LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
June 03/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures for ever
First Letter of Peter 01/22-25:”Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. For ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures for ever.’ That word is the good news that was announced to you.” ’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on June 02-03/2019
Hezbollah defiant as U.S. warns Lebanon of missile clash with Israel
Nasrallah: Trump's Peace Plan Is Unjust And It Is Our Duty To Oppose It
Prove You are a Lebanese Party, LF Minister Tells Hizbullah
Report: Nasrallah Irked after Satterfield Shows Pics of 'Missile Plants'
Bassil Slams Critics as 'Mad Lunatics', Decries 'Character Assassination
Lebanon's Army Chief Voices Anger at Budget Measures in Rare Intervention
Hankache Slams 'Original Sin' Committed Against Lebanon
Does Hezbollah care that much about the fate of Palestinians in Lebanon?
A tale of two Lebanons

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 02-03/2019
Israel Strikes Syria Following Rocket Fire; 10 Syrian, Iranian, Hezbollah Militants Said Killed
Netanyahu Fires Two Key Ministers ahead of Israeli Polls
Pompeo Says U.S. Prepared to Talk to Iran 'with No Preconditions'
US flexes military muscle in Arabian Sea but open to ‘no preconditions’ Iran talks
Netanyahu Ignores Political Crisis, Addresses Syrian Missiles At Cabinet Meeting
UK Bank Account Drops From Pro-Iranian, Hezbollah Group Behind Al-Quds-Day
Iran, Turkey to Establish Joint Bank in Face of US Sanctions
LNA Announces Downing Turkish Drone in Tripoli Battles
EU Rejects Israel’s Settlement Policy
Algerian Activists Slam Living Conditions of ‘Prisoners of Conscience’
Algeria Presidential Polls 'Impossible' on July 4
Iraq: Two French Men Sentenced to Death for Joining ISIS
3 Bombings Strike Kabul Killing 1, Injuring 2 Reporters
Damascus Slams Mecca Summit Endorsement of Syria Transition
Faleh Extends Apology to Residents of Cut-off Areas in Southern Saudi Arabia
Every Night, Jail Becomes Home for Leading Egyptian Dissident

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 02-03/2019
Hezbollah defiant as U.S. warns Lebanon of missile clash with Israel/Daniel Salami/Ynetnews/June 02/2019
Nasrallah: Trump's Peace Plan Is Unjust And It Is Our Duty To Oppose It/Jerusalem Post/June 02/2019
Does Hezbollah care that much about the fate of Palestinians in Lebanon/Ali al-Amin/The Arab Weekly/June 02/2019
A tale of two Lebanons/Dan Azz/Annahar/June 02/ 2019
Israel Strikes Syria Following Rocket Fire; 10 Syrian, Iranian, Hezbollah Militants Said Killed/Jack Khoury, Yaniv Kubovich and Noa Shpigel/Haaretz/June 02/ 2019
"Rarely Reported by the Media Anymore": Persecution of Christians, March 2019/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 02/2019
President Trump's Visit to Britain and Ireland/by Peter Baum/Gatestone Institute/June 02/2019
Secretive Bilderberg Meeting Draws Pompeo and Kushner/Bern - Edward Wong, Alan Yuhas/The New York Times/June,02/2019
West can pressure Iranian regime by supporting the people/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/June 02/2019
EU sheds light on Turkey’s accession challenges/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/June 02/2019
Rewarding Iran’s hostage-taking puts others at risk/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/June 02/2019
Making globalization work for Africa/Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Brahima Coulibaly/Arab News/June 02/2019
Wisdom vital if war is to be avoided/Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy/Arab News/June 02/2019
Iran’s ‘non-aggression’ talk fools no one/Iman Zayat/The Arab Weekly/June 02/2019

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on June 02-03/2019
Hezbollah defiant as U.S. warns Lebanon of missile clash with Israel
Daniel Salami/Ynetnews/June 02/2019
Al Hayat newspaper says Americans gave Lebanese government evidence of the location of precision-guided missiles belonging to the terror group, prompting fiery speech by leader Nasrallah admitting to possessing the weapons.
The U.S. has warned the Lebanese government that it must resolve the issue of Hezbollah’s precision-guided missile workshops before Israel decides to take action, the Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper said Sunday.
According to the London-based paper, the Americans apparently presented Lebanese officials (among which were Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri) with evidence of the facilities, including images and maps showing their exact locations. The American warning is believed to be the reason behind a defiant speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, in which he admitted that his Iran-backed organization possesses and continues to develop precision-guided missiles. According to the report, the US delegation - headed by US Acting Assistant Secretary David Satterfield - asked the Lebanese officials to examine ways in which they can deal with the issue. Satterfield apparently emphasized that Washington can no longer ignore the evidence at its disposal and “can’t restrain Israel from taking action against the missile sites.”One Lebanese source told the paper that Nasrallah was informed about the meeting by senior officials in the country, who emphasized to the terror group the location of the precision-guided missiles - which had been transferred to the terror group from Syria - are now known to the Israelis as well.
In his Friday’s speech, marking Al-Quds Day, Nasrallah claimed the U.S. was exploiting the talks it currently mediates between Israel and Lebanon on the issue of maritime border that has dogged Mediterranean oil and gas exploration for years, as an opportunity to have discussions on the issue of precision-guided missiles. However, the terror group’s leader claimed they only have warehouses with precision-guided missiles and not workshops where such weapons are being produced. "Various officials contacted us and asked us to evacuate and destroy our manufacturing facilities … but when I say we don’t have them, I mean it. If we did, I would’ve shown you to them right now.”

Nasrallah: Trump's Peace Plan Is Unjust And It Is Our Duty To Oppose It
Jerusalem Post/June 02/2019
Hezbollah Secretary-General delivered speech on International Jerusalem Day, referring to the American administration's plan "I have hope that we will be able to prevent the historic crime."
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech on the occasion of al-Quds Day that “in the past 40 years, the enemies of Jerusalem have been betting that they we will ignore it or forget it, but year after year we find that people still express great interest.”“We have seen large demonstrations in several countries around the world and the demonstration of one million in Iran,” he said, adding that the biggest demonstration in Iran was “A message to [US President Donald] Trump and to those who assumed that the Iranians were tired or failed.”Nasrallah related to the Trump peace plan, saying that “it is a religious, moral, national and political obligation to oppose [it], since this is a deal that is unjust and is contrary to the rights of the holy places.”He further stressed that “the responsibility is clear: We must confront this deal, and we are capable of obstructing it.”According to Nasrallah, the current situation shows that the plan is on its way to failure. “The United States, Israel and other regimes in the region are working to implement the deal, alongside an axis that opposes it,” he said. “There is a conflict between the two factions, and I hope we can prevent the historic crime that is liable to occur in our land.”
Hezbollah’s leader said that some of the regimes are working to make Israel the main axis in the region, along with an attempt to end the Palestinian and Jerusalem issues.“Since 2011, there has been an American attempt to eliminate the Palestinian issue after giving the Palestinians a little time, but after the victory of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine, they prepared their project to liquidate the resistance factions,” Nasrallah explained. “After 2011, the US and any country involved in the ‘Arab Spring’ got the fruit of the frenzy called Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century.’”
Nasrallah added that “The Palestinian resistance today is hitting Tel Aviv and what is beyond it, and it is capable of hitting all the Zionist settlements.” He also related to Syria, saying, “They crossed what was planned against it and remained in the axis of resistance. Syria will become stronger when all the American attempts to take over Iraq militarily fail.”In addition, Nasrallah mentioned the Arab summit currently underway in Mecca: “The background to the call to Muslims to reach the summits is to save the Saudi regime as a result of the development of the Yemenite axis after the rising power [Houthis, supported by Iran], and the regime is trying with the help of mercenaries to force the Yemenites to surrender. All these summits prove that the Yemenite people and the opponents of the Saudis won. Trump knows that if war breaks out – the price of a barrel of oil could rise to $200-300.”
Meanwhile, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards boasted that if Iran had supported the Houthis in Yemen, they would have taken over Riyadh.

Prove You are a Lebanese Party, LF Minister Tells Hizbullah
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 02/2019/Social Affairs Minister Richard Kouyoumjian of the Lebanese Forces on Sunday called on Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to prove that his party is “Lebanese,” after the pro-Iran leader criticized the Lebanese delegation’s stance at the Mecca emergency Arab summit. “The stance of the prime minister at the Arab and Islamic summits in Mecca reflects Lebanon’s commitment to the Arab League’s charters and joint Arab defense and its rejection of Iran’s attacks,” Kouyoumjian tweeted. “Hizbullah’s interferences and its wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen are what is undermining the dissociation policy and not our adherence to the common Arab interests and Lebanon’s Arab depth,” the minister added. “We reject Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s remarks about turning Lebanon into a confrontation arena on behalf of any foreign state. The lives and interests of the Lebanese are not a mailbox through which Iran sends its messages to the rest of the countries,” Kouyoumjian went on to say, calling on Nasrallah to prove that his party is Lebanese and “not a temporary factory for Iranian missiles that will destroy Lebanon and its people.”In a speech on Friday, Nasrallah said that the Lebanese delegation's stance at Mecca's summit is "rejected and condemned," noting that "it does not conform to the government's policy statement.”“Where is the dissociation policy," he asked. Addressing the summit, Hariri condemned what he called "continuous attempts to infiltrate the Arab societies," in reference to Iran. He also strongly deplored "the attacks on the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," calling for "the widest Arab solidarity in confronting them."

Report: Nasrallah Irked after Satterfield Shows Pics of 'Missile Plants'
Naharnet/June 02/2019/Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah escalated his rhetoric in his latest speech after Lebanese officials relayed to him a U.S. message that “the precision missile bases that were transferred from Syria to Lebanon have become known and exposed by the Israelis,” a Lebanese official source says. “U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield is the one who conveyed the information to Lebanese officials in his latest visit to Beirut last week coming from Israel, as part of the mediation mission that Washington has agreed to conduct in order to secure an agreement on the demarcation of land and maritime borders between Lebanon and Israel under the U.N.’s sponsorship,” the source told al-Hayat newspaper in remarks published Sunday. “Satterfield and another U.S. official showed President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Army Commander General Joseph Aoun pictures and maps of what he said are the location of these missiles,” the source added. And while the source did not say whether the pictures and maps relate to Lebanon-based missile development factories or to missile deployment posts, he clarified that “the U.S. delegation did not link between the issue of missiles and the issue of the demarcation of the land and maritime borders.”Noting that the Israelis and Americans likely believe that the alleged missile plants are located on the Lebanese-Syrian border, the source said Satterfield warned Lebanese officials that Washington “cannot but take the photographed and specific information into consideration” and that “it might not manage to rein in the Israeli side if it decides to carry out a certain response against these missiles.”Nasrallah on Friday rejected what he called U.S. conditions for mediating the border and maritime dispute with Israel.
Nasrallah said in a speech that Washington is "using the talks" to discuss, and even make threats over, degrading his group's capabilities, bringing up an Israeli claim that Hizbullah has precision missile factories. Nasrallah acknowledged his group has the weapons but denied it produces them. "So far in Lebanon there are no factories for precision missiles," he said. He threatened for the first time, however, that Hizbullah could consider setting up such factories if Washington continues to use the talks on border demarcation to discuss his group's capabilities.e said it is Lebanon's right to defend itself. "The Americans have no business with this. It is our right to have weapons to defend our countries and it is our right to manufacture any weapons."Satterfield has been shuttling between Israel and Lebanon, technically still at war, to settle the dispute. Lebanon's foreign ministry said earlier this week that it and Israel are close to establishing a framework for negotiations under United Nations auspices and overseen by Washington on demarcating the borders. The demarcation is essential for Lebanon to access oil and gas resources. Israel said it's willing to engage in the U.S.-mediated talks. Israel and Lebanon each claim some 860 square kilometers of sea as within their own exclusive economic zones. Nasrallah said he is supportive of the Lebanese government's positions in the talks. "My problem is allowing such discussion (of Hizbullah's capabilities)" he said. "This door must be closed," he urged.

Bassil Slams Critics as 'Mad Lunatics', Decries 'Character Assassination'
Naharnet/June 02/2019/Free Patriotic Movement chief and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil lashed out Sunday at those who attacked him in recent days, calling them “mad lunatics” and accusing them of a “character assassination” attempt. “Whenever you hear these attacks against us, rest assured that we are doing very well and that we are facing a lunatic asylum that has gone mad,” Bassil said during a tour of the Baabda district. “They cannot blackmail us in anything and we will clash with anyone who tries to encroach on us or on the country. Whenever they become many we will become bigger and whenever they become strong we will be stronger,” Bassil said of his critics.Referring to the storm of criticism that he faced in recent days, the FPM chief said: “What happened is not over words I said but rather over fictional remarks. They invented sentences and started responding to them, including ones about political Sunnism, the Lebanese University professors and the sacking of the Internal Security Forces chief,” Bassil said, referring to remarks attributed to him in several media reports. “Everything they are attacking is not real,” he added. Commenting on the controversy over remarks attributed to him about “political Sunnism,” Bassil pointed out that President Michel Aoun – the FPM’s founder – is not “the son of political Maronism.”“We do not support political Maronism, political Shiism or political Sunnism. We are the sons of the National Pact,” Bassil added, referring to an unwritten 1943 agreement that set up the foundations of modern Lebanon as a country based on Muslim-Christian partnership. He clarified: “I have never spoken about the sacking of the ISF chief, but let no one try to scare us and subjugate us so that we do not expose mistakes, seeing as there is someone in the state who is ‘higher in rank than the premier’ and who is granting licenses and committing other violations. They always create preemptive problems for alternative objectives.”ISF chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman has been accused by some political parties of distributing illegal permits for the drilling of artesian wells. Apparently referring to the war of words between the FPM and Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement, Bassil reassured that his movement is keen on the political settlement that led to Aoun’s election and Hariri’s appointment as PM. “I do not like the word settlement, seeing as there is an understanding based on recognizing the other and their representative legitimacy, and there are people who are bothered from the presence of a strong presidential tenure and from the ‘return of Baabda to Baabda,’” Bassil added. “We are keen on the understanding because it is based on right, not on settlements and deals, and on the National Pact which was absent and now it has come back. This is the normal situation and we will do everything necessary to ‘sabotage the current sabotage attempt’ and to preserve the understanding,” the FPM chief went on to say. He however underlined that there can be no “settlement” over corruption. “The core of the understanding between the president and the premier is to expose corrupts and those undermining the country, not to cover up for anyone,” Bassil added. “Character assassination and murder is like physical assassination and murder or rather uglier. It is not a coincidence that this wave of hatred is being launched simultaneously against the FPM,” the FPM chief said.

Lebanon's Army Chief Voices Anger at Budget Measures in Rare Intervention
Naharnet/June 02/2019/Army chief General Joseph Aoun has criticized measures in the country's austerity budget, including a recruitment freeze, warning they would have a negative impact on the military. Aoun's intervention, rare for a Lebanese army chief, comes after the government approved a budget aimed at unlocking billions of dollars in aid that an official source said includes a three-year army recruitment freeze. "The ban on recruiting soldiers or cadets, and the ban on dismissal, will have negative consequences on the military institution," Aoun said in a statement published by the army. Lebanon is one of the world's most indebted countries and the government plan is expected to trim the country's deficit this year to 7.59 percent. Donors at the so-called CEDRE conference last year pledged $11 billion in aid and soft loans to Lebanon, which vowed to reduce its public spending. Aoun said the army has already been adopting a stringent approach to spending and last year returned part of its budget to the state coffers. "The army is the backbone of Lebanon, we do not exaggerate in saying that it guarantees (the country's) security and stability. Its mission is not limited to times of war and conflicts," he said.
"Despite the current security stability, significant challenges remain, such as those at our eastern, southern or maritime borders," Aoun added. Lebanon has been hit by repeated political deadlocks in recent years and the economic woes have been compounded by the devastating war in neighboring Syria. It is also technically still at war with Israel, with United Nations peacekeepers stationed on the frontier. There have been numerous protests in recent weeks against the austerity measures by Lebanese government workers, including by retired soldiers concerned about possible pension reductions.
Civil servant salaries are to be cut under the new budget, which would also introduce a 2-percent tax on imports and increase taxes on interest income from bank deposits from seven to 10 percent.The plan still needs to be ratified by parliament, giving lawmakers an opportunity to table amendments.

Hankache Slams 'Original Sin' Committed Against Lebanon
Kataeb.orgéJune 02/2019/Kataeb MP Elias Hankache on Sunday blasted unilateralism and recklessness when it comes to peace and war decision-making, deeming the fact of dragging Lebanon into conflicts that it has nothing to do with as "original sin". "Jeopardizing the interests of Lebanese expats, sacrificing our youth in a game of regional axes, uprooting Lebanon from its historic status, fabricating missiles instead coming up with inventions to be proud of... This is not the country we are seeking to pass down to our children," Hankache wrote on Twitter. "Stop distracting us with your disputes," he said in an address to members of the ruling authority. "Neutrality is what matters."

Does Hezbollah care that much about the fate of Palestinians in Lebanon?
Ali al-Amin/The Arab Weekly/June 02/2019
The issue of settling the Palestinians in Lebanon is another card in the bazaar of the Iranian agenda for the Arab region.
Modern Arab history is replete with events and developments that compel us to reread and reassess the causes of the decline and division affecting Arab societies.
There are many lessons to be learnt from pan-Arab nationalist experiences and the projects for Arab unity. Those projects were established and prevailed in Arab countries for more than half a century, following the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948.
Their most dangerous aspect was that, while they were championing liberation of the Palestinian territories as a strategic goal, they were more absorbed in acquiring power and by forcefully suppressing political and social pluralism. They sought to make repression the defining characteristic of the state at the expense of freedom and power sharing.
The Palestinian tragedy was the effective means to justify repression and political and social violence. Crimes committed in the name of the Palestinian cause in Arab countries are greater than imaginable. The examples do not merit much scrutiny. They are manifest in every leader who oppressed his people and every party that took power in the name of Palestine.
From Iraq to Syria to Sudan or Algeria, Egypt, Libya and all other regimes that rose by exploiting the Palestinian wound ended up transforming their countries into dilapidated bodies governed by helplessness and underdevelopment, easy prey for voracious tyrannical powers and colonial projects.
Their people are trapped in clannish and sectarian divisions that have shown how far the pan-Arab nationalist project was from achieving Arab unity. Not only that, this project was a disaster for the national state to the point that it will remain the standard for any real renaissance in the Arab world.
The rise of political Islam was not any better. It illustrates the saying: “History does not repeat itself but if it returns, it returns in the form of a farce.”
Political Islam did not digest the nationalist experience and did not read well the profound reasons behind its failure in the Arab world. It naively believed that the phrase “Islam is the solution” was enough to move the Arab peoples from backwardness and defeat to modernisation and progress.
Since the victory of the Islamic model in 1979 in Iran and in some Arab countries, the Arab world has experienced its worst times of civilisational, political, intellectual and cultural collapse.
The Islamic project in its political manifestations showed how far it is out of sync with the age and how culturally unattractive it is. It was a hollow project with no content except an insatiable thirst for power and control in the name of religion.
It has perhaps surpassed the Arab nationalist project by its ingenuity in investing in ignorance. It has even lost the specificity and advantage of the original Islamic project on Muslim unity and became multiple mini-projects of Islamic groups pleading sectarian tendencies and confrontations, just to lay their hands on power and nothing else.
Only a few decades after their rise, the Islamic currents turned out to be parties and forces without civilisational projects and devoid of any attractiveness.
In Iran, too, and after four decades under the rule of the Islamic Republic model, the Iranians, before anybody else, are finding out that in the name of Islam, they have become poorer and that their country has joined the ranks of pariah states characterised by the hostility of their regimes and the aversion of other nations in its regional environment.
It is paradoxical that, despite the Arab and Islamic aversion towards US policies, the harsh sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran produced no manifestation of solidarity or popular protest in the Arab world or Islamic world or even globally.
We have not witnessed this attitude in other cases. For example, there were widespread protests in Arab and Islamic countries and in Europe and other countries following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Once again, Hezbollah is trying to reinvest in the Palestinian cause but it does not realise that it came at a time when it has exploited it to the point that it has become hard to be dragged behind it in the name of Palestine or in the name of the danger of settling the Palestinians in Lebanon.
Not long ago, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah called on all Lebanese and Palestinians to stand in the face of the danger of settling Palestinians in Lebanon because of the repercussions of the so-called “Deal of the Century.”
Hezbollah and Iran behind it have invested in the Palestinian disunity since the 1990s and the outcomes of that policy were nothing more than a gift for the Israeli entity at the expense of the unity of the Palestinian people.
This investment in dividing the Palestinians was not aimed at liberating Jerusalem or the Palestine territories. Rather, the Palestinian card was again and again to gain influence throughout the Arab region, after contributing to the overthrow of the state apparatus in these countries.
Israel was an objective partner in the Iranian gains, so that the “divine victories,” to borrow the term used by Hezbollah to characterise its victories over the opponents of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, resulted in further Israeli expansion and influence in the Arab region and in Syria, which is assured of the survival of the Assad regime.
The issue of settling the Palestinians in Lebanon is another card in the bazaar of the Iranian agenda for the Arab region. This agenda could not care less about the Lebanese state or about the Palestinian rights, rights that have long been used and abused by the forces of resistance in Lebanon since the time of the Syrian tutelage to blackmail the Lebanese state or as a platform for exporting violence and preventing the state from taking charge of the country.
Indeed, since the cessation of Palestinian military action against the Israeli occupation across the Lebanese border, the weapon of the Palestinian cause has become the main instrument for settling internal grudges and agendas, for sending security warnings and for manipulating the Palestinians and recruiting them willingly or unwillingly into the service of Iranian and Syrian agendas.
So today, when Hezbollah raises the slogan of preventing the settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon, it is using a just cause for evil intentions.

A tale of two Lebanons
Dan Azz/ Annahar/June 02/ 2019
Based on MoF data, 60% of Lebanese makes less than $1000 per month and 82% make less than $3,333.
I heard that one of my favorite restaurants is closing. I love that place, not because you can glimpse the who’s who in the country, but the food and service are great, and the charming manager reminds me of a bygone era.
I dress like I don’t belong there, so one waiter, Fouad, with whom I established familiarity, told me that when he saw me the first time, with my T-shirt, shorts, and backpack, whispered to his buddy, “This guy will end up doing dishes today.” Frankly, when I got the bill, I contemplated offering them my dishwashing services.
The manager, always dressed impeccably, and sporting trendy, quadrilateral-shaped glasses, like they were from the 1960’s, would always receive me with enthusiasm, despite my hopeless failure to meet her dress code standards.
One time, I was having lunch with my uncle Nasser, and we struck up a conversation with her.
“I’m a fan of your restaurant because your customers represent all the socioeconomic classes in Lebanon.”
She looked at me quizzingly.
“I mean it is frequented by the rich, the very rich, and the super rich.”
She burst out laughing and whispered, “That’s right, those two over there are super rich, ‘mitl afdalkon.’”
That’s when I corrected her, “No, ma’am. We’re the just the ‘mere’ rich.”
Another time I was having lunch with a friend of mine, Naaman, one of the most prominent Lebanese bankers. I ordered my usual gigantic côte de bœuf for two ... for just me. Normally, the Chef cuts it up, making it look a civilized, but I always ask them to keep it intact — a huge, thick piece of meat, wrapped around a humongous bone, like a giant chicken drumstick. He, being vegetarian, ordered some lettuce with a couple of unidentified leaves, the contrast embarrassingly exposing my barbarous choice. So I fell to counterattack:
“Hey Naaman, do you realize that my order is an aphrodisiac?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when women see me eating something like this, it attracts them, because it brings out the old raw instincts from the stone-age days, when a powerful man would kill a mammoth or Ursus Spelaeus, and drag it back to the cave, eat a raw piece of meat, while grunting and holding it by the giant bone.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You look like a caveman.”
And just as he said that, two stunning girls sitting next to us interrupt and ask me:
“Excuse me Monsieur, what kind of meat is that?”
“Côte de bœuf for two.”
“Wow. Will you eat that all alone?”
I turn to Naaman and wink with that ‘I rest my case’ look.” But despite the experiential sales pitch, he’s still vegetarian.
So who is the clientele who frequent all the different expensive downtown restaurants? Let’s examine that market segment.
According to one of the most respected Swiss private banks (banks that specialize in high net-worth individuals), 3 per 1000 of Lebanon’s population are millionaires. That would be 13,500 millionaires. Unlike the stereotypical Lebanese definition, professionals define a millionaire as someone whose net worth is $1 million excluding their primary home. So if you live in a $10 million mansion and have $10,000 in cash, you’re not a millionaire. This may seem strange to the typical Lebanese, but from an economic perspective, if you haven't sold your mansion and bought a smaller one, and upgraded your lifestyle, your effect on the economy is negligible (and you won’t be seen at the typical downtown restaurant). Thus, a large chunk of these 13,500 are the same group who alternates between the different expensive restaurants. Generally, you’ll recognize them because they’re always running into each other and you’ll see them exchange kisses and “Weinak mich mbayyan?” even though they just ran into each other in the restaurant next door the week before.
You could also validate this estimate by analyzing deposits in banks. According to BDL data, less than 1% of depositors own more than 52% of deposits; and 8% of depositors own 85% of deposits.
Based on MoF data, 60% of Lebanese makes less than $1000 per month and 82% make less than $3,333. That makes the middle class around 13%. You will sometimes run into these guys at the fancy restaurants, trying to play “keeping up with the Joneses.” You can’t really tell the difference from just looking, which one is the 0.3% and which one is the 13%. Both groups will wear the Rolex, Chanel bag, and Hermès belt. Texans call the latter “Big Hat, No Cattle.” There’s a subtle hint, though — they will recognize and kiss each other less often, because they don’t frequent the places as much as the 0.3%.
If you hang out exclusively in this world, watching sunsets at Iris or enjoying a show at Music Hall, you’ll be forgiven for believing the country is doing fine, because your economic analysis is derived from that personal experience. “What are you talking about? There’s a recession? Yesterday I couldn’t get a reservation at Latest Rooftop a week in advance.” The truth is that there are two Lebanons, Marie-Antoinette’s “They have no bread, let them eat brioche” Lebanon and Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum Lebanon. They both exist, simultaneously, but in parallel universes, and rarely shall the two interact meaningfully. Maybe when you're valet parking or get to know your waiter better or stuck at a traffic light, full of panhandlers ... or watching the movie Capernaum, nominated for a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. That nomination generated ambivalent feelings among most Lebanese — pride in Nadine’s (or our) nomination, but shame in not wanting to display our dirty underwear to the rest of the world.
If you make $6,666 per month, that puts you in the top 1.4% in the country; however, after school tuition of $20,000 per year, mortgage payments, car payments, two electricity bills, and a water bill, this is not sufficient for you to go to a fancy restaurant with a $200 bill, more than once or twice a month. Thus even if your income is at the edge of the top 1%, you’d barely be able to eek out a middle class existence.
In the old days, the 0.3% were fairly immune to downturns, because their income was generated from stable sources, like the Gulf, monopolies, and existing, inherited safe wealth; safe, but for the stupidity of the next generation blowing it on conspicuous consumption or dumb investments they got talked into by a smooth operator, lower on the pyramid — the economic Piranha of Lebanese society.
Today, only a third of the 0.3% fall into the category of stable wealth. The rest made their money through the bubbles, get rich quick schemes, artificially high interest rates, and other temporary phenomena, that today are unwinding, with much of their wealth tied up in illiquid real estate and very ominous and regular debt payments.
Maybe that’s why my favorite restaurant, which survived seemingly darker days, could be closing now.
*Dan Azzi is a regular contributor to Annahar. He has recently been invited to be an Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard University, a program for senior executives to leverage their experience and apply it to a problem with social impact. Dan’s research focus at Harvard will be economic and political reform in a hypothetical small country riddled with corruption and negligence. Previously, he was the Chairman and CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Lebanon.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 02-03/2019
Israel Strikes Syria Following Rocket Fire; 10 Syrian, Iranian, Hezbollah Militants Said Killed
Jack Khoury, Yaniv Kubovich and Noa Shpigel/Haaretz/June 02/ 2019
Israel says airstrikes targeted military sites in Syria after rockets fired at Golan Heights ■ Watchdog reports 10 killed, seven of which said to be Iranian, Hezbollah militants.
Syrian air defenses intercepted projectiles fired from Israel, state media reports. Nasrallah says Hezbollah has precision missiles that could strike targets throughout Israel. Israel strikes Syrian anti-aircraft target and a spying device in Lebanon. The Israeli army confirmed Sunday that it had struck a number of military targets in Syria overnight Saturday after two rockets were fired toward the Golan Heights. Syrian state media reported that three Syrian soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in the strike, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 10 were killed, seven of which were Iranian and Hezbollah militants. Another outlet, aligned with the Assad regime, reported that five Syrians were killed. The Syrian government has not confirmed either report. Israel said its airforce struck a number of targets, including two artillery batteries, a number of observation posts near the border, and an air defense battery.  Syrian state media said rockets were fired by Israel into the province of Quneitra, which borders Israel. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights meanwhile reported that the strike targeted Iranian and Hezbollah facilities. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday on Twitter that he had held "security consultations after Saturday's rocket fire at the Golan Heights, in which I instructed the army to respond firmly. "We will not tolerate fire in our territory and are retaliating with might against any aggression against us. This is a consistent policy that I've been leading and will continue leading for Israel's security," Netanyahu said. No injuries were reported when the rockets were fired at Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights on Saturday night, and the Israeli army noted that the incident is being looked into. According to initial assessments by the Israeli army, the rockets were not fired by mistake toward Israel and were not errant fire spilling over from internal fighting in Syria, as has sometimes been the case in similar incidents. This assessment is based on the fact that there currently aren't any massive exchanges of fire in Syrian territory close to the border with Israel. One of the rockets struck an unpopulated area near a military outpost on Mount Hermon, while the other landed in Syria. On Monday, the Israeli military said it struck a Syrian military target in Quneitra after an anti-aircraft missile was launched earlier at an Israeli fighter jet. A report in the Lebanese media outlet Al Mayadeen said an Israeli drone struck a surveillance system in southern Lebanon. An additional report said the Lebanese army was at the scene investigating the device, which is said to be Israeli. According to Syrian state media, one officer was killed and two others were wounded in the strike, which took place Monday afternoon. The report added that Syrian air defense attacked an unmanned aerial vehicle that entered Syrian airspace near the southern suburb. Following the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would respond "fiercely and forcefully" in the event of a Syrian attack on Israel. Israeli intelligence assessments recently warned that Iran and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah may initiate incidents that would lead to an escalation in the Golan Heights, as part of Tehran's efforts to combat U.S. sanctions and Israeli strikes against Iranian forces in Syria.
*Reuters contributed to this report.

Netanyahu Fires Two Key Ministers ahead of Israeli Polls
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 02/2019/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired two prominent ministers Sunday ahead of general elections set for September, the second time the country will go to the polls this year, an official said.An official from Netanyahu's office confirmed on condition of anonymity that Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked had been fired, without providing further details. Both are right-wing rivals to Netanyahu and had broken off from his Likud party years earlier. Their New Right party failed to win enough votes in April 9 elections to clear the threshold to join parliament. It is not clear if they will run again in the polls set for September 17. The pair issued a statement saying they were being replaced and thanking the Israeli public, but did not provide details. Ministers remain in their posts immediately after Israeli elections, until the formation of the next administration. Netanyahu failed to build a coalition after the April polls and opted instead for parliament to dissolve itself and approve new elections. That prevented Israeli President Reuven Rivlin from selecting someone else to form a government. Netanyahu has frequently clashed with Bennett, but it was unclear why he chose to dismiss him and Shaked now. Both Shaked and Bennett also served in Netanyahu's security cabinet, and the Jerusalem Post quoted sources close to the prime minister saying their service should not continue after they were rejected by voters. The sackings could also allow Netanyahu to use the vacated ministries for pre-election bargaining.

Pompeo Says U.S. Prepared to Talk to Iran 'with No Preconditions'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 02/2019/U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday his country was ready to talk with Tehran "with no preconditions," but with no indication lifting sanctions over Iran's nuclear program is on the table. The top U.S. diplomat, who is considered a hawk on the Iran file, appeared to soften the U.S. stance somewhat following weeks of escalating tensions with Tehran. "We are prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions," Pompeo said in Switzerland, which in the absence of U.S.-Iranian diplomatic ties represents Washington's interests in the Islamic Republic. "We are ready to sit down with them," Pompeo told a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis at the impressive medieval Castelgrande castle in Bellinzona, nestled in the Alps in Switzerland's Italian-speaking Ticino region. He was reacting to comments made by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday insisting that his country would not be "bullied" into talks with the United States, and that any dialogue between the two countries needed to be grounded in "respect." But Pompeo appeared to immediately back-pedal on the offer to have condition-free talks with Iran, stating that Washington was "certainly prepared to have (a) conversation when the Iranians will prove they are behaving as a normal nation."
'Malign activity'
Pompeo's comments mark the first time the Trump administration has offered no-strings-attached talks since the recent escalation began in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from a hard-won 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. But Pompeo stressed that "the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue." In other words, Washington has no intention to let up on its campaign of "maximum pressure" on Iran. Pompeo himself last year laid out 12 draconian demands he said Iran would need to meet before reaching a "new deal" with the United States, essentially addressing every aspect of Iran's missile program and what Washington calls its "malign influence" across the region. Washington has since reimposed sanctions, and has been locked in an increasingly tense standoff with Tehran. Last month it deployed an aircraft carrier task force, B-52 bombers and an amphibious assault ship to the Gulf, along with additional troops against what Washington's leaders believed was an imminent Iranian plan to attack U.S. assets.But at the same time, Trump has over the past week toned down the rhetoric, saying Washington does not seek "regime change" in Iran and holding out the possibility of talks. He said the U.S. was merely "looking for no nuclear weapons," adding that "I really believe that Iran would like to make a deal. I think that's very smart of them and I think there's a possibility for that to happen also."
Swiss mediation?
Swiss Foreign Minister Cassis meanwhile voiced his country's readiness to play the role of "intermediary" between the two countries. But he stressed Switzerland could not be "mediators if there is not willingness on both sides."Cassis also voiced concern about the "great suffering" in Iran brought about by the U.S. sanctions, and urged Washington to identify a financial "channel" to allow the Iranians to purchase humanitarian aid without being slapped with U.S. punitive measures. Pompeo did not respond directly to this request, but he rejected the notion that U.S. sanctions were causing suffering, instead blaming the leadership in Tehran. The challenges facing Iranians "are not caused by our economic sanctions," he said. "They're caused by 40 years of the Islamic regime not taking care of their people and instead using their resources to destroy lives." He meanwhile preferred to remain discreet about efforts, largely led by Switzerland, to ensure the release of a handful of American citizens being held in Iran, stating only that the issue was a top priority for Trump, and that Washington is "working with all willing nations to assist us."

US flexes military muscle in Arabian Sea but open to ‘no preconditions’ Iran talks
News Agencies/June 02/2019/BELLINZONA, Switzerland: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that the Trump administration is ready for unconditional discussions with Iran in an effort to ease rising tensions that have sparked fears of conflict. But the United States will not relent in trying to pressure Iran to change its behavior in the Middle East, America’s top diplomat said. His comments came as the US military conducted exercises in the Arabian Sea with a B-52 bomber and an aircraft carrier dispatched to the region in response to an Iranian threat. The exercise saw F/A-18 Super Hornets, MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters and E-2D Growlers from the USS Abraham Lincoln fly with the B-52 bomber, the Air Force said Sunday. The aircraft also “simulated strike operations” in the exercise, which took place on Saturday. In a reminder that tensions are still high, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Sunday that US military vessels in the Gulf are within range of Iranian missiles and warned warned that any clash between the two countries would push oil prices above $100 a barrel. Pompeo repeated long-standing US accusations that Iran is bent on destabilizing the region, but he also held out the possibility of talks as President Donald Trump has suggested.
Pompeo made the talks offer during a visit to Switzerland, the country that long has represented American interests in Iran, as part of a European trip aimed at assuring wary leaders that the US is not eager for war. “We're prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions,” Pompeo said. “We're ready to sit down with them, but the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue.”Pompeo’s meeting with Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis in the southern Swiss town of Bellinzona came amid concerns about the potential for escalation and miscalculation with Iran — a situation that has many in Europe and the Middle East on edge. Cassis, whose country has been an intermediary between the two before, made no secret of that nervousness. “The situation is very tense. We are fully aware, both parties are fully aware, of this tension. Switzerland, of course, wishes there is no escalation, no escalation to violence,” he said.
Cassis said Switzerland would be pleased to serve as an intermediary, but not a “mediator,” between the United States and Iran. To do so, however, would require requests from both sides, he said. Pompeo thanked Switzerland, which serves as the “protecting power” for the US in Iran, for looking after Americans detained there. Trump administration officials have suggested they would look positively at any move to release at least five American citizens and at least two permanent US residents currently imprisoned in Iran. Pompeo declined to comment on whether he had made a specific request to the Swiss about the detainees. But, he said the release of unjustly jailed Americans in Iran and elsewhere is a U.S. priority. Pompeo was in Switzerland on the second leg after Germany of a four-nation tour of Europe in which he is both trying to calm nerves and stressing that the US will defend itself and not relent in raising pressure on Iran with economic sanctions.
Despite the firm stance, Trump has signaled a willingness to talk with Iran's leadership. Iranian officials have hinted at the possibility but also insisted they will not be bulled. “If they want to talk, I'm available,” Trump said last week, even as Pompeo and the White House national security adviser, John Bolton, were stepping up warnings that any attack on American interests by Iran or its proxies would draw a rapid and significant US response. The US is sending hundreds of additional troops to the region after blaming Iran and Iranian proxies for recent sabotage to tankers in the Gulf and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure. Some analysts believe Iran is acting to restore leverage it has lost since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and the US reimposed sanctions that have hobbled Iran’s economy. Last month, the administration ended sanctions waivers that had allowed certain countries to continue to import Iranian oil, the country's main source of revenue, without US penalties. The U.S. also designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards a “foreign terrorist organization,” adding new layers of sanctions to foreigners that might do business with it or its affiliates. Despite the US withdrawal, Iran has remained a party to the nuclear deal that involves the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Germany and the European Union. On Friday, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog reported that Iran may be in violation of limits on the number of advanced centrifuges it can use. Pompeo declined to comment on the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency other than to say the US is “watching closely” what is going on in Iran.

Netanyahu Ignores Political Crisis, Addresses Syrian Missiles At Cabinet Meeting
Jerusalem Post/June 02/2019/This was the first cabinet meeting since the Knesset voted last week to dissolve itself and call for new elections. Netanyahu in his opening statement did not address the country's political crisis. srael will not tolerate missile attacks on its territory and will respond forcefully to any aggression against it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting in relation to two missiles fired from Syria toward Israel on Saturday night. “Yesterday, two missiles were fired toward Israel from Syrian territory,” Netanyahu said. “One struck inside Syria and the other hit our territory on the Golan Heights. I held security consultations following the attack and I ordered the IDF to take strong action, which it did, striking several targets,” he said. Netanyahu’s said that this has been Israel’s consistent policy until now, and it is the policy that the government will continue going forward. This was the first cabinet meeting since the Knesset voted last week to dissolve itself and call for new elections, and Israel will be governed by a transition cabinet – which has been the case since the last elections on April 9 – until a new government is expected to be formed after the upcoming September 17 elections.Netanyahu, in his opening statement, did not address the country’s unprecedented political crisis. After the cabinet meeting, however, the PMO announced that Netanyahu had dismissed two ministers from this transition cabinet – Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. They were both also members of the security cabinet. Netanyahu has not yet named their replacement.

UK Bank Account Drops From Pro-Iranian, Hezbollah Group Behind Al-Quds-Day
Jerusalem Post/June 02/2019/The United Kingdom Lawyers for Israel announced on Sunday that the British bank TSB no longer appears on the donation section of the website for the radical Islamic IHRC, which has links to Iran and the UK designated terrorist organization Hezbollah.
In a statement sent to The Jerusalem Post by Caroline Turner, Director of UKLFI, the organization wrote: “TSB bank details have disappeared from the ‘other ways to donate’ page of the website of International Human Rights Commission (IHRC), organizer of the annual al-Quds Day march in London which promotes the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”Turner said “There are many organizations that purport to be charitable but have links with and are cheerleaders for vicious terrorist organizations. Banks should not be providing financial services to such organizations.”
The UKLFI statement noted that: “The page had given donors the bank details of the related charity, IHRC Trust’s TSB bank account, so that they could make their donations through bank transfers. Now a message says that the page is ‘being updated.”’
UKLFI added that: “This follows submissions earlier this year from UKLFI to TSB, and to its owner, the Spanish Sabadell Group, pointing out that IHRC promoted the Hezbollah terrorist organization, was associated with antisemitism and extremism and requesting that they withdraw banking services from IHRC Trust and IHRC.”
The UK’s Charity Commission is presently investigating the relationship between two entities that fall under the rubric of IHRC: Islamic Human Rights Commission Limited, a UK limited company number, and Islamic Human Rights Commission Trust.
The UK proscribed all of the Lebanese organization Hezbollah as a terrorist entity in February. The US, Canada, the Netherlands, the Arab League, and Israel also classify Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
Post queries to TSB bank and the IHRC were not immediately returned on Sunday. It is unclear if TSB pulled the plug on its account with IHRC due to the recent ban of Hezbollah in the UK.
According to UKLFI, IHRC encourages its supporters to “bring a Hezbollah flag to the al-Quds Day March.” IHRC is the principal organizer of the al-Quds Day in London.
Al-Quds Day in London has featured Hezbollah flags over the years.
The Islamic Republic of Iran initiated the al-Quds Day in 1979 to support the Palestinian cause and reject the existence of Israel. The original declaration states: “Israel, the enemy of mankind, the enemy of humanity... must realize that its masters are no longer accepted in the world and must retreat.”
Activists who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign targeting Israel are integral part of the these rallies in London, Berlin and Vienna.
The UKLFI noted “The IHRC has published several posts on its website praising Omar Abdul Rahman, the extremist cleric who served a life sentence, for involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot, and urging people to write to Rahman with messages of support. Upon his death in prison in 2017 he was called by the IHRC ’a man of principal and unshakable faith.”’
“At the 2018 Al-Quds Day March, one speaker, Shaykh Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour, said Israel should be 'wiped from the map'and claimed Zionists’ 'days are numbered,'” documented UKLFI.
UKLFI noted the links between Saeid Reza Ameli, one of IHRC’s current directors, and formerly a trustee of IHRC Trust (1997-2016), who is an Iranian national, and is currently cooperating with Iranian regime institutions. Ameli is a faculty member and the founder of the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran.
“On 12 June 2017, Ameli participated in a conference of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during Ramadan with many Iranian government officials,” wrote UKLFI.

Iran, Turkey to Establish Joint Bank in Face of US Sanctions
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazzak/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 02 June, 2019/Iran and Turkey are working on establishing a new anti-sanctions financial mechanism to protect mutual trade and economic ties and face US sanctions, announced Iran’s Ambassador to Turkey Mohammad Farazmand.
The ambassador explained that Iran exports a large volume of gas to Turkey and needs a new mechanism to be created to ease financial transactions via both countries’ national currencies. “We are on the process of establishing a joint bank, as well,” he told Mehr news agency. Farazmand noted that all countries are entitled to develop common trade ties with each other and nothing illegal has been done in this regard, however, he said that this is not done to prevent US sanctions, and Tehran does not want to circumvent regulations. “However, the US is carrying out economic terrorism besides sanctions on Iran which is violating our countries’ rights.”Ankara is Tehran’s economic partner, as Turkey's trade with Iran in 2010 reached $10 billion, peaking in 2012 when it reached $21.9 billion, only to decline after that. Earlier, Turkey's exports to Iran reached a record high of $9.9 billion, but in 2017 it fell sharply to $3.3 billion. The downward trend in 2018 continued to $2.4 billion. Turkey's imports from Iran have dropped from $12.5 billion in 2011 to $7.5 billion in 2017 and $6.9 billion in 2018. With the Turkish lira crisis that emerged last year, Ankara began to consider doing business with a number of countries including Iran, Russia, and China in local currencies but has not achieved concrete steps in this regard. Turkey halted imports of crude oil from Iran in early May in compliance with US sanctions, from which Turkey was exempted for six months. In other news, Turkey's financial markets have seen large-scale sell-off in recent months, casting a shadow over the future of the country's economy. London-based research firm Capital Economics said in a note to its clients that the return to growth looks as though it will prove short-lived. The note explained that the sell-off in “Turkish financial markets over the past couple of months has caused financial conditions to tighten. And we doubt that government spending will continue to rise at such a rapid pace.”
Turkey faces further political instability after the result of the key mayoral vote on May 06 in Istanbul was overturned and determined for June 23. After three-quarters of negative growth, Turkey’s gross domestic product (gdp) grew 1.3 percent in Q1 of the year compared to the previous quarter, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed. But the effects of the recession mean that the economy is still 2.6 percent smaller than it had been a year earlier. Turkey’s economy fell into recession for the first time since 2009 when it suffered two straight quarters of contraction to finish last year, after months of turmoil caused by the weakening lira and tensions with the United States. Analysts believe the re-growth recorded in Q1 was driven by stimulus measures introduced by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of the polls on March 31 and could prove to be temporary. The government tried to support the lira after it lost close to 30 percent of its value last year and boosted public spending ahead of the elections, but the lira receded in April bringing its losses since the beginning of the year to about 15 percent. However, the volatility of the central bank’s foreign reserves, which inexplicably plunged in the run-up to the local elections, alarm the investors. The central bank has since vowed to tighten spending, with governor Murat Cetinkaya saying he will take a firm stance against inflation, currently close to 20 percent, and protect its foreign currency reserves, reported AFP. The Central Bank's financial and banking statistics showed that the total reserves reached $93.547 billion until the week ending May 24. The central bank's net foreign exchange reserves rose to $73.92 billion as of May 24.

LNA Announces Downing Turkish Drone in Tripoli Battles
Cairo - Khaled Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 02 June, 2019/Marshal Khalifa Haftar-led Libyan National Army (LNA) announced Saturday downing a Turkish drone south of the country’s capital, Tripoli. “The defenses of the Libyan Arab armed forces intercepted and hit a Turkish UCAV after it indiscriminately bombed neighborhoods and safe residential areas in the town of Gharyan,” the army’s media office said in a short press release. Operation Dignity’s Chamber accused Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) of imposing a siege on its areas where the army forces have access to humanitarian, food and medical needs. It issued a statement on Friday announcing the necessary quantities were provided to meet the needs of these areas’ residents. Sarraj forces, participating in the operation Borkan al-Ghadab (Volcano of Rage), announced its progress in the airport and Yarmouk outskirts after the heavy artillery targeted LNA sites. Spokesman for the Libyan army Colonel Mohammed Qannouno said the army’s military operations are progressing according to plan, and forces are gaining ground in all battlefronts. The recent air strikes on the military sites in Gharyan were rigorous, accurate, and painful for Haftar’s forces, Qannouno explained. The Libyan army has launched a large-scale attack on most fronts, in preparation for the decisive battle, according to the media office of the Volcano of Rage operation.

EU Rejects Israel’s Settlement Policy
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 2 June, 2019/The European Union on Saturday criticized Israeli plans for new construction in East Jerusalem neighborhoods, saying that Tel Aviv’s policy was an “obstruction to peace.”
The EU issued a statement condemning the policy of settlement construction and expansion in East Jerusalem which continues to undermine the possibility of a viable two-state solution with Jerusalem as the future capital of both states, which is the “only realistic way to achieve a just and lasting peace.”
“The European Union is strongly opposed to Israel's settlement policy, including in East Jerusalem, which is illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace. The EU will continue to engage with both parties and with its international and regional partners to support a resumption of a meaningful process towards a negotiated two-state solution,” concluded the statement. On Thursday, the Housing Ministry published tenders for the construction of 805 housing units in East Jerusalem with 460 housing units in Pisgat Zeev and 345 housing units in Ramot. Israeli media reported that almost all tenders are according to plans approved during the last two years and are intended to add housing units to the existing neighborhoods in a way that increases the density of the built-up area and does not actually expand the area on which the neighborhoods are spread. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli decision, saying that this construction falls within the framework of the settlement measures aimed at Judaizing the occupied East Jerusalem and its surroundings, and isolating it completely from its Palestinian surroundings. The Ministry affirmed that settlements are “a flagrant violation of international law, Geneva Conventions, international legitimacy and its resolutions,” adding that it is also a test to the international community’s ability to defend and protect its principles, values, and credibility in fulfilling its legal and moral responsibilities towards Palestinians. Israeli settlements continue to be an obstacle to achieving peace. In previous years, Israelis rejected Palestinian proposals to halt settlements’ construction in order to return to negotiations.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated that the Israeli Minister of Housing published the tenders of the settlements’ plan adopted since two years. The tenders are, according to approved plans, for areas that are already built and are only intended to add housing units in a way that increases density and does not actually expand the area on which the neighborhoods are spread. The Bureau accused the United States of encouraging Israel to settle, saying the occupation allows “settlement councils” to control large areas of region C.
The Israeli governments exploit the de facto situation imposed by the military occupation in order to manipulate the usage of the Palestinian territories, thereby restricting its usage to settlers. The authorities sometimes ordered the military commander to declare the Palestinian territories a natural reserve where Palestinians are not allowed to enter or use, or later abolishing that decision to later become an area for expanding the settlements in a blatant violation of international conventions and UN resolutions which call upon the occupying state not to change the environmental reality and the preservation of natural resources, and the cultural heritage in the occupied territories. The settlement councils took control of the land “in violation of the powers granted to them”, according to investigations including those conducted by Israeli organizations. The councils seized about 200,000 dunums in the southern Hebron hills and about 800,000 dunums the Jordan Valley. There are six regional councils in the West Bank, each of which runs a number of settlements.

Algerian Activists Slam Living Conditions of ‘Prisoners of Conscience’
Algeria – Bouallam Ghemraseh/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 2 June, 2019/Nongovernmental Algerian rights organizations prepared a list including 16 prisoners of conscience, four of whom have died over the past three years, and the last was activist Kamel Eddine Fekhar, whose funeral was held on Saturday. Fekhar’s funeral was attended by mass of people, including activists from the popular movements that have taken place in the country since February 22.One of the most controversial political prisoners is retired General Hussein Ben Hadid, 76, who suffers fractures in the pelvis after falling in Harrash prison in the eastern suburb of the capital. His legal team told reporters on Saturday that his physical weakness has prevented a surgical operation in the injured area. Bashir Mashri, a lawyer, said his injury “confirms that he hasn’t received his right to medical care in prison.”
Ben Hadid was put in pre-trial detention two weeks ago on charges of “weakening the army’s morale.”He published an article in a local newspaper criticizing Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gaid Salah and how he is handling the crisis. Human rights activists criticized his detention and considered him a prisoner of conscience, accusing Salah of taking his revenge from him for personal reasons. Ben Hadid described Salah five years ago as a “commander who is not respected by soldiers." He was jailed for eight months two years ago and was released after discovering he was seriously ill.
Although Bouteflika stepped down from power on April 2, Abdellah Ben Naoum, a political activist, who was accused of “insulting the president,” remains in prison west Algeria, serving a two-year sentence. His lawyers said his health condition is deteriorating because of a hunger strike that has lasted more than 80 days now. Ben Naoum refuses to end the strike, telling his confidants that he was jailed for his positions on the former president. Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) has warned that he would end up like Fekhar, whose death has put the current authorities in great embarrassment.

Algeria Presidential Polls 'Impossible' on July 4
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 02/2019/It will be "impossible" to organize Algeria's presidential elections on July 4 as planned, the country's constitutional council said Sunday after the only two candidates were rejected. "The constitutional council rejects the candidature applications" and as a result has announced "the impossibility of holding presidential elections on July 4", according to a statement carried by national television. The polls were due to elect a successor to long-time leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who stood down in April in the face of mass protest.

Iraq: Two French Men Sentenced to Death for Joining ISIS
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 2 June, 2019/Two French men were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court after they were found guilty of being ISIS members, a prosecutor said. Iraq is conducting trials of thousands of suspected ISIS fighters, including hundreds of foreigners, with many arrested as the group's strongholds crumbled, Reuters reported. Sunday's sentences bring the number of French citizens facing the death penalty in Iraq to nine, the prosecutor noted, adding that another three are due to stand trial on Monday. "There was sufficient evidence to hand down a death sentence. They both were fighters of the terrorist IISIS organization," the prosecutor said of the convictions, which can be appealed. All the nine French men convicted so far were extradited to Iraq in February. According to Reuters, military sources at the time said that 14 French citizens were among 280 Iraqi and foreign detainees handed over by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

3 Bombings Strike Kabul Killing 1, Injuring 2 Reporters
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 2 June, 2019/Three explosions struck the Afghan capital on Sunday, killing at least one person and injuring 17 others, Afghan officials said. At least two Afghan journalists were also injured in the blasts, according to a local non-governmental media organization, the Associated Press (AP) reported. A sticky bomb attached to a bus carrying university students left one person dead and wounded ten others, said Nasrat Rahimi, spokesman for the interior ministry. Two roadside bombs were then detonated nearby about 20 minutes later. The two Afghan journalists killed were identified as, Ahmad Jawed Kargar and Mohammad Faseh Mutawakil, according to Nai, a media organization that supports open media in Afghanistan. Kargar, a photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency, confirmed he was injured by a secondary explosion in a video he posted to social media while being taken to the hospital. Nai said Mutawakil had been lightly wounded. According to AP, no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but both Taliban and ISIS militants are active in the capital and have staged attacks in Kabul.

Damascus Slams Mecca Summit Endorsement of Syria Transition
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 02/2019/Syria denounced Sunday the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's endorsement of a longstanding U.N.-backed proposal for a transitional governing body integrating opposition elements in the conflict hit country, state media said. The 57-member OIC met in the holy Saudi city of Mecca this week and in its closing statement on Saturday threw its support behind a 2012 Geneva communique calling for the establishment of a transitional governing body in Syria with full executive powers. "The closing communique of the summit only expresses the obvious and continuous dependence of these countries on their masters in the West," a source at the Syrian foreign ministry told state news agency SANA. Harking back to the Geneva proposals "and the idea of a government transitional body (...) confirms the chronic blindness of participating states to developments" in Syria in recent years, the source added. U.N.-sponsored negotiations have been gradually eclipsed by parallel Moscow-backed negotiations known as the Astana process. The Astana process was launched in January 2017 by Russia and Iran -- allies of the Damascus regime -- and by Turkey, which backs rebels in Syria's eight year civil war. The OIC on Saturday also denounced Washington's decision on March 25 to recognize Israel's claim of sovereignty over the part of the Golan Heights it seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. But Syria's government said "it was not waiting for support or a statement from this summit or others like it to assert its right over the Golan," SANA said. Regionally, the United Arab Emirates has begun a rapprochement with Damascus, by opening an embassy after years of closure, while relations have also improved with Bahrain and Jordan. But regional power -- and former Syrian opposition backer -- Saudi Arabia remains hostile to President Bashar al-Assad, who has made a military comeback with Russian military support since 2015, clawing back almost two-thirds of the country's territory. Syria's multi-fronted war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it began with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

Faleh Extends Apology to Residents of Cut-off Areas in Southern Saudi Arabia
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 2 June, 2019/Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, Khaled Al-Faleh, has extended his personal apology to all residents of the southern region. Al-Falih said through his personal twitter account: "I personally apologize to all the residents of the cut-off areas in the southern Kingdom that are dear to us, because of a technical emergency, and assure you that my ministry colleagues are following the service restoration efforts that led to this interruption. ""It has also been reported that electricity has been restored to many subscribers and that it would be returned to those who would stay in a few hours, God willing, I work with the brothers of the relevant authorities to make in the light of the circumstances of this emergency technical day and the reasons why he delayed his reform, and to detain those who are in default," he tweeted.

Every Night, Jail Becomes Home for Leading Egyptian Dissident
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 02/2019/The days and nights of Alaa Abdel Fattah, Egypt's leading dissident, follow a disorienting rhythm where he is freed every morning from a filthy police cell and then jailed again at sunset. It is a harrowing routine that forces Abdel Fattah, 37, to measure out his life in one-hour increments for the next five years as he copes with a draconian probation period after being released from full-time prison in March. "There isn't a moment throughout the day when probation does not consume me or I think of it," he told AFP in his first interview with international media since his release. After serving his five-year term for demonstrating against a restrictive 2013 protest law, he now has to turn himself in to a police station near his home at 6 pm every evening and stay overnight in a cell there until 6 am. In the mornings, Abdel Fattah spends time with his son Khaled and drops him off for swimming lessons or kindergarten. The computer programmer and blogger then tries to carve out a chunk of time to work on his coding projects. In between his errands and work commitments, he meets his lawyers and friends, files complaints about his treatment and then around 4 pm he starts planning how to head back home as traffic chokes the city. "I try to have little tasks for myself every day so I can have a sense of achievement," Abdel Fattah said. "Even basic biological functions, I have to think of because there isn't a clean toilet when I'm there overnight."His split reality, a free man by day and a prisoner in solitary confinement by night, has already taken its toll. "There's a deep level of insult that I'm cooperating with the state in the destruction of my life everyday... which puts such immense psychological pressure on someone."
'Closed off'
Abdel Fattah's disjointed life has also affected his family who worry for his safety in the police station with no communication once he is inside. He is not allowed any mobile phones or laptops overnight. Abdel Fattah's sister Mona Seif, also a human rights advocate, said she still cannot process how her brother is imprisoned daily. She said she is determined to keep advocating against the unfair probation conditions for him and others."It's such a disconcerting feeling to see your brother locked up every day... He is only 10 minutes away from home," she told AFP. "I truly believe that it's their wish that Alaa remain completely closed off from the world, along with his family and lawyers and his life, until the morning."His mother Laila Soueif, herself a prominent rights activist on Egypt's political scene for decades, has criticized the application of an arcane law dating back to 1945 stipulating probation conditions. She recounts the struggle it took just to get permission for her son to share the iftar meal with his family that break the day-time fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends next week. The cherished daily ritual fell after his evening deadline and at first he was forced to be in his cell. In protest Soueif with family and friends in early May began holding the meal every sunset outside the police station. One evening an officer tried to snatch away a dessert plate she had brought to Abdel Fattah -- but Soueif was unmoved. "The policeman thought if he took it away from us that we would leave Alaa... It's quite farcical," she said. Authorities eventually allowed him to spend iftar with his family after many people voiced their feelings on social media that he was being deliberately targeted unlike others under probation. "I am worried about him that it is causing so much anxiety for him. But even this extra hour and a half has made such a difference because he is spending some time with us and his son Khaled," Soueif said.
'Rendered invisible'
Dubbed "the icon of the revolution" that unseated longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Abdel Fattah still speaks out on his social media accounts about political repression in Egypt. He argues for others also forced to spend their nights in jail, such as award-winning photojournalist Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, known as Shawkan. Abdel Fattah said national security officers had threatened him twice to stop talking about his probation publicly or else he would be sent back to jail indefinitely. AFP contacted the ministry of interior's spokesperson several times for confirmation but received no comment. Rights groups have roundly criticized Egypt's enforcement of the probation law saying it is used in order to punish and silence dissidents. "They (the authorities) are not dealing with us as humans, they are treating us solely as political animals who give them a lot of headaches," Abdel Fattah explained. In the last decade, he has garnered the dubious honor of being jailed under Mubarak, his Islamist successor Mohamed Morsi and current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.But, politics is far from his mind as he tries to rebuild a semblance of normal life despite the hectic pace of the capital Cairo. "I now have no role to play politically in public life... that for them is not enough," said Abdel Fattah. "They want me to be so oppressed that I am rendered invisible... I really don't see an end to this ordeal."

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 02-03/2019
"Rarely Reported by the Media Anymore": Persecution of Christians, March 2019
ريموند إبراهيم: وقائع اضطهاد المسيحيين في العالم خلال شهر آذار/2019 وهو اضطهاد نادراً ما تركز عليه وسائل الإعلام
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 02/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75410/%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%A5%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%8A%D9%85-%D9%88%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D8%B6%D8%B7%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%8A/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14323/persecution-of-christians-march-2019
In 2018 alone, 1,063 attacks on Christian churches or symbols (crucifixes, icons, statues) were registered in France.
"I went to the police with eight pages full of threats.... The police advised me to delete my picture from my website.... It's strange isn't it: I'm not doing anything wrong, why would I need to hide? I live in a free country." — cruxnow.com. March 14, 2019; The Netherlands.
An Iranian female asylum seeker was sarcastically informed in her rejection letter that "You affirmed in your...[Interview Record] that Jesus is your saviour, but then claimed that He would not be able to save you from the Iranian regime. It is therefore considered that you have no conviction in your faith and your belief in Jesus is half-hearted." — Daily Mail, March 24, 2019; United Kingdom.
On Sunday, March 17, arsonists torched the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris soon after midday mass. Such incidences have become prevalent in France, where on average two churches are desecrated every day. Pictured: The Church of St. Sulpice. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
When it comes to violence between Muslims and non-Muslims, March news was dominated by the Christchurch massacres in New Zealand, where, on March 15, an Australian man killed 51 Muslims in two mosques. A statistical report that did some number-crunching, however, found that "a Christian living in a majority Muslim country is 143 times more likely to be killed by a Muslim for being a Christian than a Muslim is likely to be killed by a non-Muslim in a Western country for being what he is."
The report — citing that "at least 4,305 Christians ... were murdered by Muslims because of their faith in 2018" and that "300 million Christians, overwhelmingly in the majority-Muslim countries, were subjected to violence" — refers to the persecution of Christians by Muslims as "the most egregious example of human right violations in today's world. The report also found other, similar disparities. In France, for example, "Frenchmen are exactly ten times more likely to be murdered by a Muslim than a Muslim being killed by a non-Muslim terrorist anywhere in the Western world."
The Massacre of Christians
Nigeria: As in previous months, dozens of Christians were massacred and churches destroyed at the hands of Muslims in the West Africa nation. A partial list follows:
On March 4, Muslims slaughtered 23 Christian villagers. "It was bad," said a local in reference to the incident. "Some were killed by gunshots and some by machete hacks!... The displaced persons are scattered all over..."
Three days later, the Muslim terrorists launched another raid in the same area during which three people were killed. Commenting on that attack, a local pastor said, "Even today, they attacked. One of my members came to report that his father was killed, and another member said his son-in-law was also killed."
On March 11 Muslim tribesmen slaughtered more than 70 Christians and injured 28 in another region in Kaduna State. According to eyewitnesses, the terrorists were "torching houses, shooting and hacking down anything that moved." About 100 houses were destroyed in the attack. Another report noted that "[t]he victims included women and children. According to survivors, their assailants divided into three groups; one group was shooting, another set fire to homes as people ran away, and the third waited in the bush to intercept fleeing villagers."
On March 16, Muslim herdsmen killed another 10 Christians in southern Kaduna state, "bringing the lives lost in the past five weeks to 140 with 160 houses destroyed," according to the report. "We were all asleep in our various homes when at about 4 a.m., we heard gunshots everywhere in my village," said a local Christian. "Everyone ran out of their homes to escape from the Fulani herdsmen. Three hours after the herdsmen left, those of us who survived the attack returned to the village to find that [30 of] our houses were destroyed and 10 of our villagers killed."
On March 14, Boko Haram jihadis attacked another predominantly Christian village. Although most people managed to flee into the bush, the jihadis killed one person, kidnapped two sisters, and burned down a church and six homes. A church leader said the local pastor had called him soon after the raid: "I could hear desperation in his voice, just coming out of the bush. His voice sounded completely demoralized as he was saying only God... We don't know what else to do! There's no security presence here." The church leader further "regrets that these attacks are rarely reported on by the local media anymore. As a result, their people continue to suffer in silence, with minimal help from others."
On March 23, right after "beating, raping and killing a 19-year-old Christian woman," Muslims attacked two predominantly Christian villages, and burned down 28 Christian homes and two churches. Joy Danlami and her younger sister and brother, 16 and 14 respectively, were ambushed while walking home from a Christian community feast; the two younger siblings survived with machete and gunshot wounds. According to their father, "The armed herdsmen chased them with dangerous weapons. Joy's nose and face was battered, and then she was sexually assaulted by the herdsmen before being killed. She was shot."
After finding the slaughtered body of a kidnapped Catholic priest who had been abducted two weeks earlier, two other church leaders were also kidnapped on March 25. One of the men, the Rev. Emmanuel Haruna of the Evangelical Church Winning All, was seized at gunpoint outside his church. Earlier, in 2016 he had spoken out against Muslim tribesmen raids on Christian communities: "Fulani herdsmen take their cattle to farms of our church members and destroy their crops, and security agents have not been able to take measures to stop them." The report adds that "It is estimated by the United Nations Centre for Peace and Disarmament that of the 500 million illegal weapons that flooded into West Africa after the Libyan crisis in 2011, 350 million (70%) ended up in Nigeria, supplying the predominantly Muslim herders with added teeth in their campaign against Christian farmers."
On Sunday, March 10, "Boko Haram Suicide bombers tried to enter a Catholic Church service," says a report:
"The two bombers, who were women, tried to enter the church through a clinic before being stopped, and then detonating the bombs a short distance outside the church. Despite the two bombs going off, only one person other than the bombers was reportedly injured..... It is very likely that the two bombers were captives of Boko Haram who were forced to commit this attack. Boko Haram is known for kidnapping women and children and forcing them to act as suicide bombers for their attacks. In 2017, between January and August, UNICEF reported on at least 83 children having been used by the group as suicide bombers."
Democratic Republic of Congo: "Islamic militants," notes a report, "attacked the dominantly Christian village of Kalau in the North Kivu province." Six Christians, including three women and a 9-year-old child, were slaughtered. The rest of the villagers, "an estimated 470 families evacuated their homes following the incident." The terrorists are part of the Allied Democratic Forces, "a group that was designed to overthrow the Ugandan government in the 90's and replace it with an Islamic regime. The group has been known for associating with other terrorist groups such as al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda. They are responsible for thousands of deaths..."
Attacks on Churches
Ethiopia: In a rampage that lasted five hours, large Muslim mobs shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the greatest") attacked ten churches, "destroying one and burning the property inside all the structures," notes a report. The attacks, which were apparently sparked by a false rumor that a local mosque had been attacked, occurred in "a predominantly Muslim town with nearly all Christians there having moved from surrounding villages for work reasons, creating an underlying tension." Several Christians were injured and required hospital treatment. One of the desecrated churches has since been vandalized again, and its Christians threatened and harassed. Although only one church was destroyed during the rampage, "the other nine church buildings were not set ablaze only because of the risk to neighboring Muslim-owned properties," the report stated. Instead, "[t]he contents of all the churches were removed from the buildings and set on fire on the street.... Huge amounts of property were destroyed, including Bibles, song books, instruments, benches and chairs."
The report incorrectly refers to these attacks as "unprecedented." Last year, for example, 19 churches were torched — and 15 Christian priests killed, four burned alive — during Muslim uprisings in the east, where most of Ethiopia's 33% Muslim population is centered. Similarly, in 2011, after a Christian was accused of desecrating a Koran, "Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes."
Sudan: A report by the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), a UK based NGO, found that 72 churches were either torched or demolished in the Nuba Mountains region in 2018. Elaborating on these developments, a separate report noted that the
"Nuba Mountains is home to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement North, a rebel group fighting the oppression of the Sudanese National government. Due to this, the Sudanese government has been committing genocide against the people living in the Nuba Mountains for years.
"They indiscriminately bomb the region, trying to clear it of the rebel army. However, they often just kill and maim the local civilian population who has nothing to do with the fight. They also destroy homes and churches in the attacks. The people living in the Nuba Mountains are primarily traditional believers or Christians. This also contributes to the attacks, as Bashir, the countries president, believes that the country is only for Muslims ever since South Sudan gained its independence."
Sudan is considered the sixth-worst nation in the world in which to be Christian.
Germany: Four separate churches were vandalized or torched in March. "In this country," the report explained, "there is a creeping war against everything that symbolizes Christianity.... Crosses are broken, altars smashed, Bibles set on fire, baptismal fonts overturned, and the church doors smeared with Islamic expressions such as 'Allahu Akbar.'" In the Alps and Bavaria alone, around 200 churches were attacked and many crosses broken: "Police are currently dealing with church desecrations again and again. The perpetrators are often youthful rioters with a migration background."
France: On Sunday, March 17, arsonists torched the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris soon after midday mass. Such incidences have become prevalent in France, where on average two churches are desecrated every day. In the previous month, February, vandals plundered and used human excrement to draw a cross on the Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nimes and desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur . In 2018 alone, 1,063 attacks on Christian churches or symbols (crucifixes, icons, statues) were registered in France.
Algeria: Throughout March, Algerians protested against a fifth term for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. In an attempt to exploit the unrest, al-Qaeda publicized new content, calling for Sharia governance in the North African nation, and referred to those protesting against Bouteflika as the "sons of Islam," while presenting Bouteflika as "loyal to the Jews and Christians." According to the report, "Terrorist groups have a long history of attempting to take advantage of political unrest to capitalize upon and increase hardline Islamic sentiment. Christians are often used in their propaganda as part of their efforts." In reality, nevertheless, "Algerian Christians have faced heavy persecution at the hands of the government."
On March 3, in fact, the French Parliament "officially opened an inquiry into the persecution of Christians in Algeria," according to a separate report:
"The inquiry specifically points to Algeria's closure of churches and legal proceedings held against Christian leaders, including those who imported Christian books. Algeria uses building safety committees to shutter churches indefinitely. The authorities also create substantial obstacles for the opening of new churches, making it impossible and leaving Christians to worship in buildings intended for other uses. Algeria has cracked down against churches since 2017, increasingly forcing Christians out of the public sphere. The authorities have not only closed churches, but have also targeted Christian leaders. Algeria's constitution provides for the freedom of worship but declares Islam to be the state religion. Insulting or offending Islam is considered a criminal offense. In addition to imprisonment, convicted Christians can also face hefty fines if convicted of blasphemy."
Kazakhstan: Police raided two unregistered churches on two consecutive Sundays. Several members were fined; one had to pay the rough equivalent of two months wages. Discussing these developments, a separate report says:
"Since 2011, when the government introduced a new religion law, Christians have faced heightened restrictions on meetings and 'missionary activity.' To obtain registration, churches are required to provide the names and addresses of at least 50 members, an impossibility for smaller congregations. Kazakhstan is officially a secular state; around 70% of the population are Muslim, with Christians comprising about 26%. Many Christians are from a Russian background and some are ethnic Kazakhs who have converted from Islam. Protestant Christians, and especially those from a Muslim background, are viewed with great distrust."
Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Preachers
Netherlands: As evidence that "Christian refugees in the country are being threatened or bullied on a regular basis, especially when they used to be Muslim," a March 14 report recounted the experiences of three such Christian refugees:
"Directly after my conversion to Christianity" in 1999, after reaching the Netherlands, Faradoun Fouad from Iraq "received the first threats. People who I thought were my friends, became my enemies.... Even Muslims who are not very conservative told my wife that they would kill me.... I'm still getting threats every single day."
"After my conversion" to Christianity, "the threats started," said Esther Mulder, whose Muslim family fled Somalia. "Most of the time they're coming from other Somalis. They write to me in Somali, so no one else is able to understand what they're saying. We once posted [on Facebook] a picture of a Somali conference where everyone was standing in front of a cross. People didn't like it and we received several threats. I was really sorry about that." When Mulder visits her family, "my father leaves the house. The last thing he ever said to me, is that I'm no longer his daughter."
"In 2015 I became a Christian," said Jassim, from Morocco. "My mother taught me to respect everyone and to be kind. That was in stark contrast to what Islam was teaching me. I had to hate and curse Jews and Christians. Muhammed was my big role model, but his life was bad. He killed Jews and married a girl of six. How could he be my role model?" Due to the large volume of threats he was getting, "I went to the police with eight pages full of threats.... The police advised me to delete my picture from my website.... It's strange isn't it: I'm not doing anything wrong, why would I need to hide? I live in a free country."
Afghanistan: A former Islamic child soldier, Jahan, 24, who converted to Christianity — despite "threats to his life" — said he was taught to kill people who were Christian because they were "infidels and no good." He eventually, however, began "reading the Bible for himself," an experience he described as "eye opening." He discovered that "what he had been taught about Christians and Christianity was wrong" and eventually converted — only "to flee from his family who threatened to kill him when they heard about his new faith." According to the report, "Persecution in Afghanistan is extreme for the country's tiny Christian community. Most Afghani Christians are converts from Islam and face extremely real and extremely deadly threats because of their conversion. In some cases, Christian converts are attacked by their own family who are ashamed that one of their own has become a Christian." Afghanistan is considered the world's second-worst persecutor of Christians.
Kenya: Muslims beat the Christian pastor of an underground church with wooden clubs on March 6. He suffered, among other injuries, a broken thigh bone. According to the report, "Pastor Abdul (surname withheld for security reasons), a 30-year-old father of three, had finished leading a prayer gathering at 9 p.m. on the outskirts of Garissa and was on his way back to his house when several ethnic Somali Muslims attacked." As the Muslims approached, one said, "We have been following your movements and your evil plans of changing Muslims to Christianity." "Immediately," continues Pastor Abdul, "several assailants began hitting me with wooden clubs, and I became unconscious. I woke up and found myself surrounded by neighbors. I was rescued by the neighbors who found me in a pool of blood." They rushed him to a hospital: "Apart from the thigh pain, I now feel pain all over my body, especially the waist, the back and my left leg near the ankle. I'm almost unable to bear the pain. My family is in great fear, and Christians have located us to another place. Our prayer for now is to get a safe place for my family. My life and that of my family," a wife and three children, 8, 5, and 3, "is at stake."
Pakistan: A mentally ill Christian man was apprehended for blasphemy. Stephen Masih was arrested after Muhammad Rafiq and Muhammad Imran told Muhammad Mudassar—a renowned hafiz, one who has memorized the entire Koran—that the Christian "had made derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)," the report states. Stephen, 38, is unmarried and lives with his mother and sister. After contracting typhoid fever as a child, and receiving little medical attention due to his family's poverty, the family noticed changes in his behavior; he was eventually taken to a "doctor [who] declared him mentally disabled." On March 10, Stephen got into a loud quarrel with his mother and sister. Female Muslim neighbors soon got involved and before long "a few Muslim men ... pulled Stephen out of his house and started beating him brutally, gradually joined by others." Police eventually arrived and arrested Masih based on the testimony of the local cleric. Afterwards, his sister Alia "went to the police station. She says her brother only shouted and used abusive language against the local ladies but did not utter any derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), but the police didn't believe her." If convicted, Stephen could face the death penalty. According to Section 295-C of Pakistan's penal code, "Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine."
General Abuse and Rape of Christians
Pakistan: A Muslim man abducted, tortured and forced a married Christian mother of three to convert to Islam and marry him. When her original husband, Naveed Iqbal, reported the matter to police, the only action they took was "to alert the suspect, Muhammad Khalid Satti, that he [Naveed, the Christian husband] had filed a report against him for abducting his wife, Saima," says the report. Then, "[o]n March 5, police informed me, said Naveed, that Saima had been found ... but that she had converted to Islam and married Satti," and that "a local Muslim cleric had solemnized" their marriage. Local police further counseled him "to forget about his wife and stop pursuing the case," even though they had been married and raising children for 15 years. "Satti is a hardened criminal, and this is not the first time he has targeted Christians," the 40-year-old Catholic husband elaborated. "Some 300-400 Christian families live in the area, and almost everyone has been bullied or tortured by Satti and his accomplices over the years." It was only after Naveed threatened to set himself on fire before senior officers, that police arrested Muhammad. However, before the hearing, "the accused and the IO [Information Officer] both threatened Saima to say that she had converted to Islam and married Satti of her free will, otherwise her family would suffer severe consequences. Fearing for our lives, Saima said what she had been forced to say, resulting in grant of bail to Satti." The wife later told her husband how she was kidnapped, raped, tortured and then forced to sign a marriage certificate. "She also showed me the torture marks on her body, and how she had been coerced into submitting to the demands of her tormentor." Naveed decided to do all he could to get her justice, including uploading a widely watched video of his wife tearfully explaining her ordeal and appealing to Prime Minister Imran Khan for justice. "The video was a desperate attempt to get the attention of senior government officials, because the police were openly siding with the accused." It worked, and Muhammad was arrested again. Although reunited with her husband and three children, aged 4, 8 and 13, Naveed said his wife is suffering from post-traumatic stress: "She is not the same person now, but I have faith that the Lord will heal her spirit with time."
In a separate incident, three Muslim men kidnapped a 13-year-old Christian girl, forced her to convert to Islam and marry one of her abductors. When the girl's distraught family finally discovered her whereabouts, her new Muslim family insisted that she had willingly become Muslim and produced a forged marriage certificate falsely indicating that she was 18, the legal age of marriage.
Discussing the regular abuses Christian and other minorities suffer in Pakistan, an independent March 28 report says:
"Across Pakistan, women and girls from religious minority communities are targeted by extremists for abduction and forced conversion. According to the Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan, an estimated 1,000 girls and women, ranging in age between 12 and 25, are victimized by their cruel practice every year. Pakistan's Hindu and Christian communities are most effected.... Forced conversions to Islam remains one of the cruelest abuses suffered by Pakistan's minority communities. Practitioners of this abuse often use rape and forced marriage as a means to cover up their crime. To compound the matter, the majority of victims claim that Pakistan's police force is often unhelpful and regularly sides with the kidnappers because of their shared religious identity."
Egypt: On Sunday, March 17, the ruling court in Minya surprised the Coptic Christian community by recusing itself and stepped down from two ongoing cases concerning victimizing and killing Christians. Due to this unexpected move, both cases — which had already been at court for three and six years — must now be retried anew, a process that will likely take several more years.
The first case concerns Soa'd Thabet, a 70-year-old Coptic Christian grandmother. On May 20, 2016, a mob of 300 Muslim men descended on her home, stripped her completely naked, beat, spit on, and paraded her in the streets to jeers, whistles, and triumphant shouts of "Allahu Akbar." They were angry because her son was allegedly involved with a Muslim woman.
The second case goes back to July 2013, when General Abdel Fattah Sisi ousted then-President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, after massive popular demonstrations against Morsi. Then, Brotherhood sympathizers all around Egypt rioted, mostly targeting Coptic Christian people, homes, and especially churches. Almost one hundred churches were set ablaze or destroyed. During these rampages, rioters randomly killed an elderly Coptic man, Iskandar (Alexander) and dragged his body on the ground to jeers and more cries of "Allahu Akbar" (graphic video here). His corpse was then hurled into a garbage bin. For three days, his children were prevented from retrieving it for burial. An unknown person eventually buried Iskandar in an unmarked grave. His relentless murderers found the grave, exhumed the mangled body, propped it up, and used it for target practice.
In both the case of the Christian woman and the slaughtered Christian man, the names and faces of the assailants and murderers are well known. Commenting on the recusal, Adel Guindy, of Coptic Solidarity told Gatestone, "The judiciary system in Egypt, as well as the rest of the pillars of the state (often referred to as the 'deep state') have become impregnated with fundamentalist Islamic ideology, and are thus decidedly biased against Copts. The political leadership of the country takes no concrete corrective measures and, worse still, lets this ideology shape and dominate the society, through education and media."
United Kingdom: In two unrelated cases, the United Kingdom denied asylum to persecuted Christians by bizarrely citing the Bible and Islam. Both Christians, a man and a woman, are former Muslims who were separately seeking asylum from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the ninth-worst persecutor of Christians, particularly those who were formerly Muslims, as in these two cases.
In his rejection letter from the UK's Home Office, the Iranian man was told that biblical passages were "inconsistent" with his claim to have converted to Christianity after discovering it was a "peaceful" faith. The letter cited several biblical excerpts, including from Exodus, Leviticus, and Matthew, as supposed proof that the Bible is violent; it said Revelation was "filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence." The rejection letter concluded: "These examples are inconsistent with your claim that you converted to Christianity after discovering it is a 'peaceful' religion, as opposed to Islam which contains violence, rage and revenge."
In the second case, an Iranian female asylum seeker was sarcastically informed in her rejection letter that "You affirmed in your AIR [Asylum Interview Record] that Jesus is your saviour, but then claimed that He would not be able to save you from the Iranian regime. It is therefore considered that you have no conviction in your faith and your belief in Jesus is half-hearted." Discussing her experiences, the woman said: "When I was in Iran I converted to Christianity and the situation changed and the government were [sic] looking for me and I had to flee from Iran.... In my country if someone converts to Christianity their punishment is death or execution." Concerning the asylum process, she said that whenever she responded to her Home Office interviewer, "he was either chuckling or maybe just kind of mocking when he was talking to me.... [H]e asked me why Jesus didn't help you from the Iranian regime or Iranian authorities."
These two recently exposed cases appear to be symptomatic of the Home Office's bias against Christians (more fully documented here).
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

President Trump's Visit to Britain and Ireland
by Peter Baum/Gatestone Institute/June 02/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14326/trump-visit-britain-ireland
All people who are working to ensure that the free world remains free will welcome President Donald Trump's visit, which is presumably intended to cement even further the exceptional connection between the United Kingdom and the United States.
Given that hundreds of thousands of American troops lost their lives freeing Europe from Nazism, how is it that Ireland finds the audacity to be so contemptuous of the leader of the country of those who paid the ultimate price so that the Irish population could be free to enjoy liberal democracy?
Ireland was one of the first countries to accept the Nazi annexation of Austria during Ireland's sorry history before, during and after the war.
All people who are working to ensure that the free world remains free will welcome President Donald Trump's visit, which is presumably intended to cement even further the exceptional connection between the United Kingdom and the United States. Pictured: U.S. President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May at a press conference on July 13, 2018 in Aylesbury, England. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
This week, U.S. President Donald J. Trump will visit the United Kingdom for a state visit and be welcomed by the Queen ahead of the commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Many commentators and politicians are not only apoplectic, they are organising various forms of protests. The mainstream media, notably the BBC, are giving continuous coverage to those elements wishing to facilitate, contribute to and participate in the anti-Trump frenzy.
The repeated howls of exasperation from these protagonists all center around their perception of Trump's values, which they describe as "racist."
Irrespective of his record -- in which Trump has reached out to China and North Korea, and initiated economic policies that resulted in record-low minority unemployment -- many, predominately on the political "left," remain critical.
Paradoxically, there were not such frenzied protests in the UK during the visits there of Xi Jinping of China, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Bashar Assad of Syria.
President Trump is coming over to commemorate the D-Day landings, when thousands of American troops were killed.
All people who are working to ensure that the free world remains free will welcome Trump's visit, which is presumably intended to cement even further the exceptional connection between the United Kingdom and the United States.
After the his visit to Britain, Trump is scheduled to travel for a two-day visit to the Republic of Ireland to meet with the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Leo Varadkar and various other Irish parliamentarians.
Perhaps President Trump might ask his hosts about the issue of memorials to Nazi collaborators -- such as Frank Ryan, Charlie Kerins, Tom Barry, Sean MacBride and the memorial commemorating Sean Russell in Dublin's Fairview Park, which are still on display throughout Ireland.
Given that hundreds of thousands of American troops lost their lives freeing Europe from Nazism, how is it that Ireland finds the audacity to be so contemptuous of the leader of the country of those who paid the ultimate price so that the Irish population could be free to enjoy liberal democracy?
Many Irish consider their country as having been neutral during World War II; however, just a little research reveals their behaviour as having been questionable at best. Ireland was one of the first countries to accept the Nazi annexation of Austria during Ireland's sorry history before, during and after the war. Although that history seems to be something they tried to conceal, it has resurfaced once more under the guise of being anti-Israel.
Ireland is the only democracy currently authorizing legislation which would criminalise those who purchase or sell goods or services from areas within the only Jewish state in the world .
It took Ireland nearly 70 years to apologise for its pre-war antisemitism and for the way the country treated some of the approximately 70,000 citizens of Ireland who served in the British armed forces during WWII, only to be treated abhorrently after their return home by their fellow countrymen. Some "5,000 Irish soldiers who deserted their own neutral army to join the war" against the Nazis were, on their return home, denied pensions and not permitted to work for government offices, suppliers or contractors for seven years -- all because they fought against Nazism.
If further proof of Ireland's dalliance with WWII Nazism is necessary, it can be easily evidenced not only by the welcome Ireland gave to notorious Nazis but also by the help they gave to wanted Nazi war criminals to escape and the carefree attitude they apparently had toward other Nazis, in permitting them to live quite openly within Irish society.
Other facts have emerged which would shock those who thought Ireland was an irrelevance during the fight against Nazism. Jewish children from France were not permitted to come into Ireland in 1943. Oliver Flanagan -- who was promoted to become Minister of Defence in the 1970s' Charles Haughey government and was one of the longest-ever serving members of parliament -- seems to have been the MP mainly responsible for Irish Jew-hatred.
Immediately after Hitler's death, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Éamon de Valera "called on [German] ambassador Eduard Hempel to express his condolences" on the death of Hitler.
In the course of time, such behaviour has been forgotten. President Trump -- as the representative of the American fallen, maimed, and the families of veterans, and of those currently serving to maintain Judeo-Christian values in Western democracies -- should be outraged at the ingratitude to such a guest, especially while memorials to Nazi collaborators are still on display throughout Ireland. How would those American servicemen who lost their lives on Omaha Beach to free Europe, feel in the knowledge that one of the countries they fought for were mocking them with memorials to those collaborating with the enemies they fought?
*Peter Baum, Vice Chair at New Fair reporting, is based in Great Britain.
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Secretive Bilderberg Meeting Draws Pompeo and Kushner
Bern - Edward Wong, Alan Yuhas/The New York Times/June,02/2019
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on a week-long trip to Europe where he is raising sensitive issues with national leaders — from Iranian missiles to Chinese technology to the economic collapse of Venezuela — but the most colorful conversations could take place this weekend out of public earshot in a secretive conclave at a Swiss lakeside resort.In Montreux, on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva, political and business leaders from Western nations are gathering for the 67th Bilderberg Meeting, an annual forum in which participants agree not to reveal exactly what was said or who said it. It is a shadow version of Davos, the elite annual winter conference in the Swiss Alps that President Trump has attended once but has also criticized.
The State Department has not even put the Bilderberg Meeting on Mr. Pompeo’s public schedule, though a senior official confirmed he was attending Saturday.
Mr. Pompeo landed in Zurich on Friday afternoon after a morning of meetings with German leaders in Berlin, then took a helicopter to Bern, where he spoke at a gathering of department employees at the United States Embassy. Mr. Pompeo was traveling with his wife, Susan.
“Big cheese and chocolate fan,” Mr. Pompeo joked to reporters on the airplane Thursday when someone asked about the three-night stop in Switzerland.
No doubt those culinary treats will be on hand at venues in Montreux, to fuel discussion on 11 central topics now hotly debated in countries around the globe: the future of capitalism, the weaponization of social media, artificial intelligence, Brexit, China, Russia and so on.
Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, is another top administration official planning to attend. The 130 or so participants also include King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands; Stacey Abrams, the American politician; Henry Kissinger, the former senior American foreign policy official; Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google; and David H. Petraeus, the retired general. Some top bank executives are on the list, too.
On at least one subject, climate change, many of the participants are expected to have radically different views than Mr. Pompeo. In early May, the American secretary, speaking at a meeting of the Arctic Council in Finland, praised the changes caused by the melting of ice in the Arctic Circle.
“Steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade,” Mr. Pompeo said, while noting the abundance of undiscovered oil and gas, uranium, rare-earth minerals, coal, diamonds and fisheries in the Arctic.
Mr. Pompeo and the Trump administration have also found themselves at odds with European nations on Iran. Mr. Trump withdrew from a nuclear deal that world powers reached with Iran in 2015, but European governments still abide by the accord and have urged Iran to stay in.
In fact, it was at Lake Geneva, in the city of Lausanne, that American negotiators led by Mr. Pompeo’s predecessor John Kerry worked with foreign officials to complete the 2015 deal.
The current split between the Trump administration and Europeans became apparent again on Friday, when Mr. Pompeo met in Berlin with Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister.
“It’s no secret that we have differences with regard to the right approach to pursue,” Mr. Maas said at a news conference afterward. Mr. Pompeo said he also urged Mr. Maas to ban Hezbollah, the Lebanese military and political group supported by Iran, from Germany, as Britain did this year. Tensions between the United States and Iran have soared since early May, when the Trump administration first announced military movements to counter Iran.

West can pressure Iranian regime by supporting the people
د.مجيد رافيزادا: بإمكان الغرب الضغط على نظام الملالي بمساعدة ودعم الشعب الإيراني
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/June 02/2019
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The theocratic regime ruling Iran is in trouble. Domestically, it is threatened by its own population, while regionally and globally it is isolated by its own terror and violence. This set of circumstances could set the stage for comprehensive changes that would resolve the endless crisis in favor of lasting peace. All that is required is international cooperation and a clear understanding of the adversarial Iranian regime.
That regime has been threatening the US and its allies for four decades. On numerous occasions, those threats resulted in destruction and the loss of life. Consider the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon in 1983, the hostage-taking in Lebanon in the 1980s, the Jewish community center bombing in Argentina in 1993, the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996, and the killings of 600-plus American servicemen who fell victim to explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) built in Iran and shipped across the border to target Americans in Iraq.
More recently, there have been terror plots in Paris and Albania, including targeting the “Iran Freedom” rally organized by the Iranian opposition in June 2018.
These acts of terrorism and violence are representative of a pattern of behavior that pre-dates the election of the current US president and any actions undertaken by his administration. This is a terrorist regime that rains terror down on its own citizens, as when it killed an estimated 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988. It has waged war against the US for four decades, since seizing power and declaring America to be the “Great Satan.” It subsequently held 52 US citizens hostage for 444 days.
Facing an escalating challenge from its own people, the regime has stepped up its terrorist campaigns at home and abroad. In public protests across Iran, the marginalized and impoverished are questioning the ruling elite; questions which quickly give rise to explicit calls for regime change. Just last month, students at Tehran University organized protests against a rising tide of government repression on campus. Days later, Tehran and other cities saw nighttime protests by ordinary people chanting “down with the dictator.”
Facing an escalating challenge from its own people, the regime has stepped up its terrorist campaigns at home and abroad.
In 2018 alone, more than a dozen Iranian agents were jailed in Europe and the US, all on terrorism-related charges. Five Iranian diplomats were expelled by three European countries (France, the Netherlands and Albania) and one diplomat is in jail in Belgium. Such actions are not indicative of aggressive or overreaching Western policies; they simply represent the appropriate response to violent threats from a regime feeling threatened by its own population.
Critics of existing policies toward Iran must answer an essential question: What should we do? Give in to the terrorism? Offer more concessions to avoid provocation? Reason with a theocratic dictatorship averse to all reason for 40 years?
We know that Tehran interprets concessions as a sign of weakness, begetting more violence. Tehran currently has 15 terrorist training centers and it deploys its graduates all around the world. The recent attack on oil tankers near Fujairah, the Houthi attack on a Saudi oil installation and the rocket that landed near the US Embassy in Baghdad are all being tied to the Iranian regime and its proxies. This is not the way a normal nation behaves.
For four decades, the world has tolerated Tehran’s terrorism, allowing the regime to define the rules of engagement. The current escalation is the result. This is why Tehran’s ongoing plots against American interests and the free flow of oil must not go unanswered.
The US can begin by imposing new sanctions, such as on the petrochemical and gas industry, nearly 90 percent of which is controlled by the supreme leader and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The US Treasury should also designate the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) as a foreign terrorist organization in response to last year’s terror plot and begin prosecuting US residents who have been providing material support to the MOIS and IRGC.
Finally, while stepping up its own pressure on the Iranian regime, the US must pay attention to developments inside Iran. The Iranian people and the organized opposition are constantly challenging the regime, which is already weakened by its isolation, and there are increasing prospects for change at the hands of the Iranian people. Last month, the Iranian intelligence minister announced the arrests of 116 teams of protest organizers operating on behalf of the main organized opposition movements, the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.
There is no need for boots on the ground or any other extraordinary measures by the US or its allies. What is needed is for the West to stand on the side of Iran’s people and the organized opposition, which is determined to achieve a free, democratic and non-nuclear Iran that coexists peacefully with its neighbors. That is a goal we can all get behind.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman, and president of the International American Council. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

EU sheds light on Turkey’s accession challenges
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/June 02/2019
The European Commission last week issued its annual report on Turkey. Almost all negative observations contained in previous reports were repeated in the present one, while new ones were added and the tone of the criticism was raised. The international media characterized the report as the most critical since the beginning of accession negotiations in 2005.
The report started, as usual, with positive notes underlining that Turkey remains a key partner for the EU, and it continued with observations on almost every aspect of Turkey’s EU accession process. Despite pitiless criticisms, it tries to keep the channels of communications open.
The EU has never been generous in praising Turkey’s achievements. Compared to other candidate countries, it has always been more inclined to emphasize the negative aspects of the situation in Turkey. Since 2006 — and more so since 2011 — the tone of the critical, sometimes harsh, observations has risen and the latest report was the most critical of all.
In the past, these documents were titled “Progress Report on Turkey.” The title has now become “Turkey Report.” Cynical analysts in Ankara referred to it as a “Regression Report on Turkey.” The EU Commission emphasized Turkey’s back-sliding, especially in the fields of fundamental rights and freedoms, the rule of law and the economy.
The report criticizes the presidential decree that introduced a state of emergency in the aftermath of the attempted coup in June 2016. The decree limited fundamental rights and freedoms, allowing the dismissal of public servants — including judges — prolonged detentions, restrictions to the freedom of movement and public gatherings, and increased the power of the government-appointed provincial governors. This was in stark contrast to the policies that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) adopted in its early years in power. In a draft law to reorganize local administrations, it was trying to devolve more competences to the elected mayors, to the detriment of the appointed governors.
The EU emphasized Turkey’s back-sliding, especially in the fields of fundamental rights and freedoms, the rule of law and the economy.
Unsurprisingly, the state of emergency limited several civil and political rights as well as defense rights. It expanded the police and prosecutors’ powers for investigations and prosecutions. More than 152,000 civil servants, including academics, teachers and public officials, were dismissed. To add insult to injury, the Constitutional Court ruled that it does not have a mandate to review the legality of presidential decrees. Therefore, the claimants exhausted the internal recourse procedures and became entitled to bring their complaints before the European Court of Human Rights. As a result, Turks became the highest number of claimants who applied to this court.
When the last extension of the presidential decree expired, the Turkish Parliament, instead of putting an end to the state of emergency, passed a law retaining the main components of the emergency rule, thus making the restrictions more permanent.
The European Commission report criticizes the absence of a separation of powers and the lack of independence of the judiciary. The Higher Electoral Board’s decision to re-run the local elections in Istanbul is noted as a “source of serious concern regarding the respect of legality and integrity of the electoral process.” The report also complains about the absence of legal guarantees for the independence of the judiciary from the executive and the independence of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors.
Turkish authorities consistently state that they are committed to the EU accession process. Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, acknowledged these statements but said that little is being done to confirm the claims.
The report repeats the EU decision of 2018 that the accession process had come to a standstill and that, therefore, there was no question of opening a new negotiation chapter or closing temporarily or permanently any chapter that had been opened in the past.
The deterioration of the economic situation that is bitterly felt by Turkish citizens is also emphasized by the report.
The only clear-cut praise for Turkey is its performance in the field of refugees.
Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faruk Kaymakci, who is a knowledgeable EU expert, made a balanced statement, saying: “Turkey will of course take note of the consistent and reasonable criticisms, but it rejects unjust and disproportionate criticisms.” He also noted that the report’s biggest discrepancy was that “the EU did not make any reference to its own responsibility and commitments.”
The most substantive content in Turkey’s reaction to the report has been Kaymakci’s call for updating the customs union that Ankara signed in 1995.
The educated observers in Turkey regard the yearly EU reports as the most accurate depiction of the country’s situation and call it Turkey’s tomography, where one can see both diseases and correctly functioning organs. This report provided another such view.
**Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar

Rewarding Iran’s hostage-taking puts others at risk
بارعة علم الدين: مكافئة إيران على عمليات أخدها الرهائن يعرض الكثيرين للخطر
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/June 02/2019
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An extraordinary dispute broke into the public domain last week. The UK’s Foreign Office has long prioritized the case of detained British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, since then-Foreign Secretary (and current prime ministerial candidate, God help us) Boris Johnson made some ill-informed comments that provided Tehran with a pretext for increasing her unjustifiable sentence. It was revealed that the Foreign Office has been quietly lobbying the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to release £400 million ($505 million) paid by the former shah of Iran for a tank sale that was cut short by the 1979 revolution. The MoD rightly claims that payment of these funds could be funneled toward terrorist activities by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and overseas proxies like Hezbollah.
In January 2016, then-US President Barack Obama approved the delivery of $400 million in cash to Tehran at the same moment that five American hostages were flown back to American soil. All parties denied that these unfrozen funds represented a ransom payment. Additional tens of billions of dollars in funds unfrozen in the context of the 2015 nuclear deal, instead of being used to relieve the suffering of ordinary Iranian citizens, primarily benefited paramilitary forces, and in particular Bashar Assad’s genocidal war against his own nation.
The blueprints for Iran’s abductions were laid down in the 1980s, beginning in 1981, when Washington paid $3 billion for the release of 52 of its Embassy staff kidnapped during the revolution. Then, during the so-called Iran-Contra affair, the Reagan administration illegally used Israel to deliver large quantities of arms to the Khomeini regime, with payments for the weapons transferred to Contra rebels in Nicaragua. This was in recompense for the release of US hostages held by Hezbollah, which during the 1980s kidnapped more than 100 Westerners.
In the context of the 2003 Iraq conflict, numerous foreign citizens were abducted. British IT expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards were seized in 2007 by proxies under Quds Force direction, which attacked Iraq’s Finance Ministry in broad daylight. Moore had been due to install a computer system that could help identify millions in funds being corruptly syphoned off by Iran’s proxies. Although the bodyguards were murdered, such abductions were used to secure the release of hundreds of militants, several of whom — like Qais Al-Khazali — have today become powerful figures in Iraq’s political system, while remaining deeply embroiled in militancy.
Earlier in 2007, Al-Khazali’s militia, Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq, captured and murdered a number of US soldiers during a raid against the coalition’s provincial headquarters in Karbala. The same year, 15 British sailors were abducted and paraded on Iranian TV, before eventually being released. Vulnerable sailors have often been kidnapped in Gulf waters in this manner.
Iran constantly seizes dual nationals as soft targets for applying pressure on foreign governments.
In December 2015, 26 Qatari hunters, including royals, were kidnapped by Iranian proxies in southern Iraq. Iran negotiated with Doha, not just for payment of around $500 million, but also for the facilitation of population transfers in Syria to alter the demographic balance in Assad’s favor. Leaked emails show precise discussions about which paramilitary groups the payments would go to, including millions specifically allotted to the Quds Force’s Qassem Soleimani and militia leader Abu-Mahdi Al-Muhandis.
For these militias, hostage-taking is a routine tool for revenue generation and terrorizing the innocent. During sectarian cleansing operations, these militias abducted thousands of Iraqi Sunnis and demanded payments for their release. Hostages were often murdered even when ransoms were paid, contributing to a climate of terror and compelling tens of thousands of families to flee. Such activities are again increasing in response to shortages of funds resulting from US sanctions. Particularly in Nineveh province, dozens of illegal checkpoints have been set up, where citizens are detained and extorted for funds.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held on espionage charges, but her only crime is being a vulnerable dual national in the wrong place at the wrong time. Iran constantly seizes dual nationals as soft targets for applying pressure on foreign governments. Human Rights Watch recently documented 14 such cases. This heartlessness was on display a few months ago, when Zaghari-Ratcliffe was temporarily released and given a few precious hours with her baby daughter, before being returned to prison.
Millions of people who closely follow this case would be delighted to see her released, but are ransom payments for terrorist and militant groups appropriate, particularly when a principal Foreign Office motivation appears to be atonement for past mistakes?
Tehran has been harassing family members of BBC Persian TV staff in an attempt to terrorize these journalists off the air. Soleimani recently ordered Iraqi militant leaders to prepare for the abduction of foreign nationals. In recent years, Iran has also shown its readiness to stage overseas operations against oppositionists and foreign diplomats. There will always be a surplus of innocent, soft targets for the Islamic Republic, as long as it keeps discovering that crime pays.
Normal states advance their foreign objectives through diplomacy. The pariah state in Tehran has made itself so internationally hated that the only means of furthering its diplomatic goals is through hostage-taking as a formal tool of foreign policy. No other state has used this gambit so consistently and so regularly.
Britain and America have an official policy of refusing to pay ransoms to deter future bouts of hostage-taking. Yet, whatever they choose to call these funds, they are rewarding criminal behavior, making it certain that their citizens will be abducted by Iran and its proxies in the future. Furthermore, when these ill-gotten gains are invested back into regional militancy, Iran’s capacity to target the West is enhanced. Hostage-taking is exploited by criminals to put those with a heart and a conscience in a moral dilemma: Wouldn’t we be willing to do anything to free from captivity our loved ones or citizens toward whom we have a duty of care?
However, by facilitating payments to this terrorist state, the Foreign Office is only ensuring that, in the long-term, there will be hundreds more like Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Making globalization work for Africa
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Brahima Coulibaly/Arab News/June 02/2019
The current backlash against globalization, most notably from working-class citizens in advanced economies who are worried about stagnant wages and insecure jobs, highlights how the benefits of global economic integration were oversold, and its costs undercounted. But the effects of globalization on Africa and its citizens have received far less attention, even though the continent is projected to account for more than 40 percent of the world’s population by the end of this century.
Making globalization more inclusive will require policies that tackle inequality within advanced economies and boost convergence in living standards between Africa and high-income countries. African policymakers, with support from external partners, can play their part by accelerating regional integration, bridging gaps in labor skills and digital infrastructure, and creating a mechanism to own and regulate Africa’s digital data.
Ever since the First Industrial Revolution led to a surge in international trade, Africa has remained largely on the sidelines of the global economy. The main beneficiaries of early globalization were today’s advanced economies, where industrial technologies emerged. This, in turn, led to the “great divergence” in income levels between the Global North and South.
More recently, the advent of new information and communications technology in the 1990s dramatically lowered the costs of distance and ushered in another wave of globalization, characterized by the emergence of complex global value chains (GVCs). These GVCs contributed to the “great convergence” of recent decades by boosting industrial output in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, enabling them to narrow the gap with advanced economies.
Yet African countries have remained excluded from this process. The continent’s share of global merchandise trade has stagnated at about 3 percent, similar to its share of world manufacturing output.
The ratio of African incomes to those in advanced economies has fallen from 12 percent in the early 1980s to 8 percent today​.
To be sure, globalization has brought benefits to Africa. Rising incomes elsewhere in the world have increased demand for African commodities and natural resources, boosting national economies. Globalization has also supported knowledge transfer, enabling African countries to improve living standards by “leapfrogging” to new technologies.
But myriad challenges have far outweighed such benefits. For one thing, globalization has contributed to premature de-industrialization. Because advanced economies can now produce goods more cheaply, African countries have found it difficult to develop local industries that create jobs. Moreover, some multinational corporations operating in the region are dodging taxes through sophisticated — and legal — accounting mechanisms, such as profit shifting, depriving governments of much-needed resources for economic development.
Globalization is also contributing to climate change, which has a disproportionate effect on Africa despite the continent’s limited contribution to the problem. Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which recently devastated Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, are a tragic example of what is to come.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, the economic disparity between Africa and richer countries has widened in recent decades, with the ratio of African incomes to those in advanced economies falling from 12 percent in the early 1980s to 8 percent today. In order to reverse this trend and enable Africa to benefit more from globalization, the region’s policymakers should accelerate their efforts in three areas.
First, governments should promote further regional integration to make Africa economically stronger and more effective at advancing its agenda internationally. Progress so far is very encouraging. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) recently obtained the minimum 22 ratifications needed to enter into force, thus creating a single African market for goods and services. The AfCFTA, along with the Single African Air Transport Market and the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, will help to unlock the region’s tremendous economic potential.
Second, Africa must improve its digital infrastructure and technology-related skills to avoid being further marginalized. At present, the cost of internet access in Africa is the highest in the world and internet penetration is only 37 percent, significantly below the world average of 57 percent.
Moreover, the low-cost, low-skill labor on which Africa has traditionally relied is becoming less of a competitive advantage, given the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the higher production standards and infrastructure requirements of GVCs. Education and training programs should therefore focus more on developing digital knowhow, as well as on soft skills such as critical thinking and cognitive and socio-behavioral capabilities.
Third, Africa must create a system for owning and regulating its digital data. In the modern era, capital has displaced land as the most important asset and determinant of wealth. But, in the digital economy, data will be key — as demonstrated by the scramble among global technology firms such as Facebook, Google and Tencent to control it. And, as Kai-Fu Lee argues in his book “AI Superpowers,” the abundance of data generated by China’s large population is giving the country an advantage over the US in the field of artificial intelligence.
Africa’s population boom means the continent will also generate large amounts of data, particularly as digitization makes inroads, e-commerce platforms spread, the middle class expands, and consumer spending increases. This new data-driven wealth will accrue to those who actively harvest, own and regulate such information, leaving latecomers to play catch-up.
Africa’s potential may be huge, but it faces formidable challenges. By 2030, the continent will be home to almost 90 percent of the world’s poorest people. Unless globalization works better for Africa than it has in the past, its promise of shared prosperity will remain unfulfilled.
*Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister of Nigeria, is Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and a co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate // Brahima Coulibaly, a senior fellow and director of the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, is Chief Economist of the Emerging Market Economies group at the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System.

Wisdom vital if war is to be avoided
Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy/Arab News/June 02/2019
The three summits called for by Saudi Arabia achieved a decisive result in rejecting Iranian interference in the internal affairs of many Arab countries. They also supported the Kingdom and the UAE following the recent attacks they were subjected to, which were believed to have been ordered by Iran.
Saudi Arabia called these Arab, Gulf and Islamic summits in order to restore the prestige of the region, its status and unity against the ambitions of regional parties. They produced a unified Arab and Islamic stance against Iran, while sending a firm message that it is not permissible to jeopardize the security of Gulf states through Iranian provocations, the continuous launching of Houthi missiles against Saudi territory, or by threatening the interests of other Gulf states, including threats to block the Strait of Hormuz.
In spite of this firm stance, the Arabs are still open to peace, as they confirmed their desire to spare the region the risk of confrontation in the final communique of the Arab summit. Is there a chance of this happening?
Saudi Arabia has declared in the past — and still declares — that it does not want war, the same as the UAE. In general, no one wants war. Not a single country could have achieved all its developmental targets while talking about launching war.
As for Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said last week, during a visit to Iraq, that his country had proposed signing a non-aggression treaty with the Gulf states in response to the escalating tensions in the region and increasing fears of a direct military confrontation between Iran and the US.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran is ready to “take any measure to build confidence and establish constructive and friendly relations with all countries of the region, including the signing of a treaty on non-aggression.” Such a step would defuse the situation in the region, preventing the threat of imminent war.
However, I think the Iranian side should take more and bigger steps to diffuse the situation. It must make an explicit pledge after endangering the security of the Gulf states. It must stop supporting the Houthi militias in Yemen, which could contribute to the end of the war in that country. It must try to help reach a comprehensive solution to the Yemeni crisis, instead of pouring more oil on the fire. In addition, it must tune down its populist rhetoric in the region.
Not a single country could have achieved all its developmental targets while talking about launching war.
Iran must stop causing sedition in Lebanon through supporting Hezbollah, which threatens stability in Lebanon and in the Gulf region. It must immediately stop potential threats to the countries of the region. It must also stop its attempts to enrich uranium and possess nuclear weapons, which jeopardizes the security of the whole region. Will the Iranian leaders listen? Will they be aware of this decisive moment in the history of the region?
On the American side, the intensity of the White House’s media war has escalated as far as threatening Iran with a military strike. However, the tone changes from time to time, as President Donald Trump goes from tweeting threats of war and new economic sanctions to declaring that he “does not want war.” In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump said that, although he does not want war, “you have states like Iran that should not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. You can’t let that happen.”
The US is dealing with the Iranian crisis similar to the way it dealt with North Korea. Washington reverted to putting pressure on Pyongyang to force it to agree to sit and talk but, as Trump prepares for the 2020 presidential election, will he be ready for such a move with Tehran?
Analysts point out that America is waging psychological and economic war against Iran by escalating the tone of its rhetoric regarding this file, in addition to imposing a package of economic sanctions. Washington may be willing to “break the edge” of Iran’s morals through sanctions that might lead the Iranian people to the streets — a measure that has been frequently used by US governments against their opponents.
However, Washington is also sending military reinforcements to the region and is redeploying its military forces in Iraq in preparation for a possible confrontation with Iran and its allies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. It has also evacuated its non-essential diplomatic staff from Baghdad and Irbil.
The roots of the conflict and the crisis between the Arabs and Iran are not an outcome of our present time. Instead, they have a rather well-known doctrinal basis. What is known as “exporting the Islamic revolution” that broke out in Tehran in 1979 is the most important event in this conflict. The Gulf states, along with all other Arab countries, fear this declared Iranian approach, which was adopted as the top priority of the post-revolution regime, especially with the presence of Shiite minorities in a number of Arab countries.
By the end of 1980, the Iran-Iraq War had broken out, with significant Arab support for the Iraqi side. In May 1981, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — made up of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar and Oman — was formally declared. Riyadh aimed to establish a defensive wall against the ambitions of the Iranian regime in the region. So, in 1982, it declared the establishment of the Peninsula Shield Force, which combines military units of all the GCC countries in order to protect them and deter military aggression.
The crisis has evolved with time, but the basis of the conflict is the same. Everybody is required to behave with the utmost wisdom in this critical moment in order to spare the region a war that would make things worse, especially after the successes achieved by Arab states in their war on terror and their destruction of the Daesh terrorist group.
*Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy is a critically acclaimed multimedia journalist, writer and columnist who has covered war zones and conflicts worldwide. Twitter: @ALMenawy

Iran’s ‘non-aggression’ talk fools no one
Iman Zayat/The Arab Weekly/June 02/2019
When entering negotiations, whether directly or indirectly, it is important to understand with whom one is dealing, what their motivations are for coming to the table and what objectives they hope to achieve.
On May 26, Iran offered to sign a “non-aggression pact” with its Gulf neighbours, claiming, in the words of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, that it wants to “build balanced relations” with all Gulf states.
Two days later, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, during a visit to Qatar, said Tehran was ready to engage in “dialogue” with Arab Gulf countries to address escalating tensions in the region.
Zarif’s and Araqchi’s statements surprised many, seeming to indicate a radical shift from Iran’s efforts to antagonise neighbours and sow chaos. However, a closer examination reveals that Iran’s offer is nothing but a fresh manoeuvre to trick the world into thinking Tehran is open to peace while further expanding its influence in the region. One question is “Why now?” Why has Iran suddenly changed its tune and communicated a willingness to sit down with powers it has for so long antagonised?
What is clear is that Iran’s efforts to reach out to its Arab neighbours are not, as some say, aimed at resolving tensions or ending its standoff with Washington. Given the timing of the announcement, Iran’s move was more likely an attempt at preventing a united Arab front at the Mecca summits.
This effort, of course, failed. Arab countries came out of the Mecca summits with a more united front. They gave particular focus on how to come together and address issues such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Iran’s meddling and counter-terror efforts. For this reason, Iran’s proposals were ignored and are likely to continue to be ignored by Arab countries.
Iran, which has effectively been at war since the inception of the Islamic Republic in 1979, has continually sought to further tension and chaos, not only with the United States and Israel but with neighbouring Gulf countries, through which it legitimises its so-called Islamic revolution.
Only through conflict can Iran’s regime thrive and maintain control over the country’s 81 million people of various sects, religions, ethnicities and cultures. The mullahs’ strategy is to play up nationalist sentiment and fool the people into thinking they face a permanent set of enemies all over the world.
Bearing this in mind, it is clear that Iran’s supposed efforts to engage in dialogue are insincere. Many observers and experts, however, are taking the bait. They say the country is genuinely willing to pursue friendlier ties with its Arab neighbours. According to this logic, if there is unwillingness to negotiate with Tehran, Arab countries will end up taking the blame.
Iran knows this and is playing it to its advantage. That said, we should not be so pessimistic as to stand in the way of any possible resolution, agreement or eventual peace deal. Everyone yearns for peace, except for Iran’s leaders, who have given little impression that they are willing to change.
Inflammatory rhetoric from Tehran, diplomatic pressure being exerted on Arab governments, attacks launched through proxy militias, especially the Houthis, and acts of sabotage perpetrated on tankers in the Gulf by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are hardly positive signs.
So, if Tehran’s Arab neighbours are to consider its offer, shouldn’t they first ask who they are really engaged with? While some view Iran as similar to many other countries throughout the world, with a united leadership and political consensus, the decision-making process in Tehran’s corridors of power is quite complex. Some experts say Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his conservative associates always have the final word. Others warn that the IRGC has become a state within a state, competing for power with Khamenei himself. There is also news of political infighting between various factions in Tehran, especially involving President Hassan Rohani and his team of so-called “reformists.”
Given this complex web of players, a pact with Rohani may not mean a pact with Khamenei and a pact with Khamenei may not guarantee the commitment from the IRGC and so on. Unfortunately, this renders Iran’s offer ridiculous and futile. We should look to history for guidance. How many non-aggression pacts, we should ask, have worked? What became of Adolf Hitler’s pact with Joseph Stalin in 1939, two years before German tanks rolled into Soviet territory? How successful was Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s non-aggression pact with Saudi Arabia in 1989, one year before his troops invaded Kuwait?
Iran, which has been meddling in Arab affairs more than 40 years, is not interested in non-aggression or dialogue. Even if it were, it is far too late for the Arab world to take a chance on its “good gestures.”