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English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 06/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today

The Third Time That Jesus Appeared To The Disciples After His Resurrection
John/21/01-14/ Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”“No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 05-06/2021

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/

Aoun Warns Finance Ministry, BDL against Impeding Forensic Audit
Health Ministry: 1,001 new Corona cases, 34 deaths
Lebanon to receive 50,000 vaccine doses from China
Patriarch Rahi meets with Abbot Najm, receives Easter wellwishing calls from Berri, Diab
Beirut’s blast-hit silos must be demolished, experts warn
Nadim Gemayel: President Macron should have invited the principal, not the proxy
Druze Sheikh Akl contacts Aoun, Rahi, on Easter occasion: To speed up the government formation to start the rescue path
Report: Macron ‘Most Likely’ to Meet Bassil on Govt Formation
Hizbullah MP Says French Initiative Gained New Momentum
Report: Lebanese Officials Told Bassil Will Meet Macron Wednesday
Report: Lebanon Likely Has Gas Field in Block No. 9
Fahmy: Port Blast Probe Will Show Extent of Negligence
Time to offer Lebanon’s political elite an escape route/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/April 05/2021
Decentralization in Lebanon is not neutral/Ziyad Baroud/HomeMEI@75/April 06/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 05-06/2021

Iran Says It Has Arrested Spies for Israel, Other Nations
US ready to look at nuclear sanctions in indirect Iran talks
Jordan King Accepts Mediation with His Half-Brother
Jordan's Prince Hamzah Strikes Defiant Tone over Palace Turmoil
Prince Hamzah ‘stands’ with Jordan’s King Abdullah, vows to ‘follow constitution’
Netanyahu Sees Prospects Fade as His Trial Resumes
Abbas Travels to Germany for 'Medical Tests'
Putin Signs Law Allowing Him to Serve Two More Terms
More than 1,800 Prisoners Escape after Attack on Nigeria Jail
Top US diplomat on Iran to lead delegation for nuclear deal talks in Vienna
Turkey detains 10 retired admirals over open letter
Jailed Kurdish leader calls on Turkey’s opposition to unite against President Erdogan

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 05-06/2021

IDF destroyed Syrian border outpost in daring 2020 operation/David Rosenberg/Arutz Sheva/April 05/2021
New State Department Report Documents Grave Abuses in Iran/Tzvi Kahn/FDD/April 05/2021
Shabaab recommends black seed and honey to combat coronavirus/Thomas Joscelyn/FDD's Long War Journal/April 05/2021
As U.S. seeks peace, Taliban celebrates its jihadist training camps/Bill Roggio/FDD's Long War Journal/April 05/2021
How to Protect America’s Heartland from Global Corruption/Elaine K. Dezenski/Barron's/April 05/2021
Iran’s Mischief in Morocco Is a Problem/Emanuele Ottolenghi/The National Interest/April 05/2021
Arabs’ Real Enemies: Iran and Turkey/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/April 05/2021
The Most Tragic Story Never Told: The Muslim Persecution of Christians/Raymond Ibrahim/April 05/2021
IRGC to use Iran’s presidential election to bolster its power/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/April 05/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 05-06/2021

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/

Aoun Warns Finance Ministry, BDL against Impeding Forensic Audit
Naharnet/April 05/2021
President Michel Aoun on Monday issued a stern and rare warning to the Finance Ministry and the central bank over the issue of the stalled forensic audit of the central bank’s accounts. “I warn the Lebanese side -- specifically the Finance Ministry and the central bank which will meet tomorrow with forensic audit firm Alvarez & Marsal -- against any attempt to impede the forensic audit,” Aoun said in a tweet. “I hold them responsible, in the name of the Lebanese people,” the president added. The central bank had recently announced that it had submitted to the Finance Ministry all the documents that have been requested by Alvarez & Marsal to carry out its mission. The Finance Ministry disputed the announcement and said the central bank had only filed 42% of the needed documents. On December 21, parliament had approved a bill that suspended banking secrecy laws for one year to allow for a forensic audit of the central bank, a key demand of international donors. The vote came in accordance with a November decision by parliament to clear hurdles obstructing a forensic audit of the central bank and public institutions. The International Monetary Fund and France are among creditors demanding the audit as part of urgent reforms to unlock financial support, as the country faces a grinding economic crisis. But the central bank had claimed that provisions including Lebanon's Banking Secrecy Law prevent it from releasing some of the necessary information. New York-based Alvarez and Marsal, a consultancy firm tasked with the audit, scrapped its agreement with the government in November because the central bank had failed to hand over required data. The move sparked widespread criticism of Lebanon's authorities. The country, which defaulted on its debt this year, is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades.

Health Ministry: 1,001 new Corona cases, 34 deaths
NNA/April 05/2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Monday, the registration of 1001 new Corona infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 480,502.
It also reported that 34 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.

Lebanon to receive 50,000 vaccine doses from China
NNA/April 05/2021
Caretaker Minister of Health, Hamad Hassan, announced today, Monday, that the Ministry of Public Health will receive, on Tuesday, a donation of an additional of 50,000 vaccines from the Sinopharm Company, through the Chinese embassy. Hassan indicated that 30,000 doses will be dedicated to the army guidance and the rest for journalists and photographers. The Minister added that he contacted Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad for this purpose, indicating that workers in other sectors will also receive the vaccine. Finally, Hassan said that the available vaccine is of good quality.

Patriarch Rahi meets with Abbot Najm, receives Easter wellwishing calls from Berri, Diab
NNA/April 05/2021
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, received in Bkirki this afternoon, Abbot Pierre Najm at the head of a delegation from the Maronite Monastic Order, following his appointment as its general president. In his delivered word at the beginning of the meeting, Najm said that the visit comes to extend to the Patriarch well-wishes on the glorious Easter occasion, praying to the Lord Almighty "to keep His Beatitude's prophetic voice rising against every injustice, as he strives to preserve human dignity and restore to our great Lebanon the splendor of beginnings, so that our country remains a testimony of coexistence and an oasis of civilization and dialogue." Najm expressed full support and devotion to the Patriarch's role and initiative, placing the Monastic Order's efforts at the service of the Church, and the service of Lebanon and the Lebanese in this difficult period in the country's history. "We declare that God is present, and He is stronger than all evil and injustice," he affirmed. On a different note, the Patriarch continued to receive today congratulatory greetings and calls on the Easter occasion, most prominently from House Speaker Nabih Berri, during which both men touched on the government formation process and the efforts made in this regard. Al-Rahi also received calls from Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab; former PM Tammam Salam; Sheikh Aql of the Druze Community Naim Hasan; former Deputy PM Issam Fares; MPs Bahiya Hariri, Anwar El-Khalil, Ossama Saad, and Strida Geagea; Egyptian Ambassador Yasser Alawi; former Ministers Walid Daouk, Nicolas Tueni and Ziad Baroud; Director General of the Internal Security Forces, Major General Imad Othman; and the Head of the Alawite Islamic Council, Sheikh Mohammad Asfour.

Beirut’s blast-hit silos must be demolished, experts warn
AFP/April 05, 2021
Concrete piles have been heavily damaged and new silos must be built at a different location
Silos absorbed much of Beirut port blast's impact shielding large swaths of the city from its ravaging effects
BEIRUT — A section of the grain silos that absorbed much of last year’s Beirut port blast must be demolished to avoid collapse, experts warned in a report published Monday. Swiss company Amann Engineering, which has offered laser scanning assistance to Lebanon since the cataclysmic August 4 explosion, called the most damaged of the disemboweled silos an “unstable, moving structure.”“Our recommendation is to proceed with the deconstruction of this block,” the company said in a report. “As it becomes more obvious the concrete piles have been heavily damaged... new silos will have to be built at a different location,” it warned. Economy minister Raoul Nehme had said in November that Lebanon will demolish its largest grain store over public safety concerns, but authorities have yet to take action. Once boasting a capacity of more than 100,000 tons, the imposing 48-meter-high structure has become emblematic of the catastrophic port blast that killed more than 200 people and damaged swathes of the capital. Authorities say the blast was caused by a shipment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that caught fire after being impounded for years on end. The silos absorbed much of the blast’s impact, shielding large swaths of west Beirut from its ravaging effects. “As much as the structure can be iconic, facts do show there is no way to ensure safety on even the medium term with the north block remaining as is,” Amann said in its report. It warned that the damage to some of the silos was so severe that they were tilting at an alarming rate. “The inclination proceeds at the rate of 2 millimeters per day, which is a lot structurally speaking,” it said. “By comparison, the Tower of Pisa in Italy was leaning about 5mm per year until it was stabilized by very special works.” Lebanon relies on imports for 85 percent of its food needs. Confirmation that the silos cannot be salvaged for future use compounds an already alarming food supply outlook. The country, grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, has received donations of grain and flour in the aftermath of the explosion.

Nadim Gemayel: President Macron should have invited the principal, not the proxy
NNA/April 05/2021
Resigned MP Nadim Gemayel criticized today, in an interview with "Al Jadeed" TV, the visit of MP Gebran Bassil to France, considering that the visit comes to prove that "the biggest obstacle to forming the government is Bassil," adding that "President Macron ought to have invited the principal - i.e. Hassan Nasrallah - and not the proxy, to reach an understanding." Gemayel also criticized the presented pretexts of protecting the rights of Christians, saying: "They have destroyed all the dreams of Christians and the dreams of the Lebanese, and this is what we see from the migration to the outside world. This mandate has destroyed everything..." "We want a vital president who presents future proposals," he went on, adding, "Let the President admit that the country is collapsing and resign...The unfortunate thing is that President Aoun did not descend into political life with a parachute, for he has been in the midst of it for the past 30 years and knows exactly what is going on, and he was aware that he was entering into a 'den of hornets'...He reached the presidential palace, but what did he accomplish? He promised people peace and comfort, but did nothing." On the initiative of the Maronite Patriarch, Gemayel deemed his role as "very important", praising the Patriarch's effort, from his moral position, to present a "project for all of Lebanon." Asked whether he will run in the next elections, the resigned MP said: "I will soon return to continue my work and my activities on the ground, but now, contrary to what some claim, the current parliament is absent and is in need of new blood to build a nation. At that time, I will be the first to run in the elections."

Druze Sheikh Akl contacts Aoun, Rahi, on Easter occasion: To speed up the government formation to start the rescue path
NNA/April 05/2021
Sheikh Akl of the Druze Community, Sheikh Naim Hassan, contacted today the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, expressing his well-wishes on the occasion of Western Easter. The call was an opportunity to stress "the need to facilitate the new government formation, so as to get out of the serious crisis prevailing in the country and the daily suffering of citizens at all levels." Sheikh Hassan also contacted Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros al-Rahi, to extend his Easter greetings. The call was a chance to emphasize the necessity of exerting efforts to urge the concerned officials to assume their duties and responsibilities, and to stop all obstruction that has brought the country to its current state of crises, by forming the new government the soonest possible to begin the required rescue path.

Report: Macron ‘Most Likely’ to Meet Bassil on Govt Formation
Naharnet/April 05/2021
Recent indicators show some serious “French” efforts aiming to ease the obstacles hampering the formation of a Lebanese government, media reports said on Monday. If contacts succeed, Lebanon could see a new government formed next week, according to MTV television station.
Monday will likely witness contacts between several political parties, including a meeting between head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Jebran Bassil and the General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. The meeting between the two men comes before Bassil kicks off a visit to Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, added the station. The proposal that political parties almost agreed upon is a 24-seat government, with the exception of small details, without granting veto powers to any side. As for the interior ministry portfolio, its minister is to be chosen by the President provided he has the PM-designate’s approval. The work on this proposal was tackled on two levels, one of which was undertaken by General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. He held “daily” contacts with the Elysee, and succeeded at convincing the French of the “usefulness” of meeting with Bassil, despite the fact that France sees Bassil as one of the top obstructors, said MTV. On the internal level, Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi had a major role in easing the obstacles, and so did Hizbullah that made “endeavors” away from the spotlight, and sought to calm the internal atmosphere mainly after the speech of its Secretary-General, added MTV. Paris will reportedly receive Bassil on his first foreign visit since the US imposed sanctions on him. Meanwhile, the French-Saudi contacts continue on the Lebanese file, as Macron seeks to secure “guarantees” for the Kingdom. It added that Macron might ask Bassil to facilitate the formation of a government under Hariri. Macron could also bring the two rivals for a meeting, according to information obtained by the station. According to diplomatic sources, France might complete the step by calling later for a conference similar to the Saint-Cloud conference that was held in 2007.

Hizbullah MP Says French Initiative Gained New Momentum
Naharnet/April 05/2021
MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc announced Monday that “there is optimism regarding the formation of the government,” adding that “key obstacles” have been resolved.
In a radio interview, Moussawi identified the resolved hurdles as the one-third-plus-one share and the size of the government. The lawmaker, however, noted that “there are additional complications that must be overcome in order to form the government.”“Hizbullah’s engines are working with all the parties to form a government as soon as possible,” Moussawi said. “There is progress and optimism but that is not decisive enough to say that the government’s formation has become imminent,” he added. Moussawi also poined out that “the French initiative has been re-launched with higher vigor and has gained a new momentum.”

Report: Lebanese Officials Told Bassil Will Meet Macron Wednesday
Naharnet/April 05/2021
Several officials in Lebanon have been informed that Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil will travel Tuesday to Paris and that he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, al-Jadeed TV said. Bassil is also expected to meet with General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on Monday but the exact time of the meeting will not be announced for security reasons, al-Jadeed added. The TV network noted that Ibrahim had exerted efforts to arrange the expected meeting between Macron and Bassil. Al-Jadeed also quoted Elysee sources as saying that there is a possibility to secure a Paris meeting between Bassil and PM-designate Saad Hariri in order to resolve the obstacles delaying the formation of the new government. There are also discussions exploring the possibility of inviting a representative of Speaker Nabih Berri, the sources added.

Report: Lebanon Likely Has Gas Field in Block No. 9
Naharnet/April 05/2021
Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented economic crisis that need not delay resolving its conflict with Israel over their maritime border, and hence the resumption of UN-sponsored sea talks between the two, MTV reported on Monday. According to information, MTV said Lebanon has a potential gas field in Block No. 9 (marked in red in the picture above), extending beyond Line 23 and to Block 72 that Israel intends to take. The field in question is larger than Israel’s Karish field, it said. Lebanon and Israel need to reach common ground on their maritime border talks and hence their oil and gas wealth. It would greatly benefit the crisis-wracked country and help it steer out of its economic and financial crisis. French oil and gas company, Total, intends to drill away from this Lebanese field for fear that Israel will take part in it and obstruct the production process, as it did in the Aphrodite field with Cyprus for ten years.
Experts believe that amendment to Decree 6433 and demanding Line 29 that threatens the Karish field, will protect this field in Block 9. Israel and Lebanon have no diplomatic relations and are technically in a state of war. They each claim about 860 square kilometers of the Mediterranean Sea as being within their own exclusive economic zones. Israel has already developed a natural gas industry elsewhere in its economic waters, and Lebanon hopes oil and gas discoveries in its territorial waters will help it overcome the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. Lebanon and Israel held three rounds of talks in the southern region of Ras al-Naqoura, under U.N. and U.S. auspices to allow for offshore energy exploration. The third round was described as “negative” because of “divergent stances between the two.”

Fahmy: Port Blast Probe Will Show Extent of Negligence
Naharnet/April 05/2021
Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmy on Monday expected the investigation into the colossal Beirut port explosion to prove the flagrant extent of negligence that led to the catastrophe, the National News Agency reported. The minister said in an interview on Sunday evening, that security would be undermined in the event of political tensions, noting that politics affects security and the economy all over the world, not just in Lebanon. Fahmy totally rejected any forms of self-security, affirming that the security situation has relatively improved in the country. The Minister stressed there would be no succumbing to security chaos. Fahmi noted that Arab countries are eager to help Lebanon which currently hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

Decentralization in Lebanon is not neutral
Ziyad Baroud/HomeMEI@75/April 06/2021
For decades now, decentralization has been a recurring theme in Lebanese politics. That it is “administrative” does not make it any less “political” in a country where even minor technicalities can easily turn into major controversies. Yet decentralization is still perceived as one of the key reforms that has yet to come about.
Since the Taif Agreement in 1989 — the agreement that ended Lebanon’s war and paved the way for the 1990 constitutional amendments — decentralization managed to become universally accepted among various political groups. For some, it was the victorious outcome of a long and difficult struggle. For others, it was seemingly the lesser of two evils inasmuch as it put a damper on the quest for federalism. For all groups, however, decentralization is not neutral: it adversely affects the “sacred” political arena by shifting the balance of power from the central to the local government and hence limits the provision of resources that are vital to politicians’ interests. This goes some way toward explaining the willful failure to implement widespread administrative decentralization as a reform more than three decades after Taif.
No matter its form, decentralization is characterized by the establishment of locally elected legal entities, each having a legal personality and enjoying administrative and financial autonomy. So far, administrative decentralization in Lebanon has taken place at the municipal level only. In all other cases, any delegation of competencies has involved devolution from the central government to civil servants that it appoints.
The history of decentralization in Lebanon
Decentralization was first introduced into the Lebanese political lexicon by President Émile Eddé in the 1930s. In the 1960s, the Lebanese National Movement and Kamal Jumblatt rallied and advocated for it. In the 1980s, decentralization was seen by the Kataeb and the Lebanese Forces as an alternative to federalism, which had failed to crystallize into an integrated project. Despite support from various actors in the many decades since the proclamation of the Republic of Lebanon, decentralization never managed to materialize.
In 1989, the Taif Agreement gave decentralization a new push, attempting to enforce it as part of a fairly broad national consensus. To a limited extent, this meant it could be perceived by political, partisan, and sectarian groups as neutral in that it did not upset the balance of their “vested rights.” This partly explains the stalemate that decentralization has historically faced and still faces today: some would like to see it narrowed down to a minor technicality, while others believe it could bring about a major shift in Lebanese politics. In the former sense, it could be neutral. In the latter, however, it is certainly not, as decentralization could reshape the national landscape, give rise to new dynamics, break the grip of the central government, and bring about broader participation in democratic governance. It is also perceived as an important anti-corruption strategy as it would improve accountability and reduce the discretion of political elites.
Despite the unanimous understanding on decentralization in the Taif Agreement, the stalemate described above has prevented Lebanon from benefiting from a comprehensive decentralized system since 1989. At least five proposals and draft laws have been put forward since then. None of them led to a vote. Some of them were badly flawed and closer to a chaotic misperception of what decentralization really entails.
In 2012, Prime Minister Najib Mikati formed a special commission tasked with preparing a draft law on the enforcement of administrative decentralization. The commission accomplished its task and submitted the first comprehensive draft law with a detailed report delineating and explaining the strategic choices it made. This draft law — the most recent of its kind — does not pretend to be perfect and is open to additions and further development, but it undoubtedly offers an integrated platform for decentralization. The draft had to wait until 2016 before reaching the Lebanese parliament. Five years later, it is still “under discussion” in an ad hoc parliamentary committee, which says a lot about the pace of reform in Lebanon.
The case for decentralization
Reforms are not and should not be neutral. As far as decentralization in Lebanon is concerned, it is a matter of major choices, not minor technicalities. The latter were in fact studied in detail. Being one of the major local governance tools does not make decentralization any less political. If centralized policy-making has unquestionably failed to provide minimum levels of political, economic, and social stability, then decentralization is widely expected to provide alternatives worth considering. For decentralization to be successful, however, it also requires consistent financial decentralization. The prerogatives given to local elected bodies must be matched with appropriate revenues.
Some politicians and scholars put forward federalism as an alternative to decentralization. This is a non-issue. While it is totally legitimate for supporters of federalism to call for and defend it, the two concepts are fundamentally different — as are the mechanisms involved and, most importantly, the degree of local autonomy. The case for decentralization is supported by two major considerations: the unanimous adherence to it since the Taif Agreement and the fact that federalism cannot offer better answers than decentralization in three key problematic areas, namely foreign policy, defense strategy, and monetary policy. In both systems, all three remain in the hands of the central government.
Decentralization is not an end in itself; it is a means of ensuring greater local participation, more accountability, and a more sustainable and enduring democracy. The current Lebanese crisis has created strong momentum for revisiting decentralization, particularly as the notion gains traction in Lebanese civil society. It should be seen as the gateway to structurally reforming the system from within. By not being neutral, decentralization is a statement in itself, through the fundamentals it entails, the dynamics it creates, and the results it brings about. Over the years, efforts to delay the adoption of decentralization were never innocent. However, at a time when state institutions are ceasing to function or collapsing altogether, the consequences of this delay make it borderline criminal. Today, Lebanon needs a revolutionary, nationwide change with a new system of governance that is transparent, participatory, and representative. Decentralization can support the much-needed reemergence of the country’s institutions from the bottom up.
*Ziyad Baroud is the former Minister of Interior and Municipalities of the Republic of Lebanon between 2008 and 2011 in two cabinets. A court lawyer and arbitrator, he lectures at the Faculty of Law of Université Saint Joseph. He served as the chairperson of the Special (governmental) Commission on Decentralization, which prepared the draft law that is currently under discussion by parliament. The views expressed in this piece are his own.

Time to offer Lebanon’s political elite an escape route
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/April 05/2021
د. دانيا قليلات الخطيب/عرب نيوز: حان الوقت لمنح النخبة السياسية اللبنانية طريقًا للخروج من آزماتهم
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/97666/dr-dania-koleilat-khatib-time-to-offer-lebanons-political-elite-an-escape-route-%d8%af-%d8%af%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d9%82%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ae%d8%b7%d9%8a/

Amid speculation that the formation of a new Lebanese government is imminent following last week’s speech by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, in which he said the time has come to form a government, the Lebanese people have little to hope for.
There is no sense of consensus among the key politicians, though there is talk of a government formed of an “army” of 24 ministers that could satisfy the different political parties. One might think that the core of the problem rests on the power-sharing agreement between the different parties, but the issues go much deeper than this.
Even if such a government was formed, whether by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri or someone else, there is little it can do except to wait for the country to crash. This government, if one is formed, will be the one that has to bear responsibility for Lebanon’s collapse. Will Hariri be ready to take the blame?
US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea last month called for the formation of a government to conduct reforms. But the million dollar question remains: “How?” One might wonder why the French initiative failed. The concept of a unity government conducting reforms is an oxymoron.
The political class cannot conduct reforms. Any reforms put in place by Lebanon’s politicians would require an audit that would be self-incriminating. If the political class gets to choose the different members of the Cabinet, even if they are not known politicians, we will end up with a dysfunctional government of pseudo-technocrats. It will be nothing but a continuation of the failed government of outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
The international community is threatening the political elite with sanctions if they don’t conduct reforms; hence it is offering them an impossible solution. The only way to save Lebanon is for the political elite to throw in the towel. But would they ever do that? They face a dilemma: The only way to protect themselves from being incriminated is to remain in power, but if they remain in power they will bear the brunt of the country’s total collapse. They are approaching a dead end. One politician admitted to me that it is only a matter of time until the political class signs its own death warrant.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said the country is like the Titanic — it is destined to sink and everyone will drown. The political elite are feeling the heat. A few weeks ago, MP Elie Ferzli lost it during a TV interview. He is a seasoned politician and for him to lose his nerve is an indicator that the political elite feels cornered. However, they are not the captains that will sink with their ship. They will leave the ship if they are offered a lifeboat. They need a graceful exit in order to leave the ship, otherwise Lebanon faces the Titanic scenario.
Though the country is in a difficult situation, it has not yet totally collapsed. The currency has lost 90 percent of its value, but it still has some value. Despite disturbances and accidents here and there, there is a security apparatus maintaining a certain level of law and order. Government departments still function, even if not efficiently. However, if the country collapses, it will be very difficult to put the pieces back together.
The closest example is Iraq following the invasion of 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein. Due to the short-sighted policy of de-Baathification, the US disbanded the Baath Party and indirectly dismantled the state institutions. Almost two decades later, the country is still not back together. Hence Lebanon’s collapse should be avoided at all costs and the politicians should be offered a graceful exit.
Though this solution might not seem just, it is the best possible solution as it can save the country from total collapse.
The “thawra” (revolution) protest groups, guided by ideals more than realism, want to bring the politicians to justice. This is a dangerous approach, which will lead to a confrontation that might be the final knock to the country. It will also put the Lebanese Armed Forces in a difficult position. So there should be a settlement with the political elite.
The international community should pressure them. The most important tool is America’s Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which has taken its toll on Free Patriotic Movement President and former Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.
The US Treasury must know where each politician has accounts and where they get their money from. Washington should also offer the politicians a way to save their skin and make a dignified exit if they agree to return a portion of the funds they have accumulated over the years.
Discussions with the various politicians over their exits and the guarantees they will receive for leaving the scene should start now. In addition to the return of funds, the leading politicians should accept that some of their lieutenants and cronies be put on trial in order to diffuse public anger. This is actually starting to happen already.
One influential contractor is starting to sell off his assets as the politician protecting him removed his cover due to the popular pressure that came with the thawra protests.
The people on the streets are getting angrier by the day and are asking for the politicians to be brought to justice, but they should be realistic and present solutions that are executable. Pragmatic solutions that minimize losses should be sought. Though this solution might not seem just, as the people at the helm should be the first to be put on trial, it is the best possible solution as it can save the country from total collapse. In the end, politics is the art of the possible.
*Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese NGO focused on Track II. She is also an affiliate scholar with the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 05-06/2021

Iran Says It Has Arrested Spies for Israel, Other Nations
Associated Press/April 05/2021
Iranian authorities arrested several people on charges of spying for Israel and other nations, state TV announced Monday. An unnamed Intelligence Ministry official in the country's eastern Azerbaijan province was quoted by state TV as saying that security forces had detained a group of people suspected of spying for Israel and other unspecified countries. The brief report did not provide further details on the nationalities of the suspects or provide evidence to support the espionage charges. Iran does not recognize Israel and supports anti-Israeli armed groups across the region, such as Lebanon's Hizbullah and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Iran occasionally announces the detention of people it claims are foreign spies, including for the U.S. and Israel, without any further report on their fates. Iran executed a man last year convicted of leaking information to the United States and Israel about prominent Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps general Qassem Soleimani, who was later killed by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. In 2019, Iran said it arrested 17 Iranians accused of spying on the country's nuclear and military sites for the CIA and reported that some of them had been sentenced to death.

US ready to look at nuclear sanctions in indirect Iran talks
AFP/April 05/2021
WASHINGTON: The United States said Monday it was ready to review key sanctions on Iran if it comes into compliance with a nuclear deal ahead of European-led indirect talks aimed at salvaging the accord. The State Department confirmed that Rob Malley, the new pointman on Iran named by President Joe Biden’s administration, was traveling to Vienna to lead the US delegation but that he did not expect to meet with his Iranian counterpart. The meetings starting Tuesday aim to break a logjam as Biden supports a return to the 2015 nuclear deal but has insisted that Iran first reverse nuclear steps it took to protest sweeping sanctions imposed by former US president Donald Trump when he walked out of the accord. “There’s no denying that we are approaching this with urgency,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, saying the “breakout time” if Iran decides to pursue a nuclear bomb had diminished under Trump. Price reiterated that the United States was ready to look at lifting sanctions — but only those related to the nuclear issue. “We certainly will not entertain unilateral gestures or concessions to induce Iran to a better place,” Price said.
“The original formulation is one that still holds today — it’s the limited lifting of nuclear sanctions in return for permanent and verifiable limits on Iran’s nuclear program,” he said, referring to the accord’s text. Upon exiting the agreement, Trump imposed sweeping sanctions including a US ban on any other country buying Iran’s oil, a crucial export for the country. Successive US administrations have imposed other sanctions including on human rights grounds that have also irritated Iranian leaders, but Washington has not put those on the table in nuclear talks.
Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia are also participants in the deal and are eager to see the return of the United States. Iran said the meeting of the so-called 4+1 countries was to “talk about the path of lifting sanctions.”
“Whether the joint commission’s agenda produces a result or not depends on the Europeans and the 4+1 reminding the US of its obligations and the Americans acting on their commitments,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in Tehran.
“How and where the 4+1 talk to the US is their own business,” he told reporters in Tehran. The European Union has said its mediator will hold “separate contacts” with the United States in Vienna. According to a senior EU official, two groups of experts from the other countries will work simultaneously, with one focused on US sanctions and the other on reinstating Iran’s suspended nuclear commitments. Khatibzadeh said experts from the Iranian delegation would explain “how (we plan) to stop our remedial measures.”
“We have only one step, not step-by-step, (which) includes the lifting of all US sanctions,” he stressed. “It will become clear tomorrow whether the 4+1 can realize the points expected by Iran or not, so that we would have a clearer path forward,” Khatibzadeh said.

Jordan King Accepts Mediation with His Half-Brother
Agence France Presse/April 05/2021
Jordan's King Abdullah II has agreed to enter mediation with Prince Hamzah to heal a rift within the royal family, the palace said Monday. Abdullah has "decided to handle the question of Prince Hamzah within the framework of the Hashemite (ruling) family and entrusted it to (his uncle) Prince Hassan," it said in a statement.

Jordan's Prince Hamzah Strikes Defiant Tone over Palace Turmoil
Agence France Presse/April 05/2021
Jordan's Prince Hamzah, accused of plotting against his half-brother King Abdullah II, has struck a defiant tone, insisting he will not obey orders restricting his movement. The government has accused Hamzah of involvement in a seditious conspiracy to "destabilise the kingdom's security", placed him under house arrest and detained at least 16 more people. But 41-year-old Hamzah, who says he has been ordered to stay inside his Amman palace, vowed he would defy orders limiting his freedom of movement. "I don't want to make moves and escalate now, but of course I'm not going to obey when they say you can't go out, you can't tweet, you can't communicate with people, you're only allowed to see your family," he said in an audio recording posted on Twitter late Sunday. Hamzah -- a former crown prince stripped off that title by Abdullah in 2004 -- has emerged as a vocal critic of the monarchy, accusing it of corruption, nepotism and authoritarian rule. In a video he sent to the BBC Saturday he denied being involved in a plot, and said he had been ordered under house arrest by Jordan's most senior military figure, General Youssef Huneiti. In the latest recording, Hamzah said that: "When the head of the joint chiefs of staff comes and tells you this, it's a bit ... I think it's a bit unacceptable". The palace turmoil has laid bare a rift in Jordan, usually considered a bulwark of stability in the Middle East. Washington and major Gulf powers were quick to pledge their support for King Abdullah and for all steps taken to ensure stability amid reports of a foiled coup plot.

Prince Hamzah ‘stands’ with Jordan’s King Abdullah, vows to ‘follow constitution’
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/05 April ,2021
Jordan's King Abdullah has authorized Prince Hassan to deal with the situation regarding Prince Hamzah, the former crown prince, according to a Jordanian royal court statement. Prince Hamzah confirmed that he would adhere to the approach of the Hashemite ruling family and the path that the king entrusted to Prince Hassan, according to Jordan’s Royal Court. Prince Hassan is the third son of King Talal and Queen Zein, brother of King Hussein and uncle of King Abdullah II. He was previously Jordan’s Crown Prince from 1965 to 1999 but was removed three weeks before King Hussein’s death. Jordan arrests former adviser to King and others on 'security grounds'
Jordan arrests former adviser to King and others on 'security grounds'
“I place myself in the hands of the King, stressing that I will remain committed to the constitution of Jordan, and I will always be of help and support to his majesty the King and his Crown Prince,” Prince Hamzah said in a signed letter released by the Jordanian palace.
“The interests of the homeland must remain above every consideration, we must all stand behind the King in his efforts to protect Jordan and its national interests,” Prince Hamzah added. Former Jordanian Crown Prince Hamza bin Hussein attempted to mobilize local officials for actions that were intended to harm the security of Jordan, Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday. The government had launched a security investigation after it was revealed that a former minister, a member of the royal family, and some other individuals had tried to target the country’s “security and stability,” the Jordan News Agency (Petra) reported on Saturday. A day earlier, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman both spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah II over the phone, according to a report by the Saudi Press Agency, in which they affirmed the Kingdom’s support for all measures taken by King Abdullah to preserve Jordan’s security and maintain its stability.

Netanyahu Sees Prospects Fade as His Trial Resumes
Associated Press/April 05/2021
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial resumed Monday, with a key witness painting a picture of an image-obsessed Israeli leader forcing a prominent news site to flatter his family and smear his opponents.
The testimony came as Netanyahu's chances of securing another term in office following last month's parliamentary elections appeared to be dwindling in high-stakes political talks hosted by the country's figurehead president just a few miles (kilometers) away.
Taken together, the court testimony and political consultations pointed to an increasingly uphill struggle for Netanyahu as he fights for his political life.
In a post-election ritual, President Reuven Rivlin was consulting with the various parties elected to parliament before choosing a candidate to form a new government. With a majority of lawmakers opposed to giving Netanyahu another term, Rivlin could give the task to a different candidate, possibly as soon as Monday night. The consultations "make it more difficult for the president to give the mandate to Netanyahu," said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute. He said it was "very clear that Netanyahu is not close" to assembling a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. Monday's proceedings, the first in two months, marked the beginning of the evidentiary phase, in which a long line of witnesses are to take the stand against the prime minister.
The session focused on the most serious case against Netanyahu — in which he is accused of promoting regulations that delivered hundreds of millions of dollars of profits to the Bezeq telecom company in exchange for positive coverage on the firm's popular news site, Walla.
Ilan Yeshua, Walla's former chief editor, described a system in which Bezeq's owners, Shaul and Iris Elovitch, repeatedly pressured him to publish favorable things about Netanyahu and smear the prime minister's rivals. The explanation he was given by the couple? "That's what the prime minister wanted," he said. He said the pressure went on "for hours on end" over several years. The Elotviches, who are also defendants in the case, chose photos, headlines, word choice and other content.
Yeshua said they also ordered him to write unfavorable articles about Netanyahu's rivals, giving them pejorative nicknames. Naftali Bennett, a former Netanyahu ally turned rival, was known as "the naughty religious one," and former Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who is of North African descent, was called "smiley" and "the Arab."
Yeshua said he never spoke directly to Netanyahu, and that requests also came from intermediaries, including former Netanyahu aide Nir Hefetz, who has turned state's witness and is also expected to testify against the prime minister. "It was clear that I needed to comply with Nir's requests to put up positive articles, and remove negative ones," Yeshua said. He said his staff was furious about the pressure and one editor even nicknamed the prime minister "Kim," after the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. He said Shaul Elovitch referred to Netanyahu as "the big guy," and would also show him text messages from the prime minister's son, Yair, asking for articles to be changed or taken down. At one point in the proceedings, Iris Elovitch screamed out: "How much can you lie?" In another case, Netanyahu is accused of accepting gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy associates, including Hollywood film mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. In the third case, Netanyahu is accused of trying to orchestrate positive coverage in a major Israeli newspaper in exchange for curbing distribution of a free pro-Netanyahu tabloid. Netanyahu denies all charges.
At the beginning of Monday's session, Netanyahu sat with his lawyers as lead prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari read out the charges against him.
"The relationship between Netanyahu and the defendants became currency, something that could be traded," she said. "The currency could distort a public servant's judgment." He then left the courthouse before Yeshua's testimony. Outside the courtroom, dozens of supporters and opponents of the prime minister gathered to protest amid a heavy police presence, highlighting Israel's deep divisions.While a decision in the trial could be months or even years away, the proceedings are expected to take place up to three days a week, an embarrassing and time-consuming distraction that is certain to amplify calls for Netanyahu to step aside. The March 23 election was seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership, with his opponents saying a politician on trial for serious charges is unfit to rule. The election, Israel's fourth in two years, ended in a deadlock. Netanyahu is desperate to stay in power, hoping to use his office as a bully pulpit to lash out against prosecutors and potentially forming a government that could grant him immunity. But that scenario was looking increasingly distant Monday. Neither Netanyahu's allies nor his foes secured a governing majority. His fate could come down to Bennett, leader of the right-wing Yamina party, and Mansour Abbas, the leader of a small Arab Islamist party who also has yet to commit to either the pro- or anti-Netanyahu blocs. On Monday, Bennett recommended himself as the next prime minister, deepening Israel's political deadlock and severely narrowing Netanyahu's path to re-election. But Netanyahu's main challenger, the centrist Yair Lapid, was also struggling to win majority support. Yamina has just seven seats in parliament, making it a long shot to be able to form a governing coalition. Bennett is hoping he can become a consensus candidate who can bridge the deep divides between the rival factions. Rivlin will soon choose a prime minister designate who would be given up to six weeks to form a coalition. If he feels there is no clear choice, he also could send the issue straight to the Knesset, ordering lawmakers to choose a member as prime minister or force another election.
Israeli law does not require prime ministers to resign while under indictment, and Netanyahu has refused to do so. Some of Netanyahu's opponents have talked about passing legislation that would bar an indicted politician from serving as prime minister in order to disqualify him ahead of another election.

Abbas Travels to Germany for 'Medical Tests'
Agence France Presse/April 05/2021
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas left for Germany on Monday for "routine medical tests" and to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, a source within his office told AFP. Less than two months before the first Palestinian polls in 15 years, the 86-year-old Abbas left the presidential compound in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank via helicopter for Jordan, said the source. He was to fly to Germany before returning on Thursday, the source added, requesting anonymity pending an official announcement. Palestinian legislative elections are scheduled for May 22, with a presidential vote set for July 31. Abbas, who was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in the last vote in 2005 following the death of Yasser Arafat, has not yet declared whether he intends to run again. His secular Fatah movement, which controls the West Bank, has submitted a list of candidates for the legislative polls. Abbas, a heavy smoker, was hospitalised with pneumonia in 2018, fuelling speculation about a possible Palestinian succession plan. His latest visit comes with Abbas and Fatah facing mounting political pressures. In the legislative polls, Fatah is facing challenges from dissident factions including the Freedom list, led by a nephew of the late Arafat, Nasser al-Kidwa. Freedom has been endorsed by Marwan Barghouti, a popular leader whom supporters have described as the Palestinian Mandela. Barghouti is serving multiple life sentences in Israel for allegedly organising deadly attacks during the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) from 2000-2005. Abbas's former Gaza security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, who is currently in exile in Abu Dhabi, is also backing a list of challengers. Former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, an ex-World Bank official with a track record of fighting corruption, is supporting his own group. The Palestinian election followed an agreement on vote procedures between Fatah and Hamas Islamists who control the Israeli-blockaded Gaza strip.

Putin Signs Law Allowing Him to Serve Two More Terms
Agence France Presse/April 05/2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday gave final approval to legislation allowing him to hold office for two additional six-year terms, giving himself the possibility to stay in power until 2036. The 68-year-old Russian leader, who has already been in power for more than two decades, signed off on the bill Monday, according to a copy posted on the government's legal information portal. Putin proposed the change last year as part of constitutional reforms that Russians overwhelmingly backed in a vote in July. Lawmakers approved the bill last month. The legislation will reset presidential term limits, allowing Putin to run in elections again after his current and second consecutive term expires in 2024. Putin was first elected president in 2000 and served two consecutive four-year terms. His ally Dmitry Medvedev took his place in 2008, which critics saw as a way around Russia's limit on two consecutive terms for presidents. While in office, Medvedev signed off on legislation extending terms to six years starting with the next president. Putin then returned to the Kremlin in 2012 and won re-election in 2018. The term reset was part of constitutional reforms that included populist economic measures and sweeteners for traditionalists such as an effective ban on gay marriage. Russians voted yes or no to the entire bundle of amendments in a vote last summer that was held over the course of a week, in a move authorities said was aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus but critics said left the process open to manipulation. Golos, an independent election monitor, criticized the format of the vote, saying Russians should have been able to vote for each separate change. It also said it received hundreds of complaints of violations, including people voting multiple times. Russians ultimately voted 78 percent in favor of the changes.
- 'President for life' -
Kremlin opponents have said the constitutional reforms were a pretext to allow Putin to become "president for life". Putin would be 83 or 84 when he leaves office if he is elected and serves two additional terms to their end in 2036. The final approval of the legislation comes as authorities ratchet up pressure on the opposition and clamp down on dissent. Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week launched a hunger strike demanding adequate medical treatment in prison, saying he was experiencing severe back pain and numbness in his legs. The 44-year-old opposition figure was arrested on his return to Russia in January, after spending months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack last summer with the Novichok nerve agent that he blames on the Kremlin. In February, Navalny was sentenced to a two-and-a-half year term in a penal colony for breaching the parole terms of a suspended sentence on old fraud charges. Ten of Navalny's allies including key aide Lyubov Sobol and his brother Oleg remain in house arrest on charges of violating epidemiological measures during a Moscow protest demanding he be released. Navalny's team on Monday called upon his supporters to register in an online campaign preparing for protests to demand the Kremlin critic's freedom, saying Putin "will not leave on his own."

More than 1,800 Prisoners Escape after Attack on Nigeria Jail
Agence France Presse/April 05/2021
More than 1,800 inmates have escaped after heavily armed men attacked a prison in southern Nigeria using explosives, prison authorities said Monday, in one of the country's largest jailbreaks. The attackers blasted their way into the Owerri prison in Imo state, engaging guards in a gun battle, the national corrections authority said in a statement. "I can confirm that the Imo State command of the Nigerian Correctional Service was attacked by unknown gunmen in Owerri," Imo state corrections service spokesman James Madugba told AFP, adding that the number of escaped inmates was yet to be confirmed.
"The situation is under control," he said. The assailants arrived in pickup trucks and buses before storming the facility, the correction authority said. President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement called the attack an "act of terrorism" and urged security forces to capture the assailants and the escaped detainees. The governor of neighbouring Abia state imposed a night curfew on two towns there after the prison escape, a statement said, to protect local residents. Imo state is part of a region that has long been a hotbed for separatist groups and where tensions between federal authorities and the indigenous Igbo population are often high. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) separatist movement has recently been posting videos on social media of dozens of its militiamen in training. Authorities imposed a curfew on parts of Imo State earlier this year after clashes between the army and the local militia. But IPOB spokesman Emmanuel Powerful rejected any involvement in the Imo prison attack in a statement sent to AFP, dismissing any accusations as "lies." Calls for a separate state of Biafra are a sensitive subject in Nigeria, after a unilateral declaration of independence from British rule in 1967 sparked a brutal 30-month civil war. Prisons in Africa's most populous country are often overcrowded and with poor hygiene, and as many as 70 percent of inmates are on remand and can be held awaiting trial for years.

Top US diplomat on Iran to lead delegation for nuclear deal talks in Vienna
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/05 April ,2021
State Department Spokesman Ned Price reiterated previous comments that the US was ready to sit down for direct talks with Iran, although none were scheduled. US Special Envoy Rob Malley will lead Washington's delegation to Vienna for indirect talks with Iran, the State Department announced Monday.
State Department Spokesman Ned Price reiterated previous comments that the US was ready to sit down for direct talks with Iran, although none were scheduled. But Price was not upbeat of a quick result. “We don't underestimate the scale of the challenges ahead. These are early days. We don’t anticipate an early or immediate breakthrough as these discussions, we fully expect, will be difficult.” Asked what a successful result would look like, Price said, “compliance for compliance.” He explained that this would include a way to figure out how Iran would return to the now-defunct Iran nuclear deal.

Turkey detains 10 retired admirals over open letter
The Arab Weekly/April 05/2021
ANKARA - Turkey on Monday detained 10 retired admirals after a letter signed by more than 100 of them warned against a possible threat to a treaty governing the use of Turkey’s key waterways. Turkey’s approval last month of plans to develop a shipping canal in Istanbul comparable to the Panama or Suez canals has opened up debate about the 1936 Montreux Convention. In their letter, 104 retired admirals said it was “worrying” to open the Montreux treaty up to debate, calling it an agreement that “best protects Turkish interests”. The Ankara chief public prosecutor’s office said arrest warrants were issued for the 10 and ordered four other suspects to report to Ankara police within three days, opting not to detain them because of their age. They are accused of “using force and violence to get rid of the constitutional order”, NTV broadcaster reported. The prosecutor launched a probe on Sunday into the retired admirals on suspicion of an “agreement to commit a crime against the state’s security and constitutional order”. One of the 10 suspects detained was Cem Gurdeniz, described as the father of Turkey’s controversial new maritime doctrine known as “Blue Homeland”. The doctrine has grown in prominence, especially during tensions last year between Greece and Turkey over Ankara’s gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. It argues Turkey has rights to substantial maritime borders including the waters surrounding some Greek islands, much to Athens’ chagrin. Turkish officials have reacted angrily to the letter, claiming it appears to be a call for a coup. “Stating one’s thoughts is one thing, preparing a declaration evoking a coup is another,” parliament speaker Mustafa Sentop said on Sunday. Coups are a sensitive subject in Turkey since the military, which has long seen itself as the guarantor of the country’s secular Kemalist constitution, staged three coups between 1960 and 1980. There was also an attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016, blamed on followers of US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen in the military. The Montreux Convention ensures the free passage through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits of civilian vessels in times of both peace and war. It also regulates the use of the straits by military vessels from non-Black Sea states.

Jailed Kurdish leader calls on Turkey’s opposition to unite against President Erdogan
Reuters/05 April ,2021
Former pro-Kurdish party leader Selahattin Demirtas, jailed since 2016 despite Western calls for his release, said the Turkish opposition should unite against rising oppression and moves to divide them, including a court case to ban his party. Demirtas told Reuters that opponents of President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP) and his nationalist allies should agree shared democratic principles and form an alliance now rather than wait until elections scheduled for 2023. “All parties which want to fight side-by-side for democracy must come together,” Demirtas said in reply to written questions from Edirne prison in northwest Turkey. Speaking of his personal condition after 4-1/2 years in prison, Demirtas said he felt very well, strong and in good morale, with a clear conscience. “We were abducted from our homes one midnight in an illegal way and turned into political hostages. For this reason we are proud,” he said. “Those who threw us here are in shame and distress. They have passed into the dirty pages of history.” A Turkish court sentenced Demirtas last month to 3-1/2 years in prison for insulting the president. However, the main case against him is ongoing.
He is being held on terrorism-related charges that he denies. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has said his imprisonment is cover for limiting pluralism and debate, but Turkey has ignored its calls for his immediate release. “The pressure, oppression and destruction is increasing each day. So, without waiting for an election, an actual democracy alliance from today would be very meaningful and valuable,” he told Reuters. In 2019 local elections, opposition parties allied to win control of Turkey’s main cities and deal a blow to Erdogan. But opposition cooperation is fragile given the diverse secularist, nationalist and pro-Kurdish elements within it. Demirtas’ Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, has been targeted in a years-long crackdown in which thousands of its officials and members have been jailed and many of its lawmakers and mayors unseated.
It culminated last month when a case was filed to ban the HDP for alleged militant ties. The trial has not yet begun. Demirtas said the move showed Erdogan and his AKP had cast aside its founding principles given his past opposition to party closures. “They have neither goals nor targets, other than staying in power,” he said. “One of the aims of the closure case is to cause disputes within the opposition, to weaken and divide it. The opposition must not fall into this trap.”Ankara accuses the HDP of links to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, who have been waging an insurgency in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984 in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. The HDP denies such ties.
Dependence on nationalists
Erdogan’s nationalist MHP allies, led by Devlet Bahceli, have repeatedly called for a HDP ban and Demirtas said his party was exerting increasing pressure. The MHP “are taking advantage of the AKP’s dependence on them to try and seize control of the state and reshape it, but they will never succeed in this,” he said. In the main case targeting Demirtas, he is accused of fomenting violent protests in Turkey triggered by an ISIS attack on the Syrian town of Kobani in 2014. Erdogan has called the ECHR hypocritical for defending Demirtas, whom he called a terrorist. But in the interview, Demirtas dismissed it as a political trial and said the AKP bore all the responsibility for the protests, which led to the deaths of 37 people. He faces up to 142 years in prison if convicted. Reuters’ written questions were conveyed to him via the HDP and his lawyer and he responded orally to them, with his lawyer transcribing his answers.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 05-06/2021

IDF destroyed Syrian border outpost in daring 2020 operation
David Rosenberg/Arutz Sheva/April 05/2021
Cleared for publication:
IDF destroyed Syrian border outpost in daring 2020 operation
Israel reveals July 2020 operation inside Syrian territory in which IDF mined and destroyed enemy position. Israeli forces operated inside of Syrian territory in the summer of 2020, Israel Hayom reported Sunday night, in a secret operation targeting an enemy position near the border with Israel.
Israeli military censors cleared the incident for publication Sunday, revealing the operation to the public for the first time. In July 2020, soldiers from the IDF’s Golani Brigade crossed into Syrian territory under cover of night, in what is the first Israeli incursion into Syria in years.
The operation targeted a Syrian army outpost which was constructed in March 2020 in the buffer zone which spans the Israeli-Syrian border. The outpost was built 1,200 meters (0.75 miles) from the Israeli border, and was viewed by the IDF as not only a provocation by Syria, but a serious threat to the safety of Israeli forces near the border. The buffer zone, which was established after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, is required by the ceasefire agreement to be kept free of military outposts. By establishing a fixed military presence in the buffer zone, the Syrian army violated the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement with Israel, leading the IDF to target the position.Israel’s top military brass, including Defense Minister Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, signed off on the operation.
A total of 18 Israeli soldiers took part in the incursion, including Golani Brigade soldiers and a combat demolition team. Additional IDF forces remained inside of Israeli territory near the border, prepared to intervene if necessary, with air units on alert to provide air cover.
The IDF demolition squad mined the base of the Syrian outpost, with the entire force of 18 soldiers remaining in Syrian territory until after the outpost was destroyed.

New State Department Report Documents Grave Abuses in Iran
Tzvi Kahn/FDD/April 05/2021
Impunity for Iran’s systematic human rights abuses “remained pervasive throughout all levels of the government and security forces,” according to an annual review the State Department released on Tuesday. The report, which comes as part of a larger publication documenting human rights violations worldwide, paints a grim portrait of a society dominated by a ruthless Islamist dictatorship. According to the report, the regime in Iran routinely engages in unlawful or politically motivated killings of protesters and political dissidents; tortures prisoners; denies inmates any semblance of due process; prohibits freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly; blocks access to the internet; bars regime critics from running for public office; and discriminates against women and ethnic and religious minorities. The report provides gruesome details about the regime’s means of torture. “Commonly reported methods of torture and abuse in prisons,” the State Department finds, “included threats of execution or rape, forced tests of virginity and ‘sodomy,’ sleep deprivation, electroshock, including the shocking of genitals, burnings, the use of pressure positions, and severe and repeated beatings.”
The report also describes Iran’s human rights abuses outside its own borders. “Government officials materially contributed to human rights abuses not only against Iranians, but also in Syria, through their military support for Syrian president Bashar Assad and Hizballah forces; in Iraq, through aid to pro-Iran Iraqi militia groups; and in Yemen, through support for Houthi rebels,” the report says. In remarks to the press on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the report reflects a renewed U.S. effort to enshrine human rights as a cornerstone of American foreign policy. The Biden administration seeks to differentiate its approach to human rights from that of former President Donald Trump, who largely limited his human rights advocacy to regimes that directly threatened what he regarded as the U.S. national interest.
“President Biden,” said Blinken, “has committed to putting human rights back at the center of American foreign policy, and that’s a commitment that I and the entire Department of State take very seriously.” Contra Trump, Blinken argued that combating human rights abuses wherever they occur advances U.S. interests, since a country committed to human rights remains less prone to conflict.
However, the State Department report contains a misleading claim regarding one of the worst Iranian human rights violations of 2020: the shootdown of a Ukrainian airliner as it departed Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. All 176 people on board, including 138 with ties to Canada, perished. Yet despite the lack of credible corroboratory evidence, the report describes Tehran’s action as “accidental.”Iran’s official account claims the downing resulted from human error, with military operators misidentifying the civilian plane as a “hostile target.” In February, however, Agnes Callamard, then-UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, concluded that Tehran had “failed to carry out a full and transparent investigation in line with its international obligations.” As a result, the motives for the attack remain unclear.
Ukrainian and Canadian officials, for their part, have outright rejected the regime’s narrative, arguing that Tehran failed to conduct an adequate inquiry. Words matter. An accurate description of Iran’s conduct is integral to securing justice for the victims. The State Department should immediately drop its unfounded use of the term “accidental.” In addition, Washington should hold Tehran accountable by maintaining maximum pressure on Iran and should refuse to lift sanctions until the regime takes meaningful steps to halt its human rights abuses.
*Tzvi Kahn is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to FDD’s Iran Program and Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). For more analysis from Tzvi, the Iran Program, and CEFP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Tzvi on Twitter @TzviKahn. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_Iran and @FDD_CEFP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Shabaab recommends black seed and honey to combat coronavirus
Thomas Joscelyn/FDD's Long War Journal/April 05/2021
On Mar. 30, Shabaab warned Somalis not to take the AstraZeneca vaccine for the coronavirus. The warning came in the form of a three–page statement, which was published in both Arabic and English. Instead, Somalis should rely on “black seed and honey,” because these are the “medications prescribed in the Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet.”
Shabaab, which is al Qaeda’s East African branch, seizes on recent reporting concerning potential problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe. The group tells Somalis that this particular vaccine “does more harm than good and has an array of adverse side effects as illustrated by many health professionals and proven in medical researches around the world.”
Shabaab blasts Somalia’s government, described as the “apostate Somali regime,” for working with UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) to provide vaccinations. Indeed, the statement is clearly intended to undermine the Somali government’s legitimacy, portraying it as inept and wedded to international organizations that supposedly do harm to Muslims. By way of contrast, Shabaab holds itself up as a legitimate governing force.
For instance, the statement cites Shabaab’s “Office of Politics and Wilaayaat” calls on “all the Muslims of Somalia to reject the deadly Coronavirus vaccine.”
“Do not allow your children and family members to be used as guinea pigs in the race to develop a potent vaccine for the coronavirus pandemic,” this political branch of Shabaab says. The statement continues: “Do not allow your family to be used as subjects in the experimentation of the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine at a time when countless number of people have died and hundreds of others have developed severe adverse reactions, including the formation of blood clots, as a result of administering the vaccine.”
Shabaab also uses the reporting over AstraZeneca’s vaccine to reinforce its ideological animosity for the “disbelievers.” The group informs Somalis that they shouldn’t interact with or come near the “disbelievers,” because they not only spread the coronavirus, but “far worse diseases than the coronavirus pandemic, diseases that affect the heart, corrupt one’s religion and lead them towards hellfire.”
“Do not trust the disbelievers to benefit you in any way,” Shabaab warns.
The al Qaeda branch goes on to accuse international aid groups of conspiring against Muslims. “For more than three decades, UNICEF and WHO [World Health Organization] have overtly and covertly been involved in exacerbating drought, diseases and poverty in Somalia and other Muslim lands,” Shabaab alleges. “Therefore, the Muslims of Somalia should not expect any sentiments of altruism from the disbelievers and their organizations.”
Shabaab’s “Office of Politics and Wilaayaat” does inform its audience that it will let them know when a “safe and effective vaccination becomes available.”
*Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD’s Long War Journal. Follow Tom on Twitter @thomasjoscelyn. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

As U.S. seeks peace, Taliban celebrates its jihadist training camps
Bill Roggio/FDD's Long War Journal/April 05/2021
As the Biden administration desperately presses the Taliban and the Afghan government to settle the 20 year old war for control of Afghanistan before the May 1 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw, the Taliban continues to promote its training camps that pump out jihadist fighters who indiscriminately attack Afghan civilians, soldiers and police. On March 20, the Taliban released dozens of images of “Hundreds of Mujahidin [holy warriors] and martyrdom seekers” who “have graduated from Khalid bin Waleed, Al-Fateh and Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique Military Camps of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.” The images were released on Voice of Jihad, the Taliban’s official website. The images are standard fare for Taliban propaganda. Well-equipped fighters with new weapons, gear, and vehicles are pictured in various stages of training. Some of the images show the Taliban fighters donning night vision devices and body armor during nighttime training. The images portray a well-funded, trained and equipped Taliban force.
In a departure from previous propaganda, the Taliban attempts to hide the terrain features in photographs showing Taliban fighters assembled for what appears to be either an instruction session or a graduation ceremony (see second image, below). The Taliban has not made efforts to hide the background features of its camps in the past.
The Khalid bin Waleed, Al Fateh, and Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique camps have been promoted by the Taliban several times recently. The Khalid bin Waleed Military Camp is actually a network of 12 training facilities, according to the Taliban. The Khalid bin Waleed military complex “trains recruits in 8 provinces (Helmand, Kandahar, Ghazni, Ghor, Saripul, Faryab, Farah and Maidan Wardak) and “has around 300 military trainers and scholars,” and “can train up to 2000 recruits at a single time and trains them in the fields of Shariah, military, technical and intelligence,” the Taliban claimed in Nov. 2016.
Other training centers promoted by the Taliban include the Shaheed Ustaz Aasim in the Lions Den in Paktia province, the Intiqam Giran-e-Quran Camp in Faryab province, the Omar bin Khattab Training Camp in Kunduz province and the Abu Dujana Camp in Sar-i-Pul province. The Taliban has disclosed the existence but not the location of the the Salahadin Ayyubi Camp, the Abdullah bin Mubarak Jihad Training Camp, the Al Farouq Training Camp, and an unnamed “special forces” training camp.
The Al Fateh Military Camp is used to train elite Taliban formations, including its Red Unit (the Taliban’s shock troops), suicide teams, and other so-called martyrdom-seekers. Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoub celebrated the Taliban’s suicide teams in audio messages that were delivered at a graduation ceremony at the Al Fateh Military Camp in June 2020. Sirajuddin is one of two deputy Taliban emirs and the influential leader of the Haqqani Network. Yacoub is the Taliban’s other deputy emir, and is the son of Taliban founder and first emir Mullah Omar. Both are heavily involved in the Taliban’s military operations.
Other jihadist groups, including Al Qaeda, are known to operate camps inside Afghanistan. In 2015, the U.S. raided an Al Qaeda camp in Bermal district in Paktika, and two others in the Shorabak district in Kandahar province. The outgoing commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, said that one of the camps in Shorabak was the largest in Afghanistan since the U.S. invaded in 2001. Al Qaeda has also operated camps in Helmand, Kunar and Nuristan. Afghan officials claim that Al Qaeda is currently operating a training camp Baramcha in Disho district in Helmand province (FDD’s Long War Journal reported the existence of these camps in 2015.]
Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistani jihadist group that is closely allied with Al Qaeda, “operates terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan,” the U.S. government stated in 2014. The Turkistan Islamic Party, the Islamic Jihad Union, and the Imam Bukhari Jamaat, an Uzbek jihadist group that operates in both Syria and Afghanistan, have all claimed to operate camps inside Afghanistan. Coalition forces have also raided Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan suicide training camps in Samagan and Sar-i-Pul.
Despite the Taliban’s insistence on the restoration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with its emir as the leader, and its continued cooperation with Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups, the Biden administration is seeking to broker a peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The U.S., in its Feb. 29 2020 agreement with the Taliban, agreed to leave Afghanistan by May 1, 2021 in exchange for vague and unenforceable counterterrorism assurances and the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners. However the Biden administration is looking to extend its presence. The Taliban has openly stated that the U.S. must adhere to the terms of the agreement, and it would “continue its jihad” against U.S. forces if the agreement is not honored.
*Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD’s Long War Journal. Follow him on Twitter @billroggio. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

How to Protect America’s Heartland from Global Corruption
Elaine K. Dezenski/Barron's/April 05/2021
When outside real estate money moved into Cleveland in a big way starting in 2008, locals were upbeat. Investors were betting on the “upside of a Midwestern city” that had been passed by, The Plain Dealer wrote.
A decade later, that upside was hard to find. Cleveland’s AECOM Building, purchased by foreign-backed investors in 2010, fell into disrepair and saw its occupancy rate plummet. Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoisky was tied to the purchase and several others like it. Often using anonymous shell companies, Kolomoisky and his associates bought a dormant Motorola facility in Illinois, the former headquarters of Mary Kay Cosmetics in Dallas, and nine steel factories across the Midwest, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Four steel plants have since filed for bankruptcy, the ICIJ reported. An explosion at Warren Steel in Ohio sent five workers to the hospital, three of whom were airlifted to the burn unit. Hundreds of steelworkers at companies owned by Kolomoisky lost their jobs.
The U.S. State Department sanctioned Kolomoisky last month “due to his involvement in significant corruption.” A lawsuit filed in Delaware in 2019 alleges Kolomoisky and an associate used the Ukrainian bank they founded “as their own personal piggy bank.” The ICIJ found that more than $750 million had been moved into his U.S. business interests. The Department of Justice has filed civil cases to seize properties from Kolomoisky. They allege his American investments were less about acquiring profitable enterprises, and more about taking advantage of an opportunity to move questionable funds out of Ukraine into cleaner investments; in other words, money laundering.
Kolomoiskyy has said he broke no laws, according to BuzzFeed. There is no extradition treaty between the U.S. and Ukraine, so the chances of him having a day in court seem slim. However the accusations against him are adjudicated, they point to bigger issues in the way the money flows into the U.S. from abroad. While the U.S. conducts a formal review process for the foreign purchase of assets that impact national security, it is not clear that a similar examination occurs when foreign actors gobble up outdated factories and office parks. For precisely that reason, corrupt actors frequently turn to often-overlooked industrial assets and commercial real estate to launder their ill-gotten gains. America’s heartland is paying the price.
It is time for a more proactive approach to protecting and reviving America’s industrial core, not just by investing more domestic dollars, but by attracting productive foreign investment from trusted allies and vetted companies. There is nothing wrong with a foreign owner of a U.S. asset, but the acquisition process should be transparent, open, and informed. Distressed local communities, in fact, stand to gain the most by the viable and sustainable infusion of resources, whether domestic or foreign.
Congress has already taken one giant step toward fending off buyers who disguise their identity. The beneficial ownership reporting requirements in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act bring greater transparency to the purchase of U.S. assets by outlawing the domestic use of anonymous shell corporations. But we should not merely be trying to stop shady purchases. We should also be actively encouraging long-term and viable investment in America’s industrial foundation. Part of that should come domestically, with long overdue investments in America’s infrastructure. A new infrastructure bill can and should revitalize America’s industrial capacity.
As I have written before, America can strengthen its security, its supply chains, and its economy through “ally-shoring,” that is, working with trusted allies to mutually strengthen our supply chains, trading relationships, and foreign direct investment. In the wake of Covid-19, reimagining our dependent supply chains is a national security priority. However, ally-shoring doesn’t stop with bringing vulnerable supply chains closer to home. For too long, the U.S. has lacked a strategic vision to support and develop its vast industrial assets. Bringing key American allies into the process can help ensure that American interests are protected while, at the same time, injecting life and cash into essential industries that employ millions of Americans while strengthening our global alliances.
Through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, we have shown that we can monitor improper foreign control of key American industries and technologies. It is time to recognize that our critical assets include not only advanced technology and cutting-edge military hardware, but America’s critical industrial core, from our steel plants, to our skyscrapers and the workers employed there.
If we don’t revitalize America’s expansive industrial base, we risk our economy, our national security, our political stability, and our values. Recent experience shows that when workers are left behind, we feed electoral populism and foment political extremism.
America’s heartland deserves better than an investment of dirty money. Through a coordinated effort with our allies, we can strengthen the Midwest, save jobs, improve transparency, and invest in a sustainable future.
*Elaine Dezenski is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and CEO of LumiRisk LLC. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

Iran’s Mischief in Morocco Is a Problem
Emanuele Ottolenghi/The National Interest/April 05/2021
Iran has historically supported any militancy against pro-Western regimes, regardless of their religious or political orientation.
Moroccan intelligence services arrested a fifty-seven-year-old Lebanese national upon his entry to the country on Jan. 6. Little is known of him, except that he is a Hezbollah member who was caught carrying multiple European passports and identity cards, some of which had been reported stolen.
Officials speaking to the author on condition of anonymity indicated he entered Morocco under the name of Ibrahim Youssef, yet no such person appears in the Lebanese population registry with the same date of birth. The man the Moroccans nabbed was traveling with multiple aliases.
Hezbollah and Iran have a growing track record of document forgery in recent years. In 2014, a Hezbollah External Security Organization agent, Mohammad Amadar, was arrested in Peru on suspicion he was plotting a terror attack in Lima. He had entered the country with a forged passport from the West African nation of Sierra Leone.
In 2019, Argentinian authorities arrested two Iranians who had entered the country with forged Israeli passports. The Iranians claimed to be regime opponents. The Argentinians thought otherwise. And the forged (and stolen) passport suppliers, who Argentinian intelligence sources indicate were in Spain, were tied to Iran. A few months later, two more Iranians with forged passports were arrested in Ecuador.
What was a Hezbollah operative with forged documents doing in Morocco? Is he, too, linked to the forgery network that helps Iran and Hezbollah run ratlines from the Middle East all the way to Latin America and back? Was he a client who was possibly delivering forged documents to others? Was he entering Morocco, like Amadar in Peru, to plot an attack?
To answer this question, look no further than a decade of simmering tensions between the North African kingdom and Iran, which controls Hezbollah as a proxy. Twice in a decade, Morocco broke relations with Iran—the first time, in 2009, officially over an Iranian clerical official’s statement that Bahrain, the tiny Gulf kingdom, really belonged to Iran. In 2018, barely a year after Tehran had reopened its embassy, Morocco’s foreign minister, Nasser Bourita, publicly accused Iran of dispatching senior Hezbollah operatives and supplying weapons and training to the Polisario Front, a group Morocco is fighting over sovereignty in the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. Algeria, Morocco’s neighbor, backs Polisario.
Beyond these spats, Morocco has accused Iran of efforts to spread its revolutionary brand of Shi’ism among Morocco’s predominantly Sunni population, something Iran has certainly done zealously across Western Africa and among Moroccan immigrants in northern Europe. There is little evidence these attempts have won significant backing in Morocco, but not for want of trying.
Morocco also complied with a U.S. request to arrest Hezbollah financier, and Lebanese national, Kassem Tajideen, as he transited through Morocco in 2017. Iran allegedly sought to bribe officials to let him go and never forgave Morocco for eventually extraditing Tajideen to the United States (The Trump administration released him in July 2020, possibly as part of a prisoner swap.) And then there are the Abraham Accords, the historic peace deals the Trump administration brokered between Arab countries, including Morocco, and Israel, to Tehran’s intense chagrin.
The arrival of a Hezbollah operative in January, less than a month after Jerusalem and Rabat normalized relations, may not be a coincidence, especially given that, barely two months earlier, Polisario leaders ended a three-decade-long truce with Morocco, potentially reigniting a conflict that has known little respite since 1975 and that could ignite an already unstable region. What better way to turn the screw against a more powerful adversary than relying on asymmetrical warfare like terror attacks through a proxy?
For Morocco, a historic bulwark of Islamic moderation and pro-Western policy in an otherwise restless region often convulsed by radicalism, this does not bode well, especially when taken together with accusations of Hezbollah’s support for Polisario. Tehran has dismissed the allegations as baseless, yet the Moroccans are adamant, and with good reason. Iran has historically supported any militancy against pro-Western regimes, regardless of their religious or political orientation.
Iran’s official position on the Western Sahara territorial dispute coincides with Algeria’s. Algeria has reciprocated this support numerous times – most recently in May 2020, when it allowed Iranian aircraft to refuel in Algiers on its way to Venezuela. And Hezbollah-Polisario contacts are public knowledge: A key Polisario leader, Nana Rabbat al-Rasheed, led a delegation to Beirut in 2017, where she met Hezbollah’s MP Ali Fayad (and posted an excited “Long live the resistance!” comment on her Facebook page) and other Hezbollah representatives.
There are other reasons to be concerned. Western Sahara as well as Morocco’s coasts have increasingly become a transit point for cocaine shipments from Latin America to Europe—a business assiduously facilitated by Hezbollah financiers and facilitators. A possible Hezbollah-Polisario link is concerning not only because it reflects a common Iranian strategy to gain influence by beefing up proxies against its adversaries, but because it could be an incubator for mutually beneficial illicit activities that would add to regional instability.
The Biden administration should pay close attention to these developments. Morocco is a strong U.S. ally and has historically been a moderate voice within the Arab League when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Morocco’s recent normalization with Israel is promising and Washington should promote it, as part of a broader effort to consolidate and expand the Abraham Accords.
Washington has much to lose from a resurgent conflict in Western Sahara, and it should not let Iran dispatch its proxies, much like it did in Syria a decade ago, to make matters worse.
*Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow him on Twitter @eottolenghi.

Arabs’ Real Enemies: Iran and Turkey
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/April 05/2021
خالد أبو طعمة/معهد كايتستون: اعداء العرب الحقيقيين هما تركيا وإيران
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/97663/khaled-abu-toameh-gatestone-institute-arabs-real-enemies-are-iran-and-turkey-%d8%ae%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af-%d8%a3%d8%a8%d9%88-%d8%b7%d8%b9%d9%85%d8%a9-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%aa/

The Arabs are warning the world that Turkey and Iran are funding and arming terrorists, that they a major threat to security and stability in the Middle East, and that they keep meddling in the internal affairs of Arab countries.
The Arabs are also telling the world that the only way to deal with Turkey and Iran is by increasing political and economic pressure on them and holding them to account for their malign actions.
Turkey and Iran, in other words, are telling the Arabs that they can go to hell. They are also telling the Arabs that Turkey and Iran will continue to occupy Arab countries, meddle in their internal affairs, and unleash terrorist attacks to undermine their stability and security.
Veteran Saudi columnist Abdulrahman Al-Rashed warned that Iran’s continued “military activities” in the region will likely lead to more chaos that will be increasingly difficult to control.
Al-Rashed also pointed out that the Houthi militia increased its missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia after the Biden administration revoked its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
[T]he latest Arab warning concerning the Turkish and Iranian threats has gone almost unnoticed by the international community and media. They only pay a great deal of attention to the resolutions of the Arab League foreign ministers when they include — as they frequently do — a condemnation of Israel.
Turkey and Iran are telling the Arabs that they can go to hell. They are also telling the Arabs that Turkey and Iran will continue to occupy Arab countries, meddle in their internal affairs, and unleash terrorist attacks to undermine their stability and security.
After decades of portraying Israel as their mortal enemy, the Arabs have finally woken up to the fact that it is two Islamic countries, Turkey and Iran, that are actually threatening their security and stability.
The Arabs are now seeking to draw the world’s attention to these Turkish and Iranian threats.
The Arabs are warning the world that Turkey and Iran are funding and arming terrorists, that they a major threat to stability in the Middle East, and that they keep meddling in the affairs of Arab countries.
They are also telling the world — in message directed mainly to the Biden Administration — that the only way to deal with Turkey and Iran is by increasing political and economic pressure on them and holding them to account for their malign actions.
The latest message from the Arabs was delivered on March 3 by Arab League foreign ministers. In a clear directive to the Biden administration and the international community, the ministers warned against Iranian and Turkish intervention in the internal affairs of the Arab countries.
The message the Arab foreign ministers are sending to the Biden administration is: In your dealings with the mullahs in Tehran and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, remember that they are funding and arming terrorists and trying to destabilize and dominate Arab countries.
The Arab ministers are also saying that they want the international community, including the Biden administration, to take real measures to stop Turkey and Iran from pursuing their dangerous policies against Arab countries.
Referring to Turkey, the Arab ministers condemned the Turkish military presence in — and “hostile intervention” in the internal affairs of — a number of Arab countries, including Syria, Libya and Iraq. This intervention, they cautioned, “aims to undermine the stability, and tamper with the capabilities, of these three Arab countries.”
The ministers accused Turkey of hosting, funding, arming, training and providing a safe haven for terrorist groups, which they cited as the Muslim Brotherhood.
Turkey’s “malicious’ policies require Arab and international action,” the ministers said. They also called on Erdogan to withdraw his troops and “mercenaries” from Syria, Iraq and Libya.
Referring to Iran, the ministers accused Tehran of proceeding with its plan to “destroy, sabotage and undermine the stability” of a number of Arab countries.
The ministers condemned Iran’s encroachment into the internal affairs of the Arabs, as well as the mullahs’ “provocative statements” against Arab countries and missiles now being fired by the Iranian-affiliated Houthi militia in Yemen into Saudi Arabia.
Turkey and Iran, however, do not seem fazed by the Arab ministers’ warning. The two countries have lashed out at the ministers and dismissed the Arab allegations as “baseless.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry called on some members of the Arab League to end their “insistence on stereotypical accusations against our country with aims to cover up their destructive activities.”
Turkey, the ministry said, with its “principled and resolute stance,” is one of the countries that devotes the greatest effort to ensure “regional and global peace and stability of security.”
“We again invite the Arab League to prioritize the peace, prosperity and well-being of the Arab people and to constructively contribute to the establishment of security and stability in the region, instead of targeting our country with baseless allegations.”
Likewise, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said:
“[I]t is regrettable that some Arab countries are seeking to divert people’s attention from their wicked and destructive moves by arousing fictitious animosity instead of taking care of the key issues that the Arab world is facing.”
Turkey and Iran, in other words, are telling the Arabs that they can go to hell. They are also telling the Arabs that Turkey and Iran will continue to occupy Arab countries, meddle in their internal affairs, and unleash terrorist attacks to undermine their stability and security.
“It is natural for Erdogan to reject the decisions of the Arab League, and this is understandable and expected, but what is neither acceptable nor expected is that the Turkish Foreign Ministry claims that the decisions are baseless,” remarked Saudi writer Najeeb Yamani.
“It is quite clear that Erdogan is a blind fool. He is sending mercenaries to Libya and supporting one of the parties to the conflict there with weapons. Turkey is occupying parts of Syria and violating the sovereignty of Iraq. In addition, Erdogan is embracing and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood organization and using it to undermine Egypt’s security.”
Veteran Saudi columnist Abdulrahman Al-Rashed warned that Iran’s continued “military activities” in the region will likely lead to more chaos that will be increasingly difficult to control.
Al-Rashed also pointed out that the Houthi militia increased its missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia after the Biden administration revoked its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
“Every week that passes proves the need for a grouping of countries in the region in the face of Iran, regardless of the attempts to negotiate between the West and Iran,” he said. “Americans who are looking for positive signs [in Iran] will not find much.”
Yet, the latest Arab warning concerning the Turkish and Iranian threats has gone almost unnoticed by the international community and media. They only seem to pay a great deal of attention to the resolutions of the Arab League foreign ministers when they include — as they frequently do — a condemnation of Israel.
When the Arabs issue warnings about the destructive policies of Turkey and Iran, the international community directs its gaze elsewhere.
**Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17168/arabs-enemies-turkey-iran

The Most Tragic Story Never Told: The Muslim Persecution of Christians
Raymond Ibrahim/April 05/2021
Few phenomena are as horrifically widespread as they are virtually unknown—at least in the West—as the Muslim persecution of Christians.
The general facts are undeniable and have been and continue to be documented in a number of reports issued by a variety of human rights organizations around the world. According to one of the most recent compilations, Open Doors’ “World Wide List, 2021”—which was published in January 2021 and which annually ranks the top 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted for their faith—13 Christians are killed for their faith every day around the world; 12 are illegally arrested or imprisoned; 5 are abducted; and 12 churches or other Christian buildings are attacked.
About 309 million of these Christians “suffer very high or extreme levels” of persecution. “That’s one in 8 worldwide, 1 in 6 in Africa, 2 out of 5 in Asia, and 1 in 12 in Latin America.” More specifically and for the reporting period covered (Oct. 2019 – Sept. 2020), “4,761 Christians were killed for their faith”; an additional 4,277 Christians were unjustly arrested, detained, or imprisoned; 1,710 were abducted for faith-related reasons; and 4,488 Churches or Christian buildings were attacked.
The worst category, “extreme persecution”—the harassing, beating, imprisoning, raping, and/or slaughtering of Christians on sight—occurs in 12 of the 50 nations. Nine of these top 12 worst persecutors are Muslim: Afghanistan (#2), Somalia (#3), Libya (#4), Pakistan (#5), Yemen (#7), Iran (#8), Nigeria (#9), Iraq (#11), and Syria (#12). (That these nations are racially, culturally, politically, and economically very different—Arab, Asian, Iranian, sub-Saharan African, etc.—should be indicative that something else accounts for their commonality towards Christians.)
Over all, the persecution Christians experience in 39 of the 50 nations making the list is also either from “Islamic oppression” or is occurring in Muslim majority nations. This means nearly 80 percent of the Christian persecution around the world—including of those 13 Christians killed for their faith every day—is committed by Muslims.
While the above numbers are important, including in displaying the magnitude of the problem, one should not lose sight that they represent real people; what they experience, when read in detail—girls chained and gang raped; Christians burned alive for supposedly “blaspheming” Muhammad; Muslim husbands and wives stabbing and poisoning each other whenever one apostatizes to Christ; another 30 having their heads sawn off just for the heck of it—is tragic if not bloodcurdling.
The following, for example, are among the most recent incidents to occur as of this writing (excerpted from the February, 2021 edition of the monthly “Muslim Persecution of Christians” reports):
Uganda: A Muslim husband splashed acid onto his wifeafter suspecting she had converted.
Malta: A Muslim man stabbeda former Muslim who converted to Christianity in an attempt to kill the apostate and please Allah.
Iran: Four converts to Christianity that were arrested on the chargeof “acting against national security by forming a house Church,” were sentenced to a combined total of 35 years in prison.
Pakistan: Two Christian men reading the Bible in a park were arrestedand are being charged with blasphemy—which carries the death penalty—after Muslims lied and told police that they were proselytizing.
Somaliland: On Jan. 25, a Christian couple and their newborn baby were arrested. On the next day, police searched and seized from their home recriminating evidence of Christianity. Promoting any religion other than Islam is banned in Somaliland. Their fate remains unknown.
Algeria: A 43-year-old married Christian father of four was sentenced to five years in prisonfor reposting a cartoon of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam on his Facebook account—three years ago, in 2018.
Kenya: Muslims torched five separate churches. As occurred when vandals in France usedhuman excrement to draw a cross on the Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in 2019, so these Kenyan arsonists also “committed the heinous acts of scooping human feces onto the buildings,” the source added.
Sudan: The ninth church to be torchedin Muslim-majority Sudan in two years occurred.
Nigeria: Suspected Muslim arsonists set Holy Family Catholic Church ablazeon Sunday.
Algeria: Although all mosques were given permission to reopen on Feb. 15, churches were deniedthe same greenlight.
Bangladesh: Two Muslims brutally raped their neighbor, a married Christian mother, because they thought that the family consisted of “very weak Christians, [who] would not raise our voices.”
Pakistan: After a 23-year-old Christian girl applied for the position of math instructor in a school adjacent to a mosque in Islamabad, the Muslims around her began to harass and insult her—to the point of threatening her with rape and deathif she did not convert to Islam. An actual abduction attempt was also made.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: On Sunday, Feb. 14—St. Valentine’s Day—Islamic terrorists killed13 civilians in the Christian majority nation, and burnt down a Catholic church during a raid.
Nigeria: A Muslim colonel stole weapons from an armory and then blamed the 12 soldiers on duty of the theft. Six of those 12 soldiers—all Christians—were then executed. And, as they do every month, Islamic terrorists of the Fulani herdsmen variety butchered dozens of Christians.
Indonesia: Authorities publicly flogged two Christian menfor drinking alcohol and gambling in Aceh, which enforces Islamic law, or Sharia.
Sudan: On the day that the only Christian program on Sudanese television first aired, outraged Muslims urgedauthorities to remove it. “Christians and Jews are not only infidels, but they are cursed by Allah.”
As mentioned, this is just the latest sampling from the most recent compilation. Every month contains similar, often significantly worse, accounts, both in quantity and quality.
Why is this happening? And why do Muslims have the lions’ share of the “extreme persecution” 309 million Christians around the world experience?
Islamic doctrine sheds much light. In short, shari‘a, that body of teachings that Muslims are obligated to adhere to, teaches hate for and violence against all non-Muslims. In the words of Koran 60:4, “We [Muslims] renounce you [non-Muslims]. Enmity and hate shall forever reign between us—till you believe in Allah alone.” Such sentiments are to be applied to all non-Muslims—“even if they be their parents, children, siblings, or extended family” (58:22; see also 3:28, 4:89, 4:144, 5:54, 6:40, 9:23). Based on such verses, any number of fatwas, authoritative Islamic decrees from venerable sheikhs, call on Muslims to do things like hate their non-Muslim wives (while “physically” enjoying or benefitting from them) and to hate and be disloyal to the Western nations they reside in.
In short, and as the Islamic State once explained in an unambiguously titled article, “Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You,” “We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers.” (Lest it seem that ISIS is an aberration that hardly speaks for Muslims, a Pew poll found that in just 11 nations, as many as 287 million Muslims—just those who answered honestly—sympathized and/or supported ISIS.)
Despite their much vaunted “people of the book” appellation—the significance of which apologists for Islam have strained beyond credulity—both Christians and Jews are, in the end, also classified as infidels (kuffar; singular, kafir). Thus Koran 5:51 warns Muslims against “taking the Jews and Christians as friends and allies … whoever among you takes them for friends and allies, he is surely one of them”—that is, he too becomes an infidel.
Christians are further singled out by name for condemnation: Koran 5:73 declares that “Infidels are they who say God is one of three,” a reference to the Christian Trinity; Koran 5:72 says “Infidels are they who say God is the Christ, [Jesus] son of Mary”; and Koran 9:30 complains that “the Christians say the Christ is the son of God … may Allah’s curse be upon them!”
The significance of these verses can only be understood when one understands the significance of the word translated here as “infidel”—kafir. The kafir—the nonbeliever—is the mortal enemy of Allah and his prophet; their followers—Muslims—are obligated to war on, kill, and subjugate him, whenever possible, that is. As for what Muslims should do when attacking infidels is infeasible—for example, because the non-Muslims are currently stronger—Koran 3:28 advises: “Let believers not take for friends and allies infidels rather than believers: and whoever does this shall have no relationship left with Allah—unless you but guard yourselves against them, taking precautions.” (This is one of the verses that endorses taqiyya, the notorious doctrine that promotes deceiving non-Muslims.)
The final word on both Christians and Jews was “revealed” in Koran 9:29: “Fight those among the People of the Book who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not embrace the religion of truth [Islam], until they pay the jizya [monetary tribute] with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued.” With that, their fate was sealed; like all other infidels, Christians and Jews were also to be hated, warred on, and subjugated.
The only difference is that, whereas conquered pagans must either convert or die, Christians and Jews are permitted to keep their religions—once, that is, they embrace their inferior status, as well laid out in the “Conditions of Omar,” a historic document purportedly agreed to by the conquered Christian population of Jerusalem around 640 AD. Muslim jurists still cite these conditions as containing the main stipulations Christians must agree to in order to exist under Islamic rule. In it, Christians agree:
Not to build a church in our city—nor a monastery, convent, or monk’s cell in the surrounding areas—and not to repair those that fall in ruins or are in Muslim quarters… Not to display a cross on them [churches], nor raise our voices during prayer or readings in our churches anywhere near Muslims; Not to produce a cross or [Christian] book in the markets of the Muslims… Not to display any signs of polytheism, nor make our religion appealing, nor call or proselytize anyone to it… Not to possess or bear any arms whatsoever, nor gird ourselves with swords; To honor the Muslims, show them the way, and rise up from our seats if they wish to sit down.
This pact concludes with the Christians conceding that if they break any of these stipulations, they become, once again, free game for killing or enslavement.
Rather tellingly, the majority of persecution today is connected to these conditions: churches are bombed, burned, or simply denied permits to exist or renovate; Bibles, crosses, and other symbols of “polytheism” are often confiscated, destroyed, and/or provoke violent outbursts (especially in unguarded cemeteries); Christians who openly speak of their faith are accused of proselytizing or blaspheming—both of which can lead to execution. The stipulation for Christians to “honor the Muslims”—including by offering them their seats, a scene that predates the Rosa Parks incident by nearly 14 centuries—has led to an entrenched system of contempt for and discrimination against Christians.
Here it may be objected that, just because religious doctrine teaches something—just because some musty old books and scriptures say something—does not necessarily mean that the religious follow it. To this, one responds by saying that Islamic history is a virtual manifestation of Islamic doctrine.
In 628, the Arabian founder of Islam, Muhammad, called on the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius—the symbolic head of Christendom—to recant Christianity and embrace Islam. The emperor refused, jihad was declared—Koran 9:29 was in fact “revealed” in this context—and centuries of Islamic invasions, wars, and conquests followed. As a result, “Muslim armies conquered three-quarters [or 75 percent] of the Christian world,” to quote historian Thomas Madden.
All that remained was the “West”—so called because it was literally the westernmost quarter of the pre-Islamic Christian world, namely Europe, that did not also fall, despite centuries of jihadi attempts. As late as 1683—a millennium after Muhammad’s ultimatum to Heraclius—over 200,000 Muslims marched onto, besieged, and nearly conquered Vienna in the name of jihad. Indeed, even the United States of America’s first war as a nation was against Muslims operating under jihadi logic.
In the words of eminent historian Bernard Lewis,
For almost a thousand years, from the first Moorish landing in Spain [711] to the second Turkish siege of Vienna [1683], Europe was under constant threat from Islam. All but the easternmost provinces of the Islamic realm had been taken from Christian rulers… North Africa, Egypt, Syria, even Persian-ruled Iraq, had been Christian countries, in which Christianity was older and more deeply rooted than in most of Europe. Their loss was sorely felt and heightened the fear that a similar fate was in store for Europe.
As for those Christians whose lands came under Muslim control, from Morocco to Iraq, the historical records make clear that they were indeed treated as “inferiors,” dhimmis, in keeping with the Conditions of Omar. Whether to evade the fiscal and social oppression that was their lot—or the sporadic bouts of wholesale persecution that regularly flared out—over the centuries, more and more of these Christians, who once formed the majority of the Middle East and Africa, converted to Islam. Muslim records even make this clear; in al-Maqrizi’s (d. 1442) authoritative history of Egypt, anecdote after anecdote is recorded of Muslims burning churches, slaughtering Christians, and enslaving Coptic women and children—often with the compliance if not outright cooperation of the authorities. The only escape then—as sometimes still today—was for Christians to convert to Islam.
After recording one particularly egregious bout of persecution in the eleventh century, when, along with countless massacres, some 30,000 churches, according to Maqrizi, were destroyed or turned into mosques—a staggering number that further indicates how Christian the pre-Islamic Middle East was—the Muslim historian makes an interesting observation: “Under these circumstances a great many Christians became Muslims.” (One can almost hear the triumphant “Allahu Akbars.”)
That Christians still amount for very small minorities in the Middle East—as much as ten percent in Egypt—is, therefore, not a reflection of Muslim tolerance, as apologists claim, but intolerance. While the lives of many Christians were snuffed out over centuries of violence, the spiritual and cultural identities of exponentially more were wiped out in their pressured conversions to Islam. (Such is the sad and ironic cycle that fuels the persecution of Christians today: those Muslims who hate and attack them are themselves often distant descendants of Christians who first embraced Islam to evade their own persecution.)
Past and present, then, Muslims persecuted and persecute Christians—and for the selfsame reasons. Amazingly, however, such a perennial phenomenon is virtually unknown in the West. Why? Because, and in what should by now be a familiar theme, the guardians of information have suppressed it in an effort to serve the greater narrative, in this case, that Islam is a religion of peace.
The media are especially adept at getting around the Muslim persecution of Christians. First, only the most sensational attacks are ever reported; for example, the bombings of churches that leave dozens of Christians dead (as have occurred repeatedly in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, and many other Muslim nations). Even then, the reporting is minimal. U.S. media coverage for a gorilla that was shot and killed after a toddler fell into its zoo enclosure was six times greater than that for 21 Christians whose heads were carved off for refusing to recant their faith.
Moreover, by reporting only on sensationalist terrorist attacks—carried out by outlawed organizations which the media’s talking heads can easily present as “not representing Islam” but rather “hijacking” it—and because these high casualty attacks occur only every few months or so, as opposed to every day, concluding that Christians experience systemic and systematic persecution under Islam becomes impossible.
In reality, of course, the spectacular terrorist attacks that receive some coverage are just the tip of the iceberg for Christians. Indeed, in an effort to help remedy the media’s failures, nearly a decade ago, in July 2011, I decided to begin compiling monthly reports titled “Muslim Persecution of Christians” (published by the Gatestone Institute). I was initially concerned as to the feasibility of this project: what sort of “report” could be compiled if, say, only one or two—or even no instances—of persecution occurred on any given month? Sadly, this has never been the case. Each monthly report—there are as of this writing 115—contains a dozen or so atrocities.
The overwhelming majority of these stories do not appear on any big media but rather smaller, human rights websites. Apparently they are unworthy of coverage. On the other hand, one suspects that if the roles were switched in any one of these accounts—if it was Christians who were banning or attacking mosques; attacking or imprisoning Muslims who blaspheme or Christians who apostatize to Islam; abducting, raping, and forcibly converting Muslims girls; and enforcing a myriad forms of open discrimination against Muslims—these stories would be reported and highlighted by all the major networks.
Which leads to the media’s second strategy: relativizing, neutralizing—always trying to present what happens to Christians as generic “crimes” that have nothing to do with their—or their persecutors’—religious identity. I have read more than one report of a terrorist attack that kills dozens of “people” only to find at the very end of the report that those slain were—and targeted for being—Christians.
Similarly, unprovoked Muslim attacks on Christians are portrayed as “sectarian strife,” a phrase suggestive of two equally matched adversaries. This hardly describes reality: Christian minorities being persecuted in Muslim-majority nations. The New York Times’ headline for an Islamic terror attack on an Egyptian church that left 21 worshippers dead was “Clashes Grow as Egyptians Remain Angry after an Attack”—as if frustrated and harried Christians lashing out against their persecutors was the big news, not the unwarranted butchery they just experienced.
But of course blurring the line between victim and oppressor is a regular tactic of the mainstream media. In two brief sentences, a BBC report stated the bare-bone facts of a church attack that left three Christians, including a toddler, dead in Nigeria. Then it jumped to the apparently really important news: that “the bombing sparked a riot by Christian youths, with reports that at least two Muslims were killed in the violence. The two men were dragged off their bikes after being stopped at a roadblock set up by the rioters, police said. A row of Muslim-owned shops was also burned…. ” The report goes on and on, with a special section about “very angry” Christians, until one all but confuses victims with persecutors, forgetting what Christians are “very angry” about in the first place: unprovoked and nonstop terror attacks. In what human rights groups are referring to as a “genocide,” Muslims have slaughtered tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria—as opposed to reprisal killings of two Muslims—and bombed or burned thousands of churches. Yet, the casual reader of the mainstream media will walk away with some notion of tribal/sectarian conflict.
A final and rather deplorable media strategy is to actively issue false news in an effort to suppress the specter of Muslim violence against Christians. In the days before the aforementioned 21 Egyptian Christians were videotaped being decapitated in Libya, the BBC falsely reported that the majority of those now slaughtered Copts were “released.”
Why is the media so set against objectively reporting on Christian persecution under Islam? Because, of all forms of Islamic violence, the abuse of Christian minorities where Muslims are in power has the capacity to completely undermine the Leftist narrative—and thereby undermine a cornerstone of their doctrine of moral relativism. Muslim violence against the West or Israel poses no challenge to that narrative: in both cases, Muslims are presented as underdogs; they may be screaming and rioting, firing rockets, and destroying property—all while calling for the death and destruction of the “infidel” West or Israel to cries of “Allahu Akbar!” Still, this bloodlust can be rationalized as a natural byproduct of the frustration Muslims feel as an oppressed minority, retaliating against their “colonial” oppressors.
But if Muslims get a free pass when their violence is directed against those stronger than them, how does one reason away their violence when it is directed against those weaker than them, those who have no political influence whatsoever—in this case, the millions of Christian minorities suffering under Islam? The rationalizations used to minimize Muslim violence against the West and Israel simply cannot work here, for now Muslims are the majority—and they are the ones violent and oppressive to their minorities, in ways that make Western and Israeli treatment of Muslims seem enviable.
In short, Christian persecution is perhaps the most obvious example of a phenomenon the mainstream media wants to ignore out of existence—Islamic supremacism. Vastly outnumbered and politically marginalized Christians in the Islamic world simply wish to worship in peace, and yet they still are hounded and attacked; their churches are burned and destroyed; their children are kidnapped, raped, and enslaved. These Christians are often identical to their Muslim co-citizens in race, ethnicity, national identity, culture, and language; there is no political or property dispute. The only problem is that they are Christian—they are infidels—and so they must be despised and subjugated.
If the mainstream media were to report honestly on the persecution of Christians under Islam, the obvious implications that Islam is dangerously hostile to all non-Muslims would be inescapable. Hence, journalists develop an instinct—or make a deliberate choice—to ignore or sidestep these uncomfortable facts.
Perhaps worst of all, this lack of accurate reporting is occurring at a critical time. As seen, according to the latest statistics, “more than 340 million” Christians “experience high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.” This represents a 31 % increase from 2020, when only “260 million Christians experience[ed] high levels of persecution.” That represented a 6% increase from 2019, when the number was only 245 million Christians. And that represented a 14% increase from 2018, when 215 million was the number.
In other words, between just 2018 and 2021, the persecution of Christians has shot up by nearly 60% around the world and, based on current trends, will likely continue to grow and metastasize into other regions. Indeed, whereas Muslim nations have the lions’ share, hostility for Christians is rapidly spreading into non-Muslim nations as well. India has, in recent years, become a chief persecutor of Christians. Even in neighboring Mexico—once thought a bastion of conservative Catholicism—the persecution of Christians is “very high,” even if for different reasons than in China, India, or the Muslim world.
And yet, most Americans, including most self-professed Christians, are either totally unaware of this phenomenon or have no idea of its extent or significance. If the current trajectory does not change, they will likely remain in the dark until the persecution starts to hit much closer to home—by which time accurate reporting will no longer be needed; the persecution will be self-evident.

IRGC to use Iran’s presidential election to bolster its power
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/April 05/2021
A number of Iranian military leaders, from both the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are among the likely candidates for Iran’s presidential election, which will be held on June 18. Among these candidates are the former IRGC air force commander and former defense minister in the Rouhani government Hossein Dehghan; former IRGC commander and current Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaee; and the former head of the IRGC’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters Brig. Gen. Saeed Mohammed, as well as other politicians with a military background, including Ali Larijani, Parviz Fattah and Mehrdad Bazrpash.
It is still a bit early to tell whose names will ultimately appear on the ballot papers. This is because Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei controls the reins of power in Iran and has a tight grip over the upcoming election. Khamenei, after a complicated process to develop consensus and select suitable candidates, has the final say and is interested in preserving the political system’s interests. Therefore, until Iran’s Guardian Council announces its final verdict on the qualified candidates, it is uncertain whether the next Iranian president will be a military man. Prior to taking this decision and determining what the next Iranian president is required to do, Khamenei will have to consider many critical issues, including the country’s domestic stability and its foreign policy, especially regarding the prospects for diplomatic negotiations with global powers led by the US.
However, the number of military figures in the running reflects the political vacuum they are trying to fill and highlights their desire for more control in a bid to assume the second-most important political position in Iran after the supreme leader. It also reflects the attempts by Iran’s military to consolidate its presence in the decision-making institutions. This was evident after the IRGC won several seats in the parliamentary elections of February 2020. Moreover, the ascent of Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, a former IRGC commander, to the apex of Iran’s judiciary means the IRGC has extended its influence and reached deep into the country’s political system.
The IRGC’s expanding influence is a direct consequence of several factors. First is its growing political role in domestic and foreign policy decision-making, which has been increasing since its formation. Second is that its economic weight continues to grow, as it controls a large percentage of the Iranian economy. Third is its security and military activities in Iran and beyond the country’s borders — a role that has increased following America’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the reimposition of US sanctions on Iran, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and the country’s unprecedented internal crisis.
The resignation of Saeed Mohammed from his post at Khatam Al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, one of the IRGC’s most important economic institutions, to run in the presidential election reflects the IRGC's continued quest for greater economic control.
The IRGC’s deeper involvement in politics is also because it fears that the Iranian political equation may change in a way that opposes its interests. If this happens, clashes might arise between the IRGC and the next Iranian government, should the latter adopt economic and political positions that curb the IRGC’s influence. This scenario is not vastly different to the clash between President Hassan Rouhani and the IRGC, with Rouhani wanting to limit its role and influence, which he sees as an impediment to developing Iran’s economy. This clash of visions will likely continue in the case of a reformist candidate winning the upcoming presidential election and subsequently reaching an agreement with the US. Additionally, opening the channels for foreign trade and investment deals requires Iran to undergo economic reform that would risk the IRGC’s control over the country’s various economic sectors.
The IRGC is also concerned about the potential revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, especially with the possibility of it being amended to include sensitive national security issues such as the country’s ballistic missile program, which it regards as a sovereign issue. This project is led by the Quds Force, the external wing of the IRGC. Thus, the IRGC’s attempts to win the presidential seat may be driven by its desire to shape the potential course of negotiations and to secure the country’s national interests, as the IRGC’s leaders deem appropriate. The IRGC thinks that a reformist president and government would make substantial concessions that might harm both its position and Iran’s interests. In the meantime, the IRGC is taking advantage of the crisis in Iran by enhancing its economic, social and political roles.
Finally, in light of the fact that 81-year-old Khamenei’s position may soon become vacant, the IRGC takes into account the future of Iran’s political system and its role in preserving the revolution, as well as its revolutionary ideology and culture and its role in keeping the internal situation under control. In the post-Khamenei period, an IRGC victory in the presidential election would allow it to play a bigger role, as his death would create a vacuum that would need to be filled by a charismatic leader.
This presidential race seems to be limited mainly to the hard-liner faction, which includes various religious and military figures who are closely aligned with the supreme leader. The moderates, on the other hand, are deliberately excluded and marginalized. Therefore, the electoral triumph of the hard-liners will undoubtedly change the rules of Iran’s game and will further weaken the already fragile balance within its political system. This is because it will endanger Iran’s tattered democracy, which only allows a small amount of political diversity and competition among factions. Last year’s parliamentary elections, which the conservatives won decisively, saw a low turnout. The turnout in the upcoming presidential vote may be even lower if the race is uncompetitive and only limited to clerics and IRGC figures, who are viewed by voters as two sides of the same coin.
The number of military figures in the running reflects the political vacuum they are trying to fill.
It can be said that, in the end, Iran’s political system, in which reformists face exclusion, repression and failure, while its aging religious elite suffers from declining legitimacy, is apparently forced to push its military elites and IRGC figures to the front. This move is intended to control the internal situation and tackle the difficulties experienced abroad.
The IRGC’s rise to power is a direct result of its gains, which have increased over time. Its strengthening hand in the political system will become an inevitable reality sooner or later. This eventuality will not only impact the nature of the religious political system, which has been in place since the revolution, and the nature of the relationship between state and society, but also the nature of Iran’s foreign policy, which is influenced by the revolutionary ideology the IRGC leaders have been protecting for more than four decades.
*Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is President of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami