English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 31/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Gratitude: Jesus cured 10 Lepers, but one only came back to thank him/Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 17/11-19: “On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 30-31/2021
MoPH: 775 new coronavirus infections, 4 deaths
Security Council extends mandate of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon for one year, unanimously adopting Resolution 2591
Hezbollah expands its influence in Syria by buying land on Lebanon’s border
Explosion rocks town of Hadath al-Jebbe in Lebanon’s northern district of Bcharre
Calm Returns after Maghdouche-Anqoun Unrest
Explosion in Beirut suburb leaves four dead, at least two injured
Aoun marking 4th anniversary of Lebanese Army’s victory in “Fajr Al-Jouroud” battle: “This victory would not have been possible without the blood of our martyrs”
 Aoun welcomes Abdel Samad, new Chairman of Tele Liban’s Board of Directors
Reports: Timeframe Miqati Set for Himself Nearing Its End
Lebanon’s PM-designate may quit if cabinet deadlock persists
Report: Miqati Counting on French Pressure on Aoun and His Camp
Mikati denies news of his plans to travel to an Arab country to explore prospects for upcoming stage
Report: Egyptian Gas to Restore Lebanon's Power Supply if Govt. Formed
'Hizbullah Ship' Reportedly Nearing Lebanon as Another Sails from Iran
Army: We Defeated Terrorism and Will Remain Vigilant for Its Possible Re-emergence
Ahmad Assir sentenced to 20 years of hard labor
Indicators warn of a ‘third mass exodus’ from Lebanon: AUB Crisis Observatory
Mais qui sont-ils?/Jean-Marie Kassab/August 31/2021
LIC Statement on Lebanon's

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 30-31/2021
UN Security Council adopts Afghanistan resolution, China and Russia abstain
US announces end of Afghanistan war, largest non-combat military evacuation ever
“We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out,” CENTCOM chief Gen. Frank McKenzie said.
U.S. Exit Will Stop IS Attacks in Afghanistan, Taliban Says
Qatar Emerges as Key Player in Afghanistan after U.S. Pullout
Canada/Statement by the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS
Abbas, Israel's Gantz Hold New High-Level Talks, Urged by U.S.
Economy, security focus of Abbas-Gantz meeting in Ramallah
Hundreds of Gazans Protest Blockade along Israeli Frontier
Iran and Syria Vow to Confront U.S. Sanctions
Moscow Welcomes Macron's Call for Kabul 'Safe Zone'
Desert': Drying Euphrates Threatens Disaster in Syria
Plummeting Euphrates water level threatens Syria’s breadbasket
Germany Arrests Woman Accused of Helping Islamic State Group
Yemeni Official: Missile, Drone Attack on Airbase Kills 30
Tight Security, Shops Shut as S. Sudan Warns against Protests
Muqtada al-Sadr seeks to share in the summit’s limelight as he eyes elections
Doubts surround Macron’s attempts at restoring French influence in Iraq
Is Algeria planning to extradite Karoui to Tunisia?

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 30-31/2021
Afghanistan and the Symptomatic Terrorism/Charles Elias Chartouni/August 30/2021
“We Will Use Means You Might Not Like”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, July 2021/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatetone Institute/August 30/2021
Mismanaging the environment will haunt Turkey for generations/Alexandra de CramerThe Arab Weekly/August 30/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 30-31/2021
MoPH: 775 new coronavirus infections, 4 deaths
NNA/August 30/2021
Lebanon has recorded 775 new coronavirus cases and 4 deaths in the past 24 hours, as reported by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) on Monday.

Security Council extends mandate of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon for one year, unanimously adopting Resolution 2591
NNA/August 30/2021
The UN Security Council announced today that it "extended the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) until August 2022, reiterating its call for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the principles and elements set out in resolution 1701 (2006). Unanimously adopting resolution 2591 (2021), the Council condemned all violations of the Blue Line, both by air and ground, strongly calling on all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities, prevent any violation of the Blue Line and respect it in its entirety, and to cooperate fully with the United Nations and UNIFIL. The Council also urged Israel to expedite the withdrawal of its army from northern Ghajar without further delay in coordination with UNIFIL. It strongly reaffirmed the need for effective deployment of Lebanon’s Armed Forces in the country’s south and in its territorial waters at an accelerated pace, recalling its own request for precise timelines to be jointly and promptly elaborated by the Armed Forces and the Secretary-General for such deployments, in order to fully implement resolution 1701 (2006). By other terms, the Council urged all parties to abide scrupulously by their obligations to respect the safety of UNIFIL and other United Nations personnel, reiterating its call for the rapid finalization of Lebanon’s investigation into all attacks against the Mission, notably the incidents of 4 August 2018 and 10 February 2020. It similarly urged all parties to ensure that UNIFIL’s access to the Blue Line is fully respected and unimpeded in all its operations, condemning in the strongest terms all attempts to restrict its free movement."Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations, Amal Mudallali, took to Twitter to announce the UNIFIL mandate's renewal. "The UN Security Council just voted unanimously to renew the mandate of UNIFIL in Lebanon after difficult negotiations. Good news 4 UNIFIl, for its Lebanese partner the LAF, and for peace and security. Thanks to all SC members for their support esp France the pen holder," she tweeted.

Hezbollah expands its influence in Syria by buying land on Lebanon’s border
Al Arabiya English/30 August ,2021
Lebanon’s Hezbollah is expanding its control over the Syrian regions bordering Lebanon by purchasing lands located in the countryside of Damascus, as part of the expansion operations carried out by the militia loyal to Iran. Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian militias of non-Syrian nationalities have purchased more than 370 plots of land in and around the Zabadani area, and no less than 505 land plots have been purchased in the border area of Tufail. Sources added that more than 315 apartments have been occupied by Hezbollah’s militants in the area.The Observatory’s sources added that the pro-Iran militias have also confiscated luxury apartments and villas in the Bludan area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that continuous purchases and acquisitions of real estate and land in the area bordering Lebanon are happening. The Observatory added that the purchases are against the Syrian law, however, Assad's regime security forces in the area have ignored them. Rif Dimashq area had witnessed battles and starvation wars especially in the town of Madaya on the Syrian-Lebanese border. The Syrian Observatory said that, at the beginning of 2020, armed and violent fighting took place in the town of Fleita in the western Qalamoun region, between armed elements affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah on one side, and the National Defense Forces on the other hand, due to differences over financial profits in the drug trade.

Explosion rocks town of Hadath al-Jebbe in Lebanon’s northern district of Bcharre
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/30 August ,2021
An explosion was heard in Hadath al-Jebbe town in Lebanon’s northern district of Bcharre, and preliminary reports have suggested that it has occurred inside a gas station, local media in Lebanon reported.

Calm Returns after Maghdouche-Anqoun Unrest
Naharnet/August 30/2021
The situation in the southern towns of Maghdouche and Anqoun was "calm" on Monday after the army's intervention, MP Michel Moussa, who hails from Maghdouche, said. "The army imposed measures on the ground and the pacification contacts have succeeded," Moussa said in an interview with the Voice of All Lebanon radio. Moreover, he called for "halting the incitement and working on alleviating the tensions," adding that "the cover has been lifted off all violators" and that arrests were underway. The Amal Movement meanwhile denied any involvement in the violent incidents between residents from the two towns. The unrest had started after young men from Anqoun attacked gas stations in Maghdouche and tried to reopen them by force, defying measures by the town's municipality to organize the sale of gasoline. Policemen from the Maghdouche police station later staged raids in Anqoun in search of young men who assaulted one of Maghdouche's residents, which infuriated Anqoun residents and prompted them to block the road linking the two towns and burn a number of trees. Young men from Anqoun also vandalized Christian symbols in Maghdouche, according to media reports, which further inflamed sectarian tensions.

Explosion in Beirut suburb leaves four dead, at least two injured
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/30 August ,2021
An explosion inside a factory in the locality of Burj al-Barajneh in the southern suburb of Beirut has killed four people on Monday afternoon, according to the National News Agency in Lebanon (NNA). NNA reported that a strong bang was heard in Burj al-Barajneh area. The explosion occurred inside “al-Shami” factory for the manufacture of water heaters. The agency did not specify the cause of the explosion. Local media reported that a tank exploded when workers were welding it inside the factory. A video clip circulated on social media showed three bloodied bodies lying on the floor in a dark room. The explosion damaged cars parked outside the plant as tanks flew out. Multiple factories and businesses have been stockpiling fuel in residential areas as the crisis-hit country is stil experiencing an unprecedented fuel shortage crisis. Two weeks ago, at least 20 people have been killed and 79 others injured after a fuel tanker exploded in the Tleil area of Lebanon’s Akkar region, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Footage being shared on social media showed several ambulances transporting burn victims of the blast to hospitals in the district.The Lebanese Red Cross said its teams recovered 20 bodies from the site of the explosion in the northern village of Tleil and evacuated 79 people who were injured or suffered burns in the blast.

Aoun marking 4th anniversary of Lebanese Army’s victory in “Fajr Al-Jouroud” battle: “This victory would not have been possible without the blood of our martyrs”
NNA/August 30/2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, praised the victory achieved by the Lebanese Army in eliminating terrorists in the “Fajr Al-Jouroud” battle, on August 30, 2017. The President affirmed that this victory would not have been achieved without the blood of the martyrs who fell in order to protect the Lebanese people and its land, the spirit of moderation, and Lebanon’s message. “Security coordination between all apparatuses contributed to exposing and eliminating terrorist networks and cells, throughout the homeland” the President said. The President also called on the Army and other apparatuses to be constantly alert to any terrorist activity or scheme aimed at destabilizing security and stability in Lebanon, and exploiting the difficult economic conditions and challenges facing the country, to create more confusion and chaos in order to achieve external goals and objectives. Moreover, President Aoun commended the performance of the security forces at this delicate stage in the history of Lebanon, and the huge sacrifices made by their leaders, officers and personnel, to maintain stability and preserve the security of citizens.Finally, President Aoun called on the Lebanese to rally around their military and security apparatuses, to stop those who seek to obstruct any attempt to rise and restore normal life to the Lebanese.—Presidency Press Office
Naharnet/August 30/2021/President Michel Aoun tweeted Monday on the fourth anniversary of the Army’s Victory in Fajr al-Jouroud battle that “this victory would not have been achieved without the martyrs who lost their lives to protect Lebanon.”He added that the security coordination between all institutions had also contributed to the “detection and elimination of terrorist networks and cells throughout the country.”Aoun asked the Lebanese to support their military and security institutions in their fight against “those who are trying to obstruct the Lebanese from rising and getting their normal life back.”
He also called on the army and security forces to be constantly alert to “any terrorist activity or plot trying to take advantage of the difficult economic situation to serve foreign interests by creating confusion and chaos.”

 Aoun welcomes Abdel Samad, new Chairman of Tele Liban’s Board of Directors
NNA/August 30/2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, emphasized the importance of the media in maintaining general stability in Lebanon, and called on the visual, written and audio outlets to play a constructive role in the current difficult circumstances which Lebanon is witnessing.
The President also called to avoid slipping into mistakes which harm national unity and encourage division and distancing between the Lebanese, stressing that media freedom is protected, which requires that it is exercised responsibly and objectively without any incitement or abuse. President Aoun also asserted that media should be exercised in a way which assures respecting the other opinion since the limit of freedom is the truth. The positions of President Aoun came while meeting with Information Minister, Manal Abdel Samad, the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tele Liban-TL Director General, Dr. Toufic Traboulsi, and Board members, Ms. Vivian Lebbos and Dr. Mosbah Majzoub. The visit was on the occasion of their assumption of their new responsibilities in the management of TL by a decision from Urgent Matters Judge of Beirut, President Hala Naga. The Information Minister discussed the stages of the appointment process, and referred to the criteria of competence and experience enjoyed by the new Director General, which she adopted for his selection, in addition to the cooperation which he will receive from the two members concerned with accounting affairs and good governance. For his part, Dr. Traboulsi stated his vision to improve the management of TL and enhance its presence on national media after the stumbling experienced over the past years. Traboulsi also pointed out that TL will return to play its role and also to be the link between the resident Lebanon and Lebanese diaspora.
The President wished Dr. Traboulsi and the two members success in their newly assumed tasks, focusing on the national media message which TL must carry out, especially in the current circumstances despite the limited available capabilities. Moreover, President Aoun stressed the commitment to objectivity and non-alignment of one team against the other and highlighting the state’s position in all issues raised so that the official media becomes a reliable and referable media at Lebanon and abroad.—Presidency Press Office

Reports: Timeframe Miqati Set for Himself Nearing Its End
Naharnet/August 30/2021
Parliamentary sources in the Strong Lebanon bloc have rejected the accusation against the bloc's head Jebran Bassil of obstructing the formation of the government. The sources restated, in remarks published Monday in the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal, that “Bassil has not interfered in any way in the formation process.” On the other hand, circles of Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati said that Miqati “is making every effort to form a government as quickly as possible.”The circles added that “there are obstacles that must be resolved,” and that the time frame that Miqati had set is coming close to an end. “Things will not continue as they are,” Miqati’s circles told al-Anbaa, affirming that they expect this week to be “decisive” for the government’s formation. Meanwhile, al-Mustaqbal Movement Deputy head Mustafa Alloush said that the government’s formation remains “complicated,” accusing President Michel Aoun of “bargaining with the world” to lift the sanctions against Bassil in exchange for “releasing the country or keeping the blocking one-third."

Lebanon’s PM-designate may quit if cabinet deadlock persists
The Arab Weekly/August 30/2021
BEIRUT--Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati could step down as early as this week if his efforts to reach an agreement with President Michel Aoun on the formation of a new government remain deadlocked, political sources told The Arab Weekly Sunday. The same sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the decision to step down could come despite attempts by Mikati’s team, as well as by President Aoun and his aides, to mitigate the current crisis. Aoun and Mikati, the sources said, were hoping to take advantage of the window of opportunity that was created by French pressures on the various political players. The same sources also revealed that Mikati was intending to step down after his latest visit to Baabda, but the French convinced him to wait, because they believed that such a move would mean an indefinite continuation of the current crisis in Lebanon, especially in the absence of any possible substitute for Mikati. Political experts in Lebanon believe that Aoun and his son-in-law Gibran Bassil, also head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), will not give to Mikati what they refused to confer to former Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.
Recent news about Mikati’s possible failure to form a new government comes at a time when sources from within the FPM are admitting that current negotiations are back at square one. Mikati’s decision to quit, if it happens, could repeat a similar move by the head of the Future Movement and former Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who stepped down last July. Mikati’s presentation of a full lineup to Aoun last Friday is not the result of a real partnership towards forming a new government, sources from within the PMF said. The same sources considered that former prime ministers had been pushing for control over constitutional powers, noting that if Hariri did so publicly, which led to his decision to step down, then Mikati has been doing so in a more subtle way. “As long as matters are dealt with in this manner, there will be no government,” a source told The Arab Weekly.
Over the past few days, a sense of optimism about the imminent formation of a government receded following the emergence of new hurdles. Informed sources blame the deadlock on differences regarding the names of some ministers.
The dispute mostly centres on the selection of interior and justice ministers, according to sources. Mikati insists that the ministers should not be affiliated with any political party, while Aoun has reservations about some of the names proposed by Mikati.
The same sources explained that Mikati also has reservations about some of the names proposed by Aoun. They noted that the dispute emerged when Mikati suggested names of Christian ministers other than those proposed by Aoun, who eventually rejected Mikati’s selection. Observers believe that Mikati’s approach stems from his desire to form a new government that can manage the upcoming parliamentary elections to be held in 2022 and negotiate with the World Bank. Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement, however, are increasingly concerned about losing their political gains, if the upcoming elections are held on time. Previous prime ministers, including Mikati, have warned Aoun against blocking the formation of a new government, which is currently needed to pull the country out of worsening political and economic crises.

Report: Miqati Counting on French Pressure on Aoun and His Camp
Naharnet/August 30/2021
Paris has urged PM-designate Najib Miqati to wait and not resign to allow it to resume its efforts with President Michel Aoun and his political camp to press them to facilitate his mission, a prominent parliamentary source said. “Miqati is in contact with the members of the French team tasked by President Emmanuel Macron to follow up on the formation consultations” between Aoun and Miqati, the source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Monday. “Miqati is counting on the resumption of the French intervention as of today,” the source added, noting that the PM-designate “has received guarantees from Paris that it will carry on with its initiative to rescue Lebanon through the formation of a mission-driven government,” the source went on to say, adding that France will exert “strong” pressures on Aoun and his camp. The source also revealed that Speaker Nabih Berri has also encouraged Miqati to be patient in order to give a chance to the consultations.

Mikati denies news of his plans to travel to an Arab country to explore prospects for upcoming stage
NNA/August 30/2021
The press office of Prime Minister-designate, Najib Mikati, on Monday issued the following statement: “Prime Minister-designate, Najib Mikati, denies recently circulating news about his intention to travel to one of the Arab countries to explore the prospects for the upcoming stage, following which he will be taking his final decision. The PM-designate affirms that such news is totally groundless and that he is staying in Lebanon and continues his efforts to form a government.”

Report: Egyptian Gas to Restore Lebanon's Power Supply if Govt. Formed
Naharnet/August 30/2021
Many legal, technical and financial obstacles that had been hindering the agreement to import Egyptian gas to Lebanon have been removed, media reports said on Monday. Sources asserted to al-Akhbar newspaper that “the agreement will also include the shipment of the imported gas to Al-Zahrani, which will lead to the operation of the two largest power plants in Lebanon.”They confirmed that Egyptian gas can arrive to Lebanon “within weeks of signing the agreement.”Yet, the newspaper said that the agreement cannot be signed before the new government's formation. Separately, Egypt will provide natural gas to Jordan so that it can produce electricity to be supplied to Lebanon via Syria. The electricity from Jordan will take time to reach Lebanon, according to the newspaper, given the damage of the power transmission towers in southern Syria.

'Hizbullah Ship' Reportedly Nearing Lebanon as Another Sails from Iran
Naharnet/August 30/2021
An Iranian fuel tanker is about to reach Lebanon and has become near the entrance of the Suez Canal, the Iranian Mehr news agency has reported. And while neither Iran nor Hizbullah have officially confirmed the news, Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV quoted sources as saying that the tanker has become in the Mediterranean. TankerTrackers, a global tanker tracking website, meanwhile showed that a second fuel tanker had left an Iranian port on Sunday for a yet to be identified destination while noting that a third tanker is being loaded with gasoline. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had warned Israel and the U.S. against targeting the ships while noting that the vessels are not enough to resolve Lebanon’s fuel shortage problem. Fuel shortages have forced businesses and government offices to close, even threatening blackouts at hospitals. "We will continue this process as long as Lebanon needs it," Nasrallah said. "The aim is to help all Lebanese, (not just) Hizbullah supporters or the Shiites."Questions remain over how Iranian shipments of fuel could reach their destination. Since February this year, Iran and its arch-enemy Israel have been engaged in a "shadow war" in which vessels linked to each nation have come under attack in waters around the Gulf in tit-for-tat exchanges.

Army: We Defeated Terrorism and Will Remain Vigilant for Its Possible Re-emergence
Naharnet/August 30/2021
The army commemorated its martyrs in a tweet Monday, on the fourth anniversary of Fajr al-Jouroud battle. “We remember our righteous martyrs who transformed with their blood violated barren hills into an oasis,” the army said. The army added that it has “defeated terrorism” and that it “will remain vigilant” for the danger of a possible re-emergence of terrorists who are “taking advantage of the current situation in the country to re-appear.”

Ahmad Assir sentenced to 20 years of hard labor
NNA/August 31/2021
The Permanent Military Court, chaired by Brigadier General Mounir Chehade, has sentenced Ahmad Assir to 20 years in prison with hard labor and stripped him of his civil rights, for his involvement in the attack on a Lebanese army patrol in Bhanine-Minieh and the killing of two servicemen, our correspondent reported on Monday.

Indicators warn of a ‘third mass exodus’ from Lebanon: AUB Crisis Observatory
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English
Published: 31 August ,2021: 12:33 AM GST
A report published by the Crisis Observatory at Lebanon’s American University of Beirut has concluded that the crisis-hit nation is entering a third mass exodus wave of immigration. “For months, Lebanon has witnessed a noticeable rise in the rates of emigration and those seeking it, which makes us enter the beginning of a mass exodus wave,” the report added.The report added that in the midst of the raging crises in Lebanon and their daily repercussions on all aspects of life, the Lebanese crisis is establishing long-term consequences through the expected massive immigration, whose implications have begun to appear.
According to the report there are three internal worrying indicators regarding Lebanon’s entry into a mass emigration wave, which is expected to extend for years. The first indicator is the high chances of emigration among Lebanese youth, as 77 percent of them indicated that they think about emigrating and seek it, and this percentage is the highest among all Arab countries, according to the “Arab Youth Opinion Survey” report issued last year. The pursuit of emigration by most of the Lebanese youth is a natural result of the decline in decent job opportunities, as the World Bank estimates that one out of every five has lost his job since the fall of 2019, and that 61 percent of companies in Lebanon have reduced their permanent employees by an average of 43 percent.
The second indicator is the massive migration of specialists and professionals, especially male and female workers in the health sector as doctors and nurses, and in the educational sector, including university professors and teachers, in search of better working conditions and income.
The report added that the Nurses Syndicate estimated that 1,600 male and female nurses have emigrated since 2019. As well as members of the educational body, hundreds of whom immigrated to the Gulf states and North America.
At the American University of Beirut alone, 190 professors who immigrated were registered during the year of the departure, making up about 15 percent of the educational body.
The third indicator is the anticipation that the crisis in Lebanon is a going to be a prolonged crisis.
The World Bank estimates that Lebanon needs at best 12 years to return to the levels of GDP that were in 2017, and in the worst case to 19 years.The World Bank report had mentioned that with the absence of a political decision with a serious approach to the Lebanese crisis, which suggests a deliberate collapse, it is not excluded that state institutions will fade away more and more and fall into a deadly spiral that extends for two decades, which will constitute a pressure factor for hundreds of thousands to leave their homeland in pursuit of investment, work, study and retirement.
A fourth external indicator is the increasing need for labor, professionals, and young groups in a large number of the most advanced countries in the world, which are witnessing a decline in population growth rates and an increase in the proportion of the elderly.
When all those indicators are taken into consideration it can be concluded that the nation will witness a large wave of immigration in the coming years.
The effects of the expected third wave of immigration will be dire through a loss that is difficult to compensate for the Lebanese human capital, which is the mainstay in rebuilding the state, society, and the economy. The report added that the successes of the Lebanese in the countries of diaspora have always been a material in building the narrative of “the good Lebanese”, but it covers the dark side of famine, wars, and destruction in their mother country. The report by the Observatory said that this “mass exodus” is the third after the first large wave in the late nineteenth century, extending to the period of the First World War (1865-1916), when it is estimated that 330,000 people immigrated from Mount Lebanon at the time. The second big wave during the Lebanese Civil War between 1975 and 1990, where researcher Paul Tabr estimated the number of immigrants in that period at about 990,000 people.
Mass migrations occur from countries falling into deep economic crises, where crises constitute pressure factors on the population to leave in search of safety, security, and livelihoods. Venezuela is currently among the global displacement crises by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where the number of forced migrants due to the Venezuelan crisis is estimated at four million people who have been displaced to neighboring countries as a result of the economic and living deterioration in their country. The same applies to Zimbabwe, where the number of immigrants to South Africa, due to the severe economic and living crisis since the 1990s, is estimated at three million. Greece witnessed a large emigration because of its deep economic crisis, which reached 397,000 people in a few years between 2010 and 2013. The Crisis Observatory at the American University of Beirut is a research initiative under the supervision of Dr. Nasser Yassin which aims to study the repercussions of the various crises in Lebanon and ways to approach them.

Mais qui sont-ils?
Jean-Marie Kassab/August 31/2021
Une secte satanique aux croyances maléfiques qui souvent aboutissent à des suicides collectifs ?
De quoi sont-ils fabriqués ces Aounistes? Ont -ils subi des radiations nucléaires made in Iran qui ont altéré leurs gènes?
Ont-il subi une ablation collective de leurs cerveaux qui furent remplacés par des cerveaux de bourricots atteints de vache folle?
Et ce sourire stupide qu'ils arborent en toute occasion est du à quoi?
Ont ils un réseau de stations services spécial Aounistes qui les fournit à eux seuls exclusivement ?
Y a t'il des branches de banques réservées uniquement aux Aounistes à un taux préferentiel?
EDL les chouchoute elle en particulier?
Bien sûr que non: ils sont trainés dans la boue comme nous tous. Ils souffrent comme nous tous et les femmes d'entre eux porteront la burka bientôt comme toutes les Libanaises. Mais la plupart se taisent par honte. Le reste est simplement drogué ou carrément stupide ou les deux à la fois.
Nos affres se termineront un jour prochain j'espère. Le vrai Liban se relèvera une fois de plus et encore une fois grâce à une poignée d'irréductibles qui engageront l'occupant face à face, les yeux dans les yeux, sans crainte ni peur .
Mais les Aounistes devront payer de leur trahison, le prix que payent les collaborateurs . Ils seront traduits en justice et leurs cheveux rasés en place publique.
Le temps de la rébellion arrive.
Mort à l'occupant et ses suppôts.
Les chaines aux Aounistes.
La prison aux corrompus.

LIC Statement on Lebanon's
Energy Crisis/August 30, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: joanna@theresolute.group
Washington, D.C. - The Lebanese Information Center (LIC) is alarmed by the most recent deterioration in public services in Lebanon, which had already been facing the most severe financial crisis in its history.
Over the last two weeks, electricity provision has dropped dramatically, with serious impacts on food security, access to water, and public health. Due to fuel shortages, state power provider Electricité du Liban (EdL) is providing just two hours of electricity per day across much of the country, while private generators are struggling to obtain enough diesel fuel to make up for the difference. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people have been left without any electricity at all. The shortages have led to the shutdown of water pumping stations, public and private hospitals, and bakeries, prompting the United Nations to warn of a possible "humanitarian catastrophe" ahead.
Unfortunately, these acute crises have been met with more of the same half-measures by Lebanon's authorities. The Central Bank issued more than $800 million last month for fuel subsidies that were meant to last Lebanon through October; the supply ran out before the end of August. The government has since partially lifted fuel subsidies, leading to a 66% increase in prices. The remaining subsidy amount will be financed by Lebanon's dwindling mandatory reserves, which now sit below $14 billion, with the aim of fully lifting subsidies in September.
Fuel companies immediately began hoarding their stocks, knowing that they could sell them for a higher price in a few weeks; this sparked long queues at gas stations, which led to suffocating traffic jams and even violent clashes between customers, station workers, and security forces. The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Internal Security Forces (ISF) were tasked with confiscating hoarded fuel and redistributing it to hospitals and bakeries. While well-intentioned, this measure should have been taken months ago and will mean little in the absence of robust measures to stop fuel smuggling to neighboring Syria. The process was further marred by the explosion on August 15 of one such storage unit in the northern Akkar region, which killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more.
The LIC is particularly concerned by Hezbollah's efforts to import fuel directly from Iran, which would expose Lebanon to U.S. and international sanctions that could cut off financial lifelines on which many of Lebanon's most vulnerable rely. Lebanon needs long-term, sustainable solutions, not more half-measures.
In this context, the LIC consulted with industry experts, former ministers, and other politicians, and proposes:
Lifting subsidies entirely in order to free the market and stop drawing down on deposits
Quickly activating ration cards, which would provide cash in U.S. dollars to the most needy . Immediately stopping fuel hoarding and smuggling to Syria, and prosecuting those involved. Imposing sanctions on officials, businessmen and others whose irresponsible, corrupt practices led to and accelerated the impoverishment of Lebanon's people, using both the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which prohibits the assistance of the Syrian authorities, especially through smuggling
The LIC urges those Lebanese officials who have any sense of responsibility left, and the friends of Lebanon within the international community, to act quickly to put a halt to the collapse. Lebanon is in economic freefall, and its citizens cannot afford further delays.
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The Lebanese Information Center in the U.S. is the largest grassroots organization of Americans of Lebanese descent, committed to building a free, sovereign, and democratic Lebanon for the good of the Lebanese people and in the interest of the United States of America.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 30-31/2021
UN Security Council adopts Afghanistan resolution, China and Russia abstain
AFP/30 August ,2021
The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution Monday calling on the Taliban to honor its pledges to allow Afghans and foreign nationals "safe" departure from Afghanistan. The 15-member Council passed the resolution with 13 votes in favor and two abstentions, from China and Russia. The resolution – drafted by the United States, Britain and France, and seen by AFP – says the council expects the Taliban to allow a “safe, secure, and orderly departure from Afghanistan of Afghans and all foreign nationals.”It refers to an August 27 statement by the Taliban in which the hardline Islamists said Afghans would be able to travel abroad, and leave Afghanistan any time they want to, including by any border crossing, both air and ground. The Security Council “expects that the Taliban will adhere to these and all other commitments,” the resolution says. Macron had raised hopes of more concrete proposals in comments published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche over the weekend.He said Paris and London would present a draft resolution which “aims to define, under UN control, a ‘safe zone’ in Kabul, that will allow humanitarian operations to continue,” Macron said. “I am very hopeful that it will be successful. I don’t see who could be against making humanitarian projects secure,” he said. But the UN resolution on the table is far less ambitious. It is not clear whether another resolution proposing a “safe zone” will be circulated later on. “This resolution is not an operational aspect. It’s much more on principles, key political messages and warnings,” a UN diplomat told reporters. The text calls for the Taliban to allow for “full, safe, and unhindered access” for the United Nations and other agencies to provide humanitarian assistance. It also “reaffirms the importance” of upholding human rights, including of children, women and minorities and encourages all parties to seek an inclusive, negotiated political settlement with the “full, equal and meaningful representation of women.” The Council is expected to vote at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT). The resolution comes as international efforts to airlift foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans out of the country come to an end after the Taliban swept back into power on August 15, with the United States withdrawing from the country after 20 years. France ended its evacuation efforts on Friday and Britain followed suit on Saturday. US troops have been scrambling in dangerous and chaotic conditions to complete a massive evacuation operation from the Kabul airport by a Tuesday deadline.

US announces end of Afghanistan war, largest non-combat military evacuation ever
“We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out,” CENTCOM chief Gen. Frank McKenzie said.
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/30 August ,2021
The US has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan after carrying out the largest non-combat military evacuation in history, US Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie announced Monday. The last US military troops left Afghanistan a minute before midnight in Kabul, which was the deadline that the Taliban had given Washington. US forces had been in Afghanistan for 20 years in what was the longest war in US history. McKenzie said there were no attempts to interfere in the final flights out of Afghanistan. He said that the US had evacuated over 6,000 American citizens from Kabul in recent days. The US general also used positive language when referring to the Taliban, a group the US previously overthrew. “They have been very businesslike and pragmatic,” he said during a press conference. “The military phase of this operation is ended; the diplomatic sequel to that will now begin,” McKenzie said. He added that there were still US citizens in Afghanistan but vowed to continue working to get them out. McKenzie said that the number of Americans still in Afghanistan was in “the low, very low hundreds.” But he admitted: “We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out, but I think if we'd stayed another 10 days, we wouldn't have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out. And there still would have been people who would have been disappointed with that.”

U.S. Exit Will Stop IS Attacks in Afghanistan, Taliban Says
Agence France Presse/August 30/2021
The Taliban's spokesman says the hardline Islamist group will crack down on Islamic State attacks and expects them to end once foreign forces leave the country. "We hope that those Afghans who are influenced by IS... will give up their operations on seeing the formation of an Islamic government in the absence of foreigners," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP in a weekend interview. "If they create a situation for war and continue with their operations, the Islamic government... we will deal with them," he added. A devastating suicide bomb attack claimed by IS outside Kabul airport on Thursday killed scores of people who were hoping to flee the country, as well as 13 U.S. service members. Retaliatory or pre-emptive strikes by the United States on IS positions over the past few days have angered the movement, however. The Pentagon said it carried out a drone strike Sunday against a vehicle threatening Kabul airport that had been linked to IS. "There is no permission for them to do such operations... our independence must be respected," he said. The evacuation of tens of thousands of foreigners and Afghans who feel at risk of reprisal or repression under the Taliban is due to end on Tuesday, along with the full withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops. Islamic State has been highly critical of the troop withdrawal deal struck between the Taliban and Washington last year, which saw the Taliban offer security guarantees. One IS commentary published after the fall of Kabul accused the Taliban of betraying jihadists with the US withdrawal deal and vowed to continue its fight, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant communications. During the Taliban's prison break spree this summer to free its fighters, many battle-hardened IS militants were also released -- increasingly looking like a lethal error.
'Technical problems'
Although both groups are hardline Sunni Islamist militants, they have differed on the minutiae of religion and strategy, while each claiming to be the true flag-bearers of jihad. In recent years, the IS Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in those countries. They have massacred civilians at mosques, public squares, schools, and even hospitals. Mujahid reiterated that the new Taliban government will not be announced until after the last U.S. soldier has left. "It is important to announce the government but this requires a lot of patience. We are holding consultations to form the government responsibly," Mujahid said. "We have some technical problems on this issue," he added. Banks, government offices and other public institutions remain largely shut with employees prevented from entering offices since the takeover, which sent the Afghani sliding. The Taliban have promised to improve Afghanistan's economy, but to do that the new regime will have to rely on foreign aid -- and there is no guarantee it will get the funds it needs.

Qatar Emerges as Key Player in Afghanistan after U.S. Pullout
Associated Press/August 30/2021
Qatar played an outsized role in U.S. efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan. Now the tiny Gulf Arab state is being asked to help shape what is next for Afghanistan because of its ties with both Washington and the Taliban, who are in charge in Kabul. Qatar will be among global heavyweights on Monday when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts a virtual meeting to discuss a coordinated approach for the days ahead, as the U.S. completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country. The meeting will also include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the European Union and NATO. Qatar has also reportedly been asked by the Taliban to provide civilian technical assistance at Kabul's international airport, once the U.S. military withdrawal is complete on Tuesday. Authorities in Qatar have not commented on the reports.
Meanwhile, international U.N. agencies are asking Qatar for help and support in delivering aid to Afghanistan. Qatar's role was somewhat unexpected. The nation, which shares a land border with Saudi Arabia and a vast underwater gas field in the Persian Gulf with Iran, was supposed to be a transit point for a just a few thousand people airlifted from Afghanistan over a timeline of several months.
After the surprisingly swift Taliban takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15, the United States looked to Qatar to help shoulder the evacuations of tens of thousands in a chaotic and hurried airlift. In the end, nearly 40% of all evacuees were moved out via Qatar, winning its leadership heaps of praise from Washington. International media outlets also leaned on Qatar for their own staff evacuations. The United States said Saturday that 113,500 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan since Aug. 14. Qatar says a little more than 43,000 had transited through the country.
Qatar's role in the evacuations reflects its position as host of the Middle East's biggest U.S. military base, but also its decision years ago to host the Taliban's political leadership in exile, giving it some sway with the militant group. Qatar also hosted U.S.-Taliban peace talks.
Assistant Qatari Foreign Minister Lolwa al-Khater acknowledged the political gains scored by Qatar in the past weeks, but rebuffed any suggestion that Qatar's efforts were purely strategic. "If anyone assumes that it's only about political gains, believe me, there are ways to do PR that are way easier than risking our people there on the ground, way easier than us having sleepless nights literally for the past two weeks, way less complicated than spending our time looking after every kid and every pregnant woman," she told The Associated Press.
For some of the most sensitive rescue efforts in Afghanistan, Qatar conducted the operation with just a few hundred troops and its own military aircraft. Qatar evacuated a girls' boarding school, an all-girls robotics team and journalists working for international media, among others. Qatar's ambassador accompanied convoys of buses through a gauntlet of Taliban checkpoints in Kabul and past various Western military checkpoints at the airport, where massive crowds had gathered, desperate to flee. In all, al-Khater said Qatar secured passage to the airport for some 3,000 people and airlifted as many as 1,500 after receiving requests from international organizations and vetting their names.
Al-Khater said Qatar was uniquely positioned because of its ability to speak to various parties on the ground and its willingness to escort people through Taliban-controlled Kabul. "What many people don't realize is that this trip is not a phone call to Taliban," she said. "You have checkpoints by the U.S. side, by the British side, by the NATO side, by the Turkish side ... and we have to juggle with all of these variables and factors."The Taliban have promised amnesty to all those who remain Afghanistan. Still, many of those desperate to get out — including civil society activists, those who had worked for Western armies and women afraid to lose hard-won rights — say they do not trust the militants. In addition, other armed groups pose a growing threat. Last week, an attack by an Islamic State suicide bomber killed more than 180 people outside Kabul airport.
The U.S.-led evacuation process has been marred by miscalculation and chaos, and that spilled over to the al-Udeid base in Qatar.
The hangars at al-Udeid were so crammed that the United States halted flights from Kabul for several hours during the peak of evacuation efforts on Aug. 20. Nearby countries, like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, accepted several thousand evacuees to alleviate pressure on the American base.
At al-Udeid, Afghan families evacuated by the U.S. waited for hours in poorly ventilated, humid hangars in the middle of the desert with inadequate cooling. A video posted by The Washington Post showed hundreds of evacuees in one such hangar with only one lavatory and people sleeping on the ground.
Qatar built an emergency field hospital, additional shelters and portable washrooms to help plug the gaps. In addition to what the U.S. military is distributing, the Qatari military is handing out 50,000 meals a day, and more still by local charities. Qatar Airways has also provided 10 aircraft to transport evacuees from its capital, Doha, to other countries.
Around 20,000 evacuees remain in Qatar, some expecting to leave in a matter of weeks and others in months to come as they await resettlement elsewhere. Seven Afghan women have delivered babies since their arrival in Qatar. Qatar is absorbing only a very small number of evacuees, among them a group of female students who will be offered scholarships to continue their education in Doha. Qatar is also hosting some evacuees in furnished apartment facilities built for the FIFA World Cup, which will be played in Doha next year. The energy-rich nation is a tiny country with a little more than 300,000 citizens, where expatriate foreign workers on temporary visas far outnumber the local population.The White House says President Joe Biden personally expressed his appreciation to Qatar's 41-year-old Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani by phone and noted that the U.S.-led airlift would not have been possible without Qatar's support facilitating the transfer of thousands of people daily. It's the kind of positive publicity that millions of dollars spent by Gulf Arab states on lobbying and public relations could scarcely guarantee.

Canada/Statement by the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS
August 30, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS strongly condemns the attacks that occurred in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 26, 2021. We grieve for the loss of Afghan civilians and British civilians, and American service members at the hands of Daesh/ISIS terrorists. The tragic loss of life is only compounded by the fact that those killed were endeavoring to evacuate or working to conduct that humanitarian mission. The Coalition continues to stand shoulder to shoulder, as we did when we fought to achieve the territorial defeat of Daesh/ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Daesh/ISIS remains a determined enemy and we will continue to take necessary action to ensure its enduring defeat. To that end, we are focused on leveraging the Coalition’s expertise and the efforts of its working groups to counter Daesh/ISIS’ global branches, including ISIS-Khorasan, and to identify and bring their members to justice.
We will continue working closely together under the auspices of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS to effectively counter this dangerous threat. In that effort, we will draw on all elements of national power—military, intelligence, diplomatic, economic, law enforcement—to ensure the defeat of this brutal terrorist organization. We will continue to apply robust counterterrorism pressure against Daesh/ISIS wherever it operates.

Abbas, Israel's Gantz Hold New High-Level Talks, Urged by U.S.
Associated Press/August 30/2021
Israel's defense minister has held talks with the Palestinian president in Ramallah, the first high-level meeting between the two sides in years, officials said. Sunday's meeting between Benny Gantz and Mahmoud Abbas signaled a possible shift of direction after after the near-complete breakdown of communication between Abbas and Israeli leaders in recent years. It came two days after President Joe Biden urged Israel's new prime minister during a White House meeting to take steps toward improving the lives of Palestinians. Gantz's office said he told Abbas that Israel will take new measures to strengthen the Palestinian economy. It said they also discussed security issues and agreed to remain in touch. It was believed to be the highest level public meeting between the sides since 2014. A Palestinian official said Gantz and Abbas discussed possible steps toward improving the atmosphere. He said this included Palestinian demands for a halt in Israeli military operations in Palestinian areas of the occupied West Bank, allowing unification of families with relatives inside Israel and allowing more Palestinian workers into Israel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the late-night meeting.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a hard-liner who opposes Palestinian independence, as do key partners in his diverse, ruling coalition. But Bennett has said he supports building up the Palestinian economy and expanding autonomy for Palestinians. He also is interested in bolstering Abbas in his rivalry with the ruling Hamas militant group in Gaza. While Biden supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, his administration is focused on interim confidence-building measures. Israel's former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pursued a hard-line policy toward the Palestinians, backed by former President Donald Trump. The Trump administration took a number of steps, including moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem. Abbas halted most contacts with the U.S. and Israel in return. Netanyahu had repeatedly claimed Abbas was not a reliable partner for negotiating a peace deal, a portrayal dismissed by Netanyahu critics as a pretext for avoiding making concessions. Hussein Sheikh, a top Abbas aide, confirmed the meeting in a statement on Twitter. It took place on Sunday night in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Abbas maintains his headquarters.

Economy, security focus of Abbas-Gantz meeting in Ramallah
The Arab Weekly/August 30/2021
RAMALLAH— Israel’s defence minister has held talks with the Palestinian president in Ramallah, the first high-level meeting between the two sides in years, officials said. Sunday’s meeting between Benny Gantz and Mahmoud Abbas signalled a possible shift of direction after the near-complete breakdown of communication between Abbas and Israeli leaders in recent years. It came two days after President Joe Biden urged Israel’s new prime minister during a White House meeting to take steps toward improving the lives of Palestinians. Gantz’s office said he told Abbas that Israel will take new measures to strengthen the Palestinian economy. It said they also discussed security issues and agreed to remain in touch. It was believed to be the highest level public meeting between the sides since 2014.“Defence Minister Benny Gantz met Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Sunday) evening to discuss security policy, civilian and economic issues,” Israel’s defence ministry said in a statement. Gantz, head of a centrist party in Israel’s government coalition, told Abbas “that Israel seeks to take measures that will strengthen the PA’s economy. They also discussed shaping the security and economic situations in the West Bank and in Gaza,” it added. “They agreed to continue communicating further.” Palestinian official said Gantz and Abbas discussed possible steps toward improving the atmosphere. He said this included Palestinian demands for a halt to Israeli military operations in Palestinian areas of the occupied West Bank, allowing unification of families with relatives inside Israel and allowing more Palestinian workers into Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a hard-liner who opposes Palestinian independence, as do key partners in his diverse, ruling coalition. But Bennett has said he supports building up the Palestinian economy and expanding autonomy for Palestinians. He is also interested in bolstering Abbas in his rivalry with the ruling Hamas militant group in Gaza. While Biden supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, his administration is focused on interim confidence-building measures. Israel’s former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pursued a hard-line policy toward the Palestinians, backed by former President Donald Trump. The Trump administration took a number of steps, including moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem. Abbas halted most contacts with the US and Israel in return. Netanyahu had repeatedly claimed Abbas was not a reliable partner for negotiating a peace deal, a portrayal dismissed by Netanyahu critics as a pretext for avoiding making concessions. Hussein Sheikh, a top Abbas aide, confirmed the meeting in a statement on Twitter. It took place on Sunday night in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Abbas maintains his headquarters.

Hundreds of Gazans Protest Blockade along Israeli Frontier
Associated Press/August 30/2021
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered Sunday night along the separation fence with Israel, setting tires on fire and throwing explosives as Gaza's Hamas rulers pressed ahead with a campaign aimed at pressuring Israel to ease a stifling blockade of the territory. One protester was moderately wounded by Israeli gunfire.
It was the second consecutive nighttime border protest and took place hours after Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes on alleged Hamas targets in response to the unrest. Hamas officials have promised to hold nightly protests all week.
"The Zionist occupation bears all the repercussions and consequences of the tightening of the siege on Gaza and the escalation of the humanitarian crisis among its residents," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. "No calm or stability will be achieved as long as our people lack a free and dignified life."
The Israeli military said protesters set tires on fire and lobbed explosives toward Israeli troops, and that its forces took unspecified measures to disperse the crowd. The Palestinian Health Ministry said one protester was shot and suffered moderate wounds. No further details were immediately available.
Israel, with Egypt's help, has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007, a year after winning a Palestinian election. Israel says the closure, which tightly restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza, is needed to prevent Hamas from building up its military capabilities. Critics say the closure, which has devastated the economy, amounts to collective punishment. Israel has tightened the blockade since an 11-day war against Hamas in May while Egypt tries to broker a long-term cease-fire. Israel has demanded that Hamas return the remains of two dead soldiers and release two captive Israeli civilians in exchange for easing the blockade. Hamas has grown increasingly angry over the lack of progress in the cease-fire talks. Its operatives have launched a series of incendiary balloons across the border in recent weeks, sparking a series of wildfires in southern Israel.
Hamas also has allowed a number of violent demonstrations along the border. Two Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy and a Hamas militant, have been killed from Israeli gunfire, while an Israeli soldier was critically wounded when a militant shot him in the head at point-blank range during one of the protests. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, speaking before returning to Israel from Washington, said the pressure on Hamas would continue. "We will operate in Gaza according to our interests," he said in Hebrew on the tarmac. Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have fought four wars since Hamas took power, most recently in May. At least 260 Palestinians were killed during May's Hamas-Israel war, including 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza health ministry. Hamas has acknowledged the deaths of 80 militants. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.

Iran and Syria Vow to Confront U.S. Sanctions
Associated Press/August 30/2021
Iran and Syria vowed on Sunday to take "mighty steps" to confront U.S. sanctions imposed on the two regional allies, saying their relations will strengthen under Iran's new leadership. The announcement was made by Iran's new Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who was received at the airport a visit to Damascus by his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad. Iran has been one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's strongest backers, sending thousands of fighters from around the region to help his troops in Syria's 10-year conflict that has killed half a million and displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million. With the help of Russia and Iran, Syrian government forces now control much of Syria. But the country has been suffering for years under American and European Union sanctions. U.S. Treasury sanctions have targeted a network that spans Syria, Iran and Russia, and which is responsible for shipping oil to the Syrian government. American sanctions were imposed on Tehran after former President Donald Trump pulled America out of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018. The sanctions have caused severe fuel shortages in Syria, which has been relying mostly on Iranian oil shipments that have been subjected to mysterious attacks over the past two years. Syria has blamed Israel for the attacks. "The leadership of the two countries will together take mighty steps to confront economic terrorism and reduce pressure on our people," Amir-Abdollahian said at the airport. He did not say how the two countries will fight the sanctions. Amir-Abdollahian's visit to Syria comes a day after he represented Iran in a conference attended by officials from around the Middle East aimed at easing regional tensions. Amir-Abdollahian described Syria as the "land of resistance," adding that Damascus and Tehran had worked together "on the ground and achieved joint victories."

Moscow Welcomes Macron's Call for Kabul 'Safe Zone'
Agence France Presse/August 30/2021
The Kremlin on Monday welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to create a "safe zone" in Afghanistan's capital Kabul to protect humanitarian operations. "This is certainly a proposal that must be discussed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He said that it was "very important" to discuss all aspects of "such a zone." France and Britain will urge the United Nations Monday to work for the creation of this secure area to "allow humanitarian work to continue," Macron said Sunday. The French leader said that such a safe zone would allow the international community "to maintain pressure on the Taliban," who swept into power earlier this month. Macron's comments came as international efforts to airlift foreign national and vulnerable Afghans come to an end. France ended its evacuation efforts on Friday, Britain did so on Saturday and the United States is set to complete its efforts on Tuesday. Russia for its part last week airlifted several hundred of its citizens and those of neighbouring ex-Soviet states as the security situation deteriorated. President Vladimir Putin has warned that militants could use the unstable situation in Afghanistan to enter neighbouring countries under the guise of seeking asylum. Moscow earlier this month staged military drills with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet republics in Central Asia that share a border with Afghanistan. But the Kremlin is nonetheless taking a cautiously optimistic stance to the new Taliban government. Peskov on Monday said it was "premature" to discuss withdrawing the "terrorist" designation from the militant group in Russia. "It is necessary to watch the first steps that the new government will take," he said.

Desert': Drying Euphrates Threatens Disaster in Syria
Agence France Presse/August 30/2021
Syria's longest river used to flow by his olive grove, but today Khaled al-Khamees says it has receded into the distance, parching his trees and leaving his family with hardly a drop to drink. "It's as if we were in the desert," said the 50-year-old farmer, standing on what last year was the Euphrates riverbed. "We're thinking of leaving because there's no water left to drink or irrigate the trees." Aid groups and engineers are warning of a looming humanitarian disaster in northeast Syria, where waning river flow is compounding woes after a decade of war. They say plummeting water levels at hydroelectric dams since January are threatening water and power cutoffs for up to five million Syrians, in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis. As drought grips the Mediterranean region, many in the Kurdish-held area are accusing neighbor and archfoe Turkey of weaponizing water by tightening the tap upstream, though a Turkish source denied this. Outside the village of Rumayleh where Khamees lives, black irrigation hoses lay in dusty coils after the river receded so far it became too expensive to operate the water pumps. Instead, much closer to the water's edge, Khamees and neighbors were busy planting corn and beans in soil just last year submerged under the current. The father of 12 said he had not seen the river so far away from the village in decades. "The women have to walk seven kilometers (four miles) just to get a bucket of water for their children to drink," he said.
'Alarming'
Reputed to have once flown through the biblical Garden of Eden, the Euphrates runs for almost 2,800 kilometers (1,700 miles) across Turkey, Syria and Iraq. In times of rain, it gushes into northern Syria through the Turkish border, and flows diagonally across the war-torn country towards Iraq. Along its way, it irrigates swathes of land in Syria's breadbasket, and runs through three hydroelectric dams that provide power and drinking water to millions. But over the past eight months the river has contracted to a sliver, sucking precious water out of reservoirs and increasing the risk of dam turbines grinding to a halt. At the Tishrin Dam, the first into which the river falls inside Syria, director Hammoud al-Hadiyyeen described an "alarming" drop in water levels not seen since the dam's completion in 1999. "It's a humanitarian catastrophe," he said. Since January, the water level has plummeted by five meters, and now hovers just dozens of centimeters above "dead level" when turbines are supposed to completely stop producing electricity. Across northeast Syria, already power generation has fallen by 70 percent since last year, the head of the energy authority Welat Darwish says.
Two out of three of all potable water stations along the river are pumping less water or have stopped working, humanitarian groups say.
'Water weapon'?
Almost 90 percent of the Euphrates flow comes from Turkey, the United Nations says.
To ensure Syria's fair share, Turkey in 1987 agreed to allow an annual average of 500 cubic meters per second of water across its border. But that has dropped to as low as 200 in recent months, engineers claim. Inside Syria, the Euphrates flows mostly along territory controlled by semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities, whose US-backed fighters have over the years wrested its dams and towns from the Islamic State group.Turkey however regards those Kurdish fighters as linked to its outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and has grabbed land from them during Syria's war.
Syria's Kurds have accused Ankara of holding back more water than necessary in its dams, and Damascus in June urged Turkey to increase the flow immediately. But a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP Turkey had "never reduced the amount of water it releases from its trans-boundary rivers for political or other purposes". "Our region is facing one of the worst drought periods due to climate change," and rainfall in southern Turkey was "the lowest in the last 30 years", this source said. Analyst Nicholas Heras said Turkey did hold leverage over Syria and Iraq with the huge Ataturk Dam just 80 kilometers from the Syrian border, but it was debatable whether Ankara wanted to use it. That would mean "international complications for Ankara, both with the United States and Russia", a key Damascus ally across the table in Syria peace talks. "The easier, and more frequently utilized, water weapon that Ankara uses is the Alouk plant" that it seized from the Kurds in 2019, Heras said. Fresh water supply from the station on another river has been disrupted at least 24 times since 2019, affecting 460,000 people, the United Nations says.
'Drought is coming'
But Syria analyst Fabrice Balanche said the drought did serve Ankara's long-term goal of "asphyxiating northeast Syria economically"."In periods of drought, Turkey helps itself and leaves the rest for the Kurds, in defiance and in full knowledge of the consequences," he said. Wim Zwijnenburg, of the PAX peace organization, said Turkey was struggling to provide enough water for "megalomanic" agricultural projects set up in the 1990s, a challenge now complicated by climate change. "The big picture is drought is coming," he said. "We already see a rapid decline in healthy vegetation growth on satellite analysis" in both Syria and Turkey. A UN climate change report this month found human influence had almost definitely increased the frequency of simultaneous heatwaves and droughts worldwide. These dry spells are to become longer and more severe around the Mediterranean, the United Nations has warned, with Syria most at risk, according to the 2019 Global Crisis Risk Index. Downstream from the Tishrin Dam, the Euphrates pools in the depths of Lake Assad. But today Syria's largest fresh water reservoir too has withdrawn inwards. On its banks, men with tar-stained hands worked to repair generators exhausted from pumping water across much further distances than in previous years. Agricultural worker Hussein Saleh, 56, was desperate. "We can no longer afford the hoses or the generators," said the father of 12. "The olive trees are thirsty and the animals are hungry." At home, in the village of Twihiniyyeh, power cuts had increased from nine to 19 hours a day, he said. At the country's largest dam of Tabqa to the south, veteran engineer Khaled Shaheen was worried. "We're trying to diminish how much water we send through," he said. But "if it continues like this, we could stop electricity production for all except... bakeries, flour mills and hospitals."
'Short on food'
Meanwhile, among five million people depending on the Euphrates for drinking water, more and more families are ingesting liquid that is unsafe. Those cut off from the network instead pay for deliveries from private water trucks. But these tankers most often draw water directly from the river -- where wastewater concentration is high due to low flow -- and these supplies are not filtered. Waterborne disease outbreaks are on the rise, and contaminated ice has caused diarrhoea in displacement camps, according to the NES Forum, an NGO coordination body for the region. Marwa Daoudy, a Syrian scholar of environmental security, said the decreasing flow of the Euphrates was "very alarming". "These levels threaten whole rural communities in the Euphrates Basin whose livelihood depends on agriculture and irrigation," she said. Aid groups say drought conditions have already destroyed large swathes of rain-fed crops in Syria, a country where 60 percent of people already struggle to put food on the table. In some communities, animals have started to die, the NES Forum has said. The United Nations says barley production could drop by 1.2 million tones this year, making animal feed more scarce. Balanche said Syria was likely facing a years-long drought not seen since one from 2005 to 2010, before the civil war. "The northeast, but also all of Syria, will be short on food, and will need to import massive quantities of cereals." Downstream in Iraq, seven million more people risked losing access to water from the river, the Norwegian Refugee Council's Karl Schembri said. "Climate doesn't look at borders," he said.

Plummeting Euphrates water level threatens Syria’s breadbasket
The Arab Weekly/August 30/2021
DAMASCUS, Syria--Aid groups and engineers are warning of a looming humanitarian disaster in northeast Syria, where waning river flow is compounding woes after a decade of war. They say plummeting water levels at hydroelectric dams since January are threatening water and power cuts for up to five million Syrians, in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis. As drought grips the Mediterranean region, many in the Kurdish-held area are accusing neighbour and archfoe Turkey of weaponising water by tightening the tap upstream, though a Turkish source denied this.
Outside the village of Rumayleh where farmers such as Khaled al-Khamees live, black irrigation hoses lay in dusty coils after the river receded so far it became too expensive to operate the water pumps. Instead, much closer to the water’s edge, Khamees and neighbours are busy planting corn and beans in soil just last year submerged under the current. The father of 12 said he had not seen the river so far away from the village in decades.“The women have to walk seven kilometres just to get a bucket of water for their children to drink,” he said.
‘Alarming’
Reputed to have once flown through the biblical Garden of Eden, the Euphrates runs for almost 2,800 kilometres across Turkey, Syria and Iraq. In times of rain, it gushes into northern Syria through the Turkish border and flows diagonally across the war-torn country towards Iraq. Along its way, it irrigates swathes of land in Syria’s breadbasket and runs through three hydroelectric dams that provide power and drinking water to millions. But over the past eight months the river has contracted to a sliver, sucking precious water out of reservoirs and increasing the risk of dam turbines grinding to a halt. At the Tishrin Dam, the first into which the river falls inside Syria, director Hammoud al-Hadiyyeen described an “alarming” drop in water levels not seen since the dam’s completion in 1999.“It’s a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
Since January, the water level has plummeted by five metres, and now hovers just dozens of centimetres above “dead level” when turbines are supposed to completely stop producing electricity. Across northeast Syria, already power generation has fallen by 70 percent since last year, the head of the energy authority Welat Darwish says.
Two out of all three potable water stations along the river are pumping less water or have stopped working, humanitarian groups say.
‘Water weapon’?
Almost 90 percent of the Euphrates flow comes from Turkey, the United Nations says.
To ensure Syria’s fair share, Turkey in 1987 agreed to allow an annual average of 500 cubic metres per second of water across its border. But that has dropped to as low as 200 in recent months, engineers claim. Inside Syria, the Euphrates flows mostly along territory controlled by semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities, whose US-backed fighters have over the years wrested its dams and towns from the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group. Turkey however regards those Kurdish fighters as linked to its outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and has grabbed land from them during Syria’s war. Syria’s Kurds have accused Ankara of holding back more water than necessary in its dams and Damascus in June urged Turkey to increase the flow immediately. But a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP Turkey had “never reduced the amount of water it releases from its trans-boundary rivers for political or other purposes”. “Our region is facing one of the worst drought periods due to climate change,” and rainfall in southern Turkey was “the lowest in the last 30 years”, this source said. Analyst Nicholas Heras said Turkey did hold leverage over Syria and Iraq with the huge Ataturk Dam just 80 kilometres from the Syrian border, but it was debatable whether Ankara wanted to use it. That would mean “international complications for Ankara, both with the United States and Russia”, a key Damascus ally across the table in Syrian peace talks. “The easier and more frequently utilised, water weapon that Ankara uses is the Alouk plant” that it seized from the Kurds in 2019, Heras said.Fresh water supply from the station on another river has been disrupted at least 24 times since 2019, affecting 460,000 people, the United Nations says.
‘Drought is coming’
But Syria analyst Fabrice Balanche said the drought did serve Ankara’s long-term goal of “asphyxiating northeast Syria economically”. “In periods of drought, Turkey helps itself and leaves the rest for the Kurds, in defiance and in full knowledge of the consequences,” he said. Wim Zwijnenburg, of the PAX peace organisation, said Turkey was struggling to provide enough water for “megalomanic” agricultural projects set up in the 1990s, a challenge now complicated by climate change. “The big picture is drought is coming,” he said. “We already see a rapid decline in healthy vegetation growth on satellite analysis” in both Syria and Turkey. A UN climate change report this month found human influence had almost definitely increased the frequency of simultaneous heatwaves and droughts worldwide. These dry spells are to become longer and more severe around the Mediterranean, the United Nations has warned, with Syria most at risk, according to the 2019 Global Crisis Risk Index. Downstream from the Tishrin Dam, the Euphrates pools in the depths of Lake Assad. But today Syria’s largest fresh water reservoir too has shrunk. On its banks, men with tar-stained hands worked to repair generators exhausted from pumping water across much further distances than in previous years. Agricultural worker Hussein Saleh, 56, was desperate. “We can no longer afford the hoses or the generators,” said the father of 12. “The olive trees are thirsty and the animals are hungry.”At home, in the village of Twihiniyyeh, power cuts had increased from nine to 19 hours a day, he said. At the country’s largest dam of Tabqa to the south, veteran engineer Khaled Shaheen was worried. “We’re trying to diminish how much water we send through,” he said. But “if it continues like this, we could stop electricity production for all except … bakeries, flour mills and hospitals.”
‘Short on food’
Meanwhile, among the five million people depending on the Euphrates for drinking water, more and more families are ingesting liquid that is unsafe.Those cut off from the network instead pay for deliveries from private water trucks.But these tankers most often draw water directly from the river, where wastewater concentration is high due to low flow. Moreover, these supplies are not filtered.Waterborne disease outbreaks are on the rise and contaminated ice has caused diarrhoea in displacement camps, according to the NES Forum, an NGO coordination body for the region.Marwa Daoudy, a Syrian scholar of environmental security, said the decreasing flow of the Euphrates was “very alarming”.“These levels threaten whole rural communities in the Euphrates Basin whose livelihood depends on agriculture and irrigation,” she said. Aid groups say drought conditions have already destroyed large swathes of rain-fed crops in Syria, a country where 60 percent of people already struggle to put food on the table.In some communities, animals have started to die, the NES Forum has said. The United Nations says barley production could drop by 1.2 million tonnes this year, making animal feed more scarce.
Balanche said Syria was likely facing a years-long drought not seen since one from 2005 to 2010, before the civil war. “The northeast, but also all of Syria, will be short on food and will need to import massive quantities of cereals.”Downstream in Iraq, seven million more people risked losing access to water from the river, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Karl Schembri said.“Climate doesn’t look at borders,” he said.

Germany Arrests Woman Accused of Helping Islamic State Group
Associated Press/August 30/2021
A German woman was arrested Monday on suspicion of helping the Islamic State group by backing efforts to transfer money to militants, prosecutors said. The suspect, identified only as Denise S., was arrested in Geretsried, near Munich and faces possible charges of supporting a foreign terrorist organization. She is accused of supporting Aymen A.-J., an Iraqi man who was arrested in Germany earlier this year. Federal prosecutors said that the woman's main job was to establish contact with female IS members and keep them up-to-date on upcoming money transfers. She is accused of calling for donations for an IS member who was supposed to be freed from a Kurdish refugee camp, to enable her return to the extremist group, and of setting up an account to receive donations. She also allegedly had Aymen A.-J. transfer 200 euros ($235) to an IS member in Idlib, Syria.Aymen A.-J. is accused of transferring at least $12,000 to Syria and Lebanon between June and September 2020 to help IS fighters. Prosecutors say he was arrested at the German-Swiss border in January as he left to leave the country to fight for IS in Syria or Africa.

Yemeni Official: Missile, Drone Attack on Airbase Kills 30
Associated Press/August 30/2021
A missile and drone attack on a key military base in Yemen's south on Sunday killed at least 30 troops, a Yemeni military spokesman said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the country's civil war in recent years. Mohammed al-Naqib, spokesman for Yemen's southern forces, told The Associated Press the attack on Al-Anad Air Base in the province of Lahj wounded at least 65. He said the casualty toll could rise since rescue teams were still clearing the site. Graphic footage from the scene showed several charred bodies on the ground with ambulance sirens blaring in the background. Yemeni officials said at least three explosions took place at the air base, which is held by the internationally recognized government. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels swept across much of the north and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile. The Saudi-led coalition entered the war the following year on the side of the government. A ballistic missile landed in the base's training area, where dozens of troops were doing morning exercises, the officials said. Medics described a chaotic scene following the explosions, with soldiers carrying their wounded colleagues to safety, fearing another attack. Solider Nasser Saeed survived that attack. He was taken along with other wounded to the Naqib hospital in Aden. He said a barracks that housed over 50 troops had been hit by missiles, then explosives-laden drones.
"We were able to shoot down one (drone)," he said. "Many were killed and wounded."Most of the wounded were taken to the nearby Ibn Khaldun hospital, where health officials said many of the wounded were in critical condition and suffer third degree burns. The officials blamed the Houthis for the attack on the base, once the site of U.S. intelligence operations against al-Qaida's powerful Yemeni affiliate. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media. The victims belong to the pro-government Giants Brigades, which are backed by the United Arab Emirates. The unit said in a statement that the attack involved a number of ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones. The UAE is a main pillar of the Saudi-led coalition. The military spokesman for the Houthis did not confirm or deny the attack, which carried the hallmarks of the Iranian-backed rebels. The Houthis have previously launched similar attacks, including one by a bomb-laden drone on Al-Anad in January 2019 that killed six troops. The Iranian-backed rebels also launched a missile attack on the airport in the southern city of Aden in December as government officials arrived. That attack killed at least 25 people and wounded 110 others. The Houthis had seized the Al-Anad base in the months after their 2014 takeover of Sanaa, before government forces reclaimed it during the battle to reverse the gains of the rebels. Information Minister Moammar al-Iryani said the attack would undermine international efforts to establish a cease-fire in Yemen. "This terrorist attack affirms once again that the continuation of Houthi militia in the approach of military escalation," he wrote on Twitter. Sunday's attack on the base came as the Houthi rebels face stiff resistance and suffered heavy losses in their monthslong attempt to take the crucial city of Marib from the internationally recognized government. Thousands of fighters, mostly from the Houthis, were killed in recent months in Marib. The Houthi offensive on Marib, combined with an increase of missile and explosives-laden drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, has come amid mounting international efforts to halt the fighting and relaunch talks between the warring parties to end the war in the Arab world's poorest country. The stalemated conflict in Yemen has killed more than 130,000 people and spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Tight Security, Shops Shut as S. Sudan Warns against Protests
Agence France Presse/August 30/2021
Security forces patrolled South Sudan's capital Juba on Monday and many shops were shut as the authorities warned of a tough crackdown against anyone joining a planned anti-government protest. The world's newest nation has suffered from chronic instability since independence in 2011, with deepening discontent prompting a coalition of civil society groups to urge South Sudan's leadership to step down, saying they have "had enough."The demonstration was set to take place the same day as President Salva Kiir inaugurated a newly created national parliament, a key condition of a 2018 peace deal that ended South Sudan's brutal civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people. The government has taken a hard line against the People's Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) and its calls for a peaceful public uprising, arresting at least eight activists and detaining three journalists this month in connection with the demonstrations, according to rights groups. Although the protest organisers had urged the public to come out in force, no demonstrations were reported in Juba, with residents telling AFP they were afraid even to leave home. "We are hearing that there is no work today, and besides we are fearing (what the day will bring)," food hawker Emelda Susu told AFP. "I will go to the market when I see things are normal, but for now one's life (comes) first, my friend. Yes I am fearing so I have to be careful," Jimmy Bandu, a small-scale trader, told AFP. National security officers with militarised mounted vehicles patrolled usually busy neighbourhoods in Juba, which also saw a ramped-up police presence and low levels of traffic.
Pledge for 'free, fair' vote
The authorities have branded the protest "illegal" and warned of strict measures against anyone who defies the ban. "The government is in full control and... so everybody should resume his or (her) normal duties and... not fear anything," Information Minister Michael Makuei told AFP. He dismissed reports of an internet shutdown after users reported difficulty accessing two of the country's main networks, Zain and MTN, blaming any problems on technical troubles. The U.S. embassy in Juba has asked its citizens to avoid the areas where protesters may assemble, urging them to "exercise caution." With the mood in the usually bustling capital decidedly subdued, Kiir told members of the new parliament to put citizens' "needs above partisan consideration... (and) place the people of South Sudan above any narrow party interest.""We should always remember that our final mandate in this (peace) process is to hold free, fair and credible democratic elections at the end of the transitional period," he added. South Sudan's peace process has suffered from years of drift and bickering following the 2018 ceasefire and power-sharing deal between Kiir and his former foe Vice President Riek Machar. The PCCA -- a broad-based coalition of activists, academics, lawyers and former government officials -- has described the current regime as "a bankrupt political system that has become so dangerous and has subjected our people to immense suffering".The truce between Kiir and Machar still largely holds but it is being sorely tested, as politicians bicker over power and promises for peace go unmet.

Muqtada al-Sadr seeks to share in the summit’s limelight as he eyes elections
The Arab Weekly/August 30/2021
BAGHDA--Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has tried to share in the limelight and project himself as a pragmatic statesman on the occasion of the Baghdad Summit for Cooperation and Partnership. On the eve of the summit, Sadr announced the reversal of his decision to boycott the early parliamentary elections scheduled for this October.The Sadrist movement will enter the electoral contest hoping to achieve a comfortable parliamentary majority that would allow it to form the next Iraqi government. Sadr seeks to take advantage of the failure of his major rivals in the Shia political camp to lead the country. He voiced support for the summit, which brought together regional leaders in addition to French President Emmanuel Macron.The gathering was hosted by Iraqi President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Sadr tweeted, “Iraq can play an important role in establishing security and stability in the Middle East”. He knows that, since 2003, the choice of Iraq’s rulers has been determined by an American-Iranian consensus, despite the intense competition that pits Washington against Tehran for influence over the country.
The leader of the Sadrist movement wants to shed the image of a sectarian religious leader and armed militia chief, assuming instead the mantle of a responsible statesman. He said, holding the summit “is very important from an economic and security perspective and it is a clear indication of the importance of Iraq in the region.”He added, “The summit was successful in bringing together many parties and Iraq can play a major role in establishing security and stability in the Middle East.”Sadr also thanked Salih and Kadhimi, lauding the prime minister for “the effective impact he had in opening up to the international and regional environment, especially the Arab world.”His words reflected Sadr’s support for the present Iraqi administration, though he had vowed in the past not to back any current or future governments. On Saturday, the Iraqi capital hosted the Baghdad Summit for Cooperation and Partnership, with the participation of both Saudi Arabia and Iran.
This, of itself, was considered an achievement for the diplomacy of Salih and Kadhimi. Overcoming the country’s instability and restoring its crumbling economy requires balanced relations with major regional players. This was Kadhimi’s goal behind the summit. The countries taking part in the conference voiced their support for the stability of Iraq and its government’s efforts to “strengthen state institutions in accordance with constitutional mechanisms and to hold parliamentary elections under international supervision to ensure the integrity and transparency of the expected voting process.” In their final statement, the leaders and representatives of participating countries welcomed “Iraq’s efforts to reach a common ground with the regional and international neighbours.”The summit was held in the run-up to Iraq’s next parliamentary elections, which some consider as a last chance for change in the country that has been languishing for eighteen years under the rule of a group of religious parties and armed Shia factions under a cloud of suspected corruption and ineptitude .The leader of the Sadrist movement senses his opportunity to achieve a watershed victory in the forthcoming elections as he seeks to boost his leadership credentials amid factional and political adversity.

Doubts surround Macron’s attempts at restoring French influence in Iraq
The Arab Weekly/August 30/2021
BAGHDAD--Doubts surround the ability of French President Emmanuel Macron to restore France’s influence in Iraq amid Iranian hegemony over the country’s political system. Iraqi analysts say that Macron’s vows regarding French presence in Iraq are reminiscent of his vows in Lebanon, which were scuppered because of the level of Iranian influence exercised on the Lebanese system through Hezbollah. “No matter what choices the Americans make, we will maintain our presence in Iraq to fight against terrorism,” as long as the Iraqi government wanted it, he told a news conference on Saturday. During his visit to Mosul, the French president voiced support for the Christians of Iraq in a way that is reminiscent of France’s guardianship over Christians in Lebanon. This, according to analysts, seems to suggest that France is seeking to recreate the same conditions that led to its failed role in Lebanon. Iraqi Christians in particular complain of discrimination and lack of assistance from the government in restoring their homes and properties confiscated during the conflict by powerful armed groups. In a speech at the devastated city’s Church of Our Lady of the Hour, which the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO is working to restore, Macron urged Iraq’s religious communities to “work together” to rebuild the country. “We are here to stress the importance of Mosul and to express appreciation for all the sects that make up Iraqi society,” he said adding that “the reconstruction process is slow, very slow.” Macron announced France’s intention to open schools and a consulate in the city. France, which finances French-speaking Christian schools in the region, is seeking to highlight the plight of Christians in the Middle East, as well as other minorities. Pope Francis visited Iraq in March and also went to the ancient Mosul church.
One analyst said that, “Macron can be helped in his mission by French companies that know Iraqi issues very well, from weapons to electricity to the Baghdad metro. The question however is whether France finances these projects”.
According to the analyst, “France is not in a comfortable financial situation and neither is Iraq, which can be considered a bankrupt country after the successive pro-Iranian governments since 2006 squandered all the money that entered the treasury at a time when the price of a barrel of oil was quite high.”France has lost its influence in Iraq since the 1991 war, when the late French President Francois Mitterrand decided to join the US-led coalition to liberate Kuwait. Paris had maintained a high profile presence in Iraq during the eighties. Iraq today faces a series of crises on top of its endemic security tensions. The population suffers from electricity shortages because the country relies heavily on now-intermittent supplies from neighbouring Iran. The authorities have also to reckon with the deterioration of infrastructure and services along with the economic slump exacerbated by the decline in oil prices and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Is Algeria planning to extradite Karoui to Tunisia?
The Arab Weekly/August 30/2021
ALGIERS--News about the arrest of the leader Qalb Tounes party Nabil Karoui, runner-up in Tunisia’s 2019 presidential election, in Algeria raised questions about whether the move paves the way for his extradition to Tunisia. Karoui, who lost out to President Kais Saied in 2019, was arrested in Algeria along with his MP brother, media reports said Monday. The privately owned Radio Mosaique FM said border police arrested Karoui and his brother Ghazi in the Tebessa region of northeast Algeria. Sources also said that the Algerian border security guards were aware about the attempt of the Karoui brothers to sneak across the border without passing through legal crossings. According to Mosaique, an investigation is currently underway with Karoui and the people who secured his hiding place. The leader of the Qalb Tounes party is expected to be referred on Monday to public prosecution in one of the Tebessa courts. Observers view the arrest of Karoui as a goodwill gesture by Algeria towards Tunisia, amid expectations that the man will be handed over to the Tunisian authorities in the coming days. The successive visits of Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra to Tunisia and the contacts between President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and President Kais Saied reflect Algeria’s concerns about recent political and security developments in Tunisia.
When President Saied dismissed parliament and sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi on July 25, Karoui did not issue an official statement and the positions of his Qalb Tounes party were marked by confusion and vacillation. Some Qalb Tounes leaders initially opposed the president’s measures, but later retracted and announced their support for the suspension of parliament. Karoui’s attempted escape from Tunisia, experts say, confirms his fear of facing justice in the country, where the president has been pushing for the prosecution of corrupt politicians. Senior party official Oussama Khelifi told reporters on Sunday that “official information” was still being awaited. “We have not heard from Karoui for a week,” Khelifi said. Riadh Al-Nouioui, spokesman for Kasserine court in central Tunisia, said that “the authorities are investigating two people suspected of helping the Karoui brothers escape” to Algeria. Nabil Karoui founded the private Tunisian channel Nessma TV, which is partly owned by Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Karoui has been under investigation since 2017 in a money laundering and tax evasion case. He was arrested in 2019 and spent more than a month in prison at the height of the presidential election campaign. He was freed but rearrested last December and spent six months in pre-trial detention before being let out again in June 2021. Karoui’s presidential campaign focused on the fight against poverty and his opposition to Islamist politics despite allying himself with the Islamist Ennahda Movement.
He lost out to Saied, a retired law professor and political newcomer, as the electorate rejected the political class that had ruled since the 2011 revolution.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials published on August 30-31/2021
أفغانستان وأعراض الإرهاب
Afghanistan and the Symptomatic Terrorism
Charles Elias Chartouni/August 30/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/101797/charles-elias-chartouni-afghanistan-and-the-symptomatic-terrorism-%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%b4%d8%b1%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a3%d9%81%d8%ba%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%b3/
The resumption of terrorist activities in Afghanistan is quite indicative of its pliability to the Islamist terrorist galaxy, the inherent divisiveness of the Taliban movement, the swaying pressure of regional power brokers, and the structural impediments to State formation. There should be zero tolerance towards the return of Afghanistan to its previous status as a haven instrumentalized by islamist Terrorism. The acceleration of the withdrawal process should be paired with formal commitments on the part of Taliban insofar as their readiness to engage the international community, abide by global security and State formation standards, away from the usual prevarications which characterize transition periods. Otherwise, the military logistics left by the disintegrated Afghan army should be totally destroyed on due time before it gets smuggled by the various splinter terror groups operating in the Afghani hinterlands and porous borders. Taliban should be given no leeway when it comes to upholding the rules that should guide transition processes, if they ever have the intention and ability to move Afghanistan onto a new stage, overcome its fractiousness and set Stateness on due track. If history is of any help, it should teach us to be sober and downscale our expectations without falling into the traps of corrosive cynicism and systematic political helplessness.
The completion of the withdrawal should also put the American decision making process on the right track when it comes to the scaling of strategic priorities, the definition of security predicates, the recasting of NATO, and the need to build steady tactical alliances and overcome the pitfalls of strategic unilateralism. Otherwise, the imponderables of Afghani geopolitics, the Pakistani equivocations, the Iranian pervasive insecurities and cynicism, the treacherous terrains of Central Asian geopolitics and the Indian geopolitical concerns, require a serious reconsideration of the strategic quandaries of South Asia and the Indian sub-continent. The lack of a comprehensive strategic outlook is quite hazardous and proves to be conflict-ridden, highly destabilizing, and detrimental to stability and rational conflict resolution in a region of high turbulence and no structural equipoise. The perpetuation of the strategic voids in this intercontinental geopolitical expanse and its deleterious consequences is coterminous with the rising issues of Western security and its compounded agendas.

جدول بقائمة الإعتداءات التي طاولت المسيحيين خلال شهر تموز 2021
“We Will Use Means You Might Not Like”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, July 2021
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatetone Institute/August 30/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/101799/%d8%ac%d8%af%d9%88%d9%84-%d8%a8%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%85%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b9%d8%aa%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%a1%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d9%8a-%d8%b7%d8%a7%d9%88%d9%84%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85/
Picture Enclosed: Turks dance atop the old Surp Takavor Armenian Church in Istanbul
Note: The publication of this report marks the tenth anniversary of the “Muslim Persecution of Christians” series, which began in July, 2011. Scroll to the bottom of this report to access 119 previous reports, covering every month between now and July, 2011.
The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of July, 2021:
The Abduction, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls in Pakistan
A Muslim teacher raped an 8-year-old Christian in a school bathroom, and the school and police are covering it up. According to the July 11 report, Shahzad Masih’s young daughter was “shaking and screaming in pain when she returned home from school that day, June 22, her uniform spotted with blood.” “She did not utter a word all afternoon and just kept crying and screaming in pain,” her father explained.
After much asking, my daughter told her mother that she had been raped at her school. We rushed to the Sanjan Nagar Trust School where my daughter is a class-three student. Rather than listening to our grievance, school principal Farzana Kausar and another Muslim teacher, Tehmina, outright refused to admit that she had been raped on the school premises.
Security guards were summoned and “pushed him and his wife out of the building.” When they went to register a complaint with local police, they too refused to listen and told them to settle their dispute directly with the school. “We again approached the school management, but they were very hostile and told us that we should not involve the school in the case,” Masih continues. “Later they alleged that she had been raped by a class-seven Christian student.” When the girl objected, insisting that a male teacher was responsible,
her Muslim female teacher and other teachers told her not to name the assailant and threatened to expel her from school… The teachers told the girl that she should instead name a Christian boy named Joel as the culprit…. We then contacted Joel’s family, but they told us that their son was not even present in school on the day of the incident.
When Masih contacted the school again, demanding to see the attendance register, which would indicate that Joel the scapegoat was absent that day, “the principal and other administration officials saw that their lie to falsely accuse the Christian boy had been exposed, they turned violent and started hurling threats and curses at us. We again turned to the police, but they too were very hostile.” Several officers pressured the family to withdraw their complaint and settle the case privately: “They told us that we were poor Christians and could not rival the power of the school’s management,” Finally, on July 2, the police station reluctantly registered the complaint, though, as of last reporting, they had not taken any actions against the school. According to the victim’s father:
They are continuing to pressure us to name Joel as the alleged rapist and are also not cooperating in carrying out a detailed medical examination of the child. [An initial forensic report confirmed that the girl was raped.] We have been informed by some sources that the management is covering the incident to protect the Muslim teacher who raped my daughter. Our pleas for justice are falling on deaf ears. The school management is protecting the rapist, and the police are colluding with them. Who should we look to for justice?… One cannot imagine my pain and agony every time I see my daughter, who is still reeling from the trauma of rape. Our repeated visits to the police are not bearing any results, and I don’t think she will get justice from this system.
Separately, on July 24, another Christian girl—this time only 3-years-old—was raped at a school sponsored by the United Nation’s Children Fund. The man who raped Anna Chand is allegedly the female principal’s own husband, Muhammad Saleem. When her parents picked her up that day, the child was in extreme pain and later started crying. Initially thinking it was something she ate, on questioning her, Anna’s father learned that “After the study hours ended in the school, Saleem … asked Anna’s brother to go out to play and took Anna to a classroom. Saleem raped her in the classroom, and we noticed blood stains on her cloths when she reached home and was crying.” Her parents rushed the toddler to the local hospital where a medical examination confirmed that she was raped. Since filing charges, friends of Muhammad were reportedly threatening to accuse the Christian parents with blasphemy—which would likely lead to jail or worse—unless they drop the charges.
Finally, on July 1, Lahore’s High Court “upheld a ruling in Pakistan granting custody of a 13-year Christian girl to a Muslim accused of kidnapping her, forcibly marrying her and converting her to Islam.” The report continues:
Setting aside her parents’ pleas that Nayab Gill was underage and hence could not legally marry or change her religion on her own [the Muslim judge] rejected the girl’s official birth documents showing she was 13… [T]he court instead accepted her claim, considered to be made under severe threats of harm to her and her family, that she was 19 years old and married 30-year-old Saddam Hayat, a married father of four children, after converting to Islam of her own free will in Gujranwala on May 20.
The Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Nigeria: A new report, published by the Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law on July 18, provides important statistics concerning the ongoing Muslim slaughter of Christians in the West African nation. Excerpts follow:
The number of defenseless Christians hacked to death by Nigeria’s Islamic Jihadists and their collaborators in the security forces in the past 200 days or 1st January to 18th July 2021 has risen to no fewer than 3,462 and this is just sixty-eight deaths less than the total deaths of Nigerian Christians in 2020 which … [was] 3,530.… The Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are responsible for majority of the killings with at least 1,909 Christian deaths in 200 days, followed by Boko Haram, ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province] and Muslim Fulani Bandits who jointly killed 1,063 Christians, while Nigerian Army, joined by the Nigeria Police Force and other branches of the Armed Forces accounted for 490 Christian deaths.… The number of Churches threatened or attacked and closed or destroyed or burnt since January 2021 is also estimated to be around 300 with at least ten priests or pastors abducted or killed by the jihadists. … [T]ill date those responsible for the anti-Christian butcheries in the country have continued to evade justice and remained unchecked, untracked, uninvestigated and untried; leading to impunity and repeat-atrocities. The surviving victims and families of the dead victims are also totally abandoned by the Government of Nigeria …[which] face[s] sharp criticisms and strong accusations of culpability and complicity in the killings and supervision of same…. In the North, the jihadists operate freely under the cover and protection of the security forces; abducting, killing, looting, destroying or burning and forcefully converting their captive and unprotected Christians and their homes and sacred places of worship and learning.
Some of the more notable slaughters of Christians to occur during the month of July in Nigeria follow:
On July 7, Islamic militants riding atop motorbikes raided a village where they slaughtered 18 people and set aflame their two churches.
On Sunday, July 11, Fulani herdsmen ambushed, beat, and beheaded a Christian father, 46, and his 7-year-old son, as the couple were returning home in the evening after choir practice. A local woman was also later killed by the same assailants.
Seventeen of our people have been killed by Fulani herdsmen this year [in our village]” a local spokesman said in a statement. “The international community should come to our aid; we are under heavy siege.” Another local resident and youth leader said, “As a people, we are continuously under attack and nobody seems to be hearing our cry for help. It appears that killing our people has become a routine.
Elsewhere on that same July 11, “Eighteen Nigerians were killed in Christian-majority southern Kaduna State when suspected Fulani Islamist militants stormed two villages.” During one of the raids, the Christian villagers “were asleep when a large number of gunmen swept into the village at 2 a.m,… killing nine villagers and razing houses. Many others were injured.” “The entire village is in confusion,” said residents. “The destruction by the suspected Fulani is unbelievable. These attacks are too much for us to bear, no one is safe in our communities. Nobody can go to his farm now.”
On July 24, Muslim herdsmen tortured to death a Christian pastor they had kidnapped two weeks earlier to death.
On July 28, two years after murdering a Christian man, Fulani terrorists killed his son. Then, during the youth’s funeral, the same Muslim terrorists appeared again and opened fire on those in attendance. “Fulani (militants) killed my husband two years ago and burned down my house,” Celina, the widow and now childless survivor later said. “My farm was destroyed three days ago, now my son is killed, and my house burned down again.”
According to a July 23 report, “Members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Borno State have been kidnapping Christian passengers and leaving the Muslim ones to go their way at roadblocks… [F]or three weeks now, the terrorists have been stopping vehicles … and kidnapping motorists and commuters without any disturbance.” A local official elaborated:
When ISWAP kidnap passengers in a bus, they keep the Christian passengers captive and release the Muslim passengers, this is not just once, it has been happening. They just stop the car, enter into the bush, release the Muslims and hold the Christians captive. Just recently, a bus driver was stopped and they asked how many Christians are in the bus, he said two, they picked those two and the rest continued on their journey. This thing is getting to another dimension. Our people are afraid. We don’t even have security. It is terrible.
Discussing all these unchecked massacres, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto sent an urgent message to the United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Religious Freedom, an excerpt of which follows:
There have been dastardly actions directed at Christians because of their faith. We have cases of pastoral agents, such as priests and nuns, who have been kidnapped, released after the payment of ransom or brutally murdered. Churches, medical facilities, presbyteries have been razed to the ground with no provocations from the communities.
Finally, on July 5, Muslim Fulani broke into a Christian high school and abducted nearly 180 students. According to one report, “Shooting wildly, the armed assailants breached the walls of Bethel Baptist High School in Maraban Rido … and took the students in the school hostel away at gunpoint.” Since then, a few dozen have been released, although the majority remain captive.
Uganda: Local Muslims burned a Christian pastor to death, “beyond recognition,” because he not only left Islam for Christianity, but, as an evangelist, was leading other Muslims to Christ. Due to the threats to his life, he originally fled his village in 2017 and worked for a Christian organization in a distant area where he resettled. But when that charity was permanently closed due to Covid-19 lockdowns, he had no choice but to return to his home village. According to a local source,
Immediately after arriving at his house, Muslims sent a young boy aged 14 who was a student at an Islamic school. He greeted the pastor in the Islamic way, ‘Asalamu Asalamu alaikumu [“Peace be upon you,” in Arabic, which Muslims are only to offer to fellow Muslims].’ The pastor refused to answer [according to the acceptable Muslim formula], but instead replied that Jesus loves you. The boy spat saliva on the ground and uttered the Islamic [jihadist] slogan, ‘Allahu Akbar [Allah is Greater]’ and ran away.’
That night, the pastor had supper at his brother’s house right next door, before returning home. “Upon arriving, he heard some footsteps outside and became fearful, and there and then he made a phone call telling me of his fears,” said his brother: “By 10:30 we saw flames of fire and smoke from his house. Arriving at the scene, the house was completely burnt up, and nearby was a small steel jerrycan, a cap and Koranic notes. The notes read, ‘Your enmity to Islam is what you have ripe [reaped?].’” The pastor is survived by his wife and two children, ages 10 and 17 (who at the time were in hiding elsewhere).
Pakistan: Following arguments and conflicts with Muslims, two Christian men were separately poisoned to death. According to the July 13 report, “Samuel Masih … was poisoned to death by his Muslim coworkers after a religious debate regarding the topic of Christian fasting.” Police initially refused to register a complaint, and did so only after the family loudly protested in the street. Separately, Arif Masih, 32, was
poisoned to death by Muhammad Tariq and Muhammad Majid… [T]he two Muslims abducted Masih from the street and took him to an unknown location. There, the men tortured Masih and forced him to ingest a substance that left him unconscious. Masih later died in hospital.
The Muslim murderers were apparently upset with him because he refused to withdraw a complaint he earlier submitted to police concerning how the two Muslim men had “humiliated and abused Masih’s sister, Rehana, while she was in the market purchasing groceries.”
Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Evangelists
Great Britain: On Sunday, July 25, a knife-wielding Muslim man, whose face was concealed by a standard coronavirus mask, punched and stabbed Hatun Tash, a female Christian refugee who fled Turkey to escape persecution following her conversion (video footage of the incident here). The attacker tried to stab her in the eye, but managed only to strike her forehead with his knife; a second stab swing hit her wrist, which she had raised to parry the blow. This occurred at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London, a place that is famous for debates, polemics, and apologetics between Muslims and Christians. After dropping his knife, the assailant fled the scene. Although police chased him, it is unknown if he was ever captured.
Uganda: A Muslim father beat and forced his daughter to swallow poison in an effort to kill her for converting to Christianity. Problems began for Hajat, a 38-year-old mother of three, soon after she converted earlier this year. “My mother warned me that the family was planning to kill me,” she later explained from her hospital bed, which prompted her to flee and take refuge with a pastor and his family. On learning of this, her father mobilized other Muslim relatives to track her down. In late June they found and beat her before the pastor’s house, when he was not there:
My father, Al-Hajji Mansuru Kiita, recited many Koranic verses cursing and denouncing me as no longer one of the family members. He started beating and torturing me with a blunt object, inflicting bruises on my back, chest and legs, and finally forced me to drink poison, which I tried to resist but swallowed a little of it.
The commotion eventually drew neighbors, which prompted the Muslim family to flee. The pastor “later came and found me fighting for my life. I was rushed to the nearby clinic for first aid, and later I was taken to another place for treatment and prayers…. I am restless with continuous pain in my stomach.” Adding to her woes, Hajat has since lost access to her three young children, who remain with their Muslim father.
Separately but similarly in Uganda, a Muslim man tried to split open the head of his brother—a convert to Christianity—with a swift blow of his machete. Abudlawali Kijwalo, 39, who, according to the July 14 report, “comes from family of devoted sheikhs and hajjis (pilgrims to Mecca),” was grazing his cattle when his brother, Musoga Murishid, appeared and asked: “Are you still a Muslim, or you are now a Christian?” Earlier, the convert was playing Christian music, which was apparently heard. “I am for Christ,” Kijwalo responded. At that point, according to the report,
His brother revealed a machete that had been strapped beneath his long robe and struck him on the head, sending Kijwalo sprawling and screaming… As he bled heavily, Murishid walked away, likely thinking he had killed him.
A village elder who witnessed the attack called for help and Kijwalo was rushed to a hospital, where he received urgent care and will reportedly survive the damage to done to his cranium.
Iran: Three Christians, all converts from Islam, were punished under a newly amended law “aimed at halting the growth of Christianity,” says a July 6 report. Article 500 of Iran’s penal code now states that “any deviant education or propaganda that contradicts or interferes with the sacred Sharia [Islamic law] will be severely punished.” Earlier, Iranian intelligence agents raided the three men’s homes; they “seized Bibles, cell phones and computers and ordered the group to stop all Christian activities.” But because the men “stood firm and refused to stop pursuing their faith,” they were each later charged under the amended article, and, on June 21, handed a five year prison sentence “for spreading ‘propaganda’ against Islam after they refused to renounce Christ,” as well as fines of 40 million tomans (US$1,600). According to the report,
Religious freedom activists warned that the amendment, which was first proposed in 2020 and passed by parliament on Jan. 13, could be used to attack religious dissidents and minority groups. The amendment was signed into law by then-President Hassan Rouhani on Feb. 18 and went into effect on March 5.
Algeria: On July 8, a judge sentenced a former Muslim man turned Christian to six months in prison and fined him 100,000 dinars (US$740) for distributing Bibles and “shaking the faith of a Muslim.” He was also accused of accepting unauthorized donations to help spread Christianity in the North African nation. The charges against him fall under Algeria’s Law 03/06, which appeared in 2005, and which makes it a crime to “aim to undermine the faith of a Muslim.” Punishments range from two to five years in prison. The man, Ahmed Beghal, denies all charges, and says “Accusations were brought against me by the National Gendarmerie to the court in a false and forged report.” He also lamented all “this injustice and pitfalls on the part of my family, society, court and security.” Due to his conversion, Beghal’s wife and children left him in 2017, and apparently helped instigate against him.
Sudan: On July 2 around midnight, Muslim gunmen attacked Boutros Badawi, a Christian activist and advisor to Sudan’s Minister of Religious Affairs. According to the report, “Armed with AK-47 assault rifles, they beat Badawi and threatened to kill him if he continued advocating the return of Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church property” to its rightful, Christian owners. “Next time we will kill you if you talk about SPEC property again,” one of the attackers told him, before striking him with his rifle. Badawi had also been receiving several threatening text messages before the assault. “We will use means that you might not like, and we will confront you with all weapons we have,” one read. The Christian official received hospital treatment for injuries on several parts of his body. Badawi has been vocally advocating for the return of church properties confiscated under the previous regime.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
Turkey: Video footage shared and later condemned by many Christian groups on social media showed two Turks dancing atop and “desecrating” an old Armenian church in Istanbul, late in the evening of Sunday, July 11. In the footage, the men appear gyrating next to a stone cross atop the courtyard gate of Surp Takavor Armenian Church, which has been desecrated before, including in 2018, when racial graffiti was spray-painted on its walls and garbage dumped before it.
Separately, the ancient Mor Aday Church in southeastern Turkey, originally built in the year 620, is now being used as a stable by local villagers, according to one report.
Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh: An important Armenian church and cultural center that was built in 1840 in Taghavard “is being threatened with destruction” by Azerbaijani authorities, notes a July 25 report. “In just over one month, between June 10 and July 12, a large swath of the village was destroyed. The current bulldozed section reaches just outside the church.” Caucasus Heritage Watch, which monitors and reports via satellite images, has called on Azerbaijani authorities to cease bulldozing the region and respect the church’s integrity. The report adds that “St. Astbatsatsin is one of several historic Armenian churches facing potential destruction in Artsakh, … after Azeri forces began to clear the region of any Christian history.”
Libya: Union Church, which was founded nearly sixty years ago in Tripoli in 1962, and which is formally recognized by the government, is on the verge of being evicted from its building over bureaucratic red-tape concerning its status since the Gaddafi regime first confiscated its land. It currently hosts four different Protestant congregations which are bracing to become churchless.
**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.
About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:
1)To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.
2)To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Mismanaging the environment will haunt Turkey for generations
Alexandra de CramerThe Arab Weekly/August 30/2021
Turkey has had, literally, a test by fire this summer. Along the southern coast of Anatolia, over 270 forest fires tore through 53 provinces. Nine people died. The ferociousness of this year’s conflagration, the worst ever, came down to one thing: ineptitude. Ineptitude in understanding the scale of climate change and in response to environmental calamity. The fires are symptomatic of Turkey’s environmental failure.
Wildfires are endemic to the region; they are expected every year and have been for thousands of years. In 2019, 11 square kilometres were lost to wildfires. This escalated to 20 square kilometres last year. But a 30 percent increase in aridity and record-breaking temperatures this year have intensified the damage. A record 1,600 square kilometres of forest were lost to fire, showing something altogether different was happening this year. Such is the accelerating pace of climate change.
Still, such effects can be mitigated. For example, by better tree planting under the country’s very own reforestation programme. But such a decision would have to go through Turkey’s forestry department, the agency in charge of stewardship of the country’s land bank. And that’s where the problem begins.
The department allocated 193 million Turkish lira in its budget this year for firefighting. That is roughly $22 million in today’s (much depressed) exchange rate. However, it spent only 3.4 million lira on fire mitigation projects and equipment in the first half of the year. So when fire descended on the town of Manavgat in Antalya province, Turkey was able to deploy only two firefighting aircraft. The country has a total of three such working planes. Other aircraft owned by the Turkish Aeronautical Association were deemed “old and not usable” and were not permitted to join the fight.
The government seemed to think it could banish the fires by an act of will. On August 2, the radio and television regulator warned TV stations not to give as much coverage to ongoing fires as they did to the successes in extinguishing forest burns. It threatened penalties for those that failed to do so. The following week, six stations, including HaberTurk and Fox News, were fined. Media outlets sympathetic to the government’s position, however, duly focused on areas where firefighting was more successful. This led many celebrities, such as the comedian and actor Sahan Gokbahar, to travel to areas with ongoing fires and report on them through social media.
In the face of a lack of government action, ordinary Turks took it upon themselves to organise a global call for help. The hashtag HelpTurkey went viral. The government, however, saw this as an attempt to undermine the administration. One official said it made Turkey look “weak,” and began a counter campaign with the hashtags WeDontNeedHelp and StrongTurkey. An investigation was launched into social media accounts that shared the hashtag HelpTurkey, accusing the owners of spreading “anxiety and fear.”
If all of this were not so tragic, it would have been laughable. What is one, after all, to make of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, tossing bags of tea to disaster victims from a moving vehicle?
Speculation is currently circulating that the fires were started by arsonists. The mayor of Antalya, who is also the head of the province of the same name, recently voiced such suspicions. So has the presidential communications director, Fahrettin Altun (the same one who said pleas for international help made Turkey look weak), who swore that investigations would be launched.
But if precedents are anything to go by, they will not amount to much. Although Turkey, in fact, offers protection to its forests in its constitution, noting that “forested areas that burn down can under no circumstances be zoned for construction and must therefore be reforested,” in too many cases the scorched land is replaced with real estate. The simple fact is that larger and more frequent forest fires must be expected. Turkey’s government has never been known to be populated by “tree huggers” and that is not about to change. But while it is bad enough to do nothing, Turkey is one of six countries and the only one of the G20, yet to ratify the Paris agreement on climate change, it is another thing to be aiding the rapid march of disaster. Thousands of hectares of forests have been cut down to make way for mining, airports and other projects. In mid-August, several residents in the city of Mugla were arrested for trying to save trees that were being felled by a mining company. And if fires weren’t bad enough, the Sea of Marmara has been plagued this summer by “sea snot.” Sea snot is as disgusting as it sounds: the actual mucus secretion of an overabundance of phytoplankton that feed on uncontrolled fertiliser run-offs. On land and in the sea, the government’s mismanagement of the environment, its stewardship of nature, will have repercussions for many generations to come.
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