English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 12/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today

But what comparison may I make of this generation? It is like children seated in the market-places, crying out to one another,  We made music for you and you did not take part in the dance; we gave cries of sorrow and you made no signs of grief.
Matthew 11/16-24: But what comparison may I make of this generation? It is like children seated in the market-places, crying out to one another,  We made music for you and you did not take part in the dance; we gave cries of sorrow and you made no signs of grief.  For John came, taking no food or drink, and they say, He has an evil spirit.  The Son of man has come feasting, and they say, See, a lover of food and wine, a friend of tax-farmers and sinners! And wisdom is judged to be right by her works.  Then he went on to say hard things to the towns where most of his works of power were done, because they had not been turned from their sins.Unhappy are you, Chorazin! Unhappy are you, Beth-saida! For if the works of power which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have been turned from their sins in days gone by, clothing themselves in haircloth and putting dust on their heads.  But I say to you, It will be better for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judging, than for you.  And you, Capernaum, were you not to be lifted up to heaven? you will go down into hell: for if the works of power which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been here to this day.  But I say to you that it will be better for the land of Sodom in the day of judging, than for you.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 11- 12/2020

Magnitude Of The Crime Dictates The Size Of The Accountability/Abu Arz – Etienne Saqr/December 11/2020
Ministry of Health: 1518 new coronavirus cases, 12 deaths
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
Hizbullah Member Sentenced to Life in Hariri Assassination
President Aoun: State monitors work of banks and public institutions to put end to abuses, Forensic audit of CentralBank accounts essential
Hariri Defends Diab, Premiership Post after Indictment
Diab’s court indictment a blow to Hezbollah
Hizbullah Dubs Indictment in Port Blast as ‘Politicized’
Qassem Says Govt Formation Paves Way for Solutions
Rahi, Kubis tackle need for government that can gain trust of Lebanese people, international community
Khalil Says No Role for Him as ex-Finance Minister in Port Case
French Ambassador visits Tripoli and North Lebanon's Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture
Hezbollah’s Great Diversion/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 11/2020
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 11- 12/2020

EU agrees to map out sanctions on Turkey over Mediterranean drilling/Brodie Owen/The National/December 11/2020
Amid terror finance allegations, Qatar lobbies for US F-35 fighter jets/Benjamin Weinthal/The Jerusalem Post/December 11/2020
Rise in Israeli strikes in Syria has led to decrease of Iranian activity/The Jerusalem Post/December 11/2020
U.S. Flies Two B-52s over Gulf in Message for Iran/Agence France Presse/December 11, 2020
Biden, Harris Named Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year'/Associated Press/December 11, 2020
Pompeo says international community must not reward Iranian ‘nuclear gamesmanship/Arab News/December 11, 2020
HomeIntelligence experts say Iranian regime hackers targeted dissidents during online rally/Ray Hanania/Arab News/December 11, 2020
Suicide Bomber Injures Six Police in Russia
Aid Agencies Say Four Staff Killed in Ethiopia Fighting
EU Plans to Hit Turkey with More Sanctions over Med Drilling
AstraZeneca to Use Part of Russian Covid Vaccine in Trials
Hundreds protest against Kurdish authorities in northeast Iraq
Germany to allow deportations of ‘suspect’ Syrians, says minister

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 11- 12/2020

Question: "What does it mean that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6)?"/GotQuestions.org/December 11/2020
Trump determined to designate pro-Iran groups as terrorist/Maria Maalouf/Arab News/December 10/2020
The Shah, the Mullahs and Iran’s Longstanding Nuclear Ambitions/Ray Takeyh/The Wall Street Journal/December 11/2020
Ankara’s links with ISIS are still a red flag/Con Coughlin/The National/December 11/2020

Kurdistan’s second referendum/Ibrahim al-Zobeidi/The Arab Weekly/December 11/2020
It is past time to end all delusions about the EU/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab News/December 11/2020
Turkey cozies up to EU members in the East/Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/December 11/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 11- 12/2020

Magnitude Of The Crime Dictates The Size Of The Accountability
Abu Arz – Etienne Saqr/December 11/2020

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/93573/%d8%a3%d8%a8%d9%88-%d8%a3%d8%b1%d8%b2-%d8%a7%d8%aa%d9%8a%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%b5%d9%82%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a8-%d8%a8%d8%ad%d8%ac%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ac%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d8%a9-abu-a/
While the world celebrates the International Human Rights Day, the Lebanese people are ranked second after the Afghans in the list of the most pessimistic people according to a Gallup poll !!!
A friend of mine from Lebanon visited me few days ago, and when I asked him about our beloved country, He responded with a shocking spontaneity, “What country are you asking about? Sadly what is left in Lebanon are disappointed and disgusted people hardly living over an area of ​​land called Lebanon.”
I was shocked by this dreadful status quo which means in short that Lebanon has lost all its basic elements of life and facing an unknown fate !!!
In summary, We do not want to curse the Lebanese ruling gang that slaughtered the holiest country in the world, nor the so called “strong Tenure of Aoun’s presidency” that is hiding its failures behind the tag of “They did not allow us” because millions of Lebanese in Lebanon and Diaspora are doing so day and night … We are satisfied with saying that the punishment and accountability are going to as big as the magnitude of the crimes.
He who lives will witness how the unfolding events shall settle and end.
Long Live Lebanon

Ministry of Health: 1518 new coronavirus cases, 12 deaths
NNA/December 11/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced 1518 new cases of coronavirus infection, which raises the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 143705.
12 deaths have been recorded over the past 24 hours.

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA/December 11/2020
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money changing companies and institutions Friday’s USD exchange rate against the Lebanese pound as follows:
Buying price at a minimum of LBP 3850
Selling price at a maximum of LBP 3900

Hizbullah Member Sentenced to Life in Hariri Assassination
Associated Press/December 11/2020
A U.N.-backed tribunal sentenced a member of the Hizbullah group to life imprisonment Friday for his involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The defendant, Salim Ayyash, has never been arrested and was not in court at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for Friday's sentencing hearing. The tribunal convicted Ayyash in August of being a co-perpetrator in five charges linked to the suicide truck bombing on Beirut's seafront on Feb. 14, 2005. The huge blast killed Hariri and 21 others and injured 226. "Mr. Ayyash participated in an act of terrorism that caused mass murder. His role ... was vital to the success of the attack," Presiding Judge David Re said. "The trial chamber is satisfied that it should impose the maximum sentence for each of the five crimes of life imprisonment, to be served concurrently," Re added. The court issued new international arrest warrants for Ayyash and authorized its prosecutor to ask international law enforcement agency Interpol to issue "red notices" to its member states seeking his arrest. Three other Hizbullah members were acquitted in August of all charges that they also were involved in the killing that sent shock waves through the Middle East. Only two judges and a small team of court officials were present in the courtroom Friday amid coronavirus restrictions, with other judges and lawyers attending the hearing remotely. In a verdict met with disappointment in Beirut in August, the tribunal ruled that there was no evidence that the Hizbullah leadership and Syria were involved in the attack, despite saying the assassination happened as Hariri and his political allies were discussing calling for an "immediate and total withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon."On Friday, one of the trial judges, Janet Nosworthy, said the assassination "most probably had to have involved a state actor" and that the state "with most to gain from Mr. Hariri's elimination most likely was Syria." Re also strongly suggested that Hizbullah has been shielding Ayyash from justice, pointing to speeches by its leader warning against any attempts to arrest any of the suspects when they were indicted by the tribunal.
"In my view, a strong inference is available from the above as to who has been shielding him from justice for all of these years," Re said, in a reference to the Hizbullah statements. The trial chamber recommended that Lebanon establish a nationwide compensation scheme for victims of crimes and that the Special Tribunal should set up a trust fund for victims made up of voluntary contributions. Re also said he made a declaration in the written sentencing judgment, which was not immediately available, on "some issues of judicial integrity" at the tribunal, including what he called attempts by judges to interfere with witness testimony during the trial and "financial impropriety.""I'm calling on the Secretary General of the United Nations to intervene to restore judicial probity and integrity at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon," Re said.

President Aoun: State monitors work of banks and public institutions to put end to abuses, Forensic audit of CentralBank accounts essential
NNA/December 11/2020
The President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, saw the need to define the relationship between banks and depositors and put an end to the injustice incurred on depositors as a result of the measures taken by Lebanese banks since the events of October 17, 2019, which are becoming increasingly difficult for depositors day after day.
President Aoun received a delegation from the Association of "Depositors' Cry in Banks" today at Baabda Palace.
The President stressed the need to respect laws that preserve the rights of bank depositors, also respecting the individual ownership that the constitution preserves for citizens, and laws prohibiting them, except in legally specific cases. The President of the Republic referred to the difficult economic and financial conditions that the country is going through that prompted the banks to adopt measures which negatively affected the interests and needs of the people and restricted the movement of financial circulation.
Then President Aoun expressed his hope that these causes will soon disappear so that banking life will return to normal.
In addition, President Aoun asserted that the state monitors the work of banks as well as other public institutions and official administrations in an attempt to put an end to the violations, pointing out that the adoption of forensic audit in Central Bank accounts constitutes an essential step in the file of reforms and combating corruption.
The association's delegation, which consisted of Messrs. Alaa Khorshid, Firas Tannous, Jan Mikhael, Camille Berber, Retired Brigadier General George Jacir and Dr. Mustafa Al Haraka had briefed President Aoun on the suffering of bank depositors and the difficulties faced every time they wanted to obtain or transfer part of their deposits for their families abroad. The members of the delegation also discussed the legal cases that they filed against a number of banks, which were met with closing their accounts and giving them bank checks that several banks refused to accept.
The delegation handed the President of the Republic a memorandum that included their demands, the most prominent of which are:
- Working to accelerate the passage of the Capitol Control law in the Parliament, and to ensure a seat in the Finance and Budget Committee for depositors to discuss the law before it is passed or any law related to depositors' money.
- Establishing a crisis cell under the auspices of the President of the Republic that includes a representative of the government, the Central Bank, the Association of Banks and Depositors, with periodic meetings tasked to examine the strict daily violations committed by banks against depositors, and to develop a comprehensive plan and determine the time limit for the return of deposits to their owners.
- Associations defending depositors urge the President of the Republic to expedite the formation of the salvation government under his auspices and request that they include a representative of the depositors (without a political capacity) because this represents a confidence factor for them.
- The associations defending the depositors categorically rejects the decision of the Governor of the Central Bank to return dollar deposits in the Lebanese currency to the value of the platform's dollar price, and considers it an explicit and direct evasion of the governor and the banks to return the depositors' money.
- We hope that His Excellency the President will consider the decision of the discriminatory Attorney General, Ghassan Ouweidat, who nullified the decision of the Financial Prosecutor, Ali Ibrahim, to seize the funds and properties of bank owners, heads of the board of directors and directors authorized to sign.
The associations defending the depositors also considered that the criminal investigation and scrutiny in the Central Bank, Lebanese banks and all funds, associations and ministries is "the beginning of solutions and the only way to find out where the money of depositors was wasted. The associations also called for accountability for all those involved in wasting the money of depositors and public money." Any individual who opposes this investigation is participant and corrupt until proven otherwise. The associations defending depositors also saw that the best possible solution to the fateful crisis begins with forming a government with the consensus of all political actors, where the government adopts the recovery of the looted and smuggled funds outside Lebanon, and starts stimulating and supporting Lebanese production in all its aspects from agricultural production to industrial production. The government must also stimulate the export of production and the introduction of hard currency into Lebanon, and work to attract new investments by creating an environment that will comfort foreign investors, and activate tourism of all kinds with the aim of creating new job opportunities and introducing additional hard currency into Lebanon, in addition to activating the role of the banking sector and restoring confidence of the Lebanese and foreign depositors by releasing part of the depositors ’funds with the same action so that depositors can participate in the process of saving Lebanon by investing in their homeland and urging them to create a high-specification Lebanese product to be exported abroad, especially since the owners of small and medium deposits make up more than 85% of depositors, and the possibility of solving their problem requires approximately 7 billion dollars.
The delegation requested President Aoun to help in issuing the Ministry of Interior knowledge of establishing their association, and the President of the Republic promised to pursue this request. -- Presidency Press Office

Hariri Defends Diab, Premiership Post after Indictment
Naharnet/December 11/2020
PM-designate Saad Hariri on Friday stood in solidarity with caretaker PM Hassan Diab after charges accusing the latter of “negligence” in the Beirut port explosion. Hariri said the “Lebanese people have the right to know the truth, and to know who allowed the entry of a ship of ammonium nitrate into Beirut port, and who covered for that.”Hariri spoke from the Grand Serail where he visited Diab in a stand of solidarity. “Violating the Constitution and charging the premiership post is categorically rejected. I am here today to stand in solidarity with Diab.”On Thursday, Judge Fadi Sawan, the lead investigator into a catastrophic August 4 explosion at Beirut port charged outgoing premier Hassan Diab and former ministers of finance, Ali Hasan Khalil, public works, Yousef Fenianos, and transport, Ghazi Zaiter with negligence.

Diab’s court indictment a blow to Hezbollah
The Arab Weekly/December 11/2020
On Friday, Hezbollah said the filed charges were politically motivated, calling on the investigating judge to reconsider his decision.

BEIRUT--On Thursday, Fadi Sawan, the judicial investigator for the Beirut port explosion, charged caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers with negligence over the blast that killed 200 people and devastated swathes of the capital. Judge Fadi Sawan called Diab and former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil in for questioning next week, along with former public works ministers Ghazi Zeaiter and Youssef Finianos, state news agency NNA said on Thursday. The explosion in the port was caused by the ignition of a large stockpile of explosive material that had been stored at the port for six years, with the knowledge of top security officials and politicians who did nothing about it. It killed more than 200 people and wounded thousands, devastating large parts of the capital Beirut. Hezbollah and its allies, who have been holding the joints of power in Lebanon for years, have sought to evade any responsibility for the Beirut bombing. The party even went so far as to file lawsuits against businessman and son of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Bahaa Hariri, former MP Faris Saeed and the website of the Lebanese Forces Party for holding it responsible for the devastating explosion.
A blow to Hezbollah
Observers do not rule out that Hezbollah’s initiation of these cases was a preemptive move ahead of the judicial investigator’s decision. Both Khalil and Zeaiter belong to the Shia Amal Movement, while Fenianos belongs to the Marada Movement, and both parties are close allies of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. On Friday, Hezbollah said the filed charges were politically motivated, calling on the investigating judge to reconsider his decision and saying the move lacked a legal and constitutional basis and that the four were being selectively charged. Diab, who is backed by Hezbollah, resigned in the wake of the August 4 explosion and remains in his post in a caretaker capacity, as Lebanese officials have failed to agree on a new Cabinet. The decision to charge senior officials — including one in office — was significant in Lebanon, where a culture of impunity has prevailed for decades, including among the entrenched political elites. “We are keen that all decisions taken by the investigating judge stay clear of politics and intent; be constitutional and not subject to interpretation or judgement; and that the indictment be based on legal and reasonable basis, which is what we did not find in the latest measures,” Hezbollah said.
“Therefore we absolutely reject the absence of unified criteria which led to what we consider political targeting affecting some people and ignoring others unfairly,” it added. Hezbollah said it supports people’s right to know what led to the massive explosion and who is responsible for it. But the powerful group said it does not want the probe to be stymied in double standards, nor for the truth to be lost in the “jungle of politics, the games of the street (pressure) and media clamor.”It was not clear what the impact of Hezbollah’s call would be on Sawan. But the charges issued Thursday have already been protested by the concerned officials.
Unhappy officials
A judicial source said that Sawan’s decision came “after verifying that they (the four ministers) have received several written correspondences warning them not to procrastinate in keeping the ammonium nitrate in the Beirut harbour complex, and to take the necessary measures to avoid the devastating explosion and its enormous damage.”Zeaiter, who said he would comment once he was officially informed, headed the public works ministry in 2014, soon after the Rhosus ship carrying tonnes of ammonium nitrate arrived at Beirut port. The highly explosive chemicals were stored for years in poor conditions at the port, which lies in the heart of the capital. There was no immediate comment from Fenanios . Khalil, a top aide to Lebanon’s influential Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, said he had no role in the case as former head of the finance ministry, which oversees customs. He said on Twitter that he was surprised by the judge’s allegations which “violated the constitution and the law.” For his part, Diab said his conscience was clear and accused the judge of breaching the constitution. He added in a statement he was confident that his hands were clean and that he had dealt transparently with the file of the Beirut port explosion, adding that he was surprised to be targeted by the investigating judge. The four officials are the first politicians charged by Sawan in the port case, after at least 25 high-ranking officials who were responsible for the port’s management and security were arrested. The judicial source stated that the judicial investigator “briefed the office of Prime Minister Hassan Diab on the contents of the allegation, and informed him that he [the investigator] will visit the government headquarters next Monday to interrogate him as a defendant.”Investigation sessions have also been scheduled next week to interrogate the other three ministers as “defendants.”
Bumpy road ahead
Lebanese authorities are investigating the explosion, which they attribute to huge amounts of ammonium nitrate being stored for years in the port without preventive measures. Some officials were reportedly aware of the danger of storing the material there, but did not lift a finger. The explosion on August 4 killed more than 200 people and injured 6,500 others. Families of some of the victims say Judge Sawan told them he had sent Berri a memo calling for immunity to be lifted from several former ministers and premiers, but the speaker had not accepted his proposal. The judicial council that appointed Sawan said on Thursday he sent a letter last month telling parliament his investigation had revealed “serious suspicions” linked to some government officials. Parliament replied that it found no such suspicions based on the information provided, the council said. A parliamentary office statement in November said that when asked about the letter, Berri said, “We have done what needs to be done and replied to him.”On Wednesday, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri presented a cabinet of technocrats to Lebanese President Michel Aoun, but Aoun is unlikely to agree to it.

Hizbullah Dubs Indictment in Port Blast as ‘Politicized’
Associated Press/December 11/2020
Hizbullah on Friday blasted as “politicized” the lead investigator’s decision to indict caretaker PM Hassan Diab and three allied ex-ministers over Beirut’s colossal port explosion on August 4. The group called on the investigating judge Fadi Sawwan to reconsider his decision, saying it lacked a legal and constitutional basis and that the four were being selectively charged. In a statement, the party said it is “keen to ensure that all measures taken by the investigating judge are far from politics, conform to the provisions of the Constitution, and are made on logical and legal grounds, which we did not find in the recent procedures.”Hizbullah added that “we categorically reject the absence of unified standards which we believe has politically targeted some individuals while unfairly ignoring others.”Hizbullah urged the “competent investigating judge to re-approach this important file again and to take legal measures to ensure that the desired truth is reached by unified standards totally far from politicization.”Sawan on Thursday, charged with negligence outgoing premier Hassan Diab and former ministers of finance, Ali Hasan Khalil, public works, Yousef Fenianos, and transport, Ghazi Zaiter.
Diab, who is backed by Hizbullah, resigned in the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion and remains in his post in a caretaker capacity, as Lebanese officials have failed to agree on a new Cabinet. The four were the most senior officials to be charged in the investigation and are set to be questioned next week by investigating judge Fadi Sawwan. He was named by the government to the post a few days after the explosion, and has been conducting his probe mostly in secrecy. The explosion in the port was caused by the ignition of a large stockpile of explosive material that had been stored at the port for six years, with the knowledge of top security officials and politicians who did nothing about it. It killed more than 200 people and wounded thousands, devastating large parts of the capital Beirut. The decision to charge senior officials — including one in office — was significant in Lebanon, where a culture of impunity has prevailed for decades, including among the entrenched political elites.

Qassem Says Govt Formation Paves Way for Solutions
Naharnet/December 11/2020
Hizbullah deputy chief Naim Qassem said on Friday that an only solution for the crisis in Lebanon is through the formation of a government. “If officials in Lebanon reach an agreement, the West and the United States will be obligated to respond,” said Qassem. He said the people in Lebanon are “suffocating” amid an economic crisis, and the only “winning and beneficial chance” is for political leaders to “reach an agreement, without waiting for foreign developments.”Qassem said Hizbullah is an “efficient partner for parties seeking solutions for rebuilding Beirut and Lebanon and addressing the economic and social problems.”On the US sanctions against the party, Qassem said they only “complicate problems in Lebanon.”

Rahi, Kubis tackle need for government that can gain trust of Lebanese people, international community
NNA/December 11/2020
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi, received this Friday in Bkirki the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, with whom he tackled the latest developments on the local arena. The pair stressed the need "for a government to be formed soon; one that will we gain the confidence of both the Lebanese and the international community, in order to be able to save Lebanon from the problems that have exhausted its people and drained its capabilities."

Khalil Says No Role for Him as ex-Finance Minister in Port Case
Naharnet/December 11/2020
Former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil snapped back Thursday at Judicial Investigator Judge Fadi Sawan after the latter charged him with negligence in the ongoing probe into the devastating August 4 explosion at Beirut’s port. Slamming what he called Sawan’s “claims,” Khalil announced in a tweet that he has always been “under the law and its norms.”“We have confidence in ourselves and in our practice of our responsibility,” he added. “We are surprised by the contradictory stance of the judicial investigator which has violated the constitution and the law,” Khalil went on to say. “As a (former) finance minister, I had no role in this case. The investigation minutes contain the proof,” the ex-minister added, noting that he will issue a detailed response to “unveil all backgrounds and facts.”Earlier in the day, Sawan had pressed charges against caretaker PM Hassan Diab as well as against Khalil and two former public works ministers -- Ghazi Zoaiter and Youssef Fenianos. The four are the most senior individuals to be indicted so far in the investigation, which is being conducted in secrecy. And though it is too early to predict whether any of the four would end up on trial, the development is significant in Lebanon, where a culture of impunity has prevailed for decades, including among the entrenched political elites.

French Ambassador visits Tripoli and North Lebanon's Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture
NNA/December 11/2020
French Ambassador to Lebanon, Anne Grillo, on Friday visited Tripoli and North Lebanon's Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture, where she met its President Toufic Dabbousi. "I came to explore the opportunities for partnership and cooperation between France and Lebanon, in particular with Tripoli," said Grillo, while adding that the Chamber's projects reflect the importance of development in Lebanon, which further strengthens convictions about the country's potential.
The diplomat continued, "This prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to support Lebanon and the international community to help this country; your projects are ambitious and reinforce confidence in the partnership". "Many investors from different continents of the world are interested in Lebanon, and not only the French," she then declared."France and the European Union support the projects carried out by the Chamber of Tripoli and the North, which has an exemplary and constructive initiative which pushes for rapprochement and strengths the exchange movement between the Lebanese, French, and European parties," the French diplomat concluded.

Hezbollah’s Great Diversion
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 11/2020
خالد أبو طعمة/معهد كايتستون: الإنحراف الكبير لحزب الله/مقالة تلقي الأضواء على دور حزب الله في تفجير مرفأ بيروت وسيطرته على القضاء
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/93558/khaled-abu-toameh-gatestone-institute-hezbollahs-great-diversion-%d8%ae%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af-%d8%a3%d8%a8%d9%88-%d8%b7%d8%b9%d9%85%d8%a9-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b3%d8%aa/
Many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port “massacre.” They are also demanding an end to Iran’s occupation of Lebanon.
Although the Lebanese government has set up a commission of inquiry into the port explosion, many Lebanese are wondering why the results have not been published yet. They are convinced that the Lebanese government is afraid to point the finger of blame at Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah trusts the judiciary it controls with its weapons.” — Nizar Salloum, Lebanon, Twitter, December 7, 2020.
The UN is not going to provide relief or answers to the families of the victims of the Lebanon explosion because its members are busy passing resolutions day and night against Israel.
The only step left for the Lebanese is to revolt against the terrorist organization that has turned their country into a military and political base for the mullahs in Tehran.
More than four months have passed since the huge explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port “massacre.”
More than four months have passed since the huge explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port “massacre.” They are also demanding an end to Iran’s occupation of Lebanon.
On August 4, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Beirut port exploded, causing at least 204 deaths, 6,500 injuries, and $15 billion in property damage. An estimated 300,000 people were left homeless.
Many of Hezbollah’s political and civil opponents blamed the terrorist organization for storing the dangerous chemicals. A commission of inquiry set up by the Lebanese government has so far failed to provide satisfactory answers, prompting many Lebanese to call for an international probe. Denying responsibility, Hezbollah this week threatened to sue those who have accused it of being behind the explosion.
Hezbollah’s denial, however, has failed to convince many Lebanese, who are saying they are fed up with the terrorist organization’s lies. On December 5, Lebanese demonstrators took to the streets, chanting “Hezbollah the terrorist” and asking questions about its role in the explosion.
“We, Lebanese, should do to [Hezbollah Secretary-General] Hassan Nasrallah the same thing Libyans did to [slain Libyan dictator] Gaddafi: Step on his face and crush it.,” The Beirut Journal wrote on Twitter.
A hashtag named “Hezbollah is Terror” that has recently been trending on Twitter and other social media platforms accuses the terrorist organization of hijacking and destroying Lebanon to serve the interests of Iran. The hashtag further accuses Hezbollah terrorists of beating and intimidating peaceful demonstrators in various parts of Lebanon.
“What has Nasrallah done to the Lebanese people?” asked Lebanese social media user Martine J. Zaarour. “1. Killed our people. 2. Stolen our money. 3. Destroyed Beirut. 4. Placed on the terrorist list 5. Made war with Israel. 6. Prioritized Palestinians and Syrians. 8. Threatened us with illegal weapons.”
Some Lebanese citizens scoffed at Hezbollah’s threat to sue those who hold it responsible for the port explosion. “If Hezbollah is resorting to the judiciary, this means that it trusts the Lebanese state,” remarked Lebanese political activist Charbel Frem. “So why does Hezbollah not surrender its weapons to the state?”
In response, Nizar Salloum, also from Lebanon, wrote: “Hezbollah trusts the judiciary it controls with its weapons.”
Although the Lebanese government has set up a commission of inquiry into the port explosion, many Lebanese are wondering why the results have not been published yet. They are convinced that the Lebanese government is afraid to point the finger of blame at Hezbollah.
“Four months have passed,” noted Larissa Aoun, a Lebanese reporter for Sky News Arabia. “Where is the investigation? Where is justice? Who is responsible? We will not forget.”
Alarmed by the growing criticism of Hezbollah’s presence as a state-within-a-state in Lebanon and allegations over its responsibility for the Beirut explosion, the terrorist organization has begun berating and intimidating journalists who dare to speak out.
One victim, Maraim Seif, was recently attacked at her home by Hezbollah terrorists for her repeated criticism of the terrorist organization.
“Hezbollah’s ‘resistance fighters’ have officially turned into thugs,” commented Lebanese anchorwoman Dima Sadek. “These resistance fighters attacked the activist, journalist and friend Mariam Seif and her family, beat them and threatened to kill them. Mariam was assaulted for articles she wrote attacking Hezbollah.”
Sadek herself was targeted by Hezbollah thugs for supporting protests against the terrorist organization. She recently resigned from Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International after receiving threats from Hezbollah.
“Lebanon is ruled by an armed militia and a corrupted mafia,” said Serge Dagher, Secretary-General of the Lebanese Kataeb party. “No change can be achieved in this country expect with holding parliament elections, changing the ruling authority as a whole as well as the mafia and militia that has been prevailing over the country for the past period.” He blamed the Lebanese government for mishandling the Beirut port explosion and pointed out that none of the Lebanese officials has taken to the streets and supported the people.
The failure of the Lebanese authorities to reveal the identities of those responsible for the explosion has led several Lebanese politicians, political activists and journalists to call for the intervention of the international community.
Samir Geagea, Chairman of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party, threatened to resort to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if the Lebanese government’s investigation into the port explosion does not reach clear results. “We will go to the International Criminal Court to uncover the truth and the circumstances surrounding this crime,” he said.
In an apparent attempt to divert attention from the port explosion, Hezbollah claimed on December 5 that one of its unmanned aerial drones flew over the Galilee in northern Israel. The claim came as Lebanon is facing a deep economic crisis and amid growing outrage in the country over Hezbollah’s responsibility for the disasters that have befallen the Lebanese people in the past few decades.
The Lebanese are naïve in the extreme to believe that the international community is going to listen to their grievances or interfere to stop Hezbollah and its masters in Iran from destroying Lebanon. They are also painfully naïve if they believe that anyone in the international community cares about the assaults and threats against Lebanese journalists and activists who criticize Hezbollah or call for an end to Iran’s occupation of Lebanon.
The international community has more pressing issues on its mind: Israel. Earlier this month, the United Nations General Assembly approved five pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli resolutions.
The Lebanese who have lost their loved ones or their homes in the port explosion could not care less about Israel.
In fact, such resolutions are harmful to the Lebanese because they keep the world’s attention focused only on Israel. The UN is not going to provide relief or answers to the families of the victims of the Lebanon explosion because its members are busy passing resolutions day and night against Israel. The only step left for the Lebanese is to revolt against the terrorist organization that has turned their country into a military and political base for the mullahs in Tehran.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 11- 12/2020

EU agrees to map out sanctions on Turkey over Mediterranean drilling
Brodie Owen/The National/December 11/2020
Measures will target individuals but fall short of arms embargo. European leaders have agreed on the first steps on sanctions against Turkey in response to Ankara's prospecting for gas in Greek and Cypriot waters.
After a marathon summit on Thursday, EU leaders agreed to target the sanctions on individuals in the first instance but further measures could be imposed "if Turkey pursues its actions". "Turkey has engaged in unilateral actions and provocations and escalated its rhetoric against the EU, EU Member States and European leaders," a statement said after a debate at a summit in Brussels. "Turkish unilateral and provocative activities in the Eastern Mediterranean are still taking place, including in Cyprus's exclusive economic zone." The sanctions are in response to Turkey challenging Greek and Cypriot territory by gas drilling in the Mediterranean Sea. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the EU's "firmness" on Turkey but there will be disappointment in Greece and Cyprus that the leaders did not agree to seek an arms embargo or to target entire sectors of Turkey's economy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped the messages sent by the EU would be "received correctly". The conclusions called for a list to be drawn up of targets for "restrictive measures". Turkey said the EU plan to draw up sanctions was both partisan and illegal. "We reject the biased and unlawful attitude which had to be inserted into the December 10 EU summit conclusions after the pressure of solidarity and veto," the foreign ministry said after the meeting. France, Greece, and Cyprus had pushed for tough action against Turkey, but other EU nations including Germany, Italy and Poland opposed slapping broad sanctions or an embargo on a fellow NATO member.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that some "countries in the EU with common sense displayed a positive approach and foiled this game”. Ahead of the summit, Mr Erdogan dismissed the sanctions threat: “Turkey does not care much about any sanctions decision to be made by the EU. 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." The EU announcement comes a day after US plans to sanction Turkey over its S-400 air defence system, which was controversially purchased from Russia, were reported by the Washington Post. Mr Erdogan said any US sanctions would be “disrespectful”. President Donald Trump, who once called Mr Erdogan a "good friend", avoided sanctioning Turkey under a 2017 law known as CAATSA, which lays out measures against nations that buy significant quantities of arms from US adversaries, including Russia. However, with weeks left of his presidency, Mr Trump plans to impose sanctions against Ankara "in the coming days for purchasing and testing" the S-400s. Mr Erdogan said: "While they (US administrations) say with pride 'We have a NATO country like Turkey', for them to now stand up and confront Turkey with CAATSA, once more it's a disrespect to a very important NATO partner. "I don't know where this will lead to before Trump leaves but during the four-year Trump period, I didn't have any problems in communicating with America.” Ties between the US and Turkey have been strained over multiple issues, including US support for a Kurdish militia in Syria viewed as terrorists by Ankara, as well as the S-400s. However, Mr Erdogan appeared to suggest relations could improve under president-elect Joe Biden, as he said he knew the former vice president under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama. "He is someone who knows me very well. And I know him very well," Mr Erdogan said.
 

Amid terror finance allegations, Qatar lobbies for US F-35 fighter jets
Benjamin Weinthal/The Jerusalem Post/December 11/2020
Qatar’s regime, whose monarchy is already reeling from allegations that it finances Islamic terrorist movements, faced new criticism on Wednesday for its lobbying efforts in the US to purchase the F-35 fighter jets. “Given Qatar’s track record of financing and helping terrorists – and given Qatar’s extraordinary links with Iran – giving Qatar F-35s will undermine the advantage of the US, Israel and their regional allies,” Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of the London-based Cornerstone Global Associates, told The Jerusalem Post.He said that “Selling F-35s to Qatar would be a strategic mistake that will have long-term consequences on the national security of the West. Qatar does not have the manpower to use the F-35s and the US and its regional allies should ask why Qatar wants them.”Cornerstone’s risk reports on Qatar’s regime have been cited in the British media, including by BBC. Nuseibeh’s comment on Qatar’s lobbying in the US was in response to a blockbuster Tuesday report on the website of ForeignLobby.com. The article by Julian Pecquet, founder and editor of Foreign Lobby Report, said that “ Donald Trump‘s proposed sale of F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates is taking flak from another close US ally in the Middle East. Even as Israel now says that it’s ‘very comfortable’ with the proposed $10 billion sale of 50 of the advanced stealth fighters to the Gulf Arab state, UAE rival Qatar has been raising concerns behind the scenes.” Foreign Lobby disclosed that “A new lobbying filing reveals that lobbyists with South Carolina-based Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough reached out to four key House Democrats in September and October regarding the proposed sale.” According to the lobbying revelations, “former Rep. Jim Moran (D-Virginia) is leading Nelson Mullins’ lobbying on Qatar.” Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar with the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told Foreign Lobby that “It’s been an opportunity for Qatar to harass the UAE, but they can’t block this.”According to the website, “Qatar’s lobbying on the F-35 was disclosed in a semi-annual lobbying filing that covers the six months through October. During that time, Nelson Mullins disclosed $800,000 from the government of Qatar.” Foreign Lobby, according to its website, is “the comprehensive news site tracking foreign influence operations in Washington.” The Post sent media queries to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry in Doha as well as to its embassy in Washington. During the summer, German, Israeli and American news outlets reported on Qatar’s alleged role in financing the Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah. In August, according to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news channel, “The United States has sent a team to Qatar to investigate” an allegation that “Doha is funding Lebanese Hezbollah militia.”In 2014, German Development Minister Gerd Müller accused Qatar of financing Islamic State terrorists.
*Benjamin Weinthal is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

Rise in Israeli strikes in Syria has led to decrease of Iranian activity
The Jerusalem Post/December 11/2020
Over 500 strikes on all fronts, but "we still have a long way to go to complete our goals," says IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi.
Iran’s entrenchment in Syria is slowing down as a result of ongoing IDF operations which have increased over the past year, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi announced Friday. The IDF chief also revealed for the first time that the military has been carried out cyberattacks.
“The Iranian entrenchment in Syria is in a clear slowdown as a result of IDF activity, but we still have a long way to go to complete our goals in this arena,” he said. The past year has seen an increase in pace and quality of Israeli strikes against Iranian assets in Syria, including kinetic operations as well as an expansion of both covert and clandestine ones. “We have struck over 500 targets this year, on all fronts, in addition to multiple clandestine missions,” Kochavi said. Israel has warned repeatedly about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, as well as its aspirations of regional hegemony, and has admitted to hundreds of airstrikes as part of its “war-between-wars” campaign (known as MABAM in Hebrew) to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the entrenchment of its forces in Syria, where they could easily act against Israel. Not only have the strikes in Syria destroyed an immeasurable amount of advanced weaponry, but in recent months, Iran has also significantly reduced the number of cargo flights into Syria which are used to smuggle weapons into the war-torn country. Iranian bases, camps and headquarters have also been moved from the area around Damascus towards the northern and eastern parts of Syria, and the number of Iranian troops and militia members has also shrunk considerably. And while the IDF has publicly claimed operations in Syria, they have remained mum when foreign reports have blamed Israel’s war-between-wars for strikes in countries far from its borders.
But in a subtle hint, Kochavi admitted that Israel has acted in other countries, saying that “we operate in six areas intensively. There are arenas with activities on a daily basis and there are those with weekly or monthly activities.”“The Middle East is the most divided and violent region in the world,” Kochavi said, adding that “most of the countries surrounding Israel have areas without governance, and that challenges us to operate with ‘classic’ measures.”According to the IDF chief, Israel’s military has also “carried out many offensive operations” in the cybersphere, which he said is “the most significant combat arena that has changed this year.”
In late June, as part of the IDF’s Momentum multi-year plan, the military opened the Strategy and Third-Circle Directorate, an entirely new position on the General Staff, which focuses principally on Israel’s fight against Iran. The new directorate under the command of Brig.-Gen. Tal Kalman is expected to bolster the IDF’s attack capabilities. But even before the directorate became operational, Israel was accused of launching a major cyberattack on Iran’s Shahid Rajaee Port, near the coastal city of Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, causing chaos for days after the facility’s computer system crashed after being suddenly hit by hackers on May 9.A series of mysterious “accidents” targeting Iran’s missile and nuclear program over the summer led many to wonder if the IDF’s war-between-wars campaign has expanded to target key nuclear sites.
While Defense Minister Benny Gantz denied any Israeli role in the incidents, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi meanwhile hinted otherwise, saying at the Maariv conference in July that “we have a long-term policy over the course of many administrations not to allow Iran to have nuclear abilities. This [Iranian] regime with those abilities is an existential threat to Israel... We take actions that are better left unsaid.”
Like Israel’s war-between-wars campaign, those who carry out cyberattacks usually do so far from the target and anonymously in order to allow for some plausible deniability to prevent an escalation. Despite the ongoing tensions in the North, the IDF views the overall strategic-security situation as having improved compared to previous years. “We conclude a year in which we successfully met the IDF’s first mission - to provide protection and security,” said Kochavi, adding that “we prevented all attempts to infiltrate into the State of Israel and saw a decrease in the number of casualties and rocket fire on Israel. “
In the Gaza Strip, for example, 2019 saw the most serious peak of violence between Israel and terror groups since the end of Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Dozens of rounds of violence saw about 1,300 rockets fired. Seven Israeli civilians and two IDF soldiers were also killed, the highest number of casualties since Operation Protective Edge. But, over the past year, rocket attacks have decreased, with 174 fired in 2020, and terror attacks in the West Bank have also decreased significantly, claiming the lives of one Israeli civilian and one IDF soldier.
Touching on the recent normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, two countries who also view Iran as hostile, the chief of staff said that the moves “have a positive impact on alliances and security aspects in the Middle East.”

U.S. Flies Two B-52s over Gulf in Message for Iran
Agence France Presse/December 11, 2020
The United States deployed two B-52 long-range bombers over the Gulf on Thursday in a show of force directed at Iran as Washington moves to cut its ground-level military presence in the region. The two bombers took off at short notice from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana for the non-stop, 36-hour mission to cross Europe and then the Arabian Peninsula to the Gulf, looping near Qatar while keeping a "safe distance" from Iran's coastline, US defense officials said. The mission, the second such in two months, "was designed to underscore the US military's commitment to its regional partners, while also validating the ability to rapidly deploy combat power anywhere in the world," according to US Central Command commander General Frank McKenzie. While McKenzie did not name Iran as the focus of the mission, the US has used shows of force in the air and on the sea to deter Tehran from "malign behavior" toward US forces and allies in the Gulf. "Potential adversaries should understand that no nation on earth is more ready and capable of rapidly deploying additional combat power in the face of any aggression," McKenzie said in a statement. The flight was coordinated with US allies, and aircraft from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar flew with the bombers as they traversed the airspace, according to a US defense official. In the last year President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to slash US troop numbers in Iraq to just 2,500 by mid-January, the lowest level since 2003.
Likewise, he is cutting the number of troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Somalia. But the US Navy has kept a significant presence in the region. In late November a carrier group led by the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz sailed into the Gulf. Speaking at a virtual conference sponsored by Defense One after the announcement, McKenzie pointed out that the B-52 deployment came nearly one year after US forces killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani while he was visiting Baghdad on January 3, 2020. Since then Iran has been expected to try to retaliate, and even more so since the assassination inside Iran of senior nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last month, which Tehran blames on Israel. "I think they were embarrassed by it," he said of Fakhrizadeh's murder. "I think they're searching for a way to respond... But their process is often slow and often not completely synchronized. So I think they are still working what that's going to be." McKenzie said he is always in discussions with Pentagon leadership on what kind and size of presence the US military needs to deter Iran. "Because that is our intent: to convince them that it is not in their interest to lash out, it is not in their interest to attack us either directly or indirectly," he said.

Biden, Harris Named Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year'
Associated Press/December 11, 2020
Time magazine has named President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris its "Person of the Year." Time's editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal says Biden and Harris won the honor for "changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world." Felsenthal notes, "Every elected President since FDR has at some point during his term been a Person of the Year, nearly a dozen of those in a presidential election year. This is the first time we have included a Vice President."
Time's other Person of the Year candidates were President Donald Trump; frontline health care workers and Dr. Anthony Fauci; and the movement for racial justice. Also Thursday, Time named the Korean boy band BTS its Entertainer of the Year and named Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James its Athlete of the Year.

Pompeo says international community must not reward Iranian ‘nuclear gamesmanship’
Arab News/December 11, 2020
LONDON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned the international community on Friday over a bill approved by the Iranian parliament vowing to raise uranium enrichment. He condemned the parliament’s decision and said it would be a threat to the international community if implemented. “The international community must not reward Iranian nuclear gamesmanship. The steps passed by Iran’s Majles, if implemented, would bring Iran to the dangerous 20% uranium enrichment level with no credible rationale for any peaceful purpose,” the US secretary wrote on Twitter. Meanwhile, the US envoy to Iran Elliott Abrams stressed that analysts had been mistaken about President Donald Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” on the Tehran regime when they considered it inefficient. Abrams stressed that the policy had been successful and highly effective. In addition, Abrams explained that the maximum pressure campaign, which saw more sanctioning on the Iranian economy and upended the nuclear deal forged in 2015 between Tehran and world powers, aimed to reach a better agreement with the Iranian regime.

HomeIntelligence experts say Iranian regime hackers targeted dissidents during online rally
Ray Hanania/Arab News/December 11, 2020
CHICAGO: The Iranian regime orchestrated a massive social-media campaign in an attempt to disrupt and discredit an online conference of dissidents, according to a report published on Friday. The July 17 event, thought to be the largest of its kind, called on the US, UN and EU to impose tougher sanctions on Tehran. It was organized by opposition groups the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The participants included more than 1,000 politicians and government officials, including heads of state and foreign ministers. Prominent US political figures included former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and US Senator Joseph Lieberman. The report was compiled by Treadstone 71, a cyber and threat intelligence consultancy. It said that hackers known as Basij Cyber Units (BCU), a paramilitary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), aimed to “drown out” the voices on social media calling for regime change in Iran by creating thousands of fake accounts. Experts at the company, which specializes in monitoring Iranian cyber and influence operations and researches hacker groups, said that during the conference they spotted “highly unusual spikes in social-media activity that, at first glance, seemed random.” Analysis showed “that at least 35 to 45 percent of accounts participated in this campaign from inside Iran, non-inclusive of the likely Iranian participants using VPNs (virtual private networks) and proxies.” VPNs and proxies are commonly used to disguise a user’s geographic location.
The report continued: “The Revolutionary Guards Cyber Unit (RGCU) led the well-organized influence operations. According to the data, nearly 46 percent of accounts engaged in the campaign were fake and spam accounts.” The authors stated that 26,431 social-media accounts were used in the campaign, of which 11,294 were fake or “low-follower” accounts that had been newly created or were previously dormant. The July 17 event, thought to be the largest of its kind, called on the US, UN and EU to impose tougher sanctions on Tehran. It was organized by opposition groups the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran. (Supplied/NCRI). “The RGCU enrolled 1,622 Twitter accounts in June and July, within one month of the online conference,” according to the report. Immediately after the conference, 3,453 of the accounts were deleted and 1,168 became inactive. The campaign also used “bots,” automated programs that can automatically search the internet for specific data. The BCU is known to have created hundreds of thousands of fake Twitter accounts, hacked social-media accounts, disrupted and vandalized websites, and stolen information from anti-regime activists. PMOI/MEK spokesman Shahin Gobadi, who is based in Paris, said the report is proof that Iran’s leaders fear the organization and shows why the regime must be sanctioned. “Since its inception, Iran’s clerical regime has been engaged in a massive demonization and disinformation campaign against its opponents, particularly the main resistance group: the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the MEK,” he said. “The demonization campaign has been part and parcel of its terror machine inside and outside of Iran. As such, the mullahs have devoted massive amounts of resources and manpower to the dissemination of lies and slander against the MEK in the cybersphere over the years.”Gobadi said the report confirms what the world already knows: “The main source of lies and allegations against the MEK is the clerical regime — and specifically the MOIS and the IRGC, both of which have elaborate sections devoted to cyber activities.”The dissident conference prompted condemnations of the brutality of the Iranian regime and its acts of terrorism. The speakers included human rights activists Ingrid Betancourt and Linda Chavez, along with representatives from the European, German, French and Italian parliaments.

Suicide Bomber Injures Six Police in Russia
Agence France Presse/December 11/2020
A suicide bomber blew himself up in the North Caucasus Russian region of Karachay-Cherkessia Friday injuring six police officers, the country's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said. An unidentified person tried to break into an area where police were conducting searches and triggered the bomb when they tried to arrest him, the committee said, adding that "six officers were lightly injured" in the blast.

Aid Agencies Say Four Staff Killed in Ethiopia Fighting
Agence France Presse/December 11/2020
Two international aid agencies on Friday said four staff members were killed during last month's fighting in Ethiopia's troubled northern Tigray region. The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) reported the deaths of three security guards, while the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said one of its staff members had been killed. An estimated 600,000 people in Tigray were dependent on food aid before the fighting began, including 96,000 refugees from neighbouring Eritrea. When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered troops into Tigray on November 4, following alleged attacks by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) forces, aid workers were left stranded and vulnerable. A communications blackout imposed by the government combined with tight restrictions on access to Tigray has made it very difficult for aid agencies to confirm the whereabouts and safety of their staff in the area.
DRC said it was "deeply saddened to confirm the death of three colleagues," adding that its "workers are at the forefront of the humanitarian imperative to provide assistance to those in need. "Sadly, due to the lack of communications and ongoing insecurity in the region, it has not yet been possible to reach their families," a statement said. In another statement, IRC said it "regrets to confirm the killing of a staff member in Hitsats Refugee Camp in Shire". "Our in-country staff are the very heart of our work and are key in our ability to provide support and assistance to our clients," it said.
"Communication with the area is extremely difficult and we are still working to gather and confirm the details surrounding the events." Despite Abiy's declaration of victory on November 28, the UN and aid agencies have said fighting continues.

EU Plans to Hit Turkey with More Sanctions over Med Drilling
Associated Press/December 11/2020
European Union leaders early Friday gave the green light for the expansion of sanctions against Turkey over its exploration of gas reserves in Mediterranean waters claimed by EU members Greece and Cyprus. "Regrettably, Turkey has engaged in unilateral actions and provocations and escalated its rhetoric against the EU, EU member states and European leaders," they said in a statement from their summit in Brussels. At their last summit in October, the leaders offered "a positive political EU-Turkey agenda" to Ankara, including trade and customs benefits and the prospect of more funds to help Turkey manage Syrian refugees on its territory if it halts its "illegal activities" in the eastern Mediterranean. The leaders said that offer remains on the table if Turkey is prepared to enter into a "genuine partnership" and begin a real dialogue with the EU, and if Ankara shows a willingness to resolve differences through dialogue and in accordance with international law. But given the lack of a response so far, they invited the 27-nation bloc's ministers "to adopt additional listings" for sanctions "concerning restrictive measures in view of Turkey's unauthorized drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean."
The leaders told EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to draw up a report on the state of EU-Turkey political, economic and trade relations and to suggest how to proceed, including on widening sanctions, and submit it to the leaders by the time they hold their summit in March next year. Pressure had been mounting for the EU to act, given its previous threats and Turkey's refusal to respond. "The stakes are very precise, very clear: the credibility of the European Union," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said ahead of the meeting. He recalled that the leaders said in October that there would be consequences if Turkey "continued its delinquent behavior." "So now, it will be seen whether, as Europe, we are really credible in what we ourselves have agreed to," Mitsotakis said. The 27 EU countries are split over how best to handle Turkey. France and Cyprus have pushed for tougher measures like economic sanctions, but other countries are concerned about further undermining the country's already ravaged economy and destabilizing the region. On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan brushed off the threat of sanctions and accused the EU, which Turkey is a candidate to join although its membership talks are blocked, of acting "dishonestly" and failing to keep its promises. "Any decision to impose sanctions against Turkey won't be of great concern to Turkey," Erdogan told reporters. Just over a year ago, the EU set up a system for imposing travel bans and asset freezes on people, companies or organizations linked to drilling activities "which have not been authorized by the Republic of Cyprus, within its territorial sea or in its exclusive economic zone or on its continental shelf." Two officials are currently on the list: the Vice-President of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation and the deputy director of its Exploration Department. The idea is to add more people or some organizations to the list. It's unclear anyway whether more sanctions would slow Turkey down. Steps were taken in the past — the slashing of funds meant to prepare Turkey for EU membership and the virtual freezing of its accession talks — yet Ankara has only become more vocal. On top of that, Erdogan has shown his willingness to encourage migrants and refugees from Syria to cross the border into Greece and on into Europe, which remains deeply destabilized by the arrival of well over 1 million people in 2015, to ensure that his demands are well understood. Turkey also plays a military role in Libya, a main jumping-off point in Africa for migrants hoping to reach Europe.
*Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed to this report

AstraZeneca to Use Part of Russian Covid Vaccine in Trials
Agence France Presse/December 11/2020
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca's Russian branch said Friday it would use part of Russia's homemade Sputnik V vaccine in further clinical trials. "Today we announce a clinical trial programme to assess safety and immunogenicity of a combination of AZD1222, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and Sputnik V, developed by Russian Gamaleya Research institute" AstraZeneca said in a statement published on its website in English and Russian.

Hundreds protest against Kurdish authorities in northeast Iraq
AFP/December 12, 2020
SULAIMANIYAH: Hundreds protested in Iraq’s northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah on Friday against Kurdish authorities they accuse of being corrupt and causing a major fiscal crisis. Protests against the Kurdish regional government (KRG) and the region’s main parties broke out last week after months of delayed public sector salaries and pay cuts. Following days of demonstrations in towns and villages in the Sulaimaniyah region, hundreds gathered outside a local government building in the provincial capital on Friday. “I came to protest for my salaries and for my children’s lives. We’ve had enough of this suffering,” Fatima Hassan, a 25-year-old public sector worker, told an AFP correspondent there. Crowds of protesters around her yelled chants in Kurdish against local authorities, accusing them of corruption. They attempted to block off the wide boulevard around the building, but riot police quickly deployed and used tear gas to try to disperse the demonstrators.
SPEEDREAD
Protests against the Kurdish regional government (KRG) and the region’s main parties broke out last week after months of delayed public sector salaries and pay cuts. Piman Ezzedin, a former lawmaker in the Kurdish region’s autonomous parliament and a member of the opposition Goran (Change) Movement, said security forces had detained around a dozen organizers of Friday’s rally just as it was starting, around 1:30 p.m. local (1030 GMT). A relative of the former lawmaker told AFP that Ezzedin was subsequently detained. Even before the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the Kurdish region in the north had been developing as an autonomous zone, with Western backing. Following Saddam’s ouster, the region tried to draw in investments from multinational energy companies while expanding its public sector payroll — creating a major debt crisis.

Germany to allow deportations of ‘suspect’ Syrians, says minister
AFP/December 12, 2020
Calls for a change in stance have been growing since a Syrian man was arrested in November on suspicion of carrying out a deadly knife attack in the city of Dresden
BERLIN: Germany said on Friday it would allow deportation of Syrians to their war-ravaged homeland from 2021 if they are deemed a security risk, five years after a massive refugee influx. The EU’s biggest economic power and most populous member allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Syria’s devastating civil war in 2015-16 but security officials said it was time to lift blanket protections against expulsion. “The general ban on deportations (to Syria) will expire at the end of this year,” Hans-Georg Engelke, state secretary at the Interior Ministry, told reporters.
“Those who commit crimes or pursue terrorist aims to do serious harm to our state and our population should and will have to leave our country.”The decision, which drew vehement criticism from human rights groups, was taken at a telephone conference between federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, a hard-line conservative who had long called for an end to the deportation ban, and his 16 state-level counterparts. The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s right-left “grand coalition” government, failed in their bid to win a six-month extension of the protections, in place since 2012.
They argued that the still precarious security and humanitarian situation in Syria made expulsions there indefensible. Engelke, standing in for Seehofer who was in quarantine after a coronavirus exposure, told a news conference that an estimated 90 Syrian suspected militants were believed to be in Germany.
Calls for a change in stance have been growing since a Syrian man was arrested in November on suspicion of carrying out a deadly knife attack in the city of Dresden. Prosecutors said the 20-year-old, accused of killing one tourist and seriously injuring another, had a raft of criminal convictions and a history of involvement with the extremist scene.
HIGHLIGHT
The decision, which drew vehement criticism from human rights groups, was taken at a telephone conference between federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, a hard-line conservative and his 16 state-level counterparts. He had been living in Germany under “tolerated” status granted to people whose asylum requests have been rejected, but who cannot be deported. Boris Pistorius of the SPD, interior minister of Lower Saxony, noted that on a practical level expulsions to Syria would remain next to impossible “because there are no state institutions with which we have diplomatic relations.”
But he sharply criticized the symbolic meaning of Germany becoming what he called the first EU country to lift the deportation ban. Germany took in more than 1 million migrants including tens of thousands of Syrians at the height of the refugee influx 2015-16 when several EU member states shut their borders to asylum seekers. The German Foreign Ministry has described conditions in Syria as “catastrophic” and noted that its nationals continue to be “exposed to dangers when they return” to their home country. Government forces have regained control of large swathes of territory once held by rebels and militant groups, but opponents of the Assad government still face torture and death, according to human rights organizations. However, as Germany heads into a general election year to replace Merkel after 16 years in power, conservative politicians seized on the issue amid concerns among some voters about the security risk posed by refugees. “In such a situation, you can’t tell the German population on the issue of whether someone poses a danger ... that it is taboo to even think about sending them home,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told the news conference.
German campaigners slammed the decision, calling it opportunistic and driven by political interests. “The behavior of the conservative interior ministers is a disgrace for the rule of law and irresponsible in its substance,” Guenter Burkhardt of refugee rights group PRO ASYL said in a statement, calling it a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Syria’s war, which broke out after the brutal suppression of anti-government protests in 2011, has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions. Germany has launched several criminal cases over alleged war crimes in Syria under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 11- 12/2020

Question: "What does it mean that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6)?"
GotQuestions.org/December 11/2020
Answer: When Isaiah wrote his prediction of the coming of the “Wonderful Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6), he was spurring Israel to remember their Messiah was indeed coming to establish His Kingdom (Isaiah 9:7). Isaiah was writing nearly 800 years before Christ. This period of history was tumultuous as the Assyrians were on the march, taking people into captivity by droves. Isaiah’s prophecy gave the people of God a hope they so desperately needed: a Child would be born to fulfill the Davidic Covenant, and He would bear the titles “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The Child was Christ; the prophecy will reach its consummation at Christ’s second coming.
That Isaiah calls the Messiah the “Wonderful Counselor” indicates the kind of character this coming King has. The word wonderful in this passage literally means “incomprehensible.” The Messiah will cause us to be “full of wonder.” The word is much weightier than the way it’s used in normal conversation today—we say things are “wonderful” if they are pleasant, lovely, or the least bit likable. Jesus is wonderful in a way that is boggling to the mind. The same word for “wonderful” is used in Judges 13:18 when Manoah, Samson’s father, asked the LORD (in a theophany) what His name was. The angel of the LORD responded, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” In other words, “Why do you ask my name, since it is beyond your understanding?”
Jesus demonstrated His wonderfulness in various ways when He was on the earth, beginning with His conception in the womb of a virgin (Matthew 1:23). He showed He is the “wonderful” One in His power to heal (Matthew 4:23), His amazing teaching (Mark 1:22), His perfect life (Hebrews 4:15), and His resurrection from the dead (Mark 16:6). Jesus taught many wonderful things that are counterintuitive to the human mind: “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4). “Rejoice and be glad” in persecution (Matthew 5:11–12). “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). Jesus’ kind of wonderful is awe-inspiring and superior to any other kind, for He is perfect in every way (Matthew 5:48).
The second part of the Messiah’s title is the word counselor. In ancient Israel, a counselor was portrayed as a wise king, such as Solomon, giving guidance to his people (1 Kings 4:34; Micah 4:9). Isaiah uses this word again in 28:29 to describe the LORD: “This also comes from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.” Jesus is a wise counselor. “He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person” (John 2:25). He is able to advise His people thoroughly because He is qualified in ways no human counselor is. In Christ is “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), including the knowledge of all human nature (Psalm 139:1–2). Jesus always knows what we are going through, and He always knows the right course of action (Hebrews 4:15–16).
Christ’s position as our Wonderful Counselor means we can trust Him to listen to our problems and guide us in the right direction (Proverbs 3:6). We can be sure He is listening because He told us to pray to Him about our worries (Philippians 4:6; James 1:5). We can be certain He has our best interests at heart because He loves us (1 John 4:19). And His love is so wide and deep (and wonderful) that we cannot fully understand it (Romans 5:8).

Trump determined to designate pro-Iran groups as terrorist
Maria Maalouf/Arab News/December 10/2020
ماريا معلوف: الرئيس ترامب مصمم على وضع كل الجماعات الموالية لإيران على قوائم الإرهاب
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/93536/maria-maalouf-trump-determined-to-designate-pro-iran-groups-as-terrorist-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%88%d9%81-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a6%d9%8a%d8%b3-%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%85/

President Donald Trump wants his years in the White House to be remembered as the most anti-Iranian in the recent history of the US. He does not want to launch a war against Tehran, but he wants to make tough statements that include practical actions to contain Iran. In this regard, there are serious attempts now being pushed forward in Washington to classify both the pro-Iranian Houthis in Yemen and the Badr militia in Iraq as terrorist groups. There are many important implications for such a strategy. It is also critical to mention that there are those who oppose the Trump administration designating these two groups as terror organizations.This move faces many difficulties. In Yemen, the UN, a number of European countries, such as Germany and Sweden, and some refugee and relief organizations doing humanitarian work are against labeling the Houthis as terrorists. They fear that such a categorization would make humanitarian work more dangerous and lead to a hardening of the Houthis’ position in the negotiations currently being conducted. Ultimately, they fear this could intensify the civil war in Yemen.
In Iraq, the Badr Organization is very powerful and has strong ties with the government. It was able to attack the US Embassy in Baghdad last year. It works very closely with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq, and other Iraqi groups that are supportive of Iran. In spite of all the criticism of Iran-entrenched influence in Iraq, no US administration has sought to stop the work of this militia, since it was perceived by some as being integral to the security of Iraq, which is so unstable and so militant.
The Trump administration wants to hold the Houthis and Badr militia responsible for the destruction of their two nations. It is defending the rights of other groups and individuals that are fighting against these two organizations. The US government knows a great deal about them. They have been subject to much surveillance and monitoring by American agencies. Therefore, the Trump administration can be fair in designating these two groups as terrorists.
It is noticeable that there is a subtle division of labor in the pursuit to classify the Houthis and Badr Organization as terror groups. On Badr, the initiative has been submitted as a congressional bill and is attributable to Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who is the ranking member of his party on the Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. His proposed legislation is called the Badr Organization Designation Act of 2020. It has a big mandate, since it will aim to uncover any American taxpayer money funneled to Badr from the funds given to Baghdad by the US government. It also has to assess Badr’s role in the Popular Mobilization Forces, which guarantee much of Iraq’s internal security in coalition with the Iraqi government. And it has to investigate the role Badr played in the attack on the US Embassy compound in Baghdad last year.
On the other hand, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has emerged as the most articulate campaigner against the Houthis in Yemen. He has insisted that proclaiming the Houthis a terror group would be one more step in the direction of isolating Iran and making the containment of Tehran a more aggressive Western-American strategy.
The classification of the Houthis and Badr as terror groups would also identify a number of their members as persons subject to sanctions. It would clear the way for policies to freeze their financial assets and punish those who deal with them. It could also begin an international effort to arrest and put on trial their leaders over their involvement in terrorist activities. These huge tasks require that President-elect Joe Biden and his administration consent to such a policy and continue the work to reveal the dangers of these two groups’ schemes. However, it could be doubted that Biden would personally favor a policy of targeting two of Iran’s allies, since he hopes to be more conciliatory with Tehran. Finally, a number of steps have to be taken if the Trump administration’s wishes are to be fulfilled. The legislation has to garner as much support as possible among both Republicans and Democrats. The move must also be requested by the governments of Yemen and Iraq. The White House wants to hold the Houthis and Badr militia responsible for the destruction of their two nations.
This way, the American effort to establish the Houthis and Badr militia as terror groups would be complementary to the political stance embraced by these two Arab countries. Moreover, there has to be a declared history of these two lethal groups’ long record of terrorism. And there should be warnings that not labeling them as terrorist organizations would boost their terror plans and tactics. Trump has, in four years, formulated a new policy toward Iran based on political realism. He is not willing to tolerate groups that kill innocent people in Yemen and Iraq. This tendency to confront and disarm terror groups undoubtedly meets the security needs of many nations in the world. Trump has never been afraid of Iran. The objective of his strategy on terror is to make the world safe for all, not just for “democracy,” as Woodrow Wilson said 100 years ago. Sadly, many world leaders do the opposite. So Trump and his final actions against the Houthis and the Badr Organization can be good examples of why and how states fight terror.
*Maria Maalouf is a Lebanese journalist, broadcaster, publisher, and writer. She holds an MA in Political Sociology from the University of Lyon. Twitter: @bilarakib

The Shah, the Mullahs and Iran’s Longstanding Nuclear Ambitions
Ray Takeyh/The Wall Street Journal/December 11/2020
Iran’s nuclear ambitions are again looming over a new American administration. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to resuscitate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that President Trump unilaterally discarded. But after four years of enduring sanctions and targeted assassinations, the Islamic Republic may no longer be listening. Some experts fear that Iran’s pragmatists—led by President Hassan Rouhani, who negotiated the nuclear agreement—have been discredited and that Iran’s hard-liners are too suspicious of the West to reengage with another American leader.
As usual, the debate in Washington misreads the realities in Tehran. For the past five decades, under two very different regimes, Iran has pursued essentially the same nuclear strategy. While many Westerners fret over the tussling between Iran’s moderates and hard-liners, the most striking aspect of Iran’s nuclear-arms policy over the decades is its consistency. Mr. Biden is trying to return to diplomacy at the precise time when significant arms-control breakthroughs are all but impossible.
Iran’s nuclear program ramped up in earnest during the 1970s, when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi concluded that his ambitions to dominate the region might require the ultimate weapon. In 1975, the shah told the New York Times that while he wasn’t seeking the bomb, “if 20 or 30 ridiculous little countries are going to develop nuclear weapons, then I may have to revise my policies.” In his chatty way, the shah was hinting at a nuclear hedging strategy: Iran would build a sophisticated nuclear infrastructure but defer assembling a bomb, depending on events in its dangerous neighborhood.
In 1979, Islamist revolutionaries overthrew the shah. The new theocracy destroyed much of the old order but proved protective of its nuclear inheritance. The Middle East was still a disorderly region, and the revolutionaries were as much Persian chauvinists as the monarch they overthrew.
Iran’s new clerical oligarchs never made nuclear ambitions a matter of factional dispute. The reformist President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) was as committed to the nuclear program as his reactionary successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13). Under the watchful eye of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nuclear program didn’t fall prey to Iran’s poisonous domestic politics.
The Islamic Republic’s nuclear achievements are impressive. The shah entered the atomic age standing on the shoulders of others. He obtained limited technical assistance under the U.S. Atoms for Peace program established by President Dwight Eisenhower, but only after the rush of oil wealth in the 1970s could the shah afford his nuclear ambitions. Rather than patiently building his own country’s scientific capacity and training specialists, he relied on technologies and expertise from abroad. That left his program vulnerable to the moods of the outside world. In the 1970s, when Congress grew apprehensive about nuclear proliferation in the developing world, the shah couldn’t obtain needed technologies from the U.S. and had to shop around Europe.
The mullahs, on the other hand, built their nuclear program by training scientists, building laboratories and emphasizing homegrown technologies. They received some support from Russia and various illicit sources but largely depended on themselves. Of course, the international community was far too wary of Iran’s revolutionary zeal to enable its atomic aspirations. Far from getting assistance from abroad, Iran has confronted concerted efforts to undermine its nuclear program, from denial of technology to sabotage and even the assassination of its scientists. Iran’s development of an elaborate enrichment capability using advanced centrifuges is an indication of its leaders’ determination and its scientists’ acumen.
Iran has paid a steep price for these achievements. By the time Mr. Rouhani was inaugurated in 2013, sanctions had pushed the economy to the verge of collapse. But even that predicament didn’t impel Tehran to abandon its essential nuclear assets.
The 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aimed to prevent Tehran from producing nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief. Iran’s program was delayed but not derailed. The shah would probably have been proud of this agreement, which recognized Iran’s right to enrich nuclear fuel—something he could never get the U.S. to accept.
Yet Mr. Rouhani overpromised about the likely financial dividends of the deal, hoping that foreign investors would replenish Iran’s coffers. The wall of sanctions cracked in 2015, but it didn’t crumble. Iran sold more oil, but it proved too risky a destination for a massive re-entry of global commerce. Bankers tend to be skeptical of regimes that support terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and meddle in other people’s civil wars. Even before President Trump tore up the deal and reimposed U.S. sanctions, many Iranians were already disillusioned with Mr. Rouhani. His government’s mismanagement of the pandemic only weakened his rule.
Even under duress, Iran didn’t renounce the 2015 deal, because it didn’t unduly shift its decades-old nuclear trajectory. With “sunset clauses” built into some of its tougher provisions, the deal was never a secure barrier to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and its utility is dwindling by the day.
The Biden administration may succeed in reinstating some or all of the nuclear deal. Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s choice for national security adviser, said Monday at The Journal’s CEO Council Summit that the incoming administration hoped to put Iran “back into the box” by rejoining the 2015 deal and forcing Tehran to comply with its terms, thereby laying the groundwork for a “follow-on negotiation” on broader issues.
But any U.S. hopes for wider progress with Iran are likely to be frustrated. Mr. Biden wants to extend the provisions of the 2015 agreement, cap Iran’s missile capability and curtail its malign activities across the region. No political faction in Iran is willing to sign up for that deal. Even Western diplomats’ favorite Iranian functionary, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, says that the deal “will never be renegotiated. Period.” Nor is the Islamic Republic willing to sever ties with the militias and proxies that do its bidding across the Middle East.
Trust is a perishable commodity in international affairs, and after Mr. Trump’s chaotic tenure, Iran’s top leader has little confidence in America’s pledges. The lesson that Mr. Khamenei has learned from the renewed U.S. sanctions is to try to immunize Iran’s economy from the pain. He hopes to lessen Iran’s dependence on oil, develop internal markets and rely on trading partners such as China. Self-sufficiency and self-reliance are the new buzzwords in Tehran, and that leaves little room for accommodating Americans bearing carrots and sticks.
The Islamic Republic thinks that the region is conspiring against it, with Gulf Arab sheikhdoms embracing an Israel that is taking the fight to Iran. The mullahs are pursuing their own hedge strategy, building up their nuclear apparatus and waiting for the right moment to exercise their breakout option and become a nuclear-arms power. After all, the shah relentlessly pursued nuclear capability, sought to dominate his neighborhood and hectored the U.S. to keep its armada out of the Persian Gulf. His Islamist successors will hardly settle for less.
*Mr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His forthcoming book is “The Last Shah: America, Iran and the Collapse of the Pahlavi Dynasty.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-shah-the-mullahs-and-irans-longstanding-nuclear-ambitions-11607624794?reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter

Ankara’s links with ISIS are still a red flag
Con Coughlin/The National/December 11/2020
The failure of the Turkish authorities to prevent ISIS from acquiring a stockpile of sophisticated weapons during the Syrian conflict raises fresh questions about Ankara’s relationship with Islamist extremists. Despite repeated warnings about the arms shipments taking place across the Turkish border, ISIS was able to acquire its own weapons production programme in Iraq and Syria from 2015-2019 through its links with individuals and companies based in southern Turkey, as well as other European countries such as Britain.
The report says that the ISIS weapons programme dealt with more than 50 companies, in more than 20 countries, that produced or distributed goods that ISIS subsequently used to make roadside bombs, drones and improvised weapon systems.
Materials were obtained from countries including the UK, Denmark and Spain, as well as Syria and Turkey.
One of the report’s more eye-catching claims is that ISIS acquired weapons technology such as parts for a jet-powered drone, similar to the V-1 “flying bombs” dropped on London during the Second World War.
The report revealed that from 2015 onwards, ISIS technicians "also sought to develop larger, faster unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) powered by pulse jet engines".
A "fully constructed pulse jet engine" was found at a hospital formerly occupied by the terror group in west Mosul, Iraq, in September 2017.
"Pulse jets are a type of acoustic jet engine originally developed for World War II-era V-1 'flying bomb' cruise missiles," the report added, referring to the “vengeance weapon” deployed by Nazi Germany in 1944.
By using individuals and companies registered in Britain and Turkey, ISIS purchased a large stockpile of weapons and equipment as it occupied large swathes of territory from 2014, despite “red flags” that could have prevented the sales, the report concludes.
According to this week’s report by the Conflict Armament Research Group (Car), ISIS was able to build a major arsenal of explosives, weapons and drones through a sophisticated procurement process that passed through Turkey.
The group's members used one UK-registered front company to buy turbine engines for advanced drones, which were then shipped to a mobile phone company in Turkey. Another was used to buy parts for automatic anti-aircraft weapons, while others still used to import materials for bombs.
The scale of the weapons smuggling that took place across the Turkish border at the height of ISIS’s false caliphate inevitably renews the focus on Ankara’s relationship with Islamist groups based in Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has consistently denied suggestions that his government had links with ISIS and that it has supported Islamist extremists battling against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad.
Yet, western intelligence officials believe that at the very least Ankara turned a blind eye to some of ISIS’s border smuggling operations, as part of its efforts to increase the pressure on the Assad regime in Damascus.
Mr Erdogan has emerged as a major supporter of Islamist extremists throughout the Middle East in recent years. Ankara has actively supported groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as Islamist militias in Libya.
It has been a long-held ambition of Mr Erdogan to establish an Islamist regime in Damascus to replace the Baathist faction that currently controls Syria.
At one point during the Syrian conflict in 2015, the prospect of Islamist groups such as ISIS seizing control of Damascus became so acute that Qassem Suleimani, then head of the elite Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, travelled to Moscow to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene militarily in support of the Assad regime.
The deployment of Russian forces and combat aircraft to Syria later that year proved to be a turning point in the conflict, turning the tide of the war decisively in the Assad regime’s favour.
Turkey’s sympathetic attitude towards Islamist groups in the aftermath of the Russian intervention might therefore explain why the Turkish authorities were not more stringent in cracking down on the ISIS smuggling network operating across Turkey’s southern border with Syria.
As Mike Lewis, one of the authors of the report notes: “with stronger due diligence, much of this trade might have been disrupted.” For example, as the report says, some of the companies with links to ISIS were able to make large purchases of products that were incompatible with their normal business activities.
It cites the case of a small mobile phone shop based in Turkey that succeeded in purchasing from a large chemical distributor six tonnes of aluminium paste, which is used in the production of missile systems and drones.
The concern now is that although ISIS has suffered a series of significant setbacks in Iraq and Syria, there are still an estimated 10,000 ISIS fighters operating in the region.
Their attempts to regroup will be greatly assisted if they are able to maintain their weapons smuggling operations across the Turkish border.
As Namir Shabibi, head of Iraq operations at CAR, explained, although ISIS forces may no longer hold territory in those countries, there is evidence that in the past year its remaining cells have become increasingly active.
“Preventing their procurement efforts by spotting the kinds of red flags detailed in this report remains important for countering the group’s resurgence,” said Mr Shabibi.
Certainly, Turkey needs to take far greater care in policing its border if a resurgence of ISIS – complete with sophisticated weaponry – is to be avoided in Iraq and Syria in the years to come.
*Con Coughlin is a defence and foreign affairs columnist for The National

Kurdistan’s second referendum
Ibrahim al-Zobeidi/The Arab Weekly/December 11/2020
What happened and is happening in Sulaymaniyah is no different from what happened and is happening every day in Baghdad, Nasiriyah, Basra and other Iraqi cities. Same reasons, same motives, and same results.
Yes, it is the same anger that is driving the masses to take revenge on the ruling parties, and the same cruelty that is used to suppress the demonstrators with batons, gas bombs and, finally real bullets, if they are not deterred at the first sign and return to their homes obediently, so that they do not, after today, dare attack their masters.
What is evidenced by the details of the Sulaymaniyah battles between the oppressed and robbed Kurdish citizens and their oppressors and exposed robbers, is that all that talk by Kurdish political leaders, from complaining about being oppressed for a long time to calling for protecting the citizen’s dignity, guaranteeing his security and independence, and restoring his legitimate rights to justice, equality, job opportunities and prosperity, was nothing but a smokescreen. And they were no different in this from their Islamist allies who have monopolised power, money and weapons in the Arab half of Iraq; they are all made of the same clay and in the same mould. Since the early days of the Iraqi opposition, starting with the early 1990s, Iran was the main engine behind it, with a marginal role played by Hafez al-Assad’s regime; then America came along and started financing, directing and arming it. But Iraqis, whether living outside or inside the country, have known all along and right from the start the truth about each one of the leaders of that opposition, and in detail. They knew each one’s heavy past of swindling and fraud, and his innate willingness to deal even with Satan, if his personal interests required it.
And because they are all of the same ilk, it was natural for all of their conferences, from the first one to the last, to reek of cheating, favouritism, cronyism, sectarianism, racism, treason, and conspiracy against each other, as they battle for their share of the seats of power or fight over the gifts, gratuities and rewards that this or that foreign power dangles in front of their faces.
Since the first days of the US invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi citizen has not been surprised by what these thugs returning from the cafes of London, Damascus, Tehran, Riyadh, Beirut, Dubai and Amman, had done to the homeland, its people, its dignity and its wealth. In the seventeen years of their rule, the treasury of one of the wealthiest countries in the Middle East went bankrupt. State employees are struggling waiting to be paid, cities and villages became flooded with rain and sewage water, and the streets became covered with accumulated trash, in all parts of the country, which was safe, beautiful, pure, and free of thieves.
Yes, Sulaymaniyah and Erbil have changed quite significantly. High rise buildings, broad roads, luxurious hotels, fancy restaurants, the latest models of extravagant cars, and nightclubs have appeared in them, but the average Kurdish citizen does not have a share in them. Rather, they are all for the elite of the officials and their families, and for those in their orbit. As for other cities and villages, they are still waiting for change, reconstruction and electrification, remaining as they were in the olden days of poverty, oppression and plunder.
The huge sums of money that fell, rightly or wrongly, on the regional government did not help create a single strategic industrial or agricultural production project that would secure the lives of future generations from the hazards of time. All that fortune succeeded only in making even the youngest and least significant members of the two ruling families in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah among the owners of huge wealth smuggled and stashed away in the banks of Europe, America and Dubai. The sons of Masoud and Jalal, their nephews, in-laws and cousins are now owners of the most expensive and luxurious palaces in London, Paris, New York, Washington and Dubai. The only difference between the ruling parties in Baghdad and the rulers of the autonomous region of Kurdistan and their morals is that in Baghdad there is a large number of corrupt gangs and thugs jockeying for positions, personal gains and salaries, while in Kurdistan, there are only two gangs doing that.But, whether here or there, all money and all power are in the hands of the allied rulers, their sons, nephews, uncles, maternal uncles and in-laws, and their related slaves, servants and brokers. As for the citizen, whether in Iraq or Kurdistan, he just has God, being fated to scraping a livelihood all of his life and fearing his master’s ire.
History tells us that the patient masses do not usually explode, except when they lose patience, and when the violation of their rights, dignity, freedom and the livelihood of their children reaches limits they can no longer tolerate. It was expected, for a long time now, that what happened in Baghdad, Nasiriyah, Basra, Hilla, Najaf and Karbala would eventually happen in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil. And it has happened. The same could have happened in Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra, Ramadi and Fallujah were it not for the omnipresence of the armed Iranian mobs in their streets and squares, besieging them with iron and fire and ready to pounce on the poor cowering citizens at the first whiff of unrest. What the rising Kurdish masses are demanding is simply for the corrupt government and corruption to go, so that their economic situation could be improved. Their slogans and chants could not be any clearer, written in huge characters: “Down with the thieves,” “Down with the corrupt government.”One could look at the uprisings in Kurdistan as a second courageous and spontaneous popular referendum, in which the masses of Kurdistan have spoken after a long period of patient silence, saying that the ruling political class in Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Baghdad has reached the bottom of the barrel and become unfit for use, and that it is time for them to disappear, whether by peaceful means or by Molotov cocktails and gas cylinders. Enough is enough.
 

It is past time to end all delusions about the EU
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab News/December 11/2020
In my last book, “To Dare More Boldly: The Audacious Story of Political Risk,” I lay out 10 rules to do political risk analysis right; 10 commandments for how to think ahead of the curve and analytically master our new, beguiling world.
The seventh precept is particularly useful in looking at the EU: To analyze a country correctly, know its place in the world and where it fits into the larger global order, based on a warts-and-all look at its strengths and its weaknesses. This, particularly the lion’s share of EU commentators — often more cheerleaders than analysts — seem entirely incapable of doing. A recent case in point was a Zoom call I was on for a leading European think tank. A senior Democratic Party analyst and I were invited to give our opinions and then, as is the custom, we took questions. After speaking at great length about the emerging Sino-American bipolar structure of our new era at the superpower level, a series of plaintive queries came from our mainly European audience. “But what about Europe as a superpower?” Gently, kindly, as if we were dealing with a slightly dotty uncle, we both said that no, that wasn’t going to happen. But the real question should be: How have European analysts been allowed to get by with wallowing in their delusions of grandeur for so long? Since time immemorial, there are three basic indices of power: Military prowess, economic wherewithal, and political clout. Looking in a rational way at all three, it is impossible to find any rationale whatsoever for the EU to be thought of as a superpower that is not merely a fevered dream. On military matters, ambitious French President Emmanuel Macron has surely missed the obvious in continuing the perpetual European argument about whether future military outlays should be made primarily through the EU, or NATO, as is now generally the case. The ultimate point is not about structure; it is about the glaring and painful reality that the continent remains a military Lilliputian, which will continue to be the case whatever structure is dreamed up. The facts are these: Of all the continental militaries, only the French can manage the full spectrum of missions, doing everything from high-end war fighting to low-end peacekeeping. Every single other EU military can, at best, only manage niche operations, though some (such as the Netherlands and Norway) do so very well.
In 2019, in NATO as a whole, only seven of the alliance’s then-29 (primarily European) members met the NATO commitment to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense (the US, UK, Poland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia). To pretend that any new institutional configuration will change the ingrained habits of pacifist European publics, however wrongheaded they may be, flies in the face of decades of recent history. Economically, the pandemic has been hard on low-growth Europe, particularly its southern rim. A Japan-style deflationary spiral seems to be setting in there, with Greece (minus 2.3 percent), Italy (minus 0.9 percent), and Spain (minus .6 percent) all experiencing a monthly deflation rate in September.
Along with economic sclerosis, the south is awash with unsustainable debt. The OECD’s worst-case assessment for the end of 2021 finds Greece with an Olympian 229 percent debt to GDP ratio, Italy 192 percent, France 152 percent, and Spain 150 percent. Perhaps worst of all and incredibly, none of these countries has proactively put forward a convincing medium-term plan both to stimulate growth and then manage this avalanche of debt. Nor is the EU as a whole riding to the post-pandemic rescue, which brings us to the bloc’s perennial political divisions. For a long while, the EU has been split north-south over economic issues and east-west over migration issues. The oversold €750 billion ($906 billion) European Recovery Fund is just the latest case of Brussels overpromising and under-delivering in policy terms.
It is impossible to find any rationale whatsoever for the EU to be thought of as a superpower that is not merely a fevered dream.
The seemingly impressive top number is diluted, being split between 27 countries and doled out in smaller tranches until 2026 — hardly the recipe for a quick shot of economic adrenaline for the ailing south, which has been plagued by a year’s worth of lockdowns. Even worse, a good portion of the money (€360 billion) is only given out in loans, which countries from Italy to Portugal will not touch, as accepting them comes with significant limitations on individual countries’ political sovereignty. But new political divisions further diminish even this less-than-meets-the-eye rescue. Poland and Hungary, both enraged by charges from the other EU members as to their fundamental political illiberalism, have been blocking final passage of the recovery fund (and the seven-year, €1.1 trillion EU budget besides) if the budget retained a clause making “rule of law” criteria a requirement for EU membership in terms of judicial and media freedoms, and gender rights. While a deal with the two recalcitrant countries has just been reached, this political logjam further slowed down an already glacial process.Militarily weak, economically sclerotic, politically divided: This is the present reality of the EU. Rather than worrying about its dreamed-of superpower status, Brussels would do far better to see the world as it is, advance a bold policy program on all these fronts sooner rather than later, and safeguard the great power status it does possess.
*Dr. John C. Hulsman is the president and managing partner of John C. Hulsman Enterprises, a prominent global political risk consulting firm. He is also senior columnist for City AM, the newspaper of the City of London. He can be contacted via chartwellspeakers.com.

Turkey cozies up to EU members in the East
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/December 11/2020
The balancing act Turkey must maintain in its dealings with East and West is nothing new. It can be clearly observed in its policies on Europe, in which there are clear differences in its approach to relations depending on whether countries are geopolitically, or ideologically, in the East or West.
The foreign ministers of EU nations met on Dec.10-11 to discuss possible sanctions on Ankara as a result of a range of issues that have caused disputes with Turkey.
However Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently predicted that any sanctions imposed by the EU will not have a great effect. He added that the European bloc has never acted honestly or kept its promises, all the way back to 1963 when the Association Agreement (Ankara Agreement) was signed.
As relations with Western capitals have gradually deteriorated, there has been a growing tendency in Ankara to seek new friends in Central and Eastern Europe.
Hungary seems to be top of the list. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto recently paid an official visit to Ankara, during which he stated that the EU’s security depends heavily on Turkey, and reiterated the fact that the country is a strategic partner for the EU in many fields.
He added that cooperation between the EU and Turkey must be maintained and that Hungary stands ready to help establish talks between Ankara and the bloc. In recent years Turkey and Hungary have made efforts to increase their cooperation, particularly in the defense sector.
Poland can safely be placed second on Turkey’s friendship list. Ankara’s support for Poland’s accession to NATO in 1999 and Poland’s support for Turkey’s EU membership have helped to boost political and bilateral relations.
Deep-rooted relations between the two evolved further with the signing of the Declaration on Turkish-Polish Strategic Partnership in 2009. In a recent interview the Polish ambassador to Turkey said his country hopes to further boost cooperation with Turkey in the fields of defense and security.
As a NATO partner, Turkey places great importance on its relationship with Poland, which represents a strategic element in Ankara’s policy on Central and Eastern Europe.
Hungary and Poland, Eastern European countries that once were behind the Iron Curtain, joined the EU in 2004. However, they are among a number of Eastern European countries that once fought against Soviet oppression but are now ruled by governments that attract heavy criticism from Brussels.
Budapest and Warsaw have long been at loggerheads with the EU over democratic issues. An EU assessment of the rule of law expressed “serious concern” about judicial independence in both countries.
Years of escalating tensions have now grown into a political crisis, with the European Commission preparing to take legal action against both governments for violating EU laws. In recent years, the divisions and the disagreements within the EU have dominated critical debates, and some member countries are deeply disappointed by the failure of the bloc to demonstrate full-scale cohesion. This situation has provided fertile ground for some other countries, such as Turkey, Russia or China, to fill the gaps.
At a time when a shared identity and sense of collective solidarity within the EU seems an increasingly distant prospect, the leadership of Turkey does not consider a reluctance by members to admit Ankara to be any great loss. This was the message behind Erdogan’s statement, although he did also recently say that Turkey’s future lies in Europe.
At a time when a shared identity and sense of collective solidarity within the EU seems an increasingly distant prospect, the leadership of Turkey does not consider a reluctance by members to admit Ankara to be any great loss.
Ukraine might be ranked third on Turkey’s list of friends. Although not an EU member, it earns its place alongside Hungary and Poland as a result of its common, Soviet-era history. The EU has a great interest in this and so Ukraine is a priority partner for Brussels, which seeks to build an increasingly close relationship that will gradually build on existing cooperation to include economic integration and deeper political cooperation.
Ukraine is a longstanding pro-NATO advocate and a pro-Western former Soviet state in a contested region. Therefore it is also of strategic importance to Turkey, which has stepped up its efforts to boost ties with Kyiv as well.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently paid strategic visits to NATO members Poland and Turkey. The latter has been laying the foundations for a promising defense-cooperation partnership with Ukraine for some time. The two countries are working together on game-changing military developments such as drone warfare, aerospace engines and missile technology.
They also agreed to establish a Quadriga “2+2” format, under which the foreign and defense ministers from one country meet with their counterparts from another. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said his Turkish counterpart will visit Ukraine in late December for the first meeting under this format.
In addition, Erdogan has given his support to Ukraine’s bid for membership of NATO.
Hungary, Poland and Ukraine have differing internal considerations and foreign policy motivations that make it difficult to make completely accurate comparisons. However the approaches of each to Turkey must be viewed within the broader context of the EU.
*Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkey's relations with the Middle East. Twitter: @SinemCngz