English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 25/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour except in their own country and in their own house.’And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 13/54-58: “Jesus came to his home town and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?’ And they took offence at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour except in their own country and in their own house.’And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 24-25/2020

Lebanon’s Aoun Says Forensic Audit Needed for IMF Bailout Talks
Source: US undermining formation of Lebanon government
Aoun Urges Cooperation on Forensic Audit in Letter to Parliament
Report: Government Gridlock Persists
General Security Chief Meets U.S. Ambassador
Saudi FM: Governance in Lebanon Providing Cover for Hizbullah
Charges Filed against 2 More Officials over Beirut Port Blast
Strong Lebanon Warns against Tipping 'National Balance' in Govt., Parliament
Locals Want Syrians Evicted from Bsharri after Man Killed
Geagea Urges Calm in Bsharri, Says Debating New Electoral Law a Conspiracy
UK, U.S. and Canadian Ambassadors Meet with Army Chief
USAID Launches Activity to Support Lebanon's Agri-Food Sector and Rural Economies
Hassan Says Lebanon to Receive Pfizer Vaccines in Q1 2021
U.S. Charities Raise Millions in Wake of Beirut Port Blast
Lebanon Rationalizes Subsidized Food Basket
Lebanon’s Lawyers Launch National Initiative to 'Recover the State'
More difficult times to come for Lebanon when food, fuel subsidies lifted/Rami Rayess/Al Arabiya/November 24/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 24-25/2020

Joe Biden introduces security team 'ready to lead the world'
Pennsylvania Certifies Biden Election Win
Iran sees foreign firms returning if U.S. lifts sanctions
Two Blasts kill 7 in Syrian Opposition-Held Northwest near Turkish Border
Bombings, Minefield Kill 29 in Pro-Turkey North Syria
Sudan Transitional Government Divided Over Israeli Delegation’s Visit
Iraqi Kurdistan Region Seeks to Stop Violence against Women
Drums of War Beat Again in Libya amid Military Mobilization
US set to designate Iran-backed Houthi militia as terrorist organization
CSIS alleges Iran used Toronto company to wire millions to Canada despite sanctions

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 24-25/2020

UK, France and Germany discuss working with Joe Biden on Iran nuclear deal/Patrick Wintour/The Guardian/November 24/2020
What Saudi Arabia Is Thinking/Richard Goldberg/Mosaic/November 24/2020
How Trump can expose biggest lie in Middle East: Palestinian ‘refugee’ myth/Jonathan Schanzer and Richard Goldberg/New York Post/November 23, 2020
Washington Can Help Free Turkey’s Highest-Profile Prisoner of Conscience/Aykan Erdemir/FDD//November 24/2020
On the West, Colonialism and Civil War/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 24/2020
What a Biden Administration Means for Border Security/Chris Farrell/Gatestone Institute/November 24/2020
Fight against Islamist terror must begin with opposing extremist ideas/Noura Al Kaabi/Al Arabiya/November 24/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 24-25/2020

Lebanon’s Aoun Says Forensic Audit Needed for IMF Bailout Talks
Dana Khraiche/Bloomberg/November 24/2020
Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said a forensic audit at the nation’s central bank has become a requirement for talks with the International Monetary Fund, days after an audit firm hired to do so quit over lack of data. Describing the abrupt end of the contract as a major setback, Aoun said the country risked being seen as a failed state in the eyes of the international community if it failed to carry out the audit. Alvarez & Marsal Inc. ended its contract last week after the central bank refrained from handing over documents. The central bank has repeatedly said the banking secrecy law prevents it from allowing full access to its data. Lebanon’s Recovery Stuck as Bank Auditors Quit Over Lack of Data

Source: US undermining formation of Lebanon government
MEM/November 24, 2020
The US is exerting efforts to undermine the formation of Lebanese government, Anadolu reported a close aide of Lebanese President Michel Aoun saying. The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Anadolu that a Lebanese government would not be formed soon. "Possibly, there are covert American pressures to undermine the formation of the government," the aide said. Meanwhile, Mohammad Al-Hajjar, an MP for the Future Party, said: "There are sides who do not want to translate the French initiative to reality." He did not name which parties he was referring to. Al-Hajjar added: "The French initiative for the formation of a technocrat government is still on the table and we should accelerate its implementation." On 6 November, Washington imposed sanctions on the former Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Aoun's son-in-law, over corruption claims and relations with Hezbollah, Iran and the Syrian regime. In September, Washington imposed sanctions on two former ministers, Ali Hassan Khalil and Yousef Fenianos, over claims of corruption and supporting Hezbollah. French President Emmanuel Macron met in August with heads of large Lebanese parties and launched an initiative and issued directives including the formation of a new government and reformation of the banking system. On 22 October, Aoun nominated Saad Al-Hariri, the head of the Future Party, to form a new government after Mustapha Adib resigned on 26 September.

Aoun Urges Cooperation on Forensic Audit in Letter to Parliament
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
President Michel Aoun on Tuesday addressed a letter to parliament through Speaker Nabih Berri. In the letter, Aoun urges lawmakers to “cooperate with the executive authority to enable the state to conduct a forensic audit of Banque du Liban’s accounts.”“This audit, with all its international standards, should apply to all of the state’s administrations to achieve the needed reform and implement the aid programs which Lebanon needs in its current and suffocating situation,” the president added. He warned that failure to carry out the forensic audit might turn Lebanon into a “rogue or failed state” in the eyes of the international community. Aoun also cautioned of the “dangerous repercussions” that might result from “the Lebanese state’s failure to enforce accountability,” noting that financial waste and corruption have “destroyed private and public funds alike.”Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni had announced Friday that a New-York-based company contracted by the Lebanese government to conduct the forensic audit had decided to pull out of the deal because it was not able to acquire requested information and documents. The announcement by Alvarez & Marsal deals a major blow to those hoping for accountability in a country mired in corruption and a crippling economic and financial crisis. A forensic audit has been a key demand by the International Monetary Fund and international donors who have said that they will not give money to Lebanon before major reforms are implemented to fight corruption and widespread waste in state institutions. Wazni added that the Lebanese government had recently asked the company to stay for another three months in order for the state to provide it with all the information and documents needed. "I was surprised when I received their statement," Wazni said, adding that Alvarez & Marsal agreed last week to give the Lebanese state three more months. "I find it odd. They should not have accepted the extension last week," he said. Wazni added that work has been underway to amend the banking secrecy law in order to facilitate the work of the New York-based company. He said legislators have started preparing draft laws and that the government was also working to amend the banking secrecy laws for Alvarez & Marsal. The banking secrecy laws, once a mainstay of Lebanon's banking system, had attracted clients from around the Arab world who prized the anonymity its banks offered.

Report: Government Gridlock Persists
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
The gridlock preventing the formation of a government in Lebanon shows no signs of easing well into the second month after the designation of PM Saad Hariri for the task, reports said Tuesday. Despite a whole series of crises impacting the country and driving its people into the line of poverty, the authority’s paralysis dominates the scene, they added. According to sources concerned with the government formation, “since the last meeting between President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri, there has been no sign of leniency in the positions,” they told al-Joumhouria daily. They added that the President insists on having a major role in naming the ministers for the designated ministerial portfolios, but mainly, he adamantly insists on naming the Christian ministers, the sources said. Insistence on naming the majority of the Christian ministers, that is, 7 ministers who constitute one third in the government, grant them veto power to contest the cabinet decisions. President Aoun reportedly also wants to retain the portfolio of the Energy Ministry for his political team, in the same way that the Ministry of Finance is retained within the Shiite quota. On the other hand, reports said the PM-designate presented a cabinet format to the President that failed to meet the latter’s approval. Hariri refuses to give any party veto power to obstruct the cabinet decisions.

General Security Chief Meets U.S. Ambassador
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim received at his office on Tuesday the US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea, and talks focused on issues common between the two countries in addition to the outcome of Ibrahim’s recent visit to Washington, the National News Agency reported.
Ibrahim had visited Washington earlier in November, after visiting Syria for two days to speak with officials there about American journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing in the war-torn country since 2012. In Washington, Ibrahim is believed to have discussed Tice’s case with U.S. officials. Ibrahim in recent years has helped to facilitate the release of a U.S. citizen held in Syria, and a Lebanese-American who was held in Iran.

Saudi FM: Governance in Lebanon Providing Cover for Hizbullah
Naharnet /Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud said Lebanon suffers from a “governance crisis,” which is providing “cover” for Hizbullah party, adding that Lebanon should help itself to steer out of its economic and political crisis. “The most important thing for Lebanon to do is help itself. Lebanon’s economic and political situation is a result of its own political class not focusing on delivering prosperity to the people of Lebanon,” said the Minister in an interview with CNBC news anchor Hadley Gamble on Monday.
“If the Lebanese government focused on delivering reforms, services and real economic reform and jump-starting the potential of the Lebanese people. The Lebanese people are tremendously well-educated. Lebanon deserves to be one of the prosperous countries in our region, it only needs good governance,” he added. On whether the Kingdom believes that PM-designate Saad Hariri, long backed by Saudi Arabia, is the right man to pull Lebanon out of the crisis, the minister said “it is not about individuals.”“It is not about one individual, what is important is that there is a true change in how Lebanon functions, and right now we have a situation where the governing system there is focused on mainly giving cover to Hizbullah, which has undermined the state completely,” he stated. “You have a state that is mired with mismanagement and corruption because it is dominated by this armed party that imposed its will on any government. Without structural reform that addresses that key problem, individuals are not the issue,” the Saudi Minister concluded.

Charges Filed against 2 More Officials over Beirut Port Blast
Associated Press/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
A Lebanese prosecutor filed charges Tuesday against current and former customs officials over the massive blast at Beirut's port in August, including a former customs chief who was reportedly the point man for Hizbullah at the facility. State prosecutor Ghassan Khoury charged senior customs official Hani Haj Shehadeh and former customs chief in Beirut, Moussa Hazimeh, on Tuesday, according to state-run National News Agency. The report didn't reveal the charges or give additional details. Hazimeh was reportedly the point man for Hizbullah at the Port of Beirut when nearly 3,000 tons of highly explosive fertilizer were stored there more than six years ago. The 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up Aug. 4, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands and causing damage worth billions of dollars, mostly in nearby neighborhoods. Beirut's port is considered one of the most corrupt institutions in the country, where ruling political factions including Hizbullah have divvied up positions and created fiefdoms. National News Agency said that in charging Shehadeh and Hazimeh, the number of those now charged in connection with the explosion reached 33, of whom 25 are under arrest. None of the charges have been made public and the process has been highly secretive. Riad Kobaissi, an investigative reporter with al-Jadeed TV, has followed corruption at the port and within the customs authorities since 2012. He said all the political factions in the country benefited from using the port as patronage, and most overlooked dubious dealings. He said many people knew of the initial warning about the danger of the stored ammonium nitrate in 2014 by a customs official. He said that includes Hazimeh, who Kobaissi described as Hizbullah's former pointman at the port. NNA said the new cases were referred to Judge Fadi Sawwan, who is probing the blast. It said Sawwan had questioned the two earlier as witnesses but they will be questioned again as suspects. The report comes amid complaints the investigation is moving too slowly. Families of the victims are desperate to know what triggered the blast, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

Strong Lebanon Warns against Tipping 'National Balance' in Govt., Parliament
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
The Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc, which is led by the Free Patriotic Movement, on Tuesday warned against “using the dire economic situation as an excuse to tamper with national balances and unity” in the formation of the new government. In a statement issued after a weekly e-meeting chaired by FPM chief MP Jebran Bassil, the bloc also deplored “the protracted slowness in the cabinet formation process,” noting that the reasons behind the delay have become known to the public opinion. “These reasons, with both the domestic and external aspects, are unacceptable, seeing as nothing prevents forming the government considering it is a sovereign national decision,” Strong Lebanon added. Separately, the bloc rejected calls for changing the current electoral law, noting that it “corrected parliamentary representation” after “long years of struggle.”“Any discussion of this issue will not be acceptable by us unless it is part of an integrated solution to improve the system and amend the constitution, through establishing a civil state with all its requirements and endorsing broad administrative and financial decentralization,” the bloc said.

Locals Want Syrians Evicted from Bsharri after Man Killed
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
Locals in the northern town of Bsharri called on authorities Tuesday to evict all Syrians from the area a day after a Syrian citizen shot dead a local man in a personal dispute. The announcement in the resort town came after a night of riots against Syrians in the town during which some homes of Syrians were reportedly torched and individuals were attacked in the streets. The army said that as of Monday night, troops had begun conducting patrols in the town, adding the accused killer surrendered to security forces and an investigation had begun.
The army said the killing came amid a dispute between resident Joseph Tawk and a Syrian citizen who worked at a home near a plot of land owned by the victim. Officials only identified the Syrian with his initials, M.K., and released no additional details on the dispute.
At some point, angry residents surrounded the town's main government building Monday night demanding that security forces hand the Syrian citizen over to them. After the killing, church bells tolled and some residents went down to the streets demanding that all Syrian citizens be evicted.
"All Syrians who are staying in the town illegally must leave immediately," Bsharri Mayor Freddy Keyrouz said in a statement. He called on security forces to search the homes of Syrians in the town after it was reported the alleged shooter had a pistol.
Tensions are common in Lebanon between locals and Syrian refugees who have fled the war in their country. Lebanon at one point was hosting refugees equaling nearly a quarter of the country's population of 5 million, burdening Lebanon's crumbling infrastructure.
Tensions between Lebanese and Syrians also dates back to the days when Syria dominated its smaller neighbor for almost three decades with thousands of troops stationed in Lebanon. They withdrew in 2005 following the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, which sparked massive anti-Syrian protests. A statement read in Bsharri by community members and aired on local TV stations called on local authorities to immediately "evacuate all Syrians who are currently residing in Bsharri whether they are workers, settlers or families until a mechanism is reached" on how to host Syrian workers in the town. Many Syrians fled the town overnight and others were forced to leave by local residents, state-run National News Agency said.

Geagea Urges Calm in Bsharri, Says Debating New Electoral Law a Conspiracy
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday extended condolences to the residents of the northern town of Bsharri, his hometown and political bastion, over the killing of the young man Joseph Tawk at the hands of a Syrian worker. Calling on authorities to carry out the investigations as soon as possible, Geagea called on the state to “conduct a comprehensive survey of those in the region in search of any illegal arms,” while stressing that the Bsharri region is “under the law.”He also urged residents not to “carry out any act outside the law” and to “await the investigations,” expressing his “full confidence” in the judiciary. Turning to politics during the same press conference, Geagea said the current parliamentary majority must form the new government. “If it does not want to form it, nor to resign, then this majority would be committing the biggest crime against the people and the coming generation will hold it accountable,” the LF leader added. He also said that parliament’s inclination to study a new electoral law is “nothing but a conspiracy,” while noting that the LF-led Strong Republic bloc has decided to take part in Wednesday’s parliamentary session. As for the controversy over the forensic audit of the central bank’s accounts, Geagea said: “Everyone is in cahoots with everyone to prevent the forensic audit.”“We are keen on the audit so that it targets all state institutions, and it is not a luxury but rather necessary and essential,” Geagea went on to say. He also said that he was hoping that Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh would “take the initiative.”

UK, U.S. and Canadian Ambassadors Meet with Army Chief
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling and U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea met Army Commander General Joseph Aoun on Tuesday to discuss progress on the security of the Lebanese-Syrian border, during the High Level Steering Committee (HLSC). They were joined by the Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon Chantal Chastenay. The joint border project has seen the deployment of four Land Border Regiments from the North in Arida to the south in Jebel Al Sheikh in Protected Border Observation Posts and Forward Operating Bases reinforcing “the authority of the State of Lebanon along its land border with Syria,” a British embassy statement said. Following the meeting, Ambassador Rampling said: “I congratulated General Joseph Aoun on Lebanon’s 77th Independence and the role the Lebanese Army plays in safeguarding Lebanon and its people as its sole legitimate defender.”“Lebanon is passing through a dangerous time in its history, and the political response is inadequate. The Lebanese Army plays a pivotal role in ensuring stability. The UK will continue to support the Lebanese Armed Forces,” he added. “Our meeting today with the Lebanese Army command also saw the extension of our existing military partnership on the border until March 2022 which exemplifies the trust in the Lebanese Armed Forces and how they have managed to ensure state control of the border with Syria,” Rampling went on to say. “The UK will continue to stand with the Lebanese people, and support a secure, stable, sovereign Lebanon, including a stronger and fairer economy, quality education for all, improved services, and enhanced security,” he added.

USAID Launches Activity to Support Lebanon's Agri-Food Sector and Rural Economies
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched its newest assistance activity in Lebanon, the Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) activity during a virtual event. The event was held in the presence of U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea and USAID/Lebanon Mission Director Mary Eileen Devitt, and attended by representatives from agricultural and agri-food industries, small- and medium-sized enterprises, governmental organizations, universities, local and international development groups, and other donors. The $57 million, multi-year activity is designed to develop rural economies in Lebanon through support to the agri-food sector and other industries in order to unlock local and export sales potential, while also creating jobs and increasing farmers' and workers' incomes. ARE will work throughout Lebanon with the following objectives: increase domestic and export sales, increase access to financial resources, and improve productivity of micro, small, and medium enterprises. In her remarks, Ambassador Shea stated: “This new activity is a stellar example of the U.S. Government's continuous support for Lebanon's highly productive sector -- agri-food -- by tapping into Lebanon's key economic growth driver -- the private sector."The ARE Chief of Party Brian King noted: "We are excited to launch the Agriculture and Rural Empowerment activity today and begin our support to private-sector led development of Lebanon’s agri-food sector and rural industries, improving firm and sector-level competitiveness at this critical juncture in Lebanon's journey to self-reliance."The event featured the announcement of the first Annual Program Statement, soliciting concept notes from potential Champion Firms, which will be open for twelve months and will lead to Partnership Framework Agreements between ARE and the Champion Firms to develop the sector.

Hassan Says Lebanon to Receive Pfizer Vaccines in Q1 2021
Naharnet/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
Lebanon is scheduled to receive the coronavirus vaccines it purchased from U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in the first quarter of 2021, caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan said Tuesday. “The agreement with Pfizer stipulates receiving the vaccine in the first quarter of next year, which means by the end of March at the latest. But it is expected to receive the vaccine in mid-February with the possibility of bringing this date back or forward by two weeks,” Hassan said after a meeting for the national panel that he has formed to manage the Covid-19 vaccines file. “The Ministry of Public Health is inclined to achieve health safety through the Pfizer vaccine and other vaccines, because it will not prevent the private sector from investing in the vaccines field under the ministry’s supervision, in order to provide the biggest coverage for the Lebanese society,” the minister added.

U.S. Charities Raise Millions in Wake of Beirut Port Blast
Associated Press/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
When Manal Saab heard that a massive explosion had struck Beirut, she grabbed her phone, frantically trying to reach loved ones there. The news she received was good: Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, both of whom live not far from the Lebanese capital's port that was devastated by the Aug. 4 blast, were vacationing at the time. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have survived it," said Saab, an American citizen who lives in Fenton, Michigan, near Flint, but was born in Lebanon. Knowing that her family and friends were safe, a feeling of relief washed over Saab. That changed quickly, though. And her focus turned to a different kind of relief. Within a few days, she and her daughter, Rashal Baz Zureikat, a lawyer, had created the Lebanon Relief Project and were starting to solicit contributions from across the U.S. Santa Barbara, California-based humanitarian aid organization Direct Relief has sent more than $20 million in medicine, personal protective equipment and supplies to Beirut. More than half of that amount was delivered via a FedEx-donated airlift that also included relief supplies from the American Task Force on Lebanon and the Lebanon Relief Project. "People were just waiting to help. They just wanted something to immediately give to, they wanted all that pain to basically get out and give something positive," Saab said. "They wanted to turn all that negative energy into something that will give them some satisfaction that they're able to reach Lebanon somehow." The massive blast killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 6,000 when 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate detonated at Beirut's port. It also devastated several neighborhoods, shattering thousands of residential, historic and other buildings. It is considered to be one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded. The cause of the explosion still is not known, but it is widely seen as the culmination of decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon's ruling class. It came on top of an unprecedented economic crisis. Poverty and unemployment are soaring, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. And the medical community was left reeling as it continues to navigate and keep up with the explosion's devastating long-term effects. The dire situation in a nation once known as a regional hub for banking, real estate and medical services has drawn intense interest in Michigan, which is home to one of the largest concentrations of Arabs outside the Middle East.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib raised "a significant amount of money" via an email campaign, said the Detroit Democrat, who added that she even knew of a girl who brought in some cash for the people of Beirut earned through a lemonade stand. "Even if you are not Lebanese, just being an Arab American … I felt the connection in a big way to what happened and the need to help," said Maha Freij, director of the Dearborn-based Center for Arab American Philanthropy. CAAP has partnered with the ATFL/Lebanon Relief Project in fundraising to support the expense of logistics and shipments. Everyone involved in relief efforts says more needs to be done to assist Lebanon because, as Saab points out, the situation has gone "from bad to worse," due to a COVID-19 surge and strained resources in the aftermath of the explosion. "We're not going to stop," Saab said. "Because if we don't (help), who will?"
 

Lebanon Rationalizes Subsidized Food Basket
Beirut - Inas Sherri/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
Lebanon’s Ministry of Economy announced it would rationalize the food basket by reducing the number of subsidized commodities by 55 to 60 percent, which means reducing its cost from USD 210 million a month to less than USD 100 million. According to the ministry, the step would contribute to prolonging the period of support for additional months, especially with the diminishing reserves of the Central Bank in foreign currencies. “Theoretically, the rationing of subsidies should affect the citizen directly, but in practice the situation will remain the same,” said a grocery store owner in Beirut. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that subsidized goods were not originally present in the market in sufficient quantities, so people in most cases bought the goods at an unsubsidized pricing based on the dollar exchange rate on the black market. “The difference between the subsidized and unsubsidized commodity was not large, and in most cases it did not exceed LBP 2,000 ($1.33 according to the official exchange rate and approximately 20 cents on the dollar price in the black market),” a Beirut resident told Asharq Al-Awsat. The Ministry of Economy had launched the so-called subsidized food basket last July, with the aim of curbing the rise of prices amid a scarcity of foreign currencies that Lebanon needs for its imports. The basket included - before rationalization - 30 basic foodstuffs, in addition to 270 commodities classified as raw materials used in manufacturing. Since its launch, the food basket was widely criticized, especially as it did not help to reducing commodity prices, as repeatedly shown by the price index. Last week, the ministry referred two companies to the Public Prosecution Office, as their subsidized products were seen on the shelves of supermarkets outside Lebanon, which raised concern about illegal smuggling. “The smuggling of subsidized goods and selling them abroad brings big profits in fresh dollars to the merchants,” said Zuhair Berro, the head of the Consumer Protection Association. “Smuggling is not the only way of manipulation,” he added, noting that some merchants “store the subsidized goods to later sell them when the subsidies are lifted, so they make enormous illegal profits.”

Lebanon’s Lawyers Launch National Initiative to 'Recover the State'
Beirut- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
The head of the Beirut Bar Association, Melhem Khalaf, announced on Monday the launch of a campaign to “recover the State”, based on the formation of a government of independent experts, the creation of a senate, and the adoption of a new electoral law. “The initiative is easy to implement and relates to the size of people’s pain, and is open to constructive discussion in a way that reassures all concerns,” Khalaf said in a news conference on Monday. The meeting called for by Khalaf was attended by representatives of trade unions, universities, economic and labor bodies, in addition to civil society groups. The head of the Beirut Bar Association emphasized that the initiative proposed “a new approach that links the citizen to the state on the basis of rights and duties.”Regarding the details of the initiative, the head of the Bar Association in Tripoli and the North, Mohammad Mrad, explained that it was based on “the urgency of forming an effective, fair, and reliable government of independent specialists with specific and limited legislative powers within a specific time limit.”He said that the new government’s first priorities should focus on the implementation of a financial, economic, and social rescue plan, achieving full justice in the Beirut port explosion case, and putting forward a national plan to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and its repercussions. Mrad stressed that according to the initiative, the “restructuring of power begins by approving a Senate law, in line with the constitution, and adopting an electoral law outside the sectarian framework, provided that the discussion on this shift takes place in a manner that reassures the Lebanese and protects their sectarian particularities.”

More difficult times to come for Lebanon when food, fuel subsidies lifted
Rami Rayess/Al Arabiya/November 24/2020
Lebanon is expected to lift its oil, flour, and medicine subsidies soon as reserves at the central bank diminish, and the prices of goods, already inflated, will rise further as a result. Meanwhile, the stalemate in cabinet formation only aggravates the situation. And if the new cabinet, when established, does not gain confidence from the international community and financial donors, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the situation will continue to rapidly deteriorate.
Each day, an estimated amount of $12.2 million is spent by the Central Bank to subsidize flour, fuel and medicine which equals almost $4.5 million annually. Experts say that only $2.4 million of these amounts actually help the needy people whereas the rest of the amount which reaches almost $9.8 million goes to the benefit of traders, mediators, and those smuggling goods across the border to Syria.
It is well-known that goods, including fuel and flour, make their way from Lebanon to Syria, and yet, the ruling elite has done little to curb the activity that diminishes Lebanon’s central bank’s reserves.
A recent study by Lebanese experts stipulated that only 20 percent of the subsidized products reach the needy Lebanese citizens, whereas almost 30 percent benefit people in Syria from smuggling those products from Lebanon, whereas another 10 percent are exploited by Lebanese merchants and traders, and the remaining 40 percent benefit the Lebanese citizens who are well to do and are not in need of this support.
Nearly all goods in Lebanon have been subject to sharp inflation. Only fuel prices have remained steady, but they are expected to rise dramatically when the subsidy is lifted. When lifted, the country's small industrial sector will also be hard hit.
The study also showed that every day the state delays reviewing the subsidy policy, $9.8 million is lost.
While cabinet formation is the first step, Lebanon desperately needs a plan to address its dwindling reserves, while gradually boosting confidence in its financial systems, paving the way for cash flow to increase. Cash flow is needed to stop the quick devaluation of the Lebanese pound and give the local currency's purchasing power a chance to recover.
Experts have proposed alternative suggestions, such as extending direct support for the impoverished families. This program is not expected to cost more than $1.5 million annually, and these funds could be disbursed through ATMs or through direct purchases of commodities in stores.
Instead of allowing the remaining reserves to be squandered through smuggling subsidized goods across the border to Syria, this proposed mechanism would support the families who need it the most, and it is the best way to guarantee that the allocated support reaches those really in need.
This week, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) which has a parliamentary bloc of eight members, proposed similar suggestions to rationalize subsidy policies by reducing the high costs and reorienting aid toward needy families, which the party estimated to be around 313,500 families.
The PSP estimated that subsidizing commodities should cost around $150 million annually, rather than the $2.67 billion it currently costs, as it announced in a press conference held at its headquarters last week.
The party also called for substituting subsidized medicine with less expensive alternatives, which would reduce costs by almost $350 million.
However, adopting this plan seems far-fetched because the network of beneficiaries under the current subsidy policy is widespread, and that network will likely block any proposed review.
Even if a cabinet is formed soon, it’s not a guarantee that the cabinet will be able to pull the country back from the brink. The mandatory path toward salvation is through striking a deal with the IMF, which requires a trustworthy cabinet that conforms to the requisites of the French Initiative, which French President Emmanuel Macron proposed shortly after the August 4 Beirut port explosion.
Paris has sent an envoy to push Lebanese politicians to revive their doomed initiative using carrots and sticks, announcing that it will postpone the donor conferences that it previously announced and that any upcoming conference will extend aid straight to NGOs and the Lebanese authorities.
Meanwhile, Lebanon continues on its steady decline, and an urgent revision of the subsidy policy needs to be done as quickly as possible to extend aid to the most impoverished families and to reduce the squandering of reserves of the Central Bank, which are, at the end of the day, the people’s deposits.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 24-25/2020

Joe Biden introduces security team 'ready to lead the world'
AFP/November 24/ 2020
WILMINGTON, United States: President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday introduced a seasoned national security team which he said was prepared to resume US leadership of the world once Donald Trump leaves the White House. The six women and men he has chosen to be his key diplomats and intelligence advisers said they would implement a return to multilateralism, global cooperation and fighting climate change after four years of Trump’s go-it-alone policies. “It’s a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure,” Biden said, introducing his picks for secretary of state, national security adviser, intelligence chief, homeland security and other key cabinet jobs. “It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back. Ready to lead the world, not retreat from it,” Biden said. Antony Blinken, Biden’s choice for secretary of state, vowed to pursue cooperation around the world, saying that the United States cannot solve global problems on its own. “We have to proceed with equal measures of humility and confidence,” Blinken said. “As the president-elect said, we can’t solve all of the world’s problems alone. We need to be working with other countries, we need their cooperation. We need their partnership,” Blinken said. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s choice to be the next ambassador to the United Nations, echoed those sentiments. “I want to say to you: America is back. Multilateralism is back. Diplomacy is back,” she said. “The challenges we face — a global pandemic, a global economy, the global climate change crisis, mass migration and extreme poverty, social justice — are unrelenting and interconnected, but they’re not unresolvable if America is leading the way.” Former secretary of state John Kerry, who Biden chose as his special envoy on climate change, confirmed the new administration would bring the US back into the Paris climate accord after Trump pulled out of the landmark 2015 deal. But Kerry also warned that the Paris pact he helped negotiate was not enough to fight global warming, and called Tuesday for a UN conference in Glasgow next year to push for more.
“You’re right to rejoin Paris on day one. And you’re right to recognize that Paris alone is not enough,” he said to Biden. Biden also introduced Cuban-born Alejandro Mayorkas, tapped to become Homeland Security secretary; Avril Haines as director of national intelligence, and Jake Sullivan as his White House national security adviser. All three pledged to maintain an environment of professionalism among the government officials they will oversee, obliquely referring to the politicization of much of government work that left much of the bureaucracy dispirited under Trump.

Pennsylvania Certifies Biden Election Win
Agence France Presse/November 24/ 2020
Pennsylvania officially certified Democrat Joe Biden's election victory in the state over Donald Trump on Tuesday, a day after the president agreed to a transition but stopped short of conceding. Governor Tom Wolf tweeted that the Pennsylvania Department of State had "certified" the results of the November 3 vote, after Michigan did the same on Monday, in the latest setback to Trump's attempts to overturn his defeat. "As required by federal law, I've signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris," Wolf wrote, referring to Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes. Biden won the state by 81,000 votes out of some 6.9 million cast. Trump had taken the state by 44,000 votes over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump had made Pennsylvania, one of the states he needed to win reelection, a key part of his failed legal attempts to overturn his election defeat. He has claimed, without evidence, that he was defeated due to fraudulent voting and counting practices in several states. Over the weekend a Pennsylvania judge rejected a legal challenge submitted by the Trump campaign which sought to nullify millions of votes. And the Pennsylvania Supreme Court turned back another Trump challenge Monday over counting mailed votes where the ballots were not completed perfectly. Michigan's Board of State Canvassers officially certified Biden's win on Monday after he topped Trump by nearly 156,000 votes out of the 5.5 million cast. Georgia certified Biden's victory there on Friday after a recount, but will undertake another machine review of the ballots at the Trump campaign's request. Almost no one expects a different result.
Nevada, another state where Republicans have sought to have Trump's loss overturned, will certify its vote on Tuesday. And two other states where Trump has challenged results, Wisconsin and Arizona, have until next week to finalize their counts. But as in the other states, Trump's deficit in the vote is unlikely to be significantly affected by recounts and reviews. State certification is normally routine but Trump's refusal to admit defeat complicated and delayed the process in key states. On Monday, Trump acknowledged for the first time that the government agency meant to ease Biden's transition into the White House must "do what needs to be done."But he added: "Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good fight, and I believe we will prevail!"

Iran sees foreign firms returning if U.S. lifts sanctions
DUBAI/Reuters/November 24/2020)
Iran expects foreign companies to return to the country if U.S. sanctions are lifted under President-elect Joe Biden and some firms have made initial contacts already, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Tuesday. Major foreign companies left Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump two years ago abandoned Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and restored economic sanctions. Washington has since blacklisted dozens of foreign companies accused of cooperating with Iran. “Recently, contacts about opening offices and the presence of foreign companies in Iran have increased,” Rabiei told a news conference that was streamed live on a government website. Rabiei said companies which did not leave Iran despite sanctions could be given more opportunities in the future. He did not name any of the firms. “Some are considering reopening offices, but some companies... never closed down completely. These companies will definitely have more opportunities to operate,” Rabiei said. “...Certainly, with the... lifting of the oppressive sanctions and the absence of Trump, the presence of foreign companies and a willingness to invest in Iran will increase.” Biden has pledged to rejoin the 2015 accord, agreed by Washington when he was vice president, if Iran also returns to compliance.But diplomats and analysts have said this was unlikely to happen overnight as the distrustful adversaries would both want additional commitments.
**Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie

Two Blasts kill 7 in Syrian Opposition-Held Northwest near Turkish Border
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
Two bomb blasts killed at least seven people and wounded scores on Tuesday in areas of northwest Syria near the Turkish border and under heavy Turkish influence, witnesses and police sources said. Five people were killed and 20 wounded, some critically, in a blast that exploded at a road junction on the outskirts of the city of al-Bab, north of Aleppo province, they said.A few hours later, at least two civilians were killed and 17 wounded in a car blast in the city of Afrin, a mainly Kurdish area which Turkish forces and their Syrian allies took from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in 2018. Videos posted on social media showed footage of mangled cars and extensive damage to an industrial area with fires burning. Reuters could not immediately vouch for their authenticity. Civil defense officials said the death toll was expected to rise. The two cities, which Turkey administers with the help of Syrian opposition factions it backs, have in the last year been frequently hit by bombings detonated in crowded civilian areas. Turkey and its opposition allies accuse the YPG of carrying out the blasts that have killed dozens in the mainly Arab populated towns near the border under their control, saying their goal is to make them ungovernable and sow fear among civilians. There was no immediate comment from the YPG, which has denied previous accusations of attacks on civilians. It says it only targets Turkish soldiers and their allies in a guerrilla campaign to drive out “occupiers”. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group tied to the PKK inside its own borders, and has staged incursions into Syria in support of Syrian opposition factions to push it from the Turkish frontier. Ankara now retains a large military presence in the area deploying thousands of troops in the last opposition enclave.

Bombings, Minefield Kill 29 in Pro-Turkey North Syria
Agence France Presse/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
Twenty-nine people were killed Tuesday by explosives in three separate incidents in parts of north Syria along the border with Turkey, a war monitor said. There was no immediate link between the two car bombings near Al-Bab and in Afrin that killed a total of eight people, or the incident that claimed 21 lives in a minefield. Syria's civil war has evolved into a complex conflict involving world powers and jihadists since it started with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011. In the north of the country, Turkey and its Syrian proxies control several pockets of territory following three military incursions since 2016 against the Islamic State group and Kurdish fighters. In the first incident, explosives planted in the car of a police chief on the outskirts of Al-Bab detonated and killed him, two other policemen and two civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Nineteen people were wounded, the Britain-based monitor added. An AFP photographer saw the charred, mangled remains of a vehicle at the site of the explosion. In the town of Afrin, a car bomb went off near a bakery, killing three people and wounding 16 others. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast. There have been a string of attacks in Al-Bab since its capture by Turkish troops from IS in 2017. Several have also hit Afrin, which Turkey and its Syrian proxies seized from Kurdish fighters in 2018.Elsewhere in north Syria, a group of pro-Turkey fighters were killed overnight near the town of Ain Issa when they walked into a minefield laid by Kurdish-led forces, the monitor said.
- 'Scourge' -
They were among around 30 Turkey-backed combatants who had been trying to sneak into Muallaq village after sending in drones to bombard it, said the Observatory. But they became ensnared in a minefield laid by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), killing 21 and wounding the rest.
UN humanitarian official Mark Cutts deplored "another horrific car-bomb in Al-Bab today with more civilian casualties". "Car-bombs remain a deadly scourge in Syria," he tweeted. The Observatory said the Al-Bab bomb was "likely" planted by an IS sleeper cell. Al-Bab was one of the western-most strongholds of the territorial "caliphate" that IS in 2014 declared in Syria and neighboring Iraq. The U.S.-backed SDF seized the last scrap of that territorial proto-state from the jihadists in eastern Syria in March last year.
But the jihadist group continues to carry out attacks through a network of sleeper cells operating in some regions it used to control.
Last year, Turkish soldiers and their Syrian proxies seized a 120-kilometer (70-mile) stretch of land from Kurdish fighters on the Syrian side of the border.
Since then, pro-Ankara fighters have been stationed to the north of Ain Issa, and sporadic skirmishes have broken out between them and SDF.
Syria's civil war has killed more than 380,000 people since March 2011.

Sudan Transitional Government Divided Over Israeli Delegation’s Visit
Khartoum, London- Mohammed Amin Yassine and Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
A visit by an Israeli delegation to Khartoum on Monday has revealed a clear division between the civilian and military components of the transitional government. While Abdalla Hamdok’s government has denied knowing anything about the delegation’s visit, its mission, and the parties it would meet with, the military component was reported to have arranged the visit without referring to the premier. Minister of Culture and Information and the official spokesperson for the Transitional Government Faisal Mohamed Salih told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that no party has contacted the government about the visit. “We do not have any information about its members, its mission, or who it will meet with.”Asharq Al-Awsat has learned that a business jet landed at Khartoum Airport at 10:30 am on Monday, carrying a small Israeli technical delegation, and was scheduled to leave at 5 pm the same day.
Meanwhile, sources from Khartoum’s airport denied knowing the party that granted the permission for the plane’s landing, and no Sudanese party has revealed the goal of neither this visit nor its nature. The visit was arranged by the military component in the country’s Sovereign Council, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat, affirming that the transitional government was not informed about the visit. The delegation, which included a specific group of Israeli officials, was scheduled to meet with Sudanese military officials, in preparation for a visit by a large Israeli delegation in the near future to discuss bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy, agriculture, and water. Several sources in Israel have affirmed that a delegation was sent to Sudan on Monday, in the first visit since October’s announcement of normalization of relations between the two countries. Israeli Army Radio (Galei Tzahal) said that Head of the Israeli National Security Council Middle East, Africa, and Special Liaison Desk Maoz had left Israel on Monday morning heading to Khartoum after both countries pledged to normalize relations. Asharq Al-Awsat learned that the delegation was scheduled to visit Khartoum last week. But, even back then, the government denied being informed of the visit. In October 2020, the Jewish state reached and Sudan reached an initial US-brokered deal to gradual steps on normalizing relations. The deal followed US pressure and pledge to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, allow Khartoum access to international aid, release Sudan’s frozen funds in the US and establish full relations with Israel.

Iraqi Kurdistan Region Seeks to Stop Violence against Women
Erbil – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani expressed outrage over continued abuse of women’s rights, stressing that there is no honor in murdering women. “We will not tolerate or accept violence against women in the name of honor — those responsible will pay a heavy price for their crime,” he vowed. He made his statement after a woman was hanged to death by her brothers in the district of Kalar, Garmiyan on Friday. The murder drew widespread condemnation and went viral on social media.
Police forces arrested four suspects hours after the discovery of the woman's body. Three of the detainees were the victim’s brothers, who confessed to the murder. Police said she was killed over a “social issue.”“Talabani, from the moment he heard about the incident, contacted the Garmiyan administration and asked to personally follow up on the investigation,” Garmiyan administration supervisor Jalal Nuri Abdul Qadir told Asharq Al-Awsat. The deputy prime minister stressed the need to conduct accurate and transparent investigations. “Talabani has a dedicated interest in all issues related to women's rights, and he has a clear strategy in this area,” his spokesperson Samir Hawrami told Asharq Al-Awsat. He has also established a special taskforce to follow up on issues related to women’s rights and raise awareness on gender equality. Hawrami also affirmed that Talabani, after his appointment as deputy prime minister, had made sure to place women's rights and gender equality at the core of his work in government. He reiterated Talabani’s strong belief in the importance of the role of women in society, and the need to confront the outdated traditions that restrict all women and violate their freedom and rights as a human being.

Drums of War Beat Again in Libya amid Military Mobilization
Cairo – Khaled Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 24 November, 2020
In a surprise development, the Government of National Accord (GNA), headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, accused the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Khalifa Haftar, of “amassing his forces.” It said he was amassing forces against the capital Tripoli, where the GNA is based, and on the outskirts of the strategic central city of Sirte. The GNA declared that it was ready to defeat any potential attack. The LNA ignored the claims, but sources revealed that militias in western Sirte were amassing at Turkish orders to attack the military in Sirte and al-Jufra. They denied the GNA allegations that the army was preparing to attack Sirte, dismissing them as baseless. Such allegations are aimed at obstructing the work of the joint military committee (5+5) that had resumed its talks on Monday. The committee, which includes officers from the LNA and GNA, had in October agreed to a ceasefire in the country. These claims coincided with significant developments in Tripoli where pro-GNA militias stormed several government buildings, including the National Oil Corporation (NOC) headquarters. NOC said in a statement the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) had stopped an armed group from entering the building and that nobody was hurt in the incident. It said the assault followed threats made against a senior NOC official. Witnesses in Tripoli said that militants had also tried to storm the central bank. Tensions continued into the night. The GNA has yet to comment on the developments.

US set to designate Iran-backed Houthi militia as terrorist organization
Joseph Haboush and Nadia Bilbassy-Charters, Al Arabiya English
The Trump administration is set to designate the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen as a foreign terrorist organization in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the decision. But a group of senators is trying to push back on the decision, saying that such a move would make it harder to negotiate a peace agreement. Nevertheless, the outgoing US administration is expected to continue and even escalate its maximum pressure campaign on Iran and its proxies in its final weeks at the White House. US officials do not publicly preview sanctions designations, but administration officials have confirmed to Al Arabiya English that the move is “imminent.”Foreign Policy first reported the anticipated move, although it remains unclear whether the entire militia will be sanctioned or just specific leaders and allies. A senior US official traveling with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week to the Middle East also remained tight-lipped about the decision. But the official told reporters: “We would hope that the Houthis would negotiate in good faith ... with UN representative Martin Griffith towards finding a political solution for the war in Yemen.” Opposition to such a move has been voiced by humanitarian groups who say this might hamper efforts to provide badly-needed aid to areas controlled by the Iran-backed militia. US Senators Chris Murphy, Todd Young and Chris Coons released a statement criticizing the potential designation because of their belief that it “would almost certainly prevent the critical delivery of food, medical supplies, and other items necessary to combat both COVID-19 and famine.”Analysts say it could also hamper the private sector, which Yemen heavily depends on for imports. “The Houthis are so involved in the local economy that it’s hard to be a businessperson or trader without going through a bank or shipping company affiliated with them [Houthis],” said Elana DeLozier, the Rubin Family Fellow in the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. But the Trump administration and State Department have been looking at ways to grant exceptions or permission for humanitarian aid to continue flowing into the war-torn country without facing the threat of sanctions. The Trump administration hopes such a move would pressure the Houthis to negotiate a political settlement with the local government to end the yearslong war.
DeLozier said the administration believes that this designation would “create some leverage” between the Arab coalition and the Iran-backed Houthis in the future. Early Monday, the Houthis launched a missile at a petroleum products distribution station in Jeddah, causing a fire in a fuel tank. The fire was extinguished, and there were no injuries or casualties due to the attack. Saudi Arabia has been targeted with dozens of ballistic missile and drone attacks launched by the Houthis since last year. This included a devastating strike on Aramco’s facilities in the country’s east, which temporarily knocked out half the kingdom’s crude output.with AFP

CSIS alleges Iran used Toronto company to wire millions to Canada despite sanctions
Stewart Bell & Sam Cooper/Global News/November 24, 2020
A Toronto currency exchange business helped Iran secretly wire millions of dollars into Canada in violation of sanctions, according to a classified intelligence report that calls the financial transfers a threat to national security.
A Canadian Security Intelligence Service report obtained by Global News accuses Alireza Onghaei, the investor immigrant behind the company, of “assisting the government of Iran in the clandestine wiring of monies into Canada.”The money was routed through Dubai in order to “circumvent sanctions,” CSIS wrote in its Dec. 20, 2019, report on Onghaei, the owner of ONG Currency Exchange Inc., on Toronto’s Yonge Street.
The total amount allegedly funneled into Canada from Iran was not known, but CSIS wrote that “we assess it to be in the millions.” One transfer alone was for $600,000, according to CSIS. CSIS did not specify when the alleged transfers took place or what the money was used for, but wrote that its investigation was related to “foreign influenced activities … that are detrimental to the interests of Canada and are clandestine or deceptive.”The report shows how Canadian intelligence officials suspect the Iranian regime has dodged international sanctions by passing money through the United Arab Emirates and using small currency exchange companies to move it to Canada. The United Nations began imposing sanctions on Iran in 2006 in response to its nuclear program. Canada imposed additional sanctions in June 2010.
ONG Currency Exchange was registered as a Canadian money services business in January 2010. Corporate records show the business was registered to Onghaei’s home address and he was the sole director. ONG offered “safe and secure” money transfers, according to its website.
The CSIS report alleged Onghaei’s company would transfer money to Canada from Bank Saderat, which is controlled by the Iranian state. The bank is the subject of Canadian sanctions, and the U.S. Treasury alleges Iran uses it to fund Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.
During an interview with CSIS on Nov. 27 and 28, 2019, Onghaei “admitted to having owned a private money exchange company that would transfer funds from Bank Saderat and other Iranian financial actors into Canada,” according to the intelligence report.
“In order to do so, Mr. Onghaei explained that Bank Saderat would transfer money into Dubai, United Arab Emirates to circumvent sanctions; from there, funds were transferred to his Canadian-based company.”
“For additional clarity, Mr. Onghaei stated that he knows the process of circumventing economic sanctions is clearly illegal. Yet, Mr. Onghaei admitted to having conducted such activities for at least three years,” CSIS wrote.
“Mr. Onghaei also admitted that the GoI [Government of Iran] has used his company to funnel money into Canada, and stated that, in order to allow for such a process to occur, he ensures that funds are processed in the UAE to circumvent economic sanctions.”
ONG’s registration was revoked in 2012, according to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 24-25/2020

UK, France and Germany discuss working with Joe Biden on Iran nuclear deal
Foreign ministers hope US will lift sanctions in effort to revive 2015 agreement with Tehran
Patrick Wintour/The Guardian/November 24/2020
uropean foreign ministers from Germany, France and the UK have met to discuss a joint approach with the incoming Joe Biden administration on reviving the Iranian nuclear deal. The three nations, whose ministers met in Berlin, are hoping Tehran can reach an agreement under which the US would lift its crippling sanctions in return for Iran ending its non-compliance with the 2015 agreement constraining its nuclear activities. German officials added Europe would consider its response if Donald Trump in the dying days of his administration mounted a surprise attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. Biden, the US president-elect, has said he wants the US to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, the formal term for the Iran deal signed in 2015, if Iran ends its acknowledged breaches of the agreement, including the excess stockpiling of enriched uranium.
Germany, France and the UK, known as the E3, issued a strong joint condemnation last week of Iran’s latest breaches, including the use of more advanced centrifuges.
Gathering at a government villa outside Berlin, the foreign ministers Heiko Maas of Germany, Jean-Yves Le Drian of France and Dominic Raab of the UK met to discuss “what a further approach involving all signatories to the JCPOA, and perhaps also with a new US administration, could look like”, according to German officials. One diplomat said the aim was to get the JCPOA back to its original purpose – curtailing Iran’s nuclear programme.
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Formal talks between the Biden team and Europe cannot yet start, but the E3 has been urged to act as a mediator between the US and Iran, where a heated debate is under way about how to view the Biden administration’s intentions.
Some European officials are advising it may be easier for the EU to mediate an understanding whereby Iran quickly ends its breaches of the agreement and the US president lifts its economic sanctions by executive order. The agreement could temporarily be reached with or without the US formally returning to the JCPOA.There may be barriers to such a quick formal return to the agreement, however, if Iran were to demand watertight mutual guarantees of future compliance, and possible US compensation for imposing sanctions. The US, for its part, may require Iran agree to update and broaden the 2015 agreement to include Iran’s missile programme and Iran’s relations with its neighbours, such as Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, last week suggested Iran might need guarantees before letting the US rejoin the old JCPOA. The former EU chief negotiator Federica Mogherini advised the US not to try to negotiate an updated JCPOA too quickly. Speaking at a European Leadership Network event, she said: “I don’t see the possibility of moving on to new elements unless and until JCPOA is fully implemented by both sides. I think this is the starting point and I think we would be mistaken and under a very serious illusion if we were thinking of doing this the other way around.”
Wendy Sherman, the US lead negotiator on the Iran deal between 2011 and 2015, admitted last week: “The nuclear deal is barely hanging on by a thread” in the last months of the Donald Trump administration. “We are in a really tough, tough place where it appears President Trump is trying to create as many chips on the side of the US and Iran is trying to create as many chips on the side of Iran before the new administration arrives,” she said.
Sherman said she believed the Biden team needed to start consultations very quickly with European partners. “Biden has said if Iran is ready to come back into compliance, the US is ready to re-enter, but getting from here to there is complicated,” she said. “Everything is not going to fall back into place on day one.”She advised that the window for gaining any traction may be quite short because Iran is holding its own presidential elections in June. She predicted that conservative hardliners will do well in those elections, making talks more difficult.
Donald Trump’s refusal to concede …
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What Saudi Arabia Is Thinking
Richard Goldberg/Mosaic/November 24/2020
There’s talk of the new American administration moving closer to Iran. Could a Saudi step toward peace with Israel protect Riyadh from the troubles that might ensue?
The last few months have brought a series of historic firsts to the Middle East, a region that for all its regular news-making has been stuck in a decades-long strategic stasis. Another first reportedly arrived two days ago: a clandestine meeting in Saudi Arabia between the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman. For now it is only an unconfirmed meeting, far from the momentous normalization treaties known as the Abraham Accords that Israel recently ratified with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, or its follow-on peace agreement with Sudan.
There is, nevertheless, an undeniable strategic opportunity at hand for Israel and Saudi Arabia. For the former: diplomatic relations with the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and normal trade relations with the largest economy in the Arab world. For the latter: formalization of a strategic relationship that benefits the Saudi kingdom’s security and its potential for economic innovation.
Will we see a Saudi-Israeli peace treaty in the coming months? With the election of a new U.S. president bent on returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and the appointment of a secretary of state who has pledged to re-evaluate the U.S.-Saudi relationship, the clock is ticking on what could become the most pivotal decision taken by the House of Saud in more than a generation.
Several years ago,Saudi Arabia’s future looked bleak. Thanks to the Iran nuclear deal, the kingdom’s archenemy was newly flush with cash. The Obama administration sought a balance of power in the Gulf, rather than siding with America’s traditional Sunni Arab allies. The price of oil had just dropped 60 percent in three years, creating economic pressures at home. A war in Yemen was dragging on longer than expected; images of emaciated children had become a staple of foreign media coverage, and, with news that the Saudi-led coalition mistakenly struck a school bus with a missile, killing 40 children, a bipartisan coalition in Congress pressed to cut off arms sales to the Gulf and to force the Saudis and Emiratis to withdraw from the conflict.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration was normalizing the Muslim Brotherhood, the Saudi government’s most feared internal enemy. And Congress, still viewing Saudi Arabia as a haven for terror finance and the export of jihad, voted to override a presidential veto that would have blocked the families of September 11th victims from suing the Saudi government.
In Riyadh, it was obvious something had to change. The Saudis correctly assessed that, despite high-level relationships with the American private sector and defense establishment, many in the West still saw them as terrorists. With a new generation coming to power, their country’s position was weakening. An economy built on oil would no longer immunize them from scrutiny, nor would it indefinitely sustain their economy or the rule of the royal family. They needed to try something new, something that would strengthen their own security as well as warm relations with Washington and the West.
Facing a growing threat from Iran, quiet cooperation with Israel’s security and intelligence apparatus accelerated. The unexpected election of President Donald Trump also gave the Saudis an opportunity to rebrand. Saudi Arabia would launch a campaign to present itself as a reforming, progressive kingdom working to liberalize its economy. It was time for Riyadh to move its secret relationship with Israel out of the shadows.
But before it could,it had to deal with a problem that was simultaneously domestic and one of perceptions abroad. For decades, the Muslim World League (MWL) financed radical Islamist schools, scholars, and research while providing hate-filled textbooks to Muslim communities around the globe. This network promoted intolerance of many kinds, including hatred of Jews and the Jewish state. If Saudi Arabia wanted to fight an ideological war against radical Islam and get ahead of any Wahhabi opposition to relations with Israel, the MWL was the place to start.
In August 2016, bin Salman installed the former Saudi justice minister Muhammad al-Issa as the secretary general of the MWL. Al-Issa, an expert in Islamic jurisprudence, entered office with a mandate to counter extremist ideology within the organization. By mid-2017, he was prepared for a global charm offensive to complement the marketing of bin Salman as a reform leader.
But even the greatest skeptics had to concede that what al-Issa was doing and saying went far deeper than public-relations spin. He publicly condemned Holocaust denial and visited Auschwitz. He told Muslim communities abroad to “embrace the nations they live in”—integrating into society rather than radicalizing on the margins. In public and private, he opposed sending Muslim students to Islamic private schools rather than giving them an opportunity to learn science, math, and literature. When accusations of extremism in MWL-connected mosques propped up, al-Issa cut ties.
When my Foundation for the Defense of Democracies colleague Mark Dubowitz and I first met al-Issa in Riyadh, before he had hosted more high-profile delegations or visited synagogues abroad, we probed his views at great length on a myriad of longstanding concerns about the kingdom’s support for extremists. At the end of our meeting, I informed him that I was a Modern Orthodox Jew—a member of a movement founded on similar principles to those al-Issa espoused for Islam in which adherence to traditional Judaism and an embrace of the progressive, secular world were complementary, not incompatible. “You are creating Islamic Modern Orthodoxy,” I quipped.
Around the same time as our visit, Prince Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, a former chief of Saudi intelligence, and Efraim Halevy, a former director of the Mossad, were sharing a stage at a New York synagogue to discuss the Trump administration’s strategy on Iran. Putting the pieces together, it looked to us like the Saudis weren’t just focused on reforms internally; they were laying tracks for normalization with Israel.
By summer, bin Salman lifted the ban on female drivers—once again bolstering his image as a moderating influence moving Saudi Arabia toward a more liberal future. For a moment, Washington looked at Saudi Arabia as part of a better future for the Middle East, not as the natural home of fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers.
Americans overlooked the palace intrigue underway in the kingdom where bin Salman, still fending off competition for the throne, jailed rival royals and elites in the Ritz Carlton hotel. When the Lebanese prime minister dropped out of sight then suddenly appeared in Saudi Arabia announcing his resignation, the incident was simply chalked up as bizarre. Human-rights concerns in an autocratic police state took a back seat. The reform-minded rhetoric and activity, especially improvements in the status of women, had turned around Saudi Arabia’s image in just over a year. Everything was coming together for the kingdom’s future under bin Salman. Everything was still on track for a slow, incremental path to normalization with Israel.
Then camethe killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident who wrote a column for the Washington Post. He was brutally dismembered in a Saudi consulate in Turkey in October 2018, and his murder could not have done more damage to the country’s position. Khashoggi wasn’t an anonymous Saudi locked away in a hotel. He had friends in Washington—in the media, in think tanks, and on Capitol Hill. That the killing was recorded by Turkish intelligence and its details slowly leaked to the media increased the political cost exponentially. Overnight, for many Washington insiders, the image of bin Salman turned from celebrity reformer to brutal dictator.
In the aftermath, Jerusalem was notably silent. Israel had already cast its lot with Saudi Arabia over Turkey and Qatar. With the fall of the Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the election of a Muslim Brotherhood president to replace him, America’s traditional allies in the Middle East—Israel and the Sunni Arabs—were stunned. The Brotherhood had long challenged Arab monarchies in the region while its Palestinian offshoot, Hamas, terrorized the state of Israel. The Obama administration’s acceptance of the Muslim Brotherhood and deepening ties to the Brotherhood’s state sponsors—Turkey and Qatar—provoked the beginnings of the unexpected alliance between Riyadh and Jerusalem.
And Israel wasn’t alone. Political pressure to condemn bin Salman was steadily growing on Capitol Hill and in the media, but the Trump administration was willing to ignore it. President Trump’s instincts militated against criticism of pro-American regimes. In addition, the United States was a month away from re-imposing oil sanctions on Iran as part of the president’s decision to leave the nuclear deal. While the U.S. was not dependent on Saudi oil in the way it once was, the kingdom’s swing production capacity would still be critical in keeping oil markets stable amidst an imminent loss of at least one million barrels per day of Iranian crude. Trump also valued his chief adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner’s relationship with bin Salman—a relationship he assessed would be jeopardized by public criticism. Even so, the administration ultimately imposed sanctions on seventeen Saudi officials despite absolving bin Salman personally of Khashoggi’s murder.
While the executive branch was determined to maintain a strategic partnership with bin Salman despite the Khashoggi affair—a show of loyalty in a region built on trust and relationships—the temperature on Capitol Hill never cooled. Congress sent the president a series of bills aimed at cutting off American arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Trump vetoed them all—building up more chits with Gulf leaders that would come in handy the following year when he put that fantastic goal of every American president, peace in the Middle East, again on the table. Trump’s actions did not lead to a “deal of the century” with the Palestinians, but they did, by happenstance, lead to the Abraham Accords.
It was not surprisingthat when Trump announced in 2017 that he would be moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the pundit class in Washington predicted the Arab world would be set ablaze. The same predictions were made when the president announced he would cut U.S. funding to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA). Outrage and condemnation followed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s declaration in 2019 that the U.S. would no longer consider Israeli settlements inherently illegal. For decades, both diplomats and scholars had insisted the core problem in the Middle East was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Solve that and anything else is possible; otherwise, there will never be peace.
What was surprising, at least to anyone who hadn’t had a private conversation with a Sunni Arab leader in a few years, was the muted response from the “Arab Street” to each of the Trump administration’s moves. Foreign ministries churned out pro-forma statements and the Palestinians worked to get UN votes of condemnation, but no riots erupted and the news cycle moved on from the issues quickly.
Trump’s moves—widely panned by foreign-policy mandarins as counterproductive to peace—were not originally intended to spur Arab-Israel peace agreements like the Abraham Accords. These were actions aimed at the Palestinians, part of a strategy leading up to the rollout of the highly anticipated “Peace to Prosperity” plan. But Palestinian rejectionism and Israeli political turmoil made negotiations all but impossible.
In attempting to lay the groundwork for Palestinian-Israeli peace from the inside-out, however, the Trump administration made a new discovery: peace was possible from the outside-in. The long-standing hypothesis that Arab leaders would pay a price for normalizing relations with Israel was false. The Palestinian issue need not be fully resolved for Arab states to make peace with Israel. And by cementing Arab-Israeli peace treaties, the Palestinians would soon need to make a choice: cut the best deal they can get or get left behind by a changing Middle East.
A few days before the UAEannounced it was normalizing relations with Israel, I published an article in Newsweek that argued that Saudi Arabia and the UAE could hedge against the potential fallout of a Democratic victory in November by normalizing relations with Israel. It was clear to me then—as it is now—that the anti-Saudi, pro-Iran echo chamber in Washington would organize a full-throated campaign to cut off arms sales to both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi and impose further sanctions on Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi’s killing. With Donald Trump out of the way and pro-Iran-deal Democrats in control, the U.S.-Gulf relationship would turn 180-degrees—unless the Gulf states gave the Biden administration a compelling reason to stay on good terms.
The Abraham Accords have already proven my thesis correct. Last summer, President Trump was vetoing legislation to cut off U.S. arms sales to the UAE. Today, Congress is debating whether and how the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would be made available to the same country. The UAE and Bahrain punched their proverbial tickets to long-term U.S. security guarantees as a cornerstone of their peace treaties with Israel—just as Egypt and Jordan had done previously.
Saudi Arabia could have a similar future if it follows its neighbors. Alternatively, it could become the sole target of congressional wrath—facing a long-term cut-off of U.S. arms sales and increased human-rights sanctions on top regime officials, potentially including bin Salman himself. The kingdom could also lose support from Iran hawks who are more inclined to give bin Salman the benefit of the doubt in the context of a maximum-pressure campaign against Tehran. Saudi Arabia’s decision to flood the oil market earlier this year devastated U.S. industry in states represented by Republicans, while China hawks are increasingly alarmed by Beijing’s support for the Saudi ballistic-missile and nuclear programs.
There’s more at stake, too. A normalization agreement with Israel opens the door for bin Salman to relaunch Vision 2030, his ambitious development initiative—this time backed by eager U.S. and Israeli investors. The initiative’s website hasn’t been updated since 2018 when the Khashoggi killing led to an international boycott of what was scheduled to be another star-studded Riyadh investment conference.
The Saudis are undoubtedly watching with jealousy the instant flow of capital to the UAE since the Abraham Accords were signed. Venture capitalists and hedge funds are lining up to establish trilateral U.S.-Israel-UAE investment funds and joint ventures. The three governments recently announced a joint $3 billion fund based in Jerusalem to promote regional integration. Saudi Arabia’s GDP is nearly twice the size of the UAE. The opportunity to establish trilateral U.S.-Israel-Saudi initiatives—or even fully integrated U.S.-Israel-Gulf investment plays—will be even more attractive over time. Vision 2030 already provides the investor roadmap with programs planned across multiple sectors of the Saudi economy. Bin Salman’s digital city on the Red Sea, Neom, might actually get built.
In fact, that this week’s reported clandestine meeting between Netanyahu and bin Salman took place in Neom is significant. The leader of the “Start-up Nation” met with the founder of a smart-city incubator—a reminder that Israeli-Saudi normalization is about a lot more than just Iran.
If securing American arms sales and rebuilding excitement for his country’s economic modernization aren’t enough of an incentive to normalize relations with Israel, bin Salman has one more: Qatar would become more isolated in Washington. No longer could Doha claim to be the moderate Gulf nation when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain have normalized ties with Israel while Qatar continues to support Hamas and pump out anti-Semitism in English and Arabic through Al Jazeera.
How long will Saudi Arabiaspend on the edge of friendship with Israel? The Saudi Royal Court is old-fashioned when it comes to the Jewish state. In its official response to the Abraham Accords, the Saudi foreign ministry declared that the kingdom would not normalize relations with Israel until peace is achieved between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of the Arab (i.e., Saudi) Peace Initiative of 2002.
While bin Salman may assess that radical extremism, Iran, and an oil-based economy are the primary long-term challenges facing Saudi Arabia, his advisers may fear that radical clerics in coordination with rivals within the royal family and foreign intelligence services (e.g., those of Qatar, Iran, or Turkey) would use normalization with Israel as the pretext for a coup or assassination. Indeed, the U.S. philanthropist Haim Saban recently claimed that bin Salman told him exactly that. Incrementalism is thus the preferred approach—opening Saudi airspace to Israeli commercial flights; inserting Israeli characters into Saudi television dramas; and signaling Riyadh’s approval of other Arab countries normalizing with Israel.
But will this incremental approach provide enough reason for a Biden administration to shield bin Salman from what the pro-Iran deal, anti-Saudi wing of the Democratic party will push forward in Congress? Media coverage of the Abraham Accords gives little to no credit to Saudi Arabia for its behind-the-scenes enablement of the other peace treaties. Bin Salman needs a formal agreement with Israel—or at least an institutionalized process for reaching an agreement—to complicate anti-Saudi initiatives in Washington.
This week’sreported meeting between bin Salman and Netanyahu may be a step in that direction. But more is needed—and soon. Within hours of learning about the bin Salman-Netanyahu meeting, President-elect Joe Biden announced that Antony Blinken would serve as his secretary of state. Last month, Blinken told Jewish Insider that a Biden administration would “undertake a strategic review of our bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia to make sure that it is truly advancing our interests and is consistent with our values.”
Ambassador Dennis Ross, a former Middle East peace envoy, has suggested a step-by-step approach that might appeal to bin Salman—that is, staged normalization in exchange for staged Israeli concessions to the Palestinians. Israel, however, may see the status-quo relationship with Saudi Arabia more favorably. Why give in to pressure to make concessions when other Gulf states have normalized in full and more Arab governments may follow?
The UAE wisely leveraged Arab fears of an Israeli sovereignty declaration in the West Bank to spin its normalization agreement as a win for the Palestinians, since the declaration never went forward. Is there something similar Netanyahu could offer to allow Saudi Arabia to claim an achievement toward Israeli-Palestinian peace?
Maybe a normalization agreement commits Israel to a peace process with the Palestinians based on both the Trump peace plan and Arab Peace Initiative. Maybe it recognizes the mutual importance of Jerusalem and guarantees Muslim access to holy sites. Framed correctly, it could offer Saudi Arabia something to tout not just in the Middle East but throughout the Muslim world—without forcing Netanyahu to make concessions his government would not allow.
Can creative and willing minds find something that works? Israel stands at the crossroads of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, and the ball is in the Royal Court.
**Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has served on Capitol Hill, on the U.S. National Security Council, as the chief of staff for Illinois’s governor, and as a Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer.

How Trump can expose biggest lie in Middle East: Palestinian ‘refugee’ myth
Jonathan Schanzer and Richard Goldberg/New York Post/November 23, 2020
The Trump administration may be on its way out, but it can still ­advance American interests between now and January. This is particularly true in the Middle East, where White House policies have arguably been the most effective. With minimal effort, Trump can address the undying fiction of Palestinian “refugees.”The 1948 war for Israel’s independence, a war in which Arab states tried to destroy the nascent Jewish state, produced two sets of refugees of roughly equal sizes. Arab nations expelled their Jewish citizens, who took refuge in newly established Israel. Arabs who fled the Jewish state, however, weren’t resettled. Instead, Arab states insisted they live in UN-run refugee camps. The message: Arabs would soon return militarily to finish a job left undone.
Now, 70 years after the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, was established, the Palestinian narrative of a people waiting to return to their homes inside Israel persists. UNRWA claims to serve no fewer than 5 million “refugees,” even though most of those individuals are descendants of the original refugees. Even more frustrating is the fact that those descendants either ­already live inside Palestinian-controlled territories or maintain citizenship in other countries. In other words, the Palestinian refugee problem is much, much smaller than UNRWA claims it to be.
In 2012, Congress required the State Department to report on the number of people receiving welfare from UNRWA who were alive in 1948 — essentially, an estimate of how many actual refugees remained from the Israeli War of Independence. The Obama administration took several years to fulfill the congressional mandate, and, when it finally did, sent a classified report to the appropriations committees on Capitol Hill. After nearly four years in office, the Trump administration never declassified that report. The decision to keep the report secret is all the more puzzling since former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley cited the agency’s inaccurate refugee count as one of the reasons the Trump administration stopped sending it taxpayer contributions in 2018.
The outgoing Team Trump should issue an updated, unclassified report that provides a current estimate of the number of people receiving UNRWA assistance today who were personally displaced in 1948, aren’t residing within the borders of the Palestinian Authority and aren’t citizens or permanent residents of another country, such as Jordan. This number should be easy to estimate by simply requesting figures from Israeli, Palestinian, UN, Jordanian and other Mideast officials. The public release of these figures could spark an international debate over UNRWA’s mandate. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should also announce an official US policy change that for purposes of future US funding and planning, Palestinian refugees are narrowly defined as people who were personally displaced from then-Palestine between 1948 and 1949 and aren’t currently citizens or permanent residents of the Palestinian Authority or any country. Such a move would challenge the notion that UNRWA is a refugee agency and demonstrate how it instead has kept people in poverty. Unlike the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which has a mandate to resettle refugees, UNRWA has encouraged multiple generations of helpless people to remain erroneously identified as refugees. The policy change would thus upend the mythology of a Palestinian “right of return” — making it clear that Israel determines who becomes Israeli citizens, not a UN agency. With all of this established, destitute Palestinians living in the West Bank might finally be encouraged to lead economically productive lives within a future Palestinian state.
The United States should not be alone in this effort. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are among the agency’s top contributors. As they look to a future of peaceful coexistence with Israel, they can influence UNRWA’s mandate and remove a significant historical hindrance to the peace process. American allies in Europe may also quietly seek to reduce UNRWA’s unending financial burden. They, too, may be persuaded to join a reform coalition. UNRWA has done enough damage. It’s time for reform.
*Richard Goldberg, a former National Security Council official, is a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research.

Washington Can Help Free Turkey’s Highest-Profile Prisoner of Conscience
Aykan Erdemir/FDD//November 24/2020
Among advocates for Turkey’s minorities, Osman Kavala is a secular saint. As a philanthropist, he has been the benefactor of initiatives to document and restore heritage sites, support arts and culture and fund intercommunal reconciliation projects. As a good Samaritan, he has through his projects touched the lives of millions of Turkish citizens—Christians and Jews, Armenians and Kurds, children and LGBTI individuals alike. Sadly, Kavala has been rotting in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison on the outskirts of Istanbul for over three years as Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s highest-profile prisoner of conscience.
In 2018, former U.S. ambassador to Ankara Eric S. Edelman and I warned the Trump administration about Erdogan’s policy of holding Americans hostage and urged the White House to take action. Back then, Pastor Andrew Brunson of North Carolina was the highest-profile victim of Erdogan’s hostage diplomacy—Brunson was one of the 50 Western nationals, permanent residents and employees imprisoned on trumped-up charges while Ankara used them as bargaining chips to extract concessions from their governments.
Four months later, the U.S. Treasury Department issued Global Magnitsky sanctions against Turkey’s justice and interior ministers for their “leading roles” in Brunson’s “unjust detention.” Shortly thereafter, Kristina Arriaga, the vice chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), adopted the pastor as a prisoner of conscience. This pressure worked. Following Brunson’s two years of detention on farcical terrorism and espionage charges, Erdogan allowed him to leave Turkey in October 2018.
It is now time to exert the same kind of pressure on behalf of Kavala, the highest-profile prisoner of conscience in Turkey. Last month, The Washington Post editorial board spoke out on Kavala’s behalf, condemning “Erdogan’s crackpot charges against a harmless activist.” The editors also highlighted how Kavala “exemplified the liberal, secular side of Turkey that Mr. Erdogan despises.”
Kavala’s secular profile makes it even more important for a USCIRF commissioner to adopt the philanthropist as a prisoner of conscience. Since its establishment in 1998 pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act, USCIRF has worked “to uphold the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief for all.” This includes defending secular individuals like Kavala from the oppression of Islamist autocrats like Erdogan.
In 2013, the American Humanist Association commended USCIRF for including discrimination against atheists in its annual report and “raising awareness that religious freedom includes standing up for nonbelievers.” There are millions of Muslims around the world who define themselves as secular, cultural, non-practicing or lapsed as well as many others who no longer identify with the faith. USCIRF’s recognition of a high-profile secular figure like Kavala will send a strong message that persecuted secular individuals are not alone as they face intense pressure not only from their governments but also from their own communities.
Erdogan’s targeting of Kavala, similar to his targeting of Brunson, is clearly the result of religious intolerance and bigotry. A month after releasing Brunson, the Turkish president accused Kavala of being a “terror financier” during his address to local elected officials, adding, “And who is behind him? The famous Hungarian Jew Soros.” The role anti-Semitic conspiracy theories play in guiding Erdogan’s policy is well attested. As Oren Kessler and I have documented, such conspiracies even find their way into government-funded blockbusters broadcast on state television.
Kavala’s “crime” in Erdogan’s eyes, however, goes much deeper than serving a global Jewish conspiracy. As a wealthy benefactor, Kavala has devoted his time and resources to documenting, preserving and publicizing Turkey’s non-Muslim heritage. He has also invested in numerous peace-building projects, including Turkish-Kurdish and Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, two of the most sensitive issues for Erdogan’s ultranationalist coalition partners. Kavala’s courage, which earned him the European Archaeological Heritage Prize in 2019 and the Hrant Dink Award in 2020, also earned him detention in solitary confinement for over three years, despite an earlier acquittal in a Turkish court and a ruling in his favor by the European Court of Human Rights.
It is time for Kavala to come back home, to his family, to his people and to his philanthropic projects, so that he can continue his efforts to build pluralism from the ground up. By adopting Kavala as a prisoner of conscience, USCIRF would send a strong message of solidarity to the courageous individuals in majority Muslim countries around the world who put their lives in danger to protect the rights and freedoms of minorities and their at-risk heritage.
To repeat the winning formula that freed Pastor Brunson from Erdogan’s dungeons, the incoming administration should consider joining the effort to liberate Kavala by issuing Global Magnitsky sanctions on the officials responsible for his detention. This would demonstrate that the United States stands not only for the rights of Americans and Christians, but for all, regardless of nationality, faith or convictions.
*Aykan Erdemir (@aykan_erdemir) is the senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a former member of the Turkish parliament, and serves on the Anti-Defamation League’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

On the West, Colonialism and Civil War
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 24/2020
Almost as soon as the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict went quiet, a new war broke out in Ethiopia between the central government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The threat of the Western Sahara issue being inflamed again also emerged after the incident in the Guerguerat Crossing. Meanwhile, the world confronted, once again, the difficulties of overcoming the conflict in Libya, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Northern Cyprus. The scope of fears expanded: given his inflated imperial proclivities, Erdogan's emergence in a given place is an ominous sign; this small Mediterranean island, in turn, has been the source of the word "Cypriotization" since its war in 1974.
These cases, as well as many others, have a lot in common despite differences in details:
First, identitarian acrimony, be it religious, sectarian or ethnic, feeds most of these conflicts that are also fueled wealth-distribution disparities that are often accompanied by corruption.
Second, international interventions are present, whether direct or indirect, either in defense of existing interests or in pursuit of potential benefits.
Third is the clash between an assertive centralized authority bent on merging peripheries and an assertive and exasperated drive infused with separatism. Both tendencies come from a long line of accumulated hostile stereotypes and sentiments.
Fourth, after the Cold War, the world became less eager to maintain established maps and borders. Civil wars have not merely become more numerous but have also become less constrained by political goals and bound by geopolitical considerations. They are thus harder to solve and more lethal to civilians.
The reasons listed could be brought together under a broader title: the weakness of the state and national building in these countries.
The fact is that the drivers of division and war are not exclusive to those countries and others that resemble them. We see them in many countries, including even European counties like Italy, Spain and Ireland. The difference is that in the latter group of countries, which have attained a relatively high degree of stability, destabilizing factors were balanced out by others. Let us recall some well-known "classical" experiences.
Italy is an example. Its northern half witnessed a tremendous industrial revolution after unification, especially between 1897 and 1913: cars in Turin, steel plants in Elba and Genoa ... Then, after World War II, the massive wave of internal migration from the south to the north took off: more than two million settled, most of them in industrial areas. Two parties that drew cross-regional support were active nationally, though support for the Christian Democrats mostly came from the south while support for the Communists was concentrated in the north. Having chosen parliamentary democracy since 1945, the country was able to absorb some disputes and task its institutions with resolving them. The role of the cultural and intellectual elite in emphasizing Italian unity was crucial to attaining it.
India speaks in 20 tongues, besides its hundreds of minor languages. It is divided into 2,000 ethnic groups, most of which intersect with some kind of class position. Added to this is the presence of worshipers of all religions in the country, though Hindu-Muslim strife is its most prominent religious split. But India is also home to the efficient bureaucracy established by British rule known as the “Indian Administrative Service” and its railway network, the fourth largest in the world. India is also a parliamentary democracy where partisan activity is done on a national scale. While it has declined sharply in recent years, its Congress Party established a well-grounded patriotism since its inception 1885.
Japan is not among the countries seen as vulnerable to being divided. But it is known for its kinship-based loyalties and the adverse effects they leave on its political life through the vast family-owned conglomerates (zaibatsu). On the other hand, Japan is where American occupation was most intrusive on the population's lives; this includes imposing the MacArthur constitution. Japan is also a parliamentary democracy with a party active on a national scale, the Liberal Democratic Party. Like India, it opened itself up unreservedly to technology and allowed for the expansion of large, dynamic business groups.
Of course, this doesn't work like magic, and conflict could sweep through these countries as well. But the experiences mentioned above and others that resemble them establish a kind of immune system that resists divisive conflicts and creates possibilities for resolving deficiencies. This immune system emerges precisely out of being influenced by the fruits of one or another of the revolutions that the West underwent and we did not (the Industrial Revolution, the political revolution, the Enlightenment, the religious Reformation, etc…). Moroccan historian Abdallah Laroui calls them “revolutions we missed out on.”
The expansion of our political conflict, which became cultural conflict as well, made us miss out on more of these revolutions' fruits. All this came before the West itself was struck by the populist setback, accompanied by insularism and the waning of enlightenment principles and the unity of state and society.
The West's presence in these societies' lives thereby became minimized because the West no longer stood for anything more than colonialism (which ended decades ago). By the way, Ethiopia, which might become the next theater of bloody conflict, had never been colonized in the first place.

What a Biden Administration Means for Border Security
Chris Farrell/Gatestone Institute/November 24/2020
"Whenever Obama was in there, drug cartels were so bad that it didn't seem like anybody was fighting the drug cartels... the cartels ruled everything. They ran the dope, they trafficked the young girls, and there were so many more killings." — Border resident, US Southwest.
"Trump had more Customs and Border Patrol agents at the border. Cattle crossings from Mexico were checked, inspected and limited. The cartels have used cattle to move dope for years. Now they'll go back to moving cattle and laundering money back through the crossing here [Santa Teresa, NM] with less law enforcement. It will be a serious step backwards." — Border resident, US Southwest.
The Americans paying the very high price for Biden/Harris reckless open borders policy are in border communities. Biden's reversals spell doom for overloaded (and closed) hospitals, schools, public housing, and courts. Remember: Biden (and the rest of the Democratic presidential field) promised free healthcare to all illegal aliens.
U.S. Customs Service Officer Patricia Cramer, president of the Arizona chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union, revealed in an interview that persons crossing into the United States from Mexico are not health-screened in any way. No temperature taken, no cursory visual exam, nothing.
Remember: In "COVID-world," you cannot go to the gym, and you must "social distance" in absurd ways -- but the border is open, and no one is screened.
In "COVID-world," you cannot go to the gym, and you must "social distance" in absurd ways -- but the border is open, and no one is screened. Pictured: A fence on the border of Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
A Biden administration means two dramatic and dangerous reversals on Trump policies that will endanger the American public: 1. Termination of President Trump's signature 2016 campaign issue -- The Wall; and 2. Loosening of immigration restrictions.
"There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration, No. 1," Biden told National Public Radio earlier this year. "I'm going to make sure that we have border protection, but it's going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it."
Biden is not really promising any border protection at all. It sounds good, but it is a hollow falsehood. Most of the American public does not know about or has forgotten the $30 billion dollar disaster known as "SBInet." We have been down this "high-tech virtual wall" road before. The only winners were defense contractors. The virtual wall does nothing to deter or prevent unlawful entry across the border. It merely provides surveillance and recording of the illegal activity. Thousands of hours of video recordings of such crossings are available on the internet right now. Technology contractors are encouraged that a Biden administration would like to continue watching and recording millions of people entering the country illegally.
The Americans paying the very high price for Biden/Harris reckless open borders policy are in border communities. Biden's reversals spell doom for overloaded (and closed) hospitals, schools, public housing, and courts. Remember: Biden (and the rest of the Democratic presidential field) promised free healthcare to all illegal aliens.
Biden will reverse Trump policies and rules governing legal immigration. He will -- no doubt -- cancel Trump's so-called "Muslim ban" that barred immigrants from certain countries and curtailed legal immigration, including restrictions on asylum claims.
Biden has a long public record, so you will not be surprised to learn that a few years ago he was proudly in favor of building 700 miles of border fence. Biden had a border hawk position back on November 27, 2006 at a Q&A with a Columbia, SC Rotary Club meeting. Notably, Biden has faced criticism for his past track record on immigration issues. Obama/Biden deported 3 million illegal aliens. The Trump administration deported fewer than 1 million over the last 3+ years.
Court battles will continue, of course. Some Trump administration initiatives are still working their way through the judicial process. Biden has committed to restoring the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gives deportation relief and work permits to those brought illegally to the U.S. as children. Please remember, many of those "children" are now in their early 30s. The Trump administration tried to end the program, but that effort was blocked by the Supreme Court.
Biden has also glommed onto the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" mantra, and vowed to initiate a complete system overhaul not accomplished since Reagan's well-intentioned error of 1986. While making that pledge, Biden disavowed workplace enforcement raids and sees no reason why illegal aliens cannot immediately begin receiving public assistance from taxpaying Americans.
Setting aside big national policy considerations, let us focus again on the border communities and the Americans directly at risk. Almost seven years into a Judicial Watch investigation dealing with Mexican Cartel penetration of federal, state and municipal law enforcement organizations in the El Paso, Texas region, we uncovered facts that resulted in the Department of Justice Inspector General taking direct action. Corrupt law enforcement officials at the federal, state and municipal level were removed. Other corrupt officials were effectively "neutralized" through exposure and pressure, even if they were not publicly acted against criminally or administratively. We also uncovered and exposed an El Paso-based narco-terror ring headed by Al Qaeda's director of operations for North America, Adnan El Shukrijuma (deceased), targeting Chicago landmarks. A 48-minute documentary explaining the plot, "The Sun City Cell," can be found on YouTube.
What are Americans in El Paso, Texas, Nogales, Arizona, and San Diego, California concerned about with respect to Biden administration border security? Over the past two weeks, in emails and phone interviews, border residents provided the following observations:
"Whenever Obama was in there, drug cartels were so bad that it didn't seem like anybody was fighting the drug cartels... the cartels ruled everything. They ran the dope, they trafficked the young girls, and there were so many more killings."
"Trump had more Customs and Border Patrol agents at the border. Cattle crossings from Mexico were checked, inspected and limited. The cartels have used cattle to move dope for years. Now they'll go back to moving cattle and laundering money back through the crossing here [Santa Teresa, NM] with less law enforcement. It will be a serious step backwards."
"What happens when the next 'caravan' from Honduras and Guatemala shows up? Does everyone gain immediate access to the country and get free healthcare, no questions asked? That's what they promised. They show crying women and children on the news, but that is a tiny percentage of the people in the 'caravans' -- they are almost all young men -- but the media lies about that and doesn't show the real story. God, help us!"
U.S. Customs Service Officer Patricia Cramer, president of the Arizona chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union, revealed in an interview that persons crossing into the United States from Mexico are not health-screened in any way. No temperature taken, no cursory visual exam, nothing. The "locked-down border" under President Trump is a lie. Now, imagine the health and safety conditions under a Biden administration. Remember: In "COVID-world," you cannot go to the gym, and you must "social distance" in absurd ways -- but the border is open, and no one is screened.
The (purportedly incoming) Biden administration is promoting a 4 to 6 week national lockdown. The country is in the midst of an "Alice in Wonderland" public health crisis -- and the Biden administration is promoting border security and immigration policies that are completely contradictory to what American citizens are enduring.
Is this what we all have to look forward to over the next four years?
*Chris Farrell is a former counterintelligence case officer. For the past 20 years, he has served as the Director of Investigations & Research for Judicial Watch. The views expressed are the author's alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.
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Fight against Islamist terror must begin with opposing extremist ideas
Noura Al Kaabi/Al Arabiya/November 24/2020
The barbarity perpetrated by Islamist terrorists in France and Austria in the past few weeks must be condemned unequivocally by all right-thinking people.
That one of the terrorists who attacked worshippers in a church in Nice in France reportedly carried the Quran must make all Muslims sit up and ponder as to how a bunch of fanatics continue to desecrate their faith and its sacred symbols with impunity.
It is also important to note that two places of worship, one church and one synagogue, were among the targets of the attack, leaving no one in doubt that instigating inter-religious strife was the prime motive. Even as terrorist acts perpetrated in the name of our faith create waves of Islamophobia in different parts of the globe, it is essential that we correctly identify and expose the forces of extremism and terror in our midst.
The United Arab Emirates has consistently held that the fight against extremism and terrorism cannot be confined to the realm of security alone. If we are to make any headway in our efforts, we have to fight them at the level of ideas. That is possible only if we identify and expose the groups and ideological streams that generate and disseminate extremist ideas.
We have often faced severe criticisms, particularly in the West, for our staunch opposition to political Islam, or Islamism, which we are convinced is the source of instigation for terrorism in the name of Islam. Unfortunately, many notable intellectuals and political figures in the West were so awestruck by the Islamists that they eulogized them as the only hope for a liberal, tolerant Middle East.
Many Islamist ideologues rose to senior faculty positions in prestigious Western universities and research institutions. They used these opportunities to their advantage and convinced their audiences that Islamism was a force for good.
We have refused to allow a foothold for Islamists in our country and in our sphere of influence. Instinctively and experientially, we knew they were the primary source of extremist ideas in the Muslim world. We also knew that, unlike some other streams of religious bigotry, Islamists were better able to hide their true colors and present themselves as reformers.
That many learned people in the West were credulous enough to fall for their fake charms never surprised us, but made us seriously worry about the implications of the rising influence of Islamism in many parts of Europe. A tendency to valorize them as the true representatives of Islamic intellectualism alarmed us to no end, but our counsel of caution mostly fell on deaf years.
We have no doubt that the only difference between the Al Qaeda, ISIS terrorists, and the seemingly sophisticated Islamist ideologues is that the former are frighteningly honest while the latter are meticulously duplicitous.
I have mentioned these unfortunate truths not to point fingers at this moment of grief and indignation. This is indeed a moment for us all to reiterate our commitment to go all out against zealotry and terror, and buttress our solidarities globally for a final push to eradicate the forces of darkness once and for all. That is easier said than done if we continue to ignore the elephant in the room.
Look at who were the top figures in the Muslim world from different countries that came out and issued provocative and reprehensible statements subtly or overtly justifying the terrorists in the recent weeks. All of them belonged to one ideological spectrum, albeit minor differences between them – political Islam. While religion as faith always elevated human beings to heights of nobility and grace, religion as ideology unleashed mindless violence on a genocidal scale.
We stand with the victims of all terror attacks. We disagree with the controversial cartoons, and, as a Muslim, I am offended by them but I can realize the underlying politics, ongoing exploitation and manipulation that are pursued behind this issue for political purposes. Linking the Prophet Muhammad, who represents a great sanctity amongst Muslims and is far too great to have his name and status exploited in cheap politicized campaigns, to violence and politicization is unacceptable.
Terrorist attacks are not Islam, they are the Islamist interpretation of Islam, and will always deserve our unqualified condemnation, and whole-hearted support in uprooting its terror.
That is precisely the spirit with which our Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan participated at the unity rally where hundreds of thousands of the French people and tens of world leaders gathered in Paris in 2015 to condemn terror attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo killing of hostages in a restaurant and a Jewish supermarket.
UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi greet as they visit the Holocaust memorial together with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas prior to their historic meeting in Berlin, Germany October 6, 2020. (Reuters)
UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi greet as they visit the Holocaust memorial together with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas prior to their historic meeting in Berlin, Germany October 6, 2020. (Reuters)
The sad truth, however, is that we are exactly where we were five years ago because nothing was done to curb the murderous Islamist propaganda in Europe. It is high time European authorities paid closer and urgent attention to the tumor spreading far and wide in their midst. As for the UAE, we are clear-headed in our opposition to extremism and terrorism in all forms and speak out against them without the ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ customary in some circles. We believe that opposition to extremist ideas, alongside promotion of cultural and religious tolerance and harmonious coexistence, is the only way to root out the scourge of terrorism.