English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 23/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?
Letter to the Romans 08/28-39:”We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 22-23/2020
Lebanon Records 124 New COVID-19 Cases and 2 Deaths
Crisis Hits Lebanon's Hospitals, among the Best in Mideast
Report: Political System Worked Full Blast to 'Thwart' Recovery of Stolen Funds
French Diplomat Says Macron to Unveil Plan to Help Lebanon
Israeli Soldier Killed amid Tensions on Border with Lebanon
Diab Meets Shea, Says Govt. is Most Technocrat in Lebanon History
Al-Rahi Says to Call for 'Inclusive Dialogue Meeting'
Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali al-Amine Meets Rahi: Neutrality Renders Lebanon Independent
AMAL Bloc: Any Attempt to Revise 1701 is Tampering with Region's Security
Lebanon Busts 40 Tons of Rotten Chicken
Renewed Gasoline Shortage Crisis in Lebanon
Lebanon: Citizens’ Negligence Met With Tightened Measures
Hezbollah Acknowledges Killing of Fighter in Israeli Strike near Damascus
Hezbollah threatens Israel after member of terror group killed in Syria
Open Letter to Mr. Le Drian: Help us set up a "Marshall Plan" that directly benefits Lebanese villages
A Tale Of Two Patriarchs/Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/July 22/2020
Will is Not Enough to Expel US from the Region/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 22/2020
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 22-23/2020
Al-Azhar Sheikhs: Turning Hagia Sophia Back Into A Mosque Is Forbidden By Islam/MEMRI/July 22/2020
Iran will strike a reciprocal blow against America for killing of top commander Soleimani - Iran supreme leader
US presence cause of insecurity: Khamenei tells visiting Iraq PM/Amir Havasi/,AFP/July 23/ 2020
Iran’s maximum pressure on Iraq to remove US forces/Jerusalem Post/July 23/2020
Mike Pompeo's fight for unalienable rights/Clifford D. May/July23/2020
Washington Insists on Political Process in Libya
US Urges Turkey to End Drilling Plans in E. Mediterranean
Ankara Rejects Greek Accusation of Eastern Mediterranean Violation
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, Trump Discuss Need for De-Escalation in Libya
Israel’s Opposition Leader Calls for Emergency Government without Netanyahu
Hamas Seeks Joint Political Agenda with Fatah
More than 15 Million Coronavirus Cases Detected Worldwide
Trump Says Pandemic to 'Get Worse', Australia Sees Record Infections

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 22-23/2020

Are there extremists that Qatar does not fund?/The National/July23/2020
Egypt, Turkey and Erdogan's Delusional Plans/Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 22/2020
Politics Will Cut America’s Military Budget/Robert Ford/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 22/2020
Cold War Is Here, and Chinese Stocks Don't Care/John Authers/Bloomberg/July 22/2020
The "Maximum Pressure" on Iran's Regime/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/July 22, 2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 22-23/2020

Lebanon Records 124 New COVID-19 Cases and 2 Deaths
Naharnet/July 22/2020
Lebanon recorded a significant tally of 124 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry announced Wednesday evening.
In its daily statement, the Ministry said 115 of the cases were recorded among residents and nine among expats. Two more deaths were also recorded, raising the death toll to 43, while the new cases raise the country’s overall tally since February 21 to 3,104. Eighty-eight virus patients were meanwhile admitted into hospitals over the past 24 hours, including 21 into intensive care. Thirty-one of the local cases were recorded in Baabda district, 30 in Aley district, 13 in Northern Metn, 12 in Beirut, five in Tyre district, two in Chouf district, two in Zahle district and one in each of Qartaboun, Qalamoun, Bsarma, Chekka, Akkar al-Atiqa and Kfarfila while the locations of 14 cases are being investigated. Mount Lebanon Governor Mohammed al-Mekkawi had earlier ordered the isolation of the Baabda district town of Qurnayel over a spike in virus cases in it. According to the Health Ministry, six cases were confirmed in Qurnayel over the past 24 hours.

Crisis Hits Lebanon's Hospitals, among the Best in Mideast
Associated Press/Naharnet/July 22/2020
Lebanon's hospitals, long considered among the best in the Middle East, are cracking under the country's financial crisis, struggling to pay staff, keep equipment running or even stay open amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Private hospitals, the engine of the health system, warn they may have to shut down. Chronically underfunded public hospitals, which have led the fight against the virus, fear they will be overrun. Across the country, hospitals and doctors are reporting shortages in vital medical supplies such as anesthesia drugs and sutures. With power cuts that run through most of the day, they pour money into fuel for generators, and many are turning away non-critical cases to conserve resources. "The situation is really catastrophic, and we expect a total collapse if the government doesn't come up with a rescue plan," said Selim Abi Saleh, the head of the Physicians Union in northern Lebanon, one of the country's poorest and most populated regions. One of the country's oldest and most prestigious university hospitals, the American University Medical Center, laid off hundreds of its staff last week citing the "disastrous" state of the economy and causing uproar and concern. Medical facilities have let go of nurses and reduced salaries, their finances running dry in part because they can't collect millions owed to them by the state. Nearly a third of Lebanon's 15,000 physicians aim to migrate or already have, a doctors' union official said, based on the number who have sought union documents they can use abroad to prove their credentials. So far Lebanon has kept a handle on its pandemic outbreak, through strong lockdowns, aggressive testing and a quick response, largely by public hospitals. The country has reported fewer than 3,000 infections and 41 deaths. But with cases rising, many in the field fear the health sector can't hold up under a surge and a financial crisis worsening every day.
Lebanon's liquidity crunch has crippled the government's ability to provide fuel, electricity and basic services. The shortage of dollars is gutting imports, including medical supplies and drugs. Prices have spiraled, unemployment is above 30% and nearly half the population of 5 million now live in poverty.
Private hospitals, which make up around 85% of the country's facilities, emerged dominant after the country's brutal 15-year civil war to become the pride of Lebanon's system, drawing patients from around the region with specialized services and advanced surgeries. But the entire health sector, like much of the country, has also run on political jockeying and patronage in Lebanon's sectarian system. Medical practitioners say politics determine how much payment from the state private hospitals receive while public facilities remain understaffed. The insurance system, with multiple health funds, is chaotic, making collection difficult and coverage patchy. For years, state insurance funds failed to reimburse hospitals. Private hospitals say they are owed $1.3 billion, some of it dating back to 2011. "We can't fight COVID and at the same time keep looking behind our backs to see whether I have enough financial and material resources," said Firas Abiad, director general of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the public hospital leading the coronavirus fight. Abiad, who has won praise for his transparency in handling the pandemic, is getting by with stop-gap measures. When he raised alarm this month that the hospital was running out of fuel, a rush of private donations flowed in. The government pledged to provide fuel for public facilities.
"I doubt anybody has any long-term strategy," Abiad said. "We are doing it one fight at a time, and we are surviving one day at a time."Financing must be priority, he said. "Generators can't run on empty, without fuel. Hospitals can't run without financing." Minister of Health Hamad Hassan told The Associated Press Monday he was counting on government support to keep hospitals as a "red line." But he urged hospitals to do their part to push through the crisis. "Hospitals have invested in this sector for 40 years. Whoever has invested that long should have the courage to invest for six months or a year to help his people and not give up on them," he said. Private hospitals' struggles are compounded by a banking sector crisis that has locked down foreign currency accounts and complicated imports and the issuing of letters of credit. In the northern village of Majdalaiya, the state-of-the art, 100-bed Family Medical Center hospital stood nearly empty last week. Its owner, oncologist Kayssar Mawad, said he had to shut down one of the five floors to save costs. Mawad has had to refuse patients with state insurance. The government already owes him millions of dollars, he said. "It has to be a life or death situation," Mawad said. "This is not sustainable." He said in recent weeks, he admitted 20 patients at most, while treating others as outpatients to save costs. His facility is prepared to deal with COVID-19 patients but he said it won't because it is too expensive.
"We don't want to get to a Venezuela-scenario where we diagnose the patient but ask them to bring their own medicine, food, and sheets," he said. "I hope we don't get there."There was only one baby in the hospital's 13-bed neonatal unit. On the adults' floor, there were three patients.
One of them, an 83-year-old man recovering from arterial surgery, had to pay out of pocket because his private insurance won't cover the room or the stent. If a brother hadn't come from Germany to cover the costs, "he would have died," said his daughter, Mayada Qaddour. The 32 public hospitals won't be able to fill the place of private hospitals threatened with closure, said Ahmad Moghrabi, chairman of Orange Nassau, Lebanon's only government-run maternity hospital. Moghrabi, now in his 70s, rebuilt the hospital in the northern city of Tripoli from scratch since he took it over in 2003, almost totally through foreign donations. Still, it relies on state funds and insurance payments — both minimal — so it has never been able to operate at full capacity of 5,000 births a year. Now desperately short of funds and fuel, the hospital has to juggle priorities. It suspended its neonatal unit to keep life-saving dialysis running.
"In 2020, (a hospital) can't do without a neonatal unit," Moghrabi said. "With the current circumstances in Lebanon, we are going back to the 1960s, even further."

Report: Political System Worked Full Blast to 'Thwart' Recovery of Stolen Funds
Naharnet/July 22/2020
The "political-financial system" controlling the country has reportedly worked "with all its might" to "thwart" the plan to recover stolen and smuggled funds outside Lebanon when depositors were prevented from obtaining their money from banks, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.
A source close to the International Monetary Fund, told the daily on condition of anonymity that “the political-financial system in Lebanon used all means possible to reach its end beginning with forgery of numbers, spreading false news and levying lawmakers.”“The group exerted strenuous efforts to fail the recovery of stolen funds when depositors were prevented from withdrawals. It also seeks redemption of (funds) gifts obtained through “financial engineering,” which exceeded 30 billion dollars at the expense of ordinary depositors,” he told the daily.
“Although the IMF fund staff viewed the government's figures on losses in the financial system as in the “right magnitude,” the group insists the figures are wrong,” added the source. “The IMF threatened to halt bailout negotiations with Lebanon if the figures do not get approved by the central bank and if the (Finance and Budget) parliamentary committee keeps insisting to have it altered,” he said. The same “system” claims the IMF shall accept a new approach based on seizure of public property while preserving their bank shares at the expense of depositors who will not be able to release their funds with the banks, according to the source. However, he assured that the IMF reiterated the government’s “correct” basic plan approach because it allows the “quick” release of the majority of Lebanese deposits and secures a fresh start for Lebanon. "The IMF did not change its position, a stance coherent with the international community and France's on Lebanon," he concluded, noting that Lebanon expects the visit of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Wednesday.

French Diplomat Says Macron to Unveil Plan to Help Lebanon
Naharnet/July 22/2020
French President Emmanuel Macron will unveil a "comprehensive plan" to assist Lebanon, a French diplomatic source said on Wednesday. The plan “might include the opening of lines of credit,” the source told Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath TV. “We are discussing the issue of Lebanon with the Americans and our Gulf partners,” the source added, noting that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will carry to Lebanon this week “a message of solidarity with its people and a message of firmness towards its authorities.”“Six months since its formation, Lebanon’s government has not carried any fundamental reform,” the source lamented, noting that “Lebanon is not a lost cause and abandoning it means opening its arena to others.”Noting that the Lebanese crisis is of importance to “everyone in the region and beyond the region,” the source said Paris supports Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s call for neutrality. “Neutrality is not only the patriarch’s stance and France appreciates his stance,” the source went on to say.

Israeli Soldier Killed amid Tensions on Border with Lebanon
Naharnet/July 22/2020
An Israeli soldier was killed and an officer was wounded Wednesday when their military vehicle flipped over in the occupied Shebaa Farms, the Israeli army said. Earlier in the day, two shells landed in the occupied Farms after being fired during an Israeli drill in the Golan Heights, sparking fires in the area and prompting Israel to scramble firefighting vehicles. An Israeli tank also fired 14 shells near Bustra in the occupied Farms. Israel has reportedly beefed up its measures on the border with Lebanon after a Hizbullah fighter was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had vowed that the group would retaliate from Lebanon whenever Israel kills Hizbullah members in Syria.

Diab Meets Shea, Says Govt. is Most Technocrat in Lebanon History
Naharnet/July 22/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab met Wednesday at the Grand Serail with U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea. The National News Agency said the talks tackled “the government’s efforts to address the economic and social crisis and the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.”The premier also met Wednesday with a delegation of retired Lebanese ambassadors. “The current government is the closest to technocrat government standards in Lebanon’s history,” Diab told the delegation.“We are working night and day to resolve the crises, and despite this, the government is facing political attacks at a time we should all be one hand to confront the challenges, at least in the social, economic and financial issues,” the PM went on to say.

Al-Rahi Says to Call for 'Inclusive Dialogue Meeting'
Naharnet/July 22/2020
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Wednesday revealed that he intends to call for “an inclusive dialogue meeting that doesn’t exclude anyone” regarding his call for Lebanon’s neutrality. “Neutrality is at the heart of the Lebanese composition and history,” the patriarch said during a meeting with MP Antoine Habshi of the Lebanese Forces and a delegation from Deir al-Ahmar and other Baalbek-Hermel villages and towns. Al-Rahi has repeatedly called for Lebanon’s neutrality in recent weeks, noting that such a move requires Lebanese consensus and a U.N. resolution. Al-Rahi has repeatedly called for Lebanon’s neutrality in recent weeks, noting that such a move requires Lebanese consensus and a U.N. resolution. The patriarch’s call has been fiercely criticized by Higher Islamic Shiite Council chief Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan and his son, Shiite mufti Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan.

Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali al-Amine Meets Rahi: Neutrality Renders Lebanon Independent
Naharnet/July 22/2020
Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali al-Amine stressed after talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi on Wednesday, that neutrality makes Lebanon an independent and sovereign state capable of imposing its authority on all Lebanon’s territory, and rejected the logic of “seeking power in majority.”“Neutrality makes Lebanon an independent state, and it also means a state capable of imposing its authority on all its territory,” al-Amine told reporters after meeting Rahi in Dimane, the patriarch’s summer residence.
He said talks with Rahi focused on the latter’s calls to neutralize Lebanon which drew different reactions, some openly supporting the call including al-Mustaqbal Movement and Lebanese Forces and others not so enthusiastic about it including Hizbullah, AMAL Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement.
“Talks focused on Rahi’s stance and his calls to neutralize Lebanon, which only makes Lebanon an independent state and a nation distant from outside conflicts. What is meant by neutrality is that state which imposes its sovereignty and authority over all its lands and is a reference for all groups, forces and parties,” al-Amin told reporters.The anti-Hizbullah cleric, al-Amine, said “seeking power in the majority is rejected, what we seek is the authority of the state with an independent personality outside partisan and sectarian hegemony.”

AMAL Bloc: Any Attempt to Revise 1701 is Tampering with Region's Security
Naharnet/July 22/2020
The AMAL Movement-led Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc warned Wednesday that any attempt to revise U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 -- which ended the 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel -- would represent "tampering with the region's security" and "a blatant attempt to plunge it into the unknown." In a statement issued after a meeting chaired by Speaker Nabih Berri, the bloc also condemned statements reflecting "intentions to adjust the missions of UNIFIL forces and question their effectiveness.""In this regard, the bloc lauds the efforts that UNIFIL forces are exerting in cooperation with the Lebanese Army and residents for the implementations of all stipulations of U.N. Resolution 1701," the bloc added. "Only Israel is the side that is breaching this resolution through its daily violation of Lebanon's territorial, maritime and aerial sovereignty and through its continued occupation of the northern part of the Ghajar village and the violation of Lebanon's airspace to target Syria's sovereignty as happened Monday night," Development and Liberation added.

Lebanon Busts 40 Tons of Rotten Chicken
Naharnet/July 22/2020
Lebanon’s Customs Department and Minister of Health Hamad Hassan on Tuesday confiscated around 40 tons of expired chicken in warehouses in the Metn town of Zikrit. Members of the Customs department accompanied by Hassan carried out raids on three warehouses in Zikrit which supplied different supermarkets and grocery stores with rotten chicken not fit for human consumption. The packs of expired chicken were confiscated in huge amounts with expiry dating back to 2016 and some 2017. The rotten chicken were found in distribution centers in warehouses belonging to Freiha Food Company. The brands are Shuman Farms for poultry, Carry, and Lipoul products. The three companies are a major distributor of chicken to the Lebanese market. In light of a soaring economic crisis sending prices of meat soaring, Lebanese have resorted to chicken as a cheaper alternative.
The rotten chicken was grinded and mixed with other materials and distributed to supermarkets and grocery stores in the form of nuggets, scallops and burger pieces, reports said. Police arrested several individuals involved and opened an investigation into the case.

Renewed Gasoline Shortage Crisis in Lebanon
Naharnet/July 22/2020
Motorists queued at fuel stations across the country on Wednesday amid a renewed gasoline and diesel shortage crisis linked to the scarcity of U.S. dollars in the country. TV networks said some gas stations were operating normally as others either closed or were rationing the sold quantities.
The companies that import fuel have blamed the crisis on difficulties they are facing in opening letters of credit at commercial banks as per the exchange rate subsidization mechanism set by the central bank for the import of fuel, wheat and medicine.
"Most major banks are no longer accepting to open letters of credit as easily as before due to liquidity problems," LBCI TV quoted the firms as saying. "The companies said that two shipments will arrive this week to cobtribute to a partial solution to the problem," the TV network added. A spokesman for fuel distribution companies said there are contacts aimed at "relieving citizens," noting that 50% to 60% of fuel stations have closed due to the shortage crisis.

Lebanon: Citizens’ Negligence Met With Tightened Measures
Beirut- Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 22 July, 2020
The Lebanese Minister of Health Hamad Hasan announced a series of new measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus, following a surge in the infections over the past few days. In a televised interview on Monday, Hasan said that nightclubs would be closed again, while public and private gatherings of more than 20 people would be forbidden. The minister also noted that a comprehensive sanitary plan was set for schools and universities, to be approved and implemented ahead of the start of the coming academic year. Meanwhile, MP Fadi Alameh criticized the “recklessness” of authorities in charge of following-up the test results of people arriving in Lebanon. The deputy pointed to “shocking information that the relevant committee neglected to inform some of those arriving from Africa about the results of their positive tests”, adding that those only knew about their infection when “one of the passengers on the plane called to inquire about the results three days after his arrival.”The region of Hermel registered a COVID-19 infection on Tuesday. The infected person was taken to Rafik Hariri Hospital, while those who had contact with him were transferred to Al-Batoul Hospital in Hermel awaiting the results of the PCR tests. The patient knew about his infection but breached the quarantine measures and mixed with a group of neighbors and relatives. Consequently, the coronavirus crisis cell in Hermel decided to close all institutions, shops, and schools within a three-day period and implement a full lockdown in Al-Marj neighborhood, where the patient resided. It has also mandated the municipal police and security forces to strictly implement the decision.

Hezbollah Acknowledges Killing of Fighter in Israeli Strike near Damascus
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 22 July, 2020
A Hezbollah fighter was killed in an Israeli attack in Syria, the Iranian-backed Lebanese party’s first declared casualty there since its leader warned last year that further killings of its members in Syria would face retaliation. Ali Kamel Mohsen, from south Lebanon, was killed by an Israeli air strike near Damascus airport, according to a death notice declaring him a “martyr” with the “Resistance”, a reference to Hezbollah, and which was confirmed by the party. It was an apparent reference to a strike on Monday night that Western intelligence sources said hit a major Iranian-backed ammunition depot on the edge of the Syrian capital. Syrian state media said air defenses had intercepted a new Israeli “aggression” above the capital Damascus. Hezbollah has deployed fighters in Syria as part of Iranian-backed efforts to support president Bashar Assad in a conflict that spiraled out of protests against his rule in 2011.
Following the killing of two Hezbollah members in Damascus last August, Hassan Nasrallah, the party’s leader, vowed it would respond if Israel killed any more of its fighters in the country.

Hezbollah threatens Israel after member of terror group killed in Syria

Jerusalem Post/July 22/2020
One account showed Hezbollah driving a car toward the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, a common style iconography, suggesting the liberation of Jerusalem from Israel. Hezbollah-linked social media accounts are mourning a member killed in Syria. Hundreds of accounts shared on Tuesday night images of the dead “martyr” and also vowed revenge against Israel. One account showed Hezbollah driving a car toward the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, a common style of iconography – suggesting the liberation of Jerusalem from Israel – among pro-Iran and Hezbollah accounts. Many accounts quoted various religious texts to mourn the death of a man whose name was given as Ali Kamel Mohsin. Al-Mayadeen media, which is pro-Hezbollah, said Israel is in fear of reprisal. Statements attributed to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah also suggested Israelis keep an eye open in case of an attack. Hezbollah monitored Israeli media for responses, suggesting Israel is concerned. “There is fear and alertness in Israel,” Al-Mayadeen noted. Social media accounts put up hashtags indicating it was a “sincere promise” to retaliate. Images of Mohsin showed him in fatigues with a rifle. He was allegedly killed during airstrikes in or near Damascus in the early morning hours of Tuesday. “If the blood of the martyrs awakens us wherever we fall asleep, hope ignites us that the possibility of responding is an opportunity to come,” one social media user noted.
The Hezbollah fighter is one of several who have been killed in Syria in the last year. Last fall, Israel carried out an airstrike against a “killer drone” team and killed two Hezbollah members. Other Hezbollah members have been killed fighting on behalf of the Syrian regime.
A Hezbollah member named Jad Yasin Sufan was buried on July 10 in Syria near the Sayyida Zaynab shrine. There was an airstrike on a vehicle in Syria on April 15 near the Lebanese border which Hezbollah blamed on Israel. Hezbollah cut five holes in the fence along the Israel-Lebanon border in retaliation. In addition, a Hezbollah member was killed in February in Syria near the Golan Heights. Another Hezbollah operative named Mashhour Zidan was killed near the Golan in July 2019.

وجه منسق جمعية "النورج" الدكتور فؤاد ابو ناضر كتاباً مفتوحاً الى وزير خارجية فرنسا لي دريان عشية زيارته الى لبنان حمل توقيع العشرات من ممثلي المجالس البلدية في مختلف انحاء لبنان للمساعدة على إطلاق "مشروع لودريان" لمساعدة القرى والبلدات مباشرة....
Open Letter to Mr. Le Drian: Help us set up a "Marshall Plan" that directly benefits Lebanese villages
Municipalities, villages, and citizens have developed many local initiatives and projects capable of re-booting the economy, developing the national output, and slowing down the rural exodus and emigration.
Fouad Abou Nader Source: Annahar/July 23/2020
Mr. Minister,
The Central Government of Lebanon is paralyzed by sectarian, partisan, and foreign loyalties and by conflicts of interests with the business class, the financiers, and the bankers. Hence, the much-needed reforms that you desire -as well as we do- regarding the “public transparency, the regulatory authority for the electricity, the fight against graft and corruption, the restructuring of the financial and banking systems” are obstructed. “Nothing moves” as you said. This perdures for over 30 years.
he Lebanese aspire to erect a Nation-State. This would repose on freedom, a citizenry (with a unified civil code for the civil personal status), law and equality, meritocracy, security (with the State having the monopoly of bearing arms over its national territory whilst securing its borders), dignity and, constructive and permanent neutrality, recognized and guaranteed internationally, as well as, an advanced form of decentralization (regionalism). To fight graft and corruption and recuperate the stolen public funds, we hope that a forensic audit, noted in the government’s program, will be implemented and extended over all ministries, governmental agencies, administrations, the Central Bank and all commercial banks. To reach full transparency, it is imperative that we reach a governance level of 2.0, meaning e-government and an e-administration.
However this true « Revolution » cannot be induced except the bottom-up, i.e., at the local level: municipalities, villages, and citizens especially, women and youth. Those are ready to “move” (to use your words) immediately, without waiting for the Central Government to act. You have called the Lebanese to seize the “initiatives that are indispensable for their rebound”. Here we offer one such initiative. This initiative is led by municipalities, villages, and citizens who respectfully ask you to put together a “Marshall Plan” or rather a “Drian Plan” that is directly in their favor, whilst bypassing the Central Government.
To palliate the shortcomings of the Central Government, we can act at the local level because we are directly concerned and because we will implement all necessary decisions.
Municipalities, villages, and citizens have developed many local initiatives and projects capable of re-booting the economy, developing the national output, and slowing down the rural exodus and emigration.
In fact, we can create employment opportunities thanks to projects relating to agriculture, the fisheries industry, manufacturing, power generation, water, eco-tourism, religious tourism, local permanent education (including training in new techniques, languages, artisanal works, arts such as music and certain vocational jobs such as nursing), innovative technologies (including digital and numerical ones), the environment (including the collection and treatment of waste), sustainable growth, health insurance, and health care services.
In this Centennial anniversary of the declaration of Great Lebanon, after 401 years of Ottoman chokehold, help us, help our municipalities, our villages, and our citizens in a direct way rather than through the Central Government. This initiative is not only economic and social but cultural as well: the “Francophonie” shall be at the heart of this “Plan”. Nothing is more vivid than this old and deep-rooted institution, which for so long, has permitted us to exchange, in the same language, our views and ideas about freedom, which has been at the very foundation of our countries and, that we can sustain and promote by pairing various French towns with our villages.
We remain at your disposal to discuss this initiative or any other that can achieve our “rebound.”
Respectfully yours,
Fouad Abou Nader, President of the “Nawraj” foundation, and mayors Menhem Mehanna (Rass Baalbeck- Bekaa); Bashir Matar (Qaa- Bekaa); Milad Kehdi (Koussaya-Bekaa); Dr. Jean Maacaron (Rayak- Bekaa); Abdo Makhoul (Qobeyat –Akkar); Dr. Elie Abou Nakkoul (Kawkaba, Hasbaya); Pierre Attallah, (Rashaya Al Foukhar- Hasbaya); Elie Loukas (Debel-South); Jean Ghafari (Alma Al Chaab-South); Imad Lallous (Ain Ebel-South); Elie Mushantaf (Abra- Zahrani); Nader Makhoul (Ain Al Mir- Jezzine); Habib Fares Bkassine- Jezzine); Joeseph Azouri (Azour- Jezzine); Fadi Romanos (Lebaa-Jezzine); Chehade Maalouf (Kfar Okab- Matn); Jean Maalouf (Kfartai-Matn); Elias Noujaim (Kfartai-Kesrouan); Samih El Khazen (Bekaatet Kanaan-Kessrouan); Roukoz Al Rahi (Ghabat- Jbeil); Bachir Afram (Mazareeb-Jbeil); Georges Alam (Baskinta-Matn); and Ernest Eid (Mtolleh- Chouf) along with "Moukhtars" Georges Karam (Zabbougha-Matn); Pierre el Haybe (Machraa-Matn); Rachid Hajj (Ain el Kabou-Matn); Antoine Nakad (Wadi el Karem-Matn); Adel Atieh (Bkassine-Jbeil); Bachir Abdeljalil (Saïfi-Beyrouth); Mounir Hobeika (Baskinta-Matn); Georges Karam (Baskinta-Matn); Elias Khoury Hanna (Baskinta-Matn); Adel Abou Haidar (Baskinta-Matn) and Nabil Ghosn (Khraybe- Akkar).
 

A Tale Of Two Patriarchs
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/July 22/2020
A hundred years ago, a visionary Maronite Catholic Patriarch presided over the fateful birth of what would become the Republic of Lebanon. A century later, another Maronite Patriarch speaks out, against all odds, to salvage what remains under very different, even more dire, circumstances.
Many are aware of the role that the Venerable Elias Butros Hoyek (1843-1931), the 72nd Maronite Patriarch, played in securing an independent Greater Lebanon, under a French Mandate, at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919-1920 after the First World War. But the likelihood of Lebanon's emergence as an independent nation was not at all clear in the turbulent decades preceding this decision. The Maronites and all Lebanese were as divided then as they are now. Maronite clergy faced off against liberal modernizers, masonic innovators from America, and a rising bourgeois class squared off against traditional landed elites. While the Maronite church traditionally looked west, to France and to the Vatican, Hoyek also felt the need to hedge his bets, in 1905 visiting and praising the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in Istanbul. Some in Beirut and the diaspora worked fervently towards a Maronite-dominated Lebanese state, while others looked to a greater Syria. The situation balanced on the edge of a knife. In October 1918, as the Ottomans collapsed, French troops prevented the British-supported Hashemites from claiming Lebanon as part of a new Arab state of Syria.
It was the arriving Western allies in 1918 that succored Lebanese reeling from three years of Ottoman-induced famine in Mount Lebanon. In an eerie echo of today's Lebanese crisis, the famine was a combination of ruling (Ottoman) state action, corruption and incompetence, natural disaster and political repression, and Western moves against their enemies in the form of an allied naval blockade. Lebanon's survival as a people and its eventual emergence as a state in 1920 was not a sure thing, but even in his late 70s, Hoyek was a forceful and capable figure.
A century later and Lebanon is in freefall. There is no famine like a century before but there is real hunger. In a matter of a few months, Lebanese currency has lost 80% of its value, as salaries and savings become worthless. Most of Lebanon's much-vaunted middle class is now poor. Unemployment has risen from 15% to over 60% in less than a year. One prediction is that three-quarters of the population will be dependent on food aid by the end of the year. Food, medicine, and electricity are in short supply. As the crisis deepens, the Lebanese government seems strangely slothful in taking action to address a crisis that many saw coming a year ago. For those in power, priority goes to staying there and, if anything, consolidating that hold on power.[1]
Lebanese media was galvanized last week by the remarks of the current Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bishara Butros Al-Rai (b. 1940), seen as criticizing the status quo created by Hizbullah, which controls Lebanon's government and which is closely allied to Lebanon's Maronite President Michel Aoun. In a homily on July 7 and a Vatican radio interview on July 15, Al-Rai called for a "sovereign" Lebanon to adopt a position of "neutrality" in the region, which is seen as a break with the Hizbullah narrative of Lebanon being part of a "resistance axis" led by Iran against Israel and the U.S.[2] He noted that Lebanon has paid a heavy price for Hizbullah's military adventures in the region, alienating potential donors.[3]
Al-Rai's remarks provoked a critical response from Lebanon's Shia Mufti Ahmed Kabalan and mild dismissals from the Lebanese prime minister and president, who both sought to paper over the incident. Social media voices were, naturally, more extreme in their criticism.
Not surprisingly, Lebanese religious leaders are often controversial figures, and this is more so for Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch, who is both a religious leader and, by nature of Lebanon's unique demographics and sectarian system, a highly political one. Al-Rai's predecessor Nasrallah Sfeir was generally seen as an often lonely opponent of the Assad regime in Syria and of Hizbullah.[4] Aoun's zealous Maronite supporters even organized demonstrations against him. Al-Rai has been much more circumspect since he assumed his position in 2011. He praised the Assad regime in 2011 and 2012 as violent repression led to open revolt in that neighboring country, a fact that Syrian dissidents have not forgotten. To the dismay of some Lebanese, Al-Rai at that time also endorsed Hizbullah having its own weapons independent of the Lebanese state.
Al-Rai is not the first Lebanese Christian religious leader to criticize Hizbullah's stranglehold on the country (the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Beirut, Elias Audeh, has famously done so recently in much starker terms).[5] He is, in fact, rather late in doing so. And, ostensibly, the criticism was still relatively mild and delivered with all sorts of the usual diplomatic caveats.[6] Both those who hailed the Patriarch's remarks and those who condemned them saw them as significant given his mildness – some would say weakness – over the past decade.[7]
But, as welcome as these sentiments are for those who care about Lebanon, the remarks seem to be only a very small part of the words and deeds that will be required in the critical months ahead. The time for nuance is past. The unchecked Lebanese economic crisis is discrediting many institutions and shaking trust in almost all authority in this country.
The crisis threatens all confessional groups but is devastating basic institutions forming the pillars of Lebanon's historic Christian community, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, and including the country's parochial schools.[8] Both the French and American governments have offered some emergency funding for education, but it will not be enough. As the worst effects of the country's poverty are felt in 2020, the desire of many Lebanese, including formerly middle class and now poor Christians, to leave the country will only intensify. In 2019 already the percentage of Lebanese emigrating rose by 42% and research showed that 60% of Lebanese Christians are now interested in emigrating.[9] Lebanon's Christian population, which is already down to a third of the country's population as of 2018, may be on the verge of cratering.
Existential crises like the one raging in Lebanon can reveal the best and the worst in people. The majority of the political elite has been unmasked as corrupt charlatans repeatedly used by Hizbullah to implement its rule. The many heroic Muslim and Christian Lebanese in the streets since October 2019 are one slender but very real cause for hope.
On the national level, Lebanon is filled with leaders and yet lacking in real leadership that can build up rather than destroy. Al-Rai may well fall short of the challenge. His political track record is not very encouraging. He may not be another Sfeir, and it is even more unlikely that he will now morph into another Hoyek, whom historian Franck Salameh has called "a towering figure" and a "bulldozer."[10] Unfortunately, the odds are much worse for Lebanon in 2020 than they were in 1920. The 80-year-old Al-Rai will either preside impotently over Lebanon's fast approaching demise, becoming a pastor whose sheep are all in Australia or France, or he will, improbably, summon the will to mobilize, to bulldoze. And may he be joined in this urgent task by any other Lebanese Christian and Muslim who wants to see their country survive.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
[1] Middleeasteye.net/news/coronavirus-lebanon-health-hezbollah-maligned-political-elite-influence, March 31, 2020.
[2] Asianews.it/news-en/Maronite-Patriarch-wants-Lebanon-to-be-open-and-neutral,-without-divisions-and-violence-50525.html, July 7, 2020.
[3] Thenational.ae/world/mena/lebanese-prime-minister-hassan-diab-insists-he-will-not-resign-1.1051322, May 15, 2019.
[4] Thenational.ae/opinion/comment/the-legacy-of-nasrallah-boutros-sfeir-who-had-higher-expectations-of-lebanon-than-
its-own-leaders-1.861826, July 19, 2020
[5] https://alqabas.com/en/article/5732779-bishop-odeh-lebanon-is-ruled-by-a-person-and-a-group-sheltering-in-arms, December 8, 2019.
[6] Vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2020-07/cardinal-rai-lebanon-crisis-political-economic-financial-togethe.html, July 15, 2020
[7] https://www.nidaalwatan.com, July 21, 2020.
[8] Alarab.co.uk, July 31, 2020.
[9] Almarkazia.com, June 20, 2020.
[10] Twitter.com/oldlevantine/status/1285703893402431488, July 21, 2020.
 

Will is Not Enough to Expel US from the Region
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 22/2020
It was not an Iranian or Chinese newspaper that broke the news about the Chinese-Iranian agreement. On July 11, the New York Times told us that Beijing and Tehran had reached a massive economic and defense cooperation agreement. Other Western news outlets provided further information:
The 25 year 400-billion-dollar agreement stipulates that China will buy Iranian oil at reduced prices (a discount of more than 30 percent) and build infrastructure projects in Iran. The two sides also agreed to hold joint military exercises, cooperate on developing weapons and exchange intelligence.
Iran, blockaded by the US, having lost hope in Europe as an alternative, sees China as the only economic and political power able to break the blockade. The recent and ongoing bombing of its facilities, which some have attributed to the Israelis, has put Tehran in an increasingly embarrassing position and made finding strong allies far more pressing. China, in turn, is taking advantage of Iran’s size and position, as a regional power at the intersection of the Middle East and Central Asia, to promote the “Belt and Road Initiative” and expand its economic and strategic presence and influence, taking advantage of its American rival’s contraction.
The humble beginnings were in 2016, with Xi Jinping’s visit to Tehran. In 2018, when the US withdrew from the nuclear deal and the sanctions began to rain down on it, Iran became certain that reaching an agreement with China was inevitable.
But the agreement does not dispel major questions: in all likelihood, China will not go very far in its defiance of the US, as the last thing it wants is for the complicated trade negotiations between them to come to a halt, to move from a controlled trade war to an open-ended one. Indeed, over the past two years, the Chinese have withdrawn from a few projects in Iran, and, last September, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied the existence of such an agreement. Besides, the volume of bilateral trade has declined over the past few years due to US pressure, though China nevertheless remains a major trading partner for Iran. In the end, the ability of China’s commercial and banking sectors to move the relationship with Iran further, in light of the threat of US sanctions, remains in doubt.
The reality is, and this may be fatal to the agreement, that the two parties’ relationship with one another is affected by each of the two parties’ relationship with Washington. Both treat the other as a replacement to something that had been lost and the US is what both had lost. The upcoming presidential elections in the United States prevent both from losing hope, and these hopes demonstrate a major fact: China's growing weight in the international economy is not enough to sustainably alter the international balance of power.
It is noteworthy, for example, that the Tehran’s move towards Beijing seemed to slow down after having received the Chinese leader, because it had just struck the nuclear agreement (2015), and it was keen to avoid irritating the Americans. Progress on this front did not accelerate until after America’s withdrawal from the deal.
There is also an ideological dimension: Maoism may have just become nominal in China, but this is not true for Khomeinism in Iran. The document obtained by the ''Times'' begins by defining the two countries as "two ancient Asian cultures" and frames Iran as a minor Asian power rather than the major Islamic power envisaged by Khomeini's slogan "neither East nor West." True, Khamenei described the agreement as "wise," while it is said that Rouhani and his "teacher" the late Rafsanjani are pragmatists who admire the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. But the Khomeinist establishment’s position is not unanimous: Ahmadinejad, who may run for president in 2021, lambasted the agreement that has not yet been officially announced or presented to parliament, decrying the "secret negotiations" with China.
Jawad Zarif, returning from a visit to Beijing, faced sharp questioning in parliament. Ali Mutahari, a deputy, tweeted that before signing an agreement with China, his country ought to raise the issue of Muslims’ persecution in that country. Others have emphasized that Iran is negotiating with China from a position of weakness because of the economy and the coronavirus and that the agreement has provided the Chinese free access to their natural resources for a long period.
Other reports have mentioned popular trepidation about China and the impression that Iran’s relationship with it is the reason for the high coronavirus infection rate in Iran. Other critics have said that China benefited from sanctions on the country, flooding its market with sub-par products. Others have cited Chinese projects in Africa and Asia that exacerbated the impoverishment of those countries and heightened their dependence on Beijing. Iranian officials were forced to deny the reports that oil would be sold to China at reduced prices, or that the touristic island of Kish (91,5 km2) in Hormuz would be handed to China. Other officials denied that the agreement stipulated the deployment of Chinese military forces in Iran.
Western critics, for their part, compared that agreement to the Turkmenchay Treaty of 1828 between Persia and Tsarist Russia, which forced the Persians to cede land in the South Caucasus. Egypt's relationship with the Soviet Union is also analogous: Nasser brought the Russians to the region, in the mid-1950s, after he had been rebuked by the Americans. After the 1967 defeat, he brought in Russian advisers, but his successor Anwar Sadat expelled them soon after, in 1972.
At that time, and today, it seems that getting America out of the region is more complicated than the will of some enthusiasts.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 22-23/2020

Al-Azhar Sheikhs: Turning Hagia Sophia Back Into A Mosque Is Forbidden By Islam
MEMRI/July 22/2020
In a July 10, 2020 decree, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reversed the 1934 law that converted the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum, thereby turning it back into a mosque. He also placed the historic structure, which had been under the authority of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, under the authority of the country's Ministry of Religious Affairs.[1]
While Erdoğan's move was praised by Muslim Brotherhood (MB) clerics, senior officials at Egypt's Al-Azhar, the most important religious institution in the country and the leading institution in the Sunni Islamic world, were vehemently opposed. They argued that turning a church into a mosque was forbidden and that the building should remain either a museum or a church. One of the sheikhs even stated that the move reflected the MB's enmity to human civilization.
The statements by the Al-Azhar officials against Turkey's changing Hagia Sophia back into a mosque reflect the unprecedented tension between Egypt and Turkey, that began in July 2013 following the ousting of Mohamed Morsi from the Egyptian presidency by Egyptian president Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi, who was defense minister at the time. Erdoğan, who was at that time Turkey's prime minister, still does not recognize the legitimacy of Al-Sisi's rule and, along with Qatar, provides patronage to Al-Sisi's opponents in the MB. The Egypt-Turkey tension has spiked recently following Turkey's increasing military involvement in support of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya, headed by Fayez Al-Sarraj. This is perceived by Egypt as an attempt by Erdoğan to establish Turkey as a regional power while threatening to destabilize Egypt. Al-Sarraj's forces, backed by Turkish military forces, have recently advanced to the oil-rich region of eastern Libya, near the Egyptian border, and this could lead to Egypt-Turkey military conflict on Libyan soil.
This report will present statements by Al-Azhar clerics opposing Turkey's turning Hagia Sophia back into a mosque:
Former Al-Azhar Deputy Sheikh 'Abbas Shuman: It Is Forbidden To Turn A Church Into A Mosque; The Houses Of Worship Of All Religions Must Be Respected
'Abbas Shuman, former deputy to the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, told the Russian Sputnik news agency in Arabic on June 10, 2020: "Islam respects the houses of worship of the various religions, and it is forbidden to turn a church into a mosque, just as it is forbidden to turn a mosque into a church. This [turning a church into a mosque] is a principle that Al-Azhar's ideology does not accept, [for] all places of worship, of all religions, must be respected... Whatever belongs to Islam is Muslim, whatever belongs to Christianity is Christian, and whatever belongs to Judaism is Jewish. This move [of turning a church into a mosque] is provocative, and contravenes the directives of Islam as we know them and which were followed by our righteous fathers of old. It is a known fact that they cared for the holy places of other [religions], protected them and did not damage them...
"Whatever its goal, this move [of turning Hagia Sophia back into a mosque] is unacceptable, whether it was meant to achieve political gains or was motivated by good intentions. It is fundamentally mistaken, and neither political aims nor good intentions justify making a mistake that is unacceptable in essence. It is not possible to revoke, add or make [new] laws in Islam that do not exist [in the shari'a]. Inventing goals in an artificial manner and claiming that they benefit Islam is a distortion of Islam's tolerant directives... Islam never turned churches into mosques by force. On the contrary, it was Muslims and their mosques that were attacked, and those responsible for this were in the wrong. The principle of turning a church into a mosque is unacceptable, just like the opposite action of turning a mosque into a church. There may be exceptions, for instance if the residents of a Christian town have converted to Islam and turned their church into a mosque in order to pray in it, which harms nobody, or if a [formerly] Muslim town no longer has any Muslim residents and all the people there are followers of a different religion, the mosques there may be turned into places of worship for that religion."[2]
Al-Azhar University Professor Saad El-Din Helaly: Hagia Sophia Should Remain A Museum; It Is The Nature Of The Muslim Brotherhood And Political Islam To Take Others' Possessions
Saad El-Din Helaly, a professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, said in a July 13, 2020 interview on the Saudi-Egyptian MBC Misr TV that by renewing Friday prayers in Hagia Sophia, the Turkish "Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated government" was escalating its hostility "against human civilization." Adding that Hagia Sophia should remain a museum and that it is the nature of the Muslim Brotherhood and of political Islam to take things from other people and religions, he called upon Muslims in Turkey to boycott the July 24 Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia. He stated further that in 1945, the world had agreed to "let bygones be bygones" and to solve conflicts peacefully, and accused Erdoğan of wanting to turn the clock back to before 1945.
Al-Azhar University Professor Ahmad Karima: Hagia Sophia, Like The Sphinx And The Pyramids, Belongs To The Heritage Of Humanity; It Should Remain A Church
Ahmad Karima, a professor of Islamic law at Al-Azhar University, said in a July 13, 2020 interview on Egypt's Channel 1 that Hagia Sophia is part of the heritage of humanity and should remain a church. He said that Al-Azhar scholars had had the same reasoning for condemning the Taliban's destruction of the ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan. When the companions of the Prophet Muhammad came to Egypt, he added, they saw ancient Egyptian monuments such as the Sphinx and the pyramids, yet did not destroy them or turn them into mosques because they belonged to the heritage of all humanity – thus if Hagia Sophia was once a Christian church, it should remain one now.
[1] Resmigazete.gov.tr, July 10, 2020.
[2] Arabic.sputniknews.com, July 10, 2020.

Iran will strike a reciprocal blow against America for killing of top commander Soleimani - Iran supreme leader
Reuters/July 23/2020
Iran will strike a reciprocal blow against America for the killing of top Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday in a meeting with Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, according to Khamenei’s official website.
On Jan. 3, a U.S. drone strike in Iraq killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. Washington had accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.

US presence cause of insecurity: Khamenei tells visiting Iraq PM
Amir Havasi/,AFP/July 23/ 2020
Iran's supreme leader told Iraq's visiting premier on Tuesday that Tehran will not interfere in Baghdad's relations with Washington, but warned that the US presence next door to the Islamic republic was a cause of insecurity. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi of Iraq met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Iranian capital during his first trip abroad since taking office. "Iran will not interfere in Iraq's relations with America but expects Iraqi friends to know America and realise that their presence in any country causes corruption, ruin and destruction," the Iranian leader said, according to his official website. "The Islamic republic expects... (the Iraqi) parliament's decision to expel the Americans to be adhered to since their presence is a cause of insecurity." Khamenei pointed to the US killing of Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani in a January drone strike in Baghdad, after which parliament voted to expel US troops. "They killed your guest in your house and blatantly confessed to it." Iran "will never forget this and will certainly deal a reciprocal blow to the Americans", Khamenei said. Iran retaliated for Soleimani's death days after by firing a volley of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq, but US President Donald Trump opted against responding militarily. While the attack on the western Iraqi base of Ain al-Asad left no US soldiers dead, dozens suffered brain trauma. According to Khamenei, Iran was opposed to "whatever may weaken the Iraqi government" in contrast to the US, which he said did not want "an independent, strong Iraqi government elected by popular vote".
- Tug-of-war -
Kadhemi had been scheduled to visit Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia as his first trip abroad, then quickly follow it up with a trip to Tehran, in a carefully calibrated balancing act. The Saudi leg was postponed after King Salman was hospitalised on Monday. Baghdad has often found itself caught in the tug-of-war between Riyadh, Tehran and Washington, which Kadhemi is also set to visit within weeks. Kadhemi rose to the premiership in May after serving as head of Iraq's National Intelligence Service for nearly four years. He formed close ties to Tehran, Washington and Riyadh during that time, prompting speculation he could serve as a rare mediator between the capitals. His trip to Tehran comes after he received Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif in Baghdad on Sunday. Relations between the two countries were not always close -- they fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988. Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran is now said to have significant leverage over many of Iraq's Shiite political groups.
- $20 billion trade goal -
Iraq's delegation includes the ministers of foreign affairs, finance, health and planning, as well as Kadhemi's national security adviser, some of whom also met their Iranian counterparts. Kadhemi also held talks with President Hassan Rouhani to discuss closer trade ties, fighting the novel coronavirus and efforts to ensure regional stability, state television said. "The two governments' will is to expand bilateral trade ties to $20 billion," Rouhani said after their hour-long meeting. Iraq is one of Iran's main markets for non-oil exports but trade has dipped as the COVID-19 pandemic forced temporary border closures.
Rouhani said Iran was ready to "stand with Iraq for the stability and security of Iraq and the region". He hailed as "heroes" Soleimani and an Iraqi commander killed alongside him in the US drone strike near Baghdad airport. "I deem it necessary to honour the two heroes of the fight against terrorism, martyrs General Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis," he said. The Iranian president also pledged to help Baghdad fight coronavirus. Iran says COVID-19 has claimed more than 14,600 lives and infected 278,800 in the country, while has reported close to 4,000 virus deaths and 97,000 cases.

Iran’s maximum pressure on Iraq to remove US forces
Jerusalem Post/July 23/2020
The Ayatollah stressed that while Iran does not interfere in Iraq, it is the “corrupt” Americans who are interfering there and who only sow destruction in the region.
In a tag team pressure campaign aimed at Iraq, the Iranian leadership sent one after another of its heavies to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi during rounds of talks in Tehran this week. Kadhimi is a relatively new face in Baghdad, a former intelligence chief and activist who became prime minister this spring after Iraq failed twice to find another man to replace Adel Abdul Mahdi, who resigned last year due to protests.
Kadhimi is an energetic man who is compassionate towards activists and appears to want to do the best for Iraq. But he is stuck in the middle of rising Iran-US tensions, as well as the frequent attacks on US forces by Iranian-backed militias that are also part of his security forces.
These groups – like Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba and Badr – all seem to operate with their own clerics and power structure rather than listening to Baghdad’s decisions. When Kadhimi tried to have counter-terror forces detain members of Kataib Hezbollah, the men were quickly released and celebrated by burning the prime minister’s photo.
The Iraqi leader is now on a regional tour. He went to Iran on Tuesday to meet with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The ayatollah stressed that while Iran does not interfere in Iraq, it is the “corrupt” Americans who are interfering in Iraq and who only sow destruction in the region. Kadhimi listened and waited for the ayatollah to end his speech. He went on, accusing the US of spreading chaos and targeting Iraq. He said the US opposes the close political, religious and cultural contacts between Baghdad and Tehran.
Khamenei also said that the US committed atrocities in January when a US airstrike killed Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the head of Kataib Hezbollah, and IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani. “They killed your guest at your house and explicitly confessed to the crime,” the Iranian leader said. Soleimani, in this sense, was the “guest” in Iraq.
This appeared to be a bit more than a friendly conversation – almost a threat that Iraq had not protected Soleimani. Iran has vowed revenge against the US killing; Iraq could be where the revenge takes place. Iran has already fired missiles at US forces on Iraqi bases.
KADHIMI ALSO met with Ali Shamkhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council. Shamkhani visited Iraq earlier this year to pressure Iraq to expel US forces. There are thousands of American personnel in Iraq as part of the anti-ISIS coalition. In March when pro-Iranian groups fired rockets at US forces on a base, killing three, Washington retaliated with more airstrikes. The US generals at CENTCOM call this “contested deterrence,” a word that lacks clear meaning but apparently means that Iran is sort of deterred from carrying out more attacks, but not completely deterred.
Shamkhani’s meeting with Kadhimi was meant to be yet another piece of Iran’s maximum pressure to get US forces out of Iraq. He said the US was “evil” and that it was a “malicious, terrorist” element in Iraq that was leading to insecurity. Washington meanwhile says it wants to continue strategic dialogue with Baghdad, which kicked off earlier this year.
Shamkhani also condemned “counter-revolutionary” groups in the autonomous Kurdistan region and said they must be dealt with. This refers to dissident groups that oppose Iran’s regime. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif recently visited Iraq and the Kurdistan region, where he also pressured against the hosting of any dissidents. The Kurdistan Region is a powerful autonomous area but is also facing challenges from new Turkish airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has bases in the mountains. It is now being pressured by Iran as well.
The main message of the Shamkhani meeting was Iran-Iraq cooperation. Kadhimi thanked Iran for help during the ISIS war and said the two countries would remain brothers. Iran said it hoped Iraq would play a greater role in regional security, apparently meaning helping Iran work with Syria and perhaps be a conduit for Iran’s weapons trafficking to Syria. Iran sent ballistic missiles to Iraq in 2018 and 2019 and was trafficking precision-guided munitions via Iraq’s Al-Qaim border area with Syria.
Iraq has recently tried to replace some units on the border to make the border more secure. Regional security, for Iran, means regional Iranian hegemony. Iraq is Iran’s “near abroad” in this equation. The pressure on Kadhimi was intense during the recent visit – and Iran showed it means business in terms of pressuring the US to leave Iraq.

Mike Pompeo's fight for unalienable rights
Clifford D. May/July23/2020
A year ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked a group of scholars “to furnish advice on human rights grounded in our nation’s founding principles.” In normal times, this would be a dog-bites-man story — at most. But we don’t live in normal times.
So, Mr. Pompeo’s naming of a bipartisan Commission on Unalienable Rights, chaired by Harvard legal scholar Mary Ann Glendon, author of a book about Eleanor Roosevelt, provoked outrage, anger and intolerance.
An example that sticks in my mind: A staff writer for The New Yorker suggested that Mr. Pompeo should be disqualified from any discussions about human rights because he “was, for many years, a Sunday-school teacher and a church deacon.”
Last Thursday, Mr. Pompeo formally presented the commission’s report at the National Convention Center in Philadelphia. “It’s important for every American, and for every American diplomat, to recognize how our founders understood unalienable rights,” he said by way of introduction. Unalienable rights, he emphasized, must “underpin our foreign policy.”He then pronounced three sentences that, in normal times, would be regarded as anodyne: “As the Report emphasizes, foremost among these rights are property rights and religious liberty. No one can enjoy ‘the pursuit of happiness’ if you can’t own the fruits of your labor! And no society can retain its legitimacy — or a virtuous character — without religious freedom.”Within minutes, denouncements were flowing into my email inbox. The American Humanist Society called the 60-page report — which by then no one could have read — “Pompeo’s Christian nationalist agenda.” Democracy Forward declared the commission “unlawful.” Human Rights First accused Mr. Pompeo of attempting “to recast American foreign policy in the mold of his personal religious and political views.” The New York Times characterized Mr. Pompeo’s remarks as “divisive.” CNN reported that “the top US diplomat appeared to fan the flames of division.” Mother Jones condemned “Mike Pompeo’s Twisted View of Human Rights.” I saw no effort to actually examine and criticize the arguments made by Mr. Pompeo and his commissioners. Instead, the clear intention was to delegitimize them, to declare them subversive dissidents — violators of the orthodoxy dictated by the Human Rights Establishment.

Washington Insists on Political Process in Libya
Washington- Heba El Koudsy/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 22 July, 2020
US administration officials have expressed concern over the military escalation in Libya, stressing Washington’s efforts to push the political process forward in the war-torn country.The officials, who were not identified, said the administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing towards political and economic negotiations, and limiting military interventions and arms smuggling from several states.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said that during a phone call on Monday, Trump and his Egyptian counterpart Abdul Fatah Sisi “affirmed the need for immediate de-escalation in Libya, including through a ceasefire and progress on economic and political negotiations.”Deere added that also during Trump’s phone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, early this week, “the two leaders discussed important bilateral and regional issues.”
Trump’s telephone conversation with Sisi and Macron came five days after he discussed the Libyan war with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Political analysts said the US understands the negative repercussion of Libya’s war on the region. However, they said Washington does not seem ready to make any serious initiative to directly intervene in the crisis.
Mirette Mabrouk, a senior fellow and director of the Egypt program at the Middle East Institute, wrote Monday, “Despite rising tensions, exacerbated by chest-thumping nationalism on the ground in Libya and in both Egypt and Turkey, there are many reasons to hope that military escalation will be avoided.”
She said Egypt’s stated position has always been for a diplomatic resolution to Libya’s war and that Sisi’s talks with Libyan National Army leader Khalifa Haftar in Cairo yielded the Cairo Declaration, a diplomatic initiative that would start a ceasefire and political negotiations and ensure the LNA’s autonomy by nullifying the 2015 UN-brokered agreement that led to the creation of the Government of National Accord (GNA). “Turkey isn’t particularly heavily invested in terms of actual deployed troops and therefore it has less to lose. Egypt, while keen on protecting its border and interests, has no desire to bog itself down in a military quagmire,” Mabrouk wrote.
A study conducted by a team of Columbia University researchers has revealed Ankara’s deep ties with terror organizations. The study has said that Turkish soldiers have allowed ISIS terrorists to cross the Turkish-Syrian border with the permission of Ankara. “To limit Turkey’s aggression, America must put in place a “maximum pressure” campaign on its economy as we did to Iran. The more passes we give to Turkey, the more difficult it will be to constrain it in the future,” the researchers wrote.

US Urges Turkey to End Drilling Plans in E. Mediterranean
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 22 July, 2020
The United States has called on Turkey to halt its plans to conduct seismic research in Greece's territorial waters and avoid steps that escalate tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, a US Department of State spokesperson told Sputnik. "The United States is aware that Turkey has issued a NAVTEX for research in disputed waters in the Eastern Mediterranean," the spokesperson said on Tuesday. "We urge Turkish authorities to halt any plans for operations and to avoid steps that raise tensions in the region." Turkey and Greece are at odds over overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources, brought into sharper focus by attempts of EU member Cyprus to also explore for natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean amid strong Turkish objections. A navigational advisory known as a NAVTEX was issued by Turkey's navy on Tuesday for seismic survey work in an area apparently south of Turkey's Antalya and lying between Cyprus and Crete. The advisory is in effect until Aug. 20. Turkey says it is within its sovereign rights to explore for resources in areas it considers its continental shelf, or within self-proclaimed maritime boundaries.

Ankara Rejects Greek Accusation of Eastern Mediterranean Violation
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 22 July, 2020
Turkey on Wednesday rejected claims by Greece that its oil-and-gas research vessels were encroaching on Greek waters in the eastern Mediterranean and said it would continue to defend its legitimate rights and interests in the region. A Foreign Ministry statement, however, also renewed a call by Ankara for dialogue to resolve the dispute between the two NATO allies. Turkey announced plans Tuesday to dispatch search vessels into disputed waters in the Mediterranean, raising tensions between the neighbors and ignoring calls from European nations to avoid the action. Turkish authorities said the research vessel Oruc Reis and two support vessels would carry out operations through Aug. 2 in waters south of the Greek islands of Rhodes, Karpathos and Kastelorizo. State-run television in Greece said the country's armed forces had been placed on a state of readiness. NATO allies Greece and Turkey are at odds over drilling rights in the region, with the European Union and the United States increasingly critical of Ankara's plans to expand exploration and drilling operations in the coming weeks into areas Athens claims as its own.
Turkey has accused Greece of trying to exclude it from the benefits of oil and gas finds in the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, arguing that sea boundaries for commercial exploitation should be divided between the Greek and Turkish mainland and not include the Greek islands on an equal basis.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry denounced what it called a "maximalist continental shelf claim," insisting that they were "against international law, legal precedent and court decisions."The ministry statement added that the maritime area where Oruc Reis would conduct research was "within the limits of the continental shelf that our country has notified to the United Nations." It said an exploration license was given to the Turkish state-run oil company, TPAO, in 2012. Greece is pressing other EU member states to prepare "crippling sanctions″ against Turkey if it proceeds with the oil-and-gas exploration plans. Fraught relations with Turkey could improve if Ankara halts "provocations", Germany said Tuesday, referring to what the EU considers illegal Turkish oil drilling in the Mediterranean. "Regarding Turkey's drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, we have a very clear position –- international law must be respected, so progress in EU-Turkey relations is only possible if Ankara stops provocations in the eastern Mediterranean," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said during a visit to Athens. Turkish drilling off Cyprus must stop, he said. The EU is unhappy at what it says is Turkey's illegal drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Cyprus, as well as Ankara's actions in support of Libya’s Government of National Accord and accusations the Turkish government is eroding rights and democracy at home.

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, Trump Discuss Need for De-Escalation in Libya
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 22 July, 2020
US President Donald Trump and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan discussed regional security issues, during a phone call on Tuesday, the White House said. They also stressed the “importance of de-escalation in Libya.”
The telephone call was held as tensions mount in Libya over Turkey’s intervention to support the Government of National Accord, which has gained ground against a Libyan National Army offensive. The GNA forces have approached the cities of Sirte and al-Jufra, both designated as “red lines” by Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who said any advance on them poses a threat to his country’s national security.

Israel’s Opposition Leader Calls for Emergency Government without Netanyahu
Tel Aviv - Nazir Magally/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 22 July, 2020
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has proposed an initiative to form a national emergency government that excludes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his failure to tackle the coronavirus crisis and amid differences within the ruling Likud party and its ally, Blue and White party, coupled with the eruption of protests. The cabinet proposed by Lapid focuses on resolving the economic, health and social crises, and puts aside personal and political issues such as annexation plans. Lapid said that the government itself is impeding efforts to sound management of government. “The prime minister places impunity on corruption charges above all else, and his ministers are floundering in crisis management,” he said. “Instead of looking for solutions, they complicate matters more and more with their personal differences, and the street is inflamed with anger due to the absence of solutions, lack of horizon, and concern for the future of their children, in terms of health, economics, and education,” Lapid added. “If Netanyahu resigns then in 48 hours we will create a real emergency government,” continued Lapid. “Israel’s citizens are out of time. We’re in a state of emergency. I call upon all the factions in the Knesset to show him the door. The country is more important than any of us. Netanyahu needs to resign. Today,” he said. Lapid explained that the emergency government will be formed from all concerned parties, including the Likud. He said he is in contact with several leaderships and confirmed that his proposal was realistic. “The moment Netanyahu leaves, everyone will unite under Israeli concerns.” Lapid called on the Knesset members to cooperate in showing Netanyahu the way to exit from office. “Time does not work for us. The crisis is severe and needs a prime minister and ministers who place the public interest above all else. This should be a small government of up to 18 ministers, working with efficiency and stability,” Lapid said.

Hamas Seeks Joint Political Agenda with Fatah
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 22 July, 2020
Hamas and Fatah movements have been seeking to agree on a joint political agenda, said Hamas politburo member Hussam Badran on Tuesday. In statements published by the Hamas website, Badran stressed that both movements, along with all Palestinian factions, can agree on a joint political program, saying the Palestine Liberation Organization is still capable of receiving new parties. A joint mass rally, in which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and head of Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh will deliver their speeches, will establish for a new stage of reconciliation. National unity and the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance are sources of Palestinian power, Badran stressed. His comments come in light of progress in talks between Fatah and Hamas after the two announced setting aside their differences and launching a new phase in the face of Israel’s plan to annex large parts of the West Bank.
Officials from both movements have recently announced that their talks aim at ending the division and restoring national unity. In the past years, they succeeded in reaching consensus on several controversial issues but could never settle on a joint political agenda. This issue, along with Hamas joining the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), remained two obstacles in the way of concluding a comprehensive agreement. Fatah Secretary General Jibril Rajoub announced on Monday that Fatah and Hamas will soon hold a joint rally in the Gaza Strip against the Israeli annexation plan. “The rally will be a historic point in consolidating the united Palestinian position in the face of annexation,” Rajoub said, referring to Israel’s declared plan to annex parts of the West Bank in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s controversial peace plan dubbed the Deal of the Century. “We must raise the voices of the united Palestinian people, who adhere to the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, based on the 1967 borders and the return of refugees in accordance with international law, under the PLO leadership,” Rajoub stressed.;

More than 15 Million Coronavirus Cases Detected Worldwide
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 22/2020
At least 15,007,291 cases of the new coronavirus, including 617,603 deaths, have been detected worldwide since the pandemic emerged late last year, according to an AFP tally on Wednesday. The United States is the hardest hit country with 3,915,780 cases and 142,312 deaths. In the last seven days, more than 1.6 million new cases have been detected globally. The figures of detected infections likely reflect only a portion of the real number of cases.

Trump Says Pandemic to 'Get Worse', Australia Sees Record Infections
Naharnet/July 22/2020
The coronavirus death toll in the United States has spiked again with Donald Trump conceding the pandemic crisis will get worse, as record infections in Australia underscored second-wave dilemmas globally. Nearly 15 million cases have been confirmed and 615,000 lives lost since the virus was first detected in China late last year. Almost a quarter of those deaths have been in the US, the worst-hit nation after a scattershot response from Trump that has been dominated by him repeatedly downplaying the severity of the crisis. With authorities reporting Tuesday the highest daily nationwide death toll in weeks of nearly 1,000, Trump adopted a newly serious tone. "It will probably, unfortunately get worse before it gets better," the president told reporters during his first formal pandemic briefing for nearly three months. Other nations, which had eased crippling lockdowns after the virus had appeared to fade, are struggling to combat second waves. Australia on Wednesday reported more than 500 infections in a day, posting a record high nearly four months after cases appeared to have peaked. In Melbourne, Australia's second-biggest city where most of the new infections have occurred, wearing face masks will be mandatory from Thursday.  Second wave fears were also growing in Japan's capital, with hundreds of new cases reported each day over the past week, promoting authorities to urge people to stay home during an upcoming national holiday.  "The infections are spreading not only among young people but also among middle-aged and older people," Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said, after new clusters were found in city restaurants and theatres.  France also said transmissions were increasing again over the summer holiday season, after the country suffered one of Europe's worst outbreaks during the spring.  Countries with fragile health systems have yet to enjoy even a brief reprieve from the virus, with Mexico on Tuesday passing 40,000 deaths -- the pandemic's fourth-highest national toll. Fresh data from a study in India also suggested that the virus was spreading much further than charted, and that official figures were far lower than reality. The study said nearly one quarter of the population in New Delhi, India's capital, had contracted the virus. This would equate to roughly five million infections in New Delhi versus the official data showing 125,000 confirmed cases.
Vaccine hopes -
However global markets have been buoyed by a massive European Union aid package agreed on this week to staunch the economic havoc wrought by the pandemic. Lawmakers in Washington are also preparing a new stimulus package. Hopes for an end to the crisis, which has left tens of millions unemployed around the world and crippled global commerce, have hinged on the production of a vaccine. One leading candidate is being developed in part by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, with promising results from clinical trials published on Monday. But the firm's chief said a global roll-out was not likely to begin until the end of the year. Millions around the world have recovered from the disease in lieu of a vaccine, but those who survive severe cases face a long, hard road to regain their health. In Brazil, 63-year-old Elenice da Silva was recovering from a nearly three-month battle with the virus that left her temporarily unable to speak. Patients like da Silva have been left suffering from atrophied muscles or chronic problems affecting their lungs and other vital organs. "Intensive care was awful. But now I'm feeling marvelous," she told AFP during her recovery. "I'm going to bake a giant cake for everyone."

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 22-23/2020
Are there extremists that Qatar does not fund?

ذي ناشيونال: خل في العالم كله مجموعة إرهابية لا تمولها قطر؟
The National/July23/2020
Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, both financed by Doha, have much in common
Qatar’s funding of extremists, in the Arab world and beyond, is no secret to most residents of the Middle East. Yet, in the past week, new details of Doha’s murky dealings abroad have emerged. According to German newspaper Die Zeit, Doha has been funding Hezbollah and its activities. The Lebanese militant group was created by Iran in the 1980s as a proxy and it is allied with the Syrian regime.
The information was leaked by a whistleblower only identified as “Jason", who worked as a contractor for Doha. He said he had been promised €750,000 (Dh3.1 million) from Qatar for the sole purpose of hiding evidence he had gathered of the country’s support for Hezbollah. The deal fell through and the contractor went public with the dossier.
This revelation proves that Qatar continues to pursue a strategy of destabilising the region, funding extremists who undermine peace in their own countries and beyond. This scheme seems to have, in fact, expanded. Last year, The Qatar Papers, a book authored by two French journalists, uncovered Qatar’s financing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.
The organisation, which is outlawed in several Arab countries, was granted millions of dollars. The money funnelled to Hezbollah went through non-profits such as the Qatar Charity, much in the same fashion that Doha finances the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.
It may seem baffling that Doha would support two extremist groups with differing ideologies but in reality Hezbollah and the brotherhood have much in common. They both have a history of destabilising Middle Eastern countries and thriving on sectarian divisions. They share a common strategy of using religion to gain political power and popular support. These groups also operate within European borders, pressuring their respective communities abroad into conforming to their dogma. This is especially dangerous at a time when it is increasingly difficult for people to immigrate and escape the actions of extremists like these groups at home.
This scandal has surfaced at a pivotal time. In early 2019, when these negotiations allegedly took place, Europe tolerated Hezbollah’s non-military activities, differentiating the group’s political party from its paramilitary arm. The goal of this superficial distinction was to avoid alienating Lebanon's then unity government. Today, the new Cabinet is aligned with Hezbollah. The group is also allied with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and has its own representatives in parliament.
Over the past year, the US has increased sanctions on Iran and its allies. Some European countries have followed suit. In March 2019, the UK designated Hezbollah entirely as a terrorist organisation and in April 2020 Germany banned the group completely, no longer seeing a false differentiation between its political and paramilitary branches.
It may seem baffling that Doha would support two extremist groups with differing ideologies but in reality Hezbollah and the brotherhood have much in common
Hezbollah has terrorised protesters asking for a better life and hindered Lebanese sovereignty. It has also isolated Lebanon from the international community and its traditional allies in the Gulf, preventing Beirut from obtaining financial help at a time of economic collapse.
Doha’s support for extremism comes as no surprise to its neighbours. Since 2017, Egypt, Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have cut ties with Doha to pressure it into halting its financing of foreign extremists, among other issues. The Arab Quartet has for years warned the world about Doha's nefarious dealings. As evidence of Qatar’s support for Iran-backed groups continues to mount, it is high time Doha faced international scrutiny for its actions.

Egypt, Turkey and Erdogan's Delusional Plans
Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 22/2020
In 2013, at the height of the Egyptian-Turkish honeymoon during the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, I wrote an article predicting that this state of affairs would not continue. Sooner or later this euphoric state of affairs would be brought down to reality with a dose of competition.
A few months later a popular uprising removed Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi from office and relations took a turn for the worst. But only now, more than seven years later, the relationship is on the verge of direct military confrontation in Libya.
Egypt and Turkey have a mutual interest in maintaining a strong bilateral relationship. It not only serves the bilateral interests of both countries, but is essential for the stability of the region. Every Turkish diplomat I have come across over the past four decades shares this view.
While Egypt was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire until the First World War, it was for all practical purposes independent since 1805. In fact the Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pasha could have brought the Ottoman Empire to an end in 1827, if it were not for the intervention of France, Britain and Russia at the naval battle at Navarino. In other words, there is no colonial baggage that hangs over establishing a healthy relationship.
The history of Egyptian Turkish relations has been uneven experiencing periods of friendship, animosity and even indifference. In the modern era, during the Cold War, Cairo and Ankara were on different sides of the political divide. Since the early nineties relations, however, gradually improved until they nose-divided when the Moslem Brotherhood rule came to an end.
Since then, Turkey has adopted a policy of encirclement of Egypt. This reminds me of the Soviet Union’s policy in the wake of its departure from Egypt in 1972. Turkey appears to be even more ambitious in its policies. It has established military bases in Qatar and Somalia and attempted to do the same in Sudan, and is now trying to establish both air and naval bases in Libya. It also appears to be interfering in Yemen by supporting the Moslem Brotherhood. Meanwhile, it persists in its military interventions in both Syria and Iraq.
The Soviet Union’s policy of encircling Egypt failed miserably. By the second half of the 1980s, Moscow opted to rebuild on a new basis its friendly relations with Cairo. As an Egyptian diplomat in Moscow at the time, I was a first hand witness to the change.
If Moscow failed in its encirclement policy, I don’t see how Ankara can succeed.
The problem is that the chances of a change of policy on the part of Turkey under the leadership of Erdogan is close to nil. Regretfully the Turkish president’s animosity towards Egypt seems to be more visceral than based on real Turkish interests. Erdogan’s attitude towards Egypt together with the interventions in Syria and Iraq complicates Ankara’s relationship with the vast majority of Arab countries. But Erdogan is known to be a pragmatist, so if he is faced with challenges he cannot surmount he will be forced to change his policies.
What complicates matters further is that a segment of Turkish society exaggerates the role of Turkey in the unfolding international system. They see the US, Russia and the EU as intent on checking Turkey’s rising power. The Arab world is considered the backyard in which Turkey can expand and create a platform from which it can challenge those who want to suppress its ascendency. This is nothing but a colonial attitude of yesteryear.
The challenge is therefore how to do minimum damage to Turkey’s relationship with the Arab countries while preserving the prospect of improved ties down the road.
The purpose is not to isolate Turkey from the region, but rather to integrate it economically on a sound and realistic basis. Turkey is a great nation with considerable economic potential. It is a modernizing society with deep roots in Islam and the orient. It needs to harness these advantages to build a mutually beneficial relationship with the Arab countries
Politically, Turkey needs to once and for all decide on its strategic objective: to eventually join the EU, which appears to be increasingly unlikely, or look eastward towards the Arab region and beyond. Looking eastward means building a relationship with the Arab countries based on mutual respect and interdependence, not domination. Erdogan’s Neo - Ottomanism dream needs to cast aside.
So how to save Turkey from its delusional plans. Turkish intervention in Libya must not be allowed to develop any further, then it must be rolled back.
It is in Libya where Turkey will meet its real and possibly its final test in the Arab region. If it overreaches it will burn all the bridges to a long-term mutually beneficial relationship with the Arab countries. It could also cause irreparable damage to its relationship with the EU. Simply put, Turkey needs to be stopped for its own good. But this needs a collective effort on the part of the Arab countries, the EU and Russia.
But first Ankara must be made to accept the following realities: First, if it is serious about building a long term stable relationship with the Arab World, it needs to normalize its relationship with Egypt. This is possible, and indeed will be welcome in Cairo, if such a relationship is based on mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs. To begin with Ankara needs take a confidence building measure by ceasing to offer a platform for the anti-Egyptian media campaign.
Second, there must be a ceasefire along present lines of confrontation in Libya, so the UN political process can resume. And that no one will allow it to establish permanent military bases in Libya or dominate the country even indirectly.
Third, the most effective way to ensure the long-term security and stability of its borders with Iraq and Syria is by respecting the sovereignty of both countries on the totality of their respective territories.
Fourth, Ankara’s inflated ambitions in the field of energy will not be accepted by either Europe or the Arab countries. If Ankara’s objective in Libya is to secure a share in the eastern Mediterranean energy resources and future reconstruction contracts in Libya, this is something that can be arranged without it having to take unnecessary risks.
With Ankara’s ambitions checked in Libya, President Erdogan may finally draw the right conclusions and scale down his regional ambitions, leaving the door open for better relations down the road with influential Arab countries. The alternative will be a confrontation that will serve no one’s interest, but more importantly preclude the prospects of a mutually beneficial relationship with the Arab world for the foreseeable future.

Politics Will Cut America’s Military Budget
Robert Ford/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 22/2020
The year 2020 is difficult for the United States. The problems of the coronavirus, racism and social justice and the economy have no clear solution. According to an opinion poll from Pew Research Center published June 30, 87 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction of events in the United States. Only 12 percent are satisfied. Only 17 percent of Americans were proud of the country – a shocking number in a country where the American flag is seen everywhere. These results from a respected public opinion survey are not normal. They suggest change is coming.
Politics in Washington is slow to adapt to fast, big change in public opinion. We will see an example this week in the Congress and smart analysts will watch the vote in the Senate about the 2021 Defense Department budget. The left-wing of the American Democratic Party, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, has successfully exercised pressure for a vote to reduce the military budget. They want to cut 10 percent, about $74 billion dollars. They remind us that the American military budget is bigger than the next ten countries’ military budgets – combined.
Former Defense Department official and analyst Lawrence Korb, who is close to the Democratic Party, wrote two weeks ago that the military didn’t protect the country from a virus that has killed 140,000 citizens until now. How Sanders and his allies would cut the budget is not clear, but some of their partisans suggest a stop to additional nuclear missile forces, stopping the construction of another aircraft carrier task force and reducing the construction of the F-35 jet fighter airplanes. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who failed in her presidential campaign against Joe Biden, supports the Sanders draft legislation. It is worth noting that the Biden team has put Warren on the list of possible vice president candidates. The leader of the Senate Democrats, Charles Schumer, also supports the draft legislation to cut the defense budget.
According to the American constitution, the Senate and the House of Representatives and the President must all agree on the budgets for the departments. Important representatives from the left wing of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives support the reduction in the military budget, among them the chairman of the Defense Affairs committee who said a 100-billion-dollar budget reduction is possible. However, other Congressional members from the center wing of the Democratic Party have not supported the military budget cut yet, and Biden also has been silent. More important this week, the Republican Party is against the military budget cut and it has the majority in the Senate. Sanders and his allies will vote, but they will lose; this vote is largely symbolic.
I will watch the vote to see how many Senate Democrats vote to cut the military budget even if the end result is already known. It will show the strength of the left wing of the Democratic Party as the November election approaches. The Democratic Party not only needs to recapture the Oval Office. It also needs to recapture the Senate or it will be unable to implement any new policies because a Senate under Republican control would block Democratic initiatives. The Democrats need four more seats in the 100-member chamber to control it next year. Can they win four new seats without enthusiastic support from the left wing of their party in the election campaign?
The Republican Party also has a dilemma. Opinion polls are clear that most Americans think the biggest threats to the country now are coronavirus, social injustice and the economy. Foreign threats like China are far down the list and you can’t even find the Middle East on the list. The military budget eats a quarter of the American government budget, and so new monies to contain the virus and ease the economic crisis are increasing the government budget deficit.
Some Republican Party supporters now criticize American foreign and defense policy as too expensive and the military capabilities more than is needed. Organizations like the CATO Institute and the Charles Koch Institute urge a foreign policy of caution and restraint and an end to interventions in the Middle East. Journalist and writer Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote in the Washington Post last week that in the end the virus, the problems of social justice and the economy will change politics in Washington to make military budget cuts likely.
As we think about the future some years from now, greater American focus on China and a smaller military would mean that the United States will be less interested in the Middle East and have fewer capabilities to intervene there. Maybe Libya is already an example.

Cold War Is Here, and Chinese Stocks Don't Care
John Authers/Bloomberg/July 22/2020
China and the US are ever more at loggerheads. Why doesn't it appear to matter? Chinese leaders are more assertive, and more openly critical of the US, than at any time since the death of Chairman Mao, while the US has amped up anti-Chinese rhetoric to new heights. Beyond trade protectionism, the agenda now includes clamping down on US investment into China, and shaming companies that do business there.
In a speech last week, the US Attorney General William Barr made an outspoken attack on China’s communist rulers, and on US firms that did business with them. The ultimate ambition of China’s leaders “isn’t to trade with the United States,” he said.
It is to raid the United States. If you were an American business leader, appeasing the PRC may bring short term rewards, but in the end and the PRC’s goal is to replace you. As a US Chamber of Commerce report put it, the belief by foreign companies that large financial investments and sharing of expertise and significant technology transfers would lead to an ever opening China market is being replaced by boardroom banter that win-win in China means China wins twice.
And he made it clear that he wanted people to punish companies with Chinese connections:
[T]he American people are more attuned than ever to the threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses, not only to our way of life, but to our very lives and livelihoods. And they will increasingly call out corporate appeasement.
As I’ve said before, the technology of ESG investing makes it easy for committed activists to force big public investors to shift money out of China quickly. This is serious stuff. And yet the speech attracted relatively little attention, I suspect, because anti-Chinese rhetoric has been rising for a while — and has been thoroughly reciprocated. After the UK made a U-turn and decided not to use Huawei Technologies Co. to build its 5G network, the Chinese ambassador said it would be “very difficult” for other businesses from the country “to have the confidence to have more investment” in the UK. The foreign ministry in Beijing responded:
Does the UK want to maintain its independent status or be reduced to being a vassal of the United States, be the US’s cat paw? The safety of Chinese investment in the UK is being greatly threatened.
Neither side appears to be bothering with diplomatic niceties any more. Meanwhile, China is also stepping up control of Hong Kong and pressing its territorial claims in the South China Sea. It’s what Dec Mullarkey, managing director of investment strategy of Sun Life Capital Management in Boston calls a “seismic shift.”
Yet it is having no perceptible effect on Chinese assets, or on investors’ willingness to invest there. No stock market has done better than China’s so far this year. And MSCI’s index of 100 companies in developed markets with the greatest exposure to China has now made up all the ground it had lost to the main MSCI World index since 2014:
Many of the weird trends in global markets during this remarkable year only make sense if we assume that investors are bracing for a fresh China-driven growth cycle. Much to many people’s surprise, China appears to be gearing up for exactly that.
After a shocking fall as Covid-19 hit, the measures of industry are now back above their levels of last year. Retail sales, however, are lagging. If we look at online sales, it is obvious that this is driven by Covid — they have shot up so far this year, with their share of the total reaching a new high:
Plainly, Covid-19 is still getting in the way of the long-term plan to convert China into a truly consumer-driven economy, as physical activity is still very subdued.
Rothman points to strong recoveries in sales of autos and homes to show that middle-class and wealthy consumers “have both sufficient money and enough confidence in the future to spend it.” But overall, sales at restaurants and bars remain 15.2% down from a year earlier. So Rothman, generally a strongly positive voice on China, says he expects economic activity still to be only 80% of normal by the end of this year. The final part of the recovery will have to wait until the global pandemic is brought under control.
This should be sobering for the rest of the world. As Mullarkey points out, China has a surveillance state, can “test and trace” as well as anyone, and yet its consumers are still reluctant to re-engage. The slowing in economic activity brought on by the pandemic isn’t caused just by governmental injunctions, in China or elsewhere. Voluntary changes in behavior are just as important.
With China entering and then leaving the pandemic first, we now have a taste of the economic policy that appears to work. Using a model characteristic over the last three decades, China has turned up the volume of credit, and this has sparked another revival led by industry and infrastructure projects. In classic style, this has sparked a resurgence in the constellation of assets that surround China, such as industrial metals and emerging markets.
If there were no great geopolitical reasons for concern, it might make sense to put money into Chinese industrial stocks. They have hugely underperformed over the last decade and have also lagged behind the main domestic stock index over the past year. But a recovery is afoot.
Oxford Economics suggests that a relatively safe way to invest is through developed market stocks with strong Chinese exposure. As we saw earlier, they have performed better of late, but their valuations relative to Chinese stocks still suggest they are much more of a bargain.
The trouble is that those developed market stocks only look so cheap because they are beginning to command a geopolitical discount.
In the long run, the potential problems for China’s economic model are legion. In the short run, it appears to be using a playbook that has worked several times before. The list of assets to buy when China is doing well is well established.
The question is how much discount to apply for the fact that the US and the China are growing unmistakably more hostile to each other. There is an increasing risk of damaging economic sanctions, or a new trans-Pacific version of a Cold War in which two separate economic systems co-exist but interact ever less. It isn’t yet having much visible impact on markets, particularly in the US. That might be because there is an assumption that President Trump will be gone in six months, and that a President Biden would at least be more multilateralist in his attempts to contain China. It might also be because easy money from central banks trumps geopolitics.
But anyone who is feeling relaxed about US-China relations would do well to read Barr’s words, both because of the truth they contain, and because the ferocity of his language is incompatible with maintaining any kind of constructive relations:
China is no longer hiding its strength nor biding its time. From the perspective of its communist rulers, China’s time has arrived. The People’s Republic of China is now engaged in an economic Blitzkrieg, an aggressive orchestrated whole of government indeed, whole of society campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the world’s preeminent technological superpower.
For a hundred years, America was the world’s largest manufacturer allowing us to serve as the world’s arsenal of democracy. China overtook the United States in manufacturing output in 2010. The PRC is now the world’s arsenal of dictatorship.
It is time to apply some management theory to the travails of working from home. Surviving social distancing can almost feel like a strategy game. Personally, I have discovered that taking commuting out of my life hasn’t helped much because Parkinson’s Law came into effect — work expanded to fill the time available. But there are deeper issues. Management theorists have worked out that recovery, or our ability to get over a day’s work and recharge, is hugely important. They are trying to measure it.
A new paper in the Journal of Management looks at more than 198 empirical studies into recovery. The bottom line, unsurprisingly, is that people need to recuperate. If they do, they will have more sleep, less fatigue, and better mental health. I have grown used to market-speak over the years, but I am not used to management-speak, so I found it rather difficult to read. However, a summary by one of the authors, Brian Swider of the University of Florida’s Warrington School of Business, gives us some useful survival guidelines.
The critical question to ask is: Are you a segmenter or an integrator? Segmenters like to keep work at work and home at home, while integrators are happy to bounce back and forth. Both need recovery time, but segmenters will obviously have found the lockdown tougher. Here are some suggestions for segmenters on how to draw boundaries:
• Simulate a commute. “If you used your commute to switch from your work self to your home self, can you establish a quasi-commute? Can you take a walk for 20 minutes?” Swider says. “Look for ways to replicate that separation ritual.”
• Separate work tech and home tech. (Something that isn’t difficult as my kids dislike every device issued to me by Bloomberg.) Instead of leaving his work computer accessible 24/7, Swider found it helpful to unplug his work laptop from his monitor at the end of the day and switch his display over to his home computer.
• Set effective limits. This particularly applies to smartphones that make work email almost inescapable. It might be an idea to turn them off after work and only switch on to check for anything urgent at fixed times.
Meanwhile, for integrators the problem is to make sure they don’t work themselves into the ground. Suggestions include:
• Go “phone only” after hours. The philosophy should be: “If it can't be handled on the phone, it can wait until morning.”
• Make goals specific and measurable, such as “I’m only going to work for an hour after dinner” or “I’ll only address five emails after 5 p.m.”
The aim in all cases is to make life as similar to pre-Covid routines as possible. At this late hour, it’s still worth a try.

The "Maximum Pressure" on Iran's Regime
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/July 22, 2020
For almost four decades, Iran's regime has been squandering the nation's resources on terror and militia groups... It is estimated that the regime has spent more than $100 billion on its nuclear program.
Many employees of the government, including coal workers and railroad workers, have been protesting unpaid wages and salaries. One protester told Iran News Wire, "I wish I would get COVID-19. Many of us do. Committing suicide is hard but we wish for death every day. What we have is not a life."
Some of Iran's authorities have publicly announced that they also do not have money to pay their mercenaries abroad.
Iran's mullahs have no one to blame but themselves for the country's drastic economic situation. They simply need to start prioritizing their own people over sponsoring and funding terror and militia groups across the region.
The Iranian regime is facing an unprecedented level of pressure, which, if it continues, can threaten the ruling mullahs' hold on power. Iran's currency, the rial, which has been in free fall in the last few weeks, has plunged to a record low. Pictured: Traders from Tehran's Grand Bazaar gather on June 25, 2018 to protest the collapse of rial's value, shortly after the Trump administration started its "maximum pressure" policy against Tehran.
The Iranian regime is facing an unprecedented level of pressure, which, if it continues, can threaten the ruling mullahs' hold on power. Iran's currency, the rial, which has been in free fall in the last few weeks, has plunged to a record low. As of July 18, 2020, a US dollar is now worth approximately 250,000 rials. Before the current US administration imposed a "maximum pressure" policy against Tehran, a US dollar had equaled nearly 30,000 rials.
People, as they see the value of their money depreciating by almost ten-fold, have been rushing to get foreign currency. Last month, Iran's oil exports also sank to a record low. Three years ago, Iran was exporting roughly 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. According to the latest reports, Iran's oil export is now around 70,000 barrels a day -- a reduction of nearly 97%. The country's budget heavily relies on selling oil.
The political deputy of the province of Bushehr, Governor Majid Khorshidi, told a gathering on July 14 that they should not ignore US sanctions: "We used to see this approach [of ignoring US sanctions] from the previous administration [Ahmadinejad] and unfortunately it still continues," he added. "But I have to say that sanctions have broken the economy's back".
While the US "maximum pressure" policy has played a crucial role in putting economic pressure on the regime, the mullahs' widespread financial and political corruption and their chronic economic mismanagement are also key factors in the country's dire financial situation.
For almost four decades, the regime has been squandering the nation's resources on terror and militia groups as well as its nuclear program. It is also estimated that the regime has spent more than $100 billion on its nuclear program. According to a report released by the Federation of American Scientists:
"Iran's quest for the development of nuclear program has been marked by enormous financial costs and risks. It is estimated that the program's cost is well over $100 billion, with the construction of the Bushehr reactor costing over $11 billion, making it one of the most expensive reactors in the world."
Iran is rich in resources; it has the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world, and the second-largest natural gas reserves that account for approximately 16% of the world's gas reserves. With a GDP (purchasing-power parity) estimated at $1.2 trillion, and with a population of nearly 84 million, Iran could be one of the largest economies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Now, however, the regime is finding it extremely difficult to acquire enough revenue to pay its employees. Many employees of the government, including coal workers and railroad workers, have been protesting unpaid wages and salaries. One protester told Iran News Wire:
"I wish I would get COVID-19. Many of us do. Committing suicide is hard but we wish for death every day. What we have is not a life. Do you think this is living?!"
According to the Statistical Centre of Iran, in late October 2019, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) 12-month rate of inflation for households was 42%.
The government has also cut important subsidies to consumer products, such as petrol. Because of the regime's reluctance to make economic reforms, international organizations are hesitant to lend money to Tehran. Out of desperation, the ruling mullahs of Iran doubled down on requests to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), headquartered in Washington DC, to give Tehran an emergency loan of $5 billion. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated that his government wanted to use the $5 billion fund to fight the coronavirus pandemic. "I urge international organizations to fulfill their duties..." he stressed. "We are a member of the IMF."
Some of Iran's authorities have publicly announced that they also do not have money to pay their mercenaries abroad. In a recent interview with the state-run Ofogh Television Network, for instance, Parviz Fattah, the current head of the Foundation for the Underprivileged (Mostazafan Foundation) stated:
"I was at the IRGC Cooperative Foundation. Haj Qassem [Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed by a US drone strike] came and told me he did not have money to pay the salaries of the Fatemiyoun [Afghan mercenaries]. He said that these are our Afghan brothers, and he asked for help from people like us."
The Mostazafan Foundation owns and manages many subsidiary and affiliate companies in fields such as industry, commerce, agriculture, transportation and tourism.
Iran's mullahs have no one to blame but themselves for the country's drastic economic situation. They simply need to start prioritizing their own people over hemorrhaging billions of dollars on the nuclear program and sponsoring and funding terror and militia groups across the region.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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