English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 27/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 06/12-19/:”Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 26-27/2020
MoPH announces three new COVID19 cases
Hariri Hospital: One new infection, one recovery
Lebanon has avoided coronavirus worst case scenario, health minister says
Hasan: Studies Saying Pandemic Ended in Lebanon Not Authoritative
Attackers lob explosive at Lebanon bank amid currency crisis
Lebanon’s Fransabank attacked with explosive amid economic crisis
Bank Attacked with Explosive in Lebanon
Lebanon’s Berri warns against sacking central bank governor
Berri Bloc 'Criticizes Diab Rhetoric', Mustaqbal Reminds Him of 'Harirism Achievements'
Mustaqbal: Diab Wants to Implement Aoun and Bassil's Spiteful Agenda
Bassil Urges 'Fair Distribution of Losses', Warns Religious Leaders against 'Protecting Corrupts'
Lebanon’s PM demands 5 years’ worth of salary from university in dollar wire transfer
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric backs central bank governor as currency tumbles
Lebanon’s Sunni Leaders Attack PM’s Latest Statement
Hajjar: Bassil has announced the decisions of Tuesday's Cabinet session
Shreim: To await audit company’s report
Hamadeh: Companies to audit Central Bank’s accounts will have no flagrant findings
Yammine: Any employee who fails in his carrier must be replaced
Cedrus Group: We have no relationship with any political party, and we have not received any special treatment from the Central Bank of Lebanon

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 26-27/2020
Armenia demands apology from Turkey on genocide anniversary
Pompeo urges extension of embargo on conventional arms sales to IranIran ‘will never initiate any conflict or tension’: Rouhani
British PM Johnson back at Downing Street after COVID-19 recovery
Iraq: Political Quotas Hinder Distribution of Portfolios in Kadhimi’s Govt.
UN chief slams Israel’s ‘unilateral’ actions that harm Palestinians amid COVID-19 outbreak
Israeli Reports: US Will Not Allow Annexation in West Bank
SOHR: Turkey Recruits 10,000 Syrian Mercenaries to Fight in Libya
Turkey Continues Efforts to Carry Out ‘Demographic Change’ in Northeastern Syria
Turkey Continues Efforts to Carry Out ‘Demographic Change’ in Northeastern Syria
Syria: Russian Moves Confuse 'Astana Guarantors'
UN Approves Sudanese Request to Send Peace Mission
Italy's Conte Vows to Reopen Schools in September
Spain's Daily Virus Death Toll Drops to 288, Lowest in a Month
Satellite Imagery Finds Likely Kim Train amid Health Rumors
Yemen Crisis Deepens as Separatists Declare Self-Governance

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 26-27/2020
Iran using US tensions to divert focus from virus crisis/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/April 26/2020
Female leadership and heroism in the face of pandemic/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/April 26/2020
Coronavirus failures a reminder of EU’s shortcomings/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/April 26/2020
Coronavirus: US-Iran tension is just one example of rising temperatures around the world/Raghida Dergham/The National/April 26/2020
Amid Civilization Tensions… Let Us Benefit From Coronavirus/Zuhair Al-Harthi/Asharq Al Awsat/April 26/2020
Who is Fiddling with Whom: Us or COVID-19?/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/April 26/2020
America: Responses to Tyranny/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/April 26/2020
Iran’s gamble of military provocations for concessions is not working on Trump/Michael Pregent/Al Arabiya/April 26/2020
US-Iran war unlikely amid coronavirus – but nuclear program always a risk/Ryan Bohl/Al ArabiyaApril 26/2020
Gulf companies should stop hiding away from discussing coronavirus impact/Oliver Schutzmann/Al Arabiya/April 26/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 26-27/2020
MoPH announces three new COVID19 cases
NNA/April 26, 2020
Three new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded within the last 24 hours, taking Lebanon's tally to 707, as indicated by the Ministry of Public Health in its daily report on Sunday.

Hariri Hospital: One new infection, one recovery
NNA /Saturday, 25 April, 2020
In its daily report on the latest developments of the Corona virus, the Rafic Hariri University Hospital announced on Sunday that out of 205 laboratory tests conducted today, one new infected case with the emerging Covid-19 virus was reported while the remaining tests came out negative. It added that the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases infected with the virus that are currently present in the Hospital's isolation area has reached 8 cases, noting that it has admitted 8 cases, as well, suspected to be infected with the virus who were transferred from other hospitals. Meanwhile, the Hospital indicated that one case has recovered from the virus after the results of the patient’s PCR examinations came out negative in both times, thus bringing the total number of complete recoveries to-date to 119 cases. “As per the directives of the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Public Health, 6 cases that were infected with the Corona virus were released from the Hospital to be home quarantined, after their attending physician confirmed their clinical recovery and informed them of all measures and instructions related to their home quarantine,” the Hospital report added. “All those infected with Coronavirus are receiving the necessary care in the isolation unit and their condition is stable, and there are no critical cases in intensive care,” the Hospital reassured. In conclusion, it stated that more information on the number of Corona infected cases in all Lebanese territories can be found in the daily report issued by the Ministry of Public Health.

Lebanon has avoided coronavirus worst case scenario, health minister says
Arab News/Agencies/April 26, 2020
*The country’s COVID-19 toll stood at 704 on Sunday – one of the countries with the lowest cases in the region
*Hassan said this figure was due to Lebanon’s “cooperation and collaboration between the ministries concerned”
DUBAI: Lebanon’s Public Health Minister Hamad Hassan has praised the way the government managed the coronavirus outbreak, saying it has avoided a “bad scenario” of mass infections and deaths, state-run National News Agency has reported. The country’s COVID-19 toll stood at 704 on Sunday – one of the countries with the lowest cases in the region. There have been 24 deaths from the virus so far. Hassan said this figure was due to Lebanon’s “cooperation and collaboration between the ministries concerned.”He said it was particularly notable given the country’s “financial and catastrophic conditions,” adding other more capable countries “have not been able to cope with the widespread of the disease.”But the Lebanese government should not be lenient, Hassan said, as it gradually eases down lockdown measures.

Hasan: Studies Saying Pandemic Ended in Lebanon Not Authoritative
Naharnet/April 26/2020
Health Minister Hamad Hasan said Sunday that some foreign studies that have declared the end of the coronavirus pandemic in Lebanon are neither "accurate" nor "authoritative." "Studies by some universities point to the end of the coronavirus pandemic in Lebanese. These are data studies that are neither accurate nor authoritative," Hasan tweeted. "We are taking the correct and disciplined course in a very delicate and cautious manner," the minister added. "God willing, we will all abide by the general mobilization restrictions as the course of the safe return to normalcy begins," Hasan went on to say. Based on Artificial Intelligence-driven data analysis, the Singapore University of Technology and Design has suggested that the coronavirus pandemic had ended in Lebanon on April 22 and in Jordan on April 19. According to the study, the pandemic will end in most Arab countries by May or June.
According to the researchers, the study was based on official data provided by a number of countries around the world to estimate the key dates of transition during the pandemic life cycle curve. The Lebanese government has approved a five-phase reopening plan to gradually end the coronavirus lockdown that has been in place since March 15. The first phase begins on April 27 while the fifth phase will begin on June 8.The country has so far recorded 704 coronavirus cases which include 24 deaths and 143 recoveries.

Attackers lob explosive at Lebanon bank amid currency crisis
Associated Press/April 26/2020
The decision brought back protests to the streets of Lebanon earlier this week, as demonstrators criticized the central bank governor and private banks and accused them of sequestering their savings in foreign currency.
BEIRUT: Unknown assailants lobbed an explosive device at a private bank branch in southern Lebanon on Saturday, damaging its facade and roof, the country’s state news agency reported. The assault on a branch of Fransabank in the southern city of Sidon came at a time of rising public anger against banks in the small country facing its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. There was no immediate comment from bank officials. The attack took place while the bank branch was closed. The National News Agency said a police investigation was underway. NNA later reported that cameras in the area showed two people outside the bank at the time of the explosion. It didn’t elaborate. The value of Lebanon’s local currency has been in free fall, losing over 60% of its value against the dollar in recent weeks. The downward spiral was accelerated by the central bank’s decision to halt the withdrawal of dollars from foreign currency accounts or transfer bureaus. The central bank requires private banks to convert withdrawals into the local currency at a market rate set daily.
The decision brought back protests to the streets of Lebanon earlier this week, as demonstrators criticized the central bank governor and private banks and accused them of sequestering their savings in foreign currency.
In a sign of the deepening crisis, Lebanon’s prime minister accused the longtime central bank governor of orchestrating the local currency’s crash on Friday and criticized what he called his “opaque” policies that he said covered up major banking sector losses and capital flight. Lebanon is one of the world’s most indebted countries and has been grappling with a liquidity crunch, an economic recession, and rising unemployment. The country has a large diaspora that sends foreign currency home — an income that was already dwindling since last year — and relies on transfers to Lebanese students studying abroad. Many Lebanese keep their savings in foreign currency.

Lebanon’s Fransabank attacked with explosive amid economic crisis
AFP/Saturday 25 April 2020
Assailants lobbed an explosive device at a branch of Fransabank in the Lebanese southern port city of Sidon on Saturday, in the latest attack on financial institutions in a country facing its worst economic crisis in decades. The official National News Agency said the night-time assault targeted a branch of Fransabank in Sidon, damaging its glass facade. There were no immediate reports of any casualties. The attack came a day after Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Lebanese bank deposits had plunged $5.7 billion in the first two months of the year, despite curbs on withdrawals and a ban on transfers abroad.
Lebanon is grappling with a severe lack of liquidity and an acute economic crisis that has been compounded since mid-March by a lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus. In recent months, the Lebanese pound, which has been pegged to the US dollar since 1997, has plummeted in value from around 1,500 pounds against the greenback to almost 3,800 on the parallel market. Banks had gradually restricted dollar withdrawals until halting them altogether last month.The country’s dire economic situation has sparked street protests that first erupted in October last year, as well as several attacks on banks nationwide.

Bank Attacked with Explosive in Lebanon
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 25 April, 2020
An explosive device was lobbed at a bank in Lebanon on Saturday night damaging its glass facade. No immediate reports of casualties were issued. The official National News Agency said the assault targeted a branch of Fransabank in the southern port city of Sidon. The attack came a day after Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Lebanese bank deposits had plunged $5.7 billion in the first two months of the year, despite curbs on withdrawals and a ban on transfers abroad. Lebanon is grappling with a severe lack of liquidity and an acute economic crisis that has been compounded since mid-March by a lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus, AFP reported. The dire economic situation has sparked street protests that first erupted in October last year, as well as several attacks on banks nationwide. In recent months, the Lebanese pound, which has been pegged to the US dollar since 1997, has plummeted in value from around 1,500 pounds against the greenback to almost 3,800 on the parallel market. Banks had gradually restricted dollar withdrawals until halting them altogether last month.

Lebanon’s Berri warns against sacking central bank governor
Reuters/Sunday 26 April 2020
Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri has warned that removing the central bank governor would send the currency tumbling and threaten deposits, after the prime minister slammed Riad Salameh for the pound’s fall. Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Friday cast Salameh as responsible for a currency crisis that has threatened to further destabilize a country already in dire financial straits. The pound, which has lost more than half its value since October, slid to record lows on a parallel market last week, nearing 4,000 to the dollar before currency dealers on Friday went on strike. The official pegged pound rate of 1,507.5 to the dollar is available only for certain vital imports. In comments carried by Sunday’s An-Nahar newspaper, Berri said Lebanon could not afford to remove Salameh just as it was entering negotiations with foreign bondholders after defaulting on debt obligations last month. “Lebanese will wake up to the price of the dollar at 15,000 pounds,” he said.“I am not defending Salameh or anyone, I am defending Lebanon. And if the central bank of Lebanon does not remain, then everyone knows that depositors’ funds are gone forever.” The politically influential Maronite Christian patriarch said criticism of Salameh would only hurt Lebanon. “We ask: who benefits from the destabilisation of the central bank governorship?” said Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai. “We know the dire outcome, which is eliminating the confidence of the Lebanese people and (foreign) states in the constitutional foundations of the state.”
Lebanon is governed according to a sectarian system that parcels out state positions according to religious group. The central bank governor is always a Maronite Christian while the premier is always a Sunni Muslim. Diab’s government was formed in January with the support of the powerful Iranian-backed Shia movement Hezbollah, and has struggled to enact the economic reforms demanded by foreign donors. Gebran Bassil, head of President Michel Aoun’s Maronite Christian party, echoed much of Diab’s criticism of Salameh, saying the central bank bore “great responsibility” for losses of currency reserves and lack of transparency and coordination. He said the state must now “correct” these mistakes, denying that this would constitute a “coup against the free financial system or central bank independence.”The pound’s rapid fall has triggered small protests and raised the prospect of price hikes and broader unrest at a time when unemployment has soared and a coronavirus lockdown has dealt an additional blow. On Saturday, a small bomb was detonated outside a commercial bank in the southern city of Sidon, damaging its facade. A bank in the city of Tyre was attacked with petrol bombs early on Sunday, security sources said.
The attacks did not result in any injuries and the assailants remain unknown, the security sources said.

Berri Bloc 'Criticizes Diab Rhetoric', Mustaqbal Reminds Him of 'Harirism Achievements'
Naharnet/April 26/2020
Sources from Speaker Nabih Berri's Development and Liberation bloc have criticized the rhetoric used by Prime Minister Hassan Diab in his latest speech. "What's needed is to rescue the country and reassure the people that theit bank desposits are safe," the sources told the al-Anbaa news portal of the Progressive Socialist Party. "The most important thing is to put an end to this deterioration in the dollar exchange rates," the sources added. Al-Mustaqbal Movement sources meanwhile told al-Anbaa that Diab should "remember the achivements of 'Political Harirism', at a time some are pushing him to distort its image." "Let him remember what the martyr Rafik Hariri did to end the war, approve the Taef Accord and reconstruct Beirut," the sources said. "Let him only look at the achivements that were made at the airport, the Rafik Hariri hospital, the Lebanese University and downtown Beirut, compared to what his sponsors are doing at the electricity sector, illegal border crossings, the casino, the dams, the meaningless and Baathist wars, smuggling and the rest of the practices," the sources added.

Mustaqbal: Diab Wants to Implement Aoun and Bassil's Spiteful Agenda
Naharnet/April 26/2020
Al-Mustaqbal Movement on Sunday lashed out anew at Prime Minister Hassan Diab and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil. Commenting on a speech delivered by Bassil earlier in the day, Mustaqbal said the address was “a copy of the premier's latest remarks from the Baabda Palace and in other aspects a prior copy of the decisions that are expected to be issued in the Cabinet session” on Tuesday. “This confirms the presence of a single operations room that is orchestrating the ongoing coup, which is similar to the operations room that was set up in Baabda in 1998,” Mustaqbal added in a statement.
“The main common denominator between the two speeches highlights itself in the inclination to take revenge on a certain political era, which has been endorsed by Hassan Diab who consider it the groundwork for showcasing his political role,” the Movement went on to say.
It noted that the events of the past week prove that Lebanon's “appointed” premier has decided to “stand by President Michel Aoun, and consequently behind the real and shadow president Jebran Bassil, and to assist them in implementing the spiteful agenda that they have been seeking since 2005.”
Mustaqbal pointed out that what is new about “this agenda” is the setting up of “legal, administrative and judicial channels to carry out the vengeance episodes,” charging that “the Council of Ministers, specifically the premiership, has been turned into a tool to prepare and promote these channels, as if they are the salvation from financial and economic collapse.”It added: “A journalist wrote today that the Lebanese president is determined to uproot Harirism and this is not unrealistic, as to determination and not the uprooting possibility, and in this case the rescue scheme that Hassan Diab has decided to implement with Jebran Bassil will also be the scheme that will rescue the country from the strong presidential term, if they wish to try.”

Bassil Urges 'Fair Distribution of Losses', Warns Religious Leaders against 'Protecting Corrupts'
Naharnet/April 26/2020
Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil on Sunday said several parties must bear the country's huge financial losses, as he warned religious leaders against “protecting corrupts” for sectarian reasons.
“We ask the government to move forward and not to retreat, seeing as the entire country and people are suffering and there is no sectarianism, a targeted campaign or a coup attempt,” Bassil said in a televised address, amid heated accusations between the government and its opponents.
The government “started diagnosing” the flaws and “taking measures,” which prompted “those whom accountability would be detrimental to them to attack it,” Bassil added. “We call for speeding up the approval of the government's (financial and economic) plan and the issue must not exceed this week, as it has promised. It must then head to international institutions, especially the International Monetary Fund, to negotiate with it on obtaining the conditions that would suit us and at the same time confine us in order to implement the necessary reforms.”
He added: “Every crisis has its benefits and opportunities, and the most important opportunity from this crisis could be dropping wrongdoers' sectarian protections. The top religious authorities, both Christian and Muslim, should beware of wasting the chance by seeking to provide sectarian protection for the wrongdoers at a time they have been calling for heeding the voice of the people.”
Responding to those who have criticized the government and its premier in recent days, some of whom are religious leaders, Bassil said “it is not a coup against the free financial system if the government has decided to shoulder its responsibilities.”“At the same time, it is not reasonable to say that the central bank is solely to blame, seeing as parliament and government are responsible for allowing it to carry on with its mistakes without carrying out the necessary rectification,” the FPM chief went on to say. Noting that his party supports the restructuring of banks according to international standards, Bassil said it opposes imposing any “arbitrary policies on the banks with the aim of taming and subjugating them.”“They should be allowed to manage their affairs in line with standards laid out by the state and the central bank that would be appropriate for the rise of the sector and the economy,” Bassil added.
“At the same time, I warn against any intention to destroy or usurp the banking sector for any political motives. We will not tolerate this and we will continue to defend the freedom of the banking sector, which is a main pillar of the Lebanese economy,” Bassil vowed.
He lamented that political rivals have “threatened a civil war should the money they stole or transferred abroad be touched.” Bassil also suggested that there should be a “fair distribution of losses” among several parties. “The losses must be borne by the thieves, corrupts, greedy beneficiaries, banks and their owners and contributors, the central bank and the state's policies and officials,” he said. Noting that there is only one “quick and effective law” that can “distinguish corrupts from upright individuals, which is a law for unveiling financial accounts and properties,” Bassil said he admits that it would be difficult to pass such a law because “it would expose the corrupts.”But he called on all those who practice public service to “do this thing on their own” without the presence of a law.

Lebanon’s PM demands 5 years’ worth of salary from university in dollar wire transfer
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/Reuters/Monday 27 April 2020
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab asked the American University of Beirut (AUB) in January to pay him what he considered his “dues”, equivalent to the total salary of five and a half years of employment as per his contract which ends in 2025, despite the fact that he will not be able to fulfill his duties during that time period, Lebanese online newspaper Al-Modon reported on Saturday. Diab has taught computer engineering at the American University of Beirut since 1985. In 2006, he was appointed AUB's vice-president of Regional External Programs (REP), the university's consulting and professional development arm. The 61-year-old academic and former education minister was appointed in December 2019 as prime minister and was tasked with forming a government to pull the country out of the worst economic crisis it has seen since the 1975-90 civil war. Diab appointed a lawyer who sent a letter to the Chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees, Philip Khoury, asking for full “wages and benefits,” threatening otherwise to resort to judicial authorities in Lebanon and abroad to receive what he considers he is “owed,” Al-Modon reported. Diab is also asking for the money to be wired to an account abroad and in dollars only. His university annual salary is $200,000, i.e. he is asking AUB to pay him a million dollars. “How can the university pay for services that were not provided? The Prime Minister wants to receive money he did not earn. He is asking for the salary of five years during which he will not be doing his job… He can return to teaching as a professor after a year, but his work as vice-president responsible for networking is over, because he left it for another position,” sources told Al-Modon. Meanwhile, the country’s economic situation continues to worsen. The Lebanese pound, which has lost more than half its value since October, slid to record lows on a parallel market last week, nearing 4,000 to the dollar before currency dealers on Friday went on strike. The official pegged pound rate of 1,507.5 to the dollar is available only for certain vital imports. The pound’s rapid fall has triggered small protests and raised the prospect of price hikes and broader unrest at a time when unemployment has soared and a coronavirus lockdown has dealt an additional blow. Diab sharply criticized on Friday the central bank governor Riad Salameh for the pound’s downslide and the mounting losses in the banking system.
In a televised address Diab painted a grim picture of the central bank’s finances, pointing to data that indicated “accelerating” losses, with $7 billion gone since the start of the year and $3 billion of that in the past four weeks alone. Diab warned that liquidity at cash-strapped banks was “beginning to run out,” with $5.7 billion in Lebanese deposits exiting the system in January and February. “There are major gaps in the central bank: a gap in the performance, a gap in the strategy, a gap in the clarity and openness, a gap in the monetary policy, and a gap in the accounts,” said Diab. “Let the central bank governor come out and honestly announce to Lebanese the facts, on why what’s happening is happening, what steps are on the horizon, and what the ceiling for the dollar’s rise is,” said Diab.“Can the central bank governor still continue to assure (Lebanese) of the pound exchange rate as he did months ago, when suddenly these reassurances have evaporated?” said Diab.

Lebanon’s top Christian cleric backs central bank governor as currency tumbles
Reuters/April 26, 2020
*Currency changers have gone on strike and the parliament speaker urged the government to use “legal powers” to halt the fall in the pound
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s politically influential Maronite Christian patriarch backed the long-serving central bank governor on Sunday, after the prime minister cast bank chief Riad Salameh as responsible for a currency crash that worsened sharply in recent days. The pound, which has lost more than half its value since October, slid to record lows on a parallel market over the past week, losing some 15% of its value within a few days. Prime Minister Hassan Diab sharply criticized Salameh on Friday. Currency changers have gone on strike and the parliament speaker urged the government to use “legal powers” to halt the fall in the pound. The past two days have seen bomb and firebomb attacks on banks, although there were no reports of injuries. Amid a growing debate over whether the bank governor of 27 years should resign, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, Lebanon’s top Christian religious authority, said criticism of Salameh would only hurt the country.“We ask: who benefits from the destabilization of the central bank governorship? The beneficiary himself knows,” said Rai. “We know the dire outcome, which is eliminating the confidence of the Lebanese people and (foreign) states in the constitutional foundations of the state.” Lebanon is governed according to a sectarian political system that parcels out state positions according to religious group. The central bank governorship is reserved for a Maronite Christian while the premier is always a Sunni Muslim. Diab’s government was formed in January with the support of powerful Iran-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah and has struggled to enact stalled reforms demanded by foreign donors. Gebran Bassil, head of Lebanon’s largest Christian party, said while the central bank bore a large responsibility for losses and poor policies, it was the state “first and foremost” that must account for the crisis. The currency’s rapid fall has raised the prospect of price hikes and broader unrest at a time when unemployment has soared and a coronavirus lockdown has dealt an additional blow. On Saturday a small bomb was detonated outside a commercial bank in the southern city of Sidon, tearing apart its facade. A bank in the city of Tyre was attacked with molotov cocktails early on Sunday, according to security sources.
The attacks did not result in any injuries and the assailants remain unknown according to the security sources.

Lebanon’s Sunni Leaders Attack PM’s Latest Statement
Beirut- Youssef Diab/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 25 April, 2020
On Saturday, Lebanon witnessed a wave of criticism against statements made by Prime Minister Hassan Diab that targeted the Governor of the Banque du Liban Riad Salameh and economic and financial policies adopted by the Levantine country over the past years. Some considered Diab’s speech as vengeful while others said that the prime minister had attacked Lebanon as a whole, both politically and economically. “It is the stage of revenge, which they opened against a whole period, and assigned the prime minister to assume the attack,” ex-prime minister Saad Hariri said in a vocal statement against Diab, who is accused of seeking to end the free economic system in Lebanon. Others like ex-prime ministers Tamam Salam and Fouad Siniora and MP Nouhad al-Mashnouq also attacked Diab for his recent statements from Lebanon’s Dar el-Fatwa. “Diab’s statement is a continuation of a policy pursued by Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement, which formed the government, and it does not target a specific sect, but rather Lebanon as a whole,” sources close to the outspoken former prime ministers told Asharq Al-Awsat. “Since forming the government, Hezbollah has been trying to seize more control over resources of this country, and here it is using Diab as means to an end,” the sources added. Commenting on Diab’s statement, Siniora said: “This is not how things are handled, and what is required is to provide real remedies, because there are pressing living conditions; what is required today is the mobilization of citizens to support the process of real reform.” “How can confidence be restored and we have not solved the judicial formations file? How can we gain the confidence of the Lebanese people, and we have not implemented the electricity law that has been in place for 18 years?” Siniora asked.
MP Mashnouq criticized Diab’s latest statement, pointing to “conspiracies” against the “Sunni community and Sunni politicians.”“There is a conspiracy against Sunni politics and the Sunni community and we hope that Diab is not part of it,” said Mashnouq in remarks he made from Dar el-Fatwa.

Hajjar: Bassil has announced the decisions of Tuesday's Cabinet session
NNA/Sunday, 26 April, 2020
MP Mohammed al-Hajjar tweeted Sunday on the attack against the banking sector in Lebanon, saying: “About a year ago, the BLOM Bank headquarters were targeted with an explosive device…Yesterday, an explosive device and Molotov bomb targeted some banks, and before that the Lebanese Central Bank’s Governance was targeted through politics… Is the destruction of the financial sector and the world's confidence in the resurrection of Lebanon, the solution…?”In a second tweet, Hajjar commented on the words of “Free Patriotic Movement” Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, this morning, saying: “Your Excellency, General Hassan Diab, as an advice, and following the appearance of the ‘shadow president’ and the actual government guide, Gebran Bassil, it is no longer necessary to assign the Minister of Information to read the decisions of Tuesday's cabinet session, as Bassil announced them today...!"

Shreim: To await audit company’s report
NNA/Sunday, 26 April, 2020
Minister for the Displaced, Ghada Shreim, tweeted Sunday on the Central Bank issue where she called for awaiting the audit company’s report, saying: "To reach the comprehensive reform that people demand, we must start with the most urgent matter, which is the unprecedented financial deterioration. Therefore, the decision came that a neutral foreign company would audit the accounts of the Bank of Lebanon, which is primarily responsible for monetary stability in the country…Awaiting the audit company’s report to proceed accordingly.”

Hamadeh: Companies to audit Central Bank’s accounts will have no flagrant findings
NNA/Sunday, 26 April, 2020
MP Marwan Hamadeh pointed out Sunday that “the companies that will audit the Lebanese Central Bank’s accounts will not find anything scandalous, but will come out with reports on the state’s increased expenditure." Speaking in an interview to “Voice of Lebanon 93.3" Radio Channel this morning, Hamadeh underlined the need to search for those who took out the funds after October 17. "Lebanon should not take positions imposed upon it from a certain axis," he added, calling for "negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and benefiting from brotherly and friendly countries." Hamadeh also emphasized the need to sign the judicial appointments, a step that would signal the start of the independence of the judiciary. The MP considered that the applied policy has set obstacles which stood in the way of developing solutions to the economic deadlock, noting herein that “it was necessary to stop paying the Eurobonds in the previous period, not now.”

Yammine: Any employee who fails in his carrier must be replaced
NNA/Sunday, 26 April, 2020
Minister of Labor, Lamia Yammine, lambasted Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, saying: "Any employee who fails in his mission must be replaced, but within a transparent mechanism to appoint a successor."Labor Minister pointed out that "the Central Bank's circulars were not in line with government policy," adding that the Serail meetings related to financial affairs have demonstrated great competencies in this respect. Commenting on the repercussions of the novel Coronavirus on the workforce, the Minister said that "the Labor Ministry is following up on this issue before the Coronavirus spread in the country," expressing regret that the problem is huge and the economy is suffering. She also expressed concern about the dismissal of a large number of employees, stressing that the Ministry is working to compensate losses for employees who have been dismissed from their work.

Cedrus Group: We have no relationship with any political party, and we have not received any special treatment from the Central Bank of Lebanon
NNA/Sunday, 26 April, 2020
The "Cedrus" Banking Group issued a statement on Sunday, in which it categorically denied recently circulated news through social media, linking the Group to a specific political party and involving it in the current political conflict in the country, and claiming that the Cedrus Group has benefited from "financial engineering" for political purposes.Accordingly, the Board of Directors of Cedrus Invest Bank and the Board of Directors of Cedrus Bank clearly emphasized in their issued statement that “the Banking Group, which has been established since 2011, is not affiliated with any political party or movement in Lebanon, and cooperates with all political blocs with the aim of developing constructive plans to advance the national economy.”The statement indicated that the Group is owned by a number of Lebanese businessmen, working especially in the Gulf countries, and by Saudi nationals, asserting that none of the Lebanese politicians owns a single share in the Group, whether directly or indirectly. “The full list of shareholders and the percentage of their contributions can be found on our website,” the statement added. Finally, the Cedrus Banking Group hoped that all political parties and those commenting through social media would take these facts into consideration, keeping their eyes pinned on the future of Lebanon and focusing on setting plans “to build a productive and effective national economy and stimulate young and ambitious institutions, instead of trying to destroy them through rumors and false news.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 26-27/2020
Armenia demands apology from Turkey on genocide anniversary
AFP, Yerevan/April 26/2020
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday decried crimes against "civilization" and demanded an apology from Turkey as his country marked the 105th anniversary of the WWI-era Armenian genocide.
The genocide is a "crime not only against our ethnic identity, but also against human civilisation," Pashinyan said in a message after laying flowers at a genocide memorial in the capital Yerevan.
Commemorative events were scaled back this year due to the coronavirus restrictions imposed throughout the country, and the Yerevan memorial was closed to the public. In a short video address at the memorial, Pashinyan said that after more than a century, "the consequences of the genocide have not been eliminated.""Turkey has not yet apologized for what it did," he said, adding that Yerevan "demands" that Ankara officially recognise the massacres as genocide. Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart during World War I in what amounted to genocide, a claim supported by some 30 countries. Turkey fiercely rejects the genocide label, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops. Yerevan has long demanded Ankara provide financial compensation and restore property rights to the descendants of those killed in the 1915-1918 massacres, which Armenians call Meds Yeghern or the Great Crime. Pashinyan said Armenians “are still facing the challenges posed to our people at the outset of the twentieth century.” He said that instead of visiting the memorial, Armenians worldwide will be able to send their names to a mobile number to have them displayed on the pillars of the memorial until dawn.Commemorations started in Armenia on Thursday evening, when streetlights were switched off and church bells chimed across the country. Yerevan residents also switched off lights in their homes and many lit candles or waved mobile telephone flashlights at windowsills.
Last month, Armenia –which has reported 1,596 coronavirus cases and 27 deaths – declared a state of emergency and imposed a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the infection.

Pompeo urges extension of embargo on conventional arms sales to Iran
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya/April 26/2020
Iran’s space program is “neither peaceful nor entirely civilian,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday, calling on the international community to support extending the UN conventional arms embargo on Iran expiring in October. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a military satellite using ballistic missile technology on Wednesday which has been met with condemnation from the US, UK and France. The IRGC’s recent military launch proves that previous Iranian claims of the country’s space program being peaceful were “lies,” Pompeo said in a statement. All peace-loving nations must reject Iran’s development of ballistic-missile capable technologies and join together to constrain Iran’s dangerous missile programs,” the statement read. Pompeo called on the international community to support extending the UN conventional arms embargo on Iran, which is set to expire this October. “The world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and anti-Semitism should not be allowed to buy and sell conventional weapons.” Pompeo also called on the EU to sanction the individuals and entities working on Iran’s missile programs.“When the Iranian people are suffering and dying from the coronavirus pandemic, it is regrettable to see the regime waste its resources and efforts on provocative military pursuits that do nothing to help the Iranian people,” he said.

Iran ‘will never initiate any conflict or tension’: Rouhani
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya/April 26/2020
Iran is closely monitoring US troops in the region, but will never initiate any conflict or tension, President Hassan Rouhani said in a phone call with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Saturday. Rouhani congratulated the Qatari Emir on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, according to the official IRNA news agency. “Iran is closely monitoring the movements of the Americans but will never initiate any conflict or tension in the region,” the agency reported Rouhani as saying to the Emir. Rouhani and Sheikh Tamim “assessed the relations and cooperation between Tehran and Doha as positive and growing, and emphasized the need to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries,” IRNA said. The Emir also congratulated the Iranian government and people on the advent of Ramadan and “stressed the need for all countries to work to prevent tensions in the region,” IRNA said.

British PM Johnson back at Downing Street after COVID-19 recovery
Reuters/April 26/2020
LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to 10 Downing Street on Sunday, Sky News reported, after spending a week in hospital with COVID-19 and two weeks recovering at his country residence.
A Downing Street spokeswoman declined to comment on Johnson’s whereabouts. The government had previously announced he would be back at work on Monday. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who has been deputising for him in his absence, said Johnson was “raring to go.”Britain on Sunday reported its lowest daily rise in coronavirus deaths in nearly four weeks as the government resisted calls for an early easing of countrywide lockdown rules. The number of people who have died from the virus has risen by 413 to 20,732, officials said Sunday, the lowest reported daily increase in fatalities in all of April. The last time the health department recorded a smaller increase was on March 31, at 381 deaths. Despite the slowdown - which came at a weekend when the toll has often been lower - Environment Secretary George Eustice said now was not the time to relax strict social distancing rules. "There are encouraging signs of progress," he said at the daily Downing Street press briefing. "But before we consider it safe to adjust any of the current system distancing measures, we must be satisfied that we have met the five tests set last week."These included making sure the British health service NHS was able to cope, and a "sustained and consistent" fall in the daily death rate.

Iraq: Political Quotas Hinder Distribution of Portfolios in Kadhimi’s Govt.
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 April, 2020
Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Mustafa al-Kadhimi is silently holding talks with political blocs, refraining from following the steps of his predecessors, Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi and Adnan al-Zurfi, who conducted official public meetings with local and foreign political parties.Kadhimi also ordered his team not to make news briefings or issue any statements. All the positions and statements that have been made are those taken by political blocs who express different stances according to the ministerial positions they obtain. Iraq’s Kurds are the only components that haven’t yet made any negative statements against Kadhimi. Many parties says there's conspiracy behind the Kurdish silence. Shiites, precisely, suspect that Kadhimi and Kurds have agreed to keep the current Finance Minister Fuad Hussein in office, which is rejected by most of the Shiite forces. Meanwhile, differences between Turkmen and Christians, who are minorities in the country, have also emerged. For their part, Kurds are refusing to grant the Immigration portfolio to another party within the Christian component.Both components’ representation is mostly marginal, granted a minor portfolio at times, such as the Ministry of Displacement and Migration which was assigned to Christians in Abdul Mahdi’s government. While in Kadhimi’s government, the Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs was created to be headed by Turkmen, who were not represented in Abdul Mahdi’s government. Turkmen, whose differences are often sectarian, have unified their stance this time. Deputy Head of the Turkmen Front MP Hassan Turan told Asharq Al-Awsat that they reject this weak representation. He said Turkmen reject the figure chosen for the post, stressing that they had no say over the matter and their opinion was not taken into consideration. Turan also complained that Turkmen are always given a state ministry, describing this act as a marginalization policy. “If the cabinet was passed by the parliament, major issues will be discussed concerning our regions, such as Kirkuk,” he said, noting that a weak representation won't serve their interests.

UN chief slams Israel’s ‘unilateral’ actions that harm Palestinians amid COVID-19 outbreak
Arab News/Agencies/April 26, 2020
Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Aboul Gheit has warned Israel might exploit the pandemic to annex parts of the Palestinian territories
The UN chief said such “unilateral Israeli actions” would jeopardize negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians
DUBAI: The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has criticized Israel for its intention to annex parts of the West Bank, especially amid the coronavirus outbreak that poses risks to the fragile Palestinian community. Guterres was responding to a letter penned by the Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Aboul Gheit warning Israel might exploit the pandemic to annex parts of the Palestinian territories, the Jordan News Agency reported. The UN chief said such “unilateral Israeli actions” would jeopardize negotiations between the two groups, as well as kill other efforts of a peace deal. Aboul Gheit had earlier urged the UN to take seriously Israel’s actions against regional stability and security.

Israeli Reports: US Will Not Allow Annexation in West Bank
Ramallah- Kifah Zboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/ April, 26/ 2020
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) accused the US administration of giving Israel the green light to annex parts of the West Bank. However, political analyst, Raviv Drucker, told Israeli Channel 13 that Blue and White alliance held secret discussions with the White House and reached a conclusion to prevent the annexation of the West Bank. Sources close to the alliance said that US President Donald Trump will not allow annexation. This matter was a point of contention between Likud and Blue and White, at the beginning of their negotiations to form a unified government between Benjamin Netanyahu and his centrist rival Benny Gantz. Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was an Israeli decision whether to annex parts of the West Bank and the United States will offer its views on this to the new Israeli government in private. “As for the annexation of the West Bank, the Israelis will ultimately make those decisions,” Pompeo told reporters. “That’s an Israeli decision. And we will work closely with them to share with them our views of this in a private setting.”Pompeo expressed his happiness with the deal signed between Netanyahu and Gantz to form a national emergency government, saying he did not think a fourth Israeli election was in Israel’s interest. Palestine accuses the US of granting Israel the green light to annex parts of the West Bank, especially after Netanyahu pledged to establish Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea within the next few months. Meanwhile, PLO’s National Bureau for Defending Land said that Pompeo’s speech was not improvised as much as it was agreed between the US-Israel task force tasked with drawing up the annexation maps. The report added that Pompeo's announcement is a green light for the Netanyahu-Gantz government to move forward with the arrangements to impose Israeli sovereignty over lands in the West Bank as soon as the US-Israeli task force is done with the map. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned that all agreements with Israel and the US would be considered null and void if Tel Aviv annexed any parts of the West Bank, which means the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority (PA). On Thursday, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, warned against unilateral moves that will only deepen between the two peoples and undermine the chances for peace. Mladenov said in a briefing to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East that the dangerous prospect of the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank is a growing threat. “If such a move were implemented, it would constitute a serious violation of international law, deal a devastating blow to the two-state solution, close the door to a renewal of negotiations, and threaten efforts to advance regional peace.”Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasim said that the US insistence on its positions in support of the Zionist colonial policy is an active participation in the aggression against the rights of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people will expel the occupier and its settlers from all the West Bank land, he vowed.

SOHR: Turkey Recruits 10,000 Syrian Mercenaries to Fight in Libya
Cairo - Jamal Jawhar/Asharq Al-Awsat/April 26/2020
Libyan National Army (LNA) is regularly downing drones in Tripoli and arresting foreign mercenary fighters, as recently confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Videos of foreign fighters arrested by LNA soldiers circulated on social media, showing the mercenaries’ confessing that they've arrived to the country through Mitiga and Misrata airports after receiving sums of money for joining the war. The Syrian Observatory reported that Turkey has recruited nearly 10,000 militants to fight in Tripoli, noting that the number of recruits who arrived in Libya rose to nearly 7,400, including a group of non-Syrian mercenaries, while nearly 2,500 others arrived in Turkey to undergo training courses. The Observatory noted that hundreds of fighters are getting prepared to be transported from Syria to Turkey, since LNA factions are continuing to list new names, by Turkish intelligence’s orders.
LNA spokesman Major General Ahmed al-Mismari said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has transported nearly 7,500 mercenaries to the Libyan territory, adding that Syrian mercenary leaders receive millions of dollars in exchange. SOHR indicated that commanders instructed their fighters not to talk about the monthly salaries and to say that they came for the sake of Libyan people and not for money. The Observatory believes they aim to enhance the image of the Syrian factions in Libya, especially after many fighters expressed their regret for leaving for Libya. Reliable SOHR sources said the participation of the mercenaries helped in tipping the scales of battles in western Libya in their favor. SOHR activists confirmed that more Syrian mercenaries were killed in the ongoing military operations in Libya, bringing the total death toll of Turkish-backed Syrian proxies killed in Libya to 223. Meanwhile, UN acting envoy Stephanie Williams stated that Libya is turning into an experimental field for all kinds of new weapons systems, with foreign supporters of its warring parties shipping in arms and fighters in violation of an embargo. Speaking through during an online news conference. Williams said that the new wave of fighting has been fueled by arms imported from abroad.

Turkey Continues Efforts to Carry Out ‘Demographic Change’ in Northeastern Syria
Ankara- Said Abdel Razek/Asharq Al-Awsat/ April,26/ 2020
The Turkish army and its loyal factions continue displacing the remaining residents in areas that fall under their control in northeastern Syria as part of the “demographic change” policy, a human right observatory announced. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Turkish forces and their proxies are moving forward with their systematic approach implemented in Afrin and other areas under their Operation Peace Spring. It said this comes in light of the demographic change they seek to bring about in areas that were controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Families from eastern Ghouta and other Syrian areas are being housed in several areas in Raqqa and Hasakah, which have been captured recently by Turkish forces and proxies, replacing the civilians who were forced to displace. Abductions and arbitrary arrests still continue targeting residents, both Kurds and Arabs, in areas under control of Operations “Peace Spring” and “Olive Branch” factions, it stressed. In Tal Abyad, just one of the many examples, Turkish-backed factions continue their arbitrary practices, although the city is inhabited mostly by Arabs, it added. The SOHR stated that military groups affiliated to the pro-Turkish factions raided Saturday homes of displaced civilians in Meydanki area in Afrin countryside. It noted that the area experiencing abuses by the new residents against the property of Kurdish indigenous people, including allowing cattle to graze agricultural land, causing significant damage to crops. Meanwhile, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced killing at least 20 members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, near Turkey’s southern border. “The terror group’s attempt to infiltrate the Operation Peace Spring de-escalation zone to disrupt peace and security was prevented by our heroic commandos. Twenty YPG/PKK terrorists were neutralized in a successful operation before they could achieve their aims,” the ministry said on Twitter. On October 9, Ankara launched the Operation Peace Spring against YPG members from the area east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees. Turkey and its loyal forces seized a 30 km region deep in the Syrian territories during an operation that was halted eight days later. This happened as Ankara agreed with the US and Russia on Oct. 17 and 22 on the withdrawal of its forces from the Syrian border and the withdrawal of Kurdish units as well from the Operation Peace spring zone.

Syria: Russian Moves Confuse 'Astana Guarantors'
London - Ibrahim Hamidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/April,26/ 2020
Talks intensified lately between Moscow, Ankara and Tehran, the three guarantor countries of the Astana process, to restore coordination between them after it was affected by Russian moves in Syria. “There are two currents in Moscow: The first is represented by the Defense Ministry and the military-intelligence apparatus and the other is represented by the Foreign Ministry and research centers operating with it. Usually, the Kremlin acts as a separator between those two currents and the side deciding which wins over the other,” a western diplomat told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday. He said the recent media campaign launched against Damascus from several Russian newspapers or media outlets cannot be issued without a political cover, especially in a country like Russia, where every move has a motive. The diplomat said three reasons are behind the Russian moves that shuffled cards between the guarantor states over Syria.
“The first is linked to the visit of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Choigou to Damascus, during which he called on Syrian leaders to respect the military agreements signed between Russia and Turkey over Idlib,” the diplomat said. Also, Russia wanted to remind Syria of the Russian-Israeli-Us understandings to contain the Iranian role, particularly the presence of pro-Iranian organizations in the country. According to the diplomat, the third reason is economic, saying that Russian companies and the Wagner Group, which is a shadowy mercenary outfit waging secret wars on the Kremlin's behalf in Syria, made several complaints lately due to the absence of revenues despite the Russian military intervention in the country, especially in shares of the oil and gas sectors and other economic deals. Meanwhile, Iran expressed dismay over its absence from the Idlib agreement and the ongoing Israeli military strikes that were launched on “Iranian positions” in Syria. The latest Israeli offensive against Iranian targets was marked recently when an Israeli drone targeted a Hezbollah commander along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

UN Approves Sudanese Request to Send Peace Mission
Khartoum, New York- Mohammed Amin Yassine and Ali Barada/Asharq Al-Awsat/April,26/ 2020
The United Nations Security Council has approved a request submitted by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to obtain UN support during the transitional period, stressing the need to protect the gains and avoid a return to war. The Council welcomed the commitment of the Sudanese government and most of the armed groups to engage in peace talks and reach a comprehensive peace agreement. The Sudanese government has earlier asked the UN to deploy a peacekeeping mission in the country as soon as possible under Chapter 6 of the UN charter, covering the entire territory of Sudan. The request was presented by Hamdok to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on January 22. It includes supporting the implementation of the Constitutional Declaration and peace efforts in Juba, mobilizing international economic assistance for Sudan, coordinating in humanitarian assistance issues, and offering technical support to the constitutional making. Acting Deputy Permanent Representative of the US Mission to the United Nations Ambassador Cherith Norman said the Security Council is expected to create a new mission in Sudan in May. She said the mission will support Hamdok and the transitional government and foster political stability and peace for all Sudanese – especially those in Darfur and other conflict-affected areas. The Security Council held a session via videoconference with the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), in which it listened to two briefings by UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo. On Friday night, the Security Council issued a statement affirming its support for the attempts to attain a successful transition that fulfills the hopes and aspirations of the Sudanese people for a peaceful, stable, democratic, and prosperous future. According to the statements the council members have been following with concern the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Sudan, in light of its social, economic, and humanitarian conditions. “The exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the peace process in Sudan as well as the drawing down of the UN mission there,” Lacroix noted. Notwithstanding the “dire” situation, Lacroix, assured the Council that the UN is “fully mobilized” to continue supporting the Sudanese people. Noting progress on political reforms, accountability, and women’s participation in decision making, he said that “the Sudanese authorities and people have pushed ahead” with implementing their democratic transition.

Italy's Conte Vows to Reopen Schools in September
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 26/2020
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte vowed Sunday to reopen schools by September and allow many businesses to resume in a week's time as the country emerges from a near-total shutdown. Conte told La Repubblica newspaper that he will spell out the full details of how Italy will ease its way out of the world's longest active coronavirus lockdown by the start of next week. He has reportedly been presented with a cautious proposal that involves a gradual lifting of restrictions over the course of May. Italy's official death toll of 26,384 is Europe's highest and only second globally to the United States. But its number of cases has been ebbing and Italy believes its contagion rate -- reported at between 0.2 and 0.7 -- is low enough below the key threshold of 1.0 to try and get back to work."We cannot continue beyond this lockdown -- we risk damaging the country's socioeconomic fabric too much," Conte told La Repubblica.
'Very high risk'
 Italy gradually closed everything over the first half March as it became increasingly clear that an initial batch of cases in northern areas around Milan was spreading. Scientists now believe that Italy's infections probably began in January -- if not earlier -- and that the virus was running rampant by the time the first official COVID-19 death was recorded on February 21. But Italy's health care system held the line and Conte now appears to feel safe enough to focus on mending an economy that his team expects to shrink by eight percent this year.
Conte said his government will "allow a large number of companies" to restart on May 4. Italy's schools were closed before most other businesses and will now be one of the last to reopen. He said the return to school was filled with peril because many teachers were older and at greater risk of catching the virus. "Schools are at the centre of our attention and will reopen in September," the premier said. Conte explained that resuming tuition before then involved "a very high risk of contagion".
'Greater freedom'
Many Italians are most concerned about when they will finally be able to walk in parks and jog without being stopped and fined by the police.Italy's stay-at-home orders were announced nationally on March 9 and require everyone to stay within about a block of their front door.
Many have turned their roofs into improvised gyms and even tennis courts in a collective effort to avoid going stir crazy. "We are not yet in a position to restore full freedom of movement, but we are studying a relaxation of the current, strict regime," Conte said. "We will make sure to allow greater freedom of movement while maintaining our guarantee to prevent and contain contagion." Media reports say the government might allow people to move freely within cities but limit their travel between the country's 20 regions. Conte was also reportedly considering the option of outfitting airports and train stations with thermal scanners that can flag people who are running fevers. But Conte cautioned against expecting bars and restaurants to open their doors in May -- or tourists returning this summer.
"We will be reviewing our social distancing rules," said Conte.
"But this does not mean that we will be abandoning them."

Spain's Daily Virus Death Toll Drops to 288, Lowest in a Month
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 26/2020
Spain's daily coronavirus death toll dropped to 288 on Sunday, the lowest since March 20, as the country eased its lockdown to allow children outside for the first time in six weeks. The health ministry said the figure dropped from 378 on Saturday and brought Spain's total toll to 23,190, the third highest number of deaths after the United States and Italy. The news came as the country took the first steps to ease one of the world's toughest lockdowns. Spain issued a stringent stay-at-home order on March 14, confining the country's nearly 47 million population to their homes in a bid to slow the spread of the epidemic.
Unlike other countries in Europe and the rest of the world, Spain's children have not been able to go out, with only adults allowed to leave the house to buy food, medicine, briefly walk the dog or because of a medical emergency. However from Sunday, under-14s can go out once a day, for one hour between 9:00 am (0700 GMT) and 9:00 pm, accompanied by one parent -- and no further than one kilometre from their home. All Spaniards will be allowed out for exercise and to take walks from next weekend, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Saturday.
The government will on Tuesday unveil its broader lockdown exit plan that will likely be put into action in the second half of May, he added. The ministry of health said that 98,731 people have now recovered from the deadly virus. Health officials have said Spain's COVID-19 epidemic peaked on April 2, when it recorded 950 deaths over 24 hours.

Satellite Imagery Finds Likely Kim Train amid Health Rumors
Associated Press/Naharnet/April 26/2020
A train likely belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been parked at his compound on the country's east coast since last week, satellite imagery showed, amid speculation about his health that has been caused, in part, by a long period out of the public eye.
The satellite photos released by 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea studies, don't say anything about Kim's potential health problems, and they echo South Korean government intelligence that Kim is staying outside of the capital, Pyongyang. Seoul has also repeatedly indicated that there have been no unusual signs that could indicate health problems for Kim. That hasn't stopped growing unconfirmed rumors and media reports about Kim's health that have emerged since he missed an April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.
Kim Jong Un is the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, and he hadn't missed the April 15 event, one of the year's most important for the North, since assuming power after his father Kim Jong Il's death in late 2011.Kim's health is of crucial importance because of worries that the serious illness or death of a leader venerated with near godlike passion by millions of North Koreans could cause instability in the impoverished, nuclear-armed country. Many experts in South Korea downplayed speculation that Kim is seriously ill. They also said North Korea won't likely face a serious immediate turmoil even if Kim is incapacitated or dies because someone else like his influential sister Kim Yoo Jong will quickly step in, though the prospect for the North's long-term political future would be unclear. Kim Jong Un's train has been parked at the Leadership Railway Station servicing his Wonsan compound since at least April 21, the website 38 North said Saturday, citing an analysis of recent satellite photos of the area. The website said that the approximately 250-meter (820-foot) -long train wasn't present on April 15 but was present on both April 21 and 23.
"The train's presence does not prove the whereabouts of the North Korean leader or indicate anything about his health, but it does lend weight to reports that Kim is staying at an elite area on the country's eastern coast," it said.
The photos indicate the train arrived before April 21 and was still present on April 23, when it appeared to be repositioned for departure. However, there was no indication when that departure might take place, 38 North said. North Korea exerts extremely tight control on information about its leadership, making it virtually impossible for outsiders to find out what's going on at those senior levels. Even South Korea's main spy agency has a mixed record on confirming developments in North Korea. When Kim Jong Il died in December 2011, for instance, few outsiders knew it until it was reported by North Korea's state media two days later. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media, said the latest rumors about Kim's health had not changed the U.S. assessment of the information as "speculation."
Danny Russel, a former National Security Council director and assistant secretary of state for Asia who has dealt with North Korea in the past, cautioned that rumors have abounded for years about Kim, his father, Kim Jong Il, and his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and most turned out to have been false.
"While serving in government I was on the receiving end of multiple intelligence reports about alleged accidents, illnesses and assassination attempts against North Korean leaders — only to have them reappear in public," he said.
South Korea's presidential office said last week that Kim appeared to be handling state affairs normally and that there had been no suspicious activities, such as an emergency readiness order issued by the North's military or the ruling Workers' Party. The South Korean government has since maintained its assessment that Kim's health remains the same. Some South Korean media outlets, citing unidentified government officials, have reported that Kim was staying at Wonsan. North Korea's state media still remain silent about the outside speculation on Kim's health. On Saturday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim had received a message of greeting from the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the occasion of the first anniversary of Kim's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The message wished Kim "good health and happiness," KCNA said. It's not the first time that Kim has vanished from the public eye, and past absences in state media dispatches have also triggered speculation about his health. In 2014, state media didn't report any public activities for Kim for about six weeks, before he reappeared with a cane. South Korea's spy agency said later that he had a cyst removed from his ankle.

Yemen Crisis Deepens as Separatists Declare Self-Governance
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 26/2020
Yemeni separatists early Sunday declared self-rule of the country's south as a peace deal with the government crumbled, complicating a long and separate conflict with Huthi rebels who control much of the north. The Southern Transitional Council (STC) accused the government of failing to perform its duties and of "conspiring" against the southern cause, and said self-governance had begun at midnight. The government condemned the move and said the separatists -- who have long agitated for independence in the south -- would be responsible for the "catastrophic and dangerous" outcome. The breakdown between the one-time allies comes as a Saudi-led coalition, which backs the internationally recognized government in a battle against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, has extended a unilateral ceasefire aimed at fending off the coronavirus pandemic -- a move rejected by the Huthis.
Yemen's separatists signed a power-sharing deal in Riyadh last November that quelled a battle -- dubbed a "civil war within a civil war" -- for the south that had in August seen them seize control of the second city of Aden. The Riyadh pact quickly became defunct, failing to meet deadlines for key measures including the formation of a new cabinet with equal representation for southerners, and the reorganization of military forces. The STC announced in its statement that it was declaring "self-governance in the south starting midnight on Saturday April 25th, 2020.
"A self governing committee will start its work according to a list of tasks assigned by the council's presidency," it said. Aden residents reported heavy deployments of STC forces in the city and a separatist source told AFP they had set up checkpoints "at all government facilities, including the central bank and port of Aden." Military vehicles drove through the city with STC flags flying aloft. The political landscape in the south is complex, and despite the STC's declaration some southern cities said they did not recognize the call to self-rule and would remain aligned with the central government. Yemen's Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Hadhrami said the STC move was "a continuation of the armed rebellion last August and a declaration of rejection" of the Riyadh agreement.
Deep divisions
Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed over the past five years in the war between the government and the Huthi rebels. Earlier this month, Yemen reported its first case of coronavirus in Hadramawt, a southern government-controlled province, raising fears of an outbreak.
Compounding the country's troubles, at least 21 people were killed in flash flooding this month, with Aden's streets submerged and homes destroyed. The UAE, like the STC, has a zero tolerance policy towards the Muslim Brotherhood and Yemen's Brotherhood-influenced Al-Islah party, which has representatives in the internationally recognized government. Last August, deadly clashes broke out between the government and STC forces who seized control of Aden, ousting unionist forces who had set up base there when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled the Huthi-held capital Sanaa in February 2015. The tussle for control of the south exposed divisions between the coalition partners -- Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, and the United Arab Emirates, a backer and funder of the STC. The Riyadh agreement had been welcomed as preventing the complete break-up of Yemen, and hailed as a possible stepping stone towards ending the wider conflict in Yemen. But the cracks soon emerged, with complaints over food shortages in the south, a sharp depreciation of the currency, and a lack of funds to pay public sector employees.  The STC's statement Sunday said there had been a marked deterioration of public services, which "was clearly reflected in the latest torrential rains that caused the people in Aden deep suffering".The government was using its powers as "a weapon to bring the southerners to kneel," it said. While the government and the STC are technically allies in the long war against the Huthis, the secessionists believe the south should be an independent state -- as it was before unification in 1990.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 26-27/2020
Iran using US tensions to divert focus from virus crisis
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/April 26/2020
د. ماجد رافيزادا: النظام الإيراني يستغل التوتر مع أميركا لتحويل البوصلة عن أزمة جائحة الكورونا
The instigator of the rising tensions between the Islamic Republic and the White House is clearly Tehran. Six US ships — the Coast Guard Cutters Wrangell and Maui, the expeditionary mobile base Lewis B. Puller, the guided missile destroyer Paul Hamilton, and the patrol boats Firebolt and Sirocco — were this month sailing in international waters when they were harassed by a flotilla of armed speedboats. The boats, which belonged to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN), circled the US ships in a dangerous manner, as described in detail by the US Navy: “The IRGCN vessels repeatedly crossed the bows and sterns of the US vessels at extremely close range and high speeds, including multiple crossings of the Puller with a 50-yard closest point of approach and within 10 yards of Maui’s bow. The US crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio, five short blasts from the ships’ horns and long-range acoustic noise maker devices, but received no response from the IRGCN.”
This is not the first time that Tehran has been implicated in acting dangerously in international waters. For instance, in May 2019, four tankers were attacked close to the port of Fujairah off the coast of the UAE. A month later, two other tankers — the Japanese Kokuka Courageous and the Norwegian Front Altair — were sabotaged while crossing the Gulf of Oman. One went up in flames, while the other was left to be towed away. In a third incident a few weeks later, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a video showing commandos in black ski masks and military fatigues descending from a helicopter to seize a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians would on go to shoot down an American drone that was operating in international airspace.
Tehran is most likely violating international law, specifically the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The theocratic establishment of Iran is a signatory to this UN convention but has long refrained from ratifying it.
Top Iranian officials have also resorted to heated rhetoric, likely to add fuel to the fire and further ratchet up the tensions. In the wake of this month’s incident, Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif retweeted a message he first posted two years ago: “US Navy can’t seem to find its way around our waters... Maybe it doesn’t know what it’s doing in our backyard, 7,000 miles from home.”
This kind of destructive behavior could see the crisis spiral out of control and lead to a major war in the region.
This kind of destructive behavior could see the crisis spiral out of control and lead to a major war in the region. Iran’s recent harassment of US ships prompted President Donald Trump to warn on Twitter: “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.”
This harassment came after Iran-backed Shiite militias launched several attacks on the US and its allies’ personnel in Iraq. One attack in mid-March killed several members of the US-led anti-Daesh coalition at Iraq’s Camp Taji base. Eighteen 107 millimeter Katyusha rockets slammed into the base, killing two Americans and one British soldier.
Meanwhile, Iran’s coronavirus death toll has now exceeded 33,400, according to opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran, even though the official figure is fewer than 6,000. And leaked documents have revealed widespread corruption in the Iranian Health Ministry, the IRGC and two organizations under the control of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The history of the Islamic Republic shows us that, whenever the regime is hit with a domestic crisis, it attempts to dodge accountability and responsibility by blaming other countries. That is why the Iranian authorities seem to have launched a campaign pointing a finger at the US and its sanctions for the coronavirus crisis. The US has offered Iran medical assistance, which was declined. And there have been no sanctions imposed on Iran concerning the fight against coronavirus, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying: “There is no sanction on medicines going to Iran, there is no sanction on humanitarian assistance going into that country. They’ve got a terrible problem there and we want that humanitarian, medical assistance to get to the people of Iran.”
The regime is likely heightening tensions with the US in an attempt to divert attention from its cover-ups and mishandling of the pandemic.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is an Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Female leadership and heroism in the face of pandemic
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/April 26/2020
Most of us have little concept of the devastating impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the bodies of severely impacted victims. Yet courageous medical staff — often with woefully inadequate protective clothing — are staring death in the face every day.
A lot has been written about how men appear more susceptible to COVID-19 than women. However, one Italian study found higher contagion risks among working-age women; apparently due to their overrepresentation in essential sectors like medicine, social care and education. Some 73 percent of US health care workers infected with coronavirus are women.
Women make up about 90 percent of nursing and social care workers. One in three US jobs held by women has been designated as essential (the figure is even higher for non-white women). Women are found in high numbers in cutting-edge scientific efforts to find a vaccine, while, as morticians, they are compassionately managing piles of dead bodies in epidemic hotspots.
Even though less than 7 percent of world leaders are women, many of their countries — such as New Zealand, Germany, Taiwan, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark — are near the top of the global list for rapidly and effectively combating the epidemic. These states are today best positioned to cautiously relax emergency measures.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won plaudits for the swift decisions to close borders and enforce a lockdown (after only six cases) and her effective messaging; stopping the disease in its tracks. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg also implemented an early lockdown, allowing scientists to take the lead. Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir offered free tests to all citizens. The only Nordic state with a male leader — Sweden — gained notoriety for refusing to close schools and businesses, and it has since notched up one of Europe’s highest death rates.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (a scientist by training) bluntly but calmly addressed her nation at an early stage, with Germany’s world-class health system maintaining a mortality rate far below those of its near neighbors. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s rapid initiatives (such as inspections of planes from Wuhan as early as December and mandatory health checks) have meant Taiwan has only suffered six deaths so far, despite its proximity to China. Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs, from the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten, became an internet sensation for her no-nonsense public messaging, saying: “Simply. Stop. Moving. If you do not have the type of bread you like in your house, eat crackers.”
While it would be facile to claim that these leaders performed exceptionally well just because they are women, commentators have noted that, due to the extreme difficulties women face in reaching the top, they must be truly exceptional individuals (while figures like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson were born into privilege). All these leaders are exceptional communicators. Merkel is affectionately referred to as “Mutti” (mummy), and is respected for steadily steering Germany through successive crises.
It was jaw-dropping how long it took many male leaders to perceive the crisis hurtling toward them head-on.
After decades of interviewing female leaders, I find them better attuned to the human consequences of policy decisions. Speaking to Indira Gandhi in the final hours of her life, she emphasized to me the importance of women’s ability to deal with details: Politics isn’t primarily about besting rivals, but improving the lives of society’s weakest, and protecting society against short and long-term risks.
It was jaw-dropping how long it took many male leaders to perceive the crisis hurtling toward them head-on. With the US in an election year, Britain negotiating Brexit and the EU undergoing a multitude of crises, statesmen appeared reluctant to focus on a lowly health care issue. They then found themselves embarrassingly out of their depth when the crisis hit — belatedly taking action several weeks later than their female counterparts. Trump famously denounced COVID-19 as a “hoax” created by his rivals and predicted that “like a miracle, it will disappear.” That’s not to mention his potentially fatal recommendations of blasting bodies with ultraviolet light or injecting people with disinfectant.
We are, meanwhile, facing an “epidemic” of domestic violence, as women find themselves cooped up with their abusers 24/7. Domestic violence reports have more than doubled in some countries, with horrific cases of women being tortured and beaten to death in Iraq, Latin America, India and elsewhere.
Gender violence was already at crisis levels before the coronavirus outbreak, with nearly one in five women worldwide experiencing violence in the past year. The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa coincided with a significant increase in sexual abuse against women and children. Ebola also led to a spike in maternity deaths as health care resources were diverted away from pregnancies.
About 20 percent of Iraqi women experience domestic violence, with 36 percent of married women reporting psychological abuse from husbands. Nevertheless, domestic violence is underreported, with so-called honor killings frequently logged as suicides. Lebanese women’s protection organizations are reporting exceptionally high volumes of calls.
Women in impoverished nations, refugee camps and conflict zones are the most vulnerable; living in crowded conditions and with minimal access to health care or clean water. Indeed, the UN is warning of famines of “biblical proportions” due to the pandemic’s economic fallout, potentially pushing hundreds of millions of people throughout the developing world to the brink of starvation and possibly killing far more than the virus itself.
Although the Arab world is behind much of the rest of the world in terms of female participation in the medical workforce, the Gulf Cooperation Council states are catching up rapidly. Female medical students frequently outnumber their male counterparts, with Saudi universities pumping out thousands of exceptional women medical graduates every year.
Women constitute 70 percent of the worldwide health workforce, but only 25 percent of leadership positions. COVID-19 crisis teams are almost exclusively men — disqualifying the best talents and marginalizing the viewpoints of half the population. Will nurses and care workers continue to be among the worst-paid segments of the workforce after the pandemic is over?
Coronavirus isn’t just a temporary respite from the usual “masculine” business of politics. We may be entering an age of pandemics, where environmental and biological threats irreversibly transform our way of life, giving rise to challenges of famines, mass immigration, state collapse, exacerbated conflict for resources and, of course, gender violence.
Given their proven record of success, we must ensure that women are properly represented at the highest levels in confronting this tsunami of 21st-century strategic threats.
Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Coronavirus failures a reminder of EU’s shortcomings
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/April 26/2020
The question of whether the global importance of the EU is in decline has been on the agenda for years. Individual members of the EU will continue to play their role in world politics, but the emergence of China — with its population three times the size of the entire European bloc — will have a greater impact on the global economy, science and politics. We may call this the new reality of the world, rather than the decline of the EU.
Three recent events have brought the EU’s performance back on to the agenda. One was the EU’s performance during the Syrian refugee crisis, in which it fell short of fulfilling its promises. Second was Brexit and third is the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Brexit put the first stain on the EU’s attractiveness. In the early 1970s, when the UK applied for membership of the European Economic Community, as it was known at the time, dissenting voices — including from Labour Member of Parliament Peter Shore — opposed the idea on the grounds that the decision-making prerogative over British citizens should not be shared with the parliaments of other countries.
One of the EU’s features that acts as a burden is its voting system. The main rule was unanimity. But, as more countries with smaller populations joined the organization, reaching a unanimous consensus on all subjects became more difficult. Unanimity meant, in practice, that a country like Germany with more than 83 million inhabitants had the same voting weight as Malta, whose population is less than half a million. As a result, the number of areas subjected to the unanimity rule was gradually reduced. They include, at present, sensitive subjects such as taxation, social security or social protection, the accession of new countries, foreign and common defense policy, and operational police cooperation between the member states.
Italy’s early, urgent request for help fell on deaf ears in almost all EU countries.
In 2014, the unanimity rule was smoothed over by the introduction of the qualified majority rule. It is a complicated method, but it is worth examining how difficult it is to combine the sovereign rights of member states with reality. The qualified majority rule requires that any proposal has to come from either the European Commission or the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. Furthermore, the following two conditions have to be met at the same time: 55 percent of member countries should vote in favor and the decision should be supported by nations representing at least 65 percent of the total EU population. If the proposal instead comes from the member states, the rules are slightly different. More stringent criteria have to be met in this case: At least 72 percent of countries in favor, as well as 65 percent of the population.
As if this was not complicated enough, the EU constitution also provides for a mechanism to counter what is known as a blocking minority. This is a measure to protect the majority of countries from the domination of fellow members with large populations. The blocking minority rules require that at least four countries should vote against a proposal for it to be rejected. There are other rules that make the voting procedure even more complicated, but there is no need to go into such details.
There is also the bargaining among member states on the nationality of candidates filling important positions in the EU decision-making mechanisms. Should they be German or French? Should they belong to the European People’s Party bloc or to the socialist bloc? Sometimes, additional criteria such as gender equality also have to be observed.
When all these criteria are taken into account, the EU’s performance and its effectiveness in the world arena is negatively affected. We have observed this lack of effectiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The performance has varied from one country to another. Germany has been one of the best performers in the world, while Italy and Spain are among the worst. But, as a whole, the pandemic has been the first serious test of the solidarity among EU member states — and the bloc failed in this regard.
Italy’s early, urgent request for help fell on deaf ears in almost all EU countries. This may be due to the lack of emergency planning for such circumstances. Despite this, the member nations should have demonstrated more solidarity. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, made an apologetic public statement recognizing the EU’s failure to rush to help a member country. But one swallow does not make a summer.
*Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar

Coronavirus: US-Iran tension is just one example of rising temperatures around the world
Raghida Dergham/The National/April 26/2020
راغدة درغام: جائحة الكورونا فيرس ومن خلال التوتر والتصعيد الأميركي-الإيراني تعطى مثالاً على وضعية السخونة الدولية
Uncertainty within national borders is leading to diplomatic friction between countries
Even as the coronavirus-infected world has witnessed numerous examples of collaboration and co-operation between individuals, organisations and nations, there are also worrying signs of confrontation between key actors in the region and on the global stage.
The recent escalation in US-Iran tensions in the Gulf waters is an important example. Incidents of Iranian gunboats harassing American warships, which have prompted a stern warning from US President Donald Trump, are related to several factors. They include the recent collapse in oil prices, the US presidential election in November and the holy month of Ramadan.
Indeed, some Iranian leaders see Ramadan as an opportunity to mobilise public support for the regime in Tehran, especially if Mr Trump delivers on his threat to "destroy" any of their gunboats. They are probably also hoping that the escalation will lead to an increase in oil prices, which should presumably benefit oil-producing countries such as theirs, while dragging Mr Trump into a military confrontation that could prove costly in an election year.
Members of Iranian Red Crescent test people with possible coronavirus Covid-19 symptoms, as police blocked Tehran to Alborz highway to check every car following ordered by the Iranian government, outside Tehran. AFP
A confrontation is being "cooked up in Tehran" right now, I have reliably been informed, with the purpose of deflecting internal social pressures. Ordinary Iranians are said to be preparing for what is likely to be "a difficult post-Ramadan phase” because of the punishing effect of the coronavirus pandemic on an economy already battered by US-led sanctions.
Having concluded that Covid-19 will not lead to an end to American sanctions or the implementation of the European mechanism for circumventing those sanctions, the regime has seemingly opted to rely on military confrontation. According to reports, Iran could target tankers in the Gulf in the coming week.
It would therefore be foolhardy to expect the regime to reconsider its expansionary policies in the region. A visit to Damascus by Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week has only re-affirmed Tehran's support for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's regime.
That meeting received negative coverage in the Russian media, with Moscow being a key ally of Damascus. However, Iran and Russia have since renewed their pledge to co-operate in the war-torn country. It has also been reliably learnt that Russia – which is currently wrestling with the pandemic and the oil shock – will resume its support for the Assad regime over a new offensive in the north-western province of Idlib, parts of which are still held by rebels.
Russia is indeed reeling as a result of the virus – primarily because of the oil prices. Last week, the former deputy foreign minister Dr Andrei Fedorov had correctly predicted in this column that prices would crash below zero. His view was that this crisis is troubling for Russia, which lacks the economic resilience that Saudi Arabia, for instance, enjoys. “We are on the verge of an economic crisis that will last for at least two years," Dr Andrei Fedorov said.
These days, there is concern among many governments – particularly the Trump administration – that the crisis could lead to social unrest, uprisings and protests, many of which have already begun in the virtual sphere. The growth of these protests is likely to encourage leaders to ease lockdowns, which exacerbate unemployment levels and stoke feelings of restlessness.
This has put a tremendous amount of pressure on the administration, with the US having become the eye of the storm in recent weeks; the death toll just passed the 50,000 mark this week. The current oil prices could well bankrupt major American oil companies and crash the strategic hydrocarbon sector, which could also have negative implications for Mr Trump’s election chances – although a second term is still within reach for the President.
The US-China relations could prove to be a key factor in the presidential election. The opposition Democratic Party has accused Mr Trump of excessively blaming Beijing for the sake of electoral calculations. But the fact that Germany, the UK, France and other European nations are also holding China partly responsible for the spread of the virus has made it look weak.
On the other hand, the Trump-led Republican Party supports the idea of confronting China, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's allegation that the virus originated in a Chinese lab receiving support within the party. All this is unlikely to bode well for Beijing’s reputation. And even though there are signs of an economic revival in China, authorities recently had to shut down the city of Harbin. All eyes will therefore be on the outcome of the Communist Party Central Committee meeting in the coming weeks, with speculation that Beijing could suspend projects under its Belt and Road Initiative.
It is important to point out that leaders and followers all over the world have been left anxious by the terrible tempest unleashed by this virus. And the problem is that there is little to indicate that tensions – be they military, economic or social in nature – will recede quickly in the post-coronavirus world.
*Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute

Amid Civilization Tensions… Let Us Benefit From Coronavirus
Zuhair Al-Harthi/Asharq Al Awsat/April 26/2020
With the spread of the coronavirus and the pain, turmoil and terror that has gripped the world, it seems that people’s issues and their worries, wars, problems, disagreements and crises have become minor trivialities, meaningless in the face of the matter of life and death. Many deep questions are being posed about the manners in which we deal with one another, and the divisions, delusions and barriers that we have placed between ourselves as humans. Human sorrow has pervaded the planet Earth, and a frightening tremor was left behind by the plight caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Like one who has woken up from a long coma to realize his feebleness and the fact that everything he has done is worthless and of no value when compared to human dignity, the value of life and the reality of existence; here lies the value of consciousness.
The world has always suffered from the scourges of war, conflict, poverty, hunger, disease and the scarcity of resources. Over the past two decades, terrorism has been the major enemy, destroyed nations and peoples without differentiating between religions or people.
However, the new and novel invisible enemy differs from its predecessor, emerging suddenly without any introductions. Thus, the world faces something more vicious and dangerous today, a stubborn virus that moves and spreads dexterously with the aim of killing, nothing but killing.
Among the most important lessons from the coronavirus is the desire that it instils in all of us to change the status quo in our world and to rid ourselves of the images of disgraceful, contradictory and painful scenes committed in the name of untenable causes. Is it possible for a virus with this terrifying image to change the equation, break the barriers of stereotypical images, push us in the directions of furthering dialogue and togetherness, and rooting out racism and the clashes of civilizations and cultures. The cacophonous voices of extremism make themselves heard to us every now and then; the principle of coexistence does not concern them in the least, entrenching their grudge against humanity, which is the same for ISIS members and right-wing chauvinist deputies in the Dutch or French parliaments. The light of moderation, tolerance and coexistence dims, while the doors of sensationalism, collision and societal rupture open. A strong presence of these voices of extremism leads to the eruption of ideological war of extremist orientations, leading to the loss of the key of communication, which may explain our contemporary interest in the relationship between religions and the issue of religious tensions.
These racists reiterate that their behavior falls within the context of freedom of opinion; however, while everyone agrees on the necessity of freedom of speech, the degree of freedom that should be allowed is ambiguous; does it have lines that should not be crossed?
True, this is a controversial issue, but the kinds of provocative steps that some people are taking, the likes the right-wing chauvinist deputy in the Dutch parliament, Geert Wilders, who is known for his Islamophobia and others positions, push in the direction of the entrainment of and incitement to hatred and discrimination, maintaining our world's vulnerability to racial and religious conflict; this is especially true for the issues of debasing religions and attacking religious symbols.
The circumstances that the Islamic world is undergoing presents those who profess their faith in Islam with opportunities to mislead others, to exploit the critical situation, terrorist attacks that were previously carried out in Islamic countries or those that targeted Western countries; those crimes showed us that there really is a disturbing civilizational clash, a psychological war which researchers consider more dangerous than conventional warfare.
Ideology and intellectual pluralism are natural and needed, and they enrich societal transformation. However, the danger lies in the adherents of an ideology turning into extremists, regardless of the ideology they hold, and this is evidenced by their mutual insistence on possessing the ultimate truth. In this, the ISIS adherent and the Dutch MP are equivalent, meaning that they are both hostages to their ideology, and their minds are thus kidnapped, leading them to reject reality.
This applies to every movement or ideology that had left its orbit and gone too far. Of course, this does not necessarily lead to the use of violence in so much as conviction in this ideology leads its adherents to believe that others are always wrong and that he embodies rightness itself. So, each of their discourses aspire to the same goal, walking the same path and consecrating his opinion, according to his perception, of course. Thus, it is noticeable that despite the variances in the content of their rhetoric and its contents, there is a single goal and one behavior: lack of acceptance of the other. The coronavirus certainly has a hideous and oppressive side, but it is naturally also not free of positive aspects if we were to employ it in the generalized humanitarian reconciliation. This applies to crises and disasters generally. We have an opportunity to live under different circumstances and to benefit and learn from it, with the wise people of the world, including clerics, thinkers, scholars and elites, confronting religious fanaticism through a dialogue aimed at establishing an explicit agreement on respect for belief and coexistence. The suffering ensuing from coronavirus makes us dream of a new world that has a culture of tolerance, coexistence and peace, especially in this delicate circumstance the world is going through. This makes dialogue and rapprochement between its peoples more urgent than any that had been in any period of humanity's history.

Who is Fiddling with Whom: Us or COVID-19?
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/April 26/2020
As COVID-19 pandemic threatens the whole world, unrelated confrontations are being waged with scant regard to the common efforts and accelerated research aimed at finding vaccines and treatments. Indeed, as if human suffering is not enough, and economic collapse is debatable, there are some who want to go along the path of the blame game, sowing doubts and cover-up attempts here and there.
Personally, I believe that the final say must be left to scientists, because politicians and economic and financial pressure groups have dominated the arena long enough, and gained undeserved influence. Thus, until we see the end of this pandemic, it is time they leave this arena and allow the people of science and conscience to take over.
Today, while politicians talk, outbid each other and try to hide their mistakes and negligence, scientists and physicians from all over the world are diligently and silently working in their labs and hospitals to save the lives of millions.
Mass graves in New York are beyond comments, as are surrealistic the scenes of a deserted Champs-Elysees in Paris and the deafening silence of London as it lives under a depressing curfew. In the east as in the west, and in Asia as in Africa and the Americas, there is no discrimination before the sweeping pandemic.
Losses in every sector in all industrialized countries have reached billions of US dollars, equaled almost only by the relief aid and compensations. This is all happening as more and more questions are being asked about how long the world will endure lockdowns, the long-term probable repercussions and how societies are going to emerge after this difficult human experience.
What I mean to say is that the pandemic-created crisis is far more serious than reciprocated spitefulness and point-scoring; and let’s begin where the pandemic originated: China.
I am the last to regard the Chinese regime as an ideal global model of governance. Whether, looking at China’s size, the nature of its society, political thought or value system, I do not believe its regime can be attractive to those who value individual freedoms, human rights and political diversity. On the issue of transparency, in particular, I can easily understand why many continuously doubt the official Chinese figures of COVID-19 cases, fatalities and recoveries. I am also familiar with the negativities of coercion which is one of the common features of many oriental, as well as western societies.
Furthermore, I am well aware that significant part of “communist” China’s political identity is the transformation from a rural to a sophisticated militaristic-totalitarian society that regards most of the principles of western democracy alien and totally unrelated to Chinese heritage.
However, this giant of a nation, now emerging from a long hibernation, seems to be in a hurry to play a long overdue and deserved global role. Yet, here one has to say that those who still regard China and Russia as the supporters of the underdogs in the world, and only act according to socialist ideals must look again. Consider the vetoes by both countries at the UN Security Council throughout the Syrian tragedy since 2011. True, Russia has been in the forefront, but China was working in unison with the Russians in backing the Assad regime against the uprising of the Syrian people. The same can be said about the support both Beijing and Moscow have been giving to the theocratic and despotic Iranian regime, while claiming that they were leading the fight against terrorism and religious extremism.
On the other hand, I do appreciate that China’s ascendency is worrying to its competitors among world powers. This means that, within the context of competition for global influence, “friendships” become a flimsy tactical expression whose “truth” varies from one place to another.
Russia and China have many common interests in several world regions against a common enemy: America. But also, the Americans and Russians have common goals and interests against the Chinese in others regions and fields. Thus, the “Big three” are not really “allies”, but rather competitors in varying degrees based on national interests. A good example would be how President Donald Trump has been hammering home his message that “China, not Russia, poses the greatest threat to America”, even during the thick of the Democrats’ accusations that Russia had interfered in the US election to ensure his victory.
Trump, who practices politics like a speculator in a continuous election campaign, is now fighting a direct “war” against China. In this “war”, he is backed by a broad spectrum of rightwing parties, groups, politicians and media; more so, he intensified his rhetoric during an election year in which COVID-19 may prove to be a highly influential factor.
To begin with, Trump called COVID-19 “the Chinese epidemic”, although no body – as far as I recall – had ever called AIDS “the American virus” or the “African virus”.
Secondly, the US president has started a fight against the director general of WHO (the World Health Organization). Trump is now accusing him of being pro-China, and colluding with the Chinese in their “suppression of early information” about COVID-19. However, while it may be true that the WHO’s boss - a former African foreign minister – has his well-known political conviction, he remains a director of an international organization that includes senior officials and experts from all over the world. Moreover, one of the director general’s top advisors and assistants is a prominent American public health expert.
Thirdly, it is true that China was one month late in informing the international community of the discovery of the COVID-19 last December; noting that by then even the Chinese did not know much about its nature. But it is also true, that the countries of Western Europe and the US knew enough about the virus since last January, but took the matter lightly and did not impose distancing and lockdowns except when thing got out of hand. As for Trump, he would not have acted had it not for the escalating number of cases and fatalities, and the courage of some of his publicly dissenting advisors, like Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Finally, in these dire times, what the world badly needs now is unity, solidarity and goodwill. It also has to keep international cooperation and international organizations far from the whims of political populism. This means keeping WHO outside the blame game is more than vital, as the world braces itself for the virus spreading further into large, poor and densely populated areas of the world.
It is more than enough to boycott the UNESCO, ignore the UN Security Council’s resolutions, and overuse the veto; so there is no need to turn the killer pandemic too into a political toy.
The peoples of the world, after this pandemic, badly need to be surrounded by more fairness, more sympathy, more truthfulness and more humanity.

America: Responses to Tyranny
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/April 26/2020
America has handed China hundreds of billions of dollars every year to buy cheap goods, watched American firms ship their jobs and factories to China, and provided the Chinese with the means to create technology that threatens to eclipse our future. In the meantime, the money we sent there is allowing the Chinese to grow their nuclear arsenal and strengthen their military. In return, China has shipped us Covid-19.
But the people of the United States are beginning to catch on to the Chinese ploy of using our money to buy their global dominance.
We need to suspend imports from Civilization Abusers and all enemies of democracy. We need to become and remain self- sufficient – from technology to medical supplies -- so that we are never again dependent on nations that would seek to destroy us.
A national poll finds the vast majority of Americans no longer trust Beijing. Photo of Wuhan, China, where the Covid-19 virus originated.
The United States needs to stop playing the chump.
For generations America has fattened up the very nations that would seek to destroy us.
Prior to Tokyo's attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans bought Japanese goods, helping pay for the bombs and torpedoes that would sink the American fleet at anchor on December 7th, 1941. Japan's sneak attack would be paid back with two nuclear strikes on Japanese cities four years later.Our addiction to Middle East oil helped fund the terrorists who would hijack airliners, turning them into flying missiles on the morning of September 11th. Our nation's smart use of fracking to access enormous reserves of oil hidden under our own feet finally broke that stranglehold.
Despite these hard won lessons, over the last twenty years America has handed China hundreds of billions of dollars every year to buy cheap goods, watched American firms ship their jobs and factories to China, and provided the Chinese with the means to create technology that threatens to eclipse our future. In the meantime, the money we sent there is allowing the Chinese to grow their nuclear arsenal and strengthen their military. In return, China has shipped us Covid-19.
But the people of the United States are beginning to catch on to the Chinese ploy of using our money to buy their global dominance. A national poll finds the vast majority of Americans no longer trust Beijing. Seventy percent (70%) think the Chinese kept their Coronavirus data a secret from international healthcare professionals. In addition, 6 of 10 voters, or 59%, agree "As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, America should withdraw its manufacturing presence from China". One-third of all voters, 31%, "strongly agree" with this statement. Only 10% "strongly disagree
What this means is that Covid-19 has alerted Americans to the threat that faces our nation and our economic recovery. We need to suspend imports from Civilization Abusers and all enemies of democracy. We need to become and remain self- sufficient – from technology to medical supplies -- so that we are never again dependent on nations that would seek to destroy us.
It is time to stop playing the chump.
*Lawrence Kadish is a real estate developer, entrepreneur, and founder and president of the Museum of American Armor.
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Iran’s gamble of military provocations for concessions is not working on Trump
Michael Pregent/Al Arabiya/April 26/2020
Iran’s recent military provocations against the US and its western allies in the Gulf are straight out of Tehran’s old strategic playbook: provocations for concessions, and military adventurism designed to prop up the regime’s image at home while deliberately stopping short of an escalation that would lead to a devastating response from the US and its allies.
But even after the US killed its most senior commander Qassem Soleimani in January, the regime in Tehran still doesn’t seem to understand that the rules of the game are changing.
In the past week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy have harassed US Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, its militias in Iraq have threatened to attack US bases, and the government launched a military satellite using ballistic technology that is tied to its weapons program.
A closer look at these provocations reveal that the regime wants to look strong in confronting the US, while at the same time making sure that it is not presenting a serious military threat that would require an allied response.
An inspection of the maritime harassments show that the Iranian gunboats have men in bright orange vests manning weapons that are clearly in the safe position – the non-threatening “cleared position” – with their muzzles up and no ammunition feed into the heavy machine guns. This is a very limited threat to America’s naval presence in the Gulf, and pales in comparison to the threat from Iran’s shore-based Chinese Silkworm missiles – an option that if used, would escalate the confrontation significantly.
The regime seeks to look powerful to its supporters in Iran while hoping the US doesn’t give lie to this propaganda by taking military action. The regime hopes that by showing the US that its gunboats are not a serious threat, America will not conduct military strikes against sites tied to the unpopular regime and its revolutionary guards.
Likewise, the use of proxy militias – and degrees of separation – to attack American and allied forces in the region is a time-proven tactic that has enabled the Iranian regime to direct an attack while keeping enough distance to be held accountable.
But this playbook is not working on US President Donald Trump, who has only tightened the noose of sanctions on Iran, its proxies and leaders. Iran’s militias in Iraq now pose a threat to Iran itself because there is now the real threat of the US hitting military sites tied to the unpopular regime.
After the killing of Soleimani, world powers called for “de-escalation” of the conflict, but this is being repeatedly tested once again by Tehran. The regime and its proxy militias in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah, conducted a rocket attack killing two Americans and one British soldier and injuring 14 others on March 12th. The US responded by kitting Kataib Hezbollah positions in Iraq, but Iran did not pay a price.
On April 22nd, the US president authorized the Navy to “shoot down and destroy” Iran’s harassing gunboats in the future following an April 1st warning – no April Fool’s joke here – that the regime would pay a price for any militia attack in Iraq.
President Trump warned Iran against attacking the US diplomatic mission in Iraq with its proxies and stated that US Intelligence had “very good information” that Iran was planning to have its militias attack American bases in Iraq.
Iran was hoping its provocations might cause enough nuisance that western powers would grant sanctions relief on the grounds of the coronavirus pandemic. But instead, Iran faces the real threat of an American military response. This is Iran’s gamble, and Trump is calling the regime’s bluff. Sanctions relief is not coming, and a military response is more likely if Iran does not head Trump’s warnings.
The Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Hyten stated “Iran has the ability, once again, to threaten their neighbors, our allies. And we want to make sure that they can never threaten the United States. So we watch that very carefully."
The only real military threat that Iran poses to America and its regional allies is an all-out attack on the US Navy and our regional allies by missiles and drones. That’s a risk the regime cannot take and literally cannot afford because it would provoke an overwhelming response with unpredictable consequences that could lead to the end of the regime.
*Michael Pregent is a former intelligence officer in Iraq and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.

US-Iran war unlikely amid coronavirus – but nuclear program always a risk
Ryan Bohl/Al ArabiyaApril 26/2020
Tensions are rising between the United States and Iran, but war is still unlikely – especially as the coronavirus pandemic gives both countries increasingly dire domestic problems to manage. If the tensions do escalate into a regional conflict, it will likely be as a result of miscalculations or mistakes rather than deliberate strategy – and only then if the miscalculations are lethal enough to compel a cycle of retaliation and violence.
While American war threats and Iranian harassment tactics serve as useful distractions from the domestic problems caused by COVID-19, neither power has a core desire for major conflict. However, Iran’s nuclear program is always lurking. If the Iranians continue to advance the program, eventually they will trigger a major regional conflict, pandemic or not.
COVID-19 is siphoning the limited political and social energy in both countries for further serious escalation. That was already evident in the most recent cycle of Iran-US confrontation back in March. On March 12, US forces launched airstrikes on Iran’s Iraqi proxy, Kata’ib Hezbollah, for a rocket attack that killed two US service members and one UK soldier.
But rather than repeating the cycle of escalation that happened in late December and early January – when the US assassinated senior Iranian commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, prompting Iran to launch a cruise missile attack on the al-Assad airbase – this time the US conducted proportional strikes on Kata’ib Hezbollah targets. Iran did not retaliate, and Kata’ib Hezbollah, taking its cue from its patron, avoided escalation.
This was because by mid-March, both Iran and the US were coming to grips with the massive impact of COVID-19 on their societies and economies, adding to pre-existing inclinations to avoid a major war. Now the two are entering a phase of increasingly compartmentalized competition and conflict.
Iraq is the clearest proxy theater that will continue to see cycles of violence as Iranian proxies harass US forces and US forces respond. But it is clear that both sides want to keep that confrontation confined to Iraq and limited to tit-for-tat exchanges.
In the Arabian Gulf, the site of the most recent rhetorical confrontation between Iran and the US (when President Donald Trump threatened to destroy Iranian ships that harassed US naval vessels), the situation remains similarly contained, with a less likely path to escalation than Iraq.
Iran faces a huge military disadvantage against the US Navy, and so Iranian provocation will be likely designed to increase tension rather than intentionally strike US ships, as Tehran knows that the US is capable of rapidly gutting much of the Iranian navy – as it did in 1988’s Operation Praying Mantis.
Moreover, it is in Iran’s interests to avoid being seen as the aggressor in the Gulf, which would likely undermine Tehran’s efforts to bring in international aid for its COVID-19 crisis, exposing the regime to domestic criticism that its hardline tactics are imposing yet more suffering on the Iranian people and eroding even more legitimacy from the Islamic Republic. These two factors mean that Tehran is not in a position to risk humanitarian corridors in exchange for near-suicidal attacks on the US Navy.
For that matter, the US is increasingly turning to a strategy of sanctions first, military retaliation second. That’s because Iran’s sanctions barely register in the US public, giving the president wide leeway to continue that strategy.
Meanwhile, Americans have consistently shown a willingness to support presidents who retaliate to provocations, meaning that it’s very likely that future harassment will be met with a US response. But that response will also be limited by politics: few Americans in 2020 want to see the country embroiled in another major Middle Eastern war as they come to terms with what the pandemic has done to their economy and society.
With these considerable constraints in place, there are only two viable paths to major conflict: the path of mistakes and the path of further Iran nuclear enrichment. As Iran and the US settle into compartmentalized confrontation and limited harassment, they both nevertheless risk skirmishes that can rapidly explode into something more notable.
The January 8 attack on Al-Assad airbase did not appear designed to cause mass casualties – but even precision weapons sometimes miss their targets. Should another round like that occur, it could result in enough deaths that provoke the Americans into a more robust response. For that matter, the US could decide to retaliate on a scale that provokes the Iranians or their allies into a more dangerous response – such as the assassination of Soleimini and Kata’ib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in January.
President Trump, looking for temporary distractions from COVID-19, has a record of risky gambles, and so it cannot be ruled out Washington provokes a confrontation with Iran that then spirals out of its control.
The second, more likely path to war remains Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. It is widely agreed that if Iran will be able to breakout and develop a nuclear weapon if it enriches more than 20 percent the highly enriched uranium in its stockpile. If Iran decides to enrich past this threshold, tensions will ratchet up and make a major conflict more likely.
This potential war would not only include the US but also Israel, which has now emerged with a nationalist unity government that has openly broadcast its intent to attack Iran should it move toward a nuclear weapon. A war between Israel and Iran remains capable of bringing in the US, not just because of the US-Israeli alliance but also because even in an election year Israel’s security will be paramount to many American voters.
COVID-19 will continue to slow the drive to war, but won’t completely end it. As 2020 unfolds, the potential of a major regional conflict between the US and Iran remains possible.
*Ryan Bohl is a Middle East and North Africa analyst at Stratfor. He holds a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in education from Arizona State University, where he studied Middle Eastern history and education.

Gulf companies should stop hiding away from discussing coronavirus impact
Oliver Schutzmann/Al Arabiya/April 26/2020
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed a major divergence between companies in the Arabian Gulf and their peers around the world, and the divergence is about their appetite to discuss the impact of coronavirus.
While some sectors have been ordered to take emergency action – airlines grounded, restaurants closed and large firms suspending dividends and buybacks in some markets – the extent to which companies disclose and report the impact of the pandemic on their business is not mandated by any exchange or regulator. Some regulators have even encouraged listed companies to delay the publication of their first quarter results by giving them a reporting extension. Companies are free to choose how much – or how little – they wish to reveal about the impact of COVID-19 on their business.
This has led to a wide variety of responses from listed companies in terms of how they communicate with their investors. With a few honorable exceptions, GCC companies have not performed well when compared to their global peers.
While the majority of companies in North America, Asia and Europe have posted COVID-19 updates on their websites, many GCC firms are silent on the issue. Where many western firms are filing regulatory updates on the financial and business impact of the crisis, the GCC’s regulatory filings adopt a business-as-usual tone: upbeat press releases, calendar announcements of AGMs and dividend payments.
A case in point is Qatar National Bank, by some measures the largest bank in the region. Coronavirus is not mentioned once in its latest results presentation. Its first quarter 2020 results press release, dated April 12 (the day that global deaths from the virus passed 100,000) mentions the pandemic fleetingly, saying merely:
“Thanks to QNB Group’s robust risk management practices, the first quarter results of QNB Group were not materially impacted by the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. QNB Group has taken all the necessary actions to protect the well-being of its employees, customers and shareholders.”
Compare that to the opening sentence of Jamie Dimon’s letter to shareholders last week, as he announced a sharp fall in profits at JP Morgan:
“As we prepare this year’s annual letter to shareholders, the world is confronting one of the greatest health threats of a generation, one that profoundly impacts the global economy and all of its citizens.”
The somber tone leaves his audience in no doubt: these are not normal times, and results should be viewed accordingly.
Another good example is Emirates NBD, the UAE bank, that discussed the impact and its response to COVID-19 in an earnings call with investors and analysts that lasted no less than an hour and 40 minutes. The bank covered in a lot of detail how it protects its assets, how it approaches provisioning amidst the crisis and answered around 40 questions from analysts and investors. Importantly, the bank continued to provide its guidance, albeit with caveats that it is still too early to estimate the trajectory of non-performing loans.
With forecasts painting an increasingly bleak outlook for industry and commerce, all stakeholders – including investors, customers, staff and suppliers – are well aware that companies are under stress. To remain silent on the issue is to do them a disservice.
As the first quarter earnings season gathers steam, some difficult questions must be asked in the region’s boardrooms: How accurately can we predict the impact of the crisis on our business? What have we done so far to protect our customers, people and stakeholders? Should we be doing more? What will be the cost of doing the right thing?
The debate in developed markets has already moved on from “how much should we disclose?” to “how much pain can we take?”
This silence from the region’s private sector on the biggest challenge facing humanity for a generation is baffling. GCC firms are going to be hit by the economic impact of the virus, the same as all companies around the world. But for Gulf firms the impact from the pandemic will be joined by a hit from the current tumult in the oil markets. Public and private sectors in the oil-producing nations of the Gulf are facing massive disruption to business as usual from two fronts. Only you wouldn’t know it from their financial reports and investor relations.
And this leaves investors to draw their own conclusions, which they must draw from alternative sources. Oil price down by 50 percent? How much of a revenue drop should we pencil in? Economies in lockdown? Let’s use the same metrics that show Europe’s economy will go into deep recession and apply them to the GCC.
The point is that without guidance and insight from companies, investors will rely on alternative sources to inform their investment decisions, and these sources are never as accurate or as trusted as the companies themselves.
Earnings announcements have continued as the virus rages, but clearly this is not a business-as-usual cycle. Bank of America’s first quarter earnings presentation opens with the actions taken by the bank to help and protect its staff, customers and communities; it details the donations made to charities and community causes. The first slide in JP Morgan’s earnings presentation is titled “Here to Help: Our Response to COVID-19.” One in four CEOs of FTSE 100 companies have taken pay and bonus cuts. Large banks have suspended dividends and share buybacks.
The momentum is for listed companies to show solidarity with their stressed stakeholders through their actions, then to disclose these actions. There really is a growing sense that ‘we are all in this together.’
And markets have been forgiving, indicating that they will reward truth with trust. This is a lesson that corporates in the GCC region should heed quickly because, after the crisis has passed, a judgement will await on corporate conduct and many in this region could be found wanting.