LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
August 26/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10/38-42/:”Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’””

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on August 25-26/2019
A simple reality and fact reading: Hezbollah is a threat for Lebanon’s and Lebanese well-being.
Israel Air Strikes on Syria Kill 'Two Hizbullah Fighters'
Two Israeli Drones, One Loaded With Explosives, Crash in Beirut, Hezbollah Says
Drone Falls, Another Explodes over Dahiyeh
Hizbullah Says Explosive-Laden Drone Damaged its Media Center in Dahiyeh
Aoun Says Lebanon to Take 'Appropriate Measures' after Israeli Attack
Aoun: Lebanon Will Emerge from Economic Difficulties
Hariri: Israeli drones in Beirut threaten Lebanon's sovereignty
Pompeo Calls for 'Avoiding Any Escalation' after Lebanon, Syria Flare-Up
Hariri says Israel drone crash was violation against Lebanon
Hariri Says Israel 'Aggression' in Dahiyeh a 'Threat to Regional Stability'
Lebanese Politicians React to Israeli Drone Attack
Bassil Files U.N. Complaint, Germanos Says State to Examine Hizbullah-Held Drone
Geagea Urges Govt. to Discuss 'Presence of Strategic Decisions outside the Sta
Analysts Say Lower Lebanon Credit Rating Shows Need for Reform
Israeli Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi : Iran's Qassem Soleimani Personally Oversaw Planned Drone Attack
Nasrallah Vows Response to Israeli Drones in Lebanon, Hizbullah Deaths in Syria
Lebanon fails to woo Gulf tourists despite lifting of travel ban
New challenges to Lebanese economy as Fitch downgrades credit rating

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 25-26/2019
Israel Says Its Jets Hit Targets in Syria to Prevent 'Iranian
Drone Drones Are On Everyone's Mind In Middle East
Iran Denies Its Syria Positions Hit by Israeli Strikes
Zarif Lands in France during G7 for Talks
Iranian FM Tours East Asia to Ease US Sanctions
Egyptian Judiciary Issues Sentences in al-Haram Violent Acts
Iraqi Army Launches New Security Campaign in Anbar Desert
Turkish Soldiers Killed in Northern Iraq
Iraq: Juristic, Political Criticism over Haeri’s Fatwa to ‘Fight US’
Palestine: Israeli Forces Conduct Manhunt for Ramallah Attackers
Hundreds of New Fires in Brazil as Outrage over Amazon Grows
Qatari Envoy Says Aid, Contacts Helping Prevent New Gaza War

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 25-26/2019
A simple reality and fact reading: Hezbollah is a threat for Lebanon’s and Lebanese well-being/Roger Bejjani/Face Book/August 25/2019
Hariri says Israel drone crash was violation against Lebanon/Arab News/August 25/2019
Israeli Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi : Iran's Qassem Soleimani Personally Oversaw Planned Drone Attack/Jerusalem Post/August 25/2019
Nasrallah Vows Response to Israeli Drones in Lebanon, Hizbullah Deaths in Syria/Naharnet/August 25/2019
Lebanon fails to woo Gulf tourists despite lifting of travel ban/Samar Kadi/The Arab Weekly/August 25/2019
New challenges to Lebanese economy as Fitch downgrades credit rating/Simon Speakmani/The Arab Weekly/August 25/2019
At the G7, Trump Is One of the Popular Ones/Justin Fox/Bloomberg/August 25/2019
Analysis/Iran Wanted Revenge Over Iraq Strike. Israel Foiled It – for Now/Amos Harel/Haaretz/August 25/ 2019
Why Europe is wrong on Iran/Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 25, 2019
Erdogan and Putin may be heading for a Syria showdown/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/August 25/ 2019
Merkel's missed chance to bring Orban into line/Ranvir S. Nayar/Arab News/August 25/ 2019
Persecution of Christians, June 2019/There Is No Christian Anymore in This Town/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/August 25/2019









 

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on August 25-26/2019
A simple reality and fact reading: Hezbollah is a threat for Lebanon’s and Lebanese well-being.
Roger Bejjani/Face Book/August 25/2019
Hezbollah is a threat for Lebanon’s and Lebanese well-being. While it is unable to fight Israel and liberate Jerusalem for obvious flagrant asymmetric reasons, it still maintains an obsolete arsenal of dumb missiles (50’ technology) that can be fired into Israel and kill a cow or a donkey or random handful of civilians. Those thousand of ineffective missiles put Lebanon in the collimateur of Tsahal as a priority target. That’s the only effect of those weapons. Meanwhile Egypt and Jordan are enjoying their total recovery of the 67 occupied land and total peace with Israel. Moreover, Hezbollah weakened by the number of casualties (dead and wounded) in Syria and the financial drain those victims have caused + the drying up in-flow of cash as a result of sanctions and international policing of their illicit network of money and drug smuggling + their total inability of rebuilding once again areas that will very likely be targeted by Israel in a war, have stripped the terrorist organization of the initiative they used to still have 13 years ago. It is therefore unlikely for those destructive morons to initiate any military action against Israel unless they intend to commit a mass suicide.
Suddenly Hezbollah has started cloning Syria’s Assad with strict verbal Retaliation (or logorrhea) a substance their subterranean Leader has a huge stock of. What is dangerous is that when this arrogant organization is faced with the limits of its capabilities against Israel, it might revert to internal retaliation against its Lebanese political opponents. Hezbollah has been totally tamed by the sanctions, Israel’s might and its casualties in Syria. It has lost its geo-political prime time.

Israel Air Strikes on Syria Kill 'Two Hizbullah Fighters'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
Israeli air strikes near the Syrian capital overnight killed two fighters of the Lebanese group Hizbullah, an Iranian combatant and two unidentified fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Sunday.
The Observatory said the Israeli raids targeted "Iranian and Hizbullah posts" in the southeast of Damascus. But a high-ranking official in Tehran denied Iranian positions had been hit. "This is a lie and it is not true," Mohsen Rezaie, the secretary of the Expediency Council, told ILNA news agency

Two Israeli Drones, One Loaded With Explosives, Crash in Beirut, Hezbollah Says
Reuters/The Associated Press/Haaretz/Yasmine Bakria/August 25/2019
Explosion hits Lebanese group's media center ■ Retracting claim it shot down the drone, Hezbollah says one was captured and being analyzed ■ Nasrallah set to speak on Sunday. An Israeli drone fell on the roof of Hezbollah's media center office in Beirut early Sunday morning, causing an explosion, and another was captured, the Iran-backed group said. Contradicting an earlier report that a Hezbollah official said the group had shot down one of the drones, an official statement now claims the militant group did not fire at either drone. The incident came just a few hours after Israel confirmed conducting an airstrike in Syria and said it had foiled an Iranian drone attack. A Hezbollah spokesman said one booby-trapped drone “caused a massive explosion and severe damage” to the group’s media center in the Moawwad neighborhood in the Shi'ite quarter of Beirut commonly known as Dahieh, while the second one fell “without causing any damage.” The spokesman, Mohammed Afif, added that the drone that was captured “is currently being analyzed.” Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Sunday that three people were wounded in the explosion at the media center. "We did not shoot down or explode any of the drones," Afif told The Associated Press. He also said Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah is due to “respond harshly” to the incident in a speech slated for 5 P.M. local time. The Lebanese army said that one of the drones fell and another exploded in the soouthern suburbs of the capital at 2:30 A.M. local time, causing only material damage. "The army arrived immediately and cordoned off the area where the two drones fell," the army statement said. People in southern Beirut meanwhile said a large explosion has shaken a Hezbollah stronghold and triggered a fire. Residents of the district rocked by the explosion said Hezbollah sealed off the area. After the military confirmed the airstrike in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I repeat: Iran has no immunity anywhere [. . .] I have given the instruction to prepare for any scenario. We will continue to act against Iran and its proxies with determination and responsibility on behalf of Israel's security."Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said the strike targeted Iranian forces, Iranian-sponsored Shi'ite militias, and equipment.

Drone Falls, Another Explodes over Dahiyeh
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
One drone came down and another exploded early Sunday in a Hizbullah stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hizbullah official told the AFP news agency. The incident came hours after Israel launched air strikes in neighboring Syria but the official could not confirm if the drones were Israeli or if they had been shot down by Hizbullah. Lebanese security forces cordoned off the area in the Moawwad neighborhood, a few dozen meters from a Hizbullah media center, as residents gathered, and where forces from Hizbullah were also present. "There were two drones -- the first fell and was neutralized, the second exploded," a Hizbullah official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Lebanon and Israel are technically still at war, and Lebanon regularly accuses Israel of violating its airspace with planes and drones. Israel has fought several conflicts against Hizbullah, the last in 2006. In recent years those hostilities have spilled over into Syria, where the group -- like Iran, another long-time enemy of Israel -- is fighting on the side of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Late Saturday night Israel said its jets carried out strikes in Syria to prevent an Iranian force from launching an attack on Israel with drones armed with explosives. In a briefing to reporters early Sunday, military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the Israeli air force "was able to thwart an Iranian attempt led by the Quds force from Syria to conduct an attack on Israeli targets in northern Israel using killer drones." A Syrian military source quoted by the official Sana news agency said anti-aircraft defences had "detected enemy targets from Golan heading towards the area around Damascus." "The aggression was immediately confronted and so far the majority of the enemy Israeli missiles have been destroyed before reaching their targets," the source added. Since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria, most of them against what it says are Iranian and Hizbullah targets.

Hizbullah Says Explosive-Laden Drone Damaged its Media Center in Dahiyeh
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
Hizbullah on Sunday said one of two drones that came down over its Beirut southern suburbs stronghold was rigged with explosives and caused damage to its media center. "The first drone fell without causing damage while the second one was laden with explosives and exploded causing huge damage to the media center," Hizbullah spokesman Mohamed Afif said. The early morning incident came hours after Israel launched air strikes in neighboring Syria, but Hizbullah officials could not confirm if the drones deployed in Lebanon were Israeli. "Hizbullah did not shoot down any drone," Afif said, in remarks carried by Lebanon's National News Agency. "The first drone did not explode and it is now in the possession of Hizbullah which is analyzing it," he added. Another Hizbullah source told AFP the Iran-backed group -- a major political player in Lebanon with representatives in parliament and the government -- has not determined if the drones were Israeli. The Lebanese Army meanwhile confirmed that the drones were Israeli. "Two drones belonging to the Israeli enemy violated Lebanese airspace (at dawn)... over the southern suburbs of Beirut. The first fell while the second exploded in the air causing material damage," an army statement said. The army said it had sealed off the area and that the military police had opened an investigation. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army declined to comment on the Lebanese Army's claim about the drones. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is due to give a speech later in the day at a pre-scheduled group event. "Hizbullah will give a staunch response during (Nasrallah's) speech," Afif said. Lebanon and Israel are technically still at war, and Lebanon regularly accuses its Israel of violating its airspace with planes and drones. Hizbullah has fought several conflicts with Israel. The last confrontation was a 33-day war in 2006 that killed 1,200 in Lebanon and 160 in Israel. In recent years those hostilities have spilled over into Syria, where Hizbullah -- like Israeli's arch-foe Iran -- is fighting on the side of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. On Saturday night Israeli jets carried out strikes in Syria to prevent an Iranian force from launching an attack on Israel with drones armed with explosives, Israel's army said. In recent days, U.S. officials have said that Israeli strikes have also hit Iranian targets in Iraq in what would be a significant expansion of Israel's campaign targeting Iranian military entrenchment in the region.

Aoun Says Lebanon to Take 'Appropriate Measures' after Israeli Attack
Naharnet/August 25/2019
President Michel Aoun on Sunday described the Israeli drone blast in Beirut’s southern suburbs as a “flagrant aggression against Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” noting that Lebanon will take the “appropriate measures” in response. Calling the incident a “new chapter of the continued violations of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701,” Aoun said the development is an “additional indication about Israel’s hostile intentions and its attacks on stability and peace in Lebanon and the region.”“Lebanon, which strongly condemns this aggression, will take the appropriate measures after consulting with the relevant authorities,” the president added. The National News Agency meanwhile reported that Aoun had been following up on the situation since the early morning and that he has been briefed on the military prosecution’s preliminary investigations.

Aoun: Lebanon Will Emerge from Economic Difficulties
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 25 August, 2019
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Saturday the country will emerge from its economic conditions by making decisions that boost production a day after Fitch Ratings downgraded Lebanon's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to CCC from B-. Also on Friday, Standard & Poor's Global Ratings affirmed its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings for Beirut at B-/B, saying the country's outlook remains negative. The international rating agency's downgrade is another blow to Lebanon’s struggling economy, which suffers one of the world's highest debt ratios, high unemployment and little growth. Lebanon's economy has been suffering from the war in neighboring Syria that saw more than a million refugees flee to Lebanon putting pressure on the country's crumbling infrastructure. Aoun said in remarks at his summer residence that Lebanon's economic crisis has accumulated for several years, not just the last few. Aoun took office in 2016. His comments were released by his office.Later in the day, leading politician Walid Jumblatt, a Druze leader, told reporters after meeting with Aoun that the "the president will call all officials in the country for a meeting so that we take our responsibilities in facing these challenges." Jumblatt said Aoun is taking the matter very seriously and "sees this rating as a danger." He added that "as officials we should take some measure that are unpopular because if we don't take these measures we might have worse ratings."The new ratings came after Moody's downgraded Lebanon's issuer ratings to Caa1 from B3 while changing the outlook to stable from negative in January.

Hariri: Israeli drones in Beirut threaten Lebanon's sovereignty
Reuters/August 25/2019
Lebanon's prime minister said two Israeli drones which fell in the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut amounted to an open attack on the country's sovereignty and an attempt to foment regional tensions. In the first such incident in more than a decade, one drone fell and second exploded near the ground and caused some damage when it crashed before dawn close to Hezbollah's media centre in the capital's Dahiyeh suburbs, a Hezbollah official told Reuters. "The new aggression...constitutes a threat to regional stability and an attempt to push the situation towards further tension," Hariri said in a statement from his office. The Israeli military declined to comment. The incident took place hours after the Israeli military said its aircraft had struck Iranian forces and Shi'ite militias near Syria's capital Damascus which it said had been planning to launch "killer drones" into Israel. War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group and one Iranian were killed in the Israeli strikes around Damascus. In Tehran, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander denied on Sunday that Iranian targets had been hit in the Israeli air strikes in Syria, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported. Israel deems Lebanon's heavily armed Shi'ite Hezbollah movement, backed by Iran, as the biggest threat across its border. They fought a month-long war in 2006 in which nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, died in Lebanon and 158 people died in Israel, mostly soldiers. Lebanon has complained to the United Nations about Israeli planes regularly violating its airspace in recent years. Residents in Dahiyeh said they heard the sound of a blast. A witness said the army closed off the streets where a fire had started. A Hezbollah spokesman told Lebanon's state news agency NNA the second drone was rigged with explosives causing serious damage to the media centre. Hezbollah is now examining the first drone, he said. The Lebanese army said that one Israeli drone fell and another exploded at 02:30 am local time (2330 GMT), causing only material damage.
"The army arrived immediately and cordoned off the area where the two drones fell," it said.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to give a televised speech later on Sunday. Israel has grown alarmed by the rising influence of its regional foe Iran during the war in neighbouring Syria, where Tehran and Hezbollah provide military help to Damascus. Israel says its air force has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against what it calls Iranian targets and arms transfers to Hezbollah. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the strikes in Syria on Saturday thwarted a planned Iranian attack in Israel. Syrian state media said air defences confronted the "aggression" and the army said most of the Israeli missiles were destroyed. The United States and Iran are at odds over Tehran's nuclear programme and the Gulf, with both sides trading accusations over threats to the strategic waterway's security. Iran also has wide sway in Iraq. Iraq's paramilitary groups on Wednesday blamed a series of recent blasts at their weapons depots and bases on the United States and Israel. The statement from the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), the grouping of Iraq's mostly Shi'ite Muslim paramilitary groups, many of which are backed by Iran, said the United States had allowed four Israeli drones to enter the region accompanying US forces and carry out missions on Iraqi territory. Netanyahu hinted on Thursday of possible Israeli involvement in attacks against Iranian-linked targets in Iraq.

Pompeo Calls for 'Avoiding Any Escalation' after Lebanon, Syria Flare-Up
Naharnet/August 25/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Sunday received a phone call from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the talks tackled “the developments of the past hours in the Lebanese and regional arenas,” Hariri’s office said.
“Pompeo stressed the need to avoid any escalation and to work with all parties concerned to prevent any form of deterioration,” Hariri’s office added in a statement. Hariri for his part emphasized “Lebanon’s commitment to the stipulations of U.N. resolutions, especially Resolution 1701, warning of “the threat emanating from the continued Israeli violations of this resolution and of Lebanese sovereignty.”Hariri also urged Pompeo to help “stop these violations” and thanked him for his phone call, while underlining that “the Lebanese side will exert all efforts possible to secure restraint and work on alleviating tensions,” his office said. An Israeli drone exploded and another crashed overnight in a Hizbullah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Two Hizbullah fighters were also killed in an Israeli air strike on Iranian and Hizbullah positions in Syria. Israel said the raid was aimed at thwarting an “Iranian drone attack” on northern Israel.

Hariri says Israel drone crash was violation against Lebanon
Arab News/August 25/2019
BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has described the crash of two Israeli reconnaissance drones over Beirut as a violation and “aggression” against Lebanese sovereignty. He said Sunday that the developments overnight constitute a threat to regional stability and an attempt to push the situation toward more escalation. Hariri’s comments were the first by a senior Lebanese official after two Israeli drones crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday the incident was "very, very, very dangerous." He vowed to confront and shoot down Israeli drones in Lebanese skies from now on. Israeli warplanes regularly violate Lebanese airspace and have struck inside neighboring Syria from Lebanon on several occasions, angering Hezbollah and Lebanese officials, who have complained to the United Nations in the past. Earlier on Sunday the Lebanese army confirmed that the drones were Israeli, while the Shiite group said one of the aircraft damaged its media centre. “Two drones belonging to the Israeli enemy violated Lebanese airspace (at dawn)... over the southern suburbs of Beirut. The first fell while the second exploded in the air causing material damage,” an army statement said. The early morning incident came hours after Israel launched air strikes in neighboring Syria. The army said it had sealed off the area of Beirut and that the military police had opened an investigation. Hezbollah spokesman, Mohamed Afif, said one of the two drones was rigged with explosives.
He said a second drone which appeared to have been sent by Israel to search for the first drone less than 45 minutes later exploded in the air and crashed nearby — an explosion heard by residents of the area. Afif told The Associated Press Sunday: “We did not shoot down or explode any of the drones.”He added that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah would give an “appropriate” response in a televised appearance later Sunday. The drones struck overnight in Beirut where residents reported one large explosion that shook the area, triggering a fire.
Initially they said the nature of the blast in the Moawwad neighborhood was not immediately clear, but said it might have been caused by an Israeli drone that went down in the area amid Israeli air activity in neighboring Syria. The late-night airstrike, which triggered Syrian anti-aircraft fire, appeared to be one of the most intense attacks by Israeli forces in several years of hits on Iranian targets in Syria. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Al Quds force, working with allied Shiite militias, had been planning to send a number of explosives-laden attack drones into Israel. On Twitter, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack by Israeli warplanes a “major operational effort.” Syrian state TV said the country’s air defenses had responded to “hostile” targets over Damascus and shot down incoming missiles before they reached their targets. In recent days, US officials have said that Israeli strikes have also hit Iranian targets in Iraq.

Hariri Says Israel 'Aggression' in Dahiyeh a 'Threat to Regional Stability'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Sunday condemned Israel sending drones that fell over Beirut’s southern suburbs as a "blatant attack on Lebanon's sovereignty.""This new aggression... forms a threat to regional stability and an attempt to push the situation towards more tension," he said in a statement. Hariri also charged that it was in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended a 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbullah. The premier added that he will remain in contact with President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri agree on the "next steps." Hariri also urged the international community and "Lebanon's friends in the world" to shoulder "the responsibility of protecting Resolution 1701 from the threats and repercussions of the Israeli violations," noting that the Lebanese government will "fully shoulder its responsibilities in this regard."

Lebanese Politicians React to Israeli Drone Attack
Naharnet/August 25/2019
Lebanese officials, politicians and religious leaders on Sunday condemned the Israeli drone bombing in a Hizbullah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, as some of them stressed that the Lebanese state should be in charge of responding to the development. “We strongly deplore the fall of the two Israeli aircraft over the southern suburbs and the blatant aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and Resolution 1701,” Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan tweeted. “This pushes us to embrace the state and its legitimate institutions and security agencies in order to preserve security and stability through unified political decisions that would be in the interest of Lebanon and the Lebanese,” she added. Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat for his part said “the Israeli aggression heralds a major explosion” of the situations, adding that the “best way to confront the Israeli aggression” is through “national unity” and through “taking all the necessary administrative and financial measures to immunize the internal situation, as mentioned by President (Michel) Aoun yesterday.” Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh for his part said the incident is a “blatant attack on Lebanon and its sovereignty and resistance,” urging “a unified national stance and an official complaint to the U.N. Security Council.”Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan said Lebanon’s only choice is “resistance.”“Today’s attack highlights the need to cling more and more to the army-people-resistance tripartite equation,” Arslan added. MP Dima Jamali of al-Mustaqbal bloc called on all political parties to “stand behind the state and its legitimate institutions and security agencies” and not to be dragged into “any act that would jeopardize security and stability.” Pro-Hizbullah MP Jamil al-Sayyed meanwhile took a swipe at Prime Minister Saad Hariri for saying that the government will shoulder its responsibilities towards the incident. “How will the government manage to shoulder its responsibilities towards an Israeli attack after it drowned in the teacup of Qabrshmoun’s incident?!! War with binoculars is easy,” al-Sayyed added. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan meanwhile called on the U.N., the Security Council and the international community to address “the Israeli enemy’s violation of Lebanese sovereignty,” urging them to “deter the Israeli enemy against launching any aggression against Lebanon.” “Lebanon is keen on its national unity, which is the basis in confronting any Israeli aggression,” Daryan added. The head of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan meanwhile warned that Israel is “playing with fire.”He also called on the U.N. and the Security Council to respond to the development. Ex-MP Fares Soaid for his part quipped by calling on Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil to “organize a political-diplomatic tour to explain what is happening in Beirut’s southern suburbs.”

Bassil Files U.N. Complaint, Germanos Says State to Examine Hizbullah-Held Drone
Naharnet/August 25/2019
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Sunday asked Lebanon’s ambassador to the U.N. to file an urgent complaint against Israel with the U.N. Security Council over its “dangerous violation of Lebanese sovereignty,” in connection with the overnight drone blast in a Hizbullah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Stressing Lebanon’s keenness on the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah, Bassil said Israel is meanwhile “committing daily and repeated violations that terrorize the Lebanese and threaten their safety.” “Lebanon’s keenness on abiding by U.N. resolutions and its commitment to stability do not negate its right to defend national sovereignty and carry out what is necessary to preserve it,” the minister added in a statement released by the Foreign Ministry. “Investigations into this incident differ from crimes that usually occur on the ground and the army is carrying out this mission,” Germanos said at the blast scene. “I have nothing to do with the (official) Lebanese stance, but we have not noticed that the Israeli enemy has stopped operating inside Lebanon and this is a chapter of the acts that it usually carries out,” the judge added. Asked whether Lebanese authorities will inspect the intact first drone that crashed in Mouawad, Germanos said: “We are the state and we are the ones who will examine everything.”

Geagea Urges Govt. to Discuss 'Presence of Strategic Decisions outside the State'
Naharnet/August 25/2019
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Sunday said he expresses his “full solidarity with our people” in Beirut’s southern suburbs after the Israeli drone explosion in the neighborhood of Mouawad. Geagea also condemned “the repeated Israeli violations of our airspace and their sending of bomb-laden drones against targets in Lebanon.”The LF leader however called on the Lebanese government to “thoroughly look into what happened” overnight and to discuss “the issue of the presence of the strategic military and security decision outside the state.” “The necessary measures must be taken to return the strategic military and security decision to the state, to spare our people any harm and avoid the worse, God forbid,” Geagea added.

Analysts Say Lower Lebanon Credit Rating Shows Need for Reform
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
Analysts have warned that Lebanon needs to accelerate reforms to revive its floundering economy, after a leading global agency downgraded the country's credit rating. On Friday, Fitch bumped Lebanon down to "CCC" while Standard & Poor's kept it at "B-/B" with a negative outlook.
"The downgrade reflects intensifying pressure on Lebanon's financing model, increasing risks to the government's debt servicing capacity," Fitch said in a statement. S&P said it could still lower Lebanon ratings over the next year if banking system deposits and the central bank's foreign exchange reserves continued to fall. "Non-resident depositors and foreign investors will likely remain cautious of Lebanon unless the government is able to... implement structural reforms to reduce the large budget gap and improve business activity," it said. Growth in Lebanon has plummeted in the wake of repeated political deadlocks in recent years, compounded by the 2011 breakout of civil war in neighboring Syria. The country's public debt stands at more than 86 billion dollars, or higher than 150 percent of GDP, according to the finance ministry. Eighty percent of that debt is owed to Lebanon's central bank and local banks. Economist Ghazi Wazni said both the Fitch and S&P reports were a warning of Lebanon's "difficult economic and financial situation." It highlighted the need to reduce the budget deficit including through a "serious reform of the electricity sector," as well as fighting tax evasion and corruption, he told AFP. Karim Bitar, a Lebanon expert, said Friday's downgrade came at a time of low confidence in financial markets. "One has to hope this sanction will be an electric shock that will jolt the Lebanese authorities into no longer postponing reforms," he said. Lebanon's finance ministry said the Fitch and S&P reports were "a reminder of the importance of reducing the deficit and adopting reforms."Lebanon has promised donors to slash public spending as part of reforms to unlock $11 billion in aid pledged at a conference in Paris last year. Last month, parliament passed the 2019 budget, which is expected to trim Lebanon's deficit to 7.59 percent of gross domestic product -- a nearly 4-point drop from the previous year.

Israeli Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi : Iran's Qassem Soleimani Personally Oversaw Planned Drone Attack
Jerusalem Post/August 25/2019
Military says IRGC was planning to launch several armed drones simultaneously into northern Israel. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps's al Quds Force personally oversaw the training, funding and preparation for the drone attack that the IDF thwarted late Saturday night, Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi said on Sunday. According to IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis the IDF was able to stop the cell and was ordered last night to strike Aqraba early Sunday morning after they received intelligence that the attack would happen on Sunday. The drones, he said, were similar to the kind used by the Houthis in Yemen against Saudi Arabia. Each of the drones was capable of carrying several kilograms of explosives and was supposed to be operated by a group of Iranian pilots who arrived specially in Syria several days ago for the mission.
Manelis said that the airstrikes struck several targets in Aqraba where there was the presence of Quds Force and Shiite militia troops, equipment and Iranian missiles. The IDF was placed on high alert ahead of a possible retaliation after IDF aircraft struck Iranian targets in Syria overnight Saturday thwarting an imminent attack by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force killing two Hezbollah militants and one Iranian. Israel’s Security Cabinet said that the aim of the operation was to send a message: "We will not allow Iran to establish itself in Syria."
"In a major operational effort, we thwarted an attack against Israel by Iranian Quds force and Shiite militias,” Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “I repeat: Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces are operating in every direction against the Iranian aggression. We will continue to work against Iran and its proxies with determination and responsibility for Israel's security. "“If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first,” Netanyahu added referencing a passage from the Talmud. A senior IRGC official denied that any of their posts in Syria were struck last night.
"This is a lie and not true. ..Israel and the United States do not have the power to attack Iran's various centres, and our (military) advisory centres have not been harmed," Revolutionary Guards Major General Mohsen Rezaei was quoted by Iran’s ILNA. Nevertheless Hezbollah affiliated Twitter accounts released pictures of two of five militants killed in the strike. They were identified as Yasser Ahmad Al Dhaher and Youssef Zbeeb.
While no bomb shelters in northern Israel have been opened, following the airstrikes the military updated the Golan and Katzerin regional councils of the attack. Iron Dome batteries have also been deployed to the north and all squadron bases have been placed on high alert for any Syrian-Iranian response against Israel. “The IDF is in high readiness to continue both defensive and offensive actions as necessary against the plans to attack the State of Israel,” Manelis said on a phone call to reporters from the Air Force pit in Tel Aviv, adding that the military “sees Iran and the Syrian regime directly responsible for the attempted terror attack.” Earlier on Saturday Syria’s SANA news agency reported that regime defenses intercepted “hostile targets” in the skies of Damascus. Last year, an armed Iranian drone armed with explosives infiltrated into Israeli skies to carry out a sabotage attack against the Jewish state. The advanced Iranian drone, believed to be a copy of a US stealth drone that was downed in Iran in 2011, took off from the T-4 airbase deep in the Syrian province of Homs and crossed into Israeli territory via Jordanian airspace.The drone was spotted by Israel and was intercepted near the Israeli town of Beit She’an by an Apache attack helicopter. Following the infiltration, Israeli jets took off to strike the drone's launch site as well as the control vehicle which guidedit into Israeli territory; they were met by massive Syrian anti-aircraft fire. Over 20 missiles were launched toward the Israelis jets from SA-5 and SA-17 batteries.Pilots of one of the Israeli F16s ejected from their jet, which crashed in the lower Galilee after being hit by shrapnel from the Syrian anti-aircraft fire. The pilots landed  inside Israel and were evacuated to Rambam hospital in Haifa. Both have since been released and have returned to flight duty. It was the first time in 30 years that an Israeli jet was lost in a combat situation, leading to an extensive retaliation by Israel with additional strikes against both the Syrian missile batteries and Iranian military targets in the war-torn country. *Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.

Nasrallah Vows Response to Israeli Drones in Lebanon, Hizbullah Deaths in Syria
Naharnet/August 25/2019
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday pledged that his group would retaliate against Israel from Lebanon should it kill any of its members in Syria, while warning that Hizbullah might shoot down any Israeli drone flying over Lebanon. “If the Lebanese government wants pacification, it must tell the Americans to rein in Israel,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking the second anniversary of the ouster of militants and jihadists from the eastern border region. “If Israel kills any of our members in Syria, we'll respond from Lebanon and not in the Shebaa Farms, and we tell the Israeli army on the border to be very cautious and to wait for us,” Nasrallah warned, citing the death of two Hizbullah members in an Israeli raid on Syria overnight. “Israel did not attack a Quds Force position in Syria but rather a house containing Hizbullah fighters,” the Hizbullah leader noted, disputing an announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I tell the residents of northern Israel not to rest,” he added, while suggesting that Netanyahu has expanded Israel’s airstrikes to Iraq and Lebanon for electoral purposes. As for the drone that exploded over a Hizbullah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight, Nasrallah warned that “from now on,” Hizbullah will “target any Israeli drone that violates Lebanon's airspace.” “We in Lebanon will not allow such drone attacks and we will do anything to prevent such a course, no matter what the price might be,” Hizbullah’s leader said, warning that “Lebanon will face a very dangerous situation if this incident goes unaddressed” and citing the suspected Israeli drone campaign against Iran-backed militias in Iraq. “The overnight attack is the first Israeli aggression in Lebanon since August 14, 2006 and it is a dangerous attack,” Nasrallah warned, noting that “Netanyahu would be mistaken if he thinks that this issue can go unnoticed.”"The time when Israeli aircraft come and bombard parts of Lebanon is over."
Explaining the series of events that took place overnight in Dahiyeh, Hizbullah’s leader said “what happened yesterday was an Israeli suicide drone attack on a target in Beirut's southern suburbs.”“The first drone was a reconnaissance drone and was not carrying explosives and was trying to transmit accurate footage of a certain target... Young men started hurling rocks at the drone and it was hit by a rock. It is not clear whether it was downed by the rock or by a technical malfunction,” he explained. “The drone that crashed overnight was a military one,” he stressed, promising that Hizbullah would soon put the two drones on display. “What happened yesterday is very, very, very dangerous,” Nasrallah emphasized, noting that Hizbullah possesses the ability to shoot down Israeli drones over Lebanon. The overnight drone explosion damaged a Hizbullah media center in a residential building in the Beirut southern suburb of Mouawad. A Hizbullah spokesman said shards from shattered window panes caused "minor injuries."

Lebanon fails to woo Gulf tourists despite lifting of travel ban
سمر قعدي: لبنان يفشل في جذب السياح العرب رغم رفع الدول الخليجية الحظر على سفر رعاياها إليه
Samar Kadi/The Arab Weekly/August 25/2019
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BEIRUT - Saudi Arabia’s lifting of a travel ban to Lebanon in February raised expectations for a booming summer tourism season and the return of Arab Gulf tourists but, despite 8% growth in the tourism sector, figures were highly disappointing, said Pierre Achkar, president of the Lebanese Federation for Tourism Industries and the Lebanese Hotel Association.
“Frankly, we had anticipated a larger number of visitors to come to Lebanon during and before the Eid al-Adha holiday, especially from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Unfortunately, the Gulf people did not come for the summer,” Achkar said.
“There was an improvement in the number of visitors (from the Gulf) this year compared to the previous years but we have noticed that their stay is becoming shorter and they are not bringing their whole family with them as they used to do.
“We have always stressed that the backbone of tourism in Lebanon are Arab tourists, especially visitors from the Gulf countries. When Gulf tourists used to visit Lebanon, their average stay was ten days and sometimes a month or more, especially those who own properties here. Moreover, the Gulf tourists spend much more than the average tourist,” Achkar said.
For decades, Lebanon has been reliant on the Gulf market for tourism. Gulf visitors started returning in small numbers over the previous year and this year but it was nowhere near the numbers in 2010 and before.
A combination of political instability, the Syrian war next door and regional tensions shied away Arab tourists from Lebanon in the past eight years, said Achkar, who is also the mayor of the mountain village Broumana, a popular summer retreat for Gulf tourists.
He cited tourists’ concerns over Hezbollah’s threat to side with Iran in case of a clash with the United States and its Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia, and the Druze incident in the mountain village of Qabrshmoun in which two people were killed in June.
“What is being circulated in the international media about instability and potential armed conflicts in the country is extremely harmful. Everybody has access to the news these days and what they are reading and seeing is discouraging for tourism, especially for Gulf tourists, Achkar said.
“The incident of Qabrshmoun triggered all kinds of rumours and fears about imminent civil war, sectarian conflict and a Christian-Druze rift. When they (Arab tourists) hear such news, they would think: ‘Why should I go there?’” Achkar said.
Lebanese Tourism Minister Avedis Kedanian has stressed the security concerns of tourists bound to visit Lebanon after the mountain incident, noting that tension has struck Lebanon at a time when its tourism had started to show recovery signals.
“I have been sickened by what was happening on the ground because the tourism sector is already suffering and if politicians stop flogging themselves, only then we will be able to overcome the crisis,” Kedanian declared, lamenting how political rhetoric escalated against the backdrop of the Qabrshmoun incident.
The minister noted, however, that there is a remarkable growth — 30% — in the number of tourists from European countries than the previous year and that the number of tourists from Saudi Arabia doubled to 44,000 tourists in the first half of 2019 compared to last year.
Achkar said a sample survey conducted by the municipality in the area of Broumana showed that none of the Saudi owners have rehabilitated their houses and many did not even check on their properties.
He argued that Gulf nationals have likely developed other preferred travel destinations during their almost 9-year absence from Lebanon, while the younger generation, who have grown up travelling to the likes of London, Dubai and Istanbul, might conceivably pass on visiting Lebanon.
“Some have not set foot in Lebanon for the past seven or nine years,” Achkar said. “They have probably found alternative destinations and got used to other holiday countries such as Turkey, Cyprus, Greece and Spain, which offer them great incentives. They even offer them permanent residency in return for buying properties and investing in the country.”
The Lebanese Ministry of Tourism said the sector recorded 8% growth in the first seven months of 2019, compared to the same period last year. Hotel occupancy in Beirut was about 70% and 40-50% outside the capital.
“This not enough for the tourism sector to recover,” Achkar said. “We had expected and hoped for a 25% growth and a minimum of 90% occupancy in Beirut and more than 70% outside.”
He said returns from the tourism sector have dropped by more than 35% since 2009-10.
“We have been suffering losses for the past nine years. We need at least two to three very good seasons to recuperate and compensate the losses. Definitely, the season was not up to our expectations and ambitions,” Achkar added.

New challenges to Lebanese economy as Fitch downgrades credit rating
سيمون سبيماني: لبنان يواجه تحديات اقتصادية عقب تخفيض فيتش لتصنيفه الإئتماني
Simon Speakmani/The Arab Weekly/August 25/2019
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TUNIS – International credit rating agency Fitch has downgraded Lebanon’s credit rating, adding to mounting speculation about the health of the Lebanese economy and its ability to service its debts.
The new credit rating of CCC, announced August 23 by Fitch, reduced Lebanon from a B- rating, suggesting the country will only be able to make good on its debts under favourable conditions, rather than from under the engine of its own economy.
Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s maintained its B-/B rating for Lebanon, stating: “Despite a significant decline in investor confidence,” Lebanon’s central bank’s usable foreign exchange reserves, estimated to be about $19 billion by the end of the year, “remain sufficient to service government debt in the near term.”
Standard and Poor’s downgraded Lebanon’s credit rating from stable to negative in March, citing a “lack of material reforms to reduce the budget deficit,” the agency said at the time. Fitch’s announcement August 23 is likely to compound that damage.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, ahead of the Fitch announcement, attempted to reassure investors and the Lebanese public, dismayed at further economic setbacks. Khalil, writing on Twitter, said: “I assure you that we are not a bankrupt country and we have the ability to overcome any difficulties, whatever the classification.”
The latest challenges to the Lebanese economy come despite an “austerity” budget, announced earlier this year, that sought to reassure the country’s creditors that the cost of Lebanon’s massive public spending would be curtailed and its debt managed.
Lebanon’s sovereign debt rating has been deteriorating for nearly five years and its credit default swap rates have almost doubled in the past year. Lebanon has the third highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world, projected by Standard and Poor’s to reach 133% by the end of 2019. Only Venezuela and Greece outstrip it.
“The austerity budget will not reach the goal of reducing the government budget deficit to 7.6% of GDP in 2019 (from 11.5% in 2018) because the budget was passed in late July when most of the spending for 2019 had already taken place in line with the 2018 budget,” said Gabrielle Ventura, an economist at IHS Markit.
“Although the new austerity measures are likely to reduce the primary deficit in the coming years, without additional reforms the overall debt will continue to rise above already-unsustainable levels.”
Servicing Lebanon’s debt accounts for more than 50% of government revenue. Spending on wages and pensions account for one-third, while the cost of subsidising the country’s failing power infrastructure is approximately 10%. Little has been earmarked for profit-generating investments or relief for the private sector. The result has been the steady ratcheting up of debt, without assets to show for it.
To manage both its creditors and defend the dollar peg, Lebanon has typically relied upon banking deposits from its diaspora, with the central bank depending on what it terms “financial engineering” to maintain the influx of hard currency.
However, while recent efforts may have gone some way in shoring up Lebanon’s foreign asset reserves, deposits began to drop in May for the first time in more than a decade, Goldman Sachs said.
“The ‘fuel’ to the Lebanese economy appears to be drying up because the government’s ‘financial engineering’ scheme is unsustainable in the long run, particularly if diaspora depositors pull their funds from commercial banks, slowing the government’s access to foreign currency funding,” Ventura said. “This appears to have already begun. Deposits fell by 0.3% in the period from June 2018 to June 2019 and we expect deposit flight to escalate rapidly, especially if a sovereign rating downgrade occurs as predicted.”
Lebanon’s attempts at financial engineering have led to unintended consequences. The high rates of interest intended to convince the diaspora to maintain deposits have increased the cost of maintaining the government’s debt and dampened investment.
Moreover, as the fiscal risks escalated in the past 18 months, so, too, have interest rates offered by the central bank. As it bids to shore up its reserves, the bank has sought to protect the country’s exchange rate and finance the current account deficit, 27% of GDP in 2018 and running at an average of 24% over the past eight years.
Exacerbating Lebanon’s problems is a domestic political environment that barely borders on functional. With widespread corruption, waste, sanctions and rule by a political establishment whose sectarian clientelism makes fundamental reform almost impossible, the sweeping changes Lebanon needs appear beyond its grasp.
*Simon Speakman Cordall is a freelance writer.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 25-26/2019
Israel Says Its Jets Hit Targets in Syria to Prevent 'Iranian Drone Attack'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
The Israeli air force struck in Syria to prevent an Iranian force from launching an attack on Israel with drones armed with explosives, the Israeli army said Sunday. While Israel operates regularly in Syria, it rarely acknowledges its actions so swiftly, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning arch-foe Iran it had no immunity from his state's military. In a briefing to reporters, military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said that late Saturday the Israeli air force "was able to thwart an Iranian attempt led by the Quds force from Syria to conduct an attack on Israeli targets in northern Israel using killer drones."According to Conricus, the Israeli attack took place in Aqraba, southeast of Damascus, and targeted "a number of terror targets and military facilities belonging to the Quds force as well as Shiite militias." The Israeli army had on Thursday prevented an earlier attempt to launch the drone attack, Conricus said, without providing further details. "The threat was significant and these killer drones were capable of striking targets with significant capacity," he said. A Syrian military source quoted by official Sana news agency said that "At 2330 (2030 GMT) anti-aircraft defenses detected enemy targets from Golan heading towards the area around Damascus.""The aggression was immediately confronted and so far the majority of the enemy Israeli missiles have been destroyed before reaching their targets," the source added.
'Iran has no immunity anywhere'
An AFP correspondent in Damascus heard several large explosions before Sana announced the defensive action. "The aggression is still going on and the air defense is able to counter the targets, dropping most of them" in the south of the country, the Sana agency said early Sunday. Since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria, most of them against what it says are Iranian and Hizbullah targets. Hours after the strike in Syria, a Hizbullah official said one drone had come down and another had exploded in one of the group's strongholds in the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs. The official could not confirm if the drones were Israeli but the Lebanese Army announced in a statement that they were sent by Israel. Hizbullah spokesman Mohammed Afif said the drones were not shot down by Hizbullah. Israel says it is determined to prevent its arch-foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran backs Assad's regime. In a statement issued just minutes after the Israeli army announced its attack, Netanyahu hailed the military's "major operational effort" in thwarting the attack planned by "the Iranian Quds force and Shiite militias." "Iran has no immunity anywhere," Netanyahu said. "Our forces operate in every sector against the Iranian aggression."Military spokesman Conricus said Israel held both Iran and the Syrian regime responsible for the planned drone attack, noting that forces in northern Israel were on "elevated readiness to respond to any development." He also noted that while Iranian forces had launched rockets and missiles at Israel from Syria three times during 2018, the use of "kamikaze" drones set to explode on their targets was a new and "different tactic."Israel insists that it has the right to continue to target positions held by Iran and its ally Hizbullah out of "self-defense."

Drones Are On Everyone's Mind In Middle East
Jerusalem Post/August 25/2019
Two drones were alleged to have crashed in southern Beirut in the early hours of Sunday.
On August 22 members of the 12th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces near Baghdad saw a drone hovering near their position. The forces are a group of paramilitaries mostly made up of former Shi’ite militias. The PMU “foiled the mission of an enemy drone,” a statement later said. In fact all they did was fire wildly into the air at the apparent drone. Later observers surmised that the drone was a surveillance drone either run by the Iraqi government or US-led Coalition as part of anti-ISIS operations. The summer in Iraq is very hot and people are on edge after four mysterious explosions at munitions warehouses of the PMU. Members of the PMU have blamed the US and Israel for the attacks, while leaders of the government have urged calm for an investigation to take place.
Going through the statement once again, the PMU said that its air defences managed to target a drone over the HQ of the PMU 12th brigade in Baghdad outskirts. The Website explained that “ PMU defences foiled the mission of enemy drone” without further details
Drones are on everyone’s mind these days in the Middle East. Two drones were alleged to have crashed in southern Beirut in the early hours of Sunday. Photos showed them, they appeared to be quadcopters, the kind of drones one might use to photograph weddings or such. But they may have dual-use purposes. Hezbollah officials told Iran’s PressTV the drones were Israeli. Al-Mayadeen reported the same.
In Yemen the Houthi rebels celebrated the downing of a US drone on August 21, claiming that a surface-to-air missile had struck it. US officials said the missile was supplied by Iran. On Saturday Saudi Arabia’s air defense intercepted Houthi drones that were flying toward the city of Jazan and Khamis Mushayt.
On Saturday night Israel also says that it struck drones in southern Syria. These were part of a “large-scale attack of multiple killer drones” that Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force operatives and Shi’ite militias were preparing to use against Israel. In northern Syria the Turkish military is using drones to keep tabs on an expanding Syrian regime offensive. A convoy of Turkish soldiers who are part of the observation posts Turkey has set up in Idlib were accompanied by drones, according to reports. Julian Ropcke noted on August 20 that two Turkish army drones were circling over Idlib and Hamas provinces.” In addition Syrian rebels have used drones to attack Russian forces in Syria. On August 11 an attack on Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base in Syria was repelled by Russian air defense.
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In Libya drones have played a key role on both sides of the civil conflict. Forces loyal to Khalifa Khaftar have allegedly used drones recently to kill up to forty in one incident, and the Tripoli government has used drones in late July to target an airport used by Khaftar’s forces. The Libyan conflict is seen as a kind of proxy conflict for drones supplied by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of how drones are increasingly being used by countries with sophisticated technology to police borders and hunt terrorists or fight wars. Israel is a leader in drone technology, as is the US. But Iran has also rolled out an impressive array of drones and even groups such as ISIS used drones during their war.

Iran Denies Its Syria Positions Hit by Israeli Strikes
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
A high-ranking Iranian official on Sunday denied Iranian positions had been hit by Israeli air strikes near the Syrian capital overnight. "This is a lie and it is not true," Mohsen Rezaie, the secretary of the Expediency Council, told ILNA news agency in response to Israeli claims its air force struck Iranian positions in the war-torn country. "Israel and America do not have the power to attack various centers of Iran, while the advisory centers that we have, have not been harmed," said Rezaie, a former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. "Actions taken jointly by Israel and America in Syria and Iraq are against international regulations and defenders of Syria and Iraq will soon respond to them." Iran, along with Russia, has been a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country's devastating civil war that broke out in 2011. It denies sending professional troops to fight in Syria, saying it has only provided military advisers and organized brigades made up of volunteers from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Zarif Lands in France during G7 for Talks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif landed in the French seaside resort of Biarritz Sunday for talks during a G7 summit, a spokesman for his ministry said. "Zarif... has arrived in Biarritz, where the G7 is being held, to continue talks regarding the recent measures between the presidents of Iran and France," spokesman Abbas Mousavi tweeted, referring to their efforts to salvage a nuclear deal.

Iranian FM Tours East Asia to Ease US Sanctions
London- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 August, 2019
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif began a tour in East Asia as part of a diplomatic push to ease some of US sanctions imposed on his country. Zarif will visit China, Japan, and Malaysia right after his tour of Western European nations, spokesman Abbas Mousavi said late Friday on the ministry's Telegram channel. “Bilateral relations and, most importantly, regional and international issues are some of the topics our foreign minister will discuss with the aforementioned countries' officials during the trip,” said Mousavi. Washington issued sanctions on Zarif late last month in a bid to target any assets he has in the US and limit his ability to function as a globe-trotting diplomat. However, Zarif hailed his visit to France on Friday following trips to Finland, Sweden, and Norway. In a post on Twitter, the FM said that despite US efforts to destroy diplomacy, he met French President Emmanuel Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and had interviews with media in Paris, including Agence-France Presse (AFP). Tensions escalated between Iran and the United States since last year when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a 2015 deal under which Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in return for an easing of sanctions.
A year after the US pullout, Iran began reducing its commitments by surpassing a uranium enrichment cap and exceeding a limit on its reserves. The situation has threatened to spiral out of control, with ships attacked in the Gulf, a US drone downed and oil tankers seized.
During his visit to France, Zarif told AFP in an interview that he was pleased with the efforts of Macron to defuse the crisis. “President Macron made some suggestions last week to President Rouhani and we believe they are moving in the right direction, although we are not definitely there yet,” noted Zarif. Iran is trying to pressure the Europeans into taking measures that could enable it to circumnavigate the US sanctions which are damaging its economy and affecting Iranians. The Europeans are trying to persuade Washington to ease sanctions on Iranian oil to get Tehran to respect the deal again. France, Germany ad Britain have introduced a mechanism known as INSTEX to facilitate continued trade with Iran despite US sanctions, but Iran has so far made little gains. For his part, Zarif briefed the French president on the Iranian perception of French ideas, before Macron made another attempt to mediate between Tehran and Washington during his meeting with US President Trump at the G7 summit in Biarritz. The French offer includes Tehran's full commitment to the terms of the agreement while accepting new negotiations on its ballistic missile program and regional policy. Speaking at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Zarif announced his country was prepared to work on French proposals to salvage the international nuclear deal signed with world powers in 2015. Notably, the Iranian FM adopted a policy of “constructive ambiguity”, by saying Iran is ready to work on the French proposals, in the sense that it sees in them some acceptable positive elements and others unacceptable or some that need clarification.

Egyptian Judiciary Issues Sentences in al-Haram Violent Acts
Cairo - Waleed Abdul Rahman
The Cairo Criminal Court issued a 5-year sentence against one defendant and released 3 others in the retrial of violent acts case at Al-Haram suburb in Giza. The Public Prosecution charged the defendants with possessing firearms, attacking public and private properties, protesting without permission, holding the intention to kill and join a group that was established contrary to the law. The same court decided on Saturday to postpone the trial of 47 defendants in the case of storming El Tebeen Police Department on Sep. 15. The Appellate court (the highest judicial authority in the country) abolished on July 5 the sentences against them and decided on a retrial. On Nov. 5, 2016, the Court issued 15 years in prison sentence against 21 defendants, 10 years in prison to 15 defendants and 7 years to 11 others. They were all fined to around EGP10 million and will be under the police supervision after concluding the sentence duration. The Public Prosecution accused them of causing chaos, crowding and intending to kill several officers and members of El Tebeen Police Department as well as setting fire to the department, burning its possessions, attempting to smuggle prisoners, possessing fire and cold arms and joining a group contrary to the law. Attorney General Nabil Ahmed Sadek ordered referring 11 suspects to the criminal court in the case of Mar-Mina Church attack in Halwan district on the outskirts of Cairo. They were accused of establishing and joining a takfiri group, funding its members, and killing 10 citizens including police officers.
Meanwhile, the trial of 9 suspects was delayed in the case of violence around buildings of the parliament, the cabinet, the Shura Council and the Egyptian Scientific Institute in Cairo.

Iraqi Army Launches New Security Campaign in Anbar Desert
Baghdad - Hamza Mustafa
The Joint Operations Command (JOC) announced on Saturday the start of the fourth phase of the Will of Victory Operation to hunt down remnants of ISIS militants in the desert of Iraq's western province of Anbar. A statement issued by the JOC media office said: "the fourth phase of this operation was launched at dawn on Saturday, to search and clear the entire desert and the regions in Anbar province from the ISIS remnants.” It said the operation was under the direction of the commander in chief of the armed forces and the supervision of the joint operations command and came after the third phase of the Will of Victory Operation achieved its objectives accurately and successfully. The troops concluded the third phase of the major offensive in the provinces of Nineveh and Diyala on Aug. 5. In this regard, Army Chief of Staff Othman Al-Ghanmi praised the command and high coordination unit between the army and the PMF in the process of the will victory.  Ghanmi said elements from the Army and PMF are now positioned in the desert of Wadi Houran, advancing together to chase down the ISIS remnants. The Chief of Staff’s comments signal the presence of a dispute between the Army and Hashd al-Shaabi about the explosions that lately targeted PMF positions and not the Army.  In this regard, security expert Dr. Moataz Mohiuddin, Director of the Center of the Republic of Strategic Studies, told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday that the quick attacks used by ISIS in Iraq before 2014, are not possible anymore after the JOC leadership had targeted several positions controlled by the militants in several parts of the country.  “The Americans lately informed the Iraqi side that ISIS remnants became very close to the cities,” Mohiuddin said, adding that the JOC would launch other operations to chase down the militias from other Iraqi areas.

Turkish Soldiers Killed in Northern Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 August, 2019
Turkey's official news agency reported that three Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Iraq following clashes with Kurdish militants. Anadolu Agency, citing the Turkish Defense Ministry, said Sunday that another seven soldiers were also wounded and hospitalized. Turkey launched the "Claw" operation in May into mountainous northern Iraq against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Associated Press reported. The offensive entered its third phase Friday, in which troops aim to destroy PKK caves and shelters in the Sinat-Haftanin region. Turkey, the United States and the European Union consider the group, based in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq, a terror organization.

Iraq: Juristic, Political Criticism over Haeri’s Fatwa to ‘Fight US’
Baghdad - Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 August, 2019
The Iraqi political and juristic debate continued on Saturday in the wake of the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Seyed Kazem al-Haeri on the call for fighting the US forces in Iraq. Given the political and juristic background of Haeri, most of the discussions circulated in these two aspects.
Critics said that a religious man living in Iran doesn’t have the right to interfere in the Iraqi political affairs and issue a fatwa to fight the US forces, especially with the presence of Iraq's Ayatollah Ali Sistani and other prominent religious leaders in Najaf, in addition to an Iraqi parliament and executive and legal authorities. The criticism focused on the ‘extremist’ Haeri’s fatwas such as those permitting the torture of Iraqi soldiers and killing police officers during the Iraqi-Iranian war 1980-1988. Also in 2003, he forbid voting for laics in Iraqi elections. In response to the wave of criticism, Haeri’s released a statement on Saturday where he justified that the fatwa was to defend Iraq’s security, independence, and sovereignty against any aggressor. While most of the official and religious parties remained silent, Asaib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais Khazali defended him. In a tweet, Khazali said that Haeri is a religious leader for many Iraqis, and disrespecting him is a disrespect to them. He continued that his only fault is his hatred to Iraq’s enemies, namely Israel and the US administration. Further, Sadr's spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi stated that a journalist asked him his opinion on Haeri’s. Obeidi affirmed that he can’t give any statement because he is Sadr’s spokesman, who would possibly tweet or issue a statement.

Palestine: Israeli Forces Conduct Manhunt for Ramallah Attackers
Ramallah- Kifah Zboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 August, 2019
The Israeli army arrested two Palestinians as part of a large-scale manhunt for the attack that killed an Israeli woman and wounded two others in the West Bank. The army arrested Ribhi Abu al-Safa and Mohammed Nayef Abu al-Safa from the village of Ein Arik after raiding and ransacking their homes. They also arrested former prisoner Israr Maarouf, who is a student at Birzeit University, from Ein Qinya. Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said the Ramallah operation was very disturbing to Israeli security as this type of attack was rare and unusual. Israeli security sources said that five similar attacks were thwarted since the beginning of the year. The arrest came hours after chief of Israeli army Aviv Kochavi announced that security services were at an advanced stage of the search. Kochavi said significant efforts were being made in the intelligence field to quickly arrest the perpetrators. Rina Shnerb, 17, was killed and her father and brother were seriously injured in a bombing at a natural spring outside the central West Bank settlement .Israel Forces Spokesperson Ronen Manelis said the army considered the blast to be a “serious terror attack,” noting that the device may have been planted at night by Palestinians who knew the area well, detonated it remotely and then fled the scene.
Israeli forces sealed off main roads leading to the western Ramallah in the West Bank, deployed troops, and blocked major roads The youths were arrested after Israeli soldiers seized tapes from the street surveillance cameras installed by shop and homeowners in these villages.
The new operation reinforced Israeli fears of a gradual security deterioration leading to a possible popular uprising soon ahead of next month's Israeli elections. Israeli military officials have warned in recent weeks of an increase in attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as Israeli elections approach.
Hamas praised the perpetrators of a bombing in the West Bank, saying it was a “proof of the vitality and bravery of the Palestinian people, and of the fact that it will not surrender to the crimes and terrorism of the occupation.” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called it “a heroic attack,” though he claimed he was not aware as to who was responsible. But it “shows that the default state in the West Bank is one of resistance, despite what our residents suffer there. The West Bank has strong people who are no less faithful and steadfast than their brethren in Gaza,” he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to arrest the perpetrators and intensify settlement activity in the West Bank in response to the attack. Meanwhile, the United States has called on the Palestinian Authority to explicitly condemn the attack. US special envoy to the Mideast Jason Greenblatt described the attack as “savage” which killed an Israeli teenager who was with her family. “This isn’t the path to peace, just endless suffering,” he tweeted. Greenblatt called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to “unequivocally condemn this attack,” adding that “if they don't, donor countries should demand the PA answer for why their donor funds continue to be used to reward attacks.”The PA usually does not condemn any operations against Israeli soldiers or settlers inside the West Bank given that it is an occupied territory, but condemns operations in Israel.

Hundreds of New Fires in Brazil as Outrage over Amazon Grows
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
Hundreds of new fires are raging in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, official data showed Saturday, as thousands of troops were made available to help fight the worst blazes in years following a global outcry. Multiple fires billowing huge plumes of smoke into the air were seen across a vast area of the northwestern state of Rondonia on Friday when AFP journalists flew over the area. Several residents in the capital, Porto Velho, told AFP on Saturday that what appeared to be light clouds hanging over the city of half a million people, was actually smoke from the blazes that had scorched swaths of land and left tree trunks smoldering on the ground. "I'm very worried because of the environment and health," Delmara Conceicao Silva told AFP. "I have a daughter with respiratory problems and she suffers more because of the fires."The fires in the world's largest rainforest have triggered a global uproar, and are a major topic of concern at the G7 meeting in Biarritz in southern France. Official figures show 78,383 forest fires have been recorded in Brazil this year, the highest number of any year since 2013. Experts say the clearing of land during the monthslong dry season to make way for crops or grazing, has aggravated the problem.
More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin, where more than 20 million people live. Some 1,663 new fires were ignited between Thursday and Friday, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The new data came a day after Bolsonaro authorized deployment of the military to fight the fires and crack down on criminal activity. Seven states, including Rondonia, have requested the army's help in the Amazon, where more than 43,000 troops are based and available to combat fires, officials said. Firefighters and planes are also being deployed.
Six aircraft, including two Hercules C-130s equipped to carry 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of water each, have been sent to Rondonia to fight the fires. They are expected to be joined by 30 firefighters on Sunday.
'Help is welcome'
U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, both attending the G7 summit, have offered their countries' assistance in fighting the fires. "Any help is welcome in respect to the fires," Brazil's Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva told reporters on Saturday.
The blazes have stirred outrage globally, with thousands of people protesting in Brazil and Europe on Friday. More demonstrations are planned in Brazil on Sunday. Earlier this week, Bolsonaro, whose anti-environment rhetoric since coming to power in January has been blamed for harming the Amazon and indigenous tribes, accused non-governmental organizations of deliberately starting the fires after their funding was cut. The growing crisis threatens to torpedo a blockbuster trade deal between the European Union and South American countries, including Brazil, that took 20 years to negotiate. EU Council president Donald Tusk told reporters at the G7 on Saturday that it was hard to imagine European countries ratifying a trade pact with the Mercosur bloc as long as Brazil fails to curb the fires ravaging the Amazon, which is known as the "lungs of the planet" because of its crucial role in mitigating climate change. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has taken the lead in pressing his Brazilian counterpart over the fires, had earlier accused Bolsonaro of lying to him about Brazil's stance on climate change. In an escalating war of words between the two leaders, Bolsonaro denounced what he calls Macron's "colonialist mentality."Environmental specialists say the fires are coming amid increasing deforestation in the Amazon region, which in July took place at a rate four times that of the same month in 2018, according to data from INPE. Bolsonaro has previously attacked the institute, describing its data as lies and engineering the sacking of its head. On Friday, he insisted that the fires should not be used as an excuse to punish Brazil. "There are forest fires all over the world, and this cannot be used as a pretext for possible international sanctions," Bolsonaro said. Brazil's powerful agriculture sector -- which strongly supports Bolsonaro -- has expressed concerns over the president's rhetoric, fearing boycotts of their products in key markets. In an editorial Saturday, the respected Folha de S.Paulo newspaper warned that Bolsonaro's "bravado" had worsened the crisis caused by accelerating deforestation. "The damage to (Brazil's) image is done, and it could have important trade repercussions," it said. "Nationalistic bravado will not win the game this time."

Qatari Envoy Says Aid, Contacts Helping Prevent New Gaza War
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 25/2019
Qatar's envoy to Gaza says the Gulf emirate's hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian enclave and its contacts with both Hamas and Israel are helping prevent another catastrophic war. Speaking in an interview with AFP in Gaza City, Mohammed al-Emadi said a new payment of $10 million is expected to be distributed on Sunday to 100,000 poor families in Gaza, which is run by the Islamist movement Hamas. It is the latest in a succession of aid payments for fuel for electricity, salaries and assistance for needy families in the Gaza Strip from Qatar, which has budgeted some $330 million for the program launched last year. More than $150 million of that has been spent, on top of other large amounts of aid that Qatar has provided to Gaza in recent years, he said. "The money is essential... because otherwise Gaza will be a place where nobody can survive or live," Emadi said from his office in Al-Mashtal Hotel late Saturday during one of his periodic visits to Gaza City. "We know the situation is very bad, so that's why our money helps a lot, and it helps in preventing a new war."He added that it is "not only the aid.""The aid, the communication, the information... We are coordinating directly with the people who can take decisions."
'Will be catastrophic'
The payments are part of a wider agreement brokered by U.N. and Egyptian officials to end several violent flare-ups in recent months between Israel and Hamas, which have fought three devastating wars since 2008. A series of violent incidents in August have again threatened the truce just ahead of Israel's September 17 general election, but the new Qatari cash may help relative calm return, at least for now. The incidents have included rocket fire from Gaza, infiltration attempts by armed Palestinians and return fire by Israel, the Israeli army says. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid an escalation in Gaza before the polls due to the political risk involved, but he has faced calls for strong action from his electoral opponents. As a result, there has been speculation in Israel that Hamas has turned a blind eye to rocket fire and infiltration attempts instead of preventing them in a bid to pressure Netanyahu into further concessions. For Emadi, the election means longer-term solutions cannot be discussed for now due to political sensitivity, but he hopes talks can later be held on easing Israel's blockade of Gaza. Another war would cost the international community far more in monetary terms, he said, but the humanitarian concerns are even greater, particularly with Gaza still recovering from the last conflict in 2014. "Any new war with this situation, I think it will be catastrophic to Gaza and to the people of Gaza," said Emadi. Emadi said he meets with leaders of both Hamas's political and military wings while also holding separate discussions with Israeli officials. Qatar, like most Arab nations, has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, and Emadi declined to say specifically who he holds talks with on the Israeli side.
'Nobody cares'
The Gulf state is a rare ally for Hamas, which has never recognized Israel and is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. The more than decade-long blockade of the Gaza Strip and repeated wars have taken a heavy toll on the economy and infrastructure in the coastal enclave of two million people. According to the World Bank, unemployment is at 52 percent, with two-thirds of Gaza's young people jobless. The Qatari fuel aid has allowed for an average of around 10 hours of public electricity per day, compared to as little as four hours daily previously, UN figures show. The truce has also seen Israel expand the area it allows Gaza fishermen out into the sea -- though it reduces it or even cuts it to zero in response to violence from the enclave.Emadi said issues such as work permits for Gazans to enter Israel have also been discussed. "Nobody cares about the people in this place," he said when asked why Qatar was playing the role it has, with speculation that it has been a means to wield regional influence. "Our concern is the people -- to save lives, to provide better lives for these people."That aspect has been "forgotten from both sides, let's say."

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 25-26/2019
At the G7, Trump Is One of the Popular Ones
Justin Fox/Bloomberg/August 25/2019
Donald Trump is an unpopular president. According to the Real Clear Politics polling average as of Friday afternoon, only 43.3% of Americans approve of his performance. FiveThirtyEight, which weights polls by quality, sample size and partisan lean, puts the average at 41.6%.
But as the president meets with leaders of the other G7 countries in the French resort city of Biarritz this weekend, he can take solace in the fact that he’s more popular than almost all of his peers. The lone exception seems to be Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, whose cabinet’s approval rating is 48.8% (to only 35% disapproval) in the Japan Political Pulse poll aggregator maintained by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA.
Only 32% of Germans polled for broadcaster ARD a few weeks ago said they were satisfied with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s approval rating was 41% in one recent poll and 39% in another (and in the second poll, by Ipsos, only 33% agreed that he “has done a good job and deserves to be re-elected”). In the UK, only 31% have a positive opinion of brand-new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to YouGov. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte just resigned, so while he remains in office until a new government is formed and the current governing coalition still has a majority in polls, I don’t think he can really be counted as riding on a wave of approval.
Then there is French President Emmanuel Macron, the one other more or less directly elected head of state (as opposed to leader of a parliamentary government) coming to Biarritz. In so many ways, he’s the diametric opposite of Trump: young, cosmopolitan, well-spoken, technocratic. He’s the least popular of the lot, with a 28% approval rating in the most recent poll listed by the diligent editors of the “Opinion polling on the Emmanuel Macron presidency” Wikipedia page and 22% percent in the one before that.
Trump’s approval rating has of course been remarkably stable, stuck since early 2018 in a narrow band between 40% and 45%. This may be the result of extreme partisan polarization — Trump remains very popular, if not quite as popular as he says he is, among Republicans — or of the personalization of the presidency. Or maybe it’s just that a reasonably healthy economy and a chaotic presidential performance have so far mostly canceled each other out. In any case, approval ratings seem to be less stable in other countries, and with the world and Europe in particular in the midst of an economic slowdown, their common direction at the moment seems to be down. Macroeconomic fluctuations aside, there also seems to be a more general dissatisfaction afoot in many rich, Western democracies that makes it tough for incumbents to remain popular.
In the US, Trump has enjoyed both economic good times and a seemingly inalienable base of about 25% of Americans — that is, the people who say in polls that they “strongly approve” of his performance. There’s another 40% or so who “strongly disapprove” of him, though, and recent signs of economic sputtering seem be dragging Trump’s overall approval rating down at least a little. By all appearances, this is rattling the president. While in Biarritz he might want to consider chilling out and enjoying the fact that, relative to that crowd, he still counts as quite beloved.

Analysis/Iran Wanted Revenge Over Iraq Strike. Israel Foiled It – for Now
عاموس هاريل/هآرتس:الطائرات المسيرة التي اسقطت فوق الضاحية قد تكون إيرانية/إيران ارادت أن تنتقم من إسرائيل على خلفية ضرباتها داخل العراق غير أن إسرائيل حتى الآن لم تمكنها من ذلك
Amos Harel/Haaretz/August 25/ 2019
The latest round of blows in Syria and Lebanon brings the proxy war between the two powers to a new and much larger arena. But this time, Israel has the upper hand ■ ‘Israeli’ drones that crashed over Beirut may in fact be Iranian.
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77827/%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%88%d8%b3-%d9%87%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%84-%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b7%d8%a7%d8%a6%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84/
Israel and Iran find themselves once again, for the third time in a year and a half, in a round of exchanged blows and revenge-fueled assaults that in extreme circumstances, which could deteriorate into a broader conflict. But this time, as opposed to the tension that played out between February and May of last year, the clashes span a larger area, which according to media reports stretches beyond Syria, to Iraq and Lebanon as well.
The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday night that it had managed to thwart an Iranian plan to launch drone strikes at military and infrastructure targets in northern Israel. The first attempt of the Al-Quds Brigades of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards was disrupted on Thursday under circumstances that have not been disclosed. On Saturday night the Israel Air Force struck a base in the village of Aqraba, southeast of Damascus, from which the drone strike was to have originated. The Israeli action was relatively extensive, but at the moment there are no reports from Syria regarding casualties. According to the IDF, Shi’ite militiamen and Revolutionary Guards were at the base.
In an unusual step, Israel revealed a fairly large number of details about the assault with both the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issuing statements about it. Netanyahu, his bureau said, had spent the night in the air force war room along with IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi. In its statements, Israel departed, albeit not for the first time, from its policy of ambiguity with regard to most incidents in Syria in recent years. The reason for this might be that in this case the action was to stop a threat ahead of time, a moment before an Iranian assault. Of course, it’s possible that electoral considerations were also at work here.
Another interesting incident happened during the night. Explosions were heard in Beirut and Hezbollah said two drones that had approached Dahyeh, the Shi’ite suburb south of Beirut, had crashed. In that case, Israel has volunteered no information. Israel rarely attacks in Lebanon, and certainly avoids doing so from the air.
Hezbollah has in the past marked aerial attacks in Lebanon as its red line (while showing restraint when it came to dozens of assaults attributed to Israel against the organization’s weapons-smuggling convoys in Syria). And even when Israel uncovered factories to produce precision weapons in Beirut, it preferred doing so via Netanyahu’s speech in the United Nations and not by bombings.
This time, meanwhile, Israel has not reacted to the incident in Beirut. Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who is usually happy to appear as Lebanon’s protector, is set to address the incident in a speech later Sunday.
According to the Lebanese government and Hezbollah, the organization disrupted an Israeli UAV assault. However, another possibility is that the UAVs or drones that fell were not Israeli, but rather Iranian, and they were connected to plans to thwart attack plans an Al-Quds force following the attacks in Syria. Israel and Hezbollah may have a common interest here in calming things down, at least on the Lebanese front.
The thwarted Iranian action was apparently planned as revenge for an assault on a weapons warehouse belonging to the Iran-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq on July 19, which was attributed to Israel. Tehran saw this as an Israeli attempt to expand the arena of conflict. Even the United States objected to the assault, over concern that it would hinder ties with the government in Baghdad, and it made sure to leak details and criticism of Israel to the New York Times, which was published on Friday.
On Thursday, in a very unusual departure from the policy of logical information security, Tehran even hinted of an expected response on its part. A commentator close to the Revolutionary Guards wrote in the Iranian newspaper Kayhan that Israeli actions in Iraq and Syria would be met with surprises, such as launches of UAVs at sensitive security targets, ports and nuclear sites in Israel. The plan that was foiled, according to the IDF, was identical to the action threatened beforehand by the commentator.
The repeated strikes against Iranian targets in Syria show the IDF’s advantage when the conflict with the Revolutionary Guards takes place close to Israel’s border. The Israeli intelligence community monitors events in Syria closely and the air force is able to strike the Iranians and disrupt their plans without great difficulty so far.
But that is not to say that Iran has given up its aspirations in Syria. After the many assaults last year, the Iranians made changes in its deployment, such as moving the focus of their activities from the Damascus airport to the T4 air base near Homs, which is farther from Israel. They have not abandoned their attempts to strengthen their military presence in Syria and have not stopped smuggling weapons to Hezbollah.
Iranian revenge now depends on whether the Revolutionary Guards are still capable of immediate responses, but it also depends on the magnitude of casualties. If it turns out that Iranians were killed in the Israeli action, among them senior figures, the motivation for revenge will be greater. The IDF has already taken a number of defensive steps, including the deployment of Iron Dome aerial defense batteries in the north.
This is all happening in the backdrop of tension between the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf and the crisis over the American withdrawal from the nuclear agreement. The Trump administration has already made it clear that the U.S. doesn’t want war with Iran, but the friction between the two sides is ongoing and the Iranians can continue to attack targets associated with the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, as they do against Israel from Syria.
The assault in Syria and the incident in Lebanon shed a different light on claims critical of the government over a lack of offensive action toward Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And as in the affair of the discovery and destruction of tunnels dug by Hezbollah in Lebanon in December, it turned out belatedly that there are other considerations behind the policy of restraint in the Gaza Strip, which are not always disclosed to the public in real time.
The tension in the north is increasing as the election campaign reaches its final lap ahead of Election Day on September 17. The prime minister is preparing for elections while in the background are deadly attacks in the West Bank and growing friction with Hamas in Gaza that could lead to another exchange of blows there. But in the north, as opposed to Gaza, Netanyahu meanwhile feels comfortable politically: He appears to be in control of the situation and is managing the use of force relatively cautiously. At the moment, no Israeli citizens have not been directly threatened or injured in the north. And so Netanyahu will probably try to politically leverage military action in Syria, while trying to limit as much as possible discussion of the situation of residents of the Gaza border area.
As for the north, Netanyahu’s opponents don’t have much to say except to express somewhat forced support of the government’s policy and the IDF’s actions. And yet, the question arises as to whether the decision (as reported) to expand Israeli assaults to Iraq was not too great a risk and whether this was not the straw that broke the Iranian camel’s back and drew Saturday night’s attempted response.

Why Europe is wrong on Iran
Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 25, 2019
As G7 leaders meet in France, what policies should they pursue toward Tehran and what should be done about the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz?
There is a major disagreement between the European countries at the summit — France, Germany, Italy and the UK — and the US, on the issue of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program.
The US has withdrawn from the deal, but European powers believe steps should be taken to save it from collapse. They plead with Iran to abide by its terms, and continue to work on INSTEX, the financial instrument designed to enable Iran to avoid dollar transactions and thus evade US sanctions.
It has become increasingly evident that London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels have limited ability to persuade companies to risk US penalties by doing business with Iran.
European leaders ignore the reality, which is that they cannot save the nuclear deal; it was flawed from the beginning, Iran has already admitted breaching the agreement’s 300kg limit on enriched uranium, US sanctions are having a significant impact on Iran’s economy, and it is extremely unlikely that the Trump administration will return to the JCPOA.
Unlike the European powers, the US is committed to countering Iran’s aggressive, expansionist and destabilizing behavior. It has imposed draconian sanctions on Iran’s energy sector and financial system, on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and even on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Unlike the European powers, the US is committed to countering Iran’s aggressive, expansionist and destabilizing behavior.
Washington has also been trying to form a coalition to counter Tehran’s belligerence. National security adviser John Bolton visited the UK this month and urged a harder line against Tehran; Britain’s participation in the proposed Gulf Maritime Task Force suggests this may have gained some traction.
Europe’s policy on Iran is clearly misguided because the EU views the regime in Tehran solely through the prism of the nuclear deal; there is more than that to Iran, which is why the JCPOA never dealt adequately with the threat posed to Europe’s security by the regime.
Even after the deal was signed in July 2015, and before US President Donald Trump withdraw in May 2018, Tehran was responsible for a series of assassination and terrorist plots across Europe, some successful and others not.
They include the assassination in The Hague in November 2017 of Ahmed Mola Nissire, a Dutch citizen of Iranian origin, and a prominent figure in the Arab Struggle for the Liberation of Ahvaz; an attempted terrorist attack in June 2018 on a Free Iran convention in Paris, attended by former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird; and the attempted assassination of a Danish citizen by Iranian intelligence agents in 2018, which prompted a protest by the government in Copenhagen.
So, in a nutshell, G7 leaders must unite against Iran’s multifaceted threats, and European leaders must stop ignoring reality by trying to keep the nuclear deal alive.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. He serves on the boards of the Harvard International Review, the Harvard International Relations Council and the US-Middle East Chamber for Commerce and Business. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Erdogan and Putin may be heading for a Syria showdown
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/August 25/ 2019
The seizure by the Syrian government forces of Khan Sheikhun in the northwestern province of Idlib may change the agenda of Turkey-Russia relations.
An agreement was signed on Sept. 17 last year in Sochi to postpone an Assad regime offensive in exchange for establishing a 15km-20 km demilitarized zone in the province. All radical terrorist groups were to be cleared from the zone by Oct. 15, together with their heavy weapons. Turkey promised to use its leverage to disarm them. It fulfilled this promise with some, but failed with many others.
However, it was a common knowledge that, after having defeated the opposition in most of the country, Assad regime forces would eventually turn to Idlib. When they started to make inroads to the center of Khan Sheikhun, Ankara thought the security of its observation post in Morek was threatened, and decided to send reinforcements.
The Syrian government claimed that this reinforcement was aimed to help the defeated terrorists of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) in Khan Sheikhun. It attacked the convoy last week and killed three people, including Hussein Kassem, the commander of the Turkey-supported Faylaq Al-Sham militia.
Turkish media criticized Russia for not doing enough to prevent the Syrian air force from attacking the convoy. In fact, Moscow not only failed to halt the attack, it also actively supported it. Russian President Vladimir Putin observed: “Before the Sochi agreement on Idlib was signed, about 50 percent of that territory was under terrorist control, and now that number is 90 percent. There were also numerous attempts to attack our air base in Khmeimim from the Idlib zone, so we support the Syrian army’s efforts to carry out local operations to neutralize these terrorist threats.”
Russia’s discontent with Turkey’s attitude is hardly concealed in this statement.
Turkey was disillusioned by this, because its perception of the Sochi agreement’s ultimate objective was probably different from that of Russia.
For Russia, the background of the Sochi agreement was as follows: When the Syrian army was about to launch a military operation in Idlib, Turkey asked Russia to persuade the Syrian government to postpone it, hoping that it may persuade some of the moderate opposition groups to lay down their arms.
Turkey woke up to the reality after its convoy was attacked.
Moscow intervened for postponement, because it thought Turkey’s worries about a possible massive refugee wave toward its borders were justified. Second, if Turkey could persuade some of armed factions to lay arms, this was going to become an added value for stability.
On the other hand, Russia considered some of the HTS-linked factions to be legitimate targets, while Turkey did not. Therefore, Russia did not want to continue to pressure Damascus into further postponing the military operation in Idlib. This was the gist of the Sochi memorandum according to Russia. Turkey’s reading of the same agreement seems to be slightly different: Ankara thought that Syria’s postponement of the military operation in Idlib was going to last longer. Therefore, it perceived the agreement as a basis for Turkey’s extended stay in Idlib.
Turkey woke up to the reality after its convoy was attacked.
Another noteworthy coincidence is that this blow came weeks after Turkey rebuffed strong US pressure because of its purchase of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system — in other words, at a point where Turkish-American relations had hit a low point.
Another subject of disagreement with the US is the question of a safe zone in northeast Syria. A concrete step has been taken there, but with uncertain prospects. Depending on how this affair will progress, Ankara may have to re-assess its cooperation with Russia in Idlib.
The process will probably continue in light of the military initiatives that the Syrian government will take — with or without the tacit approval of Moscow — and Turkey’s response to them.
This question was raised by Erdogan last week during his telephone conversation with Putin. The Kremlin said: “The two sides agreed to eliminate the threat of terror and intensify their common efforts to implement the Sochi memorandum.” This language suggests that both sides maintained their position. The reference to the implementation of the Sochi agreement may be a message to Turkey’s failing in fulfilling its promise to disarm the rebel opposition.
Erdogan is due to go to Russia this week. More detailed talks will take place on the security of the Turkish observation posts in Idlib, but if the Syrian regime eliminates the rebel presence in Idlib, the Turkish observation posts that were supposed to observe the de-confliction may lose their relevance.
*Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar

Merkel's missed chance to bring Orban into line
Ranvir S. Nayar/Arab News/August 25/ 2019
A crucial date in the modern history of Europe was marked last week with the 30th anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic. Organized at a small town on the Austro-Hungarian border, the 1989 event attracted thousands of citizens of not just these two nations, but also several hundred East Germans, who profited from the opportunity of an open border to cross over into Austria, as the Hungarian border guards refused to make any serious effort to stop them.
Over the following few days, the breach in the so-called Iron Curtain remained open and even widened as hundreds more people from East Germany and other Warsaw Pact nations fled toward the West. The picnic had clearly opened the floodgates and made the desperate residents of the Warsaw Pact nations realize that their governments were more vulnerable than at any time since the end of the Second World War.
Sure enough, less than three months later, the Berlin Wall was brought down and the Warsaw Pact died a premature death. Thus, for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was living in East Germany at the time, the Pan-European Picnic must have been a personally important date, with Hungary’s role in the first breach of the Iron Curtain memorably crucial.
So Merkel must have felt the irony of celebrating the anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic by sharing the stage with and hugging the current leader of Hungary, Viktor Orban. One of the most nationalist and xenophobic leaders in the EU today, Orban has in fact built many new “iron curtains” all around his country, notably on its southern border with Serbia. During the refugee crisis that engulfed the EU in 2015, Orban simply closed Hungary’s borders and pushed back all refugees attempting to make their way north, refusing to accept any at all in Hungary. He was also one of the most vocal critics of Merkel’s open-border policy of the time, which saw nearly 1.5 million refugees enter Germany. He freely used the media to propel his anti-Muslim views.
Over the years, Orban’s views have only hardened. Earlier this year, while campaigning ahead of the European Parliament elections, he called for a strong defense of “Christian Europe” and announced financial perks for “Hungarian” families that have more children to counter the population decline, while keeping immigrants at bay. He has also been engaged in sledging of the US billionaire George Soros, who is of Hungarian origin, accusing him of carrying out a hidden agenda of Islamization in Europe and helping migrants come to Hungary.
Despite Hungary being one of the smallest and weakest EU nations, the entire bloc has been left wringing its hands in despair, lacking any means of stopping Orban from carrying out his xenophobic policies and crushing free expression and human rights in Hungary. Instead of ostracizing Budapest and taking punitive measures that would immediately hurt Hungary politically, socially and economically, Brussels has simply filed suits against Orban’s decisions in the European courts — a process that will take years to lead to any results and with no guarantees that the results will be those sought by the EU. Meanwhile, MEPs last year voted to refer Hungary to the European Council over its breaches of EU principles, but no follow-up hearings have yet been held.
Despite Hungary being one of the smallest and weakest EU nations, the entire bloc has been left wringing its hands in despair.
And Hungary is not alone in going down this road. The Polish ruling party, Law and Justice, is equally critical of the EU’s immigration policies and has acted in a similar fashion to Hungary by closing its borders to refugees, even though it is not as voluble or loud in its anti-Islam propaganda. In fact, Orban has managed to escape even a tiny rap on the knuckles as Poland blocks any moves by EU heads of states to formally criticize Orban or pass any resolution against him. Orban is encouraged by the fact that EU leaders will remain helpless spectators as long as Poland, or any other EU nation, stands by him and does not let the EU move formally against Hungary in a significant manner.
In such a scenario, Merkel ought to have given the anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic a miss. By sharing the stage with a leader who is actually practicing entirely against the open-door policies of the EU and violating its basic values and norms, Germany and the other members of the EU have sent out a wrong message on how they intend to deal with leaders or nations that fall out of line on key policy matters. By getting Merkel to share the stage with Orban, despite his rhetoric and policies that fly in the face of those of Germany and the EU as a whole, he must have realized that he can actually keeping going without any fear of being ostracized or penalized.
Merkel would have been better off organizing a Pan-European Picnic event in Germany or Brussels and inviting select other EU leaders, keeping Orban and his like away. Only then would the message be clearly received that all EU member states have to follow the common policies on key issues and not serve only their narrow interests. The EU should be clear that it will not allow another Iron Curtain to come up on its borders ever again, and its leaders should act accordingly.
• Ranvir S. Nayar is the editor of Media India Group, a global platform based in Europe and India that encompasses publishing, communication and consultation services.

Persecution of Christians, June 2019/There Is No Christian Anymore in This Town
ريموند إبراهيم/قائمة بعمليات اضطهاد المسيحيين في شهر حزيران/2019/سكان قرية من المسيحيين كلهم ابيدوا في مالي
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/August 25/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77834/%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d8%af-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%85%d8%a9-%d8%a8/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14766/persecution-of-christians-june
Three men and one woman robbed, beat, and poisoned Sagheer Masih, a 35-year-old Christian auto-rickshaw driver. “He was well-mannered, polite and very friendly. Knowing he had the responsibility of taking care of three younger siblings… he ensured that he always got to work early and left late in order to gather as much money as he could to care for them…. Instead of killing him in on the spot, they forced him to drink poison and acid and left him there to die….” — International Christian Concern, June 20, 2019, Pakistan.
“Their tactic is to befriend someone when they come in [to prison]. If they don’t convert, they will then start spreading rumours about them, that the person is a snitch, so that they will be ostracised. Then the beatings follow.” — An inmate, according to a Ministry of Justice report; The Times, June 7, 2019, United Kingdom.
“We cannot allow the Christians… to allege that Jesus is the Son of God,” explained one mosque leader; “this [is] a serious blasphemy to Muslims.” — Morning Star News, June 3, 2019, Uganda.
Slaughter of Christians
Mali: On June 9, Islamic Fulani gunmen massacred at least 95 Christians — including women and children. During their rampage in a Christian village, they set it ablaze before leaving; several of the slain were burned alive. “About 50 heavily armed men arrived on motorbikes and pickups,” a survivor recalled. “They first surrounded the village and then attacked — anyone who tried to escape was killed…. No one was spared — women, children, elderly people.” Security sources confirmed that the raiders also randomly killed domestic animals in the village. It was “virtually wiped out.”
Burkina Faso: Islamic terrorists slaughtered 29 Christians over the course of two separate raids. The first took place on Sunday, June 9, in the town of Arbinda; 19 Christians were slaughtered. The next day, another ten Christians were murdered in a nearby town. An additional 11,000 Christians fled the region and were left displaced; they feared if they were to remain in their villages they would be next. “There is no Christian anymore in this town [Arbinda],” said a local contact. He added that “It’s proven that they [terrorists] were looking for Christians. Families who hide Christians are [also] killed. Arbinda had now lost in total no less than 100 people within six months.” These June attacks follow a string of Islamic terror attacks in the West African nation over the preceding six weeks that left at least another 20 Christians dead.
Nigeria: Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed at least 24 Christians in three separate raids. On June 17, the herdsmen slaughtered 13 Christians — three of whom were children, one reportedly only eight years old — in Kaduna and Plateau States. Two churches, more than 200 Christian homes, and crops were also torched to the ground. The same day, in Tarabu State, “Muslim Fulanis riding Bajaj motorcycles” raided another Christian village, where they butchered another 11 Christians. “They burned houses and shot us as we fled,” a “contact” said, according to the report. According to Morning Star News:
“Like Boko Haram, they are inspired by the jihad and caliphate of their Fulani kinsman Usman dan Fodio,” John Eibner, chairman of international management at the Swiss-based CSI, notes on the Website. “The extensive death and destruction caused by Fulani terrorists rarely makes major headlines in the West. But, according to the Global Terrorism Index, ‘In 2018 alone, deaths attributed to Fulani extremists are estimated to be six times greater than the number committed by Boko Haram’…
“Fulani attacks against villages, the destruction of crops, and kidnappings tend to be directed against Christian and traditionalist villagers, with the goal of driving them off their land and occupying it,” Eibner states on the Website (www.nigeria-report.org). “For the Fulani militias, the ideology and rhetoric of dan Fodio’s jihad are used to legitimize land grabbing. The violence of these Muslim Fulani militias tends to be conducted with impunity. The American and British-backed Nigerian Army – the largest in Africa and a major participant in many international peacekeeping missions – is unable or unwilling to confront Fulani militias.”
Morocco: According to the ringleader of an Islamic terror cell, the sole reason that he and his men slaughtered two female Scandinavian students — a Dane, 24, and a Norwegian, 28 — who were hiking through the North African nation’s Atlas Mountains, was because they were Christian (many Muslims assume that all Europeans are practicing Christians). Abdessamad Ejoud, 25, confessed to this motivation during his and two other terrorists’ court trial over the murders that occurred last December. Ejoud, who professed his “love” for ISIS in court, personally beheaded one of the two women because, as Christians, they are Allah’s “enemies,” he said, and are responsible for “killing Muslims.”
Pakistan: Three Muslim men and one woman robbed, beat, and poisoned Sagheer Masih, a 35-year-old Christian auto-rickshaw driver. According to the report, he “was targeted because of religious hatred, prejudice and apparent jealously of his success”:
Sagheer Masih’s work ethic and personality drew several customers to him. He was well-mannered, polite and very friendly. Knowing he had the responsibility of taking care of three younger siblings after the death of his father, he ensured that he always got to work early and left late in order to gather as much money as he could to care for them. At work, he experienced discrimination because of his faith. Several of the other drivers called him “Choora” which is a derogatory word for a Christian in Pakistan, but he never saw his death coming. On the night of the incident, he stayed at work later than usual to drive for people he thought were customers. The group requested that he take them on a longer route than usual and made it clear to him that they were willing to pay an extra fee. After moments of driving, they directed him to a remote location and, at knife-point, demanded that he give them all his money. Sagheer, being scared for his life and concerned for his siblings, gave all he had, but begged that they spare his life. Instead of killing him in on the spot, they forced him to drink poison and acid and left him there to die. Sagheer Masih spent that night on laying on the street unconscious. When he was finally found, he was unable to eat or drink anything and he consistently vomited blood….
He died a week later.
Sri Lanka: The Islamic suicide bombing of churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, April 21, that claimed more than 250 lives claimed another life in June. Arun Prashanth, who heroically helped others after his church was bombed, had been struggling between life and death in an intensive care unit for 40 days when, on June 4, he finally succumbed to death. According to a report, “Arun, [30,] the sole family breadwinner who cared for his widowed mother, was very active in Christian ministry and known as someone who was always available to help out anyone in need.”
Attacks on Churches and Christian Institutions
Niger: On June 15, in response to the arrest of a popular Muslim imam who had accused proposed legislation of being “anti-Islamic,” a Muslim mob of more than 150 people set the Assembly of God Church in Maradi ablaze. They also torched the pastor’s car and raided another neighboring church. A senior official of Niger’s Ministry of Interior later said that there is “nothing anti-Islamic” in the proposed legislation, which is intended to counter measures advocated by “obscurantist terrorist organizations.” The imam, Sheikh Rayadoune, was released the day after his arrest, at which point he announced that “all my supporters must stop making trouble in the town. Islam does not recommend that.”
United States: A Muslim man from Syria, who in August 2016 was admitted into the U.S. as a “refugee,” was “arrested on terrorism charges in relation to a plan to attack a church in Pittsburgh, according to the Justice Department,” notes a report dated June 19:
Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, was arrested based on a federal complaint charging him with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to the self-described Islamic State, also known as ISIS, according to the U.S. Justice Department. He’s also charged with two counts of distributing information relating to an explosive, destructive device or weapon of mass destruction in relation to a plan to attack the Legacy International Worship Center on the city’s north side. The complaint states that Alowemer in May gave “multiple instructional documents” detailing how to build and use explosives, including improvised explosive devices, to an undercover FBI agent he believed was an ISIS supporter. Federal prosecutors allege that the man handed over these documents intending for them to be used in assembling a weapon to conduct an attack.
Alowemer had purchased several items — including nails, batteries and consumer products containing hazardous chemicals — to be used in his improvised explosive device.
Ethiopia: Authorities ordered an evangelical church congregation to vacate the building it had been using for the last decade. Complaints from neighbors of loud noises were cited in the eviction letter, which gave the congregants 30 days to vacate the premises. “This decision is nothing other than a display of animosity towards Protestant churches in the region,” said one local.
“Similar tensions are bubbling under the surface in other parts of Oromia. We have even heard of places where Muslims had asked Christians to vacate the area. And though this call is veiled as ethnic rivalry by some media and observers, it is at its very core a religious matter.”
According to World Watch Monitor:
There is concern that these measures are part of a concerted effort to discourage Christian activity in Oromia state, the birthplace of [Muslim] President Abiye Ahmed. Leaders say they also fear that if these government actions are successful, it might encourage Muslims in other communities in Oromia to initiate similar complaints. As of the 2007 census, the state was about 51 percent Christian (17.7% protestant, 30.4 orthodox) and 47.6% Muslim…. It’s not only the state’s Protestant churches that face problems. Some Ethiopian Orthodox churches have reported an increase in difficulties…
Lebanon: Security agents arrested a Syrian national and ISIS-sympathizer, aged 20, for plotting a series of attacks against the nation’s Christian churches and Shia mosques. He was apparently inspired by the April 21 Sri Lanka terror attacks on Christian churches and tourist designations that left more than 250 dead. The report stated:
Within the Middle East context, Lebanon is considered a comparatively safe country for Christians. It is the only country with a Christian president. Even so, challenges persist. The Iranian backed terrorist group, Hezbollah, has a strong political influence in the country. Lebanon is home to over a million refugees and asylum seekers. Lebanese Christians are well-aware of how this combination could place them into situations which make them more vulnerable to attacks.
Uganda: A Christian primary school, which takes in Muslim children thrown out by their parents for converting to Christianity, was unexpectedly demolished by authorities after local Muslims complained that the school was conducting loud and disruptive worship services in the evening. One written compliant, sent directly to the school, threatened that “If you do not stop night prayers, we are going to take tough action against the school.” Soon after, at 2:00am on June 2, without prior notification, the school was demolished.
Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Preachers
Uganda: Local authorities banned open-air evangelical church events after some Muslims converted to Christianity — while others, angered by such apostasy, threatened church leaders with text messages such as, “Tomorrow we are coming to kill all of you during the open air crusade.” Several of the Christians who spoke at the event were former Muslims and openly discussed what they deemed problematic Islamic doctrines that prompted them to embrace Christianity. “We cannot allow the Christians to use the Koran in their meetings or to allege that Jesus is the Son of God,” explained one mosque leader; “this [is] a serious blasphemy to Muslims.” Another sheikh openly threatened the apostates with death:
“We cannot watch the Christians changing our faithful members to Christianity. If those who have joined Christianity will not return back to Islam, then we are going to treat them as infidels, hence deserving death according to the teaching of Islam.”
“I am very afraid for my life,” said a former Muslim cleric turned Christian. “I have received threatening messages in my phone that the Muslims want my head.” Local authorities responded to these threats by shutting down the evangelical events.
Egypt: A Sudanese Muslim cleric who on converting to Christianity fled his persecutors in Sudan and came to Egypt continues to receive threats. Most recently, a caller on the telephone told Al Hadi Izzalden Shareef Osman that he is “an infidel and fuel for hell.” It was the voice of a cleric who a week earlier had come to Osman’s Cairo apartment with five other Muslim sheikhs demanding that the apostate renounce Christ and re-embrace Islam or prepare to face the consequences. “They kept telling me to go mosque, but I refused,” Osman said. “I was afraid and had to relocate from the apartment to another location…. Egypt is no longer safe for me. I want to relocate elsewhere, I am tired of these threats.”
Separately, on June 10, an angry Muslim mob attacked Christians in the village of Ishnin, in Upper Egypt, after the Islamic call to prayer, portions of which announced that a young Christian had made a post on Facebook deemed offensive to Islam. Fadi Yousef, 25, the accused, says his account was hacked; he deleted the post once he saw it — posting in its place an explanatory apology. “He is apologizing because he respects your feelings,” his sister later explained. “He is not a child to do such a thing…” Regardless, a mob gathered and forced their way into his family home and the homes of two other relatives; they tore out the electrical wiring and destroyed furniture. According to a local, “The extremists were roaming the village saying, ‘There is no god but Allah.’ We were very afraid in that time…. All of us are now in our homes.” “This is a village which is full of many Muslim Brotherhood members,” said another Christian woman. “I’m sure that unless the police had entered the village, the extremists would have killed every Christian, one by one. Now there are many armored police in the village.” The young Christian, his wife and small daughter barely managed to escape “minutes before the Muslim extremists broke in and destroyed the refrigerator, television set, mattresses, furniture and windows,” a statement from the local bishopric indicated; it adds that the mob was “shouting against the Christian religion and the Copts of the village.”
The next day, police arrested the accused Christian man on the charge that he had insulted Islam, which in Egypt is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Pakistan: Apparently angered at the success of a Christian pastor’s ministry and eager to halt it, a mob of about 35 men attacked him and his family at their home. Thanks to a police officer who was passing by and saw the attack in progress, “Pastor Aziz, his wife, and their daughter escaped with minor injuries, though they only have the clothes on their backs,” states the report. “They are now homeless as the attackers seized Pastor Aziz’s property.” According to a Western source, who knows him:
“Pastor Aziz, who himself had come out of a Muslim background, has been evangelizing and church planting… These Muslim militants want to see that stopped. But we are very glad that he is alive and he is determined to continue his ministry, even though he now has no home.”
This attack — the third since Aziz became Christian — has also stirred up traumatic memories: “More than 15 years ago, he has a son who was five-years-old who was kidnapped, again, because of the family’s faith in Jesus Christ. And Aziz and Ruhab have never seen him since.”
Hate for, and General Abuse of, Christians
Kuwait: Islamic cleric Othman al-Khamis was again accused of “stoking sectarian tension,” against Christians. In June, he issued a fatwa (Islamic opinion), comparing the Christian crucifix to Satan. He added that “Muslims cannot wear clothes bearing images of the cross or the devil unless it is in an insulting place such as socks.” Earlier this year, he issued another fatwa encouraging his followers to kill those who leave the religion.
United Kingdom: Muslim prison-gangs are threatening and beating non-Muslim prisoners, the majority of whom identify as Christians, into converting to Islam. “The tactic they use is to befriend someone when they come in,” a non-Muslim inmate was quoted as saying, according to a new Ministry of Justice report. “If they don’t convert, they will then start spreading rumours about them, that the person is a snitch, so that they will be ostracised. Then the beatings follow.” Another prisoner summarized the gang leaders as follows:
“This will be someone whose offence has validity. It could be for high profile terrorism… They will either be born to the [Islamic] religion or converted a long time ago, before they came into prison. Prison converts wouldn’t have the legitimacy to become leaders. Nothing will happen without the say so of the leader. If you can speak Arabic or learn passages of the Koran, this will allow you to get up the ranks. The leaders will be very polite to the faces of staff and won’t do anything to get into trouble with the authorities themselves… It’s all done though their footsoldiers.”
“If I said I didn’t want to be a Muslim, I’d need to watch out just in case someone stabbed me,” said another prisoner. According to Christian prison pastor Paul Song — who was fired after a Muslim imam who disapproved of Song’s approach took over as head chaplain — non-Muslim prisoners who “want to lead a peaceful life in prison … need to become Muslim. That way they are protected…. Some people have been forced to convert with violence. How do I know? Because three or four people come up to me and tell me.”
Libya: An internal UN report states that Libyan authorities are not burying the dead bodies of those Christians who died in the overcrowded Zintan detention center, which houses migrants and refugees, “because the local community insists the cemetery is only for Muslims,” the Irish Times reported.
Egypt: On June 5, anti-Christian mob violence erupted in a majority-Muslim village after a former Christian woman who had run away with a Muslim man returned — married, converted to Islam, and pregnant. During her absence, her Muslim-in-laws regularly harassed and threatened her former Christian family, who live across the street. As part of the triumphant celebration of her return as a Muslim, Muslims in the area began attacking and pelting the Christian household and others with stones, reportedly to the encouragement and support of the police. “We live in a state of terror now,” the woman’s Christian brother reported, “and the village has become chaotic as a result of the celebrations.”
In a separate incident, in response to an ISIS attack in the Sinai Peninsula that left eight Egypt security officers dead, the government responded by honoring the slain — except for one, a Christian. Seven schools were named after the seven slain Muslim officers, but the Christian, Abanoub Nageh, was denied this honor, until his family protested. Authorities initially responded by saying that a school would also be named after him, but then reneged, saying “this could not be done because of severe objections by the village Muslims that a school would bear such a flagrantly Coptic name as ‘Abanoub.'” Instead, a rarely used canal bridge was named after him.
Pakistan: Eyewitnesses saw two Muslim men abduct Sania Lateef, a 15-year-old Christian girl, as she was taking out garbage from her family home. Her distraught parents went to the local police, but they refused to open an investigation. An activist acquainted with the case said the girl is believed to have been coerced into converting to Islam and marrying one of her abductors. The report adds:
“… the case of the Christian girl is the latest in a long series of abductions for the purpose of forced conversion and marriage in Pakistan…. In Pakistan the victims of kidnapping and forced conversion are almost always girls from religious minorities, whose members lack the power and money needed to file complaints and go to trial.”
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2019 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
*Picture enclosed: The small village of Sobane Da, in Mali, where at least 95 Christians were murdered by Fulani gunmen in June.