LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 08/17

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/newselias/english.april08.17.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 11/55-57/12,01-11/:"Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?’Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him. Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’ When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus."

I sent to find out about your faith; I was afraid that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labour had been in vain
First Letter to the Thessalonians 02/17-20//03,01-05/:"As for us, brothers and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you in person, not in heart we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face. For we wanted to come to you certainly I, Paul, wanted to again and again but Satan blocked our way. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? Yes, you are our glory and joy! Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we decided to be left alone in Athens; and we sent Timothy, our brother and co-worker for God in proclaiming the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you for the sake of your faith, so that no one would be shaken by these persecutions. Indeed, you yourselves know that this is what we are destined for. In fact, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer persecution; so it turned out, as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith; I was afraid that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labour had been in vain."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 07-08/17
Each one of us can help a wounded Syrian child/Dr. Salman Zarka/Ynetnews/April 07/17/
No to Bombing /Daniel Pipes/Cross-posted from National Review Online/Apr 6, 2017
Sentenced to Death for "Insulting Islam"/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/April 07/17
A 1,389 Year-Old ‘Phobia’/Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/April 07/17
Saudi Writer: It Is Our Duty To Condemn Terror Attacks Against Civilians – They Harm Innocent People And Damage The Arab Reputation/MEMRI/April 07/17
Trump strikes Syria: Is this what the world was waiting for/Ehtesham Shahid/Al Arabiya/April 07/17
Chmical attack on Idlib a test for Trump/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/April 07/17
EU’s 60th anniversary summit and the challenges of disintegration/Dr. Ibrahim Al-Othaimin/Al Arabiya/April 07/17

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 07-08/17
Lebanon's Hezbollah calls US strike on Syria 'idiotic step'
Electoral Law, Hizbullah Arms and Corruption Focus of Parliament's Friday Session
Aoun condemns use of weapons of mass destruction
France should help Lebanon: French presidential candidate
Lebanese Journalist Ghassan Jawad On Hizbullah Al-Manar TV: Jews Feed Enemies With Blood Matzoh On Passover
Hezbollah: U.S. 'Idiotic' Strikes on Syria Are a Service to Israel and Its 'Regional Ambitions'
At Least 4 Hurt in Ain el-Hilweh Clashes between Islamists, Joint Force
Hizbullah Slams U.S. Strike on Syria as 'Blatant Aggression, Foolish Step'
Hariri: We're Open to All Electoral Law Formats, including Proportional Representation
Hariri: U.S. missile strike in Syria related to chemical weapons used by regime
Hariri: Government's responsibility is to reach new election law
Aoun: Lebanon Condemns Use of WMDs Regardless of Perpetrator
Mustaqbal Rejects Vacuum, Keen on Consensus to Reach New Law
Aoun meets candidate to French presidential elections
Gemayel: Government did not gain people's confidence
Adwan during parliamentary session: We are in transitional phase ahead of parliamentary elections
Oghassapian Defends Women's Right for Parliamentary Seat Quota
Report: Conditions Set to End AMAL-Mustaqbal Dispute over ISF
Harb during parliamentary session: Current proposed vote laws aim at eliminating political diversity
Airport Customs Police Foil Gold Smuggling Bid
Reports: Govt. Meets Next Week over Electoral Law, Outcome Determines Fate of Elections
Ministry of Culture organizes Museums Night across Lebanon
Bou Assi, Lazzarini effectuate field tour in Bekaa
Ministry of Culture organizes Museums Night across Lebanon
Tension soars in Ain el Hilwe as armed clashes leave one killed, many injured
Russia says Moscow visit by U.S.' Tillerson scheduled for next week: Interfax

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 07-08/17
Several Killed in 'Terrorist' Truck Attack in Sweden
Trump says he ordered military strikes against Assad airbase in Syria
Trump launches military strike against Syria
Massive US military strikes carried out on Syria
Nine planes ‘destroyed’ by US strike on Syria base
First global reaction: Saudi announces full support for US military strikes
Assad: US strike that killed six ‘foolish, irresponsible’
Homs governor gives contradictory accounts on Shayrat base strike
Homs governor says US strikes on Syria serve ‘goals of terrorism’
Iran and Russia condemn Syria air strike
Can the US president attack another country without Congress?
Here’s the US arsenal that made Syria attack possible
Israel PM supports ‘strong message’ sent by US Syria strike
What the father of twin toddlers killed in chemical attack said about US strike
Tillerson to visit Moscow as US, Russia face fresh tensions
Turkey welcomes US Syria strike, calls it ‘positive’ but not enough
Syrian pilot whose plane crashed in Turkey in March arrested

Links From Jihad Watch Site for April 07-08/17
UK doctor who documented Syria ‘chemical attack’ was considered “committed jihadist” by MI6
Jihadis cheer Trump’s missile strike on Syria
Sweden: Manhunt on for truck attacker who murdered at least three
Jihad in Stockholm? 3 dead, shots fired as truck plows into pedestrians
Truman State University student calls for violence ahead of Robert Spencer lecture
“Short-sighted”: Trump hits Assad airbase in response to chemical weapons attack
Islamic State tells Muslims to steal from infidels and send them 20%
France: Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” murders Jewish woman, cops cover up terror angle

Links From Christian Today Site For on April 07-08/17
UK backs Trump missile strike on Syrian airbase, Russia condemns move against 'sovereign nation'
Woman who fell into Thames during Westminster attack dies, family pays tribute to 'our shining ray of light'
Church leaders urge prayer for victims and relatives of new terror attack in Sweden
New Bishop of Sheffield announced after 'highly individualised attacks' forced Philip North to stand down
US Catholics voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump after all, new research says
World's Catholic population grows to 1.3 billion: Church surges in Africa amid priest shortage in Europe
Nun who was raped in convent suing Catholic Church after sisters pressured her to leave
Most Americans concerned about violence against Jews and Muslims
Monk accused of child sex abuse 'was allowed to stay at leading Catholic school for years after claims emerged'
Labour heavyweight Hilary Benn tells Christian group we are in 'Winter of political discontent' over Brexit

Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 07-08/17
Lebanon's Hezbollah calls US strike on Syria 'idiotic step'
Jerusalem Post/Reuters/April 07/17/The US military action was a "service" to Israel and its "ambitions in the region," Hezbollah added, without elaborating. Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah said on Friday a US cruise missile strike on a Syrian airbase was an "idiotic step" which would lead to "great and dangerous tensions" in the Middle East. Hezbollah, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad in the six-year-old conflict, said in a statement the strike would not demoralize the Syrian army or negatively affect its allies. The US military action was a "service" to Israel and its "ambitions in the region," Hezbollah added, without elaborating. US allies around the world expressed support on Friday for Washington's air strikes on Syria, calling them a proportionate response to Syria's suspected use of chemical weapons. The strikes were denounced as illegal by Syria itself and its allies Russia and Iran. But a wide range of US allies from Asia, Europe and the Middle East expressed support, if sometimes cautiously, in similar terms. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hours later expressed his support for the US air strike in Syria in comments he made early Friday morning. "In words and actions President Trump sent a strong and clear response: The use of chemical weapons is unacceptable," Netanyahu stated. "Israel fully and unequivocally supports the presidents decision and hopes the clear message will reverberate not only in Damascus but also in Tehran, Pyongyang and other places," he added. A British government spokesman also said: "The UK government fully supports the US action, which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime and is intended to deter further attacks." Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters: "Many innocent people became victims from the chemical attacks. The international community was shocked by the tragedy that left many young children among the victims." "Japan supports the U.S. government's determination to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons," he said. Turkey viewed the strikes positively and the international community should sustain its stance against the "barbarity" of the Syrian government, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said. Close to 100 civilians are believed to have been killed and hundreds more wounded in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s Idlib province on Tuesday in what is believed to have been a sarin gas attack. Trump's attack against the Assad regime came 77 days into his presidency.
**Michel Wilner contributed to this story.

Electoral Law, Hizbullah Arms and Corruption Focus of Parliament's Friday Session
Naharnet/April 07/17/The issues of the stalled electoral law, Hizbullah's weapons and corruption were the focus of the parliamentary plenary session that was held on Friday to discuss the government's performance. “We have reached the brink of the abyss regarding the electoral law,” MP Alain Aoun of the Change and Reform bloc warned. He noted that the political forces have so far failed to agree on a new electoral law due to three types of “mentalities.”“The first mentality rejects the formation of opposition minorities inside each sect... the second fears changes to the system... and the third wants to exaggerate its political weight at the expense of others,” Aoun pointed out. He stressed that “there will be no vote on an electoral law unless the vote conforms to the National Pact and there will be no vote on extension (of parliament's term) unless the vote also conforms to the National Pact.”
The 1943 National Pact set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on consensual democracy. “We must intensify the meetings, even if that required the presence and participation of the president, the speaker and the premier. We must not wrap up the meetings without an agreement,” Aoun stressed. MP Ali Ammar of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc meanwhile warned of the possibility of reaching parliamentary vacuum. “Vacuum would be the most dangerous crisis. In the absence of parliamentary elections and a parliament, do you think that the government and the presidency will remain (legitimate)?” Ammar cautioned, noting that vacuum would “destabilize” the country. Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel meanwhile slammed the political forces for seeking an electoral law “tailored” to fit their interests and not the interests of the people. "How can the government ask people to place their confidence in it as it proposes a plan containing the renting of power generation ships with a cost of around $1.9 billion?" Gemayel wondered.
MP Khaled al-Daher tackled the thorny issue of Hizbullah's arms in his speech.
“Syrians in Homs, Qusayr and other regions are being displaced by Hizbullah's arms, which prompts us to ask Hizbullah to withdraw from Syria so that Syrians can return home,” Daher said. “How can we build an economy and achieve development in the presence of a political party in Lebanon that is attacking Arab states and creating terrorist groups in contravention of the State's dissociation policy?” Daher added. MP Ali Ammar hit back at Daher, thanking him sarcastically for his “extreme love for Hizbullah.”“I wish him more love but I will say a brief statement: we will be where we need to be,” Ammar added, echoing previous statements by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah about the group's presence in Syria. At the end of the session, Prime Minister Saad Hariri responded to the stances voiced by MPs during the Thursday-Friday session, noting that “the government's responsibility is to find a new electoral law and spare the country the risks of vacuum.” “All political forces are focusing their efforts on finding an electoral law in a positive spirit and this positivity is still present,” Hariri said.
“We want a law that addresses the concerns related to representation,” he added.

Aoun condemns use of weapons of mass destruction
The Daily Star/April 07, 2017 /BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun Friday condemned the use of weapons of mass destruction by "any party," after the United States launched a missile on a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack earlier in the week. "Lebanon ... has signed all the international agreements and conventions that prohibit the use of weapons of mass destruction," Aoun said during meeting with World Health Organization Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region Dr. Mahmoud Fikri in Baabda Palace. "The more violence and military escalation takes place in Syria, the more refugees Lebanon takes in," he added. The president also called on the international community "to oblige Israel and the countries that have not signed the treaties" to follow suit. Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani was also present at the meeting. Prime Minister Saad Hariri Thursday had called on Russia reign in Syria President Bashar Assad following a chemical attack on Tuesday that killed at least 80 people in northern Syria. Earlier Friday, the United States fired cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase from which it said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched Tuesday on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the Idlib province. This is the first direct U.S. assault on the Syrian government in six years of civil war. Reports also revealed that Russia had been notified by the U.S. that the attack would take place. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the strikes destroyed six planes in repair hangers. The Syrian army said that the U.S. attack killed six people at its air base near the city of Homs, calling it an act of "blatant aggression."Syria State TV reported that nine civilians were killed, including four children.

France should help Lebanon: French presidential candidate
The Daily Star//April 07, 2017/BEIRUT: French presidential candidate Jacques Cheminades Friday met President Michel Aoun, said that France needs to support Lebanon, especially concerning the Syrian refugee crisis. “We know there are around two and a half million refugees in Lebanon, and this is a huge number considering Lebanon’s population of four and a half million people,” Cheminades said, speaking after a meeting with Aoun at Baabda Palace. “France has to help with all its force, by creating safe and stable economic opportunities, in addition to rebuilding Syria.” “We have always, since 1989, known that Aoun’s political role would be a big one, due to his courage and independent thinking,” the French presidential candidate added. During the meeting, Cheminades and Aoun discussed the French elections and French-Lebanese relations. Cheminades reassured Aoun that France wants to maintain this relationship and strengthen it where needed. He also condemned a U.S. missile strike on a Syrian airbase earlier in the, saying “these actions will not help the refugees get back home; neither will it help achieve peace in Syria and the region.”Cheminades is the second French presidential candidate Aoun meets after hosting Marine Le Pen in February. Both candidates were concerned about the Syrian war, the refugees, and the Lebanese-French relationship. In January, the President met with the same French delegation that last visited him in 1990 before he fled to a 15-year self-imposed exile in France.

Lebanese Journalist Ghassan Jawad On Hizbullah Al-Manar TV: Jews Feed Enemies With Blood Matzoh On Passover
MEMRI/April 07/17/Lebanese journalist Ghassan Jawad said that during Passover, "the extremist Jews feed their enemies with blood matzoh." In an interview with Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV, Jawad, the editor-in-chief of beirutpress.net, said that this practice reflects Israeli mentality and the mentality of the Talmud. The interview aired on March 25. Ghassan Jawad: "In the Israeli mentality, and in the mentality not of the Torah, but of the Talmud, [there is] the blood matzoh on Passover. The extremist Jews feed their enemies with blood matzoh. This was made into an ideology which is the basis for extremist Jewish ideology of pursuing and killing the resistance fighters."

Hezbollah: U.S. 'Idiotic' Strikes on Syria Are a Service to Israel and Its 'Regional Ambitions'
Haaretz/Reuters/April 07/17
Syrian opposition applauds strikes on Assad regime targets, but says it must not be a one-off and cannot stop Assad warplanes from striking rebel-held areas
Hezbollah blased the U.S. cruise missile attack on an airbase near Homs on Friday, calling it an "idiot step" that will lead to 'great and dangerous tension in the region.
Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah said on Friday a U.S. cruise missile strike on a Syrian airbase was an "idiotic step" which would lead to "great and dangerous tensions" in the Middle East.
Hezbollah, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad in the six-year-old conflict, said in a statement the strike would not demoralize the Syrian army or negatively affect its allies.
The U.S. military action was a "service" to Israel and its "ambitions in the region," Hezbollah added, without elaborating. 
The Syrian opposition applauded the attack, but said it must not be a one-off and was not enough on its own to stop government warplanes from hitting rebel-held areas.
The Syrian opposition has long criticized the United States for failing to protect rebel-held areas from government air strikes, demanding the creation of a no-fly zone or the provision of anti-aircraft weapons to rebel groups.
U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to launch missiles at the airbase, from which he said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched, marked a dramatic departure from the more cautious approach of his predecessor Barack Obama.
It was welcomed by opposition officials, but they called for more.
"One airbase is not enough.
There are 26 airbases that target civilians," tweeted Mohammad Alloush, a senior rebel official.  George Sabra, a prominent opposition politician, told al-Hadath TV: "The truth is that militarily, if it is limited to this strike, then it has no meaning.
The Free Syrian Army, a loose alliance of rebel groups that includes factions that have received military support from the United States, called the U.S. strike the "correct starting point" for finding a "just political solution" to the war
"We view that the responsibility of the United States is still great, and does not stop with this operation," it added in a statement, warning that the Damascus government and its allies could commit "acts of revenge" against civilians.
American officials described the attack - the first direct U.S. assault on the government of President Bashar al-Assad in six years of civil war - as a one-off that would not lead to wider escalation. Syrian officials and their allies also said they did not expect the attack to lead to an expansion of the conflict.
Still humanity'
The strikes targeted the base at Shayrat, 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Homs city, from which Washington and Syrian opposition groups say Syrian warplanes launched a chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun this week.
The Syrian government has strongly denied responsibility and says it does not use chemical weapons. The Homs governor said on Friday the base was being used to provide air support for operations against Islamic State east of Palmyra.
Hassan Haj Ali, commander of the Free Idlib Army rebel group, which fights under the FSA umbrella, told Reuters the strikes came at a "very important phase" and showed Syrians that "there is still humanity in this world".
He said he did not expect further such U.S. attacks, however.
Nasr al-Hariri, chief negotiator of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said on Twitter that the strikes "should they continue, would kick off a correct start in combating terrorism".The Saudi-based HNC, the main opposition body which includes political and armed groups, has participated in U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva. "We hope for the continuation of the strikes in order to prevent the regime from using its planes to launch any new air raids or going back to using internationally banned weapons," said Ahmad Ramadan, head of the media office of the Syrian National Coalition political opposition group.
"The airbase targeted by the U.S. strike was used to kill Syrians," Ramadan said. The American attack "sends a clear message to the regime and its backers" that they can no longer avoid repercussions, he added.

At Least 4 Hurt in Ain el-Hilweh Clashes between Islamists, Joint Force
Naharnet/April 07/17/At least four people were wounded Friday after armed clashes erupted at the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in the southern city of Sidon, state-run National News Agency reported. The fighting erupted during a deployment by the Joint Palestinian Security Force on the camp's al-Fawqani street, NNA said. It said the clash erupted with a hardline Islamist group led by the militant Bilal Badr and that rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns were being used in the fighting. Most of the wounded belong to the Joint Force, NNA added. Al-Jadeed television meanwhile said a lot of families were fleeing the area. NNA said Sidon MP Bahia Hariri was conducting intensive contacts with the national and Islamist Palestinian factions in a bid to reach a ceasefire. Several similar clashes have erupted in Ain el-Hilweh in recent months, mainly pitting Islamist militants from Badr's group and members of the secular Fatah Movement.

Hizbullah Slams U.S. Strike on Syria as 'Blatant Aggression, Foolish Step'
Naharnet/April 07/17/Hizbullah on Friday condemned the overnight U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base as a “blatant aggression” and “foolish step” that will aggravate tensions in the region. “This new crime reflects the U.S. administration's insistence on carrying on with the hostile course that the United States has always taken against our nation, in order to serve the interests of the Zionist entity and achieve its ambitions in the region,” Hizbullah said in a statement. “Such reprehensible attacks cannot affect the morale of the heroic Syrian army which is achieving one victory after another against the terrorists who are backed by the U.S. and its cronies in the various Syrian regions,” the party added. Such attacks “will not have any negative impact on the axis of resistance and resilience that is standing by the Syrian state and aiding it in its continuous war against terrorism,” Hizbullah, which has sent thousands of fighters into neighboring Syria to bolster the regime against an Islamist-led uprising, went on to say. “This foolish step by the Trump administration will lead to great and dangerous tensions across the region and will further complicate the situations across the world,” Hizbullah warned. The U.S. fired a barrage of 59 cruise missiles at the Shayrat base at dawn in response to a suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town on Tuesday widely blamed on the Damascus regime. The Syrian government has categorically denied the accusation, saying it had struck an arms depot belonging to a jihadist group. At least 86 people, including 30 children, were reported killed in the chemical incident and more than 500 injured. The dawn massive strike – U.S. President Donald Trump's biggest military decision since taking office -- marked a dramatic escalation in American involvement in Syria's six-year civil war.
It followed days of outrage at images of dead children and victims suffering convulsions from the suspected sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun.

Hariri: We're Open to All Electoral Law Formats, including Proportional Representation
Naharnet/April 07/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced Friday that his al-Mustaqbal Movement is “open to all electoral law formats,” including full proportional representation. “We will discuss the electoral law (during the cabinet session) on Monday and we will seek to reach a solution,” said Hariri as he arrived at parliament to take part in a plenary session. “Everyone is keen on this issue and we support reaching a law that ensures fair representation,” he added. And answering a reporter's question, Hariri confirmed that Mustaqbal is “open to all electoral law formats, including proportional representation and the hybrid system.” The country has not organized parliamentary elections since 2009 and the parliament has since extended its own mandate twice. Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional representation but Mustaqbal and Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat had both voiced reservations. Mustaqbal has argued that Hizbullah's arms would prevent serious competition in the party's strongholds while Jumblat has warned that such an electoral system would “marginalize” the minority Druze community whose presence is concentrated in the Chouf and Aley areas.

Hariri: U.S. missile strike in Syria related to chemical weapons used by regime
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Friday said that the U.S. decision to strike a Syrian airbase was related to the chemical weapons "used by the Syrian regime against unarmed people who did not do anything.""The U.S. policy in the region considered that the usage of chemical weapons against civilians is unacceptable," Hariri said in remarks made to reporters at the Parliament prior to a session to assess the government's performance. On the election law and the possibility to put it to vote Monday, the Prime Minister maintained that this issue would be discussed "with positivity." "We are able to reach a law." "The law must be fair to everybody in terms of representation. We were against proportionality at a time, but we are open to proportionality and hybrid proposals," he said, stressing that his group is not against full proportionality in order to prevent void.
"Today things are getting better with the presence of a president of the republic. And we will fight corruption," he said. "We, as a government, will take into consideration the advice we are given," he concluded.

Hariri: Government's responsibility is to reach new election law
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Friday maintained that the government's responsibility was to reach a new election law and shun the dangers of vacuum. "My bet is on returning to the Parliament in a short period of time to discuss a draft law that could enjoy the agreement of all lawmakers," Hariri said in the end of a Parliament session devoted to assessing the government's performance. "All the political forces have endeavored to reach an election law with all positivity; this positivity still exists," he underlined. "We want a law that takes into account concerns related to representation. They have all the right, especially amid what we are enduring," he said.

Aoun: Lebanon Condemns Use of WMDs Regardless of Perpetrator
Naharnet/April 07/17/President Michel Aoun stressed Friday that Lebanon condemns the use of weapons of mass destruction “regardless of the perpetrator,” in the wake of this week's suspected chemical attack in Syria's Khan Sheikhun that killed at least 86 people, among them 30 children. The attack also left hundreds suffering symptoms including convulsions, vomiting or foaming at the mouth. “Lebanon, which has signed all the international treaties and conventions that forbid the use of WMDs, condemns and deplores the use of these weapons regardless of the perpetrator,” Aoun told the regional director of the World Health Organization, Mahmoud Fekri, who visited him at the Baabda Palace. Lebanon “also calls on the international community to compel Israel and the countries that have not signed these treaties to abide by their stipulations and subject their nuclear facilities to the inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Aoun added.

Mustaqbal Rejects Vacuum, Keen on Consensus to Reach New Law
Naharnet/April 07/17/Al-Mustaqbal Movement's political bureau said it is open to all electoral law proposals until a new voting system is reached, stressing keenness on political consensus to avoid vacuum in the legislative authority, a Mustaqbal statement said on Friday. After its periodic meeting on Thursday at the Center House, the movement asserted the need for consensus among political parties “to bridge the passage into a new law,” stressing the need to avoid vacuum at the legislative authority. The statement said that vacuum leads to “negative implications on the general system and the constitutional institutions' safety.”It stressed the need “to keep pace with popular demands, especially with regard to the approval of the wage scale.”The political bureau has also listened to a special report, related to the works of the municipal council in Beirut, and the people's complaints in some neighborhoods about the failure to achieve some services. In that regard it has been decided to form a committee to follow up on the matter and communicate with the Mayor of Beirut. A report will be raised to head of Movement. On the latest armed military appearance in Beirut's southern suburbs, the statement rejected “all forms of security manifestations outside the legal military and security institutions."

Aoun meets candidate to French presidential elections
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - NNA field reporter in Baabda said on Friday that President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received at Baabda Palace the candidate to French presidential elections, Jacques Cheminade.

Gemayel: Government did not gain people's confidence
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - Kataeb party chief, MP Sami Gemayel, said on Friday that the government may have gained the confidence of the Parliament, but not that of the Lebanese people. Making remarks on the government's performance, Gemayel indicated that the natural place to discuss the election law was the Parliament and the Cabinet. "If the government respected people, it should have informed us about its economic plan and vision, before recoursing to talking about the bidget and imposing taxes," he said. "Why were the taxes imposed and then cancelled," he wondered. Gemayel reminded that his bloc proposed the One Person One vote system, reminding that they have agreed on proportionality with Lebanon as 15 districts in Bkerki.

Adwan during parliamentary session: We are in transitional phase ahead of parliamentary elections
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - Deputy George Adwan pointed out that the major obstacle in front of the formation of governments is the communities' monopoly of representation, indicating that we are currently in a transitional phase ahead of the parliamentary elections.
MP Adwan's words came in his address at the parliamentary session to weigh up the government's performance during its so far mandate. Adwan pointed out the presence of corruption, stressing the need to seek solutions to stop wastes and expenditures. Adwan noted that economic growth needs political and security stability, in addition to stable relations with our Arab brethrens. The Lawmaker noted that certain appointments were undertaken by the Cabinet which absolutely lacked the principles of competence and efficiency, hoping that such a matter would not happen again.

Oghassapian Defends Women's Right for Parliamentary Seat Quota
Naharnet/April 07/17/State Minister for Women's Affairs Jean Oghassapian defended on Friday the females' right for parliamentary seat quota, saying it's a duty of the constitutional authorities and not an option, the State-run National News Agency reported. “The adoption of quotas for women in the parliamentary elections law is not a discrimination between men and women,” said Oghassapian. “It is a means of achieving equality in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its agreements, including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, all of which are an integral part of the constitution of the Lebanese State,” he added. Based on that, the quota for women is the duty of the constitutional authorities and not an option,” stressed Oghassapian. Criticizing how some parties reject the matter, the Minister wondered: “How can some refuse a quota for women in the electoral law and accept the application of sectarian quotas in all other laws, although the latter is not stipulated in the constitution?” “Many countries in the developed world adopt quotas in their electoral laws. Shouldn't Lebanon assimilate the experiences of successful countries to achieve equality rather than sticking to considerations that prevent Lebanon from restoring its advanced role in the region?” he asked.

Report: Conditions Set to End AMAL-Mustaqbal Dispute over ISF
Naharnet/April 07/17/After a dispute that surfaced between al-Mustaqbal and AMAL movements over appointments at the Internal Security Forces, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil has reportedly said the conflict won't be over unless changes are introduced to the recent appointments made in ISF, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday. AMAL minister, Khalil, told Prime Minister Saad Hariri who is also the Mustaqbal leader, of his intention to take “additional financial measures related to transportation and benefits,” said the daily. The minister has reportedly told Hariri that differences between them will not be over unless alterations are made to the the latest appointments made by ISF chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman. The crisis between AMAL and Mustaqbal over the appointments took a new turn early this week after Khalil suspended the payment of funds earmarked for ISF's clandestine operations and took a series of measures against pro-Mustaqbal ministry employees, reports have said. Reports identified the targeted employees whose posts were changed as Tarek Barazi and Musbah Abu Orm.March 8 sources have reportedly said that Othman has “defied the will of AMAL and Hizbullah” by taking decisions at the ISF. The sources have expected Khalil to take further measures to respond to the decisions of Othman and ISF Intelligence Branch chief Khaled Hammoud, who have appointed Major Rabih Faqih as head of the Intelligence Branch's military security dept. and Colonel Ali Skaini as head of the North Gendarmerie Command without consulting with AMAL, reports have said.

Harb during parliamentary session: Current proposed vote laws aim at eliminating political diversity
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - Deputy Boutros Harb categorically considered the currently proposed vote draft laws as not aiming at securing proper representation but rather eliminating political diversity. Deputy Harb was speaking in his address at the third parliamentary session at Nejmeh Square, to assess the performance of the government in its mandate. Harb considered failure to endorse a new poll law and abstaining from the implementation of the election law in effect constitutes a flagrant violation of the constitutional principles and entails constitutional, national and political responsibilities on the government, because "what is happening constitutes a strike to the principle of respecting laws in effect and the necessity to implement them." MP Harb said that the proposed vote draft laws do not secure proper representation nor equity between Christians and Muslims, but rather projects aiming at the annulment of independent figures from the political life and eliminating political diversity and free opinion. "These projects aim at the elimination of democratic life, freedoms and differences of opinion," the Lawmaker remarked.

Airport Customs Police Foil Gold Smuggling Bid
Naharnet/April 07/17/The Customs police at the Rafik Hariri International Airport foiled on Friday at dawn, an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of gold through the terminal, the National News Agency reported on Friday. The Customs thwarted the attempt when a passenger coming from Dubai tried to smuggle in around 90 kilos of gold, NNA said. The operation was successful after thorough monitoring and tracking the information available, it added.

Reports: Govt. Meets Next Week over Electoral Law, Outcome Determines Fate of Elections
Naharnet/April 07/17/Preparations have started at the Presidential Palace in Baabda for a cabinet meeting devoted to tackle Lebanon's electoral law for the upcoming parliamentary elections, amid reports that Speaker Nabih Berri might schedule a term extension session if a breakthrough is not reached, media reports said Friday. Unnamed sources told al-Joumhouria that Monday's meeting is set to discuss “the most popular electoral law forms” suggested by various parties and ruled out the possibility that an agreement would be reached during that same meeting. The sources added that although April 15 is a decisive date for agreeing on a new voting system, but it does not drop the deadlines,“what the state failed to accomplish in more than 20 years cannot be achieved by the government in four months,” they said. The sources expect there would be consecutive sessions to be completed after the Easter holiday. During Thursday's general parliamentary session dedicated to assess the government’s performance, side meetings took place where talks focused on the election law and it was agreed to intensify meetings in the coming days to create a breach in the wall of the crisis, according to al-Joumhouria. On the other hand, An Nahar daily said all eyes are on Monday's cabinet meeting, and that Speaker Nabih Berri has a tendency to invite the parliament for a meeting on Thursday to extend its term if a breakthrough is not recorded at the Baabda cabinet meeting. The country has not organized parliamentary elections since 2009 and the legislature has instead twice extended its own mandate. The last polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law. Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on the proportional representation system and a single or several large electorates. Druze leader Walid Jumblat has rejected proportional representation, warning that it would "marginalize" his minority Druze community, whose presence is concentrated in the Aley and Chouf areas. Amid reservations over proportional representation by other parties such as al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Lebanese Forces, the political parties are mulling a so-called hybrid electoral law that mixes proportional representation with the winner-takes-all system. Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has recently proposed an electoral law that mixes proportional representation with the controversial law proposed by the Orthodox Gathering.

Ministry of Culture organizes Museums Night across Lebanon
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - The Ministry of Culture organized on Friday Museums Night across Lebanon, with the participation of Minister Ghattas Khoury. The Minister and the accompanying delegation started their tour at Banque du Liban Museum, before heading to AUB Museum. They later visited Audi Villa Museum and the National Museum in Badaro. The tour ended at Monot Church and MIM Museum. "Today, the Ministry of Culture opened the doors of museums to all the Lebanese to give them a chance to learn their history," Khoury told the National News Agency upon the conclusion of the tour.
"The doors are open for free, as per a decision we have earlier issued at the Ministry of Culture," he said.

Bou Assi, Lazzarini effectuate field tour in Bekaa
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - Minister of Social Affairs, Pierre Bou Assi, and UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, Philippe Lazzarini, effectuated on Friday a field tour in Bekaa, within the frame of the Lebanon Host Communities Support Project
The tour started in Qobb Elias, whereby Bou Assi and Lazzarini held a meeting with municipality head, Jihad Moallem, over the town's dire needs following the massive displacement of Syrians. The tour continued in Jebb Jennine, Aitanit, and Mashghara. During his meetings, Bou Assi indicated that Lebanon highlighted the necessity to support the host communities during Brussels conference. For his part, Lazzarini said that the regions he visited today constituted a model of the Lebanese generosity. "Investing in infrastructure, creating job opportunities, and building the capacities of the Lebanese communities, are necessity to enhance economic growth," he indicated. "We need to turn the crisis into an opportunity, through investing in sectors and regions, not just those affected by the Syrian crisis, but also those that have been for long neglected," he concluded.

Ministry of Culture organizes Museums Night across Lebanon
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - The Ministry of Culture organized on Friday Museums Night across Lebanon, with the participation of Minister Ghattas Khoury.
The Minister and the accompanying delegation started their tour at Banque du Liban Museum, before heading to AUB Museum. They later visited Audi Villa Museum and the National Museum in Badaro. The tour ended at Monot Church and MIM Museum. "Today, the Ministry of Culture opened the doors of museums to all the Lebanese to give them a chance to learn their history," Khoury told the National News Agency upon the conclusion of the tour. "The doors are open for free, as per a decision we have earlier issued at the Ministry of Culture," he said.

Tension soars in Ain el Hilwe as armed clashes leave one killed, many injured
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - Tension has soared inside the Palestinian refugee camp, as fierce armed clashes broke out following the deployment of the Joint Security Force, leaving one killed and six injured, National News Agency correspondent reported on Friday. The clashes erupted Bilal Badr hardline group opened fire at a member of the Joint Security Force, in the wake of its deployment in the Fawkani Street; locals of the area massively left the camp.

Russia says Moscow visit by U.S.' Tillerson scheduled for next week: Interfax
Fri 07 Apr 2017/NNA - A visit to Moscow by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on the agenda for the coming week, Interfax news agency cited a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman as saying on Friday. Maria Zakharova said the ministry expected Tillerson to explain Washington's stance in light of the U.S. missile strike on Syria. "Let him come (to Moscow) and tell what strange things they did", she said, according to Interfax. ---Reuters

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 07-08/17
Several Killed in 'Terrorist' Truck Attack in Sweden
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 07/17/A truck slammed into a crowd of people outside a busy department store in central Stockholm on Friday, causing "deaths" in what the prime minister described as an "terror attack." "There are deaths, and many injured," Nina Odermalm Schei, a spokeswoman for Swedish intelligence agency Sapo, told AFP, without giving a precise figure. "Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to a terror attack," said Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. Pictures showed a large blue truck with a mangled undercarriage smashed into the Ahlens department store. A spokeswoman for transport company Spendrups told AFP that the truck "had been stolen during a delivery to a restaurant." Witnesses described scenes of terror and panic. One witness identified only as Dimitris told the Aftonbladet daily that the truck came "out of nowhere.""I couldn't see if anyone was driving but it was out of control. I saw at least two people get run down. I ran as fast as I could away from there," he said. Another shopper, 66-year-old Leander Nordling, was at Ahlens when he suddenly heard a loud bang. "It sounded like a bomb exploding and smoke starting pouring in through the main entrance," he told daily Aftonbladet. He and fellow shoppers took refuge in a supply closet inside the department store. "After that the building was evacuated ... There were a lot of guards who took care of us outside and they urged us to leave the scene immediately," Nordling said.
Attack on us all'
The incident occurred just before 1300 GMT at the corner of the store and rottninggatan, the city's biggest pedestrian street, above ground from Stockholm's central subway station. Thick smoke was rising from the scene, while video images showed an area blocked off by police and crowds gathering around the police cordon. Police vans circulating in the city using loudspeakers urged people to go straight home and avoid large crowds. The center of the usually buzzing city was in lockdown, with the central train station evacuated and other shops quickly emptied of shoppers. The Stockholm metro was completely shut down, with the attack taking place at the city's T-Centralen station, through which all the city's lines pass. Helicopters could be heard hovering in the sky over central Stockholm, and a large number of police cars and ambulances were dispatched to the scene, witnesses said. European politicians reacted with solidarity to the news of the attack, with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker saying that it was an "attack on us all."A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "Our thoughts go out to the people in Stockholm, to the injured, their relatives, rescuers and police.
"We stand together against terror."
Trucks as weapons
The attack followed a string of assaults in Europe by people using vehicles as weapons. The deadliest attack came last year in France on the Bastille Day national holiday of July 14, when a man rammed a truck into a crowd in the Mediterranean resort of Nice, killing 86 people. He was shot dead by police, and the Islamic State group later claimed responsibility. Last month, Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old convert to Islam known to British security services, drove a car at high speed into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge before launching a frenzied knife attack on a policeman guarding the parliament building. The incident killed five people, while Masood himself was shot dead by police. And in December, a man hijacked a truck and slammed into shoppers at a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people. That attacker was shot dead by police in Milan four days later, and the rampage was claimed by the IS. In 2014, IS called for attacks on citizens of Western countries and gave instructions on how they could be carried out without military equipment, using rocks or knives, or by running people over in vehicles. Attacks have not been limited to Europe. In 2014, a Muslim convert used his car to mow down two soldiers near Montreal, killing one of them. The attacker was shot dead by police as he climbed out of his wrecked vehicle brandishing a knife. There have also been false alerts, however. Earlier Friday, Belgium dropped terrorism charges against a driver who sped into a crowded shopping area in Antwerp last month, which sparked fears of a copycat terror attack. However, the driver, a Tunisian man, remains in custody on a weapons offense related to the incident, the federal prosecutor's office said.

Trump says he ordered military strikes against Assad airbase in Syria
By Phil Stewart and Steve Holland,Reuters
April 07/17/WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S President Donald Trump said on Thursday he ordered a targeted military strike against an airfield in Syria from which a deadly chemical attack was launched this week. U.S. officials said the military launched dozens of cruise missile strikes against an airbase controlled by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's forces in response to the chemical attack on Tuesday in a rebel-held area. Facing his biggest foreign policy crisis since taking office in January, Trump took the toughest direct U.S. action yet in Syria's six-year-old civil war, raising the risk of confrontation with Russia and Iran, Assad's two main military backers. Some 50 Tomahawk missiles were launched from U.S. Navy warships in the Mediterranean Sea, striking multiple targets - including the airstrip, aircraft and fuel stations - on an airbase in Homs, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Further details and damage estimates from the strikes, which were conducted at 8:45 p.m. EDT (0045 GMT Friday), were not immediately known. Trump ordered the strikes just a day after he pointed the finger at Assad for this week's chemical attack, which killed at least 70 people, many of them children, in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the attack. Trump appeared to have opted for measured and targeted air attacks instead of a full-blown assault on Assad's forces and installations. Trump, who was attending a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort, said earlier on Thursday that "something should happen" with Assad but did not specifically call for his ouster.
Officials from the Pentagon and State Department met all day to discuss plans for the missile strikes.
U.S. military action put the new president at odds with Russia, which has air and ground forces in Syria after intervening there on Assad's side in 2015 and turning the tide against mostly Sunni Muslim rebel groups. Trump has until now focused his Syria policy almost exclusively on defeating Islamic State militants in northern Syria, where U.S. special forces are supporting Arab and Kurdish armed groups. The risks have grown worse since 2013, when Barack Obama, Trump's predecessor, considered and then rejected ordering a cruise missile strike in response to the use of chemical weapons by Assad's loyalists.
Only last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the U.S. diplomatic policy on Syria for now was no longer focused on making Assad leave power, one of Obama's aims. But Trump said on Wednesday the gas attack in Idlib province, which sparked outrage around the world, had caused him to think again about Assad. Speaking just before the strikes were announced, Russia's deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, warned of "negative consequences" if the United States went ahead with military action, saying the blame would be “on shoulders of those who initiated such doubtful and tragic enterprise.”The deployment of military force against Assad marked a major reversal for Trump. Obama’s set a “red line” in 2012 against Assad’s use of chemical weapons. When Obama then threatened military action after a 2013 chemical attack, Trump issued a series of tweets opposing the idea, including “Do NOT attack Syria, fix U.S.A.”Obama backtracked on the air strikes, and after the latest attack, Trump was quick to blame his Democratic predecessor for “weakness and irresolution” that emboldened Assad.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Yara Bayoumy, Jonathan Landay, John Walcott, Idrees Ali, David Brunstromm and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Matt Spetalnick and Jeff Mason; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Peter Cooney)

Trump launches military strike against Syria
Barbara Starr and Jeremy Diamond, CNN
Updated 9:46 PM ET, Thu April 6, 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/politics/donald-trump-syria-military/index.html
(CNN)The United States launched a military strike on a Syrian government target in retaliation for their chemical weapons attack on civilians earlier in the week.
On President Donald Trump's orders, US warships launched between 50-60 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian government airbase where the warplanes that carried out the chemical attacks were based, US officials said.
A US defense official said the strike was targeted on runway, aircraft and fuel points. The missiles were launched from warships in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Strikes are over "until another decision is made," the official said.
Trump on Syria's Assad: 'Something should happen'
Trump on Syria's Assad: 'Something should happen'
The strikes are the first direct military action the US has taken against the leadership of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country's six-year civil war and represent a substantial escalation of the US' military campaign in the region, which could be interpreted by the Syrian government as an act of war.
Trump was very affected by the images of dead children among the civilian casualties in the Syrian chemical weapons attack and felt compelled to act, a senior administration official said.
The US began launching airstrikes in Syria in September 2014 under President Barack Obama as part of its coalition campaign against ISIS, but has only targeted the terrorist group and not Syrian government forces.
Trump met with his national security team before his dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Lago Thursday, where he made the decision to pull the trigger on the biggest military action of his presidency, an administration official says.
He sat through dinner with the President Xi as action was under way.
Hillary Clinton: US should 'take out' Assad's air fields
Hillary Clinton: US should 'take out' Assad's air fields
Defense Secretary James Mattis has been updating Trump about the missile strikes in Syria following his dinner with Xi, according to a US official.
Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Trump's national security adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster were with Trump at Mar-a-Lago at the time. Vice President Mike Pence remained in Washington, where he returned to the White House after dinner.
Trump's order to strike the Syrian government targets came a day after he said the chemical attacks -- whose grisly effects were broadcast worldwide where videos captured in the immediate aftermath -- "crossed a lot of lines for me" and said he felt a "responsibility" to respond.
Tillerson: No doubt Assad is responsible 01:39
"I will tell you it's already happened that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much," Trump said.
"When you kill innocent children -- innocent babies -- babies -- little babies with a chemical gas that is so lethal, people were shocked to hear what gas it was, that crosses many, many lines. Beyond a red line, many, many lines," Trump said.
Trump's decision to launch the strikes, the most significant military action of his young presidency, came nearly four years after the US first concluded that Syrian forces had used chemical weapons in Syria. The Obama administration concluded that Syria had violated the "red line" Obama had set a year earlier in discussing the use of chemical weapons, but ultimately decided against military action against Syria in favor of a Russian-brokered deal to extricate the country's chemical weapons stockpile.
Trump at the time said the US should "stay the hell out of Syria" and urged Obama on Twitter to "not attack Syria" in the wake of the 2013 chemical attack.
"There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your 'powder' for another (and more important) day," he tweeted in September 2013.
Trump repeatedly criticized Obama during his presidential campaign for not acting on his "red line" threat, but the real estate mogul also argued against deepening the US' military involvement in Syria, particularly as it related to Assad.
Trump argued last May in a TV interview that he would "go after ISIS big league," but said he did not support targeting Assad's regime, arguing the US has "bigger problems than Assad."
Syria's six-year civil war has claimed the lives of at least 400,000, according to a United Nations estimate released a year ago. More than 5 million Syrians have fled the country and more than 6 million more have been displaced internally, according to UN agencies.

Massive US military strikes carried out on Syria
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Friday, 7 April /US President Donald Trump ordered a massive military strike against Syria Thursday in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack they blame on President Bashar al-Assad. A US official said 59 precision guided missiles hit Shayrat Airfield in Syria, where Washington believes Tuesday's deadly attack was launched. Ahead of the strike, President Donald Trump called for “all civilized nations” to work to end the bloodshed in Syria, after launching a massive strike against the regime in retaliation for a chemical attack. “On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians using a deadly nerve agent,” Trump said in a televised address from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end this slaughter and bloodshed in Syria and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types,” he said. “We hope that as long as America stands for justice, then peace and harmony will in the end prevail.” The US military strike on a Syrian air base caused losses, a Syrian military source told state television Friday without providing further details. “One of our air bases in the centre of the country was targeted at dawn by a missile fired by the United States, causing loses,” said the source, who had earlier described the strike as an act of “aggression”.
Trump speech
Here is a transcript of US President Donald Trump’s remarks Thursday night after ordering a massive missile strike against a Syrian air base: “My fellow Americans: On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. “Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women, and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror. “Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched. It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. “There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council. “Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed, and failed very dramatically. As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.
“Tonight, I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria, and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types. “We ask for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world. We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed. And we hope that as long as America stands for justice, then peace and harmony will, in the end, prevail.
“Goodnight. And God bless America and the entire world. Thank you.”
Russia informed of strikes
The United States warned Russia ahead of a massive military strike on a Syrian regime air base, the Pentagon said Thursday. “Russian forces were notified in advance of the strike using the established deconfliction line,” Navy Captain Jeff Davis said, referring to a special military hotline. “US military planners took precautions to minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield.” (With agencies)

Nine planes ‘destroyed’ by US strike on Syria base
AFP, Moscow Friday, 7 April 2017/Nine planes as well as munition and fuel depots were destroyed in the US strike on Syria’s Shayrat airbase early Friday but the runway was intact, the Russian state channel Rossiya24 reported from the scene. “According to preliminary information, nine Syrian airplanes were destroyed,” its correspondent said in a report from the base, broadcast hours after the strike at 0040 GMT Friday. Stores with ammunition and fuel were also targeted, he said, adding that a fire and some explosions were “But not all equipment has been destroyed, there is some that was not impacted by the strike,” the correspondent said. “The landing strip... is practically not impacted,” he added. Footage showed the runway intact but covered in debris, as well as two planes sitting in concrete hangars. The aircraft were apparently not heavily damaged while some other hangars were charred and surrounded by rubble. Moscow slammed the attack ordered by US President Donald Trump as “thoughtless” and called it “aggression against a sovereign state” that violated international norms. Trump ordered the strike in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack Tuesday after the UN Security Council failed to agree on a probe into the bombing that killed at least 86 people.

First global reaction: Saudi announces full support for US military strikes
Reuters, DubaiFriday, 7 April 2017/In what was the first international reaction to the developments in Syria, Saudi Arabia on Friday said it “fully supports” US strikes on military targets in the country, adding that it was a “courageous decision” by President Donald Trump in response to the use of chemical weapons against civilians. “A responsible source at the foreign ministry expressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s full support for the American military operations on military targets in Syria, which came as a response to the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians...,” a statement carried by state news agency SPA said. The statement praised what it described as “the courageous decision” by Trump and said it holds the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responsible for the military strikes.

Assad: US strike that killed six ‘foolish, irresponsible’
AFP, DamascusFriday, 7 April 2017/A US missile strike on an airbase in central Syria early on Friday was “foolish and irresponsible,” President Bashar al-Assad’s office said. “What America did is nothing but foolish and irresponsible behavior, which only reveals its short-sightedness and political and military blindness to reality,” a statement said. The US fired a barrage of 59 cruise missiles at the Shayrat base, killing at least six, in response to a suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town on Tuesday widely blamed on the Damascus regime. “An air commodore was among the six soldiers killed,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “The airbase was almost completely destroyed – the runway, the fuel tanks and the air defenses were all blown to pieces,” the Britain-based monitoring group said. The Syrian government has categorically denied the accusation, saying it had struck an arms depot belonging to a militant group. Assad’s office said the government would redouble its efforts against rebel groups after the US strike -- the first direct military action by Washington against the Damascus regime. “This aggression has increased Syria’s determination to strike these terrorist agents, to continue crushing them and to speed up the pace of work on this, wherever they are on Syrian territory,” it said. “The disgraceful act of targeting a sovereign state’s airport demonstrates once again that different administrations do not change deeper policies.”The massive strike -- US President Donald Trump’s biggest military decision since taking office -- marked a dramatic escalation in American involvement in Syria’s six-year civil war. It followed days of outrage at images of dead children and victims suffering convulsions from the suspected sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun.

Homs governor gives contradictory accounts on Shayrat base strike
AFP, Beirut Friday, 7 April 2017/The US military strike on a Syrian airbase has caused several deaths, said the governor of Homs province where the Shayrat base is located. “There are martyrs, but we don’t yet know the number either of martyrs or of wounded,” Talal Barazi told AFP by telephone. He said parts of the base were on fire and some of the wounded were suffering from burns. “It will take some time to determine the extent of the damages,” he said. “Of course we condemn this, all action targeting Syrian military bases is condemnable,” Barazi said. He said the forces present at the base “provide important support” in the battle against ISIS in the Palmyra region, home to a famed desert city that Syrian troops recaptured from militants last month.
Material damage
However, soon after Barazi appeared to be contradicting himself while giving updates to another news agency. Talal Barazi told Reuters that the US missile strike on the air is not believed to have caused “big human casualties” but has caused material damage.
“I believe - God willing - that the human casualties are not big, but there is material damage. We hope there are not many victims and martyrs,” he told Reuters by telephone. Speaking at dawn, he said rescue and fire-fighting operations had been going on for two hours at the base.

Homs governor says US strikes on Syria serve ‘goals of terrorism’
Reuters, BeirutFriday, 7 April 2017/US missile strikes on Syrian military positions serve the goals of “armed terrorist groups” and ISIS, the governor of Syria's Homs province said on Friday. “Syrian leadership and Syrian policy will not change,” Homs governor Talal Barazi said in a phone interview with state television. “This targeting was not the first and I don’t believe it will be the last,” he added. “The armed terrorist groups and Daesh failed to target the Syrian Arab Army and Russian military positions,” Barazi said. The Syrian government describes all armed groups opposed to it as terrorists. The US strikes “targeted military positions in Syria and in Homs specifically” in order to publically “serve the goals of terrorism in Syria and the goals of Israel in the long run,” Barazi added. A Syrian military source said earlier the attack on the Syrian air base had led to “losses.”

Iran and Russia condemn Syria air strike
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Friday, 7 April 2017/Iran has condemned the US missile strike on Syria, saying the “unilateral action is dangerous, destructive and violates the principles of international law.”That’s according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi. He made the comments in a report carried Friday by the semi-official ISNA news agency. Iran is one of the biggest supporters of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Its hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is deeply involved in the war. Ghasemi described Iran as “the biggest victim of chemical weapons in recent history,” referencing Iraqi use of the weapons during its 1980s war with the Islamic Republic. He said Iran condemned the missile launch “regardless of the perpetrators and the victims” of Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack in Syria. He also warned it would “strengthen terrorists” and further add to "the complexity of the situation in Syria and the region."Putin believes strikes broke international law. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that US cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base broke international law and have seriously hurt US-Russia relations, news agencies cited the Kremlin as saying on Friday. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited as saying that the Russian leader, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, regarded the US action as “aggression against a sovereign nation” on a “made-up pretext” and as a cynical attempt to distract the world from civilian deaths in Iraq.
Peskov was quoted as saying that Russia did not believe that Syria possessed chemical weapons and that the US move would inevitably create a serious obstacle to creating an international coalition to fight terrorism, an idea that Putin has repeatedly pushed. Russian bases in Syria are protected by air defense missiles. Russia’s airbase in Latakia province and its naval facility in Tartus are protected by S-300 and S-400 air missile defense systems, a Russian lawmaker was quoted as saying by RIA news agency on Friday. “The S-300 and S-400 missile complexes....adequately guarantee the security of our armed forces on land as well as by sea and air,” Viktor Ozerov, the head of the defense and security committee of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said.

Can the US president attack another country without Congress?
Did Congress know?Friday, 7 April 2017/The US missile strikes Thursday on a Syrian air base were conducted without formal congressional approval. Some questions and answers about how and why presidents can conduct military action without permission from the 535 representatives of the American people.
Did Congress know?
Trump did let Congress know of his plans to launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles Thursday evening, targeting the air base from which Syrian President Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack earlier this week against his own people, killing more than 80 men, women and children. A White House official said more than two dozen members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, were briefed Thursday by White House and Cabinet officials. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the No. 3 US official, said he was among those informed.
Is informing them enough?
The War Powers Resolution, enacted in 1973, long after American troops began fighting in Vietnam, required the president to consult with Congress before sending US armed forces into combat unless there already had been a declaration of war. The troops could not stay more than 90 days unless lawmakers backed the decision. The law also sought to give the president “leeway to respond to attacks or other emergencies,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
And it is that leeway that presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Trump have used to their advantage. Following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, Congress gave Bush authority to attack any countries or groups involved in the attacks, which was generally accepted to mean al-Qaida. Obama used that same authority to fight the ISIS militant group, which emerged in 2014 as an outgrowth of al-Qaida. Trump has used that same authority to continue military action in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
The Obama administration maintained in 2011 that US involvement in the months-long air campaign against Libya didn’t require congressional permission because American forces were largely playing a supporting role as part of an international coalition.
In February 2015, Obama asked Congress to formally authorize war against the Islamic State, saying the militant group could threaten the US homeland if left unchecked. His resolution would have limited authorization to three years, with no geographic restrictions for US forces. It would have banned “enduring offensive combat operations,” an ambiguous term that attempted to define a middle ground between Democrats leery of another protracted Middle Eastern conflict involving ground troops, and Republicans, who largely believe the US needs maximum flexibility to pursue IS. Congress held a few hearings, but never acted on the proposal.
What does Congress think now?
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said before Thursday's missile launch that he thought it would be prudent to consult with Congress, but didn't insist Congress had to approve Trump’s actions. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, insisted that if the US increased the use of military force in Syria, “we should follow the Constitution and seek the proper authorization from Congress.” Kentucky lawmakers Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, both Republicans, agreed. “President Trump should make his case in front of the American people and allow their elected representatives to debate the benefits and risks of further Middle East intervention to our national security interests,” Lee said in a statement. Other Republicans, like former Trump primary opponent Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, applauded the strikes without mentioning congressional approval.

Here’s the US arsenal that made Syria attack possible
By Staff writer Al Arabiya News /Friday, 7 April 2017/The US Navy launched about 60 Tomahawk missiles at military targets in Syria on Friday, relying on a mainstay weapon that can fulfill the Pentagon desire to attack from a safe distance. The missiles were launched by Rota, the Spain-based US guided missile destroyers USS Ross and USS Porter from the Mediterranean Sea. According to Pentagon, they were programmed to hit aircraft shelters, ammunition storage sites, radar sites, aircraft and fuel sites at Shayrat Air Base. According to Washington Post, one of the largest advantages of the Tomahawk is that it does not require a pilot to be anywhere near a potential target. It can be launched from Navy destroyers up to 1600 kilometers away, a tactical consideration when facing enemy air defenses. It added that Tomahawks have a less explosive yield than larger bombs carried by manned US aircraft. Tomahawks are intermediate-range cruise missiles, with a range of about 1,250 to 2,500 kilometers. According to Navy website, they could be fired from sea and travel relatively low to the ground and guided by an advanced navigation system. The Tomahawk can be equipped with a 1,000-pound conventional warhead, the Navy says.The Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Project says Tomahawks are designed to fly at subsonic speed while maintaining a low altitude, which makes them difficult to detect on radars. They use tailored guidance systems to maneuver while at such low elevation. The Tomahawk was first used by the United States in combat during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and the United States began selling them to the UK in 1995.2 Tomahawks can be launched from over 140 U.S. Navy ships and submarines, including four converted Ohio-class submarines, as well Astute, Swiftsure, and Trafalgar-class submarines of the Royal Navy.3
The Center added that in 2016, the Navy requested $434 million to start modifying 245 TLAMS for anti-ship missions, making them capable of hitting enemy ships up to 1,000 nautical miles away within the next decade. This plan would call for modifications to missiles currently on Ticonderoga guided missile cruisers, Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, the Navy’s attack submarine fleet (SSNs), and the four Ohio-class guided nuclear missile submarines (SSGNs). This program, if funded, will continue the Navy’s life extension program for Tomahawk missiles.
Analysts estimate one Tomahawk unit cost more than $800,000.
Now, what could be used later if Trump decides to expand the attack?
- The US Navy’s Sixth Fleet, headquartered in Naples, has two destroyers — the USS Porter and the USS Ross — in the eastern Mediterranean that could shoot a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria.
- These missiles can also be launched from attack submarines, however, the location of the vessels is unknown.
-The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier is also in the Gulf, currently supporting operations against ISIS.
- In the Gulf, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet is present.
- The United States has air bases that can use such as Incirlik. Turkey, 100km from the Syri.
-US military has in the region as well hi-tech F-22 Raptors, F-16s and even B-52 heavy bombers.
-The F-22, which cost about $360 million apiece, is the world’s most advanced fighter because of its ability to evade radar.
With agencies

Israel PM supports ‘strong message’ sent by US Syria strike
AFP, BeirutFriday, 7 April 2017/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday he supports the "strong and clear message" sent by a US strike in neighboring Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack. "In both word and action, President (Donald) Trump sent a strong and clear message today that the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated," a statement from Netanyahu's office said. "Israel fully supports President Trump's decision and hopes that this message of resolve in the face of the Assad regime's horrific actions will resonate not only in Damascus, but in Tehran, Pyongyang and elsewhere."Trump ordered the massive military strike on a Syrian airbase on Thursday in retaliation for the "barbaric" chemical attack he blamed on President Bashar al-Assad. The US strike follows international outrage this week over the suspected chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians, including many children, in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun.

What the father of twin toddlers killed in chemical attack said about US strike
The Associated Press, Beirut Thursday, 6 April 2017/Alaa Alyousef, the survivor of the chemical attack in a northern Syrian town says he hopes the US missile attack could help put an end to Syrian government airstrikes, creating a safe area for civilians. Alaa Alyousef, a 27-year old resident of Khan Sheikhoun, said Friday the US missile attack “alleviates a small part of our sufferings,” but he worries it will be like “anesthetics,” to save face. AlYousef said the US is capable of “paralyzing” Syrian warplanes. “What good is a strike on Shayart air base alone while we have more than 15 other air bases,” he said. Alyousef lost at least 25 relatives in this week’s gruesome chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun. The Syrian government denies it was behind the attack, believed to have deployed chemical weapons.
Say goodbye
It was earlier reported that the father cradled his 9-month-old twins, Aya and Ahmed, each in an arm. He stroked their hair and choked back tears, mumbling, “Say goodbye, baby, say goodbye” to their lifeless bodies.
Abdel Hameed Alyousef lost his two children, his wife and other relatives in the suspected chemical attack Tuesday in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed at least 72 people. In footage shared with The Associated Press, Alyousef sits in the front seat of a van with the twin, his eyes red as he asks his cousin Alaa to video his farewell to them.
‘They were conscious at first’
When the airstrike took place, “I was right beside them and I carried them outside the house with their mother,”Alyousef, a 29-year-old shopowner, told the AP. “They were conscious at first, but 10 minutes later we could smell the odor.” The twins and his wife, Dalal Ahmed, fell sick. He brought them to paramedics and, thinking they would be OK, went to look for the rest of his family. He found the bodies of two of his brothers, two nephews and a niece, as well as neighbors and friends. “I couldn't save anyone, they're all dead now,” he said. Only later was he told his children and wife had died. “Abdel Hameed is in very bad shape,” his cousin Alaa said. He's being treated for exposure to the toxin. “But he's especially broken down over his massive loss.”A man carries the body of a dead child, after what rescue workers described as a gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, Syria April 4, 2017. (Reuters)
Hardest hit family
More than 80 people, including at least 30 children and 20 women, were killed in the chemical attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun early Tuesday, and the toll could still rise. The Alyousef family, one of the town’s main clans, was hardest hit.
Another member of the family, Aya Fadl, recalled running from her house with her 20-month-old son in her arms, thinking she could find safety from the toxic gas in the street. Instead, the 25-year-old English teacher was confronted face to face with the horror of it: A pick-up truck piled with the bodies of the dead, including many of her own relatives and students.
I love you my birds
“Ammar, Aya, Mohammed, Ahmad, I love you my birds. Really they were like birds. Aunt Sana, Uncle Yasser, Abdul-Kareem, please hear me,” Fadl said, choking back tears as she recalled how she said farewell to her relatives in the pile. “I saw them. They were dead. All are dead now.”The tragedy has devastated the small town. It also deepened the frustration felt by many Syrians in opposition-held areas that such scenes of mass death, which have become routine in the country’s 6-year-old civil war, bring no retribution or even determination of responsibility.

Tillerson to visit Moscow as US, Russia face fresh tensions
The Associated Press, Washington Friday, 7 April 2017/A proxy battle with Russia in Syria and multiple Russia-related investigations in the US will follow Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow next week on a trip designed to test the Trump administration’s hopes for closer ties to the former Cold War foe.
Tillerson will make the first visit to Russia by a Trump administration official just days after the US launched cruise missiles against an air base in Syria, where Russia’s military is on the ground propping up its ally, President Bashar Assad. Until Thursday, the US had avoided striking Assad’s forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia. Tillerson, speaking just after the strikes were announced, said Russia had “failed in its responsibility” to deliver on a 2013 deal it helped broker to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. “So either Russia has been complicit, or Russia has been simply incompetent on its ability to deliver,” Tillerson said.
Growing disagreements about Syria are just the latest obstacle to any plans President Donald Trump had to closer align the US and Russia on the world stage. Trump and his associates are embroiled in mushrooming investigations into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, accused by America’s spy agencies of interfering in the election to help elect Trump.
Despite Trump’s much-hyped campaign talk about a Russia reset, there’s no appetite for that from either political party in the US Skepticism about Russia’s intentions was only compounded by its defense of Assad after a deadly chemical attack that the US says was no doubt carried out by Assad’s forces.
Even minor concessions to Russia would trigger immediate accusations from Trump’s opponents that the president - who has praised Putin generously and repeatedly - is beholden to Putin, a former KBG agent. Add to that Trump’s anger at Russia for violating a nuclear arms treaty and continued global outrage over Putin’s actions in Ukraine, and it’s difficult to see realistic chances for near-term rapprochement.
“I think the Russians have adjusted their expectations down as to the possibilities of a breakthrough, and what happened in Syria is going to add to that,” said Michael McFaul, the US ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama. Still, he said the Russians would likely treat Tillerson warmly in hopes his trip could smooth the path toward a Trump-Putin meeting. Tillerson arrives in Moscow on Tuesday after a brief visit to Lucca, Italy, to meet with counterparts from the Group of 7 industrialized economies. While in Russia, Tillerson plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The State Department said Tillerson had spoken by phone to Lavrov after the chemical attack to get Russia’s take on what happened. Russia has maintained that Syrian airstrikes hit a depot where anti-Assad rebels were building chemical weapons, a claim the US has vigorously disputed.
Tillerson may also meet with Putin, in what would be a reunion of sorts for two men who did business when Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO, was negotiating oil deals in Russia. Tillerson’s close ties to Russia - Putin once gave him the “Order of Friendship” award - drew serious concerns during Tillerson’s confirmation hearings, but he’s since emerged as one of the Trump administration’s more sober voices about Russia’s behavior.
Senior State Department officials described Tillerson’s visit as an “exploratory trip” aimed at determining any potential for cooperation, adding that no decisions to increase cooperation had been made. The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity despite Trump’s condemnations of the press for using anonymous sources. Tillerson may or may not meet with pro-democracy activists in Russia, as members of Congress have urged, the officials said. Relations with Russia have steadily deteriorated since 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and then began arming and assisting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Obama administration and Western countries slapped Moscow with severe economic sanctions that Trump has so far vowed to keep in place until Russia gives Crimea back.
Still, Putin’s government has been optimistic about Trump’s presidency. Until Tuesday’s chemical attack in Syria, Trump and his deputies said their top focus in Syria was fighting the Islamic State group - not ousting Assad - a position that aligned with Putin’s own publicly stated goal. For Trump, who said Thursday that “something should happen” to Assad, the attack clearly was an inflection point that focused his administration on Assad’s atrocities and the support he receives from Russia, Syria’s most powerful ally.
In an Associated Press interview, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s support for Assad is not unconditional, but also pushed back on the notion that Putin had unfettered influence over Assad. “It is not correct to say that Moscow can convince Mr. Assad to do whatever is wanted in Moscow,” Peskov said. James Carafano, a Heritage Foundation scholar who advised Trump’s transition team on foreign policy, said the notion that Trump would have a special relationship with Putin was always overblown. “Nobody was talking about, ‘We’re just going to cut a deal with Russia and be done here,’” Carafano said.

Turkey welcomes US Syria strike, calls it ‘positive’ but not enough
Reuters Friday, 7 April 2017/Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday hailed an attack by the United States on a Syrian air base as a positive development but said it was not enough on its own and “serious steps” were needed to protect the Syrian people. The United States fired cruise missiles earlier on Friday at a Syrian base from which President Donald Trump said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched, marking the first direct US assault on the government of Bashar al-Assad in six years of civil war. “We find it a positive and concrete step taken against the war crimes of the Assad regime. Is it enough? I don’t find it enough. It is time to take serious steps for the protection of innocent Syrian people,” Erdogan told a rally in the southern province of “The international community has the capability to stop the regime and terrorist organizations. I hope the active stance that the United States displayed in Idlib is a beginning with regards to such developments,” Erdogan said.
UK: US strike designed to deter
Britain’s defence minister said the strike was designed to deter Bashar al-Assad from carrying out any further chemical weapons attacks but was not the start of a new military . When asked if the strike was the start of a new military campaign, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “We don’t see last night’s strike like that.”“This strike was very limited to one airfield, it was entirely appropriate, it’s designed to deter the regime from carrying out further chemical weapons attacks,” Fallon told ITV television. “So we don’t see it as the start of a different military campaign.”
“We’ve not been asked to be involved in this, this was not a matter for the coalition that’s in Syria and Iraq fighting Daesh,” Fallon said. “This was a United States operation, but let me emphasize again we fully support it.”
France was informed
The United States informed France before its missile strikes on Syrian military positions, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Friday.
“I was told by (US Secretary of State) Rex Tillerson during the night,” Ayrault told Reuters and France Info radio in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, where he was on a diplomatic visit. Ayrault called the escalation of the US military role in Syria, in which two US warships fired dozens of cruise missiles at an Assad-controlled airbase, “a warning” to “a criminal regime”. “Use of chemical weapons is appalling and should be punished because it is a war crime,” Ayrault said, adding that Russia and Iran needed to understand that supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made no sense, and that France was not seeking a confrontation with those two countries. Ayrault added that France’s only role in Syria at present was its part in the coalition fighting ISIS.
Japan, Australia back Trump
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters: “Many innocent people became victims from the chemical attacks. The international community was shocked by the tragedy that left many young children among the victims. “Japan supports the US government’s determination to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons,” he said. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the strikes sent “a vitally important message” that the world would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons. “The retribution has been proportionate and it has been swift,” he told reporters in Sydney. “We support the United States in that swift action.”

Syrian pilot whose plane crashed in Turkey in March arrested
The Associated Press, Istanbul Friday, 7 April 2017/Turkey’s state-run news agency says the Syrian pilot who ejected over Turkey last month has been arrested for violating border security and espionage. Anadolu news agency reported Friday that pilot Mehmet Sufhan, 56, was treated in the southern province of Hatay for a spinal fracture suffered after he ejected from the damaged Syrian plane on March 4. He was found in an exhausted state after a nine-hour search. Anadolu says he was arrested following his discharge from the hospital. Syrian opposition military group Ahrar al-Sham claimed to have downed the plane as it was bombing the countryside around the northwestern Syrian town of Idlib.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 07-08/17
Each one of us can help a wounded Syrian child
Dr. Salman Zarka/Ynetnews/April 07/17/
Op-ed: If every Syrian child, woman and man, who return to their homeland after their life was saved in Israel, treasure in their hearts the human encounter with people they used to consider enemies, we may be able to dream of a better future for our children and for theirs.
Only 50 kilometers from Israel’s northern border, helpless civilians have been massacred on a daily basis for the past six years, and the world is silent. Just beyond the border, as our children spend time in school, enjoy their vacations and buy holiday gifts, Syrian children are fighting for their lives.
Occasionally, the world is suddenly shaken by reports of an extensive massacre in Syria, deeply shocked by the images of bodies and wounded children, and does not withhold words of condemnation.
It happened again. This time, in the wake of the murder of civilians in a chemical attack in Idlib. The world was also shocked several months ago after the attack on Aleppo, when it once against remembered the suffering of Syrian people and demanded that international bodies put an end to the massacre.
We in the northern periphery, close to the borders, at the Ziv Medical Center, a public hospital, have been treating sick men, women and children from Syria for more than four years now. Most of them suffer from serious and complex wounds of war, from shooting, shrapnel and blast injuries. They arrive bleeding, with internal injuries or without their limbs. They are treated here for many months, and alongside the concern for their lives, the staff is aware of the fact that they are alone here and that they sometimes need clothes, special food and of course, words of encouragement and support.
We are with them every day. They are sad and afraid, they cry, they are far away from their families and from their country. Sometimes, they arrive here after witnessing the murder of one of their family members. Sometimes it’s a grandmother or an aunt who escorts the toddlers, as they have no parents. Sometimes it’s a teenaged girl who arrives with her wounded baby brother, barely carrying him in her arms to the Israeli border to ask for help, or two brothers on a donkey, who spent days and nights on the road, wounded and bleeding, before reaching the Israeli border.
The wounded Syrians come here for medical care and then return to Syria, to their home or what used to be a home. We welcome the Syrians like we welcome any other Israeli citizen. We save their lives, but we make sure that they not only survive, but also that their body recovers as fully as possible.
Over the years, the Ziv Medical Center has become a rehabilitation hospital against its will. If the government decided to extend a humane hand to Aleppo or Idlib, we are here. We will continue to live up to our oath as doctors and as human beings.
If every Syrian child, woman and man return to their homeland, treasuring in their hearts the human encounter which saved their lives, a memory of an embrace from people who they used to consider enemies and who turned out to be human at the most critical time, and if every Syrian who leaves us lets his experience flourish—we may then be able to dream about a better future, for our children and for theirs.
We are approaching the spring holidays—Passover for the Jews, Easter for the Christians, Ziyarat al-Nabi Shu'ayb for the Druze and the Isra and Mi'raj holiday for the Muslims. Each of us, in his or her own little acre, can help just a bit, ease the pain of at least one child, and replace the shock from the dreadful images with a good deed. This is the right place to fulfill what was said in Pirkei Avot: “In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.”
Dr. Salman Zarka is the director of the Ziv Medical Center in Safed.

No to Bombing Syria
Daniel Pipes/Cross-posted from National Review Online/Apr 6, 2017
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2017/04/no-to-bombing-syria
The Obama Administration rightly stayed out of Syria through six painful, grisly years of civil war there. Yes, the fighting has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions. Yes, the uncontrolled migration of Syrians to Europe caused deep problems there. Yes, the Kurds are sympathetic. Yes, Barack Obama made a fool of himself when he declared the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons a "red line" and proceeded not to enforce it.
Despite all this, it was right not to intervene because Iranian- and Russian-backed Shi'ite pro-government jihadis are best kept busy fighting Saudi-, Qatar-, and Turkish-backed anti-government Sunni jihadis; because Kurds, however appealing, are not contenders for control of the whole of Syria; and because Americans have no stomach for another Middle Eastern war.
The direct American involvement that a few hours ago with nearly 60 cruise missiles in an hour attacking Shayrat Air Base implies siding with one side against the other, even though both of them are hideously repugnant. (While the regime has done the great preponderance of the killing, estimated at 94 percent, that's due only to its greater destructive power, not the humanitarianism of ISIS and its other enemies.)
I see this military action as an error. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires that American forces fight in every war around the world; this one should be sat out, letting enemies of the United States fight each other to exhaustion.
The immense resources of the United States should be dedicated, rather, to two goals: reduce human suffering with blankets and soup and prevent the stronger side (now the regime) from winning through the provision of intelligence and arms to the weaker side (the Sunni rebels).
Trump should immediately cease all direct attacks on the Syrian regime and instead help its enemies to fight it more effectively. (April 6, 2017)

Sentenced to Death for "Insulting Islam"
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/April 07/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=54116
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10170/iran-insulting-islam
Can you imagine making a joke and facing death as a result?
"During his interrogation, Sina was told that if he signed a confession and repented, he would be pardoned and let go," said the source in an interview with CHRI on March 21, 2017. "Unfortunately, he made a childish decision and accepted the charges. Then they sentenced him to death." "Later he admitted that he signed the confession hoping to get freed," said the source. "Apparently the authorities also got him to confess in front of a camera as well." -- Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
When the Islamists gain power, they immediately create their own "judiciary system" in order to "legitimize" their implementation of sharia law. In fact, the judiciary system is used less as a tool for bringing people to justice, and more as a tool to suppress freedom of speech and of the press.
To radical Islamist groups, Islam is not a religion which all are free to pursue; it is a weapon. It is the most powerful tool that can be wielded with manipulative skill to control entire populations. Beneath their fierce rule, every aspect of daily life is dictated. What is worn, what is eaten, what you say and what you write are all scrutinized; violations of these stringent laws are met with extreme punishments. Can you imagine making a joke and facing death as a result? Can you imagine the constant fear of doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing, when you have seen people beaten, stoned, or killed in the street for nothing more than a mild transgression?
Freedom of speech and press are the Islamists' top enemies. They are targeted on a regular basis, making it difficult or impossible for the truth to be revealed to the world. While others may take their privacy for granted, the people living under this kind of tyranny must think about everything they say and do. Sometimes even the bravest of souls turn away in the face of such intimidation. Can it really be as restrictive as described? Yes, and far worse than you can imagine.
Sina Dehghan, 21, for example, was arrested by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) when he was 19 for "insulting Islam". Charges were brought against him for insulting the Prophet Muhammad on the messaging app LINE.
According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI):
"During his interrogation, Sina was told that if he signed a confession and repented, he would be pardoned and let go," said the source in an interview with CHRI on March 21, 2017. "Unfortunately, he made a childish decision and accepted the charges. Then they sentenced him to death." "Later he admitted that he signed the confession hoping to get freed," said the source. "Apparently the authorities also got him to confess in front of a camera as well."
Such a sentence may seem like madness, but in fact there is a cold and calculated pattern to these actions. When extremist Muslims gain power, they immediately create their own "judiciary system" in order to "legitimize" their implementation of sharia law. This judiciary system is, in fact, used less as a tool for bringing people to justice, and more as a tool to suppress freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Once this silence is ensured, they are able to oppress the entire society, restrain any budding opposition, imprison and torture innocent people and sentence thousands to death.
Sina Dehghan, 21, has been sentenced to death in Iran for "insulting Islam". There are many people like him in Iran who are currently imprisoned, tortured on a daily basis, or awaiting their execution for "insulting Islam", "insulting the prophet", "insulting the Supreme Leader" -- the examples are endless. (Image source: Center for Human Rights in Iran)
By imprisoning, torturing and hanging idealistic and rebellious young people, the ruling politicians and the Islamist judiciary system are using them as an example to send a message to millions of people that they will not tolerate anyone who opposes their religious or political view.
Radical Islamist groups have been using the same tactic in other nations to impose fear and shock in the public. They aim at silencing people and making them subservient. Once they have control, they will stop at nothing to keep it.
For the Islamists, once you submit to their religion, your freedom of speech and of the press belong to Allah. Your only job is to exercise silence and obedience, and follow your religious leader, imam, sheikh, or velayat-e faqih ("guardianship of the Islamic jurist").
As the Center for Human Rights in Iran pointed out:
"Security and judicial authorities promised Sina's family that if they didn't make any noise about his case, he would have a better chance of being freed, and that talking about it to the media would work against him," added the source. "Unfortunately, the family believed those words and stopped sharing information about his case and discouraged others from sharing it as well." "Sina is not feeling well," continued the source. "He's depressed and cries constantly. He's being held in a ward with drug convicts and murderers who broke his jaw a while ago."
For the ruling Islamists, it does not matter if you have been a loyalist all your life. If you speak up or oppose them just once, you will be eliminated. As CHRI quoted one source: "He was a 19-year-old boy at the time (of his arrest) and had never done anything wrong in his life."
One of Dehghan's co-defendants, Mohammad Nouri, was also sentenced to death for posting anti-Islamic comments on social media. Another co-defendant, Sahar Eliasi, was sentenced to seven years, and later the sentence was reduced to three years.
What does the term "anti-Islamic" mean exactly in an Islamist judiciary system? If it carries a death sentence, you might assume that the parameters of the law would be well outlined. However, that is not the case. For the ruling Islamists, the term "anti-Islamic" is completely ambiguous and subjective, and can relate to anything that opposes their view or their power. What might seem like an innocent remark, could change a life forever.
If they are such violent and oppressive people, you might wonder how they are ever able to gain power. They do this through manipulation, charm and countless false promises.
Some radical Islamists, before they gain power, promise people equality, justice, peace, and a far better life. They appeal to the young, to the traditional, and to the hopeful. But once they seize power, they close an iron grip around any and all freedoms, available to their people -- in particular freedom of speech.
Once radical Islam has gained power, established its own judiciary system, or infiltrated the legal system with its sharia law, no one is capable of criticizing the government or the political establishment. In a social order ruled by radical Islam, the government is Islam; the government is the representative of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad. Ruling politicians who decide the laws are "divine" figures supposedly appointed by God. They are not to be questioned.
There are many people like Sina Dehghan who are currently imprisoned, tortured on a daily basis, or awaiting their execution for "insulting Islam", "insulting the prophet", "insulting the Supreme Leader" -- the examples are endless. The issue is that we do not hear about these cases. Some media outlets refuse to report on them in order to appease the Islamic Republic of Iran -- just further proof of how coercive their power can be. The only way to reduce it -- and the oppression and slaughter of so many people -- is to bring attention to the human rights abuses conducted under the Islamic banner of religious "legitimacy " and "authenticity".
This type of tyranny is a danger, not just for those enduring it, but for the world.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, political scientist and Harvard University scholar is president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He can be reached at Dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu.
© 2017 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.

A 1,389 Year-Old ‘Phobia’?
Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/April 07/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=54119
A direct correlation exists between Western ignorance of history and Western ignorance of Islam’s “troublesome” doctrines. It is this connection that allows Islam’s apologists to get away with so many distortions and outright lies meant to shield Islam.
Take Reza Aslan, CNN’s resident “cannibal”: he recently claimed that “Islamophobia”— defined by CAIR and others as “unfounded fear of and hostility towards Islam”—was created by a few “clowns” in 2014.
To be sure, Western fear of Islam is something of a recent phenomenon in modern times. Because the world was a much bigger place a few decades ago, and Islam was oceans away, the average American hardly knew anything about Muhammad’s creed. However, as the world has become smaller—as Muslims have grown in numbers in Western societies, as modern technology has made it possible for the weaker to terrorize the stronger, and then broadcast it for the world to see (via Internet)—so has the Western world been hearing, seeing, and experiencing more and more of Islam.
But Aslan’s lament is not that people were once ignorant but now are wise to Islam. Rather, he accuses a number of writers and activists—the aforementioned “clowns”—of manufacturing a menacing image of Islam, which, in turn, has prompted Western people to develop an “unfounded fear of and hostility towards Islam”—or, in a word, “Islamophobia.”
Such a claim relies on an obscene amount of historical ignorance. The fact is, Western peoples, including some of their luminaries, have portrayed Islam as a hostile and violent force from the very start—often in terms that would make today’s “Islamophobe” blush. And that wasn’t because Europeans were “recasting the other” to “validate their imperial aspirations” (to use the tired terminology of Edward Said that has long dominated academia’s treatment of Western-Muslim interactions). Rather, it was because, from the very start, Islam treated the “infidel” the same way ISIS treats the infidel: atrociously.
According to Muslim history, in 628, Muhammad summoned the Roman (or “Byzantine”) emperor, Heraclius—the symbolic head of “the West,” then known as “Christendom”—to submit to Islam; when the emperor refused, a virulent jihad was unleashed against the Western world. Less than 100 years later, Islam had conquered more than two-thirds of Christendom, and was raiding deep into France. While these far-reaching conquests are often allotted a sentence, if that, in today’s textbooks, the chroniclers of the time, including Muslim ones, make clear that these were cataclysmic events that had a traumatic effect on, and played no small part in forming, the unconquered portion of Christendom, which became Europe proper. As Ibn Khaldun famously put it after describing incessant Muslim raids for booty and slaves all along Europe’s Mediterranean coasts during the ninth and tenth centuries, “the Christians could no longer float a plank on the sea.” They took to the inlands and the Dark Ages began.
But it wasn’t just what they personally experienced at the hands of Muslims that developed this ancient “phobia” to Islam. As far back as the eighth century, Islam’s scriptures and histories—the Koran, hadith, sira and maghazi literature—became available to those Christian communities living adjacent to, or even under the authority of, the caliphates. Based solely on these primary sources of Islam, Christians concluded that Muhammad was a (possibly demon possessed) false prophet who had very obviously concocted a creed to justify the worst depravities of man—for dominion, plunder, cruelty and carnality. This view prevailed for well over a millennium all over Europe (and till this day among “Islamophobes”); and it was augmented by the fact that Muslims were still, well over a millennium, invading Christian territories, plundering them, and abducting their women and children. The United States’ first brush with Islam—the early nineteenth century Barbary Wars—came by way of Muslim raids on American ships for booty and slaves in the name of Allah.
Here is a miniscule sampling of what Europeans thought of Islam throughout the centuries:
Theophanes, the Byzantine chronicler (d.818):
He [Muhammad] taught those who gave ear to him that the one slaying the enemy—or being slain by the enemy—entered into paradise [see Koran 9:111]. And he said paradise was carnal and sensual—orgies of eating, drinking, and women. Also, there was a river of wine … and the women were of another sort, and the duration of sex greatly prolonged and its pleasure long-enduring [e.g., Koran 56: 7-40, 78:31, 55:70-77]. And all sorts of other nonsense.
Thomas Aquinas, one of Christendom’s most influential philosophers (d.1274):
He [Muhamad] seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh urges us …. and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine…. Muhammad said that he was sent in the power of his arms—which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants [i.e., his “proof” that God was with him is that he was able to conquer and plunder others]…. Muhammad forced others to become his follower’s by the violence of his arms.
Marco Polo, world famous traveler (d.1324):
According to their [Muslims’] doctrine, whatever is stolen or plundered from others of a different faith, is properly taken, and the theft is no crime; whilst those who suffer death or injury by the hands of Christians, are considered as martyrs. If, therefore, they were not prohibited and restrained by the [Mongol] powers who now govern them, they would commit many outrages. These principles are common to all Saracens.
When the Mongol khan later discovered the depraved criminality of Achmath (or Ahmed), one of his Muslim governors, Polo writes that that the khan’s
attention [went] to the doctrines of the Sect of the Saracens [i.e., Islam], which excuse every crime, yea, even murder itself, when committed on such as are not of their religion. And seeing that this doctrine had led the accursed Achmath and his sons to act as they did without any sense of guilt, the Khan was led to entertain the greatest disgust and abomination for it. So he summoned the Saracens and prohibited their doing many things which their religion enjoined.
Alexis de Tocqueville, French political thinker and philosopher, best known for Democracy in America (d.1859),
I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.
Winston Churchill, a leader of the Allied war effort against Hitler during WWII (1965):
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism [Islam] lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Lest it seem that these and other historic charges against Islam are simply products of Christian/Western xenophobia that simply cannot tolerate the “other,” it should be noted that many of Islam’s Western critics regularly praised other non-Muslim civilizations, as well as what is called today “moderate Muslims.” Thus Marco Polo hailed the Brahmins of India as being “most honorable,” possessing a “hatred for cheating or of taking the goods of other persons.” And despite his criticisms of the “sect of the Saracens,” that is, Islam, he referred to one Muslim leader as governing “with justice,” and another who “showed himself [to be] a very good lord, and made himself beloved by everybody.”
Winston Churchill summed up the matter as follows: “Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities—but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”
Apologists like Reza Aslan can say whatever they want; they can claim that Islam is forever and perpetually “misunderstood”— and can bank on Western ignorance of its own history to get away with it. But fear and dislike of Islam has been the mainstream position among Christian/Western people for nearly 1,400 years—ever since Muhammad started raiding, plundering, massacring, and enslaving non-Muslims (“infidels”) in the name of his god; and it is because his followers, Muslims, continue raiding, plundering, massacring, and enslaving “infidels” that fear and dislike of Islam—what is called “Islamophobia”—exists to this day.

Saudi Writer: It Is Our Duty To Condemn Terror Attacks Against Civilians – They Harm Innocent People And Damage The Arab Reputation
MEMRI/April 07/17
Following the April 3, 2017 metro bombing in St. Petersburg, Russia, in which 14 people were killed, leading Saudi journalist Sa'id Al-Surayhi, who writes for the Saudi daily 'Okaz, penned an op-ed for the paper calling on the Arabs to condemn the attack regardless of Russia's involvement in the Middle East. Condemning all terror attacks, he wrote, is a human duty no matter who carried them out and who is targeted.
In his April 5, 2017 article, Al-Surayhi also discussed attacks in Israel, and stressed the Arab duty to condemn operations against civilians in cafes, in the streets, and on buses – but excluded operations against the Israeli military in bases and camps.
The St. Petersburg bombing. Source: Janoubia.com, April 5, 2015
The following are excerpts from his article:[1]
"Whether we agree with Russia or take issue with it, whether we think that its involvement in Syria helps the Iranians or is part of the rivalry for the Western presence in the region – one way or another, it is our duty to condemn the bombing in the St. Petersburg metro, which has the clear markings of a terrorist operation. This, provided that we approach this event in the context of terrorist actions that afflict many countries and target innocent people, and without addressing whether the policies employed by the [victims'] countries of origin are right or wrong.
"Condemning terrorist operations [and expressing] sympathy for the victims are human duties that must be performed after a terrorist operation – meaning that they must be condemned regardless of the perpetrator or the target.
"The experience that we have amassed has ripened our realization that there is a difference between military action against enemy armies and terrorist action against civilians, who are still innocent despite our rivalry with their countries and our war against their armies. This is because in the past, we Arabs would loudly cheer and praise [terror attacks] like [the one in St. Petersburg] carried out by some Palestinian factions against civilians in Israel, without any internal disagreements among the Arabs except for the terminology they used: Some called the terrorist action 'martyrdom-seeking,' while others made do with 'sacrifice' or 'suicide.'
"These actions greatly harmed the reputation of the Palestinians' struggle to restore their rights and land, as well as the reputation of the Arabs who supported these [terrorist] actions and saw them as a model for the struggle against those who steal land and occupy the homeland.
"To remove all doubt, we must stress that what we are speaking of here is action against civilians in cafes, in the streets, and on buses, rather than against the army in its bases and camps.
"Therefore, we will finish where we started – which is [to say that] condemning terrorist action is a condemnation of the action itself, regardless of who the perpetrators are and who the victims are."
[1] 'Okaz (Saudi Arabia), April 5, 2017.

Trump strikes Syria: Is this what the world was waiting for?
By Ehtesham Shahid/Al Arabiya/April 07/17
As precision guided US Tomahawk missiles swooped down on Syria’s Shayrat air base in the wee hours of Friday, the Middle East woke up to a world that promised change. Or was it? Call it collective sigh of relief, a sense of inevitability or Trump’s global assertion of his presidency, a common response seems to be emerging from beneath the rubble – at least something has been done about it. It remains to be seen whether that something corrects the wrongs of the past, does justice to the victims, brings a new dispensation or marks a new beginning. The world has lived through war fatigue that conflicts in the Middle East have brought about. A sense of submission has set in and we grow in and out of familiar cynicism that the more things change, the more they remain the same. There also isn’t a war crime that hasn’t been committed in this part of the world in recent years. Reports of torture, extra-judicial killing and ethnic cleansing have been accepted as almost inevitable outcomes while terror provides the daily dose to keep the embers alive. Trump’s decision to get militarily involved in Syria will achieve nothing if it isn’t followed by a political process. Such a process can only be put into place if we are clear about its end objectives
Crossing the threshold
If Khan Sheikhoun was the trigger for this latest US assault then other chemical attacks, in the same country and elsewhere in the neighborhood have, been either conveniently forgotten or helplessly ignored. Unfortunately, when misery becomes the norm no human resistance to an appalling crime appears to make sense. The emotions have run high in this part of the world but they have also been too easily overcome, and have hardly led to peace. There is no denying the fact that, despite the fatigue and the sense of resignation, stakes continue to remain high in Syria. The country is still at the center of a geo-strategic shift shaping the Middle East and beyond. It will continue to be the battleground for intransigent militias, warring opposition factions, and free-flowing terror modules.
It will also continue to divide powerful members of the Security Council for reasons beyond Syria.
Where do we go from here?
The moot point is whether this is going to be another shoot-and-scoot method that the Americans have been applying far too often in conflict zones around the world. If that’s the case, then it will probably end up galvanizing the opposition and may even invoke a more horrible face of the regime.
Trump’s rather courageous decision to get militarily involved in Syria will achieve nothing if it isn’t followed by a political process. Such a process can only be put into place if the stakeholders are clear about its end objectives. Two diametrically opposite scenarios are quickly taking shape – Syria with or without Assad. The latter looks more and more likely. It is difficult to imagine the Americans getting into this only to target an airbase and not taking things to a logical conclusion. But if they indeed continue till Assad is removed from power, then they will have to look at not repeating the mistake of getting rid of a dictator and doing little thereafter. It has happened in the past, leading to dire consequences, and the world probably cant afford more of the same. It is obvious that the world wasn’t waiting for just an air strike on the Assad bastion. It wants an end to this horrendous crime against humanity that has gone on in Syria for too long. The strikes that were carried out this morning will be justified only if we achieve this objective.

Chmical attack on Idlib a test for Trump
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/April 07/17
In addition to being forbidden in all circumstances and situations, we did not understand the reasoning of the Syrian regime in using prohibited chemical weapons against the civilians in Idlib. The regime’s forces were not in a critical position there, and the targeted region was not a strategic gain in the civil war. It is not clear why the regime defied the international community that is now standing by it for the first time since the eruption of the revolution more than six years ago! So why did the regime use poison gas against civilian neighborhoods, killing children and women? Why did it commit a serious crime that might lead to an international trial? Why did the regime do it knowing that it would embarrass the governments of Western countries that adopted a willing position to accept its persistence in Syria, contrary to the opinion of humanitarian and human rights organizations as well as a large public of intellectuals and people in the West?In fact, there is only one motive behind this heinous crime: the regime’s allies, whether the Russians or the Iranians, want to test the limits and decision taking ability of US President Donald Trump. They maybe want to weaken him, especially that he has already criticized the former US administration for its weakness regarding the previous chemical attack. In fact, there is only one motive behind this heinous crime: the regime’s allies, whether the Russians or the Iranians, want to test the limits and decision taking ability of US President Donald Trump. They maybe want to weaken him, especially that he has already criticized the former US administration for its weakness regarding the previous chemical attack.What can the US president do? Will he resort to punishing the Syrian regime directly, as Israel usually does when it considers that the Assad regime is crossing the red line? Will he take a countermeasure by arming the Syrian opposition for example, or he would merely issue a reprimand and warning that does not oblige his government to do anything in the future if the regime does it again?
Difficult test
It is a very difficult test for Trump who has been dragged into multiple internal battles, and may be afraid to be dragged into an external battle that would drown him in shifting sands on both fronts. In my opinion, the chemical attack on Idlib may only be the beginning of a series of attacks that Trump’s opponents are plotting against him. It would not be surprising to see naval confrontations in the Gulf, kidnappings of Americans in Lebanon, or targeting US forces in Iraq that are engaged in a war against ISIS. Iran can do all that as it has already done in the early 1980s, when a proxy (Hezbollah) took over in Lebanon and kidnapped a number of American diplomats and academics. Hezbollah has also bombed the Marines headquarters in Beirut. And when Iran got into a disagreement with France, Iran’s proxies also carried out bloody operations targeting civilians in Paris. These attacks are no less horrifying than what was committed recently by ISIS in Europe.Thus, Tehran and Moscow are studying the reactions of Washington regarding the heinous crime of Idlib: How will Trump handle it and to what extent can he go? This is a very difficult test for Trump administration. In my opinion, the administration should have proven its power before compromising for Damascus axis, and not the contrary. The Syrian moderate opposition should be armed to send a message that the war in Syria can be altered and made difficult for everyone, not only for the civilians.
The chemical attack on Idlib must worry many parties, because it suggests that the regime intends to expand the circle of confrontation, not as some would think that it is longing for peace.

EU’s 60th anniversary summit and the challenges of disintegration
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Othaimin/Al Arabiya/April 07/17
In the mid-1950s, the Netherlands, backed by Belgium and Germany, proposed the establishment of a common market. Initially, France was hesitant to join because of its protectionist policy, but it stuck to the European unity project that revolved around a Franco-German partnership. Eventually, France accepted the German-backed proposal provided that French interests were met. France wanted an atomic energy community, common agricultural policy, attachment of colonial territories on favourable conditions, and equality of women in wages in the whole community. Without such conditions, it was feared that French industry would see a competitive decline in some sectors. Italians, who had the weakest economy among the six member states, called for the establishment of the European Investment Bank, Social Fund and free movement of labor. On 25 March 1957, six countries including France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg signed the Treaty of Rome in one of the southern halls of the Capitoline Museum. The treaty was the base on which the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community were established. It came into force in January 1958 declaring the construction of the most successful European merger entity that saved the continent from the scourge of war and destruction. n Saturday 25 March 2017, 27 countries excluding Britain, which decided in a referendum to leave the union, met in the same hall to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. The leaders signed a joint communiqué (Rome Declaration) asserting “unity and solidarity” on issues of security, development, economic growth and social and international policy.
I think the Rome summit was an attempt to restore the past in order to give fresh impetus to the European project, which is now on the verge of collapse. Talks at the Rome summit brought about an agreement on “act[ing] together, at different paces and intensity … while moving in the same direction … in line with the [European] Treaties”. So, the Franco-German backed idea of a “multi-speed Europe” was rephrased to become a “different paces Europe”. After the summit, the Slovakian Prime Minister, Robert Fico, said that we have to be watchful and all EU member states have to work together as we cannot imagine a mechanism in which some countries go faster than the principles of European Union. President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, further said: “[we] lived behind the Iron Curtain for more than half of [our] life, where it was forbidden to even dream … Yes, back then, that really was a two-speed Europe”.
In the past 60 years, the EU has certainly made great achievements at the economic and security levels, but less at the political level. Currently, however, the EU faces numerous challenges forefronted by the implications of Bre.