English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  September 05/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.september05.21.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today
Parable Of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and their kind of prayers: All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 18/09-14/:”Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 04-05/2021
MoPH: 1015 new coronavirus infections, ten deaths
Lebanese scramble to secure fuel, electricity supplies through Syria
Lebanon turns to Syria for desperately-needed energy imports
Lebanese Delegation in First Official Syria Visit in 10 Years
Salim Khoury: Mikati's proposal to form a government of 14 ministers may be met positively by President Aoun
Report: Miqati to Propose '14-Minister Salvation Government'
Worshippers Pray at Gas Station in Lebanon amid Fuel Crisis
Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan passes away
FPM: We will not stand idly by before any procrastination in forming a government

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 04-05/2021
Russia Confirms Israel Bombed Syria from Lebanon's Airspace
Raisi says Iran ready for nuclear talks, but not under Western ‘pressure’
Taliban, opposition vie to control Panjshir; Pakistan spy chief flies to Kabul
Taliban special forces bring abrupt end to women’s protest
Taliban Yet to Name Government as Panjshir Resistance Holds
Biden Wants Afghan Exit to End U.S. Global Cop Role
Blinken, Austin to meet with Gulf allies on Afghan crisis trip
Israel opens China-operated port, seeks ties to ‘neighbours in the Middle East’
Saudi-owned media companies to start moving from Dubai to Riyadh
UN chief warns that political process in Libya is ‘under threat’

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 04-05/2021
Israel: Still the 'Strong Horse'/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/September 04/2021
The horrors emerging from Afghanistan are only just beginning/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/September 04/ 2021
Imposing a carbon tax on oil exports makes no sense/Faisal Faeq/Arab News/September 04/ 2021
Why the Middle East no longer trusts America/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/September 04/ 2021
Why military interventions are usually doomed to fail/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/September 04/ 2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 04-05/2021
MoPH: 1015 new coronavirus infections, ten deaths
NNA/September 04/2021
1015 new coronavirus cases and ten more deaths have been recorded in Lebanon in the last 24 hours, as reported by the Ministry of Public Health on Saturday.

Lebanese scramble to secure fuel, electricity supplies through Syria
The Arab Weekly/September 04/2021
BEIRUT--The Lebanese are eagerly awaiting a solution to the country’s electricity crisis, as they await some relief from their endless ordeal with promises of arrival of trucks of Iranian and by possible imports of electricity from Jordan and Egypt through Syria. While Beirut sent a government delegation of the highest level to Damascus, questions remain about Washington’s position on Iranian oil trucks arriving in Lebanon via Syria, based on a request from Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Well-informed Lebanese political sources ruled out that Washington would stand in the way of fuel supplies to Lebanon. It is expected that the US would allow the passage of a few trucks for humanitarian reasons but would not allow the matter to go on indefinitely. US Senator Chris Murphy had said in Beirut this week that fuel transits through Syria are potentially subject to congressionally mandated sanctions but that they are working through “whether or not we can help facilitate that transit without applying US sanctions.”“My hope is that we could find a way to get this done that would not involve any U.S. sanctions,” Murphy said, adding that this is only one of many ways “we are working hard to try to find a solution to the fuel crisis.” Hezbollah’s opponents have warned of dire consequences from Iranian fuel shipments, saying they risk triggering sanctions against a country whose economy has been in collapse for nearly two years. Sources said that the shipments will arrive in Syria and then will be trucked to Lebanon, with the first priority being to deliver fuel to hospitals to generate electricity.
A delegation from Lebanon’s caretaker government will visit Syria on Saturday in the highest level visit in years, aiming to pave the way for a US-backed plan to ease a power crisis in Lebanon by receiving electricity via the Syrian grid. The delegation, to be led by the deputy prime minister and defence minister, Zeina Akar, will discuss the plan by which Egyptian gas will be used to generate electricity in Jordan that will then be transmitted via Syria, a Lebanese official said. A Syrian government statement said Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad would receive the Lebanese delegation including the ministers of finance and energy at the border on Saturday. The United States has said it is in talks with Egypt, Jordan and the World Bank to help find solutions to Lebanon’s energy crisis. The Lebanese presidency said last month Washington had decided to help through this plan.
US sanctions on Damascus are a complicating factor in any effort to help Lebanon via Syria, an issue discussed by US senators who visited Lebanon this week.
US Senator Chris Van Hollen told Reuters ways were being looked at to address the complication despite the Caesar Act. The US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea has said there is a will to make the plan happen. US sanctions on Syria include the Caesar Act, which Washington applied last year and which can freeze assets of anyone dealing with Syria, regardless of nationality. They aim to force President Bashar al-Assad to stop the war and agree to a political solution. Lebanese Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar said that his government had not received any requests for permits to import Iranian fuel.
Lebanon has been negotiating for more than a year with Cairo to import energy and gas through Jordan and Syria, but US sanctions on Syria have always constituted an obstacle to the agreement. In the wake of an economic collapse that the World Bank has described as being among the worst in the world since 1850, Lebanon has faced a worsening fuel crisis, which has largely impacted various sectors, including hospitals, bakeries and communications.
As a result, the ability of the Electricité du Liban to provide reasonable supplies to the population has declined, which led to an increase in rationing hours to exceed 22 hours per day. Private generators are no longer able to provide the diesel needed to cover the hours of power outages.
Many Lebanese accuse Hezbollah of facilitating the smuggling of fuel to Syria, and consider this to be among the causes of the country’s fuel crisis. During the past three days, the Lebanese army arrested six nationals and three Syrians in eastern and northern Lebanon, who were preparing to smuggle fuel to Syria, according to a statement issued by the Lebanese Army Command. Army units seized “five cars, a pickup and a van loaded with a quantity of fuel intended to be smuggled out of Lebanese territory, estimated at 7,500 litres of gasoline, in addition to a quantity of smoke and foodstuffs.” The seizures were handed over, according to the statement, “and an investigation was launched with the detainees under the supervision of the competent judiciary.”

Lebanon turns to Syria for desperately-needed energy imports
NNA/September 04/2021
A delegation of high-ranking Lebanese ministers visited Damascus Saturday for talks on importing energy via Syria, the first such official visit since its civil war broke out 10 years ago. Harsh fuel shortages and power cuts inflicted by Lebanon's economic collapse have paralysed businesses like restaurants, shops and industry as well as vital services like hospitals. Now Beirut hopes to strike a deal to import gas from Egypt and electricity from Jordan using Syrian infrastructure -- in the face of US sanctions against the Damascus regime. The delegation led by Zeina Akar, deputy prime minister of Lebanon's interim government, also includes Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar and General Security intelligence agency chief Abbas Ibrahim.--- Daily Mail

Lebanese Delegation in First Official Syria Visit in 10 Years
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/September 04/2021
A delegation of high-ranking Lebanese ministers visited Damascus Saturday for talks on importing energy via Syria, the first such official visit since its civil war broke out 10 years ago. Harsh fuel shortages and power cuts inflicted by Lebanon's economic collapse have paralyzed businesses like restaurants, shops and industry as well as vital services like hospitals. Now Beirut hopes to strike a deal to import gas from Egypt and electricity from Jordan using Syrian infrastructure -- in the face of U.S. sanctions against the Damascus regime. The delegation led by Zeina Akar, deputy prime minister of Lebanon's caretaker government, also includes Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar and General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. After meeting Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad at the border, the group travelled on to Damascus, where state television announced the beginning of talks at the foreign ministry."The agenda is to discuss bringing Egyptian natural gas to Jordan, then to Syria and Lebanon to help with energy production ... and look at existing deals and reach new understandings," said Nasri Khoury, head of the Damascus-based Syrian Lebanese Higher Council, a government-linked body. A 2009 deal to deliver natural gas through a pipeline that runs through Syria has been inactive since 2010 and the Syrian war has damaged the pipelines. Lebanon has maintained diplomatic ties with Syria but it adopted a policy of dissociation from the conflict since it started in 2011, which put a dampener on official dealings. Lebanese security officials and politicians have made several visits to Syria in recent years, but almost exclusively in a personal capacity or on behalf of political parties that support President Bashar al-Assad's government. They include representatives of the powerful Iran-backed Hizbullah movement which has been battling alongside Assad's forces in Syria since the early stages of the war. Syrian state media have touted the visit as one that "breaks the ice and (revives) relations" between the two countries. The visit comes after the Lebanese presidency last month said that Washington has agreed to help Lebanon secure electricity and natural gas from Jordan and Egypt through Syrian territory. This implies that the U.S. is willing to waive Western sanctions which prohibit any official transactions with the Syrian government and which have hampered previous attempts by Lebanon to source gas from Egypt. That announcement followed Hizbullah's statement that Iran would begin sending fuel to Lebanon, with shipping website Tanker Trackers saying Friday that the first two ships had set off. Lebanon, a country of more than six million people, is grappling with an economic crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst in modern times. The central bank is struggling to afford basic imports, including fuel, which has caused shortages and prolonged power cuts that now last as long as 22 hours per day.

Salim Khoury: Mikati's proposal to form a government of 14 ministers may be met positively by President Aoun
NNA/September 04/2021
MP Salim Khoury revealed that "President Najib Mikati's proposal to form a government of 14 ministers from among the political leaders may be met positively by President Michel Aoun."Khoury stressed that "President Aoun made all the concessions and facilities required for the birth of the government and was positively dealing with everything that was presented to him, even when the discussion touched upon the names." He deemed that there is "a great possibility to solve the remaining obstacle before the formation of the government."

Report: Miqati to Propose '14-Minister Salvation Government'
Naharnet/September 04/2021
PM-designate Najib Miqati is inclined to suggest the formation of an “executive salvation government” that would “pull the country out of the disastrous crisis,” a media report said on Saturday. The 14-seat government would comprise senior politicians, Annahar newspaper quoted “highly informed sources” as saying. “Miqati will submit this line-up to the President in the beginning of next week, and should it be rejected by (President Michel) Aoun, Miqati will flip the table once and for all,” the sources added.Below is the reported line-up as published by Annahar newspaper:
- Najib Miqati
- Tammam Salam
- Bahia Hariri
- Suleiman Franjieh
- Ibrahim Kanaan
- Georges Adwan
- Yassine Jaber
- Mohammed Fneish
- Jihad Murtada
- Walid Jumblat
- Hagop Pakradounian
- Farid Makari
- Elias Murr
- Ghassan Salameh

Worshippers Pray at Gas Station in Lebanon amid Fuel Crisis
Associated Press/September 04/2021
Dozens of worshippers knelt in prayer Friday at the center of hundreds of cars and unruly motorists surrounding a gas station south of Beirut. Sheikh Ali al-Hussein led the session to highlight the hardship suffered by people who could not leave their spots in line for gas during the worst economic crisis in Lebanon's history. So, he says, he brought the mosque to the people, who were queued up for five kilometers (three miles) near a station in Jiyeh. He blasted politicians for their corruption and mismanagement. "The aim is to send a message to the political class which is to blame for the miseries of this nation," he said.
The session underscored Lebanon's economic and financial crisis, which has plunged more than half the population in poverty. The two-year crisis has been compounded by the pandemic and last year's massive blast at Beirut port that killed at least 214 people and destroyed large parts of the city. The results include crippling power cuts and severe shortages of gasoline and diesel that have been blamed on smuggling, hoarding and the cash-strapped government's inability to secure deliveries of oil products. Just to get gasoline, people must wait hours in line, commonly called, "queues of humiliation," -- and sometimes, in danger. Some people cradle their computers behind the wheel while they wait. Others pass the time making calls or playing games on their cellphones. Still more sweat silently for hours, hoping they don't get caught up in a gun fight or fist fight - an increasingly common feature at congested gas stations across the country. Sometimes, customers get their turn after a long wait in the sizzling summer heat and humidity, only to be told the power has gone out and the pumps stopped working. Then there are those who overnight in the vehicles outside the gas station. On Friday, the group of Lebanese worshippers took it a step further, holding mass Friday prayers at a station on a highway south of the capital Beirut, where the line of cars blocked the road. The fuel crisis deteriorated dramatically in recent weeks after the central bank decided to end subsidies for fuel products -- a decision that will likely lead to price hikes of almost all commodities in Lebanon, already in the throes of soaring poverty and hyperinflation.

Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan passes away
NNA/September 04/2021
Head of the Supreme Shiite Council, Imam Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, passed away on Saturday at the age of 85.

FPM: We will not stand idly by before any procrastination in forming a government
NNA/September 04/2021
The "Free Patriotic Movement" political body held its periodic meeting today, chaired by its Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, following which an issued statement deemed that the "FPM will not stand idly by before any procrastination in forming a government." The FPM warned that Lebanon will enter into a major crisis soon if Parliament does not issue a law allowing Central Bank to finance the Electricité du Liban Company without legal breach of the mandatory reserve, in order to purchase the fuel needed to produce electricity at a rate of at least 16 hours a day, which stops waste and the high financial cost resulting from the purchase of diesel for generators. The political council called on the parliament, especially the obstructing blocs, to pass reform laws, foremost of which is the expanded administrative and financial decentralization law.Finally, the conferees asked the House of Representatives about the fate of the proposed law to recover funds transferred abroad, most of which belong to politicians and bankers who exploited their influence.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 04-05/2021
Russia Confirms Israel Bombed Syria from Lebanon's Airspace
Associated Press/September 04/2021
The Russian military, which provides air-defense systems to Syria, has said that Syria had shot down more than 20 missiles launched from Israeli F-15 fighter jets from Lebanon's airspace during the Thursday night raid.Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit, head of the Russian military's Reconciliation Center in Syria, said Syrian air defense units downed 21 of the 24 guided missiles launched by the Israeli aircraft with Russia-supplied air defense systems. He didn't specify what Syrian facilities were targeted by Israeli jets and whether they inflicted any casualties or damage. Syria's state news agency SANA had said that the missiles were launched from the area southeast of neighboring Lebanon and targeted areas near Damascus. The Israeli military, which rarely speaks of its operations in the war-ravaged country, did not acknowledge that they carried out any airstrikes. It said only that a surface-to-air missile launched from Syrian territory towards Israeli air space exploded over the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, and that residents in central Israel had located several missile fragments on the ground. Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years. but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. Israel views Iranian entrenchment on its northern frontier as a red line, and it has repeatedly struck what it says are Iran-linked facilities and weapons convoys destined for Lebanese Hizbullah. The Iran-backed militant group is fighting alongside Syrian government forces in the country's long-running civil war.
Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since 2015, helping President Bashar Assad's government reclaim control over most of the country after a devastating civil war. Moscow also has helped modernize Syria's military, including providing Assad with air defense systems, and trained its personnel.

Raisi says Iran ready for nuclear talks, but not under Western ‘pressure’
Reuters/04 September ,2021
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday Iran was ready to hold talks with world powers to revive its 2015 nuclear accord but not under Western “pressure”, adding Tehran was seeking negotiations leading to a lifting of US sanctions.
“The Westerners and the Americans are after talks together with pressure ... I have already announced that we will have talks on our government’s agenda but not with ... pressure,” Raisi said in a live interview with state television. “Talks are on the agenda ... We are seeking goal-oriented negotiations ... so sanctions on the Iranian people are lifted,” Raisi sai

Taliban, opposition vie to control Panjshir; Pakistan spy chief flies to Kabul
NNA/September 04/2021
Taliban and opposition forces were fighting on Saturday for control of the Panjshir valley north of Kabul, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the Islamist militia, according to reports. Taliban sources had said on Friday the group had seized control of the valley, although the resistance denied it had fallen. The Taliban have so far issued no public declaration that they had taken the valley, which resisted their rule when they were last in power in Kabul in 1996-2001. A spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which groups opposition forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said Taliban forces reached the Darband heights on the border between Kapisa province and Panjshir but were pushed back. "The defence of the stronghold of Afghanistan is unbreakable," Fahim Dashty said in a tweet.A Taliban source said fighting was continuing in Panjshir but the advance had been slowed by landmines placed on the road to the capital Bazarak and the provincial governor's compound. "Demining and offensives are both going on at the same time," the source said. It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation of events in Panjshir, which is walled off by mountains except for a narrow entrance and had held out against Soviet occupation as well as the previous Taliban government. Celebratory gunfire resounded all over Kabul on Friday as reports spread of the Taliban's takeover of Panjshir, and news agencies said at least 17 people were killed and 41 injured in the firing.
Pakistan's spy chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed flew into Kabul on Saturday, sources in both capitals said. It was not clear what his agenda was, but a senior official in Pakistan had said earlier in the week that Hameed, who heads the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, could help the Taliban reorganise the Afghan military. Washington has accused Pakistan and the ISI of backing the Taliban in the group's two-decade fight against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, although Islamabad has denied the charges. After the Islamist group seized Kabul this month, analysts have said Pakistan's role in Afghanistan will be much enhanced. Pakistan's government has said that its influence over the movement has waned, particularly since the Taliban grew in confidence once Washington announced the date for the complete withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops.

Taliban special forces bring abrupt end to women’s protest
The Associated Press/04 September ,2021
Taliban special forces in camouflage fired their weapons into the air Saturday, bringing an abrupt and frightening end to the latest protest march in the capital by Afghan women demanding equal rights from the new rulers. Also on Saturday, the chief of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency, which has an outsized influence on the Taliban, made a surprise visit to Kabul. Taliban fighters quickly captured most of Afghanistan last month and celebrated the departure of the last US forces after 20 years of war. The insurgent group must now govern a war-ravaged country that is heavily reliant on international aid.
The women’s march — the second in as many days in Kabul — began peacefully. Demonstrators laid a wreath outside Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry to honor Afghan soldiers who died fighting the Taliban before marching on to the presidential palace. “We are here to gain human rights in Afghanistan,” said 20-year-old protester Maryam Naiby. “I love my country. I will always be here.”As the protesters’ shouts grew louder, several Taliban officials waded into the crowd to ask what they wanted to say.
Flanked by fellow demonstrators, Sudaba Kabiri, a 24-year-old university student, told her Taliban interlocutor that Islam’s Prophet gave women rights and they wanted theirs. The Taliban official promised women would be given their rights but the women, all in their early 20s, were skeptical. As the demonstrators reached the presidential palace, a dozen Taliban special forces ran into the crowd, firing in the air and sending demonstrators fleeing. Kabiri, who spoke to The Associated Press, said they also fired tear gas. The Taliban have promised an inclusive government and a more moderate form of Islamic rule than when they last ruled the country from 1996 to 2001. But many Afghans, especially women, are deeply skeptical and fear a roll back of rights gained over the last two decades.For much of the past two weeks, Taliban officials have been holding meetings among themselves, amid reports of differences among them emerging. Early on Saturday, neighboring Pakistan’s powerful intelligence chief Gen. Faiez Hameed made a surprise visit to Kabul. It wasn’t immediately clear what he had to say to the Taliban leadership but the Pakistani intelligence service has a strong influence on the Taliban.
The Taliban leadership had its headquarters in Pakistan and were often said to be in direct contact with the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Although Pakistan routinely denied providing the Taliban military aid, the accusation was often made by the Afghan government and Washington.
Faiez’ visit comes as the world waits to see what kind of government the Taliban will eventually announce, seeking one that is inclusive and ensures protection of women’s rights and the country’s minorities. The Taliban have promised a broad-based government and have held talks with former president Hamid Karzai and the former government’s negotiation chief Abdullah Abdullah. But the makeup of the new government is uncertain and it was unclear whether hard-line ideologues among the Taliban will win the day — and whether the rollbacks feared by the demonstrating women will occur.
Taliban members whitewashed murals Saturday that promoted health care, warned of the dangers of HIV and even paid homage to some of Afghanistan’s iconic foreign contributors, like anthropologist Nancy Dupree, who singlehandedly chronicled Afghanistan’s rich cultural legacy. It was a worrying sign of attempts to erase reminders of the past 20 years.
The murals were replaced with slogans congratulating Afghans on their victory. A Taliban cultural commission spokesman, Ahmadullah Muttaqi, tweeted that the murals were painted over “because they are against our values. They were spoiling the minds of the mujahedeen and instead we wrote slogans that will be useful to everyone.” Meanwhile, the young women demonstrators said they have had to defy worried families to press ahead with their protests, even sneaking out of their homes to take their demands for equal rights to the new rulers. Farhat Popalzai, another 24-year-old university student, said she wanted to be the voice of Afghanistan’s voiceless women, those too afraid to come out on the street. “I am the voice of the women who are unable to speak.” she said. “They think this is a man’s country but it is not, it is a woman’s country too.” Popalzai and her fellow demonstrators are too young to remember the Taliban rule that ended in 2001 with the US-led invasion. The say their fear is based on the stories they have heard of women not being allowed to go to school and work. Naiby, the 20-year-old, has already operated a women’s organization and is a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Paralympics. She reflected on the tens of thousands of Afghans who rushed to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport to escape Afghanistan after the Taliban overran the capital on Aug. 15. “They were afraid,” but for her she said, the fight is in Afghanistan.

Taliban Yet to Name Government as Panjshir Resistance Holds
Agence France Presse/September 04/2021
Fresh fighting was reported Saturday between the Taliban and resistance forces in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, even as the hardline Islamists finalize a new government that will set the tone for their rule.
Facing the challenge of morphing from insurgents to rulers, the Taliban appear determined to snuff out the Panjshir resistance before announcing who will lead the country in the aftermath of Monday's U.S. troop withdrawal, which was supposed to end two decades of war. But Panjshir, which held out for nearly a decade against the Soviet Union's occupation and also the Taliban's first rule from 1996-2001, is stubbornly holding out. Fighters from the so-called National Resistance Front (NRF) -- made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces -- are understood to have stockpiled a significant armury in the valley, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Kabul and guarded by a narrow gorge.
'Under invasion'
Celebratory gunfire rang out in the capital Kabul overnight as rumors spread the valley had fallen, but the Taliban made no official claim Saturday and a resident told AFP by phone that the reports were false. The Emergency Hospital in Kabul said two people were killed and 20 wounded by the salvos, as the Taliban tweeted a stern admonishment warning its fighters to stop. "Avoid firing in the air and thank God instead," said chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, tipped to become the new regime's information minister. "The weapons and bullets given to you are public property. No one has the right to waste them. The bullets can also harm civilians, don't shoot in vain." In Panjshir, former vice-president Amrullah Saleh, holed out alongside Ahmad Massoud -- the son of legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud -- admitted the perilous position of the NRF. "The situation is difficult, we have been under invasion," Saleh said in a video message. Usually known for his sharp Western suits, Saleh was filmed wearing a traditional shalwar kameez tunic and a flat woollen pakol cap favored by Panjshiris. "The resistance is continuing and will continue," he added. Taliban and resistance tweets suggested the key district of Paryan had changed hands several times in the last few days, but that also could not be independently verified.
Aid talks
Away from the valley, the international community was coming to terms with having to deal with the new Taliban regime with a flurry of diplomacy. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due on Sunday in Qatar, a key player in the Afghan saga and the location of the Taliban's political office, though he is not expected to meet with the militants.He will then travel to Germany, to lead a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on Afghanistan alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Pakistan's intelligence chief Faiz Hameed was in Kabul, meanwhile. Hameed was reportedly in the city to be briefed by his country's ambassador but is also likely to meet top Taliban officials with whom Islamabad has historically had very close relations. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is also set to convene a high-level meeting on Afghanistan in Geneva on September 13, to focus on humanitarian assistance for the country. The United Nations has already restarted humanitarian flights to parts of Afghanistan, while the country's flag carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed domestic flights on Friday and the United Arab Emirates sent a plane carrying "urgent medical and food aid". Western Union and Moneygram, meanwhile, said they were restarting cash transfers, which many Afghans rely on from relatives abroad to survive.
China has already confirmed it will keep its embassy in Kabul open.
Afghanistan's new rulers have pledged to be more accommodating than during their first stint in power, which also came after years of conflict -- first the Soviet invasion of 1979, and then a bloody civil war. That regime was notorious for its brutal interpretation of Islamic law, and its treatment of women, who were forced inside and denied access to school and work. This time around, the Taliban have made repeated declarations that they will not carry out revenge attacks on opponents, and women will have access to education and some employment. They have promised a more "inclusive" government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup -- though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels. In Kabul, dozens of women protested for a second day Saturday to demand the right to work and inclusion in the government. Social media clips showed Taliban fighters and officials attempting to disperse the protesters and stopping people from filming with mobile phones.

Biden Wants Afghan Exit to End U.S. Global Cop Role
Agence France Presse/September 04/2021
"America is back," goes President Joe Biden's catchphrase, but his unapologetic exit from Afghanistan shows America won't be back to business as usual.
Beyond the trauma of the Kabul evacuation, Biden is pitching a much broader retreat: a halt to using vast military resources to impose order and US values around the planet. "This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan," Biden said in what many see as a historic speech on Tuesday. "It's about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries." "Human rights will be at the center of our foreign policy but the way to do that is not through endless military deployments," he said. "Our strategy has to change." Benjamin Haddad, director of the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council and an expert on transatlantic relations, called the speech "one of the most eloquent repudiations of liberal internationalism by any US president in the last decades." For those Americans fond of imagining their country to be a unique, invincible superpower -- winner of the Cold War, then awesome military interventionist everywhere from Iraq to Africa ever since -- this is a shock. For most, though, polls show Biden's pivot is likely to be popular.
Where Trump, Biden agree
Biden's presidency is usually seen as a repudiation of the Donald Trump administration. It's true that a lot -- from things like White House decorum to re-entering the Paris climate accord -- changed the moment Biden walked into the Oval Office on January 20. But Biden's abandonment of open-ended US military adventures -- what detractors call being "the world's policeman" -- is Trumpian. When Biden announced "it's time to end this forever war," about Afghanistan, "it could just as easily be Trump," said Charles Franklin, a Marquette Law School professor and director of the Marquette opinion poll. Today "the public is not committed to a large international role, certainly not of the sort the US played in the 1950s-1990s," Franklin told AFP. Regarding Afghanistan in particular, polls show strong backing for exiting -- 77 percent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll -- even if Biden is taking a battering for the chaotic manner of the withdrawal.
Alliances at risk?
Where Biden differs sharply from isolationist Trump is in enthusiasm for building alliances. The United States may not be a swaggering global cop, the Biden theory goes, but it can be a friendly community leader. His administration moved quickly to put Washington back at the center of tortuous negotiations between major powers and Iran over its nuclear policy, the climate accord, and traditional alliances like NATO. A June trip to Europe for G7 and NATO summits -- Biden's only foreign trip to date -- resembled the diplomatic equivalent of a band getting back together.
Now, though, some of those allies might be feeling nervous, analysts say. Tricia Bacon, an expert on counter-terrorism at American University's law department, told AFP that allies feel "a fair degree of frustration" over the lack of coordination in the US departure from Afghanistan. The US "message will have to be very consistent to regain the lost credibility," she said. And Imad Harb, research director at the Arab Center in Washington, said European partners aren't the only ones left wondering. "Arab regimes accustomed to a close relationship with the United States should be worried about what happened in Afghanistan," he wrote on the think tank's website. "Biden may have finally drawn the curtain on American military interventionism in the wider Middle East," Harb said. Calling Biden's post-withdrawal speech "sobering," Harb said the apparent "contours of a 'Biden Doctrine'" will have sown "trepidation" across a region that for two decades has known no other reality than US intervention.

Blinken, Austin to meet with Gulf allies on Afghan crisis trip
The Arab Weekly/September 04/2021
WASHINGTON --The US diplomatic and defense chiefs on Friday announced travel next week to Qatar and other allies on the Afghanistan crisis as they strive to help more people escape Taliban rule. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will spend Monday and Tuesday in Qatar, the largest hub for the evacuations of some 100,000 Afghans in the final days of the 20-year US military mission.Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will leave on a trip Sunday that also begins in Qatar and will also include Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, fellow US military allies in the Gulf, the Pentagon said. After his stop in Qatar, Blinken will then head to the US air base of Ramstein in Germany, which has become a temporary home for thousands of Afghan allies of the United States flown out after the US-backed government collapsed. He said he will meet with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and then hold a 20-nation virtual ministerial meeting on the crisis. The countries “all have a stake in helping to relocate and resettle Afghans and in holding the Taliban to their commitments,” Blinken told reporters.The Taliban, eager to keep foreign assistance coming in as they suddenly run a deeply poor country, have promised to keep letting Afghans leave. They are also expected shortly to name a government. “There is an expectation that any government that emerges now will have some real inclusivity and that it will have non-Talibs in it,” Blinken said. Blinken said he will voice “deep gratitude” to Qatar for its efforts.A senior State Department official, however, said that Blinken had no plans to meet the Taliban, who have made the Gulf kingdom their diplomatic base from which they negotiated the pullout deal with former president Donald Trump’s administration.
“If it is appropriate for the secretary of state to engage with a senior Taliban leader on a matter that is in our national interest, he will do that, but we’re not at that stage,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Reassuring allies
Republican critics at home have predictably denounced how Biden carried out the withdrawal but some US allies, many of whom rejoiced at seeing Biden replace Trump, have also voiced concern. Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, suggested that the United States is no longer a superpower and Armin Laschet, the leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling party and candidate to succeed her, described the Afghanistan mission as “the biggest debacle” in NATO’s history. Biden, much like Trump, argued that nothing more could have been gained from America’s longest war that claimed nearly 2,500 US lives along with many more among Afghans in the 20 years since the September 11 attacks prompted the invasion. Blinken said the mad dash to fly out Afghans was caused in part by inaction by the Trump administration, which fervently opposed non-European immigration and had virtually shut down a visa programme for Afghan interpreters and others who helped the US mission. Blinken on Thursday toured an evacuation hub at Washington’s international airport in Dulles, Virginia, where more than 26,000 Afghans have flown in on their way to new lives after clearing screening. In an exposition centre the size of an airport hangar, makeshift rooms were created with curtains to separate rows of beds with blue blankets as children roamed nearby. “It’s a range — some are exhausted, some are traumatised obviously. But for the most part it’s an amazing amount of resiliency here,” a woman in fatigues with a nametag identifying her as Kim told Blinken. The top US diplomat, the stepson of a Holocaust survivor, has been a longtime advocate for refugees and appeared visibly emotional as he described his tour. “We throw a lot of statistics around, but each one of those was a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a parent, a grandparent,” Blinken said. Welcoming refugees, Blinken said, is “part of our DNA.”

Israel opens China-operated port, seeks ties to ‘neighbours in the Middle East’
The Arab Weekly/September 04/2021
JERUSALEM--Israel has opened a new shipping port along its Mediterranean coast to serve its ambitions for wider trade ties with the Arab world, despite US concerns about Chinese involvement in Israeli infrastructure projects. The 5.5 billion shekel ($1.7 billion) Bay Port at Haifa, which will be operated by Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), will enable larger classes of cargo ships, carrying 18,000 containers or more, to dock in Israel. The country is selling its state-owned ports and building new private docks in an effort bring down costs and cut above-average wait times for vessels to unload. About 99% of all goods move in and out of Israel over sea and an upgrade is needed to maintain economic growth. Warming ties with neighbouring Arab countries are also creating new trade opportunities for Israel and Haifa is well placed to become a regional hub. “I’m sure we can leverage this opportunity not just for local prosperity, but for realising opportunities and making a real contribution to our neighbours in the Middle East,” Transport Minister Merav Michaeli said after the port was inaugurated in a low-key ceremony on Wednesday. Another new port on the Mediterranean coast is due to open in Ashdod by the end of the year, to be operated Swiss-based Terminal Investment Limited. The issue of China’s role in the Haifa port was a point of friction between Israel and the United States during the last years of the Donald Trump administration. According to US website Axios, CIA director William Burns also expressed concern about Chinese involvement in Israeli major infrastructure projects especially the tech sector, when he met Israeli Premier Naftali Bennett last month. But the Israeli defended their China policy. “In recent months, we started a dialogue with the Biden administration on China. The US asked about specific projects like the Chinese involvement in the Tel Aviv metro,” a senior Israeli official told Axios. The official added: “We told the Americans we welcome US infrastructure companies to work on big projects in Israel, but they haven’t been applying for the tenders.”

Saudi-owned media companies to start moving from Dubai to Riyadh
The Arab Weekly/September 04/2021
Dubai-based Saudi state-owned media companies will start moving staff this month to the capital Riyadh, sources told Reuters, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presses ahead with plans to remould the kingdom as a regional business hub. The move follows a Saudi government decision earlier this year to stop giving state contracts to companies and commercial institutions that base their Middle East headquarters outside Saudi Arabia. State-owned Al-Arabiya and Al Hadath TV channels informed their employees this week about plans to start broadcasting 12 hours a day from Riyadh by next January, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. They added that it could take up to two years to complete the relocation. MBC Group, the Middle East’s largest media company, and Asharq News, a newly created television news channel, have also internally discussed plans to move to Riyadh, the sources said.
The Saudi government took ownership of a majority stake in MBC Group when authorities acted to seize assets from those caught up in an anti-corruption investigation in 2018. MBC, Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath are based in Dubai Media City, the United Arab Emirates’ media hub that hosts hundreds of media companies and most of their Middle East headquarters. Asharq News is based in Riyadh but has a large hub in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). MBC said in a statement sent to Reuters that back in February 2020, the MBC Group chairman publicly announced the intention to establish a new headquarters in Riyadh which would involve creating a business and production hub. “Our plans are on track,” the statement said. Bloomberg reported about the media companies’ relocation plans earlier this week.

UN chief warns that political process in Libya is ‘under threat’
The Arab Weekly/September 04/2021
UNITED NATIONS, New York— UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has again urged countries to withdraw all foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya, saying they continue to operate throughout the conflict-stricken North African country in violation of last October’s cease-fire agreement “with no discernible abatement of their activities.” The UN chief also urged countries supplying arms and military equipment to the foreign fighters to stop violating the UN arms embargo, saying, the movement of aircraft providing logistical support “also continued unabated” at airbases in central Libya in the strategic city of Sirte and nearby Jufra area. In a report to the UN Security Council circulated Friday, Guterres called for implementation of “a comprehensive plan for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya, with clear timelines.”
He also urged Libyan parties “to exert every effort to ensure” that parliamentary and presidential elections are held on Dec. 24 in accordance with the political road map that ended hostilities last year. Libya has been wracked by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime ruler Muammar Gadhafi in 2011 and split the country between an internationally-recognised government in the capital, Tripoli, and rival authorities loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar in the east. Each have been backed by different armed groups and foreign governments.
Haftar launched a military offensive in 2019 to capture the capital. But his march on Tripoli ultimately failed in June 2020 after Turkey sent troops and mercenaries to support the Fayez Sarraj government. Subsequent UN-sponsored peace talks brought about a cease-fire last October and installed an interim government that is expected to lead the country into December elections, but the Libyan parliament has so far failed to agree on a legal framework to hold elections.
Guterres cited initial differences over whether presidential elections should be carried out by direct voting or indirectly by the elected parliament, whether a referendum on the draft permanent constitution should be held first, and eligibility criteria for candidates including military personnel and dual citizens.
The UN chief urged the parties and institutions to clarify the constitutional basis for elections and to adopt the necessary electoral laws. “The political process is now reaching a critical stage and the gains achieved in early 2021 are under threat,” Guterres warned. “It is imperative that the political process fulfills the aspirations of the Libyan people for representative governance brought about through democratic elections.”In July, the UN special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, accused “spoilers” of trying to obstruct the holding of December’s crucial elections to unify the divided nation. He told the Security Council that many key players in Libya reiterated their commitment to the elections, but “I am afraid many of them are not ready to walk the talk.”The Security Council has warned that any individual or group undermining the electoral process could face UN sanctions. Guterres quoted Kubis’ warning that the continued presence of thousands of mercenaries and numerous foreign fighters remains a significant threat not only to the security of Libya but to the region. The UN chief also warned that the presence and activities of violent extremist organisations including affiliates of al-Qaida and the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group “were reported in all regions, including in the form of direct threats against civilians and United Nations personnel and attacks against security forces.”The 16-page report details ongoing human rights abuses by armed groups and units affiliated with the government, including killings, enforced disappearances and conflict-related sexual violence. Guterres called for an end to those abuses and to “the continued arbitrary detention of migrants in inhumane conditions in formal detention centers and informal smuggler-operated sites.”

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials published on September 04-05/2021
Israel: Still the 'Strong Horse'
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/September 04/2021
Currently -- excluding its ventures into South America from where it can more easily threaten North America -- Iran, sometimes via proxies such as the Houthis, Hamas or Hezbollah -- has successfully inserted itself into Yemen, in a seeming bid to overthrow and supplant Saudi Arabia, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
The first time around, during the Obama years, one might understand the fantasy that enriching and empowering Iran might lead it to give up its long-desired nuclear program and expansionist activities, not to mention the extreme abuses of its citizens at home. Now, however, the world has seen that the plan did not work, and that Iran had been cheating all along, anyhow.
What in the world, then, is the US expecting from repeating this disastrous exercise? For both the Israelis and the Gulf's Arab monarchies, Iran's Shia regional empire and drive to lead the Muslim world is still justifiably considered an existential threat.
Israel -- no longer diplomatically isolated -- appears to be assuming a more prominent political and military role in the Middle East, as Iran's increasingly aggressive policies toward many regional states has accelerated cooperation between primarily Sunni Muslim Arab Gulf states and Israel. Only Israel appears to have the will and resources to confront the twin challenge to Western civilization presented by a revolutionary Iran and Islamic extremism. (Image source: iStock)
Israel -- no longer diplomatically isolated -- appears to be assuming a more prominent political and military role in the Middle East. Following Israel's generous peace terms with its Arab neighbors, states such as Egypt and Jordan decided decades ago to establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. More recently, Islamic countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan also decided to normalize ties with Israel. Presently, these strong new ties appear to be leading to cooperation on an ever-deeper strategic level, especially regarding the destabilizing threat to the area posed by an increasingly aggressive and hegemonic Iran.
Currently -- excluding its ventures into South America from where it can more easily threaten North America -- Iran, sometimes via proxies such as the Houthis, Hamas or Hezbollah -- has successfully inserted itself into Yemen, in a seeming bid to overthrow and supplant Saudi Arabia, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Iran's increasingly aggressive policies toward these regional states has accelerated the cooperation between primarily Sunni Muslim Arab Gulf states and Israel. The Sunni-Shia theological civil war within Islam still appears to be fueling the destabilization of the Middle East -- especially with the recently renewed courtship by the US administration of the Middle East's greatest disrupter, Iran.
The first time around, during the Obama years, one might understand the fantasy that enriching and empowering Iran might lead it to give up its long-desired nuclear program and expansionist activities, not to mention the extreme abuses of its citizens at home. Now, however, the world has seen that the plan did not work, and that Iran had been cheating all along, anyhow.
What in the world, then, is the US expecting from repeating this disastrous exercise? For both the Israelis and the Gulf's Arab monarchies, Iran's Shia regional empire and drive to lead the Muslim world is still justifiably considered an existential threat.
Israel's rising stature as a military power in the region is clearly a by-product of the new US policy decision to reduce its own military presence in the Mideast. This US decision was taken, presumably to confront more significant national security challenges such as China's rapidly expanding power in Pacific Asia. This US move, however, creates a power vacuum that only Israel is capable of filling. Only Israel appears to have the will and resources to confront the twin challenge to Western civilization presented by a revolutionary Iran and Islamic extremism.
The Israel Air Force bombing of Iran's growing military assets in western Syria opposite the Jewish state's Golan Heights area is relentless. Additionally, Israel's continued targeting of Iran's ships in regional waters is a boost to Gulf State morale and added proof that the decision of the Arab monarchies' leadership to reach out to Israel was the right choice. Israel may also be messaging the Biden administration that it will not be restrained by any US sensitivities if the national security interests of the Israeli nation-state are at risk.
Israel's prestige among its neighbors is buoyed by its reputation for scientific, technological and medical advances as well as its entrepreneurial spirit, which also have attracted the admiration of regional states.
One Israeli opportunity to demonstrate that it remains a "strong horse" may be a future decision to strengthen Saudi Arabia's air defense against Iranian missile attacks or pro-Iranian Houthi launches of armed drones from Yemen. Such a decision could help protect the oil kingdom's petroleum industry facilities. Another option that Israel, with its sophisticated, multilevel air defense systems, could implement is helping to draw Jordan into a defense partnership that might strengthen the threatened rule of King Abdullah II in Amman. Israel also might have more flexibility than the US to improve diplomatic relations with either Turkey or Russia, neither of which is presumably eager to see Syria become a permanent vassal state of Iran.
Perhaps, the most impressive Israeli performance that may have strengthened the resolve of neighboring states is the continued success of Israel's intelligence agencies in collecting information on Iran's nuclear weapons programs. Israel's multi-dimensional and aggressive defense of regional stability is also likely eventually to draw more regional Islamic states to embrace the "Abraham Accords."
Those involved in policy in the US Department of State and intelligence agencies might do well not to doubt Israel's will to act unilaterally in its own interest -- and, ironically, the interests of the United States and the Free World -- despite pressure from its American ally, which has sometimes been known to recommend sacrificial self-restraint.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The horrors emerging from Afghanistan are only just beginning
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/September 04/ 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/102005/baria-alamuddinthe-horrors-emerging-from-afghanistan-are-only-just-beginning-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%b9%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%81%d8%b8%d8%a7%d8%a6/
The Taliban may have been fighting to regain power for the past 20 years, but having lost most of those who misgoverned Afghanistan the last time around, their cave-dwelling leadership has no idea what to do with a victory that surprised them more than it surprised the outside world. These are people whose organizational experience to date has been planning mass-casualty terrorist attacks against civilians and extorting money from the heroin trade.
Has any organization been more a victim of its own success, squashed between public contempt and sky-high expectations of radical supporters? Sixty percent of Afghans are under 25 and have no memory of a Taliban government or sympathy with its medieval worldview. However, if the group shows a hint of flexibility from its retrogressive principles, many of its fighters will quickly conclude that this isn’t why they fought for 20 years, and defect to psychopaths such as Daesh-Khorasan.
These developments have immense significance for other parts of the Arab and Islamic world, where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda win risks galvanising a new generation of extremists. Governments must rapidly mobilize capabilities to monitor and address such tendencies if we are to avoid a new phase of murderous jihadism. Immediately before the US withdrawal, about 10,000 jihadi fighters from the wider region flooded into Afghanistan. This rate of influx may increase exponentially now the Taliban are in power, bolstering numbers of Al-Qaeda and Daesh-aligned fighters already buttressed by mass prison breakouts.
Are the Muslim world and the West ready to counter such dangerous tendencies this time around? The Gulf states have advanced immeasurably over the past 20 years, in a manner that makes it immensely more difficult for jihadists to find recruits and sources of funding. However, in every street in every town, naive and angry young men are easy prey for lies about the glorious and heroic opportunities of “global jihad” – when the gory reality is savage violence against the innocent, exploitation by terrorists, and the participant’s brutal and untimely death.
Former Saudi diplomat and intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal has slammed these unforced American errors, noting that after Trump did a deal with the Taliban it was “inevitable” that the Afghan government would implode. He slammed the “incompetence” with which the withdrawal was carried out, and the dangerous consequences of billions of dollars worth of US weapons falling into terrorist hands.
Western officials debate how best to encourage the Taliban to fight Daesh-K, yet these are just different heads of the same fundamentalist hydra
Baria Alamuddin
Just as Trump’s 2016 victory provided a shot in the arm for populist authoritarian despots worldwide, the Taliban’s re-emergence will reinvigorate the exhausted, shop-soiled model of political theocracy, with all the inevitable regressive consequences for women’s rights, civil freedoms and competent governance. While citizens need bread, hospitals and functioning banks, acolytes of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada are tussling over theocratic principles of governance, and who gets the nicest offices. Akhundzada himself is an excellent advocate for education and youth opportunities, having encouraged his own son down the path of becoming a suicide bomber.
There is nothing more repulsive than a supposedly religious organization hopelessly corrupted by power. Just as a scandalous two-thirds of Iran’s state budget is siphoned off to opaque slush-fund theocratic foundations for super-rich ayatollahs while citizens starve, the minuscule state funds available in Afghanistan will not go to those in need. This is an organization whose first priorities after capturing Kabul were seizing lists from the Interior Ministry of those who worked with the Americans, and painting over images of women in cosmetics and clothes shop windows.
Western officials debate how best to encourage the Taliban to fight Daesh-K, yet these are just different heads of the same fundamentalist hydra. Leading figures in Daesh-K are former Taliban hardliners. Groups such as the Haqqani Network and Imam Bukhari Jamaat maintain tight connections with Daesh-K and Al-Qaeda. Notorious terrorist kingpins such as Osama bin Laden’s security chief Amin Al-Haq are already congregating in Kabul. Daesh-K, Al-Qaeda and Islamist states such as Iran, Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan are playing different Taliban factions off against each other in order to exploit divisions and cultivate allies.
With $9.4bn in Afghan currency frozen in the US, some speculate that the Taliban can be controlled by judiciously wielding aid money. But the Taliban has never been short of funds. Aside from support from Pakistan’s security services, the Taliban earned up to $83.4 million a year just from taxing fuel and transit goods from Iran — more than twice the $40 million value of the opium trade. With Iran profiting from the opportunity to circumvent US sanctions, such mutually beneficial criminal activities may explain why relations between Tehran and the Taliban have thawed considerably.
The earthshaking aftershocks of the Taliban takeover will be much more expensive and problematic than the relatively modest costs of retaining foreign forces in Afghanistan. Western attempts to withdraw small numbers of troops from Syria, Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa will likewise result in terrorist and rogue-state entities gaining supremacy.
When prominent, experienced voices in global diplomacy concur that the consequences of these developments will be catastrophic on a global scale, and may even ultimately compel the international community to return to Afghanistan in the near future, we should be deeply worried.
Throughout modern history, periods of Western isolationism have always terminated with hasty (and often disastrous) bouts of interventionism when chaos inevitably erupts in neglected areas of the world. What we really need is a mature new international doctrine on the need for vigilant involvement in the world, through vigorously supporting competent governance, developmental projects and environmental protection, and countering extremist tendencies before they get out of control.
Joe Biden desperately hopes that US voters with microscopic attention spans will have long-since forgotten the horrific scenes from Afghanistan before the next US elections. Unfortunately for him, the horrors emerging from Afghanistan are only just beginning.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Imposing a carbon tax on oil exports makes no sense
Faisal Faeq/Arab News/September 04/ 2021
Not only is Saudi Arabia bringing a new perspective to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, but it is leading by example as usual by hosting inaugural events in Riyadh a few days ahead of the conference.
Riyadh will host the inaugural editions of the Saudi Green Initiative Forum and the Middle East Green Initiative Summit on Oct. 23-25. The events are a testament to the Kingdom’s pioneering role in protecting the climate and supporting international efforts in confronting the challenges related to the environment. They are also a proactive step in accelerating climate action a few days ahead of COP26, which will take place this November in Glasgow.
The US, as one of the top three largest oil producers, strongly rejected the carbon tax during the Kyoto Summit in 1997. The US also became the first nation to formally withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2017. President Joe Biden rejoined once he assumed the office, which made the US the only country of the nearly 200 signatories to withdraw then rejoin the pact.
But will the US sacrifice its interests as a top oil producer and the largest oil consumer for the sake of the Paris Agreement? The outcome of COP26 will be crucial for the future of oil-producing countries if the US takes decisions in support of the European approach to imposing a carbon tax.
The Saudi Green Initiative Forum will bring together elite policymakers and scholars from around the world to start a new era of regional and international cooperation in the fight against climate change and its related crises through a more realistic and proactive approach.
This rise in coal consumption runs counter to the Paris Agreement and everything it aspires to achieve. Coal remains the largest single source of fuel for generating electricity.
Interestingly, the Paris Agreement does not scrutinize all fossil fuel carbon emissions equally, though coal is clearly responsible for the greatest proportion. Coal is the elephant in the room when we consider carbon emissions. Whenever the phenomenon of global warming is mentioned, however, oil is demonized and often suggested to be the main cause. Major consumers of coal simply turn a blind eye to compliance with the carbon emission targets agreed upon in the Paris Agreement. Therefore, allowing major coal-consuming nations to impose a carbon tax on oil exports makes no sense.
The International Energy Agency reported that global coal consumption was 65 percent higher in 2020 than in 2000. In other words, global demand for coal is increasing to meet the growing demand for electricity despite international efforts to decrease dependence on coal in the production of electricity.
This rise in coal consumption runs counter to the Paris Agreement and everything it aspires to achieve. Coal remains the largest single source of fuel for generating electricity.
China, the US and India are the greatest emitters of carbon dioxide. Their emissions continue to increase in the atmosphere. China pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent and the US by 18 percent. These numbers are in line with the Paris Agreement’s aim of limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.
One of the biggest contradictions of the Paris Agreement and its advocates is the failure of the world’s largest consumers of coal — China, the US and India, who are also among the five largest coal producers — to adhere to the targets set for percentages of carbon emissions specified in the agreement. Thus, it may be time to refocus our attention and think seriously about dethroning old king coal instead of demonizing oil.
• Faisal Faeq is an energy adviser and columnist. He formerly worked with Saudi Aramco and OPEC Secretariat. Twitter: @FaisalFaeq.

Why the Middle East no longer trusts America
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/September 04/ 2021
It will take a while for the dust of America’s hasty retreat from Afghanistan to settle, especially considering the hefty price tag for a nation-building project that was always doomed to fail, but the unceremonious end to a two-decade adventure will affect just about every corner of the Arab world.
A battered and diminished Washington will find it even more challenging to exert influence in a region that has been, for decades, a major focus of its foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. Any modicum of authority the White House still had in the region is now in tatters.
The Afghanistan debacle is no mere instance of yet another nation’s tumble with fate after exceeding the scope of its mission, and prolonging the stay in a perennially fragile, conflict-prone area. Afghanistan — and by extension, Iraq — came to symbolize the culmination of what should have been a decisive global counterterrorism campaign marked by devastating demonstrations of hard power, and soft power mostly via muddled efforts at post-conflict nation building. It went well beyond deployments of men, munitions and money in pursuit of narrow objectives. The “War on Terror” was as much a forceful demonstration of America’s enduring commitment to the region, and the lengths it was willing to go in pursuit of its democratization ideals.
It all ended in that swift and chaotic exit from Kabul.
Some will argue that the writing was already in the sand, considering the diminishing returns from what had become a runaway misadventure. To them, America's departure had long become a matter of “when,” not “if.” All that was lacking was a political window of opportunity.
Of course, pundits and opinion columnists will beg to differ. Regardless, the timing of President Biden’s fateful decision will always be a matter of debate, depending on which side of the political fence one falls. What is not up for discussion is the air of foreboding now descending on a region quickly being reshaped by intensifying rivalries and self-serving encroachments from Beijing and Moscow.
There is ample justification for Biden’s critics to wonder whether the collapse of American credibility will accelerate an Al-Qaeda or Daesh re-emergence. Others fear a reinvented seemingly moderate Taliban has learned how conciliatory overtures and diplomatic doublespeak can earn them friends in the unlikeliest of places, such as Iran. Any modicum of authority the White House still had in the region is now in tatters. In other parts of the Arab world, Afghanistan was never a zero-sum game, and what was lacking was not America’s absence, but an enduring self-sustaining strategy. With the last entanglement now being a revived Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to curb Iran’s nuclear program, it is likely Washington will find it even more challenging to corral support and cooperation among partners no longer convinced that the White House will stick to its commitments.
For them, impassioned speeches by US presidents or the high-level summits they spawn are no longer credible signs of enduring American interest. The only way to trust Washington is to gauge which foreign policy outcomes will deliver the most political dividend ahead of congressional or presidential elections.
However, the American public has been largely supportive of the Afghanistan pullout, and of the US lowering its profile abroad in favor of solutions for domestic woes. These realities complicate the State Department's agenda, especially the parts guided by a Biden-Blinken worldview that US leadership should be about fostering multilateral engagements, and persuading partners, allies and adversaries to talk rather than make war.
Unfortunately, the US can only go so far if even its staunchest allies are not convinced of the longevity of its commitments past the next elections, dooming efforts across the Middle East and North Africa aimed at forging peace, countering terrorism, and facilitating regional integration.
Take for instance the Maghreb, where Morocco and Algeria are frequently at odds about the Western Sahara, and compete for dominance over parts of North Africa and the Sahel. Both countries enjoy strong ties to Washington, and are capable allies in efforts to contain Al-Qaeda and Daesh offshoots in the Maghreb, and to disrupt networks financing terrorism via trafficking and weapons flows from Libya to extremist groups in and south of the Sahara. Now, however, Morocco and Algeria are again at loggerheads, and without America’s counterbalancing presence, cooperation against shared threats will probably crumble.
The same applies in Libya, where US-led efforts have maintained some momentum in peace-building efforts and dialogue between conflicting interests. However, should the December elections fail to materialize, or deliver an outcome that makes civil war inevitable, the US will eschew deeper entanglements. After all, Biden would prefer to avoid another decade-long fallout, as happened after the misguided 2011 NATO intervention, for which he had a front-row seat.
This same story runs on repeat throughout the region, from Sudan to Somalia, the Levant, and the Gulf, where seemingly entrenched US interests are quickly losing their permanence. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, and the UAE must accept a pared-down US presence, with hundreds of troops, aircraft and air defense systems withdrawn in what some suspect is an effort to placate Iran ahead of an agreement to revive the nuclear deal.
Surprisingly, the Biden administration is betting on a rekindled JCPOA as the focal point of constructive US re-engagement in a region where most Americans are simply too indifferent and too fatigued to care. Obtaining Ebrahim Raisi’s signature on any sort of agreement may score some points for an administration largely on the defensive about Afghanistan at home. Abroad, however, it remains to be seen just how well the US can salvage its mangled reputation from the wreckage of the Afghanistan exit.
What is left, after all, is an increasingly distrustful regional audience forced to come to terms with just how much Washington is prepared to undo in service of its pivot to Indo-China. To them, what lies ahead is a dark future poisoned by two decades of costly failures, and the new reality of a distant America no longer interested in policing the world.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of AdvancedInternational Studies. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell

Why military interventions are usually doomed to fail
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/September 04/ 2021
The lonely walk by US army commander Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue toward the last US transport plane to depart Kabul airport summed up the tragic end to the longest war in American history — tragic especially for the Afghan people left behind to face once again a menacingly uncertain life under the rule of the Taliban.
These past 20 years since Afghanistan was invaded in the wake of the atrocities of 9/11 will go down in history as another spectacular gravestone in the cemetery of military interventions. Given the long list of such exploits that have failed with extremely dire consequences for the invading forces and considerably worse outcomes for the invaded, it suggests the question: Are all such interventions inevitably doomed to failure?
History supplies few examples of either successful or justified military interventions, let alone both. A prime reason for this is that there is a common thread of confusion over the objectives of these operations, whether it be regime change, or the responsibility to protect, or a matter of security, or even peace keeping. President Biden insisted recently that the US went into Afghanistan “for two reasons … one, to get Bin Laden, and two, to wipe out as best we could, and we did, Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.” And when those aims were accomplished, only then did the US transform its objective into one of nation building. George W. Bush, president at the time of the invasion, was later to claim in his memoirs that “Afghanistan was the ultimate nation-building mission. We had liberated the country from a primitive dictatorship, and we had a moral obligation to leave behind something better.” At the time, Senator Biden supported this vision on more than one occasion, when soon after the allies took over the country he called for the world to join forces in — guess what? Correct, nation building.
In the face of the chaotic scenes at Kabul airport it would be too easy to blame the military for the fiasco in Afghanistan, but as is always the case, such disasters are chiefly political failures, and they start with muddled and unclear aims. Is the goal to create stability? To install democratic-liberal style accountable governance? Or just root out enemies? Without clear objectives and a coherent exit strategy, hasty departures such as those from Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Sahel become inevitable as involvement in foreign countries with fragile governments and hostile insurgents is bound to fail.
One commonality of all foreign interventions is a tendency, almost a compulsion, by policymakers in the West to paint the narrative of intervention in ideological colors, almost in terms of a conflict between good and evil. That was so during the Cold War, when the US was involved in both overt and covert operations to bring down governments, whether in Southeast Asia or Latin America, depicting itself as making an existential stand against communism, or since 9/11 as combating radical Islam and promoting democracy. In most cases ideology did play a part, but it was more about old-fashioned power struggles and ensuring security than promoting liberal democracy and human rights. Was Iraq about nuclear weapons, toppling a brutal and hostile regime, or about building democratic governance? Was Afghanistan about pushing out Al-Qaeda and punishing Osama bin Laden and his associates who were behind the mass killings of 9/11, or toppling the Taliban and freeing the Afghan people from their brutal and oppressive regime? Without being clear about priorities and differentiating between rhetoric and core intentions, those who execute such interventions on the ground are left uncertain about the nature of their mission, and with that the tools that are required for successfully completing it.
For a military-political intervention to stand any chance of success it must support the local population to develop its own model of governance through a painstaking national dialogue, one that combines universal international norms, but, crucially, one that also fits local conditions culturally and historically.
It’s not far from the truth to argue that in many cases “mission creep” is involved, whereby operations begin with one set of objectives, and subsequently others are tacked on, either by design or by the sheer dynamic of conflict and political pressures. Moreover, the ever-present tension among liberal democracies between a moral aspiration to spread their values in terms of a system of governance and human rights, and what are geopolitical interests, in a world where competition between international powers for influence dictates their behavior, interferes with the decision to intervene and the way in which the operation is conducted. There is a mixture of naivety and self-deception in the West, and especially the US, in the assumption that their model liberal-democratic system is desired by everyone and so is bound to prevail. The myriad examples to the contrary don’t seem to have persuaded them to re-evaluate that paradigm.
Another ingrained example of wishful thinking is that Western-trained local security forces will be able to contain an insurgency and so allow the military aspect of an intervention to conclude. But in typically fragmented societies, loyalty is not necessarily to the central government, and members of the security forces are unlikely to want to risk their lives for a nation-building project that they hardly buy into.
Between the lack of capable, in most cases corrupt, domestic leadership, and impatience and lack of stamina on behalf of those conducting an intervention, its collapse is almost inevitable. The notion of fighting wars on the other side of the world and expecting to shape the future of countries with different histories, social and political structures and cultures, is questionable to begin with. But believing that this can be done instantly, or even over the course of 20 years in the case of Afghanistan (and Vietnam), may justifiably be regarded as delusional.
For a military-political intervention to stand any chance of success it must support the local population to develop its own model of governance through a painstaking national dialogue, one that combines universal international norms, but, crucially, one that also fits local conditions culturally and historically. It cannot be done by imposing a foreign way of life. This also requires the development of authentic local leadership, and not dealing with those who know how to manipulate Western decision makers and media because they have spent time studying and working in the West.
The experience of Afghanistan will reverberate for some time across the world, and for a while at least will deter the mere thought of overseas intervention. However, it remains to be seen whether the US and its allies are capable of learning the right lessons on how to ensure their security and to advocate and promote their values and norms, without messing with the lives of millions of people before abandoning them to their fate.
• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. Twitter: @YMekelberg