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

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http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.may28.21.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father
John 14/08-14: “Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 27- 28/2021
Hezbollah’s Liberation & Resistance Day Is A Big Lie/Elias Bejjani/May 25/2021
Ministry of Health: 319 new infections, 8 deaths
Pope Francis in message to President Aoun: Evil and death will not have the final word in the path of life
Al-Rahi Says 'Irresponsibility, Personal Interests' Delaying Govt.
Army Chief Meets Macron, French Defense Officials
On visit to Paris, Lebanon’s army chief pleads for help
Nasrallah's Remarks Suggest He Ended Support for Bassil's Conditions
Lebanon’s central bank says not enough reserves for import of medical supplies
Lebanon will never regain sovereignty with Hezbollah’s current status: David Hale
Samir Sfeir Returns to Lebanon, Says Questioned over Hizbullah, Aoun
Ghosn Testifies to French Investigators in Renault Probe
Can French Judges Clear Carlos Ghosn's Name? He Hopes So
The war on Gaza further exposes Hezbollah’s hypocritical duplicity/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/May 27/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 27- 28/2021
Syria’s President al-Assad wins fourth term in office with 95.1 percent of votes
Biden administration decides to end Trump OK for US oil company in Syria
U.S. Top Diplomat Heads Home after Mideast Tour
Syrian Mercenaries Reportedly Robbed of Their Wages
Israel’s attacks on Gaza may constitute ‘war crimes’: UN rights chief
Hamas Says Won't Touch 'Cent' of Aid to Rebuild Gaza
US outraged by violence against Iraqi demonstrators: State Department
Khamenei Urges Iranians to Ignore Calls to Boycott Presidential Poll
US calls out Azerbaijan, demands immediate release of detained Armenian soldiers
Reporters Without Borders holds protest against Belarus blogger arrest
G7 statement on Belarus
Canada condemns arrest of President, Prime Minister and other members of Mali’s transitional authority
In Landmark Rwanda Visit, Macron Acknowledges French Part in Genocide

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 27- 28/2021
Germany: New Strategy to Combat 'Political Islamism'/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute./May 27/2021
FAQ: Hamas/Joe Truzman and Toby Dershowitz/FDD/May 27/2021
Qatar’s Detention of Writer Puts Labor Abuses in the Spotlight Again/Varsha Koduvayur/Policy Brief/May 27/2021
The Biden Administration Must Hold Iran Accountable for Support of Hamas | Opinion/Joseph I. Lieberman and Mark D. Wallace/Newsweek/May 27/2021
Erdoğan Takes Anti-Israel Hysteria to New Heights/Burak Bekdil/The Gatestone Institute/May 27/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 27- 28/2021
Hezbollah’s Liberation & Resistance Day Is A Big Lie
Elias Bejjani/May 25/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75168/elias-bejjani-hezbollahs-bogus-liberation-resistance-day-3/
Believe it or not, on May 25 each year since 2000 Lebanon has been celebrating the so-called “Liberation & Resistance Day.”
Sadly, this celebration commemorates a bogus event, and a phony heroism that did not actually take place.
On May 22, 2000 the Israeli Army unilaterally and for solely Israeli domestic reasons withdrew from the security zone of South Lebanon in accordance with UN Resolution 425.
This miscalculated and hasty withdrawal was a fatal Israeli decision that has inspired the Hamas terrorism acts and the on-going havoc in the Palestinian Gaza strip.
During the last 21 years many Israeli officials and politicians from all parties openly and harshly criticized Barak’s Government (Barak was PM at that time) hasty and unwise decision through which Israel’ abandoned its ally the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and gave Hezbollah all south Lebanon and the entire Lebanon on a plate of sliver.
The unilateral Israeli withdrawal created a security vacuum in south Lebanon.
The Syrians who were occupying Lebanon at that time and fully controlling its government, did not allow the Lebanese Army to deploy in the south and fill this vacuum after the Israeli withdrawal.
Instead Syria helped the Hezbollah militia to militarily control the whole southern region, and even patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border.
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army’s withdrawal was executed without any military battles, or even minor skirmishes with Hezbollah, or the Lebanese and Syrian armies.
At the same numerous reports published in German and other western media facilities indicted with proves that Israel forged a secret deal with Hezbollah and its masters The Iranian Mullahs that arranged for the withdrawal.
The Syrian regime, in a bid to justify both its on going occupation of Lebanon and the avoidance of disarming Hezbollah, came up with the “Shabaa Farms occupation big lie” and declared Hezbollah a Liberator, alleging it had forced Israel to withdrawal from South Lebanon.
Syria, in the same camouflaging and devious context, dictated to both its puppet Lebanese parliament and government to declare May 25th a National Day under the tag of “Liberation & Resistance Day”.
In reality Hezbollah did not force the Israeli withdrawal, and did not play any role in the Liberation of the southern Lebanese region.
In fact both Hezbollah and Syria deliberately hindered and delayed the Israeli withdrawal for more than 14 years.
Every time the Israelis called on the Lebanese government to engage in a joint, serious effort under the United Nations umbrella to ensure a safe and mutually organized withdrawal of its army from South Lebanon, the Lebanese government refused to cooperate, did not agree to deploy its army in the south, and accused the Israelis of plotting to divide and split the Syrian-Lebanese joint track.
This approach to the Israeli calls was an official Syrian decision dictated to all the Lebanese puppet governments during the Syrian occupation era.
Since then, Hezbollah has been hijacking Lebanon and its people, refusing to disarm and advocating for the annihilation of Israel.
This Iranian mullahs’ terrorist army stationed in Lebanon, is viciously hiding behind labels of resistance, liberation and religion.
Hezbollah has recklessly jeopardized the Lebanese peoples’ lives, safety, security and livelihood.
It has been growing bolder and bolder in the last 19 years and mercilessly taking the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people hostage through terrorism, force and organized crime.
Sadly, Hezbollah is systematically devouring Lebanon day after day, and piece by piece, while at the same time marginalizing all its governmental institutions in a bid to topple the Lebanese state and erect in its place a Shiite Muslim regime, a replica of the Iranian Shiite mullahs’ fundamentalist republic.
Meanwhile the free world and Arabic countries are totally silent, indifferent, and idly watching from far away the horrible crime unfolding without taking any practical or tangible measures to put an end to this anti-Lebanese Syria-Iranian scheme that is executed through their spearhead, the Hezbollah armed militia.
Who is to be blamed for Hezbollah’s current odd and bizarre status?
Definitely the Syrians who have occupied Lebanon for more than 28 years (1976-2005).
During their bloody and criminal occupation, Syria helped the Iranian Hezbollah militia build a state within Lebanon and fully control the Lebanese Shiite community.
But also the majority of the Lebanese politicians, leaders, officials and clergymen share the responsibility because they were subservient and acted in a dire Dhimmitude, selfish and cowardly manner.
If these so-called Lebanese leaders had been courageous and patriotic and had not appeased Hezbollah and turned a blind eye to all its vicious and human rights atrocities, intimidation tactics, crimes and expansionism schemes, this Iranian Shiite fundamentalist militia would not have been able to erect its own mini-state in the southern suburb of Beirut, and its numerous mini-cantons in the Bekaa Valley and the South; nor would Hezbollah have been able to build its mighty military power, with 70 thousand militiamen, or stockpile more than 200 thousand missiles and force the Iranian “Wilayat Al-Faqih” religious doctrine on the Lebanese Shiite community and confiscate Lebanon’s decision making process and freedoms.
Since Hezbollah’s emergence in 1982, these politicians have been serving their own selfish interests and not the interests of the Lebanese people and the nation. They went along with Hezbollah’s schemes, deluding themselves that its militia and weaponry would remain in South Lebanon and would not turn against them. This failure to serve the people of Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to make many Lebanese and most of the Arab-Muslim countries through its terrorism propaganda to blindly swallow its big lie of theatrical, faked resistance and Liberation.
Hezbollah would not have been able to refuse to disarm in 1991, like all the other Lebanese militias in accordance to the “Taef Accord,” which called for the disarmament of all militias.
Hezbollah would not have become a state inside the Lebanese state, and a world-wide terrorism Iranian-Syrian tool which turned against them all after its war with Israel in year 2006 and after the UN troops were deployed on the Lebanese – Israeli borders in accordance with the UN Resolution 1701.
On May 7, 2008 Hezbollah invaded Sunni Western Beirut killing and injuring in cold blood hundreds of its civilian citizens, and too attempted to take over by force Mount Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called that day (May 7, 2008) a great and glorious victory for his resistance, and keeps on threatening the Lebanese that a replicate of that day will take place if they do not succumb and obey his Iranian orders.
Hezbollah is a deadly dragon that the Lebanese politicians have been allowing him to feed on sacrifices from the southern Lebanese citizens, especially on those who were living in the “Security Zone” and who fled to Israel in May 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon.
This dragon who enjoyed devouring his southern sacrifices has now turned on all the Lebanese and if they do not stand for their rights and dignity, he will keep on devouring them all one after the other.
We call on the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Parliament and on all the free and patriotic Lebanese politicians and leaders to cancel the May 25 National Day, because it is not national at all, and also to stop calling Hezbollah a resistance, put an end for its mini-state, cantons and weaponry, and secure a dignified, honorable and safe return for all the Lebanese citizens who have been taking refuge in Israel since May 2000.

Ministry of Health: 319 new infections, 8 deaths
NNA/27 May 2021 
The Ministry of Public Health announced 319 new coronavirus infection cases, which raises the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 539590.
Eight deaths were recorded.

Pope Francis in message to President Aoun: Evil and death will not have the final word in the path of life
National News Agency/27 May 2021
Holy Father, Pope Francis, emphasized on Thursday that "Evil and death cannot have the final word on the path of life". "Having faith in resurrection puts the power of conversion, in our hearts, in order to build a better world" the Pope said.
Moreover, the Supreme Pontiff reiterated his prayers that "The spirit of wisdom supports the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, and his assistants, illuminating their ways to lead Lebanon along the paths of peace, freedom and joy".
Stances of the Pope came through a letter sent to the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, in response to the message previously sent, on the occasion of Resurrection. In the letter, Pope Francis also asserted his full solidarity with "The beloved Lebanon", entrusting Lebanon to the care of the Virgin Mary, seizing this occasion to bestow his apostolic blessings to the entire Lebanese people.

Al-Rahi Says 'Irresponsibility, Personal Interests' Delaying Govt.
Naharnet/May 27/2021
The main obstacles delaying the new government’s formation are “domestic,” Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said on Thursday. “Irresponsibility” and “personal interests” are to blame for the continued deadlock, the patriarch added, in a discussion with students at the Saint Joseph University (USJ) in Beirut. Separately, al-Rahi lamented that “we do not have sovereignty inside the country.” “This can only be enforced by the army and security forces,” he went on to say. He also agreed with a student’s suggestion that Lebanon is “in danger.” “It is in danger due to the wrong political practices, due to links and allegiance to other countries, and due to importing norms, traditions, systems and practices that contradict with our Lebanese nature,” the patriarch explained.

Army Chief Meets Macron, French Defense Officials
Naharnet/May 27/2021
Army Commander General Joseph Aoun has held talks in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and top French defense officials. The Lebanese Army said Aoun and Macron discussed “the army’s situation and the challenges it is facing in this period,” with the French president emphasizing “the importance of supporting the Lebanese Army” in order to strengthen “Lebanon’s stability.”Aoun has earlier in the day met with the French Chief of the Defense Staff, General Francois Lecointre and the discussions tackled “the needs of the Lebanese Army and discuss ways to support it at this critical phase that Lebanon is experiencing, especially at the economic level,” the army said. Aoun met with his French counterpart at the Official Defense College, where a welcoming ceremony was arranged. Then they held a meeting during which they discussed the army’s situation and the challenges it faces, the army said in a statement. Lecointre stressed on “the need to support the Lebanese Army in various ways to help it continue carrying out its tasks, and provide means to assist the soldiers in overcoming the precarious economic situation.”Aoun then met the Minister of the Armed Forces of the French Republic, Florence Parly, in her office at the Ministry of Defense, and thanked her for her country's “continuous support” to the Lebnaese Army. “France is always standing by LAF through aid, donations and joint training programs, and it is considered one of the most important countries in terms of support,” Aoun said. The commander pointed out that the army is facing a “major crisis” that is “prone to more deterioration due to the perilous economic and social situation that Lebanon suffers from, which may become worse should the subsidizing of essential products be discontinued.”Parly for her part stressed the need to support the Lebanese Army, which is a “key pillar of Lebanon's unity and stability.”Aoun then moved to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee HQ, where he attended a presentation about the tasks carried out by the French Armed Forces.

On visit to Paris, Lebanon’s army chief pleads for help
The Arab Weekly/May 27/2021
PARIS–Lebanon’s Army chief Joseph Aoun warned France on Wednesday that an economic crisis had put the military on the verge of collapse and Paris offered emergency food and medical aid for troops in hopes of preserving law and order, sources said. France, which has led aid efforts to its former colony, has sought to pressure Lebanon’s squabbling politicians who have failed to agree on a new government and launch reforms to unlock foreign cash. Discontent is brewing among Lebanon’s security forces over a currency crash wiping out most of the value of their salaries. In unusually outspoken comments in March, General Aoun said his warnings to Lebanese officials that this could lead to an “implosion” had fallen on deaf ears. According to three people with knowledge of his visit to Paris, Aoun told senior French officials that the situation was untenable. “We’re worried because the Lebanese army is the backbone of the country,” said one person familiar with meetings on Wednesday that included President Emmanuel Macron. The basic monthly salary of a soldier or policeman, which used to amount to around $800, is worth under $120 today. Budget cuts pushed the military to cut meat from its meals last year.
In what was seen as a sign of the times, the French embassy donated food parcels last February to the Lebanese Army, which has long been backed by Western nations. Some officials caution that security forces will struggle to contain unrest.
More than half the population is now poor, with wages slashed across the board, prices soaring and no state rescue plan in sight. That was even before the currency hit a record low last week after months of political paralysis.
Pledge of support
Two sources said France would provide food and medical supplies for military personnel, whose salaries had fallen five or six fold in value recently, forcing many to take extra jobs. One of the sources said France was working to arrange a conference in June that would seek to mobilise the international community to support the army. Lebanon’s pound has crashed 90% since late 2019 in a financial meltdown that poses the biggest threat to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. The army has long been viewed as a rare institution of national pride and unity. Its collapse at the start of the civil war, when it split along sectarian lines, catalyzed Lebanon’s descent into militia rule. In a statement after meeting with counterpart Francois Lecointre, General Aoun said the Lebanese army was going through “a great crisis which is set to get worse.”Macron’s office said in a statement that France would continue to support the Lebanese Army. With Lebanon on edge, unrest is expected to grow. The economy’s collapse has brought a growth in robberies with more people trying to steal food, baby formula or medicine, a second security source said. There was also an uptick in gunmen holding up drivers at night to take cars.
In 2020, murders jumped 91% from 2019, according to research firm Information International, based on police data. Robberies shot up 57% and car thefts hit a nine-year high. Road safety charity YASA said about 10,000 manhole covers had disappeared in Beirut, as thieves sell the cast iron for $100 each, more than Lebanon’s monthly minimum wage.

Nasrallah's Remarks Suggest He Ended Support for Bassil's Conditions
Naharnet/May 27/2021
The “margin of obstruction” in the government formation process “has started to seriously get narrower” and the remaining obstacles can be resolved, sources informed on the file said. Noting that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had “fully authorized Speaker Nabih Berri to find a quick solution” to the crisis in his latest remarks, the sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper that Nasrallah’s statements carried a “password” urging Berri to “activate his initiative and risk his own security, even if he needed to visit the Baabda Palace.”Nasrallah also “pledged to offer all the necessary assistance” to secure the success of Berri’s initiative through “lowering the level of support that had been granted to the governmental conditions of Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil,” the sources added.

Lebanon’s central bank says not enough reserves for import of medical supplies
Reuters, Beirut/27 May ,2021
Lebanon’s central bank said on Thursday it could not keep up its imports of subsidized medical goods without using its mandatory reserves and asked the relevant authorities to find a solution to the problem. Lebanon, which in the throes of a financial crisis that is threatening its stability, has been subsidizing fuel, wheat, medicine and other basic goods since last year. In a statement issued after caretaker health minister Hamad Hasan said he had visited the bank asking for the release of funds for essential medicines to no avail, the central bank said it would not dip into its mandatory reserves to cover the $1.3 billion cost of the subsidized medical supplies.“This total cost that is required from the central bank as a result of a policy to subsidize these medical items cannot be supplied without touching mandatory reserves and this is what the board of the central bank refuses,” it said. Lebanon’s hard currency reserves have dropped alarmingly from over $30 billion before the financial crisis hit in late 2019 to just over $15 billion in March. The wider subsidy program costs around $6 billion a year. Hasan had said on a local television program last week that around 50 percent of required medicines were available but in the warehouses of importers awaiting payment. Lebanon, which is in political paralysis, deeply indebted and struggling to raise funds from potential donor states and institutions, has said money for subsidies will run out in May. The design and implementation of its subsidy system, which included long lists of non-basic items, has been criticized as wasteful by traders and consumers.

Lebanon will never regain sovereignty with Hezbollah’s current status: David Hale
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/May 27/2021
“No state can live up to that name of a state, so long as one faction, answering only to a foreign capital can make life and death decisions that affect all of the citizens of that state,” Hale said on Wednesday. Lebanon will never regain true sovereignty or regain its strength until Iran-backed Hezbollah is prevented from acquiring weapons and it changes its destabilizing behavior, the former number three diplomat at the US State Department said Wednesday. “The state of Lebanon will never regain strength or achieve true sovereignty, so long as one faction can accumulate dangerous weapons and undertake smuggling and other illicit and corrupt activities,” David Hale said during a webinar with the Washington-based Middle East Institute. Hale was most recently the undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department and has extensive experience in Lebanon, including as the former US ambassador to Beirut. “No state can live up to that name of a state, so long as one faction, answering only to a foreign capital can make life and death decisions that affect all of the citizens of that state,” Hale said on Wednesday. Asked what could be done, the US diplomat - speaking in his capacity as a private citizen - called on Hezbollah’s political allies to use their leverage to change the group’s destabilizing behavior. “Or they should just walk away from that alliance,” he said, adding that Washington had provided billions of dollars in aid to the Lebanese state institutions over the years. “True friends [of Lebanon] should help strengthen the authority of the state, not the authority of one faction,” Hale said, referring to Iran’s continued funding and arming of Hezbollah. Hale also highlighted the importance of continued aid for the Lebanese army but ripped into the political elite for failing to form a government capable of implementing necessary reforms. Lebanon is currently experiencing its worst financial, economic and social crises in modern history. Before leaving his post at the State Department, Hale made a final trip to Beirut last month. “I have to say I’ve never seen that level of despair in the country since the end of the Civil War anyway in 1990,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senator Tim Kaine also voiced his support for continued US assistance to the Lebanese army. Kaine, too, criticized Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. But he warned against empowering the group if the US was not careful about how it approached Lebanon. As for how the US could help the Lebanese people, Kaine suggested investing in the Lebanese army and potentially working with NGOs to deliver humanitarian assistance. “We need to continue those investments [in the army]. Number two, if we can’t really trust the government, we can nevertheless work through NGOs and international organizations that are doing good work to alleviate suffering in Lebanon,” Kaine said.

Samir Sfeir Returns to Lebanon, Says Questioned over Hizbullah, Aoun
Naharnet/May 27/2021
Prominent Lebanese music composer Samir Sfeir arrived in Lebanon Thursday after he was detained for more than a month in Saudi Arabia. The National News Agency said he was welcomed at the airport by MP Salim Aoun of the Strong Lebanon bloc, prominent lyricist Nizar Francis, and several members of his family. Speaking to al-Jadeed TV at the airport, Sfeir said he was detained over his political views and not over any drugs-related charges. “I never spoke about the kingdom, I spoke about my country’s domestic affairs,” Sfeir said. “They followed up on something very old that I said in 2013 in a comic show… and they considered that I mocked them,” the Lebanese composer added, referring to Saudi authorities. “I feel that reports against me were sent from here (Lebanon),” he added. Noting that he does not regret his political stances but rather his “aggressive approach,” Sfeir said his style of political activism was “wrong,” adding that he has “returned to his senses” and that he will “retire” from politics. “I was questioned by four interrogators and the discussion was political. I was asked whether I had a link to Hizbullah’s military wing and I said that I had always voiced support for the army and stated that I was against armed and sectarian parties,” Sfeir added. He revealed that he was also grilled about a tweet mentioning President Michel Aoun and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. “I told them that I meant that the relation between the President and Sayyed Nasrallah had rescued Lebanon from Sunni-Shiite strife,” Sfeir added. Asked about the identity of those who mediated with Riyadh to secure his release, Sfeir thanked Aoun, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, Army chief General Joseph Aoun, State Security chief Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, the lyricist Nizar Francis and al-Jadeed TV.

Ghosn Testifies to French Investigators in Renault Probe
Associated Press/May 27/2021
For hours, French investigators on Thursday questioned fugitive former auto magnate Carlos Ghosn in the Lebanese capital as a witness in a probe over Renault's pollutant emissions, according to two Lebanese officials. A prosecution official and a judge said the French questioned Ghosn before leaving Beirut later in the day. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media. The officials said Lebanese investigators sat through the questioning of Ghosn. There was no immediate comment from French officials. Renault is facing a probe that dates back to 2017 over cheating emission tests, a charge the company denies. The probe follows earlier investigations by French anti-fraud authorities who found abnormally high emissions from some of Renault's diesel engineered cars. Ghosn worked in Renault since 1996 until its alliance with Nissan in 1999. Another team of French investigators is expected in Lebanon next week to question Ghosn over suspicions of financial misconduct. Ghosn, who fled Japan to Lebanon in early 2020, told The Associated Press he has done nothing wrong and hopes their investigations are eventually dropped. It is an unusual move for French magistrates to question a suspect abroad. Ghosn is expected to be questioned for several days starting Monday in Beirut, where he was given sanctuary by Lebanese authorities. Ghosn grew up in Lebanon and has Lebanese citizenship, and Lebanon won't extradite him. He hasn't yet been charged with anything in France, but could be given preliminary charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering, misuse of company assets, or aggravated breach of trust. Lavish parties in Versailles, questionable payments to an Omani car dealer, suspected tax evasion - these are the subjects of multiple investigations in France involving Ghosn's actions as the head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi car alliance. They were opened amid new scrutiny of Ghosn after his shocking 2018 arrest in Japan.

Can French Judges Clear Carlos Ghosn's Name? He Hopes So
Associated Presst/May 27/2021
Former auto magnate Carlos Ghosn expects to get hit with at least one preliminary charge when French investigators travel to Beirut to question him over suspicions of financial misconduct. But he insists he's done nothing wrong and hopes their investigations are eventually dropped. Lavish parties in Versailles, questionable payments to an Omani car dealer, suspected tax evasion -- these are the subjects of multiple investigations in France involving Ghosn's actions as the head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi car alliance. They were opened amid new scrutiny of Ghosn after his shocking 2018 arrest in Japan. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he's hoping that he has a better chance of defending himself in France than in Japan, which he fled in a brazen getaway in 2019. "I have much more confidence in the French legal system than in the Japanese system," he said Tuesday. Still, he said he has no "illusions" that the cases would be immediately dropped. "It would be a miracle if I weren't handed preliminary charges on at least one count," he said. "But ... in the end, a judge will decide what's true. My goal is to provide explanations, lay my documents on the table, let the investigating judges determine whether there is a case of misconduct or not and let justice follow its course." In an unusual move, French investigating magistrates are going to question Ghosn for several days starting Monday in Beirut, where he is being given sanctuary by Lebanese authorities. Ghosn grew up in Lebanon and has Lebanese citizenship, and Lebanon won't extradite him. He hasn't yet been charged with anything in France, but could be given preliminary charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering, misuse of company assets, or aggravated breach of trust. Ghosn says he asked for the voluntary hearing. "If I'd wanted to lie low, I could have laid low ... I want to say things that maybe the investigative judges haven't had the chance to hear because, up until now, they've had a biased source of information," he said. "I'm hoping that with my explanations and the documents that we have, we can influence the process." He dismissed separate accusations of tax evasion that have seen millions of euros of French assets frozen, saying that he was fully transparent with French authorities when he moved his tax residency to the Netherlands in 2012. He questioned why French authorities started investigating this decision only after his arrest. The Japan arrest triggered scrutiny of Ghosn's activities at France-based Renault, in which the French government has a 15% stake.
Ghosn claims that Nissan is trying to use the French investigations to punish Ghosn. "When I escaped, they say, 'OK you know, we're going to let the French finish our job.' ... So they passed all the dossier to the French." In one case, France's national financial prosecutor's office is trying to determine who is at fault for alleged violations at Renault between 2009 and 2020. That includes "suspicious financial flows" between Renault and a car dealership in Oman, SBA, according to prosecutors. That probe is also targeting 11 million euros of travel and other costs paid by Renault-Nissan's Netherlands-based holding company RNBV but suspected to have been for Ghosn's personal use. Ghosn says there was no wrongdoing. In another probe, investigators in the Paris suburb of Nanterre are examining money spent on two parties at the nearby Chateau of Versailles. Ghosn denies they were personal affairs, though one happened to fall on his 60th birthday. "There was no birthday cake. There were no songs. There were no presents for me," he said.

The war on Gaza further exposes Hezbollah’s hypocritical duplicity
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/May 27/2021
For someone who never misses a chance to threaten Israel with eternal destruction, Hassan Nasrallah and his Iran-sponsored militia have stood idle as Israel launched its full-scale military campaign against the Palestinian people under the pretext of the systematic eradication of Hamas, Iran’s Palestinian proxy.
Rather than taking any military action to support his allies in Palestine by joining the ongoing fight and opening a second front against Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, Nasrallah and the so-called “axis of resistance” did nothing to turn their famous slogan “we will pray in Jerusalem” into a reality.
The start of the Israeli settler attacks on the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem coincided with “International Jerusalem Day,” which falls on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan, a day declared by the leader of the Iranian revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to support the people of Palestine, or so he claimed. Ironically, Nasrallah used to the occasion this year declare that “the Axis of Resistance is serious, honest, and true, unlike all previous words of Arab regimes,” and that, “we can feel that al-Quds is nearer.” Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem. Be that as it may, the events which unfolded in Palestine, and the violence that ensued, did nothing for Nasrallah and his Iranian patrons, save to increase their march towards utter embarrassment, as it further exposed Hezbollah and Iran as the hypocrites they really are – something they tried to hide by becoming more vocal and devising gimmicks to overcompensate.One of their most theatrical exploits came when Hezbollah a few days prior to Eid, the holiday that celebrates the end of the holy month of Ramadan, requested that all mosques and his supporters launch a synchronized call for prayer from their balcony, which many ridiculed over social media, branding their neutrality as nothing but a blatant cowardly act.
Hezbollah was further exposed when its Palestinian version, Hamas, put up a decent fight against Israel by unleashing thousands of missiles into Israel, and while the Israeli Iron Dome defense system was able to shoot down almost 90 percent of those projectiles, Hamas was nevertheless able to terrorize its Israeli enemies and paralyze many of its city and towns. More damaging to the image of Nasrallah and Hezbollah was the fact that they were replaced as the supposed face of the “Axis of Resistance” by the masked Hamas spokesperson Abou Obeida, whose regular media appearances soon gave him a following across the Arab world. Simply put, the war on Gaza reconfirmed the obvious: That Hezbollah is nothing but a satellite of Iran that takes its orders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps – which funds and oversees its activity on the Mediterranean and beyond. Hezbollah might have felt intimidated to join the battle, especially given that its forces have been thinned out by various deployments in Syria, Iraq and Yemen in support of Iran’s expansionist project.
However, the real reason why it could not turn its apocalyptic desire to destroy Israel into reality is simply its Iranian patrons do not wish to affect the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna with the Biden administration. Iran’s ambitions for sanctions relief evidently trump any of its claims for resistance across the region, as when a real conflict strikes, its proxies fail to provide support.
Locally, Hezbollah scrambled to try to convince its power base that its inaction was in fact an act of resistance, and that its potential involvement in the ongoing struggle might hurt its Palestinian allies, rather than help them, as it would cause wider western and American support to Israel. While Hezbollah did nothing serious to disturb the tranquility on the Lebanese border with Israel, which its carefully patrols, it nevertheless allowed, or even carried out, the firing of some rockets to be fired into Israel, the majority of which ended up falling inside Lebanese territories.
These unprofessional rocket attacks were in fact a clear message to Israel that Hezbollah was far removed from any military action, and that it has decided to step aside and refrain from causing any trouble on Israel’s northern border both in Lebanon and in the south of Syria, where its troops are active. Consequently, Hezbollah fell back on what it does best which is use the populism and rhetoric to divert attention from that fact that its “weapons of resistances” have not been used for this purpose since ever. Thus, Hezbollah mobilizes and instigated huge demonstrations in support of Gaza and directed its supporters to try to cross the Lebanese borders, something which led to the death of one of its supporters who was fatally shoot as he tried to climb over the fence separating the two borders. A famous Arab proverb underscores that “when a man is tested, they are either honored or shamed.” When it came time for Hezbollah’s test, it became clear that the Iran-sponsored Lebanese militia has no interest in pursuing the liberation of Palestine, but rather its single item agenda is to wait out the Vienna talks, which if successful will give Iran a much-needed push to continue its regional expansion and thus would allow Hezbollah to further dominate Lebanon and its Arab neighboring countries. The Middle East is in urgent need of liberation from the corruption and military hegemony of Iran and its violent, hypocritical proxies. Should such a day pass, then perhaps all people regardless of their religion could pray in Jerusalem.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 27- 28/2021
Syria’s President al-Assad wins fourth term in office with 95.1 percent of votes
Reuters/28 May ,2021
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad won a fourth term in office with 95.1 percent of votes in an election that will extend his rule over a country ruined by war but which opponents and the West say was marked by fraud. Assad’s government says the election shows Syria is functioning normally despite the decade-old conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven 11 million people - about half the population - from their homes. Head of parliament Hammouda Sabbagh announced the result in a news conference on Thursday, saying voter turn out was at around 78 percent. The election went ahead despite a UN-led peace process that had called for voting under international supervision that would help pave the way for a new constitution and a political settlement. The win delivers Assad seven more years in power and lengthens his family’s rule to nearly six decades. His father Hafez al-Assad led Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000. Assad’s years as president are defined by the conflict that began in 2011 with peaceful protests before spiraling into a multi-sided conflict that has fractured the Middle Eastern country and drawn in foreign friends and enemies. “Thank you to all Syrians for their high sense of nationalism and their notable participation.... for the future of Syria’s children and its youth let’s start from tomorrow our campaign of work to build hope and build Syria,” Assad wrote on his campaign’s Facebook page. Rallies with thousands of people waving Syrian flags and holding pictures of Assad while singing and dancing had been taking place all day Thursday in celebration of holding the election ahead of the announcement of the result. Officials have told Reuters privately that authorities had organized the large rallies in recent days to encourage voting, and the security apparatus that underpins Assad’s Alawite minority-dominated rule had instructed state employees to vote. Assad was running against two obscure candidates, former deputy cabinet minister Abdallah Saloum Abdallah and Mahmoud Ahmed Marei, head of a small, officially sanctioned opposition party. Marei got 3.3 percent of the vote while Saloum received 1.5 percent, Sabbagh said. After the announcement, fireworks erupted in celebration and crowds continued cheering in various main squares in cities across Syria.

Biden administration decides to end Trump OK for US oil company in Syria
The Associated Press/ 27 May ,2021
The Biden administration has decided it will not renew a waiver that allowed a politically connected US oil company to operate in northeast Syria under President Donald Trump’s pledge to “keep the oil” produced in the region, according to a US official familiar with the decision.
Treasury Department rules prohibit most US companies from doing business in Syria. The waiver for Delta Crescent Energy was issued in April 2020, months after Trump announced that he wanted to keep some US troops in the oil-rich region to maintain control of the oil profits. Trump’s “keep the oil” message was no longer US foreign policy under the Biden administration, and using the US military to facilitate Syrian oil production was deemed inappropriate, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The company was founded in 2019 by James Cain, US ambassador to Denmark under President George W. Bush; James Reese, a retired Army Delta Force officer; and John Dorrier Jr., a former executive with United Kingdom-based Gulfsands Petroleum. Cain, a onetime executive with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, has donated more than $30,000 to the Republican Party and GOP candidates over the years. Northeastern Syria is the center for what remains of Syria’s oil industry. It is in shambles but remains one of the main sources of revenues for the Kurdish-led autonomous administration there.
Trump repeatedly spoke of keeping some US troops in Syria to help “keep the oil” and “secure the oil,” but his aides sought to dispel the idea the United States was trying to profit from the region’s oil reserves. After DCE’s license, from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, to operate became public last August, the State Department issued a statement in which it underscored that the “United States government does not own, control, or manage the oil resources in Syria.”
Trump’s comments about Syria’s oil frustrated critics, and some allies, who said the loose talk fed into the narrative that American policy in the Middle East was driven by US energy concerns and they argued it undercut US diplomatic efforts to press for peace and stability in the region. Dorrier, DCE’s CEO, said the company had some $2 billion in contracts to sell oil into the international market that will benefit American allies in northeast Syria that have helped in the fight against the Islamic State group. He said Trump’s comments did not lead to the company winning the oil licensing agreement and that presidential orders issued during the Obama administration had invited US companies to apply for licenses in agriculture, telecommunications and oil and gas in Syria. “If the Biden Administration chooses not to renew the OFAC license, it will be a substantial change in policy that does not support Coalition Allies who fought and died to eliminate ISIS,” Dorrier said in a statement. “Depriving our Allies of the opportunity for sanctions relief on critical infrastructure as laid out by the Obama administration would, in effect, turn the North and East of Syria over to Russian, Regime and Iranian forces.”
Dorrier also said Trump’s “keep the oil” message “was hyperbole, not policy.”
The White House press office declined to comment about the decision, stating that as “a general matter” it does not comment on specific licenses, including to confirm whether one exists. Biden administration officials, during a visit this month to northeast Syria, stressed to Kurdish administrators overseeing the area that the US military presence was exclusively focused on preventing an IS resurgence, according to a State Department official who was not authorized the discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The news site Al-Monitor was first to report of the administration’s decision to end the waiver. DCE said it has not received word from the Treasury Department that the license, which was set to expire at the end of April, will not be renewed. The department typically gives companies additional time to wind down operations, according to the US official.
A former US official familiar with the discussions said the administration has been communicating that it does not intend to renew the waiver but had not taken final action yet. This person was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment. The US decision to allow an American company to refine and market oil was denounced by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s government and ally Russia after it became public last August, not long after then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged during the a congressional hearing that the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria had come to an agreement with an American oil company.
Trump became focused on northeastern Syria’s oil in October 2019 after he abruptly announced his intention to draw down US troops deployed against IS in the area. At the time, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had been pressing Trump to withdraw troops from the region. With his decision, Trump cleared the way for a Turkish military assault and effectively abandoned Kurdish fighters who fought alongside American forces in the yearslong battle to defeat IS militants in the region. But when advisers floated the idea of keeping some troops in northeastern Syria to guard oil fields, it resonated with Trump. It also presented US military commanders -- wary of entirely leaving the area -- with a way to keep some troops in place. The area controlled by the Kurdish-led autonomous administration shrunk after Turkey’s military offensive in northeast Syria in October 2019.
Then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at the time that the main goal of the American troop presence was to make sure the IS was contained and unable to gain control of the oil fields and the revenue they generated. The administration also saw some benefit to Kurds being in control of the oil. Still, Trump repeatedly said in remarks to reporters and on his Twitter account that US troops were staying in Syria to keep and protect northeast Syria’s deep oil reserves. “We stayed back and kept the oil,” Trump told reporters in November 2019. “Other people can patrol the border of Syria ... and Turkey. Let them. They’ve been fighting for a thousand years. Let them do the border. We don’t want to do that. We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re keeping the oil. I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.”

U.S. Top Diplomat Heads Home after Mideast Tour
Agence France Presse/May 28/,2021
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed home from Jordan Thursday after a whistlestop Middle East tour on which he called for regional cooperation to consolidate a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants. Blinken met both Israeli and Palestinian leaders during two days of talks, throwing Washington's support behind the Egyptian-brokered truce that ended 11 days of heavy Israeli bombing of Gaza and rocket fire from the impoverished coastal enclave into Israel. "Securing the ceasefire was important, particularly because of the devastating toll violence took on families on both sides," Blinken told reporters after Wednesday talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman, his final stop. "We see the ceasefire not as an end, but as a beginning of something to build on." Following talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Blinken vowed to rebuild U.S. relations with the Palestinians by reopening a consulate in Jerusalem, as well as give millions in aid for the war-battered Gaza Strip. The announcements signaled a break with U.S. policy under former president Donald Trump, who had shuttered the diplomatic mission for Palestinians in 2019 and slashed aid to the Palestinian Authority. After meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken reiterated support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks by Gaza's Hamas rulers, adding that they must not benefit from reconstruction aid. Hamas political chief Yahya Sinwar vowed not to take "a single cent" of the aid, insisting that "we have never taken a cent in the past".Blinken also met Wednesday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, whom he praised for helping bring an end to the intense violence "relatively quickly".Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people in 11 days of conflict from May 10, the health ministry in Gaza says. Rocket and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian national and two Thai workers, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded. The U.N. Human Rights Council will hold a special session focused on Israel Thursday to consider launching a broad, international investigation into abuses during the violence.

Syrian Mercenaries Reportedly Robbed of Their Wages
Agence France Presse/28 May ,2021
Many of the Syrian fighters deployed, sometimes forcibly, in foreign conflict theatres such as Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh are robbed of their wages, said a report released Thursday. Since late 2019, thousands of fighters have been recruited as mercenaries, directly or indirectly, by Turkey and Russia, the two main foreign brokers in the decade-old Syrian war. The Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC), in collaboration with the Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), conducted a study into the exploitative recruitment of these mercenaries. The largest number of Syrian mercenaries are former anti-regime rebels who have washed up in parts of northwestern Syria under Turkish influence. "The participation of Syrians as mercenary fighters in combat abroad is serving to enrich and strengthen some of the most criminal armed groups inside the country, particularly Turkish-backed groups in the northwest," said Mohammad al-Abdallah, executive director of SJAC. Some former members of the regular Syrian army and fighters allied militia groups have also been sent by Russian military players, such as the shadowy Wagner Group. In Libya, which has been conflict-riven for the past decade, Turkey has supported the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord while Russia backed forces loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar. In the conflict that erupted last year in the disputed Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey dispatched fighters from its Syrian proxies to support Azerbaijan against Armenia. The recruits are usually members of groups that were defeated by pro-regime forces over the course of the Syrian conflict and are loosely united under the umbrella of the Turkey-controlled Syrian National Army (SNA). "The international community must hold those involved accountable, while also addressing the root causes that make mercenary work one of the only sources of income for many Syrian," said STJ executive director Bassam al-Ahmad.
- $3,000 salary -
The report details how many of the fighters sent to Libya or Nagorno-Karabakh had little choice in the matter and only received a fraction of the money they were promised. "Individual fighters were regularly defrauded by senior SNA figures," it said. The report recounts the case of a fighter sent to Libya with a brigade from the SNA-led Sultan Murad division who said top officers tried to seize the wages of the rank-and-file. "We went three months without being paid, and after we each asked for an advance of $300 they only gave us 100 and kept the rest," the fighter testified. Recruited mercenaries were offered deals, sometimes in written contracts, fetching $3,000 in monthly pay with compensation to the families of $75,000 in case of death and sometimes even Turkish citizenship. A broker who organized recruitment drives for Turkey and is quoted in the report said "the armed groups always breach the contracts" and give the fighters salaries of $800-1,400. Issues of unpaid compensation were also reported after Syrian mercenaries were killed in Libya and in Nagorno-Karabakh. In northwestern Syria, some SNA fighters who had been given homes by their militia were kicked out after refusing to be deployed in Libya. Mohammad al-Abdallah said keeping unpaid fighters from a covert operation stranded in a foreign war zone was a recipe for crime. "The reduction of wages pushed the fighters -- who consider themselves above the law -- to engage in more criminal activities," he told AFP. Abdallah said burglaries, sex trafficking and kidnappings committed by Syrian mercenaries were reported in Libya.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza may constitute ‘war crimes’: UN rights chief
Reuters/27 May ,2021
The United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Thursday that Israel’s deadly strikes on Gaza may constitute war crimes and that the Hamas militant group had also violated international humanitarian law by firing rockets into Israel. Bachelet said her office had verified the deaths of 270 Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including 68 children, during violence this month. Most were killed in Gaza, where Israel targeted with strikes for 11 days, ending in a ceasefire. Hamas rockets had killed 10 Israelis and residents. She was addressing a special session of the UN Human Rights Council, held at the request of Muslim states who have asked the forum to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate possible crimes and establish command responsibility. The conflict erupted after Hamas demanded Israeli forces leave the al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem and later launched rockets towards Israel. The “indiscriminate” rocket strikes constitute “a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” Bachelet said. Israel responded with intense air strikes in Gaza, including shelling, missiles and attacks from the sea, causing widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and death, she said. “Despite Israel’s claims that many of these buildings were hosting armed groups or being used for military purposes, we have not seen evidence in this regard,” she added. “If found to be indiscriminate and disproportionate, such attacks might constitute war crimes,” Bachelet told the 47-member forum. She also urged Hamas to refrain from firing indiscriminate rockets on Israel.Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, denounced Hamas as a “jihadist, genocidal, terrorist organization” and accused it of using Palestinian civilians as human shields to conceal its rockets. Referring to the 4,400 rockets fired into Israel - most of which were intercepted by Israel’s “Iron Dome” defense shield - she added: “Each one of these rockets constitutes a war crime.” Riyad al-Maliki, foreign minister of Palestine, said: “Israel, the occupation and apartheid authority continues its crimes, its policies and laws to consolidate a colonial and apartheid system.”

Hamas Says Won't Touch 'Cent' of Aid to Rebuild Gaza
Agence France Presse/27 May ,2021
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas vowed Wednesday not to touch "a single cent" of international aid to rebuild Gaza following its war with Israel that ravaged the enclave it rules. The head of the group's political wing, Yahya Sinwar, promised "transparent and impartial" distribution of aid in the aftermath of the 11 days of deadly conflict. Diplomatic efforts are underway to solidify a fragile Egypt-brokered truce that halted the fighting, with plans to rebuild the Gaza Strip where Israeli air strikes damaged infrastructure and levelled buildings. "We welcome any international or Arab effort to rebuild the Gaza Strip," Sinwar told a news conference in Gaza City. "I affirm our commitment not to take a single cent intended for reconstruction and humanitarian efforts," he said. "We have never taken a cent in the past." U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that all aid would be "administered in a way that benefits the Palestinian people -- not Hamas", which Washington considers a terrorist group. Israel -- which has enforced a land and maritime blockade on the Palestinian enclave since 2007 -- accuses the group of diverting international aid to military ends. An Israeli defense ministry official said all funds to Gaza would have to flow through an international "mechanism" to reach people directly. The latest conflict erupted on May 10 when Hamas sent volleys of rocket fire towards Israel in solidarity with hundreds of Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli security forces inside Al-Aqsa mosque compound. That violence in occupied east Jerusalem mushroomed out of protests over the potential expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in favor of Jewish settlers. Between May 10 and May 21, Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children and some fighters, authorities in Gaza say.
Rocket and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child, one Arab-Israeli teenager and an Israeli soldier, according to police.

US outraged by violence against Iraqi demonstrators: State Department
Reuters/28 May ,2021
The US is outraged that peaceful Iraqi demonstrators demanding reform were met with threats and “brutal violence,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Thursday. One person died and several were injured on Tuesday when Iraqi security forces fired live rounds in the air to disperse anti-government protests in central Baghdad, according to security and medical sources. Hundreds demonstrated in Tahrir Square, shouting slogans against Iran-backed militias and accusing Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government of failing to answer for the deaths of dozens of activists shot dead in different parts of Iraq in recent months. “The US is outraged that peaceful demonstrators who took to the streets to urge reform were met with threats and brutal violence,” Price said. “We welcome every effort by the government to hold accountable the militias, thugs, and vigilante groups for their attacks against Iraqis exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as well as for their assault on the rule of law.”

Khamenei Urges Iranians to Ignore Calls to Boycott Presidential Poll
Agence France Presse/28 May ,2021
The US is outraged that
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday urged Iranians to ignore calls to boycott next month's presidential election, after several hopefuls were barred from running against ultraconservative candidates. "Do not pay attention to those who are campaigning and saying it is useless to go to the polls and that one should not go to the polls," Khamenei told lawmakers in a speech via videoconference, according to his official Instagram account.

US calls out Azerbaijan, demands immediate release of detained Armenian soldiers
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/27 May ,2021
The United States Thursday called on Azerbaijan to “immediately” release all detained Armenian soldiers and reminded Baku of its obligations to treat all detainees “humanely.”State Department Spokesman Ned Price said Washington was “concerned by recent developments along the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the detention of several Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces.” Tensions between Yerevan and Baku have increased in recent days after relative calm compared to the fighting that led to more than 6,000 deaths last fall during a two-month battle over Nagorno-Karabakh. Azeri forces launched an offensive to push Armenian forces out of the two, which is technically inside Azerbaijan but had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. Armenia took a pounding as Turkey quickly intervened to provide Azerbaijan with its highly effective drones, and a ceasefire was brokered by Russia shortly after. But following more tensions this week and the reported capture of six Armenian troops, the US called on both sides to “urgently and peacefully resolve this incident.” Price also called on “Azerbaijan to release immediately all prisoners of war and other detainees, and we remind Azerbaijan of its obligations under international humanitarian law to treat all detainees humanely.”Price said Armenia and Azerbaijan needed to reposition their forces back to those held on May 11, based on the initial ceasefire. As for a peace negotiation process, Price said the US was prepared to help. “The United States urges the sides to return as soon as possible to substantive negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to achieve a long-term political settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Price added.

Reporters Without Borders holds protest against Belarus blogger arrest
Reuters/ 27 May ,2021
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday held a protest against the treatment of journalists by Belarus at the country’s border with Lithuania, while the leader of Belarus opposition in exile called for more protests on Saturday.
On Sunday Belarus forcibly landed a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius and arrested the opposition blogger Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, who were on board. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said this week that Protasevich had been plotting a “bloody rebellion.”The incident sparked international outrage and calls for sanctions against Belarus. Minsk accused the West of using the episode to wage “hybrid war.”Protasevich was “alive, well”, his lawyer said after meeting him, Russian state news agency RIA reported on Thursday. His social media feed from exile had been one of the last remaining independent sources of news about Belarus, a country sandwiched between Russia and the NATO Western security alliance. RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire, who headed the protests, told reporters on Wednesday in Vilnius that Belarus’ actions were part of a new way of attacking press freedom and that this was something “not imaginable a few years ago.”“In Belarus, there is an institutional hijacking of a plane, just to arrest the journalist,” he said. He and a dozen Lithuanian and Belarusian protesters held pictures o of journalists jailed in Belarus, including Protasevich. Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, who challenged Belarus’ incumbent leader Alexander Lukashenko at the August presidential election and had to leave the country soon after, announced an international act of solidarity with Belarusians on May 29. Tikhanouskaya, in Vilnius, called on people to take part in protests with local politicians. Lukashenko has said street protests were no longer possible in Belarus. Since the crackdown that followed the contested Aug. 9 presidential election in Belarus, 430 journalists were arrested and 20 are still in jail in the country, according to the press advocacy group’s count. Belarus ranks 158th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index

G7 statement on Belarus
May 27, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
“We, the G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union condemn in the strongest terms the unprecedented action by the Belarusian authorities in arresting independent journalist, Raman Pratasevich and his companion, Sofia Sopega, after forcing Flight FR4978 on which they were travelling to land in Minsk on 23 May.
“This action jeopardized the safety of the passengers and crew of the flight. It was also a serious attack on the rules governing civil aviation. All our countries, and our citizens, depend on every state acting responsibly in fulfilling their duties under the Chicago Convention so that civilian aircraft can operate safely and securely. We call on the International Civil Aviation Organization to urgently address this challenge to its rules and standards.
“This action also represents a serious attack on media freedom. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Raman Protasevich, as well as all other journalists and political prisoners held in Belarus.
“We will enhance our efforts, including through further sanctions as appropriate, to promote accountability for the actions of the Belarusian authorities.”

Canada condemns arrest of President, Prime Minister and other members of Mali’s transitional authority
May 26, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:
“Canada joins the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union and members of the international community in strongly condemning the arrest and detention by the Malian military of President Bah Ndaw, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and members of the government. Canada calls for their immediate release and a return to the civilian-led transition process to establish democratic stability.
“In addition, general elections must be held by the end of March 2022, as agreed with ECOWAS.
“Canada is very concerned about the detention of members of the transitional authorities in Mali, their sudden resignation and the seizure of power by the vice president. We stand with the Malian people in their aspirations for a more just and democratic future, which includes a fundamental respect for human rights.”
Canadians in Mali who require emergency consular assistance should contact the Canadian embassy in Bamako at 223 44 98 04 50 or bmakoconsular@international.gc.ca or contact Global Affairs Canada’s Emergency Watch and Response Centre at 1 613 996 8885 or sos@international.gc.ca.

In Landmark Rwanda Visit, Macron Acknowledges French Part in Genocide
Agence France Presse/May 27/2021
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday recognized his country's role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, as the two countries seek to turn the page on decades of diplomatic tensions over the bloodshed. While Macron did not formally apologize, he highlighted how France had backed the genocidal Hutu regime of the time, ignored warnings of impending massacres and joined the world in abandoning some 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans to a grisly fate. "Standing here today, with humility and respect, by your side, I have come to recognize our responsibilities," Macron said in a speech at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. He said that only those who had survived the horrors can "give us the gift of forgiveness". Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who called Macron his "friend", heaped praise on the speech at a joint press conference after the two leaders met. "His words were something more valuable than an apology. They were the truth," Kagame said. "Speaking the truth is risky. But you do it because it is right, even when it costs you something, even when it is unpopular."
Silence over truth -
Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the East African nation, which has long accused France of complicity in the killings. Macron said France "was not complicit" in the genocide. "But France has a role, a story and a political responsibility to Rwanda. She has a duty: to face history head-on and recognize the suffering she has inflicted on the Rwandan people by too long valuing silence over the examination of the truth." Egide Nkuranga, president of the main survivors' association Ibuka, told AFP he was disappointed that Macron did not "present a clear apology on behalf of the French state" or "ask for forgiveness."However he said Macron "really tried to explain the genocide and France's responsibility. It is very important. It shows that he understands us."
'Form of blindness'
The genocide between April and July of 1994 began after Rwanda's Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana, with whom Paris had cultivated close ties, was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali on April 6. Within a few hours extremist Hutu militia began slaughtering Tutsis, and some moderate Hutus, with a scale and brutality that shocked the world. Victims were felled with machetes, shot, or massacred while seeking shelter in churches and schools, while sexual violence was rife. France, which provided political and military support to Kigali during a civil war preceding the genocide, has long been accused of turning a blind eye to the dangers posed by Hutu extremists in a country which had already seen several large scale massacres in its past. "In wanting to block a regional conflict or a civil war, (France) in fact continued to support a genocidal regime. By ignoring alerts from the most clear-headed observers, France assumed an overwhelming responsibility in a chain of events that resulted in the worst scenario," said Macron.
The question of France's role and responsibility in the genocide has burned between the two nations for decades, leading to a complete diplomatic rupture between 2006 and 2009. In 2010 Nicolas Sarkozy attempted to break the ice by admitting to "serious mistakes" and a "form of blindness" on the part of the French during the genocide.His remarks fell short of expectations in Rwanda, and bilateral relations continued to fester.
Two commissions -
However, ties have warmed under Macron, who formed a commission to probe France's role in the genocide, which accused Paris of being "blind" to preparations for the genocide and said it bore "serious and overwhelming" responsibility. To cement their rapprochement, Macron announced he would soon name a French ambassador to Rwanda, a role left vacant since 2015 due to diplomatic strain. Kagame said Macron understood that the global perspective on Africa needed to change from one in which the continent is seen as full of "bad actors", slamming a general "veneer of moral superiority" concealing racism. "President Macron is someone who listens, and he is committed to supporting Africa based on what Africa itself has chosen. This is different, it is better, and it can last."However while the two leaders celebrated their new relationship, Rwanda's opposition has accused the French president of remaining silent to criticism of Kagame's record on human rights and tolerating dissent. "French President Emmanuel Macron does not hesitate publicly to bluntly castigate dictatorial regimes but keeps silent with regard to the authoritarian rule and human rights abuses by the Rwandan regime," critics Victoire Ingabire and Bernard Ntaganda said in a statement earlier this week. The French president leaves on Friday to South Africa for a visit devoted to the coronavirus pandemic and vaccine production.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 27- 28/2021
Germany: New Strategy to Combat 'Political Islamism'
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute./May 27/2021
The policy paper, "Preserving Free Society, Promoting Social Cohesion, Fighting Political Islamism," which whole-heartedly commends law-abiding Muslims who respect Germany's democratic order, argues that the debate about Islamism in Germany is often reduced to violence and terror, but that it is necessary to focus more on ideology. The proposals include improving research and analysis of political Islam in Europe and the methods by which it spreads; banning the foreign funding of mosques; and reducing the number of foreign imams active in Germany.
"Focusing only on the violent part of Islamism, Islamist terrorism, does not do justice to the overall problem.... This political Islamism, which ostensibly acts non-violently, but stirs up hatred, agitation and violence and strives for an Islamic order in which there is no equality, no freedom of opinion and religion and also no separation of religion and state, has spread far and wide in parts of our society." — CDU/CSU policy paper.
"We owe the fight against political Islamism not only to our free-democratic ideals and values, but also to most of the Muslims in Germany who share these ideals with us and want to live with us on their basis. Because it is precisely liberal, secular Muslims who are victims of this illiberal, anti-democratic ideology. Those who publicly oppose political Islamism and its strategies are particularly at risk." — CDU/CSU policy paper.
"These politically extremist, non-violent groups aim to establish an order according to their Islamist ideas by actively preventing integration, dividing Western societies into 'believers' and 'unbelievers,' rejecting equality and religious freedom.... They use democratic structures to undermine and ultimately abolish democracy." — CDU/CSU policy paper.
"The present focus on groups prepared to use violence has led to disregarding the ideological justification of violence. These politically extremist, non-violent groups aim to establish an order based on their Islamist ideas by actively preventing integration, dividing Western societies into 'believers' and 'unbelievers,' rejecting equality and religious freedom, and alienating Muslim youth from Western societies. They use democratic structures to undermine and ultimately abolish democracy." — CDU/CSU policy paper.
"Religious extremism doesn't come out of nowhere. On the contrary, it thrives in isolated parallel worlds that have nothing in common with our values. We urgently need to shed light on this and not only wake up when violence erupts." — Bundestag Member Nina Warken, Integration Commissioner, CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
The German-Moroccan author Sineb El Masrar, in an interview with the public radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur, said that the policy paper is clearly directed against "reactionary, Islamist organizations" and "that it is not aimed at all Muslims, but at those with a radical agenda."
"Islamists are not interested in democracy. On the contrary. They reject democracy because they only consider politics to be legitimate if it follows regulations that adhere to the politics of Mohammed in the 7th century. — Susanne Schröter, Islam scholar, Die Tagespost.
"The decisive question is to what extent imams are willing and able to explain that these warlike verses and suras are only to be considered in their historical context and that they no longer have any meaning today, i.e. in principle could be deleted.... It should be added that the implementation of the strategy is only possible if, for example, mosque communities or Muslims as a whole are willing to actively contribute, because they understandably know the segregation efforts of many association representatives much better and more closely than most German observers." — Bundestag Member Hans-Jürgen Irmer, member of the Interior Committee, CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
The largest parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, the faction of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has approved a wide-ranging strategy to contain the spread of political Islam in Germany. Pictured: Germany's Bundestag in session on May 6, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The largest parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, the faction of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has approved a wide-ranging strategy to contain the spread of political Islam in Germany.
The plan, outlined in a new policy paper, "Preserving Free Society, Promoting Social Cohesion, Fighting Political Islamism," warns that a growing number of areas in Germany, where German law is overruled by Sharia law, are in danger of becoming "parallel societies."
The document also warns that many mosques and Islamic associations in Germany are controlled by foreign governments and that they are producing a generation of German jihadists who extol martyrdom and threaten Germany's liberal democratic order.
The authors of the report argue that a recent wave of jihadist attacks in Germany and elsewhere in Europe — including the beheading of a schoolteacher in Paris, a crime celebrated by many Muslim pupils in Berlin — requires urgent measures to stop the "poison" of extremist ideology from gaining further ground on the continent.
The policy paper, which whole-heartedly commends law-abiding Muslims who respect Germany's democratic order, argues that the debate about Islamism in Germany is often reduced to violence and terror, but that it is necessary to focus more on ideology. The proposals include improving research and analysis of political Islam in Europe and the methods by which it spreads; banning the foreign funding of mosques; and reducing the number of foreign imams active in Germany.
Arguably the most important proposal involves reversing the German government's long-standing policy of supporting extremist groups in Germany, which, under the guise of promoting dialogue, has legitimized those groups and fueled the spread of political Islam in Germany.
The strategy has been greeted with a mix of approval, cynicism and skepticism. Some say the proposals are long overdue while others counter that the strategy is too little, too late. Some critics describe it as an electoral gimmick — federal elections are scheduled for September 22 — aimed at capturing the attention of supporters of the conservative party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has long called for a crackdown on political Islam.
An English translation of excerpts of the policy paper follows:
"In recent months, Islamist terrorism has returned with full force: A barbaric attack in Nice on October 29, 2020, in which several people were killed; the horrific murder of the French teacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb on October 16, 2020; and the bloody attack in Vienna on November 2, 2020. Germany has also been hit by Islamist terror, for example in an attack on the Berlin city motorway on August 18, 2020, and in a knife attack on a homosexual couple in Dresden on October 4, 2020.
"Investigations are being conducted into security failures in the run-up to each of these attacks and whether there is potential for improvement in security structures. Some of the attackers had criminal records and had already been classified as dangerous by security authorities. The investigations are important and necessary, but by no means sufficient. Islamism is not limited to a certain number of violent attacks. The ideology behind it is poison for our free society. It endangers integration and social cohesion by inciting Muslims against our democracy.
"When martyrdom is extolled in some German mosques; when Islamists meet in Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt to demonstrate against freedom of expression and freedom of the press and express solidarity with the murderer of the French teacher Paty; when children in Berlin schools dismiss this murder with the remark that the teacher got what he deserved; then we cannot accept that. In addition, it must be stated openly and clearly that the spread of Islamist-tinged nationalism, the agitation against Christians and Jews, the denial of Israel's right to exist and the glorification of war have long been a sad part of everyday life in Germany.
"In addition, there are increasing cases of direct influence of foreign governments on Muslims in our country, partly under the guise of religious freedom and with the spread of Islamist and Islamist-nationalist ideas. These include, for example, the influence of the Turkish right-wing extremist 'gray wolves' on young people in Germany; reporting to the Turkish governmental religious authority Diyanet on alleged supporters of Fethullah Gülen in Germany; and DITIB's [the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, an arm of the Turkish government] support for the Turkish military operation in northern Syria in January 2018.
"Equally worrying are developments at the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH), which is under the influence of the Islamic regime in Tehran and is the propaganda center for Shiite extremism in Germany, or at Salafist mosque associations, some of which are financed by donors from the Middle East. The abuse of Muslim stakeholders and structures in Germany by foreign governments and Islamist agents, often disguised with reference to constitutionally protected religious freedom, must come to an end.
"Focusing only on the violent part of Islamism, Islamist terrorism, does not do justice to the overall problem. Islamism — like other extremisms — has an ideological basis and the aim must be to explore this ideological underground. This political Islamism, which ostensibly acts non-violently, but stirs up hatred, agitation and violence and strives for an Islamic order in which there is no equality, no freedom of opinion and religion and also no separation of religion and state, has spread far and wide in parts of our society.
"Political Islamism promotes a system of rule that is a fundamental alternative to democracy, pluralism and individual rights of freedom. Its representatives strive for the submission of society, politics, culture and law to norms that correspond to their Islamist ideas. This politicization of religion is expressed in a comprehensive regulation of the lifestyle of Muslims based on the categories of what is permitted (halal) and what is forbidden (haram). Every person is judged on submission to the do's and don'ts of Islam. Individual voluntariness falls by the wayside because of the high pressure to conform. At the center of political Islamism is the Islamist gender order with extensive gender segregation, extreme patriarchalism and the partial or complete exclusion of women from the public.
"We owe the fight against political Islamism not only to our free-democratic ideals and values, but also to most of the Muslims in Germany who share these ideals with us and want to live with us on their basis. Because it is precisely liberal, secular Muslims who are victims of this illiberal, anti-democratic ideology. Those who publicly oppose political Islamism and its strategies are particularly at risk. Prominent critics of political Islamism such as Seyran Ates, Ahmad Mansour and Mouhanad Khorchide have been threatened by Islamist circles for years and can only live under police protection. This situation is unacceptable.
"In some urban quarters and areas in Germany, but also in many of our neighboring countries such as France, Belgium and Austria, parallel societies influenced or shaped by Islamic influence have formed over the years and decades — often with the tolerance of society out of misunderstood tolerance: leading French Islamic scholars recently sounded the alarm that around 150 municipalities in France are now in the hands of Islamists. Anyone who identifies himself as a Jew or a homosexual there must fear for his life; women who dress according to Western fashion in public can expect attacks and abuse. Children and young people who grow up in these milieus are particularly at risk of being receptive to ideologies. The necessary integration work with the families is only possible with great difficulty. Such a development must be prevented in Germany by all means.
"There is currently a lack of a comprehensive systematic overview and linking of knowledge available in Germany and Europe about the activities, personnel and financial resources of Islamist groups active in Germany and Europe, as well as about their international networking, their strategic goals and the range of their ideologies. In this country, the focus is primarily on groups that openly call for violence. Representatives of political Islamism who are involved in politics and society are often perceived as legitimate religious representatives and not as followers of an extremist ideology. The present focus on groups prepared to use violence has led to disregarding the ideological justification of violence. These politically extremist, non-violent groups aim to establish an order based on their Islamist ideas by actively preventing integration, dividing Western societies into 'believers' and 'unbelievers,' rejecting equality and religious freedom, and alienating Muslim youth from Western societies. They use democratic structures to undermine and ultimately abolish democracy."
A Five-Point Action Plan
The policy paper outlines five broad measures aimed at understanding and fighting political Islam:
Supporting basic research on political Islamism in Germany and Europe. This includes: establishing academic chairs to focus on Islamism and its structures, networks and financing; providing federal authorities with financing for researching the structures of political Islamism; implementing a scientific study on the experiences and problems of school teachers with Islamist influences and forms of Islamist-motivated behavior to better understand the extent to which political Islamism is influencing children, young people and adolescents; establishing a "Political Islamism in Germany and Europe" documentation center; establishing a "Political Islamism in Germany" expert group in the Federal Ministry of the Interior that would develop recommendations in the fight against political Islamism in Germany and report to the Federal Government and the Bundestag once a year; networking and exchanging information on political Islamism at EU level, for example by strengthening the Helsinki-based "European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats."
Terminating state cooperation and contractual relationships with organizations of political Islamism. In the future, all financial donations, subsidies, contractual relationships and collaborations with Islamic clubs and associations that are being monitored by German security agencies must be discontinued at the federal and state levels. This includes rescinding statutory tax breaks and charitable status or groups that pursue anti-constitutional aims. Exceptions to this are necessary contacts between governments and federal and state authorities.
Training imams in Germany. Most of the imams working in Germany are posted from abroad. The proposal calls for providing academic and spiritual training for imams in Germany, while maintaining religious freedom and the separation of state and religious communities. The strategy aims to promote an Islamic practice of faith that respects German values.
Financing of mosques. Many mosques and Islamic religious communities in Germany receive funding from third countries. The plan calls for increased transparency of membership structures and financing flows, including a requirement to disclose every direct and indirect source of funding, including donations, subsidies, contracts and collaborations, to the federal tax office.
Preventing radicalization. The plan calls for improved cooperation between federal, state and local governments and civil society. It calls for expanding the National Prevention Program against Islamist Extremism; investigating the risk of radicalization processes in the penal system in Germany; and expanding information and awareness programs for specialists from the areas of police, justice, school and education, social work, youth welfare and refugee aid, among others.
Select Commentary
The lead author of the paper, Bundestag Member Christoph de Vries, said:
"Religious extremism and its representatives must be met with the same distance and rejection as the political extremists from the left and right. Fundamental values ​​such as equality, protection of minorities and the priority of our laws over religious rules are non-negotiable. There can be no religious exception to this. The enemies of our constitution and their ideologues cannot be partners of our state at the same time. That is the clear message of our position paper. Our goal is to understand the ideological breeding ground on which political Islamism thrives with broad scientific research and to tackle the problem with a comprehensive package of measures at the root level. It is precisely liberal, secular Muslims who are victims of this illiberal, anti-democratic ideology and are threatened by Islamists. Our aim is to promote social cohesion and to ensure that Muslims in Germany do not fall into the clutches of radical, intolerant ideologies."
The spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Mathias Middelberg, added:
"So far, when looking at Islamism, groups prone to violence have been in the foreground. With the package of measures that we adopted in the position paper, we are now focusing more on the ideological basis. In order to fight political Islamism in the long term, we will in particular strengthen basic research in this area and further advance imam training in Germany. On the other hand, we want to create more transparency with respect to the foreign financing of mosques in Germany and prevent possible state cooperation and contractual relationships with Islamist organizations and expand prevention work. With this comprehensive strategic approach, we have the means at hand to tackle Islamism at its roots."
The integration commissioner for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Nina Warken, said:
"Religious extremism doesn't come out of nowhere. On the contrary, it thrives in isolated parallel worlds that have nothing in common with our values. We urgently need to shed light on this and not only wake up when violence erupts."
The German-Moroccan author Sineb El Masrar, in an interview with the public radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur, said that the policy paper is clearly directed against "reactionary, Islamist organizations" and "that it is not aimed at all Muslims, but at those with a radical agenda." She added: "There are quite a lot of Muslims and mosque associations that are not affiliated with Islamist associations. Dialogue with them must be sought more intensively."
Mouhanad Khorchide, a Lebanese-Austrian Islamic theologian and sociologist who is a professor of Islamic pedagogy at the University of Münster in Germany, said that the policy paper reflects a growing awareness of the problem of political Islam in Germany: "It is important to implement concrete measures that put pressure on this misanthropic ideology to prevent situations as in France, where Islamists control entire city districts."
The renowned Frankfurt-based Islam scholar Susanne Schröter expressed skepticism about the new strategy. She said that secular states have a fundamental challenge when dealing with Islam, which is political by nature due to its law, Sharia.
In an interview with Die Tagespost, a Würzburg-based Catholic national weekly newspaper, Schröter noted the difficulty in finding the dividing line between an Islam that threatens the democratic order and permitted political participation based on the Islamic faith. The popular comparison between "Political Islam" and Christian Democracy is misleading, she said, because the representatives of political Islam are not interested in political participation, but with system change:
"Islamists are not interested in democracy. On the contrary. They reject democracy because they only consider politics to be legitimate if it follows regulations that adhere to the politics of Mohammed in the 7th century. They are striving to establish an Islamic normative order in which Sharia rules and politics is dominated by religious leaders."
The political editor of Die Tagespost, Sebastian Sasse asked if the CDU's renewed focus on internal security has to do with the upcoming federal election:
"It is interesting that the proposals are being published right now and in this condensed form. The signal is clear: 'We have understood' is the message to the electorate. The fight against political Islamism is intended to show that the CDU still sees itself as a 'Law and Order' party....
"Whether this catalog of measures is the starting point of a line that will run through the entire election campaign or will soon disappear into the drawer again — that will determine whether the Union manages to reinvent itself as a people's party of the center-right."
In an essay, "The CDU Discovers the Problem of Islamism," published by the German blog Tichys Einblick, commentator Zara Riffler also expressed skepticism of the new strategy to combat Islamism, which has long been a taboo topic in Germany. She predicted that any serious crackdown on Islamism would be met with charges of 'Islamophobia':
"It must be assumed that German MPs will fear being labeled as hostile to Muslims if they support tough measures against political Islam. The effect here is that Islamist actors have long been manipulating the discourse in Germany: Liberal scholars and publicists who criticize political Islam are branded as 'Islamophobic' and thus as pathological. Such battle concepts have an impact on top-level politics....
"It is conspicuous that only the term 'political Islamism' is used throughout the policy paper, no longer the term 'political Islam.' Is that the trick with which the proposals are supposed to be sold more easily — because 'Islamism' is conceptually further removed from 'Islam'? Islamist actors in Germany are agitating against the term 'political Islam,' which is preferred by liberal scholars and renowned experts. The goal behind it: to block research by manipulating discourse. They try to portray the use of the term 'Political Islam' as hostile to Muslims. Many politicians are intimidated by this and therefore mostly speak of 'Islamism' — also because they do not understand that the critics are mostly Islamic extremists, not ordinary Muslims.
"MP Christoph de Vries said: 'The choice of the term 'political Islamism' is primarily about remaining consistent in the designation of the different extremisms — left-wing extremism, right-wing extremism, Islamism — and at the same time expressing the political instrumentalization.' It is not the terms that are decisive, he said, but rather the content, research and awareness-raising."
Bundestag Member Hans-Jürgen Irmer, member of the Interior Committee for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, concluded:
"The representatives of Islam must emulate the Enlightenment and its influence on Christianity, because if, for example, German imam training is to be promoted, the basis of all theological considerations remains the work of the prophet Mohammed and the Koran, which has 200 passages calling for the annihilation of unbelievers. The decisive question is to what extent imams are willing and able to explain that these warlike verses and suras are only to be considered in their historical context and that they no longer have any meaning today, i.e. in principle could be deleted.
"As long as this is not the case, there can be no real understanding between religions in the long run. It should be added that the implementation of the strategy is only possible if, for example, mosque communities or Muslims as a whole are willing to actively contribute, because they understandably know the segregation efforts of many association representatives much better and more closely than most German observers."
A recent poll revealed that three-quarters of Germans are in favor of more resolute action against Islamism. The survey, conducted by the Erfurt-based opinion research institute INSA Consulere on behalf of Die Tagespost, found that 74% of Germans agreed that the government should combat radical Islam. Only 8% of those surveyed opposed taking a harder line; 12% did not have an opinion.
The poll found that 90% of supporters of the conservative party Alternative for Germany stated that they would like more decisive action against radical Islam in Germany. This was followed by 84% of CDU/CSU voters; 83% of Social Democrats (SPD); 73% of Greens voters; and 71% of Free Democrats (FDP) who agreed that Germany should act more forcefully against radical Islam.
*Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 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.

FAQ: Hamas
Joe Truzman and Toby Dershowitz/FDD/May 27/2021
جو تروزمان وتوبي درشوايتس: أسئلة وأجوبة تبين من هي منظمة حماس ماضاوحاضراً
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/99275/joseph-i-lieberman-mark-d-wallace-the-biden-administration-must-hold-iran-accountable-for-support-of-hamas-%d8%ac%d9%88%d8%b2%d9%8a%d9%81-%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a8%d8%b1%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%88%d9%85/
WHAT IS HAMAS?
Hamas is an armed Palestinian movement created in 1987 as a violent splinter faction of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood. The group became a powerful rival to the Palestine Liberation Organization, which for decades had been the dominant armed Palestinian organization. Hamas has conducted numerous attacks against Israelis, including suicide bombings, rocket launches, improvised explosive device attacks, and shootings. As of September 21, 2020, attacks by Hamas had killed approximately 25 U.S. citizens. In 2014, Hamas kidnapped and murdered 16-year-old Naftali Fraenkel, who had dual American and Israeli citizenship.
Hamas’ original charter, published in 1988, describes the organization as an Islamist movement. “Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors,” the charter states.
In 2017, Hamas, known in Arabic as Harakat Muqawama al-Islamiya, added text to its original 1988 charter as part of a failed attempt to portray the organization as less radical. The new document, however, changed little from the 1988 charter: It still calls for the destruction of Israel. Referring to Israel’s borders, the charter says, “Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.” Hamas upholds “armed resistance” as the only way to liberate Palestine. In Article 13 of the charter, Hamas states that negotiations are a “contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against [Islam].” This poses a challenge to those wishing to include Hamas in negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
WHO LEADS HAMAS?
Hamas’ founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was a Palestinian cleric and the organization’s spiritual leader. Israel assassinated him in 2004. Ismail Haniyeh is the current leader of Hamas’ political wing. Yahya Sinwar is Hamas’ leader in Gaza. Sinwar is best known for his role in founding the military wing of Hamas, formally known as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and Majd, an internal security apparatus created to hunt down those who are in contact with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Mohammad Deif is the commander of al-Qassam Brigades. On May 10, 2021, as another conflict between Israel and Hamas began, Deif issued an ultimatum demanding that Israeli authorities release prisoners arrested in Jerusalem and withdraw Israeli security forces from al-Aqsa Mosque. The security forces were on the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al-Sharif, to prevent extremists from lobbing Molotov cocktails and rocks at Jews praying at the Western Wall. Deif likely knew that Israel would not accept the ultimatum, thus giving him an excuse to launch rockets toward Jerusalem later that day.
WHAT TRIGGERED RECENT CONFLICTS BETWEEN HAMAS AND ISRAEL?
During most of 2018 and 2019, Hamas coordinated a series of attacks at the Israel-Gaza border, under the guise of civilian protests. The Hamas campaign was called the “March of Return” and entailed riots by thousands of Palestinians at the security fence between Israel and Gaza. At the onset of the march, Sinwar proclaimed that militants would “take down the border” with Israel and “tear out [Israeli] hearts from their bodies.” The riots spurred several bouts of rocket attacks and Israeli retaliation in 2018 and 2019.
One of the causes of the May 2021 conflict was the cancelation of Palestinian elections by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas when it became clear that Hamas would likely defeat him. Hamas had warned that it would hold Israel responsible if Abbas canceled the elections, even though it was Abbas, not Israel, who canceled them.
Subsequently, Hamas-led terror groups fired almost 4,400 missiles and rockets into Israel, putting at risk 70 percent of Israel’s population. Approximately 30 percent of the rockets Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired from Gaza landed inside Gaza itself, killing up to 50 Palestinians. After the May conflict, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated they had neutralized over 1,500 terror targets in Gaza, killed over 200 terrorists, and had destroyed over 60 miles of tunnels that Hamas had created to enable a Hamas commando war with Israeli ground troops.
WHERE DOES HAMAS GET ITS FUNDING?
Hamas used the 2018 conflict to pressure Israel to allow funds from Qatar to enter the Gaza Strip. In 2019, Qatar provided more than $150 million to Hamas. A year later, Qatar said it would provide $100 million in funds, and Doha pledged an additional $360 million in 2021.
Hamas also receives funds from Iran, its chief supporter in the region. The group has praised Tehran publicly for its financial and military support. In 2018, Sinwar commended Iran for the “large amounts of cash, equipment and [military] expertise” Hamas received from the Islamic Republic. In 2019, Sinwar thanked Iran for providing Hamas with long-range rockets to strike Israel. After the May 2021 conflict, Haniyeh thanked Iran for its financial, military, and technological support. The exact amount of assistance Iran provides is unclear from open sources.
In 2019, al-Qassam Brigades started a Bitcoin fundraising campaign on its website. In August 2020, the U.S. government seized millions of dollars in Bitcoin from terrorist groups, including al-Qassam Brigades. However, al-Qassam Brigades continues to publish information on how to donate Bitcoin via its website.
DOES THE U.S. REGARD HAMAS AS A TERRORIST ENTITY?
In October 1997, the U.S. Department of State listed Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), freezing the group’s assets held in U.S. financial institutions, barring Hamas members from entering the United States, and banning the provision of “material support or resources” to Hamas. In 2003, the United States designated five Hamas-related charities and six senior Hamas members as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). Additionally, in 2013, the U.S. government blocked over $1 million in funds held in the United States related to Hamas activity. American citizens have brought numerous civil suits against Hamas over the years.
Pursuant to Executive Order 12947 of January 23, 1995, the United States designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, prohibiting U.S. persons, including charitable donations, from “making or receiving … any contribution of funds, goods, or services” to or from Hamas. That same day, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) listed Shaykh Ahmad Yasin (a.k.a. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin) as a Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) under Executive Order 12947.
Later that year, on August 29, 1995, OFAC added Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook (a.k.a. Musa Au Marzuk) to the SDT list under Executive Order 12947, prohibiting “any [financial] transaction or dealing” between U.S. persons, including charities, and Marzook.
It was not until October 8, 1997, that the U.S. State Department designated Hamas as an FTO, under criteria outlined in Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This move requires “U.S. financial institutions possessing or controlling any assets of [Hamas] to block all transactions involving those assets,” bars Hamas “[r]epresentatives and members” from entering the United States, and prohibits the witting provision of “material support or resources” to Hamas.
On August 22, 2003, Treasury designated Khalid Mishaal (a.k.a Khaled Meshaal) as an SDGT under Executive Order 13224, thereby “freezing any assets” he had in the United States “and prohibiting transactions [between] U.S. nationals” and Mishaal.
On March 18, 2010, Treasury designated Al-Aqsa Television, a Gaza-based TV station “financed and controlled by Hamas,” pursuant to Executive Order 13224. Treasury called Al-Aqsa Television “a primary Hamas media outlet and airs programs and music videos designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.” Also, in June 2010, the European Commission approved France-based Eutelsat’s decision to pull Al-Aqsa Television after France’s electronic-media regulator found the channel was inciting hatred in contravention of the law.
In 2015, Treasury sanctioned several entities for supporting Hamas, including Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri, “who funds and directs military operations in the West Bank and against Israel,” according to a Treasury statement.
On January 31, 2018, the State and Treasury departments added Ismail Haniyeh to the list of individuals and entities designated as SDGTs under Executive Order 13224.
In 2019, Treasury sanctioned Hamas-linked financial operatives for “funnel[ing] tens of millions of dollars from Iran’s Qods Force through Hizballah in Lebanon to [Hamas] for terrorist attacks originating from the Gaza Strip,” according to a Treasury statement.
HAVE OTHER GOVERNMENTS DESIGNATED HAMAS AS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION?
On June 22, 1989, Israel listed Hamas as a terrorist organization along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Additionally, on March 6, 2019, Israel designated the Gaza-based, Hamas-controlled Al-Aqsa TV station as a terrorist entity.
As a report by the Coutner Extremism Project (CEP) has documented, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and other governments have designated Hamas and its “military wing” as terrorist entities. In March 2001, the United Kingdom designated al-Qassam Brigades under the Terrorism Act 2000.
On November 27, 2002, Canada also designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Additionally, on September 11, 2013, 15 EU member states froze the group’s assets.
Australia listed al-Qassam Brigades as a terrorist organization on November 9, 2003. As CEP notes, a little over two years later, on December 21, 2005, the European Union “froze Hamas’ European assets under Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No. 2580/2001.”
Furthermore, on October 11, 2010, New Zealand designated al-Qassam Brigades under the Terrorism Suppression Act of 2002, “which freezes the assets of terrorist entities and makes it a criminal offense to participate in or support the activities of the designated terrorist entity,” according to CEP.
HOW HAS HAMAS USED HUMAN SHIELDS?
Hamas’ extensive use of human shields in recent years is well-documented. During the May 2021 conflict, Hamas reportedly hid a terror tunnel under a school, used civilian apartment buildings for military planning and operations, and built weapons factories in the heart of densely populated civilian areas. Israel sent a letter to the United Nations detailing the use of human shields by Hamas during the 2014 war. The United Nations has called on Hamas to “cease immediately” these violations of the laws of war.
Sinwar has stated plainly that Hamas has a deliberate policy of using Palestinian civilians as human shields. In 2018, Sinwar said Hamas had “decided to turn that which is most dear to us – the bodies of our women and children – into … a dam to prevent the racing of many Arabs towards the normalization of ties with” Israel. Sinwar further boasted that the plan worked, as “our people have imposed their agenda upon the whole world,” forcing onto “the world’s television screens … the sacrifice of [Palestinian] children as an offering for Jerusalem.”
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HAMAS AND FATAH?
Hamas and Fatah are the dominant parties in Palestinian politics. Fatah is based in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Both political parties strive to be the official representative of the Palestinian people. For years, both groups have attempted to reconcile their differences and hold elections but have not succeeded.
Hamas has suppressed Fatah supporters by arresting them in an attempt to maintain power in the Gaza Strip. Similarly, Fatah has arrested Hamas members and activists. In the aftermath of the May 2021 conflict between Hamas and Israel, the United States pledged to provide humanitarian aid to help the Palestinians in Gaza. Some of this aid will be channeled through the Palestinian Authority (PA). However, in light of the rift between PA President Abbas and Hamas, questions remain about how the aid will reach Palestinians in Gaza without benefiting Hamas. PA financial support for a variety of terrorism-related activities can also complicate the aid process.
WHAT IS PRESIDENT BIDEN’S POLICY TOWARD HAMAS?
President Joe Biden’s position on Hamas has been consistent, maintaining that Israel is entitled to defend its population from the terrorist group. In 2009, he said, “In the near term, we must consolidate the cease-fire in Gaza by working with Egypt and others to stop smuggling, and developing an international relief and reconstruction effort that strengthens the Palestinian Authority, and not Hamas. Neither of these goals can be accomplished without close collaboration among the United States, Europe, and our Arab partners.”
In May 2021, Biden underscored the same point: “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups that have taken the lives of innocent civilians in Israel… The United States is committed to working with the United Nations and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance and to marshal international support for the people of Gaza and reconstruction efforts. We will do this in full partnership with the Palestinian Authority – not Hamas, the Authority – in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal.”
Biden subsequently announced that the United States would grant Israel additional funding to replenish its Iron Dome air defense system. The system had a 90 percent interception rate during Hamas’ May 2021 war against Israel, saving many Israeli lives – Arab and Jew. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) recently introduced a bill in the Senate to block those funds.

Qatar’s Detention of Writer Puts Labor Abuses in the Spotlight Again
Varsha Koduvayur/Policy Brief/May 27/2021
Qatar has detained Malcolm Bidali, a 28-year-old Kenyan foreign worker, but will not disclose where he is being held or what charges he faces. While working as a security guard, Bidali chronicled the difficult conditions faced by Qatar’s 2 million foreign laborers, bringing renewed attention to Doha’s poor record on labor rights as it prepares to host the 2022 World Cup.
Bidali arrived in Qatar in 2016 and wrote articles under the pseudonym “Noah,” highlighting the harsh – and often inhumane – conditions in which many of Qatar’s foreign laborers live and work. Qatari security forces detained Bidali on May 4. The government stated he had been “placed under investigation for violating Qatar’s security laws and regulations.” Rights groups fear Bidali has been “forcibly disappeared.” The Qatari government has not disclosed any information on where Bidali is being held, what charges he faces, or whether he has been offered consular assistance. In a phone call to his mother, Bidali reported he is being held in solitary confinement and did not have access to a lawyer.
Bidali’s mistreatment once again highlights Qatar’s – and, generally, the Gulf region’s – woeful labor rights record. Qatar has a 2-million-strong workforce of foreign laborers, making up 95 percent of the Qatari population. One million of them work in construction. Qatar’s foreign workers face long hours, inadequate legal protections, poor pay – which employers sometimes withhold – and even forced labor and human trafficking. Qatar’s labor rights record has received heightened scrutiny in recent years as the emirate prepares to host the 2022 World Cup, spurring a massive infrastructure build largely carried out by foreign workers.
More than 6,500 South Asian workers, the majority of them likely employees of infrastructure projects, have died in Qatar in the last decade, with the majority of deaths attributed to cardiac or respiratory failure. Severe heat stress brought on by working in the emirate’s blistering summer sun is likely a factor. However, Qatar only rarely performs autopsies – despite a 2014 recommendation from Qatari government lawyers that autopsies should be performed in cases of sudden or unexpected death.
Qatar has made some reforms to its labor laws following a 2017 partnership with the International Labour Organization. Last year, the emirate effectively abolished the kafala system, which forbade workers from changing their jobs without their employer’s permission. Qatar also introduced a new minimum wage, created a support and insurance fund for workers, and introduced a new law to protect domestic workers, among other measures.
Enforcement, however, has been patchy. The support and insurance fund, for example, only became operational two years after it was established. Domestic workers report ongoing abuses, including passport confiscation and physical mistreatment. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to further mistreatment: Last March, Qatar locked down an expatriate-heavy industrial area in Doha to curtail the spread of the virus, effectively trapping hundreds of thousands of workers in severely cramped conditions. Doha also illegally expelled dozens of workers after falsely notifying them that they were being taken for COVID-19 tests.
The Biden administration should demand that Qatar immediately disclose Bidali’s whereabouts, what charges he faces, and whether he has received proper access to consular and legal assistance. The Qatari authorities should also release Bidali unless they have credible evidence against him. The Biden administration has, after all, pledged to put “human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy.” The administration should also press Qatar to enforce its labor reforms in a consistent and transparent manner. Should Doha fail to respond, public scrutiny of Qatar’s labor rights record should be increased as the World Cup draws closer.
*Varsha Koduvayur is a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where she focuses on the Persian Gulf. For more analysis from Varsha and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Varsha on Twitter @varshakoduvayur. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

The Biden Administration Must Hold Iran Accountable for Support of Hamas | Opinion
Joseph I. Lieberman and Mark D. Wallace/Newsweek/May 27/2021
جوزيف ليبرمان ومارك د. ولس: على ادارة بيدن تحميل إيران مسؤولية دعمها لحماس
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/99275/joseph-i-lieberman-mark-d-wallace-the-biden-administration-must-hold-iran-accountable-for-support-of-hamas-%d8%ac%d9%88%d8%b2%d9%8a%d9%81-%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a8%d8%b1%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%88%d9%85/
Now that a ceasefire has been achieved between Hamas and Israel, it is important to draw some lessons from the conflict and decide how the next one can be prevented.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the two radical organizations that have been firing missiles intermittently at Israel for more than 19 years, are designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the U.S. Department of State. They are funded, armed and trained by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hamas has served as Iran's most important Palestinian partner for over two decades.
Iran is estimated to send at least $100 million annually to Palestinian terror organizations, and as much as $700 million annually to Hezbollah terrorists along Israel's northern border. It is also a critical supplier of weapons to these terrorist organizations. Through naval interdictions and direct admissions from the Palestinian terrorists themselves, the scope of Iran's effort to arm Hamas and PIJ have come into the public view, as have the ways the Iranian regime smuggles weapons to Gaza: overland through Sudan and the Egyptian Sinai, and by sea via Yemen or Sudan and the Suez Canal. Israeli intelligence believes there are approximately 30,000 rockets and 10,000 mortar rounds in Gaza.
Hamas and PIJ have received Iranian missiles capable of hitting Jerusalem, as wells as drones, anti-tank missiles, anti-ship missiles and radar systems for guided missiles. Israel took fire this month from Iranian-made rockets, rockets produced in Gaza based on Iranian designs and advanced weaponry bought by Iran from Russia—including laser-guided anti-tank missiles and Grad rockets.
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Hamas and PIJ do not hide the support they receive from Iran. Last year, Hamas permitted Al Jazeera to film it receiving Iranian missiles and Russian anti-tank shells, and told reporters that "Iran continues to support us without restrictions or conditions."
The extremist regime in Tehran must be held accountable for sending weapons to terrorists in Gaza, using its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for training, and funding the purchase of other weapons being used against Israel and our Arab allies in the Middle East. If the U.S. and its allies in Europe do not deal with Iran's role as an enabler, the current ceasefire will only be a facade. It will soon be broken.
Diplomats negotiating a new Iran nuclear agreement in Vienna have it within their power to curtail Iranian meddling in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and help save countless lives in the process.
Iran's top priority in these negotiations is to free itself from the economic sanctions that the U.S. and other nations have enacted to cripple its economy. The U.S. and our European allies in Vienna must make clear to the Iranians that there will be no reduction in economic pressure unless they stop supporting, arming and training terrorist proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
The U.S. and its allies should work to restore the international arms embargo against Iran, which expired in October 2020 through sunset provisions in Security Council Resolution 2231. The absence of these restrictions means Hamas and PIJ are more likely to receive more long-range advanced rockets, mortars and other weapons.
The Trump administration fought unsuccessfully to reimpose the arms embargo on Iran through a sanctions snapback mechanism, an effort which the Biden administration has abandoned. Russian and Chinese interest in selling weapons to the Iranian regime will make a new arms embargo an uphill battle at the United Nations. The first step for the U.S. and its allies in dealing with Iran should be to adopt and implement an independent plan for stopping the Iranian regime from providing advanced weaponry to its terrorist allies.
Second, the Biden administration should demand at the negotiating table in Vienna that policies designed to impede foreign capital from reaching the Iranian regime be strictly followed. That means confronting China over its purchase of sanctioned Iranian oil and taking steps to punish shipping companies that help Iran evade sanctions. It also means asking the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication to terminate its relationships with all Iranian banks and financial institutions until Tehran verifiably ends its money laundering and terror financing.
Third, the Biden administration should maintain all existing sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran, which funds terrorism, and the IRGC, which supports and trains militants attacking Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq and other American allies.
President Biden was principled and effective during the recent conflict. He supported Israel's right to defend itself, stating clearly that only when the other nations in the region accept Israel's right to exist as an independent Jewish state will there be peace in the Middle East.
Making a deal with the Iranians in Vienna which does nothing to stop Tehran's support of terrorist groups undercuts both of those principled policies.
President Biden can make clear in Vienna that the United States will not tolerate support for terrorist organizations and will economically isolate Iran if the practice continues. Maintaining and strengthening economic pressure on Tehran could even lead to constructive negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians for a two-state resolution of their conflict. That would truly benefit the Israeli and Palestinian people who are now victimized by Iran, Hamas and PIJ.
**Joseph I. Lieberman, a former U.S. senator from Connecticut and vice presidential nominee, is chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).
**Mark D. Wallace, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform, is CEO of UANI.

Erdoğan Takes Anti-Israel Hysteria to New Heights
Burak Bekdil/The Gatestone Institute/May 27/2021
Originally published under the title "The "We-Must-Hate-Israel" Season Re-Opens in Turkey."
Anti-Israel demonstrators protest near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, May 9, 2021.
Each time the Arab-Israel dispute turns violent on Israeli soil, Turks immediately return to their post-truth mode. One newspaper headline proudly says that Palestinian fighters shot 137 rockets into Israel within five minutes. The next headline says Israel is a state of terror because it reciprocated to attacks against its citizens. "This is how al-Qassam Brigade hit a lifeline oil plant in Ashkelon-Eilat," one headline said. "Hamas hits, Zionists are burning," was another. "Rockets shock Zionists." "Tel Aviv turns into hell: Get worse, bastards!" "Zionists are fleeing Hamas rockets." And, according to Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza militants "have defended Jerusalem." There are more.
"To the Islamic world, we say: It's time to stop Israel's heinous and cruel attacks!" Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's spokesman, Fahrettin Altun, wrote on Twitter. On May 9, thousands of angry Turks demonstrated in support of Palestinians outside both Israel's Embassy in Ankara and consulate in Istanbul. The Turkish police did not intervene despite a ban in place on large public gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic. The crowds chanted: "Turkish soldiers to Gaza!"
In the meantime, Turkey withdrew an invitation extended earlier to Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz for the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on June 18-20, citing "Israel's increasing violations and attacks against Palestinians."
Secular Turks took advantage of the Islamist hysteria in humorous ways. When Ömer Lekesiz, a columnist for the Islamist daily Yeni Şafak, wrote, "May Allah give me a chance to become a martyr in the name of Palestine," some maverick Turks on social media sent him a link to the Turkish Airlines' Istanbul-Tel Aviv flight schedule, with a note that said: "Here is your flight. Go to Israel and become a martyr."
None of this anti-Israeli hysteria in Turkey is new. When Turkey and Israel decided to normalize their badly strained ties in December 2016, after more than six years of downgraded diplomatic relations, the first thing they did, as the protocol dictated, was to appoint ambassadors to each other's capital. In essence, Erdoğan had pragmatically agreed to shake hands with Israel, but his ideological hostility to the Jewish state and his ideological love affair with Hamas had not disappeared. After less than a year and a half, the Turkish and Israeli embassies in Tel Aviv and Ankara were once again ambassador-less. The loveless date had turned into a tussle after clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters caused the deaths of dozens of demonstrators.
It was another May, violent in Israel and hysterical in Turkey, three years ago. Turkey recalled its ambassador and asked the Israeli ambassador to leave the country "for a while," which became permanent.
There is, however, a significant difference between Turkey in May 2018 and May 2021. In May 2018, Turkey was heading for presidential and parliamentary elections -- which Erdoğan won with 51.5% of the national vote. Erdoğan was confident of "making Turkey great again" and systematically fueled hostility against Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In May 2021, Turkey is not heading for elections but for economic collapse and political isolation, and Erdoğan had just pushed the button to quietly reset relations with Turkey's adversaries around the Eastern Mediterranean basin, including Israel. Bad luck for Erdoğan. Wrong timing.
Erdoğan has grossly profited, in domestic politics, from every form and period of violence in the Arab-Israeli dispute in the past two decades. But he will not get anything from this year's clashes between terrorists and a legitimate state. There are no elections in sight. And the Turks, despite their usual manifest anti-Israeli behavior, are in fact too busy with their everyday struggles to bring bread to their homes and milk to their babies.
Stale bread on sale in Istanbul. Some grocery stores in big cities like Istanbul have recently started to sell "stale bread" for the first time. A stale loaf sells at five US cents cheaper than standard bread and has thousands of customers. There are long queues in front of municipality-run shops selling subsidized bread, a dime cheaper than the market price of bread.
Erdoğan will not be able to take advantage of this year's unfortunate deaths in Israel and Gaza.
*Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based political analyst and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.