English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 27/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 02/13-18/:”Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’ When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 26-27/2020

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
Explosion Heard on Lebanon South Border
Syrian refugee camp in Northern Lebanon set on fire following fight with local family
Fahmi Says Has ‘No Right’ to Interfere with Investigating Judge
Search Operations Continuing 145 Days since Port Blast
Report: Italy Seizes Captagon Shipment ‘Linked’ to Hizbullah
Calls to Ban Flights from UK over ‘Infectious’ COVID Strain
Lebanon Records 1st Case of New COVID Variant
Airport customs seizes 23 kilograms of cocaine at Beirut Airport
Abdel Samad: Lebanon is more than a country, it is a message

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 26-27/2020

News Alert: Suicide bombing suspected in Nashville explosion as investigators search home south of the city
Israel Targets Hamas Sites after Gaza Militants Fire Rockets
Turkey's Defence Minister Flies to Libya
Iran executes ethnic Baluch militant for shooting death of two IRGC guards
EU warns Turkey over 27-year jail sentence for reporter
Moroccan king speaks with Netanyahu, discusses agreements
Mladenov turns down UN envoy position in Libya
France Confirms First Case on Its Soil of British Virus Variant
Series of Explosions Target Police in Kabul; at Least 2 Dead
Three UN Peacekeepers Killed in C.Africa Republic ahead of National Polls
EU Begins Vaccine Rollout as New Virus Strain Spreads
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 26-27/2020

The Genius of Israel's Foreign Policy: Mixing Normalization and Silent War/Jonathan Spyer/Newsweek/December 26/2020
Turkey: From Europe With Love/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/December 26, 2020
Many issues will fuel US-Egyptian tensions during Biden era/Mohamed Abulfadl/The Arab Weekly/December 26/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 26-27/2020

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA/December 26/2020
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money changing companies and institutions, Saturday’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

Explosion Heard on Lebanon South Border
Naharnet/December 26/2020
The sound of an explosion was heard at dawn on Saturday at the Lebanese border, off the town of Adaisseh in Marjayoun district, when an Israeli army patrol crossed the technical fence during below the Meskav-Aam military outpost, media reports said.
The patrol was combing the area, they said. Al-Arabiya TV channel reported that there were no injuries, and that the explosion was caused by a landmine and did not target the Israeli patrol. Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee announced on Twitter, that “the explosions heard on the border with Lebanon this morning were caused by the usual field actions of the IDF on the borders. The IDF works in surprising and varied ways to maintain border security.

Syrian refugee camp in Northern Lebanon set on fire following fight with local family
AFP/Sunday 27 December 2020
A Syrian refugee camp in northern Lebanon was set on fire Saturday night following a fight between members of the camp and a local Lebanese family, state media reported. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, confirmed a large fire had broken out in a camp in the Miniyeh region and said some injured had been taken to hospital, but did not provide an exact number. “The fire has spread to all the tented shelters” -- made of plastic sheeting and wood -- UNHCR spokesman Khaled Kabbara told AFP. The camp housed around 75 families, he said. The National News Agency reported that the fire followed an “altercation” between a member of a Lebanese family and “Syrian workers”. Other youths from the Lebanese family then “set fire to some of the refugees’ tents”, the NNA added. The Lebanese Civil defense worked to control the blaze while the army and police were deployed to restore calm, according to the report. A security source told AFP shots were heard, saying the fight in the Bhanine area was sparked when Syrian workers demanded a wage which their employers refused to pay. “Some families have fled the area out of fear because there were also sounds of explosions caused by household gas canisters blowing up,” Kabbara said. Lebanon says it hosts some 1.5 million Syrians, including around one million registered as refugees with the United Nations. Authorities have called on refugees to return to Syria even though rights groups warn that the war-torn country is not yet safe.
In November, around 270 Syrian refugee families fled the northern Lebanese town of Bsharre after a Syrian national was accused of shooting dead a Lebanese resident, sparking widespread tension and hostility.

Fahmi Says Has ‘No Right’ to Interfere with Investigating Judge
Naharnet/December 26/2020
Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said he has no right to interfere with the investigating judge, nor speak to the media about the probe into the Beirut port blast, the National News Agency reported on Saturday. “For the sake of secrecy of investigations, I can not speak to the media about the probe into the Beirut port blast,” said Fahmi in remarks after meeting Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi where he expressed well wishes on Christmas. Fahmi said he “has no right to interfere with the investigating judge” Fadi Sawwan, the lead investigator into the case, explaining that “discretion fails the investigations and its results.”“An outcome must be reached" at the end of investigation into the explosion, he stressed. On calls to halt the flights from the UK over the new COVID variant, Fahmi said the responsibility lies with the related committee, but warned that a total lockdown is might be considered shall cases rise further.Lebanon announced Friday its first case of the new strain of the virus.

Search Operations Continuing 145 Days since Port Blast
Naharnet/December 26/2020
The Civil Defense rescue team announced on Saturday that its members continue to carry out the tasks assigned to them at Beirut port, 145 days after the deadly explosion that ripped the capital. The Directorate said uninterrupted efforts began since day one and continue until the completion of the search and rescue operations. It said a comprehensive field survey on land and sea resumes in coordination with the Lebanese Army Command. The devastating August 4 blast killed more than 200 people, disfigured the heart of the capital and left more than 300,000 individuals homeless.
Many blame the blast on decades of negligence and corruption by the country's ruling elite, who include former warlords from the 1975-1990 civil war.

Report: Italy Seizes Captagon Shipment ‘Linked’ to Hizbullah
Naharnet/December 26/2020
The Italian authorities said they confiscated a shipment of amphetamine reportedly linked to Hizbullah, the Italian Nova agency said. The agency quoted Italian authorities on Friday as having seized about 15 tons of amphetamine (Captagon), worth one billion dollars linked to the party. The Naples prosecutor investigating the case said the drugs were contained in three suspicious containers that included papers intended for industrial use and iron wheels. The report revealed that the drugs came from Syria, and that the Italian authorities had previously believed ISIS to be behind it. But search and investigation operations showed that the Syrian regime and Hizbullah are reportedly the ones behind it.

Calls to Ban Flights from UK over ‘Infectious’ COVID Strain
Naharnet/December 26/2020
MP Assem Araji voiced calls on Saturday to stop all flights coming from the UK over the new strain of coronavirus, warning of its high infectious capability, al-Anbaa daily reported on Saturday. “All the information and scientific sources indicate that the new mutation of coronavirus is rapidly spreading, meaning if Corona transmits the infection to two people, the new strain transmits the infection to 5 people,” he said in remarks to the daily. Araji said he discussed the matter of banning flights from the UK, where the first case of the new strain appeared, with caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan.
He said that the Minister did recommend that flights be halted from the UK, but the ministerial committee rejected it. The Minister has no right to adopt the decision, noted Araji. “Flights from London should have been stopped for at least one week to see what repercussions would result,” Araji said, revealing that he will exert joined efforts with Hassan to pressure the committee into approving it. Lebanon on Friday recorded its first new strain of the virus. The Health Ministry also recorded 2,136 cases of coronavirus and 14 deaths.

Lebanon Records 1st Case of New COVID Variant
Naharnet/December 26/2020
Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan urged caution on Friday after confirming Lebanon’s first case of a new coronavirus variant on board a passenger plane coming from the UK. Hassan said: “One case was registered on board an incoming flight from Britain on Monday.” The Minister said all the travelers should be placed on a 14-day quarantine or isolated, and their close contacts should be quarantined. On Thursday, Lebanon recorded 2708 cases and 20 deaths, its highest since the first case was detected in February.Britain on Wednesday introduced restrictions on travel from South Africa over the spread of a new variant of coronavirus.

Airport customs seizes 23 kilograms of cocaine at Beirut Airport
NNA/December 26/2020
Customs officers at Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport seized 23 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a suitcase of a Brazilian passenger arriving on a flight from Doha, NNA reporter said on Saturday. The detained passenger was referred to the concerned authorities for attempting to smuggle cocaine into Lebanese territories.

Abdel Samad: Lebanon is more than a country, it is a message
NNA/December 26/2020
Caretaker Minister of Information Dr. Manal Abdel Samad, met this Saturday morning, at the patriarchal seat in Bkirki, with the Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Rahi. Following the meeting, Abdel Samad called on the Patriarch to "unify the word and work with solidarity and love to advance the country."“Lebanon is more than a country: it is a message of freedom and an example of pluralism," she added. Abdel Samad hoped that "the Lebanese increase the positivity in their hearts, rather than the positive results in Covid-19."Finally, she urged the Lebanese to unite and reduce hate speech.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 26-27/2020

News Alert: Suicide bombing suspected in Nashville explosion as investigators search home south of the city
CNN/December 26/2020
Investigators looking into the Christmas morning explosion in Nashville now believe the blast was likely the result of a suicide bombing, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.
Officials have previously said they have recovered human remains at the scene of the bombing in downtown Nashville and an FBI official on Saturday said agents are not looking for another suspect. Agents are also at a home in Antioch, just southeast of Nashville, to conduct "court-authorized activity," FBI spokesman Jason Pack told CNN. According to a law enforcement official, a tip about the vehicle involved in the explosion on Christmas morning led law enforcement to the Antioch home.

Israel Targets Hamas Sites after Gaza Militants Fire Rockets
Agence France Presse/December 26/2020
Israel has targeted a number of sites in Gaza after Palestinian militants fired rockets into the south of the country, the army said Saturday. The Israeli Defence Force said that three Hamas targets -- including a rocket manufacturing site, underground infrastructure, and a military post -- had been struck. "Hamas will bear the consequences for all terror emanating from Gaza," the IDF said in a tweet. Sirens had sounded earlier in the southern port city of Ashkelon and the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, according to the army statement. "Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory," a statement from the army said on Friday, adding that they were intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defence System. There were no reports of damage as a result of the interceptions. Israeli emergency medical services said a few people were treated for going into shock. The latest fire from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave came over a month after one rocket was fired from the coastal strip into Israel. Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel, seized control of Gaza from the rival Palestinian movement Fatah in 2007 in a near civil war. Since then Hamas has fought three devastating wars with Israel in the coastal territory where about two million Palestinians live.Israel has since maintained a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas from arming.

Turkey's Defence Minister Flies to Libya
Agence France Presse/December 26/2020
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar travelled to Libya on Saturday flanked by top military officers to inspect Turkish units in the war-torn country, the official Anadolu news agency reported. The unscheduled visit comes after eastern Libya strongman Khalifa Haftar called on his fighters to "drive out" Turkish forces backing the UN-recognised government, as talks drag on to end a long-running war in the oil-rich nation. Turkish support for the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli helped stave off an offensive by Haftar with Russian, Egyptian and UAE backing in April 2019. The sides struck a ceasefire agreement in October formally ending the fighting and setting the stage for elections at the end of next year. But Haftar said there would "be no peace in the presence of a coloniser on our land," in an address to mark Libya's 69th anniversary of its independence on Thursday. "We will therefore take up arms again to fashion our peace with our own hands... and, since Turkey rejects peace and opts for war, prepare to drive out the occupier by faith, will and weapons," Haftar said.The Turkish parliament this week adopted a motion extending the deployment of soldiers in Libya by 18 months.

Iran executes ethnic Baluch militant for shooting death of two IRGC guards
Reuters/Saturday 26 December 2020
Iran executed an ethnic Baluch militant on Saturday for the shooting death of two Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) guards five years ago, the judiciary’s official news website Mizan reported. It said Abdulhamid Mir Baluchzehi, known as Owais, one of the perpetrators of the 2015 operation, “was hanged this morning after legal procedures” in Zahedan in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. It said Mir Baluchzehi was a principle members of the Sunni extremist group Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice, and was charged with “armed action against the country and membership in anti-regime groups.”The impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has long been the scene of frequent clashes between security forces and Sunni militants and drug smugglers. The population of the province is predominantly Sunni Muslim, while most Iranians are Shia.Jaish al-Adl, which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for ethnic minority Baluchis, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent years on Iranian security forces in the province.

EU warns Turkey over 27-year jail sentence for reporter
The Arab Weekly/December 26/2020
BRUSSELS--The European Union on Friday warned Turkey that a heavy jail sentence imposed on journalist Can Dundar harmed both human rights in the country and Ankara’s relations with Brussels. A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced the exiled former editor-in-chief of the respected Cumhuriyet daily to more than 27 years in jail on espionage and terror charges.Can Dundar fled to Germany in 2016 after a failed coup the Turkish government blames on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.n“The European Union has repeatedly conveyed its serious concerns about continued negative developments as regards the rule of law, fundamental rights and the judiciary in Turkey,” a statement issued by the EU’s external affairs arm said. “The decision of a Turkish Court to sentence journalist Can Dundar for what is his fundamental right to freedom of expression and (businessman) Osman Kavala’s continuous pre-trial detention go, regrettably, in the opposite direction,” it said. “As a candidate (member) country and long-standing member of the Council of Europe, Turkey urgently needs to make concrete and sustained progress in the respect of fundamental rights, which are a cornerstone of EU-Turkey relations,” it added. Relations between the EU and Turkey have been badly strained over a host of issues in recent years and Brussels was notably critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s harsh post-coup crackdown. There are regular exchanges, especially over human rights, which Ankara says reflect EU double-standards and amount to interference in its internal affairs. Turkey’s EU membership application meanwhile has stalled amid the resulting acrimony.
Turkish covert op
The court found Can Dundar guilty in connection with an article about an alleged Turkish arms shipment to Syrian militants fighting President Bashar al-Assad. He was sentenced to 18 years and nine months for “securing confidential information for espionage” and eight years and nine months for “aiding a terrorist group” led by Gulen. The Turkish government blames the cleric for orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Dundar called the ruling a political “vendetta” organised against him by Erdogan. The Turkish leader had warned Dundar that he would “pay a heavy price” when the story was first published together with an accompanying video of the alleged weapons supplies in 2015. “This is a political decision, a vendetta which has nothing to do with law,” Dundar told AFP by phone from Germany. “Erdogan already warned me that I would pay a price. Now he is trying to have me pay a price.”The Cumhuriyet daily’s hard-hitting articles have often irritated Erdogan’s government and the paper’s reporters have routinely ended up in court. The country’s oldest daily — which means “Republic” in Turkish — was founded in 1924 and remains one of the few media outlets not controlled by government-allied tycoons. Dundar was first jailed in 2015 over the paper’s allegations that Turkey’s MIT intelligence service was funneling weapons to Syrian radical insurgents in trucks packed with boxes marked up as carrying medical supplies. Turkey vocally opposed Assad’s regime but the story appeared to reveal a covert military operation. He was sentenced to nearly six years in May 2016 for “obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the security of the state” but released pending an appeal.The 59-year-old was shot at by an assailant outside Istanbul’s main courthouse during that hearing. Dundar fled to Germany later that same year and the gunman was sentenced to 10 months in jail. The Supreme Court of Appeals reversed Dundar’s conviction in 2018. The Istanbul court then began his retrial. Turkish authorities have already requested Dundar’s extradition from Germany.
International criticism
Rights groups routinely accuse Turkey of undermining press freedom by arresting journalists and shutting down critical media outlets. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists listed Turkey as one of the top jailers after China in its annual global report last week. It found 37 journalists were imprisoned this year — less than half the number arrested in 2016 around the time of the coup attempt. “What can we think of a judicial system that sentences a journalist to such a heavy sentence for simply doing his job?” the European Federation of Journalists’ chief Ricardo Gutierrez asked. Pauline Ades-Mevel of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Dundar’s case “illustrates to the highest degree” the judicial harassment faced by journalists in Turkey. “This is a senseless and despicable decision that confirms that President Erdogan’s regime does not know how to stop in its authoritarian headlong rush,” she said. But Erdogan’s media aide Fahrettin Altun tweeted that calling Dundar “a journalist — and his sentence, a blow to free speech — is an insult to real journalists everywhere”.Dundar’s lawyers boycotted Wednesday’s hearing because they did not believe they would get a fair trial. “These are show trials,” his lawyer Tora Pekin told AFP.

Moroccan king speaks with Netanyahu, discusses agreements
The Arab Weekly/December 26/2020
RABAT--Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a telephone conversation, a statement from Morocco’s royal cabinet said Friday. King Mohammed VI, the statement said, “recalled the strong and special links between the Jewish community of Moroccan origin and the Moroccan monarchy.” The Moroccan monarch “reiterated the consistent, unwavering and unchanged position of the Kingdom of Morocco on the Palestinian question and the pioneering role of the Kingdom in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East,” it said.
Rabat advocates the two-state solution and the unique character of Jerusalem as a city for the three religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The Moroccan king also welcomed “the reviving of cooperation mechanisms between the Kingdom of Morocco and the State of Israel, and the resumption of regular contacts, within the framework of peaceful and friendly diplomatic relations,” it added. The phone call comes three days after an Israeli delegation signed a US-sponsored normalisation agreement with Morocco in Rabat. “The leaders congratulated each other over the renewal of ties between the countries, the signing of the joint statement with the US, and the agreements between the two countries,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said. “In addition, the processes and mechanisms to implement the agreements were determined,” it added. Morocco is the third Arab nation this year to normalise ties with the Jewish state under US-brokered deals, while Sudan has pledged to follow suit. During the “warm and friendly” conversation, Netanyahu invited Mohammed VI to visit Israel, the statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office added. Four bilateral deals were signed Tuesday between Israel and Morocco, centring on direct air links, water management, connecting financial systems and a visa waiver arrangement for diplomats. Israel and Morocco are also due to reopen diplomatic offices. Morocco closed its liaison office in Tel Aviv in 2000, at the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Morocco has North Africa’s largest Jewish community of about 3,000 people, and Israel is home to 700,000 Jews of Moroccan origin.

Mladenov turns down UN envoy position in Libya
The Arab Weekly/December 26/2020
CAIRO--Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, has turned down an offer to lead the UN mission in conflict-stricken Libya, according to a UN spokesman. Mladenov told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday that he would not take up the position of special envoy for the North African country “for personal and family reasons,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday. Mladenov’s term as Middle East peace envoy is set to expire at the end of the year and he’ll be replaced by Norway’s Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, according to the UN secretary-general. Mladenov was appointed as the UN special envoy for the Middle East Peace Process in early 2015. Before that, he was the top UN envoy in Iraq, and had served as Bulgaria’s foreign minister from 2010 to 2013 and in the European Parliament from 2007 to 2009. He took the job a few months after the end of the deadliest, most destructive war between Israel and the militant Hamas group in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip. In recent years, Mladenov, alongside other mediators from Egypt and Qatar, played a significant role defusing numerous rounds of cross-border violence that threatened another war between Israel and Hamas. He was to replace Ghassan Salame, the former U.N. envoy for Libya, who resigned in March amid fierce fighting between Libya’s rival sides over the capital, Tripoli.
UN acting envoy for Libya Stephanie Williams will continue leading the mission in Libya, and the UN would continue the search for Salame’s replacement, said the UN spokesman. There were objections to two previous suggestions, and the US then insisted the job be split between a special envoy handling the diplomacy and someone to run the UN operation. The African group in the Security Council had wanted an African in the diplomatic job, but agreed to the second spot running the operation. The UN announced the appointment on Wednesday of Raisedon Zenenga of Zimbabwe as assistant secretary-general and mission coordinator of the UN support mission in Libya. Libya was plunged into chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gadhafi. The oil-rich country is now split between a Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital, Tripoli, and rival authorities based in the east backed by the National Libyan Army (LNA). The two sides are supported by an array of local militias as well as regional and foreign powers.

France Confirms First Case on Its Soil of British Virus Variant
Agence France Presse/December 26/2020
France has confirmed the first case of a new coronavirus variant that recently emerged in Britain, its health ministry said. The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, has prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions on the UK. The first French case -- found in a citizen living in Britain who arrived from London on December 19 -- is asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in Tours in central France, the ministry said late Friday. They were tested in a hospital on December 21, and later found positive for the strain. Health authorities have carried out contact-tracing for the health professionals taking care of the patient, the ministry said in a statement. Any of their contacts that were seen as vulnerable would similarly be isolated, it said. In addition to this first case, several other positive samples that "may suggest the VOC 202012/01 variant are being sequenced" by the specialist laboratories of the national Pasteur Institute, the statement added.
Borders closed
On Monday, France's health minister Olivier Veran had admitted that it was possible the newly discovered strain was already in the country. Italian authorities have detected the new strain in a patient in Rome, while the World Health Organization reported that nine cases have been detected in Denmark and one each in the Netherlands and Australia. Following the snap 48-hour ban this week, France had reopened its borders to the UK -- partly to allow French citizens to return home, as well as to relieve the massive build-up of freight goods -- but had instituted a testing policy. France's interior ministry said Thursday that limits on travel from the UK will continue "until at least January 6".For now, only citizens of France or the EU, those with residency rights there or business travellers are allowed to make the crossing from the UK -- if they can show a negative Covid-19 test less than three days old. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the new viral strain "may be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original version of the disease". Ahead of Christmas British health minister Matt Hancock announced the expansion of strict lockdown measures across further parts of the south of England to contain the spread of the disease. With more than 68,000 deaths from the virus, the United Kingdom is one of the hardest hit countries in Europe.

Series of Explosions Target Police in Kabul; at Least 2 Dead
Associated Press/December 26/2020
A series of explosions hit the Afghan capital on Saturday morning, killing at least two police officers and wounding another two plus a civilian, officials said. The officers died and a civilian was hurt when a magnetic bomb attached to a police vehicle detonated in western Kabul, said police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz. Two other police were wounded when a bomb attached to their car exploded earlier Saturday in southern Kabul, Faramarz said. A third magnetic bomb detonated in eastern Kabul but caused no casualties, he said. There were reports of at least two other blasts elsewhere in the city but police had no immediate details. The latest attacks came as Taliban and Afghan government negotiators held talks in Qatar, trying to hammer out a peace deal that could put an end to decades of war. No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kabul. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in the capital in recent months, including on educational institutions that killed 50 people, most of them students. The talks in Doha have been suspended until early January and there is speculation they could be further delayed. At the same time, Taliban militants have waged bitter battles against IS fighters, particularly in eastern Afghanistan, while continuing their insurgency against government forces and keeping their promise not to attack U.S. and NATO troops. IS has also claimed responsibility for last week's rocket attacks targeting the major U.S. base in Afghanistan. There were no casualties.

Three UN Peacekeepers Killed in C.Africa Republic ahead of National Polls
Agence France Presse/December 26/2020
Three UN peacekeepers have been killed by unidentified combatants in the Central African Republic, the United Nations said, as the country prepares for a general election and fighting continues between rebels and government forces. The news came after a rebel coalition called off a ceasefire and said it would resume its march on the capital and following the arrival of troops from Russia and Rwanda to shore up the government of the resource-rich country. "Three peacekeepers from Burundi were killed and two others were wounded" following attacks on UN troops and Central African national defense and security forces, the UN said in a statement Friday. The assaults took place in Dekoa, central Kemo Prefecture, and in Bakouma, in the southern Mbomou Prefecture, it said, without providing further details. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, strongly condemned the latest incident, and called on the CAR authorities to investigate the "heinous" assaults. He also warned that "attacks against United Nations peacekeepers may constitute a war crime." Ahead of the polls, 63-year-old incumbent President Faustin Archange Touadera has accused his predecessor Francois Bozize of plotting a coup.
Bozize -- who is under UN sanctions and barred from running -- denies the charges. On Tuesday a militia briefly seized the country's fourth biggest town, before it was retaken by security forces backed by UN peacekeepers.
- Broken ceasefire -
Rebel groups launched an offensive a week ago threatening to march on the capital Bangui, in what the government described as an attempted coup, but their progress was halted with international help. However, a three-day ceasefire brokered ahead of the elections fell apart Friday with the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) announcing that it would resume its push for the capital. The CPC -- whose components are drawn from militia groups that, together, control two-thirds of the country -- was created on December 19 by armed groups who accused Touadera of trying to fix the vote.
Clashes resumed on Friday in Bakouma, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) northeast of Bangui, according to Vladimir Monteiro, spokesman for the UN's MINUSCA peacekeeping force. MINUSA said Thursday that a 300-strong contingent of Rwandan reinforcements had arrived in the country. Russia, which recently signed a military cooperation agreement with Touadera's government, has also sent at least 300 military instructors to bolster the CAR's forces ahead of the polls. Sunday's elections are deemed a key test of CAR's ability to recover stability. But a crucial question is whether turnout will be badly affected by violence or intimidation, denting the credibility of the next president and the 140-seat legislature. Mineral-rich but rated the world's second-poorest country on the Human Development Index, the CAR has been chronically unstable since independence 60 years ago.

EU Begins Vaccine Rollout as New Virus Strain Spreads
Agence France Presse/December 26/2020
The European Union began a vaccine rollout Saturday, even as countries in the bloc were forced back into lockdown by a new strain of the virus, believed to be more infectious, that continues to spread from Britain. The pandemic has claimed more than 1.7 million lives and is still running rampant in much of the world, but the recent launching of innoculation campaigns has boosted hopes that 2021 could bring a respite. Hours before the first vaccine doses arrived in France, Paris' health ministry confirmed late Friday that it had detected its first case of the new variant in a citizen returned from Britain. Several countries have reported cases of the new strain, which has sent jitters through already overstretched health services. There was little sign of the usual Boxing Day sale rush on the streets of Sydney Saturday, as residents largely heeded the state premier's request they stay home faced with a new virus cluster. "Even when we entered the store there were less than ten people," shopper Lia Gunawan told The Sydney Morning Herald after queueing up for the sales. Even as some European nations eye a post-Christmas return to harsh restrictions, China's communist leadership issued a statement hailing the "extremely extraordinary glory" of its handling of the virus that emerged in the country's Hubei province last year, state news agency Xinhua reported. Across the world, people are being urged to respect social distancing guidelines, as the World Health Organisation urged people not to "squander" the "great, heart-wrenching sacrifices" people had made to save lives.
- New variant -
The first French case of the new coronavirus variant was found in a citizen resident in Britain who arrived from London on December 19, the French health ministry said.  They are asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in Tours in central France, and contact-tracing has taken place for the health professionals who treated him. The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions on the UK, where it first emerged. But cases of the new variant have still been reported worldwide: on Friday, Japan confirmed five infections in passengers from the UK, while cases have also been reported in Denmark, Lebanon, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands. South Africa has detected a similar mutation in some infected people, but on Friday denied British claims its strain was more infectious or dangerous than the one originating in the UK. The closure of the UK-France border for 48 hours led to a bottleneck of up to 10,000 lorries in southeast England, with drivers stranded for days over the festive period. But the head of the Calais port operator told AFP that after the port remained open over Christmas specially, the "situation should be completely taken care of" soon.
- New restrictions -
Some countries that loosened restrictions slightly for Christmas have re-imposed them -- Austria, for example, will see a curfew imposed from Saturday until 24 January. Millions in the United Kingdom have been affected by a tightening of restrictions there -- according to the BBC, more than 40% of England's population are now affected by the strictest measures -- which include the closure of all non-essential businesses and a limiting of social contacts.New lockdowns also started in Scotland and Northern Ireland on Saturday, and Wales has re-imposed restrictions too after relaxing them for Christmas. More than 25 million infections have been recorded in Europe, according to an AFP tally on Friday.
- Vaccine hope -
Vaccinations in all 27 European Union countries will begin on Sunday, after regulators approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on 21 December. As vaccine rollout gets underway across the world, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Friday: "Vaccines are offering the world a way out of this tragedy. But it will take time for the whole world to be vaccinated."The pope's Christmas message also referenced the issue, with a plea for "vaccines for all". "I call on everyone, on leaders of states, on businesses, on international organisations, to promote cooperation and not competition, to find a solution for everyone... especially the most vulnerable and most in need in all regions of the planet," Pope Francis said.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 26-27/2020

The Genius of Israel's Foreign Policy: Mixing Normalization and Silent War
Jonathan Spyer/Newsweek/December 26/2020
Originally published under the title "Understanding Israel's War in the 'Grey Zone'."
Israel seeks to keep its enemies at bay while maintaining societal tranquility and economic prosperity.
The facts of the case remain in dispute. A variety of versions have emerged. But all the various accounts agree that the Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a brigadier general of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, considered by Israel to be the commander of the military element of the Iranian nuclear program, died in a hail of bullets on the road to his hometown of Absard, south of Tehran, on November 27.
No one has openly claimed responsibility for the killing of Fakhrizadeh, but it may be taken as a near certainty that Israel was behind it. The event thus appears to be a rare sighting of an ongoing campaign under way for some years now: Israel's ongoing, usually silent "grey zone" war against Iran.
This campaign, and the way it is fought, is a natural partner to the diplomatic moves that have recently produced "normalization" agreements between Israel, Morocco, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Together, these represent the Israeli response to a strategic dilemma—namely, how can Israel maintain the required levels of societal calm, normality and tranquility within which economic activity and innovation can flourish, while at the same time engaging effectively in the long, open-ended struggle against those countries and organizations committed to its destruction?
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's goal is less to defeat Israel militarily than to make normal life within it impossible.
The strategic "long war" doctrine underlying the activities of those organizations and states, nationalist and Islamist, which have engaged in irregular warfare against Israel over the last half-century is intended to accentuate this contradiction. The notion, as articulated by Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in his 2000 speech at Bint Jbeil in which he alleged that Israeli society was weaker than a "spider's web," is that by making the pursuit of normal life impossible in Israel, the Jewish state's enemies would erode its people's will to continue—and cause them, over time, to abandon their commitment to it in the first instance. The model for this desired outcome is the demise of French Algeria, and the departure from that country of French settlers after 1959.
Israel, of course, does not accept the historic comparison, nor the underlying diagnosis of the society. But this is not an argument characterized by respectful debate. The task facing Israeli strategists has been to develop a means of diplomacy and a simultaneous means of war capable of preventing the hypothesis from being tested. What this looks like in practice has been on display in recent weeks.
Israel's ongoing military campaigns involve a relatively small number of its citizens.
The purpose of Israel's current, ongoing military campaign is two-fold. It is intended to disrupt and hinder Iran's ongoing efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capacity. It also seeks to prevent and reverse the Iranian project to create an extensive infrastructure of support across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and then to embed advanced weapons systems directed at Israel within that infrastructure.
This is a very 21st-century campaign. It is considered to involve only a relatively small number of Israeli agencies and citizens. Key among the former are parts of the air force, the Mossad and other intelligence bodies, and personnel who learned their trade in Israel's most selective special forces units.
The killing of Fakhrizadeh would have been the province of intelligence groups. The air force, meanwhile, is engaged on a weekly basis in disrupting Iranian efforts at building and consolidating its human and material infrastructure in Syria. This ongoing campaign has, in the view of Yaakov Amidror, a former national security advisor in Israel and today a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, succeeded—as expressed to me in a recent conversation—in setting back the Iranian effort by "80 to 85 percent."
Covert action has been integral to Israel's way of war since its founding.
Covert action, including the use of assassinations, has formed a controversial part of Israel's way of war since the very birth of the state—and, indeed, even before it. Famously, then-Prime Minister Golda Meir directed Israel's intelligence agencies to eliminate the perpetrators of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. This was a mission achieved, though not without serious errors and mishaps. The last of the individuals directly responsible for the Munich massacre was not killed until 1979.
But the structures established by Israel for carrying out that campaign amounted to the formalization of existing practices, rather than a completely novel turn. In the early 1960s, Israel, in "Operation Damocles," conducted a series of assassinations of rocket scientists, including German veterans of Hitler's rocket program. These men were working with the then-Egyptian regime to develop Cairo's long-range missile capacity.
Even prior to the establishment of Israel, Zionist paramilitary organizations kept assassination as one of their tools. The commander of the Mossad operational unit in Operation Damocles was future Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. The latter learned his trade as operations officer of the Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Israel Freedom Fighters), better known in the English-speaking world as the Stern Gang. This organization assassinated, among others, a UN mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, in Jerusalem in 1948, and a British minister of state in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, in Cairo in 1944.
The first significant political assassination carried out by Zionist organizations indeed traces all the way back to Jerusalem in 1924. The victim was Jacob De Haan, a prominent Jewish anti Zionist leader. The perpetrators were the newly formed Haganah, first of the Zionist military groups.
It is a long way from pistol shots by a lone gunman in 1920s-era Jerusalem—the gunman in question, at the time, was Odessa-born Avraham Tehomi, later the founder and first commander of the Irgun—to the complex, high-tech operation that appears to have ended the life of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. But a consistent, if evolving, praxis links the two. Israel does not always wait until a problem has ripened in order to meet it with large-scale conventional military or diplomatic means. Instead, where Israel deems it necessary, it prefers to deploy direct action to prevent the nascent problem from fully emerging.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor, speaking to me recently in Jerusalem, located Israel's alleged policy of assassinations within an integrated, three-sided strategy intended to stop Iran from going nuclear. The strategy, according to Meridor, involves "prevention" (a euphemism for active measures to disrupt the Iranian effort), "defense" (including such systems as the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system) and "deterrence" (relating to Israel's own putative nuclear capacity).
This strategy minimizes disruption for the daily lives of the vast majority of Israelis, who are able to continue their own endeavors largely unaware of, or incurious about, national security details.
In this way, it fits with the current advances in peacemaking and the normalization agreements. The defense strategy is intended to keep professed enemies at bay with the minimum of visibility. This then enables civil society and enterprise to flourish. These, in turn, produce the capacities—in desert agriculture, medical tech, artificial intelligence and other fields—that make Israel such a useful partner for regional states in the civilian realm.
The killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on the road from Tehran to Absard thus forms part of an approach to conflict intended to minimize fallout and accompanying noise, while bolstering the atmosphere of security and normality that makes a flourishing 21st-century society feasible amidst a troubled and strife-torn neighborhood. Innovation, normalization and cooperation for those who seek goodwill; the silent war for those with other intents. As of now, it appears to be working.
*Jonathan Spyer is a Ginsburg/Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis.

Turkey: From Europe With Love
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/December 26, 2020
Erdoğan also said that he sees Turkey's future in Europe -- the same Europe he just had accused of being "Nazi remnants and fascists."
The heart of the matter was how tough the EU would go in sanctions at a time when Turkey's national economy was in free-fall. What Brussels decided, it turned out, was: Not so tough
Legally speaking, the man Erdoğan referred to as a "terrorist" is only a suspect without a court verdict. This, however, is Erdoğan's sick understanding of constitutional rights: He is the elected leader, so he believes he can take the liberty to declare suspects guilty or not guilty while their court cases are in progress.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently managed to dodge a huge European sanctions bomb, at least until March. The trouble is, an inherently anti-Western, Islamist politician who has built his popularity largely on constant confrontations with other nations cannot mentally transform into a peaceful partner within a span of three months.
If Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, spent more sleepless nights the first week of December than he had over his concerns for U.S. sanctions, it was because of the more imminent and potentially punishing European Union sanctions that would take shape at a summit on December 10-11. He must have had a relatively peaceful sleep when the summit was over. He might have thought that he had managed to get away from a huge European sanctions bomb, at least until March. It may, however, be a bit premature for him to sigh with relief.
After the EU leaders gave Turkey an unambiguous warning in October, Erdoğan chose to escalate tensions, bringing what otherwise would have been mere diplomatic issues to the level of a mini-clash of civilizations. Erdoğan calculated that he could play the tough Ottoman sultan until the last moment and that the EU would never dare burn their bridges with Turkey. He was right and wrong. He bought time, the EU did not burn their bridges, the sanctions at the December summit were not powerful enough to change Turkey's course. Nevertheless, Erdoğan now has another deadline by which he must choose between a further clash of civilizations and sustainable de-escalation.
Shortly before the December summit, Turkey pulled a hydrocarbon exploration ship from disputed waters of the Mediterranean Sea. After months of challenging EU-backed exploration efforts, the survey ship Oruç Reis was brought home.
Additionally, in a bogus charm offensive, Ankara embraced a pluralist rhetoric toward the country's non-Muslim minorities. "Religious minorities are the wealth of our country, based on the principle of equal citizenship and common history," presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalın said in a Twitter post. "Discriminating against them would weaken Turkey."
Erdoğan also said that he sees Turkey's future in Europe -- the same Europe he just had accused of being "Nazi remnants and fascists."
On the summit table were also an EU-wide arms embargo on Turkey, as pushed persistently by Greece and Cyprus. Instead of opting for an immediate embargo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced, the EU leaders would discuss issues with NATO and U.S. officials. "We also spoke about how questions about arms exports must be discussed within NATO. We said that we want to coordinate with the new US administration about Turkey," Merkel told a press conference.
The issue of an arms embargo was simply not the heart of the matter. In 2018, total EU arms exports to Turkey stood at a negligible $54 million. In 2019, several weapons-producing countries in the EU (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands) individually halted or restricted arms sales to Turkey.
The heart of the matter was how tough the EU would go in sanctions at a time when Turkey's national economy was in free-fall. What Brussels decided, it turned out, was: Not so tough. EU leaders agreed to impose sanctions on an unspecified number of Turkish officials and entities involved in gas drilling in Cypriot-claimed waters -- but they deferred the bigger decisions such as trade tariffs until they consult with the upcoming U.S. administration of presumptive President-elect Joe Biden.
The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, will announce the names of those facing sanctions in the next few weeks. But that will not be the end of the story. At the December summit, Borrell was tasked to prepare proposals on a broader approach to Turkey by March, giving the EU time to consult with Biden's national security team.
This window gives Erdoğan a short, temporary relief. By the end of February, he will have to play his final cards before the EU hardens sanctions or delays hardening them for another three months. These postponements of tougher sanctions are not a winning game for Erdoğan, especially when simultaneous U.S. and European sanctions threaten further to weaken Turkey's fragile economy.
The trouble is, an inherently anti-Western, Islamist politician who has built his popularity largely on constant confrontations with other nations cannot mentally transform into a peaceful partner within a span of three months. He is unwilling at least to stop widening his country's atrocious democratic deficit. "Don't expect me to reward that terrorist [by releasing him]," Erdoğan said just a few days before the EU summit, speaking of Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed leader of a pro-Kurdish political party that won over 10% of the national vote in last elections.
Demirtaş, along with 12 Kurdish MPs, has been awaiting trial in detention on terrorism charges since 2016. Legally speaking, the man Erdoğan referred to as a "terrorist" is only a suspect without a court verdict. This, however, is Erdoğan's sick understanding of constitutional rights: He is the elected leader, so he believes he can take the liberty to declare suspects guilty or not guilty while their court cases are in progress.
To buy more time in March, Erdoğan will also have to swallow big words and challenges. He will have to stop Turkish hydrocarbon exploration activity in the eastern Mediterranean, stop tensions with Greece and Cyprus and switch to a diplomatic language with Europe, a language that will not contain words such as Nazis, fascists and anti-Muslim racists.
Some very tough homework awaits the schoolyard bully.
*Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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Many issues will fuel US-Egyptian tensions during Biden era
Mohamed Abulfadl/The Arab Weekly/December 26/2020
Many believe that Egypt’s expected crisis with the new US administration is limited to the issues of freedoms, democracy and human rights alone, and that it is sufficient for Cairo to just adjust its approach in this respect to smooth out its relationship with Washington.
The reality, however, is more complex than that; as there are issues more vital to Cairo and which represent a source of annoyance requiring reconsideration of some historical constants.
I do not know whether President Donald Trump had intended to sour his country’s relations with Egypt before leaving the White House or not, when he slammed the draft resolution approved by Congress, on Tuesday, regarding a foreign aid package. The US President said that the members of Congress did not read the contents of the bill, which included $ 1.3 billion aid to Egypt, and claimed that the Egyptian military “will go out and buy, almost exclusively, Russian military equipment.”
Whatever the answer in both cases, Trump has chosen to venture into the very treacherous terrain of US aid provided to Egypt for nearly four decades as incentives and encouragement following its peace treaty with Israel so as to deal with ensuing military and political repercussions.
With many other Arab countries joining the peace train with Israel, a review of the aid issue and its economic and military attachments is not to be excluded. The need for this aid is diminishing, and whatever symbolic added value Washington was pursuing through this aid can now be reached through other Arab countries; so why should the US continue to pay for a commodity that has lost its impact now?
After the signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1978, former US President Jimmy Carter announced the provision of economic and other military aid to both Egypt and Israel, later turning it into non-refundable grants of $ 3 billion a year for the first, and $ 2.1 billion for the second, of which $ 815 million is economic aid, and $ 1.3 billion in military aid.
This aid was not meant as just a token of friendship between Egypt and Israel and consolidating the foundations of peace between them. Rather, Washington was also pursuing its strategic interests, in light of major changes that have made Israel to a large extent a “normal” state in the region for many, and in light of other changes that have prompted the United States to review its calculations in the region. It is expected that we will see in the near future other implications of Trump’s talk about this aid.
Egypt is showing much apprehension of an underhand trick by the Biden administration, and has prepared itself for a battle in the human rights front by undertaking some significant improvement measures in some of its aspects. But it also knows that the battle may extend to other uncomfortable areas against Cairo’s will.
Washington had previously used the threat of cutting aid at some of the tense junctures in US-Egyptian relations, and indeed the aid package was reduced or even frozen at some points, but things always worked out in the end.
Trump has reopened some of the old wounds in the issue of US aid to Egypt when he appeared to mock the members of Congress who approved it, by claiming that Egypt was using this aid to buy weapons from Russia. But in fact, Trump was wrong, as usual, about this particular detail. He seemed to be ignoring the fact that the US aid to Egypt is hardly given in hard cash but rather goes to finance the purchase of weapons and spare parts from the United States itself.
The man wanted to score a point against Congress before his departure, and to mine the field under the feet of the new US administration just to confuse it. The new administration is aware of that, although former President Barack Obama and his administration had pulled before on the string of freezing part of the US aid to Egypt, but Obama did not reach the level of linking it to purchasing weapons from Russia, with which Egypt had already signed arms deals.
Trump has not been able to address Egypt’s persistence on buying advanced weaponry from Russia, as he was mindful of his friendship with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. But now he wants Biden to pursue the issue. His inaccurate remarks about US aid going to buy Russian weapons “almost exclusively,” therefore, means putting the ball in the new administration’s court.
Months ago, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo objected to Egypt buying Sukhoi-35 planes from Moscow, and even hinted at sanctions, but no practical steps were taken against Cairo. It was said that a number of these aircraft arrived in Egypt, and Trump turned a blind eye to the issue, while he rushed to condemn Turkey for buying Russian S-400 missiles, paving the way for sanctions against Ankara.
Purchasing advanced weapons from Moscow is a very sensitive issue for the United States, always considering it as a hostile act against its strategic interests, and it had fought many a diplomatic battle in this regard. It does not, however, seem to mind it when Egypt purchases advanced weapons from Western countries, as Cairo did with Germany, France and Italy. It is very likely that this crisis kicked off by Trump’s comments will see other developments during the Biden era.
Trump gave Cairo a chance to catch its breath, and gave it, in his familiar arrogant tone, an early lead as to one of the hot political issues which Egypt is going to have to face with the Biden administration and Congress together. In doing so, he made it seem he was being generous with his “favourite dictator.”
Egypt has reached a level of stability that enables it to meet the challenge of the US cutting or reducing its aid. On the long run, such a development is not to be excluded. Cairo had already hinted at such an eventuality right after it go rid of the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule and at the height of the Obama administration’s power, which had angered Washington at the time.
As Cairo diversified its supply sources of weapons, Washington’s weapon of military aid has lost part of its lustre and efficacy. The bulk of this aid is returned to the American taxpayer anyway, in the form of equipment and spare parts purchases. Furthermore, Cairo is aware that Washington’s weight in international balances is gradually diminishing and it is no longer the only force on the world stage. And because Cairo was not willing to mortgage its fate on the will of any foreign power, it moved quickly to establish connections with multiple world powers.
In addition, the dismantling of the US aid to Egypt due to the decline of the normalisation card in Cairo’s hand frees the latter from some of its obligations towards American interests, and imposes a review of the motives that had led to the introduction of this aid as an incentive to Egypt and Israel in the first place. So, tampering with the aid file has repercussions that affect the relationship between the latter two countries, and may change some of the military features inherent in the peace treaty.
Signs of tension loom over the relationship between Egypt and the new US administration. How intense it will be will depend on the level of mutual concern for the interests of each party, and the preservation of a solid system that prevents misunderstandings from being greater than understandings.