LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 17/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus cures the Blind Man In Bethsaida
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 08/22-26:”They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 16-17/2020
Lebanon Coronavirus Tally Jumps to 109
Lebanon announces two-week lockdown over coronavirus/Beirut international airport will close starting Wednesday.
Lebanon declares state of "public health emergency," shuts down airport/Georgi Azar/Annahar/March 16/020
Hassan on Lockdown over Coronavirus: Next Two Weeks are Crucial
Akar: State of Emergency Does Not Apply at Present
Lebanon’s Prisoners Call For General Amnesty to Prevent Catastrophe
Europe Urges Lebanon's Diab to Speed Up Rescue Plan
Lebanon in Lockdown, Iraq Imposes Curfew amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Health Minister launches National Fund for the Combat of Coronavirus
Aoun follows up on implementation of Corona measures, stresses strictness of implementation till recession of epidemic.
Diab discusses with Salameh monetary situation
Wazni voices rejection of bank closures
Civil Aviation denies landing of aircraft coming from Iran
Hitti discusses bilateral relations with ambassadors
Lebanese Banks to Close during Two-Week Lockdown
Hoballah follows up on industrial production cycle
Parliament Postpones Meetings
The Lebanese military court quitted Amer Al-Fakhouri & Dropped all Charges against
Military Court Orders Amer Fakhoury be Released
Al-Jadeed Reporter Collapses on Air, to be Tested for Coronavirus
Traffic Thin, Streets Almost Empty as Lebanon Goes on Virus Lockdown
Virus Lockdown Sinks Tripoli Deeper into Doldrums
Politicians Donate Salaries to Fight Coronavirus
The coronavirus outbreak proves Lebanon’s Diab cabinet has no idea how to govern/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/March 16/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 16-17/2020
'Test Every Suspected Case' of COVID-19, Says WHO
WHO: More Virus Cases, Deaths in Rest of World than in China
Israel president taps Netanyahu rival to form government to fight coronavirus pandemic
Virus Brings France to a Standstill, Government Mulls More Measures
Prominent Iranian clerical official dies of coronavirus as country struggles to contain pandemic
US warns Iraq it could retaliate 'as necessary'
Russia: Militants in Syria's Idlib Not Complying With Ceasefire
Shin Bet Says Arrested Israeli-Arab Woman Recruited by Hamas
Conflicting Reports Emerge on Naming of New Iraq PM
Policeman Killed in Terrorist Attack in Sinai
Egypt police say killed 6 militants in northern Sinai
ISIS Orders its Members to Avoid Europe because of Coronavirus

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 16-17/2020
IMF loan request exposes severity of Iran’s financial crisis/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/March 16/2020
Maps, Islands, Isolation and Masks/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/March 16/202
Coronavirus: The Worst is Yet to Come/Salman Al-Dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/March 16/2020
A Satire of Coronavirus/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/March 16/2020
Coronavirus: The Worst is Yet to Come/Salman Al-Dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/March 16/2020
Remember the Last Global Pandemic?/Justin Fox/Bloomberg/March 16/2020
Iran's Coronavirus Cover-up/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/March 16/ 2020
Israel Helps Palestinians Prevent Coronavirus; Arabs Betray Them/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/March 16/ 2020
Iran has plan to harm Trump's re-election chances/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/March 16/2020
Coronavirus outbreak testing governments’ reactions/Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/March 16/2020
"Please, Please Help Us!": The Persecution of Christians: December 2019/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./March 16/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 16-17/2020
Lebanon Coronavirus Tally Jumps to 109
Naharnet/March 16/2020
Lebanon on Monday said the novel coronavirus has recorded a new tally reaching 109 individuals infected, the National News Agency reported. The government had on Sunday imposed a two-week lockdown of the country and a “general mobilization” over the coronavirus crisis. The COVID-19 virus has officially infected 109 people in the Mediterranean nation with hopes to control its spread after the lockdown. The Beirut international airport will close from Wednesday until then, while no one will be allowed in through maritime or land ports of entry during that period. Diplomats, UN peacekeepers, employees of international organisations and goods shipments would still be permitted entry. Most institutions and businesses would remain closed. Security forces, health institutions, utilities companies and shops selling food will be exempted. Lebanon's novel coronavirus outbreak is the latest crisis to hit a country reeling from a severe economic crunch and mass anti-government protests. Since early March, the government has progressively ordered schools, universities, bars and restaurants closed.

Lebanon announces two-week lockdown over coronavirus/Beirut international airport will close starting Wednesday.
The Arab Weekly/Agencies/March 16/2020
Lebanon on Sunday urged people to stay at home for two weeks and prepared to close its main airport to stem a novel coronavirus outbreak that has killed three people in the country. The COVID-19 virus has officially infected 99 people in the Mediterranean nation. Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad ordered "citizens to remain at home and not go out except out of extreme necessity" until March 29. The Beirut international airport will close from Wednesday until then, while no one will be allowed in through maritime or land ports of entry during that period, she said. Diplomats, UN peacekeepers, employees of international organisations and goods shipments would still be permitted entry, she cited a cabinet decision as saying. Most institutions and businesses would remain closed. Security forces, health institutions, utilities companies and shops selling food will be exempted. Lebanon's novel coronavirus outbreak is the latest crisis to hit a country reeling from a severe economic crunch and mass anti-government protests. Since early March, the government has progressively ordered schools, universities, bars and restaurants closed. President Michel Aoun earlier in the day announced a "health emergency" and also called on Lebanese to stay at home. "All of us are called upon to continue our work from home," he said in a televised speech. In recent days, Lebanese media and social media users have launched a campaign calling for social distancing, under the Arabic-language hashtag "Stay at home." Streets in Beirut have been largely empty in recent days. Dozens however flocked to a seaside promenade in Beirut to stretch their legs on Sunday, prompting the municipality to dispatch police to ask them to go home. On Wednesday, Lebanon said it would suspend all trips to and from Italy, South Korea, Iran and China, countries hit hardest by the virus. It also said it would stop all travel to and from France, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom for at least a week from Monday. Muslim authorities -- both Shia and Sunni -- have suspended prayers in mosques until further notice.

Lebanon declares state of "public health emergency," shuts down airport
Georgi Azar/Annahar/March 16/020
The policy was announced after a meeting between Lebanon's top officials in response to the outbreak which has infected over 100 people and killed three.
BEIRUT: Lebanon declared Sunday a state of "public health emergency" and announced "full mobilization" to better combat the coronavirus outbreak in the wake of a dramatic increase in cases over the weekend. Lebanon's airport will be shut down from March 18 until March 29, barring diplomats and UNIFIL personnel, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said. All other maritime and land crossings will also be closed. The policy was announced after a meeting between Lebanon's top officials in response to the outbreak which has infected over 100 people and killed three.
"This outbreak concerns all Lebanese, who must now unite to confront this grave danger," President Michel Aoun said. It will allow authorities to confine people, limit their movement, shut down factories and ration food. The majority of the public and private sectors will also be on lockdown in a bid to contain the spread of the virus. Banks' operations will be restricted to "the bare minimum," Samad said, with the Central Bank exempted from the public closure. In a statement, the Association of Banks announced that all branches would be closed during this period, in line with the government's "measures to confront the outbreak."Schools have already shut down across the country, with movie theatres, gyms, cafes and restaurants also ordered to seize operations. Bakeries, supermarkets and pharmacies will continue operations. “All the necessary measures were taken at an optimal pace to confront the threats of this pandemic and limit its spread,” Aoun added. Lebanon's government approved these measures following at the end of its session Sunday, noting that “the current state requires a health emergency and general mobilization.” Spain ordered a similar lockdown after its number of cases jumped to the second-highest in Europe only behind Italy. The current Spanish tally stands at 6,100 up by about 2,000 cases from Friday and seven times as much as Monday. About 190 people have died. Hospitals have scrambled to better equip themselves for a spike in cases, with the American University of Beirut Medical Center leading the charge. It has transformed its Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon into a makeshift coronavirus ward, cutting it off from the rest of the hospital. Other hospitals, including Saint Georges, Hotel Dieu and Rizk are undertaking similar initiatives in anticipation of a drastic increase in infections. “Lebanon has a total of 12,555 beds, including 2,026 beds in Intensive Care Units (ICUs)," Health Minister Hamad Hassan said Thursday. China, where the virus is believed to have originated, also sent a team of experts along with medical and screening equipment to the cash-strapped Medeterean country.
Despite the government's pleas calling for self-isolation, a number of Lebanese continued to heed its warnings while going about their day to day lives. In response, municipal police on Sunday cleared the landmark seaside corniche in Beirut’s Ain el-Mreisseh and Manara areas after hundreds of people flocked the area for leisure purposes. They were seen strolling, jogging, swimming and fishing before ordered to dismantle. Patrols will continue around the clock in the capital, a statement by the municipality said.

Hassan on Lockdown over Coronavirus: Next Two Weeks are Crucial
Naharnet/March 16/2020
Health Minister Hamad Hassan on Monday said the coming two weeks are the most critical in Lebanon’s attempt to fight coronavirus which claimed the lives of three individuals and infected 99 so far.The Minster said: "The next two week are very important and the weather conditions may play an important role in mitigating the latest measures imposed to combat the spread of the virus.”“Public transport is one of the factors that affect coronavirus transmission,” he noted, urging drivers to be vigilant and maintain the “cleanliness” of their vehicles. “The Social Affairs Ministry has stepped forward and will receive aid in order to distribute it to people in need amid the coronavirus crisis,” he concluded. Lebanon on Sunday urged people to stay at home for two weeks and prepared to close its main airport to stem a novel coronavirus outbreak that has killed three people in the country. The Beirut international airport will close from Wednesday until then, while no one will be allowed in through maritime or land ports of entry during that period. Lebanon's novel coronavirus outbreak is the latest crisis to hit a country reeling from a severe economic crunch and mass anti-government protests. Since early March, the government has progressively ordered schools, universities, bars and restaurants closed.

Akar: State of Emergency Does Not Apply at Present
Naharnet/March 16/2020
Defense Minister Zeina Akar on Monday said the Cabinet took the “maximum” measures at the present moment in relation to the challenges of coronavirus, noting that a state of emergency can “only be declared in specific cases that do not apply at this phase,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.
The government declared general mobilization on Sunday over the coronavirus crisis and announced a two-week lockdown of the country. “The Cabinet took the maximum possible measures at the current moment. The level of measures may rise more in the future if things aggravate for the worse, God forbid,” said Akar in remarks to the daily. “The military and security institution will oversee the implementation of the plan, mainly to prevent crowding in public places similar to what happened yesterday in Manara area,” she added. Municipal police on Sunday cleared the landmark seaside corniche in Ain el-Mreisseh and Manara areas after scores of people flocked to it for strolling, jogging, swimming, fishing and other activities despite the coronavirus crisis. The Minister pointed out that some of the decisions issued by the government were “not easy or normal, but were necessary” especially those related to closing the airport, border crossings and legalizing work in some vital sectors within the framework of a preventive plan to confront coronavirus. Many have criticized the Cabinet’s “weak” response to counter the virus mainly after announcing general mobilization instead of a state of emergency. Reports said ministers were bickering during their meeting on Sunday disagreeing on whether to impose general mobilization or a state of emergency which gives the Lebanese army the upper hand.

Lebanon’s Prisoners Call For General Amnesty to Prevent Catastrophe
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Inmates of Lebanon's Roumieh prison (Northeast of Beirut) called on the concerned authorities to approve the General Amnesty Law, to avoid a health catastrophe that may be caused by the spread of the Corona virus among them. In a statement on Sunday, the prisoners said that a large number of them suffered from “chronic pulmonary diseases and diabetes”, adding that there was no thermometer in prison, and the pharmacy did not provide masks or sterilizers. They warned that they would begin a hunger strike in the coming days, if their demands were not met. Under the same slogan, a number of families of prisoners gathered on the road leading to the Presidential Palace in Baabda, in parallel with the holding of the cabinet session, calling on President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab for general amnesty for their children, for fear of the spread of the Corona virus in prisons in all regions. In this regard, the head of the Human Rights Committee, MP Michel Moussa, called for “the distribution of prisoners in vacant government buildings.”

Europe Urges Lebanon's Diab to Speed Up Rescue Plan
Beirut - Khalil Fleihan/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Western officials have called on Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab to stop responding to his critics and instead take serious measures to resolve the country’s economic and social problems. An official specialized in Middle Eastern affairs at the foreign ministry of a European state told Asharq Al-Awsat in remarks published Monday that Diab is busy responding to the criticisms of al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party at a time when the PM needs the support of all political factions to implement his reform plan. The official advised the Lebanese PM about the need to complete a rescue plan necessary to secure the release of Western funds pledged for Lebanon, particularly at a time when the country suffers from deteriorating economic and financial conditions. “The plan needs to be completed by next May,” the official said. Diab had earlier promised several European ambassadors to Lebanon that his government would work extensively to announce a rescue plan by May. U economists believe that such a plan does not require a long time to complete. Several European countries have announced willingness to send specialists to help Beirut speed up the implementation of reform projects and to offer technical advice. Separately, a number of European ambassadors have expressed dismay at Diab’s separate meetings last month with Iranian Speaker Ali Larijani and Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim Ali. Beirut’s response - that it has diplomatic relations with both Tehran and Damascus, and that Diab’s talks with the two officials did not come against any political backdrop - was unconvincing for the European diplomats.

Lebanon in Lockdown, Iraq Imposes Curfew amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Lebanon went into lockdown and Iraqis prepared for a curfew Monday as part of regional efforts to contain the new coronavirus even as businesses remained open in Iran, which is battling the worst outbreak in the Middle East and where another senior official has died from the virus. The divergent approaches adopted by local authorities reflect continued uncertainty over how to slow the spread of a virus that has infected around 170,000 people worldwide and caused more than 6,500 deaths. Most people experience only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and recover within weeks. But the virus is highly contagious and can be spread by people with no visible symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Panic broke out in Iraq after authorities announced a weeklong curfew late on Sunday. People raced to supermarkets and swiftly emptied shelves, while others stocked up on kerosene and cooking gas. The curfew, which is set to begin late Tuesday, includes the suspension of all flights from Baghdad's international airport. Iraq's Health Ministry has reported 124 cases of coronavirus and nine deaths. In Lebanon, where the government ordered a lockdown starting Sunday night, traffic was thin and, in some cases, streets were completely empty on Monday, the start of the working week. Restaurants, cafes and bars have been closed since last week and most private businesses were also shuttered Monday. In some areas, police were going around and asking shop owners to close in line with the government orders. Few people could be seen at Lebanon´s seaside corniche, and police were asking them to leave. Pharmacies, bakeries and other businesses related to making or selling food were allowed to stay open. The small country has reported 99 cases and three deaths from the new coronavirus. Hamra Street, the Lebanese capital's most famous shopping street and a residential district, was eerily quiet as shops, restaurants and cafes along the usually bustling thoroughfare were closed. Both Iraq and Lebanon have been largely in disarray since anti-government protests broke out last year, and Lebanon was mired in its worst financial crisis in years even before the pandemic began. One of the worst outbreaks in the world has unfolded in Iran, which wields influence over both Iraq and Lebanon. Authorities there have reported 14,000 confirmed cases and more than 700 deaths, with the toll rising by more than 100 in the last 24 hours. The real numbers may be even higher, as some have questioned the government's reporting. Authorities have not ordered businesses to close, however, and many Iranians have dismissed fears about the virus and advice from public health officials to avoid social contact. Restaurants and cafes have remained open, though business has diminished.
North Africa
Algeria will suspend all sea and air travel between it and Europe from Thursday over the coronavirus, Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad said in a statement. Algeria said on Sunday it would suspend all travel to and from France starting on Tuesday, adding that Air Algerie would arrange emergency flights to bring back citizens. Morocco will close eateries, cinemas, theaters, sports, public clubs, baths and other entertainment venues starting from today over coronavirus fears, the Interior Ministry said. Markets, and shops selling necessary goods as well as restaurants offering a delivery service are exempt, the ministry said in a statement. Morocco, which confirmed 29 coronavirus cases, including one death and one recovery, suspended all international flights, closed schools and banned gatherings of more than 50 people.

Health Minister launches National Fund for the Combat of Coronavirus
NNA/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Minister of Public Health, Dr. Hamad Hassan, on Monday has launchesd the National Fund for the Combat of Coronavirus
Minister Hassan also announced the opening of a donation account to help fight the pandemic, under the name: Corona Donation.

Aoun follows up on implementation of Corona measures, stresses strictness of implementation till recession of epidemic.
NNA/Monday, 16 March, 2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, continued his revision of the stages of implementing measures taken by the Cabinet yesterday, after declaring general mobilization in Lebanon to confront Corona. In this context, the President received a series of reports from relevant Ministries and security apparatuses, concerning the adherence to decisions taken by the Cabinet, aiming to protect residents and citizens from the spread of Corona. President Aoun stressed the need for strict enforcement of the measures taken in order to preserve public safety, while waiting till the epidemic subsides.
Minister Ramzi Msharrafiye: President Michel Aoun received the Social Affairs and Tourism Minister, Prof. Ramzi Msharrafiye, today at Baabda Palace. Minister Msharrafiye briefed the President on the results of his visit to Syria, and talks he held with Syrian Ministers and officials, as part of the effort to return displaced Syrians to their homeland, in addition to the taken arrangements to facilitate this process. The meeting also tackled the Social Affairs Ministry follow-up of this file.
Former MP Emile Rahme: President Aoun met the head of “Solidarity” Party, Former MP, Emile Rahme, at Baabda Palace, and discussed with him recent developments, especially the steps taken by the Cabinet to combat Corona.

Diab discusses with Salameh monetary situation
NNA/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Prime Minister Dr. Hassan Diab met with Deputy PM and Minister of Defense Zeina Akar and Central Bank Governor Riyad Salame this morning at the Grand Serail. Discussions featured high on the local monetary situation. PM Diab finally received Ministers of Education, Tarek Majzoub, and Telecommunications, Talal Hawat. Talks touched on means to ensure and improve distance learning. Separately, PM Diab inspected the National Operation Room for Disaster Management at the Grand Serail with Ministers Majzoub and Hawat. Diab gave his instructions to activate work and asked all ministries to inform the operations rooms with new developments regarding coronavirus.-- Grand Serail Press Office

Wazni voices rejection of bank closures
NNA/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Minister of Finance, Ghazi Wazni, on Monday voiced rejection of the banks' decision to close until March 29 as part of measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
"The banking sector is vital and essential in people's daily life," Wazni told the National News Agency. He added that work shift, however, could be arranged alongside the other measures recommended by the Cabinet.

Civil Aviation denies landing of aircraft coming from Iran
NNA/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Director General of the Civil Aviation, Fadi al-Hassan, on Monday denied news claiming an aircraft coming from Iran had landed in Beirut airport. In his statement, al-Hassan maintained that planes coming from countries included in the travel ban due to coronavirus were not allowed to touch down in Lebanon. He also highlighted the necessity of accuracy of news about the airport.

Hitti discusses bilateral relations with ambassadors
NNA/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Nassif Hitti, held Monday a series of diplomatic meetings with Ambassadors Takeshi Okubo of Japan, Geza Mihalyi of Hungary, Hajriyanto Thohari of Indoneis, Najeeb Durrani of Pakistan, and Nicoletta Bombardier of Italy, respectively. Talks reportedly featured high on the bilateral relations and the means to assist Lebanon amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Lebanese Banks to Close during Two-Week Lockdown
Naharnet/March 16/2020
The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced Monday that the country’s banks will close until March 29 except for operations related to ATMs, salaries and the food, oil and medical sectors. The government had announced Sunday that banks would remain open to maintain essential transactions despite the closure of most public and private institutions and businesses over the coronavirus crisis. ABL said its decision comes in response to a demand by the employees’ union to close during the lockdown period out of “keenness on the safety of banks’ employees, clients and their families.”
Noting that clients will be able to withdraw cash in Lebanese lira from ATMs during the closure period, the Association said banks will continue to secure the payment of all domiciled and non-domiciled salaries, also in Lebanese lira.

Hoballah follows up on industrial production cycle
NNA/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Minister of Industry, Imad Hoballah, on Monday held a meeting with a delegation of the Lebanese Industrialist Association, chaired by Fadi Gemayel. Conferees reportedly discussed the mechanisms adopted to ensure the continuity of the industrial production cycle, shedding light on the sector's strategic needs, in line with the decision of the Council of Ministers.

Parliament Postpones Meetings
Naharnet/March 16/2020
The General Secretariat of the Parliament announced Monday the postponement of next Wednesday meeting in Ain-el-Tineh and the sessions of the parliamentary committees. It also said that lawmakers' offices will be closed for sterilization.

The Lebanese military court quitted Amer Al-Fakhouri & Dropped all Charges against
LCCC/ Monday 16 March 2020
The Lebanese Military Court in Lebanon, headed by Brigadier Hussein Abdullah, issued today a ruling that ended the arrest of Amer Al-Fakhoury, in the case of the kidnapping, detention and torture of Lebanese citizens inside the Khiam prison, which resulted in the death of two of them.
In its ruling, No. 515/2020 that was issued this afternoon, the court considered that the crimes against the accused Amer al-Fakhoury, in terms of torturing prisoners in 1998, has become obsolete based on time, and decided to release him immediately unless he is charged and arrested in another judicial cases.
It is worth mentioning that Al-Fakhouri who is USA-Lebanese citizen is being prosecuted with another file before the Beirut investigating judge, Bilal Halawi, in the lawsuit against him from a number of former detainees in Khiam prison, with the crime of arresting them, seizing their freedom, and torturing them. The ruling is apparently is an appeasing one to the USA who has officially accused the Lebanese Judiciary of unlawful arresting of Al-Fakhoury and threatened to sanction all officials involved unless he is released and all charges dropped.
We learned from reliable Lebanese-USA sources that a Bipartisan legislation was about to slam sanctions on the Lebanese armed forces. It was too big to keep him as he has no value for them.
Sadly they have damaged him. Had he passed in their hands, it would have been big sanctions. Now he needs to recover. Lawmakers and those who moved in the USA, including his family did a great job

Military Court Orders Amer Fakhoury be Released
Associated Press/Naharnet/March 16/2020
Lebanon's Military Court on Monday ordered the release of a Lebanese-American held in the country for nearly six months on charges of working for the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia two decades ago, Lebanon's state-run news agency said.
Amer Fakhoury was ordered released because more than 10 years had passed since he allegedly tortured prisoners at a jail run by the SLA, the National News Agency said. Fakhoury, 57, is is a former SLA member who became a U.S. citizen last year, and is now a restaurant owner in Dover, New Hampshire. His case has been closely followed in his home state of New Hampshire, where U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and other officials have called for imposing sanctions on Lebanon to pressure Beirut to release him. Fakhoury has not been attending questioning sessions in Lebanon over the past few months, after being hospitalized with stage 4 lymphoma. It was not immediately clear if he will be set free, as he's facing another case filed by former prisoners who say they were tortured by him. Fakhoury has been jailed since Sept. 12 after returning to Lebanon on vacation to visit family. Lebanon's intelligence services said he confessed during questioning to being a warden at Khiam Prison, which was run by the SLA during Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. Human rights groups have described the prison as a center for torture.Fakhoury's family and lawyer, however, say he had no direct contact with inmates and was never involved in any interrogation or torture.Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel's creation in 1948. Lebanon bans it citizens from traveling to Israel or having contact with Israelis. His lawyer and family say he fled Lebanon in 2001 through Israel and eventually to the United States because of death threats he and many other SLA members received after Israel ended its occupation of Lebanon in 2000. In February, Fakhoury was charged by a military investigative judge with the murder and torture of inmates at Khiam Prison. Hundreds of former Lebanese members of the SLA militia had fled to Israel, fearing reprisals if they remained in Lebanon. Others stayed and faced trial, receiving lenient sentences.

Al-Jadeed Reporter Collapses on Air, to be Tested for Coronavirus
Naharnet/March 16/2020
Al-Jadeed TV reporter Rachelle al-Husseini collapsed Monday during a live broadcast from the al-Masnaa border crossing.Al-Husseini and several other reporters were in the area to cover the closure of the country’s main border crossing with Syria as part of Lebanon’s two-week lockdown in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. A statement issued by al-Jadeed said the reporter collapsed after she felt dizzy and her blood pressure dropped.“She was immediately rushed to the Health Ministry’s border health center to conduct the necessary examinations and the doctor who examined her said she was not showing any coronavirus symptom,” al-Jadeed said. “Her body temperature is normal and her blood pressure returned to normal, but she suffered extreme fatigue and panic which pushed her into a state of dizziness and fainting,” the TV network quoted the physician as saying. Al-Jadeed added that al-Husseini and the cameraman Elie Abu Assli will isolate themselves for 18 hours after undergoing coronavirus tests pending the results. The TV network also stressed that it is keen on taking all the safety and precaution measures against the COVID-19 coronavirus, noting that binding protocols have been imposed on all its employees. Lebanon has so far confirmed 109 coronavirus cases among them three deaths. The country went into lockdown Monday after the government announced a two-week state of “general mobilization” and ordered the closure of public and private institutions as well as the country’s airport and land and sea ports of entry.

Traffic Thin, Streets Almost Empty as Lebanon Goes on Virus Lockdown
Associated Press/Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 16/2020
Lebanon went into lockdown Monday after the government announced a two-week state of “general mobilization” and ordered the closure of public and private institutions as well as the country’s airport and land and sea ports of entry. Traffic was thin across the country and in some cases streets were completely empty on Monday, the start of the working week. Restaurants, cafes and bars have been closed since last week and most private businesses were also shuttered Monday. In some areas, police were going around and asking shop owners to close in line with the government orders. Few people could be seen at Beirut's seaside corniche, and police were asking them to leave. Pharmacies, bakeries and other businesses related to making or selling food were allowed to stay open. The small country has reported 109 cases and three deaths from the new coronavirus. Hamra Street, the capital's most famous shopping street and a residential district, was eerily quiet as shops, restaurants and cafes along the usually bustling thoroughfare were closed. Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport will close from Wednesday until March 29, while no one will be allowed in through maritime or land ports of entry during that period.
Diplomats, U.N. peacekeepers, employees of international organizations and goods shipments would still be permitted entry. Most institutions and businesses would remain closed. Security forces, health institutions, utilities companies and shops selling food will be exempted. Lebanon's novel coronavirus outbreak is the latest crisis to hit a country reeling from a severe economic crunch. Since early March, the government has progressively ordered schools, universities, bars and restaurants closed. President Michel Aoun on Sunday announced a "health emergency" and also called on Lebanese to stay at home. "All of us are called upon to continue our work from home," he said in a televised speech. In recent days, Lebanese media and social media users have launched a campaign calling for social distancing, under the Arabic-language hashtag "Stay at home".

Virus Lockdown Sinks Tripoli Deeper into Doldrums
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 16/2020
In Lebanon's anti-government protest hotspot Tripoli, Amim Mahbani has struggled to rescue his clothes shop from a freefalling economy. Now the novel coronavirus has left its very survival in peril. Lebanese authorities have ordered shops to close for two weeks to fight COVID-19, compounding a crisis that traders in the country's poverty-stricken second city Tripoli say was already in full swing. "We've shuttered our shops, but no one was entering them anyway because of this grinding economic crunch," Mahbani said. "The government announcing a health emergency has just come to finish us off," the 52-year-old father of three said, following Sunday's orders from Beirut. Dubbed the "bride" of Lebanon's months-long protest movement for its vibrant anti-government rallies, Tripoli has been plunged into economic despair. "Traders are simply no longer able to sustain financial losses," said Mahbani, who has been forced to lay off eight of his nine employees. As Lebanon faces its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, prices have skyrocketed, the Lebanese pound has plunged in value and unemployment is rampant. This is the case across the country, but Tripoli has been disproportionately hit because more than half of its population had already been living at or below the poverty line for years. In the city's Azmi street and surrounding areas, shops have shuttered and others been starved for business.
'Never been as hard'
Outside a lingerie store, Sherine pleaded with passersby to step inside before the ordered shutdown. Her eyes darting left and right, she scoured the street for desperately needed customers. "If I can sell, then I'll be paid a salary," the 28-year-old shop assistant told AFP. "If I don't, then the store owner won't pay me." Her only colleague had already been fired and she feared her turn would be next. Tripoli, a port city on the eastern Mediterranean, had already suffered for several years from an economic downturn. From 2007 to 2014, it was the scene of frequent clashes between Sunni and Alawite residents of neighboring districts. The spillover of Syria's war in 2011 fueled violence and unleashed a wave of attacks, including a 2013 twin bombing on two Tripoli mosques that killed 45 people. Despite all this, Hussam Zaher -- who owns a women's boutique on the same street -- said business today was exceptionally bad. "It's never been as hard as these days," said the 60-year-old, who has owned the shop for around a quarter of a century. "My problem as a business owner is the liquidity crunch," he told AFP. "People who have money are spending it just on food, while things like clothes have become secondary."
'Lives flipped upside-down'
As a result, more than 120 shops in and around Azmi street have shuttered for good, said Talal Baroudi, who heads an association of merchants in the area. "The shops that have survived in the face of the economic crisis... are considered semi-closed because of the lack of business," he told AFP. "Most merchants have stopped stocking up on goods altogether." Faced with a liquidity crunch, Lebanese banks have since September imposed stringent controls on dollar withdrawals and halted transfers abroad. Account holders have been forced to deal in the nose-diving Lebanese pound, which has lost more than a third of its value on the black market. With limited access to her money, Wafaa Merehbi said her outings have been reduced to window shopping. "Our purchasing power is zero," said the 64-year-old. "We are using the $100 dollars the banks allow us to withdraw (every week) to eat."Ismail Mukaddam said business at a nearby menswear store he has owned for the past 45 years was doomed. "Our lives have been flipped upside down," the 70-year-old said. "Things have never been this bad, not even at the peak of the civil war."

Politicians Donate Salaries to Fight Coronavirus
Naharnet/March 16/2020
Several politicians in Lebanon said they will donate their March salaries as a contribution to the anti-coronavirus campaign. In a tweet Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad said: “Health Minister Hamad Hassan has taken the initiative and I will donate my March salary for the national fund to fight coronavirus as part of supporting government hospitals to confront the disease,” she said. Minister of the Displaced, Ghada Chreim also said she will donate her salary for the month of March to support government hospitals and all of its employees. “I invite every capable Lebanese, resident and expatriate to provide help because through solidarity we can succeed,” she tweeted. MP Michel Daher donated 100 million Lebanese pounds, former MP Amal Abou Zeid donated 50 million Lebanese pounds to Jezzine Governmental Hospital. Minister Hassan, Independent MP Chamel Roukoz and Development and Liberation bloc MP Fadi Alameh had on Sunday announced that they will donate their salaries and compensations to hospitals as a contribution to the anti-coronavirus fight. The COVID-19 virus has officially infected 99 people in the Mediterranean nation. Lebanon on Sunday urged people to stay at home for two weeks and prepared to close its main airport to stem the outbreak that has killed three people in the country.

The coronavirus outbreak proves Lebanon’s Diab cabinet has no idea how to govern
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/March 16/2020
No need to panic! Words repeated by the Lebanese Minister of Public Health Hamad Hasan three weeks ago when he first announced that Lebanon had identified its first case of the notorious coronavirus, technically known as COVID-19. Hamad’s assurances soon proved fallacious, as the coronavirus continued to spread across the country with no clear plan of action being deployed by the government of Hassan Diab to try to limit its spread. Alarmingly the Lebanese government dragged its feet and took no immediate action by stopping flights from Iran and Italy, the two countries that were initially identified as the source of the infected cases Lebanon was treating.
Faced with perhaps the worst calamity since the great famine of 1915, the Lebanese ruling establishment opted to do all the wrong things. Rather than deploying a national emergency plan that would scientifically manage the crisis, the cabinet of Premier Hassan Diab stuck to its sectarian operating system and preferred to take a step back and simply “act” responsible, keyword here is act. Diab and his so-called technocratic government formed a ministerial crisis cell as such situations dictate, but unfortunately most of its decisions were reactive rather than preemptive and proactive to protect the lives of the Lebanese as well as the one million Syrian refugees currently calling Lebanon home.
Banning flights to and from Iran should have been one of the first things that Diab’s cabinet enforced regardless of the political implications of such a decision and the reaction of Hezbollah which simply cannot afford to sever its only remaining lifeline through which it receives weapons and more importantly dollars. Despite the popular outcry demanding that severe measures be implemented on flights from Iran, flocks of Iranians and Lebanese returnees kept entering Lebanon through the airport and through Syria with no serious testing or screening being conducted.
The fact that Hezbollah was in control of the Ministry of Public Health and its areas are beyond the scrutiny of the Lebanese state further heightened the public belief that the coronavirus had already infested the Shia community, thus leading to their further isolation. News that Hezbollah was using one of its biggest hospitals, Al-Rassoul Al-Azam, as a secret quarantine facility led to further panic in the ranks of the Lebanese who saw their state unresponsive to any of these dangerous allegations.
People wearing face masks walk outside Rafik Hariri hospital, where Lebanon's first coronavirus case is being quarantined, in Beirut, Lebanon February 21, 2020. (Reuters)
Diab’s apprehensive approach also extended to the other religious communities as each respective community was left to issue instructions to their places of worship and congregation venues, sites which have the highest risk of transmission. Lacking grassroots legitimacy, Diab could not afford to cross any of his patrons and stepped back from declaring a state of national emergency, centralizing the decision-making process and locking down the country.
Such harsh and radical measures were the only chance that the Lebanese had to contain the spread of this plague. This government has made a habit of issuing directives and orders to the different entities including the municipalities, under the mistaken assumption that these bodies have the capabilities as well as the resources to carry them out. Contrary to what the Diab cabinet and its many advisors claim, the coronavirus outbreak confirmed their total lack of knowledge of how the state works. Moreover, having defaulted on its sovereign debt almost a week before, this government lacks the financial resources to confront the coronavirus as it spread through the country, especially given that nearly all of Lebanon’s hospitals were suffering from a lack of medical supplies including spare parts for the much needed ventilators even before the outbreak.
Another dangerous aspect which the Diab government has shown deliberate laxity in facing is the Syrian refugees whose unsanitary conditions in camps and high-density areas is inducive to the spread of the virus. While the UNHCR and some government agencies have scrambled to face this challenge, Diab and his xenophobic allies are unconcerned with the risk and brush it away as inconsequential.
In the final analysis, the ruling establishment fronted by the Hassan Diab and many other cabinets before it have repeatedly asked people not to panic when there banking sector was collapsing, or when the forest fires were threatening to devour their homes.
However, the Lebanese who are aware of the moral shortcomings of their leaders have taken the initiative to self-quarantine and to lockdown the country to save their souls. Perhaps more importantly, the coronavirus challenge proved once more, at least in the case of the Diab cabinet, that technocracy and statesmanship do not necessarily go together. Diab may be a technocrat, but he is also morally unfit to govern.
*Makram Rabah is a lecturer at the American University of Beirut, Department of History. His forthcoming book Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory (Edinburgh University Press) covers collective identities and the Lebanese Civil War.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 16-17/2020
'Test Every Suspected Case' of COVID-19, Says WHO
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 16/2020
The World Health Organization called Monday for countries to test every suspected case of COVID-19, as the rest of the world registered more cases and deaths in the pandemic than China. "You cannot fight a fire blindfolded," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva, saying the WHO recommended that countries "Test, test, test. Test every suspected case." "In the past week, we have seen a rapid escalation of cases of COVID-19," he said, describing the pandemic as "the defining global health crisis of our time." More cases and deaths have now been reported in the rest of the world than in China, where the new coronavirus first surfaced in December, he added. He did not provide the latest numbers, but according to an AFP tally based on official sources, more than 169,710 cases have been recorded in 142 countries and territories. The death toll stood at 6,640. The worst affected countries in terms of fatalities are mainland China, with 3,213 deaths, Italy with 1,809 deaths, 853 in Iran and 297 in Spain.

WHO: More Virus Cases, Deaths in Rest of World than in China
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 16/2020
There have now been more COVID-19 cases and deaths in the rest of the world than in China, the World Health Organization said Monday. "More cases and deaths have now been reported in the rest of the world than in China," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva, without providing the latest numbers. According to an AFP tally based on official sources, more than 169,710 cases have been recorded in 142 countries and territories. The death toll stood at 6,640. The worst affected countries in terms of fatalities are mainland China, with 3,213 deaths, Italy with 1,809 deaths, 853 in Iran and 297 in Spain.

Israel president taps Netanyahu rival to form government to fight coronavirus pandemic
The New Arab & agencies/March 16/2020
Israel's president on Sunday asked former military chief Benny Gantz to form a government, calling for an end to a year-long political stalemate in order to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Reuven Rivlin's announcement marked a setback for right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but did not necessarily spell the end of his tenure, the longest in Israeli history.  Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White alliance, secured recommendations from 61 lawmakers in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament, on Sunday - some 13 days after Israel's third election within 12 months. "Tomorrow, around midday, the president will assign the task of forming the government to [the] head of Kachol Lavan... Benny Gantz," Rivlin's office said in a statement Sunday, using the Hebrew term for the Blue and White alliance. But there is no guarantee that the disparate forces who supported Gantz on Sunday will agree terms on a stable coalition, something that proved impossible following the two inconclusive elections last year. Driven by the need to ensure a coherent policy response to the coronavirus pandemic, Rivlin appears to be simultaneously pursuing a stop-gap option - an interim unity administration involving both Gantz and Netanyahu. He summoned the two rivals to a meeting on Sunday evening for an "urgent conversation", which ended without agreement, but Likud and Blue and White said in a joint-statement the talks will continue on Monday. The president emphasised the need to "intensify direct contacts... between the Likud and Kachol Lavan negotiating teams, and welcomed both sides' willingness to do so", according to a statement by his own office after Sunday night's initial meeting.
Endorsements from across the divide
On top of support from Blue and White and a smaller centre-left alliance, Gantz was also recommended by the mainly Arab Joint List and the secular, right-wing nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party. Aside from being anti-Netanyahu, the Joint List and Yisrael Beiteinu have almost no common political ground. Netanyahu's alliance, seen as more cohesive, includes his right-wing Likud as well as its religious, nationalist ally Yemina and two ultra-Orthodox parties. Both Netanyahu and Gantz have voiced support for an interim unity government to tackle the spread of coronavirus. The premier had earlier on Sunday specifically proposed a six-month arrangement that he would lead. "We must unite forces and form a strong and stable government that will be able to pass a budget and make tough decisions," Netanyahu said. But Gantz blasted the prime minister for floating that offer to the media, before discussing ideas in private negotiations.  "Unlike you, I'll continue to back any correct government action without any political considerations," Gantz said. "When you're serious, we'll talk," he added. Israel has 213 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with tens of thousands in home quarantine. Authorities last week ordered all travelers arriving in the country to self-isolate for 14 days. Authorities have banned gatherings of more than 10 people and ordered schools, universities, restaurants and cafes to close, among other measures. Netanyahu was in January formally charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, becoming the first Israeli premier ever indicted in office. Gantz has previously refused to serve in any government led by someone facing criminal charges, but that was before the Covid-19 crisis. Netanyahu's trial had been due to open on Tuesday, but Jerusalem's District Court said that given the severity of the global pandemic it had been instructed to hear "only urgent matters". "We have decided to postpone the first hearing until May 24," the court said, referring to Netanyahu's trial. The premier is accused of a range of offences including receiving improper gifts and offering a media mogul lucrative regulatory changes in exchange for favourable coverage. He denies wrongdoing.

Virus Brings France to a Standstill, Government Mulls More Measures
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 16/2020
Many streets in French cities were deserted Monday as schools, cafes and a range of businesses were shuttered on government orders and President Emmanuel Macron weighed additional measures to contain a fast-escalating coronavirus outbreak. While many people worked from home to avoid potential germ-spreading encounters or to look after children, others thronged supermarkets to stock up on basic supplies in case of a prolonged lockdown. France has shuttered non-essential businesses in a bid to curb the spread of the virus that has infected more than 5,000 in the country on the last count and killed 127 -- a jump of 900 cases and 36 deaths in 24 hours. More than 400 people are in hospital in a serious condition, raising fears that hospitals might be overrun. The authorities have also limited long-distance train and plane travel and some domestic public transport. Tour operators announced they had cancelled all trips until the end of March. But the presidency and the government denied widely circulating rumors of an imminent curfew and home confinement for all residents, a step already taken by neighbors Spain and Italy. Macron, who maintained a first round of nationwide municipal elections that took place Sunday despite widespread contagion fears, was discussing additional infection-curbing measures Monday with senior government officials. Polling staff carried out regular disinfection of their stations and policed voters to ensure they stood far enough away from one another? But the election was hit by a record abstention rate.
On Monday, sources close to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he had proposed postponing the second round of elections scheduled for Sunday, which would effectively nullify the first round and require starting from scratch. The announcement came just hours before Macron was due to give a televised address to the nation at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) Monday. The president also held talks Monday with leaders of Europe and the rest of the G7 nations on cross-border anti-virus actions, the presidency said. An announcement was expected shortly on EU border control measures, it added.
Pizzas placed outside
As Paris closed public parks and gardens Monday, factories came to a halt and restaurants gave away their food stocks, some supermarkets erected face-height screens concocted from sheets of plastic wrap to shield cashiers from coughing or sneezing.
Pharmacies posted signs saying they were out of face masks and sanitizing hand gel. Some bus drivers took to protecting themselves from contact with passengers, using tape and plastic wrap to seal off their cabins. Among the few people out and about on the streets of the capital, several wore disposable gloves and masks or simply wrapped a scarf around their faces. At one Parisian pizzeria, a sign announced that delivery was still available, but "the pizzas will be placed outside the door" for collection. Top health official Jerome Salomon on Monday said the situation was "deteriorating very fast", with the number of cases doubling every three days. "Every French man and woman must ask themselves this morning: 'What can I do today to divide by three or four the number of people I get in contact with?'" he told France Inter radio. He urged people to "stay at home, it's as simple as that." Salomon's comments came after TV reports showed large gatherings Sunday at open-air markets and in parks by people enjoying a sunny day out -- flouting calls to keep a safe personal distance of at least one meter (3.3 feet) as the best means of braking virus spread.

Prominent Iranian clerical official dies of coronavirus as country struggles to contain pandemic
The New Arab & agencies/Monday, 16 March, 2020
A 78-year-old member of the Iranian clerical body that chooses the country's supreme leader has died from the new coronavirus, news agencies reported Monday, the latest of several senior Iranian officials to have been infected in the worsening outbreak. Ayatollah Hashem Bathaei, a low-profile, moderate member of the Assembly of Experts, died from the COVID-19 illness, the semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported.
The clerical assembly has the authority to appoint or remove the supreme leader, who has the final say on all major policies. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 80 years old and has been in power since 1989, wore disposable gloves at a recent public event, apparently as a precaution. Cabinet ministers, members of parliament, Revolutionary Guard members and health ministry officials have been infected, compounding fears about Iran's response to the global pandemic, which has infected nearly 170,000 people worldwide and killed more than 6,500. In Iran, the outbreak has infected nearly 14,000 people and killed more than 700, with the toll jumping by more than a hundred in the last 24 hours. The real numbers may be even higher, as some have questioned the transparency in the government's reporting. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. Those with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. More than 77,000 people have recovered. The official leading Iran's response to the virus on Sunday expressed concerns that health facilities could be overwhelmed if the rate of new cases continues to climb. “If the trend continues, there will not be enough capacity,” Ali Reza Zali, who is leading the campaign against the outbreak, was quoted as saying by the state-run IRNA news agency. Iran is believed to have around 110,000 hospital beds, including 30,000 in the capital, Tehran. Authorities have pledged to set up mobile clinics as needed. Despite the mounting toll, many Iranians are shrugging off concerns about the virus. The streets of Tehran were bustling on Sunday, with many people out shopping in stores with little evidence of panic-buying. *Agencies contributed to this report.

Pompeo Warns Iraq PM: US to Take Action in Self-Defense If Attacked
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Pompeo spoke to Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Sunday, a day after three American troops and several Iraqi forces were wounded in the second major rocket attack in the past week on an Iraqi base north of Baghdad, US, and Iraqi officials said, raising the stakes in an escalating cycle of attacks and reprisals. He said Iraq’s government should defend the US-led coalition helping it fight ISIS, according to the statement from State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. “Secretary Pompeo underscored that the groups responsible for these attacks must be held accountable. Secretary Pompeo noted that America will not tolerate attacks and threats to American lives and will take additional action as necessary in self-defense,” it said. Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said 33 Katyusha rockets were launched near a section of the Taji base which houses US-led coalition troops. It said the military found seven rocket launchers and 24 unused rockets in the nearby Abu Izam area. The Iraqi military said several Iraqi air defense servicemen were critically wounded. Two of the three wounded US troops are seriously injured and are being treated at a military hospital in Baghdad, the Pentagon said. Longstanding antagonism between the United States and Iran has mostly played out on Iraqi soil in recent months. Iranian-backed paramilitary groups have regularly rocketed and shelled bases in Iraq which host US forces and the area around the US Embassy in Baghdad. The United States has in turn conducted several strikes inside Iraq, killing top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Kataib Hezbollah founder Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in January.

US warns Iraq it could retaliate 'as necessary'
AFP/March 16/2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iraq Monday the US would retaliate "as necessary" against any new assaults on Americans after a slew of rocket attacks. The United States last week launched airstrikes against an Iranian-allied paramilitary group following a deadly attack on an Iraqi base housing US troops -- but rocket fire has continued unabated. In a phone call with Iraq's caretaker prime minister, Adel Abdel Mahdi, Pompeo said that Baghdad "must defend coalition personnel" who are officially deployed as part of the campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group. "Secretary Pompeo noted that America will not tolerate attacks and threats to American lives and will take additional action as necessary in self-defense," the State Department said in a statement. A fresh spate of rockets -- brazenly fired in the daytime -- targeted the crowded Taji air base north of Baghdad on Saturday, wounding three members of the US-led coalition. None of the attacks have ever been claimed but the US has blamed hardline Shia paramilitary groups, which are are considered proxies to Iran. On Wednesday, a similar rocket attack at Taji killed two American personnel and a British soldier in the deadliest such incident at an Iraqi base in years. The US responded Friday with airstrikes on arms depots it said were used by the faction Kataeb Hezbollah and destroyed part of the under-construction airport in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala. Iraq's military said that five members of its security forces and one civilian were killed, none members of the targeted paramilitary group. Iraq -- which has long feared getting caught in spiraling US-Iran tensions -- denounced the "American aggression" and said it would lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council. The conflict dramatically escalated in early January when the United States killed, Qassem Soleimani, the chief of Iran's "Quds Force," in a drone strike at the Baghdad airport. Baghdad responded by urging US forces to leave but Washington has refused, with Pompeo saying that Iraqi leaders privately wanted troops to stay and President Donald Trump threatening sanctions if US forces are booted out.

Russia: Militants in Syria's Idlib Not Complying With Ceasefire
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Russia's foreign ministry said on Monday that militants in Syria's Idlib region are noncomplying with a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey, the Interfax news agency reported. The foreign ministry said the militants were taking counter-offensive action in the region. For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said joint patrols with Turkey in Syria's Idlib were cut short because of militants who refused to commit to ceasefire forcing them to take a shorter route, Russian news agencies report. Russian reports also said the militants' provocations included using civilians as a human shield. Ankara has been given more time to rein in militants conducting these provocations, the Russian Defense ministry added. Patrols on the M4 highway in Idlib province are the result of a March 5 ceasefire accord between Moscow and Ankara, which back opposing sides in Syria’s nine-year war. Under the deal, which halted hostilities after an escalation of violence that displaced nearly a million people, Turkish and Russian forces are to establish a security corridor on either side of the M4, as well as carry out joint patrols along it.

Shin Bet Says Arrested Israeli-Arab Woman Recruited by Hamas
Riyadh - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Israel's Security Agency (Shin Bet) has accused Hamas of recruiting Israeli-Arabs to carry out operations against Israel. On February 17, the Shin Bet, in a joint operation with Israel Police, arrested Aya Khatib, 31, a resident of the northwestern village of Arara. She is Palestinian holding Israeli citizenship. Khatib, a mother of two, was recruited by Gazan Hamas operatives Mohammed Filfel, 29, a resident of Beit Lahiya, and Mahmoud Halawa, 32, from Jabaliya. According to Shin Bet, both operatives ordered her to gather information to help carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets. She was also recruited to carry out missions for Hamas including financing the group’s terrorist operations and infrastructure.The Agency also claimed that Khatib was engaged in humanitarian activities to help needy Gazans. The agency accused her of providing the terrorist groups with hundreds of thousands of shekels by scamming aid organizations and innocent civilians. “Part of the money which Khatib transferred to Hamas operatives was for clear terrorist purposes, including helping to build tunnels, build a lathe and erect structures for Hamas’s ongoing activities,” the Shin Bet said.
Khatib is said to have given Hamas equipment for military operatives as well as examining options on how to transfer sensitive equipment that could be used to build tunnels and observe Israeli army forces, it added. The findings of the Shin Bet probe also showed that Khatib provided Hamas with information about military forces’ movements during one of the rounds of fighting with the Gaza Strip. On Sunday, the Haifa District Court extended Khatib’s detention period until next Wednesday, on charges of cooperation and intelligence with al-Qassam brigades. The Israeli Public Prosecution submitted Monday the prosecutor's statement to the court. Khatib's lawyer said she denies the charges attributed to her. Khatib has complained about the conditions of her arrest before the court, which ordered that this matter be examined, her lawyer noted. The court also allowed her two children to meet her. Khatib has been active on her Facebook page to collect donations for patients, particularly children from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who are receiving treatments in Israeli hospitals. She also collected donations for male and female university students whose economic conditions prevented them from paying their university fees.

Conflicting Reports Emerge on Naming of New Iraq PM
Baghdad - Hamza Mustafa/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
Monday marks the end of the deadline set for appointing a new Iraqi prime minister to succeed Mohammed Allawi, the designated PM who withdrew his candidacy, and outgoing Premier Adel Abdul Mahdi.
Allawi withdrew on the last day of the constitutional duration because of a lack of quorum at parliament to vote on his proposed cabinet lineup. Abdul Mahdi, meanwhile, said he would take “voluntary absence” and not carry out most official duties. He asked for a deputy prime minister or minister to chair cabinet meetings. People close to him say his step was aimed at increasing the pressure to choose a successor. Head of the Sanad parliamentary bloc Ahmed al-Asadi announced Sunday that the seven-member committee that represents the leaderships of the Shiite blocs has agreed after a series of meetings to choose a consensus figure to head the new government. He did not disclose the candidate’s identity but indicated that “everyone will support him.”His remarks raised eyebrows given the deep differences over naming a new premier. Yet, sources from the political committee hinted that Naim al-Suhail is the agreed candidate, coming on top of dozens of others vying for the post. An informed political source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the committee has discussed the candidacy of 31 figures and narrowed them down to four: MP Mohammad Shiya al-Sudani, the former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Ali al-Shukri, the senior adviser to the president, former Minister of Planning Lukman Faily and Naim al-Suhail. He pointed out that in case they fail to agree on a figure, the names of the 31 candidates are most likely to be submitted to the leadership body of the Shiite alliance.

Policeman Killed in Terrorist Attack in Sinai
North Sinai- Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
One Egyptian policeman was killed in a terrorist attack in al-Arish, North Sinai, according to tribal and medical eyewitnesses. Sinai Tribal Union, a gathering of tribesmen who cooperate with the Egyptian authorities during security operations, announced that a security officer at Bir al-Abed Police Department, northeast of Sinai, survived an assassination attempt. The incident happened when a group of masked gunmen opened fire at the officer's car, killing his driver immediately. The Union issued a statement announcing the death of officer Ahmed Abdusalam, who was killed by extremists during the attack. Mervat Saleh, a Bir Al-Abed resident who witnessed the incident, reported that she heard gunshots in front of her building, and after things calmed down, residents found out that someone attacked the sheriff’s car. She added that the perpetrators were armed, masked, and targeted the car with heavy fire while it was parked in front of a pharmacy. However, the sheriff was inside the pharmacy and they shot his driver instead. Saleh said that an ambulance rushed to the scene followed by policemen who immediately began combing the region looking for the attackers. The witness also reported that the gunmen tried to drive the car away and kidnap the passenger, but the sheriff had the keys, so they hijacked the vehicle of a passerby and fled the scene. The car was later found on al-Arish-Qantara highway, on the city’s eastern entrance. Under-Secretary of Health Ministry Tarek Shawki told Asharq al-Awsat that Bir al-Abed Hospital received the body of Ahmed Abdusalam, 21, who sustained several gunshots. Egyptian police pursue in North Sinai terrorist elements of “Wilayat Sinai” organization, which pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014. In 2018, the army, accompanied by the police, launched an operation against the militants in North and Central Sinai to cleanse the region from extremists affiliated with ISIS. Terrorist attacks against security forces have dropped significantly in Sinai over the last period due to the army’s preemptive strikes on terrorist locations, according to observers.

Egypt police say killed 6 militants in northern Sinai
AFP/March 16, 2020
CAIRO: Egyptian police have killed six militants in a shootout in the restive northern Sinai region, the interior ministry said Monday. The firefight broke out as police forces raided a hideout of “terrorist elements” intent on carrying out “hostile operations,” it said.Egypt’s security forces are battling a long-running insurgency in the peninsula, spearheaded by a local affiliate of the Daesh group. Weapons and explosives were found in the militants’ possession, the ministry added, in a statement released along with gruesome photos of the slain militants.
The date of the raid was not specified. The Islamist insurgency in North Sinai escalated following the military’s 2013 ouster of Islamist President Muhammad Mursi. Scores of policemen and soldiers have since been killed in militant attacks. Last month, Daesh said it had blown up a gas pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula, saying it was connected to Israel. Security sources however said the targeted pipeline was a domestic one.Cairo launched a nationwide operation against militants in February 2018, mainly focusing on North Sinai province. Since then, over 845 suspected militants have been killed in the region along with more than 60 security personnel, according to army figures.

ISIS Orders its Members to Avoid Europe because of Coronavirus
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 March, 2020
The ISIS group, that once directed its members to attack major European cities, has issued a travel advisory to avoid traveling to the continent because of the coronavirus, described it as "the land of the epidemic.”The terrorist group has offered new “religious directives” for its members to follow like: washing their hands frequently and “cover the mouth when yawning and sneezing.”
In the group's latest al-Naba newsletter, ISIS advises the healthy not to enter coronavirus-stricken areas and "the afflicted should not exit from it.”The newsletter said ISIS members should maintain their faith in God and "put trust in God and seek refuge in Him from illnesses.” It described coronavirus as a “torment sent by God on whomsoever He wills”. The new directives came after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced last week that Europe is now the "epicenter" of the global coronavirus pandemic. ISIS first emerged in 2014 when it seized large areas of Iraq and Syria in a rapid advance. Following the coronavirus outbreak, Italy, France, and Spain have banned public gatherings and directed many bars and shops to shut down. A number of European countries, including Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, have closed their borders to foreigners. Meanwhile, France announced new measures to address the pandemic, as Prime Minister Edouard Philippe ordered most shops, restaurants, and entertainment facilities to close and told people to stay home as much as possible to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Exceptions to the ban will include grocery stores, pharmacies and petrol stations. He explained that public transportation will continue to operate, but he appealed citizens to limit its use. Philippe also urged the French people to work from home, describing the epidemic as "the biggest health crisis facing France in a century."The prime minister explained that the spread of the virus in France is accelerating and the number of patients requiring intensive care is increasing. The British government urged anyone with a cough or high temperature to stay at home for seven days, keeping away from other people, including those in their home if possible. It indicated that these directives apply to everyone, regardless of whether they have travelled abroad.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 16-17/2020
IMF loan request exposes severity of Iran’s financial crisis
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/March 16/2020
After the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it was dedicating $50 billion to combat the global coronavirus pandemic, Iran’s regime, via its central bank and Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, last week requested a $5 billion emergency loan — 10 percent of the total sum allocated by the IMF to fight the disease worldwide.
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has never asked the IMF for help and has criticized it and other international financial organizations such as the World Bank for ideological reasons.
In order to understand why Iran has sought the IMF’s help, it is imperative to understand the current economic situation in Iran, which could be described as the most dangerous economic crisis in the country since the regime’s war with Iraq in the 1980s.
Since 2018, the Trump administration has tightened sanctions on Iran, resulting in the country experiencing a severe economic recession. A 40 percent inflation rate has led to a steep decline in consumer purchasing power and worsened socioeconomic conditions. This is in addition to an increasing budget deficit due to plummeting oil exports and a sharp decline in tax collection and foreign trade.
It is evident that the Iranian government was already struggling before the coronavirus, whose outbreak has aggravated Iran’s existing economic woes. The coronavirus has led to a collapse in Iran’s hard currency income, with the country’s tourism sector coming to a halt and cross-border trade between Iran and neighboring nations, including Iraq, being suspended. Also, the dollar exchange rate rose to 15,500 tomans to the dollar — a 16 percent increase when compared to the past two months.
So, what are the possible reasons as to why Iran has changed its policy of not seeking help from the IMF?
The economic situation in Iran has reached a very dangerous level, with the country unable to withdraw the $5 billion it needs from its National Development Fund (NDF). Today, the NDF’s reserves are unknown, despite standing at $80 billion two years ago. It is believed that the Iranian government has exhausted the NDF’s reserves in order to finance the country’s ever-increasing military expenditure and plug the gap in the budget deficit. Despite this, Iran posted foreign exchange reserves of up to $70 billion at the beginning of this year. However, there is a strong possibility that Iran’s foreign exchange reserves have since declined to such an extent that Tehran has been forced to seek help from the IMF. If this is correct, Iran’s economic situation has reached a perilous state, requiring the regime’s decision-makers to act immediately to change the status quo or face imminent economic collapse.
It is highly likely that part of any IMF loan would go toward treating infected foreign fighters, even at a time when Iran is unable to help itself
For Iran, the situation is a bit more complicated because combating the coronavirus may not be confined to its borders, with treatment possibly extending to the regime’s proxies in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, as reports indicate that the virus has spread among them. Therefore, it is highly likely that part of any IMF loan would go toward treating infected foreign fighters, even at a time when Iran is unable to help itself.
Although the cost of combating the coronavirus is unknown, the budget allocations announced by countries such as the US and Italy — Italy alone has put aside $28.3 billion — to confront it indicate the vast sum that is needed. These budget allocations suggest that Iran’s regime has been forced to reverse its policy of not seeking help from the IMF due to its dire economic situation.
Perhaps it would be more useful for the Iranian people and neighboring states if the IMF supplied medicine and medical equipment instead of agreeing to a $5 billion loan. This would ensure that no money is diverted to financing Iran’s regional projects, ballistic missile/nuclear program, or treat its infected fighters across the region.
The Iranian government seeking help from the IMF is a significant change in its policy of not approaching international financial organizations, with its external debts currently standing at $5 billion. Iran has taken loans from friendly states such as Russia.
Iran is well skilled in covering up its financial realities, but the coronavirus variable has exposed a severe economic crisis at home due to the regime’s incompetent leadership and management.
• Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is Head of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami

Maps, Islands, Isolation and Masks
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/March 16/2020
The meeting with Mr. Saxton was always fun and constructive. It's that type of friendship that takes place between strangers in a cafe if they find topics that would kill boredom. He was heading steadily towards the 90s, but leaning against the stick failed to demotivate him.
Saxton dedicated his life to two areas: literature and music. He remained faithful to them during retirement. He specialized in French literature and spent years making comparisons between writers produced by France and others crowned by Britain.
Because of the distortions in the profession, he was quickly slipping into his favorite matter, and I would push him in this direction if he got busy reading British developments. In fact, for me, meeting with him was more like visiting a garden or a library. His topics of interest brought me out of depression and made me forget the news that consumes the life of an Arab journalist.
Perhaps he would be delighted to find a man, who prefers to listen rather than speak, especially if the subject was about those who have squandered their days to come out with a brilliant symphony or write a novel that defies time and forgetfulness.
Saxton grew old, but his passion hasn’t. He talked about Strauss, Chopin, Beethoven, and Mozart, like someone talking about his loyal friends. He talked about Flaubert, Proust, and Balzac as if he had just come from a pleasant evening with them.
Money did not have an exceptional place in his evaluation of his life. He was glad that retirement allowed him to buy books and attend major concerts.
Since days now, Coronavirus is the only plate on our table… On the phones, screens and editorial meetings… Headlines, articles and breaking news…
It stole the limelight from anything else, including presidents, who tampered with constitutions to extend or eternalize their term. The recurring topic is a tiring one, even if it is important and dangerous. It is not easy to find a daily non-redundant headline.
Annoyed with the recurring topic, I rejoiced when I found Mr. Saxton challenging fear and cold, suggesting that normal life should continue. So I grabbed the opportunity to take a short break from the subject that has colonized our days for weeks. But it turned out to be a miscalculation, as the virus also changed my friend’s priorities.
Your friend reassures you as if he was trying to comfort himself. This is a black cloud, but it will pass. The world should follow directives and keep its cool.
This wave is worrisome, but it is nothing if compared to what the world was previously exposed to. People are alarmed to see victims in the absence of treatment or vaccine because they have learned to trust scientific and medical progress and the ability of the human mind to face and often anticipate dangers.
The new Coronavirus shook the people’s confidence in the global clinic that is responsible for his health. He suddenly found himself in front of doctors and scientists asking questions more than providing answers.
In general, ambiguity raises confusion and shock. What if it came to people’s lives?
For this reason, grief can be felt in the talks about the new virus. Sadness for the victims and the fearful crowd… Sadness, because this harmful message reminded man not only of his fragility but also of the fragility of the entire march towards progress, despite achievements and leaps.
The crisis has turned ordinary citizens into experts in epidemiology, especially as information is now easily accessible.
My friend reminded me of the painful chapters that humanity has lived throughout its history due to raids by unknown epidemics, which sometimes claimed millions of lives.
My friend spoke of the Justinian plague that spread throughout the Byzantine Empire, was transcontinental and caused a large number of casualties. He also spoke of the black plague that struck Europe in the fourteenth century and led to the death of about 20 million people.
I did not need evidence of the ferocity of epidemics and their ability to kill. However, it was necessary to listen in appreciation of the efforts of the friend, to whom epidemics do not fall within his competencies or interests.
He mentioned the Great Plague of London, which arrived in the seventeenth century from the Netherlands and devoured a quarter of the city’s population. He talked about the yellow fever epidemic that struck the American Philadelphia area and then moved to the Great Plague in Marseille, which killed 100,000 people within days.
Then the conversation moved to the Manchurian plague at the beginning of the last century, as well as the Spanish flu epidemic that claimed the lives of tens of millions of people. He continued his useful lecture, reaching Corona after going through Ebola and other painful events.
The lengthy description of the British old man of these details was an indication of the magnitude of the concerns that Corona raised among ordinary citizens, which led them to try to identify precedents to reach a clear conclusion that the world will ultimately defeat this murderous visitor.
It was clear that Saxton wanted to say his word on the mobile serial killer. Perhaps he was afraid that order would soon be issued to shut down cafes and oblige people to stay home.
It was clear that Corona made him forget Beethoven, Hayden, Shakespeare, and Voltaire. Saxton will not remember his old friends who occupied his long life. He hinted to his fear that the mask would be the new flag.
A mask for the map to stop shaking hands with its neighbor. A mask for the city to resign from its outskirts. A mask for the man to escape from the breath of the closest people around him.
The serial killer imposed its agenda on the world. It emptied the most beautiful squares of visitors and closed schools, museums, and cafes.
Poor Saxton. The world is no longer preoccupied with symphonies and novels. It fell in the fear of the other, as if it dismantled the “cosmic village”, maps, cities, and families… isolating people and islands that hide behind a sea of masks.

Coronavirus: The Worst is Yet to Come
Salman Al-Dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/March 16/2020
For the first time in nearly a hundred years, diseases are posing a greater danger to people than wars. The danger that threatened the farthest point in Asia is the same danger confronted by Europe and the United States. The sympathetic eyes of the world were at one point turned towards China as it grappled with the outbreak, but now the situation was changed dramatically, and it is the Chinese who are rushing with their medical teams to Italy’s aid to fight the coronavirus.
Who would believe that 70 percent of the new cases of the disease emerged in Europe, which has become the epicenter of the global outbreak? We can now say that Europe is now the new China.
Despite the panic sweeping the world, the worst is yet to come. This is no exaggeration or terrorization, but the truth. Exaggerating and exercising great caution these days, to later discover that you have gone too far, is a thousand times better than the opposite of allowing people to relax before waking up to an unprecedented catastrophe.
Why is the worst yet to come? Up until this moment, the numbers of the new cases in hardest-hit countries, such as China, Italy, South Korea and Iran, are reasonable relative to the size of the population and daily registered deaths. The death of 5,700 people worldwide since the virus’ discovery in December and the registering of 150,000 patients in 135 countries are not alarming figures for an outbreak.
The worst and the impending unimaginable catastrophe would be when the daily new cases rise to the hundreds of thousands and the daily deaths reach the thousands. The worst is when medical agencies become overwhelmed with new patients and can no longer take them in. The patients would find themselves unable to receive treatment, which is the most dangerous scenario that is not taking place today.
Even as the daily mainly negative and depressing news continues to pour, hope is indeed born from amid the suffering.
In China, where the virus first emerged and which many feared the worst for its 1.5 billion people, the spread of the coronavirus slowed down. Just on Saturday, its national health committee announced 13 news deaths and only eleven new cases. More than 65,000 out of 80,000 people have recovered. Even the local government in Hubei lowered the level of the outbreak threat in all provinces outside of Wuhan, which is still the only city still in the red.
In contrast, the virus has spread like wildfire in one European city after the other after countries were slow in taking preventative measures.
I believe that two models in dealing with the coronavirus have emerged: The Chinese one and the European one. The Chinese model adopted strict measures from the moment the virus emerged. It adopted the worst-case scenario and imposed lockdowns on entire cities and provinces. It used force to prevent people from heading to public places or moving from one city to another.
Europe, meanwhile, relied primarily on the awareness of the people and then waited. Soon, the virus spread and the number of patients rose dramatically. It then started to take treatment measures, not preventative or precautionary ones.
Up until now, the Chinese model succeeded in containing the disease, while western governments, despite their past experiences and advanced medical systems, have failed. This can be blamed on their inability to predict the exact danger of the virus and their reliance on the awareness and unity of their people. Moreover, these countries do not provide health insurance to all their people, which inevitably forces some to hesitate before heading to a hospital to check if they have the disease.
Saudi Arabia is very close to the Chinese model in taking the strongest and strictest of measures even before any cases of the virus were announced. It decided to suspend the Umrah pilgrimage, imposed a lockdown on al-Qatif city, halted all flights and shut all land borders. Had the government hesitated in taking even one of these decisions, it would now be facing a much different reality on the ground, which at the moment, is much better than many parts of the region and world.

A Satire of Coronavirus
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/March 16/2020
For the first time in nearly a hundred years, diseases are po
Before being a killer, first and foremost, the coronavirus is a demeaning germ. Let us remember a not so distant time when the youths of Arab revolutions evoked a line from a poem by the Tunisian poet, Abi Kassem al-Shabbi:
“If the people wanted survival one day
Fate will inevitably comply”
They were saying that they could do anything, that they, too, were Prometheans, stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humans, thereby bringing civilization into existence.
Coronavirus has left them spending long periods washing their hands. Searching for sanitization products: where’s the soap? Did we stockpile toilet paper? What is crucial is that we are clean. That we shy away from the outside world.
Coronavirus told us that the ceiling is low over our heads and that we should bow our heads further below it. Humans' narcissism took a hit, as did their faith in themselves. The virus confirmed to them the fragility of the world that they had built and that their achievements in science and medicine could be done without. It told those who thought that the globe was boundless: stay at home. The globe is home.
With coronavirus’s onslaught, a dark side of our humanity swept down on us, a side that becomes restless every time this humanity tries to come out. Facing its pursuit for unification and expansion, isolation bares its teeth in a sardonic smile. Facing its push to demystify our world, we are being mystified. Facing our pride in humanity, nature humiliates us.
The pandemic, any pandemic, is perhaps less predictable than any of the other three vicious knights; death, war, and hunger. In the face of the ambiguity that accompanies this unpredictability, our isolation and loneliness are amplified. Social interaction, which begins with a handshake, from which acquaintanceship and familiarity emerge, maybe friendship and warmth as well, prompts reprimand. Even your own hand, if continues to shake that of others, becomes an internal threat that ought to be decontaminated.
Movement through airports and seaports incites panic. Traveling is inimical. Moving is forbidden. Public transportation, which nations fought in order to obtain, is a curse. Borders alone are to be appreciated, especially when those crossing them are immigrants and refugees, or any other sort of stranger. Medieval notions about disease-infected foreigners spring up, raising the sword of protection and breaking the pride of cosmopolitan cities with lockdowns and fences. In the face of our civilizational refusal to punish and reject the other, coronavirus responds with imposing isolation and quarantine as unavoidable measures. There is no room for mercy: the elderly and those with weak immunity are left to God's mercy. The dead are fated to die without being washed or wrapped.
Because of Coronavirus, politics is being put aside. Now, we all speak with one voice: "no voice cries louder than a battle-cry". For we are facing death, so do not exert energy on frivolity. Nothing is worth the effort, as all things and political regimes are alike in the face of coronavirus. The tools and spaces of protest, like crowds and public squares, spread the virus. Yes, go home, only states of emergency and martial law are of benefit. Meanwhile, "big brother", who is dealing with our exceptional circumstances, can do whatever he wants under the pretext of the coronavirus. Do you not see that it is a war not like any other, disruptive of literally everything, that it is being waged without an army, simultaneously, against entire countries, nations, and continents.
Conspiratorial consciousness is at its most extreme, especially that which is directed against America, which fate has assigned with this duty. Racist consciousness is peaking as well: Oh Lord, keep contact away from us. Let the hand that extends to shake ours be broken. Concentrate on hygiene and smells. Put up walls and checkpoints. Those suffering from OCD are the wisest among us; they knew early on that disaster was on its away. That prioritizing freedom and choice occurred in the meantime and could not but accelerate the disaster’s emergence.
Let the economies be destroyed, sector by sector. Let those laid off, widening the rows of unemployment, increase. China, which used to be described as the world’s second-largest economy, has become a hospital crowded with masks. Italy, the universe’s jewel, is isolated from the universe. If the time of coronavirus extends long, the weakest and poorest among us will pay the heaviest price. Since they are the ones who would suffer the most from the disappearance or disintegration of state apparatuses and the collapse of the systems of social protection and healthcare, they will be the primary victims. This applies to our countries especially: we have camps, refugees and a surplus of pain; coronavirus could hit like a flood.
We would then concern ourselves studying the history of deadly viruses and comparing them with each other above all else. The theme,today, is to rid ourselves of everything that looks luxurious and supplementary: let sports be without fans, childhoods without playgrounds, cinema without movie theaters, food without restaurants, coffee without cafes, and fun without bars. Yes, let love be without contiguity. The origin of things, their restriction to their most crude forms is the worship of today. Those who used to travel in order to escape wars can't travel anymore. The system is absolute, closed and functions everywhere.
As such, a sort of beginning of the world, then, is come together with a sort of end. As for us, our ability to affect the course of our lives and deaths is limited to sterilizing our hands and waiting for the medicine - the miracle coming from the laboratories.
The problem is global and the solution is national, if not familial. This is what is being said. However, those who say this are ignoring the international cooperation between the world’s governments and laboratories and new legal frameworks that will inevitably come out of this experience. They also ignore the brave doctors and nurses pushing back against this disease all over the world. As for thiscoercion and necessity bringing about a better world, to think so would be to belittle our pain. For only freedom makes things better, the coronavirus is a system of slavery that deserves nothing from us but rage.

Coronavirus: The Worst is Yet to Come
Salman Al-Dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/March 16/2020 
For the first time in nearly a hundred years, diseases are posing a greater danger to people than wars. The danger that threatened the farthest point in Asia is the same danger confronted by Europe and the United States. The sympathetic eyes of the world were at one point turned towards China as it grappled with the outbreak, but now the situation was changed dramatically, and it is the Chinese who are rushing with their medical teams to Italy’s aid to fight the coronavirus.
Who would believe that 70 percent of the new cases of the disease emerged in Europe, which has become the epicenter of the global outbreak? We can now say that Europe is now the new China.
Despite the panic sweeping the world, the worst is yet to come. This is no exaggeration or terrorization, but the truth. Exaggerating and exercising great caution these days, to later discover that you have gone too far, is a thousand times better than the opposite of allowing people to relax before waking up to an unprecedented catastrophe.
Why is the worst yet to come? Up until this moment, the numbers of the new cases in hardest-hit countries, such as China, Italy, South Korea and Iran, are reasonable relative to the size of the population and daily registered deaths. The death of 5,700 people worldwide since the virus’ discovery in December and the registering of 150,000 patients in 135 countries are not alarming figures for an outbreak.
The worst and the impending unimaginable catastrophe would be when the daily new cases rise to the hundreds of thousands and the daily deaths reach the thousands. The worst is when medical agencies become overwhelmed with new patients and can no longer take them in. The patients would find themselves unable to receive treatment, which is the most dangerous scenario that is not taking place today.
Even as the daily mainly negative and depressing news continues to pour, hope is indeed born from amid the suffering.
In China, where the virus first emerged and which many feared the worst for its 1.5 billion people, the spread of the coronavirus slowed down. Just on Saturday, its national health committee announced 13 news deaths and only eleven new cases. More than 65,000 out of 80,000 people have recovered. Even the local government in Hubei lowered the level of the outbreak threat in all provinces outside of Wuhan, which is still the only city still in the red.
In contrast, the virus has spread like wildfire in one European city after the other after countries were slow in taking preventative measures.
I believe that two models in dealing with the coronavirus have emerged: The Chinese one and the European one. The Chinese model adopted strict measures from the moment the virus emerged. It adopted the worst-case scenario and imposed lockdowns on entire cities and provinces. It used force to prevent people from heading to public places or moving from one city to another.
Europe, meanwhile, relied primarily on the awareness of the people and then waited. Soon, the virus spread and the number of patients rose dramatically. It then started to take treatment measures, not preventative or precautionary ones.
Up until now, the Chinese model succeeded in containing the disease, while western governments, despite their past experiences and advanced medical systems, have failed. This can be blamed on their inability to predict the exact danger of the virus and their reliance on the awareness and unity of their people. Moreover, these countries do not provide health insurance to all their people, which inevitably forces some to hesitate before heading to a hospital to check if they have the disease.
Saudi Arabia is very close to the Chinese model in taking the strongest and strictest of measures even before any cases of the virus were announced. It decided to suspend the Umrah pilgrimage, imposed a lockdown on al-Qatif city, halted all flights and shut all land borders. Had the government hesitated in taking even one of these decisions, it would now be facing a much different reality on the ground, which at the moment, is much better than many parts of the region and world.

Remember the Last Global Pandemic?
Justin Fox/Bloomberg/March 16/2020
After tests found H1N1 in two soldiers during a flu outbreak at the Fort Dix army base in New Jersey in 1976, the US government jumped into action, with President Gerald Ford announcing a plan to vaccinate “every man, woman, and child in the United States.” That turned into something of a debacle, though, as the virus didn’t seem to spread beyond Fort Dix and the hastily assembled vaccine killed about 30 people.
In 2009, the reaction was more muted. In its public-health-emergency declaration in April, the WHO noted that the illnesses caused by the new H1N1 tended to be quite mild, with only one brief hospitalization and no deaths from the 20 confirmed US cases. It also advised against any travel restrictions or border controls. As of May 5, 980 schools with 607,778 students had been closed in an effort to slow the epidemic. By late June, the CDC was estimating that 1 million Americans had contracted the disease. Meanwhile, on June 11, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan had declared that with the virus spreading in 74 countries “the world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic.” She also said that a vaccine was on the way, and that measures had been taken “to ensure the largest possible supply of pandemic vaccine in the months to come.”
By the time the vaccines became widely available in November, though, H1N1 was already on the decline. By January, many countries were canceling their vaccine orders, and a German physician and former Social Democratic politician was leading a campaign lambasting the WHO for declaring a “fake” pandemic to gin up business for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
That doesn’t seem fair, given that H1N1 did infect as much as 24% of the world’s population. The overall fatality rate was quite low, at about 0.02% of estimated cases — five time lower than the 0.1% average fatality rate for the seasonal flu — but that’s mainly because H1N1 had little effect on the demographic usually hit hardest by influenza: those 65 and older. For younger people, H1N1 was more dangerous than the seasonal flu, and in countries in South Asia and Africa with youthful populations the H1N1 pandemic really was a big deal, with the CDC later estimating a global death toll ranging from 151,700 to 575,400. Still, that’s lower than the range that the CDC and WHO now put on the annual death toll from seasonal flu: 290,000 to 650,000. In the US, an estimated 60.8 million people contracted the new H1N1 virus from April 2009 through April 2010, 274,304 were hospitalized and 12,469 died. Because the CDC changed the statistical model it uses to make such estimates in 2010 that last number can’t really be compared to recent estimates of seasonal flu fatalities, which ranged from 12,000 in 2011-2012 to 61,000 in 2017-2018. But earlier estimates of overall flu-related deaths in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 indicate that both flu seasons were less deadly than average.
Why was H1N1 allowed to spread around the world more or less unchecked, while countries are going to far greater lengths to try to halt Covid-19?
Covid-19 is near the beginning of its spread in the US, and thus cannot be compared with H1N1’s effect over a full year. If the US death toll from Covid-19 is only 12,469 a year from now, that will likely be counted as a great success. The legitimate worry is that it could be many, many times higher, because Covid-19 is so much deadlier for those who get it than the 2009 H1N1 influenza was.

Iran's Coronavirus Cover-up
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/March 16/ 2020
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security have taken charge of dealing with the coronavirus by cracking down on any individual or institution that attempts to reveal accurate information about the origins of the virus or how Iran has become an epicenter of the virus which spreads to other nations.
Massoud Pezeshkian, an Iranian reformist politician, pointed out: "We should have quarantined Qom from day one... This disease is not a joke, which is the way we are dealing with it... The economy and everything will be ruined; it is no joke. What would have happened if they shut down the country for 15 days? If we had done so on the first day, it would not have spread...."
The regime has also threatened to imprison people who provide news about the actual scope of the crisis. Hassan Nowrouzi, the Speaker of the Judiciary Committee of the Parliament, said on February 26 that those who "disseminate fake news regarding coronavirus" will be sentenced from one to three years of imprisonment and lashes.
The Iranian regime continues to decline taking appropriate measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus that is not only threatening the Iranian population but also people across the region.
During a meeting with Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the White House, President Donald J. Trump offered to help the Iranian authorities fight the coronavirus, but Iranian authorities rejected the offer as "hypocritical" and "repulsive". "We do not need American doctors," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.
Iran, in its interactions with China, has apparently become a global center for the virus. The head of one hospital in Tehran's Yaftabad said on March 1:
"If we had limited the travel of people in Qom, since the epicenter of the illness is in Qom, the spread would not have been so extensive... our mistake was that when we discovered that the contamination is in the city of Qom, we should have quarantined the people there and prevented its spread. If we had done so, the virus would not have spread."
Nahid Khodakarami, head of the Health Commission of the Tehran City Council, said recently:
"Two weeks ago, I told Dr. Iraj Harirchi and even Dr. Nobakht [head of the parliamentary Health Committee] that Qom must be quarantined, but they did not listen. There must be restrictions placed on Qom... If we had not given priority to the concerns of the clerics, we would have been in a much better situation."
Massoud Pezeshkian, an Iranian reformist politician, pointed out:
"We should have quarantined Qom from day one. ... This disease is not a joke, which is the way we are dealing with it... The economy and everything will be ruined; it is no joke. What would have happened if they shut down the country for 15 days? If we had done so on the first day, it would not have spread...."
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) have taken charge of dealing with the coronavirus by cracking down on any individual or institution that attempts to reveal accurate information about the origins of the virus or how Iran has become an epicenter of the virus which spreads to other nations.
Agents of the IRGC and MOIS are reportedly present at hospitals, attending meeting among medical staff, and informing them what they are allowed to reveal and what they are banned from disclosing to the public, the media and the international community.
The head of the Health Commission of the Tehran City Council, for example, Nahid Khoda Karami, recently disclosed how she was approached by the IRGC:
"Yesterday, I said that in Tehran it is possible that 10,000 people have been infected with coronavirus. The IRGC intelligence unit called me and complained. They asked, why did you provide this number? I said, sir, how long are you going to cover this up? These numbers are being talked about in society and my saying it calms the situation. Let's be transparent with the people. We shouldn't make this disease a security matter. You don't need to call me and ask me why I divulge some figures. I merely provided some experts' opinions. The IRGC intelligence official told me that I should refer the matter to the Health Ministry. I said, OK, we should increase the pressure on the Health Ministry to be more transparent and to openly express themselves and tell people the facts; otherwise our reputation in the world will be eroded."
The regime has also threatened to imprison people who provide news about the actual scope of the crisis. Hassan Nowrouzi, the Speaker of the Judiciary Committee of the Parliament, said on February 26 that those who "disseminate fake news regarding coronavirus" will be sentenced from one to three years of imprisonment, and lashes.
Even some of Iran's newspapers surprisingly pointed to the restrictions that have been imposed on them concerning what they can report on the virus and what they cannot. The state-run daily Ressalat, for instance, wrote:
"With regards to the number of infected nurses, we cannot release any figures. The statistics are completely security related and cannot be revealed. Even the heads of hospitals might not know the number of coronavirus victims. Even if a victim goes to the hospital, the statistics are not given to the hospital supervisor. There is a special private channel and no one but the Health Ministry officials are aware of the numbers."
Meanwhile, according to reports, for the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, which begins on March 20, Iran has "temporarily freed" 70,000 prisoners who are said to have tested negative for the virus. Some "wrongfully detained" prisoners, such as activists and journalists, who according to Human Rights Watch, "should not have been in prison in the first place," were released; others, who may or may not have contracted the virus, have not. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is also a British citizen, has said she contracted the virus in Evin Prison, but apparently has not been tested.
With their incompetence and attempts to cover up the truth about the coronavirus in Iran, the ruling mullahs have been posing a threat wider than to just its own citizens. Pakistan, for example, which initially left open its nearly 600-mile border with Iran to avoid further damage to its economy, is now trying, among other problems, to track down nearly 8,000 pilgrims who recently returned home from Iran.
On March 15, according to Asharq al Awsat, officials at Iran's Health Ministry announced the latest death toll as 724, with the number of people tested positive at 13,938. Satellite images are reportedly showing coronavirus victims' mass graves, large enough to be seen from space.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at *Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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Israel Helps Palestinians Prevent Coronavirus; Arabs Betray Them
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/March 16/ 2020
It is worth noting that Egypt, which has a shared border with the Gaza Strip, did not send any test kits or disinfectant materials to the Palestinians living there.
"After more than seventy years, Lebanon remains the country where Palestinian refugees suffer the most, where they are deprived of many of their economic and human rights, including working in certain professions, procedural complications in obtaining work permits, and denial of the right to own property." — Dr. Mohsen Saleh, Director-General of the Zaitouna Center for Studies in Beirut, arabi21.com, July 20, 2019.
Assad Abu Khalil, a Lebanese-American professor at California State University, who claims to be "pro-Palestinian," does not seem concerned about the severe restrictions imposed on Palestinians by his own country -- Lebanon. Nor does he seem bothered that a Lebanese (and not Israeli) official is the one who is actually calling for placing Palestinians in "mass prisons."
Egypt, for its part, long ago abandoned the Palestinians by essentially sealing its border with the Gaza Strip. The Lebanese, Egyptians and most Arabs perceive the Palestinians as Israel's problem. When the current virus crisis has passed, it is to be hoped that the Palestinians will remember that one country alone came to their rescue: Israel. They might also remember that their Arab brothers betrayed them -- not for the first time, and no doubt not for the last.
Palestinians in Lebanon are worried that the Lebanese authorities may use the coronavirus as an excuse to intensify restrictions even further on their refugee camps, after Samir Geagea, a prominent Lebanese politician, called for the immediate closure of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in his country. Pictured: Palestinians in Ain el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, protest on January 31, 2020.
While Israel is working overtime with Palestinians to curb and prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the Arab states appear to be doing what they do best when it comes to helping their Palestinian brothers: nothing at all. In the past few days, Israeli authorities delivered 200 coronavirus testing kits to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. In addition, Israeli and Palestinian professional teams have been working together to prevent the spread of the virus.
The Israeli authorities have also delivered another 200 coronavirus testing kits to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, despite the thousands of rockets and incendiary and bomb-carrying balloons that the ruling government, Hamas, has launched from there towards Israel.
In addition, Israeli authorities have coordinated the transfer of 20 tons of disinfectant material from Israeli factories to the Palestinian health sector. The material included chlorine and hydrogen peroxide, used for disinfection, preservation of hygiene and sanitation. These disinfectant materials are used for cleaning surfaces in open areas and help in cleaning closed areas, including mosques and churches.
It is worth noting that Egypt, which has a shared border with the Gaza Strip, did not send any test kits or disinfectant materials to the Palestinians living there.
Palestinians in Lebanon, meanwhile, are worried that the Lebanese authorities may use the coronavirus as an excuse to intensify restrictions even further on their refugee camps.
Samir Geagea, a Lebanese politician and chairman of the Lebanese Forces, an anti-Palestinian Christian political party, has come under sharp criticism for calling for the immediate closure of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in his country.
As of January 2019, there were 475,075 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). "Palestinians in Lebanon do not enjoy several important rights," UNRWA pointed out.
"They cannot work in as many as 39 professions and cannot own property [real estate]. Because they are not formally citizens of another state, Palestinian refugees are unable to claim the same rights as other foreigners living and working in Lebanon. The conflict in Syria has forced many Palestinians from Syria to flee to Lebanon in search of safety. Nearly 29,000 of them are receiving UNRWA assistance in the country, including cash assistance, education, health care, and protection." Palestinian refugees are barred from numerous professions in Lebanon, including medicine, law and engineering.
"After more than seventy years, Lebanon remains the country where Palestinian refugees suffer the most, where they are deprived of many of their economic and human rights, including working in certain professions, procedural complications in obtaining work permits, and denial of the right to own property," said Dr. Mohsen Saleh, Director-General of the Zaitouna Center for Studies in Beirut.
"The continued restrictions on Palestinian refugees, which deny them their right to work, lead to feelings of injustice and oppression. This leaves them open to extremism and social problems. They can be exploited, which harms Lebanon and its security and relative stability. Hence, allowing Palestinian refugees to work in decent conditions is a political, security and social imperative for Lebanon, as well as an economic need." Palestinians are now worried that, in addition to the discriminatory and apartheid measures, the Lebanese authorities may confine them to their refugee camps on the pretext of fighting the coronavirus. They are concerned that Geagea's "racist" call for imposing a lockdown on their refugee camps would severely aggravate the humanitarian and health conditions of the Palestinians.
Tayseer Khaled, a senior member of the PLO's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) denounced Geagea's proposal as "racist and unacceptable." The idea of imposing a lockdown on the refugee camps, he said, "is in violation of human rights and human values." Another PLO faction, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said in response to Geagea's proposal that "racist minds, and not refugee camps, need to be placed in isolation."
Palestinian human rights activist Mohammed al-Shuli replied that there should be no discrimination between Lebanese and Palestinians in the war on the coronavirus. He pointed out that the Lebanese authorities have not imposed a lockdown on any Lebanese city or village or banned its citizens from leaving their homes. "Geagea's statement is a political measure targeting only Palestinians," al-Shuli commented. "No coronavirus cases have been registered in the refugee camps and the Palestinians are not opposed to precautionary measures. There is no need for such extremist statements."
A group called The Alliance of Palestinian Factions in Lebanon also condemned as "racist" the Lebanese politician's demand to close all refugee camps and prevent Palestinians from entering or leaving. "This global epidemic crosses countries and communities, and trading in it at the expense of the Palestinian refugees and their right to life is reprehensible and unacceptable," the group announced in a statement. "The demand reflects the dark mentality of the Lebanese politician."
As Palestinians were expressing concern over Lebanon's discriminatory and apartheid laws, Assad Abu Khalil, a Lebanese-American professor at California State University, Stanislaus, came out with another blood libel against Israel -- the only country that is helping the Palestinians in the war on the coronavirus. On March 8, the professor tweeted: "Israel will – I am sure – have different medical procedures for Jews and non-Jews. Non-Jews will be put in mass prisons."
The Lebanese professor, who claims to be "pro-Palestinian," does not seem concerned about the severe restrictions imposed on Palestinians by his own country -- Lebanon. Nor does he seem bothered that a Lebanese (and not Israeli) official is the one who is actually calling for placing Palestinians in "mass prisons."It appears that it would be imprudent for the Palestinians to harbor any illusions that Lebanon, Egypt or most of the Arab countries would come to their aid, particularly in light of the outbreak of the coronavirus. Lebanon has been discriminating against the Palestinians for decades, and it hardly seems likely that it will change its policy just because of a virus.
Egypt, for its part, long ago abandoned the Palestinians by essentially sealing its border with the Gaza Strip. The Lebanese, Egyptians and most Arabs perceive the Palestinians as Israel's problem. When the current virus crisis has passed, it is to be hoped that the Palestinians will remember that one country alone came to their rescue: Israel. They might also remember that their Arab brothers betrayed them -- not for the first time, and no doubt not for the last.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Iran has plan to harm Trump's re-election chances
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/March 16, 2020
Kata’ib Hezbollah fired rockets at a US base in Taji, north of Baghdad, last Wednesday, and the base was attacked again a few days later. Could the fact that the base was attacked twice in a week be a coincidence? Could the pro-Iranian militias be acting on their own? And the other question is why now?
When the US killed Qassem Soleimani at the beginning of this year, everyone panicked, expecting Iran to strike back and hit hard. A red flag was raised in Qom — a flag of vengeance for the spilled blood of Soleimani. However, Iran’s response, to everyone’s surprise, was mild; one could even qualify it as symbolic. It hit two bases in Iraq after making sure the US had emptied them of personnel and weapons. So why now? Does Iran see that the time is ripe for revenge, with Trump scrambling to respond to the exponentially spreading coronavirus? The virus has been threatening to wreck the robust economy that has been Trump’s main selling point to his constituency.
Now that it is re-election season, Trump cannot risk another foreign adventure, especially since the economy he overstretched with excessive spending is signaling a possible crash. The forced measures that Trump took to keep the upward momentum of the economy do not seem to be working anymore. Lately, when the Federal Reserve reduced the interest rateby half a percent, the market counter-reacted and dropped 5.8 percent.Last week, the market recorded the biggest single-day drop since the Black Monday crash of 1987. Analysts are pointing at the coronavirus as the most problematic issue facing the Trump presidency. If the economy tips, Trump will not get re-elected.
The Iranians know that, whichever Democratic Party candidate comes to the White House, they will likely go back to the nuclear treaty. Though an incumbent president has a higher chance of getting re-elected, two factors can override this advantage: One being a bad economy and the other being a foreign policy blunder. The Iranians want to make sure that Trump has both disadvantages in his re-election campaign. President George H. W. Bush, though he won the 1990-91 Gulf War — after which he had an approval rating of 89 percent— lost to Bill Clinton due to a bad economy. Nevertheless, the spoils of the first Iraq war reflected in a boom that benefited Bush’s successor. The other case is Jimmy Carter, with the hostage crisis in the wake of the Iranian Revolution making him a one-term president. In fact, the Iranians have already told Trump that they will ensure he suffers the same fate as Carter.
The Iranians act strategically. The two attacks on Taji could be the start of the unfolding of their plan. They think long-term and stick to their objectives. The Iranians are patient carpet-makers: They start with knots, working according to a scheme to reach the larger landscape. The two recent attacks could just be knots in their overall plan. Following the death of Soleimani, Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, said that the proper revenge would be to drive the US out of the region. After that, he added that there would be no need to fight with the Zionists, as they would leave on their own. Could they be starting their retaliation plan? Their attacks did come amid renewed requests from Iraqi parliamentary blocs for American forces to leave the country. Hassan Al-Kaabi, the head of the Badr Organization’s parliamentary group, said: “Washington or member states of the coalition are intransigent to leave Iraq, and insist on their stay without any legal permission. This will have negative and adverse repercussions on those forces.” The situation for the US is also becoming more complicated as the fragile state of Iraq is unraveling.
The Iranians are patient carpet-makers: They start with knots, working according to a scheme to reach the larger landscape.
Multiple sources have criticized Trump over his response to the coronavirus, over which he has been accused of “incompetence.” The Trump administration has been critiqued for not testing enough people. As of March 13, only 13,953 people had been tested nationally. In Ohioalone, about 100,000 people are thought to have caught the virus. Two weeks ago, some testing kits provided by the government were found to be defective. The administration is scrambling to find an adequate and fast response to curtail the virus.
Trump does not need a foreign policy blunder. He might avoid a confrontation at any cost, cut his losses and leave Iraq under pressure. This would give Iran stronger leverage with the upcoming presidency.
In the wake of the attacks on its base, the US responded in a “proportionate” manner — far from Trump’s previous promises of “obliteration.” However, the Iranians are known to be pushing the limits. Their attacks did not come out of nowhere. They are part of an orchestrated and well-designed plan to get the US out of Iraq and Trump out of the White House.
*Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She holds a PhD in politics from the University of Exeter and is an affiliated scholar with the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.
Rahme stressed the importance of solidarity between Lebanese especially in this difficult stage in Lebanese history, praising the calls of the President, in yesterday’s speech, to the Lebanese at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting, “Which highlighted the human and societal dimensions in the approach to the issue of fighting Corona”.
“Time now is to condone all narrow political differences and rise to the level of a comprehensive and solid national approach which puts differences aside to overcome these difficult circumstances” Rahme said. Archbishop of Furzol & Zahleh: President Aoun received the Royal Roman Catholic Archbishop of Furzol, Zahleh, and the Bekaa, Bishop Issam Youhanna Darwish, and a delegation of the General Diocese Councilincluding: Archimandrite, Nicola Hakim, Archimandrite, Nicola El Saghbiny, Father, Saba Saad, and Father, Elian Abu Shaar.
Archbishop Darwish briefed the President on the celebrations which the Archdiocese is holding, on the occasion of the first Centenary anniversary of the declaration of “Greater Lebanon” state, especially since Zahle witnessed this event, and participated in its creation through the contribution of its Archbishop at that time.
Therefore, celebrations will be held, in the presence of Patriarch Youssef Al-Absi and Bishops of the Synod, on Wednesday the 24th of June 2020, at five o’clock. According to a program that includes four speeches and spiritual and patriotic chants, the opening of the electronic Church library, the opening of the Cathedral Museum and removal of the curtain of Patriarch Moghabghab’s statue.
President Aoun praised the Diocese’s efforts in commemorating this anniversary, which the state had formed a special committee to celebrate for, and will reconvene to develop the appropriate national program for the occasion.--Presidency Press Office

Coronavirus outbreak testing governments’ reactions
Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/March 16, 2020
Countries in the Middle East and beyond are shutting down as they react to an unprecedented global threat: That of the novel coronavirus pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives since it first broke out in China late last year. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Lebanon are all in partial or full lockdown. Stringent measures are being adopted to stem the tide of new infections and attempt to contain the spread. It goes without saying that these measures will have short, medium and long-term effects on the economies of individual countries, the region and the world.
The coronavirus is now the main story as it continues to spread in the Middle East and Europe; the latter becoming the new center of the disease as China appears to have finally contained it. Governments are scurrying to promote social distancing as they aim to “flatten the curve” by reducing the number of new infections. That means closing down shopping malls, restaurants, gyms, schools and universities, and government offices, while calling on people to avoid crowds and stay at home. International flights have been suspended by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Israel. How long such measures stay in effect is the key question. The longer the shutdown, the bigger the economic impact; and already there are predictions about an impending global recession.
Various reactions to the pandemic have underlined governments’ abilities to deal with a national emergency. Saudi Arabia was quick to respond effectively and strongly as soon as cases were reported. It took unprecedented measures to protect the public by suspending mass prayers at Makkah’s Grand Mosque and by closing its land borders, before stopping all international flights. Similar steps were taken by other Gulf governments.
In contrast, the Iranian authorities were slow to react, as the virus spread from Qom to other cities and provinces. By wasting valuable time and allowing politics to influence the taking of the necessary precautionary steps, it became the regional center of the outbreak, which then spread to most Gulf countries and Iraq. On Monday, the Iranian authorities reported 129 new deaths — its biggest single-day jump in fatalities — to bring the total number to 853, with nearly 15,000 confirmed cases. An official leading Iran’s response to the coronavirus acknowledged on Sunday that the pandemic could overwhelm health facilities.
Notwithstanding the fact that Iran is suffering under tough US sanctions, its failure to address the outbreak in time has increased public distrust of a system that invests precious resources in proxy wars outside the country. The crisis has become the latest major challenge to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who initially downplayed the coronavirus threat, and the unpopular government of Hassan Rouhani.
In Israel, which was quick to take precautionary measures against the outbreak, it was politics as usual as beleaguered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was fighting for his political survival in the wake of the latest Knesset elections. He used the coronavirus outbreak to call on his main rival, Benny Gantz, to join him in a national unity government. But he refused to have anything to do with the Arab Joint List, which has emerged as the third-largest bloc with 15 seats. He also used the outbreak to push the date of his trial by at least two months.
Then, in a historic gesture, the entire Arab Joint List lent its backing to Gantz’s Blue and White bloc. Along with Avigdor Lieberman’s support and that of the left, this meant that Gantz had the magic 62 seats and the mandate to form a government. For now, it appears that Netanyahu’s controversial career has finally come to an end; with the coronavirus symbolically claiming him as a victim.
Iran’s failure to address the outbreak in time has increased public distrust of a system that invests precious resources in proxy wars.
The coronavirus may also claim another victim: US President Donald Trump, who saw the global outbreak, which he callously called a “new Democratic hoax,” result in a major crash of the stock market. By the time he declared a national emergency last week, the US had lost at least two months of precious time to adopt measures to rein in the spread of the virus. His mishandling of the crisis has weakened his position among voters, especially as parts of the country went into lockdown, affecting businesses and the stock market. The fact that election rallies have been called off for now will also deny him his most important podium from which to reach and mobilize his supporters.
In a globalized world, pandemics — just like climate change and commercial interdependency — will test individual governments’ abilities and preparedness. Hopefully, once the coronavirus is contained, governments will share their experiences and learn from each other. More importantly, they must come together to mitigate the effects of a likely global recession that will hurt vulnerable economies.
*Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. Twitter: @plato010

ريمود إيراهيم: تقرير مفصل بحوادث اضطهاد المسيحيينخلال شهر كانون الأول/2019
"Please, Please Help Us!": The Persecution of Christians: December 2019
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./March 16/2020
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/84215/%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d8%af-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%81%d8%b5%d9%84-%d8%a8%d8%ad%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%ab-%d8%a7%d8%b6%d8%b7%d9%87%d8%a7/
A report cited by Fox News found that more than 6,000 Christians have been slaughtered by Islamic terrorists since 2015 — a thousand of them in just 2019.
"It is... genocide.... the longer we tolerate these massacres, the more we embolden the perpetrators. We give them a 'green light' to carry on killing." — Baroness Caroline Cox, Fox News, December 24, 2019, Nigeria.
"Christian Syrian refugees ... have been blocked from getting help from the United Nations Refugee Agency... by Muslim UN officials in Jordan."
"You have this absurd situation where the scheme is set up to help Syrian refugees and the people most in need, Christians who have been 'genocided,' they can't even get into the U.N. camps to get the food. If you enter and say I am a Christian or convert, the Muslim U.N. guards will block you...." — Paul Diamond, a British human rights lawyer, CBN News, December 4, 2019, United Nations in Jordan.
On December 20, Mohammad Moghiseh, the head of Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced nine Muslim apostates to a total of 45 years in prison. "These Christian converts have objected to the verdict issued by the Tehran Revolutionary Court and are awaiting final appeal," the report states.
The following are some of the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of December 2019, and categorized by theme:
The Slaughter of Christians
Nigeria: The Islamic State in West Africa Province released a video of the execution of 11 Christian aid workers on the day after Christmas. The brief video shows one Christian being shot, followed by 10 others, tied up and being beheaded by masked jihadis standing behind the hostages. "This message is to the Christians in the world," a man's voice narrates over the footage.
"Those who you see in front of us are Christians, and we will shed their blood as revenge for the two dignified sheikhs, the caliph of the Muslims, and the spokesman for the Islamic State [who were killed by the U.S.]"
Before being slaughtered, the captives reportedly made pleas, including to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, to save them. Buhari, who has himself been accused of turning a blind eye to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria — and even abetting it — condemned the executions and claimed that "these barbaric killers don't represent Islam."
A report cited by Fox News found that more than 6,000 Christians have been slaughtered by Islamic terrorists since 2015 — a thousand of them in just 2019. According to the report,
"They attack rural villages, force villagers off their lands and settle in their place — a strategy that is epitomized by the phrase: 'Your land or your blood.' In every village, the message from local people is the same: 'Please, please help us! The Fulani are coming. We are not safe in our own homes.'"
The nomadic Fulani herdsmen "seek to replace diversity and difference with an Islamist ideology which is imposed with violence on those who refuse to comply," Baroness Caroline Cox commented.
"It is — according to the Nigerian House of Representatives — genocide. Something has to change—urgently. For the longer we tolerate these massacres, the more we embolden the perpetrators. We give them a 'green light' to carry on killing."
Kenya: After armed Muslim militants stopped and stormed a passenger bus near the Somali border on December 6, they proceeded to separate the 56 passengers into Muslim and Christian groups—reportedly by asking them to recite the Islamic shahada (creed); 11 of those who would or could not, due to their Christian faith, were paraded out of the bus. "They were told to lie on the ground face down and were shot at close range," one report noted. "The militants then ordered the bus to leave with the rest of the passengers." The attackers apparently also relied on whether a passenger appeared to be local (meaning likely Muslim) or not (meaning likely Christian). "The majority of the population in this region is Muslim," Rev. Nicholas Mutua, a Catholic priest, said. "The non-locals had come from other parts of the country and they would definitely have been Christians." "One of the Muslim men gave me Somali attire, and when the separation was being done I went to the side of the Muslims, and immediately we were told to get [back] into the bus," a survivor recalled. "As the locals were getting back into the bus, the non-locals who were left behind were fired upon with gunshots." Separating Muslims from Christians before slaughtering the Christians has long been the modus operandi of Islamic terror groups. In the Garissa University College massacre of 2015, when militants slaughtered nearly 150 people, a survivor explained how the Islamic terrorists burst into a Christian service, seized worshippers, and then "proceeded to the hostels, shooting anybody they came across except their fellows, the Muslims." Another witness said the gunmen were opening doors and inquiring if the people inside were Muslims or Christians: "If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot. With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die."
Burkina Faso: On Sunday, December 1, Islamic terrorists stormed a church during service and opened fire; 14 worshippers were killed and many injured. After the massacre, the gunmen then fled on motorbikes. Discussing the incident, a report stated:
"Burkina Faso's Christian minority used to live in relative peace. Now the violence and persecution of Christians has quadrupled in the last two years and is expected to increase by [another] 60%... Radical Islamic groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and other local insurgents have pushed nearly half a million people from their homes. Sunday's attack comes after a Catholic priest was executed in February, five Christians were killed during an attack on a Church service in April, and 13 Christians were killed in a Church arson attack and procession in May. Most recently was on October 26 when unknown gunmen stormed a Christian village and reportedly killed 12 and abducted several others."
Cameroon: In just the first half of December, Islamic militants "began an onslaught of attacks on local Christians that left 7 dead and 21 captive to the terrorist group." According to the report:
"On December 1, gunmen opened fire at a funeral in Mayo Sava district, in the far north of Cameroon. Four were killed and three were wounded. In another attack on the same day, militants ransacked homes and looted them of food and basic necessities. The next night, three more people were murdered and another was injured in another looting of Zangola village. A few days later on December 5, militants methodically searched for children and young adults and kidnapped them. In the middle of the night they came and stole nine girls and twelve boys from their homes, ranging from 12 to 21 years old. Four of the captives managed to escape. While en-route to their base, the Boko Haram militants attacked Tahert village where one girl was injured and a motorbike was stolen. Nearly 300 people have been killed in Cameroon in 2019 by Islamic militants, with 80% being civilians."
Pakistan: Naveed Masih, a 24-year-old Christian man was found hanging from a tree, dead, because he had earlier prevented Muslim men from harassing and pressuring a married Christian mother to convert to Islam. Due to that, "a mob of 20 individuals attacked Naveed's house," the report states. "The mob beat Naveed and damaged many of the family's belongings. The mob further threatened Naveed to not interfere with their efforts to convert the Christian woman." Two months later, he was lured to a supposed parley. When he arrived at the meeting point, "he was brutally tortured and he was hanged from a tree as a result of protecting a Christian woman's faith," his father, Herbert, reported.
"Carrying your son's dead body in your arms is heartbreaking and unbearable. It almost ended my life when I had to shoulder my son's funeral.... My family is still under threats to withdraw the case against the culprits. However, I have nothing to lose now."
In a separate incident in Pakistan, after sexually abusing him, two Muslim men killed Daud ("David") Masih, a Christian teenager, in a factory on December 14. According to a local Christian activist, "Daud and his elder brother started working at the embroidery factory during the night shift about three months ago. They were additional breadwinners for the family as the mother is sick and their father is a day laborer." Weeks before the murder, Masih had complained about the "unethical behavior from his Muslim co-workers." Because the owner of the factory did not seem to care or intervene, Masih stopped going to work, until the owner assured him of protection. On the same day he returned to work, he was abused and killed; one of his murderers is allegedly the factory owner's brother. As of the last report, the individuals accused of the crime have not been arrested and were pressuring and trying to bribe the victim's family to drop the case. "Although I am a poor Christian woman, I want justice for my son and punishment for those who killed Daud," his mother said. "I will never go for compensation or reconciliation, as my son was killed brutally."
Attacks on Churches
Philippines: During Sunday Mass on the evening of December 22, Islamic terrorists detonated a bomb just outside Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cotabato, a city on the island of Mindanao. Twenty-two people -- including 12 soldiers patrolling the church as part of security measures adopted during the Christmas holidays -- were injured in the explosion. The parish priest, Zaldy Robles, who called the bombing "a cowardly act on the eve of the Christmas celebrations," said that had the bomb reached the inside of the church, the "casualties would have been unimaginable." In 2009, a similar bomb attack on the same cathedral in Mindanao killed five people and injured 34. Mindanao, where most of the Philippines' Muslim minority live, has been a hotbed of terrorism in recent years. There was also, among other attacks, one in which "Islamic State-affiliated terrorists were blamed for twin suicide bombings at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu Province on Jan. 27 [2019], which killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 100. Jolo is a small island off the coast of Mindanao."
Iraq: The Catholic Church of Divine Wisdom in Baghdad, built in 1929, was invaded on the day after Christmas in what one report described as a "hostile takeover attempt": "Details remain scarce. Security footage of the invasion show that an Islamic leader was present amongst the invaders, who attempted to open the gate and remove the cross." Later reports revealed that the church had been "marked for demolition by the authorities, together with some surrounding buildings, as part of a redevelopment programme in the city," but that "local residents say the project is driven by commercial and political forces, and does not take into account the significance of the church for the community."
Indonesia: Several reports that appeared around Christmas indicated the difficulties churches experience during the holiday season. In "Aceh Christians [were] forced to celebrate Christmas in a tent," the BBC reported on December 23 that:
"Christians in the Indonesian province of Aceh are preparing to celebrate Christmas in makeshift tents in the jungle. Their churches were destroyed four years ago by Islamic vigilante groups and the police. Indonesia – the world's largest Muslim population – has a pluralist constitution that is meant to protect the rights of followers of all the major faiths. But Church leaders in Singkil Aceh say the local authorities are stopping them from rebuilding...."
In a separate incident, authorities on the Indonesian island of Sumatra banned Christians from celebrating Christmas in private homes. According to Sudarto, the director of an intercommunity initiative, "They did not get permission from the local government since the Christmas celebration and worship were held at the house of one of the Christians who had been involved. The local government argued that the situation was not conducive." He added that the ban on Christians to celebrate Christmas and the New Year "has been going on for a long time [since 1985], so far they have been quietly worshiping at the home of one of the worshipers, but they have applied for permission several times. Yet the permit to celebrate Christmas was never granted. The house where they performed worship services was once burned down in early 2000 due to resistance from residents."
Discussing yet another incident, the Jakarta Post reported on Christmas Day:
"Christians in Jambi city, Jambi, still struggle to find joy on the eve of the holy day since the authorities sealed a number of local churches in the city.... Several Christians in the region were aghast when they were welcomed by a notice plastered on the closed front doors of the Assemblies of God Church (GSJA) informing them the church was sealed on Dec. 24, instead of the customary Christmas prayers and services."
This church is among three churches in the area to be closed down by the Jambi city administration following protests by local Muslim residents who cited the lack of building permits. "This is the second Christmas celebration to feel depressing for us," said its pastor Jonathan Klaise on Christmas Eve. "It's a difficult situation. We have no other choice but to cope with it... We can only hope that we will soon be able to pray in our church."
Attacks on Muslim Converts ("Apostates") to Christianity
Uganda: A Muslim man with three wives abandoned one of them and their three children upon learning that she had converted to Christianity. Problems began for Florence Namuyiga, 27, when she took her eldest son, aged seven, to the church that she had been secretly attending since her conversion last May. "That evening, while back at home, my son began singing some of the Christian songs that were sung in the church," she explained.
"My husband began questioning me where the son picked such kinds of songs, but I kept quiet. He then turned to our son, who narrated what he saw in church of both men and women worshipping together in one big hall. Thereafter we went to bed with no communication with my husband."
Then, on November 29, her husband, Abudalah Nsubuga, 34, insisted that she to go to Friday mosque prayers. "I refused," she said. "He started beating me up with sticks, blows and kicks. When I fell down, he left me and went to the mosque. I began bleeding with serious injury on my left arm. That evening he did not come to the house but slept in the house of one of my co-wives." On the next day,
"He arrived [home] and pronounced [ritual Islamic] words of divorce and threatened to kill me if I remained in the homestead... There and then I left the homestead, leaving all my belongings behind.... I have been supporting my three children by washing peoples' clothing around the village. Indeed life is quite difficult for me and the children. I have realized that following Jesus is not easy. Sometimes I spend sleepless nights thinking on my future and that of my small kids, especially their school fees."
Iran: On December 20, Mohammad Moghiseh, the head of Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced nine Muslim apostates to a total of 45 years in prison. "These Christian converts have objected to the verdict issued by the Tehran Revolutionary Court and are awaiting final appeal," the report states. The day before sentencing, on December 19, the US Treasury Department accused Mohammad Moghiseh and another Revolutionary judge of violating justice and abusing the rights of religious minorities and others.
General Abuse of, and Discrimination against, Christians
Tajikistan: A Christian pastor, sentenced to three years in prison on the charge of "singing extremist songs in church and so inciting religious hatred," was released on December 18, 2020, after serving two-and-a-half years. In 2017, authorities had raided the Good News of Grace Protestant Church in Khujand. Many of the congregation were beaten, lost their jobs, and faced other forms of recrimination in the wake of the raid on their church. Pastor Bakhrom Kholmatov, a 43-year-old married father of three, was then sentenced on the charges above. According to the report,
"Officials claimed that Christian songs found on his computer and the book More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell are 'extremist materials.' They alleged that religious 'experts' recognised the songs Praise God, O Unbelieving Country, Army of Christ and Our Battle is Not Against Blood and Flesh as 'extremist and calling people to overthrow the government.'"
"I'd like to express my huge gratitude to all the people who supported and prayed for me, my family and my church," Kholmatov said in a statement. "All these three years I felt your prayers, they helped me to stand, they helped my precious wife and children, they helped the members of my church who were left without a pastor, then kicked by the authorities out of our building."
Iran: "The Iranian regime has begun cracking down on evangelical Christians in Iran in the run-up to Christmas," Al Arabiya reported on December 15. "Security officials routinely arrest Christian citizens during the Christmas season, according to the 2019 US Commission for International Religious Freedom report, which found the regime arrested 114 Christians during the first week of December in 2018." Dabrina Tamraz, who experienced persecution as a Christian before she managed to flee the Islamic republic nine years ago, shed light on the plight of Christians by recounting her own experiences: "Christmas celebrations make it easier for Iranian authorities to arrest a group of Christians at one time," said Tamraz, who currently resides in Europe. During a family Christmas gathering in Tehran in 2014, "My brother opened the door only to be confronted with about 30 plain clothes officers who pushed their way in. They separated men from women and conducted strip body searches. Three people, including my father, were arrested and charged with acting against national security and conducting evangelism." The report adds that "The Iranian government considers evangelism—the sharing of the Christian faith—a criminal act."
As another example of the discrimination Christians routinely experience around Christmas, the annual Armenian Christian market at Tehran's Ararat Club, which was supposed to be held between Christmas Eve and the New Year, was canceled by officials. According to that report,
"In a situation where the economy is declining and the business market is sluggish due to the policies of the Islamic Republic ... this cancellation for preventing 'Christian propaganda' is an irrational decision. The cancellation of the market, which is a clear sign of discrimination and inequality, has received widespread criticism in the Armenian community... Every year on the eve of Christmas, pressure on the Iranian Christian community by various government agencies is increasing, including arresting Christian activists, obstructing the business of Christian sellers, even those who sell Christmas decorations!... Christian compatriots are subject to double discrimination, whether in the labor market, employment, job position or in violating their right to run private businesses."
Pakistan: "A 14-year-old Christian girl from Zia Colony, Karachi, was kidnapped, forcibly converted and married off to a Muslim man," Asia Times reported on December 3. "Our daughters are insecure and abused in this country," the mother of Huma Younus, remarked. "They are not safe anywhere. We leave them at schools or home but they are kidnapped, raped, humiliated, and forced to convert to Islam." The eighth-grade student was seen by neighbors being forcefully dragged into a car by three armed men. "She was kidnapped by Abdul Jabar, a Muslim," her father said. After the girl's family went to police, Jabar sent documents to the family over WhatsApp: "He asked us not to be worried for Huma as she is now his wife and has entered into Islam"; however, "the religious conversion documents are fake," said the mother, noting that the date of the document of the 14-year-old's alleged conversion is the same date of her abduction. "My daughter's life is in danger. She could be tortured or killed. I beg the authorities to recover my daughter as soon as possible." "Christian girls are being abused and forcefully converted," Fr. Saleh Diego, Director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Karachi, said while discussing this incident:
"The kidnappers are misusing religion for their motives and spoiling the lives of hundreds of young girls from the marginalized Christian community.... Huma must be recovered with no further delay. This unethical and illegal practice must also be stopped and the kidnappers of Huma and other girls must be brought to justice and punished for their crimes."
So far, police and courts have largely been unresponsive. "Abducting for the purpose of forced conversion and marriage is a major issue in Pakistan," Asia Times concluded. "Most of the victims are Christian and Hindu girls and young women, forced to wed against their will to much older Muslim men."
United Nations: According to a December 4 CBN News report, "Christian Syrian refugees ... have been blocked from getting help from the United Nations Refugee Agency ... by Muslim UN officials in Jordan." One of the refugees, Hasan, a Syrian convert to Christianity, explained that Muslim UN camp officials "knew that we were Muslims and became Christians and they dealt with us with persecution and mockery. They didn't let us into the office. They ignored our request." "Hasan and his family are now in hiding," the report added, "afraid that they will be arrested by Jordanian police, or even killed. Converting to Christianity is a serious crime in Jordan." Timothy, another Jordanian Muslim convert to Christianity, confirmed that "All of the United Nations officials [apparently in Jordan], most of them, 99 percent, they are Muslims, and they were treating us as enemies." Addressing this issue, Paul Diamond, a British human rights lawyer, elaborated:
"You have this absurd situation where the scheme is set up to help Syrian refugees and the people most in need, Christians who have been 'genocided,' they can't even get into the U.N. camps to get the food. If you enter and say I am a Christian or convert, the Muslim U.N. guards will block you [from] getting in and laugh at you and mock you and even threaten you.... [saying] 'You shouldn't have converted. You're an idiot for converting. You get what you get,' words to that effect."
*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, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location.
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15730/please-please-help-us-the-persecution
*Picture Enclosed/Martyred on Christmas Day: Islamic State in Nigeria videotaped the slaughter of 11 Christians