English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 08/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today

We speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts
First Letter to the Thessalonians 02/01-08/:”You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 07-08/2021

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/

Ministry of Health: 3120 new infections, 33 deaths
UNIFIL Head Chairs Tripartite Meeting with Lebanese and Israeli Officers
Lebanon's Dollar Crisis Dims Future of Students Abroad
Aoun Warns against 'Fall of Forensic Audit', Calls It 'Battle against Thieves'
Lebanon’s President Aoun holds central bank responsible for financial crisis
Aoun meets Swiss Foreign Minister, affirms activation of cooperation between both countries
Aoun Urges No 'Elimination, Discrimination' in Govt. Formation
Egyptian FM Pushes for 'Fast' Formation of 'Govt. of Specialists'
Sami Gemayel meets Egypt’s Shoukry
Franjieh meets Egypt’s Shoukry over Lebanese, Arab developments
Hariri, Shoukry tackle local, regional developments
Jumblatt, Egyptian Foreign Minister tackle latest developments
Maronite Bishops: To speed up government formation to safeguard Lebanon's rights especially in gas and oil
Bassil multiplies manoeuvres amid fears of EU sanctions
Open letter urges Macron to freeze ‘doubtful’ Lebanese assets
Conflicting Reports on Govt. Formation Progress

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 07-08/2021

Iran charges 10 over plane crash, Canadians unconvinced
Israel informed US it attacked Iran’s Saviz ship in Red Sea as retaliation: NYT
IAEA-Iran talks on unexplained uranium traces have been delayed
Iran Ship Serving as Red Sea Troop Base near Yemen Attacked
Prince Hamzah ‘in my care’ at his palace: Jordan King Abdullah II
Prince Hamzah committed to place Jordan’s interests above all: King Abdullah
President Biden spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah: White House
US agrees to redeploy troops from Iraq after talks with Baghdad officials
Turkey’s Erdogan wades again into central bank policy, looks to see lower rates
EU chiefs press Erdogan on human rights, hope for better ties/Tensions have spiked over Turkey’s hunt for gas in disputed eastern
Iran produced 55 kg of 20 pct enriched uranium since January: Official
EMA Confirms Clots as 'Very Rare' AstraZeneca Side Effect
UK Reports 79 Blood Clots, 19 Deaths from 20M AZ Vaccine Doses
Ethiopia to Go on Filling Nile Mega-Dam despite Impasse
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 07-08/2021

Palestinians: US Taxpayer Money Going to Terrorists/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/April 07/2021
The brave few on the front line for freedom deserve America's support/Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/Tuesday, Apri07/2021
Indoctrinated in Hate: 'This Is the Start of the New Caliphate'/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/April 07/2021
Iran and Israel’s Undeclared War at Sea (Part 1): IRGC-Hezbollah Financing Schemes/Matthew Levitt/The Washington Institute/April 07/2021
Turkey Arrests Admirals for Criticizing Canal Project/Seth J. Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/April 07/2021
The Shah’s Ride/Michael Young/Carnegie MEC/April 07/2021
Jordan enters a new phase/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab weekly/April 07/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 07-08/2021

Ministry of Health: 3120 new infections, 33 deaths
NNA/07 April ,2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced 3120 new coronavirus infection cases, which raises the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 485918.
33 deaths have been recorded over the past 24 hours.

UNIFIL Head Chairs Tripartite Meeting with Lebanese and Israeli Officers
Naharnet/07 April ,2021
UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col on Wednesday chaired a special Tripartite meeting with senior officers from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Israeli army at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura. The meeting was held in a modified format due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Discussions focused on the situation along the Blue Line, air and ground violations, as well as other issues within the scope of UNIFIL's mandate under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, a UNIFIL statement said. Del Col encouraged the parties to continue to make use of UNIFIL's liaison and coordination mechanisms to avoid potential tensions and escalations. "Our liaison and coordination mechanism has again proven its value at reducing tension along the Blue Line and resolving contentious issues through constructive engagement," said the UNIFIL Head of Mission, referring to recent examples of success. He called for the continued engagement of the parties with UNIFIL as the Mission proceeds with implementing the recommendations of UNIFIL's assessment, presented by the U.N. Secretary-General to the Security Council on 1 June 2020. The assessment was supported by the Member States, including most recently on 18 March during the Council’s consultations on the implementation of resolution 1701 (2006). The UNIFIL Head of Mission called on the parties to work with UNIFIL and "build on the progress that has been achieved to date to address the outstanding contentious areas along the Blue Line to enhance stability and reduce the potential for escalation," the statement added. Since the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah, regular Tripartite meetings have been held under UNIFIL's auspices as an "essential conflict management and confidence-building mechanism."

Lebanon's Dollar Crisis Dims Future of Students Abroad
Agence France Presse/07 April ,2021
Lebanese medical student Mohammad Sleiman traveled to Belarus to become the first doctor in his family, but he now fears his country's economic crisis is going to get him expelled. "I've got a future and I'm working towards it," the 23-year-old said from his bedroom in the capital Minsk, a dream catcher hanging on the wall behind him. "But if they throw me out of university, my future will be lost. And it'll be the Lebanese state's fault."As Lebanese banks forbid depositors from transferring their own money abroad, thousands of students who went abroad to pursue studies they could not afford at home are among the hardest hit. Students told AFP they had moved into cheaper accommodation, taken on jobs or even cut back on meals. Some had been forced to fly home to Lebanon, with no idea how to return to their studies.
Sleiman said he was so stressed about money that he could hardly concentrate in class. Back home, his family's dollar savings have been trapped in the bank since 2019, and the 23-year-old has no idea how he will pay tuition fees when his father can barely borrow enough to send him rent. Last month, he says his name appeared on a list with other Lebanese threatened with expulsion if they did not pay up. Lebanon's parliament passed a law last year to help students like him, but parents say banks systematically turn them away demanding more paperwork.
'More debt'
In the south of Lebanon, Sleiman's father said he had been to several protests by parents demanding help from the Lebanese authorities, but to no avail. Without access to his savings, 48-year-old Mousa Sleiman has to buy $300 for his son each month on the black market at an exorbitant exchange rate. But his earnings from his toy and cosmetics store, in Lebanese pounds now worth 85 percent less at street value, cannot even begin to cover it. "I've been so worried," the father of eight said, with his eldest son's April rent due. "I'm going to have to go and rack up more debt."One student activist said parents had also sold cars and gold jewelry to help their children. Many pin blame for Lebanon's worst financial crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war on political mismanagement and corruption. As the country's foreign reserves plummet, and amid reports of mass capital flight despite currency controls since 2019, they accuse the ruling class of having plundered their savings. A law passed last year is supposed to allow parents to access $10,000 per student enrolled abroad in 2019 at the much cheaper official exchange rate. But parents say the banks don't care. "They take our requests and dump them in drawers because there's no more money left to send. They stole it," said Sleiman's father. A handful of parents or grandparents have filed lawsuits against their banks and won, the latest last month. One of them was able last year to transfer funds to his sons in France and Spain so they could graduate. Sleiman and fellow parents are looking into doing the same. And the International Union of Lebanese Youth, covering students in 20 countries, has started working with volunteer lawyers towards filing dozens more cases. But lawyer and activist Nizar Sayegh said these cases were still rare and complicated by coronavirus lockdowns and banks filing appeals.
Many families also shy away from legal action for fear the banks would then close their account, he said.
'Future abroad'
In Italy, 20-year-old Reine Kassis said she and fellow cash-strapped Lebanese flatmates were having to delay breakfast till lunch time. "We eat toast and cheese, then study, study, study until supper," said the mechanical engineering student in Ferrara. She says she has received a little help in Italy. But her brother, 23, had to return from Ukraine to Lebanon to continue studying online because he could not afford the rent. Their father Maurice Kassis, a retired officer, said he was heartbroken. "I only had two children so I could spoil them, and educate them properly," the 54-year-old said in the eastern town of Zahle. When he retired, he had enough savings stashed away in Lebanese pounds to cover both of them studying abroad. But today, with the collapse of the Lebanese currency, those pounds would fetch just an eighth of their old value in dollars. After he has paid off his home loan with his pension each month, he only has the equivalent of $50 left for the whole family. "How do you educate your children with that?" he asked. "I'm telling them to find themselves a future abroad."

Aoun Warns against 'Fall of Forensic Audit', Calls It 'Battle against Thieves'
Naharnet/07 April ,2021
President Michel Aoun on Wednesday urged the Lebanese to support him in the forensic audit “battle,” warning that its fall would undermine the French initiative. “A meeting was held yesterday between representatives of the Finance Ministry, the central bank governorship and the Alvarez & Marsal firm without reaching a tangible result and it was decided to hold another meeting on Friday,” Aoun said in an address to the nation. “I see in that certain procrastination that indicates the lack of a will to conduct the forensic audit,” the president warned.
He added that “real negotiations should take place directly and face to face between the actual officials and not between their representatives as happened yesterday.” He added that there has been “obstruction” ever since Alvarez & Marsal was tasked by the government to carry out a forensic audit of the central bank’s accounts, noting that the finance minister “admitted days ago that the central bank had been refraining from answering a large number of the questions of the Alvarez & Marsal firm.”“It has become clear that the procrastination’s goal is to push the firm to despair and leave Lebanon and therefore halt the forensic audit and allow the criminals to evade punishment,” Aoun lamented.
He warned that “the fall of the forensic audit would undermine the French initiative, because without it there can be no international aid nor the CEDRE conference nor Arab and Gulf support nor IMF assistance.” “The forensic audit is the gateway for knowing who caused the crime of the financial collapse. The forensic audit is not a personal demand for the president but rather at the heart of the French initiative, the demands of the IMF and, before anything else, it is the demand of all Lebanese,” Aoun went on to say. Addressing the Lebanese people, he added: “I’m leading you in the battle to expose the biggest theft operation in Lebanon’s history so be with me. Put aside your political differences and rest assured that we will not let them rob the people, aggrieve a mother or humiliate a father or a patient.” Calling on nations that want to help the Lebanese people to “unveil the money transfers that took place after October 17, 2019 and resembled financial smuggling,” Aoun acknowledged that “the forensic audit” would be only the “start.”“Perhaps it is a battle that is harder than the battle of the liberation of the land, because it is against corrupts and thieves, who are more dangerous than occupiers and collaborators, seeing as those who steal the money of the people are capable of robbing a nation,” Aoun added.
 

Lebanon’s President Aoun holds central bank responsible for financial crisis
Reuters/07 April ,2021
Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday the central bank bore responsibility for the country’s financial collapse and for stalling an audit which is a key condition for foreign aid the country badly needs. In a national address, Aoun accused Lebanese banks of squandering people’s savings and the central bank governor of giving excuses for refusing to answer 73 out of 133 questions that consultancy Alvarez & Marsal had sent for the audit. “To the central bank I say: the main responsibility befalls you,” he said, in his strongest criticism yet. “You should have taken measures to protect people’s money in the banks.”Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The paralyzed banking sector is at the heart of Lebanon’s financial collapse, which came to a head in 2019 when dollar inflows dried up and protests swept the country. The heavily indebted state and the banking sector, its biggest creditor, have since traded blame for the crisis, Lebanon’s worst in decades. Banks have frozen savers out of their dollar deposits, as the Lebanese currency lost most of its value, plunging many into poverty. Leaders have failed to launch a rescue plan, instead wrangling over the make-up of a new government, with Aoun and politician Saad Hariri, who was designated premier in October, locked in a standoff. Foreign donors have warned they will not give any aid without reforms to tackle crushing debt and entrenched graft, root causes of the crisis. An audit of the central bank is a key demand. In his Wednesday speech, Aoun also said politicians shared the blame for providing the central bank with cover, without naming individuals.

Aoun meets Swiss Foreign Minister, affirms activation of cooperation between both countries
NNA/07 April ,2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received Vice President of the Federal Council and Swiss Foreign Minister, Mr. Ignazio Daniel Giovanni Cassis heading a delegation including Swiss representatives and officials of the Swiss Foreign Ministry.
Minister Cassis came to Lebanon to be briefed about the situation and humanitarian projects supported by Switzerland in various fields, especially after the explosion of the Beirut port, in addition to inspecting the conditions of displaced Syrians and Palestinian refugees.
The President thanked Minister Cassis for the Swiss assistance to Lebanon in various fields, and stressed the activation of cooperation between the two countries, noting in particular the support provided by Switzerland to a number of hospitals, including the Karantina Hospital, schools, the Lebanese Red Cross and Caritas.Moreover, President Aoun stated the difficulties facing Lebanon economically, financially and socially, and the repercussions of the Syrian displacement on the various sectors in the country, calling for helping Lebanon secure the return of the displaced Syrians to their country, especially to the safe areas without awaiting a political solution, which may be delayed. The meeting also addressed what Switzerland could offer to tackle the economic and financial situation that resulted from transferring funds abroad in mysterious circumstances. In addition, the President reiterated the importance of completing the forensic financial audit, which would reveal many ambiguous issues. For his side, the Swiss minister expressed happiness for visiting Beirut and inspecting the humanitarian projects that his country is taking care of, stressing Switzerland's readiness to provide the necessary assistance in all social, economic and financial fields. Minister Cassis also expressed his appreciation to the Lebanese and for what they are doing to face the difficult conditions that their country is going through, pointing out that Switzerland works to accelerate the political solution in Syria and to return the displaced Syrians as soon as possible.
Then, the Swiss Foreign Minister stressed his country's interest in finding a political solution to the governmental crisis in Lebanon and initiating the necessary reforms in order for the international community to provide the necessary aid for economic advancement, pointing to the many similarities between Lebanon and Switzerland. The Swiss delegation included: Minister Cassis’s wife, Paola Rodoni Cassis, Swiss ambassador to Lebanon, Monika Schmutz Kirgoz, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Damian Muller, and a member of the committee, Ms. Andrea Elizabeth GMUR-Schonenberger, Chairman of the Department of the Middle East and Africa, Ambassador Maya Tissafi, advisor to Minister Cassis, Cedric Yannic Stucky, and a number of the staff of the Swiss Embassy in Beirut.
On the Lebanese side: former Minister, Salim Jreissati, Director General of the Presidency, Dr. Antoine Choucair, in addition to advisors: Brigadier General Boulos Matar, Rafic Chelala, Antoine Constantine and Osama Khashab.
Word in Golden Record: Before his departure, Minister Cassis wrote the following word in the Golden Record: “Mr. President, I extend my sincere thanks to you for receiving me and the accompanying delegation in Beirut, which has gone through many tests and was born again every time.I can assure you of the solid friendship between Switzerland, Lebanon and both peoples. I wish you good health and happiness”.—Presidency Press Office

Aoun Urges No 'Elimination, Discrimination' in Govt. Formation
Naharnet/07 April ,2021
President Michel Aoun on Wednesday stressed that there should be no “elimination or discrimination” in the cabinet formation process. In a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Baabda, Aoun called for respecting “the norms of the constitution and the National Pact on which the Lebanese system is based” in order to “overcome this crisis.” He also called for cooperation among all Lebanese parties “without elimination or discrimination.”Moreover, Aoun thanked Egypt for “helping Lebanon in the face of the various crises, especially the governmental crisis,” hoping Cairo’s efforts regarding the new cabinet will lead to “positive results.” The president also explained to Shoukry “the obstacles that the government formation process has faced,” thanking Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for “his initiative that is based on Egypt standing at the same distance from all Lebanese, as it has always been throughout history.”

Egyptian FM Pushes for 'Fast' Formation of 'Govt. of Specialists'
Naharnet/07 April ,2021
Visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Wednesday urged Lebanon’s leaders to seek the quick formation of a so-called government of specialists that can rescue the country from its multiple crises. “I expressed our concern in Egypt and at the regional and international levels over the continuation of the political crisis,” Shoukry said after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh. “I stressed the importance of working vigorously and quickly to form a government of specialists in order to exit this crisis,” he added. Shoukry also expressed to Berri Egypt’s “great appreciation of his efforts and of the initiative he is launching in order to overcome this crisis,” adding that Cairo is ready to “offer everything in its capacity to help the brothers overcome this crisis.” Earlier in the day, Shoukry held talks with President Michel Aoun in Baabda. “I was honored to visit the president to relay a message of solidarity from his brother, His Excellency President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,” Shoukry said. “Unfortunately, after eight months (from the port blast and Shoukry’s last visit to Lebanon), there is still political impasse and efforts are still being exerted to form a government of specialists who can meet the needs of the brotherly Lebanese people and achieve stability, which is important not only for Lebanon but also for the region and Egypt,” the Egyptian FM added. Shoukry later held talks with Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat and is also scheduled to meet with PM-designate Saad Hariri, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, Kataeb Party leader Sami Gemayel and Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh. He will also hold phone talks with Covid-infected Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. A statement issued by the Egyptian embassy said Shoukry’s visit is “part of the Egyptian efforts aimed at urging the Lebanese political parties to speed up the formation of a salvation government, in light of the Egyptian political leadership’s great keenness on Lebanon’s stability and on its defeat of the crises it is currently going through.”

Sami Gemayel meets Egypt’s Shoukry
NNA/April 07/2021
Kataeb Party leader, Sami Gemayel, on Wednesday met with visiting Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry. In the wake of the meeting, Gemayel thanked the Egyptian minister and the Arab Republic of Egypt for their concern over Lebanon. “We regret the fact that Lebanese officials are being treated as minors who are in need of someone to encourage them to show care for their own people,” Gemayel said. “We have affirmed the opposition’s clear position on the need to form a fully independent government that has three tasks: negotiating with the International Monetary Fund to pump liquidity, halting the rampant collapse, implementing basic reforms, and organizing parliamentary elections." He continued: "What is required is the formation of a fully independent government, but unfortunately all we see is the Lebanese officials’ disregard for the people’s increasing poverty and oppression.”

Franjieh meets Egypt’s Shoukry over Lebanese, Arab developments
NNA/April 07/2021
"Marada Movement" leader, Sleiman Franjieh, on Wednesday met with Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, with whom he discussed the overall situation and the latest developments on the Lebanese and Arab levels.
 

Hariri, Shoukry tackle local, regional developments
NNA/April 07/2021 
Prime Minister-designate, Saad Hariri, on Wednesday welcomed at the "Center House", Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, who visited him with an accompanying delegation. The meeting took stock of the latest developments, the general condition in Lebanon and the region, as well as Egyptian-Lebanese bilateral relations. In the wake of the meeting, Shoukry said that he had the opportunity to get a briefing on Hariri’s vision about the means through which Lebanon could exit the prevailing impasse as soon as possible, most importantly through accelerating the formation of a rescue government —comprising competent members, away from the logic of quotas. “I have assured Prime Minister Hariri of Egypt's full support to every effort aiming at forming a harmonious government capable of carrying out its crucial and tough tasks, in an unconventional and radically different way, by steering clear from obstruction and political rivalry. This is the only way for the government to succeed and obtain the required Arab and international support and to restore Lebanon’s natural position as an Arab beacon that’s dear to the heart of every Egyptian and Arab,” the Egyptian Minister said.
“We always wish Lebanon all the success possible and remain shoulder-to-shoulder facing challenges and helping Lebanon avoid the repercussions associated with the dire economic conditions and the Coronavirus pandemic,” Shoukry concluded.

Jumblatt, Egyptian Foreign Minister tackle latest developments
NNA/April 07/2021  
Progressive Socialist Party leader, Walid Jumblatt, on Wednesday welcomed at his Clemenceau residence visiting Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, accompanied by Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon, Dr. Yasser Alawi, in the presence of former Minister Ghazi Aridi. Talks reportedly touched on the latest developments on the Lebanese and Arab levels.
 

Maronite Bishops: To speed up government formation to safeguard Lebanon's rights especially in gas and oil
NNA/April 07/2021  
The Maronite Bishops called for "speeding up the formation of the government to safeguard Lebanon's rights, especially in gas and oil," and expressed their satisfaction with the "constructive Arab and international movement," hoping that this would be a way to liberate Lebanon from internal tensions and external interference. Conferees "thanked Pope Francis who singled out Lebanon in his Easter blessing, and called on the international community to support Lebanon as a land of coexistence, peace and pluralism."

Bassil multiplies manoeuvres amid fears of EU sanctions
Reuters./Wednesday 07/04/2021
On his visit to Paris, the son-in-law of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, will be seeking to explain his position to French officials regarding Lebanon’s political crisis
BEIRUT--Head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) Gebran Bassil is visiting Paris Tuesday, where he will meet French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Lebanese political sources revealed to The Arab Weekly.
Bassil could also meet French President Emmanuel Macron, who has recently warned Lebanese political players he could escalate pressure to expedite the formation of a new government.On his visit to Paris, Bassil, son-in-law of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, will be seeking to explain his position to French officials regarding Lebanon’s political crisis, the same sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed. This comes amid mounting fears he could be exposed to European sanctions, after France issued such threats. The sources did not rule out that Paris would organise a meeting between Bassil, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and a representative of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in case Bassil agreed to the formation of a government without the blocking majority of 24 ministers, based on an initiative presented by Berri.France does not hide its frustration with Lebanon’s handling of the political and economic crisis.
The sources noted that Paris has particular reservations about the behaviour of Bassil, whom it considers as the main stumbling block to the implementation of its initiative. This is calling for the formation of a technocratic government that opens the door for international aid and alleviates public anger and increasing foreign isolation. Bassil is accused by his opponents of obstructing talks to form a new government as long as his demand for a blocking third is not met. He also insists on choosing ministers from the Christian community while using Aoun and the presidency to obstruct any cabinet formation that does not fall in line with his wishes. The head of the Free Patriotic Movement, with the support of his ally Hezbollah, is apparently trying to exert maximum pressure on the prime minister-designate to force him to accept his conditions or walk out.
To up pressure on Hariri, Bassil recently suggested that Riyadh had abandoned its support for the prime-minister designate, taking advantage of the statements of Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, in which he said that Riyadh does not stand by any Lebanese party and that it is “not ready to support a robust and real reform agenda.” Bassil said on Twitter, “The statements of the Saudi foreign minister confirm that the Kingdom stands with Lebanon, not with a party or an individual. The statements also show the desire of Riyadh, as well as France, to support the reform agenda that Lebanese officials are committed to.” Bassil dealt selectively and partly with the Saudi minister’s statements, closing his eyes to the part in which bin Farhan spoke about Riyadh’s conditions to resume aid and Hezbollah’s detrimental role in Lebanon.
In an interview with CNN earlier this week, bin Farhan warned that Lebanon will face “dangerous circumstances” if political leaders do not embrace “true reforms.”“The status quo in Lebanon is no longer workable,” the Saudi minister stressed. “The kingdom doesn’t feel that it is appropriate to continue to subsidise or continue to support the status quo,” Bin Farhan said.
Asked about Hezbollah’s role, the Saudi minister lamented that “a non-state actor, Hezbollah, has a de facto rule, veto, over everything that happens in that country and has control over its key infrastructure.”
In an interview with Al Jadeed TV, resigned MP Nadim Gemayel criticised Monday the visit of Bassil to France, considering that the visit goes 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 criticised FPM’s excuses 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 when we look at the mounting flow of migration abroad. This mandate has destroyed everything…”He considered that the main problem is that “a certain party that controls the country. It is not important if Bassil goes to Paris, because if Nasrallah agrees to the formation of a government, then a government will be formed. ”He argued that “if the French do not manage to obtain guarantees to achieve a breakthrough, then they would lose their credibility.” Gemayel also noted that Paris needs to change its superficial approach to the crisis, saying the French “made a mistake when President Macron separated the political from the terrorist Hezbollah.”

Open letter urges Macron to freeze ‘doubtful’ Lebanese assets
The Arab weekly/April 07/2021
PARIS – President Emmanuel Macron should freeze suspect assets held by Lebanese officials in France to break a “political-economic mafia” that has plunged Lebanon into crisis and misery, an open letter said Tuesday. Macron called for radical reform in Lebanon after the deadly Beirut port blast and has expressed exasperation at the lack of change, as the former French mandate territory remains mired in political stalemate. Analysts have said that sanctions such as asset freezes could be the most effective lever for Paris to pressure Beirut, even if France has so far not explicitly indicated it is ready for such a measure. Macron should issue instructions “with a view to implementing the legal mechanism for freezing assets of doubtful origin held in France by Lebanese political and economic leaders,” said the letter published in France’s Le Monde daily signed by more than 100 Lebanese civil society figures. It argued that a “political-economic mafia is responsible for the misery, hunger and insecurity from which more and more Lebanese suffer.” The letter suggested that such a legal process should draw on the precedent set over ill-gotten assets owned in France by some African leaders and former Syrian vice president Rifaat Assad.
“This endemic corruption on a grand scale has scandalously enriched Lebanese political leaders” by emptying the treasury and embezzling aid sent after the civil war, the letter alleged. It was signed by lawyers, doctors, journalists and activists, including prominent political scientist Karim Emile Bitar, former Lebanese culture minister and UN Libya envoy Ghassan Salame and former MP and TV host Paula Yacoubian. The letter was drafted after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in March that “the time has come” to raise international pressure on Lebanon to form a government. Lebanon’s prime minister-designate Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun again failed last month to agree on a new government cabinet after months of deadlock, as the country sinks deeper into economic crisis. A steep depreciation of the Lebanese pound along with an explosion of poverty and unemployment have eroded purchasing power and fuelled anger among the population. The outgoing government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned in the wake of an August 4 explosion at Beirut’s port that killed more than 200 people and sparked protests against the entrenched ruling class.
 

Conflicting Reports on Govt. Formation Progress
Naharnet/April 07/2021
Conflicting reports emerged Wednesday on the level of progress that has been made in the cabinet formation process after optimism surged in recent days. “The latest governmental developments, especially the France visit, were mere ideas that reflected Lebanese intentions towards pushing for resolving the formation obstacles, but the Elysee Palace did not have this intention and it did not raise the idea of bringing together (Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran) Bassil and (PM-designate Saad) Hariri in Paris,” informed sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper. Paris has “sensed several signals reflecting the futility of seeking a settlement at the moment and the difficulty of reaching concessions,” the sources added. “No one has rejected Speaker Nabih Berri’s initiative but there are conditions and counter-conditions,” the sources said. “The domestic obstacles are still present in the formation process and not an iota of progress has been made, especially as to the one-third-plus-one share and the naming of the Christian ministers,” the sources added. A prominent parliamentary leader meanwhile expected that the government will be formed this month. “The country will be plunged into a real disaster if this governmental vacuum continues,” the parliamentary source told al-Joumhouria.

 “The ongoing local, regional and international contacts have managed to secure domestic consensus on the government’s general principles: a 24-minister government based on the 8-8-8 formula and containing no one-third-plus-one share for any camp,” the source told the daily. “It will be a government of specialists containing some techno-political elements,” the source added. “The coming days will witness further domestic and external contacts and consultations to provide the necessary atmosphere for issuing the cabinet formation decrees,” the parliamentary leader went on to say.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 07-08/2021
Iran charges 10 over plane crash, Canadians unconvinced
The Arab weekly/April 07/2021
DUBAI - Iran has indicted 10 officials over the shooting-down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January 2020 which killed all 176 people on board, a military prosecutor said on Tuesday. In a report published last month, Iran’s civil aviation body blamed the crash on a misaligned radar and an error by an air defence operator. Ukraine and Canada, home to many of those who died, criticised the report as insufficient. “Indictments have been issued for 10 officials involved in the crash of the Ukrainian plane…and necessary decisions will be taken in court,” Gholam Abbas Torki, the outgoing military prosecutor for Tehran province, was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency ISNA. He gave no further details of the individuals, their roles nor the charges they face. In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “tremendously concerned about the lack of accountability” from Iran about the disaster. Canada, along with its partners, will continue to press Tehran to deliver justice and compensation for families of the victims, he told a briefing when asked about the indictments. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight on January 8, 2020, shortly after it took off from Tehran Airport. The Iranian government later said the shooting-down was a “disastrous mistake” by its forces at a time when they were on high alert in a regional confrontation with the United States. Iran was on edge about possible attacks after it had fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing US forces in retaliation for the killing days before of its most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in a US missile strike at Baghdad airport.
 

Israel informed US it attacked Iran’s Saviz ship in Red Sea as retaliation: NYT
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/07 April ,2021
Israel informed the United States it attacked the Iranian ship Saviz in the Red Sea on Tuesday in retaliation for earlier Iranian strikes on Israeli vessels, the New York Times reported citing an American official. Iranian cargo ship ‘Iran Saviz’ was attacked in the Red Sea by limpet mines attached to the hull, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. “The vessel Iran Saviz has been stationed in the Red Sea for the past few years to support Iranian commandos sent on commercial vessel (anti-piracy) escort missions,” Tasnim said. The attack is the latest in a series of attacks on Israeli- and Iranian-owned cargo ships since late February in which the two arch-foes held the other responsible. It also happened on the day the US and Iran launched indirect talks in Vienna through European powers to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, a deal Israel is strongly opposed to. The New York Times report said Israel informed the US that it struck Saviz at about 7:30 a.m. local time. “The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share private intelligence communications, said that the Israelis had called the attack a retaliation for earlier Iranian strikes on Israeli vessels, and that the Saviz had been damaged below the water line,” the report added. ‘Saviz’ is officially listed as a general cargo vessel. However, the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy (USMA) described the ‘Saviz’ in a report as the “Iranian mother ship on station located in Eritrea’s contiguous waters.”It said: “The ship has signals intelligence domes and antennae. It is visited by all Iranian ships moving through the Red Sea, nominally to coordinate anti-piracy measures. At least three speedboats are based on deck, which are used to ferry personnel to Yemen.”- With Reuters

IAEA-Iran talks on unexplained uranium traces have been delayed
Reuters/07 April ,2021
Talks between the UN atomic watchdog and Iran aimed at prising answers from Tehran on unexplained uranium traces have been delayed, narrowing a window to make progress or risk undoing a wider push for detente with the West, three diplomats said. Iran’s 2015 deal with world powers effectively drew a line under what the International Atomic Energy Agency and US intelligence agencies believe was a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons program that the Islamic Republic halted in 2003. In the past two years, however, IAEA inspectors have found traces of processed uranium at three sites Iran never declared to it, suggesting that Tehran had nuclear material connected to old activities that remains unaccounted for. The IAEA needs to track that material down to be sure Iran is not diverting any to make nuclear weapons. In a bid to break the impasse, and avert an escalation between Tehran and the West, the IAEA has said it would hold talks with Iran as of the start of April with the aim of making progress by early June. Those talks are taking place in parallel with negotiations in Vienna aimed at rescuing the nuclear deal and without substantial progress could stoke distrust and harm the prospects of bringing the US and Iran back into compliance. “It’s been pushed back several weeks regarding the April start. Could be as little as two,” a European diplomatic source said, adding that the reason was technical. Two diplomats also said there was a delay, one of whom said the IAEA delegation would be headed by inspections chief Massimo Aparo. When asked about the delay, an IAEA spokesman said only: “A date in April has been confirmed.” Iranian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The IAEA has said it is “deeply concerned” at the prospect of undeclared nuclear material in Iran. It says Iran has not credibly explained the first particles it found, at a site in Tehran that Iran said was a carpet-cleaning facility, and is seeking answers on those found last year at two other sites.
Crisis

The US and its allies have been pressuring Iran to come clean, and the issue could complicate efforts by Washington and Tehran to revive the nuclear deal. Iran has bristled at “attempts to open an endless process of verifying and cleaning-up of ever-continuing fabricated allegations”. It also denied the IAEA access to the two sites for seven months last year. It denies ever pursuing nuclear weapons and says its nuclear aims are entirely peaceful. At a meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors last month, France, Britain and Germany prepared a draft resolution with US support expressing concern at the “lack of progress” in obtaining explanations from Iran. They backed away from submitting that resolution for a vote when IAEA chief Rafael Grossi announced talks with Iran to “see if we can resolve this once and for all”, and he hoped to report progress by the next board meeting in June. Shortly before then, on May 21, a recent deal between the IAEA and Iran cushioning the blow of Tehran slashing its cooperation with the IAEA is due to expire. After that, the agency’s oversight of Iran’s activities will be reduced further. “It is very clear that if we haven’t concluded or made sufficient progress before May 21 to justify an extension of this accord we will enter a crisis period,” the European diplomatic source said.

Iran Ship Serving as Red Sea Troop Base near Yemen Attacked
Associated Press/April 07/2021
An Iranian cargo ship believed to be a base for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and anchored for years in the Red Sea off Yemen has been attacked, Tehran acknowledged Wednesday. Iran's Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack on the MV Saviz, suspected to have been carried out by Israel. The assault came as Iran and world powers sat down in Vienna for the first talks about the U.S. potentially rejoining Tehran's tattered nuclear deal, showing that challenges ahead don't rest merely in those negotiations. The ship's long presence in the region, repeatedly criticized by Saudi Arabia, has come as the West and United Nations experts say Iran has provided arms and support to Yemen's Houthi rebels amid that country's yearslong war. Iran denies arming the Houthis, though components found in the rebels' weaponry link back to Tehran. Iran previously described the Saviz as aiding in "anti-piracy" efforts in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a crucial choke point in international shipping. A statement attributed to Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh described the ship as a commercial vessel. "Fortunately, no casualties were reported ... and technical investigations are underway," Khatibzadeh said. "Our country will take all necessary measures through international authorities."In an earlier state TV statement, an anchor cited a New York Times story, which quoted an anonymous U.S. official telling the newspaper that Israel informed America it carried out an attack Tuesday morning on the vessel. Israeli officials declined to comment about the incident when reached by The Associated Press, as did the Saviz's owner. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday brought up Iran in a speech to his Likud party after being asked to form a government following the country's recent election.
"We must not go back to the dangerous nuclear deal with Iran, because a nuclear Iran is an existential threat to the state of Israel and a great threat to the security of the entire world," Netanyahu said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the Vienna talks a "success" while speaking to his Cabinet on Wednesday.
"Today, one united statement is being heard that all sides of the nuclear deal have concluded that there is no solution better but the deal," he said. Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the Guard, blamed the blast on explosives planted on Saviz's hull. It did not blame anyone for the attack and said Iranian officials likely would offer more information in the coming days. In a statement, the U.S. military's Central Command only said it was "aware of media reporting of an incident involving the Saviz in the Red Sea.""We can confirm that no U.S. forces were involved in the incident," the command said. "We have no additional information to provide." The Saviz, owned by the state-linked Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, came to the Red Sea in late 2016, according to ship-tracking data. In the years since, it has drifted off the Dahlak archipelago, a chain of islands off the coast of the nearby African nation of Eritrea in the Red Sea. It likely received supply replenishments and switched crew via passing Iranian vessels using the waterway. Briefing materials from the Saudi military earlier obtained by the AP showed men on the vessel dressed in camouflage, military-style fatigues, as well as small boats capable of ferrying cargo to the Yemeni coast. That briefing material also included pictures showing a variety of antennas on the vessel that the Saudi government described as unusual for a commercial cargo ship, suggesting it conducted electronic surveillance. Other images showed the ship had mounts for .50-caliber machine guns. The Washington Institute for Near-East Policy has called the Saviz an "Iranian mothership" in the region, similarly describing it as an intelligence-gathering base and an armory for the Guard. Policy papers from the institute don't explain how they came to that conclusion, though its analysts routinely have access to Gulf and Israeli military sources. The Saviz had been under international sanctions until Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran receive economic relief in exchange for limiting its enrichment of uranium. The Trump administration later renewed American sanctions on the Saviz as part of its decision to unilaterally withdraw from the accord. In June 2019, Saudi Arabia flew a critically ill Iranian off the Saviz after Tehran made a request through the United Nations for assistance. Amid the wider tensions between the U.S. and Iran, a series of mysterious blasts have targeted ships in the region, including some the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran. Among the ships damaged recently was an Israeli-owned car carrier in an attack Netanyahu blamed on Iran. Another was an Iranian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Iran also has blamed Israel for a recent series of attacks, including a mysterious explosion in July that destroyed an advanced centrifuge assembly plant at its Natanz nuclear facility. Another is the November killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top Iranian scientist who founded the Islamic Republic's military nuclear program two decades ago.

Prince Hamzah ‘in my care’ at his palace: Jordan King Abdullah II
Arab News/April 07/2021
Jordanian King Abdullah II said the "sedition" had been nipped in the bud.
Address was the first time the king has made a public statement about allegations of a plot to destabilize Jordan
Prince Hamzah has committed to follow the path of his parents and grandparents: King Abdullah II
AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Wednesday that his half-brother Prince Hamzah was “with his family, at his palace, in my care.”
The prince signed a document on Monday pledging his support for King Abdullah after he was accused at the weekend of working with foreign parties and other Jordanians in a plot to destabilize the country.
“Hamzah today is with his family, at his palace, in my care,” King Abdullah said in an address read out in his name on state television.
“Prince Hamzah pledged before the family to follow in the steps of the ancestors, remain loyal to their mission, and to put Jordan’s interest, Constitution, and laws above all considerations.”
The address was the first time the king has made a public statement about the plot which ledt to the arrest of up to 18 people.
“I speak to you today, my family and my tribe, in whom I place my implicit trust, and from whom I draw determination, to assure you that the sedition has been nipped in the bud, and that our proud Jordan is safe and stable,” the king said.
“The challenge over the past few days was not the most difficult or dangerous to the stability of our nation, but to me, it was the most painful. Sedition came from within and without our one house,” the king said.
“Nothing compares to my shock, pain, and anger as a brother and as the head of the Hashemite family, and as a leader of this proud people,” he added. Soon after the statement, the king received a phone call from US President Joe Biden. The president expressed his country’s full solidarity with Jordan and its efforts to safeguard its stability.
"They discussed the strong bilateral ties between Jordan and the United States, Jordan’s important role in the region, and strengthening bilateral cooperation on multiple political, economic, and security issues," a White House statement said.
*Read the king's full statement below*
“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,
Prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Mohammad,
My fellow Jordanians,
Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.
I speak to you today, my family and my tribe, in whom I place my implicit trust, and from whom I draw determination, to assure you that the sedition has been nipped in the bud, and that our proud Jordan is safe and stable; and it will always remain, with God’s grace, safe and stable, fortified by the determination of Jordanians, and impenetrable with their cohesion and with the dedication of our valiant Arab Army and security agencies working night and day to secure the homeland.
Our nation is used to facing challenges, and we are used to overcoming challenges, having conquered throughout our history all attempts to target the homeland, coming out stronger and more united, for being steadfast in our positions has a price, but no price will sway us from the path of righteousness set by the ancestors and their noble sacrifices, for the prosperity of our people and our nation, and for Palestine, Jerusalem, and its holy sites.
The challenge over the past few days was not the most difficult or dangerous to the stability of our nation, but to me, it was the most painful. Sedition came from within and without our one house, and nothing compares to my shock, pain, and anger as a brother and as the head of the Hashemite family, and as a leader of this proud people.
But there is no difference between my responsibility towards my small and larger families, for Al Hussein, may his soul rest in peace, dedicated me since the day I was born to serve you, and I have dedicated myself and my life to you, so we can continue together on the path of development and achievement, in the nation of pride, glory, love, and fellowship. My foremost responsibility is serving Jordan and safeguarding its people, Constitution, and laws. Nothing, and no one comes before Jordan’s security and stability, and it was imperative to take the necessary measures to honour that responsibility.
Our Hashemite legacy and Jordanian values were the framework I chose to handle the matter, in line with God’s words in the Holy Quran: “Who expend in prosperity and adversity, and restrain their rage, and pardon their fellow-men”.I decided to deal with the matter of Prince Hamzah within the Hashemite family, and I entrusted this to my uncle, His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal. And Prince Hamzah pledged before the family to follow in the steps of the ancestors, remain loyal to their mission, and to put Jordan’s interest, Constitution, and laws above all considerations. Hamzah today is with his family, at his palace, in my care. As for the other aspects, they are under investigation, in accordance with the law, until it is completed, so that its outcomes are handled within the framework of our steadfast state institutions, in a manner that guarantees justice and transparency. The next steps will be rooted in the criterion that defines all our decisions—the nation’s interest and the interest of our loyal people. Our nation faces difficult economic challenges, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We realise the weight of these difficulties facing our citizens, and we face these challenges and others, as we have always done, united within our Jordanian and Hashemite family, so that we can take our nation forward and embark on our state’s second centennial as one, building the future our nation deserves. Jordan, with the determination of the Nashama and their dedication, will remain steadfast, grand in its values, will, and principles, guided by firmness in defending the nation, unity in facing adversity, and justice, mercy, and compassion in all that we do. May God protect you and our proud Jordan, and grant us success.Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.

Prince Hamzah committed to place Jordan’s interests above all: King Abdullah
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/07 April ,2021
King Abdullah II of Jordan said that former Crown Prince Hamzah has committed himself to place the interest of Jordan, its constitution, and its laws above any other considerations, after multiple top officials were arrested for security reasons. King Abdullah added that he decided to deal with the conflict with Prince Hamzah within the framework of the Hashemite family, and entrusted this path to their uncle, Prince El Hassan bin Talal. Prince Hamza bin Hussein had attempted to mobilize local officials for actions that were intended to harm the security of Jordan, according to Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi. 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.” “Hamzah today is with his family in his palace under my care, as for other aspects, it is under investigation, in accordance with the law, until its completion, so that its results will be dealt with in the context of our well-established state institutions, in a manner that guarantees fairness and transparency,” King Abdullah added. “Our country faces difficult economic challenges exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and we are aware of the weight of the difficulties our citizens face. We face these and other challenges, as we have always done, united, hand in hand,” he added. “Our country is accustomed to facing challenges, and we are accustomed to triumphing over challenges, and over the course of our history we have defeated all the targets that tried to undermine the homeland, and we came out of them stronger and more united. For the sake of the elevation of our people and our nation, and for the sake of Palestine, Jerusalem,” King Abdullah added. King Abdullah added that the challenge of the past days was not the most difficult or the most dangerous to the stability of Jordan, but it was the most painful for himself, because the sides of the discord were inside and outside “his one home.” “But there is no difference between my responsibility towards my small family and my large family. My first responsibility is to serve Jordan and protect its people, its constitution, and its laws. Nothing and no one is taking precedence over the security and stability of Jordan, and it was necessary to take the necessary measures to fulfill this trust,” he added.

President Biden spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah: White House
Al Arabiya English/07 April ,2021
President Joe Biden spoke today with King Abdullah II of Jordan to express strong US support for Jordan and underscore the importance of King Abdullah II’s leadership to the United States and the region.
Together they discussed the strong bilateral ties between Jordan and the United States, Jordan’s important role in the region, and strengthening bilateral cooperation on multiple political, economic, and security issues.
The President also affirmed that the United States supports a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

US agrees to redeploy troops from Iraq after talks with Baghdad officials
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/07 April ,2021
US troops and Coalition forces will “transition” and redeploy their combat forces from Iraq, a joint statement from Washington and Baghdad stated Wednesday. The announcement came after the third Strategic dialog meeting between US and Iraqi officials at a time when Washington has come under increased pressure to withdraw from Iraq. However, the government in Baghdad asked for help in 2014 to fight ISIS. With training and assistance over the years, Iraqi security forces have become increasingly more capable of combatting terrorism on their own. “Based on the increasing capacity of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), the parties confirmed that the mission of the US and Coalition forces has now transitioned to one focused on training and advisory tasks, thereby allowing for the redeployment of any remaining combat forces from Iraq, with the timing to be established in upcoming technical talks,” the joint statement read.
“Both countries reaffirmed that US forces are in Iraq at the invitation of Iraqi Government to support the [ISF] in their fight against ISIS.” While US and Iraqi security forces have worked together to fight ISIS, Iranian-backed militias have continuously targeted the US Embassy in Baghdad and its surrounding areas as well as military bases hosting US troops. Iraqi officials reiterated their commitment to protecting foreign troops and diplomatic facilities, according to Wednesday’s statement. Secretary of State Antony Blinken led the US delegation during the virtual dialog while his counterpart, Fuad Hussein, led Iraq’s team. Kurdistan Regional Government officials also participated in the talks. A senior US official told Al Arabiya English that they had “a fantastic strategic dialog session” with Iraq. “The Iraqi security forces have been making great strides in becoming more capable and having the right equipment and weapons that they need to keep the country safe and stable. And they’re doing an awful lot to try to protect us at the Embassy,” said Joey Hood, acting assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. “We are there at their invitation; we are their guests. And, so, they know that they have an obligation to protect us, and they reaffirmed that again to us today,” Hood said. d stable. And they’re doing an awful lot to try to protect us at the Embassy,” said Joey Hood, acting assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. “We are there at their invitation; we are their guests. And, so, they know that they have an obligation to protect us, and they reaffirmed that again to us today,” Hood said.

Turkey’s Erdogan wades again into central bank policy, looks to see lower rates
AFP/07 April ,2021
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday again appeared to wade into the Turkish central bank’s policies, saying he was “determined” to see interest rates return to single digits soon. Erdogan’s comments in a nationally televised address came two weeks after he fired market-friendly central banker Naci Agbal after only four months on job. Agbal had hiked the main interest rate to 19 percent to help tame inflation, a policy that Erdogan has long opposed.The new central banker, Sahap Kavcioglu, is a former ruling party lawmaker who subscribes to Erdogan’s unorthodox view that higher interest rates cause inflation instead of slowing it down. Erdogan said: “God willing, we will reduce interest rates to single digits and then further lower this number. We are determined.” The powerful Turkish leader’s dislike of high interests rates is legend, and his pressure on the central bank to keep them low has been one of the main areas of concern for foreign investors. Erdogan once called high rates the “mother and father of all evil.” Central bank governors hold their next policy meeting on April 15. In his address, Erdogan also promised to “reduce inflation to single digits.”Official data published on Monday showed annual inflation had climbed to 16.2 percent in March, piling more pressure on Kavcioglu. The central bank targets annual inflation of 9.4 percent this year.

EU chiefs press Erdogan on human rights, hope for better ties/Tensions have spiked over Turkey’s hunt for gas in disputed eastern
The Arab Weekly/Appril 07/2021
ANKARA--The European Union’s top two officials have expressed deep worries about human rights in Turkey while voicing hope for stronger ties in their first meeting in a year with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel travelled Tuesday to Ankara to test Erdogan’s avowed commitment to improve relations after months of disputes.
Tensions have spiked over Turkey’s hunt for gas in disputed eastern Mediterranean waters and an aggressive foreign policy push across North Africa and the Middle East.
But the Turkish leader softened his rhetoric as the threat of EU sanctions escalated and US President Joe Biden replaced Erdogan’s friend Donald Trump in the White House. EU officials said von der Leyen and Michel wanted to lay out the terms for Erdogan on which they expected to build better relations with the bloc’s strategic partner on its southeastern flank. The two emerged after nearly three hours of talks to stress they had pressed Erdogan hard on Turkey’s deteriorating rule of law and crackdown on civil and political rights. “Human rights issues are non-negotiable,” said von der Leyen. “They have absolute priority without any question.” Michel said the two had “shared with President Erdogan our deep worries on the latest developments with Turkey in this respect, in particular on the freedom of speech and the targeting of political parties and media.”
Focus on migrants
Erdogan did not talk to reporters but his office put out a statement reaffirming Turkey’s position that it wanted the EU “to take concrete steps to support a positive agenda”. “The final objective of Turkey’s EU process is full membership,” Erdogan’s office said in reference to accession talks that have been frozen over the past decade. EU officials countered that any improvement depended on how Erdogan, who was leader when Turkey formally opened talks to join the bloc in 2005, acts and whether he remains a constructive partner. Von der Leyen and Michel took pains to underline the crucial role Turkey has played in stemming Europe’s refugee crisis by setting up shelter for roughly four million of people from Syria and other conflict zones. Turkey has received billions of euros in aid under the 2016 agreement and von der Leyen said she was prepared to update the deal’s terms.
“A revised Turkey-EU migration deal together with the main provisions contained therein would go a long way towards addressing the refugee problem and revitalising Turkey-EU relations with a positive agenda,” she said. A top aide to Erdogan said the Turkish president reiterated Turkey’s demands for an update of a 2016 migration agreement, the renewal of Turkey’s customs union with the EU and the liberalising of visa rules for Turkish travellers. “(Erdogan) emphasised that the refugee problem should be handled with a sense of shared responsibility and (he) recalled the need for an urgent renewal of the migration agreement to guard against instability and a human crisis by a new refugee wave in the region,” Erdogan’s chief adviser, Ibrahim Kalin, said in a statement. Last month, the leaders of the EU’s 27 nations tasked the bloc’s executive commission with trying to build on the 2016 agreement that calls for Turkey to prevent refugees and migrants from trying to reach Europe. Under the agreement, the EU offered Ankara €6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to help Syrian refugees along with other incentives.
The EU-Turkey deal massively reduced the number of asylum-seekers arriving on the Greek islands, which lie close to Turkey’s western coast.
‘New momentum’
The EU has also dangled the possibility of visa liberalisation and upgrading the sides’ 25-year-old customs union. nBut Tuesday’s talks came on the heels of Turkey’s withdrawal from a treaty combating violence against women and the launch of a formal bid to shut down the country’s main pro-Kurdish party.
Last month, Erdogan pulled Turkey out of the Istanbul convention, a key European protocol aimed at combatting violence against women, triggering criticism from EU officials. The move was a blow to Turkey’s women’s rights movement, which says domestic violence and murders of women are on the rise. The mixed messages from Erdogan, softening his foreign policy while hardening his stance at home, have forced the bloc to calibrate its tone with extra care. A European official briefed on the meeting by von der Leyen said it was “too early to say at this stage whether human rights and the rule of law will be a sticking point” down the line. Von der Leyen herself pointed out that Turkey has shown an interest in “re-engaging with Europe” and that she was ready “to give the relationship a new momentum.”The bloc will now reassess its position before a European Council leaders’ meeting on June 24-25.
The Turkish presidency said Erdogan urged Brussels to “not allow some member states to hijack Turkey-EU ties”.His comment appeared to refer to pressure by Greece and France for the bloc to impose sanctions on Turkey for its drilling activities near the divided island of Cyprus. “The EU strategic interest remains a stable and secure environment in the eastern Mediterranean and a mutually beneficial and positive relationship with Turkey,” Michel said after Tuesday’s meeting. Germany has spearheaded efforts to de-escalate tension and avoid any repercussions that could force Erdogan to follow through on threats to open Turkey borders so that migrants can pass unhindered to Europe.

Iran produced 55 kg of 20 pct enriched uranium since January: Official
Reuters, Dubai /07 April ,2021
Iran has made 55 kg of uranium enriched to up to 20 percent - the point at which it is highly enriched - indicating quicker production the 10 kg a month rate required by an Iranian law that created the process in January, Iranian authorities said on Wednesday. The disclosure comes a day after Tehran and Washington held what they described as “constructive” indirect talks in Vienna on Tuesday aimed at finding ways to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. Iran’s hardline parliament passed a law last year that obliges the government to harden its nuclear stance, partly in reaction to former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018. Trump’s withdrawal prompted Iran to steadily overstep the accord’s limits on its nuclear program designed to make it harder to develop an atomic bomb - an ambition Tehran denies.
The law required Iran to start enriching to 20 percent and stipulated that at least 120 kg (265 pounds) of uranium refined to that level be made each year, which amounts to 10 kg a month. Iran’s production rate is already “up to 40 percent” faster than that, Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi indicated. “In less than four months we have produced 55 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium ... in around eight months we can reach 120 kg,” Kamalvandi told state TV. Uranium is considered highly enriched as of 20 percent. Enriching to 20 percent is a big step towards enriching to weapons-grade.
A quarterly report on Iran’s nuclear activities by the UN nuclear watchdog in February said that as of Feb. 16, Iran had produced 17.6 kg of uranium enriched up to 20 percent, with the next level down being enriched between 2 percent-5 percent. A senior diplomat said at the time that Iran was producing uranium enriched to 20 percent at a rate of 15 kg per month. As part of a recent acceleration of its breaches of the nuclear deal, in January Iran began enriching uranium to 20 percent at Fordow, an underground uranium enrichment site that was built in secret inside a mountain possibly to withstand any aerial bombardment. Under the deal, Tehran is not allowed to enrich uranium at Fordow at all. Until January, Iran had not enriched beyond 4.5 percent purity - above the deal’s limit of 3.67 percent but still far below the 20 percent it achieved before the deal, or the 90 percent that is weapons-grade.
 

EMA Confirms Clots as 'Very Rare' AstraZeneca Side Effect
Agence France Presse/07 April ,2021
The EU's drug regulator said Wednesday that blood clots should be listed as a "very rare" side effect of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine but that the jab's benefits continue to outweigh the risks. No specific risk factors, including age, have been identified for thrombosis with the AstraZeneca shot, which could stem from an immune response, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said. The watchdog's findings come after several countries halted the use of the vaccine following dozens of cases of people with clots in blood vessels draining from the brain after receiving jabs, some of them fatal. "EMA's safety committee has concluded today that unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects" of the AstraZeneca jab, the Amsterdam-based watchdog said in a statement. But it stressed that it believed people should continue to take the vaccine as part of the battle against the disease."The safety committee has confirmed that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19 overall outweigh the risk of side effects," EMA chief Emer Cooke told a news conference. "It is saving lives."Despite the fact that many of the cases have been reported in women under 55, prompting a number of countries to restrict the vaccine's use to older people, the regulator said it had not been able to pinpoint those at risk. "Specific risk factors such as age, gender or medical history have not been able to be confirmed, as the rare events are seen in all ages," Cooke said. "A plausible explanation for these rare side effects is an immune response to the vaccine."

UK Reports 79 Blood Clots, 19 Deaths from 20M AZ Vaccine Doses
Agence France Presse/07 April ,2021
There have been 79 cases of rare blood clots, resulting in 19 deaths, in people receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine in Britain, the country's medicines regulator said Wednesday. "By the 31st of March over 20 million doses having been given, we have had 79 cases reported. Of the 79 cases, 19 people have sadly died," June Raine, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), told a briefing.

Ethiopia to Go on Filling Nile Mega-Dam despite Impasse
Agence France Presse/07 April ,2021
Ethiopia said Wednesday it would not be deterred from impounding water at its Nile mega-dam, despite a persistent impasse with downstream countries worried about their water supply. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it in 2011. Downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan view the dam as a threat because of their dependence on Nile waters, while Ethiopia considers it essential for its electrification and development. The latest round of talks concluded Tuesday in Kinshasa with no resolution to long-running disputes over how the dam will be operated. But Ethiopian water minister Seleshi Bekele told a press conference Wednesday that Ethiopia would continue filling the dam's massive reservoir during the upcoming rainy season, which normally begins in June or July. "As construction progresses, filling takes place," Seleshi said."We don't deviate from that at all." The reservoir has a capacity of 74 billion cubic meters. Filling began last year, with Ethiopia announcing in July 2020 it had hit its target of 4.9 billion cubic meters -- enough to test the dam's first two turbines, an important milestone on the way towards actually producing energy. The goal is to impound an additional 13.5 billion cubic meters this year.
- Fears of 'instability' -
Egypt and Sudan wanted a trilateral agreement on the dam's operations to be reached before reservoir filling began. But Ethiopia says filling is a natural part of the dam's construction, and is thus impossible to postpone. Last year Sudan said the filling process caused water shortages including in the capital Khartoum. Seleshi disputed this Wednesday but said Ethiopia had offered to share data with Sudan during filling this year, adding that officials "don't want to be made accountable for problems that we haven't created." He complained, though, that Sudan and Egypt spent most of the time in Kinshasa pushing for an elevated role in negotiations for observers South Africa, the United States and the European Union. Ethiopia has rejected this, saying it would undermine the process headed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, the current chair of the African Union.  Ethiopia's foreign ministry said Tuesday it expected talks to resume later this month. Egypt has described them as the last chance to reach an agreement, after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said last week that the region faces "unimaginable instability" over the project. Sudan's foreign minister, Mariam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, told reporters Tuesday that Ethiopia "threatens the people of the Nile basin, and Sudan directly."Seleshi on Wednesday played down the possibility that tensions over the dam would lead to conflict. "This kind of thinking is unnecessary, and exaggerating this kind of thing doesn't benefit any country," he said.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 07-08/2021

Palestinians: US Taxpayer Money Going to Terrorists
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/April 07/2021
The memo, however, does not specifically say that the renewed US funding would be conditioned on ending the Palestinians' "pay-to-slay" program. Instead, the Biden administration is only seeking a "commitment" from the Palestinian leadership to end the stipends.
It is likely that PA President Mahmoud Abbas may make such a "commitment" to the Biden administration. In reality, however, Abbas has announced over the past few years that he would never stop the payments to the imprisoned terrorists and the families of the "martyrs."
In the world of Abbas and the Palestinians, any Palestinian who is killed while carrying out a terror attack against Jews is a martyr and hero.
"We will not deduct or suspend the allowances. Even if we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs. We consider the martyrs and prisoners as our stars." — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Wafa.ps
The Palestinian leadership is now hoping that the Biden administration will turn a blind eye to the "pay-for-slay' program and allow them to continue funding terrorists and their families.
The Palestinians are letting the world know that the payments to the terrorists will absolutely continue, just not through the banks. The Palestinians are trying to make it look as if this is a problem related only to the method of payment, and not the fact that the money is going to reward terrorists for murdering, or attempting to murder, Jews.
It is clear that any Palestinian "commitment" to cease rewarding terrorists will not be worth the paper it is written on. Abbas and his henchmen are telling the Biden administration one thing in English and their people the opposite in Arabic. They have no intention whatsoever of stopping the blood-soaked payments. In order to ensure that they continue, the Palestinian leadership are funneling the terror funds through the Palestinian post offices.
If and when the Biden administration resumes financial aid to Abbas, those who will resume collecting US taxpayer dollars are the terrorists.
In the world of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians, any Palestinian who is killed while carrying out a terror attack against Jews is a martyr and hero. "Even if we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs. We consider the martyrs and prisoners as our stars," Abbas said. A non-public US State Department report revealed that the Palestinians distributed at least $151 million in 2019 on their "pay-to-slay" program, in which international aid dollars are spent to support imprisoned terrorists and their families.
The Biden administration's decision to resume unconditional US financial aid to the Palestinians will allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to continue rewarding terrorists who kill Jews, and sometimes, as "collateral damage," others.
Last week, the Biden administration reportedly confirmed to Congress that the PA has continued to use international aid money to reward terrorists and their families.
The Biden administration, however, emphasized that the PA's actions will not impact its plan to renew funding to the Palestinians.
A non-public State Department report revealed that the Palestinians distributed at least $151 million in 2019 on their "pay-to-slay" program, in which international aid dollars are spent to support imprisoned terrorists and their families. Financial statements also revealed that at least $191 million was lavished on "deceased Palestinians referred to as 'martyrs.'"
Earlier this month, The National disclosed that the Biden administration was looking to "reset" relations with the Palestinians with a plan that includes a "full range of economic, security and humanitarian assistance programs, including through the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)."
A memo drafted by the State Department claims that the Biden administration was holding talks with the Palestinians "to obtain a Palestinian commitment to end payments to individuals imprisoned for acts of terrorism."
The memo, however, does not specifically say that the renewed US funding would be conditioned on ending the Palestinians' "pay-to-slay" program. Instead, the Biden administration is only seeking a "commitment" from the Palestinian leadership to end the stipends.
It is likely that PA President Mahmoud Abbas may make such a "commitment" to the Biden administration. In reality, however, Abbas has announced over the past few years that he would never stop the payments to the imprisoned terrorists and the families of the "martyrs."
In the world of Abbas and the Palestinians, any Palestinian who is killed while carrying out a terror attack against Jews is a martyr and hero.
"The Palestinian Authority will continue to pay the allowances to the prisoners and the families of the martyrs," Abbas has repeatedly assured his people in the past three years.
"We will not deduct or suspend the allowances. Even if we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs. We consider the martyrs and prisoners as our stars."
Abbas's remarks came in response to the Israeli government's decision to deduct the amount of money that the PA gives to terrorists and their families from the taxes and tariffs Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians each month.
Abbas's remarks also came in response to the Taylor Force Act, signed into US law in 2018, which mandates stopping US financial aid to the Palestinians until Palestinian terrorists and their families are no longer paid. The legislation is named after Taylor Force, a graduate of West Point and a US Army veteran of battles in Afghanistan and Iraq. Force was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist during a study trip to Israel in March 2016.
While the Biden administration is waiting for a "commitment" from the PA leadership, Palestinian officials say that the payments to the terrorists and their families will continue.
In December 2020, the PA paid in advance the allowances for three months (until the end of February) to avoid penalties by Israel and the US.
The PA's move came after the Israeli authorities threatened to take measures against any person "who conducts any transaction with assets, including money, in order to facilitate, further, fund, or reward a person for carrying out terror-related offences."
Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli research organization known internationally for its in-depth research of Palestinian society, had also warned the heads of banks that if they continued to provide bank accounts facilitating the PA paying salaries to terrorists, they could face personal criminal liability as well as expose their banks to civil lawsuits from terror victims.
The threat prompted Palestinian banks to refuse serving as a channel for delivering the payments to the terrorists and their families.
The Palestinian leadership is now hoping that the Biden administration will turn a blind eye to the "pay-for-slay' program and allow them to continue funding terrorists and their families.
Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the PA's Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Authority, was quoted on March 11 as saying that the payments will be processed through Palestinian post offices as of next month. The move, he said, was aimed at avoiding penalties against the banks.
"The Palestinian leadership is in contact with the American administration, the Europeans and the Israeli authorities, in order to find a solution to resume the payment of the salaries," Abu Bakr said. "We have 64 Palestinian employees who are working around the clock to solve this issue. The issue of the prisoners and the families of the martyrs is a sacred one for us."
The Palestinians are letting the world know that the payments to the terrorists will definitely continue, just not through the banks. The Palestinians are trying to make it look as if this is a problem related only to the method of payment, and not the fact that the money is going to reward terrorists for murdering, or attempting to murder, Jews.
It is clear that any Palestinian "commitment" to cease rewarding terrorists will not be worth the paper it is written on. Abbas and his henchmen are telling the Biden administration one thing in English and their people the opposite in Arabic. They have no intention whatsoever of stopping the blood-soaked payments. In order to ensure that they continue, they are funneling the terror funds through the Palestinian post offices.
For Abbas, the terrorists are the superstars of the Palestinian people. Abbas regularly praises terrorists, and even receives them in his office. "The Palestinian prisoners are heroes and freedom fighters," according to Abbas. "We will not submit to any pressure to abandon them and their families."
The Biden administration needs to listen to what Abbas and Palestinian leaders are telling their people in Arabic. Such information would puncture its rosy picture that the Palestinian leadership can be convinced to end its financial and moral support for terrorists.
If the Biden team wants to know what is happening on the ground, they should send their representatives to post offices in the West Bank next month to observe how the terrorists and their families are standing in line to receive cash from the Palestinian leadership. If and when the Biden administration resumes financial aid to Abbas, those who will resume collecting US taxpayer dollars are the terrorists.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The brave few on the front line for freedom deserve America's support
Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/Tuesday, Apri07/2021
In this already stormy century, freedom has many powerful enemies, and few powerful defenders.
That’s not just my impression. “Freedom in the World 2021,” a study recently released by Freedom House, documents “heavy new losses” in the “struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny.” It reports, too, that 2020 “marked the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.”
If you care about the outcome of this struggle, you should at least know the names and stories of some of those risking — and in too many cases sacrificing — their lives to keep the flickering flame of liberty from being extinguished.
High on my list is Aleksei Navalny, the most significant opposition figure in Russia. Last week, he sent word from prison that he was beginning a hunger strike to protest the government’s refusal to provide him adequate medical treatment.
The pain in his back and legs could be the result of the time he has spent in cramped jail cells and “defendant’s cages.” Another likely factor: lingering effects of Russian government agents having “tried to kill me with a chemical weapon,” as he phrased it in a letter.
White House willing to 'compromise' on proposed corporate tax hike
Last August, on a flight from Siberia to Moscow, he fell into a coma. Friends spirited him to Germany where doctors concluded he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent.
The German doctors managed to save him, and, in January, he returned to Moscow where he was immediately arrested and sentenced to 3½ years in prison for having failed to show up for a parole appointment during the time he was convalescing in Germany.

Indoctrinated in Hate: 'This Is the Start of the New Caliphate'
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/April 07/2021
Hate-filled indoctrination and training in violence is not limited to the "schools" of ISIS or Boko Haram. Public schools all around the Muslim world share elements of this indoctrination. Most recently, a March 2021 study exposed how the school curriculum of Turkey — for decades one of the Muslim world's most secular nations — is also increasingly full of jihadi propaganda.
"The Turkish curriculum has been significantly radicalized in recent years. Jihad war is introduced as a central value; martyrdom in battle is glorified.... Concepts such as "Turkish World Domination" ... are emphasized. The curriculum adopts an anti-American stance and displays sympathy toward the motivations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda.... Christians and Jews are characterized as infidels instead of People of the Book.... The curriculum demonizes Zionism and verges on anti-Semitic..." — "The Erdoğan Revolution in the Turkish Curriculum Textbooks," IMPACT-se, March 2021.
What will happen in a few decades when all these boys — those raised on absolute hate and violence and those raised on absolute tolerance and nonviolence — become the world's decision-makers?
Documentary filmmaker Alan Duncan recently visited the al-Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria. According to Duncan: "There are already training camps in there — they are training the ISIS ideologies to the kids... To hate the West... They are training them for future jihad... It's like walking in the caliphate." Pictured: Women displaced from Syria's Deir Ezzor province in the al-Hawl camp on April 18, 2019.
While boys in the West are all but indoctrinated into becoming girls — if not surgically mutilated, at least spiritually emasculated — boys throughout the Muslim world are increasingly indoctrinated into becoming super jihadis: ISIS 2.0.
The news is coming in fast from a variety of sources.
A documentary filmmaker, Alan Duncan, for instance, recently made a brief video of his visit to al-Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria, run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Although 80% of the camp consists of women and (27,000) children, many of whom had fled ISIS, the camp is known as the "Womb of ISIS."
In the video, highlighted in a February 2021 report, eight- to ten-year-old boys appear raising one finger — symbolic of jihad. When asked about the gesture, one boy responded: "This means the Islamic State remains." On being asked if they want to be doctors or teachers when they grow up, one boy says, "We don't want to be a doctor. We want to be a brother fighter. We want to fight the apostates." Then a woman, dressed in a black burka, declares that she wants the children to become "mujahidin who fight in the way Allah" — who "fight the infidels."
According to Duncan, the reason for all this indoctrination is that:
"There are already training camps in there — they are training the ISIS ideologies to the kids. They are not teaching them A, B and C — they are teaching them to hate. To hate the West .... They are training them for future jihad.... The children are victims of ISIS and their parents. They are within an extremist Islamic-controlled camp. They are not being told how to become doctors and nurses — the little girls are there to serve and breed. The boys are there to be the future fighters and the future suicide bombers.... This is the start of the new caliphate. I am certain of it. You can sense the fear in there of the religious police. They are trying to keep the structure of caliphate in there — the laws, the punishment. It's like walking in the caliphate. It's like walking into another world."
A camp official agreed, adding:
"The women and children are radicalized — the vehicles of the humanitarian workers are even attacked with stones. The guards do feel unsafe while patrolling the camp. However, they are armed and trained."
Similarly, in Nigeria, Islamic terrorists released a 17-minute video of children undergoing "religious education and indoctrination sessions." According to a February 28, 2021 report:
"The dreaded Boko Haram terrorists have released a video where children as young as 10-years-old were seen being trained in the art of combat and insurgency in what it tagged 'Next Generation Fighters'. In the alleged training video, the child soldiers are seen being trained with sophisticated weapons like AK-47 rifles and Zastava M21, a very powerful weapon... The images from the video show the relatively young children dressed in combat-style clothing and balaclava participating in martial arts training, weapon handling training and religious education class...."
Hate-filled indoctrination and training in violence is not limited to the "schools" of ISIS or Boko Haram. Public schools all around the Muslim world share elements of this indoctrination. Most recently, a March 2021 study exposed how the school curriculum of Turkey — for decades one of the Muslim world's most secular nations — is also increasingly full of jihadi propaganda. Some of the report's "main findings" follow:
"The Turkish curriculum has been significantly radicalized in recent years. Jihad war is introduced as a central value; martyrdom in battle is glorified. Islam is depicted as political, using science and technology to advance its goals. An ethno-nationalist religious vision combining neo-Ottomanism and pan-Turkism is taught. Concepts such as "Turkish World Domination" and Turkish or Ottoman "Ideal of the World Order" are emphasized. The curriculum adopts an anti-American stance and displays sympathy toward the motivations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. There are anti-Armenian and pro-Azerbaijani stances. ... Subtle anti-democratic messaging is conveyed (e.g., Gezi Park protests). Christians and Jews are characterized as infidels instead of People of the Book.
The curriculum demonizes Zionism and verges on anti-Semitic..."
Even in the West, Muslim children are being indoctrinated "virtually," online, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a March 4, 2021 report (updated March 10), "Children are being exposed to ISIS terrorism online during lockdown, raising fears of brainwashing, the British foreign secretary said." Dominic Raab told Parliament that this rise "of violent internet indoctrination" is occurring at a "critical moment," when there has been a 7 percent increase in the amount of terrorist propaganda appearing last year, adding:
"This is because terrorists have digital access to those who are probably the most susceptible to extremist narratives. And we can see a worrying rise in the proportion of children and teenagers that are now being arrested for terrorism offences."
Raab referred to the mixture of "bored youths stuck indoors during lockdown," where they are "subjected to extremist propaganda online," as the "perfect storm."
There is another factor in the mix: all of this unprecedented radicalization of Muslim youth in jihadi hate and violence is occurring at a time when boys in the West are being unprecedentedly indoctrinated into renouncing masculinity and embracing effeminacy. What will happen in a few decades when all these boys — those raised on absolute hate and violence and those raised on absolute tolerance and nonviolence — become the world's decision-makers?
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again and Sword and Scimitar, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Iran and Israel’s Undeclared War at Sea (Part 1): IRGC-Hezbollah Financing Schemes
Matthew Levitt/The Washington Institute/April 07/2021
Recent maritime escalation between the two countries stems mainly from Iranian efforts to fund Hezbollah, underscoring the financial interdependency between the Lebanese militia, Tehran, and the Syrian regime.
With news of tit-for-tat attacks against their respective shipping interests making headlines recently, Israel and Iran appear to be in the midst of a gray-zone maritime conflict. Yet the oil smuggling operation at the heart of the crisis is not about large-scale Iranian sanctions evasion, but rather about securing funds for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its foreign proxies, mainly Hezbollah. When U.S. actions exposed previous financing schemes based in Iraq, the IRGC turned to oil smuggling further afield as an effective trade-based illicit financing scheme, allowing the organization to fund and arm Hezbollah while also benefiting the Assad regime in Syria. Part 1 of this PolicyWatch series analyzes how these schemes work and how the United States and Israel have sought to counter them; Part 2 will assess the military aspects of the ongoing, undeclared war at sea.
The Need for New Financing Pathways
For years, the Israeli navy has been intercepting cargo ships carrying weapons for Iran-backed militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. In 2017, Israel significantly increased the tempo of such activity as part of its wider “campaign between the wars,” a gray-zone military effort that has sought to disrupt Tehran’s buildup in Syria without igniting a regional war. From 2017 through summer 2020, Israeli forces reportedly carried out around 1,000 airstrikes there, and these operations have continued ever since, complicating the IRGC’s efforts to send funds and weapons to Hezbollah via flights from Tehran to Damascus.
Iran also developed plans to finance the group through banks and businesses operating in Iraq. In May 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department took a major step toward disrupting these plans by designating Iranian Central Bank governor Valiollah Seif and another official within the institution. The CEO of Iraq’s al-Bilad Islamic Bank was designated as well, along with senior Hezbollah official Muhammad Qasir. According to Treasury officials, Qasir served as “a critical conduit” for IRGC-Qods Force payments to Hezbollah. Once the Iraqi banking pipeline was exposed, they shifted to a trade-based financing scheme involving Iranian oil.
Hezbollah’s Role in the Oil Smuggling Network
In September 2019, a Treasury report noted that Iran had moved oil “worth hundreds of millions of dollars or more” through an illicit shipping network over the previous year. The IRGC-QF and Hezbollah directed the network, which benefits both organizations as well as the Assad regime. It is this network that reportedly spurred Israel’s maritime disruption campaign.
In November 2018, six months after taking action against Iran’s Central Bank and Iraq’s al-Bilad Islamic Bank, the Treasury Department exposed a convoluted Iranian financing scheme involving Qasir and other Hezbollah members. Working with Iranian operatives, Russian companies, and the Central Bank of Syria, the Hezbollah officials facilitated the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian oil to the Assad regime. The regime then facilitated the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to the IRGC-QF, which in turn sent funds onward to Hezbollah and Hamas. In a letter to a senior official at the Central Bank of Iran, Qasir (identified as “Mr. Fadi” in the document) and a Syrian associate confirmed receipt of $63 million.
According to the Treasury Department, Qasir also heads Unit 108, “the Hezbollah unit responsible for facilitating the transfer of weapons, technology, and other support from Syria to Lebanon.” In February 2019, he appeared as a note-taker in photographs and video clips of President Bashar al-Assad’s secret visit to Tehran for meetings with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Qasir was reportedly hand-picked for that visit by the late IRGC-QF commander Qasem Soleimani, whose own role in the smuggling effort was reportedly extensive prior to his death last year. According to Iranian media remarks by Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, Soleimani was personally responsible for selling an undisclosed quantity of crude oil under the direction of the Supreme National Security Council, often using “innovative” and “high risk” methods. At one point, Jahangiri claimed, Soleimani was the sole conduit for the sale of Iranian oil.
Soleimani managed this scheme with help from Qasir, who in turn relied on a coterie of Hezbollah operatives. One such operative was Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal, who used a network of companies—including the Talaqi Group, Hokoul S.A.L. Offshore, Nagham al-Hayat, Tawafuk, and ALUMIX—to “finance, coordinate, and obscure” illicit oil shipments.
In September 2019, the Treasury Department targeted multiple components of this oil smuggling network, including the Talaqi Group. Qasir, Bazzal, and their companies featured prominently in the exposed network, along with Ali Qasir, Muhammad’s nephew. Based in Tehran, Ali Qasir served as both a Hezbollah representative to Iran and as managing director of the Talaqi Group. In these capacities, he assigned vessels “to deliver shipments for the terrorist network based on the IRGC-QF’s guidance,” according to U.S. government documents. For example, he played a central role in the 2019 Adrian Darya 1 tanker episode, working with others to fund and facilitate this illicit Iranian oil shipment to Syria amid Western objections. He also represented the Lebanon-based Hokoul S.A.L. Offshore in negotiations over its supply of Iranian crude to Syria.
Ultimately, this sprawling network of Hezbollah operatives and front companies was overseen by former Iranian minister of petroleum and IRGC-QF official Rostam Ghasemi, who also heads the Iranian-Syrian Economic Relations Development Committee. In addition to the operatives discussed above, Ghasemi also relied on his son Morteza to finalize illicit oil contracts, including some that they attempted to pass off as originating from Iraq rather than Iran. In October 2020, the U.S. Rewards for Justice program posted a $10 million bounty for information on the network.
Conclusion
For years, Hezbollah has been actively involved in helping the IRGC-QF and its international network of merchants circumvent sanctions and ship oil products directly from Iran to Syria. Thus, Israel’s efforts to disrupt such shipments should come as no surprise—especially after mid-2018, when these deliveries became Tehran’s primary means of financing Hezbollah, and in some cases included arms as well.
To be sure, Israel’s maritime efforts are not nearly as extensive as its aerial campaign in Syria, which has substantially diminished Iran’s ability to send Hezbollah weapons overland via Abu Kamal. The naval effort appears to be aimed at hindering, not crippling, Iranian oil shipments, perhaps due to the vulnerability of Israel’s own shipping lanes through the Arabian Sea. Still, its maritime actions have caused delays that deprive the Syrian regime of gasoline imports and prevent hard cash, weapons, and missile production equipment from reaching Hezbollah. More than anything else, these incidents underscore the growing financial interdependency between Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah.
*Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Fellow and director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute, and creator of its interactive map and timeline project Lebanese Hezbollah Select Worldwide Activities.

Turkey Arrests Admirals for Criticizing Canal Project
Seth J. Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/April 07/2021
On April 5 Turkey detained ten retired admirals who had openly criticized a canal project favored by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkey has increased its crackdown on critics of the ruling party with a new round of arrests. This time it targeted former navy admirals who expressed criticism about the country potentially building a new canal.
While the issue might seem banal, in Turkey there is no critique permitted of anything from the ruling party of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The country increasingly jails people for tweets and calls individuals "terrorists" for protests at universities.
Turkey on Monday detained ten retired admirals after they openly criticized a canal project, France 24 reported. The project is "dear to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a country where the hint of military insubordination raises the specter of past coups." The actual criticism is quite mild and the actual issue appears banal. "The official approval last month of plans to develop a 45-kilometer (28-mile) shipping lane in Istanbul comparable to the Panama or Suez canals has opened up debate about Turkey's commitment to the 1936 Montreux Convention," the report reads.
The admirals prefer a Turkey that is part of international agreements and follows them. Turkey has increasingly been threatening its neighbors in Greece and causing controversy with the US and NATO by acquiring Russian weapon systems.
It has also fueled conflict in Libya, Syria and Azerbaijan and has used Syrian refugees as mercenaries. Any critique of Ankara's drift toward authoritarianism, religious extremism and extremist rhetoric is increasingly being treated as "terrorism" and people are arrested in Turkey even for tweets that are many years old. The admirals raised concerns about Turkey's obligations under the 1936 Montreux Convention.
Ankara's ruling AK Party controls most of the media in the country and the government uses the media as AK party mouthpieces, from TRT to Anadolu and other major media. This makes it difficult for any discussion in Turkey to include any critique of government policy. Turkey's retired admirals had merely expressed concern about the country's obligations to a convention; for that, they may be imprisoned.
This follows a New York Times story that shed light on the plight of Turkish trainee pilots now sentenced to life in prison for a 2016 coup attempt they had no role in. The poor young men happened to be at a military base that was used by coup plotters, but did not take part and were merely trainees. For being in the same area as the plotters the young men are now all in prison for the rest of their lives. They were some of Turkey's promising F-16 pilots, leading to questions about how many pilots the country now has. It appears that two entire classes of trainees were imprisoned. Turkey has purged more than 150,000 people since the coup attempt and has used it as an excuse to go after Kurdish minorities and to attack gay rights protests, basically silencing everyone in the country.
In another case, Turkey detained a student from Canada's Carleton University. He has been kept in prison for six months for a tweet he wrote seven years ago. Most Western democracies are afraid to critique Ankara's crackdowns and do not stand by Turkish students who attend Western universities.People are imprisoned in Turkey for things that would go unnoticed in China, Russia or Iran. Former US diplomats during the Trump administration were key supporters of Ankara's drive toward authoritarianism over the last decade, with some even openly supporting Turkish-backed extremists who have ethnically cleansed northern Syria of minorities. The ability of the regime to reduce critiques in the West is key to its ability to crack down on dissent.
People are imprisoned in Turkey for minor criticism that might not land them in prison in China, Russia or Iran – leading to questions over why NATO-member Turkey is now one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world.
*Seth J. Frantzman is a Ginsburg-Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and senior Middle East correspondent at The Jerusalem Post.

The Shah’s Ride
Michael Young/Carnegie MEC/April 07/2021
In an interview, Ray Takeyh discusses his recent book on the reign of the late
Ray Takeyh is the Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he specializes on Iran, political reform in the Middle East, and Islamist movements and parties. Prior to joining the council, he was a senior advisor on Iran at the U.S. State Department. Takeyh is the author, most recently, of The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty. He also authored three previous books, Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs, Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic, and The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The US, Britain and Nasser's Egypt, 1953–1957. Diwan interviewed Takeyh in early April to discuss his latest book.
Michael Young: You’ve just written a book focused mainly on the period in power of shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Why write another book on the shah, and what did you feel was new and important that you wanted to get across to readers?
Ray Takeyh: More than four decades after the fall of the shah, it is finally possible to arrive at a more objective assessment of his rule. The passions have cooled and polemics have yielded to reason. And finally, the documentary record is beginning to come out. I should note that the Islamic Republic has been more generous to historians than the National Archives in the United States, as it has released troves of the shah’s records. In contrast, the Carter administration’s papers on the Iranian Revolution are just beginning to trickle out.
MY: Your book seems in part an effort to reevaluate the shah’s legacy. How does such an approach fit in with the mood in Iran today? In other words, is a reconsideration of the shah more widespread in the country, and to what extent has the Islamic Republic itself borrowed from his policies in formulating its own?
RT: There is a measure of nostalgia for the shah and the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran today. Iran is a country that lives its history. It is not unusual for a historical event to be featured on the front pages of newspapers. Books about the shah, and particularly his father, do seem to have an audience. Not all of this discussion is informed or thoughtful, but it is taking place.
The Islamic Republic has learned little from the shah’s experiences. It is repeating many of his mistakes. The regime is incapable of reform, corruption is rampant, and the country is mired in foreign adventures whose costs are more obvious than their benefits.
MY: Your interpretation of the coup against prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1952 is at odds with most popular views of that event as being mainly the work of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British secret service. You write that “the balance of evidence suggests that it was more an Iranian plot than an American one.” Can you elaborate.
RT: In general, historians of the intelligence community will tell you that it is difficult to say with certainty why a covert operation succeeds. During August 1953, Iran experienced not one but two coups. There is little dispute about the first coup that failed. The CIA was involved with Iranian plotters.
The second coup has been a more controversial topic. Washington gave up on the effort, but the lead CIA person in Iran, Kermit Roosevelt, seemed to have persisted. In 2017, the State Department released approximately 1,000 pages of new documents, mostly intelligence cables. It is my judgment that the Iranians were more in command of the second coup than the Americans. But, this is an argument without end.
The more interesting aspect of the coup is not its mechanics but its impact on Iranian politics. Too many historians and pundits draw a very casual line between the coup and the revolution, as if the intervening quarter of a century did not happen. It is my view that the coup did not fundamentally transform Iran’s political system. The shah’s dictatorship was fully elaborated in the early 1960s, which are the hinge years of Iranian politics.
MY: What was at the heart of U.S.-Iranian disagreements during the period of the shah, especially during the 1960s? And can you explain the context of the effort by General Valiollah Qarani to organize a coup against the monarch, one in which the United States appeared to be involved?
RT: The coup was attempted in 1958. The documentary evidence is sparse, but it does suggest U.S. complicity. After the coup of 1953, the Eisenhower administration was displeased with the shah’s unwillingness to implement political and economic reforms. They wanted him to broaden his government and focus more on economics than on arms buildups. To send a message to the shah, the CIA planted stories in the New York Times suggesting that Washington was frustrated with the monarch and seemingly supported an effort against him. It is hard to see if either General Qarani or the Eisenhower administration wanted to topple the shah, but they hoped to steer him toward a more constitutional form of government with a greater focus on the economy.
MY: It is often forgotten that the shah engaged in a radical reform program during the 1960s known as the White Revolution. What were the successes of that program, and more importantly for the regime’s survival what were its flaws?
RT: The successes were substantial. It was the first time that a monarch took land away from the rich and gave it to the poor. The land reforms may not have gone far enough, but they were still an important effort. Literacy rates went up and child mortality rates went down. The Iranian people had greater access to healthcare and educational facilities. The shah enlarged the middle class but then politically disfranchised it. His core problem was that his modernization plan was not accompanied by a political opening. In fact, just the opposite took place.
MY: You seem to be arguing in the book that, ultimately, the shah’s downfall was a result of his never properly anchoring his power in Iranian society—indeed that he alienated key sectors of society, including the middle class, the clergy, the young, and the merchants. Can you explain the dynamics that were at play.
RT: The shah had a dictatorial personality, in the sense that he believed that only great men unencumbered by competing institutions and bickering politicians could do great things. He viewed democracy as a Western disorder. The problem was that he was too timid in times of crisis. When things got tough he proved to be a dictator who could not dictate. The shah would have benefited from a system of government in which power was shared more widely among institutions such as parliament and cabinets. He needed buffers but he did not see this until it was too late.
MY: In light of your last answer, what has the Islamic Republic done differently than the shah, given that it too appears to have alienated key segments of society? Why has it managed to tightly maintain its power when the shah lost control?
RT: The Islamic Republic has paradoxically followed a similar pattern to the shah’s rule. It has gradually closed off opportunities for meaningful political participation. As with the shah, it spends money on foreign policy measures that command little internal support. It seems incapable of reforming itself even when such reforms are urgent. It is drowning in corruption and the class divisions are as provocative as they were during the last years of the Pahlavi dynasty.
This is not to suggest that the present system will collapse soon and in the same way as its predecessor. But the Islamic Republic’s governing model doesn’t work. If the regime has only its security organs to rely upon for its perpetuation, then it has little in the way of true strength.

Jordan enters a new phase
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab weekly/April 07/2021
This fact was clearly illustrated by the Arab and international support received by King Abdullah II in the recent crisis, support that was also deeply related to the desire to support Jordan and its stability.
This simply means that the Jordan’s regional role has not ended, but as it prepares to celebrate the start of its second century, there is also clear need to create a new role. Perhaps it is useful to recall in this regard that the emirate of Transjordan, which later became the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, was established on April 11, 1921.
It was not appropriate in any way that the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of Jordan came amid an unexpected internal crisis that cannot continue for long but poses many unanswered questions.
Among those questions, can Jordan name the external party that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi mentioned in the context of the accusations levelled at Prince Hamzah and others?
Can it be certain that there is a relationship between Prince Hamzah and Basem Awadallah, the former chief of the royal court and key official responsible for the complex economic issues?
From this standpoint, it can be said that Abdullah II took the right step by entrusting the question of Prince Hamzah to Prince Hassan bin Talal, who for for 35 years was crown prince during the reign of King Hussein.
Hassan is the uncle of both Abdullah and Hamzah and is currently considered the family elder. One can be optimistic about the king’s decision to resort to his uncle’s arbitration and to limit the dispute to a narrow, if not the narrowest confines of the Hashemite family. Above all, Prince Hassan is a rational man who is keen on family unity.
In addition, he himself went through many experiences, some of them very cruel, but he always maintained his calm and his sarcastic tone as well as his resounding laughter in dealing with events, bitter and sweet.
One of the experiences he went through was having to relinquish the position of heir apparent at the request of King Hussein on his deathbed.
In his last days, King Hussein decided, from his sickbed, to remove Hassan from the position of crown prince and to name his eldest son Prince Abdullah in his place. Hassan acted in a decent manner according to the wishes of his older brother and stayed home, even if he had personal objections to what had happened.
It would not be good for the internal crisis in Jordan to continue, with all its ripple effects, given that the kingdom does not need this kind of problem at a time when it is going through very difficult and complex economic and social conditions. Therefore, it was necessary to find a way out of this crisis, which is partly a crisis within the small family.
In addition, the crisis has many causes, some of which are internal, others regional, being related to the coronavirus pandemic, which has lasted for a long time and imposed a huge burden on the Jordanian state and its various institutions and on the average Jordanian citizen.
What is certain is that Prince Hamzah’s responsiveness to the decision by the king to refer the disagreement to Prince Hassan is reason for optimism that the whirlwind that has jolted Jordan can be put behind us, making it a storm in a teacup. This does not mean that the challenges facing the Hashemite Kingdom no longer exist.
On the contrary, it seems more necessary than ever to think about the future and how to include the largest number of experienced Jordanian politicians and tribal leaders in sharing responsibility alongside King Abdullah II and Prince Hussein bin Abdullah, the crown prince since 2004.
In that year, the king decided to remove Hamzah from this position and replace him with his eldest son, a normal step in a monarchy.
More than that, there is nothing that prevents Prince Hamzah from playing a role, especially since he reacted favourably to the desire of his older brother Abdullah II to entrust the issue of the dispute to Prince Hassan.
He said that he would “put myself at the disposal of His Majesty the King and I reaffirm that I will always remain committed to the covenant of the ancestors, loyal to their legacy.”
What was unacceptable, but not surprising, is that in the past few years Abdullah II had to take on himself all the problems that the country faced.
This is what he did when he personally went to Salt last month after the confusion caused by the death of seven Covid-19 patients due oxygen shortage.
The king himself took severe measures against those guilty of dereliction of duty. It is true that the Jordanian monarch feels responsible towards each citizen, but it is also justified to ask where are the official institutions and administrations that were supposed to remedy a terrible accident like the one that occurred in the Salt Public Hospital?
More than ever, in the coming days and weeks, there will be a need to revive the lines of defence of the royal establishment in Jordan, including relations with eastern Jordanian clans, large families and all sectors of society.
For example, but not exclusively, one cannot ignore that the Majali family has always been at the centre of the Jordanian affairs.
Two of the family, Ayman Majali and Hussein Majali, stayed to the last minute with King Hussein when he was ill.
Ayman was the director of royal protocol and Hussein was the commander of the late monarch’s special guard.
When Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in Wadi Araba in October 1994, the one who signed, with Yitzhak Rabin, the one who put his signature in the name of the Hashemite Kingdom, was Doctor Abd Salam Majali, the Jordanian prime minister at the time.
What has just happened in Jordan affects the entire region, but it also concerns the Jordanians themselves.
What is certain is that the country will now enter a different and new phase where there will be a need for another government. It will also be necessary to reassess many institutions that used to constitute the line of defence of the royal establishment during the days of King Hussein, instead of letting the king personally confront every challenge, big and small and deal with the most minute of details.​
Details are undoubtedly important, but they should not consume the time of Abdullah II, an exceptional and far-sighted politician, at a very delicate stage in the region and from which Jordan cannot stay away.