English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 25/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.may25.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God

Letter to the Philippians 04/01-07/:"Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 24-25/2022
Hezbollah’s Liberation & Resistance Day Is A Big Lie/Elias Bejjani/May 25/2021
Lebanese should know the Truth and Nothing but the TRUTH ِall About The Israeli Withdrwal From South Lebanon In Year 2000/Claude Hajjar./May 23/2022
Lebanon crippled by electricity, water outages/Najia Houssari/Arab News/May 24, 2022
Election of speaker of parliament to test new balance of power in Lebanon
Dollar exchange rate crosses LBP 34,000 on black market
Tensions build up between Miqati, Fayyad over energy files withdrawal
Saudi FM: Change and Hizbullah's issue are in the hands of the Lebanese
Nine Lebanese banks to withdraw from Cyprus
Report: At least 60 MPs will re-elect Berri and quorum is 'guaranteed'
Doctors, hospitals announce two-day strike starting Thursday
Sayyed after meeting Aoun: Presidency powers can't be ceded to caretaker govt.
Arslan reacts after Bukhari hails 'fall of betrayal and treason icons'
Young Lebanese voters shake grip of traditional parties

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 24-25/2022
18 students, 3 adults killed in Texas elementary school shooting, state senator says/Dylan
Analysis: Subtle shift in US rhetoric suggests new Iran approach
Thousands attend funeral for slain Guard colonel in Iran
Ukraine's intelligence chief 'fully confirms' Putin has cancer
Spain can solve the problem of Europe's reliance on Russian natural gas, its prime minister says
Israel says 5 Palestinians arrested in alleged attack plots
More hardship as new sandstorm engulfs parts of Middle East
UAE firm inks airport deal as Afghanistan eyes international flights
Abu Dhabi says 2 killed, 120 injured in gas cylinder blast
Turkey's Erdogan threatens new incursion into Syria
Reconstruction of Abu Akleh's killing points to Israeli fire

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 24-25/2022
Protests in Iran Are Surging. The Biden Administration Can Help./Behnam Ben Taleblu and Saeed Ghasseminejad /The Dispatch/May 24/2022
Palestinians: A Vote to Destroy Israel/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./May 24, 2022
Good neighbourly relations with Iran are a chimera/Farouk Yousef/The Arab Weekly/May 24/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published oon May 24-25/2022
Hezbollah’s Liberation & Resistance Day Is A Big Lie
Elias Bejjani/May 25/2021
We call on the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Parliament and on all the free and patriotic Lebanese politicians and leaders to cancel the May 25 National Day, because it is not national at all, and also to stop calling Hezbollah a resistance, put an end for its mini-state, cantons and weaponry, and secure a dignified, honorable and safe return for all the Lebanese citizens who have been taking refuge in Israel since May 2000.
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75168/elias-bejjani-hezbollahs-bogus-liberation-resistance-day-3/

Believe it or not, on May 25 each year since 2000 Lebanon has been celebrating the so-called “Liberation & Resistance Day.” Sadly, this celebration commemorates a bogus event, and a phony heroism that did not actually take place. On May 22, 2000 the Israeli Army unilaterally and for solely Israeli domestic reasons withdrew from the security zone of South Lebanon in accordance with UN Resolution 425.
This miscalculated and hasty withdrawal was a fatal Israeli decision that has inspired the Hamas terrorism acts and the on-going havoc in the Palestinian Gaza strip. Since 2000 many Israeli officials and politicians from all parties openly and harshly criticized Barak’s Government (Barak was PM at that time) hasty and unwise decision through which Israel’ abandoned its ally the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and gave Hezbollah all south Lebanon and the entire Lebanon on a plate of sliver. The unilateral Israeli withdrawal created a security vacuum in south Lebanon.
The Syrians who were occupying Lebanon at that time and fully controlling its government, did not allow the Lebanese Army to deploy in the south and fill this vacuum after the Israeli withdrawal. Instead Syria helped the Hezbollah militia to militarily control the whole southern region, and even patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border.
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army’s withdrawal was executed without any military battles, or even minor skirmishes with Hezbollah, or the Lebanese and Syrian armies. At the same numerous reports published in German and in other western media facilities indicated with proves that Israel forged a secret deal with Hezbollah and its masters, the Iranian Mullahs that mutually arranged all details for the withdrawal.
The Syrian regime, in a bid to justify both its on going occupation of Lebanon and the avoidance of disarming Hezbollah, came up with the “Shabaa Farms occupation big lie” and declared Hezbollah a Liberator, alleging it had forced Israel to withdrawal from South Lebanon. Syria, in the same camouflaging and devious context, dictated to both its puppet Lebanese parliament and government to declare May 25th a National Day under the tag of “Liberation & Resistance Day”.
In reality Hezbollah did not force the Israeli withdrawal, and did not play any role in the Liberation of the southern Lebanese region. In fact both Hezbollah and Syria deliberately hindered and delayed the Israeli withdrawal for more than 14 years. Every time the Israelis called on the Lebanese government to engage in a joint, serious effort under the United Nations umbrella to ensure a safe and mutually organized withdrawal of its army from South Lebanon, the Lebanese government refused to cooperate, did not agree to deploy its army in the south, and accused the Israelis of plotting to divide and split the Syrian-Lebanese joint track.
Since then, Hezbollah has been hijacking Lebanon and its people, refusing to disarm and advocating for the annihilation of Israel. This Iranian mullahs’ terrorist army stationed in Lebanon, is viciously hiding behind labels of resistance, liberation and religion. Hezbollah has recklessly jeopardized the Lebanese peoples’ lives, safety, security and livelihood. It has been growing bolder and bolder and mercilessly taking the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people hostages through terrorism, force and organized crime.
Sadly, Hezbollah is systematically devouring Lebanon day after day, and piece by piece, while at the same time marginalizing all its governmental institutions in a bid to topple the Lebanese state and erect in its place a Shiite Muslim regime, a replica of the Iranian Shiite mullahs’ fundamentalist republic.
Meanwhile the free world and Arabic countries are totally silent, indifferent, and idly watching from far away the horrible crime unfolding without taking any practical or tangible measures to put an end to this anti-Lebanese Syria-Iranian scheme that is executed through their spearhead, the Hezbollah armed militia.
Who is to be blamed for Hezbollah’s current odd and bizarre status? Definitely the Syrians who have occupied Lebanon for more than 28 years (1976-2005). During their bloody and criminal occupation, Syria helped the Iranian Hezbollah militia build a state within Lebanon and fully control the Lebanese Shiite community. But also the majority of the Lebanese politicians, leaders, officials and clergymen share the responsibility because they were subservient and acted in a dire Dhimmitude, selfish and cowardly manner.
If these so-called Lebanese leaders had been courageous and patriotic and had not appeased Hezbollah and turned a blind eye to all its vicious and human rights atrocities, intimidation tactics, crimes and expansionism schemes, this Iranian Shiite fundamentalist militia would not have been able to erect its own mini-state in the southern suburb of Beirut, and its numerous mini-cantons in the Bekaa Valley and the South; nor would Hezbollah have been able to build its mighty military power, with 100 thousand militiamen, or stockpile thousand of missiles and force the Iranian “Wilayat Al-Faqih” religious doctrine on the Lebanese Shiite community and confiscate Lebanon’s decision making process and freedoms.
Since Hezbollah’s emergence in 1982, these politicians have been serving their own selfish interests and not the interests of the Lebanese people and the nation. They went along with Hezbollah’s schemes, deluding themselves that its militia and weaponry would remain in South Lebanon and would not turn against them. This failure to serve the people of Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to make many Lebanese and most of the Arab-Muslim countries through its terrorism propaganda to blindly swallow its big lie of theatrical, faked resistance and Liberation.
Hezbollah would not have been able to refuse to disarm in 1991, like all the other Lebanese militias in accordance to the “Taef Accord,” which called for the disarmament of all militias. Hezbollah would not have become a state inside the Lebanese state, and a world-wide terrorism Iranian-Syrian tool which turned against them all after its war with Israel in year 2006 and after the UN troops were deployed on the Lebanese – Israeli borders in accordance with the UN Resolution 1701.
On May 7, 2008 Hezbollah invaded Sunni Western Beirut killing and injuring in cold blood hundreds of its civilian citizens, and too attempted to take over by force Mount Lebanon. Hezbollah’s General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called that day (May 7, 2008) a great and glorious victory for his resistance, and keeps on threatening the Lebanese that a replicate of that day will take place if they do not succumb and obey his Iranian orders.
Hezbollah is a deadly dragon that the Lebanese politicians have been allowing him to feed on sacrifices from the southern Lebanese citizens, especially on those who were living in the “Security Zone” and who fled to Israel in May 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. This dragon who enjoyed devouring his southern sacrifices has now turned on all the Lebanese and if they do not stand for their rights and dignity, he will keep on devouring them all one after the other.
We call on the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Parliament and on all the free and patriotic Lebanese politicians and leaders to cancel the May 25 National Day, because it is not national at all, and also to stop calling Hezbollah a resistance, put an end for its mini-state, cantons and weaponry, and secure a dignified, honorable and safe return for all the Lebanese citizens who have been taking refuge in Israel since May 2000.

كلود حجار: هذه هي حقيقة وقائع انسحاب إسرائيل من الجنوب عام ألفين
Lebanese should know the Truth and Nothing but the TRUTH ِall About The Israeli Withdrwal From South Lebanon In Year 2000
Claude Hajjar, Founder of the Committee of Support for the Southerners in Enforced Exile in Israel./May 23/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/108857/%d9%83%d9%84%d9%88%d8%af-%d8%ad%d8%ac%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%87%d8%b0%d9%87-%d9%87%d9%8a-%d8%ad%d9%82%d9%8a%d9%82%d8%a9-%d9%88%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a6%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%b3%d8%ad%d8%a7%d8%a8-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1/
!!Lebanese should know how Our Heroes were left behind…And this National Resistance-Liberation Fake Day should STOP!!!
In brief, this is how it happened:
On May 23rd, Israeli Defense Forces started withdrawing from the Security Zone in Southern Lebanon which they occupied since 1982.
On May 25th, Under Death Threats, South Lebanese National Army with thousands of Civilians were Forced to Exile and Flee to Israel.
On May 26th, Hezbollah, the Iranian Terrorist Organization and Drug Cartel, Invaded “almost” an Empty South but then,… the rest of Lebanon until this day.
The Southerners in Enforced Exile are entitled, like any other citizen, to file a Defamation Complaint against the Government who FALSELY accused them of Treason when in fact they were officially assigned in the South by the Ministry of Defense. This accusation was fabricated on Syrian-Palestinian coalition & then Hezbollah-Iran’s demand to legally attack them, kill them and invade the South. The car side bombs were Hezbollah’s favorites.
When the Israeli Government announced their withdrawal, Hezbollah-Iran threatened the Southerners with Death, on live TV and later on, Invaded their lands in the South.
These Southerners should be largely compensated, including the late Amer Fakhoury.
But first, they should be awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for all the services they Heroically fulfilled at the risk of their Lives, above and beyond the call of duty, specially when in real they were left behind by their own coward / traitor government, from 1976 to May 2000
For now, and as a founder of the Committee, I would advise them to return to their homeland only when Lebanon will be totally liberated, otherwise they will face the same destiny, Missing or Torture/Death as Amer Fakhoury, Ramez Boulos or Abu Samira,… and many others.
Justice should and will Prevail!!
GOD Bless them, GOD BLESS LEBANON 

Lebanon crippled by electricity, water outages
Najia Houssari/Arab News/May 24, 2022
Crisis-hit country has exhausted its oil stocks, with a tanker arriving at the end of the week
The Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment has announced that it has been “reluctantly forced” to subject the locations to “severe and harsh” water rationing
BEIRUT: Lebanon has been plunged into darkness after oil stocks in the country’s last functional power plant in Deir Ammar ran out on Tuesday morning.
Lebanon exhausted its oil stock, which it imports from Iraq, during the parliamentary elections to ensure power was maintained during the electoral process. The country has to wait for an oil tanker to arrive at the end of the week, then wait some more until the oil is tested before it can be unloaded.
Elsewhere, the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment has announced that it has been “reluctantly forced” to subject the locations to “severe and harsh” water rationing.
The shortage of diesel, the steady rise in prices and the extensive power cuts are hindering pumping stations from providing water supply, the authorities said, warning of further deterioration. The water establishment added that should any pumping station go out of service, securing the needed funds to repair it would be close to impossible.
The Lebanese have for many years provided alternatives to the basic state services, including a mass market for power generators. However, hundreds of thousands can no longer afford any of these alternatives.
On Tuesday, the local currency hit a new record low, trading at 34,100 Lebanese pounds to the dollar on the black market.
Pharmacy owners staged a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Health on Tuesday to demand “implementing the laws of delivering medicines to pharmacies and fighting the phenomenon of smuggling drugs outside Lebanon, specifically to Syria.”
Dr. Joe Salloum, head of the Pharmacists’ Syndicate, said patients are being subjected to several types of fraud. “Some cancer patients bought medicine that turned out to be counterfeit, while the state and the ministry fails to draw up a solid plan to provide necessary, quality medication.”
He added: “Leaving room for smuggled and counterfeit medicine amid chaos and fraud threatens the lives of patients, if they can even afford to buy any medicine.”
Salloum said the whole mess could have been avoided if the medication card had been approved two years ago. “(It looks) as if there was a plan to destroy the entire sector, including pharmacies, importing companies, and Lebanon’s medical identity.”
Amid the chaos, Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government has entered into caretaker mode after failing to approve an electricity plan.
The picture in the newly elected parliament remains blurred as MPs struggle to find ground with the new reformist MP surge.
Mikati revealed that Energy Minister Walid Fayyad deliberately obstructed the offers submitted by General Electric and Siemens in agreement with international groups to supply Lebanon with electricity at a reasonable price.
Mikati said Fayyad withdrew the file from the Cabinet’s agenda 15 minutes before the final session was held on May 21, claiming the offers needed “further reviewing.”
Mikati insisted on pursuing the issue and asked Fayyad “to dare to name the person who asked him to withdraw the file from the Cabinet’s agenda and why,” in an indirect reference to Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement.
“The government had decided to negotiate with four international companies, namely Ensaldo, Mitsubishi, General Electric and Siemens on the possibility of providing Lebanon with generators needed to produce 24-hour electricity permanently,” Mikati said, adding: “General Electric and Siemens, in agreement with international groups, made offers to supply Lebanon with electricity before next summer at a very reasonable price, even about the price of gas for energy production, and we simply needed to draw up the terms of reference following the applicable laws.”
A source close to Mikati said: “The cost of preparing the terms of reference was agreed upon with the French side but without any warning. President Michel Aoun’s political team decided to withdraw the file from the Cabinet’s agenda in refusal to record achievement in securing electricity for a government in which the FPM is not directly present.”
Aoun’s meeting on Tuesday with Anne Grillo, the French ambassador to Lebanon, focused on the upcoming elections and the Lebanese-French cooperation in all fields. Grillo conveyed French President Emmanuel Macron’s continued support for Lebanon and its people.
During the Fifth Saudi-Lebanese Cultural Forum, held on Monday evening at the residence of Walid Bukhari, the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, he spoke about Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, who was assassinated in an explosion targeting his convoy on May 16, 1989.
“His assassination was a prelude to the assassination of all of Lebanon, which is experiencing difficult circumstances, foremost of which is the targeting of its Arab identity and its relationship with its Arab environment.”
Bukhari also mentioned the “martyrdom” of Lebanon and the Arab world regarding the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
“We know Sheikh Khaled would be happy with the results of the honorable elections and the downfall of all symbols of treachery, betrayal, death and hate,” Bukhari said.
Speaking at the forum, Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian stressed the comprehensive role that Sheikh Khaled played “so that the political quorum and Beirut remain standing, lest the divisions of the war affect the relations between Muslims and Christians, the sons of one nation.”

Election of speaker of parliament to test new balance of power in Lebanon
The Arab Weekly/May 24/2022
Hezbollah and Amal are expected to try to hold on to Nabih Berri as speaker of parliament for a seventh consecutive term.
Analysts in Beirut expect the forthcoming vote for parliamentary speaker to be the first real test of the balance of power in Lebanon's new legislature, as calls rise especially, among newcomers, for the removal of Nabih Berri as speaker.
Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies lost their majority in Lebanon's parliament in the May 15 general election. The Lebanese Forces made strong progress winning 19 seats, ahead of Hezbollah’s main Christian allied party, the Free Patriotic Movement, which holds 17 seats, a drop of three seats since the previous vote. Despite the setback, Hezbollah and its main Shia ally, the Amal group of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, retained the 27 seats allocated to the Shia sect.
Eighty-four-year-old Berri, has held the speakership for six full and uninterrupted sessions of parliament. He is considered among the main pillars of the political class against which the Lebanese demanding change have revolted.
Political analysts say that many of the new MPs are looking for a change that begins with the choice of a new speaker of parliament, but the task will not be that easy. Berri is the only candidate nominated by the Shia duo represented by Hezbollah and the Amal movement.
The analysts are however wary of the risk that the non-election of Berri may spark a costly sectarian battle. It could also lead to the disruption of the rest of the process, including the selection of the prime minister and the formation of the new government.
But the choice of Berri for a seventh term in office will constitute a negative message for those looking for change in Lebanon, who will not be willing to accept the continuation of the status quo ante.
Berri on the other hand is unlikely to retract his candidacy and propose an alternative contender for the speaker’s office as a way of ending the controversy.
Hezbollah itself is expected to hold on to Berri as it considers his presence as speaker a guarantee of its continued influence in the face of internal and external pressures, which are expected to increase after the results of the parliamentary vote.
Several winning factions in the elections, such as the Lebanese Forces (LF), have already declared their intent not to vote for Berri.
The head of the LF, Samir Geagea, said on Sunday, "We are facing a major showdown to get Lebanon out of its current predicament and the first step begins with the elections of the speaker of parliament." He reaffirmed that his party "will not vote" for Berri.
Observers believe that the very disparate nature of the legislators demanding change could serve Hezbollah's quest for continued control of the levers of the political process in the country.
Towards this end, Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, are jockeying to win over a number of independents to their side. Observers point out that despite the announcement by some ten independents and the LF that they do not intend to elect Berri to head the parliament, this number remains insufficient. Even if there is a parliamentary majority against Berri, he and Hezbollah will not yield to pressure, especially since they control all the seats of the Shia community.
Dania Koleilat Al-Khatib, a researcher at the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, told "The Voice of America" ​​website: "It is possible that Berri will save face, by announcing his retirement and suggesting one of his loyal men to be speaker of parliament."
But many believe that Berri and Hezbollah will not accept such a compromise, because it will be perceived as a concession that may lead to other and more painful retreats. The Shia duo is more likely instead to intensify its efforts to secure support, albeit by a weak margin.
There is also speculation that parties allied with Hezbollah, such as the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), are pressuring Amal and Hezbollah to name a deputy-speaker from the FPM ranks. FPM head Gebran Bassil, recently told his supporters, "What prevents us from having other candidates to the position of speaker of parliament? And whoever thinks of making us choose between the positions of speaker and deputy-speaker is wrong and underestimates us.”
Although Bassil's statement angered the Amal movement, many believe that the ongoing debate between the Free Patriotic Movement and Amal is mere manoeuvring which the Shia duo will seek to contain. But the biggest challenge facing Berri and Hezbollah comes from the opposition spectrum including the LF. It remains to be seen to what extent these groupings will be willing to confront the existing system and one of its icons, the speaker of parliament. Parliament includes 128 deputies. Its seats are divided into 28 for Sunnis, 28 for Shia, eight for Druze, 34 for Maronites, 14 for Orthodox, eight for Catholics, five for Armenians, two seats for Alawites and one seat for minorities within the Christian community.

Dollar exchange rate crosses LBP 34,000 on black market
Naharnet/May 24/2022
The dollar exchange rate crossed LBP 34,000 on the black market on Tuesday, marking a new record high in the country’s history. The dollar was selling for LBP 34,100 at 3:30 pm according to exchange rate apps. The exchange rate had crossed LBP 33,000 for the first time in Lebanon’s history on January 11, 2022. It later dropped significantly following measures by the central bank. Lebanon is in the grip of a devastating economic crisis that has been described as one of the worst in modern history. It imports most of its wheat and has faced shortages over the past weeks as the war in Ukraine leads to increases in prices of oil and food products around the world.

Tensions build up between Miqati, Fayyad over energy files withdrawal
Naharnet/May 24/2022
Tensions have built up between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad over two electricity files that the latter had asked to withdraw from a Cabinet session's agenda on Friday. Miqati said in a statement Tuesday that Fayyad must be "experiencing a real crisis within his ministry that makes him do something and its opposite."The caretaker PM said he was surprised by a recent statement by Fayyad as he claimed that the latter had called him and promised him to end the debate and to stop resorting to the media. "Did the minister issue the statement himself and did he forget what he had promised yesterday," Miqati asked, doubting if the minister is managing the ministry's affairs himself. On Monday, Miqati had dared Fayyad to say who asked him to withdraw the file and why. "He's trying to cover what he did with confused statements that failed to convince the public opinion," Miqati said. On Tuesday Fayyad responded that he took the decision on his own free will without any dictations from anyone, daring Miqati to show the full proposal to the public. "Let him sign it on his own responsibility," he said. Fayyad had told al-Jadeed last week that the withdrawal of the files came after Miqati accused him of taking too long to remove "Selaata" from the file. He said he withdrew the consultancy agreement with French multinational electric utility company EDF because he wanted better prices and better payment conditions.

Saudi FM: Change and Hizbullah's issue are in the hands of the Lebanese
Naharnet/May 24/2022
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Tuesday noted that after Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, the issue of “change” and “the issue of Hizbullah” are “in the hands of the Lebanese.”“The Lebanese elections might be a good step, but it is too early to say that,” the Minister said in Davos. “The Lebanese must carry out reforms to restore the state’s rule,” Bin Farhan added. “If the Lebanese conduct reforms, we will see what we can do,” he went on to say. He also noted that “some progress has been made with Iran, but not in a sufficient manner,” referring to his country’s ongoing rapprochement talks with Tehran. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi for his part said that efforts must be exerted to “prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos.”

Nine Lebanese banks to withdraw from Cyprus
Associated Press/May 24/2022
Nine Lebanese banks are shutting down their operations on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a representative of the Cyprus Central Bank said on Tuesday. The banks will close their branches on the island within a period of time that will allow them to wind down operations in an orderly fashion, said the representative, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he's not allowed to discuss the matter publicly. He said the shuttering of the branches won't adversely affect the east Mediterranean island's economy. Total deposits and loans held by the branches on the island amount to less than 1% of the entire Cypriot banking system's deposits and loans, and the majority of those belong to non-residents. The Cyprus Central Bank received no explanation regarding the decision, but the closure may be a bid by Lebanese authorities to pre-empt a potential capital flight amid the country's ongoing economic chaos.The central bank reassured clients that all deposits below 100,000 euros were fully guaranteed.

Report: At least 60 MPs will re-elect Berri and quorum is 'guaranteed'
Naharne/May 24/2022t
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will call next week for a session to elect a new Speaker, sources have said. The sources told al-Liwaa newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, that the session will be on Tuesday or Thursday and that the quorum is almost guaranteed.
The newspaper said a boycott is unlikely, and a minimum of 77 MPs will attend the session, yet Berri is waiting to decide on a Deputy Speaker before calling for the session. At least 60 MPs will vote for Berri, media reports said, including Hizbullah, Amal, al-Marada, the Progressive Socialist Party, the Akkar bloc and the Tashnag MPs. Sources close to Berri told al-Akhbar newspaper that Berri will be re-elected for sure and that "there's no harm in re-electing him without a majority."The daily added that a delegation from Amal will visit MP Taymour Jumblat to discuss several files, including the Speaker election. As for the Free Patriotic Movement's position, a clear announcement might be revealed today as the bloc convenes for the first time since the parliamentary elections. FPM chief Jebran Bassil had earlier hinted that his bloc might not vote for Berri.

Doctors, hospitals announce two-day strike starting Thursday
Naharnet/May 24/2022
Pharmacists protested on Tuesday in front of the Ministry of Health as they urged authorities to issue a new pricelist for medicines. Pharmacists slammed the smuggling of medicines that could be falsified. They said the citizens are forced to purchase these smuggled medicines as they are missing in pharmacies. Pharmacies will be closed on Tuesday until p.m. Meanwhile, the syndicates of doctors in Beirut and in the North, along with private hospitals also announced a general strike on Thursday and Friday, to protest "the Central Bank's policies against public depositors, doctors, health sector workers and hospitals." Head of the private hospitals syndicate Suleiman Haroun said that hospitals are not allowed to receive the complete fees in-cash while they are obliged to secure cash money to cover their expenses. "The Ministry of Health, the Social Security and others pay their bills through bank transfers, that hospitals cannot benefit from," Haroun said. "Around 3,000 doctors and 3,000 nurses have left the country because of the banks unfair measures," said head of Doctors Syndicate Sharaf Bou Sharaf. He added that the banks are not accepting check payments, imposing unreasonable commissions and making the doctors' work difficult, pushing them to emigrate. Doctors and hospitals on Thursday and Friday will only receive urgent cases and kidney dialysis patients.

Sayyed after meeting Aoun: Presidency powers can't be ceded to caretaker govt.

Naharnet/May 24/2022
MP Jamil al-Sayyed held talks Tuesday at the Baabda Palace with President Michel Aoun.
“The continuation of the caretaker government until the presidential elections is a conspiracy against the people, the President and the presidential tenure,” Sayyed said after the meeting. “The presidency’s powers cannot be ceded to a caretaker government,” the lawmaker added.

Arslan reacts after Bukhari hails 'fall of betrayal and treason icons'
Naharnet/May 24/2022
Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan on Tuesday decried “a black point in the history of Saudi diplomacy,” in response to remarks by Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari about the pro-Syria politicians who lost their seats in the latest parliamentary elections.
“We have always been accustomed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a backer of Lebanon and all Lebanese throughout history, and no matter how much circumstances changed, it maintained its cordial rhetoric toward us,” Arslan said in a statement. Bukhari had on Monday hosted at his residence a ceremony commemorating slain Grand Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, who assassinated in 1989. “Mufti Hassan Khaled’s assassination was a prelude to the assassination of entire Lebanon, which is living difficult days at all levels, topped by its Arab identity and its relations with its Arab neighborhood,” Bukhari said. “I announce to Mufti Hassan Khaled the good news of the honorable elections results and the fall of all the icons of betrayal, treason, death and hatred,” the ambassador added, apparently referring to Arslan, Wiam Wahhab, Asaad Hardan, Elie Ferzli and Faisal Karami.

Young Lebanese voters shake grip of traditional parties
Agence France Presse/May 24/2022
Lebanese law student Charbel Chaaya spent the election campaign distributing flyers in Beirut and trying to convince his parents to vote for independents to shake the grip of established parties. The 21-year-old activist is one of many young voters who went against their parents' political views, and helped propel at least 13 independents to parliament last week for the first time in decades. "My parents think I'm too idealistic, that this country will never change," he said, adding that his father voted for a traditional Christian party, the Lebanese Forces. "There is a generational gap," Chaaya said. "Our generation knows that sectarian and traditional politics simply don't work anymore."Chaaya is part of a new generation seeking a progressive approach to politics, blaming established parties dating from Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war for an economic meltdown that has pushed thousands to flee the country. This has widened a generational gap between young people voting for change and an older generation often attached to civil war-era parties. Hizbullah and its allies fell just short of the 65 seats needed to control the 128-seat parliament, losing their clear-cut majority. This time, the May 15 polls brought in a record number of independents to parliament, totaling a small but significant tenth of the assembly.
'Different language' -
Chaaya headed his university's secular club, one of dozens of political groups bringing together young supporters of a mass protest movement that began in October 2019. In his Chouf-Aley district, southeast of Beirut, voters ousted Hizbullah ally Talal Arslan in favor of independent newcomer Mark Daou, a university lecturer and advertising professional. A massive number of those campaigning for his list were young people in their twenties, Daou said. "We speak a different language than the traditional parties, that's why people like us," said Daou. "We don't speak in sectarian terms."Lebanon shares power among its 18 recognized religious communities, and politics are often treated as a family business. This was a clear break from voting patterns in Lebanon, where each community usually supports politicians from their own religious sect. Polling expert Rabih Haber of Statistics Lebanon said that while voter data could not be broken down by age, on social media young people seemed to express far greater support for independent candidates than established parties. Newly-elected independent MP Elias Jrade, a 54-year-old Harvard-educated ophthalmologist, said most voters who came up to him were young people from different political backgrounds. "All those who came to our tents and said they voted for us were young men and women, from different regions, religions and political backgrounds," Jrade said. He was one of two independent MPs who snatched seats from allies of the powerful Hizbullah in its south Lebanon strongholds. The independent MPs are mostly university professors and respected professionals who entered politics after the 2019 mass protests.
'Space to have a conversation' -
Karl, a 30-year-old Beirut resident, went against his parents' wishes and voted for an independent in the country's south, after growing disillusioned with the Christian Free Patriotic Movement of President Michel Aoun. Karl, asking that only his first name be used, said that there is a trend of younger people voting for independents, despite their limited gains in the south. "At the same time the older generation is also transmitting its own war trauma to their children," he said. On his way to vote in his hometown, Karl passed by the southern town of Ghazieh, where he saw children chanting slogans and bearing flags for Hizbullah and Amal. The scene was emblematic of the tight hold the two groups have in south Lebanon, where independents are often threatened and intimidated, according to observers and rights groups. Sami, 21, who also asked for his first name to be used, said he had failed to dissuade his parents from voting for Hizbullah and Amal. "I thought I had convinced my mother, but in the end there is always something that pulls her back to her beliefs," he said, a common complaint among young voters AFP spoke to. But Sami said he was cautiously optimistic about the independents' modest victory in the south. "Our region was monochrome, there was no space for debate on alternatives to these parties," Sami said. "This opened up, at least, some space to have a conversation."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 24-25/2022
18 students, 3 adults killed in Texas elementary school shooting, state senator says
Dylan Stableford/Yahoo NewsYahoo News/Tue, May 24, 2022
https://ca.yahoo.com/news/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-live-updates-204254215.html
At least 18 students and three adults were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez said after he was briefed by state police. Other reports said one adult had died. The 18-year-old shooter was killed following the massacre, authorities said. The shooting comes 10 days after 10 people were killed in a racist attack at a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store.
What we know so far:
• State senator Roland Gutierrez told CNN 18 children and at least one adult were killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, a predominantly Hispanic community located 90 minutes west of San Antonio.
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that the shooter, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident, was dead. Abbott said he had a handgun and possibly a rifle.
• Abbott also said the shooter reportedly shot his grandmother before entering the school.
• The shooting comes 10 days after 10 people were killed at a grocery store in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y. It is the deadliest school shooting since February 2018, when 17 people were killed in Parkland, Fla.
• President Biden is scheduled to address the nation at 8:15 p.m. ET.
In a live interview with CNN, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-Texas, said that he was informed by officials that 18 children and three adults were killed in Tuesday's shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Earlier, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that preliminary reports indicated 14 children and one teacher had been killed by an 18-year-old gunman. The suspect, Abbott said, is deceased.
Jill Biden: 'Stunned. Angry. Heartbroken'
First lady Jill Biden said in response to the mass shooting: "Lord, enough."
"Little children and their teacher," Biden, an educator herself, tweeted. "Stunned. Angry. Heartbroken." Her tweet came less than an hour before President Biden was set to speak on the shooting that left at least 14 students and one teacher dead in Texas on Tuesday.
Texas attorney general says arming teachers 'best hope'
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is facing a challenge in Tuesday's Republican primary from George P. Bush, told Fox News in the aftermath of the shooting that passing gun laws wouldn't do anything to stop gun violence but that arming school personnel might.
"We can't stop bad people from doing bad things, if they're going to violate murder laws they're not going to follow gun laws, I've never understood that argument," Paxton said. "But we can harden these schools, we can create points of access that are difficult to get through. We can potentially arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators to respond quickly because the reality is we don't have the resources to have law enforcement at every school.
"It takes time for law enforcement, no matter how prepared, no matter how good they are, to get there, so having the right training for some of these people at the school is the best hope," he added. "Nothing is going to work perfectly, but that, in my opinion, is the best answer to this problem."
Harris: 'Our hearts keep getting broken'
Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the school shooting in Texas during remarks made on Tuesday evening at a previously scheduled event. "I would normally say in a moment like this — we would all say, naturally, that our hearts break," Harris said. "But our hearts keep getting broken.
"Enough is enough," she added. "As a nation, we have to have the courage to take action and understand the nexus between what makes for reasonable and sensible public policy to ensure something like this never happens again."
President Biden spoke to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the phone after the mass shooting on Tuesday. White House communications director Kate Bedingfield tweeted that Biden offered "any and all assistance" that the governor needs.
Pelosi: Words are 'hollow'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., released the following statement following Tuesday's deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas:
“Words are inadequate to describe the agony and outrage at the cold-blooded massacre of little schoolchildren and a teacher at Robb Elementary School today. This monstrous shooting stole the futures of precious children, who will never experience the joys of graduating from school, chasing the career of their dreams, falling in love, even starting a family of their own.
“The hearts of all Americans are broken as we pray for the families left forever shattered and a community left forever scarred by the unspeakable grief of losing a loved one. We also extend our sympathies to all those who have lost a loved one to gun violence over time, as this horrible crime deepens their suffering. “We are united in our deep gratitude for the heroes who put their lives on the line to respond to this deadly mass shooting.
“Across the nation, Americans are filled with righteous fury in the wake of multiple incomprehensible mass shootings in the span of just days. This a crisis of existential proportions — for our children and for every American. For too long, some in Congress have offered hollow words after these shootings while opposing all efforts to save lives. It is time for all in Congress to heed the will of the American people and join in enacting the House-passed bipartisan, commonsense, life-saving legislation into law.”

Analysis: Subtle shift in US rhetoric suggests new Iran approach
Reuters/24 May ,2022
A subtle shift in official US statements suggests Washington believes reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is better than the alternatives despite the advances in Iran's nuclear program, diplomatic and other sources said. For months, the Biden administration argued there would soon come a point where the non-proliferation benefits of a revived deal - its ability to limit Iran's headway toward a nuclear bomb - would be outweighed by the progress of Iran's atomic program. “You can't revive a dead corpse,” Rob Malley, the lead US negotiator, said on Oct. 25.
Under the agreement called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and struck by Iran and six major powers, Tehran limited its nuclear program to make it harder for it to get a bomb in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Tehran has long said its program is for peaceful purposes. Then-US President Donald Trump reneged on the accord in 2018 and reimposed harsh US sanctions, prompting Iran to begin violating the nuclear limits a year later. US President Joe Biden has tried to revive the pact through indirect talks in Vienna, so far without success.
On Feb. 28, two weeks before the talks unraveled, State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “We will need to have additional clarity in the coming days given that we are at this decisive ... moment, knowing that Tehran's nuclear advancements will soon render the non-proliferation benefits that the JCPOA conveyed essentially meaningless.”Others have used various analogies to describe the urgency, saying the runway was limited, the clock ticking and the window closing.
US interests
However, Price and other US officials have since put less emphasis on time running out and more on their only reviving the deal if it were in the US national security interest. “We're going to test the proposition of a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA for as long as doing so remains in our interests,” Price said on April 26. “As long as the non-proliferation benefits that a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA brings is better than what we have now, that will likely be an outcome that's in our interest.” The phrase about reviving the deal only if it was in the US national interest has been used before, including by Price on Jan. 4, but its renewed emphasis and the diminished stress on time dwindling is a shift. “That's a profound rewriting of the non-proliferation standard,” said one source familiar with the matter. “What he is basically saying is that it's not (a question of) whether or not it is providing us benefits equal to the previous JCPOA experience. It's just saying that it's better than today. And 'better than today' is a looser standard.” Dennis Ross, a former US diplomat who handled Iran policy for the Obama White House for two years, concurred. “The formulation is now 'it's still in our national security interest to have this' given the alternatives,” Ross said. “This is an agreement where the breakout time will not be what it once was, because of the advances in the program, but this is still better than the alternatives available to us,” he said. “That's the essence of where they are.”Breakout time is how long it would take Iran to acquire the fissile material for one bomb if it decided to. The accord stretched this to about a year but it is now down to weeks, US officials say. The State Department has not provided a response addressing Reuters questions.
Options
Despite talk of “Plan B” options to address Iran's nuclear program if the deal cannot be revived, there are few good ones. Ross said alternatives include intensified economic pressure on Iran as well as US or Israeli military action to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. None appeals to Washington, so it is still trying to revive the deal. “Plan B is basically what plan A was,” Ross said. Ross argued Washington now believes restoring some of the deal's limits, such as its 3.67% cap on the purity to which Iran can enrich uranium and the a 202.8-kg limit on its enriched uranium stock, was better than the alternative. According to a March 3 International Atomic Energy Agency report, Iran was enriching uranium to 60% purity and its stock of enriched uranium stood at 3.2 tonnes. Talks broke down in March largely because of Tehran's demand Washington remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from a US terrorism list and the US refusal to do so, arguing that this was outside the scope of reviving the deal. The European Union's foreign policy chief on May 13 said he believed EU envoy, Enrique Mora, who coordinates the talks, made enough progress on a visit to Tehran that week to restart discussions. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said the visit was a chance to explore settling the remaining issues. “A good and reliable agreement is within reach if the United States makes a political decision and adheres to its commitments,” he said. After Mora's visit a European diplomatic source said neither side had committed to resume talks and finding a compromise on the IRGC remained improbable, if not impossible. “The Americans were very vocal two months ago saying time is running out and we have to get a deal,” said this source. “But since March ... they don't seem to be in a hurry anymore.”
A Western diplomatic source said whether reviving the deal was worthwhile was ultimately a political decision. “This is a political judgment,” this source said. “The deal has already lost its core benefits, but you can always argue that there are some things that make it more beneficial than nothing.”

Thousands attend funeral for slain Guard colonel in Iran
AP/May 24, 2022
TEHRAN, Iran: Thousands of mourners poured into the streets of Tehran on Tuesday to pay their respects to a senior Revolutionary Guard member fatally shot by two gunmen on a motorcycle earlier this week, punching the air with their fists and chanting “Death to Israel.”
The killing on Sunday of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei bore the hallmarks of previous deadly shooting attacks in Iran blamed on Israel, such as those targeting the country’s nuclear scientists. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. Iranian officials have blamed “global arrogance,” which is code for the United States and Israel, for Khodaei’s killing. The funeral procession snaked through the main Tehran cemetery as mourners shouted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans. A prominent poster hailed Khodaei as a martyr along with Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the top Iranian general killed in a US drone strike in 2020 in Iraq, and featured tattered Israeli, American and British flags. “Iran is a victim of terrorism,” the banner declared, overlaid with the logos of the Mossad and Central Intelligence Agency. Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami as well as Gen. Esmail Ghaani, leader of Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force, attended the funeral. Ghaani also offered condolences at Khodaei’s home on Monday night. Iran’s nuclear negotiator visited the crime scene, underscoring the government’s shock. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed revenge. A street in Tehran has already been named after the colonel.
The 50-year-old Khodaei remains a shadowy figure, and Iran has yet to offer biographic detail beyond saying that he was a member of the elite Quds Force that oversees operations abroad through Iran’s allied militias across the Middle East. The Guard has described him as “defender of the shrine” — a reference to Iranians who support militias fighting the extremist Daesh group in Syria and Iraq. The manner of the slaying evoked previous targeted attacks by Israel in Iran. In November 2020, a top Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed while traveling in a car outside Tehran. Women in black chadors wailed and wept over Khodaei’s coffin, an ornate box covered with flowers and draped with the Iranian flag and mourning symbols of the Shiite faith.
“We want revenge only,” Moghtaderi, one of the mourners, told The Associated Press at the funeral. She gave only her last name. “Enemies must be aware that we are loyal to the martyrs and their blood is so precious to us.”Iranian security forces are still pursuing the assailants, who escaped, state media reported. Authorities have yet to make any arrests over the killing. The procession took place as a sandstorm blanketed Iran, shuttering schools and government offices in the capital. Meanwhile in the country’s central desert, a fighter jet crashed during a training exercise, killing two pilots, state media reported. Reports did not identify the cause of the crash at the Anarak training site near the central city of Isfahan. An investigation was underway. Iran’s air force has an assortment of US-made military aircraft purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It also has Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi planes.
Decades of Western sanctions have made it hard to obtain spare parts and maintain the aging aircraft. Crashes occasionally happen among its faltering fleet. In February, a fighter jet plunged into a soccer pitch in the country’s northwestern city of Tabriz, killing both pilots and a civilian. Iran is believed to have modeled its F-7 fighter after China’s jet J-7 that is considered a copy of the Soviet-era MiG-21. Beijing built the aircraft for export to countries including Pakistan, Iran, Sudan and North Korea. Iranian pilots for years have used the F-7 for training, with some mishaps. Four years ago, an F-7 similarly crashed near Isfahan during an aerial exercise because of what was later described as a technical problem.

Ukraine's intelligence chief 'fully confirms' Putin has cancer
Kate Buck/Yahoo News UK/ May 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin has cancer but won't "die tomorrow", a Ukrainian intelligence official has reportedly claimed. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, told Ukrainian news outlet Pravda that the Russian president has "several illnesses". He told the outlet: "Yes, we fully confirm this information, that Putin has cancer. "He has several serious illnesses, one of which is cancer. "But it’s not worth hoping that Putin will die tomorrow. He still has at least a few years left. Whether we like it or not, that’s the truth."Putin's state of mind has been repeatedly questioned in recent months following his order for his soldiers to invade Ukraine. His health has also come under renewed scrutiny, with a former MI6 operative Christopher Steele telling talk radio station LBC that Putin has to take regular breaks from meetings to seek medical treatment. He said: "Our understanding is that there's increasing disarray in the Kremlin and chaos."There's no clear political leadership coming from Putin, who is increasingly ill, and in military terms, the structures of command and so on are not functioning as they should."He added: "What we do know is that he's constantly accompanied around the place by a team of doctors."Government meetings, of which many are televised, are having to be broken into sections due to Putin's health, Steele claimed. "It's certainly having a very serious impact on the governance of Russia at the moment." Last month, questions around Putin;s health increased when a video from February showed him “shaking uncontrollably” during a meeting with Aleksandr Lukashenko, the president of Belarus. That followed a report by a Russian investigative journalism group that Putin had been visited by a cancer surgeon dozens of times over a four-year period. Moscow has not formally responded to rumours about Putin's health. However, in November 2020, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected widely reported claims that the Russian President had Parkinson's disease and was poised to quit. “It’s absolute nonsense,” Peskov said. “Everything is fine with the president.”It has been three months since Russian troops attempted to take control, but in that time Putin's troops have made limited gains - with Ukrainian authorities claiming almost 30,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in that time. It was reported earlier this week that Putin was able to survive an assassination attempt two months ago. Budanov said there was an “unsuccessful” attempt against the Kremlin leader’s life at the start of Russia’s brutal invasion of its neighbour. "This is nonpublic information. Absolutely unsuccessful attempt, but it really took place. … It was about two months ago.”Western officials are reportedly skeptical of the assassination claim.

Spain can solve the problem of Europe's reliance on Russian natural gas, its prime minister says
Pedro Sanchez/ Business Insider/Tue, May 24, 2022
Spain's prime minister spotlighted his country as the "answer" to the EU's reliance on Russian gas. He noted Spain is home to half 37% of the EU's capacity for turning LNG into natural gas. Oil and natural gas prices have been flying as the EU considers an oil embargo on Russian imports.
Spain has the answer to Europe's problem of finding an alternative to Russian gas, its prime minister has said. The European Union believes it is facing a coming supply shock, as President Vladimir Putin uses its reliance on Russian supply to counter the bloc's economic sanctions over Ukraine.
"Spain and the Iberian peninsula — and I would say Southern Europe — we have a chance to provide an answer to this energy dependence on Russian fossil energy," Sanchez told CNBC on Monday. Sanchez pointed out that his country has 37% of the EU's total capacity for regasification — the process by which liquefied natural gas is converted back to natural gas — and the Iberian peninsula concentrates close to 50% of that LNG extract for the EU. "The only problem that we have is the interconnections. That is why I think it was very important that the commission made a clear statement that we need to increase and to intensify the interconnections from the Iberian peninsula with the European energy market," he said. The EU usually gets 40% of its natural gas needs fulfilled by Russia, which is the region's biggest supplier, alongside Norway, Algeria and others, according to official figures. The 27-member bloc has come under pressure to halt its imports of gas and oil from Russia, to stop the flow of revenue to Moscow. But its dependence on gas supplies make it difficult to turn off the spigot without risking economic harm. Russia cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria in April, after the countries refused to bow to President Vladimir Putin's decree that payments must be made in rubles — a move the European Commission's chief has described as "an instrument of blackmail". After that move, the commission told EU member states to prepare for a supply shock and full disruption of Russian gas supplies, Euractiv reported. Sanchez also noted that Spain has a "very strong presence in renewables," which he believes are more competitive than gas. "Renewable energy, hydrogen energy efficiency, is not only a great ally for countries and economies to tackle climate-change efforts, but also — in this very complex and very uncertain geopolitical scenario — that will provide us means to increase our resilience and autonomy," he said. Spain was recently embroiled in a spat with Algeria after it re-exported gas to Morocco. The move came as Algeria cut ties with Morocco last year after accusing the country of hostile actions.
Oil and natural gas prices have skyrocketed in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as Western allies placed sanctions on Moscow. The EU is now looking to come to agreement on an embargo on Russian oil imports, following similar bans by the US and UK. Asked whether the embargo will come soon, Sanchez was optimistic. "We are now negotiating the second batch of economic sanctions, but I believe we will have that agreement soon," he said. "This is something that of course is going to cost us, and is already doing so, because we are suffering through this hike of gas and oil and electricity prices."

Israel says 5 Palestinians arrested in alleged attack plots
Associated Press/May 24/2022
Israeli authorities said Tuesday they have foiled a wide-ranging plot by Palestinian militant Hamas group to shoot a member of parliament, kidnap soldiers and bomb Jerusalem's light rail system during a surge of violence that has left dozens dead in recent weeks. The police and Shin Bet security services said in a statement that five Palestinian men from east Jerusalem had been arrested for allegedly planning a shooting attack against far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir and other targets at a time of heightened tensions in the flashpoint city. The suspects, authorities said, had planned the attacks last month, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, to "destabilize" the area around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. Authorities said a drone was found, intended to be armed and used in an attack on Jerusalem's light rail, which sees daily crowds of commuters and tourists. They identified the plot leaders as Hamas militants Rashid Rashak and Mansur Tzafadi, who "delivered many fireworks, flags and Hamas videos" to east Jerusalem neighborhoods last month during Ramadan. Security forces also seized a camera to be used to photograph "abductees," cash and other equipment. The statement did not say how close they came to carrying out the plot. There was no immediate comment from Hamas. The arrests came at a time of heightened violence between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police in east Jerusalem, much of it concentrated at a contested holy site. Israel also has stepped up military activity in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks in response to a series of deadly attacks inside Israel. Next week, Israeli ultranationalists plan to march through the main Muslim thoroughfare of the Old City. The march is meant to celebrate Israel's capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel subsequently annexed the area in a step that is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Also inflaming tensions is the death of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh during a firefight in Jenin. A reconstruction by The Associated Press lends support to assertions from both Palestinian authorities and Abu Akleh's colleagues that the bullet that cut her down came from an Israeli gun. Any conclusive answer is likely to prove elusive due to the severe distrust between the two sides, each of which is in sole possession of potentially crucial evidence.

More hardship as new sandstorm engulfs parts of Middle East
Associated Press/May 24/2022
A sandstorm blanketed parts of the Middle East on Monday, including Iraq, Syria and Iran, sending people to hospitals and disrupting flights in some places. It was the latest in a series of unprecedented nearly back-to-back sandstorms this year that have bewildered residents and raised alarm among experts and officials, who blame climate change and poor governmental regulations. From Riyadh to Tehran, bright orange skies and a thick veil of grit signaled yet another stormy day Monday. Sandstorms are typical in late spring and summer, spurred by seasonal winds. But this year they have occurred nearly every week in Iraq since March. Iraqi authorities declared the day a national holiday, urging government workers and residents to stay home in anticipation of the 10th storm to hit the country in the last two months. The Health Ministry stockpiled canisters of oxygen at facilities in hard-hit areas, according to a statement.
The storms have sent thousands to hospitals and resulted in at least one death in Iraq and three in Syria's east. "Its a region-wide issue but each country has a different degree of vulnerability and weakness," said Jaafar Jotheri, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Al-Qadisiyah in Baghdad.
In Syria, medical departments were put on alert as the sandstorm hit the eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq, Syrian state TV said. Earlier this month, a similar storm in the region left at least three people dead and hundreds were hospitalized with breathing problems.
Dr. Bashar Shouaybi, head of the Health Ministry's office in Deir el-Zour, told state TV that hospitals were prepared and ambulances were on standby. He said they have acquired an additional 850 oxygen tanks and medicine needed to deal with patients who have asthma.
Severe sandstorms have also blanketed parts of Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia this month. For the second time this month, Kuwait International Airport suspended all flights Monday because of the dust. Video showed largely empty streets with poor visibility.
Saudi Arabia's meteorological association reported that visibility would drop to zero on the roads in Riyadh, the capital, this week. Officials warned drivers to go slowly. Emergency rooms in the city were flooded with 1,285 patients this month complaining they couldn't breathe properly.
Iran last week shut down schools and government offices in the capital of Tehran over a sandstorm that swept the country. It hit hardest in the nation's southwest desert region of Khuzestan, where over 800 people sought treatment for breathing difficulties. Dozens of flights out of western Iran were canceled or delayed. Blame over the dust storms and heavy air pollution has mounted, with a prominent environmental expert telling local media that climate change, drought and government mismanagement of water resources are responsible for the increase in sandstorms. Iran has drained its wetlands for farming -- a common practice known to produce dust in the region. Alireza Shariat, the head of an association of Iranian water engineers, told Iran's semiofficial ILNA news agency last month that he expected extensive dust storms to become an "annual springtime phenomenon" in a way Iran has never seen before.
In Iraq, desertification exacerbated by record-low rainfall is adding to the intensity of storms, said Jotheri, the geoarchaeologist. In a low-lying country with plenty of desert regions, the impact is almost double, he said. "Because of 17 years of mismanagement of water and urbanization, Iraq lost more than two thirds of its green cover," he said. "That is why Iraqis are complaining more than their neighbors about the sandstorms in their areas."

UAE firm inks airport deal as Afghanistan eyes international flights
Agence France Presse/May 24/2022
A United Arab Emirates company signed a contract with the Taliban authorities Tuesday to provide ground handling services at Afghanistan's three airports, officials said, as the country seeks to resume international transit. Capital Kabul's only airport was trashed in August when tens of thousands of people rushed to evacuate as the US-led forces withdrew. While some domestic and international flights are still operating out of the facility, it needs significant upgrades for major foreign airlines to restart full service. The full operation of Kabul airport is crucial for reviving Afghanistan's shattered economy. But no country has yet formally recognized the Taliban government, with nations watching to see how the Islamists -– notorious for human rights abuses during their 1996-2001 stint in power -– will rule. UAE firm GAAC, which was previously operating in Afghanistan, signed a new 18-month contract covering three airports: Kabul, Kandahar and Herat. "The current contract is only for offering ground handling services," Hameedullah Akhundzada, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation said at a press conference. GAAC has provided these services at Kabul airport since November 2020, and played a key role in rehabilitating the facility in August. "We are not a new face here," Ibrahim Morafi, regional director of GAAC, told AFP. "But GAAC signing the new contract will give confidence to international airlines to resume flights to Afghanistan," he said, without specifying when such flights -- including from the UAE -- were expected to resume. A Qatar-Turkey consortium has been in talks with the aviation ministry for months over operating airports at Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Khost. But the talks snagged as the Taliban insisted its fighters will guard the facilities. Qatar and Turkey want a say in managing security, at least at Kabul airport, experts tracking the negotiations say. On Tuesday, Afghan officials refused to comment on whether the consortium was still open to operating the five airports. GAAC officials also declined to comment on whether its new ground handling contract would be expanded into other services. Currently, two Afghan airlines -- Kam Air and Ariana Afghan -- fly to Dubai, Doha, Islamabad, and Tehran from Kabul airport. Iran's Mahan Air also operates flights to Kabul.

Abu Dhabi says 2 killed, 120 injured in gas cylinder blast
Associated Press/May 24/2022
A gas cylinder explosion in the capital of the United Arab Emirates has killed two people and injured 120 others, police said, hours after authorities downplayed the incident and warned the public not to share images of the aftermath. The explosion struck a restaurant just after 1 p.m. in Abu Dhabi's Khalidiya neighborhood, just a few blocks from the capital's beachfront corniche. Initially, Abu Dhabi police vaguely referred to damage and injuries, showing pictures of glass and debris littering the street. Six hours later in a tweet, Abu Dhabi police offered the casualties — 64 people with "minor injuries," 56 with "moderate injuries" and two people killed. "The injured were transferred to the hospital to receive necessary health care, with material damage to shops and facades of six buildings," the police said. They described an investigation into the blast as ongoing. State-owned and state-linked media in Abu Dhabi also initially downplayed the blast as only damaging the facades of nearby shops in the neighborhood. Abu Dhabi police had warned the public against sharing any footage of the blast's aftermath in the country with strict laws on speech. Already, authorities have threatened criminal charges against those who broadcast images of attacks on the country following a series of drone attacks on the capital by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The National, an English-language, state-linked newspaper in Abu Dhabi, described the explosion as striking an unnamed restaurant after 1 p.m. Monday near the Shining Towers complex, a local landmark. The UAE, a federation of seven desert sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, does face seasonal fires brought on by the intense heat that bakes this nation each summer. Temperatures hit 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday. In February, authorities say a similar gas cylinder explosion struck the capital at the height of concerns over the Houthi attacks.

Turkey's Erdogan threatens new incursion into Syria
Associated Press/May 24/2022
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to launch a new military operation in Syria to secure Turkey's southern border. Speaking following a Cabinet meeting, Erdogan said the aim of the operation would be resume Turkish efforts to create a 30-kilometer (20 mile) safe zone along its border with Syria. "We will soon take new steps regarding the incomplete portions of the project we started on the 30-km deep safe zone we established along our southern border," Erdogan said. Erdogan did not provide further details but said the operation would begin after Turkey's military, intelligence and security forces complete their preparations. Turkish forces have launched three major incursions into northern Syria, taking control of areas along the border in a bid to secure its frontier from threats from the Islamic State group and Kurdish militia group, the People's Protection Units, or YPG. Turkey views the group as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK which is listed as a terror group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The PKK has waged an insurgency against Turkey since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict. Erdogan's comments come at a time when Turkey is objecting to Sweden and Finland's membership in the NATO alliance, citing the two countries alleged support for the PKK and other groups that Turkey views as terrorists, as well as their decision to impose restrictions on military sales to Turkey following Ankara's incursion into Syria in 2019.

Reconstruction of Abu Akleh's killing points to Israeli fire
Associated Press/May 24/2022
Almost two weeks after the death of the veteran Palestinian-American reporter for Al Jazeera, a reconstruction by The Associated Press lends support to assertions from both Palestinian authorities and Abu Akleh's colleagues that the bullet that cut her down came from an Israeli gun.
Any conclusive answer is likely to prove elusive because of the severe distrust between the two sides, each of which is in sole possession of potentially crucial evidence. Multiple videos and photos taken on the morning of May 11 show an Israeli convoy parked just up a narrow road from Abu Akleh, with a clear line of sight. They show the reporters and other bystanders in real time taking cover from bullets fired from the direction of the convoy. The only confirmed presence of Palestinian militants was on the other side of the convoy, some 300 meters (yards) away, mostly separated from Abu Akleh by buildings and walls. Israel says at least one militant was between the convoy and the journalists, but it has not provided any evidence or indicated the shooter's location. Palestinian witnesses say there were no militants in the area and no gunfire until the barrage that struck Abu Akleh and wounded another reporter.
Those witnesses say they have no doubt that it was Israeli soldiers who killed Abu Akleh, now celebrated as a martyr to both journalism and the Palestinian cause. The Israeli military says she was killed in a complex shootout between soldiers and militants, and that only a full investigation — including forensic analysis of the bullet — could prove who fired the fatal shot. The Palestinians have refused to hand over the bullet or cooperate with Israel in any way on the investigation, but say they will share the results of their own probe with any other party.
Abu Akleh's death has further heightened Mideast tensions amid a wave of violence and raised new concerns over the safety of reporters covering Israel's nearly 55-year military occupation of the West Bank, which the Palestinians want as the main part of their future state.
AP reporters visited the location where Abu Akleh was killed on the edge of the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, as well as the scene of a nearby battle with Israeli forces captured on a video shared by Israel. Interviews with five Palestinian eyewitnesses corroborate an analysis by the Dutch-based Bellingcat research group indicating Israeli forces were closer to Abu Akleh and had a better line of sight. The group, which specializes in geolocating events in war zones by analyzing photos and video shared online, pinpointed the location of the convoy just up a narrow road from where Abu Akleh was killed.
THE ROAD AND THE CONVOY
Reporters who were with Abu Akleh say that when they arrived at the scene it was quiet, with no clashes or militants in the immediate area. Ali Samoudi, an Al Jazeera producer from Jenin, said he called people inside the camp to get an idea of what was happening. Then they proceeded to a long, narrow road sloping up from an open area to a cluster of concrete buildings where an Israeli army convoy was parked some 200 meters away. Each reporter was wearing a helmet and a blue vest labeled "PRESS" in large lettering. "We stepped out into the open so they could see us," Samoudi told the AP. "They didn't indicate that we should leave, so we went slowly, walking forward about 20 meters." Shatha Hanaysheh, a local photographer, said they remained there for 5 to 10 minutes, talking and even laughing in full view of the soldiers. A video that appears to capture the first shots supports her account. Samoudi said the soldiers fired a warning shot, causing him to duck and run backwards. The second shot hit him in the back. Abu Akleh was shot in the head and appears to have died instantly, Hanaysheh sheltered on the other side of a tree next to a wall. Tree bark on the side facing the army appears to have been chipped away by gunfire or shrapnel. "We saw that the gunfire came from the army," Hanaysheh said. "When Ali and Shireen and I ran for cover, we ran away from them." Sharif Azer, a local resident who was on his way to work, heard the gunfire and ran over to help. He can be seen in another widely shared video climbing over the wall where Hanaysheh was taking cover and helping her to escape. Several gunshots can be heard after Abu Akleh was killed, as people take cover on either side of the road. When Azer moves away from the tree, shots ring out and he backs up, indicating they are coming from the army's position. He says he could see the soldiers pointing their guns. "They fired on us more than once. Every time someone approached, they fired at them," he said.
A POSSIBLE SCENARIO
The Israeli military's initial inquiry into the shooting said there were two possibilities. In the first, it said Palestinian militants on the other side of the convoy, to the south, were recklessly firing hundreds of rounds, one of which could have struck Abu Akleh, who was some 300 meters away. Bullets fired from an M16 can travel well over 1,000 meters. But the military hasn't provided any visual evidence, aside from footage of Palestinian militants firing from another location that did not have a line of sight toward Abu Akleh. The AP did not uncover any evidence to support this first scenario. The second scenario, at this point, appears more plausible. Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, an army spokesman, says there was at least one Palestinian gunman on the road between the troops and the journalists, "in the vicinity" of Abu Akleh. That militant allegedly fired multiple times at one of the army vehicles, and a soldier inside it returned fire with a rifle equipped with a telescopic scope. The army's probe has zeroed in on that rifle, Shefler said, though it still believes a stray Palestinian bullet could have killed her. The army says it cannot provide an answer without comparing the bullet to the weapon. "Without the possibility of examining the bullet, the doubt remains," Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the army's chief prosecutor, said in a speech Monday. She said that because the killing occurred in an active combat zone, there would be no decision on whether to open a criminal investigation until the initial probe is complete. Videos posted on social media that day contain sounds of heavy gunfire in other parts of Jenin, including near a house surrounded by Israeli military vehicles conducting an arrest raid about 1.5 kilometers (a mile) away from where Abu Akleh was shot. All of the witnesses who spoke to the AP insisted there were no militants in the area between the reporters and the army. The area is mostly open, but a gunman could have potentially sheltered unseen in the brush-filled cemetery on the road's eastern side or an open-air brick factory next to where the journalists were located. No militants can be seen in any of the videos showing the journalists' location. The Palestinian Health Ministry says there were no other Palestinians killed or wounded that day in Jenin. Local media also have no record of any other Palestinian casualties. Walid Omary, who oversees Al Jazeera's coverage of the Palestinian territories, said he had seen no evidence of any militants between the reporters and the army. "If there was a Palestinian militant there, why not shoot the militant? They have snipers," he said. "It's clear to us now that they targeted Shireen."
SEPARATE INVESTIGATIONS
Almost immediately after the shooting, Israel called for a joint investigation with the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, and asked it to hand over the bullet that killed Abu Akleh for ballistic analysis. Israel invited Palestinian and American representatives to participate in the investigation. The PA refused, saying Israel cannot be trusted to investigate itself. Within hours of the shooting, both the PA and Al Jazeera accused Israel of deliberately targeting Abu Akleh, but provided no specific evidence for the claim, which Israel strongly denies. A spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians are conducting a "pure, professional investigation" and will share the results with international bodies. He declined to provide details of the probe or address questions about trying to match the bullet to the weapon. "We are sure that Israel is responsible for the killing, and we have evidence, proof, and witnesses confirming that," Nabil Abu Rdeneh told the AP. "We have no confidence in Israeli investigations because their goal is to falsify the facts." Israeli investigations into shootings of Palestinians often drag on for months or years before being quietly shelved, and rights groups say soldiers are rarely held accountable. Israeli authorities initially suggested the Palestinian fighters in the video they shared might have killed Abu Akleh. They backtracked after B'Tselem, an Israeli rights group, circulated another video showing it was virtually impossible for them to have shot her, since the two locations were hundreds of meters apart and separated by buildings and walls. B'Tselem is still conducting its own investigation. Palestinian investigators are in possession of the bullet that killed Abu Akleh, which was recovered from her head. Samoudi says the bullet that struck him shattered, leaving some fragments inside his back. It's unclear if any other fragments have been recovered. Lior Nadivi, a former crime scene investigator and firearms examiner for the Israeli police, said the bullet that killed Abu Akleh would potentially contain a trove of evidence. A deformation might indicate it ricocheted. Markings would show the type of weapon, and a microscopic signature could potentially be used to match the bullet to a specific firearm. He said there was "no way" to tamper with a bullet without leaving obvious marks on it. But Nadivi said it was also important to have a full picture of what happened.
"You need to position all the people who fired in the general direction of this journalist and then try to analyze what happened to each bullet," he said. "There is a lot of information that you need, and right now we've got nothing."In the end, it could prove impossible to know exactly what happened; neither side is likely to accept conclusions reached by the other. The United States, Israel's closest ally, says it is "working to bridge cooperation between the parties," but there's no indication of any progress. Last week, 57 House Democrats called for an FBI investigation. Both Israel and the PA would have to request U.S. assistance, and neither appears to have done so. Israel has invited the U.S. to participate in an observer role. In theory, each side could submit evidence to a third party for analysis. But neither side has expressed interest in that kind of investigation, and each could accuse the other of tampering with evidence if it didn't like the result. Samoudi visited the scene of the killing in a wheelchair on Thursday, as supporters set up a makeshift memorial. Hanaysheh came as well, but kept her distance from the tree where she was nearly killed, saying she was still too traumatized to approach it.
She hasn't given up the work though. Two days after Abu Akleh was killed, Israeli forces returned to Jenin to carry out another raid. Israel says it is targeting militants after a series of attacks in recent weeks, many carried out by assailants from in and around Jenin. Hanaysheh said even more journalists than usual came out to cover it — and that she was among them. "Any journalist anywhere knows that they can be killed, but if we don't do this work then no one else will," she said. "We know the occupation doesn't want what happens here to get out."


The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 24-25/2022
Protests in Iran Are Surging. The Biden Administration Can Help.
Behnam Ben Taleblu and Saeed Ghasseminejad /The Dispatch/May 24/2022
U.S. policy can no longer afford to be limited to seeking a new nuclear deal.
Chants of “Death to the dictator!” are once again crescendoing in street protests across Iran.
Early this May, the ultra-hardline government of President Ebrahim Raisi cut subsidies for flour and wheat pursuant to a greenlight in March by the Iranian parliament to slash select price controls. Days later, the government hiked prices on other staples such as dairy, poultry, and cooking oil. The decision sent prices soaring by a reported 300 percent and immediately sparked unrest, as some in Iran had anticipated. Although the month of May saw various other demonstrations—such as by teachers and bus drivers—the protests triggered by food price spikes have begun to spread across the country, with a reported six dead and a growing number arrested.
Despite attempts by Iranian leaders to downplay protests, more turbulence is expected. As such, the quickly changing facts on the ground in Iran mean that U.S. policy can no longer afford to be limited to the number and type of centrifuges installed, nor Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. Various economic, social, and political forces have brought about these protests and are slated to sustain future ones. Turning a blind eye to each driver and continuing to see Iran policy through the sole prism of nuclear nonproliferation ensures that Washington will perennially be caught off-guard by the next iteration of protests, as well as their results.
At least six distinct factors, all likely to persist, are driving the current round of protests. First, and perhaps the most proximate, is the effect that the war in Ukraine has had on the back of pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions and inflation rates, which led to a global food crisis. Iran’s minister of agriculture, who is one of the few unsanctioned ministers in President Raisi’s cabinet, drew attention to the war in Ukraine as the driver of the price spike, while officials at the State Trading Company of Iran noted that much of Iran’s subsidized wheat was being smuggled out of the country. Despite Tehran’s efforts to be self-sufficient in the production of wheat, in the Iranian calendar year 1400 (March 2021 to March 2022), it imported more than 7 million tons of wheat. Iran is also highly dependent on imports from both Russia and Ukraine for cooking oil, with a reported 90 percent of Iranian cooking oil coming from abroad.
Second, Iran continues to face a worsening multi-year drought in already hard-hit areas. In fact, the current iteration of street protests began in the country’s impoverished but oil-rich southwest, an area previously hurt by severe drought because of abysmal water management by central authorities. Protests over water that began in this region last summer swept large portions of the country, culminating in broader anti-regime protests in the nation’s capital last July. Combining drought with the havoc inflation is currently wreaking on the purchasing power of the Iranian rial means that protests are not likely to be contained to one region, as is already being witnessed.
Third, Iran suffers from long-term economic mismanagement and corruption that have been exacerbated by the macroeconomic impact of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy, which relied heavily on economic and financial sanctions. Specifically, Iranians have had to deal with consistent two-digit inflation and massive currency depreciation for the last five years. On January 1, 2017, one U.S dollar was worth approximately 39,300 rials at the free-market exchange rate. On May 17, 2022, one U.S. dollar was worth 302,500 rials. In other words, one U.S. dollar is 7.7 times more expensive (relative to the free-market value of the Iranian rial) than it was five years ago.
Fourth, compounding this sense of a looming crisis is relative uncertainty over the fate of the nuclear deal and the prospect of sanctions relief, two unresolved matters that continue to inject huge risks and ambiguity into the economy, as well as drive suboptimal fixes to economic issues like inflation. The fact that the Islamic Republic remains the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism and the challenge of conducting proper due-diligence in Iran notwithstanding, an incomplete, short-lived, or increasingly politically tenuous nuclear deal is unlikely to assuage sanctions violations concerns for foreign firms, skewing the risk-reward ratio of doing business in or with Iran. Similarly, on the Iranian side of the ledger, uncertainty makes planning—be it for already marginalized private sector firms or large government-controlled entities in Iran—very difficult for anything beyond the short-term.
The politics of the nuclear deal may even be informing the Raisi government’s decision to press for subsidy cuts, as Raisi himself was a critic of the 2015 accord and has been looking to improve Iran’s economic situation in ways that go beyond deal re-entry. Both Raisi and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stressed earlier this year that the country’s economy should not be dependent on the prospect of sanctions relief in a deal with the West. Should the regime withstand the protests and make more economic cuts, its position at the negotiating table could harden and embolden Tehran to look at other non-deal options for its nuclear program.
Fifth, like more fuel to the fire, is the very presence of figures like Raisi—dubbed the “butcher” of Tehran for his role in a 1988 death commission that oversaw the execution of thousands of political prisoners—on the national stage. While he won the Islamic Republic’s tightly managed attempt to further constrict political space, Raisi’s “election” last summer was widely boycotted, marking the lowest ever recorded electoral turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history, which followed a similarly low turnout in parliamentary elections from February 2020. Domestically, the boycott can best be understood as the result of a troika of forces: strong distaste for Raisi given his past, a public rebuke of the regime that tried to use a scripted electoral contest to feign legitimacy abroad, as well as a death-knell in the domestic reform movement and so-called “moderate” wing of the political elite—whose continued calls for electoral participation fell on the deaf ears of a populace frustrated with the entire political system.
What support Raisi lacked from the street he sought to cement with the state for his uncompromising social and political stances. Since his first and failed presidential bid in 2017, analysts in Washington had posited that Raisi was being groomed as a potential ultra-hardline successor to Khamenei, who recently turned 83.
But as confidence begot overconfidence, in the face of these challenges the Raisi government took to initiating a politically and economically tenuous comprehensive subsidy reform endeavor, something his limited support base termed “economic surgery.” The policy targets the officially subsidized dollar rate that the Central Bank of Iran previously gave importers to buy basic goods and sell below the market price nationally.
As a result of Raisi’s new policy, importers must instead buy their dollars and sell their goods at a much higher rate in the NIMA market, a part of Iran’s multi-tiered exchange rate system and the exchange platform for importers and exporters. By way of example, the subsidized exchange rate for one U.S. dollar is 42,000 rials, while the price of a U.S. dollar on NIMA is now more than 250,000 rials, representing an almost six-fold increase. Meanwhile, as we mentioned above, the price of a single U.S. dollar in the black-market or free-market economy is now higher than 300,000 rials. When Raisi began his so-called economic surgery with the price of flour, bread prices surged and render families hungry. While Iran’s supreme leader ran cover for the move, not all of Iran’s principalists fell in line. For example, Raisi was castigated by traditional conservative outlets that called for his resignation, noting that “Bread, even during the Imposed [Iran-Iraq] War, did not become expensive.” With subsidy reform set to increase inflationary pressures in an economy already struggling, Raisi’s economic policy looks exactly like what would happen if a butcher was asked to stand in for a surgeon.
The sixth and final reason to expect more turbulence is the most important: attitudes and preferences of the Iranian people as reflected in changing patterns of national protest. Specifically, those of the urban and rural poor—which have formed the backbone of recent (2017—present) protests—and were the first and hardest hit by Raisi’s economic policies and previous shocks. The country’s deteriorating economic conditions have led to a significant increase in the number of Iranians living below the poverty line. According to official figures, currently 30 percent of the population lives below the absolute poverty line. Regime insiders and experts estimate that 60 to 70 percent of Iranians are below the relative poverty line. Coupled with a mountain of unfulfilled promises, as more and more Iranians have fallen into poverty, they have less hope in a solution to their plight coming from the regime and its factions, and are more willing to protest the Islamic Republic in its entirety. This sentiment is best expressed by a popular protest chant against regime elites of all stripes that goes, “Reformists, principalists, the jig is up!”
By twist of fate, the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic had hoped this class of more traditionally minded Iranians—dubbed the “oppressed” or Mostazafin and who made the revolution possible—would sustain and defend the Islamic Republic through bonds of faith and communal identity rather than concern over their socio-economic situation. As Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is reported to have said about the 1979 revolution, “People did not make a revolution for the price of watermelon. … They did it for Islam.”
The ayatollah could not have been more wrong, and not just about economics.
When reviewing various iterations of national protest since 2017, a new pattern of anti-regime uprisings emerges when compared to past protests such as those seen 1999 and 2009. This shift is visible across a series of factors, including protester geography and demography, slogans chanted, relative cohesion, and even levels of state violence against citizens. The most important lesson for Washington audiences to take away from these demonstrations is that the Iranian population has continued to risk life and limb on the street for wholesale change away from the Islamic Republic rather than settle for the promise of incremental change through the ballot-box and preserve the Islamic Republic.
Given their lack of attachment to any political faction in the system, these newer protests are leaderless and less cohesive. And while political in nature, they are touched-off by seemingly non-political issues and events, be they social, environmental, security, or increasingly, economic to demonstrate popular dissatisfaction with the regime. Seldom has the Western or international press been able to understand this. One rare exception was a recent headline from ABC News on the current iteration of protests which read, “Bloody protests in Iran are not just about food prices.”
But why exactly would a protest triggered by economic matters end up being political in practice? As one Iranian dissenter speaking to France 24 recently put it:
“There were lots of anti-Khamenei slogans simply because he’s the one responsible for our situation. His politics over the past 30 years have brought us here—useless uranium enrichment, interfering in internal affairs of neighbouring countries, stupid enmity with Israel, the list is long … They are imposing famine on us for their stupid opposition to the USA, while they all are corrupt and living a luxurious life, buying luxury condos in Canada or Turkey.”
In the winter of 2017, for instance, Iranians poured out into the streets protesting the high price of eggs. Protests continued into 2018, creating varied and sporadic demonstrations against the regime even into the summer. In the winter of 2019, Iranians again hit the streets to protest high gas prices. Within days, each set of protests became a referendum on the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic rather than merely the price of eggs or gas, an assessment seemingly shared by the regime based on the ferocity of its response against protesters at each juncture.
In 2017, Iranian authorities blocked various social media platforms to prevent Iranians from communicating with one another and sharing their stories with the outside world. In 2019, as protests metastasized across the nation, authorities escalated by enacting a national internet blackout for nearly a week and killed a reported 1,500 protesters, making the 2019 uprising the bloodiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Now with food prices triggering protests, distinctly political chants heard in various iterations of national uprisings from 2017 to 2021 are being recycled by the Iranian people, sharpening the divide that already exists between state and society. Thus far, there have been temporary interruptions in internet services, as reported by NetBlocks. But should protests continue, another blackout and more direct violence against Iranian protesters is likely.
This brings us to the question of U.S. policy. For years, the U.S. has been exceptionally cautious in its approach both to protests inside Iran as well as to countering the Islamic Republic. This has especially been the case in the nuclear era (2002—present). Perhaps most famously, Barack Obama’s administration failed to offer support to the 2009 protests known as the Green Movement, settling instead for belated and tepid rhetorical encouragement simply because he sought engagement with the clerical regime to facilitate a nuclear deal that ended up enriching the Iranian people’s oppressors. In 2009, protesters in Tehran had even taken to chanting, “Obama, Obama, are you with us, or with them?”
Prudence and caution are a must in foreign policy. But so too is a proper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of one’s adversary. While options like aggressive containment or rollback can and should be applied to the Islamic Republic drawing on lessons from the Reagan-era playbook against the Soviet Union—and there has been no shortage of ink spilled on this issue in Washington over the years—policymakers should make no mistake, the Islamic Republic is no Soviet Union. Despite similar patterns of foreign aggression, domestic repression, and a precarious internal climate compounded by a failing economy, the Islamic Republic is smaller, weaker, and less globally integrated than the Soviet Union. It also does not—at least not now—possess nuclear weapons. As much as it wants to be an alternative to U.S. power and ideology on the world stage, it simply is not. In this regard, settling for less and constantly pulling punches against the Islamic Republic makes little strategic sense. That is especially the case given that sustained anti-regime protests can create a domestic vector for pressure against Tehran that can aid U.S. policy. And if supported and stewarded wisely, could one day lead to a wholesale change in the U.S.- Iran relationship.
For its part, the Trump administration took it upon itself to course correct from the Obama years. This led to the breaking of several taboos related to the embrace of unilateral economic sanctions and the busting of myths pertaining to American support for popular protests, something Trump did early and often. But beyond vociferous support, sanctions that could crater the economy, and designations that would name and shame rights violators, the Trump administration ran into implementation challenges related to its maximum pressure policy. Namely, how best to provide maximum support for Iranian protesters who were increasingly subject to arrest, torture, internet outages of varied duration and scope, and of course, the use of cold-blooded and lethal force.
At the height of protests in 2019, the authors warned that there would be more waves of demonstrations and strikes in Iran. Washington couldn’t then, and still cannot now, afford to be caught flat-footed in the fight against the Islamic Republic and in support of the Iranian people. To that effect, we recommended the development of a protest policy playbook of sorts, some of which, when looking at U.S. policy in the open-source, appears to have been implemented by the previous administration. One example are localized designations, meaning targeted sanctions against security forces and their commanders engaged in, or other officials supportive of, crackdowns against Iranian protestors active in the same exact jurisdiction witnessing protests. This could be, and seemingly was, complemented with sanctions against additional regime elites and security organs for a pincer effect. Other elements from that playbook, such as telecommunications support and satellite internet provision, still have not been implemented and would stand to meaningfully alter the balance between the street and the state in Iran.
While the Biden administration promised to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy, its track record on holding human rights abusers to account and standing with the Iranian people has been at best, lackluster. The current crisis offers the administration an inflection point to ponder what went wrong, an opportunity to act on the sole profession of support for the Iranian people it offered amid the current crisis, and perhaps most importantly, time to align means and ends on a broader Iran policy.
Here’s exactly how.
First, the administration should understand that its quest for a nuclear agreement centered on the 2015 accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is fundamentally at odds with its professed support for the Iranian people. In a nutshell, sanctions relief to the Islamic Republic—including to its terror-underwriting organs—that flows from this nuclear deal would end-up lessening the political and economic burden on those who would engage in or call for cracking down on Iranian demonstrators. Free from the specter of foreign threats related to its nuclear program, the regime would have more resources, manpower, and attention to spend on threats it perceives internally in any post-deal scenario.
Moreover, Iran’s nuclear advances under the Biden administration make such an agreement increasingly ineffectual as a tool of counterproliferation. But even if no deal is achieved, Washington’s perceived eagerness for an accord has led to the handicapping of other tools that could have been helpful to Iranians protesting last summer as well as now. With more than a year of unenforced sanctions, Iranian officials have generated enough illicit revenue to spend where and how they please, and not on bread or subsidized wheat for their people.
Citing a troika of Iranian nuclear advances, regional malign activities by Iran-backed proxies, as well as repression of Iranian protesters by security forces, the administration should announce a formal end to the current round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna as well as a termination of its policy to resurrect the JCPOA. Unless Washington frees itself from the current self-defeating cycle of nuclear diplomacy, supporting Iranian protesters will join a laundry list of items— a meaningful Syria policy, pressure against Hezbollah narcotraffickers in Latin America, and sanctions on Iran-backed terrorists in Yemen among them—that were all sacrificed on the altar of a nuclear deal with Tehran.
Second, the administration should more aggressively embrace the bully pulpit against the Islamic Republic in general, but specifically on the human rights file by naming and shaming rights violators and memorializing protest anniversaries. Even as the Trump administration prepared to restore some of the toughest economic sanctions on Iran, it continued to vocally support Iranian protesters. As Iranians took to the streets in 2018, they chanted for the first time, “Our enemy is right here, they lie when they say it’s America.”
Accordingly, late and lukewarm responses from the State Department are likely to have a demoralizing effect on protesters and perhaps even be interpreted by the regime as a measure of American trepidation and thus pave the way for a greater cycle of repression. A coherent, clear, and consistent message of support from the highest levels, such as from the president, vice president, secretary of state, national security adviser, or various press secretaries is likely to go a long way. Complementing these messages, U.S. officials ought to consider virtual meetings with prominent protestors or relatives of deceased protestors to put the spotlight on their struggle. These messages and meetings should be shared on U.S. government affiliated outlets and social media channels, which at present, stand to have significant room for improvement. As Iranians were taking to the streets earlier this May, the main U.S. government Persian-language Instagram account was posting about spin classes. This is an own-goal and was rightly chastised by Iranian—American organizations and activists.
A corollary to embracing the bully pulpit is stepping up the aforementioned targeted designations campaign as per the protest policy playbook idea. Using videos circulating on social media about protests in specific towns and provinces, the U.S. government can collate protest data by town, province, and region, and move to sanction any local law-enforcement, semi-official vigilante group, Basij paramilitary, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leadership structures in each region. The same can be applied to the judicial and political apparatus in each province in the aftermath of a protest.
Third, Washington should embrace changes seen in its risk tolerance to use non-kinetic tools like sanctions in the Russia context and transpose them to Iran, where supporting the Iranian people also tugs at the same moral and strategic nexus as supporting the Ukrainian people. In this regard, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a series of asset forfeiture actions and sanctions by Washington against Russian oligarchs and their families across a host of jurisdictions. The point of such actions was presumably to increase the costs—both figurative and literal—of being part of the Kremlin’s elite. Washington should study the legal and political feasibility of using a combination of exposures, asset freezes, visa prohibitions, and other prohibitions against the interests of regime officials, security organs, and business elite from the Islamic Republic to potentially include those of their families who reside in Western countries. In addition to signaling another way to hold regime elites accountable, it would send a clear message to autocrats and kleptocrats alike that America will not be a safe haven for funds pilfered from other nations.
Fourth, things that may not have seemed possible just a few years ago appear quite possible today. As Washington moved to tighten sanctions on Iranian oil throughout the Trump administration, the Islamic Republic looked for ways to continue to illicitly export oil to generate revenue from buyers like China as well as to support its few state partners like the Assad regime in Syria or the Maduro regime in Venezuela. These actions meant Iranian tanker activities ran afoul of U.S. sanctions and their extraterritorial reach, leading to tense but also creative moments on the high seas that resulted in things like the temporary seizure of a tanker by British Marines and authorities in Gibraltar in 2019.
While Washington has had a mixed record of success in enforcing sanctions against Iranian oil tankers, the U.S. has been able to seize Iranian oil cargos in violation of sanctions under both the Trump and Biden administrations as well as sell this oil. In fact, families of victims of terrorism have previously called upon the U.S. to seize and sell Iranian oil that is sold or transferred in violation of U.S. sanctions in order to adjudicate outstanding terrorism judgements against the Islamic Republic. But there is no reason why, should normative, legal, and strategic concerns be sufficiently assuaged, that should oil sanctions be vigorously enforced and more seizures and sales of illicitly exported Iranian oil occur, Washington could not channel those proceeds towards some form of freedom or strike fund that might be able to covertly support Iranian laborers who go on strike, much like U.S. trade unions did with the Solidarity movement in Poland during the Cold War.
Fifth and last, but certainly not least, as protesters continue to turn out despite being met with force, it is imperative that the Iranian people have internet access to both communicate and organize with one another domestically, as well as to be able to share videos and stories of their struggles. In the absence of independent political parties and a free press, Iranians have been relegated to using internet-based platforms and social media through anti-filtering applications to voice discontent. Keenly aware of this dynamic, the Islamic Republic has allocated significant time, attention, and resources to developing capabilities to surgically cut internet access at local levels while reportedly working with China on creating a national intranet to fully cut off the country from the outside world.
It is in this space where the most amount of creativity is needed, and not just by the Biden administration, but by big-tech entrepreneurs willing to engage in myriad public-private partnerships that amplify the full breadth of U.S. government capabilities. One potential solution to bypass Iran’s internet clampdown and support Iranian protestors is satellite internet service. Elon Musk’s Starlink has developed a commercially viable alternative already being used in Ukraine, which may be able to offer Iranians internet beyond the reach of the regime’s censorship. While the application of this technology is not at a one-to-one between Ukraine and Iran, its proven functionality means that creative tech minds and those engaged in covert action on behalf of the U.S. government should be talking to one another. Accordingly, the Biden administration should task all relevant national security bodies with ways to address this problem and facilitate conversations to plug the logistical, legal, technical, security, and other pitfalls such an idea is likely to have while playing into the creativity Iranians have shown in the past to get around other bans imposed on them.
While one challenging and obvious hole in the above idea pertains to the flow of hardware for satellite internet services, there is an instructive corollary: satellite television in Iran. Despite years of Basij paramilitary, vigilante, and law-enforcement force raids against people’s homes, the steady and available stream of cheap satellite TV hardware and demand by the Iranian people for this technology forced the regime to change its tactics. While smuggled hardware related to satellite internet services is likely to be confiscated early on, the satellite TV case demonstrates that continuity of effort is key in any contest of wills and attempt to penetrate the regime’s firewalls, be they physical or virtual.
More than a year into indirect nuclear talks with Iran , the Biden administration is struggling to show something for its own continuity of effort in looking at Iran as only a nuclear problem. Should Biden broaden the aperture and take stock of the evolution in street protests and the problems that persist inside Iran, he may find that it is still possible to align one’s head and one’s heart on matters of foreign policy in the Middle East. Here’s to hoping that the chants of Iranian protesters reach the president’s ears.
*Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Saeed Ghasseminejad is a senior adviser. Both contribute to FDD’s Iran Program and Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP), among other projects. The views expressed are their own. Follow Saeed on Twitter @SGhasseminejad. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, non-partisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Palestinians: A Vote to Destroy Israel
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./May 24, 2022
These Palestinians are evidently fed up with the rampant corruption and bad governance of the Palestinian Authority leadership. Moreover, these Palestinians who no longer support Abbas are stating that they have no interest in any peace process with Israel.
As the last poll showed, 70% of the Palestinians are opposed to an unconditional return to peace negotiations with Israel. Another 58% expressed opposition to the two-state solution.
The truth is that Abbas called off the elections [in 2021] because he was afraid that Hamas would defeat his Fatah faction in the parliamentary election, as took place in 2006.
The results of the Birzeit University elections prove that Abbas's fears were not unfounded. Had he insisted on proceeding with the presidential and parliamentary elections, it is most likely.... that Hamas would have taken control of the Palestinian presidency and parliament.
Hamas, for its part, said that it sees the results of the university election as a vote of confidence in its policy of pursuing deadly terrorist attacks against Israel.
The students who voted in support of Hamas fully identify with the terrorist group's covenant, which states that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
Palestinians have been radicalized by their leaders and media to a point where they do not want to hear anything about a peace process with Israel. In fact, they want to see Israel vanish from the map, as the results of the student council elections and the polls clearly illustrate.
The results of the Birzeit University elections and the polls stand in sharp contrast to the views expressed by the Biden administration concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the past year, Biden administration officials have repeatedly stated their commitment to the "two-state solution" while totally ignoring the widespread support among the Palestinians for the elimination of Israel.
The Hamas victory at the university's student council should sound alarm bells in the Biden administration, especially the State Department, regarding the true intentions of the Palestinians – that their sole commitment is to have a state that would replace Israel, not one that would exist peacefully alongside Israel. That is why it is nonsensical to pressure Israel to make any territorial (or non-territorial) concessions to the Palestinians, who are openly proclaiming that they want to establish a Palestinian state on the ruins of Israel and the bodies of dead Jews.
Hamas sees the results of its landslide victory in Birzeit University student council elections as a vote of confidence in its policy of pursuing deadly terrorist attacks against Israel. Pictured: Hamas supporters celebrate victory at Birzeit University, near Ramallah, on May 19, 2022.
The Palestinians have once again shown that they have not given up the dream of destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamist state funded by Iran and its terrorist proxies, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah.
On May 18, Hamas, on the US list of Foreign Terrorist organizations, and which does not believe in Israel's right to exist, scored a landslide victory in the elections for Student Council at Birzeit University, one of the most important Palestinian academic institutions in the West Bank.
The Hamas-affiliated Islamic Bloc won 28 of the 51 seats of the council; by contrast, the list belonging to Fatah, the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, got only 18 seats.
A third list belongs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another Palestinian Foreign Terrorist Organization that does not believe in Israel's right to exist, won five seats.
This means that the student council is now dominated by supporters of two terrorist groups, both strongly opposed to any peace process with Israel and whose members have been involved in hundreds of terror attacks against Israelis.
The Hamas list received 5068 votes, while the PFLP list won 888 votes. The Fatah list got 3,379 votes.
Altogether, 9782 students cast their ballots in the elections out of 12,521 eligible voters, constituting a 78.1% turnout.
The results of the elections at Birzeit, which describes itself as "Palestine's leading academic institution," did not come as a surprise to those who are familiar with the growing anti-Israel sentiments among the Palestinians.
Public opinion polls published over the past year have demonstrated a dramatic surge in Hamas's popularity among the Palestinian public. The polls have shown that a majority of Palestinians support the "armed struggle" (a euphemism for terror attacks) against Israel.
The most recent poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research between March 16 and 20, indicated that a majority of Palestinians think Hamas is more deserving to represent and lead the Palestinian people than Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah. In addition, the results of the poll showed that most Palestinians would vote for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
On the other hand, according to the poll, more than 70% of the Palestinians want Abbas to resign.
Like the results of the student council elections, the polls show that a majority of Palestinians have lost confidence in Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leadership and the ruling Fatah faction.
These Palestinians are evidently fed up with the rampant corruption and bad governance of the Palestinian Authority leadership. Moreover, these Palestinians who no longer support Abbas are stating that they have no interest in any peace process with Israel.
As the last poll showed, 70% of the Palestinians are opposed to an unconditional return to peace negotiations with Israel. Another 58% expressed opposition to the two-state solution.
Against this backdrop, it is easy to understand why Abbas decided to call off the presidential and parliamentary elections that were supposed to take place in May and July 2021.
Abbas claimed that he cancelled the elections because Israel did not allow the Arab residents of Jerusalem to participate in the vote. Israel, it is worth mentioning, never said that it would ban the Arabs from Jerusalem from casting their votes. Any Arab who wanted to vote could have freely travelled to a nearby voting center in the West Bank. Israel does not ban the Arab residents of Jerusalem, who hold Israeli-issued ID cards, from entering the West Bank.
The truth is that Abbas called off the elections because he was afraid that Hamas would defeat his Fatah faction in the parliamentary election, as took place in 2006. Then, Hamas won a majority of the seats of the Palestinian parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council, triggering a power struggle with Abbas's Fatah faction. The dispute reached its peak in July 2007, when Hamas staged a bloody and violent coup, toppling and expelling the Palestinian Authority from the Gaza Strip.
The results of the Birzeit University elections prove that Abbas's fears were not unfounded. Had he insisted on proceeding with the presidential and parliamentary elections, it is most likely that his Fatah faction would have suffered yet another humiliating defeat. It is also highly likely that Hamas would have taken control of the Palestinian Authority presidency and parliament.
Hamas, for its part, announced that it sees the results of the university election as a vote of confidence in its policy of pursuing deadly terrorist attacks against Israel. "This clear victory is another confirmation of the popular rallying around the option of resistance," Hamas said in a statement after the elections. When Hamas talks about the "resistance," it is referring to terrorist attacks against Israel, including firing rockets at Israeli cities and towns, shootings, stabbings and car-ramming "operations."
The students who voted in support of Hamas fully identify with the terrorist group's covenant, which states that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
Article 11 of the covenant states:
"The Islamic resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future generations until judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered; it or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab county nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possesses the right to do that."
The students who voted for the PFLP did so because they support the terrorist group's platform, which calls for the "liberation of all the Palestinian lands" through various methods and means, including the "armed struggle." The PFLP states that it "practices all forms of political, ideological, economic, peaceful and violent struggle, including the armed struggle, to liberate the entire Palestinian lands." Like Hamas, the PFLP is also saying that its main goal is to liberate all of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
The growing popularity of Hamas, PFLP and other terrorist groups among the Palestinians is the direct result of the massive incitement against Israel by Palestinian political and religious leaders, as well as media outlets. Palestinians have been radicalized by their leaders and media to a point where they do not want to hear anything about a peace process with Israel. In fact, they want to see Israel vanish from the map, as the results of the student council elections and the polls clearly illustrate.
The results of the Birzeit University elections and the polls stand in sharp contrast to the views expressed by the Biden administration concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the past year, Biden administration officials have repeatedly stated their commitment to the "two-state solution," while totally ignoring the widespread support among the Palestinians for the elimination of Israel.
The Hamas victory at the university's student council should sound alarm bells in the Biden administration, especially the State Department, regarding the true intentions of the Palestinians. Their sole commitment is to have a state that would replace Israel, not one that would exist peacefully alongside Israel. That is why it is nonsensical to pressure Israel to make any territorial (or non-territorial) concessions to the Palestinians, who are openly proclaiming that they want to establish a Palestinian state on the ruins of Israel and the bodies of dead Jews.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
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Good neighbourly relations with Iran are a chimera
Farouk Yousef/The Arab Weekly/May 24/2022
Iran will never be a member of the World Builders Club. The opposite is true. Iran can destroy even more countries besides Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Iran has never had normal relations with its neighbours. Neither at the time of the Shah nor at the time of the ayatollahs. It is driven by hatred of its neighbours. This is a syndrome stemming from the legacies of the past. Those legacies put Iran on the path of permanent misunderstandings. It showed Tehran’s inability to abandon its aggressive propensities towards its neighbours, who thankfully did not reciprocate in kind, keeping instead their doors always open to Iran and seeking its friendship as the only wise course. Tehran has proven through its policies that it was not acting as a friend, that could play a constructive role in the region. It is not true that the Sunni-Shia religious schism is the source of the Iranian strategy, which violates international laws and norms as well as the rules of international relations.
This is not true because Iran harbours a deep desire to exercise tutelage over independent and sovereign Arab states. This has propelled Iran into a permanent state of conflict, without having to declare war, as happened in the eighties of the last century. At that time, Iran insisted on continuing its war with Iraq without setting a time limit for the conflict.
That war was the declared face of Iranian aggression, which is a spontaneous form of behaviour, not triggered by any external catalysts. Iran does not need a particular reason to interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbours. That is simply because it is convinced that is the right thing to do.
This is something that the Arabs have tried to deal with patiently, wisely and prudently, in the hope that Iran will somehow regain the sanity needed to run a state that adheres to international law and respects the customs of good neighbourliness.
That hope has proven to be nothing but a chimera.
Iran is not fit to be a respectable neighbour to anyone. If the countries concerned with the nuclear agreement forced Iran to take part in a positive dialogue, it would not mean that these states were able to forge a common discourse with the Iranian regime.
Tehran offers no reason to be trusted and always follows a path of deception, fraud and prevarication. Because of its ideological fossilisation, Iran belongs to an era different from that of the world today. The Iranians will ratchet up their unscrupulous adventures if the United States continues its complacency in the face of Tehran’s aggressive regional policies. This could lead to an irreparable power imbalance. The position of the major regional powers regarding American complicity in Iran’s aggressive policies is clear. Is it fair or reasonable to seek to appease Iran in order to convince it to sign the agreement at the expense of the security and stability of the whole region.? There are countries that could be wiped off the map just for the sake of an uncertain agreement with an aggressive state that no one has any reason to trust.
Iran will never be a member of the World Builders Club. The opposite is true. Iran can destroy even more countries besides Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. There is no hope that Iran will change its policies. It simply cannot do that. It would mean abandoning the principle of exporting the revolution. Change could only happen if Iran felt that there was a force in the region that could confront it and defeat it and thwart its projects. Iran will not tolerate such a defeat which might indeed lead to the downfall of the regime as a result of the deterioration of the living conditions of the Iranian people.
This is the only logic that Iran understands. Otherwise, it will remain the mischievous neighbour that endeavours to keep the region in the throes of chaos.