LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 12/19

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles
Letter to the Ephesians 03/01-13: “This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on February 11-12/19
Israel pushes for UN to declare Hezbollah as a terror organization
Moscow &Tehran prepare to arm Hizballah, including with Iranian air defense missiles
Now That Lebanon Finally Has a Government, the Real Work Begins
Hezbollah's Finances are Its Achilles' Heel
Zarif says Iran ready to support Lebanon, Army
Aboul Gheit: No Deal Yet on Syria's Return to Arab League
Aoun Meets Zarif: Iran Can Play a Role in Refugees’ Return
Hariri to Zarif: Lebanon Respects Its Pledges towards Arab, Int'l Community
Abul Gheit from Beirut: No Deal Yet on Syria's Return to Arab League
Zarif Meets Nasrallah, Says Iran Ready to Help in All Files
Arslan from Baabda: No Refugee Solution without Clear Relation with Syria
Bassil Says Iran Economic Cooperation Possible, Lebanon to Shun Warsaw Talks
Arrest Warrants for 4 ISF Officers, 11 Personnel in Bribery Probe
Del Col Meets Bou Saab, Says Army Must Act on Border Tunnels
Report: Lebanon Sees Diplomatic Flurry after Govt. Formation
New U.N. Special Coordinator Ján Kubiš Arrives in Lebanon
Nasrallah Appears on Israeli Billboard
Report: Lebanon Sees Diplomatic Flurry after Govt. Formation

Litles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 11-12/19
US slams Iranian revolution for 40 years of failure as Rouhani threatens military expansion
Palestinian Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: We Have Absolute Confidence in Saudi Leadership
Fatah Official: Abbas to Name PM after Returning from AU Summit
US Sends Reinforcements to Tanf Airbase
Pompeo Says U.S. 'Not Covering Up' Khashoggi Murder
Rouhani: US Conspiracy against Islamic Republic Will Never Succeed
Asharq Al-Awsat at Frontline of Last ISIS Pocket in Syria
U.S.-Backed Forces Push Syria Offensive against Last IS Pocket
Venezuela's Guaido Warns Military on Blocked Aid
Tunisian ‘Democratic Forum’ Boycotts Presidential Elections
Algeria’s Bouteflika to Run for 5th Term despite ‘Health Troubles’
U.N. Says Yemen Food Aid at Risk of Rotting
France Agrees 'Strategic' Pact with Qatar
Advice for Canadian travellers: spring break

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 11-12/19
Israel pushes for UN to declare Hezbollah as a terror organization/Itamar Eichner/Ynetnews/February 11/19
Moscow &Tehran prepare to arm Hizballah, including with Iranian air defense missiles/DEBKAfile/February 11/19
Now That Lebanon Finally Has a Government, the Real Work Begins/Michael Young/The National/February 11/19
Hezbollah's Finances are Its Achilles' Heel/Ali Bakeer and Chafic Choucair/The National Interest/February 11/19
UK: A Defeat Dressed Up as a Victory/Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/February 11/19
Should Washington Heed Intelligence Assessments about North Korea/Peter Huessy/Gatestone Institute/February 11/19
Iran Needs a New Revolution/Eli Lake/Bloomberg View/February 11/19
Khomeini, the Revolution… the Iranian Citizen and the Mirror/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/February, 11/19
The Green New Deal Would Spend the US Into Oblivion/Noah Smith/Bloomberg View/February, 11/19
How Iran Deceived The U.S. Intelligence Community: Four Examples/Yigal Carmon and A. Savyon/MEMRI/February 11/19
The Middle East Doesn’t Admire America Anymore/Steven A. Cook/Foreign Policy/February 11/19

Latest LCCC English Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on February 11-12/19
Israel pushes for UN to declare Hezbollah as a terror organization
صحيفة يدعوت احرانوت: إسرائيل تضغط على جمعية الأمم المتحدة لإعلان حزب الله منظمة إراهبية
Itamar Eichner/Ynetnews/February 11/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72100/ynetnews-israel-pushes-for-un-to-declare-hezbollah-as-a-terror-organization-%d8%b5%d8%ad%d9%8a%d9%81%d8%a9-%d9%8a%d8%af%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d8%ad%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a5%d8%b3/
Senior IDF officials are expected to brief the members of the UN Security Council on the Iran-backed group's activity in Lebanon, voicing their concerns over its further strengthening in the country and its entrenchment in Syria.
In a bid to persuade the members of the United Nations Security Council to dub Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, senior officers from Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate are expected to brief the members of the international body on the Iran-backed group's activity in Lebanon. They will voice their concerns over its further strengthening in the country and the establishment of extensive terror infrastructures, and also raise the need to prevent further Iranian entrenchment in Syria. Although Hezbollah is already considered a terrorist organization by multiple countries, including Israel, the US and members of the Arab League, its members serve in the Lebanese government. Over the past few months, the Israeli mission to the UN headed by Ambassador Danny Danon has been waging a campaign to get the UN Security Council to declare the Shiite organization as a terrorist group.
As a result, the Security Council held a meeting in December to discuss the Hezbollah attack tunnels dug from Lebanon into Israel, which were uncovered by the IDF during Operation Northern Shield in December. The tunnels, of which Israel uncovered six, are believed to have been dug by Hezbollah fighters in order to carry out attacks on civilians in the Galilee. The meeting, called by the US at Israel's request, also dealt with Hezbollah’s alleged violations of UN Resolution 1701. The resolution, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, calls for the disarmament of the Iranian-backed organization and its activities in southern Lebanon.
Last week, dozens of UN ambassadors visiting Israel toured a site near Metula where the army discovered the cross-border tunnels. Engineering troops gave the diplomats a tour of a tunnel using a robotic camera. The tour was organized by Danon. "The struggle we are waging against Hezbollah is both military and diplomatic. Its definition as a terrorist organization is imperative to harm the global terror apparatus, which is based in Tehran," Danon said.
The diplomats met with President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before flying in a seven-helicopter convoy from Jerusalem to the north of the country. During their meeting, Netanyahu stressed Iran's chokehold on Lebanon via its proxy Hezbollah. As the tour ended, several UN ambassadors said they would support Israel's attempts to convince the Security Council to declare Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The Panamanian Ambassador Melitón Arrocha Ruíz said that he came to see firsthand the hostile activities against Israel. “We will pass on what we saw and convey how Israel is thriving, open and democratic and that we all certainly share similar rule of law values,” he said. South Sudan Ambassador Akuei Bona Malwal noted the importance of coming to see the facts on the ground: “For those of us who work in NY and hear all sorts of things, the best way is to come and see and feel exactly what is happening. We came to Israel to see the challenges and how they are being handled.”The ambassador also pointed out the absurdity of the tunnels being dug under the nose of UN peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon.

Moscow &Tehran prepare to arm Hizballah, including with Iranian air defense missiles
من موقع دبيكا: طهران وموسكو يتحضران لتسليح حزب الله وتزويده بصواريخ جوية دفاعية إيرانية
DEBKAfile/February 11/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72097/debkafile-moscow-tehran-prepare-to-arm-hizballah-including-with-iranian-air-defense-missiles-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d8%af%d8%a8%d9%8a%d9%83%d8%a7-%d8%b7%d9%87%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86/
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif pointedly visited Beirut on Monday, Feb.11, the day of the Islamic revolution’s 40th anniversary, to highlight the length and breadth of its reach – even under US sanctions, threats and Israeli bombardment. Like Moscow, Tehran has shifted its focus to the quest for a foothold in Lebanon to consolidate their success in preserving the next-door Assad regime in Damascus. Both have designated the Shite Hizballah terrorist organization as their main channel of influence in Beirut. Except that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister. who visited Jerusalem last week for talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, insisted on Sunday, Feb. 10, that Hizballah is not a terrorist group, but a positive force for stability in the Middle East. The line Russian spokesmen are now pushing in unison with Tehran is a thorough clean-up of Hizballah’s international image.
Hizballah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, last week proposed that Iran re-arm the Lebanese army with new weapons including anti-air missiles. Zarif responded that Tehran is ready to assist Lebanon “in every field” – including the military sphere. He spoke in general terms, but DEBKAfile’s military sources report that, behind closed doors, the Iranian foreign minister offered the Lebanese army a set of Iranian Bavar 373 air defense missile systems, which are a close replica of the Russian S-300s deployed around military and nuclear sites across Iran. Iran nay decide against sending these missiles to Lebanon, lest they are destroyed by Israel, but the offer in itself is raising raised the military temperature around Lebanon. Quite simply, all the parties concerned are aware that the Lebanese government will decline this offer, because by closing the Iranian door they will open it to the start of Russian weapons supplies to Lebanon and Hizballah. Tehran has no objection to advanced weapons reaching Hizballah from Russia. The Iranians will claim that it is par for the course. Kurdish forces in Syria are armed by the Americans to fight Islamic State terror, and Hizballah is fighting the same foe. The Russians and Iranians are therefore getting their act together for the US military pullout from Syria. Sources in Washington estimated this week that the US withdrawal would be finished by April. Last week, the head of CENTCOM, Gen. Joseph Votel, said that, depending on circumstances, US troops would be out of Syria “in a few weeks.” Their impending departure has boosted Hizballah’s rise to center stage for the next chapter of the Syrian story and its ramifications.

Now That Lebanon Finally Has a Government, the Real Work Begins
Michael Young/The National/February 11/19
It took Lebanon nine months to form a government, but what arrived was no bouncing baby. Instead, the political forces in the country formed a so-called national-unity government that included all the old faces or their appointees. National unity is precisely what the government will soon need, in order to address Lebanon’s mounting economic and political challenges.
The priority for Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government will be to address the calamitous economic situation, which threatens the stability of the national currency, the Lebanese pound. Lebanon has a large public debt, equivalent to 150 per cent of GDP, caused by high government spending and servicing of the current debt. The government has been unable, or unwilling, to gain control over spending as major cuts could undermine their patronage networks.
Yet reform will be necessary to access some $11 billion in soft loans and grants pledged to Lebanon at an economic conference in Paris held in April 2018. A large share of the loans, just under $6bn, is to go to a capital investment program spread over 12 years, which aims to finance projects in the water, electricity, and waste management sectors, all in urgent need of upgrading.
A major task will be reforming Lebanon’s crisis-ridden electricity sector, which accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s fiscal deficit. Subsidised electricity tariffs have meant losses of between $1.5bn and $2bn a year for the state. One obstacle to this, however, is that many politicians are profiting handsomely from the dysfunctional way the sector is operating today. In other words, they will have little incentive to see a lucrative source of money and patronage disappear.
To get a sense of the government’s irresponsibility, in 2017 it passed a public sector salary raise estimated at just under $1bn, which it paid for by raising taxes. Many economists believed the estimate was low, and there have been reports that the government is having trouble meeting its bill. The move was politically expedient but financially reckless, particularly when no reforms were introduced to heighten public sector efficiency and address unproductive employees. But the government went ahead with it anyway.
Reforming the economy fails to address the high level of corruption in the system. Lebanon was ranked 138 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index. Yet the economic downturn and the cut in regional funding for political allies in Beirut has pushed politicians and parties to plunder the economy more to compensate for those lost funds. For instance, Hezbollah’s takeover of the Health Ministry will very likely be used by the party to medically treat its supporters for free, at the economy’s expense.
The second priority for the Hariri government will be diplomacy, namely walking a tightrope in a dangerously divided Middle East. Tensions between the Gulf states and Israel, backed by the United States, on the one side, and Iran and its allies on the other, risk leading to new wars, with Lebanon the likeliest location. Israel has warned that such a conflict would be devastating to Lebanon, but Mr Hariri will be hard pressed to control Hezbollah, which answers to Iran.
Of particular concern to the prime minister, however, will be avoiding the loss of western support because of Hezbollah’s actions. The recent discovery by the Israeli military of tunnels dug by the organisation into northern Israel damaged Lebanon’s reputation. The caretaker government did nothing to condemn the moves, let alone warn of the perilous consequences of a confrontation with Israel.
Indeed, Mr Hariri has done a poor job of affirming the prerogatives of the Lebanese state – even if only verbally – with respect to the party. While few expect him to get very far in curbing Hezbollah’s alliance with Iran, Mr Hariri and President Michel Aoun have an obligation to protect Lebanon from any new war, and can place the onus on Hezbollah if it provokes one.
The government, or at least that part of the government concerned with Lebanon’s regional standing, should focus on a third objective, namely improving ties with the Gulf states. There are two principal reasons for this. First, Lebanon will invariably need Gulf support if it seeks to seriously address its economic woes. With hundreds of thousands of Lebanese in Gulf countries sending remittances home, it cannot afford to allow relations with these countries to sour.
Second, at a time when Gulf countries are improving ties with Damascus, it won’t be long before Syria tries to leverage this to reimpose a major role for itself in Lebanon. To resist such an outcome, Mr Hariri and those opposed to a Syrian return must ensure that they can secure Gulf backing against this alternative. It is doable, but requires agreement between most major Lebanese parties other than Hezbollah, which gains from cutting Beirut off from the Gulf states.
So, Lebanon’s preoccupation in the coming year and beyond will be the economy and diplomatic gymnastics. In a system riven with competing agendas, success is far from guaranteed. The problem is that the price of failure is potentially so high that the politicians will have to consider the stability of their own position if they fail. These are not crises the Lebanese can tiptoe around, as has been their way.

Hezbollah's Finances are Its Achilles' Heel
Ali Bakeer and Chafic Choucair/The National Interest/February 11/19
On January 10, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo maintained that the U.S. administration won't accept Hezbollah’s major presence in Lebanon as the status quo. Speaking from Cairo, where he delivered his speech “A Force for Good: America Reinvigorated in the Middle East,” Pompeo criticized the way Obama handled the Iranian-backed militant group, stressing that the current administration is targeting both Iran and Hezbollah at the same time.
Indeed, since taking office in January 2017, Trump imposed several sets of sanctions on both Iran and Hezbollah, Tehran’s most powerful and one of its oldest allies in the region. Although the Shia Lebanon-based group has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department since 1997, the financial and military activities of the group have kept growing in a steady way. In October 2018, the United States designated five groups, including the Hezbollah as a “top transnational organized crime threats.” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions affirmed that disrupting and dismantling activities of these groups is a priority for President Trump and his administration.
For many years, Hezbollah’s foes focused solely on its military capabilities as a source of power while totally ignoring the Shia party’s Achilles’ heel—its financial resources. As a hybrid semi-state actor, the ideological nature, organizational structure, and stretched regional agenda of Hezbollah require huge financial capabilities which surpasses the capacity of normal political parties. Indeed, since 2006, Hezbollah established itself as the second largest employer in Lebanon after the Lebanese state. Although the ideological/religious factor is important in securing the support of the Shia environment, it is mostly through money that Hezbollah is able to carry out its agenda and sustain the loyalty and support of a large segment of Lebanese society.
Since its establishment in the early eighties, Hezbollah relied heavily on the money coming from Iran. However, during the last two decades, it has worked hard to diversify the sources of its financial income. This move aimed to give the party considerable flexibility in critical times, and a greater ability to evade efforts targeting its financial ties with Iran. Among other goals too, Hezbollah wanted to ease the burden on Iran and meet the increasing needs of its stretched regional agenda from its own financial sources.
To that end, the Shia party built its own parallel economy inside Lebanon and indulged in economic and financial activities across several continents—from Africa to Latin America to Asia. Its activities as “ a transnational criminal organization ” mainly include money laundering, construction, and contracting business among others. Today, Hezbollah’s money comes from five main sources: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran as a state, its foreign economic empire, the khums (where Shia Muslims pay one-fifth of their excess income to Iranian religious authorities), and the parallel economy inside Lebanon. The annual budget of Hezbollah is unknown, however, most recent estimates indicate that the Iranian support constitutes around 70 percent to 80 percent of Hezbollah’s budget, which is approximately equal to $700 million . This range was never fixed due to lack of transparency and extended agenda of Hezbollah in the last decade.
Last October , the United States imposed a new set of sanctions on Tehran’s ally in Lebanon under the “Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act.” The new legislation is supposed to isolate Hezbollah from the international financial system and reduce its funding by targeting foreign persons and government agencies that knowingly assist or support the group and its affiliated networks that engage in “transnational crime.” During an event marking the thirty-fifth anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, President Donald Trump emphasized that the aim of the new sanctions is to further starve Hezbollah of its funds, adding “We will target, disrupt, and dismantle their operational and financing networks—of which they had plenty; they don’t have plenty now.
Many analysts downplayed the implications of the U.S. sanctions against Iran or Hezbollah on the status of Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Lebanese Daily Star, for example quoted experts saying the sanctions on Iran are unlikely to affect Tehran’s proxy. The General Secretary of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, maintained that U.S. sanctions on Iran will have no effect on the party. These statements disregard the fact that unlike weapons, Hezbollah cannot survive without the support of its Shia environment.
Although some of its supporters are strong believers in Wilayat al-Faqih (loyalty to the Iranian Supreme Leader), the Islamic revolution, and the Iranian state, most of them are not. Money plays an important role in securing the support of the majority. In addition, through its efforts to diversify its financial resources, Hezbollah has managed to create an economic hub in the southern suburbs of Beirut that has yielded benefits not only locally but also for the greater Shia sect in Lebanon as well as in Syria and Iraq, thus creating a mutual financial interest for its supporters too.
Aware of its financial vulnerability, Hezbollah recently slashed its expenditures and is encouraging its supporters and many of its members to find an official public governmental job. This particular phenomenon is increasing and is happening at the expense of the longtime Shia rival Amal Movement, which mostly represents Shias in public sector jobs in Lebanon. The goal of this move is to shift some of the financial burden to the Lebanese government and to fill the governmental institutions with Hezbollah’s members and supporters. Although the efforts to target Hezbollah’s financial system are not new, they never managed to bring Hezbollah to its knees. There are several reasons which can explain why:
First, the sanctions against Iran are not tight enough. Since 2009, Iranian people are becoming more sensitive regarding the financial support given by their government to regional allies, including Hezbollah. Although more sanctions on Iran might not zero its financial support for its ally in Lebanon, it would certainly reduce it and incite more Iranian people to protest against this kind of support. Historic experience proves that whenever the sanctions on Tehran are tight and/or oil prices are low, Iran as a state tends to reduce its support for Hezbollah to a minimum. This has happened many times during the last decade, especially in 2009 and 2014.
Second, there is a dilemma regarding the Supreme Leader’s money. According to a 2013 investigation by Reuters, Khamenei himself controls tens of billions of dollars in secret investments. It is believed that the financial support coming from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his institutions constitutes the bulk of Hezbollah’s budget. Unlike the funds coming from Iran as a state, these funds are even harder to trace and target. It is delivered to Hezbollah from outside of the financial system and mainly through suitcases.
In a television appearance in 2016, Nasrallah openly admitted that “As long as Iran has money, we have money . . . just as we receive the rockets, we receive our money. No law will prevent us from receiving it,” he said, adding that “all the banks of the world cannot stand as an obstacle to Hezbollah.” The fact that Iran has a diplomatic mission in Beirut and Hezbollah has a considerable influence in the Lebanese airport and several ports as well as on borders with Syria makes things much easier. Without the targeting of this resource in particular, no matter how many measures are taken against other sources of Hezbollah’s finance, the party will still be able to operate.
Third, Hezbollah has a foreign financial empire. Although the effort to deprive it from the financial resources coming out from its foreign activities witnessed progress during the last few years, the measures were never strong enough to totally dry out money coming through these means. In order to decrease the impact of these measures, Hezbollah started to utilize its growing presence in the last few years in countries such as Iraq and Syria to establish front companies there. In fact, it channels a lot of money via Iraq and Syria especially through front companies working in business and contracting and via khums money, particularly from Iraq.
Fourth, Hezbollah utilizes the Lebanese state. During the last decade or so, there has been a debate about the way Hezbollah uses the financial system and the institutions of the Lebanese state to facilitate access to the U.S. financial system, launder money, and evade sanctions. Recently, eleven Lebanese banks were accused of providing support to Hezbollah "in the form of financial and banking services." Financial measures that target Hezbollah’s parallel economy in Lebanon are critical but often very hard to implement and even harder to sustain as long as Hezbollah is a part of the Lebanese government and able to utilize its Shia environment and Christian allies to its benefit.
Financial and ideological support for Hezbollah in the Shia environment remains strong. While Hezbollah’s popularity in the Islamic world has declined in the last decade, it has strengthened in the Shia environment. One reason is that Hezbollah wanted a sectarian narrative to prevail in order to rally all Shia Muslims in the region behind it, especially after the eruption of the Syrian revolution in March 2011. As the Syrian war is winding down now, Hezbollah is working to rebuild its legitimacy by opening up slowly but steadily toward many Sunni groups. The “resistance” rhetoric is one tool to cultivate support from Sunnis across the region. If successful, this would provide the Shia party with another layer of protection and makes the efforts to target its financial resources even harder.
All in all, the newly taken measures by the Trump administration will complicate Hezbollah’s financial situation, but they will not be capable of defeating it. Financial support from the Iranian Supreme Leader, income from Hezbollah’s foreign activities, and the parallel economy in Lebanon will all work in Hezbollah’s favor and allow it to survive the financial sanctions.

Zarif says Iran ready to support Lebanon, Army
The Daily Star/ February 11, 2019/BEIRUT: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that his country was ready to support Lebanon and its Army “in all frameworks that the Lebanese government sees suitable.”Speaking at a joint news conference with his Lebanese counterpart Gebran Bassil at the Foreign Ministry in Beirut, Zarif said, “Iran will remain by Lebanon’s side, and we are fully ready to extend our hand in cooperation.” Bassil said that Lebanon was open to working with Iran. “Lebanon doesn’t find any embarrassment in having economic cooperation with Iran as long as it doesn’t affect international decisions,” he said. The two officials also touched on the Syrian refugee crisis. “We stressed on the need for the safe return of refugees. There is no solution to the refugee problem except for their return,” Bassil said. Earlier in the day, Zarif held talks with President Michel Aoun, who said that Iran has a role to play in helping Lebanon resolve the Syrian refugee issue by assisting in the refugees’ return. “The Syrian refugees issue in Lebanon requires a treatment that takes into consideration the necessity of their safe return to the stable Syrian areas,” Aoun told Zarif during the meeting at Baabda Palace, according to a statement from the presidency. Aoun also told the Iranian official that the new Lebanese government will give the refugee file “special importance.”The statement said that the president expressed his appreciation for Iran’s support for Lebanon and for the readiness it had shown to stand by Lebanon. Zarif, meanwhile, relayed Aoun a message from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, inviting him to visit his country and praising the Lebanese-Iranian relations. Zarif, who arrived in Beirut Sunday, also met with Speaker Nabih Berri. He is set to meet Prime Minister Saad Hariri later in the afternoon.
His visit comes little more than a week after the new government was formed, on Jan. 31, following over eight months of deadlock. Upon his arrival at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, the Iranian official told reporters that his visit had two main goals: “firstly to show solidarity with Lebanon and secondly to demonstrate our readiness to work with Lebanon in a number of areas.”Zarif’s trip to Lebanon this week coincides with visits from other officials, including the  secretary-general of the Arab League and a high-level Saudi royal envoy.

Aboul Gheit: No Deal Yet on Syria's Return to Arab League
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 February, 2019/Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Monday that there has been no agreement so far for Syria's return to the group. The league's chief made the remarks after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace. Aboul Gheit said an agreement would lead to an Arab foreign ministers' meeting on the subject but "until now, I haven't felt such a development or understanding."Syria's membership in the 22-member Arab League was suspended in 2011 after the Syrian regime's military crackdown on protesters calling for reforms. The protests later turned into an armed insurgency and a full-blown civil war, now in its eight year. Talks of Syria’s possible return to the league heated up in recent months mainly ahead of the Arab Economic and Social Development summit, which was held in Beirut in January. Aboul Gheit is in Beirut to congratulate Lebanese officials on the new government’s formation around ten days ago.

Aoun Meets Zarif: Iran Can Play a Role in Refugees’ Return
Naharnet/February 11/19/Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif led an Iranian delegation to Lebanese on Monday where he met with President Michel Aoun at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, the National News Agency reported. NNA said that talks between the two men highlighted the relations between the two countries and the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Aoun said that "Iran has a role in helping the refugees return back to their homeland," the Presidency’s media office said on Twitter. “Lebanon’s new government will give this file special attention,” added Aoun. According to LBCI, Zarif delivered a “verbal message” from the Iranian President to Aoun inviting him to visit Iran. Zarif later met with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh. He reiterated in remarks to reporters that “Iran is willing to cooperate with Lebanon at all levels to serve the interests of the two countries," adding that "these special relations serve the two brotherly peoples and don’t have a negative impact.”Later on Monday, Zarif met with Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and held a joint press conference with him. At the conference, Zarif said Tehran is “confident that the new government will advance Lebanon,” vowing that his country “will always stand by the Lebanese people and extend the hand of help to the country.”“We are fully ready to respond to the Lebanese government's request for cooperation in any vital fields it sees appropriate,” Zarif said, noting that “fictional and delusional reports are being circulated in this regard.”“We highly appreciate the Lebanese regarding the Warsaw conference,” the minister added. He also pointed out that “there is no international law that prevents Iran and Lebanon from cooperating,” noting that “even Resolution 2231 asks all countries to normalize their economic ties with Iran.”Later in the day, Zarif met with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Zarif is scheduled to meet later in the day with Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Zarif had arrived in Lebanon on Sunday and met with the parties of the March 8 political camp at the Iranian embassy. He also met with Ziad Nakhaleh, the secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, and the representatives of the Palestinian forces and factions.

Hariri to Zarif: Lebanon Respects Its Pledges towards Arab, Int'l Community
Naharnet/February 11/19/Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday told visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that Lebanon “respects its pledges and commitments towards the Arab and international community.”A statement issued by Hariri's office said the Grand Serail meeting tackled the local and regional situations and the bilateral ties between the two countries and that the meeting was held in the presence of Iranian Ambassador Mohammad-Jalal Firouznia and ex-ministers Ghattas Khoury and Bassem al-Sabeh. “During the meeting, Minister Zarif relayed the Iranian president's congratulations on the formation of the Lebanese government, adding that Iran wishes it success in its revival program,” Hariri's office said. “He also expressed his country's willingness to help Lebanon in the fields that the Lebanese government might specify,” the office added. Hariri for his part thanked Zarif, underscoring that “the government's revivification program is based on the interest of the Lebanese people and Lebanon's higher interests,” noting that “Lebanon respects its pledges and commitments towards the Arab and international community.”The talks also tackled “the regional situations, especially what relates to the Syrian refugee issue, and means to achieve a safe and dignified return for the refugees in Lebanon.”“At the end of the meeting, PM Hariri inquired about the Iranian government's response to his calls for the release of the Lebanese citizen Nizar Zakka who is jailed in Iran, stressing the need to end the case in a positive initiative towards Zakka's family and the Lebanese people in general,” Hariri's office said. “Minister Zarif promised him to follow up on the case,” it added.

Abul Gheit from Beirut: No Deal Yet on Syria's Return to Arab League
Associated Press/Naharnet/February 11/19/The head of the Arab League said Monday in Beirut that there has been no agreement so far for Syria's return to the group. The league's secretary-general, Ahmed Abul Gheit, made the remarks after meeting President Michel Aoun. Abul Gheit said an agreement would lead to an Arab foreign ministers' meeting on the subject but "until now, I haven't felt such a development or understanding."Syria's membership in the 22-member Arab League was suspended in 2011 after the Syrian government's military crackdown on protesters calling for reforms. The protests later turned into an armed insurgency and a full-blown civil war, now in its eight year. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is largely seen as having won the war, in part thanks to crucial political and military backing from Russia and Iran. There has been controversy in Lebanon on whether the country should restore ties with Damascus before its return to the Arab League. After his meeting with Aoun, Abul Gheit wished “stability, prosperity and advancement” for Lebanon and said he discussed with the president the outcome of the Arab economic summit that was recently held in Beirut. According to reports, Abul Gheit's visit kickstarts Arab League efforts aimed at returning Syria to the League prior to the Tunisia Arab Summit scheduled for late March, amid a warming of ties between Damascus and some Arab countries such as Jordan and the UAE. Abul Gheit had arrived in Lebanon at midnight and he is scheduled to hold meetings with other senior Lebanese officials.

Zarif Meets Nasrallah, Says Iran Ready to Help in All Files
Naharnet/February 11/19/Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held talks Monday with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during an official visit to Lebanon. The meeting was held in the presence of Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad-Jalal Firouznia and the delegation accompanying Zarif. “Sayyed Nasrallah thanked the Islamic Republic of Iran and its officials and people for what it has offered to Lebanon, Palestine and the region's resistance movements and peoples in the confrontation against Zionist aggression and takfiri terrorism,” Hizbullah's al-Manar TV said. He also stressed that “this assistance has led to victories in many arenas and battlefields,” hoping Tehran will maintain its support “despite all the conspiracies and pressures it is facing as a result of that.”Zarif for his part underlined “the Islamic republic's firm stance that supports Lebanon and its state, people and resistance,” expressing its readiness to “offer all forms of help and cooperation in the various files that are on the table.”Nasrallah had announced Wednesday that he is willing to ask Iran to provide the Lebanese Army with weapons and air defense systems, while noting that Tehran can “easily” solve Lebanon's chronic electricity problem. “Will the Lebanese government dare to accept the Iranian proposals? Why should Lebanon remain afraid to cooperate with Iran?” Nasrallah said in a televised address marking the 40th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution. Nasrallah also noted that Iran can make a “huge transformation” in Lebanon's pharmaceutical industry that would “help us slash the medical bill of the state and citizens.”

Arslan from Baabda: No Refugee Solution without Clear Relation with Syria
Naharnet/February 11/19/Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Monday stressed that there can be no solution for Lebanon's refugee crisis without a “clear and frank relation with the Syrian state.”Arslan voiced his remarks after meeting President Michel Aoun along with Saleh al-Gharib, the new State Minister for Refugee Affairs. “No one can resolve the refugee crisis without coordination with the Syrian government,” Arslan underscored, noting that “the refugee file must not be subject to the moodiness of domestic politics.”“Minister Saleh al-Gharib will address the refugee file in coordination with the international community and the Syrian state, because this issue requires inevitable solutions,” Arslan added. “It is the top priority of President Aoun and the government and there will be total openness towards anyone who would effectively contribute to finalizing this file,” Arslan went on to say. The issues of restoring ties with Damascus and the repatriation of Syrian refugees are highly controversial in Lebanon. Some parties, especially Druze leader Walid Jumblat, have expressed dismay over the allocation of the refugee affairs ministry to the pro-Damascus new minister.

Bassil Says Iran Economic Cooperation Possible, Lebanon to Shun Warsaw Talks
Naharnet/February 11/19/Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said Monday that “Lebanon does not see any embarrassment in engaging in any type of economic cooperation with Iran as long as that does not breach international resolutions.”Bassil voiced his remarks during a joint press conference with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. As for the upcoming U.S.-Polish conference on peace and security in the Middle East, which has been depicted as an anti-Iran meeting, Bassil said Lebanon will not attend the talks. “We explained why we will not be present at the Warsaw conference,” Bassil added, noting that Lebanon will boycott the meeting because “Israel will be present and because of the orientation the conference is expected to take.”“Lebanon is committed to the dissociation policy,” the minister added. Turning to the issue of Syrian refugees, Bassil said it is “the most important topic for Lebanon.”“Minister Zarif voiced support for our demand,” he added. “We emphasized on the safe return of refugees and that there is no solution for their problem except in their return,” Bassil went on to say. The minister also said that he “reminded” the Iranian visitor of the case of Lebanese citizen and U.S. green card holder Nizar Zakka, who has been detained in Tehran since 2015 on espionage charges and was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years in prison. “We called for finding a legal solution,” Bassil added. Zarif for his part said that "there is total separation between authorities in Iran and the judicial authority is fully independent." "But we are carrying out the necessary efforts to resolve the matter," he added.

Arrest Warrants for 4 ISF Officers, 11 Personnel in Bribery Probe
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/Mount Lebanon First Examining Magistrate Nicolas Mansour on Monday issued arrest warrants against four Internal Security Forces officers and 11 ISF personnel. The defendants are accused of “collaborating with networks for forging and circulating currency and others involved in human trafficking,” the National News Agency said. They are also accused of “dealing with gambling rings, abuse of power and smuggling fugitives in return for sums of money.”The officers who were interrogated Monday were Colonel Wael Malaeb, Colonel Johnny H. and Major Charbel H. Eleven other personnel were also questioned. The interrogations will continue on Tuesday.Judge Ghada Aoun had on Thursday ordered the interrogation and detention of the officers and personnel after ISF chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman gave a permission for their prosecution. Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat had objected to the suspension of one of the officers – Colonel Wael Malaeb – lashing out at Othman, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and other political forces over the move. Jumblat stressed that he supports the enforcement of the law but urged Othman to “eradicate all corruption at his directorate” and to ensure a “transparent probe” in the case of Malaeb and his colleagues. “And if he has the ability, he should rein in the major scandals at Beirut’s airport, where perhaps there are regional balances,” Jumblat added. Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil has defended the prosecution of the five officers, describing them as a “gang.”“If every time a corrupt official is prosecuted the issue will be depicted as an attack on a sect and its leader, this means that accountability will not target any corrupt official,” Bassil has said. “Corruption has no sect and there should be two sects: the sect of corrupts and the sect of upright people,” Bassil added. “It is unacceptable to face political protections whenever we want to hold someone accountable,” the FPM chief went on to say, wondering if it is “required that we stay as we are until the collapse of the country.”“The officers gang that you are hearing about comprises Druze, Shiites, Sunnis, Maronites, Greek Orthodoxs and all sects, so why don't they all enter prison? Why is the issue being depicted as being targeted against a certain party while it is comprised of everybody?” Bassil added.

Del Col Meets Bou Saab, Says Army Must Act on Border Tunnels
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col on Monday held his first meeting with the newly appointed Lebanese Minister of Defense Elias Bou Saab in Beirut to discuss the situation in the UNIFIL area of operation and the continued cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). While congratulating Bou Saab on his appointment, Del Col said the U.N. mission is looking forward to advancing UNIFIL-LAF cooperation in south Lebanon. He also briefed the Minister on the situation in UNIFIL’s 1,060-square-kilometer area of operation and along the Blue Line, “which continues to remain calm,” UNIFIL said in a statement. Del Col expressed gratitude for the “continued support of Lebanese authorities in the implementation of UNIFIL’s mandate,” the statement added. During the meeting, the UNIFIL head also reiterated the U.N.’s call for the LAF to “undertake follow-up actions on the recently discovered tunnels north of the Blue Line.”Separately, in line with U.N. Security Council resolution 2433, adopted in August 2018, Del Col stressed the importance for the LAF to “scale up the rapid deployment of its Model Regiment in south Lebanon.” “UNIFIL is engaged with a variety of potential donors to facilitate this process; however, at the same time it is vital that the LAF be seen as prioritizing this effort,” he said. He also called on the LAF to build a “right-sized and sustainable naval component.”

Report: Lebanon Sees Diplomatic Flurry after Govt. Formation
Naharnet/February 11/19/After the formation of Lebanon’s government, the focus has turned now towards a diplomatic flurry seen in the Mediterranean country amid questions on whether it falls in Lebanon’s interest or turns it into a “regional mailbox” to send political messages, An Nahar daily reported on Monday. The daily said that the regional and international atmospheres and the rush towards Lebanon “do not suggest a breakthrough, but rather warn of a race to benefit from all possible fields to make use of in the political war.”While the U.S. Secretary of State has stressed that "Iran and Hizbullah have cells active in Venezuela,” as part of the expansion of restrictions on them, the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif arrived in Beirut on Sunday. Moreover, Saudi envoy Nizar al-Alula, is expected to arrive in Beirut Tuesday evening. His visit will be the first for a Saudi envoy after the formation of Lebanon’s government. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit has also arrived in Lebanon at midnight. His visit marks the beginning of Arab diplomatic contacts led by the League as part of efforts to return Syria to the League before the annual summit next March. On February 25, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is expected in Beirut before she returns back to Europe from the Euro-Mediterranean conference to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh on the 24th and 25th of this month. After arriving in Beirut on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said his visit aims to “first, announce solidarity and stand by Lebanon, and the second is the Iranian republic’s declaration of its full readiness to support the Lebanese government in all fields.”The military attaches of some Western embassies in Beirut have scrambled to inquire about Iran’s offer to equip the army with air defense systems, a media report said. Lebanese ministerial sources meanwhile have said that “the inclination is to reject the grant, seeing as Iran is under international sanctions and this would pose unbearable repercussions on Lebanon.”

New U.N. Special Coordinator Ján Kubiš Arrives in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/Ján Kubiš arrived Monday in Beirut to take up his new position as United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, his office said. Kubiš held talks with Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil shortly after his arrival. "I am extremely honored to be received some three or four hours after my arrival to the country by His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other high officials of the country. I take this as a very positive gesture. I take this also with a feeling of indebtedness, if you wish, because I feel I need to quickly reciprocate it by working together as excellent partners with both the country and the new government to make us even more relevant," Kubiš said. "We, the U.N. and UNSCOL -- which I will be heading as of now -- we have a long history of working together with Lebanon and a long history of being of help and assistance to Lebanon. I can only pledge that in my work and the work of my colleagues we will do our best not to continue but to reinforce and to bring this partnership and cooperation to the next level, notably as regards the implementation of all our mandates, notably Resolution 1701 but also in working together with other parts of the United Nations to be a good and trusted partner of the country," he added. The U.N. official had been received by an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport. “I am very pleased to be here in Beirut at a time when Lebanon is also embarking on a new phase after the formation of the government,” Kubiš said on arrival. “I look forward to supporting this renewed momentum in close partnership with the Lebanese authorities, political leaders, civil society and other partners in Lebanon and the international community towards a process for sustainable peace, security and stability in Lebanon,” the Special Coordinator added. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appointment of Kubiš, who hails from Slovakia, on January 9. He brings with him many years of experience in diplomacy, foreign security policy, and international economic relations, both internationally and in his own country.

Nasrallah Appears on Israeli Billboard
Associated Press/Naharnet/February 11/19/Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has invaded the Israeli city of Tel Aviv — as the face of an eye-catching, satirical new recycling campaign. A gigantic poster featuring the Nasrallah overlooking Tel Aviv's Ayalon highway went up Thursday and encourages Israelis to recycle plastic bottles. Above Nasrallah's head reads the caption: "I don't recycle bottles." Beneath him, the poster says: "Nasrallah has been stuck in a bunker for 12 years. What is your excuse?"ELA, Israel's recycling company, was not immediately available for comment. Nasrallah has rarely been seen in public since a 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, apparently because of concerns he might be targeted in an Israeli attack. The U.S., EU and Israel consider Hizbullah a terrorist organization.

Report: Lebanon Sees Diplomatic Flurry after Govt. Formation
Naharnet/February 11/19After the formation of Lebanon’s government, the focus has turned now towards a diplomatic flurry seen in the Mediterranean country amid questions on whether it falls in Lebanon’s interest or turns it into a “regional mailbox” to send political messages, An Nahar daily reported on Monday. The daily said that the regional and international atmospheres and the rush towards Lebanon “do not suggest a breakthrough, but rather warn of a race to benefit from all possible fields to make use of in the political war.”While the U.S. Secretary of State has stressed that "Iran and Hizbullah have cells active in Venezuela,” as part of the expansion of restrictions on them, the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif arrived in Beirut on Sunday. Moreover, Saudi envoy Nizar al-Alula, is expected to arrive in Beirut Tuesday evening. His visit will be the first for a Saudi envoy after the formation of Lebanon’s government. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit has also arrived in Lebanon at midnight. His visit marks the beginning of Arab diplomatic contacts led by the League as part of efforts to return Syria to the League before the annual summit next March. On February 25, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is expected in Beirut before she returns back to Europe from the Euro-Mediterranean conference to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh on the 24th and 25th of this month. After arriving in Beirut on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said his visit aims to “first, announce solidarity and stand by Lebanon, and the second is the Iranian republic’s declaration of its full readiness to support the Lebanese government in all fields.”The military attaches of some Western embassies in Beirut have scrambled to inquire about Iran’s offer to equip the army with air defense systems, a media report said. Lebanese ministerial sources meanwhile have said that “the inclination is to reject the grant, seeing as Iran is under international sanctions and this would pose unbearable repercussions on Lebanon.”

Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published on February 11-12/19
US slams Iranian revolution for 40 years of failure as Rouhani threatens military expansion
AFP/Reuters/February 11, 2019/WASHINGTON: Iran’s Islamic revolution four decades ago has been a complete failure for the country, President Donald Trump said Monday. In a tweet written on the anniversary of the upheaval that was also sent out in Farsi, Trump said: “40 years of corruption. 40 years of repression. 40 years of terror. The regime in Iran has produced only #40YearsofFailure. “The long-suffering Iranian people deserve a much brighter future,” he added. Earlier, Trump’s chief foreign policy adviser John Bolton issued a similar statement, tweeting that “it’s been 40 yrs of failure. Now it’s up to the Iranian regime to change its behavior, & ultimately up to the Iranian people to determine the direction of their country.” Bolton said Washington would support “the will of the Iranian people, & stand behind them to ensure their voices are heard.” Bolton, a leading hawk in the Trump administration’s attempt to weaken Iranian influence, was tweeting as a huge crowd in Tehran gathered to celebrate the 1979 revolution, in which Muslim leader Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini ended the centuries-old rule of the royal dynasty. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told Iranians they should resist a “conspiracy” involving Washington. Rouhani also vowed Iran would defeat US sanctions, reimposed after Trump withdrew from Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers last year. “The Iranian people have and will have some economic difficulties (due to the sanctions) but we will overcome the problems by helping each other,” Rouhani said. The Trump administration has pushed hard to weaken Iran and what it says is Tehran’s “destabilizing” influence. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since 1980, and Trump has pulled the United States from an international agreement meant to reward Iran for giving up nuclear weapon ambitions.

Palestinian Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: We Have Absolute Confidence in Saudi Leadership
Ramallah - Kifah Ziboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 11/19/A Palestinian minister underlined “absolute confidence” in Saudi Arabia’s stances on the Palestinian cause, especially with regard to the city of Jerusalem. “The Palestinian leadership is very satisfied with the Saudi position, which has been expressed repeatedly by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” a member of Fatah's central committee, Minister Hussein al-Sheikh, told Asharq Al-Awsat. “The Saudi commitment to the [Palestinian Cause] is important, old and unchanging,” said Sheikh, a close associate of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “The Saudi leadership is committed to the Arab peace initiative and has never agreed to change it at any time under any pressure,” he added. The Palestinian minister underlined that Saudi officials have publicly told them and the Americans that they were against the Deal of the Century, as long as the Palestinians were not happy with it. “We affirm that our confidence is absolute. We know that the issue of Jerusalem is a red line for the Saudi leadership,” he stated, explaining that the Saudi position was clear at the summit of Dhahran,” with regards to the rejection of any normalization before the establishment of a Palestinian state and the settlement of the Jerusalem issue. “We are satisfied and comfortable with this situation,” he emphasized. Sheikh also said that the leaked Israeli document about the Kingdom’s rejection of the Deal of the Century unless it is approved by the Palestinians “does not bear anything new,” adding that it was a confirmation of the “firm Saudi position in support of Palestine and Jerusalem..

Fatah Official: Abbas to Name PM after Returning from AU Summit
Ramallah – Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 February, 2019/Secretary-General of Fatah Revolutionary Council (FRC) Majed Fityani said that the new Palestinian government will be formed once Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas returns from the African Union (AU) summit. Fityani added that the FRC advised Abbas to assign a member of Fatah Central Committee to form the government. “It is time that Fatah leads the government, and we will have a say in this,” he continued. He did not name possible candidates, saying this was Abbas’ responsibility. A committee from the Fatah Central Committee had concluded consultations with Palestine Liberation Organization factions and independents in order to form a government. Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that discussions with the factions brought no “surprises” “Fatah officials knew that both fronts will not participate because of ongoing disputes over holding the Palestinian National Council (PNC) and the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) and relations with Hamas,” they said. Fatah is moving ahead with forming the government with whatever factions are present, asserted the sources. Fatah, PLO factions and independents will form the government before the end of the month should no surprises arise, they added. The most difficult consultations will begin after the appointment of a prime minister, they said. The Fatah Central Committee had proposed one of its members, Mohammad Shtayyeh, for the post. He is a member of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR) and a former negotiator. Other candidates are minister for civilian affairs Hussein al-Sheikh and PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat. PM Rami Hamdallah’s government resigned in January. Abbas accepted the resignation and assigned the cabinet to a caretaking role until a new government is formed.

US Sends Reinforcements to Tanf Airbase
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 February, 2019/US reinforcements, consisting of military vehicles, guns and heavy weapons, have reached al-Tanf area, 490 km west of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in Iraq, according to an Iraqi military source. A local official and military source in Anbar disclosed Saturday the arrival of US reinforcements to Tanf that lies on the border with Syria. The source indicated that the reinforcements aim to secure the Iraqi-Syrian border, in conjunction with the military operations launched by the Syrian side to liberate ISIS’ last stronghold in Deir Ezzor province. He explained that the reinforcements came from Ein al-Asad base in al-Baghdadi and used the international highway to reach Tanf. An Iraqi Lieutenant Colonel confirmed the information. US forces have several bases in Anbar near Syria, including al-Habbaniyah base, 30 km east of Ramadi - and Ein al-Asad, the German news agency (DPA) quoted the source as saying. The US administration has yet to issue a statement on the matter.

Pompeo Says U.S. 'Not Covering Up' Khashoggi Murder
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday denied Washington was "covering up" the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and promised further action. "America is not covering up for a murder," Pompeo told reporters in Budapest when asked about criticism by a senior Democrat. The remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump missed a deadline set by Congress to reply by Friday on whether Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of the Washington Post contributor. Pompeo said that Trump's administration was "working diligently" on its investigation. "The president has been very clear -- couldn't be more clear -- as we get additional information, we will continue to hold all of those responsible accountable," he said.
Khashoggi, who lived in the United States, was strangled to death and dismembered in October after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to take care of paperwork for his marriage, according to officials. Trump said nothing on the congressional deadline, while congressional aides said that Pompeo had sent them a letter in which he outlined actions over the killing. The administration revoked the visas of nearly two dozen Saudi officials and froze the assets of 17 others.But Trump has openly said that he does not care if Prince Mohammed was responsible for the killing as Saudi Arabia buys weapons from the United States and shares his hard line on Iran.

Rouhani: US Conspiracy against Islamic Republic Will Never Succeed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday blasted a US "conspiracy" against the country as vast crowds in Tehran marked 40 years since the Islamic revolution. "The presence of people today on the streets all over Islamic Iran... means that the enemy will never reach its evil objectives," Rouhani told those gathered on the capital's Azadi (Freedom) square.

Asharq Al-Awsat at Frontline of Last ISIS Pocket in Syria
Deir Ezzor (eastern Syria) - Kamal Sheikho/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 February, 2019/The road from the city of Qameshli to the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor is about 300 kilometers long, and the trip usually takes two and a half hours. But, it took more than five hours on Sunday due to tight security measures and checkpoints erected after the Syrian Democratic Forces launched their final push against ISIS in the area. The US-backed SDF have been locked in fierce fighting as they press the battle against the last shred of ISIS’ territory in Baghouz. The SDF estimates that ISIS is holding onto fewer than four square kilometers in Syria. On the highway leading to the northern countryside of Deir Ezzor, life seemed slowly returning to towns and villages located far from the fighting. Residents were seen shopping at stores, and gas stations were seen sprouting. In Al Sour, residents returned to the town and began selling fabrics, clothes and colored caftans, which the area is known for, and which were banned during the ISIS rule. At the entrance of the Al Basira town that is close to the last ISIS pocket, dozens of cars waited in long lines at checkpoints before heading in the direction of Hasakah in the north. At the checkpoints, the SDF ask for personal IDs and vehicle documents amid fears that militants could be posing as fleeing civilians and could plot suicide attacks inside and outside Syria. Burned cars and military vehicles, once used by ISIS militants as booby traps, were seen on the roadside leading to the province of Deir Ezzor. Walls of public facilities were still tagged with ISIS graffiti, a stark reminder of the gruesome extremist rule that started in 2014. When darkness falls, the sounds of heavy shelling reverberate in the area as US-backed coalition warplanes pound the last ISIS pockets to confront the extremist diehards.

U.S.-Backed Forces Push Syria Offensive against Last IS Pocket
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/Syrian fighters backed up by artillery fire from a US-led coalition pressed their assault Monday to retake a last morsel of territory from the Islamic State group, a war monitor said. More than four years after the extremists declared a "caliphate" across large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq, several offensives have whittled that proto-state down to a tiny holdout. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Saturday announced the final push to expel hundreds of diehard jihadists from that patch in eastern Syria on the Iraq border. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters was pressing on Monday in the face of tough obstacles. "The SDF are advancing slowly in what remains of the IS pocket," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. But landmines, IS snipers, and tunnels the extremists have dug out for their defence are hindering the advance, he said. SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said there were "dozens of SDF hostages held by IS" inside their last foothold, but denied reports of executions. The alliance has been battling to oust the jihadists from the eastern province of Deir Ezzor since September, backed by air power of the US-led coalition.
Screening for jihadists
Since December, tens of thousands of people, most women and children related to IS fighters, have fled to SDF territory. US-backed forces near the village of Baghouz have screened the new arrivals, weeding out potential jihadists for questioning. Another 600 people were able to reach SDF territory on Sunday after fleeing the fighting, the Observatory said. Among them, were 20 suspected IS members, including two French women, seven Turks, and three Ukrainians, said the monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria. The SDF -- which has said it expects the final offensive to be over in days -- announced Sunday that it had taken some 40 positions from the jihadists following direct combat involving light weapons. The alliance had earlier said that up to 600 jihadists as well as hundreds of civilians could remain inside a patch four square kilometres (one mile square). Spokesman Bali said IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the man who pronounced the cross-border "caliphate" in 2014, was not among them, and likely not in Syria. At the height of their rule, the jihadists imposed their brutal interpretation of Islamic law on a territory roughly the size of Britain. But military offensives in both countries, including by the SDF, have since retaken the vast bulk of their territory. The jihadists however retain a presence in Syria's vast Badia desert, and have claimed a series of deadly attacks in SDF-held areas.
Planned US withdrawal
US President Donald Trump in December shocked Washington's allies by announcing a full withdrawal of US troops from Syria as IS had been "beaten". But the US military warned in a report published this month that IS "could likely resurge in Syria within six to twelve months and regain limited territory" if sustained pressure is not maintained. In January an IS suicide bomber attacked a US patrol in the northeastern city of Manbij, killing four Americans, five SDF fighters and ten civilians. The losses were the worst combat losses for the US in war-torn Syria since it launched the coalition to fight IS in 2014. Trump's decision to withdraw US troops has left Syria's Kurds scrambling for safeguards. A US departure makes them more vulnerable to a long threatened attack by neighbouring Turkey, who considers Kurdish fighters to be "terrorists", and dashed their dreams of autonomy. The Kurds have largely stayed out of Syria's nearly eight-year civil war, instead building their own semi-autonomous institutions in the northeast of the country. But the expected US pullout has seen them grappling to mend ties with the Damascus regime, which is against Kurdish self-rule. Syria's war has killed 360,00 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Venezuela's Guaido Warns Military on Blocked Aid
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/Opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognized by some 50 countries as Venezuela's interim president, warned the military Sunday that blocking humanitarian aid from entering the country is a "crime against humanity."The warning comes as international aid has taken center stage in a test of wills between Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro in which Venezuela's armed forces are seen as the pivotal player. Medicine and food sent by the United States has been blocked for three days on the border in Cucuta, Colombia after Venezuelan soldiers closed a bridge linking the two countries. On the Venezuelan side of the border, dozens of doctors protested Sunday demanding the aid be allowed in -- including surgeon Jose Luis Mateus de la Riva, who accused Maduro of sinking Venezuelan medicine back to the "medieval era."
"There are people responsible for this and the regime should know it," Guaido said after attending Sunday mass with his wife and 20-month-old baby. "This a crime against humanity, men of the armed forces." Accusing those blocking aid of being "almost genocidal," he likewise warned that the military would be held responsible for the deaths of protesters -- and reaffirmed his call for a mass march on Tuesday in memory of the estimated 40 people killed in disturbances since January 21.Guaido has offered amnesty for any members of the armed forces who disavows Maduro -- but the military leadership still publicly backs the president. On Sunday, the Venezuelan military announced it had started conducting exercises, set to run until February 15 across the country, to "reinforce the country's defensive capacity."
'Political show'
Maduro has rejected humanitarian aid as a U.S. ploy to intervene in Venezuela, calling the deployment of aid a "political show" and blaming U.S. sanctions for the country's widespread shortages of food and medicine. Guaido countered that the regime was refusing to acknowledge a "crisis that they themselves generated," while Venezuelans were working to deal with the humanitarian emergency. Speaking to AFP Friday, Guaido vowed to do "whatever necessary" to "stop the usurpation" of power and "save lives" -- without ruling out the possibility of authorizing foreign intervention. And on Sunday, he said hundreds of volunteers had signed up over the weekend to help bring aid into Venezuela -- with further shipments set to arrive in neighboring Brazil and on a Caribbean island. Suffering the worst crisis of its modern history, Venezuelans have had to grapple with life-threatening scarcities amid eye-popping levels of hyperinflation that have rendered salaries and savings worthless. According to the United Nations, some 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015. But Guaido on Sunday reiterated that he would not negotiate with Maduro -- as he believes Maduro would use such talks to buy himself time. "Democracy is closer than ever before, the future is ours," he said. An international Contact Group, made up of European and Latin American countries, called for snap presidential elections following a meeting in Montevideo this week. But Maduro, who has asked Pope Francis to act as a mediator, rejected what he said was "bias" by the group. Last week Maduro also rejected a call by European Union countries to hold elections, prompting them to recognize Guaido. Guaido, the 35 year-old head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, stunned Venezuela in January by declaring himself interim president after the legislature declared Maduro a "usurper" following his May 2018 reelection in a vote disputed by the opposition and international community.

Tunisian ‘Democratic Forum’ Boycotts Presidential Elections
Tunis - Mongi Saidani/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 February, 2019/The opposition Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties (FDTL) has announced its boycott of the upcoming Tunisian presidential elections. FDTL official Elyes Fakhfakh affirmed, in a meeting on Sunday in the northern suburb of Tunis, that the party has no candidate for the elections that are set to be held in November. He added that FDTL will support the candidate of centrist parties. Meanwhile, the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) launched an unprecedented attack on head of Ennahda Movement Rached Ghannouchi, accusing him of exploiting the success in ending the secondary education crisis for “political purposes.” On Saturday, the UGTT expressed dismay at a surprising statement made by Ghannouchi on ending the crisis. Tunisia's biggest union stressed that it had conducted negotiations solely with the Tunisian government. The union, in its statement published on Facebook, said that any other claims on the breakthrough are mere desperate attempts to make up baseless initiatives. UGTT’s Administrative Committee for Secondary Education has announced the approval of new government proposals ending the crisis of secondary education that has lasted for months. Mounir Kheireddine, secretary-general of the general union of the secondary education sector in Tunis, said the Administrative Committee approved the government's proposals only after introducing some amendments. It was agreed to rectify four issues, including the one on retirement at the age of 57 and to broaden the social security base. The second point dealt with the approval of a new bonus for principals and directors of secondary schools, while the third relates to the integration of a specific bonus into the fixed salary starting 2021. The fourth amendment concerns the approval of a 20 percent increase in the budget of middle and high schools.

Algeria’s Bouteflika to Run for 5th Term despite ‘Health Troubles’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 February, 2019/Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika announced he will run for a fifth term in the upcoming elections in April, saying his candidacy comes in response to the “appeals” of the people to continue performing “the highest duty.”Bouteflika announced his candidacy in a message sent to the nation and published by the state-run Algeria Press Service (APS) on Sunday. The President spoke of his “achievements” in restoring security and stability during the war on terrorism. He addressed the country’s economic situation, which experts described as the biggest failure of his two-decade rule. “Of course, I am no longer the same physical force as before — something that I have never hidden from the people,” APS quoted him as saying. "But the unwavering desire to serve... has never left me and it allows me to transcend the constraints linked to health troubles which everyone may one day face."The 81-year-old head of state uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. The last time Bouteflika addressed the public live was in May 2012. The ailing President asserted that his will to run for a fifth term comes from his commitment to serve the nation. He stressed that since his first term in 1999, he has devoted all his powers to suppress strife and embark on the reconstruction of the country. The President also recalled the “Civil Harmony” (1999) and “National Reconciliation” (2005) laws, describing them as historical options that brought stability and security to the country. In his message, Bouteflika pledged if re-elected to initiate this year a national inclusive conference which would aim at elaborating a “political, economic and social platform,” and “propose an enrichment of the Constitution.” This conference would be mandated to establish "a consensus on reforms and changes" in Algeria, the message said. "A stronger presence of young people" inside political institutions, economic reform and a scaling back of bureaucratic red tape would be among the topics to be discussed at the conference.”APS also said Bouteflika wanted to amend the Constitution if re-elected. It did not specify what changes these would be.

U.N. Says Yemen Food Aid at Risk of Rotting
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/Food aid in a warehouse on the frontlines of the Yemen war is at risk of rotting, the U.N. said Monday, leaving millions of Yemenis without access to life-saving sustenance. The Red Sea Mills silos, located in the western port city of Hodeida, are believed to contain enough grain to feed several million people for a month. But the granary has remained off-limits to aid organizations for months. "The World Food Program (WFP) grain stored in the mills -- enough to feed 3.7 million people for a month -- has been inaccessible for over five months and is at risk of rotting," read a joint statement by the U.N. aid chief and special envoy for Yemen. "We emphasize that ensuring access to the mills is a shared responsibility among the parties to the conflict in Yemen." Hodeida, and its food silos, have been in the hands of Yemen's Huthi rebels since 2014, when the insurgents staged a takeover of large swathes of Yemeni territories. The coup prompted the military intervention of Saudi Arabia and its allies the following year on behalf of the embattled government, triggering what the U.N. calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than 10 million Yemenis stand at the brink of starvation. UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths, who in December secured a ceasefire agreement for Hodeida between the Iran-backed rebels and Saudi-led coalition, and U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock on Monday said the rebels had made "efforts to re-open the road leading to the mills" in the joint statement.
On Thursday, Lowcock issued a public plea to the Huthis to allow relief groups to cross front lines to reach the Red Sea Mills, warning the remaining grain could spoil. The Yemen war has killed around 10,000 people since 2015, according to the World Health Organization. Other rights groups estimate the toll is significantly higher.

France Agrees 'Strategic' Pact with Qatar
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 11/19/Qatar and France signed a deal Monday to cooperate on security and economic matters, in a boost to the tiny Gulf state still locked in a diplomatic rift with neighboring Saudi Arabia and its allies. Qatar's top diplomat Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Doha to sign the "strategic dialogue" agreement. The deal marked a "new phase" for the two countries, Al-Thani said during a press conference. "This platform will include cooperation in different areas between the two countries, including defense security, regional security as well as energy, economy and culture," he added. Le Drian said the agreement "obliges" Paris and Doha to have regular meetings. Qatar last week took delivery of the first of 36 French-built Rafale fighter jets. The energy-rich Gulf state has been spending heavily on defense since June 2017 when a group of former allies -- including regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- cut ties with Doha and enforced a political and economic boycott. Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism and seeking better ties with Iran, Riyadh's regional arch-rival. Doha denies the charges and says the Saudi-led bloc wants regime change. Qatar owns famed French football champions Paris Saint-Germain and next month will see the opening of Doha's multi-million dollar national museum, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel.

Advice for Canadian travellers: spring break
February 11, 2019 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
In the coming weeks, many young Canadians will be travelling to sunny destinations to spend their spring break. The Government of Canada wants to encourage those travelling to be well-informed so that they can have a safe and enjoyable journey abroad.
It is important to remember the following:
Before leaving Canada, check the Travel Advice and Advisories for in-depth information on your destination.
Everyone, including healthy Canadians, should purchase the best travel insurance they can afford. Travel insurance should include health, life and disability coverage that will help travellers avoid incurring major expenses, such as the cost of hospitalization or medical treatment outside Canada.
Register with the Registration of Canadians Abroad service to receive the latest updates in case of an emergency abroad or a personal emergency at home.
Be aware of your surroundings and always stay with your friends. Note that there have been reports of alleged sexual assaults at tourist resorts carried out by resort staff and, in some cases, by other tourists.
For those who plan on going to parties, bars or nightclubs while abroad, it is important to follow some safety rules:
Alcohol should only be consumed responsibly. Some localities may not tolerate excessive drinking.
While illegal drugs are commonly used in some parts of the world, their purchase, consumption, import and export are banned almost everywhere. Note that cannabis, while legal in Canada, is illegal in many foreign jurisdictions.
Canadians requiring emergency consular assistance abroad can contact the Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa anytime, and from anywhere, by calling collect 1 613 996 8885 or by sending an email to sos@international.gc.ca.
Quotes
“The Government of Canada takes the safety and security of all Canadians abroad very seriously. We encourage spring-break travellers heading to international destinations to visit Travel.gc.ca before they leave.”
- Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Consular Affairs)
Quick facts
Travel.gc.ca has up-to-date Travel Advice and Advisories for more than 230 destinations worldwide—a key reference in travel planning for Canadians and the travel industry.
Every year, Global Affairs Canada helps thousands of Canadians who run into problems while they are travelling, working, studying and living in other countries.
In 2017, our consular officers abroad opened cases for:
more than 10,000 passports reported lost or stolen abroad; and
916 cases requiring medical assistance for Canadians abroad, of which close to one third of these cases occurred in popular sun destinations.

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 11-12/19
UK: A Defeat Dressed Up as a Victory
Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/February 11, 2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13712/uk-holocaust-exhibit-muslims
The mosque that agreed to hold the secret event was in Ilford; the chairman of the Muslim Community Centre at the mosque, Bashir Chaudhry, said the exhibition was an "eye-opener" and added that he would encourage other people to see it.
A story such as this should provide the strongest possible alarm bells to government and civil society. If, in 2019, any Muslim organization wants to commemorate the bravery of some Muslims in the Holocaust, this has to be staged secretly, covertly, and in fear of some violent or non-violent backlash?
In Britain, in 2019, government and non-government figures still feel they must flit around, letting no one know of their movements to commemorate an aspect of the Holocaust. They manage to have a commemoration of the Holocaust in secret. And they think this is a victory.
Bashir Chaudhry, chairman of the Muslim Community Centre in Ilford, England, recently hosted an exhibition on Muslims who helped to save Jews from the Nazis in Albania during WWII. Pictured: High Road in Ilford. (Image source: Sunil060902/Wikimedia Commons)
Remember the Holocaust exhibition in London that couldn't be staged last month -- the exhibition at Golders Green about Muslims who helped to save Jews from the Nazis in Albania during the Second World War? The small exhibition appeared clearly intended for two reasons. First to try to build trust between a new local mosque and the large Jewish community in Golders Green, and second, to remind Muslims in Britain that hostility towards Jews is an ancient and modern evil. The intentions behind the exhibition seemed good.
Not everyone, however, in Britain's Muslim communities approved. The radical Islamist website "5Pillars" said that there was a problem about the exhibit. They said that it had originated from Yad Vashem, a memorial and research institute. Of course, Yad Vashem just so happens to be in Israel -- and any contact with the state of Israel is absolutely verboten to many Islamists, such as those at "5 Pillars" (who of course would deny many accusations of anti-Semitism). So, "5 Pillars" denounced the Muslims and others who were supportive of the Holocaust exhibition being shown in Golders Green. They said that Muslims and non-Muslims who thought the Holocaust exhibition should go ahead were "Zionists." Then, in a demonstration of the sway that such Islamist groups seem to have in their own communities, the exhibition was promptly cancelled.
There is a whole book to be written about how the Muslim communities in countries such as Britain are so vulnerable to the extremists in their communities -- why groups that are often small in number can set the weather of the whole community and by extension, a significant portion of the national weather. In any event, the saga had a follow-on that is equally telling.
After the news emerged that the exhibition had been cancelled, local Jewish leaders expressed their sadness that such a situation should have come about. A confidence-building exercise had become downgraded into a confidence-draining one. Then, all at once, a Muslim activist, Fiyaz Mughal, from a group called Faith Matters, apparently decided it was wrong that an exhibition about the Holocaust should become un-showable in a mosque. So, he and others searched around for a Muslim venue to host the exhibition and it finally took place later in the month. There has been some coverage of this development in the Jewish communal newspapers, but little wider notice. The episode deserves wider notice.
In advance of the event, the venue at which the exhibition was to be shown was kept secret. Presumably, this concealment was to prevent a repeat of the successful campaign against the Golders Green mosque. The mosque that agreed to hold the secret event was in Ilford; the chairman of the Muslim Community Centre at the mosque, Bashir Chaudhry, said the exhibition was an "eye-opener" and added that he would encourage other people to see it. Despite having reportedly had emails and phone calls objecting to the exhibition once news began to get out, Mr Chaudhry said that showing it was "the right thing to do."
The event, which took place on a Sunday, was attended by around 70 people, including a number of "interfaith" leaders, a representative of the Israeli embassy in London and by Sara Khan, the "Extremism Commissioner" appointed by the Prime Minister in the wake of the string of terror attacks which struck Britain in 2017. Local press reported all of this as a signal of "defiance." Fiyaz Mughal, the representative of Faith Matters who had been partly responsible for the successful transplant of the event to Ilford, told the UK's Jewish Chronicle that he believed this was the first time such an exhibition had been shown at a mosque in Britain and that the event was "significant". "It sends a clear signal," he added, "to anti-Semites and extremists that education on the Holocaust will not be stopped, particularly when we want Muslims to engage with it."
Of course, it is a good thing that in the end, the exhibition was able to go ahead. Those who organised it and re-arranged it, especially at such short notice, should indeed be praised. Amid the small amount of jubilation that the event was able to take place at all, there was no rumination on the deeper and disturbing trend. We are often told in Britain -- as elsewhere in Europe -- that there are specific "integration" problems that we may suffer, but that by and large everyone in our country wishes to get along and does get along. We hear much talk of "British values" and that officials from government and civil society should stand firm against those who would subvert these values. We have interfaith groups, government bodies and any number of people paid by government to address "integration" and "cohesion". By and large, the political and commentator class says that things are going pretty well in Britain -- that our minority communities are as British as anyone else and that anyone who says otherwise or even worries about the whole issue in any way is some variety of "phobe".
Yet, an event like this -- an awkward, embarrassing but ultimately remedied event -- is looked on as indicative of... really very little. National papers pay little attention and no one thinks of making anything like a fuss. A story such as this should provide the strongest possible alarm bells to government and civil society. If, in 2019, any Muslim organization wants to commemorate the bravery of some Muslims in the Holocaust, this has to be staged secretly, covertly, and in fear of some violent or non-violent backlash? What was proposed at Golders Green and then took place at Ilford was not a full overview of the Holocaust. It was not an overview of the suffering of the Jewish people in the middle of the last century. It was a focus on one tiny, relatively minor aspect of that catastrophe -- an aspect that should cause pride rather than fury and anger among any decent Muslim or non-Muslim.
In Britain, in 2019, government and non-government figures still feel they must flit around, letting no one know of their movements to commemorate an aspect of the Holocaust. They manage to have a commemoration of the Holocaust in secret. And they think this is a victory.
*Douglas Murray, British author, commentator and public affairs analyst, is based in London, England. His latest book, an international best-seller, is "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam."
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Should Washington Heed Intelligence Assessments about North Korea?
Peter Huessy/Gatestone Institute/February 11/19
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13713/north-korea-intelligence-assessments
In spite of the fact that Reagan ultimately won the Cold War -- and the Soviet Union subsequently fell -- his policies and extraordinary global achievements were partially discarded by the failures and laziness of the U.S. intelligence community. Starting in 1993, the US cut back excessively its military defenses. And the US allowed China both militarily and non-militarily to run rampant.
Almost worse, the intelligence community failed to recognize the rise of Islamic terrorism in Iran and elsewhere, which would culminate in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
What is clear, is that the U.S. intelligence community often has a terrible track record where threat assessments are concerned. Alarmingly, it would not be surprising they were wrong again today.
United States intelligence chiefs told Congress on January 29 that Pyongyang is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons in any deal with Washington. This assessment was made a month ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's February 27-28 second summit -- to be held in Vietnam -- with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the purpose of which is to make strides in achieving the very denuclearization that FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats consider improbable.
One would have thought that if these intelligence chiefs disagreed with Trump's efforts to reach a deal with North Korea, they would have presented an alternative. They might have explained what a deal with Pyongyang is liable to do to America's relations with Japan and South Korea. They might have provided a future scenario for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which North Korea signed in 1968, then violated and withdrew from in 2003.
Trump might, however, actually be acting sensibly. During a speech on January 31 at Stanford University, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said that when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim in Pyongyang in October 2018, Kim committed for the first time to dismantling and destroying his plutonium and uranium enrichment facilities.
Although the media has been highlighting the disagreement between Trump and the U.S. intelligence community as though it is a huge scandal, such disputes have occurred in the past.
The most notable example was President Gerald Ford's Team B project, launched in May 1976, to challenge the conventional intelligence community assessments of the Soviet threat. George H.W. Bush, who was director of the CIA at the time, had approved the project, which enlisted a group of foreign policy and security professionals who strongly disagreed with the policy of détente. Team B was convinced that the Soviet Union was spending 40% of its GDP on defense, as opposed to the 5% projected by the U.S. intelligence community.
After Team B released its report, the CIA conceded that Soviet defense spending was probably higher than it had thought, but nevertheless pushed for détente, a policy Ford supported, as well as for peaceful coexistence between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
Ronald Reagan's 1976 Republican Party primary campaign against Ford focused on this very issue, with Reagan taking a much harsher view of the Soviet Union and the battle against communism. As Reagan predicted, détente led not to peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union, but to Soviet expansion. Still, Reagan lost the Republican primary to Ford, and Ford lost the presidential race to Jimmy Carter.
Upon assuming the presidency in 1980, Reagan reversed most of the policies of the previous decades, and went against the consensus of a majority of the U.S. intelligence community.
Reagan turned out, of course, to be right, while the conventional wisdom of economists and intellectuals, such as John Kenneth Galbraith -- who considered communism to be superior to capitalism because it supposedly made better use of "manpower" -- was revealed to be spectacularly wrong.
Another key fight between the administration in Washington and its intelligence community took place at the outset of Reagan's presidency, when Secretary of State Alexander Haig accused the Soviet Union of "training, funding and equipping" international terrorists. Reagan backed up Haig on this assessment -- much to the chagrin of the intelligence community, which held a different view.
Yet, as former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- who headed the CIA under President George H.W. Bush -- revealed in his 1996 book, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, Haig and Reagan were not only correct; the extent to which the Soviets supported terrorism was even greater than they had thought.
In spite of the fact that Reagan ultimately won the Cold War – and the Soviet Union subsequently fell – his policies and extraordinary global achievements were partially discarded by the failures and laziness of the U.S. intelligence community. Starting in 1993, the US cut back excessively its military defenses. The US also failed to help Russia secure the Duma's ratification of the 1993 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II), signed by Yeltsin and Bush but not ratified by the Senate. And the US allowed China both militarily and non-militarily to run rampant.
Almost worse, the intelligence community failed to recognize the rise of Islamic terrorism in Iran and elsewhere, which would culminate in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
These failures are not surprising, given the history of American intelligence assessments. In early 1950, for example, President Harry Truman was told by his intelligence chiefs that there would not be a North Korean invasion of South Korea. They reached this conclusion based on the assumption that North Korea could only invade South Korea with the help of the Soviet Union, and there appeared to be no sign of such assistance.
In June 1950, however, North Korea invaded South Korea, and an unprepared United States lost over 35,000 soldiers in the Korean War.
Whether Trump is able, through a combination of toughness and street-smarts, to succeed where others have failed with North Korea remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that the U.S. intelligence community often has a terrible track record where threat assessments are concerned. Alarmingly, it would not be surprising they were wrong again today.
*Dr. Peter Huessy is President of GeoStrategic Analysis, a defense consulting firm he founded in 1981, as well as Director of Strategic Deterrent Studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. He was also for 20 years, the senior defense consultant at the National Defense University Foundation.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Iran Needs a New Revolution
Eli Lake/Bloomberg View/February, 11/19
Four decades ago, in the months leading up to the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the exiled Ruhollah Khomeini made many promises. He spoke about respecting the rights of minorities, democracy and equality for women.
Western intellectuals like the late French philosopher Michel Foucault praised Khomeini’s vision. In Iran, liberals and communists were happy to join with his followers to topple the corrupt regime of the shah. The charismatic Khomeini was saying what they wanted to hear.
Or, to put it another way: He was lying. Khomeini “was not locked into everything he had said” then, according to Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the country’s first president after the revolution. Speaking in an interview this month, the former president said that Khomeini described the promises he made before he came to power as “convenient.”
That’s putting it mildly. Soon after declaring himself supreme leader, Khomeini abandoned almost all of his public pledges. In his 2016 book “Democracy in Iran: Why it Failed and How it Might Succeed,” the professor Misagh Parsa describes the post-revolution government of Khomeini as “an exclusive state” that “rejected the promise of democracy.”
The clerics and their enablers had a lot of work to do. They banned alcohol, and popular music on radio and television, and taking your dog for a walk in the park. They also launched a campaign of public cruelty, promulgating decrees to punish adulterers and other criminals with lashes and stoning. In 1988, there were mass executions of as many as 40,000 enemies of the state. Between 1979 and 2009 the regime arrested, imprisoned or killed at least 860 journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.
To this day, state television broadcasts coerced confessions. It was just last summer that Maedeh Hojabri, a teenaged gymnast, confessed to the crime of posting videos of herself on Instagram dancing without the required hijab.
The cruelty extends to Iranians living abroad. The regime has been known to send assassins to Europe to murder opposition leaders; former Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, who briefly led a reformist government in the last months of the shah’s regime, was stabbed multiple times the chest in his Paris apartment in 1991. Just last week, Iran’s justice minister announced he would begin prosecuting the US-based journalist and activist Masih Alinejad after she met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. She, too, stands accused of encouraging Iranian women to share videos of themselves taking off their hijab.
Meanwhile, as the state built by Khomeini is persecuting its citizens, it is enriching its leaders. In this regard the Islamic Republic today is not very different than the corrupt regime it replaced 40 years ago. The army’s Revolutionary Guard, for example, also functions as a kind of criminal syndicate, controlling large chunks of the country’s economy. The current supreme leader and Khomeini’s successor operates a slush fund worth tens of billions of dollars, according to a 2013 Reuters investigation, built in part on assets the state seized from Iranian citizens. Many Iranians now realize that their leaders are corrupt and inept.
Nationwide protests and strikes began in December 2017 and continue. Ordinary Iranians, at great personal risk, frequently register their dissatisfaction with their rulers in marches, with graffiti and on anonymous social media accounts. Iranians abroad, exiled by choice or by necessity, are beginning to plan for what comes next. Some dissidents are calling for a national referendum on the powers of the supreme leader.
No serious person believes Iran is a democracy. And yet it is still possible to hear, in some quarters of Brussels and Washington, pleasant nonsense about the contest of ideas between Iran’s moderates and hardliners. Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, still sits for fawning interviews and pretends to be the envoy of a free country.
It’s a con that goes back 40 years. On Feb. 16, 1979, the New York Times published a column by a professor of international law at Princeton. The depiction of Khomeini “as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices,” he wrote, “seems certainly and happily false.”
Too many Western leaders continue to trust Khomeini’s successors. They are working to save the 2015 deal limiting Iran’s nuclear program. They believe the Iranian regime’s promise not to build a weapon when much of the agreement expires in less than 15 years.
The good news is that millions of Iranians no longer believe anything this regime says. They have endured the terror, deprivation and cruelty unleashed by the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago. The least Americans and Europeans can do is defend and support them and their struggle for a democratic revolution.

Khomeini, the Revolution… the Iranian Citizen and the Mirror
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/February, 11/19
At the age of 40, a man should stand in front of the mirror. It is impossible to disregard age, whether for individuals or revolutions. Reaching the edge of 40 means moving away from adolescence and the hustle of youth time, and getting the chance to review one’s path and redirect it. At age of 40, one is encouraged to abandon illusions and to subject dreams to the test of real figures. It is an opportunity to reconcile with facts and to move from confrontation to coexistence and building bridges. It is an opportunity to reunite with regional and international realities and with the charters governing the natural behavior of a state.
Today, Iran celebrates the 40th anniversary of the victory of the revolution, without sending to countries, near or far, any message stating that it has become mature enough to derive lessons from this experience. Its messages go in the opposite direction and stress its commitment to fuel the fire of the revolution.
No one disputes Iran’s right to live under any system chosen by its people. The problem is not with its options inside its borders. The problem is that Iran is demanding the people of the region and the world to coexist with a large-scale offensive it is launching in the region to make its role mandatory in the lives of a number of countries.
No one is arguing against Iran’s right to adhere to what it embraced 40 years ago. But is Iran entitled to meddle with the region’s balances and transform life in some of its countries into constant chaos?
Let us leave official celebrations aside. The Arabs would like to know what it feels like for the Iranians to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the revolution, because we are doomed to live together in this historical and geographical trap called the Middle East.
Does the ordinary Iranian citizen believe that the best way to coexist is for an Iranian general to announce that his country has the first and last say in four Arab capitals? Does Iran really need the military, intelligence and ideological presence behind its borders? What is the cost of the conflicts that Iran has engaged in? Did it learn the lesson of the Soviet Union, which collapsed after it gave greater importance to foreign successes rather than internal victories?
What does the ordinary Iranian feel if he, along with the revolution, stands in front of the mirror today? Does he feel national pride because Iranian missiles are interconnected in more than one location in the region? Does he feel that the slogan "Death to America" relieves the government of its failure to combat unemployment, poverty and the painful consequences of the current US sanctions on the country’s economy? Does he consider the nuclear program a necessary cushion and an "insurance policy" for the revolution and its regime, or an expensive and dangerous dream that left the country in isolation?
What do those, who were born after the revolution and account for 70 percent of the population, feel today? Do they ask why some 30 million Iranians live below the poverty line? Why, after four decades, the revolution was not able to improve people's lives and fulfill its promises? Is the production of new generations of missiles more important than curbing unemployment and promoting investment in education and welfare? Does anyone ask why the size of the Iranian economy on the eve of the revolution was twice the size of South Korea’s, which four decades later, became seven times greater than Iran’s?
Does anyone ask why China has managed in the same four decades to help 700 million people out of poverty and occupy the position of the world’s second economy, while Iran spent the same time interfering in regional countries and alarming states near and far?
Does the Iranian citizen, who was born after the revolution, believe that the strong Iranian presence in the decision-making of Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa and the removal of groups from its national fabric and attaching them to the Iranian Revolutionary dictionary, will contribute to reserving a permanent seat for his country in the leadership of the region, or will make it the greatest partner of the "Great Satan"?
Can Iran ever hold on to the same dictionary that Khomeini drafted, despite the great earthquake that struck the world of the two camps under which it was born? Does Iran’s interest lie in attracting new capitals to its orbit or catching up with the world's scientific and technological revolutions that were achieved between the victory of the revolution and its celebration of its 40th anniversary? Is expansion through proxy and mobile armies better than belonging to the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Is the preoccupation with rocket development more important than engaging in the world of robotics, investment and prosperity?
Much can be written about four decades of the Iranian revolution. It received gifts it did not expect.
The first was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which shifted the attention towards Baghdad, not Tehran. The second was the September 11 attacks that brought the world’s attention to what was called the “Sunni extremism,” which was partly in response to the Iranian revolution igniting Shiite-Sunni conflicts. The third gift was the US move to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, who, despite being besieged, was an obstacle to the flow of Iranian influence in the capitals of the Crescent. The fourth was Barack Obama’s stance towards Syria and Iran’s success in deploying its militias there.
In contrast, the revolution behaved with exaggerated realism when it came to its safety, and the story of Iran-Contra was remarkable in this regard. Moreover, Iran also bombed Iraqi cities with missiles obtained from Libya, despite the latter’s role in the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr.
What if an Iranian youth born after the revolution stood in front of the Mao Zedong mausoleum in Beijing? Does he feel that the revolution did not find a man like Deng Xiaoping, who saved the regime from a dark fate if Mao continued to rule the country from his tomb? Would he not have the same feeling if he stood in front of Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow? Does he ask himself the difficult question about how long will Khomeini continue to rule Iran from his tomb? And when will the Iranian revolution find a leader such as Deng, who will force the country to become a normal state?

The Green New Deal Would Spend the US Into Oblivion
Noah Smith/Bloomberg View/February, 11/19
Skeptics of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s promise of a Green New Deal were worried that the plan would be a Trojan horse for unrealistic and ruinously expensive economic proposals that have little to do with stopping climate change. The unveiling of the plan gives them more reason for worry. Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal appears to take every big spending idea that has emerged on the political left in recent years and combine them into one large package deal, with little notion of how to pay for them all.
The Green New Deal as introduced to Congress is in the form of a non-binding resolution laying out a series of goals. The wording of the resolution is ambitious, but vague. More concerning are the details of an online FAQ that appeared on Ocasio-Cortez’s website but was later taken down. The FAQ contained important details that are not included in the resolution itself. On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, referred to the FAQ as a “bad copy,” and promised to release a revised version.
But the original FAQ may give insight into the Ocasio-Cortez camp’s true goals. And it shows that although the Green New Deal bills itself primarily as an environmental policy and jobs program, the most expensive items are enormous new entitlements paid for by unlimited deficit spending.
First, to be fair, it’s important to discuss the good ideas in the plan. The Green New Deal would retrofit all American buildings and factories to be carbon-neutral, electrify all transportation, and switch the entire electrical grid to carbon-neutral energy sources. These goals are highly ambitious, but they’re good targets. Ocasio-Cortez’s plan correctly recognizes that carbon taxes wouldn’t be enough to prompt private companies to do all these things on their own, and that large-scale government-funded infrastructure is required. Furthermore, a focus on scaling up clean energy would push the technology forward. That would help other countries — where most of the world’s carbon emissions are produced — to follow in the US footsteps.
But these environmental policies, as sweeping as they would be, wouldn’t be the most costly items on the list. Among other things, the now-removed FAQ stipulates that every American would be guaranteed the following:
1. “a job with family-sustaining wages, family and medical leave, vacations, and retirement security”
2. “high-quality education, including higher education and trade schools”
3. “high-quality health care”
4. “safe, affordable, adequate housing”
5. “economic security to all who are unable or unwilling to work”
The plan thus appears to combine a federal job guarantee, free college and single-payer health care. Depending on how one interprets the guarantee of “economic security” to all those who are “unwilling to work,” it might also include a universal basic income — something that was mentioned in an earlier Green New Deal proposal. The guarantee of universal affordable housing is, to my knowledge, new.
How much would these proposals cost? It’s hard to know. Senator Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal was predicted to cost about $3.2 trillion a year. Switching to renewable energy would conservatively cost more than $400 billion annually. Even though the cost is coming down as technology improves, net-zero emissions retrofits of every building in the country would be expensive — optimistically, perhaps $88,000 for a townhouse, and presumably much more for free-standing homes. Assuming $100,000 per home, that comes to about $1.4 trillion a year over a decade.
So this quick, rough cost estimate — which doesn’t include all of the promises listed in the FAQ — adds up to about $6.6 trillion a year. That’s more than three times as much as the federal government collects in tax revenue, and equal to about 34 percent of the US’s entire gross domestic product.
This suggests that the Green New Deal will be paid for with soaring deficits, which could be quite dangerous.
So although a big push for renewable energy is needed, the Green New Deal’s vast program for economic egalitarianism could make it unworkable. Let’s hope the FAQ doesn’t represent the final version of the plan, and the sweeping proposals for economic restructuring — especially basic income — can be dropped in favor of a tighter focus on reducing carbon emissions. But if the now-deleted FAQ represents Ocasio-Cortez’s true plans, the answer to the question of “Do you support the Green New Deal?” will have to be “No.”

How Iran Deceived The U.S. Intelligence Community: Four Examples
Yigal Carmon and A. Savyon/MEMRI/February 11/19
Introduction
On January 30, 2019, U.S. President Trump criticized the U.S. intelligence community's Worldwide Threat Assessment, released January 29, 2019, tweeting that it is "naïve" about the danger posed by Iran. MEMRI research in recent years shows that the Iranian regime deceived the American intelligence community a number of times; the MEMRI reports are based on openly available information released by the Iranians. The following are four examples:
The Plutonium Reactor At Arak
The Iranian regime deceived the U.S., the West, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about shutting down the plutonium reactor at Arak, as it was required to do under the JCPOA. Ali Akbar Salehi, director of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) and a member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, revealed in a January 22, 2019 interview that Iran had deceived the Americans and Europeans about the shutdown of the reactor, saying that Iran had not filled the reactor core with cement, but had filled only external pipelines. He said: "We have been saying for three years now that we did not pour cement into the pit of the Arak heavy water reactor. If we had, the Arak heavy water reactor would have been ruined." He also revealed that the Iranians had secretly purchased other pipes to replace the cement-filled ones, and boasted that only one other person in Iran had been party to the deception – Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Had the other side known about the deception, he added, they would have demanded that the Iranians fill the replacement pipelines with cement as well.[3]
Salehi revealed the deception at Arak in other interviews as well: in a January 15, 2019 interview with Iran's Tasnim news agency,[4] and in an August 22, 2017 television interview (see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1341, Head Of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization: Only External Pipelines Of Arak Reactor Were Filled With Cement, Its Core Was Not; Within Five Days, We Can Begin Enriching Uranium To 20%, September 1, 2017).
Fatwa By Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei Banning The Development, Production, Possession, And Use Of Nuclear Weapons
The Obama administration espoused this alleged fatwa, despite the fact that no such fatwa exists, and no U.S. intelligence element ever addressed the fact that this fatwa does not exist. There would have been no secrecy constraints on stating that it does not exist.
MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 5406, Release Of Compilation Of Newest Fatwas By Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei - Without Alleged Fatwa About Nuclear Bomb, August 13, 2013.
Special Dispatch No. 5461, President Obama Endorses The Lie About Khamenei's 'Fatwa' Against Nuclear Arms, September 29, 2013.
Inquiry & Analysis No.1022, The Official Iranian Version Regarding Khamenei's Alleged Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa Is A Lie, October 3, 2013.
Inquiry & Analysis No.1151, Iranian Regime Continues Its Lies And Fabrications About Supreme Leader Khamenei's Nonexistent Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons, April 6, 2015.
Inquiry & Analysis No. 1080, U.S. Secretary Of State Kerry In New And Unprecedented Statement: 'President Obama And I Are Both Extremely Welcoming And Grateful For The Fact That [Iranian] Supreme Leader [Khamenei] Has Issued A [Nonexistent] Fatwa' Banning Nuclear Weapons, April 19, 2014.
Inquiry & Analysis No. 825, Renewed Iran-West Nuclear Talks - Part II: Tehran Attempts to Deceive U.S. President Obama, Sec'y of State Clinton With Nonexistent Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa By Supreme Leader Khamenei, April 19, 2012.
The Military Dimension Of The Iranian Nuclear Program
The IAEA revealed in a quarterly report in 2011 that Iran's nuclear activity had a military dimension until 2003 and that some nuclear weapons development activity could still be ongoing in 2011.[5] Iran consistently refused to respond to all IAEA questions on the matter about these suspicions, and because of its refusal to fully cooperate with the IAEA, there were six UN Security Council resolutions against it, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The Obama administration, with IAEA cooperation, set out a framework for cooperation with Iran to close this Possible Military Dimensions (PMD) file.
American intelligence elements never publicly mentioned these suspicions, and thus allowed the file to be closed, according to the wishes of the White House.
The JCPOA's Flaw: Inspections Of Iranian Military And Other Sites Not Allowed
The JCPOA does not allow physical inspections at Iranian military camps or at other sites that the Iranian regime has not declared as nuclear sites. U.S. intelligence elements have never mentioned the fact that their assessments are lacking because of this.
MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1395, Insights Following Exposure Of Iran's Military Nuclear Program – Part II: IAEA's Closure Of File On Iran's Possible Development Of Nuclear Weapons (PMD) Was Collusion By Obama Administration, Europeans, IAEA, May 8, 2018
MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1325, Discussion Of Iranian Violations Of JCPOA Is Futile; The Inspection Procedure Designed By The Obama Administration Precludes Actual Inspection And Proof Of Violations, August 18, 2017
MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1390, In Advance Of Iran's April 9 'Nuclear Technology Day': Developments In Iran's Nuclear Program, Deviations From JCPOA, April 10, 2018
* Yigal Carmon is President of MEMRI; A. Savyon is Director of the MEMRI Iran media project.
[1] Dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/2019-ATA-SFR---SSCI.pdf, January 29, 2019.
[2] @realDonaldTrump, January 30, 2019.
[3] Farsnews.com, January 22, 2019.
[4] Tasnimnews.com, January 15, 2019. Salehi said: "We are constantly saying that we only put cement in a few pipes in the heavy water reactor at Arak."
[5] Iaea.org/sites/default/files/gov2011-65.pdf, November 8, 2011.

The Middle East Doesn’t Admire America Anymore
Steven A. Cook/Foreign Policy/February 11/19
One of the perks of my job is that every now and then I get to spend time talking about the future of the Middle East in a place like Italy, as I did in early January. The night before the conference, after sharing a few bottles of red wine with some friends, I even had the occasion to confirm—at a small place near the Piazza del Popolo that had no discernible name but instead had a bright neon sign that simply read “Pizza/Gelato”—that the pizza in Rome runs a close second to the slices from my native Long Island.
But I didn’t just get a delicious meal that night. I also got an education on how the United States has recently managed to undermine its greatest foreign-policy assets: the norms, principles, and institutions that animate and organize U.S. society.
As soon as I ordered a slice of the zucchini blossom—a revelation—I realized that the guys behind the counter were not Italians. Almost reflexively, I asked in Arabic, “Where are you from?” The gentleman handling my order smiled and declared that he was Egyptian, as was his colleague behind the counter. The guy who greeted me as I came through the door—wide-eyed at the veritable feast of pizza—turned out to be Tunisian.
I initially intended to eat quickly and return to my hotel; it had been a long day of travel, and the wine was starting to drag me down. Even with the relatively late start to the meeting the following morning (European conferences are different from American ones), I was looking forward to bed. My curiosity got the better of me, though, and I found a second wind. For the next hour or so, my new friends and I enjoyed a raucous conversation, covering every issue in the Middle East from the internecine political struggles in Tunis to Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and back.
The Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem? They were not fans. The Saudis? There was no love lost. Iran? Given its distance both in miles and from the primary concerns of the people in their home countries, they were ambivalent. Yemen and Syria? Horrifying. The rift within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)? They did not care. With the exceptions of the wars in Yemen and Syria, as well as the differences among ruling families in the Gulf that created the GCC rift, this was standard fare—the subject of what must be thousands of conversations that I have had with folks from the Middle East since the first time I set foot in Egypt in 1993.
When I asked why Egypt had not become a democracy after the January 2011 uprising, the discussion took a more interesting turn. I did not get an exposition on Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s repression. The Egyptians liked Sisi, but they also did not offer an explanation of the evils of the Muslim Brotherhood or even a disquisition on the shortcomings of that ill-defined agglomeration of people known as “the revolution.” Instead, one of them looked me straight in the eye and declared, “Don’t talk to us about democracy.”
Before I could ask why, he demanded to know whether America was truly a democracy. My friends and interlocutors in the Middle East have been giving me a hard time about the United States for years. In April 2014, I spent half a night countering charges from a group of Egyptians who wanted to know why the United States supported the Muslim Brotherhood. This was after spending time in Istanbul on the same trip trying my best to explain to people that the United States did not actually support the July 2013 coup in Egypt. Some years earlier, I had the discomfiting experience of being dressed down publicly for U.S. human rights violations in Iraq by a representative of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s repressive regime in Tunisia. These complaints uniformly had everything to do with U.S. conduct in the world, but what my Egyptian pizza man was getting at was entirely new (for me).
While expressing outrage to me about Washington’s invasion of Iraq, its support for regional authoritarian allies, or America’s special relationship with Israel, Arabs have often articulated admiration for the way Americans live at home. They love American movies, hip-hop, heavy metal, the NBA, and McDonald’s, and many Arabs have relatively easy access to these quintessential aspects of American culture. Rather it was the things they did not have that Arabs admired most about the United States—freedom, equality, tolerance, and the rule of law.
I was struck that my new friends were well-versed in the recent police shootings of unarmed African-American men. They knew that Turks, Jordanians, Lebanese, and Iraqi Kurds had borne the brunt of the Syrian refugee crisis, taking in millions of refugees while the U.S. government separated children from their parents on the country’s southern border. And they repeated to me President Donald Trump’s declaration that the press was the “enemy of the people.”
For Middle Easterners like the guys in the pizza place, the United States is no longer a shining city on a hill. They recognize that the promise of America does not conform to reality and the gap between them is growing. No doubt some—or even much—of this jaundiced view of the United States has to do with the Trump administration. The president’s Muslim ban, his subtle and not-so-subtle nods to white nationalism, and his willingness to cast aspersions on Islam have convinced people that America is not what it has long claimed to be: free, equal, and tolerant.
Yet I am not convinced that America’s dismal image is entirely a reflection of the current administration. The protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014 over the killing of Michael Brown seem to have been a turning point. People from all over the world watched some of the worst of America in real time via their social media feeds and good old-fashioned television news. To Arabs and Turks, the tear gas falling on the streets of Ferguson was no different from the tear gas falling on Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain, Mohamed Mahmoud Street in Egypt, or Istiklal Caddesi in Turkey. And a fair number of them were more than willing take to Twitter to make that point.