LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
August 28/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus Teaches His Disciples” The Our Father” Prayer
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11/01-04/:”He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on August 27-28/2019
Netanyahu warns Hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon leaders: ‘Watch your actions’
Israel quietly warns Beirut: Powerful response would greet an attack on Golan or Galilee
Lebanon vows to defend itself 'by any means' after Israeli drone incident
Lebanon’s Hezbollah: Drones that fell in Beirut carried explosives
IDF Limitting Traffic Along Lebanon Border In Response To Rising Tensions
Lebanon: Israeli air force hits Palestinian base in Lebanon
Netanyahu To Hezbollah's Nasrallah: Calm Down
Hezbollah And Lebanese Allies Are Building A Case For War-Analysis
Defense Council: Lebanese Have Right to Self-Defense, National Unity Best Weapon
Hariri Urges Restraint, Jarrah Says Defense Strategy Can't be Discussed amid Israel Aggression
Israeli Reconnaissance Airplane Flies Low over Baalbek, Marjayoun as Tensions Soar
STL President and Vice President Re-elected for New Term
Report: Dahiyeh Drone Attack Targeted Iranian Guided-Missile Technology
Govt. Agrees Sites of 3 Waste Incinerators, Says May 'Impose' Landfills
Amnesty Says Lebanon 'Forcibly Deported' Nearly 2,500 Syrian Refugees
Hariri to Lavrov: Israel Attack a Dangerous Escalation with Unpredictable Results
Sfeir Assures Hariri on ‘Stability’ of Lebanon’s Economic, Financial System

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 27-28/2019
Rouhani: If US does not lift Iran sanctions, status quo will not change
Iran court upholds 10-year jail term for British Council staffer
Iran sentences Iranian-British to 10 years for spying for ‘Israel’s Mossad’
UK supporting family of British-Iranian dual national sentenced to jail in Iran
Israeli Aircraft Strikes Gaza after Palestinian Mortar Fire
Iraq coalition calls Israeli strikes a ‘declaration of war’
Putin, Erdogan Hope to Work Together to Ease Idlib Tensions
Syria Kurds fighters start pullback from Turkish border to implement ‘safe zone’
Syrian opposition launches largest Khan Sheikhoun attack since regime takeover
US to keep up pressure on Sudan as it discusses lifting sanctions: Official
Russia delivers another S-400 battery to Turkey
Brazil leader demands French apology before accepting aid for Amazon fires
Students rally in Pakistan-held Kashmir against India
Sri Lankan Islamic clerics seek clarity on face veil ban
China says resolutely opposed to G7 statement on Hong Kong
Japan says N. Korea developing warheads to penetrate missile defense

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 27-28/2019
Netanyahu warns Hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon leaders: ‘Watch your actions’/AFP, Jerusalem/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Israel quietly warns Beirut: Powerful response would greet an attack on Golan or Galilee/DEBKAfile/ August 27/ 2019
Netanyahu To Hezbollah's Nasrallah: Calm Down/Jerusalem Post/August 27/2019
Hezbollah And Lebanese Allies Are Building A Case For War-Analysis/Jerusalem Post/August 27/2019
Trump-Rouhani summit seen as cause for concern in Israel/Itamar Eichner/Ynetnews/August 27/2019
Analysis/Israel Believes Nasrallah’s Threats Over Lebanon Strikes, Braces for Retaliation/Amos Harel/Haaretz/August 27/2019
Tehran remains the main threat to region’s security/Sir John Jenkins/Arab News/August 27/2019
Iran’s talk of nonaggression pacts a red herring/Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/August 27/2019
Turkey: "Death to Jews" at Summer Camp./Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/August 27/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on August 27-28/2019
Netanyahu warns Hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon leaders: ‘Watch your actions’
AFP, Jerusalem/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday warned Lebanon, Hezbollah’s chief and the head of Iran’s Quds Force to “be careful” with their words and actions. Addressing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Netanyahu told a conference that “he knows very well that the state of Israel knows how to defend itself well, and to repay its enemies.”“I want to say to him and the Lebanese state, which is hosting this organization that aims to destroy us, and I say the same to Qassem Soleimani: Be careful about your words, and even more cautious about your actions.”He suggested that Nasrallah “calm down.” Netanyahu spoke after a series of incidents in recent days that have raised tensions between Israel, Lebanon, Iran and Tehran-backed Hezbollah. Nasrallah has accused Israel of being behind a drone attack on the Lebanese movement’s Beirut stronghold on Sunday and threatened retaliation. He called it the first such “hostile action” since a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun called it a “declaration of war.” Hours before the Beirut incident, Israel announced it had carried out a strike in neighboring Syria to thwart what it said was a plan by an Iranian force to attack its territory with drones. On Monday, a pro-Syrian Palestinian group accused Israel of carrying out a drone attack on one of its positions in Lebanon. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria targeting what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah targets. Iran and Hezbollah, along with Russia, have backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s civil war. Netanyahu has pledged to stop Israel’s arch-enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria.

Israel quietly warns Beirut: Powerful response would greet an attack on Golan or Galilee
DEBKAfile/ August 27/ 2019
Jerusalem conveyed tough back-channel warnings to Beirut on Monday, Aug. 26, that any attacks on the Golan or Galilee would bring forth a powerful Israeli counter punch. It was delivered to Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Lebanon’s military commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Aoun, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources disclose, by UNIFIL commander Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col. This step was taken on in an effort to prevent the cycle of tension surrounding Israel’s preemptive weekend operations in Lebanon and Syria from veering out of control. On Monday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Monday described Israeli attacks on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahya and the eastern border region as a “declaration of war.” He said: “We are entitled to resort to our right to defend our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”In a series of back-door diplomatic responses on Monday, Israel informed Nasrallah that so long as Hizballah waged war on Israel from Syrian soil, his followers would share the same fate as the IDF has meted out in hundreds of operations to Iranian and other proxy forces.
The message to the Lebanese commander pointed out that in another round of hostilities, Israel would have no option but to wipe out Hizballah’s vast rocket arsenal, inevitably causing “massive damage to Lebanon.”Israel’s warnings to Lebanon were accompanied by corresponding Trump administration diplomacy in Beirut. US Ambassador to Beirut, Elizabeth Richard, in an urgent face-to-face meeting with President Aoun called after he accused Israel of a declaration of war issued a warning. She cautioned him that if he persisted in his support of Hizballah and its leader, Washington would conduct “a reassessment” of its annual military aid program for the Lebanese army.  Syrian President Bashar Assad, for his part, has kept on insisting that he knew nothing about the Akraba base set up by Al Qods and Hizballah south of Damascus for holding armed Iranian drones ready to attack Israel. They were primed for launching when they were destroyed by the Israeli air force on Saturday night.
Assad accordingly issued a new directive banning the launching of missiles against Israel from Syrian territory. DEBKAfile’s sources note, however, that, typical of the Syria leader, this ban did not mention other anti-Israel operations such as intrusions by ground forces or UAV attacks. The flurry of secret diplomacy took place amid high military tension in northern Israel, where IDF forces, on a state of readiness on the Syrian and Lebanese borders since Saturday, were boosted by a large influx of armored and artillery units. The Lebanese news agency reported early Tuesday that the contested Shaaba Farms pocket was brilliantly illuminated overnight by IDF contingents and explosions were heard from this lofty enclave that sits on the junction of the Israeli, Syrian and Lebanese borders.

Lebanon vows to defend itself 'by any means' after Israeli drone incident
News Agencies/August 27/2019
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Lebanon on Tuesday stressed its right to defend the country "by any means" after an Israeli drone attack hit the Beirut stronghold of the Hezbollah movement.
Lebanon's Higher Defence Council, a government body in charge of defense policy, met to discuss Sunday's attack on southern Beirut. "The Council affirms the right of the Lebanese to defend themselves by any means against any aggression," it said in a statement. It came after President Michel Aoun, a former army chief, denounced the attack as a "declaration of war" and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed retaliation.During Tuesday's meeting, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the attack - the first of its kind since a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel - posed a threat to regional stability. Israel used the attack, for which the Jewish state has not claimed responsibility, "to change the rules of engagement," he said. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday his country was ready to use "all means necessary" to defend itself against Iranian threats "on several fronts". The Iran-backed Hezbollah on Tuesday said the drone attack involved two drones -- one which exploded and the other that crashed without exploding because of a technical failure. Nasrallah on Sunday had said that an armed drone had "hit a specific area," without elaborating. “I say to the Israeli army on the border from tonight, stand guard (on high alert). Wait for us one, two, three, four days,” Nasrallah said. The Beirut drone attack came after Israel on Saturday launched strikes in neighbouring Syria to prevent what it said was an Iranian attack on the Jewish state. Nasrallah on Sunday said two Hezbollah members were among those killed in the strikes.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah: Drones that fell in Beirut carried explosives
Reuters, Beirut/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said that two Israeli drones that crashed in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday were carrying explosives. The Iran-backed movement said in a statement late on Monday that experts examined the first drone.The suburbs “were subjected to an attack by rigged drones,” with the first one failing to cause a blast and the second exploding, it said. After the two drones crashed on Sunday, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israeli soldiers at the border to await a response.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel is ready to use “all means necessary” to defend itself against Iranian threats “on several fronts.”

IDF Limitting Traffic Along Lebanon Border In Response To Rising Tensions
The Associated Press, Beirut/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
No special instructions given to residents in the North.
The IDF began limiting traffic on roads along the Lebanese border over fears of retaliation by Hezbollah as tensions remain high following alleged Israeli attacks.
“In light of an operational status assessment, it was decided that the movement of certain military vehicles on several roads would be possible only on the basis of individual approval and in accordance with the situational assessment of the situation,” the IDF said in a statement given to The Jerusalem Post.
The order was given by the military to all units in the area on Tuesday morning, restricting travel between 0-5 kilometers from the border and ordering all troops to carry weapons and wear protective equipment should their request to drive on the border roads be approved.
The army’s Northern Command has been on high alert since Saturday night after the Israeli Air Force carried out strikes against a cell belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force in Syria which planned to launch armed drones to attack targets in northern Israel.
Nevertheless, “the home front is in a state of routine, and we are working to preserve that,” said the commander of the IDF’s Bashan Division in the Northern Command Brig.-Gen. Amit Fisher, adding that “the IDF has increased its level of preparedness, both in terms of defense and attack.”
The military has placed Iron Dome missile defense system in the north, changed the deployment of troops and placed all bases on high alert. No new safety instructions have been given to residents of the north and bomb shelters have not been opened.
On Monday night IDF troops fired several flares over the Mount Dov and the contested Shaba Farms area after reports of suspicious individuals seen at the border. According to Hezbollah’s al-Manar news website the flares sparked a fire in the al-Bayader area south of Sheeba.

Lebanon: Israeli air force hits Palestinian base in Lebanon
The Associated Press, Beirut/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Israeli drones bombed a Palestinian base in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria early Monday amid rising tensions in the Middle East, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency and a Palestinian official said. The strike came a day after an alleged Israeli drone crashed in a stronghold of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in southern Beirut while another exploded and crashed nearby. Lebanese President Michel Aoun told the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, that the attacks violate a UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
“What happened is equal to a declaration of war and gives us the right to defend our sovereignty, independence, and the safety of our land,” Aoun said in comments released by his office on Monday. “We are people who seek peace and not war, and we don’t accept that anyone to threatens us though any means.”UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said later on Monday that the UN took note of Aoun’s statements and reiterated the UN appeal to stop violations of the Security Council resolution and implement all its provisions. “The UN calls on the parties to exercise maximum restraint, both in action and in rhetoric,” Dujarric said. The Lebanese state news agency report said there were three strikes after midnight on Sunday, minutes apart, that struck a base for a Syrian-backed group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, an ally of Hezbollah.
Abu Wael Issam, an official with the Palestinian group in Lebanon, told The Associated Press that the strike was carried out by Israeli drones and did not inflict any casualties. He accused the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using such attacks to boost his credentials ahead of Israel’s parliamentary elections next month. He said the Palestinian group’s “alternatives are open in confronting the Zionist enemy” but didn’t specify how or if it would retaliate. A statement issued later by the group said “the Zionist aggression” will not stop the group and its allies.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strike, which the Lebanese news agency said hit near the village of Qusaya in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Airstrikes by Israel against Palestinian factions in Lebanon, such as this one, have been rare in the past years. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that his group will confront and shoot down any Israeli drones that enter Lebanese airspace from now on, raising the potential for conflict amid heightened regional tensions. Nasrallah also vowed to retaliate to an Israeli airstrike inside Syria that took place late Saturday, which he said killed two Hezbollah members. He said allowing Israel to keep flying drones over Lebanon would lead to a similar situation as in Iraq, where a series of attacks there targeting military bases and weapons depot belonging to Iranian-backed Shiite militias have left the country on edge. US officials say at least one of the airstrikes on the militia in Iraq was carried out by Israel. In Saturday’s strikes near the Syrian capital, Damascus, Israel publicly stated it was thwarting an imminent drone strike against Israel by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Lebanese news agency also reported that Israeli drones flew over parts of southern Lebanon on Monday. Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006. The volatile border between the two countries, which remain technically in a state of war, has been mostly calm since that conflict.

Netanyahu To Hezbollah's Nasrallah: Calm Down
Jerusalem Post/August 27/2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah yesterday to "calm down," after Nasrallah said his group would retaliate for Israeli attacks in Syria and the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
“I heard what Nasrallah said,” Netanyahu said in a speech. “I suggest to Nasrallah to calm down. He knows well that Israel knows how to defend itself and to pay back its enemies. I say the same to Qasem Soleimani: be careful with your words and even more so with your actions.
The IDF began limiting traffic on roads along the Lebanese border on Tuesday morning over fears of retaliation by Hezbollah, as tensions remain high following the Israeli attacks.
“In light of an operational status assessment, it was decided that the movement of certain military vehicles on several roads would be possible only on the basis of individual approval and in accordance with the situational assessment of the situation,” the IDF said.
The order was given by the military to all units in the area on Tuesday morning restricting travel up to five kilometers from the border, and ordering all troops to carry weapons and wear protective equipment should their request to drive on the border roads be approved.
According to two sources close to Hezbollah quoted by Reuters, Hezbollah is preparing a “calculated strike” against Israel.
That attack “is being arranged in a way that wouldn’t lead to a war, which neither Hezbollah nor Israel wants,” one of the sources said. “The direction now is for a calculated strike, but how matters develop, that’s another thing.”
The army’s Northern Command has been on high alert since Saturday night, after the Israel Air Force carried out strikes against a cell belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force in Syria that was on its way to launch armed drones to attack targets in northern Israel.
According to the IDF, the cell – which was under the direct order of IRGC commander Maj.-Gen. Qasem Soleimani – was commanded by the IRGC’s main commander in Syria, Javad Ghaffari.
Tens of thousands of Shi’ite militia troops are said to be operating under Ghaffari, who is responsible for recruiting, training and supervising them.
Nevertheless, “the home front is in a state of routine, and we are working to preserve that,” said the commander of the IDF’s Bashan Division in the Northern Command, Brig.-Gen. Amit Fisher. “The IDF has increased its level of preparedness, both in terms of defense and attack.”
The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, called on the two sides to restrain themselves.
“The UN reiterates its appeal to all concerned to cease violations of Resolution 1701 (2006) and to fully implement its provisions,” he said at the Security Council on Tuesday. “The United Nations calls on the parties to exercise maximum restraint both in action and rhetoric.”
On Monday night, IDF troops fired several flares over the Mount Dov and the contested Sheba Farms area after reports of suspicious individuals seen near the border. According to Hezbollah’s al-Manar news website, the flares sparked a fire in the al-Bayader area south of Sheba.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said the flares were fired over Tallet Seddaneh, Birkat al-Naqqar and al-Bayader on the outskirts of Sheba after several blasts were heard.
The military has placed the Iron Dome missile defense system in the North, changed the deployment of troops, and placed all bases on high alert. No new safety instructions have been given to residents of the North, and bomb shelters have not been opened.
Similar to past confrontations with the Shi’ite Lebanese terror group, it is believed that Hezbollah will target military sites in the Galilee in retaliation and not civilians, to limit the chance of an all-out war between the two sides.
Since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, hostilities between the two foes have been limited to occasional firing across the border.
In 2015, two IDF soldiers were killed and seven wounded after Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles toward an unarmored military vehicle in the Mount Dov area near the Lebanese border. The five Kornet anti-tank missiles were fired by Hezbollah in retaliation for an airstrike in Syria that killed seven Hezbollah operatives a week earlier.
Israel has been warning Lebanon for months that it will hold it responsible for Hezbollah attacks from Lebanese territory, and it will target its infrastructure if Hezbollah launches rockets from Lebanon. The prime minister alluded to this in comments he made on a tour to the North on Sunday.
Israel, he said, would not “tolerate aggression against Israel from any country in the region. Any country that allows its territory to be used for aggression against Israel will face the consequences, and I repeat: the country will face the consequences.”
Meanwhile on Tuesday afternoon, four mortars were fired toward southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. According to the military, one fell in open territory next to the border fence while the other three fell inside the Strip. There were no casualties or injuries.
The Palestinian terror groups in Gaza will join any confrontation between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group, the Lebanese satellite television station Al-Mayadeen reported on Tuesday.
The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen quoted an unnamed source in the “Palestinian resistance” in Gaza as saying: “If war breaks out with Hezbollah, we will be at the front line.”
The source, who was described as a leader of the “Palestinian resistance,” said that Israel “must read the message of our support for the resistance in Lebanon.”
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Gaza-based groups have condemned Israel’s recent airstrikes in Syrian and Lebanon and voiced support for Hezbollah.
“The situation in Gaza remains very fragile as violent incidents continue,” Mladenov told the Security Council in New York.
“Israel must calibrate its use of force and use lethal force only as a last resort, and only in response to imminent threats of death or serious injury,” he said. “Hamas must prevent the indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars towards Israel. It must ensure that protests at the fence remain peaceful and prevent provocations.”During meetings in Cairo with representatives of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Egypt warned that it will stop sponsoring any ceasefire agreement between the terror groups and Israel if Hamas does not stop rocket fire against Israel, according to a report in the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, and simultaneously warned the Gazan terror group against taking part in a proxy war supporting Hezbollah and Iran against Israel. Egypt also said that it is working on a long-term agreement between Israel and Gaza, and attempting to arrive at a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that would allow the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip.
Hamas informed Egypt that there are parties trying to thwart the ceasefire agreement, according to Al Hadath. During the meeting, Egypt also promised that they would sponsor new measures to ease pressure on Gaza, and called on both sides to abide by the current agreements.
*Tzvi Joffre contributed to this report.

Hezbollah And Lebanese Allies Are Building A Case For War-Analysis
Jerusalem Post/August 27/2019
Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon, including President Aoun, are thus already creating the context for the post-war scenario.
Hezbollah and its allies are building a case for war and Lebanon’s media and other officials are fueling the tensions with assertions that drones that crashed in Beirut carried bombs. Whether or not the drones carried C4 explosives or that their aim was to carry out a bombing or target an individual is not particularly important because what matters is the calculations going on beneath the surface in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun by inferring that the incident marks a kind of “declaration of war” ups the rhetoric and the chances that a green light has been given to Hezbollah to retaliate. The main issue Hezbollah has faced in the past, since Israel’s withdrawal in 2000, is to try to create a legitimate reason for maintaining a massive armed group within a functioning state. It has been able to keep its arsenal, not only because no one can disarm it, but also through claiming it is part of a “resistance” that “defends” Lebanon. As such it claimed after 2000 that it must recover the “Sheba farms” or “Mount Dov” area on the border, a disputed territory with Israel and Syria. Suddenly, a tiny area became the reason for Hezbollah’s existence. This was all a veneer for the real reason of Hezbollah’s existence, which is that as an Iranian proxy and ally which wants the group to continue stockpiling its weapons and building up its infrastructure along Israel’s border to threaten Israel.
Hezbollah doesn’t keep secret its regional ambitions. It fought in the Syrian civil war, it has contact with Shi’ite militias in Iraq, it talks about the Houthis in Yemen as if they are a part of its strategy. It shows images of Al-Aqsa as if it is the main champion of the Palestinian case against US President Donald Trump’s Deal of the Century. At every juncture its role is regional and global. Two small drones, one of which apparently caught on video was far from clandestine, sounding more like a flying washing machine on spin cycle, are merely Hezbollah’s icing on the cake justifying its “right” to respond. This is lip service because Israel uncovered Hezbollah tunnels in December 2018 which showed Hezbollah as having violated the 2006 UN Resolution 1701. So, Aoun says that the drone incident also violates the resolution. This is to create a legal pretext and cover should hostilities begin. Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon, including President Aoun, are thus already creating the context for the post-war scenario.
Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, whose father Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was murdered in an assassination likely carried out with Hezbollah’s aid, has seemingly forgotten about the 2005 tragedy. He, too, has condemned Israel but hedged his bets by arguing that it is not in the interest of Lebanon to spiral into a dangerous escalation. He hopes that friends in Washington, or Riyadh, can calm things down. The Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, has also spoken with the Kuwaitis and condemned the “Israeli aggression.” Berri is a Shi’ite from the Amal movement.
Is this just a lot of posturing designed by Hezbollah to test the Israeli alertness? Hassan Nasralla recalls the last war and he knows what Hezbollah will face. He also knows his forces lost many casualties in Syria but, they also gained experience there. Unsurprisingly, rhetoric leads the way with talk of “opening the gates of hell” now that the “investigation” has found that the drones were allegedly armed.
Nasrallah has a problematic calculation to make. His allies in Iran are not entirely clear on what the best response is and Hassan Rouhani is discussing a possible meeting with the US under some conditions. Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qasem Soleimani and Iran’s allies in Iraq have also appeared to green light a kind of “declaration of war.” Yet none of them seem to want to fight the war they have declared, despite their assertions that Israel and the US are behind attacks across the region. Nasrallah’s movement is not the movement of 2006, it is more closely linked to issues in Syria and Iraq today than in the past. It understands this linkage and has to weigh it against its desire to react with a response in the wake of the drone incident.

Defense Council: Lebanese Have Right to Self-Defense, National Unity Best Weapon
Naharnet/August 27/2019
Lebanon’s Higher Defense Council on Tuesday stressed “the right of the Lebanese to defend themselves with all means against any aggression,” in the wake of Israel’s latest drone attacks in the country. “This is a right that is enshrined in the U.N. Charter,” the Council added in a statement, emphasizing that “national unity remains the best weapon in the face of the aggression.”The meeting was chaired by President Michel Aoun and attended by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the ministers of defense, interior, foreign affairs and finance, and the heads of security agencies. “The President underlined the need to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity because it is a legitimate right,” the statement added. Prime Minister Saad Hariri meanwhile told the Council that a complaint against Israel has been filed with the U.N. Security Council via the Foreign ministry. Hariri also briefed the Council on his contacts with the international community, noting that “this is the first attack of its kind since 2006 and the first violation through which Israel seeks to change the rules of engagement.” Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Hariri said: "I reassure you that there is nothing to worry about and we only fear God."
TV networks meanwhile said the Council decided to regulate "the import, purchase and sale of drone cameras." One drone came down and another exploded early Sunday in a Hizbullah stronghold in the southern Beirut suburb of Mouawad, damaging a Hizbullah media center and lightly injuring three people who were in the building. On Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command reported an overnight Israeli drone attack on its base in the Lebanese eastern border region of Qusaya. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had on Sunday vowed to "do everything" to thwart Israeli drone attacks in Lebanon, threatening to down any unmanned aircraft that violates Lebanon’s airspace. He also pledged to retaliate from Lebanon against an Israeli airstrike that killed two Hizbullah members in Syria.

Hariri Urges Restraint, Jarrah Says Defense Strategy Can't be Discussed amid Israel Aggression
Naharnet/August 27/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday called for a “high level of wisdom, calm, thoughtfulness and restraint” in dealing with the latest Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Speaking after a cabinet session, which was originally dedicated to the new waste plan, Information Minister Jamal al-Jarrah said Hariri opened the meeting by “condemning the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and considering them a blatant violation of Resolution 1701 and a threat to stability in Lebanon.”“This aggression is rejected and deplored and there are intensive contacts aimed at stopping these attacks and deterring the Israeli enemy from continuing its aggression against Lebanon,” Hariri added. “There are major tensions in the region in addition to the economic crisis in Lebanon, and this requires us to show a high level of wisdom, calm, thoughtfulness and restraint, which are essential for overcoming the crisis and halting the Israeli attacks on Lebanon,” the premier went on to say. Asked about Minister Richard Kouyoumjian’s demand during the session that the country’s decisions of war and peace be placed exclusively in the hands of the state and the government, Jarrah said “this is a permanent demand for the Lebanese Forces and most political forces.”
“It will remain pending until the approval of a defense strategy, on which President Michel Aoun and the Lebanese government are working,” the minister added, noting that the strategy cannot be discussed amid Israeli attacks on Lebanon. “We must wait for the atmosphere to calm down and for the dissipation of the Israeli aggression threat against Lebanon so that we discuss it calmly,” Jarrah went on to say. One drone came down and another exploded early Sunday in a Hizbullah stronghold in the southern Beirut suburb of Mouawad, damaging a Hizbullah media center and lightly injuring three people who were in the building. On Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command reported an overnight Israeli drone attack on its base in the Lebanese eastern border region of Qusaya. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had on Sunday vowed to "do everything" to thwart Israeli drone attacks in Lebanon, threatening to down any unmanned aircraft that violates Lebanon’s airspace. He also pledged to retaliate from Lebanon against an Israeli airstrike that killed two Hizbullah members in Syria.

Israeli Reconnaissance Airplane Flies Low over Baalbek, Marjayoun as Tensions Soar
Naharnet/August 27/2019
An Israeli reconnaissance airplane hovered at a low altitude over the Baalbek area and later over the southern city of Marjayoun, said the state-run National News Agency on Tuesday. NNA said the sound of Israeli drones hovering over the city pf Baalbek continued through the night since yesterday evening.
Later on Tuesday, NNA said the drone hovered over Marjayoun. On Monday, Israeli forces fired several flares over Tallet Seddaneh, Birkat al-Naqqar and al-Bayader in the outskirts of the town of Shebaa as several blasts were heard inside the occupied farms. Israeli drones also bombed a Palestinian base in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria early Monday. The developments come amid heightened tensions in the border region after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to retaliate to the death of two Hizbullah members in an Israeli strike in Syria and to down any Israeli drone that violates Lebanon’s airspace after a drone exploded over a Hizbullah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

STL President and Vice President Re-elected for New Term
Naharnet/August 27/2019
The Judges of the Appeals Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) re-elected Tuesday Judge Ivana Hrdličková of the Czech Republic as the court’s President and Judge Ralph Riachi of Lebanon as Vice President. Their new term of eighteen months starts running on September 1, 2019.
“The re-election of the President and the Vice-President is in accordance with Article 8(2) of the Tribunal's Statute and Rules 31 and 33 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence,” the STL said in a statement. “The President of the Tribunal has a wide range of tasks, including oversight of the effective functioning of the Tribunal and the good administration of justice, as well as representing the STL in relations with States, the United Nations and other entities. In the President's absence, her duties are fulfilled by the Vice-President,” the STL added. The court has held an in-absentia trial for four Hizbullah operatives indicted with carrying out the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri. The judges are expected to announce the verdicts later this year. The court is also looking into other bombings that targeted Lebanese politicians in the 2004-2005 period.

Report: Dahiyeh Drone Attack Targeted Iranian Guided-Missile Technology
Naharnet/August 27/2019
A suspected Israeli drone attack on a Hizbullah site in Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted “crates believed to contain machinery to mix high-grade propellant for precision guided missiles,” Britain’s The Times newspaper reported on Tuesday, quoting unnamed Western intelligence sources. Hizbullah said overnight that a drone that crashed in its southern Beirut suburbs stronghold at the weekend contained an explosive device weighing more than five kilograms. The Iran-backed group had previously said an Israeli reconnaissance drone had flown over the southern suburbs before crashing, and that a second armed drone had then "hit a specific area" before dawn on Sunday. But after the party's "experts dismantled the first drone that crashed in Beirut's southern suburbs, it was found that it contained a sealed explosive device" of around 5.5 kilograms, it said in a statement. "We confirm that the purpose of this first drone was not reconnaissance but the carrying out of a bombing attack," it added. The latest discovery, Hizbullah said, confirms that Sunday's drone attack involved not one but two explosive-rigged drones -- one which exploded and the other that did not because of a technical failure. The incident marked the first such "hostile action" in Lebanon since a 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, the party's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday, vowing retaliation. Israel did not claim responsibility for the attack but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that his country was ready to use "all means necessary" to defend itself against Iranian threats "on several fronts."

Govt. Agrees Sites of 3 Waste Incinerators, Says May 'Impose' Landfills
Naharnet/August 27/2019
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved most of the points of the new waste management plan as an agreement was reached on setting up three incinerators in various locations, a minister said. “A committee will be formed so that we finalize the financial study,” Environment Minister Fadi Jreissati said after a Cabinet session focused on the file. Asked about the controversy over the landfills, Jreissati said the point was discussed thoroughly without being finalized. “We have given local authorities a one-month deadline to suggest sites and each region has the right to propose an alternative,” the minister added.
He, however, warned that the government will be obliged to “impose solutions” if MPs, municipalities and municipal unions do not suggest locations for the landfills. Noting that landfills are necessary for a period of four to five years in order to finalize the thermal disintegration plants, or incinerators, Jreissati said the plants will be set up in “Deir Amar, Beirut and south Beirut.”“An agreement has been reached on two sites and the south Beirut site is yet to be agreed on,” the minister added, noting that “the AMAL Movement and Hizbullah have been given a two-week deadline to submit the most appropriate proposal for this site.”

Amnesty Says Lebanon 'Forcibly Deported' Nearly 2,500 Syrian Refugees
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 27/2019
Lebanon has "forcibly deported" nearly 2,500 Syrian refugees back to their war-torn homeland since May, Amnesty International said Tuesday, calling on authorities to end the expulsions. Amnesty cited data from Lebanon's General Security agency and the Lebanese government showing that some 2,447 Syrians had been expelled between mid-May and August 9, the rights group said in a statement. General Security on May 13 started implementing an order from Lebanon's Higher Defense Council to deport refugees who had entered the country illegally after April 2019, it said. It was not immediately clear whether all those expelled had entered illegally. "We urge the Lebanese authorities to stop these deportations as a matter of urgency," said Amnesty's Middle East Research Director, Lynn Maalouf. Any attempt to forcibly return refugees is "a clear violation of Lebanon's non-refoulement obligations," she said. Non-refoulement is a principle of international law that bars governments from deporting people to countries where they would face persecution. The Mediterranean country of around 4.5 million people says it hosts some 1.5 million Syrians, of which nearly a million are U.N.-registered refugees.
Lebanese politicians routinely blame the country's economic and other woes on Syrian refugees and the government has ratcheted up the pressure to send them back. Rights groups have decried measures to make the lives of refugees increasingly difficult. Since June, more than 3,600 Syrian families have seen their shelters demolished in the eastern region of Arsal, according to local authorities. Homes made of anything other than timber and plastic sheeting are not allowed. Earlier this month, the army destroyed a further 350 structures in the north of the country and arrested dozens of people for lacking residency documents, humanitarian groups said. The labor ministry, meanwhile, is cracking down on foreign workers without a permit, a move activists say largely targets Syrians.

Hariri to Lavrov: Israel Attack a Dangerous Escalation with Unpredictable Results
Naharnet/August 27/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemning the recent Israeli aggression against Lebanon, the Premier’s press office said. Hariri told Lavrov that the Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut is a dangerous act, an attack against the Lebanese sovereignty and a violation of UN resolution 1701, which established calm and stability over the past years. He said that Lebanon is counting on Russia's role to avoid further escalation and tension, and send clear messages to Israel that it must stop violating the Lebanese sovereignty. Hariri stressed that Israel's attack against a civilian populated area strikes a blow to the stable situation that prevailed on the border since the issuance of resolution 1701, and threatens to seriously escalate the situation in the region, with unpredictable results.

Sfeir Assures Hariri on ‘Stability’ of Lebanon’s Economic, Financial System
Naharnet/August 27/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks with Salim Sfeir, the chairman of the Association of Banks in Lebanon who assured the Premier on the stability of Lebanon’s monetary and economic system after the latest credit rating downgrade, VDL (100.5) radio station said on Tuesday.
Sfeir had assured earlier that “the economic situation, the Lebanese pound and the banking situation in Lebanon are stable,” and that the status of Lebanese banks has not changed as a result of reports issued by Standard & Poor's and FitchRatings international rating agencies.
About conversions from the local currency into dollars and the outflow of foreign exchange deposits, Sfeir said this tendency “started earlier four month ago, but it calmed down as soon as the parliament and government kicked off some serious work and adopted the state budget.”
Asked whether the banks were able to withstand all the pressures exerted on them, he said: "We hope that officials will be well informed about the difficulties that banks bear to increase the strength of the money market and help the Lebanese economy and serve customers."
Last week, 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 neighbouring 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. 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.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 27-28/2019
Rouhani: If US does not lift Iran sanctions, status quo will not change
Reuters, Dubai/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Iran will not talk to the United States until all sanctions imposed on Tehran are lifted, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump said he would meet his Iranian counterpart to try to end a nuclear standoff. Trump said on Monday he would meet Iran’s president under the right circumstances to end a confrontation over Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six powers and that talks were underway to see how countries could open credit lines to keep Iran’s economy afloat. Rouhani said Iran was always ready to hold talks. “But first the US should act by lifting all illegal, unjust and unfair sanctions imposed on Iran.” Speaking at a G7 summit in the French resort of Biarritz, Trump ruled out lifting economic sanctions to compensate for losses suffered by Iran. European parties to the deal have struggled to calm the deepening confrontation between Iran and the United States since Trump pulled Washington out of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and reimposed sanctions on the Iranian economy. Iran has scaled back its commitments under the pact in retaliation to US sanctions. “We will continue to scale back our commitments under the 2015 deal if our interests are not guaranteed,” said Rouhani in a speech broadcast live. “Tehran has never wanted nuclear weapons.” Trump and Rouhani are both due to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Iran court upholds 10-year jail term for British Council staffer
AFP, Tehran/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
An Iranian appeals court has upheld a 10-year jail sentence against British Council staffer Aras Amiri for “cultural infiltration”, the judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday. Amiri was “sentenced to 10 years in jail... and she is already serving her term. This verdict has been upheld by the court,” spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said, quoted by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website. “This person... was identified by us because of her cultural infiltration in society through arts and her widespread activities,” he added. Mizan Online reported Amiri’s original sentence on May 13, saying she had “made a straightforward confession.”At the time, Esmaili said she had been tasked with drawing up and managing cultural “infiltration” projects. Amiri, a Iranian national who had been living in London, was arrested in 2018 during a trip to visit relatives in Iran. Iranian authorities shut down the British Council’s office in Tehran more than a decade ago for what Esmaili described as “illegal activities.”The appeals verdict comes amid tensions between Iran and US ally Britain over the seizure of oil tankers in recent weeks. An Iranian tanker was seized off the British overseas territory of Gibraltar on July 4 on suspicion of shipping oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions. That vessel has been released, but Iran continues to hold a British-flagged tanker it seized in the Gulf on July 19 for breaking “international maritime rules.”Tensions had already been strained between the two sides over the fate of British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who was arrested by Iranian authorities in 2016 as she was leaving Tehran. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was put on trial and is now serving a five-year jail sentence for allegedly trying to topple the Iranian government.

Iran sentences Iranian-British to 10 years for spying for ‘Israel’s Mossad’
Reuters, Dubai/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Iran’s judiciary has sentenced British-Iranian dual national Anousheh Ashouri to 10 years jail on spying charges, Iranian state TV reported on Tuesday. “British-Iranian Anousheh Ashouri has been sentenced to 10 years jail for spying for Israel’s Mossad ... also two years for acquiring illegitimate wealth,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili was quoted as saying. He did not give any more details. Iran said in July that it had captured 17 spies working for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and some had been sentenced to death. It was unclear whether Tuesday’s announcement was linked to the same case.

UK supporting family of British-Iranian dual national sentenced to jail in Iran
Reuters, London/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Britain said it was supporting the family of the British-Iranian dual national Anousheh Ashouri who has been sentenced to 10 years in jail in Iran on spying charges. Ashouri was sentenced for spying for Israel’s Mossad and for acquiring illegitimate wealth, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili was quoted as saying by Iranian state TV on Tuesday. “We have been supporting the family of a British-Iranian dual national...and our Embassy in Tehran continues to request consular access,” a spokesman for Britain’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The treatment of all dual nationals detained in Iran is a priority and we raise their cases at the most senior levels. We urge Iran to let them be reunited with their families.”

Israeli Aircraft Strikes Gaza after Palestinian Mortar Fire
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 August, 2019
Israel launched an airstrike against Gaza's Hamas rulers on Tuesday after militants in the strip fired a mortar round across the border, the army said. Witnesses in the coastal enclave told AFP that fire from an Israeli drone hit Hamas facilities east of Al-Bureij refugee camp. No injuries were reported.
"A short while ago a mortar shell was identified as having been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory," an Israeli army statement said in English. "In response, an Israel Defense Forces aircraft targeted a Hamas military post in the northern Gaza Strip." Israeli media said the shell fell on open ground, causing no injuries or damage. Tuesday's events were the latest in a string of cross-border incidents which have raised concerns of further escalation before Israel's September 17 elections. On Monday Israeli warplanes hit what the military said were "terror targets in a Hamas military compound in the northern Gaza Strip, including the office of a Hamas battalion commander." Israel also announced it was slashing by half the fuel it pipes to the strip's main power station, meaning a cut to Gaza's already meager electricity supply. The measures came after three rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Sunday night, according to the army, which said two of them were intercepted by air defense systems. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008. August has seen rocket fire from Gaza, infiltration attempts by armed Palestinians and return fire by Israel, threatening a fragile ceasefire. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for reelection in the September polls, with political opponents calling for tougher action against Hamas.

Iraq coalition calls Israeli strikes a ‘declaration of war’
The Associated Press, Baghdad/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
A powerful bloc in Iraq’s parliament called on Monday for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, following a series of airstrikes targeting Iran-backed Shiite militias in the country that have been blamed on Israel. The Fatah Coalition said it holds the United States fully responsible for the alleged Israeli aggression, “which we consider to be a declaration of war on Iraq and its people.”The coalition is a parliament bloc representing Iran-backed paramilitary militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. The coalition’s statement came a day after a drone strike in the western Iraqi town of Qaim killed a commander with the forces - the latest in strikes apparently conducted by Israel against the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. It added that US troops are no longer needed in Iraq. The Shiite militiamen, meanwhile, held a funeral procession in Baghdad for the commander killed Sunday. “There is no greater God but God!” the mourners shouted as they marched behind a banner with the words “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Some trampled on an American flag as they marched.
Pentagon denies reponsibility for recent attacks
The US Defense Department issued a statement on Monday denying responsibility for the recent attacks and promising to cooperate with Iraqi investigations. “We support Iraqi sovereignty and have repeatedly spoken out against any potential actions by external actors inciting violence in Iraq,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan R. Hoffman said. “The government of Iraq has the right to control their own internal security and protect their democracy,” the Pentagon spokesman added. Anger is mounting in Iraq following a spate of mysterious airstrikes that have targeted military bases and a weapons depot belonging to Iran-backed militias. The drone attacks have not been claimed by any side but US officials have said Israel was behind at least one of the attacks. The Shiite militias have blamed the attacks on Israel but hold its ally the United States ultimately responsible. The attacks are threatening to destabilize security in Iraq, which has struggled to remain neutral in the conflict between Washington and Tehran. “These strikes won’t break us, they’ll make us stronger,” the militias’ Lt. Gen. Hussein Abed Muttar told The Associated Press at the funeral. Along with the commander, another member of the Shiite militia was also killed in the drone attack on Sunday evening near the Qaim border crossing with Syria. The attack targeted vehicles belonging to the Hezbollah Brigades faction, also known as Brigade 45, which operate under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned Shiite militias. US forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, but returned in 2014 at the invitation of the government to help battle ISIS, a terrorist organization, after it seized vast areas in the north and west of the country, including Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul.
A US-led coalition provided crucial air support as Iraqi forces regrouped and, together with the PMF, drove ISIS out in a costly three-year campaign. The US maintains about 5,000 troops in Iraq, and some groups say there’s no longer a justification for them to be there now that ISIS has been defeated.
“While we reserve the right to respond to these Zionist attacks, we hold the international coalition, particularly the United States, fully responsible for this aggression which we consider a declaration of war on Iraq and its people,” the statement by the Fatah Coalition said. Iraqi President Barham Saleh hosted a meeting Monday that included the prime minister and parliament speaker as well as PMF militia leaders to discuss the recent attacks. A statement issued after the meeting avoided blaming the drone attacks on any specific country, but described it as a “blatant act of aggression” aimed at dragging the PMF away from its ongoing role of eradicating remnants of ISIS. Absent from the meeting were the leaders of two of the most powerful factions strongly allied to Iran, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Qais al-Khazali. An official who attended the meeting said they were in Iran.

Putin, Erdogan Hope to Work Together to Ease Idlib Tensions
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 August, 2019
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan hoped on Tuesday to cooperate together to ease tensions in Syria’s Idlib province. Meeting for talks near Moscow, they expressed deep concerns over fighting in the northwestern region, with Ankara warning it would take the steps necessary to protect its troops there. Russian-backed regime forces launched a ground offensive this month against Idlib, one of the last major areas of Syria outside regime hands. The fighting is threatening to increase tensions between Russia and Iran, who back Bashar Assad's regime, and Turkey which supports some opposition groups. "The situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone is of serious concern to us and our Turkish partners," Putin said at a press conference with Erdogan carried on Russian state television. He said Turkey had "legitimate interests" to protect on its southern borders and supported the creation of a security zone in the area. Putin said he and Erdogan had agreed "additional joint steps" to "normalize" the situation in Idlib, but did not provide details.
Moscow and Ankara last year struck a deal to create a "de-escalation" buffer zone around Idlib to avert a full-scale regime assault. But Assad's forces have been bombarding the province for months and on August 8 launched a ground offensive. Turkey established 12 military observation posts in Idlib under the buffer zone deal and one of them has been encircled by regime forces. "The situation (in Idlib) has become so complicated that at this moment our troops are in danger," Erdogan said. "We do not want this to continue. All necessary steps will be taken here as needed."
He stated it was unacceptable that Syrian forces were “raining death on civilians from the air and land under the pretense of battling terrorism”. He also said Turkey had the right to self-defense on its border. “I conveyed our country’s determination on this matter personally to my dear friend Mr. Putin,” Erdogan added. Tuesday's talks between Putin and Erdogan came ahead of a summit on Syria that will see the two leaders joined by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani in Ankara on September 16.
Erdogan said the September meeting "should contribute to peace in the region".
Both leaders said they supported Syria's territorial integrity, but Putin emphasized the need to keep fighting extremist forces in Idlib. "The de-escalation zone must not serve as a refuge for militants, let alone a bridgehead for new attacks,” Putin said. Idlib is dominated by extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.Recent fighting has been fierce in the province, the last major front in a war that has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since 2011. Putin and Erdogan met on the sidelines of the MAKS international air show on the outskirts of Moscow -- a showcase for Russia's military and civil aerospace industry. The two leaders highlighted their increased cooperation, which saw Turkey begin taking delivery in July of Russian S-400 missile systems it ordered in defiance of warnings from Washington. Turkey's defense ministry said the second stage of deliveries had begun on Tuesday and would last for a month. Putin said he and Erdogan had discussed further military cooperation, including on Russia's Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet. A move by NATO member Turkey to purchase Russian fighters would be sure to further anger Washington. "We have many opportunities, we demonstrated new weapons systems and new electronic warfare systems," Putin said. "In my opinion there was a lot of interest from our Turkish partners."

Syria Kurds fighters start pullback from Turkish border to implement ‘safe zone’
AFP, Qamishli/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
The Kurdish authorities in northeast Syrian said Tuesday their forces had started to withdraw from outposts along the Turkish border after a US-Turkish deal for a buffer zone there. They said work had begun Saturday on “the first practical steps -- in the Ras al-Ain area -- in removing some earth mounds and withdrawing a group of (Kurdish) People’s Protection Units and heavy weapons.” The so-called “safe zone” agreed by Washington and Ankara earlier this month aims to create a buffer between the Turkish border and Syrian areas controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a group Ankara sees as “terrorists.”

Syrian opposition launches largest Khan Sheikhoun attack since regime takeover
Staff writer, Al Arabiya-English/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Syrian opposition groups carried out the largest attack since the regime forces’ takeover of Khan Sheikhoun, and the northern countryside of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. Sixty people were killed in the heightened fighting, which included air and ground shelling, as well as fierce battles east of the Idlib province. “Violent clashes east of the town of Khan Sheikhun broke out at dawn after extremist and opposition groups attacked regime positions,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. The attack was led by the Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group and another extremist faction -- Ansar al-Deen -- he said. The fighting has killed 29 regime forces and 20 opponents, including 13 extremists, the Observatory said. In the southeast of the bastion, eight rebels were killed trying to sneak through frontlines towards regime positions near the Abu Duhur military airport, the monitor added. Regime forces recaptured Khan Sheikhoun last week, and have been massing north of the town in recent days as they prepare to push on with their assault. The town lies on a key highway running through Idlib province, and fully recapturing the artery would allow the government to reconnect Damascus to second city Aleppo.- With AFP.

US to keep up pressure on Sudan as it discusses lifting sanctions: Official
Reuters, Washington/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
The United States will test the commitment of Sudan’s new transitional government to human rights, freedom of speech and humanitarian access before it agrees to remove the country from a state sponsor of terrorism list, a senior US official said on Monday. The State Department official, speaking to reporters on background, said while Sudan’s new Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok would be the main point of contact, US diplomats would also have to interact with General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, the outgoing deputy chief of the military council who heads a widely feared paramilitary group. “Prime Minister Hamdok has said all the right things so we look forward to engaging with him,” the State Department official said. “This new government has shown a commitment so far. We are going to keep testing that commitment,” the official added. Hamdok, an economist, was sworn in last week as leader of a transition government, vowing to stabilize the country and solve its economic crisis. The official said the new government had emphasized in recent talks with US officials that it wanted the country removed from the terrorism sponsor list, which limits Sudan’s access to international financing, including from lenders such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Hamdok, who has worked for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, told Reuters on Sunday he was seeking up to $10 billion in foreign funding over the next two years to cover Sudan’s import bill and help it rebuild.
“It is an obstacle right now,” the official acknowledged referring to US sanctions, adding: “It will take a little bit of time to work through but we are committed to doing that. We want to have a positive dialogue with this new civilian government.”Sudan was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993 under former US President Bill Clinton, cutting it off from financial markets and strangling its economy. Washington lifted a 20-year trade embargo against Sudan in 2017 and was in the process of discussions on removing it from the US list when the military stepped in on April 11 to depose veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years. Mounting public anger over shortages of food, fuel and hard currency triggered mass demonstrations that eventually forced al-Bashir from power in April. The Trump administration suspended talks on normalizing relations with Sudan and demanded that the military hand power to a civilian government.

Russia delivers another S-400 battery to Turkey
Reuters/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Russia delivered another battery of Russian S-400 missile defenses on Tuesday, Interfax news agency cited President Vladimir Putin as saying. “By the way, another delivery was made this morning,” Putin told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who was on a visit to Russia. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said that the delivery of a second battery of S-400 defense system had started as of Tuesday and that it would take around one month.

Brazil leader demands French apology before accepting aid for Amazon fires
The Associated Press/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says Brazil will only accept an offer of international aid to fight Amazon fires if French leader Emmanuel Macron retracts comments that he finds offensive. Bolsonaro on Tuesday said Macron had called him a liar and he accused the French president of questioning Brazil’s sovereignty amid tensions over fires sweeping the Amazon region. Bolsonaro says Macron has to retract some of his comments “and then we can speak.”Macron has questioned Bolsonaro’s trustworthiness and commitment to protecting biodiversity.The Group of Seven nations has pledged $20 million to help fight the flames in the Amazon and protect the rainforest, in addition to a separate $12 million from Britain and $11 million from Canada.

Students rally in Pakistan-held Kashmir against India
The Associated Press, Muzaffarabad/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
More than a thousand students have rallied in the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir to denounce India’s downgrading of the special status of the portion of the disputed region it controls. The demonstrators chanted “We want freedom” and denounced human rights violations in Indian-administrated Kashmir.
Tuesday’s rally in Muzaffarabad came a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to globally highlight the issue of Kashmir. He will address the UN General Assembly on Sept. 27. Tensions have soared between Pakistan and India since August 5, when New Delhi revoked Muslim-majority Kashmir’s decades-old semiautonomous status, touching off anger in Indian-controlled Kashmir and in Pakistan. Kashmir is split between archrivals Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety.

Sri Lankan Islamic clerics seek clarity on face veil ban
The Associated Press, Colombo/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Islamic clerics in Sri Lanka asked Muslim women on Tuesday to continue to avoid wearing face veils until the government clarifies whether they are once again allowed now that emergency rule has ended four months after a string of suicide bomb attacks. Clerics are wary of the Muslim community being targeted again for violence, as it was in the aftermath of April’s Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 260 people, said Fazil Farook, spokesman for All Ceylon Jammiyyathul Ulama, Sri Lanka’s largest group of Islamic clerics. Two local radical Muslim groups have been blamed for the attacks. Farook urged Muslim women not to rush into wearing their veils again. “They have managed in the past and we are asking them to do it the same way,” Farook said, adding that some women have refused to be seen in public without covering their faces because they had been accustomed to it. After the Easter attacks on three churches and three tourist hotels, Sri Lanka’s government brought the country under emergency rule, giving sweeping search, arrest and detention powers to the military and police. President Maithripala Sirisena also used the emergency law to issue a decree banning covering faces in all manners, including face veils. Emergency rule had been extended each month until last week, when Sirisena allowed the law to lapse. He issued a separate order allowing the military to maintain peace. In the wake of the Easter attacks, gangs mostly from the majority Sinhalese community attacked mosques and Muslim-owned shops, killing at least one person. Muslims also were subjected to hate speech in public and on social media. Farook said clerics were asking the Muslim community to remain calm.
“(Think of) what happened in the past and don’t allow racial elements to take things to another level,” he said.

China says resolutely opposed to G7 statement on Hong Kong
Reuters, Beijing/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Beijing is resolutely opposed to a statement from the G7 summit that referenced the current unrest in Hong Kong. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the remarks during a daily press briefing. The G7 group “reaffirms the existence and importance of the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 on Hong Kong and calls for violence to be avoided,” according to the statement.

Japan says N. Korea developing warheads to penetrate missile defenses
Reuters, Tokyo/Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Pyongyang appears to be developing warheads to penetrate a ballistic missile shield defending Japan, the country’s defense chief said on Tuesday, pointing to the irregular trajectories of the latest missiles launched by North Korea. Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told a news conference that Japan believes the rockets were a new short-range ballistic missile, according to a ministry spokesman who confirmed his comments carried by domestic media. Recent short-range missile tests by Pyongyang have stoked alarm in neighboring Japan even as US President Donald Trump has dismissed the launches as unimportant. Saturday’s test firings came a day after Seoul said it was ending a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo, amid a worsening spat over wartime forced labor. Iwaya and other Japanese officials called Seoul’s decision “irrational” as the threat posed by North Korea grows. Japan and the United States have Aegis destroyers deployed in the Sea of Japan armed with interceptor missiles designed to destroy warheads in space. Japan also plans to build two land-based Aegis batteries to bolster its ballistic missile shield. Those defense systems, however, are designed to counter projectiles on regular and therefore, predictable, trajectories, and any variation in flight path would make interception trickier. Detailed analysis of the latest North Korean launches was underway with the United States, an official of South Korea’s defense ministry said on Tuesday.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 27-28/2019
Trump-Rouhani summit seen as cause for concern in Israel
ايتمار ايشنر/صحيفة يديعوت أحرونوت: قمة ترامب روحاني هي مدعاة للقلق في إسرائيل
Itamar Eichner/Ynetnews/August 27/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77903/%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%aa%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%b4%d9%86%d8%b1-%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%88%d9%86%d9%88%d8%aa-%d9%82%d9%85%d8%a9-%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%85%d8%a8/
Israeli officials fear they would not be in position to exert pressure on a president that has already showered them with so much, if he fails to include conditions they see as crucial in any future U.S.-Iran nuclear deal.
Israeli officials are concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump will try to replicate the relations he maintains with North Korea in future relations with Iran, following his bombshell announcement at the G7 summit on Monday that a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is possible in a matter of weeks.
Jerusalem's main concern is its difficulty to gage where a meeting between the two presidents may lead.
Israeli officials say the possibility that Rouhani will meet with his American counterpart before sanctions on Iran are lifted could be seen as an Iranian capitulation. Tehran has consistently demanded that sanctions reimposed by Trump after he pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal be lifted before any progress on talks can be made. Israeli officials fear that Trump will, as he did with North Korea, give more credence to the actual meeting of the leaders, which will then be followed by a milder tone in public statements.
Nonetheless, the same sources note, sanctions on North Korea have remained in place despite the niceties.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called to discussed events with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon after the president's statements, and then tweeted support for Israel on Monday night. Officials in Jerusalem warn Israel's special relationship with the American president could become an impediment, should Trump reach a new deal with Iran that does not include elements critical to Israel, such as ending Tehran's missile program and its continued support for terrorism and extremists in the Middle East. Israel would be at a disadvantage, the officials say, to exert pressure on the president who has already provided the Jewish State with many gestures and benefits.
There may also be some positive outcomes from a Trump Rouhani summit, some say. The U.S. demands of Iran were laid out in Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's speech last year that included Iran:
• End its proliferation of ballistic missiles and halt further launching or development of nuclear-capable missile systems.
• End support to Middle East "terrorist" groups, end its threatening behavior against its neighbors, many of whom are US allies, end the Islamic Revolutionary Guard corps' support for "terrorists" and "militant" partners around the world.
• Stop enrichment and never pursue plutonium reprocessing, including closing its heavy water reactor.
"We understand Iran is not going to just disappear," said the official.
"Israel wants an end to the Iran's nuclear program.” "Israel wants an end to the Iran's nuclear program.”
He said he is relatively calm because Trump is advised by Pompeo and his national security adviser John Bolton, both of whom advocate a very hawkish policy towards Iran.
Even so, the Israeli official conceded, "we do have some concerns because we don't really know what will happen.”
The official said that Israel would have preferred a resumption of talks not to have been raised now, because the sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iran are working and a few more months them would, in his view, had made Tehran recognize the need to compromise. Now that is no longer likely.
A second official saw a way forward that might stop further escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, as the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group would have no interest in risking the summit.
As for the actual meeting Trump and Rouhani, the official saw an opportunity but also a problem, since French President Emmanuel Macron has apparently sided with Iran and has made it more difficult for the United States to break Iranian resistance. "France is keeping the Iranians alive and has opposed sanctions," the official noted. He added that only someone as aggressive as Donald Trump may be able to get concessions out of Tehran, in contrast to the negotiating abilities of his predecessor.
Even in the event that these starting positions are not kept, any deal reached will be better than the one signed by Obama in 2015.

Analysis/Israel Believes Nasrallah’s Threats Over Lebanon Strikes, Braces for Retaliation
عاموس هاريل/هآرتس: إسرائيل تأخذ بجدية تهديدات نصرالله وتستعد للإنتقام
Amos Harel/Haaretz/August 27/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77905/%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%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%aa%d8%a3%d8%ae%d8%b0-%d8%a8%d8%ac%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d8%aa/
Israel's top political echelon briefed by defense establishment, which assesses Hezbollah chief will have to make good on public statements
Hezbollah plans to respond to the two attacks it attributes to Israel in Syria and Lebanon, defense officials told the government Monday. The military’s high alert continues, especially along the borders with Syria and Lebanon, but vigilance also remains high on the Gaza border for fear of a further escalation there.
Israel claimed responsibility for the attack on Syria on Saturday night that killed two Hezbollah fighters, members of a cell led by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that was about to attack the Golan Heights via explosive-laden drones.
A few hours later, a drone was launched against Hezbollah’s offices in the Shi’ite neighborhood in southern Beirut commonly known as Dahieh. Israel didn’t take responsibility for this attack, for which Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel in a speech in Beirut on Sunday evening. Nasrallah also threatened to respond by attacking Israeli soldiers along the border.
Israel believes that Nasrallah will keep his word. Hezbollah, including in speeches by Nasrallah in recent months, has delineated its red lines in the “war between the wars” with Israel. The organization has said it will respond to any attack on its people in Syria and to any attempt to attack it in Lebanon. Nasrallah repeated this even more forcefully in his speech on Sunday. Not only is this his approach, he’s locked into it because of the explicit threats he has made.
"Netanyahu, you and your army know that we're not joking," he told the crowd Sunday. "I tell the soldiers on Israel's borders, stand on the border wall with two feet and a half, and wait for us."
What happens then largely depends on the results of Hezbollah’s retaliation. During the previous escalation between the two sides, in January 2015, Israel chose to “contain” the situation after Hezbollah killed an officer and a soldier on Mount Dov in response to the killing of seven Lebanese and Iranians in an Israeli assassination operation in the Syrian Golan Heights. If the Hezbollah attack causes many casualties, Israel may respond with its own operation. In other words, tactical results can again dictate strategy.
During Nasrallah’s speech in Beirut, another attack attributed to Israel on the Syria-Iraq border was reported. Nine fighters in an Iraqi Shi’ite militia, the Iraqi Hezbollah Battalions (a kind of sister movement to Lebanon’s Hezbollah) were killed in a drone bombing on the Iraqi side of the border crossing.
Then, very early Monday morning, only a few hours after Nasrallah threatened Israel and restated Hezbollah’s red lines, another unusual attack was reported in Lebanon, not far from the Syrian border. This time, according to reports from the area, Israeli drones bombed the Lebanon valley base of a long-forgotten Palestinian organization, the Popular Front-General Command, established by Ahmed Jibril. Jibril’s organization has in the past served the Iranians and Hezbollah as a proxy for attacks for which neither wanted to take direct responsibility. That could be the background for the incident this time.
On Monday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun called the drone attack “a declaration of war by Israel." Also Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement in which he accused Iran of “operating on a broad front to commit murderous terror attacks against the State of Israel.” Netanyahu, in what almost sounded like a cry for help, called on the international community “to act immediately so that Iran stops these attacks.”
Either way, it seems, based on these recent attacks, that Israel is signaling a new, more aggressive policy toward Iran and Hezbollah. There have also been direct condemnations by military chief Aviv Kochavi and Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. Kochavi blamed Soleimani for planning the drone attack on the Golan Heights. Katz, as well as a tweet by the IDF spokesman, mentioned Soleimani as someone who might be harmed by Israel’s next moves.
Stepping up the attacks
The confrontation between Iran and Israel has been going on for most of the decade. At the beginning of the Syrian civil war the attacks attributed to Israel focused on Iranian weapons convoys that traveled through Syria en route to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In December 2017 there was a change; at least some of the attacks were aimed at Iran’s attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria. These attacks hit weapons systems that the Iranians had deployed and bases of Shi’ite proxy militias.
Last month, according to foreign press reports, there was another change in policy: Israel started to attack Iranian targets in Iraq. (Though it turned out that some of the acts attributed to Israel were actually glitches in which shells exploded in militias’ weapons storehouses). This is apparently what led to Tehran’s attempt to retaliate, which was scuttled Saturday night by Israel’s air force.
In other words, Israel has expanded the limits of its campaign against Iran, and Tehran responded with an assault whose foiling could put the parties at the brink of an escalating cycle. This raises two questions: What was the reason for the change in Israeli policy and was it justified?
The opposition in Israel has two types of reactions, almost reflexive, when the government decides to escalate militarily. Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan, with three of its four top members former military chiefs of staff, assumes a tensely quiet patriotic stance and salutes the military as it continues to heap fire and brimstone on Netanyahu for his restrained policy in Gaza. (The prime minister was subject to criticism yet again Sunday after the rocket fire on Sderot.) Other voices, especially on social media, accuse Likud of a plot under which the borders are being ignited to change the election campaign to focus on a security debate that allegedly serves Netanyahu.
Such allegations have been heard in the past, including during the January 2015 incidents, which also occurred on the eve of an election. Back then the allegations turned out to be disproportionate; Netanyahu showed restraint and didn’t let the situation deteriorate into a confrontation with Iran and Hezbollah. Over the years, the prime minister has usually acted cautiously and responsibly in navigating the moves in the north, for fear of sliding into war.
The question now is whether something has changed in Netanyahu’s judgment given his stressful situation in the polls and the need to put together a coalition of at least 61 Knesset members without Avigdor Lieberman and his party, so that he can form the next government and stop the legal proceedings against him. In Israel, politics is always mixed with security concerns, and it’s very difficult to fully distinguish between the various considerations. Of course, Netanyahu’s main consideration is security: Israel has identified Iranian moves toward building a military force along its borders and launching attacks against it. Israel is working to thwart them, even if this means reaching deep into Iraq and Lebanon.
In this regard, apart from the weakness of the opposition and the lack of external oversight by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the period between the two election campaigns, the weakness of the security cabinet should also be noted. Netanyahu is also the defense minister, and there are no experienced and senior ministers in the security cabinet like Ehud Barak, Moshe Ya’alon or Lieberman who are likely to challenge him.
As Haaretz’s Chaim Levinson has remarked, the real security cabinet nowadays is made up of the prime minister’s close advisers (ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and, to a lesser extent, Kochavi). They tend to take a hawkish line, which dovetails with Netanyahu’s approach.
Also note that there have been developments between the United States and Iran. First, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif unexpectedly arrived in Biarritz, France, where the G7 summit is taking place. On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped conditions have been created for a summit between the U.S. and Iranian presidents in the coming weeks. This is a very significant development, but it’s doubtful that Netanyahu, who wants the United States to put more pressure on Iran, sees it as good news.
With thanks to Eisenkot
Kochavi has recently become the darling of the right. Rightists are heaping praise on him on social media. The enthusiasm, which has been clear since a right-wing favorite, Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter, was promoted, has increased because of the recent attacks in the north. The praise is often accompanied by repeated criticism of Kochavi’s predecessor, Gadi Eisenkot, who completed his term in January. But now, when the confrontation with Hezbollah is escalating again, it’s worth recalling that Israel owes its thanks to the previous chief of staff, who insisted last December on launching Operation Northern Shield. In that operation the military discovered and destroyed six attack tunnels that Hezbollah had dug under the Lebanese border into Israel.
As the north heats up again, it’s good that Hezbollah has been denied the option of sneaking hundreds of commandos into the Galilee to conduct a surprise attack. This wouldn’t have happened if Eisenkot, backed by Netanyahu, hadn’t pushed for it.

Tehran remains the main threat to region’s security
Sir John Jenkins/Arab News/August 27/2019
It’s that time again. The summer season, when the heat gets to people’s brains and silliness sets in. There has just been a G7 summit in Biarritz (nice place, Edward VII used to play baccarat there), and everyone is grandstanding again. On the first day, French President Emmanuel Macron arranged at short notice a pop-up lunch with US President Donald Trump, apparently so he could try to persuade him (among other things) to change US policy on Iran and (by all accounts) restart direct contact on the basis of some not very new ideas. He then surprised everyone by producing Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, like a rabbit out of a top hat. The gasps of surprise were sadly muted. Zarif tweeted something about Iran’s constructive diplomacy (no irony intended, I’m sure). The US gave the affair a brusque brush-off.
In real life, the Iranians and their friends seem increasingly exercised by the mysterious (or maybe not) airstrikes against military targets associated with some Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi militias inside Iraq, and continuing Israeli attacks against similar sites in Syria. The most recent have included an attack on a military base on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, which clearly hit a massive munitions store (actually belonging, so a former Iraqi deputy prime minister suggested on Twitter, to Iran), strikes on Saturday against targets on the outskirts of Damascus, and now another this Sunday on a base associated with Kata’ib Hezbollah near Al-Qaim on the border with Syria, where there was a similar attack only a few months ago. There have also been drone sightings over Beirut and an attack on a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine base in the Beqa’a Valley. It’s becoming a pattern.
A few days ago, our old friend Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis (still wanted in Kuwait on terror charges from the 1980s) threatened to shoot down US drones in retaliation. From Qom, Ayatollah Kazim Al-Ha’eri, who is close to Muqtada Al-Sadr, came out with a particularly emotional effusion, talking about his pride in the Hashd, who stood tall against Daesh, the US and Israel when others faltered. They would continue to fulfill their sacred duty by punishing the enemy, whoever he was and wherever he was found. Meanwhile, Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary General of the Supreme National Security Council, told NBC last week that, in the event of hostilities with the US, Iran will fight through proxies (which must come as a bit of a surprise to all those people who deny Iran has any). And, just to add to the general gaiety, Kata’ib Hezbollah’s secretary general was in Tehran the other day telling the world that he and his colleagues in the Hashd regard Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as continuing the tradition of prophetic governance. That must be news to all those people — almost certainly including many Iranians — who thought the Iranian government was oppressive and corrupt. Oh well.
Not to be left out, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the Iraqi prime minister, has proudly announced that any unauthorized intruder into Iraqi airspace will now be regarded as hostile. That includes US aircraft. But, since whoever is attacking the Hashd sites — which also seem for some unaccountable reason to be very attractive to members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — clearly doesn’t care about authorization and finds little difficulty in entering or leaving Iraqi airspace, it’s not clear what this means in practice. That’s probably why Al-Sadr has decided to call for a rational consideration of the evidence and a careful focus on Iraqi security; not the interests of neighboring states (an implied rebuke to those Iranians and their Iraqi sympathizers who claim that the defense of Baghdad is the defense of Tehran).
And, while all this is going on, the Iranian tanker briefly detained in Gibraltar makes its faltering way through the Mediterranean, looking for a friendly port. The Iranians, having detained a British-flagged tanker in retaliation, seem at a loss to know what to do next in the face of a more resolute US and UK position on the escorting of their flagged vessels. Zarif has been touring regional capitals as well as Paris to explore the possibility of getting others to do Tehran’s dirty work. The Houthis — who are always happy to help — have fired more missiles at sites within Saudi Arabia in sympathy. But none of this really alters the equation. Iran’s oil exports have been severely hit by the reimposition of US sanctions. Contrary to the expectations of some observers, these sanctions have had a significant impact on the behavior of other states. After all, trade with the US is far more valuable than trade with Iran (even if you can get paid). And the Permian Basin is the gift that keeps giving. No one has taken the Iranian bait so far and started a firefight. And, unless Iran makes a serious move to de-escalate, or decides to escalate massively instead, it looks likely that the economy will continue to be suffocated.
It is true that Iran still has options. It can accelerate its return to uranium enrichment. It can revert to putting its economy on a war footing, something the supreme leader frequently recommends from his position of privilege. It can smuggle. It can ratchet up the tension (and maritime insurance rates) in the Strait of Hormuz. It can engineer damaging violence in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, perhaps even a renewed conflict involving Israel and the Palestinians, whom Iran is as prepared to instrumentalize as Hamas is to let it do so. But none of these are great choices, especially if your enemies (as you see them) are refusing to respond in the way you would like. And the surprising thing is that the US has so far responded in such a measured way. Not really what you would expect.
Zarif has been touring regional capitals as well as Paris to explore the possibility of getting others to do Tehran’s dirty work.
Where does this end? Well, as I have said before, while many commentators claim to believe it is all about the US, in reality it depends far more on Iran. After all, the fundamental problem is not US behavior or the unpredictability of Trump. It is true that the invasion of Iraq was a blunder, as was the subsequent abandonment of Iraqi politics to Nouri Al-Maliki and other sectarian opportunists. And there has been an alarming incoherence about US and Western policy more broadly since 2011, which really needs to be remedied if we are at all serious about the region and its stability.
But most of this happened under previous presidents. It benefited Iran. And yet Tehran, while posing as the injured party, continues to meddle and extend its influence in ways that exacerbate the chronic underlying problems of the region. Everyone could make a major contribution to a solution by bringing the conflict in Yemen to an end. It only serves Iranian interests to have it continue — probably one reason why Khamenei recently received a high-level Houthi delegation for the first time. No doubt we — the US, UK, France and the Gulf states — should all act more collectively. But, beyond that, all Iran has to do is accept that its security cannot and should not be bought at the expense of its neighbors and act accordingly. This is not a question of setting up a security coordination mechanism, it is about agreeing on the nature of the threat. And there, for too many people, the answer remains: Iran.
*Sir John Jenkins is a senior fellow at Policy Exchange. Until December 2017, he was Corresponding Director (Middle East) at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Manama, Bahrain and was a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. He was the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia until January 2015.

Iran’s talk of nonaggression pacts a red herring
Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/August 27/2019
Iran’s diplomacy these days appears focused on one goal: Driving a wedge between the US and its allies to frustrate Washington’s efforts to build a global coalition to safeguard international shipping in the Gulf against Tehran’s repeated attacks. As he has crisscrossed the region and Europe in recent weeks, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has tried to divert attention from the real bones of contention between his country and the rest of the world by framing the conflict in narrow terms, such as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal or US sanctions.
One of the most cynical ideas coming from Tehran is the proposal to sign nonaggression pacts (NAPs) with its neighbors. Such agreements are a relic of the pre-UN past and were made especially notorious by Nazi Germany, which used them to divide European countries and enable itself to swallow them one by one. By coincidence, last week marked the 80th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a NAP Germany signed with the Soviet Union in 1939, a week before it attacked Poland to start the Second World War.
Iranian officials have so far rejected US and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) calls for negotiations. They have also turned down suggestions of discussions about the country’s ballistic missile program and refused calls to debate its support for terrorism and other malign activities that have preoccupied the international community. Instead, Iran wanted talks with the international community to be exclusively on implementing the JCPOA, not changing it.
With its neighbors, Iran has floated a number of ideas that appear to be hopelessly out of date or cynically designed to be rejected, such as NAPs. Zarif raised this suggestion in May and then again earlier this month when he visited the region.
The NAPs suggestion was part of Iran’s response to US efforts to put together a global coalition to counter its attacks on international shipping in the Gulf. Iran is, of course, opposed to international efforts to safeguard maritime security through the Gulf and regional passageways. It has comically suggested that only countries of the region should carry out that task, overlooking the fact that the threat emanates from Iran and that it is Iran which has been attacking oil tankers navigating the Gulf.
Iran has floated a number of ideas that appear to be hopelessly out of date or cynically designed to be rejected.
In light of the US proposal to form a coalition to safeguard freedom of navigation, Iran’s NAP proposal aims at weakening the defense mechanisms employed by its neighbors to protect themselves against its transgressions. It is a transparent attempt to discourage the countries that may agree to such a pact from joining the coalition. Similarly, Iran is proposing signing bilateral NAPs with individual GCC countries that are already members of the bloc’s Joint Defense Treaty, which is a mutual defense agreement signed and ratified by all GCC member states. Article 2 of the treaty stipulates that the security of the six members is indivisible; each and all are obligated to come to the defense of any member state facing external aggression. A NAP with Iran would be inconsistent with this treaty obligation.
It is sad that the best idea Iranian diplomacy can come up with goes back to that dark period of modern history when Nazi ambitions took the world into a devastating war. Among the Nazis’ first diplomatic forays was concluding NAPs with unsuspecting neighbors, such as Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Russia, to keep them neutral in its upcoming wars of annexation.
Perhaps the most notorious NAP is the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It was signed just before Germany’s invasion of Poland and lasted until its invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. By signing such agreements, Germany neutralized some of its potential adversaries and enabled it to free up its military resources to pursue other fronts. Regionally, about 30 years ago, as Saddam Hussein planned for his invasion of Kuwait, he also proposed NAPs with neighbors for the same reason.
The world has moved away from such agreements because their implementation depended on the good faith and trust of the parties. Instead, the UN Charter has established strong rules against aggression, overseen by the UN Security Council, which every nation has to live by, without having to sign NAPs. Iran has so far chosen to live outside those rules, claiming that the international system is rigged against it.
In its communications with Iran, the GCC has proposed that adherence to the UN Charter and international rules for state conduct should be the basis for any talks between the two parties. The UN Charter is based on respect for national borders, political independence and the territorial integrity of member states. It also bars states from the use or threat of force to achieve their goals.
*Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Negotiation, and a columnist for Arab News. The views expressed in this piece are personal and do not necessarily represent GCC views. Twitter: @abuhamad1w

Turkey: "Death to Jews" at Summer Camp
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/August 27/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14740/turkey-death-jews-summer-camp
"Very young children are indoctrinated in Jew-hatred and human-hatred without even knowing who Jews are. These children will grow up to be potential Jew-haters and this is the biggest danger.... Lawsuits should absolutely be filed against those who engage in racism and hate crimes and who direct children to these things. This is the short-term solution; but the long-term solution is education." — İvo Molinas, editor-in-chief, Şalom.
"We live in a country where an ethnic group is placed in the brains of very little children as enemies. And the saddest thing is that we are not able to do anything about it. As a society, we only complain, but cannot do anything else. It is so sad that neither political nor judicial attempts are being made to stop these things." — İvo Molinas, editor-in-chief, Şalom.
Turkey's Jewish community is reeling from viral video that shows what appears to be a summer camp at which young children are being led in an anti-Semitic cheer in Turkish by a young girl or woman counselor. Pictured: The Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey. (Image source: Tatiana Matlina/Wikimedia Commons)
Turkey's Jewish community is still reeling from the content of a video that went viral at the end of July. The video shows what appears to be a summer camp at which young children, with a group of burqa-clad women behind them, are being led in an anti-Semitic cheer in Turkish by a young girl or woman counselor.
In the 39-second clip, when the girl says, "The Jews," the women and children reply, "Death!"
When she says, "Palestine," they reply, "It will be saved."
When she calls out, "Hagia Sophia" -- referring to the Byzantine cathedral-museum in Istanbul that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced will be turned into a mosque -- they chant, "It will be opened."
A few days after the footage began to circulate, Garo Paylan, a Member of Parliament from the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party, tweeted his outrage. He announced his intention to file a criminal complaint against the camp counselor and the organization behind her. Two days after posting the tweet, Paylan submitted the following parliamentary questions to Family, Labor and Social Services Minister Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül:
Where and under whose care were the children in the film?
Were their parents or other family members present during the event?
Did the children who were instructed to shout "Death to the Jews" come together at that event as part of an organization?
Did the event take place with the knowledge of your ministry?
Will you launch an investigation into the organizers and the families of those children who abuse and encourage them to commit hate crimes?
Will you launch administrative investigations into the authorities that neglected to expose the event?
Will you put these children under the protection of your ministry?
What kind of precautions will your ministry take so that our children are not exposed to such abuses again?
Paylan also asked the justice minister whether "those engaging in hate speech and hate crimes are punished effectively, or whether there is a climate of impunity concerning such crimes."
The ministers have yet to issue a response.
Meanwhile, Mois Gabay, a Jewish columnist based in Istanbul, told Gatestone that the anti-Semitism revealed in the video is the kind of incident that makes Turkey's already dwindling Jewish community extremely worried about the future. Gabay, in his July 31 column in Turkey's Jewish weekly, Şalom, wrote:
"It is possible to give many more examples [of anti-Semitism in Turkey]... It appears that as long as penalties are not imposed... and the Holocaust and anti-Semitism are not included in school curricula, some people will continue playing ostrich, no matter how much we write about these issues. I do hope that the hatred and exclusion [of Jews] that is growing by the day, with new emerging groups, will come to an end here one day."
Şalom's editor-in-chief, İvo Molinas, in an interview with the Bianet News Agency on August 5, also bemoaned the anti-Semitic incitement exposed in the video: "There is a very intense anti-Semitism in the visual media and printed press, as well as on social media, in Turkey. But this video is the most major and most severe form of anti-Semitism. Very young children are indoctrinated in Jew-hatred and human-hatred without even knowing who Jews are. These children will grow up to be potential Jew-haters and this is the biggest danger. Penalties should be imposed for racism and hate crimes. Lawsuits should absolutely be filed against those who engage in racism and hate crimes and who direct children to these things. This is the short-term solution; but the long-term solution is education. We live in a country where an ethnic group is placed in the brains of very little children as enemies. And the saddest thing is that we are not able to do anything about it. As a society, we only complain, but cannot do anything else. It is so sad that neither political nor judicial attempts are being made to stop these things."
*Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
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