English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 20/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
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http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.january20.22.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and
learn what this means,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but
sinners.
Saint Matthew 09/09-13/:”As Jesus was walking
along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him,
‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the
house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his
disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does
your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ But when he heard this, he
said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come
to call not the righteous but sinners.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on January 19-20/2022
President to meet diplomatic and consular corps members tomorrow and
after tomorrow
Authorities Reportedly Intend to Postpone Municipal Polls
Jordan to sign deal to supply Lebanon with electricity:
Energy minister
Report: French Efforts, Warning Played Key Role in Cabinet's Return
Protesters Back Jailed Hostage-Taking Depositor as ABL Rejects 'Violence'
Impoverished Lebanese, Syrians Struggle to Survive Cold
Pro-Aoun Officials Criticize Shiite Duo over Conditional Cabinet Return
International Support Group for Lebanon Urges 'Effective Govt. Decisions'
EU Delegation to Lebanon calls government to restore decision-making capability
without further delays
Rahi meets Egypt Ambassador
Mikati meets economic delegation, Culture Minister
Agriculture Minister holds talks with Syrian counterpart in Damascus
Mawlawi, Bou Habib meet over preparations for expats vote
Army Chief meets SOJTF-Levant Commander
ISG urges expeditious and effective government decisions
Lavrov, Jumblatt broach Lebanon’s compounding crises
Amer Fhkoury Family seeks to sue Lebanon over dead father’s captivity/AP/January
19/2022
UN launches $1.6bn appeal to support Palestinian refugees in Lebanon/Najia
Hossari/Arab News/January 19, 2022
Task Force Lebanon/Jean-Marie Kassab/January 19/2022
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
January 19-20/2022
Bennett: Only Iran deal acceptable to Israel
is no nuclear weapon program
Iran-backed Houthis’ attack on Abu Dhabi sends messages to Gulf region and the
US
Abu Dhabi crown prince, US defense secretary discuss boosting military
cooperation after Houthi attack
UAE ambassador to US: Houthis used missiles in attack on Abu Dhabi
UAE embassy calls on Biden administration to support re-designating Houthis as
foreign terrorist organization
Iran Firefighters Protest Living Conditions on Deadly Blaze Anniversary
Putin, Raisi hail ties at decisive moment for Iran nuclear deal
Macron Says EU Must Work on New Security Pact to Put to Russia
Russia Says It Will Take Nothing Less but NATO Expansion Ban
Germany Tries Syrian Doctor for Crimes against Humanity
Israel Police Evict Jerusalem Residents from Disputed Houses
Erdogan signals thaw with Israel: it is the gas, stupid!
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC
English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
January 19-20/2022
Iranian Destabilization Strategy and Regional Civil Wars/Charles Elias Chartouni/July
19/2022
'Warmer' peace with Israel offers Jordan better economic dividends/Hussain
Abdul-Hussain and Enia Krivine/The Hill/January 19/2022
All the president’s enemies/Mitch McConnell is no Vladimir Putin, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei or Xi Jinping/Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/January 19/2022
Why America shares blame for the attack on Abu Dhabi/Faisal J. Abbas/Arab
News/January 18, 2022
Party well and truly over for Britain’s worst prime minister/Baria Alamuddin/Arab
News/January 19, 2022
Biden’s policy failures symbolize US leadership crisis/Ishtiaq Ahmad/Arab
News/January 19, 2022
Assad Saves Us from a Terrible Choice/Robert Ford/Asharq Al Awsat/January
19/2022
Arabs and their Neighborhood…The Lines of Intersection, Overlap/Mohamed Orabi/Asharq
Al Awsat/January 19/2022
What do Saudi Arabia’s critics actually want?/Jonathan Gornall/The Arab
Weekly/January 19/2022
The Houthi attack on Abu Dhabi/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/January
19/2022
Erdogan will preside over the reunification of Cyprus, whether he wants to or
not/Rami Rayess/Al Arabia/January 19/2022
President to meet diplomatic and consular
corps members tomorrow and after tomorrow
NNA/January 19/2022
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, will meet at 11:30 a.m.
tomorrow, Thursday, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Lebanon, Papal
Ambassador Monsignor Joseph Spitri, members of the Arab and foreign diplomatic
corps and directors of international organizations accredited in Lebanon, to
extend congratulations on the occasion of the New Year.
For this occasion, the traditional celebration will be held in Presidential
Palace, after it didn’t happen last year due to the "Corona" pandemic.
The Dean of the Corps, the Papal Ambassador, is scheduled to deliver a speech on
the occasion, and President Aoun will give a speech in which he defines
Lebanon's positions on the issues raised locally and regionally.
President Aoun will also receive, on Friday, for the same purpose, the Dean of
the Honorary Consular Corps in Lebanon, Joseph Habees, and members of the corps.
The two occasions will be attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Expatriates, Dr. Abdullah Bu Habib, and the Secretary-General of the Ministry,
Ambassador Hani Shmaitli.
Former Minister Al-Khatib:
The President met former Minister Tarek Al-Khatib, today at Baabda Palace, and
deliberated with him current political developments, especially after the
resumption of cabinet meetings next week.
The meeting also tackled the needs of the Iklim al-Kharroub region in the Chouf
district.
Syndicate of Topographers
President Aoun met the President of the Syndicate of Topographers, Dr. Sarkis
Fadous, at the head of a delegation from the Syndicate.
Dr. Fadous thanked President Aoun for receiving the delegation, and pointed out
that the visit comes after the new elections of the Syndicate.
Fadous also put the potential of topographers at the disposal of the President
in any step that would help advance the country.
After discussing the tasks of the topographers and the sensitivity of their
work, Dr. Fadous presented the delegation’s demands, which focus on the
necessity to preserve the role of the Syndicate in the topics that fall into the
core of its interests and powers, through cooperation with the Supreme Council
for Urban Planning, and the necessity of establishing the Supreme Council for
Survey, like many countries, and the lack of duplication in the profession so
that the profession’s reference is limited to the union only, which is licensed
by virtue of a law issued by the Parliament.
For his side, President Aoun welcomed the delegation, and appreciated their
work, stressing the importance of what the Syndicate is doing on all Lebanese
lands, and the great role it plays in many real estate matters.
Moreover, President Aoun expressed keenness to preserve the rights of the union
and its members, promising to follow up on the demands that were presented, with
those concerned to reach the desired solutions.
Denying President Aoun's Interference:
The Presidency Press Office clarified that what is issued in several media and
social networking sites, that the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun,
"Interferes directly in the selection of the candidates of the Free Patriotic
Movement" to the parliamentary elections is false.
The Press Office asserts that this news is fabricated and baseless, because the
"Free Patriotic Movement" has its political leadership, to which it is up to
nominate its candidates for the elections, and therefore what is said to the
contrary does not correspond to reality. ----Presidency Press Office
Authorities Reportedly Intend to Postpone Municipal
Polls
Naharnet/January 19/2022
There is an inclination to devise a draft law aimed at postponing municipal
elections, media reports said on Wednesday. According to al-Joumhouria
newspaper, the postponement will be due to “logistic and financial reasons,
especially that their date comes after the parliamentary elections scheduled for
May.” “There are suspicions that some parties are also seeking to postpone the
parliamentary elections,” the daily added.
Jordan to sign deal to supply Lebanon with electricity:
Energy minister
Reuters/19 January ,2022:
Jordan will next week sign a deal with Lebanon and Syria to supply Lebanon with
electricity under a US backed regional plan to help the country ease acute power
shortages, the energy minister said on Wednesday, Saleh Kharabsheh told state
media the deal entails supplying Lebanon with 150 megawatts from midnight to 6
a.m. and 250 megawatts during the rest of the day. Under a plan agreed between
Lebanon, Jordan and Syria in October, Jordan would supply Lebanon electricity
via Syria to help boost Lebanon's power output, which now delivers a few hours a
day of electricity at best. The plan, which has US backing, also aims to pump
gas supplies through an Arab pipeline established about 20 years ago. Washington
recently told the Lebanese government it should not fear a US sanctions law over
its plans to receive energy supplies that would have to transit Syria, which is
subject to sanctions. Lebanon is mired in a financial crisis, caused by a
mountain of debt built up since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, leaving the
country struggling to find enough foreign exchange to pay for fuel and other
basic imports.
Report: French Efforts, Warning Played Key Role in
Cabinet's Return
Naharnet/January 19/2022
Hizbullah and Amal Movement’s return to Cabinet meetings was prompted by a surge
in foreign pressures, especially from France, which played a key role in this
regard, a media report said on Wednesday.
“Intensive French contacts and a stern warning were made throughout the previous
days with the Lebanese parties that were blocking the government’s meetings,”
an-Nahar newspaper quoted a senior French official in Paris as saying. “The
French pressure remained strong on all parties, which were called by the French
Presidency to secure a resumption of Cabinet sessions,” the official added.
“Contacts with the Lebanese parties never stop, because French President
Emmanuel Macron is closely following up on what’s happening in Lebanon,” the
official went on to say.
Protesters Back Jailed Hostage-Taking Depositor as
ABL Rejects 'Violence'
Naharnet/January 19/2022
Protesters and activists on Wednesday staged a sit-in outside the Justice Palace
in Beirut in solidarity with a jailed man who took hostages Tuesday at a Bekaa
bank and forced employees to give him $50,000 in cash from his own account.
The man, Abdallah al-Sahi, had turned himself in to security forces after
obtaining the money. Bekaa prosecutor Judge Munif Barakat later issued a
decision ordering the confiscation of the $50,000. Al-Sahi announced a hunger
strike on Wednesday according to media reports. As al-Sahi’s move won praise on
social media, the head of the depositors association, Hassan Mughniyyeh, accused
the judiciary of collusion with the banks. “We won’t allow that Abdallah al-Sahi
be persecuted,” Mughniyeh added, revealing that he had called the man’s sister
and agreed with her that the sum of money “would not be handed over no matter
what happens.” The Association of Banks in Lebanon meanwhile condemned “the
repeated attacks that have recently targeted a number of branches, endangering
employees’ lives.”In a statement, the Association condemned “all forms of
violence,” warning that “attempted murder or even threatening to burn employees
alive are acts that cannot be justified nor accepted under any
circumstances.”“The recovery of deposits has one path: a comprehensive recovery
plan that would revive the country through which the state would preserve
depositors’ money,” ABL added.
Impoverished Lebanese, Syrians Struggle to Survive
Cold
Associated Press/January 19/2022
A snowstorm in the Middle East has left many Lebanese and Syrians scrambling to
find ways to survive, burning old clothes, plastic and in some cases even sheep
manure to keep warm as temperatures plummet and poverty soars.
The storm, dubbed "Hiba" in Lebanon, began Tuesday night and is expected to peak
on Thursday. The small country's massive economic collapse and currency crash
has meant an increasing number of Lebanese families are not able to afford fuel
to heat their homes this winter. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in
Lebanon and Jordan as well as others who were displaced by Syria's war are
sheltering in poorly heated tents relying mostly on layers of blankets to keep
warm.
"The situation is very, very difficult," said social activist Baseem Atrash,
speaking from the snowcapped northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal near the Syrian
border. Arsal is home to one of the largest Syrian refugee concentrations in
Lebanon, with some 50,000 people, most of them living in flimsy tents. Atrash
said Syrian refugees, as well as some Lebanese who have fallen into poverty
since the country's financial meltdown began in October 2019, lack diesel for
heaters, while constant power cuts make electric heaters useless. "They are
burning anything to keep their heaters on from plastic to old clothes," Atrash
said. Earlier this month, a Syrian mother and her three children died in their
sleep after inhaling toxic fumes from burning coal to heat their room in a
village in southern Lebanon. Lebanon, a country of 6 million people, is home to
1.5 million Syrians who fled the now decade-old civil war in their country. The
United Nations estimates that 90% of Syrian refugee households live in extreme
poverty. But as Lebanon grapples with an unprecedented economic crisis, the
poverty has deepened for both Lebanese and Syrians. Sky-rocketing fuel prices
coupled with a currency collapse has meant many essential commodities are now
out of reach for the average Lebanese.
Nadim Attieh, a Lebanese residing at 750 meters above sea level, decided to
donate some of his firewood to needy families after he heard of how cold it will
get. Attieh used Twitter to spread the word of his in-kind donation: a ton of
wood. It is enough for five or six families that would last them through the
coldest three days ahead. "I have stocked up on wood during summer and I have a
good quantity. So why not share with people who are underprivileged?" Asked
Attieh, himself looking for a job after losing his in a Gulf country a couple of
years ago. The cost of a ton of wood is now equivalent to five times the minimum
wage, selling for 3 million Lebanese pounds ($120) while some 20 liters of
diesel now goes for about 300,000 -- nearly ten times what it cost three years
ago. International aid group CARE International said temperatures are expected
to drop in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria to well below freezing, endangering the
lives of millions already living in precarious circumstances."People can see
their own breath when lying on their thin mattresses, you will see children walk
around in flipflops and ripped shirts. Families are afraid that they will freeze
to death," said Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Syria Country Director.
Pro-Aoun Officials Criticize Shiite Duo over
Conditional Cabinet Return
Naharnet/January 19/2022
Parliamentary sources close to President Michel Aoun have described Hizbullah
and Amal’s conditional return to Cabinet’s meetings as “precedent” that
“violates both the constitution and the law.”Hitting out at Speaker Nabih Berri,
who recently said that parliament is the “master of itself,” the sources told
Ashraq al-Awsat newspaper that “the same as the legislative authority does not
accept conditions, the executive authority must also practice its role away from
any conditions.”Noting that the agenda of any Cabinet session is to be
exclusively decided by the President and the Prime Minister, the sources
stressed that “it is unconstitutional when any other side sets the
agenda.”Hizbullah and Amal have announced that their return to Cabinet meetings
is exclusively aimed at discussing the 2022 state budget, the economic recovery
plan and other pressing economic and social issues. They had boycotted Cabinet
since October 14, demanding the removal of Beirut port blast investigator Judge
Tarek Bitar over alleged bias.
International Support Group for Lebanon Urges
'Effective Govt. Decisions'
Naharnet/January 19/2022
The International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) said Wednesday that it has
taken note of steps to reconvene the Council of Ministers, urging the resumption
of its meetings as soon as possible. “The ISG urges expeditious and effective
government decisions to initiate the direly needed reforms as well as measures,
among which the swift adoption of a budget for 2022, that would enable an
agreement with the IMF to support a way out of the macro-economic and fiscal
crises,” it said in a statement. It further called on the Government of Lebanon
to take the necessary steps to “ensure fair, transparent and inclusive elections
in May 2022 as scheduled, including by enabling the Supervisory Commission for
Elections to carry out its mandate.”As for the Beirut port blast investigations,
the ISG reiterated its call for :justice and accountability through a
transparent and independent investigation” and for “the respect of the
independence of the judiciary.” The ISG also emphasized that it “continues to
stand by Lebanon and its people.”The International Support Group has brought
together the U.N. and the governments of China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia,
the UK and the U.S., together with the EU and the Arab League. It was launched
in 2013 by the U.N. Secretary-General with former President Michel Suleiman to
help mobilize support and assistance for Lebanon’s stability, sovereignty and
state institutions.
EU Delegation to Lebanon calls government to restore
decision-making capability without further delays
NNA/January 19/2022
The EU Delegation and the EU Member States call on the Government of Lebanon and
other decision-making bodies to restore, without further delays, their
decision-making capability, which would inter alia require the resumption of
regular meetings of the Council of Ministers, in order to address the dramatic
crises Lebanon is facing, the Delegation said in a statement it issued together
with the diplomatic missions of the EU Member States in Lebanon on Wednesday.
“We call on the Government of Lebanon and other decision-making bodies to
conclude, without further delays, in line with their repeated and consistent
announcements and commitments, an agreement with the IMF which would support in
finding a way out of the macro-economic and fiscal crises the country is facing,
and to take all the decisions and measures which need to be taken prior to such
an agreement immediately,” the statement added.
“We urge the Government of Lebanon and other decision-making bodies to take all
the necessary decisions and steps to enable the Supervisory Commission for
Elections to carry out its mandate, in line with their repeated and consistent
announcements and commitments, and take all other decisions and steps in order
to ensure an adequate process leading to fair and transparent elections to take
place on time in 2022.”“We repeat our call for justice and accountability
through a transparent and independent investigation into the causes of the
Beirut Port blast and for the respect of the independence of the judiciary and
the principle of division of powers by Lebanese decision makers.” It concluded.
Rahi meets Egypt Ambassador
NNA/January 19/2022
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rahi met Wednesday in Bkerki with Egyptian Ambassador
to Lebanon, Yasser Alawi, who expressed "relief over the resumption of the
Lebanese Cabinet sessions to address the problems Lebanon is suffering."Speaking
to reporters, the diplomat highlighted "the importance and necessity to hold the
parliamentary elections on their scheduled date."He also heaped praise on the
"historic bilateral relations" between the two countries, reiterating Egypt's
permanent support for Lebanon.
Mikati meets economic delegation, Culture Minister
NNA/January 19/2022
Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Wednesday at the Grand Serail with an economic
delegation including Head of the Economic Committees Mohammad Choucair, former
head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon Joseph Torbey, President of Beirut
Merchants Association Nicolas Chammas, among others. Talks reportedly touched on
an array of economic affairs. Mikati later received Minister of Culture Mohammad
Mortada.
Agriculture Minister holds talks with Syrian
counterpart in Damascus
NNA/January 19/2022
Minister of Agriculture Abbas Hajj Hassan held a meeting with his Syrian
counterpart Mohammad Hassan Qatna and Syrian Minister of Transport Zouhair
Khazim, at the Syrian Transport Ministry on Wednesday. A statement by Hajj
Hassan's press office indicated that talks touched on the organization of the
Lebanese agricultural products' transit.
Mawlawi, Bou Habib meet over preparations for expats
vote
NNA/January 19/2022
Minister of Interior and Municipalities Bassam Mawlawi held a meeting Wednesday
with Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, in the presence of Director General of
the Personal Status Department General Elias Khoury, Bou Habib’s adviser Pascale
Dahrouj, and Mawlawi's office head Lieutenant Colonel Ayman Mashmoushi. The
meeting was devoted to discussing the ongoing preparations for the Lebanese
expatriates' vote process in the parliamentary elections in May.
Army Chief meets SOJTF-Levant Commander
NNA/January 19/2022
Lebanese Army Chief, General Joseph Aoun, met Wednesday at his Yarze office with
Commander of the Special Operations Joint Task Force (SOJTF)-Levant, Brig. Gen.
Isaac J. Peltier.
The pair reportedly discussed the military cooperation between Lebanon and the
U.S.
ISG urges expeditious and effective government
decisions
NNA/January 19/2022
The International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) takes note of steps to
reconvene the Council of Ministers, and presses for the resumption of its
meetings as soon as possible. The ISG urges expeditious and effective government
decisions to initiate the direly needed reforms as well as measures, among which
the swift adoption of a budget for 2022, that would enable an agreement with the
IMF to support a way out of the macro-economic and fiscal crises, the Group said
in a statement on Wednesday. It added: “The ISG further calls on the Government
of Lebanon to take the necessary steps to ensure fair, transparent and inclusive
elections in May 2022 as scheduled, including by enabling the Supervisory
Commission for Elections to carry out its mandate. The ISG reiterates its call
for justice and accountability through a transparent and independent
investigation into the Beirut port explosion, and for the respect of the
independence of the judiciary. The ISG continues to stand by Lebanon and its
people.”
Lavrov, Jumblatt broach Lebanon’s compounding crises
NNA/January 19/2022
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Tuesday welcomed in Moscow
Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Leader, Walid Jumblatt. The PSP issued a
statement quoting the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said that the meeting
between both sides mainly focused on the most recent developments in Lebanon,
and stressed that Russian “concerns were expressed vis-a-vis the compounding
economic crisis in Lebanon.” The Russian side reiterated its firm position in
favor of Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity.
It also stressed the need to resolve outstanding issues by reaching consensus
among Lebanese political components in accordance with the law and without any
foreign interference. Regarding the situation in the Middle East, Lavrov
stressed Russia's firm commitment to achieving a comprehensive and lasting
settlement of to end regional conflicts through political and diplomatic means
in accordance with the international legal framework, as well as to facilitate
the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.
عائلة الشهيد عامر فاخوري تقاضي الدولة اللبنانية في
أميركا بجريمة اعتقاله والتسبب بوفاته
Amer Fhkoury Family seeks to sue Lebanon over dead father’s captivity
AP/January 19/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/105718/105718/
His family’s suit says he developed the illness and other serious medical issues
while imprisoned during a visit to Lebanon.
The Fakhourys’ lawyer, Robert Tolchin, has asked a judge for permission to
formally sue Lebanon, along with Iran.
CONCORD, N.H.: A Lebanese American man’s survivors, who filed an ambitious
lawsuit last year alleging Lebanon’s security agency kidnapped and tortured him
before he died in the U.S., hope to find an opening after the agency recently
responded in an American court.
Amer Fakhoury died in the United States in August 2020 at age 57 after suffering
from stage 4 lymphoma. His family’s suit says he developed the illness and other
serious medical issues while imprisoned during a visit to Lebanon over
decades-old murder and torture charges that he denied.
Fakhoury’s detention in 2019 and release in 2020 marked another strain in
relations between the United States and Lebanon, which finds itself beset by one
of the world’s worst economic disasters and squeezed by tensions between
Washington and Iran.
Recently, lawyers representing Lebanon’s security agency, the General
Directorate of General Security, asked to intervene in the Fakhoury family’s
wrongful death lawsuit to have the allegations against it stricken. Lebanon is
not named as a defendant in the suit, which targets Iran.
In its filing, the Lebanese security agency claimed the lawsuit falsely accuses
it and its director of “serious crimes of kidnapping, torture and killing at the
direction or aid of alleged terrorist organizations.”
In turn, the Fakhourys’ lawyer, Robert Tolchin, has asked a judge for permission
to formally sue Lebanon, along with Iran. He referred to Lebanon’s action in the
family’s response as “a very strange and unusual motion filed by a nonparty.”
The family’s lawsuit filed in Washington in May initially argued it was possible
to sue Iran under an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act as it has
been designated as a “state sponsor of terrorism” since 1984. The suit also
described Hezbollah, now both a dominant political and militant force in
Lebanon, as an “instrument” of Iran.
Iran has yet to respond to the lawsuit. It has ignored others filed against it
in American courts in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy
hostage crisis. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a
request for comment.
Similar lawsuits against Iran have won financial judgments, though receiving a
payout can be complicated. Any award could come from the United States Victims
of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, which has distributed funds to those held and
or affected by the hostage crisis.
Regarding Lebanon, Tolchin said the Fakhourys’ lawsuit would not make sense
without the allegations against Lebanon’s security agency.
“We interpret that as a waiver of sovereign immunity,” he said to The Associated
Press of the agency’s request. “You can’t come in and ask for affirmative relief
on the merits, and, at the same time, claim to be immune.”
In a statement provided to The AP, an attorney for the agency, David Lin, said
the Fakhourys’ position “that Lebanon or our client somehow waived sovereign
immunity by seeking to strike baseless material from the complaint is baffling
and wrong as a matter of law.”
A judge pushed back a deadline for the lawyers representing the security agency
to respond to the Fakhoury’s request to sue by Jan. 26.
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at the Notre Dame Law School, said it may be
challenging for a case to be brought against Lebanon, which is not designated a
“state sponsor of terrorism.”
“Not having that listing will be difficult to go after Lebanon, as opposed to
Iran,” she said.
O’Connell also said a move like Lebanon’s to strike the allegations “is usually
not accepted by the courts as a waiver” of sovereign immunity.
Fakhoury’s imprisonment in Lebanon took place in September 2019, not long after
he became an American citizen. Fakhoury visited his home country on vacation for
the first time in nearly 20 years. A week after he arrived, he was jailed and
his passport was seized, his family has said.
The day before he was taken into custody, a newspaper close to the
Iranian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah published a story accusing him of playing
a role in the torture and killing of inmates at a prison run by an
Israeli-backed Lebanese militia during Israel’s occupation of Lebanon two
decades ago. Fakhoury was a member of the South Lebanon Army.
The article dubbed him the “butcher” of the Khiam Detention Center, which was
notorious for human rights abuses. Fakhoury’s family said he had worked at the
prison as a member of the militia, but that he was a clerk who had little
contact with inmates. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Fakhoury left
the country like many other militia members who feared reprisals.
Upon his return to Lebanon in 2019, Fakhoury was held for five months before he
was formally charged, his family said. By then, he had dropped more than 60
pounds, was suffering from lymphoma, and had rib fractures, among other serious
health problems, they said.
In its request to intervene, the security agency said Fakhoury was not
kidnapped, but was “lawfully detained” for investigative purposes and then
“handed off” to another agency responsible for prosecuting the alleged crimes.
It called the allegations “scandalous, impertinent, and highly damaging.”
The family’s suit alleges security personnel made him watch as they beat
prisoners and kept him isolated in an interrogation room, where he faced verbal
and physical abuse with a black sack placed over his head. The lawsuit also
claims Fakhoury was threatened with execution unless he signed a declaration
saying he was guilty of the accusations mentioned in the newspaper article.
Eventually, the Lebanese Supreme Court dropped the charges against Fakhoury. He
was returned to the United States on March 19, 2020, on a U.S. Marine Corps
Osprey aircraft. He died five months later.
The lawsuit also linked Fakhoury’s eventual release to the U.S. government’s
decision in June 2020 to free Kassim Tajideen, a Lebanese businessman who was
sentenced to five years in prison for providing millions of dollars to
Hezbollah.
The Fakhourys’ suit called it a “quid-pro-quo prisoner exchange.” However,
Tajideen’s lawyer and the U.S. State Department at the time denied he was part
of a prisoner exchange.
Fakhoury first arrived in the United States in 2001. He started a restaurant in
Dover, New Hampshire, with his wife and put their four daughters through
college. But his family said he felt Lebanon was still home, even though other
members of his militia had been targeted in the years after the war.
As early as 2018, Fakhoury had sought assurances from the U.S. State Department
and the Lebanese government that he could visit Lebanon freely. His family said
he was told there were no accusations against him in Lebanon or no legal matters
that might interfere with his return.
After his death, the Fakhourys started a foundation in his name dedicated to
helping the families of hostages.
“This is a fight not just for us,” Guila Fakhoury, the oldest of Fakhoury’s four
daughters, said in an interview about the lawsuit. “This a fight for our father
and a fight for every American who is illegally detained, and for every person
who is illegally detained.”
The lawsuit seeks financial damages and a jury trial.
“I know my dad will not rest in peace until we have justice for what has been
done to him,” Fakhoury said.
N.B:Picure enclosed shows Amer Fakhoury’s three daughters
UN launches $1.6bn appeal to support Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon
Najia Hossari/Arab News/January 19, 2022
BEIRUT: The UN on Wednesday launched a special international appeal for $1.6
billion to help improve living conditions for Palestinian refugees in crisis-hit
Lebanon.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for
Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, made the donations plea for “vital
humanitarian assistance” as part of the agency’s focus on this year’s “funding
requirements and priorities.”
Addressing a press conference at the UN’s Beirut office, he said: “UNRWA is
seeking to obtain $1.6 billion from the international community in 2022 to
support Palestinian refugees.
“This funding will enable UNRWA to cover the needs of millions of Palestine
refugees and provide them with vital lifesaving services and programs, which
include education, health, and food aid, as well as additional emergency funding
to meet the humanitarian needs arising from crises in Gaza, the West Bank,
Jerusalem, Syria, and Lebanon,” he added. The appeal came in the wake of an open
sit-in carried out by dozens of Palestinian refugees in front of the UNRWA
headquarters in the Lebanese capital. The demonstrators have been protesting the
agency’s decision to cancel a rental allowance for Palestinians displaced from
Syria to Lebanon during the Syrian war.They set up a tent dubbed Tent 194, in
reference to the international resolution that stipulates the return of
Palestinian refugees to their homes.
The number of Palestinian refugees displaced from Syria to Lebanon had decreased
from more than 40,000 to 18,000, according to a census by the Palestine
Liberation Organization.
Some had returned to Syria, while others had legally migrated from Lebanon to
Europe, specifically in the context of family reunification, and a number had
drowned off the Lebanese coast while trying to escape by boat.
Lazzarini said: “UNRWA is facing a chronic funding shortfall that undermines its
efforts to provide humanitarian support to some of the most vulnerable refugees
in the world, whose needs are constantly increasing, while the COVID-19 pandemic
continues to pose serious health risks and exacerbate economic difficulties
across the region. “An estimated 2.3 million Palestinian refugees are now
believed to live in poverty. Anguish and despair prevail among the Palestinian
refugees, and many in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon have expressed their willingness
to use any means to try to emigrate outside the region,” he added.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, similar to Lebanese citizens, are having to
contend with the fallout from the country’s economic collapse.
Hisham Debsi, director of the independent Palestinian center Tatweer for
Strategic Studies and Human Development, told Arab News: “There is no food
crisis in the Palestinian refugee camps because more than 16,000 Palestinians
receive their salaries from the PLO in US dollars, and employees of UNRWA and
Islamic organizations in the camps receive high salaries in US dollars.
“A large number of refugees receive social benefits in US dollars, and those who
are not paid by the Palestinian factions, are provided financial assistance by
the active Palestinian civil society organizations.
“Refugees struggle with health and educational services. The beds allocated to
UNRWA in hospitals in various Lebanese areas are limited, and the Palestinian
health insurance is limited to Red Crescent hospitals, whose health services the
refugees find questionable, and the UNRWA budget, as it claims, does not allow
it to increase health coverage.
“The greatest harm is in the education sector because UNRWA services do not
cover all tuition fees, so schools are being merged, which leads to
overcrowding, thus resulting in a decline in the educational services,” he said.
The biggest issue being faced by the latest generation of Palestinians has been
a lack of job opportunities. Debsi noted that a Tatweer study had found that
most young Palestinians were looking to immigrate to a third country to obtain
another nationality that would secure them a better life, while many no longer
had plans to return to Palestine. “These young people have recently launched
movements in search of resettlement in a third country. They succeeded in
collecting the files of 10,000 Palestinian youth, and they delegated a group on
their behalf to transfer their files from the UNRWA to the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees as individuals who want to emigrate and not as Palestinian
refugees. “This action has provoked the Palestinian factions, that tried to
suppress these movements,” Debsi added.
Ayham Sahli, an assistant researcher at the Institute for Palestinian Studies in
Lebanon and an activist for Palestinian refugees who fled from Syrian to
Lebanon, told Arab News: “The reduction in the UNRWA budget allocated to
Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon was unjustified. It reduced
the aid from $115 per person to $25, citing lack of funding. “Not all
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon receive aid; many suffer under extreme poverty,
especially those who are not affiliated with any Palestinian faction and are not
in contact with any civil society organization.”
Task Force Lebanon
Jean-Marie Kassab/January 19/2022
With a firm grip we hold our cedar high and,
with hard steel we will shield it and,
with our bodies we will protect it and,
with dedication and power we will free it and preserve it and,
with responsibility we will keep it green and clean and,
with courage and lack of fear our blood will be his whenever needed and,
with all the dedicated patriots we will do it and keep it free, sovereign and
neutral.
We are the Resistance
We are Task Force Lebanon
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on
January 19-20/2022
Bennett: Only Iran deal acceptable to Israel is no
nuclear weapon program
Lahav Harkov/Jeruralum Post/January 19/2022
Bennett isn't willing to legitimize Iran's right to enrich uranium for nuclear
weapons, as negotiations about the 2015 nuclear deal continue. An Iran deal
acceptable to Israel would not allow the Islamic Republic to enrich uranium at
high levels, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday in a video conference
with the World Economic Forum in Davos. Asked what kind of agreement between
world powers and Iran would be one Israel approves of, he responded:
“Effectively, that Iran has to give up its nuclear-weapon program.” “Why would
anyone legitimize their right to enrich uranium at a massive capacity?” Bennett
asked. “They are now enriching at 60% grade in these huge factories. Why are
they doing it? You don’t need 60% [enriched] uranium for anything but a nuclear
weapon.” His remarks come as the P5+1 negotiates with Iran to return to
compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, which restricted Tehran’s uranium
enrichment to 3.67% and cut almost all of its stockpile of enriched uranium. The
US and the E3 – France, Germany and the UK – have questioned how seriously Iran
is taking the talks, which they say are moving too slowly and that there is only
a matter of weeks for the 2015 agreement to still be relevant.
Bennett cited the Iranian nuclear archive that the Mossad smuggled into Israel
in 2018 as evidence that “these guys are trying to develop a nuclear weapon.”
“I don’t see any rationale why it makes sense for the free world to sign a deal
that would give them money and at the same time allow them to continue”
enriching uranium at high levels, he said. Bennett warned against lifting
sanctions on Iran, saying that would bring “terror on steroids.”“Everything
we’re seeing will be doubled and tripled because they’ll be much stronger,” he
said.Bennett reiterated his metaphor of Iran as an octopus, with its head safe
in Tehran while it stretches its arms across the Middle East to commit acts of
terrorism and destabilize the region in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, the Gaza
Strip and elsewhere. He called on “decent countries, the free world to call Iran
out on what it is doing. They are the source of terror in the Middle East and we
have to fight back.”Bennett also spoke in praise of the Abraham Accords and said
he hopes to establish more ties for Israel in the region.
“We have a common foe in the region, that’s Iran, and we need [to work with]
countries that want to fight radical Islam,” he said. Abraham Accords countries
“are coming to see Israel as an anchor of stability in a very tumultuous region
– not only in a security sense but also in our economy,” he added.
Bennett cited his meetings with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egyptian President
Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as part of his outreach to the region and said he wants to
“inject more content into these relationships.” Regarding the Palestinians,
Bennett said Israel has made moves to improve their quality of life, including
increasing the number of permits to work in Israel and greater integration into
the hi-tech sector. “My first policy is to improve quality of life for everyone
here,” he said. “I believe that business, the economy and jobs is the most
sustainable way to bring stability.”However, “we have to be cognizant of the
fact that there is a meaningful terror threat from the Palestinians to Israel
that we have seen time and again, even in the past few weeks,” Bennett said. “I
want to be very clear about that,” he added. “I won’t do anything that can
threaten Israel’s security or weaken our ability to defend ourselves by
ourselves. Ultimately, the Palestinians have a big choice to make – whether they
want to go down the path of terror or peace and prosperity... We here are very
positive about prosperity and people-to-people peace.”
Iran-backed Houthis’ attack on Abu Dhabi sends messages
to Gulf region and the US
Associated Press/January 19/2022-
The main message to the region after Monday’s Houthi drone attack on Abu Dhabi
was loud and clear. Peaceful relations with regional neighbours are not on the
agenda of Iran nor that of its proxies in Yemen. “The Houthis aren’t interested
in peace and remain hostage to their regional backer, which treats our region’s
security as a mere negotiating card,” Saudi deputy defence minister Prince
Khaled bin Salman tweeted on Tuesday, referring to Iran. The Iran-backed Houthis
had used drones, Monday, in an attack on Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital city,
killing three people and injuring six. The Saudi-led military coalition launched
aerial counter-attacks against Houthi military installations in the night
between Monday and Tuesday. The drone attack is bound to increase wariness about
Iran’s regional designs as it puts the spotlight on Tehran’s support for its
Houthi proxies in the Yemen war, especially through the procurement of
sophisticated weapons including drones and missiles.
Monday’s attack will also cast a long shadow over the periodic talks between
Saudi Arabia and Iran on ending Yemen’s war and will affect Emirati engagement
with Tehran, analysts and Gulf sources say. “Saudi Arabia and the UAE will
continue to talk to Iran, but this sends another negative signal that you cannot
trust Iranian intentions,” said Riyadh-based Gulf Research Centre’s Abdulaziz
Sager. The attacks will give additional credence to Gulf Arab states’ calls to
address Iran’s missiles and regional behaviour, along with its nuclear programme
in any talks with Tehran. The United Arab Emirates demanded on Tuesday an
emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to address the deadly drone attack
on its capital by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“The United Arab Emirates calls on the Security Council to speak with one voice
and join in firmly and unequivocally condemning these terrorist attacks,” said
the UAE’s ambassador to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, in a letter to the Security
Council’s president. “This illegal and alarming escalation is a further step in
the Houthis’ efforts to spread terrorism and chaos in our region,” she added.
The attack triggered wide international condemnation, including from the United
Nations chief. “The Secretary-General expresses his concern and deplores the
recent Saudi-led Coalition’s airstrikes in Sana’a that resulted in numerous
civilian casualties,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokeswoman for UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at a press conference Tuesday.
“He reminds all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian
law to protect civilians, adhering to the principles of proportionality,
distinction and precaution.” For now, Tehran has been trying to preserve the
cloak of deniability over their involvement in the attack. An Iranian security
official told Reuters the Houthis “don’t need Iran’s or any other country’s
approval or help”. But nobody in the Gulf region believes the Houthis would
launch such attacks without Iran knowing and approving of it beforehand.
Abdulaziz Sager said there was “no way” the Houthis would have launched their
attack on Abu Dhabi without Iranian knowledge. Through the Houthis, Iran is
perceived as sending a message to the United States amid current talks to revive
the 2015 nuclear deal. The essence of that message is that Tehran’s role is
essential for war and peace and that Iran’s network of regional proxies will
allow it to strike at the interests of the US and its allies anytime and
anywhere in the region.
But from the Gulf states, there is likely to be a push for a robust US response
as Biden’s administration Yemen policy is widely blamed in the Gulf region for
having emboldened the Houthis. Last year, Washington halted support for
“offensive operations” by the Saudi-led coalition and revoked the Houthi
movement’s terrorist designation. For now, Tehran is also trying to keep the
recent developments related to attack on Abu Dhabi separate from the formal
agenda of the nuclear talks. “The attacks would not impact the nuclear talks in
Vienna. These are two separate issues,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters
Tuesday on condition of anonymity. “What happened yesterday was the result of
ongoing crisis in Yemen.”Official reactions in Tehran were significant in the
sense that they did not even express regret and much less attempt to denounce
the civilian deaths caused by the Houthi attacks. Iran’s foreign ministry,
responding to what it called “recent Yemen-linked developments”, said on Tuesday
military attacks were not a solution to the crisis in the region, state media
reported.
Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, referring to the rise in regional
tensions, said Iran has always emphasised that the solution to any regional
crisis is not to resort to war and violence and only in a calm atmosphere … one
can hope to establish peace and stability,” state media said.
But Gulf experts say immediate military repercussions would be in Yemen and
against the Houthis, while the UAE gathers evidence on where the drones were
manufactured and launched. The UAE said on Monday it reserved the right to
respond to the Houthi strike.The Arab alliance has moved this month to reverse
Houthi gains in the energy producing Marib region, with a decisive role played
by Emirati-backed Yemeni forces in the Iran-backed militias’ setbacks in Shabwa
and Marib governorates.
Abu Dhabi crown prince, US defense secretary discuss
boosting military cooperation after Houthi attack
Arab News/January 19/2022
RIYADH: Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed held a phone call with
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss the recent Houthi attacks on the
UAE and boosting defense coordination, Emirates News Agency reported on
Wednesday. The Iran-backed militia launched a number of explosive-laden drones
and ballistic missiles targeting a key oil facility and an airport in Abu Dhabi
on Monday, killing three people and injuring seven. Sheikh Mohammed and Austin
discussed military and security cooperation and coordination in different areas
of defense between the two countries following the terrorist attacks. The two
sides also discussed the threat the Houthis pose to regional security and
stability, and “the need to take a firm international stance toward such
aggressive practices,” the statement said. During the call, Austin reiterated US
condemnation of the attacks and said his country stood by the UAE against
threats to its security and territorial integrity. They also spoke about the
strategic bilateral relations, as well as regional and international
developments of common concern.
UAE ambassador to US: Houthis used missiles in attack on
Abu Dhabi
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/19 January ,2022
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia used cruise and ballistic missiles, as well
as drones, in Monday’s attack on Abu Dhabi that killed three people, the UAE
ambassador to the US said on Wednesday. “A combination of cruise missiles,
ballistic missiles, and drones targeted civilian sites in the UAE. Several were
intercepted, a few of them didn’t, and three innocent civilians unfortunately
lost their lives,” ambassador Yousef Al-Otaiba said in a panel hosted by the
Jewish Institute for National Security of America. This marked the first
acknowledgement by UAE officials that missiles were used by the Houthis in
Monday’s attack on Abu Dhabi which led to a fire breaking out and resulted in
the explosion of three petroleum tankers, and another fire that broke out in the
area of the new construction site of Abu Dhabi International Airport. In
addition to the three causalities, six others were wounded.
Yemen’s Houthi militia claimed responsibility for the attack saying it conducted
an operation “deep in the UAE,” and the group’s spokesman said they fired five
ballistic missiles and “a large number” of explosive-laden drones at “sensitive
sites” in the UAE. Otaiba said the Houthis were a “terrorist organization” that
attacked civilians in a country “that was not at war.” “We have long left the
Yemen war. We are still being a target. And for the sake of transparency, we are
asking our friends in the [US] administration and in Congress to re-instate the
Houthi terrorist designation as an FTO,” he added.
President Joe Biden’s administration revoked a terrorist designation of the
Houthis introduced by former President Donald Trump in January of last year.
Biden also announced in ending US support for the offensive operations of the
Arab Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, which intervened in Yemen in 2015.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE maintained over the course of the past year that they
will continue to treat the Houthis as a terrorist organization regardless of
whether the US decided to designate the group as such.
UAE embassy calls on Biden administration to support
re-designating Houthis as foreign terrorist organization
Arab News/January 19/2022
LONDON: The UAE embassy in the US on Wednesday called on the Biden
administration and Congress to support the re-designation of the Houthi militia
as a foreign terrorist organization. Three people were killed and eight wounded
after a Houthi missile and drone attack set off an explosion next to oil giant
ADNOC's storage facilities and started a fire at Abu Dhabi airport. The UAE’s
ambassador to the US, Yousef Al-Otaiba, also summarized a phone call between the
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the embassy said.
The two officials agreed on unity of action in response to the Houthi terror
attack and discussed urgent steps to tighten air defenses against missiles and
drones and enhanced maritime security to stop weapons flows, the embassy said.
The ambassador will join the UAE Director of National Intelligence, Ali Al-Shamsi,
for meetings with the White House and Congress later on Wednesday in Washington
DC, the embassy added.
Iran Firefighters Protest Living Conditions on Deadly
Blaze Anniversary
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 19 January, 2022
Dozens of firefighters rallied in Tehran to protest their living conditions,
local media reported on Wednesday, marking the fifth anniversary of a tower
blaze that caused the death of many of their colleagues. Sixteen firefighters
died when Plasco, the oldest high-rise in Iran's capital, collapsed on January
19, 2017 after a blaze engulfed the building. Four civilians also lost their
lives, state media reported at the time. The 15-storey building, home to a
shopping center and hundreds of clothing suppliers, collapsed while emergency
services personnel were still evacuating people from the inferno. More than 100
firefighters and their family members gathered in front of the municipality and
city council in central Tehran to mark the anniversary, ISNA news agency
reported. The firefighters, many wearing their red uniforms, chanted: "Adequate
livelihood is our inalienable right", and "We are tired of promises and lies,
not of fire and smoke," the agency said. They held placards reading,
"discrimination, mismanagement, low pensions, welfare problems", it added. The
protesters also demanded that parliament address their issues including
providing proper housing for firefighters in Tehran and increasing their
salaries, according to the report.
Hit by severe economic sanctions imposed since 2018 by the United States, Iran
has seen its inflation rate surge to close to 60 percent. Other professions have
also rallied over the past few days. Hundreds of teachers across Iran protested
changes to their pay and pensions. Civil servants in the judicial sector also
demonstrated, after the government refused to increase their pay. The Plasco
disaster sent shock waves across Iran. Rescue teams worked for days to recover
bodies from under the rubble. The owners and city officials were criticized for
failing to prevent the disaster at the building, which according to the fire
brigade was known to breach multiple safety regulations. A new building
replacing the old tower has been completed with 20 floors, five of which are
underground. But it "has not yet received the approval from the fire
department," the department's spokesman Jalal Maleki told state TV on Wednesday.
The building's management have "promised us not to inaugurate it until they get
the fire department's approval and they have so far kept their promise," he
added.
Putin, Raisi hail ties at decisive moment for Iran
nuclear deal
AFP/19 January ,2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi
hailed bilateral ties during a meeting in Moscow Wednesday, as pressure mounts
for a decision on the Iran nuclear deal. Raisi said he had presented Moscow with
draft documents on strategic cooperation that would cement joint collaboration
for the next two decades. “We in Iran have no limits for expanding ties with
Russia,” the Iranian leader said on his first state visit since taking office in
August. He said Tehran wanted to develop relations with Moscow that would “not
be temporary, but permanent and strategic”.
“Today's exceptional circumstances require significant synergy between our two
countries against US unilateralism,” he said in televised remarks. Putin praised
the countries' “close cooperation” on the international stage and said “it is
very important for me to known your opinion on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action”. The 2015 accord between Iran and world powers -- the US, France,
Britain, Russia, China and Germany -- offered Tehran relief from crippling
international sanctions in return for deep curbs on its nuclear programme. But
the unilateral US withdrawal from the agreement in 2018 under former president
Donald Trump prompted Tehran to walk back on its commitments. Talks to restore
the accord began again last year but stopped in June, when Iran elected Raisi.
They then resumed in November. This is the ultraconservative president's most
significant visit abroad since he took over in August from moderate Hassan
Rouhani, who was the last Iranian president to visit Russia in March 2017.
Moscow and Tehran have strong political, economic and military ties, shared
interests in Afghanistan, and are key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
in his country's decade-long civil war.
Macron Says EU Must Work on New Security Pact to Put to
Russia
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 19 January, 2022
European Union countries must work together on a new stability and security deal
that they could then discuss with Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron told
the European Parliament on Wednesday. Referring to "destabilization efforts" in
the continent, Macron, speaking as France starts its presidency of the EU, said
Europe wants to find a political response to the conflict in Ukraine. "The
security of our continent is indivisible", Macron said referring to Russia,
adding that Europe must define its own security standards. He added that Europe
must "bring ourselves to a position to make sure they can be respected," without
elaborating. Earlier US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in Kyiv
for talks, warned that Russia could launch a new attack at "very short notice".
Separately, Macron said the EU must review its relationships with the Western
Balkans and offer them "sincere" prospects of joining the bloc. The EU must also
propose a new alliance to African countries, he said, adding that EU and African
countries would discuss it at a summit in February.
Russia Says It Will Take Nothing Less but NATO Expansion Ban
Associated Press/Wednesday, 19 January, 2022
Russia maintained a tough posture amid the tensions over its troop buildup near
Ukraine, with a top diplomat warning Wednesday that Moscow will accept nothing
less but "watertight" U.S. guarantees precluding NATO's expansion to Ukraine.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation at the
security talks with the U.S. in Geneva last week, reaffirmed that Moscow has no
intentions of invading Ukraine as the West fears, but said that receiving
Western security guarantees is the categoric imperative for Moscow. The talks in
Geneva and a related NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels last week were held as
Russia has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine in what the West
fears might herald an invasion.In a move that further beefs up forces near
Ukraine, Russia has sent an unspecified number of troops from the country's far
east to its ally Belarus, which shares a border with Ukraine, for major war
games next month. Ukrainian officials have said that Moscow could use Belarusian
territory to launch a potential multi-pronged invasion. The Russian Defense
Ministry said Wednesday that some of its troops already have arrived in Belarus
for the Allied Resolve 2022 drills. It said the exercise will be held at five
firing ranges and other areas in Belarus and also involve four Belarusian air
bases. Amid the soaring tensions, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited
Ukraine on Wednesday to reassure it of Western support in the face of what he
called "relentless" Russian aggression.
Russia has denied that it intends to attack its neighbor but demanded guarantees
from the West that NATO will not expand to Ukraine or other former Soviet
nations or place its troops and weapons there. It also has urged NATO to roll
back the deployments of its troops and weapons to Central and Eastern European
nations that have joined the alliance after the end of the Cold War. Washington
and its allies firmly rejected Moscow's demands but kept the door open to
possible further talks on arms control and confidence-building measures intended
to reduce the potential for hostilities.
Ryabkov insisted, however, that there can't be any meaningful talks on those
issues if the West doesn't heed the main Russian requests for the non-expansion
of NATO. He warned that the Russian demands contained in draft agreements with
the U.S. and NATO "constitute a package, and we're not prepared to divide it
into different parts, to start processing some of those at expense of standing
idle on others." The Russian diplomat underlined that Ukraine's increasingly
close ties with NATO allies pose a major security challenge to Russia. "We see
the threat of Ukraine becoming ever more integrated in NATO without even
acquiring a formal status of a NATO member state," Ryabkov said, pointing at
Western powers supplying Ukraine with weapons, training its troops and
conducting joint drills. "This is something that goes right to the center of
Russia's national security interests, and we will do our utmost to reverse this
situation, to rebalance this situation through diplomatic means."Russia annexed
the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 after mass protests prompted
Ukraine's Moscow-friendly leader to flee to Russia. At the same time, Russia
also cast its support behind a separatist insurgency that swept over large areas
in eastern Ukraine. More than 14,000 people have been killed in nearly eight
years of fighting there. Asked if Russia could accept a moratorium on NATO's
expansion eastward, an idea circulated by some political experts, Ryabkov
answered with a firm no, saying that Moscow has seen the West backtracking on
previous promises. He emphasized that "for us, the matter of priority is
achievement of watertight, bulletproof, legally binding guarantees" that Ukraine
and other ex-Soviet nations will not join the alliance. Ryabkov suggested that
the U.S. could also take a unilateral obligation to never vote for NATO
membership for Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations. Russia has urged the U.S.
and NATO to provide a quick written response, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told reporters Wednesday it expects to receive it "within days."
Germany Tries Syrian Doctor for Crimes against Humanity
Agence France Presse/Wednesday, 19 January, 2022
German prosecutors accused a Syrian doctor Wednesday of torturing detainees and
killing one of them while working in military hospitals in his war-torn
homeland, on the first day of a landmark crimes against humanity trial in
Frankfurt. The accused, 36-year-old Alaa Mousa, arrived in Germany in 2015 where
he continued to practice medicine until his arrest.
The trial at Frankfurt's higher regional court is the second of its kind in
Germany, and adds to other European efforts to hold loyalists of President
Bashar al-Assad's regime to account for alleged war-era atrocities. Mousa faces
18 counts of torturing detainees at military hospitals in Homs and Damascus in
2011-12, including setting fire to a teenage boy's genitals. He also faces one
count of murder, for having allegedly administered a lethal injection to a
prisoner who resisted being beaten. The accused helped to perpetrate "a
systematic attack on the civilian population," said federal prosecutor Anna
Zabeck as she read out the charge sheet. He "tortured detainees by inflicting
substantial bodily harm on them," she told the court. The defendant, who wore a
blue suit and an FFP2 face mask in court, kept his head down while the charges
were being read out. He has denied the allegations. His trial comes after
another German court last week sentenced a former Syrian colonel to life in jail
for overseeing the murder of 27 people and the torture of 4,000 others at a
Damascus detention center a decade ago.
That verdict, hailed by victims as "historic", marked the culmination of the
first trial globally over state-sponsored torture in Syria.
Universal jurisdiction -
The proceedings in Germany are made possible by the legal principle of
"universal jurisdiction" -- which allows countries to try people for crimes of
exceptional gravity, including war crimes and genocide, even if they were
committed in a different country. Other cases involving the Syrian conflict have
also sprung up in France, Norway, Sweden and Austria. "Over the past decade, a
large amount of evidence about atrocities in Syria has been collected, and
now... those efforts are starting to bear fruit," said Balkees Jarrah of Human
Rights Watch. Mousa, a married father of two, addressed the court in fairly
fluent German during the opening hearing, providing details about his education
and employment history. He said he had worked "in several military hospitals" in
Syria. He also told judges he belonged to Syria's Christian minority. Mousa is
expected to address the accusations against him in later hearings.
'Absolute power'
Mousa left Syria for Germany in mid-2015, arriving not as a refugee but on a
visa for skilled workers. He worked in several places as an orthopedic doctor,
including the central spa town of Bad Wildungen, before being arrested in June
2020 after Syrian witnesses came forward. Federal prosecutors say Mousa worked
in military hospital 608 in the Syrian city of Homs and military hospital 601 in
the capital Damascus, where injured detainees were brought after being arrested
for opposing Assad's regime. But instead of being treated, many were tortured
"and not infrequently killed" in such hospitals, as part of Assad's brutal
repression of the opposition, prosecutors allege. In one case, Mousa is accused
of having poured flammable liquid on a prisoner's wounds before setting them on
fire and kicking him in the face so hard that three of his teeth had to be
replaced.Mousa is also alleged to have given a fatal injection to an inmate who
was trying to fend off a beating, which prosecutors say was to demonstrate his
"absolute power" over the prisoners.
'Sexualized violence'
Rene Bahns, a lawyer for the civil parties in the case, representing victims'
rights, told AFP the examples highlighted "the use of sexualized violence" in
the Syrian torture system. On another occasion, Mousa was called to a prison in
Homs where an inmate was suffering an epileptic attack. Prosecutors say the
accused punched him in the face, hit him with a plastic pipe and kicked him in
the head. The man died a few days later, shortly after taking a tablet given to
him by Mousa, though the cause of death is unclear. Other inmates were kicked
and beaten, sometimes with medical tools, according to prosecutors. The war in
Syria has killed close to half a million people since it broke out in
2011.Germany has taken in some 800,000 Syrian refugees.
Israel Police Evict Jerusalem Residents from Disputed
Houses
Agencies/January 19/2022
Israeli police on Wednesday evicted Palestinian residents from a disputed
property in a flashpoint Jerusalem neighborhood and demolished the building,
days after a tense standoff. The predawn demolition took place in Sheikh Jarrah,
an east Jerusalem neighborhood where attempts by Jewish settlers to evict
longtime Palestinian residents have sparked protests that last year helped lead
to an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza militants. The latest demolition is a
separate case, with the city removing the family to make way for what it says
will be a large special-needs school for Palestinian children in the area. But
it also has set off local protests and drawn international criticism. Early this
week, residents of the building held a tense standoff with police who came to
evict them. They climbed on the roof of the home and threatened to set gas tanks
on fire. Eventually police backed off, after demolishing a nearby plant nursery
owned by the family. Police moved in under the cover of darkness early
Wednesday, removing the family and demolishing the home. Police said 18 people
were arrested for public disorder. The Salhiya family say they purchased the
property before 1967, when Israel captured east Jerusalem, while the state has
argued against the family's claims in court. The municipality says the land was
always zoned for public use and seized the property in 2017. It says the Salhiya
family are squatters, and the buildings were constructed illegally in the 1990s.
It says it will compensate the rightful owners and build the school to serve the
local Palestinian community.
"These illegal buildings had been preventing the construction of a school which
can benefit the children of the entire Sheikh Jarrah community," the city and
police said in a joint statement. The case has been in court for several years,
and a Jerusalem judge last year ruled in favor of the city and authorized the
eviction. The family has appealed and is awaiting a ruling, but the judge did
not freeze the eviction order. Palestinians in east Jerusalem say it is almost
impossible to get building authorization from the city, forcing them to build
homes without permits. Hagit Ofran, a researcher for the anti-settlement group
Peace Now, acknowledged the family had been unable to prove ownership. But she
said it was clear they have lived there for years. She said another site in the
neighborhood given to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish boarding school could have been
used for the special-needs school. She also said the house could have been left
intact since the new school is to be built on a nearby plot of land. "This
expropriation could have been done without evicting them," she said. "It's in
Sheikh Jarrah, it's in this very sensitive time, all the world is looking and
the government didn't find the sense to stop it."
Laura Wharton, a dovish member of the city council, accused the city of decades
of "criminal neglect" of its Palestinian residents, who make up about one-third
of the population. "I protest, object and regret the conduct of the whole thing
and expect the municipality and the government to begin treating every resident
with equality and respect," she said. Dozens of Palestinian families in east
Jerusalem are at risk of eviction by Jewish settler organizations, and thousands
face the threat of demolition because of discriminatory policies that make it
extremely difficult for Palestinians to build new homes or expand existing ones.
Other threatened evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and other neighborhoods, which are
tied up in decades-old legal battles between Palestinian residents and Jewish
settlers, set off protests and clashes last year that eventually helped ignite
the 11-day Gaza war. Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank,
in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized by most of the
international community. Israel considers the entire city to be its capital, and
the municipality says it is working to improve services for all residents. The
Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state, and
the city's fate is one of the most divisive issues in the century-old
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Erdogan signals thaw with Israel: it is the gas, stupid!
The Arab Weekly/January 19/2022
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he is open to mending Turkey’s
frayed ties with Israel following a US decision to end support for a
Mediterranean gas pipeline opposed by Ankara. Erdogan’s comments follow a year
in which Turkey, battered by an economic crisis at home, has taken steps to
improve relations with a host of regional rivals. Turkey’s relations with Israel
entered a deep freeze after the death of ten civilians in an Israeli raid on a
Turkish flotilla destined for the Gaza Strip in 2010, even though diplomatic and
economic ties remained intact. Israel and a group of countries, including
Turkey’s historic rival Greece, then began work on a joint pipeline to bring
eastern Mediterranean Sea gas to Europe. Turkey strongly opposed the project and
staked its own territorial claims on the region’s energy wealth. The pipeline
was also supported by the former administration of US president Donald Trump.
But Israeli and other media have reported that Washington privately informed
Greece last week that current US President Joe Biden’s team no longer backed the
pipeline project because it created regional tensions with Turkey. “I think the
US decided to pull back after looking at the (project’s) finances,” Erdogan said
during a joint media appearance with visiting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Erdogan said he was resurrecting talks with Israel on an old idea to bring
Mediterranean gas to European clients via Turkey. “We can still do that,”
Erdogan said. “We are now holding talks with President (Isaac) Herzog. He could
visit us in Turkey. Prime Minister (Naftali) Bennett also has a positive
approach,” Erdogan said. “As Turkey, we will do our best to cooperate on a
win-win basis,” he added. “As politicians, we should not be there to fight but
to live in peace.”
The Latest The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on January 19-20/2022
شارل الياس شرتوني: استراتيجية إيران
لزعزعة الاستقرار والحروب الأهلية الإقليمية
Iranian Destabilization Strategy and Regional Civil Wars
Charles Elias Chartouni/July 19/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/105713/105713/
The latest drone attacks on the Abu Dhabi airport succeeds to a series of
attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE and attests to the open state of
belligerence assumed by Iran and its allies, the Houthi rebels. Whatever might
be the circumstantial motivations, the new Iranian policy course displays its
flaunted expansionist aims, commitment to destroy the remnant geopolitical
order, and conflict militarization strategy as defining markers of its ongoing
policy orientation, while pursuing the nuclear negotiations with the US and its
partners. Evidently, these paradoxes raise serious questions about their impact
on negotiations, their relevance and eventual finalization, if they ever make it
to the end. This deliberate sabotaging far from being an erratic move on the
Iranian side, adds to its maneuvering around the inspection regimes set by the
United Nations Atomic Agency, and makes observers wonder about the ultimate goal
of the Iranian authorities. No matter what would be the future evolutions, the
credibility and the scope of the incoming accords are at stake and leave us with
a sense of corrosive uncertainty on how serious and sustainable the future
accords would be, if they fail to address the Iranian destabilization strategy
and its open ended scenarios. What would be the purview of the Vienna
negotiations if they fall short of the ultimate normalization strategy of the
Iranian regime, its due integration into the international community, and
effective partnership in a regional conflict resolution scheme.
It’s inconceivable from a methodological point of view to disassociate the
different agendas and proceed on a segmented basis which fails to understand
their integrated nature, and establish the connective strands between them. The
success of negotiations depends on the ability to weave the different planes
into one political narrative, otherwise the eventual accords will go awry and
fail to achieve their purported objectives. The ambivalence of the Iranian
demeanor makes us question the primary intentions and subtexts, in the first
place, and wonder about the Iranian regime willingness to challenge its
political views and maverick political positioning in the rising context of the
New Cold War, and amidst the wreckage of a disheveled Middle Eastern
geopolitical order. It’s redundant to dwell on the methodological intricacies of
the ongoing negotiation process, if the intellectual and ethical framing are in
default and the underlying intentions are inherently biased.
'Warmer' peace with Israel offers Jordan better economic
dividends
Hussain Abdul-Hussain and Enia Krivine/The Hill/January 19/2022
For the first time in seven years, the Jordanian royal court recently released a
photo of King Abdullah II meeting with an Israeli official, Defense Minister
Benny Gantz, Jan. 5 in Amman. This gesture is a clear indication that relations
between the two neighboring countries are warming up again. After a decade of
sluggish growth and falling standards of living, Jordan likely wants to capture
a bigger share of the growing pie of Arab economic cooperation with Israel.
U.S. legislators from both parties recently launched a bipartisan House-Senate
caucus that would be a “cheerleading squad” for the Abraham Accords, signed last
year between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.
In the first year of peace between Israel and the UAE, bilateral trade reached
$700 million. In 2020, bilateral trade between Israel and Jordan stood at $250
million, 27 years after they had signed a peace treaty. These numbers suggest
that Jordan has much to gain by moving beyond the “cold peace” it has with
Israel and embracing the accords.
In December, Israel and Jordan signed an agreement to facilitate Jordanian
exports to the West Bank. The deal’s ambitious goal is to increase the total
from $150 million to $700 million a year. In July, Israel agreed to increase its
annual supply of fresh water to its eastern neighbor by 50 million cubic meters,
doubling the previous figure. The UAE brokered a deal in which Jordan produces
solar energy for the Israeli market, and Israel reciprocates by desalinating
Mediterranean water for supply to Jordan.
Israel’s peace with Jordan remains colder than expected because some Jordanians
see the agreement as a political necessity rather than a true opportunity. They
argue that relations with Israel should remain a purely government-to-government
affair, rather than a bond between two peoples. Some even argue that while peace
is net positive for the Israeli economy, it is a net negative for Arab
economies.
The data say otherwise. One “fruit of peace” with Israel, according to the Tony
Blair Institute, “was the start of a process that led to a series of
international trade agreements and placed Jordan on a path of accelerated,
export-driven economic growth.”
The institute observed that during “the 2000s the Jordanian economy grew at an
average real rate of 6 percent a year. Jordanian exports of goods increased
fourfold, from $2 billion in 2000 to $8 billion in 2008. Jordan’s gross domestic
product (GDP) per capita more than doubled, and unemployment declined from 15 to
12 percent, despite an annual 5 percent growth in the Jordanian workforce.”
Because of its political stability and economic growth, Jordan attracted Iraqi
immigrants, followed by waves of Syrian and Iraqi refugees starting in 2011. The
population of Jordan has thus doubled over the past decade, putting pressure on
the economy. The wars in Iraq and Syria have also interrupted regional trade and
tourism, a further drag on the Jordanian economy. Over the past decade, the
economy has grown by only a bit more than 2 percent per year, while per capita
GDP has fallen significantly.
The road ahead for Jordan will be difficult, but the Abraham Accords offer Amman
the opportunity to collect more dividends of peace. The bigger the volume of
trade in goods and services between Israel and Arab countries, the bigger the
regional economic pie and the bigger share Jordan can capture for its own
economy.One positive sign is that Israeli tourism in Jordan is on the rise as
more Israelis choose to vacation in Aqaba — a Jordanian resort town on the Red
Sea — over Israel’s Eilat. And since Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula — once a popular
escape for Israeli vacationers — has become riskier due to a surge of Islamist
terrorism, Jordan has become the best alternative. Leaders in Egypt, until
recently the only other Arab country with a peace treaty with Israel, have
recognized the opportunity to forge deeper economic ties and have been trying to
turn their country’s “cold peace” with Israel into a warmer one. In September,
Abdul-Fattah al-Sissi became the first Egyptian president to openly meet with an
Israeli prime minister in a decade. In October, Egyptian airlines announced that
it will fly its trips to and from Israel under its own name, 39 years after
flying under the guise of the non-existent airliner Sinai Air. In November,
Israeli generals visited Sinai for a rare public meeting with their Egyptian
counterparts.
Israel says test of long-range missile defense system was successful
Erdoğan: US pulling support for EastMed gas pipeline due to high costs
When Arab countries launched their boycott of Israel in 1948, they reasoned that
such policy would result in Israel dying off. But Israel survived. Enforcement
of the boycott became inconsistent during the 1990s, when Israel seemed to be
approaching peace with the Palestinians. Yet until the Abraham Accords, the
notion of a true partnership with Israel still seemed out of bounds. The accords
offer the Jordanian economy an opportunity for further integration into the
regional economy of Arab countries that are living at peace with Israel, and
therefore more growth.
America and its allies can do more to help Jordan economically. At $38 billion,
or 90 percent of its GDP, Jordan’s national debt is surging, while debt service
is consuming money that could be invested in productive sectors. A donor
conference could offer Amman assistance and low interest loans that could help
tame its debt. As the past three decades have shown, investing in Jordan does
more to stabilize the region, both politically and economically, than trying to
fix some of the country’s troubled neighbors.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow and Enia Krivine is the senior
director of the Israel Program and National Security Network at the Foundation
for Defense of Democracies (@FDD), a nonpartisan research institute focusing on
national security and foreign policy. Follow Hussain on Twitter @hahussain and
Enia @EKrivine
All the president’s enemies/Mitch McConnell is no Vladimir Putin, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei or Xi Jinping
Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/January 19/2022
As he begins his second year in office this week, President Biden looks toward
the horizon and sees multiple challenges and threats. Three of the most
worrisome:
Russia’s strongman, President Vladimir Putin, having taken the Crimean Peninsula
and Donbas region from neighboring Ukraine, now has troops poised for a possible
further invasion of that former Soviet state.
Iran’s strongman, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who commands military
proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, is continuing to develop nuclear
weapons, key to furthering his neo-imperialist ambitions.
China’s strongman, President Xi Jinping, having stamped his boot on the people
of Hong Kong, is now considering the deployment of his increasingly powerful
militar
In a fiery speech last week, Mr. Biden boasted that he’s “worked in foreign
policy my whole life.” He warned of forces “that value power over principle”
that pose a “grave threat” to “our democracy,” promote “subversion” and maybe
preparing for an “onslaught.”
We must choose “democracy over autocracy, light over shadows, justice over
injustice!” he declared.
Oh, I should mention: He was referring not to foreign tyrants but to members of
Congress who disagree with his legislative proposals.
What are we to make of such rhetoric? An election year has begun, and Mr. Biden
would doubtless prefer not to talk about the fiasco of the Afghanistan surrender
and withdrawal, the absence of security on the Mexican border, the highest
inflation rate in 40 years, unionized teachers refusing to return to the
classroom and confused pandemic policies.
But does he sincerely believe that those who oppose a bill to nationalize
election procedures are, as he put it, “on the side” of Jefferson Davis, the
rebel leader and slavery defender, while those who agree with him are “on the
side of Abraham Lincoln”?
He went on to pledge that he would fight “all enemies — foreign and, yes,
domestic” — equating elected American lawmakers with ultranationalist Mr. Putin,
Mr. Khamenei and Chinese Communist Party Chair Xi.
Beyond slandering his former colleagues, such comments trivialize the
life-and-death crises in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. After all his
years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is it possible that Mr. Biden
doesn’t get that?
Why America shares blame for the attack on Abu Dhabi
Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/January 19, 2022
The deadly terrorist attack on Abu Dhabi on Monday by the Houthi militia in
Yemen, despicable as it was, came as no surprise to those of us in the region —
especially here in Saudi Arabia — who are already familiar with how low these
terrorists can sink.
Enabled by their backers in Iran, the Houthis have launched waves of drone and
missile attacks targeting civilians and key infrastructure in the Kingdom, from
Jazan in the southwest to Riyadh itself.
Yes, there is a war going on in Yemen, and wars have inevitable consequences.
Some people will say the UAE and Saudi Arabia must have expected that civilian
casualties would be one of them.
Non-combatants, including innocent people in Yemen, have died — although it is
important to point out that there is no moral equivalence here. When the
Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen causes civilian casualties it does so
by accident, it investigates, and it apologizes; the Houthis kill innocent
people deliberately, then brag about it.
What the UAE and Saudi Arabia could not have expected, however, was that the US
under the Biden administration would turn its back on them — long-time allies
and partners — in the way that it has, by revoking the Trump-era designation of
the Houthis as a terrorist group, and withdrawing Patriot air-defense batteries
even as the Kingdom was coming under attack from Houthi missiles.
Iran is currently not the only enabler of these terrorists; they would never
have dared to strike had they not felt empowered by the Biden administration’s
failure to support its allies
These actions were unexpected not just because of the history and the strategic
logic behind the alliance, but because America has seen at first hand what the
Houthis are capable of.
Not only is the group’s official motto “Death to America,” but it also attacked
the US Navy on three occasions in late 2016 at a time when Barack Obama was
trying to appease Iran.
The US says it revoked the Houthi terrorist designation because it was hampering
the flow of aid to Yemen, an argument that convinces no one. As Adel Al-Jubeir,
the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told Arab News in an interview
last year, the Taliban, Daesh, Hezbollah, Al-Shabab and Boko Haram are all on
the US terrorism list, but that does not impede the flow of aid into
Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia or the Sahel.
As for the withdrawal of the Patriot batteries, the US says it had been planned
for some time as part of a strategic regional reorientation, and was not
intended against Saudi Arabia specifically — although if that were true, why
could the decision not simply be reversed when Washington can see that the
Kingdom continues to come under missile attack? Not only that, but in behavior
that defies logic, while some misguided US legislators continually try to block
US arms sales to Saudi Arabia, some media commentators have the audacity to
criticize the Kingdom for turning to other countries to secure weapons with
which to defend itself.The war in Yemen is not going the Houthis’ way. Coalition
forces have driven them out of Shabwa and made military gains in the
battleground province of Marib. Wounded animals lash out, so the attack on Abu
Dhabi was in many ways predictable. However, sad to say, Iran is currently not
the only enabler of these terrorists; they would never have dared to strike in
such a way had they not felt empowered by the Biden administration’s failure to
support its allies and partners.
It was reported by Bloomberg on Monday that the UAE would ask the US to
reinstate the Houthis on its terrorist list. Acceding to that request is the
very least America can do.
*Faisal J. Abbas is the editor in chief of Arab News. Twitter: @FaisalJAbbas
Party well and truly over for Britain’s worst prime minister
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/January 19, 2022
Boris Johnson has always had a fundamentally problematic relationship with the
truth. Lies, cheating and obfuscation ooze from him like water, so it was always
predictable that he would ultimately face being brought down by a lie that was
too flagrant even for him to get away with.
The “Partygate” saga has been British politics at its most unedifying, with
Boris at each juncture blurting out whatever untruths he thought he could get
away with about why he and his staff were holding boozy parties — including one
notorious alcohol-soaked event on the eve of Queen Elizabeth’s lonely funeral
for her husband — while other people’s elderly relatives were forced to die
alone because of COVID-19 regulations. This labyrinthine web of deceit and
dissembling included the prime minister’s excruciating appearance in the House
of Commons last week to offer an apology that wasn’t an apology for his
attendance at a party that he hadn’t realized was a party – at his own home!
Johnson’s skeleton-littered path to Downing Street took shape after he stabbed
Prime Minister David Cameron in the back by spearheading the 2016 Brexit
campaign, which must go down in history as the largest barrage of lies ever
fired at the British public: Brexit would be quick, painless and glorious, and
would usher in an era of prosperity, sovereignty and hope for the UK. If only!
In 2019, Johnson elbowed his predecessor Theresa May out with his pledge to “Get
Brexit done,” acting in tandem with Machiavellian political knife-fighter
Dominic Cummings — who, since his dismissal in 2020, has reserved his sharpest
knives for Boris) Their “vision” turned out to be the most brutal of all
possible Brexits, with consequences that have been ruinous for British farmers,
fishermen, food producers and domestic industry. British dairy and meat products
took a 30-40 percent hit in early 2021, with a new swath of regulations and
bureaucracy to be introduced at the beginning of 2022 likely to be even more
devastating for businesses exporting to the EU, previously the destination for
over 60 percent of British food exports. Disingenuous dealing by Boris’s
officials over Northern Ireland has exacerbated sectarian tensions that
ultimately threaten to tear the UK apart.
For all his sloganeering about “global Britain,” foreign policy under Johnson
came straight from the Trump playbook: Steadfast non-engagement with
international challenges, in tandem with ever-harsher measures to shut out
millions of refugees, resulting from the international community’s abandonment
of its conflict resolution role and failure to police international law in the
face of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Johnson lied that folding the Department for International Development into the
Foreign Office would not affect Britain’s aid commitments — and promptly slashed
development aid by upwards of 60 percent to some of the poorest states in the
world, leaving countless numbers to starve. During his own 2016-18 tenure as
foreign secretary, Johnson proved wholly disinterested in foreign affairs, while
plotting his next promotion.
By calculatedly disassociating Britain’s foreign policy and human rights
architecture from that of the EU, British diplomacy has become a bad joke.
Instead of taking united stands on principled issues as part of a community of
nations, Britain is left to grandstand alone — which often means that UK
positions on human rights play second fiddle to craven efforts to seek trade
deals. Even when Britain gets it right, it becomes highly vulnerable to
pressure, such as a recent statement from Britain’s Ambassador to Tripoli that
Libyan politicians tripped over themselves to condemn in the strongest terms as
neo-imperialist interference. The unmistakeable impression is that Boris’s
“Global Britain” scarcely knows or cares what goes on beyond its shores.
At home, with little in the way of domestic vision, Boris sought to rouse his
reactionary grassroots with full-on cultural warfare, a repulsive reversal of
his predecessors’ efforts to make the Conservatives more diverse, moderate and
forward-looking. This “war on woke” culminated in a bizarre campaign in support
of the statue of a wealthy 17th-century slave trader, felled by anti-racism
protesters in an echo of campaigns against symbols of a racist past in Trump’s
America.
Britain has had many hapless and disgraced prime ministers, but none before
Johnson has so spectacularly failed to respect the gravity of the office, or be
so unsuited to the rigors and intellectual challenges it presents.
Psychologically, Johnson proved wholly unprepared for the COVID pandemic; he
failed to appreciate the scale of the threat and continually delayed the
imposition of measures until infection rates were far advanced, resulting in
Britain’s exceptionally high death rate. “Let the bodies pile up,” he declared
at one point when facing pressure to take renewed action.
Britain has had many hapless and disgraced prime ministers, but none before
Johnson has so spectacularly failed to respect the gravity of the office.
This shame-proof prime minister has survived numerous political scandals.
However, with public support cratering, recent events augur the beginning of the
end for his premiership. Conservative MPs had backed him as the most promising
vote-winner in their party, mistaking his bumbling, clownish demeanor for
charisma. But in a party known for ruthless shifts in loyalties, a critical mass
of politicians are turning away from Boris’s increasingly toxic brand.
On international issues, Britain has traditionally sailed alongside the US, but
the chronic dysfunction in American politics further renders it problematic for
the UK to correct its course on the sea of world affairs. Even after Britain
does rid itself of Boris, few easy solutions present themselves. There is scant
political appetite for reopening the deep, festering wound of Brexit, although
compromises with the EU may gradually be sought to repair some of the economic
damage.
After five years of doggedly pursuing the Brexit cul-de-sac, Boris’s
plague-stricken, friendless, and economically battered Britain is an introverted
and isolated place, with a long distance to travel before rediscovering any
conceivable form of global role.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.
Biden’s policy failures symbolize US leadership crisis
Ishtiaq Ahmad/Arab News/January 19, 2022
President Joe Biden entered office a year ago with a promise to reclaim
America’s global leadership by renewing multilateralism, resetting relations
with China and Russia, ending the war in Afghanistan and reviving the Iran
nuclear deal. However, his subsequent policies aimed at realizing these core
foreign policy objectives — pursued with weak deterrence and meek diplomacy —
have failed to produce the desired outcomes.
Consequently, allies in Europe and the Middle East still doubt if they can fully
trust the US. While China has expanded its economic clout in Asia, Russia has
raised the security stakes in Europe. Beset by a humanitarian crisis,
Afghanistan could implode at any time. And Iran continues to play deadly games
in the region, while pursuing brinkmanship in nuclear negotiations.
There is little doubt that Biden’s lack of leadership and strategic thinking has
put the world at greater risk of conflict.
Where to begin. Multilateralism: Yes, he has brought America back to global
institutions and the Paris climate accord, led the global climate discourse and
sponsored a summit for democracy. But on the global issues that really matter,
the US has opted to go alone — it backstabbed France by signing a secret nuclear
submarine deal with Australia and the UK; it exited Afghanistan without
consulting the allied nations in NATO; it debated democracy, while keeping half
of the world out; and it appeased Iran, forgetting what Tehran does to America’s
time-tested Arab allies in the neighborhood.
Of course, unilateralism at the expense of multilateralism cannot buy America
the global goodwill it desires. A democracy in turmoil at home loses the moral
high ground to nudge its illiberal variants abroad, be it the coup in Myanmar or
the protests in Kazakhstan. Diplomacy is set to fail when its basic premises are
wrongly framed. Even deterrence comes to naught when the enemy is cunning to the
core.
Vladimir Putin has led Russia in the last 20 years with a mastery that only a
spook can display. Compare his composure to Biden’s frailty and the dynamics of
European security become clear. Moscow means business when it says NATO must not
enlarge into what it treats as its own post-Soviet sphere of influence. The
threat of punitive economic sanctions can work neither here nor in the case of
Gazprom, which has already laid down Nord Stream 2. Germany needs Russian gas
more than ever. Kiev and Warsaw may cry wolf about Russian blackmail. But
against Putin’s brinkmanship, Biden will do as he does best: Damage limitation.
What about China, which Biden and the team have made enemy No. 1 for no good
reason? It is hard to believe that a supposedly dovish leader would militarily
frame the economic competition with China in Asia-Pacific, even rallying his
NATO and G7 counterparts to test Chinese patience over Taiwan, Hong Kong and the
South China Sea. Beijing has risen economically through a great national effort
and under successive visionary leaders. If its edge in critical technologies
like 5G is a problem, then why not invest in their research and development? Why
push China toward an existential conflict it wants to avoid at all cost? And
without stating what the end goal is.
Meanwhile, as Washington is busy forging security partnerships such as AUKUS,
the Chinese are expanding their geoeconomic influence in the region, recently
joining the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The US is not
even bothering to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacific Partnership, whose predecessor was created under its auspices as
an economic counterweight to China. Beyond Asia-Pacific, Beijing has done an
investment deal with the EU and fostered trade and investment partnerships
across the Middle East and North Africa.
On the military exit from Afghanistan and the nuclear talks with Iran, the less
said the better. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is particularly fond of
passing the buck and blaming the Trump administration for negotiating the
fateful peace deal with the Taliban and pushing the Iranians toward resuming
their nuclear weapons program. But the buck stops with the Biden administration.
In the case of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, by pushing back the deadline but
moving ahead with the plan, it paved the way for the Taliban’s victory and its
tragic consequences. In the Vienna talks on the Iran nuclear deal, who is
saber-rattling whom is crystal clear. The Biden administration doesn’t even care
what its Arab allies say about the danger posed by the clerical regime’s
ballistic missiles and malign acts.
However, it would be unfair to blame Biden alone for the great mess America’s
relations with the world are in today. All of his foreign policy gaffes are
symptomatic of a deepening crisis in American leadership.
The roots go back to America’s unipolar moment three decades ago, when it had
the chance to reshape global institutions to preserve the rules-based
international order. Instead, imperial hubris led its military-industrial
complex to tread dangerous terrains and wage expansive wars. The consequent
reality, marked by an overstretched military draining vital economic resources,
has polarized politics in the US and eroded its influence in the world.
Unilateralism at the expense of multilateralism cannot buy America the global
goodwill it desires.
This has created an acute leadership dilemma concerning the policy choice
between domestic renewal and foreign assertion. In terms of strategic
preferences, nationalism has superseded internationalism — Trump’s “America
First” versus Biden’s “Build Back Better” reflects this tendency. This is why,
barring some exceptions, major US foreign policies denote continuity along
bipartisan lines, such as imposing punitive trade tariffs on China and the
security disengagement from the Middle East.
America is in dire need of domestic healing to overcome its bitter political
divide, economic meltdown and pandemic battle. However, despite eroding
influence abroad and deep divisions at home, the US faces a world with both
traditional geopolitical threats and new challenges tied to globalization.
Managing them requires adapting to a multipolar world, where China and Russia
matter. While competing with them, the US must muster their support, alongside
its traditional allies, to reshape the global order in ways that serve common
goals.
Biden has so far failed to provide the sort of leadership that America and the
world need at this critical juncture — one that does not squander global
obligations for the sake of domestic renewals or let the latter determine the
contours of the former. Will he be any different in the remaining three years of
his presidential term? Only time will tell.
*Ishtiaq Ahmad is a former journalist who has been vice chancellor of Sargodha
University in Pakistan and Quaid-e-Azam Fellow at the University of Oxford.
Assad Saves Us from a Terrible Choice
Robert Ford/Asharq Al Awsat/January 19/2022
It is easy to welcome the decision of the court in Koblenz that convicted Anwar
Raslan of responsibility for torture, rape and murder at Branch 251 in Damascus.
When I was ambassador in Damascus I heard from Syrians about several detention
centers, among them Branch 251. We knew intellectually about the mistreatment of
prisoners, but only after I saw the Caesar photographs did I begin to understand
the enormous brutality.
The Koblenz court convicted this colonel in the Syrian General Intelligence
Division of involvement in 27 cases of torture, rape and murder at Branch 251.
It is worth noting that a German expert in identifying evidence told the court
that 110 victims among the 6,786 dead in the Caesar photos appeared to be from
Branch 251 based in part on the number code written on their bodies.
In 2022 not even government loyalists dispute the government’s brutality. The
loyalists can only respond that the opposition and ISIS also mistreat detainees.
However, the scale of murder and abuse in the government centers far exceeds the
violations committed by the opposition or ISIS.
One of the problems with discussions about Syria is that too often the
opposition is considered equally bad, equally responsible for the tragedy. The
Koblenz trial reminds us that, in reality, the tragedy in Syria is mainly the
responsibility of the Syrian government.
The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, praised the
court’s decision saying that it was a major step forward for truth, justice and
reparations for the violations in Syria. One victim outside the court house told
the Independent newspaper on January 13 that the court decision tells every
politician and security officer in Syria who commits violations that “you cannot
escape justice and you will be held accountable one day.”
No doubt President Assad, General Hossam Luka who commands the General
Intelligence Division (and therefore Branch 251 among others) and other security
officers in Syria heard that message clearly. They also noticed two other
aspects of the case. First, the German court decided that even if Raslan did not
himself torture and rape, he did not stop other security officers from abusing
prisoners and thus he carried responsibility.
We also saw this principle in the Nuremburg trials of Nazi war criminals. Assad
and his circle carry the responsibility under this principle. Damascus also
noticed that Raslan’s defection did not prevent his receiving a sentence of life
in prison. The reaction inside Damascus will be clear: to avoid accountability
and prison Damascus will reject compromises or concessions such as the Caesar
sanctions demand because the leaders will be more afraid of justice one day.
We should be frank and say the reality: the insistence on justice for the crimes
in Syria is easy to understand and support, but this insistence makes a
negotiated political solution to the war impossible.
Assad and his circle will not surrender and accept trials like Koblenz. In
addition, they cannot surrender some of their lower-level officers to face
trials because they would risk a revolt inside their security forces. The
government’s only choice is to totally dominate the remains of Syria and evade
justice. The United Nations human rights team welcomed the Koblenz decision but
probably the United Nations political team under Geir Pederson recognized their
job is now more difficult than ever.
Algerian President Bouteflika in 1999 issued amnesties to both security forces
and Islamic armed groups, even terrorist groups, who were responsible for
atrocities during the civil war there. He expanded the amnesty in 2005. It is
easy to criticize Bouteflika now. Of course, he stayed too long in the
President’s chair. And Western human rights organizations complain the amnesty
allowed those responsible for human rights violations in the Algerian war to
escape justice. They are right, but we must also acknowledge that the amnesty
did help reduce the fighting in Algeria after years of murder and intense
violence. It is worth noting that the Algerian army won a military victory in
the war, but it demanded an amnesty to protect its officers legally afterwards.
Of course, it is impossible to imagine that the Syrian government and its
security forces would ever trust an offer of immunity or respect an amnesty.
Assad and his aides would never trust their fate to promises from others, not
even from President Putin or Supreme Leader Khamenei. Instead, the security
forces kill fighters from the armed opposition who agreed to reconciliation
because the security forces fear another revolt and eventually facing justice.
In the end, the Syrian government’s stubbornness and fear allow us to escape the
terrible choice between demanding justice for all and accepting a negotiated
political settlement that would have to include an amnesty.
Arabs and their Neighborhood…The Lines of Intersection, Overlap
Mohamed Orabi/Asharq Al Awsat/January 19/2022
The current and clear state of discrepancy between the Arabs and their
neighboring countries did not suddenly emerge. It simply reflected a path that
affected almost most of the interactions of the past decade and was expressed by
the growing appetite of Israel, Iran, Turkey, and Ethiopia, to interfere in
various ways in the scope of Arab national security as a whole, and the security
of certain countries in particular.
We can describe the Iranian intervention, for example, as a rough one. While the
Turkish interference was initially soft, it has gradually taken a stricter form,
as we saw in Iraq, Syria, and Libya.
Here, it is necessary to point out that there is an enormous amount of
intertwining and parallel and overlapping relations between the four active
countries in the region, namely: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, and the
neighboring countries, including Iran, Turkey, Israel, and Ethiopia.
Because of these intersections, we can observe a direct impact from each
neighboring country on the chronic problems in the Arab region. In other words,
the last ten years witnessed a reshuffle of the axes of power in the region.
At the present moment, we will find that Iran and Turkey have gained influence
and presence in Syria and Iraq, while Tehran’s role has increased in Lebanon and
Yemen. Ankara has also been able to express its influence in Libya and Somalia
and to a lesser extent in Lebanon. Not to mention the relentless attempts to
influence Tunisia.
At the onset of the Arab Quartet boycott crisis, Turkey sought to appear in the
position of a partner supporting Doha, and also joined Iran in efforts to
influence the Hamas movement.
As for Ethiopia, it threatened the security of two Arab countries, namely: Egypt
and Sudan, through the gateway to water security, and continued building the
Renaissance Dam, ignoring attempts to reach a final and binding legal agreement.
Addis Ababa also sought to lure Ankara and Tehran to support it against Cairo
and Khartoum, leading to the subsequent consolidation of Ethiopia’s relations
with Somalia and Djibouti.
On the other hand, Israel was almost experiencing strategic reassurance over the
past decade, which was evident in its achievement of some gains by expanding the
scope of normalization with new Arab countries, including active ones.
Only the Iranian nuclear program, about which Tel Aviv expressed its deep
strategic concern, disturbed this Israeli comfort.
Returning to analyzing the nature of Iranian interference in Arab national
security, we will find that within Yemen and Lebanon, such involvement poses a
threat to Saudi national security and the safety of vital sea lanes. On another
level, this interference can be considered a major challenge to Egyptian
national security, which is threatened to the west by the direct and indirect
Turkish presence in Libya, not to mention Ankara’s support for Ethiopia.
However, the end of 2021 witnessed some developments in the interaction between
regional powers. We have followed the signs of Turkish flirtation to resume
relations with Egypt, although it has not reached specific results yet. We also
monitored an Emirati rapprochement with Turkey and Iran and developments of the
new path of normalization with Israel.
Qatar was also able to assume an active role with Afghanistan and Turkey while
maintaining normal relations with Iran.
Saudi Arabia, in turn, has restored, through discreet moves, the cohesion of the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) system, in the face of regional and international
obstacles. As for Egyptian diplomacy, it has calmly dealt with national security
challenges in the four directions.
What’s Next?
Given the interdependence between Arab countries and their neighborhood, we can
consider the year 2022 the foundation for the next decade, through which we can
anticipate the future of the region in the coming phase.
Based on the current facts and the consequences of the repositioning of
international powers engaged in the region, as well as their involvement in
conflicts geographically far from the Arab and Middle Eastern spheres, I expect
the appetite of the four neighboring countries to decline, in parallel with an
increasing willingness of Arab actors to enter into the new decade with a more
pragmatic and coherent policy. As for the reasons behind an expected decline in
the appetite of regional countries for rough interventions, they are mainly due
to high hopes in the implementation of an efficient joint Arab strategic action,
and the mounting international pressure on neighboring countries “because each
of them has a file that disturbs the international community.” Another reason is
that international relations are being reformulated, which means that the
current problems will no longer be a priority, as international attention will
shift towards more pressing issues, such as climate change and Chinese-Western
competition. Energy and water files will also emerge as a major concern of the
international community. There is no doubt that stability in the region has
become an urgent matter for active countries, which will push towards achieving
development and cooperation for all parties. Thus, the coming year will be the
beginning of turmoil and weakness in the neighboring countries, especially:
Iran, Turkey, and Ethiopia. Perhaps one of the determinants of the New Year and
decade is that zero-sum problems will have no place in the region. The different
strategic directions will push Arab and regional actors to search for a way to
exploit the intertwining and different trends, to create a new system, based on
each country’s knowledge of the red lines that should not be crossed and by
excluding military confrontation, whether on Arab or neighboring land, the Red
Sea or the eastern Mediterranean. In conclusion, we can say that the year 2022
will bring warmer approaches, but without expanding the policy of normalization
with Israel, with the expectation of some rationalization in Turkey’s policy
towards the region, and the exertion of Gulf pressure on Ethiopia over the
Renaissance Dam. But the turmoil in Sudan and Ethiopia itself may delay attempts
to reach a final agreement on the file.
As for the Arab files of Palestine, Syria, Libya, and Yemen, they are likely to
linger and not be included in the framework of the final comprehensive solution.
What do Saudi Arabia’s critics actually want?
Jonathan Gornall/The Arab Weekly/January 19/2022
According to the usual media suspects, an alliance of critics determined to
seize any opportunity to undermine Saudi Arabia, the recent Red Sea
International Film Festival was a “whitewash.”December’s inaugural Saudi Arabian
Grand Prix and the Dakar Rally? Cynical exercises in “sportswashing.”
Likewise, the Saudi International golf tournament, to be held at King Abdullah
Economic City in February. As for recent performances by the Canadian singer
Justin Bieber and French DJ David Guetta, both of whom faced and resisted calls
to boycott the kingdom, critics disappointingly failed to come up with a
suitably snappy put-down. “Sonic-sluicing,” perhaps? Maybe not.
But here is an idea. Instead of sniping every time Saudi Arabia takes another
step toward constructive engagement with the wider world, how about its critics
hold fire and meet it halfway, as some of the world’s leading artists and
sportspeople are doing? Saudi Arabia is in the midst of momentous change. This
is, of course, exactly what its vociferous, self-righteous critics claim to be
clamouring for but, ironically, cannot quite bring themselves to applaud even as
it is happening. Those who criticise the kingdom for not changing fast enough,
or for having the temerity to set and abide by its own laws and customs, should
pause and consider not only the scale and nature of the great changes being
introduced but also the history of a country that until recently was all but cut
off from the wider world.
Many of the demands being made of Saudi Arabia betray a fundamental ignorance of
that history and of the Islamic culture that underpins the state.
It is not the job of the Saudi leadership to pander to the cultural
sensitivities of foreign critics. But, having set its heart on bringing about
change, it is the leadership’s job to balance the concerns and ambitions of the
different sectors of its own society.
This is no easy task. While acknowledging and responding to the hopes and
expectations of its young and increasingly globalised population, Saudi Arabia,
the birthplace of Islam, must also respect and manage with sensitivity the
concerns of the more conservative elements of a deeply religious society,
founded on the very bedrock of Islam. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman, the driving force behind the momentous changes taking place in the
kingdom, has spoken frankly about the dismal consequences for his country and
its people of the events of 1979, the Islamic revolution in Iran and the
shocking takeover by Islamic fundamentalists of the Great Mosque of Makkah.
In the face of those seismic events, the kingdom defensively reverted to a more
austere interpretation of Islam and brought down the shutters.
Until then, as the crown prince told CBS News during a televised interview in
2018, “we were just normal people developing like any other country in the world
... Women were driving cars. There were movie theatres in Saudi Arabia. Women
worked everywhere.”
Four decades later, Saudi Arabia is once again developing, although not like any
other country in the world. A trailblazer in the era of oil, the kingdom is
determined to become a leading force in the age of renewable energy and
climate-change mitigation.
As set out in the Vision 2030 blueprint for the future, to make its way in a
post-oil world, it is working hard to diversify its economy away from reliance
on fossil fuels, a strategy that in time will benefit the entire world.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia is opening its doors to that world. A series of
megaprojects, from the development of the historic site of Diriyah, to the
creation on the Red Sea of the smart megacity NEOM, aims to bring tourists to
the kingdom in vast numbers.
The advance guard of the visitors whose personal experiences will slowly alter
the world’s perception of Saudi Arabia are the high-profile artists and sports
people currently running the gauntlet of criticism to give the kingdom and its
people the chance they deserve.
Take four-time Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel, who organised a karting
event for women in Jeddah on the sidelines of December’s Saudi Grand Prix. “In
general, we have so much focus on negative examples when it comes to
shortcomings of certain countries,” he told the BBC. “If we look through a
western-European lens there are a lot of things that should be improved and have
to be addressed. But it’s also true some things are changing” and he added, for
people such as the women who had taken part in the karting, “it makes a big
difference.”
And that is the point that the pack of critics snapping at Saudi Arabia’s heels
seems incapable of grasping. What kind of a country do they want Saudi Arabia to
be? A closed, conservative kingdom at odds with the modern world?
Or the open, rapidly-evolving nation that is currently working to bring about
change and progress, for the benefit of its largely youthful population and the
world at large? Saudi Arabia is a country of more than 35 million people, half
of whom are under the age of 25. Each one of them has hopes and dreams for their
future and for the futures of their children. If only for their sake, surely the
time has come to give Saudi Arabia a break, and the chance to show the world
what it is capable of achieving.
The Houthi attack on Abu Dhabi
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/January 19/2022
More than anything else, the terrorist targeting of the United Arab Emirates has
revealed the extent of the blow suffered by the Houthis (Ansar Allah group) in
the Yemeni governorates of Shabwa and Marib.
In fact, it was a severe blow altogether to the Iranian project in Yemen. The
forces of the Giants Brigade, which are mostly from Yemen’s south, were able to
bring about a major change on the ground after the city of Marib itself was on
the verge of falling into the hands of the Houthis, that is, into the hands of
Iran. It is certain that the air force of the Arab coalition played a major role
in defeating the Houthis in Shabwa and in achieving breakthroughs in the Marib
governorate itself. Instead of searching for a peaceful solution for the havoc
it has wreaked on Yemen, the Ansar Allah group confirmed, through its missile
and drone attacks on the Mussafah Industrial Area and Abu Dhabi Airport, that it
is simply bent on escalation.
Moreover, the attacks showed that it is holding on to the belief that the
Iranian project in Yemen is still alive and well. The Houthis seem to think they
are able to transform an area extending from Marib to the port of Hodeidah on
the Red Sea, without forgetting Sana’a, into a swathe of land serving as a base
for the missiles and drones of the “Islamic Republic.”
Their terrorist act is perhaps the most potent indication that the mullahs’
regime cannot change its aggressive nature. It can pretend to be moderate, here
and there, such as by expressing readiness for dialogue with Saudi Arabia.
But in reality, the Iranian regime always needs to export its crises beyond its
borders, including to the UAE, a peaceful country, that is looking for zero
problems with all countries of the world, including Iran.
Only a few weeks ago, UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed was
in Tehran. It seems clear that Tehran says something in public and does the
opposite in secret.
Regionally, the targeting of the UAE is a dangerous development which has to be
seen from two perspectives. The first relates to the Houthis themselves, who
cannot engage in any peace project. This was confirmed by their rejection of the
Saudi peace initiative of last March. That dismissal was expressed by the late
Iranian High Commissioner in Sana’a, Hassan Erlo, who quickly tweeted, “The
initiative of Saudi Arabia in Yemen is a project of permanent war and of war
crimes, not an end to the war.” The Houthis had no choice but to obey the will
of Erlo, the Iranian “Revolutionary Guard” officer.
The second perspective relates to Iran itself. In light of its upping the ante
with the UAE, one realises all manoeuvres by the Islamic Republic aim to promote
its expansionist project, whether in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen … or in the
Vienna talks.
It is unfortunate that Iran only ever provides evidence, again and again, that
it cannot be a normal country among others in the region nor is it able to
establish good relations with its neighbours.
The Iranian aggression against the UAE, an aggression carried out by Houthi
proxies, showed that the problem with Iran is not in its nuclear programme as
much as its behaviour outside its borders. That problem stems from its sectarian
militias, missiles and drones.
What Iran has done in Yemen proves that all it wants is to consolidate its role
as the regional hegemon, even if this is at the expense of certain Arab
countries and their well-being. In Yemen, for example, one sees no other Iranian
project outside Tehran’s attempt to convert part of its territory into a base
for Iranian missiles and drones which are used to blackmail the countries of the
region and the world.
The Houthis do not have any civilisational project which they can offer Yemen.
The most dangerous manifestation of this state of affairs is the disastrous
shape of education in Yemen today. Hundreds of thousands of children are on the
streets. If they were ever taught anything, it was myths and slogans which do
not bring food to the table. Instead of preparing these children for the future,
the Houthis have plunged them into pointless wars under extremist slogans that
perpetuate the culture of death.
In the end, the UAE will prove, as usual, that it is not a country that can be
subjected to blackmail. The Emirates will respond in the appropriate manner, as
it possesses the means of responding in Yemen where it has only done good deeds.
One remembers that Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God have mercy on him,
was behind the rebuilding of the Marib Dam, which was inaugurated in 1986, so
that the Yemenis had water to remain on their land. The UAE was behind the Marib
dam while Iran was behind the Marib wars, which must end some day.
Erdogan will preside over the reunification of Cyprus, whether he wants to or
not
Rami Rayess/Al Arabia/January 19/2022
The recent news that Turkey is talking to Armenia to improve relations is
indicative of the panic setting in for Recep Erdogan. He knows better than most
that his national and regional clout is fast diminishing.
The emnity between the two nations means they currently have no diplomatic
relations or open borders between them.
The situation's genesis dates back to the slaughter of thousands of Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks during the First World War, and was not helped when Turkey
supported Azerbaijan against Armenia during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Then came the rebuff of Erdogan’s offer to assist Kazakhstan to quell civil
unrest during violent public protests. Nur-Sultan instead reached out to Russia
for help, and Moscow sent in a peace-keeping force.
Aside of these issues, it had been going rather well for Erdogan and Turkey for
a while.
The Organization of Turkic States, comprising Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan,
Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, allows Ankara to extend its sphere of influence.
His core support has been happy with his governance, including his handling of
the Kurds, but that was then. It’s becoming very different now.
The President reshuffled the country’s constitution and granted himself enormous
prerogatives, making him the uncontested autocratic leader of the country. As
such, the buck stops with him.
Reviving the old Ottoman dream is but one dimension of his policies. The empire
once described as the sick man of Europe is becoming ill once again.
The Kremlin’s intervention in Kazakhstan was in harmony with a mandate from the
Collective Security Treaty Organization, led and dominated by Moscow. The
Organization is on an opposing side to the Organization of Turkic States.
Several of the members of both are the same. Nur-Sultan’s decision to request
help from Moscow is a blow to Ankara and Erdogan himself.
The Central Asian Republics are in Russia’s backyard, and all have strong
relationships with Moscow.
Contrary to what many might think, for Turkey to preserve whatever political
influence it has left in the region, Erdogan must go.
It’s that simple. And it’s only a matter of time before this realization makes
it happen.
Many point to the fact that he’s a Machiavellian street fighter who has ruled
the country with an iron fist, constantly overcoming significant problems in the
past.
With Turkey’s economy in freefall, the value of the Lira plummeting, and
inflation soaring, it’s clear that Erdogan isn’t an outstanding economist. It’s
his policies that are in play, after all.
Compare this to the economic recovery policies that helped him build his
popularity over the years, and you’re left wondering if he applied a financial
strategy formed elsewhere, but claimed as his own.
He waged a so-called “war of economic independence,” saying that he rejected
policies that weakened Turkey. He was committed to focusing on investment,
production, employment, and exports. It hasn’t worked.
Of all the woes, Erdogan faces the one that will give him sleepless nights in
Cyprus.
In parallel to his regional power around his borders diminishing, in the annexed
region of northern Cyprus, all is not well with the Turks.
The state, which only Ankara recognizes, is being impacted heavily by the
failures of Erdogan’s economic catastrophe. Protestors have taken to the
streets, calling for a detachment of Northern Cyprus’s currency away from the
Turkish Lira.
The total dependence of the north of the island on Turkey’s economy has led to a
situation where the proclaimed republic barely has any potential for survival.
It is internationally isolated, and its only thoroughfare to the world is
through Ankara.
Turkish Cypriots in a 2004 referendum favored the reunification of the divided
island. It has been 38 years since the Turks invaded and proclaimed the northern
part as an independent state.
In November 2021, Erdogan visited Northern Cyprus and said: “There are two
peoples and two separate states in Cyprus. Talks are needed for a solution based
on two separate states.” He has consistently refused a federal solution, but the
island’s reunification is inevitable.
For Turkey, at the national level, repression continues and only exacerbates the
severe financial crisis. At the regional level, the influence retreat is evident
on several fronts. Ankara attempts now to reduce tensions with neighbors around
Arabia, including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
From everything that’s impacting Turkey, the Cyprus situation is one that most
concerns Erdogan. His 19-year rule isn’t over yet, but his legacy is inevitably
going to be as the President who oversaw Cyprus’s reunification.