LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
September 22/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12/42-48/:”The Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming”, and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful. That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. But one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on September 21-22/2019
Report: Aoun Brings to NY Fears of ‘Involving' Lebanon in US-Iran Confrontation
Aoun receives a congratulatory cable on the establishment of the 'Academy of Dialogue and Convergence'
Berri meets with Algerian Ambassador, Mikati and Hashem at Ain El Tineh Palace
Hariri, Saudi Finance Minister Hold Phone Talks
Jabak inaugurates chronic disease pharmacy at Baalbek Governmental Hospital
Report: Economic Experts Criticize 'Dragging' Measures to Counter Lebanon Crisis
American-Lebanese Man Accused of Supporting Hezbollah
Suspected Lebanese Hijacker Arrested in Greece
Former Lebanese PM Congratulates Saudi Arabia on National Day
Lebanese Judiciary Refers Newspaper Critical of Iran to Press Offenses Court
Australian Court Finds Lebanese National Guilty of Plotting to Blow up Airliner
Syria Says it Captures Drone near Israeli-Occupied Golan
Lebanon's inventors reap three gold, two silver and one bronze medal in Istanbul and Qatar
UAE Ambassador organizes a gathering on diplomacy for peace, honors Archbishop Aoudeh and Mufti Chaar within the 'Year of Tolerance' initiatives
Geagea calls for restoring the decision of peace and war, alognside any other military movements, to the Council of Ministers
Bou Saab meets with Armenian President and Prime Minister, discusses bilateral cooperation in the field of monitoring drones
Mikati receives an Italian parliamentary delegation
Hankash to Radio Lebanon: Government's performance today is the worst; solution is to have a government of specialists away from politics

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 21-22/2019
First Israeli-Saudi air force collaboration for demolishing Iran’s Abu Kamal complex
Iran Issues 'Battlefield' Warning as US Deploys Troops
Tehran seeks to ‘divide the world,’ says Saudi Arabia’s Adel Al-Jubeir
Malta Takes Some Migrants from Ocean Viking, but Leaves Others Onboard
Iran Says Ready for ‘Any Scenario’
Report: Iranian Servers, Websites Come under Cyber-Attack
US Sending More Troops to Gulf, Trump Announces Iran Sanctions
Egypt Achieving New Boom in Gas Production
Abdul Mahdi Calls for Integrated Partnership between China, Iraq
Grand Renaissance Dam: Ethiopia Escalates, Rejects Egyptian Proposals
Dozens Arrested in Egypt after Rare Anti-Sisi Protests
Yemen Rebels Announce Plan to Halt Attacks on Saudi Arabia

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 21-22/2019
First Israeli-Saudi air force collaboration for demolishing Iran’s Abu Kamal complex/DEBKAfile/September 20/ 2019
US Adversaries: Nothing to Fear from the White House/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/September 21/2019
Do Palestinian Leaders Want a Better Life for Their People/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 21/2019
Why Can't Congress Solve Hard Problems/Jonathan Bernstein/Bloomberg/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
When Negotiation Is Impossible and War Is Unnecessary/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/September 21/2019
Only a united front will thwart Iran’s war games/Sir John Jenkins/Arab News/September 21/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on September 21-22/2019
Report: Aoun Brings to NY Fears of ‘Involving' Lebanon in US-Iran Confrontation
Naharnet/September 21/2019
President Michel Aoun will head to New York next Sunday amid fears that Lebanon will be threatened by an escalating military confrontation between the United States and Iran, along with the Syrian displacement crisis and the collapsing economic situation, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said on Saturday. A source close to Aoun told the daily, the President’s speech on Wednesday before the United Nations in New York "is of particular significance because of the pressing issues he will raise, mainly the Israeli violations of resolution 1701,” that reached the southern suburbs of Beirut. Aoun “will urge the international community to persuade Tel Aviv to stop its air, land and sea attacks on Lebanon and to abide by resolution 1701." He will also thank the United Nations for keeping its troops in southern Lebanon to deter Israel, and for extending their mandate without modification, said the sources.
The President will focus on the importance of sparing the Middle East and Gulf from any military confrontation between Washington and Tehran, after the attacks targeting some of the oil facilities of Aramco. The file of Syrian refugees in Lebanon will also be a main concern for Aoun. He will ask for support to reduce the number of displaced Syrians, in light of the economic repercussions on Lebanon as a result of their continued unprogrammed distribution. The second part of the week-long visit to NY, Aoun will hold a series of summits with his counterparts, the most important of which is with French President Emmanuel Macron. The sources said that Macron “may be the only president in addition to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who can spare Lebanon from being part of any confrontation between the US and Iran.”

Aoun receives a congratulatory cable on the establishment of the 'Academy of Dialogue and Convergence'
NNA - Sat 21 Sep 2019
President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, received Saturday a cable of congratulations from the UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, in which she praised "Lebanon's notable achievement in the United Nations through the adoption of President Aoun's initiative to establish the Academy of Human Rights for Dialogue and Convergence in Lebanon."Azoulay indicated that she has attentively followed-up on the various stages of this initiative, which President Aoun personally launched in 2017, expressing her utmost joy that his efforts have culminated in a successful outcome in this respect.
"This Academy, which aims to promote democracy and intercultural dialogue, will carry out its mission alongside the message that the UNESCO seeks to spread in the region," she said. Azoulay reiterated President Aoun's call for exerting efforts to renounce violence and extremism through dialogue. She voiced the UNESCO's readiness to place all its capacities at the President's disposal in order to contribute or provide any needed assistance in this respect, once the Academy is established. "UNESCO, an expert in the fields of intercultural dialogue, coordinates its international programs, on the basis of the Decade 2013-2022, with the United Nations," disclosed Azoulay. She concluded by expressing full confidence in the promising future awaiting this Lebanese Academy, "which shows with great relevance the historical role of Lebanon as a space of mutual understanding, tolerance and coexistence," while pointing eagerly to her expected meeting with the President in New York during the upcoming week to discuss further the framework and scope of this initiative.

Berri meets with Algerian Ambassador, Mikati and Hashem at Ain El Tineh Palace
NNA -Sat 21 Sep 2019
House Speaker Nabih Berri followed-up Saturday with the concerned sides on the resumption of works in one of the queries in al-Aishieh area in Jabal al-Rihan, stressing the need to immediately stop the work of queries and crushers in all regions. He called for ceasing all attempts to tamper with the environment, pending the completion of the directive scheme in this respect which is still under study by the Council of Ministers. "It is not permissible to infiltrate and commit such environmental crimes under the guise of provisional licenses or any other pretext," Berri underlined. Meanwhile, the House Speaker met at Ain el-Tineh today with former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, with talks centering on the latest political and economic developments. He also met with former Minister Joseph al-Hashem, who handed him the discussion paper he prepared on the civil state based on Article 95 of the Lebanese Constitution. Following the encounter, Hashem said: "I perceive that Lebanon is threatened by a greater risk than economic and financial collapse, because it is in danger of losing its existential characteristics, without which Lebanon does not have a civilizational and humanitarian value." He added: "I do not see a way to save Lebanon in light of these political tribes practicing politics in it, expect through a civil state based on Article 95 of the Constitution." "I presented a discussion paper on this subject to His Excellency, the President of the Republic earlier, and today I presented it to Speaker Berri," noted Hashem. "I believe we are very much in agreement that the path to salvation can only be a civil, democratic, civilized state that transcends sectarian citizenship and the state of sects," he underscored. Berri concluded his meetings for today by conferring with Algerian Ambassador Ahmed Bouziane on bilateral relations and the latest developments.

Hariri, Saudi Finance Minister Hold Phone Talks
Naharnet/September 21/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri held a telephone conversation from his residence in Paris with Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Jadaan, and discussed the ongoing preparations for the first meeting of the Lebanese-Saudi Joint Committee, Hariri’s press office said on Saturday. Discussions focused on the agenda of the meeting which includes agreements and memorandums of understanding to be signed between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. They also discussed ways to support the Lebanese economy and the participation of the Saudi private sector in the projects under the CEDRE conference.

Jabak inaugurates chronic disease pharmacy at Baalbek Governmental Hospital
NNA - Sat 21 Sep 2019
Public Health Minister, Jamal Jabak, inaugurated Saturday afternoon a pharmacy to supply medicines for chronic diseases at the Baalbek Governmental Hospital, saying that patients will no longer have to travel long distances to get their medication. Jabak pointed out that some doctors have been prescribing medications that are "not internationally recognized." "...The Health Ministry formed a committee to study every patient's case, after which it would decide whether to provide the prescribed medicine or not," he said, adding that these decisions would not be based on the cost of the medications in question.
"What the committee agrees upon, we will endorse even if the medication costs $100,000," Jabak asserted. "...When we reject a medication or refuse to prolong the period of a specific medicine, it is because the prescribed drug will have an adverse effect on the patient and may threaten his life," he noted.
Finally, Jabak called on doctors not to delude patients with fake drugs.

Report: Economic Experts Criticize 'Dragging' Measures to Counter Lebanon Crisis
Naharnet/September 21/2019
In light of the economic crisis Lebanon is witnessing, economic experts believe that the political response “does not live up” to the measures required to face it, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday. The daily said that experts were “surprised” at the fact that Lebanon did not grasp the opportunity to save its economy after the latest ratings downgrade by Fitch and Standard & Poor's. In August, Fitch bumped Lebanon down to "CCC" while Standard & Poor's kept it at "B-/B" with a negative outlook. They criticized the “emergency” economic meeting that Lebanese authorities held at the presidential palace in Baabda earlier in September. They say none of the measures approved were put into action, it remains a “dead letter,” they said. Speaker Nabih Berri has criticized the slowdown in the implementation knowing it was held under an “urgency” situation. Lebanese authorities at the meeting pledged "swift measures" to stabilise public finances, to accelerate work on the CEDRE agreement, and stressed the need to maintain the stability of the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound against the dollar. French diplomat Pierre Duquesne representing donors who pledged billions in funding to Lebanon last year said there was rising "scepticism" of the country's financial progress, and stressed the "urgency" of the situation. Lebanon has promised donors to slash public spending as part of reforms to unlock over $11 billion (10 billion euros) in aid and low-interest loans pledged at a conference dubbed CEDRE held in Paris in April 2018. Growth in Lebanon has plummeted in the wake of repeated political deadlocks in recent years, compounded by the 2011 outbreak of civil war in neighbouring Syria. Lebanon's public debt stands at around $86 billion -- higher than 150 percent of GDP -- according to the finance ministry. Eighty percent of that debt is owed to Lebanon's central bank and local banks.

American-Lebanese Man Accused of Supporting Hezbollah
Washington, Beirut - Elie Youssef and Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
The US Department of Justice indicted on Friday a New Jersey man on nine federal charges in connection with the Hezbollah party. The Department said that Alexei Saab, also known as Ali Hassan Saab or Alex Saab, carried out surveillance of possible target locations for the Lebanon-based party. He holds a dual Lebanese-American nationality. Saab, 42, from Morristown, monitored dozens of locations in New York City, including the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square and UN headquarters, prosecutors said. The accused man scouted bridges, tunnels and airports, specially focusing on “the structural weaknesses of locations he surveilled in order to determine how a future attack could case the most destruction.” The DoJ also said Saab provided detailed information on these locations, including photographs. Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by the US.
“As a member of the Hezbollah component that coordinates external terrorist attack planning, Alexei Saab allegedly used his training to scout possible targets throughout the US,” US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said. He added that “even though Saab was a naturalized American citizen, his true allegiance was to Hezbollah, the terrorist organization responsible for decades of terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds, including US citizens and military personnel.”FBI Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. stated that Saab began his training with Hezbollah operatives overseas and unveiled multiple locations in major cities. The announcement highlights the persistent efforts of a sophisticated international terrorist organization to scout targets at home and abroad, identifying vulnerabilities and gathering essential details useful for a future attack, he said. Meanwhile, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah renewed on Friday the threats launched by Iranian officials against Saudi Arabia and Gulf states. He warned Saudi Arabia that Iran would destroy it if it started a war in the region. “Don’t gamble on a war with Iran,” he said in a speech broadcast on the party’s al-Manar television. “It will destroy you. Your house is made of glass as is your economy.”

Suspected Lebanese Hijacker Arrested in Greece
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 21/2019
A Lebanese man, accused of involvement in the hijacking of a TWA plane and the murder of a US navy diver, has been arrested in Greece, police said on Saturday. The 65-year-old was spotted by policemen in the island of Mykonos and detained on Thursday, a statement said. Greek authorities said there was a European arrest warrant issued by Germany for the hijacking as well as a kidnapping committed in 1987. Greek media said he was involved in June 14, 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and the murder of an American passenger. The plane was travelling from Cairo to San Diego with stops in Athens, Rome, Boston, and Los Angeles. It was hijacked after it took off from Athens. Over a horrific 17 days, TWA pilot John Testrake was forced to crisscross the Mediterranean with his 153 passengers and crew members, from Beirut to Algiers and back again, landing in Beirut three times before he was finally allowed to stop. On June 15, 1985 during the first stop in Beirut, 23-year-old US navy diver Robert Stethem was severely beaten, shot point blank in the head and thrown onto the tarmac of Beirut airport.

Former Lebanese PM Congratulates Saudi Arabia on National Day
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
Lebanese former Prime Minister Najib Mikati congratulated on Saturday Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, on the occasion of Saudi Arabia’s 89th national day. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, he said: “Every day we sense the deep relations between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.”These firm ties are distinguished by honesty and the highest levels of rapprochement and understanding, he remarked. Saudi Arabia will remain Lebanon’s “older brother” and it seeks at all Arab and international arenas to preserve its security, stability and unity, he added. “On the occasion of national day, we renew our gratitude to successive initiatives the Kingdom has proposed to help Lebanon,” Mikati said. He underscored his support for Saudi Arabia’s efforts to preserve its sovereignty and oil wealth, hoping that the Kingdom will be protected against harm.

Lebanese Judiciary Refers Newspaper Critical of Iran to Press Offenses Court
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
The Lebanese judiciary referred on Friday the case against the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper to the Press Offenses Court. Judge Ziad Abu Haidar had charged the daily, its editor-in-chief Beshara Charbel and managing director George Berbary with insulting the president over a recent headline, “New ambassadors in Baabda… Welcome to the Khamenei republic.” The case had sparked uproar in Lebanon with supporters criticizing the judiciary for infringing on freedom of expression and the freedom of the press. The editors syndicate had demanded that the case be referred to the Press Offenses Court because it has jurisdiction over such affairs. The syndicate hailed the judiciary for complying with its demand, adding that relations between the press, media and judiciary must be based on mutual respect in service of the nation. Lawyer and MP Butros Harb, who represented Nidaa al-Watan, said that the defendants were critical of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s stances, not the president.

Australian Court Finds Lebanese National Guilty of Plotting to Blow up Airliner
Sydney - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
An Australian court has found a Lebanese man guilty of planning to blow up an Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi nearly two years ago with a bomb hidden in a meat grinder, a spokeswoman for the New South Wales Supreme Court said on Friday. Police had accused the man, Mahmoud Khayyat, and his brother Khaled Khayyat of planning two terrorist attacks: the bomb and a chemical gas attack on the flight to Abu Dhabi in July 2017. Khaled was found guilty by the New South Wales Supreme Court in May, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict against Mahmoud. His retrial ended with a guilty verdict on Thursday afternoon for planning “the terrorist act,” the spokeswoman said. Khaled and Mahmoud Khayyat were arrested after police raids in Sydney. Police had said that high-grade explosives used to make the bomb were flown from Turkey as part of a plot “inspired and directed” by ISIS. The court will hear sentencing submissions later, the Australian Associated Press reported. The verdict in Mahmoud’s case came only a few hours before Lebanon’s military court acquitted another brother, Amer Khayyat, of the plotting to blow up the Etihad flight. The military court sentenced the three other Khayyat brothers - Khaled, Mahmoud and Tareq - in absentia to hard labor for life, Lebanese state news agency NNA said late on Wednesday. Lebanon’s police said in 2017 that Tareq was an ISIS commander in Syria. Khaled, Mahmoud and Amer were all living in Australia but occasionally visited Lebanon. Amer landed in Beirut in July 2017 on the day of the plot to smuggle the bomb onto the plane, Lebanon’s interior minister said at the time.

Syria Says it Captures Drone near Israeli-Occupied Golan
Associated Press/Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 21/2019
Syrian authorities captured and dismantled Saturday a drone rigged with cluster bombs near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, state news agency SANA said. SANA gave no further details about the drone but posted several photos of the unmanned aerial vehicle. Israel frequently conducts airstrikes and missile attacks inside war-torn Syria but rarely confirms them. Israel says it targets mostly bases of Iranian forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said it was not clear if Syrian troops or members of Lebanon's Hezbollah controlled the drone. Hezbollah has fighters in different parts of Syria where they are fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad's forces. The incident came two days after another drone was destroyed over the Damascus suburb of Aqraba, where an Israeli airstrike killed two Hezbollah operatives last month. No one claimed responsibility for the drones Saturday. In neighboring Lebanon, a government investigation concluded Thursday that two Israeli drones were on an attack mission when they crashed in the capital last month, one of them armed with 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) of explosives. Meanwhile in neighboring Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday expressed frustration with what he said was the United States' continued support for Syrian Kurdish militants. Speaking to reporters before his departure for the U.N. meetings in New York, Erdogan reiterated that Turkey had completed all preparations for a possible unilateral military operation in northeast Syria, along the Turkish border east of the Euphrates River. Last month, Turkey and the United States agreed to take steps toward establishing a so-called "safe zone" in the area that would keep U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces away from Turkey's border. Turkey has, however, warned that it will not allow the United States to delay the establishment of the safe zone and has threatened to launch an operation on its own within two weeks. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters to be "terrorists" due to their links to Kurdish rebels in Turkey. "We have no wish of confronting the United States," Erdogan said. "However, we don't have the luxury of ignoring the support that the United States is giving terrorist organizations in an area where it was not invited to be."
Erdogan said he would discuss the issue during a possible meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in New York.

Lebanon's inventors reap three gold, two silver and one bronze medal in Istanbul and Qatar
NNA - Sat 21 Sep 2019
The National Commission for Science and Research announced in an issued statement Saturday that Lebanon has won five medals at the Istanbul International Exhibition for Inventions, Research and Development, and at the Doha Oasis Innovation Exhibition. On the Istanbul Exhibition, the Commission indicated that it took place between September 17 and 21, 2019, with the participation of 23 countries and hundreds of inventions. It added that Lebanon participated with four inventions through a delegation headed by the President of the Commission, Higher Education Ministry Representative Radwan Shuaib, with the Lebanese innovations reaping two gold medals, one silver and another bronze medal. As for the Doha Exhibition, the Commission indicated that it was held between September 14 and 20, 2019, and was organized by the Qatari Ministry of Culture and Sports in cooperation with the Forum of Islamic Cooperation Youth, within the events of the "Doha - Capital of Islamic Youth 2019," and with the participation of 45 innovations from 33 countries, in which Lebanon reaped a golden medal.

UAE Ambassador organizes a gathering on diplomacy for peace, honors Archbishop Aoudeh and Mufti Chaar within the 'Year of Tolerance' initiatives
NNA - Sat 21 Sep 2019
Marking the World Peace Day, United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamad Saeed Al Shamsi, organized a gathering at the Embassy headquarters in Yarzeh, with "Diplomacy for Peace" as its main theme. Within the context of the "Year of Tolerance" initiatives, the UAE Ambassador also honored Beirut's Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop Elias Aoudeh and Mufti of Tripoli and the North Malek Chaar. Addressing the prominent guests, high-ranking diplomats and senior political officials attending the event, Al Shamsi said in his opening word: "We do not disagree that achieving peace is one of the noblest goals that our diplomatic community seeks to reach."He added: "We all know that this constitutes many difficulties, which we are working to overcome with a firm will that establishes a better tomorrow." "Amidst all the differences and conflicts in the world today, we in the United Arab Emirates believe that there is room for hope, and opportunities for peace are achievable, including a wide margin of commonalities that unite instead of divide, and a goodwill that seeks to secure a future that makes this world a better place to live," he went on. "Our choice to commemorate World Peace Day comes in full harmony with the spirit of the 'Year of Tolerance' and integrates with what the UAE's wise leadership dedicated to consolidating the concept of peace and spreading its culture at the political, diplomatic and social levels," Al Shamsi corroborated. "My country relies in its practice on fostering a spirit of peaceful coexistence and promoting reconciliatory efforts, a methodology that is successful in international diplomacy," he proudly asserted. He added: "The UAE government is always looking to the future and has a distinct development experience. One of the keys to our success is to consider any achievement as the starting point for another achievement." He noted herein that this challenge has allowed his country to rank first in the region and seventh in the world on the competitiveness index. Ambassador Al Shamsi concluded his word by saying: "On World Peace Day, it is a sincere call for concerted efforts and good will to bring people together. With openness, tolerance and brotherhood, we can paint a future on the road to peace."Al Shamsi then presented both Archbishop Aoudeh and Mufti Chaar with honorable shields in appreciation for their relentless efforts for the sake of spreading peace, kindness, faith and tolerance among citizens and believers.

Geagea calls for restoring the decision of peace and war, alognside any other military movements, to the Council of Ministers
NNA - Sat 21 Sep 2019
Lebanese Forces Party Chief, Samir Geagea, highlighted Saturday the need to restore the government's grip of the decisions of peace and war, and any other military movements in the country. Speaking during a meeting with the electoral machine of the Party's student body in Maarab, Geagea stressed that "our economic plight is enough for us and I hope that officials, especially those who swore on the Constitution, would assume their responsibilities so that we do not face the unknown, at a time when we have no interest in entering the war."Geagea stressed that "the situation in the region as a whole is on a brink, and everybody is well-aware of the possibility that we would slide into what we do not want...However, there remains a one party that still insists on the unilateral decision of peace and war!"At the political level, the LF Chief pointed out that Prime Minister Saad Hariri has intensified contacts with foreign countries since last week, referring to his most recent visit to France and his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, and thanking him for his exerted efforts. "Yet, this is not enough unless the Lebanese state is serious about its reforms. The Prime Minister can tour as much as he wants, but that is not useful if the reforms are not implemented," Geagea emphasized. He also touched on the issue of the illegal border crossings, referring to certain talk that no decision is being adopted to close these crossings due to the benefit some politicians are gaining out of them. Geagea then moved on to highlight the case of Joseph Hannoush, "a Lebanese citizen from Batroun who has been kidnapped for 25 days inside Lebanese territory," noting that "from the very first moment the security services were aware of the incident and knew about his place of kidnap, in addition to investigating those who were with him."Geagea added that for the last 25 days to-date, the only measures undertaken were to advise his family to negotiate with the kidnappers. He, thus, questioned herein "how can a Lebanese citizen trust his country, and how can foreign states have confidence in Lebanon, when a Lebanese citizen remains kidnapped inside Lebanon for more than 25 days with nothing being revealed about his case?!" He stressed that "Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan and Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab are required to take action to ensure the release of Hannoush."

Bou Saab meets with Armenian President and Prime Minister, discusses bilateral cooperation in the field of monitoring drones
NNA - Sat 21 Sep 2019
National Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab pursued his second-day visit to Armenia on Saturday by meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in the presence of Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan. It was agreed during the meeting to reactivate the joint ministerial committee between Armenia and Lebanon, which has not convened since 2004, and which was at the center of discussions between the Prime Minister and his Lebanese counterpart, PM Saad Hariri, during his recent visit to Lebanon. Talks also touched on ways of boosting cooperation in several domains, including the defense field. Moreover, they explored ways in which Lebanon can benefit from the advanced technical research undertaken by Armenia in the field of drones, and the radars capable of monitoring these aircrafts. Furthermore, it was agreed during the meeting with Pashinyan that the Armenian Defense Minister would visit Beirut, accompanied by a specialized team, in order to strengthen military cooperation in all fields between both countries. Bou Saab later paid a night visit, away from media coverage, to a military site in Yerevan where he was briefed on the function of radars in detecting drones. Additionally, the Lebanese Defense Minister held talks with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian on the issue of artificial intelligence and information technology, and ways of bilateral cooperation between Lebanon and Armenia in this context, especially between the Armenian and Lebanese youth and the impact on the economy of both countries. From Yerevan, Bou Saab moved to Gyumri, where he participated in Armenia's Independence Day functions, whereby he was the only official guest invited to attend the celebrations. After that, he returned to Yerevan, en-route to Beirut.

Mikati receives an Italian parliamentary delegation
NNA - Sat 21 Sep 2019
Former Prime Minister Najib Mikati met at his Beirut residence with an Italian parliamentary delegation, in the presence of "Central Independent Bloc" Member, MP Ali Darwish, and Italian Ambassador Massimo Marotti, with discussions centering on bilateral relations between Lebanon and Italy.
Talks also touched on the Italian efforts to support Lebanon at all levels, especially during Italy's mandate in presiding over the European Union. It is to note that the Italian parliamentary delegation is conducting a tour in the region, and has met with members of the Foreign Affairs Committee and other Lebanese officials at the House of Parliament.

Hankash to Radio Lebanon: Government's performance today is the worst; solution is to have a government of specialists away from politics
NNA - Sat 21 Sep 2019
Member of the Lebanese Kataeb Party, MP Elias Hankash, considered the government's performance be the "worst" today, and deemed that the sole solution lies in having a "cabinet of specialists" that can operate away from politics. Speaking in an interview with Radio Lebanon this morning, Hankash said: "The Cedar Conference may be one of the means to save this country, but the state needs to be equipped to achieve the Cedar promises, most importantly the reforms, otherwise we would be pushing the country and the future of future generations to danger zone...for Cedre denotes debts which, in the absence of serious reforms, would be spent in vain without benefiting the Lebanese economy." "We are living on promises, and while we were promised in the 2019 budget, we ventured into more taxes without addressing the basis of the problem constituted in the size of the public sector breaking the state's backbone, the smuggling taking place along the crossings, in addition to tax evasion,''Hankash underlined. "We can no longer live in a country like this. The government cannot make its own independent decision on war and peace, nor is it able to protect citizens from kidnappings and ransom," he corroborated.
On the public waste issue, Hankash considered that "the solution is to go to a sustainable plan and sort from the source, in addition to creating sorting and processing centers in various regions." As for the displaced Syrians' issue, he pointed out that "Lebanon is shouldering a huge burden in addition to its economic, social and environmental problems," quoting a security source as saying that the crime rate has increased in the country with the increase of the displaced.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 21-22/2019
First Israeli-Saudi air force collaboration for demolishing Iran’s Abu Kamal complex
DEBKAfile/September 20/ 2019
The latest round of attacks on Iran’s military complex in Syria’s Abu Kamal region are a joint operation by the Israeli and Saudi air forces, DEBKAfile and Gulf military sources reported on Friday, Sept. 20. Their targets are the al Qods Brigades bases, command centers, missile and ammo stores which Iran has set up close to the Syrian-Iraqi border, as well as Iraqi Shiite militia and Lebanese Hizballah forces. An estimated 100 Iranian and militia combatants were reported killed in the joint operation and several hundred injured.
Western military sources report that the “unidentified” UAVs sighted lately flying over Iranian concentrations in Syria belong to Saudi Arabia. One was shot down on Thursday. Those sources add that the US is providing air cover, as well as running intelligence, but not otherwise intervening in the first Saudi-Israel military collaboration ever to be revealed. It was part of President Donald Trump’s rationale when he decided to hold off from direct US military action in retaliation for Iran’s crippling missile-cum-drone assault on the Saudi oil procession plant at Abqaiq and the Kurais oilfield last Saturday. Trump appears to be waiting to see how the still ongoing Israeli-Saudi offensive against Iran turns out.

Iran Issues 'Battlefield' Warning as US Deploys Troops
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 21/2019
Any country that attacks Iran will become the "main battlefield", the Revolutionary Guards warned Saturday after Washington ordered reinforcements to the Gulf following attacks on Saudi oil installations it blames on Tehran. Tensions escalated between arch-foes Iran and the United States after last weekend's attacks on Saudi energy giant Aramco's Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oilfield halved the kingdom's oil output. Yemen's Huthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the strikes but the US says it has concluded the attacks involved cruise missiles from Iran and amounted to "an act of war". Washington approved the deployment of troops to Saudi Arabia at "the kingdom's request," Defence Secretary Mark Esper said, noting the forces would be "defensive in nature" and focused on air and missile defence. But Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Major General Hossein Salami said Iran was "ready for any type of scenario". "Whoever wants their land to become the main battlefield, go ahead," he told a news conference in Tehran. "We will never allow any war to encroach upon Iran's territory. "We hope that they don't make a strategic mistake", he said, listing past US military "adventures" against Iran. Salami was speaking at Tehran's Islamic Revolution and Holy Defence museum during the unveiling of an exhibition of what Iran says are US and other drones captured in its territory. It featured a badly damaged drone with US military markings said to be an RQ-4 Global Hawk that Iran downed in June, as well as an RQ-170 Sentinel captured in 2011 and still intact.
'Act of war'
The Guards also displayed the domestically manufactured Khordad 3 air defence battery they say was used to shoot down the Global Hawk. "What are your drones doing in our airspace? We will shoot them down, shoot anything that encroaches on our airspace," said Salami, noting Iran had defeated "America's technological dominance" in air defence and drone manufacture. His remarks came only days after strikes on Saudi oil facilities claimed by Yemen's Huthis, but the US says it has concluded the attack involved cruise missiles from Iran and amounted to "an act of war". Saudi Arabia, which has been bogged down in a five-year war across its southern border in Yemen, has said Iran "unquestionably sponsored" the attacks. The kingdom says the weapons used in the attacks were Iranian-made, but it stopped short of directly blaming its regional rival. "Sometimes they talk of military options," Salami said, apparently referring to the Americans. Yet he warned that "a limited aggression will not remain limited" as Iran was determined to respond and would "not rest until the aggressor's collapse."
'Crushing response'
The Guards' aerospace commander said the US ought to learn from its past failures and abandon its hostile rhetoric. "We've stood tall for the past 40 years and if the enemy makes a mistake, it will certainly receive a crushing response," Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said. The United States upped the ante on Friday by announcing new sanctions against Iran's central bank, with President Donald Trump calling the measures the toughest America has ever imposed on another country. Washington has imposed a series of sanctions against Tehran since unilaterally pulling out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal in May last year. It already maintains sweeping sanctions on Iran's central bank, but the US Treasury said Friday's designation was over the regulator's work in funding "terrorism". The "action targets a crucial funding mechanism that the Iranian regime uses to support its terrorist network, including the Qods Force, Hezbollah and other militants that spread terror and destabilise the region," said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The Qods Force is the Guards' foreign operations arm, while Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shiite militant group closely allied with Iran. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the new sanctions meant the United States was "trying to block the Iranian people's access to food and medicine". It showed the US was in "despair" and that "the maximum pressure policy has reached its end," semi-official news agency ISNA quoted him as saying from New York.

Tehran seeks to ‘divide the world,’ says Saudi Arabia’s Adel Al-Jubeir
Arab News/September 21/2019
RIYADH: Attacks last week on Saudi oil facilities were “an attack against all mankind” and Iran was trying to divide the world, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs said on Saturday.
Al-Jubeir said the attacks were undertaken with Iranian weapons and it was for this reason that Iran should be held accountable for the incident, adding: “We are certain that the attacks did not come from Yemen but from the north. Investigations will prove that.” "The Iranian position is to try to divide the world and in that it is not succeeding, he said. In a press conference held in the Saudi capital, Al-Jubeir also said that the attacks on Aramco facilities were also targeting global energy security and that Saudi Arabia would take appropriate steps to respond if investigations confirm that Iran is responsible. "The Kingdom will take the appropriate measures based on the results of the investigation, to ensure its security and stability," Al-Jubeir said. “Saudi Arabia has taken a defensive stance, as opposed to Iran which has fired 260 Iranian-made ballistic missiles through its militias, and more than 150 drones.The Kingdom, unlike Iran, has not fired a missile, a drone or a bullet toward Iran. This demonstrates that we seek good while they seek evil.
“The Kingdom, unlike Iran, has not fired a missile, a drone or a bullet toward Iran. This demonstrates that we seek good while they seek evil,” he said. Saudi Arabia has rejected claims from Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthis that they carried out the strikes, the largest-ever assault on Saudi oil facilities in the world's top oil exporter. Tehran has denied any involvement in the attacks. Saudi Arabia is consulting with its allies to "take the necessary steps", Al-Jubeir said, urging the international community to take a stand. "The Kingdom calls upon the international community to assume its responsibility in condemning those that stand behind this act, and to take a firm and clear position against this reckless behaviour that threatens the global economy," he said. More than 80 countries have condemned the attacks, he said.  The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Saturday any country that attacked Iran would become a battlefield, after the US ordered reinforcements to the Gulf following last week’s attacks. Washington approved the deployment to Saudi Arabia at “the Kingdom’s request,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, and the forces would be focused on air and missile defense. IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami said: “Whoever wants their land to become the main battlefield, go ahead. We will never allow any war to encroach upon Iran’s territory.”
The US this week imposed more sanctions on Iran and approved the sending of American troops to the region.\(With agencies)

Malta Takes Some Migrants from Ocean Viking, but Leaves Others Onboard
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
A group of 265 migrants were brought to Malta on Saturday, including 36 from the rescue ship Ocean Viking, but the operators of the ship complained that more than 180 other migrants on board had been refused disembarkation by the island. The Maltese armed forces said 229 migrants among Saturday's arrivals were rescued from three boats in distress in Malta's search and rescue zone, reported Reuters. Another 36 were transferred to a Maltese patrol boat from the Ocean Viking, which had rescued them in Malta's zone. The arrivals were the fourth group to arrive on the Mediterranean island in a week. But Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which operates Ocean Viking, said in a tweet that 182 survivors from other rescues, including a newborn, children and a pregnant woman, remained stranded on board. This, it said, "demonstrates the discriminatory, arbitrary and inhumane nature of a system which continues to prioritize political gameplay above human lives and dignity". Malta argued that those people were picked up outside its rescue zone. The island took more than 300 migrants from the Ocean Viking in August on condition that they would be shared among other EU countries, but most are still on the island, stretching its limited reception facilities. The plight of the Ocean Viking, run by MSF and another French charity, SOS Méditerranée, has exposed Europe's failure to come up with a coherent policy to deal with migration from Africa through Libya. EU states have been at loggerheads over how to handle refugees and migrants reaching its shores since a 2015 spike in Mediterranean arrivals of people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. On Monday Malta will host an EU home affairs ministers meeting which will discuss migration and how EU states may share arrivals.

Iran Says Ready for ‘Any Scenario’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said that his forces were ready for “any scenario.”General Hossein Salami said Saturday that his forces have carried out a "war exercise and are ready for any scenario."
He was speaking during a ceremony showing pieces of the American drone shot down by the Guard in June. He added: "If anyone crosses our borders, we will hit them." "Be careful, a limited aggression will not remain limited. We will pursue any aggressor,” he remarked. His comments came as Riyadh and Washington accused Iran of being behind last week’s attack on two Saudi oil facilities. The United States on Friday imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran, some aimed at its central bank and sovereign wealth fund. "This is a sign of US desperation ... When they repeatedly sanction the same institution, this means their attempt at bringing the Iranian nation to its knees under 'maximum pressure' has failed," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters in remarks shown on state television. The fresh sanctions target the Central Bank of Iran, which was already under other US sanctions, the National Development Fund of Iran - the country's sovereign wealth fund - and an Iranian company that US officials say is used to conceal financial transfers for Iranian military purchases.

Report: Iranian Servers, Websites Come under Cyber-Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
A number of Iranian servers and websites - including those of some petrochemical firms - were under a cyber-attack, said reports on social media. There was no immediate official comment, and the websites of the main state oil company NIOC appeared to be functioning normally, said Reuters. Residents said their internet access was not affected. NetBlocks, an organization that monitors internet connectivity, said its data showed "intermittent disruptions" to some internet services in Iran starting on Friday evening. But the group said the impact was limited, affecting only specific providers, and the cause was unclear. "Data are consistent with a cyber-attack or unplanned technical incident on affected networks as opposed to a purposeful withdrawal or shutdown incident," it said in a tweet. NetBlocks Director Alp Toker said they saw four Iranian networks falling offline over a three hour period on Friday evening. This began when the first reports emerged and ended shortly later, Toker said. The networks have been stable since. He said the affected networks were all relatively small and only one is a consumer service provider, so there was no massive nationwide impact. But it is notable that these networks are usually stable, he said.

US Sending More Troops to Gulf, Trump Announces Iran Sanctions
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 21/2019
The United States announced Friday that it was sending military reinforcements to the Gulf region following attacks on Saudi oil facilities that it attributes to Iran, just hours after President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on Tehran. Trump said the sanctions were the toughest-ever against another country, but indicated he did not plan a military strike, calling restraint a sign of strength. The Treasury Department renewed action against Iran's central bank after US officials said Tehran carried out weekend attacks on rival Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure, which triggered a spike in global crude prices.
Those attacks, combined with an Iranian attack on an American spy drone in June, represented a "dramatic escalation of Iranian aggression," Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said. The Pentagon chief announced that the United States would send military reinforcements to the Gulf region at the request of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. "In response to the kingdom's request, the president has approved the deployment of US forces, which will be defensive in nature, and primarily focused on air and missile defense," Esper said. However Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford categorized the deployment as "moderate," with the number of troops not expected to reach the thousands. Earlier in the day Trump attacked both critics who thought the mogul-turned-president would trigger war and hawks seeking a military response. "The easiest thing I could do (is) knock out 15 different major things in Iran," Trump said. "But I think the strong-person approach and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint," he said. Trump in June authorized a military strike after Iran shot down the US spy drone, only to call it off at the last moment.
Extensive damage
Saudi Arabia on Friday revealed extensive damage from the strikes on state giant Aramco's facilities in Khurais and the world's largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq. The attacks, which knocked out half of Saudi Arabia's oil production, have been claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, but Washington has pointed its finger at Tehran, condemning the strikes as an "act of war."Abqaiq was struck 18 times while nearby Khurais was hit four times in a raid that triggered multiple explosions and towering flames that took hours to extinguish, Aramco officials said. Aramco flew dozens of international journalists to the two sites to show it was speeding up repairs, giving rare access to the nerve center of the world's largest oil producer as it seeks to shore up investor confidence ahead of a planned initial public offering (IPO). Meanwhile, Yemen's Huthi rebels, who have repeatedly targeted key Saudi infrastructure in recent months in cross-border attacks, unexpectedly announced late Friday that they planned to halt all strikes on the country. The move, they said, was part of a peace initiative to end their country's devastating conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people -- most of them civilians -- and driven millions more to the brink of famine. Iran denies US and Saudi accusations that it arms the Huthis.
New ground for sanctions
The United States already maintains sweeping sanctions on Iran including on its central bank, with anyone who deals with it subject to prosecution, due to Tehran's alleged nuclear program. But the new sanctions Friday were imposed for the additional reason of "terrorism," Treasury said, adding that Iran's central bank had provided "billions of dollars" to two groups blacklisted by the United States. "Treasury's action targets a crucial funding mechanism that the Iranian regime uses to support its terrorist network, including the Qods Force, Hezbollah and other militants that spread terror and destabilize the region," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The Qods Force conducts international operations for Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, while Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group and political party in Lebanon, is among Iran's closest regional partners. Iran responded that the move showed that the United States was running out of options. The United States also imposed sanctions on Iran's sovereign wealth fund, whose board of trustees includes President Hassan Rouhani, as well as Etemad Tejarate Pars, a company that the Treasury Department said had sent money internationally on behalf of Iran's defense ministry. Trump recently said that he hopes for talks with Rouhani, who responded that Trump must first ease sanctions.Last year Trump pulled out of a nuclear accord with Iran negotiated under former president Barack Obama, sending tensions soaring as he tried to stop all countries from buying Iran's oil.

Egypt Achieving New Boom in Gas Production
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tareq al-Molla said that the natural gas industry in his country witnessed massive development in the past two years. He revealed Friday that natural gas production reached its highest levels in September. He stressed that President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s support for the petroleum sector was ongoing and he was overseeing the completion of natural gas projects. This support has led to significant results and attracted international companies to Egypt, he remarked. The minister highlighted to this end the calm witnessed in Egypt, which encourages investors. Molla added that his ministry will focus in the upcoming phase on investing natural gas in the local economy, such as the petrochemicals industry. This will boost the gross domestic product, attract new investment and provide job opportunities, he stated. It will also create unprecedented development in Egypt that will meet the aspirations of the people and improve living standards, he stressed.

Abdul Mahdi Calls for Integrated Partnership between China, Iraq
Baghdad - Hamza Mustafa/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
On the second day of his visit to China with half of his government members and all the governors of Iraq, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi called on major Chinese and international companies to invest in Iraq. Speaking at the 2019 World Industrialization Convention in the city of Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, Abdul Mahdi said that Iraq needed, more than ever, to boost its relations with Asia, especially with China, in order to regain its vital and active role. Underlining the need for an integrated partnership between the two countries, Abdul Mahdi said that he would meet with Chinese leaders to discuss prospects of cooperation and partnership. He called on “major Chinese and international companies to work and invest in Iraq in the sectors of energy, communications, roads, dams, water, agriculture, industry, infrastructure and other areas supported by an encouraging legislative environment and safe conditions.”“During my meetings, I will call on Chinese companies to contribute and work vigorously and effectively in the renaissance and reconstruction of Iraq. For our part, we will ensure that the difficulties of this endeavor are facilitated and resolved through a central committee that will provide the appropriate conditions and opportunities for these companies,” he remarked. Commenting on the visit, Iraqi academic and economist Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Mashadani, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “It is known that the oil market is witnessing a conflict for the coming years, and therefore, Iraq will at least guarantee the sale of its oil for the next 10 years, in return for the work of companies in these countries in the field of infrastructure.”He added that Iraq was counting greatly on the role of Chinese companies in the reconstruction of the country’s infrastructure.

Grand Renaissance Dam: Ethiopia Escalates, Rejects Egyptian Proposals
Cairo - Walid Abul Rahman/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
Ethiopia has rejected on Friday Egyptian proposals on the regulations for filling and operating the Renaissance Dam and stepped up its rhetoric, criticizing what it called as a potential violation to its sovereignty.
Cairo, on the other hand, insisted on the terms of the agreement, which was issued following a recent meeting in the Egyptian capital between the Ministers of Water of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.
Spokesman for the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources in Egypt, Mohamed Al-Sibai, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Egypt was committed to the terms of the agreement issued in the statement at the end of the ministers’ meeting on Monday, regarding the rules of filling and operating the dam. He added that the proposed items “are quite clear.” The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that Egypt’s recent proposal on the dam contradicted the development plans it had developed. “The proposal will make filling the dam complex and burdensome,” the statement said. The Ethiopian statement came shortly after Egypt announced a failure to make progress in negotiations on filling and operating the $5 billion Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam, which is due to be completed soon. Talks between the three concerned countries had resumed after more than a year of disruption. Egypt fears that the Ethiopian dam will reduce its share of water, which reaches it from the Abyssinian plateau through Sudan, estimated at 55.5 billion cubic meters. Ethiopia, for its part, says that the project does not harm the downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan. Asharq Al-Awsat tried, without success, to get an official response from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. The two countries of the mouth of the Nile - Egypt and Sudan - and the upstream state – Ethiopia - are engaged in negotiations launched more than seven years ago on the construction of the Renaissance Dam to avoid damaging Egypt’s share of the Nile water. In September 2016, the three countries reached an agreement with two French offices to carry out technical studies to determine the social, environmental and economic impacts of the construction of the dam. However, no final conclusions approved by all parties were reached and negotiations are still ongoing.

Dozens Arrested in Egypt after Rare Anti-Sisi Protests
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 21/2019
Rare small protests were staged overnight in Cairo and other Egyptian cities calling for the removal of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, but authorities quickly dispersed them and arrested dozens, a security source said. Hundreds of citizens took to the streets late Friday to protest, chanting slogans including "Leave, Sisi!" and holding up placards. At least 74 were arrested overnight, a security source told AFP, with plain clothed police patrolling sidestreets of downtown Cairo. The country effectively banned protests under a 2013 law and a state of emergency is still in full effect. Police fired tear gas and deployed forces in Tahrir Square - the epicentre of the 2011 revolution that unseated long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The protests came on the back of an online call put out by Mohamed Aly, a disgruntled exiled Egyptian businessman, demanding Sisi be toppled. The construction contractor has been posting videos from Spain that have gone viral since early September, accusing Sisi and the military of rampant corruption. The president flatly denied the allegations last week at a youth conference and sought to assure Egyptians that he "was honest and faithful" to his people and the military. In his latest video posted early Friday morning on his growing social media accounts, Aly urged Egyptians to head to the streets after a highly anticipated football match between Cairo powerhouses Al Ahly and Zamalek in the Super Cup. Thousands shared footage on social media documenting the demonstrations that sprang up in several cities including sizeable crowds blocking traffic in Alexandria, Al-Mahalla, Damietta, Mansoura and Suez. Many users commented on the curious absence of military personnel and speculated about internal political squabbles between various Egyptian security agencies.
Dangers of protesting
Under the rule of general-turned-president Sisi, authorities have launched a broad crackdown on dissidents, jailing thousands of Islamists as well as secular activists and popular bloggers. He led the military ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and won back to back landslide elections running virtually unopposed. At the same youth conference where he denied graft allegations, he also warned of the dangers of protesting -- a position he has repeatedly taken. He has regularly invoked security and stability as hallmarks of his reign in contrast to the situations in regional hot spots such as Iraq, Libya and Syria. But with his government imposing strict austerity measures since 2016 as part of a $12 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund, discontent over rising prices has been swelling. Nearly one in three Egyptians live below the poverty line on less than $1.40 a day, according to official figures released in July. Human Rights Watch urged authorities on Saturday to "protect the right" to protest peacefully as well as demanding that those arrested be released. Sisi flew to New York on Friday night where he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly next week. The president's office did not comment on the protests, when asked by AFP on Saturday.

Yemen Rebels Announce Plan to Halt Attacks on Saudi Arabia
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 21/2019
Yemen's Huthi rebels unexpectedly announced late Friday that they planned to halt all attacks on Saudi Arabia as part of a peace initiative to end their country's devastating conflict, five years after they captured the capital Sanaa. The announcement comes after a wave of drone strikes last weekend on Saudi oil installations knocked out half of the kingdom's production and sent shock waves through energy markets. The Iran-backed Huthis claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Riyadh's ally Washington has condemned them as an "act of war", placing the blame on Tehran and announcing new sanctions against the Islamic republic. Mehdi al-Mashat, head of the Huthis' supreme political council, announced in a speech marking the 2014 rebel seizure of Sanaa "the halt of all attacks against the territory of Saudi Arabia". He added that he hoped "the gesture would be answered by a stronger gesture" from the Saudis, according to the rebels' Al-Masirah television channel.  "Pursuing war is not in anyone's interest." Yemen's conflict has since killed tens of thousands of people -- most of them civilians -- and driven millions more to the brink of famine in what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
'Blood of Yemenis
Mashat said the Huthis' peace initiative was aimed at "bringing about peace through serious negotiations to achieve a comprehensive national reconciliation which does not exclude anyone". A major goal was to "preserve the blood of Yemenis and achieve a general amnesty", he added. The plan calls for rebels to "stop all attacks on Saudi territory by drones, ballistic missiles and other means", he said. He also called for the reopening of Sanaa's international airport and open access to Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeida, a crucial entry point for imports and humanitarian aid. The announcement was a sharp reversal from previous statements from the Huthis, who early on Friday had accused Saudi Arabia and its allies of endangering the fragile truce around Hodeida with strikes on four rebel targets north of the port.  The Huthis have been fighting against a Saudi-led coalition that intervened in 2015 to support the country's internationally recognised government. Iran denies US and Saudi accusations that it arms the Huthis. The rebels have repeatedly targeted key Saudi infrastructure in recent months in cross-border attacks. The September 14 aerial attacks sparked fires at two Aramco oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia knocking out six percent of global supplies. It is the third attack in five months on the oil giant's infrastructure, after the Huthis also claimed strikes in May and August. Saudi Arabia has so far not directly accused any party of carrying out Saturday's attacks, but said authorities have launched an investigation to determine the culprits. Tehran has denied responsibility for the attacks against the heart of Saudi's all-important oil industry, raising the spectre of "all-out war" in the event of retaliatory measures by Washington or Riyadh. The rhetoric has raised the risk of an unpredictable escalation in a tinderbox region where Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in a decades-old struggle for dominance.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 21-22/2019
US Adversaries: Nothing to Fear from the White House?
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/September 21/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14902/us-adversaries-nothing-to-fear-from-the-white
This [shooting down a US Navy drone] was a clear-cut act of provocation against the US in violation of international law, one that required a firm and decisive response from the White House.
Yet, having initially threatened to respond militarily, Mr Trump then changed his mind, thereby allowing the Iranians off the hook.
With Mr Trump's focus firmly fixed on winning re-election in next year's presidential election contest, the Iranian regime has probably concluded that the White House is determined to avoid all forms of overseas military intervention at any cost.
The result is that Iran -- and other adversaries of the US, such as China, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba and the Taliban -- now may feel even more emboldened to continue their provocative actions in the Gulf and elsewhere, knowing that, so long as Mr Trump is in the White House, they do not have to fear they will be subjected to military retribution from Washington.
For all US President Donald Trump's bluster that the US military is "locked and loaded", the reality is that the White House has absolutely no interest in launching military action against Iran in retaliation for its involvement in the devastating attack on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure. It is a decision doubtless not lost on Iran. On the contrary, for all Mr. Trump's machismo posturing, the most the President can be expected to do is intensify the sanctions regime against Tehran, a move that is unlikely to strike fear into the hearts of Iran's battle-hardened veterans of its Revolutionary Guard.
Indeed, the President's disinclination to confront Iran over its increasingly aggressive conduct towards the US and its allies in the region appears only to have emboldened the ayatollahs to even greater acts of provocation, such as last weekend's attacks on Saudi Arabia's Khurais oil field and the Abqaiq oil processing facility, which resulted in the Saudis losing nearly 50 per cent of the country's oil processing capacity and for a while sparked a sharp jump in oil prices.
As senior Saudi officials said in the aftermath of the most significant attack Saudi has suffered since the First Gulf War, when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein fired a barrage of Scud missiles at his Saudi neighbours, the attack was not just an attack against the Saudi kingdom, but against the entire global economy.
Tehran has, of course, denied any involvement in the attack, a claim that holds no credibility whatsoever after Saudi officials later put on display parts of the weaponry used in the attack that proved categorically their Iranian provenance.
Markings on the cruise missiles used in the attack showed clearly that they were manufactured in Iran earlier this year, while wreckage from delta wing drones that are used by the Iranian military were also put on display.
Which begs the question why, if Iran had nothing to do with the attack, were Iranian missiles and drones involved?
Moreover, international pressure on Iran to explain its actions is likely to intensify, after it was shown that the attack originated from Iranian soil to the north of Saudi Arabia, and not from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen to the south as was originally claimed.
Saudi defence officials insist the missiles' maximum 690-kilometre range is too short for them to have been fired from territory controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthis. The US assessment is that they were fired from western Iran, close to the Iraqi border, directly north of Abqaiq.
Yet, despite the Trump administration's constant assurances that it will protect its Saudi allies, the White House has pulled back from any talk of launching military action by way of retaliation, and Mr. Trump has instead ordered Steve Mnuchin, his treasury secretary, to draw up a new list of sanctions against Iran.
Rather than taking robust measures to punish Iran for its audacious attack on the Saudis, Mr. Trump's disinclination to take more robust action will only send a message to the hardliners who now dictate policy in Tehran that the US has no intention of escalating tensions with Iran.
With Mr. Trump's focus firmly fixed on winning re-election in next year's presidential election, the Iranian regime has probably concluded that the White House is determined to avoid all forms of overseas military intervention at any cost.
The writing was on the wall so far as Iran is concerned earlier in the summer, when Mr. Trump pulled back from launching military action against Iran after the regime shot down a US Navy drone operating in international waters in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz.
This was a clear-cut act of provocation against the US in violation of international law, one that required a firm and decisive response from the White House.
Yet, having initially threatened to respond militarily, Mr. Trump then changed his mind, thereby allowing the Iranians off the hook.
The result is that Iran -- and other adversaries of the US, such as China, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba and the Taliban -- now may feel even more emboldened to continue their provocative actions in the Gulf and elsewhere, knowing that, so long as Mr. Trump is in the White House, they do not have to fear they will be subjected to military retribution from Washington.
*Con Coughlin is the Daily Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Do Palestinian Leaders Want a Better Life for Their People?
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 21/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14901/palestinians-lebanon-better-life
"We talked about the general situation of Palestinian refugees who have been living in Lebanon for the past 72 years. We told them that Palestinians in Lebanon are banned from working in 70 professions and have no right to own property. We gave them a list of 2,300 Palestinian refugees from Syria who want to go to Canada." — Mu'awya Abu Hamideh, a representative of the Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon after 2011, akhbarten.com, September 9, 2019
Human Rights Watch says that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in "appalling social and economic conditions" and are barred from employment in at least 25 professions, "including law, medicine, and engineering."
"The Palestinian factions and others who benefit from our stay in Lebanon are denouncing us as traitors and of serving foreign agendas... but if anyone has another solution, he should bring it to the table. We are sure, however, that these voices are designed to prevent us from living in dignity." — Mu'awya Abu Hamideh.
Instead of encouraging and assisting their people to move on with their lives and seek a better future for their children, Hamas and other Palestinian groups continue to lie to the refugees by promising them that one day they will go back to their villages and towns in Israel.
Palestinian factions are trying to stop Palestinians in Lebanon from leaving their refugee camps. The factions want the refugees to continue living in misery and poverty so that they can continue to use them as pawns in the conflict with Israel. Pictured: Burj Barajneh, a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon administered by UNRWA. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)
Are the Lebanese seeking to get rid of the Palestinians living in Lebanon? Many Palestinians seem to think that the Arab country they have been living in for decades has plans to throw them out.
Palestinian factions, meanwhile, are working in precisely the opposite direction, trying to stop the Palestinians from leaving their refugee camps. The factions want the refugees to continue living in misery and poverty so that they can continue to use them as pawns in the conflict with Israel.
They are hoping that the continued presence of refugee camps will keep the issue of the refugees at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In recent weeks, many Palestinians have been flocking the embassies of several Western countries in Lebanon asking to be granted asylum for humanitarian reasons.
In an unprecedented move, hundreds of Palestinians last month staged a sit-in strike outside the Canadian Embassy in Beirut. The protesters demanded that the Canadian authorities allow mass emigration of Palestinians to Canada.
The protest coincided with an online campaign launched by Palestinians in Lebanon to demand that Western countries grant them asylum for humanitarian reasons.
The campaign is being held under the title "Emigration is not Treason" -- a reference to allegations (by some Palestinians) that those who are seeking to resettle in Western states are betraying their people and relinquishing their alleged "right of return" for refugees and their descendants to their former homes in Israel.
"Yes to emigration to any country where we Palestinians can live in dignity, and thanks to our brothers in Lebanon for hosting us," wrote Hussam, one of the Palestinians behind the campaign.
The Palestinians have been joined by some Lebanese citizens who say they, too, want to emigrate to Western countries.
Ahmed Fawwal, one of the organizers of the protest outside the Canadian Embassy, said that similar demonstrations will be held in the coming days in front of the Australian and German embassies in the Lebanese capital. The father of six, who works as a cab driver, said that young people were seeking to emigrate from Lebanon because they are being denied basic rights.
Yet most of those seeking to flee Lebanon are Palestinians who have been living there for several decades, as well as thousands of refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon after the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
The would-be-immigrants have formed a committee called The Palestinian Youth Forum for Humanitarian Asylum to encourage and help those wishing to leave Lebanon.
Kamal Akel, one of the heads of the forum, said that Palestinians want to leave Lebanon, "which is depriving us of our civil, human and political rights." The Palestinian leadership, he added, has abandoned its people in Lebanon and no longer cares about their plight.
"The young people are frustrated after they took to the streets several times and demanded that our state [Lebanon] secure our basic rights," he explained. "We have lost hope of finding anyone who is prepared to listen to us. We want to leave Lebanon to any country that respects human beings."
Akel said he and his colleagues in the forum have resorted to social media to reach out to young Palestinians in Lebanon to promote the idea of emigration. "So far, we have received 10,000 requests," he revealed. "That means we are talking about almost 55,000 people."
Mu'awya Abu Hamideh, a representative of the Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon after 2011, said that the idea of seeking asylum for humanitarian reasons in Western countries, including Canada, dates back to 2013. He said he himself applied for asylum in Switzerland several years ago, but his application was rejected because he was not able to provide documents confirming that he was not receiving assistance from United Nations agencies.
According to Abu Hamideh, some of his friends and he recently met with Canadian diplomats in Beirut in the context of their effort to persuade Canada to open its doors for Palestinians wishing to leave Lebanon. "We talked about the general situation of Palestinian refugees who have been living in Lebanon for the past 72 years," he said. "We told them that Palestinians in Lebanon are banned from working in 70 professions and have no right to own property. We gave them a list of 2,300 Palestinian refugees from Syria who want to go to Canada."
According to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Palestinians in Lebanon "do not enjoy several important rights; for example, they cannot work in as many as 39 professions and cannot own property [real estate]."
Human Rights Watch says that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in "appalling social and economic conditions" and are barred from employment in at least 25 professions, "including law, medicine, and engineering."
Abu Hamideh complained that several Palestinian factions are now accusing him and his friends of "treason" because of their desire to start a new life for them and their families in Western countries. "The Palestinian factions and others who benefit from our stay in Lebanon are denouncing us as traitors and of serving foreign agendas," he added.
"Our response to them: We're not giving up the right of return [to Israel], but if anyone has another solution, he should bring it to the table. We are sure, however, that these voices are designed to prevent us from living in dignity."
The Palestinian campaign to seek asylum in Western countries came weeks after the Lebanese authorities launched a crackdown on "illegal foreign workers," including Palestinians. The crackdown has sparked a wave of protests among Palestinians in Lebanon, who say that they and Syrian refugees are the main targets. Despite the ongoing protests and condemnations, the Lebanese government has refused to backtrack on its decision to combat illegal labor.
Leaders of Palestinian factions in Lebanon have expressed deep concern over the growing number of Palestinians who are seeking to leave the country. These leaders suspect that the Lebanese authorities are in collusion with foreign parties, including the US, to encourage Palestinians to leave Lebanon.
"The harsh conditions of Palestinians in refugee camps in Lebanon are driving many to seek emigration," said Palestinian refugee Yusef Khalil.
"We are facing different forms of discrimination. The refugees are living under siege by the Lebanese government and we are even prohibited from bringing construction material into our camps. In addition, we are subjected to thorough searches and harassment for many hours. They want to expel us from Lebanon."
Isam Udwan, head of the "Refugee Department" in Hamas, said he believes that Palestinians were receiving tempting offers to leave Lebanon for a better life in other countries. He claimed that some Arab states were cooperating with Israel and the US to pressure Palestinians to leave their homes in Lebanon. "The Lebanese government is also indirectly facilitating the emigration of Palestinians by permitting them to leave through its seaport," Udwan claimed.
Instead of encouraging and assisting their people to move on with their lives and seek a better future for their children, Hamas and other Palestinian groups continue to lie to the refugees by promising them that one day they will go back to their villages and towns in Israel.
Not only have Palestinian leaders done nothing to provide the refugees with any services or rights, now they are telling them that anyone who leaves his refugee camp will be considered a traitor.
Rather than expressing gratitude to countries that are willing to receive Palestinians and help them begin anew, Palestinian leaders and factions are inciting against these countries by accusing them of being part of a US-Israeli scheme to eliminate the "right of return" for refugees and their descendants.
In this longstanding and deadly game, Palestinian leaders use their people as sacrificial pawns for the sake of prolonging the conflict with Israel and forcing the international community, including the UN, to go on funding millions of refugees – apparently, forever.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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Why Can't Congress Solve Hard Problems?
Jonathan Bernstein/Bloomberg/Saturday, 21 September, 2019
How much of a problem is the loss of congressional capacity?
That question comes up, as Congress returns from its August recess, in a Monkey Cage item from Craig Volden and Alan E. Wiseman that focuses on the collapse of House committees from 1995 on. It’s a solid piece, but as Josh Huder points out, the rise of congressional leadership was probably critical to the passage of major legislation such as the Affordable Care Act. The House was weaker when committees ruled before the reforms that began after the 1958 election; it’s weaker now, after Newt Gingrich concentrated influence in the speaker’s office at the expense of everything else.
Huder also questions whether congressional procedure is ultimately related to solving public-policy problems. He said: “But many put misplaced hope in the committee system, believing it will create the pathways to revolutionary policymaking. That belief lays too much blame on Congress for what is really the fault of the political environment more broadly. Congress cannot fix every political problem.”
In part, I agree. The biggest problem with the current policy-making process isn’t Congress or the presidency; it’s the Republican Party, which has to a shocking extent simply given up on trying to solve problems. The most obvious example is health care: Republicans think the Affordable Care Act is bad policy, yet almost a decade later they still don’t have any real alternative. The same is true in one policy area after another. This wasn’t the case in the 1980s, when Republicans regularly pushed substantial legislation (including, of course, legislation to reduce what government was doing). But since the Gingrich years, and especially over the last decade, they’ve largely become a post-policy party. That has very little to do with the structure of the House and Senate, and I think it matters more – it’s why a unified Republican government in 2017 and 2018 produced so little.
But I also disagree with Huder in part. If the House is better organized – if it’s more powerful – that means the nation can do more. The same with a better organized Senate or White House or federal bureaucracy. A system of separated institutions sharing powers doesn’t produce a zero-sum contest; to the contrary, the more powerful each chamber and institution can become, the more powerful the country is, and the easier it will get to solve difficult problems. The same is true within the House: Strong committees and strong leadership can make for a more powerful institution. The correct answer to leadership vs. committees is both.
To me, that’s the promise of the republic that the Framers designed. It’s what united, at least for a while, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Yes, all the overlapping authorities, the checks and balances, can make it hard to do anything. But multiple veto points are also multiple initiation points. And that brings with it enormous potential for action. The trick is to follow up on Madison and Hamilton, and to keep finding institutional designs that unleash and nourish that potential.

When Negotiation Is Impossible and War Is Unnecessary
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/September 21/2019
Will the attacks on Saudi oil installations last week upset the status quo that has taken shape in the past 17 months, that is to say, since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the “Iran nuke deal” concocted by Barack Obama?
The headline-grabbing sensationalism of the attacks, largely attributed to the Islamic Republic in Iran but denied by the mullahs, may suggest “yes” as an answer. A closer look, however, might suggest a more nuanced reply. It is likely that whoever planned the attacks was more interested in testing the waters, seeing how far it was possible to go in provocation without making a crushing response inevitable, rather than a serious attempt at upsetting the status quo.
However, first, let us see what we mean by the new status quo, which has replaced the one created by Obama in his final years in office.
Under the Obama status quo, Iran put large chunks of its economic, trade and even military policies under direct or indirect control of the so-called 5+1 group in exchange for a free hand to pursue its “exporting revolution” agenda in the Middle East and developing longer-range missiles for future extension of its influence in the region and beyond. The mullahs could swallow the humiliation of partial foreign tutelage because the Obama deal contained a sunset clause under which the restrictions imposed on the Islamic Republic would lapse after five, 10, 15 or 25 years’ time.
What Trump wants is a new “deal” in which restrictions imposed on the Islamic Republic continue forever while halting Iran’s missiles development project, not affected by the Obama “deal”, is woven into the ensemble. Such a situation would allow the mullahs to prolong their rule but would make it harder to “export” revolution while making a mockery of their claim of creating “the new Islamic Civilization” for humanity.
Tehran’s refusal of the Trump “offer” created a new status quo in which the Islamic Republic retains its freedom of action, including mischief-making while suffering the consequences of re-imposed sanctions.
What the mullahs did not realize was that the new status quo came at no cost to the Americans who could thus afford to prolong it as far as needed. All that Trump did was announce that anyone trading with the Islamic Republic could not trade with the US and that the US would no longer allow the mullahs to use American global banking and trade facilities.
Has the Trump method succeeded?
Tehran provides no clear answer.
Domestic propaganda and propaganda aimed at its clients in Arab countries pretend there has been no effect or, in some cases, it has even made the Khomeinist movement stronger. However, when it comes to Western countries, the mullahs play the victim card, claiming that Trump has stopped milk for Iranian babies and stipends for pensioners in shanty towns around Tehran. Westerners sympathetic to the mullahs, largely because of a deep anti-Americanism, know that Western democracies are suckers for tales of victimhood and thus vulnerable to the tyranny of the underdog.
However, there is no doubt that the re-imposed sanctions, especially Iran’s inability to sell its oil, is beginning to hurt.
Last spring President Hassan Rouhani claimed that his government had enough foreign currency reserves to cover all “basic costs” for at least 18 months, that is to say almost until the end of Trump’s first presidential term. However, his Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif has been going around demanding help to secure $60 billion a year to cover those same “basic costs.”
In other words, the Islamic Republic can cope with the new Trump-imposed status but only for a short while. Tehran’s aim, therefore, should be some modification of the same status quo.
Often the mullahs did so by pushing the tension with the US none notch higher and always obtained the results they wished for. In 1979, just months after the fall of the Shah, they feared that the Carter administration would make a deal with the provisional pro-American government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and exclude the mullahs and their Communist allies from power.
They pushed the tension a notch higher by raiding the US Embassy in Tehran and seizing hostage its diplomats. Carter reacted as the mullahs had expected, talking tough but doing nothing while the global anti-American chorus cast the mullahs as victims of Imperialism.
Similar tactics were used during the Reagan, Bush (Sr.) and Clinton administrations. Each time, the mullahs raised the tension, forcing the American “Great Satan” to face a stark choice between doing nothing and a full-scale war the American public would not endorse.
In every case, the tyranny of the underdog worked and the mullahs managed to continue crushing their opponents at home and fattening their cohorts abroad while casting themselves as champions of the downtrodden resisting the diktats of the “Great Satan.” Pundits suggested that the Khomeinist regime should be granted indulgence because it was still coping with the consequences of the revolution that produced it. After all, every revolution has its Thermidor one day! Bill Clinton fell for that yarn more than others did when he told an audience in the World Economic Forum in Davos that he regarded the regime in Tehran as “closer to my way of thinking than almost any other in the world.”
Will Trump fall for the claim that as far as the Islamic Republic is concerned the only choice is between full-scale war and surrender to the mullahs’ agenda? No one, perhaps not even Trump himself, knows the answer. However, this is what “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei hopes for. This is why he is trying to keep tension high to sustain the claim that Washington’s current policy may lead to full-scale war. At the same time, however, he is carefully calibrating his provocations, not top trigger the war he is warning of.
His best hope is for Trump do go for a pin-prick operation that would shake but not topple the Khomeinist regime while mobilizing Iranian and international opinion in its support as a victim, thus forcing the easing of sanctions that are beginning to break the bones of his regime.
Khamenei says he wants “neither negotiations nor war” while Trump claims that he is ready for both. That balancing act could preserve the current status quo that is clearly working in favor of the “Great Satan”. In this new status quo, negotiation is impossible and war is unnecessary.

Tunisians need competent governance, not utopian dreams
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/September 21/2019
Tunisians failed to reach a consensus last week on who will next lead their eight-year old democracy, still struggling to maintain a foothold post-2011. Despite an increase of nearly 2.5 million registered voters since parliamentary elections in May last year, turnout was a disappointing 49 percent.
No candidate won more than 50 percent of votes cast, so the top two, Kaïs Saïed and Nabil Karoui, will face a run-off next week. They took 18.4 and 15.6 percent of votes respectively, in a crowded field, but their populist credentials, built on anti-corruption and anti-poverty ideals, still failed to energize Tunisian youth.
Populism tends to be heavy on idealism but light on substance for the social and economic realities besetting the young democracy. Unemployment is at 15 percent and a third of university graduates do not have jobs. The government led by Prime Minister Youssef Chahed toed the IMF line by implementing spending cuts and tax increases, resulting in a $2.8 billion deal for an economy drowned by the educated jobless. The idea was to replicate Egypt’s lauded reforms but Tunisians responded by taking to the streets in protest at any austerity. Surprisingly, the prime minister stuck to the message of economic rationalization for his presidential campaign, which earned him only 7.4 percent of votes cast, dashing any hopes of a sustained solution to Tunisia’s economic problems.
Elsewhere, an ongoing security crisis builds on tensions stemming from the murder of a prominent opposition leader in 2013 and the deadly attack on a beach resort that claimed 60 lives in 2015. This year there have been three suicide bombings, and Daesh and Al-Qaeda have called for more attacks. There is also the fact that a majority of Daesh fighters came from Tunisia. Their potential repatriation from detention in Syria, Libya, and Iraq poses difficult questions for a leadership already facing a youth unemployment crisis.
In politics, a chaotic government and shifting allegiances in parliament have left two-thirds of Tunisians dismayed by out-of-touch representatives unresponsive to their needs. Tracking the composition of Tunisia’s legislative chamber (ARP) since 2015 reveals dwindling support for Nidaa Tounes in favor of an unaffiliated faction and a pro-Chahed coalition, to the benefit of Ennahda, currently the largest party. In a divided and crowded arena, no one party is guaranteed a parliamentary majority, setting up inevitable political gridlock in Tunis and headaches for every Tunisian.
Whoever becomes president in Tunisia, they will have their agenda subject to a combative legislature roiled by one-upmanship and shifting alliances concerned more with staying in power than on legislative priorities.
Whoever becomes president will have their agenda subject to a combative legislature roiled by one-upmanship and shifting alliances concerned more with staying in power than on legislative priorities. Parliamentary elections will be held next month and if political “outsiders” with populist messages are energizing the electorate, there is a good chance that independent or non-affiliated candidates will gain more seats at the expense of establishment political parties. The latter, in turn, may resort to undemocratic solutions such as the controversial electoral law reform in June.
The shift is already evident from the presidential election, in which the prime minister, former interim president Moncef Marzouki, interim parliamentary speaker Abdelfatah Mourou and former prime minister Mehdi Jomaa all trailed Kaïs Saïed, who has no political experience or party affiliation and ran no campaign. Additionally, more than 500,000 Tunisians voted for Nabil Karoui, another “outsider,” believing he had what it took to lead the country, despite running his election campaign from behind bars. Karoui was detained in August on allegations of money laundering and tax evasion.
Neither candidate is a stranger to controversy. Saïed’s views on women’s issues may be too bitter a pill to swallow given Tunisia’s progressive credentials as a bastion of gender equality in the Arab world. He also blames Tunisia’s woes on a lack of respect for the constitution, which he would like to change and apply to the letter. He has criticized the lack of independence in the Superior Council of the Judiciary and called for substantive changes to how Tunisians elect their representatives in parliament. The latter probably will not pass muster in a divided parliament averse to changes that could, in the eyes of the opposition, undermine its authority. It is also a little troubling given the authoritarian tinge of amending a constitution to suit certain political ideals.
Shockingly, Tunisia’s educated youth support his platform, which comes with an uncharacteristic asceticism that makes him relatable and easily accessible. His calls to end corruption, whether financial or moral, also register positively with a tired society seeking scapegoats for dimming future prospects.
His challenger’s controversies stem from an illustrious career in the media industry. Regardless, the constant back-and-forth with state authorities concerning his television company, Nessma, criticisms of his charitable activities, along with alleged ties to Algerian military and some Libyan Islamists, have not distracted voters from his anti-poverty message.
If elected, he would be immune from prosecution but only after being sworn in, which is nearly impossible at this point. His center-left Au Cœur de la Tunisiepolitical party is projected to perform well in the legislative elections, which could further boost chances of a coalition that could work to achieve his agenda.
On the other hand, Saïed who calls himself an independent social conservative, may find it challenging to secure support from a legislature resistant to constitutional amendments. Also, without a political party and affiliated legislative election contenders, he may find himself isolated and his administration rendered powerless by an uncooperative parliament.
In the end, it is disappointing that both candidates lack comprehensive economic reform plans, which are critical to easing some of Tunisia’s troubles. One would expect platforms that call for massive investments in infrastructure, a quick way to tamp down joblessness, funded by a combination of debt and slight tax increases. Perhaps concise and inclusive plans to re-size the public sector by quickly expanding the private sector through easing market controls, privatization of public entities and amendment of foreign investment law to attract substantial investment.
More transparency, less corruption and less poverty are indeed important, but what Tunisians need now are not utopian dreams conjured up in the corridors of power. Tunisia must now move away from political idealism in favor of a movement that is receptive to citizens’ needs, quick to act, competent, amenable to change and staunchly defensive of hard-won democratic ideals.
*Hafed Al-Ghwell is a non-resident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He is also senior adviser at the international economic consultancy Maxwell Stamp and at the geopolitical risk advisory firm Oxford Analytica, a member of the Strategic Advisory Solutions International Group in Washington DC and a former adviser to the board of the World Bank Group. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view

Only a united front will thwart Iran’s war games
Sir John Jenkins/Arab News/September 21/2019
That was another quiet week, wasn’t it?
There were well co-ordinated and accurate missile or armed drone strikes on two key Aramco sites at Abqaiq and Khurais. The Houthis, who have previously limited themselves largely to firing missiles in the general direction of targets in the south of the Kingdom or toward Riyadh, say they were responsible; the attacks were a legitimate act of self-defense. No one really believes them, though those inveterate players of grey-zone games, the Russians, in their usual “Master and Margarita” style, pretend they do — and urge everyone to calm down, while gleefully throwing the promise of more air-defense systems into the bubbling cauldron. The US says it has compelling evidence that the strikes originated in southwest Iran, near the Iraqi border.
Meanwhile Israeli sources continue to make it clear that they regard Iran’s proliferation of advanced missile technology to their allies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq as a red line. In Iraq, where elements of the PMU were the likely origin of an attack on Saudi oil infrastructure in May which the Houthis also claimed (bless!), our old friend Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis goes to Tehran to seek air-defense systems of his own and says he wants to form a PMU air force.
The always lovable Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, channeling Mr Nyet — the late Andrei Gromyko — simply denies everything. He says Iran doesn’t want war but if Iran is hit in retaliation for an attack it committed but claims it didn’t, it will mean all-out war. Which will probably mean Iran and its allies will hijack any available tanker, kidnap any dual — or now indeed single — national and fire missiles at everyone, not just Israel or Saudi Arabia.
And what has been the response of the commentariat and policy establishments in Washington and Brussels? Largely as you’d expect. Blame Trump.
And this is the real deformation— to be so blinded by partisan dislike that you fail to see the wood for the trees of your own prejudice. Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA is seen as the root of all the current problems with Iran. But it’s not. It was perfectly reasonable for a new US administration to take a different view of the JCPOA from that of its predecessor, especially as that predecessor in its pursuit of an agreement had deliberately ignored a 40-year pattern of wider Iranian destabilization in the region. And the JCPOA was imperfect from the start. In particular it turned a blind eye to most of Iran’s history of attempted weaponization and in practice softened the international position on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
I still think withdrawal from the JCPOA was a mistake. Sure, it wasn’t perfect. But it gave us time to make collective choices — if we wished — about how to remedy its imperfections. And it locked Iran into an international agreement that could be properly monitored. But even so, Trump’s decision to withdraw is not the fundamental problem. Iran — or to be more precise, the senior leadership of the Islamic Republic — is.
While Iran's foreign minister simply denies everything, the commentariat in Brussels blame Trump. We need collective honesty, plans and action.
The Israeli intelligence coup last year in exfiltrating data from a Tehran warehouse about previously concealed aspects of the Iranian nuclear programs, continued Iranian attempts to spread their tentacles of influence and control throughout the region, the appointment of a more bellicose IRGC leadership and regular stories about the activities of Qasim Soleimani all demonstrate that this leopard has not changed its spots.
Which is why last week’s attacks shouldn’t come as a surprise. Iran has been doing this sort of stuff in different ways for decades. It’s not really because Trump pulled out of the JCPOA or reimposed sanctions. It’s because this is what the Islamic Republic does — it seeks to intimidate and threaten its neighbors, if possible deniably but, if it can get away with it, then openly.
Mind you, I largely believe Zarif when he says Iran doesn’t want war, but with one small addition — “on someone else’s terms.” If war comes, Iran would be happy to fight in a way that plays to its own strengths; asymmetrical, grey zone, widely dispersed, damaging to global energy flows, seeking to spread conflict uncontrollably and in particular dragging in Israel — especially at a time of such political uncertainty there — and during a new US presidential campaign.
Tehran doubtless calculates that it could absorb any initial damage and gain international backing by posing as the victim of US bullying. It could also capitalize on a widespread and misguided sentimentality about Iran in Europe and the US, and profound dislike of some of its Arab neighbors.
So the answer is to respond robustly (otherwise what’s the point?) but on our own terms, not on those set by Iran. Tehran may have concluded, not without reason, that the US has an incoherent approach under Trump and as a consequence has failed to build the political coalitions either domestically or internationally that are necessary to sustain a protracted confrontation in the Gulf. It may believe that what used to be US red lines (until President Obama changed the color scheme) are no longer enforceable. Push things as far as they can go, and any opposition will eventually disintegrate, to Tehran’s advantage. Washington will be so desperate for a deal that it will need to offer concessions to achieve one. Iran will emerge victorious once more with its regional position enhanced and its economy free to expand again and relieve some of what is clearly serious and growing popular discontent.
We don’t have to play that game. But to impose our own, we need strategic patience, an enhanced defensive capacity against Iranian provocations, a much better communications strategy and, if necessary, a willingness to respond ourselves — legitimately and proportionately, but also asymmetrically. Above all we need to come and stick together. And by “we” I mean the EU (of which the UK so far remains an important part), the US, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners.
We need collective honesty, collective plans, collective decisions and collective action. If we do so, we are strong. If we don’t, we aren’t. That has been a major lesson of the past decade in the Middle East and North Africa. Remedying that, it seems to me, is an urgent task for all our foreign ministries, starting with this week’s meetings at the UN General Assembly in New York. If we don’t, we shall all be the worse off for our failure.
*Sir John Jenkins is a senior fellow at Policy Exchange. Until December 2017, he was Corresponding Director (Middle East) at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), based in Manama, Bahrain and was a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. He was the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia until January 2015