English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 29/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.may29.21.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 14/27-31:”Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 28- 29/2021
The Inevitable Death should not be absent from our calculations and actions/
Elias Bejjani/May 28/ 2021
Broke Lebanon may not be able to import medicines
Syrian Opposition News Outlet: Hizbullah Is Planting Cannabis In Eastern Syria To Help Finance Its Operations
Senior Hizbullah Official: The Smuggling Of Rockets Into Palestine Continues At Full Force
Health Minister to receive AstraZeneca jab at vaccination marathon
Judge Bitar follows up on Beirut port blast wil French investigators
Army Commander welcomes Deputy Commander of US Naval Forces
President receives invitation from British Prime Minister to participate in Climate Change Summit in Glasgow
Judge El-Khoury concludes 4-hour interrogation of lawyer Ollaik
Bukhari: I was honored to meet Patriarch Rahi in whom Lebanon's identity and message are reflected
UNIFIL Hands Over One of Its Positions to Lebanese Army
Berri, al-Rahi to Mediate with Aoun, Hariri over 'Two Christian Ministers'
Optimism Reportedly Drops as Caution Engulfs Govt. Formation Efforts
Sfeir Says Holding No Grudge against Saudi Arabia
Ambassador Shea marks conclusion of Resolute Union 21 Joint Military Exercises
Akar, Fahmi hold meeting over expats vote in 2022 polls
A Decaying Middle East: Failed States, Iran, Turkey and the Spawning of Civil Wars/Charles Elias Chartouni/May 29/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 28- 29/2021
Syria’s controversial election extends Assad’s grip on power
Iran hails Assad poll win as 'big step' for peace
Russia Hails Assad's 'Decisive' Poll Victory
US, again, reaffirms ‘ironclad’ support for Israel: Pentagon
Israeli forces kill Palestinian in West Bank clashes, says health ministry
Hamas Fighters Display Weapons in Gaza after Truce with Israel
'Known Radical' Killed in Shootout after Knife Attack on French Police
US expresses ‘outrage’ at violence against Iraqi demonstrators
Musleh episode shows Iraq’s PMF mightier than the law
Egypt’s president visits Djibouti in push to build alliances in Horn of Africa
Republicans in US Senate block probe of Capitol riot
Pandemic won’t be over until 70 pct are vaccinated, says WHO’s Europe chief
US, Britain seek new WHO look into possible coronavirus origins in China
Explosive-laden drone launched by Houthis toward Saudi Arabia intercepted: Coalition
Erdogan inaugurates mosque In Istanbul's Taksim Square
Croatia agrees $1.2 billion France fighter jets deal
U.S. and Hong Kong climbers set new records on Mount Everest
Lithuania expels two Belarusian diplomats
Canadian Imam Younus Kathrada: Muslim Enmity Toward The Jews Is Just And Logical; We Hate The Jews Because Of Their Disbelief In Allah

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 28- 29/2021
Question: "What is the symbolism of water baptism?"/GotQuestions.org?/May 28/2021
Is the U.S. Caving on Iran Sanctions?/Richard Goldberg and Mark Dubowitz/The Dispatch/May 28/ 2021
Israel Eliminates Key Members of Hamas and PIJ Commands/Joe Truzman/ FDD's Long War Journal/May 28/ 2021
A Sinking Ship of State Drowns Everyone/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/May 28/ 2021
Bangladesh Removes Israel Exclusion From Its Passport, Tells Palestinian Ambassador: 'We Are A Sovereign Country; We Will Decide What To Do'/Tufail Ahmad/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 279/May 28/2021
Spain Relives Its Ancient History with Islam/Raymond Ibrahim/May 28/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 28- 29/2021
The Inevitable Death should not be absent from our calculations and actions
Elias Bejjani/May 28/ 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/99125/elias-bejjani-the-inevitable-death-should-not-be-absent-from-our-calculations-and-actions/
It is wise and prudent for every person on this earth not to lose sight of the inevitable death reality fate under any circumstance. At the same time each and every person must realize that all earthy riches will remain in this mortal universe
Accordingly no human being, no matter how great or high is his social status, or magnified his wealth will be able to carry any of the perishable mortal riches (money, possessions, authority) to the other immortal world.
All that a person can carry the to the God’s heavenly court (Last Day Of Judgment) is only and only his/her acts either being righteous or wicked.
With the last breath of air a person inhales, which is Godly gift of life the soul departs from the mortal human body that instantly becomes motionless corpse, cold and loses all sign of life.
And just as The Lord God has created the human body from ashes to ashes it returns …dust to dust.
The ultimate and inevitable fate of the earthly human body is an easy prey to the worms-maggots that are within it.
As for the soul, it is the one who will stand before its Creator, Al Mighty God on the Day of Final Judgment, to face the court of heaven and the rulings of its Judge, the Lord.
Either this soul’s position could to the right of the Lord and accordingly joyfully is invited to enter into the kingdom of God and into his heavenly dwellings, or will be on the left and therefore shall be thrown into the fire of Hell, where fire is not extinguished, and worms do not rest, and the torment is eternal.
Hence, wisdom dictates and requires that every human being be fully aware of the inevitable destiny, which is death, no matter how great the social status is or the riches are magnified.
In conclusion, It is crucial that a person does not forget or turn a blind eye to the fact that death is an inevitable fate no matter what.
Therefore human beings are supposed to live their earthly life with mere humility, love, forgiveness, faith, hope, righteousness fear of God, and in accordance as much as possible with the Bible’s holy teachings.

Broke Lebanon may not be able to import medicines
The Arab Weekly/May 28/2021
BEIRUT – Lebanon’s central bank said on Thursday that a system for importing subsidised medical goods could not be sustained without using its mandatory reserves and asked the relevant authorities to find a solution to the problem. Lebanon, which is in the throes of a financial crisis that is threatening its stability, has been subsidising fuel, wheat, medicines and other basic goods since last year.After caretaker health minister Hamad Hasan had visited the bank, he said he had asked unsuccessfully for the release of funds for essential medicines. The central bank had refused to dip into its mandatory reserves to cover the $1.3 billion cost of the subsidised medical supplies. “This total cost that is required from the central bank as a result of a policy to subsidise these medical items cannot be supplied without touching mandatory reserves and this is what the board of the central bank refuses,” the bank 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 million in March. The wider subsidy programme costs around $6 billion a year. Hasan had said on a local television programme last week that around 50% of the required medicines were actually available but sitting in the warehouses of importers who were waiting to be paid. 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 criticised as wasteful by both traders and consumers.

Syrian Opposition News Outlet: Hizbullah Is Planting Cannabis In Eastern Syria To Help Finance Its Operations
MEMRI/May 28/2021
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
The Syrian Step News Agency, a pro-rebel news outlet, reported on May 24, 2021, that the Iran-backed Shi'ite Lebanese militant group Hizbullah has recently begun planting cannabis near Al-Bukamal in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border.[1]
The Step Agency quotes a "local source in Al-Bukamal," who claims that Hizbullah has planted cannabis over a 40-dunam (0.04 km2 or 9.88 acre) area in "dozens of plantations" in the fertile area along the Euphrates near the Syria-Iraq border, and that the first crop, which has flourished in the local climate, is due to be harvested soon. According to the source, the supervisor of the cannabis-growing operation is Hizbullah commander Haydar Saqr. The local source adds that Hizbullah chose the Al-Bukamal area because from there it is easy to smuggle the drug into Iraq.
The Step Agency notes that, according to Project Cassandra, a United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) effort to prevent Hizbullah from benefiting from the sale of illegal drugs, the militant group makes a profit of $500 billion annually, $1 billion of which is derived from its activities smuggling and dealing illegal drugs.
The agency reports that Hizbullah smuggles drugs from Lebanon into Iraq via eastern Syria, and claims that, based on "unofficial reports," as recently as May 19 the group smuggled 20,000 pills of the Captagon (Fenethylline) drug from Syria into Iraq.
[1] Stepagency-sy.net/2021/05/24, May 24, 2021.

Senior Hizbullah Official: The Smuggling Of Rockets Into Palestine Continues At Full Force
https://www.memri.org/reports/senior-hizbullah-official-smuggling-rockets-palestine-continues-full-force
MEMRI/Special Dispatch No. 9365/May 28, 2021
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Naim Qassem, Hizbullah deputy secretary-general, gave an interview to the Al-Nour, Hizbullah-owned radio station in Beirut, on the occasions of the 21st anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, and the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian factions, which went into effect on May 21, 2021.
In the interview, he discusses the relationship that pertained between his organization and the Palestinian factions during the fighting, and the support that his organization gave, and will continue to grant, to the factions. He asserts that "the smuggling of the rockets into Palestine continues at full force." He also says that Palestinian operatives have undergone instruction and training by members of the "axis of resistance" in order to develop their capability to produce weapons.
Qassem explains that his organization was responsible for "most" of the demonstrations and protests that took place on the Lebanon-Israel border during the last round of fighting, and that the Lebanese citizen who was killed by IDF fire during the protests was a member of Hizbullah.
He stresses his organization's rejection of the two-state solution and asserts that the only solution is the return of "the Zionists" to the countries from which they came, i.e. the elimination of Israel.
The following are translated excerpts of the main sections of the interview conducted with Qassem, as published on the Hizbullah websites Alahednews.com.lb and central-media.org.[1]
At the start of the interview, Qassem relates to Israel's withdrawal from South Lebanon on May 24, 2000, and its consequences for the Palestinian struggle. He asserts that "the victory in May [2000] restored to the Palestinian people the vitality and the insistence on the resistance and the confrontation [with Israel]… regarding the direct influence [of the war in Lebanon] which the Palestinian brothers built upon…"
Qassem repeats the position of his organization that it is the U.S. that supports the Islamic State (ISIS) and explains: "Lebanon did not fall, Syria did not collapse and Iraq did not fall apart despite the extraordinary American support of ISIS. Yemen stands firm in an exceptional manner. Regarding Palestine – it conducted four wars in Gaza and succeeded with them… The [most recent] victory in Palestine is a strategic phase and a historic turning point. This is not a usual victory. The Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people attained a very great achievement, which we will build upon from now on…"
Qassem emphasizes that the unity of the Palestinians is a very important turning point which destroyed all Israel's efforts to divide the Palestinian issue into several separate subjects. He stresses that "Palestine and Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians and must be restored to them in their entirety from the river to the sea."
Regarding the relationship between his organization and the Palestinian factions during the last round of fighting he says: "We were in daily contact with the leaders of the resistance and the [Palestinian] jihadi fighters. Our position was that we would assist the [Palestinian] resistance in every way that we can and that we will do what we must do at the appropriate time and in the way that we choose…"
He also states, "Today the Palestinians have a significant capability to produce [weapons]. I can reassure you that the smuggling of rockets into Palestine is continuing at full force. There are important Palestinian brains which are helping in the creation and establishment of the capabilities. They have trained and been in contact with the axis of resistance. The support will not cease but will only increase."
Qassem relates to the involvement of his organization in the demonstrations which were held on the Lebanon-Israel border during the recent confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians, during which a Lebanese citizen, who tried to breach the border fence between the two countries, was killed. He says, "The martyr Muhammad Qassem Tahan was a member of Hizbullah's Education Mobilization Association.[2] Hizbullah supervised most of the activities on the border. We assisted everyone who requested our help to express his position on the border…"
In response to a question about the body which launched rockets from South Lebanon into Israel on May 19, Qassem says that he is not interested in discussing this or whether it was right to fire rockets, explaining that there are "elements concerned with this issue which are dealing with it."
The senior official repeats that he rejects the two-state solution, stating that, "If the Americans want to solve the Palestinian issue, it will not be by means of the 'two-state solution' as the American President Joe Biden refers to it, but by restoring Palestine to its residents and sending the Zionists back to the countries from where they came."
Regarding the possibility of a renewal of the relations between Hamas and the Syrian regime, which ran aground following the civil war in Syria,[3] and have recently improved due to Iran's mediation,[4] he says, "The campaign in Palestine indicates that we are on the way to renewing the relations between Hamas and Syria."
[1] Central-media.org, May 22, 2021; Alahednews.com.lb, May 22, 2021.
[2] The objective of this body is to educate the younger generation in Lebanon in accordance with the values of Shi'ism and Hizbullah, so that in the future its members may be recruited into the ranks of Hizbullah. On its website its objectives are described as "to unite between the knowledge and the jihad, between the education and the faith, in order to serve the resistance and the homeland and in preparation for a just country," Tarbaweya.org, on May 23, 2021.
[3] For more information about the relations between Hamas and the Syrian regime in recent years, see MEMRI Reports: Assad And His Allies Threaten To Open A Front In Golan Heights, May 21, 2013; Bashar Al-Assad: The Noble Peace Prize Should Have Gone To Me, October 15, 2013; President Assad: Negotiating With Present Opposition Delegation Is Pointless; The Way To End The Crisis Is Through Military Victory, March 30, 2016.
[4] See MEMRI Report: Intensive Discussions In Resistance Axis Ahead Of Possible Joint Confrontation With Israel: Syria Daily: A Confrontation Is Inevitable, January 1, 2018.

Health Minister to receive AstraZeneca jab at vaccination marathon
NNA/May 28/2021
Caretaker Minister of Public Health, Hamad Hassan, will receive Saturday AstraZeneca jab during the launch of the first vaccination marathon, at Baalbek Municipal Union Center. Hassan will next inspect a number of inoculation centers nationwide.

Judge Bitar follows up on Beirut port blast wil French investigators
NNA/May 28/2021
Lead investigator in the Beirut port blast, Judge Tareq Bitar, had recently met with a French juridical delegation to follow up on the explosion case, our correspondent reported Friday. Bitar and the French delegation had also inspected the blast scene inside the facility. The foreign delegation comprises a prosecutor and two investigative judges. They are set to submit their final report later on.

Army Commander welcomes Deputy Commander of US Naval Forces
NNA/May 28/2021
Lebanese Armed Forces Commander, General Joseph Aoun, received this Friday in Yarze the Deputy Commander of the US Naval Forces, Rear Admiral Curt A. RENCHAW, in the presence of US Ambassador Dorothy Shea -- the both of whom will attend the last part of the Resolute Union 2021 joint exercise between units of the Lebanese Army and elements of the US and Jordanian armies. Talks touched on strengthening cooperation between the armies of the two countries.

President receives invitation from British Prime Minister to participate in Climate Change Summit in Glasgow
NNA/May 28/2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received an official invitation from the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, conveyed by British Chargé d'Affairs to Beirut, Martin Longren, to participate in the summit of world leaders in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, at its twenty-sixth session cop 26, which will be held at the invitation of the United Kingdom in Glasgow, Scotland, between November 1 and 12. In the message, Premier Johnson expressed hope that President Aoun would personally participate in this summit, stressing the depth of Lebanese-British relations and the keenness to develop them in all fields. For his part, the President thanked the British Chargé d'Affaires for the invitation, confirming Lebanon's participation in this summit and conveying his greetings to Premier Johnson. President Aoun also pointed out that this summit is of exceptional importance because it represents a fundamental opportunity for world countries to work together to reduce the phenomenon of global warming. During the meeting, issues of concern of the two countries were addressed, in addition to the importance of developing relations in all fields. Mr. Longden congratulated Lebanon for the report submitted to the United Nations on the measures taken to reduce global warming, noting that Lebanon is the second country in the Middle East after the United Arab Emirates to submit a report despite the difficult conditions it is going through. -- Presidency Press office

Judge El-Khoury concludes 4-hour interrogation of lawyer Ollaik
NNA/May 28/2021
The National News Agency correspondent reported that Judge Ghassan El-Khoury, concluded an interrogation of around four hours conducted with detained lawyer Rami Ollaik.

Bukhari: I was honored to meet Patriarch Rahi in whom Lebanon's identity and message are reflected
NNA/May 28/2021
Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Walid Bukhari, tweeted this Friday, in the wake of his meeting with Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rahi: “I was honored to meet with his His Beatitude Bechara Rahi today, as he reflects Lebanon’s identity as a message, and its wisdom in preserving balances in what serves the Lebanese people.”

UNIFIL Hands Over One of Its Positions to Lebanese Army
Naharnet/May 28/2021
UNIFIL on Friday handed over one of its positions to the Lebanese Army, its "strategic partner," at a ceremony in south-western Lebanon, the U.N. force said. UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col handed over U.N. position “2-45A” to Brigadier General Maroun Kobayati, who represented Lebanese Army Commander General Joseph Aoun. Established on 1 July 2012 and situated south of the village of al-Tiri, the UNIFIL outpost has "played an important role in maintaining stability in the area in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701," UNIFIL said in a statement. “This handover represents another instance of the deep sense of trust, cooperation and connection UNIFIL and the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) share,” said the UNIFIL Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Del Col. “Close neighboring of UNIFIL and LAF positions will further allow cooperation and coordination,” he added. Today’s handover is part of the "continued UNIFIL support for LAF deployment throughout the south, which is crucial for the extension of the Government’s authority in the area," UNIFIL said in its statement. “Close cooperation between UNIFIL and the LAF contributes to the essential climate of peace and stability that are fundamental to the success of UNIFIL’s mandate, as well as for the safety and security of both the Lebanese people and our peacekeepers,” the UNIFIL Force Commander added.
He affirmed: “I am certain that these assets will be put to good use and help further strengthen the capabilities of our hosts in the service of peace and stability in south Lebanon.”

Berri, al-Rahi to Mediate with Aoun, Hariri over 'Two Christian Ministers'
Naharnet/May 28/2021
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will launch his mediation between President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri following the latter’s return from the UAE, which is expected within 24 or 48 hours, media reports said. “Speaker Berri’s drive will be coordinated with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, and they have communicated in order to unify their efforts toward President Aoun and PM-designate Hariri in search of an acceptable solution, especially over the naming of the two Christian ministers on which they are wrangling,” informed sources told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published Friday. Hariri for his part has started preparing a 24-minister cabinet line-up, in order to submit it to Aoun should Berri manage to iron out the differences, the daily said. Sources close to the PM-designate meanwhile told the newspaper that Hariri “will not accept any format that might lead to the cabinet’s paralysis, such as the presence of a wildcard minister or two wildcard ministers, because the wildcard minister experience has proved futile and harmful.”

Berri discusses developments with Akar, meets al-Qaisi
NNA /May 28/2021
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Friday received in Ain Al-Tineh Deputy Prime Minister, Caretaker Minister of National Defense, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zeina Akar, with whom he discussed the general situation and the latest political and security developments.

Optimism Reportedly Drops as Caution Engulfs Govt. Formation Efforts
Naharnet/May 28/2021
The wave of optimism regarding the government formation crisis has relatively retreated after it turned out that it is not based on tangible facts, informed sources said. “There are questions in Ain el-Tineh whether those concerned with the cabinet formation process have true and honest intentions to facilitate its formation,” the sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Friday, adding that “the next two weeks will represent the last chance to test the intentions.”The “highly informed” sources also expressed concern that President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri might not yet have taken a “decisive decision to from the government -- the former because he perhaps does not want Hariri and is hoping to push him to resign, and the latter because he perhaps fears the formation of a government that might put him in a confrontation with the people and the crisis without enjoying a sufficient international and Gulf support that allows it to obtain the necessary financial support.”

Sfeir Says Holding No Grudge against Saudi Arabia
Associated Press/May 28/2021
Lebanese composer and singer Samir Sfeir has said he is holding no grudge against the authorities in Saudi Arabia after he was detained for around 50 days in the kingdom. Sfeir, who had residency in the kingdom for five years, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Lebanon that he is now banned from returning after being deported. "I was bothered by the manner. I wish they just told me to leave and not come back. I would have done it," he said. Sfeir said he was "a political prisoner" in the Kingdom and his captors only questioned him on political issues, including whether he had links to Hizbullah and President Michel Aoun. No charges were pressed, he added. "My investigator told me that I am making political statements," Sfeir said. "In their system, they don't have such thing. They disapproved." After several interrogation sessions by different Saudi investigators, Sfeir was released and sent to Lebanon. Other than solitary confinement, Sfeir said he was treated respectfully. His wife, Marie, told a local TV station that Sfeir refused to eat in the first days of his detention and didn't have his medicine. There was no official comment from Saudi Arabia about the reasons and conditions of his detention and release.
Sfeir's detention raised concerns at home that he was the latest victim of rising tension between Lebanon and its traditional ally, Saudi Arabia, which has increasingly used pressure, instead of assistance, in dealing with the small Mediterranean country where the Iran-backed Hizbullah dominates.
Only last month, the kingdom barred all fresh produce arriving from Lebanon from entering Saudi Arabia after drug smuggling was found in such shipments. It was a sharp measure that dealt a major blow to one of the main sources of foreign currency to the embattled Mediterranean country.
Tension between the two regional powerhouses -- Saudi Arabia and Iran -- often translated into a deadlock in decision-making in Lebanese politics. Saudi Arabia, which is seeking new allies in Lebanon, has imposed sanctions on Hizbullah, labeled a “terrorist” group by the United States and other Gulf countries.
Sfeir said he was the victim of an online smear campaign that used his old tweets and TV comments which he claimed were misrepresented to appear offensive to the kingdom. Sfeir said his investigators viewed some of his statements as offensive to Lebanon's army. Sfeir is known for his political statements in the media and on other platforms to criticize opponents of Aoun, and has expressed his unwavering support to Hizbullah as a defender of the country's unity. He said the alleged smear campaign was launched after he posted a picture of himself receiving a vaccine in Saudi Arabia -- something his detractors thought he did not deserve. "Social media and electronic flies (armies) are ruining things," he said. "They asked me many questions... They said, I am not allowed to be offensive to any Arab country," Sfeir added.

Ambassador Shea marks conclusion of Resolute Union 21 Joint Military Exercises
NNA/May 28/2021
On Friday, May 28, Ambassador Dorothy Shea joined Rear Admiral Curtis Renshaw and Chief of Defense Joseph Aoun to commemorate the conclusion of the Resolute Union 2021 Joint Military Exercise. Conducted May 17-28 in Lebanon and in the Eastern Mediterranean, the event is designed to enhance interoperability and fortify military-to-military relations between the U.S. Navy and the LAF, provide training between the U.S. Navy and regional partners, facilitate the future advancement of the Resolute series, maintain warfighting readiness, and demonstrate the U.S. Navy’s commitment to regional maritime security. Following are Ambassador Shea’s remarks:
"Thank you for joining us today to commemorate the culmination of Resolute Union 21, the U.S. military’s largest annual exercise with the Lebanese Armed Forces. In particular, I want to thank Rear Admiral Curtis Renshaw, Deputy Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, and General Joseph Aoun, Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, for their strong support for the U.S.-Lebanese security partnership. This year, it is a distinct pleasure to welcome the participation of our colleagues from the Jordanian Armed Forces. In particular, I'd like to thank Major General Huneiti, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Colonel al-Jarrah, Head of the Jordanian Navy, for joining us today. Last but certainly not least, I’d like to thank the many U.S., Lebanese, and Jordanian military personnel who invested countless hours in planning and executing Resolute Union. Congratulations on the completion of another successful exercise! This was the 21st iteration of Resolute Union and the first time we’ve conducted Resolute Union as a multilateral exercise with three participating militaries. Such coordination and cooperation shows not only the professionalism of the Lebanese Armed Forces, but also our shared interest in regional security and stability. Resolute Union is one of our premier opportunities to share knowledge and expertise with the Lebanese Armed Forces and work side-by-side to complete challenging scenarios. Over the last two weeks, for example, our teams tackled explosive ordnance disposal, dive operations, and maritime search and seizure.
These exercises improve the interoperability of our forces, and help ensure that the LAF is fully equipped to counter smuggling and mitigate other threats at sea. Today, we saw an impressive display of these capabilities in action. I am proud to see the success of our LAF partners in developing these advanced capabilities. This is on top of the myriad challenges the LAF has responded to over the past 18 months, even against the backdrop of the hardships of the pandemic and the economic crisis.
But the United States has stood with the LAF, just as we continue to stand with the Lebanese people. Just last week, we convened our first-ever U.S.-Lebanon Defense Resourcing Conference with senior leaders from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense and the Lebanese Armed Forces. Topping the agenda was a discussion on ways to support the Lebanese military during these economically difficult times. Last week, I also oversaw the delivery of 95 containers of ammunition valued at over $55 million, all of which is intended to equip and assist LAF operations. These events, combined with the multiple senior-level visits by U.S. military and civilian leadership, leave no doubt about the strength of our enduring partnership with the LAF.
In that vein, it is my pleasure today to share three recent, additional announcements of funding for the LAF from the U.S. Government. First, the U.S. Department of State announced the intended transfer of $120 million in Foreign Military Financing for Fiscal Year 2021. This military grant assistance will provide the Lebanese Armed Forces with critical defense systems, services, and training. This award marks a $15 million increase over prior-year levels. In addition, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it will donate three U.S. Coast Guard Protector-class patrol boats to the Lebanese Navy next year. These boats will greatly strengthen Lebanon’s maritime patrol capabilities. Lastly, the Department of Defense initiated the transfer of $59 million in Section 1226 funding to the Lebanese Armed Forces, which will be used primarily to strengthen the army’s border security capabilities along the eastern border.
The United States continues to explore additional authorities under U.S. law through which the United States can provide exceptional assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces. As we conclude Resolute Union and begin the process of allocating these additional funds, I want to remind everyone here, once more, of the long-term commitment that the United States has made to Lebanon and the LAF.  Since 2006, the United States has provided more than $2.5 billion in military grant aid to Lebanon. This assistance helps strengthen Lebanon’s sovereignty, secure its borders, and counter internal and extremist threats. Now, more than ever, our security partnership is vitally important. I look forward to re-convening next year for the next iteration of Resolute Union, and to continuing to deepen cooperation to the benefit of both our countries." -- US Embassy Beirut

Akar, Fahmi hold meeting over expats vote in 2022 polls
NNA /May 28/2021
Deputy Prime Minister, Caretaker Defense Minister, Zeina Akar, and Caretaker Interior Minister, Mohammad Fahmi, held Friday a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, in presence of Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry Hani Chmaitelly, Director General of the Personal Status Department General Elias Khoury, Director General of the Political and Refugees Affairs at the Interior Ministry Faten Younes, and Acting Director General of the Foreign Ministry Joseph Nseir. According to a statement by Akar's office, conferees discussed the preparations for the Lebanese expatriates’' vote in the 2022 legislative elections. They agreed to form a joint committee to follow up on this affair.

A Decaying Middle East: Failed States, Iran, Turkey and the Spawning of Civil Wars
Charles Elias Chartouni/May 29/2021
شارل الياس شرتوني/الشرق الأوسط المتداعي: الدول الفاشلة إيران، تركيا وتناسل الحروب الأهلية
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/99301/charles-elias-chartouni-a-decaying-middle-east-failed-states-iran-turkey-and-the-spawning-of-civil-wars-%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%b4%d8%b1%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a/
The parody of Syrian elections, the Iranian terror squads deliberate destabilization of the consensual government in Baghdad, the Hezbollah destruction of Constitutional Statehood in Lebanon, the instrumentalization of Palestinian power politics and the creeping civil war, the manipulation of Yemeni tribal and regional conflicts, are relaying Saudi political leverage and rivaling with Turkish erratic inroads and ISIS attempts at creating a new version of Islamic political order.
What’s really perplexing is that none of these ongoing scenarios aim at geopolitical stabilization, systemic reforms, progressive social and cultural liberalization in a region that failed its first modernity, and is doomed to repeat its failures with less fortunes, namely the downfall of functional Statehood, and the demise of modernity as a cultural paradigm.
What’s worrisome and adds to the drama is the congery of violence, bloody disintegration, and the unleashing of an updated version of the mass murders which succeeded the end of the Ottoman era and the rise of the Nation-States.
In counterpart, the Iranian regime is determined to eradicate any sort of opposition, double down on repression and cultural wars, overlook its structural impairments and the aspirations of a civil society engaged in an open conflict with it and its bankrupted dystopia.
The estrangement that took hold of Iran traces back to the earlier days of the Islamic revolution, and evolves on a par with the growing chasm between the Neo-Ottoman Islamism setting in Turkey, the liberal secularism of the Iranian post-Islamist era and Turkish post-Kemalist epoch, and the repudiation of the totalitarian Islamism featured by ISIS and al Qaida.
This region has failed, all along, to engage modernity and spent the centennial courting dictatorships, political authoritarianism, cultural wars, regimented socialism, Anti-Western Xenophobia (Gharb Zadegi, the Western pollution, غرب زادكي, التغرب), intellectual self-referentiality and repudiation of pluralism, liberalism and constitutional democracy.
The grotesque elections in Syria with the awaited 95/100 unanimity contrasts with the dark realities of a destroyed country: 11,000.000 displaced Syrians and ethnic cleansing, ruined and mafia-controlled economy relaying the traditional economic oligarchies, socio-economic dislocations, ethno-religious conflicts, shared condominiums among Russia, Iran and Turkey, absence of conflict resolution scenarios, faked constitutional reforms simulations, and demise of U.N. arbitration.
This dark picture offers no perspective for political reconciliation and moral atonement (secularization of a Christian theological predicate), reconstruction, and structural reforms.
The regime’s control of 40/100 of Syrian territories under the plea of the “Useful Syria”, its hard wired illusions about an eventual recapture of the whole territory and the ability of the autocrat to outmaneuver his mentors, the monumental reconstruction undertaking (1.200.000.000 dollars), and the cynical rejection of a negotiated political settlement, tallies with the overall picture of a derelict Middle East unable to set a center of moral gravity along which proceed, peace-making, reconstruction and reform processes.
The attempt of the Iraqi Hezbollah and the cohort of Iranian piloted militias to derail the reconstruction process led by Prime Minister Mustapha al Khadimi, antagonize the Sunnite Al Anbar governorate (138.501 km2 / 53476 Sq mi, population / 1771,656), elicit anew Sunnite radicalism, destabilize the shared borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and consolidate the strategic continuum, extending between the vast stretches of the Iraqi-Iranian borders and the newly established Syrian-Lebanese annexes, managed by the Hezbollah and the Iranian revolutionary guards, are compromising the chances of civil peace in Iraq, putting at stake its incipient consensual political culture, the viability of its federal political system, and the vast program of reforms considered by the current coalition in power. It seems that this scenario is replicated throughout the Iranian landscapes of power, and partake of the same “divide and rule” pattern of domination. Endemic instability, power vacuum and protracted social conflicts were readily engaged by Iran and Saudi Arabia when challenged by the tidal reformism of the “Arab spring” in 2011.
The Lebanese case illustrates the deliberate subversion scenario, whereby the Hezbollah challenges the historical legitimacy of the country, its national meta-narrative, cultural and political consensuses and the very notion of constitutional Statehood. The compounded (financial, economic, social, educational environmental and public health) crises have put at stake the viability of its governance, the sustainability of its coping mechanisms, the systemic equilibriums of polity, society and economy, the pliability to foreign power politics, and challenged the exemplary civil society movements antithetical political culture and reformist agendas, counter-models of governance, civic commitments and public ethics which have questioned a well entrenched culture of corruption, clientelism and misuse of discretionary power. Lebanon’s ability to reform itself, put an end to its travails, deal with its manageable problems, however critical and intractable they have become, has become highly tentative with its compounded and protracted fractures.
The proto-nuclear explosion at the Beirut Harbor, its massive destructions and devastating humanitarian consequences, is quite emblematic of the terrorist objectives and deliberate targeting of the Christian population, and its corollary urban, demographic, economic, social and political dynamics. Iran is determined to reconfigure the Lebanese human and political geography, along the new demarcation lines and strategic appendages, adumbrated by the Syrian civil war.
The Palestinian geopolitical landscapes and power turfs have been historically subjected to the swaying impact of Arab and Muslim power politics, with very few exceptions and interludes correlated with the PLO extra-territorial status in a disintegrated Lebanon. Having missed repeatedly the chances of a negotiated settlement, starting with the 181 U.N resolution (1947, which set the precedent of the Two States solution) and ending with the Camp David accords and their finalization, which ended the state of Denial at both ends and paved the way to their respective creation. The end of this promising interlude opened up the road to radicalization, on both sides: bolting Israeli annexation politics versus Palestinian revisionism (no peace, no negotiation, no acknowledgement) and revived violence. The Iranian sabotaging strategy through military subversion, instrumentalization of Palestinian power politics and human shields victimization, managed to create a platform of direct intervention and enduring political influence among Palestinians.
The Yemeni historical contentions between the North and the South and its shifting dependencies, tribal, and personalistic triangulations have kept this country under the mercy of open-ended conflicts,shifting loyalties and discretionary violence enacted alternatively by domestic actors and regional players.
The ongoing surrogate conflicts sets the conflict coordinates between Iran and Saudi Arabia and bring us back to the crisis of territorial Statehood and its geopolitical, anthropological, legal matrices, and its competing loyalties at both end of the spectrum: the tribal centripetal tendencies, and the Islamic Ummah centrifugal tendencies and their swaying dialectics and power politics. The relegation of political dynamics to raw power politics, zero sum games, and away from political modernity, the federating and developmental role of State institutions, sets a major obstacle to conflict resolution and reformist policies.
The Middle East is still, hundred years, after the onset of political modernity and the formation of the contemporary State system in the throes of an unending political infancy, whereby geopolitical contentions, Statehood riddles, and endemic crises of governance are preempting the respective countries from developing inner cohesion, generating and solidifying national and civic loyalties, and creating working State institutions enabled to steer a modern governance, create the sense of the common good, and tackle ethno-political problems on the basis of mutual acknowledgement, equal entitlements, and participatory politics, away from the politics of denial, open discrimination and outright exclusion, and on the basis of nomothetic and autonomous State institutions. However cursory, this recapitulation enables us to realize the need for manifold international arbitrations to adjudicates disputes, contain subversion politics, induce concertation and working negotiations, and put an end to the enduring political stalemate at the regional level, promote political accommodation, break down oligarchic foreclosures and allow countries to engage the virtuous cycle of institution building, public policy reforms and Human Rights policy framing.
Short of these conditionalities, this region has the ability to generate its toxins indefinitely, export its problems to the Democratic World, and put at stake World peace and European security.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 28- 29/2021
Syria’s controversial election extends Assad’s grip on power
The Arab Weekly/May 28/2021
DAMASCUS--Bashar al-Assad has been re-elected for a fourth term as president of war-ravaged Syria, official results showed on Thursday, despite Western accusations the polls were “neither free nor fair.”The controversial vote extending Assad’s stranglehold on power was the second since the start of a decade-long civil conflict that has killed more than 388,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure. The speaker of parliament Hammouda Sabbagh announced Thursday that Assad had garnered 95.1 percent of the votes cast, trouncing two virtually unknown challengers. Standing against him were former state minister Abdallah Salloum Abdallah and Mahmud Merhi, a member of the so-called “tolerated opposition”, long dismissed by exiled opposition leaders as an extension of the regime. Sabbagh also said voter turnout was around 78%, with more than 14 million Syrians taking part. On the eve of the election, the US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy said the poll was “neither free nor fair” and Syria’s fragmented opposition has called it a “farce.” But few doubted that Assad, a 55-year-old ophthalmologist by training, would be re-elected. In the last multi-candidate poll in 2014, Assad won 88 percent of the vote.
Expected win
Huge election posters glorifying Assad had mushroomed across the two-thirds of the country under his control in the lead-up to Wednesday’s poll. Before the election results were even announced, tens of thousands of Syrians gathered Thursday in various cities to celebrate, waving Syrian flags and carrying pictures of Assad, state media reported. The festivities broke out after the election committee, quoted by local TV, said that “the ballot counting process has been completed in the majority of Syrian provinces”. “Tens of thousands of people in Tartus province gathered at the city’s seafront to celebrate” Assad’s expected win, according to state news agency SANA. Some danced and beat drums, footage broadcast by Syrian television showed. Thousands of other Syrians rallied in the coastal city of Latakia and in Umayyad Square in the capital Damascus, which along with Tartus and Latakia are bastions of the regime. Celebrations were also under way in Aleppo and in Sweida, in Syria’s south, where a crowd gathered in front of city hall, state media said. The election was held Wednesday in government-held areas and state media showed long queues forming outside polling stations, which remained open five hours past the planned closing time. The vote took place amid the lowest levels of violence since the war erupted in 2011, but with the economy in free fall. More than 80 percent of the population live in poverty and the Syrian pound has plunged in value against the dollar, causing skyrocketing inflation.
Tightening US sanctions, neighbouring Lebanon’s financial collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic hitting remittances from Syrians abroad and the inability of allies Russia and Iran to provide enough relief, mean prospects for recovery look poor.
Assad’s campaign slogan, “Hope through work”, evoked the colossal reconstruction needed to rebuild the country, requiring billions of dollars in funding.
Seven more years
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 foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States put out a statement criticising Assad ahead of the election, saying that the vote would not be free or fair. Turkey, an Assad adversary, has also said the election was illegitimate. The win delivers Assad, 55, 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 have been defined by the conflict that began in 2011 with peaceful protests before spiralling 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. The UN’s Syria envoy, Geir Pedersen, said the polls were held under the auspices of the current constitution and “not part of the political (transition) process called for in Security Council Resolution 2254” of December 2015. “What is required is a Syrian-led and -owned political solution, facilitated by the United Nations and backed by constructive international diplomacy,” he said. In rebel-held north-western Syria, home to three million people, hundreds took to the streets to protest on Wednesday, a correspondent said. They carried posters saying: “No legitimacy for Assad and his elections.”

Iran hails Assad poll win as 'big step' for peace
NNA/AFP/28 May ,2021
Key Syrian government ally Iran congratulated President Bashar al-Assad Friday on his landslide election victory, describing it as a "big step" towards restoring peace after a decade of civil war. "The Islamic Republic of Iran congratulates President Assad and the resilient Syrian people on their decisive victory in this election," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "The successful organisation of the election and the massive turnout by the Syrian people mark a big step in establishing peace."--

Russia Hails Assad's 'Decisive' Poll Victory
NNA/AFP /28 May ,2021
Russia on Friday welcomed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's "decisive" victory after he claimed re-election with a landslide win in a vote criticized by the opposition and Western nations. "A decisive victory was won by the incumbent head of state," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "We view the elections as a sovereign affair of the Syrian Arab Republic and an important step towards strengthening its internal stability," it added. The controversial vote extending Assad's stranglehold on power was the second since the start of a decade-long civil conflict that has killed more than 388,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure. On the eve of the election, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy said the poll was "neither free nor fair", and Syria's fragmented opposition has called it a "farce." Russia has been a key ally to the Syrian regime in the conflict, and its intervention in the war in September 2015 was seen as having turned the tide of the fighting in Assad's favor. The foreign ministry described Western statements calling into question the validity of the elections as "another attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of Syria with the aim of destabilizing it.""No one has the right to dictate to the Syrians when and under what conditions they should elect their head of state," it said.

US, again, reaffirms ‘ironclad’ support for Israel: Pentagon
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/28 May ,2021
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Friday, again, reiterated Washington’s “ironclad” support for Tel Aviv in a phone call with his Israeli counterpart. “Secretary Austin reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad support for Israel’s security,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement.
The US has repeated its stance that it stands behind Israel following the 11-day Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The Biden administration’s so-called quiet diplomacy and Egyptian efforts led to a ceasefire between the Hamas militant group and Israel last week. On Friday, Austin shared the administration’s support “for building on the ceasefire to establish enduring security.” “Both parties agreed to remain in close coordination on shared defense priorities,” Kirby said. Despite increased opposition to US military support for Israel, President Joe Biden pushed through a $735 million weapons sale to Israel and vowed to replenish the “Iron Dome” with rockets.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian in West Bank clashes, says health ministry
AFP, Reuters, Nablus, Palestinian Territories/28 May ,2021
Israeli forces on Friday shot dead a Palestinian man during clashes in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. A few hundred Palestinians had gathered near Nablus in the northern West Bank to protest Israeli settlement expansion on Palestinian land. Some in the crowd, with their faces covered by masks, threw rocks at soldiers and burned tires, witnesses said. Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing one man, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Zakaria Hamayel was struck by a bullet to the chest in the village of Beita, south of Nablus, the ministry said. A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said they were checkingthe report. Tensions remain high in the region despite a ceasefire reached last week between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza that ended 11 days of fighting.

Hamas Fighters Display Weapons in Gaza after Truce with Israel
Agence France Presse/May 28/2021
Thousands of Hamas fighters held a military parade Friday in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, a week after a ceasefire with Israel took effect in the devastated coastal enclave. Holding weapons, the masked members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas -- the Islamist group that runs Gaza -- paraded through the southern city, AFP reporters said. Riding pick-up trucks, the fighters showed off a military arsenal including rocket launchers and a drone as groups of people, including women and children, cheered them on. An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that went into force last Friday has so far held, ending 11 days of devastating Israeli bombardment of Gaza and rocket fire into Israel from the coastal strip that started on May 10. Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and have wounded more than 1,900 people, the Gaza health ministry says.
Rockets and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian, and two Thai nationals, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded. There is controversy about how many of those killed in Gaza were combatants, and how many were civilians. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's bombing campaign had killed "more than 200 terrorists" in Gaza, which Hamas has controlled since 2007. But both sides claimed victory after the ceasefire went into force. Hamas has held several post-ceasefire rallies across the devastated Gaza Strip, including one Thursday in Khan Yunis and also in the south of the Israeli-blockaded territory.

'Known Radical' Killed in Shootout after Knife Attack on French Police
Agence France Presse/May 28/2021
A "known radical" suspected of carrying out a knife attack in France died from injuries sustained in a shootout with police Friday, hours badly wounding a female officer in another act of violence against police. The man, who was on a terrorist watch-list according to the interior ministry, had been on the run after the attack in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre near the western city of Nantes. He had also been diagnosed as schizophrenic, according to a source close to the investigation. A total of 250 officers were trying to find him, and two gendarmes were wounded in the exchange of fire that to his arrest, authorities said. No motive for the stabbing has emerged, but the attacker was "a known radical and suffering from a very serious psychiatric illness," one source involved in the investigation said. After stabbing the officer at a police station, inflicting life-threatening injuries, the suspect stole her service weapon and fled on foot.
The police officer was taken to hospital and later declared to be out of danger. "My first thoughts go to the police officer who was seriously wounded," Prime Minister Jean Castex wrote on Twitter. "She has all my support and... the support of the entire government." Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, arriving at the scene in the afternoon, confirmed that the suspect was known to police as a radical.
'On watch-list'
"This French-born French national, around 40 years old and known to police services, was released from prison in 2016 where he was pointed out because of a strict practice of Islam and radicalization," said Darmanin. That had led to his inclusion on a watch-list of potential terrorist sympathizers, he added. He was arrested in 2013 for aggravated theft and ordered after his release to follow treatment for schizophrenia. Darmanin said the suspect had opened fire on the officers who then responded. He had died shortly after the shootout. An AFP photo reporter at the scene said he heard around a dozen rounds discharged in two rapid bursts during the standoff, in a residential area. Special police forces carrying shields and wearing helmets used rubbish bins and bushes for cover as they opened fire. One witness told AFP he saw a civilian on the ground surrounded by police after the shootout. Pupils in the area's primary and middle schools were kept indoors while police tracked the suspect, a city official told AFP. "We drew the curtains and told the children to lie on the ground. They've been there for two hours," one local teacher told AFP by text message during the manhunt. The suspect's former lawyer, Vincent de la Morandiere, who had defended him on a number of occasions, told AFP that his client's psychological state had "deteriorated gradually during his various spells in prison." One neighbor described him as "very discreet and polite" while another said "he told me he had psychological problems. He lived alone and didn't have any visitors. He told me he had a child".La Chapelle-sur-Erdre is a town of 20,000 inhabitants just north of Nantes near the Atlantic coast. The attack came on the same day Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti called on French judges to show "firmness" when dealing with people found guilty of attacks on police forces.
Spate of attacks
French police officers have demanded better protection and harsher punishments for attacks against them after a spate of assaults in recent months which have shocked the country. Earlier this month, officer Eric Masson was shot dead while investigating activity at a known drug-dealing site in the southern city of Avignon. Masson's death came after the April 23 killing of Stephanie Monferme, a police employee who was stabbed in the town of Rambouillet outside Paris in the latest jihadist attack in France. There was no immediate indication that the French authorities intended to open a terror probe into Friday's attack.
Several attacks over the last year have reignited concerns about the spread of radical Islam inside France and immigration. In September, a Pakistani man wounded two people with a meat cleaver outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. On October 16, a young Chechen refugee beheaded teacher Samuel Paty who had showed some of the caricatures to his pupils. And on October 29, three people were killed when a recently arrived Tunisian went on a stabbing spree in a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice. In the most severe recent attack against French police, three officers and one police employee were stabbed to death in October 2019 by a IT specialist colleague who was himself then shot dead. He was later found to have shown an interest in radical Islam. In France's deadliest peacetime atrocity, 130 people were killed and 350 were wounded when Islamist suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Stade de France stadium, bars and restaurants in central Paris and the Bataclan concert hall in November 2015.

US expresses ‘outrage’ at violence against Iraqi demonstrators
The Arab Weekly/May 28/2021
WASHINGTON – The United States 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 United States 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.” Two Iraqis were killed and 28 others were injured in clashes Tuesday as thousands protested in Baghdad to demand justice over a wave of deadly attacks on pro-democracy activists and journalists. Medics and police said demonstrators were injured when police fired tear gas to disperse them, while five policemen were hurt by projectiles thrown at them during the operation. Mohammad Baker from the southern town of Diwaniya died in Al-Kindi hospital from a gunshot wound in the neck, a medical source said. Another medical source later said another person had died, without giving more details. Waving portraits of victims, gunned down with silencers by unknown assailants, the demonstrators converged on the Iraqi capital’s main squares including Tahrir, as police were deployed in force. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in the US-led invasion of 2003, political parties have controlled life in Iraq and corruption has plagued state institutions. Many in the crowds travelled from the southern cities of Karbala, Najaf and Nassiriya, where several of the killings occurred.
Anti-government campaigner Ihab al-Wazni was killed in the Shia Muslim holy city of Karbala on May 9, a day before prominent journalist Ahmed Hassan was also shot in southern Iraq. He remains in a coma after undergoing brain surgery. Killings, attempted murders and abductions have targeted more than 70 activists since a protest movement erupted against government corruption and incompetence in 2019. Authorities have consistently failed to publicly identify or charge the perpetrators of the killings, which have not been claimed. However, activists have repeatedly blamed Iran-backed armed groups that wield considerable influence in Iraq.

Musleh episode shows Iraq’s PMF mightier than the law
The Arab Weekly/May 28/2021
BAGHDAD - Despite conflicting reports about the release of a prominent leader in the Popular Mobilisation Forces, (PMF) Qassem Musleh, or his transfer to the security building of the pro-Iranian militia, attention has turned to the weapons held by the Shia militias that make up the PMF. Baghdad spent a tense night after the deployment of the PMF while heavily-armed military forces and tanks from the Special Division of the Anti-Terrorism Service closed the entrances to the Green Zone and the nearby streets. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi says that Musleh, who was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the assassination of activist Ihab al-Wazni, the head of the protest coordination commission in Karbala, is still in the custody of the joint operations command until the end of the investigation with him. A statement issued after a meeting that included, in addition to Kadhimi, the President of the Republic Barham Saleh, the Speaker of Parliament Mohammad al-Halbousi and the President of the Supreme Judicial Council Judge Faiq Zaidan, said that “the recent events adversely affect the national efforts aimed at achieving security and stability and preserving the prestige of the state.”The meeting stressed that “the continuing security turmoil and infringement on the state’s authority and its right to hold security and military decisions represent a serious violation of the state’s authority in enforcing the law and protecting the security of citizens, and exposes the country’s stability to real risks.”
Observers believe this position reflected a consensus among the state institutions confronting the militias and thus buttressed Kadhimi’s position on the issue of Musleh. However, sources from within the Hashed asserted that the Joint Operations handed Musleh over to the PMF Security Directorate at 5 am on Thursday. Falih Khazali, an MP with the “Al-Fateh” coalition (which includes the majority of the PMF) in parliament, announced, in a tweet via Twitter, “The release of the Anbar Operations Commander of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, Qassem Musleh and his handover to the security department of the Hashed.”He added, “It is not permissible to arrest any affiliated member in the defence, interior, counterterrorism apparatus and the Hashed except by the party to which the affiliated member belongs.”For his part, the director of information in the PMF Muhannad al-Uqabi, said, “The matter is over and the sedition has ended,” referring to the end of Musleh’s arrest. So far, no picture has been published of the release or handover of Muslih to Hashed security, which confirms the leaks according to which there has been a special agreement to hand Musleh over to the Hashed, with a pledge to keep him in detention and refrain from publishing any pictures of him. The entire process revealed the hold that the PMF has over decision making by the Iraqi government and has completely shattered the authority of the state. Analysts say that the PMF’s weapons seem mightier than the force of law. Talk about reform will now ring hollow even if it materialises after next October’s elections.
However, sources close to the government lauded Kadhimi’s defiance of the Hashed and the audacity he showed by Musleh’s arrest. Despite everything else, the arrest operation ushered in a noticeable change in the Iraqi government’s relationship with the PMF, they say.
The sources also revealed to The Arab Weekly that Kadhimi told Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Badr Organisation, one of the most powerful militias under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, that he would go live on television to announce his resignation and blame the Shia parties for the collapse of the state, if the Hashed did not leave the Green Zone. The sources said that Amiri was surprised by Kadhimi’s “extreme stubbornness” and did not expect him to take such a daring step as arrest a prominent leader like Musleh. The Hashed leaders did not expect Kadhimi to resist his release, despite their intense pressures. An Iraqi parliamentarian told The Arab Weekly that if it is true that the Popular Mobilisation factions managed to release Musleh, then this would constitute an explicit declaration of the Hashed’s independence from the state,. It would be a public acknowledgment that the pro-Iranian militia is working against the state and that its weapons are illegal.
The MP, who preferred not to be named, asserted that Kadhimi, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, will have to openly declare before the people that the Hashed is an extraneous coup-inclined force that does not support the state and that its weaponry is held illegally,
The MP points out that the Hashed’s victory in the muscle-flexing battle with the prime minister would have many negative repercussions, but if he wins, Kadhimi can regain his popularity. For his part, the Iraqi researcher and politician, Hamid Al-Kafa’i, confirmed that the Kadhimi government came to power endorsing the call to keep weapons exclusively in the hands of the state and eliminate corruption. However, it did not accomplish any of its stated goals. It only suceeded in projecting a weak image of the Iraqi state, which undermined the people’s confidence in it.
Kafa’i told The Arab Weekly that the prime minister is weak and should have forcefully confronted the militias from the beginning in order to impose the authority of the state. In that kind of endeavour, he would have received the support of the Iraqi people, the international community and most of the countries in the region. He added that the Iraqi people and the international community want a strong government that leads a strong state, but the present government, and its predecessors are weak because of their subordination to Iran and their submission to armed groups that do not give any weight to the state’s sovereignty. The UN Special Representative to Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, denounced the show of force by armed groups in the Green Zone. “Any arrest case should run its course, as goes for any Iraqi. Nobody should resort to a show of force to get their way”, said Plasschaert.
“Such behaviour weakens the Iraqi state and further erodes public trust”, she added. Against the background of Musleh’s arrest, for some time Wednesday, PMF forces surrounded the prime minister’s house and other locations in the Green Zone in central Baghdad, where there are officials ‘homes, government institutions and foreign diplomatic missions’ headquarters,. Kadhimi said after a security meeting on Wednesday evening that “the moves by armed groups in Baghdad on Wednesday are a serious violation, not only of law and order, but of the Iraqi constitution.”

Egypt’s president visits Djibouti in push to build alliances in Horn of Africa
The Arab Weekly/May 28/2021
CAIRO – Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held talks on Thursday with his counterpart in Djibouti as part of Egyptian diplomatic attempts to build more African alliances amid an ongoing water dispute with Ethiopia. Sisi’s visit to the Horn of Africa nation is the first by an Egyptian president since Djibouti declared independence in 1977. Sisi met his Djiboutian counterpart, Ismail Omar Guelleh and discussed bilateral and regional issues, including Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River. “I stressed Egypt’s opposition to any attempt to impose a reality on the ground through unilateral decisions that do not consider the interests and the rights of the river’s two downstream countries,” said Sisi in reference to Egypt and Sudan in a joint news conference from Djibouti. Sisi’s visit to Djibouti, which borders Ethiopia, reflects Egypt’s attempts at developing strategic and diplomatic ties and building alliances, in view of the troubled security situation in the Horn of Africa region. Sisi’s visit also comes as Ethiopia is pushing ahead with the second-year filling of the GERD reservoir this summer with ambitions to begin operating two of its 16 planned turbines later this year.
A day before Sisis’s visit to Djibouti, Cairo signed a defense pact with Kenya. Over recent years and following the ouster of Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir, Cairo has established good relations with its immediate southern neighbour Sudan.
On Thursday, Sisi and Guelleh agreed that the Ethiopian dam should be filled and operated according to “a fair and binding legal agreement” that could maintain regional stability and preserve the interests of all parties, Sisi’s office said in a statement. Egypt and Sudan fear that the Ethiopian reservoir would affect their shares of water from the Nile, especially in times of drought. Sisi also hailed his talks with Guelleh “as constructive and fruitful,” explaining that both leaders had discussed ways to improve political, economic and military cooperation. Both men stressed their “strategic partnership” in fighting terror in the Horn of Africa and underscored their cooperation over security issues in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, said the statement issued by the Egyptian president’s office. Amani el-Taweel, an expert on Africa at Egypt’s Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said that a “rapprochement between Egypt and Djibouti is crucial” in order to “prevent Djibouti from taking Ethiopia’s side.” “Lately, Egypt has been seeking to build good relations with all Nile Basin countries and countries overlooking the Red Sea,” she said. “Such two regions have to do with Egypt’s two most important national security issues, including the Nile River and the Suez Canal.”Nile dispute talks with Ethiopia stalled in April. International and regional efforts have since tried to revive the negotiations without success. In March, Sisi warned Egypt’s share of the Nile was “untouchable” and that there would be “instability that no one can imagine” if Ethiopia fills the reservoir without an international agreement. Egypt and Sudan argue that Ethiopia’s plan to add 13.5 billion cubic meters of water in 2021 to the dam’s reservoir is a threat to them. Egypt has been seeking a legally binding agreement that would spell out how the dam is operated and filled, based on international law and norms governing cross-border rivers. On Monday, President Joe Biden acknowledged Egypt’s concerns about access to Nile water and stressed his administration’s interest in reaching a diplomatic resolution. Egypt relies on the Nile for more than 90% of its water supplies. Ethiopia says the $5 billion dam is essential and that the vast majority of its population lacks electricity. Sudan wants Ethiopia to coordinate with it on the dam’s operation to protect its own power-generating dams on the Blue Nile.The Blue Nile meets the White Nile in Khartoum, before winding northward through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea.

Republicans in US Senate block probe of Capitol riot
Published: 28 May ,2021
Republicans in the US Senate on Friday derailed a bipartisan inquiry into the deadly assault on the Capitol by former President Donald Trump’s supporters, despite a torrent of criticism they were playing down the violence. Democrats and some moderate Republicans had called for a commission to probe the events leading up to and on Jan. 6, when hundreds of supporters of Trump, a Republican, stormed the Capitol, fighting with police, urging violence against lawmakers and delaying the formal certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory. The violence left five dead including a Capitol Police officer. The measure failed by a vote of 54 to 35, short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation in the 100-member Senate. “What are you afraid of - the truth?” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has argued that the commission would duplicate work done by other congressional committees, as well as a sweeping federal criminal investigation that has so far has resulted in the arrests of more than 440 people. But Republicans are also concerned that the commission, modeled on one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, would focus attention on the violence and on Trump’s persistent false claims about the 2020 election well into next year’s midterm congressional election campaigns. The proposal already passed the House of Representatives with the support of all Democrats and one in six Republicans. “We just can’t pretend that nothing bad happened, or that people just got too excitable. Something bad happened. And it’s important to lay that out,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, who supported the measure, told reporters late on Thursday.

Pandemic won’t be over until 70 pct are vaccinated, says WHO’s Europe chief
AFP, Copenhagen/28 May ,2021
The WHO’s European director warned on Friday that the Covid-19 pandemic won’t be over until at least 70 percent of people are vaccinated, while deploring that the vaccine rollout in Europe is still “too slow.”“The pandemic will be over once we reach 70 percent minimum coverage in vaccination,” the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge told AFP in an interview. Kluge also said that one of his main worries was the increased contagiousness of new variants of the novel coronavirus. “We know for example that the B.1617 (Indian variant) is more transmissible than the B.117 (British variant), which already was more transmissible than the previous strain,” Kluge said. According to the Belgian doctor, speed is “of essence” in pandemic. “Even when WHO declared a pandemic, many countries were still waiting, we lost valuable time.”While the regional director, who has held the position since February 2020, lauded calls for solidarity he stressed that a speedy rollout of vaccines was of the utmost importance. “Our best friend is speed, the time is working against us, the vaccination roll-out still goes too slow,” Kluge said. “We need to accelerate, we need to enlarge the number of vaccines.” In the 53 countries and territories that make up the WHO’s European region -- including several in Central Asia -- 26 percent of the population has received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. In the European Union, 36.6 percent of the population has received at least one dose, according to a count by AFP.

US, Britain seek new WHO look into possible coronavirus origins in China
The Associated Press, Geneva/28 May ,2021
The United States and Britain are stepping up calls for the World Health Organization to take a deeper look into the possible origins of COVID-19, including a new visit to China where the first human infections were detected. WHO and Chinese experts issued a first report in March that laid out four hypotheses about how the pandemic emerged. The joint team said the most likely scenario was that the coronavirus jumped into people from bats via an intermediary animal, and the prospect that it erupted from a laboratory was deemed “extremely unlikely.” Late Thursday, the US diplomatic mission in Geneva issued a statement saying the first phase of the study was “insufficient and inconclusive,” and called for a “timely, transparent, evidence-based and expert-led Phase 2 study, including in the People’s Republic of China.”The statement — coming in the middle of the WHO’s annual assembly in Geneva — demanded access for independent experts to “complete, original data and samples” relevant to the source of the virus and early stages of the outbreak. “We appreciate the WHO’s stated commitment to move forward with Phase 2 of the COVID-19 origins study, and look forward to an update from Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,” the statement said. Also Thursday, the British ambassador in Geneva, Simon Manley, said the first phase study was “always meant to be the beginning of the process, not the end.”
“We call for a timely, transparent, evidence-based, and expert-led phase two study, including in the People’s Republic of China, as recommended by the experts’ report,” he said. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in an e-mail that a technical team -- led by Peter Ben Embarek, who headed the WHO team in China that co-authored the first report -- was preparing “a proposal for the next studies that will need to be carried out.” Jasarevic said that proposal would be presented to Tedros “for his consideration,” but said there was no timetable such a presentation. After the first report was released, the WHO chief acknowledged that further studies were needed on issues like early detection of cases and clusters, and the possible roles of animal markets, transmission through the food chain, and the lab-incident hypothesis, Jasarevic noted. The push in Geneva amounts to a new front of US pressure a day after President Joe Biden said that he had instructed the US intelligence community to “redouble their efforts” to get “information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion” on the virus’ origins, and to report back in 90 days. Biden’s administration wants to step up calls for China to be more open about the outbreak, aiming to head off complaints from opposition Republican senators that the president has not been tough enough, as well as to use the opportunity to press China on alleged obstruction. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have promoted the theory that the virus emerged from a laboratory accident rather than naturally through human contact with an infected animal in Wuhan, China. On Tuesday, a Chinese representative, who was not identified, told the WHO’s assembly that China believed the “China part” of the origins-tracing study “has been completed.” According to an interpreter, he said China wanted a “global origin-tracing cooperation” — which suggested his government wants the hunt to be carried out elsewhere. On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian went further, suggesting that US sites should be explored — reiterating Chinese-fanned speculation that the coronavirus could have erupted elsewhere. China has provided no evidence for such claims.

Explosive-laden drone launched by Houthis toward Saudi Arabia intercepted: Coalition
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/28 May ,2021
The Arab Coalition said an explosive-laden drone launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis toward Saudi Arabia has been intercepted and destroyed, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday.
“The Houthi terrorist militia continues to try to target civilians,” the Coalition said in a statement carried by the news agency. The Arab Coalition also said, “We are taking operational measures to protect civilians from hostile attempts.”

Erdogan inaugurates mosque In Istanbul's Taksim Square
NNA/AFP/28 May ,2021
urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the first mosque in Istanbul's popular Taksim Square on Friday, eight years to the day after protests began there that shook his government. The mosque is Erdogan's mark on the square, the most famous area in Turkey's economic capital, and a fulfilment of a 30-year-old dream. The opening was met with enthusiasm, with several thousand people praying outside in the square because the mosque filled so quickly, an AFP correspondent said. Some 4,000 people will be able to pray inside the mosque, which combines Ottoman-style with contemporary features.
When Erdogan served as Istanbul mayor in the 1990s, he lamented the absence of a mosque in Taksim Square, noting that the only visible religious site was an Orthodox church in an area not too far away. Although Turkey is a Muslim-majority country, the mosque's construction which began in 2017 was criticised, with some opponents accusing Erdogan of seeking to "Islamise" the country and displace the founder of the secular modern republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Croatia agrees $1.2 billion France fighter jets deal
NNA/AFP/28 May ,2021
Croatia has agreed to buy a batch of used fighter jets from France, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday, in a deal worth one billion euros ($1.2 billion). The 12 Rafale planes will replace Croatia's Russian-made MiGs in the country's biggest arms purchase since its 1990s war of independence from Yugoslavia. The EU member chose France's package over bids from Israel, Sweden and the United States and expects to get the first six planes by 2024. Plenkovic told a cabinet session the French offer to supply the planes for 999 million euros was the best deal. "For the most favourable price, Croatia gets the best rated and best equipped plane," the prime minister said. French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly hailed the deal as showing the "strengthening of strategic ties" between the two countries and praised Croatia for buying from a European counterpart. "We are building, brick by brick, the foundations of a European strategic culture," she said in a statement. Critics had suggested the Zagreb government should be focusing its efforts on helping the pandemic-hit economy to recover rather than spending on weaponry. But Defence Minister Mario Banozic told local media earlier on Friday the decision to buy the jets was not about giving the military "new toys". "These planes are simply the basis of our security," he said.

U.S. and Hong Kong climbers set new records on Mount Everest
NNA/Reuters/28 May ,2021
- Climbers from the United States and Hong Kong have set new records as they scaled Mount Everest this week, hiking officials said on Friday. Arthur Muir, 75, became the oldest American to climb the world’s highest peak at 8,848.86-metres (29,031 feet) on Sunday, an official from the company that organised the expedition said. Separately, Hong Kong’s Tsang Yin-Hung, 45, scaled the peak in less than 26 hours, the shortest time taken by any woman after starting from the base camp. Usually climbers spend several days in different camps before reaching the peak. “Arthur Muir is the oldest American at 75 years old to summit Mount Everest,” Garrett Madison, expedition leader at the Madison Mountaineering company told Reuters from the base camp. Muir beat the record set by Bill Burke, who became the oldest American to climb the mountain at the age of 67 in 2009. Tsang set out from the base camp at 1:20 p.m. local time (0735 GMT) on Saturday and reached the top at 3:10 p.m. the following day, said Gyanendra Shrestha, a Nepal government official, who returned from the base camp. She beat the record set by Nepali woman Phunjo Jhangmu Lama in 2017, who climbed Everest in 39 hours and 6 minutes.--

Lithuania expels two Belarusian diplomats
NNA/AFP/28 May ,2021
Lithuania's foreign ministry on Friday said it was expelling two Belarusian diplomats for "activities incompatible with the status of a diplomat". "Two BY intelligence officers working under the diplomatic cover were asked to leave Lithuania. No thank you and goodbye," Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis added on Twitter.

Canadian Imam Younus Kathrada: Muslim Enmity Toward The Jews Is Just And Logical; We Hate The Jews Because Of Their Disbelief In Allah
MEMRI/Special Dispatch No. 9362/May 28/2021
Canadian Imam Younus Kathrada of the Muslim Youth of Victoria said that the Muslims’ enmity towards the Jews is "just and logical" because they can differentiate between combatants and dhimmis. He made his remarks in a Friday sermon delivered at the Muslim Youth of Victoria Islamic Center on May 21, 2021 and which was posted on its social media accounts on May 24. Kathrada said that anyone who does not hate "the enemies of Allah" has no place in the mosque and should find a church or a synagogue. He explained that the Muslims hate the Jews because of their "disbelief in Allah." He concluded his sermon asking Allah to grant victory to the mujahideen and asking Allah to destroy His enemies. For more about Younus Kathrada, see MEMRI TV clips no. 8409, 8289, 8003, 7896, 7534, 7098, 6950, and 6906.
To view the clip of Canadian imam Younus Kathrada on MEMRI TV, click here or below.
"The Enmity Of The Believers Towards The Jews Is Just And Sensible"
Younus Kathrada: "Let's begin by reminding ourselves of this enemy, about whom Allah says in the Quran, I will give you the meaning of the verse: 'And the Yahud say...' Yahud translated as Zionists, Zionist Jews, whatever you like...
"The animosity of the believers towards the Yahud is based on religious grounds.
"Because the people of faith hate the Yahud because of their disbelief in Allah and because of their rejection and denial of the prophets, and because of their injustice towards the people.
"There is a difference between the two [types of] enmity. The enmity of the Jews towards the believers is unjust, whereas the enmity of the believers towards the Jews is just and sensible. The believers differentiate between Jews who are combatants those who are dhimmis, and those with whom they have a pact.
"If You Do Not Hate The Opponents Of Allah You Have No Faith... The Place For You Is Not The Mosque"
"If you do not hate the opponents of Allah you have no faith. Go find yourself a church. Go find yourself a synagogue. But the place for you is not the mosque, if you do not hate those who curse Allah and insult Him. Having said that, we have not ever called for violence towards others.
"Oh Allah, Grant Victory To Those Who Wage Jihad For Your Sake Everywhere"
"Oh Allah. Give strength to Islam and the Muslims, humiliate the infidels and the polytheists, and destroy the enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, grant victory to those who wage jihad for Your sake everywhere.
"Oh Allah, demonstrate upon Your enemies the wonders of Your might. Oh Allah, disperse them and rend them asunder. Oh Allah, divide their hearts. Oh Allah, shake the ground under their feet."

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 28- 29/2021
Question: "What is the symbolism of water baptism?"
GotQuestions.org?/May 28/2021
Answer: Water baptism symbolizes the believer’s total trust in and total reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as a commitment to live obediently to Him. It also expresses unity with all the saints (Ephesians 2:19), that is, with every person in every nation on earth who is a member of the Body of Christ (Galatians 3:27–28). Water baptism conveys this and more, but it is not what saves us. Instead, we are saved by grace through faith, apart from works (Ephesians 2:8–9). We are baptized because our Lord commanded it: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Water baptism is for believers. Before we are baptized, we must come to believe that we are sinners in need of salvation (Romans 3:23). We must also believe that Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins, that He was buried, and that He was resurrected to assure our place in heaven (1 Corinthians 15:1–4). When we turn to Jesus, asking Him to forgive our sins and be our Lord and Savior, we are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our eternal salvation is guaranteed, and we begin to die to ourselves and live for Christ (1 Peter 1:3–5). At that time we are scripturally qualified to be baptized.
Water baptism is a beautiful picture of what our Lord has done for us. As we are completely immersed in the water, we symbolize burial with our Lord; we are baptized into His death on the cross and are no longer slaves to self or sin (Romans 6:3–7). When we are raised out of the water, we are symbolically resurrected—raised to new life in Christ to be with Him forever, born into the family of our loving God (Romans 8:16). Water baptism also illustrates the spiritual cleansing we experience when we are saved; just as water cleanses the flesh, so the Holy Spirit cleanses our hearts when we trust Christ.
The fact that water baptism is not a prerequisite for salvation is best seen in the example of a saved man who was not baptized in water—the criminal on the cross (Luke 23:39–43). This self-confessed sinner acknowledged Jesus as his Lord while dying on a cross next to Him. The thief asked for salvation and was forgiven of his sins. Although he never experienced water baptism, at that moment he was spiritually baptized into Christ’s death, and he then was raised to eternal life by the power of Christ’s word (Hebrews 1:3).
Christians should be baptized out of obedience to and love for our Lord Jesus (John 14:15). Water baptism by immersion is the biblical method of baptism because of its symbolic representation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
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Is the U.S. Caving on Iran Sanctions?
Richard Goldberg and Mark Dubowitz/The Dispatch/May 28/ 2021
To try to wheedle Iran back into a nuclear deal, the administration is preparing to lift a raft of non-nuclear sanctions as well.
As the Iran-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist groups fired rockets against Israel earlier this month, President Joe Biden’s envoys were busy offering Iranian banks and companies blanket immunity from U.S. terrorism and missile sanctions in exchange for Iran rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran will use such immunity to increase funding for terror attacks against Israel. Now is a time for Biden to stand with America’s democratic ally—not the state sponsor of terrorism against that ally—by overruling his chief negotiator and maintaining terrorism and missile sanctions on Iran no matter what.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is a fatally flawed deal. The agreement promises hundreds of billions of dollars to the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism in exchange for temporary and narrow limits on its nuclear program. With no limits on the development of nuclear-capable missiles, an allowance for Iran to maintain its enrichment capabilities and a series of expiration dates on key nuclear restrictions, the mullahs would just need to be patient—using massive sanctions relief to grow their economy and take an internationally legitimized path to nuclear weapons.
But for all the flaws of the JCPOA, former President Barack Obama made one important promise: No matter what, the United States would retain the right to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic to stop the flow of money to its missile program, sponsorship of terrorism, and abuse of human rights.
In 2015, Obama declared “the United States will maintain our own sanctions related to Iran’s support for terrorism, its ballistic missile program, and its human rights violations.” Then-Vice President Biden vowed that “every sanction in place against any entity or individual in Iran for the support and encouragement of terrorism stays in place.”
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, then-Secretary of State John Kerry was even more explicit: “We will not violate the JCPOA if we use our authorities to impose sanctions on Iran for terrorism, human rights, missiles, or any other nonnuclear reason.” Then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, “We are going to continue to prosecute our unilateral sanctions on things like terrorism, on things like regional destabilization and human rights.”
That was the understanding that led Ambassador Dennis Ross, one of Obama’s top Middle East envoys, to write that if “a person or entity is found to be connected to the Revolutionary Guard, terrorism, missile proliferation and human rights abuses, it most certainly can and should be subject to sanctions—even if sanctions for that person or entity were initially suspended by the JCPOA.”
That was also the understanding that led Congress in 2017—while the United States remained a participant in the JCPOA—to mandate new sanctions on all entities affiliated with the IRGC and Iran’s missile program under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. The legislation, co-authored by Sen. Robert Menendez, the current Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, passed almost unanimously.
But Biden’s top Iran envoy, Rob Malley, upended that understanding this month when he explained why the Biden administration would agree to lift terrorism, missile, and human rights sanctions on Iran as part of the ongoing negotiations to rejoin the JCPOA.
“We’re not questioning the—sort of the evidentiary basis of some of the sanctions that may have been imposed by the Trump administration,” Malley said, according to the State Department transcript (backing off from an earlier statement where he did exactly that). “What we’re questioning is whether those are consistent with a return to the JCPOA.”
With the expiration dates of the JCPOA already taking effect and accelerating after 2023, the Biden administration’s policy of rejoining the 2015 nuclear pact already made little sense. After all, Iran concealed undeclared nuclear activities throughout the agreement and in violation of its obligations. But Malley’s statement that terrorism, missile, or human right sanctions can be inconsistent with the JCPOA turns a foolish policy into a dangerous one.
According to Malley’s interpretation of the JCPOA, the entities provided sanctions relief under the 2015 deal did not just receive “nuclear sanctions” relief. They were given blanket immunity to finance terrorism, proliferation, and human rights abuses in perpetuity. Any attempt to impose terrorism sanctions on an Iranian bank that is actively financing terrorism, for example, would be a violation of the JCPOA, according to Malley, if that terror bank was initially granted nuclear sanctions relief in 2015.
That is most certainly a shift in U.S. policy—toward Tehran. It contradicts statements and commitments made by Malley’s boss, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January that terrorism sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran and the National Iranian Oil Company were not inconsistent with the JCPOA. Blinken had also vowed that even if Biden suspended nuclear-related sanctions, it would “continue non-nuclear sanctions as a strong hedge against Iranian misbehavior in other areas.”
The danger of a policy that grants Tehran’s largest banks and companies full immunity from terrorism and missile sanctions is on full display today in Israel. Giving a green light to terror and missile finance will vastly expand the terror budget for terrorist groups in Gaza and Lebanon—putting Israel in even greater danger.
If the president was unaware of what his envoy was giving away, now is an opportune moment to instruct Malley to reverse course. If Biden doesn’t, he will own the consequences.
*Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where
*Mark Dubowitz is chief executive. Both are sanctioned by the Islamic Republic of Iran for architecting U.S. sanctions on the regime. Follow them on Twitter @rich_goldberg and @mdubowitz. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

Israel Eliminates Key Members of Hamas and PIJ Commands
Joe Truzman/ FDD's Long War Journal/May 28/ 2021
As part of its military operations against terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip during the recent war, Israel targeted key leaders and commanders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The elimination of these senior figures is part of an effort by Israel to degrade its adversaries’ command-and-control structures and limit their capacity for future operations.
Hamas and PIJ fired almost 4,400 rockets at Israel over 12 days, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). An earlier IDF statement said Israel had faced “the highest daily rate of rocket fire … in the history of the country.” The rockets targeted Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other Israeli cities, with the goal of inflicting maximum casualties on the civilian population. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the war. In cooperation with Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, the IDF executed numerous targeted killing operations against Hamas and PIJ leaders in order to disrupt the firing of rockets by degrading the command-and-control structures of the organizations.
On May 12, the IDF launched an airstrike in Gaza City, killing Bassem Issa, the highest-ranking member of al-Qassam Brigades – the military arm of Hamas – killed since the 2014 war in Gaza. Issa was the commander of the Brigades’ Gaza City battalion, the Shin Bet stated.
Alongside Issa, several prominent al-Qassam Brigades members were killed in the airstrike. They included Jama’a Tahla, the head of Hamas’ cyber command, who was also responsible for improving the accuracy of the group’s rockets; Jamal Zabeda, the head of research and special projects in Hamas’ munitions production department; and Hazzem Hatib, the chief engineer of the group’s munitions department. A dozen other members of Hamas’ research-and-development division were killed in a separate strike that destroyed their facility, according to the Shin Bet statement. The Shin Bet noted that Issa and several other al-Qassam Brigades commanders belonged to a military council headed by the Brigades’ chief of staff, Muhammad al-Deif. PIJ’s military wing, Saraya al-Quds, also suffered losses of prominent commanders.
On the second day of the conflict, the IDF targeted a structure in Gaza City, killing Sameh Fahim Hashem al-Mamlouk, the head of the missile unit of the PIJ northern brigade. Also killed in the airstrike were Kamal Tayseer Salman Qureiq, a field commander of a missile unit in PIJ’s Gaza brigade, and Muhammad Yahya Muhammad Abu al-Ata, according to a statement published by the group.
Ata is the brother of Baha Abu al-Ata, the former commander of PIJ’s northern brigade, who was killed in 2019 in a targeted operation by the IDF and Shin Bet. On May 17, PIJ acknowledged on its website that Hussam Abu Harbeed, the commander of the northern brigade, was killed by an IDF airstrike earlier in the day. Harbeed was responsible for firing rockets at Israeli civilians, including a recent anti-tank guided missile attack against a civilian vehicle during the opening days of the conflict, according to a statement by the IDF. There could still be more targeted strikes. The head of the IDF Southern Command, Eliezer Toledano, stated Monday that the IDF could target Muhammad al-Deif and Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, whose home the IDF targeted in an airstrike on Sunday. In a recent interview, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel’s goal was to “do whatever it takes to restore order and quiet and the security of people and deterrence. We’re trying to degrade Hamas’ terrorist abilities and to degrade their will to do this again.”Israel’s allies and partners, chief among them the United States, should unequivocally back this targeted campaign. Israel has proven its ability to eliminate terrorist targets with minimal civilian casualties. Continuing this campaign may be one of the key ways Israel can keep its citizens safe from the threat posed by terror organizations in the Gaza Strip.
Joe Truzman is an analyst and contributor at the Long War Journal (LWJ), a project of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He also contributes to FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). For more analysis from Joe, LWJ, and CMPP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Joe on Twitter @Jtruzmah. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @LongWarJournal and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

A Sinking Ship of State Drowns Everyone
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/May 28/ 2021
To be clear, the spending bill is actually the creation of a national debt so massive that it has the means to destabilize a democracy dependent on a functioning economy.
For the Chinese Communist Party, seeking to master the 21st Century as the one global superpower, it represents a strategic victory without so much as firing a single bullet. They know that an economically weakened America cannot possibly sustain its military leadership when it is burdened with paying down a massive debt. Our allies and unaligned nations recognize this threat as well, and will reinvent their relationship with China if they believe America's best days are in the past.
What makes the Administration believe that Corporate America would not respond with massive restructuring to avoid a confiscatory tax bill -- or passing the added cost on to the consumer, or moving the company's headquarters offshore to a country with a lower corporate rate -- to avoid the threat of losing its international competitive edge? Corporations have good accountants, too.
Few debate the idea that our nation's infrastructure is in need of serious attention but the level of political dishonesty in characterizing the Biden plan as "infrastructure" has even made many in his own party queasy. Significant portions of the bill are earmarked for "environmental" agendas and seeming favors to campaign donors, such as billions in subsidies for electric vehicles. The proposed bill cries out for more sunlight and vast quantities of disinfectant.
This recipe for an economic apocalypse comes at a time when new job creation has stagnated and the specter of a serious inflation has begun to emerge.... As historians will tell you if we have the wisdom to listen, no one escapes the devastation of a debtor nation. No one.
One suspects that historians and economists will consistently agree on one irrefutable fact: nations that allow their economies to bathe in red ink are destined to fail. This failure takes many roads and differs in timing, but massive, uncontrolled national deficits eventually reduce a nation state to being a pauper, a pariah -- and pathetic.
Enter Joe Biden's "American Jobs Plan," a $2.3 trillion spending scheme that takes some Americans' most fevered fantasies and wraps them inside an "infrastructure" label in an effort to convince Capitol Hill that the spending is all about roads and bridges. An analysis by the Wharton School places plenty of caution flags on this initiative.
To be clear, the spending bill is actually the creation of a national debt so massive that it has the means to destabilize a democracy dependent on a functioning economy.
For the Chinese Communist Party seeking to master the 21st Century as the one global superpower, it represents a strategic victory without so much as firing a single bullet. They know that an economically weakened America cannot possible sustain its military leadership when it is burdened with paying down a massive debt. Our allies and unaligned nations recognize this threat as well, and will reinvent their relationship with China if they believe America's best days are in the past.
Even the White House acknowledges that their spending debt would take 15 years to pay off, providing that Biden's proposed corporate tax hikes generate the projected revenue – itself highly questionable. What makes the Administration believe that Corporate America would not respond with massive restructuring to avoid a confiscatory tax bill -- or passing the added cost on to the consumer, or moving the company's headquarters offshore to a country with a lower corporate rate -- to avoid the threat of losing its international competitive edge? Corporations have good accountants, too.
Few debate the idea that our nation's infrastructure is in need of serious attention but the level of political dishonesty in characterizing the Biden plan as "infrastructure" has even made many in his own party queasy. Significant portions of the bill are earmarked for "environmental" agendas and seeming favors to campaign donors, such as billions in subsidies for electric vehicles. The proposed bill cries out for more sunlight and vast quantities of disinfectant. Sadly, the bill suggests a clumsy political strategy to prevent open debate and an honest review of the Biden agenda.
This recipe for an economic apocalypse comes at a time when new job creation has stagnated and the specter of a serious inflation has begun to emerge. Biden's spending spree is far beyond Washington's traditional pork. It is creating a level of unsustainable debt in pursuit of a social agenda that could literally sink everyone, drowning all, regardless of which political party they claim.
As historians will tell you if we have the wisdom to listen, no one escapes the devastation of a debtor nation. No one.
*Lawrence Kadish is a real estate developer, entrepreneur & witness to an era of "Brother can you spare a dime".
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Bangladesh Removes Israel Exclusion From Its Passport, Tells Palestinian Ambassador: 'We Are A Sovereign Country; We Will Decide What To Do'
Tufail Ahmad/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 279/May 28/2021
On May 23, 2021, the government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina confirmed that it had removed the words "except Israel" from the Bangladeshi passport.[1] In practical terms, this means that Bangladesh has, albeit theoretically, lifted a bar on its citizens from travelling to Israel. Prime Minister Hasina, who was in office from 1996 to 2001 and has now been in office since 2009, is currently in a strong position, with the political opposition at its weakest, the Islamist religious opposition tamed, and Bangladesh forging ahead of its giant neighbor India in terms of per capita income. In 2007, Bangladesh's per capita income was half of that of India, but in 2021 it is $2,227 compared with India's $1,947.[2]
The landmark decision by the Hasina government is being seen in the context of a number of Islamic countries – notably the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco – having moved in the direction of normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel in recent years. Even in Pakistan, some eminent Islamic scholars have spoken publicly in favor of normalization of ties with Israel.[3] According to the Department of Immigration and Passports, new Bangladeshi passports will now declare: "This passport is valid for all countries of the world" – with the last two words "except Israel" being dropped."[4]
Inside cover of the old Bangladeshi passport now being phased out
Bangladesh being an Islamic country, some questions will certainly be asked of the government regarding any policy change involving Israel. Mirza Fakhrul Islam, the secretary general of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), criticized the Hasina government for the passport decision. "[The government] has decided to remove the word 'except Israel' from the new passport. There's a consensus among our people that Israel is our enemy as they've destroyed human rights," Mirza Fakhrul Islam said.[5]
Mirza Fakhrul Islam added: "Israel is a threat not only to the Middle East but also to the entire world. Why's the Bangladesh government going to build a loving relationship with Israel?"[6] He reiterated his party's position: "We would like to make it clear BNP has no link with Israel. We have an anti-Israel stance. We've always been against Israel."[7]
Brushing aside such criticism, Bangladesh's Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that the decision will ensure that Bangladeshi passports meet the "international standards."[8] To manage any likely protests from religious circles, the Hasina government has, for now, said that the decision to remove "except Israel" does not mean that Bangladeshi citizens can travel to Israel. Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen, the foreign minister of Bangladesh, said that Bangladesh still does not recognize Israel and there is no change in this position.[9]
Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh
Reacting immediately after the news emerged, the Palestinian ambassador to Dhaka Yousef S.Y. Ramadan urged the Bangladeshi government to reverse its decision. "Bangladesh is a sovereign country and it has the right to do whatever it wants regarding its passport, but we would like to request that the Bangladesh government reverse the decision," Ramadan said.[10] "Personally, I feel that this move is not acceptable to the people of Palestine," he said.[11]
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Momen, responding to the Palestinian envoy's remarks, asserted that Dhaka is making its own independent decision. "Who said what on our decision is totally irrelevant to me. We maintain our foreign policy. We are a sovereign country. We will decide what to do," Momen told reporters.[12] Bangladesh's foreign ministry said in a statement that the removal of the words "except Israel" does not imply any change of Bangladesh's foreign policy toward the Middle East."[13]
However, the Palestinian ambassador – according to a media report – "disagreed with Bangladesh's explanation" on the change in its passport, saying that the global standard that was mentioned is not correct and added that the Malaysian passport ranks 20th globally, but still contains the travel ban to Israel.[14] "I don't know what reason was behind the change in the passport of Bangladesh. I think a few people have been involved in this," Ambassador Ramadan said, adding that the passport change came at a time "when atrocities were underway in Gaza and its neighboring areas" and "the change in Bangladeshi passport has turned into a gift for Israel."[15]
Pakistani passport bans travel to Israel
Due to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a number of Islamic countries in the past had disallowed their citizens from visiting Israel. However, this does not mean that Muslims from such Islamic countries do not visit Israel. Given the unique boycott of Israel by Islamic countries and other similar reasons, Israel maintains a practice of not stamping the passports of its foreign visitors.
For example, Pakistan and Israel do not have diplomatic ties. The Pakistani passport also reads: "This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel." Despite this, Pakistani citizens have visited Israel purely for religious and tourism purposes.[16] Most Muslims in Pakistan who oppose, in the name of the Palestinians, the very existence of Israel, conveniently forget that it was Brigadier Zia-ul-Haq, who later became Pakistan Army chief and dictator, who was responsible for butchering Palestinians during Black September when he commanded a military division in Jordan in 1970.[17]
In Bangladesh, a Palestine-like issue has developed in recent years. In 2004, a representative office of Taiwan was opened in Dhaka to facilitate trade relations between Bangladesh and Taiwan. However, Beijing later exerted pressure, forcing the closure of the Taiwanese office. M. Humayun Kabir, who served as Bangladesh's ambassador to the U.S., said that despite these issues, Bangladeshis are doing business with Taiwan.[18]
"But Israel is an independent country and a member state of the United Nations. They (Israel and Taiwan) are different," Kabir noted in support of the view that Bangladesh should establish diplomatic ties with Israel.[19] The former Bangladeshi ambassador pointed out that Islamic countries like the United Arab Emirates are normalizing ties with Israel while others like Turkey and Jordan already have diplomatic relations with Israel.[20]
* Tufail Ahmad is a Senior Fellow at MEMRI.
[1] BDNews24.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[2] News18.com (India), May 23, 2021.
[3] MEMRI Daily Brief No. 251, Pakistan's Islamic Clerics Debate Normalization Of Relations With Israel, January 13, 2021.
[4] BDNews24.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[5] DhakaTribune.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[6] DhakaTribune.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[7] DhakaTribune.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[8] BDNews24.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[9] DhakaTribune.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[10] TheFinancialExpress.com.bd (Bangladesh), May 24, 2021.
[11] TheFinancialExpress.com.bd (Bangladesh), May 24, 2021.
[12] TheDailyStar.net (Bangladesh), May 25, 2021.
[13] TheDailyStar.net (Bangladesh), May 25, 2021.
[14] ProthoMalo.com (Bangladesh), May 25, 2021.
[15] ProthoMalo.com (Bangladesh), May 25, 2021.
[16] Further reading on this aspect of the issue: Narendra Modi in Tel Aviv today: It is time Muslims rethink their idea of Israel , FirstPost.com (India), July 5, 2017.
[17] Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 64, No. 2 (June 2020), Cia.gov (U.S.), accessed May 27, 2021.
[18] BDNews24.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[19] BDNews24.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.
[20] BDNews24.com (Bangladesh), May 23, 2021.

Spain Relives Its Ancient History with Islam
Raymond Ibrahim/May 28/2021
Father holds onto son as a boatload of Muslim migrants lands in southern Spain
Spain is reliving its ancient history with Islam.
Ongoing reports indicate that Muslims migrants from North Africa are illegally entering and flooding Spanish territory. In just 2020, 23,000 migrants invaded Spain’s Canary Islands, representing a 234 percent increase. Most recently, in just one day, some 6,000 North Africans invaded Ceuta “by sea, either swimming or with inflatables, all in a bid to eventually get to mainland Europe.”
Once arriving on Spanish territory, such migrants invariably engage in unsavory and downright criminal behavior, such as gang-rape, and create enclaves, or ribats, where police fear to tread.
In other words, North Africa’s Muslim invaders are following the same strategy that led to the Islamic conquest of Christian Spain in the eighth century.
Recalling that history and how the Spaniards responded is instructive—particularly, as shall be seen, on today’s date, May 28.
In 711, exactly 1,310 years ago, hordes of North African Muslims (“Moors”) “godlessly invaded Spain to destroy it,” to quote from the Chronicle of 754. They did not pass “a place without reducing it, and getting possession of its wealth,” boasted al-Hakam, an early Muslim chronicler, “for Allah Almighty had struck with terror the hearts of the infidels.”
Such terrorism was intentionally cultivated, in keeping with the Koran (e.g., 3:151, 8:12). In one instance, the invaders slaughtered, cooked, and ate or pretended to eat their Christian captives, prompting hysteria among “the people of Andalus [Spain] that the Muslims feed on human flesh,” and thereby “contributing in no small degree to increase the panic of the infidels,” wrote another Muslim chronicler.
Emboldened by their coreligionists’ initial victories, and reminiscent of what is happening today, swarms of Africans “crossed the sea on every vessel or bark they could lay hold of,” the Muslim chronicler continues; they so overwhelmed the peninsula that “the Christians were obliged to shut themselves up in their castles and fortresses, and, quitting the flat country, betake themselves to their mountains.”
By 712, one year after the Islamic invasion, the Muslims had, in the words of the Chronicle of 754, “ruined beautiful cities, burning them with fire; condemned lords and powerful men to the cross; and butchered youths and infants with the sword.” Several other early sources corroborate the devastation and persecution. The oldest account, the Tempore belli, tells of Muslims “sacking Christian temples [churches] and homes, burning the cities of those who resisted, and taking their young women as sexual slaves, all creating an indescribable terror.”
Eventually, Pelagius, better known as Pelayo (685–737), a nobleman, fled to the mountains of Asturias in the furthest north of Spain, where he “joined himself to as many people as he found hastening to assemble.” There, the assembled Christian fugitives declared Pelayo their new king; and the Kingdom of Asturias—the first Christian kingdom after the Islamic conquest of Spain—was born, sometime between 718 and 722.
Before long, a large Muslim army was sent to bring these infidel rebels to heal. Oppa, another nobleman or clergyman now serving the Muslims as a dhimmi, was sent to parley with Pelayo at the mouth of a deep cavern: “If when the entire army of the Goths was assembled, it was unable to sustain the attack of the Ishmaelites [meaning Arabs, during their initial invasions in 711], how much better will you be able to defend yourself on this mountaintop? To me it seems difficult. Rather, heed my warning and recall your soul from this decision, so that you may take advantage of many good things and enjoy the partnership [of the Arabs].”
“I will not associate with the Arabs in friendship nor will I submit to their authority,” Pelayo retorted, adding, “Christ is our hope that through this little mountain”—which he likened to the “mustard seed” of the famous parable that eventually grows into something great (Mark 4:30-32) —the “well-being of Spain … will be restored.”
There and then, on May 28—today in history—battle commenced; due to the terrain which was conducive to their guerilla tactics, the vastly outnumbered Christians prevailed, thereby finally stemming the tide of Islam, which, except for this tiny Asturian stronghold, had swept through and conquered the whole of Spain.
Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Maqqari (1578–1632), the premiere historian of al-Andalus, offers the Muslim perspective on this pivotal event:
[A] despicable barbarian, whose name was Belay [Pelayo], rose in the land of Galicia, and, having reproached his countrymen for their ignominious dependence and their cowardly flight, began to stir them up to revenge the past injuries, and to expel the Moslems from the land of their ancestors. From that moment the Christians of Andalus began to resist the attacks of the Moslems on such districts as had remained in their possession, and to defend their wives and daughters… The commencement of the rebellion happened thus: there remained no city, town, or village in Galicia but what was in the hands of the Moslems, with the exception of a steep mountain …. [There, Pelayo] took refuge with three hundred followers, whom the Moslems ceased not to pursue and to attack, until the greater part of them died of hunger, and Belay remained with only thirty men and ten women, whose sole food consisted of honey which they gathered in the crevices of the rock…. However, Belay and his men fortified themselves by degrees in the passes of the mountain until the Moslems were made acquainted with their preparations; but, perceiving how few they were, they heeded not the advice conveyed to them, and allowed them to gather strength, saying, ‘What are thirty barbarians, perched upon a rock?—they must inevitably die.’ Would to Allah that the Moslems had then extinguished at once the sparkles of a fire that was destined to consume the whole dominions of Islam in those parts!
Writing in retrospect, the Muslim historian’s lament is appropriate; for, from that tiny mountain kingdom in the north, and over the course of centuries of devastating wars—jihads and reconquistas—Spain’s Christians managed to reclaim their country from Islam.
But that is another long and painful story—one that the modern West has, lamentably, learned nothing from.