English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For March 28/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry To Jerusalem/Palm Sunday
John 12/12-19/The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’The King of Israel!”Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: “Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.”His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 27-28/2021

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/
Jesus’ Victorious Entry into Jerusalem -Palm Sunday/Elias Bejjani/March 28/2021
Firas Abiad: AstraZeneca vaccine will be offered on Monday in several centers, including our hospital
Press Release: Amer Fakhoury Foundation Speaks To US Officials In Washington
Report: U.S., EU to Hold ‘Zoom’ Meeting on Lebanon on Monday
Khalas': Shea Scolds Lebanese Leaders over Govt. Delay
Lebanon Rolls out Astrazeneca Vaccine on Monday
Ibrahim in Paris at Invitation of His French Counterpart
Kanaan after meeting Rahi: Bkirki takes initiative and does not adopt anyone's position; same baseline points for salvation with Baabda
FPM: We will not participate in the government nor give it confidence on the grounds proposed by the PM-designate
Future Movement in response to Bassil: For a government that undertakes to stop the collapse, renew the confidence of brethrens in Lebanon's role, not the confidence of Gebran and his council
Bukhari from Mukhtara: We stand before a joint historical responsibility to confirm that we are with Lebanon's Arabism
Beirut neighborhood gets vision of hope after blast
“Dangerous chemical” threat adds to Lebanon’s woes
US defence contractor pleads guilty to espionage for Hezbollah
Lebanon food prices become MENA’s most expensive: World Bank
Lebanon's largest Christian bloc warns against sidelining president
Nabu Musée, Le prétendu gardien (sauveur) du Mashriq/Nelly P. Abboud

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 27-28/2021

Loud bang heard in Damascus, Syria: Reuters witness
Canada/Minister of Foreign Affairs responds to Chinese sanctions
Strong winds not main reason for huge ship stranding in Suez Canal: Chairman
New Attempts Planned to Free Huge Vessel Stuck in Suez Canal
Five Dead' as Building Collapses in Egypt
Facing two disasters, Egypt’s President Sisi pledges tough action
Sadr offers his own militias’ help to disarm other militias in Iraq
ICC suspect Mahmoud Warfalli gunned down in Benghazi
Women protest in Istanbul over Erdogan’s decision to exit domestic violence treaty
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 27-28/2021

Iranian Regime, Houthis Celebrate Biden Administration’s Policy/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/March 27, 2021
Much at stake as India, Saudi Arabia spar over oil prices/John Kemp/The Arab Weekly/March 27/2021
Suez Canal blockage is a wake-up call/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Arab News/March 27/2021
On Ramadan and Passover, a reminder of how far we have come/Rabbi Marc Schneier/Arab News/March 27/2021
 

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 27-28/2021

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/
 

Jesus’ Victorious Entry into Jerusalem -Palm Sunday
Elias Bejjani/March 28/2021

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/38277/elias-bejjani-jesus-victorious-entry-into-jerusalem-palm-sunday/
(Psalm118/26): “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh! We have blessed You out of the house of Yahweh”.
On the seventh Lantern Sunday, known as the “Palm Sunday”, our Maronite Catholic Church celebrates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The joyful and faithful people of this Holy City and their children welcomed Jesus with innocent spontaneity and declared Him a King. Through His glorious and modest entry the essence of His Godly royalty that we share with Him in baptism and anointing of Chrism was revealed. Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, the “Palm Sunday”, marks the Seventh Lantern Sunday, the last one before Easter Day, (The Resurrection).
During the past six Lantern weeks, we the believers are ought to have renewed and rekindled our faith and reverence through genuine fasting, contemplation, penance, prayers, repentance and acts of charity. By now we are expected to have fully understood the core of love, freedom, and justice that enables us to enter into a renewed world of worship that encompasses the family, the congregation, the community and the nation.
Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time to participate in the Jewish Passover Holiday. He was fully aware that the day of His suffering and death was approaching and unlike all times, He did not stop the people from declaring Him a king and accepted to enter the city while they were happily chanting : “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!”.(John 12/13). Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19/39-40). Jesus entered Jerusalem to willingly sacrifice Himself, die on the cross, redeem us and absolve our original sin.
On the Palm Sunday we take our children and grandchildren to celebrate the mass and the special procession while happily they are carrying candles decorated with lilies and roses. Men and women hold palm fronds with olive branches, and actively participate in the Palm Procession with modesty, love and joy crying out loudly: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21/09).
On the Palm Sunday through the procession, prayers, and mass we renew our confidence and trust in Jesus. We beg Him for peace and commit ourselves to always tame all kinds of evil hostilities, forgive others and act as peace and love advocates and defend man’s dignity and his basic human rights. “Ephesians 2:14”: “For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us”
The Triumphal Entry of Jesus’ story into Jerusalem appears in all four Gospel accounts (Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-40; John 12:12-19). The four accounts shows clearly that the Triumphal Entry was a significant event, not only to the people of Jesus’ day, but to Christians throughout history.
The Triumphal Entry as it appeared in Saint John’s Gospel, (12/12-19), as follows : “On the next day a great multitude had come to the feast. When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet him, and cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat on it. As it is written, “Don’t be afraid, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on a donkey’s colt. ”His disciples didn’t understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they had done these things to Him. The multitude therefore that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, was testifying about it. For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “See how you accomplish nothing. Behold, the world has gone after him.” Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast. These, therefore, came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn, Andrew came with Philip, and they told Jesus.”
The multitude welcomed Jesus, His disciples and followers while chanting: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!”.(John 12/13). His entry was so humble, meek simple and spontaneous. He did not ride in a chariot pulled by horses as earthly kings and conquerors do, He did not have armed guards, nor officials escorting him. He did not come to Jerusalem to fight, rule, judge or settle scores with any one, but to offer Himself a sacrifice for our salvation.
Before entering Jerusalem, He stopped in the city of Bethany, where Lazarus (whom he raised from the tomb) with his two sisters Mary and Martha lived. In Hebrew Bethany means “The House of the Poor”. His stop in Bethany before reaching Jerusalem was a sign of both His acceptance of poverty and His readiness to offer Himself as a sacrifice. He is the One who accepted poverty for our own benefit and came to live in poverty with the poor and escort them to heaven, the Kingdom of His Father.
After His short Stop in Bethany, Jesus entered Jerusalem to fulfill all the prophecies, purposes and the work of the Lord since the dawn of history. All the scripture accounts were fulfilled and completed with his suffering, torture, crucifixion, death and resurrection. On the Cross, He cried with a loud voice: “It is finished.” He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.(John19/30)
The multitude welcomed Jesus when He entered Jerusalem so one of the Old Testament prophecies would be fulfilled. (Zechariah 9:9-10): “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth”.
The crowd welcomed Jesus for different reasons and numerous expectations. There were those who came to listen to His message and believed in Him, while others sought a miraculous cure for their ailments and they got what they came for, but many others envisaged in Him a mortal King that could liberate their country, Israel, and free them from the yoke of the Roman occupation. Those were disappointed when Jesus told them: “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom” (John 18/36)
Christ came to Jerusalem to die on its soil and fulfill the scriptures. It was His choice where to die in Jerusalem as He has said previously: “should not be a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem” (Luke 13/33): “Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem”.
He has also warned Jerusalem because in it all the prophets were killed: (Luke 13:34-35): “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! “behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”.
Explanation of the Palm Sunday Procession Symbols
The crowd chanted, “Hosanna to the Son of David” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21/09), because Jesus was is a descendant of David. Hosanna in the highest is originated in the Psalm 118/25: “Please, LORD, please save us. Please, LORD, please give us success”. It is a call for help and salvation as also meant by the Psalm 26/11: “But I lead a blameless life; redeem me and be merciful to me”. Hosanna also means: God enlightened us and will never abandon us, Jesus’ is a salvation for the world”
Spreading cloth and trees’ branches in front of Jesus to walk on them was an Old Testament tradition that refers to love, obedience, submission, triumph and loyalty. (2 Kings 09/13): “They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!”. In the old days Spreading garments before a dignitary was a symbol of submission.
Zion is a hill in Jerusalem, and the “Daughter of Zion” is Jerusalem. The term is synonymous with “paradise” and the sky in its religious dimensions.
Carrying palm and olive branches and waving with them expresses joy, peace, longing for eternity and triumph. Palm branches are a sign of victory and praise, while Olive branches are a token of joy, peace and durability. The Lord was coming to Jerusalem to conquer death by death and secure eternity for the faithful. It is worth mentioning that the olive tree is a symbol for peace and its oil a means of holiness immortality with which Kings, Saints, children and the sick were anointed.
The name “King of Israel,” symbolizes the kingship of the Jews who were waiting for Jehovah to liberate them from the Roman occupation.
O, Lord Jesus, strengthen our faith to feel closer to You and to Your mercy when in trouble;
O, Lord Jesus, empower us with the grace of patience and meekness to endure persecution, humiliation and rejection and always be Your followers.
O, Lord Let Your eternal peace and gracious love prevail all over the world.
A joyous Palm Sunday to all.

Health Ministry: 2,957 new Corona cases, 45 deaths
NNA /March 27/2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced in its daily report, on Saturday, the registration of 2,957 new Corona infections; thus raising the total number of confirmed cases to-date to 458,338.
It also indicated that 45 deaths were reported during the past 24 hours.

Firas Abiad: AstraZeneca vaccine will be offered on Monday in several centers, including our hospital
NNA /March 27/2021
"On Monday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health will start giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to people between the ages of 55 and 65 in several centers, including Rafic Hariri University Hospital," tweeted RHUH Director, Dr. Firas Abiad, today.
He added: "In Lebanon, more than 120 patients in this age group have died due to Corona in the past ten days only. The vaccine can prevent this. Several studies have shown that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective. In the United Kingdom, millions of patients received this vaccine, which led to a sharp decrease in Corona cases. Europe is considering halting exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine to speed-up the vaccination campaign in European countries." "In Lebanon, the number of Coronavirus cases is rising, and the easing of measures and low compliance with safety guidelines will lead to higher infection rates. For older patients or those with comorbidities, the partial protection that vaccines provide can denote the difference between life and death," Abiad emphasized."However, some people say they will not take the AstraZeneca vaccine if given the opportunity. Some raise concerns about safety or efficacy, and some prefer to wait for another vaccine, while others do not want any vaccine at all, although the alternative may be infection," he went on. Abiad hoped that "the people who will get an appointment to receive the vaccine on Monday will not waste their chance, for their sake, and for the sake of their family and friends."
 

Press Release: Amer Fakhoury Foundation Speaks To US Officials In Washington
بيان صادر عن مؤسسة الشهيد عامر فاخوري: لقاءات مهمة لممثلين عن المؤسسة في العاصمة الأميركية مع مسؤولين ورسميين كبار من بينهم السناتور تد كروز وسفير وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية روجر كارستينس والمبعوث الرئاسي لشؤون الرهائن، وكارلوس ديجوانا، نائب مدير شؤون الرهائن في الأردن ولبنان.
Amer Fakhoury Foundation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/97383/press-release-amer-fakhoury-foundation-speaks-to-us-officials-in-washington/

AMER FAKHOURY FOUNDATION DELEGATION SPEAKS TO US OFFICIALS IN WASHINGTON
Fakhoury’s Daughters Invited to DC to Share Their Story with Senator and State Department Officials
WASHINGTON, DC – Amer Fakhoury Foundation (AFF) representatives were invited to the Capitol on Thursday, March 25, 2021 to share the story of US citizen Amer Fakhoury’s illegal detainment and torture in Lebanon and resulting death. AFF’s delegation was comprised of Fakhoury’s four daughters, who co-founded the foundation in his name.
In a meeting with Senator Ted Cruz (TX), the AFF delegation thanked him for his work with Senator Shaheen (NH) in eventually securing Mr. Fakhoury’s freedom. Discussion included sharing Fakhoury’s story and how AFF and Cruz can engage to lessen Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon. Senator Cruz stated, “We share the same values and vision, and we want to work with you to share your [Amer’s] story.”
Following, the AFF delegation met with US State Department Ambassador Roger Carstens, Presidential Envoy of Hostage Affairs, and Carlos A. DeJuana, Deputy Director for Jordan and Lebanon. After sharing the details of torture and maltreatment Amer Fakhoury received in Lebanon, the officials were briefed on the foundation’s work, including emotional and financial support for families of hostages.
Discussion topics moved to the current situation in Lebanon, Hezbollah’s influence, and the consequential financial crisis impacting Lebanese citizens. AFF shared their firsthandperspective on systemic government corruption, including the frequency of Lebanese government officials diverting aid money to personal interests. Finally, AFF exposed gaps in existing processes which often slow the return of hostages.
Ambassador Carstens and Deputy DeJuana shared future policy insights, then applauded the AFF co-founders’ passion in helping US hostages and advocacy for the people victimized by the corrupt Lebanese government.
Ambassador Carstens concluded by requesting AFF’s assistance in developing a guidebook for families of hostage victims and both officials expressed their desire to work with AFF in order to better the current system.
Email: guilafakhoury@fakhouryfoundation.org
For more information on the Amer Fakhoury Foundation visit: https://www.amerfakhouryfoundation.org

Contact: Guila Fakhoury, President and Director
Telephone: +1 978-255-3671

Report: U.S., EU to Hold ‘Zoom’ Meeting on Lebanon on Monday
Naharnet/March 27/2021
The United States and the European Union are reportedly expected to discuss the controversial situation in Lebanon during a virtual meeting on Monday, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Saturday.
The daily quoted prominent sources who said the meeting will be held through a ‘Zoom’ meeting on Monday, and will address the “Lebanese file in terms of assessing the situation, in preparation for taking appropriate measures.”The source added on condition of anonymity, that interlocutors have “impositions of sanctions” as one of the options on the table, and will discuss “imposing joint sanctions on parties obstructing the formation of a government in Lebanon.” Last week, shuttle diplomacy has been active in Lebanon in a bid to assess the political situation amid failed efforts of Lebanese leaders to form a much-needed government capable of steering the country out of multiple crises. Ambassadors of the United States, France and Saudi Arabia met with Lebanon’s top leaders last week.
The PM-designate Saad Hariri made several trips abroad recently in a bid to ease the government deadlock. Nidaa el-Watan, said that according to diplomatic reports, France obtained information that “Hizbullah is seriously working to destroy the French initiative by aggravating disputes between President Michel Aoun and Hariri.”

Khalas': Shea Scolds Lebanese Leaders over Govt. Delay
Naharnet/March 27/2021
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea has called on Lebanon’s feuding politicians to stop making crippling demands regarding the new government. "Khalas!" Shea said in excerpts of an interview with Lebanese news portal Asas Media, using a Lebanese term that roughly translates into “enough is enough”.She added that politicians should stop making all sorts of demands, stressing that the Lebanese people want a new government and want politicians to put their disputes aside and carry out reforms in order to stop the deterioration.

Lebanon Rolls out Astrazeneca Vaccine on Monday
Naharnet/March 27/2021
The Health Ministry will start rolling out the AstraZeneca vaccine for people in the 55-65 yrs category, said Director of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital on Saturday. Abiad said the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the lead hospital against the fight against COVID-19, “will be one of the designated centers.” After reports linking the vaccine to an increased risk of blood clots, Abiad assured that “numerous studies have shown that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective. Millions of patients have received the vaccine in the UK, resulting in a sharp decline in Covid cases.”
He urged people to go for any brand of COVID-19 vaccine and not to wait of alternatives in order to stop the spread of the virus and a decline in virus cases. “People offered the vaccine on Monday should not pass their chance, for their sake, and for the sake of their family and friends,” he said.
Lebanon’s national vaccination campaign began Feb. 14 and has been criticized as too slow and riddled by violations.
The World Bank has allocated $34 million to inoculate an initial two million of Lebanon's six million inhabitants free of charge with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

Ibrahim in Paris at Invitation of His French Counterpart
Naharnet/March 27/2021
General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim traveled to Paris at the invitation of his French counterpart, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.
Abbas will reportedly meet with political and security officials in France. The talks with officials are to focus on security files related to Lebanon, and the controversial formation of a Lebanese government, according to MTV television station.

Kanaan after meeting Rahi: Bkirki takes initiative and does not adopt anyone's position; same baseline points for salvation with Baabda
NNA/March 27/2021
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, met in Bkirki today with Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee Head, MP Ibrahim Kanaan. On emerging, Kanaan hailed the Patriarch's positions and initiatives in this difficult period that aim at saving Lebanon and helping it overcome its crises, with the cooperation of all parties and without adopting any of the political stances presented. "It was evident to me during this meeting that the baseline between Baabda and Bkirki is one and the reform goals required of the Patriarch are the goals of His Excellency the President of the Republic, and there are efforts by Bkirki to reach common denominators to get out of the situation we are in," revealed Kanaan. He added: "The country is in need of good initiatives, and we want to reach results, reform and a project. It is not possible to go to classical governments, as was the case in the past, which practically turn into governments of barricades...Consequently, the most important thing is the common vision to save Lebanon in all the accounts that are presented." Kanaan concluded by expressing all hope and faith that resurrection will follow the sufferings that the Lebanese are currently enduring, "and it will be at the hands of great men, the most prominent of whom is His Excellency the President, His Beatitude the Patriarch, and all the good people who want cooperation, because the resurrection is that of Lebanon and the Lebanese society in all its spectrums."

FPM: We will not participate in the government nor give it confidence on the grounds proposed by the PM-designate
NNA/March 27/2021 
The Free Patriotic Movement's political council held its periodic meeting electronically on Saturday, chaired by Movement Chief Gebran Bassil, following which it issued a statement indicating that "after the end of the parade staged by the Prime Minister-designate at the Presidential Palace in search for electoral popularity, he ought to return to the constitutional principles that he knows well and which he had previously adopted in forming every government, because it is the only way to form any cabinet of any kind."
The statement stressed that "the Free Patriotic Movement will not participate in the government and will not give it confidence on the foundations proposed by the PM-designate," expressing refusal "to give the PM-designate and his team 'a half plus one power' in the government because he will use it to prevent reform, disrupt the forensic audit and brake all attempts to fight corruption." "There are internal and external reasons that have prevented the PM-designate until now from seriously resolving to form the government and camouflaging these reasons by orchestrating flimsy arguments, considering time in his favor as long as he does not bear direct responsibility for stopping the collapse, but rather throws the responsibility on the president of the republic and the caretaker government," the statement went on.
The FPM political body criticized the PM-designate and his supporting political team for "fabricating a crisis with the head of state, and creating the problem of the third veto power, which was never a goal or demand in itself by the president who announced this repeatedly..."
It added that the PM-designate "also fabricates the issue of the size of cabinet and clings to the number 18 because it clearly and deliberately excludes the diversity of two basic components in the country (Catholics and Druze), and he refuses to move to the numbers of 20, 22 or 24, even though there are solutions to what he complains about in regards to the third veto and specialization..."
Moreover, the political council criticized the PM-designate for keeping the cabinet formation in a stand-by mode while the Lebanese suffer from the deteriorating conditions, without venturing into presenting an integrated government line-up or at least a clear methodological paper that is agreed upon between PM-designate Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun and has the approval of the majority of parliamentary blocs. The FPM body concluded its statement by emphasizing that escaping reform cannot last forever, as the government will eventually be formed and the Movement will play the role of constructive opposition from the outside, within the parliament and in the street, and will continue to pursue the cabinet positively until it complies with the necessity of conducting the forensic audit and recovering the money transferred abroad and applying the Capital Control, alongside the necessary reforms needed to stop the public waste expenditure, control revenues and stop all forms of corruption in the state administrations, and so on...It also pledged that FPM will continue the struggle to uncover the facts about the stolen depositors 'money, the policies that led to that, and plans and solutions to return the looted funds.

Future Movement in response to Bassil: For a government that undertakes to stop the collapse, renew the confidence of brethrens in Lebanon's role, not the confidence of Gebran and his council
NNA|/March 26/2021
Future Movement political bureau responded in a statement this evening to the Free Patriotic Movement, criticizing MP Gebran Bassil for trying to eliminate any glimmer of hope for getting out of the blocked tunnel by FPM's standards.
"Former Minister Bassil insists on taking the governmental crisis to a sectarian end, and surrounding it with conditions that play on the sectarian chord and the rights of Christians, similar to the content of the last statement by the political council of the Mirna Shalouhi Movement," the Future statement said.
"It seems that Bassil has forgotten, or is forgetting, the criteria that were agreed upon at the Pine Palace, based exclusively on forming a government of non-partisan specialists," the statement underlined. "Yet, we believe that former Minister Bassil has not forgotten but is rather deliberately playing on the edge of sectarian incitement, jumping from standard to standard to guarantee the third veto power, and creating for the Lebanese public opinion a new excuse and a political bogeyman called 'half plus one' for the PM-designate," the Future political bureau said. The statement went on to indicate that "there are those who consider cheating, lying and fraud as special skills of some people...However, the use of these skills in political action and in confronting economic and daily-living risks is classified under the category of 'national crimes'...Unfortunately, this is the case of the Lebanese with Minister Gebran Bassil, who says that he refuses to participate in the government and then sets the criteria for its formation and justifies the President of the Republic's demand for a third veto power, and renders himself as an exclusive guardian over the rights of the Christian communities, then insinuates to the Prime Minister-designate that he will not give confidence to the government."
"We understand the confusion that Gebran Bassil suffers, but we do not understand that he considers the political decision of the Republic Presidency as being in his hands, and that he blames the Prime Minister-designate for the consequences of the reactions caused by his special team working at Baabda Palace, cornering the Presidency with practices that expose it to criticism, ridicule, and challenge its constitutionality, as is the example of the scandalous guidance model that has no precedent in the course of formation since the establishment of the State of Greater Lebanon," the statement underscored.
Finally, the Future Movement's political bureau stressed that "the Prime Minister-designate assumes his constitutional and national responsibilities to the fullest, and will not relinquish the rules that he adopted to form the government, which are complementary to the commended French initiative." Moreover, it emphasized that there will be no third veto power to anyone within the next cabinet, which will be comprised of non-partisans and specialists, known for their integrity and competence, "a mission government that takes charge of stopping the collapse and renewing the confidence of brothers and friends in the role and message of Lebanon.""This is the confidence we are seeking, not that of Gebran and his political council!" the statement concluded.

Bukhari from Mukhtara: We stand before a joint historical responsibility to confirm that we are with Lebanon's Arabism
NNA/March 26/2021
Progressive Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, met at his Mukhtara Palace this afternoon with Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Al-Bukhari, who visited him in the presence of "Democratic Gathering" Head, MP Taymour Jumblatt, and Deputies Nehme Tohme and Wael Abu Faour.
The general political situation prevailing in the country, particularly the government formation issue, topped their discussion. Jumblatt briefed the Saudi Ambassador on his viewpoints in respect to the status quo and his proposal regarding the government settlement to get the country out of its current crises.
During the encounter, emphasis was made on the historical relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Mukhtara. "Al-Mukhtara, with its historical and Arab heritage, is a guarantee of the Mountain and the unity of Lebanon, and we stand before a joint historical responsibility to confirm that we are with the Arab identity of Lebanon," Al-Bukhari said. "We have been, and will remain Arab Christians and Muslims, as long as the Mukhtara church and mosque remains," the Saudi diplomat corroborated. Following the meeting, Ambassador Al-Bukhari visited Prince Shakib Arslan's Mosque in Mukhtara, where he performed his prayer, and then moved to the shrine of Martyr Mentor Kamal Jumblatt, where he recited the "Fatiha" for his soul.

Beirut neighborhood gets vision of hope after blast
Reuters|/March 26/2021
Offre Joie (Joy of Giving) NGO has repaired Lebanese districts hit by war and violence since 1985 and now it is working to rebuild a low-income area devastated by deadly explosion in capital's port
The sheer scale of the destruction in Beirut's Karantina district after the massive explosion at the port last August made rebuilding a daunting feat. That was where Marc Torbey El Helou, a charity worker, came in.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter. The low-income neighborhood was one of the closest to the blast that killed 200 people. It stands across from the giant, mutilated grain silo that has become a symbol of the tragedy.
Helou decided a day after the explosion to dedicate himself, and the aid group he runs, to rebuilding the neighborhood. Just removing the rubble required 300 truckloads. Some buildings needed immediate help to stop them collapsing. Helou says the same of Karantina's residents. "There were children here who would not laugh or play for months."The neighborhood is home to Lebanese, Syrian and other residents, a fire brigade and dozens of stores selling everything from car parts to clay pots. All were hit hard. Helou's charity, Offre Joie (Joy of Giving), has repaired Lebanese districts hit by war and violence since 1985.

“Dangerous chemical” threat adds to Lebanon’s woes
The Arab Weekly/March 27/2021
BEIRUT--Lebanon’s outgoing Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, said on Friday that experts had found “dangerous chemicals” at a warehouse at the Zahrani oil installations in the south.
Diab said the country’s atomic energy authority had identified the substances as “nuclear” after reviewing a report by German company Combi Lift, which Lebanon had tasked with clearing hazardous material at Beirut port.
A Combi Lift spokesman said they did not have any knowledge of the Zahrani issue. If the substances are indeed “nuclear”, their origin is unclear. They could be medical waste but ought not to be spent nuclear fuel rods. The only Arab country with nuclear power is the UAE which is this month just starting up its two nuclear reactors.
“This needs to be discussed now and needs to be dealt with promptly,” a statement by Lebanon’s higher defence council cited Diab as saying after a meeting. His comments came nearly eight months after a stockpile of chemicals detonated in Beirut, killing nearly 200 people in one of the largest non-nuclear explosions on record. The ammonium nitrate went up in flames last August after being stored unsafely at the port for years.
Diab’s cabinet has served in a caretaker capacity since resigning over the devastation that hit much of the Lebanese capital, compounding the country’s financial crisis.
After Lebanon hired Combi Lift last year in the wake of the blast, the German firm said it had found 58 containers at Beirut port that posed a threat to the city. Some of it had been there for more than a decade.
The German ambassador to Beirut, Andreas Kindl, said this month the materials in the Beirut containers were packed well but were waiting to be shipped out for disposal in Germany, as Lebanon had yet to make a $2 million payment stipulated in the contract.
Combi Lift spokesman Malte Steinhoff said on Friday the containers were still in Beirut amid talks with Lebanese authorities over financing.
“We…hope to find a solution this month,” he said.
Worst crisis in decades
Lebanon is currently facing the worst crisis since its civil war, with the country economically, politically and socially.
Just 18 months have passed since mass protests against Lebanon’s political class brought down one government, and nearly eight more months since a huge explosion destroyed the port of Beirut and toppled its successor.
Since then the currency has lost 90 percent of its value, inflation has driven more than half the population below the poverty line, the country has defaulted on its debts, and banks have all but cut clients off from their dollar deposits. Scenes of shoppers brawling over scarce goods, protesters burning tyres to block roads, and hundreds of shuttered businesses are now commonplace.
A vibrant Beirut has turned into a ghost-town in eerie darkness, as the outgoing energy minister warns that a total black-out is looming as fuel for electricity runs out. Yet even as Lebanon hurtles towards outright collapse, in the worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, bickering politicians are either unwilling or unable to form a government.
Saad al-Hariri, the Sunni Muslim three-time prime minister designated by parliament to form a cabinet, stormed out of his 18th meeting with President Michel Aoun this week. He said Aoun’s Christian party, led by the president’s son-in-law Gebran Bassil, wanted to dictate cabinet seats and have veto power over decisions.
“As of today you have to satisfy Gebran Bassil’s conditions; he has the pen of the president,”‌ said one government source.
Hariri, son of Rafik al-Hariri, the post-war premier assassinated in 2005, has called for a technocrat cabinet that must enact reforms long demanded by the IMF and donor countries such as the United States and France. He is backed by the Shi’ite Amal party, led by influential House Speaker Nabih Berri and others.
Overshadowing what might otherwise look like a sectarian squabble over sharing the diminishing pie of Lebanon’s spoils system is the power of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shi’ite group that dominates Lebanon politics and underpins Aoun’s presidency.
Like other Arab countries such as Iraq and Syria, Lebanon has long been an arena of proxy competition between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, with traditionally influential Christians divided between the two.
With a new administration in Washington reassessing policy towards Iran, the regional balance of power is shifting. For now, Hezbollah, as Iran’s main client, appears reluctant to back a new government that might be seen as offering a concession to Saudi- and Western-backed rivals such as Hariri.
While it agrees on the need for a government, Hezbollah is not ready to pressure Aoun and risk its alliance with his large Christian party.
Need for solutions
The most optimistic scenario would see a capable government, able to regain local and international confidence, and implement reforms international lenders have demanded, such as an overhaul of the wasteful power sector, audit of the central bank and restructuring of the bloated public sector. “Everyone knows what fiscal and monetary reforms are needed,” a senior official source said.
The pessimistic scenario would see a further collapse in the pound and plummeting economic growth, already measured at minus 25% of GDP by the IMF last year and minus 19% of GDP by the World Bank.
The economy is shrinking so fast it is difficult to measure precisely, but on present trends this year’s contraction is set to be around 10% of GDP, the source said. The remaining foreign exchange reserves estimated at $16 billion are draining away: with roughly $500 million a month on fuel, wheat and medicine subsidies; $75 million to $100 million a month spent by the state, and at least $100 million a month when the Central Bank intervenes in the currency market. Some officials, diplomats and politicians are inclined towards pessimism: “I don’t think the parties want a solution,” the senior official source said.
“It’s not so important who the prime minister is, what matters is the criteria and implementation, regaining confidence and credibility,” he said. “The current government started by persuading the parties to go to the IMF (and) any successor government will have to do the same. They have no choice.”As long as the paralysis continues, it is hard to fathom how bad the situation can get. Dan Azzi, former chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank in Lebanon, said a scenario could evolve in which the currency tumbles further, all basic functions of government cease to exist and chaos spreads. “If we continue like this…total control will be lost on society. This means you are driving down a road and someone with a weapon can stop you kill you, take your car, money and wife.”
Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of An-Nahar daily, said: “I don’t see any solutions, I see an open-ended crisis.”
What’s at stake
While Hariri blames Aoun’s demands for holding up a government, the president has so far remained intransigent. Sources who meet Aoun quote him as saying he is not responsible for the financial crisis: as power has been held for most of the last three decades by Hariri, Hariri’s father and Berri, they should be the ones making concessions, the president believes. The sources say Aoun’s attitude has hardened since Washington imposed sanctions on his son-in-law Bassil, the man he was grooming as a contender for president. “There is total change. He’s not ready to make any concessions at all,” one visitor said. The scale of financial losses and a planned audit of state finances turned into a point of friction in Lebanon last year, bringing IMF talks to a halt, as top bankers and lawmakers torpedoed the outgoing government’s draft recovery plan. Western donors have made clear they won’t bail out Lebanon without reforms to tackle enshrined corruption and the crushing debt, and revive IMF talks. Gulf Arab states that once funnelled money to Lebanon have shut the taps, wary of the expanding role of Iran’s client Hezbollah. Despite the meltdown, the parties that form the ruling elite appear more concerned with securing seats in next year’s parliamentary elections than enacting reforms, diplomats and sources close to power say. “For them it’s a political game. It’s about who’s going to win. The total collapse, the economic and social costs are not a priority for them. It’s a battle of existence for them, they think they can discuss the costs later,” a source close to government sources said.
“They think they can last a bit longer, but nobody knows where the breaking point is,” added another political source.

US defence contractor pleads guilty to espionage for Hezbollah
Eric Tucker/The Arab Weekly/March 27/2021
WASHINGTON--A woman who worked as a contract linguist for the US military in Iraq pleaded guilty Friday to sharing classified information with a romantic interest linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Mariam Taha Thompson was arrested last year in an espionage case that investigators said put the lives of American military members and confidential sources at risk and represented a significant breach of classified information. Thompson, 63 and formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to a single count of delivering national defence information to aid a foreign government. She admitted as part of a deal that she shared the names of US government assets with a Lebanese man with connections to Hezbollah. Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the Justice Department’s top national security official, said in a statement that the actions represented “a disgraceful personal and professional betrayal of the country and colleagues.” Sentencing was scheduled for June 23.  Thompson began communicating with the man, whom she never met in person, in 2017 after being connected via social media by a family member, and she ultimately developed a romantic interest in him, prosecutors said.
After a January 2020 US strike that killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, the Lebanese man — who is not named in court papers — asked Thompson to provide “them” with information about the human assets that had helped the US target Soleimani.
Investigators say Thompson accessed dozens of files about human sources, including their names, photographs, background information and operational cables that described the information they had gathered. She agreed to provide the classified information to the man; officials say she had planned to marry him, and was afraid he would end her relationship if she did not cooperate.

Lebanon food prices become MENA’s most expensive: World Bank
Tala Michel Issa, Al Arabiya English/27 March ,2021
Lebanon’s food prices have become the highest in the Middle East and North African region, as inflation rates continued to soar amid one of the country’s worst economic crises to date, according to the World Bank. In the World Bank’s periodic assessment of the repercussions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on food price inflation in the MENA region, they found that between Feb. 14, 2020 and March 8, 2021, prices surged across all food categories. The country’s inflation rate in 2020 rose to almost 85 percent, Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star reported, adding that it hit its highest point since 1992. By the end of 2020, inflation stood at 145.8 percent. The World Bank assessed food prices of five main food categories in 19 different countries across the region, including carbohydrates, fruits, meats, dairy products and vegetables. Fresh and frozen cattle meat prices jumped by 110 percent during the assessment period, indicating the highest increase in price for this item in the region. Lebanon, Syria, and Djibouti were the only three countries to record a rise of over 35 percent in this category. The average price increase in this category across the rest of the region was 11 percent.
Shoppers walk past an empty shelf at a supermarket in Beirut, Lebanon
The price of eggs increased by an average of 7 percent for the rest of the region while Lebanon, Djibouti, Iran, Syria and Yemen saw a rise of more than 20 percent in the price of eggs. Potato prices in Lebanon rose by just over 71 percent, accounting for the highest in MENA while the prices of frozen chicken rose by 68.4 percent. The World Bank also found that the prices of apples and oranges in the country grew by 58.2 and 58.4 percent respectively. Beirut-based grocery store manager Ziad Hassan told the New York Times on Monday that instead of the daily email from the supermarket chain’s management to inform him to adjust the pricing of grocery items, he began to receive emails as often as three times a day, ordering price increases. He added that his employees would often not have enough time to finish marking the products with new prices before the next one arrived.
Eighteen months have passed since mass protests against the country’s political class began and since then, the Lebanese lira has lost 90 percent of its value, driving more than half the population below the poverty line, Reuters reported on Friday. In August 2020, the United Nations estimated that over 55 percent of the country’s population were trapped in poverty and had been struggling for bare necessities, stating that extreme poverty registered a threefold increase from 2019 to 2020. The country has been grappling with the impact of the Aug. 4 Beirut Port Blast which injured thousands and killed hundreds, extreme hyperinflation, the coronavirus pandemic, and an incompetent ruling class.

Lebanon's largest Christian bloc warns against sidelining president
BEIRUT (Reuters)
Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), warned prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri on Saturday against sidelining President Michel Aoun and other parliamentary blocs in talks over forming a cabinet. Hariri and Aoun have been at loggerheads over the cabinet for months, dashing hopes of a reversal of Lebanon’s deepening financial meltdown. Hariri has said Aoun’s party is trying to dictate cabinet seats in order to gain veto power. The FPM, which is headed by Gebran Bassil, who is also Aoun’s son-in-law, accused Hariri of trying to orchestrate a majority for his own supporters. “The political committee warns of the dangers of sidelining methods that the prime minister-designate is using when dealing with the president and concerned parliamentary blocs,” an FPM statement said.
Veteran Sunni politician Hariri was nominated in October to form a cabinet after Hassan Diab’s government resigned in the wake of the Beirut port blast, which killed 200 people and damaged large swathes of the city.
Diab’s government has stayed on in a caretaker capacity.
On Monday, the 18th meeting between Hariri and Aoun failed to produce any concrete results. Lebanon is in the throes of a deep financial crisis that is posing the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. A new cabinet is needed to carry out reforms that could unlock foreign aid.
Writing by Maha El Dahan; Editing by Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry
 

Nabu Musée, Le prétendu gardien (sauveur) du Mashriq
Nelly P. Abboud
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/97364/nelly-p-abboud-the-nabu-museum-the-alleged-guardian-saviour-of-the-mashriq/

30 2020/Pàgs. 203–214/DOI 10.21001/rap.2020.30.10
Universitat de Lleida ISSN: 1131–883-X/ISSN electrònic: 2385–4723
www.rap.udl.cat
A private art and archaeological museum was inaugurated in 2018 on the Mediterranean coast under the name of Nabu after the Mesopotamian God of Wisdom and Writing. The museum exhibits a collection of more than 2,000 archaeological artifacts from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen. Immediately after its inauguration, the so-called museum was the subject of controversy as to how and from where it had acquired its archaeological collection. The co-founder and director of the museum, Jawad Adra, defended the ownership of this collection and made reference to decree №3065 issued in 2016 that aims at organizing the General Inventory of Old Movable Archaeological Items. This article investigates this controversy, its context, causes, and implications.
Keywords: Lebanon, Archaeology, trade, private museums, laws.
En 2018, un musée privé d’archéologie et d’art a été inauguré sur la côte méditerranéenne, baptisé du nom de dieu mésopotamien de la sagesse et de l’écriture, Nabu. Le musée présente une collection de plus de 2000 pièces archéologiques, originaires du Liban, Syrie, Palestine, Irak, Égypte et Yémen. Juste après son inauguration, le soi-disant musée a provoqué une controverse liée à la provenance et au mode d’acquisition de sa collection archéologique. Le cofondateur et directeur du musée, Jawad Adra, a défendu la propriété de cette collection en se référant à un décret, n ° 3065 publié en 2016, qui vise à organiser l’inventaire général d’anciens objets archéologiques mobiliers. Cet article traite de cette controverse, son contexte, causes et enjeux.
Mots-clés : Liban, archéologie, commerce, musées privés, lois.
Fig. 1. The Museum.
The Museum and the Collection
In September 2018, a new privately-owned museum, named after the Mesopotamian God of Wisdom and Writing, Nabu opened its doors on the coast of El Herri, Chekka, North Lebanon. The museum was co-founded by Jawad Adra, a businessman and an art collector along with two renowned Iraqi artists, Dia Azzawi and Mahmoud Obaidi, who also designed the rust steel cubical museum building.
Situated on the Mediterranean coast, with a stunning view out to the sea, the museum displays a permanent collection of around 2000 archaeological artifacts dating to the Bronze and Iron Ages, to Roman, Greek, and Byzantine periods. The museum’s collection also includes contemporary works of art, paintings, and sculptures by Lebanese and Arab artists. (22 September 2018. Nabu. Millennia of Creativity, Museum Catalog, 79 p.)
Curated by Pascal Odille, an expert in Modern and Contemporary Art at the French National Chamber of experts specialized in arts and collectibles (C.N.E.S.), the museum’s first exhibition, Millennia of Creativity, compared 60 modern artworks with around 400 archaeological pieces, coming from the Near Eastern region, mainly Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Yemen.
Among the most prominent collections housed in the Nabu Museum, is the Phoenician collection of around 66 funerary stelae, probably from the site of Tyre Al-Bass, located in south Lebanon (Seeden 1992 a&b).
Another important collection is the Iraqi collection of cuneiform tablets, which probably comes from the ancient lost city of Irisagrig, whose location was discovered by looters but remains unknown to archaeologists. It should be noted that, at present, most of the known cuneiform tablets are dispersed in collections in the United States of America, Australia, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, and France, among other places. Irisagrig recently made the headlines with the Hobby Lobby case, when 450 cuneiform tablets smuggled into the U.S., were seized by the American Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and returned to Iraq.
The online database of Neo-Sumerian Texts, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, which is updated regularly, lists the Nabu Museum, as the owner of 138 tablets from Irisagrig and seven others of unknown provenance.
Another famous collection is the General Moshe Dayan collection of ceramics and bronze objects, mostly found in Palestine, of unspecified origin.
Moshe Dayan, an Israeli military and political figure held numerous ministerial roles during the course of his political career: Agriculture, Defense, and Foreign Affairs.
An amateur archaeologist, he performed illegal digs, looting different sites and trading in antiquities. All these activities were described in detail by Raz Kletter (Kletter 2003).
The Moshe Dayan Nabu collection was comprised of the gift allegedly made by Dayan himself to his friends Helen & Paul Zuckerman, (An American businessman and a philanthropist) and Irving Bern- stein (Executive vice-president of the United Jewish Appeal — Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, from 1971 to 1984). According to one of Bernstein’s sons: “the artifacts have a well-established provenance, and they have passed through very few hands. As a favor to Mr. Bernstein, many of the pieces have been identified, autographed, and dated by Dayan himself.” This collection of gifts was later put up for auction by the heirs of the Zuckerman and Bernstein families. According to the catalog of the Moshe Dayan Nabu collection, (The Saadeh Cultural Foundation and the Social & Cultural Development Association (INMA) Recover Palestine’s Looted Antiquities, INMA, Beirut, 2015. (See <https://monthlymagazine. com/article-desc_1810_>), this collection was purchased by two Lebanese NGOs: The “Saadeh Cultural Foundation”, (Founded in 1999 and named after Antoun Saadeh, the founder of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Lebanon, it aims at spreading the philosophy of Mr. Saadeh) and the “Social and Cultural Development Association (INMA)”, (An NGO founded in 1997, by Jawad Adra and his wife Zeina Akar Adra. INMA scope of activities is based on serving a cluster of villages and specific neighborhoods throughout Leb- anon. INMA projects cover health, education, the environment, and income-generating activities. <http://information-international. com/page/21/inma>) from two auction houses in the United States of America in 2012.
Another important collection is the Palmyrene Funerary Reliefs, originating from the ancient city of Palmyra, modern-day Tadmour in Syria (Abousamra 2016 & 2018). This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has been subjected to massive waves of destruction and looting since the ISIL militants took over the city and destroyed the Temple of Baalshamin on the 23rd August 2015.
Terracotta votive figurines from the site of Tell Halaf, located in North-East of Syria, near the Turkish border, also feature among the most prominent museum collections.
Artifacts, mainly alabaster statues and funerary stelae, whose provenance is labeled as the south of the Arabian Peninsula, without referring directly to the Republic of Yemen, are also mentioned on the museum’s website.
The controversy
Helen Sader, professor and Chair at the Department of History and Archaeology at the American University of Beirut, and the author of various articles on looting and private collectors (Sader 2012–2013) was the first to raise the issue of the Nabu Museum in her plenary address at the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) annual meeting, that took place in Denver, last November.
In her address entitled “Between Looters and Collectors, and Warlords: Does Archaeology Stand a Chance?”, she expressed her dismay at how no one inquired about the origin of the finds exhibited in this museum. Sader continues and asks how the museum’s owners were not only able to purchase looted artifacts but also appear to have the right to display them ‘legally’ in a private museum without being questioned?
Since then, a few modest voices have been heard discussing the Nabu issue. Yet despite this controversy surrounding the Nabu Museum and its suspicious collection, not a single official public statement was issued by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture, nor by the General Directorate of Antiquities (DGA), which is the rightful guardian of Lebanon’s heritage and the only entity authorized to investigate and take the measures needed to stop any illegal action.
In the same way as the Lebanese, no Syrian official body has taken any official stance, nor have they made any statements whatsoever regarding the acquisition of Syrian looted artifacts by the Nabu Museum. In contrast, the Iraqi Ambassador, Ali Al Aamiri, stated in an interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al Modon, that the Iraqi embassy in Beirut refuses to disclose any details regarding this matter. Their official comment was restricted to vaguely stating that the Iraqi government might follow any necessary legal procedures to deal with the Nabu Museum issue (Merhi 2019).
The Iraqi archaeologist and the translator into Arabic of The catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past (Mcguire 2008), Abed Es-Salam Sobhi Taha wrote an article in Arabic, whose translated into English title is: “The memory of Iraq in the black market” published, in the Iraqi magazine Beyn Nahreyn. In this article, Taha demands Nabu Museum “to have the wisdom of the Mesopotamian God Nabu and to return its heritage to its country.” (Taha 2019: 5).
In April 2019, the Nabu Museum and eleven other museums celebrated the Night at the Museum annual event, which has been organized by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture since 2016, in partnership with the French Embassy in Beirut and in conjunction with the yearly celebration of the Francophonie month.
Including a ‘suspicious museum’ in the list of museums taking part generated controversy among archaeologists and museum professionals working in the public and the private sector. The author of this article addressed an open letter to all museum professionals, on March 30th, 2019, a few days before the Night at the Museum event, which was shared by email and on social media platforms, urging the custodians of the National Museum, the Higher Commission of Museums, the National Committee of the International Council of Museums, and the Directors of University Museums to speak up and fight against the inclusion of the so-called “Nabu museum” in the Night at the Museum event, bearing in mind that such an act would legitimize the Museum and its collections.
The letter received different reactions but remained without an official response from any of the organizers and participants directly concerned in the event. However, a few archaeologists and DGA employees, voiced objections and boycotted the event, and refused to participate in the celebration.
Following this open letter, a campaign was launched on social media, with the aim to spread awareness regarding the origin of the artifacts on display at the Nabu Museum and to put pressure on officials to take legal measures, in order to conform to national and international laws. Sadly, however, it received only modest support from national and local newspapers and television stations.
In response to this campaign, the Nabu Museum hit back with massive media coverage for the museum and its collection, and they lost no opportunity to justify the fact that they are collecting and exhibiting artifacts, and they avoided the issue of how and from where they acquired them.
In a TV interview in a program called The Orient Bells, that was aired on June 7th, 2019 on Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese Pan-Arab satellite television station, Mr. Adra, defended his right to own these artifacts claiming that the Nabu Museum is saving the cultural heritage of the ‘nation’. According to Mr. Adra, this concept of the ‘nation’ goes beyond the Lebanese borders and takes in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, and Egypt.
To understand this ideology better, it should be borne in mind that Mr. Adra, one of the founders and the director of the museum, is a member of the political bureau of the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP). The SSNP was founded in Beirut, by Antoun Saadeh, in 1932, as an anti-colonial and national liberation organization, modeled on European fascist movements, in order to fight French colonialism. The SSNP operates in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine, with close political ties to the Ba’ath National Progressive Front, the governing party in Syria.
The SSNP ideology rejects the borders first drawn up under the Sykes–Picot agreement in 1916, on the basis that the borders outlining the newly created states were fictitious, resulting from colonialism, and do not reflect any historical and social realities. The party maintains that Greater or “natural” Syria represents the national ideal which encompasses the historical people of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, all of whom belong to a common historical, social and cultural development path (Saadeh, 2004).
Using this doctrine as a starting point, the Nabu Museum is preserving and promoting the Cultural Heritage of Greater Syria and does not possess artifacts from other countries, but only from the Greater Syria nation. Nabu considers itself to be the legitimate guardian and keeper of the heritage of a nation that formed a single unit in ancient times and still remains so according to the ideology of those behind the creation of this museum.
Private Museums in Lebanon and Looting
The Nabu Museum is not the first, nor the only private archaeological museum in Lebanon that has been enriched by purchased artifacts.
In Lebanon, the majority of archeology and history museums are public state museums. Apart from the National Museum of Beirut, regional site museums have emerged since the end of the civil war in the nineties. Yet on the private sector level, two major private universities, the University of Saint-Joseph and the American University of Beirut have played an important role in protecting the archaeological heritage of Lebanon. The collections of these university museums include a considerable number of archaeological remains found throughout Lebanon and the neighboring countries (Badre 2010).
The Archaeology Museum of the American University of Beirut, created in 1902, amassed its collection through private donations and acquisitions from the market during the period of its creation.
Looting and trading antiquities in Lebanon started under the Ottoman empire (1516–1918), flourished under the French mandate (1923–1946), and began again on a larger scale during the Lebanese Civil war (1975–1990). Robert Fisk, the multi-award-winning Middle East correspondent at The Independent investigated the plundering of Lebanon’s heritage while he was based in Lebanon in 1991, and he described the country as ‘The biggest supermarket’ in the region” (Fisk 1991a: 243–252).
Two private archaeology museums owned by wealthy businessmen are testament to the extent of the looting and smuggling that took place in Lebanon during the last century.
The first is the Audi Mosaic Museum, privately owned by Raymond Audi, chairman of Audi Bank– Saradar Group, a businessman, politician (Minister of the Displaced from 11th of July 2008 until 9th of November 2009), and founder of Audi Foundation for promoting heritage and craftsmanship. The museum is located in the capital city of Beirut, in Villa Audi, a mansion built in 1910, that served as the main branch of the Audi Bank from 1970 until 2000. It was later transformed into a private museum that hosts a unique private mosaic collection, and a number of sculptures, from different countries, dating back to the second and sixth centuries A.D. The Audi Museum is currently closed to the public but occasionally opens its doors during the Night at the Museum event and upon reservation.
The second is the Robert Mouawad Museum located in Zoqaq El Blat, Beirut.
The current museum was conceived and funded by the jeweler and collector Robert Mouawad to showcase his collection of art, furniture, carpets, and antiquities. It is housed in the former home of the late Lebanese politician and art collector Henri Philippe Pharaoun (Issacs 2014).
The museum’s collection was amassed from antiquities from Lebanon, the Near East, and different corners of the world, which Mr. Pharaoun had purchased to decorate his mansion (Farhat 2012).
The New York Times aptly describes the residence as a “palace [which] resembles a Gothic castle with a hodgepodge of Greek and Roman statues and sarcophaguses in the walled garden”.
In an interview with National Lebanese television, that was never broadcast, Mr. Pharaon retells the story of how Greek artifacts, which were later included in the museum’s collection, were discovered in the garden of the villa in the mid-forties during renovation work. Mr. Pharaoun’s only son, Naji, sold the palace to a Saudi Arabian Prince and then in June 1991, ownership of the mansion was transferred to the Mouawad family. Mr. Pharaon moved to the seaside Carlton Hotel in 1992 where he was brutally murdered in his hotel room at the age of 92.
For years, the museum was closed for extensive refurbishment and opened only for special occasions. The museum is now permanently closed and the fate of its archaeological collections remains unknown.
What distinguishes the aforementioned two museums from the case of the Nabu Museum, is that these collections were amassed in Lebanon before the establishment of laws and conventions, and during periods of massive turmoil and chaos. Many other private Lebanese collections contain huge numbers of looted antiquities from Lebanon and around the world, but the Nabu collection, with over 2000 archaeological pieces, appears to be the first collection acquired in modern-day Lebanon, that clearly and pretentiously defies all the existing and non-existing national and international laws and agreements.
National and International Laws, Decrees, and Ministerial Decisions
To date, Lebanon continues to rely on a law of antiquities that dates back to 1933, when Lebanon was still under the French mandate. Not a single law dedicated to museums has been established yet ( 7 November 1933. Lebanese Law of Antiquities. Bylaw nº 166. Beirut). Despite the fragility of this outdated law, it still remains operative and has clear dispositions regarding the preservation of archaeological heritage. The law gives an essential role to the General Directorate of Antiquities, which is in charge of protecting, restoring, and managing the cultural heritage (art. 19). It strictly prohibits looting and clandestine excavations (art. 72–73) and imposes financial penalties for violators. It outlaws the import of antiquities from Iraq and Palestine (art. 100) without an import license granted by the competent authorities of the mentioned countries. But on the other hand, the same law allows the import and export of antiquities, although under strict conditions, and legalizes the work of antiquities dealers (chap. IV).
Fig. 2. Tyre Funerary Stelae.
To put an end to this and because of the lack of control over the Lebanese antiquities market, the Minister of Tourism, Walid Joumblatt, issued ministerial decision №8 in February 1988, after 13 years of civil war, forbidding the import of antiquities outside Lebanese Territory and urging the General Director of Antiquities to stop providing dealers with import/ export licenses. (The General Directorate of Antiquities was then dependent on the Ministry of Tourism and only fell under the Ministry of Culture in 1993). This decision was followed in the same year by decree №14 with the aim of organizing the antiquities market within Lebanon.
Subsequently, in 1990, these two consecutive decisions were combined into a single Ministerial Decree, which prohibits any type of export of archaeological objects from Lebanon and bans any kind of trading in antiquities within the country.
Fig. 3. Iraq Cuneiform Tablets. ©nabumuseum.
Later in the same year, Lebanon ratified the UNESCO 1970 convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property that gave signatories the ability to seek the return of illicitly obtained cultural goods and set guidelines for collectors. Countries parties to the 1970 Convention are committed to establishing appropriate legislation to combat looting and trafficking antiquities.
Lebanon also recently ratified the UNESCO complementary 1995 UNIDROIT Convention that aims to balance the complexities of the “good-faith buyer” by demanding a level of due diligence.
In July 2015, following her insistence that the UNESCO Convention 1970 be implemented, the then General Director of UNESCO Mrs. Irina Bokova received a report from the Lebanese Minister of Culture Raymond Arayji. In this report he listed all the Lebanese laws and ministerial decisions banning the import and export of antiquities and organizing the sale of antiquities. Mr. Arayji reassured Mrs. Bokova that Lebanon is abiding by its national laws and decisions, and by the 1970 UNESCO Convention, mentioning the number of seizures of artifacts smuggled from Syria and Iraq, that had occurred on Lebanese territory since 2012.
Less than a year later, and few days before the end of the aforementioned Minister’s term of office in March 2016, Decree number 3065 was published in the official gazette, with the aim of organizing the General Inventory of Old Movable Archaeological Items.
The decree, effective for three years, is comprised of 13 articles, and in its first article it defines the method for acquiring cultural property, stating that it is to be done ‘transparently, calmly, in a non-suspicious manner and for non-commercial means’.
In accordance with this decree, individuals with undeclared collections, had a grace period of three years to declare them to the Ministry of Culture, represented by the General Directorate of Antiquities, using an online declaration form available through the ministry’s website.
Following this declaration, the collector of the artifacts receives a receipt from the General Directorate of Antiquities, giving him/her legal ownership of the declared collection.
The decree was recently renewed in June 2019 for a three-year period, with amendments in respect of the provenance and acquisition mode of the object, the inspecting archaeologist, and the collector’s responsibility for the accuracy of the information, and with an emphasis on the right of the General Directorate to inspect and check the artifacts should it be considered necessary. According to article number 3, this decree can only be renewed once.
While recognizing that Lebanese law needs to be updated, the problem in Lebanon is not the dispositions of the law, but how to enforce it. In 1999, The Directorate-General of Antiquities was given the status of a judicial police force, empowered to investigate the whereabouts of allegedly stolen ‘antiquities’ and raid suspected hiding places. The Lebanese General Directorate of Antiquities, whose prerogatives were provided for in the 1933 antiquities law, moved to take measures against suspected owners of artifacts, especially those artifacts that dated back to before 1700, which according to the aforementioned law, are considered to be the property of the state.
The decision to reactivate the law regulating the possession of artifacts that date back to the 18th century or earlier was taken at a meeting attended by Magistrate Khaled Hammoud, a public prosecutor for financial fraud, in addition to DGA’s Acting Director-General at the time, Professor Shaker Ghadban. Following that decision, many suspicious houses and warehouses were raided, antiquities confiscated and warehouses sealed with wax. (Daily Star, 18 March 1999).
Fig. 4. Tell Halaf figurines. ©nabumuseum.
Ethical issues
Along with the laws and conventions, the Nabu Museum case highlights the role played by many archaeologists in studying and authenticating the Nabu collections.
A number of Lebanese and international archaeologists and art historians collaborated with the collector and the museum, providing both professional advice and academic publications.
For example, the Palmyra reliefs belonging to Nabu collection were published in a study led by Gaby Abousamra (2016), a professor of Epigraphy and Semitics at the Lebanese University, as well as several articles on other artifacts belonging to the same collection (Abousamra & Lemaire 2016; Abousamra 2018).
In addition, he co-authored a book on the Phoenician Stelea of Tyre, which is a part of the private collection of Nabu Museum (Abusamra & Lemaire 2014).
The collection of Sumerian tablets from the site of Irisagrig, Iraq, has also been studied and published (Owen and Lafont 2000).
That was not the first time that the names of some of these scholars have been linked to unprovenanced artifacts.
In 2003, the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University accepted a donation of a large number of cuneiform tablets. These tablets with no verifiable evidence of provenance, form the subject matter of an ongoing series of academic monographs, studied by David Owen and published in 2007 under the auspices of the Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology (Owen 2007a and 2007b). The collection of 1500 unprovenanced tablets included the so-called Garšana archives, believed to have been discovered by looters at a presently unknown location in southern Iraq, but which on the evidence of a recurring toponym is thought to have been a 3rd-millennium-BC town named Garšana.
Interestingly enough, the Nabu collection also features cuneiform tablets from Garšana.
Another scholar, André Lemaire, an academic epigraphist, who was the co-author of the aforementioned book with Abousamra, was previously linked to other unprovenanced and questionable material: two Iron Age, inscribed biblical artifacts that appeared on the antiquities market in 1979 and in 2002. The first one is an ivory pomegranate carrying the inscription “Holy to the priests, belonging to the T [emple of Yahwe]h” and the second one is the so-called James Ossuary, a limestone burial box from the 1st century BC bearing the Aramaic inscription “James, Son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus” (Lemaire 1984 & 2002).
These inscriptions are of a debatable nature, yet were considered to be authentic by Lemaire.
The market value of both inscriptions increased after they were studied and published by Lemaire and were sold and bought many times at high prices, without taking into consideration the authenticity of these inscriptions nor their modes of acquisition.
Conclusion
Alex Barker (2003: 75–76) argues that exhibiting objects and publishing collections from a private collection increases their commercial value. He also argues that such an increase might lead to an increase in looting and trafficking of cultural goods to meet the market demand. Barker goes on to say that from a research point of view, there is no way to ensure that these objects are even authentic if they came from unknown sources.
Owen, on the other hand, in defense of the Garšana research, advocates that “scholars are obligated to preserve and publish those records of the past that are available, whether or not they have documented contexts or origins” and that no evidence whatsoever has been presented to demonstrate that scholarly study and publication of unprovenanced inscriptions encourages the looting of sites or inflates the value of cuneiform texts in private collections (Owen 2007a: V & 2009).
Renfrew calls the involvement of scholars in the publication of looted material an ethical crisis in archaeology and argues that unless a solution is found, our record of the past will be vastly diminished. He describes the collectors as the real looters and insists that clandestine digging and looting of archaeological sites is destroying the context in which archaeological fi can reveal valuable information about our human past (Renfrew 1993: 16–17).
Tess Davis, an archaeology and heritage law expert at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow said in an interview to ABA Journal in July 2014, that while “cultural heritage has always been a casualty of war,” the commodification of antiquities has made them even more vulnerable to armed conflict. “War is an expensive business,” she says. “So as long as there is a market for these so-called blood antiquities, there will be a supply. At best, those who purchase such pieces are contributing to the destruction of the world’s cultural heritage. At worst, they may be prolonging the conflict by funding, even indirectly, those who wage it.”
Over the course of its modern history, the Lebanese social fabric has been broken down by the influence of many internal and external factors. The final blow was the civil war (1975–1990), which destroyed the country’s cultural, social, and architectural fabric. These events lead to the population’s division into different ethnic, religious, sectarian, and political groups. These cultural divides are constantly on the increase, and historical narratives are used fraudulently by sectarian and political parties in an attempt to prove origins and develop factions.
These controversial issues extend into both modern and ancient history. History is thus considered to be full of tragic events and came to be ignored by the majority of the population.
To date, the Lebanese refuse to reconcile with this painful past and move towards a better understanding of their history. The multitude of different, and often contradicting narratives, the disagreement on origins and identity have resulted in the absence of a homogenous unified history textbook in schools in Lebanon. The notion of the past as a common legacy, that serves to unite the population as heirs of a common heritage, was annulled by sectarian and political parties.
Archaeological artifacts are considered by the majority of the population as a good source of income, that can be traded for profit.
There is no sense that archaeology belongs to the people and is being appropriated, which is why there is a lack of activism in archaeological and cultural causes (Seeden 1994a&b).
The awareness campaigns that aim to promote cultural heritage are rare, or non-existent, and this is enhanced by the DGA’s current policy of keeping its work secret, and not engaging with the local community or stepping in to clarify any controversies being spread by the media about the fate of archaeological remains, by providing clear and scientific explanations. That leads to a lack of interest in archaeology, mistrust of the DGA, and does nothing to enhance public awareness (Sader 2012). As a result of the secretive nature of the work of the DGA, archaeologists are viewed by the Lebanese as gold diggers, who destroy sites and steal the artifacts. Hardly anyone understood the controversy surrounding the opening of the Nabu Museum and even fewer people objected to its opening.
In 2015, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, launched the national campaign Unite for Heritage to mobilize UNESCO State Members, and to address the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage by violent extremist groups.
The hashtag #unite4heritage has been widely shared on all social media platforms and at the Rafiq Hariri International Airport, and so the #Unite4Heritage campaign has become a widely expanding global movement that seeks to engage a global audience, with young people as its core demographic. Ironically, however, it has not publicly addressed or even discussed the provenance of the Nabu collection.
In September 2014, following the publication of Lemaire and Abousamra’s book New Funerary Phoenician Stelae (Abousamra & Lemaire 2014), a Lebanese NGO called The Green Southerners, based in Tyre, Lebanon, filed a notice with the public prosecution, stating that the 66 stelae studied in that book were illegally obtained from clandestine excavations at the archaeological site of Tyre. The fate of this notice was not made public and remains uncertain.
In 2019, after the inauguration of the museum and the display of a few pieces of the Phoenician Stelae collection in the museum, the same NGO filed a lawsuit against the owner of the museum, Mr. Jawad Adra, accusing him of owning looted artifacts from the Phoenician site of Tyre.
The timing of issuing Decree 3065, in March 2016, should not be ignored.
Amidst the turmoil in Syria and the brutal massacre in August 2015 of Khaled El Assaad, the director of Antiquities and Museums of Palmyra, and the Palmyra offensive of the Syrian Arab Army to recapture the city on 27 March 2016, one must ask if it was an innocent coincidence. And why establish a decree that organizes private collections at a time of such regional instability, with massive waves of destruction and looting of archaeological sites?
Some argue that it will help organize this market by reducing the impact of looting and trade. Others see it as a powerful tool that can be used by collectors to legalize and “cleanse” their ‘suspicious’ collections, helping them acquire more objects illegally and later declaring them to the state, therefore, making them ‘legitimate’.
Fig. 5. Yemen Statue. ©nabumuseum.
The decree does not specify who pays the archaeologist/ inspector, and who owns the data uploaded onto the declaration website, nor who has the right to access it.
As a legal response to the issuing and the renewal of this Decree, preparations are underway by a group of lawyers and heritage activists to lodge an appeal against Decree 3065, on the basis that it contradicts national and international laws and decisions, and encourages collectors to keep on purchasing looted material, in the confidence that the decree will validate their ownership.
In his aforementioned 2015 report, Minister Arayji mentions the number of antiquities seizures that have occurred since 2012. Yet in fact, there is no record that the General Directorate of Antiquities returned so many smuggled artifacts to Syria and Iraq.
The Lebanese Higher Commission of Defense issued a report in 2019, indicating the presence of more than one hundred illegal crossing points between the Syrian/Lebanese borders.
Archaeological goods, amongst other items, are being smuggled through these crossings in the absence of any official authority. The report states that the smuggling also takes place through the regulated official crossings, making it even more challenging to be able to control and fight the smuggling. According to the same report, illegal trading not only happens on land but also in the territorial waters with the use of speed boats to smuggle all sorts of goods across Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.
On June 3rd, 2019 Yemen deposited its instrument of ratification of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, with the Director-General of UNESCO. The Convention entered into force on September 3rd, 2019.
Clearly, such laws and conventions are not the magical solutions that will stop the massive plundering and looting of archaeological sites. But one cannot help but wonder, in the face of the massive destruction and looting of the Syrian, Iraqi, Palestinian, and Yemeni heritage, about the purpose and the effectiveness of all the different conventions, agreements, and UN resolutions.
Do we have any success stories to tell? Have any of these laws and conventions saved any Middle Eastern country’s heritage from being vandalized, destroyed, and looted during armed conflicts? One has to pause, reflect and meditate on the fate of heritage in the Middle East in the last few years, considering all the laws and agreements written and signed that have never been respected by the parties in positions of power, and this has only served to heighten the feeling of helplessness and frustration of the local communities who are facing major regional conflicts. There is a need for a reassessment of the missions of such organizations and the politics of preservation in today’s world.
Lynn Meskell (2018) questions the role of UNESCO in the light of recent major political developments, with different case studies from all over the world that show where UNESCO fell short, in the face of the plundering and looting of different archaeological sites.
Over the next five to ten years, the Lebanese Ministry of Culture will inaugurate new archaeology and history museums. However, the question remains as to how it will regulate the world of private museums, with the absence of any laws pertaining to museum licensing, collections, management, and ethics.
In 2016, the Ministry of Culture created an ad- ministrative board for the High Commission of Museums, composed of seven members; a president, a vice-president, and an executive committee. The role of this commission is to supervise and strengthen the establishment and the management of Lebanese public and private museums, to preserve Lebanese cultural heritage, and to enhance the skills of the museum professionals. Another organization that can play a role in shaping the museum sector in Lebanon is the National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), an NGO, that has proved itself to be a leading entity in the museum world. ICOM is the only global organization in the museum sector. As a forum of experts, it makes recommendations on issues related to cultural heritage, promotes capacity building and advances knowledge, and sets professional and ethical standards for museum activities. So far, both committees in Lebanon remain inoperative for unknown reasons and have not even taken a stance on the creation of the Nabu Museum.
Collecting antiquities and art is a sign of refinement, luxury, and wealth, and it seems to be regaining momentum as one of the favorite hobbies of the rich and sophisticated circles in Lebanese society.
This collecting frenzy evolved, with flamboyant displays of wealth by collectors, into the opening of private museums to show off their rich collections. Rich collectors compete over the ownership of the most expensive works of art or antiquities, indifferent to their scientific historical, or archaeological value.
The Nabu Museum recently removed all the archaeological artifacts that were on display keeping only the works of art, the paintings, and the sculptures. Yet since then, not a single step has been taken by the DGA or any legal entity to investigate the current location of the artifacts.
In 2013, Cornell University returned more than 10000 Sumerian tablets to Iraq, and in 2018, over 450 tablets, presumably looted from the city of Irisagrig, that were seized by the U.S. government, will be repatriated to Iraq. Will the Republic of Lebanon step in and encourage the Nabu Museum to return any of the looted artifacts to their various countries of origin?
It is a well-established fact, that due to market demands, collectors can become dealers, and that publishing and displaying objects contribute to pushing up the market price of the objects and thus serves as the perfect marketing strategy. Taking this into account, the question that has to be asked whether publishing and putting on display a number of the Nabu artifacts was a simple marketing plan to ensure a more lucrative deal on the resale? And taking this question further, does the museum serve as a medium to sell the region’s antiquities? Has the Nabu Museum become the new biggest antiquities supermarket of the Middle East?
**Nelly P. Abboud Archaeologist and Museum Educator. Founder of MuseoLab The Cultural Lab, an NGO that promotes Cultural Heritage through experiential learning.
Data de recepció: 1/10/2019 Data d’acceptació: 30/01/2020
Bibliography
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Lemaire, A. (January-February 1984). Probable head of priestly scepter from Solomon’s Temple surfaces in Jerusalem. Biblical Archaeology Review: 24–29.
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Owen, D. I. (2007a). Series Editor’s preface. In: Owen, D. I. and mAyr, R. H. (eds.). The Garšana archives. Cornell Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 3: v-vi.
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Journals & Newspapers
Diab, Y. (18 March 1999). 1932 antiquities law revived. Daily Star. <http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon- News/1999/Mar-18/13215–1932-antiquities-law-revived. ashx>.
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Merhi, M. (27–30 June 2019). An investigation in Archaeology (in Arabic), Al Modon. 4 parts.
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Sewell, A. (11 April 2019). A Museum Tangled in Debate over Heritage. Daily Star: 3. [Consulted 15 September 2019]. Available on the internet: <https:// www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2019/Apr-11/480893-museum-tangled-in-debate-over-heritage. ashx>.
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(7 August 1993). Henry Pharoun Is Slain at Home; Founder of Free Lebanon Was 92, The New York Times, Section 1: 29. [Consulted 23 September 2019]. Available on the internet: <https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/07/ obituaries/henry-pharoun-is-slain-at-home-founder-of- free-lebanon-was-92.html>.
Yowakim, F. Murdered in his bed at 95 years old: an unpublished interview 22 years old (in Arabic). Al Hayat, 16 August 1993. [Consulted 17 September 2019]. Available on the internet: <http://www.alhayat. com/article/1874259/>.
Laws & Decrees
7 November 1933. Lebanese Law of Antiquities. Bylaw nº 166. Beirut.
12/03/2016. Decree 3065 on the Organization of the General Inventory of movable antiquities, official gazette, vol. 13, 24/03/2016: 1214–1216. [Consulted 1 September 2019]. Available on the internet: <http:// legallaw.ul.edu.lb/Law.aspx?lawId=258560>.
03/06/2019. The renewal, official gazette, vol. 30, p. 2054, decision nº 54, 13/06/2019.
03/06/2019. The amendments, official gazette, vol. 30, p. 2054, decision nº 55, 13/06/2019.
Conventions
3 June 2019. Ratification by Yemen of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, UNESCO Paris. 14 November 1970). [Consulted 5 September 2019]. Available on the internet: <http:// portal.unesco.org/en/ev.phpURL_ID=49506&URL_ DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html>.
14 November 1970. Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,
UNESCO. Paris. (Ratified by Lebanon on 25/08/1992). [Consulted 2 September 2019]. Available on the internet:<http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.phpURL_ ID=13039&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html>.
Reports
6 July 2015. Letter addressed to Mrs. Irian Bokova, General Director of UNESCO by the Minister of Culture Raymond Araygi. [Consulted 4 September 2019]. Available on the internet: <http://www.unesco. org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/pdf/Report_ Lebanon_clear.pdf>.
Catalogs
22 September 2018. Nabu. Millennia of Creativity, Museum Catalog, 79 p.
2015. The Saadeh Cultural Foundation and the Social
& Cultural Development Association (INMA) Recover Palestine’s Looted Antiquities, INMA, Beirut, 32 p.
Websites
AUB Museum website: <https://www.aub.edu.lb/ museum_archeo/Pages/default.aspx>.
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Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts: <http://bdtns.filol. csic.es/>.
Videos
8 June 2019. Al Mayadeen Interview with Jawad Adra (in Arabic), The Orient Bells. Available on the internet: <http://mdn.tv/40yv>.
14 November 2018. Sader, H. Between Looters, Collectors, and Warlords: Does Archaeology Stand a Chance? The 2018 Plenary Address of the ASOR Annual Meeting. Published on Dec 17, 2018. Available on the internet: <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zCx56KgQsY0>.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 27-28/2021

Loud bang heard in Damascus, Syria: Reuters witness
Reuters/27 March ,2021
A loud band has been heard in Syria’s capital Damascus, according to a Reuters witness. The loud bang heard in Syria’s capital was a result of operation to clear remnants of explosives in the Damascus countryside, according to state news agency SANA. The overall death toll for Syria’s civil war has reached 388,652 since it began a decade ago this month, a war monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the figures includes almost 117,388 civilians, among them more than 22,000 children. Attacks by the Syrian regime and allied militia forces accounted for the majority of civilian deaths, said the Britain-based monitor which relies on sources inside Syria for its reports.

Canada/Minister of Foreign Affairs responds to Chinese sanctions
March 27, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:
“China’s sanctions against Canadian parliamentarians and democratic institutions are unacceptable and an attack on transparency and freedom of expression.
“The Government of Canada stands with parliamentarians and all Canadians as we continue to work with partners in defence of democracy and freedom of speech and will continue to take action when international human rights obligations are violated. We need to stand together to remind those who violate human and democratic rights that the world is watching.”

Strong winds not main reason for huge ship stranding in Suez Canal: Chairman
Reuters/27 March ,2021
Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority chief said Saturday that strong wind was not the main reason for the grounding of the MV Ever Given cargo ship in the waterway. “Strong winds and weather factors were not the main reasons for the ship’s grounding, there may have been technical or human errors,” Osama Rabie said at a press conference in Suez. “All of these factors will become apparent in the investigation,” he added. Asked when the ship could be afloat again, he suggested it was possible “today or tomorrow, depending on the ship’s responsiveness to the tides.” The MV Ever Given, which is longer than four football fields, has been wedged diagonally across the canal since Tuesday, blocking one of the world’s most vital waterways in both directions. The canal authority chief said over 300 vessels are now treading water at either end of the canal, which links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Addressing journalists in Suez, Rabie outlined Egypt’s efforts with tugboats and excavators to free the bow and propellers of mega-ship in order to reopen the canal. Rabie noted that on 10.30 pm Friday the propellers had been able to spin, although not at full speed. However they were jammed again due to the changing tide, he said, adding that rescuers had had to resort to excavators again overnight to continue the dredging process. “The type of soil we’re dealing with is very difficult to manage, as are tides which affect the size of the vessel and its cargo load,” he added. Rabie also noted that the blockage had caused “no fatalities or pollution”. The ship’s grounding is holding up some $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day between Asia and Europe, according to Lloyd’s List data. Rabie estimated that Egypt is losing some $12-14 million in revenue from the canal for each day it is closed. The United States also said it was ready to send support, including a team of US Navy experts. Rabie thanked the US for its support along with China and the United Arab Emirates.

New Attempts Planned to Free Huge Vessel Stuck in Suez Canal
Associated Press/March 27, 2021
A giant container ship remained stuck sideways in Egypt's Suez Canal for a fifth day Saturday, as authorities prepared to make new attempts to free the vessel and reopen a crucial east-west waterway for global shipping.
The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow canal that runs between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula.
The massive vessel got stuck in a single-lane stretch of the canal, about six kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.
Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given, said the company hoped to pull the container ship free within days using a combination of heavy tugboats, dredging and high tides.
He told the Dutch current affairs show Nieuwsuur on Friday night that the front of the ship is stuck in sandy clay, but the rear "has not been completely pushed into the clay and that is positive because you can use the rear end to pull it free."Berdowski said two large tugboats were on their way to the canal and are expected to arrive over the weekend. He said the company aims to harness the power of the tugs, dredging and tides, which he said are expected to be up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) higher Saturday.
"The combination of the (tug) boats we will have there, more ground dredged away and the high tide, we hope that will be enough to get the ship free somewhere early next week," he said.
If that doesn't work, the company will remove hundreds of containers from the front of the ship to lighten it, effectively lifting the ship to make it easier to pull free, Berdowski said. A crane was already on its way that can lift the containers off the ship, he said. An official at the Suez Canal Authority said the authority planned to make at least two attempts Saturday to free the vessel when the high tide goes down. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.
Egyptian authorities have prohibited media access to the site. The canal authority said its head, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei, would hold a news conference Saturday in the city of Suez, a few kilometers (miles) from the site of the vessel. Yukito Higaki, president of Shoei Kisen, the company that owns the giant container ship, told a news conference in Imabari, Japan on Friday night that 10 tugboats were deployed and workers were dredging the banks and sea floor near the vessel's bow to try to get it afloat again.
Shoei Kisen said Saturday the company was considering removing containers to lighten the vessel if refloating efforts fail, but that would be a difficult operation.
The White House said it has offered to help Egypt reopen the canal. "We have equipment and capacity that most countries don't have and we're seeing what we can do and what help we can be," President Joe Biden told reporters Friday.
An initial investigation showed the vessel ran aground due to strong winds and ruled out mechanical or engine failure, the company and the canal authority said. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, had previously said the ship had experienced a power blackout, but it did not elaborate. A maritime traffic jam grew to around 280 vessels near Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, Port Suez on the Red Sea and in the canal system on Egypt's Great Bitter Lake, according to canal service provider Leth Agencies. Some vessels began changing course and dozens of ships were still en route to the waterway, according to the data firm Refinitiv. A prolonged closure of the crucial waterway would cause delays in the global shipment chain. Some 19,000 vessels passed through the canal last year, according to official figures. About 10% of world trade flows through the canal, which is particularly crucial for transporting oil. The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East. It remained unclear how long the blockage would last. Even after reopening the canal that links factories in Asia to consumers in Europe, the waiting containers are likely to arrive at busy ports, forcing them to face additional delays before offloading. Apparently anticipating long delays, the owners of the stuck vessel diverted a sister ship, the Ever Greet, on a course around Africa instead, according to satellite data. Others also are being diverted. The liquid natural gas carrier Pan Americas changed course in the mid-Atlantic, now aiming south to go around the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com.
 

Five Dead' as Building Collapses in Egypt
Agence France Presse/March 27, 2021
Five people died and more than 20 were wounded Saturday as a building collapsed in the Egyptian capital Cairo, local authorities said. "The governorate's crisis room was informed at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) of the collapse of a building consisting of a basement, a ground floor and nine (upper) floors," the Cairo governorate said in a statement. It said that five people were confirmed dead and 24 wounded in the collapse in the Gesr Suez district near Heliopolis in the east of the city. "Khaled Abdel Aal, the governor, immediately went to the site of the incident accompanied by civil protection forces," the statement added.
He ordered the "establishment of an engineering committee" to inspect surrounding buildings and evaluate the impact. Egypt has suffered several deadly building collapses in recent years, due to the dilapidation of many premises and poor adherence to planning regulations.

Facing two disasters, Egypt’s President Sisi pledges tough action
The Arab Weekly/March 27/2021
CAIRO--Egypt is having to deal with two major crises; the country’s latest deadly train smash and the huge container vessel entirely blocking the Suez Canal which has pole-axed the shipping movement of hundreds of billions of dollars of urgent cargo between Asia and Europe.
Several countries have expressed their willingness to help Egypt deal with catastrophic grounding on the Japanese container ship Ever Given, while many offered their condolences to Cairo for the 32 dead and almost 100 injured when trains collided in the Sohag governorate in the south of the country. These two disasters have thrown the spotlight sharply on how Egypt deals with crises.
The Suez Canal and the Egyptian railways are two of the oldest and most important facilities in Egypt. More than a century and a half have passed since they began operating. The canal generates an income of about $6 billion a year, while Egyptian National Railways’ 5,600 kilometre network last year recorded 800 million passenger miles.
Since he took office is 2014, President Sisi has paid particular attention to both the canal and the railway system, appointing senior military officers to their management.
Ironically, the minister of transportation, Major General Kamel Waziri, was two years ago given his ministry (which oversees the railway system) after another train smash killed scores of people. Sisi charged him with upgrading the long-neglected railway network. Before this, Waziri, then head of the Engineering Authority of the Egyptian Armed Forces had supervised the project to expand the Suez Canal project.
Sisi began in office by ordering the excavation of a second channel alongside the existing northern section of the canal. He also promised that the railway’s problems would end by 2020. Both these giant projects were apparently aimed at bolstering support for his new administration.
Now Egyptians have woken up to the two disasters occurring almost at the same time. This will have raised questions in their minds about the wisdom of the new canal opened in August 2015, at a cost of about $4 billion and about the development of the railway system priced at around $9 billion
The new section of canal has certainly improved the movement of vessels. But unfortunately the Japanese container ship ran firmly aground in the southern part of the canal which only allows a single shipping lane, meaning vessels move through in a traffic light system. The rescue operation has been complicated by the fact that the Ever Given is entirely blocking the canal, from one side to the other and nothing can pass it.
The development of the railway system has made great progress in terms of the modernisation of carriages and locomotives. But it has not seemed to include upgrading poor operational practices.
President Sisi vowed on his Twitter account on Friday, that those responsible for the train collision would receive “a deterrent punishment” and this will mean “whoever caused this painful accident out of neglect, corruption, or anything else, without exception, delay or hesitation.”
A statement by the Railway Authority has already acknowledged negligence, explaining “During the course of the 157 special train service, between Luxor, Alexandria, between the Maragha and Tahta stations, the emergency door of some of the cars was opened by unknown persons. Therefore the train stopped, and the air-conditioned 2011 train from Aswan passed the Cairo Semaphore 709 and collided with the rear of the last car of train 157 . This led to the overturning of two cars from the the 157 train which were stalled on the tracks. The 2011 train locomotive and the power vehicle overturned, which led to a number of injuries and deaths.”
The Ministry of Health announced the death of 32 passengers and the injury of 91 others during the collision and reported that 36 ambulances had gone to the scene to transport the injured to hospitals.
According to a report issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (governmental), train accidents in Egypt during between 2003 and 2017 totalled 16,174, with 1,657 accidents recorded in 2017 alone.
There was no more recent data available, but it was reported that train accidents occurred less often than the previous period, as a result of better maintenance and renovation. While the Suez Canal has not witnessed major crises that disrupted navigation except in times of wars with Israel, the railway system has seen many disruptions. Five transportation ministers were fired or resigned before the current minister’s appointment, with train smashes being the major reason for their dismissal. Observers say that the collision of the two trains on Friday is not an ordinary incident. It presents Sisi with a dilemma, as transport minister Waziri is responsible for fixing the railway system and what happened was the result of neglect by those in charge.
Sisi has shown himself prepared to act against close colleagues. In 2017, after a terrorist operation in Western desert in which a number of officers and soldiers were killed, he fired the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Mahmoud Hegazy, despite the ties of friendship, military fellowship and intermarriage.

Sadr offers his own militias’ help to disarm other militias in Iraq
The Arab Weekly/March 27/2021
BAGHDAD--Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr is increasingly wanting to appear as a statesman while his political ambitions to hold the reins of the executive authority in the country are growing.
Earlier in February, the populist Shia cleric said he backed early elections overseen by the UN, in a rare news conference outside his home in the Iraqi shrine city of Najaf.
Iraq is meant to hold earlier parliamentary elections this year, a central demand of an anti-government protest movement which erupted in 2019 and involved Sadr’s supporters.
The elections will be taking place under a new electoral law that has reduced the size of constituencies and eliminated list-based voting in favour of votes for individual candidates.
Sadr’s supporters are expected to make major gains under the new system.
In November, Sadr said he would push for the next prime minister to be a member of his movement for the first time.
With eyes on the executive authority, the Shia cleric has been calling recently for control of the weapons’ chaos in the country so as to curb attacks by armed factions on foreign forces, their supply convoys and the headquarters of the US embassy in Baghdad.
Sadr’s calls come even though the Shia cleric himself is at the head of the most powerful militias in Iraq, the Peace Brigades, which are seen as a heir to the Mahdi Army militia that had previously led an offensive against government forces under the rule of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Sadr had also been involved in a crackdown on a massive uprising that took place in the cities of central and southern Iraq starting from October 2019. In that period, he employed a militia called Blue Hats to confront demonstrators in the streets and sit-in squares, as part of his efforts to crush the protest movement and protect the regime.
In recent statements, the leader of the Sadrist movement offered to help the government of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi end the spread of illegal weapons in the country.
“The Iraqi government must work diligently and firmly against all armed actions that target the security of Iraq and its citizens, regardless of the affiliation of the perpetrators,” Sadr said, adding, “I am aware that they (the militants who launch attacks) are recruited to destabilise security, threaten stability and weaken the state with the aim of discrediting the honourable reputation of the government for the benefit of those who carry foreign agendas.”The majority of these militias have links with Iran and have been helping pursue Teheran’s agenda, which is to expand the Islamic Republic’s influence in Iraq and the region.
Most of the Iraqi Shia militias that were trained to fight ISIS in 2014 are with the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), formally affiliated with the Iraqi armed forces. Some PMF factions, however, respond only to the orders of leaders who are close to Iran.
In his recent statements, Sadr stressed that “the security chaos and the spread of weapons should not last,” calling on the government to “double its efforts” and offering his services when saying, “We are ready for cooperation.”Sadr is known for his extreme self-confidence, at times acting as a holder of absolute power by issuing orders, warnings and setting deadlines for his demands to be fulfilled. This is fundamentally contrary to the logic of thegovernment’s control that he has been preaching with his call for ending chaos in the country and halting the spread of weapons.
Since 2003, Sadr has been part of the political process in Iraq. He didn’t, however, hold any official positions like his major opponents and rivals from within the Shia political family.
In recent years, the Shia cleric, who hails from a prominent religious family in Iraq, has sought to distance himself from the bad governance that led to massive popular protests against the ruling class.
He portrayed himself as being different from other leaders of Shia parties and militias, and sought to act as a spokesman for the people, a defender of their cause, a reformer and an enemy of corruption.
Sadr, in fact, sees the failure of his political rivals as an opportunity to control the executive , especially in the light of new international and regional dynamics that may redraw the political map in Iraq.
After 18 years of mostly Shia rule in Iraq, the security situation in the country is still a serious problem affecting all aspects of life.
The Shia militias, who had obtained weapons and financial resources to help fight the Islamic State (ISIS) group, constitute today’s the biggest challenge to peace and security in the country, according to experts.
Washington accuses armed Iraqi factions linked to Iran, including Kata’ib Hezbollah, of being behind a number of attacks targeting its embassy and military bases, from which American soldiers are sometimes deployed in the country. Kata’ib Hezbollah, whose leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was assassinated in January by the US military while he was with Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad airport, is considered one of the factions with the closest ties toTehran. Iraqi politicians and activists from the protest movement accuse militias loyal to Iran of kidnapping and torturing protesters, placing them in secret prisons and shooting demonstrators. Kadhimi promised to hold the killers of demonstrators accountable and made surprise visits to numerous prisons to find out whether they included detainees from the protest movement. Last July, the Iraqi judiciary announced the formation of an investigative body to look into assassination crimes, hours after an expert on armed groups, Hisham Hashemi, was assassinated.

ICC suspect Mahmoud Warfalli gunned down in Benghazi
The Arab Weekly/March 27/2021
LONDON--Mahmoud Warfalli died as he had lived, violently and without mercy. The controversial commander in the Libyan National Army (LNA) was assassinated Thursday when his car came under a hail of bullets in a busy Benghazi street.
Warfalli, whose brother was injured in the attack, was wanted by the ICC for his alleged role in executing or ordering the executions of 33 captives in or around Benghazi in 2016 and 2017. The ICC says the executions were filmed and posted on social media. These summary killings ought to have been an embarrassment to LNA commander. Khalifa Haftar. Indeed shortly after the ICC warrant was issued in August 2017, an LNA spokesman said Warfalli had been arrested and charged with murder. There was however, never any chance that he would be extradited to face ICC prosecutors in the Hague. It was also reported that Warfalli had resigned from the LNA. However, his immediate commander in the LNA’s Saiqa special forces unit, Wanis Bukhamada had refused to accept his leaving.
Whatever detention Wafalli might have experienced was unlikely to have been onerous and he appears quickly to have returned to Saiqa’s ranks in the LNA. Indeed a year later he was pictured sitting and talking with Haftar himself. Warfalli was an important Saiqa special forces commander. Originally a ramshackle outfit whose Benghazi base was over run by Islamist terrorists in 2012, Saiqa became the most disciplined and indeed ruthless of the LNA units in battle and was often lawless away from the front line.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Warfalli’s murder but there would have been no shortage of candidates, since he had made powerful enemies, in particular among the Awagir tribe.
He might well have fallen victim to rival armed gangs. Then again might have perished in a reprisal for the Benghazi Toyota dealership he and his men shot up recently, apparently because they objected to the pricing of the ubiquitous pick-ups, on which guns are mounted to turn them into so-called “technicals”.
The person who may benefit most obviously from the man’s death is Khalifa Haftar, who was widely condemned for being unwilling or unable to see Warfalli tried and face justice for multiple murders. The very public mass executions carried out by the Saiqa officer sullied the reputation of the LNA and of its commander-in-chief. However one close observer of eastern Libya said he did not believe that assassinating opponents was the field marshal’s style.

Women protest in Istanbul over Erdogan’s decision to exit domestic violence treaty
Reuters/27 March ,2021
Several thousand women took to the streets in Istanbul on Saturday to demand Turkey reverses its decision to withdraw from an international treaty against domestic abuse which it once championed. President Tayyip Erdogan stunned European allies with last week’s announcement that Turkey was pulling out of the Istanbul Convention, named after the Turkish city where it was drafted in 2011. Turkey was one of the first signatories and women say their safety has been jeopardized by Erdogan’s move against the European treaty. Amid a heavy police presence, protesters gathered in an Istanbul seafront square waving purple flags and chanting slogans including “Murders of women are political”. One placard read, “Protect women, not the perpetrators of violence.”“Withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention is a disaster for millions of women and children living in this country,” Amnesty International Turkey Director Ece Unver told Reuters, calling for Ankara to reverse its decision. World Health Organization data shows 38 percent of women in Turkey are subject to violence from a partner in their lifetime, compared with 25 percent in Europe. Estimates of femicide rates in Turkey, for which there are no official figures, have roughly tripled over the last 10 years, according to a monitoring group. So far this year 87 women have been murdered by men or died under suspicious circumstances, it said. “We will not give up. We will be here until we get our freedom and our convention back. We will not give up on the convention,” said student Selin Asarlar Celik. Conservatives in Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party say the convention, which stresses gender equality and forbids discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, undermines family structures and encourages violence.Officials said this week domestic law would protect Turkish women, not foreign treaties. The protesters concerns were echoed by Ankara’s Western allies, who denounced what they described as a baffling and unwarranted decision which risked undermining the rights of Turkish women.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 27-28/2021

Iranian Regime, Houthis Celebrate Biden Administration’s Policy
د. مجيد رافيزادا/معهد كايتستون: النظام الإيراني والحوثيين يحتفلون بسياسات بايدين
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/March 27, 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/97370/iranian-regime-houthis-celebrate-biden-administrations-policy-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d9%83%d8%a7/

By removing the Houthis from the terrorist list and cutting off US support to confront the militia group, the Biden Administration has emboldened and empowered the Houthis and given them a free pass.
That is most likely why the Houthi terror group has ratcheted up its missile attacks. More than 40 drones and missiles were reportedly launched by the Houthis at Saudi Arabia in the month of February alone.
In spite of the mounting evidence of crimes committed by the Houthis, the Biden Administration decided to hand an undeserved political victory to Iran’s regime. Let us hope that the Biden Administration reconsiders, and stops rewarding Iran for its malign behavior as well as jeopardizing the strengthening peace and stability that has finally been taking off throughout the Middle East.
By removing Yemen’s Houthis from the list of foreign terrorist organizations and cutting off US support to confront the militia group, the Biden Administration has emboldened and empowered the Houthis and given them a free pass. Pictured: Houthi gunmen take part in a funeral for fellow militiamen killed in battle with Saudi-backed government troops in the Marib region, on March 23, 2021 in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
The Biden Administration has completely reversed the former administration’s firm policy on the Houthis in the Yemeni civil war.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, also known as Ansarallah, as a “foreign terrorist organization” in January 2021. The move was intended to hold the terror group accountable, as Pompeo clarified:
“These designations will provide additional tools to confront terrorist activity and terrorism by Ansarallah, a deadly Iran-backed militia group in the Gulf region. The designations are intended to hold Ansarallah accountable for its terrorist acts, including cross-border attacks threatening civilian populations, infrastructure, and commercial shipping.”
But after less than a week in office, the Biden administration began reviewing the designation and revoked the designation of Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group.
Why would the Biden Administration remove a militia group, which commits crimes against humanity, recruits, injures and kills children, from the terrorist designation? According to Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2020:
“Since September 2014, all parties to the conflict have used child soldiers under 18, including some under the age of 15, according to a 2019 UN Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen report in 2019. According to the secretary general, out of 3,034 children recruited throughout the war in Yemen, 1,940—64 percent—were recruited by the Houthis.”
The Houthis are also using landmines that control and kill civilians in Yemen. According to Human Rights Watch:
“Houthi-planted landmines across Yemen continue to harm civilians and their livelihoods. Houthi forces have been using antipersonnel mines, improvised explosive devices (IED), and anti-vehicle mines along the western coast of Yemen, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries. The landmines have also impeded aid workers’ abilities to reach vulnerable communities. Landmine use has been documented in six governorates in Yemen since 2015. Since January 2018, at least 140 civilians, including 19 children, have been killed by landmines in just the Hodeidah and Taizz governorates.”
The Houthi militia group also routinely resorts to various methods of torture. Human Rights Watch points out:
“Former detainees described Houthi officers beating them with iron rods and rifles and being hung from walls with their arms shackled behind them. Mothers, sisters, and daughters of abducted men have demonstrated in front of prisons across major Yemeni cities, searching for their kidnapped sons, fathers, brothers, and other male relatives, organized under a group named ‘Mothers of Abductees Association.’ The Association reported that there are 3,478 disappearance cases, at least 128 of those kidnapped have been killed.”
By removing the Houthis from the terrorist list and cutting off US support to confront the militia group, the Biden Administration has emboldened and empowered the Houthis and given them a free pass.
That is most likely why the Houthi terror group has ratcheted up its missile attacks. More than 40 drones and missiles were reportedly launched by the Houthis at Saudi Arabia in the month of February alone. Even Western officials have acknowledged the escalation. A senior U.S. Defense official told NBC News on a condition of anonymity:
“We’re certainly aware of a troubling increase in Houthi cross-border attacks from a variety of systems, including cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)”.
France, Germany, Italy and Britain also condemned the Houthi offensive and characterized it as a “major escalation of attacks the Houthis have conducted and claimed against Saudi Arabia.”
The sophisticated drones and missiles that the Houthi militia group is using most likely came from the Iranian regime, which has recognized the terror group as the official government of Yemen. Based on a U.N. report released in January 2021, there is strong evidence showing that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a provider of weapons to the Houthis. The U.N. panel of experts report said:
“An increasing body of evidence suggests that individuals or entities in the Islamic Republic of Iran supply significant volumes of weapons and components to the Houthis”.
Iran mostly relies on the sea route to smuggle weapons to the Houthis, as several of Iran’s weapons shipments, which were heading to war-torn Yemen, had been previously seized.
In spite of the mounting evidence of crimes committed by the Houthis, the Biden Administration decided to hand an undeserved political victory to Iran’s regime. Let us hope that the Biden Administration reconsiders, and stops rewarding Iran for its malign behavior as well as jeopardizing the strengthening peace and stability that has finally been taking off throughout the Middle East.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Much at stake as India, Saudi Arabia spar over oil prices
John Kemp/The Arab Weekly/March 27/2021
LONDON--Tensions this month between India and Saudi Arabia over rising oil prices have underscored the growing importance of their bilateral relationship and its potential to generate conflict as well as cooperation.
The decision by OPEC+, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, at the beginning of this month to leave output unchanged despite a near doubling of oil prices since the start of November sparked an angry exchange of words.
“The decision by OPEC+ has saddened us. It is not good news for India, China, Japan, Korea and other consuming nations,” India’s minister for petroleum told Reuters earlier this month. “We have asked companies to aggressively look for diversification. We cannot be held hostage to the arbitrary decision of Middle East producers,” an Indian government source said. In response, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said India should first use the stocks of crude it bought cheaply during the price slump in 2020. In practice, there is too much at stake for both countries to permit the disagreement to poison their overall relationship. Saudi Aramco has reportedly maintained supplies to India’s refiners for April, even as it cut loadings for other parts of Asia, a sign the kingdom is keen to dial down the disagreement. But the dispute underscores how dependent both countries have become on each other in petroleum supplies and the increasing potential for disagreements about what constitutes a fair price.
Mutual dependence
In 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global trade, Saudi Arabia was the second-most important supplier of merchandise to India, while India was the second most important destination for Saudi exports. For both countries the top trade partner was China, according to data compiled by the International Monetary Fund . But merchandise trade between the two countries was very unbalanced, with Saudi Arabia exporting around $27 billion to India, while importing only around $6 billion in return. As a result, Saudi Arabia accounted for India’s second-highest trade deficit (after China), while India accounted for Saudi Arabia’s second-highest trade surplus (again after China). Given that bilateral trade is dominated by petroleum, sharp increases in the oil price have the potential to widen the imbalance significantly.
More broadly, the Arab Gulf States, including Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, collectively account for more than 20% of India’s total import bill, mostly in the form of oil and gas.
India is heavily reliant on imported oil and gas from the Gulf and the rest of the world, so oil prices are a major source of pressure on the balance of payments and the domestic economy. The country relies on imports to satisfy almost 85% of its oil consumption and 55% of its gas, according to BP. The Saudi-Indian dependency is mutual. India has become the second most important market for Saudi oil exports — after China but slightly ahead of Japan and South Korea.
India and China are expected to provide almost all the marginal increase in global oil consumption over the next few years as more mature markets in North America, Europe and Northeast Asia stagnate or decline.
India will therefore become increasingly critical for oil exporters. Saudi Arabia has been keen to forge strategic relationships with India’s refiners and fuel distributors to secure preferential access to one of the largest and fastest growing downstream markets in the world.
Major impact
History since the World War Two suggests mutual dependency will not prevent serious price disagreements between exporters and importers over what constitutes a reasonable oil price. Between the 1970s and the 2000s, when the major flow of Middle East oil was to Europe and the United States, the main disagreements were between Saudi Arabia/OPEC and importers around the North Atlantic. In the last two decades, reduced oil consumption in relation to GDP, increased fuel taxes, and the US shale revolution have lessened European and U.S. vulnerability to price changes originating from the Middle East. Managing diplomatic and commercial relationships with the United States and Western Europe was a top priority for Saudi Arabia and OPEC.
But now the major impact of price changes is felt in Asia, especially India and China, these relations will demand greater commercial, diplomatic and political attention.
*John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst.

Suez Canal blockage is a wake-up call
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Arab News/March 26/2021
The grounding of the Ever Given mega-container ship in the Suez Canal has clogged a major global trade artery. The giant vessel has a capacity of 20,000 containers and was en route from Yantian, in China, to the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands when it ran aground and blocked the waterway. The Ever Given is owned by Japan’s Shoei Kisan Kaisha and chartered to Taiwanese line Evergreen and the ripple effect of the incident on shipping is only now being realized.
This is not the first time that a ship has become stuck in the Suez Canal which is a vital passageway between east and west. Previous groundings have involved smaller vessels, including the Fabiola which blocked southbound transits for two days in 2016, and the Maersk Shams in 2015 that was refloated on the same day with little disruption.
But this time it is different. The latest blockage is a wake-up call to guaranteeing that the Suez Canal chokepoints remain free and clear from such incidents. If the canal does reopen quickly, vessels waiting now should be able to make up time without too much disruption to global supply chains already weighed down by port congestion and inland transportation delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
So, the Suez infarction has occurred while the human race is living through the pandemic. The body is ill.
It is not yet clear what caused the Ever Given to run aground but initial reports suggested the ship had experienced engine trouble. However, a spokesman for the vessel’s technical managers ruled out any suggestion of mechanical or technical failure.
The Ever Given is now under salvage contract in coordination with the Suez Canal Authority to move the vessel and to reopen the canal, but estimates vary to the length of time it will take for a full resumption of traffic.
The key question is what to do? Remedies include waiting for higher tides, or to dig out a wide turning circle by digging up banks of the canal, but that solution will take time and require specialist equipment. Another option is to lighten the vessel, although this would be a more complicated salvage operation.
Given the size of the ship — the length of four football pitches — and the fact that it is fully loaded, efforts to remove containers using a crane barge will be challenging.
Shippers will soon have to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope to keep Asia-northern Europe and Asia-US east coast logistical services running. Such a move will generate extra insurance and other shipping costs and delay deliveries by weeks. And the coronavirus pandemic will only add to the snowball effect. Containerized goods represent around 26 percent of the total Suez Canal traffic, with westbound shipping estimated to be worth around $5.1 billion a day and eastbound daily traffic $4.5 billion. In the first day of the blockage, 165 vessels — including 41 bulk carriers, 20 Panamax and Supramax vessels, and two bulk ore ships — were either waiting at one end of the canal or being prevented from exiting.
The breakdown becomes more interesting. There were 24 crude tankers, including three supertankers (VLCCs) and nine Suezmax vessels; 33 container ships, four of which (including the Ever Given) are of 197,000-plus deadweight tonnage; 16 liquefied petroleum or natural gas carriers; eight vehicle carriers; and 15 product tankers, including long-range ships carrying 90,000-ton cargoes of jet fuel or diesel to Europe. The backlog, just for energy vessels alone, is around 50 per day.
Safeguarding the back-up of vessels is vital because of maritime security threats. Such delays send signals that these ships may be ripe for attack or acts of piracy, inspiring some groups to take advantage of the situation.
Safeguarding the back-up of vessels is vital because of maritime security threats.
So, the Ever Given incident is creating opportunity for certain actors to potentially interrupt logistical flows. With ships possibly having to divert around the southern tip of Africa, piracy also becomes a threat in the Gulf of Guinea and nations along the Gulf’s coastline need to be on full alert over the coming weeks.
The blockage of the Suez Canal makes it even more important to ensure that other waterways remain free and clear. The Ever Given incident is a wake-up call to the logistical chain and one from which lessons must be learned. The Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, has in the past experienced problems of its own and situations of this kind in narrow waterways serve to highlight that logistical flow control is key to global economic security.
**Dr. Theodore Karasik is a senior adviser to Gulf State Analytics in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @tkarasik

On Ramadan and Passover, a reminder of how far we have come
Rabbi Marc Schneier/Arab News/March 26, 2021
On Saturday, Jews around the world will commemorate the Exodus of the Israelites from enslavement when they celebrate the holiday of Passover, abstaining from bread and eating bitter roots to recall the pain of their forebears. Two weeks later, Muslims will begin their month-long celebration of Ramadan, a time of fasting but also heightened devotion and reflection.
Both of these sacred events have always had empathy at their core, focusing our attention on those in need of emotional understanding and our generosity. But in many ways this year’s parallel festivities are more intertwined than ever before. In the Middle East, the renewed hope fostered by the recent Abraham Accords between Israel and four Muslim-led nations is palpable. And, even in the US, it is hard not to feel an unprecedented spirit of Muslim-Jewish unity taking hold.
Muslims and Jews alike rejoiced over the end of the “Muslim ban” imposed by former President Donald Trump, which prevented travelers from several Muslim-majority countries from entering America. The cynical attempt to brand the policy as a “travel ban” failed to hide its explicit anti-Muslim nature or its dangerous institutionalization of Islamophobia and xenophobia in the US.
Other than Muslims themselves, Jews opposed the ban more vociferously than any faith community in America. A large number of Jewish people joined spontaneous and organized demonstrations, including the 2017 “Today I am a Muslim too” rally that I led in Times Square, New York. Rabbis were arrested for protesting outside of Trump-owned properties and Jewish defense organizations engaged in court challenges to fight for Muslims overseas to be able to visit this country.
Over four years, the ban separated tens of thousands of spouses, children, grandparents and other family members from loved ones. Many more could not reach our safe shores to flee violence or escape persecution in their own communities. And, for millions of Muslim Americans, the ban was a galling daily reminder that members of their own faith were not welcomed by the US government, and that their own fundamental rights as citizens were at risk.
In all its callousness and cruelty, the ban represented the very opposite of the empathy we as Jews and Muslim are instructed to espouse — especially during Passover and Ramadan. During Ramadan, Muslims fast every day from sunrise to sundown, in large part to invoke the pain of people in need, including refugees requiring our succor.
On Passover, Jews are likewise enjoined to empathize with individuals of all faiths and ethnicities enduring oppression. In the Torah, God commands the Jewish people: “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shall love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the Land of Egypt.”
As we celebrate this year with friends and families, Jews and Muslims in the US can each honor the triumph of our common cause. In the 2020 election, more than two in three in both of our communities voted for President Joe Biden. Polling and anecdotal evidence indicate many of the same core values driving us toward a candidate who promised to put empathy at the core of his governing vision. By overturning the Muslim ban and reversing course on other draconian immigration restrictions, Biden has delivered on his pledges.
Traveling last month to the Arabian Peninsula and other Muslim countries, I met foreign leaders and officials confounded by Trump’s poor performance with Jews after his unparalleled support for Israel. As I explained to them, Trump’s penchant for xenophobic and fear-driven policies toward Muslims and other minority groups, including African Americans, Asians and Latinos, greatly disturbed the American Jewish community. History teaches Jews that they need an open, pluralistic and democratic environment to thrive.
When American Jews watch television coverage of Syrian refugees, or the plight of the Rohingya Muslims and Chinese Uighurs, we see the images not only through the lens of our biblical persecution and exodus. We reflect on the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s, when the world — including America — shamefully closed its doors to desperate European Jews seeking to escape the Nazi terror. Wherever Muslims suffer around the world today, Jews feel a deep solidarity and determination to use their voices to speak for those being silenced, pressured, threatened or worse.
As we celebrate with friends and families, Jews and Muslims in the US can each honor the triumph of our common cause.
Today, America is blessed with a president committed to the basic tenets of democracy, and to human empathy. As someone touched by tragedy throughout his own life, Biden has a special ability to feel the pain of others and offer them solace.
I am confident President Biden will tap into his deep well of empathy to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians, building on the success of Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner with the Abraham Accords. Amid so much hope in the Middle East, and clear signs that Muslims and Jews are writing a new page of tolerance and understanding, this conflict still poses a regional challenge that we must address and overcome. Biden understands that Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation is critical to realizing the full potential of a global Muslim-Jewish partnership.
We are not there yet, but our two communities have come so far. On this Passover and Ramadan, I am hopeful Jews and Muslims can together renew our commitment to recognizing and internalizing the suffering of the other, in all his or her diversity. And we should continue our duty as peoples of faith to offer comfort and shelter for those in need, and truly serve as our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
*Rabbi Marc Schneier is President of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and co-author with Imam Shamsi Ali of “Sons of Abraham: A Candid Conversation About the Issues that Divide and Unite Jews and Muslims.”