English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For March 14/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

The Healing Miracle of the Paralytic
Saint Mark ( 02/1-12): “The Healing Miracle of the Paralytic”: “When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was in the house. Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even around the door; and he spoke the word to them. Four people came, carrying a paralytic to him. When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” But there were some of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”— He said to the paralytic— “I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.” He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 13-14/2021

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/
The Healing Miracle of the Paralyzed/Elias Bejjani/March 14/2021
Health Ministry: 3,523 new Corona cases, 56 deaths
US Urges Lebanese Leaders to Work for People’s Common Interests
Report: U.S. Urges Lebanon Leaders to Work for Common Good of their People
Lebanon’s currency plummets reaching an all-time low of 12,400 pounds to US dollar
Lebanon Currency Takes Another Downturn
After Oil Spill, Black Tar Reaches Sidon Beach
Report: Hizbullah Delegation to Meet Officials in Moscow Sunday
FPM Blames Hariri for Govt. Delay
Lebanon’s Judges Emigrate in Search for Decent Life
Jumblatt: To pursue pressure for achieving gender equality, approval of civil personal status law
Parents of students studying abroad call for sitin outside Ain Tineh on Monday

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 13-14/2021

Dozens Arrested at Russian Opposition Forum
Jordan Hospital Oxygen Outage Kills at Least 6 Patients
Syria’s first lady could be prosecuted in UK, have citizenship revoked
Washington Says it Will Not Normalize Relations with Assad Regime
Iranian Investigator Says Israel Likely behind Attack on Container Ship
Report: Crowd Attacks Iran Coast Guard after Smuggler Shot
UN Calls for Withdrawal of Foreign Troops, Mercenaries from Libya
Afghanistan’s Interior Minister warns US against hasty retreat
Houthi leader slammed after claiming US ‘spreading AIDS and
US pressures Houthis to accept ceasefire plan in Yemen
WHO Insists AstraZeneca Vaccine Safe as Jab Faces New Setbacks
Sri Lanka to ban burqa, shut many Islamic schools, minister says
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 13-14/2021

Anticipating a new decade of Syrian conflict/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/March 13/2021
Why Biden’s eyes are on foreign prizes/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/March 13/2021
Humanity is ready to save the planet — and itself/Ranvir S. Nayar/Arab News/March 13/2021
Don’t hold your breath for peace in Libya/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/March 13/2021
China and Military Power through Artificial Intelligence/Peter Schweizer/Gatestone Institute/March 13/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 13-14/2021

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/
 

The Healing Miracle of the Paralyzed
Elias Bejjani/March 14/2021

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73457/elias-bejjani-praying-for-others-and-the-healing-miracle-of-the-paralyzed-miracle/
“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11/28-30).
The habit of praying for others in any manner or pattern is a desirable religious practice, especially when the prayers are for the sake of those who are sick, persecuted, oppressed, poor, lonely and distressed, or have fallen prey to evil temptations. Praying for others whether they are parents, relatives, strangers, acquaintances, enemies, or friends, and for countries, is an act that exhibits the faith, caring, love, and hope of those who offer the prayers. Almighty God, Who is a loving, forgiving, passionate, and merciful Father listens to these prayers and always answers them in His own wisdom and mercy that mostly we are unable to grasp because of our limited human understanding. “All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21/22)
On the fifth Lenten Sunday the Catholic Maronites cite and recall with great reverence the Gospel of Saint Mark( 02/01-12): “The Healing Miracle of the Paralytic”: “When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was in the house. Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even around the door; and he spoke the word to them. Four people came, carrying a paralytic to him. When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” But there were some of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”— He said to the paralytic— “I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.” He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
This great miracle in its theological essence and core demonstrates beyond doubt that intercessions, prayers and supplications for the benefit of others are acceptable faith rituals that Almighty God attentively hears and definitely answers.
It is interesting to learn that the paralytic man as stated in the Gospel of St. Mark, didn’t personally call on Jesus to cure him, nor he asked Him for forgiveness, mercy or help, although as many theologians believe Jesus used to visit Capernaum, where the man lives, and preach in its Synagogue frequently. Apparently this crippled man was lacking faith, hope, distancing himself from God and total ignoring the Gospel’s teaching. He did not believe that the Lord can cure him.
What also makes this miracle remarkable and distinguishable lies in the fact that the paralytic’s relatives and friends, or perhaps some of Jesus’ disciples were adamant that the Lord is able to heal this sick man who has been totally crippled for 38 years if He just touches him. This strong faith and hope made four of them carry the paralytic on his mat and rush to the house where Jesus was preaching. When they could not break through the crowd to inter the house they climbed with the paralytic to the roof, made a hole in it and let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on in front of Jesus and begged for his cure. Jesus was taken by their strong faith and fulfilled their request.
Jesus forgave the paralytic his sins first (“Son, your sins are forgiven you) and after that cured his body: “Arise, and take up your bed, and walk”. Like the scribes many nowadays still question the reason and rationale that made Jesus give priority to the man’s sins. Jesus’ wisdom illustrates that sin is the actual death and the cause for eternal anguish in Hell. He absolved his sins first because sin cripples those who fall in its traps, annihilates their hopes, faith, morals and values, kills their human feelings, inflicts numbness on their consciences and keeps them far away from Almighty God. Jesus wanted to save the man’s soul before He cures his earthy body. “For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?” (Mark 08:/36 & 37).
Our Gracious God does not disappoint any person when he seek His help with faith and confidence. With great interest and parental love, He listens to worshipers’ prayers and requests and definitely respond to them in His own way, wisdom, time and manner. “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened”. (Matthew 07/07 &08)
In this loving and forgiving context, prayers for others, alive or dead, loved ones or enemies, relatives or strangers, are religiously desirable. God hears and responds because He never abandons His children no matter what they do or say, provided that they turn to Him with faith, repentant, and ask for His mercy and forgiveness either for themselves or for others.
“Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up”. (James Letter).
There are numerous biblical parables and miracles in which Almighty God shows clearly that He accepts and responds to prayers for the sake of others, e.g.:
Jesus cured the centurion’s servant on the request of the Centurion and not the servant himself. (Matthew 08/05-13)
Jesus revived and brought back to life Lazarus on the request of his sisters Mary and Martha. (John 11/01-44)
In conclusion: Almighty God is always waiting for us, we, His Children to come to Him and ask for His help and mercy either for ourselves or for others. He never leaves us alone. Meanwhile it is a Godly faith obligation to extend our hand and pull up those who are falling and unable to pray for themselves especially the mentally sick, the unconscious, and the paralyzed. In this realm of faith, love and care for others comes our prayers to Virgin Mary and to all Saints whom we do not worship, but ask for their intercessions and blessings.
O, Lord, endow us with graces of faith, hope, wisdom, and patience. Help us to be loving, caring, humble and meek. Show us the just paths. Help us to be on your right with the righteous on the Judgment Day.
God sees and hears us all the time, let us all fear Him in all what we think, do and say..

Health Ministry: 3,523 new Corona cases, 56 deaths
NNA/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Saturday, the registration of 3,523 new Corona infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 415,362.
It also indicated that 56 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours

US Urges Lebanese Leaders to Work for People’s Common Interests
Washington - Ali Barada/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Washington has expressed concern over developments in Lebanon and the apparent inaction of Lebanese leaders in the face of multiple ongoing crises. “Lebanon’s political leaders need to put aside their partisan brinksmanship. They need to change course. They need to work for the common good, the common interests of the Lebanese people,” US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said during a press briefing in Washington on Friday. His statement came hours after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said time was running out to prevent Lebanon from collapsing and that he could see no sign that the country's rival politicians were doing what they could to save it. They also came as the International Support Group reiterated in a statement that Lebanon’s leaders must no longer delay the formation of a fully empowered government capable of meeting the country’s urgent needs and implementing critical reforms. “The Lebanese people, we believe they deserve a government that will urgently implement the necessary reforms to rescue the country’s deteriorating economy. We know that the Lebanese economy is in a state of crisis because of decades of corruption and mismanagement,” Price said. He said the international community has been very clear that concrete actions remain absolutely critical to unlocking longer-term structural support to Lebanon. Asked whether the administration of President Joe Biden was planning to put any pressure on Lebanese political figures to form a new government, Price said, “We have demonstrated a long-term commitment to the people of Lebanon over decades, and we will continue to stand with them. We would not want to do anything that would in the first instance add to the plight of the Lebanese people.” Prime minister-designate Saad Hariri is at loggerheads with President Michel Aoun and has been unable to form the cabinet since October. Groups of protesters have been burning tires daily to block roads since the Lebanese currency tumbled to new lows, deepening popular anger over Lebanon's financial collapse.

Report: U.S. Urges Lebanon Leaders to Work for Common Good of their People
Naharnet/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, expressed "President Joe Biden’s administration’s" concern about the “apparent inaction of Lebanese leaders in dealing with multiple crises facing their country,"reported Asharq el-Awsat newspaper on Saturday. He urged them to "form a government that implements the needed reforms urgently," he said. "We are concerned about the developments in Lebanon, especially the apparent inaction of the Lebanese leaders to face ongoing multiple crises,” said Price. "The Lebanese deserve a government that urgently implements the necessary reforms to save the country's deteriorating economy,” emphasizing that “Lebanon’s economy is in a state of crisis due to decades of corruption and mismanagement," he said. “Lebanon's political leaders need to put aside their partisan brinksmanship, they need to change course, they need to work for the common good and common interest of the Lebanese people," added Price. Referring to the position of the International Support Group for Lebanon that “leaders in Lebanon should not delay the formation of a government with full powers capable of meeting urgent needs of the country and implementing decisive reforms.”He pointed out that «the international community has been very clear that concrete measures are still extremely crucial in order to launch long-term structural support for Lebanon.” Lebanon is mired in protests and an economic crisis, which has brought surging unemployment and spiralling prices while the currency has plunged to lows to the dollar on the black market.

Lebanon’s currency plummets reaching an all-time low of 12,400 pounds to US dollar
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/March 13/2021
Lebanon’s socio-economic crisis is deepening after the local currency further depreciated on Saturday to reach a historic low of 12,400 Lebanese pounds to the US dollar, losing 85 percent of its initial pre-crisis and official rate value, which is still at 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the US dollar.
A parallel market for the Lebanese pound emerged last summer for the first time since it was pegged against the US dollar at a rate of 1,507 in 1997. Deputy head of MENA and Europe at the World Economic Forum Maroun Kairouz said that the underlying cause or the structural cause of the currency collapse is basically a big deficit in the balance of payments, “there are more foreign currency outputs than inputs and the economy is ground to a complete hold.”“However, there are amplifying causes. The lira has lost its value as a ‘store of value’. The Lebanese are in a mass conversion of their reserves from Lebanese Lira to US dollars to maintain their savings. The second amplifying cause is the failure to form a government on one side and the failure to act for a period of over a year and a half since the beginning of the crisis, which is unprecedented in recent history,” Kairouz added. airouz added that it is important to note that some politicians have focused on imports while lambasting the Lebanese for their consumption style. “There are over 130 countries in the world that have higher import to GDP ratios than Lebanon. The real problem is that we export too little, not only goods but services. Cutting down on imports is not a solution. It will just make people hungrier,” Kairouz added. Kairouz added that making predictions is not always accurate and could be a ‘fool’s game’, but a freefall may be witnessed in the absence of serious policy measures. “We have seen failed attempts to deal with the crisis, banning applications or arresting money exchange are really a mockery of serious policymaking, real reforms need to include a serious agreement with the International Monetary Fund, it is our right as a member. This is the first needed step to restore trust in our economic system, people lost trust in the system, and that is why the currency is collapsing,” Kairouz added. Lebanon has been facing political and economic uncertainty since October of 2019 after the resignation Saad Hariri following a series of nationwide anti-government protests. Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s cabinet has stayed on in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed. But prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri, nominated in October of 2020, is at loggerheads with President Michel Aoun and has been unable to form a new government. The local currency has been plummeting for over a year. Politicians have disagreed on a plan that would allow international aid from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other foreign donors. Meanwhile, Lebanon has been witnessing increased power outages as the Central Bank delays payments for government-backed fuel subsidies due to depletion of reserves in foreign currency. The country’s public debt is $92 billion, equivalent to 170 percent of GDP, one of the world's highest levels.

Lebanon Currency Takes Another Downturn
Naharnet/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
The Lebanese pound hit an all-time low against the dollar Saturday, prompting money exchange shops in the area of Chtoura to shut their doors. On Saturday, it was trading at nearly 13,000 pounds to the dollar on the black market, money exchangers told LBCI. It took a new leap of 2,500 pounds in only 24 hours, said LBCI reporter from Chtoura. Before Saturday’s downturn, the pound had hit 11,500 to the greenback on Friday. LBCI reporter said money exchange shops could no longer meet the “crazy” market exchange demand and chose to shut their doors, also fearing legal persecution. Angry new protests over a deepening economic crisis has thrown more than half of the Lebanese population into poverty. The pound had been pegged to the dollar at 1,500 since 1997, but the country's worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war has seen its unofficial value plummet. Hundreds of protesters blocked off roads in Beirut and other parts of the country for a week, some of them burning tyres. Before the latest downturn, the pound had briefly stabilised at 8,000-8,500 to the greenback in recent weeks. The dizzying depreciation came as the central bank started reviewing Lebanon's lenders, under international pressure for reform. As part of a series of demands, it had given them a Sunday deadline to increase their capital by 20 percent.

After Oil Spill, Black Tar Reaches Sidon Beach
Naharnet/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Separate spots of deposits of black tar were seen on the northern Sidon beach on Saturday after an oil spill out at sea last month from the side of Israel. Head of the Sidon municipality, Mohammed al-Saudi said separate spots of black tar have spread along Sidon’s beach, mainly in the north side of the city facing the public beach. Over 90% of Israel's 195 kilometer (120 mile) Mediterranean coastline was covered in an estimated 1,000 tons of black tar in February. The pollution has swept north to Lebanon and has caused extensive damage to the ecosystem, killing seabirds, endangered green sea turtles and other marine life. Al-Saudi told people it was too risky to go to the beach, as competent teams will be instructed to conduct a survey and determine the damage. President Michel Aoun had urged a full survey of Lebanon' territorial waters after the oil spill from Israel. Israel had said it received no prior warning before an estimated 1,000 tons of tar started washing up on shore earlier in February. An Israeli court barred publication of all details of the investigation, including the name of the suspected ship believed to have spilled the oil, its route and ports of call. An Israeli journalists' association petitioned the court on Tuesday to have the order lifted.

Report: Hizbullah Delegation to Meet Officials in Moscow Sunday
Naharnet/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
A delegation of Hizbullah will reportedly kick off a visit to Moscow on Sunday with the aim of "exchanging views on the regional and local files,” without being directly related to the cabinet formation issue despite an increasing Russian interest in the internal Lebanese file, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat newspaper reported on Saturday. The delegation, led by head of the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Muhammed Raad, and including the party’s foreign relations official, Ammar al-Mousawi, is the highest Hizbullah political delegation to visit the Russian capital during the past years. Hizbullah’s visit to Moscow comes days after a meeting in Abu Dhabi between PM-designate Saad Hariri and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. But sources familiar with the party’s position denied linking the visit to the Lebanese government file, explaining to the daily that the party received an invitation to visit Moscow a month ago, according to the daily. The aim of the trip they said is “to exchange views on Lebanon and the region,” including the Syrian file.

Report: U.S. Urges Lebanon Leaders to Work for Common Good of their People
Naharnet/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, expressed "President Joe Biden’s administration’s" concern about the “apparent inaction of Lebanese leaders in dealing with multiple crises facing their country,"reported Asharq el-Awsat newspaper on Saturday. He urged them to "form a government that implements the needed reforms urgently," he said. "We are concerned about the developments in Lebanon, especially the apparent inaction of the Lebanese leaders to face ongoing multiple crises,” said Price. "The Lebanese deserve a government that urgently implements the necessary reforms to save the country's deteriorating economy,” emphasizing that “Lebanon’s economy is in a state of crisis due to decades of corruption and mismanagement," he said. “Lebanon's political leaders need to put aside their partisan brinksmanship, they need to change course, they need to work for the common good and common interest of the Lebanese people," added Price. Referring to the position of the International Support Group for Lebanon that “leaders in Lebanon should not delay the formation of a government with full powers capable of meeting urgent needs of the country and implementing decisive reforms.”He pointed out that «the international community has been very clear that concrete measures are still extremely crucial in order to launch long-term structural support for Lebanon.”Lebanon is mired in protests and an economic crisis, which has brought surging unemployment and spiralling prices while the currency has plunged to lows to the dollar on the black market.

FPM Blames Hariri for Govt. Delay
Naharnet/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
The politburo of the free Patriotic Movement held its periodic meeting today and lashed out at PM-designate Saad Hariri blaming him for the delayed government formation. “For how long will the PM-designate continue to hold the procuration of the Parliament without implementing the people’s will to form a reformist government capable of its ministers and its program?” asked the FPM in a statement. Chaired by its chief, MP Jebran Bassil, the FPM indicated that the insistence on not forming the government is "a kind of abuse of the constitutional authority and diverting it from its objectives."It expressed its satisfaction with the course of investigations into the colossal Beirut port explosion, hailing the judicial investigator for requesting to know the identity of the nitrate importers that led to the blast.

Lebanon’s Judges Emigrate in Search for Decent Life
Beirut - Youssef Diab/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Judges are seeking to emigrate in search for a decent life, in the wake of the economic and financial crisis that hit Lebanon and led to the sharp devaluation of the local currency. Member of the Lebanese Forces parliamentary bloc MP Georges Okais said that 40 young judges have submitted suspension of work applications, either for family and social reasons or to find opportunities abroad. “The judiciary is losing its energy, which will worsen the slow pace of work,” he said. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, a judicial source said that the number of judges, who have submitted the applications - which allow them to work outside the country for two years or more - exceeded by far the number announced by Okais. The source noted that the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Suhail Abboud, “is exerting efforts to persuade the judges to go back on their decision and make sacrifices for the sake of the Lebanese judiciary.” The judicial source also revealed that around “twenty of the finest judges in Lebanon have resigned from the institution.” “This wave began with the deterioration of the economic crisis, the sharp devaluation of the local currency and the high inflation rate,” the source underlined. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, a judge, who is awaiting approval of the Judicial Council on his suspension of work request, said: “The temporary emigration decision is irreversible, because staying in Lebanon … is like committing suicide.”“How can a judge live with a salary that does not exceed LBP4 million (less than USD400 in the parallel market), while the burdens are growing?” he asked. He said his salary was no longer sufficient to cover basic needs, such as fuel and electricity. “Unfortunately, our country is pushing its elites to emigrate, so that the country remains a haven for thugs,” he said.

Jumblatt: To pursue pressure for achieving gender equality, approval of civil personal status law
NNA/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Progressive Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, called Saturday for proposing a new formula for the civil status law and trying to exert pressure for its endorsement, while aborting the current sectarian formula. "I will do my best in this regard, even though the sectarian system still encircles us," he said, stressing that "we are here and we will remain, and we must continue with our revolutionary proposal."Jumblatt promised to "make the utmost efforts to achieve gender equality within his party," calling for re-examining PSP's charter and re-considering some of its ideas and notions, particularly those that are no longer valid for this age & era. His words came during his intervention in a virtual meeting organized by the Women's Progressive Union and the Women's Affairs Commission of the Progressive Socialist Party on the occasion of International Women's Day, under the headline, "Feminism amidst the most humane progressive thought," held through "Zoom" application, with the participation of Democratic Gathering Head, MP Taymour Jumblatt, and Mrs. Nora Jumblatt.

Parents of students studying abroad call for sitin outside Ain Tineh on Monday
NNA/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
The Parents' Association of Lebanese students studying abroad called, in a statement today, for gathering in front of Ain El Tineh Palace upcoming Monday, to urge House Speaker Nabih Berri to exert pressure on the Central Bank Governor and the Banks' Association to speed-up the implementation of the Student Dollar Law. This call comes in wake of the recent developments in this dossier and the related statement by Deputy House Speaker Elie Ferzli. The Parents' Association deemed Speaker Berri "as a guarantor for preserving national wealth, being a man of knowledge and legislation."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 13-14/2021

Dozens Arrested at Russian Opposition Forum
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Russian police on Saturday arrested dozens of opposition politicians and activists taking part in a meeting in Moscow, the organisers of the "United Democrats" forum said. "This is how the participants at the forum of independent deputies were arrested," the organisation said on Telegram, posting a video of opposition members being bundled into police cars. Russian media reports said about 150 people from all over the country attended the gathering.

Jordan Hospital Oxygen Outage Kills at Least 6 Patients
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
At least six people died in Jordan after an oxygen outage in a hospital treating coronavirus patients, prompting police to be deployed to hold back angry relatives who had gathered at the gate, witnesses and medical sources said on Saturday, according to Reuters. The sources said it was not clear what caused the oxygen failure in intensive care, maternity units and coronavirus wards in the new Salt government hospital west of the capital Amman. Health Minister Nathir Obeidat earlier visited the hospital and was meeting staff as security forces cordoned off the area to prevent trouble among patients' relatives. Jordan is facing a spike in COVID-19 infections attributed mainly to the fast transmission of the British variant of the virus. It announced last week stricter measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 and reimposed a full lockdown on Fridays. The country reported 8,300 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic first surfaced in the kingdom a year ago.
Jordan, with a population of around 10 million, has recorded 385,533 cases of COVID-19 and 5,224 deaths.

Syria’s first lady could be prosecuted in UK, have citizenship revoked
Arab News/March 13/2021
*Asma Al-Assad, 45, has given speeches supporting the Syrian armed forces
*Syrian forces have targeted civilian areas with barrel bombs, chemical weapons, airstrikes and artillery during the last ten years
LONDON: Syria’s first lady, who is also a British citizen, may be prosecuted and stripped of her UK citizenship after a preliminary investigation was opened into allegations that she incited and encouraged terrorist acts during the country’s civil war. Asma Al-Assad, 45, moved to Syria after her marriage to Bashar Al-Assad in 2000, and has given speeches supporting the Syrian armed forces. Syrian forces have targeted civilian areas, including hospitals and schools, with barrel bombs, chemical weapons, airstrikes and artillery during the last ten years and the Syrian government has been designated a state sponsor of terror by the US. The Metropolitan police have opened a preliminary investigation after an international law chambers based in London sent evidence of the first lady’s power in the Syrian ruling class and vocal support for Syrian armed forces, The Times reported. If prosecuted, she would join other influential figures in autocratic regimes who have faced justice in the UK. Toby Cadman, head of law chambers Guernica 37, said he believed the case for prosecuting Al-Assad was a strong one. “Our legal team at Guernica 37 has been actively investigating this matter for several months and as a result have filed two confidential communications with the Metropolitan police service counter terrorism command (SO15). It is important that as we approach the tenth anniversary of the conflict in Syria, there is an effective process aimed at ensuring those responsible are held accountable,” Cadman told the British newspaper.
The investigation argues that Al-Assad is guilty of encouraging terrorism through her public support of the Syrian armed forces. It is not clear whether prosecutors would wish to proceed with a trial in absentia and it is unlikely that the first lady would obey a court summons in the UK.
An Interpol red notice could be issued, which would mean she could not travel outside Syria without facing arrest. The investigation also raises the serious possibility that Al-Assad could come under scrutiny by the Home Office and be stripped of her British citizenship. A Met spokesman said: “We can confirm that the Met’s war crimes unit ... received a referral on July 31, 2020 relating to the ongoing Syrian conflict. The referral is in the process of being assessed by officers from the war crimes unit.”

Washington Says it Will Not Normalize Relations with Assad Regime
Washington - Geneva - Ali Barada and Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
US President Joe Biden’s administration said that it would “not normalize relations” with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while diplomats at the United Nations revealed that contacts were underway between members of the Security Council, including Russia, to give “new impetus” to a political solution that would end the war in Syria on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, a diplomat in New York said that the US contacts have focused on the efforts of UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen, who will brief Council members early next week. The diplomat said that Pedersen was likely to “request the backing of the five permanent members of the Security Council”, namely the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, which “have reiterated on more than one occasion their support for his efforts.” In parallel, Western diplomats await the speech of the current president of the Security Council, permanent US Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, which is expected to focus on the UN-mediated political process, the increasingly urgent humanitarian aid and the Syrian government’s arsenal of chemical weapons and their use.
In a press briefing on Friday, US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said that the Biden administration “continues to promote a political settlement to end the conflict” in Syria, adding that this effort was taking place in “close consultation with our allies, partners and Pedersen.”
“A political settlement, we believe, must address the factors that drive the violence, that drive the instability in Syria. We’ll use a variety of tools at our disposal to push for a sustainable end to the Syrian people’s suffering. We’ll continue to support the UN roles – the UN’s role in negotiating a political settlement in line with the relevant UN resolutions, including UNSCR 2254,” Price said during the press briefing in Washington.
He added: “We also seek to restore American leadership when it comes to humanitarian aid. As we know, Syria is a humanitarian catastrophe. The Syrian people have suffered for far too long. They have suffered under the brutal rule of Bashar al-Assad. We must do more, we know, to aid vulnerable Syrians, including many displaced within Syria as well as the refugees who have had to flee their homes.”Asked about the need to change the Syrian regime’s “behavior, not leader”, Price replied: “[Assad] has done absolutely nothing to regain the legitimacy that he has lost through the brutal treatment of his own people. There is no question of the US normalizing relations with his government anytime soon. There is no question that we will stand, that we will seek to support the humanitarian plight of the Syrian people as we seek a political settlement that would end their suffering.”

Iranian Investigator Says Israel Likely behind Attack on Container Ship
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Israel is highly likely to have been behind an attack in the Mediterranean this week that damaged an Iranian container ship, an Iranian investigator was quoted as saying on Saturday by Iran’s media. Israeli officials did not comment on Friday when asked if Israel was involved in the incident on Wednesday.
The container ship Shahr e Kord was hit by an explosive object which caused a small fire, but no one on board was hurt, Iran reported on Friday. Two maritime security sources said initial indications were that the ship had been intentionally targeted by an unknown source.
“Considering the geographical location and the way the ship was targeted, one of the strong possibilities is that this terrorist operation was carried out by the Zionist regime (Israel),” an unnamed member of the Iranian team investigating the incident was quoted as saying by semi-official Nournews.
A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry said on Saturday reports confirmed a sabotage attack “in clear violation of international law”. “Measures to identify the perpetrators of this sabotage action is on our agenda,” said Saeed Khatibzade, quoted by state media. Iran’s state-run shipping company IRISL said on Friday it would take legal action to identify the perpetrators of the attack, which it called terrorism and naval piracy. The incident came two weeks after an Israeli-owned ship the MV HELIOS RAY was hit by an explosion in the Gulf of Oman. The cause was not immediately clear, although a US defense official said the blast left holes in both sides of the vessel’s hull. Israel accused Iran of being behind the explosion, a charge Tehran denied.

Report: Crowd Attacks Iran Coast Guard after Smuggler Shot
Associated Press/Saturday, 13 March, 2021
Protesters attacked a coast guard station in southern Iran after a patrol from the force shot and killed a fuel smuggler, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Saturday. The report said the attack happened Friday when coast guard patrols shot at vessels smuggling fuel to neighboring countries, killing at least one smuggler. Fars didn't identify the person killed but said he was a 31-year-old man aboard one of the vessels allegedly smuggling fuel. Gen. Hossein Dehaki, chief of the coast guard in southern Hormozgan province, was quoted in the Fars report as saying an undetermined number of people later attacked the coast guard station in the Kouhestak district. He said several coast guard members were inured and the crowd damaged cars, vessels and equipment. Dehaki said calm was restored to the district, located some 1,120 km (694 miles) south of the capital Tehran, by late Friday afternoon. The violence came some two weeks after at least three alleged fuel smugglers in neighboring Sistan and Baluchestan province were killed in clashes and a crowd of people attacked the local governor's office in the town of Saravan near the border with Pakistan. The area is one of the least developed parts of Iran. The relationship between the predominantly Sunni residents and Iran's Shiite theocracy has long been fraught with tensions. Dehaki said the coast guard has confiscated more than 10 million liters (2.6 million gallons) of fuel from smugglers over the past 11 months.
 

UN Calls for Withdrawal of Foreign Troops, Mercenaries from Libya
Agence France Presse/March 13/2021
The United Nations Security Council called on Friday for the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya "without further delay" in a unanimously approved declaration. It also welcomed the Libyan parliament's approval of a new unified government on Wednesday, which is set to lead the oil-rich country to December elections after a decade of conflict following the removal of dictator Moamer Kadhafi. "The Security Council calls on all parties to implement the ceasefire agreement in full and urges Member States to respect and support the full implementation of the agreement," the statement approved by all 15 council members said.According to the global body, around 20,000 foreign troops and mercenaries remained in Libya at the end of 2020, and no withdrawals have been observed since. "The Security Council calls for full compliance with the UN arms embargo by all Member States, in line with the relevant Security Council resolutions," the text said. The arms embargo imposed since the NATO-led mission to overthrow Kadhafi has been violated regularly for years, according to UN experts responsible for its implementation. Their annual report is expected in the coming days. The experts have previously denounced the presence in Libya of Russian mercenaries, Turkish troops and armed groups made up of Syrians, Chadians and Sudanese. "The Security Council recognizes the need to plan for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of armed groups, security sector reform and to establish an inclusive, civilian-led security architecture for Libya as a whole," the statement added.

Afghanistan’s Interior Minister warns US against hasty retreat
The Associated Press/14 March ,2021
Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi said Saturday that Afghan security forces can hold their ground even if US troops withdraw, challenging a warning from the US predicting a withdrawal would yield quick territorial gains to the Taliban. Andarabi’s comments in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press were the first government reaction to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s warning issued in a sharply worded letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last weekend. In the letter pressing Ghani to step up efforts to make peace with the Taliban, Blinken said, “I am concerned the security situation will worsen and that the Taliban could make rapid territorial gains” after the American military withdraws. Andarabi said Afghanistan’s National Security Forces could hold territory, but would likely endure heavy losses trying to hold remote checkpoints without US air support. “The Afghan security forces are fully capable of defending the capital and the cities and the territories that we are present in right now,” he said. “We think that the Afghan security forces this year have proven to the Taliban that they will not be able to gain territory.” While the Taliban have not attacked US or NATO forces as a condition of the agreement, the Afghan National Security forces have faced some blistering assaults.
Interviewed at the heavily fortified Interior Ministry, Andarabi also repeated his government’s warning against a hasty US retreat from the war-ravaged country, saying that the Taliban’s ties to al-Qaeda remain intact and that a swift pullout would worsen global counterterrorism efforts. He said that Afghan National Security Forces backed by US assistance have so far put a squeeze on terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan, including the local Islamic State affiliate. A hasty “uncalculated withdrawal could certainly give an opportunity for those terrorists ... to threaten the world,” he said from inside the compound, protected by concrete blast walls, barbed wire and a phalanx of security guards. The warning comes as Washington is reviewing a deal the Trump administration struck with the Taliban over a year ago that calls for the withdrawal of the remaining 2,500 US troops by May 1. That deal also calls for the Taliban to break ties with terrorist groups, like al-Qaeda. US officials have previously said some progress has been seen but more was needed, without elaborating. No decisions have been made on the review but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is trying to jumpstart a stalled peace process between the government and Taliban armed opposition, has warned Afghanistan’s president that all options are still on the table, and that he should step up peacemaking efforts. Since the US signed the deal with the Taliban violence has spiked, with poverty and high unemployment boosting crime. Despite billions of dollars in international aid to Afghanistan since the collapse of the Taliban government in 2001, 72 percent of Afghanistan’s 37 million people live below the poverty line, surviving on $1.90 or less per day. Unemployment hovers at around 30 percent. Residents of the Afghan capital of Kabul are terrorized by runaway crime, bombings and assassinations, and complain bitterly of security failures. Andarabi sympathized with citizens’ complaints, but he said nearly 70 percent of Afghanistan’s police force is battling the Taliban, eroding efforts to maintain law and order. Every day the police confront over 100 Taliban attacks throughout the country, he added. Even the United Nations Security Council has expressed concern at the targeted killings, aimed at civil society activists, journalists, lawyers and judges. The Islamic State has taken responsibility for many but the Taliban and the government blame each other for the spike in attacks.
At a press briefing on Friday, the UN Security Council “called for an immediate end to these targeted attacks and stressed the urgent and imperative need to bring the perpetrators to justice.”Andarabi said some progress had been made to stem the violence in the past month, with over 400 arrests.
But he underlined that Afghanistan still very much needs continued support from the international community, including the US and NATO, in both war and peacetime. It will take for example great effort to reintegrate into a peacetime society the tens of thousands of armed men roving the country — regardless of from which faction they hail, he said. Police face a daunting anti-narcotics battle in a country that produces more than 4,000 tons of opium __ the raw material used to make heroin __ more than every other opium producing country combined. Peace, said Andarabi, would free the police to fight the drug war that is also fueling Afghanistan’s soaring crime rate.

Houthi leader slammed after claiming US ‘spreading AIDS and
Arab News/March 13/2021
*Al-Houthi says US have been spreading disease across Yemen
*Houthi leader says US is fighting traditional Yemeni atire
JEDDAH: The leader of the Houthi militia, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, says the US is responsible for the spread of AIDS and cancer in Yemen, while calling on people to ditch the ceremonial sword and national atire in favor of western clothes – a claim which has been met with scorn and mockery across social media in the country. Speaking on a video from his hideout in Saada, Al-Houthi, made his unsupported claims on the anniversary of the death of the group’s figurehead Hussein Badreddin Al-Houthi. “The Americans have done all they could to spread AIDS in Yemen, and they have even promoted it to the extent that the disease has been widely featured in newspapers,” Al-Houthi said. Al-Houthi went on to claim that the US was also fighting to undermine traditional Yemeni attire to stop men carrying daggers, encouraging students, politicians and social elites to shun such items in favor of pants and other forms of Western dress. But various Yemeni social media users were less than impressed by Al-Houthi’s claims, with several openly mocking him. Ali Al-Bukhaiti tweeted: “Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi's speech yesterday is the stupidest, and it will be a stain and a backwardness on the group, with what he carried of stupid and funny heresy” Abdul-Nasser Al-Mamlouh, editor-in-chief of Yemen Today, tweetd: “The US has encouraged the students, elite and politicians in Yemen to wear pants instead of wearing daggers! This stupidity should be published in all languages so that the entire world can realize the size of the calamity the Houthis left in Yemen.”Abdurrahman Jaber tweeted: “The Houthis are simultaneously attacking KSA, Marib, launching a war in Taiz, burning African refugees in Sanaa and planting more mines on Yemeni soil. In such a time, the Houthi leader comes out to say that wearing pants is a US conspiracy.”

US pressures Houthis to accept ceasefire plan in Yemen
The Arab Weekly/March 13/2021
ADEN - Western criticism of the Houthis has intensified in recent days in conjunction with statements by US special envoy to Yemen Timothy Lenderking, in which he disclosed that a ceasefire plan has been submitted before the reluctant leadership of the Houthi group as a basis for a political settlement.
A “sound plan” for a nationwide ceasefire in Yemen has been before Houthi leadership for “a number of days,” but it appears the group is prioritising a military offensive to take Marib, Lenderking, said on Friday. He warned that Yemen “will spiral into greater conflict and instability” without ceasefire progress. Yemeni political sources said that the shift in the US and European positions towards the Houthi rebels indicates prior approval by the Yemeni government of the plan mentioned by the US envoy. The sources confirmed that the plan includes the final version of the “joint declaration” prepared by the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths. The Yemeni sources told The Arab Weekly that Lenderking was able to secure the approval by the Saudi-led Arab coalition and the internationally-recognised Yemeni government of Griffiths’s plan for a comprehensive ceasefire in Yemen, before handing it over to the head of the Houthi negotiating team, Mohammad Abdul-Salam, whom he met in the Omani capital, Muscat. They added that recent UN and international mediators in Yemen have come to the conclusion that the ball is now in the Houthi militias’ court. The Houthis are the only party in the Yemeni war that still refuses to make any concessions and continues to escalate its military hostilities, especially in the Marib governorate. The Houthis described the US proposal for a ceasefire as a “conspiracy” that reflects the vision of the United Nations and Saudi Arabia. The Iran-backed militias want an “end to the war” before they can accept the “ceasefire.”Abdul-Salam said, “If they were serious about stopping the war and the siege, they would have declared the end of both in earnest, and that we would have welcomed.”
He added that the US truce initiative stipulates that flights from Sana’a airport must obtain prior permits from the coalition, and that Yemeni passports could not be issued by Sana’a. The US administration was the target of intense criticism after rushing to remove the Houthis from the list of terrorist organisations. Many political analysts in the region said the US decision sent the wrong message to the Houthis encouraging them to ratchet up their violent behaviour. During the past few days, the US and European powers have intensified their criticism of the Houthis whom they threatened with additional sanctions if they continued to escalate their military hostilities and reject ceasefire initiatives. A joint statement issued by the governments of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States condemned “the sustained Houthi offensive on the Yemeni city of Marib and the major escalation of attacks the Houthis have conducted and claimed against Saudi Arabia.”“Their (the Houthis’) determined attack on Marib is worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis”, added the statement. The signatories to the statement emphasised that their “renewed diplomatic efforts to end the Yemen conflict, in support of the UN Special Envoy, with the support of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the international community, offer the best hope for ending this war.”
“We urge the Houthis to seize this opportunity for peace and end the ongoing escalation,” they said.
They also reiterated their “firm commitment to the security and integrity of Saudi territory, and to restoring stability and calm along the Saudi/Yemeni border.”In an indication of the growing international attention to the Yemeni war, the official Yemeni news agency said that Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak received, Friday, a phone call from the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, during which they both discussed “developments in Yemen and efforts to achieve peace, restoration of security and stability and an end to war. ”
The agency quoted Ben Mubarak as confirming the government’s continuation “of its endeavours to achieve peace, support the efforts of Griffiths and deal positively with all sincere international efforts to reach a political settlement.”International moves regarding the Yemeni issue have coincided with shifts in the military situation on the ground after the momentum of the Houthi offensive towards Marib was lost. The Houthis are reported to have suffered huge losses as a result of Arab coalition airpower being introduced on the frontline and the bombing of Houthi militia supplies. There were also reports of the Yemeni army making progress in some of the axes of the Taiz and Hajjah governorates.Yemeni political researcher Faris Al-Bail told The Arab Weekly that the Yemeni National Army should have made its move earlier, or at least continued to press on, and not to have halted its activities based on considerations including the political negotiation debate, which granted the Houthis additional areas under their control.
Bail pointed out that the ebbing of military activity on the part of the internationally-recognised government during the last period had tempted the Houthi militias to try to achieve a decisive victory by controlling Marib. But the result was the opposite of what they hoped to achieve as “the anti-Houthi forces regained their unity after sensing danger.”“Their movement was in Marib, Taiz and Hajjah, and we may witness important military movements in other regions as well.” Bail added that “the defeat of the Houthi militia is neither difficult nor remote if there is movement on all military fronts.”He went on to say, “All of this depends on the pace of military moves and political – military fusion. Even if it is for a brief period of time, there should not be a decision to count again on political solutions, until a different military reality is imposed on the ground in favour of the legitimacy camp.” The head of the Fanar Center for Policy Research, Izzat Mustafa, said the political and military moves show “all parties to be fighting their last battles in this round of the war and attempting to reposition or redeploy their forces in anticipation of any political settlement that the international community might try to impose.”Mustafa considered that the lack of clarity about the US endgame to end the war in Yemen in addition to the faltering of Griffiths’ plan could push Washington to fall back on the previous plan launched by former US Secretary of State John Kerry. He noted that former UN envoy Ismail Ould Sheikh built his vision for a political solution on that plan but the document embodying that vision could not be signed during the Kuwait 2016 consultations. Mustafa added that the most prominent development at this juncture is the movement on the Taiz and Hajjah fronts. Although this movement appears to have achieved partial progress, it all amounts to a repositioning move in “preparation for the post-political settlement military conflict where the Muslim Brotherhood forces in Yemen confine the showdown exclusively between them and the Houthis.”“Regarding the fifth military region in Hajjah governorate, north of Hodeidah governorate. I do not think that the front’s movement there is really serious, especially since fighting the Houthis on that front had stopped for more than three years with no reason. It seems more like propaganda than real war, ” he added.

WHO Insists AstraZeneca Vaccine Safe as Jab Faces New Setbacks
Agence France Presse/March 13/2021
The World Health Organization said there was no reason to stop using AstraZeneca's Covid-19 jab after several countries suspended rollout over blood clot fears, while the hard-hit United States exceeded 100 million doses of vaccine administered to its people. The WHO, which said its vaccines advisory committee was examining the safety data coming in, Friday stressed that no causal link has been established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and clotting. "Yes, we should continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said, stressing that any concerns over safety must be investigated. The Britain-based AstraZeneca insisted its jab was safe, adding there is "no evidence" of higher blood clot risks.
New lockdown in Italy
Despite hopes that vaccines will pave the way to a return to normality, hard-hit Italy announced tough new restrictions in much of the country, with Prime Minister Mario Draghi warning the country faced "a new wave" of infections. One year after it became the first European country to face a major outbreak, Italy is again struggling with the rapid spread of Covid-19, this time fuelled by new, more contagious variants. Schools, restaurants, shops and museums were ordered to close across most regions of Italy, including Rome and Milan from next week. Disneyland Paris, one of Europe's biggest tourist attractions, said it will not be able to reopen as planned on April 2 as infections remain stubbornly high in France.
Another possible side effect
The shadow cast over the AstraZeneca jab is adding to the European Union's problems distributing vaccines. Denmark, Norway and Iceland paused use of the drugmaker's shot as a precaution after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots. Italy and Austria have banned the use of jabs from separate batches of AstraZeneca, and Thailand and Bulgaria said this week they would delay rollout. India will carry out a deeper review of post-vaccination side effects from the AstraZeneca shot next week although no cases of blood clots have been reported so far, the Hindustan Times daily quoted officials as saying on Saturday. "The review is taking place as a matter of abundant precaution," NK Arora from the Indian covid task force told the paper. In Spain at least five regions said they had suspended use of AstraZeneca vaccines from the suspect batch banned by Austria as a precautionary measure. But several other countries, including Australia, said they would continue their rollouts as they had found no reason to alter course. Canada also said there was no evidence the jab causes adverse reactions. In a fresh hit, the EU's drug regulator said severe allergies should be added to the possible side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine after some likely links were found in Britain.
'Secret contracts'
Despite setbacks elsewhere, US President Joe Biden has worked to offer hope to his country, which has battled the largest outbreak in the world. He vowed a return to some kind of normality by July 4, marking the national holiday as his target for "independence" from the virus. After a shaky start, the US has ramped up its vaccination programme, following the advice of scientists who say jabs are the only way out of a pandemic that has killed 2.6 million people around the world. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 100 million vaccine doses have been administered in the US, around 30 percent of the world's total of shots in arms so far. There was also encouraging news as the WHO approved Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for an additional 500 million doses to enter the Covax global vaccine-sharing scheme. "Every new, safe and effective tool against Covid-19 is another step closer to controlling the pandemic," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The news comes after the single-dose jab won approval from the European Union on Thursday. It has also received the green light from regulators in the United States, Canada, South Africa and France -- which on Friday topped 90,000 coronavirus fatalities. Meanwhile it was announced that India will manufacture at least one billion more Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of next year in a joint initiative with the United States, Japan and Australia. Following the nations' first four-way summit, Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said the so-called Quad had made a "massive joint commitment" to vaccines. "The Quad committed to delivering up to one billion doses to ASEAN, the Indo-Pacific and beyond by the end of 2022," Sullivan said.

Sri Lanka to ban burqa, shut many Islamic schools, minister says
Reuters/March 13/2021
*“It is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently. We are definitely going to ban it,” Weerasekera said
*The wearing of the burqa was temporarily banned in 2019 after the bombing of churches and hotels by militants
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will ban the wearing of the burqa and shut more than a thousand Islamic schools, a government minister said on Saturday, the latest actions affecting the country’s minority Muslim population. Minister for public security Sarath Weerasekera told a news conference he had signed a paper on Friday for cabinet approval to ban the full face covering worn by some Muslim women on “national security” grounds. “In our early days Muslim women and girls never wore the burqa,” he said. “It is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently. We are definitely going to ban it.”The wearing of the burqa in the majority-Buddhist nation was temporarily banned in 2019 after the bombing of churches and hotels by Islamic militants that killed more than 250. Later that year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, best known for crushing a decades-long insurgency in the north of the country as defense secretary, was elected president after promising a crackdown on extremism. Rajapaksa is accused of widespread rights abuses during the war, charges he denies. Weerasekera said the government plans to ban more than a thousand madrassa Islamic schools that he said were flouting national education policy. “Nobody can open a school and teach whatever you want to the children,” he said. The government’s moves on burqas and schools follow an order last year mandating the cremation of COVID-19 victims — against the wishes of Muslims, who bury their dead. This ban was lifted earlier this year after criticism from the United States and international rights groups.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 13-14/2021

Anticipating a new decade of Syrian conflict
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/March 13/2021
After a decade of war in what used to be Syria, are 10 further years of conflict the best that can be expected?
Syria is a plurality of furiously competing polities: Rebel-held Idlib; Turkish-occupied northern areas; eastern regions where Kurdish forces, US troops and Iranian proxies jostle for supremacy; territories nominally under Assad’s control; a residual Daesh presence in some remote areas; not to forget Israel’s occupation of the Golan and its unceasing air strikes against Iranian positions.
The regime scarcely controls its own territories, with localized factions (Druze, Alawite, Arab) patrolling their own communities, while Russian and Iranian forces act with impunity in their zones of control. “We’re seeing the Balkanisation of Syria,” observed one UN official.
As in Iraq and Lebanon, Iran-aligned militias monopolize external and internal border zones, levying tolls and customs duties while overseeing the movement of weapons, missiles, narcotics and other smuggled goods. Civilians and traders in essential supplies pay extortionate fees to move from one canton to the next.
This fragmented reality won’t change without extensive renewed fighting, but no party has serious prospects of winning outright. Meanwhile, most of the civilized world shows little intention of renormalizing ties with Assad. The EU pledges not to lift sanctions or normalize relations until UN Security Council resolutions are implemented. The US’s Caesar Act likewise consolidates the regime’s richly deserved isolation.
The principle parties are seeking to render permanent the war’s brutal demographic shifts. Not for the first time, the Assad regime is pursuing legal measures to permanently dispossess entire populations whose loyalty is under question. A new law dictates that those who failed to perform military service must pay $8,000, or lose their property; for refugees who lost everything, it may as well be $8 million. Inside Syria, the currency’s latest collapse leaves civilians unable to afford the most basic foods as grocery prices soared by about 230 percent.
A similarly motivated 2018 law allowed the regime to confiscate property and demolish homes of perceived dissidents. The regime seized and auctioned off hundreds of farms from recaptured areas around Hama, leaving once prosperous farmers destitute. The cash-strapped Assad regime wins either way —extorting heavy taxes from people desperate not to lose their property, or profitably flogging off these assets to loyalists.
Turkey has performed comparable feats of demographic engineering in areas under its control. After much of the Kurdish population fled, Ankara has eased its own refugee burden as these regions have been repopulated with a majority of Sunni Arabs, using the Turkish lira and connected to the Turkish electricity grid, suggesting that Erdogan has no intention of relinquishing these territories. Such land grabs set the stage for future bouts of conflict, as dispossessed factions seek redress and revenge.
Activism by Turkey-sponsored Muslim Brotherhood evangelists among displaced populations also has worrying ideological implications, compounded by proselytism and recruitment by Al-Qaeda and Daesh-aligned elements. Among millions of young Syrians who never attended school, with scant future prospects, and enduring severe psychological trauma, radicalization is merely a matter of time.
Ten further years of Syrian conflict are certainly not inevitable. However, ending this hugely complex war will require infinitely greater international focus and unity of purpose than at any time since 2011. A solution is possible, but only if Russia, America, the EU, Arab states and Turkey begin working seriously together to achieve this goal.
In tiny Lebanon, the influx of 1.5 million Syrians likewise has a huge demographic impact. As with Lebanon’s vast Palestinian refugee population, the Syrian presence is looking increasingly permanent, with far-reaching implications for refugees who lack employment and citizenship rights, not to mention Lebanon’s stability and social coherence.
Prolonging the Syrian conflict only reaps more human misery. Up to a million are dead, and nearly 90 percent of children require humanitarian assistance. From a population of about 20 million, 5.5 million have fled and 6.7 million are internally displaced. Tens of thousands were tortured to death in regime prisons. Assad’s proposed solution to nationwide hunger was to outlaw TV cooking programmes! Even citizens who remain loyal to Assad live hand to mouth. The Syrian pound trades on the black market at about 1 percent of its pre-war value in dollars. Civil servants can earn a relatively comfortable $15 a month!
All conflicts acquire longevity through being internationalized. Syria has so many international parties on its soil, none of whom appear anxious to leave, that it could take years to deescalate the situation. Moscow is anxious to profit from a future peace dividend through lucrative reconstruction projects and expanding its regional influence. For Tehran, Syria is essentially a battlefield.
Southwestern Syria is Iran’s frontline in its never-ending confrontation with Israel. Central Syria is an essential route through which Iran rearms its proxies, including the transfer of medium-range missiles. Tehran expects Syria to be the battlefield where any confrontation would play out if Iran itself were threatened. Efforts at Shiite conversion and militia recruitment in Deir Ezzor are also inherently destabilizing. For Iran, therefore, Syria is a perpetual Dar Al-Harb, a “house of war” that can never be normalized as long as Iran’s proxies retain a quasi-permanent presence.
The Astana process (Russia-Turkey-Iran) was designed to exclude Western and Arab parties from the Syrian arena. For the new trilateral process (Russia-Turkey-Qatar), Moscow has excluded Tehran, and introduced an Arab party known for its hostility to the Assads. It is too early to know if this process has any mileage, but it at least appears more amenable to Western diplomatic engagement. Moscow and Ankara will obviously fight hard to protect their territorial and material interests in Syria, but could the counterpoint be a weakening of Assad and Tehran’s grip?
Ten further years of Syrian conflict are certainly not inevitable. However, ending this hugely complex war will require infinitely greater international focus and unity of purpose than at any time since 2011. A solution is possible, but only if Russia, America, the EU, Arab states and Turkey begin working seriously together to achieve this goal.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Why Biden’s eyes are on foreign prizes
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/March 13/2021
Joe Biden’s laser-like focus on domestic policy has yielded his first big win with a $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus, but his presidency could yet be remembered more for its foreign policy legacy.
For now, however, Biden’s super priority is home affairs, and last week he gave his first prime time television address to the nation. With the pandemic now past its peak in the US, the president indicated his ambition that July 4 will bring “independence” from the health emergency after mass vaccinations.
Another reason Biden’s first 100 days are so focused on domestic policy is his awareness that there may only be a narrow window of opportunity’to secure his home agenda. The Democrats may lose a significant number of seats in Congress in next year's mid-term elections, after which it is plausible he could face hostile Republican majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Since 1900, there have been only three midterm elections — 1934, 1998, and 2002 — in which the incumbent president’s party didn’t lose seats in the House. In the postwar era, there has been an average net loss of 26 House seats for the president’s party.
If this scenario does unfold in 2022, it will repeat recent history, when the incumbent’s first two years are the most productive in domestic policy. It is during this initial period in the White House that presidents usually succeed in enacting core priorities, as Donald Trump did, for instance, with his 2017 tax cut package. This was also true for Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Clinton secured a 1993 deficit reduction plan and passage of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Bush had his 2001 tax cuts, and Obama’s wins included a big 2009 stimulus package and healthcare reform. So this is why Biden is zeroing in now on rejuvenating, post-pandemic, the US economy, society, and polity. Building from the coronavirus crisis stimulus victory last week, he has other priority legislation to secure in coming months, plus the wider objective of bringing greater reconciliation to the US body politic after the polarisation of Trump’s presidency.
To be sure, it is plausible that Biden may achieve further domestic policy success beyond his first two years in office. However, other recent presidents have found it difficult to gain momentum after this point.
In part, this is because they have held a weaker position in Congress over time. For instance, both Clinton in 1994 and Obama in 2010 suffered gains by the Republicans, who picked up the House from Democrats in both these mid-term ballots, and also the Senate in 1994.
For Biden, key opportunities on the foreign policy front include rebuilding US alliances after the Trump presidency. From Europe to Asia-Pacific, longstanding allies emerged bruised from the past four years and are looking to the president to restore a more stable, predictable style of US leadership in the face of significant challenges to the international order from states such as China and Russia.
Over time, Biden, like these other recent presidents, is therefore increasingly turning to foreign policy. Not only does he have a packed agenda on this front, but he is also is perhaps the most experienced and knowledgeable new president on international affairs in modern US history, and wants this to be a key part of his legacy.
Of course, experience does not equal success, but it should allow Biden to hit the ground running, which could be critical. A number of burning issues require immediate attention, beyond the pandemic which will already consume much of his time in the next four years.
Biden is not alone in wanting foreign policy initiatives to be a critical part of their legacy. Richard Nixon scored a string of international successes in his second two years of office from 1971 to 1973.
This included his landmark meeting with Chairman Mao in China in February 1972 before signing two nuclear agreements with Moscow to limit nuclear weapons. More recently, Bush sought to spread his self-proclaimed freedom agenda after the 2001 terrorist attacks, not least with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  For Biden, key opportunities on the foreign policy front include rebuilding US alliances after the Trump presidency. From Europe to Asia-Pacific, longstanding allies emerged bruised from the past four years and are looking to the president to restore a more stable, predictable style of US leadership in the face of significant challenges to the international order from states such as China and Russia.
Climate change is another area where Biden sees scope for a strong legacy. Not only has the US rejoined the Paris climate treaty, but he also wants to make major new advances on this agenda, including nations committing to much deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at the UK-hosted annual climate change conference in November.
This is why Biden is increasingly likely to turn to the world stage as his presidency advances. Not only is the steam likely to be lost from his domestic agenda, but there are also significant potential foreign policy prizes on the horizon before 2025.
• Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics

Humanity is ready to save the planet — and itself
Ranvir S. Nayar/Arab News/March 13/2021
The UN has called carbon emission commitments alarmingly low. It is surprising that it took them five years to realize that the world was set on the path to climate catastrophe.
The mathematics is not complex, but that is how long it took the experts at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has been leading global negotiations on climate change actions, to figure out that the commitments to cut carbon emissions made since the Paris Agreement of 2015 are barely 2 percent of the cuts needed for the world to limit the rise in temperatures by 1.5°C since industrialization began.
The UNFCCC says commitments by the 75 countries that account for about 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions would reduce their emissions in 2030 by less than 1 percent from their 2010 level, when what is needed is a reduction of at least 45 percent. It calls for urgent action if the catastrophic scenario of temperatures rising by over 4°C is to be avoided.
Stern as it may be, the UNFCCC’s warning is too little, too late. Irrespective of all the commitments and feel-good statements from various global meetings on emissions controls, the world is firmly on the road to a climate catastrophe.
One of the principal reasons for this failure is ingrained in the Paris Agreement that was signed in a moment of desperation in December 2015, after a fortnight of negotiations showed little progress and deep divisions split the developed and developing world over who bore the responsibility for the climate crisis and what needed to be done to save the planet.
In 2015, even after years of discussions and negotiations, the global community had been unable to reach even a rough framework or outline of an agreement. This is normally a basic requirement; bureaucrats come up with a draft agreement that the heads of state can then tweak and sign.
It is not too late to fix the flaws of Paris. But it needs an honest and open appraisal of exactly how far behind we stand in terms of actions to be taken, and for the rich nations to pay the developing countries on the simple principle of “polluter pays.”
But going into the meeting in Paris, there was not even a rough draft and ultimately it fell on the shoulders of nearly 100 heads of state to try to come to agreement. Finally, they came to a fudge. They said the global community would do its best to keep the temperature rise to 1.5°C, but certainly below 2°C.
That sounded good on paper and it was duly announced amid great cheer and celebrations by the negotiators. However, the devil was in the details. There was little in the Paris Agreement about how the temperature rise could be curbed, as most countries had not indicated the cuts in carbon emissions that they had to implement. The leaders said each country would submit its own Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in terms of emissions cuts, and that a review in subsequent meetings of the Conference of Parties would ensure that the NDCs added up to the levels needed to save the planet.
Another big issue, which is not yet being addressed, relates to the legal obligation of countries to respect their commitments. Unlike other treaties, notably the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Layer, there is no policing of the NDCs or any penalty of any kind on countries that miss their targets. This is a major problem that could turn into a fatal flaw in the agreement as there is little pressure on countries to do what they said they would do. Already, the world’s track record in cutting carbon emissions has been pathetic, with even the most progressive regions, such as the EU, missing some of their Paris commitments.
Another weakness is the lack of finance for developing countries to undertake steps to meet their own targets,as well as for mitigation to help countries and people deal with the impact of climate change. Even though the developed world committed to $100 billion a year to help the developing world, this commitment has stayed on paper. It is not too late to fix the flaws of Paris. But it needs an honest and open appraisal of exactly how far behind we stand in terms of actions to be taken, and for the rich nations to pay the developing countries on the simple principle of “polluter pays.” It will take a lot of political will at the UN for us to get there, but the rising power of Green parties in different parts of the world are indicators that humanity may finally be ready to make the sacrifices needed to save the planet and itself.
• Ranvir S. Nayar is managing editor of Media India Group.

Don’t hold your breath for peace in Libya
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/March 13/2021
Libya’s “parliament” (whose legitimacy is questionable) has endorsed the new transitional executive authority appointed by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), a UN-chosen body that will itself be accused of corruption in a UN report to be released in the next few weeks.
This new government is intended to place Libya on a path to unifying its warring factions, restoring its institutions and ushering the country toward a stable future. The international community has reacted positively, stressing that this new Government of National Unity (GNU) must both cooperate with all stakeholders to address the needs of Libyans and accelerate plans to hold national elections at the end of the year. The US, European countries and neighboring Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia welcomed the results of the parliamentary vote, and the EU went further, threatening sanctions in response to any interference with the GNU’s mandate.
The formation of the GNU itself bears a striking resemblance to the formation of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in 2016, which eventually failed to resolve institutional divisions that only prolonged a chaotic transitional period. Atop the pile of concerns is the formula for the selection of the prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and head of the presidential council, Mohamed Menfi, which was geared toward power sharing rather than fair assessments based on policy or political reconciliation.
But it is not all bad news. The appointment of the GNU and the vote of confidence in the ministers named to Dbeibah's temporary Cabinet are a step in the right direction, hopefully laying the foundations of Libya’s recovery, restoration of its institutional capacities, unifying the two governments and capping off a tumultuous transitional period with national elections slated for December.
Fayez Al-Sarraj, head of the outgoing GNA in Tripoli, has pledged to hand over power to the GNU, since pro-Sarraj militias are mostly in favor of Dbeibah and refusing to cede power would have meant losing their protection. Tobruk’s House of Representatives is also expected to accept the GNU’s mandate, given positive statements from Speaker Aguila Saleh and discussions on an oil revenue sharing mechanism.
The biggest hurdle for the GNU will be dismantling militias and achieving the seemingly impossible goal of having an estimated 20,000 foreign mercenaries withdraw. This is further complicated by the GNU’s nine-month term, which is too short to account for meddling foreign countries and mount an effective response.
Oil revenues will be crucial if Dbeibah is to deliver on his pledges to restore public utilities and spark off a reconstruction boom to reinvigorate an economy in dire straits, further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Politically stability will be a boon for Libya’s oil and gas sector, in serious need of investment, repairs and expansion to meet planned production targets of 1.45 million barrels by year end to over 2 million within four years. Aside from oil revenues, the ability of Libya’s National Oil Company to continue working despite political divisions, sporadic fighting and, at one point, attempts by Daesh and other armed groups to overrun oil facilities, will be key to reconciliation. Its nearly seven years of transparent, apolitical and technocratic maneuvering could prove useful in restoring Libya’s crippled state institutions and helping them navigate factionalism and political divisions in order to work for all Libyans, as Dbeibah has urged.
The biggest hurdle for the GNU will be dismantling militias and achieving the seemingly impossible goal of having an estimated 20,000 foreign mercenaries withdraw. This is further complicated by the GNU’s nine-month term, which is too short to account for meddling foreign countries and mount an effective response. It is highly unlikely Turkey and Russia will simply pack up and head home given the extensive investments made in carving spheres of influence, expanding areas of control, entrenching their interests and even cultivating strong ties to Libyan non-state armed actors.
Russian mercenaries, for instance, have also dug tunnels in the front-line Sirte-Jufra region, fortifying their positions and signaling an intent to stay in Libya for as long as possible. Neither Moscow nor Ankara will vacate Libyan territory without reaping benefits in the form of reconstruction and energy contracts, and arms sales. Additionally, given the antipathy between Turkey and the UAE, it is also highly unlikely Abu Dhabi will cease supporting Khalifa Haftar or any other influential figures he is aligned with in the east — a move matched by Egypt, wary of the Muslim Brotherhood gaining a foothold and legitimacy next door.
Thus, even if Libyans are weary after a decade see-sawing between chaos and inklings of hope in the form of UN-mediated peace processes, it is unlikely external actors will simply retreat. Libya must find a way to traverse these murky waters lest this renewed optimism ends up dashed by renewed fighting, spurred by external actors, in pursuit of meager mercenary goals or grander regional ambitions. If the GNU is to succeed, it may need to part with grand ambitions in favor of attaining smaller, feasible objectives to enhance its legitimacy and generate sufficient support for extending its mandate should the planned December elections fail to materialize.
The next 90 days will make or break the Dbeibah government, but the history of Libya in the past 10 years does not support a great deal of hope.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of AdvancedInternational Studies. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell

China and Military Power through Artificial Intelligence
Peter Schweizer/Gatestone Institute/March 13/2021
Complacency or eased trade restrictions on dual-use technology would be the greater danger. So would any backing-off of counter-espionage investigations into Chinese bribery of American university professors or further infiltrations of PLA-linked Chinese nationals into research centers in the U.S. Both are prime examples of Beijing's willingness to play a long game as regards theft of intellectual property that has potential military applications.
Interestingly, there is another Chinese firm that is often mentioned in discussions of China's push into facial recognition AI development. The company known as Megvii produces a software application called Face++ that has secured many patents in the use of AI for surveillance technologies. One of that company's stakeholders? Bohai Harvest RST, the investment company started by Hunter Biden and his business partners.
We have seen that China is one of the many practitioners of the "Princeling" strategy, which enriches the associates or family members of powerful politicians in order to grease the skids for deals that, if considered on their own merits, would likely not be allowed by the national security gatekeepers whose mission is to protect valuable military technology from getting into the hands of America's adversaries.
Military use of artificial intelligence may well determine the outcome of the next war, and it is far too strategic to American national security to look away for even a moment from the dangers of the Chinese Communist Party.
China's military buildup threatens its neighbors and regional stability in the Far East. Military use of artificial intelligence may well determine the outcome of the next war, and it is far too strategic to American national security to look away for even a moment from the dangers of the Chinese Communist Party. (Image source: iStock)
China's military buildup threatens its neighbors and regional stability in the Far East. Beijing's aggressive military expansion has made its navy the largest in the world, and it has been flexing its maritime muscle in the South China Sea and Indo-Pacific region. It continues to build its ballistic missile capacities as well.
Further, China's expertise in cyber-warfare is both well-established and feared. It has allowed the PRC to hack into computers and steal intellectual property, as well as other cyber crimes.
But the junction of China's growing cyber capabilities and its aggressive military buildup is in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to military weapons and systems.
Conducted by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), China's strategy in military expansion moves on many fronts, and AI work is integral to all of its military goals. The PLA has been committed to prioritizing innovation over expansion in its modernization efforts at least since 2014.
The PLA believes it can leapfrog the U.S. in the course of this transformation. China, however, has many challenges to developing and deploying AI-based systems that the U.S. does not. They lack the kind of technical talent the U.S. has, as well as the skill to manage the enormous quantities of data that such systems rely on, both for development and for operations. Not surprisingly, their organization, too, is a hindrance to innovation in the military AI space.
Even with these challenges, China has shown it can compete with the U.S. in this field and has no qualms about stealing or extorting what it cannot build itself. Development of intelligent weapons systems is simply the most recent area in which the balance of power between the U.S. and China will be contested in the next 5-10 years. The United States must ensure that its own innovation stays well ahead, and far out of the reach of the grasping hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
China has determination, focus, and the funds to advance rapidly in many areas. Yet there is always a tendency to overstate the threat China poses, and the progress China will make, because of its size, resources, and the known propensity of the country's communist leadership to lie about most everything. Within the ever-advancing field of AI, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic. For now.
Based on patents China has secured in the AI domain, it has thus far spent far more effort on technology meant to monitor and oppress its own citizens. This includes extensive research in facial-recognition software, which China uses to track its own people, especially the Uyghur minority that it has forced into concentration camps. China also has an advantage in patents for Chinese-language data processing and speech recognition.
The U.S., by comparison, has a decisive advantage in applying AI to business problems and to the development of autonomous vehicles. While "driverless cars" get most of the attention in the mainstream press, the promise of autonomous military aircraft and unmanned naval vehicles and weapons will be the next quantum leap for American military capabilities. The U.S. military is already experienced with remote-controlled surveillance drones and strike-ready airplanes.
Complacency or eased trade restrictions on dual-use technology, however, would be the greater danger. So would any backing-off of counter-espionage investigations into China's bribery of American university professors or further infiltrations of PLA-linked Chinese nationals into research centers in the U.S. Both are prime examples of Beijing's willingness to play a long game as regards theft of intellectual property that has potential military applications.
In the books Secret Empires and Profiles in Corruption, I traced the involvement of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, in the sale of a Michigan company called Henniges Automotive to a Chinese military-linked company known as Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC). The identity of the purchaser was disguised via shell companies while the sale of Henniges, whose technology has dual-use (for civilian and military application) was approved by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) during the Obama administration. I also documented how Hunter Biden's investment firm took an interest in China General Nuclear Power Corp., a company that in 2016 was charged with espionage against the U.S. That deal was also approved under the Obama administration.
Interestingly, there is another Chinese firm that is often mentioned in discussions of China's push into facial recognition AI development. The company known as Megvii produces a software application called Face++ that has secured many patents in the use of AI for surveillance technologies. One of that company's stakeholders? Bohai Harvest RST, the investment company started by Hunter Biden and his business partners.
It is important to keep these sorts of false-flag transactions in mind now that Joe Biden is the president. We have seen that China is one of the many practitioners of the "Princeling" strategy, which enriches the associates or family members of powerful politicians in order to grease the skids for deals that, if considered on their own merits, would likely not be allowed by the national security gatekeepers whose mission is to protect valuable military technology from getting into the hands of America's adversaries.
Experience teaches that it is imperative to shine the light in the dark corners where this kind of cronyism lies and thrives. The Chinese, like the Russians and others, have gotten only too adept at exploiting the shadows to obtain what they could not otherwise get.
Chinese technology companies such as Huawei were sanctioned heavily by the Trump administration, which placed the company on the Commerce Department's "Entity List," preventing its products from being sold in the U.S. Signs are good that the Biden administration understands the threat to U.S. communications networks. When asked recently whether Biden would keep Huawei on the US Entity List, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that technology remains at the very center of US-China competition:
"China has been willing to do whatever it takes to gain a technological advantage – stealing intellectual property, engaging in industrial espionage, and forcing technology transfer.
"Our view – the President's view – is that we need to play a better defense, which must include holding China accountable for its unfair and illegal practices and making sure that American technologies aren't facilitating China's military buildup."
The question, of course, is not what they say but they will do.
Military use of artificial intelligence may well determine the outcome of the next war, and it is far too strategic to American national security to look away for even a moment from the dangers of the Chinese Communist Party.
*Peter Schweizer, President of the Governmental Accountability Institute, is a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow and author of the best-selling books Profiles in Corruption, Secret Empires and Clinton Cash, among others.
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