English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 01/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

I am the good keeper of sheep: the good keeper gives his life for the sheep
John 10/01-16: Truly I say to you, He who does not go through the door into the place where the sheep are kept, but gets in by some other way, is a thief and an outlaw. He who goes in by the door is the keeper of the sheep. The porter lets him in; and the sheep give ear to his voice; he says over the names of the sheep, and takes them out. When he has got them all out, he goes before them, and the sheep go after him, for they have knowledge of his voice. They will not go after another who is not their keeper, but will go from him in flight, because his voice is strange to them. In this Jesus was teaching them in the form of a story: but what he said was not clear to them. So Jesus said again, Truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and outlaws: but the sheep did not give ear to them. I am the door: if any man goes in through me he will have salvation, and will go in and go out, and will get food. The thief comes only to take the sheep and to put them to death: he comes for their destruction: I have come so that they may have life and have it in greater measure. I am the good keeper of sheep: the good keeper gives his life for the sheep. He who is a servant, and not the keeper or the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and goes in flight, away from the sheep; and the wolf comes down on them and sends them in all directions: Because he is a servant he has no interest in the sheep. I am the good keeper; I have knowledge of my sheep, and they have knowledge of me, Even as the Father has knowledge of me and I of the Father; and I am giving my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep which are not of this field: I will be their guide in the same way, and they will give ear to my voice, so there will be one flock and one keeper.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 31-February 01/2021

Health Ministry: 2,139 new Corona cases, 51 deaths
Army: Arrest of 17 persons involved in riots, vandalism acts in Tripoli
Lebanon: Violent clashes amid angry public protests over coronavirus economic fallout
Fahmi inspects Tripoli’s municipality building, holds security meeting at the Serail
Young men burn tires outside Tripoli’s Serail, throw stones at the security forces
French president plans third visit to Lebanon
Al-Rahi Says Aoun-Hariri War of Words 'Saddening, Shameful'
Plot to Get Rid of Hariri’s Mandate by Spurring Chaos in Tripoli Foiled
Protesters from across Lebanon Flock to Tripoli in Solidarity
First Lebanese Released by UAE Arrives in Beirut
Fahmi Says There was a Bid to 'Destroy State's Prestige' in Tripoli
Small Bomb Explodes in West Bekaa Town
Politicians Take to Twitter to Mourn Michel Murr
Veteran Politician Michel Murr Dies from Covid-19

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 31-February 01/2021

Unidentified aircraft target pro-Iranian militias in eastern Syria - report
Iran’s regime executes champion boxer after torture, third in 4 months/Benjamin Weinthal/The Jerusalem Post/January 31/2021
Zarif Urges 'Inclusive' Afghan Govt. in Meeting with Taliban
Taliban visit Iran hoping to sideline US
Car Bombs Kill 11 in Turkish-Held North Syria
Syria: Economic Crisis Exhausts Damascus, Regime Blames 'Autonomous Administration'
King of Jordan Reiterates Importance of 'Two-State Solution'
Egypt Re-Nominates Aboul Gheit as Arab League Secretary
Hemedti to Visit Qatar in First Sudanese Official Trip Since Bashir's Ouster
Iraqi Forces Thwart Terrorist Plot in Nineveh
Palestinian Killed in West Bank Knife Attack
Ultra-Orthodox Defy Israel Lockdown for Rabbi's Funeral
Dubai Announces Alliance to Speed Covid Vaccine Delivery
Over 4,000 Detained at Russia-Wide Protests
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 31-February 01/2021

Erdogan’s lack of accountability risks Turkey’s security/Pinar Tremblay/The Jerusalem Post/January 31/2021
China Doesn't Have to Lift a Finger to Push Biden Around/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/January 31/2021
New Team in Washington: Beyond Tokenism/Amir Taheri/Asharq al-Awsat/January 31/2021
Iran Continues to Test Biden’s Limits/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 31/2021
Iran is upping the ante but Biden must not bite/Raghida Dergham/The National/January 31/2021
Israel on war footing as US mulls return to Iran nuclear deal/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 31/2021
How Lebanon’s poor are pawns in Hezbollah’s game/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/January 31/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 31-February 01/2021

Health Ministry: 2,139 new Corona cases, 51 deaths
NNA/Sunday 31 January 2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Sunday, the registration of 2,139 new Corona infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 301,052.
It also indicated that 51 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.

Army: Arrest of 17 persons involved in riots, vandalism acts in Tripoli
NNA/Sunday 31 January 2021
In an issued communiqué this evening, the Lebanese Army Command indicated that in wake of the events that took place in the city of Tripoli in the past few days, an Intelligence Directorate patrol arrested 17 individuals for acts of rioting, sabotaging, and infringing on public and private property, throwing Molotov cocktails at the security forces, and suspected participation of some in setting fire to the municipality building and throwing grenades at the Tripoli Serail.
The investigation has begun under the supervision of the concerned judiciary, while search operations are ongoing in pursuit of the remaining persons involved in the unfortunate incidents.
 

Lebanon: Violent clashes amid angry public protests over coronavirus economic fallout
AFP/Sunday 31 January 2021
Clashes broke out Sunday in the impoverished Lebanese city of Tripoli, the latest violence between security forces and protesters furious at the economic fallout of strict coronavirus lockdown measures. Protesters took to the streets of Lebanon's second city after an otherwise calm weekend, that followed days of angry demonstrations that left one person dead and 400 others wounded. Visit our dedicated coronavirus site here for all the latest updates. On Sunday afternoon, a few hundred demonstrators had gathered in central Tripoli's Al-Nour square, after calls on social media for people to rally in solidarity. Then, later on Sunday evening, youths gathered outside government buildings -- with police lobbing tear gas from the roofs to disperse the crowd, an AFP journalist at the scene said. Soldiers, deployed after the unrest earlier in the week, also fired tear gas. The Lebanese Red Cross treated 10 people hit by rocks or who were struggling to breathe because of tear gas, its secretary-general George Kettane told AFP. The army said on Sunday that 17 people had been arrested on charges including "rioting, destruction (and) attacking public and private property," during the week's protests. Some were arrested for hurling Molotov cocktails at security forces and for trying to set fire to Tripoli's government headquarters, the army statement said. Protesters, who began demonstrations on January 25, say they are angry at pandemic lockdown restrictions they say are destroying their livelihoods. But, in Lebanon's fractious and divided politics, some politicians and media have questioned the apparently spontaneous nature of the protests. Lebanon this month recorded one of the world's steepest per-capita surges in Covid-19 infections, forcing authorities to impose a full lockdown until February 8. Authorities have been accused of failing to support the most disadvantaged, already struggling amid Lebanon's worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. Tripoli was at the forefront of a nationwide protest movement that erupted in October 2019, in part due to economic hardship and demanded deep-rooted reforms of Lebanon's nepotistic, sectarian political system

Fahmi inspects Tripoli’s municipality building, holds security meeting at the Serail
NNA/Sunday 31 January 2021
After his tour of the municipality building in Tripoli this morning where he had a closer look at the damages inflicted by the recent unfortunate events in the city, Caretaker Interior and Municipalities Minister Mohamad Fahmi inspected the security units deployed throughout the city, and then held a meeting in the Serail, attended by Commander of the Northern Region, Colonel Youssef Darwish, Commander of the Internal Security Forces Unit in Tripoli, Colonel Abdel-Nasser Ghamrawi, Head of the Northern Information Branch, Colonel Mohamad al-Arab, and Commander of the Northern Investigation Unit, Major Boutros Saideh. Fahmi commended "the role and efforts exerted by the security forces to control the situation in Tripoli, protect it and ward off strife, armed with their faith and steadfastness in serving the nation, which has never wavered despite the prevailing economic conditions in the country.”
He stressed that "the security forces will not be complacent in defending Tripoli and all Lebanese regions," stressing that "all military forces will work in full strength to prevent any harm to the state and any infringement upon public and private property."

Young men burn tires outside Tripoli’s Serail, throw stones at the security forces
NNA/Sunday 31 January 2021
Following the sit-in held at Al-Nour Square this afternoon as part of the protests against the deteriorating daily-living and economic conditions, and in solidarity with the people of Tripoli, a group of young men headed to the entrance of the Tripoli Serail, where they set fire to the tires in front of the guards' room, and then went to the Serail’s back door and started throwing stones intensively towards the security forces, NNA correspondent reported. The security forces, in turn, responded by firing tear gas canisters to disperse the demonstrators and keep them away from the rear entrance of the Serail building.
 

French president plans third visit to Lebanon
The Arab Weekly/January 31/2021
Speaking at a media roundtable, Macron said the French plan was the only solution to Lebanon’s crisis
PARIS – President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that France’s road map for easing the crisis in Lebanon was still on the table and he planned to make a third visit there, Al Arabiya television reported. Speaking at a media roundtable, Macron said the French plan was the only solution to Lebanon’s crisis and that he would do all he could to assist the formation of a government, according to the Saudi-owned channel. The French president has been spearheading international efforts to rescue Lebanon, once a French protectorate, from its financial meltdown – its deepest crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
He has travelled twice to Beirut since a huge explosion at the port in August devastated swathes of the capital, but no progress has been made to form a credible interim government yet. Macron was scheduled to visit Lebanon a third time in December but the trip was cancelled after he was diagnosed with COVID-19. In Lebanon, fractious politicians have been unable to agree on a new government since the last one quit in the aftermath of the Beirut blast, leaving Lebanon adrift as poverty spreads. A new government is the first step on a French roadmap that envisages a cabinet that would take steps to tackle endemic corruption and implement reforms needed to trigger billions of dollars of international aid to fix the economy, which has been crushed by a mountain of debt. Earlier this week, France said the United States under new President Joe Biden needs to adopt a more realistic attitude towards the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement to help break the political and economic impasse in Lebanon. While former US president Donald Trump’s administration backed Macron’s initiative, it opposed efforts to include the heavily armed Hezbollah that wields enormous power in Lebanon and which Washington brands a terrorist group. “There is urgency in Lebanon and we think that there are priorities that we (France and the United States) can pursue together,” a French presidential official told reporters on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. He added Macron’s first priority was putting together a viable Lebanese government.
“We don’t expect a change in American attitude towards Hezbollah, but more American realism on what is possible or not given the circumstances in Lebanon,” he said, without elaborating on what Paris wanted Washington to do. It remains unclear how Biden’s administration might tackle Lebanon. The 2015 US Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act (HIFPA), which aimed to sever the group’s global funding networks, was imposed during President Barack Obama’s administration, in which Biden was vice president.
 

Al-Rahi Says Aoun-Hariri War of Words 'Saddening, Shameful'
Naharnet/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lamented the ongoing exchange of tirades between President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri as “saddening and shameful.” “It is truly saddening and shameful that an unjustified dispute over the implementation of Article 53/4 of the constitution is the reason behind the tense relation between the president and the PM-designate, which has reached the extent of communicating through the responses and counter-responses of press offices and loyalist political parties,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. “It is regrettable to say that these are not the norms for a relation between a president -- who is supposed to rise above conflicts and parties -- and a PM-designate who is supposed to coordinate with everyone and to be liberated from everyone,” the patriarch added. Warning that Lebanon will not have a new government should the relation not be mended between Aoun and Hariri, al-Rahi emphasized that the two men are “obliged” to reach an agreement over a national “mission government.” Its ministers should be “extraordinary specialists” and not “ordinary ones who belong to leaders and parties,” the patriarch added.
And as he condemned the violence that marred the latest protests in Tripoli and “the attacks on public institutions, private property, the Lebanese Army and security forces,” al-Rahi said politicians should have acted before the unrest to address the situations of the city’s impoverished neighborhoods.
 

Plot to Get Rid of Hariri’s Mandate by Spurring Chaos in Tripoli Foiled
Beirut- Mohammed Shukair/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Rioters who infiltrated the ranks of protesters demonstrating against poor living conditions in Lebanon’s second-largest city, Tripoli, had intentions of dragging the northern metropolitan into bloody clashes with security forces to force Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri to step down from forming a new Lebanese government, a source with knowledge of the matter reported. Speaking under the conditions of anonymity, the source confirmed that the plot to get Hariri to drop government formation has been thwarted. “Hariri will remain steadfast in his position and will not deviate from his vision of establishing a government according to the specifications set by French President Emmanuel Macron in his initiative to save Lebanon,” the source confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat. Stressing that the PM-designate continues to enjoy the support of former prime ministers, the source asserted that Hariri will not cave to extortion and intimidation campaigns mounted by Lebanese President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil. Hariri, according to the source, will no longer remain silent and is expected to make a firm stance on the upcoming 16th anniversary of his father’s assassination. Aoun and Bassil need to seriously reevaluate their stands, the source noted, adding that the true nature of their positions has been exposed. Despite being president, Aoun stood idle in the face of Tripoli being unraveled by poverty and made the impression that the city was not one of his priorities. “Why do some of the heads of state insist on punishing Tripoli?” the source wondered. Apart from being marginalized by the Aoun administration, Tripoli has faced vicious attempts for casting it in the light of a rogue city. Nevertheless, Tripoli has a history of rising above these attempts and has shown serious compliance with state institutions. For instance, the city had unconditionally implemented a security scheme put in motion under the government of former prime minister Tammam Salam. It successfully ended a series of violent clashes between its Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods.
 

Protesters from across Lebanon Flock to Tripoli in Solidarity
Naharnet/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Protester delegations from the various Lebanese regions rallied Sunday in Tripoli’s al-Nour Square in a show of solidarity following this week’s violent protests in the northern city. The National News Agency said the demonstrators came from Beirut, Metn, Sidon, the Bekaa, Dinniyeh, Minieh and Akkar to “express solidarity with Tripoli’s sons and condemn the acts of rioting that the capital of the north witnessed days ago.”Army troops and security forces deployed at al-Nour Square and its vicinity during the rally, NNA said. It added that the protesters carried Lebanese flags and banners containing solidarity slogans. They also chanted slogans and called for continuing protests against the ruling class, stressing that “Tripoli is unified and will not be a hostage for conflicts between political forces. After the end of the al-Nour Square rally, some protesters hurled stones at Tripoli's Serail, which prompted security forces to respond with tear gas, al-Jadeed TV said.
 

First Lebanese Released by UAE Arrives in Beirut
Naharnet/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Lebanese national Zeid al-Diqa arrived Sunday in Beirut after being released by the UAE following a mediation by General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim. Al-Diqa, who is one of 11 Lebanese detainees that the UAE has agreed to release, arrived aboard a Lebanese plane belonging to national carrier Middle East Airlines, the National News Agency said. LBCI TV has identified the other detainees who will be released as Mohammed al-Durr, Nader Khalil, Mohammed Husseini, Hussein Zreiq, Maher al-Zein, Zaher Khalil, Zaher al-Zein, Hassan Zreiq and Ali Mukhadder. In an interview with al-Hurra television, Ibrahim had revealed that he had been in contact with Emirati officials over this file for the past two years. The detainees, most of whom belong to the Shiite sect, had been accused of forming a Hizbullah cell in the Gulf country.

Fahmi Says There was a Bid to 'Destroy State's Prestige' in Tripoli
Naharnet/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi on Sunday defended the performance of security agencies in unrest-hit Tripoli, claiming that there was an attempt to “destroy the state’s prestige” through attacks on certain public buildings. “Security agencies did not commit mistakes in Tripoli and there was an objective to destroy the state’s prestige,” Fahmi said in a TV interview. “Tripoli’s municipality is not a barracks for the army or security forces but rather represents state institutions and the investigation has not ended yet,” the minister added. “Security forces and the Lebanese Army defended the Serail in Tripoli and when they (protesters) failed to storm it, they headed to the municipality building,” Fahmi said. The minister also dismissed accusations that the army’s performance was marred by shortcomings during the unrest.
Fahmi later inspected the municipality’s torched building at the head of a senior security delegation, where he was met by municipal chief Riad Yamaq.

Small Bomb Explodes in West Bekaa Town
Naharnet/January 31/2021
An improvised explosive device containing around 200 grams of highly explosive TNT was hurled Sunday from the window of a house in the West Bekaa town of Libbaya, the National News Agency said. The explosion caused material damage and a Honda SUV parked near the house was affected, NNA added. Army troops and security forces have since arrived on the scene and launched an investigation to unveil the incident’s circumstances, the agency said.

Politicians Take to Twitter to Mourn Michel Murr
Naharnet/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil led Lebanese politicians on Sunday in mourning the death of veteran ex-deputy PM, former interior minister and Northern Metn lawmaker Michel Murr.
In a tweet, Hariri said Murr played “special roles during must tenures and critical junctures in Lebanon’s history,” offering warm condolences to his family and supporters. Bassil for his part said Murr left a special mark on Lebanese politics.
“We disagreed with him during the era of (Syrian) tutelage and we agreed after it ended. Electorally, we allied and parted, but we had always appreciated people’s love for him,” Bassil added. Murr was also mourned by the MPs Qassem Hashem, Farid Haykal al-Khazen, Maged Eddy Abillama, Hagop Pakradounian, Nehme Tohme, Asaad Hardan and Nazih Najem and ex-ministers Salim Jreissati and Nicolas Tueni.

Veteran Politician Michel Murr Dies from Covid-19
Naharnet/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Veteran Lebanese politician Michel Murr died Sunday from Covid-19, his family and state-run National News Agency said. He was around 89 years old. Murr had served as deputy prime minister and interior minister and was a prominent and powerful lawmaker in the Northern Metn region.
His health had deteriorated in recent years and he stopped attending parliamentary sessions. Murr was born to a Greek Orthodox family in the Northern Metn town of Bteghrine in 1932. He studied engineering at St. Joseph University and graduated in 1955. Murr lived in West Africa during much of the 1960s and made a sizable fortune there in the construction industry. He returned to Lebanon and was elected to parliament in 1968 by aligning himself with Pierre Gemayel who dominated politics in the Metn district. Murr lost his reelection bid in 1972, a defeat which he is said to have blamed on Gemayel. In the mid-1980s, he supported the LF faction of Elie Hobeika and participated in the negotiation of the Tripartite Accord, an agreement by Hobeika, Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblatt and Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri that would have legalized Syrian presence in Lebanon. His son, ex-defense minister Elias Murr, married Karine Lahoud, the daughter of then-army commander Emile Lahoud in 1992. Later they divorced. Michel Murr is the grandfather of ex-Lebanese MP and journalist Nayla Tueni and ex-father-in-law of slain journalist and MP Gebran Tueni.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 31-February 01/2021

Unidentified aircraft target pro-Iranian militias in eastern Syria - report
The Jerusalem Post/January 31/2021
If the strikes were in fact, carried out by Israel, this would mark the fourth alleged Israeli airstrike reported in Syria this month.
Unidentified aircraft targeted sites belonging to pro-Iranian militias near Al-Bukamal in the Deir Ezzor region of eastern Syria on Saturday night, according to local news source Deir EzZor 24 and Syrian news source Step News Agency.
Deir EzZor 24 reported that over 15 airstrikes were reported and believed to be carried out by Israel, adding that the target may have been the Imam Ali base in the area controlled by Iran. The base includes tunnels, buildings and warehouses built over the past two years at the site located near a strategic border crossing between Syria and Iraq. A number of vehicles were targeted in the strikes, according to Step News Agency. On Friday, Iranian-made missiles were reportedly transported to the area through the Syrian-Iraqi border crossing.
No information was available on damages or injuries as of Sunday morning. Earlier this month, airstrikes, allegedly carried out by Israel, targeted dozens of sites in the Deir al-Zor region of eastern Syria and in Albukamal near the Syria-Iraq border. The strikes were aimed at dozens of warehouses and sites belonging to pro-Iranian militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) throughout the area, according to Deir EzZor 24. While Syrian state media and Iranian media have refrained from reporting on casualties, large numbers of ambulances were reported in the area soon after the strike. Independent reports on the number of casualties ranged between 25 and 50. The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen news reported that one person was killed and 14 others were wounded in the strikes, adding that the strikes were carried out by Israeli aircraft using intelligence from the US military. Sites belonging to Iranian forces and Iranian-backed militias in the Deir al-Zor area have been hit repeatedly by airstrikes, often by “unidentified aircraft,” in recent years. If the strikes were in fact, carried out by Israel, this would mark the fourth alleged Israeli airstrike reported in Syria this month. The IDF rarely confirms reports on strikes in Syria.
According to television station Iran International, local sources said that they did not confirm the regime's allegations of Mutairi's membership in ISIS. Journalist Hussain Abdul-Hussain tweeted, “Iran regime executed opposition activist Ali Mutairi. Don’t expect the UN Human Rights Council to fly an investigation commission to Iran.”Iran International reported in Persian that, according to human rights activists Mutairi was “physically and mentally tortured in the detention center of an intelligence agency, and after being transferred to Sheiban Prison, he was severely harassed in solitary confinement by prison officials.” In September, human rights organizations and Western governments said Iran’s regime brutally tortured champion wrestler Navid Afkari to frame him on a charge of killing a Basij security guard tracking protestors during demonstrations against the regime in 2018. The regime hanged Afkari for his peaceful protest against regime corruption, according to Iranian human rights experts and the US government. Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted: "Iran's cruel execution of Navid Afkari is a travesty. No country should arrest, torture, or execute peaceful protestors or activists."
In January, the clerical regime executed a second champion wrestler, Mehdi Ali Hosseini.

Iran’s regime executes champion boxer after torture, third in 4 months
Benjamin Weinthal/The Jerusalem Post/January 31/2021
Mutairi faced severe torture that led to his false confession that he killed two Basij militia members. The Islamic Republic of Iran continued its execution spree of elite Iranian athletes with the killing of champion boxer and prominent sports coach Ali Mutairi on Thursday, in Sheiban Prison located in the Khuzestan province.The UN condemned the execution of Mutairi, and activists and family members said the 30-year-old Mutairi faced severe torture, which led to his false confession that he had killed two Basij militia members in 2018.
A UN spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that "We strongly condemn the series of executions – at least 28 – since mid-December, including eople from minority groups. We urge the authorities to halt the imminent execution of Javid Dehghan, to review his and other death penalty cases in line with human rights law. We continue to engage with the authorities in Iran on the issues of executions and the death penalty.”Rob Koehler, director-general of Global Athlete, an international advocacy group for Olympic athletes, said that “The International Olympic Committee must act now. Their silence has left them complicit; their lack of action clearly indicates they favor stakeholders over athlete rights.""The tragic recent execution of boxer Ali Mutairi is the third athlete in just four months that has been murdered by the Iranian government,” he said. “The IOC must immediately suspend the Iran National Olympic Committee. They can no longer neglect their duty of care; athletes’ lives are at stake.” The Post sent a press query to the IOC. The Islamic Republic News Agency reported in Persian that the Khuzestan justice department said “Ali Motiri, a terrorist member of the ISIS group, attacked the Basij base,” resulting in the deaths of two Basij members.

Zarif Urges 'Inclusive' Afghan Govt. in Meeting with Taliban
Agence France Presse/January 31/2021
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday called for the formation of an "all-inclusive" Afghan government during a meeting with a Taliban delegation in Tehran, the ministry said. A delegation from the movement headed by its co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Iran on Tuesday to exchange "views on the peace process in Afghanistan" at the invitation of the ministry. The visit comes as peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban resumed in early January in the Qatari capital Doha, meant to end a conflict spanning two decades. "Political decisions cannot be made in a vacuum," Zarif told the delegation, according to a ministry statement. "The formation of an all-inclusive government must take place in a participatory process and by taking into account the fundamental structures, institutions and laws, such as the constitution," he added. He also welcomed the idea of forming an "all-inclusive government with the participation of all ethnic and political groups". Zarif expressed hope the Taliban would "focus efforts on an immediate end to the pains of Afghan people, so that the establishment of peace in Afghanistan would strip the outsiders of a pretext for occupation."Iran has previously called for the forces of its arch rival the United States to withdraw from Afghanistan, its eastern neighbor.
Lack of progress
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday urged the new US President Joe Biden to put pressure on the Taliban and not rush to withdraw more troops from Afghanistan. His appeal came days after the Biden administration said it intends to reconsider a February 2020 agreement between former president Donald Trump and the Taliban. The agreement includes the complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for the Taliban halting attacks on US forces, sharply decreasing the level of violence in the country and advancing peace talks with the government in Kabul. The Afghan government blames the Taliban for the lack of progress in negotiations that started in September last year and resumed this month. "Since January 6, our delegation is in Doha ready to start the talks based on the agendas. But the other side is busy travelling abroad," government negotiator Muhammad Rasul Talib told reporters in Doha. "The negotiation is not in a stalemate yet, but there is a pause and the reason for that is the Taliban," he added. "The Afghan delegation is calling on them to come back, we believe the current opportunity to solve the problems should not be wasted." Kabul is pushing for a permanent ceasefire and to protect governance arrangements in place since the ouster of the Taliban by a US-led invasion following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York. But violence has escalated across Afghanistan, with the Taliban refusing to make concessions.

Taliban visit Iran hoping to sideline US
The Jerusalem Post/January 31/2021
Iran is attempting to undermine the US role in Kabul and to hold up the Taliban as either rulers of Afghanistan or equals to the government.
The Taliban rode high during the Trump administration because they knew the US president wanted to leave Afghanistan. They hoped for a trip to Camp David and acted like the rulers of Afghanistan when they went to peace talks in Doha in Qatar. Now the Taliban face a Biden administration that may be tougher on them. To deal with this new reality, they are growing closer to Iran. Iran hosted a high-level Taliban delegation recently for talks about the “peace process.” The group has been meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said the two sides will discuss “relations between Tehran and Kabul, issues related to Afghan refugees in Iran, and prevailing political and security situation of Afghanistan and the region.”  Support for the Taliban’s growing role in Afghanistan, after 20 years of US war there, has come from Iran, Russia and Qatar, and will likely come from Turkey and Pakistan, Malaysia and other countries that form part of an authoritarian or Islamist group that seek to remove pro-Western governments. Tasnim News in Iran highlighted the new Taliban talks in Tehran and made clear how Iran views the situation. During the recent Iran-Taliban meetings, the sides exchanged views on the region, the internal situation in Afghanistan and how to advance the peace process in the country, Iranian media said. “Referring to the US actions in Afghanistan, our foreign minister emphasized that the US is not a good mediator and ruling,” the report notes. Zarif said: “We support an inclusive Islamic government in the presence of all ethnicities and religions and consider it a necessity for Afghanistan... The people of Afghanistan are yours and should not be targeted in operations.” The statements clearly indicate Iran’s attempt to undermine the US role in Kabul and to hold up the Taliban as either rulers of Afghanistan or equals to the government. This is the same method Iran uses in supporting Hamas terrorists in Gaza, Islamic Jihad and other groups, including its proxy militia allies such as Hezbollah, Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. Iran’s goal is to cultivate religious extremist groups across the region, either among Shi’ites or sometimes among Sunnis like Hamas and the Taliban, and advance them to take over countries or hijack political systems. Turkey also supports this method and hosts Hamas terrorists. Turkey, like Iran, seeks to use proxies and militias to hijack or undermine foreign states with the goal of reducing US influence in the region and partnering with Russia and Iran.

Car Bombs Kill 11 in Turkish-Held North Syria
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Car bombs killed 11 people including six civilians in two separate incidents in Turkish-held northern Syria on Sunday, a monitoring group said.
The first attack near a cultural center in the town of Azaz killed six civilians including a young girl, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. An AFP reporter at the scene saw a mangled car ablaze, black smoke billowing into the sky. A man rushed away from the site of the blast, carrying what appeared to be a child wrapped in a bloodied cloth. In the second incident, a car bomb targeted a checkpoint of pro-Ankara rebels near the town of Al-Bab, killing five fighters, the Observatory added. Areas of northern Syria held by Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies are regularly rocked by such bombings.
There is usually no claim for them, although Turkey routinely blames Kurdish fighters it accuses of being "terrorists" linked to its outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). On Saturday, explosives planted in another vehicle took the lives of eight civilians including four children in the city of Afrin, which Turkish forces and their proxies seized from Kurdish forces in 2018. Syria's war has killed more than 387,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. It has since evolved into a complex conflict involving jihadists and foreign powers. Northern neighbor Turkey has seized control of several regions inside Syria in military campaigns against the Islamic State group and Kurdish fighters since 2016.
 

Syria: Economic Crisis Exhausts Damascus, Regime Blames 'Autonomous Administration'
Damascus, Daraa, Hasakah- Kamal Sheikho, Asharq Al-Awsat, and Riad al-Zayn/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Markets in Damascus registered a decrease in the exchange rate of the Syrian pound against the US dollar, a few hours after the explosion of one of the branch gas lines in Al-Sukhnah in the desert of Homs, on the administrative borders of Deir Ezzor governorate. The USD exchange rate in Damascus hit SYP 3040 on Saturday, while in Aleppo it reached SYP 3030, amid the exacerbation of the fuel and bread crises in the regime-controlled areas. In parallel, the Syrian Jazira region saw the eruption of chaos. A video broadcast by Kurdish activists in the city of Hassakeh showed the police chasing a number of civilian demonstrators, who were protesting against a security siege imposed on the neighborhoods of the city center, which is controlled by the Syrian regime. On the other hand, the imam and preacher of the Great Mosque in Hassakeh, Ahmed Ismail, called on the “international community and humanitarian organizations” to convey the voice of the people to the world, and to shed light on the “harsh siege” imposed by the Syrian Democratic Forces on the people of the cities of Hassakeh and Qamishli. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the Syrian regime forces and their security apparatus continue to impose a blockade on areas controlled by the Kurdish forces within the towns and villages of the northern countryside of Aleppo, “where the Fourth Division checkpoints prevent the entry of flour, fuel, and medicine.” The neighborhoods of Hassakeh are witnessing an unprecedented military mobilization on both sides, with military skirmishes recorded despite Moscow’s efforts to reduce the escalation.

King of Jordan Reiterates Importance of 'Two-State Solution'
Amman- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
King of Jordan Abdallah II reiterated the need to reach a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause, that meets all the “legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people.” During an interview with Petra News Agency, King Abdallah said that the region and world as a whole cannot achieve security, stability, and peace without reaching a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause that meets all the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people, based on the two-state solution. The monarch asserted that the two-state solution guarantees the establishment of an independent, sovereign, and viable Palestinian state on 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital. He noted that this ensures living in peace and security alongside Israel, in accordance with international law, recognized terms of reference, and the Arab Peace Initiative.
The King asserted that the Palestinian cause is central to Jordan, saying: “We continue to stand alongside our Palestinian brethren with all our power and capabilities as they seek to gain their just and legitimate rights.”
Jordan is constantly communicating and coordinating with Palestinian officials in this regard. “Our martyrs have given their lives to defend Palestinian soil and our ongoing efforts to reactivate the peace process will continue,” said the King, reiterating that the two-state solution is the only way to achieve just, lasting, and comprehensive peace.

Egypt Re-Nominates Aboul Gheit as Arab League Secretary
Cairo- Mohammed Nabil Helmy/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced his country's intention to re-nominate the current Secretary-General of the Arab League for a second term. The Egyptian presidency issued a statement Saturday announcing that Sisi sent messages to Arab leaders to express Egypt's intention to re-nominate Ahmed Aboul Gheit as the League’s chief for another five years. The statement indicated that Cairo is looking forward to the leaders' support for this nomination, in accordance with the provisions of the League’s Charter. The presidency spokesman, Ambassador Bassam Rady, explained that the re-nomination of the Sec-Gen comes within the framework of the great interest that Egypt attaches to the work of the Arab League which serves Arab people. Sisi is keen to provide all possible support to the organization where Arabs’ aspirations are embodied for a coordinated collective action aimed at serving Arab peoples and interests, according to Rady. He indicated that this characterized the role of the Secretary-General during his first term of the leadership of the joint Arab action system during a challenging phase in the Arab region. Aboul Gheit, 78, is the eighth general secretary of the League since its establishment. He began his diplomatic career in the mid-sixties, and held various positions, lastly as Egypt’s Foreign Minister between 2004 and 2011 before he was elected to lead the AL. Abdul Rahman Azzam was elected as the first general secretary of the university in 1945, and seven Egyptian officials held the same position.
The late Tunisian politician, Chedli Klibi, held the position between 1979 until 1990 following Arab countries' boycott of Egypt after it signed a peace treaty with Israel.

Hemedti to Visit Qatar in First Sudanese Official Trip Since Bashir's Ouster
Khartoum - Ahmad Youness/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Sudanese Vice President of the Transitional Sovereignty Council Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, arrived Saturday in Doha marking the first visit of a Sudanese top official after the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir. Hemedti was accompanied by Foreign Minister Omer Gamereldin and head of the General Intelligence Service Gamal Abdel-Majid to hold talks with Qatari officials on bilateral relations and Sudan's position on the border dispute with Ethiopia. The VP announced his arrival to Doha on his Facebook page, indicating that the visit will address the bilateral ties and promotion of cooperation in a way that serves the interests of both states. The visit aims to highlight the Sudanese position on the border dispute with Ethiopia and the negotiations concerning the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), as part of a government’s diplomatic campaign to explain its stance to brotherly and friendly countries. The Sudanese-Qatari relations were strained after the Transitional Military Council, which took power after Bashir, refused to receive the Qatari Foreign Minister in April 2019. The Council did not grant permission to the official's plane to land after it arrived in Sudanese airspace. The incident took place less than a week after the Sudanese revolution which toppled the Islamist regime. Earlier, the Sudanese delegation visited Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Chad, South Africa, and Kenya, and discussed with the participating states in the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the dispute with Ethiopia after Sudan retrieved control over al-Fashagah area. The ICGLR is an inter-governmental organization of African countries in the African Great Lakes Region and was established in 1994 to resolve peace and security issues. In 2020, ICGLR held its ordinary summit of heads of state and government meeting in Angola via video link.

Iraqi Forces Thwart Terrorist Plot in Nineveh
Baghdad- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
The Iraqi National Security announced Saturday it apprehended seven wanted militants plotting a terrorist attack in Nineveh, north of Iraq. The terrorists were wanted by the judiciary under Article 4 on terrorism and were planning to form a cell to attack the governorate. They confessed to carrying out armed attacks against the Iraqi security forces during the liberation operations. The Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced its new procedures to curb terrorist operations and handle intelligence information on terrorists. The spokesman Saad Maan said that measures were tightened at checkpoints based on security or intelligence information. Maan pointed out that the number of fixed checkpoints was reduced in the recent period, while mobile ones were being used at different times and places. A member of the committee, Abdul Khaliq al-Azzawi, said that securing the border is crucial for general security, especially as it faces great challenges in light of the increased activity of terrorist organizations in Syria that try to transfer their operations into Iraq. Azzawi added that the committee supported a proposal to allocate an item in the 2021 budget to finance the security plans for the Iraqi Syrian border, which will have positive implications on the general security and reduce challenges, especially in the western regions. Meanwhile, the Military Intelligence Directorate arrested four Syrians trying to infiltrate Zummar district in Nineveh. The directorate issued a statement indicating that following accurate intel, it arrested four Syrians trying to illegally enter into the Iraqi territories. Furthermore, the commander of Anbar Operations, Major General Nasser al-Ghanem, announced that a number of ISIS members had been killed, including the military official, during a security operation in al-Rutba desert.
Ghanem declared that the First Division of Anbar Operations Forces killed the ISIS operatives who were wearing explosive belts in Faydat al-Ghazlan area in the desert. In Kirkuk, Iraqi forces also pursued ISIS elements, especially after the organization increased its operations in the governorate and nearby areas. Spokesman of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Major General Yahya Rasoul, announced that the security forces had killed a number of ISIS terrorists in a clash in the Daquq district, in eastern Kirkuk governorate. Rasoul announced that a unit of the 9th Armored Division combed Wadi al-Sham in Daquq, in pursuit of ISIS remnants, noting that the operation resulted in the killing of a number of terrorists, and the discovery of a number of booby-trapped vehicles.

Palestinian Killed in West Bank Knife Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
The Israeli army said it killed a Palestinian who carried out an attempted knife attack Sunday in the Gush Etzion area of the occupied West Bank. “A knife attack was reported at the Gush Etzion junction, south of Bethlehem,” the army said in a statement. “The attacker was neutralized.”
The attacker “is dead”, the army told AFP, confirming that the military had killed the assailant. Gush Etzion is a bloc of two dozen Israeli settlements and outposts near Bethlehem. There is frequent friction at the nearby junction, which has been the site of numerous so-called lone wolf Palestinian attacks.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. There are currently about 475,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank living in communities considered illegal by most of the international community, alongside some 2.8 million Palestinians. All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are regarded as illegal by most of the international community.

Ultra-Orthodox Defy Israel Lockdown for Rabbi's Funeral
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews defied Israel's coronavirus restrictions to attend a rabbi's funeral on Sunday, prompting Defense Minister Benny Gantz to demand the community's repeated breaking of lockdown rules must end. A huge crowd, many not wearing masks, packed the streets in Jerusalem for the funeral of 99-year-old Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, head of the influential Brisk yeshiva, or religious educational institute. Soloveitchik died earlier on Sunday. Israel's ultra-Orthodox, or haredim, have been at the center of the country's struggles to control the spread of coronavirus, with some groups flagrantly defying lockdown rules, especially concerning school and synagogue closures. Police seeking to enforce the lockdown have in recent days clashed with haredim in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood and in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv. While police were on hand for the rabbi's funeral, they did not act to disperse crowds, an AFP photographer said. The funeral comes as Israel's government is set to debate the extension of the country's third national lockdown, due to expire at midnight. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supports a lockdown extension, has faced mounting criticism over what his opponents describe as a failure to ensure haredim comply with safety rules. Netanyahu, a right-winger facing a difficult re-election contest in March, has relied on the loyalty of ultra-Orthodox political leaders to sustain his record 11 years in power. Gantz, Netanyahu's rival and alternate prime minister in Israel's collapsed unity government, has said he will not support a lockdown extension unless rules are evenly applied. "This is what unequal enforcement looks like," Gantz said on Twitter. "Millions of families and children are locked in their homes and abide by the rules while thousands of haredim crowd (a) funeral, most of them even without masks. "We will not agree to the continuation of an ineffective fake lockdown. Either everyone is locked down -- or everyone opens. The days of indulgence are over," Gantz said. Israel, a country of about 9 million, has recorded more than 640,000 coronavirus cases, including over 4,700 deaths. While the Jewish state continues to register several thousand new cases a day, it is also conducting a vaccination campaign widely regarded as the world's fastest per capita, with more than 3 million people having received the first of two required jabs of the Pfizer vaccine.
 

Dubai Announces Alliance to Speed Covid Vaccine Delivery
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 31 January, 2021
Key transport hub Dubai on Sunday announced an initiative to accelerate the delivery of coronavirus vaccines, particularly to developing nations, after the WHO warned against abandoning the world's poor. The Vaccine Logistics Alliance, which includes Dubai-based Emirates airline and global logistics giant DP World, is designed to "speed up distribution of Covid-19 vaccines around the world through the emirate." The alliance will "support" the World Health Organization's Covax initiative to distribute two billion vaccine doses, the Dubai Media Office said in a statement, without specifying how many doses it would deliver. "The distribution will particularly focus on emerging markets, where populations have been hard-hit by the pandemic, and pharmaceutical transport and logistics are challenging," it said. The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai and six other emirates, has administered vaccines to more than a quarter of its population, second only to Israel in the global race. The WHO has urged wealthy countries to avoid repeating past mistakes of hoarding medicines and vaccines, saying such behavior would only drag out the pandemic. "We are all too aware of the challenges facing us globally in this pandemic and necessity to work together," the UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said in a tweet. "Vaccine nationalism should not be tolerated in our common battle to defeat Covid," he said. Covax, the globally-pooled vaccine procurement and distribution effort, has struck agreements with manufacturers for two billion vaccine doses, and secured options on a billion more. Dubai said the alliance will work with pharmaceutical manufacturers, forwarders, and government agencies to transport vaccines, some of which have to be kept at very cold temperatures. "Together, we are able to store a large volume of vaccine doses at a time and bring in and distribute vaccines to any point around the world within 48 hours," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Emirates Airline. The UAE itself has suffered a spike in cases after the holiday period, after aggressively opening up to tourism.
But it reported 2,948 new virus cases on Sunday, the lowest number since January 11.

Over 4,000 Detained at Russia-Wide Protests
Agence France Presse/January 31/2021
Police detained more than 4,000 people across Russia and blocked off the center of Moscow Sunday in a massive clampdown on protests demanding the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Thousands of protesters defied government warnings to rally from Vladivostok to Saint Petersburg in a second weekend of mass demonstrations over the arrest of President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic. Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport in mid-January after flying back to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from an August poisoning he blames on the Kremlin. The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner is being held in a Moscow detention center and faces years of potential jail time in several different criminal cases, despite calls from Western governments for his release. In moves not seen in years in Moscow, authorities locked down the center of the capital Sunday, with hundreds of police lining the streets, central Metro stations closed and the movements of pedestrians restricted. Protesters who had hoped to gather outside the headquarters of the FSB security service were instead scattered to various parts of the city as organizers made last-minute changes in locations. AFP journalists saw dozens of protesters detained and taken into police vans. Several thousand were seen marching throughout the city center, but it was unclear amid the chaos how many people took part in the demonstration. Independent monitor OVD-Info said at least 4,027 people had been detained across the country, after reporting more than 4,000 detentions during similar protests last Saturday. It said 1,167 were detained in Moscow and 862 in Saint Petersburg, as well as at least 82 journalists across the country.
Golden toilet brushes
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Twitter condemned "the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight." The Russian foreign ministry hit back, accusing the United States of "gross interference" in its affairs and of using "online platforms controlled by Washington" to promote the protests. Protesters chanted "Freedom!" and "Putin is a thief!" as they marched through Moscow in bitter cold and snow. "If this is happening now to a person who is famous in Russia and the world, it could happen to anyone in the future," protester Philip said at the Moscow rally. Protesters eventually gathered outside the Matrosskaya Tishina prison where Navalny was being held and several dozen were detained outside the complex. Many protesters carried gold-painted toilet brushes in reference to a video released by Navalny's team alleging that Putin had been gifted a $1.35 billion property on the Black Sea coast, which among other luxurious goods featured toilet brushes costing 700 euros apiece. Several thousand people demonstrated in the second city of Saint Petersburg, despite police closing off the main thoroughfare Nevsky Prospekt and shutting Metro stations, an AFP journalist reported. Police were seen roughly detaining several protesters, including one young man who was left with a bloodied head. Local media reported that police used tear gas and tasers in the city, while one policeman reportedly threatened protesters with his service weapon. "The whole center is cordoned off," said Natalya Grigoryeva, who came to the Saint Petersburg rally with her daughter. "And who is this all against, against their own people?" Earlier protesters had rallied in cities including the Pacific port of Vladivostok, where dozens escaped the police on the frozen waters of the Amur Bay and danced in a circle. Several thousand were also reported to have protested in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk despite temperatures dropping to -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Navalny's wife detained
Russian authorities issued several warnings against participating in the unauthorized rallies and threatened criminal charges against protesters. The head of Russia's Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeyev, called Sunday's events a "provocation" and said they have "nothing to do with protecting rights," news agency TASS reported. Navalny is due in court several times next week, including on Tuesday on charges of violating the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence. His team has called for supporters to gather outside the courtroom. Navalny's wife Yulia posted a picture of her family on Instagram on Sunday, urging supporters to make their voices heard. "If we remain silent, then tomorrow they will come for any one of us," she wrote. Navalny's team said Yulia was detained by police shortly after she announced her arrival at Sunday's rally on social media. This week several Navalny associates were placed under house arrest pending charges for violating coronavirus restrictions by calling people to join protests.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 31-February 01/2021

Erdogan’s lack of accountability risks Turkey’s security
Pinar Tremblay/The Jerusalem Post/January 31/2021
Today, even staunch AKP supporters find it difficult to trust state figures on the economy.
At the end of 2013, there was a major corruption scandal in Turkey. We listened to a series of tapes over YouTube and although not much came out of it, there was one that I could never forget. A senior AKP member and a police chief were talking. The policeman was trying to explain that what the AKP guy wanted him to do was unlawful.
At that point, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s man uttered the sentence, “You do whatever needs to be done, and we will pass the laws to cover you, do not worry about rules or regulations, we will take care of it.”
As Turkey slithered from a crippled democracy into an authoritarian and a fascist system, I recalled this sentence frequently. Laws became arbitrary, while truth became invisible. We do not know the inflation rate, COVID-19 infection rate, or even poverty rate in Turkey.
Today, even staunch AKP supporters find it difficult to trust state figures on the economy, even though Erdogan tells us the economy is booming, we are the best in the world, those who can still make a living buy American dollars as soon as they get paid. The truth has been the first victim of Erdogan’s power grab, and justice has fallen alongside with it.
Erdogan’s government is an endless law generating machine. There are so many presidential decrees, even the law professors cannot keep track. And more than new decrees, there are decrees that revise the previous decrees, so if you want to understand the recent one, you must dig through two or three other decrees, regulations, or omnibus bills. Most news agencies have simply given up. Journalists that explain the truth and manage to get it out frequently end up at court and sometimes in jail.
One of these decrees came out on January 6. It was a revision of an existing law about transfer of movable assets between the police, intelligence agency and armed forces. Turkey only has one intelligence agency, known as MIT, which deals with both domestic and international intel. MIT’s reach and responsibilities have been expanded in the last decade significantly. Its new building, called the castle, shines in Ankara as the center of military-security complex.
This revised bill has two parts. The first suggests that the three agencies can access each other’s movable assets as long as there is a minister’s signature. It talks about social unrest and terror events. Why was such a change needed? Turkish police have more than enough tools and gadgets and access to intel to crush any social movement. Indeed, it is notorious for use of excessive force on unarmed protesters. The frequent joke is that 99% of the time, uniformed and civilian cops together outnumber the protesters.
Plus, only a year ago, another decree has generated permission for police and the intelligence agency to acquire heavy weaponry on their own tenders. They do not really need to access the army’s gadgets and tools. Most of the reporting on the issue repeated the same “now the police will have access to the military’s weapons.”
If you step back and think for a minute though, you will realize that is not the real purpose of this decree. It is at best an ignorant explanation of a rather mind boggling new law.
And the devil is certainly in the detail. As the second part of this amendment suggests no record keeping is necessary if these movable assets are to be transferred to an ally or friendly group based on international agreements and protocols. The record means keeping IDs for each product from a bullet to tank.
Standard operating procedures of all proper armies require even in domestic transport every single product is recorded. Why would a government go against such a rule and say, “no do not record anything just transfer these weapons and military assets?” This part of the new regulation no one talks about. Not a word in English or Turkish I could find 10 days after it was published in the official gazette. For internal audits of the state should not such records be kept diligently?
Maybe one of the opposition lawmakers would ask this question at the Parliament. They can no longer ask questions verbally, so they would have to put in writing. The probability they will get an answer is 4%. That is the percentage of last year’s written questions answered at the Parliament. We oddly still have the official gazette which must publish the new bills, decrees, rules, and regulations so they can be considered official.
I guess we should consider ourselves lucky to have that. Does the public really need to know the presidential decrees? Most of us do not have a single clue about them anyhow, and the press cannot decode them or cannot publish them.
Where accurate data is not available, experts and intellectuals are regularly ridiculed and ignored, we end up mediocre at best. Law professors, senior military officials, and military historians I have contacted all threw up their hands and asked me my question back, why would Ankara issue such a presidential decree? I cannot help but recall Erdogan’s man on that tape “you do what you need to do, we will pass the laws to cover you.” This indeed is the crux of the Turkish style presidential system in effect since 2018.
*The writer is a visiting scholar of political science in Los Angeles at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a columnist for Al-Monitor.com.

China Doesn't Have to Lift a Finger to Push Biden Around
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/January 31/2021
"Xenophobia" has been a constant Biden theme... Within moments [of President Trump's "travel ban" last January] ... Biden went on the attack. "This is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysterical xenophobia and fear mongering to lead the way instead of science," he said. There was nothing "xenophobic" about Trump's travel ban. It was imposed on arrivals from the country where the disease first appeared. The ban, therefore, saved lives, and it would have saved even more if it had been stricter, announced sooner, and had been more rigorously enforced.... [If Biden] had been president then, the disease would almost certainly have spread faster in America. He was, during the campaign, against all such travel prohibitions.
Now, Biden is supporting another Chinese propaganda campaign.... The Chinese regime, which to this day uses geographical names for strains of virus, has been trying to ban any identification of China with the pandemic. Biden, with his executive order [rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO)], is doing Beijing's work as Chinese leaders try to deflect blame.
This decision was especially hideous because WHO was complicit in China's deliberate spread of the disease. WHO disseminated Beijing's position that the coronavirus was not readily contagious even though the organization's senior doctors knew it was highly transmissible. Moreover, WHO championed the Chinese campaign against travel bans. Americans died because of these and other indefensible actions on the part of WHO, and now Biden will go back to legitimizing and supporting that organization.
So far, Biden has taken steps that certainly encourage Beijing. His rejoining the Paris Agreement, his cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and his repeal of the ban on Chinese equipment in the American electrical grid, among others, favor, directly or indirectly, Beijing. Also of great concern is the failure of Commerce Secretary nominee Gina Raimondo to confirm that Huawei Technologies will remain on the department's Entity List.
So far, President Joe Biden has taken steps that certainly encourage Beijing. His rejoining the Paris Agreement, his cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and his repeal of the ban on Chinese equipment in the American electrical grid, among others, favor, directly or indirectly, Beijing.
The Biden administration has just endorsed one of China's most vicious attack lines against the United States. The new administration's actions look as if they are setting a pattern for its responses to Beijing on the disease and other matters.
On January 26, Biden signed his executive order titled "Memorandum Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States."
The order states that during the coronavirus pandemic "inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric has put Asian American and Pacific Islander persons, families, communities, and businesses at risk."
There is nothing wrong with protecting minorities from racism, but racism is not the problem. "Political correctness presages policy incorrectness," writes the Claremont Institute's Ben Weingarten on the Newsweek site, commenting on Biden's executive order. "And when it comes to matters of life and limb, political correctness can kill."
Weingarten is correct.
"Xenophobia" has been a constant Biden theme. On January 31 of last year, President Trump announced the "travel ban," prohibitions and restrictions on arrivals from China. Within moments of the announcement, Biden went on the attack. "This is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysterical xenophobia and fear mongering to lead the way instead of science," he said.
Biden's campaign said the attack was not in response to the travel ban, yet on the following day the candidate expressed the same thoughts in a tweet: "We need to lead the way with science—not Donald Trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering."
There was nothing "xenophobic" about Trump's travel ban. It was imposed on arrivals from the country where the disease first appeared. The ban, therefore, saved lives, and it would have saved even more if it had been stricter, announced sooner, and had been more rigorously enforced.
Biden was against the China travel ban, and if he had been president then, the disease would almost certainly have spread faster in America. He was, during the campaign, against all such travel prohibitions.
Then, Biden's criticisms of the travel ban aligned perfectly with Beijing's attacks on Trump—and on the United States.
Now, Biden is supporting another Chinese propaganda campaign. "The Federal Government must recognize that it has played a role in furthering these xenophobic sentiments through the actions of political leaders, including references to the COVID-19 pandemic by the geographic location of its origin," declares the January 26 executive order.
The order is expected to result in a ban, across the federal government, of the use of "China virus," "Wuhan flu," and variants.
President Trump emphasized "China virus" early last year, in response to Beijing's statements. On March 12, the Chinese foreign ministry launched disinformation attacks, accusing the U.S. of being the origin of the coronavirus disease and hiding its source. An official foreign ministry tweet made explicit the claim that official Chinese sources had been hinting for more than a month: The United States was ground zero for COVID-19.
Beijing has not given up on this malicious line of attack. This month, Beijing, with absolutely no evidence, has been pointing to Fort Detrick in Maryland as the source of the disease.
The Chinese regime, which to this day uses geographical names for strains of virus, has been trying to ban any identification of China with the pandemic. Biden, with his executive order, is doing Beijing's work as Chinese leaders try to deflect blame. "The Chinese Communist Party would love to see itself delinked from the coronavirus pandemic that originated on its shores, that it sought to cover up, that it helped spread around the world, and that it has cynically sought to exploit at every turn," writes Weingarten. "So Beijing must have been cheering when it got word of a gift, in this regard, from President Joe Biden."
Moreover, Biden, within hours of taking the oath, rejoined the World Health Organization (WHO), something else Beijing wanted because, as a practical matter, it controls the political leadership of that body.
This decision was especially hideous because WHO was complicit in China's deliberate spread of the disease. WHO disseminated Beijing's position that the coronavirus was not readily contagious even though the organization's senior doctors knew it was highly transmissible. Moreover, WHO championed the Chinese campaign against travel bans.
Americans died because of these and other indefensible actions on the part of WHO, and now Biden will go back to legitimizing and supporting that organization.
China's challenge to America is comprehensive, on every front. So far, Biden has taken steps that certainly encourage Beijing. His rejoining the Paris Agreement, his cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and his repeal of the ban on Chinese equipment in the American electrical grid, among others, favor, directly or indirectly, Beijing. Also of great concern is the failure of Commerce Secretary nominee Gina Raimondo to confirm that Huawei Technologies will remain on the department's Entity List.
Analysts say Beijing is testing Biden. Yes, but so far the Chinese do not need to lift a finger. The new president is giving them what they want, and they are not even having to ask.
*Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.
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New Team in Washington: Beyond Tokenism
Amir Taheri/Asharq al-Awsat/January 31/2021
But what does the term "minority" mean in a democracy based on equal citizenship for all? The term minority denotes "less-ness" compared to the "more-ness" of another entity. However, how could one regard some citizens of a democratic state as "less" than other fellow citizens?
[T]he United States is about "We the People," not "We the Minorities". Democracy is a melting pot, not a salad bar.
America... started as a space for settlers from England but was put on the way of becoming a nation by "founding fathers": Their "one nation under God" had the distinction of being the first constitutional democracy. Its motto became: Government of the People, by the People, for the People.
To pretend that this or that Cabinet minister was chosen because of his or her skin color, religious faith or other "minority" attribution is certainly not a compliment. If the choice is based not on the individual's competence but on salad-bar considerations, it cannot be justified on democratic grounds. If, on the other hand, such considerations played no part in the choice, why make such a song-and-dance about "rainbowism" and progressive representation?
[F]ortunately, many members of the new Washington team have impressive academic and practical resumes. It is in everyone's interest to hope that they will see themselves not as figures in a game of ethnic tokenism but the servants of the American demos at a difficult time.
Last month, as he started shaping his future Cabinet, President-elect Joe Biden promised to form a team that offers a better representation of America as it is. Judging by the welcome that his Cabinet has received across the globe, one may conclude that he has delivered on his promise.
According to media reports, the Biden team has been "warmly received" in Canada, Mexico and Western Europe, among other places. Radio France Internationale even reports "a sense of jubilation" in Abuja because Biden's team includes several Nigerian-Americans at its second tier. In Tehran, the media take note of the inclusion of five or six Iranian-Americans in the new team with the hope that their presence would help change Washington's policy towards Iran.
Biden's team includes a number of "firsts".
It is the first US Cabinet in which those classified by "progressives" as "white men" are in a minority. According to the CIA World Factbook, "whites" account for just over 73 percent of the total US population, while the segment of citizenship labeled as WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) has dropped to under 47 percent.
Biden's team is composed of figures from the various ethnic or religious communities that furnished almost 50 percent of the votes that pushed Biden to the top of the greasy pole. Progressive commentators in the US speak of a rainbow coalition of minorities which provides the backbone of the Democratic Party with Biden's pledge of defeating "white supremacists" as the chief slogan.
But what does the term "minority" mean in a democracy based on equal citizenship for all? The term minority denotes "less-ness" compared to the "more-ness" of another entity. However, how could one regard some citizens of a democratic state as "less" than other fellow citizens?
For from being progressive, in a democracy like the United States, dividing the citizens on the basis of ethnicity is a reactionary position that belongs to pre-modern societies. Ancient Greeks understood the difference between ethnos and demos. The term ethnos denoted community of customs and traditions of groups within society that, when coming together to create and operate a common space, would form a demos. The talk in the agora wasn't about ethnocracy but democracy. If that is all Greek to you, let us put it in plainer language. Ethnicity and similar terms in countless languages, terms such as tribe in modern European languages, caste in Indian languages, or "qawm" in Arabic and other Islamic tongues, describe human communities before the emergence of The People with a capital P. Thus, the United States is about "We the People," not "We the Minorities". Democracy is a melting pot, not a salad bar.
Progressivism is a secular religion rather than an ideology that could have its place in the competitive field of politics. Dividing citizens even on the basis of religious faiths can have no place in a democracy. Saint Augustine used the term "religare" (binding) to promote his Christianity as the highest, if not the sole, means of sustaining human societies. More recently, Pope Benedict XVI and German philosopher Jürgen Habermas echoed that belief in their project for "saving the Western civilization". However, many as far back as Cicero and Isidor of Seville preferred such terms as "natio" (common birth in a distinct land) and "relegere", which means a common reading, and hence agreement, on a set of rules to organize and administer the common space.
In American democratic secularism, the state is tasked with protecting religious, and by extension, other communities, but not of relying on them as component parts. The French version of secularism, known as laïcité, is designed to protect the state, and by extension the nation, against religion.
Progressive critics of the very concept of nationhood, notably the late Eric Hobsbawm, claimed that nations are "creations of bourgeois capitalism" to be dismantled by toiling classes led by the proletariat.
However, towards the end of his life, even Hobsbawm had to admit that the nation-state had much deeper and firmer roots than he had feared. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the first state in history not named after a nation, a dynasty or at least an ethnic group, had disintegrated, leaving its place to 15 nation-states.
Benedict Anderson stated that it was nationalism that created nations, not the other way round. That analysis may sound bizarre in the case of nations that emerged out of centuries-long dynastic gestation. But it may not be out of place in the case of America, which started as a space for settlers from England but was put on the way of becoming a nation by "founding fathers": Their "one nation under God" had the distinction of being the first constitutional democracy. Its motto became: Government of the People, by the People, for the People.
It may be amusing to deconstruct Senator Elizabeth Warren back to Pocahontas. But to deconstruct the American demos into a string of ethnos would not be.
In a democracy such as that of the United States, terms such as minority and majority can only have a political meaning. The majority is represented by a political party or program that has collected 50+1 percent or more votes in an election, facing minority or minorities that gathered fewer votes.
In such a system, majority and minority do not describe a permanent state of affairs. Today's majority could be tomorrow's minority.
To pretend that this or that Cabinet minister was chosen because of his or her skin color, religious faith or other "minority" attribution is certainly not a compliment. If the choice is based not on the individual's competence but on salad-bar considerations, it cannot be justified on democratic grounds. If, on the other hand, such considerations played no part in the choice, why make such a song-and-dance about "rainbowism" and progressive representation?
Salad-bar compositions cannot succeed even on their own stated terms. You bring in a Buddhist; why leave out Jehovah's Witnesses? You elevate a Tamil; why leave Bengalis sulking?
Including an Amerindian in the Cabinet for the first time catches the headlines. But it could also make my friend, an Arizona Amerindian of the P'mac tribe, wonder why his tribe didn't get there first.
Fortunately, we shall soon be back in the real world in which political figures are judged by what they do; not who they are in ethnocentric terms.
Again, fortunately, many members of the new Washington team have impressive academic and practical resumes. It is in everyone's interest to hope that they will see themselves not as figures in a game of ethnic tokenism but the servants of the American demos at a difficult time.
*Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.

Iran Continues to Test Biden’s Limits
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 31/2021 - 08:00
With much on his plate, President Joe Biden’s first months in office will be dedicated to handling several critical matters. In addition to matters related to Cuba, Venezuela, NATO, Europe, Turkey, Russia, Taiwan, and, commercially, China and the China Sea, Biden intends to address re-entering the Paris Climate Agreement, reviving the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), returning to the World Health Organization, and confronting the threat of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, which resulted in more than 400,000 deaths.
He is also expected to heal a nation sundered by unemployment and mend socio-political rifts resulting from the prolonged electoral disputes.
Furthermore, the Biden administration is taking quick actions towards diffusing the ticking time bomb represented by the Iranian threat and renegotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the “Iran nuclear deal.”
The outcome of these negotiations will play a key role in determining how the situation is going to unfold in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Palestine as all these countries have turned into bargaining chips for Iran to use by threatening to escalate tensions through its proxies of local armed groups and militias.
The question we should be asking ourselves is will President Biden take the same firm stance as his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, against the Iranian regime? It is clear that Tehran began challenging President Biden only two weeks into his presidency with its attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad and on Saudi Arabia as a way to test the waters.
Iran’s provocations towards the US and countries of the region are unlikely to abate, and Iran will keep on testing the limits and patience of these countries to see how and when they will retaliate. Contrary to what was expected by Iran’s supporters in Washington, who constantly denounced Trump's policy at the time, the Iranian regime did not welcome Biden with open arms or celebrated the return of the Democrats.
Instead, the provocations were intensified with the aim of embarrassing the new administration and declaring that Biden is not capable, or willing, to enter into a confrontation with Iran, which means that new rules are being set for this new stage. The US State Department released a statement denouncing the missile or drone attack that targeted Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.
This was an important quick reaction taken by the US against Iran, which was followed by mobilizing American troops and adding military reinforcements to increase the US’s military presence in the region. However, an unfavorable decision was made to postpone enforcing sanctions on the Houthis for a month. One could argue that even though this decision was ill-advised, it was understandable as the new administration intended to give the Houthis one last chance to reach a political solution.
President Biden cannot be blamed for his inaction in this regard during his first month in office as former President Trump himself refrained from punishing the Houthis until the end of his entire term.
At this point, the most critical matter to consider is determining how the Biden administration intends to respond to the Iranian regime's aggression and whether it is willing to make compromises, such as lifting economic sanctions. This issue is of particular importance to Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, whose country’s officials have explicitly stated that they are not willing to review the deal or amend it. If these sanctions are lifted, then Biden will not have any more bargaining chips to push for any amendments in the deal, as he promised.
All statements issued by the Biden administration pledge to amend the Iran nuclear deal to the satisfaction of the allies; however, Tehran has firmly announced that it will not accept any amendments. The question here is, how will Biden impose his new vision without resorting to force or economic sanctions?
In my opinion, the situation will continue to escalate and tensions will mount even if Biden takes no action. This inaction will weaken Biden’s position and affirm the region’s presumption of him as a weak president, which, in turn, will trigger a series of unfavorable events that may become unmanageable in the future.

Iran is upping the ante but Biden must not bite
Raghida Dergham/The National/January 31/2021
Iran’s diplomats are scrambling to mobilise European, Chinese and Russian support to pressure the Biden administration into rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) without pre-conditions. They are also seeking international support for US-led sanctions to be lifted, including those on oil exports and arms imports.
These diplomatic efforts, led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, should not be construed as separate from Iran’s core foreign policy priorities being shaped by its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) militia. Rather, Tehran as a collective is pursuing a dual track of blackmail and provocation.
It is betting on what it perceives to be US President Joe Biden’s attempt to revoke his predecessor Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the nuclear deal in his bid to stop Iran’s resumption of uranium enrichment and rapid development of nuclear weapons. Since Mr Trump abandoned the deal, Iran has been building up its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, refining uranium to a higher level of purity and using advanced centrifuges for enrichment.
Mr Biden has said that if Tehran resumes strict compliance with the 2015 agreement, Washington would rejoin it.
The European Union is keen to revive the JCPOA. It is seen to be backtracking from previous statements calling for the deal to cover Iran’s regional behaviour and ballistic missiles programme, and is instead working on mending its ties to Tehran. Russia, meanwhile, has been cautious as it keeps in mind the two powers’ coinciding interests in Syria, where Moscow and Tehran both support the Assad regime. During Mr Zarif’s recent visit to Moscow, he sought to win support from Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov not just on the nuclear issue but also on Iran’s role in the region.
As I have written in these pages, Russia is keen to bring long-term stability to Syria by getting Iran and Israel to the table. But it remains to be seen whether Moscow can convince Israel to cease targeting Iranian assets in Syria if Tehran reduces its military footprint there and keeps its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah at bay. Right now, the focus is on trying to revive the JCPOA.
That Tehran is raising the stakes is evident from recent remarks made by its diplomats. Mr Zarif has warned that if no progress is made by mid-February, his government could step up its uranium enrichment activities. Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, also said that the US must act quickly or risk missing a chance to return to the JCPOA. It is worth noting that Iran’s hardline-dominated parliament has set February 21 as the deadline for Washington to lift sanctions against Tehran.
The regime appears confident of extracting concessions from the Biden administration, as it is convinced that the revival of the nuclear deal has become Washington’s problem. It also believes that it can escalate tensions when required – something the Biden team will not want right now.
Amid Tehran’s lobbying efforts, the US is figuring out the best way forward. Some members of the Biden team, notably National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, have sought to return to the deal as quickly as possible – a goal he has described as a "critical early priority” for the administration. But others, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have expressed reservations about doing so. He has repeated Mr Biden’s line of Tehran needing to resume compliance. Mr Blinken has also said that these conditions are not being satisfied at the moment.
On Friday, Tehran received what conservative critics in the US would characterise as good news upon hearing that Mr Biden had appointed Robert Malley, the Obama administration’s lead negotiator in the nuclear deal, as his special envoy for Iran. It is, indeed, a move that could portend a reversal of former Mr Trump’s maximum pressure campaign.
Mr Malley's appointment could be controversial even within the Biden team, on account of his interest in reviving the nuclear deal and lifting sanctions against Tehran. Those opposed to him in Washington may fear that his entry will embolden the IRGC to further its regional agenda, which includes supporting armed proxies in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Mr Malley’s critics might also blame him to some extent for the Obama administration’s allegedly calculated decision to overlook the atrocities being committed by the Tehran-backed Syrian regime, in order to persuade the Iranians to sign the JCPOA.
That was, of course, more than five years ago. This time, however, Mr Blinken – himself an Obama administration official – is said to be in no hurry to commit anything to anybody. This approach benefits the US negotiating position as well as American interests, because giving in to Iranian pressure will only expose Washington to what is essentially blackmail.
It would not be a mistake for Mr Blinken and Mr Sullivan to agree to preliminary, backchannel talks with Tehran – provided that they manage Iranian expectations and present a clear roadmap to them.
There is an opportunity if the Biden administration decides to not fear Iranian retribution and learn lessons from past mistakes. The administration will also do well to recall that it has real and effective leverage over Tehran. Whether it accepts it or not, that leverage is available to them due in large part to the Trump administration’s tough tactics against the regime. The Biden administration must now use it achieve what is in its best interests, as well as those of its allies in the region.
*Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute and a columnist for The National
 

Israel on war footing as US mulls return to Iran nuclear deal
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 31/2021
د ماجد رفيزادا/إسرائيل في حالة تأهب للحرب مع إيران فيما تفكر الولايات المتحدة في العودة إلى الاتفاق النووي معها
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While the heated exchanges of the past between the Iranian regime and Israel could be analyzed as political posturing, the latest tensions must be taken seriously.
Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi warned about striking the Tehran regime because of its nuclear threat. He said: “I instructed the army to prepare a number of operational plans in addition to the existing ones. We are taking care of these plans and will develop them during the coming year. Those who decide on carrying them out, of course, are the political leaders. But these plans have to be on the table.”
The Iranian regime fired back, with armed forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi threatening: “If even the slightest mistake is made, we will level Haifa and Tel Aviv in the shortest possible time.”
Israel’s underlying concern originates from the US Biden administration’s stated intention to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). President Joe Biden has made it clear that he wants to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement and he has appointed several individuals to high-level positions who were either involved in the negotiations that resulted in the pact or are in favor of reviving it.
Since Iran knows what Biden’s stance is, the shrewd leaders of the Islamic Republic are taking advantage by pressuring the White House to return to the deal as soon as possible. Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei pointed out: “The US will not have all the time in the world. We are waiting for the official announcement of their stance as well as the lifting of sanctions.”
From the Israeli leaders’ perspective, a US return to the 2015 nuclear deal would deliver a strategic blow, tip the Middle Eastern balance of power in favor of the ruling clerics of Iran, and trigger a nuclear weapons race in the region. To be more specific, Israel is worried about four major aspects of the nuclear deal.
For the Israeli leaders, any agreement with Iran must bring a permanent and complete halt to its nuclear proliferation.
First, the Iranian regime will ultimately be able to acquire nuclear weapons as a result of the JCPOA’s sunset clauses, which set a firm expiry date for the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. After that, Tehran will be able to spin centrifuges and enrich uranium to any level it desires. In other words, some believe the nuclear pact paves the way for the Islamic Republic to legally become a nuclear state.
For the Israeli leaders, any agreement must bring a permanent and complete halt to Tehran’s nuclear proliferation and remove all concerns that it will ever obtain a nuclear weapon.
Israel’s second major concern is the nuclear deal does not require inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Iran’s military sites. This means Tehran can clandestinely advance its nuclear program at its military facilities, while pretending to comply with the JCPOA.
Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran reported in 2017 that a location at the highly protected Parchin military base was secretly being used to continue Tehran’s nuclear weapons project. The group said: “The unit responsible for conducting research and building a trigger for a nuclear weapon is called the Center for Research and Expansion of Technologies for Explosion and Impact, known by its Farsi acronym as METFAZ.”
The third key concern is the lifting of sanctions against Iran, which will follow after the US returns to the nuclear deal. The current sanctions on Tehran exert significant pressure on the theocratic establishment. If they were to be swiftly lifted, Iran would be able to rejoin the global financial system with full legitimacy — and billions of dollars would flow into the treasuries of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its militias across the Middle East.
Finally, Iran’s ballistic missile program, which is not covered by the JCPOA, poses a threat to Israel. The Iranian leaders frequently boast of their missile capabilities and range, saying they could easily hit any part of Israel. Iran possesses the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East, and no other country in the world has acquired long-range ballistic missiles before obtaining nuclear weapons. Its ballistic missile capability is one of the most critical pillars of the regime’s national security policy. They can be used for offensive or defensive purposes, but sophisticated missiles are mainly developed as delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons.
It is very likely that Israel will take military action against the Iranian regime if Biden returns to the 2015 nuclear deal without renegotiating it. The Biden administration must take this issue seriously.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

How Lebanon’s poor are pawns in Hezbollah’s game
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/January 31/2021
د. دانيا قليلات الخطيب: فقراء مدينة طرابلس هم أحجار شطرنج في لعبة حزب الله
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/95446/dr-dania-koleilat-khatib-how-lebanons-poor-are-pawns-in-hezbollahs-game-%d8%af-%d8%af%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d9%82%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ae%d8%b7%d9%8a%d8%a8-%d9%81/

Lebanon’s capital of the north is burning. Tripoli has witnessed violent riots in the last few days. The city that was previously a cultural and trade hub has been suffering from poverty and neglect by the central government for decades.
The irony is that Tripoli is the home of some of Lebanon’s richest politicians. However, these politicians, who have done well for themselves and become billionaires, have done nothing to lift the city out of poverty. Tripoli is one of the poorest cities in the Middle East, with 80 percent of the population living on less than $2 a day.The city that was already struggling with poverty was also hit hard by the coronavirus disease and those who were hardly able to make ends meet were devastated by lockdown. Those who live from day to day — taxi drivers, porters, street sellers and the like — found themselves without any income. Similar to all the government’s promises, the offer of support was never fulfilled.
Youngsters went all over the city; they were angry and hungry. Last week’s protests led to riots, resulting in 226 being wounded and one killed. However, the riots were expected. More than a year ago, a member of the Tripoli municipality complained to me about the deteriorating situation in the city and the north in general.
He told me that people in poor areas surrounding the city, particularly Bab Al-Tabbaneh, threatened him and his colleagues that they would raid the city and take whatever they could if the government did not provide them with minimal relief.
The riots did not happen as spontaneously as expected. They were, of course, fueled by the starving population. Nevertheless, outside forces contributed by steering the violence for political purposes. A contact in Tripoli told me of rioters who carried with them hundreds of sticks of fireworks and Molotov cocktails. How can someone who can’t afford to buy a loaf of bread afford such weapons? Another contact told me that he and his peers went to the protests but, when they noticed the violence organized by some elements, they immediately left.
The riots were, of course, fueled by the starving population. But outside forces contributed by steering the violence for political purposes.
The rioters were working according to a plan. They created a diversion by enticing the troops who were protecting the Serail, the headquarters of the Governorate of North Lebanon, to follow them, while some members stayed behind to burn the municipality building.
The question is who has an interest in the spiraling violence? Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri issued a statement directly blaming the army, who in his view “stood watching” while the rioters set the building on fire. Of course, for Hariri the violence was a good opportunity to score points over President Michel Aoun and to highlight the latter’s incompetence in running the country. Hariri and Aoun have been bickering for months over the formation of a new government, with the president insisting on a quota to preserve the influence of his son-in-law Gebran Bassil and his main ally Hezbollah.
Al-Akhbar, the pro-Hezbollah newspaper, accused “foreign embassies” of provoking the riots. It claimed that, two weeks ago, a delegation of representatives of several Western embassies warned the authorities that the situation was getting worse because of the failure to form a government, that protests were expected, and that the security apparatus should not repress them. It also described the riots as part of an overall desire to spread violence to other areas of Lebanon and to turn the country against Hezbollah and the “resistance axis,” describing the protesters as an “army of mercenaries” mushrooming under the cover of “civil society.”Another Aoun-Hezbollah supporter, the television producer Charbel Khalil, used Twitter to claim that the revolution had been stolen by Daesh. He posted photos of former Daesh fighters, saying “continue with your stupid paid revolution and this is what you will be seeing in Tripoli,” using the hashtag “A revolution stolen by thugs.”
When I asked my contact in Tripoli, he told me that many of the rioters were identified as people from the city, Jabal Mohsen and other poor areas in the north that are affiliated with Saraya Al-Muqawama, which is part of the Hezbollah security apparatus. Hezbollah has been aggressively recruiting in Sunni areas in Lebanon and in Palestinian refugee camps. Taking advantage of people’s poverty and disfranchisement, Hezbollah has been able to build an army of Sunni mercenaries that it can unleash whenever it is convenient.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has skillfully used Sunni extremism to legitimize his activities. He started to use this tool when he first ventured into Syria. When he started to send fighters across the Syrian border, he could not say that he was sending young men to support a criminal dictator, whose brutality — as well as that of his father — had taken its toll on Lebanon for 30 years. Instead, he gave the lame pretext that the fighters were going to protect the tomb of Zainab, the granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad.
Every now and then, Nasrallah gave another lame excuse. The emergence of Daesh was a gift for Hezbollah, as it offered the group a valid excuse to justify its intervention in Syria. Since then, Hezbollah has been using the “Sunni terrorism” narrative to give itself legitimacy.
Today, unfortunately, Tripoli — the area of Lebanon that needs help the most — is being scapegoated as different parties try to roll out their political agendas. But the riots mostly serve the objectives of Hezbollah, which has been against the October 2019 revolution since day one.
*Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese NGO focused on Track II. She is also an affiliate scholar with the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.

How Lebanon’s poor are pawns in Hezbollah’s game/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/January 31/2021
د. دانيا قليلات الخطيب: فقراء مدينة طرابلس هم أحجار شطرنج في لعبة حزب الله
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Israel on war footing as US mulls return to Iran nuclear deal/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 31/2021
د ماجد رفيزادا/إسرائيل في حالة تأهب للحرب مع إيران فيما تفكر الولايات المتحدة في العودة إلى الاتفاق النووي معها
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