English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 12/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

We bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.
First Letter to the Corinthians 04/09-16: “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day. I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 11-12/2021

Putin hosts first post-war talks between leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia
Abiad Warns of Virus Spread, Says Hospitals’ Capacity 'Depleted'
Lebanon Needs to Draft New Law to Get Pfizer Vaccine
Report: Overnight Contacts between Hizbullah, Bkirki
Court of Cassation Says Sawwan Can Resume Port Probe
Tenenti: Israeli overflights violation of resolution 1701, Lebanese sovereignty
Panic Buying in Lebanon as Authorities Mull Tighter Lockdown
Defense Council Declares Jan 14-Jan 25 State of Emergency, Lockdown
Hariri Tweets on 'Cheating' after Aoun Caught Accusing Him of 'Lying'
Importers Reassure Lebanon Has Enough Foodstuffs for Two Months
Diab: We Need to Protect Lebanese from Themselves amid Virus Spread
Report: Government Formation Falters
Lebanon High Court Says Prosecutor Can Resume Port Probe
Lebanon declares state of emergency as military enforces lockdown/Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 21/2021
How To Save Lebanon,/Lebanon is not a failed state. Its leaders are failed individuals./Part One Of Three/Elie Aoun/January 11/2021
The War’s Relentless Shadow/Issam Kayssi/CMEC/January 11/2021
Bassil endorses Hezbollah’s proposal of founding conference
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
Geagea salutes health staff in all hospitals across Lebanon
Supreme Defense Council declares state of health emergency to confront dangerous situation resulting from Coronavirus outbreak

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 11-12/2021

Pope says women can read at Mass, but still can’t be priests
US designates of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism: Pompeo
Bahrain Invites Qatar for Bilateral Talks in Manama
Bahrain Accuses Qatar of Seizing Bodybuilder on Boat Trip
Turkey, Greece to resume talks on maritime disputes later this month
Egypt Hosts Talks to Revive Israel-Palestinian Dialogue
Saudi Arabia Welcomes Washington’s Designation of Houthis as Terrorist
US Democrats Move to Impeach Trump in Final Days of Presidency
Violent protests turn deadly in Iraq, again
Iran pursues ship-for-money pressures over South Korea
Putin hosts first post-war talks between leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 11-12/2021

U.S. plans to designate Yemen's Houthi movement as foreign terrorist group/Aziz El Yaakoubi, Jonathan Landay, Matt Spetalnick/Reuters/January 11/2021
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Keep Hinting at Nuclear Weapons Ambitions/Michael Rubin/The National Interest/January 11/2021
Iran is pushing for more appeasement from Joe Biden/The New York Post Editorial Board/January 11/2021
Why Biden’s Plan to Rejoin the Iran Deal Makes No Sense/Richard Goldberg and Mark Dubowitz/ Foreign Policy/January 11/2021
U.S.-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group Authorization Provides Opportunity for Biden Administration/Bradley Bowman/ Insight/FDD/January 11/2021
Turkey’s Frantic Gold Rush Points to a Financial Crisis Ahead/Aykan Erdemir and John Lechner/The National Interest/January 11/2021
Can the Senate Try Private Citizen Trump after He Leaves Office?/Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute/January 11/2021
Kissinger: Return to Iran deal could spark Middle East nuclear arms race/Lahav Harkov/Jerusalem Post/January 11/2021
Iran, China, Promise to be the Biggest Tests of Biden's Presidency in 2021/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/January 11/2021
It Is Parliament/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/January 11/2021
A Loud Farewell to the Soloist/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/January 11/2021
Democrats poised to repeat past mistakes on Iran/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/January 11/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 11-12/2021

Abiad Warns of Virus Spread, Says Hospitals’ Capacity 'Depleted'
Naharnet/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Director general of the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Firas Abiad said on Monday the capacity of hospitals in Lebanon have “depleted” amid an uncontrollable surge in coronavirus cases, warning that the situation “is not well” at the virus level.
In video remarks to LBCI television, Abiad said: “ We expect more pressure in the coming days and weeks as the new strain is rapidly spreading and could increase the number of infections if we do not correct the matter.”“More than 100 people needed admission to the intensive case unit last week. We have to cut the spread of the virus to reduce the number of infections by imposing a total lockdown, wearing masks and social distancing,” he stressed. Noting how people are mistaken to believe that young people do not retract the virus, he said: “An 11-year-old boy and another young male in his 20s are in the ICU unit because of coronavirus. The matter bears no leniency.”Lebanon, which began a 25-day lockdown Thursday to curb a huge surge in Covid-19 cases, is inclined to toughen the measures further in light of the dire health situation. The current lockdown is the third since the first case was reported in Lebanon in late February. It has shut down most businesses and limited traffic by imposing an odd-and-even license plate rule on alternating days. It has also reduced the number of flights at the country's only international airport.
A daily 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew has also been enforced. Lebanon on Saturday registered a new staggering tally of 5,414 coronavirus cases while 5,440 cases were recorded on Friday. The high tallies come in the wake of the holiday season, in which tens of thousands of visitors flew into the country to celebrate Christmas and New Year's.

Lebanon Needs to Draft New Law to Get Pfizer Vaccine
Naharnet/Monday, 11 January, 2021
The Ministerial Health Committee tasked with following up on coronavirus said during a virtual meeting on Monday that Lebanon can not purchase Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine before approving a law that gives the firm protection from legal action. “We held a virtual meeting and decided, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, to pass a swift law to obtain vaccines on time, similar to all countries of the world,” said head of the committee MP Assem Araji. He added: “Pfizer and Moderna companies have obtained emergency and temporary use because every person receiving the vaccine must be monitored, so that no lawsuits are filed against the companies,” as a result of any complications or side effects with the vaccine. “In Lebanon we do not have this law. Pfizer assured us that if we pass the law today, we will receive the vaccine before the time specified with the Minister of Health,” added Araji. Araji said the committee will meet virtually again on Wednesday to finalize the matter. Pfizer and Moderna are under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) which gives them indemnity protecting it from legal action as a result of any problems with the vaccine.

Report: Overnight Contacts between Hizbullah, Bkirki
Naharnet/Monday, 11 January, 2021
After a “long interruption” in contacts between Bkirki and Hizbullah, MTV television station said Monday that senior Hizbullah official Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed has contacted Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi offering his condolences over the death of his brother. MTV said the two men also discussed the latest developments in Lebanon. Contacts between Bkirki and Hizbullah came after an extended break between the two sides. Al-Rahi has on numerous occasions openly criticized Hizbullah and blamed Lebanon’s compounded political, economic and financial crisis on its “hegemony” over the government and Lebanese politics.

Court of Cassation Says Sawwan Can Resume Port Probe
Associated Press/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Lebanon's highest court said Monday the prosecutor investigating last year's massive explosion at the Beirut port that killed dozens and injured thousands can resume his work after a three-week pause following legal challenges to his authority. The Court of Cassation's decision gives the green light to Judge Fadi Sawwan to question officials and civil servants over the Aug. 4 explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used mostly as a fertilizer. The blast killed more than 200 people, injured over 6,000 and damaged entire neighborhoods in the capital. The court's decision, reported by the official state news agency, is likely to ease concerns by members of the public who feared the investigation might end given Lebanon's decades-long culture of impunity. Nearly 30 people, most of them port and customs officials, have been arrested since the blast. Last month, Sawwan filed charges against caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers, accusing them of negligence leading to the deaths of hundreds of people. Diab and the three former ministers did not show up for questioning following the charges. The summoning sparked concerted criticism from most of Lebanon's top politicians and Hizbullah, who urged Sawwan to reconsider his decision, describing it as politically motivated. Sawwan paused his investigation to allow him to respond to accusations that he violated legal and constitutional procedures by summoning for questioning Diab and the three former ministers. Many critics have seen the attacks on Sawwan as an attempt by the political elite to prevent setting a precedent that might bring accountability at the highest level. Two of the accused former ministers, Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zoaiter, who are currently members of parliament, challenged Sawwan's decision to question them and asked the Court of Cassation to replace him, citing "legitimate suspicion" over its legality.
 

Tenenti: Israeli overflights violation of resolution 1701, Lebanese sovereignty
NNA/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Spokesperson of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Andrea Tenenti, delivered the following statement on Monday: “In recent days, UNIFIL has recorded a number of overflights of Lebanese territory conducted by Israeli UAVs and fighter jets. These are violations of resolution 1701 as well as of Lebanese sovereignty, and we have once again called on the IDF Command to cease the overflights. The continued violations increase fear among the local population and undermine our efforts to reduce tensions and establish a stable security environment in southern Lebanon.In this tense period in the region, UNIFIL’s efforts are to maintain a calm and stable situation along the Blue Line. To this end, UNIFIL strongly cautions the parties against any activities that could trigger incidents and endanger the cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel.”
 

Panic Buying in Lebanon as Authorities Mull Tighter Lockdown
Associated Press/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Monday the country has entered a "very critical zone" in the battle against the coronavirus as his government mulls tightening the nationwide lockdown announced last week. Following a new post-holiday surge in infections, the government imposed a nationwide lockdown and a nighttime curfew. But many were critical of the measures, calling them lax for exempting many sectors, such as factories, plant nurseries and exchange bureaus. Lebanon's handling of the virus surge amid a deepening economic crisis has been under scrutiny, with many saying hesitant policies have failed to contain it. Despite a rise in infections, the government relaxed restrictions ahead of Christmas and New Year's celebrations, hoping to boost a crumbling local economy. Bars and nightclubs, which had been ordered shut for months, were allowed to open. Penalties against big holiday gatherings and parties were not evenly and strictly imposed. On Sunday, a football match was allowed to take place in the with an audience at the al-Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon where the Lebanese state has little or no authority. Doctors and experts say the extent of the spread has yet to be felt, predicting numbers will skyrocket in the coming days, overwhelming health facilities in the country of nearly 6 million. Daily infection rates have hovered above 3,000, hitting an all-time high of over 5,000 last week. Lawmakers and officials have called on the government to consider a 24-hour lockdown without exemptions. There have been calls for the Beirut airport to be shut. Some 80,000 Lebanese expats had returned to the country during the holidays, but doctors say the transmission remains mainly among non-expats.
On Monday, panic buyers swarmed supermarkets after reports the government planned to also order them shut in the tightened lockdown. Long lines formed outside chain supermarkets, sparking fear the crowds could further spread the virus. Mirna Jumaa left a packed supermarket in eastern Beirut pushing a cart full of groceries but with no bread. "We came to get bread. There was already not a single piece of bread left," she said, walking away with her mother. Ahead of a ministerial meeting to consider new measures, Diab blamed careless behavior for the spread, saying many Lebanese still consider the virus a hoax and are not taking it seriously. "We have entered a very critical zone in terms of the coronavirus spread or at a minimum, we are at the gates of that zone," Diab said. As of Sunday, the World Health Organization said 81.7% of Lebanon's hospital beds were occupied and the intensive-care-unit bed occupancy had reached 91.4%, with the highest in Beirut. Some 2,295 health care workers had been infected by Jan. 10, up from 2,015 last week. Kayssar Mawad, director of a private hospital in Zgharta in northern Lebanon, said he has been turning cases away because there were no more beds. Out of 35 patients there with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, seven are in ICU, he said. The region is one of the country's hotspots. "It is a difficult period," said Mawad. "We are refusing many cases. There are no places, no more respirators." Since February, Lebanon has recorded more than 219,000 infections and 1,606 deaths. Hospitals have appealed to the government to turn all health facilities into treating coronavirus patients, saying all 15,000 hospital beds are needed to meet the new surge. At the largest public hospital in Beirut, the Rafik Hariri University hospital, doctors and nurses were overwhelmed with new patients and all the 40 ICU beds were fully occupied. "We are in the heart of the crisis," said nurse Therese Gobar. Jad Chaaban, a Lebanese economist and political activist, tweeted that Lebanon "is dying" and called it "another chapter" of the "criminal incompetence" of the authorities. Lebanon's political class was facing a wave of antigovernment protests before the virus outbreak. The protesters blamed the long-serving political elite for mismanaging. Then, a massive explosion last August in Beirut's port killed over 200 people and injured thousands. The blast, caused by the ignition of explosive chemicals stored there for years, has been blamed on gross negligence.

Defense Council Declares Jan 14-Jan 25 State of Emergency, Lockdown
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/Monday, 11 January, 2021
The Higher Defense Council on Monday declared a general state of emergency that begins on Thursday and ends on January 25.A daytime and nighttime curfew will be enforced from 5am Thursday until 5 am January 25 and all public and private cars will be banned from the streets, the Council said in a statement. All citizens are to remain at home with few exceptions, including health professionals, journalists, those working in the food sector and other essential workers, the statement added. All public and private institutions and commercial banks will meanwhile be closed while supermarkets and restaurants will be allowed to offer delivery services from 5am till 5pm. The National Social Security Fund, medical and foodstuffs factories, wholesale foodstuff markets, flour mills, bakeries, pharmacies, medical labs, clinics, money exchange and transfer shops, fuel stations and insurance companies will meanwhile be allowed to operate during certain times of the day. The airport will meanwhile remain open but travelers arriving from Adis Ababa, Cairo, Adana, Istanbul and Baghdad will have to be quarantined for a week in hotels on their own expense. They must take a PCR test upon landing in Lebanon and then again six days later. Land and maritime borders will also be closed to all travelers except those carrying a valid transit visa and passenger traffic at the Beirut airport will be slashed to 20 percent of arrivals in January 2020. The state of emergency can be extended in light of the results, media reports said.
The new measures came after officials and health professionals warned that hospitals were quickly running out of beds, leaving many scrambling for treatment, even though a lockdown has been in place since January 7. But many officials, including the caretaker health minister and officials on a government committee, considered that lockdown to be too lenient because it exempted many sectors, such as florists, plant nurseries and factories. Critics have said uncoordinated and hesitant policies wavering between relaxing restrictions and shutting down were behind the failure to contain the virus. For instance, despite a rise in infections, the government relaxed restrictions ahead of Christmas and New Year's celebrations, hoping to boost a crumbling local economy as thousands of Lebanese expats arrived in the country. Bars and nightclubs, which had been ordered shut for months, were allowed to open. Lebanon, a country of more than six million, has recorded 219,296 Covid-19 cases, including 1,606 deaths, since February. Over the past seven days, it has recorded a 70 percent increase in infections, placing it among the countries currently experiencing one of the world's steepest virus upticks, according to AFP data. It trails behind Portugal, which has seen a 73 percent increase, Nigeria, with a 77 percent rise, and Ireland, with a 190 percent uptick. Firas Abiad, the head of Lebanon's main coronavirus hospital, said the country recorded more than 30,000 new cases between January 3 and 10 , hitting a peak of 5,440 new infections on Friday. Overwhelmed by the influx of new patients, hospitals have had to turn people away, sending many families into a desperate hunt for hospital beds. One hospital at the weekend said it was treating patients in cars because it had reached capacity.

Hariri Tweets on 'Cheating' after Aoun Caught Accusing Him of 'Lying'
Naharnet/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Monday tweeted a bible verse about “cheating” after President Michel Aoun was caught on camera saying the PM-designate has “lied” about being given a cabinet line-up “paper” by the president.
“There is no formation. He says that we gave him a paper. He’s lying,” Aoun tells caretaker PM Hassan Diab in remarks caught by al-Jadeed TV’s camera. The president’s answer came in response to a question by Diab about the cabinet formation process. “He has made statements containing lies and now notice how much he has been absent. Notice how much the luck of the Lebanese is bad, and now he has gone to Turkey, I don’t know what difference that will make,” Aoun added in the leaked remarks.

Importers Reassure Lebanon Has Enough Foodstuffs for Two Months
Naharnet/Monday, 11 January, 2021
The Syndicate of Importers of Foodstuff, Consumer Products & Drinks on Monday reassured Lebanon’s residents that the country has sufficient stocks for at least two months, as reports that authorities intend to close supermarkets and grocery shops prompted consumers to panic buy. In a statement, the Syndicate said it understands “citizens’ eagerness to buy foodstuffs with the inclination to declare a one-week general lockdown,” but noted that “the ongoing rush is unnecessary and would increase the spread of the pandemic.”It accordingly reassured that “all types of foodstuffs are available in the depots of importers with quantities that can supply the country for at least two months,” adding that it is always ready to cover any shortages. The Syndicate also urged citizens and residents to “purchase only what they need for a period of one week to avoid crowding at supermarkets and commercial shops.”

Diab: We Need to Protect Lebanese from Themselves amid Virus Spread
Naharnet/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Lebanon must impose a strict lockdown to curb the virus spread, otherwise the country faces a “much more dangerous model than the Italian one.”“It is our duty to protect the Lebanese from themselves due to the recklessness of a large part of them. Either we rectify the situation with a complete, strict and firm lockdown of the country, or we are facing a Lebanese model that is more dangerous than the Italian model,” said Diab. His remarks came during the meeting of the ministerial committee tasked with following up on the pandemic. "All indicators about the spread of coronavirus clearly show that we have entered a stage of extreme danger or, at least, we are on the threshold of it," Diab stated.“The entire world is waging a fierce battle against this pandemic, while some in Lebanon believe corona is a lie” he concluded.

Report: Government Formation Falters
Naharnet/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Forming a new government in Lebanon seems to falter further despite the country’s need for a reform cabinet much hoped for to begin the process of recovery in the crisis-hit nation. Media reports close to Baabda Presidential Palace told al-Joumhouria daily on Monday that no progress was recorded from any side or party in relation to the governmental file. They said Baabda circles are “waiting to hear something new” from PM-designate Saad Hariri after his foreign trip abroad, apparently referring to Hariri’s recent unannounced visit to Turkey where he held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan. On Sunday, Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil lashed out at Hariri, and warned of a perceived attempt to return the country to the “pre-2005 era.”“We do not entrust Hariri alone with reform and to them this government is aimed at seizing control of the country and returning us to the pre-2005 era,” he said. Meanwhile, Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement said the PM-designate has already presented the line-up of a reformist cabinet to President Michel Aoun. Hariri accused Bassil of triggering “obstacles” and “sectarian and racist standards.”For his part, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi reiterated his call for President Michel Aoun and Hariri to hold a “personal reconciliation meeting.”Rahi said that domestic and foreign obstacles should vanish before the salvation of Lebanon’s fate and reviving the state of institutions.
 

Lebanon High Court Says Prosecutor Can Resume Port Probe
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Lebanon’s highest court said Monday the prosecutor investigating last year’s massive explosion at the Beirut port that killed dozens and injured thousands can resume his work after a three-week pause following legal challenges to his authority. The Court of Cassation's decision gives the green light to Judge Fadi Sawwan to question officials and civil servants over the Aug. 4 explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used mostly as a fertilizer. The blast killed more than 200 people, injured over 6,000 and damaged entire neighborhoods in the capital. The court's decision, reported by the official state news agency, is likely to ease concerns by members of the public who feared the investigation might end given Lebanon's decades-long culture of impunity. Nearly 30 people, most of them port and customs officials, have been arrested since the blast. Last month, Sawwan filed charges against caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers, accusing them of negligence leading to the deaths of hundreds of people. Diab and the three former ministers did not show up for questioning following the charges. The summoning sparked concerted criticism from most of Lebanon’s top politicians and Hezbollah, which urged Sawwan to reconsider his decision, describing it as politically motivated. Sawwan paused his investigation to allow him to respond to accusations that he violated legal and constitutional procedures by summoning for questioning Diab and the three former ministers. Many critics have seen the attacks on Sawwan as an attempt by the political elite to prevent setting a precedent that might bring accountability at the highest level. Two of the accused former ministers, who are currently members of parliament, challenged Sawwan’s decision to question them and asked the Court of Cassation to replace him, citing “legitimate suspicion” over its legality. The court, the highest in the country, had not decided on the matter regarding the two ministers as of Monday, state-run National News Agency said.

Lebanon declares state of emergency as military enforces lockdown
Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 21/2021
BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities declared a state of health emergency and imposed a curfew on Monday, to confront the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The curfew will run day and night between Jan. 14 and 25, subject to extension, and will be enforced by the Lebanese Armed Forces. There will be exceptions granted to some professions and businesses, as part of the full lockdown declared in Lebanon since Jan. 7. This decision was taken after hospitals lost their capacity to treat patients with the disease, with ambulances transporting patients moving from site to site in search of empty beds in emergency departments. One Red Cross paramedic posted on his Facebook account a text which went viral, which said that his “cellphone has been ringing since 5 in the morning with people infected with the virus and their families asking for help.” The paramedic called on “all those who are still violating the preventive and precautionary measures, to head to hospitals and watch the tragedy that they are causing.”He said: “We bypassed the stage of non-availability of beds to the stage of inability to go to hospitals. Doctors are examining patients in their cars in front of emergency departments.”The paramedic said that what is happening in front of hospitals is “similar to what happened after the explosion at the Beirut port on Aug. 4. However, with the pandemic, we are living everyday a new Aug. 4 tragedy.“Medical staff are exhausted and orthopedic surgeons, obstetricians, and even retired doctors may have to engage in treating coronavirus patients, and we may reach a phase where we might need to choose who would be accepted to intensive care rooms,” he added. “So, please do not go out of your houses.” Dr. Firass Abiad, director of Rafic Hariri University Hospital (RHUH), estimated at 30,000 the number of patients who contracted the virus between Jan. 3 and 10, with 120 deaths. During the Supreme Defense Council meeting, the country’s caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, said: “We have reached the stage of extreme danger.
“Some people in Lebanon think that COVID-19 is a lie. We are facing a horrific health situation,” he continued. “The disease has spiraled out of control because of people’s stubbornness and their insubordination to the precautionary and preventive measures. “Our duty is to protect people from themselves. Either we control the situation with a full and strict lockdown, or we might be heading towards a Lebanese model worse than the Italian one.”The decisions of the council included closing down banks and governmental institutions for 10 days, subject to renewal, whilst the airports remain open for now. Eng. Fadi El-Hassan, manager of Rafik Hariri International Airport (RHIA), said that the percentage of infection cases among arrivals was no higher than three per 1,000 from the total infection cases in Lebanon. The council’s decision caused some disquiet, with Minister of Health Hamad Hassan not attending a meeting of the ministerial committee concerned with fighting the disease in protest at the government’s failure to implement a full lockdown over the Christmas and New Year period. He called on the committee to “endorse the decisions of the scientific committee at the Ministry of Health, due to its accurate approach of the situation, in order to reach safety.”The country’s medical establishment is unanimous in believing the increase in infections is due to socializing during the New Year celebrations. The American University of Beirut Crisis Observatory criticized the state’s “failure in managing the COVID-19 crisis,” calling it “part of a pattern deeply rooted in the weak management of crises in Lebanon.” Bachir Khodr, governor of Baalbek El-Hermel, which is witnessing a sharp increase in the number of infection cases, told Arab News: “I did my best and took the most extreme measures. However, there are people who were cooperative, and others who ridiculed me.”
The governor added: “We cannot dedicate a policeman for each citizen, and we cannot storm into houses to ensure that they are not having family gatherings. The Italian scenario would be a matter of time if people do not cooperate.
“I believe that people should be alarmed and be aware of the seriousness of the situation, by watching the television and seeing the hospitals full of patients, and noting that each citizen knows at least one person who either contracted the virus or died from it,” he added.
Agricultural and industrial export sectors, meanwhile, exerted pressure in an attempt to be exempted from full closure, while the threat of lockdown without exceptions caused panic among many people, who rushed to supermarkets, butchers and bakeries, leading to brief shortages of various goods. A number of doctors expressed their fear that rushing to supermarkets in this way would further spread the disease. The head of the Syndicate of Food Importers in Lebanon, Hani Bohsali, said: “Rushing to supermarkets is not right and would increase the spread of the virus. Foodstuffs are available in the importers’ stores with quantities enough for at least 2 months.”He called on people to buy their needs for only one week at a time.
 

How To Save Lebanon,/Lebanon is not a failed state. Its leaders are failed individuals.

Part One Of Three/Elie Aoun/January 11/2021

ايلي عون: كيف يمكن انقاذ لبنان..لبنان ليس دولة فاشلة ولكن قادته مجموعة من  الفاشلين

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/94789/elie-aoun-how-to-save-lebanon-lebanon-is-not-a-failed-state-its-leaders-are-failed-individuals-part-one-of-three-%d8%a7%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%b9%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%83%d9%8a%d9%81-%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%83/
Lebanon is not a failed state. Its leaders are failed individuals.
Lebanon is not in need of foreign “supervision.” Its leaders are in need of guardianship (foreign or domestic) due to mental incapacity.
Despite all the difficulties facing the country, a Lebanese solution can be implemented. There is no need for a United Nations or a foreign mandate over the country. The Lebanese have the capacity to save themselves – provided that the “proper Lebanese” are given a position of influence to implement the correct solutions.
After World War II, Germany and Japan were in a more devastating situation than Lebanon. By implementing the right legal and economic principles, and within a span of thirty years after the War, they became one of the most economically influential countries.
In contrast, thirty years after the end of war in Lebanon, the country is in a much worse condition than it was thirty and fifty years ago.
The problem is not in the “confessional system” – although certain improvements can be made. The problem is in the individuals who rule that system. These individuals can ruin any system, regardless of what it may be.
The solution is not in a secular state, federalism, decentralization, a foreign mandate, or any of the ideas being presented. The solution is in (1) applying the correct legal and economic principles and (2) having the right caliber of individuals at the helm of government. The solution is in the substance of the system, more than its form.
The existing political class does not know how to implement these legal and economic principles – even if they want to do so, and even if we describe these principles to them. The political class has to recognize that they do not have the qualification necessary to move the country to a phase of stability and prosperity.
To those who “love” their leaders, they need to recognize that love alone is not enough. If a lady loves a mechanic, she would not go to him for heart surgery. Even if she does, he should be sensible enough to guide her to the proper heart surgeon. In the same manner, if a Lebanese “loves” a certain politician or the leader of a political party, that Lebanese must recognize that the loved politician is incapable of saving him or the country – or at least that politician should be sensible enough to hire those who can.
Unfortunately, many Lebanese citizens still have to wake up from their delusions, and the politicians still have to acknowledge their incapacity to move the country for the better.
God’s political selection criteria is certainly wiser than ours. He makes His selection based on the heart – not on strength. “The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14).
Unfortunately, today’s misguided perception of “strength” has lead Lebanon to “strength in stupidity” and strength in all the wrong directions.
As people, we have to enhance our selection criteria – in terms of whom we choose for a position of political influence.
If the political class have any heart for their people, if they have any constructive vision or any fear of God, we would not have reached the present outcome.
To save Lebanon, the politicians must have (1) a constructive vision to improve the country, (2) a Godly spirituality, and (3) a heart for the people – while (4) implementing the proper legal and economic principles.
The existing political class and leaders of the major political parties do not have a single characteristic of these four elements. Therefore, under no circumstance can these politicians be able to save the country on their own.
A reporter might ask: Would it be realistic to ask of the politicians to abandon their posts to someone else?
The real question should be: Would it be realistic to ask of the people to abandon their economic and political wellbeing to a ruling class that has impoverished them and led the country to the present status quo?
Would it be realistic for qualified Lebanese not to be included in the political governmental process just because they are not members of a political party?
Which is more relevant, the politicians or establishing a viable nation?
Some might say: “We have to respect the ‘democratic’ political process and the elected politicians.”
To that we respond: those at the helm of power achieved their “democratic victories” by exerting militia influence, corruptive practices, inadequate electoral law, and falsified electoral results. Therefore, they cannot be considered as the rightful or valid representatives of the people. They have no legitimacy to rule. In a fair environment, the political map would be very different.
Part 2: How to Save the Presidency?
Part 3: What Hinders the Salvation of Lebanon?

The War’s Relentless Shadow
Issam Kayssi/CMEC/January 11/2021
Twenty years on, a film by Lebanese director Jean Chamoun remains as relevant as ever.
“It was a hospitable city but [one that was] heartless.” This is how Rami, a boy of twelve who is the main character of Jean Chamoun’s film In the Shadow of the City (Taif al-Madina), sees Beirut at the beginning of the story. He and his family have just arrived in the capital after fleeing an unstable southern Lebanon on the eve of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.
Chamoun’s film was released 20 years ago and follows the story of Rami as he grows up in Beirut during the civil war. What is striking is how, by following Rami’s life and without sacrificing a coherent story, the film captures so many of the prominent themes that characterized the war years. These issues remain unresolved, and are ones with which Lebanese society is still struggling.
The film shows how Beirut was home to displaced people, and today includes refugees from Palestine and more recently refugees from Syria. In a little over an hour and a half, Chamoun manages to address the war with Israel in the south, the Palestinian armed presence in Lebanon, the response to the Palestinians in the form of the rise of Christian militias, the flare-up of sectarian tensions in Beirut and the capital’s division into an eastern and a western half during the war, the mass emigration of the Lebanese, and many other themes.
However, these themes have been highlighted by other films about Lebanon’s war. Where Chamoun’s film excels (and is unique) is in his inclusion of topics that remind us of the director’s political orientation and interest in humane causes. His focus on the emergence of civil initiatives for truth and justice for those who disappeared during the war, which were often led by women, is one such example. In the film, a grown-up Rami meets Siham, a young mother whose husband was kidnapped during the conflict. Despite the obstacles in her way, she is determined to find him. Siham joins a group of women who are all fighting for the truth about their kidnapped loved ones. Siham’s story is based on that of Wadad Halwani, the founder and head of the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon. Interestingly, Halwani appears in the film as one of the women who are part of this civil initiative and who engage in a protest in front of the militia group that Rami eventually joins.
Chamoun also manages to link the civil war with the postwar period in Lebanon. Upon Rami’s and his family’s arrival to Beirut, the boy and his father seek Abou Samir for some work. Abou Samir is a man who hails from the same village as they. On the eve of the war he works at Beirut Port, where we see crates of automatic rifles being smuggled into Lebanon. During the war, he becomes a militia leader, one among many involved in abducting individuals like Siham’s husband. By the war’s end, Abou Samir is a man who can “find us a job in the state so that we can take it easy,” as one of his former combatants states. A military actor during the war, we see Abou Samir transformed into an economic actor by the end of it, after his brother had spent the final years of the conflict buying Beirut property on the cheap. By 1990, Abou Samir is calling the shots on construction in Beirut and on where new highways will pass.
In only a few scenes, Chamoun manages to capture how the civil war did not really end but was only transformed into a cold war of sorts. The Lebanese state was apportioned among the war’s victors—those upon whom Syria looked favorably when the war ended in 1990. Militias, except Hezbollah, were disarmed and in many cases their members were integrated into the state. Property and wealth within cities such as Beirut were transferred from citizens to former militia leaders such as Abou Samir, or real estate tycoons like his brother, who could make money easily through illicit methods or purchase property at lower prices. In August 1991, the Lebanese government adopted a general amnesty law that allowed the former warlords to recycle themselves into postwar roles. Justice for people like Siham and thousands of others was simply swept aside.
Even 20 years after its release, In The Shadow of the City is still a highly relevant film, particularly for the generations that did not live through the war. It is a shame that it is not available on Netflix in the Middle East, despite the fact that the streaming service recently added scores of Lebanese films to its library. The film suggests that the war is still an open wound because justice remains absent.
Beirut reminded us of this last August, when the explosion at the port once again showed Beirut’s “heartlessness,” causing more than 200 deaths, thousands of injuries, and destruction of half the city.
The postwar Lebanese political system made up of the likes of Abou Samir, while it may be crumbling today as the economy collapses, is still in place. The political leaders are determined to sweep justice under the rug for the victims of the port explosion, as they did for the victims of the civil war. However, initiatives to preserve the memory of these victims are emerging. To find real peace, however, there must be justice, and it is difficult to see how justice can be achieved when the Abou Samirs of Lebanon are still in power.

Bassil endorses Hezbollah’s proposal of founding conference
The Arab Weekly/January 11/2021
BEIRUT – The leader of Lebanon’s biggest Christian political party, the Free Patriotic Movement, and son-in-law of President Michel Aoun ruled out on Sunday joining a new government led by Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri, a new hurdle for efforts to pull the country out of political paralysis.
In a televised speech, Gebran Bassil said his movement would not join the cabinet as long as Hariri insisted on choosing all ministers. “We don’t entrust Hariri alone with reform in Lebanon,” he said. “In short we don’t want to take part in this government.”Bassil made a lengthy presentation on the problems facing Lebanon and said the country cannot be entrusted to Hariri.
He said Hariri did not appear to be serious about forming a government: “Every time he meets the president he takes a different line-up with him,” Bassil said. “Someone who does that is serious and wants to form a government? Or is wasting time?”
In the last and most important part of his long televised speech, he stressed that the only solution to salvage the situation in Lebanon is the establishment of a new political system. The solution to Lebanon’s current problems is “holding a national dialogue that results in a common Lebanese vision for a new political system that guarantees stability in the country,” he said, noting that “jumping over the system’s structural problems and arguing that Hezbollah alone is the cause of the fall of the state means that there are those who do not want a solution. The problem runs deep.”Bassil lamented that “there is no expertise nor standards nor rules in what is being proposed” by Hariri, Bassil claimed that the objective is to “downsize the government and cling to 14 or 18 seats in order to aggrieve Druze and Greek Catholics.”“We won’t allow a return to the era of marginalisation and elimination,” he added. Bassil also revealed that the FPM has agreed with Iran-backed Hezbollah group on “launching a bilateral dialogue to review our relation and the memorandum of understanding regarding key issues, including foreign relations and the building of the state, because things are not going well.”
Lebanese observers and politicians considered that the two key points in Bassil’s speech were his adoption of Hezbollah’s proposal to hold a national dialogue to establish a new political system, and his incitement of Christians, by accusing Hariri confiscating their right to choose their ministers.
Hezbollah had previously offered to hold a founding conference to reconfigure the current system that emerged following the Taif Agreement, reached in 1989 in the wake of a bloody civil war.
The Taif Agreement is based mainly on sectarian quotas, whereby the three presidencies are distributed among Shias, Sunnis and Maronite Christians. This quota system also includes sovereignty institutions such as defense, the army, and the security establishment. Observers believe that Bassil’s endorsement of the idea of national dialogue is motivated by his concerns over changing international dynamics and the possibility of the new US administration concluding a deal with Iran within an integrated package that includes Lebanon. “We are facing a year of changes on the international scene and in the region,” Bassil said.
“American policy will witness major changes with Joe Biden and we are concerned with these changes. This year is an election year in Iran, Syria and Israel, meaning there is time and an opportunity to rethink and rearrange our options. If this is a year of great changes, then what should we do during it? ”
Commenting on Basil’s statements, former Minister May Chidiac considered that Bassil wanted to confirm the solidity of the understanding his political party has with Hezbollah while calling for a founding conference in an indirect manner.
After Bassil’s speech, Hariri’s Future party said it did not want to be dragged into political bickering and that the government line-up was ready and waiting to shoulder its duties. “It will be a government that will take up the necessary reforms according to the French initiative and not according to sectarian and racist ‘Bassil-like’ considerations,” a statement by the party said. Politicians have been at loggerheads over the shape of a new administration since the last one quit in the aftermath of the August 4 Beirut port explosion, leaving Lebanon rudderless as it sinks deeper into economic crisis.
Veteran Sunni Muslim politician Hariri was named premier for a fourth time in October promising to form a cabinet of specialists to enact reforms necessary to unlock foreign aid. Lebanon’s governing system requires officials to be chosen from across the religious spectrum, typically giving sectarian parties an effective veto over forming a cabinet. Bassil was placed under sanctions in November by the United States over corruption allegations, which he denies, and ties with the Iran-backed Shia Muslim paramilitary group Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful party.
Lebanon is grappling with a deep economic and financial crisis, its worst since the 1975-1990 civil war, that has hammered the currency, spread poverty and prompted a sovereign debt default. Suggested By Editor
Gulf reconciliation and ties with France discussed by Erdogan and Hariri in suprise meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) meets with Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri (L) at Vahdettin Mansion in Istanbul, January 8, 2021.(AFP) Israeli low flying jets spark back memories of war in Lebanon. An Israeli F-15 I fighter jet performs during an air show at the graduation ceremony of Israeli Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim base in the Negev desert. (AFP)

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA/January 11/2021
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money changing companies and institutions Monday’s USD exchange rate against the Lebanese pound as follows:
Buying price at a minimum of LBP 3850
Selling price at a maximum of LBP 3900
 

Geagea salutes health staff in all hospitals across Lebanon
NNA/January 11/2021
Lebanese Forces Party Leader, Samir Geagea, on Monday saluted health workers and medical teams in all public and private hospitals in Lebanon. “Special salute to those who constitute the first line of defense for Lebanese citizens at the present time,”Geagea said via his Twitter account, and wished that the Lebanese officials would be endowed with a part of the spirit of responsibility demonstrated by health personnel.

Supreme Defense Council declares state of health emergency to confront dangerous situation resulting from Coronavirus outbreak
NNA/January 11/2021
The Supreme Defense Council convened at 3:00pm today, at the Presidential Palace, in an extraordinary session chaired by President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, and attended by caretaker Prime Minister, Dr. Hassan Diab.
The meeting was devoted to discuss the health and hospital sector situation and it was decided to declare a state of health emergency to confront the danger of Corona virus. The Council also asked security apparatuses and judicial authorities to strictly implement laws which punish hospitals when they do not receive emergency cases, as well as punishing for the failure to adhere to preventive and public safety measures and procedures.
The Supreme Defense Council also decided to declare a curfew from 5am on Thursday 14th of January, until 5am Monday 25th of January 2021, provided that the bodies, persons and institutions mentioned in the table are excluded from this decision. At the beginning of the meeting, President Aoun stressed the need to “Take radical measures so that we can mitigate the catastrophic consequences of Corona outbreak”, calling for declaring a state of health emergency to confront this dangerous situation.
For his part, caretaker Prime Minister, Dr. Hassan Diab, said “The continued indolence that we have witnessed during the past few days by imposing the implementation of measures will cause a humanitarian and social disaster”. PM Diab also pointed “There is a consensus that there must be strictness and firmness in imposing a commitment to all areas. It is the duty of everyone to pursue the application of these measures and it is not permissible to be lenient”.
The meeting was preceded by a meeting between President Aoun and PM Diab, during which the implications of the Corona pandemic were tackled.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and National Defense Minister, Zeina Akar and ministers of: Finance, Ghazi Wazny, Foreign Affairs, Charbel Wehbe, Interior and Municipalities, Mohammed Fahmy, Economy and Trade, Raoul Nehme, Public Works and Transport, Michel Najjar, and Public Health, Hamad Hasan.
Also attending the meeting were: Deputy Chief of Staff in the Lebanese Army representing the Army Commander, Brigadier General Bassam Yassin, General Security Director-General, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, Director General of Internal Security Forces, Major General Imad Othman, Director General of State Security, Major General Tony Saliba, Secretary-General of the Supreme Defense Council, Major General Mahmoud Al-Asmar, Discrimination Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Ouweidat, Presidency Director-General, Dr. Antoine Choucair, Government Commissioner at the Court of Military Judge Fadi Akiki, Head of Hospital Owners’ Syndicate, Engineer Suleiman Haroun, Head of the Lebanese Order of Physicians, Dr. Sharaf Abou Sharaf, Head of Nurses’ Syndicate, Dr. Mirna Abi Abdullah Doumit, Lebanese Red Cross President, Dr. Antoine Zoghby, Lebanese Red Cross Secretary-General, George Kettany, the President’s Health and Social Affairs’ Advisor, Dr. Walid Khoury, Prime Minister’s Advisor, Dr. Petra Khoury, Director General of the Lebanese Presidency, Dr. Antoine Choucair, Director of Army Intelligence, Brigadier General Tony Kahwaji and the President’s Security and Military Advisor, retired Brigadier General, Paul Matar.
Statement:
After the meeting, Major General Al-Asmar, read the following statement:
“The Supreme Defense Council held an extraordinary meeting chaired by His Excellency the President of the Republic General Michel Aoun, in the presence of the Prime Minister, Dr. Hassan Diab, a number of concerned ministers, leaders of the military and security services, Discriminatory Public Prosecutor, Government Commissioner at the Military Court, a number of captains of the health professions and the Lebanese Red Cross.
At the beginning of the meeting, President Aoun discussed the seriousness of the health situation which resulted from Corona virus spread, stating that hospitals are no longer able to receive the injured.
“We have seen catastrophic scenes of citizens in front of hospitals looking for a seat or bed, and some were waiting until a bed was emptied. Regarding this reality, it is impossible to remain silent on the tragedies that we see in front of hospitals. Radical measures must be taken so that we can mitigate the catastrophic consequences of Corona virus outbreak” President Aoun said and called for declaring a state of health emergency to confront this dangerous situation.
Then, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said “We are unfortunately facing a frightening health situation. Corona virus has escaped control due to the stubbornness of people and their rebellion against measures taken to protect them from the threat of this pandemic. However, let us also admit that the enforcement of these measures was not equal to the level of the risk. What we have seen, in the past days, specifically since Thursday, that is since the lockdown decision began, didn’t imply that the state exists and imposes its prestige: open markets, crowding of people, and entire regions not concerned with the decision”.
“The state’s appearance was absent, and in some areas there was a public challenge to this decision of closure. The state and all agencies watched as the decision was broken and the prestige was lost. What happened is unacceptable. The state and its administrative military and security apparatus must not resign from responsibility to protect citizens, nor hesitate to perform duties. Corona virus will never distinguish between a region and another, nor between a citizen and another. The continuation of indolence that we have seen during the past days in imposing the implementation of measures will result in a humanitarian and social disaster. We will lose our families, relatives and we will also lose ourselves. The situation doesn’t tolerate any indulgence” PM Diab continued.
“Hospitals are full of sensitive and dangerous cases, people will stand at the doors of hospitals. We will be faced with a Lebanese situation of Corona spread which is worse than the Italian model. Is this acceptable!? Who will bear such situation? It is true that people bear primary responsibility because of their lack of commitment. But there is also responsibility on the state’s administrative and military apparatuses because of the lack of implementation of obligation at the societal level” the Prime Minister added.
In addition, PM Diab said “Why were the measures during the last few days not up to the level of danger? Continuation in laxity in implementing general lockdown will lead the country to a disaster. Expectations are that this week will be more difficult for severe Corona cases. Medical expectations say that painful scenes will be repeated in all regions due to the lack of individual commitment, and failure to impose closure”.
Then, PM Diab pointed out that “In today’s meeting of the Ministerial Committee to confront Corona pandemic, there were several questions about repulsive scenes which we have seen in the past days, and about the role of military and security apparatuses in controlling the situation. There is a consensus that there must be strictness and firmness in enforcing compliance in all regions. There shouldn’t be areas of indulgence. Measures are not only on highways and city-entrances, measures must be put into practice in every district, street and town. Relying on peoples’ awareness in not enough. Everyone is responsible, and interested in protecting the Lebanese. The political authority has taken measures, and it is everyone’s duty to pursue the implementation of these measures. No indulgence is allowed, and decisions to protect people-lives are not allowed to only remain in on paper, or merely debatable theories”.
“Today, we have taken new measures which include more strictness. Military and security apparatuses are required to strictly implement these procedures, since failure means a comprehensive health collapse, God forbid. And I am sure that you are keen on the Lebanese people and you will do your part and sacrifice for their protection” the Prime Minister added.
Finally, Prime Minister Diab concluded asserting that “The army will continue distributing the financial aid, amounting 400,000 Lebanese pounds, over the next few days, targeting about 280,000 families and covering all Lebanese regions”.
The Supreme Defense Council was informed of the recommendations issued by the Ministerial Committee, which was held this morning in 11/1/2021 under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, and approved by the Supreme Council of Defense after some amendments were made, provided that the exceptional approval is given by His Excellency the President and the Prime Minister and later on by the Cabinet.
Within the framework of the announcement of public mobilization issued under Decree No. 7315 dated 31/12/2020 related to the extension of the declaration of public mobilization to confront the spread of the Coronavirus until 31/3/2021 implicitly, the state of health emergency is declared and the following measures are taken:
First: Compulsion of arrivals from the following cities: Baghdad, Istanbul, Adana, Cairo and Addis Ababa, which constitute 85% of the number of infections from arrivals out of about 500 arrivals per month, to stay at their expense for 7 days in a hotel and undergo a PCR test on the first day when they arrive and a second checkup on the sixth day of their arrival. On the other hand, passenger traffic at Rafic Hariri International Airport will be reduced from its date to 20% compared to the number of arriving passengers in January of 2020, provided that the arrivals undergo an immediate examination (PCR) at the airport and another examination a week after their arrival. During which the arriving travelers are obliged to quarantine in a hotel for a maximum period of 72 hours until the results of the airport examination are issued and after that they follow the quarantine at their place of residence if the test result is negative, and in the opposite case the instructions of the Ministry of Public Health in this regard are followed, provided that diplomats, their families, officials and delegations are excluded Officials, officers and members of the United Nations, as well as persons who received the Corona vaccine according to a report or medical record are also excluded from the quarantine, and they are only then subject to immediate examination (PCR) at the airport as a precaution.
-Preventing the movement of arriving travelers through land and sea border crossings, excluding transit with tickets with a date of transit.
-Emphasizing that those coming to Lebanon must fill out the form designated for arrivals through the electronic application (#Ma3an Against Coronavirus Ma3an App) prepared by the Public Health Ministry, provided that the airlines ensure that the passenger on board has a negative PCR test result, and fills it out for this form before, to allow him to board on the next plane to Lebanon.
-Minutes of applying this procedure are determined when necessary, and subject to periodic evaluation by a committee composed of ministers of Interior, municipalities, public health, tourism, public works and transportation.
Second: Requesting concerned ministers to tighten the procedures provided by the law and the declared state of public mobilization in order to compel private hospitals to create extra care beds dedicated to treating Corona patients under the risk of legal, administrative and judicial prosecution, especially the requesting guarantor bodies to stop working with hospitals that do not receive Corona cases and provided that the number of intensive care beds required to be provided by private hospitals is not reduced as follows:
-4 Beds for T3 rated hospitals
-6 to 8 beds for T2-rated hospitals
- 8 to 12 beds for T1-rated hospitals
-12 beds and above for university hospitals.
Third: Requesting security agencies and the judicial authorities to strictly enforce the laws that punish hospitals when they do not receive emergency cases, including cases of Corona (according to Article 567 of the Penal Code), as well as punish those who fail to adhere to the procedures and measures of prevention and public safety and to enact the necessary records of violations against those who violate these measures leading to a pandemic spread (according to Article 770 of the Penal Code), especially organizing violation-minutes according to Form No. 401 approved by the Internal Security Forces, and in the event of repetition, organizing judicial investigation reports against violators according to Form (302) and giving instructions to Governors to implement the sealing of administratively violating institutions with wax the Red.
Fourth: It is forbidden to go out to the streets and roads from five o’clock in the morning on Thursday 14/1/2021 until five o’clock in the morning of Monday, corresponding to 25/1/2021.
An exception is made for authorities, institutions and persons specified in the body of this decision and the attached table, which is an integral part of it, provided that they adhere to all public safety measures issued by the Ministry of Public Health, in particular, the obligation to wear masks, ensure social distancing, and not overcrowding in accordance with the following controls, conditions and exceptions:
-Excluding technical teams of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and those in charge of maintaining roads, opening waterways and removing snow, provided that the Minister of Public Works and Transport issues the necessary license for this purpose.
-Closing all public administrations and institutions, independent interests, universities, public and private schools, various nurseries, public parks, docks (Sea Corniche), public and private sports stadiums, both internal and external, and the Casino du Liban. Provided that it is left to the ministers to define the minimum required for managing emergency matters in their ministries and public institutions subject to their guardianship, not exceeding 10% of the total employees and employees, except for the Ministry of Finance, so that this limit becomes 50% in the Ministry of Finance.
-The main institutions of the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, in addition to the General Directorate of State Security, the Lebanese Red Cross, Civil Defense and firefighting groups of all kinds.
-The Ministry of Public Health and its field and volunteer teams, hospitals, government clinics, social care centers, and everything related to the health sector in the hospital, pharmaceutical, laboratory, and medicine fields, as presented in the attached table.
-The General Directorate of Social Security, the General Directorate of State Employees’ Cooperation, Mutual Guarantor Funds, insurance companies, health observers, auditors and the TPA, in relation to hospital, health, pharmaceutical and laboratory approvals.
-Rafic Hariri International Airport and everything related to its administration as well as the management of all sea and land ports.
-The Electricity of Lebanon Corporation and all other institutions and companies responsible for securing and distributing electric current in all Lebanese regions, with everything related to production, supply, distribution and emergency maintenance.
-The General Directorate of Oil at the Ministry of Energy and Water and the management of oil installations, with everything related to securing, storing and distributing fuels, including fuel stations, companies and institutions that handle the import, storage and distribution of gas.
-The General Directorate of Water and Electrical Resources, Water Institutions, the National Authority for the Litani River, and the General Directorate of Investment, with regard to securing, storing and distributing water, and the private companies and institutions that handle the bottling and distribution of water.
-The Ministry of Communications, the OGERO Authority, and everything related to the telecommunications sector in terms of ensuring the continuity of the Internet service and the fixed and cellular telephone networks.
-The Central Bank (BDL) with the minimum work limit, as determined by the Governor of the bank.
-All public administration headquarters and branches of commercial banks operating in Lebanon shall be closed, provided that banks secure the work of specific departments in public administrations, namely the departments of informatics, operations, and the treasury, in order to carry out urgent operations related exclusively to hospitalization cases or the provision of medicine, medical supplies and urgent food security. Banks also ensure that ATMs operate daily without interruption, and that the Bank of Lebanon secures cash amounts daily in accordance with the rules, with reference to the continuation of work with bank cards as usual at all points of sale operating in Lebanon. Banks also are to provide a call center service or a hotline service for banks that do not have a call center service around the clock, in order to secure the aforementioned services, bank administrations issue specific licenses to the employees concerned exclusively with those services and deliver lists of names to those concerned to ensure proper application and control.
-Judges and lawyers related to securing remote trials, in order to decide requests to release detainees, as well as to consider urgent cases and urgent matters.
-Heads and members of the diplomatic corps and the International Red Cross.
-UN personnel to the extent that would conduct emergency affairs according to a decision issued by the UN Special Coordinator.
-Clerics assigned to duties in social centers, provided that they possess a card issued by the competent religious authorities and whose use is restricted during the period of closure.
-With the exception of what is mentioned in this decision and in the attached table linked to it, suspending work in companies, private institutions, shops of all kinds, outdoor and indoor stadiums, sports clubs, offices of self-employed persons, popular markets, cinemas, museums, theaters, video poker halls, electronic games, parties are also prohibited, Public and private events, social events, and gatherings of all kinds.
-Assigning the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities to coordinate with the religious authorities with the aim of closing religious sites and canceling religious events of all kinds and diversity.
Fifth: Concerned Ministries are required, each according to their competence and in coordination with each other, as well as from all security apparatuses, to take all measures that would put this decision into immediate implementation and give the necessary directives to strictly apply it, in addition to strictly respecting safety measures and preventing the Corona virus, including restricting the movement of cars according to the attached schedule. Exempted from this restriction, and during active service times are: employees of the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic, the General Secretariat of the Parliament, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministries of National Defense and the Interior, municipalities, the military, employees of the health and pharmacist sectors, workers in the diplomatic corps, the media, according to the urgent need and mechanisms of each of the military, civil defense, fire and police Municipalities, the International and Lebanese Red Cross, ambulance services, the medical apparatus, heads and members of the diplomatic corps and United Nations personnel, as well as cranes designated for transporting and towing cars and vehicles for people with additional needs supplied with a card from the Ministry of Social Affairs, arrivals and departures from and to Rafic Hariri International Airport, provided that they have a copy of the travel ticket as a mandatory document. Job cards are to be shown to prove the identity of the excluded persons during their transportation to and from their duty stations.
Sixth: Requesting the Ministry of Information to take the necessary measures to intensify awareness campaigns.
Seventh: This decision will be reviewed when necessary based on periodic evaluation and data submitted by the Ministerial Committee charged with following-up on the issue of preventive measures and procedures for the Coronavirus. The Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, in coordination with the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, is tasked with excluding some emergency cases from the lockdown decision and the table attached to it, within the controls and conditions determined by it and consistent with the purpose of the closure.
Table of Recommendations (10/1/2021):
Factories medicines, serums and oxygen: 24 hours
Work hours are determined on the basis of shifts according to the nature of work, provided that the following are observed:
-Health conditions, prevention measures and public safety.
-Personal cleanliness.
-Lack of overcrowding.
-Maintaining adequate distances between people.
-Permanent sterilization.
-The minimum number of users, not exceeding 50% of the total number of users.
- It is limited to manufacturing only, without distribution
Basic food products (milk, cheese, milk, chicken farms ...) 5.00 to 15.00.
Mills 24 hours.
Bakeries 24 hours.
Wholesale vegetable / fruit market 2.00 to 14.00 Restricted only to merchants.
Fish / Meat / Poultry 5.00 to 12.00, restricted only to traders.
Distribution of medicines and medical equipment 5.00 to 17.00.
Food and drug warehouses 5.00 to 17.00.
Retail stores, supermarkets and mini-markets.
Dairy and cheese shops.
Vegetables and fruits.
Butchery / fish / poultry.
Pastry – bean.
Restaurants and stores selling fast food and fast food 5.00 to 17.00.
Delivery service only.
Ovens 8.00 to 15.00.
Water vending 5.00 to 17.00 Delivery service only.
Pharmacy establishments, according to the decision of the Pharmacists Syndicate, to organize customer roles to avoid overcrowding at home and abroad while maintaining adequate distances between customers.
Clinics 8.00 to 17.00.
Medical laboratories 24 hours.
Agricultural and veterinary pharmacy and veterinary clinics 8.00 to 17.00.
Livestock farms, poultry, fish, beekeeping and agricultural work 24 hours.
Sale of newspapers and magazines and their distribution centers 5.00 12.00.
Liban Post - laundry - vision and hearing test stores.
Security / guarding companies 24 hours, provided that health conditions, prevention and public safety measures are adhered to.
Hotels and furnished apartments to adhere to health conditions and preventive and public safety measures / periodic sterilization and to limit the provision of food and drinks in rooms and not to use halls and / or restaurants to receive customers and residents of hotels and furnished apartments.
Banking and money transfer shops. 8.00 to 17.00
Organizing floors to avoid crowding inside and outside, while maintaining adequate distances between customers.
Shipping companies (by air, land and sea) and clearing goods must comply with health conditions, preventive and public safety measures.
Reducing the number of employees to the minimum to conduct the business while taking into account remote work.
Maintaining adequate distances between customers.
Permanent sterilization.
Insurance companies and offices.
Companies selling internet equipment, generators and closed cell phone.
Gas stations.
5.00 to 17.00 without car wash.
Travel agencies are closed and work remotely.
Centers for requesting travel visas approved by foreign embassies in Lebanon 8.00 to 15.00.
Gas filling and distribution stations and companies 8.00 to 17.00.
Adherence to health conditions, preventive measures and public safety, while maintaining adequate distances between customers.
Maintenance teams for generators and the Internet to adhere to health conditions, preventive measures, public safety, and conditions for transporting vehicles and motorcycles.
Companies that collect, transport and sweep waste, their users, companies that treat such waste (landfill and dust), and companies supervising their work 24 hours.
Money transfer companies 8.00 to 17.00, 4 persons with the mechanism, including the driver (with muzzle).
Transport in public cars:
Transportation in private cars is closed, except for cars heading to and from the airport, provided that a copy of the travel card is shown for this purpose in addition to and to medical institutions, provided that he shows a card from the institution in which he works.
Trucks transporting vegetables, livestock and food.
Refrigerated trucks to transport milk, milk and cheese.
Trucks transporting agricultural goods and animal feed of all kinds 2.00 to 14.00.
Motorbikes only for delivery service”.—Presidency Press Office

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 11-12/2021

Pope says women can read at Mass, but still can’t be priests
NNA-AP /Tuesday 12 January 2021
Pope Francis changed church law Monday to explicitly allow women to do more things during Mass, granting them access to the most sacred place on the altar, while continuing to affirm that they cannot be priests. Francis amended the law to formalize and institutionalize what is common practice in many parts of the world: that women can be installed as lectors, to read the Gospel, and serve on the altar as eucharistic ministers. Previously, such roles were officially reserved for men even though exceptions were made. Francis said he was making the change to increase recognition of the “precious contribution” women make in the church, while emphasizing that all baptized Catholics have a role to play in the church’s mission.But he also noted that doing so further makes a distinction between “ordained” ministries such as the priesthood and diaconate, and ministries open to qualified laity. The Vatican reserves the priesthood for men.--
 

US designates of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism: Pompeo
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/Tuesday 12 January 2021
The US State Department has designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism for repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists. The statement released by the US state department added that the Trump Administration has been focused from the start on denying the Castro regime the resources it uses to oppress its people at home, and countering its malign interference in Venezuela and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. “With this action, we will once again hold Cuba’s government accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of U.S. justice,” the statement added. The designation has been made on the grounds that Cuba continues to harbor American fugitives and refuses a Colombian extradition request for National Liberation Army members linked to a 2019 bombing, along with the Cuban’s intelligence and security apparatus infiltration of Venezuela’s security and military forces, assisting Nicholas Maduro to maintain his stranglehold over his people while allowing terrorist organizations to operate. According to the statement, the Cuban government has fed, housed, and provided medical care for murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers, while many Cubans go hungry, homeless, and without basic medicine. Members of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, traveled to Havana to conduct peace talks with the Colombian government in 2017. “Cuba has refused Colombia’s requests to extradite ten ELN leaders living in Havana after the group claimed responsibility for the January 2019 bombing of a Bogota police academy that killed 22 people and injured more than 87 others,” the statement added. Cuba also harbors several US fugitives from justice wanted on or convicted of charges of political violence, many of whom have resided in Cuba for decades. The statement added that Cuba has been returned to the list following its broken commitment to stop supporting terrorism as a condition of its removal by the previous administration in 2015.
 

Bahrain Invites Qatar for Bilateral Talks in Manama
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Bahrain invited on Monday Qatar for bilateral talks in Manama. The Foreign Ministry said that it had requested that Qatar send an official delegation at the soonest possible time to begin bilateral discussions on the implementation of the AlUla declaration and pending issues between their countries. The declaration was announced last week during the 41st Gulf Cooperation Council summit that was hosted in AlUla in Saudi Arabia. The agreement effectively ended the Gulf rift between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt with Qatar over its support and financing of terrorism. The quartet had severed diplomatic and economic relations with Doha in 2017. The boycott ended last week. Bahrain added that it had formed a follow up and a legal committee in line with the AlUla declaration to oversee its implementation.

Bahrain Accuses Qatar of Seizing Bodybuilder on Boat Trip
Agence France Presse/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Bahrain has accused Qatar of seizing one of the kingdom's champion bodybuilders during a fishing trip even as Manama normalised its relationship with its neighbour. The Gulf kingdom has repeatedly clashed with Doha over the enforcement of maritime boundaries, with several incidents in recent months which have seen Qatar's coastguard intercept Bahraini vessels. The row comes as direct flights were due to resume between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain's close ally, and as Manama said it would open its airspace to Qatari jets following the end of the Gulf crisis.
"Bahrain has strongly condemned the Qatari coastguard's arrest of Bahraini bodybuilding champion Sami Al-Haddad while he was on a fishing cruise with a number of his companions in the Bahraini territorial waters," the foreign ministry said late Sunday. A statement said that Manama "called on the Qatari authorities to immediately release... Haddad and his companions, and to stop attacking Bahraini fishermen at sea and unfairly arresting them". The ministry did not state when the incident is alleged to have occurred. Doha did not immediately respond to calls for comment.Saudi Arabia and its allies the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt in June 2017 slapped a blockade on Qatar that included closing airspace to the country over claims it backed Islamist groups and was too close to Iran. Qatar always denied the charges. The quartet agreed to lift the restrictions at a Gulf Cooperation Council summit last week in the Saudi desert city of Al-Ula, after energetic diplomacy by outgoing US President Donald Trump's administration. Bahrain's Civil Aviation Affairs said its "airspace is open for Qatar-registered aircraft... from Monday", the Bahrain News Agency reported. Following several maritime incidents, Bahrain flew four of its fighter jets over Qatar's territorial waters on December 9, Doha claimed in a letter to the United Nations Security Council. But Manama, in a letter to the United Nations, denied it breached Qatari airspace, during what it described as a routine exercise in Saudi and Bahraini airspace. In the early days of the Gulf dispute in 2017, the Qatari coastguard seized 15 Bahraini fishing boats, alleging they had been operating illegally in the emirate's waters. Qatar had a longstanding territorial dispute with Bahrain over the waters and small islands that separate the peninsula from the main islands of its maritime neighbour. The row was resolved by the International Court of Justice in 2001.

Turkey, Greece to resume talks on maritime disputes later this month
Reuters/Monday 11 January 2021
Turkey and Greece will resume suspended exploratory talks over territorial claims in the Mediterranean Sea and other issues on Jan. 25 in Istanbul, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday, hours after Ankara invited Athens for talks. Both Ankara and Athens said earlier on Monday they were willing to resume the exploratory talks, which were suspended in 2016 after 60 rounds of talks in 14 years.

Egypt Hosts Talks to Revive Israel-Palestinian Dialogue
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 January, 2021
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany met in Cairo Monday in the latest push to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks stalled since 2014. The quartet discussed "potential steps to advance the Middle East Peace Process" and work towards "re-launching a credible peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis", a joint statement read. The Palestinians want an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters the group wanted to "work to prevent all measures that hamper a two-state solution". If a two-state solution fails, the world must "say if it accepts a state with an apartheid system", Safadi said. Israeli settlement in the West Bank has taken place since the Jewish state occupied the territory in 1967. It accelerated under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and during the pro-Israel administration of outgoing US President Donald Trump. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Israeli settlement in the West Bank is "contrary to international law and if it were to continue, it would reduce the possibilities of a Palestinian state". The group of four said it "expressed willingness" to work with the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden "towards facilitating negotiations leading to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace". The group, which met twice last year in Germany and Jordan, said they would meet next in Paris, without giving a date. The ministers also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Saudi Arabia Welcomes Washington’s Designation of Houthis as Terrorist
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 January, 2021
Saudi Arabia welcomed on Monday the American admiration’s decision to designate the Iran-backed Houthi militias and their leaders as terrorist. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the move is in line with the “demands of the legitimate Yemeni government to rein in the Houthis over their violations that have led to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country.”The Houthis, it added, “continue to threat international peace and security and the global economy.”The ministry hoped that the designation would “curb the actions of the Houthis and their supporters, stop missiles, drones, sophisticated weapons and funds from being sent to their war effort and put an end to their threat to international marine navigation and neighboring countries.”“The designation will help support and ensure the success of ongoing political efforts and force the militias to seriously return to the political consultations table,” it added. The ministry also expressed its support to the efforts of United Nations special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, and his proposals to help end the Yemeni crisis based on the three references.

US Democrats Move to Impeach Trump in Final Days of Presidency
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 11 January, 2021
US Democrats began the process Monday of impeaching President Donald Trump for a historic second time, accusing him of "incitement of insurrection" over his supporters' deadly storming of the US Capitol. The move -- which threatens to torpedo the single-term president's future political ambitions -- could make for a frenetic culmination of four years of controversy ahead of Joe Biden's January 20 inauguration. Democrats introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to remove Trump -- who has been absent from the public spotlight for days -- as unfit for office under the Constitution's 25th amendment. But Republicans blocked an immediate vote on the resolution and Democrats followed up by introducing an article of impeachment of Trump for "incitement of insurrection". "This was an attempted coup, to overthrow the government, and we have a responsibility as Congress to respond to that," Congressmen David Cicilline, who introduced the resolution, told reporters afterward. "We have a particular responsibility to hold everyone accountable who was involved in any way, from the president on down," he said. Trump has been largely silent in recent days -- making few statements and holding no news conferences. Twitter, his favored public platform, has banned him for language that could incite violence. He plans to travel to Texas on Tuesday in one of his final trips as president, reportedly to claim success in delivering on his pledge to build a border wall to keep immigrants from Mexico out of the US. As Democrats began to act, the US Capitol building was open to lawmakers and staff but under tight security and ringed by a metal fence after Wednesday's assault by Trump supporters that left five people dead.
Historic second impeachment
Inside, some windows and doors that were broken and breached by rioters remained boarded up with plywood, while reinforced glass on the outside doors near the Rotunda bore cracks from repeated battering. The attack on Congress shook the core of American democracy and drew international condemnation. It has ignited a new effort to remove Trump, who is accused of inciting the mob before it stormed the capitol where lawmakers were certifying Biden's November 3 win. Trump was already impeached once by the Democratic-controlled House in December 2019 for pressuring the Ukrainian president to dig up political dirt on Biden. He was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate. If the House again votes to impeach, Trump would be the first US leader to be formally charged for a second time with "high crimes and misdemeanors." Though time is running short, Democrats likely have the votes in the House to impeach Trump again and could draw increased Republican support for the move. In introducing the resolution, Cicilline said that while it has no Republican co-sponsors, he expects it will find Republican backing. Although two Republican Senators -- Pat Toomey and Lisa Murkowski -- have urged Trump to resign, Democrats are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump in the 100-member Senate and remove him from office. But the effort is nevertheless seen by Democrats as worthwhile. Although any conviction would likely occur after Trump has already left office, it would lead to a secondary vote on banning Trump, who is thought to be considering a run in 2024, from holding federal public office again.
'I want him out'

Authorities are still seeking to arrest more Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol following a rally by the president repeating false claims that he had lost the election to Biden due to fraud. Hundreds of off-duty police on Sunday lined Constitution Avenue in Washington and saluted as a hearse rolled slowly by carrying the body of Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died in the attack on the Capitol. Capitol security has been stepped up and Trump supporters have threatened new action in coming days both in Washington and state capitol buildings. Senate rules mean the upper chamber would likely be unable to open an impeachment trial before January 19. Some Democrats, for their part, have expressed concern that a Senate trial would overshadow and hamper Biden's efforts to quickly lay out his agenda, starting with the fight against the coronavirus and the need to support the economy.

Violent protests turn deadly in Iraq, again
The Arab Weekly/January 11/2021
NASIRIYAH, IRAQ–A policeman was killed Sunday in Iraq, the army said, as security forces fired to disperse a third consecutive day of protests in the city of Nasiriyah, according to medics. The policeman was “killed by a bullet to the head,” a medic in the city 300 kilometres south of the capital Baghdad said.
The army confirmed the death. “Thirty-three other policemen were wounded in the events of the day,” the military added, without elaborating. Medical sources said several protesters were wounded. Witnesses said security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrators — including some throwing stones — from a city square that served as an epicentre of a widespread protest movement that began in October 2019.
Reoccupying Habbubi Square
A sprawl of tents in Habbubi Square had remained in place until November 2020, when eight people were killed in clashes between anti-government protesters and followers of the Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr. Anti-government protesters reoccupied the square on Friday, demanding the release of peers who have been arrested in recent weeks. Security forces repeatedly fired in the air and launched smoke grenades towards the protesters, whose movement for the first time penetrated other parts of the city. A spokesman for the protesters said that 13 demonstrators who had been arrested were released, adding that authorities had promised other detainees would be released the next day.
Vicious circle
Iraq’s protests fizzled out last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a crackdown that left nearly 600 dead and 30,000 wounded. However, kidnappings, targeted killings and arrests of protest leaders have continued. Alongside demanding an end to political corruption, protesters want jobs and improved public services. But the state’s ability to finance these demands is hamstrung by an economic crisis, including a yawning fiscal deficit. Iraq, which relies on oil sales to finance more than 90% of its budget, is set to see its economy shrink by 11% this year, while poverty doubles to 40% of the country’s 40 million residents, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates.

Iran pursues ship-for-money pressures over South Korea
The Arab Weekly/January 11/2021
TEHRAN, IRAN--A South Korean diplomatic delegation arrived in Iran on Sunday to negotiate the release of a vessel and its crew seized by Iranian forces to force Seoul to release billions of dollars of assets.
The South Korean-flagged tanker seizure by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the crucial Strait of Hormuz came as Iranian officials pressed South Korea to release some $7 billion in assets tied up in the country’s banks due to American sanctions. It appeared the Islamic Republic was seeking to increase its leverage over Seoul ahead of South Korea’s pre-scheduled regional trip, which included a stop in Qatar. Iran maintains the tanker and its 20-member crew were stopped in the mouth of the Arabian Gulf because of the vessel’s “environmental pollution,” a claim rejected by the vessel’s owner. The crew, including sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, remain in custody at the port city of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi advised South Korea to “avoid politicising” the seizure of oil tanker and stay away from futile propaganda, the ministry’s website reported Sunday. Araghchi said that the vessel has been captured in the Arabian Gulf and the Iranian territorial waters only because of technical considerations and environmental pollution hazards. A South Korean diplomat based in Iran met one of the crew members, a South Korean, last week, according to South Korean Foreign Ministry Spokesman Choi Young-sam. The crew member told the diplomat he and 19 other sailors were all were safe and didn’t suffer any mistreatment. South Korea has requested that Iran provide evidence to back up its claim that the South Korean ship violated environmental protocols, he added. Diplomats from Iran and Myanmar, which had 11 citizens on the ship, were separately meeting in Delhi, India to negotiate the release of the Burmese sailors aboard, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
Iran’s state-run media announced First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun’s arrival with a photo showing him meeting with his Iranian counterpart. It wasn’t clear how long the visit would last. The South Korean delegation, including representatives from Seoul’s Central Bank, were set on Monday to meet Iran’s Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati to discuss the trapped funds, semi-official Mehr news agency reported. In recent weeks, Hemmati has complained that Iran was struggling to transfer some $220 million held in South Korean banks to pay for COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX, an international programme designed to distribute coronavirus vaccines to participating countries. “It is our natural right to be able to use this money,” Hemmati was quoted as saying on Sunday. “We hope that the American pressure will also decrease.”
Meanwhile, Araghchi said South Korean banks have illegally blocked Iran’s currency resources for nearly two years and a half citing a fear of the US sanctions. “This action (by South Korea), which is only surrender to ransom demand from the US, is not acceptable, and naturally the expansion of relations (between Tehran and Seoul) would be meaningful only when this problem is solved.” The ship seizure was the latest in a series of escalations in the waning days of the administration of US President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that the agreement had suspended. Last week, Iran ramped up uranium enrichment levels at Fordo, its key underground nuclear facility, bringing the country a technical step away from weapons-grade purity levels of 90%.

Putin hosts first post-war talks between leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia
NNA/Reuters/January 11/2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday brought together the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for the first time since a war last year over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, an effort to resolve problems that risk undermining the deal that ended the conflict. A Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement in November halted the six-week conflict between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces over the mountainous enclave and surrounding areas, locking in territorial gains for Azerbaijan. But tensions persist, with sporadic fighting, prisoners of war continuing to be held by both sides, and disagreements over how a prospective new transport corridor cutting through the region will work. The enclave is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but both ethnic Armenians and Azeris regard it as part of their historic homelands and fought a much bigger war in the 1990s over it that left tens of thousands dead. In opening remarks in the Kremlin, Putin said the November ceasefire deal, which saw Moscow deploy peacekeepers to the region, was being implemented. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev did not shake hands, only exchanging curt greetings as they sat down at an oval table opposite Putin. The ceasefire deal sparked protests in Yerevan against Pashinyan whom protesters accused of bungling the war. He has since faced pressure from opponents to step down, something he has resisted. Aliyev has cast the war victory at home as an historic righting of wrongs, something Armenia rejects, and held a victory parade last month with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. For Russia, the conflict highlighted the rising influence of Azeri ally Turkey in the South Caucasus, part of the former Soviet Union that Moscow has traditionally seen as its own sphere of influence. But by brokering the deal and getting Russian peacekeepers on the ground, Putin has thwarted a stronger Turkish presence for now while expanding Moscow’s own military footprint. Dmitry Trenin, a political analyst for the Moscow Carnegie Center, said the Kremlin hoped that Monday’s talks would allow it to reaffirm its influence in the region. “(The) peacekeeping function is Moscow’s advantage in its competitive relationship with Ankara,” Trenin wrote on Twitter.—Reuters

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 11-12/2021

U.S. plans to designate Yemen's Houthi movement as foreign terrorist group
Aziz El Yaakoubi, Jonathan Landay, Matt Spetalnick/Reuters/January 11/2021
The United States plans to designate Yemen’s Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, a move that diplomats and aid groups worry could threaten peace talks and complicate efforts to combat the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
The decision to blacklist the Iran-aligned group, first reported by Reuters hours earlier, comes as the administration of President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take over from the Trump administration on Jan. 20.
A Houthi leader said in a Twitter post that the movement, which has been battling a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015, reserved the right to respond to any designation. [D5N2GH02Q]
“The Department of State will notify Congress of my intent to designate Ansar Allah, sometimes referred to as the Houthis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization,” Pompeo said in a statement late on Sunday.
“I also intend to designate three of Ansar Allah’s leaders, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, Abd al-Khaliq Badr al-Din al-Houthi, and Abdullah Yahya al Hakim, as Specially Designated Global Terrorists”, he said.
The Trump administration has been piling on sanctions related to Iran in recent weeks, prompting some Biden allies and outside analysts to conclude that Trump aides are seeking to make it harder for the incoming administration to re-engage with Iran and rejoin an international nuclear agreement.
“The policy of the Trump administration and its behaviour is terrorist,” the Houthi official Mohammed Ali al-Houthi tweeted. “We reserve the right to respond to any designation issued by the Trump administration or any administration.”
In Tehran, when asked about the U.S. move, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a weekly news conference: “It is likely that the bankrupt U.S. government might try to further tarnish the United States’ image in its remaining days and poison the American heritage.”
Aid groups and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned against a possible designation, saying Yemen was in imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen for decades. Pompeo said the United States planned to put in place measures to reduce the impact of the step on humanitarian activity and imports into Yemen, where 80% of the population needs help.
The foreign ministry of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, which the Houthis ousted from power in the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014, supported the designation and called for further “political and legal pressure” on the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia, which has been attacked by cross-border Houthi missiles and drones, has yet to comment.
HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE
U.N. officials are trying to revive peace talks to end the war as the country’s suffering is also worsened by an economic and currency collapse and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oxfam America’s humanitarian policy lead Scott Paul, describing the U.S. move as “counter-productive and dangerous”, urged President-elect Joe Biden to revoke the designation immediately upon taking office.
The Norwegian Refugee Council called for “unambiguous safeguards and guarantees” to ensure sanctions did not prevent food, fuel and medicines from being delivered across a country “in the middle of a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe”.
“We call on ... Biden to act upon taking office to ensure Yemeni civilians can still receive life-saving aid,” it said.
Pompeo said that with the implementation of these designations on Jan. 19, the U.S. Treasury Department would provide licences that would apply to some humanitarian activities conducted by non-governmental organizations in Yemen and to certain transactions related to critical commodities exports such as food and medicine.
The Treasury Department has previously issued such special licences to humanitarian groups for heavily sanctioned countries, but international relief officials have said such measures often failed to unblock aid flows as banks and insurance firms worry about running afoul of sanctions.
The designation has been the subject of weeks of fierce debate within the Trump administration. Internal disagreements over how to carve out exceptions for aid shipments held up a final decision on the blacklisting, multiple sources said.
The Houthi group is the de facto authority in northern Yemen and aid agencies have to work with it to deliver assistance. Aid workers and supplies also come in through Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port.
“This serves no interest at all,” Ryan Crocker, a retired U.S. ambassador who served in the Middle East, said of the designation. “The Houthis are an integral part of Yemeni society...This is making a strategic enemy out of a local force that has been part of Yemen for generations.”
The Houthis deny being puppets of Iran and say they are fighting a corrupt system.
Reporting by Aziz El Yakoubi in Riyadh and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; **Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York, Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru, Lisa Barrington, Parisa Hafezi and Hadeel Al Sayegh in Dubai; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Simon Cameron-Moore, Alex Richardson, William Maclean

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Keep Hinting at Nuclear Weapons Ambitions
Michael Rubin/The National Interest/January 11/2021
Iran’s diplomats may deny the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions but a close read of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ rhetoric suggests that military considerations continue to motivate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
ran’s diplomats may deny the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions, but a close read of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ rhetoric suggests that military considerations continue to motivate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
On November 27, 2020, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s chief nuclear scientist, died in a hail of gunfire from what appears to have been a remotely controlled gun nest. The following day, Sepah News, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ official mouthpiece, published an article that eulogized Fakhrizadeh and stated, “Martyr Fakhrizadeh had placed the strengthening of the defensive power against weapons of mass destruction at the top of his scientific activities.”
Defensive power, of course, neither equates to civilian energy generation nor the desire for medical isotopes, the two most frequent explanations Iranian officials provide inspectors and their Western counterparts. Almost every nuclear power describes their nuclear missile program as defensive in nature, and so the Revolutionary Guards’ embrace of the term should not surprise.
Of course, it may be easy to cherry-pick loose rhetoric statements given the Islamic Republic’s traditional bombast, but Sepah’s statement appears more the rule than the norm. Consider, for example, the death of Major General Hassan Moghadam, a pioneer in Iranian missile development, in an explosion at a Revolutionary Guard base outside Tehran on November 13, 2011. What the Iranian government neglected to mention in their denials about the military nature of Moghadam’s work was his last will and testament that the Revolutionary Guards subsequently published (but which is no longer online). In it, Moghadam asked that his epitaph read, “The man who enabled Israel’s destruction.”
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry said they took solace in Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s supposed fatwa against nuclear weaponry. Iranian diplomats often quote that fatwa inconsistently, however, and with divergent verbiage raising questions about whether it exists in any form to which the Iranian government can be held accountable. Senior Iranian religious figures including those in Khamenei’s inner circle, however, have endorsed nuclear weaponry in much the same terms that Sepah does now. A September 2005 editorial in Marefat, a journal that belonged to Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, a Khamenei confidant who passed away on January 1, 2021, said that "the Quran calls on the faithful and the Muslim nation to acquire maximum power to be able to deter the enemies of religion and humanity." It added, “Deterrence does not belong to just a few superpowers.” This is just one of many examples.
The Biden administration appears ready to re-enter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the so-called 2015 Iran nuclear deal, if Iran itself returns to compliance. Secretary of State-nominee Tony Blinken and incoming National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan suggest they then would be open to further negotiations to resolve other issues of dispute such as Iran’s ballistic missile program. In the rush to diplomacy, it may be tempting to dismiss the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ rhetoric as just bluster. This would repeat the mistakes of the Obama administration, however. While Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif might be the interlocutor of choice, Iran’s nuclear scientists do not answer to Iran’s foreign ministry nor, indeed, are any of the military or security apparatuses within the Islamic Republic under the direct control of the presidency or the ministers he appoints. Rather, the Revolutionary Guard controls both the ballistic missile and satellite launch capability, the technology for which doubles as a delivery system, and other possible military dimensions. Put another way, what the Revolutionary Guards say matters. European diplomats, Congressional Democrats, and those calling for restraint regardless of an adversary’s behavior might want to believe Iran’s intentions are peaceful and the problem lies more in Washington, Jerusalem, and Riyadh than in Tehran, but the Revolutionary Guards, at least when they write for their home audience, beg to differ.
*Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a frequent author for TNI.

Iran is pushing for more appeasement from Joe Biden
The New York Post Editorial Board/January 11/2021
Iran is preparing for the Biden presidency by acting out, in hopes the new administration will rush to appease it.
Tehran marked the first anniversary of the US airstrike that killed terror-master Gen. Qassem Soleimani — the head of a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization who was then planning to target American diplomats and soldiers in Iraq — with a week-long commemoration that culminated in a request to Interpol to arrest President Trump and 47 other US officials for Soleimani’s death.
On Monday, it seized a South Korean oil tanker in the Persian Gulf, even as Seoul announced it would start negotiating the release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in compliance with US sanctions against the rogue regime.
Next, Tehran announced that President Hassan Rouhani had OK’d a 20 percent boost in uranium refinement, inching closer to the 80 to 90 percent purity required for nuclear weapons. The step is a blatant violation of the Obama nuclear deal, which the 27-member European Union and other nations still honor.
Yet the EU decided it would address the breach by changing . . . absolutely nothing. Its spokesman called Iran’s infractions serious but claimed that it is “highly important” to uphold the agreement. Why, when Tehran isn’t holding up its side?
Iran’s foreign minister explained that the uranium decision is “fully reversible” if other nations comply with the agreement — a clear sign that it wants the United States to pay a hefty added price if Team Biden moves to undo Trump’s exit from the deal.
Trump’s response was to slap sanctions on 17 more Iran-based companies, taking significant business from the Iranian metals sector, which generates significant wealth for the country. The prez has also kept a US aircraft-carrier group in the Gulf to guard against Iranian mischief in his final days in office.
In another blow to the Islamic Republic, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner negotiated a deal to end the bitter feud between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which Tehran has been profiting from for the past four years.
That is of course just the latest piece of the new Middle East that Team Trump has fostered, with multiple Arab states making peace with Israel and a broad anti-Iran alliance firmly ensconced across much of the region. Even the two main Palestinian factions are talking about holding elections again for the first time in over a decade.
The question remains: What will a President Joe Biden do with it? Biden has made it clear he wants to re-enter the Iran deal — but he has recently hedged about actually doing it.
In reality, the accord has already done most of any good it can; it frees Iran from nearly all its obligations during Biden’s term, even allowing it to “legally” go nuclear. And America’s allies in the region — the nations most at risk from Tehran’s ambitions — are united against any further appeasement of the Iranian regime. Nor can Iran offer any useful cooperation against nearly destroyed ISIS or any other common foe, even as Tehran’s behavior since the deal was reached in 2015 proves that the regime will never abandon its terror-promoting bellicosity.
At the very least, Biden should let Iran keep suffering under existing sanctions — and wait for it to offer a deal that actually serves the interest of America, its allies and peace.

Why Biden’s Plan to Rejoin the Iran Deal Makes No Sense
Richard Goldberg and Mark Dubowitz/ Foreign Policy/January 11/2021
This week’s escalation of tensions by Tehran looks like blackmail to force Biden to abandon sanctions—and give up leverage over the regime.
Iran has decided to escalate tensions with the West by publicly confirming the production of enriched uranium at an underground nuclear facility and seizing a South Korean oil tanker transiting the Persian Gulf. This escalation may be designed to put additional pressure on President-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal—a move that would give extensive sanctions relief to a regime under enormous economic stress. But if Biden were to give in to nuclear extortion and abandon sanctions, he would surrender his most important leverage against Tehran and never achieve his stated goal of negotiating a longer-lasting, better agreement.
Five years ago, nearly every Republican in the U.S. Congress—and many leading Democrats including Senators Charles Schumer, Bob Menendez, and Joe Manchin—opposed the Iran deal for good reasons. The agreement set expiration dates on key restrictions, ruled out on-demand inspections, and let Iran maintain its nuclear enrichment capabilities. It didn’t address the regime’s accelerating missile program, gave Tehran the financial resources to sponsor regional aggression and terrorism, and ignored its egregious abuse of human rights.
Hinting at these flaws, Biden recently said he wants to build on the 2015 deal with a new agreement to “tighten and lengthen Iran’s nuclear constraints, as we address the missile program.” During the presidential campaign, he also promised to confront Iran’s human-rights record and its “destabilizing activities, which threaten our friends and partners in the region.” But the president-elect maintains that the only way to negotiate a new framework is by first returning to the old one.
There’s one big problem with that logic. Since rejoining the original nuclear deal requires Washington to lift its most punishing sanctions, the economic leverage against Tehran that Biden inherits from his predecessor will evaporate the moment sanctions are relaxed.
Congress had worked for years to enact tough sanctions to force the Iranian regime to abandon its malign activities. Indeed, former President Barack Obama credited these sanctions with bringing Iran to the negotiating table in the first place.
The obvious question, then, is this: If Obama contends U.S. sanctions pressure was necessary to produce an agreement as deeply flawed as the Iran nuclear deal, how could Biden ever negotiate far more restrictions on Iran with far less economic leverage?
If Obama contends sanctions pressure was necessary to produce the nuclear deal, how could Biden ever negotiate far more restrictions on Iran with far less economic leverage?
Biden’s retreat from sanctions in the face of Iran’s threats to expand its enrichment-related activities, kick out international inspectors, and build additional nuclear reactors—in effect, giving in to a nuclear extortion racket—would also send a clear message to the mullahs: They can wait out a Biden administration in negotiations because he will never reimpose sanctions out of fear Iran might again expand its nuclear activities.
Another challenge to Biden’s race to rejoin the nuclear deal: The agreement has already started to expire. The deal’s first so-called sunset clause—the termination of United Nations restrictions on transferring conventional arms to Iran—already came into effect in October. Were it not for an executive order issued by the Trump administration threatening sanctions against Russia and China if they transfer weapons to Iran, such arms sales would already be underway. Biden has not said whether he will enforce those sanctions.
Developments in the nuclear realm should also prompt Biden to clarify his expectation that Tehran will return to strict compliance with the old deal if Washington rejoins it. The International Atomic Energy Agency has evidence that Iran is concealing undeclared nuclear material, activities, and sites. The agency’s investigation follows Israel’s 2018 clandestine acquisition of the Iranian regime’s secret nuclear weapons archive as well as declarations from the U.S. State Department that Iran has been keeping nuclear-weapons scientists employed at a military agency. At the very least, Biden must require Iran to fully account for its undeclared nuclear work before considering even the slightest of sanctions relief. Otherwise, he will have traded away Washington’s leverage without achieving his one and only condition.
If Biden needs another compelling reason to change course: Congress would oppose sanctions relief for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), just as Democrats and Republicans united in 2017 to pass legislation requiring the Trump administration to designate the Corps as a terrorist entity and impose sanctions on its affiliates. Notably, that vote came while the United States was still a participant in the nuclear deal.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Central Bank of Iran for its financing of the IRGC’s Quds Force and Hezbollah. The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network declared Iran’s financial sector to be a primary jurisdiction of money laundering concern—a finding reinforced when the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force urged a blacklisting of Iran’s banking system due to evidence of terror financing.
The U.S. Treasury also imposed terrorism sanctions on the National Iranian Oil Company and National Iranian Tanker Company, two pillars of Iran’s energy economy, for their financial support to the IRGC. Congress should send a clear message to the incoming administration that sanctions relief benefiting the IRGC and its auxiliaries is simply unacceptable.
Iran-deal supporters avoid debating the many fallacies inherent in returning to the agreement. Instead, they point to Iran’s recent expansion of uranium enrichment activities and declare the Trump administration’s maximum-pressure strategy a failure. For them, the only way to contain Iran’s nuclear program is to pay the mullahs to stop enriching—even if it means funding the IRGC, rejoining an expiring deal, turning a blind eye to clandestine nuclear activity, missile testing, and human-rights abuses, and leaving Iran’s enrichment capabilities intact so that the regime can shake down the international community for more money in the future. Iran-deal supporters avoid debating the many fallacies inherent in returning to the agreement.
What the deal’s supporters ignore, however, is that maximum pressure is only a year or so old—and that it took Obama four years to get Iran to the negotiating table and another two years to get the nuclear deal.
The Trump administration remained in the Iran deal until 2018. Sanctions waivers allowed Iran to export a million barrels per day of oil until 2019. Sanctions on Iran’s main shipping line, non-oil companies, and the financial sector did not arrive until 2020. While the International Monetary Fund already reports that Iran has only a few billion dollars of remaining foreign exchange reserves, the peak impact of maximum pressure is still to come.
The deal’s supporters ignore another important fact: The regime is threatening the international community with nuclear enrichment because the agreement allowed Tehran to retain its enrichment-related capabilities. So long as the regime maintains these capabilities, it can threaten to expand enrichment at any time of its choosing. Notably, however, the mullahs have avoided overt nuclear moves that might trigger a U.S. or Israeli military strike. The regime’s slow and steady escalation of enrichment appears intended to create anxiety and political pressure in Europe rather than trip Washington’s or Jerusalem’s red lines for military action.Biden’s stated eagerness to submit to the mullah’s extortion racket could alter Iranian nuclear strategy. Not only will Tehran rightly perceive that Biden will be unwilling to act on any threat to reimpose sanctions in the future—a move that would prompt the regime to return to the very same enrichment we see today—it might also assess Biden to be more averse than Trump to the use of military force—making the unanswered questions surrounding Iran’s clandestine program even more critical.
The mullahs have avoided overt nuclear moves that might trigger a U.S. or Israeli military strike.
It makes perfect sense that the president-elect wants to work with U.S. allies to confront the myriad national-security challenges posed by Iran. But turning a blind eye to the clerical regime’s nuclear deception, racing back into a deal that’s already expiring, undermining U.S. negotiating leverage, and subsidizing Iranian-sponsored imperialism and terrorism—that doesn’t make much sense at all.
*Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He served on Capitol Hill, on the U.S. National Security Council, and as the governor of Illinois’s chief of staff.
*Mark Dubowitz is the chief executive officer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow Richard and Mark on Twitter @rich_goldberg and @mdubowitz. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

U.S.-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group Authorization Provides Opportunity for Biden Administration
Bradley Bowman/ Insight/FDD/January 11/2021
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, which became law last week, includes a provision authorizing the establishment of a U.S.-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group (OTWG). This working group could systematically improve military research and development (R&D) cooperation between the two countries. That, in turn, could help the incoming Biden administration better compete in the military-technology competition with China and Russia while also strengthening Israel’s qualitative military edge.
The U.S.-Israel OTWG Provision
Section 1299M of the NDAA authorizes the secretary of defense, in consultation with other federal agencies and Israel, to establish the OTWG.
The new law makes clear that Congress expects the administration to focus on two areas of military cooperation with Israel. These include “systematically” evaluating and sharing “options to develop and acquire intelligence-informed military requirements that directly support warfighting capabilities of both the Department of Defense and the Ministry of Defense of Israel.” Once these opportunities are identified, the OTWG can establish “plans to research, develop, procure, and field weapon systems and military capabilities as quickly and economically as possible to meet common capability requirements.”
Notably, Section 1299M(d) requires the Pentagon, in consultation with the State Department, to provide a report – including both classified and unclassified elements – to each of the congressional armed services, foreign relations, and intelligence committees by March 15 each year.
The statute requires the administration to report on seven distinct questions. For example, the administration must report the combined science and technology (S&T) and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) programs it is considering, facilitating, recommending, and/or pursuing. The administration must also identify associated obstacles and challenges as well as U.S.-Israel efforts to prevent U.S. intellectual property and military technology from falling into Chinese or Russian hands. Finally, the statute also requires the administration to identify authorizations or appropriations needed to accomplish the objectives.
More broadly, this mandatory reporting requirement will help Congress hold the OTWG accountable for results, and the looming report deadline further demonstrates the need for the Biden administration to stand it up without delay.
Section 1299M represents a significant bipartisan achievement. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) led the effort in the Senate, alongside Representatives Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) in the House of Representatives. Cotton and Peters introduced S.3775, the United States-Israel Military Capability Act of 2020, in May 2020. Wilson and Houlahan introduced the House version, H.R.7148, the following month.
Last summer, demonstrating broad bipartisan support for the provision, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 27-0 to include a version of the legislation in the NDAA.
OTWG Urgently Needed
Standing up the OTWG without delay would enable the Biden administration to advance several urgent U.S. objectives.
Washington confronts an intense military-technology competition with China and Russia – and the two adversaries are increasingly working together to field military capabilities superior to those of the United States.
According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s annual report to Congress, Putin declared 2020 the “year of Sino-Russian science and technology cooperation,” with much of the collaboration centering on technologies with military applications.
This is particularly troubling given the hostile authoritarian ideology of both governments, not to mention China’s massive military modernization effort. Beijing understands the central role of R&D in the competition with the United States. According to the Congressional Research Service, China’s share of global R&D rose from 4.9 percent to 26.3 percent from 2000 to 2018, while the U.S. share fell from 39.8 percent to 27.6 percent during the same period.
China and Russia have sought to avoid direct military confrontation with the United States, due in large part to U.S. military superiority. But if America’s military edge continues to erode, Americans can expect both China and Russia to increasingly use their militaries to undertake aggression and undermine U.S. interests.
To help reverse these dangerous trends, Washington must work more systematically with tech-savvy democratic allies such as Israel. As an earlier version of the OTWG legislation noted, Israel is a “global leader in many of the technologies important to Department of Defense modernization efforts.”
To be sure, the United States already conducts an impressive range of military cooperation activities with Israel. Nevertheless, U.S. military capability gaps have continued to emerge that enhanced cooperation with Israel could have prevented.
Until 2019, for example, U.S. Army tanks went without a protective technology that Israel had fielded in 2011. After belatedly acquiring the capability, Washington equipped some of its tanks in Europe with the technology – using Israeli innovation to better protect U.S. soldiers and deter Russian aggression.
But while that sort of cooperation is certainly positive, Washington would have been better off working with Israel from the beginning. U.S. soldiers should not have been forced to operate in dangerous places for more than eight years without available technology that would have made them safer and more combat effective. In the future, given the increasing pace of the military-technology competition, particularly with China, Washington may pay for such delays with the lives of America’s service members.
In short, the OTWG can help ensure America’s warfighters have the advanced capabilities necessary to deter aggression and prevail in military conflict.
By serving as a central point in the American defense bureaucracy to receive and review requests for joint U.S.-Israel military cooperative S&T and RDT&E programs, the OTWG can facilitate quicker U.S. approvals or disapprovals of requests. Too often, long delays in U.S. decisions force Israel to forge ahead alone to counter urgent threats. When that happens, Americans miss out on Israeli innovation and agility, and Israel forfeits the benefits of U.S. innovation and economies of scale.
Section 1299M’s congressional reporting requirement can help ensure that does not happen when it serves U.S. interests to proceed quickly with a combined program. This would improve both the capability of U.S. and Israeli military forces as well as their ability to operate together.
And America has a continued and compelling interest in strengthening Israel’s military capabilities.
Jerusalem continues to serve on the front line against Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran’s terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah. As Tehran seeks to undermine U.S. and Israeli interests in the region, the Israel Defense Forces say they conducted 50 strikes in Syria in 2020, mostly targeting Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups.
Some of these same groups have the blood of hundreds of Americans on their hands. By helping Jerusalem field the most advanced military capabilities possible, Washington can help its ally keep pressure on some of America’s most determined and extreme enemies. This will be especially important now that the UN arms embargo on Iran has expired, potentially enabling Tehran to acquire more sophisticated military capabilities from China and Russia.
In addition, as Arab states acquire additional military capabilities, the Biden administration and Congress will need to closely monitor and preserve Israel’s qualitative military edge. America’s interests and principles, as well as U.S. law, require nothing less.
The OTWG can systematically examine U.S.-Israel shared intelligence-informed military requirements up front and then push to field the necessary capabilities together as quickly as possible. As Senators Peters and Cotton wrote in March 2020, that would help ensure our warfighters “never encounter a more technologically advanced foe.”
For these reasons, the Biden administration should use Section 1299M to stand up the OTWG without delay.
*Bradley Bowman is senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from Brad and CMPP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Brad on Twitter at @Brad_L_Bowman. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Turkey’s Frantic Gold Rush Points to a Financial Crisis Ahead
Aykan Erdemir and John Lechner/The National Interest/January 11/2021
As ordinary citizens seek to preserve their wealth, President Recep Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party is finding new ways to take advantage of the gold rush.
The Turkish economy is “a train wreck in slow motion,” in the words of one former central banker.
The Turkish lira, which lost 20 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar last year, was one of the worst-performing currencies in the world in 2020. Foreign currency reserves nosedived deep into the red if one accounts for Ankara’s liabilities to local banks. And economy czar Berat Albayrak—son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—hasn’t been seen in public since he resigned via Instagram on Nov. 8.
But an even better gauge of this slow-rolling economic crisis is the Turks’ frantic rush for gold. Since last year, Turkish firms and retail investors almost tripled their gold holdings to $36 billion. This is in addition to the 3,000 to 5,000 metric tons of the metal they keep at home, worth between $186 billion to $310 billion at current market prices. The rush to import gold to meet skyrocketing demand has wreaked havoc on Turkey’s trade deficit, with the January-November shortfall widening to $45 billion, nearly doubling compared to last year.
Seasoned by prior episodes of hyperinflation, currency devaluation, and bank failures, which together destroyed fortunes overnight, Turkish citizens have developed an uncanny sense for risks ahead. In fact, the Turkish public’s turn to gold may offer a better indicator of stress in the financial system than the usual macroeconomic indicators, which can predict the system’s trajectory, but not exact timing.
For Turks, gold has long been the most popular form of savings as well as a safe haven from systemic crises. A recent survey by the Dutch bank ING’s Turkish subsidiary shows that for one in four Turkish citizens, keeping gold and foreign currency (FX) at home is the top choice for savings. Over the summer, the demand for safes increased fourfold to four thousand a month. On top of the one in four Turks who keep gold and FX at home, an additional 18 percent save through gold accounts at banks.
Turks’ retention of more gold at home than at the bank—where they can receive interest—is telling. There is a growing awareness that account holders’ $258 billion of gold and foreign currency deposits are no longer safe. This is due to the Turkish Central Bank’s $133 billion defense of the lira, which it is conducting in part through a double-swap trick: The central bank takes FX deposits from private banks on the first swap, then hands them over to state banks (in exchange for lira) in the second swap. The state banks then sell the FX deposits (in dollars) to slow the lira meltdown.
Turkish citizens are beginning to fear that if there is a run on banks, they could see their FX deposits—their only hedge other than gold against lira devaluation—gone. Smart Turks are keeping their savings at home, whether in gold or FX.
But as ordinary citizens seek to preserve their wealth, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is finding new ways to take advantage of the gold rush.
In October, AKP lawmakers—despite environmental concerns—submitted a draft bill to renew gold mining licenses in Turkey. Lawmakers have amended mining legislation over twenty times within the past two decades to skirt environmental regulations. Moreover, given the AKP’s history of off-balance-sheet arrangements for friends, it would be unsurprising to see kickbacks for new gold mining licenses.
Indeed, watching gold is crucial for understanding how Turkey really works. Between 2012 and 2013, analysts who kept an eye on Turkey’s off-the-charts gold import and export figures uncovered a massive scheme to bust U.S. sanctions against Iran. During those two years, as now, Turkey’s macroeconomic figures were misleading: $14 billion worth of gold Turkey claimed to have exported almost exclusively to Iran and the United Arab Emirates were in fact Ankara’s payments to Tehran for natural gas imports, as the Erdogan government exploited a golden loophole in the U.S. sanctions regime. The mastermind of the scheme, Reza Zarrab, bragged that he “helped lower Turkey’s current account deficit.” The Turkish state lender that participated in the scheme, Halkbank, now faces charges before a Manhattan federal court for helping evade U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Iran, however, was not the only partner involved in the Turkish government’s gold-based machinations. In 2018, Venezuelan gold exports to Turkey skyrocketed, reaching $900 million, because President Nicolas Maduro decided to move gold refining from Switzerland to Turkey to avoid U.S. sanctions. In January 2019, the assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the U.S. Treasury, Marshall Billingslea, warned Ankara that Washington was looking into Turkey’s trade with Venezuela and would take action if the transactions violated U.S. sanctions. Six months later, the U.S. Treasury issued sanctions against a Turkey-based company involved in a global corruption and money-laundering network directed by Maduro.
The increase in Turkey’s demand for gold is likely to lead to an even larger gray market at home, which government officials may be keen to exploit. In December 2019, the Turkish government revealed plans to loosen rules that govern the import of gold by allowing, in the words of Bloomberg News, “the certification and standardization of scrap or unregistered gold people may carry when entering Turkey.”
Ultimately, the demand for gold reflects the realities of political and economic life in Turkey. On the one hand, citizens try to preserve what little wealth they have. On the other, a predatory political elite seeks economic gain amid the chaos.
In all likelihood, ordinary Turks will bear the brunt of their government’s ill-advised economic policies and machinations involving gold. If the currency crisis deepens, then Erdogan may have to ban FX deposits and convert citizens’ savings at an “official”— i.e., below-market—exchange rate, letting hyperinflation and negative real rates do the work. On Nov. 20, Erdogan asked Turks to “register whatever you have under the pillow, both abroad and domestically, without any question.” It is unlikely that many Turks will respond.
For Turks, keeping gold at home is the best countermeasure to the government’s unorthodox policies. But it also exacerbates the problem. Importing gold hurts Turkey’s current account deficit; low savings at banks dampen lending to businesses. Yet until Turks have a financial system they can trust, conventional investments will retain their secondary status. Erdogan’s hyper-authoritarianism can dictate much, but it cannot enforce trust.
In many respects, Turkey’s predictably downward economic trajectory resembles the “stabilized wretchedness” that the German philosopher Walter Benjamin described in inflation-struck interwar Germany. “Stable conditions,” Benjamin noted, “need by no means be pleasant conditions.”
But even such a “stable” decline can no longer be taken for granted in Turkey. If the coronavirus vaccine developed by a Turkish-German couple leads as predicted to a global economic recovery in 2021, triggering a drop in gold prices that reached record highs last August, Turks’ wealth may be hit extra hard, left not only with a bankrupt economy but also diminished value for their trusted gold savings at home.
*Aykan Erdemir is a former member of the Turkish parliament and senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. John Lechner is a former financial analyst and is now a graduate student at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He writes on the politics and languages of the former Soviet Union, Turkey, and Africa. Follow Aykan and John on Twitter @aykan_erdemir and @JohnLechner1. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

Can the Senate Try Private Citizen Trump after He Leaves Office?
Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute/January 11/2021
Some pundits and Senators have suggested that a former President can be impeached and tried as a private citizen. I don't know if they think this applies to all former presidents, including Clinton, Carter, Bush and Obama, or whether it is applicable only to a president, like Trump, who has just recently left office. But either way, they are simply wrong as a matter of the Constitutional text and meaning.
The relevant text of the Constitution reads as follows: "The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." (Article II, Section 4)
The Framers of the Constitution debated impeachment extensively. It is clear that they intended it to apply only to sitting presidents and other office holders and not to private citizens who previously held that office.
The Framers did, however, regard impeachment and trial as part of one single process, culminating in removal from office. And so, if removal from office is no longer a possibility, it would seem that Congress would have no jurisdiction to impeach.
What they want to do is to impeach President Trump without giving him an opportunity to defend himself at a Senate trial. This would be analogous to a prosecutor deciding to indict someone and then deny him a trial at which he could disprove his guilt or prove his innocence. That would be a core denial of due process, as would impeaching a president based on a majority of the House while denying him a trial in the Senate that requires a two-thirds super majority to remove.
Some pundits and Senators have suggested that a former President can be impeached and tried as a private citizen. I don't know if they think this applies to all former presidents, including Clinton, Carter, Bush and Obama, or whether it is applicable only to a president, like Trump, who has just recently left office. But either way, they are simply wrong as a matter of the Constitutional text and meaning. The relevant text of the Constitution reads as follows: "The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." (Article II, Section 4)
Another provision of the Constitution says that an impeached president (or other office holder) may be disqualified "to hold and enjoy any office...." So some are arguing that the Constitutional provisions regarding impeachment should be interpreted to apply to any person who may be eligible to run in the future. Such an absurd interpretation of the Constriction would literally allow millions of ordinary citizens over the age of 35 to be impeached and disqualified from future office holding.
This absurd reading of the Constitution shows how far people are willing to go to prevent President Trump from becoming a candidate in 2024. Such an interpretation of the Constitution would render the impeachment provisions utterly meaningless.
The Framers of the Constitution debated impeachment extensively. It is clear that they intended it to apply only to sitting presidents and other office holders and not to private citizens who previously held that office.
So, there can be no real dispute that President Trump could not be impeached and tried once his term ends.
But what if the House of Representatives impeached him while he was still president, but the Senate tried him after his term had concluded. Obviously the Constitution does not explicitly consider or deal with that unanticipated issue. Nor did the Framers consider it. The Framers did, however, regard impeachment and trial as part of one single process, culminating in removal from office. And so, if removal from office is no longer a possibility it would seem that Congress would have no jurisdiction to impeach.
Let us be clear about what those who would impeach and remove President Trump are really trying to do. They know that under the Senate timetable, there is no realistic possibility that a Senate trial could be conducted and completed before January 20 at noon. What they want to do is to impeach President Trump without giving him an opportunity to defend himself at a Senate trial. This would be analogous to a prosecutor deciding to indict someone and then deny him a trial at which he could disprove his guilt or prove his innocence. That would be a core denial of due process, as would impeaching a president based on a majority of the House while denying him a trial in the Senate that requires a two-thirds super majority to remove.
President Trump's opponent are so angry at the President for his volatile speech — which was misguided and wrong but completely protected by the First Amendment — that they are prepared to tear up the Constitution in an effort to remove him by any and all means. They are prepared to ignore the First Amendment, distort the 25th Amendment, stretch the criteria for impeachment, and permit House impeachment without a Senate trial.
These efforts, if successful, would do more damage to the rule of law than the horrendous mob did when they criminally stormed the Capitol and inflicted harm to life, property and democracy. What these rioters did deserves serious punishment and it will likely be forthcoming. But the constitutional rights of all Americans should not be compromised based on that terrible singular incident.
*Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School and author of the book, Guilt by Accusation: The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo, Skyhorse Publishing, 2019. His new podcast, "The Dershow," can be seen on Spotify, Apple and YouTube. He is the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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Kissinger: Return to Iran deal could spark Middle East nuclear arms race
Lahav Harkov/Jerusalem Post/January 11/2021
“I don’t believe that the spirit [of the Iran deal], with a time limit and so many escape clauses, will do anything other than bring nuclear weapons all over the Middle East."
The new US administration should not return to the spirit of the Iran deal, which could spark an arms race in the Middle East, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said Monday at a Jewish People Policy Institute online conference.
He criticized the 2015 Iran deal, which President Donald Trump left in 2018. President-elect Joe Biden seeks to return to it if Iran agrees to comply again with the agreement’s limitations on its nuclear program.
“We should not fool ourselves,” the 97-year-old diplomat, consultant and author said. “I don’t believe that the spirit [of the Iran deal], with a time limit and so many escape clauses, will do anything other than bring nuclear weapons all over the Middle East and therefore create a situation of latent tension that sooner or later will break out.”
The current leaders in Iran “don’t seem to find it possible to give up this combination of Islamist imperialism and threat,” Kissinger said. “The test case is the evolution of nuclear capacities in Iran, if these can be avoided.”
“I do not say we shouldn’t talk to them,” he added.
Dennis Ross, a former adviser to presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, interviewed Kissinger at the JPPI farewell event for its founding director, Avinoam Bar-Yosef.
Ross asked Kissinger what he would advise Biden and his administration to do to take advantage of the Abraham Accords, in which four Arab states normalized ties with Israel.
“We should not give up on what has recently been achieved in these agreements between the Arab world and the Israeli world,” he said. “I would tell the incoming administration that we are on a good course.”
The accords “have opened a window of opportunity for a new Middle East,” Kissinger said. “Arab countries understood that they could not survive in constant tension with parts of the West and with Israel, so they decided they had to take care of themselves.”
Normalizations with Israel show that the four states taking part “have come to the conclusion that their national interests transcend their ideological interests,” said the secretary of state and national security advisor to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the 1970s. “So they have decided, and Israel has advocated, that they should pursue their interests and come together, and they will take into account Arab concerns where they clash.”
That idea “has worked out very well,” Kissinger said, adding that he always opposed the idea of finding “all-out solutions” to peace in the Middle East, advocating for the US “to work out the solutions that we can because they can build on themselves.”
The Palestinians need to give up on their “ultimate aims” and look for possible interim achievements, Kissinger said.
Bar-Yosef is leaving the JPPI after 18 years as president and founding director. The institute formulates policy recommendations for the government of Israel and Jewish organizations in areas such as Jewish identity, religion and state in Israel, fighting antisemitism and Jewish demographic trends.
His successor is Yedidia Stern, a law professor at Bar-Ilan University and longtime senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.

Iran, China, Promise to be the Biggest Tests of Biden's Presidency in 2021
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/January 11/2021
There is eager anticipation among many of Washington's foes that Mr Biden's inauguration will result in the new president adopting a less confrontational tone with the outside world than his predecessor.
China's communist rulers, for example, are hopeful that Mr Biden will engage in the kind of meaningless trade deals so beloved of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. These are the trade deals where Washington agrees to improve trade ties with Beijing on the understanding that China addresses the unfair trading relationship between the two countries, knowing full well that China's communist rulers have absolutely no intention of fulfilling their end of the bargain.
Before making any move that he may later regret, Mr Biden needs to think long and hard about the likely implications of trying to improve relations with Tehran.
As Iran has demonstrated consistently since signing the 2015 nuclear deal with the Obama administration, Tehran's primary objective is to become the dominant power in the Middle East -- not to live in peaceful coexistence with other nations in the region.
The revelation that Hezbollah has doubled the arsenal of advanced guided missiles it keeps trained on Israel is a timely reminder that Iran, together with the its terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East, promises to present the incoming Biden administration with its most critical foreign policy challenge in 2021. Pictured: An arch glorifying Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah (right) and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decorates a street in Beirut.
The revelation that Hezbollah has doubled the arsenal of advanced guided missiles it keeps trained on Israel during the course of the past year is a timely reminder that Iran, together with the numerous terrorist proxies it supports throughout the Middle East, promises to present the incoming Biden administration with its most critical foreign policy challenge in 2021.
In many respects, so far as the ayatollahs are concerned, 2020 has been a year to forget. The year, for them, got off to a bad start when the Trump administration succeeded in carrying out the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the iconic head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force -- the man who, as a trusted confidante of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was primarily responsible for disseminating Tehran's malign influence throughout the region.
In addition, the Iranian regime has seen its economy eviscerated by the Trump administration's punitive sanctions regime, which President Donald Trump implemented after withdrawing from the hazardous nuclear deal with Iran that would ultimately have allowed it to have nuclear weapons. As a consequence the rial, the Iranian currency, has lost more than half its value, while inflation and unemployment are both running at well above the 20 percent mark.
The mullahs have also had to contend with intense domestic criticism over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with the regime facing accusations that it has been too slow to respond to the challenge posed by Covid-19, and has deliberately sought to cover up the true number of fatalities.
With Iran's presidential elections due to take place in June, the regime's rulers are clearly desperate for some good news they can relay to their sceptical electorate.
So the announcement by Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Iran's proxy Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, that the terror group has, despite all the setbacks Tehran has suffered during the past year, achieved a significant increase in the number of missiles it has aimed at Israel, will be music to the ears of Iran's ayatollahs as they seek to present their track record in a positive light ahead of the elections.
Mr Nasrallah, who made the announcement during a four-hour interview on a pro-Hezbollah Lebanese television station earlier this week, claimed that the group's Iranian-made precision missiles were now capable of hitting targets anywhere in Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza.
The Hezbollah announcement -- if true -- constitutes a serious escalation in Iran's ability to attack Israel, especially as Iran's Revolutionary Guards are understood to have deployed similar weapons at newly-constructed bases in Syria that are located close to the Israeli border.
Even if it transpires that Mr Nasrallah, by making the claim, is seeking to boost Hezbollah's standing in Lebanon after the criticism it has received for the Port of Beirut explosion in August, Israel is unlikely to tolerate the existence of such powerful weapons so close to its border.
Tensions are already running high between Tehran and Jerusalem following reports earlier this week that Israel is deploying one of its submarines to the Persian Gulf, a move that prompted an angry response from Abolfazl Amouei, spokesman for the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, who described the Israeli move as "an act of aggression", and warned that Iran reserves the right to respond.
While many military observers regard the Israeli move, which is being taken in conjunction with an increase in US naval activity in the Gulf, as a purely precautionary measure as the Trump administration draws to a close, hostilities between Israel and Iran can never be ruled out, a prospect that President-elect Joe Biden would be well-advised to take on board as he considers his foreign policy options.
There is eager anticipation among many of Washington's foes that Mr Biden's inauguration will result in the new president adopting a less confrontational tone with the outside world than his predecessor.
China's communist rulers, for example, are hopeful that Mr Biden will engage in the kind of meaningless trade deals so beloved of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
These are the trade deals where Washington agrees to improve trade ties with Beijing on the understanding that China addresses the unfair trading relationship between the two countries, knowing full well that China's communist rulers have absolutely no intention of fulfilling their end of the bargain.
There are similar feelings of optimism, too, in Tehran where the ayatollahs will be desperately hoping that Mr Biden will fulfil his promise to revive the nuclear deal and lift the sanctions, thereby alleviating Iran's economic hardship and enabling its nuclear capability.
Before making any move that he may later regret, Mr Biden needs to think long and hard about the likely implications of trying to improve relations with Tehran.
As Iran has demonstrated consistently since signing the 2015 nuclear deal with the Obama administration, Tehran's primary objective is to become the dominant power in the Middle East -- not to live in peaceful coexistence with other nations in the region.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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It Is Parliament
Hazem Saghieh/January 11/2021
During this new year, 2021, we will be reminded of three beginnings to three decades: 30 years ago, in 1991, when the Communist coup was defeated in the former Soviet Union; 20 years ago, in 2001, when al-Qaeda committed the crimes of 9/11 in New York and Washington; ten years ago, in 2011, when the Arab revolutions succeeded their forerunner that erupted in Tunisia toward the end of the preceding year. Parliament, as a symbol of democracy, was part of these three major events, either directly or circuitously.
In 1991, the coup was defeated when it faced up against parliament. That day, Boris Yeltsin stood on a tank in what became an iconic image. The masses took to the streets and erected barricades, and the army did not appear cohesive enough for the coup to succeed.
In 2001, Osama bin Laden wanted to say many things with his suicide bombers. Still, one of those things was that western civilization, which revolves around democracy, is very fragile. Blowing up a building or two would blow it up and put the matter to rest. In 2011, the winds of the “Arab Spring” blew, demanding a parliament and democracy. Though it did so very late, it wanted to break the Arab world’s “exceptionalism.”As for today, in 2021, parliament has become an American issue. The center of events is the country whose constitutional path has not once been interrupted since it was established.
In 1991, developments in Russia seemed a gateway for a new world demanding parliament. The Soviet Union and its bloc collapsed. The adoption of democracy stretched from central and eastern Europe to Latin America and Africa. The end of apartheid in South Africa and the agreement that ended the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland complemented this trend. The Oslo Agreement signed between the Palestinians and the Israelis came in the same context.
In 2001, al-Qaeda came to challenge this same broad tendency. It came to tell the Cold War’s victors that they are targeted by a “divine invasion.”
But the challenge to parliament had preceded this, to be precise, in the place where democracy had achieved its shining victory: Russia. Yeltsin himself, two years after his courageous stand, ordered the shelling of the parliament.
This latter event’s symbolism stemmed from two things: Russia, in its social configuration and its tradition of “oriental despotism”, was not equipped for democracy. The Soviet Union fell without a bourgeoise legally accumulating wealth. In Russia, there was only the old regime’s oligarchy, who made their fortunes by smuggling and cutting deals to share the state’s sold assets.
The other issue is that the West, in turn, was not equipped to help Russia take this path: Bill Clinton, egged on by the incitement of the new leadership in central Europe, which was haunted by a longstanding fear of Russians, insisted on stretching NATO as far as Russia’s borders. At the time, Francois Mitterrand was adamant that the alliance had done its job after the fall of the Soviet bloc. Since the 1940s, George Kennan’s position was that “containing” the Soviet Union would suffice to render NATO obsolete, to say nothing about the empire withering away.
Kennan and Mitterrand were proven right: NATO’s presence on Russia’s borders decidedly invigorated nationalism at the expense of democracy. The salvatory leader at the expense of parliament. Thanks to the oligarchy and NATO, Vladimir Putin’s reign was born.
The Arab revolutions were, in a sense, a reaction to what Bin Laden had done: we want democracy and a parliament, not to attack them. These revolutions were defeated as populist movements were winning victory after victory throughout the world. The collective migrations from these defeated revolutions’ countries added fuel to populism’s fire.
A lack of confidence in politics and politicians struck democratic countries themselves: Le Pen in France, The Alternative for Deutschland in Germany, and others in Italy and Austria. Donald Trump arrived at the White House and the British voted for Brexit. The triumphant populists heavily constrained democracies and parliaments: the media and the judiciary’s independence should be curtailed. Those in opposition are “enemies of the people.”
Democracy’s downturn between 1991 and 2021 was created by several factors that go beyond migration: neoliberalism took revenge on the social question altogether in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. Globalization was accompanied by companies and firms relocating in Asia, which enriched Indians and Chinese but impoverished Europeans and Americans. The Arab revolutions’ defeat prevented the Arabs from breaking their exceptionalism and narrowed the world’s margin of freedom..
Whatever the case may be, it is no longer possible for the chokehold on parliament and democracy striking anywhere but the center, the United States itself. What happened at the Capitol a few days ago indicates the following: democracy, in today’s world, is ailing and in crisis. But it also demonstrates democracy’s strength and its ability to overcome its crisis. The solidity of its constitutional institutions. The presence and fortitude of democratic culture. The force with which pluralism is fighting.
These two contradictory realities clashed head-on in Congress, and the two will clash again and again in the next few years, especially after the US presidential election results demonstrated that the country is split in half. As for the final victory, it hinges on how Joe Biden’s administration will revise the past 30 American and global years. The only thing we know for sure is that the whole world, in one way or another, is fighting the battle for parliament and democracy. And in contrast to optimists’ hasty predictions, it is not an easy battle.

A Loud Farewell to the Soloist
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/January 11/2021
Journalists are evil by nature. They hunt for intense news and tragedies of states or individuals. They do not long for logic and moderation, but search for excitement and surprise, confident that the readers, just like them, are hungry for sizzling feasts.
If a journalist rejoices in pursuing a controversial president of an ordinary or middle country, then how is the case if the notorious president was the head of the only superpower?
As the United States is a country that hugely impacts the entire world, we had to follow daily news of the master of fleets stationed in the White House. We had no choice but to maintain our seat in the ranks of the “Twitter” people, as Mr. President wanted to turn the page of “fake news” carried by “timeworn” press castles.
This is America. Nobody can enter the White House on a tank, as was the case in the banana republics and the terrible Middle East. A powerful man cannot disregard his rivals and transform the elections into a mere referendum to pledge allegiance to the inspiring historic leader. Donald Trump had to enter the castle through its legitimate doors, i.e. the polls. With undeniable mastery, a man in a red tie emerged, holding a provocative dictionary and playing with the feelings of those frustrated by the atrophy of the American greatness. The Republican Party fell into the grip of a man coming from outside the traditional club and using a different dictionary.
With direct sentences and decisive judgments, the American president set off like a train without brakes.
He was not the fruit of the universities that gave birth to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, nor was he an expert in the international equation as Richard Nixon, who opened the “Chinese continent”, nor was he experienced in government corridors and institutions like George Bush the father. At first, he seemed similar to Ronald Reagan in his ability to promote simple ideas, but in a different time and with diverse rhetoric.
The world had never seen this before. The US President manages the empire and its relations with the world through tweets. The singer is by nature a soloist, while the master of the Oval Office is supposed to be the conductor of an orchestra, which relies on reports of those who watch over the security, economics, and foreign policy. He was a soloist, who believed that the game was about him first and foremost, and that its fate depended on his ingenuity.
He always used a strong and strict language, but also the sudden friendliness game, which appeared during his unjustified dealings with the North Korean leader. He directed blows at his opponents, without caring about healing the wounds, as if he was not afraid of multiplying his enemies. Therefore, working within his team seemed to be difficult, similar to walking a tightrope, not only because he has a mood that dictates decisions, but also because he is able to surprise the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense with a resolution that has neither been studied nor examined.
He repeated the slogans of regaining the greatness of America and the vitality of its economy, relieving the burden of its management of the world, and withdrawing from agreements that he considered unfair to the Americans. He acted as if he trusted his ability to address the heart of the country, even if this approach caused open wounds in the relations between the components and between “natives” and immigrants. He did not take America into a new war, nor did he bear the burden of rebuilding a country that was ravaged by a US intervention. The man of the “deal” seemed to be clinging to his ingenuity, brandishing force but not using it, preferring to take the path of sanctions, as it unfolded in the form of a painful and effective weapon.
The Middle East has spent four years watching his tweets. His decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran and subject the Tehran regime to maximum sanctions was not simple at all, just like his determination to kill General Qassem Soleimani, who was closest to the mind and heart of the Iranian spiritual leader.
This comes in addition to the great change that he brought about in the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which will have lasting effects on the future balance of power in the region.
Following three tumultuous years in office, the numbers were not against him. He considered the second term as a legitimate right. The surprise came from where he hadn’t expected. A virus emerged in Mao’s country, then spread to the world and attacked the United States. Trump miscalculated the seriousness of the “Chinese virus” and its ability to kill, spread and exhaust the economy.
In an alarming atmosphere imposed by Covid-19, people wanted the president to lead by example in caution and to promote compliance with safety measures. Trump seemed to be a lonely and stubborn player, revealing his lack of advisors, who could intervene before the boat sank, and his inability to listen to such advisors, if any.
The Coronavirus participated actively in the vote against him. Joe Biden benefited greatly from those who dreaded the tweeting president. Media hatred also contributed to the battle. Thus, Biden achieved victory.
The most dangerous thing that can befall the powerful is the inability to believe what needs to be believed. Trump seemed unable to admit defeat. In fact, Biden could not deal a fatal blow, but rather won by notching points. It was clear that Trump, who lost the battle, could use the numbers he recorded in the elections to maintain his party or prepare for the next round in four years. The strong boxer did not approve of the outcome of the match. He committed the sin of incitement to scramble the game in order to demean the winner, embarrass him, or question his legitimacy.
It appeared that the boxer, who refused to leave, chose to hit his head with the Congress and the Constitution, disregarding the consequences. The blow did not come from Biden. Trump directed it to himself. And now Washington is busy with a loud farewell. The president became a burden in his last days. Some demanded his dismissal, while others called for his resignation.
It is a loud farewell to the soloist. It is America, pretending to be tolerant, then clenching its jaws in defense of its features. Trump gave Biden a rug of coal, but he slipped and walked on it.

Democrats poised to repeat past mistakes on Iran
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/January 11/2021
In remarks to CNN last week, Jake Sullivan, President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming national security adviser, blasted the current US administration’s handling of the Iranian file. Sullivan said that Iran is now closer than ever to developing a nuclear arsenal and has not stopped its aggressive behavior, causing harm to US interests in the region. Sullivan added that Biden had previously vowed to rejoin the nuclear agreement in case Iran returned to honoring its obligations stipulated under the deal.
He indicated that the groundwork should be prepared for resuming negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Sullivan said: “Our view is that ballistic missiles, and Iran’s ballistic missile program, has to be on the table.” He added that the Biden administration would seek to bring Iran’s regional partners to the negotiating table. Considering these comments, the incoming US administration, even before formally taking office, is apparently repeating the same mistakes made by the Obama administration. These continuous Democratic blunders fuel tensions in the region and provide an opportunity for Iran to step up its hostile behavior via the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its deployment of loyalist militias.
The mistaken beliefs of the incoming Biden administration are not only dangerous, but are also based on groundless goodwill. If Biden’s administration rejoined the nuclear deal and lifted the unilateral US sanctions imposed on Tehran, what would compel the Iranian regime to engage in further negotiations, particularly in relation to its missiles program and hostile regional behavior? In fact, Iran’s minimal compliance with the nuclear deal is sufficient for it to implement its regional strategy and continue to develop its nuclear program, and it will not willingly engage in any further negotiations concerning outstanding issues.
Iran quickly responded to Sullivan’s comments. Responding dismissively to Biden’s adviser, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said: “With regard to Iran’s defense capabilities, Iran has never negotiated, and will never do so. The Iranian defense force is pursued considering Iranian needs and on an independent basis. The question of Iran’s missiles is mentioned in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as well as in the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 endorsing the agreement. It is settled.”
At the same time, Iran announced that it plans to enrich uranium up to 20 percent purity in its latest breach of the nuclear deal.
We know the new US administration wants to make an easy and swift diplomatic breakthrough in this case. However, any hasty step will be viewed as a green light for Iran to go on more regional rampages and provide more support, financing, and training for its militias.
The mistaken beliefs of the incoming Biden administration are not only dangerous, but are also based on groundless goodwill.
Maybe the experience of the 2015 nuclear deal is the best case in point, with all the money released following the signing of the deal being dedicated by the Iranian regime to sponsoring its militias overseas.
In a poll conducted in Iran in 2017, nearly 51 percent of the respondents said the socioeconomic conditions in the country were worsening. In addition, 75 percent of the respondents said the nuclear deal had not led to living conditions improving.
For all these reasons, the solution lies in linking the three files (nuclear development, missile program, and regional behavior) together and connecting any removal of sanctions following Washington’s return to the nuclear deal with progress made on the other two files within a specific timeframe.
The Arab states in general and the Gulf states in particular need to usher in intensive diplomatic efforts in the coming period, especially with the P5+1 countries (China, France, Russia, the UK, the US and Germany). Arab political and diplomatic figures who have standing and influence in all the relevant capitals should be holding meetings and talks with leadership figures in the P5+1 countries to clarify the potential US decision to return to the nuclear deal and to underline that doing so without addressing the other two interlinked files would be dangerous for the region and the world.
These figures should also emphasize and reiterate the fact that previous experiences have shown that lifting sanctions imposed on the Iranian regime without any reciprocal actions from Tehran will simply aid the regime in implementing its malign objectives and give it carte blanche to continue its hostile behavior in the region with the UN’s blessing.
*Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is Head of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami