English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 10/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Those who were not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved
Letter to the Romans 09/19-29: “You will say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea, ‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people”, and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved”. ’‘And in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people”, there they shall be called children of the living God.’ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.’And as Isaiah predicted, ‘If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors to us, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”’
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Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 09- 10/2020

Our Cancer Lies Within The Leaders/Elias Bejjani/Wednesday 09 December 2020
Presidency Says Aoun, Hariri to Try Reconciling Differences in Govt. Proposals
Aoun receives credentials of Ambassadors of Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Brazil, and People’s Republic of Korea
Aoun marking International Anti-Corruption Day calls for fight against corruption pandemic
Hariri, from Baabda: I presented an 18-minister lineup to President Aoun, atmosphere positive
Rahi, Austrian ambassador tackle neutrality, civil state
Lebanon’s Hezbollah sues PM Saad Hariri’s brother Bahaa over Beirut blast accusation
Hariri Submits 18-Seat Govt. Line-Up in Meeting with Aoun
Paris Mediates between Aoun, Hariri amid Reported Progress
Report: Berri Circles Lash Out at Aoun
Asmar Calls for General Strike Wednesday over Subsidies Crisis
French Development Agency 'Halts' Lebanon Program Funding
Foreign Ministry: UAE authorities have not issued official decision to prevent granting of visas to Lebanese
GLC leader calls for wide national strike on December 16
UN raises $370 million for 2021 emergency fund
Syria War Deaths Reach 387,000, 1,703 from Hizbullah
Arslan Says Hariri's 18-Seat Line-Up Aggrieves Druze Sect
EU Council Approves Conclusions on Lebanon
Does The US Need A Lebanon Policy?/Tony Badran/Hoover Institution/December 09/2020
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 09- 10/2020

The Pope's visit will be a blessing for all Iraqis
Supreme Court Refuses to Overturn Trump's Pennsylvania Loss
Hassan Rouhani: Iran ready for snap return to nuclear deal compliance
Turkey brushes off any EU sanctions over east Med crisis
Russian envoy: Israel-Arab issues - not Iran - main problem in Middle East
Russian Ambassador: Israel, not Iran is the problem in the Middle East
Date for new elections In Israel: March 16th, 2021
Druze protesters clash with police over turbine construction, 8 arrested
Turkey’s Erdogan to discuss US tensions when Biden takes office
Total dead in Syria War reaches 387,000 in slowest annual increase: Monitor
Two bombs spark fire at Khabbaz oil field in Iraq's Kirkuk: Security sources
Text of Department of the Treasury press release: Treasury sanctions Iran’s envoy in Yemen and university facilitating recruitment for Qods Force
U.S. blacklists Iranian envoy, possibly to pressure Yemen's Houthis
Macron Seeks Backing for Law against 'Radical Islamism
Johnson Dines in Brussels in Bid to Save Brexit Deal

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 09- 10/2020

Terrorism: A Warning from Iran to Europe/Richard Kemp/Gatestone Institute./December 09/2020
Turkey: Legitimizing Extremist Violence/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute./December 09/2020
The forgotten refugees of the Middle East/Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/December 09/2020
Iran Is Moving Key Facility at Nuclear Site Underground, Satellite Images Show/Christoph Koettl/PLOUGHSHARES FUND/December 09/2020
The mullahs make a pitch to Biden/Dr. Salem Al Ketbi/Arutz Sheva/December 09/2020 Turkey: Islamist Justice at Its Best/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/December 09/ 2020
What Catholics Need to Know about Islam/Raymond Ibrahim/December 09/ 2020
Is negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program worth it?/Reza Behrouz and Amin Sophiamehr/Al Arabiya/December 09/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 09- 10/2020

Our Cancer Lies Within The Leaders

Elias Bejjani/Wednesday 09 December 2020

Great Interview/Sadly the Christian leaders and the Maronite ones in particular are detached from their own people's conscience, hopes, pains and aspirations. They do not represent them at all and here lies the main problem.

Ministry of Health: 1274 new coronavirus cases, 20 deaths
NNA/Wednesday 09 December 2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced 1274 new cases of coronavirus infection, which raises the cumulative number to 140409 confirmed cases.
20 deaths have been registered over the past 24 hours.

Presidency Says Aoun, Hariri to Try Reconciling Differences in Govt. Proposals
Naharnet/Wednesday 09 December 2020  
President Michel Aoun on Wednesday received a "full cabinet line-up" from PM-designate Saad Hariri during their meeting in Baabda, the Presidency said. Aoun in turn handed Hariri "a complete governmental proposal including a distribution of portfolios according to clear principles," the Presidency added in a statement."The president and the PM-designate agreed to study the submitted proposals and continue consultations to address the differences between these proposals," the Presidency said.

Aoun receives credentials of Ambassadors of Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Brazil, and People’s Republic of Korea
NNA/Wednesday 09 December 2020
Baabda Presidential Palace witnessed the President’s reception of credentials of four new accredited Ambassadors to Lebanon. The Ambassadors are: Tunisian Ambassador, Burawi Al-Imam, Sierra Leone Ambassador, Ali Barbara Camara, Brazilian Ambassador, Hermano Teles Ribeiro, and North Korean Ambassador, Mun Jung Nam. Credential presentation was attended by Foreign Affairs Minister, Charbel Wehbe, Secretary-General of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Ambassador Hani Shmaitly, Assistant Director-General of Protocols at the Presidential Palace, Lieutenant Colonel Melhem Nehme, Director of Protocol at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mrs. Abeer Ali. As the Ambassadors arrived to Baabda Palace, the approved ceremonies were held where the Army’s music played the anthem of each Ambassador’s country, while the flags of each country were also raised at the mast of the Presidential Palace, alongside the Lebanese flag. Then, each Ambassador greeted the flag, before a company from the Republican Guard Brigade displayed, then the Ambassadors entered the October 22 Salon from there to the Salon of Ambassadors, where the credentials and members of the diplomatic mission were presented to President Aoun. Upon the Ambassadors’ departure, the Lebanese Army Music played the Lebanese National Anthem. The Ambassadors conveyed to the President the greetings and condolences from their President’s for the victims of the Beirut Port explosion, and wished him success in his national responsibilities, assuring the President of their work to strengthen bilateral relations between Lebanon and their countries. For his Part, President Aoun conveyed his greetings to the Ambassadors and their heads of states, wishing them success in their newly assumed diplomatic missions.
The following is a summary of Ambassador-biographies:
Tunisian Ambassador, Burawi Imam:
-Holds a degree from the International Diplomatic Academy in Paris, in 2010, and a license from the Diplomatic Institute for Education and Studies, in 1997.
-Holds postgraduate studies degree in public law, from the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences of the University of SOAS, in year 1994.
-Holds a Bachelor of Arts, in 1990.
-Fluent in Arabic, French and English.
-Fluctuated in several administrative positions, where he held the position of Secretary of External Relations in the Diplomatic Protocols Department, between 1997 and 2002.
-Assumed the position of Advisor at his country’s embassy in Athens, before being appointed in charge of media affairs and communication, at the Tunisian Embassy, in Paris.
-Appointed as Plenipotentiary Minister, at the Tunisian Embassy in Paris, between 2015 and 2016.
-Appointed as Director of Information in the Tunisian Foreign Affairs Ministry, between 2016 and 2018, before being appointed as Public Diplomacy and Media Affairs Director, in the same Ministry.
-Chaired the Media Center Arab League Summit, which was held at Tunisia in March 2019, and followed a series of specialized courses in the field of Public Relations and Diplomatic Protocol, in several international centers and universities.
Ambassador of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Ali Barbara Camara:
-Continued to study a Bachelor’s degree in Higher Sciences at the Faculty of Arts at Jamal Abdul Nasser University, in Conakry.
-Fluctuated in several positions and worked in diplomatic affairs for 11 years, in addition to following-up on several specialized courses.
-Assumed the position of Charge D’affaires, between 1997 and 1998.
-Worked as a professor, between 1985 and 1990.
-Residing in Tehran.
Ambassador of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Hermano Telles Ribeiro:
-Fluctuated in several diplomatic and administrative positions, as well as working in Brazilian diplomatic missions abroad, where he held the position of Second-Secretary of his country’s permanent mission in Washington, and Assistant Consul-General, at the Brazilian Consulate General in Paris.
-Worked as Minister-Adviser, at the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo and Paris.
-Appointed as Consul General for Brazil at the Permanent Consulate of Atlanta.
-Published numerous books and articles issued in a number of specialized magazines.
-Won several decorations.
Ambassador of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mun Jong Nam:
-Joined the International Relations University, in Pyongyang.
-Worked as an employee and supervisor in the Africa Department at the Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry.
-Held the position of researcher at the Directorate of International Organizations in his country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, and assumed the position of consultant at the Korean Embassy, in Bangkok.
-Headed a department in the Directorate of International Organizations of his country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and Secretary of the Korean National Committee for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, between 2007 and 2014.
-Appointed Deputy Director-General in the Directorate of International Organizations in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Assistant Secretary in the Korean National Coordination Committee of the World Food Program, between years 2014 and 2018.
-Resides in Damascus.—Presidency Press Office

Aoun marking International Anti-Corruption Day calls for fight against corruption pandemic
NNA/Wednesday 09 December 2020
Marking the International Day for Combatting Corruption, President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, tweeted the following:
“On the International Day for Anti-Corruption, let our choice, together, be to eradicate this pandemic which is deadly to our future energies and youth. A pandemic which is hidden behind quotas and dependencies, which contradicts our roles and missions. So we can build a country that is an example, and not a state built on sand, which falls whenever corruption becomes stronger on it”.—Presidency Press Office

Hariri, from Baabda: I presented an 18-minister lineup to President Aoun, atmosphere positive
NNA/Wednesday 09 December 2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri announced after his meeting with President of the Republic Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace, that he "presented a complete government lineup of 18 specialized ministers, chosen regardless of party affiliation. President Michel Aoun will study this lineup before we meet again in a positive atmosphere.""Hopes are great for forming a government to rebuild Beirut and regain the trust of the Lebanese through reforms," he said.

Rahi, Austrian ambassador tackle neutrality, civil state
NNA/Wednesday 09 December 2020
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi, received this Wednesday in Birki, the Austrian Ambassador to Lebanon, Rene Amry, with talks touching on bilateral ties "as Lebanon and Austria share historical relations and rapprochement, especially between Austrian Catholics and the Lebanese people.""We talked about the present local and regional conditions, and the principle of active neutrality proposed by His Beatitude; a condition experienced by Austria after World War II and up to this day, for it proved a necessity due to Austria's geographical location. His Beatitude has explained to me how neutrality is part of Lebanon's composition and identity," the ambassador said. "Another topic I touched upon with his eminence is the issue of a civil state, which is also part of the identity of Lebanon, without forgetting the role of the Church that Austria knows all too well, and which is to convey the voice of the people and seek a better future for its sons," he added.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah sues PM Saad Hariri’s brother Bahaa over Beirut blast accusation
The Associated Press/Wednesday 09 December 2020
Lebanon’s Hezbollah is suing the estranged brother of the country’s Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri after he accused the militant group of being responsible for the massive explosion at Beirut’s port earlier this year, a TV station reported Wednesday.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV gave no further details about the case filed against Bahaa Hariri, the son of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and estranged brother of Saad Hariri. The move came a week after Hezbollah said it was suing former Christian lawmaker Fares Souaid and the website of the right-wing Lebanese Forces party for accusing Hezbollah of being responsible for the Aug. 4 blast that killed more than 200 people and wounded thousands. Hezbollah legislator Ibrahim Mussawi, who filed the case against Souaid and the website, told reporters last week that he also plans to press charges against Bahaa Hariri, a harsh Hezbollah critic who lives in exile. The massive blast in August was caused by nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrates, a fertilizer improperly stored at a port warehouse for six years. Since the blast, some of Hezbollah’s opponents and others have accused Hezbollah of storing explosive chemicals at the port. After Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war ended, Hezbollah was the only group allowed to keep its weapons as it was fighting Israeli forces that occupied parts of southern Lebanon. However, Hezbollah has dismissed the accusation and no evidence has emerged to link the group to the explosive chemicals. An investigation has yet to provide an explanation for what happened — or hold any senior official responsible. Families of the victims have asked for an international probe, in a country where violent attacks and assassinations are rarely brought to justice. Lebanon’s port authority, security agencies and political leadership were all aware of the stored explosive chemicals at the port, documents have shown. The port is one of the country’s facilities where rampant corruption has been reported.

Hariri Submits 18-Seat Govt. Line-Up in Meeting with Aoun
Naharnet/Wednesday 09 December 2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Wednesday met with President Michel Aoun and submitted to him a draft cabinet line-up. "I submitted a complete government line-up consisted of 18 ministers who are specialists and do not belong to parties," said Hariri after the talks. "President Michel Aoun will study the line-up and we will meet again. The atmosphere is positive and I have big hope that will be able to form a government quickly," Hariri added. He said such a government would "stop the economic collapse and the suffering of the Lebanese, rebuild Beirut and return confidence and hope to the Lebanese through the reforms that were agreed on as part of the French initiative." Sources informed on the meeting's atmosphere meanwhile told TV networks that Hariri also submitted to Aoun the CVs of some candidates and that the president in turn presented a complete proposal regarding the government.
"There was an exchange of viewpoints over Aoun's proposal and Hariri's list and a discussion over some names," the sources said. Further consultations "will be held soon," the sources added, while describing the meeting as positive and noting that Aoun and Hariri want to "cooperate to speed up the government's formation."

Paris Mediates between Aoun, Hariri amid Reported Progress
Naharnet/Wednesday 09 December 2020
There are "French efforts" to resolve two obstacles delaying the formation of the new government, al-Jadeed TV said on Wednesday, ahead of an expected meeting between President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri. "The obstacle over the interior portfolio is still present, with President Aoun clinging to naming the interior minister while Hariri in return insisting in naming him in agreement with President Aoun," al-Jadeed said. "The president is also clinging to the energy portfolio and wants it to be among his share while there is French insistence on them naming the energy minister," the TV network added. "The French endeavor is seeking to resolve these two hurdles," al-Jadeed said. MP Georges Atallah of the Strong Lebanon bloc meanwhile told the TV station that "there is no longer a rotation of portfolios." "The Shiite duo will keep the finance portfolio while al-Mustaqbal will retain interior," he explained. "If PM-designate Hariri cooperates, we will see a government in the coming days," he added. LBCI TV meanwhile quoted several sources as saying that "there is progress towards an agreement regarding the seventh Christian minister and the fourth Sunni minister." Hizbullah and Amal Movement sources also told LBCI that the ball is in the court of Aoun and Hariri. "There is no nominations problem between us and the PM-designate," the sources said. Al-Jadeed later reported that Hariri is optimistic and will head to Baabda with a "near-complete line-up." He will ask Aoun to take part with him in naming five ministers, al-Jadeed added. And noting that Hariri's line-up will not involve a one-third veto power for any party, the TV network said "the French have named Joe Saddi for the energy portfolio but President Aoun had rejected his nomination."

Report: Berri Circles Lash Out at Aoun
Naharnet/Wednesday 09 December 2020
The NBN television station affiliated with Speaker Nabih Berri waged a verbal attack during its prime time news bulletin on Tuesday against President Michel Aoun, accusing him of "obstructing" the judicial formations and of "paralyzing" the judicial authority. NBN waged the attack after a meeting held by Aoun at Baabda Palace with members of the Higher Judicial Council led by Judge Souheil Abboud. Aoun stressed during the meeting the need to “activate the judiciary's work and to quickly look into all cases pending before the courts.”Aoun called on the judicial body to be immune to the slander campaigns targeting some judges. NBN accused Aoun of obstructing the judicial appointments and of paralyzing the judicial authority. Aoun “speaks the language of prudence while he himself wrote the execution record of the judiciary,” the station lashed out. Al-Joumhouria daily said the criticism, if anything, “indicates how annoyed Berri is with the President.”NBN said “France was deeply disappointed with the President for hampering the government formation, mainly that PM-designate Saad Hariri has consumed all the moves possible to facilitate the government formation.” Aoun and Hariri will meet Wednesday afternoon over the controversial cabinet formation. According to al-Joumhouria, NBN’s blitz came in retaliation against “weeks” of criticisms launched by OTV, a television station affiliated with Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement, against Berri.”

Asmar Calls for General Strike Wednesday over Subsidies Crisis
Naharnet/Wednesday 09 December 2020
The head of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers called for a general strike on Wednesday in protest against the government decision to lift or rationalize subsidies on essential goods, amid an economic crisis pushing the country’s foreign reserves to limits. Head of the Confederation, Bshara el-Asmar said there are plans to hold a series of protests against the government’s mismanagement and any move that leads to a complete halt of subsidies on wheat, flour and medicine. “Instead of seeking to retrieve the stolen public funds and ending persistent corruption, our government is resolutely heading to lift subsidies on bread, on fuel by 40% to 60% in preparation for lifting it completely,” said Asmar. Lashing at the political authorities' failure to agree on a government format, he said “despite the fact that forming a government seems the only way to get international assistance for Lebanon, political leaders and the PM-desigante (Saad Hariri) continue procrastinating.”

French Development Agency 'Halts' Lebanon Program Funding
Naharnet/Wednesday 09 December 2020
A French development agency that implemented programs since 1999 in Lebanon to fight poverty and promote sustainable development, has reportedly ceased all its activities in Lebanon amid the country’s “inability to pay its debt,” Nidaa al-Watan reported on Wednesday.
A French source said in remarks to the daily, that Agence Française De Développement, a public financial institution that implements the policy defined by the French Government, “can no longer provide loans to Lebanon which has defaulted on its debt.”“Agence Française De Développement is similar to international banks that cannot provide loans to a country that has not paid its debt,” added the source on condition of anonymity. Amid a crippling economic crisis, debt-ridden Lebanon has in March 2019 defaulted on a $1.2-billion Eurobond payments, its first default in history.
The crisis drags, and Lebanon today is grappled by an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, doubled with a massive port explosion and the COVID-19 pandemic, amid paralysis on the authorities' part. AFD has been a partner of Lebanon since 1999 and has signed over thirty financing agreements for a total amount of some EUR 1.1bn, it says on its website. Water and sanitation, support for the productive sector and urban development are the three traditional areas of AFD’s action. Starting in 2012, AFD diversified operations targeting more the social sectors and the management of the consequences of the Syrian refugee crisis.

Foreign Ministry: UAE authorities have not issued official decision to prevent granting of visas to Lebanese
NNA/Wednesday 09 December 2020
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants announced in a statement this Wednesday that "Lebanon's ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Fouad Dandan, informed the MoFA that the Emirati authorities had not issued an official decision to prevent the granting of tourist visas to the Lebanese or to holders of other nationalities, contrary to what is still circulating, and that he had met with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Khaled Abdullah Belhoul, who had explained to him that the UAE was currently going through a phase of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and was preparing for a gradual return to normal life. Therefore, preventive and precautionary measures were being taken in accordance with the assessment of the health situation of countries of the world, which might amend the entry policy into the country from time to time. These measures include all nationalities, and there is no decision that affects Lebanese citizens in particular."

GLC leader calls for wide national strike on December 16
NNA/Wednesday 09 December 2020
President of the General Labor Confederation (GLC), Bechara Al-Asmar, on Wednesday held a press conference in the wake of the GLC’s bureau meeting, during which he voiced the Confederation’s absolute refusal to lift subsidies under any pretext. Asmar also affirmed adherence to swiftly forming an effective government that’s capable of implementing reforms. He called on all the Lebanese workers and citizens in general to partake in a wide national strike across all the Lebanese territories, on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 as a prelude to the widest wave of strikes, sit-ins, and demonstrations, pending a final and decisive end to the prevailing and stifling policies against the Lebanese people.

UN raises $370 million for 2021 emergency fund
NNA/AFP/Wednesday 09 December 2020
The United Nations announced Tuesday it has raised more than $370 million for its emergency fund to help respond to crises in 2021.More than 50 donors pledged money to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), managed by the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Mark Lowcock, according to a statement. The donors were not identified.“This fund is one of the fastest ways to help people trapped both in sudden-onset and deteriorating crises, as well as underfunded ones that are not at the top of the world's radar," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during a videoconference of donors held at the body's headquarters. Created in 2005, the fund "has helped millions of people get food, health care, shelter and protection this year," Lowcock said. In 2020, CERF helped 65 million people in 52 countries and territories, for a total amount of more than $900 million. The money was used to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and other diseases, as well as for relief from conflicts or natural disasters, or to avoid famine, according to the statement. The donors' conference for the emergency fund comes a few days after the UN published its estimate of humanitarian needs for 160 million people in 2021, a total of $35 billion.—

Syria War Deaths Reach 387,000, 1,703 from Hizbullah
Agence France Presse/Wednesday 09 December 2020
The overall death toll for Syria's civil war has crept up to 387,000 following the least deadly of 10 years of conflict, a monitor said Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria, said the new figure included almost 117,000 civilians, among them more than 22,000 children. The Observatory's previous tally was issued in January and stood at more than 380,000. The fighting, which erupted in 2011 after the brutal repression of anti-government protests, has largely abated this year as a ceasefire held in northwestern Syria and attention turned to containing the coronavirus pandemic. The latest toll included more than 130,500 pro-government fighters, among them foreigners. More than half of those were Syrian soldiers, while 1,703 were from the Lebanese Shiite group Hizbullah whose members have been fighting in Syria since 2013.
The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 57,000 non-jihadist rebel fighters. It has also killed more than 67,500 jihadists, mainly from the Islamic State group and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group dominated by ex-members of Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate. More than 12,500 Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces fighters have been killed in battles against IS and Turkish forces. The Observatory's toll does not include some 88,000 people it says died of torture in government-run prisons, nor thousands who were abducted during the conflict and are still missing. After turning the tide of the war with Russian and Iranian support since 2015, the Syrian government now controls around two-thirds of the country. Among the regions still beyond its reach are the last rebel enclave of Idlib in the northwest, Turkish-held areas along the northern border, and northeastern parts of the country held by US-backed Kurdish forces. The war has forced more than half the country's pre-war population to flee their homes. Some 6.7 million Syrians remained displaced inside the country, while 5.5 million are registered as refugees abroad, according to the United Nations.

Arslan Says Hariri's 18-Seat Line-Up Aggrieves Druze Sect
Naharnet/Wednesday 09 December 2020
Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Wednesday slammed a cabinet line-up submitted by PM-designate Saad Hariri to President Michel Aoun as unfair for the Druze community. "The PM-designate's proposal for an 18-minister government is injustice, prejudice and unfairness against the Druze sect, one of the founders of the Lebanese entity, whose rights to participation in the state are also being marginalized," Arslan tweeted. "We warn those involved in this injustice of the consequences and I call on all the representatives of the Druze sect to reject this approach and not to be dragged behind personal interests at the expense of the sect's higher interest, which should come before any consideration," Arslan added."Or else the coming days will be more difficult and regret will be then of no use," the LDP leader warned. In an 18-seat government, the Druze sect is entitled to only one seat, which will likely go to someone close to the Progressive Socialist Party and not Arslan's LDP.

EU Council Approves Conclusions on Lebanon
Naharnet/Wednesday 09 December 2020
The Council of the EU has approved conclusions on Lebanon, in which it notes with increasing concern the grave financial, economic, social and political crisis that has taken root in the country and has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 4 August explosion at Beirut port.
The conclusions reiterate the EU’s "strong support to the people of Lebanon at this crucial juncture." The conclusions also call on all Lebanese stakeholders and political forces to support "the urgent formation of a mission-driven, credible and accountable government in Lebanon, able to implement the necessary reforms." They also set out the reforms needed to address Lebanon’s crisis and stress that the reform process needs to be inclusive and involve women, youth, civil society and the private sector in order to regain the trust of the Lebanese people.
The conclusions also stress that the EU will continue to provide support for "a people-centered recovery in Lebanon." "To that end, the EU has launched, together with the United Nations and the World Bank, a ‘Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework’ to ‘build back a better Lebanon’ guided by the principles of transparency, inclusion and accountability," the EU Delegation to Lebanon said. "However, in addition to a people-centred recovery, EU substantial assistance for the reconstruction of a democratic, transparent, inclusive and prosperous Lebanon will continue to be conditional on tangible progress on the necessary reforms," it added.Below is the full text of the approved conclusions:
"1. The EU notes with increasing concern that the grave financial, economic, social and political crisis that has taken root in Lebanon has continued to worsen over the last months. The Lebanese population is the first to suffer from the country’s increasing difficulties. The EU calls on Lebanon’s political leadership to listen to the people as they articulate their aspirations and concerns, to take their demands seriously and harness their inputs and implement reforms without further delay.
2. Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, the explosion on 4 August 2020 at Beirut port has exacerbated the multiple challenges Lebanon was already facing. The EU extends its deepest condolences to the families of the many victims and those injured in this tragic explosion. The EU urges Lebanese authorities to deliver on their commitment to an impartial, credible, transparent and independent investigation without further delay.
3. The EU welcomes the rapid and significant mobilisation of the international community in support of the Lebanese people in the wake of the 4 August explosion. The EU and its member states have rapidly provided the most substantial assistance in this regard. In addition, the EU has undertaken jointly with the World Bank and United Nations a Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA).
4. The EU stands together with the Lebanese people and will continue to deliver in support of a people-centred recovery. In this light, the EU welcomes the conference in support of the Lebanese people organised by the United Nations and France on 2 December, with a wide participation of civil society and enterprises and calls for utmost efficiency and transparency in the delivery of international assistance and the provision of humanitarian assistance in a principled manner. The EU expresses its support for the Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework to “build back a better Lebanon” guided by the principles of transparency, inclusion and accountability.
5. a. This support must pave the way for a broader sustainable recovery. Beyond a people-centred recovery, EU substantial assistance for the reconstruction of a democratic, transparent, inclusive and prosperous Lebanon will continue to depend on tangible progress on necessary reforms.
b. The EU therefore underlines the urgent need for the Lebanese authorities to implement reforms in order to rebuild the confidence of the international community and create the conditions that will attract support from investors. It further calls on the Lebanese authorities to implement their prior commitments, including those made in the context of the CEDRE conference (2018), and which enjoy the support of the International Support Group (ISG) for Lebanon and other members of the international community. The EU calls on the Lebanese authorities to urgently deliver reforms building on the agreements reached after the explosion of 4 August 2020 by all of Lebanon’s political leaders to bridge political differences in support for reforms.
c. This entails in particular meaningful and profound economic and governance reforms to restore economic stability, improve delivery of public services, address the rising levels of poverty, reduce inequalities, make public finances sustainable, restore the credibility of the financial sector, guarantee the independence of the judiciary, ensure the respect for human rights and the rule of law, fight corruption and meet the legitimate aspirations peacefully expressed by the Lebanese people. The EU is ready to support reforms but the reform process must be owned by Lebanon.
d. Effective talks with the International Monetary Fund must resume as soon as possible. Key policy priorities, such as the urgent adoption of a capital control law, a swift and thorough forensic audit of the Banque du Liban (BDL) and measures to ensure banking sector stability should be enacted urgently. Lebanon must take leadership in prioritizing key governance measures, including credible regulation of the electricity sector, the establishment of a commission to prevent corruption, an adequate public procurement system and other measures that ensure concrete changes are made and guarantee transparency and full accountability to the Lebanese people.
e. The reform process should be inclusive and involve women, youth, civil society and the private sector in order to regain the trust and the confidence of the people and should ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected.
f. The EU is providing significant support for the most vulnerable communities in Lebanon, including support for social safety nets, during this moment of crisis. It calls on Lebanon to ensure that these extraordinary efforts are sustainable and that human rights are protected, and that national systems are therefore reinforced to meet the basic needs of the population.
6. The EU continues to urge the current caretaker government to act swiftly and decisively within its constitutional limits. However, a programme fully supported by Parliament that includes precise, credible and time bound reform commitments addressing Lebanon’s difficulties can only be fully implemented by a functional government. The EU calls on all Lebanese stakeholders and political forces to support the urgent formation of a mission-driven, credible and accountable government in Lebanon, able to implement the necessary reforms. The EU also underlines the need to ensure women's and youth's meaningful and effective participation in all these processes.
The EU underlines that Lebanese civil society should be both strengthened and fully involved in all relevant decision-making. The EU also highlights the importance of the private sector in Lebanon’s reconstruction.
7. The EU commends the continued and tremendous efforts made by Lebanon and the Lebanese people to host over 1 million Syrian refugees until such a time when conditions for their safe, voluntary and dignified return in line with the applicable norms of international law and the principle of non-refoulement will be met, as per previous Council conclusions and as stated by the High Representative on behalf of the EU on 10 November 2020. The EU is fully delivering, including through the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis, on its commitments made at Brussels Conferences on ‘Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region’, including the fourth edition, which took place on 30 June 2020. The EU also commends Lebanon for its support to Palestinian refugees, including those who fled Syria.
8. The EU welcomes the launch of discussions between Lebanon and Israel on the delineation of their maritime boundary that are facilitated by the US and hosted by UNSCOL in UNIFIL premises, and encourages the parties to clear obstacles and make swift progress in this regard bearing in mind the positive repercussions a successful outcome will have for both parties and for peace and stability in the region.
9. The EU reaffirms its commitment to the unity, sovereignty, stability, independence and territorial integrity of Lebanon. It reiterates the importance of Lebanon’s commitment to a policy of disassociation from all regional conflicts, in line with the Baabda Declaration.
10. The EU also stresses the importance of Lebanon's continued commitment to the full implementation of its international obligations, including United Nations Security Council resolutions 1559, 1680, 1701 and 1757. The EU commends the role of the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL in maintaining peace and stability in South Lebanon. The EU underlines the importance of strengthening the operational capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces, and other state security and justice institutions, as the sole providers of stability, order and security in the country while abiding by international and human rights law. The EU continues to support the work of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Ján Kubiš.

Does The US Need A Lebanon Policy?
Tony Badran/Hoover Institution/December 09/2020
طوني بدران/مؤسسة هوفر: هل أميركا بحاجة لسياسة لبنانية؟
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/93491/tony-badran-hoover-institution-does-the-us-need-a-lebanon-policy-%d8%b7%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a8%d8%af%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%a4%d8%b3%d8%b3%d8%a9-%d9%87%d9%88%d9%81%d8%b1-%d9%87%d9%84-%d8%a3/
The season of offering advice to the next administration is upon us once more. When it comes to American policy toward Lebanon, the purveyors of advice are faced with two key questions.
The first question is: Does the US even need a Lebanon policy? At first glance, the question appears flippant, especially when considering the amount of attention the US routinely lavishes on it. In the last four years, a remarkable number of senior officials have visited Lebanon, including the Secretary of State, who visited in 2019 (his predecessor visited the year before), and the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, who visited twice in less than nine months. Surely, such a routine destination for senior officials must be an obvious sign of strategic importance.
But one is hard-pressed to find a compelling national interest that would warrant it.
Lebanon is not a US ally. It is, rather, an Iranian satrapy under the control of Hezbollah, the local arm of the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Hezbollah uses the country as a base for worldwide military and terrorist operations, for training other Iranian-led militias, not to mention as a center for money laundering and illicit finance. Contrary to the traditional conception, Hezbollah is not exploiting a safe haven or ungoverned spaces. Instead, it has established itself as the dominant political actor in the country. Hezbollah is the state.
Recognizing Iran’s position in Lebanon, the Trump administration resolved to treat the country as an arena of competition with Iran. While the impulse was laudable, the concept is flawed. The idea of competing with Iran disregards Beirut’s reality and treats it as a “winnable” prize — provided America makes the right investment in the Lebanese political order. As a result, “competition with Iran” drags us into increased investment, financial and political, in “state institutions,” which Americans then convince themselves will, sometime in the indeterminate future, counterbalance Hezbollah.
This approach misses the most elementary fact of Lebanese politics. What we refer to as “state institutions” are merely the extension of sectarian power dynamics between the leaders of the country’s main sects. Hezbollah, by far the strongest player demographically, financially, and, most importantly, militarily, guarantees its preferences in those dynamics by the power of the gun. Everyone else plays along.
Hezbollah determines the boundaries of licit political activity. If the oligarchs in the sectarian system tacitly recognize those boundaries and Hezbollah’s role in policing them, the organization permits them to have a share of the spoils. As stakeholders in the system in tacit partnership with Hezbollah, none of these players, and therefore none of the “institutions,” have any inclination, never mind the means, to challenge Hezbollah’s dominance.
Thanks to Washington’s failure to understand the true nature of the Lebanese game, American policy becomes fixated on mirages. Inconsequential political appointments, the rise and fall of political and military careers, the outcome of meaningless elections, all these and more become elevated in the American mind to the level of a grand strategic battle.
Consider, for example, the Trump administration’s designation of former minister Gebran Bassil. Because Bassil is a Hezbollah-aligned Maronite Christian, many observers have claimed that the designation “isolates” and “contains” Hezbollah by “stripping it of its Christian cover.” Of course, it does no such thing. These terms are meaningless to begin with. Every political player in Lebanon, whether Christian, including a number of Maronite politicians, or Muslim, including the prime minister Saad Hariri, remains eager to secure Hezbollah’s approval and support to advance their political position and to maintain their piece of the pie in the sectarian system.
The policy of “competing” with Iran in Lebanon turns the United States into a player in the local political game that is rigged against it. Instead, the United States should treat Lebanon as a theater in which to target Iranian interests. Punitive measures should be designed to do just that: to punish Hezbollah and its allies. They should not be regarded as one part of some larger effort at political engineering in Lebanon.
Failure to distinguish between competing with Iran and targeting Iran has led American policy into severe contradictions. For example, as part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign, Washington imposed a large number of sanctions against Hezbollah’s networks of financiers and facilitators. But even as it did so, it simultaneously sought to separate Lebanon from the pressure campaign, continuing to invest in its so-called “state institutions” and security sector.
Having adopted the fiction of a Lebanese “state” with its institutions, the administration then accepted the fictive corollary, that the “state” and Hezbollah were in conflict. The effect of this false distinction was to remove from the array of targets a key arena of operation for Hezbollah, including the Lebanese banking sector or other parts of the economy, and the Lebanese official apparatus. In fact, the administration even increased investment in the so-called Lebanese “state,” which only relieved Hezbollah.
The paradox was plain to see in some of the sanctions the US levied. Take for example the recent designation of two former ministers, both of whom are Hezbollah allies. The ministries in question, Finance and Public Works, directly funded Hezbollah. But the designation of the ministers obfuscated the structural problem: it is the Lebanese “state” itself which is funding Hezbollah. After all, it’s not just that Hezbollah and its allies will continue to control the Finance Ministry regardless of who is minister. It’s also that Hezbollah is in the government and in parliament. By definition, it has access to “state” funds.
Which leads us to the vexed question of urging US allies to designate Hezbollah as a whole. Some countries follow the example of the European Union: they draw a distinction between so-called political and military wings of Hezbollah and then designate the latter. The United States decries this practice, rightly dismissing the distinction as intellectually indefensible. And yet the Americans develop their own version of the distinction through the false dichotomy between the Lebanese “state” and Hezbollah. The dichotomy allows American officials to accept Hezbollah’s “political” role in Lebanon and even to engage with Lebanese political actors known to represent Hezbollah, at the same time as they hector Europeans and other allies to eschew all contact with the organization.
The major holdout in Europe against designating Hezbollah in toto is France. Yet the idea of “competing” with Iran in Lebanon has led the Trump administration to support French policy in Lebanon, which is entirely and openly predicated on partnership with Hezbollah. The financial crisis and the August explosion at Beirut port only amplified the emotional driver behind Lebanon policy, namely, the impulse to “save Lebanon” by supporting “independent” Lebanese institutions.
This impulse led the State Department to make a series of decisions that only bolstered the pro-Hezbollah French position. At the end of August, the US agreed to renew the mandate of UNIFIL, in which France is a major troop contributor. Then, a couple of weeks before the general elections, the State Department launched maritime border demarcation talks between Israel and Lebanon, after indirect negotiations with Hezbollah through the Lebanese “state,” represented by Hezbollah’s closest partner, the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri. The talks open the door for French energy giant Total to begin operations in the waters off south Lebanon. In fact, the State Department expressed its hope the talks would enable Lebanon — that is, Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon — “to benefit economically from the resources.”
It is no more the job of the US to rescue the Lebanese economy than it is to rescue to the Iranian economy. Not only does the policy undermine the administration’s maximum pressure campaign, it directly contradicts the policy of President Trump to avoid failed state building enterprises in the Middle East.
In contrast to Trump, the approach of the Obama administration, many of whose personnel are returning to power, never really believed in developing a Lebanon policy. Team Obama had only an Iran policy. The problem, of course, was that their Iran policy was catastrophic. Instead of maximum pressure, former president Obama realigned the US with Iran across the board. All other regional matters were subordinated to this vision.
Accordingly, Team Obama saw Lebanon as an Iranian equity, a legitimate sphere of influence, and consequently integrated it into its broader policy of realignment. Hence, Team Obama used the stock terms of “strengthening state institutions” and “preserving Lebanon’s stability,” and, most importantly, the opening created by counterterrorism policy, to reinforce the position of its Iranian partner and to prop up the Hezbollah-dominated status quo in Beirut.
If the Obama alumni, now in the Biden-Harris administration, revert back to this approach, we could see Lebanon once again serve as an arena where the rapprochement with Iran manifests itself. For instance, the French position, which is partnered with Hezbollah in Lebanon and is very much in favor of reviving the Iran deal, could serve as cover for the Biden administration to present a pro-Iranian posture in Lebanon as part of “rebuilding strained transatlantic alliances.” The irony is that it will have been the Trump State Department that set the table for the Biden administration by propping up the French position and launching the maritime border demarcation process, which adopted a posture of equidistance between Lebanon and Israel.
We could also see a shift in focus in Lebanon through return to the emphasis on Sunni Islamism. France could also feature in such a maneuver, namely through its anti-Turkey campaign. The French, possibly with support from the Biden administration, are likely to press Gulf Arab states to reinvest in Lebanon under the pretext of countering hyped up fantasies about growing Turkish inroads in the country. For the Biden administration, this could be sold as lowering regional tensions. By removing it from President Trump’s supposedly misguided maximum pressure campaign, the Biden administration would claim it is safeguarding the neutrality of Lebanon and avoiding its destabilization. The result would be to reaffirm Obama’s recognition of Iran’s regional equities.
We began by asking whether the United States even needs a Lebanon policy. We will end with another question: What comes after the Trump administration? We can’t answer it yet. But we do have the precedent of eight years of Obama’s strategy of realignment. We do know that Team Obama will be well represented in the Biden-Harris administration. If the Biden-Harris administration revives Obama’s legacy of accommodation and partnership with Iran, it will turn its back on the only meaningful policy for the US, which is to treat Lebanon as a theater for targeting Iranian interests.
*Tony Badran is a Research Fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @AcrossTheBay. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 09- 10/2020

The Pope's visit will be a blessing for all Iraqis
The National/December 09/2020
On Monday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis aims to make the first ever papal visit to Iraq in March next year. The four-day itinerary includes the capital Baghdad and the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Erbil.
Perhaps most symbolically, Pope Francis also plans to visit Mosul and Qaraqosh. Both cities have historic Christian congregations, which were devastated by ISIS’s takeover of the areas in 2014. The trip will also include the ancient city of Ur, purportedly the birthplace of the prophet Abraham, who is revered by all Abrahamic faiths.Other popes have tried to visit Iraq, including former pope John Paul II in 2000. But so far circumstances, or the Vatican itself, have deemed all such attempts too difficult to see through. It is unsurprising that Pope Francis, with his desire to go out into the world to build tolerance, has revived the idea. In February 2019, he made history with his visit to the UAE, the first visit by a pope to the Arabian Peninsula. In co-signing the “document on human fraternity for world peace and living together” with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al Tayyeb, Pope Francis signaled his commitment to bringing people together. But he has also repeatedly highlighted Iraq's political situation as an issue of personal concern to him. In 2014, some were surprised by the force of his comments on the situation unfolding in the country, saying that it was “licit to stop unjust aggressors”. While he made clear he did not support “making war”, his answer to a question posed by a journalist showed he supported just use of force to protect the country and its citizens. In 2019, he told a group of leaders from Catholic aid agencies “I think constantly of Iraq – where I want to go next year – in the hope that it can face the future through the peaceful and shared pursuit of the common good on the part of all elements of society, including the religious, and not fall back into hostilities sparked by the simmering conflicts of the regional powers.” Earlier this year he also met President Barham Salih in the Vatican to discuss promoting stability and reconstruction in Iraq. Pope Francis has also empowered Iraqi voices in the Vatican. In 2018 he appointed Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, the president of Iraq’s Catholic bishops, to the senior Vatican position of cardinal. Cardinal Sako has described his appointment as being for the “whole of Iraq”. This will also be true of the Pope’s upcoming visit in March. The well-being of Iraq’s Christian community is directly tied to that of all Iraq’s population. Cardinal Sako recognised this last year when he announced that his community would not hold public Christmas celebrations, in solidarity with Iraqis killed and wounded in anti-government protests at the time. Iraq, like all nations, is suffering under the Covid-19 pandemic. But before this global catastrophe, all Iraqis were trying to recover from ISIS’s reign of terror, years of war, sanctions and internal strife. Therefore, the visit will not just be for the sake of the country’s Christians but for all Iraqis, bringing them together around Pope Francis, an internationally recognised symbol of peace and tolerance. In 2015 the Pope made a statement, which for many has come to define his papacy, saying the Catholic Church must “leave her four walls” and go out to those on the “peripheries”. He was also the first pope in history to choose the papal name Francis, after St Francis of Assisi, who in the Christian tradition is particularly associated with helping the poor and dispossessed. Despite the fact many will view this unprecedented trip as risky, given the current state of the pandemic and security situation in Iraq, it fits the mission of today’s papacy.

Supreme Court Refuses to Overturn Trump's Pennsylvania Loss
Agence France Presse/December 09/2020
The US Supreme Court dealt the latest blow Tuesday to Donald Trump's effort to overturn his election loss when it denied his allies' attempt to block the certification of votes in key state Pennsylvania. The nation's highest court, which includes three Trump-appointed justices out of nine, did not explain its decision, and none of the members expressed dissent. More than a month since the November 3 election, Trump still refuses to concede to Democrat Joe Biden -- who has a seven million-vote lead -- and continues to make baseless claims of fraud. Trump and his allies have filed dozens of lawsuits in several key states, almost all of which have been thrown out by the courts. One of them, brought by Republican congressman Mike Kelly, challenged the legality of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state. Biden carried Pennsylvania in November's vote, four years after Trump won the state. After the case was rejected by the state supreme court, the plaintiffs turned to the national Supreme Court, asking it to freeze all electoral operations while they developed their arguments. In dismissing the case, the Court put an end to the procedure and signaled that it was not inclined to get involved in post-election litigation. Trump had hoped that the high court, whose bench he has tipped solidly to the right, would intervene in his favor. In 2000, the Supreme Court halted a recount in Florida, where George W. Bush was only 537 votes ahead of Democrat Al Gore, allowing the Republican to win the election. The Republican-led state of Texas filed another appeal Tuesday to the Supreme Court, requesting the invalidation of results in four key states, but experts were not optimistic regarding its chance of success.

Hassan Rouhani: Iran ready for snap return to nuclear deal compliance
AFP/December 09, 2020
US President-elect Joe Biden has expressed readiness to return to the agreement
‘Just as soon as the 5+1 or 4+1 resume all of their commitments, we will resume all of ours’
TEHRAN: Iran is ready to return to full compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal with major powers as soon as the other parties honor their commitments, President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday. The agreement between Iran and major powers has teetered on the brink of collapse since outgoing US President Donald Trump pulled out of it in 2018 and reimposed crippling unilateral sanctions. US President-elect Joe Biden has expressed readiness to return to the agreement but over the past 18 months Iran has suspended the implementation of some of its own obligations, including key limits to its uranium enrichment program.“Just as soon as the 5+1 or 4+1 resume all of their commitments, we will resume all of ours,” Rouhani said. He was referring to the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany with whom Iran reached the nuclear deal.
“I’ve said it before — it doesn’t take time, it’s just a question of willing,” he said in comments to his cabinet aired by state television. Defying criticism from Iran’s ultra-conservatives, Rouhani reiterated his determination to seize the “opportunity” presented by the change of US president in January.
Parliament, which has been controlled by conservatives since a February election marred by record low turnout, passed a bill last week that threatens the prospects for a thaw in relations with Washington. The bill, which still has to be signed into law by Rouhani, would relaunch Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity and threaten other future measures that would likely sound the death knell of the nuclear deal. In a blow to the president, the Guardian Council, which arbitrates disputes between parliament and the government, approved the bill last week.
But in his comments on Wednesday, Rouhani appeared to suggest that he would withhold his signature from the bill. “It is vital that we speak with a single voice,” the president told ministers. “People voted for a platform... and they want four years of action,” said Rouhani, who won re-election in 2017 with more than 57 percent of the vote.

Turkey brushes off any EU sanctions over east Med crisis
Reuters/December 09, 2020 10:22
ANKARA: Any European Union decision to sanction Turkey over its standoff with Greece is not a big concern, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, a day before EU leaders meet for a summit. Turkey, an EU candidate whose accession has been frozen over issues including its human rights record, is at odds with Greece over maritime and energy rights in the eastern Mediterranean. “Turkey does not care much about any sanctions decision to be made by the EU,” Erdogan said in a televised press conference at an Ankara airport before leaving for Azerbaijan. “The EU has never treated us honestly. The EU has never stood by any promise it has given us but we always remained patient and we are still patient,” he said. Ankara has angered Greece and the rest of the EU by sending a survey ship and navy vessels to the disputed waters in defiance of calls to stop. It ordered the Oruc Reis ship back to port last month. Athens is now pressing for punitive sanctions against Turkey at the EU summit beginning on Thursday. France supports Greece’s call for sanctions but not all countries are convinced, with some fearing an influx of refugees from Turkish territory. Erdogan said “sincere and honest” leaders in the EU were not warm to the idea of sanctions, without naming them.
 

Russian envoy: Israel-Arab issues - not Iran - main problem in Middle East
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2020
The ambassador claimed there's no proof Hezbollah created tunnels to attack Israel.
Israel destabilizes the Middle East more than Iran, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
“The problem in the region is not Iranian activities,” Viktorov said at the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv. “It’s a lack of understanding between countries and noncompliance with UN resolutions in the Israel-Arab and Israel-Palestinian conflict.”
Asked if the relatively limited scope of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians destabilizes the region more than Iran does through proxies around the Middle East, like the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Viktorov balked at the notion of Iranian funding the Shi’ite terrorist group.
“Israel is attacking Hezbollah; Hezbollah is not attacking Israel,” he added, referring to Israel bombing Iranian and Hezbollah and weapons convoys in Syria.
Viktorov said he has seen the tunnels from Lebanon into Israel, which Hezbollah operatives have used to attempt to attack Israel, and argued there is “no proof Hezbollah created the tunnels.”The ambassador said Israel must “not attack the territories of sovereign UN members.”
Asked whether this is a change in the position, by which Israel gives Russia advanced notice before it attacks Iranian positions near the Syria-Israel border, Viktorov said no, because “coordination is about the safety of the Russian military in Syria.”
However, he added, “there is no way that we are approving any Israeli strikes on Syria, never in the past and never in the future.”
With regard to recent International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran has developed more centrifuges to a further extent than permitted by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is known, Viktorov said he does not agree that Iran has violated the agreement.
“The first step was made by... our American colleagues who unfortunately decided to quit the JCPOA [in 2018],” he said. “They quit the plan and that allowed the Iranian side to undertake some steps which are not in full compliance with the plan, which is unfortunate as well.”
Though Viktorov would only call Joe Biden “the possibly elected president” of the US, pointing out that he was only “appointed by the press” and not officially declared the victor, he said Russia “took note of some statements” that Biden seeks to rejoin the JCPOA.
If the US returns to the deal, “it will make many things simpler,” he said. “It will be helpful to reduce concerns and allow the Iranians to develop a peaceful atomic energy program and allow [the IAEA] to look at what is going on in the military sphere.”
“Maybe some provisions could be modified,” he said, in reference to Biden’s statements that he will strengthen the JCPOA, “but it’s a matter of negotiation with the interested parties, the Iranian authorities.”
As for whether Russia would sell arms to Iran after the UN arms embargo was lifted earlier this year, he said: “Iran is a sovereign state, why not? I am not familiar with specific plans; it’s a matter of negotiations.”
Viktorov said Russia is supportive of the Abraham Accords, in which Israel established diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, and said “any move towards interaction is a positive development, in of itself.”
Still, he said, “Israel should sit down and talk about how to take everybody’s legitimate concerns into account and not create alliances and blocs against somebody else,” an apparent reference to partnerships with Gulf states against Iran.
“We strongly believe that the Palestinian question should not be put aside. The normalization should not replace a Palestinian-Israeli settlement because this problem will remain and will continue to endanger not only the countries and peoples of the region but also many others around the globe,” he stated, while calling for a two-state solution.
Viktorov warned that the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “allowing terrorists to recruit more supporters into their ranks.”Russia’s offer for Israel and the Palestinians to hold direct negotiations in Moscow still stands, as well as a suggestion to hold an international conference on the matter, he added. Viktorov also spoke of his country’s efforts to combat COVID-19, saying that massive vaccination began this week in the Moscow region and will be distributed to all regions of the Russian Federation.
“We are sure our vaccine is not the worst in the world,” he said of doubts about the Russian inoculation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the matter in a phone call on November 16, and since then, Israeli and Russian authorities have been in contact coordinating the delivery of 1.5 million doses to Israel, he said. “We feel the intention of our Israeli colleagues to diversify the use of vaccines in Israel is a good approach,” Viktorov said.

Russian Ambassador: Israel, not Iran is the problem in the Middle East
Arutz Sheva/December 09/2020
Russian ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov says Israel is the aggressor in dealing with Hezbollah, Iran has abided by nuclear deal. Russian ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov criticized the State of Israel, calling the Jewish State one of the central problems in the Middle East. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Viktorov said that "the problem in the Middle East is not Iranian activities" but Israel's "noncompliance" with international resolutions on the Arab-Israeli conflict. In his opinion, Iran did not violate the 2015 nuclear agreement at all, but the United States has walked away from it. Viktorov also expressed his displeasure the results of the Abraham Accords and their impact on Israeli-Palestinian Authority relations. "We believe that the Palestinian issue and the settlement issue must be resolved. They cannot be replaced by the Abraham Accords. The problems still exist and endanger not only the residents of the area but many people around the world," he said. The Russian ambassador also accused Israel of aggression on its northern border. "The Israelis are attacking Hezbollah. Hezbollah is not attacking Israel," Viktorov claimed, referring to the bombing of convoys of terrorist organizations that included weapons that were being smuggled to be used against the Jewish State. He also claimed that there is no evidence at all that Hezbollah built the terrorist tunnels which were dug under the Israel-Lebanon border.

Date for new elections In Israel: March 16th, 2021
Arutz Sheva/December 09/2020
Push to dissolve Knesset gains momentum, with Knesset committee green-lighting the bill, clearing way for first of three votes. A bill calling for the dissolution of the 23rd Knesset cleared another hurdle Wednesday, gaining approval from the Knesset House Committee. The committee voted to back the bill, tentatively setting the date for Election Day as Tuesday, March 16th 2021, roughly a week and a half before the start of the Passover festival. If elections are held next March, they will be Israel’s fourth general election in under two years, coming just over a year since the previous election, held on March 2nd of this year.Following the committee’s decision Wednesday, the bill dissolving the Knesset will now be put up for the first of three votes required to pass it into law. Lawmakers from the Likud, Shas, and United Torah Judaism voted against the bill in the committee, while representatives of Yamina, Yesh Atid-Telem, Yisrael Beytenu, Blue and White, and the Joint Arab List voted in favor. The bill cuts state funding for election campaigns by 10% - but at the same time, increases the base allotment per party from 1.3 million shekels ($400,000) to 2.6 million shekels ($800,000). Last Wednesday, the Knesset plenum voted 61 to 54 to back the bill in its preliminary vote, sending it to the Knesset House Committee for approval, followed by three votes in the Knesset plenum to finalize the dissolution of the 23rd Knesset.

Druze protesters clash with police over turbine construction, 8 arrested
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2020
Clashes broke out between the demonstrators and the police, with protesters throwing rocks at officers, and police retaliating with riot dispersal gear; four officers and 10 protesters were injured. Around 300 Druze residents in the Golan Heights, near the Israeli-Syrian border, protested on Wednesday against the construction of wind turbines on agricultural land by the Energix Group. According to Israel Police, Energix legally bought the right to use the land from the owners, and the first two days of construction went off without incident. However, following reports of a planned protest, police increased the amount of officers guarding the site, fearing violence. During the demonstrations, clashes broke out between the demonstrators and the police, with protesters throwing rocks towardofficers, and police retaliating with riot dispersal equipment. In total, four policemen and 10 protesters were injured, according to Israel Police. Eight protesters were arrested during the clashes. The construction continued uninterrupted.

Turkey’s Erdogan to discuss US tensions when Biden takes office
Reuters/Ankara Wednesday 09 December 2020
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would discuss strained US relations with President-elect Joe Biden when he takes office, playing down the possibility of sanctions over Turkey’s purchase of Russian missile defense systems. Bilateral ties have been hit by Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems, differences in policy on Syria and the detention of US consulate employees and citizens in Turkey. “We don’t find the statements they (the US administration) make and the actions they take regarding our arms procurements to be nice. We especially don’t find their approach in northern Syria to be right,” Erdogan said. Speaking to reporters before traveling to Azerbaijan, he said that it was too early to comment on the incoming US administration under Biden, who has criticized Erdogan’s policies. “Let Mr Biden take office. Once he assumes office, we will surely sit down and discuss certain things with Mr Biden. Just like we sat and talked in the US or Turkey in the past, we will discuss these again,” he said. Ankara’s purchase last year of the S-400s from Moscow raised the prospect of US sanctions early next year if Congress approves a defense spending bill including language requiring the president to sanction Turkey. The House of Representatives passed the bill on Tuesday. “In diplomacy, a path is found to these issues by talking and meeting. (...) I believe we will manage this period very differently with the US,” Erdogan said, playing down the prospect of sanctions.
 

Total dead in Syria War reaches 387,000 in slowest annual increase: Monitor
AFP, Beirut Wednesday 09 December 2020
The overall death toll for Syria's civil war has crept up to 387,000 following the least deadly of 10 years of conflict, a monitor said Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria, said the new figure included almost 117,000 civilians, among them more than 22,000 children. The Observatory's previous tally was issued in January and stood at more than 380,000. The fighting, which erupted in 2011 after the brutal repression of anti-government protests, has largely abated this year as a ceasefire held in northwestern Syria and attention turned to containing the coronavirus pandemic. The latest toll included more than 130,500 pro-government fighters, among them foreigners. More than half of those were Syrian soldiers, while 1,703 were from the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah whose members have been fighting in Syria since 2013. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 57,000 non-jihadist rebel fighters. It has also killed more than 67,500 jihadists, mainly from the Islamic State group and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group dominated by ex-members of Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate. More than 12,500 Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces fighters have been killed in battles against IS and Turkish forces. The Observatory's toll does not include some 88,000 people it says died of torture in government-run prisons, nor thousands who were abducted during the conflict and are still missing. After turning the tide of the war with Russian and Iranian support since 2015, the Syrian government now controls around two-thirds of the country. Among the regions still beyond its reach are the last rebel enclave of Idlib in the northwest, Turkish-held areas along the northern border, and northeastern parts of the country held by US-backed Kurdish forces.
The war has forced more than half the country's pre-war population to flee their homes. Some 6.7 million Syrians remained displaced inside the country, while 5.5 million are registered as refugees abroad, according to the United Nations.

Two bombs spark fire at Khabbaz oil field in Iraq's Kirkuk: Security sources
Reuters Wednesday 09 December 2020
Two wells in a small oilfield in northern Iraq were set ablaze by explosives in a “terrorist attack” on Wednesday but overall production from the field was not affected, the Oil Ministry and officials said Wednesday. The Oil Ministry gave no further details about the assailants behind the explosive devices that targeted the wells in Khabbaz oilfield, 20 kilometer (12 miles) southwest of Kirkuk. Technical teams isolated the two burning oil wells and there was no impact on output, two sources from the state-run North Oil Company (NOC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. The field produces about 25,000 barrels per day, oil officials said. The ministry said production from the two wells that were targeted did not exceed 2,000 bpd.The ministry statement said a fire erupted at the two oil wells after explosive devices were set off half an hour apart, with one going off at 1:30 a.m. (1030 GMT) and the second at 2:00 a.m (1100 GMT).

Text of Department of the Treasury press release: Treasury sanctions Iran’s envoy in Yemen and university facilitating recruitment for Qods Force
U.S. blacklists Iranian envoy, possibly to pressure Yemen's Houthis
Arshad Mohammed/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/December 08/2020
- The United States imposed terrorism sanctions on Iran’s envoy to the Houthis on Tuesday, a step possibly aimed at pressuring the group to reach an accord to end the five-year war in Yemen.
The U.S. Treasury described Hasan Irlu as an official of Iran’s elite Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a pillar of Iranian efforts to project its power in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere.
Confirming a Reuters report, the Treasury also blacklisted Iran’s Al-Mustafa International University, alleging it uses its foreign branches as a Quds Force recruitment platform for intelligence collection and operations.
It also imposed sanctions on Yousef Ali Muraj, an Iran-based Pakistani the Treasury accused of supporting Quds Force efforts to carry out operations in the Middle East and the United States.
Irlu, Muraj and the university were all targeted under U.S. Executive Order 13224, which allows Washington to block the assets of foreign individuals and entities that commit, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.
The Quds Force is itself a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
The decision to target Irlu appears in part a signal to the Iran-backed Houthis, who have been battling a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen since 2015.
The United Nations is trying to revive peace talks stalled since late 2018 to end a war that has been in a military deadlock for years, with the Houthis holding the capital, Sanaa, and most big urban centers.
Washington and Saudi Arabia see the Yemeni group as an extension of Iranian influence in the region. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last month that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, in an effort to support the Saudis, had threatened to blacklist the Houthi movement.
Kirsten Fontenrose, a former White House National Security Council Gulf expert now at the Atlantic Council think tank, described the sanction as partly a warning to the Houthis that they may be next.
“Come to the table, have these political talks in seriousness, and recognize that this designation is on your doorstep,” she said of the U.S. message to the Houthis. “We are taking another step closer.”
Jon Alterman of Washington’s CSIS think tank said that might be the intent but was skeptical it would work.
“They may have a theory that this is going to change the strategic calculations of the Houthis, but if the Houthis are strategic, and I think they are, they are not much affected by what the administration does on its way out the door,” he said.
As a result of Tuesday’s action, all property of those designated, as well as of any entities 50% or more owned by them, that fall under U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.
In addition, foreign banks that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for them, or people who provide material support to them, risk losing access to the U.S. financial system or having their own property blocked.
*Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Heinrich, Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown

Treasury Sanctions Iran’s Envoy in Yemen and University Facilitating Recruitment for Qods Force
USAA Treasuary Dept/December 8, 2020
Hasan Irlu has supported IRGC-QF efforts to equip and train the Houthis;
Al-Mustafa International University is a recruiting ground for the IRGC-QF
Washington – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating Hasan Irlu, an official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and the Iranian regime’s envoy to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, for acting for or on behalf of the IRGC-QF. Iranian support to the Houthis, spearheaded by the IRGC-QF, continues to foment instability in Yemen, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. OFAC is also taking action against Iran’s Al-Mustafa International University for facilitating IRGC-QF recruitment efforts and one individual, Yusuf Ali Muraj, who supported the terrorist group’s operations. Al-Mustafa International University, which has branches around the world, is used as a recruitment platform by the IRGC-QF for intelligence collection and operations, including recruitment for the IRGC-QF-led foreign militias fighting on behalf of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria. “The appointment of an IRGC-QF official as an envoy to the Houthi rebels in Yemen demonstrates the Iranian regime’s indifference to resolving the conflict, which has led to the widespread suffering of millions of Yemenis,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “Additionally, the IRGC-QF’s recruitment of foreign students for intelligence operations illustrates the degree to which the group has infiltrated Iranian society in order to achieve its destructive goals. These efforts, and the pervasive role the IRGC-QF plays in Iranian foreign policy, contribute to the erosion of trust in Iran’s public and private institutions.”Today’s actions are being taken pursuant to the counterterrorism authority Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended. The IRGC-QF was designated pursuant to E.O. 13224 in 2007 for support to numerous terrorist groups. The IRGC, including its external arm, the IRGC-QF, was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on April 8, 2019.
Hasan Irlu
The Iranian regime recently sent Irlu to Sana’a as the Iranian regime’s envoy to the Houthi rebels. In so doing, Iran is the only nation to officially recognize, and appoint formal so-called representation to, the Houthis. For years, Irlu supported IRGC-QF efforts to provide advanced weapons and training to the Houthis. He coordinated with other senior IRGC-QF leaders to support the group’s operations throughout the Arabian Peninsula and Yemen. Irlu maintained a relationship with former IRGC-QF Commander Qasem Soleimani. He has also provided training to Hizballah members in Iran.
Irlu is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the IRGC-QF.
Today’s action follows the October 22, 2020 designation of Iraj Masjedi, currently a longtime senior IRGC-QF officer who also serves as Iran’s ambassador to Iraq and who for years oversaw the IRGC-QF’s Iraq policy.
Al-Mustafa International University and Yousef Ali Muraj
Iran-based Al-Mustafa International University, which claims branches in over 50 countries, enables IRGC-QF intelligence operations by allowing its student body, which includes large numbers of foreign and American students, to serve as an international recruitment network.
The IRGC-QF uses Al-Mustafa University to develop student exchanges with foreign universities for the purposes of indoctrinating and recruiting foreign sources. Al-Mustafa has facilitated unwitting tourists from western countries to come to Iran, from whom IRGC-QF members sought to collect intelligence.
Recruits from Al-Mustafa International University have been sent to Syria to fight on behalf of IRGC-QF-led militias. The IRGC-QF established the Fatemiyoun Division, an Iranian-led Shia militia composed of primarily ethnic Afghan residents in Iran, as well as the Zaynabiyoun Brigade, a militia group composed of Pakistani Shia, as expeditionary forces to fight in Syria. The IRGC-QF has used Al-Mustafa as cover for its recruitment of Afghans. The IRGC-QF has used Al-Mustafa’s campus in Qom, Iran as a recruitment ground for Pakistani students to join the Zaynabiyoun Brigades. Multiple students from the university have been killed fighting in Syria. The Fatemiyoun Division and Zaynabiyoun Brigade are both designated under counterterrorism and human rights authorities.
Al-Mustafa International University is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, the IRGC-QF.
OFAC is also designating Iran-based Pakistani national Yousef Ali Muraj, who has been involved in the IRGC-QF’s efforts to coordinate, plan and execute operations in the Middle East and United States. Yousef Ali Muraj is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having acted, or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the IRGC-QF.
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
All property and interests in property of these persons designated today subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by such persons are also blocked. In addition, foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for, or persons that provide material or certain other support to, the persons designated today risk exposure to sanctions that could sever their access to the U.S. financial system or block their property and interests in property under U.S. jurisdiction.

Macron Seeks Backing for Law against 'Radical Islamism'
Agence France Presse/December 09/2020
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday seeks his cabinet's blessing for draft legislation combatting "radical Islamism" after a spate of attacks, which critics fear risks targeting all Muslims. Macron argues the legislation is needed to shore up France's staunchly secular system but the plan has further stirred up social tensions over the consequences for Europe's largest Muslim community. "The enemy of the Republic is a political ideology called radical Islamism, which aims to divide the French among themselves," Prime Minister Jean Castex told Wednesday's edition of Le Monde. He argued that rather than targeting Muslims it aimed to "free Muslims from the growing grip of radical Islamism". The legislation will be discussed at a cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace with Castex announcing the outcome in the early afternoon. But the government's staunch defence of the foundations of the French state that date back to the French Revolution has caused unease even among allies, with the US envoy on international religious freedom saying he was concerned by the legislation. "There can be constructive engagements that I think can be helpful and not harmful," Ambassador Sam Brownback told reporters. "When you get heavy-handed, the situation can get worse," he said.
'Strengthen republican values' -
The text was originally titled the "anti-separatism" bill, using a term Macron uses to describe ultra-conservative Muslims withdrawing from mainstream society.  Following criticism of that term, it is now called a "draft law to strengthen republican values", mostly secularism and freedom of expression. The law was in the pipeline before the murder in October of Samuel Paty, a junior high school teacher who was attacked in the street and beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a class. But the killing, committed by an 18-year old Chechen after a virulent social media campaign against the teacher, gave fresh impetus to the bill, prompted the inclusion of the specific crimes of online hate speech and divulging personal information on the internet. Paty's death is one in a string of jihadist-inspired attacks in France this year including a knife assault outside the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and deadly stabbings at a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice. The draft law sets out stricter criteria for authorising home schooling of children over three years old in a bid to prevent parents taking their children out of public schools and enrolling them in underground Islamic facilities.
Doctors, meanwhile, would be fined or jailed if they performed a virginity test on girls. Polygamy is already outlawed in France, but the new law would also ban authorities from issuing residency papers to polygamous applicants. It would also require city hall officials to interview couples separately prior to their wedding to make sure that they were not forced into marriage.
Open provocation'
Macron has become a figure of hate in some Muslim countries, with some boycotting French products, after saying that the right to blaspheme would always be guaranteed in France and that Islam was "in crisis".Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the draft law an "open provocation", while scholars at Egypt's prestigious Sunni Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, called Macron's views "racist".Macron has also been forced onto the defensive by critical headlines in influential English-language media, such as the Financial Times and New York Times. Muslims in France -- the former colonies of which include predominantly Muslim countries in north and west Africa as well as the Middle East -- are estimated at nearly four million, about six percent of the population. Once, as is expected, the cabinet backs the draft law, it heads to parliament at the start of next year for what promises to be a heated debate.
France's state council, which advises the government and the National Assembly on future laws, has already signalled that some parts of the bill, especially on education, may clash with the principle of freedom of choice enshrined in the French constitution.
 

Johnson Dines in Brussels in Bid to Save Brexit Deal
Agence France Presse./December 09/2020
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday for a working dinner that could save -- or kill off -- hopes for a post-Brexit trade deal. Johnson jetted back to the city where he made his name as an EU-bashing newspaper reporter and headed to the Berlaymont, headquarters of von der Leyen's EU Commission. After posing for press pictures, they headed in for a meeting that marks an almost-final chance of a breakthrough before Britain leaves the EU single market at the end of the year. "A good deal is still there to be done," Johnson had told the UK parliament before setting off for Brussels, while insisting Britain would "prosper mightily" with or without agreement. Talks are blocked over the issue of fair competition, with Britain refusing to accept a mechanism that would allow the EU to respond swiftly if UK and EU business rules diverge over time and put European firms at a disadvantage. "Our friends in the EU are currently insisting that if they pass a new law in the future, with which we in this country do not comply, they want the automatic right... to punish us and to retaliate," Johnson said.
'Still a chance'
EU negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost have narrowed the gaps over eight months but London insists it will reclaim full sovereignty at the end of the year after half-a-century of close economic integration. If Britain leaves the EU single market in three weeks without a follow-on trade agreement, the damage caused by delays to travellers and freight at its borders will be compounded by import tariffs.In Berlin, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said there was still a chance for a deal. But she warned: "We must not endanger the integrity of the common market."
Merkel said Britain would have to accept that as UK and EU laws move apart after Brexit there must be a way to ensure a "level playing field for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow". "Otherwise we'd end up with unfair conditions for competition, which we can't ask of our companies," she said. Merkel and the other EU leaders, including a sceptical French President Emmanuel Macron, are to meet in Brussels on Thursday for their planned EU summit, but Johnson has not been invited. Von der Leyen will update the member state leaders on her talks with the British premier, but no decision will be made. "It is not the intention to plan a discussion on the matter," summit host Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said in a letter outlining the agenda.
- Demolition claim -
Johnson spoke by telephone to Von der Leyen on Monday to secure the last chance dinner invitation after negotiations between Barnier and Frost broke off without agreement. He will arrive for talks at the Berlaymont, the EU headquarters building he once wrongly reported was scheduled for demolition when he covered Brussels as a newspaper journalist in the early 1990s. But officials on both sides expressed pessimism ahead of the last-ditch encounter. Barnier, meanwhile, gave a downbeat briefing to European ministers ahead of Thursday's EU leaders summit, then tweeted: "We will never sacrifice our future for the present. Access to our market comes with conditions." A senior Europan source said the question was whether the EU would respond automatically and unilaterally if commercial standards diverge, or whether they would leave space to negotiate. "The sticking point in the negotiations is the equivalence clause requested by the EU to avoid distortions of competition if the UK refuses to align itself over time with EU tax, social and environmental standards," he said. But a UK government source said: "If we can make progress at a political level it may allow Lord Frost and his team to resume negotiations over the coming days."In recent weeks several member states, led by France, have expressed concern that Germany and Von der Leyen's European Commission have been too ready to compromise with London.
 

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 09- 10/2020

Terrorism: A Warning from Iran to Europe
Richard Kemp/Gatestone Institute./December 09/2020
Now they [the Europeans] find themselves locked into what they know is a phoney and highly dangerous nuclear agreement that simply consigns confrontation with a nuclear-armed Iran to future generations.
They [the Iranian leadership] look at Europeans, as well as Americans, with contempt, as weak and decadent, lacking the courage or resolve to stick up for their own interests.... President Trump gave them pause for thought, especially when he ordered the death of Qasem Soleimani.... They have higher hopes of Biden, whom they expect to be more supine.
We can be sure the Supreme Leader has rejoiced at the results of his message: cowering in Europe, with only weak and token response, accompanied by a desperate, pleading assurance that the targets of his aggression are still his friends. If ever there was a lesson that appeasement fails and strength succeeds, surely this is it.
European governments must now show their own strength or face continued Iranian coercion -- coercion that will be witnessed by malign actors around the world from Moscow to Beijing to Pyongyang, with obvious implications.
Can the Europeans really afford to allow such an egregiously hostile and manipulative regime as Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons?
Last month the trial began in Belgium of Assadolah Assadi and three other Iranians accused of plotting to bomb a "Free Iran" rally in Paris, in June 2018. The rally was attended by 80,000 people, including former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani and several British and European members of parliament. The failed plot was reportedly ordered by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and approved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Last month the trial began in Belgium of Assadolah Assadi and three other Iranians accused of planning a bomb attack in Paris in 2018. Since 2015 Assadi had been the most senior officer of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security in Europe, at the time operating under diplomatic cover at the Iranian embassy in Vienna. He is the first Iranian government official to be tried by an EU country for terrorist offences, despite numerous attack attempts on EU soil ordered by Tehran.
State supported terrorism is not just an act in itself but also an instrument of national power and coercion. Together, these plots were a malevolent message and clear threat to Europe that unfortunately have been received and acted upon as intended in London, Berlin, Paris and Brussels.
Assadi's failed plot was reportedly ordered by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and approved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. His target was a rally for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, with 80,000 supporters present and attended by former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani and several British and European members of parliament. The explosives, allegedly brought into Europe from Iran by Assadi on a commercial flight, were TATP, the same type as was used to kill 22 and wound 800 in a jihadist attack at the Manchester Arena, UK, in 2017 and the London 7/7 bombings that killed 52 and wounded 700 in 2005. The message was clear. In March Assadi, who has refused to attend his own trial claiming diplomatic immunity, threatened retaliation if he is convicted. The Iranian government has also warned of a "proportionate response" against countries involved in the trial.
Assadi's bombing was prevented by European security authorities using intelligence provided by Israel. Mossad previously passed intelligence to the British security agency MI5 that enabled them to disrupt another Iranian-directed bomb plot in 2015. Terrorists linked to the Iranian proxy Hizballah had stockpiled three metric tons of ammonium nitrate in North London -- the same explosive material that caused such devastation in Beirut earlier this year. The quantity in London was greater than the ammonium nitrate that killed 168 people, injured 680 and damaged hundreds of buildings in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings.The same year as the London attempt, another Hizballah bomb plot was uncovered in Cyprus, also an EU member, this time involving 8.2 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, and again revealed to Cypriot authorities by Mossad. There had also been an attempt in Thailand in 2012 and, two years after the London plot was uncovered, indications of a similar plan in New York. The same year as the Thailand plot, Hizballah murdered five Israeli tourists and a driver when they bombed a bus at Burgas in Bulgaria, another EU member state.
Iranian-organized terrorist attack plans were uncovered in Germany in 2017 and Denmark in 2018, both EU members, and also in 2018 in Albania, a formal candidate for accession to the EU. Two Dutch citizens of Iranian origin were assassinated in the Netherlands, another EU state, on orders from Tehran in 2015 and 2017. The attacks in EU countries since 2015 have all occurred during the time when Britain, France, Germany and the EU were actively involved in the JCPOA, the Iranian nuclear deal with the P5+1. European reactions have been predictably limited, with many suspecting that the weak response was due to a desire to avoid endangering the JCPOA. Until exposed in 2019 by a Daily Telegraph investigation into Hizballah terrorist activity in Europe, British authorities kept the 2015 London bomb plot secret, apparently due to pressure from the Obama administration to suppress details, to avoid compromising the nuclear deal.
Despite, or maybe because of, such terrorist outrages against them, the EU states played along with Iran, refusing to follow the US in disavowing the nuclear deal, in part a response to Iranian regional aggression and sponsorship of international terrorism. Rather than joining President Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign to modify Iran's behaviour, the Europeans supported Tehran and undermined the US, even seeking to subvert American economic sanctions by setting up a financial instrument, INSTEX, to allow continued trade with Iran. European governments also failed to oppose lifting UN conventional weapons sanctions against Iran this year and refused to support US snapback sanctions following Iran's flagrant breaches of the nuclear deal.
Last year, the EU reluctantly imposed token financial sanctions on a section of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security and two officials after the terrorist plots in Paris and Denmark in 2018. Undermining their own actions and kowtowing to Tehran even while announcing these limited measures, EU officials made a point of emphasising their enduring support for the JCPOA and intent to continue trading with Iran. Since then EU leaders have vociferously protested the elimination of Qasem Soleimani, mastermind of Iran's terrorist operations directed at them, and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, nuclear scientist and Soleimani's fellow general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a proscribed terrorist organization responsible for facilitating attacks in Europe.
Britain, Germany and especially France had severe reservations about the JCPOA during negotiations with Iran, especially over the sunset clauses that allowed expiry of provisions limiting Tehran's access to nuclear material and advanced technology, and in reality paving a path to the bomb. They were railroaded into accepting the flawed deal, however, by President Obama's determination to secure his legacy despite Iranian intransigence. Their failure to follow Washington out of the deal was due to misguided loyalty to Obama, contempt for President Trump and a desire to appease Iran, rather than genuine strategic calculation.
Now they find themselves locked into what they know is a phoney and highly dangerous nuclear agreement that simply consigns confrontation with a nuclear-armed Iran to future generations. Presumptive President-elect Biden and his prospective administration officials have made clear their intent to return to the deal, and Iran is desperate that they do so in order to relieve the existential pressure on its economy from current US sanctions and to clear the way for its nuclear breakout. Of course Tehran's enthusiasm to resurrect the deal will be carefully disguised as the opposite while they push for even more favourable terms than last time. Freed from their self-defeating scorn of Trump, there will soon be an opportunity for European governments finally to act in their own best interests, and those of their children, by persuading Biden only to accept a deal with Tehran that genuinely constrains the ayatollahs' nuclear ambitions and curbs their regional aggression. First, however, they must confront their own fears of Iran.
Iran launched the numerous potentially devastating terrorist plots in Europe, at a critical stage for the nuclear deal and the survival of the Iranian regime, as a message directed at London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels. The targets were Iranian opposition figures. It was convenient to murder them to deter other dissidents and to warn Europe against harbouring or supporting them. But it wasn't necessary, in particular given any risk of potential backlash from Europe. The leadership would not have done so had they in fact feared damaging retaliation.
The Iranian leadership ordered these attacks to show their supposed strength and directly to warn the Europeans of the dangers of defiance. They look at Europeans, as well as Americans, with contempt, as weak and decadent, lacking the courage or resolve to stick up for their own interests, as people they can trifle with, as they have done repeatedly in the past. President Trump gave them pause for thought, especially when he ordered the death of Qasem Soleimani, second in importance only to the Supreme Leader himself. They have higher hopes of Biden, whom they expect to be more supine.
We can be sure the Supreme Leader has rejoiced at the results of his message: cowering in Europe, with only weak and token response, accompanied by a desperate, pleading assurance that the targets of his aggression are still his friends. If ever there was a lesson that appeasement fails and strength succeeds, surely this is it. European governments must now show their own strength or face continued Iranian coercion -- coercion that will be witnessed by malign actors around the world from Moscow to Beijing to Pyongyang, with obvious implications. That strategic imperative aside, can the Europeans really afford to allow such an egregiously hostile and manipulative regime as Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons?
**Colonel Richard Kemp is a former British Army Commander. He was also head of the international terrorism team in the U.K. Cabinet Office and is now a writer and speaker on international and military affairs.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Turkey: Legitimizing Extremist Violence
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute./December 09/2020
Then there is the Turkish Hezbollah, a Sunni violent organization that aims to found a Kurdish-Islamic state based on sharia. Although the Turkish Hezbollah is not to be confused with the Lebanese Hezbollah, it too has links with the Shia regime in Iran.
Journalist Ismail Saymaz detailed in his column how the former Turkish Hezbollah, now the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par), has infiltrated into scores of schools in Diyarbakır for wider future influence in the Kurdish provinces.... Saymaz says the Free Cause network has spread around Turkey so successfully that the movement now runs a television station and publishes a daily newspaper.
With democratic voting since 2002, Turkey has evolved from a secular state that had strong institutional bonds with the West to a religious, fundamentalist state hostile to the Western civilization and Israel. The next two decades may see even Turkey's non-violent religious institutions evolving into violent ones.
A Turkish court has censored news reports about a visit by Defense Minister Hulusi Akar (pictured at left) to the grave of a convicted terrorist who was the founder of an illegal Islamist group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front (IBDA-C).
In its early years (2002-2010), many Western leaders generously hailed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's governance with biased euphemisms such as "post-modern Islamism" or "moderate Islamism." In this view, Turkish Islamism and Erdoğan deserved every support Western nations could give. Turkey would be the role model in which Islam and democracy could co-habit, a model that would inspire less-democratic Arab nations. Palestinians, Iraqis, Egyptians, Jordanians and other Muslims in the Maghreb would supposedly wish to become more moderate and less violent. This bizarre political experience has sadly ended with the opposite result: Turks have become less moderate and more violent.
This summer, for example, there were press reports that Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, formerly chief of the Turkish military, had visited the grave of the founder of an illegal Islamist group. A court order censored news reports about Akar's visit to the graves of the poet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek and the religious ideologue Izzet Berdiş, better known as Salih Mirzabeyoğlu, the founder of the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front (IBDA-C). IBDA-C was an early-day Turkish version of Islamic State (ISIS), known for its horrific methods of torture and killing. Kısakürek is Erdoğan's favorite poet and IBDA-C was founded on his ideas featuring Islamic supremacy.
Berdiş was arrested in 1998 and convicted to life in prison on charges of terrorism. He spent more than 15 years incarcerated, but was released in 2014 following a retrial ordered by Erdoğan's government. He met with Erdogan shortly after his release.
IBDA-C's resume is hardly philanthropic enough for a presidential welcome. One of its better-known attacks was the firebombing of a hotel in the eastern city of Sivas, an event that killed 19 people. In February 2000, the group claimed responsibility for a quadruple bomb attack in Istanbul. Its other attacks included an attempt to assassinate a Jewish businessman and an attack on the Greek Orthodox Church in Istanbul in 1994. IBDA-C's targets typically were newspapers, secular journalists, banks, bars, tobacco shops and tradesmen.
Few IBDA-C terrorists could imagine that a Turkish defense minister would one day say prayers by the grave of their leader. Defense Minister Akar, a prominent Erdoğan confidante, arguably Turkey's first military chief with an Islamist ideology, was widely criticized when he visited Kadir Mısıroğlu, a pro-sharia campaigner and a self-declared enemy of the Turkish Republic. Mısıroğlu famously wrote: "I wish the Greeks had won the war [for Turkey's independence]. Then the [Ottoman] caliphate would not be dissolved and there would be sharia."
Akar's courtesy visits to controversial Islamist figures also included the pro-sharia poet Nuri Pakdil. In a 2017 interview Pakdil said: "It is not surprising that the graduates of secular schools are admirers of the West, they are enemies of [the Islamic] religion and conspirators of imperialists."
Yilmaz Özdil, Turkey's most widely read columnist and a fierce critic of Erdoğan and Islamism, recently concluded an op-ed with: "God forbid, I wouldn't even go out for fun with Akar, let alone to war." At a November 16 hearing, a court ruled that Özdil's comments were "insulting and deriding actions that directed towards damaging the subordinate-superior relations and destroying the confidence in chiefs or commanders," and sentenced him to five months in prison.
This seems to be Turkey's new normal. In November, Turkish intelligence and police officers, in a joint operation, raided and caught W.A.Y., an Iraqi national and suspected member of ISIS. The man testified to the prosecutor and was immediately released, leaving behind one question: Why had the intelligence and security officials run surveillance on the jihadist and bothered to arrest him in the first place?
Then there is Turkish Hezbollah, a Sunni violent organization that aims to found a Kurdish-Islamic state based on sharia. Although Turkish Hezbollah is not to be confused with Lebanese Hezbollah, it too has links with the Shia regime in Iran. In the 1990s, Turkish Hezbollah ran a violent terror campaign in Turkey's overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast. The invasion included the assassination of Gaffan Okkar, security chief in Diyarbakır, the largest Kurdish city in the region.
In the 2000s, Turkish Hezbollah evolved into politics when it launched the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par), the third-biggest party in the southeast region and an ally of Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party.
Journalist Ismail Saymaz detailed in his column on how the Free Cause Party has infiltrated into scores of schools in Diyarbakır for wider future influence in the Kurdish provinces. Saymaz notes that the Free Cause network has spread around Turkey so successfully that the movement now runs a television station and publishes a daily newspaper.
"The movement is rising all around Turkey as an Islamic political power with roots in violence, especially in state bureaucracy," Saymaz says.
With democratic voting since 2002, Turkey has evolved from a secular state that had strong institutional bonds with the West to a religious, fundamentalist state hostile to the Western civilization and Israel. The next two decades may see even Turkey's non-violent religious institutions evolving into violent ones.
*Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
 

The forgotten refugees of the Middle East
Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/December 09/2020
Nov. 30 is the day Israel designates for commemorating the 850,000 Jews who fled from Arab countries and Iran following World War II. This year, like every year, the governments now ruling those lands did not mark the occasion. For what it’s worth, I’m going to do so here.
About 80% of Israelis are Jews. A significant minority of Israelis, close to 20%, are Arabs (or Palestinians — they may identify as they like). Most Israeli Jews are not from families that migrated from the Middle East to Europe centuries ago. Most are Mizrahim, Jews who have lived for thousands of years among Arabs, Persians and other Middle Eastern and North African peoples.
The late Charles Krauthammer observed that Israel “is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago.”
But imperialist invasions and occupations against which the Jews fought led to the dispersal of Jews to lands across the region where they were ruled by a long list of conquerors until, in the 20th century, most became subjects of the nation-states created following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The Mizrahim suffered persecution but, at some times and in some places, there was toleration, which allowed them to prosper, and make contributions to the societies in which they lived — in commerce, academia, the arts and even as government advisers. From Morocco to what became Pakistan, Jewish communities survived. Then in 1940, Nazi Germany defeated France. The French colonial possessions of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia came under the rule of Vichy, a collaborationist government that introduced “race laws” discriminating against Jews, excluding Jews from certain professions and confiscating Jewish property. In 1941, a Fascist regime took power in Iraq. A few months later, there was the Farhud, the “violent dispossession” of the Jews of Baghdad, who then constituted as much as a third of the city’s population.
The most prominent Arab/Muslim leader in Palestine, which passed from Ottoman to British rule following World War I, was Haj Amin el-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem. In 1929 and 1936, he ignited bloody riots against Palestinian Jews. In 1941, he moved to Berlin, where he met with Hitler, and assisted the German war effort by broadcasting pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish messages into the Middle East.
In countries where German forces directly exercised power, such as Tunisia beginning in 1942, Jews were compelled to wear yellow stars, subjected to forced labor and incarcerated in concentration camps.
The Allied victory in 1945 saved the lives of many Mizrahim. But the intensification of hostility toward Jews brought about by the Nazis did not dissipate.
In 1947, the United Nations issued a resolution calling for the partition of Palestine into two states: “one Arab, one Jewish.” The Jewish community in Palestine accepted the resolution. The Arab community in Palestine rejected it.
On May 14, 1948, the flag of the British Empire was lowered in Palestine, and the State of Israel was proclaimed. On May 15, the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invaded.
The Jordanian army conquered Judea and Samaria which it soon renamed “the West Bank.” All Jews, including those in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, were expelled.
But the Arab rulers failed to annihilate Israel. They then turned their anger on their own Jewish citizens, encouraging pogroms against them, stripping them of their property and citizenship, forcing them to flee. Most found their way to Israel where, truthfully, many encountered bias and discrimination. Increasingly, however, the country has become a melting pot.
I should note that Iran, a predominately Persian country, followed a different path. Initially, Israel and Iran had cordial relations. Then in 1979, there was an Islamic Revolution.
While reporting on that upheaval, I paid a visit to the country’s chief rabbi. A portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini hung above his desk. He told me that after thousands of years of coexistence, Iranian Jews had nothing to fear from their fellow Iranians. He was mistaken. Over the past 41 years, Iranian Jews have suffered harsh oppression, and most have emigrated. Iran’s rulers today threaten Israelis with genocide while developing nuclear weapons that would make that a serious possibility.
Palestinian leaders in Gaza praise the theocratic regime. Palestinian leaders in the West Bank are less openly bellicose but unwilling to agree to a “two-state solution” defined as two states for two peoples, their conflict put to rest. They continue to demand that all Palestinian refugees of the 1948 war, along with their millions of descendants, be granted a “right to return” to Israel where they would constitute a majority of the population. How much does the average Palestinian know about the Jewish refugees from Arab countries? My guess: very little.
Egypt and Jordan have been at peace with Israel for more than a generation, but it’s been a cold peace. It would be useful if Egyptian and Jordanian leaders had the courage — even if only one day a year — to acknowledge that their Jewish communities were mistreated and, ultimately, ethnically cleansed. I’d recommend they publish, in Arabic, “Uprooted: How 3,000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight,” by Lyn Julius, the daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees.
The point of the exercise would not be for Egyptians, Jordanians and others to feel guilty. The point would be for them to become familiar with their history, and with the history of their cousins, an indigenous people of the Middle East whose self-determination in part of their ancestral homeland was — and remains — both just and necessary.
• Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for The Washington Times.

Iran Is Moving Key Facility at Nuclear Site Underground, Satellite Images Show
Christoph Koettl/PLOUGHSHARES FUND/December 09/2020
In July, an explosion rocked a key Iranian nuclear facility. Iran called it sabotage and vowed to rebuild a destroyed building underground. Iran is now turning that promise into a reality, new satellite images show.
The mysterious July explosion that destroyed a centrifuge assembly hall at Iran’s main nuclear fuel enrichment facility in Natanz was deemed by the Iranian authorities to be enemy sabotage, and provoked a defiant response: The wrecked building would be rebuilt in “the heart of the mountains,” the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said.
Progress on that pledge, which could shield the facility from an aerial assault or other threats, has been unclear to outside observers. But new satellite imagery is now shedding light on the Iranian plans.
The Visual Investigations team of The New York Times has tracked construction at the site using the new imagery. For the first time, new tunnel entrances for underground construction are visible under a ridge in the mountain foothills south of the Natanz facility, about 140 miles south of Tehran.
The Times worked with Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California, to interpret the new image.
“The new facility is likely to be a far more secure location for centrifuge assembly — it is located far from a road and the ridge offers significant overburden that would protect the facility from air attack,” Mr. Lewis stated in written comments.
The Times analyzed the images with Jeffrey Lewis at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and identified the location of a likely new underground facility south of the Natanz nuclear site.Credit
The July explosion was not the only recent incident that appeared to have exposed major gaps in Iran’s security of its nuclear program, which the country insists is limited to peaceful purposes. In late November, a brazen daylight attack killed Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Iran has blamed Israel and the United States for the Natanz explosion and Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, which were both considered serious setbacks to Iran’s nuclear program.
Mr. Lewis described the clues that underground construction was underway at the site in Natanz.
“There are what appear to be two tunnel entrances on either side of a large ridge, with a pile of spoil from excavation nearby. The space between the two entrances is large enough to accommodate a facility about the same size as the centrifuge assembly building that was destroyed this summer and that Iran indicated it was rebuilding in the mountains.”
Looking at satellite images taken over several months allows for tracking changes. Even something as simple and inconspicuous as a pile of dirt is a clue.
“The major clue is the pile of spoil from the excavation that was not present in July,” Mr. Lewis said. “Iran also regraded a pair of roads on each side of the ridge leading to what appear to be tunnel entrances.”
Experts pointed to a growing pile of excavation debris as one of the key clues to new underground construction at the site.Credit
Allison Puccioni, an imagery analyst affiliated with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, pointed out other telltale signs of excavations near the debris pile. In comments provided to the Times, Ms Puccioni said that between the debris pile and excavation site, the imagery showed “trails of excavated earth, lighter in color than the existing hard-packed road.”
A flurry of activity in Natanz captured by satellites in recent months includes the building of new roads and additional excavations, which started after the explosion. Some analysts say that additional tunnels are being constructed, suggesting work on an even larger underground complex is underway.
The destroyed building was built in 2012 and had been used to assemble centrifuges, the machines that enrich uranium needed for peaceful purposes — and when enriched to higher levels, for bombs. The 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers halted high level enrichment, but Iran started amassing enriched uranium again after President Trump left the accord two years ago.
After the July explosion, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s compliance with the accord, confirmed that there had been no nuclear materials at that specific building.
The destroyed centrifuge assembly hall at the Natanz nuclear facility. July 8, 2020.
The destroyed centrifuge assembly hall at the Natanz nuclear facility. July 8, 2020.Credit...Maxar Technologies
The ability to see via satellite what Iran has done since the Natanz explosion partly reflects the quantum leap in such visual technology in the past two decades.
In 2002, analysts revealed the construction of the then secret Natanz enrichment facility using commercial high-resolution satellite imagery. Such sharp imagery had only become available in 2000. Back then, the analysis required finding Natanz on Persian maps in the Library of Congress, faxing an order form and waiting for weeks to receive satellite imagery on a CD-ROM. Eighteen years later, even the smallest changes at a site like Natanz can be quickly tracked by analysts and journalists on their laptops.
These monitoring capabilities can create their own challenges. Frequently collected images do not show completed construction, but work in progress. Initial interpretation of the recent changes in Natanz from October focused on a former firing range south of the main facility as the possible location for the new underground centrifuge assembly hall. However, these changes turned out to be a construction support facility used for road work and tunnel excavations.
In response to Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, Iran enacted a law last week to immediately ramp up uranium enrichment and bar international inspectors by February if U.S. sanctions are not lifted. The law also calls for the installment of advanced centrifuges at its nuclear facilities, including in Natanz.
The United States may have been aware in advance of the recent attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and personnel. How Iran responds to the newest attack could pose an early challenge to the incoming Biden administration, which has said it wants to rejoin the nuclear accord repudiated by Mr. Trump.

The mullahs make a pitch to Biden
Dr. Salem Al Ketbi/Arutz Sheva/December 09/2020
The mullahs are role-playing, contradicting each other, but actually putting the ball in Biden's court, with perfect timing. Op-ed.
Something has recently unfolded that comes as little surprise to me and other observers who know too well the mullahs’ regime in Iran and their dealings. Their maneuvers, which they portray as “drinking the cup of poison,” are in fact an expression of political “taqiya,” or cryptopolitics.
This practice of the mullahs is marked by a role-playing game in which they are very gifted. This is a game which those who are hoodwinked about the regime’s true nature and ideology take to be a political struggle between hardliners and reformers.
This thing came as the latest signal from Iran’ mullahs to the next US administration, after being assured that the transfer of power in the White House to President-elect Joe Biden has begun. The thing I am
The thing I am talking about is the recent stream of repeated and rash statements by Iranian officials regarding negotiations with the United States.
talking about is the recent stream of repeated and rash statements by Iranian officials regarding negotiations with the United States.
The messages started with a statement by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani called on President Biden’s new US administration to “make up” what he described as “mistakes” made by the outgoing Trump administration.
“We hope that in its first steps, the next US administration will explicitly condemn Trump’s policies on Iran,” reported the official news agency IRNA, Rouhani calling the policy “anti-human rights and terroristic.” The statement comes not long after Rouhani hinted that his country was ready to cooperate with the new US president.
“We feel that the atmosphere is prepared for closer relations and better interaction with all friendly countries,” he had commented on the results of the US presidential elections. “The problem of the [US] administration, in its final months, was that it was not very familiar with international politics. It was almost carrying out the dictates of the [US] extremists and of the Zionist regime.”
The content of the message is quite interesting: “The Great Satan” is now a friendly country. Put another way, the mullahs’ problem with the Americans does not revolve around sensitive strategic and security issues, but rather, as Rouhani said, around President Trump’s ignorance of the rules of international politics.
What matters is that, in his statement, Rouhani threw the ball in the new US administration’s court He said his country was ready to start negotiations with the United States, provided that Biden returns to the 2015 nuclear agreement and lifts Trump-imposed sanctions. He then laid down other conditions, including the “making up” point.
This may seem odd at a time when scenarios are being floated about a possible decision by President Trump to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities before leaving the White House next January. However, analysis of the situation confirms that the timing is well chosen. By placing the ball in the Biden administration’s court to negotiate, the mullahs want to kill two birds with one stone.
First, they block any possible decision for a military operation and refute any justification that President Trump is supposed to present to Congress, even though he does not need its green light for a limited strike against a threat to US strategic interests.
In other words, they position the new US administration to defend them for their desire to negotiate and their readiness to maintain relations with “friendly countries,” which, by the way, is a carefully worded message to the ears of whoever is interested back in Washington. Second, they are urgently putting the Iranian topic on the table of the new American presidential team.
They do not want it to get busy with other issues at a time when the Iranian economy is suffocating the most from the harsh Trump sanctions. Iran cannot hold it for another month, let alone a year or two, while it waits for the new president to make up his mind.
After the Iranian president pitched in, the turn came for the head of the mullahs’ regime. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned against trusting foreign parties to find solutions to the Islamic Republic’s problems. Chief of Staff of the President of Iran Mahmoud Vaezi, for his part, played his part by saying that there would be no new negotiations on a nuclear agreement.
The Iranian official added that it is only natural to welcome Trump’s defeat, not only in Iran but also among US allies. Such a statement totally belies the mullahs’ claims that they are not remotely concerned about the results of the US presidential election. This time, deliberately for media and political manipulation, Vaezi did not go along with the claims of his boss, Rouhani.
According to Vaezi, the negotiations on the nuclear agreement were conducted in stages but “[w]hat happened was that countries, especially the US, did not do their commitments; the most important condition of Iran is that the commitments stipulated in the JCPOA need to be respected both by Iran and the other member states.” There will be no renegotiation of the nuclear agreement, he concluded.
The game is clear this time. Otherwise, how else can President Rouhani announce that his country is ready to negotiate, when his head of staff says that there won’t be renegotiations? Forget Vaezi.
Between Rouhani and Khamenei, it may seem at first glance that there is a disagreement on the negotiations. However, let us recall that any decision on Iranian foreign policy must get the green light from the Supreme Leader.
Rouhani’s discourse that Iran will use “every opportunity” to have the US sanctions lifted, i.e. that he sees an “opportunity” in the election of a new US administration, is not coming from nowhere. Behind it is the OK from the Supreme Leader. In situations like this, the Supreme Leader tries to strike the right balance.
He leaves room for so-called reformers, like Rouhani, to work in the interests of the regime’s objectives. And, at the same time, he enables the radicals to attack them and denounce their political line. A game the mullahs have mastered well.
It allows them to escape any possible fallout or failure, by blaming one side of the regime and not the whole. It is interesting, moreover, to note that Khamenei’s speech on the rejection of negotiations on the lifting of sanctions does not focus on negotiations with the United States.
Rather, it addresses the refusal of the European side to mediate for the lifting of US sanctions, even though this was not expressly stated. Judging by all the recent statements of the Iranian Supreme Leader, his dissatisfaction is stronger with the European position than with the US policy.
“Iran cannot count on them or draw up plans in accordance with their positions [...] [Their] situation [...] is not clear, [they] are constantly taking stances against Iran, [they] cannot be relied upon and one cannot pin hope on [lifting sactions],” he concluded in a criticism apparently directed at European countries.
The implication is such that Khamenei wants to deal directly with the new US administration, far away from European mediators. The mullahs believe that the Europeans have not played a positive role in easing American pressure over the past four years.
This is in line with Rouhani’s claims of clinging to the opportunity with the new US administration, something which, again, he can’t say without the permission of his Supreme Leader.
It’ s only the beginning of a long game. The mullahs have placed the ball in the court of the new American president.
Other parties and regional powers concerned by the Iranian threat must say their words loud and clear. Time is pressing.
*Dr.Salem AlKetbi is aUAE political analyst and former Federal National Council candidate

Turkey: Islamist Justice at Its Best
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/December 09/ 2020
It has been 7½ years after Elvan was killed in what appears to be a direct shot in the face. The Turkish state is still trying to make sure that not a single officer will be punished for the tragic death of a 15-year-old boy.
Worse, there is no sign of accountability within the Turkish public administration system.
The dramatic, undeniable scene was captured by a photographer, Abdurrahman Gök who later posted the photos. Gök is now facing trial for potential links with terror groups and could get up to 20 years in prison.
What about the officer who shot Kurkut?... a serious crimes court in Diyarbakır acquitted the defendant, a police officer, known only by his initials, Y.S.
Justice, apparently, is too scarce a commodity for Turkish extremists who are often busy protecting Palestinian terrorists and accusing civilized nations of modern barbarism. The Australian story could be an example of modern barbarism.... but it has a fair ending. The Turkish stories of medieval barbarism in the 21st century do not.
On December 28, 201,1 a group of Kurdish peasants were smuggling cheap gasoline into their Turkish village from northern Iraq. Turkish F-16 fighter jets attacked the group, killing 34 people, including 17 children. Under public pressure, the Erdoğan administration launched an investigation into the attack. Not a single official was found guilty. Pictured: The funeral procession for the victim, outside Uludere Hospital in Sirnak province, on December 30, 2011. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)
Barely a week after he pledged judicial and democratic reforms, Turkey's strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, typically rediscovered his Islamist self. He reminded the world, once again, how corrupt and hypocritical his understanding of universal justice is.
"We observe that the [Israeli] state terror against Palestinians goes on," Erdoğan said in a speech in which he complained of injustice. "Arms up, Palestinian children are being murdered."
A few days earlier, Erdoğan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalın, described the killing by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) of dozens of Afghan civilians as "modern barbarism." The findings of a four-year inquiry by ADF indeed confirm Kalın's description as barbarism: Junior soldiers were told to get their first kill by shooting prisoners, in a practice known as "blooding"; weapons and other items were planted near Afghan bodies to cover up crimes; and an additional two incidents could constitute a war crime of "cruel treatment."
The pro-Erdoğan media jumped into the ADF story, covering it with big headlines and comments, highlighting the idea that "the West too can be barbaric." This is in fact a half-subconscious attempt to legitimize commonly extreme barbaric practices in the Islamic world. For the sake of truth, both Erdoğan, and his spokesman must be reminded of the commonality of barbarism in their own country.
The unpleasant Australian story illustrates how in democratic countries with strong checks and balances and separation of powers, state guilt appears in the public domain transparently, and how the perpetrators are brought to justice regardless of their public offices and of the nationality of the victims.
The whistle-blower in the Australian affair was the public Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that a special investigator would be appointed to consider prosecutions from information contained in the report. One SAS [Special Air Service Regiment] squadron was shut down. The government said it would also establish an independent oversight panel to provide "accountability and transparency that sits outside of the ADF chain of command." PM Morrison also phoned Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani to express his "deepest sorrow" over the findings.
So much for the Australian "barbarity." Most Turks would greatly envy such modern barbarism perpetrated by a public office.
The Turks learned only from a European Court of Human Rights verdict that their Air Force had bombed a Turkish-Kurdish village in 1994 and killed 45 innocent villagers near Şırnak in southeastern Turkey. Apology? None. How many officers had to stand trial and were sentenced? None.
On the evening of December 28, 2011 a group of Kurdish peasants were smuggling cheap gasoline into their Turkish village from northern Iraq. Four Turkish F-16 fighter jets appeared in the dark sky and attacked the group, killing 34 people, including 17 children. The army and the national intelligence organization blamed each other for the faulty intelligence that led to the attack. Under public pressure, the Erdoğan administration launched an investigation into the attack. Not a single official was found guilty.
In 2013, millions of Turks took to the streets in dozens of cities to protest Erdoğan's authoritarian rule and practices. One dreadful morning in Istanbul, Berkin Elvan's parents sent the 15-year-old boy out to buy bread from the nearby bakery. Elvan was hit in the face by a tear gas canister shot by a police officer. He died after remaining in coma for 269 days. Although a legal case was opened after a 3½-year investigation, there is not one single officer under detention. It has been 7½ years since Elvan was killed in what appears to be a direct shot in the face. The Turkish state is still trying to make sure that not a single officer will be punished for the tragic death of a 15-year-old boy.
Worse, there is no sign of accountability within the Turkish public administration system.
Kemal Kurkut was a 23-year-old Kurdish protester who was shot dead by the police in Diyarbakır, Turkey's biggest Kurdish city, on March 21, 2017. The police claimed that Kurkut was shot on suspicion of being a suicide bomber. Photos later showed him, naked from the waist up, running in front of a firing police squad. The dramatic, undeniable scene was captured by a photographer, Abdurrahman Gök, who later posted the photos. Gök is now facing trial for potential links with terror groups and could get up to 20 years in prison.
What about the officer who shot Kurkut? Just a few days after Erdoğan pledged judicial reforms, a serious crimes court in Diyarbakır acquitted the defendant, a police officer, known only by his initials, Y.S.
Justice, apparently, is too scarce a commodity for Turkish extremists who are often busy protecting Palestinian terrorists and accusing civilized nations of modern barbarism. The Australian story could be an example of modern barbarism -- its contents are unacceptable -- but it has a fair ending. The Turkish stories of medieval barbarism in the 21st century do not.
*Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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What Catholics Need to Know about Islam
Raymond Ibrahim/December 09/ 2020
Of the various strands of Christianity, historically, Catholicism was the chief enemy of Islam. It was the popes who called for the crusades; and it was Catholics who took the cross.
Times have changed, radically. Today, the Catholic Church’s hierarchy stands among the greatest apologists for Islam. Europe’s top cardinal, Jean-Claude Hollerich, recently said, for instance, that “Prophet Muhammad would have been ashamed” of the terrorism plaguing France, including the butchery of elderly Christians inside their church in Nice, and the beheading of a French teacher who “blasphemed” against Muhammad.
Indeed, one need only look to Pope Francis for a plethora of apologias concerning Islam, which he regularly presents as a “sister” religion to Christianity that seeks only to coexistent peacefully with Catholics and everyone else. Just because some Muslims “misinterpret” their religion, the pope has insisted, is not Islam’s fault.
Thus, in 2016, when a journalist asked Pope Francis if Fr. Jacques—another French priest slaughtered by Muslims inside his church during mass—was “killed in the name of Islam,” Francis adamantly disagreed. He argued that he hears of Catholics committing violence every day in Italy: “this one who has murdered his girlfriend, another who has murdered the mother-in-law… and these are baptized Catholics! There are violent Catholics! If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence.”
Apparently, for this pope, violence done in accordance with Allah’s commandments—for example the execution of blasphemers—is no more troubling than violence done in contradiction of the Christian God’s commandments. By this perverse logic, if we hold Islam accountable, so must we hold Christianity accountable, regardless of the fact that Islam does justify violence—against apostates, blasphemers, infidels in general, et. al.—while Christianity condemns it.
If this is the Catholic hierarchy’s “official” position on Islam, clearly, the Catholic Church as a body is not just forfeiting its 1,400 years of experience with and knowledge of Islam; it is being indoctrinated in the exact opposite of truth.
It is for this reason that What Catholics Need to Know about Islam, a new book by William Kilpatrick, is a welcome and timely contribution. Consisting of some 400 pages divided into 23 chapters, the author explores a variety of topics, which have largely been censored by the Catholic hierarchy, starting with the widespread claim that Christians and Muslims worship the same God—an obvious falsehood, unless one accepts that God is schizophrenic, presenting certain attributes about himself to one group of people, while denouncing those same attributes to another group.
Along with the outright suppression of facts foisted by the apologists, Kilpatrick shows how appeasement, political correctness, and Western self-hatred and/or guilt are being manipulated to make Christians—who by nature are already prone to forgiving their enemies while harshly judging themselves—inadvertently empower Islamic aggression against themselves, as a form of “piety.”
The author also highlights a number of overlooked parallels. For example, he shows how Muslim activists employ the same tactics—including through the infiltration and subsequent subversion of government, academia, and media—that have led to the meteoric rise of the LGBT movement, for example.
Most importantly, Kilpatrick’s book gives the lie to—and is an antidote against—the Catholic hierarchy’s defenses of Islam, including by showing how, through their guidance, the church is dying in Europe, even as mosques litter the landscape. As he writes, “We are now seeing the resurrection of Islam as a great and dangerous power.” Meanwhile, “the current crop of church leaders has shown an excessive tolerance not only toward Islam, but also toward the world, the flesh, and sometimes, it seems, even toward the devil.”
That can all change, and rather easily, argues the author. After all, we are living in a day and age when Islam is inherently weak, capable of terrorizing the West only because the latter provides it with the means to do so. Thus, for Kilpatrick, to resist “Islam’s totalitarian incursions,” we need not turn to “raising armies and navies”; rather, we need to heed Christ’s words: “The truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).
And, when it comes to the truth concerning Muhammad’s religion—a dangerous truth which has been so utterly suppressed, not least by the Catholic hierarchy—What Catholics Need to Know about Islam is certainly a step in the right direction.

Is negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program worth it?
Reza Behrouz and Amin Sophiamehr/Al Arabiya/December 09/2020
US President-elect Joe Biden has stated his intention to return to the Iran nuclear deal, if Tehran fully complies with the agreement, saying that if Tehran complies, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in reinstated, sanctions will be lifted.
In 2015 when the deal was penned, the pact may have appeared on the surface as a diplomatic triumph, but with 2021 on the horizon, it lacks merit and its purpose is unclear.
Proponents of the JCPOA claim that an agreement with Iran was only possible because the signing nations focused on a common objective: prolong Iran’s nuclear breakout time. It is a single-issue platform, designed as the initial step for a trust-building process, with potential for future talks on other critical matters, including the regime’s ballistic missiles program and destabilizing activities in the region.
But Iran had its own set of expectations with respect to the deal. The regime viewed the JCPOA as a tactical distraction from its battles on other fronts, and their behavior became more bellicose in the Middle East after it was signed. For the regime's leaders, the deal was not the initial step, but the final frontier. Immediately after signing the JCPOA, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei asserted that it would be the last time Islamic Republic officials would meet with the Americans. The nuclear issue was the only matter that Iranian regime officials would engage on with the West.
Indeed, the regime became more belligerent following the accord. Soon after the JCPOA was signed, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tested a ballistic missile bearing an inscription in Hebrew that read “Israel must be obliterated.” The regime also increased financial and arms support for its terror proxies in the Middle East.
Given its inherent flaws, what is Biden’s rationale for returning to the deal?
Biden believes nuclear weapons, in the hands of a hostile regime such as Iran, pose a direct national security threat to the US and its allies in the region, especially Israel. If he is truly concerned about Israel’s security and wants to reach an agreement with Iran to protect Israel from a possible nuclear attack, it is important to at least hear what the Israelis think of this strategy.
Israeli politicians have mixed views regarding the validity and practicality of a nuclear accord with Iran, though they all seemingly agree that the regime must not possess nuclear weapons. However, the main Israeli concern is perhaps Iran’s precision missile program, which Israel perceives as a more immediate threat than a nuclear bomb. This concern is shared by most Arab US allies.
Therefore, failing to address Iran’s missile program alongside – or even before nuclear talks – would constitute a diplomatic failure. Excluding Israel and Arab allies from the negotiation proceedings also constitutes such a failure.
The Europeans have fervently pushed for the US to return to the deal, and Biden has said he will work with European allies toward a multilateral accord that prevents or delays the regime’s access to a nuclear bomb. It is unclear why the Europeans are so eagerly pushing for a return to the JCPOA. Again, the “protection of allies” logic, especially regarding Israel, is abortive. The Europeans are also not listening to the Israelis or Arab states.
France, for instance, is concerned that nuclear weapons will fall into the hands of Iran’s proxies, including Hezbollah. Yet the French government hesitates to designate these factions as terrorist organizations, even though the US has designated them as such years ago, and increasingly European countries are following suit.
Furthermore, if the Europeans fear nuclear aggression by Iran on their continent, they should be equally concerned about the regime’s arsenal of long-range, precision, and nuclear-capable missiles, which can reach Europe and the continental US. The regime’s possession of a nuclear bomb is meaningless if it lacks the means and the apparatus to launch one.
Then there are China and Russia, which are both JCPOA signatories. Primarily, they would lose their strategic superiority over the regime if it becomes nuclear. But it is curious why these two countries are members of the campaign against Iran’s nuclear proliferation when neither is a target of the regime. They are both eager to sell arms to the regime, recognize Hezbollah as a legitimate political organization, and have close relations with Iran.
Human rights need to be a priority
Iran’s record with human rights abuses seem to never be on the agenda for negotiation. Biden is likely to try to tackle the nuclear issue immediately upon assuming office, and then he will most likely build on that agreement, working toward further negotiations with Iran on various other issues, including human rights. This is congruent to the Obama administration policy of “kicking the can down the road.”
Obama and Biden did not include human rights in the 2015 JCPOA platform, but it is not too late for Biden to attend to this crucial matter. However, renewal of the JCPOA is not the correct pathway. As Khamenei stated, the regime is unlikely to negotiate on other issues. From another angle, the regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who claims to be a “human rights professor,” has denied human rights violations in Iran. If Iran’s top diplomat denies the existence of a problem, how could negotiations or diplomacy be remotely effective in resolving it?
Why negotiate?
With JCPOA signatories ignoring critical issues, and where the regime considers them nonnegotiable, it is unclear what exactly Biden plans to accomplish after resuscitating the near-defunct nuclear deal.
Considering all arguments, the real question is why negotiate with Iran on the nuclear issue at all?
Any agreement reached between Iran and the Biden administration will be – like the JCPOA – fragmented unless ratified by the Senate as a treaty. It will be very difficult for Biden to convince two-thirds of the Senate that the JCPOA as a treaty would have any meaningful impact on US or Middle East security.
Iran would be re-entering negotiations from a position of utter weakness. By touting its nuclear program as leverage, the regime has effectively placed all its eggs in one basket. Zarif and his team of lobbyists in the US claim Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful, while in the same breath, they insist on “reaching a deal.” Regime apologists in Europe and the US also claim Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program nearly two decades ago. If the assertions that the regime has ceased the military component of its nuclear program, and that the entire project is for peaceful purposes are true, why does Zarif threaten to accelerate it if US sanctions are not lifted?
All this perhaps indicates that Iran’s nuclear program might be less significant than portrayed, and it is being inflated to distract the international community from more vital issues such as the regime’s ballistic missile program, support for proxy groups from Iraq to Lebanon, and human rights violations.
The regime leveraged the same strategy going into negotiations: to depict the nuclear issue so critical that other important matters pertaining to the regime’s criminal conduct are kept off the table. It is the only leverage Iran has, and Biden should recognize its inadequacies. The US should not be deceived by the regime’s smoke screen. Biden should resist being rushed into signing an accord that is of little benefit to the US and doomed to fall apart in short order.
A joint comprehensive plan of action should be exactly that – comprehensive.
*Reza Behrouz is an Iranian-American physician based in Texas, USA, and a member of the advisory board for Iranian Americans for Liberty.
*Amin Sophiamehr is an Iranian-American scholar in political philosophy at Indiana University.