English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 29/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 17/20-37/:”Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’Then he said to the disciples, ‘The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, “Look there!” or “Look here!” Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.’Then they asked him, ‘Where, Lord?’ He said to them, ‘Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 28-29/2020
Hariri Hospital: Three new Covid-19 cases recorded today, one recovery
Lebanon Records Seven New Coronavirus Cases
Cabinet convenes in regular session, approves four immediate measures to combat corruption
Banks burn as Lebanon's Tripoli rises up in hunger
Clashes in impoverished Lebanese city as crisis deepens
Anti-government protests turn violent in Lebanon, demonstrator killed
Central Beirut Protests Witness Minor Rioting and Confrontations
Lebanon: Protester Killed During Unrest in Tripoli
Hundreds Take Part in Funeral of Man Killed in Lebanon Riots
Lebanon's c. bank governor not solely responsible for crisis: Hezbollah deputy
Aoun, Kubis Discuss Israeli Violations
U.N. Coordinator Warns Lebanese Leaders against 'Settling of Scores'
U.S. Ambassador Meets Diab, Says 'Incidents of Violence' Deeply Concerning
U.S. Ambassador Meets Diab, Says 'Incidents of Violence' Deeply Concerning
Diab Warns of 'Political Exploitation' of Protests, 'Intentions to Shake Security'
Lebanon: Diab’s Criticism of Religious Authorities Sparks Maronite Resentment
Army denies rumors relevant to LAF Commander’s upcoming moves should situation remain unchanged
Paris flight carrying 88 Lebanese lands in Beirut
In Between Life and Death/Joseph Bahout/Carnegie MEC/April 28/2020
Lebanon must address policy, not politics, to move forward/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Al Arabiya/April 28/2020
The Bisri water project highlights Lebanon's ‘dammed’ political class/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/April 28/2020
Coronavirus heightens mental health crisis in Lebanon's claustrophobic Palestinian refugee camps/Finbar Anderson/The New Arab/April 28/2020
Lebanon War Vets Find Solace in Facebook Group During Pandemic/Tara Kavaler/The Media/April 28/2020
Lebanon has legalised cannabis growing, but its political class are muscling in on small farmers/Mat Nashed/The New Arab/April 28/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 28-29/2020
Fuel truck bomb kills at least 40 people in Turkish area of northern Syria/Thomas Seibert/The Arab Weekly/April 28/2020
US Boosts Efforts to ‘Unite Kurds’ in Eastern Euphrates/Qamishli- Kamal Shaikho/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Palestinian Stabs Israeli Woman, Shot by Bystander/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Shtayyeh: We Are Entering A New Phase With Israel/Ramallah - Kifah Zaboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Burhan, Pompeo Discuss Sudan’s Removal from US Terror List/Khartoum – Ahmed Yassin/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Haftar Accepts ‘Popular Mandate’ to Rule Libya/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Iraqi Official: ISIS Attack on Intelligence Bureau Wounds 3 Security Personnel/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Pompeo seeking to 'revive' Obama's nuclear deal but only to justify renewing sanctions on Iran/The New Arab//Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Iran's Coronavirus Death Toll Reaches 5,877/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Putin pressuring Assad to show 'more flexibility' in opposition talks/The New Arab/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Coronavirus latest: US reports one million cases/The National/April 28/2020

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 28-29/2020
The Infection That’s Silently Killing Coronavirus Patients/Richard Levitan/Asharq Al-Awsat/April 28/2020
The US Isn’t Actually Doing So Badly Against Coronavirus/Ramesh Ponnuru/Asharq Al-Awsat/April 28/2020
Coronavirus: China's Global Intimidation Campaign/The European Union Self-Censors to Appease China/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/April 28/2020
Iran: Mullahs Using Coronavirus to Heighten Anti-Americanism/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/April 28/2020
Iran's Khamenei faces new struggles as he celebrates 81st birthday/Jason M.BrodskyLjerusalem Post/April 28/2020
Camel Urine: Islam’s “Best Cure” for Coronavirus?/Raymond Ibrahim/April 28/2020
COVID-19 and (IAEA) the International Atomic Energy Agency: Where does the Iran mission stand?/Andrea Stricker/Jacob Nagel/FDD/April 28/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 28-29/2020
Hariri Hospital: Three new Covid-19 cases recorded today, one recovery
NNA/April 28/2020
In its daily report on the latest developments of the novel Coronavirus, the Rafic Hariri University Hospital announced on Tuesday that out of 294 laboratory tests conducted today, three new Covid-19 cases have been recorded, while the remaining 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 4 cases, noting that it has admitted 4 cases suspected to be infected with the virus, who were transferred from other hospitals. Meanwhile, the hospital report also indicated that one infected case has recovered today after her PCR examination tests turned out negative in both times, thus bringing the total number of full recoveries to 123 cases. “All those infected with the virus are receiving the necessary care in the isolation unit, and their condition is stable.”In conclusion, the Hariri Hospital indicated that more information on the number of infected cases on all Lebanese territories can be found in the daily report issued by the Ministry of Public Health.

Lebanon Records Seven New Coronavirus Cases
Naharnet/April 28/2020
Lebanon recorded seven new cases of coronavirus raising the total number to 717 since the outbreak of the virus on February 21, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The Ministry’s daily report said that 1499 tests were conducted for residents, and 13 for Lebanese expats repatriated home recently in the last 24 hours. The death toll stands at 24 fatalities. Lebanon began a five-stage gradual plan on Monday to ease the government-imposed general mobilization measures.

Cabinet convenes in regular session, approves four immediate measures to combat corruption
NNA/April 28/2020
The Council of Ministers convened in a regular session held today at the Grand Serail, chaired by Prime Minister Hassan Diab. The Cabinet discussed meeting agenda and took the following decisions:
In the context of conducting investigations to determine bank accounts from which financial transfers were made, the Ministry of Finance was mandated with the task of requesting the Central Bank to prepare lists that include the following:
1- Total amounts transferred abroad as of 1/1/2019 to date, determining the percentage the amounts transferred by individuals dealing with public affairs and those transferred for commercial reasons.
2- The total amounts of cash withdrawals that took place during the same abovementioned period.
3- The total amounts transferred during bank closure period based on compliance rules and relevant circulars.
During Cabinet session, the Minister of Labor raised the issue of the increased worker layoffs in light of the current crisis, asking to requestbanks to abide by CB circulars No. 547 and 552 that allow companies to pay salaries and secure their needs to ensure business continuity.
The Cabinet has also approved four immediate and instant measures to combat corruption and recover proceeds of corruption, namely:
- Activate fiscal auditing
- Forensic audit
- Application of Article 5 of the Banking Secrecy Law
- Ex-post control by the Court of Accounts

Banks burn as Lebanon's Tripoli rises up in hunger
Finbar Anderson, Al Arabiya English/Tuesday 28 April 2020
A truck pulled up to a bank that had been set on fire in central Tripoli, Lebanon, and the team of four men quickly set to work loading a number of steel rods left in the entrance of the building into the back of the truck, even as the smoke became thicker and blacker and began to belch from the bottom of the building. “They’re stealing them,” said a bystander, with a rueful but understanding look on his face. Nearby, a crowd watched the bank burn, and there was little condemnation of those who had started the fire or the opportunistic looters who had left with their metal haul.
“It’s the economic situation,” said a 51-year-old woman in a green hijab who worked in a doctor’s surgery next door. She declined to give her name. “Despite the corona, people are hungry. They can’t take it anymore.”
In recent weeks the value of Lebanon’s currency has plummeted amidst a dollar shortage. While the lira is still officially pegged to the dollar at a rate of one to 1,500, the local currency now trades at 4,000. The rate is increasing every day, causing the price of goods and food in stores to skyrocket. The central bank has tried to regulate the exchange rate down closer to 3,000-3,800 in various circulars. Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, is one of the poorest areas of the country with poverty rates at the end of 2019 around 50 percent. The city was a focal point for the anti-government protests that began in October last year, driven by widespread anger at government inefficiency, corruption, and a deteriorating conomy.
The movement began to lose momentum around the New Year, but the economy has only worsened as the country battles to contain the global coronavirus pandemic. Lebanon has so far been comparatively successful in containing the spread of the disease, but only by imposing stringent social distancing measures that subsequently shuttered much of the economy. Lebanon’s government began a five-stage process to reopen the economy on Monday. Nevertheless, as the economic situation worsens, Tripolitans have recently begun to take to the streets once again. In clashes with security forces during demonstrations yesterday, a 26-year-old protester was shot and killed, reportedly by the army.
After the victim’s body was driven through the city's streets on the way to his funeral, protesters began to target banks, tearing down lamp posts and street furniture to smash their way into what have become symbols of the rapidly widening inequality in the country.
The top 1 percent receives 25 percent of national income on average, and the top 10 percent receives 55 percent of national income, according to data collected between 2005 and 2014. On the corner of al-Tall Square, at the edge of which stands a proud Ottoman clock tower, hundreds of protestors – nearly all of them young men – faced off with security forces, responding with rocks to their counterpart's tear gas and, reportedly, rubber bullets.
Read more: Coronavirus: Ramadan shoppers in Lebanon’s Tripoli fear economic crisis over virus
“Everyone’s hungry. They want to eat but no one’s got any money,” said a 30-year-old man as he ducked behind a corner to shelter from a cloud of gas. The man said he earned 25,000 lira a day working in a restaurant – less than $30 at the official exchange rate, and much less by the parallel market value. He listed the rapidly increasing prices of staple products, such as rice and lentils. “This is the most basic food. This is the food of the poor.” he said. “We want to pay rent and eat. I’ve got two kids I need to feed … This is how we’re dying. We’re not scared of corona."
Barely a hundred meters away at a different bank, smoke laced out of the forged iron grill decorating the arches of a nearby bank. The inside was reduced to charred black cinders. The outside was covered in pro-revolutionary graffiti and the external ATM had been destroyed.
“It’s action and reaction,” suggested Khaled Naja, a jovial, slightly portly bystander with flecks of silver in his hair. “It’s not inflation, it’s super inflation [is] what’s going on. People are not able to buy essentials. The middle classes are disappearing bit by bit, and the gap is widening between the poor and the rich,” he said. “I’m really anxious of what’s going on. I’m not a pessimistic guy but there’s a difference between pessimism and realism.”
As of Tuesday evening, seven injured protesters had been transported to nearby hospitals and 25 had been treated at the scene, according to figures from the Lebanese Red Cross.

Clashes in impoverished Lebanese city as crisis deepens
Associated Press/April 28/2020
The clashes got underway in the afternoon hours after a tense funeral was held for a 27-year-old man killed during riots overnight in Lebanon’s second-largest city.
TRIPOLI: Hundreds of protesters in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli set fire Tuesday to two banks and hurled stones at soldiers, who responded with tear gas and batons in renewed clashes triggered by an economic crisis spiraling out of control amid a weeks-long virus lockdown. The clashes got underway in the afternoon hours after a tense funeral was held for a 27-year-old man killed during riots overnight in Lebanon’s second-largest city. Fawwaz Samman was shot by soldiers during confrontations that began Monday night and died in a hospital hours later.
Tripoli is one of the most neglected and poorest cities in Lebanon.
The violence is a reflection of the rising poverty and despair gripping the country amid a crippling economic and financial crisis that has worsened since October when nationwide protests broke out. A lockdown to stem the spread of the new coronavirus has further aggravated the crisis, throwing tens of thousands more people out of work. The national currency has lost more than 50% of its value, and banks have imposed crippling capital controls amid a liquidity crunch.
“What you’re seeing is a result of accumulated problems. We had a revolution, people were suffering, then came corona, and people were locked in their homes for a month and a half without the state securing food and drink or anything for them,” said protester Abdelaziz Sarkousi, 47. “Now we have reached a state where unfortunately you cannot control people anymore. People are hungry.”Nearby, in a street lined with banks, dozens of protesters hurled Molotov cocktails, setting off fires in at least two banks. Troops deployed quickly in the area to try to prevent further riots, occasionally firing rounds of tear gas to disperse the protesters. Riots intensified later in the afternoon with protesters setting two police vehicles ablaze as the army brought more reinforcements into the area to try to bring the situation under control. Soldiers chased protesters through the streets after they threw stones at troops. Soldiers also fired tear gas and rubber bullets. “I was driving here yesterday with my wife and found protesters destroying and smashing (the banks), then they opened tear gas and bullets on us,” said resident Talal Sradar.
Earlier in the day, hundreds marched in the funeral procession for Samman, Gunmen fired in the air in a display of anger and mourning. The man’s body was brought from his parent’s home and placed briefly in front of his motorcycle repair shop before he was laid to rest in a Tripoli cemetery. Apparently, to avoid more tension, Samman’s body was not brought to the city’s Nour Square as previously planned. Most of the violence had taken place in the square and shortly after the funeral began troops deployed there moved away from the area.
“The army command expresses its deep regret for the fall of a martyr,” the military said, adding that an investigation has been opened into Samman’s death. Small protests also erupted elsewhere in Lebanon, leaving scores injured and more than a dozen people detained, according to the Lebanese military. Last week, scattered anti-government protests resumed as authorities began easing a weeks-long lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Lebanon, which has reported 710 cases and 24 deaths so far. In a statement about the overnight riots, the Lebanese army said “troublemakers who had infiltrated the protesters to attack banks” also threw firebombs and grenades at the military, setting a military vehicle on fire. It said 54 troops were injured across the country and that the army detained 13 people.
Public anger has mounted against banks in Lebanon after they imposed capital controls on people’s deposits. Over the weekend, the Lebanese pound hit a record low, with 4,000 pounds to the dollar on the black market while the official price remained at 1,507 pounds. On Sunday night, Lebanon’s central bank instructed currency exchange shops not to sell the dollar for more than 3,200 pounds. On Monday, most exchange shops were not selling dollars, said clients who have dollars are refusing to exchange their hard currency at such a low price. Several exchange shop owners were detained Monday for violating the decree, prompting a strike Tuesday by shop owners until the detainees were set free. The dollar surged on the black market to 4,300 pounds on Tuesday.

Anti-government protests turn violent in Lebanon, demonstrator killed
The Arab Weekly/April 28/2020
BEIRUT--Anti-government protests which erupted in Lebanon in October last year have picked up again and turned violent sending protesters in the streets to decry a protracted economic crisis that was rendered more dire by the COVID-19 lockdown. Clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the northern city of Tripoli, one of the most disadvantaged parts of the country, resulted in several injuries and the death of a protester. Soldiers fired into the air and used tear gas and rubber bullets during the unrest in Tripoli. The man who died was in his 20s, security sources said. Several banks were attacked during the protests and at least one was set on fire. Lebanon’s banking association declared all banks in Tripoli shut until security is restored, saying the institutions had been targeted in “serious attacks and rioting.” In a statement, the army said soldiers were attacked during rioting in Tripoli. A fire-bomb was thrown at one of its vehicles and a hand grenade was hurled at a patrol, lightly wounding two soldiers. The army blamed the trouble on “a number of infiltrators” and called on peaceful protesters to quickly leave the streets. A collapse in the Lebanese pound and soaring inflation and unemployment are compounding hardship in in the country, which has been in deep financial crisis since October.
Lebanon’s banks have been a frequent target of protesters during the financial and economic crisis that has led to the collapse in value of the Lebanese pound and frozen savers out of their deposits. Tripoli was the stage for big protests against Lebanon’s ruling elite during countrywide demonstrations that erupted October 17. Politicians are accused of corruption and mismanagement and blamed for pushing the country to the brink of economic and financial collapse. Demonstrations, rekindled by the nosediving fall of the Lebanese pound and skyrocketing inflation, first recurred on April 26 and 27, as the first phase of easing confinement measures started. Main arteries were blocked with burning tyres to the north and south of Beirut as protesters gathered in Martyr’s Square in the city centre. Lebanon’s worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war is now compounded by the coronavirus lockdown. Poverty has risen to 45% of the population, according to official estimates. The pound has lost more than half its value and the economy is forecast to contract 12% in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Central Beirut Protests Witness Minor Rioting and Confrontations
Naharnet/April 28/2020
Anti-government protesters rallied Tuesday afternoon in central Beirut where some of them blocked some roads as others vandalized some facades and hurled stones at army troops. “Protesters blocked the road outside the building of the Association of Banks where the smashed its facade and those of nearby shops as well as traffic signs,” state-run National News Agency reported. At the nearby Martyrs Square, protesters chanted “Not Peaceful, Not Peaceful, This is a Popular Revolution!”, amid the deployment of riot police. As an army force arrived at the square, the protesters pelted its vehicles with stones, which prompted it to retreat to the Saifi Village. Protesters later blocked the iconic Ring highway where tensions erupted with security forces and some motorists before the return of calm. Riot police meanwhile distributed medical masks to protesters not wearing face protection as a precaution against the COVID-19 coronavirus. Protesters later blocked the Saifi road as security forces reopened the Ring-Ashrafieh road. Elsewhere, protesters briefly blocked the Qasqas road in Beirut and the Beirut-South highway in the Naameh area.

Lebanon: Protester Killed During Unrest in Tripoli
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
A protester was shot and killed during unrest in the Lebanese city of Tripoli overnight, security and medical sources said on Tuesday, as an economic crisis brought demonstrations back onto the streets.The man who died was in his 20s, the source said. Clashes broke out between protesters and security forces amid a crash in the local currency and a surge in food prices. Dozens of young men smashed the fronts of local banks and set fire to an army vehicle, as the protests turned into riots.
The army said a fire-bomb was thrown at one of its vehicles and a hand grenade was hurled at a patrol during rioting in Tripoli, lightly wounding two soldiers. Public and private property had been attacked and banks set on fire, it stressed. The Red Cross said its teams were working on evacuating wounded people in Lebanon's second largest city and one of the most neglected regions in the country.
The army blamed the trouble on "a number of infiltrators" and called on peaceful protesters to quickly leave the streets, Reuters reported. For its part, the banking association declared all banks in Tripoli shut from Tuesday until security is restored, saying banks had been targeted in "serious attacks and rioting". Scattered anti-government protests resumed last week as the government began easing the weeks-long lockdown to limit the spread of the new coronavirus in Lebanon, which has reported 710 cases and 24 deaths so far. The number of registered cases has dropped over the past two weeks, leading to the shortening of the nighttime curfew by one hour and allowing some businesses to resume work on Monday. The virus outbreak has exacerbated a severe economic and financial crisis gripping the country since late last year, the most serious to hit Lebanon since the end of its 1975-90 civil war, according to The Associated Press (AP). The Lebanese national currency hit a new record low over the weekend, with 4,000 pounds to the dollar on the black market while the official price remained at 1,507 pounds.
Tripoli is the capital of northern Lebanon, where unemployment is among the highest in the country and poverty is widespread.
Earlier Monday, scattered anti-government protests broke out in several parts of the country, leading to road closures that prevented medical teams from setting out from Beirut to conduct coronavirus tests across the country.
The Health Ministry said its teams would try again on Tuesday, urging protesters to let the paramedics work to evaluate the spread of the virus in the tiny country of 5 million people. The Lebanese army said it respects the people's right to protest as long as the protesters don't close roads or attack public and private property. “Our demands are simple and we are not asking for the impossible,” said protester George Ghanem in Zouk Mosbeh, citing early parliamentary elections and an independent judiciary.
"We want to live in dignity ... we will continue and no one will remove us from the street.” A woman carried a placard reading: “My salary buys me two cartons of milk.”On Sunday night, the Central Bank of Lebanon issued a circular instructing currency exchange shops not to sell the dollar for more than 3,200 pounds. On Monday, most exchange shops were not selling dollars, saying clients who have dollars are refusing to exchange their hard currency at such a low price.According to AP, Lebanon is one of the world’s most indebted countries and has been grappling with a liquidity crunch, an economic recession and rising unemployment.

Hundreds Take Part in Funeral of Man Killed in Lebanon Riots
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Hundreds of angry Lebanese took part Tuesday in the funeral of a young man killed in riots overnight in the northern city of Tripoli that were triggered by the crash of Lebanon's national currency that sent food prices soaring. As the funeral got underway in the afternoon hours, in a nearby street lined with banks, dozens of protesters hurled Molotov cocktails, setting off fires in at least two banks. Troops deployed quickly in the area to try to prevent further riots. The violence in Tripoli, Lebanon´s second-largest city with soaring unemployment and poverty, first erupted late on Monday and lasted well after midnight as angry protesters threw firebombs at several banks and caused wide damage. Protests also erupted elsewhere in Lebanon, leaving scores injured and more than a dozen people detained, according to the Lebanese military. In Tripoli, hundreds marched in the funeral procession for Fawaz al-Samman, 27. Gunmen opened fire in the air in a sign of anger. The man's body was brought from his parent's home and placed briefly in front of his motorcycle repair shop before he was laid to rest in a Tripoli cemetery.Apparently to avoid more tension, Samman's body was not brought to the city's Nour Square as previously planned. Most of the violence had taken place on the square and shortly after the funeral began, troops deployed there moved away from the area. "The army command expresses its deep regret for the fall of a martyr," the military said, adding that an investigation has been opened into Samman's death.
Last week, scattered anti-government protests resumed as authorities began easing the weeks-long lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Lebanon, which has reported 710 cases and 24 deaths so far.
In a statement about the overnight riots, the Lebanese army said that "troublemakers who had infiltrated the protesters to attack banks" also threw firebombs and grenades at the military, setting a military vehicle on fire. It said 54 troops were injured across the country and that the army detained 13 people.
The state-run National News Agency said clashes in Tripoli killed one person and left more than 30 injured. In Beirut, "attackers" set ATM machines on fire at a local bank early Tuesday, the agency said.
Public anger has mounted against banks in Lebanon after they imposed capital controls on people's accounts. Over the weekend, the Lebanese pound hit a record low, with 4,000 pounds to the dollar on the black market while the official price remained at 1,507 pounds. On Sunday night, the Central Bank of Lebanon instructed currency exchange shops not to sell the dollar for more than 3,200 pounds. On Monday, most exchange shops were not selling dollars, saying clients who have dollars are refusing to exchange their hard currency at such a low price. Several exchange shop owners were detained Monday for violating the decree, prompting a strike Tuesday by shop owners until the detainees were set free. The dollar surged on the black market to 4,300 pounds on Tuesday.

Lebanon's c. bank governor not solely responsible for crisis: Hezbollah deputy
Lauren Holtmeier, Al Arabiya English/Tuesday 28 April 2020
Hezbollah’s deputy leader has said Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh is responsible for the country’s predicament, but he is not the only guilty party, according to local media on Tuesday. The Lebanese government, which is supported by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization, has recently sought to blame others, including the central bank governor Riad Salameh, for the worsening currency crisis that has added to Lebanon’s economic woes. The comments from Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem are the latest example.
The government should be given an opportunity to bring Lebanon through the current situation, as it is addressing the issues in various ways, the National News Agency quoted Qassem as saying. The government and central bank need to work together to come up with solutions, rather than go at each other in the media, he added. The plummeting exchange rate is the result of accumulated errors and the negative performance of the central government, Qassem said.
Blame game for currency crisis
Since late 2019, Lebanon has suffered from a dollar crunch that has spurred an economic ancd currency crises, and inflation is on the rise. The country is dependent on imports – around 80 percent of its food is imported – and dollars are needed to pay for the goods. Prime Minister Hassan Diab last week said Salameh was responsible for the currency crisis. Diab said the crisis-hit country had suffered $7 billion in additional losses since the start of the year and that liquidity in the banking system was running out, with $5.7 billion in Lebanese deposits exiting in January and February, Reuters reported. But Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri on Sunday came to Salameh’s defense, saying the currency would continue to tumble and threaten deposits if Salameh was removed. Lebanon cannot afford to remove Salameh as the country enters negotiations with foreign bondholders after defaulting on its debt obligations, Berri said in the local An-Nahar newspaper. Influential Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai also backed Salameh, saying criticism of Salameh would only hurt the country. While politicians continue to play the blame game, the Lebanese lira has now lost more than half its value on the parallel, or black market. The peg officially remains in place at 1507 to $1, but in reality the exchange rate has inched toward 4,000 to $1. As hunger and unemployment continue to rise, protesters have returned to the streets in the country’s north. On Monday night, one protester was killed by security forces.

Aoun, Kubis Discuss Israeli Violations
Naharnet/April 28/2020
President Michel Aoun met with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis on Tuesday voicing concerns over Israel’s continued violation of UN Resolution 1701 and requesting support for Lebanon’s economy, the Presidency office said on Twitter. The latest Israeli breach was the violation of Lebanese airspace and using it to bomb Syrian areas, as well as targeting a civilian car on the Lebanese-Syrian border. Aoun said the continuation of these violations will destabilize security on the southern borders, in which the Lebanese Army is working to establish security in full coordination with UNIFIL forces. On the coronavirus, Aoun said it “has negatively affected all Lebanese sectors, at a time when the relevant authorities in the state continue to combat it through several measures.”The President noted that the “difficult economic conditions that Lebanon is going through and which the government is working to address through a package of measures to be included in the economic plan soon to be approved by the Cabinet.” Aoun asked Kubis to inform the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, of these facts to support Lebanon's position in international forums, especially the Security Council, which is scheduled to hold a session on the 4th of May to discuss Guterres's report on the implementation of Resolution 1701, and Kubis will brief the Council on this report. For his side, Kubis assured Aoun of the UN's follow-up of all issues that concern Lebanon, and its willingness to continue providing the necessary assistance to enable Lebanon to overcome the difficulties encountered. Kubis also indicated that he will convey what he heard from the President to Guterres, noting the efforts made by the Lebanese Government in facing the outbreak of coronavirus.

U.N. Coordinator Warns Lebanese Leaders against 'Settling of Scores'
Naharnet/April 28/2020
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis on Tuesday warned Lebanon's political leaders against what he called the "settling of scores." The "tragic events in Tripoli that pitted violent protesters against LAF (Lebanese Army) and caused martyrdom of a protester and multiple injuries on both sides sends a warning signal to political leaders of Lebanon -- this is not (the time) for mutual settling of scores or attacking banks," Kubis tweeted."This is the time to provide material support to increasingly desperate, impoverished and hungry majority of Lebanese all around the country," he added.

U.S. Ambassador Meets Diab, Says 'Incidents of Violence' Deeply Concerning
Naharnet/April 28/2020
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea held talks Tuesday at the Grand Serail with Prime Minister Hassan Diab, amid a new and fierce wave of anti-government protests in the country. “The frustration of the Lebanese people over the economic crisis is understandable, and the demands of protesters are justified. But incidents of violence, threats, and destruction of property are deeply concerning, and must stop,” Shea said in a tweet after the meeting. “We encourage peaceful conduct and restraint by all, as well as continued vigilance in social distancing in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic,” she added. Hundreds of protesters in the northern city of Tripoli set fire Tuesday to several banks and two police vehicles and hurled stones at soldiers who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and batons in renewed clashes triggered by an economic crisis spiraling out of control amid a weeks-long virus lockdown.
The clashes got underway in the afternoon hours after a tense funeral was held for a 27-year-old man killed during riots overnight in Tripoli. Tripoli is in one of the most neglected and poorest regions in Lebanon, and there were concerns the confrontations would escalate to wider chaos.
The violence is a reflection of the rising poverty and despair gripping the country amid a crippling financial crisis that has worsened since October, when nationwide protests against a corrupt political class broke out. A lockdown to stem the spread of the new coronavirus has further aggravated the crisis, throwing tens of thousands more people out of work. The national currency has lost more than 50% of its value, and banks have imposed crippling capital controls amid a liquidity crunch. But it appeared to be in a free fall over the last few days, selling as low as 4,000 pounds to the dollar, down from a fixed peg of 1,500 pounds to the dollar in place for 30 years.

Diab Warns of 'Political Exploitation' of Protests, 'Intentions to Shake Security'
Naharnet/April 28/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Tuesday warned of “political exploitation” of the new wave of anti-government protests in Lebanon, saying there are “indications” of intentions to “shake security.” “It is normal for the people to take to the streets and explode their anger anew, as they did in the October 17 uprising, especially after they witnessed the presence of political attempts to prevent the government from opening the corruption files,” Diab said during a cabinet session. “We understand the people's scream against the policies that have led the country into this social, financial and economic situation and we understand the popular demands as to the insistence on holding accountable the corrupts who caused the state of collapse,” the PM added. And while voicing support for “every democratic expression, especially that which reflects people's pain,” Diab said he strongly rejects “all the malevolent attempts to distort this expression through derailing it and turning it into riots which harm people's concerns and their legitimate demands.” He also cautioned against “political exploitation of the riots to serve personal and political ambitions, interests and calculations.”“As I said before, tampering with security stability is prohibited and there should be accountability against these violators and the state won't stand idly by,” he added. “The attacks on public and private property as well as on the Lebanese Army and its troops in some areas indicate the presence of malicious intentions in the (political) backstage to shake security stability. This is playing with fire and it will burn the fingers of those who want to exploit the people's blood for their own interests,” Diab warned. He also urged “the Lebanese who are rallying against corruption and corrupts” to prevent “any attempt to hijack their anti-corruption revolution with the aim of political exploitation.”

Lebanon: Diab’s Criticism of Religious Authorities Sparks Maronite Resentment
Beirut- Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab put his government in a new confrontation, as he accused sectarian authorities and politicians of covering up corruption. “Corruption in Lebanon enjoys the protection of politicians and sectarian authorities,” Diab said on Monday. His remarks came during a meeting of the anti-corruption ministerial committee, which was chaired by President Michel Aoun. “Despite the corruption that infiltrated every artery in the state, there is no corrupt that was held accountable,” he added.Diab’s criticism of the religious authorities is unprecedented in the relationship between Lebanon’s prime minister and the country’s religious references. He was referring to recent comments by Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, who said that attack on Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh would only hurt the country, amid a growing debate over whether the bank governor should resign or not.
“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.”
Sources in Bkerke told Asharq Al-Awsat that the patriarch was annoyed by Diab’s remarks. “It seems that he did not carefully read the sermon given by the Patriarch,” the sources said. It is important that Diab correct his position, they emphasized, adding that the Patriarch was keen to prevent any rift and avoid political tensions.Aoun, for his part, said during Monday’s meeting that any fight against corruption “cannot be temporary, partial or selective” so that corrupts do not “seek the protection of religious or political leaders to dodge accountability.”

Army denies rumors relevant to LAF Commander’s upcoming moves should situation remain unchanged
NNA/April 28/2020
The Army Command - Orientation Directorate - issued on Tuesday the following statement: "Some websites and social media pages have circulated a story that they claim was leaked from the Ministry of Defense, and which included a fabricated and groundless scenario of decisions the Army Commander intends to take if the situation continues as is. It is important for the Army command to categorically deny such rumors, and stress that it is carrying out its tasks to the fullest, and will not hesitate in securing the safety of Lebanon and its civil peace."

Paris flight carrying 88 Lebanese lands in Beirut
NNA/April 28/2020
At 7:00 pm this Tuesday, a Middle East Airlines plane coming from Paris with 88 Lebanese citizens on board, landed at Beirut airport where passengers got off and headed straight to the halls designated for them to undergo PCR testing and follow the procedures imposed by the Ministry of Public Health and the concerned parties at the airport.

In Between Life and Death
Joseph Bahout/Carnegie MEC/April 28/2020
JOSEPH BAHOUT
In the past six months, the Lebanese have been living through successive shocks. In October 2019, a large number of people took to the streets and public squares to protest against their declining living conditions and call for the overthrow of Lebanon’s highly corrupt and cynical political class. This appeared to be a moment when the country’s vibrant society was voicing its will to live, and live decently. Financial collapse was in sight, indeed had started, but for many protestors it was perceived as a necessary purgatory until something better could replace it.
Then came the coronavirus, which brought Lebanon’s disintegrating economy to a complete standstill. Here was a wake-up call about the fragility of things, so that if the Lebanese were thinking of an economic recovery, it was suddenly apparent that this would be far more complicated than they had anticipated. For a country in deep paralysis, the disease was the embodiment of its continuing agony.
Lebanon’s swing between a desire for rebirth and enforced confinement was reflected in the country’s politics. When people revolted last year they did so against an entire political class that had long monopolized the public realm—a closed club whose members since the end of the war in 1990 had sometimes been in power and sometimes out, while all the time maintaining a collective lock on the country’ political system. But the politicians refused to understand what had really occurred in October. They bided their time in order to reverse it, regain the initiative, and return to their sterile and destructive game.
Lebanon’s financial meltdown and the coronavirus outbreak offered them the perfect opportunities to do so. The main concerns of the state again became a subject of politicized bickering among the same old players: Should Lebanon reimburse part of its debt in Eurobonds or not? Should capital controls on bank accounts, which were informally imposed after the uprising last year, be made legal by an act of parliament? Should Beirut’s airport be completely closed to incoming flights as a shield against the coronavirus, or should it be reopened to admit Lebanese stuck abroad because of the pandemic? Should the governor of Lebanon’s central bank be held responsible for the financial collapse, and what should be done with him?
Amid this cacophony of issues, the Lebanese found themselves powerless once again, returned to the state of apathy and atrophy prevailing before October 2019.
Confinement and social distancing are hardly propitious for pursuing a popular upheaval. And it was highly symbolic that in the midst of a global cataclysm, what were very likely supporters of the country’s politicians destroyed the camp that protestors had set up last October in Beirut’s downtown area, amid general silence. If the Lebanese in revolt do not find inventive ways to revive their dissent in this time of coronavirus, if the protest movement does not provide answers to the questions that are now preoccupying most Lebanese, they could discover upon ending their confinement that their country’s agony has ended with its death.

Lebanon must address policy, not politics, to move forward
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Al Arabiya/April 28/2020
Suffering from a deteriorating economy and hunger, many Lebanese threw caution to the wind and took to the streets to protest their ruling establishment, despite an imposed lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Soundbites from rallies were touching, at times heartbreaking. One video shows a Lebanese man shouting at a policeman who was trying to disperse protesters. “I’m hungry,” the protester said, to which the policeman responded, “I’m hungrier than you.” In another video, law enforcement asks demonstrators why they are not wearing masks, a preventative measure against COVID-19. One demonstrator shouted back: “I cannot afford a mask.”
Lebanon’s economy is in free fall. National currency is deflating at breakneck speed. Basic staple prices are skyrocketing. So, who to blame?
Since the outbreak of unrest in Lebanon on October 17, a debate ensued over the reasons behind economic collapse. Hezbollah lined up scapegoats from the ranks of its opponents, and has been throwing them under the bus, one after another.
Meanwhile, Lebanese protesters have fallen for Hezbollah’s game of smoke of mirrors and have engaged in a debate over who should hold public office. Protesters floated the names of a few personalities they approve of, such as Beirut’s former Ambassador to the UN Nawwaf Salam, for prime minister, and former minister Nasser Saidi for the Ministry of Finance. Hezbollah and its allies, especially President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law and aspiring successor Gebran Bassil, exploited governmental reshuffle to stuff the bureaucracy with their loyalists.
Lost in the fight over who should rule Lebanon is how Lebanon should be ruled. While some Lebanese are more skilled and honest in public service than others, there is little change any ruler can bring if Lebanon’s model, which Hezbollah dubs as “the resistance state,” persists.
While the debate in Lebanon has so far been about politics a better debate would have been about policy.
Those who know the American political system might know that Republicans and Democrats compete over two models of government. Republicans believe that small government, low taxes, and deregulation resulted in the economic boom of the 1950s and 1980s. Democrats counter argue that bigger government, higher taxes and generous welfare programs guarantee wealth distribution and a better and equitable life for Americans. Democrats cite the 1960s and 1990s as the epochs whose policies they try to revive whenever in power.
Since independence in 1943, Lebanon has had two main government models. One believes Lebanon should be at the forefront of regional battles, especially to redress whatever injustice has befallen Palestinians since 1948. Hezbollah expanded Lebanon’s role to global levels, as the party engages in battles in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. Hezbollah threatens war against US troops in revenge for America’s killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January.
The Hezbollah model for Lebanon has been in place since the end of the civil war in 1990. A perpetual state of war killed economic growth, and the country lived in debt, until it could not borrow anymore.
Another model for Lebanon was during its “Golden Years,” between 1958 and 1969, when Egypt’s Gamal Abdel-Nasser and America agreed to sideline Lebanon. Beirut endorsed regional neutrality. During these years, Lebanon saw an unprecedented economic boom and got its epithet “Switzerland of the Middle East.” Thousands of Arabs — escaping nationalization in Egypt, Syria and Iraq — relocated with their capital to Lebanon. The country reaped a windfall of foreign investments.
But then regional circumstances turned against the Lebanese. Abdel-Nasser tried to compensate for his 1967 defeat facing Israel by promoting asymmetric war. The Palestinians formed militias and started launching attacks across the Jordan River, inviting Israeli retaliation against Jordan, whose state realized that militias undermine its own sovereignty. When Jordan ejected Palestinian militias, they relocated to Lebanon.
Under pressure from Nasser, Lebanon relented and signed the Cairo Agreement, which allowed Palestinian militias to run amok. Harsh Israeli retaliation followed, and the vicious cycle only ended in 2000, when Israel withdrew from Lebanon and shut down its border. That year, Hezbollah lost its raison d’etre as a group whose mission was to liberate Lebanese land, and thus, showed its true face: An Iranian pawn. The fate of Beirut and Tehran were thus linked, and as US sanctions sank Iran’s economy, the Lebanese economy followed.
It follows that Lebanon’s salvation would be to delink itself from Iran and restore its pre-1969 years of neutrality. The state should regain sovereignty and merge Hezbollah into the army. This is the debate over policy that is desperately needed in Lebanon, and one that the Lebanese are not having, mainly because of Hezbollah’s repression. In the very few times that Lebanese protesters broached this subject, Hezbollah’s thugs burnt down the tent where such debate was being held.
Lebanon must switch its policy from its current “resistance state” to its past “regional neutrality.” Perhaps then, it will be welcomed back into the global economy and the Lebanese will be able to eat - and buy medical masks.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is an Iraqi-Lebanese columnist and writer. He is the Washington bureau chief of Kuwaiti daily al-Rai and a former visiting fellow at Chatham House in London. He tweets @hahussain.

The Bisri water project highlights Lebanon's ‘dammed’ political class
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/April 28/2020
“As per the recent World Bank statement on the Bisri project, the World Bank is committed to a constructive stakeholder engagement and dialogue in all the projects we finance. We look forward to the outcome of such a process with regards to the Bisri Dam project.”
With these words the head of communications for the World Bank in Beirut responded, or, more accurately, failed to respond to my email enquiring about their recent decision to freeze the funds for the Lebanon Water Supply Augmentation Project, or the Bisri Dam project, a $617.00 million project that promised to give 1.6 million Lebanese access to clean water. The Bisri Dam, which was approved in 2014 and was projected to finish in 2024, has generated much controversy, ranging from ecological concerns to accusations of corruption among the entire ruling class.
Different Lebanese civil society groups have pleaded with the World Bank to sway them from committing an ecological massacre and to prevent them from destroying ancient archeological sites in addition to thousands of trees and wildlife. And if the aforementioned damages were not enough, many leading geologic experts have warned that constructing the dam where two seismic fault lines lie – the Roum and the Bisri offshoot – places the whole country at increased risk of earthquake.
Naturally, the World Bank and the Lebanese government presented their own sets of experts and data to prove the contrary, but they were unable to appease and convince the general public whose crusade to stop the dam intensified at the outset of anti-government protests last October. When the World Bank announced it would freeze the project on April 16, Saroj Kumar Jha, World Bank Mashreq Regional Director announced that “throughout all phases of the Bisri Dam project preparation and implementation and ever since its approval by the Lebanese Government and ratification by the Lebanese Parliament, the World Bank has been, and remains, committed to engage openly and constructively with all stakeholders and civil society.”
The World Bank’s supposed commitment to engaging openly with all of these stakeholders is nowhere to be found. This became especially evident after the funds were frozen, and stakeholders asked questions which were responded to by the World Bank with vague and inconsistent answers.
Desperate for a success story, the ruling Lebanese establishment insisted the World Bank approve the loan for the project. And while the World Bank is perhaps correct in insisting that its environmental impact assessment studies are sound, granting the ruling junta access to funds essentially bankrolls their corruption, making the World Bank is complicit in this corruption.
Consequently, the World Bank has approved the relocation of $40 million as part of it Health Resilience Project. However, the manner in which the Lebanese state has decided to use these funds clearly indicates their shortsightedness and deceitfulness. Instead of purchasing the proven COVID-19 rapid test, which would mean the entire country could be tested, the Lebanese state continues to purchase the PCR test that is more expensive and less practical, but conveniently is supplied by a company that has ties to Hezbollah.
Progressive Socialist Party President Walid Joumblatt’s change of heart over the Bisri project was a driving factor in the World Bank’s decision. Unfortunately, this proves the bank does not really care about the public at large, but wishes to work exclusively with the political elite.
While Joumblatt has publicly admitted he was wrong to support the Bisri dam project, the World Bank, based on its inaction and lack of communication, remains unapologetic and more importantly have not made clear what comes next.
So far, 861 landowners have been paid a total of $155 million in expropriation fees, and this money will never be reclaimed. Moreover, $340 million has been spent in total, paid to contractors and cronies close to President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil.
Despite the World Bank suspension of the project, which virtually equates to its termination, the Aoun administration and Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s cabinet have not yet publicly acknowledged, nor accepted the decision, and the state's official statements give the impression that this is a temporary freeze. Aoun responded to the World Bank by lashing out, declaring that "arbitrary criticism is unacceptable and insults are rejected, especially when they come from those whose history is full of violations, wrongdoing and attacks on the state and its institutions and properties."
The Bisri dam should have been axed long ago, simply because it was just one more project for the ruling elite to exploit and gain access to more funds, and the World Bank simply allowed this to happen under the premise of development. It is the bank’s responsibility to properly communicate their messages to the Lebanese people and to equally accept feedback that might not necessarily fit on their PowerPoint presentations and in their economic forecasts. Lebanon and its people are looking toward a bleak future, and it is the responsibility of the World Bank and the international community to think twice before allowing Lebanon’s politicians to exploit them. Rather, they must invest in the people and not their corrupt leaders.
*Makram Rabah is a lecturer at the American University of Beirut, Department of History.

Coronavirus heightens mental health crisis in Lebanon's claustrophobic Palestinian refugee camps
Finbar Anderson/The New Arab/April 28/2020
The mental health impact of the novel coronavirus has been felt across the globe, but for mental healthcare providers working in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps it is the latest in a string of challenges they have been forced to reckon with in recent years.
"It is already a difficult situation in the camps," said Maha Hodroj, a clinical psychologist working with children and their families in camps and healthcare centres around Tyre in southern Lebanon. "The coronavirus situation is suffocating them even more."
Where she would normally expect to meet her clients in their homes or at healthcare centres, restrictions on movement and social distancing measures necessitated by the response to the pandemic have forced her instead to interact with them through her phone or her computer.
"We are giving them instructions on how to have a day-by-day plan, focus on the present and not think too much about the long term," Hodroj said, explaining that interactions with children and their parents might take place over a call, text message, voice note or video calls.
"Even though we aren't physically together we are assuring them that we won't leave them and we will stay in touch with them."
Hodroj and her colleagues at the NGO Beit Atfal al-Soumoud, which provides a variety of healthcare and educational services across the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, have had to adapt their support to take into account a rapidly deteriorating economic situation.
The Lebanese lira has lost more than half its value in unofficial exchange houses due to a shortage of dollars, sending prices skyrocketing for everyday goods.
"We send small, quick and clear text messages to parents on how to take care of themselves and their children, even with what they eat - especially now with the increased prices of eggs, meat and food items. It's not only about mental health, now we are talking about basic needs as well," Hodroj explained. While the country as a whole is in the grips of a financial crisis, Palestinians have been facing economic challenges stretching back years.
It is already a difficult situation in the camps. Coronavirus is suffocating them even more
UNRWA, the UN agency tasked with providing support and services to Palestinians across the region, has struggled to meet its funding requirements since the administration of US President Donald Trump cut its contributions from $360m to zero between 2018 and 2019.
Furthermore, more than 20 professions in Lebanon are barred to Palestinians, who are limited to working jobs in construction, small crafts, and administrative positions. Their situation was exacerbated in the summer of 2019 when Lebanon's Ministry of Labour cracked down on businesses hiring foreign workers without permits, forcing many Palestinians and Syrians out of work. Lebanon's financial crisis, which started to be felt around September last year, further depleted job opportunities. The ensuing wave of nationwide protests against government mismanagement saw roads sporadically closed by protestors across the country, making it more difficult for those that had work to reach their jobs.
Both the Lebanese economy and the Palestinian labour market were dealt further blows by the spread of Covid-19. Isolation measures have forced many into particularly challenging circumstances, according to Khawla Khalaf, a field coordinator for Beit Atfal al-Soumoud.
"The houses in the camp are very small. They consist of two or three rooms," she said. "Sometimes six, seven or eight members of the family are living in the same room, sometimes eating or sleeping the whole day in the same room." "We cannot disentangle the socio-economic conditions from the risk of ill mental health," said Rabih El Chammay, the head of Lebanon's National Mental Health Programme who until 2018 worked as a consultant psychiatrist in one of the camps close to Tyre. The NMHP was launched in 2014 and set out to include marginalised groups such as Palestinians and Syrian refugees.
While the country as a whole is in the grips of a financial crisis, Palestinians have been facing economic challenges stretching back years
The Programme's action plan to respond to Covid-19 included measures to assist those groups as well as Lebanese citizens. "The system that we're building to provide support for people in quarantine will be open to provide services for Palestinians in quarantine also," said El Chammay.
"Our role is to ensure that everyone is getting the care they need regardless of their nationality, their background, their religion, their political affiliation or whatever."The coordination with the NMHP has so far proved positive for Beit Atfal al-Soumoud, which according to Khalaf, its field coordinator, makes good use of the additional support it provides. She is nevertheless uncertain about the road ahead.  "The situation is not clear in front of us, but it will be difficult. Staff are under stress, families are under stress," she said. Finbar Anderson is an independent journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon. He was as a staff reporter for Lebanon's The Daily Star between 2017 and 2019

Lebanon War Vets Find Solace in Facebook Group During Pandemic
Tara Kavaler/The Media/April 28/2020
Nearly 28,000 former military members go to page to express themselves freely, find healing
On Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s memorial day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, the nation comes together to remember those who were lost. However, for the family members of those who have died, and those who fought alongside the deceased, remembering is an everyday process.
This is especially true for the nearly 28,000 soldiers of the newly formed “Stories about what happened at the military post in Lebanon” Facebook Group, as translated into English. The private group’s target audience is Israeli soldiers who served in Lebanon between 1983 and 2000, mainly in Israel’s self-declared “South Lebanon Security Zone.”
The invitation-only platform has become a medium in which many soldiers feel comfortable expressing themselves, some for the first time in over 20 years. Some people seek help in healing from war trauma, with people posting the names and numbers of psychologists for those who served. Others find it a venue where they can express themselves freely in a community that understands them without judgment. Family members of fallen soldiers also go to seek stories about their loved ones.
Whatever the reason, one of the group’s ultimate goals is that no one should feel alone. This is especially pronounced during the current coronavirus pandemic, which has left many people feeling lonely and isolated due to quarantine.
Producer and director Eyal Shahar established the group on March 29, initially to conduct research for a dramatic series he was writing. The group, however, quickly caught on, with 10,000 carefully screened participants joining in the first week. Shahar realized that he had created something bigger than himself and the drama series, and left control of the group to people who had served.
“I still have the research but the group is not for my research. It is now a group for people who have been there. My group is now their community where they can share and talk with each other,” Shahar told The Media Line.
“I didn’t expect, because of corona, all of these veterans of the war in south Lebanon to participate,” he added. “There is a 17-year span, so when a soldier who served there in 1999 war born, another soldier had already been in the same place, the same situation, with all the same fears all those years before.”
“I didn’t think people would be so open,” Shahar said.
He is referring to people like Menachem Shechter, one of the managers of the group, who served in Lebanon from 1990 and 1995, and again as an officer in 1997 and 1998.
“Maybe we leave Lebanon, but Lebanon doesn’t leave us,” he told The Media Line. “People have told me they’ve never written about Lebanon before this group because no one wanted to hear.”
“Everyone shares their feelings, how it hurts at night, how they can’t sleep or have nightmares. Almost everyone has a problem. We talk every day. We have a WhatsApp group with over 1,000 messages a day,” he said.
Politicians like Benny Gantz and Naftali Bennett, both of whom were senior officers with combat experience in south Lebanon, have posted on the Facebook page. But, says Shechter, the group is for the “simple soldier” who, he believes, has not been properly acknowledged and supported by the government.
“We hope that the government will recognize us and acknowledge we are still wounded. If they start to help people, it’s going to be great – people who have problems in their souls,” Shechter said.
Shechter also encourages people to write posts about soldiers who have died and share them with the family members they left behind.
This is something personal for Shechter, whose brother was killed in Lebanon in 1996 at the age of 21. He read of his posts to The Media Line:
“On the day they told us my brother Yishai was killed in Lebanon, my mother and father died, too. My father couldn’t work afterward and my mother, a kindergarten teacher, stopped working as well. My little sister, who was just 11, 12 years old at the time, moved in with my big sister. It was three months before my younger brother’s bar mitzvah and there was no celebration when it happened. People just cried.
“Every day, the hole in our hearts grows bigger. On your wedding day, which is one day of happiness in your life, you sit and think about your brother and what would he have done if he were here. Your mother and your brother cry all day. The happiness grows with every child that is born, but the hole gets bigger, too. You think: Where is your brother? What about the children he would have had, too? When you run, suddenly you shout, ‘Yishai, Yishai, where are you?’ to the sky. When you listen to a song in the car, you start to cry and you don’t know what prompted the tears. …”
“I have a son whom I named Yishai and initially I couldn’t call him by his name. Now I know it’s one of the most important things I’ve done in my life.”
Lt. Lion, who served in Lebanon from 1986 to 1990, contends that the soldiers should not just be portrayed as damaged and that fatalities and deaths need to be looked at in perspective and not personalized.
“You have to understand. What is the price if you don’t fight? Before we were a nation without a country, we were killed without a fight and … I hope that everyone understands that it’s better to die in a fight than without one,” Lion told The Media Line. “We really are happy to pay the price as a nation and if you understand you are part of the nation, it’s OK, you [can’t just] look at it as if it only happened to you, to your brother, to you children.
“The sacrifice was of the nation. That’s how we put it into proportion,” he said. For Lion, having a forum where he can express himself freely, without judgment, is especially important.
“I did things without any orders. I just felt it’s right and I did it. I didn’t feel anybody criticized me, I even got a promotion, so I kept doing what I wanted to do in order to fight the terrorists, the enemy. It was not so difficult, it was fun,” he said. “It went well as long as everything was good, no one asked questions. … It’s very different today.”
This was demonstrated when Lion organized the secret medical evacuation to Israel of a soldier shot by friendly fire when a helicopter didn’t come because of bad weather.
“Your life depends on whether you shoot first; no one helps you. I was an officer there in charge and they asked me to evacuate the soldier to Israel in a chopper. I called for a rescue and I waited for a few minutes and there was no response. … I called again and they told me the helicopter cannot land there. I said: ‘Ok that’s not an answer. I want to know what to do.’”
“This made me crazy … [so] I talked to his commander who … brought him back to Israel that night in an ambulance.”
Lion resigned after this occurred but he always wondered what happened to the soldier he saved. As a result of reaching out to other people and posts on the Facebook group, Lion was able to find someone who thought he knew the soldier. Lion now hopes to meet the man he saved after the coronavirus pandemic is over.
But war isn't all about saving lives. The taking of lives is a subject that is difficult to understand or discuss except among trusted fellow soldiers.
“Today it is not politically correct to say you enjoyed killing terrorists. There are thousands that we killed there. … I think that lots of people really liked fighting in the war. The most important thing that you get to do as a soldier is facing the threat [your country is facing],” he said. “It’s like the dream of the Jewish people.”“I see I am not alone in this; a lot of people are ashamed they killed terrorists. Here [in the group] we can say we did that and we did so honorably.”
Lion says that he is lucky the war did not ruin his life but he thinks he would have had to deal with shame and seek treatment if he had not saved the soldier’s life when the helicopter never came.
Now Lion’s children serve in the army and he does not have the same feeling toward the military that he did when he was younger.
“My mother told me I had to eat to become a soldier. That was my education. … Now, I tell the children they don’t have to go the army,” he said. “And if you go, it’s a very complicated place. It can be good for Israel but it also can be bad,” he said.
His feelings toward the military today are also mixed.
“I think the IDF is better in lots of ways, in equipment and conditions for the soldiers, the way the commanders treat soldiers, it’s better. But their ability to go to war is very low; the army is not working correctly. … We need to make an army of volunteers and only the best will serve,” he said.
Responding to Lion’s claims, the Israel Defense Forces said, “The IDF is prepared for any scenario and always acts with transparency, and in accordance with its values.”
The soldiers’ responses in the Facebook Group are not unique to the Lebanon war.
“Almost a year after, it was difficult for me to sleep. … What helped me after the war was to [keep busy]. … I was working more than what I was supposed to, to not spend any time at home or have a second to myself to think about life,” Matan Zaken, who served in the Golani infantry brigade in Gaza in 2014, told The Media Line. “I kept everything inside of me. It took me around three or four years to talk to someone.”
Zaken says he is doing much better now and hopes this will be the year he shares his full story, which he hasn’t told anyone except members of his unit, on Memorial Day. He plans to speak to students in a French-Israeli school in Paris, where he now lives, over Zoom.
“I’ve told myself for three or four years now that I want to tell the story on Memorial Day, but at the last minute, I didn’t want to or it didn’t happen. Maybe this year I will open up.”
With hope, many other soldiers will feel comfortable to share their stories for the first time, as well.

Lebanon has legalised cannabis growing, but its political class are muscling in on small farmers
Mat Nashed/The New Arab/April 28/2020
Lebanon is set to become the first Arab country to legalise the growing and export of medical cannabis in hopes of rescuing the economy - at least that's the stated objective. To be fair, the industry does have the potential to generate $1 billion, according to a report by the American consultancy firm McKinsey and Company. That report - commissioned by the Lebanese government in 2018 - had some MPs salivating at the prospect of fattening their pockets. But with inflation rising and the Lebanese lira in free fall, politicians now argue that cannabis could bring in much needed foreign revenue to restore the value of the currency on the black market. That's a sound plan in theory, but not in practice. Just consider that Lebanon boasts one of the highest debt to GDP ratios in the globe due to failed governance, a labyrinth of political nepotism and rampant graft within the public sector.
Those issues now risk eliminating fair competition in the cannabis market. But political elites still insist that cannabis exports will lift thousands of people out of poverty. The problem: They're backing a law designed to do just the opposite.
Double standard
Lebanese farmers have cultivated cannabis for more than a century, generating as much as 80 percent of the world's supply during the country's 15-year-civil war (1975-1990). Licences will be distributed to the highest bidding tycoons regardless if they follow industry protocol
By 1994, Washington pressured Damascus - then an occupying power in Lebanon - to outlaw the trade. Criminalisation has resulted in armed farmers violently clashing with law enforcement until the present day. But rather than end those bouts for good, parliament still maintains that growing cannabis for recreational use should be outlawed. More absurd, the law drafted to regulate the market stipulates that those with a criminal record or warranted for arrest won't be eligible to obtain a licence to grow medical cannabis. That makes it practically impossible for farmers to integrate into the formal market. "There are about 5,000 arrest warrants issued a year against farmers that grow hashish in the Bekaa Valley, so none of them will be able to profit from legalisation of export," said Karim Nammor, a lawyer who specialises in drug policy with the Lebanese NGO Legal Agenda. "Another 3,000 to 4,000 people are arrested annually for drug use. This is a huge number for a country of only 6 million people," he added. The government, for their part, claims that it will soon vote on a separate amnesty bill that will allow thousands of farmers to participate in the formal market. But Nammor says that farmers warranted for arrest probably won't get off the hook.
Big money
The government hasn't consulted with Bekaa farmers about its grand new plan, leaving communities to believe that they are being blatantly ignored. Saada Allaw, a lawyer with the Legal Agenda who grew up in the Bekaa Valley says the government shouldn't assume that everyone in the region wants to grow drugs since many farmers wish to cultivate other goods if given a choice. She added that youth should have opportunities to pursue other careers. "The government is giving out permits to grow cannabis before building good quality public schools and hospitals in the area," she said.
There is also risk that national and multinational companies could uproot communities that have lived on public land for generations. That's certainly been the pattern across the Global South for decades. Equally troubling, the government intends to establish a committee tasked with regulating the market and granting licences to companies. The issue is that the committee will be financed from the fees it charges for the permits it hands out. The draft law must include language that favours local farmers over big firms. This arrangement creates a clear conflict of interest, whereby licences will be distributed to the highest bidding tycoons regardless if they follow industry protocol. And even if there is a set fee to obtain a licence, hefty bribes will surely be offered under the table. That's why the draft law must include language that favours local farmers over big firms. The committee also shouldn't depend on levying licence holders for funding. As a government conceived institution, the state should finance the committee so it can maintain a semblance of autonomy to govern the market.
These measures are imperative to limit corruption. Otherwise, Lebanon's political elites will devour the profits of a trade it has scorned for so long.
*Mat Nashed is a Lebanon-based journalist covering displacement and exile.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 28-29/2020
Fuel truck bomb kills at least 40 people in Turkish area of northern Syria
Thomas Seibert/The Arab Weekly/April 28/2020
ISTANBUL-- An explosion of a fuel truck used as a bomb killed 40 people in the Turkish-controlled northern Syrian town of Afrin on Tuesday, the Turkish Defence Ministry said. The ministry blamed Kurdish militants for the blast in a crowded area of downtown Afrin and said 11 children were among the victims of the blast, which had targeted “innocent civilians.” Another 47 people were wounded, the ministry tweeted. Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters drove the Peoples’ Defence Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia, out of Afrin in a 2018 intervention. The YPG is the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group that has been fighting Ankara since 1984 and is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and Europe. Turkey has staged two other interventions into northern Syria in recent years to push the YPG back from the Turkish border. Ankara says an autonomous zone created by the YPG in the area was a “terrorist corridor” and a threat to Turkey’s national security. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the blast occurred in a market in Afrin and killed 36 people, including women and children, and wounded about 40 others. The Observatory and other activists said the death toll could rise because some of the wounded were in critical condition. The ANF news agency, which is close to the PKK, said the explosion in Afrin occurred close to Turkish soldiers and members of the pro-Turkish Sultan Murad militia, killing “at least 15 mercenaries.” Similar blasts in areas controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters have killed scores of people in recent months, attacks that Ankara blamed on Kurdish fighters.

US Boosts Efforts to ‘Unite Kurds’ in Eastern Euphrates
Qamishli- Kamal Shaikho/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
The US has intensified meetings with leaders from the Kurdish groups in Syria to ‘unite’ the Kurds and establish a joint civil administration and a Kurdish delegation to take part in international talks on the Syria crisis. US Ambassador William Roebuck, who is currently the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, met this month with leaders from the Democratic Union Party and the Movement for a Democratic Society. Roebuck also convened with the presidency of the Kurdish National Council and commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi. Also two days ago, he had two separate meetings with representatives of the Kurdish National Alliance in Syria and the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party. Sources close to the matter revealed that the meetings discussed progress with the initiative to unite Kurdish parties following the Turkish attack and seizure of Tel Abyad and Ras al Ain. For his part, Abdi expressed optimism while some sources ruled out any possibility of reaching a final agreement between the two parties. Sources added that sovereign positions will likely be handled by the Democratic Union Party and the Movement for a Democratic Society. Also, a joint military command will be formed and a map will be prepared showing the deployment of fighters in certain zones. Moreover, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed that US forces conducted a military patrol, setting off from Tal Baydar base in rural Al-Hasakah and touring the area of Al-Derbasiya. The Observatory stated that the US forces intend to take the task of protecting oil fields and pipelines in eastern Euphrates away from the “Self Defence Forces” and put SDF fighters in charge.

Palestinian Stabs Israeli Woman, Shot by Bystander
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
A Palestinian teenager stabbed an Israeli woman on Tuesday before being shot and wounded by a bystander, Israeli police said. The attack came on Israel's Memorial Day, when the country mourns those killed in wars and militant attacks. Israelis usually mark the occasion by visiting the graves of loved ones, but military cemeteries are closed this year and small ceremonies are being held without attendees as part of efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The police said the 62-year-old woman, who was moderately to seriously wounded, and the 19-year-old assailant, who was seriously wounded, were taken to hospital for treatment. They did not identify the attacker. The attack took place in Kfar Saba, a town near Tel Aviv. Israel has seen a series of shootings, stabbings, and car-ramming attacks in recent years, mostly carried out by lone attackers with no apparent links to armed groups. Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups have praised the attacks but have not claimed them.

Shtayyeh: We Are Entering A New Phase With Israel
Ramallah - Kifah Zaboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said that the Palestinian Authority was about to begin a new and different stage, in an apparent reference to its decision to cancel agreements with Israel. Commenting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s annexation of the Jordan Valley and the subsequent confiscation of Palestinian tax funds, Shtayyeh said: “Regarding all of this, the message is clear. For us, the current situation cannot continue permanently… We are embarking on a new stage.” The Palestinian premier, in a news conference, stressed that Israel’s “planning to annex the Palestinian valleys, impose sovereignty on the illegal settlements, confiscate tax funds and demolish homes…” were all aimed at undermining the establishment of a Palestinian state and weaken the existing Palestinian institutions. Shtayyeh welcomed the European position that rejected the Israeli annexation plan. He accused the Israeli judiciary of being a “hostage” of the political decision. “This is not the first time that Israel has violated security, economic and political agreements… even the mutual recognition agreement,” he underlined. The Palestinian prime minister touched on the exchange of accusations between Palestinian and Saudi Twitter users over the past few days. He said in this regard that on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas, he called on Palestinians to refrain from offending any Arab or interfering in their affairs. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with its King, government, and all its people, is dear to us,” Shtayyeh stressed. “The Kingdom has been helping us throughout history... President Abu Mazen spoke to His Majesty the King a few days ago... Saudi Arabia has always been the backbone of support of the Palestinian cause in international forums,” he added.

Burhan, Pompeo Discuss Sudan’s Removal from US Terror List
Khartoum – Ahmed Yassin/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
The head of Sudan's sovereign council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on Monday, received a phone call from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in which the two discussed a number of issues, including US support for Sudan during its transition period. They also discussed Sudan’s removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, said press statement issued by the council. "In his phone call, Pompeo discussed arrangements to remove Sudan from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) and US aid to Sudan in confronting the coronavirus pandemic," it added. The officials also deliberated on Sudan's position on a draft resolution expected by the UN Security Council, along with security cooperation between the two countries and the required support in the transitional period. The United States had made an official invitation to Burhan to visit Washington, but the coronavirus crisis has delayed it. In other news, two members of the sovereign council, Lieutenant General Shamsul Eddin Kabashi, member of the government peace delegation, and Mohamed Hassan Al-Taishi, the spokesman of the delegation, held a meeting that included the representatives of the Troika, the European Community and Germany. The meeting was briefed on the negotiations in Juba, and what was agreed upon in the North, Center and East tracks, as well as issues of differences with the armed struggle movements.
The representatives had proposed the formation of a legislative council in cooperation with the armed movements in case that a peace agreement was signed on May 9.

Haftar Accepts ‘Popular Mandate’ to Rule Libya
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
“popular mandate” for him to rule Libya.
In a televised address, he said he was “responding to the will of the people” to annul the Skheirat agreement and manage the country’s affairs for the coming future. He said the agreement has “destroyed” the country, adding that the people have tasked the LNA general command with a “historic” duty in such extraordinary times. It is “proud to annul the political agreement, which will now be a thing of the past, through the will of the Libyan people, who are the source of powers,” he added. The Skheirat deal, signed in 2015, has led Libya on a “dangerous” path, Haftar remarked. The agreement led to the formation of the presidential council, which is headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, and the High Council of State, headed by Muslim Brotherhood member Khalid al-Mishri. Sarraj’s Government of National Accord did not comment on Haftar’s announcement, but it will likely reject it.
“We announce that the general command is answering the will of the people, despite the heavy burden and the many obligations and the size of the responsibility, and we will be subject to the people’s wish,” Haftar said. He also vowed to prepare conditions to restore the state’s civil institutions, in line with the people’s aspirations, while the LNA continues its operation to liberate the country from terrorist and criminal gangs affiliated with the GNA. The US Embassy in Tripoli said that Washington “regrets... Haftar’s suggestion that changes to Libya’s political structure can be imposed by unilateral declaration.”“The Embassy nevertheless welcomes any opportunity to engage LNA commander Haftar and all parties in serious dialogue about how the country can move forward.”

Iraqi Official: ISIS Attack on Intelligence Bureau Wounds 3 Security Personnel
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Iraqi officials said militants wearing a suicide vest struck an intelligence bureau in northern Iraq on Tuesday, blaming the attack on the ISIS terrorist group. The attack wounded at least three members of Iraq's security personnel. A senior Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press (AP) that the department “had knowledge that ISIS would carry out a suicide operation against the Intelligence Directorate, but we did not know on which day." Iraqi security forces had spotted two men, one wearing an explosive vest and a driver, approaching the gate of the Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Directorate in the Qadisiyah neighborhood in the northern city of Kirkuk, a security official said. The man hurled a grenade and then detonated his explosives vest before entering the premises, according to the official, noting that the other man, apparently the driver, sped away from the the scene. ISIS did not claim responsibility for the attack. The security official and the senior intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The attack was the first attempted suicide bombing in recent months, coming amid minor ISIS attacks in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahaddin. According to AP, the US-led coalition recently withdrew troops from its bases in the region, including in Kirkuk, in line with a planned drawdown of forces that would reduce the coalition's presence to bases in Baghdad and the western Anbar province.

Pompeo seeking to 'revive' Obama's nuclear deal but only to justify renewing sanctions on Iran.
The New Arab//Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is said to be preparing a legal argument to allow the United States to remain part of the Iran nuclear accord, despite President Donald Trump's abandonment of the deal that had been brokered by his predecessor Barack Obama. The change in tune comes as the US appears more determined than ever to isolate the country and pressure the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran, and re-introduce harsh sanctions in the wake of the novel coronavirus.
Pompeo will approve a plan under which the United States would legally claim to remain a “participant state” in the nuclear accord Trump rubbished, for the sole purpose of invoking a “snapback” that would restore UN sanctions on Iran which were in place before the accord.
US administration officials have been circulating a new resolution in the Security Council that would prevent countries from exporting conventional arms to Iran after the current ban expires in October, The New York Times reported. Pompeo’s strongarm move means that even if the embargo was not renewed, the US could still exercise its right as an original member of the agreement, and it could force through sanctions without the support of all member states. Not all countries welcome the proposed embargo, with Russia already expressing its intention to resume conventional arms sales to Iran. Asked about it, Pompeo said in a statement to the Times: “We cannot allow the Islamic Republic of Iran to purchase conventional weapons in six months. President Obama should never have agreed to end the UN arms embargo.”We are prepared to exercise all of our diplomatic options to ensure the arms embargo stays in place at the UN Security Council,” he added.
'Cruel’ sanctions
On Thursdya, Iran called for the US to be held accountable for "cruel" sanctions that have hampered its efforts to fight a coronavirus outbreak that it said claimed another 90 lives. The Islamic republic has been struggling to contain the Covid-19 disease since revealing its first cases more than two months ago. It accuses its arch enemy the United States of making the crisis worse through sanctions imposed unilaterally since Washington pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The latest fatalities given by the health ministry for the past 24 hours took the overall death toll in Iran from the coronavirus to 5,481. "Today, the coronavirus has spread not only in Iran but in almost all countries, and it requires serious effort and collective action to deal with it," said Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.
"In addition to fighting the virus, Iran faces illegal and inhuman American sanctions, doubling the pressure on the Iranian people," he was quoted as saying in a ministry statement. "It is the right of the Iranian people to have access to their financial resources to fight the disease and to counter its economic consequences," said Araghchi.

Iran's Coronavirus Death Toll Reaches 5,877
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Iranian Health Ministry Spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on state TV on Tuesday that the country's death toll caused by the novel coronavirus rose by 71 in the past 24 hours. The new number has raised the total of deaths to 5,877 so far.
Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hit hardest by COVID-19 has 92,584 diagnosed cases, Jahanpur said, Reuters reported. Separately, an Iranian official revealed earlier on Monday that the the false belief that toxic methanol cures the coronavirus has seen over 700 people killed in Iran. Adviser to the ministry Hossein Hassanian said that the difference in death tallies is because some alcohol poisoning victims died outside of hospital. “Some 200 people died outside of hospitals”, he told The Associated Press (AP). The national coroner's authority said that alcohol poisoning killed 728 Iranians between Feb. 20 and April 7. Last year there were only 66 deaths from alcohol poisoning, according to the report. AP also reported Jahanpour as saying that 525 people have died from swallowing toxic methanol alcohol since Feb. 20. According to Jahanpour, a total of 5,011 people had been poisoned from methanol alcohol, while some 90 people have lost their eye sight or are suffering eye damage from the alcohol poisoning.

Putin pressuring Assad to show 'more flexibility' in opposition talks
The New Arab/Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin is insisting its ally, the Syrian regime, show "more flexibility" in political settlement talks with the Syrian opposition, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Citing former Russian officials and recent unprecedented Russian criticisms of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the report claimed Putin is "insisting that Assad show more flexibility in talks with the Syrian opposition" on a political solution in order to wrap up the nine-year conflict. "The Kremlin needs to get rid of the Syrian headache," Alexander Shumilin, a former Russian diplomat told Bloomberg. Shumilin, who now runs Moscow's state-financed Europe-Middle East Center said Russia's problem with Syria was with "one person" – Assad. Criticisms in Russian publications reportedly come down to Assad's refusal to give up any power in return for potential reconstruction aid as well as international recognition.
Despite the reports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has "denied that Putin is unhappy with Assad for refusing to compromise with Syria’s opposition in negotiating a political settlement," the Bloomberg report said
Internal spats between Assad and Russia are not uncommon. Russia is reportedly angry with Assad after the Syria leader violated a ceasefire in rebel-held Idlib in January, prompting intervention from Turkey. A new ceasefire has been in place since early March.
Russia’s 2015 intervention in the Syrian conflict, which lead to the deaths of thousands of Syrians, is considered to have been a decisive factor in Assad's continuing rule of Syria. Despite Russia's role, Assad is not "proving as grateful for being kept in power" as Putin needs him to be, the Bloomberg report said.
Russia's involvement in Syria has landed the European giant a 49-year lease of the Tartus port.

Coronavirus latest: US reports one million cases
The National/April 28/2020
The number of confirmed US coronavirus has reached 1 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University website that has been tracking cases. The tracker also reported there have been more than 57,000 deaths, 17,000 of them in New York state. Despite this, a second group of states began lifting lockdown measures to try to restart their economies. Globally, there are more than 3 million coronavirus cases, of whom 213,000 have died. British Airways owner IAG warned on Tuesday that up to 12,000 jobs were at risk in a proposed restructuring of the airline, as it faces the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier on Tuesday, the UAE announced 541 more coronavirus cases, along with 91 new recoveries and seven further deaths after 25,000 more tests were conducted. The country now has 11,380 confirmed cases, 2,181 recoveries and 89 deaths.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 28-29/2020
The Infection That’s Silently Killing Coronavirus Patients
Richard Levitan/Asharq Al-Awsat/April 28/2020
*Dr. Levitan is an emergency doctor.
I have been practicing emergency medicine for 30 years. In 1994 I invented an imaging system for teaching intubation, the procedure of inserting breathing tubes. This led me to perform research into this procedure, and subsequently teach airway procedure courses to physicians worldwide for the last two decades. So at the end of March, as a crush of COVID-19 patients began overwhelming hospitals in New York City, I volunteered to spend 10 days at Bellevue, helping at the hospital where I trained. Over those days, I realized that we are not detecting the deadly pneumonia the virus causes early enough and that we could be doing more to keep patients off ventilators — and alive.
On the long drive to New York from my home in New Hampshire, I called my friend Nick Caputo, an emergency physician in the Bronx, who was already in the thick of it. I wanted to know what I was facing, how to stay safe and what his insights into airway management with this disease were. “Rich,” he said, “it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
He was right. Pneumonia caused by the coronavirus has had a stunning impact on the city’s hospital system. Normally an E.R. has a mix of patients with conditions ranging from the serious, such as heart attacks, strokes and traumatic injuries, to the non-life-threatening, such as minor lacerations, intoxication, orthopedic injuries and migraine headaches.
During my recent time at Bellevue, though, almost all the E.R. patients had Covid pneumonia. Within the first hour of my first shift I inserted breathing tubes into two patients.
Even patients without respiratory complaints had Covid pneumonia. The patient stabbed in the shoulder, whom we X-rayed because we worried he had a collapsed lung, actually had Covid pneumonia. In patients on whom we did CT scans because they were injured in falls, we coincidentally found Covid pneumonia. Elderly patients who had passed out for unknown reasons and a number of diabetic patients were found to have it.
And here is what really surprised us: These patients did not report any sensation of breathing problems, even though their chest X-rays showed diffuse pneumonia and their oxygen was below normal. How could this be?
We are just beginning to recognize that Covid pneumonia initially causes a form of oxygen deprivation we call “silent hypoxia” — “silent” because of its insidious, hard-to-detect nature.
Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs in which the air sacs fill with fluid or pus. Normally, patients develop chest discomfort, pain with breathing and other breathing problems. But when Covid pneumonia first strikes, patients don’t feel short of breath, even as their oxygen levels fall. And by the time they do, they have alarmingly low oxygen levels and moderate-to-severe pneumonia (as seen on chest X-rays). Normal oxygen saturation for most persons at sea level is 94 to 100 percent; Covid pneumonia patients I saw had oxygen saturations as low as 50 percent.
To my amazement, most patients I saw said they had been sick for a week or so with fever, cough, upset stomach and fatigue, but they only became short of breath the day they came to the hospital. Their pneumonia had clearly been going on for days, but by the time they felt they had to go to the hospital, they were often already in critical condition.
In emergency departments we insert breathing tubes in critically ill patients for a variety of reasons. In my 30 years of practice, however, most patients requiring emergency intubation are in shock, have altered mental status or are grunting to breathe. Patients requiring intubation because of acute hypoxia are often unconscious or using every muscle they can to take a breath. They are in extreme duress. Covid pneumonia cases are very different.
A vast majority of Covid pneumonia patients I met had remarkably low oxygen saturations at triage — seemingly incompatible with life — but they were using their cellphones as we put them on monitors. Although breathing fast, they had relatively minimal apparent distress, despite dangerously low oxygen levels and terrible pneumonia on chest X-rays.
We are only just beginning to understand why this is so. The coronavirus attacks lung cells that make surfactant. This substance helps the air sacs in the lungs stay open between breaths and is critical to normal lung function. As the inflammation from Covid pneumonia starts, it causes the air sacs to collapse, and oxygen levels fall. Yet the lungs initially remain “compliant,” not yet stiff or heavy with fluid. This means patients can still expel carbon dioxide — and without a buildup of carbon dioxide, patients do not feel short of breath.
Patients compensate for the low oxygen in their blood by breathing faster and deeper — and this happens without their realizing it. This silent hypoxia, and the patient’s physiological response to it, causes even more inflammation and more air sacs to collapse, and the pneumonia worsens until oxygen levels plummet. In effect, patients are injuring their own lungs by breathing harder and harder. Twenty percent of Covid pneumonia patients then go on to a second and deadlier phase of lung injury. Fluid builds up and the lungs become stiff, carbon dioxide rises, and patients develop acute respiratory failure.
By the time patients have noticeable trouble breathing and present to the hospital with dangerously low oxygen levels, many will ultimately require a ventilator.
Silent hypoxia progressing rapidly to respiratory failure explains cases of Covid-19 patients dying suddenly after not feeling short of breath. (It appears that most Covid-19 patients experience relatively mild symptoms and get over the illness in a week or two without treatment.)
A major reason this pandemic is straining our health system is the alarming severity of lung injury patients have when they arrive in emergency rooms. Covid-19 overwhelmingly kills through the lungs. And because so many patients are not going to the hospital until their pneumonia is already well advanced, many wind up on ventilators, causing shortages of the machines. And once on ventilators, many die.
Avoiding the use of a ventilator is a huge win for both patient and the health care system. The resources needed for patients on ventilators are staggering. Vented patients require multiple sedatives so that they don’t buck the vent or accidentally remove their breathing tubes; they need intravenous and arterial lines, IV medicines and IV pumps. In addition to a tube in the trachea, they have tubes in their stomach and bladder. Teams of people are required to move each patient, turning them on their stomach and then their back, twice a day to improve lung function.

The US Isn’t Actually Doing So Badly Against Coronavirus
Ramesh Ponnuru/Asharq Al-Awsat/April 28/2020
We don’t have enough tests for COVID-19 in the US. President Donald Trump spent weeks minimizing the threat and still makes comments that undermine his own administration’s public-health efforts. Congress has not supplied sufficient funding for relief efforts, and left town without making provision to vote remotely if needed. Some politicians have shown culpable ignorance about the epidemic, while others have overreacted in self-defeating ways.
Americans have a lot of legitimate complaints about the response to the coronavirus. The complaints are worth voicing. Criticism of mistakes can lead to fixing them, or at least preventing their recurrence. (Granted, an opinion columnist has a vested interest in saying that.)
But our justified discontents should not obscure everything for which we should be grateful. In some quarters, there is a mood of bitter disappointment in America. The journalist Julia Ioffe took it as an indictment of our country when we took the lead in confirmed coronavirus cases. Anne Applebaum drew an unflattering contrast between our shutdown of international flights and China’s sending aid to Italy: “Who is the superpower?” George Packer wrote an essay in the Atlantic claiming that the epidemic reveals that the US is “a failed state.”
All of this is overwrought. International comparisons of confirmed cases tell us little, considering that they don’t account for population size, lying governments or discrepancies in detection. The Chinese regime charged suffering European countries high rates for faulty test kits and protective masks, and it bears a lot of the responsibility for the epidemic’s having started in the first place. Its standing in Europe has fallen, not risen. Packer dwells so long on the deficiencies of Trump and the Republican Party as to make it sound as though all it will take for us to stop being a failed state is for a few people in the Midwest to vote differently this fall than they did in 2016.
The truth is that for all our mistakes, we are not handling the epidemic in markedly worse fashion than other developed countries. The UK, France, Italy and Spain all seem to have higher mortality rates. The US population has adapted quickly to radically changed circumstances, albeit of course not perfectly or uniformly.
Even federal, state and local governments, deeply flawed as they are, deserve some credit. After early stumbles made lockdowns an unfortunate necessity, one sector of American life after another accepted that logic in short order.
Washington overcame partisan divisions to pass two large rescue packages. One can quibble with their provisions, but the main components, including a large increase in unemployment benefits and forgivable loans for small businesses, are the right ones. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates and expanded lending facilities, moving, like Congress, faster than it had during the financial crisis of a dozen years ago. Scores of federal and state regulations that impeded the response have been waived. A political system that often seems sclerotic has moved pretty rapidly under difficult circumstances.
The best hope for a breakthrough that vanquishes the coronavirus, such as a vaccine, comes from the US biopharmaceutical industry. A lot of American money and brains, aided by a supportive American public-policy environment, are in a very real sense working for the betterment of the world right now.
We have made serious mistakes, which is not uncommon during a crisis, and even now there are things we could be doing better. To imagine that everything would be going smoothly if only we had better leaders, or different institutions, or our own pet policies in place: That’s to replace constructive criticism with self-indulgent fantasy.

Coronavirus: China's Global Intimidation Campaign/The European Union Self-Censors to Appease China
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/April 28/2020
Chinese envoys have been especially aggressive on Twitter, which they are using to attack, intimidate and silence Western journalists, lawmakers and think tank scholars — essentially anyone who contradicts China's official version of events.
Under pressure from Chinese officials, Esther Osorio, a communications adviser to Josep Borrell, the head of the EU diplomatic service, personally intervened to delay the release of the initial report. The EU was reportedly hoping to get better treatment for European companies in China. On April 25, however, the South China Morning Post, which also obtained a copy of the original report, revealed that Beijing had threatened to withhold medical supplies from Europe if the section on China was not removed.
On April 15, Germany's most popular newspaper, Bild, published an article titled, "What China Owes Us So Far," which suggested that China should pay Germany €150 billion ($162 billion) in reparations for the coronavirus pandemic. The article included an itemized list of economic damage, including €50 billion for losses to small businesses and €24 billion for lost tourism.
"You rule by surveillance. You wouldn't be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country." — Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Bild, "You Are Endangering the Entire World," addressed directly to President Xi Jinping.
The European Union has caved in to pressure from China and has watered down a report on Chinese efforts to deflect blame for the coronavirus pandemic. Officials in Beijing reportedly threatened to block the export of medical supplies to Europe if the report was published in its original form. Pictured: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at EU headquarters in Brussels, on December 17, 2019. (Photo by John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)
The European Union has caved in to pressure from China and has watered down a report on Chinese efforts to deflect blame for the coronavirus pandemic. Officials in Beijing reportedly threatened to block the export of medical supplies to Europe if the report was published in its original form.
The revelations come as Chinese diplomats around the world are waging an aggressive disinformation campaign — described as a "Wolf Warrior" style of diplomacy, named after a Chinese nationalist action film series — aimed at controlling the narrative about the origins of the coronavirus.
Chinese envoys have been especially aggressive on Twitter, which they are using to attack, intimidate and silence Western journalists, lawmakers and think tank scholars — essentially anyone who contradicts China's official version of events.
Over the past year, more than 60 Chinese diplomats and diplomatic missions set up Twitter or Facebook accounts, according to the Reuters news agency, even though both platforms are banned in China, and have been using them to attack Beijing's critics around the world.
On April 21, the Brussels-based news outlet Politico Europe reported that it had received an advance copy of an EU report about Chinese and Russian disinformation activities related to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The report, which the EU was planning to publish that same day, included the following paragraph:
"China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image. Both overt and covert tactics have been observed."
Chinese officials quickly contacted the European Union's representatives in Beijing to try to kill the report, according to the New York Times, which also received an original version of it.
The EU's External Action Service eventually published the report — Covid-19 Disinformation — on April 24 but the language on China was heavily toned-down. The New York Times explained:
"The original report cited Beijing's efforts to curtail mentions of the virus's origins in China, in part by blaming the United States for spreading the disease internationally. It noted that Beijing had criticized France as slow to respond to the pandemic and had pushed false accusations that French politicians used racist slurs against the head of the World Health Organization....
"But China moved quickly to block the document's release, and the European Union pulled back. The report had been on the verge of publication, until senior officials ordered revisions to soften the language....
"The sentence about China's 'global disinformation' campaign was removed, as was any mention of the dispute between China and France. Other language was toned down...."
Under pressure from Chinese officials, Esther Osorio, a communications adviser to Josep Borrell, the head of the EU diplomatic service, personally intervened to delay the release of the initial report. The New York Times wrote:
"Ms. Osorio, the aide to Mr. Borrell, asked analysts to revise the document to focus less explicitly on China and Russia to avoid accusations of bias, according to an email and interviews. She asked analysts to differentiate between pushing disinformation and aggressively pushing a narrative, and to document each 'as we already see heavy pushback from CN' — an abbreviation for China."
The EU was reportedly hoping to get better treatment for European companies in China. On April 25, however, the South China Morning Post, which also obtained a copy of the original report, revealed that Beijing had threatened to withhold medical supplies from Europe if the section on China was not removed.
The Indian geopolitical analyst Brahma Chellaney summed up the broader implications of the EU's actions:
"EU self-censors its report after pressure from China. Diluting its report, EU removed references to China's pandemic-related 'disinformation campaign.' EU remains a weak link in building a concert of democracies against China's muscular authoritarianism."
Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats around the world, led by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, have been lashing out at governments and individuals they feel have insulted China. Some analysts say this reflects China's growing influence in international affairs. "China wants other countries to know who's boss," wrote China watcher Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian.
Other analysts argue that China's intransigence reflects the fragility of the Chinese Communist Party and that Chinese President Xi Jinping is fueling nationalism to consolidate his control amid growing domestic anger over his mishandling of the coronavirus crisis. "All governments worry how they'll survive this plague, but for a one-party authoritarian government, the fears are existential," noted Kevin Libin, columnist and managing editor of Canada's National Post.
In any event, Chinese pressure tactics have worked in some instances — including with the European Union and the Philippines. With others, China's bullying has backfired spectacularly.
On April 15, Germany's most popular newspaper, Bild, published an article titled, "What China Owes Us So Far," which suggested that China should pay Germany €150 billion ($162 billion) in reparations for the coronavirus pandemic. The article included an itemized list of economic damage, including €50 billion for losses to small businesses and €24 billion for lost tourism.
The Chinese Embassy in Berlin responded by accusing Bild of racism. In a letter, embassy spokesperson Tao Lili wrote:
"Your report not only lacks essential facts and precise timelines, but also a minimum of journalistic due diligence and fairness. Those who do as you did with today's newspaper article fuel nationalism, prejudice, xenophobia and animosity against China. It does not do justice to the traditional friendship between our two peoples or a serious understanding of journalism. Against this background, I ask myself, where in your editorial office does the dislike of our people and our state come from?"
Rather than being cowed into submission, Bild's editor-in-chief, Julian Reichelt, countered with his own letter: "You Are Endangering the Entire World." It was published in German and English and addressed directly to President Xi Jinping. Reichelt wrote:
"You rule by surveillance. You wouldn't be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country.
"You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them — and with them, the rest of the world.
"Surveillance is a denial of freedom. And a nation that is not free, is not creative. A nation that is not innovative, does not invent anything. This is why you have made your country the world champion in intellectual property theft.
"China enriches itself with the inventions of others, instead of inventing on its own. The reason China does not innovate and invent is that you don't let the young people in your country think freely. China's greatest export hit (that nobody wanted to have, but which has nevertheless gone around the world) is Corona....
"You have created an inscrutable, non-transparent China. Before Corona, China was known as a surveillance state. Now, China is known as a surveillance state that infected the world with a deadly disease. That is your political legacy.
"Your embassy tells me that I am not living up to the 'traditional friendship of our peoples.' I suppose you consider it a great 'friendship' when you now generously send masks around the world. This isn't friendship, I would call it imperialism hidden behind a smile — a Trojan Horse.
"You plan to strengthen China through a plague that you exported. You will not succeed. Corona will be your political end, sooner or later."
Other recent examples of efforts by Chinese diplomats to intimidate and silence those abroad who challenge the Chinese government include:
Australia
On April 23, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on all countries that are members of the World Health Organization (WHO) to support an independent inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic. He said that all members of the WHO should be obliged to participate in a review and added that Australia would push for the inquiry during the WHO Assembly on May 17.
China's foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, replied: "The so-called independent inquiry proposed by Australia is in reality political manipulation. We advise Australia to give up its ideological prejudices."
Brazil
China's Ambassador to Brazil, Yang Wanming, shared a tweet, later deleted, calling the family of President Jair Bolsonaro a "huge poison" after his son Eduardo blamed the "Chinese dictatorship" for the coronavirus pandemic. The tweet drew a rebuke from Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo, who said the tweet was inappropriate behavior for an ambassador.
Canada
On April 19, the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa denounced the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), a leading Canadian think tank, after it published an open letter accusing Chinese authorities of covering up the pandemic. The Chinese Embassy wrote:
"Recently, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute published the so-called open letter, falsely claimed that the roots of the pandemic are in a cover-up by China, carried out malicious slander and attacks on the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, and grossly interfered in China's internal affairs. The Chinese side expresses its firm opposition over such actions by the MLI.... We urge the MLI to abide by the professional ethics, focus on the work a think tank is supposed to do, refrain from politicizing the research work, and give up anti-China nonsense."
A scholar at the MLI, Kaveh Shahrooz, tweeted:
"The Chinese embassy in Canada has issued a statement attacking the @MLInstitute, where I serve as a Senior Fellow. We are a thorn in the side of the governments like those of China, Iran, and Russia. I am immensely proud of this fact."
Another MLI scholar, Shuvaloy Majumdar, tweeted:
"I would like to congratulate the PRC Embassy-Ottawa for helping draw more scrutiny to the Communist Party's intimidation of its own people, and its continued abuse abroad."
The Canadian government has remained silent on the issue. Charles Burton, a senior fellow and China expert at the MLI, said that Ottawa's silence will only embolden Beijing to make further attempts to stifle free speech in Canada:
"One would expect that the government of Canada would engage with the Chinese embassy about such a statement. It's clearly an attempt to interfere with freedom of expression by a Canadian think tank and make allegations against the think tank that are clearly without basis whatsoever."
On April 19, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tweeted:
"Shocked to learn that my longtime friend Martin Lee, founder of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, was arrested today together with many of #HongKong's most prominent citizens. Martin is the elder statesman of Hong Kong democracy. I hope for his immediate release."
The Chinese Consulate General in Calgary responded:
"The Premier of Alberta commented on Twitter on the lawful arrest of an anti-China rioter by the Hong Kong police. No one stays out of the law. Ignoring the facts and openly advocating for the rioters can only undermine the rule of law, which is not in Canada's own interests. We urge local politicians to abide by the basic norms governing international relations, respect the Hong Kong SAR law enforcement, and immediately stop interfering in China's internal affairs."
Kenney replied:
"I acknowledge that Alberta doesn't have a foreign policy and I don't freelance in foreign policy, but I'll just say this — when a personal friend of mine is arrested as a political prisoner, I cannot in good conscience remain silent."
When China regained sovereignty over Hong Kong from the British in 1997, Beijing agreed to allow Hong Kong to enjoy its freedoms until 2047, in an arrangement known as "one country, two systems."
On April 14, The Globe and Mail, the most widely-read newspaper in Canada, published an opinion article titled, "The Chinese Communist Party's Culture of Corruption and Repression has Cost Lives around the World." The article accused the CCP of concealing, destroying, falsifying, fabricating, suppressing, misrepresenting information about the epidemic; of silencing and criminalizing dissent; and of disappearing whistleblowers, "all of which reflect the breadth of criminality and corruption in the party." The article called on the international community to hold Chinese authorities accountable for their roles in creating "one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history."
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa replied that the article was "full of hatred and prejudice" against the Communist Party of China (CPC):
"How could anyone speak of such a thing as accountability? The 'political virus' of stigma is more dangerous than the disease itself. Those who try to ascribe so-called 'criminality' to the CPC are viewing China with ideological prejudice, and the 'political motive' behind that is doubtful.
"We advise those persons to focus on their domestic epidemic prevention and control efforts. To shift blames won't help mitigate the epidemic at home, nor will it help the international cooperation in prevention and control of the pandemic."
On April 1, The Globe and Mail published an opinion article, "Why Would We Trust China's Official COVID-19 Numbers?" It asked:
"The Chinese government's first instinct has always been to hide the facts, especially if they reveal its own failures, so why would anyone believe the data coming out of China now on COVID-19? .... The Communist government owes its very legitimacy to persuading Chinese citizens that it does a better job than democratically elected administrations in protecting their interests. To that end, it has long inflated the country's economic growth statistics and underreported its greenhouse-gas emissions. Why would anyone expect it to be straight about its own COVID-19 epidemic?"
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa replied:
"The article views that the United States is a democratic state and China is a country led by the Communist government, leading to a ridiculous conclusion that the data of the U.S. is more transparent than that of China.... This is a naked double standard. We urge The Globe and Mail to abandon prejudice, respect facts, and stop making irresponsible remarks against China's efforts to fight against COVID-19."
France
On April 14, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian summoned the Chinese Ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, to express his disagreement with certain recent remarks by Chinese representatives in France as part of the coronavirus pandemic. "Some recent public statements by representatives of the Chinese Embassy in France do not conform to the quality of the bilateral relationship between our two countries," he said.
In a series of recent media statements, Lu accused "a certain French press" of besmirching China's image by means of "lies" about its role in the current coronavirus pandemic. These media — which he never named but which seem, in his view, to represent the entire French press — have "mocked China" in violation of "all media ethics and the most elementary good faith" with an approach which, in Lu's words, "borders on paranoia."
Speaking on the cable TV channel Mandarin TV on March 15, Lu accused the media of using "propaganda" methods to "brainwash" the public. In statements posted on the embassy website on February 14 and 29, he condemned the "irresponsible" comments and "absurdities" being said in the French media about China.
The secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire said:
"This 'lesson in journalism' for the French press is inappropriate coming from a representative of the People's Republic of China, a country that is ranked 177th out of 180 countries in RSF's World Press Freedom Index and is one of the world's biggest jailers of journalists. Beijing's censorship of the Chinese media had a very negative impact by delaying the regime's response at the outset of the coronavirus epidemic."
RSF added in a press release:
"The ambassador's statements reflect a policy concerted at the highest level of the Chinese government that aims to control international media coverage, as RSF demonstrated in a report entitled 'China's Pursuit of a New World Media Order' in 2019."
Germany
On April 12, the newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported that it had received leaked documents from the German Foreign Ministry which revealed that Chinese officials had directly contacted officials and employees at several federal ministries and asked them to "express themselves positively" about China's management of the coronavirus crisis. Chinese officials also "engaged decision-makers from the political environment including lobbyists" to use them "for Chinese interests in Germany to promote the political agenda of the Communist Party." The Chinese Embassy in Berlin responded by accusing Welt am Sonntag of being "keen to slander and smear" China. "All kinds of stigmatization of China should be stopped."
India
The Chinese Ambassador to India, Ji Rong, has repeatedly lashed out at Indian officials and media outlets. On April 8, he tweeted:
"So-called complaint by certain Indian organizations to UNHRC asking China compensate for losses caused by #COVID19 is ridiculous & eyeball-catching nonsense. At this difficult time, we need to work together instead of stigmatizing others & shifting blame."
On April 10, Ji tweeted:
"It is regrettable some Indian media published articles referring #COVID19 again as 'WuhanVirus','ChineseVirus'. It is clear consensus by international community that a virus should not be linked to any specific country, region or ethnic group. Such stigmatization is unacceptable."
Philippines
On March 29, the Department of Health apologized for comments it made a day earlier that two batches of coronavirus test kits provided by China were substandard. Undersecretary for Health Maria Rosario Vergeire had said that kits made by Chinese manufacturers BGI Group and Sansure Biotech were only 40% accurate in diagnosing Covid-19 and that some of them would have to be discarded. The Chinese Embassy in Manila tweeted:
"The Chinese Embassy firmly rejects any irresponsible remarks and any attempts to undermine our cooperation in this regard."
Sweden
On January 18, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde summoned the Chinese Ambassador to Sweden, Gui Congyou, after compared Swedish media coverage of China to a lightweight boxer who "provokes a feud" with a heavyweight. Congyou, who has become well-known for his outspoken attacks, told the state broadcaster SVT that the "frequent vicious attacks on the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government by some Swedish media" were comparable to a 48kg light featherweight boxer taking on a fighter almost twice his size:
"The 86kg boxer, out of good will to protect the lightweight boxer, advises him to leave and mind his own business, but the latter refuses to listen, and even breaks into the home of the heavyweight boxer. What choice do you expect the heavyweight boxer to have?"
Utgivarna, a group which represents Sweden's private and public sector media, in a statement said:
"Time and again, China's ambassador Gui Congyou has tried to undermine the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression under the Swedish constitution with false statements and threats. It is unacceptable that the world's largest dictatorship is trying to prevent free and independent journalism in a democracy like Sweden. These repeated attacks must cease immediately."
Venezuela
On March 18, the Chinese Embassy in Venezuela posted an angry "declaration" consisting of 17 tweets after unidentified Venezuelan lawmakers referred to the coronavirus as the "Chinese Coronavirus" or the "Wuhan Coronavirus." The Chinese Embassy said the lawmakers were afflicted with a "political virus" and recommended they "seek treatment." A first step, it tweeted, would be for them to "put on a mask and shut up."
*Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Iran: Mullahs Using Coronavirus to Heighten Anti-Americanism
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/April 28/2020
Iran's covert disinformation operations concerning COVID-19 are not only aimed at inciting hatred toward the US; they are also, it seems, aimed at negatively impacting the international community's efforts to fight the virus.
Whenever social media accounts or websites linked to the Iranian regime's disinformation campaigns are exposed and removed, the Islamic Republic seems to find other outlets or else creates new accounts to continue spreading its propaganda.
Even amid the coronavirus outbreak and public health crisis, the Iranian regime seems to still prioritize its revolutionary ideals and its anti-American agenda. Unfortunately, the United Nations and the EU remain silent on the Iranian regime's efforts to spread disinformation as well as on its other malign behavior.
While the US has offered medical assistance to Iran, the regime in Tehran appears to be exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to spread disinformation. It includes pro-China and anti-US narratives, most likely to ratchet up anti-Americanism.
Recently, the social media analyst Graphika revealed that a pro-Iranian influencing operation, known as the International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM), had begun a social media disinformation campaign about the coronavirus outbreak around end of February.
According to the detailed report:
"the 'International Union of Virtual Media' - is a prolific operator that is centered on websites rather than social media. Its long-running practice has been to create or copy web-based content that amplifies Iranian government narratives, then post it to social media accounts that pose as independent news outlets or journalists."The disinformation campaign is centered on spreading the narrative that the US government developed the novel virus in order to advance its interests around the globe. The IUVM argued, through its posts on social media, that "it is no coincidence that the virus selectively goes to countries that are considered enemies of the United States, namely China, Iran, some EU countries, including Italy", based on Graphika's report.
"Much of the [Facebook] account's content attacked Trump, in line with Iranian state narratives" the report added.
"It is pro-Iran and pro-Palestinian, while taking every opportunity to criticize Saudi Arabia, the United States, Israel and the Saudi-led war in Yemen... IUVM copies its content verbatim from Iranian regime sources such as PressTV and the website of Ayatollah Khamenei, but posts it without attribution."
The disinformation network, using sophisticated methods, includes in its contents "video reports, news articles and memes that it hosts on a series of IUVM-branded websites, and then posts across social media accounts that the operation controls more or less covertly."
"Over the past few years, social media platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have repeatedly removed IUVM accounts from their platforms for being engaged in pro-Iran information operations and deceiving users, and have continued investigating and disrupting this network."
Iran's covert disinformation operations concerning COVID-19 are not only aimed at inciting hatred toward the US; they are also, it seems, aimed at negatively impacting the international community's efforts to fight the virus. As the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, Laura Cooper, pointed out in an April 13 statement:
"These are messages that are endangering global health because they're undermining the efforts of governments, of health agencies and of organizations that are in charge of disseminating accurate information about the virus to the public."
This was not the first time the Iranian regime's disinformation operations have been exposed. In August 2018, for example, a cybersecurity firm, FireEye, also revealed data about Iran's widespread misinformation campaigns. Of course, Iran has been spreading disinformation about its nuclear and missile development programs for decades.
After the report, some of the giant social media platforms took action and removed hundreds of accounts said to be linked to the Iranian government. Facebook, for example, had to remove "652 pages, groups and accounts for coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services." Other popular social media outlets, such as Twitter and Google owner Alphabet, have also identified and removed many "inauthentic" accounts that evidently originated in Iran.
Those accounts, not surprisingly, were also busy promoting the Iranian regime's narratives and interests. As Facebook explained on August 21, 2018:
"Based on FireEye's tip, we started an investigation into 'Liberty Front Press' and identified additional accounts and Pages from their network. We are able to link this network to Iranian state media through publicly available website registration information, as well as the use of related IP addresses and Facebook Pages sharing the same admins. For example, one part of the network, 'Quest 4 Truth,' claims to be an independent Iranian media organization, but is in fact linked to Press TV, an English-language news network affiliated with Iranian state media."
Also not surprisingly, whenever social media accounts or websites linked to the Iranian regime's disinformation campaigns are exposed and removed, the Islamic Republic seems to find other outlets or else creates new accounts to continue spreading its propaganda.
Even amid the coronavirus outbreak and public health crisis, the Iranian regime seems to still prioritize its revolutionary ideals and its anti-American agenda. Unfortunately, the United Nations and the EU remain silent on the Iranian regime's efforts to spread disinformation as well as on its other malign behavior. Just this week, it was reported that Iran executed "at least six... people in recent days.... According to the latest annual Amnesty International report released last Tuesday, about one-third of executions worldwide are carried out in Iran."
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Iran's Khamenei faces new struggles as he celebrates 81st birthday
Jason M.BrodskyLjerusalem Post/April 28/2020
Amid Iran’s satellite launch, harassment of US warships, and attacks on coalition troops, a recent development has gone underreported: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei turned 81 on April 19.
Although official documents in Iran list his birthday as being in July, the supreme leader’s website recognizes April 19 as the real date. The octogenarian is one of the longest-serving leaders in the Middle East. His power, presence and position extend well beyond the borders of the Islamic Republic.Khamenei’s 80th year was an annus horribilis by any measure: protests over gas policies led to as many as 1,500 deaths; a US drone strike took out his top mastermind Qasem Soleimani; there was a record-low turnout in Iran’s parliamentary elections; and the coronavirus pandemic has shaken Iranian society.
But the supreme leader has persisted, with a recent propaganda poster from his office carrying the slogan “Hurting but dignified.” Early indications reveal that this year will be one of consolidation at home and adaptation abroad.
Domestic control
Domestically, the results of the last parliamentary election offer a guide to Khamenei’s thinking. More than 7,000 candidates were disqualified from running out of more than 15,000 hopefuls, including some 90 sitting members of parliament. In contrast to the last legislative elections of 2016, when President Hassan Rouhani’s allies won all 30 seats from Tehran and 41% of the overall seats, the results from the 2020 election were a setback to Rouhani’s brand of politics, with hardliners winning 221 out of 290 seats, an increase of 83 seats. The personalities behind the winning coalition reveal Khamenei’s hidden hand, with three close associates playing leading roles in the election. The triumphant coalition - named the Council of Islamic Revolution Forces Alliance - was chaired by Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel. Haddad Adel isn’t just a former speaker of parliament but is more importantly an in-law of the supreme leader. While Haddad Adel himself wasn’t a candidate, additional Khamenei confidants found themselves in the top slots.
IDF intelligence’s constant eye on coronavirus and Iran
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who won the most votes in February as a former mayor of Tehran and commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Air Force, is a contender to become the next speaker. There is evidence to suggest that at one point he had a political partnership with the supreme leader’s influential son, Mojtaba Khamenei. A leaked 2008 US State Department cable once included an account which described him as the “’backbone’ of Qalibaf’s past and continuing election campaigns.” Although Qalibaf has demonstrated some independence during his career, and while there is speculation the supreme leader’s son once counseled his father to switch his support to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 election, he remains a trusted member of Khamenei’s larger patronage network, with the supreme leader finding a seat for him on the Expediency Council after his service as mayor of Tehran. After Qalibaf, Mostafa Mir-Salim won the second-most votes in Tehran. Like Qalibaf, Mir-Salim is a Khamenei appointee to the Expediency Council. Mir-Salim also served as a senior aide to the supreme leader during his presidency. This stands in contrast to the winning slate of the 2016 elections, with the less reliable former Reformist vice president Mohammad Reza Aref, who once demanded the release of the leaders of the Green Movement who remain under house arrest, receiving the most votes from the List of Hope. Ali Motahari, who has questioned the supreme leader’s authority, also won a seat in the 10th parliament. But Motahari has become so controversial to the Islamic Republic’s establishment, he wasn’t even allowed to run in the 2020 election. Thus, trusted Khamenei associates have been engineering and pioneering the new parliament.
IN ADDITION to this consolidation of personalities, Khamenei and the Islamic republic’s deep state have slowly chipped away at parliament’s already limited authority over the past year. The creation of the Supreme Economic Coordination Council (ECC) in 2018, which greenlighted the Islamic Republic’s new gas policy in November, raised hackles from members of parliament, criticizing the body’s usurpation of legislative prerogatives. Khamenei reportedly went as far as to send a note to the legislative chamber, warning its members not to oppose the gas policy. There were similar complaints over the Expediency Council’s dithering over legislation passed by parliament to satisfy the Financial Action Task Force’s action plan for Iran. That’s not to mention that in March, the supreme leader approved the use of Article 85 of the constitution for this year’s budget, which bypassed consideration by a full session of parliament due to the coronavirus. These developments are evidence that Khamenei is consolidating the personalities and processes of the Islamic republic to affect his succession as he ages. The new parliament will be in office until 2024, when the supreme leader would turn 85. The presence of loyal aides-de-camp, the sidelining of troublemakers, and the centralization of authority are all part of this process.
Regional Adaptation
The death of Qasem Soleimani left a void in implementation of Iran's regional strategy. There are indications that since January, the regime has struggled to recreate a durable oversight mechanism for its proxies and partners, given Soleimani’s singular imprimatur over Iran’s Axis of Resistance after two decades as commander of the Quds Force. This has manifested itself in a fragmentation of control, with four players emerging to fill the leadership vacuum: Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani; Lebanese Hezbollah’s representative in Iraq Mohammad Kawtharani; the new head of the Quds Force Esmail Ghaani; and his deputy Mohammad Hejazi.
Soleimani’s fluency in Arabic increased his ability to manage and meddle throughout the region. This stands in contrast to his replacement, Esmail Ghaani, who doesn’t share his command of the language. In addition to a language barrier, Ghaani doesn’t command the same charisma as Soleimani in Iran’s western theater, with his experience resting in Quds Force operations to the east, particularly Afghanistan. That’s not to mention Ghaani spending much of his career as a deputy commander, in contrast with the Islamic Republic’s deep bench of experienced officers who have helmed multiple armed organs, like Ali Shamkhani as a former head of the IRGC Navy and the regular navy, and Hejazi, as a former commander of the Basij armed force and a one-time deputy commander-in-chief of the IRGC. This is all in addition to Shamkhani being an ethnic Arab himself, Hejazi’s recent experience coordinating Quds Force operations in Lebanon, and Kawtharani taking over “some of the political coordination of Iran-aligned paramilitary groups” after Soleimani’s death, according to the US State Department. These experiences position these three men to compensate for Ghaani’s linguistic and geographic weaknesses.
The concerns over Ghaani’s ability to serve as an effective replacement surfaced as he traveled to Syria and Iraq in recent weeks - his first public trips since ascending to the top job - following a similar trip to Baghdad by Shamkhani. Arab media reports suggested Ghaani struggled to unify the rank and file of Iran’s Shi’ite allies in Iraq, and that Muqtada al-Sadr reportedly nixed a previously scheduled meeting with him. While Iran still succeeded in the torpedoing of Adnan al-Zurfi’s nomination for prime minister of Iraq and the ushering in of a more acceptable replacement, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, fissures among Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) remain. Kata'ib Hezbollah described al-Kadhimi’s nomination as prime minister as a “declaration of war against the Iraqi people,” dubbing him a “suspicious figure,” despite support from other Iran-backed Shi’ite elements.
Likewise, Kata'ib Hezbollah didn’t appear to sign on to a joint statement among other PMFs this month saying US forces would be dealt with as occupiers. This complicated landscape suggests over the next year that Iran’s supreme leader will be relying on multiple actors with mixed results, until the regime establishes a durable oversight structure for its Axis of Resistance. As Iran’s supreme leader celebrates a new year, he’s grappling with multiple crises: over legitimacy, leadership and legacy. Over the coming months, we will continue to witness fortification at home and improvisation abroad.
The writer is the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). He is on Twitter @JasonMBrod

Camel Urine: Islam’s “Best Cure” for Coronavirus?
Raymond Ibrahim/April 28/2020
Muslim advocacy for drinking camel urine is back in the news, this time in connection with coronavirus, which is especially ironic if not deadly, as will be explained.
An “Islamic medicine specialist” and director of a religious-scientific institution in Iran recently called on his countrymen to drink camel urine as the “best cure” for coronavirus and other ailments.
Mehdi Sabili, who is affiliated with the Iranian regime, uploaded a video on his Instagram account extolling the virtues of dromedary urine on April 19. The video, which has since gone viral, also depicted him drinking a glass of freshly procured camel urine—which he enthused was best drunk “fresh and warm”—and calling on fellow Iranians to do the same three times a day for three days (i.e., nine full glasses).
Where does this idea come from? As usual and with everything Islamic, the drinking of camel urine for salutary benefits is traced back to Muhammad (and, for Iran’s Shias, subsequent imams). According to canonical hadiths or traditions, the prophet medicinally prescribed the ingestion of dromedary urine. Somewhat relatedly, Muhammad’s own urine—which some of his followers eagerly drank—was and continues to be considered a great and salutary blessing, one that even safeguards against the fires of hell.
For faithful Muslims such as Iran’s Sabili, because urine drinking—in this case, camels’—was recommended by the prophet, it must remain applicable, regardless of what “science” has come to say on the matter. Such is the totalitarian nature of Islamic law, or sharia, which treats, not just the Koran, but canonical hadiths as sacred and not to be questioned.
Nor is this some sudden, desperate response to coronavirus. For example, back in 2012, Dr. Zaghlul al-Naggar, a prominent Islamic thinker and Chairman of Egypt’s Committee of Scientific Notions in the Koran, revealed on a live television show that a medical center in Marsa Matrouh actually specialized in treating people with camel urine—all in accord with the prophet’s advice. When another guest challenged al-Naggar, saying that urine is where all the body’s toxins are carried out—“so, shall we drink it for health?”—the representative of “Islamic science” responded with arrogance: “I am older than you and more learned than you: you are not going to teach me; I will teach generations of people like you.”
A few months later, in late 2012, a video appeared showing men collecting camel urine in buckets and giving it to people who, in the narrator’s words, are “looking to be healed from influenza, diabetes, infectious diseases, infertility,” etc. Several women were shown drinking the camel urine—and doing all they can to keep it down and not vomit. The Egyptian narrator concluded by saying he is not airing this video to mock or disgust but to determine “whether we are moving forward, or whether we are moving backwards.”
Indeed, such is the tragedy. Not only is drinking camel urine not beneficial; it appears to have been directly linked to a coronavirus outbreak: In 2012, only Saudi Arabia—the home of Islam and its holy cities—was plagued by another form of coronavirus (MERS-CoV, aka “Camel Flu”). A whopping 40% of the more than one thousand Saudis who contracted it died. One of its causes, which the World Health Organization strongly warned against, was the drinking of camel urine.
Relying on other forms of “sharia medicine”—for instance, by “inserting velvet oil into the anus” to combat coronavirus—has also led to casualties. In Iran alone, a coronavirus patient who was told by a cleric to smell roses as a cure died soon thereafter; and the son of a prominent ayatollah confessed that his father died because he trusted so-called “Islamic medicine specialists.”
In the end, it is significant to note that the mentality that extols the ingestion of camel urine is the same mentality that calls for eternal “jihad against infidels.” Both are defined by blind obedience to the utterances of Muhammad, just as both lead to suffering.

COVID-19 and (IAEA) the International Atomic Energy Agency: Where does the Iran mission stand?
Andrea Stricker/Jacob Nagel/FDD/April 28/2020
If Iran continues to stonewall, the IAEA should vote to refer the matter to the UN Security Council for the re-imposition of sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal.
At the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fell into a worrying slowdown of inspections. Now it is rebounding. IAEA officials say close to full teams of inspectors are flying back and forth from Tehran.
IAEA Director General Rafael M. Grossi announced that for the first time in the UN nuclear watchdog’s history, it is using chartered jet flights to conduct safeguards visits. One senior IAEA official remarked to his team that he is very pleased with the solution, stating from now on, “The sky is our limit.”
These welcome developments come at a time when the IAEA is closely monitoring Iran’s consistent reduction of its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The IAEA reported last month that Tehran now has adequate low-enriched uranium for more than one nuclear weapon, and is steadily deploying advanced centrifuges to allow it to enrich uranium at a quicker pace.
Simultaneously, the IAEA is undertaking an investigation into Iran’s alleged violations of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), including denial of access to two sites and refusal to answer questions about another matter. Information from Israeli intelligence led the IAEA in April 2019 to also detect undeclared, refined uranium particles at a site in the Tehran neighborhood of Turquz-Abad. Iranian officials have yet to explain.
Whether the IAEA is able to continue its important work, including obtaining immediate and unrestricted physical access to nuclear sites, will have serious ramifications for safeguarding Tehran’s nuclear activities and clearing up past and possibly ongoing safeguards infractions. The agency will need to guard against any attempts by Iran to avoid tough questions or exploit the health crisis for proliferation purposes.
The IAEA’s efforts in Iran currently fall along two separate tracks. It is carrying out an investigation into alleged undeclared nuclear material and activities, while also applying routine safeguards at the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities. According to the most recent data in the IAEA’s Safeguards Implementation Report for 2018, out of 421 total inspections the agency carried out that year in 59 countries, 385 took place at Iran’s 21 nuclear facilities. This was in addition to conducting “complementary access” visits to other sites of interest to the IAEA, pursuant to Iran’s Additional Protocol. The agency’s task of safeguarding Iran’s nuclear program is thus significant – and a mission compounded in difficulty by a pandemic.
Over the past two years, the IAEA obtained startling new information from the government of Israel about potentially undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran. In January 2018, the Mossad seized a vast archive of Iran’s nuclear files from locked vaults at a Tehran warehouse.
The archive’s contents detailed a vast, pre-2003 Iranian program aimed at developing one or two nuclear weapons per year. The information directed the IAEA to new sites, personnel and activities of interest. Even though many of the activities described occurred long before the negotiation of the JCPOA, some may continue, according to Iranian memoranda among the documents. The archive’s information has been corroborated by other governments and non-governmental experts.
Iran has not reacted well to the discovery, denying the authenticity of the materials. In recent months, however, senior IAEA officials have been meeting with Iranian officials to raise difficult technical questions about those matters, some of which were covered in the March IAEA NPT safeguards report. This includes Iran’s denial of access to the two suspicious sites and its refusal to answer direct questions about those sites and another matter.
So far, IAEA officials privately report, the agency is determined to continue pressuring Iran to approve unrestricted access to the sites. Director General Grossi is also planning a visit toward the end of April to make sure the IAEA’s requests are progressing in the right direction.
To counter the IAEA’s demands, Iran has stated its desire to negotiate a “roadmap” toward eventually discussing the agency’s requests to visit the two sites and related topics. Seeing this as a stalling tactic, according to the IAEA officials, the agency told Iran that it is only willing to discuss specific technical and logistical matters connected directly to the visit parameters and continues to demand immediate, unrestricted access.
Tehran has used similar stalling tactics in the past, which typically have two main goals. The first is to buy time to allow officials to “organize” the suspect sites – actually sanitization efforts entailing cleaning, moving away of materials and machines, and scraping or covering earth to defeat IAEA environmental sampling. Iran has undertaken such efforts at multiple other sites in the past, and most recently at the Turquz-Abad warehouse where the IAEA found uranium.
Iran’s other goal is to indicate that cooperation with agency investigations is forthcoming, hoping that meanwhile, pressure from the IAEA Board of Governors would diminish. Such tactics are frequently successful with the Russians and Chinese.
Notably, the IAEA’s NPT compliance investigation in Iran is a renewed one, restarted following the installation of a new director general last December. The JCPOA mistakenly closed an earlier investigation into the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear activities. It is on this basis that Iran now denies that it must answer any of the IAEA’s questions about its past.
After the March COVID-19 slowdown began, the agency is reportedly back in action in Iran to routinely apply safeguards. It appears to have returned to a near-normal pace of conducting physical inspections in the Islamic Republic after overcoming several obstacles.
Last month, inspectors’ travel plans to Iran were abruptly canceled and several officials were temporarily quarantined in Tehran hotels. The IAEA even contemplated installing additional remote monitoring measures at Iran’s nuclear sites as a substitute for actual inspections. Since March 16, the IAEA’s offices in Vienna have been shuttered and its officials working from home.
The IAEA’s Grossi explained in a video statement that the coronavirus outbreak “is putting an enormous challenge in front of everybody. The IAEA is no exception.”
Grossi stated, however, that “IAEA operations are expected to continue with minimal disruption under these extraordinary circumstances. Safeguarding nuclear materials all over the world will not stop for a single minute,” he elaborated. In a separate statement to The Jerusalem Post, an IAEA spokesperson reiterated, similarly, that the agency is not stopping its Iran work “for a single minute.”
According to an IAEA official, a team flew to Iran on April 17, and another team will arrive at the end of the month. During its last visit, the IAEA also transferred to Tehran two coronavirus testing machines. Inspectors also visited the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. While air transportation and physical visits to certain sites in areas of greater COVID-19 outbreaks have been more limited, the IAEA intends to visit all necessary sites.
In order to encourage the inspectors to continue their work during the outbreak, the director general decided to allow hazard pay. Every inspector will be entitled to a special bonus, a “critical mission travel allowance,” worth up to $1,600 per month and based on actual days in the field.
IAEA officials also stated that remote and electronic monitoring remains in place at Iran’s two declared enrichment sites, Natanz and Fordow, and it continues to conduct physical inspections. The IAEA is tracking uranium production and accumulation at those facilities, as well as Iran’s ongoing centrifuge research and development. Installation and operation of additional advanced centrifuges, and Iran’s accumulation of vast amounts of low enriched uranium, continue in violation of the nuclear accord. Thus, the agency is able to track the extent to which Iran is continuously surpassing the limits. The IAEA reported its latest data on Iran’s JCPOA non-compliance in a separate safeguards report.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, the IAEA should continue to pressure Iran to cooperate with its investigation and allow immediate and unrestricted visits to suspicious sites. Despite the IAEA’s safeguards, Iran continues to expand its enrichment program to threatening levels. As noted above, it now has adequate low-enriched uranium for more than one nuclear weapon and continues to install faster centrifuges.
The agency should take pandemic-related precautions for its inspectors but maintain regular physical inspections at all Iranian nuclear sites. Tehran is likely to exploit any reduction in monitoring and could use the pandemic as an excuse to deny or delay access. Were it to manufacture an access crisis on the pretense of a COVID-19-related issue, Tehran could divert uranium and continue enriching it at clandestine facilities, using newer, easier-to-hide advanced centrifuge capabilities.
Remote monitoring mechanisms already employed by the IAEA are important, but only to enhance its mission. The IAEA should not rely heavily on these in the mistaken assumption that they can replace information obtained via physical visits. Nor should the agency be drawn into lengthy discussions about a roadmap for access, which will ultimately serve no purpose.
The IAEA’s board of governors should support the agency’s investigation and vote on a resolution to condemn any Iranian failure to cooperate. If it continues to stonewall, the board should vote to refer the matter to the UN Security Council for the re-imposition of sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. Only international unity in the face of Tehran’s ongoing obstruction will yield results.
*Andrea Stricker is a research fellow focusing on nonproliferation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Brig.-Gen. (res.) Jacob Nagel is a senior fellow and also a visiting professor at the Technion Aerospace Engineering Faculty. He previously served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s acting National Security Advisor and head of the National Security Council.