English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 09/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.
John 10/01-06: “‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 08-09/2020

All Of Them, The Lebanese Politicians Are 100% ought to be Hit With US Sanctions.. They are all One Gang/Elias Bejjani/November 08/2020
Health Ministry: 1139 new cases of Corona
Rahi from Tripoli: We want justice that reveals corruption
Al-Rahi addressing Tripoli's activists: We regret that this city has become the city of the poor, and we demand fairness from the state
Hariri congratulates Biden, Harris
Lebanon's Bassil Rejects US Sanctions as Unjust and Politically Motivated
Hariri Says Biden Election May Offer 'Solutions to Problems'
Bassil Prefers Sanctions over 'Strife', Rejects 'Elimination' in New Govt.
'Welding' Causes New Explosion in Lebanon
Geagea: Situation is deteriorating in Lebanon
Winter Rains in Beirut Finish Off Blast-Ravaged Homes
US Sanctions Cast Shadow over Lebanese Govt. Formation Efforts
Lebanon's Bassil rejects U.S. sanctions as unjust and politically motivated

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 08-09/2020

George W Bush congratulates Biden on 'fair' election win
Saudi Arabia's King Salman congratulates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on US election win
Biden, Pledging Unity, Begins Transition as Trump Refuses to Concede
'No Greater Ally' - British Minister Predicts Close Ties with Biden
French FM in Egypt, Seeks Calm after Offensive Cartoon Uproar
UK Does a U-Turn, Backs Rashford's Child Hunger Campaign
Ties With US to Deepen After Biden Win, Says Afghan President
Iraq: Salaries of 5 Million Employees Hostage to Political Bargaining
Turkey Gives Muted First Response to Biden Win
Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta Calls for Dialogue with West to Confront Islamophobia
Palestinian President Abbas Congratulates Joe Biden
Iraq: Salaries of 5 Million Employees Hostage to Political Bargaining

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 08-09/2020

The Challenges of Post-Electoral America and the Abraham Lincoln Paradigm/Charles Elias Chartouni/November 08/2020
The Pope's New Encyclical: A Surrender?/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 08/2020
What Biden’s Win Means for Europe/Max Hastings/Bloomberg/November, 08/2020
5 Steps to Amend the US Path in Syria/Charles Lister/Asharq Al Awsat/November 08/2020
Hold the Schadenfreude for America/Clara Ferreira Marques/Asharq Al Awsat/November 08/2020
Best Reason to Join a Startup? Not to Get Rich/Erin Lowry/Bloomberg/November 08/2020
America’s Age of Anger Is Just Getting Started/Pankaj Mishra/Bloomberg/November 08/2020
Banking Industry Gets a Needed Reality Check/Elisa Martinuzzi/Bloomberg/November 08/2020
If other world leaders could vote in the US election, who would they have picked?/Raghida Dergham/The National/November 08/2020
Turkish bank rulings should be a wakeup call for global financial institutions/Aykan Erdemir and Jonathan Schanzer/Al Arabiya/November 08/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 08-09/2020

All Of Them, The Lebanese Politicians Are 100% ought to be Hit With US Sanctions.. They are all One Gang

Elias Bejjani/November 08/2020
Justice necessitates the imposition of sanctions not only on Jobran Bassil, but on every Lebanese politician who surrendered to Hezbollah the murderer, terrorist and occupier and sold Lebanon's people, independence and sovereignty.

Health Ministry: 1139 new cases of Corona
NNA/November 08/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Sunday, the registration of 1139 new Corona cases, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 94,236.
It also indicated that 10 death cases were also registered during the past 24 hours.

Rahi from Tripoli: We want justice that reveals corruption
NNA/November 08/2020
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rahi, called on the judiciary to expose corruption and the corrupt in the country.
The Prelate who presided over Sunday Mass at the Angel Mikhael Cathedral in the town of Zharieh in Tripoli, explained that this justice must be global, not selective. The Patriarch also criticized the process of forming the government, saying that some political parties still insist on distributing ministerial portfolios and sharing quotas without taking into account the deterrent conditions of the country at all levels. Addressing politicians, he urged them to stop violating the Constitution, the national Pact and the National Covenant document. Finally, the Patriarch congratulated President-elect Joe Biden, wishing him success in serving world peace and peoples' rights.

Al-Rahi addressing Tripoli's activists: We regret that this city has become the city of the poor, and we demand fairness from the state
NNA/November 08/2020
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, expressed his regret for the underprivileged classes and the sufferings endured by the city of Tripoli, calling on the state to practice fairness towards its citizens. In his meeting with political, social, economic, cultural and security officials and dignitaries in the hall of "Saint Maroun Church" in Tripoli's city center today, al-Rahi praised the coexistence evident amongst its people, in wake of today's clash of religions and civilizations. "Tripoli is an open city, deeply-rooted in coexistence, and we regret that this city has become the city of the poor, and we ask the Lebanese state to do justice to it...We pray to the Lord to bless it and bless its dignitaries because the history of Tripoli is important and valuable and deserves fairness," he said. "This matter requires us to raise our generations in accordance with the Lebanese culture and the true values, because Lebanon is greater than a nation, it is a message," Rahi added. "We hope that we will get out of the crisis that has affected us at all levels, in which people are searching for their daily livelihood," the Patriarch corroborated.

Hariri congratulates Biden, Harris
NNA/November 08/2020
"Our heartfelt congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. I am confident that the historic friendship between our two countries will continue. New impetus for providing solutions to problems," tweeted Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Sunday.

Lebanon's Bassil Rejects US Sanctions as Unjust and Politically Motivated
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Influential Lebanese Christian politician Gebran Bassil said on Sunday that US sanctions against him were unjust, politically motivated, and the result of his refusal to break ties with Hezbollah. The United States on Friday blacklisted Bassil, the leader of Lebanon’s biggest Christian political bloc and the son-in-law of President Michel Aoun, accusing him of corruption and ties to the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement that Washington deems a terrorist group. A target of Lebanese protests against a political elite accused of pillaging the state, Bassil denied US accusations of corruption and said the issue did not come up in conversations with US officials when they demanded he sever ties with Hezbollah or face sanctions. “These sanctions are an injustice and I will fight them and sue for damages,” he said in a televised speech. Bassil, who harbors presidential ambitions, heads the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), which was founded by Aoun, and has served as minister of telecoms, of energy and water, and of foreign affairs. The FPM has a political alliance with Hezbollah, which has become Lebanon’s most powerful political force. Bassil says the group is vital to the defense of Lebanon. “We do not stab any Lebanese in the back for foreign interests,” he said. “We will not agree to isolating any Lebanese component, even if we pay a heavy price for that.”Bassil said the sanctions against him should not hold up forming a new government to tackle a financial meltdown, Lebanon’s worst crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.
Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri is navigating Lebanon’s sectarian politics to assemble a cabinet needed to implement reforms demanded by foreign donors to tackle endemic corruption, waste and mismanagement to unlock financial aid.

Hariri Says Biden Election May Offer 'Solutions to Problems'
Naharnet/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Sunday congratulated Democrat veteran Joe Biden on his election as the 46th president of the United States. In a tweet, Hariri also congratulated Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. "Our warmest congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris," he said."I'm confident that the historic friendship between our two countries will continue. A new drive to offer solutions to problems," Hariri added.

Bassil Prefers Sanctions over 'Strife', Rejects 'Elimination' in New Govt.
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 08 /November, 2020
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday linked the latest U.S. sanctions that were imposed on him to his alliance with Hizbullah, as he vowed that the FPM will confront any “elimination” attempt in the cabinet formation process. “Between sanctions targeting me and the protection of our domestic peace, the choice was not difficult,” Bassil said at a press conference. “The truth is that the path with America has always been difficult, but we have to walk it through and bear injustice so that we remain free in our country and to protect Lebanon from divisions and strife, while insisting that we will remain friends for the American people, no matter how much their administration aggrieves us,” he added. He also said that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had asked him to “abandon and confront Hizbullah.”“I explained to him that that would lead to isolating Shiites, which would lead to a domestic strife,” Bassil added.
“I have been informed by the President that a senior U.S. official had called him stressing it was necessary for the FPM to end its relation with Hizbullah immediately and that he had been asked to inform me of the urgency of the issue. The next day I was personally informed that I should immediately fulfill four demands or face U.S. sanctions within four days,” the FPM chief went on to say. He added: “We do not betray any ally or friend or someone whom we have an understanding with. We did not betray al-Mustaqbal nor the Lebanese Forces, so betraying Hizbullah is out of the question. We do not abandon people without a reason, and certainly not Hizbullah, because we deal with each other with honesty and ethics.”
Describing the sanctions as a “crime” committed against him by the Trump administration on the day it “confirmed its loss of the elections,” Bassil congratulated U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and his vice president-elect, expressing readiness to “improve the relations with the new administration.”
Bassil added that he would be directing lawyers to appeal the decision and demand "moral and material compensation" in a U.S. court. He spoke after his father-in-law, President Michel Aoun, on Saturday said he had requested evidence of Bassil's alleged wrongdoings.
The U.S. Treasury said it had targeted Bassil "for his role in corruption in Lebanon," alleging in particular that he "steered Lebanese government funds to individuals close to him through a group of front companies" as energy minister.
Bassil has been a minister in all cabinets from 2008 to 2019, most recently foreign minister in the government that stepped down under pressure from massive street protests last fall. Critics have claimed he was behind many shady state dealings, especially during his time at the head of the energy ministry between 2009 and 2014. Bassil has repeatedly denied the accusations. Turning to the issue of the new government, Bassil said the U.S. sanctions should be “a reason to speed up the cabinet’s formation.”“If the foreign intentions are aimed at obstruction or sabotage, our response should not be intransigence due to the sanctions,” the FPM chief added. He however warned that the FPM “will not remain silent” if someone in the country sought to “continue the foreign scheme” by “singling out” the FPM and attempting it to “eliminate” it from the new government.“Does someone really believe that he alone can name all ministers in the government, or at least all the Christian ministers, under the excuse of specialty and the dire economic situation?” Bassil added, in an apparent jab at PM-designate Saad Hariri. As for the issue of rotating the ministerial portfolios among sects, Bassil said: “Rotating all portfolios except for finance would be an acknowledgment that the Shiite sect has a right to retain the finance portfolio. Some portfolios should not be rotated, and I’m not referring to a specific one, or else rotation should apply to everyone as has been our stance.”He also cautioned that the new government will be delayed unless “clear and unified standards are adopted” in its formation. “This would be a waste of time and a waste of the French initiative, the same as they wasted Dr. Mustafa Adib’s government,” Bassil warned.

'Welding' Causes New Explosion in Lebanon
Naharnet/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Three people were injured Sunday in an explosion blamed on "welding" works in the southern town of Zefta. The National News Agency said a Syrian man who was carrying out the welding and his uncle in addition to a young boy were injured in the incident. "As the young Syrian man Fadi H. was welding a barrel's tap in his house in the town of Zefta, the barrel, which contained remnants of paint thinner, exploded," NNA said. The agency said the blast was heard in the towns of Zefta and al-Marwaniyeh and in nearby areas. In addition to the injuries, the explosion damage the house's ceiling and windows. Patrols from the various security agencies have since launched investigations into the incident, the agency added.
Several fires and blasts have been blamed on welding works in Lebanon in recent months, including the catastrophic explosion at Beirut port on August 4, which killed around 200 people, wounded around 6,500 and destroyed swathes of the capital.

Geagea: Situation is deteriorating in Lebanon
NNA/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Lebanese Forces' leader, Samir Geagea, affirmed that “serious solutions to the crisis we are facing are either through forming a new government or by going to early parliamentary elections or both. What is happening today is completely different from these solutions, as they are still forming the government in the same way as they used to form governments in the past, and they refuse to go to early parliamentary elections. "Geagea, whose words came during a political meeting in Bcharre, expressed his regret that things would deteriorate further. "As a result, the Central Bank would stop subsidizing basic materials, which would lead to an increase in the prices of fuel, wheat products and medicines, especially that the economic cycle in the country is almost completely paralyzed," Geagea noted. Finally, Geagea regretted the "lack of good news at the national level, but despite all the darkness, there are still possibilities for rescue in Lebanon by introducing a new political authority that takes the country out of the crisis and moves it in the right direction towards the Lebanon we all want."

Winter Rains in Beirut Finish Off Blast-Ravaged Homes
Naharnet/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Norma Mnassakh was leaving her apartment in Beirut when a cloud of dust suddenly billowed from the Ottoman-era building next door.The abandoned home with its popular ground-floor ice cream shop had been severely damaged in the colossal August 4 explosion at the nearby Beirut port. Now, heavy rainfall has just about finished off the job. "I was born and raised here. This neighborhood is home. I know every single piece of it," the woman in her fifties told AFP, only hours after the building partially caved in. "But I'm losing all the sights that I grew up with," she added, as chunks of rubble lay strewn on the sidewalk.
Rmeil 24, in Beirut's Ashrafieh district, is among a handful of structures damaged in the blast that collapsed this week with the start of heavy rains and wind. At least 90 other heritage homes could bite the dust this winter, caretaker Culture Minister Abbas Mortada told AFP.
The port explosion, which authorities say was caused by a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate that caught fire, killed more than 200 people and damaged or destroyed around 70,000 homes.Now, the weather is worsening that destruction. Carla, a 52-year-old who grew up near the Rmeil 24 building, said Lebanon's history was on the line. "This is our heritage," she said. "It's such a shame for it to be lost in this way."
- Too little, too late -
The Rmeil 24 building has been abandoned for more than 40 years.
But its ground floor continued to house the Hanna Mitri ice cream shop -- one of the capital's most prized traditional parlors, beloved by tourists and locals alike. The Beirut gem, which has since reopened in a new location, was forced to shut after the explosion caused the shop's ceiling to crumble.
Heavy rainfall on Thursday night accentuated the "cavities in the roof" of Rmeil 24, leading to the "partial destruction" of the building, said Yasmine Makaroun, an architect from the Association for Protecting Natural Sites and Old Buildings in Lebanon (APSAD).
The worst could have been prevented if the landowner hadn't delayed access to the site while the weather was favorable, she told AFP. "We could have started the first rescue interventions... and we could probably have partially saved it," she said. The cash-strapped Lebanese government, which is grappling with the country's worst economic crisis in decades, is relying on foreign assistance to protect heritage buildings from collapse. But Western donors have pledged to bypass the government after allegations of corruption and mismanagement, instead channeling funds directly to local and international organizations spearheading the reconstruction effort. Minister Mortada said international assistance had been underwhelming. "We are not seeing the required level of interest... from international organizations," he told AFP.
And "as a ministry, we have a gap in capacity," especially regarding personnel, he added.
- Winter wasteland -
In the Gemmayzeh neighborhood, just across from the port, laborers worked to remove the remains of a building where Chilean rescue workers in September thought they had detected a human heartbeat beneath the wreckage. The building was severely damaged in the explosion, and rains on Wednesday finished it off. Workers outnumbered pedestrians, who walked nervously past several buildings along the street that looked like they could collapse at any moment. Just over a kilometer away, the working-class Karantina district adjacent to the port was already a wasteland of debris before the rain brought a building down on Wednesday -- the first such casualty to the winter weather. Security forces watched on as construction workers fortified the walls of another building at risk of collapse in the hard-hit neighborhood. All around, the entrances to old homes were cordoned off with yellow and red tape. Signs warned people against entering. Staring up at a gutted building overlooking the devastated port, one Syrian refugee who asked not to be identified lamented his lost home."There is nothing we can say," he told AFP. "We can only turn to God."

US Sanctions Cast Shadow over Lebanese Govt. Formation Efforts
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
The US sanctions imposed on MP Gebran Bassil and their domestic repercussions prevailed over the political scene in Lebanon and delayed the consultations to form a new government. Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that no recent developments occurred over the past two days, except for a proposal made by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to President Michel Aoun over a change in the distribution of the sovereign and service portfolios. While the sources ruled out any progress before next week, they said that the impact of the recent sanctions on the formation process was still unclear, as political blocs were now evaluating the situation and have expressed different opinions on the matter. Bassil, in a televised address on Sunday, said the sanctions will not impact the formation efforts. The United States on Friday blacklisted the MP, accusing him of corruption and ties to Hezbollah.
Some politicians noted that the US Treasury decision might lead to speeding up the completion of the government lineup, in order to avoid more sanctions. Others shared the opposite view and saw that each side would stick to its demands - especially Bassil and Hezbollah - which would further complicate the birth of the government. Former deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani said that the government consultations would either face more complications due to the parties’ insistence on quota sharing; or would see a softer approach that would lead to the formation of a cabinet of independents. Leading member of the al-Mustaqbal Movement, former MP Mustafa Alloush affirmed that the process of forming the government had initially stumbled at hurdles placed by Bassil. But he added that although the sanctions had an effect on the process, they were not the only reason for the current stalling.
Hariri is seeking to reach a quick solution to the formation of the cabinet in order to save the country from the deteriorating situation, Alloush emphasized.

Lebanon's Bassil rejects U.S. sanctions as unjust and politically motivated
BEIRUT (Reuters)/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Influential Lebanese Christian politician Gebran Bassil said on Sunday that U.S. sanctions against him were unjust, politically motivated and the result of his refusal to break ties with Hezbollah. The United States on Friday blacklisted Bassil, the leader of Lebanon’s biggest Christian political bloc and the son-in-law of President Michel Aoun, accusing him of corruption and ties to the Iranian-backed Shi’ite Hezbollah movement that Washington deems a terrorist group. A target of Lebanese protests against a political elite accused of pillaging the state, Bassil denied U.S. accusations of corruption and said the issue did not arise in conversations with U.S. officials when they demanded he sever ties with Hezbollah or face sanctions. “These sanctions are an injustice and I will fight them and sue for damages,” he said in a televised speech. “Sanctions come and go, but compromising national peace and unity is a crime.”
Bassil, who harbours presidential ambitions, heads the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), which was founded by Aoun, and has served as minister of telecoms, of energy and water and of foreign affairs. The U.S. Treasury Department accused Bassil of being at the “forefront of corruption in Lebanon”. He was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets human rights abuses and corruption around the world. A senior U.S. official has said Bassil’s support for Hezbollah was “every bit of the motivation” for the sanctions. The FPM has a political alliance with Hezbollah, which has become Lebanon’s most powerful political force. Bassil, who says the group is vital to the defence of Lebanon, reiterated he would not “stab any Lebanese in the back”. He said the sanctions should not hold up forming a new government to tackle a financial meltdown, Lebanon’s worst crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri is navigating Lebanon’s sectarian politics to assemble a cabinet needed to implement reforms demanded by foreign donors to tackle endemic corruption, waste and mismanagement to unlock aid.
Reporting by Laila Bassam and Ghaida Ghantous; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Mike Harrison
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 08-09/2020

George W Bush congratulates Biden on 'fair' election win
The National/November 08/2020
Former Republican US president George W Bush said on Sunday he had spoken to president-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, to congratulate him on his victory. Mr Bush said Americans could have confidence in the US vote, which took place last Tuesday but was called in Mr Biden's favour on Saturday. "Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country," Mr Bush said. "The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear." He said that defeated President Donald Trump had "the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges". Twenty years ago, Mr Bush's presidential race against Democrat Al Gore was decided after a Supreme Court decision to halt a recount in Florida. The statement by the only living Republican former president made him one of the country's most prominent party members to acknowledge Mr Biden's victory. His brother Jeb, the former Florida governor who had aspired to the presidency until Mr Trump won the party's nomination in 2016, earlier sent Mr Biden his congratulations. "I will be praying for you and your success," Jeb Bush said."Now is the time to heal deep wounds. Many are counting on you to lead the way."Republican senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have also extended their congratulations to Mr Biden. But many other Republican officials are calling that premature, saying not all votes have been counted and not all challenges resolved.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman congratulates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on US election win
The National/November 08/2020
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also sends his congratulations to US president-elect and vice president-elect
Saudi Arabia's King Salman has sent his congratulations to US president-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris on their election win. King Salman "expressed his sincere congratulations and best wishes for success ... and to the friendly people of the United States of America further progress and prosperity," the Saudi Press Agency reported."On this occasion, he praised the distinction of the close historical relations that exist between the two friendly countries and peoples, which everyone seeks to strengthen and develop in all fields."Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also offered his congratulations to Mr Biden and Ms Harris. The messages from King Salman and Prince Mohammed on Sunday come as other regional leaders sent their congratulations after the election win was declared on Saturday.

Biden, Pledging Unity, Begins Transition as Trump Refuses to Concede
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 08/November, 2020
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden began the transfer of power on Sunday that Americans hope will turn the page on four years of divisiveness as his defeated rival Donald Trump refused to concede and continued to cast doubt on the election results. As congratulations poured in from world leaders and supporters nursed hangovers after a day of raucous celebrations, the 77-year-old Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, 56, launched a transition website, BuildBackBetter.com, and a Twitter feed, @Transition46. It lists four priorities for a Biden-Harris administration: Covid-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change. "The team being assembled will meet these challenges on Day One," it said in a reference to January 20, 2021, when Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Biden, who turns 78 on November 20, is the oldest person ever elected to the White House. Harris, the junior senator from California, is the first woman and first Black person to be elected vice president.
Biden has already announced plans to name a task force on Monday to tackle the coronavirus pandemic which has left more than 237,000 people dead in the United States and is surging across the country. Biden, just the second Catholic to elected US president, was attending church Sunday morning in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, as Trump was headed for the golf course. Trump, 74, was playing golf at his club near Washington on Saturday morning when the U.S. television networks announced that Biden had secured enough Electoral College votes for victory and he returned for another round on Sunday morning. On Saturday, Trump fired off tweets saying he had won the election "by a lot" and he continued to make unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud on Twitter on Sunday. In one tweet, he cited an ally, former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich, as saying the "best pollster in Britain wrote this morning that this clearly was a stolen election." In another series of tweets, Trump quoted a George Washington University law professor who testified on his behalf during his impeachment in Congress. "We should look at the votes," Jonathan Turley said in the tweets quoted by Trump. "We should look at these allegations. We have a history in this country of election problems."Trump left out another part of the professor's opinion in which he stated that while there is "ample reason to conduct reviews" there is "currently no evidence of systemic fraud in the election."
The Trump campaign has mounted legal challenges to the results in several states but no evidence has emerged so far of any widespread irregularities that would overturn the results of the election.
Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Symone Sanders, a senior advisor to Biden, dismissed the court challenges as "baseless legal strategies."
- 'A more graceful departure' -
Biden received nearly 74.6 million votes to Trump's 70.4 million nationwide and has a 279-214 lead in the Electoral College that determines the presidency. Biden also leads in Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes, and Georgia, which has 16, and if he wins both states he would finish with 306 electoral votes -- the same total won by Trump in 2016 when he upset Hillary Clinton. Only two Republicans senators -- Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski -- have congratulated Biden on his victory and Democratic Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina said the Republican Party has a "responsibility" to help convince Trump that it is time to concede.
"What matters to me is whether or not the Republican Party will step up and help us preserve the integrity of this democracy," Clyburn said on CNN's "State of the Union." Romney, who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial, said the president has "has every right to call for recounts" but he should be careful with his "choice of words." "I'm convinced that once all remedies have been exhausted, if those are exhausted in a way that's not favorable to him, he will accept the inevitable," Romney said. The Utah senator added that he "would prefer to see the world watching a more graceful departure, but that's just not in the nature of the man." Speaking on ABC's "This Week," another Republican senator, Roy Blunt of Missouri said "it's time for the president's lawyers to present the facts and it's time for those facts to speak for themselves." But Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the president should keep fighting. "We will work with Biden if he wins, but Trump has not lost," Graham said on the Fox News show "Sunday Morning Futures." "Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard."Another Trump ally, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, told the same show it was too early to call the election.  "What we need in the presidential race is to make sure every legal vote is counted, every recount is completed, and every legal challenge should be heard," McCarthy said. In a victory speech in Wilmington on Saturday, Biden promised "not to divide but unify," and reached out directly to Trump supporters, declaring "they're not our enemies, they're Americans." "Let's give each other a chance," he said, urging the country to "lower the temperature." "Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end, here and now," Biden said. While only a handful of Republicans have congratulated Biden, the leaders of Britain, Germany, France and other European countries have extended their congratulations, along with Canada, India and Japan.

'No Greater Ally' - British Minister Predicts Close Ties with Biden
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
US President-elect Joe Biden will have no closer ally or more dependable friend than Britain, foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday, expressing confidence the two countries’ “special relationship” would endure. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was once fondly dubbed “Britain Trump” by President Donald Trump, congratulated Biden on his victory on Saturday, saying he looked forward to “working closely together on our shared priorities”. But some say Johnson, a leading force in the campaign to leave the European Union, might struggle to forge a close bond with Biden, who has cast doubt over Brexit and has never met the prime minister. However, Raab, and other members of the governing Conservative Party were keen to underline how much overlap there now was between the incoming US administration and that of the British government on shared interests. “I am very confident from climate change to cooperation on coronavirus and counter-terrorism there is a huge bedrock of underlying interests and values that binds us very closely together,” Raab told Sky News. “He (Biden) will have no greater ally, no more dependable friend than the United Kingdom.”
Conservative former finance minister Sajid Javid echoed his views, calling the election the “best outcome” for Britain and predicting that Johnson had a much better chance of sealing a trade deal under Biden rather than the “protectionist” Trump. Britain is pursuing trade deals around the world after leaving the EU in January, to try to project Johnson’s vision of a “global Britain”, but talks with the United States have slowed over the last few months. But it is Britain’s trade talks with the EU that might cast a shadow over the relationship between Johnson and Biden, after the US president-elect expressed concerns over whether Britain would uphold Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace agreement and said he had hoped for a “different outcome” from the 2016 Brexit referendum. The British government has repeatedly said it would uphold the Good Friday Agreement, which ended 30 years of violence in the British province of Northern Ireland, and on Sunday, Raab accused the EU of putting it in jeopardy in their talks. US Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat, told the BBC he expected “some reconsideration of whatever comments may have been made about the moment of Brexit”. “The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom has endured over decades and I expect that there will be opportunities promptly for there to be some visits, some conversations.”

French FM in Egypt, Seeks Calm after Offensive Cartoon Uproar
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Egypt Sunday hoping to ease tensions following the publishing of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked ire in the Arab and Muslim world. A diplomatic source said Le Drian would meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s highest Muslim authority. He already met his counterpart Sameh Shoukry for talks on the conflicts in Syria and Libya and regional developments. Le Drian “will pursue the appeasement process” started by President Emmanuel Macron, the French foreign ministry said in a statement. The Cairo-based Al-Azhar condemned French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s decision in September to reprint the cartoons. And last month Tayeb denounced remarks by Macron in “Islamist separatism” as “racist” and spreading “hate speech.” Demonstrations have erupted in several Muslim-majority countries after Macron defended the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which many saw as insulting and an attack on Islam. Macron’s remarks came after a suspected extremist decapitated a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb on October 16, after he showed the cartoons during a lesson on freedom of expression. Sisi himself had weighed in, saying last month that “to insult the prophets amounts to underestimating the religious beliefs of many people.”

UK Does a U-Turn, Backs Rashford's Child Hunger Campaign
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
The British government has made another abrupt about-face and now says it will provide free meals to disadvantaged children in England over the upcoming holidays following a hugely popular child hunger campaign by football star Marcus Rashford.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson phoned the 23-year-old Manchester United striker after his team's Premier League victory over Everton on Saturday to inform him of the government's decision to spend 170 million pounds ($220 million) in extra funding to support needy families over the coming year.
“Following the game today, I had a good conversation with the prime minister to better understand the proposed plan, and I very much welcome the steps that have been taken to combat child food poverty in the UK,” Rashford said. His petition demanding the Conservative government pay for free school meals for disadvantaged students over the holidays attracted more than 1 million signatures. The money will be handed to local authorities by December in time to support families over Christmas, many of whom are facing financial difficulties due to the coronavirus pandemic.Rashford, who has eloquently spoken about his own childhood experiences of relying on free school lunches and food banks, said the steps taken will improve the lives of nearly 1.7 million children in the UK over the next 12 months, “and that can only be celebrated.”Rashford said he was “so proud” of those who backed his campaign against child hunger and that he was “overwhelmed by the outpouring of empathy and understanding."It’s the second time this year that Rashford has forced the government to change its policies. In June, it agreed to keep funding meals for poor students over the summer holidays after initially resisting.
The new money will pay for the COVID Winter Grant Scheme to support families over Christmas while the Holiday Activities and Food program will be extended to cover the Easter, summer and Christmas breaks in 2021.
As part of the package, Healthy Start payments, which help expectant mothers and those on low incomes with young children buy fresh fruit and vegetables, are to rise from 3.10 pounds to 4.25 pounds ($3.61 to $4.94) a week beginning in April 2021.
“We want to make sure vulnerable people feel cared for throughout this difficult time and, above all, no one should go hungry or be unable to pay their bills this winter," said Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey.
The new money comes a month after the Conservative government failed to back a motion from the opposition Labor Party to extend free school meals. Labor’s education spokesperson, Kate Green, accused the government of “incompetence and intransigence” for waiting until after the October fall school break to make the announcement, and of creating “needless and avoidable hardship for families across the country.”
Businesses and local governments stepped into the breach following the government's failure to pay for free school meals in October. England’s children’s commissioner, Anne Longfield, welcomed the government's announcement Sunday but called on it to “go further” with benefit payments. "Hunger does not take a holiday when schools close and a long-term solution to the growing number of children in poverty is urgently required,” she said. Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation thinktank, also welcomed the government's change of heart, saying it was a “big win” for disadvantaged children. But she said the government needs to help another 1.7 million poor students who miss out on free school lunches because the qualifying income is set far too low. “Children’s food poverty, like the pandemic, will not go away until we have a lasting solution in place,” she said.

Ties With US to Deepen After Biden Win, Says Afghan President
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Sunday that ties between Kabul and Washington are expected to deepen in areas of counter-terrorism and building peace as he congratulated Joe Biden on his election victory. "Afghanistan looks forward to continuing/deepening our multilayered strategic partnership w/ the United States -- our foundational partner -- including in counterterrorism & bringing peace to Afghanistan," Ghani wrote on Twitter. Biden's victory was also welcomed by ordinary citizens, who thought he might slow what some see as a too-hasty withdrawal of US troops. US President Donald Trump's administration signed a deal with the Taliban on February 29 that agreed to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. "Biden will also finish the war, but he wants to bring the war to a responsible end, not rushing like Trump," said Mohammad Dawood, a garment seller in Kabul. "He will slow down the withdrawal from Afghanistan and will keep some troops here, which is good news."The withdrawal of troops has been a cornerstone of Trump's plans to end America's longest war. His administration agreed to fully disengage in exchange for a commitment from the Taliban to stop trans-national militant groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS from operating in Afghanistan. The US military has already shut several bases across the country and pulled out thousands of troops as agreed. Timor Sharan, a lecturer at the American University in Afghanistan, said on Twitter that the incoming Biden administration will have a "more tolerant" approach to peace talks, as Washington's deal with the Taliban was "terrible" and gave no leverage to the government. That excluded the Afghan government from negotiations, however, and also saw almost 6,000 Taliban prisoners released -- much to the displeasure of authorities. Days after the release of prisoners, peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government to end the war were launched in the Qatari capital. The talks, which commenced on September 12, have failed to make any significant progress so far. Violence, however, has surged across the country, including in Kabul, with the Taliban stepping up daily attacks against Afghan security forces. Scores of people were killed in two attacks in the capital targeting educational institutions within days of each other. Both attacks were claimed by the ISIS group, but officials have blamed the Taliban. "Joe Biden's election as president is good news for Afghanistan," said Ahmad Jawed, a university student in Kabul. "I think he will not repeat mistakes committed by Trump. I think Biden will even reconsider the US-Taliban deal and then somehow keep some troops in Afghanistan."

Iraq: Salaries of 5 Million Employees Hostage to Political Bargaining
Baghdad- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
The Iraqi Ministry of Finance announced its inability to pay the salaries of more than 5 million permanent employees, after it had settled the dues of retirees and those covered by the social security network.
The reason announced by Finance Minister Ali Abdul Amir Allawi was the lack of financial liquidity due to the decrease in oil prices and the surge in the budget deficit. Consequently, he asked the parliament to adopt an internal borrowing law to finance the salaries for the remaining three months of the current year. Millions of Iraqi employees have been waiting for their salaries for more than 20 days, while the Finance Ministry is linking the disbursement of the funds with the adoption of the internal borrowing law, which amounts to about 41 trillion Iraqi dinars (about USD 39 billion). Iraqi political forces had different views over the matter. The opponents of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi blamed the current government for the crisis, while other blocs stressed that the former successive governments’ failures have led to the present situation. The Iraqi Parliament’s Finance Committee announced, in a statement, that it has “information and data that shows that the amount of the borrowing presented by the government is exaggerated, compared to the disbursement of previous months.”“The Financial Committee is keen to pass the borrowing law in a manner that guarantees disbursement of salaries of employees and retirees, the social security network and other expenses, in addition to the implementation of financial and economic reforms by the government,” the committee said. In turn, the Ministry of Finance announced the reduction of the borrowing rate to 31 trillion Iraqi dinars, in response to the Finance Committee’s objection, according to a statement by the committee’s member, Ahmed Mazhar al-Jubouri, during a parliament session.

Turkey Gives Muted First Response to Biden Win
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Turkey gave an impassive first reaction on Sunday to Joe Biden's presidential win, with Vice President Fuat Oktay saying it would not change relations between the old allies although Ankara will keep pressing Washington on Syria and other policy differences. Turkey stands to lose more than most other countries from Biden's victory as he is expected to toughen the US stance against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's foreign military interventions and closer cooperation with Russia. Another major stumbling block is Washington's refusal to extradite US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara says orchestrated a failed coup in 2016. Speaking at an interview with broadcaster Kanal 7, Oktay said that while the friendship between Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump had helped the countries tackle several of their issues, communications channels between Ankara and Washington would operate as before. "Nothing will change for Turkey," Oktay said. "The channels of communication will work as before, but of course there will be a transition period," he said, adding Ankara would closely monitor Biden's foreign policy approach. He said Turkey would press the next US administration to abandon support for Kurdish armed groups in Syria, and to extradite Gulen. "We experienced a coup attempt. The person who carried this out is in the United States. There is nothing more natural than asking for his extradition," Oktay said. "This is a process that began earlier and it will continue with this administration. We will increasingly continue our pressure," he said. "We hope that the United States does not continue working with a terrorist organization or organizations," he said, adding that Turkey would not refrain from taking action in Syria again if necessary. Another lingering issue between the allies has been Turkey's purchase of Russian missile defense systems, for which Ankara is facing US sanctions. Trump's administration has so far avoided imposing sanctions, and Oktay said on Sunday that Ankara hoped Biden's administration would also refrain from unilateral steps."The new administration's approach will surely affect us and interest us. We are following this very closely. Our expectation is that they refrain from unilateral approaches," he said. Erdogan has not yet commented on Biden's victory. Analysts say Turkey-US ties could suffer under a Biden presidency. The lira, which is already trading at a record low against the dollar, could come under more pressure.

Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta Calls for Dialogue with West to Confront Islamophobia
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta called on the religious and political leaders in the West to find a common ground for dialogue to help confront Islamophobia and hate speech. Egypt’s Mufti Shawki Allam asserted that dialogue is the solution to these outstanding issues, urging Muslims in the West to “display Islam in a civilized manner that reveals the truth about the religion.”He also called on the Muslim community to ensure an effective positive involvement with other communities that shows the true image of Islam, stressing that extremist groups have tarnished that image and spread hate speech. Dar al-Ifta underscored that offending the Prophet Mohammed is unacceptable, pointing out that hostility, Islamophobia and abuse against Muslims in the West can be confronted through denouncing and rejecting such actions outright. Earlier this month, Grand Imam of Egypt’s al-Azhar university Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb had called on the international community to criminalize “anti-Muslim” actions, following the display of images in France of the Prophet Mohammad that Muslims see as blasphemous. Protests swept the Muslim world in outrage. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said freedom of expression should stop if it offends more than 1.5 billion people. Allam emphasized that Islamic jurisprudence is based on institutionalization where every matter is assigned to a specialist, noting that issues must be solved based on methodology, not by following emotions alone. He warned that terrorist groups have distorted concepts, as they have appointed themselves as the ruler, taking away the state’s rights in punishment and issuing permissions to fight and wage jihad. Regarding the insulting cartoons of the Prophet, the Mufti asserted that they are strongly condemned noting that such incidents should instead be an opportunity to show the ideal image of Islam. Discussions and dialogues about the current situation must be held to understand the jurisprudence text and differentiate between scripts inherited from scholars, and those which aim to achieve political objectives, he urged. Last week, Sisi called for collective action on the regional and international levels to confront hate speech and extremism, with the participation of various religious institutions, to promote the values of peace.

Palestinian President Abbas Congratulates Joe Biden
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday congratulated US President-elect Joe Biden in a statement that indicated the Palestinian leadership would drop its three-year political boycott of the White House. “I congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on his victory as President of the United States of America for the coming period, and I congratulate his elected Vice President Kamala Harris,” Abbas said in a statement issued from his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. It added: “I look forward to working with the President-elect and his administration to strengthen the Palestinian-American relations and to achieve freedom, independence, justice and dignity for our people, as well as to work for peace, stability and security for all in our region and the world.” The Palestinians have been holding out for a change of US president for three years, hoping for a chance to hit the reset button on relations with Washington. Abbas ended all political dealings with President Donald Trump’s administration after Trump’s December 2017 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy there.

Iraq: Salaries of 5 Million Employees Hostage to Political Bargaining
Baghdad- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 November, 2020
The Iraqi Ministry of Finance announced its inability to pay the salaries of more than 5 million permanent employees, after it had settled the dues of retirees and those covered by the social security network. The reason announced by Finance Minister Ali Abdul Amir Allawi was the lack of financial liquidity due to the decrease in oil prices and the surge in the budget deficit. Consequently, he asked the parliament to adopt an internal borrowing law to finance the salaries for the remaining three months of the current year. Millions of Iraqi employees have been waiting for their salaries for more than 20 days, while the Finance Ministry is linking the disbursement of the funds with the adoption of the internal borrowing law, which amounts to about 41 trillion Iraqi dinars (about USD 39 billion). Iraqi political forces had different views over the matter. The opponents of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi blamed the current government for the crisis, while other blocs stressed that the former successive governments’ failures have led to the present situation. The Iraqi Parliament’s Finance Committee announced, in a statement, that it has “information and data that shows that the amount of the borrowing presented by the government is exaggerated, compared to the disbursement of previous months.” “The Financial Committee is keen to pass the borrowing law in a manner that guarantees disbursement of salaries of employees and retirees, the social security network and other expenses, in addition to the implementation of financial and economic reforms by the government,” the committee said. In turn, the Ministry of Finance announced the reduction of the borrowing rate to 31 trillion Iraqi dinars, in response to the Finance Committee’s objection, according to a statement by the committee’s member, Ahmed Mazhar al-Jubouri, during a parliament session.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 08-09/2020

The Challenges of Post-Electoral America and the Abraham Lincoln Paradigm
Charles Elias Chartouni/November 08/2020
شارل الياس شرتوني: تحديات أميركا ما بعد ا\لإنتخابات ونموذج ابراهام لنكولن
“ With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind the nation’s wound, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. " Abraham Lincoln ( 2d inaugural address, March 4th 1865 )
Elections are over, in spite of all the intricacies of the incomplete vote counting, eventual legal tussles, and flying tempers all along the political spectrum, divisive issues and extreme polarization are still present more than ever, and need to be addressed by the Nation and the political parties at stake. Cultural wars and their incidence on American historiography and public policy enactments, Civil War ( 1861-1865 ) lingering animosities and political scars, the Union’s troubled political fortunes and constitutional controversies, the absence of consensus over immigration, integration and their attending national security issues, the impact of unregulated globalization and its incidence on equitable trade, national regulations, demographic dynamics, economic and social equilibriums, governance and institutional configurations ( Federal and States relationships ), the management of multiculturalism and its political grammar, and the issues of a hypermodernity and its shifting technological, economic, financial and occupational paradigms are shaping the political agenda of the alternating administrations, and defining the forthcoming public policy themes and dynamics.
The framing of the domestic political debate correlates with the definition of the international challenges that are highly conditioned by the outcomes of national consensuses, the dwindling of strident political polarization and the rehabilitation of a time-honored tradition of political trans-partisanship: the issues of the global International architecture created by the US after WWII and the future of multilateralism, the renegotiation of global treaties ( environmental, trade, strategic, security, international justice.... ) highlighted by the Paris treaty on Climate Change, the trade agreements with China, the overhaul of the Trans-Pacific Partnership ( TPP ) and the NAFTA accords, the NATO updating, the Nuclear treaties with Russia, North Korea and Iran, the stabilization of a volatile Middle East ( Yemen, Lybia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Arabia and the Gulf, ... ) , the containment of rogue States all across the global geopolitical spectrum ( Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Qatar, ... ), the defeat of radical Islamism, the restructuring of the Intra-continental relationships within the Americas, and the engagement of transitional justice scenarios in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Lybia, Yemen, Venezuela....,.
President-elect Biden is an old veteran of Beltway politics and advocate of Bipartisanship ( My personal experience with him is quite instructive, when he invited me jointly with Senator Richard Lugar/Republican, to address the Foreign Affairs committee to advocate for the Syria Acountability Act and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration, December 12, 2003 ) and a well seasoned expert in international politics since his days as head of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. His speech upon electoral victory bespeaks his principled commitment to uphold his obligations as President of the United States of America, transcend partisan politics and the heated political environment which surrounded the campaign, and set himself aside from their polarizing agendas and effects. This declaration of intentions is quite credible at his personal level, but at a distance from the ideological hues which prevail among the democratic party’s left, its strident sectarianism and disparagement of American patriotism, the contentious nature of American nativism and its extremist versions which, at best, looks askance at the threadbare notion of national and civic affiliation featured by identitary leftism, or reject it bluntly. The commitment to bipartisanship should pave the way to open discursive engagement, consensus and trust building, if we were to avoid the aporias of ideological politics and their malevolent instrumentalization, and be highlighted through working coalitions, administration trans-partisan nominations, legislative joint venturing and coordinated moves on consensual political issues.
The rough political environment of the last four years ought not to be ascribed to the symptomatic and unconventional modus operandi of populist President Donald Trump, but traced to the unraveling of the American Covenant and it’s overlapping consensuses. The reweaving of the American canopy and the re-elaboration work it behooves, on the basis of the original meta-narrative and constitutional legacy, should set the groundwork for a new political course that dampens the collisions between clashing worldviews, systemic societal transformations and inchoate consensuses. President-elect should avoid the traps of a clone presidency which replicates the Obama Presidency template, its initial ideological overtones and self-righteousness, Foreign policy failures ( especially in the Middle East, Cuba, Venezuela .... ), racial framing which undermined the imposing civil rights legacy of Martin Luther King, and gave way to African-American radicalism and rabid leftist and Islamic fascisms ( Antifa, Black lives matter, Nation of Islam and Muslim Brotherhood ...,.), and its blatant sectarianism. The arduous tasks that await Joe Biden should be instantly addressed, if we were to avoid the pitfalls of partisan agendas that may sink his presidency at its onset, and set Congress on a trajectory of filibustering and systemic stonewalling.
The eventual reluctance of President Trump to concede electoral defeat and organize an orderly transition, should be countervailed by formal commitment to constitutionality, open channels of communication between Democrats and Republicans, and readiness to engage a new course of political interaction which puts an end to the state of consolidated civil warfare. Mature and appeased democracies are always steered on their middle, and necessitate principled commitments and unambiguous political courses, prevarication, power pathologies, and murky configurations have no place in Liberal democracies. The greatness of the American national legacy, its lore of political wisdom, and solid institutions are the true anchors in times of high turbulence and great uneasiness.

The Pope's New Encyclical: A Surrender?
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 08/2020
The Pope, for instance, implies that the twilight of the planet's centuries old diplomatic nation-state system has arrived, prompting the need for a more globalist political system. Regrettably, that usually brings with it no transparency, no accountability and no recourse. Think of the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court or the European Union.
In the Pope's encyclical, the "stranger" is always a desperate, impoverished refugee seeking solace, never an aggressor with the will to conquer.
Although Francis may have been especially aware of his Muslim guests, Catholics must wonder if they, too, were included as part of the intended audience. There was simply little or no mention in the encyclical of core Catholic beliefs.
In truth, however, "Fratelli Tutti" seems more a contrived, secular attempt to fashion a model for the governance of humankind that could attract the support of believer and non-believer alike. Unfortunately, it may also rally those hoping to bring down Judeo-Christian civilization to assume that the West is unfurling a flag of surrender.
Pictured: Pope Francis delivers the Sunday Angelus prayer from the window of his study at the Vatican, on November 1, 2020.
The Pope's Encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" ("Brothers All") sadly seems more a massive and unwieldy political document than a religious guide to the Catholic faithful. The encyclical's intended audience appears to be secular world rather than people of faith. The 43,000-word tome contains almost no discussion of Catholic dogmas. Although the Pontiff's diagnosis of the world's ills seems accurate enough, unfortunately his proposed antidotes -- equality of result rather than equality of opportunity and individual liberty, the bedrocks of Western democracies -- would seriously threaten freedom.
The Pope, for instance, implies that the twilight of the planet's centuries old diplomatic nation-state system has arrived, prompting the need for a more globalist political system. Regrettably, that usually brings with it no transparency, no accountability and no recourse. Think of the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court
or the European Union.
The Pope denigrates the concept of nationalism by referring to it as "local narcissism." His support for "open borders" would deny nations the right to sovereignty over their national territories. Pope Francis, a lifelong priest of the Jesuit order, appears to be calling for a system of international organizations that would possess the power to override the will of individual states and have the potential to become a global despotism.
The Pope also makes no secret of his opposition to the global capitalist free market economy. He proposes instead that wealthy countries form a seamless bond with the have-not peoples of the global south. He implies that a redistribution of the world's wealth is a moral obligation, and should replace free economies that promote growth and jobs and have done more to cure poverty than any other historical development. The problem with redistribution, of course, is, as Margaret Thatcher famously said, "Soon you run out of other people's money." After everyone has been made equally medium-poor, then where, without incentives for hard work and production, are further disbursements supposed to come from? Think of the former Soviet Union, Cuba or Venezuela.
The encyclical's economic platform for a more just world codifies as moral the redistribution of wealth between wealthy and impoverished regions of the world. The pope concludes, erroneously, that the free market capitalist system marginalizes the impoverished and disabled[1] and should therefore give way to a system that provides for a more equitable distribution of earth's resources. He reminds the public that the Church has never defended the right to private property as an absolute.[2] Instead, he recommends that it should be curtailed to serve the commonweal. The approach seems to turn a blind eye to the Church's vast accumulation of property and other goods. Would the Church perhaps care to redistribute that?
This limitation on property ownership is followed up by the right of people to emigrate, individually and collectively, and of their right to progress.[3] What about the right of people not to take all strangers into their house? The concept flies in the face of a historical pattern: that businesses primarily operate under the rubric of enlightened self-interest for the good of all. It is capitalism, not fraternal socialism, that has improved the economic condition of generations of workers and farmers, ushering them into a middle-class status. The major flaw in socialism seems to be: where does the money continue to come from once the first disbursement runs dry? Socialist politicians seem to assume that since they will not be around forever, the problem of the government's failure to innovate or produce and distribute goods and services will be somebody else's problem. Worse, under Socialism, a coterie of leaders, and their friends and family, live extremely well while everyone else is disincentivized and impoverished, if not worse.
In today's Communist China, citizens are also subjected to a civilian "surveillance system" that determines everything from their ability to travel to where they can live. Although even totalitarian China, through a state capitalist system, has lifted tens of millions out of poverty -- its economic model has been largely to steal information and technology from the West.
It is also within recent memory that socialist ideologies have brought the greatest misery to the greatest number: in Soviet Socialist Russia, in the People's Republic of China, North Korea, Castro's Cuba, and now in Venezuela. Although Marxist-Leninists in the former Soviet Union called each other comrade for decades, these visionaries were responsible for the deaths -- often murders -- of up to 20 million of their own people. The toll during Mao Zedong's socialist experiment in the People's Republic of China has been estimated at more than twice that in just four years.
The text of the papal document cites a plethora of Judeo-Christian scripture[4] as the theological justification for these comprehensive structural changes in the world order.
Unfortunately, the Pope's agenda, if implemented, would have even further dire ramifications for the United States and its allies in the Free World.
Francis has also revolutionized the centuries old Catholic calculus for a "Just War" and rules out the possibility that in many situations people might actually find themselves better off after a conflict than before one.[5] So much for the American Revolution, the Civil War and World War II. Should people suffering under despotic rule, then, just be quiet and endure it? Has the Pope already forgotten that it was under the guidance of the Church -- propelled by the murder in 1984 of the Polish priest, Jerzy Popieluszko and under the leadership of the Solidarity Union's Lech Walesa -- that Eastern Europe was freed from its suffocating Communism? Such a judgment also strips away the entire U.S. military strategy of forward-deployed strength to deter aggressors from initiating wars in the first place.
The Pope further posits that, in this era of nuclear proliferation and other means of mass destruction, no war can be justified.[6] What are you supposed to do, though, if another country is aggressive but you are not? His judgment seems to rule out the moral rationale for a defensive alliance such as NATO, which pledges to defend its members against predatory states such as Russia, should it start to become restive.
Francis' political prescription in a utopian world, as opposed to a real one, not only envisions a weakening of the nation-state system,[7] surrender of national sovereignty, open borders,[8] denial of the right of nations to morally justify participation in armed conflict and empowerment of international organizations with "real teeth,"[9] and a free economy; it also fails to comprehend that a nation without secure borders is no nation at all, and leaves its citizens at the mercy of the "stranger."[10]
In the Pope's encyclical, the "stranger" is always a desperate, impoverished refugee seeking solace, never an aggressor with the will to conquer. Francis urges native people to be patient with newcomers[11] so that they will more easily seek assimilation. Often the reality, however, particularly in Europe, which has recently experienced a massive influx of Muslims, is that many of the "strangers" choose isolation and, seemingly, a desire to have the native population assimilate to them, along, sometimes, with dreams of supplanting the dominant religious or ethnic strain.
Another odd and troubling aspect of this encyclical is the textual references to the personal relationship between Francis and Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb [12] of Cairo's Al-Azhar. The unveiling ceremony of the encyclical, it turns out, was attended by the Grand Imam's advisor, Judge Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Salem. There is no mention of representatives of other faiths at the ceremonials associated with the publication of the encyclical.
That detail is noteworthy, as "Fratelli Tutti" meticulously seems to avoid any issue that might offend non-Christians, especially Muslims. Francis nowhere speaks of Jesus as God the Father made incarnate, which the Koran denounces as polytheistic blasphemy. There is no detailed discussion of Christ's passion and death sacrifice, which Muslims deny took place. There is no impetus in "Fratelli Tutti" to evangelize, no stimulus to spread the Gospel. Is that because proselytizing might have offended some non-Christians? The whole concept of the Holy Trinity is reduced to an oblique poetical reference in an afterthought prayer following the encyclical's text reading: "O God, Trinity of love." following the textual end of the encyclical.[13] This obscure and solitary mention of the Trinity, which Christians honor every time they make the "Sign of the Cross," seems possibly a deliberate omission not to offend the sensitivities of others, perhaps Muslims, who embrace the idea of "tawhid" (the absolute oneness and indivisibility of Allah).[14]
The most confusing aspect of the 43,000 word encyclical is the lack of clarity regarding its intended audience(s). Although Francis may have been especially aware of his Muslim guests, Catholics must wonder if they, too, were included as part of the intended audience. There was simply little or no mention in the encyclical of core Catholic beliefs. There was no acknowledgement of the immortality of the soul. Not one sentence mentioned the Eucharist, the Catholic belief that Jesus as God is present in the substance of the consecrated bread and wine; no mention of the sacraments. There is only one passing passive adjectival reference to the Resurrection.[15]
Jesus, in this encyclical, is reduced to an itinerant Jew-Preacher, a spinner of rustic yarns, not a Messiah performing miracles for the masses. The untutored reader of this encyclical cannot possibly discern from the text that this Jesus is believed by many to be the Incarnation of the Creator God of the Jewish Bible and the New Testament who humbled Himself to enter the lives of His creatures to show them the straight path to eternal salvation.
A reader also cannot recognize in this encyclical the Resurrected Jesus, whose last command to His closest disciples was to "Go to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples baptizing them in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."[16]
In the social dimension, Francis calls for a universal end to the death penalty[17] as a form of retributive violence sanctioned by the state but that seems only to serve a desire for revenge. Even a murderer, the Pope writes, has human rights. Francis is aligned with the evolving social conscience of most Catholics on this issue, not necessarily because execution is a form of revenge, although for many it might be, but that capital punishment has never been administered ethnically or racially fair. Catholics, like most people of good will, also fear that the state, mistakenly, has too often executed the innocent.
To his credit, Francis explicitly condemns terrorism,[18] even religious-based terror, without specifically identifying the Islamic source of most "holy war" terrorism. He then walks the thought back a bit by blaming as incendiaries unfortunate circumstances such as hunger, poverty, injustice and oppression. Although Pope Francis insists that wrongful interpretations of scripture are employed by terrorists, he does not offer any specific passages to underscore this incorrect claim.
Omitted from the Pope's long letter of moralizing is the that the Koran is believed by Muslims to be the eternal and divine word of Allah, not subject to interpretation or alteration. The Koran and the Hadith (Mohammed's alleged words and deeds, the other leading Islamic scripture) are replete with hate-filled directives against Jews,[19] as well as passages condoning the unequal treatment of Christians and other non-believers, plus recommendations to punish apostates, adulterers, homosexuals[20] and other transgressors.
It is the seemingly calculated omissions that challenge the integrity of this encyclical and indict its author as disingenuous, sadly even deceitful. Surely there was room in this tome for a fulsome condemnation of China's lack of fraternity -- the 380 concentrations camps and torture -- with regard to their Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang. Also, what of the institutionalized inequality of womankind, especially female Muslims, particularly as it involves Islamic laws of inheritance, freedom of movement, liberty to socialize, the administration of divorce, unjust witness procedures or child marriage? It seems as if an "old boy's club" proclivity of the church hierarchy remains a bitter point of contention for many Catholic men who view their wives and daughters with respect and equal souls in the eyes of God.
This unwieldy, sometimes bewildering, encyclical is ostensibly crafted to reflect the spiritual legacy of the universally acclaimed goodness of a beloved Catholic saint, Francis of Assisi. In truth, however, "Fratelli Tutti" seems more a contrived, secular attempt to fashion a model for the governance of humankind that could attract the support of believer and non-believer alike. Unfortunately, it may also rally those hoping to bring down Judeo-Christian civilization to assume that the West is unfurling a flag of surrender.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
[1] Ft Para 109, whole paragraph.
[2] FT Para 120 L. 4 and Lines 10-11.
[3] Para 124 "The Rights of Peoples," Para 126, L.7
[4] Fratelli Tutti (FT) Paragraph (Para) 61: Exodus 22:21, Ex 23:9, Leviticus 19: 33-34, Deuteronomy 24:21-22, 1 John 2:10-11, 1 Jn 3:14.
[5] Para 259, Lines 12-15.
[6] FT Para 262, Lines 6-15
[7] FT Para 172.
[8] Title of Para 3.
[9] FT Para 173.
[10] FT Para 139.
[11] FT Para 226, L. 7.
[12] FT Para 131, Line 1
[13] FT: An Ecumenical Christian Prayer. P.74, Line 1.
[14] Netton, Ian, R. "A Popular Dictionary of Islam." Curzon Press: 1978. P. 248.
[15] FT Para 278,Line 8
[16] Gospel of Matthew Holy Bible: Chapter 28 "Spiritual Fitness for the Warrior" Military Challenge Edition. P. 900 "The Great (Final Commission)"
[17] Para 255, L. 4.
[18] FT Para 283, Lines 4-11.
[19] Koran: Sura 2, Verse 96 "Jews greediest of humankind,"
Koran: Sura 2, Verse 54-59 "Jewish People's Rebellion Against God"
Koran: Sura 7, Verses 162-171 "Jews as descendants of monkeys."
[20] Koran: Sura 47 Verse 25, Sura 11 Verses 73-83 etc.
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What Biden’s Win Means for Europe
Max Hastings/Bloomberg/November, 08/2020
Through the past days and weeks, the governments of Europe have found the US electoral suspense as gripping and fearful as any American. After four years of White House insults and snubs, they are hoping desperately for a reversion to alliance diplomacy and politics, a return to the pursuit of stability and order. Europeans are nonetheless not foolish enough to suppose that a Joe Biden presidency will signal a renewal of the post-World War II Pax Americana. The liberal international order is sundered for good, even if portions of it can be saved.
Back in the spring, Francois Heisbourg, the French former director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote, “The best that NATO can hope for after Trump is a rattled set of allies engaged in more hedging than they ever have before.”There is a recognition that US strategic priorities are fixed on China. Biden will be willing to engage with Europe’s fears and sensitivities only if there is substantial European support for American determination to resist perceived Chinese ambitions, incursions and expansionism.
This should not imply a European willingness to become engaged in any sort of shootout in the Pacific, or to be obliged to make an outright choice between the US and its Asian rival. But the cold reception given to Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, during his August tour of European capitals showed that the continent’s leaders are no longer willing silently to acquiesce in his government’s excesses. Heisbourg again: “The trend is no longer to view China as a bigger Japan with a few human rights problems.”
The principal European anxiety is for a coherent Asian strategy, which is today lacking. US policy is perceived as a series of lunges, interspersed with exchanges of insults. The British, especially, would like to see a new version of George Kennan’s famous Long Telegram, written from the US Embassy in 1946, which became the template for containment of the Soviet Union through the ensuing four decades.
There are hopes that a new administration will act swiftly to revive arms control arrangements and discussions with Russia. As matters stand, within months there will be no East-West limitation agreements, with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces agreement dead, and New START due to expire in February. It is an extraordinary situation, that after 60 years in which arms control was deemed one of the highest purposes of dialogue between the West and the Soviet Union, then Russia, today we are close to having no constraints at all. Mercifully, it is not too late to retrieve them. Europeans seek the creation of a new nuclear agreement with Iran. They accept that the Barack Obama administration’s old Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is a dead letter. There is also recognition that any future deal will have to include provisions, critically lacking from the 2015 agreement, for constraints on Iranian adventurism across the Middle East and on nuclear weapons development.
President Donald Trump has not been wrong about everything. The good news is that the Iranian nuclear program is by no means irreversible; there is almost certainly scope for fresh negotiations. A Biden administration, however, is expected to display less enthusiasm for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government, which Europeans consider the enemy of progress toward Middle East peace.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization remains the focus of most European hopes — and fears. It is the West’s only security alliance of real substance. Yet, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has struggled to define a new common purpose. Its role in the 1990s interventions in Kosovo and Bosnia, then in Libya in 2011, kept faith alive, but on shaky foundations. Many members fear for NATO’s very survival amid the excesses of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Trump’s contemptuous treatment of the institution and French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2019 assertion that NATO is “brain dead.”
In looking to the alliance’s future, we should consider first the condition of Russia, which is entirely different from that of China. The latter is a strong and indisputably rising force. The former is fundamentally weak, incapable of building an electric toaster that anyone save Russians would buy.
Nonetheless, as it is often said, President Vladimir Putin plays his poor hand with skill. He demands a respect for his country that its conduct and achievements — a GDP smaller than that of Italy — do not merit. He exploits its only significant exports: oil, gas and fear. A senior British Army officer told me ruefully that it was easier to manage the Western confrontation with the Soviet Union, the behavior of which was predictable, than Putin’s opportunistic kleptocracy.
The Europeans, and especially the Germans, defend themselves against charges that they are not bearing their rightful share of NATO’s defense costs by insisting that combating today’s Russians requires diplomacy more than tanks. Of course, this argument is self-serving, but the Germans believe Chancellor Angela Merkel deserves more credit than she receives in Washington, for her resolute opposition to the Russian seizure of Crimea and her support for economic sanctions against the Kremlin.
What realistic prospect is there that Europe will increase its defense spending? Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, facing a frightening level of public debt on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, is resisting a new three-year financial settlement for defense, which would increase capability.
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be desperate to secure goodwill from a Biden administration that he knows has no predisposition toward himself, such as Trump displays. My hunch is that Johnson will insist on a visible increase in defense spending, as a signal of earnest intent to Washington, with which he needs a post-Brexit trade deal.
It is almost unthinkable that Germany will strengthen its armed forces, or display more will to fight. Its maxim remains: Never again; never alone; politics before force. France remains a military power, but the rest of Europe lacks both means and desire to raise its warfighting capability.
This is lamentable, in the eyes of those of us who believe that the best way to avoid war is to show ourselves able to fight: If every European nation budgeted 3% of its GDP on defense, this would increase current spending of around 160 billion euros by 50%.
Even though Biden is expected to withdraw Trump’s threat to remove 12,000 American troops from Germany, tensions about the disparity between US and European expenditures will persist, and understandably so. The keys to successful foreign policy are to say what one means, mean what one says. I worry greatly about the security of the Baltic States, where Russia makes constant mischief. NATO nations send token contingents to exercise in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as a symbol of willingness to defend their smaller NATO brethren from Russian aggression. It is highly likely, however, that if the Kremlin moves against the Baltics, it will act through subversion and proxies rather than launch an outright invasion. In such circumstances, it could prove extraordinarily difficult to mobilize political will in western Europe for their defense, whatever guarantees statesmen and generals deliver today.
On the eastern side of the Atlantic, there is a widespread recognition that if NATO is to remain a meaningful body, as Europeans devoutly hope, it must address China. In the short term, Russia, essentially a gangster state, is best addressed through targeted sanctions against Putin’s principals and their families. Britain remains notably feeble in this respect, because vast sums of Russian money are laundered, highly profitably, through the City of London.
But to offer a credible riposte to China’s ever-growing strength demands hard military power. A few years ago, I was asked to address a delegation of Chinese generals visiting London about my new book on the outbreak of World War I. One of them asked if I saw any parallels between then and now. Yes, I said. The supreme irony of 1914 was that Germany was then on an irresistible path to dominance of Europe, through peaceful economic, technological and industrial might. Kaiser Wilhelm II’s decision to fight, rooted in a childlike faith in military success as the only measure of power, undid all this.
Should not Beijing consider, I asked, whether anything at stake in the South China Sea merited accepting the risk of a ghastly superpower accident? The general said: “But we have claims!” True, I responded, but the question is still valid. I am not foolish enough to suppose that either those officers or their government are in a mood to take much heed of this argument. At least as important as all the above issues, in defining European hopes for the new US administration, is a change of style. There is a yearning for a revival of diplomacy, which requires a major restoration project at the State Department. Almost all of us are passionate believers in partnerships and alliances. American participation is desperately needed to breathe new life into climate-change planning, which we view as a crusade, and into the World Health Organization and the United Nations. Maybe it is not too late to get the US back into the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
As an Englishman who has lived and worked closely with Americans all my adult life, I am haunted by the memory of a conversation back in 1991 with Ray Seitz, the last brilliant US ambassador in London. He said, “Always remember that the United States is only interested in Britain, insofar as Britain is a player in Europe.” I thought he was right then, is right now, which is prominent among the reasons I have so passionately opposed Brexit. His other remark in the same conversation followed a speculation of my own, about America’s new status as the world’s only superpower, and how it would exploit this. He said: “That assumes the US is willing to play such a role.” He recognized, as some of us at first did not, the rising skepticism among Americans about serving as the world’s policeman, guarantor, shield-bearer.
Let us count a few blessings. Contrary to widespread perceptions, large swathes of the world in 2020 remain free of violence — safer than in the late 20th century. The Trump administration seems set to end without a war — at least, a shooting war — which seemed a grave threat four years ago. The great British strategic guru Sir Michael Howard said insistently in 2017-2018, “Trump needs a war.”
Howard feared armed conflict with China, or Russia, or Iran. In reality, the president has confined himself to wars of words with America’s media and traditional allies, together with a trade war against China.
Today, most of us across the Atlantic understand the importance of limiting our hopes and aspirations from a Biden administration; also of coming to terms with an American China fixation that will not go away.
For now, however, we shall be more than content if Jan. 20 signals a renewal of respect, rationality and civility in international relations. These will almost always secure better results for even the greatest global powers than has our relationship with Washington, or rather lack of it, of the past four years.

5 Steps to Amend the US Path in Syria
Charles Lister/Asharq Al Awsat/November 08/2020
“Going forward, we do have points of leverage to effectuate some positive changes… there has to be some kind of political transition.” The Trump administration has ensured that “what diplomatic process exists, the US is absent… I can’t guarantee success, but I can guarantee that a Joe Biden administration would at least show up.” Any move towards normalizing ties with Syria’s regime is “virtually impossible.” The unprecedently strong Caesar Act is a “very important tool” in limiting the regime’s ability to commit violence and pressuring it to change its behavior. A continued deployment of US special forces in eastern Syria to combat ISIS and “support local actors… [has] worked very effectively… [and] is smart, strong and sustainable.” These recent quotes from senior members of the Biden campaign provide a window into the prevailing thinking on Syria policy amongst those likely to hold senior positions in America’s incoming administration.
When a Biden administration begins to settle into its offices in just a few months, Syria’s crisis will have reached a dreadful milestone, marking a decade in March 2021. Though many of President Biden’s senior team presided over US policy throughout Syria’s most deadly years of 2011-2016, it is clear that the tragedy befallen on Syria and its extraordinary global ramifications are a source of sincere regret. Moreover, after four years of the Trump administration, during which American leverage has been repeatedly and illogically spurned and US credibility eroded by repeatedly embarrassing flip-flops, there is a newfound determination to correct today’s trajectory and work determinedly towards the core objectives of defeating ISIS and pursuing a negotiated Syrian settlement.
The Trump administration’s disdain for diplomacy and alliances will see an immediate course correction, with a President Biden seeking to re-engage allies, reinforce multilateral alliances, revitalize diplomacy, and restore America’s place on the international stage. Nowhere is this course correction more needed than on the Syria file, where the drivers of conflict and instability have increased in scope and scale. Rather than being over, Syria’s crisis is merely entering a new and more complex phase – one which if unchallenged, promises another round of debilitating instability sure to affect the region and quite possibly further afield.
After nine years, over 500,000 Syrians are dead and 12.5 million (more than half the population) displaced. Years of regime carpet bombing has left over 50% of the country’s basic infrastructure destroyed and the regime’s international pariah status guarantees no window for meaningful reconstruction assistance. More than 90% of Syrians now live under the poverty line, while huge inflation – sparked by Lebanon’s financial collapse – has thrown Syria into an economic crisis, with severe fuel and wheat shortages. Domestic economic strife is engendering unprecedented levels of anger and public criticism of the regime from its own support base, while more and more of the business elite are being publicly shaken down to fill the regime’s bank accounts. On the security side, an ISIS resurgence is well underway; southern Syria’s “reconciliation” is fraying at seams amid over 400 insurgent attacks in 12 months; and local and geopolitical conflicts remain ‘hot’ in the northwest, northeast, east and between Israel and Iran.
Syria’s crisis is far from over and Syria still matters – particularly for its regional neighbors in the Middle East. Bashar al-Assad is entirely incapable of stabilizing the 60% of Syria he controls today, so God forbid he ever finds himself in control of 100%. The endemic corruption, institutionalized brutality, and intimate relationship with the likes of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and North Korea guarantee that Assad’s regime will never be a reliable partner. Its decades-long status as an international state sponsor of terrorism; its latent chemical weapons program; and its extensive precedent for working with al-Qaeda and ISIS and ongoing working relationship with Hezbollah underline the security risks inherent in failing to push for accountability and some form of political change in Damascus.
A Biden administration knows that an unconditional re-engagement with Assad’s regime will only serve to exacerbate the drivers of conflict and instability in Syria. With the Caesar Act now federal law, the US government will continue to oppose and indeed block attempts by foreign actors to work with Assad, the twenty-first century’s most infamous war criminal. Instead, a Biden administration should launch a diplomacy-first approach that treats the Syria crisis holistically and seeks to re-energize multilateral diplomacy in order to pursue a negotiated settlement that would allow for an eventual responsible withdrawal of American troops. Like most Americans, a Biden administration will be keen to end so-called “forever wars,” but it has also made clear that in its eyes, Syria is different. President Biden is well-known for his support for what he calls “Counterterrorism Plus” – an approach to countering terrorist groups using small numbers of special forces working closely with local partners. That “by-with-and-through” strategy has worked well in Syria and with ISIS resurging, there is no reason to end it yet.
Going forward, the US should refocus onto a comprehensive Syria-wide strategy that prioritizes five complementary and inter-dependent policy lines: (1) defeating ISIS and preserving and protecting the Syrian Democratic Forces; (2) guaranteeing consistent and unimpeded humanitarian access to all of those in need, including cross-border into the north; (3) maintaining targeted sanctions as a vital non-military tool to limit regime crimes and enhance America’s leverage; (4) diplomatically support a continued ceasefire in Idlib, home to Syria’s greatest humanitarian crisis; and (5) galvanizing diplomacy, bilaterally with Russia and multilaterally through the UN in pursuit of a negotiated settlement. In order to do so, the US will need a diplomatic coalition united by a determination to see Syria open a new chapter, in which peace, justice and accountability are what defines the future. Our allies in the Middle East will have a crucial role to play in achieving such a goal.

Hold the Schadenfreude for America
Clara Ferreira Marques/Asharq Al Awsat/November 08/2020
An election that takes days to conclude? An incumbent who says he’s been cheated, and threatens not to leave? Armed vigilantes outside counting centers? The 2020 US presidential election has been watched with bemusement in the rest of the world, and none have enjoyed the show more than the autocrats long criticized and preached to by Washington. They are wrong to cheer.
There are clearly grave problems with an unusually complex electoral system that has shown itself to be outdated, and with a system that has allowed the falsehoods, abuses of power, and traducing of democratic norms emanating from the White House over the past four years. After Joe Biden’s victory, American society remains deeply divided. Yet for all the dysfunction, angry rhetoric, and court cases, votes were counted. That makes all the difference.
Even before ballots were cast, state media in China and Russia were talking up the chaos. Since polls closed, the belligerence of President Donald Trump’s speeches alleging mass electoral fraud has allowed them to go much further.
“Americans used to believe that only developing countries would witness serious disputes over their election process… with the losing side refusing to accept the outcome,” China’s state-backed tabloid Global Times said in an editorial. Its Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin wrote Thursday that there was no longer a “collective feeling of envy” among Chinese citizens, while watching their US counterparts vote. Hu had already posted footage of workers boarding up store windows ahead of the election on a Twitter account he uses to broadcast a mix of threats, vitriol, and taunts over America’s failures in containing the coronavirus pandemic.
RT, Russia’s state-funded international broadcasting arm, has long been a cheerful chronicler of America’s problems, depicting crime, racial violence, and the shortcomings of democracy. It has reported on the 2020 poll with glee. “You gotta be kidding me,” Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan wrote, in mock Cyrillic English, in reaction to the description of the US presidential election as competitive and well-managed by the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, or OSCE. She had already tweeted that the elections were neither free nor fair.
Officials haven’t been far behind. One Russian deputy compared America to Kyrgyzstan, where a disputed parliamentary vote last month ended in turmoil, with opposition supporters storming buildings. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said it was all evidence of “severe civil, political and moral decline.”
It’s the schadenfreude that stands out among those often lectured on democratic values. Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has faced mass protests since a disputed presidential election in August, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had a telephone call last week that included a discussion of US election results. It’s not hard to imagine the conversation.
The truth isn’t simple, though. As Sam Greene, director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London, put it, the US election has been something of a Rorschach inkblot test, where autocrats and democrats alike see what they want to see.
Clearly, US credibility has taken a hit. When Trump said after his election-night speech that the whole event was embarrassing, he wasn’t wrong. His own speeches in the past week have marked low points for American democracy, to the point that the OSCE has accused him of harming democratic institutions by making unfounded allegations of fraud.
Trump’s rhetoric, which included declaring victory from the White House while battleground states were still counting votes, has raised understandable alarm. The politicization of the judiciary during his term has been more than uncomfortable. But Trump isn’t a despot, in large part because institutions have reined him in. For all the sound and fury, he has had to contend with checks and balances. Most importantly, he hasn’t been able to do what any self-respecting authoritarian would have done: take control of the administration of elections. The decentralized US process, left to local governments, never allowed it.
Instead, the world has seen wall-to-wall footage of people in precincts across the United States proceeding with the most fundamental of democratic exercises, and tallying votes. Turnout was higher than it has been in more than a century — no small feat in a country where in 2016 more people didn’t vote than backed either Trump or his opponent, Hillary Clinton. When the president made outrageous claims on television, he was cut off, and viewers were told the statements were false.
“I woke up and went to Twitter to find out who won. It’s still not clear,” Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny tweeted on Nov. 4. “That’s a real election.”

Best Reason to Join a Startup? Not to Get Rich
Erin Lowry/Bloomberg/November 08/2020
The US has such an infatuation with startup culture that many have wondered: Do startup employees earn more in the long run?
The answer: No. Or so says a recent study that analyzed the long-term consequences of startup employment in Denmark from 1992 to 2012. It found those who joined a startup that had been operating for four or fewer years earned 17% less in the following decade compared with those who joined an established company. The researchers chose this particular setting because Denmark’s economy, according to their paper, is representative of other high-income countries including the United States.
As someone who spent two years of her early career with a startup — as one of its earliest employees — this finding struck a chord with me. And it should give others planning their careers pause as we continue into the pandemic recession.
One key takeaway is how startups are particularly vulnerable to economic downturns, and how startup employees can find themselves on the job hunt at the same time employment becomes hard to land. Being unemployed in a recession has a significant and long-lasting impact on earnings and is one of the reasons startup employment can depress wages over the long term.
Does this mean you shouldn’t join a startup that’s hiring? Not necessarily. A lot rides on your risk tolerance, expectations of a job and, perhaps most importantly, your other employment prospects.
Of course, there’s an argument that working at a startup is about more than just immediate compensation. You could get equity stake, with the potential to get a big payoff later. However, this isn’t off the table if you join an older firm. Some companies offer an employee stock purchase plan or similar incentives that pay handsomely on top of comp.
Another common thought is that a startup provides significant opportunity for learning and growth because there’s less of a structured hierarchy and you’ll likely wear multiple hats. Unfortunately, the study found that this “jack of all trades” approach often results in a “master of none” outcome. That may be why job titles at startups don’t always translate to similar positions at established firms.
One point in the pro column for working at a startup is the potential for an exciting environment with a unique sense of camaraderie. But it’s important to consider how even this may one day peter out. Whether your company gets acquired by a large brand, or grows and becomes the establishment itself, the once laissez faire attitude that perhaps dominated your company culture will morph. That’s important to plan for. Of course, this is even if your startup makes it that long.
There is, according to the study, an exception to the finding that startup employees earn less than those who work with established firms. It appears there is a sweet spot for joining a new venture: after it reaches about 50 employees but before it reaches its fifth year in business. Those who started at this point actually reported slightly higher earnings than those who opted to work at an established firm from the start of the study period. Perhaps one of the most discouraging takeaways from the entire study is wrapped up in these two sentences:
The press loves to cover the janitor or receptionist who became rich from being employed at a high-tech startup. But these events are as likely and as representative of the common experience of startup employees as is the multi-million-dollar lottery winner among those buying tickets.
Basically, it suggests that finding your fortune in a startup is akin to playing the lottery. But I would argue this is largely dependent on your industry, so it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility that working for a startup will increase your long-term compensation.
For those who work in tech, it makes sense why a startup is perhaps emotionally thrilling, but a gamble career-wise. After all, going to an established firm does mean high pay, usually competitive benefits, and perhaps an employer stock purchase plan.
What about those of us in other industries like media? When I moved to a startup, my salary went up 30% and within two years I was earning nearly double what I had prior to joining. This helped reshape my perception of what I could earn. Yes, the exception does not make the rule. However, it’s important to consider that startups employ a lot of people in various industries and for some of us, that leap might actually make a lot of sense.

America’s Age of Anger Is Just Getting Started
Pankaj Mishra/Bloomberg/November 08/2020
A nightmare began with Donald Trump’s victory in November 2016. It has just been extended indefinitely with his narrow loss and wild allegations of electoral fraud. In his 2016 campaign, Trump prospered by challenging the legitimacy of America’s political and economic system, arguing that it was rigged to benefit a few elites. Over the next four years, he demonstrated, in diverse and ingenious ways, his profound unfitness for high office.
Still, nearly 70 million voters plainly wished to keep him in the White House, confirming that Trump’s self-presentation as an outsider despised by political and media elites had gained broad and enduring acceptance.
Trump will have to vacate his official residence in January and begin grappling with numerous legal and financial difficulties. And the coalition of interests he provoked in opposition to him will be formidable in the years to come. But there seems little doubt that his anti-system politics of anger and resentment has acquired a long lease of life in American politics and society. Much analysis since Trump’s shock election of 2016 depicted him as a radical aberration. The many repellent aspects of his personality helped cement a narrative in which he posed an unprecedented threat to democracy and liberalism.
In fact, he was always a symptom of the breakdown of both democracy and liberalism: a belated but calamitous political consequence of the financial crisis of 2008 and even such older phenomena as uneven growth, diminished social security, extreme social and economic inequality and, most crucially, loss of faith in political representatives.
Trump himself doesn’t seem so unprecedented or singular when he is examined together with fellow “outsiders,” from Brazil to India, who successfully exploited disaffection with political elites grown unresponsive to ordinary distress.
Like Trump, these pseudo-mavericks were successful because they alchemized a long-felt helplessness among many voters — the despairing sense that nothing can or should be done before the forces of the market and technocratic governance — into a craving for performance, no matter how crude or destructive. Take, for instance, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who rose out of political disgrace in the early 2010s on the back of an ostensibly apolitical anti-corruption movement aimed at India’s then-ruling party, the Indian National Congress.
India, headed by an impassive technocrat, had been manifesting high levels of inequality and erratic economic growth. Depicting himself as an outcast victimized by establishment politicians and journalists, Modi promised to clean the Augean stables of a system favoring the rich, the corrupt, and the nepotistic, and to make India great again.
During his six years in power, even as he has committed policy disasters great enough to destroy any other political career, Modi has managed to maintain his pose as a rebel, besieged by bitter beneficiaries of the old system. More remarkably, his likely successors are already busy mobilizing the anti-establishment energies he so fruitfully deployed.
Even before India, Italy revealed the strength and persistence of an anti-system insurgency. The political status quo there was radically disrupted as early as the 1990s by the exposure of incredible levels of corruption in all major parties. Since then, one self-proclaimed outsider after another has flourished in Italy — from the business and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi promising “a new Italian miracle” to the comedian Beppo Grillo, who rose to political prominence in 2007 with a “V-day” (vaffanculo, or “f--- off” day) aimed at an ostensibly rotten political class.
This unvarnished mode of politics — performative and explicitly destructive in intent — turns off many voters. But many others prefer it in the absence of better choices. They remain susceptible to anyone who can colorfully articulate their frustrations and resentments and identify suitable enemies to crush.
Grillo’s Five Star Movement, the largest party in the Italian parliament today, has failed to govern effectively. But the likely beneficiary of its fiascos is a far more virulent demagogue, his former coalition partner Matteo Salvini of the anti-migrant League party.
Likewise, Modi’s probable successors today seem even more hardline than him, while the pandemic and ensuing social and economic chaos make the soil for their electoral growth more rather than less fertile.
In other words, there is little respite from clownish demagoguery once a long-standing political order loses credibility and legitimacy among a significantly large proportion of the population. That fatal conjuncture was achieved imperceptibly in the United States well before Trump’s shock victory in 2016 made it explicit and undeniable. This is why there can be no easy or quick escape from his baleful shadow.
Joe Biden will eventually replace Trump in the White House. But, a loyal functionary of the old order is hardly the man to restore faith in it. And so this almost certainly won’t be, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, the end of Trumpism, or even the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

Banking Industry Gets a Needed Reality Check
Elisa Martinuzzi/Bloomberg/November 08/2020
European bank bosses are on the front foot again. During the brutal first half of 2020, some lenders posted losses amid soaring provisions for bad loans. Now they’ve been emboldened by a third-quarter profit rebound. Most of the region’s bankers are sounding confident that the worst of the pandemic pain is behind them, despite the new wave of lockdowns. A dose of caution is warranted.
Keen as they are to persuade regulators that they’re fit enough to resume dividends and boost trader rewards, Europe’s banks might be underplaying the potential impact of the economic contraction and an ongoing squeeze on profit margins. For a more sobering assessment of the industry, look at Germany’s Commerzbank AG, which has less exposure to the booming trading business than its rivals and expects to lose money this year.
The German lender’s gloom is in marked contrast to its peers, including Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and UniCredit SpA. Intesa is sticking with its profit target for 2021, and sees net income of at least 5 billion euros ($5.9 billion) in 2022, about a quarter more than analysts are forecasting. Similarly, UniCredit reiterated its objective for a profit of at least 3 billion euros next year after reporting third-quarter income that beat estimates. The bank is on course to earn closer to 800 million euros this year.
Such certainty on how 2021 may play out is questionable. Banks have benefited from a surge in trading revenue this year — even France’s Societe Generale SA, which is scaling back its securities unit, improved both debt trading and equities revenue in the third quarter. But who knows whether market conditions will remain as favorably volatile?
If the bumper trading profits ease off next year, banks will be more exposed to a decline in lending income. UniCredit saw revenue drop 7.8% in the first nine months of the year, even with the trading bonanza. It’s betting that it can repeat 9.5 billion euros of net interest income next year, driven largely by loan growth as economies recover. But no one knows how deep a scar the new lockdowns will leave. The euro area is headed for a double-dip recession in the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg Economics.
Key to European bankers’ optimism is that — after they set aside more than $69 billion in the first half of the year — the bulk of the bad-loan provisions are behind them. In this crisis, under new accounting rules, banks have had to take this action sooner for loans that may sour. But there are still valid doubts about the pandemic-ravaged economy overt the next few months.
UniCredit’s chief executive officer, Jean Pierre Mustier, says things are looking better on non-performing loans, but he acknowledges that government-backed payment moratoria are only just expiring. That makes it difficult to draw conclusions about which customers will resume payments.
Commerzbank is blunter still: “The rapidly evolving nature of the coronavirus pandemic means that the form and impact of the response measures” will need “to be monitored very closely over the coming days and weeks.” It suggests loan provisions might be higher than the 1.5 billion euros it’s targeting for 2020.
Maybe Commerzbank, in the midst of a messy management change, has been lending to the wrong customers, making it more of a unique case. But the European Central Bank’s “severe but plausible scenario” estimates that non-performing loans at eurozone banks could reach 1.4 trillion euros this time around, far outstripping the region’s previous crises. The ECB will have this in mind as lenders try to convince it to allow the restart of shareholder payouts next month. Banker optimism only gets you so far.

If other world leaders could vote in the US election, who would they have picked?
Raghida Dergham/The National/November 08/2020
Agreat deal of decision-making on the part of world leaders is on hold until the result of the US election becomes clear.
The camp rooting for Democratic candidate Joe Biden is led by China, Iran and Venezuela. It is joined by several European countries, who see Donald Trump’s presidency as a menace to Nato. A number of Arab states, on the other hand, were reassured by the Trump administration’s reset of their traditional relationship with the US, which was restored after former president Barack Obama’s U-turn in favour of Iran, Turkey and their common project to impose religion on the state.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could never forget the support afforded by Mr Obama, Mr Biden (who was then vice president), and former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton for his project to install the Muslim Brotherhood in power throughout North Africa. However, in spite of the venomous rhetoric frequently traded between Turkey and the US, he has also enjoyed a close personal relationship with Donald Trump, which has saved him more than once. It saved him even when he sought to acquire the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, much to the US government’s ire, and forged personal relations with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, though these recently deteriorated.
Israel, for its part, receives preferential treatment from the US no matter who is in the White House.
Mr Putin prefers Mr Trump to Mr Biden, who the Russians see as a threat for the likelihood that he will reinvigorate Nato. The likelihood that Mr Biden could lift sanctions on Iran could also impact oil prices in a way that could hurt the Russian economy further. Fear of the Democrats’ retribution for Russia’s alleged role in meddling in the 2016 US elections also looms large.
All of these leaders build their policies, to a great extent, based on a US president’s identity and character. At the same time they have to balance that strategy with an awareness that the US and its foreign policy are led not only by the presidency, but also the legislative branch. There is also the rest of the US establishment and even Wall Street, which this year remarkably dropped their traditional support for the Republican Party in favour of Mr Biden.
Why is Iran more invested in a Biden presidency? That answer lies in the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran, which was agreed along with European powers. The Obama administration had made the JCPOA one of its top priorities at a heavy cost, including the deliberate abandonment of Syria to Iran, Russia, and Turkey. Mr Biden and much of his team, who were complicit in Mr Obama’s abandonment of Syria, have said that they would automatically return the US to the JCPOA and undo Mr Trump’s withdrawal from that deal. The Biden camp believes this is the easiest and quickest foreign policy victory it could achieve – a “master stroke” that would restore warmth to US relations with Europe.
One problem, however, lies in the question of how to resume negotiations with Tehran in a way that takes into account recent advancements in Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its regional role in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. A Biden administration must also assess how it could lift or ease sanctions on Iran when they have been enshrined in Congressional bills, given the likelihood that Republicans will continue to control the Senate. The Biden camp’s interest in returning to the JCPOA without thinking too hard about these issues is good news to Iran. That’s why Tehran sees value in “strategic patience”, waiting for Mr Biden’s time in the White House to arrive. The same could be said of China, a tentative ally of Iran. Beijing sees defeating Mr Trump as a strategic goal and sees Mr Biden a softer alternative. The socialist tendencies of some sections of the Democratic Party also bodes well, even while Mr Biden has the backing of Wall Street. While New York’s financiers are no ideological bedfellows with Beijing, they have been disturbed by Mr Trump’s open hostility to Chinese investment and the unpredictable impact of his capricious tweets on US financial markets.
Russia, which prefers Mr Trump to Mr Biden even though it is a signatory to the JCPOA, is concerned about the prospect of sanctions relief for Iran. Allowing Iran to resume pumping oil into global markets could push Russian oil prices down. Mr Putin also sees Mr Trump’s shakedown of Nato as a positive. Moscow has also found itself trapped in multiple quagmires around the world, including in Syria, and does not trust Turkey’s designs there or in Libya and elsewhere. In other words, while the Russian relationship with Mr Trump’s America is difficult and complicated, but it would be even more difficult with a Biden administration. Kevin Rudd, Australia’s former prime minister and a studied expert on Chinese affairs, recently remarked that, in his view, China is hedging its alliances between Arab states and Iran. “Its strategy is along these lines: be friends to all, be enemies of none until someone finds you out and then duck for cover,” Mr Rudd said. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al-Faisal flipped that logic on its head. “What I’m afraid of is that actually…the Iranians will two-time the Chinese, in the sense that they will get all the benefits and the Chinese will get nothing in return for that strategic engagement”.
Prince Turki also said that the Arab Gulf countries will not be radically impacted by either Chinese-Iranian relations or the outcome of the election in the US. “Arab countries,” he said, “will have to take into consideration that a Biden administration is emanating from an Obama administration, but not necessarily bound by Obama's implementation of his of his foreign policy, particularly on issues like the JCPOA and other issues in the area.
“Biden has said that he will go back to the JCPOA, but that he will have conditions…We still don't know what those conditions are, but he talked about Iranian missile production and also Iranian malign activity in the area.”
World leaders are thus awaiting the outcome of the US election, but at the same time are drawing various scenarios. Either way, Donald Trump will remain president until January, and a lot could happen until then. In the meantime, the presidents, prime ministers and supreme leaders of other nations will continue to hold their breath.
*Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute and a columnist for The National
 

Turkish bank rulings should be a wakeup call for global financial institutions
Aykan Erdemir and Jonathan Schanzer/Al Arabiya/Sunday 08 November 2020
Turkish banks are taking a beating in American courts. First, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) refused to dismiss an indictment accusing Halkbank, majority-owned by the Turkish government, of helping Iran bust sanctions. Less than three weeks later, another SDNY judge ruled to move forward with a landmark case against Turkey’s Kuveyt Turk Bank for aiding and abetting the Palestinian terrorist group Hama.These milestone rulings make it crystal clear that Turkey has a terrorism and illicit finance problem, and it could soon pay a steep price. They should also serve as a wakeup call for international financial institutions: banks may no longer be able to hide behind sovereign immunity.
Kuveyt Turk, which counts the Turkish government as a shareholder, has been in hot water since September 2019. The bank could be on the hook for compensatory damages stemming from the bank’s role in financing Hamas’s terrorist attacks. The plaintiffs are surviving family members of Eitam Henkin and his Israeli wife Naama Henkin, who were brutally killed by Hamas in 2015. The family’s attorneys argue that the bank is subject to jurisdiction in New York for allegedly using its correspondent bank accounts to facilitate US dollar denominated funds that benefited Hamas. The Henkin children also filed a lawsuit against Iran and Syria in April 2019. Unlike Turkey, which is a NATO member, Iran and Syria are both labeled States Sponsors of Terror by the State Department, with a long record of supporting Hamas.
The Henkins are not the first to target Kuveyt Turk Bank for terrorism finance. In 2016, the California nonprofit St. Francis of Assisi filed a complaint in the Northern District of California against Kuwait Finance House and its subsidiary Kuveyt Turk Bank for allowing donations destined for ISIS to transit their accounts. A federal judge ultimately dismissed the case after the plaintiff failed to identify anyone with ties to the United States who suffered harm.
In the latest Kuveyt Turk Bank case, however, the judge ruled that Naama Henkin’s estate and the four children, none of whom are US nationals, could proceed as plaintiffs pursuant to the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act. The case is a legal game-changer. It will now proceed to discovery, mandating the production of documents by the bank and depositions of bank witnesses. This will produce additional evidence to determine whether the bank directly or indirectly provided material support to Hamas.
Turkey’s second-largest public lender Halkbank is facing a similar situation. In their October 2019 indictment of Halkbank, Southern District attorneys charged the bank with “fraud, money laundering and sanctions offenses,” claiming that Halkbank and its executives aided Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab in a “multi-billion dollar scheme to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran.” According to the prosecutors, Halkbank and its executives “illicitly transferred approximately $20 billion worth of otherwise restricted Iranian funds.”
The lender’s role in Iran’s sanctions-evasion schemes grabbed headlines in September after the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Network published a series of exposés proving that Iran’s illicit financial machinations involving Turkey “started earlier, lasted longer, extended further, and involved more people and countries” than previously believed. In 2018, a federal jury found Halkbank’s then-deputy general manager Mehmet Hakan Atilla guilty of sanctions evasion, bank fraud, and obstructing the actions of the Treasury Department, earning him a 32-month sentence.
Read more: Turkey's Halkbank must face US indictment over Iran sanctions violations, judge rules
For almost five years, the Turkish government and Halkbank have waged a campaign to scuttle the case. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was personally implicated in the sanctions-busting efforts, reportedly tried to pressure President Donald Trump and his administration not only to drop the case against Halkbank, but also to grant immunity to suspected criminals. This approach succeeded in stalling the prosecution for almost two years, but ultimately failed when US authorities leveled charges last October.
In both cases, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act failed to grant immunity to the banks. This is a significant development in the world of illicit finance that could pave the way for new complaints by victims of terrorism the world over. It should serve as a wakeup call for financial institutions around the world – especially those that do business with banks in Turkey.
*Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish parliamentarian, is senior director of the Turkey program at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is senior vice president for research. They tweet @aykan_erdemir and @JSchanzer.