English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 21/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

The Healing Of The Leper Sunday
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 01/35-45/In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 20- 21/2021

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/
Health Ministry: 2323 new Corona cases, 40 deaths
Lebanon Enters Phase 2 of Easing Lockdown Next Week
Lebanon Vaccinates More than 17,000 People
US Lawmakers Urge Biden to Consider Sanctions on Lokman Slim’s Murderers
Lebanese sceptical as new judge named to lead port blast probe
UN Gives Green Light to Fund STL for 2021
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Emphasizes UAE’s Support for Lebanon during Hariri Meeting
FPM Says Govt Formation, Forensic Audit are ‘Priorities’
“Why was a judge appointed in the port case after previously refusing the mission?” questions Gemayel
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 20- 21/2021

Iran is biggest threat to international community, former Trump adviser Bolton says
Rockets strike military base in Iraq housing US forces: Iraqi military

Clashes between Iraqi forces and Daesh leave 7 dead
Iran says confident US will lift sanctions despite nuclear deal ‘political wrangling’
Iran to Host UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief Ahead of Sanctions Deadline
US Says it Won't Bow to Pressure from Iran
Biden Calls for Addressing Iran's Destabilizing Activities
IAEA Says Found Uranium Traces at Two Sites Iran Barred It From
Aid Organization: Syria Facing Worst Hunger Crisis to Date
Russian Air Assault Kills 21 IS Jihadists in Syria
Russia Says Registers Third Coronavirus Vaccine
Moscow Appeal Court Upholds Navalny Prison Sentence
Two People Dead in Myanmar Protest Shooting
Yemen Govt Accuses Rebels of Using Civilians as Human Shields
UN Report Finds Trump Ally Violated Libya Arms Embargo, Says US
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 20- 21/2021

The nuanced differences in how Biden, Netanyahu see their call - analysis/Lahav Harkov/Jerusalem Post/February 20/2021
Biden Cannot Allow the Taliban to Destroy Trump's Peace Legacy/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/February 20/2021
The real message Netanyahu should take from Biden's phone call/Yaalov Katz/Jerusalem Post/February 20/2021
As decarbonisation continues, green hydrogen could be key/Omar El-HuniThe Arab Weekly/February 20/2021

Biden Tells Allies 'America Is Back,' but Macron and Merkel Push Back/David E. Sanger, Steven Erlanger and Roger Cohen/The New York /February 20/ 2021

Putin considers slamming the door on Iran and opening a window for Israel/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/February 20/2021

Iran Just Handed Biden His First Credibility Test/Michael Knights/Politico/February 21/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 20- 21/2021

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

Health Ministry: 2323 new Corona cases, 40 deaths
NNA/Saturday, 20 February/2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Saturday, the registration of 2,323 new Corona infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 353,371.
It also indicated that 40 deaths were registered during the past 24 hours.

Aircraft with Second Batch of COVID-19 Vaccine Doses to Arrive Saturday
Naharnet/Saturday, 20 February/2021
Lebanon will reportedly receive a new batch of the COVID-19 vaccine doses from Brussels on Saturday afternoon, MTV television station reported. It said 31,500 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will arrive by plane to the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport at 5:00 p.m. On Sunday, Lebanon administered the first jabs of the vaccine one day after receiving the first batch of 28,500 doses of the vaccine. More were expected to arrive in the coming weeks. The rollout is monitored by the World Bank and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to ensure safe handling and fair and equitable access for all Lebanese. The World Bank offered a $34 million loan to help pay for Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for crisis-hit Lebanon that will inoculate over 2 million people. Nearly 3 million other vaccine doses are expected to be secured through the U.N.-backed COVAX program. Both are free of charge. The private sector has been negotiating separately for more vaccines.

Lebanon Enters Phase 2 of Easing Lockdown Next Week
Naharnet/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
Lebanon will enter phase two of easing a four-stage lockdown on Monday, one week after it launched its vaccination campaign against COVID-19. The full lockdown in place since January 14 was imposed after a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases in the wake of the Christmas and New Year holidays. “Lebanon enters phase 2 of easing an unevenly observed lockdown. Opening the commercial sector has been brought forward by one week. Yet, our Covid indicators show a persistently high community transmission especially in low compliance regions, and almost full hospitals,” said Firas Abiad, director general of the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital, which is leading the coronavirus fight. Authorities in Lebanon adopted a strategy of gradually easing the lockdown aimed at opening the different sectors in the country in four phases to avoid big gatherings and transmission of the virus.
Abiad added in tweets that “regions that had low compliance with restrictions, such as Akkar and Baalbek/Hermel, the upward trend in Covid numbers is clear. Beirut and Mount Lebanon showed better compliance; their numbers improved markedly. Will they maintain the gains, or will they witness a surge?”According to official data, the number of infections have reached 351,065 so far with 4,257 deaths from the virus. On opening education facilities, he said it would “facilitate community transmission. Meanwhile, the vaccination drive is in its beginning and the supply of vaccines is still limited at the moment. The vaccine, therefore, will unlikely have an effect on the Covid numbers till later.”Abiad urges more people to get the vaccine. “Without financial support, extending the lockdown or enforcing it in economically devastated areas was a big ask. Hope now lies on vaccinating as much high-risk individuals as possible, and relying on personal compliance with safety measures. Let us beware the ides of March,” he concluded.
 

Lebanon Vaccinates More than 17,000 People
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
More than 17,000 people have received the COVID-19 vaccine in Lebanon since the launch of the inoculation campaign less than a week ago, Health Advisor to the President Dr. Walid Khoury confirmed on Friday. “No complications or side effects experienced from the vaccine have been registered so far,” the advisor said, adding that Lebanon is on the right track to implement the national plan for the vaccination drive. Last weekend, Lebanon received its first batch of 28,500 Pfizer-BioNTech doses of coronavirus vaccines. It started vaccinations on Sunday. More Pfizer-BioNTech doses are scheduled to arrive to Beirut over the coming weeks and at a later stage AstraZeneca shots will be brought in. Lebanon gave its first COVID-19 vaccine doses to health workers and those above 75. The country had imposed a nationwide lockdown including a curfew as of Jan. 11 to try to limit the spread of the virus.
The curfew helped decrease the number of daily cases with 2,255 new infections registered on Friday. In light of hesitation among the Lebanese to get the vaccine, director of Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH) Dr. Firas Abiad published on his Twitter page a report by The Lancet magazine showing early rate reductions of COVID-19 infection in Pfizer vaccine recipients. It said the first dose of the vaccine is 85% effective. The Lancet publication comes a day after Canadian researchers suggested that the second Pfizer dose be delayed given the high level of protection from the first shot in order to increase the number of people getting vaccinated. Lebanon has finalized a deal with Pfizer for 2.1 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine and another 2.7 million doses from the UN-led program to provide for countries in need.
 

US Lawmakers Urge Biden to Consider Sanctions on Lokman Slim’s Murderers
Washington - Rana Abtar/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
Two key US lawmakers called on President Joe Biden to consider using the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to sanction those responsible for the murder of Lebanese activist Lokman Slim. “This brazen assassination of an outspoken activist is likely intended to intimidate and silence others, particularly in light of Lebanon’s tragic history of political assassinations without accountability for the perpetrators,” US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks and Lead Republican Michael McCaul said in a letter sent to the US President. The lawmakers added that the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act could serve as an appropriate tool to hold those responsible accountable for the Feb. 4 extrajudicial killing of Slim in south Lebanon. Congressional sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that there were contacts between lawmakers and the State Department for a “suitable response” to the killing. “Bipartisan leaders are exerting extensive pressure on the State Department to issue a firm response to the brutal killing,” the sources said. The former administration of Donald Trump had imposed sanctions on Lebanese officials, mainly former Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, under the Global Magnitsky Act. “Slim was a valued member of Lebanon’s civil society, promoting democratic participation while also holding accountable all members of the Lebanese government including Hezbollah,” the two lawmakers wrote in their letter to Biden. The letter said Slim’s murder could constitute a “sanctionable gross violation of internationally recognized human rights” committed against a foreign person seeking to exercise and promote basic freedoms and the rule of law. “We urge you to consider utilizing Magnitsky authorities in calibrating the appropriate response to Slim’s murder. We similarly urge you to consider any relevant information, including with respect to officials in the Governments of Lebanon and Iran, if appropriate in calibrating such a response,” the letter added.
 

Lebanese sceptical as new judge named to lead port blast probe
The Arab Weekly/February 20/2021
BEIRUT – Lebanon Friday named a new judge to lead a probe into Beirut’s devastating port blast last August, a judicial source said, a day after his predecessor was removed from the case. “The high judicial council… agreed to caretaker justice minister Mary-Claude Najm’s suggestion of appointing Judge Tareq Bitar as lead investigator in the Beirut port blast case,” the source said. “The council summoned Judge Bitar and informed him of the decision to appoint him, and he accepted.” Bitar will become the second judge to look into the explosion of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser on August 4 that killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and ravaged swathes of the capital. Bitar steps into the position after a court on Thursday removed Judge Fadi Sawan from the case, following a complaint from two former ministers charged with negligence over the explosion. Rights activists condemned the move as the latest example of an entrenched political class placing itself above the law. Families of people killed in the explosion protested on Friday for a second day, in an outcry over a severe setback to their campaign to hold those in power to account.
Around 70 people gathered in front of Beirut’s Palace of Justice on Friday, some burning tires to block roads or holding images of their dead relatives. “Even when the case now goes to another judge, we will not give them our complete trust…the day that we discover a judge is being too lenient with the investigation we will stand up to them no matter who they are,” said Rima al-Zahed, 41, whose brother Amin died in the blast. Sawan in December issued charges against caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers for “negligence and causing death to hundreds”, sparking two of the latter to file the complaint. The court on Thursday found in favour of the plaintiffs who had questioned the judge’s impartiality in view of his home having been damaged in the explosion.
“No one in the political class wants an investigation like this,” Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Centre said. “That would open up a Pandora’s box of justice and these are politicians used to getting away with major crimes since the Lebanese civil war…the judiciary is one of the most distrusted institutions in the republic.” Lawyer and activist Nizar Saghieh tentatively welcomed Bitar’s appointment, and said he had a good reputation as being competent. But after Sawan’s removal, he wondered whether the new judge would be able to conduct his work “without interference or pressure.”“Will he be able to cross the red lines?” he asked. For some the judge’s dismissal is a blow, but Lebanese analyst Sarkis Naoum does not believe a domestic investigation will ever deliver any real results. “Our state has become a failed state which means failed security agencies, failed institutions, failed judiciary and failed everything so I never believed that judge Sawan was going to reach anything,” Naoum said. The probe into Lebanon’s worst peace-time disaster has led to the detention of 25 people, from maintenance workers to the port’s customs director, but not a single politician. Diab resigned after the blast, but the divided political class has failed to name a new government to replace him and help lift the country out of the economic crisis. “Those in jail are the small fish,” Naoum said. With the lead investigator appointed by Lebanon’s executive, and the use of a court of exception, the investigation does not lend itself to impartiality, said Lynn Malouf, Amnesty International deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “I wouldn’t say this move took us back to square zero because we were always at square zero from the very beginning,” she said. The court of exception is a special court set up to have jurisdiction over cases referred to it by the government such as assassinations of senior politicians and cases linked to political violence and terrorism. “It was set up with the view of the politicians being the victims rather than the perpetrators,” Malouf said. “A domestic-led investigation cannot deliver on justice.”But so far there has been little interest in an international investigation into the blast. Hage Ali sees a different kind of search prevailing. “A search by the Lebanese political class for a scapegoat…no politician will be indicted unless there is political consensus over a scapegoat,” he said.
 

UN Gives Green Light to Fund STL for 2021
Associated Press/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
The U.N. Security Council has given a green light to keep the U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri operating and funded for at least this year. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter to the council circulated Friday that the president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Judge Ivana Hrdličková, informed him in November that its work wouldn't be finished by the expiration of its mandate Feb. 28. The judge asked for a two-year extension "to significantly advance its work towards completion," Guterres said. Guterres said he intends to extend the mandate of the tribunal for two years starting March 1, or until its cases are completed or available funds are exhausted "if sooner."Lebanon, which is mandated to pay 49 percent of the tribunal's costs, faces a dire financial situation which has left the tribunal with a serious funding shortfall. The remaining 51 percent of the tribunal's funding comes from voluntary contributions. Guterres said he launched an urgent appeal to all 193 U.N. member states and the international community on Dec. 20 to support the tribunal, but "unfortunately, the appeal did not generate any new commitments of funds."Without additional funding, he said, the U.N. was informed that the tribunal "may not be able to carry out its mandate beyond the first quarter of 2021." "To bring the ongoing judicial proceedings of the Special Tribunal to an abrupt close in these circumstances would be unprecedented," Guterres wrote. "A premature closure would have a significant impact on international justice efforts and would send a negative message to the people of Lebanon and to victims of terrorism worldwide."After consulting Lebanon's government and Security Council members, Guterres said he intends to request approximately $25 million from the General Assembly, called a "subvention," to cover the anticipated shortfall in funding from the Lebanese government and donors in 2021. This would be temporary, while the tribunal seeks additional funds, he said. Britain's U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, the current council president, said in a letter to the secretary-general that members approved his intention to extend the tribunal's mandate and to request about $25 million in funds from the General Assembly for 2021. She said this was with the understanding that the money will be reimbursed from voluntary contributions the tribunal receives, and its voluntary funding arrangements will not be changed.
"The members of the council stress that contributions from Lebanon, as well as from the donors, should remain a major source of funding for the Special Tribunal and that additional efforts should be made to avoid reliance on the subvention," Woodward said. Lebanon's economic and financial crisis, which began in late 2019, is the country's worst in modern history, with the economy contracting 19% in 2020. Tens of thousands around the country have lost their jobs, and nearly half the population of more than 6 million is living in poverty. The crash of the local currency has led to triple-digit inflation. In early December, the World Bank said Lebanon's economy faces an "arduous and prolonged depression" because its politicians refuse to implement reforms that would speed up the country's recovery. The Valentine's Day 2005 truck bombing on Beirut's seafront that killed former prime minister Hariri and 21 others and injured 226 sparked huge protests against Syria, which was widely seen as culpable. Damascus denied involvement but was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after 29 years there. The U.N. investigation into Hariri's assassination was broadened to include 14 other Lebanese killings. The Netherlands-based Special Tribunal sentenced Salim Ayyash, a member of the Hezbollah militant group, in absentia to life imprisonment in December for his involvement in Hariri's assassination. Ayyash has never been arrested. Three other Hezbollah members tried with him were acquitted.
 

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Emphasizes UAE’s Support for Lebanon during Hariri Meeting
Naharnet/Saturday, 20 February, 2021 
The Emirates News Agency (WAM) announced that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan received at Qasr Al Shati' Palace Friday Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri who is visiting the state.
Hariri’s press office released an English-langauge statement and said: “During the meeting, discussions focused on the bilateral relations and a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest, in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic, its repercussions on all levels and ways to contain them. Premier Hariri briefed Sheikh Mohammed on the latest developments in Lebanon, especially those related to the formation of the new government. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince expressed his sincere wishes for the formation of a Lebanese government that takes into account the national interest, surpasses differences and is able to overcome the various challenges surrounding Lebanon. He affirmed the UAE's support for the Lebanese people to fulfill its aspirations for unity, stability and development. For his part, Premier Hariri congratulated Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed on the success of “Hope Probe” in reaching Mars orbit. He also praised the UAE's constant stances in support of Lebanon, and its assistance to face the coronavirus pandemic, wishing the Emirates and its people safety from all harm.”

FPM Says Govt Formation, Forensic Audit are ‘Priorities’
Naharnet/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
The Free Patriotic Movement issued a statement on Saturday saying the formation of a government in Lebanon and conducting forensic audit into the central bank accounts are two top “priorities” needed to handle the crisis in Lebanon. The FPM’s political commission said a government that “meets the expectation of the people and is capable of shouldering responsibility to face the economic collapse is a priority.”It considered that priority should also be given at the national level to conduct a forensic audit of the BDL's accounts to clarify the truth, determine responsibility, conduct accountability, and work to return people's deposits and their rights.After its periodic electronic meeting led by MP Jebran Bassil, the political commission called on the responsible judicial authorities to expedite investigation into the Beirut port explosion and to issue an indictment, in preparation for the start of the trial and accountability for those involved.

“Why was a judge appointed in the port case after previously refusing the mission?” questions Gemayel
NNA/Saturday, 20 February, 2021  
Lebanese Kataeb Party Chief, Sami Gemayel, tweeted today over the Beirut port blast investigation dossier, asking: “Why has a judge been appointed who had previously refused the mission? What were his reservations at the time? Why did he accept the mission today? How and why were his reservations dispelled? Whoever overthrows an investigator in response to a political decision of the accused, rather assassinates the judiciary and justice...Accountability is definitely on its way!"

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 20- 21/2021

Iran is biggest threat to international community, former Trump adviser Bolton says
Joseph Haboush, Nadia Bilbassy & Daniel AlAkl/Published: 18 February/2021
Iran continues to pose a threat to the international community, and it would be a mistake for US President Joe Biden to ease sanctions on Tehran’s regime, former National Security Adviser John Bolton told Al Arabiya in an interview aired Thursday. The veteran US diplomat cautioned Biden and his aides against repeating the Obama administration’s errors that Iran was the region’s great power. “I’m afraid that the real inclination of the Biden presidency will be to repeat what Obama thought, which was that it was really Iran that was the great power in the region, and that it was Iran … that would ultimately be the rock of stability across the Middle East,” Bolton said in the wide-ranging interview. “I think that’s entirely the reverse of the truth,” he said, adding that it had nothing to do with the people of Iran or the country. “So, the idea that somehow Iran, under its current regime, could be a responsible actor in the Middle East, is just badly misguided. Biden has made no secret of his intentions to reenter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed under the Obama administration in 2015. Bolton was one of the main drivers behind convincing former President Donald Trump to withdraw from the deal three years later. A maximum pressure campaign ensued, which entailed hard-hitting economic sanctions against Iran and those who supported the regime and its proxies globally. And Bolton defended the Trump administration’s policy which he said imposed “much more” pain on the Iranian regime than people thought. “We were told that what multilateral sanctions couldn’t do, unilateral American sanctions couldn’t do either. But our sanctions turned out to be much more effective than the multilateral UN Security Council sanctions,” he said. But he believes the US “didn’t go far enough. We didn’t put enough pressure.”Asked what more could be done to force a change in the regime’s behavior, Bolton said the objective should be to split the regime.This doesn’t require outside or military intervention, he said. As for reentering the JCPOA, Bolton believes Biden and his team are finding it much harder than initially thought due to shifting political developments over the years.If Biden reenters the deal and there is noncompliance from Iran, “it would be total surrender,” Bolton said. “But make no mistake, his objective remains the same, and that’s getting back into the deal.”
Biden’s ‘naive’ move to revoke terror designation of Houthis
Bolton launched a diatribe against the Biden administration for removing the Iran-backed Houthis from the terrorist list. On Tuesday, the terrorist designations imposed on the Houthis and its leaders, including Abdel Malik al-Houthi, were removed. “I do think it’s naive,” Bolton told Al Arabiya. He said the real danger in Yemen was Iran’s funding and providing weapons to the Houthis. Admitting that negotiating with terrorists was “nearly an impossible assignment,” Bolton said Iran and the Houthis were exploiting the situation “very effectively.”And now with the revocation of the designation, the Biden administration has lost another point of leverage. The former NSA called out Biden and his team by seeking to get back into the nuclear deal by taking actions such as eliminating the terrorist designation of the Houthis “and by threatening to cut off arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”These moves would put all the pressure on Washington’s own friends in the region. “I think the ayatollah in Tehran understand that and I think they’re just going to continue doing what they’re doing in Yemen, and elsewhere … to see what additional concessions Biden may make,” Bolton said.

Rockets strike military base in Iraq housing US forces: Iraqi military
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/20 February 2021
At least four Katyusha rockets hit the Iraqi air base of Balad north of Baghdad, which houses US personnel, Iraq’s state media reported on Saturday citing the military. The Iraqi report did not mention any injuries or deaths and did not say who was behind the attack.
Balad base hosts US forces and contractors and is located about 80 kilometers north of Baghdad. The strike comes days after the US Coalition in Iraq said on Monday a rocket attack at a US-led military base in Kurdish northern Iraq killed a civilian contractor and injured six other people including a US service member. Monday’s attack was the deadliest to hit US-led forces for almost a year in Iraq, where tensions have escalated between US forces, their Iraqi and Kurdish allies on one side and Iran-aligned militias on the other. The US has urged Iraq's leaders to work on preventing attacks on foreign targets in the country, after a rocket attack targeted the American embassy's compound in the Green Zone in Baghdad in December. The Balad base rocket strike comes after NATO announced it would dramatically scale up its mission in Iraq from 500 personnel to 4,000, in order to battle the remnants of the ISIS terrorist group.- With Agencies

Clashes between Iraqi forces and Daesh leave 7 dead
AFP/February 21, 2021
TARMIYAH: Iraqi security forces clashed with Daesh north of Baghdad on Saturday, leaving at least five extremists and two security personnel dead. A joint force of army troops and state-sponsored tribal fighters raided a Daesh hideout in the leafy plains of Tarmiyah, according to a statement from the military. “We had learnt that Daesh was holding a meeting there to plan for attacks on the capital Baghdad,” Ahmad Salim, head of the Baghdad Operations Command, said near the site of the fighting. Ensuing clashes killed five Daesh terrorists and two tribal pro-government forces, the military statement said. Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi met with top military commanders as troops combed the fields and agricultural lands around Tarmiyah. The new raid comes nearly one month to the day after twin suicide bombers killed more than 30 people in the packed Tayaran Square, the bloodiest such attack in Baghdad in three years. Security sources said the two terrorists had infiltrated the city from the north. A few days later, nearly a dozen fighters from Iraq’s Hashed Al-Shaabi, a powerful network of state-sponsored groups, were killed in a Daesh ambush — also north of the capital. Since then, security forces have ramped up their efforts to hunt Daesh sleeper cells there, with Al-Kadhemi announcing the killing of Abu Yasser Al-Issawi, identified as the top IS figure in Iraq, on January 28. In early February, security forces killed another IS leader who they believed helped transport the twin bombers into Baghdad. Iraq declared Daesh territorially defeated in late 2017 after a three-year fight aided by US-led coalition air strikes and military advisers. Daesh attacks in urban areas have dramatically dropped since then, but Iraqi troops have continued to battle sleeper cells in the country’s mountainous and desert areas.

Iran says confident US will lift sanctions despite nuclear deal ‘political wrangling’
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/20 February/2021
Iran is confident the United States will lift its sanctions despite ongoing “diplomatic wrangling” over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Saturday. “We predict with confidence that diplomatic initiatives will result in a favorable outcome despite the diplomatic wrangling, which are a natural prelude to the return of the parties to their commitments, including the lifting of all sanctions in the near future,” state media quoted Rabiei as saying. US President Joe Biden’s administration has announced its willingness to return to talks to revive the nuclear deal Former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018. Biden reversed Trump’s determination that all UN sanctions against Iran had been restored. And the State Department eased stringent restrictions on the domestic travel of Iranian diplomats in New York. Yet, Tehran demanded that all Trump-era sanctions on Iran be lifted before taking any real action to return to the deal. But White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki stressed on Friday that the US would not take any additional steps on Iran before diplomatic conversation. Iran has set a deadline of next week for Biden to lift sanctions reimposed by Trump, or it will halt snap IAEA inspections under the deal, which lifted sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. Next week is also when the IAEA is expected to issue a quarterly report on Iran's nuclear activities. Reuters reported in an exclusive that the IAEA found uranium particles at two Iranian sites it inspected after months of stonewalling and is preparing to rebuke Tehran for failing to explain, possibly complicating US efforts to revive nuclear diplomacy. Iran has long denied striving to develop nuclear weapons through uranium enrichment, though its intelligence minister recently said persistent Western pressure could push Tehran to fight back like a “cornered cat” and seek nuclear weapons. The Iranian regime is trying to get more concessions from Washington before taking any real action, especially in light of growing pressure at home due to economic hardship worsened by the US sanctions.
“Tehran urgently needs sanctions.. Iran also holds its presidential elections in June 2021 and, for the outgoing Rouhani administration, securing a quick return to the deal would build back lost economic and political confidence, and perhaps also impact the election outcome,” according to Sanam Vakil, Senior Research Fellow at Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had said in a speech on Wednesday: “We’ve heard many promises which were broken and contradicted in practice. Mere words don't help. This time only action! Action! If the Islamic Republic sees action from the other side, it will act too.”Some hardliners are already crediting what they describe as the Iranian regime’s perseverance in the face of US pressure for the recent Biden administration policy announcements."They have reversed some measures ... It is a defeat for America ... but we are waiting to see whether there will be action on lifting sanctions," state media quoted Tabriz city's Friday prayer leader Mohammadali Ale-Hashem as saying. - With Reuters
 

Iran to Host UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief Ahead of Sanctions Deadline
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi was to open talks Saturday in Iran on the eve of Tehran's deadline for US sanctions to be lifted, as President Joe Biden called for "careful diplomacy". The deadline, set by Iranian lawmakers, carries the threat of a suspension of some nuclear inspections, stoking international concern about a possible expulsion of UN inspectors. But Iran has stressed it will not cease working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or expel its inspectors. Iran and the IAEA have yet to release details on the visit by the UN body's chief Grossi that runs into Sunday, AFP reported. He will "meet with senior Iranian officials to find a mutually agreeable solution, compatible with Iranian law, so that the @iaeaorg can continue essential verification activities in Iran", Grossi wrote Friday on Twitter. "Looking forward to success - this is in everybody´s interest," he added. Iran has notified the IAEA that it will suspend "voluntary transparency measures", notably inspection visits to non-nuclear sites, including military sites suspected of nuclear-related activity, if the United States has not lifted the sweeping sanctions former president Donald Trump reimposed in 2018. The new measures are to go into effect on Tuesday. Iran's atomic body spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said last week that talks with Grossi will focus on how to cease "voluntary actions beyond safeguard (measures) and how to continue cooperation". The visit comes in the wake of Biden's call on Friday for European powers to work together to curb Iran's "destabilizing" activities, a day after committing to rejoin talks on Tehran's nuclear program. Biden told the Munich Security Conference that the United States would work closely with allies in dealing with Iran after his predecessor Trump took an aggressive unilateral approach. "The threat of nuclear proliferation also continues to require careful diplomacy and cooperation among us," Biden told fellow leaders via teleconference. "That's why we have said we're prepared to reengage in negotiations with the P5+1 on Iran's nuclear program," he said, referring to the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany. Tehran has repeatedly said it is ready to return to its nuclear commitments on condition that Washington does so first by lifting the sanctions reimposed by Trump that have dealt a heavy blow to Iran's economy. Following an offer for talks by the Biden administration, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Friday that Iran would "immediately reverse" its retaliatory measures if the US lifts "all sanctions imposed, re-imposed or re-labelled by Trump". The former president withdrew from the nuclear accord in 2018, while Iran started the next year to suspend its compliance with most key nuclear commitments in response. In an opening gesture, the Biden administration has dropped a push for more sanctions crafted by Trump, and removed restrictions on Iranian diplomats accredited to the United Nations in New York. Iran's government spokesman Ali Rabiei on Saturday stressed that Tehran's latest nuclear move will not prevent it from responding to any US show of goodwill, and expressed optimism regarding the ongoing diplomatic process. It is "neither against our (deal) commitments nor an obstacle for proportionate and appropriate response to any US action to prove (its) goodwill," he wrote in an op-ed on Iran daily.

US Says it Won't Bow to Pressure from Iran
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
The United States plans to take no additional actions in response to pressure from Iran before talks with Tehran and major powers about returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the White House said on Friday. Tehran and Washington have been at odds over who should make the first step to revive the accord. Iran says the United States must first lift former President Donald Trump’s sanctions while Washington says Tehran must first return to compliance with the deal. The United States said on Thursday it was ready to talk to Iran about both nations returning to the deal that aimed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, which Trump, a Republican, abandoned nearly three years ago. US acting Ambassador Richard Mills told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that the United States was rescinding a Trump administration assertion that all UN sanctions had been reimposed on Iran in September. Iran reacted coolly, with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif saying Tehran will “immediately reverse” actions in its nuclear program once US sanctions are lifted. But White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, speaking to reporters on Air Force One as Democratic President Joe Biden flew to Michigan, said "there is no plan to take additional steps" on Iran in advance of having a "diplomatic conversation."Under the deal, Iran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions. Washington reimposed sanctions after Trump quit the deal, and Iran responded by violating some of the deal's nuclear limits. Asked if the Biden administration was considering an executive order about reviving the agreement, Psaki noted the European Union has floated the idea of a conversation among Iran and the six major powers that struck the agreement: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
"The Europeans have invited us and ... it is simply an invitation to have a conversation, a diplomatic conversation. We don’t need additional administrative steps to participate in that conversation," she said.

Biden Calls for Addressing Iran's Destabilizing Activities
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
President Joe Biden used his first address before a global audience Friday to say that the West should address Iran’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East. Speaking to the annual Munich Security Conference virtually, Biden said the US and its allies must “address Iran's destabilizing activities across the Middle East, and we're going to work in close cooperation with our European and other partners as we proceed.”But he said that the US stands ready to rejoin talks about reentering the 2015 multilateral Iran nuclear deal abandoned by the Trump administration. Allies were listening closely to what Biden had to say about a looming crisis with Iran. Tehran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency this week that it would suspend voluntary implementation next week of a provision in the deal that allowed UN nuclear monitors to conduct inspections of undeclared sites in Iran at short notice unless the US rolled back sanctions by Feb. 23."We must now make sure that a problem doesn’t arise of who takes the first step,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters. “If everyone is convinced that we should give this agreement a chance again, then ways should be found to get this agreement moving again.”

IAEA Says Found Uranium Traces at Two Sites Iran Barred It From
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
The UN nuclear watchdog found uranium particles at two Iranian sites it inspected after months of stonewalling, diplomats said, and it is preparing to rebuke Tehran for failing to explain, possibly complicating US efforts to revive nuclear diplomacy. The find and Iran’s response risk hurting efforts by the new US administration to restore Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which President Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump abandoned. Although the sites where the material was found are believed to have been inactive for nearly two decades, opponents of the nuclear deal, such as Israel, said evidence of undeclared nuclear activities shows that Iran has not been acting in good faith. Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Kazem Gharibabadi, declined to comment, as did the IAEA itself, Reuters reported. A senior Iranian official said: “We have nothing to hide. That is why we allowed the inspectors to visit those sites.”Iran has set a deadline of next week for Biden to lift sanctions reimposed by Trump, or it will halt snap IAEA inspections under the deal, which lifted sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. Next week is also when the IAEA is expected to issue a quarterly report on Iran’s nuclear activities. Seven diplomats told Reuters the agency will use that opportunity to rebuke Iran for failing to explain to its satisfaction how the uranium particles wound up at two undeclared sites. The rebuke could come either in the quarterly report or in an additional report released the same day. US intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe Iran had a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons program that it halted in 2003, which Iran denies. The 2015 nuclear deal effectively drew a line under that past, but Iran is still required to explain evidence of undeclared past activities or material to the IAEA. The material was found during snap IAEA inspections that were carried out at the two sites in August and September of last year, after Iran barred access for seven months. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that radioactive material was found in the samples taken by inspectors at the two sites, although the newspaper did not specify what the material was. Four diplomats who follow the agency’s work closely told Reuters the material found in those samples was uranium. Identifying the material as uranium creates a burden on Iran to explain it, as enriched uranium can be used in the core of a nuclear weapon. Iran is obliged to account for all uranium so the IAEA can verify it is not diverting any to a weapons program. Two of the sources said the uranium found last year was not enriched. But nevertheless, its presence suggests undisclosed nuclear material or activities at the sites, which Iran would have had to declare.
The IAEA’s full findings are a closely guarded secret within the agency and only a small number of countries have been informed of the specifics. Five diplomats said that after the IAEA confronted Iran with the findings it gave unsatisfactory answers. Two of them said Iran told the agency the traces were the result of contamination by radioactive equipment moved there from another site, but the IAEA checked and the particles at the sites did not match. One diplomat briefed on the exchanges but not the detailed findings said Iran had given “implausible answers”, describing Iran’s response as “typical delaying tactics”. The agency has said it suspects one of the sites hosted uranium conversion work, a step in processing the material before enrichment, and the other was used for explosive testing. The seven diplomats said they expect the agency to call Iran out for having failed to explain the traces found at the two sites, as well as over its continued failure to explain material found previously at another site in Tehran, Turqazabad. Diplomats said it remained unclear whether the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors, which meets the week after the quarterly report, would take action condemning Iran. Several said the focus was on efforts to salvage the 2015 deal by bringing Washington back into it. “Everyone is waiting on the Americans,” one diplomat said.
 

Aid Organization: Syria Facing Worst Hunger Crisis to Date
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
After 10 years of civil war, Syria is suffering from its worst hunger crisis to date, according to the German aid organization Welthungerhilfe. An "alarming record" of 12 million people do not have enough to eat - almost 60 per cent of the population - the non-government group's Syria coordinator Konstantin Witschel told dpa. The humanitarian situation in general deteriorated over the past year with refugees particularly affected. "The situation in camps is terrible," Witschel said, after visiting the northern Syrian city of Asas. He said nearly all supplies in refugee camps were lacking and the winter temperatures and heavy rain were further affecting people's conditions. "During our visit, we met 30 children who only wore sweaters and sandals in six or seven degrees Celsius," he said. The decline in the Syrian lira had tripled food prices, Witschel added.

Greek FM to discuss military ties with Saudi Arabia
Arab News/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
ATHENS: Greece is eyeing the possibility of stationing a Patriot anti-missile battery on Saudi soil to help the Kingdom boost its air defenses against missile attacks on its critical infrastructure, mainly from Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen. Speaking in front of the Foreign Relations and Defense Committee in the Greek Parliament, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said the two countries may be close to signing a Status of Forces Agreement that will allow Greek military personnel to be stationed in Saudi Arabia for as long as the Patriot battery remains in the Kingdom. He insisted that the Patriot is a defensive system, not an offensive one, and expressed his willingness to visit Riyadh soon in order to conclude the agreement. Dendias had discussed the Patriot’s transport and the enhancement of bilateral defense ties with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan in January 2020 when the latter visited Athens. The transport was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the two men discussed ways to speed up the delivery on the margins of the Philia Forum in Athens earlier this month, Dendias said. Turkey’s assertive policies in the eastern Mediterranean have forced Greece to engage actively with Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, diplomatically and militarily. In November, Greece and the UAE signed a mutual defense treaty to protect against common threats, while the two countries have held joint military drills. Discussions between Riyadh and Athens on the delivery of a Patriot battery started during the last days of the previous Greek government. The plan is for the Patriot to be accompanied by around 40 Greek officers. Riyadh will cover the cost of transport and of upgrading the battery. The Patriot is considered one of the best anti-missile systems in the world. Its radar can cover an area of up to 170 km, while it can engage targets in a range of up to 150 km.

Russian Air Assault Kills 21 IS Jihadists in Syria
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
A wave of Russian air strikes killed at least 21 Islamic State group jihadists in the Syrian desert over the past 24 hours, a war monitor said on Saturday. The 21 were killed in at least 130 air strikes "carried out over the past 24 hours by the Russian air force targeting the 'Islamic State' group in an area on the edge of the provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Raqa", the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Russia Says Registers Third Coronavirus Vaccine
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
Moscow announced Saturday it had registered its third vaccine against the coronavirus and promised to introduce the jab to the Russian population by March. Russia was the first country to register a vaccine against Covid-19 in August ahead of clinical trials, and the Sputnik V jab has been authorised in more than two dozen countries around the world. "Today we note that a third vaccine, CoviVac, has been registered," Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a government meeting broadcast on state television. "And already in mid-March, the first 120,000 doses will be distributed within the civilian circulation," he told the cabinet. First greeted with scepticism, the effectiveness of Sputnik V was confirmed by the Lancet medical journal earlier this month. Moscow relied on the nationwide rollout of the vaccine to stave off the impact of a second wave of infections that battered the country late last year.
But mortality data released recently revealed that Russia's death rate was still one of the highest in the world. President Vladimir Putin announced in October that the country had registered its second vaccine, EpiVacCorona, which health officials had said would enter mass production this month.
Mishustin said Saturday that Russia had produced 10 million doses of Sputnik and 80,000 batches of the EpiVacCorona vaccine developed by the Siberian Vektor laboratory. With the introduction of the third jab Saturday, the prime minister said that: "Today Russia is the only country in which there are already three vaccines for the prevention of Covid infection." CoviVac was produced by the state-run Chumakov Centre based in Moscow, which employed a different method of development from Sputnik and EpiVacCorona, using an inactive virus. The vaccine is due to complete final stage clinical trial with 3,000 participants in March and has so far been recommended for people below the age of 60.

Moscow Appeal Court Upholds Navalny Prison Sentence
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
A Moscow appeal court on Saturday upheld a prison sentence imposed on chief Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he returned to Russia from Germany last month. Judge Dmitry Balashov rejected Navalny's appeal of the February 2 ruling, which turned a 2014 suspended sentence on embezzlement charges into real jail time. The judge decided to count six weeks Navalny was under house arrest as part of the time served, so he will now be imprisoned for just over two-and-a-half years in a penal colony. Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who has emerged as President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponent, was arrested in January when he returned to Russia after months in Germany recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin. He was detained for violating parole conditions of the 2014 suspended sentence and it was then turned into a custodial sentence. Navalny and his supporters say the rulings and several other cases against him are a pretext to silence his corruption exposes and quash his political ambitions. He was due in court again later Saturday in a another trial where he is accused of defamation for calling a World War II veteran a "traitor" after he appeared in a pro-Kremlin video. Prosecutors have called for Navalny to be fined the equivalent of $13,000 in that case. They also want his 2014 sentence turned into real jail time because the alleged defamation took place while he was serving the suspended term.

Two People Dead in Myanmar Protest Shooting
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
Two people have died from gunshot wounds after security forces opened fire at protesters in Myanmar's second largest city on Saturday, emergency workers told AFP. "Two people were killed and about 30 others injured," said Hlaing Min Oo, the head of a Mandalay-based volunteer emergency rescue team. "Half of the injured people were shot with live rounds."One of the victims was a boy who was shot in the head, he added. Another emergency worker confirmed the two deaths.
 

Yemen Govt Accuses Rebels of Using Civilians as Human Shields
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
Yemen's Saudi-backed government accused Huthi rebels Saturday of using civilians as human shields in their renewed offensive against its last major toehold in the north. Earlier this month, the Iran-backed rebels resumed a push to capture the city of Marib, 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa. The city lies close to some of Yemen's richest oil fields and its capture would be major prize for the rebels. But the fighting has raised fears for the hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians sheltering in camps in the surrounding desert that extends to the Saudi border. Loyalist military officials told AFP the rebels had been using residents of Al-Zor camp in the province's Sirwah district as "human shields" since their capture of the area last week. The officials said there had been no let-up in the fighting. Over the past 24 hours, at least 12 loyalist and 20 rebel fighters had been killed in clashes north and west of Marib, they said. There was no way to independently verify the death toll but it is clear that both sides have suffered heavy casualties in the renewed battle for the city. Until early last year, Marib had been spared the worst of the civil war that erupted in 2014. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it is "extremely concerned" by the recent fighting. "The ICRC urges all parties to the conflict to take every possible measure to protect the civilians, their properties and all civilian essential infrastructures," it said on Twitter. The UN has warned of the potential for a humanitarian disaster. "It puts millions of civilians at risk, especially with the fighting reaching camps for internally displaced persons," envoy Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council. The Huthi offensive came as the new US administration removed the rebels from Washington's blacklist of terrorist organisations in a bid to facilitate aid deliveries to rebel-held areas and pave the way for renewed peace talks.President Joe Biden has also announced an end to US backing for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen, which he said had created a "humanitarian and strategic catastrophe." Observers say the Huthis want to capture Marib to strengthen their hand in eventual peace negotiations.
 

UN Report Finds Trump Ally Violated Libya Arms Embargo, Says US

Agence France Presse/Saturday, 20 February, 2021
Private security contractor and ally of former US President Trump Erik Prince violated a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, UN investigators have found in a report detailed by US media on Friday. The confidential report to the Security Council, obtained by the New York Times and the Washington Post, said that Prince deployed a force of foreign mercenaries and weapons to strongman Khalifa Haftar, who has fought to overthrow the UN-backed Libyan government, in 2019. The $80 million operation included plans to form a hit squad to track and kill Libyan commanders opposed to Haftar -- including some who were also European Union citizens, the New York Times said.  Prince, a former Navy SEAL and the brother of Trump's education secretary Betsy Devos, drew infamy as the head of the Blackwater private security firm, whose contractors were accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. Four who were convicted were pardoned by Trump last year. The accusation exposes Prince to possible UN sanctions, including a travel ban, the Times said. Prince did not cooperate with the UN inquiry and his lawyer declined to comment to the New York Times, it added.
An AFP request for comment to the Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group, for which Prince is a board member and deputy chairman, went unanswered. Oil-rich Libya has been torn by civil war since a NATO-backed uprising led to the toppling and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
The country has in recent years been split between a Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, and an eastern-based administration, backed by Haftar, who has faced charges of war crimes. Then-President Trump in 2019 praised the strongman for his role in "fighting terrorism" in Libya.
A new interim executive for the country was chosen on February 5 by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Switzerland, comprising 75 participants selected by the UN to represent a broad cross-section of society. Haftar has pledged his support for the initiative.
 

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 20- 21/2021

The nuanced differences in how Biden, Netanyahu see their call - analysis
Lahav Harkov/Jerusalem Post/February 20/2021
This difference apparently reflects a desire by Biden to not be perceived as supporting Netanyahu 34 days before the Knesset election.
Every day that passed with US President Joe Biden not calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came with speculation about the region, and this intensified over time.
Now that the bets on when the call would come are closed – after Biden called on Wednesday evening – the time has come for Talmudic parsing of the readouts of the conversation.
The statements from the White House and the Prime Minister’s Office are similar in many ways, but the differences are telling.
Both mentioned strengthening the steadfast US-Israel relationship, and said the leaders discussed Iran and other regional issues. They both said they would work to expand the Abraham Accords to include more countries, but did not use that Trump-era name.
But there is a key difference at the beginning of the statement: “The conversation was very warm and friendly and lasted for approximately one hour,” the Prime Minister’s Office statement read. The White House readout said nothing about the atmosphere or the duration of the call.
“The two leaders noted their longstanding personal connection, and said that they would work together to continue strengthening the steadfast alliance between Israel and the US,” the PMO readout continued.
But the White House said that Biden “affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to Israel’s security, and conveyed his intent to strengthen all aspects of the US-Israel partnership, including our strong defense cooperation.”
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Netanyahu sought to emphasize that he and Biden go back 40 years. Biden did the opposite: the White House statement focused on Biden’s history with Israel, as opposed to the individual leading it.
The prime minister constantly emphasizes his experience and his stature on the world stage, even more so during an election season. He and Biden really have known each other for around 40 years – since Netanyahu was deputy chief of mission at the Israel Embassy in Washington and Biden was a senator – and the prime minister emphasizes that point whenever asked about the US-Israel relationship under the new administration. Netanyahu is trying to broadcast that he is uniquely qualified to handle that relationship, as opposed to his rivals.
He also tried to portray a business-as-usual situation, even as more and more media outlets asked him why Biden hadn’t called yet. Of course, Biden had not called any other leader in the Middle East but Israel is used to getting special attention, and to many, the delay seemed suspicious. Netanyahu used his decades-long relationship with Biden to say that he’s not worried.
The less personal message from Biden apparently reflects a desire to not be seen as supporting Netanyahu 33 days before the Knesset election, as well as a broader move by the Biden administration to return to the more usual channels or communication and diplomacy in the US, as opposed to former president Donald Trump’s very informal style.
The Biden administration is also thought to be peeved at Netanyahu for what is seen as open partisanship in favor of the Republicans, and open cheerleading for Trump, even after Biden won the election.
Netanyahu said earlier this week that he doesn’t care if a president is Republican or Democrat – he only thinks about policies. But old habits die hard, and he continued acting like a Republican. The morning after his call with Biden, Netanyahu tweeted his condolences to the family of controversial right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, whom he said “was a great friend of Israel and... stood by us through thick and thin... We shall miss him dearly.”
Another notable difference between the readouts is that the White House said Biden “underscored the importance of working to advance peace throughout the region, including between Israelis and Palestinians.” The Prime Minister’s Office did not mention the Palestinians at all.
At the same time, Biden’s name-check of the Palestinians seems like an afterthought. It came almost at the end of the statement, and did not qualify for its own sentence. That is a far cry from former president Barack Obama, who called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before then-prime minister Ehud Olmert, emphasizing his focus on the peace process.
At the end of the day, the conversation was routine, a courtesy call. The tension that preceded it could easily become yesterday’s news and generally forgotten, if the leaders want it so. What matters is how the administration communicates on actual matters of policy with Netanyahu or whomever replaces him after the election. Then the Talmudic parsing will truly be warranted.

Biden Cannot Allow the Taliban to Destroy Trump's Peace Legacy
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/February 20/2021
Under the terms of that agreement with the US, the Taliban agreed to negotiate a peaceful resolution of this benighted country's long-running civil war in return for Washington agreeing to withdraw all its remaining forces. In addition, they agreed to cut their ties with Islamist terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda.
While Mr Trump kept his side of the bargain, reducing US forces from around 13,000 at the time the deal was signed last February to just 2,500 when he left office, there has been little evidence of the Taliban fulfilling their commitments under the terms of the agreement.
Consequently, Afghanistan finds itself in the midst of a major security crisis, with militants concentrating their attacks on a broad cross-section of Afghan society, with judges, activists, journalists, moderate clerics, students and other professionals all being targeted.
Afghan officials believe the Taliban never had any intention of fulfilling their side of the deal, and just drew out the negotiations with the Trump administration so that they could secure the release of the estimated 5,000 militants being held by Afghan security forces, who were eventually released by the Afghan authorities last autumn.
"The only thing the Taliban have taken out of this agreement is to get their prisoners, then launch an offensive against the Afghan forces and government. That was, it seems, their plan from the beginning." — Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan's National Security Advisor, The Times, February 17, 2021.
Of major concern is the prospect that, if the Taliban are allowed to seize control of the country they governed prior to the September 11 attacks, they will once again allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS, which will then use the country as a base to launch devastating attacks against the West.
Thus, in making his decision about the future of American forces in Afghanistan, Mr Biden needs to take care that he is not responsible for causing a new wave of terror attacks against the US and its allies.
In Afghanistan, there has been a marked upsurge in violence since the start of the year. The Taliban have been accused of intensifying their terrorist campaign in their bid to retake control of the country. Pictured: Afghan soldiers fire on Taliban positions in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan on February 9, 2021. (Photo by Noorullah Shirzada/AFP via Getty Images)
With former US President Donald J. Trump no longer able to dictate US policy on Afghanistan, the Taliban are exploiting the opportunity to increase their efforts to seize control of the country in spite of the peace accord they signed with the Trump administration last year.
Under the terms of that agreement with the US, the Taliban agreed to negotiate a peaceful resolution of this benighted country's long-running civil war in return for Washington agreeing to withdraw all its remaining forces. In addition, they agreed to cut their ties with Islamist terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda.
Yet, to judge by recent events in Afghanistan, the Taliban are showing little inclination to abide by the terms of the deal.
While Mr Trump kept his side of the bargain, reducing US forces from around 13,000 at the time the deal was signed last February to just 2,500 when he left office, there has been little evidence of the Taliban fulfilling their commitments under the terms of the agreement.
On the contrary, since the start of the year there has been a marked upsurge in violence as the Taliban, rather than seeking to achieve a peaceful solution to the Afghan conflict, have been accused of intensifying their terrorist campaign in their bid to retake control of the country. In addition, the Taliban leadership is maintaining its ties with terror groups such as Al-Qaeda.
Consequently, Afghanistan finds itself in the midst of a major security crisis, with militants concentrating their attacks on a broad cross-section of Afghan society, with judges, activists, journalists, moderate clerics, students and other professionals all being targeted.
One of the more depressing features of this upsurge in violence is that it has resulted in young educated Afghans, who have enjoyed a more liberal lifestyle in recent years and once heralded a bright future for their country, opting to abandon their country in order to escape the worsening violence.
Afghan officials believe the Taliban never had any intention of fulfilling their side of the deal, and just drew out the negotiations with the Trump administration so that they could secure the release of the estimated 5,000 militants being held by Afghan security forces, who were eventually released by the Afghan authorities last autumn.
Interviewed by The Times of London earlier this week, Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan's National Security Advisor, accused the Taliban of simply exploiting the deal to secure the release of Taliban fighters from Afghan prisons:
"The only thing the Taliban have taken out of this agreement is to get their prisoners, then launch an offensive against the Afghan forces and government. That was, it seems, their plan from the beginning."
The rapidly deteriorating security situation has now prompted NATO leaders to order a review of whether all the remaining US-led coalition troops based in Afghanistan should be withdrawn by May 1 this year, as was originally envisaged in Mr Trump's deal.
A two-day virtual conference convened this week of NATO defence ministers -- the first time that officials from the new Biden administration have participated in a NATO summit -- discussed in detail whether the withdrawal should continue, but decided to postpone a decision while US President Joe Biden undertakes a thorough review of Mr Trump's deal.
Even though the Biden administration has yet to decide whether to support Mr Trump's deal, there is growing resistance within the NATO alliance to withdrawing forces while the Taliban are still maintaining their campaign of violence against the Afghan people.
Speaking at the end of the NATO meeting, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance remained committed to the agreement, but wanted the Taliban to demonstrate that it was serious about pursuing peace.
"The peace process is the best chance to end years of suffering and violence, and bring lasting peace," he said. "It is important for the Afghan people, for the security of the region and for our own security.
Of major concern is the prospect that, if the Taliban are allowed to seize control of the country they governed prior to the September 11 attacks, they will once again allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS, which will then use the country as a base to launch devastating attacks against the West.
Thus, in making his decision about the future of American forces in Afghanistan, Mr Biden needs to take care that he is not responsible for causing a new wave of terror attacks against the US and its allies.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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The real message Netanyahu should take from Biden's phone call
Yaalov Katz/Jerusalem Post/February 20/2021
On the surface, the phone call was not really that important.
There were any number of ways it could have gone.
In 2001, George W. Bush called Ehud Barak seven days after the inauguration for what was described as an “introductory conversation” that lasted a mere seven minutes. Bush knew that Barak was up for reelection in a matter of weeks and was predicted to lose. Nevertheless, the call was made.
In 2009, Barack Obama called Ehud Olmert the day after the inauguration, a sign of how important the Middle East was to his foreign policy agenda.
In 2017, Donald Trump called Benjamin Netanyahu two days after the inauguration, a sign of how important the relationship with Israel was and would become for his administration.
Joe Biden surpassed them all. He took his time and waited almost a month – until Wednesday night – to place his first phone call to Jerusalem.
To some supporters of the Israeli-American relationship, this was disturbing. Israel is one of America’s closest allies in the world, definitely the closest in the Middle East. Based on tradition and the moves of the last three presidents, Biden’s phone call should have taken place within a matter of days.
But it didn’t, which is why there was little doubt that something else was behind the delay, and why the lack of said phone call not only made headlines around the world, but also became an ongoing near daily question for Jen Psaki in the White House Briefing Room.
On the surface, the phone call was not really that important.
As is already known, every other level of government has been working with its US counterpart, despite there being no direct contact between the White House and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi has spoken a number of times with Secretary of State Antony Blinken; Defense Minister Benny Gantz has had conversations with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin; National Security Council chief Meir Ben-Shabbat has talked frequently with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan; and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of CENTCOM, was in Israel just a few weeks ago for high-level talks.
Moreover, Israel’s newly installed ambassador to the US, Gilad Erdan, just this past week downplayed the importance of the call, noting that while the media was focused on the Israeli-US switchboards, he was already in touch daily with senior members of the Biden administration.
The White House claimed that the delay was not a substantive delay but rather illustrated a new systematic approach to foreign affairs. Biden, US officials said, made calls based on regions, and that when the time came to reach out to the Middle East, Netanyahu would be – as he was on Wednesday night – first on the line.
But as the days dragged on and the call didn’t come, it was clear that a message was being sent, and that it was personal. This wasn’t about a change in policy, like when the White House intentionally sought to create daylight with Israel during the Obama era, but rather something simpler: the Biden administration wanted to show that it won’t play according to Netanyahu’s beat.
Israeli officials in contact with members of the Biden administration spoke of what diplomatic correspondent Lahav Harkov wrote in Wednesday’s Jerusalem Post: Biden waited to make the call not because he was distancing himself from Israel, but rather because he wanted to distance himself from Netanyahu.
WHICH IS why as upsetting as the delay of the phone call might have been, it should not be viewed as a slight of Israel. That was not the point. Rather, it was being done to achieve three objectives.
First, after four years in which Donald Trump seemingly gave Netanyahu whatever he wanted, Biden and his aides wanted to put the Israeli politician back in his right place. He does not control Washington anymore.
The second objective was to show that the US-Israel relationship is not dependent on a single individual like Netanyahu. Israel is heading to an election in 33 days and no matter who wins, the White House was almost saying, we will learn to work with him. Making Netanyahu – who took his time congratulating Biden after the November election – wait was added benefit.
Finally, the administration did not want to give Netanyahu a pre-election gift of a quick phone call, something that would have immediately been used by Netanyahu for political gain.
Nevertheless, that was done anyhow late on Wednesday night, when Netanyahu released a photo of him sitting in his home office grinning ear to ear as he spoke with Biden. Was there a photo released from the White House? Of course not. It was just a phone call. Not for Netanyahu though. Heading toward an election, he needed to show the Israeli public that everything is seemingly okay on the US front. He needed to put on a show.
What can’t be forgotten is Netanyahu’s role in bringing Israel to this point. While he will claim that his fight with Obama and against the 2015 Iran deal was of existential importance, the fact is, he failed. The Iran deal passed through Congress despite Netanyahu’s controversial speech, but it created a wound in Israel’s relations with the Democratic Party that has yet to heal six years later.
Biden was Obama’s vice president, and many of the advisers who surround the new president now were the same advisers who surrounded Obama and worked on the deal, known as the JCPOA. Netanyahu was repeatedly warned at the time that this would happen, and that his chances at stopping the deal with a speech – no matter how passionate and animated – were anyway almost non-existent.
A look at where Iran is today – with increased stockpiles of uranium and centrifuges – raises questions whether the speech or pushing Trump to quit the JCPOA was even worth it.
He was also warned in 2017 when Trump took office that cozying up to him would come at a price. When Netanyahu made comments that Trump was “the greatest friend” Israel ever had in the White House, he was warned that it was a mistake, that doing so would insult the previous 12 men who had sat in the Oval Office during the 72 years of Israel’s existence. By saying what he said, Netanyahu erased Truman, Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama. None of them, Netanyahu implied, was as good as Trump.
He was warned that his flattery would return to hurt him, that the pendulum would eventually swing back, and that a Democratic president would again take up residence in the White House and might even enjoy a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. But Netanyahu ignored those warnings, and made no secret of his desire to see Trump reelected.
Netanyahu, in his defense, dismisses such criticism. As proof, he mentions the meetings he has with almost every Democratic member of Congress who visits Israel. This might be true, but meetings in Jerusalem don’t make up for the actions he took in Washington, like the 2015 speech in Congress or the lecture he gave Obama in the Oval Office in 2011 that angered the president and his staff.
BUT POLITICS are not the only place where mistakes were made. For the last five years, Netanyahu has not only ignored the Reform and Conservative Jewish communities in the US, he has repeatedly slapped them in the face.
In June 2017, he shamefully overturned a previous decision by his government to establish a pluralistic prayer plaza at the Kotel due to pressure from his haredi coalition partners; he has also done nothing to change the conversion policy in Israel, despite his promises; and he continues to outsource all matters of religion and state to Yaakov Litzman and Aryeh Deri.
The last few years have seen a continued breakdown in ties between the State of Israel and progressive Jewish movements in the US, where the Union of Reform Judaism’s Biennial conference fails to even attract top members of the government anymore.
Netanyahu knows this, and consciously facilitated this situation. He knew that progressive American Jews who overwhelmingly vote for the Democrats did not approve of his alliance with Trump, and he knew that they were against his policies in Israel. What Israelis have to do is make sure they don’t pay the price, which means ensuring that the current prime minister – assuming he remains in office after the upcoming election – does not end up fighting with Biden the way he fought with Obama. He needs to continue smiling when talking to the president. While Biden mentioned the Palestinians in his talk with Netanyahu on Wednesday, no one has any expectation right now of a breakthrough in the years-long impasse. Instead, if something is going to test the relationship between Jerusalem and Washington, it will be what Biden decides to do with Iran. For now, Israel has an opportunity to influence the path Biden decides to take. To do that successfully, Netanyahu will have to approach the matter clean of any other interests, whether political or personal. Based on the way he engaged with the last two presidents, the chances of that happening are not particularly high.

As decarbonisation continues, green hydrogen could be key
Omar El-HuniThe Arab Weekly/February 20/2021
LONDON– Saudi Arabia has begun to explore more sustainable and efficient power generation solutions that it envisions will produce 60 gigawatts of renewable energy, including solar and wind, by 2030.
To reach its target, Saudi Arabia has continued to decarbonise the power sector, and to complement renewable energy, improved gas fueled power generation. As renewable energy comes from natural sources, such as wind, sunlight and rain, the amount generated varies depending on climate and season. President and CEO of GE Gas Power in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia Joseph Anis said “Gas power technologies not only offer the flexibility to ramp power production up or down rapidly to meet potential gaps in energy supply from variable renewable sources and stabilize the grid but gas also presents the cleanest means to generate electricity from traditional fossil fuels.”GE has installed over 500 gas turbines across Saudi Arabia, as it helps customers unlock gas’s true potential through an industry-leading solution.GE’s turbines are capable of ramping up or down at up to 88 megawatts per minutes, and can support the kingdom’s transition to increased renewable power by adjusting the turbines’ output to balance to the grid.
Furthermore, upgrade solutions increase not only the efficiency, for which it holds two world records, but also the availability, flexibility, lifespan and output of gas turbines, even while reducing the environmental impact and fuel consumption. To do so, it uses hydrogen gas, which is formed by using renewable energy to power electrolysis that splits water molecules into its constituent elements. Green hydrogen is versatile as it can be used in both gaseous and liquid states, converted into either fuel or electricity and produced and transported anywhere. It can also be produced from excess renewable energy and stored for extended periods of time. It contains almost three times as much energy as fossil fuels pound for pound, so more can be accomplished with less.
It can be stored in currently existing gas pipelines to power households and serve as a renewable energy transporter when converted into ammonia. Moreover, anything that uses electricity can be powered by green hydrogen when used with fuel cells, which, unlike batteries, do not need to be recharged as long as they have hydrogen fuel. Green hydrogen is not without its challenges, however. Like other forms of fuel, it is flammable, but due to its lightness – it is approximately 57 times lighter than gasoline fumes — it can disperse into the atmosphere quickly, serving as a positive safety feature.
Its decreased density does make it difficult to transport, however. It either requires heavy compressions — up to 700 times the atmospheric pressure — to be delivered as compressed gas, or must be cooled to -253°C to be liquefied. It is currently transported via low-temperature liquid tanker trucks, dedicated pipelines or in tube trailers that carry gaseous hydrogen.
Saudi Arabia is in the midst of becoming home to the largest green hydrogen planet plant, due to Air Products & Chemicals, a leading industrial gas giant from the United States. The project was announced in July, and will be powered by 4 gigawatts of solar and wind power. The $5 billion plant will be jointly owned by Saudia Arabia’s ACWA, Air Products and the upcoming mega-city Neom, which will be powered by the plant. According to Air Products, the facility will be able to power 20,000 hydrogen-fueled buses with 650 tonnes of green hydrogen that will be produced daily. For the global market, the fuel will be shipped as ammonia and converted back to hydrogen upon arrival, a process that is expected to begin in 2025. This project is an important step for the kingdom’s goal of turning Neom into a global centre for green hydrogen and renewable energy.
CEO of Neom Nadhmi Al Nasr said in a statement: “This is a pivotal moment for the development of Neom and a key element in Saudi Vision 2030 contributing to the Kingdom’s clean energy and circular carbon economy strategy.”ThyssenKrupp, a German multinational industrial engineering conglomerate, will provide the electrolyzers. Other major players in the oil and industrial sectors are also beginning to increase investment into green hydrogen, with Germany allocating the largest share of its clean energy stimulus toward funding green hydrogen and BP studying the feasibility of an Australia-based ammonia plant.

Biden Tells Allies 'America Is Back,' but Macron and Merkel Push Back
David E. Sanger, Steven Erlanger and Roger Cohen/The New York /February 20/ 2021
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the administration's response to the military coup in Myanmar, at the South Court Auditorium at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021, as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on. (Oliver Contreras/The New York Times)
President Joe Biden used his first public encounter with America’s European allies to describe a new struggle between the West and the forces of autocracy, declaring that “America is back” while acknowledging that the past four years had taken a toll on its power and influence.
His message stressing the importance of reinvigorating alliances and recommitting to defending Europe was predictably well received at a session of the Munich Security Conference that Biden addressed from the White House. But there was also pushback, notably from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who in his address made an impassioned defense of his concept of “strategic autonomy” from the United States, making the case that Europe can no longer be overly dependent on the United States as it focuses more of its attention on Asia, especially China.
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And even Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who is leaving office within the year, tempered her praise for Biden’s decision to cancel plans for a withdrawal of 12,000 U.S. troops from the country with a warning that “our interests will not always converge.” It appeared to be a reference to Germany’s ambivalence about confronting China — a major market for its automobiles and other high-end German products — and to the continuing battle with the United States over the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia.
But all three leaders seemed to recognize that their first virtual encounter was a moment to celebrate the end of the era of “America First,” and for Macron and Merkel to welcome back Biden, a politician whom they knew well from his years as a senator and vice president.
And Biden used the moment to warn about the need for a common strategy in pushing back at an Internet-fueled narrative, promoted by both Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China, that the chaos surrounding the American election was another sign of democratic weakness and decline.
“We must demonstrate that democracies can still deliver for our people in this changed world,” Biden said, adding, “We have to prove that our model isn’t a relic of history.”For the president, a regular visitor to the conference even as a private citizen after serving as vice president, the address was something of a homecoming. The session was crunched down to a video meeting by Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, this year’s host, and the European leaders decided to do the same for a brief, closed meeting of the Group of 7 allies that Biden also participated in.
The next in-person summit meeting is still planned for Britain this summer, pandemic permitting. Biden never named his predecessor, Donald Trump, in his remarks, but framed them around wiping out the traces of Trumpism in the United States’ approach to the world. He celebrated its return to the Paris climate agreement, which took effect just before the meeting, and a new initiative, announced Thursday night, to join Britain, France and Germany in engaging Iran diplomatically in an effort to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement that Trump exited.
But rather than detail an agenda, Biden tried to recall the first principles that led to the Atlantic alliance and the creation of NATO in 1949, near the beginning of the Cold War. “Democracy doesn’t happen by accident,” the president said. “We have to defend it. Strengthen it. Renew it.”
In a deliberate contrast to Trump, who talked about withdrawing from NATO and famously declined on several occasions to acknowledge the United States’ responsibilities under Article V of the alliance’s charter to come to the aid of members under attack, Biden cast the United States as ready to assume its responsibilities as the linchpin of the alliance.
“We will keep the faith” with the obligation, he said, adding that “an attack on one is an attack on all.” But he also pressed Europe to think about challenges in a new way — different from the Cold War, even if the two biggest geostrategic adversaries seem familiar.
“We must prepare together for long-term strategic competition with China,” he said, naming “cyberspace, artificial intelligence and biotechnology” as the new territory for competition. And he argued for pushing back against Russia — he called Putin by his last name, with no title attached — mentioning in particular the need to respond to the SolarWinds attack that was aimed at federal and corporate computer networks.
“Addressing Russian recklessness and hacking into computer networks in the United States and across Europe and the world has become critical to protect collective security,” Biden said. The president avoided delving in to the difficult question of how to make Russia pay a price without escalating the confrontation. A senior White House cyberofficial told reporters this week that the scope and depth of the Russian intrusion was still under study, and officials are clearly struggling to come up with options to fulfill Biden’s commitment to make Putin pay a price for the attack.
But it was the dynamic with Macron, who has made a habit of criticizing the NATO alliance as nearing “brain death” and no longer “pertinent” since the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact, that captured attention.
Macron wants NATO to act as more of a political body, a place where European members have equivalent status to the United States and are less subject to the American tendency to dominate decision-making.
A Europe better able to defend itself, and more autonomous, would make NATO “even stronger than before,” Macron insisted. He said Europe should be “much more in charge of its own security,” increasing its commitments to spending on defense to “rebalance” the trans-Atlantic relationship.
That is not a widely shared view among the many European states that do not want to spend the money required, and the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are unwilling to trust their security to anyone but the United States.
Macron also urged that the renovation of NATO’s security abilities should involve “a dialogue with Russia.” NATO has always claimed that it is open to better relations with Moscow, but that Russia is not interested, especially as long as international sanctions remain after its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine about seven years ago.
But Macron, speaking in English to answer a question, also argued that Europe could not count on the United States as much as it had in past decades. “We must take more of the burden of our own protection,” he said.
In practice, it will take many years for Europe to build up a defense arm that would make it more self-reliant. But Macron is determined to start now, just as he is determined to increase the European Union’s technological capacities so that it can become less dependent on American and Chinese supply chains. Biden, in contrast, wants to deepen those supply chains — of both hardware and software — among like-minded Western allies in an effort to lessen Chinese influence. He is preparing to propose a new joint project for European and American technology companies in areas like semiconductors and the kinds of software that Russia exploited in the SolarWinds hacking.
It was Merkel who dwelled on the complexities of dealing with China, given its dual role as competitor and necessary partner for the West.
“In recent years, China has gained global clout, and as trans-Atlantic partners and democracies, we must do something to counter this,” Merkel said.
“Russia continually entangles European Union members in hybrid conflicts,” she said. “Consequently, it is important that we come up with a trans-Atlantic agenda toward Russia that makes cooperative offers on the one hand, but on the other very clearly names the differences.”
While Biden announced he would make good on an American promise to donate $4 billion to the campaign to expedite the manufacturing and distribution of coronavirus vaccines around the world — a move approved last year by a Democratic-led House and a Republican led-Senate — there were clear differences in approach during the meeting.
Underscoring the importance that the European Union accords to Africa, Macron called on Western nations to supply 13 million vaccine doses to African governments “as soon as possible” to protect health workers.
He warned that if the alliance failed to do this, “our African friends will be pressured by their populations, and rightly so, to buy doses from the Chinese, the Russians or directly from laboratories.”
Vaccine donations would reflect “a common will to advance and share the same values,” Macron said. Otherwise, “the power of the West, of Europeans and Americans, will be only a concept, and not a reality.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, on Friday also urged countries and drugmakers to help speed up the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines across the globe, warning that the world could be “back at Square 1” if some countries went ahead with their vaccination campaigns and left others behind.
“Vaccine equity is not just the right thing to do, it’s also the smartest to do,” Tedros said to the Munich conference. He argued that the longer it would take to vaccinate populations in every country, the longer the pandemic would remain out of control.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2021 The New York Times Company
 

Putin considers slamming the door on Iran and opening a window for Israel
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/February 20/2021
A remarkable meeting occurred in January between Syrian and Israeli officials at the Russian base near Latakia in western Syria. It appears to have been precipitated by Israeli concerns about the increasing sophistication of high-precision Iranian missiles and drones in Tehran’s satellite states.
Israel wanted to convey the message to Tehran that an Iranian military presence in Syria would never be permitted. Perhaps more remarkable than the meeting itself was the extensive pressure exerted by the Russians to force Damascus to participate, including temporarily suspending fuel supplies.
Some observers view Moscow’s persistent efforts to bring Israeli and Syrian officials closer together as the prelude to a peace accord, similar to those brokered with other Arab states. If Russia did facilitate such a deal, the essential elements are obvious: Return of the Golan, in exchange for wholesale Iranian exclusion from Syrian territory – a major concession to swallow for both sides, but offering huge strategic gains. If Putin decides to put his boot on Assad’s neck, this is probably an offer that the gravely weakened Syrian dictator couldn’t refuse — particularly as it was Russia’s 2015 intervention that fundamentally shifted the course of the Syrian conflict.
It’s no secret that many Assad regime officials are fed up with the contempt they experience from Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel who behave as if Damascus belongs to them. Similarly for Russia, Iran has gone from being a necessary ally to a liability. Russia’s massive military investments in Syria will never be secure as long as Iran’s radicalized militias provoke regional conflict.
Meanwhile, the depths of Putin’s commitment to Israel — and to his friend Benjamin Netanyahu —were highlighted again last week with a Russia-brokered prisoner swap, the third such exchange amid successive rounds of Israeli elections in which Netanyahu has been fighting for his political life.
Russia has conspicuously left Syrian airspace wide open for Israel to strike Iran-associated targets on a daily basis. US intelligence sources describe Syrian airspace as “saturated” with Israeli and Russian planes, necessitating close coordination. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently pledged to Israel’s leaders: "If you have facts that your state is facing threats from Syrian territory, report the facts urgently and we will take every measure to neutralize the threat."
The Biden administration appears to have reconciled itself to Syria being consolidated under Russian influence; better this than being an Iranian satellite or spawning ground for Daesh. Trump’s Syria envoy, James Jeffrey, warns: “Russia is trying its very best to present an alternative security architecture for the region. (The Russians) are our competition in the region as much as the Iranians are.” Indeed, Biden’s lack of outreach to Arab leaderships may spur them to seek closer Russian ties.
While Biden aspires to be tough with Moscow, he clearly isn’t seeking confrontation for the sake of confrontation, evidenced by the swift return of both sides to the START Treaty. However, this will remain a highly transactional relationship, with Putin seeking as many negotiating cards as possible, even when Russia-US interests overlap.
This is likely to be the case with Iran’s nuclear program. Both Putin and Biden support a return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Indeed, behind the scenes Russia has been encouraging Tehran not to violate its JCPOA commitments, with Lavrov warning Iran “not to give into emotions” and withdraw from the IAEA Additional Protocol. Moscow furthermore has a strategic interest in widening the deal to encompass the curtailment of Iran’s proxy paramilitaries.
Russian diplomacy in Lebanon is also becoming increasingly visible in support of Saad Hariri forming a government, after Western efforts appear to have petered out. This is another arena where Russian diplomacy could constrain Iranian influence, particularly as Moscow’s curtailment of Iran’s activity in Syria would limit Tehran’s ability to arm and support Hezbollah, while abruptly putting a halt to Hezbollah’s regional aspirations. Russia has also been intervening in the floundering Afghan peace process, having most to lose from a terrorism-exporting failed state in its backyard.
Biden should be urging Turkey, as a NATO member, to act as a check on Russian expansionism, particularly as Turkish ambitions so frequently clash with those of Moscow: Ankara backed the winning side, Azerbaijan, in Nagorno-Karabakh, while Moscow (previously the pre-eminent Caucasus power) only latterly intervened to calm the situation.
As part of this Armenia-Azerbaijan peace accord, “sister states” Turkey and Azerbaijan are now physically linked by a “pan-Turkic super-highway” via Armenia. This affords Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman ultra-nationalist regime enhanced access to the Turkic states of Central Asia, which Russia and China regard as their exclusive zone of influence. Turkey’s close ties to Ukraine, including military assistance, are an irritant to Putin’s aspirations to dominate the Black Sea region.
Since 2017 the Central African Republic (CAR) has been the centerpiece for Putin’s expansionist Africa strategy, offering the tantalizing prospect of monopolies over the region’s vast mineral riches. But with the CAR dissolving into renewed paroxysms of civil war, Putin has been compelled to send hundreds of additional mercenaries (or “military instructors”), as his dreams of lucrative African adventures turn into a costly headache.
With a plurality of crises in former-Soviet states (notably Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia), a newly assertive domestic protest movement (personified by Alexei Navalny) and a tough economic outlook, Putin appears unusually vulnerable and overstretched. Thus, for the time being, Moscow has gone from being the foremost global provoker of conflicts to energetically putting out fires and calming things down — not least in the Middle East, where Putin is sick of Tehran’s warmongering and ceaseless provocations. Russian pre-eminence in Syria and the region is certainly not our ideal scenario, given the implications for governance, freedoms and human rights. However, given the overarching menace from Tehran, Hezbollah, Daesh, Al-Qaeda and a thousand and one other paramilitary proxies, matters could be infinitely worse.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

A rocky road ahead to ‘JCPOA 2’
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/February 20/2021
President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have both made it clear that the US is willing to engage in negotiations to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions.
Europe, too, wants to find a way forward with Iran, which is understandable given its geographic proximity to the Middle East. Who wants nuclear weapons to proliferate in one’s neighborhood? Iran is also rich in energy resources and commodities, with a youthful population of about 85 million that could become a lucrative market for European companies.
The JCPOA was one of the EU’s few foreign policy successes, so it was of little surprise that the bloc disagreed with the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018. The EU’s high representative, Federica Mogherini, engaged with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in an effort save the substance of the agreement. Europe came up with a non-dollar denominated payment mechanism that would have allowed Iran to purchase goods outside the sanctions’ regime. It did not work, because such is the pre-eminence of the dollar in global payment systems that companies faced the stark choice of doing business with either Iran or the US.
Since Trump began reimposing sanctions, Iran has incrementally expanded breaches of its obligations under the JCPOA — enriching more uranium to 20 percent purity and producing uranium metal, which may be used in nuclear warheads. Tehran’s latest ultimatum is that if the US does not return to the agreement by Feb. 23, Iran will cease to comply with the additional protocol to the JCPOA, which permits unannounced snap inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
However, simply turning the clock back to 2015 is not going to happen. The Biden administration and many observers believe any “new” JCPOA needs to go beyond uranium enrichment to encompass Iran’s ballistic missile capability, the aggressive behaviour of its proxy militias in the region, and Tehran’s support for the Assad regime in Syria.
Washington would like to see Russia and China involved in negotiations, which makes sense; there probably cannot be a lasting agreement without those two geopolitical heavyweights. However, Biden also made it clear at the Munich security conference last week that he stood for democracy and human rights, and that his views on China and Russia on these issues were skeptical to say the least. So something will have to give.
It will also be important to include the major Gulf states and Israel in any future agreement. It is unclear what form such inclusion should take, consultative or otherwise, which may become a stumbling block. But these are the major US allies in the region and Washington can ill afford to ignore them, especially given the debates on NATO troop strength in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The road to any agreement is also fraught with issues for Iran, where a presidential election is months away. During the parliamentary election in 2016 and the presidential election in 2017, moderates argued that the JCPOA would bring economic gains. But US sanctions ensured that little benefit accrued to ordinary Iranians, so that argument will not work this time, which may help hard-line conservative candidates. In judging where new negotiations could lead, it will matter who holds the Iranian presidency after June 18.
No one doubts the value of an agreement that would moderate Iran’s behavior, and the US seems willing to re-engage, but the way to a comprehensive deal is far from easy and even farther from being assured. There is a rocky road ahead.
• Cornelia Meyer is a Ph.D.-level economist with 30 years of experience in investment banking and industry. She is chairperson and CEO of business consultancy Meyer Resources.
Twitter: @MeyerResources

Iran Just Handed Biden His First Credibility Test
Michael Knights/Politico/February 21/2021

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Rocket attacks on an American base in Iraq by an Iran-backed militia will require a clear response. Nuclear negotiations, not to mention the safety of U.S. troops, depend on it.
Joe Biden is squarely in the middle of a major foreign policy test as president, and while it has gone largely unremarked inside the U.S., the Middle East is watching closely to see how he responds to an attack on U.S. forces.
Monday night, as many as 24 rockets were fired at a U.S. military base at Erbil International Airport, in the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The attacked, almost certainly launched by an Iran-backed militia, wounded an American soldier, killed one non-U.S. contractor and wounded five others. Three local civilians were also wounded.
Earlier this year, I argued that a new President Biden might face just such a challenge early in his administration. Iran wanted to avenge the assassination of Qassem Soleimani in early January 2020 but I suggested that rather than provoking an outgoing Donald Trump, that it might choose instead to put his replacement to the test by waiting until after Inauguration Day. That is exactly what happened and now the question is how Biden will respond.
The early answer is: cautiously. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated that the U.S. reserves “the right to respond at a time and manner of our choosing but we’ll wait for the attribution to be concluded first.”
Establishing culpability is important, to be sure, but that won’t take long. In fact, intelligence experts already have a very good idea where blame lies. The most pressing concern is to communicate clearly to Iran what the consequences will be for encouraging further attacks.
It is a miracle that a lot more people were not killed. Two of the two dozen rockets struck the camp of the U.S.-led coalition. If more had struck the U.S. base, the result might have been multiple U.S. fatalities, as was the case on March 11, 2020, when another rocket attack killed two U.S. personnel and also one British servicewoman in Iraq.
Most of the rockets fired on February 15 missed the airport and struck the densely populated city, crowded with Kurds, Arab displaced persons, Western diplomats and foreign workers. Civilian homes and apartment complexes were struck. If even one rocket had struck a high-rise, in a city with limited firefighting capacity, the death toll could have been catastrophic.
In late 2019, the same winding-up of militia attacks led to the end-of-year tit-for-tat strikes in Iraq in which a U.S. contactor was killed, the U.S. embassy was besieged, thousands of U.S. troops were flown to Iraq. America killed over thirty Iran-backed militiamen and Iran’s senior general and spymaster, Qassem Soleimani. Iran fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. base, injuring over a hundred U.S. troops.
That episode warns that, unless countered, the Erbil attack will not mark the end of militia provocations against the Biden administration but rather the beginning. This dynamic has to be quickly reversed before Americans are killed and maimed, before the U.S. is drawn into retaliatory actions, or before U.S. credibility takes a new hit in the eyes of our allies and partners in the region.
As Psaki noted Tuesday, ensuring a correct attribution of blame must be the starting point, and it offers a welcome excuse for the Biden team to slow down the process, take a breath, and review options. As someone who has been at the heart of dozens of similar intelligence exercises, I know it is not difficult to tell who did the attack: Many factors suggest with high confidence that it was Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), a U.S.-designated terrorist group with gallons of U.S. blood on its hands from the years before the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011.
Let’s review the circumstantial evidence available even to a trained observer who only has access to media, social media and some insiders. An AAH-run media front called Ashab al-Kahf (Companions of the Cave) spent much of February 15 criticizing the Kurdistan Region, and then (13 minutes before the rocket attack) issued a cryptic Telegram message threatening Kurdistan and Erbil. In the hours after the attack, AAH’s Telegram channel, Sabareen, dominated coverage of the incident, with other groups getting access to information slower than the AAH channel.
When a claim emerged, and was not disputed by other militia groups, it came from Saraya Alwiya al-Dam (Custodians of the Blood), which is another media brand that AAH occasionally uses to claim attacks. To add to this picture, similar circumstantial evidence has identified AAH as the militia that rocketed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on November 20 and December 25, and which undertook the last attack on U.S. targets in Erbil on September 30.
For those inside the system, with top secret access to eavesdropping intelligence, the trail of breadcrumbs leading to AAH will quickly become even clearer. Whether they choose to let the outside world know of this evidence is another matter.
Such evidence will also give a sense whether Iran commissioned the attack, or was unaware of it, or simply didn’t care. In the case of AAH, the group has a habit of attacking Americans in order to boost its own prestige, without needing an explicit go-ahead from Tehran. But even if the Erbil attack was not intended by Tehran as a trial of Biden’s credibility, it has immediately become that test.
Based on my close focus on AAH and other Iraqi militias, I rather doubt Iran was the driving force behind the Erbil attack, but I know for sure that Iran could warn the group away from future outrages of this kind, if Tehran were properly motivated.
The Biden team is looking for a diplomatic first step, as opposed to immediate recourse to military strikes or new sanctions. A smart move would be to directly warn Tehran that the U.S. expects Iran to restrain all its proxies from taking destabilizing moves such as the Erbil attack or the January 23 drone attack on the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, which was also launched from Iraq. Such a message would alert the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that America is not fooled by facades, but rather remains clear-eyed about Tehran’s influence over anti-American militias.
In particular, the Biden team should publicly warn Iran that if another American is killed or wounded in Iraq or elsewhere in the Gulf, then the Biden administration will suspend efforts to restart nuclear negotiations. Only a firm and clear line will safeguard U.S. soldiers operating on the frontlines of the war against the Islamic State or those protecting U.S. interests across the Middle East. An assessment period might be set during which Iran would be given time to quietly de-escalate the activities of its militia partners in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
It might seem counterintuitive to address the militia threat ahead of the more consequential effort to stop Iran getting a bomb, but how can a U.S. president sit down and negotiate with an Iranian government that is either tacitly or actively encouraging attempts to kill Americans?
Better, surely, to privately condition new talks with Iran on a visible quieting-down of Iran-backed militias in the Middle East – a non-lethal, diplomatic first step to safeguard Americans and U.S. partners across the region.
If Iran fails to restrain its proxies, then the Biden administration should not shy away from a demonstration of force that is credible and measured. Very clearly, as demonstrated by the Erbil strike, the Iran-backed militias do not fear or respect the Biden administration in the same manner that they did the Trump administration. This is a dangerous state of affairs that could lead to miscalculation and the deaths of Americans.
To restore deterrence, the U.S. should consider options to shake the confidence of the AAH leadership, such as a “near-miss” drone or covert action strike on a location close to its head, Qais al-Khazali, or an obvious penetration of his personal communications and computer security. If the Biden team wants to differentiate their approach from the past administration, then such “out of the box” thinking is more needed than ever.
**Michael Knights is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has worked on Iraq since the 1990s and made multiple trips to Iraq each year since 2003, embedding with Iraqi security forces and interviewing local and national leaders.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/17/iran-just-handed-biden-his-first-credibility-test-469484