A Bundle Of English Reports, News and Editorials For 04-05/2020 Addressing the On Going Mass Demonstrations & Sit In-ins In Iranian Occupied Lebanon in its 111th Day
Compiled By: Elias Bejjani
February 05/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 04-05/2020
Lebanese-American who Worked for Israel Charged with Murder
Panel Finalizes Lebanese Govt. Policy Statement, Keeps ‘Resistance’ Item Unchanged
LF, PSP to Withhold Confidence from New Lebanese Govt.
Postponing Formation Electricity Regulatory Authority Contradicts With CEDRE Recommendations
Another Lebanese Daily Suspends Print Edition over Economic Crisis
Cabinet to Meet on Policy Statement Thursday
Hasan Says Far East Ship Crew ‘Virus-Free’
Mustaqbal, PSP Emphasize on ‘Historic Relation’ in ‘Coordinative Meeting’
Al-Rahi Says Lebanon Won’t Accept Financial Incentives to Naturalize Refugees
Protesters Clash with Aswad Supporters outside Restaurant
EDL Says Minor Oil Spill Contained Off Zouk
Rabih al-Zein Released on Bail as Protesters Block el-Mina Highway
Strong Lebanon Bloc Urges Protection of Citizens’ Bank Deposits
Lebanon Crisis Deals Blow to Once-Thriving Press
Qatar Event with Mashrou’ Leila Canceled amid Furor
Lebanese Shiite cleric, Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini seeks France asylum after death threats over Auschwitz visit/Jerusalem Post/February 04/2020
For Lebanon’s Shiites, a Dilemma: Stay Loyal to Hezbollah or Keep Protesting?/Vivian Yee and Hwaida Saad/The New York Times/February 04/2020
Rock, Paper, Scissors in the Middle East/Tony Badran/Tablet Magazine/February 04/2020
Europe Cowers in Front of Iran and Hezbollah/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 04-05/2020
Lebanese-American who Worked for Israel Charged with Murder
Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 04/2020
A military investigative judge charged a Lebanese-American man with murder and torture of Lebanese citizens on Tuesday, crimes he allegedly committed during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, judicial officials said. The accusations could carry a death sentence. Amer Fakhoury is accused of working as a senior warden at Khiyam Prison, which was run by an Israel-backed Lebanese militia. The prison has been described by human rights groups as a center for torture. He was detained in September after he returned to his native Lebanon from the US, and Lebanon’s intelligence service says he confessed during questioning to being a warden. However, Fakhoury’s lawyer and family in New Hampshire say that, while he was indeed a member of the so-called South Lebanon Army, they insist he had no direct contact with prisoners and was never involved in the interrogation or torture of prisoners.
Fakhoury, 57, is also undergoing cancer treatment, and it remains unclear if he’ll be able to stand trial. The restaurant owner from Dover, New Hampshire became a US citizen last year. The Lebanese judicial officials said Tuesday that the judge, Najat Abu Shakra, referred Fakhoury for trial in a military court. No date was set for the tribunal. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The officials said Abu Shakra charged Fakhoury with “murder and attempted murder of prisoners inside Khiyam Prison as well as kidnapping and torture.”
The prison, run by the SLA, was abandoned after Israeli forces pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation. Human rights groups have said in the past that Khiyam Prison was a site of torture and detention without trial. Israel denies the allegations.
However, Fakhoury’s lawyer and family have said he was never named when extensive investigations of Khiyam Prison were conducted years ago. His family said that, as a former member of the SLA, he was charged alongside many others with collaborating with Israel. That charge was dropped in 2018, they said. US Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire began drafting sanctions legislation against Lebanese officials last month in order to push for Fakhoury’s release. The charges by the investigative judge were separate from a lawsuit against Fakhoury filed by former inmates at Khiyam Prison.
He is being questioned in that case about alleged human rights abuses. The questioning was supposed to take place on Monday, but was postponed until Feb. 17 because Fakhoury is undergoing chemotherapy. Fakhoury’s family said doctors have said his condition is life threatening. In addition to an infection and a bleeding disorder, doctors believe he’s developed an aggressive form of lymphoma. Hundreds of former Lebanese members of the SLA militia had fled to Israel, fearing reprisals if they remained in Lebanon. Others stayed and faced trial, receiving lenient sentences. Fakhoury’s lawyer and family say he fled Lebanon in 2001 through Israel and eventually to the US.
Panel Finalizes Lebanese Govt. Policy Statement, Keeps ‘Resistance’ Item Unchanged
Beirut – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
The ministerial committee tasked with drafting the government’s policy statement completed its work on Monday, ahead of a cabinet session scheduled for Thursday, to adopt the document and send it to parliament.
In remarks following the meeting, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said the statement included “plans for 100 days, one year and three years,” adding that there were no tax amendments, but taxing and monetary reforms.
A draft statement leaked on Monday sparked uproar, as it lacked targeted measures to address the monetary and financial crisis. In this regard, Industry Minister Imad Hebollah stressed that the leaked document “differs from what was agreed upon today.” Tourism and Social Affairs Minister Ramzi Msharrafiyeh revealed that some final touches were added to the draft, saying taxing and inspection measures would target those who were getting exemptions and those who were evading taxes. According to the leaked document, the statement underlined the need for Lebanon to distance itself from external conflicts and to commit to the Arab League Charter, while adopting an independent foreign policy based on the country’s supreme interest and respect for international law to preserve its stability. As for the clause pertaining to the resistance against Israel, the new government used the same wording that was expressed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s cabinet. “In the conflict with the Israeli enemy, we will spare no effort and no means of resistance to liberate the remaining Lebanese territories… while emphasizing the right of the Lebanese citizens to resist the occupation and respond to its attacks,” it stated. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hassan Diab chaired a financial meeting on Monday, ahead of the panel’s discussion session, in the presence of Hebollah, Environment Minister Demianos Kattar, Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni and Economy Minister Raoul Nehmeh. The meeting was also attended by central bank Governor Riad Salameh.
LF, PSP to Withhold Confidence from New Lebanese Govt.
Beirut – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
The Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) have announced their intention to withhold confidence from the new government. LF leader Samir Geagea said on Monday that the Strong Republic bloc would participate in the upcoming parliamentary session, but would not give a vote of confidence to the new cabinet, led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab. “The Strong Republic bloc will attend the confidence session out of its keenness on the continuity of the constitutional institutions’ work, but will not grant confidence to the new government,” he declared. “The LF will not attack the government aimlessly,” he noted. “We shall wait and see what it will do.” “We will wait and see whether the ministers will act according to their professional and moral principles, or whether they will follow the dictates of those who nominated to their posts,” he stated. MP Bilal Abdullah said Monday that the PSP’s Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc would most likely withhold confidence from the new government, adding that its deputies would be part of the opposition. In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio, the Abdullah said the bloc would convene on Tuesday to determine its final position from the new government’s policy statement. “It is likely that we will participate in the session and withhold confidence,” he remarked. “The Democratic Gathering will be part of a constructive and responsible opposition,” he added. “What’s more important than the ministerial statement is the government’s direct action against tax evaders and public money thieves,” he concluded.
Postponing Formation Electricity Regulatory Authority Contradicts With CEDRE Recommendations
Beirut- Mohammed Shokair/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020 –
The delay of the formation of the Electricity Regulatory Authority until after the amendment of the law regulating this sector, as mentioned in the draft policy statement of the new government, will be met with local and international opposition, former ministers in the governments chaired by Prime Ministers Najib Mikati, Tammam Salam, and Saad Hariri told Asharq Al-Awsat. Countries, who participated in the CEDRE Conference – which was devoted to helping Lebanon recover from its financial and economic crisis – insisted that reforms in the electricity sector must be prioritized and that a regulatory authority must be created regardless of the amendment of the relevant electricity law. The ministers, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, stressed that postponing the birth of this authority, as stipulated in the draft ministerial statement, would mean that the current government agreed without any hesitation to adopt the viewpoint of the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, former minister Gebran Bassil, who was met with strong opposition when he first proposed his idea under the former government. The reform of the electricity sector was a thorny file to which the previous governments could not reach a sustainable solution. The former ministers underscored the importance of a regulatory authority to monitor the reforms and to end of the Energy minister’s monopoly of the decision-making process. In this context, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that parliamentary blocs, especially those currently against the government, have contacted Speaker Nabih Berri to underline the need to amend the draft policy statement in order to prevent a clash between the deputies and the ministers during the upcoming confidence session.
Another Lebanese Daily Suspends Print Edition over Economic Crisis
Agence France PresseNaharnet/February 04/2020
Lebanon’s English-language The Daily Star suspended its print edition Tuesday, the latest casualty in the collapse of the country’s once-flourishing press. The newspaper, which is co-owned by the family of former prime minister Saad Hariri, said on its website the temporary halt of the printing presses was a result of the economic downturn. It cited “the financial challenges facing the Lebanese press which have been exacerbated by the deterioration of the economic situation in the country.” It said the temporary suspension came after “a drop to virtually no advertising revenue in the last quarter of 2019, as well as in January of this year”. In recent months, employees at the newspaper had complained of not being paid, with one departing journalist reporting in December that some were owed up to half a year in wages. A series of prominent dailies in Lebanon have disappeared from print due to funding shortages in recent years. The Daily Star is the latest media outlet linked to the former premier to be struggling. In September last year, Hariri announced the suspension of Future TV, his ailing mouthpiece whose employees had been on strike over unpaid wages. In January 2019, the Hariri family’s Al-Mustaqbal newspaper issued its last print version, 20 years after it was established. Saudi Oger, a once-mighty construction firm that was the basis of the Hariri business empire, collapsed in 2017, leaving thousands jobless. Hariri stepped down as prime minister in late October following unprecedented nationwide protests against alleged official corruption and ineptitude. Last year, The Daily Star published a newsless black issue to protest the political and economic crises gripping the country. The economic crisis has since deteriorated, and been compounded by a financial crunch. The Daily Star was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mroue, then owner and editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily newspaper. It closed for more than a decade during the 1975-1990 civil war, returning to news stands in 1996. The newspaper was bought by businessmen close to Hariri in 2010.
Cabinet to Meet on Policy Statement Thursday
Naharnet/February 04/2020
The Cabinet will convene on Thursday at Baabda Palace to discuss and approve the government’s Policy Statement, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday. The ministerial panel drafting the new policy had completed its task on Monday, the information minister had announced yesterday. The new 20-member government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab was announced in late January amid nationwide protests against the political elite and a crumbling economic crisis. The new government still has to discuss the policy statement before it sits for its vote of confidence at the Parliament next week.
Hasan Says Far East Ship Crew ‘Virus-Free’
Naharnet/February 04/2020
Health Minister Hamad Hasan assured on Tuesday that the crew of a vessel arriving from the Far East to Lebanon’s territorial waters has been proven free of coronavirus. In a statement issued by his media office, Hasan said: “The vessel coming from the Far East arrived at the territorial waters and was thoroughly checked for viruses before it docked at Beirut Port. Medical tests were run and have shown that the entire crew are in good health and have no symptoms of coronavirus infection. It has been authorized to dock.” General Security teams have also inspected the vessel upon arrival at Beirut Port and found it clear of any contamination, added the statement. Hasan indicated that the ship complied with the international health criteria. On Monday, activists in the northern city of Tripoli staged a sit-in rejecting the vessel docks at the city’s port, the National News Agency reported. They said they “have no trust in the government or its decisions.”The death toll in mainland China from the new type of coronavirus has risen to 425, with the total number of cases now standing at 20,438, officials said Tuesday. Countries have been evacuating and restricting the entry of Chinese or people who have recently traveled in the country. The World Health Organization said the number of cases will keep growing because tests are pending on thousands of suspected cases.
Mustaqbal, PSP Emphasize on ‘Historic Relation’ in ‘Coordinative Meeting’
Naharnet/February 04/2020
Al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party held a “coordinative meeting” Tuesday at the PSP’s headquarters in Beirut. Mustaqbal Secretary General Ahmed Hariri and PSP Secretary Zafer Nasser and several officials from the two parties attended the meeting, which tackled issues of common interest and means to boost coordination in the face of the current challenges. Expressing “pride” in “the common historic struggle for Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence and for building the state of institutions,” Nasser hailed “the historic relation between PSP leader Walid Jumblat and Martyr Premier Rafik Hariri, which was continued with Saad Hariri.” As for the new government, Nasser said the party will practice “constructive opposition.” Ahmed Hariri for his part said the meeting is “a continuation of the meeting that was recently held between ex-PM Saad Hariri and PSP chief Walid Jumblat, which came after an unbalanced period that witnessed a lot of ups and downs.” “It involved mistakes and we have the courage to acknowledge them,” he added. As for the possibility of forming a “unified opposition front,” Hariri said it is “premature” to discuss the issue at the moment, noting that there will be “continuous coordination between the leaderships of the two parties.”
Al-Rahi Says Lebanon Won’t Accept Financial Incentives to Naturalize Refugees
Naharnet/February 04/2020
Maronite Patiarch Beshara al-Rahi on Tuesday said the international community cannot offer Lebanon financial incentives with the aim of naturalizing Palestinian and Syrian refugees in the country. “We reject any type of international policy that tries to burden Lebanon with the price of everything that is going on in the region,” al-Rahi said. “The danger lies in a rift among the Lebanese should (naturalization) occur,” the patriarch added, urging citizens to show unity in the face of any foreign pressures.“Lebanon cannot bear the burden of the new policy represented in ‘the deal of the century’ and its negative repercussions,” al-Rahi said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial peace plan for the Middle East.
Protesters Clash with Aswad Supporters outside Restaurant
Naharnet/February 04/2020
A fistfight erupted Tuesday evening between anti-government protesters and supporters of MP Ziad Aswad outside the Diwan Beirut Restaurant in Antelias. The protesters were objecting at Aswad having dinner at a restaurant while the country is going through a dire economic and financial crisis. Such forms of protest have targeted several politicians in recent weeks. MTV said a woman was injured in the altercation before security forces intervened and contained the situation.Al-Jadeed TV later reported the arrival of Free Patriotic Movement supporters and the MPs Eddie Maalouf and Elias Bou Saab to the restaurant to show solidarity with Aswad.
EDL Says Minor Oil Spill Contained Off Zouk
Naharnet/February 04/2020
Civil Defense crews in cooperation with Electricite du Liban and Karadeniz, the Turkish firm that owns the power ship Fatmagül Sultan, have managed to contain a minor oil spill off Zouk’s coast, EDL said on Tuesday.
In a statement, EDL said the spill occurred as a ship was unloading fuel oil into the tanks of the Zouk power plant at 10:40 pm Monday. “The pumping pipeline burst off, which resulted in the leakage of around 100 cubic meters of fuel oil, part of which landed on land and another into the sea and were immediately contained,” EDL added. “Efforts to clean the shore and pull the leaked quantities have been ongoing since 1:00 am,” EDL went on to say.
Karpowership, a subsidiary of Karadeniz Holding, meanwhile announced that the power ship Fatmagül Sultan was “in no way related to the fuel leak,” denying media reports that claimed otherwise. “The aforementioned leak is due to a cracked pipe used to pump fuel into EDL tanks, and is not related in any form to the Powership Fatmgül Sultan. It is worth mentioning that Karpowership’s staff operating Fatmagül Sultan was completely mobilized to assist the Civil Defense units and the workers at EDL to contain the leak,” it added.
Rabih al-Zein Released on Bail as Protesters Block el-Mina Highway
Naharnet/February 04/2020
The Mount Lebanon Prosecuting Authority on Tuesday approved a ruling by Investigative Judge Bassam al-Hajj for the release of the activist Rabih al-Zein on an LBP 500,000 bail, the National News Agency said. Friends of al-Zein meanwhile gathered outside the Justice Palace in Baabda in anticipation of his release, amid strict security measures in the area. In the North, protesters blocked the el-Mina-Chekka highway with burning tires in solidarity with al-Zein as an army unit arrived on the scene. Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun had earlier on Tuesday dismissed al-Hajj’s ruling and remanded al-Zein in custody, referring the file to the Prosecuting Authority. Al-Hajj had on Monday ordered al-Zein’s release on an LBP 100,000 bail, referring the file to Aoun. The activists Charbel Qai and Imad al-Masri were meanwhile questioned by al-Hajj as witnesses and released as arrest warrants were issued for Jihad al-Ali and Joe Challita. Al-Hajj had on Wednesday charged al-Zein with “incitement” over the recent torching of an ATM belonging to the Credit Libanais bank in Zouk and a Molotov attack on the Free Patriotic Movement’s office in Jounieh. Anti-government protesters Georges Azzi and Mohammed Srour had been detained in the same case and remain in custody. Al-Zein has been known for leading a group of road-blocking protesters in the northern city of Tripoli. He has also appeared at other protest sites across the country, raising suspicions about his role. He had been arrested for the first time in December over his controversial presence at the Justice Palace during an altercation between Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Ghada Aoun and MP Hadi Hbeish of al-Mustaqbal Movement.
Strong Lebanon Bloc Urges Protection of Citizens’ Bank Deposits
Naharnet/February 04/2020
The Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc on Tuesday said “the priority should be the protection of the bank deposits of Lebanese citizens.”It accordingly urged the new government to devise “an integrated and clear rescue plan” that would involve “measures binding for the parties concerned, including the central bank and the commercial banks.” “Selectivity and ambiguity in this matter is rejected, especially as to the restrictions imposed on deposits including on urgent withdrawals and transfers, which have not led to any positive results until the moment,” the bloc added. Experts and demonstrators say banking controls amount to a de facto “haircut” on savings because they are forcing dollar depositors to deal in the nosediving Lebanese pound. The currency has plunged against the greenback on the parallel exchange market, though the official peg of 1,507 pounds to the dollar in place since 1997 remains unchanged. Central bank chief Riad Salameh last month said that he agreed with money exchange houses to cap the parallel rate at 2,000 — but several exchanges continue to charge rates edging towards 2,200. Salameh last month asked for special powers to authorize the banks to set withdrawal limits, which had not formally been backed by the government. The finance ministry, however, has yet to publicly respond to his request.
Lebanon Crisis Deals Blow to Once-Thriving Press
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 04/2020
Publications disappearing from newsstands, radio and TV channels struggling to stay on air: Lebanon’s once-flourishing media is collapsing under the weight of the worst economic crisis in decades. The Daily Star, Lebanon’s only English-language newspaper, which suspended its print edition on Tuesday, is the latest casualty. It comes shortly after the English-language Radio One broadcaster went off air at the weekend after nearly four decades. Due to funding shortages in recent years, a series of prominent dailies and broadcasters in Lebanon have disappeared, undermining the country’s regional reputation as a media hub. The situation has become direr in recent months, as Lebanon struggles with a wide-reaching recession and a spiraling financial crunch exacerbated by political turmoil and mass protests. To keep their heads above water, surviving organizations have had to slash salaries and lay off employees. Some have stopped paying salaries all together. “We haven’t been paid in five months,” said an employee at the country’s oldest newspaper, An-Nahar, asking not to be named to protect his job. The Daily Star announced on its website the temporary halt of the printing presses was a result of the economic downturn. It cited “the financial challenges facing the Lebanese press, which have been exacerbated by the deterioration of the economic situation in the country.” It said the temporary suspension came after “a drop to virtually no advertising revenue in the last quarter of 2019, as well as in January of this year.” In recent months, employees at the newspaper had complained of not being paid, with one departing journalist reporting in December that some were owed up to half a year in wages. The outlet will however continue to publish content on its website and social media.
Crumbling empire
The Daily Star was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mroue, then owner and editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily newspaper. The newspaper was bought by businessmen close to former prime minister Saad Hariri in 2010 and is co-owned by Hariri’s family, according to a report on media ownership in Lebanon by the Samir Kassir Foundation and Reporters Without Borders. The Daily Star is just the latest media outlet linked to the former premier to be struggling. In September last year, Hariri announced the suspension of Future TV, his ailing mouthpiece whose employees had been on strike over unpaid wages. In January 2019, the Hariri-linked al-Mustaqbal newspaper issued its last print version, 20 years after it was established, though it too maintains a presence online. Saudi Oger, a once-mighty construction firm that was the basis of the Hariri business empire, collapsed in 2017, leaving thousands jobless. Hariri stepped down as prime minister in late October under pressure from unprecedented nationwide protests against alleged official corruption and ineptitude. Last year, The Daily Star published a newsless black issue to protest the political and economic crises gripping the country.
The economic situation has since deteriorated further.
‘Time to rethink’
The economic downturn has left no sector unscathed, starving publications of advertising revenues and traditional sources of funding. L’Hebdo Magazine, a French-language publication established in 1956, printed its final issue in December because of a drop in advertisement revenues, said a former employee. “Our advertisers were mainly banks and insurance companies,” she told AFP, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Lebanon’s media landscape is rife with privately-owned newspapers affiliated with at least one of the country’s many political parties, who are often the primary source of funding. Ayman Mhanna, director of the Samir Kassir Foundation in Beirut, said the economic blow underscored the need for a diverse funding pool. “The problem is primarily structural, but the current crisis has accelerated” closures, he said. He added that Lebanese media is usually funded by political groups and a “limited local advertising market.” “It is time for the Lebanese press to rethink its economic model,” he said. “This crisis must be an opportunity to do so.”
Qatar Event with Mashrou’ Leila Canceled amid Furor
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 04/2020
Northwestern University in Qatar has canceled a media discussion featuring popular Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila for “safety reasons,” the institution said Tuesday, amid social media furor. The American university said it invited the Lebanese band, one of the most popular music groups in the region, to a talk at its Doha branch about Middle Eastern media revolutions this week but then moved the event to its Evanston, Illinois campus. “The decision to move the discussion to Evanston was made mutually between Northwestern and members of Mashrou’ Leila,” Jon Yates, director of Northwestern University-Qatar’s media relations, told AFP. “The decision was made out of an abundance of caution due to several factors, including safety concerns for the band and our community. “Because Northwestern firmly believes that the band’s ideas, their art and their voices are important for the world to hear, the university is working to bring them to our home campus in the US.” The band, whose lead singer is openly gay and whose Arabic lyrics tackle a range of taboo topics, faced backlash from conservatives online who objected to the planned event with the Arabic hashtag “We reject Mashrou’ Leila’s discussion”.
One Twitter user said the event would have been acceptable if it were a debate but criticized the band for “vomiting on us their belief in the form of a lecture.”This comes as Qatar gears up to host the FIFA World Cup 2022, whose organizers last year said all fans — including members of the LGBT community — would be welcome. Qatar, like all other Gulf countries, bans homosexuality. Religiously diverse Lebanon is one of the Middle East’s more liberal countries, but its myriad of recognized sects still wield major influence over social and cultural affairs. While Mashrou’ Leila has often played in Lebanon, it has attracted controversy across the religiously conservative Middle East. Last year, a top Lebanese music festival canceled a Mashrou’ Leila concert for security reasons, after the group was accused of offending Christians. After audience members waved a rainbow flag during a Mashrou’ Leila concert in Egypt in 2017, Egyptian authorities launched a crackdown on the country’s LGBT community. Its concerts in Jordan were canceled in 2016 and 2017. The group formed in 2008 while its members were students at the American University of Beirut.
Lebanese Shiite cleric, Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini seeks France asylum after death threats over Auschwitz visit
Jerusalem Post/February 04/2020
جيرازولم بوست: رجل الدين الشيعي الشيخ علي الحسيني يطلب اللجؤ من فرنسا بعد تلقيه تهديدات بالموت عقب زياته مع وفد من رابطة العالم الإسلامي لموقع
أوشفيتس.. معسكر إبادة اليهود في بولندا
Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini was one of two dozen Muslim clerics who participated in the visit to Auschwitz, together with representatives from the Muslim World League, organized by the AJC.
A Lebanese Shi’ite cleric who participated in a delegation of Muslim leaders to Auschwitz ahead of the 75th anniversary of its liberation last month is seeking asylum in France due to deaths threats against him.
Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini was one of about two dozen Muslim clerics who participated in the visit to Auschwitz, together with representatives from the Muslim World League, organized by the American Jewish Committee.
During the visit, El Husseini was the subject of death threats on social media, and criminal complaints were filed against him for “meeting with Israeli agents.” He said this was done with the backing of Hezbollah for having violated Lebanese laws banning contact with Israeli officials.
No Israeli officials were on the AJC delegation.
El Husseini is an outspoken critic of Hezbollah and accuses it of advancing Iranian interests at the expense of the Lebanese state and people.
He has called for Muslim-Jewish reconciliation and posted messages in Hebrew on his Facebook page for the marginalization of religious texts endorsing violence.
After the three-day visit to Poland, El Husseini decided not to return to Lebanon, fearing for his life.The AJC and Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich helped put El Husseini in contact with the French ambassador to Poland. Following the end of the trip, El Husseini flew to France, where he is currently residing.
El Husseini is in the process of requesting asylum in France on the basis of the threats to his life.
The AJC’s Rabbi David Rosen said the organization would do everything it can to help him, including submitting a recommendation to the French authorities on his behalf.
“Mohamad Husseini is an example of courageous integrity, which is actually slowly but surely increasing in the Arab world despite the dangers, as witnessed by the Auschwitz visit,” he said.
“This story also highlights the fact that elements in the Muslim world continue to score their own goals by presenting Islam as hostile to respecting others and to acknowledging abhorrent tragedies, and they do not do the image of Islam or Arab communities any good,” Rosen said.
Picture Enclosed: Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa of the Muslim World League visits Auschwitz with David Harris, Rabbi David Rosen, and Harriet Schleifer of the American Jewish Committee. January 23, 2020
For Lebanon’s Shiites, a Dilemma: Stay Loyal to Hezbollah or Keep Protesting?
Vivian Yee and Hwaida Saad/The New York Times/February 04/2020
Lebanon’s protests have drawn protesters from all religious sects. But Hezbollah, the Islamist militia and political party, and its ally, the Amal Movement, have tried to smother demonstrations by Shiites.
KAFR RUMMAN, Lebanon — There is a Lebanese phrase that translates, roughly, to “a slapping.” That seems to be what happened to several antigovernment protesters who were caught on TV denouncing Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Islamist militia and political party Hezbollah, in the early days of the now monthslong Lebanese uprising.
The smacking they received from a party that brooks little pushback, and wields tremendous influence in Lebanon’s government, might have been physical or it might have been verbal. Either way, the protesters appeared again on TV a few days later, looking subdued — this time, to apologize.
“Sayyid means a lot to me. There are thousands who admire him, but I’m like No. 100 on the list,” one man said, his voice meek, using a respectful honorific for Mr. Nasrallah, whom the protester had previously accused of letting his community starve.
The on-camera apology was a prelude to more violent retributions against protesters from the Shiite Muslim community, the largest of Lebanon’s 18 recognized religious sects, which for decades has drawn on Hezbollah for protection, jobs, social services and, for many, a sense of shared struggle against Israel and other enemies.
As Lebanon hobbles into its fifth month of political and economic meltdown, the countrywide protests continue to include protesters of all religious backgrounds, uniting in scorn for leaders who cannot offer even the basics: 24-hour electricity, a functional economy or trustworthy governance.
But the protests have forced many Lebanese Shiites into a dilemma: How can they square their loyalty to Hezbollah with its support for the status quo? And will Hezbollah keep trying to extinguish the rebellion, or listen to it?
“I support resistance against Israel,” said Ali Ismail, 51, a protester in Kafr Rumman, a mostly Shiite town in south Lebanon that has long been dominated by “the parties,” as residents often refer to Hezbollah and Amal, the other major Shiite party. “But I also support resistance against corruption.”
Mr. Ismail’s recent history sounds like that of many Lebanese protesters. He has gone into debt to pay school fees for his children. His wife, Farah, said she had been shut out of all the teaching jobs she had applied to because she lacked party connections.
Even the man who publicly apologized to Mr. Nasrallah may have renounced his insult, but not his plea. “Please help us,” he begged in the apology video. “Really, we’re starving. We don’t have jobs.”
Among Shiites, the protests spring in part from Hezbollah’s simultaneous military success and neglect of domestic issues, said Randa Slim, a Lebanon analyst at the Middle East Institute.
The security threats that rallied the group’s base, whether Israel or Sunni extremists in neighboring Syria, have receded in urgency. And when Hezbollah entered Lebanese politics in 2005 to protect its status as a shadow army, it propped up the government’s incompetence and corruption rather than delivering on its promises of reform.
American sanctions on Hezbollah and its patron, Iran, have left it less able to offer the subsidies, services and jobs that its supporters used to count on, just as the Lebanese economy was teetering.
As with other liberation movements, Hezbollah has found governance more complicated than guerrilla warfare.
“Hezbollah has never prioritized bread-and-butter issues, but suddenly they’re faced with a community that’s basically saying, bread and butter are a priority,” Ms. Slim said. “It’s now part of a government that’s corrupt, and they can’t blame others for the corruption; they’re part of the corruption equation. So the question is, how are they going to respond?”
The Amal party has fostered loyalty through jobs and patronage, but its leader, Nabih Berri, the speaker of Parliament, is widely viewed as a profoundly corrupt pillar of Lebanon’s much-derided ruling class.
So far, Hezbollah and Amal have mobilized to protect the status quo, and the protests in majority-Shiite areas have visibly shrunk as the parties have moved to smother the uprising. With Hezbollah’s patron and partner, Iran, under growing pressure at home and abroad as tensions with the United States soar, analysts say Hezbollah needs more than ever to preserve its power and influence in Lebanon.
Early on, Mr. Nasrallah, for whom many Shiites feel genuine reverence, criticized the protests that began in October and called on his supporters to go home, prompting some Shiites to leave the streets. Violent scuffles broke out when some protesters included Mr. Nasrallah among the political figures they wanted to sweep from power, chanting, “All of them means all of them — Nasrallah is one of them.”
Even many nonmembers of Hezbollah credit Mr. Nasrallah with ousting Israel from its 18-year occupation of south Lebanon. His charisma and credibility outstrip those of any other Lebanese political figure: Mr. Nasrallah’s son died fighting the Israelis, and,unlike the mansion-dwelling jet-setters who populate much of the government, he is usually considered personally incorruptible.
“We love Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah at home, but here, we love Lebanon,” said Ghazie Atrash, 40, a protester from Baalbek, in the Hezbollah-dominated rural interior, who joined the huge demonstrations in Beirut this fall.When asked whether Mr. Nasrallah bore any responsibility for Lebanon’s dysfunction, however, Ms. Atrash was emphatic. “He’s not part of the government,” she said. “No.”
Though Mr. Nasrallah does not hold office, Hezbollah and its allies dominated the last government, which resigned amid the protests in October, as well as the new cabinet formed in January.
Hezbollah and Amal followers have repeatedly swept into protest sites in Beirut and other cities, thrashing protesters with sticks and fists. Though the parties have not openly encouraged the attacks, the men have shouted party slogans or, simply, “Shia! Shia! Shia!”
In interviews in majority-Shiite areas, protesters reported receiving threatening calls, anonymous WhatsApp audio notes warning of a “negative impact on your life” or visits from Hezbollah or Amal representatives asking them to stop protesting.
Mohamed Dib Othman, 29, who has been helping to organize the small but persistent demonstrations in Baalbek, said his car windows had been smashed after the first day of protests in mid-October. Acquaintances warned him that party affiliates were branding him a traitor in WhatsApp chat rooms.
“The revolution is our only hope. If it gets crushed, we’re finished,” said Mr. Dib Othman, who said he was shut out of all 36 government jobs he had applied to after graduating from university because he lacked party connections.But he was hopeful something had shifted. “When Nasrallah criticized the revolution, the mask fell off for everyone,” he said.
Perhaps Hezbollah’s most effective anti-protest tactic has been to insinuate that the protests are the product of a foreign conspiracy against Shiites, whose ingrained sense of grievance stretches back centuries.
Some Shiites who initially supported the uprising said they were now convinced the United States must be secretly maneuvering to pressure Hezbollah and its Shiite partners in Iran and Iraq: how else to explain the simultaneous uprisings in all three countries?
Such suspicions only hardened after the American killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a top military leader in Iran, in early January.
“They’ve been trying to defeat Hezbollah for years,” said Ahmad, a butcher in Beirut who did not want his last name used because he did not want to offend customers of other sects.
But when the protesters are friends, neighbors and relatives, they are not easily labeled foreign tools. They also include former fighters and relatives of those known as martyrs who died fighting with Hezbollah, who are hard to dismiss.
Among them was Rabih Tleiss, a Hezbollah member until 2013, whose cousin and brother-in-law died fighting for Hezbollah in Syria.
Sitting with other protesters in Baalbek, Mr. Tleiss pointed at the other Shiite men in the room, one by one.
“Are you working?” One man shook his head.
“Are you working?” Another headshake.
“I’m not working either,” Mr. Tleiss said. “We’re all jobless.”
Jad Jarjoui, 20, a protester in Tyre who volunteered with Hezbollah in Syria for a few months and is now unemployed, said he had kept protesting despite his family’s opposition and a visit from a local Hezbollah leader. He said he had not been directly threatened, but that an unknown assailant had stabbed him in the arm one night.
“My father asked why I’m getting myself into trouble,” he said, “but I told him I’m doing the right thing.”
Mr. Jarjoui remained loyal to Hezbollah’s cause, he said, just not its domestic politics. “The resistance is above all suspicion, but I’m against members of Parliament in the party.”
Still, the longer the protests go on without substantial political change or economic succor, the more fatigue and fatalism have crept in.
Ihab Hassane, 29, a Shiite from Tyre who had been protesting since Day 1, said he had lost hope for swift change. He was planning to leave the country.
But he believed the protesters had notched at least one accomplishment.
“People used to watch Nasrallah’s speeches without asking questions,” he said. “But now, even though they still support him, they’ve started asking questions.”
Rock, Paper, Scissors in the Middle East
Tony Badran/Tablet Magazine/February 04/2020
طوني بدران/موقع تابليت/ قراءة في صفقة القرن: صخرة وورقة ومقص في الشرق الأوسط
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/82921/%d8%b7%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a8%d8%af%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%a8%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%aa-%d9%82%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a1%d8%a9-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b5%d9%81%d9%82%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84/
Trump’s is the latest play in a decadeslong game of trying to counter previous ‘peace process’ moves by each new American administration
President Donald Trump has finally unveiled his 180-page vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which came as a sweet balm to Washington think-tankers and Middle East opinion writers, who had been slumbering like Rip Van Winkle, waiting for a chance to rise and display their dilapidated peace-processing expertise. As if no time had passed between 1995, or 1999, or 2004, or 2007, and the present, they got right busy determining whether the president’s vision was indeed realistic and viable, and whether it measured up to the accumulated history of American peace processing, and whether it was “fair” or “just” to the Palestinians, and whether it might just “bring both sides back to the table,” and on, and on, and on.
After all, the parameters for a “final settlement” between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs have long been clear: The so-called Clinton Parameters—named after former President Bill Clinton, Hillary’s husband, who had the good fortune of serving his two terms during the short, sunny period between the end of the Cold War (1946-1989) and the beginning of the decadeslong Global War on Terror (2001-the present). The Clinton Parameters were the summa of President Clinton’s approach to foreign policy, which, in the absence of any larger dragons to slay, sought to perform important good deeds like making peace between the British and the IRA in Northern Ireland, and Israel and the PLO in the Middle East.
All we needed to achieve peace in the Middle East, the wise peace processors of the Clinton years told us, was the courage to finesse a few small remaining areas of disagreement, which required having the right leadership in Israel and Palestine. They also required trust and confidence-building measures, including a freeze on Israeli settlement activity. Those were the days, my friend. The days of wine and roses, and of heroes like Robert Malley.
Yet, despite the parameters being so simple, obvious, and apparently easy to achieve, the peace process shockingly never went anywhere. Instead, it degenerated into the violence of the second intifada, which wasn’t led by Yasser Arafat; except, of course, that it was. After Arafat died in 2004, elections were duly held among the Palestinians, who elected Hamas, which chose rockets over suicide bombers after the Israelis left Gaza—a move that was supposed to bring about peace, but of course did nothing of the kind. Bill Clinton blamed Arafat. Malley and the New York Review of Books blamed Israel for not conceding enough fast enough to the Palestinians at Camp David, and for passing the baklava from left to right instead of from right to left.
Nearly a decade later, Condoleezza Rice tried her hand at “bringing peace,” and came up empty; a decade after that, so did John Kerry. Apparently, the box containing “peace” was empty.
Architects of the peace process today openly declare the entire enterprise hopeless. In a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Martin Indyk, a dedicated servant of peace, wrote about his participation, six years ago, in the last direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which were conducted under the wise auspices of John Kerry, who had once promised that solving the core problem of the Middle East would take him nine months. “At the end of that nine-month encounter, the two sides were farther apart on all the core issues than when we started,” Indyk wrote. Showing some degree of late-blooming insight, he finally admitted that the two-state solution was “not a vital American interest.”
As far as the United States is concerned, there are no more disputed territories: The land is Israel’s.
Other peace processors had despaired of the Palestinian track much earlier. Take the Wilson Center’s Aaron David Miller, for instance. In a 2008 Washington Post op-ed, Miller, showing greater wisdom than Indyk, advised then president-elect Barack Obama to set aside Israeli-Palestinian peace. “There’s no deal there,” he wrote.
This being Washington, though, Miller then urged Obama to pursue another fantasy based on one of the peace process industry’s key pillars, the 1967 lines. This fantasy was the Syria track: Instead of brokering negotiations between Israel and the recalcitrant and divided Palestinians, the United States should spend its vast diplomatic energy and capital brokering an agreement between Israel and Syria that would “return” the Golan Heights to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. This advice would have resulted today in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controlling the Golan Heights, and probably in a shooting war.
Obama, who was smarter, if not wiser, than Indyk and Miller combined, took zero personal interest in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process per se. Rather, he used the “peace process,” now in quotes, as a form of Kabuki theater, which served to keep the Israelis busy and off-balance while he implemented his broader regional strategy of realigning with Iran and downgrading traditional allies. Demands for a settlement freeze were a useful cudgel to wield against Israel, and so were the threats of a unilateral announcement of new American parameters (which never happened) and unfavorable resolutions at the United Nations (which were threatened for years before finally being delivered).
At the end of December 2016, before he left office, Obama affirmed the 1967 lines—and by extension, the position of Israel’s enemies—by orchestrating the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. The resolution called upon all states “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967,” and reaffirmed that all Israeli communities established in territory “occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, have no legal validity.” As with UNSCR 2231, through which Obama sought to lock in his deal with Iran, UNSCR 2334 sought to replace congressional authority with an international “rock” that would tie his successor’s hands and box him in within Obama’s regional preferences.
President Trump is also thinking geopolitically, only from the opposite side. A main purpose of his “Deal of the Century” is to strengthen Israel’s security and also, as the White House noted explicitly, to foster “strong regional partnerships to counter Iran and terrorism,” namely between Israel and the Gulf states. In other words, in the game of rock, paper, scissors that Trump appears to be playing with his predecessor, the peace plan is Trump’s “paper,” which counters the “rock” that Obama tossed through Israel’s window on his way out the door.
To that end, the president has used a series of tools to dismantle Obama’s Middle East framework. Trump withdrew from the Iran deal in May 2018, collapsing the security partnership Obama had assiduously built with the Iranians and their regional militias commanded by the recently departed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani—who met his demise courtesy of a U.S. missile strike last month. This was the “scissors,” which countered the “paper” of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
On the Israel front, Trump nullified the 1967 lines, the cornerstone of the Arab rejectionist position that Obama had attempted to enshrine in UNSCR 2334. He did this by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and then by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The latter move eliminated the 1967 framework altogether with regard to Syria and Lebanon. As far as the United States is concerned, there are no more disputed territories: The land is Israel’s.
The current plan extends that same approach to the Jordan Valley, in addition to existing settlements. “If the State of Israel withdrew from the Jordan Valley, it would have significant implications for regional security in the Middle East,” the president’s vision states, expressing a positive desire for Israel to remain there. An extension of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley would therefore serve U.S. regional security interests. Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ acceptance of the Trump plan as the basis for any future talks between Israel and the Palestinians indicates that the United States’ regional allies have accepted the president’s nullification of the 1967 lines framework. The significance of this is that the Saudis and the Emiratis have accepted that the starting point for any movement going forward is not the so-called Arab Peace Initiative, which the Saudis originally sponsored almost 20 years ago, and which has subsequently been loaded with additional rigid language, especially regarding the so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees, by rejectionists led by the Assad regime. The Trump peace plan is the new starting point.
The truth is, none of these frameworks matter anymore. Trump has made it clear that he is not bound by the fantasies of previous American peace processors—who today show contempt for the president’s plan even as they admit their own decades-long failure. Trump’s deal is designed to underscore Israel’s special relationship with the United States—and it slams shut the rusty gates of the peace processing factory for good. It doesn’t much matter how the Palestinians respond. The American position is not dependent on the outcome of future negotiations.
Israel’s political class now has a clear window in which to determine its own fate. Israel can then live with the consequences of its own choices.
*Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @AcrossTheBay.
Europe Cowers in Front of Iran and Hezbollah
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2020
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15510/europe-iran-hezbollah
“Hezbollah itself has publicly denied a distinction between its military and political wings. The group in its entirety is assessed to be concerned in terrorism…” — The British Treasury, January 17, 2020.
Britain joins the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, Israel, the 22-member Arab League, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay in making no distinction between Hezbollah’s military and civilian wings. In all, more than 30 countries have banned the group in its entirety.
In Germany, the EU’s largest member state, a foreign ministry official, Niels Annen, said that a complete ban of Hezbollah would be counterproductive because “we focus on dialogue.” His comment has been understood to mean that the German government does not want to burn bridges with Hezbollah’s main patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.
In other EU member states, government officials appear worried that a total ban of Hezbollah could jeopardize the safety of European troops deployed to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. EU member states contribute more than 3,650 troops to UNIFIL — mostly from France, Italy and Spain.
“Hezbollah is a single large organization, we have no wings that are separate from one another. What’s being said in Brussels doesn’t exist for us.” — Ibrahim Mussawi, Hezbollah spokesman, interview in Der Spiegel, July 22, 2013.
According to Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem (left), the group is structurally unified: “We don’t have a military wing and a political one… Every element of Hezbollah, from commanders to members as well as our various capabilities, is in the service of the resistance, and we have nothing but the resistance as a priority.” (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images)
The British finance ministry has added the entirety of the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah — Arabic for “The Party of Allah” — to its sanctions list and has ordered a freeze on any assets it may have in the United Kingdom.
The move, aimed at cracking down on Hezbollah’s fundraising activities in Britain, adds increased enforcement teeth to the British government’s February 2019 decision no longer to distinguish between Hezbollah’s military and political wings and to classify the entire organization as a terrorist group.
With the exception of the Netherlands, which outlawed all of Hezbollah in 2004, the UK now has the most comprehensive set of sanctions against the terrorist group in Europe. Being a member of, or providing support for, Hezbollah is a crime in Britain punishable by up to ten years in prison.
In a so-called General Notice of Final Designation dated January 17, 2020, the Office of Financial Sanctions of the British Treasury ordered financial institutions in the UK to check whether they hold any accounts, funds or economic resources for, or provide financial services to, Hezbollah; freeze such accounts, and other funds or economic resources; suspend the provision of any financial services to Hezbollah; and report any findings to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), in compliance with the Terrorist Asset-Freezing Act 2010 (TAFA). The British Treasury noted:
“Hezbollah itself has publicly denied a distinction between its military and political wings. The group in its entirety is assessed to be concerned in terrorism and was proscribed as a terrorist organization in the UK in March 2019. This listing includes the Military Wing, the Jihad Council and all units reporting to it, including the External Security Organization.”
Britain joins the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, Israel, the 22-member Arab League, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay in making no distinction between Hezbollah’s military and civilian wings. In all, more than 30 countries have banned the group in its entirety.
The European Union has resisted pressure to outlaw all of Hezbollah. European officials, who make an artificial distinction between Hezbollah’s military and political wing, regularly claim that a total ban might destabilize Lebanon’s political system, which is now dominated by the terrorist group. Others are worried that a complete ban of Hezbollah could hinder political and diplomatic efforts to salvage the now-defunct 2015 nuclear accord with Iran.
In Germany, the EU’s largest member state, a foreign ministry official, Niels Annen, said that a complete ban of Hezbollah would be counterproductive because “we focus on dialogue.” His comment has been understood to mean that the German government does not want to burn bridges with Hezbollah’s main patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.
In other EU member states, government officials appear worried that a total ban of Hezbollah could jeopardize the safety of European troops deployed to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. EU member states contribute more than 3,650 troops to UNIFIL — mostly from France, Italy and Spain. After many years of equivocation, the European Union reluctantly banned Hezbollah’s “military wing” in July 2013, after the group was implicated in the July 2012 bombing of a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria. Five Israelis were killed in the attack.
Hezbollah officials, however, have repeatedly affirmed that the group operates as a single organization with a unified system of command and control. In a July 2013 interview with the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, conducted immediately after the EU announced its partial ban on Hezbollah, the group’s spokesman, Ibrahim Mussawi, said:
“Hezbollah is a single large organization, we have no wings that are separate from one another. What’s being said in Brussels doesn’t exist for us.”
Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem, repeated that the group is structurally unified:
“We don’t have a military wing and a political one; we don’t have Hezbollah on one hand and the resistance party on the other…. Every element of Hezbollah, from commanders to members as well as our various capabilities, is in the service of the resistance, and we have nothing but the resistance as a priority.”
Qassem, in an interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal, said:
“Hezbollah has one single leadership, and its name is the Decision-Making Shura Council. It manages the political activity, the jihad activity, the cultural and the social activities. Hezbollah’s Secretary General is the head of the Shura Council and also the head of the Jihad Council, and this means that we have one leadership, with one administration.”
Hezbollah official Muhammad Fannish, in an interview with the group’s Al-Manar Television, stated:
“I can say that no differentiation is to be made between the military wing and the political wing of Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah official Ammar Moussawi, speaking to Lebanon’s National News Agency, said:
“Everyone is aware of the fact that Hezbollah is one body and one entity. Its military and political wings are unified.”
Five years after the EU announced its partial ban of Hezbollah, counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt assessed that it has had no impact at all on the group’s operations in Europe:
“Hezbollah’s military wing is still active across Europe, carrying out a wide range of criminal enterprises geared toward funding and arming the group’s military and terrorist activities and even concocting sporadic terrorist plots. In other words, the EU’s partial ban of Hezbollah has not set back the organization in any way.”The reluctance of European officials to outlaw all of Hezbollah may stem from a fear of retribution from the group or its patron, Iran, on European soil. Europe’s permissive stance has emboldened Hezbollah and Iran to conduct fundraising and logistical activities as well as terrorist acts and assassinations across Europe, often with impunity, for more than three decades. Criminal activities in Europe by Hezbollah since its founding in April 1983, and by Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, include:
Germany. January 20, 2020. The trial began in Koblenz of an Afghan couple accused of spying for Iran. The 51-year-old man, Abdul Hamid S., was a German-Afghan translator and cultural consultant for the German army. He is said to have violated official secrets in 18 cases. He was arrested in the Rhineland on January 15, 2019. His 40-year-old wife remains at large.
Albania. October 23, 2019. Albanian police said that they had thwarted an attack planned by the Iranian Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) for operations outside Iran, against opponents of the Iranian regime in Albania.
Germany. June 27, 2019. Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency reported that more than 1,000 members of Hezbollah are currently living in the country, where they engage in fundraising, recruiting and propaganda activities.
United Kingdom. June 9, 2019. The Sunday Telegraph reported that a Hezbollah operative was caught stockpiling three tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used to make homemade bombs, in a secret bomb factory on the outskirts of London. The plot was uncovered by MI5 and the Metropolitan Police, after a tip-off from Israel in the fall of 2015, just months after Britain signed up to the Iran nuclear deal. The UK did not press charges against the operative, who was released from custody. The Telegraph speculated that the incident was kept quiet because the Obama administration had just signed the Iran nuclear deal: “It raises questions about whether senior UK government figures chose not to reveal the plot in part because they were invested in keeping the Iran nuclear deal afloat.”
Germany. February 4, 2019. A 47-year-old Iranian dissident in Berlin told German police that he was attacked by three men who called him by name and threatened him in Persian before beating and kicking him.
Albania. December 20, 2018. The Albanian government expelled Iran’s Ambassador, Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, and the Iranian intelligence station chief in Albania, Mostafa Roudaki, for planning terrorist activities against Iranian dissidents and members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
France. November 29, 2018. A court in Paris sentenced Mohamad Noureddine, a 44-year-old Lebanese money launderer, to seven years in prison for leading a crime ring that laundered Colombian drug money and funneled the profits to Hezbollah. Noureddine worked directly with Hezbollah’s financial apparatus to transfer Hezbollah funds via his Lebanon-based company and maintained direct ties to Hezbollah commercial and terrorist elements in both Lebanon and Iraq, according to the US Treasury Department.
Denmark. October 30, 2018. Danish police announced the arrest in Sweden of a Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin who was suspected of plotting to assassinate three members of an Iranian opposition group called the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA). The three were living in Ringsted, located 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Copenhagen. Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen tweeted: “Iran’s plotting to assassinate on Danish soil is totally unacceptable. Danish ambassador to Tehran has been recalled for consultations. Denmark will discuss further actions with European partners in the coming days.”
The Netherlands. June 7, 2018. Dutch authorities expelled two Iranian embassy staff due to suspicions that Tehran was involved in the assassinations in the Netherlands of two Dutch-Iranian citizens.
Belgium. July 2, 2018. Belgian police, acting on a tipoff from Israel, foiled a terrorist plot against a June 30 gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of opposition groups in exile that seek an end to Shiite Muslim clerical rule in Iran. Assadollah Assadi, a senior Iranian diplomat based in the Iranian embassy in Vienna was arrested in Germany in connection with the plot. A Belgian couple of Iranian origin were also charged as accomplices. About 25,000 people attended the rally in the Paris suburb of Villepinte.
Germany. March 1, 2018. A court in Frankfurt sentenced a 41-year-old Iranian national to seven years in prison for purchasing, on behalf of the Quds Force, printing presses that produce counterfeit currency. The man, with German residency, also set up a series of front companies to purchase and ship to Iran specialized paper and ink. During the trial, it emerged that the presses were used to print more than 50 million Yemeni banknotes, presumably to help the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Germany. January 16, 2018. German police in seven federal states arrested ten alleged Iranian spies who were accused of surveilling Israeli and Jewish targets in Germany.
Germany. December 22, 2017. The German Foreign Ministry summoned Iranian Ambassador to Berlin Ali Majedi to warn Tehran against spying on individuals and groups with close ties to Israel.
The Netherlands. November 8, 2017. Iranian agents assassinated Ahmad Mola Nissi, leader of an Iranian separatist group ASMLA, in The Hague.
Germany. March 25, 2017. A court in Berlin sentenced Mustufa Haidar Syed-Naqfi, a 31-year-old Pakistani national, to four years and three months in prison for spying for Iran. He was convicted of gathering intelligence on Reinhold Robbe, a German politician and the former head of the German-Israel Friendship Society, for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Germany. March 22, 2016. Prosecutors in Berlin charged two Iranian men, 31-year-old Maysam P. and 33-year-old Saied R., with spying for Iran. The two men allegedly obtained information on members of the opposition group People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and its National Council of Resistance Iran (NCRI) arm in Germany and other European Union countries.
Lithuania. March 21, 2016. A court in Lithuania ruled that Ibrahim Ahmadoun, a 34-year-old Belgian citizen, would be extradited to the United States to face charges of money laundering for Hezbollah.
Czech Republic. February 4, 2016. Ali Taan Fayad, a Lebanese-born Hezbollah operative who holds a Ukrainian passport, was released from custody after Czech officials refused to allow his extradition to the United States to face weapons smuggling charges. Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnicky said that five Czech military officers who were kidnapped in Lebanon were released by their Hezbollah captors in exchange for a guarantee that Fayad would not be extradited. The officers were put on a Czech Air Force jet that arrived in Prague on the same day that Fayad was released.
The Netherlands. December 15, 2015. Two Iranian agents assassinated Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, an Iranian dissident, outside his home in Almere.
Israel. November 29, 2015. Israel’s Central District Court sentenced 55-year-old Hassan Khalil Hizran, a Lebanon-born Swedish national recruited by Hezbollah, to 18 months in prison for spying for the terror group.
Cyprus. June 29, 2015. A court in Cyprus sentenced 26-year-old Hezbollah operative Hussein Bassam Abdallah to six years in prison for plotting against Israeli interests on the island. Abdallah, a Lebanese-Canadian, admitted to stockpiling nearly nine tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used to make homemade bombs, at the residence of a Hezbollah operative in Larnaca.
Cyprus. March 21, 2013. A court in Cyprus convicted 24-year-old Hezbollah operative Hossam Taleb Yaacoub for plotting to kill Israeli tourists on the island. Yaacoub, a Swedish-Lebanese dual national, was found guilty on five of eight counts, including that of participating in a criminal organization, agreeing to commit a crime and money laundering. The court said that he had carried out six missions in Cyprus on behalf of Hezbollah, which had paid him a total of $4,800. Yaacoub was arrested in Limassol on July 7, 2012, after he was found to be scouting tourist sites frequented by Israelis. He was subsequently sentenced to four years in prison.
Israel. April 9, 2013. Milad Muhammad Khatib, 26, of Majd al-Krum in Western Galilee, was sentenced in the Haifa District Court to seven years in prison for espionage, contact with a foreign agent and conspiracy to aid an enemy in a time of war. Khatib was arrested in September 2012 and confessed to having conveyed to a Hezbollah agent information about IDF bases, armaments and arms caches, and the facilities of arms manufacturer Rafael. He was recruited by a Hezbollah operative in Denmark in 2009.
Bulgaria. July 18, 2012. A Hezbollah suicide bomber blew up a bus carrying Israeli tourists at the airport in Burgas, a city on the Black Sea coast. The explosion killed the Bulgarian bus driver and five Israelis and injured 32 others. The bus was carrying 42 Israelis from the airport to their hotel after they arrived on a flight from Tel Aviv. Bulgarian prosecutors later identified three Hezbollah operatives, all of Lebanese origin, as responsible for the bombing: Meliad Farah, a 32-year-old Australian-Lebanese dual citizen who fled to Lebanon two days before the attack; Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a 27-year-old Canadian-Lebanese dual citizen who remains at large; and Mohamad Hassan el-Husseini, a French-Lebanese dual citizen who was the suicide bomber.
Curaçao. April 29, 2009. Seventeen people were arrested on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao for alleged involvement in a drug trafficking ring with connections Hezbollah. The traffickers used cargo ships and speed boats to import the drugs from Colombia and Venezuela for shipment to Africa and beyond to Europe. The proceeds, funneled through informal Middle Eastern banks, went toward supporting Hezbollah organization in Lebanon. The smuggling ring also forwarded requests from Hezbollah for arms to be shipped from South America.
Sweden. January 18, 1994. Abubakr Hedayati, a Kurdish-Iranian dissident, died after he opened letter bomb in his apartment in Stockholm. The killing was attributed to Iran.
Germany. September 17, 1992. Iranian operatives assassinated three Kurdish-Iranian opposition leaders at the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin.
Germany. August 7, 1992. Iranian agents assassinated Fereydoun Farrokhzad, an Iranian opposition figure, in his apartment in Bonn.
France. August 6, 1991. Three Iranian agents assassinated Shapour Bakhtiar, who served as the last Prime Minister of Iran under the Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, in his home in Suresnes, near Paris. Bakhtiar’s secretary, Soroush Katibeh, was also killed. Two assassins escaped to Iran. A third, was arrested in Switzerland.
Sweden. September 6, 1990. Efat Ghazi, the wife of an Iranian Kurdish leader, was killed outside her home in Västerås by a letter bomb intended for her husband. The attack was attributed to Iranian agents.
Switzerland. April 24, 1990. Iranian agents assassinated Kazem Rajavi, a human rights advocate, in broad daylight while he was driving to his home in Coppet, a town near Geneva.
Sweden. April 1, 1990. An Iranian agent assassinated Karim Mohammedzadeh, a Kurdish dissident, in the town of Nynäshamn. The Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) was accused of having obstructed the criminal investigation carried out by the local Swedish police.
Austria. July 13, 1989. An Iranian agent assassinated Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, an Iranian politician of Kurdish descent, at an apartment in Vienna. Austrian authorities allowed the three suspected killers to leave Austria without ever being questioned.
Switzerland. July 27, 1987. A Hezbollah operative hijacked an Air Afrique DC-10 jetliner with 163 people on board. He forced it to land at Geneva Airport, where he killed one man before crew members and security forces overpowered him.
Austria. May 19, 1987. An Iranian agent assassinated Hamid Reza Chitgar, an Iranian exile, in Vienna.
France. September 5-17, 1986. Hezbollah-affiliated terrorists carried out five bombings in Paris in two weeks. The targets were 1) a post office in the Hôtel de Ville; 2) a cafeteria at the Casino supermarket at the La Défense shopping center; 3) a fashionable restaurant on the Champs-Élysées called Pub Renault; 4) the Paris Police Prefecture; and 5) a bomb was thrown into a shopping street at rue de Rennes from a passing car, blowing up in several store fronts and cars. In all, 12 people were killed and 198 were injured.
France. March 20, 1986. Hezbollah terrorists bombed the Point Show Gallery on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Two people died in the attack and 28 were injured. The bombing was attributed to the Hezbollah-affiliated Solidarity Committee for Arab and Middle East Political Prisoners (CSPPA).
France. March 17, 1986. A bomb exploded on a high-speed train between Paris and Marseilles. Nine people were injured in the attack, which was claimed by the Hezbollah-affiliated CSPPA.
France. February 3-5, 1986. Hezbollah-affiliated terrorists carried out three bombings in Paris in three days during which 35 people were injured. The targets were the Claridge Hotel on the Champs-Élysées, the Gibert Jeune bookstore on the Place Saint-Michel and an FNAC store at the Forum des Halles. The bombings were claimed by the Hezbollah-affiliated CSPPA.
France. December 7, 1985. Hezbollah terrorists bombed two Paris department stores: Galeries Lafayette and Printemps Haussmann. More than 40 people were injured in the attacks, which were initially attributed to the Palestinian terrorist group Abu Nidal (aka Fatah) but were later attributed to Islamic Jihad, one of the names used by Hezbollah to dissimulate its operations in Europe.
Denmark. July 22, 1985. Hezbollah terrorists bombed the main synagogue in Copenhagen, as well as the main office of the American airline Northwest Orient. One person was killed in the attacks, and 22 people were injured.
Greece. June 14, 1985. Two Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847 shortly after takeoff from Athens. They murdered US Navy diver Robert Stethem and dumped his body out of the plane and onto the tarmac. They also took dozens of hostages. German authorities released one of the hijackers, Mohammed Ali Hamadi, after he served 19 years of a life sentence. He returned to Lebanon in December 2005.
Spain. April 12, 1985. Hezbollah terrorists, operating under the name Islamic Jihad Organization, claimed responsibility for bombing the “El Descanso,” a restaurant frequented by American servicemen stationed at the nearby Torrejón Air Base, outside of Madrid. Eighteen people were killed in the attack; 82 were wounded. In a statement, Islamic Jihad Organization said that the attack was its first outside of Lebanon. Spanish authorities archived the case in 1987 because they could not identify the perpetrator. A spokesperson for the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) said that the Spanish government did not want to pursue the case: “There are interests that prevent the investigation of the attack. Ten years later, it is not known what really happened.”
Spain. August 6, 1984. Hezbollah operatives, using the name Islamic Jihad Organization, attempted to assassinate Khalid Almarzook, owner of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Anba, in Málaga, where he owned a home. Almarzook was unharmed; his driver, Yousuf Harsan, was killed. Spanish media speculated that the attack was retaliation for Al Anba’s pro-Iraqi stance in matters related to the Iran-Iraq war.
France. February 7, 1984. Iranian General Gholam-Ali Oveissi, a major figure in the Shah’s attempts to put down the Iranian revolution, was shot and killed, together with his brother, by gunmen that French police described as professional assassins. The Islamic Jihad Organization, one of the names used by Hezbollah to dissimulate its operations in Europe, claimed responsibility for the killings.
France. December 7, 1979. Prince Shahriar Shafiq, a 34-year-old nephew of the Shah of Iran, was assassinated in Paris by an agent of Iran’s Islamic Revolution who fired two shots into the back of the prince’s head and then coolly walked away.
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
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