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

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.august08.21.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today
Canaanite woman’s Daughter Healing Miracle/Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.
Matthew 15/21-28: “Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 07-08/2021
Hezbollah's Nasrallah plays innocent, says Beirut blast probe is politically biased
US Urges Lebanon to Prevent Hezbollah Attacks on Israel
British Embassy Marks Anniversary of August 4 Beirut Blast
U.S. Urges Lebanon to Prevent Rocket Attacks on Israel
U.N. Special Coordinator Contacts Parties after Hizbullah-Israel Flare-Up
Nasrallah Vows Response to Any Israeli Strike, Says Port Probe Politicized
Druze villagers block Hezbollah from transporting weapons in south Lebanon
Lebanon and its Ticking Bombs/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/August 07/2021
Corruption Is Not to Blame for Beirut Blast/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/August 07/2021
No Accountability One Year After Beirut’s Blast/Hussein Ibish/Asharq Al Awsat/August 07/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 07-08/2021
US Blames Iran for Deadly Attack on Tanker Off Oman
G7 Blames Iran over Tanker Attack, U.S. Releases 'Evidence'
Iran Denies Role in Tanker Attack
Husband of jailed British-Iranian appeals to UN to secure her release
Iranian opposition party accuses Tehran of assassinating one of its leaders in Erbil
UAE supports Tunisian president’s decisions: Official
Saudi FM welcomes Grundberg appointment as UN envoy for Yemen
Tunisian Officials under House Arrest over Corruption Suspicions
Syrian Regime Tightens Siege on Daraa Al-Balad, Thousands Displaced
Israel Strikes Gaza after Incendiary Balloon Launches
Hamas Approves New Solution to Qatari Grant Crisis
Clashes Kill at Least 30 South Sudanese Soldiers
Iraq Seeking ‘Realistic’ Budget for 2022
Italy to Secure Libya’s Southern Border
Yemen Crisis Stalls between Peace Consultations, Continuation of Fighting

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 07-08/2021
To Biden Administration: No Visa, No Negotiations with Iran Regime’s Mass Murderer/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/August 07/2021
Iran believes it has Israel on the run/Iran is coordinating with Hezbollah, Hamas to target Israel after drone attack on tanker off Oman./Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/August 07/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 07-08/2021
Hezbollah's Nasrallah plays innocent, says Beirut blast probe is politically biased
Reuters/08 August ,2021
Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah allegedly claimed in a speech on Saturday that the investigator of the Beirut port blast was politically biased. On Thursday, Beirut marked the one year anniversary of the blast that flattened large swathes of the city and killed more than 200 people. A judge, Tarek Bittar, is leading the probe into what happened. “I am formally telling the family of the martyrs that this judicial investigator is playing politics, this is a politicized investigation,” Nasrallah said. He added he was not calling for Bitar’s immediate removal but demanded that he operate under a single standard and release the results of a technical investigation. Nasrallah also criticized people he did not name for blaming Hezbollah for the presence of the ammonium nitrate that caused the explosion. “Where is your evidence for this ugly, heinous accusation? There is none,” he said.

US Urges Lebanon to Prevent Hezbollah Attacks on Israel
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
The United States on Friday urged Lebanon's government to prevent Hezbollah from firing rockets into Israel. "We call upon the Lebanese government urgently to prevent such attacks and bring the area under its control," State Department spokesman Ned Price said. "We strongly encourage all efforts to maintain calm."The United States said it condemned "in the strongest terms" the volley of rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel, which responded with its first airstrikes on its northern neighbor in seven years. The rocket attack drew a wave of criticism from Hezbollah's opponents in Lebanon, a country suffering a crippling financial crisis which the ruling elite are failing to tackle.

British Embassy Marks Anniversary of August 4 Beirut Blast
Naharnet/August 07/2021
On the one-year anniversary of the devastating 4 August port blast that tore Beirut apart, killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands, the British Embassy Beirut held a series of events to commemorate the day. In his messages over the past week, British Ambassador to Lebanon Ian Collard told of his empathy for the Lebanese people’s ”sense of devastation and quest for justice,” the embassy said. He paid tribute to the bravery of front-line workers that day and called on Lebanese leaders to deliver a “fair and transparent investigation.”Ambassador Collard added: “In Beirut's hour of need, the United Kingdom was among the first of Lebanon’s international partners to respond to the blast and we will continue to stand by the people of Lebanon.” The UK’s response to the 4 August blast included delivering military aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces, and deploying teams of humanitarian, medical and military specialists. Through the British Red Cross, the UK delivered PPE, ambulances, blood transfusion services, and more to the Lebanese Red Cross.
“Working with international partners, we provided shelter, psychosocial support, safe spaces, Gender Based Violence outreach to women and girls, counselling and legal assistance, and rehabilitation services including to persons with disabilities. We also supported the NGO, March Lebanon’s Beirut Relief program, rehabilitating Civil Defence units, the Fire Department, cultural heritage sites and more,” the embassy said. On the morning of 4 August 2021, with the Embassy’s Union Jack flag at half-mast, the British Ambassador led embassy staff in a memorial service at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, Qasqas. The service was set to solemn music played by the band of the Queen’s Royal Hussars, and attended by the UK’s Defense Senior Advisor to the Middle East, Air Marshal Sammy Sampson, who was visiting.“British Embassy and British Council colleagues paid tribute to those, including friends and relatives, whose lives were lost and others who were impacted on that tragic day,” the embassy said. “A few minutes after 6 p.m., British Embassy staff held an online vigil to remember lost loved ones, family and friends, and all those affected by the blast. It was a moment to reflect on what happened a year ago, share experiences and support collective healing,” the embassy added.
On the eve of the anniversary, the British Ambassador hosted a reception dedicated to frontline workers where he paid tribute to “selflessness of heroes from the Red Cross to firefighters, members of civil society and NGOs, unknown soldiers and others for their response in the immediate aftermath of the blast and during the days that followed.” He reiterated the UK’s call on Lebanon's leaders for “transparency and accountability that is needed to bring closure to the victims, their families and all of the people who continue to suffer.”In a recorded video message at an international conference for Lebanon, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “As we remember the terrible Beirut blast one year ago, I reiterate the UK’s strong support for the Lebanese people and urge Lebanon’s leaders to deliver justice and accountability. They must form a government capable of addressing the crisis the country faces.” He added: ”The international community is ready to assist if they follow this path. But if they fail, Lebanon’s friends must look at how we can tackle the corruption that has seen narrow vested interests placed above the needs of the people.”The anniversary coincided with the visit of the UK Defense Senior Advisor to the Middle East Air Marshal Sammy Sampson who held a series of meetings with Lebanese officials.

U.S. Urges Lebanon to Prevent Rocket Attacks on Israel
Agence France Presse/August 07/2021
The United States has urged Lebanon's government to prevent militants from firing rockets into Israel, as tensions between Israel and Hizbullah flared after the group fired rockets at the occupied Shebaa Farms in response to an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.
"We call upon the Lebanese government urgently to prevent such attacks and bring the area under its control," State Department spokesman Ned Price said. "We strongly encourage all efforts to maintain calm."The United States said it condemned "in the strongest terms" the volley of rockets fired by Hizbullah. The United States is the leading international supporter of Israel and earlier said that Israel had a right to defend itself.

U.N. Special Coordinator Contacts Parties after Hizbullah-Israel Flare-Up
Naharnet/August 07/2021
The U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka has been following with "great concern" the exchange of fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border in the last days, her office said, following Friday's major flare-up. "Exercising her good offices, the Special Coordinator has activated her political contacts and reached out to all stakeholders concerned," her office said in a statement. "The potential for miscalculation presents the risk of serious consequences. Maximum restraint is required to prevent further escalation," it added. The Special Coordinator also called for all sides to "refrain from violence and restore calm, in full respect of Resolution 1701 (2006), and to preserve security and stability."

Nasrallah Vows Response to Any Israeli Strike, Says Port Probe Politicized
Naharnet/August 07/2021
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday pledged that his group would respond to any Israeli airstrike on Lebanon, as he described the probe into the Beirut port blast as “politicized and selective.”
“We will certainly respond to any Israeli airstrike, but in an appropriate and proportionate manner, because we want to protect our country,” Nasrallah said in a televised address marking the 2006 war with Israel. “What happened days ago was very dangerous and a development that did not happen for 15 years,” Nasrallah noted, referring to Israel’s two airstrikes on open areas in south Lebanon on Thursday. “Yesterday's operation was aimed at consolidating the equation of deterrence,” Nasrallah said of Hizbullah’s rocket attack on the occupied Shebaa Farms on Friday, which also targeted open territory. “It was necessary for the response to the Israeli airstrike to be quick, or else it would have lost its value,” he added. Responding to criticism inside Lebanon, Nasrallah stressed that Hizbullah’s rocket attack was “directly linked to the Israeli airstrikes” and not to any regional issue. “Do not bet on the Lebanese disagreement over the resistance, because it is not new,” Nasrallah added, addressing Israel. “Hizbullah is not preoccupied with the domestic crises,” he emphasized. He added: “We are not seeking a war but we are ready for it and we do not fear it.”Threatening that the group “will not limit” any future response to the Shebaa Farms, Hizbullah’s leader pointed out that yesterday's operation was not in response to Israel’s killing of two of the group’s members in recent months. Commenting on the controversy over the interception of the Hizbullah rocket launcher and the fighters who carried out the attack during their passage in the Hasbaya town of Shwayya, Nasrallah said: “I tell the residents of the non-Shiite villages that we had to use that area in order to target (a specific area of the Shebaa Farms).” “What was worse than the Shwayya incident was the filming of the incident and the distribution of the footage, which inflamed sentiments, and I was personally dismayed,” he added. The video that was later released by Hizbullah “of the same rocket launcher proved that it fired from a far away place,” Nasrallah said. “Any response against any innocent person is condemned,” he added, referring to sectarian incidents that followed the Shwayya altercation. “What happened in Shwayya was very, very bad,” he said. Turning to the Beirut port blast case, Nasrallah added: “I honestly tell the martyrs’ families that the probe in the port case is politicized and selective and we won’t accept that anyone be persecuted.”“I call on the judiciary to release the results of the technical investigation,” he reiterated. “Hizbullah is not afraid of the judicial investigation, seeing as it did not bring the ammonium nitrate and had nothing to do with it. We are afraid of political exploitation,” Nasrallah said. He added that the judiciary “should say who brought the nitrates,” accusing Judge Tarek al-Bitar of selectivity in his interrogations and summonings.

Druze villagers block Hezbollah from transporting weapons in south Lebanon
The Arab Weekly/August 07/2021
In the south Lebanon district of Hasbaya, Druze villagers stopped a truck carrying a multiple rocket launcher used by pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Friday attacks against Israel, in a move reflecting increased opposition within Lebanon to Hezbollah’s military activities against the Jewish state. Segments of the Lebanese population see Hezbollah dragging the country into war to serve its interests and those of Iran at the risk of endangering the lives of Lebanese civilians, experts say. They add that the obstruction of a Hezbollah truck by Lebanese citizens is likely to bring to the fore the issue of the Shia party’s weapons and is likely renew the complaints that its arsenal of weapons undermines the Lebanese state and must be handed over to the national army. A video widely shared on social media showed angry residents blocking the truck’s passage and accusing Hezbollah of endangering civilian lives by launching rockets from close to residential areas. Hezbollah said the truck was stopped after the group’s attack on Israel but that the rockets were fired far from residential areas. The Lebanese army said it arrested the four people who fired the rockets and seized the launcher after it was intercepted by villagers. Prominent Druze leader Walid Jumblatt tweeted: “We hope that we can snap off this tense atmosphere on social media, and to be rational and opt for objective communication.”
US call
The United States on Friday urged Lebanon’s government to prevent Hezbollah militants from firing rockets into Israel, as tensions between the long-time foes escalated. “We call upon the Lebanese government urgently to prevent such attacks and bring the area under its control,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “We strongly encourage all efforts to maintain calm.”The United States said it condemned “in the strongest terms” the volley of rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel, which responded with its first air strikes on its northern neighbor in seven years. Israel said it was ready for an “escalation” on the Lebanese border after an exchange of fire with Shia militant group Hezbollah but played down the prospects of all-out war. “We believe that neither Hezbollah wants a full-out war, and we definitely do not wish to have a war,” an Israeli army spokesman, Amnon Shefler, told journalists. “We do not wish to escalate to a full war, yet of course we are very prepared for that and we will not allow these acts of terror to continue and we will do what is needed,” he said following Hezbollah rocket fire into Israel that prompted retaliatory shelling.
Volley of rockets
Lebanon’s Hezbollah had fired a volley of rockets at Israeli positions on Friday, prompting retaliatory shelling, in an escalation between the Iran-backed movement and the Jewish state. A flare-up along the border this week has seen Israel carry out its first air strikes on Lebanese territory in seven years and Hezbollah claim a direct rocket attack on Israeli territory for the first time since 2019. The exchanges coincide with rising tensions between Iran and Israel since a deadly attack on an Israeli-managed tanker in the Gulf of Oman last week. Following Friday morning’s exchange Israel said it did “not wish to escalate to a full war”, as the United Nations peacekeeping force in the border region, UNIFIL, warned of “a very dangerous situation” and called on parties to “cease fire and maintain calm”. Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz urged the United States “to demand from the Lebanese government an end to rocket launches at Israel”.Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets at open ground near Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms border district. It said the attack came in response to Israeli air strikes on south Lebanon on Thursday that were the first since 2014. Israel said 19 rockets were fired, six of which hit Israeli ground.
Three fell short while the others were
UNIFIL reported an “artillery response from Israel in the Shebaa Farms area”, following the Hezbollah rocket attack. An AFP correspondent in south Lebanon reported artillery fire by Israeli forces on the Shebaa Farms and outside the town of Kfarchouba. The Shebaa Farms district is claimed by Lebanon but the UN regards it as part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981. Israeli army spokesman, Amnon Shefler, played down the prospects of all-out war with Hezbollah. “We do not wish to escalate to a full war, yet of course we are very prepared for that,” he said after Friday’s exchange. Hezbollah’s deputy head, Naeem Qassem, said the group was committed to responding to any attack on Lebanon and would be “prepared” if needed.But “we do not believe things are headed towards an escalation,” he added.

Lebanon and its Ticking Bombs
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/August 07/2021
In international politics, what do you do when you don’t know what to do but wish to appear to be doing something?
The answer is: you convene an international conference.
The gimmick started with the notorious Versailles Conference after the First World War that morphed into a series of photo-ops while real decisions were taken elsewhere and behind the scenes. More recently we had the grand Madrid Conference that was supposed to produce an unlikely peace in the Middle East but became an introduction to a new era of conflict in the war-torn region. This week we have had a virtual version of the international conference on Lebanon, the second in 12 months and designed to mark the anniversary of the deadly explosion that tore Beirut apart.
The explosion shocked many, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron out of years of inattention to the many time-bombs that were ticking in Lebanon for almost three decades.
The first conference ended with classical cliches about solidarity with the Lebanese people sugar-coated with pledges to provide $295 million for helping rebuild the shattered capital. The second conference noted that none of those clichés have acquired any meaning and that the money promised has either not been disbursed or ended up in the pockets of the usual suspects. The only rebuilding that has taken place, albeit on a modest scale, has been done by NGOs with some help from Switzerland and a few other countries.
Amazingly, the French host is still calling for the formation of a consensual government while the latest player in the game, Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati promises to assemble a technical Cabinet.”
The trouble with the very concept of a consensual government is that it can only be achieved if there is consensus about the very nature of Lebanon as a political entity.
Is Lebanon a nation-state in the normal sense of the term? In that case why does Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah, say it is “the advance post of the Resistance” led by Tehran’s top political mullah Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
Other leaders, less brazen than Nasrallah, regard Lebanon as a milking cow or a colonial entity to be plundered with its riches transferred to egg-nests in the West, notably France. Still others in the current leadership see Lebanon as a vehicle for ego-trips during which they can play chess on national and international scenes.
The fact, however, is that Lebanon isn’t in this tragic state because of technical problems. Lebanon’s problems are deeply political. The consensus on which the Lebanese state was founded from the start has been badly shaken. Formal government structures have been duplicated and, at times replaced, by shadowy organs answerable to no one except, perhaps, foreign paymasters. The minimum rule of law that had survived many upheavals including a full-scale civil war has been replaced by the rule of the gunman.
Today, what goes for a government in Lebanon is a collection of shadow organs masquerading as presidential, parliamentary and ministerial authorities. President Michel Aoun, a martinet in his better days, is unable to impose a minimum of discipline even on what remains of the state bureaucracy. Ministries no longer even reply to emails let alone regularly updating their websites in a state stuck by perhaps terminal deliquescence.
For its part, the geriatric political elite seem to have lost all contact with reality.
Some suggest a wait-and-see option until next year’s promised elections which, if held would simply reproduce the same configuration. The last election attracted just under half of those eligible to vote because the choice offered was about as, worse and worst. Repeating the same rigmarole is unlikely to produce a different result. Others in the political elite suggest carving the country into “cantons” to preserve their neo-feudal privileges. They don’t understand that Switzerland isn’t successful because it has “cantons” but its “cantons” work because they are in Switzerland.
The outside world cannot abandon Lebanon to its fate.
On the positive side, the region and beyond in the world needs Lebanon as a haven of, contact, dialogue and peace while a Lebanon turned into a platform for “exporting revolution”, real terror, along with drugs and dirty money, could harm everyone around or close to the Mediterranean basin. The rebuilding of Syria, when and if it happens, would need Lebanon as a springboard while the wreck left by the Assad gang is nocked back into some shape.
Without posing the question in political terms, no number of conferences and no amount of financial promises could defuse the ticking bombs that could blow Lebanon apart and do more damage to an already shaky situation in the Middle East.
Posing the question in political terms isn’t in the gift of President Macron or any other outsider no matter how well-meaning they might be.
That question could only be posed by the Lebanese people. I already hear those who would jeer at this suggestion to remind us that people are leaving Lebanon in droves. Some friends report that they are arranging for the last members of their families to jump out of the sinking boat before it is too late. Some claim that there is no such thing as a Lebanese people in a piece of real estate populated by different and mutually hostile sects or “communities.”
However, Lebanon has been a land of emigration for 5,000 years and, today, the Diaspora of Lebanese origin may be larger than the country’s current population. And yet Lebanon is one of the few countries in the region to have maintained an overarching national identity transcending sectarian differences by developing its Lebanonitude or Libanite.
We have witnessed the resurgence of the sense of Libanitude in the past year or so as people with different communitarian backgrounds have come together in a common effort to shape another vision of their country. Shaping such a vision isn’t easy and turning it into a reality may be the work of generations. And, yet, a nation can be re-moulded through common suffering and a shared belief in its power to correct its historic trajectory. Could this happen with another election dominated by the same discredited political elite? Maybe if those who boycotted the last election, or never voted, turn up to make 2022 a year of historic change. One thing is certain: the current Lebanese model is long past its sell-by date. How it will be changed, no one knows for sure. But what everyone, perhaps except this week’s conferees know, is that it must and will change.

Corruption Is Not to Blame for Beirut Blast
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/August 07/2021
Human Rights Watch has issued a report on the horrific explosion that took place on August 4th, 2020, and devastated downtown Beirut, killing 218 people and wounding about 7,000. The report describes the blast as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. The organization called for an international investigation into the crime as the Lebanese state lacks the capability of conducting it independently since some senior government officials are implicated in the crime. HRW called for invoking the Magnitsky Act and applying similar penalties.
Although the report provides some extensive information, it comes to a recurring, erroneous conclusion that puts the blame squarely on corruption and corrupt officials.
The truth is that corruption has nothing to do with the Beirut bombing. Perhaps it is the only act that is free of corruption in the broad sense of the word: collusion in exchange for personal benefits.
What happened on August 4th, 2020, was a war crime that killed and injured thousands of innocent civilians. The explosive substances, normally used in such quantities for military purposes, were stored in violation of the law, in a civilian area. These substances were cordoned off in the port under a veil of secrecy during the shipment unloading and transport to combat zones in Syria. The explosion was a disaster waiting to happen, a corollary of storing such a huge volume of hazardous substances in an unsuitable location.
For military secrecy considerations, the shipment’s mere existence was covered up. The necessary security measures to guard and secure the shipment were all relaxed to ensure it is not discovered given its “secret” nature. Searching or approaching the hangar and warehouses were prohibited. All the while, one million people slept in the same city every night. This is far more than corruption: this is conspiracy; a conspiracy in which the port and its warehouses were used in military activity as part of the war in Syria. Neglecting the safety of the city and the lives of millions of people, violating Lebanese security and military regulations by bringing weapons and explosive materials into a civilian port, breaching international regulations by importing nitrate, deceiving international controls by fabricating a story about the carrier ship suffering damage and docking in the port, then concealing all subsequent events from that point onward; these are all serious crimes. Talking about the role of corruption in the Beirut Port blast derails the truth and saves the real culprits. Corruption may be the cause of the collapse of the banking system and the theft of the savings of millions of depositors. It may be the cause of tax evasion, or the theft of petroleum products, or the monopoly on pharmaceuticals, or other issues that raise criticism and complaints today in Lebanon.
However, the blast occurred because of a specific action: chemicals were brought in large quantities for destruction -- not for agriculture or trade. More than two-thirds of the stockpile was used in Syria, and the remaining third exploded in Beirut. Hezbollah was the one to bring the chemicals as part of its combat activity in Syria and transported it there in batches.
Although the Port is theoretically under the control of the Lebanese Army, it is managed de facto by the leadership of Hezbollah. Therefore, launching accusations against the President of the Republic, the Government, or this or that official on allegations of corruption is a mere ploy to divert attention from the actual culprit. Nonetheless, this does not absolve senior government officials of their responsibility, as they are also guilty of turning a blind eye. Who brought the explosives, and why? What was done with the bulk of the shipment before the blast? The answers to these basic questions can reveal the truth and are accessible today. We realize that Lebanon has no say in running its affairs, just like Iraq, Syria, and Yemen; all of which have come under Iran’s control via its local proxies. However, the Lebanese people have paid dearly in their efforts to confront Iranian proxies over the past years. Dozens of Lebanese political and security leaders and intellectuals were directly targeted and killed, just as 218 innocent people lost their lives one year ago.

No Accountability One Year After Beirut’s Blast
Hussein Ibish/Asharq Al Awsat/August 07/2021
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the devastating Beirut port explosion, perhaps the worst non-nuclear blast in a heavily populated area in human history. A large stockpile of ammonium nitrate stored at the port ignited in a devastating eruption that left much of the city shattered.
The anatomy of the disaster, one of numerous calamities that have befallen Lebanon over the past two years, sums up all the essential dysfunctions destroying the country: corrupt and incompetent administration; a complete absence of transparency, accountability and justice; and the willingness of powerful forces to place the entire society in extreme jeopardy for their own narrow, selfish purposes.
The official explanation of how the chemicals, which can be used as either fertilizer or explosive material, arrived in Lebanon was always implausible and now appears beyond ridiculous. In 2013, a Moldovan-flagged vessel arrived at the port, supposedly en route to Mozambique. Eleven months later, the dangerous cargo was offloaded to hangar 12, where it remained until the explosion that killed at least 218 people and injured thousands.
But according to a 2020 FBI report completed shortly after the catastrophe, of the original shipment of 2,754 tons of ammonium nitrate, only 552 exploded. Lebanese authorities quietly agree with that assessment, according to Reuters.
There are two obvious conclusions. If the full amount had still been in hangar 12 and exploded, most of the city would have been wiped out and the death toll unimaginable. Second, while the ammonium nitrate was supposedly being stored at the port, in fact most of it was being used, and almost certainly not for agriculture. It’s not absolutely impossible that most of the ammonium nitrate didn't explode but was instead blown into the sea. But in the broader context that strains credulity.
It is likely that these dangerous chemicals were brought to Beirut to be used in explosives. Ever since the blast, many Lebanese have cast suspicion and blame on the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and its close ally, the Syrian dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. It would not have been the first time these forces have used the Lebanese state and society as a cover and vehicle for their nefarious activities, for which the Lebanese people have again paid an exorbitant cost. (Hezbollah has denounced allegations it was to blame.)
But there will be no accountability. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, authorities promised a quick and thorough probe. That was never going to happen. The first investigative judge was summarily fired after he sought to question key officials. His replacement has been completely unable to secure testimony from security officials and members of Parliament, or to lift the lawmakers’ legal immunity to get at the facts.
If it were merely a question of protecting incompetence, or even corruption, some semblance of an investigation could be possible, even in Lebanon. But a real inquiry can't be allowed because it would more than likely reveal that the Mozambique cover story is fiction and that the chemicals were, in fact, destined for Beirut from the beginning. Eventually, it would uncover what really happened to the missing 2,200 tons and, most importantly, who is really responsible.
But the Lebanese state is in no position to hold Hezbollah and the agents of the Syrian regime accountable, or even admit to much of their activities. The irony is that the Lebanese government institutions that seem so helpless, and even hostages, to these forces are the only real alternative to the domination of Hezbollah and its allies. Calls in the US to stigmatize the Lebanese government and deny it badly-needed aid will only strengthen their grip on the country.
Even targeted sanctions can backfire US Treasury Department sanctions, richly deserved on the merits and imposed in 2020, against Gibran Bassil, the son-in-law and would-be heir to Lebanese President Michel Aoun, mainly had the effect of hardening the Lebanese political gridlock that has prevented the country from reaching a desperately needed bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The port explosion and its wretched aftermath do indeed illustrate everything that is wrong with Lebanese realities, and institutions. But if the rest of the world is rightly disgusted with the corruption, unaccountability and hijacking by extremists of Lebanese institutions, the answer is to help strengthen — not to shun — them.The sudden devastation at the port a year ago is mirrored by a more slowly unfolding, and far worse, social and economic calamity. In both cases, the only reasonable answer is to help the Lebanese rebuild and restructure. Turning away or penalizing Lebanon will only make the tragedy, and the problem, worse.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 07-08/2021
US Blames Iran for Deadly Attack on Tanker Off Oman
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
The US Central Command has said it had collected and analyzed substantial evidence that the July 29 attack on the HV Mercer Street in international waters in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman was carried out by an Iranian drone loaded with a military-grade explosive. CentCom said three one-way drones laden with explosives were targeted in the attack, but the first two failed to strike the ship and plunged into the sea. Remnants of one of those were retrieved by investigators. The third drone struck the ship, exploding and leaving a six-foot (two-meter) hole on the ceiling of the bridge. CentCom said the drone had been packed with the explosive RDX, and pieces recovered from it "were nearly identical to previously-collected examples from Iranian one-way attack UAVs," or unmanned aerial vehicles. "US experts concluded based on the evidence that this UAV was produced in Iran," they said. CentCom did not say where the drones were launched from, but said: "The distance from the Iranian coast to the locations of the attacks was within the range of documented Iranian one-way attack UAVs." The Mercer Street is an oil products tanker operated by Israeli-controlled Zodiac Maritime. Friday’s military analysis was released concurrently with a statement from the G-7 foreign ministers condemning the attack that killed a Briton and a Romanian. The Pentagon said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke Friday with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz about the incident. Both "expressed concern about Iran's proliferation and employment of one-way attack UAVs across the region and committed to continue cooperating closely on regional security," the Pentagon said in a statement.

G7 Blames Iran over Tanker Attack, U.S. Releases 'Evidence'
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
G7 foreign ministers have said that Iran was behind the deadly July 29-30 attack on a tanker, while the U.S. military released details of the explosive drone and said it was produced in Iran. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council agreed to discuss the incident off the coast of Oman on Monday as pressure mounted on Tehran. "All available evidence clearly points to Iran" in the attack on the Israel-linked tanker that killed a former British soldier and a Romanian national, the G7 said in a statement. "This was a deliberate and targeted attack, and a clear violation of international law... There is no justification for this attack," the ministers from the seven developed nations said in a statement. Iran has strongly denied having any link to the attack on the M/T Mercer Street, which came as tensions grow in the region and with talks to revive the 2015 deal on the Iranian nuclear program at a standstill. The G7 ministers said "vessels must be allowed to navigate freely in accordance with international law," and vowed to "do our utmost to protect all shipping, upon which the global economy depends.""Iran's behavior, alongside its support to proxy forces and non-state armed actors, threatens international peace and security," they said, calling on Tehran to stop all activities inconsistent with UN Security Council resolutions. European countries and the United States renewed their accusations at a closed-door Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York Friday. "The UK knows that Iran was responsible for this attack. We know it was deliberate and targeted," said British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward, who added the evidence was "clear cut.""The door for diplomacy and dialogue remains open. But if Iran chooses not to take that route, then we would seek to hold Iran to account and apply a cost to that," she told reporters.The UN Security Council is due to discuss the incident further at an open meeting on maritime security on Monday.
Produced in Iran'
Meanwhile, the US Central Command, which operates in the Middle East, released the results of its initial investigation and said the remnants of the drone indicated it was made in Iran. CentCom said three one-way drones laden with explosives were targeted in the attack, but the first two failed to strike the ship and plunged into the sea. Remnants of one of those were retrieved by investigators. The third drone struck the ship, exploding and leaving a six-foot (two-meter) hole on the ceiling of the bridge. CentCom said the drone had been packed with the explosive RDX, and pieces recovered from it "were nearly identical to previously-collected examples from Iranian one-way attack UAVs," or unmanned aerial vehicles. "US experts concluded based on the evidence that this UAV was produced in Iran," they said. CentCom did not say where the drones were launched from, but said: "The distance from the Iranian coast to the locations of the attacks was within the range of documented Iranian one-way attack UAVs."The Mercer Street is an oil products tanker operated by Israeli-controlled Zodiac Maritime.
The Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke Friday with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz about the incident. Both "expressed concern about Iran's proliferation and employment of one-way attack UAVs across the region and committed to continue cooperating closely on regional security," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Iran Denies Role in Tanker Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
Iran on Saturday rejected as psychological warfare accusations that it was behind a deadly attack on a tanker off Oman's coast, and said Tehran sought to enhance the security of the strategic Gulf waterway. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy economies said on Friday Iran was threatening international peace and security and that all available evidence showed it was behind the attack on the Mercer Street tanker last week. "If we were to confront enemies... we would declare it openly, so the recent storytelling by the enemies is a psychological operation," state media quoted Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran's senior armed forces spokesman, as saying. The vessel was a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned petroleum product tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime. Tehran has denied any involvement in the suspected drone attack in which two crew members - a Briton and a Romanian - were killed near the mouth of the Gulf, a key oil shipping route. "Contrary to the strategy of the United States, Britain and the Zionist regime (Israel), which aim to create insecurity ...and Iranophobia, Iran's strategy is to strengthen security in the Gulf," Reuters quoted Shekarchi as saying. The US military said explosives experts from the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier - which deployed to assist the Mercer Street - concluded the drone was produced in Iran. But Shekarchi said: "The Americans say they recovered parts of Iranian drones from the water....but in which laboratory was this evidence identified as belonging to Iran?," the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. "Preparing forged evidence is not a difficult task as the Zionists excel at preparing forged documents," Shekarchi said, suggesting Israel may have been behind the attack. Despite Iran's denials, Britain, the United States and others have criticized Tehran for the attack. Britain raised the issue at a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday. Iran's deputy UN Ambassador Zahra Ershadi rejected the accusations that Tehran was behind the attack and warned against any retaliation: "Iran will not hesitate to defend itself and secure its national interests."

Husband of jailed British-Iranian appeals to UN to secure her release
Marco Ferrari, Al Arabiya English/07 August ,2021
“Urgent intervention” is needed to secure the release of British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her husband said after making a special request to the UN to free her from a Tehran prison. Richard Ratcliffe said it was inevitable his wife would face an “autumn in court” unless the UK and other countries condemned hostage-taking as a crime, The Independent reported. According to Iranian media, the regime had this week canceled plans to free Iranian-British prisoners, including Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained for five years. The 43-year-old project manager for the Thompson Reuters Foundation was first jailed on a visit to Iran in 2016 after being found guilty by the regime of “plotting to topple the Iranian government,” a charge she denied.Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to a further year in prison after being found guilty of propaganda against the government in April.
A turn for the worst
Her husband said that this week’s events including an attack on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman that killed a British citizen signal a turn for the worst. The attack is widely believed to have been carried out by the Iranian government, which has denied any involvement. “We have been relatively quiet these past months, waiting and hoping that the government’s negotiations with Iran would finally deliver,” he said. “But this week’s events - Iran’s announcements that hostage negotiations are again on hold, and the attacks on shipping that resulted in two lost lives - were a signal that things have again turned for the worse with the change of government in Iran.”Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s new president, took office just 24 hours before the request to the UN. Iran and the UK are in discussions over a $555 million (£400 million) debt that the UK owes for failing to deliver tanks the previous regime purchased in the 1970s. The government claims that the talks are not linked to her detention. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband says he met foreign secretary Dominic Raab this week, who insisted that the negotiations had come close and that he was determined not to leave any British citizens behind. “I told him I feared the tide had turned, and that a summer of drift would become an autumn in court,” Ratcliffe said. “I see that now as inevitable, unless the UK and the international community takes a much firmer stand against state hostage-taking and calls it out as a crime.” An “urgent action request and individual complaint” has been filed on Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s behalf asking the UN to discuss the case with both governments through its arbitrary detention working group. Iran’s revolutionary court is also due to hear an appeal against her second conviction.

Iranian opposition party accuses Tehran of assassinating one of its leaders in Erbil
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/Published: 07 August ,2021
The Iranian opposition Kurdistan Democratic Party, the oldest Kurdish group in Iran and active in Iraqi Kurdistan, accused Iran on Saturday of assassinating one of its leaders in a hotel in Erbil.The party, which Tehran considers a “terrorist and separatist organization,” and was banned it after the 1979 revolution. The party said in a statement that Musa Babakhani, a member of the Central Committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, was assassinated by a terrorist affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran in the city of Erbil.
The statement added that Babakhani was kidnapped last Thursday by two terrorists and was found dead today on Saturday with signs of torture in one of the rooms of a hotel in Erbil. According to the statement of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party, which accuses Tehran of assassinating a number of its leaders in recent years, Babakhani, born in 1981 in Kermanshah, located about 500 km west of Tehran and with a Kurdish majority, joined the party’s ranks in 1999 before being chosen as a member of the Central Committee of the party. The Kurdish Internal Security Forces, said in a statement, that they were informed by the management of a hotel that there was a murder incident.

UAE supports Tunisian president’s decisions: Official
Reuters/07 August ,2021
The United Arab Emirates supports the Tunisian state and decisions by President Kais Saied, an advisor to the UAE president said on Saturday after meeting with Saied.
Saied froze parliament and dismissed the prime minister two weeks ago, as part of exceptional measures that gained popular support but that were denounced by his Islamist opponents as a coup. “We support the Tunisian state and president in this positive agenda,” Anwar Gargesh, diplomatic advisor to UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed, said after the meeting with Saied.

Saudi FM welcomes Grundberg appointment as UN envoy for Yemen
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/07 August ,2021
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan welcomed on Saturday the appointment of Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg as the new UN envoy for Yemen. In a tweet, the foreign minister reaffirmed the Kingdom’s continued support in efforts to reach a political solution to the Yemeni crisis. Saudi Arabia “The Kingdom will continue to support all efforts to reach a political solution that helps bring peace and prosperity to Yemen,” Prince Faisal said in a tweet. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday named Grundberg as his new Yemen envoy after a delay of several weeks as China considered whether to approve the appointment, which needed consensus Security Council agreement. The 15-member council approved Grundberg this week as a replacement for Martin Griffiths, who became the UN aid chief last month after trying to mediate an end to the conflict in Yemen for the past three years.
With Reuters

Tunisian Officials under House Arrest over Corruption Suspicions
Tunis - Kamal Ben Younes/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
Tunisian official judicial and security sources confirmed that the new Minister of Interior, Khaled Al Yahyaoui, recently issued decisions that placed former ministers, judges and public figures under house arrest for their suspected involvement in corruption and abuse of power. Among them are two senior judicial officials, Taieb Rached and Bechir Akremi, who have served in the judiciary for nearly 20 years. Others included former Minister of Transport and Communication Technology and prominent Ennahda member Anouar Maarouf, and former Minister of Environment and Local Governments before the 2019 elections, Riadh Mouakher. Head of parliament’s anti-corruption committee and leading member of the People’s Movement, Badreddine Gammoudi, who is close to the Carthage Palace, stated that a number of “very well-known” personalities were placed under house arrest or were prevented from traveling, including some senior figures who served during the tenure of former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. Some lawyers expected that the investigation with the senior officials would open files of corruption and “large-scale” financial and administrative misconduct pertaining to state real estate and other deals that include some “big smugglers”, ministers, politicians and administrators in the pre- and post-revolution 2011 eras. The cases will also lead to the reopening of files concerning businessmen and politicians, whose properties and financial assets were confiscated by the authorities during the last three years of the rule of late President Beji Caid Essebsi and his prime minister, Chahed. Judicial, human rights and union organizations and personalities have called on the authorities to respect law and human rights and to expedite the formation of the “new economic government”, in order to put an end to the “political and administrative vacuum” that most state institutions have been experiencing since the president sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and the government and suspended parliament. Observers noted that over the past two weeks, President Kais Saied has not met publicly with any of the leaders of the parliamentary and opposition political parties. Rather, he only received representatives of unions and civil society for brief meetings.

Syrian Regime Tightens Siege on Daraa Al-Balad, Thousands Displaced
Daraa, London - Riad al-Zein and Asharq Al-Awsat/0 7 August, 2021
Cautious calm prevailed in Daraa al-Balad in southern Syria, ahead of a new round of negotiations, while the regime forces tightened the siege on the area amid the displacement of thousands of civilians. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said calm was restored throughout the Daraa governorate, even though tensions remained after local tribes issued a statement rejecting regime reinforcements in the area. The war monitor noted that a number of civilians were wounded on Friday as regime forces and the Fourth Division used heavy machine guns and artillery to attack residential neighborhoods in Daraa al-Balad. Dozens of shells were launched on Thursday from the checkpoints surrounding the city. Meanwhile, the regime forces set up sand barriers and blocked the only road that citizens were using to flee Daraa al-Balad due to the military escalation. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced, in a statement on Thursday, that since July 28, the escalation of hostilities has forced at least 18,000 civilians to flee Daraa al-Balad. Many of them fled to the city of Daraa and to the surrounding areas, the statement noted, adding that hundreds of people have taken refuge in schools in Daraa al-Mahatta, referring to the areas under the control of the regime forces in the city. The Daraa governorate is the only area where some opposition fighters remained after the regime forces regained control over the south in July 2018. A settlement agreement sponsored by Moscow put an end to military operations and maintained the presence of opposition fighters who kept light weapons, while the regime forces did not deploy throughout the governorate. Since 2018, the governorate has witnessed sporadic clashes between the regime forces and opposition fighters, dozens of whom have left over the past two years to northwestern parts of the country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said in a statement on Thursday: “The stark picture emerging from Daraa al-Balad and other neighborhoods underscores how much at risk civilians there are, repeatedly exposed to fighting and violence, and in effect under siege.”“With the only route out of the city under strict Government control, tanks roll down the streets and people face checkpoints and movement restrictions while their property is seized and stolen,” she added. Bachelet continued: “I remind the parties to the conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular as regards the protection of civilians, and under international human rights law.”

Israel Strikes Gaza after Incendiary Balloon Launches
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
Israel conducted overnight air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza in retaliation for the launching of incendiary balloons from the Palestinian enclave that caused fires in southern Israel, the country's military said early Saturday. "In response to continual launches of incendiary balloons from Gaza into Israel throughout the day, a short while ago IDF fighter jets struck a Hamas military compound and a rocket launching site," the Israeli army said in a statement. "The rocket launching site was located in close proximity to civilian surroundings, once again emphasizing how Hamas continues to endanger Palestinian civilians." There were no immediate reports of casualties. Incendiary balloons caused four fires on Friday in the Eshkol region near Gaza, Israeli firefighters said. The last time such an attack took place, on July 25, the Israeli army retaliated with air strikes on targets of the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Palestinian enclave. There have been sporadic incidents, including a series of incendiary balloon launches, since a May 21 ceasefire ended 11 days of deadly fighting between Israel and Hamas.That conflict killed 260 Palestinians including some fighters, according to Gaza authorities.
In Israel, 13 people were killed, including a soldier, by projectiles fired from Gaza, the police and army said. Friday's balloon launches come after the Israeli army carried out retaliatory shelling in Lebanon in response to a volley of rockets fired by Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.

Hamas Approves New Solution to Qatari Grant Crisis
Tel Aviv/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
Palestinian political sources have revealed that the Hamas movement has agreed to a new solution to the crisis over the transfer of the Qatari grant to the Gaza Strip. The solution calls for Israel and the United States to review and approve the list of people who are qualified to receive the aid, the sources told Israeli media. Jack Khoury, a correspondent at Haaretz, said: “Hamas agreed not just because of the Israeli and American demands, but also because of pressure from the Palestinian banks which will transfer the Qatari money to Gaza, sources involved in the matter said. The banks are afraid they will be exposed to lawsuits if the money reaches members of terrorist organizations.” He added that Hamas “understands that any aid will contribute to the stability in the Gaza Strip.” Several Israeli sources warned that delaying the Qatari grant to Gaza and freezing the funds for any reason will deepen the economic crisis, which may lead to new tension and security escalation. The Israel Defense website reported that Hamas is running out of patience, noting that the conditions set by Israel and logistical obstacles are complicating the situation. The report indicated that a swift solution is required, perhaps transferring the money in briefcases as was the case in the past, because Israel is not interested in a military escalation with Hamas at this stage. According to Haaretz, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his ministers accused former PM Benjamin Netanyahu of funding Hamas through the Qatari funds. For this, they decided to change this policy and set new rules. Qatar had agreed to provide the Gaza Strip with $30 million a month, $100 to be paid to about 100,000 families, in addition to the salaries of government employees. However, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have opposed payments to employees of the Hamas government. Tel Aviv views these payments as a form of support to terrorism, while Ramallah says they fuel the Palestinian division. Given that the PA banking system is refusing to participate in an outline to facilitate the transfer of Qatari aid into the Strip, fearing such cooperation would expose them to legal actions on the grounds of supporting and funding terrorism, Washington suggested that Israel review the list of Gazans who need assistance. Israel would also omit the names of Hamas activists from the list. This way, the banks would be covered by the US partnership.

Clashes Kill at Least 30 South Sudanese Soldiers
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
At least 30 South Sudanese soldiers were killed and 13 injured in clashes between forces loyal to Vice President Riek Machar and a splinter group, Machar’s party spokesman said in a statement on Saturday. In a move that risks derailing the country's already fragile peace process, rival military leaders of Machar's party SPLM/A-IO, announced on Wednesday that the vice president was ousted as head of his party and its armed forces. As a result, the party's chief of staff, First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual, was nominated interim party leader from the military wing, Reuters reported.
On Thursday Machar, who played a leading role in brokering a peace deal 2018 with President Salva Kiir, accused the rival military leaders of trying to block the country's peace process. The latest clashes occurred in Magenis, in the country's Upper Nile region, between forces loyal to General Dual and those backing Machar. Machar's party spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said the party's forces responded "in self-defense" and killed two major Generals and over 27 soldiers. He said those fighting on the side of the SPLM/A-IO lost 3 soldiers during the attack.
Reuters could not independently verify the report of killings. The military wing was not immediately available for comment and communication networks are patchy in the Upper Nile region. The other side denied having suffered heavy losses and having launched an offensive. "We have so far lost one soldier and two others sustained injuries. The fighting is ongoing," Chuol Deng, deputy spokesman for General Dual told Radio Tamazuj, a south Sudanese radio station earlier on Saturday.

Iraq Seeking ‘Realistic’ Budget for 2022
Baghdad – Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi announced that the 2022 budget, which the ministry began preparing a few days ago, will have a reform dimension, as it “different from previous budgets” and reflects “the reality of Iraq’s obligations.”The minister explained in press statements that the ministry will seek to submit this new budget to parliament before the early parliamentary elections scheduled for October, adding that it will be a “reform budget, but it may be politically difficult.”He said that the ministry “tried in the previous budget to do a similar thing,” as it “presented the budget in a way that shows officials the size of Iraq’s real obligations without paying it into arrears corners, so the number came to a large, and was not politically acceptable, so it was amended and the budget was issued” in its current form. By this, Allawi most likely hinted at the difficulty of passing the new budget, given the high value of its deficit, as happened in the previous budget. In the proposed 2021 budget bill, which the government submitted to parliament, the value of the deficit was estimated at 49 billion dollars, but the deputies made up the difference by canceling debts and dues from the state in exchange for energy sources from the account, especially dues for Iranian gas and energy, and other payments for infrastructure. The value of the deficit in the 2021 budget, as approved by parliament, amounted to 19.8 billion dollars, compared to 23.1 billion dollars in 2019, knowing that Iraq did not approve the 2020 budget due to political tension. The total value of revenues in the 2021 budget amounted to about 69.9 billion dollars, calculated based on crude oil export on the basis of a price of 45 dollars per barrel, and an export rate of three million and 250,000 barrels per day. As for the value of the 2021 budget, it amounted to $89.7 billion, about 30% lower than the last budget approved in 2019. Allawi explained that the price of a barrel in the new budget will be $50, which is an adjustable figure, but the value of a barrel of oil in the market is currently higher. Much more than 60 dollars. Iraq, the second largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is going through its worst economic crisis. The poverty rate in the country has doubled in 2020, and 40% of the population of 40 million is considered poor, according to the World Bank, while the Iraqi dinar has lost 25% of its value. Corruption, which has cost Iraq twice its total gross domestic product, i.e. more than $450 billion, is the main concern of Iraqis who suffer from a shortage of electricity, hospitals and schools. However, the minister said that Iraq’s financial situation has improved this year due to “the rise in the price of oil and the change in the exchange rate of the dinar.” In the meantime, Iraq is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund on a loan amounting to between 3 to 4 billion dollars, as Allawi explained, hoping to reach an agreement with the Fund by the end of the year. He explained that this “borrowing is of a monetary nature and gives credibility to the reforms” that the ministry wants to implement, and that “their end depends on our current situation and the 2022 budget if we are able to present it to parliament before the parliamentary elections.”

Italy to Secure Libya’s Southern Border
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
Italy has revealed a plan to halt illegal migration to Libya by securing its southern border. Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Wednesday met with Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese in Libya's capital Tripoli. Lamorgese said that Rome will intensify its financial commitment to boost rural development to stabilize southern Libya affected by intense migration flows. The Italian minister confirmed on Friday her country's desire to swiftly develop the project implemented by the Interior Ministry on the southern Libyan border, in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration. Bilateral talks last month between President of the Presidential Council Muhammad Al-Menfi and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune touched on the security cooperation in the south, where insurgent African groups operate. Ali Amilmedy, who resides in Sabha and works as a lawyer, said that the Libyan south has been oppressed for years. It was deprived of services and witnessed a shortage of liquidity and a scarcity of fuels. The smuggling of illegal migrants to Europe continues through the Mediterranean. The Chief of Staff of the Libyan Naval Forces said that up to 96 migrants from diverse African nationalities were rescued on their way to Europe. In another context, the Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohamed Hwej, met with Egyptian Charge d’Affaires Tamer Moustafa in the presence of Libyan officials from the General Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Department of International Cooperation in the Ministry. The meeting aims to coordinate the meetings of the Higher Joint Egyptian-Libyan Committee that are scheduled to convene soon.

Yemen Crisis Stalls between Peace Consultations, Continuation of Fighting
Riyadh – Abdulhadi Habtor/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 August, 2021
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday named Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg as his new Yemen envoy after a delay of several weeks as China considered whether to approve the appointment, which needed consensus Security Council agreement. The 15-member council approved Grundberg this week as a replacement for Martin Griffiths, who became the UN aid chief last month after trying to mediate an end to the conflict in Yemen for the past three years. Grundberg has been the European Union ambassador to Yemen since September 2019. UN officials informally floated his name to council members to solicit views by mid-July and 14 members said they would agree to the appointment, diplomats said. With the appointment of a new envoy, observers have started to wonder whether peace initiatives would succeed in bringing an end to the conflict. The latest such initiative was proposed by Saudi Arabia and backed by the UN earlier this year. All peace proposals have so far been met with the Iran-backed Houthi militias’ intransigence. The terrorist militias have opted to forge ahead with military operations in the hopes of making gains on the ground, however, all of their efforts have failed.
Head of the Gulf Research Center, Dr. Abdulaziz Sager said the options for tackling the conflict are either the continuation of the fighting or the issuing of new UN Security Council resolutions that would pressure the Houthis or for the militias to agree to join the legitimate government at the negotiations table. The fourth option, Sager told Asharq Al-Awsat, lies in the Saudi-led Arab coalition withdrawing from Yemen and leaving it to the Yemenis to determine the fate of their country. He acknowledged that such a choice would mean the intervention of several countries in Yemen and the consequent deterioration of the humanitarian situation and increased threats to maritime navigation. China can play a positive role in Yemen due to its good ties with Iran and its recognition of the legitimate government, he remarked. “China opposes support to any separatist groups and its mediation between Iran, the legitimate government and Arab coalition could yield positive results if it is allowed to go ahead,” he went on to say. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan had earlier this week said the Houthis prefer to pursue the military option in Yemen because they want to achieve military superiority on the ground. Saudi Arabia has been urging the need for them to agree to dialogue and to be part of Yemen’s future, he added.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials published on August 07-08/2021
د. ماجد رفي زاده/معهد جيتستون: د. ماجد رفي زاده/معهد جيتستون: المطلوب من إدارة بايدين أن لا تمنح تأشيرة للرئيس الإيراني إبراهيم رئيسي لأنه مجرم وقاتل جماعي وأن لا تتفاوض مع النظام الإيراني
To Biden Administration: No Visa, No Negotiations with Iran Regime’s Mass Murderer
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/August 07/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/101189/majid-rafizadeh-gatestone-institute-to-biden-administration-no-visa-no-negotiations-with-iran-regimes-mass-murderer-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d9%87/
If [Iran's President Ebrahim] Raisi is granted a visa to come to the US, the Iranian regime's legitimacy will be enhanced, and the regime will be empowered to try to kidnap more Americans on the US soil.
The senators' letter sheds a light on several examples: "In 1988, the United States barred PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat from entering the United States to attend a meeting of the United Nations. In 2014, President Obama denied an entry visa to Iranian Ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi, who was involved in taking American diplomats hostage in 1979. In 2020, the United States declined to issue a visa for Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif."
The Biden administration needs to listen to the US senators, who have accurately explained: "Ebrahim Raisi's role in the Death Commissions, brutal crackdowns on Iranian protesters, and his association with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps should disqualify him from receiving a visa to the United States."
If the Biden administration has a shred of respect for human rights and those people who lost their lives to reach freedom and democracy, it should not negotiate with Iran's mass murderer president, or grant him a visa to come to New York.
If the Biden administration has a shred of respect for human rights and those people who lost their lives to reach freedom and democracy, it should not negotiate with Iran's mass murderer president, Ebrahim Raisi, or grant him a visa to come to New York. Pictured: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi stands at the podium during his swearing-in ceremony at the Iranian parliament in Tehran on August 5, 2021.
The Biden administration has signaled that it is in a hurry to negotiate with the government of Iran's new president, Ebrahim Raisi, a mass murderer who is known as the Butcher of Tehran, in order to revive former US President Barack Obama's catastrophic 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- which Iran never signed -- and lift sanctions against the Iranian regime.
Just last month, Iran was exposed in an attempt to kidnap a dual US-Iranian citizen, Masih Alinejad, from her home in New York City.
Raisi is currently scheduled to come to the city of that planned kidnapping to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in September. This prospect prompted six Republican senators -- Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) -- to send a letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to deny entry visas to Raisi and other Iranian officials who are planning to attend the annual UN event.
The US has previously denied an entry visa to other Iranian officials and successfully barred them from entering the US to attend the UN General Assembly. The senators' letter sheds a light on several examples:
"In 1988, the United States barred PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat from entering the United States to attend a meeting of the United Nations. In 2014, President Obama denied an entry visa to Iranian Ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi, who was involved in taking American diplomats hostage in 1979. In 2020, the United States declined to issue a visa for Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif."
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in her former role as the State Department spokeswoman, stated in 2014 that visas can still be denied on "security, terrorism, and foreign policy" grounds.
The Biden administration must not allow Raisi to come to New York, the same city where the Iranian regime recently attempted to kidnap a US citizen. If Raisi is granted a visa to come to the US, the Iranian regime's legitimacy will be enhanced, and the regime will be empowered to try to kidnap more Americans on the US soil. As the six senators pointed out in the letter:
"Allowing Raisi to travel to the United States—to the same city where the Iranian regime just tried to kidnap a U.S. citizen—would legitimize his repression, undermine America's moral leadership, and potentially endanger our national security, given the likely presence of intelligence agents in the Iranian traveling party."
Human rights organizations have issued calls to investigate Raisi -- who will most likely be the next Supreme Leader of Iran. Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnès Callamard stated:
"That Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran. In 2018, our organization documented how Ebrahim Raisi had been a member of the 'death commission' which forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in secret thousands of political dissidents in Evin and Gohardasht prisons near Tehran in 1988. The circumstances surrounding the fate of the victims and the whereabouts of their bodies are, to this day, systematically concealed by the Iranian authorities, amounting to ongoing crimes against humanity."
Raisi, as a member of the "Death Commission", would be known for, and implicated in, one of the world's largest mass executions, in which more than 30,000 people were executed, including children and pregnant women. A US House of Representatives resolution detailed:
"... over a 4-month period in 1988, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out the barbaric mass executions of thousands of political prisoners and many unrelated political groups... according to a report by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, the massacre was carried out pursuant to a fatwa, or religious decree, issued by then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini..."
It was also under Raisi's watch as the head of Iran's Judiciary that nearly 1,500 people were killed during the widespread protests of 2019, many were tortured, and, last year, high profile people such as the champion wrestler Navid Afkari were executed.
The Biden administration needs to listen to the US senators, who have accurately explained:
"Ebrahim Raisi's role in the Death Commissions, brutal crackdowns on Iranian protesters, and his association with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps should disqualify him from receiving a visa to the United States."
If the Biden administration has a shred of respect for human rights and those people who lost their lives to reach freedom and democracy, it should not negotiate with Iran's mass murderer president, or grant him a visa to come to New York.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 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 believes it has Israel on the run/Iran is coordinating with Hezbollah, Hamas to target Israel after drone attack on tanker off Oman.
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/August 07/2021
Iran believes it has been able to outplay Israel in the last week following Tehran’s drone attack on the Mercer Street ship.
When tensions rose with the US, UK and Israel after the attack, Iran shifted the frontline to Lebanon and Gaza, targeting Israel with rockets last week. When Israel responded, Iranian-backed Hezbollah fired more than 10 rockets from southern Lebanon at Israel on Friday.
What we are seeing is a multi-front conflict in which Tehran shows it can heat up the Lebanon front, the Syrian front, Gaza and areas off the coast of Oman, like playing a piano in which each key is a threat to Israel.
Iran has been messaging about this for a week via media like Al-Alam TV, which claimed that the drone attack on the ship off Oman’s coast was a response to an Israeli airstrike near Qusayr, Syria. Iran’s Press TV also ran an article by Elijah Magnier noting how Iran is now making the commercial sea lanes a quagmire for Israel. He also asked: “Will Israel stop playing and breaking its teeth in the ‘Axis of the Resistance’ playground?”
Tehran says that the “recent clashes between the Zionist regime and the resistance groups indicate a significant weakness and decline in the intelligence capabilities of this regime, which in turn shows the development of the resistance-oriented capabilities in the field of intelligence.”
Iran’s argument is that the “Palestinian resistance” has shown its readiness to strike at Israel. This builds on the view that the Islamic Republic thinks that Hamas won the conflict with Israel in May after it appears to have encouraged the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip to strike at the Jewish state with more than 4,000 rockets.
Iran also encouraged Palestinians in Lebanon to fire rockets, and used a drone to fly from Syria into Israel in May, during Operation Guardian of the Walls.
“The internal situation in Lebanon may be the reason for the resistance’s greater readiness for confrontation, not retreat,” Tasnim News says. “One of the issues to be noted in the clashes in southern Lebanon over the past few days, which began with Israeli aggression and Hezbollah missile responses, [shows] once again Israel’s intelligence failure to assess resistance positions to respond to aggression.”
Indeed, Iran says that the “recent clashes between the Zionist regime and the resistance groups indicate a significant weakness and decline in the intelligence capabilities of this regime, which in turn shows the development of the resistance-oriented capabilities in the field of intelligence.”
IRAN NOW admits that there “is a high level of coordination and intelligence cooperation between members of the Axis of Resistance, which was mentioned by the leaders of the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah movements during the battle,” Tasnim said. This means that these groups have honed their close contacts in recent months.
Palestinian groups and Hezbollah attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh went to Tehran to meet with Ali Shamkhani, who is the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran.
He also met Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad Nakhalah and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces leader Faleh al-Fayadh. Shamkhani told Fayadh that the US withdrawal from Iraq is important.
The point Iran is making is that everything is now linked, even more than in the past, from Gaza to Lebanon, to Syria, Iraq and the Gulf of Oman; Iran has an arc of power and proxies that run several thousand kilometers.
What else is Iran thinking?
It believes that Israel’s power of deterrence has eroded. It noted that Jerusalem carried out airstrikes and artillery strikes in Lebanon for the first time since the 2006 war, saying that Israel “thought that the resistance would not respond or would be content to carry out symbolic attacks to the maximum; but the reality is against the will and imagination of the Israelis.”
Iran says that Israel has relied heavily on intelligence technology that led it to think Hezbollah would not respond. It also says that the Jewish state works closely with countries in the region.
“Recent events have shown that they cannot assess the orientation and positions and thinking of the resistance.”
IRAN HAS assessed that Israel made a mistake in believing Hezbollah was suffering from Lebanon’s economic crisis. “This made the Zionist enemy think of changing the fixed rules of conflict between the Israeli army and the Lebanese resistance since the July 2006 war, which, contrary to the Zionists’ expectations, did not change – and Hezbollah immediately responded with aggression with its missiles.”
Iran predicts that escalation might continue. “The general conclusion that can be reached is that the Zionist enemy can no longer assess the positions and orientations of the resistance in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and other areas dependent on the Axis of Resistance.
“Accordingly, Israel’s repeated intelligence failures may lead the regime to escalate its aggression under the pretext of trying to change the rules of the conflict in its favor, which will certainly be accompanied by more decisive responses from the resistance.”
This is an important Iranian assessment through its messaging that has been put out through its media. The point Iran is making is that it works closely with Hamas and Hezbollah, and that it used them to distract from the growing condemnation of Iran after the July 30 drone attack on Oman.
It also wanted to test Israel’s responses. Hezbollah had a green light from Iran to fire missiles from Lebanon. Hezbollah caused some controversy by using a Druze village to move missiles via a truck. A Hezbollah member was detained and released. The terrorist group also made it clear it could fire the rockets with impunity but also targeted open spaces in the contested Mount Dov area.
Israel also appeared to communicate that it was willing to de-escalate. What is important from Iran’s view is that Hezbollah took responsibility. Previous incidents like this – such as after the Hezbollah drone team was killed in the fall of 2018 and the July 2020 incident near Mount Dov where the IDF said it foiled a Hezbollah attack – are other instances where Hezbollah sought to show it could confront Israel on equal footing.