LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 26/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
Nathanael To Jesus: ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God!
John 01/47-51: “When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he
said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael
asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the
fig tree before Philip called you. ’Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son
of God! You are the King of Israel!’Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I
told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than
these.’And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese
Related News & Editorials published on March 25-26/2020
Picture Enclosed with this news bulletin: Our Lady of Lebanon Statue at Harissa
Shrine lit with the colors of the Lebanese flag
Our Lady of Lebanon: Pray & Interced For Lebanon & The Lebanese
Lebanon's Ministry of Health confirms new Coronavirus cases in Lebanon
Hasan: Rise in Coronavirus Cases Not Catastrophic, Quarantine is Inevitable
Lebanon's Health Ministry holds quick tender to purchase 70 ventilators for
government hospitals
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti: Our measures are strict, and time is not
right for speculations or increasing concerns
Aoun on Annunciation Day: Stay Home and Pray
Berri, Diab Discuss Repatriation of Lebanese from Europe, Africa
Diab Marks Annunciation Day, Prays for Lebanon's Salvation
Lebanon's Higher Defense Council to Convene Thursday
Spanish Minister to Hitti: We asked for a European aid program for the southern
Mediterranean countries, specifically Lebanon
Hitti: We dedicated a hotline to our embassies abroad to help the stranded
Lebanese, We did not reject any Iranian assistance
Report: Lebanon's Parliament to Hold Online Legislative Meetings
Two Guards of MP Sami Gemayel's House Have Coronavirus
Fahmi greets the Lebanese on Annunciation Day
Moucharafieh meets with Health Committee: We seek to provide sustainable aids
Geagea, Fahmy discuss assassination of Antoine al-Hayek
Calls to Declare State of Emergency in Lebanon Spark Political Disputes/Khalil
Fleihan and Asharq Al-Awsat/March 25/ 2020
Anger in Lebanon as insolvent banks donate $6 million for coronavirus/
Jacob Boswall, Al Arabiya English/March 25/2020
Lebanese taxi driver burns car after being fined in coronavirus lockdown/Emily
Lewis, Al Arabiya English/March 25/2020
Jumblatt: Chloroquine challenges the monopoly of drug groups and their profits
Survivors of Lebanon, World Conflicts Offer Perspective amid Pandemic/Associated
Press/Naharnet/March 25/2020
Lebanon: coronavirus is showing corrupt elites the scale of the damage they have
caused/Michael Young/The National/March 25/2020
Hezbollah and Its Friends/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/March 25/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
March 25-26/2020
Pope Francis calls Christians to prayer for end to coronavirus pandemic/Catholic
Herald/March 25, 2020
Canadian FM, Minister Champagne participates in G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting
Family of ex-FBI agent who disappeared in Iran say they believe he is dead
Britain’s Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus
France withdraws its troops from Iraq due to the coronavirus pandemic
Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed due to coronavirus outbreak
U.N. Calls for Rolling Back Sanctions to Battle Pandemic/Colum Lynch/FP/March
25/2020
Former Italian FM slams gov’t for permitting Iran Air flights to land/Benjamin
Weinthal/FDD/March 25/2020
UN Council Holds First Video Conference During Virus Crisis
Denmark Charges Norwegian with Working with Iran in Assassination Plot
Fire at Iran's Abadan Petrochemicals Plant
US Plans in Iraq Heighten Shiite Fears over Approval of Zurfi Govt.
PLO Official: Israel Controls 95% of Jordan Valley
Israel Takes New Measures Against Virus as Cases Rise
Netanyahu Ally Resigns as Knesset Speaker
Researchers to Study Psychological Toll of Lockdown
Fear of Coronavirus Stalks Camps in Syria’s Idlib
Iraq's Poor Continue to Work Despite Curfew, Health Risks
Coronavirus Deaths Top 20,000 Worldwide, Mostly in Europe
U.S. Coronavirus Cases Cross 60,000, 827 Dead
New York Governor Says Social Distancing Slowing Coronavirus
Italy's Slowing Infections Boost Case for Lockdowns
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on March 25-26/2020
America’s free market ideals fade fast/John
Defterios/Arab News/March 25/2020
Is Turkey planning a new invasion of eastern Syria? – analysis/Seth Frantzman/Jerusalem
Post/March 25/2020
Turkey and Coronavirus: Devout Muslims Will Defeat the “Jewish Plot”/Burak
Bekdil/BESA/March 24, 2020
Muslim Extremists Exploit Coronavirus to Promote Terrorism, Hate; and Other
Muslims that Need the World's Help/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/March 25,
2020
Don't lift Iran sanctions, not even for the coronavirus/Michael Rubin/Washington
Examinar/March 25/2020
Iran refuses to release Christian prisoners amid coronavirus outbreak while EU
sends millions in aid/Benjamin Weinthal/FDD/March 25/2020
North Korea Conducts Third Projectile Launch in 2020/David Maxwell/Mathew Ha/FDD/March
25/2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on March 25-26/2020
Picture Enclosed: Our Lady of Lebanon Statue
at Harissa Shrine lit with the colors of the Lebanese flag
Our Lady of Lebanon: Pray & Interced For Lebanon & The Lebanese
LCCC/March 25/2020
On the occasion of the Annunciation Day, the statue of Virgin Mary in the shrine
of Our Lady of Lebanon - Harissa was lit, with the colors of the Lebanese flag,
on the intentions of Lebanon and the healing of all those sick with the Corona
virus. Father Fadi delivered a homely of repenting in which he asked The Virgin
Mary, who rises like a cedar on this hill, to intercede and supplicate with her
son Jesus, as she did in the wedding of Cana of Galilee to save your children in
Lebanon, for today we are in a feast of your gospel. He added, we are living a
painful event and the danger of a pandemic rampant in the world and in Lebanon,
we are waiting for you to ask your son Jesus to save us. We put our country and
people in your heart Our Mother Virgin Mary, and we pray with you to your son
Jesus to heal our sick people who have been afflicted by the epidemic, and to
touch our country and its people. "
Lebanon's Ministry of Health confirms new
Coronavirus cases in Lebanon
NNA/March 25/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced, in a statement on Wednesday, that
"twenty-nine new laboratory-confirmed cases infected with the novel Coronavirus
(COVID-19) have been registered, including the cases diagnosed at the Rafic
Hariri Governmental Hospital, and those reported from other university hospitals
accredited by the Ministry." "The total number of confirmed Corona patients
until today, March 25, has reached 333 cases," the Ministry's statement added.
“These figures indicate the start of the outbreak phase of the disease, and
accordingly the Ministry emphasizes the crucial need to implement of all
preventive measures,” the statement underlined. The Health Ministry, thus,
reminded all citizens to strictly remain at home, stressing that "this has
become a moral individual and social responsibility and the duty of each and
every citizen, for any negligence in this regards will expose citizens to legal
liability."
Lebanese Coronavirus Patient Dies as Four Recover
Naharnet/March 25/2020
A Lebanese coronavirus patient died on Wednesday as four others recovered, the
state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital announced.
The fatality raises the country’s death toll from the pandemic to six. Twenty
patients have recovered until the moment according to a statement issued by RHUH.
All the other patients at the hospital are in stable condition except for three
who are critical, the hospital added.
MTV meanwhile identified the sixth fatality as a 46-year-old man who owns a shop
in Bourj Hammoud, saying he had several health problems prior to his infection
with coronavirus. A statement issued at noon by the Health Ministry said the
country’s virus cases had surged to 333 after the confirmation of 29 cases over
a period of 24 hours.
Hasan: Rise in Coronavirus Cases Not Catastrophic,
Quarantine is Inevitable
Naharnet/March 25/2020
Health Minister Hamad Hasan noted on Wednesday that home quarantine is
inevitable in order to stop the spread of coronavirus, adding that the
government could consider a lockdown extension. In a statement he made after the
introduction of coronavirus PCR examination device to the Baalbek Governmental
Hospital, he assured that an increase in the number of people detected with
coronavirus is normal until the quarantine ends. “The rise in the number of
coronavirus cases is normal, it is not catastrophic. We will receive cases
according to the available capabilities and our plan is set with a very
realistic level,” he assured. However, the Minister stressed that “home
quarantine is inevitable. It is the first line of defense and without it all
other things will fall apart.”The two-week general mobilization state announced
by the government to confront the spread of the virus ends on March 29th, “the
government collectively takes a decision to extend it based on field data and
based on the report of the Ministry of Health after calculating the number of
cases,” concluded Hasan. President Michel Aoun marked Annunciation Day on
Wednesday calling on the Lebanese people to stay safe at home and raise prayers
so that Lebanon is able to overcome the spread of the novel coronavirus. “Make
the Annunciation Day an occasion for prayer with the aim of consolidating our
national unity after it was proven to all that our national unity is our shield
in distress and hardship,” said Aoun. He pointed out that "this initiative is a
global Muslim-Christian message that we are raising from Lebanon, in order to
ward off the threat of the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, so that the
life cycle will return to normal soon.”The President also urged the Lebanese to
abide by home quarantine and not to leave home to contain its outbreak.
Lebanon has so far confirmed 304 coronavirus cases among them four deaths and
eight recoveries. It has declared a so-called state of general mobilization in
bid to limit the spread of the virus.
Lebanon's Health Ministry holds quick tender to purchase 70
ventilators for government hospitals
NNA/March 25/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Wednesday, that it is inviting
tender quotations for the first phase (short term) of the process of securing
the necessary medical equipment to combat the emerging corona virus. In this
context, the Ministry asked all those interested to submit immediate bid offers
for seventy artificial respiration apparatuses [ventilators] by next Tuesday
afternoon, March 31, 2020 at the latest. For more information, the Ministry
asked bidding sides to visit its website, www.moph.gov.lb, or to send their
inquiries to the following e-mail address: LHR.PROC@moph.gov.lb. Offers are to
be sent to the email: LHR.COVID19@gmail.com.
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti: Our measures are
strict, and time is not right for speculations or increasing concerns
NNA/March 25/2020
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told National News Agency correspondent in
Tyre, on Wednesday, that “UNIFIL is implementing strict measures in dealing with
the emerging Corona virus disease,” highlighting the need “to act responsibly so
we can fight against the virus together.”This came in response to a question
over contradictory reports in the Lebanese media regarding UNIFIL's actions in
dealing with the Corona virus. Tenenti said: “Since the Corona virus outbreak
began in Lebanon, UNIFIL has directed its efforts to prevent any spread of the
highly contagious disease among its military and civilian personnel, as well as
host communities. We have taken all necessary precautions. All these measures
were taken in close coordination with the relevant Lebanese authorities and
following strict, and sometimes stricter, policies and guidelines issued by the
Lebanese authorities and the World Health Organization.”He added: "With regard
to the United Nations peacekeeper whose results were positive, the mission was
transparent from the beginning, and carried out all the needed medical
procedures,” noting that the test results of all peacekeepers who were in
contact with the patient came out negative. Tenenti stressed that "the recent
exchanges taking place were not the result of a new decision, but rather are
continuous exchange operations that started prior to the emerging circumstances
that we are now facing.”“The precautionary measures that we have taken apply to
all incoming individuals, both military and civilian,” he added. “All UNIFIL
personnel returning from vacation or from abroad are placed in a two-week
preventive quarantine,” Tenenti asserted.
He also affirmed that "despite the new situation, UNIFIL continues to carry out
all its activities in its area of operations and along the Blue Line and at sea,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These activities are coordinated with the
Lebanese Armed Forces." "UNIFIL also reviewed the roles of all its civilian
staff and implemented alternative measures, including home-based work.
Additionally, and as a precaution, we measure the temperature of everyone
entering our bases, including UNIFIL personnel, whether military or civilian,"
the UNIFIL spokesperson reassured. Tenenti concluded by emphasizing that “we all
have very important responsibilities in terms of transmitting information in a
realistic and transparent manner. The time is not appropriate for speculations
or for increasing concerns, but to act responsibly so we can fight against the
Corona virus together.”
Aoun on Annunciation Day: Stay Home and Pray
Naharnet/March 25/2020
President Michel Aoun marked Annunciation Day on Wednesday calling on the
Lebanese people to stay safe at home and raise prayers so that Lebanon is able
to overcome the spread of the novel coronavirus. “Make the Annunciation Day an
occasion for prayer with the aim of consolidating our national unity after it
was proven to all that our national unity is our shield in distress and
hardship,” said Aoun. He pointed out that "this initiative is a global
Muslim-Christian message that we are raising from Lebanon, in order to ward off
the threat of the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, so that the life cycle
will return to normal soon.” The President also urged the Lebanese to abide by
home quarantine and not to leave home to contain its outbreak. Lebanon has so
far confirmed 304 coronavirus cases among them four deaths and eight recoveries.
It has declared a so-called state of general mobilization in bid to limit the
spread of the virus.
Berri, Diab Discuss Repatriation of Lebanese from Europe, Africa
Naharnet/March 25/2020
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Hassan Diab held talks
Wednesday in Ain el-Tineh that focused on the issue of repatriating some
Lebanese citizens from Europe and Africa over the coronavirus crisis. In this
regard, Berri stressed that “the government must ensure all the requirements of
care and protection for Lebanese expats as well as residents in terms of
everything related to their health, social and financial security, wherever they
may be.”The government “must exert utmost effort to return them to their country
as soon as possible,” the Speaker urged. Diab for his part expressed willingness
for cooperation, according to Berri’s press office, noting that he will seek
technical advice from the country’s national anti-coronavirus committee on the
issue of the stranded expats. “The meeting was also an opportunity to evaluate
the measures that have been taken by the government and means to activate them
and be stricter in implementing them at the national level in order to limit the
threats of the pandemic,” the press office added. The two leaders also discussed
the general situations, especially the financial and economic ones.
Diab Marks Annunciation Day, Prays for Lebanon's Salvation
Naharnet/March 25/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab marked Annunciation Day on Wednesday praying that
Lebanon overcomes its crises as the country confronts the coronavirus pandemic.
In a tweet, Diab said : “All hope is that the Feast of Annunciation will be a
near rescue for Lebanon from its crises, and the nightmare of coronavirus
pandemic be lifted with the help of the Lebanese themselves…We pray to the Lord
Almighty to grant us a message of goodness.”Lebanon has so far confirmed 304
coronavirus cases among them four deaths and eight recoveries. It has declared a
so-called state of general mobilization in bid to limit the spread of the virus.
Lebanon's Higher Defense Council to Convene Thursday
Naharnet/March 25/2020
The Higher Defense Council will convene Thursday at 10:00 am at the Baabda
Palace, the National News Agency said. The meeting will be presided by President
Michel Aoun, at his invitation, and attended by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, the
permanent members and other officials. The Council had recommended the
declaration of general mobilization over the coronavirus crisis, a
recommendation that was endorsed by the government in the fight against the
pandemic. The government has also ordered a lockdown until March 29 that
includes the closure of all non-essential public and private institutions and
the country’s ports of entry.
Spanish Minister to Hitti: We asked for a European aid
program for the southern Mediterranean countries, specifically Lebanon
NNA/March 25/2020
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Nassif Hitti, was informed during a
call on Wednesday with the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union
and Cooperation, Arancha González Laya, that the government of Spain has asked
the European Union Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy, Olivér Várhelyi, who is
concerned with the countries of the southern Mediterranean, to develop a program
that includes various aids to neighboring countries, specifically Lebanon. The
Spanish Minister expressed the importance of supporting Lebanon at this stage,
while Minister Hitti thanked Spain for this initiative.
The phone call was also a chance to explore ways to confront the threat of the
spread of the Corona epidemic and what countries are doing, as well as the
current prevailing situation in Europe. In the same connection, Hitti also
contacted today Commissioner Várhelyi to thank him and discuss the material and
qualitative assistance that the European Union can provide to Lebanon in this
delicate circumstance. Both men agreed that Minister Hitti would provide
Várhelyi tomorrow with a list of priorities that Lebanon needs, so that the EU
Commissioner can, in turn, prepare a list of what the European Union can extend
to Lebanon within the framework of the neighborhood policy and the bilateral
cooperation between Lebanon and the European Union.
Hitti: We dedicated a hotline to our embassies abroad to
help the stranded Lebanese, We did not reject any Iranian assistance
NNA/March 25/2020
Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Minister, Nassif Hitti, confirmed in an interview
with "Lebanon TV" on Wednesday, that he is conducting ongoing contacts to ensure
the necessary and urgent economic and social assistance for all Lebanese
citizens.
In this context, Hitti disclosed that a hotline has been established with
Lebanon’s embassies aboard to help all stranded Lebanese, adding that
information is also available on the website of the embassies that are in
contact with associations, clubs and communities to assist the Lebanese abroad.
“The work of our embassies with friendly countries is not incompatible with the
work of the World Health Organization,” he explained. “We have contacted
governments and communities in all countries to help the Lebanese abroad and
provide them with all possible assistance," added Hitti.
“I understand the feelings of every Lebanese citizen outside Lebanon who wants
to return and is unable to do so, because the airports are closed due to the
risk of movement during this health crisis,” the Foreign Minister went on. “We
appeal to our people in Lebanon and abroad to stay home and not to go out unless
absolutely necessary,” he reiterated.
“We are working with the Ministry of Information to provide all reassurance to
the Lebanese, whether inside or outside Lebanon, and to ensure their protection
in light of the Corona virus outbreak,” the Minister continued to emphasize. “We
want the Lebanese who are currently abroad to return under safe health
circumstances and according to objective conditions, most prominently the
availability of the PCR test, so that we would be able to subject them to it and
confirm that they do not have the virus, and hence, ensure their safe entry into
Lebanon and their home quarantine,” Hitti said.
“Ever since the beginning of the crisis, I have met and contacted all
ambassadors and representatives of international organizations accredited in
Lebanon to urge them to provide assistance to Lebanon,” the Minister disclosed.
“Several countries have responded to our calls, including France, which
responded to my request when I visited it before the crisis erupted, and Britain
and China, which will send second aids soon. We count on friendly countries,
international organizations and the United Nations in particular. We spare no
effort to hold contacts, and we thank in advance the countries that want to
help," Hitti maintained. In response to a question about the Iranian Embassy’s
willingness to assist Lebanon and the claims that the Foreign Ministry has
refused this help, Hitti said: “Every embassy whose country wishes to contribute
is welcome, and we do not politicize this matter. Yet, there are countries that
need help, and those who claim that the Foreign Ministry has turned down help
from Iran have to prove their allegations with evidence.” Commending the
Ministry of Health for all its efforts, Hitti said: "We work in the government
as a team of solidarity and integration on more than one front, and many
ambassadors have praised our approach….We were the first to deal with the
emerging corona virus and we are working to present a project with a different
economic vision to get us out of the crisis.” He also stressed the need for the
Foreign Ministry to move forward in the interest of the nation, noting that
there are aids from countries that will accompany the government’s economic
plan. “During the storm of corona and in the face of the economic challenges, we
must be join together hand-in-hand,” concluded Hitti.
Report: Lebanon's Parliament to Hold Online Legislative
Meetings
Naharnet/March 25/2020
Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the Parliament will be holding online
legislative and supervisory meetings as the nation witnesses a two week lockdown
over coronavirus fears, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday. The daily
quoted the Speaker as saying that “the meetings will be held through video
conferencing technology and through specialized institutions, which saves time
and cost.”The Information Technology team of the official Parliament website
communicated with MP Nadim Gemayel, in his capacity as Chairman of the
Information and Technology Committee, initiating work on organizing an
electronic application program for the purpose, added the daily.
Two Guards of MP Sami Gemayel's House Have Coronavirus
Naharnet/March 25/2020
Two guards of the house of Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel have been infected
with the COVID-19 coronavirus, the party said on Wednesday. Noting that the two
guards belong to the Internal Security Forces, Kataeb said one of them
contracted the virus from his sister, who is a nurse at the Notre Dame des
Secours hospital in Jbeil, before infecting his colleague. “They are both being
quarantined at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital,” the party added.
“Consequently, all the necessary measures to prevent infections among the
security detail were taken,” Kataeb went on to say, noting that everyone tested
negative for coronavirus.“Gemayel and all his family members are in good health
and he is staying home where he is working in line with the requirements of the
current situation,” the party added.
Fahmi greets the Lebanese on Annunciation Day
NNA/March 25/2020
"Our Lady has her place in the Bible and the Holy Qur’an, and has made the
rapprochement between Christianity and Islam in more than one event in history,"
Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi, said Wednesday via his Twitter account. He
added: "On this blessed day, we pray that Lebanon and the whole world will
overcome this ordeal.
Moucharafieh meets with Health Committee: We seek to
provide sustainable aids
NNA/March 25/2020
Minister of Social Affairs, Ramzi Moucharifieh, met today at his Ministry office
with the members of the Public Health, Labor and Social Affairs Committee,
headed by MP Assem Araji, with social and health developments topping their
discussions. After the meeting, Araji said: "We visited the Minister of Social
Affairs today to discuss developments. We learned about the Social Ministry's
assistance plan in coordination with other ministries, in light of the difficult
circumstances we are going through, especially since there are many workers who
have become jobless and part of them are receiving half their salaries, in
addition to the daily-workers who are now without income. The living conditions
have become hard for a large number of Lebanese, and the poverty rate has
increased significantly."Araji indicated that Minister Moucharaieh has put a
quick response plan into effect in wake of the emerging Coronavirus disease,
which includes parcels of food items and sterilizers, compiled in cooperation
with the Industrialists Association and the Food Bank, to be distributed to 100
thousand families, costing the state 18 billion Lebanese pounds. He also
revealed that there will be a set plan to extend monetary deadlines, due to the
inability of citizens to pay their taxes or loans. As for the displaced Syrians,
Araji reported that Minister Moucharafieh has agreed with the UNHCR to set up
tents for isolation, adding that work is underway to contract with private
hospitals to receive Corona patients when needed, in addition to arranging with
UNRWA to take care of Palestinian refugee affairs. The MP reiterated his
appreciation to the Minister of Social Affairs, "who is exerting all efforts
with the various ministries concerned, to pass this stage."Minister Moucharafieh,
in turn, hoped that "the crisis will not be for long," stressing that "the
government seeks to provide sustainable aid to citizens, not only for a short
period of time, in cooperation with the Parliament Council to alleviate the
burdens off all citizens."
Geagea, Fahmy discuss assassination of Antoine al-Hayek
NNA/March 25/2020
The Press Office of Lebanese Forces Party Head, Samir Geagea, announced in a
statement on Wednesday, that “Geagea contacted this morning Interior and
Municipalities Minister, Brigadier General Mohamad Fahmy, with whom he discussed
the assassination of Antoine Al-Hayek last Sunday, whereby Fahmy assured Geagea
that he has accorded this crime the utmost attention and follow-up from the
start, in order to unveil its circumstances.”In turn, Geagea appealed to the
Interior Minister to personally follow-up on this issue due to its sensitivity
and its impact on coexistence between the Lebanese in general, and in the South
in particular.
Calls to Declare State of Emergency in Lebanon Spark Political Disputes
Khalil Fleihan and Asharq Al-Awsat/March 25/
2020
Political tensions emerged in Lebanon amid criticism by some party leaders over
how the government has responded to the coronavirus outbreak, driving many
officials to call on authorities to declare a state of emergency.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri advocates the need to impose a state of emergency
and had pressed Prime Minister Hassan Diab to announce it. However, Diab
refused. Instead, his cabinet declared a general mobilization, including the
increase of army patrols, as part of its containment measures.
Contacted by Asharq Al-Awsat, sources from the government refused to comment in
what was interpreted as Diab’s refusal to become embroiled in an open dispute
with Berri. They instead implied that the constitution does not necessitate
declaring a state of emergency to confront health crises, no matter how severe
they are. Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and member of the
parliamentary health committee MP Qassem Araji had also called for a state of
emergency.
Constitutional experts explained that major differences exist between a state of
emergency and general mobilization. They said that the national defense law
stipulates that the government may declare general mobilization when a threat is
endangering the population.
“A state of emergency is completely different from a general mobilization mainly
because it has a military nature,” former Interior Minister Ziad Baroud told
Asharq Al-Awsat. A state of emergency ultimately means that control of the
country would be transferred to the army.
On Monday, demands to declare a state of emergency increased amid President
Michel Aoun’s continued refusal. He denied claims that his rejection is driven
by political reasons, after some media said he does not want to hand over
control of the country to the army.
A statement from the presidency said such allegations were aimed at driving a
wedge between the president and military. The government’s decision to announce
general mobilization was based on the Higher Defense Council recommendations and
an objective assessment of the situation in Lebanon amid the virus outbreak.
Opposition sources said that the Army Command has never proposed, directly or
indirectly, the issue of the state of emergency. “The army is not part of the
political dispute in the country,” they said.
The sources warned that the general mobilization contributed to the return of
the phenomenon of regions adopting their own security measures whereby some
municipalities set up checkpoints to control the movement of citizens, prompting
the army to interfere and remove them.
Jumblatt wrote Tuesday on his twitter account: “Some municipalities have been
blocking roads and setting up barriers, which is a form of self-security;
however, this may cause many problems. The best solution is for the security
forces and Lebanese army to take over these roads and implement the necessary
measures against those who violate the curfew.”He also reiterated calls for declaring a state of emergency and ensuring the
basic needs of citizens.
Anger in Lebanon as insolvent banks donate $6 million for
coronavirus
Jacob Boswall, Al Arabiya English/March 25/2020
The Association of Banks in Lebanon’s decision to donate $6 million to
government hospitals battling coronavirus has drawn criticism from angry
depositors. “[ABL Chairman] Salim Sfeir is donating to the government – but from
where?” one Twitter user demanded in Arabic.“One minute he is donating our money
and the next he has used Corona as an advert for his poisoned [banking] sector,”
another observed. Another Arabic user likened the ABL’s gesture to “giving an
HIV patient a cup of camomile tea.”The money from the ABL will purchase 120
respirators for use exclusively on corona patients across Lebanon, according to
a statement from Sfeir’s office. “Our initiative is a national obligation. It is
only the beginning and will be followed by many more in the upcoming days,”
Sfeir said in a press conference announcing the donation. He added that the
banking sector will continue to be on the front line of the fight against
coronavirus.
Dr Naji Aoun, an Infectious Control Physician at Clemenceau Medical Centre,
believes that the ABL’s donation would only make a difference if cheap treatment
and testing becomes available soon. “We don’t need money in private hospitals.
What we need is the support of our government to open airspace and shipping
routes to import medication and rapid testing kits.”Rapid testing kits, which
are cheap and quick to deploy, are not currently approved by Lebanon’s Health
Ministry. This has left many importers unable to bring much-needed supplies such
as testing kits into the country, Dr Aoun explained.
Healthcare struggling but capital controls unpopular. The ABL’s donation is
desperately needed. Coronavirus cases in Lebanon have almost doubled in the last
four days, bringing the total to just over 300. Human Rights Watch warned
Tuesday that the country’s financial and economic crisis has led to a shortage
of medical supplies, pointing out that the government owes private hospitals
around $1.3 billion in unpaid bills. But the angry public response was hardly
surprising at a time when public trust in the Lebanese banking sector couldn’t
be lower. The ABL fell foul of Lebanese citizens last year after banks imposed
informal capital controls on depositors in response to Lebanon’s ongoing
economic crisis. Many depositors feel that the capital controls were imposed
unfairly, allowing those with influence to send their money abroad when banks
were supposedly closed. Estimates of the illegal capital flight range from $800
million to $11 billion. Many prominent Lebanese politicians have also made
donations in recent days including Druze leader Walid Joumblatt. Last weekend,
Joumblatt pledged $500,000 to Rafiq Hariri Hospital - the largest public
hospital in Lebanon and the only one to offer free testing for coronavirus – and
$100,000 to the Lebanese Red Cross. “With the outbreak of the epidemic, new
measures must be taken, including a national fund to look after hundreds of
thousands who have lost their jobs,” Joumblatt added during an appearance on a
local TV show.
Lebanese taxi driver burns car after being fined in coronavirus lockdown
Emily Lewis, Al Arabiya English/March 25/2020
A Lebanese taxi driver set his car alight on the main road leading to Beirut’s
airport Tuesday after being fined by police for not complying with measures to
combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Videos that circulated on social media showed a white Renault vehicle engulfed
in flames while Lebanese Army soldiers tried to hold back the driver, who was
shouting in clear distress. Over the weekend, Lebanon’s military and security
forces stepped up their crackdown on members of the public violating orders to
remain at home except in cases of “extreme necessity” to curb the COVID-19
coronavirus. The total number of coronavirus cases in Lebanon rose to 304
Tuesday, according to the Health Ministry. Four people have died from the
disease so far. The ramped-up measures included setting up checkpoints on key
roads, army patrols touring the streets and Internal Security Forces handing out
hundreds of tickets every day.
Taxi drivers condemn government fines
Taxis travelling with more than two passengers are subject to fines of upwards
of 50,000 Lebanese lira. A local committee for public transport drivers,
including taxi drivers, issued a statement Tuesday condemning the fines, as they
are being imposed on people who take key workers such as nurses and bakers to
and from their jobs. “The committee calls on the government to find rapid
alternative solutions to ensure drivers have a minimum decent standard of living
in these difficult circumstances,” the statement added. Taxi drivers are among
the thousands of workers in Lebanon who rely on day-to-day earnings and do not
have a social safety net to fall back on. According to a 2019 International
Labour Organization survey, these informal workers make up around 55 percent of
Lebanon’s workforce. Despite the government-imposed lockdown and the significant
risk of contracting the coronavirus, many of these people continue to go out to
work simply to earn enough money to provide for their families. A GoFundMe page
was set up just hours after the incident to raise $10,000 to enable the taxi
driver to buy another car and “get back the source of his income.”
Jumblatt: Chloroquine challenges the monopoly of drug
groups and their profits
NNA/March 25/2020
Progressive Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, wrote a French tweet today on
the Coronavirus treatment, which was circulated by the Party, translated as
follows: "One of the reasons for the controversy triggered by Professor Didier
Raoul over the use of Chloroquine to combat the Corona virus, is that it
challenges the monopoly of large drug groups and their enormous profits."PSP
indicated that Raoul is a French physician who runs the University Hospital
Institute in Marseille, and who has revealed that Chloroquine treatment proved
to be effective in reducing the proliferation of four types of the emerging
Coronavirus epidemic in the patient's cells.
Survivors of Lebanon, World Conflicts Offer Perspective
amid Pandemic
Associated Press/Naharnet/March 25/2020
As Western countries reeling from the coronavirus pandemic awaken to a new
reality of economic collapse, overwhelmed hospitals, grounded flights and home
confinement, it's tempting to think the end of days is at hand.
But for millions across the Middle East and in conflict zones farther afield,
much of this is grimly familiar. The survivors of recent wars, too often
dismissed as the pitiable victims of failed states, can offer hard-earned wisdom
in times like these.
The comparisons with wartime lockdowns only go so far, as those who have lived
through both readily acknowledge.
Hanaa al-Yemen, a 55-year-old mother of three in Lebanon's port city of Sidon,
lived through her country's 1975-1990 civil war and various other bouts of
violence, including the 2006 war between Israel and the Hizbullah group.
But she said the coronavirus pandemic, and the countrywide lockdown imposed to
contain it, is like nothing she's ever experienced.
“We used to be so scared of the warplanes and the random shelling, but we could
still go out at times and work,” she said. “Today there is an enemy and a danger
that we don’t know, we can’t see or touch it, and it can strike us or a member
of our family at any time.”
Few have more experience with lockdowns and closures than the Palestinians.
During the uprising known as the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, Israel shut
down parts of the occupied West Bank and Gaza for weeks on end, using
checkpoints and curfews to try to quash it.
In 2002, Israel imposed an around-the-clock curfew in Bethlehem for weeks as
troops battled Palestinian militants holed up in the Church of the Nativity,
built on the site revered by Christians as Jesus' birthplace.
Jamal Shihadeh remembers being stuck in his home for 25 days before he slipped
out and fled to a nearby Jewish settlement in order to work. He ended up
sleeping in the factory until the closures were lifted.
Now he is stuck at home again. Israel and the Palestinian Authority sealed off
Bethlehem and severely restricted movement after several residents and tourists
tested positive for the coronavirus.
The virus causes only mild symptoms in most patients, who recover in a matter of
weeks. But it is highly contagious and can cause severe illness, including
pneumonia, particularly in older patients or those with underlying health
problems. “A virus outbreak is much more serious than an Israeli invasion,"
Shihadeh said. "You can stay away from the soldiers, but I’m not sure you can
stay away from a virus.” Now he and his wife and sons, who have been stuck at
home since March 5, live much the same way he did in 2002. They watch the news
and Arab soap operas on TV, they play cards and socialize, and they wait for the
situation to improve.
‘OTHER THINGS WERE NOT IMPORTANT’
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since the Islamic
militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. Travel in or out is heavily
restricted, and many Palestinians were trapped in their homes for days or weeks
at a time during the three wars Hamas has fought with Israel.
During the 2008-2009 war, Mohammed al-Attar awoke one morning to the sound of
tanks, aircraft and gunfire. By then, much of his extended family had gathered
on the ground floor, with about 80 people sleeping in the living room, kitchen
and other areas away from outer walls or windows. The family had stocked up on
mattresses and basic goods, but after five days they raised white flags and were
evacuated to a school that had been turned into a shelter.
“We were just praying for it to stop and that we would stay alive," he said.
"Other things were not important.”
Gaza has only reported two coronavirus cases, but there are fears that even a
small outbreak could overwhelm its health care system. There are only about 60
ventilators in the territory of 2 million, and most of the breathing machines
are already in use by patients with other ailments.
Long before the pandemic, Gazans were forced to adapt to daily hardships. Most
only have a few hours of electricity a day, the tap water is undrinkable, and
the unemployment rate is about 50%. It's almost always been difficult to leave,
even for those who can afford it, and now the borders with Israel and Egypt are
sealed.
‘WE EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN TO US’
In Sarajevo, the lockdowns have revived painful memories of when the city was
besieged for 46 months during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.
Bosnian Serb fighters were deployed on the surrounding hillsides and pounded the
city with artillery fire. There were severe shortages of food, water and
electricity, and snipers gunned down those who ventured out.
It was the kind of thing you hear about on the news, the kind of thing that
happens in faraway countries. That's what the people of Sarajevo thought.
And then it happened to them.
Aida Begic, a filmmaker who was a teenager at the time, recalls how even after
fighting began in other parts of the country, no one in Sarajevo thought it
would reach them.
“Then it happened, and it lasted for three and a half years,” she said. "When
something like this (pandemic) is happening, we do not doubt that it will happen
to us. We expect it to happen to us. We are certain that it will.”Now, many are
drawing on lessons from the war. Some are buying wood-burning stoves, seed
potatoes and onions. Begic knows people who have bought up to 40 kilograms (90
pounds) of flour.
“Someone who hasn’t had our experience may not remember that they must buy extra
face cream and other similar everyday products,” she said. “We remember the
things we missed during the war.”
In Cuba, which is under a 30-day lockdown, many have become masters of
self-sufficiency through decades of U.S. sanctions and several periods of severe
stagnation in the centrally planned economy.
“We’re always storing things,’’ said Taimy Martinez, a 41-year-old administrator
in a state-run business. “If we have chicken, we use it little by little. If we
have money to buy canned food, we do. Sugar, a bit of bread to make toast, we
make it last."
“I can endure a three-week quarantine if we start today," she said.
In the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, lockdowns have been a fact of life
for decades. Pakistan and India have split the region in two, each claiming it
in its entirety, while residents have long demanded independence or union with
Pakistan.
Last August, India stripped the region of its semi-autonomy. Fearing mass
protests or a full-blown uprising, it ordered the region's 7 million people to
stay indoors for months and imposed an information blackout, cutting off
internet and even phone service. Indian troops arrested thousands in
anticipation of protests.
It's happened before, and Kashmiris have learned to make the best of it.
“I can enumerate at least half a dozen things which curfews and security
lockdowns have taught us,” said Sajjad Ahmed, a schoolteacher.
He says volunteers have mobilized to help the elderly and infirm. Parents have
learned to home-school their children, and nearly everyone has mastered basic
first aid, often by treating those wounded in clashes with security forces.
When extended families are stuck inside for weeks or months at a time, they
share stories, imparting a sense of history that can provide strength in times
of turmoil.“It helped us to rediscover the family and social talk,” Ahmed said.
Lebanon: coronavirus is showing corrupt
elites the scale of the damage they have caused
Michael Young/The National/March 25/2020
As the Lebanese lock down, Beirut is being forced to realise how unsustainable
its political and economic choices have been
Lebanon is a country that has received little attention during the Covid-19
crisis. As of Monday, the country officially had over 250 coronavirus cases,
with four confirmed fatalities. People in Beirut estimate the real number of
infections to be four to five times that number, and the government’s decision
to deploy the army to prevent people from violating quarantine rules reinforces
that view.
For now, the disease still appears to be under control. However, the fear is
that if things were to get out of hand, the public health system would be
overwhelmed. What makes Lebanon more vulnerable than many other places is that
the country is going through a major economic crisis. The state is bankrupt and
its ability to withstand a long lockdown, or to import material to address the
health emergency, is limited.
The shutdown, which began in mid-March and involves people remaining at home
while most commerce is suspended, will also have severe consequences for a
county that cannot afford to be idle. In the past five months, Lebanon’s economy
has been in free fall, with banks reacting by severely limiting withdrawals or
transfers abroad. This has forced many businesses to close, leaving tens of
thousands unemployed.
The downward slide began last October, when demonstrations took place against
the corruption of the political class and increasingly stringent economic
measures. As protests continued, banks introduced de facto capital controls in
the realisation that the angry mood had undermined the system the state had set
up to finance its ballooning public debt. Many refer to it as a Ponzi scheme
that has come to an end. Banks had offered interest rates on deposits that were
much higher than the global average, paying these off by attracting new deposits
into the system. With confidence gone, the banks feared account holders would
rush to withdraw money, leading to the banking system’s collapse.
oreign assistance to Lebanon has been conditional upon the introduction of
reforms. Yet the country’s political class has resisted this, as it would reduce
their share of the rents they are extracting from the state. Indeed, Hezbollah
was one of the parties initially opposed to a bailout from the International
Monetary Fund. The party feared that this would cut into its own revenues, while
also weakening the political class it has propped up to solidify its position in
the country.
In recent weeks, however, Hezbollah had walked back its resistance to IMF
funding, understanding that Lebanon has no other source of hard currency
available to help it out of its predicament. For a country whose foreign
currency reserves have reached alarmingly low levels, and that imports most of
its food and medicine as well as all of its fuel, refusing an IMF bailout would
be suicidal.
The Covid-19 pandemic makes recourse to the IMF even more probable, limiting the
latitude of politicians to sideline economic reform. Because of the freezing of
economic activity since October, and particularly since the coronavirus
outbreak, the state’s revenues have fallen precipitously. This will ensure a
larger budget deficit than the government had anticipated, requiring drastic
spending cuts the politicians would have preferred to avoid, or delay.
These cuts will impose painful trade-offs on the state. More importantly, they
will place the politicians in a dilemma. On the one hand, spending cuts will
mean that more people suffer, making resistance to the IMF and its menu of
austerity easier. On the other hand, it would make a recourse to the
organisation to help Lebanon manage its debt even more urgent, with politicians
less able to prevent it.
The reality is that many Lebanese are of two minds about the IMF. While they do
not want the burden of reform to be placed upon their shoulder, many would
welcome the international organisation providing liquidity to help revive the
economy and reduce unemployment. They would also welcome seeing the political
class cornered by an outside actor into introducing necessary reforms, such as
in the highly corrupt, expensive, and inefficient electricity sector for
instance.
In addition, the increased expenses from treating the coronavirus outbreak –
which may include importing medicine, equipment and other necessities from the
international market – could run down foreign reserves more rapidly than
expected. This would also increase pressure on the state to go to the IMF.
Yet the international economic environment is something of which the Lebanese
should be wary. Most countries will suffer from the aftershocks of Covid-19.
This means that international interest in Lebanon’s well-being – never high in
the first place – may disappear. In other words, the country will have to show
seriousness if it wants to compete for IMF assistance against a rapidly
expanding field of countries in distress. To be blunt, today Lebanon is a
priority to no one but the Lebanese.
It may be dawning on Lebanon’s politicians that the system they plundered so
recklessly for decades is falling victim to Covid-19. The unsustainable nature
of that system was evident months ago, but the virus may have just made the
efforts of the political class to keep it alive all but impossible. When a
system is rotten to the core, a complete rebirth is often the only remedy to
resolve things.
*Michael Young is editor of Diwan, the blog of the Carnegie Middle East
programme, in Beirut
Hezbollah and Its Friends
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/March 25/2020
The most noteworthy aspect of Hezbollah’s general-secretary's last speech was
the shift from denial to affirmation.
Denial reflected an image of the party as one that is fighting for justice and
truth, a battle that disregards the balance of power in its path to fulfill its
“honest promise”.
This allowed the party to speak in the name of the Lebanese people and threaten
its enemies, whom it would frame as the enemies of the Lebanese. It also allowed
it to attract countless remains of parties, ideologies, and defeated dreams
which count on the party to bring them back from oblivion.
Affirmation refers to admitting to the Lebanese, though with circumlocution,
that the party is subject to certain balances of power and that there are things
it can and cannot do. This affirmation, by extension, confirms the following:
The balance of power has shifted slightly against it after the US sanctions hit
the party and Iran and Lebanon as well because of it. It also shifted because
the economic difficulties facing Hassan Diab's government became clear. In
addition, the revolution showed that the overwhelming majority of the Lebanese
do not favor the same choices as those of Hezbollah.
Even before their position was recently weakened, there had been many instances
throughout the party’s history in which it demonstrated that it succumbs to the
balance of power: From the "April Understanding" in 1996 to the Security Council
Resolution 1701 after the 2006 war, and in between, "the understanding" with
those who had been denounced as "agents of America and Israel" by the media of
the axis of resistance. This "understanding" with the Aounists was reached to
break the political blockade of Hezbollah that had sprung up after the
assassination of Rafik Hariri.
This “understanding” did not cheat anyone: its sixth clause states: “Based on
both sides' conviction that the presence of Lebanese citizens in their homeland
is better than their presence on enemy territory, the resolution of the question
of the Lebanese residing in Israel requires swift action to ensure their return
to their country, taking all the political, security and livelihood
circumstances surrounding the matter into consideration. Thus we call on them to
promptly return to their country in compliance with the call issued by Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah following the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon and the
speech delivered by General Michel Aoun in the first parliamentary session.”
Retired Brigadier General Fayez Karam was one of the beneficiaries of this
clause. It was agreed that sentences for collusion with the enemy would be
suspended.
Of course, contrary to what was claimed in the speech, Hassan Nasrallah knew
that Amer Fakhoury would be smuggled out. However, Hezbollah cannot bear making
that kind of affirmation, for it would not just contradict its narrative about
itself and its cause; it would shock its followers who grew up on this
narrative, on denial. Nasrallah, though, cannot name any political faction that
facilitated Fakhoury’s escape, since losing allies who make his missions in
Syria and abroad easier would shift the balance of power further against the
party.
What is happening cannot be unlinked from Iran’s simultaneous release of Michel
White over “humanitarian and health reasons.” White is a US citizen who had been
detained since 2018. Iran also asked for an emergency loan of 5 billion dollars
from the International Monetary Fund and has perhaps reached new understandings
with the Americans concerning Iraq.
In other words, Hezbollah acted in “Lebanized” fashion. Its secretary-general,
aware of the balance of power in the country and the region, almost repeated the
phrase of the Kataeb Party founder Pierre Gemayel: Lebanon’s strength is in its
weakness.
Naturally, it was a painful blow that Nasrallah could not evade. This is why we
saw him directing his speech at friends rather than enemies whom he normally
threatens. Instead of the customary screaming, he seemed noticeably dejected by
the “kin” and those who are kept close, a dejection that was accompanied by two
firm warnings: We do not allow you to call us traitors nor do we allow you to
insult us.
He addressed his friends as political leaders and pragmatists address their
purist ideological comrades whose tongues precede their minds, while their
responsibility is limited to declaring a rhetorical position. He addressed them
to explain what they had not been aware of, what cannot be spoken of publicly to
them or others. If we put various intentions and personal calculations aside, it
seemed that these friends had not known much: They are ignorant of the balance
of power in the country and the region and don't know that the times are
changing, that we are not in the era of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Palestinian
resistance or the Socialist camp. Most critically, they are unaware that
Hezbollah, which does not exist to serve their ends, does not present itself
with any of the apocalyptic liberation scenarios that failed at the time, and
have kept on failing since.
So, neither their reality nor their notion of time are real; Hezbollah itself is
not what they imagine it to be. Given all of this, Nasrallah might have repeated
to himself the old aphorism: With friends like mine, who needs enemies.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on March 24-25/2020
Pope Francis calls Christians to prayer for
end to coronavirus pandemic
Catholic Herald/NNA/March 25, 2020
Pope Francis has asked leaders of all the world’s Christian confessions to join
with all the faithful in reciting the Lord’s Prayer today — Thursday, March
25th, the Feast of the Annunciation — at noon, Rome time. That’s 11am London and
7am Eastern Daylight Time.
“I invite all the Heads of the Churches and the leaders of every Christian
community,” Pope Francis said Sunday after the Angelus prayer, “together with
all Christians of the various confessions, to invoke the Most High, Almighty
God, reciting at the same time the prayer that Jesus, our Lord, taught us,” the
Our Father, on Wednesday at noon Rome time.
“May the Lord hear the united prayer of all of His disciples who are preparing
themselves to celebrate the victory of the Risen Christ,” Pope Francis prayed.
“Let us remain united,” he said. “Let us make our closeness felt toward those
persons who are the most lonely and sorely tried,” Pope Francis prayed, calling
on Christians throughout the world, together with the leaders of their
communities, to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, “with the universality of
prayer, of compassion, of tenderness.”The faithful around the world, who wish to
take up Pope Francis’s invitation, can follow on the Vatican Media live stream
(also available on the Vatican News portal). The press office of the holy See on
Wednesday morning sent a communiqué confirming the Vatican Media stream from the
library of the Apostolic Palace, where Pope Francis will recite the prayer, and
saying that the Angelus and Holy Rosary will follow from St Peter’s Basilica,
led by the basilica’s archpriest, Cardinal Angelo Comastri.
On Friday, March 27th, Pope Francis will offer an extraordinary benediction urbi
et orbi — a solemn blessing to the city and the world — from the steps of an
empty St Peter’s Square.
Readings from scripture, supplications, and Eucharistic adoration will precede
Friday’s blessing, which Vatican Media will broadcast live from 6 pm Rome time.
The plenary indulgence attached to the urbi et orbi blessing is available to all
the faithful who follow the event live.
The recent decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary has more on the conditions under
which the faithful may obtain the indulgence:
[G]ranted to the faithful suffering from Coronavirus, who are subject to
quarantine by order of the health authority in hospitals or in their own homes
if, with a spirit detached from any sin, they unite spiritually through the
media to the celebration of Holy Mass, the recitation of the Holy Rosary, to the
pious practice of the Way of the Cross or other forms of devotion, or if at
least they will recite the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and a pious invocation to
the Blessed Virgin Mary, offering this trial in a spirit of faith in God and
charity towards their brothers and sisters, with the will to fulfil the usual
conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer according
to the Holy Father’s intentions), as soon as possible.
The indulgence is also granted to medical professionals, first responders, and
other caregivers, whose occupations put them at elevated risk of exposure to the
novel coronavirus. In addition, the indulgence is available during the emergency
to the faithful who pray especially for relief from the pandemic and the repose
of the souls of the victims of the disease. The decree specifically names
several traditional acts of devotion: visiting the Blessed Sacrament;
Eucharistic adoration; a half hour’s reading in Sacred Scripture; recitation of
the Rosary; the Via Crucis; and, the Divine Mercy chaplet.
Canadian FM, Minister Champagne participates
in G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting
March 25, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
participated in a G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting by videoconference today. United
States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hosted counterparts from Canada, Germany,
France, Italy, Japan, the U.K. as well as the EU’s High Representative for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. They discussed the COVID-19 pandemic and
its impact on supply chains and the global economy; developing countries; and
the broader geopolitical context. They also stressed the importance of
reinforcing their commitment to strengthening the United Nations’ and the World
Health Organization’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Minister
Champagne led the discussion on Myanmar, where he reiterated the importance of
G7 unity and the need for continued commitment to the Rohingya people. Broader
discussions also focused on Afghanistan, China, Iran, Libya, North Korea,
Russia, the Sahel and Syria.
Family of ex-FBI agent who disappeared in Iran say they believe he is dead
CNN/March 25/2020
The family of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran more
than a decade ago, announced Wednesday that they believe he is dead. "We
recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us
to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody.
We don't know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19
pandemic," they said in a statement.
Britain’s Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus
Arab News/March 25, 2020
LONDON: Prince Charles, the eldest son of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and heir
to the throne, has tested positive for coronavirus and is self-isolating in
Scotland with mild symptoms. The Prince of Wales, 71, is in “good health and has
been working from home throughout the last few days as usual,” said a statement
obtained by Arab News from Clarence House, a royal residence. His wife, the
Duchess of Cornwall, was also tested but does not have the virus. Both are
self-isolating at their Birkhall residence in Scotland in accordance with
government advice. “It is not possible to ascertain from whom the Prince
caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his
public role during recent weeks,” the statement said. Queen Elizabeth II, who
has been staying at Windsor Castle since March 19, is in “good health,”
Buckingham Palace told Arab News. “The Queen last saw the Prince of Wales
briefly after the investiture on the morning of March 12 and is following all
the appropriate advice with regard to her welfare,” the palace said.
France withdraws its troops from Iraq due to the coronavirus pandemic
AFP, Paris/Thursday 26 March 2020
France will withdraw its contingent of troops from Iraq, mostly trainers to
local armed forces, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the chief of staff said
on Wednesday. France has around 200 military personnel working in Iraq either as
trainers or in the headquarters of coalition forces in Baghdad. "In coordination
with the Iraqi government, the coalition has decided to adjust its deployments
in Iraq and provisionally suspend training activities," it said in a statement.
The UK defense ministry had already announced some of its troops would come
home, citing a "reduced requirement for training" Iraqi security forces. Iraq's
military had halted all training in early March to minimize the risk of the
illness spreading among its forces, including from the US-led coalition helping
fight remnants of ISIS.
Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed due to coronavirus outbreak
Reuters/Wednesday 25 March 2020
Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered in Christian tradition as the
site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial, was ordered closed on Wednesday for a
week, as a precaution against the coronavirus, church officials said. “The
Church of the Holy Sepulchre will be closed from 5p.m. on Wednesday,” Wadie Abu
Nassar, media spokesperson of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy
Land, told Reuters. He said the decision followed a meeting between Israeli
police and senior church leaders on Wednesday. “Of course the church leaders
expressed understanding. The initial understanding is that this order is valid
for one week, although nobody knows how long this crisis will take,” he said.
U.N. Calls for Rolling Back Sanctions to
Battle Pandemic
Colum Lynch/FP/March 25/2020
Secretary-General Guterres says it’s time for “solidarity not exclusion.”
United Nations leadership called for rolling back international sanctions
regimes around the world, saying they are heightening the health risks for
millions of people and weakening the global effort to contain the spread of the
new coronavirus.
The appeal reflects mounting concerns that sanctions regimes may be impeding
efforts in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe to battle the
coronavirus, and enhancing the prospects of the pathogen’s spread to other
countries. It comes as China and Russia, which is subject to U.S. and European
sanctions for its invasion of Crimea, have also stepped up calls for an easing
of sanctions. “I am encouraging the waiving of sanctions imposed on countries to
ensure access to food, essential health supplies, and COVID-19 medical support.
This is the time for solidarity not exclusion,” U.N. Secretary-General António
Guterres wrote in a letter to the G-20 economic powers. “Let us remember that we
are only as strong as the weakest health system in our interconnected world.”
But the appeals are unlikely, however, to gain traction in the U.N. Security
Council, where diplomats say there has been little serious thought given to the
prospect of easing sanctions. Asked if there was growing opposition to the
sanctions, one senior diplomat said, “No, not at all. The Russians and the
Chinese are being cynically political and opportunistic.” “I would say there is
no serious, coordinated response being considered in the U.N. about sanctions,”
said one Security Council diplomat. [Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak: Get daily
updates on the pandemic and learn how it’s affecting countries around the
world.] Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, also
said on Tuesday that “in a context of global pandemic, impeding medical efforts
in one country heightens the risk for all of us.” “At this crucial time, both
for global public health reasons, and to support the rights and lives of
millions of people in these countries, sectoral sanctions should be eased or
suspended,” she said in a statement.
The statement noted that more than 1,800 Iranians, including 50 medics, have
died since the first cases appeared there five weeks ago, and that human rights
reports have indicated that sanctions have impeded the access to “essential
medicines and medical equipment—including respirators and protective equipment
for health-care workers.” “The epidemic in Iran is also spreading to
neighbouring countries which will strain health services in countries such as
Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the statement reads.
Former Italian FM slams gov’t for permitting Iran Air
flights to land
Benjamin Weinthal/FDD/March 25/2020
Former Italian foreign minister Giulio Terzi on Monday criticized his country’s
authorities for allowing Iran Air flights to land in Italy.
“Instead of keeping away from an increasing risk of contagion from Iran, as well
as from China, the Italian authorities authorize the stopover of flights of Iran
Air from Tehran in our airports,” he wrote in an opinion article titled: “A
Message to the Italian authorities: Is it fine to allow Iran Air flights?”
The translated article was posted on the Global Committee for the Rule of Law
website. Terzi tweeted it on Monday. “In addition, Iran Air, under Executive
Order 13599, is subject to sanctions from the US Treasury Department because of
its involvement in financial and logistical activities supporting international
terrorism,” he wrote. “Several proxies of the Iranian regime in the Middle East
and Latin America use this air company as a regular carrier for their militias,
armaments and illicit trades.” “The application of US sanctions on Iran Air
should actually worry companies and executives who provide services at airports,
because the legislation in question also relates to them,” Terzi wrote.
“Substantially, this case is identical to that of another Iranian company,
namely Mahan Air, which was suspended by the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC)
last October.”
The US State Department said on Monday: “Instead of taking appropriate
precautions against the spread of COVID-19, Iran’s terrorist airline, Mahan Air,
operated at least 55 flights between Tehran and China in February, according to
public reports.”
German airports and authorities defied an announcement from Transportation
Minister Andreas Scheuer to bar flights from the coronavirus-infected hotspots
of Iran and China, The Jerusalem Post reported last week. Germany and Italy are
two of Iran’s most important European trade partners.
*Benjamin Weinthal is a European correspondent at The Jerusalem Post and a
fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
UN Council Holds First Video Conference During Virus Crisis
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
The UN Security Council held its first video conference briefings of the
coronavirus era Tuesday on the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, and recognized
the improving political and security situation in most parts of the country
except the volatile mineral-rich east.
Tuesday's videoconference talks lasted more than four hours -- and included a
discussion after the session on DRCongo about how the Council can keep working.
The meeting was interrupted several times when internet connections went down,
or when some participants lost power.
While the Security Council often hears from officials in the field or other
witnesses via videoconference, its 15 member states had never convened that way,
an expert on UN history said. The meeting was held in English, as technical
difficulties made it impossible to provide simultaneous translation into the
world body's other official languages. Russia, a veto-wielding council member,
has so far refused to entertain the idea of virtual votes, and has demanded that
the council meet physically if a vote is needed. UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres has not shuttered the organization's headquarters in New York, but the
city itself is under a stay-at-home order issued by the state's governor. As for
the substance of Tuesday's talks, the council issued a unanimous statement after
the meeting. Members "expressed concern at the continued instability" in eastern
DR Congo and "at the current humanitarian situation, especially the current
measles epidemic." There has been growing pressure to reduce the size of the
more than 18,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO.
Guterres said "MONUSCO has begun consultations with the Government on a
strategic dialogue to ensure that the drawdown and exit are carefully sequenced"
to sustain gains of the past two decades. The council encouraged the government
to work with its members and the UN Secretariat on "a joint strategy and
benchmarks for drawdown."
Denmark Charges Norwegian with Working with Iran in
Assassination Plot
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
Denmark's state prosecutor said on Wednesday it had charged a Norwegian citizen
with assisting an Iranian intelligence service plan an assassination on Danish
soil. The Norwegian, who has Iranian heritage, was arrested in October 2018 over
a suspected plot to kill an Iranian Arab opposition figure in Denmark. In a
statement, the state prosecutor said the man had now been charged with
collecting and passing on information to an Iranian intelligence service for use
in carrying out an assassination in Denmark. It said the suspect was also
charged with attempted manslaughter.
The 40-year old Norwegian citizen has pleaded not guilty to all charges, his
lawyer told Reuters. The trial is scheduled to begin in a Roskilde court on May
1. The alleged attempt to eliminate a leading member of the opposition Arab
Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA) was prevented after a
major police operation in Denmark in September 2018 during which borders were
temporarily closed.
Fire at Iran's Abadan Petrochemicals Plant
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
A fire which broke out at a unit of Iran's Abadan Petrochemicals Company on
Wednesday has been brought under control, state media reported. State
broadcaster IRIB said the blaze was caused by a pipe that burst at a unit of the
plant, located near the major Abadan refinery in southwestern Iran. It said no
one was hurt. The state news agency IRNA said the fire was minor and was brought
under control after one hour. It quoted unnamed sources as saying two workers
were hurt.
US Plans in Iraq Heighten Shiite Fears over Approval of
Zurfi Govt.
Baghdad – Hamza Mustafa/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
Shiite blocs in Iraq, who have been rejecting the designation of Adnan al-Zurfi
as the country’s prime minister, are aware that they can no longer bide their
time over this issue even as they still cannot make up their mind on endorsing
him. Zurfi’s determination to launch official consultations to form the new
government, including his formation of a negotiating team that includes yet
undisclosed deputies and political figures, is doubling the concerns of his
opponents. Meanwhile, a new factor has heightened those fears. The Shiite blocs
are concerned about what they perceive as US maneuvers on whether to withdraw or
redeploy their forces. Meeting between Shiite blocs opposed to Zurfi are
ongoing, but they have yet to reach an agreement on backing his designation in
exchange for guarantees on his part. They are also discussing seemingly
difficult options, such as nominating the university presidents, and the nearly
impossible option of searching for means to overthrow President Barham Salih,
whom they hold responsible for the current situation. These developments took
place as US forces began withdrawing from some military bases in Iraq before it
later turned out that their actions were part of redeployments and efforts to
protect troops from the new coronavirus. The Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS has
announced it was making adjustments to its troops in Iraq. “One year ago, the
Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, in conjunction with our local partners,
liberated ISIS’s last remaining stronghold in Baghouz (in Syria) and crushed its
territorial ambitions,” it said in a statement on Tuesday. It stressed that
nearly eight million people have now been freed from ISIS’s control in Iraq and
Syria. “Many have returned home to rebuild their lives thanks to various forms
of Coalition assistance and stabilization support.” “Progress in our campaign
allows for the restructuring of our footprint, without prejudice to our ability
to carry out our mission,” the statement read. “In the meantime, the
unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the Iraqi and Syrian
people, and to our mission, led to temporary adjustments to protect the force
during this period, in full coordination with Iraqi authorities.” It pointed out
that work of the Global Coalition is far from complete as ISIS remains a
significant threat. According to the statement, the Global Coalition will
continue its comprehensive efforts in Iraq and Syria, and globally, to deny
ISIS’s ambitions and the activities of its branches and networks, until the job
is done.
PLO Official: Israel Controls 95% of Jordan Valley
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive
committee Saeb Erekat said Israeli settlements' expansion in the Jordan Valley
and the dead sea areas is part of the implementation of the annexation, theft
and settlements plan, in what he described as "the theft of the century." Citing
numbers released by PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department, Erekat said 95% of
areas in the Jordan Valley were seized by the Israeli occupation forces
benefiting up to 12,700 settlers. Meanwhile, some 55,000 Palestinians live on
around only 5% of the area. "The Israeli authorities built four settlements in
2019 in addition to 110 units," he added, noting that Israel also controls 94%
of Palestinian water in the Jordan Valley region. Earlier, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to annex the Jordan Valley in the
occupied West Bank if he wins elections. Israel plans to annex 800 kilometers of
the Jordan Valley, completely dismissing the Palestinians’ say in the matter.
Netanyahu stressed that the annexation will take place in agreement with the US
administration. The annexation plan announced by Netanyahu in September 2019
includes a blueprint for annexing 22.3% of the West Bank with 30 illegal
settlements and 18 illegal settlement outposts.
Israel Takes New Measures Against Virus as Cases Rise
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
The Israeli government on Wednesday approved new sweeping restrictions over the
new coronavirus pandemic, including ordering the closing of all synagogues and
lessened public transport. Israel has confirmed more than 2,000 cases and five
fatalities so far. Places of worship largely had been kept open so long as
gatherings have not had more than 10 people at a time who maintained a 2-meter
(yard) distance from each other. Many in Israel's insular ultra-Orthodox
communities, however, have defied restrictions and gathered as usual for prayer
and study, despite the pleas of rabbis and local authorities. That has led to
tension with authorities and in at least one case, scuffles with police.
Municipal workers also have been urging the ultra-Orthodox to go home, with
little effect. The order to close the synagogues, which goes into effect later
Wednesday, reportedly came over the objection of Israel's health minister,
himself an ultra-Orthodox Jew. Furthermore, Israelis hoping for a stroll or jog
were instructed to stay within 100 meters (110 yards) of their homes for a week
under tightened restrictions to curb the coronavirus. The new restrictions
further reduced public transport, required employers to check workers for fever
and set sanctions for people who defy rules. Israelis have been instructed to
stay home where possible, schools have been shut and many businesses have
closed, prompting more than 500,000 layoffs so far. The specter of people, out
for fresh air, jogging and congregating on city streets has alarmed health
authorities. The new 100- meter limit is meant to end such activity. The private
sector has had to limit employees at the workplace to 10 people or 30% of the
company's workforce, and most of the public sector has been put on leave. Public
transportation, already operating on reduced schedules, was restricted further
to journeys to and from "essential" businesses and taxis were limited to one
passenger. Israelis, though, could still drive themselves to work or to shops
for essentials, and food delivery services were operating. Penalties ranging
from fines to a six-month jail term were set for anyone defying the orders.
Israel's central bank on Tuesday projected an economic contraction of 2.5% in
2020 as long as the partial lockdown eases by the end of April.
Netanyahu Ally Resigns as Knesset Speaker
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
Speaker of Israel's parliament Yuli Edelstein, who is a close ally of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, resigned on Wednesday, clearing the way for a vote
that could see him replaced by a rival of the embattled PM. Edelstein had
refused to schedule a speakership vote until a new government was formed, but
stood down after the Supreme Court set a Wednesday deadline for the vote to take
place. "I hereby resign from my position as speaker of the Knesset,” Edelstein
said, in a move that could see a member of the Centrist Blue and White party,
led by ex-military chief Benny Gantz, become speaker in the coming days.
Edelstein belongs to Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party. He had suspended
parliamentary activities last week, citing procedural issues and restrictions on
large gatherings due to the spread of the coronavirus. But opponents accused him
of blocking a vote after his bloc failed to win a majority in the March 2
elections. He has dismissed the Supreme Court’s call to explain his delay in
convening the Israeli Knesset, sparking an unprecedented judicial rebuttal, with
the Supreme Court chief justice ordering him to hold a vote. With other top
Likud members urging him to defy the order, he responded that he would “not
agree to an ultimatum” and resigned instead. “The Supreme Court decision
destroys the work of the Knesset” and “marks a harsh and arrogant intervention
of the judicial branch in the affairs of the elected legislative branch,"
Edelstein charged in his last appearance as speaker.
He said he would step down so as not to allow Israel to “descend to anarchy.”
The showdown marked the height of an ever-deepening standoff Netanyahu's
opponents and supporters in the wake of the country's third inconclusive
election in less than a year and against the backdrop of a series of emergency
executive measures enacted to quell the spread of the new virus. The Likud
emerged as the largest party in the election earlier this month, but along with
his smaller religious and nationalist allies, won only the support of 58
lawmakers — leaving his right-wing bloc three seats short of the required
majority in parliament. Gantz’s majority bloc is deeply divided along
ideological lines and unlikely to band together to form an alternative
government. But it is determined to oppose Netanyahu and seems willing to
cooperate in parliament.
The bloc is expected to win a vote to nominate Meir Cohen as Edelstein's
replacement.
Researchers to Study Psychological Toll of Lockdown
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
A renowned Belgian university is launching a cross-border study in three
European countries to assess the nefarious psychological effects of lockdown
measures on individuals. Researchers from the Louvain university say they want
to find out to what extent the quarantine measures imposed to fight the novel
coronavirus epidemics have changed people´s way of life, and to analyze their
impact on mental health. Fearing a rise in the number of suicides, health
sociologist Vincent Louvain said that governments are often overlooking the side
effects of the quarantine measures as they try to stop the spreading of the
deadly virus. "Governments are currently putting their energy on managing the
epidemic. As a result, other risks are forgotten," he said, insisting that a
large part of the population is psychologically fragile and in need of health
care. "The situation could deteriorate in terms of mental health". The survey
will analyze data collected in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. It will be
piloted by the Louvain university in collaboration with a French institute
specialized in health economy and the Antwerp university.
Fear of Coronavirus Stalks Camps in Syria’s Idlib
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
In a camp in northwestern Syria, Abdallah Yassin listens to a doctor explain how
to avoid coronavirus infection, desperately hoping it will never reach his tent
of 14 people. "If the epidemic spreads in the camps, it will be a disaster," the
57-year-old grandfather says.
Three million people live in Syria's last major opposition bastion of Idlib,
many of them families who fled homes elsewhere in Syria and are now reduced to
living in camps without basic amenities. Almost one million more have been
thrown onto the roads since December, after the government launched a deadly
offensive that has battered the region's already dilapidated healthcare system.
The government on Sunday announced Syria's first officially confirmed
coronavirus case, sparking fears of the implications for the war-torn country,
where many still live outside the control of the government.
As part of the effort to prevent the worst in the Idlib region, a doctor is
visiting Yassin's camp in Kafr Lusin to raise awareness. Always shield your
sneezes, he tells a dozen people gathered around him, either listening carefully
or reading flyers. Before he hands out surgical masks, the doctor from Turkish
aid group the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) reminds them that an infected
person can show no outward symptoms for up to two weeks. But Yassin is
unconvinced that this advice will be enough to help. "Instead of coming here and
lecturing us, why don't they set up a clinic for all these people," he says.
"There are thousands of people here. We sleep 14 in the same tent," he says,
trying to convey his alarm. The virus is the latest threat to the three million
people who live in Idlib, where a fragile truce has largely halted the regime's
bombardment since the start of the month. The IHH doctor, Ibrahim Tlass, agrees
that the prospect of an outbreak in the camps is worrying. "They would be the
areas most at risk if the virus did start spreading," he says. "That's where the
population density is highest and where there's the least awareness about the
issue," he tells AFP. Across the region, aid workers are bracing for a possible
wave of the illness. For a start, a laboratory in Idlib received 300 diagnosis
kits on Tuesday and has started using them, a doctor said. "But these kits are
still very few in view of the population density we have here," said doctor
Mohammad Shaham Mekki. The World Health Organization has said it hopes to send
in 2,000 more tests soon. In case there are positive cases, three hospitals with
intensive care units have been modified as isolation units equipped with
ventilators, it said.
Iraq's Poor Continue to Work Despite Curfew, Health Risks
Baghdad- Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 25 March, 2020
Large segments of Iraqis have been living under difficult conditions for years
as a result of unemployment and lack of job opportunities. These factors have
pushed many of them to participate in the demonstrations that took place in
Iraq, especially the last one that erupted in October of last year and was
suspended a few days ago due to the coronavirus. Despite the potential health
risks and the curfew that was imposed by the Iraqi authorities to confront the
risk of the virus spreading, the majority of popular markets, especially in poor
neighborhoods in Baghdad and other governorates, have witnessed regular traffic.
Most merchants and shoppers have ignored the medical advice as to how to avoid
the risks of the deadly virus. Many witnesses confirm to Asharq Al-Awsat that
the majority of popular markets in poor East Baghdad neighborhoods are still
full of people and authorities have been unable to shut them down and impose a
curfew on them. While the Iraqi government finds itself incapable of providing
support to those segments of society in overcoming the current crisis, the
Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), Jihad Azour, warmed against the effects of the virus on the
economy of many countries in the Middle East. Azour told Reuters that the
challenge will be terrifying, especially for fragile and fragmented countries
such as Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Planning,
Abdul-Zahra al-Hindawi, admitted that the conditions facing these impoverished
segments in Iraq are dire. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the “percentage of
poverty in Iraq has reached 20% of the entire population, around 7 million
people, and the majority of them are in southern governorates”. Hindawi agrees
that the cases of extreme poverty have pushed some to defy the curfew. The
difficult conditions under which these segments live have pushed social, civil,
and religious actors to launch a comprehensive food aid campaign in the last few
days for poor families. There have also been popular calls and demands that
parties and political blocs make an initiative in providing aid fighting the
virus in Iraq. In this respect, Leader of the National Wisdom Movement in Iraq,
Ammar al-Hakim, indicated that his party is willing to support the Ministry of
Health in fighting the coronavirus. In his letter to Iraq's Minister of Health
Jaafar Allawi, Hakim said: “To contribute to the efforts of the loyal and
selfless people in your ministry and other ministries that are working to deter
the risk of this pandemic that is creeping in on our homeland and our people, we
would like to put all of our capacities and halls at your disposal in all Iraqi
governorates”.
Coronavirus Deaths Top 20,000 Worldwide, Mostly in Europe
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 25/2020
The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 20,599 people worldwide since it
first appeared in China in December, according to an AFP tally at 1900 GMT
Wednesday using official figures. More than 447,030 cases of infection have been
officially diagnosed in 182 countries and territories since the start of the
pandemic. The tallies, using data collected by AFP offices from national
authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), are likely
to reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries
are now only testing cases that require hospitalization.
Since the tally carried out Tuesday at 1900 GMT, 2,341 new deaths and 43,010 new
cases have been recorded worldwide. The countries that recorded the most
new deaths in 24 hours were Spain with 738, Italy with 683 and France with 231.
Italy, which recorded its first death linked to the coronavirus at the end of
February, now has 7,503 deaths with 74,386 cases. After Italy, the most affected
countries are Spain with 3,434 deaths for 47,610 cases, mainland China with
3,281 deaths (81,218 cases), Iran with 2,077 deaths (27,017 cases), and France
with 1,331 deaths (25,233 cases). Since Tuesday at 1900 GMT, Jamaica, Cameroon,
Estonia and Niger have announced their first deaths linked to the virus.
Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Mali, Libya, Belize, Grenada and Dominica, have announced
their first cases. At 1900 GMT Wednesday, Europe had 239,912 cases and 13,824
deaths, Asia 99,927 cases with 3,596 deaths, the United States and Canada 62,194
cases with 854 deaths, the Middle East 32,182 cases and 2,123 deaths, Latin
America and the Caribbean 7,529 cases with 124 deaths, Oceania 2,656 cases and
nine deaths and Africa 2,631 cases and 69 deaths.
U.S. Coronavirus Cases Cross 60,000, 827 Dead
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 25/2020
The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the United States
reached 60,115 on Wednesday while 827 people had died, a tracker run by Johns
Hopkins University showed.The tracker showed 600 deaths around 24 hours earlier.
The US has the third highest number of confirmed cases behind China and Italy,
and the US death rate is now 1.38 percent, based on reported cases. The true
number of infected is believed to be far higher, meaning the real death rate
would be lower. The virus has killed more than 20,000 people around the world
after it was first identified in central China in late December. A projection
shared with Congress earlier this month said that between 70 to 150 million
people could eventually be infected in the US. If the real mortality rate is one
percent, this would result in 700,000 to 1.5 million deaths. Heart disease was
the leading cause of death for Americans in 2018, the latest year for which
official figures are available, with just over 650,000 deaths. The flu and
pneumonia caused around 60,000 deaths.
New York Governor Says Social Distancing Slowing
Coronavirus
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 25/2020
Social distancing appears to be slowing the spread of the coronavirus in New
York, the epicenter of America's pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
In his daily update on efforts to contain the deadly pandemic, Cuomo said
projection rates suggested hospitalizations were increasing at a slower rate
than before. "The arrows are headed in the right direction," he told reporters.
Cuomo said New York was still "on the way up the mountain" and wouldn't meet the
peak of declared cases for another three weeks. But he added that projections
showed that hospitalizations were now doubling every 4.7 days as opposed to
every two days as was the case on Sunday. The state's almost 20 million
residents have been confined to their homes since Cuomo ordered all
non-essential businesses closed on Sunday. He said that the number of confirmed
infections in Westchester County, the origin of New York's outbreak, had
"dramatically slowed" following a two-week containment. New York has 30,811
declared cases, up by 5,146, Cuomo said Wednesday. Almost 18,000 of those are in
New York City, which reported almost 3,000 new cases, he added. Some 192 people
have died in the city, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.
After New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the Big Apple would run out of medical
supplies by the end of the week, Cuomo assured residents there were enough to
last more than a fortnight. "Today, no hospital, no nurse, no doctor can say,
legitimately 'I don't have protective equipment,'" he said. "Right now, and for
the foreseeable future, we have a supply. We have not yet secured supply for
three weeks from now, four weeks from, now five weeks from now. But we are still
shopping." He repeated that New York's cases are projected to reach their peak
in 21 days and that the state needs 30,000 ventilators by then. He called on
President Trump to introduce a "rolling deployment" whereby New York, as the
worst hit, receives most of the country's equipment, before passing it to other
states. "Send us the equipment that we need. Send us the personnel. As soon as
we get past our critical moment we will redeploy that equipment and personnel to
the next hotspot. I will personally guarantee it," Cuomo said.
Italy's Slowing Infections Boost Case for Lockdowns
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 25/2020
Italy's coronavirus infections rate slowed for a fourth successive day Wednesday
as fresh evidence emerged that long and painful lockdowns against pandemics will
work. The latest data from the epicenter of the once-in-a-century outbreak comes
with more and more nations weighing whether to shutter their own stores and
factories -- and for how long. Analysts at one of the big U.S. investment banks
said evidence from Italy this week could determine whether much of the United
States "will diverge or follow the Italian trajectory." Almost everything across
the Mediterranean country has been closed for over two weeks. Public gatherings
have been banned and much of the economy is set to remain in a state of
suspended animation for an indefinite time to come. Analysts think Italy is
sliding into its deepest recession in generations as a result. But it is the
price Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has decided to pay to slow the spread of a
disease that has now killed 7,503 in Italy and infected almost 75,000. "History
will judge us," the increasingly popular Italian leader told parliament on
Wednesday. "We must all contribute to the common good," Conte said. "The
government has acted with the utmost determination and speed."
'Extremely positive'
Wednesday's figures showed deaths staying within the high but relative narrow
range they had reached at the end of last week. Health officials reported 683
new fatalities and 5,210 infections. The overall rise in daily deaths among
confirmed COVID-19 cases slowed to 10 percent. It had been as high as 57 percent
when the illness was still spreading exponentially on March 8. The daily
infections growth rate fell to a record low of 7.5 percent. The World Health
Organization's deputy director Ranieri Guerra sounded pleased. "The slowdown in
the (infections) growth rate is extremely positive," Guerra told Italy's
Capitale radio. "I think the measures taken (by Italy) are absolutely correct --
perhaps with a certain delay at the start, but that is understandable." The
government-run National Research Council said 57 out of Italy's 107 provinces
have already hit their peak of the virus spread. The numbers are improving "and
the containment measures are delivering the desired effect, even if we are in
the initial phase of the slowdown," the research council said.
'Italian trajectory'
Italy's data are being watched by global policymaker as they weigh the potential
health benefits of imposing national lockdowns against their damaging economic
side effects. "The next 3-5 days are key to seeing if Italy's lockdown measures
are having an impact and if the US will diverge or follow the Italian
trajectory," the Morgan Stanley investment bank wrote on Tuesday. "We do note,
however, that the number of mortalities has slowed from an exponential increase
since the lock down began," the bank said. There were still worrying signs in
Italian regions such as Campania around Naples and Rome's Lazio. Deaths in the
Naples region rose from 49 on Monday to 74 on Wednesday. Those in and around
Rome went up from 63 to 95 over the same span. And deaths in the northern
Piemonte region around the industrial city of Turin rose from 315 on Monday to
449 on Wednesday. The figures for all three regions represent jumps of around 50
percent in two days.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on March 24-25/2020
America’s free market ideals fade fast
John Defterios/Arab News/March 25/2020
Since Col. Edwin Drake discovered crude on Oil Creek in Titusville, Pennsylvania
back in 1859, America’s oil and gas industry has lived by the “can do” spirit of
exploration, capitalism and cut-throat competition.
After a month of losses and the steepest weekly drop since the Gulf War in 1991,
the narrative emerging from America’s energy belt and on Capitol Hill is
changing rapidly. In the face of potential recession and the coronavirus
undermining oil demand by up to 10 million barrels a day, US lawmakers are
pursuing what many can call a protectionist agenda.
In a span of a week, senators and congressmen have presented ideas ranging from
an outright ban on oil imports from Saudi Arabia, Russia and OPEC countries to
US producers accusing those same players of dumping crude on the American
market.
The tone is strident and it begs the question, does the US energy sector want to
live by free-market principles or does it prefer market intervention by the
OPEC+ agreement? OPEC’s secretary general told me in November 2018 that since
the so-called “Declaration of Cooperation” by Saudi Arabia, Russia and 22 other
countries, US producers, especially those in the shale industry, have benefited
the most.
“If you look at the job creation in the basins, you will appreciate what OPEC
and non-OPEC have jointly done to benefit the United States,” Mohammed Barkindo
said.
There are one and half million jobs in oil and gas production with an estimated
ten times that amount indirectly linked to a full range of services supporting
the industry, from auto dealers to restaurants. During a visit to Odessa, Texas
last October in the heart of the Permian Basin, I witnessed first-hand the boom
town atmosphere, with oil workers voicing complaints about housing shortages due
to rapid growth and new pick-up trucks rolling off sales lots in record numbers.
America had moved to the top of global rankings with nearly 13 million barrels a
day of production, topping Russia at about 11 and a half million and
once-constrained Saudi Arabia keeping output below 10 million.
Today all bets are off after a nasty spat at the OPEC meeting in Vienna led to
full blown price war. The two largest exporters, Saudi Arabia and Russia, are
vying for market share and US producers are caught in the crossfire.
Saudi Arabia has pledged to produce at least 12.3 million barrels over the
“coming months”, while discounting prices and Russia said from April 1 all
producers will decide for themselves what the market can handle.
US Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette called those actions “intentional disruption
to world oil markets by foreign actors.”
Thirteen US senators from oil producing states are crying foul and wrote
directly to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asking him to
rethink his strategy. Many of the same lawmakers called on US President Donald
Trump to get off the sidelines and act.
“We have a lot of power over the situation, and we’re trying to find some kind
of medium ground,” Trump told journalists last week. The verbal intervention
helped lift prices for a day but the benchmark US crude tumbled 29 percent on
the week.
This puts the US president in a difficult bind.
If he supports a move toward market management by Saudi Arabia and others, he
could be seen to be endorsing what Americans have defined as a cartel, which is
illegal under federal law. Doing nothing risks alienating his voter base in the
country’s energy states.
Trump’s initial gambits include dispatching an energy envoy to the Kingdom for
several months and to purchase up to $3 billion of crude to fill the US
strategic petroleum reserve and in turn support local producers.
It certainly appears then that Saudi Arabia’s new strategy may be having the
desired effect. The US is reaching out to Riyadh (not the other way around) and
the energy regulator in Texas opened talks with OPEC’s secretary general,
suggesting that individual states need to be part of the solution. In North
Dakota, regulators are weighing plans to deactivate wells, encouraging producers
to keep oil offline.
It was William Shakespeare who said, “desperate times breed desperate measures.”
There is more than a hint of that after what has been historic plunge in prices
and the coronavirus that is eating away at demand.
• John Defterios is CNN Business Emerging Markets Editor and host of The Global
Energy Challenge on CNN International.
Is Turkey planning a new invasion of eastern Syria? –
analysis
Seth Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/March 25/2020
Turkey’s leadership thrives on crises. For the last several years the government
in Ankara has invented a new crisis every month, sometimes with the US. In
October 2019 it invaded part of eastern Syria, causing 200,000 people to flee.
In November Turkey created a crises in Libya with an energy deal in the
Mediterranean and in January and February it fumbled another crises in Idlib,
only to hen encourages migrants to go to Europe in March. Now Ankara may be
setting its sights on a new crises in Syria to distract from the coronavirus
pandemic at home.
Hints of Turkey’s new plan to push the US out of the remaining parts of Syria,
where Americans are guarding oil fields and continuing to support the Syrian
Democratic Forces against ISIS, came in early March. Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan spoke to his ally in Russia, President Vladimir Putin, and said
that with Russian support Turkey could construct infrastructure using oil
revenues from eastern Syria. “We can help destroyed Syria get on its feet.”
Erdogan’s plan came in the context of the Russian-backed Syrian regime offensive
in Idlib that had forced some 900,000 people from their homes in January and
February. Erdogan wanted a deal with Moscow. The Syrian regime shelling, likely
with the knowledge of Moscow, killed more than 40 Turkish soldiers in Syria’s
Idlib in February where Turkish soldiers were monitoring the crises. Turkey’s
response was to run to Moscow to secure a deal.
Turkey has a long history of working with Russia to partition parts of Syria.
Beginning in 2017 Turkey, Russia and Iran joined the Astana Syrian peace talks.
Turkey nominally backs the Syrian opposition rebels. It has turned them into the
Syrian National Army and used them to fight Kurdish groups that Turkey claims
are linked to the PKK. Then Turkey sent the Syrian rebels to bolster its war in
Libya after Turkey sought gas and energy deals off Libya in December 2019. This
is Turkey’s goal: Use the rebels to fight Kurds and as tools of Ankara foreign
policy, while working with Russia on the rest of Syria.
Turkey signed a deal with Russia in September 2018 for Idlib province. Russia
wants extremist groups linked to Al Qaeda to leave Idlib. Turkey doesn’t know
what to do with the groups, including ISIS members like ISIS leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi who was found by the Americans living a few kilometers from the
Turkish border. One way to deal with the groups that are still independent of
the Turkish-backed SNA is to let the Syrian regime destroy them until they run
into Turkey’s arms. That was the plan in December and January as the Syrian
regime advanced, but it advanced too fast and Turkey sent troops to Idlib to
slow it down. Russia stepped in through discussions with Turkey in Munich and
then in Moscow and finally came up with the deal. In the lead-up to the March 5
deal between Ankara and Moscow, Turkey sought to encourage Syrian refugees to go
to Europe. Stoking the crises with Europe, Turkey turned its eyes to eastern
Syria.
In October after Turkish threats the US had withdrawn from parts of eastern
Syria. Turkey bombed the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and invaded part of
eastern Syria. Then Turkey signed a deal with Moscow in mid-October,
partitioning parts of eastern Syria, similar to Idlib. But the deal may not be
done. Moscow and Turkey both want the US removed from eastern Syria.
To get the US out of eastern Syria, Turkey has hinted to Washington that it
opposes Iran’s role in Syria. US Secretary of State Mike Pompe and anti-ISIS
envoy James Jeffrey are both pro-Turkey and hope that if they give Turkey enough
support then Turkey will finally turn on Iran. IN the past Turkey worked with
Iran, letting Iran set up businesses in Turkey and encouraging Washington to
have warmer relations with Tehran. But the US administration wants more
sanctions. The US is angry at Turkey for buying Russia’s S-400 systems and has
begged Ankara to take its Patriot system instead. But Turkey sees Moscow as a
more reliable ally than Washington, mocking Jeffrey as not serious in February.
Turkey’s Erdogan said on March 9 that Syrian oil in Qamishli, a mostly Kurdish
town, should be used to rebuild other parts of Syria. Oil from Deir Ezzor could
also be used to help the Syrian regime. Erdogan said that he had spoken to US
President Donald Trump in early March and that the US had again said it would
withdraw troops from Syria. It comes down to cash. Trump is wary to waste money
in Syria and only kept a small number of US forces in Syria after the October
withdrawal to secure oil fields. Trump is in the middle of withdrawing troops
from Afghanistan, repositioning them in Iraq and may be amenable to withdraw
more of them from Syria if there was a good proposal that he sees as a win. The
Erdogan comment about a new US withdrawal raised eyebrows with former anti-ISIS
envoy Brett McGurk. McGurk was replaced by Jeffrey in January of 2019.
Turkey says it wants to use the oil somehow. Putin has a plan, Turkey says. “I
made a proposal to Putin,” Erdogan said on March 9. “We can build with the aid
of the oil.” Turkey now wants to “revive Syria,” apparently to help keep
Russian-backed Assad regime in power, despite Turkey’s past statements
critiquing Assad. In Turkey’s view the Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters in
the US-backed SDF who liberated eastern Syria from ISIS are “terrorists.” Turkey
claims that the “terrorists are benefiting” from the oil. “This will also show
who’s after protecting Syria’s unit and who’s after seizing it,” Turkey says,
indicating it wants a unified Syria under the Russian-backed Assad regime.
The US has no real interest in the oil in Syria but protecting the oil can help
bolster the limited resources of the SDF to continue guarding ISIS prisoners.
The US and western powers demand the SDF act as jailors for the ISIS prisoners,
including thousands of foreigners, who were captured when the SDF defeated ISIS
last year. European governments refuse to take back their ISIS citizens, and
they have told the SDF that it cannot hand them over to the Syrian regime, or
release them or send them to Iraq. The SDF today is needed as a contractor to
house them, including several thousand ISIS men and tens of thousands of their
family members. These detainees are all now at risk of the coronavirus and the
US has made sure that no help from the UN or WHO will arrive in eastern Syria to
test people there. Isolated from both Damascus and Washington, and viewed as
terrorists by Ankara, the SDF has few options. “Turkey officially wants us
removed from these areas, including Deir al-Zor,” a member of the SDF told VOA
earlier this month.
Turkey is now turning to this oil policy during the coronavirus crisis as a
possible new way to distract local media and create a new nationalist cause. On
March 10, as Turkey was planning new ways to seize the oil and partition eastern
Syria with Russia, the pro-government media was told to claim that Turkey was
“virus-free.” Daily Sabah reported on March 10 that Turkey was a leading example
of the fight against coronavirus, because it was virus-free. Pro-Turkish
commentators praised the Health minister. Turkey had in fact been one of the
first to warn of the coronavirus pandemic reaching Iran in mid-February when
Turkey estimated up to 750 were already infected in Iran. But it is impossible
to completely control the virus and Turkey now says it has 1,500 cases and 37
deaths. Curfews and closures are taking place in Turkey.
Even as the pandemic spreads, Turkey’s media wants to remind viewers that it is
fighting “terrorists” in Eastern Syria. There have been no attacks on Turkey
from the SDF or Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) which is affiliated with
it. Yet Turkey’s Anadolu claimed that Turkish commandos “neutralized two YPG/PKK
terrorists in northwestern Syria,” on March 21.
As part of Turkey’s plans for eastern Syria it appears some US diplomatic
officials have begun to stop mentioning their local SDF partners in eastern
Syria. A US briefing with Jeffrey and US Ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield
on March 10 did not mention the SDF but said it was working on finding a way for
the US or NATO to support Turkey in Idlib. A statement by the US State
Department on the one year anniversary of the SDF’s defeat of ISIS in Baghouz, a
four year campaign that cost the SDF 10,000 casualties, didn’t even mention the
SDF. Instead it said that eight million people had been freed from ISIS control
in Syria and Iraq and mentioned a “stabilization” plan that the US claimed had
which had helped people “return home” and helped them rebuild their lives. The
coalition, it said, would work to protect itself from the coronavirus pandemic
with the “Iraqi authorities,” but the statement did not mention Syrian partners.
The stabilization plan that was mentioned was actually discontinued in 2019 in
Syria and most people have not returned home.
Pompeo tweeted on Tuesday about the one year anniversary of defeating ISIS in
Idlib and the challenges of the coronavirus. He did not mention the SDF which
played the key role in defeating ISIS or of any support for eastern Syria amid
the pandemic. Signaling that the US seemingly left out mention or any thanks to
the SDF, US Senator Lindsey Graham wrote that he had a phone call with SDF
General Mazloum about the continued fight against ISIS and the need to protect
the oil. Graham wrote that he spoke about a “future political settlement
favorable to the Syrian people” and that they discussed concern about “Russian
aggression along the Turkey-Syria border and potential efforts by Russia to grab
oil.”
Graham’s comments reflect the concern that Russia has decided to provoke some
kind of crises in eastern Syria to take control of the oil. This is linked to
Turkey’s demand for the oil revenues. It appears that Turkey continues to press
for what it calls a “safe zone” to take over Kurdish areas along the border and
cause the people to flee as was done in Afrin and Tel Abyad after Turkey’s
offensives. Russia may see an opportunity to press the US to leave more of
eastern Syria, and Russia may think it can come to some kind of deal of trading
Idlib to the Syrian regime in return for oil revenues to Turkey.
The goal of Turkey is not the minor oil revenues but to remove the US. Russia
also agrees with this assessment, but Russia and Turkey are entangled in joint
patrols now in Idlib and other areas of Syria so they must work together rather
than clash. Russia and Turkey had their second joint patrol in Idlib this week.
Working together to reduce US influence is in both their interests. Turkey needs
a new crises. However the pandemic may be one real crises that is difficult for
Ankara to surmount while also trying to create a new struggle with Washington
and Russia over Syria’s oil.
Turkey and Coronavirus: Devout Muslims Will Defeat the “Jewish Plot”
Burak Bekdil/BESA/March 24, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkey appears to be handling the coronavirus crisis
relatively well, although its low case numbers reflect the low number of tests
being administered. Pious Turkish Muslims are blaming dark anti-Turkish forces
and, of course, the Jews for unleashing the virus on the world.
Turkey’s fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) is generally accepted to be
rational, well-timed, not too badly planned, and fairly effective. At the time
when the German case toll was 7,000 (and the Dutch and UK case tolls were at
around 2,000 each), Turkey’s was just 98. And when, on March 19, the Italian
death toll surpassed China’s at 4,400, the Turkish mortality figure was just
three. The government sealed borders—most significantly with Iran—just in time;
cancelled all public gatherings and events, including football games; ordered
most businesses to be shuttered; and launched an effective awareness campaign to
keep Turks at home. About 3,000 Turkish pilgrims on their way home from Mecca
were quarantined. The Turkish awareness rate of coronavirus was 100% by
mid-March, according to one poll.
But several questions remain unanswered. Why did the Turkish religious
authorities allow 21,500 people to travel to Mecca in the first place? Would it
not have been safer for them to wait to fulfill their pilgrimage until after the
world goes back to normal? And why were only 3,000 pilgrims quarantined? The
other 18,500 returnees from Mecca are walking free in Turkey.
The question also arises: was the number of Turkish cases low because of
government censorship? No, the “Turkish success” can be much more easily
explained. The number of reported Turkish cases was low because the number of
tests Turkey conducted was low. As of March 16, Turkey had performed just 2,800
tests (two tested positive out of a population of 83 million). Compare that to
South Korea, which has performed 250,000 tests (8,100 tested positive out of a
population of 51 million). It’s simple: if you don’t test people, you don’t put
cases on the books.
Coronavirus in Turkey, like most things in that country, highlights the black
humor in tragedy. As ever, Turkey is fun unless you have to live there.
Professor Ali Erbaş, president of Diyanet, Turkey’s highest religious authority,
gave a Friday sermon in which he warned Muslims not to attend crowded events. He
delivered this sermon at a mosque containing 5,000 people. A few days later,
Diyanet issued a fatwa indefinitely suspending Friday prayers.
Turks are a brave people, and pious Turks are apparently the bravest of all.
Large groups of Muslims protested Diyanet for the suspension of Friday prayers
on the logic that prayers would surely protect the pious from any evil, up to
and including a silly little virus. Reading the news of the protests, a friend
of the author said, “It’s a view we should respect. It’s also a theory worth
testing. How about injecting the coronavirus into all these pious folks?”
But the way “better-educated” Turks, including journalists and columnists,
interpret the coronavirus crisis is even more entertaining.
One Islamist writer suggested that “now that all bars and alcohol-licensed
enterprises are (temporarily) shut maybe we should consider keeping them shut
forever due to the risk of coronavirus.”
Another suggested that the “CHP virus”—CHP is the acronym for Turkey’s secular
main opposition party—is far more dangerous than coronavirus.
Pro-government media claimed they had found the real conspiracy: the virus was
first detected in Turkey on the day a new opposition party, DEVA, was officially
inaugurated, which cannot be a coincidence. Any opposition party challenging
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is tantamount to a deadly virus threatening
Turkey.
Other Islamists had a more intellectual, global response to the virus: they
threw down a gauntlet before science. Tell us, positivists, secularists: where
is your cure? Where is the “science” you always put before religion?
Turkish social media is of course a rich source of “scientific” interpretations
of the coronavirus crisis, many of them larded with predictable
self-aggrandizement, paranoia, and antisemitism:
“Thanks to the power we inherited from our (Ottoman) ancestors we will kill all
viruses and infidels.”
“We will defeat the virus as we will defeat the entire world.”
“Jews manufactured and spread the virus to end western civilization.”
“We will annihilate the global masters behind the virus.”
“The virus is only a minor part of a bigger game that targets Turkey.”
“The virus was created to overthrow Erdoğan, leader of the umma.”
“The Islamic army will defeat the infidel virus.”
Viruses change, but Islamist rhetoric does not. Yeniden Refah, a small Islamist
party, said: “Though we do not have certain evidence, this virus serves
Zionism’s goals of decreasing the number of people and preventing it from
increasing, and important research expresses this. Zionism is a
five-thousand-year-old bacteria that has caused the suffering of people.”
One collective response that neatly illustrates the Turkish approach to a crisis
was a television interview with ordinary citizens in the marketplace in Elaziğ,
a province in eastern Turkey. A local broadcaster sent a team to interview the
locals after reporters noticed with shock that the streets and main marketplace
of Elaziğ were full of people, so much so that the province was even more
crowded than it had been before coronavirus. The crew asked passersby, “What
about coronavirus? Aren’t you afraid to be in crowded public places?”
Three interviewees expressed confidence that the power of prayer will defeat all
viruses. A few claimed that coronavirus does not exist—it is a lie swallowed by
a credulous world. Another said, “Allah always protects the believer.” Another
contributed this theory: “The entire world is at war with Turkey. This virus is
Allah’s curse on them.”
*Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based columnist. He regularly writes for the
Gatestone Institute and Defense News and is a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
He is also a founder of the Ankara-based think tank Sigma.
Muslim Extremists Exploit Coronavirus to Promote Terrorism, Hate; and Other
Muslims that Need the World's Help
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/March 25, 2020
According to the report, the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS have, through a number
of fatwas, called on Muslims to produce "human biological weapons" to attack the
enemies of Islam.
In addition, 35% of the fatwas judged that the outbreak of the virus underscored
the need for women to wear the niqab.
The report noted that Islamist cleric Osama Hijazi recently claimed that wearing
the niqab is an "effective treatment" for the coronavirus.
The bad news is that extremist Muslims and their allies are again exposing their
contempt for human life, including the life of Muslims who oppose their
ideology, terrorism and jihad. These are the Muslims that urgently need the
world's help.
According to Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, President and Founder of the American Islamic
Forum for Democracy, "The Muslim Brotherhood has never condemned theologically
or ideologically the use of terrorism. And if they have it's been a cover, since
they've reverted to that repeatedly." Pictured: Jasser testifies before the
House Homeland Security Committee on March 10, 2011 in Washington, DC.
As countries across the world are turning themselves inside out to prevent the
spread of the coronavirus, Muslim extremists and terrorists have been expending
their energy on promoting terror attacks against other Muslims as well as
"infidels."
These terrorists and extremists are probably praying for the "infidels" to
discover a vaccine for the virus -- thus enabling them to return to their
mosques and resume their calls for killing the "infidels." Many Arab and Islamic
countries have banned prayers in mosques to help prevent contagion during the
war on the coronavirus.
As scientists and other "infidels" around the world, including Israel, are
working around the clock to find a vaccine for the virus, the Muslim Brotherhood
organization and some of its allies are issuing fatwas (Islamic religious
opinions) that expose dangerous goals, a dangerous ideology, and a disregard for
human life.
Sheikh Aid al-Qarni, for instance, long affiliated with the Sahwah ("Awakening")
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, said -- before his detention, death sentence
and public recantation in Saudi Arabia:
"I pray to Allah that He will make the enemies fall into their own trap and that
He will destroy the Jews and their helpers from among the Christians and the
Communists, and that He will turn them into the Muslims' spoils. I praise the
Jihad, the sacrifice, and the resistance against the occupiers in Iraq. We curse
them all of them every night and pray that Allah will annihilate them, tear them
apart, and grant us victory over them... "
In another video, al-Qarni remarked, "Throats must be slit and skulls must be
shattered...This is the path to victory, to shahada, and to sacrifice."
An Egyptian writer, Amr Hosny, published an article in the Egyptian daily Al-Tahrir,
accusing Arab and Muslim society of being oversensitive regarding the honor of
Islam, and leading to them being violent and murderous towards others:
"Every time an extremist Muslims commits a horrifying crime against humanity,
some people come out and shriek that he has nothing to do with Islam, while
ignoring the fact that views and ideologies do not exist as abstract entities,
but rather take shape in the minds and behavior of those who believe in them in
accordance with the surrounding culture that defines the nature of their
relations with the other. The culture of our Islamic societies in this
generation, particularly Arab societies, produces a violent Islam whose
believers simply murder anyone who disagrees with them under the pretext of
being offended. This, while they [the Muslims] never consider anyone else's
feelings but their own...
"Omar Mateen, the young American Muslim of Afghan origin who massacred 50
homosexuals, was offended because he saw two men kissing, but was not [offended]
by [the act of] murdering 50 people. After all these crimes, members of other
cultures more readily accept extremism on behalf of their governments and people
against Muslims [in general] and Arabs in particular, since [in their eyes] they
are [all] potential terrorists who must be uprooted from their societies.
"We must recognize the existence of a flaw in the Islamic culture - particularly
the Arab [Islamic culture] - that beats in the heart of the Muslim... and causes
him to become convinced that the other deserves to be killed if he offends [the
Muslims'] religious sensibilities..." [Tahrirnews.com, June 14, 2016].
Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, in a hearing before the US House of Representatives, noted
the words on the logo of the Muslim Brotherhood:
"The next slide looks at the logo.... They have not changed their logo. And at
the bottom, under those swords, which are not peaceful, that are not violent
symbol, it says wei du (pu) [peace be unto Him] ...from chapter 8, verse 16 [60,
ed. The recorder evidently misheard] of the Koran, and it says "make ready." And
it's not the Boy Scouts' "be prepared, make ready." (p. 41)
For the record, Chapter 8, verse 60 of the Quran states:
"And make ready against them all you can of power, including steeds of war
(tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, etc.) to threaten the enemy of Allah and
your enemy, and others besides whom, you may not know but whom Allah does
know...." - Mohsin Khan translation.
Dr. Jasser continued:
"And if you look at the motto it says, as has been pointed out, that death for
the sake of God is their highest aspiration....
"The Muslim Brotherhood has never condemned theologically or ideologically the
use of terrorism. And if they have it's been a cover, since they've reverted to
that repeatedly.
"Recep Erdogan, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood group in Turkey, also known
as the AKP, said: Democracy is like a train; we ride it until we get where we
want to go and then we get off." (p.41)
The Global Fatwa Index (GFI) organization, affiliated with Egypt's Dar al-Ifta
and General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide, disclosed on March 16
that it had been monitoring and analyzing numerous fatwas on the coronavirus.
The group found that a large number of the fatwas related to the disease came
from "unofficial" bodies and individuals.
The GFI Index concluded that "extremist organizations and terrorist groups are
exploiting the outbreak of the virus to implement their ideology, spread chaos,
terror and panic, and call into question the nation's institutions and leaders."
According to the report, the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS have, through a number
of fatwas, called on Muslims to produce "human biological weapons" to attack the
enemies of Islam. They have also ruled that Muslims who die of the coronavirus
are considered "martyrs."
The report went in to say that the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafism, a revivalist
movement within Sunni Islam which had roots in the 18th-century Wahhabi movement
that originated in modern-day Saudi Arabia, have ruled that the virus is a
"divine punishment for those who banned the niqab," a garment of clothing that
covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of an interpretation of
hijab (modest dress).
The two groups, the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafism, have also ruled that the
outbreak of the coronavirus was a divine punishment for the persecution of
Uighur Muslims by China.
In August 2018, a UN committee heard that up to one million Uighur Muslims and
other Muslim groups could have been detained in China's western Xinjiang region,
where they are said to be undergoing grisly "re-education" programs.
According to the GFI report, the Muslim Brotherhood and some Salafists "continue
to use the [virus] to implement some of their literature, as they have linked
the outbreak of the epidemic to the banning of the niqab inside Egyptian
universities and institutions."
The report pointed out that 55% of the "unofficial" fatwas of the Muslim
Brotherhood and Salafists focused on the issue of divine punishment, with some
asserting that the coronavirus was God's "revenge" against China for its
persecution of Muslims.
In addition, 35% of the fatwas judged that the outbreak of the virus underscored
the need for women to wear the niqab.
The report noted that Islamist cleric Osama Hijazi recently claimed that wearing
the niqab is an "effective treatment" for the coronavirus. In his opinion, "the
World Health Organization should order the countries of the world to compel men
and women to wear the niqab."
Some Muslim extremists and terrorists, on the other hand, are trying to make
financial profit out of the coronavirus, the report added.
"Coronavirus is treated by Prophet Mohammed's beloved ones," a Mauritanian
sheikh, Yahthia Ould Dahi, recently said, "and there's no need to be worried.
They are prepared to travel to China to treat it, God willing. The cost of
treating this epidemic varies according to the patients, their circumstances and
their (financial) capabilities."
An Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood fugitive, Bahjat Saber, has been using the
outbreak of the virus to call for carrying out terrorist attacks against the
Egyptian authorities. Saber urged Muslims who have the flu, or who are suspected
of being infected with the coronavirus, to enter police stations and other
government institutions in order to spread the disease.
The report noted that an intelligence document leaked by the Iraqi Ministry of
Interior revealed that ISIS was seeking to recruit its coronavirus-infected
members to act as "human biological bombs" in various parts of Iraq. So, ISIS
wants to use its members to spread the virus among Iraqis.
The good news is that the rulings of the terrorists and extremists do not
represent the views of the leading Islamic religious authorities in most Arab
and Islamic countries. The bad news is that extremist Muslims and their allies
are again exposing their contempt for human life, including the life of Muslims
who oppose their ideology, terrorism and jihad. These are the Muslims (apart
from Sheikh al-Qarni) that urgently need the world's help.
**Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab Based in the Middle East
© 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.
Don't lift Iran sanctions, not even for the coronavirus
Michael Rubin/Washington Examinar/March 25/2020
Like clockwork, two dozen left-wing activist groups demanded last week the
United States lift sanctions on Iran to help the Islamic Republic fight the
coronavirus. “With hospitals overrun and Iranian doctors struggling to procure
necessary equipment, the U.S. must be part of the solution rather than part of
the problem,” the president of the National Iranian American Council, Tehran’s
de facto lobby in the U.S., explained.
They could not be more wrong. Put aside that the same groups consistently demand
the same action regardless of the news. When the U.S. Treasury Department
sanctioned the Islamic Republic for money laundering for terrorist groups, NIAC
complained on humanitarian grounds. When the Trump administration imposed
sanctions targeted not on the Iranian people but rather its leadership, NIAC
objected. When the Trump administration sought to sanction the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, NIAC opposed. NIAC letters, most often co-signed by
the likes of Code Pink, the American Friends Service Committee, and the
Ploughshares Fund, are like Mad Libs: “[Day’s event] is reason to lift sanctions
immediately.”
If the goal of the signatories is to help Iranians defeat the ongoing pandemic,
however, lifting sanctions is wrongheaded. First, there is already a mechanism
in place for Iranian leaders to purchase medical and humanitarian goods. Second,
no amount of money will help when Iranian shrines allow pilgrims to lick tombs,
or clerics tell the population that COVID-19 can be cured by spreading essential
oils on one’s anus. Third, there is the disconnect about what sanctions target.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps controls perhaps 40% of Iran’s economy,
including most imports and exports. This is why the Obama administration’s $1.4
billion hostage ransom payment was so counterproductive. To lift sanctions would
empower Iran’s military, not help those most in need. Case in point are the
revelations that senior Iranian leaders embezzled perhaps $1 billion worth of
aid Europe sent to help fight the virus.
Simply put, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is replicating late Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein’s propaganda campaign: Promote humanitarian tragedy and profit off it.
The Iraqi regime said sanctions killed children while exporting baby formula.
Just as Khamenei today is worth billions, the Iraqi dictator also used sanctions
relief to build palaces. Code Pink amplified Saddam’s false propaganda saying
sanctions killed 500,000 Iraqi children; today, Khamenei counts on NIAC to be
his propaganda bullhorn in America.
Home delivery can save craft alcoholic beverage producers
And just as North Korea diverted humanitarian aid in the wake of the 1994 Agreed
Framework (the Clinton administration’s much-ballyhooed nuclear deal) in order
to feed its army and build its nuclear program, so too would the authorities in
Tehran divert any money passing through Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fronts
or personnel to Iran’s nuclear, missile, or terrorism programs.
If Iran needs money to provide relief to its people, it has plenty. It could
cease supporting Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, or the Houthis in Yemen, for
example, together freeing up billions of dollars in cash. It could also cease
building ballistic missiles, a program in which it invests hundreds of millions
more dollars. Then, there is Iran’s nuclear program which, from a civilian
energy perspective, never made much sense given that Iran floats on a sea of gas
and oil and could upgrade its refineries and pipelines for a fraction of the
cost of its nuclear investment.
If the Iranian regime’s apologists in NIAC and among other supposedly
progressive groups want to absolve Iran of that responsibility and still help
the Iranian people fight the Wuhan coronavirus, then they could demand the U.S.
provide direct medical assistance to Iran. Then, of course, that is what the
Trump administration already did. Khamenei rejected that offer outright.
The sad reality is that the financial benefit for Khamenei and the ruling
clerics of Iran’s suffering is simply too great to risk. The coronavirus, and
Khamenei’s desire for cash rather than substantive help, reveals his true self.
*Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's
Beltway Confidential blog. He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute and a former Pentagon official.
Iran refuses to release Christian prisoners amid coronavirus outbreak while EU
sends millions in aid
Benjamin Weinthal/FDD/March 25/2020
Iran’s theocratic rulers have temporarily released some 85,000 prisoners,
including political prisoners, in an effort to prevent the spread of the Middle
East’s worst coronavirus outbreak, but have refused to free many Iranian
Christians jailed for practicing their faith.
Article18, an organization that promotes religious freedom in Iran, told Fox
News on Monday that four Iranian Christians serving 10-year sentences in
Tehran’s notorious Evin prison are among the prisons denied temporary release
“even though their requests for retrials have been accepted.”
“We at Article18 ask for the immediate and unconditional release of all
Christians detained on spurious charges related to their faith or religious
activities,” Mansour Borji, the research and advocacy director for the
London-based organization, said. “This is even more urgent given the current
health crisis that threatens these detained Christians and their families back
home.”
Borji continued: “The international community should also demand that Iran
upholds its obligations to guarantee the right to freedom of religion or belief
for every citizen, regardless of their ethnic or linguistic background,
including converts from other religions.”
According to Article18, the four Iranian Christians being held are Yousef
Nadarkhani, 42, Mohammad Reza (Yohan) Omidi, 46, and Zaman (Saheb) Fadaei, 36,
and Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who is 58 years old and suffers from several health
issues.
Iran, which has been considered the epicenter for the virus’ spread in the
Middle East, has seen more than 24,811 cases and at least 1,934 deaths from
COVID-19, as of Tuesday morning. International observers believe the real
figures are much higher than reported by Iranian health officials.
In an unprecedented move last week, Iranian authorities released some 85,000
inmates, including from Evin prison. The move comes as officials have placed
unconfirmed blame that the United States is behind the global pandemic.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday lashed out at Iran for the
unfounded accusations, saying: “The [Iranian] regime continues to lie to the
Iranian people and the world about the number of cases and deaths, which are
unfortunately far higher than the regime admits.”
Article18 said the persecuted Christians “have made several requests for release
on bail since their retrials were accepted in October [except for Gol-Tapeh,
whose request for a retrial was accepted in February], and their families are
increasingly anxious about them in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.”
Alireza Miryousefi, the spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, told
Fox News that decreasing the number of prisons has been a “general policy” by
Tehran’s new head of justice since last year.
“All Iranians imprisoned for various crimes are judged by the judiciary on an
individual basis as to whether they should be released or furloughed on medical
grounds or other consideration,” he said. “Tens of thousands have already been
released from prisons. There has been no discrimination on the basis of religion
or race.”
However, experts on human rights violations by the Islamic Republic against
Iranian Christians told Fox News authorities have refused to show clemency
toward imprisoned Christian converts.
“While Iran’s regime has released thousands of short-sentence prisoners to
prevent the spread of coronavirus in its jails and prisons, it has refused to
show clemency toward Christian converts,” Lisa Daftari, the founder and managing
editor at The Foreign Desk multi-media news platform, told Fox News. “According
to Islamic law, it is a crime to convert to Christianity, or more specifically,
it is a crime to turn from Islam.”
She noted, “The regime has always made an example of its Christian convert
detainees to serve as a warning to others. Paradoxically, the harsher the regime
has been in recent years, the more the people of Iran have been attracted and
found a haven in the Christian religion. We have seen a surge in underground
churches and conversion programs.
“The international community and the media need to keep these stories in the
spotlight. For years, we have had success in getting Christians released or
their sentences commuted just by continuing to report their cases,” Daftari
said.
Marjan Greenblatt, the founder and director of Alliance for Rights of All
Minorities, told Fox News that while the Islamic Republic recognizes Christians
as an official religious minority with second-class rights on paper, “converts
out of Islam have no rights.”
“Not only Christian converts are denied the second-class rights given to
Christian-born Iranians, they actually risk their lives for their religious
beliefs,” Greenblatt added. “So many converts out of Shi’a Islam, have ended
behind bars for declaring their own religious choices.”
Meanwhile, the European Union has decided to send humanitarian assistance to
alleviate the COVID-19 crisis in the Islamic Republic. On Monday, the EU’s
foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that “there is some €20 million
($21.6 million) in the pipeline… that we expect to be delivered over the next
weeks” to Tehran.
The EU aid is not linked to a promise from Iran’s regime to release persecuted
Iranians who were incarcerated on bogus charges.
“For years, the Iranian regime has prioritized its proxies over the Iranian
people and stolen the money the Iranian people deserve and expect to go for
their healthcare,” the U.S. State Department said Monday. “In July 2019, one
billion euros intended for medical supplies ‘disappeared’ and another $170
million allocated for medical goods were instead spent on tobacco.”
Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Islamic Republic of Iran, urged the mullahs who rule in Tehran to release of all
prisoners of conscience to reduce the spread of the virus. Iran’s vast
penitentiary system is widely viewed as a fertile incubator for the deadly
coronavirus.
Many of the Iranians currently imprisoned by the Shi’ite Islamist regime are
converts to Christianity.
“In Iran apostasy is punishable by death, yet the number of evangelical
Christian converts continues to grow. Like all religious minorities who suffer
under Iran’s theocratic dictatorship, Christians need support from the West,
especially the European Union, which has considerable leverage over Tehran,”
Peter Kohanloo, the president of the U.S.-based Iranian American Majority
organization, told Fox News. “Assistance from the EU could, for example, be
linked to the release of religious dissidents.”
British-Iranian journalist, Potkin Azarmehr, invoked the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights when discussing the practices by Iran’s judicial officials. He
said one of the most fundamental human values as enshrined in the declaration is
“liberty rights that protect freedoms in areas such as belief and religion,
association, assembling and movement.”
“Why are the nation members of UN not pursuing this fundamental declaration in
Iran?” he told Fox News.
*Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East and is a fellow at
the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal
North Korea Conducts Third Projectile Launch in 2020
David Maxwell/Mathew Ha/FDD/March 25/2020
North Korea launched two short-range projectiles and conducted a live-fire
artillery competition late last week as the rest of the world, and likely North
Korea itself, confronts the coronavirus pandemic. The purpose of these latest
provocations may be to advertise the gradual advancement of North Korea’s rocket
artillery and ballistic missile capabilities, but they may also be an effort to
divert attention from signs that the regime is incapable of addressing the
coronavirus epidemic.
This is North Korea’s third weapons firing in 2020. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs
of Staff reported that the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) launched the two
short-range projectiles from North Pyongan Province. The projectiles flew to a
range of approximately 410 kilometers, with a maximum in-flight altitude of 50
kilometers. Based on analysis of the projectiles’ movement and of images of the
projectiles, open source assessments thus far suggest they were KN-24
short-range missiles, which bear similarities in appearance to the U.S. Army
Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
The NKPA likely launched the KN-24 missiles from a 600mm multiple rocket
launcher (MRL) system. North Korea already tested this MRL system last year.
This test likely was a scheduled component of the NKPA’s Winter Training Cycle,
which is slated to end in March. Additionally, re-testing the KN-24 missile
could signify that the NKPA is now preparing to field these weapons. According
to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, there is a “limited deployment” of a
300mm MRL (KN-09) along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
If this is the case, both Washington and Seoul should be concerned, considering
these systems could reach U.S. military bases at Camp Humphreys, Osan Air Base,
and Cheongju Airbase if fielded along the DMZ. North Korean propaganda
cryptically alluded to these U.S. and ROK bases as a “fat target.”
Another explanation for the latest weapons tests is they are a smokescreen for
North Korea’s inability to effectively confront the coronavirus pandemic.
Weapons provocations therefore could be Pyongyang’s warning to the United States
and South Korea not to interfere in North Korea’s present internal crisis.
Although the regime publicly stated there have been zero infections, it may be
covering up an outbreak as reports emerge that as many as 200 North Korean
soldiers have already died from the virus.
Experts have noted that any kind of pandemic could have catastrophic
consequences for North Korea due to its lack of a robust public health
infrastructure. If Pyongyang indeed is covering up an outbreak within the
military, the loss of military leaders’ support and loyalty represents a
potential pathway to a full regime collapse. Yet there is still a dearth of
concrete information, making it premature to conclude this is happening.
Furthermore, Pyongyang’s latest weapons test should remind Washington and
Seoul’s respective leaderships that the North Korean threat persists and grows.
Although both governments currently confront domestic challenges due to the
coronavirus pandemic, the United States and South Korea should continue to the
best of their ability to manage, strengthen, and ultimately restore their
alliance as the critical lynchpin deterring North Korean aggression.
*David Maxwell, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army and a retired Special Forces
colonel, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD),
*where Mathew Ha is a research analyst. Both contribute to FDD’s Center on
Military and Political Power (CMPP). For more analysis from David, Mathew, and
CMPP, please subscribe HERE. Follow David and Mathew on Twitter @davidmaxwell161
and @matjunsuk. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington,
DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and
foreign policy.