English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 17/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.june17.22.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
The world hated me before it hated you &
hated me before you. You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out
of the world therefore the world hates you.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint
John 15/18-21:”‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it
hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.
Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world
therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants
are not greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute
you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these
things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”
Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on June 16-17/2022
Hezbollah Members Get Life Terms for Hariri’s Death
Hariri says STL's Merhi-Onessi verdict is 'clearest condemnation of Hezbollah'
Hariri killers sentenced to life imprisonment
Report: FPM intensifies calls to find PM candidate who 'fits Aoun's conditions'
Conflicting reports on pace of Lebanon-Israel gas deal
15 appeals filed with Constitutional Council over elections results
Bou Saab says Lebanese stance 'strong' and 'unified' in border talks
Fayyad extends licensing deadline for gas exploration
Rochdi delivers remarks on Extension and Revision of Lebanon Emergency Response
Plan
The Hibernated Conflicts and the Disintegration of Lebanon/Charles Elias
Chartouni//Thursday, 16 June, 2022
Israel Must Force Lebanon to the Table by Extracting Gas/The Media Line Staff/Ma’ariv/June
16/2022
Lebanon’s caretaker PM tipped as favorite to form next government/Najia Houssari/Arab
News/June 16/2022
Lebanon’s New Victory/Hussam Itani/Asharq Al Awsat/June 16/2022
Lebanon blows hot air in gas exploration dispute with Israel/Makram Rabah/Al
Arabyia/June 16/2022
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on
June 16-17/2022
Iran Arrests Suspect Allegedly Plotting with French Spy Ring
Malley, McGurk Brief Senate on Latest Developments in Nuclear Talks with Iran
UN Concerned Over Iran’s Violent Crackdown on Teachers
Israel Rejects All US Proposals to Meet with Palestinians
EU leaders vow to back Ukraine in visit to war-torn Kyiv
French, German, Italian Leaders Visit Kyiv to Show Support
Iraq Begins Setting Up Electricity Links with Saudi Arabia
Public workers strike in Tunisia, signaling national crisis
Columbia District trolls Saudi embassy by naming street Jamal Khashoggi Way
Titles For The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on June 16-17/2022
The UN continues Israel-bashing after Biden promised to stop it/Richard
Goldberg/New Yorl Post/June 16/2022
Iran sanctions could tighten if nuclear talks fade, Biden admin officials tell
senators/Andrew Desiderio/Politico/June 16/2022
Palestinians: The House Demolitions and Land-Grabs No One Talks About/Khaled Abu
Toameh/Gatestone Institute/June 16/2022
The World Can Stave Off Putin’s Food Fight/Clara Ferreira Marques/Bloomberg/June
16/2022
Decisive People Aren’t Better Decision-Makers/Therese Raphael/Bloomberg/June
16/2022
Iranian regime appears committed to nuclear weapons/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab
News/June 16/2022
What do Saudis want from Biden’s visit?/Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/June 16/2022
Choosing sides in the conflict between two global rivals/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/June
16/2022
The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on June 16-17/2022
Hezbollah Members Get Life Terms for
Hariri’s Death
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
Appeals judges at an international tribunal sentenced two members of Lebanon’s
Hezbollah to life imprisonment Thursday for their roles in the assassination of
former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the deaths of 21 other people in
a massive bombing in Beirut in 2005. Neither of the convicted men, Hassan Habib
Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, has been arrested and sent to the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in the Netherlands. They were tried in their absence
and remain at large. Merhi and Oneissi were convicted on appeal in March of five
crimes, including being accomplices to the intentional homicide of Hariri and
the 21 others. They all were killed when plotters detonated a huge truck bomb on
the Beirut seafront as Hariri's motorcade drove past on Feb. 14, 2005. The blast
wounded another 226 people. During a hearing Thursday, the tribunal’s president,
Czech judge Ivana Hrdličková, said Merhi and Oneissi were receiving life
sentences for each of their five convictions. If they are ever captured and
imprisoned, the sentences would be served concurrently. Prosecutors appealed
after the two men were acquitted nearly two years ago following a lengthy trial
that found another Hezbollah member, Salim Ayyash, guilty of involvement in the
blast. Ayyash, who also was tried in absentia, received a life prison sentence.
The STL was created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution. It is funded by
voluntary contributions and by the Lebanese government. Thursday's ruling
concludes the court's main case. It is expected that the court, which has been
plagued by a funding crisis in the past years, will close down with only minimal
staffing to handle residual issues.
Hariri says STL's Merhi-Onessi verdict is 'clearest
condemnation of Hezbollah'
Naharnet/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
The life imprisonment verdicts issued Thursday by the Special Tribunal for
Lebanon are the “clearest condemnation of Hizbullah” in the 2005 assassination
of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri said.
“After the conviction of Salim Ayyash in the crime of the assassination of
martyr premier Rafik Hariri and his companions, the Appeals Chamber of the
Special Tribunal for Lebanon unanimously sentenced two other Hezbollah members,
Hassan Merhi and Hussein Oneissi, to life imprisonment,” Hariri tweeted.“The
penalty is the harshest one stipulated by the statute and rules, but it is the
clearest in terms of condemning Hezbollah as a side responsible for
orchestrating and executing the crime,” Hariri added. Hezbollah “cannot evade
the responsibility of handing over the convicts” so that “the penalty can be
levied against them,” the ex-PM went on to say, warning that “history will not
be merciful” on Hezbollah if it does not do so. Merhi and Oneissi had been found
guilty on appeal in March by the Dutch-based STL after they were initially
acquitted. The court found Merhi and Oneissi distributed a video in which a
fictitious group claimed responsibility for the attack, in a bid to protect the
"real perpetrators" from a covert Hezbollah network. But the pair are unlikely
to ever spend time behind bars as Hezbollah has refused to hand them over, as it
has refused to surrender a third man, Salim Ayyash, who was sentenced to life
imprisonment in 2020. Presiding judge Ivana Hrdlickova said both Merhi and
Oneissi were aware that Hariri would be killed in the attack, adding that the
sentences reflected the "evil nature of terrorism.""The appeals chamber
therefore unanimously decides to sentence Mr Merhi and Mr Oneissi to life
imprisonment, the heaviest sentence under the statute and the rules for each of
the five counts on which they were convicted," she said. The men were found
guilty of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, and of being accomplices to
commit a terrorist act, accomplices in the intentional homicide of Hariri and of
the 21 other people, and accomplices in the attempted homicide of the 226
injured. The attack on Sunni billionaire Hariri, who had stepped down as
Lebanon's prime minister in October 2004, triggered protests that drove Syria
out of Lebanon after a 29-year military deployment.
The court was born in 2009 out of a United Nations Security Council resolution
and eventually tried four suspects in absentia: Ayyash, Merhi, Oneissi and Assad
Sabra. The case relied almost exclusively on circumstantial evidence in the form
of mobile phone records that prosecutors said showed a Hezbollah cell plotting
the attack. The STL originally convicted Ayyash and cleared the other three men.
It said there was no direct evidence of Damascus or its ally Hezbollah's
involvement, but that the attack probably involved state actors and that the
state with most to gain was Syria. But in March it found Merhi and Oneissi
guilty after an appeal by prosecutors, saying the original trial judges had
"erred" by saying there was a lack of evidence. They upheld the acquittal of
Sabra. All three convicted men remain at large as Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah has refused to hand over any of the suspects or to recognize the
court. The sentencing could be one of the last acts by the STL as the
cash-strapped court has warned it will close imminently due to a shortage of
funds. The court is estimated to have cost between $600 million and $1 billion
since it opened and has been dogged by political issues in Lebanon and
controversies over its price tag. The closure means a further trial against
Ayyash in a separate case involving three attacks targeting Lebanese politicians
in 2004 and 2005 is now unlikely to ever take place. The STL draws 51 percent of
its budget from donor countries and the rest from Lebanon, which is grappling
with its deepest economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Hariri killers sentenced to life imprisonment
Agence France Presse/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
Appeals judges at an international tribunal sentenced two m
A U.N.-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in their absence to life
imprisonment on Thursday for a huge Beirut bombing in 2005 that killed Lebanon's
ex-premier Rafic Hariri. Habib Merhi and Hussein Oneissi were found guilty on
appeal in March by the Dutch-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) over the
attack, which killed 21 other people and injured 226. The court found Merhi and
Oneissi distributed a video in which a fictitious group claimed responsibility
for the attack, in a bid to protect the "real perpetrators" from a covert
Hezbollah network. But the pair are unlikely to ever spend time behind bars as
Hezbollah has refused to hand them over, as it has refused to surrender a third
man, Salim Ayyash, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2020. Presiding
judge Ivana Hrdlickova said both Merhi and Oneissi were aware that Hariri would
be killed in the attack, adding that the sentences reflected the "evil nature of
terrorism". "The appeals chamber therefore unanimously decides to sentence Mr
Merhi and Mr Oneissi to life imprisonment, the heaviest sentence under the
statute and the rules for each of the five counts on which they were convicted,"
she said. The men were found guilty of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, and
of being accomplices to commit a terrorist act, accomplices in the intentional
homicide of Hariri and of the 21 other people, and accomplices in the attempted
homicide of the 226 injured. The attack on Sunni billionaire Hariri, who had
stepped down as Lebanon's prime minister in October 2004, triggered protests
that drove Syria out of Lebanon after a 29-year military deployment.
Last act? -
The court was born in 2009 out of a United Nations Security Council resolution
and eventually tried four suspects in absentia: Ayyash, Merhi, Oneissi and Assad
Sabra. The case relied almost exclusively on circumstantial evidence in the form
of mobile phone records that prosecutors said showed a Hezbollah cell plotting
the attack. The STL originally convicted Ayyash and cleared the other three men.
It said there was no direct evidence of Damascus or its ally Hezbollah's
involvement, but that the attack probably involved state actors and that the
state with most to gain was Syria.
But in March it found Merhi and Oneissi guilty after an appeal by prosecutors,
saying the original trial judges had "erred" by saying there was a lack of
evidence. They upheld the acquittal of Sabra. All three convicted men remain at
large as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has refused to hand over any of the
suspects or to recognize the court. The sentencing could be one of the last acts
by the STL as the cash-strapped court has warned it will close imminently due to
a shortage of funds. The court is estimated to have cost between $600 million
and $1 billion since it opened and has been dogged by political issues in
Lebanon and controversies over its price tag. The closure means a further trial
against Ayyash in a separate case involving three attacks targeting Lebanese
politicians in 2004 and 2005 is now unlikely to ever take place. The STL draws
51 percent of its budget from donor countries and the rest from Lebanon, which
is grappling with its deepest economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Report: FPM intensifies calls to find PM candidate
who 'fits Aoun's conditions'
Naharnet/June 16/2022
The Free Patriotic Movement is intensifying its calls as it tries to find a PM
candidate who fits President Michel Aoun's conditions, and who, at the same
time, can gain enough support from the MPs in order to compete with caretaker
Prime Minister Najib Mikati, media reports said. Asharq al-Awsat newspaper
reported Thursday that Aoun is imposing certain conditions on the PM-designate.
It said it had learned from sources that Aoun is demanding that the next PM
dismiss the Central Bank governor, include the administrative appointments on
the new Cabinet agenda and recover the money transferred after the October 17
uprising by approving a forensic audit. The daily said that, according to
sources, Aoun has been delaying the binding parliamentary consultations in order
to give time to FPM chief Jebran Bassil to find a a PM-designate other than
Mikati. It reportedly quoted Mikati as saying that he will not accept any
conditions, and that the only way to save Lebanon is by approving a recovery
plan, starting reforms and rehabilitating the energy sector in order to reach an
agreement with the International Monetary Fund.Meanwhile, Bassil has failed to
convince his allies with a name for the PM post, the daily said, as the Shiite
Duo leans towards re-assigning Mikati.
Conflicting reports on pace of Lebanon-Israel gas
deal
Naharnet/June 16/2022
Conflicting reports have emerged on whether Lebanon and Israel will manage to
quickly reach a sea border demarcation deal in the wake of U.S. envoy Amos
Hochstein’s visit to Lebanon earlier this week. In remarks to al-Liwaa newspaper
published Thursday, Western diplomatic sources ruled out an imminent agreement,
“as some are promoting,” expecting the U.S. mediation to be continued after the
election of a successor to President Michel Aoun, “because the time remaining in
his tenure is very short.” “Several months have passed since the U.S. mediator
presented his proposals last February, and the Lebanese Presidency officials did
not make use of this time to speed up the steps to finalize this file,” the
sources added. Noting that the “near-unanimous” Lebanese response that has been
informed to Hochstein will certainly give an impetus to the negotiations, the
sources pointed out that “some of its aspects contradict with the suggestions
that were carried by the U.S. mediator in the past, and also with the framework
agreement that was reached between Speaker Nabih Berri and the U.S. side
following years of American mediation.”“This means that it will be the subject
of lengthy deliberations with Israel,” the sources added. “Therefore, the file
will take longer than expected, and with the preoccupation of the U.S.
administration with the global oil problems due to the war in Ukraine, the
entire file is expected to be postponed to the tenure of the new U.S.
administration,” the sources went on to say. Other Western diplomatic sources
meanwhile told another Lebanese newspaper, al-Joumhouria, that Hochstein’s visit
reflected “Washington’s seriousness about reaching a quick agreement between
Lebanon and Israel over their maritime border.”“The core meaning of this visit
was not to waste more precious time for Lebanon and Israel, and what has leaked
about the outcome of Hochstein’s talks in Beirut is that they paved the way for
the return of the Lebanese and Israeli sides to the negotiations table,” the
sources said. “We hope this will happen in the near future, in light of its
benefit to Lebanon and Israel,” the sources added.
15 appeals filed with Constitutional Council over
elections results
Naharnet/June 16/2022
The Constitutional Council’s deadline for accepting appeals against the results
of the parliamentary elections ended on Thursday, after 15 appeals were filed in
total, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The appeals were filed between May 31 and June 16, NNA said.
Below are the details of the 15 appeals as reported by the agency:
- Paul Hanna al-Hamed vs. MP Elias Khoury of the Lebanese Forces (Maronite seat
in Tripoli)
- Mohammed Hammoud vs. MP Bilal al-Hshaimy (Sunni seat in Zahle)
- Josephine Zgheib vs. MP Farid al-Khazen (Maronite seat in Keserwan)
- Haidar Zahreddine vs. MP Ahmed Rustom (Alawite seat in Akkar)
- Elie Khalil Charbachi vs. MP Cynthia Zarazir (minorities seat in Beirut I)
- Ex-MP Faisal Karami (Sunni seat in Tripoli) vs. MPs Rami Fanj, Ehab Matar and
Firas al-Salloum
- Amal Abu Zeid vs. MP Saeed al-Asmar (Maronite seat in Jezzine)
- Marwan Kheireddine and the Hope and Loyalty list vs. MP Firas Hamdan (Druze
seat in Hasbaya)
- Ex-MP Ibrahim Azar vs. MPs Charbel Maroun and Saeed al-Asmar (Maronite seat in
Jezzine)
- Zeina Monzer (Druze seat in Beirut II) vs. MPs Faisal al-Sayegh and Waddah al-Sadek
- Jad Ghoson (Maronite seat in Northern Metn) vs. MPs Razi al-Hajj and Hagop
Pakradounian
- Haidar Nasser (Alawite seat in Tripoli) vs. MPs Ehab Matar and Firas al-Salloum
- Simon Sfeir vs. MPs Neemat Frem and Farid al-Khazen (Maronite seat in Keserwan)
- Tanious Mahfouz vs. MP Jamil Abboud (Greek Orthodox seat in Tripoli)
- Wassef al-Harakeh vs. MP Fadi Alameh (Shiite seat in Baabda)
Bou Saab says Lebanese stance 'strong' and 'unified' in border talks
Naharnet/June 16/2022
The maritime border demarcation talks have reached a sensitive phase, according
to Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab, who told LBCI on Thursday that the U.S.
mediator will come back within ten days to Lebanon with a response. Bou Saab
told LBCI that a progress has been made in the negotiations and that the
Lebanese proposal to Amos Hochstein has strengthened Lebanon's stance. "There
has been a lack of coordination in the past concerning the border demarcation,
but it is different now," Bou Saab said. "the Lebanese can rest assured that
none of the officials will give up Lebanon's rights," he added. Bou Saab ruled
out the possibility of a war with Israel. He said there is hope that the talks
will reach a result. "The framework agreement will put an end to the border
demarcation file, but we must stop political bickering," Bou Saab said.
Fayyad extends licensing deadline for gas
exploration
Associated Press/June 16/2022
Lebanon's caretaker energy minister has extended the licensing deadline for oil
and gas companies to explore in the country's territorial waters until
mid-December, to give more firms the chance to bid, state-run news agency
reported. The decision by the minister, Walid Fayyad, to extended the deadline
of the second round of licensing until Dec. 15 followed a request by the
Lebanese Petroleum Administration, the National News Agency said. In 2017,
Lebanon approved licenses for an international consortium by France's Total,
Italy's ENI and Russia's Novatek to move forward with offshore oil and gas
development for two of 10 blocks in the Mediterranean Sea, including one that is
disputed in part with neighboring Israel. The companies did not find viable
amounts of oil and gas in block number 4 north of Beirut, and drilling in block
number 9 in the south has been repeatedly postponed because of the maritime
border dispute with Israel. The new round of licensing will cover the remaining
eight offshore blocks, the report said. The extension will give additional
companies currently not working in Lebanon the chance to prepare their documents
in order to apply for licenses. It said such a move would "create an acceptable
level of competition between international oil and gas companies."Fayyad's
decision came a day after Lebanese President Michel Aoun presented suggestions
related to the disputed maritime border to the U.S. envoy mediating between
Lebanon and Israel. The envoy said the suggestions "will enable the negotiations
to go forward." The visit by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein followed an invitation by
the Lebanese government after Israel set up a gas rig at its designated location
at the Karish field. Israel says the field is part of its U.N.-recognized
exclusive economic zone, while Lebanon insists it is in a disputed area.
Tensions have been rising recently along the border, and Israel and Lebanon's
heavily armed militant Hezbollah group have exchanged threats over the border
dispute.
Rochdi delivers remarks on Extension and Revision of Lebanon Emergency Response
Plan
Naharnet/June 16/2022
U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon Najat Rochdi has delivered
a speech at a press conference held Thursday at the U.N. House (Beirut) on the
Extension and Revision of the Emergency Response Plan (ERP). Below are Rochdi’s
remarks as delivered at the conference:
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, Distinguished partners, colleagues, and
friends, Ahlan wa sahlan and thank you for joining us today. More than two years
since the start of the crisis, Lebanese are hanging on by a thread, their
livelihood in tatters and their hopes almost shattered. In my regular field
visits, I have listened to stories of shock and of loss. Young people whose
dream is simply to go to school are now chasing informal jobs to provide for
their families. Others desperately seek to leave and start a new life elsewhere,
leaving the country almost void of its most rich and promising human capital.
Today, I see familiar faces who joined me last year at the Press Conference to
discuss the preliminary results of the ERP. Sadly, in less than a year, the
situation has severely aggravated and further deteriorated. According to World
Bank estimates, real GDP is projected to contract by a further 6.5% in 2022, on
the back of a 10.5% and 21.4% decline in 2021 and 2020 respectively. The
exchange rate continues its sharp decline, losing 95% of its value by June 2022,
while the cumulative inflation reached a devastating 890% since the onset of the
crisis. The socio-economic meltdown in Lebanon has been further exacerbated by
the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on the country, which is mainly reflected in
the depletion of wheat reserves and the soaring prices of fuel items that are
leading to drastic increases in bread prices and threatening food security.
Unemployment, another facet of poverty, has significantly increased and the
minimum monthly wage has currently become less than $25, resulting in a
significant decline in income and purchasing power. ILO’s Labour Force Survey
issued in January 2022, paints a morbid picture of Lebanon’s struggling labor
force as almost one-third of Lebanon’s labor force is unemployed, with a total
unemployment rate tremendously increasing from 11.4 percent in 2018-2019 to 29.6
percent in 2022. The situation of youth unemployment is even intolerable, as it
stands at 47.8 percent among youth aged 15 to 24. Joblessness has become the tip
of the iceberg, throwing away an entire productive and creative generation that
can help build forward a better Lebanon.
Increases in the price of crude oil on the global market in recent months have
been mirrored by further spikes in the prices of gasoline, diesel, and gas in
Lebanon and the spillover effects of this sharp rise have been detrimental to
the people. It threatens to tip thousands of families over the edge into food
insecurity, malnutrition, and possibly hunger.
Our recent assessment shows that 2.2 million people require urgent support to
secure access to food and other basic needs until the end of the year, an
increase of 46 percent compared to last year. It also shows that 90 percent of
families in Lebanon are now consuming less expensive food, 60 percent are
limiting portion size, and 41 percent are reducing the number of meals, with
children hardest hit. These are mind-blowing numbers that raise the alarm about
food insecurity in the country. They also spur me to stress again on having a
comprehensive and inclusive social protection policy that helps ensure people’s
access to basic services and adopt a recovery and reform agenda in line with the
human rights standards. This is the only possible exit strategy for the current
situation as it will help bridge between the short-term emergency interventions,
and a longer-term rights-based approach that guarantees a more dignified future
for all the people. The UN has worked closely with the Government of Lebanon to
finalize this strategy and I welcome the Government’s endorsement of the
Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) earlier this year. Despite this progress, the
ESSN is not enough given the continuously increasing needs of families.
Concurrently, the health sector in Lebanon is on the verge of collapse at a time
when the needs are significantly increasing. For example, 1.95 million people
across Lebanon are requesting humanitarian health services, an increase of 43
percent since August 2021. These rising needs are obviously driven by the
inability to access health services, including the unavailability and
unaffordability of medications, the skyrocketing hospitalization costs, and the
overstretched primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, to name a few. The situation
is even direr for patients in need of medications for chronic illnesses, which
are either at exorbitant prices or unavailable.
All the more, hospitals suffer from an acute shortage in medical supplies and
power shortages, at a time when over 40% of Lebanon’s doctors and 30% of nurses
have left Lebanon since the beginning of the economic meltdown, according to
WHO. For Caretaker Minister of Public Health, Dr. Firas Abiad, the health sector
is “a bomb waiting to explode.” This is alarming!
Another concerning impact of the electricity shortages is people’s access to
safe water. Almost 4 million people are at immediate risk of being denied access
to safe water in Lebanon, with alternative water supplies expected to be
unaffordable to the most vulnerable households due to the soaring cost of fuel
and the inefficiency of water establishments. With summer fast approaching,
access to safe water will be extremely challenging for many families who cannot
afford to buy bottled water, hence will be more likely forced to use unreliable
sources that put the health of their family members at risk.
Distinguished guests,
Lebanon’s crisis is affecting everyone, everywhere across the country, with
women bearing the brunt of the profound impact of this multi-faceted crisis.
Alarmingly, gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse are on the
rise. We have received widespread reports of women and children feeling unsafe
in public spaces such as streets, markets, or when using public transport. The
multi-prolonged crisis has compounded the structural and endemic gender
inequality and discrimination against women. The majority of women in Lebanon,
around 75%, are jobless, and among the 25 percent who are in the labor force, 10
percent are unemployed compared to only 5 percent of men. The crisis is also
having a dramatic impact on children’s living conditions. According to a
recently published report by UNICEF2, hundreds of thousands of children in
Lebanon are going to bed hungry, are not receiving the health care they need,
and are unable to attend school due to their engagement in child labor, one of
the most adverse coping strategy adopted by poor families. This reality is
worsening by the day and children’s health and safety are being jeopardized. Our
reports also show that since December 2020, routine vaccination of children
under five has been steadily dropping. Disturbingly, 460,000 children and women
need nutrition services. The 2021 nutrition SMART survey showed that over 40
percent of children under five and women of reproductive age suffer from some
form of nutrition-related anemia, while an estimated 200,000 children under five
suffer from a form of malnutrition, and approximately 7 percent of children are
stunted, a worrying indicator of chronic malnutrition and unfortunately a
reality that is likely to worsen if food insecurity continues to increase.
Another recent nutrition survey conducted among Lebanese and Palestine refugees
found that 9 out of 10 children do not get the nutrition they need to thrive
later in life.
On the education front, more than 65,000 boys and 70,000 girls struggle to
access education mainly due to economic vulnerability as well as engagement in
child labor, whereas 43 percent of migrant children are not enrolled at all in
schools.
In addition, 350,000 children need protection services due to the continued
worsening socio-economic situation and the lack of basic goods and social
services. The level of psychological distress of caregivers and children has
also dramatically increased, leading to a rise in cases of child labor, child
exploitation, and abuse. This must end! Children are the future of this country,
and we all have to support them, empower them, and protect them now, to avoid a
‘lost generation’.
The rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Lebanon required a
steadfast response. Accordingly, the Humanitarian Country Team, under my
leadership, launched a 12-month coordinated multi-sectoral Emergency Response
Plan (ERP) to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations among the
Lebanese, migrants, and Palestine refugees in Lebanon (PRL). The ERP complements
the ongoing Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP) that addresses the impact of the
Syria crisis in Lebanon. It is an emergency plan that aims at saving lives and
alleviating people’s suffering in the short term.
We cannot continue to find short-term solutions to end these humanitarian needs.
We need instead sustainable solutions that address the root causes of Lebanon’s
compounding crises. This lies in the concept of “emergency development” that
shapes the recently signed UN Cooperation Framework and presents a transitional
phase to achieve sustainable development, which helps put an end to humanitarian
needs with a focus on a humanitarian-development nexus.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Since its launch in August 2021, and thanks to our generous donors, the ERP has
received so far 51.4 percent of its funding, which amounts to $197 million.
Through this amount, and as of April 2022, humanitarian actors were able to
assist more than 600,000 of the most vulnerable Lebanese, migrants, and
Palestine refugees in Lebanon who were affected by the crisis. From August 2021
till April 2022, nearly 650,000 persons were provided with food assistance on
monthly basis, through in-kind or cash support; 300,000 people were supported
with health interventions, including medicines for acute and chronic diseases,
psychotropic medications, and reproductive health commodities; And about 286,000
people were provided with the minimum quantity of clean water per day.
All the more, and through the OCHA-led Pooled Funds, namely the Central
Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF), I have
allocated since mid-2021 to date a total amount of $53 million to sectoral and
multisectoral projects to save lives and protect affected civilians across all
population groups in Lebanon. Through the emergency fuel provision, we have been
able to support over 600 health facilities and water pumping stations to ensure
the provision of life-saving services to the most vulnerable populations
affected by this ongoing energy crisis and maintain the provision of basic
services across Lebanon. This time-bound fuel operation ended but the energy
crisis continues to threaten the supply of basic water and health services
across the country, which jeopardizes the life of thousands of families in
Lebanon. Therefore, I reiterate my urgent appeal to the Government to find a
sustainable solution to this persisting energy crisis and take decisive actions
in adopting the necessary reforms to address this problem.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press,
Eleven months after the launch of the ERP, the humanitarian needs continue to
grow exponentially. According to the recent countrywide Multi-Sector Needs
Assessment (MSNA), humanitarian needs have increased by 31% between 2021 and
2022. A staggering number of 2.2 million vulnerable Lebanese, 86,200 migrants,
and 207,800 Palestine refugees in Lebanon (PRL) currently require emergency aid
– in addition to 1.5 million Syrian refugees. They are unable to afford or even
access health, food, electricity, water, education, and wastewater management,
not to mention life-saving protection services. According to the MSNA, 85
percent of Lebanese households reported that they did not receive any type of
assistance at the household level during the three months prior to the
assessment, while this percentage reached as high as 95 percent among migrant
households and 66 percent among the Palestine refugees in Lebanon. This is
appalling and clearly indicates the imperative for action to address the plight
of millions of people in Lebanon who are in desperate need of help and
humanitarian support. For this reason, together with humanitarian actors, the
Government of Lebanon, and our long-standing donors, we have extended the
Emergency Response Plan until the end of 2022. An additional $163 million is
needed to fulfill the additional humanitarian needs of the mounting number of
vulnerable people. This makes the total required funding of the ERP from August
2021 until December 2022, $546 million. The revised ERP will provide life-saving
humanitarian support to 1 million vulnerable Lebanese, Palestine refugees, and
migrants affected by the ongoing crisis. I am heartened by the donors’ support
for the people of Lebanon, and I count on their continued efforts to advance it
on the ground despite the challenges we all know. Ladies and Gentlemen of the
press, Despite the scale and magnitude of the hardships, I personally see this
crisis as an opportunity to build forward better, and to unlock the potential
that this country has in the path of development and recovery. Humanitarian
assistance alone is not the solution, and the only path is reform and
sustainable development. Thank you for your attention. I am happy now to take
your questions.”
The Hibernated Conflicts and the Disintegration of Lebanon
Charles Elias Chartouni//Thursday, 16 June, 2022
The conflict in Ukraine seems to perpetuate, the nihilistic proclivities of a
psychotic dictator define the dismal predicament of Russia and its pathetic
failure to organize an orderly transition away from the deadweight of Oriental
despotism and Bolshevism. Paradoxically enough, five months after the onset of
the conflict in Ukraine, there is no international mediation and the UNSC action
in Ukraine is hobbled since last February veto by Russia and China. The chances
of a diplomatic breakthrough are forestalled, and the true goals of this
arbitrary war are quite clear: the challenge of the post World War II Order, and
the undermining of its institutions and liberal credo. The calamitous drive of
this war displays the true intentions of a rising totalitarianism featured by
Russia and China and their occasional allies. Unfortunately, Ukraine is serving
as an experimental terrain for future attempts on European and international
security, and a test to probe the resolve of the EU and the cohesion of the NATO
coalition, and the US determination to face up to the rising threats.
The multiplication of "Frozen Conflicts" is of bad omen, since it ushers an era
of institutionalized chaos, expanding zones of protracted conflicts, and
incremental weakening of an already discredited United Nations. Iran,Venezuela,
Cuba, Nicaragua…, are riding on the coattails of the nascent totalitarianism,
and trying to sanctuarize their insularity from the rest of the international
community and its consensuses. Liberal democracies have no other choice but to
contain the politics of subversion,prepare for nuclear attacks and preemptive
Total war scenarios. The future of US-Iranian negotiations are undercut by the
doublespeak of the Iranian autocracy, its practical disengagement from the
international community, and effective rallying of the incipient international
counter-system.
The sobering observation of realities accounts for the dynamic counter-offensive
of Israel and its readiness to destroy the strategic platforms projected by Iran
in the Middle East. The equivocations of the late elections in Lebanon, and the
consolidation of Shiite Fascism hold on major political levers in Lebanon, and
the tattered texture of the purported opposition and its instrumentalisation by
the coalition in power, account for the current political course and its
overriding priorities: secure a complicit cabinet formation or perpetuation, and
make sure to control presidential election, or take advantage of the void to
pursue the strategy of predation. Obviously, the utmost priority of the mortal
crises and structural reforms they require (financial, economic, social,
educational and environmental reforms) are out of scope and sidelined as
irrelevant political entries. This deliberate dismissal, far from being benign,
is intentionally sought by the putschists as a shortcut to a carefully planned
breakdown. Politics as usual is a recipe for an impending and epochal disaster.
Israel Must Force Lebanon to the Table by Extracting Gas
The Media Line Staff/Ma’ariv/June 16/2022
The voices emanating from Lebanon call for a hardening of the country’s position
vis-à-vis Israel regarding the demarcation of the maritime border between the
two countries. After last month’s general election, there was a false hope that
Beirut would prefer to reach a compromise that would allow it to extract gas
from the ocean and ensure adequate revenue for the state coffers. More than a
decade ago, Israel and Lebanon conveyed their position on the issue to the
United Nations. The two countries agreed that the dispute between them is over
an area of only 860 square kilometers. They sought Washington’s assistance in
resolving this dispute. The American diplomat Frederick Hoff, who was in charge
of dealing with the issue, drew a straight line from Metula and divided the area
of dispute between the two countries, with Lebanon receiving 57% of it, and the
rest being allocated to Israel. Israel agreed but Lebanon did not because
according to this outline, part of the Lebanese Qana gas field was to remain in
Israeli hands. Hezbollah opposed this, arguing that gas production by Israel and
Lebanon in Qana would require cooperation between them, thereby paving the way
to normalization. At the end of 2020, contacts between Israel and Lebanon, with
American mediation, resumed. However, following pressure from the Lebanese army,
studies by a British company, and the opinion of international experts, Lebanon
changed its position and began to demand an area of 1,460 square kilometers in
addition to the 860 square kilometers already under discussion. Of course,
Israel objected, mostly because the Karish gas field, which is currently in
Israeli hands, would be transferred entirely to Lebanon under such an
arrangement. The president of the United States appointed a new mediator, the
Israeli American Amos Hochstein. Hochstein made a proposal that sums up two main
points: One is that the discussions between the parties will take place
according to the initial area of dispute (i.e., 860 square kilometers). The
second point is to redraw Hoff’s line in a way that would leave Lebanon full
sovereignty over Qana. Lebanon has rejected this proposal, and as stated, the
voices stemming from Beirut today are demanding that Lebanon’s position be
hardened. At the beginning of this year, Israel and Lebanon warned each other in
writing not to produce gas from the disputed territory. If Lebanon submits an
official complaint to the UN canceling the previous one submitted in 2011 and
makes a formal demand for the larger area in question, we will find ourselves
back at square one, and tensions between the two countries will rise. It is
possible that the Americans, who invited the head of the Lebanese security
service, Abbas Ibrahim, to the White House, raised the issue with him. America’s
intervention now is cardinal. Lebanese President Michel Aoun, whose party status
has weakened in recent elections, could play the naval demarcation card to
advance his agenda to elect his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, an ally of Hizbullah,
as the next president. Israel can shuffle the cards by extracting gas from its
disputed territory without waiting for a resolution, forcing Lebanon to return
to the negotiating table with intentions of reaching a compromise. –Yitzhak
Levanon (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)
Lebanon’s caretaker PM tipped as favorite to form next
government
Najia Houssari/Arab News/June 16/2022
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun will hold binding consultations with
members of the country’s recently elected parliament to name a new prime
minister on June 23.
Caretaker PM Najib Mikati is widely seen as the front-runner for the post. Once
named, the new prime minister must form a government, a process that often takes
several months. However, the incoming government will last for only four months,
as its term will end with the completion of the presidential term in October.
After Saad Hariri, leader of the Future Movement, declared the suspension of his
political career and that of his party, political groups began looking for a
Sunni figure who could be nominated to head the new government. By convention,
the prime minister of Lebanon is a Sunni Muslim. Independent Sunni MP Abdul
Rahman Al-Bizri told Arab News that the nomination of a new premier is still
underway and talks are taking place between various groups “to reach a formula
that is relieving for Lebanon.”
He said: “We are living through tough times and the traditional political forces
tend to renominate the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.” A political
observer said that this week might witness political deals to form the
government due to “the weakness of the Sunnis in the political equation.”A
meeting on Wednesday between the Grand Mufti of Lebanon Abdullatif Darian and
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari assumed special significance as it
coincided with the launch of the process to nominate the new premier.
Bukhari highlighted “the important role of the grand mufti in strengthening the
unity of the Lebanese and Islamic stance, especially during the hard times
Lebanon is passing through.”
He said that Saudi Arabia hopes to see the “unity of the people of Lebanon in
front of the challenges that it is facing,” and praised the efforts of the mufti
to guarantee national unity and ensure civil peace in the country. Doubts remain
over how the parliamentary blocs will handle the process of nominating the new
premier. Until now there has been no agreement among the opposition forces on
any nominee, and there is no guarantee Mikati will be renominated despite the
fact that he is the clear favorite. MP Ibrahim Mneimneh told Arab News:
“Lawmakers from the ‘Together Toward Change’ list did not form a unified bloc.
However, they are making contacts and consultations to reach a unified stance.
We want a nonpolitical figure who has a program that fits the new era and whose
government can bring in reforms, the most important thing for Lebanon.”Those who
do not want a premier with these qualifications “will take the country into the
unknown,” Mneimneh said. “They have proven that they are irresponsible people
who have led the country to ruins.”The MP said that the minimum expected from
the new government is to introduce economic reforms in accordance with the
demands of the International Monetary Fund.
“There is a possibility that we do not elect a new president in due time. Hence,
the term of the government might get extended,” he said. However, former
governments whose heads were nominated by Hezbollah and its allies failed, and
disagreements developed between its ministers despite the fact that they were
from the same side. This is what happened with the Mikati government whose call
was “together for salvation.”In a recent interview, Gebran Bassil, head of the
Free Patriotic Movement, criticized Mikati over his refusal to grant Bassil’s
party the energy portfolio in the new government.
Lebanon’s New Victory…
Hussam Itani/Asharq Al Awsat/June 16/2022
Lebanon emerged victorious then, imposing Line 23 on Israel as the maritime
borderline separating the two country’s economic zones. Lebanon’s victory, which
would be added to the President and his resistance’s long list of achievements,
hinges on overcoming a minor obstacle: getting Israel to recognize this border.
Many have become weary of the story of Lebanon changing its demands because of
its representatives’ ineptitude, with opportunism coming into play and becoming
a decisive factor in determining the area of its economic zone, and the
country’s officials attempting to exploit US support for Lebanon’s position for
political gain. The weary are aware that in the end, another “victory” for the
ruling regime and its allies will be attained, regardless of the demarcation
line that the Lebanese-American-Israeli fair will agree to.
Lebanon’s rulers have no solution for the collapse of the state, the
disintegration of society, and the death of the economy and education, under
their hats. Their strategy is limited to promoting illusions of victories that
will not have any material impact in the foreseeable future. This so-called
victory is just another big lie that can be added to the long list that Lebanese
politicians have been trying to sell aggrieved citizens ready to cling on to any
shadow of hope that will be freed from their suffering in the midst of the
wreckage of what used to be a homeland.
In other words, given the current situation in Lebanon, the question of whether
Line 29- which the Lebanese authorities demanded for a while before abandoning
it- or its alternative, Line 23- which lies further north and whose critics say
leaves hundreds of square kilometers of water, oil and gas under it for Israel-
is inconsequential. Both lines would be of equal value in today’s Lebanon, as it
cannot benefit from either of them. Nothing will come of the US envoy being told
that Lebanon has decided to stick to Line 23 but for opportunistic and
meaningless claims to heroism and a majority victory. Those making these empty
claims are merely seeking to cover up their scandalous performance at the
negotiating table.
Going from declarations of victories to actually extracting the resources in the
sea takes years of work in cooperation of companies working in this field, a
complicated process. Some progress has been made over the past few years, but no
guarantees of any oil and gas came out of it. Indeed, the companies that
conducted the 2020 studies on Block 4 concluded that extracting the gas there
would not be economically viable.
However, such “minor details” did not stand in the establishment’s way. They
continued to invent stories, the most popular of which are those regarding a
natural gas field named Qana, after the village in south Lebanon where Jesus
Christ made his first miracles according to the Bible and where Israel committed
a notorious massacre in 1996. Not a single serious and credible research has
confirmed that this imagined field has any gas. The illusions surrounding the
Qana gas field need a miracle to become a reality.
However, what matters is not whether or not there is oil and gas in Lebanese
waters. What matters, as far as the Lebanese authorities are concerned, is
selling the meat before hunting the prey and reselling it to anyone who shows
signs of being gullible, needy, and in poverty. Hezbollah’s Secretary-General
linked Lebanon’s salvation from its economic catastrophe to the extraction of
oil and gas. Actually, he put a number, in US dollars, on the sum every Lebanese
citizen will receive when the money flows from the sea- pie in the sky. An
immense effort like that to access the reservoirs in the sea and to exploit its
oil and gas demands more than a “televised speech” and much more than some
cheerful tweets about the courageous positions of President Michel Aoun, his
friends, and advisors.
Putting to one side the useless companies that will play the unnecessary role of
mediating between the foreign companies, that will conduct the explorations and
extract the oil and gas, and the Lebanese state, which the establishment set up
over seven years ago to manage and distribute the Lebanese political class’s
appropriation of the lion’s share of the oil wealth as part of the presidential
settlement that brought Michel Aoun to the Baabda Palace, we find only the
traditional Lebanese framework of managing plunder and the exploitation of the
country’s wealth through sectarian quotas.
The question is not whether Line 29 or 23 are agreed to. It never was. It has
always been a smokescreen. The real question is how the country’s resources are
managed and invested. Who will reap the benefits: is it all the Lebanese,
represented by a state with minimal corruption- or let us say a state that
suffers from corruption but is not so corrupt as to be paralyzed and not have
the public interest as its supreme goal? Or will it be those who led Lebanon to
destruction and climbed over the wreckage searching for remains of its wealth?
It seems that neither Lebanese in general, nor those representing the forces for
change that emerged from the latest parliamentary elections that validated the
old way of doing things, nor the balance of power among the country’s social and
political forces, are not able to exploit the country’s resources, nor organize
the wealth ensuing from that process, outside the framework of
sectarian-quota-based spoil-sharing that has been in place for decades. As for
talks of wealth in the sea, the extraction of which will lead to prosperity and
affluence, it is just an obnoxious joke like those making it.
Lebanon blows hot air in gas exploration dispute with
Israel
Makram Rabah/Al Arabyia/June 16/2022
It is interesting how the entire Lebanese population, including myself, has
suddenly become experts in maritime demarcation, gas exploitation, and
production authorities.
It amplified with Israel’s recent commencement of gas exploration in the Karish
oil field with the arrival of a storage and production ship, reigniting a
dispute with Lebanon over blocks 8 and 9. The United States is trying to mediate
through the office of its senior Advisor for Energy Security Amos Hochstein.
In theory, such a maritime border dispute is not rare, as many nations have
faced off on such matters and have found legal means to settle mutual
disagreements for both sides involved. Yet, in the case of Lebanon and Israel,
nothing is as simple as it appears. Especially when the Lebanese side has, since
the start of the demarcation efforts, shown little commitment and failed to see
this process through to a satisfactory conclusion. Given the situation, securing
the gains to permit Lebanon to jumpstart its gas exploration is unlikely.
Instead, the ruling establishment headed by President Michael Aoun has thrown
out a somewhat populist demand that Lebanon’s maritime borders extend to line
29, which will make the current Israeli exploration an apparent infringement on
Lebanese sovereignty, or so they claim. Consequently, the Lebanese state has
requested the intervention of Hochstein, who arrived in Beirut on Monday and met
with senior Lebanese officials, including President Aoun. It was a last attempt
to settle this difficult situation.
Complicating matters further are the statements from Hezbollah against Israel,
which in turn responded with equal threats claiming that the next war with
Hezbollah would have dire consequences. It said it will involve a massive
military operation that would destroy what remains of Lebanon’s non-existent
infrastructure.
In reality, Hezbollah will not dare venture into an open confrontation with
Israel, especially in Lebanon, as such a scenario would be counterproductive to
the Iranian nuclear talks in Vienna.
Thus, despite Hassan Nasrallah’s fighting words and his recent statement about
his militia’s ability to disrupt the Israeli gas operations, his lack of action
on the matter does not stem from his supposed wisdom and restraint. Instead, it
stems from Tehran’s reluctance to face off with Israel.
Yet all this shadow boxing between Israel and Iran on the Mediterranean
reconfirms the harsh reality that the Lebanese have few options but to regain
the initiative and try to improve their standing in the negotiations. It must
providing Hochstein with a clear list of demands with the legal framework to
achieve them. It is somewhat tricky given that the Lebanese establishment,
especially Aoun and his son-in-law, the US-sanctioned Gebran Bassil, looks at
these gas disputes as ones that will provide them with the opportunity to try to
get the Biden administration to offer further concessions. It might include
lifting Bassil off the sanctions list.
By continuing to run with the line 29 claim without presenting credible
evidence, Lebanon further risks alienating itself and exposing the criminal
naivety of its ruling elite, who claim that they are working for the general
good of its people. At the same time, they lack the vision and, more
importantly, the skills to engage diplomatically with the international
community to preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty and resources.
When Hochstein visited Lebanon back in February, he came bearing a proposal to
swap the two gas fields Karish and Qana between the Israelis and the Lebanese.
This would permit both sides to move forward and benefit with no recourse to
violence or even time-consuming legal arbitration.
As it stands, the Lebanese elite might be willing to go back to Hochstein’s
proposal, sticking to line 23 and accepting to take the Qana gas field,
confirming that all its populist bombast is merely a red herring to distract
attention from their usurpation of power and confirming that they are unfit to
rule.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that the Lebanese are willing to engage
in these political shenanigans, to begin with, while knowing the outcome. More
so, they gullibly look at the gas fields as a way out of the ongoing economic
crisis. At the moment, no amount of gas reserves can be enough to save Lebanon
from its continuous free fall. The farce involving the debate about maritime
demarcation is one more chapter the Lebanese need to learn from.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports
And News published
on June 16-17/2022
Iran Arrests Suspect Allegedly Plotting with French Spy Ring
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
Iranian authorities have arrested a person accused of having a link to two
French citizens being held on espionage charges, state television reported
Thursday.
According to The Associated Press, the report said the suspect was a Marxist who
visited two French spies before the May 1 International Workers' Day, as part of
a plot to "create unrest among workers.” It did not disclose the suspect's
gender, but said the person was arrested by intelligence services while trying
to leave the country through West Azerbaijan Province. TV also said the accused
was tasked with rallying workers and teachers for street protests. In May, Iran
confirmed it has detained two French citizens, Cecile Kohler, 37, and Chuck
Paris, 69, saying they met with protesting teachers, took part in an
anti-government rally, and were organizing a protest to create unrest in Iran.
France identified the two as a teachers’ union official and her partner who were
on vacation in Iran. Teachers have held several strikes and protests in cities
across Iran in recent weeks, walking out of their classrooms to press for better
pay and working conditions.
Malley, McGurk Brief Senate on Latest Developments in Nuclear Talks with Iran
London - Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
The US Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, and Deputy Assistant to the
President and Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk held
a closed session with US lawmakers on Wednesday to brief them on the latest
developments on Iran. Several Senate Foreign Relations Committee members
criticized President Joe Biden administration’s insistence to return Iran to the
nuclear deal.
The Committee Chair, Bob Menendez, has already said publicly that Iran “now has
enough uranium to produce a nuclear weapon” and has urged the White House to
admit that a return to the original agreement is no longer the best path.
Meanwhile, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Eslami said
on Tuesday that Iran’s relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
are ongoing, noting that Iran will act based on the safeguards protocol.
His remarks were made in response to the 35-nation Board of Governors’ majority
vote to criticize Iran for a lack of cooperation with the UN nuclear agency.
The board has expressed “profound concern” the traces remain unexplained due to
insufficient cooperation by Iran and called on Tehran to engage with the
watchdog “without delay.”Eslami slammed IAEA’s selective approach to the 2015
Iran nuclear deal. He stressed that all relevant parties should be committed to
all the deal’s articles.
“It is not possible for them to bring out some part of the JCPOA and say that
these matters are not relevant,” Iran’s official news agency IRNA quoted him as
saying.
He affirmed that Tehran is willing to cooperate with the IAEA if it honors its
commitments towards Iran. “The IAEA has to continue its work with Iran within
the framework of safeguards.”
In this context, the United States said on Tuesday it awaits a constructive
response from Iran on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal without “extraneous”
issues, a possible reference to Iran’s demand its Revolutionary Guards be
dropped from a US terrorism list. “We await a constructive response from the
Iranians, a response that leaves behind issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA,”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, referring to the deal formally
called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
In 2018 then-US President Donald Trump reneged on the deal, under which Iran
restrained its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions,
prompting Iran to begin violating its core nuclear limits about a year later.
Speaking at a briefing, Price was responding to questions about the Iranian
foreign minister’s statement that Tehran had put forward a new proposal on
reviving the agreement, which he did not address in detail. Another State
Department spokesperson, who asked not to be identified, denied the United
States received any serious proposal from Tehran.
Iran has declined direct talks with Washington about reviving the deal and
transmits messages chiefly via European diplomats. “We have seen no substantive
communication from Iran, but we are open to any initiative that would allow us
to immediately conclude and implement the deal we negotiated in Vienna for
mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA, dropping issues that go
beyond the JCPOA,” said the spokesperson. The pact seemed near revival in March
but talks were thrown into disarray partly over whether the US might remove the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which controls elite armed and
intelligence forces that Washington accuses of a global terrorist campaign, from
its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. Biden’s administration has made
clear it has no plan to drop the IRGC from the list, a step that would have
limited practical effect but would anger many US lawmakers.
UN Concerned Over Iran’s Violent Crackdown on Teachers
Geneva - Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
A group of independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations
raised concerns on Wednesday over a “violent crackdown” on teachers and other
civil activists by Iranian authorities. "We are alarmed at the recent escalation
of arbitrary arrests of teachers, labor rights defenders and union leaders,
lawyers, human rights defenders and other civil society actors," the experts
said in a statement. The UN condemnation came as Turkmen President Serdar
Berdimuhamedow kicked off an official visit to Iran, where he held talks with
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his Iranian counterpart Ibrahim Raisi. In the
past months, Iranian teachers and other employees have organized several
nation-wide protests over working conditions, low wages and the impact of
inflation on their salaries, which official figures put at around 40 percent.
Their protests came in the context of an extremely dire economic situation,
affected by the international sanctions imposed on the regime in Tehran. As a
response to the protests, the security forces prevented gatherings and arrested
several teachers, and transferred them to a detention center, sparking more
demonstrations that demanded their release. “We recall that the Government is
the primary duty-bearer in the protection and promotion of human rights,
including by mitigating the impacts of sanctions,” the UN experts stressed in
their statement. In May, Human Rights Watch also called for the release of 40
teachers who were arrested on May 1 during nationwide peaceful mobilization and
protests held on the occasion of the International Workers’ Day and the
Teachers’ Day in Iran.The UN experts said that prior to the May 1 protests and
until 24 May, 2022, over 80 teachers were arrested or summoned by security
forces or the judiciary, and the houses of several trade unionists and teachers
were raided.
“The space for civil society and independent associations to carry out their
legitimate work and activities is becoming impossibly narrow, exemplified by the
large-scale arrests of civil society actors,” they said. The experts also
affirmed that at least five protesters have been killed as a result of excessive
use of force by Iranian security forces, urging those responsible for using
excessive force to be held to account through comprehensive and independent
investigations.
Israel Rejects All US Proposals to Meet with Palestinians
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
Israel has once again rejected a proposal by an American delegation visiting
Israel to bring senior Israeli and Palestinian officials together in a meeting
to discuss the stalled peace process. According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz,
the meeting would be similar to the one attended by Israeli, US and Arab
officials in the Negev in March, but would now include Palestinian officials as
well, in preparation for US President Joe Biden's visit to the region in July.
Israeli officials told their US counterparts that it is “a bad idea because it
would seem like the beginning of a political process without any guarantee for
its success.”
They also stressed that they don’t need mediators to facilitate talks with the
Palestinians, noting that both sides maintain permanent contact, in reference to
their security cooperation. This is the second time Israel rejects a proposal to
hold talks with Palestinians in a political framework. Earlier this month,
Deputy US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman proposed a five-party summit, which
would convene the foreign ministers of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the
United States, Egypt and Jordan in Washington or a regional venue, such as Egypt
or Jordan. This came during her meeting with Israeli National Security Advisor
Eyal Hulata in Washington. However, Hulata reportedly said that the Israeli
government deems the conditions on both sides not ripe for such an initiative
and stressed that Israel isn't interested in a “photo-op” that ends with
nothing, resulting in an “expectation crisis.” In Ramallah, Haaretz reported
that Palestinians are upset because the current US administration hasn’t made
any political changes, but rather adopted a different rhetoric and terminology.
When the US proposed on Palestine to hold this summit, officials stressed that
such a meeting should include an Israeli commitment to the two-state solution
based on the 1967 borders, otherwise, the meeting would be useless. Palestinian
officials and diplomats said that all Palestinian appeals to the United States
to move forward with a diplomatic process have so far been met with claims that
the political situation in Israel is too fragile for talks to resume, Haaretz
reported.
“They talk as if only Israel has a government and public opinion that has to be
considered,” said one source. “What about Palestinian public opinion and what
about the aggression against Palestinians?”
Palestinian officials also reportedly presented the US delegation with a list of
demands unrelated to the Israeli government – including the re-opening of the US
consulate in East Jerusalem, which serves mainly Palestinians, removing the
Palestine Liberation Organization from the US list of terror groups, and
restoring the economic aid. “These are decisions that the United States can make
unilaterally and don’t require hollow summit meetings to be advanced,” said one
Palestinian official.
EU leaders vow to back Ukraine in visit to war-torn Kyiv
Associated Press/June 16/2022
The leaders of major EU powers France, Germany and Italy vowed Thursday to help
Ukraine defeat Russia and to rebuild its shattered cities, in a visit to a
war-torn Kyiv suburb. French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Chancellor
Olaf Scholz and Italian premier Mario Draghi arrived in Ukraine by train and
headed to Irpin, scene of fierce battles early in Russia's invasion. "France has
been alongside Ukraine since day one. We stand with the Ukrainians without
ambiguity. Ukraine must resist and win," Macron told journalists. Surrounded by
the wreckage left by Ukraine's successful but hard-fought defense of its capital
in the early stages of the 113-day-old conflict, Draghi said: "We will rebuild
everything. "They destroyed kindergartens, they destroyed playgrounds.
Everything will be rebuilt," he promised. It is the first time the three have
visited Kyiv since Russia's February 24 invasion. Ukraine has applied to join
the European Union and, although no-one in Brussels expects this to be a quick
process, the leaders of the bloc's most powerful countries were expected to
bring President Volodymyr Zelensky a positive message. Kyiv is also pleading
with its western allies to step up supplies of weapons to its forces, which are
outgunned by Russian artillery on the frontline in east of the country.
- 'Stand by Ukraine' -
Germany, especially, has been criticized for slow weapons deliveries, but
western defense ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss what more they can
do and on Wednesday US President Joe Biden announced $1 billion worth of new
arms for Ukrainian forces. Moscow was dismissive of the European visit, and of
the arms supplies. "Supporting Ukraine by further pumping Ukraine with weapons,"
warned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would be "absolutely useless and will
cause further damage to the country". The new US support package includes
howitzers, ammunition, anti-ship missile systems, and additional rockets for new
artillery systems that Ukraine will soon put in the field. Fighting in eastern
Ukraine is focused on the industrial city of Severodonetsk, and Russians forces
appear close to consolidating control after weeks of intense battles. Sergiy
Gaiday -- the governor of the Lugansk region, which includes the city -- said
Thursday around 10,000 civilians remain trapped in the city, out of a pre-war
population of some 100,000. Kyiv's army is "holding back the enemy as much
as possible," he said on Telegram. "For almost four months they have dreamt of
controlling Severodonetsk... and they do not count the victims."
- Civilians trapped -
Moscow's forces have destroyed the three bridges spanning a river between the
city and Lysychansk. Hundreds of civilians are trapped in a Severodonetsk
chemical plant, which is under constant bombardment, according to Ukrainian
authorities. Russia said Ukrainian authorities had on Wednesday prevented an
attempt at evacuating them. From an elevated position in Lysychansk, an AFP team
saw black smoke rising from the Azot chemical factory in Severodonetsk and
another area in the city. The head of the Severodonetsk city administration
Oleksandr Stryuk told Ukrainian television on Thursday that there were about 500
civilians trapped in shelters at the plant. "Fighting and constant shelling have
been going on there for almost a week now," he said, warning that the shelling
could damage ammonia storage and trigger a chemical disaster. "It is a miracle
that the whole city has not been affected."The Ukrainian military was using the
high ground to exchange fire with Russian forces across the river.
- Seeking more arms -
Elsewhere, Russia launched a missile strike in Ukraine's north-east Sumy region,
killing four people and injuring six others, governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky said on
Telegram. In Brussels, Ukrainian defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov and other
officials met with around 50 countries of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at
NATO headquarters asking for a surge in weapons and ammunition. "Ukraine is
really in a very critical situation and therefore, it's an urgent need to step
up," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told journalists ahead of two days of talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meanwhile underscored that he was not as
isolated internationally as his foes would wish with a call with China's leader
Xi Jinping, their second reported call since Russia attacked Ukraine. China has
refused to condemn Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and has been accused of
providing diplomatic cover for Russia by criticizing Western sanctions and arms
sales to Kyiv. The United Nations warned a hunger crisis that has been worsened
by the war in Ukraine, traditionally a breadbasket to the world, could swell
already record global displacement numbers. Addressing the food insecurity
crisis is "of paramount importance... to prevent a larger number of people
moving," the United Nations refugee chief Filippo Grandi told reporters.
French, German, Italian Leaders Visit Kyiv to Show Support
Asharq Al-Awsa/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania arrived in Kyiv on Thursday in
a show of collective European support for Ukraine as it tries to resist Russia's
invasion, marking the highest-profile visit to Ukraine's capital since Russia
invaded its neighbor.
The French president's office said that President Emmanuel Macron, German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Premier Mario Draghi had traveled to Kyiv
together, and that Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will join them there, The
Associated Press said.
After getting off the train in Kyiv, Macron said they would visit sites where
attacks occurred. “It is an important moment,” he said. "It is a message of
European unity toward Ukrainians.”Macron said they will speak with Ukrainian
officials about “both the present and the future.”German news agency dpa quoted
Scholz as saying that the leaders are seeking to show solidarity but also their
commitment to keeping up their financial and humanitarian help for Ukraine, and
their supply of weapons.
He added that this support would continue “for as long as is necessary for
Ukraine’s fight for independence,” dpa reported. Scholz said that the sanctions
against Russia were also significant and could lead to Moscow withdrawing its
troops.
The European leaders are to meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The economies of France, Germany and Italy are the three largest in the EU.
The leaders arrived on a special overnight train provided by the Ukrainian
authorities, and held long meetings in the dining car after midnight to align
their positions ahead of meeting with Zelenskyy.
The visit carries heavy symbolic weight given that the three Western European
powers have often faced criticism for not providing Ukraine with the scale of
weaponry that Zelenskyy has been begging them for, and for their willingness to
keep speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Many leaders and regular people in the Baltic and Central European nations,
which were controlled by Moscow during the Cold War, believe that Putin only
understands force, and have viewed the efforts by Macron and others to keep
speaking to Putin following his invasion as unacceptable.
Hopes were high among Ukrainians that the visit could mark a turning point by
opening the way to significant new arms supplies.
The visit comes as EU leaders prepare to make a decision June 23-24 on Ukraine's
request to become a candidate for EU membership, and ahead of an important NATO
summit June 29-30 in Madrid.
Also Thursday, NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels to weigh more
military aid for Ukraine. On Wednesday, the US and Germany announced more aid,
as America and its allies provide longer-range weapons they say can make a
difference in a fight where Ukrainian forces are outnumbered and outgunned by
their Russian invaders. On Tuesday, during a trip to Ukraine's neighbors Romania
and Moldova, Macron said a “message of support” must be sent to Ukraine before
EU heads of state and government “have to make important decisions” at their
Brussels meeting.
“We are in a moment where we need to send clear political signals — we,
Europeans, we the European Union — toward Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” he
said.
Macron is deeply involved in diplomatic efforts to push for a cease-fire in
Ukraine that would allow future peace negotiations. He has frequent discussions
with Zelenskyy and has spoken on the phone several times with Russian President
Vladimir Putin since Putin launched the invasion in late February.
Scholz had long resisted traveling to Kyiv, saying he didn’t want to “join the
queue of people who do a quick in-out for a photo opportunity.” Instead, Scholz
said a trip should focus on doing “concrete things.”
Germany on Wednesday announced that it will provide Ukraine with three multiple
launch rocket systems of the kind that Kyiv has said it urgently needs to defend
itself against Russia’s invasion. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said
Germany will transfer three M270 medium-range artillery rocket systems along
with ammunition to Ukraine. Lambrecht, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of
NATO defense ministers in Brussels, said that training of Ukrainian soldiers in
Germany on advanced howitzers whose delivery Berlin had already announced will
soon be completed.
She said the multiple launch rocket systems can be delivered in late July or
early August following training on that equipment. Lambrecht has said that
Germany expects the systems to have “a swift and significant battlefield
impact.”
Iraq Begins Setting Up Electricity Links with Saudi Arabia
Baghdad - Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al-Awsa/Thursday, 16 June, 2022
Iraq's Electricity Ministry has begun establishing interconnection stations with
Saudi Arabia and determining transmission paths. The ministry announced that 88
percent of the interconnection lines with the Gulf countries have been
completed. Iraq’s efforts come to alleviate the severe shortage of energy
supply, which has paralyzed the country’s development and economic movement for
several years. The Iraqi authorities hope to overcome the great shortage of
energy supply during the hot summer season, especially after Iran deliberately
cut off the supply of gas needed for generation operations in some power
stations, under the pretext of Iraq’s failure to pay its dues to Tehran. On
Tuesday, the ministry announced settling Iranian gas dues for 2020 within the
next few days, praising the support of the government and Parliament. “The
ministry is establishing and working on the readiness of stations to establish
the link between Iraq and Saudi Arabia,” ministry spokesman Ahmed Musa told the
Iraqi News Agency. He added that the main objective of the electrical
interconnection projects was the readiness and stability of the electrical
network and Iraq’s access to energy markets. Earlier this week, the Saudi
Cabinet approved the MoU with Iraq in the field of electrical interconnection.
This came during a session chaired by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, according to
the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). In previous remarks, the spokesman for the Iraqi
Ministry of Electricity had announced the percentage of completion of the
electrical connection with the Gulf countries and Turkey, and pointed to
preparations for solar energy projects within the ministry’s medium-term plans.
He said that the electrical connection with Turkey has been fully completed,
while the Gulf connection was 88 percent complete, emphasizing ongoing
discussions over the tariff price for the line that connects Al-Faw power
station with the Al-Zour station in Kuwait. With regard to solar energy projects
to generate electricity and strengthen the national system, the spokesman said
that the ministry was in the process of preparing and organizing procurement,
connection and implementation contracts.
He added that the matter needed a set of protocol procedures with the relevant
departments, which would ready within the ministry’s medium-term plan. The
Ministry of Electricity talks about similar connections with Jordan in the hope
of achieving self-sufficiency. The Ministry of Oil is also seeking large
investments in the field of gas with the aim of dispensing with the purchase of
Iranian gas, which costs the country’s treasury billions of dollars annually.
According to official figures, successive Iraqi governments since 2003 have
spent more than USD70 billion on the electricity sector without being able to
address the power shortage. Production rates are still not sufficient to meet
the growing local needs.
Public workers strike in Tunisia, signaling national
crisis
Agence France Presse/June 16/2022
Flights were cancelled, public transport ground to a halt and government offices
were closed in a nationwide strike by Tunisia's main trade union confederation
Thursday, that piled pressure on a president already facing a string of crises.
The powerful UGTT confederation had called on up to three million public sector
workers to strike, halting work at 159 state agencies and public companies to
demand concessions on salaries and threatened reforms. The action appeared to be
widely observed in the capital Tunis, where post offices and public utilities
were closed. Police were present in large numbers outside UGTT headquarters as
strikers began to gather for a rally. Public television played repeats and
carried an announcement that staff were taking part in the strike. At the
capital's main airport, check-in desks were empty and frustrated passengers
gazed at screens showing rows of cancelled flights. "This strike is the
culmination of a collective failure by more than 10 Tunisian governments, the
UGTT, the International Monetary Fund and Tunisia's international partners" to
restructure the economy, said Tunisian economist Fadhel Kaboub. "It will serve
as a reminder to the IMF that working people in Tunisia can only sustain so much
economic pain."
'Painful reforms'
The strike comes as Tunisia prepares to enter formal talks with the IMF on a new
bailout plan for its debt-laden economy. Tunisians are facing soaring inflation
and the UGTT has demanded a new deal to raise public sector salaries, including
retroactively for last year. While the UGTT's opponents say it is ignoring the
country's deep financial woes, its leverage has been boosted by the IMF making a
bailout deal conditional on trade union support. The government has presented a
reform plan to the global lender which includes a freeze on the public sector
wage bill, progressive cuts to some subsidies and a restructuring of publicly
owned companies. But the UGTT, which has warned against "painful reforms" aimed
at pleasing the IMF, has demanded guarantees that state sector firms, including
some monopolies, will remain publicly owned. The UGTT said Wednesday that its
strike action aimed to defend workers' economic and social rights after the
"dithering of the government in the face of their legitimate demands".
Employment Minister Nasreddine Nsibi said the government reserved the right to
requisition some workers to allow essential services to operate. While the UGTT
insists the strike is not political, it comes as President Kais Saied faces
intense criticism for excluding opposition forces from his "national dialogue"
-- part of a push to overhaul the Tunisian state and consolidate an ongoing
power grab. The president sacked the government and suspended an elected
parliament in July last year, before dissolving the legislature in March and
sacking scores of judges by decree earlier this month. The UGTT was invited to
take part in the national dialogue, but refused on the grounds that key
political forces were not. It also argued that the process aimed to push through
"conclusions decided unilaterally in advance". The UGTT, a co-laureate of the
Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts in a previous national dialogue in the wake of
Tunisia's 2011 revolution, had originally backed Saied when he sacked the
government and suspended parliament. But it has become increasingly critical as
Saied has extended his power grab, which some of his rivals describe as a coup
in the only democracy to emerge from the Arab uprisings of 2011. Kaboub said
democratization had failed to deliver key economic reforms such as boosting food
and energy sovereignty and investing in high value-added industries. "It's time
for the IMF, the Tunisian government and the UGTT to formulate an alternative
vision for economic development in Tunisia," he said.
Columbia District trolls Saudi embassy by naming street
Jamal Khashoggi Way
Associated Press/June 16/2022
One month ahead of President Joe Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia, the District of
Columbia is renaming the street in front of the Saudi embassy Jamal Khashoggi
Way, trolling Riyadh for its role in the killing of the dissident Saudi activist
and journalist in 2018. With members of the D.C. Council in attendance, a Jamal
Khashoggi Way sign was unveiled directly in front of the embassy's main
entrance. "We intend to remind the people who are hiding behind these doors ...
that we hold them responsible and we will hold them accountable for the murder
of our friend," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN, the
pro-Arab world democracy organization founded by Khashoggi prior to his
death.Whitson also criticized what she called the "shameless capitulation" of
the Biden administration for seeking improved relations with the Saudi
government and scheduling an official presidential visit to the kingdom.
Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist, entered
the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, seeking the necessary
documentation for a planned marriage with his fiancee waiting outside for him.
The 59-year old never emerged. The Saudi government initially denied any
wrongdoing. But under mounting international pressure, Riyadh eventually
admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate in what the Saudis
characterized as a repatriation effort gone wrong. The CIA later released a
report concluding that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered on the orders of
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The Saudi regime has consistently denied
that connection. Several lower-level Saudi officials and agents received jail
sentences over the killing. The D.C. Council unanimously voted late last year to
rename a one-block stretch for Khashoggi.
"I'm very proud that we did this, said "D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson. "The
Saudi government cannot forget what happend, what it did. This is a constant
reminder."The renaming is ceremonial, as signified by the brown street sign
instead of the usual green, and it won't impact the embassy's mailing address.
But the sign will remain indefinitely. An email to the Saudi Embassy seeking
comment did not receive a response. Khashoggi's Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz,
could not attend the ceremony, but a statement from her was read aloud. In it,
she bitterly criticized the Biden administration for "putting oil over
principles and expediency over principles."
Cengiz also directly requested of Biden, when he meets with the crown prince,
"Can you at least ask, 'Where is Jamal's body?'"Karine Jean Pierre, the White
House press secretary, would not say whether Biden would raise the issue of
Khashoggi's murder when he meets with Bin Salman next month.
"The president is a straight shooter. This is not something that he's afraid to
talk about," she said. But she didn't confirm if the killing would be a topic of
conversation. The D.C. government has a history of such public moves to troll or
shame foreign governments. In February 2018, the street in front of the Russian
embassy was named Boris Nemtsov Plaza, after a Russian activist shot dead while
walking on a bridge near the Kremlin in 2015. At the previous site of the
Russian embassy, a street was renamed for longtime Russian dissident Andrei
Sakharov. Wednesday's street renaming was essentially a formalization of an
independent activist-driven campaign that had been going on for years. Shortly
after Khashoggi's death, local activist Claude Taylor started placing
realistic-looking Jamal Khashoggi street signs around the city, including
outside the embassy. Taylor said he had as many as 10 signs in different places
at one point, including one near Dupont Circle that lasted for two years before
being vandalized. "It's just a form of public protest with a performance art
aspect to it," Taylor said. Although he noted with a laugh that he wasn't
invited to Wednesday's ceremony, Taylor said, "I'm glad the city did the right
thing and I'm glad he's being recognized this way."
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The UN continues Israel-bashing after
Biden promised to stop it
Richard Goldberg/New Yorl Post/June 16/2022
When the Biden administration last year reversed its predecessor’s decision to
abandon the UN Human Rights Council, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged
his team would use diplomatic engagement to stop its focus on delegitimizing
Israel. That promise remains unfulfilled — and the administration stands on the
verge of complicity in UN-sponsored anti-Semitism. If US diplomats can’t put an
end to the council’s anti-Semitic circus in Geneva this month, Congress should
put an end to US participation in the council. After Hamas terrorists rained
down thousands of rockets on Israeli civilians last year, forcing the
democratically elected Israeli government to respond militarily to defend its
citizens, the Human Rights Council voted to establish a commission of inquiry
into Israel. It has a mandate not just to compile alleged human-rights abuses
but to concoct a body of so-called evidence to buttress broader anti-Semitic
efforts to label racist the very notion of a Jewish state. Why does the mandate
rise to the level of anti-Semitism? It meets the criteria of the US State
Department-adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working
definition. The alliance cites two prime examples of modern anti-Semitism:
“claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and
“applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or
demanded of any other democratic nation.” The Human Rights Council has long
applied a double standard to Israel — the only country for which it has a
dedicated agenda item. But its new commission’s mandate goes even further,
aiming to produce a UN document that countries can cite to justify anti-Semitic
claims that Zionism is racism.
And, unlike the mandates of other commissions of inquiry, which the council must
renew annually, this one comes without an expiration date.
To its credit, the Biden administration recognizes the commission’s appalling
nature. When late last year the UN General Assembly considered the commission’s
budget, including millions of dollars and dozens of staff, Washington spoke out
in opposition. But it turns out an engagement-only strategy at the United
Nations doesn’t work. The UN in December handed the commission $4.2 million, and
America officially joined the Human Rights Council days later, pledging to use
its membership and influence to terminate the commission’s mandate.
Despite congressional calls to follow through, Team Biden hasn’t met its
promise. When the council met in March, Washington was understandably distracted
by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and mustering diplomatic support to suspend
Moscow from its seat on the council. The Biden administration celebrated a
diplomatic victory — but at what cost? That same session, the council passed
four anti-Israel resolutions and left the commission’s mandate untouched.
This month, the commission published its first report, which largely rehashed
previous UN denunciations of Israel. The absence of fresh analysis likely
reflects circumstantial limitations: The UN had approved the commission’s budget
and staff only a few months prior. The commission vows its investigation is
about to expand to “preserve and analyze information and evidence on
international crimes with a view to identifying those bearing individual
criminal responsibility” and “ensuring individual, State and corporate
accountability.”
Biden’s ambassador in Geneva this week issued a statement, with 21 other
countries, denouncing the report. But words alone won’t derail the commission;
that requires a resolution passed by the 47-member council.
With China continuing a genocide in Xinjiang and Russia committing crimes
against humanity in Ukraine, the council shouldn’t devote precious resources to
widen an anti-Semitic probe. It’s time for the Biden administration to make good
on its promise to seek reform by putting forward a resolution this month to
terminate the commission’s mandate.
The administration, unfortunately, has signaled it may not leave the council
even if the mandate continues, claiming the body “plays a crucial role in
promoting respect for human rights as well as fundamental freedoms all around
the world.”
Tell that to the Uighurs of Xinjiang, the Tibetan people and the citizens of
Hong Kong, particularly in the wake of UN human-rights chief Michelle Bachelet’s
much-criticized visit to China, in which Beijing media quoted her praising the
Communist Party’s work to alleviate poverty and calling its role within
international institutions “crucial.”
There’s no shame in admitting the Human Rights Council is broken beyond repair.
Blinken could take credit for trying his best to end its systemic anti-Semitism
— even if his strategy was naïve and the effort doomed from the start.
But if the Biden team fails to terminate the commission’s mandate this month, it
will have to face the realization that its continued presence in the council
would make the United States complicit in UN-sponsored anti-Semitism and erode
America’s moral leadership in combating this global scourge.
At that point, it will be up to Congress to prohibit US participation in the
Human Rights Council — just as it has done for other international organizations
that run afoul of US values and foreign-policy interests.
*Richard Goldberg is a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies. He served on Capitol Hill, on the US National Security Council, as
the Illinois governor’s chief of staff and as a Navy Reserve intelligence
officer.
Iran sanctions could tighten if nuclear talks fade, Biden
admin officials tell senators
Andrew Desiderio/Politico/June 16/2022
Nearly every congressional Republican and a few Democrats have signaled that the
effort to revive the Obama-era pact with Tehran isn't worth it.
Biden administration officials assured senators at a Wednesday classified
briefing that the U.S. would ramp up sanctions on Iran if needed as hopes dim
for a diplomatic pathway on Tehran’s nuclear program, according to attendees.
The assurances came as lawmakers in both parties press the Biden administration
to articulate a backup plan that could prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear
power. U.S. officials had worked for months to revive the Obama-era
denuclearization agreement with Tehran that Donald Trump ripped up in 2018, but
the last of those discussions happened in March, one top lawmaker said.
“For all intents and purposes, there are no talks,” Senate Foreign Relations
Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said after the briefing. “The question is
whether leaving the door open to the potential deal … is something that’s
desirable as a strategic position for the administration to say to the world,
‘We tried, here it is, they’re unwilling to do it.’”
Biden administration officials conveyed to senators that existing sanctions
against Iran would be maintained, at a minimum. When asked if the administration
is considering additional punitive measures as a way to curb Iran’s nuclear
program, Menendez responded: “I would stay tuned.”
Senators who attended Wednesday’s briefing described a range of possible next
steps for U.S. policy toward Iran, from continuing to search for a diplomatic
solution to imposing new sanctions and huddling with partners in the region.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel next month to two of those partner
countries, Saudi Arabia and Israel, for talks on a wide range of issues,
including Iran and global energy prices.
State Department officials either declined to comment or did not respond to
questions about the briefing. Officials have previously said they have all the
legal authorities they need to impose sanctions for both nuclear and non-nuclear
activity, such as Iran’s support for terrorism in the region and its illicit oil
sales.
Wednesday’s briefing featured Brett McGurk, the White House’s top Middle East
official, and Rob Malley, the top envoy for the Iran talks, updating senators on
what members of both parties say is the close-to-impossible task of turning back
the clock on Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
“There’s not a lot of clarity [on a] plan B,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.).
“Some of that is just a function of the fact that there aren’t a lot of great
options here.”
Efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear accord suffered a setback earlier this year
after Biden decided to maintain the terrorist designation for Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iranian negotiators were demanding that the
IRGC be removed from the U.S. government’s blacklist, but the administration
refused unless Iran was willing to offer concessions on non-nuclear issues.
Menendez, who opposed the Obama administration’s deal, has already said publicly
that Iran “now has enough uranium to produce a nuclear weapon” and has urged the
White House to admit that a return to the original agreement is no longer the
best path. Nearly all Republicans agree with him.
“I just don’t think it will meet the results that they think it’s going to
meet,” Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said of
reviving the 2015 pact. “All Iran is seeking is some short-term sanctions relief
so they can invest more money in their military capabilities — not just their
nuclear program.”
It’s not the first time that the Biden team’s Iran policy has faced bipartisan
rebukes. Last month, a supermajority of senators voted in favor of a symbolic
measure stating that the IRGC’s terrorist designation should be maintained and
that any diplomatic agreement with Iran should also address its support for
terrorism in the region.
Many Democrats, however, continue to believe that the only way to halt Iran’s
nuclear ambitions is to negotiate re-entry into the 2015 accord, which enforced
restrictions on the country’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
“There is no backup. For people who think there’s some military option that’s
feasible, they simply haven’t studied the facts on the ground,” said Sen. Chris
Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the Biden administration’s biggest supporters on its
Iran policy. “Diplomacy is the only viable path, and I have still yet to hear a
single Republican or a single opponent of the [2015 deal] articulate a viable
alternative path.”
*Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.
Palestinians: The House Demolitions and Land-Grabs No One
Talks About
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/June 16/2022
The raid on the village came after the Hamas-controlled Land Authority in the
Gaza Strip ruled that the residents must be evacuated because they had built
their homes on "state-owned" lands.
Sources in the Gaza Strip said that there are 28 more villages slated for
demolition by Hamas on the pretext that they were illegally built on public
lands.
"The Hamas security forces prevented the ambulances from entering the
village.... That's why we had to take the injured to hospital in our cars." —
Yahya Abu Thariyeh, a resident of Umm al-Nasr, independentarabia.com, June 11,
2022
While Hamas has been trying to present itself as the defender of the Bedouin
citizens of Israel, it is targeting the Palestinian Bedouin living under its
control in the Gaza Strip by demolishing their homes and confiscating their
lands, according to Egyptian author Ali Rajab.
Hamas's ongoing efforts to raze entire villages in the Gaza Strip is seen by
many Palestinians as.... part of widespread corruption in Hamas, whose leaders
want to seize lands for their personal use.
By turning a blind eye to the atrocities of Hamas, the journalists and human
rights organizations are once again engaging in a dangerous double standard.
Their obsession with Israel allows Hamas to persist in committing violent crimes
against the Palestinians without receiving negative media coverage -- much less
being held accountable for pillaging and devastating Palestinian communities.
On June 9, hundreds of Hamas security officers raided the village of Umm al-Nasr
to destroy several houses, as part of the terror group's attempt to evict the
residents from the area. Hamas claims that the village was illegally built on
"state-owned" land. The village was established nearly 80 years ago, long before
Hamas was founded in 1988. Pictured: Bedouin children in Umm al-Nasr, in the
Gaza Strip, on August 25, 2005.
While the international community and media continue to condemn Israel day in
and day out about a host of grievances, including the demolition of houses built
without proper permits, no one seems to be interested in the ongoing human
rights violations against Palestinians by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
The United Nations and many foreign journalists are so obsessed with Israel that
they have paid no attention to the latest crime committed by Hamas against
residents of the Bedouin village of Umm al-Nasr in the northern Gaza Strip. The
village was established nearly 80 years ago, long before Hamas was founded in
1988.
On June 9, hundreds of Hamas security officers raided the village to destroy
several houses, as part of the terror group's attempt to evict the residents
from the area. Hamas claims that the village was illegally built on
"state-owned" land.
The raid on the village, the first of its kind since Hamas's violent takeover of
the Gaza Strip in 2007, triggered clashes between the residents and the
officers. The residents threw stones at the officers, who responded by firing
live ammunition at the protesters.
At least 25 villagers were injured during the clashes, eight of them from
gunfire. Sources in the Gaza Strip said that at least one Hamas officer was
injured.
After the violent clashes, Hamas security forces arrested 85 villagers.
The raid on the village came after the Hamas-controlled Land Authority in the
Gaza Strip ruled that the residents must be evacuated because they had built
their homes on "state-owned" lands. Emad al-Baz, head of the Land Authority,
accused the villagers of "transgression" on the disputed land.
Sources in the Gaza Strip said that there are 28 more villages slated for
demolition by Hamas on the pretext that they were illegally built on public
lands.
Yahya Abu Thariyeh, a resident of Umm al-Nasr, said that dozens of Hamas
officers in uniform and civilian clothes who raided the village managed to
demolish one house before the violent clashes erupted there. He accused the
Hamas officers of using excessive force and raiding several houses without a
court order, intimidating the residents, including women and disabled children.
"The Hamas security forces prevented the ambulances from entering the village,"
Abu Thariyeh recounted.
"Although the [Hamas] security forces brought with them an ambulance, its team
refused to provide medical treatment to the injured. That's why we had to take
the injured to hospital in our cars."
The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) said that it
views with great concern the events that took place in the village of Umm al-Nasr,
"which led to the injury of a number of citizens and damage to a number of
houses."
The human rights group revealed that members of Hamas's military wing, Ezaddin
al-Qassam, took part in the raid on the village. The force also stormed several
houses in the village and arrested 40 civilians, according to ICHR.
An investigation conducted by the human rights group concluded that the Hamas
security personnel used excessive force during the confrontations with the
villagers.
The group stressed that it is not acceptable for Hamas officers in civilian
clothes to participate in such raids.
ICHR called for the immediate release of all the detainees and for launching an
investigation into the actions of the Hamas security forces. It also called for
holding accountable the security personnel who fired shots and gave instructions
to deal with the incident in a violent manner.
While the international community remains silent towards this latest assault by
Hamas on its own people, many Palestinians have denounced the terror group.
Hussein Hamayel, a senior official with the Palestinian Authority's ruling Fatah
faction, condemned the raid on the village as a "crime." He accused Hamas
leaders of seeking to lay their hands on lands in the Gaza Strip and divide them
among themselves and their loyalists. "Hamas's actions are aggravating the
humanitarian and social crises in the Gaza Strip," Hamayel said.
Palestinian journalist Hisham Sakallah pointed out that "the violence and
oppression perpetrated against the Bedouin villagers reflect a small part
portion of what happened 16 years ago when Hamas carried out a coup against the
Palestinian Authority and seized control of the Gaza Strip.
Sakallah was referring to the violent clashes that erupted in the Gaza Strip in
2007, during which Hamas men executed Fatah rivals, blew up homes and dragged
the body of a senior Fatah member through the streets. They also threw Fatah
gunmen from the roofs of tall buildings.
Sakallah praised social media users for shedding light on the Hamas crimes
against the residents of Umm al-Nasr. "What bothered and provoked me the most
was that the official spokesmen for Hamas did not issue statements," he
remarked.
An unnamed resident of Umm al-Nasr was quoted as saying:
"What happened is a barbaric and brutal Hamas-Iranian attack on the poor people
in the Gaza Strip, who have been very patient with the killings, poverty, and
hunger resulting from the policies of Hamas. The people of the Gaza Strip have
paid with their blood as a result of the policies and practices of Hamas."
Egyptian writer Ali Rajab pointed out the hypocrisy of Hamas in dealing with the
Bedouin communities in Israel and the Gaza Strip. Rajab said that while Hamas
has been trying to present itself as the defender of the Bedouin citizens of
Israel, it is targeting the Bedouin living under its control in the Gaza Strip
by demolishing their homes and confiscating their lands.
Hamas's ongoing efforts to raze entire villages in the Gaza Strip is seen by
many Palestinians as the terror group tightening its grip on the coastal
enclave, home to some two million Palestinians. It is also seen by many
Palestinians as part of widespread corruption in Hamas, whose leaders want to
seize lands for their personal use.
"Hamas is trying to control all the public lands in the Gaza Strip," said
Mahmoud al-Zaq, Secretary-General of the National Work Commission in the Gaza
Strip. "Hamas wants the lands in order to carry out its own projects. These
lands, however, should be allocated to building hospitals for the Palestinians."
Hamas's practices against the Palestinians do not come as a surprise to many
Palestinians, especially those who have been living under its repressive regime
in the Gaza Strip since 2007. What does continue to surprise many Palestinians,
however, is the ongoing silence of the international community, human rights
groups, the United Nations, and many mainstream media organizations towards the
Hamas crimes.
Had the raid on the Bedouin village in the Gaza Strip been carried out by
Israel, we would have seen scores of foreign journalists and the United Nations
rush to the area to report about Israeli "crimes" and "ethnic cleansing."
The residents of the village are unfortunate: they are Palestinians who were
attacked by a Palestinian government and Palestinian security forces. The
international media, whose representatives often report about the demolition of
illegal houses by Israel, are unlikely to report about the plight of the Umm al-Nasr
villagers because this is a story lacking an anti-Israel angle -- no Jew was
involved in the attack on the village in the Gaza Strip.
The foreign journalists and human rights organizations who continue to ignore
such oppressive practices by Hamas are doing a massive injustice to the
Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
By turning a blind eye to the atrocities of Hamas, the journalists and human
rights organizations are once again engaging in a dangerous double standard.
Their obsession with Israel allows Hamas to persist in committing violent crimes
against the Palestinians without receiving negative media coverage -- much less
being held accountable for pillaging and devastating Palestinian communities.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
The World Can Stave Off Putin’s Food Fight
Clara Ferreira Marques/Bloomberg/June 16/2022
Russian forces have bombed grain silos and farms and plundered Ukrainian wheat,
which US diplomats say Moscow is now trying to sell on. Ukraine’s Black Sea
ports are blocked by mines to protect the shoreline from attack by Russia’s
navy, which is also bottling up shipments. And yet, if President Vladimir Putin
is to be believed, Western selfishness and sanctions are to blame for the
current food crisis that is driving up prices — not Russia’s invasion of one of
the world’s largest exporters of wheat, maize and sunflower oil.
Putin is attempting to blackmail the West into lifting punitive measures, and
that’s to be expected. But more worrying is the Kremlin’s amplification of the
lie that rich nations are meddling and punishing with no concern for the
poorest. In the emerging world, populations are already skeptical of Western
motives, not to mention highly sensitive to rising food costs, and its
governments fear that the combination of pandemic scars and expensive shopping
baskets will lead to protests. “The conflict is in Europe, but the implications
and damage are global,” Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a
security gathering in Singapore this weekend, in a speech that underlined the
risks ahead with pointed reference to Sri Lanka’s unrest and Pakistan’s soaring
inflation.
Spotting an opportunity to divide, the Kremlin is stoking these concerns and
spreading distrust at a time when Ukraine is in desperate need of practical
support, and a wider coalition is essential to isolate Russia economically. More
assertive food diplomacy is overdue.
Wealthy nations sanctioning Russia must make clear they recognize that the
concern over global hunger is not unfounded — freedom is not free — and confront
the question of costs, along with the reason for bearing them in terms that will
resonate. Russia is fighting a war of conquest against a country it sees as a
colony, something familiar to many in the emerging world. As President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy put it to that same Singapore audience, quoting Singaporean leader Lee
Kuan Yew, “if the big fish ate the small fish and the small fish ate shrimps”
many would be vulnerable.
But wealthy nations can also defuse some of the panic: The issue here is not
shortage, but access and price. They must support Ukraine in its urgent efforts
to get grain and other piled-up products out of the country, whether through
land or sea, while also preparing to provide support for farmers and buyers if
that becomes too costly to be practicable. The international community must
simultaneously keep trade and other barriers down for food products and inputs,
making sure (in particular for fertilizer) that over-compliance with sanctions
does not make a bad situation worse.
The problem, of course, is that this war is between two countries which are
among the world’s largest food exporters — and Russia and Ukraine supply in
particular the world’s poorer nations, who depend on that wheat for much of
their calorie intake. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the
two countries accounted for nearly a third of the world’s wheat exports last
year. Eritrea bought all its wheat from Russia and Ukraine in 2021, while Egypt,
the world’s largest importer of wheat, sourced most of its needs there. Russia
(along with ally Belarus) is also a major fertilizer producer, which means other
food exporters are in turn affected by its vicissitudes — not to mention that
it’s a major exporter of oil and gas, again pushing everything from transport to
nitrogen fertilizer higher still.
Worst of all, the invasion came at a time when food prices had already been on
the rise for the best part of two years, thanks to Covid-19, high energy,
logistics and fertilizer costs, plus climate disruptions. FAO’s food price
index, which tracks the most globally traded commodities, hit a record in March.
It’s left poor countries even more vulnerable, and foreign exchange drained.
Putin knows he can use basic food supply and the inputs for it as weapons to
inflict pain in Ukraine. He has already hit agricultural targets and his troops
have made it impossible to get supplies to starving towns like Mariupol. It’s
brought back memories of the brutal famine inflicted on Ukraine under Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin, in his effort to tamp down nationalism and cultural
autonomy.
But Russia’s position is even more powerful as a means of forcing Ukraine’s
allies into a Faustian pact that would swap fertilizers and agricultural
products for a reduction in sanctions — and of pressing them further by using
the Global South. Putin can’t be given that space.
Allied nations must counter both Putin and hunger with meaningful financial
support. Initiatives like the FAO’s proposed Food Import Financing Facility will
go some way to soften a global food import bill that will rise by $51 billion
this year, of which $49 billion reflects higher prices. It can and should be
expanded — with the good news broadcast around the world. Supporting countries’
finances matters too, as do social safety nets and, ultimately, humanitarian
aid. An unequal burden must be shared.
Then there’s the need, as much for Ukraine as for world markets, to free the
millions of metric tons of grain trapped in the country. Vital efforts to use
land routes and to unblock the ports are underway, but as David Laborde, senior
research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, points out,
land routes are slow and costly, while the maritime alternative is complex, not
least given the risk that any escalation there would endanger other Black Sea
routes still working. The point, as he argues, cannot be to get the grain out at
any cost — if there are more effective ways to support buyers and Ukrainians.
It is also vital to keep markets open. That means encouraging countries not to
put up barriers and to ease biofuel mandates, but also ensuring that sanctions
don’t bite where they shouldn’t — so US efforts to encourage shipping companies
to carry Russian fertilizer matter. More legal and technical support can help
shippers, bankers and insurers navigate the current carve-outs.
Other solutions will serve the world well beyond this year and next, including
providing better information to farmers on the more efficient use of crop
nutrients, promoting the domestic production of fertilizers and diversifying
crops and consumption to secure supply — because the war in Ukraine has
intensified a food crisis that climate change promises to make even worse.
Putin may have started this food fight, but it’s one that the rest of the world
can still win.
Decisive People Aren’t Better Decision-Makers
Therese Raphael/Bloomberg/June 16/2022
Some people are naturally more decisive. These charge-ahead types make choices
assuredly, from the trivial to the life-changing, stick to them and don’t look
back. But do they make better decisions?
It turns out that indecisive people don’t make worse decisions. In fact, the art
of making good choices is as much about how we make them, and whether we
actually put our decisions into action, as it is the choices themselves.
Wojciech Zajkowski, a postgraduate researcher from Cardiff University, and two
coauthors came to that conclusion after studying the way people make decisions.
Their peer-reviewed paper was published online earlier this month.
From an initial survey of 723 people, they formed two groups of 60 respondents
based on answers to questions that measured “action control,” one of the main
factors believed to determine decision-making effectiveness and execution
skills.
According to this classification, “action-oriented” people — those who find it
easier to initiate and follow through on decisions — more easily adjust to time
pressure or stress and are more likely to follow through on their decisions.
“State-oriented” people, on the other hand, find decisions more difficult, are
less flexible, more likely to question the choices they’ve made and more prone
to abandoning efforts later.
In case you’re wondering, only a small portion of one’s action control is
accounted for by personality factors such as extroversion or openness.
The participants were put through a series of simple cognitive tasks and
compared across a series of factors, such as how quickly they could acquire new
information, how much information they needed to commit to a choice and how
confident they were about their decision.
To Zajkowski’s surprise, there was no material difference when it came to the
quality or accuracy of the decisions they produced. State-oriented people proved
as able to respond quickly and accurately to changing tasks and to incorporate
additional information.
However, there was an important difference between the groups: State-oriented
people lacked the same confidence in their decisions. A second experiment,
adding subjective tasks, confirmed the initial finding.
The problem for the more deliberative, state-oriented among us is that low
decision-confidence can easily translate into discouragement, despair, or simply
low levels of commitment to one’s choices. And for those pursuing long courses
of study toward a career path, writing books, building businesses or repairing
relationships, that steady dedication can be the key determining factor of
success.
Conventional thinking sees poor action control (or excessive state orientation)
as a failure of executive skills and controls. Indeed, there is a growing focus
on helping young people acquire better functions such as task initiation and
planning, which are crucial in life. But, interestingly, Zajkowski says his
research shows it’s not the cognitive skills that matter so much as the
“metacognitive” skills, which he describes as the “thinking about the thinking.”
In a Zoom call from Tokyo, where he’s doing postdoctoral research, Zajkowski
says he’s state-oriented by nature — it took six years after the data was
collected to publish the paper. “Being action-oriented is associated with better
life outcomes, better well-being and just kind of being happier and a bit more
of a successful person.” But it’s not always more beneficial to be an
action-oriented person, he adds.
The obvious example is those who commit to a bad decision but do little to
interrogate or reflect on their choices and the consequences. Action-oriented
people may also be more prone to confirmation bias, so more easily manipulated
or perhaps taken in by charismatic figures.
“A kind of obvious lesson from this is that being at either extreme is generally
bad. There are many instances where deliberation is very helpful. The problem
becomes when it’s excessive and then it becomes problematic to complete
commitments,” he says.
Another lesson is that most people will thrive in an environment that plays to
their strengths and helps compensate some for their bias, especially those who
skew toward one end of the action-state spectrum. A state-oriented person may do
better in an environment that imposes a bit more structure and time pressure
(she writes nervously, 30 minutes before deadline time).
One question I don’t have an answer to is how well we can really extrapolate
from such experiments. Zajkowski is up front about the limitations of such
experiments. The field known as “judgment and decision making” is rich and
includes, of course, the ground-breaking research that led to Nobel Prizes for
Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler and the hugely influential work in behavioral
science such as Katy Milkman’s 2021 “How to Change” or Richard Thaler and Cass
Sunstein’s iconic 2009 book “Nudge.”
And yet most decision-making research — ending in if-then reports about how
people who adopt a particular strategy make better or worse decisions than those
who adopt an alternative approach — has not yielded such fruits. In a searingly
frank article last year in Science Direct, two prominent researchers, David
Weiss and James Shanteau, argued that most of what’s been done in the field over
the past half-century has been of little use.
The problem, they suggested, is an over-reliance on rigid models that aren’t
replicated in the real world. “The easiest path to grasp this unfortunate
reality is to consider how a JDM [judgment and decision-making] researcher would
respond to a friend’s request for help in making a difficult life decision. The
advice is unlikely to be influenced by any of the work of the last 50 years,”
they wrote.
Their advice to younger researchers wasn’t to give up but to “study real
decisions.” One of the easiest decisions to make in the field of psychology
seems to be to study how we choose. For those of us looking for pointers,
Zajkowski’s work seems to suggest we should worry less about the quality of our
choices and focus more on confidence and commitment.
د. ماجد رفي زاده: يبدو أن النظام الإيراني ملتزم بالأسلحة النووية
Iranian regime appears committed to nuclear weapons
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/June 16/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/109432/dr-majid-rafizadehiranian-regime-appears-committed-to-nuclear-weapons-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d9%87-%d9%8a%d8%a8%d8%af%d9%88-%d8%a3%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84/
The latest developments concerning Iran’s nuclear program indicate that the
Tehran regime has most likely decided to go all-out to develop atomic weapons
capability.
Firstly, although Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei continues to claim that his
government does not have any interest in obtaining nuclear weapons and that
Iran’s nuclear program was designed for peaceful purposes from the outset,
several revelations show otherwise.
Some Iranian leaders have acknowledged that the regime’s nuclear program was
always designed to manufacture atomic weapons. For example, former deputy
speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Motahari disclosed in April: “From the
very beginning, when we entered the nuclear activity, our goal was to build a
bomb and strengthen the deterrent forces but we could not maintain the secrecy
of this issue.”
In addition, the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran,
Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, was the first Iranian official to admit that his work
was part of a “system” designed to develop nuclear weapons. He said: “When the
country’s all-encompassing growth began involving satellites, missiles and
nuclear weapons, and surmounted new boundaries of knowledge, the issue became
more serious for them.”
Secondly, if we closely examine the Iranian regime’s nuclear file, it becomes
crystal clear that secrecy and clandestine activities have always been important
elements of the regime’s nuclear program. If the Iranian nuclear program was
truly set up for peaceful purposes, the country’s leaders would have declared
all nuclear sites and received technological assistance, as outlined in the
Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is still a party.
One of the most alarming issues is that, over recent months, the theocratic
establishment has been restricting the ability of inspectors from the
International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor its nuclear activities. Most
recently, Iran has started to deactivate 27 cameras that help the IAEA monitor
the regime’s nuclear activity. Just prior to this move, the authorities also
turned off two UN surveillance cameras.
This comes at a critical time, when the Iranian regime has moved significantly
closer to becoming a nuclear state. The IAEA last week acknowledged that Iran is
only a few weeks away from having a “significant quantity of enriched uranium.”
With this statement, the agency was referring to “the approximate amount of
nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive
device cannot be excluded.”
On top of this, the Iranian leaders continue to refuse to provide any
explanation for its undeclared nuclear sites that have been identified by the
IAEA. Director General Rafael Grossi warned: “We have to sit down urgently if
possible to see how we continue with this. Iran has not provided explanations
that are technically credible in relation to the agency’s findings at three
undeclared locations in Iran.”
Secrecy and clandestine activities have always been important elements of the
regime’s nuclear program.
In the past two decades, the only times the Iranian regime has reportedly slowed
down or agreed to curb its nuclear advancement have been when drastic economic
sanctions have been imposed. These threaten the hold on power of the ruling
clerics, thus forcing the leadership to recalculate its political priorities.
For example, the four rounds of UN sanctions imposed prior to the 2015 nuclear
deal were significant because all five permanent members of the UN Security
Council were on board. The sanctions endangered the ruling clergy’s grip on
power and ultimately brought the Iranian leaders to the negotiating table
between 2013 and 2015.
However, the unilateral US sanctions that are currently in place do not seem to
be affecting the Iranian regime’s main source of revenue — oil exports — to such
a significant level. The regime has been steadily exporting more oil over the
last year and has now almost reached pre-sanctions levels. In fact, President
Ebrahim Raisi, who took office last August, said in a live interview on
state-run TV last month: “Oil sales have doubled. We are not worried about oil
sales.” One important reason is that China has, despite the US sanctions, been
buying a record amount of oil from Iran.
All the signs indicate that the Iranian regime appears to be going all-out for a
nuclear weapon. If successful, this would have significant ramifications for
peace and security in the Middle East and beyond. It is imperative that the
international community acts immediately.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh
What do Saudis want from Biden’s visit?
Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/June 16/2022
So the wheels are finally in motion! After nearly a year and a half when the
Saudi-US relationship reached what could be described as rock bottom, Joe Biden
— who in the heat of his election campaign pledged to turn the Kingdom into a
“pariah” — is making a state visit in response to an invitation from King Salman.
The US president will also meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other
high-profile officials during his two-day stay.
World leaders talking, even if it is about their differences, is obviously
better than not talking — particularly against a background of nearly 80 years
of history and a multilayered and fruitful partnership, and with mutual regional
goals to be achieved. In addition, just as triple GCC-Arab-Islamic summits were
organized for the visit of his predecessor Donald Trump in 2017, Biden will
benefit from the fact that the Kingdom can — at the snap of a finger — call a
summit of the GCC plus Iraq, Jordan and Egypt to coincide with his trip; just a
sample of the trust and far-reaching influence that the Kingdom, at the beating
heart of the Arab and Muslim worlds, enjoys among its neighbors.
Talking will also be beneficial for another shared interest: achieving a fair
and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and the whole region. If
you don’t want to take my word for it, here is what Israeli Minister for
Regional Cooperation Esawi Frej told this newspaper only two weeks ago: “The
Saudi leadership would be central to any solution in the future, and King Salman
and the crown prince I believe will play a central role in any renewed peace
process,” he told my colleague Katie Jensen on our weekly talk show, Frankly
Speaking. “We all need Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The White House may insist that the president’s visit goes beyond talking just
about oil, and no doubt it will — but it remains perplexing that, at a time when
energy prices are at an all-time high in the US and beyond, it has taken this
long for a US president to visit an ally who happens to have the most
influential say in global oil markets.
Meanwhile the question on everyone’s mind is: “What do the Saudis want from this
visit?”
Energy aside, we are told that other significant issues will be on the agenda.
They range from future cooperation on regional stability, to global food
security, to climate change, to mutual investment opportunities, and even space
exploration.
Energy aside, other topics will include future cooperation on regional
stability, to global food security, to climate change, to mutual investment
opportunities, and even space exploration.
Government officials are better placed than I am to comment on the strategic
interests and massive potential of this relationship. However, I would like to
speak for myself as an observer, and for the many other Saudis who grew up
believing in many American values but saw the US abandon them in places such as
Iraq, Afghanistan and most recently here in the Kingdom.
One thing the Israelis do very well is allow actions to speak louder than words.
Whenever a high-level delegation visits, they are taken to shelters in the south
to see how civilians are affected by Hamas terrorist attacks. What a welcome
example of public diplomacy it would be if, while in Saudi Arabia, the US
president were to visit Abha airport or the Aramco oil facility in Jeddah — both
targets of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen. That would show
the world that his administration condemns terrorism equally, no matter the race
or religion of the victims, and that the Saudi-US relationship is, as the White
House said last week, genuinely “multifaceted.”
Three things, although obvious to some of us, are worth noting here. First, the
Houthis’ official slogan is “Death to America,” and they have previously
attacked both the US Navy and the American embassy in Aden; second, they are
backed by a regime in Iran that also supports Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and
Asaib Ahl Al-Haq in Iraq, among other terrorist and destabilizing forces in the
region; and finally, when these terrorists attack Saudi oil facilities they
eventually limit our ability to produce more oil — which means less supply and
higher prices.
A visit to those who have suffered from Houthi terror would definitely help to
put things in perspective for Biden and his advisers, and be a stark reminder of
who are the villains and who are the victims in this war. Washington might also
think twice before recalling Patriot missile defense batteries from the Kingdom
or removing the terrorist designation of a group that deliberately targets an
ally’s civilian population.
What a welcome example of public diplomacy it would be if, while in Saudi
Arabia, the US president were to visit Abha airport or the Aramco oil facility
in Jeddah — both targets of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.
The other thing I hope the president has time to do is go out and see the fruits
of the ambitious and courageous reforms that were ushered in with Vision 2030. I
would love for him to visit a busy commercial district and see how, unlike the
situation a few short years ago, women and men can freely mingle, enjoy a meal
or watch some of the world’s best entertainment.
I would love for him to meet young Saudis such as Abdullah Al-Ghamdi and Dana
Al-Aithan, just two of the Saudi students who won awards last month at the
Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta, Georgia — the
largest event of its kind in the world, at which students from over 80 countries
showcase innovation in scientific research. They are living proof of what our
schools under reformed curriculums (and without the trauma of gun violence as is
the case in the US) can produce.
There will be more to say on this topic in my next column. For now, I suppose
the bottom line for me as a Saudi is to see a US administration that finally
recognizes my country not as a massive petrol station, but as the historical,
cultural, economically successful, young, vibrant and educated powerhouse that
it is.
• Faisal J. Abbas is the editor in chief of Arab News
Choosing sides in the conflict between two global rivals
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/June 16/2022
Although the war in Syria and Libya has lasted for some 12 years, it remains
confined to the borders of these two countries. Meanwhile, although some regard
the Russian-Ukrainian war as a distant event in its location and impact, it has
a greater influence on us than our own regional Arab conflicts. The Ukrainian
war was a crisis at its start. It might last for years to come and expand
geographically as the complicated disputes between the superpowers involved in
it worsen.
The Ukrainian war has hiked oil prices from $40 to $100+ per barrel, doubled the
gas price three times, and threatened to deprive half of the world’s population
of their daily bread. Politically, the war led to reconsiderations and shifts in
international dealings that manifested in a change in US stance on Iran, making
it retract from the nuclear deal with Teheran and persuading Washington to
return to Saudi Arabia, which is the world’s largest oil exporter.
Due to the Ukrainian war, Russia is pulling out its troops from Syria. The
latter might become an Iranian banana republic – with all the implications of
this shift in terms of new Arab-Israeli regional defensive politics.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian crisis has revived the role of chemical and bacterial
weapons and raised debate on the limits and use of nuclear weapons.
Such are the amplifications of the ongoing war between the Russian and the
Western axes on Ukrainian territory, the crisis escalates. Although
geographically distant, the Ukrainian war is also affecting the Arab region,
spiking oil prices and increasing some national incomes for some countries while
doubling the debts of some others.
At any rate, the largest impact of the war remains prevalent in Europe, which
contains its battlefields. The continent is going through an unprecedented stage
that forced it to reconsider its defensive policies and strategic relations.
Hence, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine
made Berlin reconsiderits national security constants, adding that the Germans
decided to reduce their energy dependency on Russia.
Smoke and dirt rise in the city of Sievierodonetsk during fighting between
Ukrainian and Russian troops at the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June
2, 2022. (File photo: AFP)
Smoke and dirt rise in the city of Sievierodonetsk during fighting between
Ukrainian and Russian troops at the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June
2, 2022. (File photo: AFP)
Besides, Berlin now favors the Baltic Nations’ accession to NATO. Until last
February, such a shift in the German position on Russia was out of the question,
as Germany used to regard the fall of both the Berlin Wall and the former German
Democratic Republic three decades ago as a sign of the end of the fear of
Russia.
The Germans were more convicted of the concept of reconciliation with Russia and
betting on economic ties with Moscow that would ensure Europe’s security, unlike
the US, which continued to regard Russia as an unaltered source of threat,
despite the fall of the communist regime with its expansionist ambitions.
There is a famous photo of former US President Donald Trump surrounded by
European leaders, including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who were
urging him during consultations on the role of NATO, and that photo speaks
volumes. The US warned the EU and Germany against a second Russian gas pipeline
to Europe. Washington maintained that dependence on it should jeopardize both
Europe and NATO.
The US’s fears have become a reality, as Russia has suspended its gas supplies
before its invasion of Ukraine, turning its gas into a key weapon in the war.
Unwillingly, Europe funds Russian military operations in Ukraine by buying gas
from Moscow.
It must be taken into account that this crisis represents a conflict between two
global powers. Everything indicates that the conflict will last longer and get
more complicated, especially as both sides are adamant about their positions.
Thus, this week, Moscow reiterated its tough position, announcing that the war
will continue until achieving Russian national security-bound objectives, which
indicates that the crisis will last for years.
The current situation is reminiscent of the Cold War, when each country was held
accountable by this or that superpower for siding with the opposite. Each side
is exerting tremendous effort focused on having the countries of the Arab region
adopt clear positions regarding their alignments. It will bear a high political,
economic, and security price for each Arab country, regardless of which side it
will support.