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

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Bible Quotations For today
An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 16/01-04/:”The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, ‘When it is evening, you say, “It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.” And in the morning, “It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.” You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.’ Then he left them and went away.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 30-01 July/2021
The Cancerous Lebanese Political Parties/Elias Bejjani/June 29/2021
US, France, Saudi Arabia push for action on Lebanon’s crisis
Lebanon parliament approves cash subsidy costing $556 mln annually
Berri Says $900M Expected from IMF as MPs OK Ration Card
Economic Crisis, Severe Shortages Make Lebanon 'Unlivable'
Gunmen Take to Streets in Tripoli over Economic Crisis
Lebanese Army Offers Tourists Helicopter Joyrides
This is the end of times’: Lebanon struggles to find political path through its crisis/Martin Chulov/The Guardian/July 30/2021
Lebanon’s political crisis hits a serious deadlock/Sami Moubayed/Gulf News/June 30, 2021
Carlos Ghosn Japan escape team told authorities they worked with Michael Jackson

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 30-01 July/2021
UN chief urges US to remove Iran sanctions: 'Plan is peaceful'
Iran cuts power supply to pressure Iraq amid summer heat
U.N. expert backs probe into Iran's 1988 killings, Raisi's role
Syria 'Fixers' Cash in on Despair of Prisoners' Families
Cross-Border Aid to Syria Will End, Says Russian Ambassador to U.N.
Family Accuses Syria Kurdish Force of Torturing Son to Death
Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dies at 88: Statement
Saudi Arabia foils attempt to smuggle 4.5 mln captagon pills hidden in oranges
Explosion injures 11 in Iraq’s Baghdad: Police
Israel and UAE to Sign More Deals, Lapid Says
Putin Accuses U.S. of Involvement in UK Warship Incident
Turkish reporters protest police methods, say ‘cannot be silenced’
Defence portfolio sparks dispute within Libyan interim government
Canada/Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Development on ceasefire in Tigray
Canada/Foreign Affairs Minister and International Development Minister conclude successful G20 Foreign and Development Ministers’ Meeting

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 30-01 July/2021
Biden Needs an International Organizations Strategy/Richard Goldberg/Foreign Policy/June 30/2021
A Better Blueprint for International Organizations/Advancing American Interests on the Global Stage/Richard Goldberg/Ambassador Nikki R. Haley Monograph/FDD/June 30/2021
The Palestinian Police State/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/June 30, 2021
The "Iran Deal" Soon to Be Resuscitated/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/June 30/2021
Patriotism and Noble Deeds: The Pleasures of Life/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/June 30/2021
From integration to disintegration: Israel and its Arab citizens/Dr. Mordechai Nisan/Arutz Sheva/Jun 30/ 2021
A summit with no purpose/Ibrahim al-Zobeidi/The Arab Weekly/June 30/2021
Now is the time to support the Iranians who boycotted the sham election/Cameron Khansarinia/Al Arabiya/30 June ,2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 29-30/2021
The Cancerous Lebanese Political Parties
Elias Bejjani/June 29/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/100147/elias-bejjani-the-cancerous-lebanese-political-parties-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%a8-%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%87%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%b6-%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%b7%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d9%82%d8%a7/
Quite frankly and with a peaceful conscience, we can say loudly that all the political parties in occupied Lebanon are mere thugs, Trojans and puppets. They serve their owners' hunger and greed for power and riches. The sole focus of all these parties is on securing ways and means to their owners' individual ambitions and agendas.
The parties hypocrite owners know nothing about honesty, patriotism, hope or faith. They are extremely cancerous and actually accountable for all the disasters and hardships that Lebanon and the Lebanese are facing and going through from A to Z and foremost the Iranian occupation.
These parties handed over the country to Hezbollah, with shame succumbed to its occupational Iranian anti-Lebanese scheme and betrayed the Lebanese people and state.
These same parties are currently advocating for parliamentary elections under the Hezbollah hegemony umbrella in an evil bid to legitimize its occupation
The first step in Lebanon's recovery and salvation must start with abandoning all these parties and by stoning their mercenary and malevolent owners.

US, France, Saudi Arabia push for action on Lebanon’s crisis
The Arab Weekly/June 30/2021
MATERA, Italy – The top diplomats of the United States, France and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday jointly pushed for Lebanon’s squabbling leaders to come together to address the country’s mounting crises. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held an impromptu three-way meeting with his Saudi and French counterparts on Lebanon’s troubles on the sidelines of talks of the Group of 20 major economies in Matera, Italy. The three discussed “the need for Lebanon’s political leaders to show real leadership by implementing overdue reforms to stabilise the economy and provide the Lebanese people with much-needed relief,” Blinken wrote on Twitter. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since a massive blast in Beirut in August 2020 killed more than 200 people and ravaged swathes of the Mediterranean city. The political indecision comes amid an economic crisis that includes massive queues for fuel and a still tumbling value of the Lebanese pound. The United States, Saudi Arabia and France, the former colonial power, are key players in Lebanon, having worked together on the 1989 Taif accord that ended a bloody civil war and established a complicated agreement to split power among the country’s communities. Another major actor is Iran which supports the Shia militant movement and political party Hezbollah. Blinken repeatedly discussed Lebanon on a week-long European tour including with Pope Francis and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who he also saw on Friday in Paris. Blinken also met separately in Italy Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and said he raised both the war in Yemen and human rights. President Joe Biden took office pledging more distance from Saudi Arabia following Donald Trump’s chummy relationship, including by scaling back support for the kingdom’s devastating military operations in Yemen.

Lebanon parliament approves cash subsidy costing $556 mln annually
Tala Michel Issa, Al Arabiya English/June 30/2021
Lebanon’s parliament on Wednesday approved cash payments for poor families, to cost $556 million annually, a member of parliament told Reuters, planned as a step that would allow the curbing of a $6 billion subsidy program for basic goods. Parliament also instructed government to issue approval for exceptional credit to finance the program. Lebanese MPs passed a law to create a ration card program for the country’s poorest families. The decision comes as the country’s central bank gradually ends subsidies, online news media L’Orient Today reported on Wednesday. Under the program, around 500,000 families are expected to receive an average of $93 each. However, who will qualify for the program remains undecided. “The mechanisms and how the payment process will go remain the responsibility of the government,” said Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri during the discussion, adding that he received a letter from outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab which suggested that the caretaker government will begin to implement all the necessary measures for the program, according to L’Orient Today. Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said that the scheme had two potential funding sources, one of which is through the International Monetary fund (IMF), which had previously informed him that it was considering a decision to allocate around $900 million to Lebanon as part of a larger proposal, and the second is through the World Bank, essentially a relocation of $300 million that was initially intended for public transport projects. Lebanon’s central bank said on Monday it would open credit lines to import fuel at 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, a weaker rate than previously offered that effectively raises the costs for ordinary Lebanese. Under a subsidy program, the central bank had been using 1,500 pounds to the dollar, the official rate used for all transactions until the crisis that erupted in late 2019 precipitated a currency collapse. The street rate for the pound is now over 17,000 to the dollar. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister had on Friday approved a proposal to finance the imports at the new rate amid worsening fuel shortages. Lebanon is suffering unprecedented political, economic and financial crises that have led to poverty, unemployment, collapse of the national currency, its failure to repay sovereign debts and an accelerating decline in foreign exchange reserves since October 2019.
The outgoing government of Premier Hassan Diab resigned in the wake of an August 4 explosion at Beirut’s port that killed more than 200 people and ravaged swaths of the capital. Last October, Lebanese President Aoun appointed Saad Hariri, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, as the new prime minister of the government and authorized him to form a cabinet. However, attempts to form a cabinet have not made any progress for several months. As the country has suffered multiple crises over the past year with fuel and medicine shortages being the most critical at present, the caretaker government is working with President Michel Aoun and has promised a quick solution. With Reuters

Berri Says $900M Expected from IMF as MPs OK Ration Card
Agence France Presse/July 30/2021
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund is expected to grant Lebanon’s central bank $900 million on September 23, as parliament approved the ration card plan during a legislative session at the UNESCO Palace. “The IMF decided Monday to return the reserves lodged by some countries with it and Lebanon’s share from this issue is $900 million,” Berri told parliament, adding that the caretaker finance minister “has been informed of this.”As for the ration card plan, the Speaker said the financing and mechanisms of the scheme are “the responsibility of the government, not parliament, in line with norms.” “The government has pledged to implement the subsidies rationalization program… and the ration card will have a (monthly) value of $93.3 to $126,” Berri added. The cards, which are targeted at the poorest segments of society, aim to cushion the gradual collapse of subsidies due to the economic crisis. The decision comes one day after authorities hiked the price of subsidized fuel to shore up dwindling foreign currency reserves at the central bank. The government, which subsidizes key commodities including flour and medicine, has also started to gradually reduce support on other key items, after months of deliberations and without any official announcement. Lebanon is in the throes of an economic crisis the World Bank has described as likely one of the world's worst in modern times. More than half the population lives below the poverty line and minimum wages are the equivalent of less than $40 a month, according to the black market exchange rate. On Wednesday, parliament "approved... the ration card system and the opening of special credit lines to fund it," the official National News Agency reported. Government estimates put the cost of the initiative at $556 million -- $300 million of which officials hope to secure through World Bank loans, and the rest of which is to come from the central bank, a government official told AFP.
Berri said it would also be up to the government to determine how to distribute the cards, which exclude residents that already benefit from outside assistance. The government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said half a million families would receive ration cards. Tuesday's steep fuel price hike has caused Lebanese to brace for higher transportation and electricity costs, and in turn higher receipts for services and goods, including bread. Subscriptions to private generators, which in some regions operate for 22 hours a day, are expected to become especially expensive.
This is all expected to compound woes in a country whose currency has already lost more than 90 percent of its black market value against the dollar. The Lebanese pound, pegged at 1,507 to the greenback since 1997, has traded at more than 17,000 on the black market this week, a record low. Lebanon's government resigned last summer in the wake of an August 4 explosion at Beirut's port that killed more than 200 people. Yet the country's bitterly divided political leaders have failed to form a new cabinet ever since, despite mounting international pressure led by France.

Economic Crisis, Severe Shortages Make Lebanon 'Unlivable'
Associated Press/July 30/2021
Ibrahim Arab waits in line several hours a day in the hot summer sun to buy gas for his taxi. When he's not working, the 37-year-old father of two drives from one Beirut pharmacy to another, looking for baby formula for his 7-month-old son -- any he can find -- even though the infant got severe diarrhea and vomiting from an unfamiliar brand.
He worries what would happen if his children got really sick. Once among the best in the region, Lebanon's hospitals are struggling amid the country's economic and financial crisis that has led to daily power outages that last for hours, shortages of diesel fuel for backup generators, and a lack of medical equipment and drugs. After 20 months of suffering with no end in sight, a new reality is setting in for most of Lebanon's estimated 6 million people: Days filled with severe shortages -- from spare parts for cars to medicine, fuel and other basic goods in the import-dependent country.
"My life was already difficult, and now the gasoline crisis only made things worse," Arab said on a recent day. To survive, he works a second job at a Beirut grocery store, but his monthly income in Lebanese pounds has lost 95% of its purchase power.
The crisis, which began in late 2019, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a post-civil war political class that has accumulated debt and done little to encourage local industries, forcing the country to rely on imports for almost everything. The Lebanese pound has nose-dived, banks have clamped down on withdrawals and transfers, and hyperinflation has flared. The liquidity crunch is crippling the government's ability to provide fuel, electricity and basic services. A shortage of dollars is gutting imports of medical supplies and energy.
The fuel shortage has especially raised fears that the country could become paralyzed. Even private generators, used by the Lebanese for decades, have to be switched off for hours to conserve diesel. "We are really in hell," tweeted Firas Abiad, director general of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, which leads the country's coronavirus fight. Despite a heat wave, the hospital decided Monday to turn off the air conditioning, except in medical departments. Electricity cuts have affected internet connections in various cities, while bakeries warn they might have to close due to fuel shortages. The situation has become critical in recent weeks, with scuffles and shootings at gas pumps, including one in the northern city of Tripoli, where the son of one station's owner was killed.
Many Lebanese decry their leaders' inability or unwillingness to work together to resolve the crisis. The country has been without a working government since Prime Minister Hassan Diab's Cabinet resigned days after the massive explosion at Beirut's port on Aug. 4, 2020, that killed 211 people and injured more than 6,000. The catastrophic blast was caused by nearly 3,000 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored there for years.
Residents expect the economy to get even worse, so they look for ways to adapt and cope. To avoid waiting for hours, some pay people to fill their car for them. Others take their laptops and work from inside their vehicles in the lines that stretch for blocks and are known as "the queues of humiliation." Many rely on relatives and friends abroad to send medicine and baby formula. Those who can afford it fly to nearby countries for a day or two to stock up for months. A man who works in solar energy said business is booming, with people fed up with decades of government promises to fix Lebanon's power grid. Last week, Diab approved financing energy imports at a rate higher than the official exchange rate, effectively reducing fuel subsidies amid the worsening shortages. The move that took effect Tuesday is expected to start easing the crisis temporarily, although prices shot up 35%.
Some people have been hoarding fuel out of fear that prices will nearly double, and this has added to its scarcity. Such an increase in prices will put the cost of fuel out of reach of many in a country where more than half the population lives in poverty.
Others smuggle it to neighboring Syria, which has its own fuel crisis and where the price of gasoline is five times higher than in Lebanon. But that also adds to the shortage in Lebanon. The crisis has led angry residents across the country to block roads in protest.
They seized several tanker trucks in northern Lebanon and distributed gasoline for free to passersby. Another group confiscated a truck carrying powdered milk and also distributed its contents. "Our business has become a job of mass destruction," said Ahed Makarem, 24, who works at a gas station in the coastal village of Damour, south of Beirut. As he spoke, a line of hundreds of cars moved slowly along the highway. Dozens of workers activated the station's 12 pumps to fill vehicles and scooters. Motorists were limited to 20 liters (about 5 1/4 gallons). Makarem said his 13-hour shift starts at 6 a.m. and he hardly has time to eat or sit. Fistfights have broken out in recent weeks as some people try to cut in line, he said, adding that when the station closes at 7 p.m., police sometimes have to intervene to turn away angry customers who waited in vain.
Many fear things will only get worse in the coming months, with the central bank's reserves dropping and no solution in sight. Lawmakers are working on a ration card system that would give about 500,000 poor families between $93 and $137 a month. If approved, it would lead to even smaller subsidies and skyrocketing prices. Arab, the taxi driver, is bracing for when the temporary solutions fall away and the crisis worsens. He recently had to fix the brakes on his car, and his engine needed a spare part. That cost him more than twice the minimum monthly wage in Lebanon.
"I wish I had the opportunity to leave. This country is unlivable," Arab said.

Gunmen Take to Streets in Tripoli over Economic Crisis
Associated Press/July 30/2021
Gunmen took to the streets in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Wednesday, firing in the air and at times throwing stones at soldiers amid rising anger at power cuts, fuel shortages and soaring prices. The anger was fueled by rumors that a young girl died after electricity cuts stopped a machine that supplied her with oxygen. A Lebanese security official denied the rumors and reports on social media about the girl. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest and most impoverished city, has witnessed acts of violence in recent days linked to the country's severe economic and financial crisis. The World Bank has described the crisis as one of the worst the world has witnessed over the past 150 years. It is coupled with a political deadlock that has left Lebanon without a government since August. The economic crisis has been the most serious threat to Lebanon's stability since the 15-year civil war ended in 1990. Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs since October 2019 in the small nation of 6 million, including a million Syrian refugees. Lebanon's 20-month economic and financial crisis has led to severe shortages in fuel, medicine and medical products. Electricity cuts last for much of the day and lack of diesel has led the owners of some private generators to cease supplying power. After the rumors spread in Tripoli on Wednesday, armed men deployed in the streets of some poor neighborhoods and opened fire in the air. Soldiers briefly pulled out from some areas, apparently to avoid a clash with the gunmen. Later in the day, the army patrolled the areas that witnessed gunfire, state-run National News Agency reported. A Tripoli resident told The Associated Press that he closed his shop and went home when the shooting started, adding that it lasted for about four hours. Later in the afternoon, shooting was heard again in the city.Hundreds of people have tried to migrate to Europe from northern Lebanon due to harsh economic conditions over the past two years and some have died before reaching their destination. In the capital Beirut, protesters closed several roads Wednesday to express their anger over harsh living conditions.Riots in Tripoli over the weekend left at least 20 people injured, half of them soldiers. The army on Sunday said rioters on motorcycles threw stun grenades at troops in Tripoli injuring nine soldiers, while another was injured when hit by a rock. Protesters attacked several state institutions in the city.In recent years, Tripoli has witnessed rounds of fighting between supporters and opponents of Syria's government.

Lebanese Army Offers Tourists Helicopter Joyrides
Agence France Presse/July 30/2021
The Lebanese Army will start offering tourists helicopter joyrides this week in a bid to boost the coffers of one of the crisis-hit country's key institutions. An economic crisis that the World Bank describes as likely one of the world's worst since the 1850s has hit the Lebanese military hard, leaving it struggling to pay troops enough to live on. In an announcement on its website, the army said it would be offering civilians the chance to see "Lebanon... from above" with 15-minute flights. The joyrides on board the army's Robinson R44 Raven helicopters would start on Thursday and would be open to passengers aged three and above. Up to three people would be allowed aboard per flight, which costs about $150 and is to be paid in cash. The aim is "to encourage Lebanese tourism in a new way, in addition to supporting the air force," a military source told AFP. The economic crisis has eaten away at the value of soldiers' salaries and slashed the military's budget for maintenance and equipment.Towards the middle of last year, the army said it had scrapped meat from the meals offered to on-duty soldiers, due to rising food prices. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since a massive blast in Beirut in August last year killed more than 200 people and ravaged swathes of the Mediterranean port city. Politicians have failed to agree on a new cabinet line-up even as foreign currency cash reserves plummet, causing fuel, electricity and medicine shortages. Earlier this month, France hosted a donor conference at which 20 nations agreed to provide emergency aid to Lebanon's military.

This is the end of times’: Lebanon struggles to find political path through its crisis
Martin Chulov/The Guardian/July 30/2021
مارتن تشولوف/الجارديان: هذه نهاية الزمان: لبنان يكافح لإيجاد طريق لخلاصه السياسي من خلال أزمته
As the country suffers from hyperinflation and shortages of fuel and medical supplies, pressure is growing at home and abroad to address its governance quagmire
The lights dimmed further in Lebanon last month when two giant barges that had boosted its electricity grid were switched off. The result was six hours less power a day for most homes, or more need for generator fuel for those who could afford it.
However, fuel is also in short supply in the crisis-hit nation. Giant queues clog roads near filling stations and top-ups are limited to 20 litres, making most journeys precarious.
Over the weekend, troops deployed in the northern city of Tripoli, surrounding key state institutions after a night of protests and riots against worsening living conditions left several protesters and 10 soldiers injured. Drugs and medical supplies are scarce too, with many acute diseases going untreated.
According to many Lebanese, those now include the rot at the heart of the state, which 18 months after the first signs of economic crisis remains as potent as ever. As Lebanon disintegrates, diplomats, aid chiefs, global officials and even some local leaders are pondering the very viability of a state that refuses to reform even to save itself.
Almost 11 months after last August’s catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port, there have been no breakthroughs in attempts to form a government – even as hyperinflation and a broken banking system destroy savings, food insecurity soars and a brain drain quickens.
“The explosion … has accelerated a lot of things, that’s for sure,” said Najat Rochdi, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon. “The crisis in the economy, the currency devaluation, as well as the governance vacuum, has meant a breakdown of public services at a time when they are most needed.”
Across Lebanon, extreme poverty has risen threefold since the first signs almost two years ago that the economy was approaching a precipice. For many households, basic services including health, electricity, water, internet and education are almost out of reach, but this has made little impact on politicians intent on protecting a patronage system run along the sectarian lines that has undermined competent governance for decades.
The country’s politicians remain incapable of compromising on cabinet portfolios and quotas, and their intransigence serves as a reality check to hopes that ministries could in the future be run as institutions instead of fiefdoms.
But where global bodies and international governments had been more or less willing to support Lebanon during past – far less severe – crises, the catastrophe this time is seen as largely avoidable – more a governance issue than a humanitarian one.
“The development of Lebanon is the responsibility of the Lebanese,” Rochdi said. “The development of Lebanon is not the responsibility of the international community.”
Such bluntness has been difficult to digest for civil war leaders and their loyalists who still hold sway over the country’s affairs. France, a long-term benefactor of Lebanon, has repeatedly told senior officials that aid will only start flowing after reforms, such as transparency and a central bank audit, are introduced.
“They still think a bailout is coming,” said one Lebanese acting minister. “Because they see the global community as secular humanists who won’t let us drown. What if they’re wrong? We all go down with the ship, and the villains get a life raft to France?”
Even that seems increasingly unlikely. As the Lebanese pound hits record levels of almost 16,000 to the dollar – it was 1,500 to the dollar 18 months ago – and reserves kept in the country’s central bank fall to near-critical levels, there is more readiness both in Lebanon and abroad to examine the system that paved a way for such a mess.
Extra attention has been paid to the schemes that lined the pockets of the political class and a range of other untouchables, including some security chiefs. Among the biggest sources of corruption have been Lebanon’s essential contracts – covering fuel importation, electricity generation, telecommunications, biometrics and passports.
“Lately, it has become the sale of subsidised goods [by the central bank] to Syria, especially fuel and medicines,” the minister said. “It’s all taking place in plain sight.”
One European diplomat described the fuel crisis as a scam. “There is no fuel shortage. It is being kept on ships by local suppliers as a way to increase margins and it is being shipped to Syria where it is sold at higher prices than they could reach on the local markets. The mark-ups are being pocketed by all manner of players.”
“The same systems and people who led us down this path are the ones who are supposed to get us out of it. But they don’t want to. You can’t fix a problem that refuses to be fixed.”
Some Lebanese politicians, including Samy Gemayel, who resigned from the parliament after the explosion at the port, have called for the administrative decentralisation of Lebanon and an overhaul of the country’s parliament and electoral laws. “If we hold on to the past and don’t learn the lessons of history, we are ruined,” he said. “We have enormous challenges across the board and it is past time to face them.”
While the political quagmire is yet to bring about change, there are signs that the country’s leaders are starting to feel the heat. Sanctions were imposed by the US on former foreign minister Gebran Bassil, who is a potential candidate to replace his ageing father-in-law, Michel Aoun, as president. France and the European Union have hinted they may follow suit with other leaders, including the head of the central bank, Riad Salameh.
“Up until this point they have given cover for each other,” said the minister. “They all know which corrupt deals have enriched which clans, and they know each other’s vulnerabilities. It’s been an omertà code until now.”
However, in May a judge loyal to Bassil raided a financial house that worked on behalf of Salameh, who is close to Lebanon’s powerful parliamentary speaker, Nabih Berri. Several weeks later, a judge loyal to Berri opened a corruption investigation into a contract between a Turkish company responsible for the power barges, and the ministry of energy, which had been run by Bassil. The lights went off later, with the company claiming it was owed almost $200m in arrears, and a financial prosecutor alleging widespread impropriety over many years.
“There used to be a time when we Lebanese would say as long as the country continues to run, we will look the other way,” said Suhaib Zogibi, a Beirut merchant. “But this is the end of times, and if one thing can come of this, it has to be the end of impunity.”
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Lebanon’s political crisis hits a serious deadlock
Sami Moubayed/Gulf News/June 30, 2021
: سامي مبيض/ جلف نيوز/  وصلت الأزمة السياسية في لبنان إلى طريق مسدود خطير
Whether Hezbollah is going to respond to Gibran Basil’s appeal is yet to be seen
Recently the Lebanese President Michel Aoun was quoted saying: “He who is neutral has betrayed the truth without supporting falsehood.” This is a famous saying attributed to Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the fourth righteous caliph and son-in-law of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Aoun was using it in discrete reference to his allies in Hezbollah, who are claiming neutrality in the political conflict that is currently underway, between his son-in-law Gibran Basil and Prime Minister-designate Saad Al Hariri.
It was rare criticism from Lebanon’s octogenarian president, who owes his seat of power to Hezbollah.
An open letter to Nasrallah
The thinly veiled message was preceded by an open letter from Nabil Nicola, a member of Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) to Hezbollah secretary-general Hasan Nasrallah dated June 15, 2021. Nicola said that Hezbollah was accused of supporting smuggling and watching the state being looted, criticising Nasrallah for supporting a sectarian ally (in reference to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri) over a Lebanese partner (in reference to Aoun) who is supported by the sons of all regions and sects.”
Berri, it must be noted, is supporting Hariri against Gibran Basil, with the full backing of Nasrallah. He was never too happy with the Aoun presidency, having preferred that the job goes to Suleiman Frangieh, leader of the Marada Party, a ranking member of the Hezbollah-led March 8 Coalition.
Berri realises that the forthcoming cabinet will probably be the last in the Aoun era, which ends in October 2022, and wants to make sure that it is crafted in a way that prevents Aoun from extending his term or making Basil the next president of Lebanon.
Nicola’s letter to Nasrallah triggered a most unusual response from Hisham Saffiddine, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, a person who rarely comments on Lebanese domestics and happens to be the cousin of Nasrallah. He fired back at Basil without naming him, accusing him of obstructing cabinet formation and seeking personal gains, rather than national interests, while stressing that Hezbollah stands firmly behind Nabih Berri’s mediation efforts.
Multi-faceted problems
The Aounists are furious with Hezbollah for supporting Hariri’s comeback and ignoring an objection made by Basil’s FPM since November 2020. Since then, Hezbollah leaders have feigned neutrality in the tug-of-war between Hariri and Basil, standing at arms-length from the FPM’s claim to strategic posts in the new government, like foreign affairs, interior, justice, and energy. They have also refused to support Basil’s insistence that gets to name all nine Christian ministers in the new cabinet, when/if it is formed.
Behind closed doors, Hezbollah has even supported Hariri’s bid to name two out of nine Christian ministers, which has endorsed by Berri yet flatly been rejected by Aoun and Basil. Both say that this is unacceptable, firing back — also behind closed doors — that Hezbollah would never allow Hariri to name all Shiite ministers, and nor would his allies in the Amal Movement. But that’s not the only reason why the FPM is angry with Hezbollah. Another reason is Basil’s attempt at hijacking the maritime talks with Israel, which began last year under UN auspices.
Hezbollah signed off those talks very unwillingly, conditioning that only maritime issues are discussed and that the negotiating team is composed strictly of military personnel, with no civilians. Basil has been trying to replace the current military delegation with one composed of civilians, which includes staffers from the presidency and advisers from the Foreign Ministry, which is controlled by the FPM.
Last December, Basil requested that a special committee is formed to revisit the Mar Mikhail Agreement of 2006, which famously made Michel Aoun president in 2016.
Nasrallah agreed to revisit the agreement, but has since stalled at convening a meeting, not wanting to give an impression that he supported Basil’s bid for president, when his father-in-law’s term ends or if he is incapacitated before then. Nasrallah has also refused Basil’s demand that a new agreement is drafted for his sake, agreeing only to revision of the 2006 document.
Basil’s impossible demands
Hezbollah literarily inherited Gibran Basil from Michel Aoun, to whom it has been allied for the past fifteen years. It never trusted Basil, however, considering him a manipulator, but was forced to deal more diligently with him after US sanctions were slapped on Basil last November, due to his alliance with Hezbollah.
Basil demanded many rewards for being targeted by the Trump Administration, like being given full say on who becomes premier, the lion’s share of cabinet posts, and a promise to be made president.
He also demanded that Hezbollah supports his attempt to extend the mandate of Lebanon’s current parliament, which ends in May 2022. He fears that any early elections would diminish his current share of parliament, a major bloc of 29 MPs.
Basil’s reputation has been severely damaged by the October Revolution of 2019, which angry Lebanese took to the streets, demanding rehaul of the political system.
Much of their anger was unleashed on Basil, who at the time was serving as foreign minister. He was accused, among other things, of nepotism, corruption, and misuse of public office. Much of that was due to his own malpractice, and Basil became a heavy burden for Hezbollah.
A revised French Initiative
French President Emmanuel Macron has silently altered his road map for Lebanon, which was conveyed to Lebanese leaders last September. He had originally called for rotation of cabinet posts, which he has now realised that none of the political parties will accept. Instead, the French initiative is now focused on upcoming parliamentary elections, making sure that they happen on schedule and lead to real change within the political system. Hezbollah doesn’t mind early elections, nor elections on time next May.
It is confident of its Shiite constituency, and the same applies to Hariri, who stands unchallenged among Lebanese Sunnis. The only party that would lose in any election is the FPM and high on the list of losers would be Gibran Basil himself.
Basil’s U-turn
Aborting the vote — or manipulating it — would be impossible without Hezbollah support, and Basil realises that only too well. He also has a very low chance of becoming president without the support of Nasrallah.
On June 20 he came out with a personal appeal to Nasrallah, trying to fix what his Aoun and Nicola had wrecked, saying: “Sayyed Hasan, I know that you never fail from the truth.” He also delegated Nasrallah officially to negotiate on behalf of the FPM to solve the cabinet crisis.
Whether Hezbollah will respond to Basil’s appeal is yet to be seen. As the Lebanese wait, the country falls from own pitfall to another, sinking into chaos, need, and a chronic gasoline shortage, topped with a deteriorating currency that is holding people by the throat, diminishing what remains of their already razor-thin savings and plunging them, and their country, further into poverty.
https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/lebanons-political-crisis-hits-a-serious-deadlock-1.80297034

Carlos Ghosn Japan escape team told authorities they worked with Michael Jackson
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/30 June ,2021
The two Americans who helped former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn escape Japan told authorities at the airport that they were musicians who had a concert with late singer Michael Jackson in Turkey, Ghosn said on the Lebanese podcast Sarde After Dinner on Sunday. “They told the authorities that they had music instruments in the box that were regulated for a concert as soon as they land and if the instrument were to pass through the scanner it would have delayed their performance in Turkey,” he added. “[If the escape] was classical, it would have not worked, it worked because it was gutsy, I don’t talk about the story, because I don’t want to put any people who helped me at risk, I had to be something no one thought I would dare to try,” Ghosn added. Ghosn added that the odds of escaping from Japan were very low, and the escape plot had to be bold. Ghosn attracted international attention after he fled Japan in December 2019. Japanese prosecutors were investigating him for financial irregularities while CEO of Nissan. Ghosn later smuggled out of the country inside a box intended to transfer musical instruments, despite being under strict surveillance from authorities.
The episode with podcast Sarde After Dinner was taken down the next day at the request of the producers of “Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight”, an exclusive documentary by MBC Group’s Shahid Video on Demand Service. The podcast platform released a statement adding that they have agreed to run their latest episode with Carlos Ghosn at the same time as the release of the documentary on July 8 due to his contractual obligations with BBC and Shahid.
The highly anticipated feature documentary will debut on Shahid VIP.
The documentary is a first and exclusive joint production by MBC Studios, the production arm of MBC Group and the France-based international production house, ALEF ONE – Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight showcases the full story of Ghosn, the former CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
The documentary was filmed across locations in Lebanon, France, Japan, England and South Africa. Ghosn added during the podcast that he was under house arrest, and he had to take an authorization from the judge if he wanted to leave the house for three or four days.
“We chose Osaka airport because it was a minor airport, so the security would definitely be less solid that any major airport like in Tokyo,” Ghosn added. Ghosn also said that the timing of the escape in December was well-planned, as it is the time when most airport employees are on annual leave, and thus those replacing them would be less familiar with the security protocols of the airport. The ex-Nissan boss claimed that he would not have had a fair trial because the prosecution wins 99 percent of its cases in Japan. “I was thinking of retiring in 2018, I was preparing since 2015 for my retirement, I prepared a house in Beirut, I was repairing it, Lebanon is [the] only common thing with my wife. People said that I am in Lebanon because the judiciary is corrupt, that is not true,” Ghosn added. The two Americans who helped Ghosn escape from Japan to safety in Lebanon said that helping Carlos Ghosn escape trial in Japan was a mistake, and that they deeply regretted it. “I helped Carlos Ghosn escape from Japan during his bail period. I deeply regret my actions and sincerely apologize for causing difficulties for the judicial process and for the Japanese people,” Michael Taylor, one of the two Americans, said. At a hearing two weeks ago, Michael and his son Peter agreed to prosecutors’ assertions that they helped Ghosn escape the country at the end of 2019. They were extradited to Japan from the US earlier this year and face a maximum prison sentence of three years for harboring a criminal and enabling him to escape.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 30-01 July/2021
UN chief urges US to remove Iran sanctions: 'Plan is peaceful'
Guterres also urged the US to "extend the waivers with regard to the trade in oil with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and fully renew waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects."
By REUTERS JUNE 30, 2021 08:09
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to US President Joe Biden's administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
In a report to the UN Security Council, Guterres also urged the United States to "extend the waivers with regard to the trade in oil with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and fully renew waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects."
The 15-member council will on Wednesday discuss the secretary-general's biannual report on the implementation of a 2015 resolution that enshrines the nuclear deal between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. Guterres' appeal to Washington comes amid talks to revive the deal – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – under which Iran accepted curbs on its nuclear program in return for a lifting of many foreign sanctions against it. Former US President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions, prompting Tehran to start violating some of the nuclear limits in 2019. "I appeal to the United States to lift or waive its sanctions outlined in the plan," said Guterres, who also appealed to Iran to return to full implementation of the deal. Iran has refined uranium up to a purity of roughly 60%, far above the deal's limit of 3.67% and much closer to the 90% suitable for atom bomb cores, though it maintains that it seeks only civilian nuclear power and could quickly reverse its moves if Washington rescinded sanctions and returned to the 2015 deal. "I continue to believe that a full restoration of the Plan remains the best way to ensure that the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran remains exclusively peaceful," Guterres said.

Iran cuts power supply to pressure Iraq amid summer heat
The Arab Weekly/June 30/2021
BAGHDAD – Iran halted its crucial supply of power to Iraq, fuelling fears of protests Tuesday amid instability following the resignation of Iraq’s electricity minister.Cash-strapped Iran has put pressure on Iraq’s government to release payments for power after falling into arrears. The development comes with months of scorching summer temperatures still to come and ahead of much anticipated federal elections. Electricity Minister Majed Mahdi Hantoosh submitted his resignation Monday amid popular and political pressure over repeated power outages across the country.
“Hantoosh officially submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi,” said Ahmed Moussa, spokesman for Iraq’s ministry of electricity. “According to the information received, the prime minister has accepted it … which came after popular pressures due to the deterioration of the electricity service,” he added. The resignation comes two days after the leader of the Shia Sadrist movement Muqtada al-Sadr called for Hantoosh to be sacked. Provinces across the country’s south, where temperatures currently average 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), are shortening working hours citing extreme heat. A call for protests in the oil-rich province of Basra, often the stage of power-related demonstrations, was distributed across social media giving the government until 6 pm Tuesday to restore power. “Or else we will escalate and all of Basra’s streets will be cut off, and we will teach the officials a lesson they will never forget,” it said.
Heavy reliance
Iraq’s reliance on Iranian energy imports has geopolitical consequences and has been a source of ongoing tensions with the US. Washington has conditioned successive sanctions waivers, enabling these imports to continue, on Iraq becoming more energy independent. The stakes are high for Iraq’s government as electricity outages have routinely led to violent protests, particularly in the south. Federal elections are slated for October 10, the first since mass anti-government protests swept the country in 2019. Outputs from four cross-border electricity tie-lines from Iran to Iraq were at zero on Tuesday, according to ministry of electricity data. The total cuts began this week, a ministry official said. The official requested anonymity because they are not authorised to brief the media. In past weeks supply has fluctuated. Gas and electricity imports from Iran often meet up to a third of Iraq’s power demands.
“Iraq relies on Iranian energy imports heavily, especially in peak summer months,” said Yesar al-Maleki, Gulf analyst at the Middle East Economic Survey. “Gas imports from Iran range from 1.5-1.8 billion cubic feet per day. Now, we see generation in the south collapsing below one (gigawatt), meaning not just these lines are offline but even gas flow is down.”
Fears of unrest
Iran feeds gas into Iraq through two pipelines used to power plants in Basra, Samawa, Nasiryah and Diyala. Generation from these plants also plummeted, suggesting supply from Iran in these plants is also low. The impact has been immediate. In Basra, the province requires 4,000 megawatts but is currently receiving 830 MW. “It is a catastrophe,” said al-Maleki. The cuts will deprive Iraqis of power to run hospitals, businesses and homes as temperatures rise. With calls to demonstrate growing louder, many fear a repeat of violent protests that swept Basra in 2018. These also coincided with Iranian power cuts over non-payment issues. Iraq owes Iran $4 billion for energy imports. The country’ economic crisis has caused delays in part, but even for money earmarked to pay for imports a complex payment scheme designed to evade US sanctions has slowed down transfers. Through the scheme, Iraq is unable to pay Iran directly for the imports, but can pay for goods, medicines and other expenses related to Tehran’s diplomatic mission and Iranian companies working in Iraq. Recently, Iraq purchased vaccines for Tehran. But Iran has complained the money is trickling in too slowly. Provinces across Iraq, meanwhile, took precautions and shortened working hours to cope with rising temperatures. Basra, Najaf, Diwanieh and Diyala shortened working days from 8 am to 12 pm.

U.N. expert backs probe into Iran's 1988 killings, Raisi's role
Stephanie Nebehay/Reuters/June 30/2021
Summary
Javaid Rehman, UN expert on Iran, criticises conduct of election
Urges independent inquiry into alleged 1988 killing of thousands
Tells Reuters probe must establish role of President-elect Raisi
Iran has never acknowledged the mass executions in Khomeini era
GENEVA, June 29 (Reuters) - The U.N. investigator on human rights in Iran has called for an independent inquiry into allegations of state-ordered executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 and the role played by President-elect Ebrahim Raisi as Tehran deputy prosecutor.
Javaid Rehman, in an interview with Reuters on Monday, said that over the years his office has gathered testimonies and evidence. It was ready to share them if the United Nations Human Rights Council or other body sets up an impartial investigation.
He said he was concerned at reports that some "mass graves" are being destroyed as part of a continuing cover-up. "I think it is time and it's very important now that Mr. Raisi is the president (-elect) that we start investigating what happened in 1988 and the role of individuals," Rehman said from London, where he teaches Islamic law and international law. A probe was in the interest of Iran and could bring closure to families, he said, adding: "Otherwise we will have very serious concerns about this president and the role, the reported role, he has played historically in those executions." Raisi's office could not be reached for comment. The office of the spokesman of the Iranian judiciary was not immediately available to comment. Iran’s missions to the United Nations in in Geneva and New York did not respond to requests for comment. Raisi, a hardline judge, is under U.S. sanctions over a past that includes what the United States and activists say was his involvement as one of four judges who oversaw the 1988 killings. Amnesty International has put the number executed at some 5,000, saying in a 2018 report that "the real number could be higher".Raisi, when asked about allegations that he was involved in the killings, told reporters: "If a judge, a prosecutor has defended the security of the people, he should be praised ... I am proud to have defended human rights in every position I have held so far." Rehman said: "We have made communications to the Islamic Republic of Iran because we have concerns that there is again a policy to actually destroy the graves or there may be some activity to destroy evidence of mass graves." "I will campaign for justice to be done," he added. In a statement, the Justice for Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran welcomed Rehman's call, saying that a U.N. investigation into the extrajudicial executions was "long overdue".Raisi succeeds Hassan Rouhani on Aug. 3, having secured victory this month in an election marked by voter apathy over economic hardships and political restrictions. read more Rehman denounced what he called "deliberate and manipulative strategies adopted to exclude moderate candidates and to ensure the success of a particular candidate". "There were arrests, journalists were stopped from asking specific questions about the background of the presidential candidate Mr Raisi and there was intimidation towards any issues that were raised about his previous role and background." Iran has never acknowledged that mass executions took place under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary leader who died in 1989. "The scale of executions that we hear imply that it was a part of a policy that was being pursued...It was not just one person," Rehman said. He said there had also been "no proper investigation" into the killing of protesters in Nov. 2019, the bloodiest political unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution. "Even by conservative estimates we can say that more than 300 people were killed arbitrarily, extrajudicially, and nobody has been held accountable and no compensation," he said. "There is a widespread and systemic impunity in the country for gross violations of human rights, both historically in the past as well as in the present."
*Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Peter Graff, Jon Boyle and Cynthia Osterman

Syria 'Fixers' Cash in on Despair of Prisoners' Families
Agence France Presse/June 30/202
Syrian mother Umm Saeed was so desperate to find her two jailed sons she even sold the family furniture to pay "fixers", but a decade of deceit has left her no closer to the truth. "Had they asked for my heart, I would have handed it over," the 63-year-old mother told AFP by phone from central Syria, using a pseudonym for fear of reprisal.
But "they lied to me".
In war-torn Syria, where tens of thousands of people have disappeared into a murky web of regime jails infamous for torture, a booming trade has emerged for "fixers" offering to help families locate or save their loved ones. Policemen, lawyers, businessmen and even lawmakers, with security and judicial contacts, demand steep fees to dig up information about a disappeared son or brother, allow a visit, reduce their sentence, or obtain their release. Some efforts are successful, while more often scammers pocket the money and stop answering phone calls. It's normally families who seek out the so-called fixers, but sometimes they receive cold calls persuading them to pay up for a photo or voice recording, only to vanish with the money. AFP spoke to members of eight such families, most of whom asked that their real names not be used. Umm Saeed said her two sons were detained in 2012. "Whenever someone told me about a potential middleman, I would go to them," said the mother, who suffers from heart problems. She paid a lawyer who asked for the equivalent of more than $3,000 but "did not provide the slightest bit of information." Another man claiming to be a policeman was paid with a mobile phone after saying he could get her permission to visit Sednaya, a notorious prison in Damascus. But when she showed up at the jail which Amnesty International calls a "slaughter house", she was told the pass was fake and sent away.
"I sold my home furniture and my daughters' gold. I have nothing left," she said.
'Black market'
Diana Semaan, a researcher at Amnesty, said the government's policy of silence on the fate of detainees had created a "black market" for information. "Families, desperate for information, end up paying huge amounts of money, sometimes their entire life savings, to intermediaries and 'middlemen' close to the Syrian government," she explained. Suaad, 45, said her family in northern Syria had paid 20 million pounds to various brokers over the years to try to find her brother since he disappeared in 2013. In April, someone contacted the family asking for payment to release him. But after they raised the cash, "he told us my brother had died three days earlier," Suaad said. Two weeks later, another person rang, offering a phone call with her brother. When the call came, there was no audible voice on the other end of the line; all they got for their money was static. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says around half a million people have entered regime jails since the 2011 start of Syria's conflict, of whom 60,000 have died of poor detention conditions or torture. Another mother, 56-year-old Umm Yahya, said she had managed to visit her son just once, six months after he was detained in Idlib, northwest Syria, in 2012. "I barely recognized him. His weight had dropped from 110 (240 pounds) to less than 50 kilos," she said. She has heard nothing since. Her family has over the years poured a small fortune into the pockets of possible intermediaries, selling two plots of land and a house in Idlib to cover the costs, but to no avail. Her husband has grown increasingly reluctant to squander the family's savings. Two years ago, a lawyer asked for $10,000, but her husband refused. "If a hundred more people turned up, even if there was just a one percent chance of success, I would do it again," said Umm Yahya.
Estimated $900 million in bribes
The Association of Detainees and Missing Persons at Sednaya prison accused the regime in a report earlier this year of using detention as a means to extort money and "increase the influence of security services, their leaders, influential people in its government, some judges and lawyers." It carried out hundreds of interviews showing that families had paid a total of more than $2.7 million over the years in return for the promise of information, a visit or a release from jail. Based on that figure, the association estimates that the Syrian regime has made almost $900 million through "extortion" of families over the past decade. Noura Ghazi, director of Nophotozone, an association which helps detainees' relatives, said many lawyers "invested" in state security courts. Most of them deceive the families, "but some pay bribes to judges and to the security apparatuses, while taking a percentage or just their fees, and succeed in getting a person released", she said.
Though most efforts fail, three people told AFP they had managed to transfer their relative to a better jail or even to have them freed. Tamer said his family spent the past two years trying to save his brother Nizar from death in detention. Nizar was arrested in 2018 in southern Syria despite having signed a so-called "reconciliation deal" with the regime. The family learned he had been taken to Sednaya and was to appear before a military court infamous for handing out death sentences. An MP asked for a payment of $40,000, but the family did not trust him. They agreed instead to pay the same amount to a lawyer but only after his sentence was reduced and he was transferred. Within a month, he delivered and they paid. Then a presidential pardon reduced his sentence further and Nizar was set free, returning home after having shed 30 kilos. Tamer said that had they known about the upcoming pardon, they would have done it all anyway. "All we wanted was to get him out of there as soon as possible."

Cross-Border Aid to Syria Will End, Says Russian Ambassador to U.N.
Agence France PresseJune 30, 2021
U.N. authorization of cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria without Damascus's agreement will stop, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday, without giving a timeframe. "It is now a day-to-day operation and eventually it will be closed," Vassily Nebenzia told reporters when asked if a consensus could be found in the Security Council to extend the agreement that expires on July 10. Asked if Russia deemed it unnecessary to re-authorize the only access -- at Bab al-Hawa on the border between Syria and Turkey -- he said: "I will not give you any definitive answer at this time. We are continuing consulting."Nebenzia said aid from Damascus should increase as the crossings were reduced last year from four to one. He added that a humanitarian convoy bound for the opposition-held Idlib enclave had been authorized in April 2020 by Damascus but never reached its destination due to obstruction by those who control the region. UN sources confirmed the information to AFP. The Bab al-Hawa crossing will require a UN vote to stay open, but Russia, which is allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, may use its veto power to block it. Ireland and Norway, non-permanent members of the Security Council, presented a draft resolution Friday that seeks to keep the crossing open for one year and to reopen a second crossing point, Al-Yarubiyah, which allows supplies to reach Syria's northeast from Iraq. Humanitarian organizations have been pleading for months for an extension of the U.N. authorization. "In such a politicized environment, as currently experienced in Syria, the humanitarian community should be given the space, the necessary access and the means to build sustainable and continuous supply chains," Laetitia Courtois, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told AFP.

Family Accuses Syria Kurdish Force of Torturing Son to Death
Agence France Presse/June 30, 2021
A family has accused Kurdish forces in northeast Syria of torturing to death a detained relative, sparking a social media uproar despite the denial of Kurdish authorities. The accusations came from the family of Amin Issa al-Ahmad, a 34-year-old who was detained by the Kurdish Asayish security forces on May 22, allegedly on charges of corruption and bribery. His family received his corpse on Monday and charged in a statement the next day that it bore signs of torture. A medical examiner hired by the family detected a "fractured jaw and bleeding in the skull", the statement said.
There were also "bruises on the knees... the neck, and the back of the head," as well as burns, it added. The family said it held the Kurdish administration responsible for the "death of our son under torture, since it is a de-facto government responsible for the safety and security of all citizens living in areas under its control". The allegations are the strongest and most direct accusations of torture yet against the US-backed Kurdish authorities who have carved out a semi-autonomous region in Syria's northeast following years of war. The Kurdish administration has denied the allegations.
A judicial body linked to the administration, citing medical reports, on Tuesday said Amin had died "of a stroke", and not of torture. It said there were no traces of "beating... or torture" on his body and claimed it had invited the family to select its own doctors for further examination. But "the body was received and buried by the family without any medical examination," it said. Amin's family published pictures showing him with a bloodied, swollen face, and with large red marks on his body. The Kurdish administration said the images were fabricated and released footage of Issa's corpse that did not show any evidence of abuse. On social media networks, Kurdish activists were among the many users pressing Kurdish authorities to investigate the death. Kurdish authorities regularly tout themselves as a model of democratic rule in war-torn Syria. But critics accuse Kurdish-led forces of having recruited child soldiers and the administration of having detained political opponents, charges they deny.

Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dies at 88: Statement
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/30 June ,2021
Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has died at the age of 88, a statement from his family said on Wednesday. “It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather,” the family statement read. “History may remember him for his extraordinary accomplishments over six decades of public service, but for those who know him best and whose lives were forever changed as a result, we will remember his unwavering love for his wife Joyce, his family and friends, and the integrity he brought to a life dedicated to country,” Rumsfeld’s family said. Rumsfeld has been criticized for his role in the US invasion of Iraq, which he heavily lobbied for during his time as defense secretary under former President George W. Bush. Rumsfeld also led the Pentagon when the US went to war in Afghanistan. The former US president replaced Rumsfeld three years later after the Republican Party took a beating in the midterm US elections. Bush released a statement offering his condolences and praising Rumsfeld. “All his life, he was good-humored and big-hearted, and he treasured his family above all else,” a statement by the former president said. “We mourn an exemplary public servant and a very good man.”

Saudi Arabia foils attempt to smuggle 4.5 mln captagon pills hidden in oranges
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/30 June ,2021
Saudi Arabia has foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 4.5 million captagon pills hidden in a shipment of oranges, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority announced on Wednesday. In collaboration with the General Directorate of Narcotics Control, the shipment was seized in the Jeddah Islamic Port after it underwent routine and X-ray searches in accordance with customs procedures, authorities said in a statement. Authorities also said those were scheduled to receive the shipment were arrested in the Kingdom. The statement did not mention the origin of the drugs, however, Saudi Arabia had previously banned imports of Lebanese produce in April citing increased attempts to smuggle drugs from that country.. Saudi authorities announced on Saturday the seizure of 14.4 million amphetamine pills from Lebanon, hidden in shipment of iron plates. In April, they said they discovered 5.3 million such pills hidden in pomegranate shipments from Lebanon. With Reuters

Explosion injures 11 in Iraq’s Baghdad: Police
Reuters/30 June ,2021
At least 11 people were wounded in an explosion on Wednesday in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighbourhood, Iraqi police and medical workers said. A military statement said an explosion took place in Sadr City but gave no details. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. It was the second attack to hit Sadr City and the third to target a busy market this year in Baghdad. In April four people were killed and 20 wounded in a car bomb attack in the same neighbourhood. And in January a suicide attack killed at least 32 people in a crowded market. Both attacks were claimed by Islamic State militants. Large bomb attacks, once an almost daily occurrence in the Iraqi capital, have halted since Islamic State fighters were defeated in 2017, part of an overall improvement in security that has brought normal life back to Baghdad. Wednesday’s attack comes during an election year, a time when tension between rival Iraqi political groups has often caused violence. The populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, after whom Sadr city is named and who commands a following of millions of Iraqis, counts among his enemies both Islamic State and rival Shi’ite parties with militias backed by Iran.

Israel and UAE to Sign More Deals, Lapid Says
Agence France Presse/June 30, 2021
Israel's top diplomat Yair Lapid said Wednesday that more cooperation deals with the UAE were on the horizon, during a landmark visit to the Gulf nation. The United Arab Emirates and Israel normalized ties in September, paving the way for a raft of deals ranging from tourism and aviation to financial services. "We're going sign more agreements in July... in Israel. So it's going to expand," he told journalists. "The vision is (that) it moves from governments to business to people." Lapid was speaking as he opened an Israeli consulate in the commercial hub of Dubai, a day after opening the country's first Gulf embassy in UAE capital Abu Dhabi. "What we are opening here today isn't only a consulate. It's a center of cooperation. A place that symbolizes our ability to think together, to develop together, to change the world together," he said. On Wednesday, he also visited the gigantic Expo 2020 Dubai, at which Israel will participate along with more than 190 countries. The six-month global expo, which Dubai hopes will attract visitors and boost the economy, is set to launch in October after a one-year delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. "The Israeli pavilion will serve as a platform to establish bilateral cooperation in business, industry, investments, culture and academia," said Israel's point man for the expo, Elazar Cohen, in a statement.
'Economic and commercial cooperation'
Lapid also met with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, on Tuesday, signing an agreement "for economic and commercial cooperation", according to a UAE foreign ministry statement. From oil to tourism to cutting-edge technologies, the two countries hope to benefit from an economic dividend following the normalization agreement. Bilateral trade has reached over $675.22 million since the signing of the so-called Abraham Accords in September last year, Israel's top diplomat told the UAE's WAM news agency. "Since September 2020, a number of transactions, valued at tens of millions of dollars, have been signed between Israeli and Emirati companies in the fields of artificial intelligence, cyber, renewable energy, water security, health and more," Lapid said. Israeli ministers have previously visited the UAE, but newly appointed Lapid became the most senior Israeli to make the trip, and the first on an official mission. Lapid's visit comes amid escalating tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, peaking last month in an 11-day conflict. That came just months after Israel struck accords with the UAE and then also with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, sparking outrage among Palestinians. The deals break with decades of Arab League policy making an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal a prerequisite for Arab relations with Israel. Lapid voiced hopes that such deals would reach "the entire region."
'Still worried' on Iran
Following the U.S.-brokered deal between the UAE and Israel, officials in Washington had talked of bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords. But Lapid talked down any imminent breakthrough in that direction. "It's not easy as it sounds, it going to take time... a lot of difficulties (are) in the way, but Israel's goal is peace in the region and peace with its neighbors," he said. The new foreign minister's trip also comes as Israeli arch-ally the U.S. and arch-enemy Iran hold indirect talks aiming to revive a 2015 nuclear deal -- efforts the previous Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu had strongly opposed. Lapid said Israel was "still worried" about the talks, but used language markedly different from that of Netanyahu. "There are three options. The best one is a good agreement... that we prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons," he said.
"Second-best is the sanction, the maximum pressure, and the third is a bad agreement."

Putin Accuses U.S. of Involvement in UK Warship Incident
Agence France Presse/June 30, 2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Washington of involvement in an incident involving a British destroyer off the coast of Moscow-annexed Crimea. Last week, Russia said it fired warning shots to ward off the British navy's HMS Defender as it passed near the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea in what it said was a violation of its territorial waters. "This, of course, was a provocation -- that is completely obvious," Putin said during his annual televised phone-in. "It was complex and was carried out not only by the British, but also by the Americans." As his evidence, Putin said that before the UK ship entered waters claimed by Russia last week, an "American strategic reconnaissance aircraft" had taken off from a NATO military airfield in Greece. He did not provide any more details. Britain has defended the ship's route, saying the HMS Defender was making "an innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law". Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and claims the waters around the peninsula as part of its territory. Most countries do not recognize the takeover and stand behind Ukraine's claims to the waters.Putin said Wednesday that "we on our territory fight for ourselves, for our future." "Even if we sank that ship, the world wouldn't have been on the verge of World War III, because those who are doing this know that they couldn't be the winners in this war," he said. Incidents involving Western aircraft and ships are not uncommon at Russia's borders, especially during heightened tensions with Washington, Brussels and London, but rarely result in open fire. Earlier this month, Putin held his first in-person meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at a summit in Geneva aimed at restoring relations with Washington that are at their lowest in years. While both leaders spoke positively about their first in-person meeting, ties between Russia and the United States remain strained.

Turkish reporters protest police methods, say ‘cannot be silenced’
The Arab Weekly/Reuters/June 30/202
ISTANBUL – Dozens of reporters in Istanbul and Ankara rallied on Tuesday demanding protection from the police following the violent arrest of an AFP photographer during a banned Istanbul Pride event. Award-winning photographer Bulent Kilic filed a “violent arrest” complaint against police officers who pinned him to the ground with their legs against his neck and back while he was covering the march on Saturday. He was released without charges after being taken to a police station for questioning. Dozens of Pride event protesters were also briefly detained. AFP chief executive Fabrice Fries “strongly protested” the detention in a letter urging Turkish officials to “swiftly investigate this incident and take the necessary measures so that the involved officers are held accountable”. The European Union’s ambassador to Turkey also expressed support for Kilic at a media awards ceremony in the capital Ankara. “Of course the use of violence against journalists is not acceptable. I need to say this here today,” EU ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut said.
‘Cannot be silenced’
Dozens of journalists rallied near the Istanbul governor’s mansion holding photos of Kilic’s head pinned to the ground and signs saying: “We can’t breathe”. “Press freedoms cannot be silenced,” they chanted while some hung their cameras to the fence surrounding the governor’s mansion in protest. A Turkish journalists’ union said Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya told them during a subsequent meeting that an administrative investigation had been launched against the arresting officer. Many reporters in Turkey have drawn parallels between the manner of Kilic’s arrest and the killing of African American George Floyd by white police officers last year. Similar slogans rang out during an unsanctioned event attended by dozens of reporters in a park in the Turkish capital. “Our colleagues face violence for simply doing their job,” the Turkish Journalists’ Association’s Ankara branch head Esra Kocak Mayda said as anti-riot police observed a short distance away. Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu called on the government “to provide clear instructions for state security forces to end this unacceptable treatment before it is too late”.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government comes under relentless criticism for stifling the media and political dissent. Reporters say their jobs became even more difficult after the Turkish police issued a circular in late April banning the dissemination of images or audio of officers without their consent. Bar associations are challenging the measure as unconstitutional.
Turkey ranked 153rd out of 180 countries in RSF’s latest World Press Freedom Index.

Defence portfolio sparks dispute within Libyan interim government
Habib Lassoued/The Arab Weekly/June 30/2021
The Presidency Council warned that it could nominate a minister of defence and refer the nomination directly to the House of Representatives for a vote, if the prime minister does not attend the meeting to be held for this purpose Sunday.
TUNIS - Disagreements between the President of the Libyan Presidency Council, Mohammed al-Menfi and the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, have come into the open.
Recent arguments over appointing a minister of defence have illustrated the gulf separating the two men. Menfi and Dbeibah do not share the same viewpoints on security, defence and diplomatic options as a result of the social, regional and regional considerations dividing them. Each seems to have entrenched himself in positions tied to those of the influential regional forces that were instrumental in bringing him to power at the Political Dialogue Forum on February 5. Lingering disagreements over the defence portfolio in early March caused Dbeibah to take on the job of defence minister alongside his responsibilities as premier. At the same time, it was agreed that the Presidency Council would assume the position of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The job of unifying the armed forces is still not a pressing concern for the government, despite this unification being urged in UN Security Council resolutions, regional and international agreements and political and military deals. The Presidency Council called on Dbeibah to attend an important meeting to be held next Sunday at the offices of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, to discuss the issue of appointing a minister of defence and settling the matter once and for all. The Council, in its capacity as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, has pressed the prime minister to expedite the nomination of a minister of defence. It warned that if the prime minister did not attend Sunday’s meeting it could itself nominate a minister of defence and refer its choice directly to the House of Representatives for a vote.
Observers believe that if Dbeibah avoids the meeting, he will hasten the showdown and push the Presidency Council to coordinate its decisions directly with the 5 + 5 Joint Committee so as to choose a consensus figure to oversee the defence portfolio. The Joint Committee enjoys the confidence of the United Nations and the international community and plays a decisive role in military matters, Libyan MP Ali Al-Takbali told The Arab Weekly, “The harmony between the Presidency Council and the Dbeibah government has been lacking from the start, after Dbeibah kept the ministry of defence for himself and said that he would be the interim defence minister, but the situation remained unchanged.”Takbali added that “the threat that if the head of the unity government does not show up at the meeting so that understanding can be reached on this issue, leading the Presidency Council to appoint a defence minister, clearly reflects this absence of harmony. The reason is that those who control the scene are the militia members who chose their own path and became ministers and rulers.” He stressed that, “The problem lies in the international community, which talks about elections and a unified government without examining the real causes of the Libyan crisis, which is mainly the militias.”According to the power sharing agreement, the defence portfolio is to go to someone drawn from the southern province of Fezzan. Dbeibah explained to parliament when it approved his government at its meeting in Sirte that a defence minister had yet not been selected due to the lack of internal consensus on a particular figure, as well as to international pressures. Libyan political sources attribute the re-emergence of the issue of the ministry of defence at this time to the growing wariness of the Presidential Council over the domination by Dbeibah of political and military decision-making and his marginalisation of the role of the two deputy premiers as well as that of most of the ministers, coupled with his reliance instead on a team of advisers affiliated with his particular regional and ideological camp. Dbeibah is also seen as marginalising the role of the Presidency Council .
The sources further told The Arab Weekly that the dispute between Dbeibah and Menfi reflects the nature of the contradictions that divide Libyan decision-makers, the absence of coordination between institutions and the prime minister’s desire to monopolise power. This has sparked an open confrontation between him and both the Presidency Council and the House of Representatives.
June 20, Dbeibah hurried to the Buirat Al-Hassoun area, west of Sirte, where he mounted a bulldozer to remove three dirt berms on the western side of the road and announce the opening of the coastal road linking the east and west of the country. It became clear afterwards that his move was only for show on the eve of the Berlin II conference, as the Military Committee confirmed later that the road will not open until the completion of it maintenance and security measures around it. It became obvious that Dbeibah had not coordinated his “re-opening” performance with the committee.
The use of the presidential plane has also become a contentious issue between the two sides as local reports spoke of a sharp dispute over the right to use the jet. On June 22, Dbeibah and his accompanying delegation took the plane during their trip to Germany to attend the Berlin II conference. This prevented Menfi from using it the same day to travel to Rome. Also, Dbeibah’s monopoly of Libya’s representation in the conference, although Menfi was invited to its sessions, further deepened the gap between the two parties, not least because the political agreement reached by the Dialogue Forum assigned the formal protocol of representing Libya with foreign countries to the president of the Presidency Council.

Canada/Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Development on ceasefire in Tigray
June 30, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, today issued the following statement:
“Canada welcomes Monday’s declaration by the Government of Ethiopia that an immediate, unilateral ceasefire, applicable to all federal and regional forces, is in effect in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. We urge all parties to allow unhindered humanitarian access and call on Eritrea to withdraw its forces immediately.
“Canada calls on all parties to take this opportunity to pursue a peaceful resolution to the conflict that will bring sustainable security in the region.
“The conflict in Tigray and the resulting humanitarian crisis have led to tremendous suffering and tragic loss of life. It is critical that this ceasefire translate into immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access. Civilians and humanitarian workers, as well as hospitals and medical facilities, must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law and UN Security Council Resolution 2286.
“It is critical that those who have been subject to human rights violations and abuses throughout the conflict to obtain justice. Perpetrators of these crimes must be held to account, without exception.
“Canada stands ready to support the Government of Ethiopia and its people in pursuing a national, inclusive political process and reconciliation that reflects the will of all citizens.”

Canada/Foreign Affairs Minister and International Development Minister conclude successful G20 Foreign and Development Ministers’ Meeting
June 29, 2021 - Matera, Italy - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, today concluded their participation in the G20 Foreign and Development Ministers’ Meeting in Matera, Italy.
Minister Garneau highlighted the value of multilateralism with his G20 counterparts and emphasized the need to focus on supporting developing countries. He also underlined Canada’s interest in working together toward an inclusive and resilient recovery and revitalizing an effective rules-based international system.
In addition to participating in the joint Foreign and Development Ministers’ Meeting, Minister Gould joined her counterparts virtually to discuss solutions to our most pressing development challenges, including financing for sustainable development.
Both ministers underscored Canada’s support for the G20 Matera Declaration, which is a call to action for all participating countries in response to the effects of the pandemic on agriculture and food security.
During his visit, Minister Garneau had fruitful bilateral meetings with his counterparts from France, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore and Spain.
Quotes
“The G20 offers a unique opportunity to strengthen collaboration with the world’s most advanced economies to address pressing challenges. Canada is committed to continuing to defend and champion multilateral efforts and the rules-based international system in working toward an inclusive, resilient recovery.”
- Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“Through the G20, Canada comes together with our global counterparts to consider issues that matter deeply to Canadians, such as food security, health systems and climate action. The pandemic has underscored how truly interconnected our world is and how essential collaboration is to finding shared solutions to global challenges.”
- Karina Gould, Minister of International Development
Quick facts
G20 members consist of the world’s major economies and represent all inhabited continents, 80% of global economic output, 60% of the world’s population and 75% of international trade.
Italy assumed the G20 presidency on December 1, 2020, focusing on 3 broad, interconnected pillars: people, planet and prosperity.
Associated links
G20 Development Ministers Communiqué
Matera Declaration on Food Security, Nutrition and Food Systems

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 30-01 July/2021
Biden Needs an International Organizations Strategy
Richard Goldberg/Foreign Policy/June 30/2021
A U.S. State Department czar should lead a campaign to stop China and Russia from gaining control of multilateral agencies.
When U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. intelligence community to dig deeper into the possibility that COVID-19 might have spread from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, he underscored a basic truth: Multilateral agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) are frequently blocked or manipulated by authoritarian regimes and increasingly incapable of protecting either U.S. or global interests. The Biden administration and U.S. Congress face a fundamental question: What is the United States’ strategy to counter the systematic exploitation of international organizations by hostile countries while defending U.S. sovereignty, national security, allies, and democratic values?
Every year, Congress appropriates billions of dollars to the United Nations and related bodies, yet neither Congress nor the executive branch exercise sufficient oversight. This funding is also devoid of a comprehensive strategy to advance U.S. interests and counter manipulation by China, Russia, and other adversaries. It’s not a partisan issue: Republican and Democratic administrations have proven equally shortsighted.
China’s and Russia’s disruptive efforts are most visible in the U.N. Security Council, where both have used their permanent member veto power to block, for example, attempts to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people or hold the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad accountable for using chemical weapons. However, the actions of U.S. adversaries inside organizations under the U.N. umbrella pose an even bigger challenge.
China is currently seeking control of key standard-setting bodies to advance its Belt and Road Initiative, whitewash its oppression of minorities, and isolate Taiwan. Beijing’s power and influence within the U.N. system has grown dramatically in recent years, with China winning elections to lead specialized U.N. agencies, gaining seats on international tribunals and councils, and joining the U.N. Board of Auditors. Economic coercion—leveraging foreign direct investment and foreign debt holdings—plays a central role in China’s strategy to buy votes in the General Assembly.
One approach to this challenge is for the United States to dismiss this as a challenge or withdraw from such organizations altogether. They are ineffective by nature, or so the argument goes, and there is no cost to letting China achieve decisive influence. Yet a closer look illustrates the risk of this assumption.
During her confirmation hearing, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield pledged to make countering China and Russia among her top priorities.
Take the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), for example. Beijing won elections to head both agencies in recent years, providing China with two key platforms to advance its own standards—and block others’—in key technologies and economic sectors. As the United States worked to educate the private sector and key allies about the security threats posed by Huawei’s 5G network, the Chinese telecommunications giant leveraged Beijing’s leadership at the ITU to defend the company’s record. At the ICAO, the Chinese secretary-general tried to conceal a China-based cyber hack of the organization’s networks, leaving international airlines and aerospace companies vulnerable to further intrusions.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) and WHO offer two more examples of international bodies in need of U.S. leadership and major reforms. China wants to enjoy the benefits of WTO membership while skirting its rules and stealing Western intellectual property without consequences. The WHO stumbled badly in dealing with severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola yet has resisted the reforms that might have prepared it to deal more effectively with COVID-19. At the annual assembly of WHO member states, politically driven denunciations of Israel distract from more pressing business. At this year’s assembly, the members elected Syria to the WHO’s executive board, even though the WHO itself has documented the regime’s bombing of hospitals. But it is Beijing’s influence over the WHO that has emerged as a unique threat. The agency all but allowed China to set the terms for dealing with the current pandemic. Whether the lab leak theory proves true or not, one thing is certain: China covered up the origins and seriousness of COVID-19, and the WHO has largely gone along with it.
Russia, meanwhile, obstructs efforts to be held accountable for using banned chemical weapons while shielding rogue states like Syria and Iran from any consequences for their breaches of weapons prohibitions—chemical and nuclear, respectively. Specifically, Moscow has defended Iran from investigations into its undeclared nuclear activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency while spreading disinformation to prevent the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from taking action against Syria.
During her confirmation hearing, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield pledged to make countering China and Russia among her top priorities. More recently, the U.S. State Department announced it would back a U.S. candidate to lead the ITU, which is scheduled to hold an election later this year. But more will be needed to gain the upper hand on the political battlefield of international organizations. The State Department should appoint a czar for international organization elections to work with the White House in developing an ongoing war room-style operation to beat Chinese and Russian-backed candidates for leadership posts at the U.N. and other international organizations.
However, not all agencies can be fixed, and the United States needs a better strategy for handling these as well. Even if they were established with good intentions, some bodies have become so resistant to oversight and reform that no amount of U.S. participation, funding, or diplomacy can save them. Instead, they may need a comprehensive reboot or even dismantlement. Two examples are the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
UNRWA was established in 1950 to care for Arab refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Had it adopted the mission of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees—to resettle refugees if repatriation proves impossible—or had UNRWA been incorporated into the UNHCR after it became clear repatriation was unlikely, the agency would no longer exist. The few hundred thousand refugees of 1950 would have been resettled decades ago. Instead, the agency today claims to serve millions of people and demands hundreds of millions of dollars annually from U.S. taxpayers—all with no board of governors or mode of institutional oversight led by major funders, such as the United States.
The UNRWA has also produced schoolbooks that incite Palestinian students to violence against Israelis, which UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said were “mistakenly distributed.” And by holding out the possibility that millions of Palestinians descended from original refugees might someday relocate to Israel—the so-called right of return that would make Israel no longer a Jewish-majority nation and would never be accepted by Jerusalem—the UNRWA has become an institutional barrier to a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. For these and other reasons, the Trump administration was right to cut off funding to the agency. The Biden administration, which has restored that funding without demanding any reforms in return, would be wise to press for a transition plan that takes Palestinians away from dependence on UNRWA bureaucracy and toward self-sufficiency.
Meanwhile, the UNHRC demonstrates the futility of U.S. engagement with an unreformable body. In its 15-year history, it has passed more resolutions condemning the Jewish state than all other countries combined, even as China, North Korea, Syria, and other countries perpetrate repeated crimes against their own people. Accordingly, Biden should work with like-minded nations to scrap the council—and instead form a new group with only democratic states as members.
Whether working with allies or mounting the fight alone, Washington must wage a campaign of reform battles, agency by agency.
Even though the U.N. General Assembly elected China, Russia, and Cuba to the UNHCR last October, Biden has chosen to stay engaged. When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the United States would run for a seat on the council, he argued “improving the Council and advancing its critical work is best done with a seat at the table.” The Obama administration made the same argument, but in neither instance did the United States deliver reforms. That oppressive regimes are routinely elected to preside over human rights is no accident: The General Assembly elects the council’s members by secret ballot, so no member state has to take responsibility for backing oppressive regimes.
The Biden administration must understand that mere engagement is not the same as actively pushing for outcomes that strengthen the United States’ national security and promote its values. This tendency to engage for engagement’s sake confuses the means with the end. You can’t win if you don’t fight—assuming winning is the goal.
Whether working with allies or mounting the fight alone, Washington must wage a campaign of reform battles, agency by agency, to restore the U.S.-led international order. That means fixing where possible and nixing when necessary. The battle to advance U.S. interests and counter adversaries inside international organizations will require tenacity and commitment. And that commitment must come from Democrats and Republicans alike.
It’s only a matter of time before a multilateral agency fails to address the next regional or global crisis. The United States must learn the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic’s cover-up perpetrated by China and enabled by the WHO. Failure to do so could lead to even greater loss of life and economic devastation. Policymakers can take critical steps to protect Americans now. But that will require a readiness to hold international organizations accountable rather than writing more blank checks and hoping for the best.
Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He served on Capitol Hill, on the U.S. National Security Council, and as the governor of Illinois’s chief of staff. Follow him on Twitter @rich_goldberg. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

A Better Blueprint for International Organizations
Advancing American Interests on the Global Stage
Richard Goldberg/Ambassador Nikki R. Haley Monograph/FDD/June 30/2021
What the United States Can – and Cannot – Expect at the United Nations
By Ambassador Nikki R. Haley
The United Nations has much promise – and many problems. Understanding this strange dynamic is necessary for the United States to make the most of its membership in that flawed organization and its many satellite agencies.
Any discussion of the United Nations must start with a simple fact: The United States has nothing to prove at the United Nations. We have already saved the world multiple times in multiple ways. Thanks to our leadership, humanity has risen to historically unimaginable heights of peace, prosperity, and personal freedom. We do not need the United Nations to validate or even support our efforts to spur even greater progress. Conversely, the United Nations is too dysfunctional, too divided, and too mired in tyranny for us to rely on it. Even so, we must continue to wield the United Nations to make our case. And whatever the reaction, we should push forward with what we know is right.
As history shows us, and as I personally saw at Turtle Bay, the United States is at its best at the United Nations when we stand strong. We must stand up to our adversaries, unmistakably and unapologetically. We should stand by our friends, boldly and bravely. And we must stand for our principles, confidently and clearly. The moment we fail at any of these tasks, we undermine our interests and our ideals. That is never a good thing, but it is especially dangerous when so many other countries are using the United Nations for evil purposes.
Our adversaries know how to use the United Nations’ structure and flaws to their advantage. Take Russia. As a permanent member of the Security Council, it can stand in the way of almost anything serious we pursue at the United Nations.
I saw it happen many times. In 2017, Russia covered for Syria’s chemical attack, which killed about 400 people, including 25 children. Knowing full well that Russia would veto our resolution condemning the attack, I stood in the Security Council chambers and showed the world the pictures of those dead children. It would not change the Russian ambassador’s mind, but it did demonstrate that the United States would shine a spotlight on their crimes and complicity. Moscow will continue to thwart efforts to hold Russia and its minions accountable. When it does, the United States must confront Russia and criticize it as forcefully as possible.
The United States must also be wary of Communist China. Like Russia, Beijing uses its seat on the Security Council to block justified and moral measures. Equally concerning, China is quietly working to corrupt the United Nations from top to bottom. Beijing is pursuing control of virtually every UN agency. Its actions are malicious and often disastrous.
There is no better proof than the World Health Organization (WHO). For years, China gained significant leverage over the WHO through a combination of funding and pressure. Beijing then manipulated the agency during the coronavirus pandemic. The WHO adopted the Chinese party line despite being banned from entering the country during the initial outbreak. It praised China’s response despite clear evidence of a cover-up. And it continues to cooperate with China despite the country’s unwillingness to share key information on the virus’ origins and spread. China’s stranglehold on the WHO contributed to the death of more than 3 million people, including at least 500,000 Americans.
The United States must call out China’s attempts to co-opt the United Nations and its agencies. We should rally other countries to oppose China’s influence. As ambassador, I lost track of how many countries expressed their fear of China’s bullying. They are counting on us to have their backs – and to push back, hard.
The WHO’s struggles illustrate another sad reality: Many UN agencies are broken. The United States should try to fix them where possible. Yet we cannot fall into the trap of mistaking process for progress. Some parts of the United Nations just cannot be salvaged. Sometimes we are better off leaving them behind.
An obvious example is the UN Human Rights Council, which is a cesspool of human rights violators – from Cuba to China to Venezuela to Russia. I pressed our allies and partners to demand reforms, but they were content with the status quo. So I led the effort to withdraw the United States from the council. We care too much about human rights and individual freedom to be part of a group that undermines both. Our principles are too important to get lost in the endless and pointless process that UN bureaucrats prefer.
We also withdrew from the Human Rights Council because the United States stands with our friends. The council spent the vast majority of its time condemning Israel – a free and democratic country. It has a standing agenda item devoted to Israel. It has passed 10 times as many resolutions condemning Israel as it has for China, North Korea, Iran, and Cuba combined. Friends do not sit still while their friends get attacked, so we walked away. We stopped funding the UN Relief and Works Agency for similar reasons. That agency does more to foster hatred toward Israel than it does to support actual Palestinian refugees. So much of the United Nations has an insane fixation on Israel. In fact, when it comes to Israel, there is no clearer sign of the United Nations’ profound shortcomings.
It was my privilege to tackle those shortcomings as ambassador. We made headway in many areas. But I have no illusions that we can solve all the United Nations’ problems. We should make progress where we can, walk away when we cannot, and hold the line when we must.
Amb. Nikki R. Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 2017–2019
Introduction
By Richard Goldberg
Despite America’s status as the leader of the free world, a champion of human rights, and the largest financial contributor to the UN system, the authoritarian regimes that rule China, Russia, Iran, and other rogue states increasingly exploit the systems Washington created to maintain a peaceful international order after World War II.
While China’s and Russia’s disruptive efforts to upend the U.S.-led international order are on full display at the UN Security Council, where both countries wield their permanent-member vetoes freely, their malign actions within smaller, lesser-known organizations pose an even bigger challenge.
China pursues a sophisticated, multi-pronged strategy to exploit international organizations: seeking control of key standard-setting bodies, advancing its Belt and Road Initiative, whitewashing its misdeeds, and isolating Taiwan. Beijing’s power and influence within the UN system has grown dramatically in recent years, with China winning elections to lead four of the 15 UN specialized agencies, gaining seats on international tribunals and councils, joining the UN Board of Auditors, and deploying more troops to peacekeeping missions. Russia, meanwhile, has worked tirelessly to cover up its own illicit conduct and non-compliance with multilateral agreements, while shielding rogue states such as Syria and Iran from international accountability for their human rights atrocities and breach of chemical and nuclear weapons regimes.
At the same time, many international organizations suffer from an obsession with the State of Israel that moves beyond fair critique to unbridled antisemitism. Double standards abound, with agencies singling out Israel for scrutiny while ignoring grave abuses by others. Some agencies enable anti-Israel extremists to abuse their agendas, events, and legal procedures.
Every year, Congress appropriates billions of dollars to the United Nations and related bodies.1 These contributions often lack sufficient U.S. oversight. They are also devoid of a comprehensive U.S. strategy to advance U.S. interests and those of our closest allies.
As Congress now considers President Joe Biden’s first International Affairs Budget,2 one question looms large: What is America’s strategy to counter the exploitation of international organizations by dictatorships hostile to freedom and democracy, while defending U.S. sovereignty, vital interests, democratic allies, and fundamental values?
Policymakers must not confuse participation with leadership. Accommodation is not a strategy. Talking about reform is not the same as achieving it. Engaging in diplomacy is not the same as achieving an outcome that strengthens America’s national security and economic prosperity.
Many international organizations can serve an important function that if managed with integrity and proper oversight, can advance U.S. security and economic interests. Any one of these organizations can, however, be corrupted – either by its leadership or by its bureaucracy. In that vein, this monograph explores the challenges facing the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Trade Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Other organizations were established with good intentions but were quickly hijacked. U.S. participation or funding alone cannot save them, because their structures prevent oversight and reform. Such bodies may need a comprehensive reboot or simple dismantlement. They include the UN Relief and Works Agency, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and a handful of Palestinian-related entities. This report explores their failings, too.
To be clear, this monograph is not exhaustive; the organizations detailed here are a representative sample of agencies posing challenges to U.S. interests. The ITU, for example, is one of several standard-setting bodies in Beijing’s sights. UNIFIL is one of several peacekeeping missions that wastes American taxpayer dollars. The ICC is one of several organizations implementing a convention to which the United States is not a party – and where adversaries challenge the sovereignty of the United States and its closest democratic allies. Russia’s malign influence in the nonproliferation arena extends beyond the IAEA and OPCW – just as China’s ambitions to advance its Belt and Road Initiative extend beyond the UN Secretariat to important economic agencies and committees.
Policymakers concerned about the exploitation of international organizations need a plan for action. Past promises that American participation alone would encourage reform now lack credibility. The State Department and Congress – working with like-minded nations – must wage reform battles on an agency-by-agency basis to restore the U.S.-led order. This monograph offers 11 places to begin. But the effort to advance American interests and counter our adversaries within international organizations will be a long one. And it will require commitment from Democrats and Republicans alike.

The Palestinian Police State
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/June 30, 2021
These [Palestinian] leaders have turned the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank into a police state where political opponents are beaten to death, arrested, tortured and intimidated.
The crackdown was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the West -- until the death of Banat. It was ignored because the perpetrators were not Israeli policemen or soldiers. It was ignored because the media could not find a way to blame Israel for the fact that the Palestinian government was harassing, intimidating and torturing Palestinians.
The silence of the international community and media towards the human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority has prompted Palestinian journalists to make a direct appeal to the European Union to provide them with protection.
The protests... are mainly directed at the Biden administration, whose representatives have recently been courting and searching for ways to cozy up to Abbas and his Fatah cohorts. The message Palestinians are sending to the Biden administration: Stop empowering our brutal, corrupt leaders.
Will the Biden administration and the Western world actually legitimize -- and reward with millions of dollars and possibly even a state – political leaders who brutalize, torture and murder their own journalists and citizens? To gain what? A legacy of America championing a regime like that?
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (pictured) and his Fatah faction have shown that they are basically not all that different from other totalitarian regimes, especially those in the Arab world. These leaders have turned the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank into a police state where political opponents are beaten to death, arrested, tortured and intimidated.
Earlier this year, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas enacted a decree-law on boosting public freedoms ahead of the Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections, which were supposed to take place on May 22 and July 31.
Article I of the law provides for "establishing an atmosphere of public freedoms in all the territories of Palestine, including the freedom to practice political and national action."
Article II provides for "banning the detention, arrest, prosecution of, or holding to account, individuals for reasons relating to the freedom of opinion and political affiliation."
Since the new law was issued on February 20, however, Abbas, who recently entered the 16th year of his four-year term in office, has called off the elections on the pretext that Israel did not reply to his request to allow the vote to take place in Jerusalem.
Israel, it should be noted, never said that it would ban the Palestinian elections from being held in areas under its sovereignty in Jerusalem.
By calling off the elections in late April, Abbas was evidently trying to create the impression that Israel had banned the Palestinians in east Jerusalem from participating in the vote.
Abbas's Palestinian Central Elections Commission, however, evidently disagreed with him.
In a statement, the commission said that 150,000 voters in east Jerusalem would be able to cast ballots at polling stations in areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, a process that does not require a green light from Israel. Separately, a symbolic total of 6,300 voters would be allowed to cast their ballots in Israeli post offices in east Jerusalem, in accordance with previous agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians.
The real reason why Abbas called off the elections was his fear that his fragmented Fatah faction would lose to Hamas and other political rivals. Abbas was afraid that Hamas would again win the parliamentary election, as it did in 2006.
Moreover, Abbas was afraid because senior officials from his own faction, including Marwan Barghouti, Nasser al-Qidwa and Mohammed Dahlan, were openly challenging him by forming their own electoral lists.
Abbas broke his promise to hold the first election for the Palestinian parliament since 2006 and the first presidential election since 2005. In the past few weeks, he has also broken his promise to "reinforce" public freedoms and ban detentions of Palestinians for expressing their views or because of their political affiliation.
During the same time, Abbas and his Fatah faction have shown that they are basically not all that different from other totalitarian regimes, especially those in the Arab world.
These leaders have turned the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank into a police state where political opponents are beaten to death, arrested, tortured and intimidated.
They have turned these areas into a police state where the Palestinian government mobilizes thugs to beat peaceful demonstrators and journalists.
Nizar Banat, the political activist and outspoken critic of the Palestinian leadership who was allegedly beaten to death on June 24 by Palestinian security officers, was not the only Palestinian victim of Abbas's unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression. Since Abbas's decision to call off the elections, dozens of Palestinians have been rounded up by the Palestinian Authority security forces.
The crackdown was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the West -- until the death of Banat. It was ignored because the perpetrators were not Israeli policemen or soldiers. It was ignored because the media could not find a way to blame Israel for the fact that the Palestinian government was harassing, intimidating and torturing Palestinians.

The "Iran Deal" Soon to Be Resuscitated
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/June 30, 2021
لورنس أ.فرانكلين/معهد جيتستون:   إنعاش صفقة إيران النووية قريباً
Raisi's election, "engineered to guarantee his victory," looks suspiciously like a ploy by Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei to terrify the American negotiators into capitulating to Iran's demands even faster and more recklessly, to avoid negotiating with an opponent more uncompromising than the one with whom they are negotiating at present.
The JCPOA is allegedly designed to prevent, or at least postpone, Iran's drive for a nuclear weapons capability along with the means to deliver them. Among the deal's many major drawbacks is that after it expires, Iran can enrich as much uranium to have as many nuclear weapons -- and the means to deliver them -- as it likes.
Despite signs that the P5+1 negotiating team will subscribe to a re-constituted JCPOA "understanding," there seems to exist no trust that the Islamic Republic will comply with any agreement. The IAEA's catalogue of doubts regarding Iran's compliance with any nuclear safeguards is lengthy.
Based on Iran's pattern of obstructionism, the impending renewal of the JCPOA does not inspire confidence that the Islamic Republic -- even if it verbally agrees, or this time signs a document -- will ever be in compliance.
It is also sadly assumed, based on past patterns, that the US, in its eagerness to secure a deal -- any deal -- will back down when faced with any Iranian demand.
Based on Iran's pattern of obstructionism, the impending renewal of the JCPOA "nuclear deal" does not inspire confidence that the Islamic Republic -- even if it verbally agrees, or this time signs a document -- will ever be in compliance. Pictured: The heavy water production facility at Arak, south of Tehran. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
The latest alteration before the Americans trying to revive the "nuclear weapons deal" -- known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- with Iran is the carefully staged election this month of Ebrahim Raisi to its presidency. A clerical hardliner known as "the Butcher," he is responsible for thousands of executions of oppositions leaders, torture and other "ongoing crimes against humanity."
Raisi's election, "engineered to guarantee his victory," looks suspiciously like a ploy by Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei to terrify the American negotiators into capitulating to Iran's demands even faster and more recklessly, to avoid negotiating with an opponent more uncompromising than whomever they are negotiating with at present. Upon his victory, Raisi immediately announced that he will not meet with US President Joe Biden, and that Iran's "ballistic missile program and its support of regional militias" were "nonnegotiable."
Negotiators at the Vienna-based talks on re-establishing the JCPOA have reportedly already drafted an agreement and returned to their respective capitals in the hopes of securing endorsement of the revived JCPOA. While some differences remain, the P5+1 nations (Iran and the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) will likely restore the JCPOA before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's term of office expires in mid-July.
Presumably, President Biden's negotiating team has agreed to substantially lifting the Trump administration's sanctions on Iran to win the support of Iran's hardline dominated regime.
The JCPOA is allegedly designed to prevent, or at least postpone, Iran's drive for a nuclear weapons capability along with the means to deliver them. Among the deal's many major drawbacks is that after it expires, Iran can enrich as much uranium to have as many nuclear weapons -- and the means to deliver them -- as it likes.
One significant question of a newly invigorated JCPOA is whether the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) will be granted complete access to known and suspected Iranian sites associated with the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
The IAEA must also monitor the warehousing or dismantling of Iran's more advanced centrifuges, installed after then US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA in May 2018. During the agreement's term, the IAEA registered its dissatisfaction with the Islamic Republic's lack of cooperation with inspectors. IAEA officials complained that Iran resisted attempts to monitor compliance with the JCPOA. The IAEA will also be tasked with Iran's obligation to export or destroy highly enriched uranium beyond the amount permitted by the JCPOA.
It is likely that the newly negotiated JCPOA will be signed by the P5 +1 countries on or near the anniversary of its original approval by July 15, 2021. Iran, tellingly, never signed the original agreement.
Iran's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araqchi, who heads the Iranian negotiating team in Vienna, only a month ago played down positive expectations. He suggested that there are some difficult issues still to be negotiated, but that the team is making headway nevertheless. Sina Azodi, an Iran specialist at the Atlantic Council, claimed on China Global Television Network (CGTN) that the negotiating team had already arrived at an agreed upon text of the JCPOA's redux. Ali Akbar Dareini, of Tehran's Center of Strategic Studies, echoed the regime leadership's apparent view: that the revival of the JCPOA deal is worth the Iranian agreement in exchange for the lifting of sanctions in order to improve the country's economy. The benefit that the West allegedly secures from the JCPOA is to forestall Iran from developing a nuclear weapon for ten to fifteen years – after which it is open season.
Dareini, author of Legitimate Deterrence, a book on Iran's nuclear program, has repeatedly warned that Iran's national defense plans are not on the table for discussion. Mohsen Milani, an Iranian scholar at the University of South Florida, agreed with Dareini that the US should not expect any future negotiations on missiles or regional policies.
Despite signs that the P5+1 negotiating team will subscribe to a re-constituted JCPOA "understanding," there seems to exist no trust that the Islamic Republic will comply with any agreement. The IAEA's catalogue of doubts regarding Iran's compliance with any nuclear safeguards is lengthy. Some of these instances of non-compliance by Iran include: exceeding the limits of installed centrifuges, imprecise recording of the amount of low enriched uranium, the establishment of unauthorized enrichment sites, and failure to declare exact amounts of imported uranium. In June 2020, the IAEA Board of Governors dispatched a formal resolution of complaint to Iran, calling upon Tehran to satisfy overdue requests regarding several undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran.
Based on Iran's pattern of obstructionism, the impending renewal of the JCPOA does not inspire confidence that the Islamic Republic -- even if it verbally agrees, or this time signs a document -- will ever be in compliance.
Variables determining the worth of a renewed JCPOA include not only whether the IAEA will be able effectively to monitor the Islamic Republic's compliance with the terms of the agreement. Another variable might also include US lobbying with the other signers of the JCPOA to attempt to persuade Iran to discuss other security issues, such as Tehran's ballistic missile programs and support for sub-national terrorist groups. It is also sadly assumed, based on past patterns, that the US, in its eagerness to secure a deal -- any deal -- will back down when faced with any Iranian demand.
The US will also likely put pressure on Israel to refrain from "precipitous" attacks on Iran's nuclear weapons development infrastructure. Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said that Israel's determination to frustrate Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power will not change. He stated – considering Iran's record of cheating -- that no agreement with Iran can be trusted. That Bennett lacks experience of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a given; and understanding the fragility of Bennett's eight-party coalition, Iran will doubtless soon test the new Israeli PM to determine if he possesses the same independent will both to resist US pressure and to defend Israel's vital interests as his predecessor Netanyahu did.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 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.

Patriotism and Noble Deeds: The Pleasures of Life
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/June 30/2021
Many [naturalized citizens] have endured the terror of dictatorships, the fear of the secret police, and the destruction of personal liberties. They know from first-hand experience just how extraordinary our nation is.
America is about to observe yet another Fourth of July holiday. We will do so against a backdrop of rancor and political division. Our history suggests this is not unique and we have, in fact, weathered worse. But what has consistently bound our wounds and allowed us to realize our full potential as a democracy is the recognition that patriotism and noble deeds in a land that cherishes freedom remain among the rare pleasures of life meant to be embraced and enjoyed. Celebrate Independence Day this year in the knowledge that we remain "the last best hope of earth."
There is something powerful and compelling about the faces of those who stand to recite the pledge of allegiance for the first time as naturalized American citizens. Pictured: New American citizens recite the Pledge of Allegiance during naturalization ceremony at the New York Public Library, July 3, 2018. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
There is something powerful and compelling about the faces of those who stand to recite the pledge of allegiance for the first time as naturalized American citizens. Having legally entered our nation, they have become some of the most ardent patriotic Americans who have earned the right to be called citizens. Yet they find themselves in a country that now too often seems distant and uncomfortable with displays of patriotism.
As a nation of immigrants there have been successive waves of newly naturalized citizens who would be the first to wave American flags along the Fourth of July parade. They would write the songs that celebrated America, the laborers who would build our cities, the scientists who gave us extraordinary inventions and doctors who saved lives. In return, these proud new citizens of America discovered the pleasures of life through their patriotism and by performing noble deeds. In doing so, they acquired the quiet self-respect of an immigrant in an adopted land where freedom, the rule of law, and opportunity remain woven into our national fabric.
That kind of peace cannot be found on a prescription, in a spa or with some self-proclaimed motivational speaker. Rather, it is the inner knowledge that America remains, as President Abraham Lincoln once said of our land, "the last best hope of earth."
Yet we have entered a time when a neighborhood's shared display of American flags along every light post can prompt criticism that it is some jingoist display. American history, when taught at all, is now being viewed through a political lens that polarizes rather than unites. And while patriotism may be smirked at by the cynic the pride one takes in one's country -- this country -- our country -- defines not just ourselves but the future of our nation.
America is about to observe yet another Fourth of July holiday. We will do so against a backdrop of rancor and political division. Our history suggests this is not unique and we have, in fact, weathered worse. But what has consistently bound our wounds and allowed us to realize our full potential as a democracy is the recognition that patriotism and noble deeds in a land that cherishes freedom remain among the rare pleasures of life meant to be embraced and enjoyed. Celebrate Independence Day this year in the knowledge that we remain "the last best hope of earth."
© 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.

From integration to disintegration: Israel and its Arab citizens
Dr. Mordechai Nisan/Arutz Sheva/Jun 30/ 2021
د.مردخاي نيسان/من الاندماج إلى التفكك فيا يخص إسرائيل ووضعية مواطنيها العرب
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/100190/dr-mordechai-nisan-from-integration-to-disintegration-israel-and-its-arab-citizens-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%af%d8%ae%d8%a7%d9%8a-%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%b3%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%86/
Israel is at a watershed with anti-Zionist Arabs occupying a critical place in the mechanics of a government resting upon a threadbare parliamentary majority that relies on Arab votes. Op-ed.
A devious and seductive process is jeopardizing the national integrity of the Jewish state of Israel. An estranged and enemy community from the start, the domestic Arab population, which since 1949 doubled from nine per-cent to approximately 20 per-cent, has never accepted the legitimacy of the state in which it enjoys citizenship.
The Arabs, who lost the war they initiated prior to and beginning with Israel's founding, do not forget or forgive. They consider Israel a racist state, demand Palestinian Arab refugee "return", and hope the state will wither from within, aided by Arab warfare from without.
Nonetheless, this litany of scorn did not dissuade the Israeli political class from enabling the tremendous strides Arabs enjoy in higher education, professional employment, and political representation while - in the Jewish state - their Palestinian nationalist and Islamic religious identity flourished.
We are witnessing in Israel's case the disheartening historic pattern summed up by Barbara Tuchman: "A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests."
Abbas's Ra'am party refused to sign the government's policy document that bore the emblematic definition of Israel as "a Jewish and democratic state."
Lacking a sense of history, Israelis misconstrue short-term cooperation and co-existence as an evolving contract between the Jews and the Arabs. However, personal Jewish-Arab friendships and relations do not dilute the deepest anti-Israel feelings nor the pro-Palestinian yearnings of the Arab population, as opinion surveys have demonstrated.
Ahmad Tibi, veteran Arab Member of Knesset rubbing shoulders with Jewish parliamentarians, and the darling of the Israeli media, is a voice of arrogance and honesty. Meeting with President Rivlin in September 2019, he declared: "We [Arabs] did not immigrate here [unlike the Jews]. We are the owners of this land." However, contrary to his declaration, since the first Jewish immigrant – Abraham the patriarch of the ancient Hebrew people – arrived 3800 years ago to the land of Israel, the Jews are the owners and native people of the land.
*Arab integration in Israeli society – which the Jewish leadership supports, encourages, and finances – is the contemporary modus operandi and strategy for rupturing, undermining, and dissolving the Jewish state from within. This policy enjoys the legitimacy provided by the values and spirit of citizenship, democracy, equality, minority rights, and affirmative action.
Noteworthy is the fact that Arab citizens serve in every field, including as doctors, pharmacists, medical personnel, judges, university professors, and media personalities. Notorious is also the fact that the Arab share for murder, theft, arson, and drug trafficking, far exceeds their proportion of the Israeli population.
In May, while Hamas fired rockets from Gaza, Arab pogroms erupted terrorizing and targeting Jewish residents in Lod, Ramla, Jaffa, and Akko [Acre], murdering two and wounding many. Arabs bullied Jews; vandalized Jewish dwellings; burned 12 synagogues and torched tens of Jewish cars; blocked roads in the Negev and Galilee; rioted in Jerusalem; and brandished Palestinian flags in provocation to Israel's national flag. Here was the strident voice of the Muslims in the streets, howling the jihad mantra of Allah Akbar.
Now the Naftali Bennett government policy of integration met its Arab partner in the person of Mansour Abbas, leading a four-man caucus in Israel's parliament. Abbas, a senior figure in the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, is a self-declared Palestinian. He calls for recognition of illegal Bedouin villages in the Negev and this conveys an uncomfortable reversal with politics above the law. His composure and language veil an ambiguity regarding the doctrine of war and peace embedded in the Islamic creed.
In his opening Knesset speech on June 13 with the launching of the new government, Mansour Abbas declared that it is necessary to "to deal with the historic injustice that has been our [Arab-Palestinian] fate over the years because of the policy of discrimination." The code language of an "historic injustice" alludes, not only to isolated cases of inequity, but to Israel's founding as an act of injustice against the Palestinian Arab people.
Indeed, Abbas's Ra'am party refused to sign the government's policy document that bore the emblematic definition of Israel as "a Jewish and democratic state."
On June 27, Abbas provided further clarification of his views and strategy in an interview with Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. "We want a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem," then directing his thoughts to "realizing our [Arab] civil, national, and religious rights" in 1949 Israel.. Shrinking Israel's borders and compromising her Jewish ethos are not a prescription for tolerance and peace, but a war plan to destroy the state.
*For all of the Jewish people's "vast historical experience," in the stirring words of Nietzsche, self-deception and a misreading of Israel's national interests have worked demonic wonders on an otherwise intelligent and ancient people.
Apropos Nietzsche, he was meticulously conversant with the loss of will in a democracy as the Achilles heel of civilization.
Israel is at a watershed with anti-Zionist Arabs occupying a critical place in the mechanics of a government resting upon a threadbare parliamentary majority that relies on Arab votes. In 2021, this new chapter in Israel's modern history is a shadowy development and a reason for great concern in the days ahead.
*Dr. Mordechai Nisan taught Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His most recent book is The Crack-up of the Israeli Left (2019).

A summit with no purpose
Ibrahim al-Zobeidi/The Arab Weekly/June 30/2021
Without much ado one can just say that this summit was stillborn, because one of the three sides is impotent and incompetent to debate the other two.
Wednesday 30/06/2021
It was expected and hoped that the first visit of President Abdelfattah al-Sisi to Iraq with King Abdullah II would be an opportunity to assert a firm and decisive Arab position about Iranian occupation and an explicit rejection of all its encroachments on freedom, dignity and sovereignty in Iraq, along with its militias’ tampering with the security of millions of Iraqis and the security of neighbouring countries.
This is more so that their host was Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who had just returned from Diyala, after he performed the oath of obedience to the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) who paraded, in front of him, with their tanks, cannons and other advanced weapons.
Through their parade, the PMF wanted to inform the Iraqi National Army, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the government, the parliament and the judiciary that the Iraqi state had vanished after a short life span of one hundred years.
Without much ado one can just say that this summit was stillborn, because one of the three sides is impotent and incompetent to debate the other two.
Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi has the last word in the Egyptian state and he can discuss any high and major sovereign matter with his counterparts in other countries and can take the final decision on behalf of one hundred million Egyptians, without waiting for the approval of another state within the Egyptian state or outside it.
There are no popular mobilisation forces in Egypt, nor does Egypt have a neighbour like Iran. King Abdullah bin Al Hussein of Jordan is also a decision-maker. One of his powers is to represent the Jordanian government, parliament, the army and the people and to take the decisions that serve best the interests of Jordanian citizens for now or in the near and distant future.
As for the one representing the Iraqi state in the meeting hall, it is another story. He is the author of promises that are not fulfilled, of random, improvised policies and of doubts that make him one of the loyalists approved by the Iranian regime and its militias. In short, he is not fit to be a real representative of forty million Iraqis or to take an independent national decision.
This is especially the case if the talks touched on major issues, such as unifying positions on matters of national and pan-Arab security that are larger than electrical grid connections or economic issues of mutual interest, for the Iraqi side is not allowed to go beyond its carefully drawn red lines.
From the final statement drafted and announced by Kadhimi’s office, one can conclude that the summit occupied itself with the economy and a few marginal issues and did not approach the crux of the problem.
It did not touch on the issue of foreign occupation of Iraq, nor the presence of militias that are more powerful than the state army. It did not address Iran’s hegemony over the institutions of the Iraqi state nor the participation of Iraqi militias linked to Iran in the ongoing wars in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. It did not discuss Iranian interference in the affairs of Arab countries that are allied to Egypt and Jordan, although these are the most important threats that deeply challenge Jordanian and Egyptian security, as well Arab national security in general.
Without addressing such threats, any Arab summit will inevitably be a failure and there is no need to hold one.
By reviewing the final statement, which included 28 paragraphs, it was clear that the summit’s essence was concentrated in the paragraphs related to “integration of resources and provision of all possible facilities to increase the volume of trade exchange between them and to strengthen efforts in the health, industrial and pharmaceutical fields.” And “the necessity of strengthening the electrical interconnection project and exchanging electric power between the three countries, linking gas transmission networks between Iraq and Egypt through Jordan and providing an outlet for the export of Iraqi oil through Jordan and Egypt by proceeding with the completion of the Arab gas pipeline and the establishment of the crude oil transmission line (Basra-Aqaba). “.
It is natural and predictable that Iran, which wields absolute power in Iraq, does not object to the establishment of investment projects of this kind or the exchange of services or goods between the Popular Mobilisation state and Egypt, especially if these projects ensure the neutrality of Egypt in the sectarian war that Iran is waging directly or through proxies. Also, a summit with these specifics will benefit its Iraqi agents and help them distract the Iraqi people and divert the attention of the angry youth of the uprising from the most vital issues, such as rejecting the occupation and confronting domestic terrorism that is illustrated by assassinations and corruption, especially during the few months ahead of the upcoming elections, which are expected to be like its predecessors, unfair and dishonest
The final statement of the Al-Sham Al-Jadeed (New Levant) Summit says that the participants “underlined the importance of security and intelligence coordination between the three countries to combat terrorism, organised crime and drugs and to confront all those who support terrorism through financing, arming or providing safe havens and media platforms. They also stressed the importance of completing the comprehensive battle against terrorism.”
So, if Iran is not the primary supporter of terrorism, through arms, financing and by providing safe havens and media platforms, who are they supposed to confront?
On another matter: Once the summit ended, the United States welcomed the “historic visit” by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian President King Abdullah II to Iraq, describing it as “important” and “contributing to strengthening regional stability.”
One wonders whether this summit was an intentional and premeditated effort aimed at imposing the Arab fold on Iraq, in order to extract it from Iranian domination by force of oil, gas, electricity, fruits and vegetables, or if it constituted a tacit Jordanian-Egyptian approval of Iraq’s subordination to Iran and an Egyptian-Jordanian acceptance of understandings, cooperation and exchange of benefits with a country that is ruled by militias with US blessing and encouragement?

Now is the time to support the Iranians who boycotted the sham election
Cameron Khansarinia/Al Arabiya/30 June ,2021
The very selection of Ebrahim Raisi as an electoral candidate, and then his victory highlighted the sham that is Iran’s electoral process.
Known widely in Iran as the “Hanging Judge” or “The Butcher of Tehran” for his direct role in massacring thousands of political prisoners, Raisi as the president of the Islamic Republic should make clear to the world what has long been clear to the people of Iran: this regime cannot be dealt with because it cannot be trusted.
For nearly half of the regime’s bloody rule, many outside Iran have touted the notion of “reform” or “moderation” within the Islamic Republic establishment. Criminal clerics like Hassan Rouhani and their allies like Javad Zarif have been held out as figures with whom reasoning is possible and for whom Iran’s national interests outweigh those of the system.
Regime apologists who spent years diverting international attention from the Islamic Republic’s crimes against humanity at home and terrorism abroad by promoting the false notion of regime moderation have now pivoted to blame the United States for Raisi’s election. Some have even begun making the case that the man who personally handled the executions of children is not as bad as he may seem.
No matter how well-financed and well-spoken the Islamic Republic’s foreign propaganda machine is it will not be able to change the fact that the hardliners it long said could not be trusted now occupy every relevant position within the Islamic Republic. Their rhetoric, despite its eloquent English and well-placed publication, must defend Raisi's reality rather than a Viennese fantasy.
In reality, the Islamic Republic cannot be trusted. The facade of trust manufactured by "moderates" like Zarif is now largely discredited and irrelevant due largely to missteps by the moderates themselves. The trust, or rather contrived confidence, during the Obama administration, was based largely on wishful thinking. Both President Obama and Secretary Kerry repeatedly referred to the purported fatwa, or religious edict, that Ali Khamenei had issued against the development of nuclear weapons.
Recently, however, the regime’s intelligence minister has disavowed the fatwa for which Secretary Kerry had “great respect” and said the Islamic Republic was not bound by the edict. Speaking on state television, he said that if Iran were pressured it may indeed develop a nuclear bomb. A theocracy that cannot be trusted to respect even its religious edicts can certainly not be trusted to be loyal to a treaty with countries it has sworn to destroy.
If abrogating a fatwa seems inconsequential, the Iranian regime has long proven itself an untrustworthy partner through various additional breaches of international treaties. Indeed, the very basis of the ongoing talks in Vienna, to the impartial observer, appear more comedy than drama. The P5+1 strategy is simple: diplomatic negotiations in an attempt to control the regime’s nuclear program via an international accord. What they ignore is the Islamic Republic’s long track record of ignoring and breaking international accords, both diplomatic and nuclear.
The Iranian “diplomats”' sitting across from the French, Germans, and Americans in Vienna represent a regime with no respect for the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which protects the very diplomats attempting to renegotiate the defunct JCPOA. From taking American diplomats hostage for 444 days as its diplomatic debut to the world, its attempted assassination of the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, and then its sponsored storming of the British Embassy in Tehran, the Islamic Republic has long shown a blatant disregard for diplomacy and indeed a violent animosity towards it.
Iran consistently violates the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty despite remaining an active signatory. It has blocked IAEA access to nuclear sites and continued on its enrichment path in clear breach of mutually agreed to IAEA deadlines and United Nations resolutions. If the regime in Tehran can’t be trusted to respect treaties on diplomacy and nuclear issues it has already signed, why should it now be trusted to respect a diplomatic agreement on its nuclear program?
It can’t. Ebrahim Raisi is a man who personally ordered and watched as Iranian prisoners were raped, newborn babies were thrown against the floor, and activists were executed. His regime violates its own religious edicts and dozens of international laws and conventions. Where trust does not exist, no relationship can exist. And trust cannot exist as long as Raisi’s regime does.
Now is not the time to make a deal with Raisi and his regime. Now is the time to focus on the vast majority of Iranians who boycotted the sham election and are saying, with one voice, “No to the Islamic Republic.”