LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 03/2018
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias
Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the
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Bible
Quotations
When you were younger,
you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you
grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a
belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go you and take you
where you do not wish to go
John 21/15-19: "When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes,
Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A
second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to
him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my
sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’
Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And
he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus
said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger,
you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you
grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a
belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ (He said this to
indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he
said to him, ‘Follow me.’
Titles For The Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published on July 02-03/18
Sham On Humanity In Southern Syria/Elias Bejjani/July 02/18
Hezbollah’s covert agenda in Yemen comes to the open/Iman Zayat/The Arab
Weekly/July 02/18
New Sunni opposition, supported by Hezbollah, challenges Hariri/Sami
Moubayed /The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
Syrian rebels of Tafas go over to ISIS, spark battles closer to
Quneitra/DEBKAfile/July 02/18/
Opinion Iran Must Adapt to New Strategic Reality – or Risk the Fall of the
Islamic Republic/Moshe Arens/Haaretz/July 02/18
Europe: "The Vision is an Islamic State"/Judith Bergman/Gatestone
Institute/July 02/18
Is Turkey Playing a Double Game with NATO/Debalina Ghoshal/Gatestone
Institute/July 02/18
Why Turkey Will Not Be Another Iran/Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/July
02/18
Is Guilt Killing the West from Within/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/July
02/18
Iran in the foreseeable future/Mohammed Al Shaikh/Al Arabiya/July 02/18
Confronting the Qatari regime’s allegations against the UAE/Mohammed
Al-Hammadi/Al Arabiya/July 02/18
The noble Nigerian mosque imam/Mashari Althaydi/Al Arabiya/July 02/18
Iranians have tired of government’s warped priorities/Fahad Nazer/Arab
News/July 02/18
Will peace prevail at US-Russia summit/Maria Dubovikova/Arab News/July 02/18
Al-Sadr’s deal with Iran proxies proves Iraqi elections were a farce/Tallha
Abdulrazaq/The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
Iran had no future in Iraq and it cannot change that/Khairallah
Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
Priest Involved in Recruiting Arabs to the IDF Investigated for Sex Crimes
Against Teens/Josh Breiner/Haaretz/July 02/18
Bazaar protests could be the beginning of the end for Tehran regime/Mohamed
Kawas/The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
Iranian general says Israel stealing Iran's clouds/AFP/Ynetnews/02 July/18
Titles For The
Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on
July 02-03/18
Sham On Humanity In Southern Syria
Aoun weighs in on Aqoura-Yammouneh dispute
Al-Rahi Slams Attack on Aqoura Police, Urges Return to 1936 Ruling
Geagea, Aoun Agree 'Roadmap', LF 'Communication' with Bassil to Resume
Geagea Denounces Campaigns against LF over Cabinet Representation
Report: Hizbullah ‘Refuses’ Aoun-Hariri Cabinet Standards
Syrian Mother Living in Lebanon in Limbo after U.S. Travel Ban
Hezbollah’s covert agenda in Yemen comes to the open
New Sunni opposition, supported by Hezbollah, challenges Hariri
Titles For The Latest LCCC
Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on July 02-03/18
Syrian rebels of Tafas go over to ISIS, spark battles closer to Quneitra
More than 270,000 Displaced by Southern Syria Fighting
Syria Rebels Split over Russia-Brokered Surrender Deals in South
Israel Reinforces Troops, Steps Up Aid to Fleeing Syrians
Report: French Source Says Syria Doesn’t Want Refugees Back
FBI: Authorities make arrest in connection to July 4 terror plot
Germany arrests Iranian diplomat after Belgium foils terror plot in France
Belgium Charges Two for Attack Plot on Iran Opposition in France
Arrests in Europe over Alleged Plot to Attack Iran Opposition in Paris
German woman, alleged part of ISIS ‘morality police,’ arrested
New water pollution protests hit southwest Iran, reported clashes with
police
Turkey orders dozens of colonels arrested in Gulen
Germany’s interior minister resigns in migration showdown with Merkel
Mob lynches 5 men in west India, police arrest 23 suspects
Suicide bomber targets Sikhs, Hindus in Afghanistan; 19 dead
France Aiding Egypt Repression Through Arms Sales
The Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on July 02-03/18
Sham On Humanity In
Southern Syria
Elias Bejjani/July 02/18
What a shame, In the Daraa region of Southern Syria the Arab states, Israel,
USA, Russia and all the western countries covertly or overtly are fighting
against the Syrian people in support of Al Assad's dictatorship-rogue regime
and the Iranian criminal militias including the Terrorist Hezbollah. Sham On
humanity
Aoun weighs in on
Aqoura-Yammouneh dispute
The Daily Star/July. 02, 2018/BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun Monday called
for the residents of two bordering towns in northern Lebanon that have been
locked in a land dispute to “be like one family.”“The problems that exist
between the towns of Aqoura and Yammouneh are being solved, and if Aqoura is
my right eye, then Yammouneh is my left eye,” Aoun said to visitors at the
presidential palace in Baabda. He called on the two towns to act as one
family “because they have been so throughout history, and this must
continue.”Aoun discussed the disagreement with Military Prosecutor Peter
Germanos, who affirmed that the President would pay special attention to the
matter. Baalbeck’s Yammouneh and Jbeil’s Aqoura have been in a dispute over
a piece of land that separates them. The issue was resolved in 1967 through
a court ruling that defined and demarcated the municipal borders. However,
tensions recently intensified following a string of security incidents that
required the intervention of the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese
Army on a number of occasions. Yammouneh is predominantly Shiite while
Aqoura is mainly Christian.
Al-Rahi Slams Attack on Aqoura Police, Urges Return to
1936 Ruling
Naharnet/July 02/18/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday waded into
the recurrent land dispute between the Yammouneh and Aqoura regions,
condemning the recent attack on municipal police from Aqoura. Welcoming
Aqoura's municipal chief, its mayors and an accompanying delegation, who
attended the Sunday Mass in Bkirki, al-Rahi said he regrets “the renewed
conflict between the residents of Yammouneh and Aqoura over the land lot in
Aqoura's mountainous outskirts, as well as the attack on Aqoura's municipal
police members.” He said the attack “requires handing over the assailants to
the judiciary.”As for the land dispute, al-Rahi called for returning to “the
ruling of the arbitration committee headed by Judge Abdo Abu Kheir, which on
Nov. 16, 1936 issued a final ruling declaring this disputed land as part of
the outskirts of the town of Aqoura.”
“This ruling has been in effect for 82 years now but the state's relevant
authorities should anyway send specialized experts to highlight the borders
that were delineated back then and put an end once and for all to this
unjustified disputed,” the patriarch added.
Geagea, Aoun Agree 'Roadmap', LF 'Communication' with
Bassil to Resume
Naharnet/July 02/18/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced Monday
that he agreed with President Michel Aoun on a “roadmap” during anticipated
talks at the Baabda Palace. “I told President Aoun that he can count on the
LF and we also agreed on a roadmap,” Geagea said after the meeting. “We
tackled the cabinet formation issue and we did not put a veto on anyone and
we also won't accept that a veto be put on us,” the LF leader added. Geagea
however noted that he will not discuss “numbers and shares” through the
media. Noting that the LF “differentiates between President Aoun and the
Free Patriotic Movement,” Geagea revealed that his party's “communication”
with FPM chief MP Jebran Bassil “will be resumed.”“What connects us to the
FPM is not a document or an agreement bur rather actions,” the LF leader
added, stressing his party's “ultimate support” for Aoun's presidential
tenure. Responding to a reporter's question, Geagea said: “Some believe that
our support for the presidential tenure should be support for everything the
FPM's ministers do.”The LF leader concluded by reassuring that “the
atmosphere is promising” and that the steps agreed with Aoun will be put
into action.
Geagea Denounces Campaigns against LF over Cabinet
Representation
Naharnet/July 02/18/Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea denounced in a tweet
on Monday the campaigns launched against the party asking “is it because we
have done so well in the government?”“Why this war against the Lebanese
Forces’ representation in the new government? Is it because the LF ministers
have done well in the caretaker government? Is this how good conduct of the
State’s affairs rewarded?” asked Geagea on Twitter. The Lebanese Forces
demands the allocation of five portfolios including a key ministerial
portfolio, a demand rebuked by President Michel Aoun (FPM founder) and his
son-in-law FPM chief Jebran Bassil. Wrangling between political parties over
Cabinet portfolios has delayed the Cabinet formation. Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri was tasked with forming a new government on
May 24. The Druze share is another obstacle delaying the line-up amid
insistence of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat to get the
whole Druze share strictly for his party. Druze MP Talal Arslan also demands
a ministerial seat.
Report: Hizbullah ‘Refuses’ Aoun-Hariri Cabinet Standards
Naharnet/July 02/18/In light of disagreements between political parties over
ministerial quotas in the future government, Hizbullah and AMAL Movement
reportedly plan to “enlarge” demands to reflect their “parliamentary
elections’ success” in a bid to “shock politicians back into reality,” al-Joumhouria
daily reported on Monday. Well-informed sources told the daily that “serious
negotiations have begun to make some changes in ministerial quotas to
reflect the size of parliamentary blocs,” and that AMAL and Hizbullah “will
demand 8 or 10 portfolios, according to the size of their parliamentary
blocs, if a bloc of 15 MPs is granted 4 or 5 ministers.”Shall the equation
be implemented, “it would mean the ten Sunni MPs not aligned to al-Mustaqbal
bloc would also have the right to allocate at least two portfolios,” added
the sources on condition of anonymity. The daily said the change in the
Shiite duo’s stance reflects pressures of the March 8 camp on all parties
involved in the Cabinet formation process in order to push them back to
political realism and to make them ease their demands and conditions. AMAL
and Hizbullah, who achieved major victory in May’s parliamentary elections,
have agreed to share six Shiite ministerial seats equally between them.
Meanwhile the main obstacles hindering the mission of Prime Minister-Saad
Hariri’s are the issues of Christian and Druze representation, with
President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement wrangling with the
Lebanese Forces over seats and the Progressive Socialist Party demanding
that it be allocated all three Druze portfolios. Hariri was tasked with
forming a new government on May 24.
Syrian Mother Living in Lebanon in Limbo after U.S.
Travel Ban
Associated Press/Naharnet/July 02/18/Tired and aching with arthritis, Dahouk
al-Omar lugs a purse stuffed with all her personal documents to the catering
kitchen where she works 12 hours a day. As an unregistered refugee in
Lebanon, the 68-year old says she never knows when she may need them to
prove her identity or in case she gets stopped by the police. Al-Omar spends
half her salary on rent for the cramped apartment she shares with her son
and two cats, an arrangement that she once hoped would be temporary. Her
other son was resettled in Chicago, and was looking into ways of bringing
her there to join him.
But then came the election of President Donald Trump, and the travel ban on
several Muslim-majority countries enacted days after his inauguration. The
move ignited a monthslong legal battle that plunged countless Syrian
refugees into uncertainty and put plans to reunify far-flung families on
hold. When the Supreme Court upheld the ban last week, the family feared
al-Omar may never make it through the fog of confusion: who gets a waiver,
how family members can be reunited, at what cost and how long it may take. A
backlog of cases built up as the Trump administration worked its way through
different versions of the ban, the first of which barred Syrian refugees
until further notice. Trump also reduced the global number of refugees the
U.S. is willing to absorb in 2017 from 110,000 to 50,000. "I hope I can see
her before something happens to her or to me," said Fadi Omarin, al-Omar's
48-year-old son, speaking from Chicago, where he resettled in 2015. He has
not seen his mother since 2012, when he first fled Syria. "I am going
crazy," he said. The travel ban has thrown yet another obstacle in the way
of Syrian refugees whose status in neighboring countries is already
uncertain. Al-Omar was never registered as a refugee when she arrived in
Lebanon in 2016. The tiny country of 5 million, which is hosting more than 1
million Syrian refugees, asked the U.N. to stop registering refugees in
2015, hoping to deter new arrivals. Still, there are an estimated 500,000
unregistered Syrians in Lebanon.
U.N. officials say al-Omar's unregistered status should not prevent her from
qualifying for reunification, but even experts express confusion about the
ban. "We don't know what could pass, what couldn't. Before there was
clarity. Now we don't know what to do," said Suzanne Sahloul, of the
Chicago-based Syrian Community Network, which helped Omarin and his family
resettle. "We have to knock on all doors." Stuck in limbo, al-Omar relies on
her catering job and the kindness of others. Her youngest son's friends
donated kitchen appliances and mattresses, and Fadi wired money from Chicago
so she could buy a bed and some chairs.
"I have to work to be able to survive...Thanks to God, who is giving me the
strength," she said. She breaks into tears when she recalls the help they
received. "God bless him. He takes care of us, even when he is far. If he
was close, he would never have left us in these conditions."
Omarin was the first family member to flee the war, when the government
launched an offensive in their hometown of Baba Amr, in central Syria. His
wife's brother and father were killed, and their home was destroyed. He
lived in hiding in the capital, Damascus, for several weeks before fleeing
to Lebanon, where he registered with the U.N. and was eventually picked for
resettlement in the United States. Another of al-Omar's sons resettled in
Switzerland, a daughter lives in Sudan, and another is in Jordan. Omarin
says he is happy in Chicago, and grateful that his children are growing up
in a place that offers comforts and freedom. He wishes his mother could join
them."I want (Trump) to imagine if the same thing happened to him and there
were problems and war in his country, and his son was in one place and his
wife in another. What would he be thinking? Will he be happy that they are
not reunited?"
Al-Omar's life was never easy. As a newlywed, she moved to Lebanon only to
have to flee the civil war there with her husband and children in 1975. Her
husband was abusive, and for a time she left him, though she returned to
care for him in the months before he died. Syria's civil war has scattered
her family and fueled disputes among them. She is no longer on speaking
terms with one of her sons. After Omarin left in 2012, al-Omar's youngest
son, Mohammed, stayed with her in Syria, where he endured an even more
harrowing ordeal.
After being conscripted and serving a year and a half, mostly guarding a
military installation, he was trained by an elite unit. Fearing that he
would be sent to the front lines, he smashed his knee against a wall in
order to give himself a permanent disability. "I didn't want to be part of
the bloodbath," he said, massaging a loose bone on his left knee. By that
time his mother had already made the difficult journey across the war-torn
country. She crossed over the rugged Lebanese border, traveling alone with
her documents and a few family pictures, paying hundreds of dollars to
smugglers. He joined her a month later. "I came to Lebanon on Monday April
18. On Tuesday I was in Tripoli," she wrote in her diary, adding in red the
year "2016."As she made her way to work on Saturday, al-Omar finally broke
into a smile. Her first name Dahouk means the smiley one. "I laugh
sometimes," she said. "But I have seen a lot. I have moved a lot. And now I
am very tired."
Hezbollah’s covert agenda in Yemen comes to the open
الأجندة الإيرانية الخفية في اليمن تظهر إلى العلن
Iman Zayat/The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/65745/iman-zayat-hezbollahs-covert-agenda-in-yemen-comes-to-the-open-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AC%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%81/
Hezbollah’s Unit 3800, modelled on al-Quds Force, counts highly skilled
operatives sworn to uphold the Iranian regime’s expansionist project.
TUNIS - Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah movement and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels
are developing closer ties, reports say, fuelling sectarian divides and
driving instability in the region.
The Arab coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen said on June
25 that their allies killed eight Hezbollah fighters in battles in the
mountainous Saada region in north-western Yemen. Coalition spokesman Colonel
Turki al-Maliki said the Hezbollah fighters were part of a group heading to
the Saudi border when they were spotted.
“Terrorist members… from Hezbollah and from the Iranian regime are coming to
help the rebels launch ballistic missiles and train them in combat,” he
said. “Both Iran and… Hezbollah must stop sending military experts to
Yemen.”
The statement, which came as Yemeni pro-government forces were locked in
heavy battles with Houthi rebels to take the key aid hub of Hodeidah,
pointed to a growing Hezbollah presence in the country but was not the first
indication of its activities there.
Hezbollah and the Iranian al-Quds Force have long coordinated operations in
Yemen. Hezbollah has provided funds and training to Houthi fighters and al-Quds
Force oversaw the transfer of advanced weaponry, such as anti-aircraft
missiles.
In addition, Iran has long been accused of providing the Houthis with
ballistic missiles that have been launched at Saudi Arabia and, last
November, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN that Hezbollah
fired a missile provided by Iran at the kingdom from Yemeni territory.
An early indication of Iran’s activities in Yemen came in 2009 when former
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh appeared on Al Jazeera accusing Tehran
of providing financial and military support to the Houthi rebels. In 2014,
news of direct Hezbollah involvement in Yemen broke when some of its
operatives were arrested in Yemen and charged with training Houthi rebels.
Those men were connected to Hezbollah’s Unit 3800, which was first tasked
with training Shia militants in Iraq.
In mid-2015, Hezbollah was again revealed to be active in Yemen when Saudi
Arabia sanctioned senior Hezbollah members Khalil Harb and Muhammad Qabalan
for “terrorist actions.”
Saudi Arabia accused Harb of commanding Hezbollah’s “central military unit”
and of being responsible for the group’s activities in Yemen. It pointed to
Qabalan’s role in terrorist activities in Egypt and accused him of
“spreading chaos and instability.”
Harb, who took charge of Unit 3800 in 2012, “was responsible for Hezbollah’s
Yemen activities and was involved in the political side of Hezbollah’s Yemen
portfolio,” a 2013 statement by the US Treasury Department claimed.
That summer, Harb was involved in moving “large amounts of currency to
Yemen, through Saudi Arabia and the UAE” and, in late 2012, “Harb advised
the leader of a Yemeni political party that the party’s monthly Hezbollah
funding of $50,000 was ready for pick up,” the statement said.
Hezbollah’s Unit 3800, modelled on al-Quds Force, counts highly skilled
operatives sworn to uphold the Iranian regime’s expansionist project. Their
Yemen activities have been key in helping the Houthis gain control of much
of northern Yemen, including Sana’a, and improving their military
capabilities. Hezbollah’s involvement is also believed to have helped
entrench the Iranian presence in Yemen.
Head of the US Central Command, US Army General Joseph Votel, warned the US
Congress in February that Iran “is attempting to do in five years with the
Houthis in Yemen” what it took “20 years (to do) with Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
Votel’s warning signalled growing concern in the United States that a new
Hezbollah could be born in Yemen, further imperilling regional security and
giving Iran more leverage.
While Hezbollah and the Houthis are both considered Iranian proxies,
Hezbollah, with more than 30 years of experience, has proven far more
aggressive and effective. Its involvement in the Syrian civil war has seen
it transformed from a localised resistance force to one of the most
significant powers within the region. The Houthis, on the other hand, have
displayed less discipline and skill. What the two groups share, however, is
political ambition and devotion to the Iranian cause. Hezbollah’s political
ambition is clearest in Lebanon, where it is perceived as a legitimate
political actor and secured a strong presence in the government. Hezbollah’s
foreign policy objectives, which include training and arming Shia fighters
across the region, have cast such legitimacy into question.
As for the Houthis, their political ambition took the form of a bloody coup
that plunged Yemen into a cycle of violence and chaos that has yet to end.
In 2015, the Arab coalition intervened in Yemen to restore the country’s
internationally recognised government and thwart what it sees as Iran’s
expansionist ambitions.
With the Arab coalition intensifying its campaign to dislodge the Houthis
from the strategic port city of Hodeidah, thus severing their supply line to
Sana’a, the Hezbollah-Houthi covert connection appears to be coming into the
open. Tangible proof of Hezbollah’s direct involvement in Yemen would put
the Shia group in a tough spot. Being seen as a Shia expeditionary force
fighting at Iran’s behest could cause Hezbollah to lose respect from its
fighters and see its popularity decrease at home and abroad. Hezbollah’s
regional forays also threaten to put Lebanon at risk of Arab economic
sanctions.
Whether Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries can formulate a comprehensive
strategy to contain Hezbollah’s increased operational tempo in the region
remains to be seen. So far, disjointed and incoherent efforts are proving
insufficient.
*Iman Zayat is the Managing Editor of The Arab Weekly.
https://thearabweekly.com/hezbollahs-covert-agenda-yemen-comes-open
New Sunni opposition,
supported by Hezbollah, challenges Hariri
معارضة سنية جديدة مدعومة من حزب الله تتحدى الحريري
Sami Moubayed /The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/65749/sami-moubayed-new-sunni-opposition-supported-by-hezbollah-challenges-hariri-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B6%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%88/
Faisal Karami, saying he commands a bloc of
ten seats in parliament, hopes to revive his family legacy and is demanding
a post in the upcoming cabinet.
BEIRUT - A handful of Sunni politicians have created an “independent Sunni
bloc” to challenge Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who won 20
seats in May’s parliamentary elections.
Leading the meeting was Faisal Karami, 46, scion of a leading political
family from the northern city of Tripoli. His father Omar, uncle Rashid and
grandfather Abdul Hamid Karami were all prime ministers before the Rafik
Hariri era (1992-98).
Omar Karami was toppled in 1992 and 2005, most recently after the Rafik
Hariri assassination. Rashid Karami was one of the pillars of Lebanese
politics, who created ten governments in his country’s history, the first in
1955 and the last in 1984. He was killed in 1987 during the civil war after
a bomb exploded on his helicopter, a crime Samir Geagea of the Lebanese
Forces, an present ally of Saad Hariri, was accused of plotting.
As for their father Abdul Hamid — Faisal’s grandfather — he was one of the
leaders of the Lebanese independence movement from colonial France who
served as a prime minister in 1945.
The Karamis, like the Salams of Beirut, with legacies stretching into the
19th century, feel they were collectively sidelined by the dramatic rise —
and death — of Rafik Hariri, who was from an unknown political family in
Sidon, rose to power through his incredible wealth and the backing of Saudi
Arabia. His death in a February 2005 bombing made the country’s established
nobility look and feel insignificant. Faisal Karami, saying he commands a
bloc of ten seats in parliament, hopes to revive his family legacy and is
demanding a post in the upcoming cabinet. His alignment with ten MPs
effectively breaks Hariri’s monopoly over Sunni representation, given that
none are associated with Hariri’s Future Movement.
They instead have branded themselves as the “Sunni Opposition” to Hariri,
who is Sunni as well. They say they are critical more of his performance
than his policies in government. Karami served as a cabinet minister in
2011, when he was literally imposed on the cabinet by his allies in
Hezbollah. Some coined him the “sixth Shia minister” because of his
allegiance to the all-Shia party and to the Syrians. Karami says his bloc is
entitled to at least one seat in the next cabinet and possibly two, based on
a proposal by Lebanese President Michel Aoun, saying that major blocs are
entitled to one seat in government for every four they control in
parliament. Hariri has declined to name any member of the Sunni opposition,
leaving it for Aoun to decide. The Hariri team would get five seats in the
government but Karami’s allies in the March 8 Alliance would whip up an
impressive 14 portfolios, given their high representation in the Lebanese
chamber. Lobbying on his behalf by Hezbollah will determine whether Karami
makes it into the Hariri cabinet. The same cannot be said for his Sunni
partners, however, who are mostly colourless parliamentarians. Their only
chance for serious political elevation is if Karami makes it into
government, giving them a real voice in parliament.
The Karami bloc includes Adnan Trabulsi (Beirut); Elwaleed Sukariyeh (Bekaa);
Jihad al-Samad (Danniyeh, North Lebanon); Usama Saad, a Nasserist; and
Kassem Hachem, a dentist turned politician from South Lebanon. None can
match up to powerful — and wealthy — Sunni politicians such as Hariri or
former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who swept votes in his native northern
city of Tripoli, winning all four seats. The only heavyweight among them is
Abdul Rahim Murad, a seasoned politician, former defence minister,
philanthropist and self-made billionaire who owns and runs the Lebanese
International University. However, within the bloc, he is as politically
ambitious as Karami — if not more — and would rather see himself in the
Hariri cabinet, if one name were to make it from the “Sunni Opposition.”
Second, Karami is on bad terms with Saudi Arabia, the traditional backer of
the Lebanese Sunnis. True, Riyadh has been reaching out to a wider
assortment of allies in Lebanon but has not reached the point of courting
figures — such as Karami — who were highly critical of its policies in Syria
and Yemen.
In the past three years, Saudi Arabia has tried telling the world that
Hariri is its ally in Lebanon but he is not its only ally, promoting Mikati
as an alternative favourite.
Third, Mikati refused to join the Karami bloc, expressing his
dissatisfaction with the term “Sunni,” seeing himself as a leader for all
Lebanese. The former prime minister did not attend the opposition meeting
and nor did Fouad Makhzoumi, the self-made Beiruti tycoon who was just voted
into parliament while running on an independent ticket.
The reasons behind their absence, said political analyst Nidal al-Sabe, is
Mikati’s attempts at keeping the Saudis satisfied “while remaining as far as
possible from Syria and Hezbollah, whereas Makhzoumi sees that the
opposition meeting’s main objective is to make Faisal Karami ministers, at a
time when he too wants a ministerial post.” Sabe added: “Additionally,
Makhzoumi doesn’t want to enter into a confrontation with Hariri, especially
not in Beirut, insisting that he is an independent standing at a distance
from both the March 8 (pro-Syria) and March 14 (anti-Syria) alliances.
“Prime Minister Hariri is facing a new Sunni reality that he is unfamiliar
with, especially after the last elections created a new Sunni reality. He
has to either accept this reality or reach a collision with Hezbollah and
its allies, resulting in a delay of the cabinet formation.”
Written By Sami Moubayed
*Sami Moubayed is a Syrian historian and author of Under the Black Flag (IB
Tauris, 2015). He is a former Carnegie scholar and founding chairman of the
Damascus History Foundation.
The Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News
published
on July 02-03/18
Syrian rebels of Tafas
go over to ISIS, spark battles closer to Quneitra
DEBKAfile/July 02/18/
Heavy fighting erupted early Monday, July 2, in the southern Syrian town of
Tafas. A rebel group suddenly joined ISIS’s local faction, the Khalid ibn
al-Walid Army, sparking fresh clashes with Russian-backed Syrian and
Hizballah forces. Reporting this unforeseen development, DEBKAfile’s sources
note that it has added a new complication to the negotiations being
conducted non-stop among the US, Russia, Israel, Jordan and the Assad regime
in an effort to stem the warfare before it reaches the Israeli and Jordan
borders of southwest Syria. As of Monday morning, the talks centered on a
Russian proposal for the rebels to hand over their heavy and medium weapons
against a guarantee that the Syrian army will stay out of their terrain. The
rebels will be allowed to remain in charge of the local government offices
they established in the war years, but the Russians insist on Assad regime
civilian officials coming in to conduct daily affairs, including water and
food supplies. Russian officers will oversee the transition process. In
their parallel negotiations with Israel, the Russians are stressing that
these arrangements, if agreed on for the Daraa region on Jordan’s border,
will be the model for Quneitra opposite Israel’s Golan. Tafas lies northwest
of Daraa and south of Nawa, which was the source of a major refugee exit to
the Israel border over the weekend. The clash in Tafas therefore brings the
battlefield closer to the Israeli border. The Russian brokers had counted on
this town of 100,000 becoming the first important venue for their
ceasefire-cum-surrender deal to take effect. But it was derailed by the
local rebel leaders’ decision Sunday night to go over to the ISIS offshoot
in preference to surrendering to Assad’s army.
More than 270,000
Displaced by Southern Syria Fighting
Agence France Presse//Naharnet/July 02/18/A regime offensive in southern
Syria has forced more than 270,000 people from their homes, the United
Nations said Monday. "We were expecting the number of displaced in southern
Syria to reach 200,000, but it has already exceeded 270,000 people in record
time," said Mohammad Hawari, the spokesman for U.N. refugee agency UNHCR in
Amman. Nearly two weeks of ferocious air strikes and barrel bombing have
seen regime forces retake swathes of rebel-held territory in the southern
province of Daraa.
Syria Rebels Split
over Russia-Brokered Surrender Deals in South
Agence France Presse//Naharnet/July 02/18/Rebels in southern Syria were
sharply divided Monday over whether to accept deals offered by government
backer Russia that would see regime forces retake control of opposition
towns. After talks with Moscow, a wave of rebel areas in the south agreed in
recent days to a government takeover in exchange for an end to nearly two
weeks of ferocious air strikes and barrel bombing. With those capitulations,
regime forces have doubled their territorial control in the main southern
province of Daraa to around 60 percent since operations began on June 19.
But other opposition bodies have rejected the deals. In a statement Monday,
the civilian half of the opposition's delegation to talks said they
withdrew. "We did not attend negotiations today. We were not party to any
agreement and we never will be," said the statement, signed by negotiator
Adnan Musalima. It accused some actors of trying to secure personal
interests through the agreements. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said on Monday there were "divisions among rebel groups" over
whether to agree to the terms proposed by Russia. Under the deal offered,
rebels would hand over medium and heavy weapons and Syrian state
institutions would resume work. Displaced families could return with
guarantees by Russian military police. Men who defected from Syria's armed
forces or who did not complete their compulsory service could regularise
their status with the regime within six months. And regime forces would take
over the Nasib border crossing with Jordan as well as deploy along the
frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Observatory head Rami
Abdel Rahman said and activists said. But many residents of opposition towns
worry that a deal struck with Russia would only be violated later on, said
Daraa activist Omar Hariri. Since the terms did not include mass population
transfers to other opposition-held zones, like in previous deals, residents
feared regime forces would abduct or arrest its opponents in "acts of
revenge," Hariri said. "The situation is tough, and the rebels and all
opposition entities in Daraa are facing very difficult choices. The noose is
getting tighter and tighter," he told AFP. Eight towns fell to regime
control on Saturday and another five on Sunday, including the key town of
Bosra al-Sham. It was held by Shabab al-Sunna, one of the south's most
powerful factions, and its willingness to agree to a deal stirred fierce
criticism of its leader Ahmad Al-Awdeh. Rebel supporters repeatedly referred
to him as a "traitor" in posts on Twitter on Monday.
Israel Reinforces Troops, Steps Up Aid to Fleeing
Syrians
Associated Press/Naharnet/July 02/18/The Israeli military said Sunday it
would be reinforcing troops along the frontier with Syria and stepping up
its humanitarian efforts in the area amid a fierce Syrian government
offensive that has displaced thousands of people. The military said it would
be sending armor and artillery to the area. The United Nations has warned of
a catastrophe in southern Syria, where government forces are on the
offensive against insurgents in fighting that has forced thousands of people
to flee toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the Jordanian border.
The Israeli military said it took in six Syrians, including four young
children, over the weekend for emergency medical treatment after their
families were killed. It has supplied 300 tents and about 60 tons of food,
clothing, humanitarian aid and medicine to thousands of internally displaced
Syrians who fled heavy bombardment by Syrian government forces. Israel has
been sending aid into Syria for several years and has provided medical
treatment to thousands of Syrians that reached the frontier with the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. "The picture has changed over the past week
and half," said the commander of "Operation Good Neighbor," the Israeli
program to aid Syrians. "These are people who fled their homes with nothing
... we realized we had to do something different." The officer could not be
identified according to military protocol. Since the operation started two
years ago, the Israeli military says it has delivered more than 1,500 tons
of food, 250 tons of clothing and nearly a million liters of fuel. The
Israeli army says it will continue to aid those in need but won't allow a
massive influx of refugees into Israel. At his weekly Cabinet meeting, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out the guidelines. "We will continue to
defend our borders. We will extend humanitarian assistance to the extent of
our abilities. We will not allow entry into our territory," he said. Israel
has tried its best to stay on the sidelines of the bloody seven-year civil
war raging next door, wary of being drawn into the fighting. It has carried
out occasional airstrikes on suspected weapons shipments to Lebanon's
Hizbullah, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces, and has
responded to occasional spillover fire. It has warned Iran, which is also
allied with the Syrian government, against building up a military presence
on its doorstep, and in recent months has attacked Iranian targets directly.
Report: French Source Says Syria Doesn’t Want Refugees Back
Agence France Presse//Naharnet/July 02/18/The Syrian regime “does not want
the return of Syrian refugees” after turning down requests of several
hundreds seeking to go back to their hometowns, the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily
reported on Monday. “Lebanon has become certain now that the Syrian regime
doesn’t really want the refugees' return. The Syrian regime has not given
them permits that allow their return,” a French source told the daily on
condition of anonymity. The source said the issue was highlighted during
talks between French Deputy Diplomatic Advisor Aurelien Lechevallier and the
President’s chief adviser Mireille Aoun. “Some 3000 displaced are able to go
back to Syria and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said
they can return to Qalamon. But, the Syrian regime is not giving permits. It
allowed only 200 to return while giving some women permits to return,
excluding the men,” he added. “Paris realizes how big the burden of Syrian
refugees is no Lebanon, but it also believes that the Syrian regime does not
want that,” stressed the source. On Sunday, around 70 Syrian refugees have
returned to their war-torn homeland from Lebanon as part of a repatriation
program the Lebanese government says is voluntary. The National News Agency
reported the return on Sunday, after an earlier group of some 400 Syrians
went back last week. The refugees registered with Lebanese authorities, who
provided buses to take them across the border. Damascus has approved the
return of 450 refugees from Lebanon from a list of 3,000 requesting to do
so. Lebanon hosts just under one million registered refugees from the
conflict in neighboring Syria, although authorities say the real number is
much higher. As some battlefronts in Syria's devastating seven-year war have
quietened, Lebanese officials are ramping up demands that refugees go home.
The repatriations come amid a dispute between the government of Lebanon and
the U.N.'s refugee agency, which Beirut accuses of trying to discourage
refugees from going home. UNHCR rejects the charges.
FBI: Authorities make
arrest in connection to July 4 terror plot
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Monday, 02 July 2018/The FBI announced
Monday the arrest of a professed supporter of Al Qaeda who planned a bomb
attack on a July 4 parade in Cleveland Ohio.The Federal Bureau of
Investigation said Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts, who also used the name Abdur
Raheem Rafeeq, told an undercover agent that he wanted to load up a van or
other vehicles with explosives targeting members of the military and their
families during the US national day celebrations on Wednesday. "His desire:
to kill military personnel and their families," said FBI Special agent in
charge Steve Anthony.
Germany arrests Iranian diplomat after Belgium foils
terror plot in France
Al Arabiya English and agencies/Monday, 2 July 2018/The Belgian federal
prosecutor confirmed the opening of an investigation into a terror plot
targeting the Iranian opposition conference in Paris, France, based on
information from the Belgian state security agency. The security authorities
in Antwerp, northern Belgium, arrested two suspects, Anis S. (1980) and his
wife Nasima N. (1984), both Belgians of Iranian origin, suspected of
involvement in planning an extremist bombing attack on Saturday in Paris’
Villepint where the National Council of Resistance of Iran is currently
holding its annual conference. The couple, described by prosecutors as being
"of Iranian origin", were carrying 500 grams (about a pound) of the volatile
explosive TATP along with a detonation device when an elite police squad
stopped them in a residential district of Brussels. Belgian prosecutors said
an alleged accomplice was under arrest in France, while two others were
released after questioning by French police. The statement said that an
Iranian diplomat at the Austrian embassy in Vienna, a contact of the couple,
was also arrested in Germany.
Belgium Charges Two
for Attack Plot on Iran Opposition in France
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 02/18/Belgium on Monday
charged a husband and wife over a plot to bomb a weekend rally by an exiled
Iranian opposition group in France where close Donald Trump ally Rudy
Giuliani was in attendance. Amir S., 38, and Nasimeh N., 33, both Belgian
nationals, "are suspected of having attempted to carry out a bomb attack" on
Saturday in the Paris suburb of Villepinte, during a conference organized by
the People's Mujahedin of Iran, a statement from the Belgian federal
prosecutor said. The couple, described by prosecutors as being "of Iranian
origin", were carrying 500 grams (about a pound) of the volatile explosive
TATP along with a detonation device when an elite police squad stopped them
in a residential district of Brussels. Belgian prosecutors said an alleged
accomplice was under arrest in France, while two others were released after
questioning by French police. The statement said that an Iranian diplomat at
the Austrian embassy in Vienna, a contact of the couple, was also arrested
in Germany. Police carried out five raids across Belgium on Saturday linked
to the affair, authorities said, though they refused to detail any results
of the operation. The developments came on the day Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani arrived to Switzerland for a trip Tehran said was of "crucial
importance" for cooperation between the Islamic Republic and Europe after
the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement. President Rouhani is
also due to visit Austria, the country holding the six-monthly presidency of
the EU. At the rally, Trump allies Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani urged
regime change in Iran, saying the prospect was closer than ever after the
Islamic Republic was hit by a wave of strikes and protests. Former House
speaker Gingrich and ex-New York mayor and lawyer Giuliani also told
opposition supporters that Trump needed to turn up the heat on European
countries still seeking to do business with Tehran despite reimposed U.S.
sanctions. The Belgian statement said about 25,000 people attended the rally
in France. The People's Mojahedin (MEK), formed in the 1960s to overthrow
the shah of Iran, fought the rise of the mullahs in Tehran following the
1979 Islamic revolution. It earned itself a listing as a "terrorist
organization" by the U.S. State Department in 1997 and was only removed from
terror watchlists by the European Union in 2008 and Washington in 2012.
Belgium has been on high alert since the smashing of a terror cell in the
town of Verviers in January 2015 that was planning an attack on police.
Arrests in Europe over Alleged Plot to Attack Iran
Opposition in Paris
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 02/18/Belgium, France and Germany have
detained six people, including an Iranian diplomat posted in Vienna, over an
alleged plot to bomb a weekend rally by an exiled Iranian opposition group
in France, authorities and sources said Monday. The apparent foiled attack
was meant to have targeted a meeting of thousands of Iranian opposition
supporters just north of Paris that was also attended by leading U.S.
figures, including close allies of President Donald Trump. The developments
came on the day Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Switzerland on a
visit that Tehran said was of "crucial importance" for cooperation between
the Islamic Republic and Europe after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian
nuclear agreement. Rouhani is also due to visit Austria, which currently
holds the six-month presidency of the European Union. Federal authorities in
Brussels first revealed the arrests, charging a husband and wife described
by prosecutors as Belgian nationals "of Iranian origin." Amir S., 38, and
Nasimeh N., 33, "are suspected of having attempted to carry out a bomb
attack" on Saturday in the Paris suburb of Villepinte, during the conference
organized by the People's Mujahedin of Iran, a statement from the Belgian
federal prosecutor said. The couple were carrying 500 grams (about one
pound) of the volatile explosive TATP along with a detonation device when an
elite police squad stopped them in a residential district of Brussels. The
statement said that an Iranian diplomat at the Austrian embassy in Vienna, a
contact of the couple, was also detained in Germany. In France three people
were taken into custody Saturday, a security source said on Monday -- two of
them later released. In Belgium, police carried out five raids across the
country on Saturday, authorities said, though they refused to detail any
results of the operation.
'Around the corner'
The Belgian statement said about 25,000 people attended the rally in France
where people waved the red, green and white flag of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and cheered its leader Maryam Rajavi. The NCRI is
an umbrella group for exiled opposition organizations including the former
rebel People's Mujahedin, which is banned in Iran. At the rally, former New
York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani urged regime change in Iran,
saying the prospect was closer than ever after the Islamic Republic was hit
by a wave of strikes and protests. Giuliani called for a boycott of
companies "that continually do business with this regime." "Freedom is right
around the corner," he said of the recent protests in Iran. Giuliani and
other U.S. politicians have been hugely paid to speak at the annual Paris
rally in recent years. Republican firebrand and former House speaker Newt
Gingrich also addressed the rally. The People's Mujahedin, formed in the
1960s to overthrow the shah of Iran, fought the rise of the mullahs in
Tehran following the 1979 Islamic revolution. It was listed as a "terrorist
organization" by the U.S. State Department in 1997 and was only removed from
terror watchlists by the European Union in 2008 and Washington in 2012.
Belgium has been on high alert since the smashing of a terror cell in the
town of Verviers in January 2015 that was planning an attack on police.
German woman, alleged part of ISIS ‘morality police,’
arrested
The Associated Press, Berlin/Monday, 2 July 2018/German authorities say they
have arrested a 27-year-old German woman suspected of being part of the
ISIS’s “morality police” in Iraq. Federal prosecutors said Monday that
Jennifer W. traveled to Iraq via Turkey and Syria in September 2014, where
she joined the extremist group. In a statement, prosecutors said she
patrolled parks in Fallujah and Mosul, ensuring that women adhered to the
dress and behavior codes imposed by ISIS. W., whose surname wasn’t released
for privacy reasons, was arrested by Turkish police in January 2016 after
applying for a passport at the German embassy in Ankara. She was deported to
Germany days later. Prosecutors said she was arrested in southern Germany on
Friday and her home in northern Germany searched. She’s accused of
membership in a foreign extremist organization.
New water pollution protests hit southwest Iran, reported clashes with
police
AFP, Tehran/Monday, 2 July 2018/Protesters clashed with security forces in
southwestern Iran late Sunday, a day after several demonstrators were
injured in nighttime skirmishes over water pollution, Iranian state media
reported. The latest protests were held in Abadan, 12 kilometers (eight
miles) from Khorramshahr, where 11 people were hurt Saturday when an
unidentified gunman opened fire during a demonstration, according to
officials. State-run IRNA news agency did not specify how many people were
involved in the Abadan demonstration, but said security forces had broken up
a crowd that was “disrupting public order”. Iranian state media said
protesters clashed with police.It said people protesting over poor water
quality in a western district of the city had thrown projectiles and set
fire to rubbish bins and a vehicle. Authorities say one protester and 10
police were injured, and videos posted online showed gunfire ringing out.
The agency did not report any further injuries, but added that water
pollution in the two cities of Khuzestan province had sparked several
demonstrations over the past four days. The province was devastated by the
eight-year war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s and suffers from chronic
pollution and drought. It has a largely Arab population that has long
complained of official discrimination.
Turkey orders dozens of colonels arrested in Gulen
Reuters, Istanbul/Monday, 2 July 2018/Turkey ordered the detention of 68
suspects, including dozens of colonels, in an operation targeting alleged
supporters of the US-based Islamic cleric whom Ankara accuses of
orchestrating an attempted coup two years ago, state media said on Monday.
Nineteen serving officers were among those facing detention in an operation
focused on the military’s land forces across 19 provinces including the
capital Ankara, state-run Anadolu news agency said. It cited sources in the
Ankara chief prosecutor’s office as saying the suspects were found to have
been in contact by landline phone with operatives of the preacher Fethullah
Gulen, whom Ankara says was behind the failed putsch on July 15, 2016. Those
facing arrest include 22 colonels and 27 lieutenant colonels, and 19 people
have so far been detained, Anadolu said. Turkey has detained 160,000 people
and dismissed nearly the same number of civil servants since the putsch, the
UN human rights office said in March. Of that number, more than 50,000 have
been formally charged and kept in jail during their trials. Critics of
President Tayyip Erdogan accuse him of using the failed putsch as a pretext
to quash dissent. Turkey says the measures are necessary to combat threats
to national security.
Germany’s interior minister resigns in migration
showdown with Merkel
AFP, Frankfurt/Monday, 2 July 2018/Germany’s interior minister Horst
Seehofer will resign both his office and his position as head of the
hardline conservative Bavarian CSU party after a weeks-long confrontation
with Chancellor Angela Merkel over migration, party sources told AFP Sunday.
Sunday July 1 was a self-imposed deadline for Seehofer to either accept
Merkel’s agreements with other European Union countries to reduce
immigration or to defy her by starting to turn away at the border asylum
seekers already registered elsewhere.
Mob lynches 5 men in
west India, police arrest 23 suspects
The Associated Press, New Delhi/Monday, 2 July 2018/Police in western India
said Monday that they have arrested 23 people who took part in the weekend
lynching of five men suspected of being members of a gang of child
kidnappers, as deadly mob attacks fueled by social media rumors continues
around the country. Police officer M. Ramkumar said five men were bludgeoned
to death on Sunday in a remote, mountainous village in Maharashtra state.
Villagers pounced on the men when one of them tried to speak to a child at a
weekly market, Rajkumar said. “The mob was merciless,” he said. Rajkumar
said police formed five teams to catch the culprits, and had so far arrested
23 of 40 people accused of participating in the mob violence. He said that
for days the village had been abuzz with rumors spread through WhatsApp that
a gang of child kidnappers was roaming there. New Delhi Television reported
that the five men were from a nomadic community and had gone to a house to
ask for food before trying to speak to a child. It also showed a community
center still splashed with blood where the men were locked up before they
were brutally killed with sticks, rods and stones, as well as punches.
Indian TV channels also reported that most homes were locked and lanes
deserted in the village on Monday as most villagers fled to escape a police
crackdown. In a separate incident, police said they rescued five family
members, including a 2-year-old child, when a mob of thousands attacked them
on the suspicion of being child abductors in a town, also in Maharashtra
state, early Monday. Police said they used canes to disperse the violent
mob. Maharashtra’s chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, said “stern action
will be taken against rumor mongers.”The state’s junior home minister,
Deepak Kesarkar, appealed to the public not to believe rumors circulated
over social media. “No one should take the law in their hands,” he told
reporters. India has seen a string of mob attacks in the past few months
ignited by messages circulated through social media that child-abduction
gangs were active in villages and towns. Although authorities clarified that
there was no truth to the rumors, the deadly and brutal attacks, often
captured on cellphones and shared on social media, have spread across Indian
states. At least 20 people have been killed in such brutal attacks since
early May, and dozens more have been injured.
Suicide bomber targets Sikhs, Hindus in Afghanistan; 19
dead
The Associated Press, Kabul, Afghanistan/Sunday, 02 July 2018/A suicide
bomber targeted a group of Sikhs and Hindus on their way to meet
Afghanistan’s president in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday, killing
at least 19 people. Inamullah Miakhail, spokesman for the provincial
hospital in Nangarhar, said that 17 out of 19 dead in the attack are from
the minority Sikh and Hindu community. Miakhail added that at least ten of
20 wounded were also from the same minority community and are undergoing
treatment at a Jalalabad hospital. Narendr Singh, one of the wounded Sikh
form Sunday’s attack, confirmed to The Associated Press by phone from his
hospital bed in Jalalabad that the attack targeted their convoy. Attahullah
Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said that a number of and
shops vehicles caught fire as result of the attack. Gen. Ghulam Sanayee
Stanekzai, Nangarhar’s police chief, said that the attacker targeted the
group on its way to the governor’s compound. They had planned to meet with
President Ashraf Ghani, who was visiting the region on Sunday. No one
immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban and an
ISIS affiliate are active in the province. The Sikhand Hindu community at
present is comprised of only around 1,000 people. Under Taliban rule in the
late 1990s, they were told to identify themselves by wearing yellow
armbands, but the dictate was not wholly enforced. In recent years, large
numbers of Sikhs and Hindus have sought asylum in India, which has a Hindu
majority and a large Sikh population.
France Aiding Egypt Repression Through Arms Sales
Agence France Presse//Naharnet/July 02/18/France has "participated in the
bloody Egyptian repression" for the past five years by delivering weapons
and surveillance systems to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government,
rights groups charged in a report released Monday. Commissioned by four
French and Egyptian human rights groups, the study found French arms sales
to Egypt had leapt from 39.6 million to 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion)
between 2010 and 2016. In addition, "by supplying Egyptian security services
and law enforcement agencies with powerful digital tools, they have helped
establish an Orwellian surveillance and control architecture that is being
used to eradicate all forms of dissent and citizen action," the groups said.
They charged that French companies were also complicit in what they called a
"relentless crackdown" since Sisi overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi
in 2013.
The report notably cited companies selling technology used for mass data
interception and crowd control, used for a surveillance system under which
tens of thousands of opponents and activists had been arrested. "The
Egyptian revolution of 2011 was driven by an ultra-connected 'Facebook
generation' that knew how to mobilise crowds," said Bahey Eldin Hassan,
director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), one of the
group's behind the report. "Today France is helping to crush this generation
through the establishment of an Orwellian surveillance and control system
aimed at nipping in the bud any expression of protest," he said. The report
charges that at least eight French companies have "profited from this
repression" despite a European Union declaration in 2013 that member states
had suspended export licences to Egypt for equipment that could be used for
domestic repression.
The companies include Arquus -- formerly Renault Trucks Defense -- as well
as major defence supplier DCNS. "Our organisations seek from French
companies and authorities an immediate end to these deadly exports," the
groups said. The report was commissioned by the CIHRS alongside the
French-based International Federation for Human Rights, Human Rights League
and Armaments Observatory.
The Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on July 02-03/18
Opinion Iran Must Adapt to New Strategic
Reality – or Risk the Fall of the Islamic Republic
موشى أرينز/من الهآررتس/على إيران أن تتأقلم مع الواقع الإستراتيجي الجديد أو
المخاطرة بسقوط نظام الملالي الإسلامي
Moshe Arens/Haaretz/July 02/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/65732/moshe-arens-haaretz-iran-must-adapt-to-new-strategic-reality-or-risk-the-fall-of-the-islamic-republic-%d9%85%d9%88%d8%b4%d9%89-%d8%a3%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%b2-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87%d8%a2/
Will the Iranian people force their leaders to put an end to the Islamic
Republic? That does not seem impossible at the present time
The Iranian rial has gone from 25,000 per U.S. dollar to 43,000 per dollar
in the past four years. But that is only the official rate; on the black
market it is double that. The Iranian economy is in trouble and there are
demonstrations against the government in the streets of Tehran and other
cities. The demonstrators are calling for an end to Iranian involvement in
Syria and Yemen
The Russians, in cooperation with the Saudis, are breaking ranks with OPEC
and that will keep the price of oil down – more bad news for the Iranian
economy, which is based primarily on oil.
The rulers in Tehran keep pumping resources into Hezbollah and in support of
the Iranian adventures in Syria and Yemen. How much longer can this go on?
But the really bad news for Tehran came from Washington when President
Donald Trump announced that the United States was withdrawing from the
comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran. It means that many of the sanctions
imposed on Iran over the years would not be lifted, and others would be
imposed unless the Iranians agree to renegotiate the nuclear agreement.
The European signatories to the agreement – France, the United Kingdom and
Germany – although not withdrawing from it, have let it be known that the
agreement needs to be amended and that Iranian ballistic missiles and their
expansion into Syria and Yemen should be limited.
Israel has made it clear that it will not agree to the presence of Iranian
troops and installations in Syria. Attacks by the Israel Air Force have made
that point.
The Russian-Iranian alliance in Syria seems to be unraveling. Vladimir Putin
and Benjamin Netanyahu are holding frequent discussions on the subject.
Putin agrees that Iranian troops should not be allowed near the Israeli
border. Now Trump is going to meet Putin in Helsinki on July 16. Syria, no
doubt, will be on the agenda. That should give the rulers in Tehran cause
for concern.
We may be witnessing a major change of strategic proportions regarding
Iran’s role in the Middle East. Barack Obama was prepared to acknowledge
that Iran was and should be a major regional power and was prepared for an
agreement that would provide Iran with vast resources for the implementation
of such a role, in complete disregard of Israel’s concerns. Trump, fully
aware of Israel’s concerns, wants to see the Iranians getting out of Syria.
The wind seems to be blowing the other way now. That is good news for
Israel.
Will the rulers in Tehran accommodate themselves to a changing situation,
and abandon their ambitious plans? Or will the Iranian people force them to
do so and put an end to the Islamic Republic? The latter does not seem
impossible at the present time. That would be major victory for Trump – and
also for Netanyahu, who has been waging a campaign against the Iranian
nuclear program and the rule of the ayatollahs for many years.
For many years Iran has been Israel’s major security threat: conducting a
program designed to achieve a nuclear bomb, developing long-range ballistic
missiles, strengthening Hezbollah and threatening Israel almost daily with
destruction. After the nuclear deal with the four members of the UN Security
Council plus Germany, Iran began an active program of deploying its forces
and military installations in Syria, approaching Israel’s border, while
maintaining its capability to achieve a nuclear bomb and continuing its
ballistic missile development.
Recent developments may bring about a weakening of Iran’s government and
possibly even its downfall. If that turns out to be the case, Israel will be
able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Europe: "The Vision is an Islamic State"
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/July 02/18
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12619/europe-islamic-state
"The growing religiousness is not an expression of marginalization. We are
talking about people who are well-integrated, but who want to be religious".
— Professor Viggo Mortensen.
"The vision is an Islamic state -- Islamic society... Muslims will prefer
sharia rule. But the vision for twenty years from now is for sharia law to
be part of Germany, that sharia will be institutionalized in the state
itself". — "Yusuf", in a documentary series, False Identity.
"I will pick them one by one -- I will start with people around me... If
every Muslim would do the same in his surroundings, it can happen with no
problem... you don't confront him [the German] with force; you do it
slowly... There will be clashes, but slowly the clashes will subside, as
people will accept reality." — "Yusuf", in a documentary series, False
Identity.
Europe will still exist but, as with the great Christian Byzantine Empire
that is now Turkey, will it still embody Judeo-Christian civilization?
A Dutch government report published in June showed that Muslims in the
Netherlands are becoming more religious. The report, based on information
from 2006-2015, is a study of more than 7,249 Dutch nationals with Moroccan
and Turkish roots. Two thirds of the Muslims in the Netherlands are from
Turkey or Morocco.
According to the report, 78% of Moroccan Muslims pray five times a day, as
do 33% of Turkish Muslims. Approximately 40% of both groups visit a mosque
at least once a week. More young Moroccan women wear a headscarf (up from
64% in 2006 to 78% in 2015) and large majorities of both groups eat halal
(93% of Moroccan Muslims and 80% of Turkish Muslims). 96% of Moroccan
Muslims say that faith is a very important part of their lives, whereas the
number is 89% for Turkish Muslims. The number of Dutch Moroccan Muslims who
can be described as strictly adhering to Islam has increased from 77% in
2006, to 84% in 2015. For Turkish Muslims, the numbers have increased from
37% to 45%. There are few secular Muslims -- 7% among Turkish Muslims, 2%
among Moroccan Muslims.
In Denmark, the trend of Muslims becoming more religious was apparent as
early as 2004, when a poll showed that Muslims were becoming more religious
than their parents, especially "young, well-educated and well-integrated
women". At the time, Professor Viggo Mortensen said, "The growing
religiousness is not an expression of marginalization. We are talking about
people who are well-integrated, but who want to be religious".
A more detailed Danish poll from 2015 showed that Muslims had become more
religious since a similar poll taken in 2006: In 2006, 37% prayed five times
a day, whereas the number had gone up to 50% in 2015. In 2006, 63% believed
that the Koran should be followed to the letter; in 2015, it was 77%. Brian
Arly Jacobsen, a sociologist of religion from the University of Copenhagen,
was surprised by the results. "With time we would expect [that Muslims]
would become more like the rest of the Danes, who are not particularly
active in the religious sphere," he said. Jacobsen thought that a possible
explanation might have been the 20-30 new mosques that were built in the
decade preceding 2015.
The trends expressed by these polls are corroborated by studies and polls
showing that many Muslims in Europe want to live under sharia law. According
to a 2014 study of Moroccan and Turkish Muslims in Germany, France, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Sweden, an average of almost 60% of the
Muslims polled agreed that Muslims should return to the roots of Islam. 75%
thought there is only one interpretation of the Koran possible, and 65% said
that Sharia is more important to them than the laws of the country in which
they live. A 2016 UK poll showed that 43% of British Muslims "believed that
parts of the Islamic legal system should replace British law while only 22
per cent opposed the idea". In a 2017 study, which included a poll of 400
Belgian Muslims, 29% said they believe the laws of Islam to be superior to
Belgian law, and 34% said they "would definitely prefer a political system
inspired by the Quran".
According to a 2014 study of Moroccan and Turkish Muslims in Germany,
France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Sweden, an average of almost
60% of the Muslims polled agreed that Muslims should return to the roots of
Islam, and 65% said that Sharia is more important to them than the laws of
the country in which they live. Pictured: Friday prayers at the IZW Mosque
in Vienna, Austria. (Photo by Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)
The more than two million predominantly Muslim migrants that have arrived in
Europe in recent years are only reinforcing the trend of growing Muslim
religiosity on the continent. A 2017 study of predominantly Afghan asylum
seekers in the Austrian city of Graz showed that the asylum seekers, mostly
men under the age of 30, were all in favor of preserving their traditional
Islamic values with 70% going to the mosque every Friday for prayers. The
women were even more religious, with 62.6% praying five times a day, notably
more than the men (39.7%). In addition, 66.3% of the women wore a headscarf
in public. Half of the migrants said that religion now plays a larger role
in their daily lives in Europe than it did in their native country, and
51.6% of the interviewees said that the supremacy of Islam over other
religions was undisputed.
The tendency of many Muslims to become more religious once they arrived in
Europe was also on display in a new documentary series, "False Identity," by
Arabic-speaking journalist Zvi Yehezkeli, who went undercover to report on
the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe and the US. In Germany,
he encountered two young Muslims from Syria, who came to Germany via Kosovo,
where they received help from a "British Islamic organization". They had
left Syria as secular Muslims, but on the way to Germany they lived for a
year in Pristina, Kosovo, where, according to Yehezkeli, "Muslim Brotherhood
organizations are active in helping refugees while turning them into devout
Muslims. Ahmed and Yusuf arrived [in Germany] already praying five times a
day".[1]
According to Ahmed:
"When I left Syria, mentally I felt more relaxed. The Islamic charity
organization played an important role in this. Look, the first time you meet
them they start helping you. You sit, you stare at them, they pray in front
of you and here I am a Muslim, studied the Quran, yet don't pray. Suddenly I
find myself alone asking, Why shouldn't I pray like all others?"
Yehezkeli asked them what their dream is. "The vision is an Islamic state --
Islamic society," said Yusuf, "Muslims will prefer sharia rule. But the
vision for twenty years from now is for sharia law to be part of Germany,
that sharia will be institutionalized in the state itself".
In contrast to the growing religiousness of Muslims in Europe, Christians
are becoming less religious. In a study of young Europeans, aged 16-29,
published in March and based on 2014-2016 data, the author, Stephen
Bullivant, a professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St
Mary's University in London, concluded:
"With some notable exceptions, young adults increasingly are not identifying
with or practicing religion... Christianity as a default, as a norm, is
gone, and probably gone for good -- or at least for the next 100 years".
According to the study, between 70% and 80% of young adults in Estonia,
Sweden and the Netherlands categorize themselves as non-religious. Between
64% and 70% of young adults consider themselves non-religious in France,
Belgium, Hungary and the UK. The most religious youths were to be found in
Poland, where only 17% of young adults defined themselves as non-religious,
followed by Lithuania with 25%.
Young Muslims like Yusuf and Ahmed from Syria say they want to spread Islam
by converting Europeans, also known as dawa. They are themselves perfect
examples of having been at the receiving end of dawa -- becoming devout
Muslims through the Islamic organization in Kosovo and now engaging in dawa
themselves. "I will pick them one by one -- I will start with people around
me. They will listen. If every Muslim would do the same in his surroundings,
it can happen with no problem," said Yusuf. Asked if the Germans might
resist dawa, he said:
"You don't confront him [the German] with force, you do it slowly... There
will be clashes, but slowly the clashes will subside, as people will accept
reality. There is no escape; every change involves clashes".
Given young Europeans' lack of a religious identity and the vacuum left by
the departure of Christianity from the lives of the majority, one has to
wonder how sturdy their ability will be to withstand such attempts at
proselytizing. Europe will still exist but, as with the great Christian
Byzantine Empire that is now Turkey, will it still embody Judeo-Christian
civilization?
*Judith Bergman is a columnist, lawyer and political analyst.
[1] The quote begins at 21:24 in the documentary. The statements by Yusuf
and Ahmed follow immediately after.
© 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.
Is Turkey Playing a Double Game with NATO?
Debalina Ghoshal/Gatestone Institute/July 02/18
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12620/turkey-nato-double-game
Why would Turkey first order a Russian defense system and then turn around
and make a cooperation agreement with Europe for the same purpose?
This goes back to America's apprehension that if Turkey uses the S-400s
along with the U.S. F-35s, Russia could gain access to information about the
aircraft's sensitive technology.
If Turkey is playing a double game with NATO, let us hope that the United
States does not fall prey to it.
In January, 2018 Turkey reportedly awarded an 18-month contract for a study
on the development and production of a long-range air- and missile-defense
system to France and Italy, showing -- ostensibly -- Turkey's ongoing
commitment to NATO. The study, contracted between the EUROSAM consortium and
Turkey's Aselsan and Roketsan companies, was agreed upon in Paris, on the
sidelines of a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The contract for the study came on the heels of a deal between Ankara and
Moscow, according to which Turkey would purchase the S-400 missile defense
system -- one of the most sophisticated on the global market -- from Russia.
The question is: Why would Turkey first order a Russian defense system and
then turn around and make a cooperation agreement with Europe for the same
purpose?
The answer is likely that Ankara is trying to pretend that it is still loyal
to NATO, at a time when its strategic inclinations seem to indicate
otherwise.
As Turkey is a member of NATO, its decision to opt for the S-400, a non-NATO
missile-defense system, has been the subject of speculation and controversy.
NATO has adopted the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), according to
which the United States plans to deploy its missile-defense systems in
various parts of Europe, to protect its forces and those of other NATO
members from Iranian missile attacks. Turkey's move appears to run counter
to the EPAA.
It is also not the first time that Turkey has turned to a non-NATO country
for its missile-defense needs. In 2013 -- even as the U.S., Germany and The
Netherlands sent Patriot missiles to Turkey to protect it from Syrian Scud
missiles -- Ankara, seeking to procure its own missile-defense system, chose
China's FD-2000. This was of great concern to NATO, which feared that such a
deal would make it easier for China to study NATO's system and develop
ballistic missiles that could evade it. Turkey canceled the deal with China
in 2015, partly due to U.S. pressure and partly over pricing issues. But
then Ankara turned to Russia. To justify its preference of Russia's S-400s
over U.S. Patriot missiles, Turkey said that the U.S. did not allow room for
a joint production of the missile-defense system, while the deal with Russia
enables co-production of the system.
After the failed coup against Erdogan in July 2016 -- when two Turkish
military jets reportedly attempted to down the plane transporting him home
from vacation -- the government became suspicious of its air force and fired
several F-16 pilots. This move severely limited Turkey's air-defense
capability; hence, the S-400 deal with Russia. However, according to Turkish
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hami Aksoy, "The system we are buying from Russia
cannot be integrated into NATO systems." In other words, as Turkey needs a
missile-defense system that can be integrated with the NATO's -- and as NATO
will not allow integration of the Russian S-400, for the same reason that it
opposed Ankara's deal over China's FD-2000 -- Ankara turned to Europe.
Beyond that, a deal with EUROSAM would allow Turkey to make the sovereign
decision of whether it wishes to integrate the missile-defense system with
that of NATO, and would also allow for a joint production of the system --
something that Ankara considers imperative.
Furthermore, and perhaps of equal, if not greater, importance, by signing
the EUROSAM deal, Turkey is probably trying to persuade NATO that the
decision to purchase Russian S-400s was merely a technological and budgetary
one, not an indication that Turkey is opposed to NATO weapon systems. This
may be its way of preventing its deal with Russia from becoming an obstacle
in its path to procuring American F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF), which
the U.S. is refusing to provide it, due to its purchase of the S-400s. This
goes back to America's apprehension that if Turkey uses the S-400s along
with the F-35s, Russia could gain access to information about the aircraft's
sensitive technology.
If Turkey is playing a double game with NATO, let us hope that the United
States does not fall prey to it.
Debalina Ghoshal, an independent consultant specializing in nuclear and
missile issues, is based in India.
© 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.
Why Turkey Will Not Be Another Iran
Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/July 02/18
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12628/turkey-iran-islamism
Khomeini's support came from Tehran and a few other big cities, notably
Isfahan, while Erdogan's support base is in rural areas and small and medium
cities.
While at least 40,000 people have been executed under Khomeini and his
successors, Erdogan refuses to bring back the death penalty in Turkey.
Right now, according to Islamic Chief Justice Ayatollah Amoli Larijani,
there are 15000 Iranians under death sentence in prison, waiting to be
executed.
Is Turkey going to be another Iran? With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
latest electoral victory the question is making the rounds in Western
political circles. Despite the fact that Sunday's election gives Erdogan
immense new powers, my short answer to the question is a firm: no!
In analyzing the nature of political power in any form the first question to
ask concerns the provenance of that power. For where does power comes from
determines where it may go.
In Iran in 1979 power was like a box of jewels thrown in the street, ready
for anyone to pick up. The Shah had left the country and most members of the
Council of Monarchy he had appointed were in the French Riviera, while the
army Top Brass had declared "neutrality" which meant the military wouldn't
stop anyone from picking up the box of jewels in the street.
By a fluke of fate and a combination of bizarre circumstances, it was
Ayatollah Khomeini who had the nerve and the imagination to pick up the box
after the Shah's last Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar had also gone into
hiding waiting to be spirited out of Tehran to Paris.
However, Erdogan, unlike Khomeini has obtained his box of jewels in the form
of 52 per cent of the votes cast in an election boasting one of the highest
turnouts in Turkish history. Even if we make allowances for abstentions and
real or alleged irregularities in the process, none could deny that Erdogan
enjoys a solid support base from at least 32 per cent of the Turkish
electorate.
In contrast, unlike Erdogan who has been on the Turkish political scene for
almost three decades, including 15 years at the top, Khamenei, when he
seized power, was a largely unknown figure to most Iranians. The best
surveys we had at the time was that the exiled mullah would not collect more
than five to 10 percent of the votes in any free and fair election.
Khomeini's support came from Tehran and a few other big cities, notably
Isfahan, while Erdogan's support base is in rural areas and small and medium
cities. The uprising that brought Khomeini to power was a largely urban
middle class affair while Erdogan depends on the rural population, the
working classes and the petty-bourgeoisie for support.
Khomeini was solidly backed by all shades of leftist parties and ideologies
from social democrats to Maoists to Islamic-Marxists. Erdogan, on the other
hand, is the bête-noire of the Turkish Left.
While Khomeini and his entourage adopted a good chunk of the lexicon of the
left, including such worn-out clichés as "the downtrodden (Mustazafin) and
"Imperialism" (Istikbar), Erdogan's political vocabulary owes more to
populism than to proto-Marxism.
Khomeini's entourage featured numerous theologians and so-called Islamic
scholars while a variety of violent Islamist groups, including the Fedayeen
Islam, the Hezbollah (founded in 1975), the Islamic Coalition and the
Hojjatieh Society.
In contrast there are hardly any theologians or religious scholars in
Erdogan's entourage. Despite his occasional penchant for Islamist
shibboleths, Erdogan faces stiff opposition from a wide range of Islamist
groups, starting with the Hizmet, khidmah in Arabic (Service) movement led
by exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, not to mention the 100 or so Sufi
fraternities and the crypto-Shiite Alawite community.
In fact, Turkey's Islamic networks fear the take-over of their organizations
and businesses by the state while Erdogan adopts a pious pose and makes
occasional noises against Kemalist secularism.
To most Iranians, Khomeini was an unknown quantity and his seizure of power
more like a lottery than a rational choice. Warts and all, Erdogan, however,
is well-known to Turks who have had time to see him in action as party
leader, Mayor of Istanbul, Prime Minister and President.
Khomeini showed disdain for economic issues, once declaring that "economics
is for donkeys" and boasting that his revolution was not meant to bring
prosperity but a chance for martyrdom.
In contrast, Erdogan played the card of economic development from the start
when he transformed Istanbul from a decrepit almost bankrupt urban sprawl
into a bustling megapolis with global ambitions.
Under the Khomeinist system, Iran today is at least 40 per cent poorer in
real terms than it was under the Shah, according to surveys by the central
Bank of Iran. Under Erdogan's stewardship, in contrast, the Turkey has
experienced a doubling of its annual Gross Domestic Product, a performance
better than the so-called "Chinese miracle."
Right from the start, Khomeini's message met with thinly disguised hostility
by Iran's ethnic minorities. And for years after seizing power the ayatollah
and his clan had to use the utmost violence to crush the minorities through
mass executions, widespread arrests and even full-size military operations
against Iranian-Arabs in Khuzestan, Iranian Kurds in three provinces,
Iranian-Turcomen in Golestan province and Iranian Baluch in Sistan-and-Baluchistan.
In contrast, Erdogan owed his initial access to power to massive support
among Turkey's Kurdish minority. The subsequent wars he has waged against
armed Kurdish groups, mostly linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
does not nullify the fact that even in the latest election and his AKP party
did well in most Kurdish-majority areas of Anatolia.
Under Khomeini and his successors more than a million Iranians have died in
foreign wars, war against domestic opponents and ethnic minorities, and mass
executions. The victims of similar deviations under Erdogan, however, run
into thousands, still far too many but nowhere near as bad as the Iranian
mullahs' record. While at least 40,000 people have been executed under
Khomeini and his successors, Erdogan refuses to bring back the death penalty
in Turkey.
Right now, according to Islamic Chief Justice Ayatollah Amoli Larijani,
there are 15,000 Iranians under death sentence in prison, waiting to be
executed.
Khomeini banned all political parties while Erdogan has been prepared, at
least until now, to contest multi-party elections in a pluralist system.
Corruption has been a feature of both the Khomeinist regime and the Erdogan
stewardship. However, there, too, there are differences. Khomeini sized over
165,000 private properties and distributed them among his entourage and
supporters and relatives. He also presided over the privatization of
numerous public companies, transferred to his minions at nominal prices.
Under Erdogan, however, corruption has taken a more classical form as
kickbacks, shady contracts and dubious business practices. In Khomeini's
Islamic Republic, corruption has become structural, affecting all organs of
the state. Under Erdogan, corruption more resembles an ivy sucking
sustenance from a still healthy tree. Khomeini was an antediluvian fanatic
unique in contemporary political history. Erdogan is a run-of-the-mill
populist of the kind now fashionable in many countries.
Both types could do damage, and often do, but the type to which Erdogan
belongs could still be tolerated, or confronted and opposed within some
rational parameters. The Khomeinist type, however, belongs to a surrealistic
sphere of transcendental pretensions in the service of earthly violence,
corruption and greed. By most estimates there are 1.5 million Iranian
asylum-seekers in Turkey but not a single Turk seeks asylum in the Islamic
Republic in Iran.
ip Erdogan in Tehran, Iran, April 7, 2015. (Image source: Tasnim/Wikimedia
Commons)
*Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran
from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications,
published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since
1987.
*This article was originally published by Asharq al-Awsat and is reprinted
by kind permission of the author.
© 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.
Is Guilt Killing the West from Within?
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/July 02/18
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12569/guilt-museums-artifacts
"The fact is that we have no idea what would have become of the world's
'looted' antiquities if they hadn't been preserved in Western collections.
Would the treasures of Beijing's Summer palace have survived Mao's Cultural
Revolution? Would the Elgin marbles have survived Turkish tour guides
chopping off chunks to sell as souvenirs? Would Daesh [ISIS] have spared
those Middle Eastern artefacts that survive in European museums?" — Zareer
Masani, historian.
When Christians in Iraq were exiled, murdered or persecuted en masse by the
so-called Islamic State, the West stood silent -- as if these Christians
were the agents of Western colonialism and not the legitimate and oldest
inhabitants of the Middle East, long before the Arabs converted to Islam.
When a mob destroyed the French Institute in Cairo, burning books and
collections, those who now want to return the "colonial artifacts" stood
silent. Where are our Monuments Men now?
A "sense of guilt" for colonialism is debasing the West from within,
according to Professor Bruce Gilley, and authoritarian regimes such as Iran,
Russia, China and Turkey are profiting from this weakness.
The Romans called it damnatio memoriae: the damnation of memory that
resulted in destroying the portraits and even the names of the fallen
emperors. The same process is now underway in the West about its colonial
past. The cultural elite in the West now seem so haunted by feelings of
imperialist guilt that they are no longer confident that our civilization is
something to be proud of. A sense of guilt now seems a kind of
post-Christian substitute religion that seduces many Westerners. The French
scholar Shmuel Trigano suggested that this ideology is turning the
Westerners into "post-colonial subjects" who no longer believe in their own
civilization, but instead what will destroy it: multiculturalism. In France,
for example, a manifesto was launched for "a multicultural and post racial
republic". The result would be, in the words of the anthropologist Jean-Loup
Amselle, a "war of identities" and a clash between communities. Last month,
the UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said that, if elected Prime
Minister, he would order the British Museum to return to Greece the Elgin
Marbles, the frieze that had surrounded the Parthenon of Athens and one of
the major attractions of the British Museum. "This whole campaign is sheer
lunacy," wrote Richard Dorment. But it is a lunacy spreading all over
Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he wants to change the rules
that make French public collections untouchable, and allow the return to
Africa of dozens of historical artifacts now in the Louvre Museum. Macron
has appointed two commissioners, the writer Senegalese Felwine Sarr and the
art expert Bénédicte Savoy, to prepare a report.
Tanzania is asking for the return of the famous skeleton of a prehistoric
Brachiosaurus, the main attraction of Natural History Museum of Berlin. New
guidelines guide on restitution of "colonial objects" were recently unveiled
by Germany's Minister of Culture, Monika Grütters.
Most historians are now taking the side of the campaign for returning these
objects. One is David Olusoga, a historian of Nigerian origins, who has
claimed that these colonial artifacts were "thefts" committed by the
colonial powers at the time. Writing in The Telegraph, Zareer Masani, a
historian of Indian origins, took a different position. It was the
colonialists, he said, who had a decisive role in preserving the antiquities
of the civilization:
"It was their dedication, often at huge personal sacrifice, that unlocked
the wonders of many lost classical civilisations... The fact is that we have
no idea what would have become of the world's 'looted' antiquities if they
hadn't been preserved in Western collections. Would the treasures of
Beijing's Summer palace have survived Mao's Cultural Revolution? Would the
Elgin marbles have survived Turkish tour guides chopping off chunks to sell
as souvenirs? Would Daesh [ISIS] have spared those Middle Eastern artefacts
that survive in European museums?".
In 1969, the BBC aired Kenneth Clark's "Civilization", the series exploring
Western art and culture. Then, civilization was something to be glorified.
In 2018, the BBC aired the remake of Clark's classic, "Civilizations" --
note the plural. "This year, the 21st century version of the landmark show
is to turn a critical eye to the history of British civilisation,
questioning whether it is built on 'looting and plunder' and who, really,
are the barbarians," writes Hannah Furness in The Telegraph. One of the new
presenters is David Olusoga, the historian who called the Elgin Marbles "a
very clear case of theft".
Thirty years ago, in a book, The Tears of the White Man, the French
philosopher Pascal Bruckner wrote that, "the remorseless and self-righteous
critic who endlessly denounces the deceptions of parliamentary democracy is
suddenly rapt with admiration before the atrocities committed in the name of
the Koran, the Vedas, the Great Helmsman..." Since then, Western elites have
excused many crimes committed in the name of political Islam, as if these
were the consequences of our own colonial crimes.
When Christians in Iraq were exiled, murdered or persecuted en masse by the
so-called Islamic State, the West stood silent -- as if these Christians
were the agents of the Western colonialism and not the legitimate and oldest
inhabitants of the Middle East long before the Arabs converted to Islam.
When a mob destroyed the French Institute in Cairo, burning books and
collections, those who now want to return the "colonial artifacts" stood
silent. When Iran's President Rouhani visited Rome, the Italian authorities
covered the naked statues in the Capitoline Museums. Are we covering our own
culture to please the Islamic world?
Unfortunately, what we are "returning" are not only the colonial artifacts,
but our very pride in Western civilization. A new "damnation of the memory"
is taking place in our own museums, academia and chattering classes -- and
it has deep consequences for our ability to deal with the enemies of
civilization. "Postcolonial material provides an important fuel for jihadism,"
stated France's most important scholar of Islamism, Gilles Kepel.
"The Monuments Men", a film made in 2014 by George Clooney, is about a group
of Western curators and art experts who traveled to Europe to rescue the
artistic masterpieces stolen by the Nazis. It was a story of Western bravery
and moral clarity during the Second World War. In 2015, ISIS destroyed
Palmyra, one of the most important cities of the ancient world. But the West
watched this cultural destruction passively and no "Monuments Men" were
dispatched to save Palmyra and other threatened sites. The Russians,
profiting from the Western passivity, entered Palmyra and Russia's most
famous conductor, Valery Gergiev, on performing a triumphal concert in the
Palmyra arena, said: "We protest against barbarians who destroyed wonderful
monuments of world culture". The Westerners then recreated a banal copy of
the arch of Palmyra in London.
Where are our Monuments Men now?
*Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and
author.
© 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 in the foreseeable future
Mohammed Al Shaikh/Al Arabiya/July 02/18
It seems the Americans are serious about uprooting the Vilayat-e Faqih
regime in Iran but the question most international political circles are
asking is: How will the scenario unfold?
The most likely scenario is the Revolutionary Guards’ coup on the Iranian
political scene and pushing the mullahs to the backseat. Those who control
the security situation in most Iranian provinces are the cadres of the
Revolutionary Guards who stay out of sight behind the supreme leaders’
turban. If the economic and security situation further escalates, many think
the Revolutionary Guards’ generals will themselves take over power and
directly govern without hesitation.
Iran will become a state with a purely military regime as I don’t think the
Revolutionary Guards Corps and its generals will give up power and the
domination over political and economic decisions no matter what the
consequences are.
The second scenario is that the economic sanctions which the US will impose
and the collapse of the currency will lead to a civil war and Iran will thus
disintegrate into several ethnic and sectarian statelets like what happened
in Yugoslavia. What’s certain is that the mullahs via their current policy,
especially after the US withdrew from the nuclear deal and threatened to
punish companies that deal with the Iranian regime, will suffocate Iran. It
doesn’t seem that the mullahs’ government will rationally deal with its
dangerous economic situation. This means breakup then collapse is around the
corner.
The fall of the Iranian mullahs’ sectarian and expansive policies will
change the region’s situation drastically, and it seems the Americans are
also convinced of this.
It’s true that collapse may be delayed a little but amid the current
US-Iranian relations and the Europeans’ submission, Iran will only be left
with Russia, China and India. It seems Russia really wants to get rid of the
Iranian alliance which it had an interest in by intervening to support
Assad. Now, however, it seems that Russia has given Iran a cold shoulder and
finds Iranian presence on Syrian soil embarrassing before Israel. When it
comes to Russia’s top priorities, Israel comes before the Iranians.
This is in addition to the fact that the active Saudi diplomacy, especially
regarding energy and controlling the oil market made the Russians feel that
their economic interests require coordination and cooperation with the
kingdom. Needless to say that any Saudi-Russian rapprochement will be at the
expense of Russian-Iranian cooperation.
The massive Saudi oil investments in the Indian and Chinese markets will
make both countries whom Iran relies on to market its oil to reconsider
their calculations and base their decisions on what suits their interests
and not what suits Iran’s interests.
All this will further suffocate Iran and worsen its economic and security
conditions. The only thing the Iranians can do is to tolerate this situation
and try to buy time in hopes that President Trump’s term ends and another
president, who is not as strong and decisive as Trump, is elected. However
all available indicators show that Trump will serve another presidential
terms, i.e. sanctions will stay in effect and the mullahs will not be able
to tolerate this anymore. Of course, this if we assume the mullahs are still
in power and that the Revolutionary Guards’ generals have not staged a coup
against them, as the most likely scenario indicates, and eliminated them
from the scene.
I think the fall of the mullahs’ sectarian and expansive policies will
change the region’s situation drastically, and it seems the Americans are
also convinced of this.
Confronting the Qatari regime’s allegations against the
UAE
Mohammed Al-Hammadi/Al Arabiya/July 02/18
It’s quite ironic that a day after Qatar’s appeal to the International Court
of Justice to take measures against the UAE, claiming that the UAE is
discriminating against Qatari citizens, several international human rights
organizations testified about the UAE’s achievements in human rights.
This occurred during the UN Human Rights Council’s session at Geneva aimed
at adopting the UAE’s third report on the human rights situation in the
country. What was acknowledged during this session is yet another confession
by the world’s countries and the international community that the UAE’s
human rights record has developed. The UAE always works to improve human
rights, and has succeeded in providing security and applying the law on
everyone in the country, which is home to over 200 nationalities. Qatar has
gone far with its dispute with its neighbors. It went as far as resorting to
the ICJ and the Human Rights Council as after it lost its media battle with
the boycotting countries and spent billions on media figures, media
institutions and public relations companies, it endeavored on another
miserable attempt which is to use international institutions
Empty accusations
In response to Qatar’s allegations and its complaint at the ICJ at The Hague
against the UAE, claiming that it’s discriminating against Qataris, the UAE
refuted all claims while Qatar failed to provide convincing and documented
evidence to the court to back its claims.
All that Qatar based its allegations on are undocumented reports by Qatari
human rights organizations or international reports in which no official
measures have been taken. Therefore, the court cannot take these reports
into account because Qatar leaked them without the permission of the
relevant parties.
Meanwhile, the biggest loss which Doha suffered last week was related to the
four boycotting countries banning Qatari flights from entering their
airspace. After the International Civil Aviation Organization decided to
give Qatar a chance and listen to its demands, the four boycotting countries
decided to submit a dispute against Qatar regarding their sovereign airspace
to the ICJ as it is the relevant authority. They also sought the ICAO’s
approval to look into Qatar’s illegal claims as it departs from the
technical competence of the organization, especially that the crux of the
issue is Qatar’s support of terrorism and activities that incite strife in
the region’s countries. Accordingly, the four states will continue to close
their regional airspace to Qatari aircrafts in order to preserve their
national security and sovereign right guaranteed by international law.
This is expected to last for a long time since the appeals and hearings of
the ICJ are expected to take a while before a decision is made.
Qatar has gone far with its dispute with its neighbors. It went as far as
resorting to the ICJ and the Human Rights Council as after it lost its media
battle with the boycotting countries and spent billions on media figures,
media institutions and public relations companies, it endeavored on another
miserable attempt which is to use international institutions and human
rights organizations to pressure the anti-terror quartet. However, we are
certain that it will lose this battle because very simply “the solution is
in Riyadh.”
The noble Nigerian mosque imam
Mashari Althaydi/Al Arabiya/July 02/18
The strangest, yet happiest, thing is when you see something beautiful in
the folds of ugly news. This is how I felt while reading about a noble
mosque imam in Nigeria who protected Christian citizens from an imminent
massacre that was about to be committed by Muslim citizens.
According to the news story published by the BBC, some Nigerian Christian
families from the Berom ethnic group and who are farmers fled their town
following the usual disputes with Muslim herders from the Fulani ethnic
group. They escaped the town after Fulani gunmen attacked them and sought
refuge in the town where the noble imam is. Throughout history, religious
and ethnic tendencies have been exploited to manipulate people, the public
specifically, as we’ve seen during the “general strife” in Bilad al-Sham in
1860
“I first took the women to my personal house to hide them. Then I took the
men to the mosque,” the imam told the BBC. I will not say this is strange as
it’s rather the right principle and the right thing to do. There will always
be good deeds as long as there is loyalty, mercy and the concept of
protecting the neighbor. However we must remind of these principles.
Religion in Lebanon
Throughout history, religious and ethnic tendencies have been exploited to
manipulate people, the public specifically, as we’ve seen during the
“general strife” in Bilad al-Sham in 1860. The spark of the civil war
erupted in Mount Lebanon between Christians and the Druze and Muslims and
the fire of strife eventually reached Damascus, the center of Sham. There’s
a wonderful document on what happened by a witness to the massacre. What’s
interesting is that the writer spoke about some Christians’ foolishness and
arrogance in provoking Muslims and the Exalted Ottoman State, as it was
described at the time.
In a piece published by Lebanese daily An-Nahar, Father Georges Massouh
wrote about an important document by Dimitri Dabbas, the Christian cleric
who was the witness to that great strife.
Dabbas talked about three “wonders” that protected the Christians in
Damascus and Sham and they are the Pasha of the fort Hashim Agha, the chiefs
of al-Midan neighborhood and Emir Abdelkader El Djezairi, the Pasha of
Maghrebis as he described him.
Talking about the leaders of Al-Midan neighborhood, Dabbas eloquently says:
“They gathered the people of Al-Midan who are the foolish and preached them:
Sons, do not do anything at all. Protect the Christians in Al-Midan as
whatever deed you do, it will reflect on you,” and urged them to protect the
Christians, their interests, religion and world. The people responded: “We
comply with your orders.” “Dabbas believes that the Christians in Damascus
survived because of these three: Hashim Agha, Al-Midan aghas (chiefs) and
Emir Abdelkader El Djezairi,” Massouh wrote, adding that Dabbas compared
them, in a Christian conception, to the “three angels” who visited Prophet
Abraham. The origin is the goodness in people.
Iranians have tired of government’s warped priorities
Fahad Nazer/Arab News/July 02/18
For the second time this year, thousands of Iranians have taken collective
action to publicly express their discontent and anger at the government. In
January, thousands of Iranians took to the streets in more than 60 towns and
cities across the country to protest the economic policies of the
government, which have led to economic stagnation, inflation and high
unemployment.
Then, last Sunday, hundreds of merchants in Tehran’s famed Grand Bazaar
closed their shops in anger at the same failed economic policies. While
there are some differences between the two episodes — as well as with the
wider protests that took place in 2009 that became known as the Green
Revolution — all three are indicative of long-simmering, widespread
discontent. At their core, they are a stand against the government’s
decades-long disregard for the economic prosperity of the citizenry. Instead
the rulers have chosen to focus on destabilizing their neighbors and the
region by supporting militant non-state actors as well as other rogue
regimes.
This refusal to abide by the norms of international relations and disregard
for good governance and sound policies domestically are the main reasons
Iran finds itself in its current unenviable position.
Iran’s economy is largely dependent on income from its oil and gas sectors.
The government also spends billions annually on various subsidies. At the
same time, its economic institutions and commercial regulations leave much
to be desired. These economic challenges, however, are not unique to Iran.
Many developing countries have had to implement policies to diversify their
economy, privatize government-owned enterprises and various other measures.
What is endemic to Iran is the government’s apparent lack of interest in
addressing these issues, preferring instead to divert much of its oil and
gas revenues to supporting non-state actors like various militias in Iraq,
Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Iran’s continued commitment to exporting its revolution and destabilizing
other countries by supporting militant groups that seek to impose their will
on the rest of the society has garnered Iran the label “rogue regime.” It is
considered as such because it refuses to abide by some of the most
fundamental laws, conventions and norms of international relations. But, as
the recent protests show, it is not only Iran’s neighboring countries — and
the United States — that are demanding the regime stops its support for
terrorist groups and operations. The Iranian people themselves have
apparently also run out of patience with the government’s warped priorities.
The choice for the Iranian government is an easy one: Stop destabilizing the
region and focus on improving the lives of the people of Iran.
The protests that erupted in Iran in 2009 involved millions of people
demonstrating across the country and were largely a response to what was
widely considered to be an unfair election. Rather than address its
citizens’ concerns, the regime resorted to its usual modus operandi: A
brutal suppression of the protests. This year, and although the protests
have thus far been smaller than they were in 2009, they suggest that the
anger has spread from the educated elites of Tehran to some of the regime’s
base of support in cities like Mashhad.
These protesters have made it clear they have tired of the ineffectual
economic policies that have resulted in economic stagnation and political
isolation. The chants have ranged from “death to high prices” to “death to
the dictator” — a clear reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Just as
importantly, there have been chants imploring the regime to stop its support
of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria and to focus on resolving their very
real grievances.
In May, the US administration decided to withdraw from the deal that the US
and five other nations signed with Iran in 2015 that put limits on Tehran’s
nuclear activities in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. The
White House had hinted that whether it would remain in the agreement would
depend on a broad assessment of Iran’s policies. Its assessment was not
strictly focused on the terms of the nuclear agreement, which has no regard
to its missiles program or, more importantly, its “nefarious” activities in
the region.
The US, like many other countries, continues to view Iran as the foremost
state sponsor of terrorism in the world. It is this dubious distinction that
has made Iran the subject of economic sanctions once again. To show its
seriousness, news reports last week suggested that the US is asking nations
that import Iranian oil to drastically reduce the amount they buy or
potentially face sanctions themselves.
Since President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal, the
Iranian currency, the rial, has continued to drop in value. Since late last
year, it has lost almost 50 percent of its value. In yet another reminder of
the Iranian government’s neglect of the infrastructure in the country, last
week also witnessed significant electricity blackouts in the capital and
beyond.
The protests in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar have garnered significant attention
worldwide. In a statement on his official Twitter account, US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said: “Iran’s corrupt regime is wasting the country’s
resources on Assad, Hezbollah, Hamas & Houthis, while Iranians struggle. It
should surprise no one (the) Iran protests continue.”
The choice for the Iranian government is an easy one: Stop destabilizing the
region and focus on improving the lives of the people of Iran. Unless and
until it does, its status globally and its legitimacy in the eyes of its
people will go from bad to worse.
*Fahad Nazer is a political consultant to the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in
Washington and an International Fellow at the National Council on US-Arab
Relations. He does not represent or speak on behalf of either organization.
Twitter: @fanazer
Will peace prevail at US-Russia summit?
Maria Dubovikova/Arab News/July 02/18
The winds of change or just a light breeze — what will we witness in the
US-Russia bilateral relationship in the coming weeks? A few days ago, the
idea of holding a meeting between American and Russian officials had been a
mirage, full of fake news and political jokes, but now this has turned into
reality and preparations have already started for a Donald Trump-Vladimir
Putin Summit on July 16 in Helsinki in neutral Finland.
The announcement came on the heels of US National Security Adviser John
Bolton’s visit to Moscow last week. The Kremlin considers Bolton to be a
personal envoy of Trump and perfectly understands his importance in the
White House. “Your visit to Moscow gives us hope that we can at least take
the first step to reviving full-blown ties between our states,” Putin told
Bolton, sending the message to Washington that Russia is ready for talks.
Bolton replied that the US is also ready.
During his visit, Bolton held talks with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov on Syria, Ukraine and “the sorrowful state of our bilateral
relations,” as described by Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. Despite his
hawkish reputation, Bolton became the first US peace dove to come to Moscow.
The US-Russia bilateral agenda is overloaded with problematic issues and
mistrust, though at the same time the two countries have mutual interests
that might serve as a bridge to improved ties.
Since the start of the escalation between the two countries, the channels of
communication and coordination have been significantly reduced, practically
to zero, with only talks on Syria, Ukraine and other issues of significant
importance going ahead. In the current circumstances, to talk with no result
is much better than to keep silent. The US-Russia bilateral agenda is
overloaded with problematic issues and mistrust, though at the same time the
two countries have mutual interests that might serve as a bridge to improved
ties.
However, Russia has no illusions regarding the prospects of a thawing of the
bilateral relationship. Trump is playing his own games, manipulating other
countries, and introducing business models of management and “cooperation”
into the sphere of international relations. Being in the White House, he is
doing what he knows and does best — business and bargains, seeking the
maximum profit. The promises and guarantees given by the US administration
are not reliable and not trusted globally. However, in the current
circumstances the international community has no other choice but to find
ways to talk with Trump.
Meanwhile, the “Russiagate” scandal — the claim that Trump’s victory in the
2016 presidential election was based on Russian interference — might have a
new boost in case of any positive outcome of the Trump-Putin summit. But
such predictions are nothing but speculation.
Russia and the US have to pay particular attention to their relationship in
the sphere of security, disarmament and missile programs. The deterioration
of ties between the two major nuclear states is threatening the world’s
stability and security. Several treaties between the US and Russia are
keeping the world relatively safe, but the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
Treaty and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty have to be discussed and
updated. The US withdrawal from the important Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
in 2002 has already led to the start of an arms race.
Russia has recently demonstrated its newest missile systems, having stressed
that they are a response to the US withdrawal from the ABM. An
intensification of the arms race is not in the interest of either country,
but both are ready to go ahead. Trump’s proposal last month of launching a
space force is another step toward escalation. But the US not only has its
fist against Russia’s face; this is a message to China as well. The issue is
that this triggers reciprocal programs in Russia and China, meaning the race
is already becoming trilateral. It is high time to renegotiate the ABM
treaty before it is too late.
Though the main focus will likely be on geopolitical issues, the topic of
Syria sparks concerns in Damascus and Tehran, as they fear Russia might
trade Syria for other major benefits. However, these concerns are invalid as
Russia has not changed its position on the Syria conflict and it will not
change it now, as it is a matter of honor. Though Russia might agree to some
compromises regarding the presence of Iranian troops in the areas of concern
to the US and Israel, Moscow will proceed with further mediation between
Washington and Tehran.
The scheduling of the Russia-US summit is crucial as Trump will meet Putin
after the NATO summit. Trump has slammed NATO for leeching off the US and
its members for not paying their fair share. The NATO summit is therefore
expected to be like that of the G-7, creating a rather odd framework for the
Putin-Trump meeting and giving a green light to speculation and conspiracy
theories.
Whatever the outcome of the summit, it is already a great victory for peace
that it will even take place. If the light breeze of change is harnessed
properly, both countries and the world as a whole will reap the benefits of
this meeting.
**Maria Dubovikova is a prominent political commentator, researcher and
expert on Middle East affairs. She is president of the Moscow-based
International Middle Eastern Studies Club (IMESClub). Twitter: @politblogme
Al-Sadr’s deal with Iran proxies proves Iraqi elections
were a farce
Tallha Abdulrazaq/The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
Al-Sadr’s actions prove that the political process has gone beyond the realm
of the farcical to the dangerously dysfunctional.
While casual observers of Iraq were filled with hope that May’s elections
would lead to change and usher in a new era of the curtailment of foreign
meddling — particularly Iranian — those hopes have been dashed a little more
than a month later.
The winner of the elections, Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his alliance of
secularists and communists, campaigned on an anti-corruption platform and
the promise that he was anti-Iranian. Al-Sadr has instead declared his
intention to form a governing coalition with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s
Victory Alliance bloc, which came in third in the vote, and the staunchly
pro-Tehran Conquest Alliance list headed by long-time Iranian stooge Hadi
al-Amiri.
So much for sticking to campaign promises.
As I wrote last June, and despite the excited buzzing from the mainstream
media that attempted to portray al-Sadr as a unifying figure in Iraqi
politics, the Shia cleric is a pragmatist and not a nationalist. Al-Sadr was
keenly aware that the Iraqi people — whether Sunni, Shia or any other
demographic — were sick and tired of foreign meddling in their country’s
affairs, particularly from neighbouring Iran, which has become a bigger
shot-caller in Iraq than Baghdad. Feeding off this mass discontent, al-Sadr
positioned himself as an anti-Iran political force, promising to draw Iraq
out of Tehran’s sphere of influence. The cleric did this despite Tehran’s
long-term support for him and his various Shia jihadist militias that
wreaked havoc across central and southern Iraq, perpetrating some of the
worst sectarian atrocities in modern Iraqi history.
Due to Iran’s belief that al-Sadr did not have the political weight required
for its machinations, Tehran gave him the cold shoulder and favoured his
rivals, such as former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and militant jihadist
leaders such as Amiri.
Al-Sadr capitalised on Iraqis’ natural anti-Iran sentiments, wide-scale
disillusionment with the political process and a catastrophically low voter
turnout of 44% to rebrand himself as the Iraqi version of Barack Obama, a
change candidate armed with religion and guns.
His success allowed him to show his usefulness to Tehran’s mullahs once
more. Considering the United States has walked away from the woefully
inadequate nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration, Iran was
getting jittery about losing influence in the linchpin to its regional
success — Iraq.
In comes al-Sadr, pragmatically and shamefully betraying the few Iraqis who
did vote, by aligning himself with Amiri, whose Badr Organisation is all but
certain to maintain its grip of power on the Interior Ministry and all the
police and intelligence forces that come with it.
Al-Sadr showed the Iranians that he was far from spent as a resource to them
by winning an election that their other proxies ensured was boycotted by
more than 55% of the electorate due to rampant corruption, incessant
violence and the industrialised violation of human rights and the dignity of
the Iraqi people over the past 15 years.
Al-Sadr’s actions prove that the Iraqis who boycotted the vote were right to
do so and that the political process has gone beyond the realm of the
farcical to the dangerously dysfunctional, allowing for the continued rape
of Iraq’s human and natural resources and its continued subordination to the
will of Iranian interlopers. This shameful turn of events may have sealed
the fate of Iraq’s “democracy.” Voters know that their vote means nothing
because their political elite will curse each other before every election,
only to kiss and make up afterwards so they may all profit at the expense of
the normal Iraqi citizen.
*Tallha Abdulrazaq is a researcher at the University of Exeter’s Strategy
and Security Institute in England.
Iran had no future in Iraq and it cannot change that
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
If any sense can be made of the victory of al-Sadr’s Saairun list, it must
be that there is a strong desire among Iraqis to escape Iran’s dominance.
Iran is not happy with the results of the May 12 elections in Iraq. It
insists that Iraq be an Iranian colony ruled by Tehran even though that is
totally opposite to the nature of things. So, Iran simply carried out a coup
over election results. The chaos in Iraq is but the result of that coup.
Things can’t get any lower than when the old guard is seeking to extend the
term of the current parliament. Frankly, the political system put in place
following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq is the worst there is. It’s been
15 years and nothing has improved in Iraq. What we’re seeing, especially
since election results were challenged and the rumour spread that some
ballot boxes had been burned, are signs of a boding civil war rather than
the reassuring foundations of a democratic state promised by the Americans.
Iran is in denial of the reality that Iraq cannot and must not be controlled
by Tehran. Iran is behaving like a child whose toy has been taken away. That
goes a long way in explaining Tehran’s reaction to the Iraqi elections. When
US President George W. Bush waged war on Iraq using fictitious reasons, Iran
was the sole winner. The results of the May 12 elections risk to yank away
that war booty from Tehran.
Granted, Saddam Hussein was no saint. He was a full-fledged brutal dictator.
He lacked political common sense and was totally ignorant of the balances of
power regionally and internationally. A savvy politician would not invade
Kuwait and then prepare to negotiate with the United States as if he were
holding all the winning cards. Most of Saddam’s political mistakes were
catastrophic for Iraq. In 1980, for example, instead of looking for other
ways of responding to Iran’s provocations, he chose to plunge Iraq into a
senseless war with a retrograde regime that belittled its Arab neighbours on
sectarian grounds. For the mullahs’ regime, the war with Iraq served quite
well its purpose of keeping the Iranian army busy and away from politics.At
any rate, Iran is reaping its rewards today. It is true that Iraq was gifted
to Iran by the Americans but it seems that Iran did not know what to do with
its easy victory. Iraq turned out to be not an easy bite to swallow after
all, even with America’s help. Yes, the United States has helped Iran in
Iraq. During the Bush administration, Paul Bremer dissolved the Iraqi Army
and established a governing council on sectarian and ethnic bases. Barack
Obama carried on with the task of offering Iraq to Iran by withdrawing US
troops from Iraq and blessing Nuri al-Maliki, Iran’s man, for a second term
as prime minister after the 2010 elections in which Ayad Allawi’s list
finished first.
Iraq can no longer fulfil its function as a war chest for Iran. The recent
elections not only revealed that the country is broke but also that its
political parties are not capable of rising to the challenge posed by its
internal crisis.
It is futile to try to solve Iran’s crisis in Iraq by concocting an
incongruous alliance between Muqtada al-Sadr and Hadi al-Amiri. Such an
alliance seems to have taken place so Iran can boast about being able to
absorb the elections’ negative effects and remain in control of things in
Iraq.
But surely Iran is not going to find a survival niche in Iraq by just
undermining the election results. If any sense can be made of the victory of
al-Sadr’s Saairun list, it must be that there is a strong desire among
Iraqis to escape Iran’s dominance, even at the cost of backing someone such
as al-Sadr, who is well-known for his past of very close ties with
Iran.Above all of this, we must not lose sight that this time there is no US
administration ready to back Iran in Iraq, especially after US President
Donald Trump’s pulling out of the nuclear deal with Tehran.
With this background, Iran is out of cover in Iraq. If it wants to, Tehran
can still enjoy destroying a few more places or perhaps ethnically and
religiously “cleanse” more cities and regions in Iraq or even subcontract
the Islamic State to raze a historical city such as Mosul but it won’t
change the fact that Tehran has no future in Iraq, assuming that Iraq has a
future other than a civil war. It is a great pity that a country with a
unique history of cultural diversity and wealth in the Middle East before
the coming of military then Ba’ath Party rule in 1958 should end this way.
*Khairallah Khairallah is a Lebanese writer.
Priest Involved in Recruiting Arabs to the IDF
Investigated for Sex Crimes Against Teens
Josh Breiner/Haaretz/July 02/18
A gag order was placed on the investigation over a year ago. In lifting the
order police did not say whether the evidence gathered against Naddaf was
sufficient for an indictment
The Israel Police has conducted a criminal investigation against a Greek
Orthodox priest and turned over the file to the attorney’s office without
recommending whether or not he should be indicted for sexually assaulting
teenage boys, officials said on Monday.
The investigation against Father Gabriel Naddaf was opened after a news
program accused him of the crimes, and also alleged that he had solicited
favors while serving as head of the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum.
The police’s Lahav 433 unit, which includes the fraud squad, conducted the
investigation in partnership with the Police Investigations Department
because a policeman was suspected of being involved in the crimes Naddaf
allegedly committed several years ago.
A gag order was placed on the investigation over a year ago. In lifting the
order police did not say whether the evidence gathered against Naddaf was
sufficient for an indictment.
Naddaf’s work to recruit youths for the army enjoyed broad support among
public officials, among them Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many
Knesset members. However, members of the Israeli Arab community condemned
his work. Naddaf even received threats. He resigned as head of the forum
last year, and some people linked his departure with the criminal
investigation against him.
The investigative report published two years ago presented correspondences
that some Israeli Arab youths had conducted with Naddaf on Facebook. In one
of them, Naddaf wrote a youth he was helping with his army placement: “I
always liked you. I know what I feel every time I see you in uniform. I
don’t know what. It feels strange. Masculinity.”
Another youth, a discharged soldier who had asked Naddaf to help get him
recruited by police, said: “[Naddaf] started to talk about sex, started
asking me, ‘How is it for you? Strong? Small? Large?’ Then I started to
catch on.”
Another young man said, “He [Naddaf] said to me, ‘Come, take me on some sort
of hike we’ll meet when you want, whenever you can.’ So I said, ‘Fine, which
church or in which office.’ [He answered], ‘No, no. What church, what
office? No, let’s go on a hike together, we’ll sit together.’”
In another correspondence presented in the report, Naddaf wrote to his
Palestinian associate, Khalil Ganem, that he was prepared to help a trader
in ritual objects get an entry visa into Israel in exchange for money.
“I’m prepared to write a personal request for him as the leader of
Christians Forum in Israel. I will ask that he come visit us, he just has to
take the request. He must give us a contribution – 2,500 shekels ($680).”
Ganem then asked, “What’s my cut?” Naddaf replied, “Help yourself – 500.”
Other exchanges also had sexual overtones.
Bazaar
protests could be the beginning of the end for Tehran regime
Mohamed Kawas/The Arab Weekly/July 02/18
So the powers that be in Teheran know that red lines had been crossed when
the institution of the bazaar takes to the street.
Iranian authorities repeat ad nausea that the latest bazaar protests were
purely economically motivated and had no political character. At the end of
last year, there were massive demonstrations in more than 70 cities against
declining standards of living, runaway inflation and disappearing
development services; yet the Iranian regime saw nothing political in these
demonstrations.
When demonstrators loudly demand that Iran pulls out of its adventures
abroad and out of Syria especially, the regime claims that those slogans
were the evil work of “intruders” and do not reflect the demands of the
demonstrators.
When bazaars in Iran go on strike, everybody pays attention –, especially
the mullahs’ regime.
In Iran’s history, the bazaar is more than just a centralised marketplace
and a symbol for sharing wealth. In many of the major protests that changed
the political scene in Iran since the 19th century, including the revolution
that did away with the shah and put in place the Islamic Republic, the
bazaar played a major role. So the powers that be in Teheran know that red
lines had been crossed when the institution of the bazaar takes to the
street.
Since 1979, the Iranian regime has dealt with protests by qualifying them as
“conspiracies” by enemies of the “revolution,” then crushing them using
violence through assassinations, death sentences, imprisonment and house
arrests. However, when the bazaar rebels, the system is shaken to its
foundations because the mullahs’ regime is founded on an implicit alliance
between business and the religious institution at Qom. When the bazaar
removes its cover, there are lessons to be heeded.
During the protests of December and January, there was an intriguing paradox
in the way the conservative and moderate wings of power interpreted the
events. Both wings, of course, condemned the protests. As usual, the
conservatives dealt with them as if they were banal riots and, while the
moderates shared that point of view, they did not see in the protests what
they had seen in the “Green Revolution” of 2009.
Iranian President Hassan Rohani’s government exchanged accusations with the
religious institution about the failure of the country’s economic policies
but curiously enough none of the official sources brought up the
international sanctions against Iran and their drastic effects. It goes
without saying that nobody heard the protesters shouting: “Not for Gaza or
for Lebanon, my soul is for Iran.”
Iran’s withdrawal from the region’s battlefields remains an urgent internal
demand. The bazaar knows that Iran’s economic crisis is not a technical one
that can be solved with measures or by making changes in the government. It
follows that Iran’s withdrawal from its regional quagmires is the root to
any escape from the country’s economic suffocation.
What is clamoured in the streets and what is whispered in the backrooms of
power interestingly intersects with a unanimous international will to
confine the Iranian phenomenon to its borders?
Tehran is obsessively and anxiously contemplating the biggest threat facing
the Islamic Republic regime. Observers are noting its inability to come up
with creative defences different from the barrage of incendiary statements
from the country’s leaders and generals.
Ironically, Tehran is usually oblivious to signs of potential military plans
targeting it but still retorts with military rhetoric. At the same time, it
meticulously reads and understands the wave upon wave of economic pressure
hitting the country but can do nothing but stand helplessly in the face of
an expected collapse into a bottomless pit.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution and his regime know that the
former Soviet Union, which at one point ruled over half of the world,
shockingly collapsed in a sudden and abrupt moment despite possessing a huge
military and nuclear arsenal. The Soviet fortress disintegrated after its
war in Afghanistan and, similarly, the rule of the supreme guide could as
easily come apart after the war in Syria. Iran’s economic body, arrogantly
inflating itself in a cage parading around the streets of the bazaar, is
disintegrating on the shores of that war.
The bazaar taking to the streets means that a rupture had occurred between
it and the regime. The bazaar is not a stranger to the government. A few of
its figures are part of the regime and represent one of its facades. It
seems that the generals and institutions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps had started to compete with the bazaar economically, undermining its
traditional role.
The bazaar is rebelling. If it had done so years ago, it would have been
quelled just like all the previous dissents but the bazaar is rebelling at a
moment when the theocratic regime is weakened and is unable to subdue it.
The significance of watching the bazaar’s movements and the collapse of the
Iranian currency resides in that these developments are occurring right
before new US sanctions. US President Donald Trump’s administration is
continuing to mount pressure in a way that can only force Tehran to the
negotiation table to prevent the regime’s collapse. It seems that the Iran
problem is a personal one for Trump, and it looks like his rapprochement
with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has given him maximum momentum to go as
far as possible against Tehran.
Washington is seeking to prevent Iran from selling its oil. The US
administration has been successful in stopping multinational corporations’
activities in Iran and has shown to the rest of the world — especially those
involved in the nuclear deal — the high cost of ignoring American sanctions.
On the other hand, it should be easy for Rohani and his government to see
that Iran cannot rely on other international “partners” to face up to
Washington’s sanctions and its reneging of the infamous Vienna deal.
To the rhythm of these realities, the bazaar continues to rumble and rumours
swirl of Rohani’s resignation, early elections and a referendum over regime
type. Iran is talking to itself and the regime is eating itself and itching
for a skin change.
Iran has long boasted of being part of the “axis of evil,” which Washington
promised the world that it would do away with. In Tehran, many are
worryingly looking at how the sides of this axis are falling one by one.
*Mohamed Kawas is a Lebanese writer.
https://thearabweekly.com/bazaar-protests-could-be-beginning-end-tehran-regime
Iranian general says Israel stealing Iran's clouds
جنون ملالوي خيالي في آخر نظريات المؤامرة: جنرال
إيراني يدعي أن إسرائيل تسرق الغيوم من اجواء إيران لمنع سقوط المطر
AFP/Ynetnews/02 July/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/65757/iranian-general-says-israel-stealing-irans-clouds-%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D9%8A-%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A2%D8%AE%D8%B1-%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%B1/
The head of Iran's Civil Defense Organization claims Israel is 'working to
ensure clouds entering Iranian skies are unable to release rain,' insisting this
was confirmed by an Iranian scientific study; but head of Iran's meteorological
service says 'it is not possible for a country to steal clouds.'
An Iranian general on Monday accused Israel of manipulating weather to prevent
rain over the Islamic republic, alleging his country was facing cloud "theft,"
before being contradicted by the nation's weather chief.
"The changing climate in Iran is suspect," Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali,
head of Iran's Civil Defense Organization told a press conference, semi-official
ISNA news agency reported.
"Foreign interference is suspected to have played a role in climate change,"
Jalali was quoted as saying, insisting results from an Iranian scientific study
"confirm" the claim.
Israel and another country in the region have joint teams which work to ensure
clouds entering Iranian skies are unable to release rain," he said.
"On top of that, we are facing the issue of cloud and snow theft", Jalali added,
citing a survey showing that above 2,200 metres all mountainous areas between
Afghanistan and the Mediterranean are covered in snow, except Iran.
Iran's own meteorological service struck a skeptical note, however.
General Jalali "probably has documents of which I am not aware, but on the basis
of meteorological knowledge, it is not possible for a country to steal snow or
clouds," said the head of Iran's meteorological service Ahad Vazife, quoted by
ISNA.
"Iran has suffered a prolonged drought, and this is a global trend that does not
apply only to Iran," Vazife said.
"Raising such questions not only does not solve any of our problems, but will
deter us from finding the right solutions," he added, in apparent reference to
Jalali's claims.
The general's allegations of weather pilfering were not the first time an
Iranian official has accused the country's foes of stealing its rain.
Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2011 accused Western countries of
devising plans to "cause drought" in Iran, adding that "European countries used
special equipment to force clouds to dump" their water on their continent.
First published: 07.02.18, 20:15
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5302428,00.html