English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 24/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.july24.21.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
A wife is bound as long as her husband
lives. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes
First Letter to the Corinthians 07/36-40: “If anyone
thinks that he is not behaving properly towards his fiance’e, if his passions
are strong, and so it has to be, let him marry as he wishes; it is no sin. Let
them marry. But if someone stands firm in his resolve, being under no necessity
but having his own desire under control, and has determined in his own mind to
keep her as his fiance’e, he will do well. So then, he who marries his fiance’e
does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better. A wife is bound as
long as her husband lives. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry anyone
she wishes, only in the Lord. But in my judgement she is more blessed if she
remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on July 23-24/2021
Health Ministry: 744 new Corona cases, one death
Aoun signs decree for distributing municipal fund revenues, meets Minister
Moucharafieh and British ambassador
Berri meets new British Ambassador, MP Teymour Jumblatt, Vice Speaker Ferzli
Bitar postpones Kahwagi’s interrogation until next week
Al-Kazemi asks Ghajar, Ibrahim to visit Baghdad to finalize fuel grant
procedures
French Embassy announces new French humanitarian aid for Lebanon
Greek Deputy Foreign Minister visits University of Balamand
Geagea: We will not name a prime minister for designation during binding
consultations
Port Victims' Relatives Slam Ferzli, Fahmi, Oueidat, Threaten Major Escalation
Wronecka Briefs Security Council on Implementation of Resolution 1701
U.N. Hosts Dialogue to Inform U.N. Summit on Future of Food in Lebanon
Mikati Awaits Answers to 'Fundamental Questions' Before Accepting Designation
Miqati Shows ‘Positivity’ toward Designation, Recognizes ‘Known Difficulties’
Lebanese Hospitals Warn Power Cuts Threaten 'Catastrophe'
Lebanon Water Supply Could Collapse in a Month
Lebanon faces paralysis as it runs out of electricity, water
Lebanon’s people line up in ‘queues of humiliation’ as their country unravels/Nabih
Bulos/Los Angeles Times./July 23/2021
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
July 23-24/2021
Iran has only repression to offer to the people of Ahwaz
US mulls crackdown on Chinese imports of Iranian oil
One dead in ‘riot’ in western Iran: State TV
Iran using unlawful force in water protest crackdown: Rights groups
Protests in Iran’s Khuzestan continue, spread to neighboring Lorestan
Iran opens new oil export terminal bypassing Strait
A New Test For Kadhimi’s Pragmatism In Washington
US set to formalize readjustment of troop role in Iraq
UN Security Council condemns Turkey leader Erdogan’s position on Cyprus:
Statement
US top diplomat Antony Blinken to visit India, Kuwait next week
Iran opens oil terminal to bypass Strait of Hormuz, impact likely limited
Iraqi officials discuss US military presence on visit to Washington
New Covid Variant 'Probable' This Year, Says Top French Expert
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC
English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
July 23-24/2021
Question: "Why did Jesus instruct us to pray “lead us not into
temptation”?"/GotQuestions.org/July 23/2021
Biden Needs a Long Spoon in Vienna/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 23/2021
The War That Made Our World/Ross Douthat/The New York Times/July 23/2021
In Washington, Who Decides the Next Intervention?/Robert Ford/Asharq Al-Awsat/July
23/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 23-24/2021
Health Ministry: 744 new Corona cases, one death
NNA/July 23/2021
In its daily report, the Ministry of Public Health announced on Friday the
registration of 744 new Coronavirus infections, thus raising the cumulative
number of confirmed cases to-date to 553,615.
It added that one death was also recorded during the past 24 hours.
Aoun signs decree for distributing municipal fund
revenues, meets Minister Moucharafieh and British ambassador
NNA/July 23/2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, signed Decree No.7998, dated
July 23, 2021, which stipulates the distribution of revenues of the independent
municipal fund for year 2019, to municipal unions and municipalities in all of
Lebanon, in accordance with the criteria adopted in this regard.
The total value of these revenues amounts to 775 Billion Lebanese Pounds.
Minister Musharrafiyeh:
The President met Social Affairs and Tourism Minister, Dr. Ramzi Musharrafiyeh,
today at the Presidential Palace.
Ministerial Affairs, the difficulties facing the tourism sector due to current
fuel and electricity crises, and methods to address them were discussed in the
meeting, in addition to the contacts made by President Aoun with competent
departments to expedite the completion of arrangements which lead to the
availability of fuel.
Statement:
After the meeting, Minister Musharrafiyeh made the following statement:
“I was honored to meet his Excellency the President. I briefed the President on
latest tourism developments, and the new problem which this sector suffers from
today. This is a problem of lack electricity.
Today, we face the problem of securing diesel, fuel and electricity at the level
of the whole country. This strongly affects tourism, whether hotels restaurants
or others, in addition to its impact on health, hospital and food sectors.
We had great expectations from the tourism sector during the current three
months, since the country needs the funds of expatriates who bring US Dollars
into Lebanon. Unfortunately, the electricity problem recently appeared. His
Excellency the President assured me that the taken measures will be implemented
within two days to resolve this crisis, in addition to Minister Ghajar and Major
General Ibrahim heading today to Iraq to sign an agreement to import 500 Million
Liters of fuel. This will provide a solution to the electricity crisis in
Lebanon.
President Aoun was also briefed on the ministerial affairs, in terms of the
financing card and the World Bank loan, in addition to the issue of the
displaced Syrians”.
British Ambassador:
President Aoun met the new British Ambassador to Lebanon, Mr. Ian Collard, and
deliberated with him general developments, and Lebanese-British relations.
Ambassador Collard assured the President that that Britain continues to support
Lebanon and stand next to the Lebanese, in the difficult circumstances which
they are witnessing. For his part, President Aoun thanked Ambassador Collard for
the British interest in Lebanon, and the support provided in various fields.The
British Ambassador was accompanied by Political Counselor at the British
Embassy, Gavin Tench.
MP Abi Khalil:
The President met MP, Cesar Abi Khalil, and tackled with him governmental and
general developments, in addition to the needs of Aleyregion.
Adha Feast Congratulations:
President Aoun received additional congratulation telegrams on the occasion of
the blessed Al-Adha feast, most notably from Algerian President, Abdul Majid
Tebboun.-- Presidency Press Office
Berri meets new British Ambassador, MP Teymour
Jumblatt, Vice Speaker Ferzli
NNA
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Friday welcomed at the Second Presidency in Ein
El-Tineh, the new British Ambassador to Lebanon, Ian Collard, who paid him a
protocol visit upon assuming his diplomatic duties as his country's ambassador
to Lebanon.
The visit had been a chance during which the pair discussed the general
situation and the bilateral relations between the two countries. Speaker Berri
also met with Democratic Gathering Chief, MP Teymour Jumblatt, in the presence
of former Minister Ghazi Aridi, with whom he discussed the current general
situation and the latest political developments. On emerging, MP Teymour left
Ain el-Tineh without making any statement.
This afternoon, Berri received Vice Speaker, Elie Ferzli, in the presence of MP
Ali Hassan Khalil.
Bitar postpones Kahwagi’s interrogation
until next week
NNA/July 23/2021
Beirut port blast forensic investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar, on Friday postponed
former army commander-in-chief General Jean Kahwagi’s interrogation until next
week.
The judicial investigator also postponed until next week the interrogation of
former army intelligence chief, General Camille Daher, due to the fact that his
lawyer, Mark Habaka, was taking part in Beirut Bar Association’s strike.
Al-Kazemi asks Ghajar, Ibrahim to visit Baghdad to
finalize fuel grant procedures
NNA/July 23/2021
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi’s press office on Friday issued a
statement saying that before heading to Washington, the Iraqi Prime Minister had
asked of Lebanese Caretaker Minister of Energy, Raymond Ghajar, and Lebanon’s
General Security General Director, Abbas Ibrahim, to visit Baghdad to finalize
the fuel grant procedures, in a bid to swiftly resolve the electricity crisis in
Lebanon. He also insisted that most of the oil that would be sent be distributed
equally to power plants across Lebanon.
French Embassy announces new French humanitarian aid
for Lebanon
NNA/July 23/2021
The French Embassy announced, in a statement this Friday that "a year after the
tragic explosion of the port of Beirut, France remains fully committed to
standing by the side of Lebanon and its people. Today, a new exceptional
shipment of humanitarian aid arrived at the port of Beirut, in the presence of
French ambassador, Anne Grillo.""This French aid (…) falls within the framework
of a joint operation with the CMA CGM Foundation, coordinated by the Crisis and
Support Center of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. The ship, which
departed from the port of Marseille, transports medical equipment to combat the
coronavirus pandemic," the statement read. "The ship also carries a Smiths
Detection portable scanner, which France provided to the Lebanese customs. This
scanner will facilitate the detection of dangerous goods and the fight against
smuggling. Thus, it will contribute to re-launching the Lebanese economy, as it
will allow the Lebanese customs to regain their full capabilities," it added.
"Finally, Aknoul is also providing several tons of humanitarian aid - medicines,
medical equipment, computers, powdered milk for children - which are freely
transported by CMA CGM for the benefit of ten NGOs and three Lebanese hospitals.
(…) While France is organizing on August 4th a third international conference to
support the Lebanese people, the in-kind assistance that arrived today at the
port of Beirut translates once again the French commitment towards Lebanon and
the Lebanese," the statement concluded.
Greek Deputy Foreign Minister visits University of
Balamand
NNA/July 23/2021
Greek Deputy Foreign Minister, Konstantinos Vlasis, on Friday visited the
University of Balamand, accompanied by Greek Ambassador to Lebanon, Catherine
Fountoulaki, and a delegation. Minister Vlasis discussed with the University’s
President Dr. Elias Warrak, the means to bolster cooperation between the
University of Balamand and the Greek government. .
Geagea: We will not name a prime minister for
designation during binding consultations
NNA/July 23/2021
“Lebanese Forces" party leader, Samir Geagea, on Friday said in the wake of the
"Strong Republic” parliamentary bloc’s meeting that his political party will not
name anyone to be designated as Prime Minister during the binding parliamentary
consultations. “We are convinced that it is impossible to achieve reforms for as
long as Aoun, Hezbollah, their allies are in power,” he added, deeming early
parliamentary elections the sole solution. Geagea went on to dismiss as a “new
crime” all the Beirut Port blast developments, describing as “the biggest fraud
operation” the petition that was forwarded to the House of Parliament to lift
immunities from a number of MPs. He went on to say that more damage had been
done during Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s tenure than within the last
30 years “due to the vagueness that’s controlling the caretaker government.”
Port Victims' Relatives Slam Ferzli, Fahmi, Oueidat,
Threaten Major Escalation
Naharnet /July 23/2021
The relatives of the Beirut port blast victims on Friday staged a sit-in outside
the Justice Palace in Beirut under the slogan “The Blood of Out Martyrs is Above
Your Immunities”, in which they lashed out at several officials and threatened a
major escalation in their protests. “You must stop your political antics and you
are requested to lift immunities immediately, seeing as there are no immunities
above the blood of the 218 martyrs,” a spokesman for the families, Ibrahim
Hoteit, said. “You will not be able to arrest a might people and August 4 has
become very near,” Hoteit added, stressing that the blood of the victims will
not go in vain and advising politicians not to “ruin the country.” Slamming
Deputy Speaker Elie Frezli as a “fraudster,” Hoteit warned State Prosecutor
Ghassan Oueidat against refraining from granting a permission for the
prosecution of General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim. “The failure to
give a prosecution permission would be a conspiracy against our blood and sons
and consequently you would face our rage and fury, so beware of playing with
fire,” the spokesman threatened. Noting that the families played a role in
“preventing a major popular explosion” because they wanted to see tangible
results in the investigation, Hoteit warned that the relatives are ready to
“blow up the situation” if officials don’t cooperate with the probe.
Wronecka Briefs Security Council on Implementation
of Resolution 1701
Naharnet/July 23/2021
Coordinator for Lebanon, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace
Operations, and UNIFIL Force Commander Stefano Del Col have briefed the U.N.
Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 1701, based on the latest
report of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Focusing on the recent
developments in Lebanon, Wronecka highlighted the country's multiple and
accumulating socio-economic, financial and political difficulties and their
impact on the people. Reiterating the U.N.'s calls for the formation of "a fully
empowered government that can put the country on the path to recovery," the
Special Coordinator said: “The United Nations is doing what it can to mitigate
the situation, but ultimately the responsibility for salvaging Lebanon lies in
the hands of Lebanon’s leaders.”Discussions at the Security Council also
highlighted the importance of holding free and fair elections in 2022 within the
constitutional timelines, as a key marker of democratic accountability and an
opportunity for the people to articulate their grievances and aspirations. With
the first annual commemoration of the tragic 4 August Beirut Port explosion less
than two weeks away, Wronecka repeated the Secretary-General’s calls for an
"impartial, thorough and transparent investigation. “The families of the victims
and thousands whose lives have been changed forever by that terrible blast are
still waiting. They deserve justice and dignity,” she said. Recalling the goal
of Resolution 1701 to enhance Lebanon’s "security, state authority and
sovereignty," the Special Coordinator hoped for "a real commitment for the
implementation of that resolution in its entirety."She praised the role played
by the Lebanese Armed Forces, in safeguarding the country’s security and
stability, including its "close cooperation with UNIFIL," and called for
"continued support to this key institution."In conclusion, the Special
Coordinator welcomed the international community’s "continued readiness to help
Lebanon."
U.N. Hosts Dialogue to Inform U.N. Summit on Future of Food in Lebanon
Naharnet/July 23/2021
As food systems around the world continue to recover from the shock of the
COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. in Lebanon has hosted a virtual Food Systems
Dialogue to inform the first-ever U.N. Food Systems Summit, which will take
place in New York in September, about the future of food in Lebanon. “This
milestone Summit is drawing on the input of people all over the world to
identify sustainable solutions for the future of food,” the U.N. said in a
statement.
The dialogue was held under the patronage of Deputy Special Coordinator,
Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Najat Rochdi, and Lebanese MP
Enaya Ezzeddine, with the active participation of several U.N. agencies, funds,
programs and regional commissions operating in Lebanon, including the World Food
Program (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the U.N. Information
Center in Beirut (UNIC Beirut), the Economic and Social Commission for Western
Asia (ESCWA) and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Rochdi
said that the Lebanese who have always been known for their rich hospitality and
generosity, are today threatened by their basic right to food due to the
continuous rise in commodity prices as a result of the successive crises in the
country. “People are unable to provide their basic food requirements and are
substituting healthy meals with unhealthy cheaper options, threatening their
food security all of which risk a rise in levels of hunger. The U.N. in Lebanon
is working on building food resilience to vulnerabilities at the individual,
community, and system levels. An improved food system prevents conflicts and is
vital to achieving Goal 2 of the SDGs: Zero Hunger,” Rochdi added. “A change in
the food systems would support the extremely poor, and the ones depending on
agriculture for their livelihoods,” Rochdi said.
The Dialogue brought together around 80 participants for a “lively and
constructive discussion on how to make the food system in Lebanon safer,
stronger, and more equitable.” It included a diverse array of perspectives,
including stakeholders of the Lebanese Food systems, women cooperatives,
research centres, students from the faculties of agriculture and food sciences,
smallholder farmers and business leaders.
“Food security is an outcome of the food system. Our duty is to ensure that the
food system is resilient to ensure sustainable access to safe and healthy food
to those who live in Lebanon and not only for a few,” said MP Ezzeddine.
“Numerous integrated intersected strategies should be put in place to achieve
this goal, and they should all rest on the inalienable right of all, especially
the most vulnerable including women and children, to a healthy affordable diet,”
she added.
Four separate discussions were conducted during the dialogue revolving around
three tracks: ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all, advancing
equitable livelihoods, and building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and
stress and the role of youth in technology and innovation of the food systems.
Rami Zurayk, professor at the American University of Beirut who moderated the
opening and closing sessions, highlighted the importance of focusing on the
obstacles that affect the functioning of food systems such as conflicts,
pandemics, socio-economic crises, and the absence of technology and scientific
development. Participants agreed on a number of ways that the food system in
Lebanon can be strengthened, including: providing vouchers to farmers to buy
agricultural inputs and increase production, developing and strengthening the
skills of farmers and producers to use technology that can be more sustainable,
and promoting low-cost entrepreneurship. Maurice Saade, FAO Representative in
Lebanon, urged all actors to join forces and implement recommendations to avoid
an acute food security crisis in Lebanon. The U.N. in Lebanon will now submit
the outcomes of the Dialogue to the organizers of the U.N. Food Systems Summit.
The information will be used by organizers to feed into the Summit’s five
priority Action Tracks, as well as the preparatory work of its Scientific and
Advisory Groups, Champions Network, and other Summit support structures.
Mikati Awaits Answers to 'Fundamental Questions' Before
Accepting Designation
Beirut - Thaer Abbas/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 23 July, 2021
Efforts are underway to convince former Prime Minister Najib Mikati to accept
his designation to form a new government, a well-informed source said, adding
that the former premier was awaiting answers to “fundamental questions” to avoid
going through the same obstacles that forced Prime Minister-designate Saad
Hariri to abandon the mission. The source, which is close to Mikati, told Asharq
Al-Awsat that Mikati was showing a positive attitude, but was aware of the
difficulty of the task, in which Hariri failed due to his disagreements with
President Michel Aoun. In this regard, the political source underlined that
Mikati “adheres to the same constitutional constants that Hariri refused to
abandon during his designation.”The politician added that the former prime
minister had rejected Aoun’s attempt to bypass the powers of the prime minister,
stressing that his position had not changed.
Therefore, he will neither take any step before obtaining answers to the
fundamental questions he raised, nor will he disregard the unanimous position of
his colleagues of former prime ministers, according to the source. In the same
context, Ahmad Hariri, Secretary-General of Al-Mustaqbal Movement, said that
Aoun’s main goal was to secure the interests of his son-in-law, MP Gibran Bassil,
in any new government. The formation of the government “will not be easy unless
there is a change in the sick mind,” he noted. Hariri stressed that the
parliamentary bloc would take the appropriate decision on naming the prime
minister by Monday, noting that MP Faisal Karami was “not closer to us than MP
Najib Mikati, and we contacted him to reflect on how to preserve the
constitution.”On the possibility of re-nominating the head of Al-Mustaqbal Bloc,
he said: “There is no point in designating Hariri again,” adding that Bassil had
asked Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah to resolve the government
nodes in order to hint that the problem lied with Hezbollah. Ahmad Hariri
stressed that the country needed a fundamental dialogue about its future, with
the participation of representatives of the uprising. Lebanon’s interest is to
be part of the Arab system, he underlined, pointing out that it was too early to
talk about any coalitions in the parliamentary elections, but asserted that
there would not be any alliance with Bassil’s Free Patriotic Movement.
In the same context, MP Michel Daher expected that the designation would take
place but not the formation of a new government. “President Michel Aoun will not
offer to President Najib Mikati what he did not give to Prime Minister Saad
Hariri. Mikati will not accept anything less than what Hariri requested. We will
witness a quick withdrawal, followed by a sharp collapse of all the foundations
of the state,” Daher warned. In turn, member of Bassil’s Strong Lebanon
parliamentary bloc, MP Eddie Maalouf, said that the bloc would discuss all
options to designate a new prime minister.
He pointed to the possibility of nominating candidate Nawaf Salam, saying: “The
name of Salam was proposed last time, and we have not rejected it. Even if
Hezbollah is opposed to it, we do not necessarily have the same opinion.”MP Wael
Abu Faour, a member of the Democratic Gathering, which includes representatives
of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and its allies, said that Mikati was
among the serious names proposed to assume the premiership, but added that the
latter was still hesitant because of his fear of going through the same
obstacles that Hariri faced.
Abu Faour stressed that informal consultations were ongoing with the
participation of local and external parties, to reach a minimum level of
understanding. He noted that the PSP had no objection to naming Mikati, “but the
problem lies in the form of the government, especially since previous
experiences with Bassil are not encouraging.” The deputy said that Nawaf Salam
could be among the names proposed for forming the government, especially as
civil society groups are calling for his designation.The Strong Republic bloc is
holding an extraordinary meeting headed by the head of the Lebanese Forces,
Samir Geagea, to discuss its decision on the designation.
Miqati Shows ‘Positivity’ toward Designation,
Recognizes ‘Known Difficulties’
Naharnet/July 23/2021
According to an informed source, ex-Prime Minister Najib Miqati is showing
openness and positivity concerning his possible appointment as PM-designate but
fears repeating ex-PM Saad Hariri’s experience. The source told al-Sharq al-Awsat
newspaper, in remarks published Friday, that Miqati is awaiting answers to
"fundamental questions" before proceeding with the designation process in order
to avoid repeating the experience of Hariri who stepped down from his assigned
mission. The source said that Miqati is dealing positively with “attempts to
persuade him,” based on his "constant bet on positivity." “But this does not
mean that Miqati does not acknowledge the delicacy of the situation and the
difficulty of the task, in which Hariri failed due to known circumstances,” the
source added.
Lebanese Hospitals Warn Power Cuts Threaten 'Catastrophe'
Agence France Presse/July 23/2021
Hospitals in crisis-hit Lebanon have warned of a looming "catastrophe" as some
were only hours away from running out of fuel to keep life-saving equipment on
during endless state power cuts. Lebanon's worst financial and economic crisis
ever is battering an already fragile health sector as it faces the latest wave
of the coronavirus pandemic. The state electricity supplier has all but stopped
supplying power in recent weeks, forcing homes, businesses and hospitals to rely
on backup generators almost around the clock. But the syndicate of private
hospitals on Thursday warned they were struggling to procure enough fuel to keep
theirs on. "Hospitals are unable to find fuel oil to power generators during
power outages of at least 20 hours a day," it said in a statement. "A number of
hospitals risk running out in coming hours, which will put the lives of patients
in danger," it warned, without specifying how many facilities were at immediate
risk. The syndicate called on officials to "immediately work to solve the issue
to avoid a health catastrophe."As foreign reserves plummet, the Lebanese state
is struggling to buy fuel for its power plants, increasing electricity cuts to
up to 23 hours a day in some parts of the country. The crisis has caused the
local currency to lose more than 90 percent of its value, and forced hundreds of
thousands of Lebanese with drastically reduced incomes to contend with
shortages. Earlier this month, medicine importers said they had run out of
hundreds of essential drugs because the central bank had not released the
promised dollars to pay suppliers abroad.
Lebanon Water Supply Could Collapse in a Month
Naharnet/July 23/2021
The shortages and currency crunch in Lebanon could lead to a collapse of the
mains water supply in Lebanon within a month, the U.N.'s Children Fund warned
Friday. "More than four million people, including one million refugees, are at
immediate risk of losing access to safe water in Lebanon," UNICEF said. The U.N.
agency said that maintenance costs incurred in U.S. dollars, funding shortages
and the parallel collapse of the power grid were rapidly destroying the water
sector. "UNICEF estimates that most water pumping will gradually cease across
the country in the next four to six weeks," it said. "A loss of access to the
public water supply could force households to make extremely difficult decisions
regarding their basic water, sanitation and hygiene needs," UNICEF
Representative in Lebanon Yukie Mokuo said. Lebanon's meltdown, which started
with a financial crisis caused by state corruption and mismanagement, is fast
spreading to every aspect of daily life. The Lebanese pound, which for years was
pegged to the U.S. dollar, has lost more than 90 percent of its value over the
past 18 months. Electricity in most places is barely available an hour a day
while the fuel needed to power generators is also in short supply. Basic
medicines have been missing from pharmacy shelves for months and private
hospitals warned on Thursday they were "hours away" from losing all power
supply.
Lebanon faces paralysis as it runs out of
electricity, water
The Arab Weekly/July 23/2021
BEIRUT--Besides chronic electricity shortage that could paralyse hospitals,
Lebanon frets over the possible collapse of the mains water supply in Lebanon
within a month. “More than four million people, including one million refugees,
are at immediate risk of losing access to safe water in Lebanon,” the UN’s
Children Fund (UNICEF) warned Friday. The UN agency said that maintenance costs
incurred in US dollars, funding shortages and the parallel collapse of the power
grid were rapidly destroying the water sector. “UNICEF estimates that most water
pumping will gradually cease across the country in the next four to six weeks,”
it said. “A loss of access to the public water supply could force households to
make extremely difficult decisions regarding their basic water, sanitation and
hygiene needs,” UNICEF Representative in Lebanon Yukie Mokuo said.
Generalised paralysis
Lebanon’s meltdown, which started with a financial crisis caused by state
corruption and mismanagement, is fast spreading to every aspect of daily life.
The Lebanese pound, which for years was pegged to the US dollar, has lost more
than 90 percent of its value over the past 18 months. Electricity in most places
is barely available an hour a day while the fuel needed to power generators is
also in short supply. Basic medicines have been missing from pharmacy shelves
for months and private hospitals warned on Thursday they were “hours away” from
losing all power supply. Hospitals in crisis-hit Lebanon Thursday warned of a
looming “catastrophe” as some were only hours away from running out of fuel to
keep life-saving equipment on during endless state power cuts. Lebanon’s worst
financial and economic crisis ever is battering an already fragile health sector
as it faces the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
The state electricity supplier has all but stopped supplying power in recent
weeks, forcing homes, businesses and hospitals to rely on backup generators
almost around the clock. But the syndicate of private hospitals on Thursday
warned they were struggling to procure enough fuel to keep theirs running.
“Hospitals are unable to find fuel oil to power generators during power outages
of at least 20 hours a day,” it said in a statement. “A number of hospitals risk
running out in coming hours, which will put the lives of patients in danger,” it
warned, without specifying how many facilities were at immediate risk. The
syndicate called on officials to “immediately work to solve the issue to avoid a
health catastrophe”. As foreign reserves plummet, the Lebanese state is
struggling to buy fuel for its power plants, increasing electricity cuts to up
to 23 hours a day in some parts of the country. The collapse in the value of the
local currency has forced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese with drastically
reduced incomes to contend with shortages. Earlier this month, medicine
importers said they had run out of hundreds of essential drugs because the
central bank had not released the promised dollars to pay suppliers abroad.
Lebanon’s people line up in ‘queues of humiliation’ as
their country unravels
Nabih Bulos/Los Angeles Times.
لوس أنجليس تايمز: اللبنانيون يصطفون في “طوابير الإذلال” بينما تتفكك بلادهم
Fri., July 23, 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/100831/los-angeles-times-lebanons-people-line-up-in-queues-of-humiliation-as-their-country-unravels-%d9%84%d9%88%d8%b3-%d8%a3%d9%86%d8%ac%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%b3-%d8%aa%d8%a7%d9%8a%d9%85%d8%b2-%d8%a7%d9%84/
Fill ’er up? Be ready to wait in line at least an hour — assuming the gas
station is open, that is.
Need medication? Something as basic as aspirin could set you on a daylong hunt
from pharmacy to pharmacy.
Even a grocery run is an ever-accelerating race against ballooning prices and a
failing currency. And whatever you do, you’ll need to time it around power cuts
that can last up to 23 hours a day.
This is life in Lebanon these days, where a 21-month-long, government-engineered
economic implosion — the World Bank calls it “a deliberate depression” — has
transformed everyday tasks into a gantlet of fuel, power, water, medicine and
basic goods shortages that residents dub tawabeer al-thul, or “queues of
humiliation.”
Those lines stretched long this week as the country geared up to celebrate Eid
al-Adha, a festival during which Muslims sacrifice a sheep to commemorate
Abraham almost sacrificing his son Isaac at God’s command. With the Lebanese
lira’s street value down to less than 10% of its official value against the
dollar, it’s a ritual few can afford.
“Every month it’s getting worse, so long as the dollar [rate] gets worse,” said
Abbass Ismail, a 37-year-old computer repairman trudging home from Beirut’s
Sabra market on the eve of Eid.
“This cost 100,000 lira,” he said, looking down at his four stuffed grocery
bags. At the official exchange rate, that would have been $66. In reality, it’s
about $4.50. Even then, “not everyone has this kind of money to spend. I don’t
think there’s Eid. It’s only Eid for the haves.”
It was little better across town in Hamra, an upscale neighborhood with a
usually bustling shopping thoroughfare.
“The days when people used to buy in large amounts, that’s gone,” said Sarah, an
employee at a traditional sweets shop, who gave only her first name. The store
had extended its hours to allow for Eid shoppers, she said, “but even if we stay
open till 3 a.m., it won’t matter.”
Large round trays filled with desserts cover tables at a crowded market.
A boy stands amid a display of traditional Lebanese sweets at a market in Beirut
in April. (Hassan Ammar / Associated Press)
Behind Lebanon’s financial crisis is a power-sharing political system that in
1990 corralled the country’s dizzying mix of sects and loyalties into ending the
15-year civil war. But it turned governance into a patronage game: Instead of
rebuilding the country’s ravaged infrastructure, warlords-turned-statesmen used
ministries as personal piggy banks to hand out favors to their allies.
The international community spoke vaguely of corruption but continued to pour
aid into Lebanon with little regard for how it was spent. Girding everything was
a once-inviolable currency peg that kept the lira at 1,507.50 to the greenback.
By 2019, after years of so-called financial engineering by Lebanon’s central
bank — which tried to lure dollars from abroad with astronomical interest rates,
in what critics likened to a Ponzi scheme — and a series of crises that
constricted the flow of dollars into the country, the system crashed.
Banks stopped giving out money, instantly pauperizing hundreds of thousands of
Lebanese, who couldn’t access their accounts even as they watched the value of
their savings wither away. Angry protests drew a full quarter of the population
onto the streets. Coronavirus lockdowns compounded the problem of what had
become a cash economy with no way to get cash.
The coup de grâce came last August, when a cache of improperly stored explosive
materials in Beirut’s port blew up, killing some 200 people and ravaging entire
neighborhoods. The government immediately resigned; politicians have yet to form
another ruling coalition, or to assign blame for the blast.
Since then, the country has unraveled to the point that traffic lights no longer
function because the government hasn’t paid to repair them. Air conditioning and
even some of the lights at Beirut’s airport have been turned off to conserve
fuel. The price of flatbread, an essential staple, has been raised eight times
this year.
Meanwhile, the army has gone vegetarian because it can no longer afford meat in
its soldiers’ rations. It recently started offering civilians $150 joyrides on a
Robinson R44 training helicopter to be able to pay for maintenance for its
fleet.
A person in a mask holds up a sign that says "Our government did this."
A protester calls for official accountability in the massive blast in Beirut’s
port last year that killed some 200 people. (Hussein Malla / Associated Press)
International offers of aid have made formation of a new government a condition
of any bailout. But officials have done little more than enact temporary fixes
while deflecting blame for decades of mismanagement.
Last week, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri gave up on the premiership after
failing to agree on a Cabinet with other government leaders, plunging the lira
to 22,000 against the dollar on the black market. That brought Lebanon’s minimum
wage to the equivalent of $29 per month — the world’s lowest, according to CARE,
an anti-poverty humanitarian agency.
“Lebanon’s political class has squandered the last nine months. The Lebanese
economy is in free-fall, and the current government is not providing basic
services in a reliable fashion,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said
last week after Hariri’s resignation. “Leaders in Beirut must urgently put aside
partisan differences and form a government that serves the Lebanese people. That
is what the people of Lebanon desperately need.”
That desperation isn’t always obvious. Lebanon’s seaside resorts are booked till
summer’s end. Upscale restaurants and cafes are overcrowded, as if in
affirmation of the Lebanese cliche of partying while the world burns. Sellers of
luxury items — including artwork and bespoke motorcycles — say they’ve never
seen such business.
But much of it is an illusion buoyed by the Lebanese expatriates who have come
home for the summer with dollars from abroad as well as by local residents
racing to spend what money they have before it completely loses value. Besides,
banks have restricted account holders from spending any of their deposits
abroad; domestic expenditure is also restricted, though to a lesser extent.
“The sector is operating at a 70% loss,” said Tony Ramy, head of an association
representing members of the hospitality industry, adding that, although prices
have rocketed, real value has fallen.
“A drink that used to cost $15 now costs $3. A $60 cover charge is now $20. It’s
like we’re holding a fire sale,” he said.
A crowd of men charges forward, some throwing rocks.
Supporters of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who stepped down earlier
this month, clash with Lebanese soldiers in Beirut. (Hussein Malla / Associated
Press)
About 90% of Lebanon’s needs are supplied from abroad — grain, medicine, baby
clothes, sanitary pads, spare parts for machinery — which the country, and its
people, increasingly can’t afford. The price of food and beverages has shot up
670% between April 2019 and April 2021, and more than half of Lebanese have
fallen into poverty, with 1 in 6 receiving assistance, said Abeer Etefa, the
World Food Program’s Middle East spokeswoman.
Gasoline and diesel are perhaps emblematic of the perfect storm of adversity
facing this Mediterranean country’s almost 7 million people.
The government pays dollars to import fuel, but prices it in lira at the pump
using something close to the official — which is to say largely mythical —
exchange rate. The effect is a massive fuel subsidy, a necessity in a country
with no real public transport system and where people rely on diesel generators
for electricity.
But it also means Lebanon is burning through its meager foreign currency
reserves. In a bind, the central bank delayed paying fuel importers, causing an
acute shortage, despite the tankers parked offshore. Queues of dozens of cars
materialized outside gas stations. Even the rich — who had long been able to
insulate themselves from Lebanon’s privations — have had to ration generator
use.
Hoarding is now rampant. Importers estimate there to be 10 million gallons of
excess fuel held in storage either by gas station owners or middlemen hoping to
sell it at a higher price in the future.
Others say fuel has been smuggled from Lebanon to Syria, which is suffering its
own extreme gas crisis as a result of a decadelong war, a failing currency and
crushing sanctions. One top fuel supplier, who asked not to be identified so as
to speak freely, estimated that 5% of Lebanon’s gas imports were sold across the
border in Syria before a recent crackdown brought it down to about 1%.
Mohammad Assi, whose family owns a food store on the main drag of the Sabra
market, almost shouted in frustration as he surveyed the sparse crowd of
shoppers.
“Look around you,” he said. “Is this the atmosphere of Eid?”
His store, which set out bins overflowing with candies and pretzel-like
breadsticks, was in a prime location, but there were few takers.
“People can’t buy anything. There’s no Eid. These last two years, it’s never
been this bad,” he said.
“People are wishing for a war so something changes.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on July 23-24/2021
Iran has only repression to offer to
the people of Ahwaz
The Arab Weekly/July 23/2021
It is not known whether there are any prospects for the protest movement of the
people of the Ahwaz region in southern Iran. The only thing we know is that the
current regime in Iran is incapable of dealing with its complex crisis, which
is, before anything else, the crisis of the regime itself since its
establishment in 1979.This is a regime that wants to play regional roles beyond
the capabilities of the country, instead of paying attention to Iran’s own
problems, including those of the citizens of the Khuzestan province, which used
to be the Ahwaz region, home for both Arab Shia and Sunnis.
The people of Ahwaz have specific demands, especially over the issue of water
scarcity. In addition, historically they have been subjected to injustice and
discrimination due to their Arab origins by a regime that despises anything that
is Arab in the region, based on its belief in the superiority of Persian
civilisation. The Shah is gone but nothing has changed in the Iranian behaviour
towards the entire Arab region. This is evidenced by Iran’s occupation of the
three Emirati islands (Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb) since 1972. The
protest movement of the Ahwazi Arabs has taken on a new dimension in recent days
as demonstrations have raised slogans that are hostile to the “Supreme Guide”
Ali Khamenei and to regime of the Vali-ye faqih established by Ayatollah
Khomeini after the victory of the popular revolution against the Shah.
Sooner or later, the Revolutionary Guards will suppress the Ahwazi revolt in the
Khuzestan province, which in the recent past was an Arab emirate independent of
Iran.
As usual, the “Revolutionary Guard Corps”, which is under the command of the
“Supreme Guide”, will use force without mercy against the people, without caring
to ask the obvious question that cannot be answered by repression: why have the
Ahwazis taken to the streets?
The movement of the Ahwazis reflects the failure of a regime that, since its
inception, has set goals that it is has been unable to meet. One such a goal is
to end Iran’s economic dependence on oil and gas. In the post-revolutionary era,
Iran has actually become more dependent in its oil and gas income than it was
under the Shah. The “Islamic Republic” decided to cover up its internal
problems, including that more than half its people now live below the poverty
line, by adventures abroad.
Wherever Iran goes, devastation and destruction follow. Whoever needs examples
of this can look at what happened to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, where the
sectarian militias affiliated with Iran operate freely. One has only to look at
what happened in Gaza as a result of Iran’s missiles and its support over many
years for the “Hamas” movement with money and weapons. What Ahwaz is
experiencing these days is yet another episode in Iran’s endless series of
failures. The people of Ahwaz did not turn against the regime when the war with
Iraq took place between 1980 and 1988, although the Iraqi army was able at the
beginning of that war to occupy large areas in Ahwaz, including Khorramshahr
(Al-Muhammarah).
The Ahwazis did not turn against Iran despite all the injustices they were
subjected to. It is the Iranian regime that has turned against the Ahwazis, a
regime which has nothing to offer to its people. The regime will be able to
control the Ahwazi anger despite its spreading to various other Iranian regions,
reaching train stations in Tehran, where anti-Khamenei slogans were uttered by
demonstrators. But then what? More than four decades have passed since the
establishment of the “Islamic Republic” in Iran. Tehran has achieved dubious
successes in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. These successes do not include any
achievement, at the urban level, at the human level nor at the level of Iran’s
reconciliation with its neighbours. All that Iran needs is reconciliation with
itself. What we see now in the way Tehran deals with the Ahwazis reflects a
failure to make peace with its own people. This inability has led to adverse
consequences for the entire region, endangering the future of a place like
Lebanon, which only a few tears ago was largely a prosperous country.
US mulls crackdown on Chinese imports of Iranian oil
Reuters/23 July ,2021
The United States is considering cracking down on Iranian oil sales to China as
it braces for the possibility that Tehran may not return to nuclear talks or may
adopt a harder line whenever it does, a US official said. Washington told
Beijing earlier this year its main aim was to revive compliance with the 2015
Iran nuclear deal and, assuming a timely return, there was no need to punish
Chinese firms violating US sanctions by buying Iranian crude, the official said.
That stance is evolving given uncertainty about when Iran may resume indirect
talks in Vienna and whether incoming Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi is
willing to pick up where the talks ended on June 20 or demands a fresh start.
The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran - which has said
it will not resume talks until Raisi takes over - has been “very murky” about
its intentions.
“If we are back in the JCPOA, then there’s no reason to sanction companies that
are importing Iranian oil,” the official told Reuters this week, referring to
the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action under which Iran curbed its nuclear
program in return for relief from economic sanctions.
“If we are in a world in which the prospect of an imminent return to the JCPOA
seems to be vanishing, then that posture will have to adjust,” the official
added.The Wall Street Journal first reported Washington was considering
tightening enforcement of its Iran sanctions, notably against China.
Chinese refiners are the biggest importers of Iranian oil.China’s imports of
Iranian crude have averaged between 400,000 and 650,000 barrels per day this
year on a monthly basis, according to data intelligence firm Kpler, with May
volumes spiking to nearly 1 million bpd. Reuters reported on Thursday that the
Chinese logistics firm China Concord Petroleum Co has emerged as a central
player in the supply of sanctioned oil from Iran and Venezuela. That US
officials are hinting at a possible crackdown may be a veiled threat that
Washington has ways to exact a price from Tehran, said Brookings Institution
analyst Robert Einhorn. “It’s probably to send a signal to Raisi that if the
Iranians are not serious about coming back to the JCPOA, the US has options and
there will be costs,” Einhorn said. How Beijing, whose relations with Washington
are strained over issues from human rights to the South China Sea, might react
will depend on whether it blames Iran or the United States for the impasse in
the talks, Einhorn said.
Waiting for new president
One Iranian official said it was up to Iran’s supreme leader when talks resume,
suggesting this could happen when Raisi takes over on Aug. 5 or a few weeks
later. He also said it was unclear if Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Abbas
Araqchi, would remain.
“We should wait for the new president to take office and decide whether he wants
to change the nuclear team or not. It seems that Dr. Araqchi will not be
changed, at least during the handover period,” this official said on condition
of anonymity. A second Iranian official said Raisi and his nuclear team insist
on starting from scratch and refuse to pick up the talks where they ended in
June.“They want their own terms and conditions and they have more demands like
keeping the 60% enrichment or chain of advanced centrifuges and not dismantling
them as demanded by Washington,” the second Iranian official said. The
uncertainty is forcing the United States to examine new approaches, even though
US and European officials have said there are no good options to reviving the
JCPOA. “If ... we were to conclude that the talks are dragging on for too long
and we don’t have a sense of whether they are going to reach a positive outcome,
then of course we would have to take a fresh look at our sanctions enforcement,
including on Chinese entities that were purchasing Iranian oil,” the US official
said, declining to predict the timing of any decision. “It’s not ... black and
white,” he said. “We’ll make it based on the time it’s taking for Iran to come
back and the posture they will take if and when they do come back.”
One dead in ‘riot’ in western Iran: State TV
AFP, Tehran/23 July ,2021
One person was shot dead when rioting erupted in western Iran late Thursday in
sympathy with the drought-hit province of Khuzestan which has seen a week of
protests, state television reported.
Two people also suffered gunshot wounds in the rioting in the town of Aligudarz
in Lorestan province, which neighbors Khuzestan, the Irib news broadcaster
reported on its website. “Yesterday evening, rioting broke out for several hours
in some streets in Aligudarz,” it said, adding that people had taken to the
streets “on the pretext of the water problems in Khuzestan.”“Shots were fired by
unknown elements,” the broadcaster said, adding that the security forces had
been deployed to tackle the rioters.
It was the first time state media had reported protests or casualties outside
Khuzestan since protests broke out there over the drought, which has gripped the
province since March. At least three people have been killed, including a police
officer and a protestor, according to Iranian media and officials, who have
accused “opportunists” and “rioters” of shooting at protesters and security
forces. Farsi-language media based abroad have broadcast videos they said were
of protests in several towns and cities, showing hundreds of marching people,
chanting slogans against authorities, while surrounded by anti-riot police. AFP
could not verify the authenticity of the videos. President Hassan Rouhani said
in a televised speech on Thursday that Iranians have “the right to speak,
express themselves, protest and even take to the streets, within the framework
of the regulations”. Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary general of the Supreme
National Security Council, said “the security forces had been ordered to
immediately release those detained during the recent incidents in Khuzestan, who
had not have committed a criminal act”. Khuzestan is Iran’s main oil-producing
region and one of its wealthiest. But it is also home to a large Arab minority,
and its people regularly complain of being marginalized by the authorities.In
2019, the province was a hotspot of anti-government protests that also shook
other areas of Iran. Over the years, blistering summer heatwaves and seasonal
sandstorms blowing in from Saudi Arabia and neighboring Iraq have dried up
Khuzestan’s once fertile plains. Scientists say climate change amplifies
droughts.
Iran using unlawful force in water protest crackdown:
Rights groups
AFP, Paris/23 July ,2021
Iran is using unlawful and excessive force in a crackdown against protests over
water shortages in its oil-rich but arid southwestern Khuzestan province,
international rights groups said on Friday. Amnesty International said it had
confirmed the deaths of at least eight protesters and bystanders, including a
teenage boy, as the authorities resorted to live ammunition to quell the
protests. Iranian media and officials have said at least three people have been
killed, including a police officer and a protestor, accusing “opportunists” and
“rioters” of shooting at protesters and security forces. “Iran’s security forces
have deployed unlawful force, including by firing live ammunition and birdshot,
to crush mostly peaceful protests,” Amnesty International said.Analysis of video
footage from the protests and eyewitness accounts “indicate security forces used
deadly automatic weapons, shotguns with inherently indiscriminate ammunition,
and tear gas,” it said. Human Rights Watch meanwhile said in a separate
statement that Iranian authorities appeared to have “used excessive force
against demonstrators” and the government should “transparently investigate” the
reported deaths.
“Iranian authorities have a very troubling record of responding with bullets to
protesters frustrated with mounting economic difficulties and deteriorating
living conditions,” said HRW’s Iran researcher Tara Sepehri Far. Rights groups
have accused Iran of launching a ferocious crackdown against 2019 nationwide
protests over fuel price rises that, according to Amnesty, left at least 304
people dead. “Iran’s authorities have a harrowing track record of using unlawful
lethal force. The events unfolding in Khuzestan have chilling echoes of November
2019,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and
North Africa. Amnesty said the teenage boy, Hadi Bahmani, was killed in the town
of Izeh. Iranian authorities have blamed the unrest on rioters and Amnesty noted
that the Fars news agency published interviews with relatives of two of the men
killed distancing themselves from their actions. But Amnesty cited a source as
saying that one of the families had been visited by plain clothes agents and
“coerced them into reciting a pre-prepared script on camera”. Human Rights Watch
said there had also been reports of internet shutdowns in the area, noting that
“over the past three years, authorities have frequently restricted access to
information during protests.”Khuzestan is Iran’s main oil-producing region, but
has been struggling with an intense drought since March. The province is home to
a large Arab minority, and its people regularly complain of being marginalized
by the authorities.
Protests in Iran’s Khuzestan continue, spread to
neighboring Lorestan
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/23 July ,2021
Protests sparked by a water crisis in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province
continued for an eighth consecutive night on Thursday, spreading to the
neighboring Lorestan province, videos posted on social media showed.
The protests, which began on July 15, were initially concentrated in Arab
majority areas in oil-rich Khuzestan, which is home to ethnic Arabs who have
long complained of discrimination in Iran. But the demonstrations have since
spread to more cities in Khuzestan, as well as to the western Lorestan province.
Protests broke out in the city of Aligudarz in Lorestan with demonstrators
shouting slogans against Iran’s highest authority, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,
a video shared on social media showed. Security forces opened fire on protesters
in the city, according to another video. “This is Aligudarz … security forces
are shooting ordinary people,” a man was heard saying in one video circulating
on social media.In Khuzestan province, the epicenter of the protests,
demonstrations continued in multiple cities and towns, including the provincial
capital Ahwaz and the port city of Mahshahr. Security forces opened fire on
protesters in Mahshahr, videos shared online showed. Al Arabiya English could
not independently verify the videos’ authenticity. There was a notable decrease
on Thursday in the number of videos shared online from Khuzestan compared with
previous days. Activists have attributed this to authorities disrupting internet
access in the region. Global internet monitoring firm NetBlocks said on
Wednesday mobile phone internet service in Iran had been disrupted from July 15,
the first day of the protests. “Network data from NetBlocks confirm a
significant regional disruption to mobile internet service in Iran beginning
Thursday 15 July 2021, ongoing almost a week later as of Wednesday 21 July
2021,” it said.The effects represent “a near-total internet shutdown that is
likely to limit the public’s ability to express political discontent or
communicate with each other and the outside world,” NetBlocks added. In November
2019, Iran shut down access to the internet for several days amid widespread
anti-government protests.
Iran has so far confirmed the death of two young men and a police officer in
violence connected to the protests, blaming the three deaths on unknown
“rioters.”Activists said the two young men, as well as more protesters, were
killed by security forces. Iranian officials, who typically use the term
“rioter” to refer to protesters, have blamed deaths in past protests on
protesters.The Ahwaz Human Rights Organization, which monitors human rights
abuses in Khuzestan, on Friday named seven citizens it said were killed by
security forces in protests across the province. The rights group named 16
others it said were arrested in Khuzestan in connection with the protests.
Iran’s outgoing President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday “people have the right
to protest the current situation.”“Having to deal with water shortages and heat
above 50 degrees Celsius is very difficult and exhausting, and people have the
right to protest the current situation,” the official IRNA news agency quoted
him as saying. President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, who will take over from Rouhani on
August 5, said on Thursday Khuzestan had been neglected and added that he will
appoint a governor with “special powers” for the province to address its
problems more effectively, IRNA reported. The water crisis has devastated
agriculture and livestock farming in Khuzestan and caused power outages in other
parts of the country, which sparked protests in several cities earlier this
month. Authorities have blamed the water shortages on a severe drought, but
protesters say government corruption and mismanagement, as well as
“discriminatory” policies aimed at changing the region’s demography, are to
blame. 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.
Iran opens new oil export terminal bypassing Strait
Jennifer Bell, Al Arabiya English/23 July ,2021
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani announced Thursday the opening of a new oil
export terminal on the Gulf of Oman that will allow shipments to avoid the
strategic Strait of Hormuz. Speaking on live television, Rouhani said Iran had
inaugurated a 1,000 kilometer (600 mile) pipeline and started “the operation of
the export terminal” at Jask in the Makran region. About $2 billion in
investment was plowed into the project with the aim of creating a daily export
capacity of one million barrels of crude oil through the new Jask terminal. In
the project’s first phase it will carry 300,000 barrels of oil per day, Iran’s
oil ministry’s news agency Shana reported. This capacity will increase to one
million barrels in the near future, it said. More than 250 contractors and
domestic manufacturers were involved in the project, which took about two years
to complete.
To reach its current stage, this project has created 5,000 direct and 15,000
indirect jobs, Shana said. The Strait of Hormuz is a vital waterway in which a
fifth of world oil output passes. The new export terminal comes amid a pause in
negotiations to salvage Iran’s nuclear deal. An Iranian official announced
Saturday that talks in Vienna on Iran’s nuclear deal will not resume before a
new government takes office in August, following presidential elections last
month won by ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi.
A deal could lead to sanctions relief and Iran exporting an extra 1 million
barrels per day, or 1 percent of global supply, for more than six months from
its storage facilities.
With AFP
A New Test For Kadhimi’s Pragmatism In Washington
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 23 July, 2021
Acting US Assistant Secretary of State Joey Hood spoke during a virtual forum
last week about the complexities of consolidating stability in Iraq with the
presence of Iranian-backed militias, saying "they have to leave us, and the
Iraqis, alone.” Hood further stressed that his country “is not at war” with
Iraq. The concept that Hood promotes about the partnership with Iraq is to some
extent used by the Iranians to describe their relationship with the country,
which they say is based on common interests primarily focused on “opposing the
American project in the region.”This raises more pressure on the Baghdad
government and reduces its chances of adopting an independent strategy on the
regional and international situation.
With the publication of this news analysis, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi
would be on his way to Washington to meet with US President Joe Biden and to
complete the fourth round of the strategic dialogue, which includes a varied
schedule, including discussions over the controversial withdrawal of combat
forces from the country. When the two presidents meet, they will have to talk
frankly about the two countries’ intersecting paths regarding the conflict with
Iran and the changes that have occurred in Iraq since Kadhimi met with former
President Donald Trump in August 2020. The Iraqi premier heads to the White
House leaving behind a heated scene with armed factions rapidly gaining field
and political influence, without any indications of a clear government policy to
deter outlaw groups and impose the authority of government institutions on vital
state facilities.
Last week, Asharq Al-Awsat quoted US officials close to the Biden administration
as expressing disappointment with the performance of the Iraqi prime minister,
as he “must do more to deter the armed factions.” Decision-makers in Baghdad,
however, say that Kadhimi was a very realistic person, and his containment
policy was more effective than opening a broad front of violence. The fact is
that the Iraqi premier and his government team are based in a small area of
influence within the country’s political arena. A senior Iraqi officer told
Asharq Al-Awsat that confrontation between the two parties was not possible, as
“the influence of the factions literally starts from the Green Zone.”It seems
that the Americans are fully aware of the difficult equation in Iraq. General
Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of the US Central Command, was closely
monitoring the field developments and provided a flood of data and information
about Iraq’s struggle with the armed factions. But Baghdad continues to bet on
the “principle of dialogue” to achieve the minimum level of calm. In this
regard, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein called on Iran to intervene to stop
the attacks on diplomatic missions.
“This doesn’t seem enough,” a Western diplomat told Asharq Al-Awsat, noting that
Kadhimi must “devise other solutions and be more courageous.”Nonetheless, the
position of the White House tends to continue to support Kadhimi, for objective
considerations, the most important of which is that the Iraqi premier is “an
independent person who is not loyal to Iran,” and that the opportunity to
achieve a more stable equation is still available, according to US diplomatic
sources.
US set to formalize readjustment of troop role in Iraq
Reuters/23 July ,2021
The US and Iraq are expected to formalize the end of Washington’s combat mission
in Iraq by the end of the year and continue the transition toward training and
advising Iraqi forces, US officials said on Thursday. There are currently 2,500
US troops in Iraq focusing on countering the remnants of Islamic State. The move
is not expected to have a major impact since the US has already moved toward
focusing on training Iraqi forces. But the announcement, set to come after
President Joe Biden meets his Iraqi counterpart in Washington next week, will be
at a politically delicate time for the Iraq government and could be seen as a
victory domestically in Baghdad. “The key point that you’re going to hear
conveyed and I think is just incredibly important, is that the Biden
administration wants to stay in Iraq because the Iraqi government has invited us
and requested that we continue to do so,” a senior defense official, speaking on
the condition of anonymity, said. “The mission doesn’t change ... how we support
the Iraqi security forces in the defeat ISIS mission is what we’re talking
about,” the official added. The official said there would be a focus on
logistics, maintenance of equipment and helping Iraqi forces further develop
their intelligence and surveillance capabilities. At home, Iraqi Prime Minister
Mustafa al-Kadhimi faces increasing pressure from Iran-aligned parties and
paramilitary groups who perceive him as siding with the US.
UN Security Council condemns Turkey leader Erdogan’s
position on Cyprus: Statement
AFP, United Nations, United States/23 July ,2021
The UN Security Council on Friday condemned Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’scall for two states in Cyprus and a move to reopen a resort emptied of
Greek Cypriots, calling for a “just” settlement with a united country under a
“bizonal” federation, diplomats said. “The Security Council condemns the
announcement in Cyprus by Turkish and Turkish Cypriot leaders,” said the
statement, obtained by AFP and which diplomats said was agreed upon. The Council
was to formally adopt it later in the day, diplomats said.“The Security Council
expresses its deep regret regarding these unilateral actions that run contrary
to its previous resolutions and statements.”
US top diplomat Antony Blinken to visit India, Kuwait next
week
Reuters, Washington/23 July ,2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to India next week, the State
Department said on Friday, the top US diplomat’s first visit to the world’s
largest democracy and an important US ally in Asia. Blinken will also visit
Kuwait and meet senior officials there at the end of the July 26-29 trip. In New
Delhi on Wednesday, Blinken will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Among the subjects on the agenda
will be “Indo-Pacific engagement, shared regional security interests, shared
democratic values, and addressing the climate crisis” as well as the response to
the coronavirus pandemic, a statement said. Blinken is likely to discuss plans
for an in-person summit of the Quad group of countries -- Indian, Japan,
Australia and the United States -- that is seen as a counter to China’s rising
influence. The meeting later this year is expected to focus on ways to develop
regional infrastructure in the face of China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative.
The United States hosted a virtual summit of the Quad countries in March at
which they agreed that Indian drugmaker Biological E Ltd would produce at least
a billion coronavirus vaccine doses by the end of 2022, mainly for Southeast
Asian and Pacific countries. However, India, the world’s largest vaccine
producer, was subsequently hit by a catastrophic wave of COVID-19 infections and
halted vaccine exports amid intense criticism of Prime Minister Modi’s domestic
vaccination efforts.
Washington sent raw materials for vaccines, medical equipment, and protective
gear to India after the spike. Blinken’s trip will follow a visit by Deputy
Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to China and coincide with a visit to Southeast
Asia by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Iran opens oil terminal to bypass Strait of Hormuz, impact likely limited
The Arab Weekly/July 23/2021
TEHRAN/ LONDON--Iran has opened its first oil export terminal that does not
require tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint patrolled by
warships of its arch foe the US. However, many experts are sceptical about the
impact of the move.
Rouhani hailed as an “historic day” the inauguration of the new terminal located
at Jask on the Gulf of Oman, which will allow tankers headed into the Arabian
Sea and beyond to avoid the narrow waterway. But many experts dismissed the move
as merely symbolic and not changing much in the geostrategic realities of Gulf
waterways. It does however demonstrate an intent by Tehran to recalibrate its
relations with Western nations and Arab Gulf neighbours and prepare for more
exports of Iranian oil if US sanctions are lifted. Iran’s other major oil
terminal is located at the Gulf port of Kharg, accessed through the Strait of
Hormuz, which is less than 40 kilometres wide at its narrowest point and where
US and Iranian naval vessels have faced off in the past. “We had a terminal and
if there was a problem, our oil exports would be cut off,” Rouhani said, adding
that “today is a great, historic day for the Iranian nation”.
According to analysts, the new Iranian move is aimed at reducing the potential
for tensions between Iran and the West over the Strait of Hormuz which Tehran
has threatened to close in the past. The new terminal could serve as an
insurance policy against Iran’s own miscalculations if it decides to disrupt oil
export traffic through the strategic waterway. Experts see no realistic
possibilities for Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, as it is very aware of the
repercussions of that action on its weak economy and that such a step would
cause problems and reactions that may threaten the survival of the regime
itself. On top of its tense relations with the West, Tehran struggles with
internal social and economic problems, the latest of which is the widespread
protests in Ahvaz over the water crisis.
International affairs researcher and former adviser at the Saudi Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Salem bin Askar Al-Yami, told The Arab Weekly that Iran’s
resorting to the Jask port will not ease the tensions that affect the oil
industry and exports from the Arab Gulf countries, because it adds a new element
to the control of waterways through which this vital commodity passes. Waddah
Al-Taha, an economic analyst and member of the advisory board at the Chartered
Institute of Securities and Investment, stressed that this is more symbolic and
propaganda-geared step than a realistic and practical move because the Jask
port, earmarked for exports, needs a huge infrastructure capable of
accommodating an export capacity of up to one million barrels per day.
Taha pointed out to The Arab Weekly, that if Iran ever tries to close the Strait
of Hormuz and seeks to use Jask as an alternative or emergency export terminal
to protect its oil exports, sanctions will still affect any countries importing
Iranian crude.
Iran has been under punishing US sanctions since then president Donald Trump
more than three years ago unilaterally withdrew from the landmark 2015 Iran
nuclear deal, heavily impacting Iranian energy exports. “The oil industry is
very important for us and it is also important for the enemy,” Rouhani said in
televised comments. Iran has also built a 1,000 kilometre pipeline to carry its
oil from Goreh in the southwestern Bushehr province to the new Jask terminal in
the country’s southeast. Rouhani estimated at $2 billion the value of the new
project which, according to Iranian media, has been under way for some two
years. The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, is the
main shipping lane linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe
and North America. The location of the new terminal will also save tankers
headed into the open seas several days’ sailing time.
Calculations
Iran and the United States have been on the brink of war twice since June 2019
amid tensions in the Gulf and over the nuclear deal, which has been hanging by a
thread. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh proclaimed at the launch of
the project that it would aid exports and was therefore “a manifestation of the
breakdown of sanctions”.The official IRNA news agency had said Wednesday that
the new pipeline and terminal would help Tehran “win back the Iranian oil market
from rival countries”. The project also helped ensure the country’s “energy
security”, because it is located outside the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, IRNA
added. Given the US sanctions, Tehran is discreet about its shipments of crude
to the few customers who still dare to buy it. The United States has accused
Iran of trying to circumvent the sanctions by exporting oil to countries
including China, Venezuela and Syria. Washington has repeatedly announced the
seizure of tankers allegedly carrying Iranian oil. According to Iranian
officials, the Islamic Republic aims to eventually pump “one million barrels per
day” through the pipeline to Jask. At the moment, the project allows exports of
350,000 barrels per day, they said. Iran produced 2.47 bpd in June, according to
latest available figures from OPEC, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries. Zanganeh said in May it was a “priority” for Iran to nearly triple
its current crude production, in order to boost the nation’s “power”.
Iraqi officials discuss US military presence on visit to
Washington
The Arab Weekly/July 23/2021
The talks on the US military presence in Iraq come at a politically delicate
time for the Iraqi government.
WASHINGTON--Senior officials from Baghdad were in Washington Thursday for
preliminary talks on the US military presence in Iraq, ahead of an upcoming
meeting between leaders of the two countries, the Pentagon said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden is set to host Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi
at the White House on Monday and Kadhimi is expected to push for a concrete
timetable of foreign troop withdrawal. On Thursday Mara Karlin, Acting Assistant
Secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs, hosted Iraqi National
Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji and a military delegation, Pentagon spokesman
John Kirby said in a statement. Both sides “reaffirmed the importance of the
US-Iraq bilateral security relationship” as well as “the long-term US-Iraq
security cooperation partnership and areas for cooperation beyond
counterterrorism.”Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin joined the group to repeat
his support for “the US-Iraq strategic partnership.” Talks are set to resume on
Friday. Some 3,500 foreign troops are in Iraqi territory, including 2,500
Americans, who have been deployed to help fight the Islamic State group since
2014. The implementation of their withdrawal could take years but experts say
the move will not have a major impact since the United States has already moved
toward focusing on training Iraqi forces. The talks on the US military presence
in Iraq come at a politically delicate time for the Iraqi government and any
agreement on the issue could be seen as a victory domestically in Baghdad.“The
key point that you’re going to hear conveyed and I think is just incredibly
important, is that the Biden administration wants to stay in Iraq because the
Iraqi government has invited us and requested that we continue to do so,” a
senior defence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said. “The
mission doesn’t change … how we support the Iraqi security forces in the defeat
of ISIS is what we’re talking about,” the official added. The official said
there would be a focus on logistics, maintenance of equipment and helping Iraqi
forces further develop their intelligence and surveillance capabilities.
Iraq, long an arena for bitter rivalry between the United States and Iran
despite their shared enmity towards ISIS, has seen growing numbers of rocket and
drone attacks on US targets in recent months. Last week Iraq’s leader met
visiting US envoy Brett McGurk in Baghdad to discuss foreign troop withdrawal,
his office said in a statement.At home, Kadhimi faces increasing pressure from
Iran-aligned parties and paramilitary groups who perceive him as siding with the
United States.
New Covid Variant 'Probable' This Year, Says Top French
Expert
Agence France Presse/July 23/2021
The French government's top advisor on Covid-19 warned Friday that a new variant
of the disease would "probably" emerge in the winter months this year. The
country is currently battling an unprecedented spike in new cases caused by the
more infectious Delta variant, which was first recorded in India. "We will
probably have another variant arrive during the winter," Jean-Francois
Delfraissy, head of the French government's scientific council, told the BFM
news channel. He said that he could not predict the consequences, or whether it
would be more dangerous, adding that Covid-19 had "relatively limited"
capacities to mutate. The infectious diseases specialist urged French people to
return to social distancing and mask-wearing, and said a "return to normal"
would probably be in 2022 or 2023. "The big challenge for the next couple of
years will be how are we going to co-exist, with two worlds: countries that are
vaccinated and those that are not," he said. The government's strategy to
contain the current fourth wave of cases is based on the introduction of a
"health pass" system that requires people to show proof of vaccination or a
negative test when entering public venues.
Since Wednesday, cinemas, museums, swimming pools and sports venues have been
required to ask patrons for their health credentials, leading to criticism from
some that it restricts the freedoms of the non-vaccinated. The lower house of
parliament approved a draft law early Friday morning that will extend the system
to cafes and restaurants from next month, and make vaccinations mandatory for
health and social care workers from September. The legislation will now be
examined during an emergency session by the upper house senate, with the
government hoping for approval by the end of the weekend.
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July 23-24/2021
Question: "Why did Jesus instruct us
to pray “lead us not into temptation”?"
GotQuestions.org/July 23/2021
Answer: We know from James 1:13 that God does not tempt us to sin. If God did
tempt us to sin, He would be acting contrary to His holy nature, against His
desire for us to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16), and against all other
commandments in Scripture that tell us to avoid sin and flee temptation. In the
Lord’s model prayer (Matthew 6:9–13), Jesus says, “Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one” (verse 13). The inclusion of a request for God
not to lead us into temptation teaches us that avoiding temptation should be one
of the primary concerns of the Christian life.
The idea of God leading His people is a main theme of Scripture. The book of
Psalms especially is filled with pleas for God to lead us in His ways (Psalm
5:8; 27:11), by His truth and righteousness, and in “the way everlasting” (Psalm
139:24). Along with leading us toward good, we understand that we are asking God
to lead us away from evil. The petition in the Lord’s Prayer not to be led into
temptation reflects the believer’s desire to avoid the dangers of sin
altogether. This phrase, then, must be understood in the sense of “permitting.”
Jesus taught us to pray, “Do not ‘allow’ us, or ‘permit’ us, to be tempted to
sin.” This request implies that God has such control over the tempter as to save
us from his power if we call upon our Heavenly Father.
There is another sense in which we are to plead with God not to lead us into
temptation. The word temptation can also refer to trials. We know from 1
Corinthians 10:13 that God will not test us beyond our ability in Christ to bear
it and will always provide a way out. But God sometimes subjects us to trials
that may expose us to Satan’s assaults for His own purposes, as in the cases of
Job and Peter (Luke 22:31–32). If the temptation in the Lord’s Prayer refers to
trials, then the meaning of Matthew 6:13 is, “Do not afflict or try us.” It is
not wrong to pray that we may be delivered from trials and suffering, as long as
we submit ourselves to the will of God, no matter what it is. The believer can
rightly ask to be delivered from testing as well as ask for the strength to
endure it if it does come.
We might illustrate Jesus’ words “Lead us not into temptation” like this: a
mother takes her young children grocery shopping with her and comes to the candy
aisle. She knows that taking her children down that aisle will only stir up
greediness in their hearts and lead to bouts of whining and pouting. In wisdom,
she takes another route—whatever she may have needed down the candy aisle will
have to wait for another day. In this way the mother averts unpleasantness and
spares her children a trial. Praying, “Lead us not into temptation,” is like
praying, “God, don’t take me down the candy aisle today.” It’s recognizing that
we naturally grasp for unprofitable things and that God’s wisdom can avert the
unpleasantness of our bellyaching.
Whether we are asking for God to lead us away from sin or from difficult trials,
our goal is found in the second part of verse 13: “Deliver us from the evil
one.” A petition similar to this is offered by David in Psalm 141:4: “Do not let
my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with
those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies.” In all things, God
is our deliverer, and we are wise to seek His power over sin.
Biden Needs a Long Spoon in Vienna
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 23/2021
To talk or not to talk? For Joe Biden’s administration in Washington this is the
question with regard to “frozen” negotiations with Iran over its so-called
“nuclear ambitions”. Initially, Biden appeared keen to team-roll the process so
that he could revive what his former boss Barack Obama still presents as his
greatest foreign policy achievement, thus loosening the lasso that Donald Trump
has tightened around the mullahs in Tehran.
On the way to the forum, however, two things happened.
First, the so-called “moderates” in Tehran who have always talked like people
from the fringes of the US Democratic Party were booted out of the Islamic power
banquet and replaced by a coterie that says it wants to turn the White House
into a Hussyeniah once global Khomeinism has seized control of the United
States.
Next, the FBI threw a bombshell by reporting a plot to kidnap Massih Alinejad, a
US citizen and a campaigner for human rights in Iran, and whisk her from New
York to Tehran via Venezuela. This was all the more disturbing as Ms. Alinejad
who has a vast following in cyberspace works for Voice of America, an organ of
the US government. That made Biden’s plan to re-open the cash taps for Tehran
all the more difficult.
So, to talk or not to talk?
The answer is the Japanese “mu” which means “un-ask” or “re-ask” your question
beyond a simple yes or no. Re-asking the question the Japanese way could give us
this: whom to talk to and on what subject? Only an arch-ego centrist like Obama
might think that as long as he is doing the talking it doesn’t matter who he is
talking to and on what subject.The answer to our re-asked questions could only
be yes. Thus Biden must begin by finding out who he would be talking to: puppets
of a star in the darkest recesses of the Islamic Republic or the puppet-master
himself.
Next, and more importantly, he should decide what he needs to talk about. As we
have often argued the so-called “nuclear issue” has always been a diversion
designed to focus attention on a phantom while the living monster, wielding
blood-soaked dagger, goes around spreading mayhem and murder. The same technique
is used by circus wizards who attract attention to one hand while the other hand
pulls the rabbit out of the hat.
Obama roared in triumph because he supposedly persuaded the mullahs stop
enriching uranium above five percent, something that they didn’t need, couldn’t
use and, couldn’t financially afford. But he failed, or refused, to ask the real
questions: is the Islamic Republic not a threat to regional peace and the global
rule of law with or without its ridiculous uranium enrichment show?
Hasn’t the Islamic Republic been the world’s number one sponsor of international
terrorism for four decades with or without enriching uranium? Was the seizing of
over 600 hostages from 32 countries, including the US and all major European
states, ever linked to uranium enrichment? In fact, for the past four decades
the Islamic Republic has not spent a day without holding some hostages. What
about raiding the embassies of 17 countries in Tehran and terrorist raids on US
and French embassies and military bases in Lebanon?
Were the hundreds of US troops who lost their lives in Iraq to roadside bombs
from Tehran victims of enriched uranium? What about the assassination of 118
dissident Iranians in 20 world capital including Washington, Berlin, London and
Paris, and Dubai? Ms. Alinejad is not the first target of Khomeinist kidnapping
gangs. By best accounts, over the past 40 years, the Khomeinist regime has
abducted over 50 opposition activists without using enriched uranium.
The Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires was not blown up with enriched
uranium, nor was the Saint-Michel metro station in Paris. Terror attacks on a
residence of US contractor in Khobar and a number of targets in Thailand,
Pakistan and Kuwait did not involve enriched uranium either.
The Islamic Republic pushed Lebanon to the edge of national catastrophe by
dragging it into deadly adventures that have nothing to do with Lebanese
national interests. Tehran’s policy of prolonging the war in Yemen, fomenting
trouble in Bahrain, weakening the authority of the Iraqi government by
sponsoring mercenary units, and acting as foot soldier for Russia in Syria have
also no connection with the uranium issue. And what about trying to prop up the
Taliban in Afghanistan in the hope of proving that, as the daily Kayhan says the
US has sustained “another defeat”.
The irony in all this is that the US has tried to talk to the mullahs about
enriching uranium, something which is perfectly legal within the parameters set
by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and is routinely done by at least
18 other nations across the globe while never raising the illegal, not to say
criminal, activities they foster in defiance of international law- activities
such as blowing innocent people up in London or Paris and kidnapping people in
Washington and Istanbul.
A global map of terrorism in the past four decades would show that the Islamic
Republic has been involved, directly and indirectly, in more attacks in more
countries than its ideological siblings from Al-Qaeda and Taliban to ISIS and
Boko Haram.
The mullahs assume that as long as they can hoodwink the world, notably the
Americans who are suckers for self-deception, by propelling the “nuclear”
phantom they could have a free hand to kill and kidnap and destroy the very
fabric of statehood in several regional countries while receiving cash rewards
from the US and its major allies who pretend to be guardians of global law and
order.
It may take a few more weeks before Tehran can deploy its new negotiating team
which may or may not include the flatter-in-chief Muhammad Javad Zairf. That
gives the Biden administration time to obtain a long spoon before returning to
the banquet in Vienna. That long spoon could be made of a simple reversal of the
order in which the talks are held. First, let’s talk about terrorism, exporting
revolution, money laundering, kidnapping and hitmen without frontiers. Only then
we could talk about uranium enrichment and the unfreezing of assets. There is
even no need for Biden and allies to talk about “human rights” and things like
that which have become a staple of hollow global diplomacy because those who
demand respect for such rights don’t really mean it and those who hear them know
that they don’t. So, by all means, do talk to the mullahs in Tehran but make
sure the talk is about something relevant with a clear message: cease and
desist!
The War That Made Our World
Ross Douthat/The New York Times/July 23/2021
Two hundred and sixty-six years ago this month, a column of British regulars
commanded by Gen. Edward Braddock was cut to pieces by French soldiers and their
Native American allies in the woods just outside today’s Pittsburgh. The defeat
turned into a rout when Braddock was shot off his horse, leaving the retreat to
be managed by a young colonial officer named George Washington, whose own
previous foray into the region had lit the tinder for the war.
This was the beginning of the French and Indian War (also known, much less
poetically, as the Seven Years’ War), which I thought as a boy was the most
interesting war in all of history. I had encountered it originally through a
public television version of “The Last of the Mohicans,” but I soon found that
the real conflict exceeded even James Fenimore Cooper’s romantic imagination:
the complexity of forest warfare and the diversity of the combatants on both
sides, colonial, European and Native; the majesty of the geographic setting,
especially the lakes, mountains and defiles of upstate New York; the ridiculous
melodrama of the culminating battle at Quebec, with a wee-hours cliff-scaling
that led to a decisive showdown in which both commanders were mortally wounded,
James Wolfe in victory and Louis-Joseph de Montcalm in defeat.
In school the war faded into the background of my history classes. In world
history it was folded into the larger categories of colonial warfare and endless
Anglo-French conflict; in American history it was treated mostly as a prelude to
the real business of the American Revolution. (Not only Washington but also Ben
Franklin and a long list of future Revolutionary-era officers, from Daniel
Morgan to Charles Lee, played roles in Braddock’s doomed campaign.)
But returning to the 1750s as an adult reader of history — and as a columnist
trying to offer constructive thoughts about the history wars in K-12 education —
I think my childhood self was basically correct. The war that evicted the French
from North America was not only incredibly fascinating but also one of history’s
most important wars. Indeed, from a certain perspective, it was more important
than the American War of Independence: The Revolution merely determined in what
form Anglo-America would spread to embrace continental empire and global power,
while the French and Indian War determined whether that continent-spanning
America would come into being at all.
As a kid, I — a good patriotic American and stalwart New Englander — naturally
rooted for the British and the American colonists, from their early string of
setbacks at the hands of Montcalm and other canny French commanders through
their eventual triumphant invasion of New France. It was particularly easy to
identify with the neurasthenic Wolfe, the victor at Quebec, whose
self-dramatization and battlefield martyrdom fit with a 9-year-old’s idea of
generalship.
For an adult, though, reading books like Fred Anderson’s “Crucible of War,” the
best 21st-century history of the conflict, or Alan Taylor’s “American Colonies”
for the bigger picture of North American empire, it’s easy enough to end up
rooting for the French.
First, because they were obvious underdogs — New France had less than a
fifteenth of the population of the 13 colonies, it was constantly being cut off
from its motherland by the British Navy, and it’s something of a miracle that it
lasted for as long and won as many victories as it did.
But also because the French empire in North America represented an unusual model
of European colonization: The combination of the smaller, scattered population,
the harsher climate and the distinctive vision of figures like Samuel de
Champlain and the French Jesuits all contributed to a friendlier relationship
with Native American populations than obtained in the English colonies. (For a
Francophilic supplement to Anderson and Taylor, I recommend David Hackett
Fischer’s “Champlain’s Dream” and Kevin Starr’s “Continental Ambitions.”)
So a world where the French somehow held on to their territories might have been
more Catholic (obviously a good thing) while offering more possibilities for
Indigenous influence, power and survival than the world where England simply won
the continent.
There’s a terribly poignant moment at the end of Anderson’s “Crucible,” when
tribes of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley, under the Ottawa leader Pontiac
and others, begin to rise against the British shortly after the French retreated
from North America. The British imagine that French agents must still be around
stirring up trouble, but the reality is that the Native Americans still
understand themselves to be in a relationship with the French king and imagine
that their war can help bring France back to their aid. But no: They’re alone
now with Anglo-America, and foredoomed.
Imagining an alternative timeline, a history in which New France endures and a
more, well, “French and Indian” civilization takes shape in the Great Lakes
region, isn’t exactly the stuff of the patriotic American education that I wrote
about last weekend.
But it also makes a poor fit with contemporary progressive pieties, in which
organized Christianity is a perpetual scapegoat for the mistreatment of Native
peoples — since it was arguably the power of the church and the Catholic ancien
régime in New France, relative to the greater egalitarianism, democracy and
secular ambition in the English colonies, that helped foster a more humane
relationship between the French colonizers and the Native American population.
Once you recognize that kind of deep historical complexity, you can go in two
directions. Along one path lies a kind of cynicism about almost every aspect of
the past, where the reader of history is encouraged to basically root for
nobody, and the emphasis is always on the self-interest lying underneath every
expression of idealism. The French might have modeled what seemed like a
kindlier form of colonization, but they were only following their own
self-interest as greedy traders and proselytizing Catholic zealots. The New
England colonies might have pioneered what seemed like an impressive form of
egalitarian democracy, but they achieved their wide distribution of property by
ruthlessly crushing the Pequot and the Wampanoag.
This is the mood that I sense, for instance, in Taylor’s “American Colonies” and
its sequels, “American Revolutions” and “American Republics” — the last out just
this year, and much praised for its disenchanted view of the early-1800s United
States. These books are capacious histories, remarkable works of synthesis, in
which you sometimes get the sense that apart from the occasional sympathetic
victim, the author finds very little in hundreds of years of history to actually
admire.
That mood has its place in historical analysis. But continuing my attempts to
propose solutions to our current K-12 history wars, I want to suggest a
different path, in which the kind of patriotic spirit that made me root for the
British at Fort William Henry as a child and the kind of speculations about a
Catholic-Huron imperium that I can entertain as an adult are both appropriate.
The first, the patriotism, is a form of gratitude for the particular goods that
the American Republic ended up embodying — the initial goods of greater
equality, liberty and prosperity for many ordinary people, and then the gradual
extension of those goods to people once subjugated and excluded.
The second, the speculation, is a recognition of contingency and complexity —
the reality that although the United States we have is good and great in many
ways, along another timeline there might lie other goods, other civilizations,
that would have been different from our democratic empire but also admirable,
and whose real and imagined histories can be usefully contrasted with our own.
Both attitudes cultivate the appreciation of the past that seems essential to
sustaining historical memory. On the one hand, you have an appreciation of what
was best in the victors and founders, from Wolfe to Washington, who played
crucial roles in establishing a continental civilization that we have inherited
through no achievement of our own.
And then on the other, an appreciation of figures like Montcalm and Pontiac, and
other embodiments of the two peoples, French and Native, who give one of
history’s most decisive wars its name: peoples whose potential American futures
were stillborn or defeated, but in a different world might have merited
patriotism and gratitude as well.
In Washington, Who Decides the Next Intervention?
Robert Ford/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 23/2021
Many people are watching the American withdrawal from Afghanistan but there is a
bigger debate in Washington about future US military interventions in the Middle
East.
In response to public opinion, Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress
want to make it more difficult to start a new war in the region. One of the key
texts still used for legal justification of American military action there is
the 2002 formal authorization to wage war against Iraq. The 2002 law had support
from Democrats and Republicans and was legal cover for President George Bush to
bring down Saddam Hussein’s regime. President Obama used the law to justify the
military campaign in Iraq against ISIS in 2014. President Trump used it to
justify the airstrike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi
militia leader Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis.
The House of Representatives, including 49 Republicans and 219 Democrats, voted
on June 17 to cancel it. The Senate this week will begin the process of voting
to cancel it also. The White House under Biden supports canceling the law.
According to a White House statement June 14, other American laws provide legal
justification for ongoing military operations.
Not everyone in Biden’s Democratic Party is comfortable with other legal
justifications, however. After Biden launched airstrikes against Iraqi militias
in February and again in June, important Democrats criticized him for not
consulting with the Congress first.
The American constitution is clear: only Congress can declare war, including
declaring a war against foreign militias. However, the American constitution
also clearly states that the President commands all military forces.
Biden didn’t point to the 2002 authorization about Saddam Hussein to justify his
airstrikes. He asserted instead that according to the Constitution he commands
the military and he took steps to defend American soldiers. In the end, this
argument is about the authorities of the Congress compared to the President.
Important senators like Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, and Tim Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s vice president candidate in
2016, support cancelling the 2002 authorization and they want Congress to vote
to approve long-term military operations.
Iran is also in this debate. Each time Trump and Biden launched airstrikes
against militias loyal to Iran, some members of Congress, especially Democrats,
worry that airstrikes on the militias will start a war against Iran without the
prior agreement from Congress.
Some conservative Republican politicians like Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz defend
Biden’s right to attack these Iraqi militias without restraints from Congress.
They are pressuring for the Congress to replace the 2002 authorization about
Saddam Hussein with a new law so that the White House can launch preemptive
attacks against Iran and its allies legally without approval from Congress.
It is interesting that many of these Republicans in Congress still claim that
Biden won the 2020 election through fraud, and now they want to give a president
they implicitly call illegitimate authority to take unilateral military action
against Iran. Most Democrats, however, will reject this proposal.
More important is the effort to cancel the 2001 Congressional authorization to
George Bush to strike groups involved in the 9/11 attack. The legislation aimed
at al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Through twenty years, presidents used this 2001 law
to justify legally military operations in 18 countries against groups such as
al-Shabab, ISIS, Hayat Tahrir Sham and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
US military chief of staff General Mark Milley told a Congress session on June
23 that the 2001 authorization is vital for many American military operations
far from Afghanistan. Some members of Congress, especially left-leaning
Democrats, want to cancel the 2001 war on terror authorization to compel the
President to seek new authorizations from Congress for new military actions
against Islamic extremists.
An important budget committee in the House of Representatives last week voted to
cancel the 2001 authorization. The representative who led the effort in the
committee, Democrat Barbara Lee, was the only representative to vote against the
2001 authorization twenty years ago. Now she has allies who want to cancel it.
The committee vote will compel the entire House of Representatives to consider
the cancellation, and the Senate will also need to vote. Many American
politicians, especially conservative Republicans, reject tying the hands of the
American military. A compromise agreement about cancelling the 2001
authorization will be difficult this year. But the debate shows the change in
American politics.
Since 9/11 Congress didn’t challenge military interventions when a president
launched them. After the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, the legislative
institution is discussing how to limit presidential military authorities in a
way we have not seen since the end of the Vietnam war almost 40 years ago. The
challenges, especially since it springs from Democrats, will make Biden more
cautious.