English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 19/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11/33-36/:”‘No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 18-19/2021
MoPH: 450 new coronavirus infections, one death
Al-Rahi Urges Naming PM who Can Confront Challenges
Anti-gov’t engineers hopeful after Lebanon syndicate victory
Hariri 'Has No Veto' on Any Nominee, 'Open to Settlement' with Baabda
Blinken and Le Drian sent a secret letter to Aoun, demanding that Lebanon be brought out of the crisis
'No Serious Talks' between Miqati, Paris on Succeeding Hariri
French Anti-Graft Judges Probe Riad Salameh
Huge container ship arrives in Lebanon's Tripoli port
Two Bears Head for U.S. from Crisis-Hit Lebanon

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 18-19/2021
Pope Francis calls for peace, dialogue in Cuba
Iran FM insists prisoner swap deal agreed with US, says ready to proceed ‘today’
Death toll from Iran protests rises to three, say activists
U.S. Drone Destroys Pro-Iran Militia Truck in Syria
Taliban Leader 'Favors Political Settlement' to Afghan Conflict
Reports: Killer of Hashemi is Affiliated with Iraq's 'Hezbollah' Brigades
Iraqi Civil Defense Extinguishes Fire at Hotel in Karabala, 78 People Rescued
After War with Israel, a Grieving Gaza Marks Eid Al-Adha Holiday
Iraqi Army Restricts Movement of PMF in its Camps
PLO Accuses Israeli Army of Supporting Efforts to Seize Palestinian Lands
Several Killed in Regime Attacks in Syria's Idlib
PFLP-GC Elects New Leader After Jibril’s Death
Merkel Sees 'Surreal' Wreckage as Europe Flood Death Toll Tops 180
Algeria, Morocco Intensify Crackdown on Journalists
Saudi commentators go public in criticising UAE role in Yemen
Afghanistan withdraws ambassador, diplomats from Islamabad - foreign ministry statement
Magnitude 5.7 quake hits Iran's Fars province - state TV
China opposes any attempt to seek regime change in Syria, says foreign minister Wang Yi

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 18-19/2021
If You Do Not Have Free Speech You Are Not Free/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/July 18/2021
Labor Strikes are the Tip of the Chaos Iceberg in Iran/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 18/2021
Afghanistan…Afghanistan/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 18/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 18-19/2021
MoPH: 450 new coronavirus infections, one death
NNA/July 18/2021
Lebanon has recorded 450 new coronavirus cases and one death in the last 24 hours, as reported by the Ministry of Public Health on Sunday

Al-Rahi Urges Naming PM who Can Confront Challenges
Naharnet/July 18/2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called for appointing a new premier who has the ability to confront the country’s huge challenges. “We call on all political forces to close ranks under their national responsibility, consult among each other, and name in the upcoming parliamentary consultations a Sunni figure for the PM post who would be at the level of the current challenges,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. He added that the political forces should “cooperate to speed up the formation process.”“It is the time for shouldering responsibilities, not retreating, seeing as the country is not facing an ordinary governmental crisis but rather an all-out national crisis that requires the unification of everyone’s efforts,” al-Rahi went on to say.He also called on politicians to “rise above the selfishness, interests and narrow electoral calculations that are unfortunately controlling the minds of the majority of political forces at the expense of the higher national interest.”

Anti-gov’t engineers hopeful after Lebanon syndicate victory
Kareem Chehayeb/Al Jazeera/July 18/2021
Winning coalition sees victory at syndicate election as reclaiming another civic space entrenched by sectarian parties.
Beirut, Lebanon – When the results of the Lebanese engineers’ syndicate election were announced on Sunday, a large group of engineers and activists gathered at its Beirut headquarters erupted in celebration.
A coalition of grassroots activists and political groups had just decisively won against all odds. “It feels amazing. I didn’t expect this victory,” said Abir Saksouk, an architect among those elected. “We did expect to make a breakthrough of some sort because we had so many opposition candidates for the first time in the syndicates’ history – but nothing like this.”The coalition, dubbed The Syndicate Rises, amassed 7,650 votes, effectively controlling six of the syndicate’s seven branches. A broad alliance of the country’s otherwise wrangling political parties clinched the other branch, which represents architects and engineers working at state institutions. This coalition’s sweeping victory is the second of its kind in Lebanon since an uprising against a ruling class of sectarian elites rocked the country in October 2019. The Beirut Bar Association had also beaten candidates that represented the country’s traditional political powers to elect an independent leader in November 2019.
The result came amid increasing frustration in Lebanon, a country reeling from an economic crisis that has plunged more than half the population into poverty, with the local currency having lost well above 80 percent of its value against the United States dollar in less than two years.
Saksouk, who has worked for years on a slew of issues, from housing rights to public spaces, now hopes that the rest of the country’s syndicates and unions – for decades under the thumb of sectarian political parties – can be “reclaimed” and become effective again.
It was an even sweeter victory for Paul Naggear, an electric engineer who also ran with The Syndicate Rises. “For the first time since August 4, we felt a sense of relief,” he said.
On that day, nearly 11 months ago, a massive explosion at Beirut’s port flattened much of the Lebanese capital, killing some 200 people and wounding more than 6,500 others.
Naggear lost his three-year-old daughter, Alexandra, to the explosion.
The disaster was seen as the deadly byproduct of years of corruption and neglect in Lebanon, with the authorities leaving more than 2,700 tonnes of a mysterious shipment of explosive ammonium nitrate in the port for several years.
Almost one year later, the state-led investigation continues to stall, leaving thousands like Naggear wondering if they would ever see justice.
“When you can’t find justice, you have to take on another battle,” he said. “But for the first time, my wife and I, after seeing the results, felt there was a battle we could win.”
Syndicates in Lebanon cannot pass laws, but The Syndicate Rises has promised to work towards improving working conditions for engineers and architects, as well as break the hold of a handful of contracting companies that dominate the market and reform unjust building codes to improve access to housing.
Some believe the victory will also give the grassroots activists greater freedom amid an entrenched system of clientelism and political patronage.
Bassel Salloukh, a professor of political science at the Lebanese American University, said syndicates and other civic spaces have been co-opted by Lebanon’s ruling elite after the end of the country’s 15-year civil war in 1990 to suffocate any forms of viable opposition. “All this has meant that after the October 17 protests, the invention of new sites for political opposition has to necessarily be incremental and strategic,” Salloukh said. “One small victory at a time in those sites that form the soft underbelly of the sectarian system.”Looking ahead, members of the winning coalition hope to also score a victory this month, when engineers and architects vote for the syndicate’s new head.

Hariri 'Has No Veto' on Any Nominee, 'Open to Settlement' with Baabda
Naharnet/July 18/2021
Ex-PM Saad Hariri has no veto on any candidate for the PM-designate post, MP Hadi Hbeish of Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal bloc said on Sunday. “The issue is related to the package and ex-PM Hariri’s phone calls with (ex-)minister (Faisal) Karami and others are part of consultations aimed at taking the appropriate stance on the issue of naming the premier and how to approach the binding parliamentary elections,” Hbeish said in an interview with al-Jadeed TV. “Ex-PM Hariri is open to anything, and should there be a serious settlement for the formation of a government that would rescue the country we will be ready for dialogue, especially if the initiative comes from the Baabda Palace,” the MP added. He also emphasized that Hariri and his bloc “will not give up their responsibilities if there is a serious offer to form a government that would rescue the country,” but he lamented that “there is lack of responsibility from some sides in the country regarding the government formation file.”Hariri had stepped down on Thursday nine months after he was tasked with forming a new cabinet, citing key differences with President Michel Aoun.

Blinken and Le Drian sent a secret letter to Aoun, demanding that Lebanon be brought out of the crisis
Free News/July 18/2021
According to the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, a few hours after the transfer of the letter, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation from the authority to form a government and resigned.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian sent a joint secret message to Lebanese President Michel Aoun, in which they strongly demanded to take urgent measures to withdraw the country from the political and social crisis. This was reported on Sunday by the French weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. According to her information, the decision to send a confidential message to the politicians was made last Wednesday during negotiations in Washington, at which they stated a complete coincidence of views on the approach to the Lebanese problem. The letter was written by the assistant ministers in a tough tone and contains a demand to appoint a new prime minister who can carry out the reforms that the Lebanese public has long demanded in the country. The message is very brief; its text consists of only a few paragraphs. At Le Drian’s insistence, the message contains a reminder of the recent decision taken at the meeting of EU foreign ministers, according to which, from the end of July, the community can adopt sanctions against those Lebanese figures who block the normalization of the situation in the country.
According to Le Journal du Dimanche, last Thursday the letter was delivered personally to Michel Aoun by the ambassadors of France and the United States in Beirut. The newspaper draws attention to the fact that just a few hours later, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced that he had resigned from his powers to form a government and resigned. The political vacuum in Lebanon has been maintained since August 10 last year after the resignation of the cabinet led by Hassan Diab amid the tragic consequences of the explosion in the seaport of Beirut.
The Sunni politician Hariri, appointed on October 22 as the new prime minister, and President Aoun could not agree on the composition of the new government. The political crisis is aggravating the already extremely difficult socio-economic situation in the country. Amid reports of Hariri’s resignation, there was a sharp drop in the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound against the US dollar.

'No Serious Talks' between Miqati, Paris on Succeeding Hariri
Naharnet/July 18/2021
There are no serious talks between ex-PM Najib Miqati and France regarding him being nominated to succeed Saad Hariri as PM-designate, an MP close to Miqati said on Sunday. “Ex-PM Miqati does not think, as he is being (wrongly) quoted, that he does not mind to form a government as long as he continues to be in the post-elections government,” MP Nicolas Nahhas of Miqati’s Independent Center bloc said, in an interview with al-Jadeed TV. “This would be an egoistic approach,” Nahhas added.

French Anti-Graft Judges Probe Riad Salameh
Agence France Presse/July 18/2021
French anti-corruption judges have taken over the probe into the personal wealth of Lebanon's central bank chief, prosecutors said, raising the likelihood he may face money-laundering charges. France opened the probe into Riad Salameh, a former Merrill Lynch banker, in May following a similar move by Switzerland, where he has been under investigation for months. On July 2, France's Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) handed over its findings for judicial inquiry into allegations of aggravated money laundering, the office said on Friday. Salameh, who owns several properties in France, is accused by critics at home of transferring money abroad during a 2019 uprising against the government, when ordinary people were prevented from doing so. The 71-year-old has also been accused of being responsible for the collapse of the Lebanese pound, which has sent the economy into a tailspin and prompted shortages of basic items such as medicine and fuel. The French judges can summon Salameh for questioning and collaborate with investigators in other countries, and also confiscate assets. The inquiry was prompted by complaints filed by Swiss foundation Accountability Now, France's Sherpa anti-corruption NGO, and the Collective Association of Victims of Fraudulent and Criminal Practices in Lebanon, set up by savers devastated by the post-2019 crisis. A lawyer for Salameh, Pierre-Olivier Sur, said his client "denies these acts in their entirety," and called for access to the investigators' findings. In media appearances, Salameh has said he legally invested the roughly $23 million (19 million euros) he had when named central bank governor in 1993, obtained from inheritances and his work at Merrill Lynch in Beirut and Paris.

Huge container ship arrives in Lebanon's Tripoli port
NNA/July 18/2021
The large container ship Colombo Express, operated by global shipping company Hapag Lloyd and working with CMA-CGM, docked at the port of Tripoli on Sunday morning. This ship sails on the Megam shipping line that connects the Persian Gulf with the port of Tripoli. With a length of 336 meters and a width of 43 meters, this ship is the largest to dock in this port since its inception. The dispatch of this huge German ship to the port of Tripoli reflects the great confidence of global shipping companies in this port facility, as a base in the Middle East. In fact, the hopes for the development of this port are embodied in the context of the economic projects that accompany the international and local interest in this port, in the process of reviving the Lebanese economy and the economy of the capital of the North.

Two Bears Head for U.S. from Crisis-Hit Lebanon
Agence France Presse/July 18/2021
Two endangered Syrian brown bears were headed to a new life in the United States on Sunday after being rescued from cramped conditions in a Lebanese zoo, two charities said. Homer and Ulysses, each aged 18 and weighing 130 kilos (280 pounds), had been living in a zoo near the southern city of Tyre, animal rights association Animals Lebanon said. They were freed "after convincing the zoo owner that they deserve better than the small cement cages they were kept in for over ten years," it said in a statement. The bears were to be flown out of Beirut late Sunday, headed for the Wild Animal Sanctuary in the U.S. state of Colorado. Syrian brown bears are a relatively small subspecies of the endangered brown bear, but no longer exist in the wild in Syria or Lebanon, the UK-based Bear Conservation group says. Animals Lebanon director Jason Meir said the bears were likely imported from eastern Europe. They had been supposed to travel in late 2019, but banking restrictions linked to Lebanon's economic crisis, then the coronavirus pandemic had postponed the trip. Four Paws, an international organization also taking part in the relocation, said it had first met the bears in November 2019. "Trapped in tiny cages, some smaller than a ping-pong table, the bears had no water, sporadic food, and inadequate shelter from the weather," it said in a statement. "Both bears not only suffered from malnutrition but also extreme stress."Meir said he was aware of about 30 lions and tigers as well as around 10 more bears still kept as exotic pets and in private zoos in the Mediterranean country.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 18-19/2021
Pope Francis calls for peace, dialogue in Cuba
Reuters/18 July ,2021
Pope Francis called on Sunday for peace and dialogue in Cuba after unprecedented, nationwide protests rocked the communist-run country. "I am also close to the dear people of Cuba in these difficult times," Francis said in his weekly address to the faithful in St. Peter's Square, his first public appearance since returning to the Vatican after an 11-day hospital stay. The pope also urged an end to the recent violence in South Africa and called the deadly floods in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands a "catastrophe".

Iran FM insists prisoner swap deal agreed with US, says ready to proceed ‘today’
Reuters, Dubai/18 July ,2021
Iran insisted on Sunday that a prisoner swap deal has been agreed with the United States, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said, a day after Washington denied such an agreement had been reached. “‘Outrageous’ = the US denying simple fact that there IS an agreed deal on the matter of the detainees. Even on how to announce it,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a tweet. “Humanitarian swap was agreed with US & UK in Vienna-separate from JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)- on release of 10 prisoners on all sides. Iran is ready to proceed TODAY.”The United States on Saturday accused Tehran of an “outrageous” effort to deflect blame for the impasse in the nuclear talks and denied that any deal had been reached on a prisoner swap. Earlier on Saturday, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, tweeted that the United States and Britain must stop linking a humanitarian exchange with the nuclear talks. The talks are aimed at reviving a 2015 deal between Iran and six major powers that curbed Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions on Iran. Washington abandoned the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Araqchi said the seventh round of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington would not resume until Iran’s hardline president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi, takes office in early August. The sixth round of the talks in Vienna adjourned on June 20. Tehran and President Joe Biden’s administration have been communicating on prisoner exchanges aimed at securing the release of Iranians held in US jails and other countries over violations of US sanctions, and of Americans jailed in Iran. Iran has arrested dozens of dual nationals, including several Americans, in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.Rights activists accuse the country of trying to use the detentions to win concessions from other countries, though Tehran dismisses the charge.

Death toll from Iran protests rises to three, say activists
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/18 July ,2021
The death toll from street protests over water shortages in Iran’s oil-rich southwest rose to three, activists said on Saturday, as demonstrations continued for a third consecutive night. The protests began late on Thursday in multiple cities in Khuzestan province, including its capital, Ahwaz, and continued for a third consecutive night on Saturday. A local official said on Saturday a man was killed during Friday’s protests in the city of Shadegan (al-Falahiya) in Khuzestan after being accidentally shot by armed protesters. Activists said he was shot dead by security forces. “During the rally, rioters shot in the air to provoke the people and, unfortunately, one of the bullets hit a person present at the scene and killed him," Omid Sabripour, the head of the governorate in Shadegan, told state news agency IRNA. Iranian officials in the past have blamed protesters’ deaths on other protesters. The slain protester was identified as Mostafa Naeemawi, a 30-year-old ethnic Arab. Khuzestan is home to a large ethnic Arab population. Activists reported two more deaths on Saturday which authorities have yet to comment on. Citing local sources, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a news site run by a collective of Iranian human rights advocates, reported that Arab citizen Qassem Khozeiri, 23, died in hospital on Saturday after being shot by security forces in the town of Kut Abdollah on Friday. A third Arab citizen, Ali Mazraeh, died on Saturday after being shot by security forces in Ahwaz, HRANA reported, citing local sources.
Protesters in the city of Susangerd (al-Khafajiya) marched towards the local governor’s office late on Saturday, chanting, “we will not be humiliated” in Arabic, according to videos shared on social media. Protesters in Susangard also gathered outside the home of the city’s representative in parliament, Qassem Saedi, chanting “death to Saedi,” another video showed. Some social media users also reported a significant decrease in internet speed in Khuzestan on Saturday. Iran shut down access to the internet for several days during widespread anti-government protests in 2019. The water crisis has devastated agriculture and livestock farming and caused power outages which sparked protests in several cities earlier this month. Authorities have blamed the water shortages on a severe drought, but protesters say the government is to blame. Activists from Khuzestan blame the water crisis on what they call the government’s discriminatory policies – such as the excessive transfer of water from Khuzestan to ethnically Persian provinces – which they say are designed to change the region’s demography. The protests in Khuzestan come as thousands of workers in Iran’s key energy sector have launched strikes for better wages and working conditions. Iran’s economy has been hit hard since 2018 when former US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and reimposed sweeping sanctions on the country. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the country’s economic problems.

U.S. Drone Destroys Pro-Iran Militia Truck in Syria
Associated Press/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
A U.S. drone attack targeted a truck for an Iran-backed militia in eastern Syria on Sunday, destroying the vehicle without causing any casualties, two Iraqi militia officials said. The attack came amid increasing tensions in the region between the U.S. military and Iran-backed Iraqi militias in recent weeks. The Americans have targeted militants who used drones and rockets to hit bases housing U.S. troops. The Iraqi militia officials refused to say what the truck was carrying. They said the U.S. drone first fired a warning shot, after which the driver jumped out, and a missile hit the vehicle shortly afterward. They said the truck belonged to Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, which is active along the Iraq-Syria border. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. Syrian state TV reported the attack saying it was carried out by American drones. It said the truck was carrying food and there were no human losses. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the truck was carrying weapons and ammunition for an Iraqi militia and was hit shortly after crossing the border from Iraq. It claimed that the driver was killed. On June 27, U.S. Air Force planes carried out airstrikes near the Iraq-Syria border against what the Pentagon said were facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups to support drone strikes inside Iraq. Four militiamen were killed.
Days later, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada's commander vowed to retaliate and since then several rockets attacks have been reported against bases housing U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of U.S. troops are deployed in eastern Syria as part of the war against the Islamic State group. Thousands of Iran-backed fighters are deployed in different parts of Syria to help President Bashar Assad's forces in the 10-year conflict that killed half a million people.

Taliban Leader 'Favors Political Settlement' to Afghan Conflict
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
The Taliban's supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada on Sunday said he "strenuously favors" a political settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan even as the hardline Islamist movement has launched a sweeping offensive across the nation. The announcement comes as representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents sat down for a new round of talks in Doha over the weekend, stirring hopes that the long stalled peace talks were being resuscitated. "In spite of the military gains and advances, the Islamic Emirate strenuously favors a political settlement in the country," Akhundzada said in a message released ahead of next week's Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. "Every opportunity for the establishment of an Islamic system, peace and security that presents itself will be made use of by the Islamic Emirate," he added. For months, the two sides have been meeting on and off in the Qatari capital, but have achieved little if any notable success with the discussions appearing to have lost momentum as the militants made enormous gains on the battlefield. The two sides were due to talk again on Sunday. The Taliban leader said his group remained committed to forging a solution to end the war but slammed "the opposition parties" for "wasting time." "Our message remains that instead of relying on foreigners, let us resolve our issues among ourselves and rescue our homeland from the prevailing crisis," he added. The insurgents have capitalized on the last stages of the withdrawal of US and other foreign troops from Afghanistan to launch a series of lightning offensives across large swathes of the country. The group is now believed to control roughly half of the nation's 400 districts, several important border crossings, and have laid siege to a string of vital provincial capitals. The Taliban have long appeared to be united, operating under an effective chain of command, and carrying out complex military campaigns despite perennial rumors of splits among the organization's leadership. Questions remain over how firm of a hand the Taliban's leaders have with commanders on the ground and whether they will be able to convince them to abide by a potential agreement if signed. The leader's statement notably made no mention of a formal ceasefire call for the Eid holidays.
Temporary ceasefires
Over the years, the Taliban have announced a series of short truces during Islamic holidays that initially spurred hopes that a larger reduction of violence would be implemented in the country. However the group has more recently been criticized for using the temporary ceasefires to resupply and replenish their fighters, allowing them to launch withering onslaughts on Afghanistan's security forces once the truce expires. The U.S.-led military coalition has been on the ground in Afghanistan for nearly two decades following an invasion launched in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Fears are growing that Afghan forces will be overwhelmed without the vital air support they provide, allowing for a complete Taliban military takeover or the start of a multi-sided civil war in a country awash with large stockpiles of weapons following nearly four decades of fighting.

Reports: Killer of Hashemi is Affiliated with Iraq's 'Hezbollah' Brigades
Baghdad - Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
The Iraqi government said it had arrested the killers of journalist and security expert Hisham al-Hashemi. However, Iraqis are demanding investigations uncover the group behind the murder of Hashemi and other activists. They believe the official statements and the perpetrator's confessions neglected to address the motive for the assassinations and the parties that ordered the executions. The Iraqi state television aired a video of a suspect, who worked in the Ministry of Interior, confessing to the killing. Many said that the Iraqi authorities proved they fear the groups behind these murders and cannot confront them, which means that the real perpetrators will not be held accountable. Also, unofficial reports accuse the perpetrator of having affiliations with the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, saying the assassination was executed based on orders issued by a lower-level commander in the militia.
Iraqi authorities only said that the perpetrator belongs to an outlaw party. The novelist, the winner of the Arab Booker Prize, Ahmed Saadawi, was among the first to condemn the "incomplete confessions," demanding to know who killed Hashemi.
For his part, the Sheik of the Kenana tribe in Iraq, Adnan al-Danbos, denounced the convict and disavowed him from the tribe. Danbos said in a statement that the tribe disavows this act of the murderous criminal convicted of committing the assassination of Hashemi, stressing that killers and criminals do not represent the Kenana tribe. He called on the executive and judicial authorities to impose the most severe penalties and just retribution on the murderer and those who planned the crime. Several observers believe that the authorities announced the arrests and the convict's confessions at this time to avoid a new wave of protests and cover up its failures, especially after the fire incident at al-Hussein Hospital. Activists in Iraq and around the world will hold several protests Sunday calling to end impunity for perpetrators of violations. The National Campaign to End Impunity in Iraq has been planning for weeks to launch protests in an attempt to pressure the authorities to hold the killers accountable and bring them to justice. Protests are scheduled in the US, Sweden, Finland, Britain, France, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Activist and one of the movement's organizers, Maan al-Jizani, said that the campaign to end impunity is led by independent journalists and activists inside and outside Iraq and seeks to draw the attention of the international community to a fundamental problem that constitutes a significant obstacle to Iraq's stability, security, and prosperity. The campaign calls for maximum pressure on US and EU decision-makers, as partners of Baghdad, to push them to change their policies in Iraq that are based on providing unconditional support to successive governments without assessing their performance in running the country and committing massive human rights violations.

Iraqi Civil Defense Extinguishes Fire at Hotel in Karabala, 78 People Rescued
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
The Iraqi Civil Defense Directorate announced on Sunday extinguishing a fire at a hotel in central Karbala. A Civil Defense statement said its teams rescued 78 persons after a fire broke out inside the four-storey Dai Al-Hussain Hotel, with a number of shops on the ground floor located in Al-Saddah Street in the center in the city of Karbala, Iraq state news agency reported. "Civil defense ambulance teams provided pulmonary resuscitation for those who suffocated as a result of inhaling the toxic effluents of the fire before transferring them to a nearby hospital to receive the necessary care, affirming that a girl died in the hospital as a result of suffocation," the statement added. According to the Civil Defense statement, an investigation into the incident was launched to determine the causes of the fire.

After War with Israel, a Grieving Gaza Marks Eid Al-Adha Holiday
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
For Palestinians who lost loved ones in the fighting between Gaza militants and Israel two months ago, there is little cause for celebration during the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha. The holiday, coinciding with Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah, begins on Tuesday, and Muslims traditionally mark the occasion by slaughtering sheep or cows and exchanging gifts. For this year's four-day festival, Mahmoud Issa, a 73-year-old retired teacher, bought new clothes for his grandchildren and took them to a farm to choose an animal to slaughter. But he mourns the death of his daughter Manar, 39, and her daughter, Lina 13, who he said were killed by an Israeli missile that destroyed their house in the Bureij refugee camp on May 13. Manar's husband and three other children survived. "As adults, we are still haunted by pain, but we must get the children out of this atmosphere and make them live the atmosphere of Eid, so that they forget the pain of losing their mother and their eldest sister," Issa said, sitting next to a large mural of Manar. Gaza's Hamas Islamist-run government says 2,200 homes were destroyed and 37,000 damaged by Israeli bombing during the 11 days of cross-border fighting in May.
More than 250 Palestinians were killed in hundreds of Israeli air strikes in Gaza that were launched after Hamas began firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for what the group said were rights abuses against Palestinians in Jerusalem, Reuters reported.
Thirteen people were killed in Israel during rocket barrages that disrupted life and sent people running for shelter.
- POOR SALES -
In Gaza's livestock markets, breeders and farmers reported poor sales ahead of the holiday. At one market in the town of Khan Younis, some customers loaded animals onto donkey carts to take them home. "This year, the purchase of animals is weak because of the blockade, war and the coronavirus," said merchant Saleem Abu Atwa. "We hope calm continues. It is for the sake of everyone," he added. At a street stall in Gaza's busy Rimal neighbourhood, Mohammad Al-Qassas laments the destruction of his shoe store in the fighting as he sells goods that he salvaged from the rubble.
The 23-year-old fears that an Egyptian-brokered truce that ended the most serious hostilities between Gaza militants and Israel in years might not last.
"Another war would be a disaster," he told Reuters.

Iraqi Army Restricts Movement of PMF in its Camps
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 18 July, 202
Iraqi military sources revealed accelerated measures to regulate the relationship between the army and the Popular Mobilization Forces, days before the launch of the strategic dialogue between Baghdad and Washington, and US President Joe Biden’s meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi at the White House on July 26. The new measures include “imposing more controls on the activity of the Popular Mobilization Forces and preventing the use of military sites affiliated with the army to launch hostile attacks” against military bases and foreign missions.
The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that new arrangements were evident in most of the military units, noting that the factions have changed their field strategy by positioning in new locations on the outskirts of cities, or near the borders, to avoid air strikes, or by taking advantage of their presence in joint bases with the Iraqi army or the Federal Police. According to information obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces has recently imposed measures that include monitoring the activities of the brigades inside army bases, and preventing any illegal operations. A leader in the PMF said that the new measures stirred sporadic clashes between the two sides. According to field sources, “severe differences developed into a quarrel between Iraqi officers in a military air base and a major PMF brigade, north of Baghdad, over the launch of drones carrying explosive equipment.”
Notably, Biden will receive the Iraqi prime minister on July 26 in Washington, the White House announced. According to an official statement, this visit aims to stress “the strategic partnership” between the two countries. The US presidency also said that Biden was looking forward to strengthening bilateral cooperation with Iraq on political, economic and security issues.

PLO Accuses Israeli Army of Supporting Efforts to Seize Palestinian Lands
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
The Palestinian Liberation Organization accused Saturday the Israeli Army of providing cover and facilitating efforts exerted by the Jewish National Fund to seize Palestinian lands. The PLO’s National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements issued a press statement saying the Israeli Defense Ministry is secretly recruiting people at the Jewish National Fund to purchase hundreds of dunams of private, Palestinian-owned land in the West Bank for settlers who worked the land while its owners were denied access to it. It added that the secret deals between the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Jewish National Fund also include purchasing lands in the Jordan Valley, Ramallah, and Hebron. “Coordination between the occupation army and the Jewish National Fund is not new,” the PLO said. One of the new deals between the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Jewish National Fund include a plot of land adjacent to the settlement of Hamra in the northern Jordan Valley, covering more than 1,000 dunams, most of which is planted with groves of date palms, whose fruit is intended for export. The land’s Palestinian owners have been denied access to it for 50 years, as it was closed off by military order and lies east of the security fence along the Jordanian border. However, during the past five decades, settlers were allowed in the area. They tilled the soil and cultivated the date groves. Another deal was sealed in Ramallah for 4.6 million shekels, in addition to a third deal that's related to the case of the structure known as the “Bakri house,” located in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron. The “Bakri house” affair started in 2005 when settlers took over the building, which is owned by the Palestinian Bakri family and then claimed to have purchased the building from a Palestinian. However, a police investigation revealed that the documents of the transaction were forged. Last April, the Jewish National Fund’s board of directors approved the purchase of land in the West Bank, including in areas with isolated settlements, particularly in Nablus and Jenin.

Several Killed in Regime Attacks in Syria's Idlib
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
Syrian regime artillery fire killed at least five civilians including two children in Idlib, a Britain-based war monitor said Sunday.
The shelling took place in the village of Ehsim late Saturday, in the south of Idlib region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A family member told AFP that visitors had gathered to congratulate a male relative on getting married when the shelling hit their home. Earlier in the day, rockets fired by pro-government forces killed six people in the village of Sarja, including three children and a rescue worker, meaning at least 11 were killed in total in Idlib on Saturday. The shelling at Ehsim came hours after President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term, pledging to "liberate" areas still beyond government control. The deaths are the latest violations of a ceasefire deal agreed by Turkey and Russia in March 2020. An AFP photographer in Ehsim saw rescue workers under floodlights cut through a collapsed ceiling to retrieve the body of a woman. Bundling her body up in a blanket, they then gently lowered it down a ladder and carried it into an ambulance. Bordering Turkey, the northwestern Idlib region is home to around three million people, more than half displaced by fighting in other parts of war-torn Syria. Many rely on humanitarian aid to survive.
Syria's war has killed around half a million people and forced millions more to flee their homes since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. In a separate development, Turkey on Saturday rejected a joint statement issued by several UN agencies, which accused Ankara of cutting off the water supply provided by the Allouk station to Syria's northeast areas. "The joint statement released on 15 July 2021 by the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis and UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa contains factual mistakes as well as incomplete and misleading information,” said the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The Ministry’s spokesperson, Ambassador Tanju Bilgic, explained that the Allouk Water Station is situated near the town of Ras al-Ain, a part of an area held by the Syrian opposition, and the only source of power for the station as well as the whole region of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain is in the south. “The terrorist organization PKK/PYD and the regime deliberately obstruct the electricity to the Station and the region. These power cuts disable the functions of the Station to provide water and aggravate the humanitarian conditions in the region,” he added. Bilgic said there is no electrical power in Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain since 18 April 2021 and at the Allouk Water Station since 26 June 2021, adding that the regime continues to arbitrarily prevent potable and irrigation water supply from reaching Al-Bab.

PFLP-GC Elects New Leader After Jibril’s Death
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command announced on Sunday that it named a new leader after its longtime founder died. Talal Naji was elected during a meeting in Damascus. He will replace Ahmed Jibril, who died on July 7 after being sick for months. Naji was born in Nazareth in British-ruled Palestine in 1946. He studied in Syrian schools and joined the ranks of the Palestinian Liberation Front faction in 1962 before later joining the PFLP-GC. Naji, who had lost an arm and an eye in a grenade explosion reportedly while training, had been the deputy chief of the PFLP-GC since 1973. He obtained a doctorate in political science from Moscow in 1984, The Associated Press reported. Khaled Jibril, the son of the late leader, was named as his deputy, it said.

Merkel Sees 'Surreal' Wreckage as Europe Flood Death Toll Tops 180
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that she was horrified by the "surreal" devastation in the flood-ravaged region of Germany, as the toll in western Europe reached at least 184 people dead with dozens still missing. Wearing hiking boots and offering pandemic-safe fist bumps to rescue workers, the veteran leader walked through the village of Schuld in Rhineland-Palatinate state, one of the two hardest-hit regions in western Germany. Merkel, who is retiring from politics after September's elections, listened to the accounts of residents where the swollen Ahr river swept away houses and left debris piled high in the streets. "It is a surreal, eerie situation," a visibly shaken Merkel told reporters, as she pledged quick aid to rebuild. "It is shocking -- I can almost say that the German language doesn't have words for the destruction that's been wreaked." At least 157 people have died since Wednesday in Germany's worst flooding in living memory, police said. In Rhineland-Palatinate state alone, authorities reported 110 dead and 670 injured. At least 27 people have lost their lives in neighboring Belgium. Rescue crews were sifting through rubble to find victims and survivors, often in dangerous conditions. Police deployed speedboats and divers to recover bodies swept away in the torrents. Historic heavy rainfall also battered Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. As the waters began to recede in Rhineland-Palatinate and neighboring North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), concern shifted south to Germany's Upper Bavaria region, where incessant rains inundated basements and led rivers and creeks late Saturday to burst their banks. One person died in Berchtesgadener Land, a spokeswoman for the Bavarian district told AFP. In the eastern state of Saxony, authorities reported a "significant risk situation" in several villages. In Austria, emergency workers in the Salzburg and Tyrol regions were on high alert for flooding. The scenic town center of Hallein was under water. Pope Francis expressed his "nearness" to the people of the stricken regions. "May the Lord welcome the deceased and comfort their loved ones, may he sustain the efforts of everyone who are helping those who have suffered serious damage," he said Sunday.
'Sorry' for laughing
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz pledged more than 300 million euros ($354 million) in emergency aid for people who lost homes and businesses, with the cabinet to approve a much larger reconstruction package on Wednesday. The disaster has increasingly taken on political overtones in Germany, which heads to the polls on September 26 for a general election that will mark the end of Merkel's 16 years in power. With experts saying climate change is making extreme weather events more likely, candidates vying to succeed her have called for more climate action. Armin Laschet, the premier of hard-hit North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) state and frontrunner in the race, said efforts to tackle global warming should be "speeded up". But Laschet scored an own goal Saturday when he was filmed laughing in the devastated town of Erftstadt in NRW, where a landslide was triggered by the floods. In the footage, Laschet could be seen chatting and joking in the background as President Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave a statement expressing his sympathies to grieving families. "Laschet laughs while the country cries," wrote the top-selling Bild daily. Laschet later apologized on Twitter for the "inappropriate" moment.
Divers, armored vehicles
The scale of the flood impact was gradually becoming clear in Germany, with damaged buildings being assessed, some of which will have to be demolished, and efforts under way to restore gas, electricity and telephone services. In some areas, soldiers used armored vehicles to clear the debris clogging streets. Local authorities in NRW and Rhineland-Palatinate said dozens of people remain unaccounted for across both states. They have stressed, however, that disruption to communication networks made a precise assessment difficult, and the real number of missing could be lower.
"I've lived here my whole life, I was born here, and I've never seen anything like it," said Gregor Degen, a baker in the devastated spa town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, near Schuld. Across the border in Belgium, the death toll jumped to 27 with many people still missing. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Alexander de Croo visited the flooded areas of Rochefort and Pepinster together on Saturday. "Europe is with you," von der Leyen tweeted afterwards. "We are with you in mourning and we will be with you in rebuilding."

Algeria, Morocco Intensify Crackdown on Journalists
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 18 July, 2021
Although they are bitter rivals on many issues, North African neighbors Morocco and Algeria appear to have one thing in common: muzzling the press. On Monday, a Moroccan court is due to deliver a verdict in the trial of rights activist Omar Radi who has been in detention for almost a year on charges of espionage and rape, which he denies. The case, in a closed-doors trial criticized by human rights watchdogs, comes on the heels of a July 10 five-year jail sentence against Moroccan journalist Soulaimane Raissouni for indecent assault. Authorities in both Morocco and Algeria have detained and put on trial several journalists on charges ranging from harming national interests to sexual assault, and their courts have imposed stiff sentences. These measures have sparked international condemnation while critics at home say the trials are politically motivated. Authorities, however, insist the judiciary is independent.
In Algeria, which has been rocked by intermittent pro-democracy protests since 2019, press freedoms are also being flouted, rights groups say. Prominent Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni was sentenced to two years in jail in September for "inciting an unarmed gathering" and "endangering national unity." "In the Algeria of 2021, a word can land you in prison, you have to be careful with anything you say or write," said Drareni, freed in February under a presidential pardon for detainees of the Hirak protest movement. The head of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, is a vocal critic of the treatment of journalists in both Algeria and Morocco. The root cause is that the two countries have "destabilized systems," he told AFP. "They are stuck in a spiral" of repression.
'Dislike bold journalism'
RSF has ranked Algeria 146 out of 180 countries and territories in its 2021 World Press Freedom Index, while Morocco was at 136. "In Algeria... and Morocco... the judicial system is being used to help silence journalists," the report said. Human Rights Watch's acting executive director for the Middle East and North Africa, Eric Goldstein, sounded the alarm back in August 2020 ahead of the verdict against Drareni. "Morocco and Algeria are neighbors and rivals... vying for diplomatic supremacy in the Maghreb region, sparring over Western Sahara, and insulting each other's governments daily via state-influenced media," he said in a statement. "Algerian and Moroccan authorities might compete in many domains, but when it comes to disliking bold journalism and commentary, they agree," he added. "Morocco's modus operandi is to file a host of specific criminal charges, while the Algerian authorities prefer vaguely defined penal code offences," Goldstein said. The sentence against Drareni, a symbol of the struggle for press freedoms who worked for French-language TV5 and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), outraged fellow journalists. Drareni was arrested in Algiers in March 2020 while covering the pro-democracy Hirak movement, which swept former strongman Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power in 2019. The protests continued after Bouteflika's ouster, with demonstrators demanding a sweeping overhaul of a ruling system in place since Algeria's 1962 independence from France.
Rare U.S. criticism
Another emblematic figure of the crackdown in Algeria is Rabah Kareche, who was sentenced to one year in prison in April for spreading false information "harmful to public security". The detention of Kareche, a correspondent for French-language newspaper Liberte in Tamanrasset in Algeria's far south, came after he published an article on a Tuareg protest movement in the area. The five-year prison sentence handed to Raissouni sparked rare criticism last Monday of Morocco by its influential ally the United States.
The State Department said it was "disappointed" by the ruling against Raissouni. "We believe the judicial process that led to this verdict contradicts the Moroccan system's fundamental promise of fair trials for individuals accused of crimes and is inconsistent with the promise of the 2011 constitution and His Majesty King Mohammed VI's reform agenda," State Department spokesman Ned Price said. Price said Washington was also raising with Rabat other journalists' cases. RSF has said Raissouni's trial was "tainted by irregularities" and called for the release of the 49-year-old, who staged a hunger strike of more than 90 days. Morocco's prosecution insisted, however, that Raissouni had been "prosecuted for crimes that have nothing to do with his journalistic work." Algeria and Morocco have also been tightening the screws on foreign correspondents, making it difficult for them to obtain accreditation.
"This discredits these countries and threatens to undermine their image, even some diplomatic ties," said RSF's Deloire.

Saudi commentators go public in criticising UAE role in Yemen
Reuters/July 18/2021
Pro-government commentators in Saudi Arabia are publicly criticising the United Arab Emirates' role in Yemen, a rare move that reflects political and economic tensions between the two Gulf allies that also led to an open standoff over oil policy. Saudi Arabia is trying to contain a power struggle in southern Yemen between the recognised government backed by Riyadh and the main separatist group supported by the UAE - which risks broadening a war that Saudi Arabia is struggling to exit. "If Abu Dhabi does not help in implementing the Riyadh agreement regarding the south Yemen crisis, and keeps obstructing it, I think that Saudi-Emirati ties will continue to be tested," political writer Suleiman al-Oqeliy, who often reflects official Saudi positions, said in a Twitter post on Saturday. "The Kingdom, government and people, will not allow anyone to tamper with Yemen's security and harm it. Its patience may be great but it has limits," tweeted Abdullah al-Hatayla, deputy editor of Saudi Arabia's semi-official Okaz newspaper. Social media is closely monitored by authorities in the Gulf Arab region and pro-government commentators in Saudi Arabia usually refrain from criticising the kingdom's allies. Saudi and UAE authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. The UAE is a member of the military coalition led by Riyadh that intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Iran-aligned Houthis who ousted the government from the capital Sanaa. Abu Dhabi ended its military presence in 2019, saddling Riyadh with a costly and unpopular war, but continues to hold sway through Yemeni fighters it armed and trained. Among them are forces of the Southern Transitional Council, also members of the coalition, who have twice seized the southern port of Aden, the interim headquarters of the Saudi-backed government, prompting Riyadh to broker a power-sharing deal which has yet to be fully implemented. read more . The criticism by the commentators comes after a public dispute between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi that disrupted policy setting by OPEC+, a group that includes OPEC and its allies. OPEC+ secured agreement to boost oil supplies when it reconvened on Sunday after the two Gulf producers reached an understanding. read more. However analysts say increasing economic competition is laying bare differences between Saudi Arabia and the UAE as the kingdom moves to challenge its neighbour's dominance as the region's business, trade and tourism hub. The regional alliance that saw Saudi Arabia and the UAE join forces to project power in the Middle East and beyond and combat Islamist groups - coordinating use of financial clout, and in Yemen, military force - has loosened as national interests come to the fore. ---

Afghanistan withdraws ambassador, diplomats from Islamabad - foreign ministry statement
Reuters/July 18/2021
Afghanistan has withdrawn its ambassador and diplomats from Pakistan's capital following the kidnapping of the ambassador's daughter, the Afghan foreign ministry said on Sunday. "The Afghan government recalled the ambassador and senior diplomats to Kabul until complete elimination of the security threats including the arrest and punishment of the perpetrators," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. A Pakistani foreign office spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The daughter of Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan was briefly kidnapped by unknown assailants who left her with injuries and rope marks and Pakistan authorities have said they are investigating.

Magnitude 5.7 quake hits Iran's Fars province - state TV
Reuters/July 18/2021
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Fars province in southern Iran on Sunday, Iranian state TV reported. There were no immediate reports of fatalities or damage in the area of the quake, which was centered near the town of Khesht, according to Iran's semi-official Fars news agency. The quake was also felt in neighboring Iraq, in the southern city of Basra, the Iraqi state news agency INA reported.

China opposes any attempt to seek regime change in Syria, says foreign minister Wang Yi
The Straits Times/July 18/2021
China opposes any attempt to seek regime change in Syria and will boost the mutually beneficial cooperation with Syria for the benefit of the two peoples, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday (July 17). Mr Wang made the remarks at a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to whom the Chinese senior diplomat first conveyed Chinese President Xi Jinping's cordial greetings. Under Mr Assad's leadership, the Syrian people have made valuable achievements in combating terrorism and opposing external interference, Mr Wang said, adding that Mr Assad's re-election reflects the strong trust and support of the Syrian people. Mr Wang praised the Syrian people as backboned and dignified, adding that blatant foreign interventions in the country have failed in the past, and will not succeed in the future. He expressed the belief that the Syrian people will be more united and committed to the reconstruction and revitalisation of their country. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 65 years ago, China and Syria have always trusted and supported each other, Mr Wang noted. China appreciates Syria's firm support on the issues related to China's core interests and major concerns, Mr Wang said, adding that under the guidance of the two heads of state, China stands ready to cooperate with Syria in carrying forward the traditional friendship and promoting mutually beneficial cooperation for the benefit of the two peoples.
Reaffirming China's strong support for Syria in safeguarding national sovereignty, territorial integrity and national dignity, Mr Wang said that China opposes any attempt to seek regime change in Syria. China firmly supports Syria in handling domestic problems under the "Syrian-led, Syrian-owned" principle established by the United Nations Security Council, and in formulating an inclusive and united political solution, Mr Wang said. He pledged that China will continue its strong support of Syria in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, through providing the vaccines and other medical supplies.
China will support Syria in improving the well-being of Syrian people and speeding up the reconstruction process, while welcoming Syria to become a new partner in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Chinese senior diplomat said.
China will also support Syria in opposing unilateral sanctions, alleviating its humanitarian dilemma and combating terrorist forces in any form, Mr Wang said, adding that China is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with Syria to help improve its anti-terror capabilities. For his part, Mr Assad asked Mr Wang to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi, while warmly congratulating the Communist Party of China (CPC) on the 100th anniversary of its founding. The Syrian leader spoke highly of the CPC leadership for leading the Chinese people onto the socialist road with Chinese characteristics, providing a brand-new choice of governance model for the developing countries. Mr Assad said that Syria appreciates China's great help and its fair position on the Syrian issue. With the support of righteous forces including China, Syria has withstood external interference and weathered the most difficult period, he added. --

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials published on July 18-19/2021
"If You Do Not Have Free Speech You Are Not Free"
Refugees from Communism Horrified at America
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/July 18/2021
"There was no free speech, you could not share values or thoughts if they were not Mao's values and thoughts...." — Lei Zhang, Carolina Journal, July 2, 2021.
"You have people who now say, 'Math is white supremacy,' or that calculus was invented by this man of this race so it is oppression. This is stupid". — Lei Zhang, Carolina Journal, July 2, 2021.
"Most of this crap originated on US campuses. I was at Stanford in the mid-1980s and watched with amazement how political correctness erupted. I had always blamed people like Stalin or Beria for censorship, but now I realized that many intellectuals want it too! Such people will always want censorship; they will always want to be oppressors because they always pretend to be oppressed". — Vladimir Bukovsky.
"When they tell kids, kindergarten, 5, 6 years old, that they are bad because they are in this race, or they are oppressed if they are in this group, and children cannot disagree, this is very bad because they cannot change their skin color or where they are from. They did not choose to be this race or that race, they are Americans, we are all Americans, and if we are fighting each other over this ideology, I agree with that when people say that this will destroy America. This is what happened under Mao and the Cultural Revolution....If you disagree or say something different they punish you.... You have no free thought". — Lei Zhang, Carolina Journal, July 2, 2021.
"As a community, we face an important choice. We can succumb to extreme left ideology and spend the rest of our lives ghost-chasing and witch-hunting, rewriting history, politicizing science, redefining elements of language, and turning STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education into a farce. Or we can uphold a key principle of democratic society—the free and uncensored exchange of ideas...." — Anna Krylov, who was born in the Soviet Union, and is now a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, The Journal of Physical Chemistry, June 10, 2021.
Today, those who fled from Communist regimes see -- most dangerously -- the same censorship and totalitarian suppression repeated in America's democracy. They know better than we do what freedom of thought means, and the price we must pay to defend it.
Garry Kasparov, the former World Chess Champion from Russia, noted the "self-destructive spiral of the West": it damages its cultural heritage instead of defending it. Regarding the weakness of Western leaders, Kasparov told Le Figaro: "Where are the de Gaulles and the Churchills? I see a crowd of Chamberlain and Daladier.... I was shocked to see the rush to debunk historical figures judged by our current criteria. The West should be proud of them instead of hating itself".
Today in America there is a new generation of exiles from Communist regimes fighting a new political correctness, called wokeism.
Czeslaw Milosz, before he was a Nobel laureate for Literature and author of The Captive Mind, fought two totalitarianisms in his native country, Poland: first Nazism, then Communism, which took its place. In 1945, after joining the Polish diplomatic service, Milosz was appointed cultural attaché to the embassy in New York, where he served until being recalled in 1950. In 1951, he defected to France.
In 1960, Milosz moved with his family to California, where he accepted a position at the University of California at Berkeley as Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures. His experience in the Bay Area was filled with a visceral revulsion for the new American political correctness. "When you stand at a campus window with a professor of German origin, watching them [the students] burn the library and she says 'I remember', it's rather distressing", Milosz wrote.
Milosz saw the future US ruling class beginning to grow. "To a large extent, the atmosphere at American universities is also shaped by people who were revolutionaries in 1968", he wrote. He also wrote that "These days you have to be 'politically correct', which means you have to be on the side of the blacks, against racism, for everything that's progressive".
When asked what were the differences and similarities between Soviet repression and the politically correct West, another anti-Soviet dissident, the Russian writer Vladimir Bukovsky -- who, despite having spent 12 years in a Soviet prison, could not find a US publisher for 25 years -- replied:
"Most of this crap originated on US campuses. I was at Stanford in the mid-1980s and watched with amazement how political correctness erupted. I had always blamed people like Stalin or Beria for censorship, but now I realized that many intellectuals want it too! Such people will always want censorship; they will always want to be oppressors because they always pretend to be oppressed."
Natan Sharansky, who fought the Soviet system from inside a Gulag before leaving the USSR for the US in 1986, recently wrote:
"The term 'politically-correct,' which is popular today, emerged in the late 1920s, to describe the need to correct certain deviants' thought to fit the Communist Party Line...
"In the West today, the pressure to conform doesn't come from the totalitarian top—our political leaders are not Stalinist dictators. Instead, it comes from the fanatics around us, in our neighborhoods, at school, at work, often using the prospect of Twitter-shaming to bully people into silence—or a fake, politically-correct compliance."
Garry Kasparov, from a new generation of Russian critics, noted the "self-destructive spiral of the West": it damages its cultural heritage instead of defending it. Regarding the weakness of Western leaders, the world chess champion said he had recently looked with emotion at the rows of white crosses of American soldiers who fell in Normandy. "Where are the de Gaulles and the Churchills?," he told Le Figaro, "I see a crowd of Chamberlain and Daladier.... I was shocked to see the rush to debunk historical figures judged by our current criteria. The West should be proud of them instead of hating itself".
Lei Zhang, Professor of Physics at Winston Salem State University, happened to be born in China in 1966, the year Mao Zedong's "Cultural Revolution" began. For ten years, the Red Guards, mostly students, roamed the Chinese streets targeting dissidents, independent thinkers and teachers. "There was no free speech, you could not share values or thoughts if they were not Mao's values and thoughts", Zhang said in an interview with Carolina Journal. He currently sees a disturbing similarity in America's universities.
"You have people who now say, 'Math is white supremacy,' or that calculus was invented by this man of this race so it is oppression. This is stupid".
Zhang emphasizes what he calls a devastating effect on free speech:
"You cannot speak out. People in universities are mostly liberal, and so liberal politics go into the classrooms, but you cannot speak out to say this is wrong because they will have an effect. Even though no one says anything, people know who is liberal teacher, who is thinking differently. It is the free speech, no free speech that makes it so this is so dangerous. If you do not have free speech you are not free".
The risk for the future further consists of the brainwashing in the US elementary schools under the guise of "critical race theory". As Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo explains in USA Today, critical race theory reformulates the Marxist dialectic of oppressor and oppressed, "replacing the class categories of bourgeoisie and proletariat with the identity categories of white and Black". In simple terms, critical race theory can be seen as a form of "race-based Marxism". This appears to be why these exiles, who have known Marxism in their own countries, are alarmed by seeing how its racial version of "oppressor and oppressed" is spreading throughout the United States.
According to Zhang:
"When they tell kids, kindergarten, 5, 6 years old, that they are bad because they are in this race, or they are oppressed if they are in this group, and children cannot disagree, this is very bad because they cannot change their skin color or where they are from. They did not choose to be this race or that race, they are Americans, we are all Americans, and if we are fighting each other over this ideology, I agree with that when people say that this will destroy America.
"This is what happened under Mao and the Cultural Revolution. All the kids from very young are always told every day about you are in this status so you are low, and they teach to only love Mao and revolution. If you disagree or say something different they punish you, but not like men and women who may get punished, but they re-educate you to believe in Mao. You have no free thought."
Sun Liping, a leading Chinese sociologist, argued that while political correctness in America began as a way to promote equality, today it is "a burden, a kind of shackle America has placed on itself, a kind of self-inflicted bondage".
Yeonmi Park, the most famous North Korean defector, said she had always viewed the United States as a country of free speech and thought until she went to university there. She attended Columbia University and said she was immediately shocked by what she saw in her class: the anti-Western sentiment and the forced political correctness. which made her think that "even North Korea isn't this nuts", she thought. "I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying".
When she had been a child in Hyesan, North Korea, her father was sent to a labor camp for selling black market goods, sugar and rice, in a struggle to feed his family. In 2007, Yeonmi Park fled North Korea with her mother. It is a source of profound sadness, she says, to see indoctrination in America. "Going to Columbia, the first thing I learned was 'safe space'", she commented. "Every problem, they explained us, is because of white men". Discussions, she continued, reminded her of the caste system in North Korea, where people are classified according to their ancestors. "I thought North Koreans were the only people who hated Americans, but turns out there are a lot of people hating this country in this country", she concluded. In her former "socialist paradise," North Korea, the students were used to being silent. "My mother told me the most dangerous thing that I had in my body was my tongue," Park said. "So I knew how dangerous it was to say wrong things in a country".
Anna Krylov, who was born in the Soviet Union, and is now a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, compared the ideological cloak under which she had been forced to live in her former country to the current politicization of scientific and cultural life in the US:
"I came of age during a relatively mellow period of the Soviet rule, post-Stalin. Still, the ideology permeated all aspects of life, and survival required strict adherence to the party line and enthusiastic displays of ideologically proper behavior. Not joining a young communist organization (Komsomol) would be career suicide—nonmembers were barred from higher education. Openly practicing religion could lead to more grim consequences, up to imprisonment. So could reading the wrong book (Orwell, Solzhenitsyn, etc.). Even a poetry book that was not on the state-approved list could get one in trouble...
"Science was not spared from this strict ideological control. Western influences were considered to be dangerous. Textbooks and scientific papers tirelessly emphasized the priority and pre-eminence of Russian and Soviet science. Entire disciplines were declared ideologically impure, reactionary, and hostile to the cause of working-class dominance and the World Revolution. Notable examples of "bourgeois pseudo-science" included genetics and cybernetics".
Fast forward to another century: 2021. The Cold War is a distant memory. "The USSR is no longer on the map," Krylov recalls.
"But I find myself experiencing its legacy some thousands of miles to the west, as if I am living in an Orwellian twilight zone. I witness ever-increasing attempts to subject science and education to ideological control and censorship. Just as in Soviet times, the censorship is being justified by the greater good. Whereas in 1950, the greater good was advancing the World Revolution, in 2021 the greater good is 'Social Justice'...
"We are told that in order to build a better world and to address societal inequalities, we need to purge our literature of the names of people whose personal records are not up to the high standards of the self-anointed bearers of the new truth, the Elect. We are told that we need to rewrite our syllabi and change the way we teach and speak...
"As a community, we face an important choice. We can succumb to extreme left ideology and spend the rest of our lives ghost-chasing and witch-hunting, rewriting history, politicizing science, redefining elements of language, and turning STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education into a farce. Or we can uphold a key principle of democratic society—the free and uncensored exchange of ideas—and continue our core mission, the pursuit of truth, focusing attention on solving real, important problems of humankind".
It is vitally important to listen to what those who have escaped from repressive governments say and write. They have lived through personal intimidation, political propaganda, brainwashing at schools and universities, and intellectual terror for a "wrong" word, book or idea. Today, those who fled from Communist regimes see -- most dangerously -- the same censorship and totalitarian suppression repeated in America's democracy. They know better than we do what freedom of thought means, and the price we must pay to defend it.
*Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
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Labor Strikes are the Tip of the Chaos Iceberg in Iran
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 18/2021
Since earlier this year, protests against the authorities in Iran have been expanding largely. However, they are not large enough to threaten the existence of the regime, despite their diversity, intensity, and wide geographical scope; factors that are set to create more pressures and challenges for the new government. In the last four years, the former US administration was blamed in Iran as inciting, or even executing, certain events. Now, pressure on Iran receded with Joe Biden in the White House, such as halting anti-Tehran activities and funding and mitigating some economic sanctions. As such, the situation in Iran is currently boiling in its own right.
Even the attacks, which seemed to come from Israel, targeted high-level Iranian institutions and activity hubs, such as nuclear and maritime facilities, and had nothing to do with the precarious socioeconomic situation in the country.
The Iranian people’s crises, such as fuel and food shortages, the lack of covid-19 vaccines, and unemployment, are the makings of none other than the Iranian regime, which is knee-deep in external wars. Ebrahim Raisi’s appointment or “election” is but a confirmation of the Iranian leadership’s awareness of the increasing popular rage. However, it has no choice other than collective oppression, as it does not intend to back out from its nuclear project nor withdraw from the four countries it controls militarily. Now, the first challenge of Raisi’s government has manifested itself through strikes that erupted less than a month ago and was organized by workers in petroleum refineries and other petroleum-related sectors across Iranian cities, such as Esfahan, Behbahan, and Tehran, not to mention the strikes staged by truckers. If these strikes were to maintain their impetus in the few coming months, they are likely to cause widespread chaos and clashes in the streets.
The new President’s talent does not lie in his administrative capabilities nor in his local political proposals that may mitigate future pressures; rather, his talent is resorting to power and severe collective rulings. Raisi’s job is no easy feat. Though Outgoing President Hassan Rouhani failed to find solutions to the dire living situation during his term, he was known for his reconciliatory internal political rhetoric. Rouhani was the regime’s “good face” while the Revolutionary Guard was its “evil” one.
What this means is that the regime is headed toward more extremist and less promising and apologetic expressions than the ones Rouhani used to pronounce to quell dissidents. Raisi seems to have chosen his approach for preventing the collapse, which is to face dissidents with the use of force. This cannot be easy in a large, multi-racial, densely populated country, which inevitably makes one wonder how things will go down in the few coming months.
With discontent on the rise, the mere formal change in the Presidency will feed the belief that with Rouhani’s departure, all hope is gone and all roads are closed, given the lack of big solutions, like putting an end to Iran’s nuclear project or costly external military adventures.

Afghanistan…Afghanistan!
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 18/2021
Doctrines and political programs should be modest in their thinking about Afghanistan. They should shudder to propose solutions for fixing it, as it surpasses both liberation and invasion; being colonized or being independent. This country's experience demonstrates that political ideas and major ideologies do not suffice alone. Neither the Soviets and their Communism, nor the Americans and their Liberalism, nor Islamists and their jihadists and then their Taliban fighters succeeded at fixing the country. Before any of them emerged on the scene, Afghanistan saw attempts to impose an Ataturkist solution sponsored by its king in a hurry to modernize Amanullah Khan. In 1929, Amanullah was deposed in a civil war. The "war on terror's" limitations were demonstrated this time, but in preceding periods, the limitations of all kinds of wars were also made evident.
When occupiers invade Afghanistan, they create massive problems, and when they pull out, they create massive problems. Its invasions are a disaster, and this is always easy to say. However, its liberation could also be a disaster, and this is a contentious assertion, though past experiences tell us that whenever the Afghans defeated a foreign invader, they were defeating themselves as well. The issue is more complicated than that: When Russia withdraws from Afghanistan, the US is faced with a calamity of the scale seen on 9/11. Today, as the US pulls out from Afghanistan, observers are asking: What disasters will Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey face as a consequence of someone else's withdrawal?
A quick ideological and political answer, whether it favors the occupation or is enthusiastic about liberation, does not add much.
Trying to play it smart isn't useful either, the Americans perhaps succeeded during the war between the "Mujahideen" and Moscow, at turning Afghanistan into the "Soviet Union's Vietnam." But New York and Washington were swiftly hit by Afghanistan's hurricanes. Iran has certainly benefited from the Americans bringing down Taliban rule, but with the Taliban's likely return to power, they could end up paying a price equivalent to that which they had received as a result of its overthrow. As for Russia, which rejoiced at Washington's difficulties in Kabul, a new Afghan curse could come to it from Central Asia.
Thus, the world grits its teeth every time Afghanistan is invaded or liberated. These are some of the current headlines accompanying the United States’ preparations to withdraw: Pakistan has voiced its fears of a civil war erupting in Afghanistan followed by a new wave of refugees. Iran shares Pakistan's concerns. NATO is afraid of an Al-Qaeda comeback in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, which could perhaps host ISIS as well. Turkey, which wants to reconcile with the United States at any cost, has offered to take on the responsibility of ensuring security at Kabul International Airport. The United Nations has expressed increased concern about the grave human rights violations being reported in Afghanistan, and it has reported that 18 million people, or more than half of the population, are in dire need of "life-saving aid." The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned of "a looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as the escalating conflict brings increased human suffering and civilian displacement."
In addition to all that life is very cheap in Afghanistan, and displacement is cheaper. Since 2001, between 66,000 and 69,000 Kabul government soldiers, 84,000 fighters from the ranks of the Taliban and their allies, and 71,000 Afghan civilians have been killed. As for the number of internally displaced persons in the country, it is estimated at 3.2 million Afghans, while 2.7 million have sought refuge abroad. What made Afghanistan what it has become? In this landlocked country that has never been colonized two extremes came together:
- Foreign interventions of every kind, starting in the late nineteenth century, with the “Great Game” between the British and the Russians, which rendered Afghanistan a buffer state. In 1979, the Russians came. In 2001, the Americans came.
- Tremendous ethnic diversity, which is accompanied by partial sectarian diversity. As a result, the minimum consensus needed for political stability was never reached.
These two extremes mutually reinforce one another, and from these two extremes stemmed a third: Fanatism. The identity vis a vis the ethnic other and vis a vis non-Afghans, fortified this fanatism, which manifests itself in many stances, the most famous of which is perhaps the attitude towards women. Afghanistan distinguishes itself from other countries around the world in that it has witnessed suicide attacks on schools that educate girls! This does not mean that Afghanistan has always been a hopeless state. Modern Afghan history itself witnessed a promising period that stretched from 1964 to 1978. Under King Mohammed Zahir Shah, Kabul adopted a policy of neutrality, granting it the best of ties with Moscow, Washington, and London, and it provoked the three capitals to compete in giving aid to Afghanistan, which distanced itself from the Cold War and, before that, the Second World War.
Domestically, Zahir Shah embarked upon a calm and gradual modernization process accompanied by the adoption of a constitution and the expansion of the role of institutions and the rule of law. 1973 witnessed the Republican coup, which was followed, five years later, by a Communist coup, and the beads started rolling. Returning to the past is impossible and processing toward the future is also impossible.