy his state!"
A few months ago, Israel's ambassador in Cairo, David Govrin, pointed to a shift
in the Egyptian media's attitude towards Israel. "[The number of] poisonously
critical articles and anti-Semitic cartoons has declined compared to the 1990s,"
Govrin said, during a lecture at the Institute for National Security Studies in
Tel Aviv. This may be true, but it does not explain how it is that the state-run
press persists in the practice of condemning the United States and Israel -- an
attitude that contradicts el-Sisi's positions and vision for reforming Islam.
This is one of the conflicts that still beleaguer Egyptian society -- or perhaps
signs of a growing power struggle. What is urgently needed -- to keep the next
generation from being brainwashed by hate-filled, anti-Western propaganda -- is
for all the pro-peace voices in the country's media to work together and in
conjunction with the el-Sisi government, to report the news and present the
facts in an objective and professional way.
*A.Z. Mohamed is a Muslim born and raised in the Middle East.
© 2018 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Iran's Crisis is Deeper than the Price of Bread
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/January
04/18
After toppling the Shah in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini succeeded in one thing:
eliminating the strongest, richest and the most successful country in the Middle
East.
Khomeini established on the rubble of the modern Pahlavi empire a backward
religious state with old left-wing economic ideology. Iran was a successful
model in the eyes of the West and it was way ahead of other countries.
Then, Khomeini disappointed everyone who supported him and all those who thought
well of him. Iran's youth hoped the Shah's successor will bring a comprehensive
democratic system. Ethnic minorities thought that after the Shah's removal,
dominant Persian nationalism will end and a unified Iran for all will be
established. Communists thought he would be their ally against the US, the
Shah's ally.
Meanwhile, US officials thought religious scholars were better than the
communist Tudeh Party of Iran, which will also block the way before the Soviets
who were occupying neighboring Afghanistan. In addition, they thought they could
work together with the clerics later on. The Arab people believed Khomeini's
pledges to liberate Jerusalem from the Israelis and Arabs in the Gulf hoped the
Shah's departure would end the dispute over the islands, Bahrain, and Iraq.
They were all wrong.
After Khomeini assumed power, Iranian youth paid the highest price. Universities
were placed under the clerics' control and women were oppressed. The first
victims of the newly-established regime were the leftists, who suffered the
prejudice of the mullahs although they had helped it in Azadi (Freedom) Square.
Moreover, the regime suppressed ethnic minorities.
US officials realized that the religious right in the region was not the same as
the right-wing in the West. The religious right was more hostile to the West
than the Tudeh Party.
Tehran limited its dispute with Israel over Arab areas of influence. As for
Arabs in the Gulf, they discovered that Khomeini considered them his main enemy
and permanent target as he reawakened the old sectarian conflict.
Those who think that the economic crisis is the reason behind the people's
protest against the regime of the Supreme Leader are underestimating the more
dangerous and deep-rooted causes. The demonstrations of 2009 were larger, and
they were led by people from within the regime who enjoyed their livelihood
privileges. The roots of the current crisis are everything I mentioned above.
The regime had eliminated all local forces and distanced itself from others.
When it failed, it was easy for all the people to rally behind their sole
demand: Overthrowing the regime.
Bread is not the only problem with Hassan Rouhani's government, and oil prices
are not their main argument against the Supreme Leader's regime. Rather, they
oppose everything the regime represents.
The majority of Iranians are not religious and they have national pride and
reject marginalization by the clergy. During the Shah's time, Iran was more
civilized, open and advanced in science and industry. It all disappeared after a
group of "dervishes" assumed power, believing that their sole duty was to
harness the state to serve the Ayatollah and spread his teachings and fight for
them all over the world.
This naive selfish way of thinking did not convince the majority of Iranian
youth who produce the best movies, recite the best poems and hold parties in
basements away from Basij informants' eyes. For many months, Iranian women
published once a week their photos without the hijab in defiance of the mullahs.
The Iranian people harbor a genuine hatred for the regime. Some of the banners
held during the demonstrations had slogans condemning support for religious
movements in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. This feeling is greater and far more
dangerous than the demand for cheaper bread.
There are many enemies of the clerical regime abroad as well, including some of
those who show their concerns, like Russia, which is locked in a dispute with
Iran over the division of the Caspian Sea and several other issues.
This may pressure Tehran during the upcoming phase to change into real politics,
treat its people according to their wishes and end its foreign adventures. If it
does not make these changes, the antagonistic majority inside and outside Iran
will succeed in toppling the regime.