English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese,
Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 13/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.january13.21.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the
world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint
John 16/20-24/:”Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world
will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman
is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is
born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a
human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and
your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day
you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the
Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for
anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be
complete.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on January 12-13/2021
Ministry of Health: 4557 new
coronavirus cases, 32 deaths
Lockdown Adds to Suffering of Vulnerable Lebanese
Confused Lebanese Rush to Supermarkets Amid Unclear Lockdown Decisions
Tenenti: UNIFIL working to secure release of shepherd
Report: Govt Complexities 'Grow' after Leaked Aoun Video about Hariri
In shocking video, Aoun accuses Hariri of ‘lying’
Interpol issues notices over Lebanon’s massive port blast
Israel Claims Abducted Shepherd is Hizbullah Spy
Jumblat Calls Hariri, Slams 'Personal Insults' against Him
Strong Lebanon Bloc Calls on Hariri to 'Resume His Work ASAP'
Ministry of Finance says WB approved $246 million loan agreement for Lebanon’s
safety net
After Bible Verse, Hariri Posts Poem about 'Lies'
Lebanon Files U.N. Complaint against Israel at Aoun's Request
Woman's Salve for Devastation of Beirut Blast: 100 Dolls
Hizbullah Senior Official Nabil Qaouq: Qasem Soleimani's Dream Was To Be Able To
Target The Knesset; The Missile Arsenal He Built Constitutes An Existential
Threat To Israel
Pro-Iran Lebanese Activist Anis Al-Naqqash: Soleimani, Orchestrated Weapon
Delivery To Gaza Disguised As Humanitarian Aid
MEMRI/January 12/2021
Ex-Nissan Exec,Carlos Ghosn Says Automaker Sought to Hide Ghosn's Pay/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday,
12 January, 2021
Ghosn Meeting with French Investigators Postponed
Agence France Presse/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
Titles For The
Latest
English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on
January 12-13/2021
Trudeau reshuffle puts first
Syrian-Canadian minister in Cabinet
Russia Predicts Israeli-Iranian Clash in Syria in 2021
Iran to execute 2nd wrestler, sparking outrage from US State Department
Pompeo says Iran gives al Qaeda new 'home base,' analysts skeptical
Trump Disavows Any Responsibility for his Supporters' Jan. 6 Attack
In attempt to salvage EU ties, Turkey invites Greece to talks
Kuwait Government Submits Resignation to PM
Erdogan Hopes New Turkey-Greece Talks Will Herald New Era
US blacklisting of Fayyadh puts Iraq in tough predicament
Israel, Morocco Will Officially Launch Relations End of January
Egypt joins Gulf countries in resuming air link to Qatar
High-level US Delegation Visits the Premises of Future US Consulate General in
Morocco’s Dakhla
Erdogan says wants EU ties 'Back On Track'
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 12-13/2021
The path to peace in Yemen is not strewn with roses/Saleh
Baidhani/The Arab Weekly/January 21/2021
Media: Israel Must Be Denigrated for Its World-Beating Vaccination Programme/Richard
Kemp/Gatestone Institute/January 12/2021
US Defenses Against Chinese Cyber Offenses/Shoshana Bryen/Gatestone
Institute/January 12/2021
Iran accelerates underground nuclear site construction at Natanz/Robert Tollast/The
National/January 12/2021
2021 Will Be a Defining Year for Syria/Charles Lister/Asharq Al-Awsat/January
12/2021
News Release/Canada/Ontario Declares Second Provincial Emergency to Address
COVID-19 Crisis and Save Lives
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 12-13/2021
Ministry of Health: 4557 new coronavirus cases, 32 deaths
NNA/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced 4557 new coronavirus infection cases,
which raises the cumulative number to 226948 confirmed cases. 32 deaths have
been recorded over the past 24 hours.
Lockdown Adds to Suffering of Vulnerable Lebanese
Agence France Presse/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
A total lockdown set to start this week will exacerbate the suffering of
vulnerable Lebanese families struggling to make ends meet unless the government
offers assistance, a charity has warned. “We recognise the importance of taking
thorough measures... but we are very concerned that vulnerable families and
their children will be left to deal with a catastrophe on their own," Jennifer
Moorehead, Save the Children’s Lebanon director, said late Monday. Lebanon, a
country of more than six million, is grappling with its worst economic downturn
since the 1975-1990 war. A spiralling coronavirus outbreak has compounded the
crisis, forcing businesses shut and denying daily wage earners an income in a
country where more than half the population lives in poverty. The Lebanese
government on Monday said it would enforce a 24-hour curfew for 11 days from
Thursday, after daily infections spiked by some 70 per cent over the past week.
The surge in new cases is among the steepest in the world. Under the new
measures, non-essential workers will not be allowed out of the house and
supermarkets will only operate delivery services. This prompted fears of food
shortages as such services are not readily available in impoverished and remote
regions. “Almost half of the population can’t afford to buy sufficient food to
last them through the supermarket closures," Moorehead said. "We fear they will
face hunger as it is uncertain whether stores have the capacity to deliver food
to people’s homes."Lebanon has recorded 222,391 Covid-19 cases, including 1,629
deaths, since February. The round-the-clock curfew will start Thursday and
run until January 25, in a desperate attempt to slow the spread of a virus that
has overwhelmed the country's healthcare system. Hours before it was announced
on Monday, rumours that stores would close completely prompted a wave of panic
buying. Large crowds streamed into supermarkets, pharmacies and bakeries, where
shelves were left completely empty. Save the Children urged the government of
Lebanon to implement "fair and transparent social assistance packages for the
most vulnerable communities."Outgoing finance minister Ghazi Wazni on Monday
said the government was dedicating 75 billion Lebanese pounds (around $49
million at the official rate) to struggling families hit hard by the lockdown.
Confused Lebanese Rush to Supermarkets Amid
Unclear Lockdown Decisions
Beirut - Inas Sherri/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 12
January, 2021
In light of confusion that prevailed over state decisions regarding a new full
lockdown, the Lebanese rushed on Monday to supermarkets and shopping centers to
buy food and other necessities. Photos spread on social media of citizens
queuing in front of supermarkets and others showing empty shelves in a number of
stores. Chaos resulting from the government’s management of the Coronavirus
crisis is not something new, according to Professor of Policy and Planning at
the American University of Beirut (AUB) Nasser Yassin. It falls within an
approach adopted by the Lebanese authority in managing all of its crises,” he
said. This approach is mainly based on “making random decisions and taking
actions that are not based on scientific foundations, but rather on reactions
that cannot establish general policies with clear paths and goals.”In comments
to Asharq Al-Awsat, Yassin gives as an example the state’s handling of the
financial crisis. “[The government] first decided to conduct a study of losses
ahead of the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund… then withdrew
the idea due to pressure, to later talk about criminal auditing,” he remarked.
Yassin considered that confusion and contradictory strategies have become a
feature of dealing with various files, especially the important ones. He noted
that the mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis was remarkably clear in two
stages: The first was the failure to establish a mechanism and a plan to track
those coming from abroad after the reopening of the airport, which subsequently
led to a societal spread; while the second stage was the decision not to impose
a lockdown during the holidays in December, despite the serious epidemiological
situation. Moreover, Yassin stressed that the citizens have lost their
confidence in the authorities that are managing the health crisis, especially as
pictures spread about ministers breaching prevention measures where people were
seen attending private events and dinners.
Tenenti: UNIFIL working to secure release of shepherd
NNA/January 12/2021
UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti stated that “Today in the late afternoon, a
shepherd was apprehended by the IDF in the general area of Bastara near the Blue
Line in south Lebanon.” “UNIFIL has informed the LAF,” he added. “UNIFIL HoM/FC
Major General Del Col is in touch with the parties and working to secure the
release of the shepherd.”“UNIFIL will launch an investigation to establish the
circumstances of the incident, including the exact location where the man was
apprehended,” said the UNIFIL spokesperson.
Report: Govt Complexities 'Grow' after Leaked Aoun Video
about Hariri
Naharnet/January 12/2021
A leaked video of President Michel Aoun accusing PM-designate Saad Hariri of
“lying” about a government format, might be “intentional” to push Hariri to step
down from his task, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday. Sources related to
the government formation file, told the daily on condition of anonymity that the
leaked video would further delay the formation of the government growing more
complexities.They asked whether “these leaks were intentional to push the Prime
Minister-designate to withdraw from his mission.”On endeavors reportedly led by
Hizbullah between Aoun and Hariri to bridge the gap in views and expedite the
formation, the sources said “if true, it surely faces greater difficulties and
obstacles,” after the video. Aoun was caught on camera saying the PM-designate
has “lied” about being given a cabinet line-up “paper” by the president. Hariri
replied by tweeting a bible verse about “cheating.”
Hariri was designated in October to form a much-needed government as the country
grapples with an unprecedented economic crisis pushing the Lebanese into
poverty. On Sunday, MP Jebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement and
son-in-law of Aoun, lashed out at Hariri arguing that there is no trust in him
to reform the country.
In shocking video, Aoun accuses Hariri of ‘lying’
The Arab Weekly/January 12/2021
BEIRUT – A leaked video of Lebanese President Michel Aoun accusing Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri of “lying” about a government format has further
complicated a political crisis in Lebanon that has been simmering for months.
Activists on social media shared a leaked video of a meeting between Aoun and
caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab in which the president accused Hariri of
lying. To a question from Diab regarding news of Hariri’s appointment and the
formation of the government, Aoun was caught on camera saying the PM-designate
has “lied” about being given a cabinet line-up “paper” by the president. Hariri
responded to Aoun by publishing Bible verses about deceit on his Twitter
account. “For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body
subject to sins. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful,
and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he
shall not abide when iniquity cometh in,” the PM-designate tweeted. Observers of
Lebanese affairs said the leaked video will deepen disagreement between the
president and the prime minister-designate, noting that Aoun’s statements show
just how far apart the two parties are on the crisis: Aoun and Hezbollah’s
allies on one hand, and Hariri and his supporters on the other. While Aoun,
Hezbollah and their allies have been stalling to maintain the status quo and
prevent the formation of a new government, Hariri has begun attempting to
exploit international pressure, especially the French initiative and Paris’s
desire to accelerate the formation of the government, in order to continue his
mission. The relationship between Aoun and Hariri is tense due to a government
lineup the latter put forward last month that the Lebanese president has refused
to approve. Aoun has accused the prime minister-designate of monopolising the
task and completely ignoring his demands — a charge Hariri denies. Political
circles believe that the issue cuts far deeper than procedural issues. Hezbollah
and its allies, they say, are attempting to delay the formation of a new
government until US President-elect Joe Biden assumes power later this month. In
response to accusations from supporters of Aoun and Hezbollah, Hariri published
a statement confirming he had “carried out his national and constitutional
duties to the fullest and presented the President of the Republic with a
government formation of non-partisan specialists known for their capability and
accomplishment.”He added that the cabinet team “is waiting for the President of
the Republic to finish examining the lineup.” The statement pointed out that
“the problem is clear … and it is internal,” resulting from an insistence “to
hold on to impossible conditions.”In early December, Hariri announced that he
had presented Aoun with “a government formation of 18 expert ministers,
regardless of partisan affiliation.”His media office urged Aoun to set aside
party interests, namely the demand that one party control one third of the
ministries, or effective veto power, referring to the Free Patriotic Movement
founded by Aoun. “This is what will never happen under any pretext,” the
statement said. However, Aoun later announced his objection to Hariri “going it
alone in naming ministers, particularly the Christians, without agreement with
the president.” On October 22, Aoun designated Hariri to form a new government,
following the resignation of his predecessor Mustafa Adib. The head of the Arab
Tawhid Party, former minister Wiam Wahhab, sees the squabble between Aoun and
Hariri as useless. Wahhab pointed out that “the French initiative stipulates
that Hariri forms the new government.” “After my visit to two Arab capitals, I
sensed that Arab support is tied to the success of the French initiative, so I
see that Aoun and Hariri are bound by understanding or a minimum of it, without
wasting time,” he said. Lebanon has been unable to form a government since the
current caretaker government, headed by Diab, resigned six days after a
catastrophic explosion in Beirut port on August 4, killing over 200 people and
injuring some 6,000 others. Lebanon is facing its worst financial and economic
crisis in decades, with the international community desperate for the current
political elite to resolve the country’s ongoing political crisis.
Interpol issues notices over Lebanon’s massive port blast
BEIRUT (AP)//January 12/2021
Interpol has issued a wanted notice for two Russians and a Portuguese man
over explosive material that had been shipped to Beirut and stored at the city’s
port for six years until it exploded in August, the state-run National News
Agency reported Tuesday.
The Aug. 4 explosion killed 200 people, injured thousands and caused wide
destruction in Beirut.
NNA said the Interpol-issued Red Notices were for the owner and captain of the
Rhosus, the ship that carried the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to Lebanon in
2013, as well as a Portuguese nitrate trader who visited the port’s warehouse in
Beirut in 2014 where the material was stored.
The notice is a non-binding request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to
locate and provisionally arrest a fugitive. It is not an arrest warrant and does
not require authorities to arrest a wanted suspect.
Lebanon’s state prosecutor, Ghassan Khoury, had asked Interpol to issue the
notices, NNA said. The agency did not give the names of the three but local
media posted the notices identifying them as the vessel’s former captain Boris
Prokoshev and Igor Grechushkin, a Russian businessman residing in Cyprus who had
bought the cargo ship in 2012. The Portuguese man was identified as Jorge Manuel
Mirra Neto Moreira. The ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in
fertilizers, was not even supposed to be in Lebanon. When the Rhosus set sail
from the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi, it was bound for the Mozambican port
of Beira.
Prokoshev, the former captain, told The Associated Press days after the blast
that he joined the ship in Turkey in 2013, after the previous crew quit over
unpaid wages. Grechushkin, who resides in Cyprus, was paid $1 million to
transport the dangerous cargo from Georgia to Mozambique, the former captain
said.
Nearly 30 people, most of them port and customs officials, have been arrested
since the blast. Last month, the prosecutor investigating the blast, Fadi Sawwan,
filed charges against Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three
former ministers, accusing them of negligence leading to the deaths of those who
perished in the explosion.
Israel Claims Abducted Shepherd is Hizbullah Spy
Naharnet/January 12/2021
The Israeli army alleged Tuesday that a Lebanese shepherd nabbed by Israeli
forces in the border area of Kfarshouba was collecting information for Hizbullah.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee tweeted that the shepherd was “arrested in
an ambush” after he “deliberately” crossed the frontier into Israeli-controlled
territory. Noting that the shepherd was taken to interrogation, Adraee stressed
that the Israeli army “will not tolerate any attempt to violate the sovereignty
of the State of Israel.” “The arrested Lebanese shepherd belongs to a group that
has been identified as being collaborative with Hizbullah, which uses shepherds
in missions for collecting information and monitoring the Israeli army forces,”
Adraee added. He also noted that “in the latest attempt by Hizbullah’s saboteurs
to infiltrate into Israel to carry out an attack several months ago, a Lebanese
shepherd had offered help to the group’s saboteurs.”UNIFIL spokesman Andrea
Tenenti meanwhile announced that the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force,
Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col, was carrying out contacts with the Israeli and
Lebanese armies to secure the release of the shepherd. He added that UNIFIL will
launch a probe to unveil the circumstances of the incident, including the
specific location from which the shepherd was nabbed. The Lebanese Army
identified the shepherd as Hassan Qasem Zahra and said he was guarding livestock
when he was detained. Earlier in the day Lebanon’s National News Agency reported
that an Israeli patrol kidnapped Lebanese shepherd H.Z. from the Bustra area of
the border town of Kfarshouba. He was then taken into Israel, the agency added.
Israel frequently abducts shepherds from that area. They are usually released
after hours of interrogation.
Jumblat Calls Hariri, Slams 'Personal Insults' against Him
Naharnet/January 12/2021
Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat on Tuesday called PM-designate
Saad Hariri and stressed his “categorical rejection” of what he called the
“campaign” against the premiership post. Jumblat also condemned “the personal
insults that have targeted PM-designate Hariri” despite some “temporary
political differences” between him and the premier, a PSP statement said. A war
of words had recently erupted between Hariri and President Michel Aoun’s camp
after the president was caught on camera accusing the PM-designate of “lying.”
Strong Lebanon Bloc Calls on Hariri to 'Resume His Work ASAP'
Naharnet/January 12/2021
The Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc on Tuesday called on Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri to “resume his work as soon as possible.” “The
bloc is awaiting the PM-designate to communicate with the President to form a
government that respects the unity of standards,” said Strong Lebanon in a
statement issued after its weekly e-meeting. It added that the new government
must be “reformist and productive in its ministers and program.”“Accordingly,
the bloc calls on the PM-designate to resume his work as soon as possible, away
from any influences and in conformity with the sovereign Lebanese decision and
the utmost need for the formation of a salvation government,” it urged.
Ministry of Finance says WB approved $246 million loan
agreement for Lebanon’s safety net
NNA/January 12/2021
The press office of the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday announced in a statement
that The Board of Trustees of the World Bank has given its approval, with the
support the majority of countries, on the agreement of the Social Safety Network
for Lebanon loan amounting to $246 million. The loan is allocated to help the
Lebanese government provide financial assistance to low income families amid the
prevailing emergency crisis in Lebanon. Caretaker Minister of Finance, Ghazi
Wazni, had signed the minutes of negotiation based on the terms of the draft
agreement on 12/10/2020 ".
After Bible Verse, Hariri Posts Poem about 'Lies'
Naharnet/January 12/2021
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Tuesday posted a poem containing verses
about “lies” and “blame,” a day after he tweeted a bible verse on “cheating”
amid a row with President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement. Hariri’s
tweet on Monday came after Aoun was caught on camera saying the PM-designate had
“lied” about being given a cabinet line-up “paper” by the president.The FPM
later used a Quran verse to hit back at Hariri and al-Jadeed TV, whose camera
had caught Aoun's remarks. On Tuesday, Hariri posted a YouTube video of the poem
“If” by Rudyard Kipling -- an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and
novelist who died in 1936. The video was posted on the Vero social media
platform, which is owned by Hariri's billionaire Saudi-based brother Ayman.
Below is the full text of the poem:
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Lebanon Files U.N. Complaint against Israel at Aoun's
Request
Naharnet/January 12/2021
Lebanon on Tuesday filed a U.N. complaint against Israel over its intensive
aerial violations in recent days. “President Michel Aoun today asked caretaker
Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe to address an urgent letter to the U.N. Security
Council and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres to condemn Israel’s
aggression and aerial violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty and Resolution 1701,
after the intensification of the Israeli violations of the Lebanese airspace,”
the Presidency said. The National News Agency meanwhile reported that Wehbe
submitted the complaint to Guterres and the Security Council through Lebanon’s
permanent envoy to the U.N. Ambassador Amal Mudallali. The complaint describes
“the Israeli attacks on Lebanese sovereignty through the continuous and
dangerous aerial violations over the past few days” as a “blatant violation of
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701,” urging the Council to “condemn Israel
over this aggression and put an immediate end to it to preserve stability,
security and peace in the region.”Israeli warplanes had earlier in the day
staged successive overflights at low altitude in the skies over the South,
especially its western and central sectors, before reaching Beirut and its
suburbs.
The jets also violated the Lebanese airspace over the southern regions of
Nabatiyeh and Iqlim al-Tuffah, staging mock raids at medium altitude. Israel
regularly violates Lebanon airspace, often to carry out strikes in neighboring
Syria. On Christmas Eve, Israeli jets flew low late into the night, terrorizing
Beirut residents who are no strangers to such flights. They were followed by
reported Israeli strikes in Syria. The frequency of low flying warplanes over
the capital has intensified in the last two weeks, making residents jittery as
tensions run high in the region on the final days of President Donald Trump's
administration.
Israel and Lebanon are technically at war. Hizbullah, the powerful Lebanese
militant group backed by Iran, is a sworn enemy of Israel and the two have had a
series of confrontations, including a full-scale war in 2006. Hizbullah leader
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a year-end interview, said Israel's efforts to curb
his group's ability to acquire precision-guided missiles have failed. He boasted
that Hizbullah now has twice as many such missiles as it had last year. Israel
has in recent months expressed concern that Hizbullah is trying to establish
production facilities to make precision-guided missiles.
Woman's Salve for Devastation of Beirut Blast: 100 Dolls
Naharnet/January 12/2021
In the wake of a massive explosion that devastated large parts of Beirut,
93-year-old Yolande Labaki sought a way to help bring healing to the Lebanese
capital. The internationally recognized painter's solution was to make dolls --
100 of them, distributed to children traumatized or otherwise affected by the
destruction. Her inspiration was another Lebanese tragedy, etched in her memory:
the look on the face of one of her grandchildren, then about 3, when his home
was damaged during the country's 1975-1990 civil war. "He saw all his toys on
the ground amid the rubble and asked me: 'Who broke my toys?' His eyes were
filled with tears," she said. So when a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate
stored at the Beirut port ignited and blew up on Aug. 4 -- killing more than 200
people, injuring thousands and leaving a swath of the city in ruins -- Labaki
thought of the children, and how "they, too, must be asking who broke their
toys." Labaki gave herself a challenge, and a deadline."I said: 'God, if you
give me the power, I will make 100 of these by Christmas,'" she recalled. And
thus began a monthslong labor of love. Getting the doll's face just right -- she
wanted to make sure it wouldn't scare the children -- was difficult. The
great-grandmother painstakingly embroidered features using a sewing machine,
stuffed fabric with cotton and tailored tiny dresses. And then non-governmental
organizations helped distribute the dolls. Two went to the daughters of Beirut
resident Georges Chlawuit. The blast blew out windows at the family home, he
said. "At least she thought of these poor kids after what has happened in the
explosion," he said. "May God keep her and give her good health. If it weren't
for how the Lebanese people came together, we wouldn't have been able to stand
back on our feet again."His daughters, he said, have been sleeping with their
new dolls. Labaki's reward: photos with the beaming faces of girls who received
her dolls. "It's a gift for me more so than it is for the children," she said.
Hizbullah Senior Official Nabil Qaouq: Qasem Soleimani's
Dream Was To Be Able To Target The Knesset; The Missile Arsenal He Built
Constitutes An Existential Threat To Israel
MEMRI/January 12/2021
Source: Al-Manar TV (Lebanon)
Nabil Qaouq, a member of Hizbullah's Central Committee spoke about IRGC Qods
Force commander Qasem Soleimani's role in building Hizbullah's missile
capability on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah-Lebanon) on January 2, 2021. He said that
before his "martyrdom," Soleimani had realized his dream of the "resistance"
having the capability of striking the Knesset, the Israeli "Ministry of War,"
and military and strategic installations all over Israel with their missiles.
Qaouq said that Soleimani developed Hizbullah's long-range precision missile
capability to a point that it now constitutes an existential threat to Israel.
For more about Nabil Qaouq, see MEMRI TV clip No. 2566. Nabil Qaouq: "In a
period of 20 years, Hajj Qasem [Solemani] managed to realize his dream. His
dream was that the resistance movements would be capable of striking the Israeli
Knesset with their missiles, of striking the Israeli Ministry of War with their
missiles, and to strike the military and strategic installations throughout the
Israeli entity. Hajj Qasem had managed to realize this dream before he was
martyred. Hajj Qasem developed the capabilities of the resistance, and it is now
capable of surrounding the [Israeli] entity with its long-range precision
missiles. These missiles that surround the Israeli entity now constitute the
greatest element of deterrence against the Israeli enemy, as well as an
existential threat for the Israeli entity. For the first time, we feel that
there is an existential threat [to Israel] in the form of the long-range
precision missiles. Hajj Qasem played the main role in creating this system
Pro-Iran Lebanese Activist Anis Al-Naqqash: Soleimani,
Orchestrated Weapon Delivery To Gaza Disguised As Humanitarian Aid
MEMRI/January 12/2021
Source: Mayadeen TV (Lebanon)
Anis Al-Naqqash: "One of the most beautiful weapons transfer operations, I can
reveal it today, apart from the case of 'Karina A,' which was leaded for Abu
Ammar [Yasser Arafat], and not for Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad... Abu
Ammar requested a significant weapon supply, because every time he traveled from
the occupied lands and back, he used to bring back a few weapons in his car, or
with his guards, but it was not enough for real protection. "Then, they sent a
ship to Iran, to be leaded [with weapons]. This ship was the 'Karine A,' which
was later captured. On the night it was loaded, the martyr Qasem Soleimani and
Imad Mughniyeh stood at the loading dock in the port and supervised the loading
themselves. After this case was exposed, the whole transfer process improved in
various ways, and the enemy could no longer discover it. So large quantities of
weapons entered [Palestine].
"One of the most beautiful [weapons transfer] operations took place in front of
the eyes of the whole world, in front of the cameras of the Zionist enemy, in
front of the Egyptian army and the Egyptian intelligence, and in front of the
whole international media. How did it happen? A large quantity of weapons was
accumulated In El-Arish and the Sinai region. "Transferring these weapons into
Gaza through the tunnels would have taken a long time, and they were in a rush,
because they estimated that an [Israeli] attack was coming. We all remember how
the people of Gaza 'who were starving to death,' broke through the Egyptian
border and entered El-Arish to get food, blankets, and equipment. Then, buses
and trucks entered Gaza from Sinai, in plain view, carrying not only food and
blankets, but they were full of rockets and weapons. This is an example of the
great thinking of Imad Mughniyeh and Qasem Soleimani."
Ex-Nissan Exec,Carlos Ghosn Says Automaker Sought to Hide
Ghosn's Pay
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
A former Nissan chief operating officer outlined in a Japanese court Tuesday the
pains company officials took to hide star executive Carlos Ghosn´s pay, and how
they had worried about his quitting for a rival. "Carlos Ghosn is a world-class
business leader and CEO," said Toshiyuki Shiga, testifying at the trial of his
former colleague Greg Kelly, charged with under-reporting Ghosn´s compensation.
"We heard not only as rumors but as fact that he was getting job offers," Shiga
added. As No. 2 at the Japanese automaker from 2005-2013, Shiga is the highest
ranking Nissan Motor Co. executive to testify at the trial, which began in
September. He worked closely with Ghosn after Nissan's French alliance partner
Renault sent him to Japan to help turn the troubled automaker around in 1999.
Shiga retired from Nissan in 2019. The issue of Ghosn's pay became more of a
problem after Japan beefed up its compensation disclosure requirements in 2010.
After that, Ghosn handed back about 1 billion yen ($10 million) a year, roughly
half of what he´d been getting. Executives in Japan get far less than their
Western counterparts. Shiga testified he felt sorry Ghosn wasn´t collecting his
full pay, noting Ghosn was getting job offers paying 2.5 billion yen ($25
million) a year. Earlier testimony at the Tokyo District Court had gone over the
various proposals that Nissan had considered to pay Ghosn, including overseas
affiliates, retirement allowances and stock options. Shiga said Ghosn had total
power to decide on the amount and method of his payment. Apart from confirming a
post that Kelly had held he did not mention the American's role in his
testimony. Kelly, a former Nissan executive vice president, has been charged
with falsifying securities reports in allegedly under-reporting Ghosn´s
compensation by about 9 billion yen ($90 million) over several years. Both he
and Ghosn were arrested in November 2018, but Ghosn fled the country in late
2019 while out on bail. Kelly says he is innocent, and was merely trying to keep
Ghosn at Nissan. Ghosn also denies any wrongdoing. Shiga told the court he faced
pressure to ensure auditors would not raise objections to the reporting of
Ghosn's pay and that he viewed that as a failure of the company's governance. He
said he regretted not insisting Ghosn fully disclose his pay. "Why couldn´t I
say, `No,´ then? I deeply regret that to this day," Shiga told the court. "In my
life, that one act has left me with a bitter taste. The memories have faded, but
the bitter taste has never gone away." Ghosn, a 66-year-old with French,
Lebanese, and Brazilian citizenship, led Japanese automaker Nissan for two
decades. He is wanted on charges of breach of trust, in misusing company assets
for personal gain, and violating securities laws in not fully disclosing his
compensation. But he is in Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan.
Nissan as a company has acknowledged guilt in the case. If convicted, Kelly
could face up to 15 years in prison. A verdict is not expected for several
months.
Ghosn Meeting with French Investigators Postponed
Agence France Presse/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
A meeting between fugitive ex-auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn and French judicial
investigators in Beirut, initially set for next week, will be postponed because
of a fresh virus lockdown, Ghosn's defense team told AFP on Tuesday.
"By mutual agreement between the French and Lebanese investigative judges as
well as the defense lawyers, it was decided to postpone the arrival of the
French judges to a later date," Jean Tamalet of the King & Spalding law firm
said on behalf of the team. Tamalet said a strict 11-day lockdown that will go
into force in Lebanon on Thursday until January 25 prompted the move. The
government announced the tightened measures, including a 24-hour-curfew, on
Monday after Lebanon recorded a 70 percent spike in infections over the past
week. Ghosn, who holds Lebanese, French and Brazilian citizenship, was supposed
to meet with French judicial investigators in Beirut from January 18-22,
according to a source familiar with the matter. The investigators work with
France's central office for combating corruption and financial and tax offences,
the source said. They are looking into two judicial inquiries lodged against
Ghosn in France, the source added, without providing additional details. Ghosn,
the former Nissan chief, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on financial
misconduct allegations and spent 130 days in detention, before he jumped bail
and smuggled himself out of the country in late 2019.
Facing an Interpol arrest warrant, Ghosn has remained effectively trapped in
Lebanon, even as others face court over their links to his case. Japan has
called on Ghosn to return to be tried, while Lebanon has asked Japan to hand
over his file on financial misconduct charges. Ghosn is currently beyond the
reach of the Japanese courts and leads a comparatively quiet life, mostly in his
Beirut home, though he recently released a book setting out his side of his
case.
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling
price at LBP 3900
NNA/January 12/2021
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money
changing companies and institutions Tuesday’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
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 12-13/2021
Trudeau reshuffle puts first Syrian-Canadian minister in
Cabinet
The National/The National/January 13/2021
Omar Alghabra will serve as Minister of Transport as Prime Minister also
appoints new foreign minister. Omar Alghabra became Canada's first minister of
Syrian descent after he was appointed to the Cabinet by Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau on Tuesday in a reshuffle. Mr Alghabra is also the first minister of
Arab descent in the Cabinet since Pierre De Bane in the late 1970s, when Mr
Trudeau's father Pierre was prime minister.Previously parliamentary secretary to
the prime minister, Mr Alghabra was first elected as the Member of Parliament
for Mississauga Centre in 2015, and served as the Member for Mississauga –
Erindale from 2006 to 2008. He takes over the transport ministry as urgent
decisions are needed on a possible bailout of Canada's struggling airlines, and
on when to allow the Boeing 737 Max to fly again in Canadian airspace after two
deadly overseas crashes. Mr Alghabra "brings extensive experience to the Cabinet
table", the prime minister's office said, noting his past work in the NGO and
energy sectors and his background in engineering and business. He has also been
published in the Toronto Star and Huffington Post.
Mr Trudeau also replaced his foreign minister on Tuesday.
Former astronaut Marc Garneau left his transport ministry responsibilities to take over as foreign minister from Francois-Philippe Champagne, who became Industry Minister. The swearing-in ceremony lasted minutes and was held on Zoom because of Covid-19 restrictions. Departing science and industry minister Navdeep Bains's decision not to run in the next election for family reasons sparked the moves.
Mr Garneau brings to the foreign affairs portfolio extensive
knowledge of the US, Canada's top trading partner, as president-elect Joe Biden
prepares to move into the White House. He offers strong international diplomatic
experience from handling Canada's response to Iran shooting down a jetliner a
year ago, which claimed the lives of dozens of Canadian nationals and permanent
residents. "Whether on Earth or in space, Marc has always represented Canada
well," Mr Trudeau said. The prime minister, who lost his majority in Parliament
in the 2019 election, has repeatedly told Canadians in recent months that a new
ballot could be around the corner.But Mr Trudeau insisted again on Tuesday that
managing the pandemic was his government's top priority. He denied local media
reports that Liberal MPs have been told to prepare for an election in the
spring.
"From the very beginning of any minority parliament, every political party
understands that elections can happen," Mr Trudeau said. "But as I've been
consistently saying, we don't want an election.
"We need to continue to work hard and focus on Canadians, on delivering support,
on keeping Canadians safe, on creating and continuing to deliver our strong plan
that is going to bring the economy roaring back and make sure that Canadians get
through this the right way. "That's our focus and I certainly hope to be able to
work constructively in Parliament this winter and spring, to be able to deliver
those things for Canadians." Mr Trudeau's last Cabinet shuffle was in August
2020 after finance minister Bill Morneau's surprise resignation following ethics
breaches related to his ties to a charity that handed out pandemic aid on behalf
of the government. The contract was cancelled after it was revealed that Mr
Morneau's daughter worked for WE Charity. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia
Freeland, who has been tipped to eventually succeed Mr Trudeau as prime
minister, was given the finance job.
Russia Predicts Israeli-Iranian Clash in Syria in 2021
Moscow - Raed Jaber/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday,
12 January, 2021
Russian media cautioned this week of a possible confrontation
between Israel and Iranian forces in southern Syria.Russia’s Nezavisimaya Gazeta
reported Monday on Israeli preparations for an armed conflict on the border with
Syria in 2021. “Southern Syria could turn into the arena of the first northern
war between Israel and the Iranian forces,” it wrote, citing the threat
assessment for 2021 presented by the Institute for National Security Studies at
Tel Aviv University (INSS). The daily said Israeli experts, most of whom are
former representatives of the Israeli army and intelligence agencies,
recommended that Israel be prepared for such a development, adding that
pro-Iranian forces will be able to significantly increase the accuracy of their
attacks against Israeli positions in 2021. The experts did not rule out the
“military option” should administration of US President-elect Joe Biden decide
to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran. Israel will work on easing the danger of
the possible return to the bad deal, they said. The report said that Israel must
continue its operations to weaken pro-Iranian forces and prevent their
entrenchment in Syria. Observers believe that a chief threat is Hezbollah’s
efforts to obtain precision-guided missiles that would pose a significant threat
to Israeli air defenses. The Russian daily noted that Israel has upped its
attacks on Iranian positions in Syria in recent days, targeting Hezbollah and
the Iranian Quds Force in the south and west. At the same time, the Israeli
military has boosted defenses in the south by deploying Iron Dome anti-missile
batteries near the city of Eilat. The daily linked the developments to
predictions that Israel could be subject to rocket attacks not just from the
Gaza Strip, but from northwestern Yemen. The experts said that it remains to be
seen just how successful Iran’s proxies have been in developing precision-guided
missiles, but Yemen appears to be a potential location from where attacks can be
launched against Israel.
Iran to execute 2nd wrestler, sparking outrage from US
State Department
Benjamin Weinthal/Fox News/January 21/2021
Execution of decorated wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini is imminent
A top U.S. State Department official came out swinging Sunday against the
Islamic Republic of Iran’s plan to execute another wrestler, after Tehran’s
rulers publicly hanged the champion wrestler Navid Afkari in September on widely
criticized, trumped-up charges. “The Iranian regime must be held to account for
their vile human rights abuses and their attempt to cling to power through
execution,” Ellie Cohanim, the State Department’s deputy special envoy to
monitor and combat anti-Semitism, told Fox News. The execution of the decorated
wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini is imminent. He is from Andimeshk in the province of
Khuzestan, and was arrested in 2015 and charged with pre-meditated murder,
supposedly committed during a group brawl. It is unclear whether Iran’s regime
forced Hosseini to confess to a crime he did not commit. Iran’s opaque judiciary
and penal system repeatedly tortured Afkari into admitting a killing he did not
carry out, according to human rights organizations and Western governments. The
clerical rulers hanged Afkari for protesting in 2018 against the economic and
political corruption of the regime controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“What the European Union needs to ask themselves is, at what point do you
consider a state a bad actor and take action accordingly,” said Cohanim, who
fled the Islamic Republic of Iran with her family in 1979, when she was 6, to
escape its repressive state policies. “Is it when the state underwrites
terrorism and causes instability in entire regions? Is it when the state starves
its own people while enriching its leadership? Is it when the state commits mass
human rights violations against its own citizens? The Iranian regime checks all
boxes.”
In September, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo imposed sanctions against
Judge Seyyed Mahmoud Sadati, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz and
Adelabad Prison, for their role in the alleged extrajudicial killing of Afkari.
Neither the United Nations nor the European Union have sanctioned Iran’s regime
for its hanging of Afkari. Amnesty International previously said, “There were
systematic violations of fair trial rights” in the Islamic Republic and “forced
‘confessions’ obtained under torture and other ill-treatment were broadcast on
state television and used by courts to issue convictions.”Cameron Khansarinia,
the policy director for the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI), a
nonpartisan organization of Iranian-Americans, told Fox News: “While most
athletes fear the further cancellation of sporting events due to the COVID-19
pandemic, athletes in Iran fear being murdered by the Islamic Republic. After
murdering champion wrestler Navid Afkari, the criminal regime occupying Iran
intends to put fellow wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini to death.”Khansarinia
continued, “The International Olympic Committee has as yet refused to take any
serious actions against the regime in Tehran for its bloody assault against
athletes, despite a coordinated campaign by Iranian athletic champions.”Fox News
sent multiple press queries to the IOC and United World Wrestling (UWW). No
response was received by press time.
Elite Iranian wrestlers have urged that Hosseini not be executed.
Hamid Sourian, a Greco-Roman wrestler who won a gold medal at the 2012 London
Olympics, said, “I beg Dr. Gholami Gheibi, who is one of the prominent doctors
in Dezful, [in Khuzestan Province], as the father of the victim, to please God”
rescind the death penalty. Sourian, who is vice president of the Iranian
Wrestling Federation, added, “I hope that the honorable Gheibi family will
forgive this young man by doing this good deed.”Fox News sent numerous press
queries to Iran’s foreign ministry and its permanent mission to the U.N. “The
regime should be banned from all Olympic and international sports activities
until it stops murdering athletes and lifts its gender apartheid laws toward
female athletes and fans,” Khansarinia said. “The disregard for the lives of
Iranians shown by international organizations including the IOC has removed any
and all of their legitimacy as humanitarian bodies,” Khansarinia added. The
United for Navid campaign was launched by Masih Alinejad, a women’s rights
activist and founder of the My Stealthy Freedom effort. Her campaign tweeted:
“We are stay[ing] behind you to save the life of #mehdi_ali_hosseini. #NavidAfkari
was tortured and murdered few months ago. We don’t forget and we don’t forgive.
@Olympics@wrestling please help our athletes #United4Navid.” United For Navid
wants the IOC and other sports federations to ban Iran’s regime from
competition. The IOC said in September that it was “shocked” that the Iranian
regime executed Afkari, a champion Greco-Roman wrestler. Rob Koehler,
director-general of the sports human rights advocacy organization Global
Athlete, told Fox News, “The Iranian regime murdered Navid Afkari on 12
September 2020, and now they have another wrestler, Mehdi Ali Hosseini,
scheduled to be executed. How much more evidence does the IOC and United World
Wrestling need to suspend the Iranian National Olympic Committee? “Both of these
organizations failed to intervene to save Navid’s life,” Koehler said. “Now they
must step up to save Mehdi’s life and protect all Iranian athletes. The fact
that the IOC continues to neglect its duty of care for athletes by failing to
take action against Iran is a gross abdication of duty. Their willingness to
stand by while athletes are jailed, tortured and executed can no longer be
tolerated. The IOC and UWW must act now.”Khansarinia, the NUFDI policy director,
said, “We ask the nations that consider themselves friends of the Iranian people
to stand with us in this struggle. The people of Iran need
solidarity.”**Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East and
is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter
@BenWeinthal. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and
national security issues.
Pompeo says Iran gives al Qaeda new 'home base,' analysts
skeptical
Humeyra Pamuk, Matt Spetalnick/Reuters/January 21/2021
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday without providing hard
evidence that al Qaeda had established a new home base in Iran and that it was
time “for America and all free nations to crush the Iran-al-Qaeda axis.”The
comments, rejected by Iran as “warmongering lies,” in some ways echoed former
U.S. President George W. Bush’s 2002 description of Iraq, Iran and North Korea
as part of an “axis of evil” -- a comment he made about a year before invading
Iraq. With eight days left in President Donald Trump’s term, Pompeo said Iran
had allowed al Qaeda, the group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the
United States, to establish a new operational headquarters there despite
skepticism about the claim within the U.S. intelligence community and among
independent analysts. “Al-Qaeda has a new home base: it is the Islamic Republic
of Iran,” Pompeo said, saying that from 2015, Iran had allowed al Qaeda leaders
greater freedom of movement inside Iran. Pompeo said he was announcing publicly
for the first time that al Qaeda’s Abu Muhammad al-Masri, accused of helping to
mastermind the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, died on Aug. 7
last year.
The New York Times reported that al-Masri was killed by Israeli operatives in
Iran. Iran denied the report, saying there were no al Qaeda “terrorists” on its
soil. Pompeo also asserted that the Iranian government had provided safe havens
as well as logistical support such as ID cards and passports to enable al Qaeda
activity and said the group had “centralized its leadership” inside Iran.
Iran denies Pompeo's assertion it has ties with al Qaeda
Terrorism experts voiced skepticism about Pompeo’s claims, saying it long has
been known that senior al Qaeda operatives were given refuge in Iran but that
Pompeo was exaggerating that the group has made Iran its new home base. A source
familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting analysis said the U.S. Congress has
been told that there is an al Qaeda presence in Iran which ebbs and flows and
arguably is tolerated by elements of the Iranian government. However, this
source said that Pompeo’s rhetoric was over the top and suggested his real
objective may be to sabotage U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s expected efforts
to restart the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “Iran and al Qaeda are sort of strategic
enemies, said analyst Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute think tank.
“To paint Iran and Al Qaeda as being in a strategic relationship is far more
fiction than fact.” Shi’ite Iran and al Qaeda, a Sunni Muslim group, have long
been sectarian foes. Pompeo said the United States had imposed sanctions on
Iran-based two al Qaeda leaders - Muhammad Abbatay, also known as Abd al-Rahman
al Maghrebi, and Sultan Yusuf Hasan - and on three leaders of the al Qaeda
Kurdish Battalions, a group operating on the Iran-Iraq border. He said the State
Department would offer a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to
al Maghrebi. On Twitter, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed
Pompeo’s accusations as “warmongering lies.”Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for
Iran’s mission to the United Nations, described Pompeo’s comments as
“preposterous, false accusations.” Iran has been a target throughout the Trump
administration and Pompeo has sought to further ratchet up pressure on Iran in
recent weeks with more sanctions and heated rhetoric. Biden advisers believe the
Trump administration is trying to make it harder for him to re-engage with Iran
and seek to rejoin the 2015 international deal on restraining Iran’s nuclear
program. U.S.-Iranian relations have deteriorated since 2018 when Trump
abandoned that deal, which curbed its nuclear activities in return for the
lifting of economic sanctions.Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, David
Brunnstrom Jonathan Landay and Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Arshad Mohammed;
Humeyra Pamuk, Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Alistair Bell
Trump Disavows Any Responsibility for his Supporters' Jan.
6 Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
US. President Donald Trump, facing impeachment on a charge of “incitement of
insurrection” on Tuesday disavowed responsibility for his supporters’ violent
invasion of the US Capitol last week and said his remarks before the siege were
appropriate. The Republican president told reporters his speech before
Wednesday’s assault - in which he urged supporters to march on the Capitol and
fight - had been analyzed by unnamed others, who he said believed it was
“totally appropriate.” “If you read my speech ... what I said was totally
appropriate,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews when asked about any
personal responsibility he had regarding the Jan. 6 attack when his supporters
stormed the Capitol with members of Congress and his own Vice President Mike
Pence inside. “They’ve analyzed my speech and my words and my final paragraph,
my final sentence and everybody ... thought it was totally appropriate,” he said
before heading to Alamo, Texas to visit and sign his signature wall on the
border with Mexico. Democrats in the US House of Representatives plan to impeach
Trump on Wednesday unless he steps down or is removed before then, which would
make him the only US president ever to be impeached twice.
Trump’s remarks on Tuesday were his first in public since Wednesday, although he
released a video on Thursday in which he condemned the violence but did not
concede the election. Trump did not answer a shouted question before leaving the
White House about whether he was responsible for the violence at the Capitol,
which led to the deaths of six people. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy
told Republicans on Monday that Trump had acknowledged during a phone call that
he bears “some responsibility” for the siege. “I asked him personally today if
he holds responsibility for what happened, if he feels bad about what happened.
He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened,” McCarthy told
Republicans during a 2-1/2-hour conversation, according to a source who took
part in the call. However, Axios reported that Trump during the same call had
blamed “Antifa people” for storming the Capitol, even though clear video and
documentary evidence shows the rioters were overwhelmingly his supporters.
In attempt to salvage EU ties, Turkey invites Greece to
talks
The Arab Weekly/January 21/2021
ANKARA--In an attempt to salvage seriously frayed ties with the European Union,
Ankara has recalled a survey ship that has provoked neighbours' protests and
invited Athens for talks this month. In December, the EU gave the green light
for the expansion of sanctions against Turkey over its exploration of gas
reserves in waters claimed by EU members Greece and Cyprus. Turkey and Greece
will hence resume long-suspended exploratory talks over territorial claims in
the Mediterranean Sea that brought them close to conflict last year, on January
25 in Istanbul, the NATO members said on Monday.
Ankara and Athens held 60 rounds of talks from 2002 to 2016, but plans for a
resumption of talks last year foundered after disagreement over a Turkish
seismic exploration vessel deployed to disputed waters. The ship has since
returned to Turkish shores. “The 61st round of the exploratory talks will take
place in Istanbul on 25 January 2021,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a
statement, without elaborating. The Greek foreign ministry confirmed the date
and location in a statement but provided no further details. Earlier on Monday,
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he was inviting Greece for talks
by the end of January on all issues, adding that Athens “has no excuse” since
the Oruc Reis returned to Turkey. Cavusoglu’s invitation follows a decision by
Ankara, which faces sanctions from the European Union, to turn a new page in its
troubled relations with EU nations. “Today … we want to extend an open
invitation to Greece” Cavusoglu said. “We invite Greece to start exploratory
talks, with the first meeting being held in January.” Greek Prime Minister
Kyriakos Mitsotakis said later that Athens was seeking a “fertile and
productive” relationship with its neighbour Turkey, adding his government would
join the talks once finalised. Turkey and Greece are at odds over the extent of
their continental shelves in the Mediterranean, energy rights in the region, air
space and the status of some islands in the Aegean Sea. Since the mid-1970s, the
two NATO allies have come to the brink of war three times. Their most recent
dispute threatened to spill into open conflict when Turkish and Greek warships
collided in August as they shadowed the Oruc Reis as it surveyed for oil and gas
west of Cyprus. Previous attempts to resume the talks had been complicated by
what both sides were prepared to discuss. The Greek foreign ministry said on
Monday it was willing to talk about demarcation of an Exclusive Economic Zone
and the continental shelf. Ankara has said all issues between the NATO members
should be discussed, saying that was the format before the talks were suspended
in 2016. On Monday, Cavusoglu said he was ready to meet Greek Foreign Minister
Niko Dendias in Tirana after Albania’s premier offered to mediate. He also said
some European Union members, including Germany, which has mediated the dispute
thus far, had urged Greece to engage with Turkey.
Kuwait Government Submits Resignation to PM
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
Kuwaiti ministers handed in their resignations to the prime minister on Tuesday,
the government communications office (CGC) said, days after lawmakers submitted
a motion asking to question the premier over issues including the makeup of the
cabinet. Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah must submit the
resignations to Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Sabah, for approval. Three main
Kuwaiti newspapers earlier said Sheikh Sabah was expected to do so. The
resignation of the cabinet, formed on Dec. 14, had been expected after the move
in parliament earlier this month that posed the first political challenge for
the new emir as the country faces its worst economic crisis in decades. The
prime minister had been due to be questioned at a parliamentary session on Jan.
19. CGC said the government submitted its resignation "in light of developments
in the relationship between the National Assembly and the government", but did
not elaborate. The motion to question Sheikh Sabah, who has been premier since
late 2019, was submitted by three MPs on Jan. 5 in the first regular session of
a new assembly that was elected last year. More than 30 other MPs supported the
request to question him on issues including forming a cabinet "not reflective"
of poll results and allegations of government "interference" in electing the
Speaker and members of parliamentary committees, according to the motion seen by
Reuters. Frequent rows and deadlocks between cabinet and parliament have led to
successive government reshuffles and dissolutions of parliament, hampering
investment and economic and fiscal reform. The latest standoff complicates
government efforts to tackle a severe liquidity crunch caused by low oil prices
and COVID-19 by pushing through a debt law that has faced legislative gridlock.
Erdogan Hopes New Turkey-Greece Talks Will Herald New Era
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he hoped the resumption of talks
between Turkey and Greece over maritime disputes would herald a new era, and he
urged Athens not to escalate tensions in the region. NATO members Ankara and
Athens announced on Monday they had agreed to resume on Jan. 25 long-suspended
exploratory talks over disputed offshore rights in the Mediterranean, which
brought them close to conflict last year. Turkey angered Greece and the European
Union last year when it deployed a seismic survey vessel to waters also claimed
by Athens. The ship has returned to shore but the NATO members still disagree
over continental shelves and rights to resources. The new round of talks are set
for Istanbul later this month. “We must stop the Mediterranean from being an
area for competition and turn into waters that will serve our long-term
interests,” Erdogan told EU ambassadors in Ankara. “We urge Greece to refrain
from actions that will escalate tensions. I believe the exploratory talks with
Greece that will start on Jan. 25 will herald a new era,” he said. Ankara and
Athens held 60 rounds of talks from 2002 to 2016, but plans last year for a
resumption foundered over the survey vessel and disagreements over topics to be
covered. Last year, the EU threatened potential sanctions on Ankara over the
dispute but has postponed any measures to March. Turkey has in recent weeks
repeatedly called for better ties with the bloc. Erdogan also said he would host
EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen in Turkey at the end of January, adding that he had offered to show
von der Leyen the housing units built in northwest Syria’s Idlib region for
displaced people.He said the EU had offered to build a portion of the houses
during clashes last year between Russia-backed Syrian government forces and
Turkey, but that the bloc had not kept its promise.
US blacklisting of Fayyadh puts Iraq in tough predicament
The Arab Weekly/January 21/2021
Iraqi officials are facing a tough predicament over how to deal with the head of
the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), Falih al-Fayyadh, after the US Treasury
Department placed him on a US sanctions list over his role in leading the PMF to
crack down on demonstrators during the October 2019 protests. The PMF is an
official Iraqi institution that reports to the commander in chief of the Iraqi
Armed Forces and is led by a chairman with the rank of minister, meaning the US
government has taken the unprecedented step of punishing a member of the Iraqi
government. Government officials generally avoid dealing publicly with
individuals sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, many of whom are leaders
of armed Shia militias accused of human rights violations, but the matter
differs with Fayyadh. No Iraqi official wants to challenge the United States by
dealing with figures it has sanctioned, meaning any contact between Fayyadh and
senior Iraqi officials carries risks. But on Sunday, Iraqi President Barham
Salih became the first senior Iraqi official to meet with Fayyadh after the PMF
leader was placed on the US sanctions list. Salih is considered one of the US’s
most prominent allies in Iraq, so he might have to explain to the Americans what
led him to receive Fayyadh. But Salih is also a friend of the Iranians, which
perhaps explains why he took the risk of receiving Fayyadh. During the meeting,
Saleh and Fayyadh discussed “the security developments in the country and the
need to strengthen the authority of the state and the security services as they
seek to achieve security and stability” and “reaffirmed respect for the
sovereignty of Iraq and refusal of interference in its internal
affairs.”Observers say that these general formulations have dual-purpose
interpretations in order to satisfy both the Americans and Iranians.
The timing of Fayyadh’s visit to Saleh suggests a direct link between the
meeting and the inclusion of the PMF’s head on the US sanctions list. Observers
do not rule out that Fayyadh tried to convey messages to the Americans through
Salih. Iraqi political sources said that Fayyadh suffered a real financial blow
when the US Treasury placed him on its sanctions list, as he stands to directly
lose money deposited in banks that are compliant with US policies. The US
administration did not indicate the size of Fayyadh’s personal wealth or the
funds under his direct supervision, whether currently in the PMF, or when he
previously served as national security adviser and with the National Security
Agency. These sensitive security positions allow their holders in some sectors
to carry more influence at times than the minister in charge. Among the forms of
influence they carry is the ability to refer projects requiring tens of millions
of dollars to be disbursed by the state. Fayyadh said that the US sanctions are
aimed at subjugating him and called US President Donald Trump a “criminal.”An
Iraqi political analyst described the US sanctions against Fayyadh as coming too
late, as the PMF leader already has a presence within the Iraqi state due to the
pressure exerted by Iranian hegemony, while in reality it is not considered part
of the Iraqi state. Speaking to The Arab Weekly, the analyst said, “The Popular
Mobilisation Forces, led by Fayyad, are a burden on the state and exercise a de
facto Iranian supervision over it, in addition to the fact that its multiple
militias can do whatever they wish without referring to the prime minister, who
is responsible for the PMF by virtue of his position as commander in chief of
the armed forces.” He added, “However, that responsibility – as the Iraqi
president who received al-Fayyad knows – is of a formal nature, intended to
protect Fayyad and other militia leaders from any possible US sanctions because
of their absolute loyalty to Iran.” He stressed that US sanctions put things in
their proper perspective, as Fayyadh, from the point of view of international
law, is outside the law since he leads a military entity that is not subject to
the orders of the state and that has proven through practice is ready to
eliminate all advocates for democracy, including peaceful protesters. The
analyst said that Fayyadh’s attempt to shield himself behind the Iraqi state is
irrelevant, but could lead to the state itself being held accountable for
protecting criminals, which Iraq cannot afford.
Israel, Morocco Will Officially Launch Relations End of
January
Tel Aviv- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 12 January, 2021
Restoration works are underway in the Israeli and Moroccan liaison offices in
preparation for their official opening by the end of January, according to
diplomatic sources in Israel. The opening of the offices will also lead to the
official resumption of diplomatic relations between Tel Aviv and Rabat. The
sources stated that a delegation of Moroccan technicians arrived in Tel Aviv to
supervise the restorations, and they also obtained special permits to work at
night. Following the US initiative to resume relations between the two countries
last month, a Moroccan delegation arrived in Tel Aviv to reopen the liaison
office. The Moroccan office has been abandoned for 20 years and requires major
restorations. It is located on Yarkon Street in Tel Aviv, which also contains
headquarters of many foreign embassies, such as the US, British, Turkish, and
French. The team began renovating the building and improving its facilities, in
a building of four floors, with a total area of 600 square meters. It once
served as the headquarter of the Belgian Embassy in Israel, and the Moroccan
government acquired it in the early 2000s when it decided to develop and expand
its scope of work. Rabat preserved the Tel Aviv office even after severing ties
in 2000 when the second intifada broke out. The Israeli authorities approved a
Moroccan request to build a guard post at the entrance of the building. The
renovations are an indication that Morocco wants to use the building, even if
the decision was made to have bilateral relations at the level of embassies.
Israeli sources indicated that Morocco does not oppose establishing full
diplomatic relations with Israel. However, Rabat is waiting for the US
President-elect, Joe Biden, to announce his position on the recognition of
Morocco's sovereignty in Western Sahara, the reason behind the resumption of
Moroccan-Israeli relations. Israel has also kept its diplomatic offices in Rabat
for twenty years, and Moroccan authorities placed policemen to guard them. The
restoration of the building began last week, as a technical team arrived there
to supervise the works, praising the Moroccan authorities’ assistance. Israel
has reportedly appointed its former ambassador to Egypt David Goffrin as the
temporary head of the Israeli diplomatic representation in Morocco. On Monday,
the official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that Goffrin will travel to
Morocco soon. However, the foreign ministry has still not published an official
statement regarding the appointment.
Egypt joins Gulf countries in resuming air link to Qatar
The Arab Weekly/January 21/2021
CAIRO - Egypt reopened its airspace to Qatari flights on Tuesday and will allow
the resumption of flights between the two countries, aviation sources and state
media said. The decision follows moves by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to end a boycott in which they severed diplomatic,
trade and travel ties with Qatar in 2017. The lifting of Egypt’s aviation ban
allowed Qatari flights to cross Egyptian airspace and national carriers from
both countries to submit flight operating schedules for approval, Al-Ahram state
newspaper reported. Agreements set to be activated will also allow for goods
transport between the two countries, according to sources from the civil
aviation authority and aviation ministry. Egypt and its Gulf allies imposed the
embargo on Qatar over allegations that it supports Islamic extremists and keeps
close ties to Iran, allegations Doha denies. The Arab quartet, including Egypt,
had agreed to lift the restrictions at a Gulf Cooperation Council summit last
week in the Saudi desert city of Al-Ula, after a flurry of diplomatic activity
by outgoing US President Donald Trump’s administration. In the meantime, the
first commercial flight between Qatar and Saudi Arabia in three and a half
years, a Qatar Airways service to Riyadh, landed on Monday. Just as the first
flight to Riyadh was preparing to take off, Qatar Airways tweeted that services
to Jeddah and Dammam would resume later in the week. Bahrain and the United Arab
Emirates have both opened their airspace to Qatari aviation under the deal but
there has been no word on when the first direct flights will take off to or from
those two nations. Saudi Arabia’s closure of its airspace forced Qatar Airways
aircraft to fly over Iran, Riyadh’s arch-rival and long-time adversary of
Washington, paying significant overflight fees to Tehran in the process. The New
York Times has reported that Qatar paid $100 million annually to fly over the
Islamic republic, citing diplomatic sources.The schism also complicated regional
travel, divided families and raised costs faced by Qatari businesses. US
national security adviser Robert O’Brien said in November that allowing Qatari
planes to fly over Saudi Arabia via an “air bridge” was a priority for the
outgoing Trump administration.The economic hit of the crisis, coinciding with
low oil prices and the coronavirus downturn, was felt across the region.
— Air bridges —
A Qatar Airways jetliner landed in Saudi Arabia on Monday, completing the first
direct flight from Doha to Riyadh since the kingdom’s boycott of the tiny,
energy-rich state in 2017. Qatar Airways also announced it would restart daily
service to the capital of Riyadh, four weekly flights to the Red Sea city of
Jeddah and daily flights to the eastern city of Damman using wide-body aircraft
like the Airbus A350-1000 that landed Monday. Saudi Airlines also flew to Doha
later in the day. “We also look forward to resuming a strong relationship with
our trade and cargo partners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as the
major airports in the country,” the Qatar state airline said. Bahrain’s civil
aviation affairs authority joined in saying it would reopen its airspace to
Qatar on Monday, following a similar weekend announcement from the United Arab
Emirates. Still, travelers are not yet able to book direct flights to Qatar on
state-owned Emirati and Bahraini airlines. On Saturday, the first Qatari
vehicles passed through the country’s only land crossing with Saudi Arabia,
which the state relied on for the import of dairy products, construction
materials and other goods before the border slammed shut in 2017.
Saudi state-run Ekhbariya TV broadcast what appeared to be carefully
orchestrated footage of Qatari drivers receiving warm welcomes at the Abu
Samra-Salwa desert crossing over the weekend. Amid the new burst of diplomatic
thaw, lingering tensions between the countries have already surfaced. Bahrain’s
foreign ministry on Sunday condemned Qatar for scooping up a Bahraini
bodybuilding champion, Sami al-Haddad, from his fishing cruise in Bahrain’s
territorial waters, the latest in a series of alleged arrests by the Qatari
coast guard in a long-running maritime border dispute. Qatar did not immediately
comment on the incident. Late on Sunday, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Anwar
Gargash struck a cautionary note when asked about reconciliation in an interview
with Arab satellite news channel Sky News Arabia. “There is no doubt that the
people of the Gulf want this reconciliation, they want to turn a new leaf,” he
said. “But … there are some issues, some difficult issues that will come up in
the next phase.”
High-level US Delegation Visits the Premises of Future US
Consulate General in Morocco’s Dakhla
NNA/January 21/2021
A high-level US delegation, led by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern
Affairs David Schenker, on Sunday visited the premises of the future Consulate
General of the United States in Dakhla. The US delegation, accompanied by
minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser
Bourita, and the US ambassador to Morocco, David Fischer, toured the various
offices of this future US diplomatic representation. During this visit, the Wali
of the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab region, governor of the province of Oued Eddahab,
Lamine Benomar, and the presidents of the elected councils were also present.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs arrived on Saturday
afternoon in Dakhla, the second stop on a tour in the Moroccan Sahara after
Laayoune. The visit to Dakhla of this high-level US delegation is the result of
the telephone conversation held, on December 10, 2020, between HM King Mohammed
VI and US President Mr. Donald Trump who had announced the signing of a
proclamation, with all that this act entails as an undeniable legal and
political force and with immediate effect, on the decision of the United States
of America to recognize, for the first time in its history, the full sovereignty
of the Kingdom of Morocco over the entire region of the Moroccan Sahara. In this
regard, and as the first concrete expression of its sovereign initiative of
great importance, the United States of America has decided to open a consulate
in Dakhla, with a primarily economic vocation, to encourage U.S. investments and
contribution to economic and social development, mainly for the benefit of the
inhabitants of the southern provinces.—MAP
Erdogan says wants EU ties 'Back On Track'
NNA/AFP/January 21/2021
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he wanted to improve
relations with the European Union and was hoping for the same "goodwill" from
the 27-nation bloc. Erdogan's comments follow a year of tensions involving
Turkey's more assertive foreign policy in the eastern Mediterranean as well as
Libya and parts of the Middle East. Turkey's relations have become especially
strained with Greece and European power France as a result. But the Turkish
leader has softened some of his toughest rhetoric and took a conciliatory tone
in a televised meeting with EU ambassadors in a presidential compound in Ankara.
"We expect our European friends to show the same goodwill."
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 12-13/2021
The path to peace in Yemen is not strewn with roses
Saleh Baidhani/The Arab Weekly/January 21/2021
The Yemeni file is entering a new phase as the year 2021 begins, in light of
accelerating transformations at the local, regional and international levels.
There are indications that the Yemeni war may end this year in the way we have
known it since its outbreak in 2015 in the wake of the Iranian-backed Houthi
coup against Yemen’s legitimate government.
On the Yemeni level, the government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC)
signed the Riyadh Agreement, based on which a new government of 24 ministers was
formed. Since the plane carrying its members to Aden Airport landed, the
government has been hit with a barrage of Houthi missiles and a set of complex
economic and security issues. The most serious threat facing the government
seems to be the ideological and political differences in its midst, as the
cabinet is made up of a heterogeneous mix of factions and forces.
The Riyadh Agreement has crowned Saudi efforts to unify the legitimacy front in
order to cope with the upcoming transformations and challenges that loom in the
region. The international community views this step as an important pillar of
the comprehensive settlement effort in Yemen, which UN envoy Martin Griffiths
promotes through his vision known as the “joint declaration” even if opponents
of the Houthi project view it only as a reward for the coup.
In terms of timing, the UN-led moves, which are running in parallel to
international pressure led by the UK, do not seem to be in the interest of the
Yemeni government.
The Yemeni government still needs some time to rearrange matters on the internal
front of the legitimacy camp and address the accumulated mistakes before it is
ready to sit at the negotiating table or engage in a quick round of military
confrontations in order to make up for the losses it recently incurred as a
result of the political conflict within the anti-Houthi camp, as was the case
with Al-Jawf governorate and the Nihm region which the Houthis were able to
recapture.
Houthi police forces sit in the back of a military vehicle in the capital
Sana’a.(AFP)
On the regional level, the region has witnessed an important event that may
reflect directly on the Yemeni file. This event is reconciliation between Qatar
and the boycotting countries whose boycott was punctuated by severe political
and media strife in which Yemen was one of the main battlefields. Many Yemenis
hope that the Gulf reconciliation deal will bear fruit in Yemen by boosting the
Arab coalition’s efforts to curb Iranian influence. These efforts aim to reach a
just and real peace based on establishing justice and respect for the state and
reversing the effects of the Houthi coup, and not enshrining and recognising it
as a fait accompli as illustrated by statements made by international officials
who talk about peace without features or prerequisites.The third shift that may
cast a shadow over the course of the Yemeni file is related to the victory of US
President-elect Joe Biden, whose initial foreign policy indications point to his
policies being an extension of former President Barack Obama’s in accommodating
the Iranian project.
This means easing sanctions on the Iranian regime, a return to the nuclear
agreement and going along with the UK’s vision for a political settlement in
Yemen based on supporting Griffiths’ efforts and clinching agreements that are
difficult to implement on the ground.
The Stockholm Agreement, for instance, was signed nearly two years ago but did
not see any of its provisions implemented except for the ones that serve the
Houthi militias’ interests. It was also the case with the ceasefire, which has
been respected only by the joint resistance and the Arab coalition, and the
adoption of the prisoner exchange deal that many Yemenis believe largely served
the Houthis, as it allowed for the release of hundreds of Houthi prisoners of
war in exchange for the release by the Houthis of activists, students and
journalists who were arrested in their homes in areas under Houthi control.
Based on these considerations, the path of peace in Yemen does not appear to be
strewn with roses, as expected scenarios are likely to include a peace agreement
under international pressure, which could be similar to the Stockholm Agreement.
This could stop the war as we have known it over the last six years but will not
end the suffering of Yemenis nor allow them to achieve their basic aspiration of
restoring the state.
Media: Israel Must Be Denigrated for Its World-Beating Vaccination Programme
Richard Kemp/Gatestone Institute/January 12/2021
The same negative policy [by the press and many purported human rights groups]
extends to other major benefits that Israel has brought to the world, including
scientific innovation, medical technology and life-saving intelligence. It goes
against editorial agendas to report on the Jewish state in a positive light
unless they can somehow twist a good story to turn it bad.
Under the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s, which
created the Palestinian Authority (PA), it alone and not Israel, is responsible
for their health care, including vaccinations. Nearly 150 UN members recognise
"Palestine" as a state, yet these media and human rights bodies, displaying
deplorably predictable bias, cannot bring themselves to allow it agency.
Contradicting allegations of a racist or "apartheid" policy, Israel has been
vaccinating its Arab citizens since the programme began. Given some reluctance
to be vaccinated among these communities, the Israeli government, in conjunction
with Arab community leaders, have been making concerted efforts to encourage
them, including a visit by Prime Minister Netanyahu to two Arab towns in the
last few days for this purpose.
The same approach can be seen over the Abraham Accords of 2020, historic
achievements in a hitherto elusive peace between Israel and the Arabs. These
have often been received with callous cynicism in the media as well as among
veteran peace processors, whose own prescriptions have repeatedly failed.
[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is the driving force behind the
Abraham Accords, whose origins date back to his speech to a joint session of
Congress in 2015, when he made a stand against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Netanyahu's solitary stance was seized on by Arab leaders, who began to realise
they had common cause with the State of Israel, which could lead to a brighter
future for them than one encumbered with unnecessary animosity.
Newspapers and broadcast media on both sides of the Atlantic have been
contorting themselves — and the truth — to bash Israel over its remarkable
success in vaccinating against Coronavirus. Pictured: A healthcare worker speaks
to an Arab Israeli woman before giving her a COVID-19 vaccine at Clalit Health
Services, in the Arab city of Umm al Fahm, Israel on January 4, 2021. Prejudice
against the Jewish state is so intense in the Western media that praiseworthy
actions guaranteed to hit the headlines if attributable to any other country are
frequently ignored, diminished or denigrated when it comes to Israel. When there
is a disaster anywhere in the world, for example, Israel is often the first, or
among the first, to offer assistance and send in relief workers. Most recently,
last month the Israel Defence Forces dispatched a team to Honduras following the
devastation of category 4 hurricanes Eta and Iota which left thousands homeless.
In the last 15 years IDF relief missions have deployed in Albania, Brazil,
Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines, Ghana, Bulgaria, Turkey, Japan, Columbia, Haiti,
Kenya, the US, Sri Lanka and Egypt — and many other countries in the years
before.
Under Operation Good Neighbour, between 2016 and 2018, the IDF set up field
hospitals on the Syrian border to treat civilians wounded by violence in their
country and sent vital supplies directly into Syria, a nation which is at war
with Israel, to help suffering people there.
Few outside Israel, Jewish communities around the world and the places that have
benefited from IDF assistance have any idea of any of this because the media is
not interested. In some cases, news items about countries contributing teams to
disaster relief have omitted Israel despite knowing the IDF was playing an
important role.
The same negative policy extends to other major benefits that Israel has brought
to the world, including scientific innovation, medical technology and
life-saving intelligence. It goes against editorial agendas to report on the
Jewish state in a positive light unless they can somehow twist a good story to
turn it bad.
This week we have seen exactly that in newspapers and broadcast media on both
sides of the Atlantic as they contort themselves — and the truth — to bash
Israel over its remarkable success in vaccinating against Coronavirus. In the
UK, the Guardian newspaper reported: "Two weeks into its vaccination campaign,
Israel is administering more than 150,000 doses a day, amounting to initial jabs
for more than 1 million of its 9 million citizens — a higher proportion of the
population than anywhere else".
With the world so focused on Coronavirus and national reactions everywhere,
papers such as the Guardian could hardly avoid reporting Israel's achievement,
much as they would likely have preferred not to. So the article had to be
headlined: "Palestinians excluded from Israeli Covid vaccine rollout as jabs go
to settlers".
Effectively accusing Israel of racism by neglecting Palestinian Arabs, the
Guardian wrote: "Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza can
only watch and wait". Across the Atlantic, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
gleefully headlined its article on Israel's success with: "Palestinians left
waiting as Israel is set to deploy COVID-19 vaccine". The Washington Post
published similarly malign sentiments under the headline: "Israel is starting to
vaccinate, but Palestinians may have to wait months". Predictably the UN Office
for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs leapt onto this rickety bandwagon,
publishing on its website a joint statement by a range of human rights
organisations, levelling the same criticism and erroneously claiming violations
of international law. Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch -- an
organization which its founder, the late Robert L. Bernstein, left precisely
because of its unjust stance against Israel -- in a tweet alleged: "Israel's
discriminatory treatment of Palestinians" and claimed in a separate tweet: "it
has not vaccinated a single Palestinian".
Unwilling to be left out of these gratuitous efforts to attack Israel, Amnesty
International also levelled accusations of contravening international law by not
vaccinating Palestinian Arabs. As with most Israel-related stories in the
mainstream media and the propaganda relentlessly churned out by so-called human
rights groups, these slanders are entirely false. Palestinian Arabs living in
Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank, and Gaza, are not even Israeli citizens and
they are not signed up to Israeli healthcare providers.
Under the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s, which
created the Palestinian Authority (PA), it alone and not Israel is responsible
for the health care of Palestinians, including vaccinations. Nearly 150 UN
members recognise "Palestine" as a state, yet these media and human rights
bodies, displaying deplorably predictable bias, cannot bring themselves to allow
it agency.
The Palestinian Authority has its own plans for vaccinating its people,
including in conjunction with the World Health Organization's Covax scheme,
which have been reported in the same media that is attempting to traduce Israel.
At the time when Israel was planning its vaccination programme and procuring
vaccines, the Palestinian Authority had broken off relations with Israel. Since
contact has been restored, until now, neither the PA nor the Hamas terrorist
regime that runs the Gaza Strip have asked Israel for any help with
vaccinations, evidently preferring their own paths. However, as late as January
5, a Palestinian Authority official claimed the PA is now discussing with Israel
the possibility of some vaccines being supplied to them, which the Israeli
authorities are reportedly considering.
Reports also suggest that some doses of vaccine had already been secretly
provided by Israel to the Palestinian Authority, following earlier unofficial
approaches. The reason for this smoke-and-mirrors approach is the embarrassment
the PA has at publicly seeking assistance from Israel, which it unfailingly
rages against and vilifies at every opportunity. None of this is likely to be
known or covered by the majority of media: it doesn't fit their agenda.
The idea advanced by some media and human rights commentators that Israel might
be allowed to vaccinate the citizens of Gaza, whose rulers have been firing
lethal rockets at Israeli territory before and since the pandemic began, is
derisory. What are these media commentators and so-called human rights groups
doing to persuade the international community to help Gazans in their plight?
Contradicting allegations of a racist or "apartheid" policy, Israel has been
vaccinating its Arab citizens since the programme began. Given some reluctance
to be vaccinated among these communities, the Israeli government, in conjunction
with Arab community leaders, have been making concerted efforts to encourage
them, including a visit by Prime Minister Netanyahu to two Arab towns in the
last few days for this purpose.
Jerusalem Post journalist Seth Frantzman personally confirms that Arabs in
eastern Jerusalem have been and are being vaccinated. These people are classed
by Ken Roth as Palestinian citizens, by his own lights giving the lie to his
assertion that Israel "has not vaccinated a single Palestinian".
According to Frantzman, there are cases of non-citizens in Israel getting
vaccinated by showing up at the mass vaccination points. He cites the example of
a Palestinian citizen in Judea who was vaccinated by Israeli authorities despite
not having an Israeli health card, illustrating that "Israel's health
authorities are doing all they can to vaccinate as many people as possible,
regardless of whether they are Arab or Jewish". As anyone who actually knows
Israel even slightly would expect, its government will be doing everything it
reasonably can to help Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza with their
fight against Coronavirus.
Despite the usual allegations to the contrary, the IDF say they have accepted
and facilitated all requests for medical assistance of any kind into the Gaza
Strip, including ventilators, oxygen generators and Coronavirus testing
equipment. This accords with their track record of making all possible efforts
to coordinate humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, even during periods of
intensive conflict initiated by Gaza terrorists.
The New York Times also takes a swipe at Israel but from a different angle.
While noting the criticisms over "failure" to vaccinate Palestinians, the paper
majors not on that but on strong and laboured implications that Israel's success
is driven by Prime Minister Netanyahu's desire to "bolster his own battered
image". One way or another, journalists are determined that Israel's
achievements must not be painted in a positive light.
The same approach can be seen over the Abraham Accords of 2020, historic
achievements in a hitherto elusive peace between Israel and the Arabs. These
have often been received with callous cynicism in the media as well as among
veteran peace processors, whose own prescriptions have repeatedly failed. Many
political leaders in Europe have followed suit. Their decades-old opposition to
the Jewish state was actuated largely by a self-interested desire to take sides
with an Arab world vehemently opposed to Israel's existence even to the point of
battle.
Lord David Trimble, former First Minister of Northern Ireland and a Nobel Peace
Prize laureate, in November nominated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
for the prize, along with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu
Dhabi. Lord Trimble recognised that Netanyahu is the driving force behind the
Abraham Accords, whose origins date back to his speech to a joint session of US
Congress in 2015, when he made a stand against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Netanyahu's solitary stance was seized on by Arab leaders, who began to realise
they had common cause with the State of Israel, which could lead to a brighter
future for them than one encumbered with unnecessary animosity.
There has been no greater move towards peace anywhere in the world in decades.
We will see whether Netanyahu receives the Nobel Prize in October. If not, it
will be due to the same contempt that the New York Times and many
self-proclaimed Western intelligentsia have for this prime minister who, though
controversial both at home and abroad, represents the Israeli spirit that they
seem determined to denigrate at every turn — even in the face of such monumental
achievements as the Abraham Accords and a world-beating vaccination programme.
*Colonel Richard Kemp is a former British Army Commander. He was also head of
the international terrorism team in the U.K. Cabinet Office and is now a writer
and speaker on international and military affairs.
US Defenses Against Chinese Cyber Offenses
Shoshana Bryen/Gatestone Institute/January 12/2021
[M]uch of the world is organizing to roadblock China's march to dominance in 5G
telecommunications. That is, to get China's spying out of our system – although
we are far from done, there is a lot of 2020 to build on in 2021.
Early in 2020, Huawei announced it had 91 commercial 5G contracts outside of
China, including 47 in Europe and 20 in Asia.
China's goal was threefold: to broaden its capabilities in domestic spying, to
broaden its worldwide ability to steal Western technology -- and, in particular,
to infiltrate Western defense capabilities
Beijing inserted itself, often illegally, into American research institutions.
And inserted spyware – hardware and software – into computers made in China and
exported to the West. In the case of Super Micro Computers, providing services
to Amazon, investigators discovered that extra microchips were implanted on
boards in Chinese factories by operatives of the People's Liberation Army.
As the year ended, 26 of 27 EU member countries had joined the Clean Network
initiative, along with 180 telecom companies and such important tech players as
Israel, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, India – and Taiwan,
which is building a 5 nanometer chip production facility in Arizona. Partners in
South America include Brazil, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic.
With the United States in the lead, much of the world is organizing to roadblock
China's march to dominance in 5G telecommunications. That is, to get China's
spying out of our system. In April, the U.S. announced the Clean Network
initiative and tightened restrictions on Huawei and, later, the Pentagon banned
the company from providing services to the Department of Defense.
This has been a (literally) breathtakingly awful year in so many ways that most
people are thrilled to see it gone. But do not write off 2020 entirely. With the
United States in the lead, much of the world is organizing to roadblock China's
march to dominance in 5G telecommunications. That is, to get China's spying out
of our system – although we are far from done, there is a lot of 2020 to build
on in 2021.
Early in 2020, Huawei announced it had 91 commercial 5G contracts outside of
China, including 47 in Europe and 20 in Asia. In a countermove in April, the
U.S. announced the Clean Network initiative and tightened restrictions on Huawei
and, later, the Pentagon banned the company from providing services to the
Department of Defense. Most recently, the New York Stock Exchange delisted three
companies linked to the Chinese military.
Beijing has inserted itself, often illegally, into American research
institutions. And it has also inserted spyware – hardware and software – into
computers made in China and exported to the West. In the case of Super Micro
Computers, providing services to Amazon, investigators discovered that extra
microchips were implanted on boards in Chinese factories by operatives of the
People's Liberation Army.
China's goal was to broaden its capabilities in domestic spying and its
worldwide ability to steal Western technology and, in particular, infiltrate
Western defense capabilities. China – which is all about offense – was placing
an emphasis on implanting their systems in American defense products. The
Pentagon had been buying large numbers of computer motherboards manufactured in
China (with those extra chips) – it was a huge contract. However, if DoD in May
2020, had simply cut off purchasing them, the Pentagon would lose computer
capability. Telephone technology for American intelligence was the same tele-technology
civilians use. Dependency can be as simple as American soldiers in Germany not
wanting to stop using TikTok for "personal use" – but China is in there.
America's goal was to stop them. Ha! You can't stop China, right? Wrong.
The US Department of State's Clean Network initiative, according to Forbes,
"includes a commitment to remove untrusted mobile applications from mobile app
stores, apps that knowingly violate privacy, introduce viruses, censor content,
and spread propaganda and misinformation. It requires that 5G cloud services do
not expose user data to Chinese-government enabled companies like Alibaba, Baidu,
and Tencent. Moreover, it ensures that undersea cables connecting internet are
not subverted for mass surveillance."
In July, the Chinese consulate general in Houston was closed after evidence
emerged of illegal activity there. It was a first.
So, where are we? As the year ended, 26 of 27 EU member countries had joined the
Clean Network initiative, along with 180 telecom companies and such important
tech players as Israel, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, India
– and Taiwan, which is building a 5 nanometer chip production facility in
Arizona to improve America's ability to produce computer hardware. Partners in
South America include Brazil, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic.
The pandemic played a role. Part of the political fallout from China's handling
of the Wuhan Virus (called that here because that is where it came from and is
essential to understanding the rest of the story) has been to force people and
countries to reconsider what relations with China mean. Whether the virus was
released intentionally or not – even if likely not – China's lies and
obfuscation were deliberate and prevented countries from taking steps to control
it and combat the virus. What China learned certainly could have helped it in
military planning – having watched, for example, the USS Theodore Roosevelt's
reaction to an outbreak, and seen the unpreparedness of American and European
cities for a pandemic.
China's internal response was illuminating as well. For only one example, Dr. Li
Wenliang, an ophthalmologist, was reportedly punished by police for warning just
a few of his friends about a mysterious pneumonia-like disease in December 2019.
He is said to have died from the virus, but "less than 90 minutes after his
death on Friday morning, the hashtag 'I want freedom of speech' was trending on
Weibo, a popular blogging site, with nearly 2 million posts. The posts were gone
by sunrise." This initiated, according to NPR, a "chokehold on information."
China's repression of those who would report honestly led most recently to the
sentencing of a former lawyer, Zhang Zhan, to four years in prison – after seven
months of detention – for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." [By that
standard, most of America would be in jail.] How many critics are in Chinese
prisons? No one really knows, just as no one really knows how many Chinese
citizens have been affected by the pandemic and how many have died – China's
control of communications makes it impossible. One might suspect that the number
of both is substantially higher than the government will acknowledge.
Furthermore, China's repression of its Uighur minority has begun to make inroads
into the American consciousness – although apparently not yet regarding the NBA,
Disney and Hollywood. In addition, the demise of Hong Kong as a democratic
city-state, largely unnoticed by the American media, has nevertheless imprinted
itself on the consciousness of millions – particularly in the United Kingdom,
which had turned Hong Kong over to mainland Chinese rule with a series of
"promises" -- all broken -- from Beijing to respect the democratic government
Britain had nurtured, at least until 2047.
There is still an enormous amount of work to be done to get China's spying out
of Western technology and Western defenses. The U.S. National Defense
Authorization Act contains a provision to appoint a national cyber-director to
look for "cracks in the system." The cracks should be easy to find; securing our
country and our friends and allies will be much harder. The success of the Clean
Network, however, is an indication that when the U.S. leads, others will join in
for a common benefit.
That is a good note for welcoming 2021.
*Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Iran accelerates underground nuclear site construction at
Natanz
Robert Tollast/The National/January 12/2021
Iran has accelerated its nuclear research and construction programme at the
underground site of Natanz. A report by the Institute for Science and
International Security, a think tank, follows a sharp deterioration in relations
between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog monitoring Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Iran’s Parliament passed legislation in November mandating the accelerated
enrichment of uranium to 20 per cent purity. Analysts fear these plans, which
were underway last week, could shorten Iran’s “breakout” time required to
develop a nuclear weapon. The institute analysed high-resolution satellite
photographs, commercially available from imagery provider Maxar, which have been
annotated by the Institute to highlight the extent of construction. Work at the
site has increased since October. It said changes on the ground in recent months
are notable: storage for explosives is visible, identified by distinctive earth
barriers built around small buildings, designed to absorb the force of a blast –
accidental or otherwise. In July, a building at the site was destroyed in an
explosion, which Iran suspects was sabotage. Israel has been conducting a long
campaign within Iran, damaging nuclear centres and assassinating nuclear
scientists. The report asserts that Iran is excavating rock, blasting and
clearing deep passages into the mountains. The completion of this work will mean
Iran’s expanded uranium enrichment facilities will be difficult, if not
impossible, to strike from the air.
High-voltage pylons can also be seen, as can lorries and machinery, indicating
accelerated work since October, when the institute last published analysis of
the site. “Since our October 30, 2020, report on the construction of a new
centrifuge assembly facility in the mountains near the Natanz enrichment plant,
construction has progressed and tunnel entrance locations can now be identified
with certainty,” the institute said. “Most importantly, newly available
high-resolution satellite imagery confirms that construction is progressing
rapidly at the largest mountain in the area, the most likely future location for
the new underground assembly facility.”
Conflict risk
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long said Iran’s nuclear
activities could cross a “red line”, implying a point at which Israel could seek
military action. In November 2012, Mr Netanyahu told Israeli TV he was prepared
to order a unilateral attack on Iranian facilities.
“I am, of course, ready to press the button if necessary,” he said. Mr Netanyahu
singled out the Natanz site in an address to US Congress in March 2015. “Iran
was also caught – caught twice, not once – operating secret nuclear facilities
in Natanz and Qom, facilities that inspectors didn’t even know existed,” he
said. The recent commercially available satellite images at least show how
difficult it has become for Iran to hide proscribed nuclear activities. But Mr
Netanyahu and the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump are pushing
to hinder any revised form of the “nuclear agreement” under the forthcoming
administration of president-elect Joe Biden. The US has recently stepped up
sanctions against the Iranian regime. The extent of trade restrictions will now
make it hard to enforce any new agreement, at least in the near term.
President-elect Joe Biden wants to revisit the nuclear deal, negotiated under
the presidency of Barack Obama and in place between 2015 and 2018. The EU has
maintained the agreement is far from lost, despite Iran’s accelerated uranium
enrichment plan.
2021 Will Be a Defining Year for Syria
Charles Lister/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 12/2021
In two months’, time, Syria’s crisis will turn ten years old – a grim milestone
for what has been the most deadly and destructive civil conflict in recent
history. When tens of thousands of Syrians took peacefully to the streets and
called for political reforms, few could have imagined the scale of brutal
violence that Bashar al-Assad’s regime would deploy to suppress his own
citizens. More than half of Syria’s infrastructure is now destroyed, with no
realistic prospect for any meaningful reconstruction. The regime remains –
rightfully – an international pariah guilty of a virtually endless list of war
crimes and according to the United Nations, it remains in violation of the
Chemical Weapons Convention and the associated 2013 disarmament deal.
Most significantly, Syria’s economy is in tatters, torn apart by a decade of
unaffordable conflict, shredded by rife corruption and burned to a cinder by
financial collapse next-door in Lebanon. Worsening bread and fuel crises are not
the result of sanctions but of Russia’s current refusal to bail out an
essentially bankrupt Syrian state. Having shaken down longtime regime ally Rami
Makhlouf in May 2020, the regime has continued periodic attempts to squeeze
valuable assets from other members of the crony elite, but whatever fruits might
be reaped, they are far from sufficient.
Syria’s spiral into an increasingly deep financial black hole had virtually
eradicated the country’s middle class, with 90 percent of the country now living
under the poverty line. Buying bread to put on the table has now become a daily
ordeal. Unsurprisingly, frustration with the regime is rising and expressions of
anger from within its traditional support base are louder and more frequent than
ever before. Given a debilitating lack of access to American dollars within
Syria, the regime’s business elite is turning on each other and competing
aggressively to curry favor amid an increasingly uncertain and restrictive
business environment.
In short, Syria is in a very bad state – arguably worse in terms of its
long-term prospects than at the peak of armed conflict in 2014 and 2015. There
is no light at the end of the tunnel and the regime is going nowhere. With
Russia’s green light – reportedly gained after a submitting to a series of
Russian-requested business deals and asset acquisitions, as well as a schedule
for debt repayment – Assad will stand in Syria’s elections this coming summer.
The victor in those elections is of course pre-determined and well known, though
Russia is likely to force through a number of additional candidates in an
attempt to avoid the kind of 95% victory that Syrians have become accustomed to.
It is into this challenge that a new Biden administration will soon step. Given
a string of clear and strong statements made in recent months by President-elect
Biden and senior appointees such as Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blinken, US troops
are likely to remain engaged in combating ISIS alongside the Syrian Democratic
Forces in eastern Syria and the principal underpinning wider Syria policy will
continue to be a determined opposition to Assad’s long-term rule. However, that
by itself is not enough, particularly given the currently prevailing dynamics in
the country which if left untouched, guarantee a further spiral into chaos that
promises further regional and likely international instability. Time is not on
our side and in all likelihood, decisions taken in 2021 will come to define much
of Syria’s outlook.
From the outset, a Biden administration will need to revitalize diplomacy around
the Syria issue - something sorely lacking during four years of Donald Trump. At
its core, a diplomatic surge on Syria will need to be a multilateral affair and
the United States will need to call upon all of its allies, particularly those
in the Middle East and Europe.
Left to its own accord, laudable efforts led by UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen
to keep a diplomatic process alive through the Constitutional Committee have
struggled to achieve progress and look increasingly like a Russian excuse to
deal diplomatic efforts a slow death. While a boost to constitutional
discussions would certainly be worthwhile, real value would be realized in
re-energizing the Friends of Syria group into a diplomatic coalition that acts
far more assertively for movement on goals set out in UN Security Council
Resolution 2254. This should begin with a push towards a genuine nationwide
ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access to ameliorate civilian suffering in
all areas of the country.
In parallel, the US and allies should invest more heavily in a dialogue with
Russia, seeking to find areas of middle ground from which to build some level of
trust. Countering terrorism remains the sole source of continued US-Russian
exchange vis-à-vis Syria and offers a starting point. With ISIS clearly
resurgent in the regime-held central desert and that now beginning to affect the
security situation in US-administered areas east of the Euphrates, there is a
clear opening for a CT-limited discussion.
Sustaining America’s counter-ISIS campaign will necessitate an urgent look at
internal tensions within the SDF and more importantly, at continued hostilities
between it and Turkey. The SDF’s political council (the SDC) has made repeated
overtures towards the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition to explore avenues for
détente and future cooperation, but Ankara remains the key obstacle. The US
should re-explore prospects for confidence-building measures and security
guarantees in northeastern Syria to calm tensions and better facilitate ongoing
– but frozen – negotiations between the SDC and Turkish-linked Syrian Kurdish
political groupings. Though it retains an open channel to Damascus, the SDC has
discovered that any deal with Assad’s regime would be tantamount to surrender –
a fact that should give the US leverage, not vice-versa.
These are only some of the immediate challenges present on the Syria file.
Resolving the Idlib crisis is another, as is the still unanswered fate of
thousands of ISIS detainees and tens of thousands of associated family members,
as well as the continued presence of over five million refugees in Turkey,
Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq and the unsustainable strain that is placing on their
economies. Ultimately, Syria still matters – to the world at large. Events over
the last decade offer us remarkably clear evidence of why that is the case.
Moreover, Assad has not “won” the conflict, he has merely survived it. He has
burned the country to secure that survival and the consequences of that scorched
earth campaign are only just beginning to emerge. The world cannot merely shake
its hands of Syria, it must resolve to deal with it and secure, as best as it
can, a better future than the one promised by today’s status quo.
News Release/Canada/Ontario Declares Second Provincial
Emergency to Address COVID-19 Crisis and Save Lives
Province Issues Stay-at-Home Order and Introduces Enhanced Enforcement Measures to Reduce Mobility
January 12, 2021
TORONTO - In response to a doubling in COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks,
the real and looming threat of the collapse of the province's hospital system
and alarming risks posed to long-term care homes as a result of high COVID-19
transmission rates, the Ontario government, in consultation with the Chief
Medical Officer of Health and other health experts, is immediately declaring a
second provincial emergency under s 7.0.1 (1) of the Emergency Management and
Civil Protection Act (EMPCA). Details were provided today by Premier Doug Ford,
Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Solicitor General
Sylvia Jones, Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health, and Dr.
Adalsteinn (Steini) Brown, Co-Chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory
Table.
"The latest modelling data shows that Ontario is in a crisis and, with the
current trends, our hospital ICUs will be overwhelmed in a few short weeks with
unthinkable consequences," said Premier Ford. "That's why we are taking urgent
and decisive action, which includes declaring a provincial emergency and
imposing a stay-at-home-order. We need people to only go out only for essential
trips to pick up groceries or go to medical appointments. By doing the right
thing and staying home, you can stay safe and save lives."
Effective Thursday, January 14, 2021at 12:01 a.m., the government is issuing a
stay-at-home order requiring everyone to remain at home with exceptions for
essential purposes, such as going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing
health care services, for exercise or for essential work. This order and other
new and existing public health restrictions are aimed at limiting people's
mobility and reducing the number of daily contacts with those outside an
immediate household. In addition to limiting outings to essential trips, all
businesses must ensure that any employee who can work from home, does work from
home.
These new public health measures will help stop the spread of COVID-19 by
reducing concerning levels of mobility as the province continues its vaccine
rollout and ramps up to mass vaccination when the federal government is able to
provide the necessary supply to do so.
Additional Public Health Restrictions
Since the implementation of the Provincewide Shutdown over two weeks ago, the
latest modelling trends in key public health indicators have continued to
worsen, forecasting an overwhelming of the health system unless drastic action
is taken. Escalating case counts have led to increasing hospitalization rates
and intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy which has resulted in cancellations of
scheduled surgeries and procedures.
Provincial modelling shows growth in COVID-19 cases has accelerated, leading to
increased hospitalization rates and ICU occupancy. ICU occupancy by COVID-19
patients is now over 400 beds and is projected to be as high as 1,000 beds by
early February which has the potential to overwhelm Ontario's hospitals. The
number of COVID-19-related deaths continues to rise and is expected to double
from 50 to 100 deaths per day between now and the end of February. Notably, data
shows that mobility and contacts between people have not decreased with the
current restrictions. A new variant of COVID-19 emerged in November. If
community transmission of this variant occurs, Ontario could experience much
higher case counts, ICU occupancy and mortality.
In response to the alarming and exceptional circumstances at hand, and to
further interrupt the deadly trend of transmission in Ontario communities,
hospitals, and long-term care homes, the government will enact the following
additional public health measures:
Outdoor organized public gatherings and social gatherings are further restricted
to a limit of five people with limited exceptions. This is consistent with the
rules during the lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 in spring 2020 and
will allow individuals and families to enjoy time outdoors safely.
Individuals are required to wear a mask or face covering in the indoor areas of
businesses or organizations that are open. Wearing a mask or face covering is
now recommended outdoors when you can't physically distance more than two metres.
All non-essential retail stores, including hardware stores, alcohol retailers,
and those offering curbside pickup or delivery, must open no earlier than 7 a.m.
and close no later than 8 p.m. The restricted hours of operation do not apply to
stores that primarily sell food, pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores,
and restaurants for takeout or delivery.
Non-essential construction is further restricted, in cluding below-grade
construction, exempting survey.
These measures will come into effect between Tuesday January 12, 2021 and
Thursday, January 14, 2021, including the provincial declaration of emergency
under the EMCPA, orders under that Act, and amendments to regulations under the
Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020.
"Despite our best efforts, COVID-19 is continuing to spread in our communities,
our hospitals, our long-term care homes, and our workplaces. We are continuing
to see concerning trends across the province, including a tragic number of
deaths," said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. "We have
made great strides in vaccinating tens of thousands of Ontarians, and we can't
let these efforts go to waste. Urgent action is required to break this deadly
trend of transmission, ensure people stay home, and save lives."
To help quickly identify and isolate cases of COVID-19 in workplaces and service
providers permitted to remain open such as long-term care homes and schools, the
province will provide up to 300,000 COVID-19 tests per week to support key
sectors such as manufacturing, warehousing, supply chain and food processing, as
well as additional tests for schools and long-term care homes. This volume of
rapid tests would support antigen screening for up to 150,000 workers per week
over the next 4-5 months in Ontario's most critical workplaces. The province is
expecting to receive 12 million Panbio tests from the federal government over
the next several months and continues to pursue opportunities to purchase
additional rapid tests.
"The trends in key public health indicators are continuing to deteriorate, and
further action is urgently required to save lives," said Dr. David Williams,
Chief Medical Officer of Health. "By strictly adhering to all public health and
workplace safety measures, we can reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and keep
our loved ones and our communities safe. It will take the collective efforts of
us all to defeat this virus." The government knows that in order to keep
Ontarians safe, it is important that they are not forced to leave their homes
during the new state of emergency. Ontario is exploring all options available to
put a temporary residential evictions moratorium in place and will have more to
say in the coming days.
The additional public health restrictions introduced expand on the existing
measures put in place to keep Ontarians safe and healthy.
New Enforcement Measures
Under the declaration of a provincial emergency, the province will provide
authority to all enforcement and provincial offences officers, including the
Ontario Provincial Police, local police forces, bylaw officers, and provincial
workplace inspectors to issue tickets to individuals who do not comply with the
stay-at-home-order, or those not wearing a mask or face covering indoors as well
as retail operators and companies who do not enforce. Those who decide not to
abide by orders will be subject to set fines and/or prosecution under both the
Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, (ROA) and EMCPA.
In addition, all enforcement personnel will have the authority to temporarily
close a premise and disperse individuals who are in contravention of an order
and will be able to disperse people who are gathering, regardless whether a
premise has been closed or remains open such as a park or house.
"Extraordinary action is needed to protect the health and safety of Ontarians as
we deal with this growing crisis," said Solicitor General Sylvia Jones. "Our
government is providing police and bylaw officers with the tools, and the
authority, they need to enforce these critical restrictions and protect public
health."
Schools and Child Care Centres
Based on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, schools in the
following public health units (PHUs) will not return to in-person instruction
until February 10, 2021:
Windsor-Essex
Peel Region
Toronto
York
Hamilton
By January 20, 2021, the Chief Medical Officer of Health will advise the
Ministry of Education on which public health units (PHUs) will be permitted to
resume in-person instruction, based on the most up-to-date data and modelling.
Before- and after-school programs can be offered when in-person instruction
resumes. Schools in northern PHUs will continue to remain open.
To continue to keep students, staff and communities safe, the following new
health and safety measures will be put in place for in-person learning:
Masking for Grade 1-3 and requirements for mask wearing outdoors;
Enhanced screening protocols; and
Expanded targeted testing.
The government will also implement new health and safety measures in Ontario
child care settings, such as enhanced screening to align with school
requirements, voluntary participation in targeted testing and additional
infection prevention and control measures to align with schools. These
enhancements are in addition to the existing health and safety measures already
being implemented in child care settings across the province.
Child care centres for non-school aged children will remain open, and emergency
child care for school-aged children will end in approved PHU regions on January
22, 2021 as these elementary schools return to in-person learning. During this
extended period of online learning, in areas where in-person elementary learning
is suspended, emergency child care will continue for eligible families in
regions subject to school closures, as identified by the Chief Medical Officer
of Health.
"At the heart of our continued efforts to protect against the spread of COVID-19
in our communities is a firm commitment to return kids to school safely," said
Education Minister Stephen Lecce. "Protecting our students, staff and their
families is our top priority, and these additional measures build on our
comprehensive plan to reopen schools and keep young children in child care
safe."
Workplace Safety
The Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development is taking additional
steps to protect workers with the launch of the "Stay Safe All Day" campaign,
focusing workplace inspections in areas of high transmission, including break
rooms, and providing new educational materials to employers to promote safe
behaviour before, during and after work.
Evidence gathered from COVID-19 related workplace inspections to date shows the
vast majority of employers and workers are following COVID-19 safety
requirements when working. However, when in a break room, a vehicle or not on
the clock, there is a tendency to forget about the importance of wearing masks,
maintaining physical distance and hand hygiene.
As part of the "Stay Safe All Day" campaign, inspectors will use a data-driven
approach to focus on workplaces with reported COVID-19 outbreaks, manufacturing
businesses, warehouses, distribution centres, food processing operations,
construction projects and publicly accessible workplaces deemed essential, such
as grocery stores. The Ministry is also using a new data-sharing program, in
conjunction with the Ministry of Long-Term Care and the Retirement Regulatory
Authority, to focus onsite inspections of long-term-care homes and retirement
homes.
"We know the majority of businesses are operating safely and responsibly to
protect their workers and customers. But as COVID-19 cases continue to rise, we
all need to step up and take additional measures to stop the spread," said Monte
McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development. "This includes
increasing our inspections to look at everything workers do both while on the
job and throughout the workday."
In the unfortunate event that an employee becomes infected with COVID-19, they
may be entitled to federally funded paid sick leave of up to $500 a week for two
weeks. Workers can also access Canada's Recovery Caregiver Benefit of up to $500
per week for up to 26 weeks if they are unable to work because they must care
for their child under 12 years old or a family member who needs supervised care.
Over the summer, the government enacted a new regulatory amendment that put
non-unionized employees on Infectious Disease Emergency Leave during the
COVID-19 outbreak any time their hours of work are temporarily reduced by their
employer due to COVID-19, ensuring businesses aren't forced to terminate
employees after their ESA temporary layoff periods have expired. As part of the
Safe Restart Agreement, the federal government is funding a temporary income
support program that allows workers to take up to 10 days of leave related to
COVID-19, preventing the risk of further spread in the workplace and allowing
workers to focus on their health.
QUICK FACTS
The Government of Ontario declared its first provincial emergency in response to
COVID-19 on March 17, 2020 which remained in effect until July 24, 2020 when the
ROA was introduced. 47 emergency orders were made under the EMCPA.
An emergency declaration pursuant to s. 7.0.1 is terminated 14 days after being
made and may be extended for up to a further 14 days by the Lieutenant Governor
in Council. Thereafter, extensions require approval of the Legislature for
additional periods of up to 28 days. Orders made during the declaration of
emergency pursuant s. 7.0.2 (4) will automatically terminate after 14 days
unless they are extended for additional periods of up to 14 days, while orders
pursuant to s. 7.1 can be for a period of up to 90 days and renewed for
additional periods of up to 90 days.
The orders currently in force under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response
to COVID-19) Act, 2020 (ROA) remain in effect until January 20, 2021. Under the
ROA, orders can be extended for up to 30 days at a time, and the government must
continue to report on all order extensions to the Select Committee on Emergency
Management Oversight.
A full list of emergency orders under the EMPCA as well as orders under the ROA
can be found on the e-Laws website and at Ontario.ca/alert.
As of January 10, 2021, there have been 215,782 reported COVID-19 cases and
4,983 related deaths in Ontario.
Ontario has implemented the largest immunization plan in its history and to
date, a total of over 130,000 doses have been administered provincewide.
Building on the efforts of the targeted testing in Phase 1, the Ministry of
Education and the Ministry of Health will work together with Ontario Health,
PHUs and school boards to expand access to COVID-19 testing.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Ontario Supporting Employers During COVID-19
Visit Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine web page to view the latest provincial data and
information on COVID-19 vaccines.
Visit Ontario’s website to learn more about how the province continues to
protect the people of Ontario from COVID-19.
If you have questions about what will be open or impacts to your business or
employment, call the Stop the Spread Business Information Line at
1-888-444-3659.
Get tested if you have symptoms compatible with COVID-19, or if you have been
advised of exposure by your local public health unit or through the COVID Alert
App. Visit Ontario.ca/covidtest to find the nearest testing location.
To find the right supports, visit COVID-19: Support for People, which has
information about the many available and free mental health services and
supports.
To stay safe, you can download the COVID Alert App free from the Apple and
Google Play app stores.
COVID-19: Reopening Schools
COVID-19 school and child care screening
Operational Guidance: COVID-19 Management in Schools document.
Shannon Whitteker
Cultural Media Lead
PC Caucus Services
Ontario Legislative Assembly, Queen’s Park
416.526.0419 | shannon.whitteker@pc.ola.org