LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 17/17
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations
I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them
Isaiah Chapter 03/04/ I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them.  As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.
Isaiah Chapter 03/04/Chapter 05/20-23: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink; who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 16-17/17
Explosion of 14 March initiated by the LF./Roger Bejjani/Face Book/November 16/17
Lebanon and Lebanese have been suffering from plots against them/Roger Bejjani/Face Book/November 16/17
What lies beneath Lebanese president’s verbal attack against Saudi Arabia/Al Arabiya English/16 November 2017/
Hariri to meet Macron in France on Saturday/The National/November 16/17/
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri accepts exile in France as Saudi Arabia no longer feels like a home away from home/Robert Fisk Middle East Correspondent/Independent/November 16/17
Lebanon teeters precariously on the edge/Christian Chesnot/Al Arabiya/November 16/17
Israeli Military Chief Gives Unprecedented Interview to Saudi Media: 'Ready to Share Intel on Iran/Amos Harel /Haaretz/November 16/17
IDF Chief Of Staff: Israel Willing To Share Intellligence With Saudis/Jerusalem Post/November 16/17
France: Escalating Muslim Anti-Semitism/Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/November 16/17
Welcome Home Jihadis/Khadija Khan/Gatestone Institute/November 16/17
Concern In Jordan Over Pro-Iranian Forces On Border/Z. Harel/MEMRI/November 16, 2017
Duma Speaker Volodin: 'It Is Unacceptable To Romanticize Revolution'/MEMRI/November 16/ 2017

Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on November 16-17/17
Explosion of 14 March initiated by the LF.
Lebanon and Lebanese have been suffering from plots against them
What lies beneath Lebanese president’s verbal attack against Saudi Arabia
France Says Hariri Accepts Invitation to Paris, Will Come Within Days
Bou Saab: Aoun's Position Not Meant for Escalation
Aoun Says Lebanon Committed to Dissociation Policy, Hariri Paris Trip 'Start of Solution'
Is Lebanon Saudi Arabia's New Zone of Confrontation with Iran?
Lebanon's Hariri Meets French FM in Riyadh
Hariri to Meet Macron Saturday in Paris
Hariri to meet Macron in France on Saturday
Saudi FM: Hariri Free to Leave Riyadh 'When He Pleases'
Russia Says Lavrov to Receive Bassil in Moscow
France Worried by Iran's 'Hegemonic' Intentions, Says FM
Shorter Heads North, Visits Chamber of Commerce and UK Funded Projects
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri accepts exile in France as Saudi Arabia no longer feels like a home away from home
Hariri to arrive in France on Saturday, meet Macron, says Elysee source
French FM: Lebanon’s Hariri to travel to Paris
Saudi Foreign Minister Jubeir says Hezbollah hijacked Lebanon
Lebanon teeters precariously on the edge

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 16-17/17
A Group of Democrats Just Officially Moved to Impeach Donald Trump as President
Saudi crown prince, French FM discuss Mideast developments
Arab coalition forces rescue two French journalists from Houthis in Yemen
US prosecutor calls Benghazi suspect ‘commander’ of 2012 attack
Iraqi MP: Secret negotiations going on between Erbil and Baghdad
UN to vote on rival US, Russia bids to renew Syria inquiry
ISIS has lost 95 percent of its ‘caliphate’: US-led coalition
Japan, US Stage Naval Drill amid N. Korea Tension
Canada launches global effort to help UN peacekeepers‎ prevent recruitment and use of child soldiers

Latest Lebanese Related News published on November 16-17/17
Explosion of 14 March initiated by the LF.
Roger Bejjani/Face Book/November 16/17
The dangers that we are living today are the results from the explosion of 14 March initiated by the LF. When you start preferring Aoun (the most faithful Hezbollah ally) over Dori, Kataeb, Boutros Harb and Mustaqbal, the end will be near.You can't go so unnatural and against your own soul and expect to survive it. Once a great organization that carried the dreams and hopes of so many and offered so much sacrifices, is self-destroying itself with a new modus operandi that it had always denounced
**I do not see any difference between Hariri's deference to Hezbollah and Geagea deference to Aounists. At least Hariri is tamed by the original terrorist organization while Geagea is tamed by one of the agents of this same terrorist organization. LF are living in denial and for the first time in its history (since January 2016) have become as inconsistent as all other political parties in Lebanon.

Lebanon and Lebanese have been suffering from plots against them
Roger Bejjani/Face Book/November 16/17
Lebanon and Lebanese have been suffering from plots against them, masterminded and implemented by......Lebanese exclusively. Here after a listing of the stupid decisions and actions that have pulled down this country for the past 60 years or so.
1. In 1958 morons have decided that Abdel Nasser should be their leader and wanted to unite with Egypt. As a consequence of those idiots' actions, we had a mini-civil war, that was stopped by the US Marines intervening and restoring order and the rule of law.
2. In 1969 morons have decided to violate the armistice agreement concluded in 1948 with Israel, ruled by the UN and have approved and signed the Cairo agreement, thus allowing the PLO to launch attacks on Israel from Lebanon. That was a violation of International law that has brought to Lebanon a series of catastrophic events.
3. In 1983, following the Israeli invasion of 1982 (a consequence of Lebanon's violation of the armistice agreement), the parliament has approved the security and withdrawal agreement negotiated between the Lebanese Army and the Israeli Army under the hospices of the Americans. However, morons have decided to launch an intimidating war against Amine Gemayel who abstained from ratifying it. The non compliance with May 17th accords has brought another series of miseries that lasted 17 years during which seen Hezbollah has emerged.
4. A super moron in 1989, defying all strategic elements, has launched a liberation war against Syrian troops in Lebanon that caused thousands of deaths, led to blockade of the free regions (free of Syrian occupation) and engendered the Taef agreement.
5. The same super moron (the same as in point 4), has launched an elimination war against the only force that was opposing the Syrian occupation since 1977; thus destroying and exhausting respectively the free Lebanese regions and its human and financial resources, hence opening the way to a more extended Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
6. Morons of Hezbollah have violated resolution 425 and the blue line in 2006 causing a devastating Israeli response that has caused about 1500 Lebanese dead (combatants and civilians), hundreds of thousands of displaced and billions in material damage. The reasons invoked by the morons was the liberation of Samir Kantar, a child killer who was later killed by the Israelis in a air strike in Syria.
7. The same morons of Hezbollah after killing a dozen of Lebanese political leaders and opinion leaders, responding to the popular and armed up-rising against Assad, have decided to help the latter staying in power. Since their intervention was mainly located in western Syria (Eastern Lebanon's border with Syria), a Sunni region, it caused the massive refugees crisis in Lebanon and the presence of Nosra and later Daesh on our Eastern front.
8. The same morons of Hezbollah applauded by many other morAouns have initiated a regional destabilizing program in Egypt, Koweit, Bahrain, Eastern KSA and in Yemen.Those stupid actions have resulted in massive deportation of Lebanese from those countries.
9. Now the MorAouns and other morons, instead of putting distance between the state and Hezbollah, are supporting this organization labeled by 180 countries as being a terrorist organization, against the Arab Gulf states, the traditional solid allies of Lebanon and the major employment market for Lebanese. The results of such stupidity will be devastating.
This brief clearly shows the sequence of stupid and bad decisions taken by irresponsible politicians while the moronic people are still applauding them.

What lies beneath Lebanese president’s verbal attack against Saudi Arabia
Al Arabiya English/16 November 2017/
Lebanese President Michel Aoun did what can only be described as launching a verbal attack politically on Saudi Arabia even as Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai wrapped up his historic visit to the kingdom. Lebanese sources said Aoun’s campaign fell within the context of acting on behalf of Hezbollah, which is isolated on the Arab and international levels. Aoun echoed accusations that Hariri was detained in Saudi Arabia and spoke of a supposed aggression on Lebanon and its independence and dignity. Aoun and Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, who is Aoun’s son-in-law, used an unprecedented rhetoric against Saudi Arabia, which has been Lebanon’s traditional ally and biggest donor over decades. They went as far as hinting to pursue Riyadh on the international level. The campaign came hours after Rai said he understood the motives behind Hariri’s resignation, and which are related to Hezbollah’s persistence to pursue its regional role, and voiced the need for a new settlement that replaces the settlement, which brought Aoun as president.
Directed against Rai
Some observers said Aoun’s statements were also directed against Rai and warned of distant ties between him and his religious reference, in exchange of complete political affiliation to Hezbollah. This attachment increases the Lebanese people’s fears of the consequences of bad relations with Saudi Arabia and Arab countries. It was concluded that Aoun’s campaign against Saudi Arabia represents a coup on the history of joint relations between the two countries. The political escalation against Riyadh thus falls within the context of disrupting Rai’s historical visit to Saudi Arabia. Maronites in particular, and the Lebanese people in general, rely on this visit to confirm communication rather than lead to severance with negative results due to this unprecedented campaign in the history of Lebanese-Saudi relations.

France Says Hariri Accepts Invitation to Paris, Will Come Within Days
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 16/17/French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le-Drian announced from Riyadh on Thursday that Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri has accepted an invitation to travel to Paris after Beirut accused Riyadh of detaining him following his shock resignation. "He will come to France and the prince has been informed," Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters, referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman with whom he held talks late on Wednesday. Asked about the date of the visit for talks with President Emmanuel Macron, Le Drian replied: "Mr. Hariri's schedule is a matter for Mr. Hariri." Lebanese radio VDL (93.3) quoted sources close to Hariri as saying that he “will fly from Riyadh to Paris within 48 hrs after which he will head to Beirut to submit his resignation officially.”Speculation has swirled around the fate of Hariri, who is a dual Saudi citizen. Lebanese President Michel Aoun has accused Saudi Arabia of "detaining" him and has refused to accept his resignation from abroad. In his first media appearance since he announced his resignation on November 4, Hariri said on Sunday that he had freedom of movement and would return to Lebanon in the coming days. Hariri has left open the possibility that he may withdraw his resignation if Hizbullah in regional conflicts.
The French president's office said on Wednesday that Hariri and his family had been invited to France for a "few days" but that did not mean he would stay there in exile. Macron has stressed that Hariri should be able to return to Lebanon to confirm or withdraw his resignation in person.

Bou Saab: Aoun's Position Not Meant for Escalation
Naharnet/November 16/17/Presidential Adviser for International Cooperation Elias Bou Saab clarified on Thursday that President Michel Aoun's accusations that Saudi Arabia is holding Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri in “detention,” were not intended to escalate rhetoric with the kingdom. “Positions made by President Aoun were not launched with the aim of escalation but were merely a cry for help. Aoun has asked SA for clarification (as for Hariri's fate) in order to know how to manage the crisis but he received no response,” said Bou Saab in an interview with radio VDL (100.5) Thursday. He pointed out that the current government “can not be made a caretaker government without a prime minister to run the work,” adding that Aoun's remarks preserve Lebanese dignity. “The President has always reiterated the need to maintain unparalleled ties with SA,” said Bou Saab, stressing “there is great keenness to restore the means of dialogue and communication.”Bou Saab noted that the “first foreign visit made by Aoun as president was to Saudi Arabia,” adding “the solution comes through dialogue and brotherhood. Relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia did not reach the point of no return.”Pointing to a ”confusing” situation with regard to Hariri's presence in SA, he said: “If it was normal Western countries, including France, would not have intervened to find a solution to this crisis.” However, Bou Saab denied any intention to break relations with Saudi Arabia or any freeze of Lebanon's membership in the Arab League. “we have only heard these measures from the media," he said. Aoun on Wednesday accused Saudi Arabia of having "detained" Hariri, who announced his resignation in a statement from the kingdom earlier this month. "Nothing justifies the failure of Prime Minister Saad Hariri to return for 12 days, therefore we consider him to be held and detained, contrary to the Vienna Convention," Aoun had said. Speculation has swirled about the circumstances of Hariri's resignation since his surprise announcement on November 4 in a statement read on Saudi Arabia's Al-Arabiya television channel.There have been rumors that the prime minister,  who is a Saudi citizen and grew up in the kingdom, had been detained along with dozens of Saudis in what Riyadh says is an anti-corruption campaign. Aoun has yet to officially accept Hariri's resignation, and has said he will not do so before meeting the premier in person in Lebanon. President Emmanuel Macron had "invited" Hariri and his family to France in the coming days," a French Presidency statement said Wednesday. The statement said the invitation came after Macron spoke by telephone to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Hariri.

Aoun Says Lebanon Committed to Dissociation Policy, Hariri Paris Trip 'Start of Solution'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 16/17/President Michel Aoun stressed Lebanon's commitment to the dissociation policy and said that he was waiting for Prime Minister Saad Hariri to return from France to decide on the next steps, after Beirut accused Saudi Arabia of detaining the premier following his shock resignation. "I am awaiting the return of Hariri from Paris for us to decide the next step with regards to the government," the presidency's Twitter account quoted Michel Aoun as saying. Hariri has not returned to Lebanon since he announced his resignation while in Saudi Arabia on November 4. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday during a visit to the kingdom that Hariri would travel to France. Hariri's decision to accept an invitation to Paris is the "start of a solution" to the crisis sparked by his resignation in Saudi Arabia, ِAoun said. Hariri has been in Riyadh since announcing his shock resignation from there on November 4, and Aoun on Wednesday accused Saudi authorities of "detaining" the premier. "We hope that the crisis is over and Hariri's acceptance of the invitation to go to France is the start of a solution," Aoun said. In his sharply worded resignation statement, Hariri, 47, accused Saudi Arabia's arch-rival Iran and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah of destabilizing his country and the broader region. Speculation has swirled around the fate of Hariri, who is a dual Saudi citizen. On Wednesday, Aoun accused Saudi Arabia of "detaining" Hariri after what he said was his failure to return to the country for 12 days. "We consider him to be held and detained, contrary to the Vienna Convention," he said. "He will come to France and the prince has been informed," Le Drian told reporters, referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman with whom he held talks the previous evening. The French president's office said on Wednesday that Hariri and his family had been invited to France for a "few days" but that did not mean he would stay there in exile. Macron has stressed that Hariri should be able to return to Lebanon to confirm or withdraw his resignation in person.

Is Lebanon Saudi Arabia's New Zone of Confrontation with Iran?
Hudson Institute/November 17/17/https://www.hudson.org/events/1493-is-lebanon-saudi-arabia-s-new-zone-of-confrontation-with-iran-112017
Under the new leadership of 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has found itself in the middle of a storm generated by internal opponents to his rule, the country’s foreign adversaries, and partly by the young ruler himself. Earlier in November, Saudi air defenses intercepted a missile fired at Riyadh by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. On the same day, Saudi authorities arrested dozens of senior figures, including well-connected royals like Prince Walid Bin Talal, on corruption charges and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, while traveling in Riyadh, announced his resignation and denounced Iran’s long arm in Lebanon, Hezbollah. Saudi officials followed Hariri’s statement with warnings of their own, explaining that as long as Lebanon was controlled by Hezbollah, it would be treated as an enemy. Is Lebanon Saudi Arabia’s newest regional theater of conflict with Iran, after Yemen and Syria? What’s the Crown Prince’s next move? What does it mean for Lebanon if Hezbollah’s base of operations is now a potential conflict zone? And how is the Trump administration managing its regional partners and the larger strategic picture in the Middle East? On November 20, join us at Hudson Institute for an important and timely lunchtime panel discussion moderated by Lee Smith, and featuring Michael Doran, Mohammed Alyahya, and Tony Badran.

Lebanon's Hariri Meets French FM in Riyadh
Naharnet/November 16/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri met the French foreign minister in Riyadh Thursday, the most senior Western official he has met publicly since his shock resignation announcement earlier this month.The meeting came after Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Hariri had accepted an invitation to visit France for talks with President Emmanuel Macron. Asked when his visit would take place, Hariri replied: "I would rather not answer that right now."

Hariri to Meet Macron Saturday in Paris
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 16/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri will arrive in France on Saturday and meet French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, the French presidency said Thursday. Hariri, who announced his resignation during a visit to Saudi Arabia, is traveling to France at the invitation of the French government in a move that diplomats hope will ease regional tensions and tensions between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Hariri to meet Macron in France on Saturday
The National/November 16/17/
Lebanon’s prime minister Saad Hariri will arrive in France on Saturday and meet French President Emmanuel Macron, a source inside the Elysée said. Mr Macron invited the Lebanese premier and his family to France on Wednesday, hoping to soothe a crisis triggered when Mr Hariri announced his resignation in Saudi Arabia 12 days ago. Mr Hariri accepted the invitation, further delaying his promised return to Beirut. In his resignation speech, Mr Hariri said he feared assassination and criticised Iran’s influence in Lebanon. He said this week he would return to Lebanon within days. Members of his own party, as well as Lebanon’s president, said his decision was forced by the Saudi leadership and that Mr Hariri had become a pawn in Saudi efforts to counter Iranian influence in Arab states.Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir said on Thursday that claims Mr Hariri was being held in Saudi Arabia against his will were untrue. French efforts to resolve the crisis have intensified in recent days. However, Mr Macron clarified that his invitation was for a visit, and not for political exile. Mr Hariri holds a Saudi passport and lived in self-exile in France and Saudi Arabia from 2011 to 2014.
French foreign minister Jean-Yves le Drian said on Thursday France was working to normalise the situation in Lebanon and that Mr Hariri can travel to France whenever he wants.
"Hariri, who I will see later, is invited to France with his family by president Macron,” Mr Le Drian said in Riyadh, where he met Mr Al Jubeir. “He will come to France when he wants and as soon as he wants. He will be welcome as a friend." A Lebanese politician said after meeting with president Michel Aoun that Mr Hariri will be travelling to Paris on Saturday and then will come to Beirut, Reuters reported. Mr Al Jubeir blamed Hizbollah for Lebanon’s problems and called on the group to disarm and become a political party for Lebanon to stabilise.“Whenever we see a problem, we see Hizbollah act as an arm or agent of Iran and this has to come to an end,” he told Reuters. Hizbollah “has kidnapped the Lebanese [political] system and continues to interfere in the affairs of other Arab countries,” he said. “These militias are weapons in the hands of Iran and Hizbollah’s leader [Hassan Nasrallah] has said it himself.”
Hizbollah is the only political party in Lebanon that still maintains a militia. It is also Mr Hariri’s chief political rival.
Though many Lebanese factions oppose Hizbollah’s arms, they are also viewed as a necessary deterrent to potential Israeli aggression toward Lebanon. But since the beginning of Syria’s civil war, Hizbollah has also become a regional actor. The party’s militia has been instrumental in helping Syrian president Bashar Al Assad defeat the rebels seeking to overthrow him. Many of those rebel groups received support from Saudi Arabia. Hizbollah receives both financial and military support from Iran, and has assisted Iranian efforts to support the government of Iraq in its war against ISIL.The Saudis also accuse Hizbollah of interfering in Yemen’s civil war.Mr Al Jubeir accused the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels of besieging civilian areas and preventing supplies from coming in or out. “That’s why you have the starvation that’s taking place in Yemen and people need to do a more serious job of holding Houthis accountable for this,” he said. Mr Hariri’s father, Rafik Hariri, was killed by a bombing in Beirut in 2005. Rafik Hariri also served two terms as prime minister, and his assassination provoked a political crisis that resonates until today. Rafik Hariri’s death sparked demonstrations that ended the Syrian army’s three-decade occupation of Lebanon and split the country’s political parties into two main camps, the pro-Syrian March 8 alliance, dominated by Hizbollah, and the March 14 alliance, led by Mr Hariri. Also on Thursday, a spokesman for the Lebanese army said a Saudi man in Lebanon who was kidnapped last week had been released. The spokesman said he was unable to provide any further information. The day before the kidnapping, the Saudi government had issued a travel warning and asked Saudi citizens in Lebanon to leave. *Additional reporting by Reuters and AFP

Saudi FM: Hariri Free to Leave Riyadh 'When He Pleases'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 16/17/Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is free to leave Riyadh "when he pleases," the Saudi foreign minister said on Thursday, rejecting accusations from Beirut that the kingdom was "detaining" him.Hariri, who announced his shock resignation from Saudi Arabia on November 4, is living in the kingdom "of his own free will" and free to leave "when he pleases", Adel al-Jubeir told a press conference in Riyadh. "These are false allegations. The accusation that Saudi Arabia is detaining a prime minister, and particularly a political figure who is an ally... is untrue," Jubeir said. The Minister stressed that “Hizbullah is the root of Lebanon's problems and its role should be downsized.”Lebanese President Michel Aoun had accused Saudi Arabia on Wednesday of detaining Hariri after what he said was his failure to return home for 12 days. But on Thursday, Aoun said the announcement that Hariri would travel to France for talks with President Emmanuel Macron could be "the start of a solution".

Russia Says Lavrov to Receive Bassil in Moscow
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 16/17/Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil is expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Friday, the National News Agency reported. The Russian foreign ministry announced that Lavrov will receive Bassil in Moscow, NNA added. The meeting comes in light of the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri last week from Riyadh and the accusations fired by Lebanon's President Michel Aoun that the premier is “detained” in Saudi Arabia. Speculation has swirled around the fate of Hariri, who is a dual Saudi citizen. Lebanese President Michel Aoun has accused Saudi Arabia of "detaining" him and has refused to accept his resignation from abroad. The French president's office said on Wednesday that Hariri and his family had been invited to France for a "few days" but that did not mean he would stay there in exile. Macron has stressed that Hariri should be able to return to Lebanon to confirm or withdraw his resignation in person.

France Worried by Iran's 'Hegemonic' Intentions, Says FM
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 16/17/France is worried by Iran's "hegemonic" intentions in the Middle East, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday. At a press conference with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir, Le Drian echoed Riyadh's concerns over Iranian "intervention in regional crises" and "hegemonic" intentions in the region. "I'm thinking specifically about Iran's ballistic programme," Le Drian added. Le Drian focused on Lebanon and its prime minister Saad Hariri in his comments to reporters, saying the Middle Eastern country should be "protected from foreign interference". Hariri, whose sudden resignation on November 4 while in Saudi Arabia sparked a flurry of diplomatic talks, has accepted an invitation to visit France, Le Drian said. Beirut has accused Riyadh of "detaining" Hariri and France has been pushing for him to return home. Lebanon is home to parties allied with both Sunni giant Saudi Arabia and its arch-rival Iran, which backs the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

Shorter Heads North, Visits Chamber of Commerce and UK Funded Projects
Naharnet/November 16/17/As part of his ongoing regional visits across Lebanon, British Ambassador Hugo Shorter visited the northern city of Tripoli on Thursday. The visit was an opportunity to meet with the Chamber of Commerce in Tripoli, and see firsthand two UK funded projects: ‘Misso Spices’ and March NGO’s ‘Syria Street Cultural Cafe’ part of "the $610 million overall support the UK provides to Lebanon’s stability and prosperity," the British Embassy said in a statement. Ambassador Shorter toured the historic Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles which dates back to 1103 AD, the House of Art in Mina, and laid a wreath at the Commonwealth War Cemetery. He said after the visit: "As always, I had a fascinating visit to Tripoli today. It was an opportunity to hear from the Chamber of Commerce about projects running aimed at providing economic opportunities which will make a real difference to people’s everyday lives." "I reiterated our strong support to the continued unity, stability and security of Lebanon and its people. We have committed $610 million since 2011 to supporting Lebanon. I’m very proud to say that we support more than 1 in 5 Lebanese municipalities with a total of $30m over 18 months. By 2019 we will have reached over 1,440,000 people and more than 220 municipalities," Shorter added. He also stated: "I am very pleased to inaugurate March’s Cultural blast and cafe in Syria Street: a meeting point for marginalized youth of Tripoli to use art and culture as catalysts for tolerance, reconciliation and peace building. I believe this is paying off as I saw many youths from Beb el Tebbeneh and Jabal Mohsen come together to perform in comedy plays inspired by their lives. I am proud that we, along with other donors, are playing an active role in the city’s development and its constant strive for unity and tolerance among its diverse communities."Shorter noted that he "also had the opportunity to visit the flavorsome ‘Misso Spices’ and had a tour of their beautiful looking and smelling spices.""This family owned business since 1991 received training and support from ‘INTAJ’, a UK funded project run by Mercy Corps. By March 2018 we will have invested $21.6 million in this program to support vulnerable Lebanese communities by increasing employment, training people in the skills required to get jobs, and building stronger businesses in the Bekaa and North Lebanon," he added. UK Aid has invested in a $500,000 project spent on renovating the Old Souk through the Lebanon Host Communities Support Project (LHSP). "In the next phase we will continue the rehabilitation of the Souks with an additional $1m, benefitting 550 shops owners," the ambassador said. "I also toured the beautiful historical citadel of Raymond de St. Gilles. During my visit I laid a wreath at the Commonwealth War Cemetery, a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by generations past and present, and the responsibility we all share to work towards peace," he added.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri accepts exile in France as Saudi Arabia no longer feels like a home away from home
Robert Fisk Middle East Correspondent/Independent/November 16/17
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/saudia-arabia-lebanon-pm-saad-hariri-accepts-exile-in-france-a8058171.html
It’s worth remembering how much Saad Hariri liked – and quite probably still does like – Saudi Arabia
Hariri has not returned to Lebanon since he declared his shock resignation Reuters
When I heard that President Macron was ready to whisk Lebanon’s kidnapped prime minister to Paris with his family – victims of the gentlest hostage-taking in the history of Saudi Arabia – I couldn’t but recall what Saad Hariri said to me a few years after he first became Lebanon’s premier in 2009. I was sitting in his office in his Koreitem Palace – a vast, ugly monster of a building not far from the Hamra district of Beirut – and I asked him if he liked being prime minister of Lebanon.
He had only two advisers with him. “I am following in my father’s footsteps,” he said repeatedly. He was talking about his father Rafiq, the former Lebanese prime minister murdered in Beirut four years earlier, in 2005. But he was always talking about his father’s footsteps and people mocked him for this. But really, I asked again, what did it feel like to be prime minister of Lebanon? His answer quite shocked me, though it should not have done.
“You know this is my duty,” he said. “But I miss Saudi Arabia. I miss being able to take my family out in the car and drive through the desert at night and feel the desert wind in our faces – and us, just alone. No policemen, no security, no soldiers.” Well, I guess that from now on, he’s going to associate Saudi Arabia rather than Lebanon with policemen, security and soldiers. But it was an interesting reflection on the Hariri family.
I knew his father rather better. When he was assassinated with 21 others by a suicide bomber on the Beirut seafront in 2005, I saw Rafiq Hariri’s body lying on the roadside. He was a plump man and I thought at first he was the man who sells thyme bread on the Corniche until I saw the hair over his collar. His socks were on fire. With a colleague, I had first met Rafiq Hariri not in Beirut but in Riyadh, the Saudi capital where his son is now incarcerated, albeit in the luxury to which the family was and still is accustomed. The comparatively young Rafiq – this was in the 1990s, before he was prime minister – was sitting in his office complex, headquarters of the now bankrupt Oger company, indulging in the irritating habit so beloved of Arab businessmen: talking to advisers while glancing constantly at a vast television screen to distract him from the conversation.
Hariri had great ideas for Lebanon. He obviously wanted to rebuild the country after the civil war. So why live in Saudi Arabia, we asked? “Why not?” he asked. “This is a good country to live in. This is a great country – just providing you don’t get involved with politics!”Ah, but that was the problem. Rafiq Hariri was always hobbled by Hezbollah’s growing political ambitions. He once expressed his fury to me after Hezbollah’s leader, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, decided to build a tomb for his martyrs opposite the entrance to the spanking new glass and steel airport which Hariri had built to the south of Beirut. “Can you imagine?” he asked. “This man was going to put the bodies of Hezbollah men killed by the Israelis right opposite the entrance to the international airport, the first thing tourists would see when they arrived.” Hariri stopped the plot.
The world – which then meant the United States – accused the Iranian-funded Hezbollah of murdering Hariri, and so when Saad became prime minister, he too feared the Hezbollah, though many (including myself) had doubts about just who his father’s murderers really were. And with Hezbollah’s ministers in the government – freely and fairly elected, we should add – Saad Hariri found himself in a different kind of danger when he immediately returned as prime minister last year. As a Sunni citizen as well as a Lebanese citizen, the Saudis expected him to tame the Shia Hezbollah. But he had to rule a united Lebanon, not lead it into another civil war.
So when 32-year old Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia tried to destroy the power of Shia Islam, Lebanon (and Hariri) were bound to be targets of this dangerous young man’s fury. The prince had tried to destroy Bashar al-Assad’s Shia regime. He failed. He launched a war against the Shias of Yemen. It turned into a disaster. He tried to economically strangle Qatar – because of its close relations with Iran – and liquidate the Al Jazeera channel, and he failed. So now he turned his massive irritation against Lebanon. It looks as if this too will be a dismal failure – thanks partly to President Macron. And not least because Hariri also happens to be a French citizen, whom Macron can therefore justifiably stand up for. Macron wants Hariri’s wife and two children to accompany him to Paris – so there are no more hostages left behind. But there are. There’s his brother Bahaa, for a start. Despite all its verbal frothing, the one thing the Saudis will not do is attack Iran itself. That would be far too frightening an enterprise for the Crown Prince to undertake. But it’s worth remembering how much Saad Hariri liked – and quite probably still does like – Saudi Arabia. As his father did. Not long after Saad expressed to me his longing to drive through the Saudi desert at night, far from Beirut, he also replied to a question of mine about his political ambitions: “Five years in Lebanese politics – and then I’ll be gone,” he said.
What the Zimbabwe coup really means for Robert and Grace Mugabe
It was eight years before he was forced to read his “resignation” speech in Riyadh – and then he almost was “gone”. For it now transpires that a number of EU ambassadors in Riyadh seriously feared for Saad Hariri’s life after he read his infamous and scripted speech. Others fear for the future of the Saudi foreign minister and former Saudi ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubeir, who must surely have tried to advise the Crown Prince not to coerce Hariri. If he gave such advice, it clearly went unheeded. When al-Jubair later appeared on television, his eyes – in the words of a close acquaintance of the Hariri family – “stood out on stalks”. But Hariri himself remains dissatisfied with some of his closest advisers in his own Future movement in Beirut, which is itself funded by the Saudis. No one will say just whom he suspects of preparing to stab him in the back. Some might guess Fouad Siniora, the enormously gifted economist and academic usually regarded as a loyal friend – and certainly no Dr Faustus. I’ve always liked Siniora. He stood up for Hariri’s father Rafiq when Hariri enemies tried to suggest there had been corruption in Rafiq’s Lebanese government. But Beirut politics is even more slippery than the Saudi version – sometimes more dangerous, though that might soon change. When Saad Hariri was taken from Riyadh airport by Saudi security men that first night in Riyadh, he at first found himself only a few hundred feet from the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton hotel in which dozens of princes, rivals of the Crown Prince, were already detained for “corruption”. He must have wondered if he was about to join them. Then, indeed, the freedom of the Saudi desert wind might not have seemed quite so attractive.

Hariri to arrive in France on Saturday, meet Macron, says Elysee source
Reuters, Paris/November 16/17/Lebanon’s prime minister Saad al-Hariri will arrive in France on Saturday and meet French President Emmanuel Macron, a source inside the French presidency said. Macron invited the Lebanese premier and his family to France on Wednesday, hoping to soothe a crisis triggered when Hariri announced his resignation 12 days ago.

French FM: Lebanon’s Hariri to travel to Paris
AFP, Riyadh/November 16/17/Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has accepted an invitation to travel to Paris, the French foreign minister said Thursday. “He will come to France and the prince has been informed,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters, referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman with whom he held talks late on Wednesday. Asked about the date of the visit for talks with President Emmanuel Macron, Le Drian replied: “Mr. Hariri’s schedule is a matter for Mr. Hariri.”Also read: Hariri tells Aoun: ‘I’m fine, will return to Lebanon as promised’ In his first media appearance since he announced his resignation on November 4, Hariri said on Sunday that he had freedom of movement and would return to Lebanon in the coming days. Also read: What lies beneath Lebanese president’s verbal attack against Saudi Arabia. The French president’s office said on Wednesday that Hariri and his family had been invited to France for a “few days” but that did not mean he would stay there in exile. Macron has stressed that Hariri should be able to return to Lebanon to confirm or withdraw his resignation in person.

Saudi Foreign Minister Jubeir says Hezbollah hijacked Lebanon
Al Arabiya English/November 16/17/Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Hezbollah is the root of the problem in Lebanon as it has hijacked the Lebanese system. During a joint press conference with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, Jubeir added that Hezbollah’s continuous interferences in Arab countries’ affairs will worsen the situation in Lebanon. He also said that the Hezbollah militia is a weapon in Iran’s hands, noting that Hezbollah’s secretary general himself has acknowledged that. Jubeir, whose meeting with Le Drian addressed Iranian interferences, combating terrorism and the Lebanese crisis, said Lebanon’s resigned Prime Minister Saad Hariri lives in Saudi Arabia and the decision to return to Lebanon is his as it depends on security circumstances. Commenting on Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s statements that Hariri is detained in Saudi Arabia, Jubeir said these were false allegations as Hariri is an ally of the Saudi kingdom and a Saudi citizen. The Saudi FM added that Hezbollah threatens the stability of Lebanon and the region and voiced the importance of finding means to deal with the party. He added that t here were practical measures in this regards. Jubeir also voiced his appreciation of France for condemning the act of firing a ballistic missile from Yemen towards Riyadh upon Hezbollah’s support on November 4. Meanwhile, Le Drian said he was thrilled to visit Saudi Arabia and noted that his visit falls within the context of the historical partnership between the two countries and aims to enhance bilateral relations. Le Drian said his meeting with Jubeir focused on Lebanon and on France’s concern to maintain Lebanon’s stability and not interfering in its internal affairs. He also voiced his desire for Saudi-French coordination in several affairs. Regarding Yemen and other regional crises, Le Drian said: “We are committed to enhancing France’s partnership with Saudi Arabia.” The French FM added that they also discussed the nuclear agreement with Iran and Tehran’s policy in the region and voiced his country’s worry of Iran’s interferences and domination tendencies. Le Drien also said that he will meet with Hariri later on Thursday, adding that Hariri will visit France whenever he sees fit and Paris will receive him as a friend.

Lebanon teeters precariously on the edge
Christian Chesnot/Al Arabiya/November 16/17
A phrase best sums up the ever inflammable situation of Lebanon. A few years ago, the French embassy in Beirut sent a diplomatic message to the foreign ministry in Paris with the title: “Lebanon hangs on at the edge of the precipice!”The expression has never been more relevant than today, when Lebanon once again finds itself in the eye of a storm. Since the end of the civil war in the 1990s, Lebanon has resembled a dormant volcano that fumes periodically. Amid it burning embers, violence erupts when least expected. The last big eruption was in July 2006, when a war broke between Hezbollah and Israel that took everyone by surprise. As the country of the Cedar was preparing for a promising season of tourism, a barrage of fire rained down at it. What is certain is that the Lebanese — to whatever the community they may belong— do not want to revive the spiral of violence
Defying doomsayers
Still Lebanon survived and had has since endured many storms. The resilience and ingenuity of the Lebanese made them strong to go through the trials, but the price to pay has been high every time. When rough winds began to ravage neighboring Syria in 2011, many thought that Lebanon would also disintegrate and get bogged down into its own civil war. For was it not customary to say in Beirut: "When Syria catches a cold, Lebanon sneezes”? The vulnerabilities of this fledgling state are a well known fact still the gloomy prognosis never came to pass. Luckily! Lebanon withstood the shock of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees settling on its territory. We are talking about an influx of over a million people in just a few years. The country is overwhelmed, but who could have done better in such circumstances? Still Lebanon did not wilt. The policy of "distancing" itself has allowed the country to escape fatality.
A form of sacred union - which is not common in Beirut – has gradually taken shape, especially in the face of jihadist danger that has been seeping in from the eastern border. A still extant security pact concluded between all Lebanese parties has prevented many terrorist attacks.
Danger looms
Today, after the surprise resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the Lebanese fear that a new storm will hit them. Saudi Arabia points to the growing influence of Hezbollah. Can this crisis escalate? One can only remain cautious in view of the dynamic of tension that is at work.
However, what is certain is that the Lebanese — to whatever the community they may belong— do not want to revive the spiral of violence, even if extremists may be tempted to stoke the embers. Most important, the international community does not want the stability of the country to flounder.
The political and security actors in Lebanon believe that it is difficult for them to militarily challenge the Shiite party, the only movement that has retained its weapons since the end of the civil war. The reality on the ground is thus made.
The military option would be a disaster for the Lebanese people who would once again be tragically united in common misfortune. This time they may be dragged deep into the abyss.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 16-17/17
A Group of Democrats Just Officially Moved to Impeach Donald Trump as President
Time Kevin Freking / AP,Time Wed, Nov 15/17
(WASHINGTON) — A half-dozen Democrats on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, accusing him of obstruction of justice and other offenses, in a long-shot effort that stands little chance in the Republican-led House. Indeed, the large majority of Democrats seem intent on having nothing to do with the effort either as lawmakers await the results of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Democratic leaders have argued that the impeachment campaign riles up Trump’s GOP base, a critical bloc in next year’s midterm elections. The five articles accused the president of obstruction of justice related to the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, undermining the independence of the federal judiciary and other offenses. “We have taken this action because of great concerns for the country and our Constitution and our national security and our democracy,” Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said at a news conference to announce the effort. Cohen said he understands that Republicans hold the majority in the House and are unlikely to allow hearings on the impeachment articles. He said the group will hold occasional briefings to explain each of the five articles of impeachment and where they believe Trump ran afoul of the law or committed misdeeds that warrant impeachment. The obstruction of justice allegation stems from Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, which the lawmakers say was designed to delay and impede an investigation. The articles of impeachment also charge that Trump has accepted without the consent of Congress emoluments from foreign states and from the U.S. government. Finally, the articles of impeachment allege he has undermined the federal judiciary and the freedom of the press. Cohen and other leaders of the impeachment effort disagreed that their effort could hurt Democrats in next year’s congressional elections. “I think the Democratic base needs to be activated. The Democratic base needs to know there are members of Congress willing to stand up against this president,” Cohen said. Other lawmakers who have signed onto to the resolution are Democratic Reps. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Al Green of Texas, Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Adriano Espaillat of New York and John Yarmuth of Kentucky. Gutierrez said he wasn’t afraid to support the resolution despite the concerns of some fellow Democrats.
“I see a crime and I have a responsibility to dial 911 immediately. I don’t call and try to reach my consensus with all my neighbors and all my friends and those whose opinion I might seek out,” Gutierrez said.
A spokesman for the Republican National Committee criticized the effort. “House Democrats lack a positive message and are completely unwilling to work across the aisle, so instead they’ve decided to support a baseless radical effort that the vast majority of Americans disagree with,” said spokesman Michael Ahrens.

Saudi crown prince, French FM discuss Mideast developments
Al Arabiya English/November 16/17/Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has met with France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Riyadh where both discussed bi-lateral efforts and the latest developments in the Middle East. The crown prince, who is also Saudi Arabia’s deputy prime minister and defense, reviewed with the French foreign minister the prospects of Saudi-French cooperation in various fields, as well as discussing the developments in the Middle East and coordinating efforts towards them in order to enhance security and stability in the region. The meeting was attended by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, other ministers and senior officials.

Arab coalition forces rescue two French journalists from Houthis in Yemen
Al Arabiya English/November 16/17/The Arab coalition forces have rescued two French journalists who were lost in areas under the control of the Houthi militias in Yemen. The two French journalists arrived at Riyadh air base. The journalists were part of a delegation coming from Saada to Hajjah province, and the Houthi militias kidnapped them on Thursday (November 2nd).

US prosecutor calls Benghazi suspect ‘commander’ of 2012 attack
The Associated Press/November 16/17/Prosecutors are urging jurors to convict a man they say masterminded the 2012 attacks on US compounds in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. In closing arguments on Thursday, Assistant US Attorney Michael C. DiLorenzo described Ahmed Abu Khattala as a terrorist bent on killing as many Americans as he could. Khattala is charged with crimes including murder of an internationally protected person, providing material support to terrorists and destroying US property while causing death. His attorneys have tried to depict him as a “Libyan patriot” who believed he was attending a protest at the compound. But DiLorenzo called him the “on-scene commander” of the carnage who had been planning the attack for at least a year.

Iraqi MP: Secret negotiations going on between Erbil and Baghdad
Al Arabiya English/November 16/17/The Kurdistan Region’s Tuesday announcement that it respects the Iraqi Supreme Court’s decision on banning secession paves way to resolving the problem between Baghdad and Erbil and returning to the table of negotiations. Speaking on the subject, State of Law Coalition Member of Parliament Kamel al-Zaydi said on Wednesday that there are “secret” negotiations going on between Baghdad and Erbil to resolve the Kurdish referendum crisis. Zaydi, who is a member of the parliamentary committee that was formed to negotiate with the Kurdistan Region before the referendum on September 25, said that Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi assigned a “secret” committee headed “by a prominent political figure to negotiate with the Kurds,” adding that “these negotiations have reached an advanced phase.”Meanwhile, Kurdish politicians, parliamentarians and academics called on Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani and his deputy Qubad Talabani to resign and pave way for an independent and technocratic government. This government was expected to work toward managing the affairs of the Kurdish people and resolving the crisis with Baghdad in order to lift the siege off Kurdish provinces and restore foreign and domestic relations. Other Kurdish parliamentary bloc leaders threatened to withdraw from the political process if Baghdad decreases the region’s share of the annual budget.
Britain denies $500 mln debt to Iran linked to bid to free jailed aid worker
Reuters/November 16/17/Britain said on Thursday that moves towards paying half a billion dollars to Iran for a debt owed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution had nothing to do with a bid to secure the release of a jailed Iranian-British aid worker. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was detained in April and sentenced to five years after an Iranian court convicted her of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges. Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is under intense pressure to secure Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release, in part because Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson made remarks that Iran said justified her conviction. Britain has sought legal advice over whether it could transfer over $528 million (400 million pounds) which it owes the Islamic Republic in capital and interest for a 1970s arms deal with the then-Shah of Iran, the Telegraph newspaper reported. Britain owes the money after the Shah paid up front for 1,750 Chieftain tanks and other vehicles, almost none of which were eventually delivered after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 toppled the Shah. British officials did not directly answer requests for comment on whether they were preparing to pay the money to Iran, but May’s spokesman said the debt issue was not linked to the attempts to convince Tehran to release Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Five-year-sentence
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges. Talks to resolve the debt matter have been going on for years. “It is wrong to link a completely separate debt issue with any other aspect of our bilateral relationship with Iran,” a government spokesman said, adding that Iran’s Defence Ministry remains subject to European Union sanctions. The debt was paid to a bank account controlled by the High Court in 2002 but has not been released due to sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the spokesman said. Iran rejected media reports associating the debt Britain owed to Iran with the fate of Zaghari-Ratcliffe. “These are two separate matters ... Linking them is wrong. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been tried and sentenced to jail,” TV quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying. British officials told the Telegraph that work on how to pay the debt has intensified in recent months in a bid to improve relations with Iran. When asked about the reports, May’s spokesman said the government saw no connection between the debt and the fate of Zaghari-Ratcliffe. “We are clear we don’t see any link between these two issues,” the spokesman said. “The reports are speculation, not anything that I recognize.”
The Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters. It operates independently of Reuters News.

UN to vote on rival US, Russia bids to renew Syria inquiry
Reuters/November 16/17/The United Nations Security Council is due to vote on Thursday on rival US and Russian bids to renew an international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria, diplomats said, a move that could trigger Russia’s 10th veto to block action on Syria. The mandate for the joint inquiry by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which found the Syrian government used the banned nerve agent sarin in an April 4 attack, expires at midnight Thursday. The United States was first to ask for a vote on its draft resolution, followed quickly by Russia. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Russia, Britain or China to be adopted. A UN vehicle is seen near a photo of Bashar al-Assad at the entrance of a hotel where a team of experts stayed in Damascus October 8, 2013. (Reuters) Diplomats say there is little support among the 15-member council for the Russian draft, which Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has said aims to correct “systemic errors” of the inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM). Russia has vetoed nine resolutions on Syria since the conflict started in 2011, including blocking an initial US bid on Oct. 24 to renew the JIM, saying it wanted to wait for the release two days later of the inquiry’s report that blamed a sarin gas attack on the Syrian government.
Standing united
“The United States hopes the Security Council will stand united in the face of chemical weapons use against civilians and extend the work of this critical group,” the US mission to the United Nations said in a statement on Wednesday. “Not doing so would only give consent to such atrocities while tragically failing the Syrian people who have suffered from these despicable acts,” it said. Also read: Russia opposes US draft of UN resolution on Syria chemical probe extension. The mandate for the joint inquiry by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) expires at midnight on November 16, 2017. (AFP) While Russia agreed to the 2015 creation of the inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), it has consistently questioned its findings, which also concluded that the Syrian government used chlorine as a weapon several times. A spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations said on Monday that Russia has refused to engage in negotiations on the US draft resolution. Diplomats said the United States had amended its draft in a bid to win Russian support. The Russian mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment on the impending council vote. If the inquiry is not renewed, Nebenzia said on Monday: “It may send a bad signal, but the way the investigation has been conducted sends an even worse signal.”

ISIS has lost 95 percent of its ‘caliphate’: US-led coalition
AFP /November 16/17/ISIS group has lost 95 percent of the cross-border "caliphate" it declared three years ago in Iraq and Syria, the US-led coalition fighting it has said. "Since our coalition was formed in 2014, ISIS has lost 95 percent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria," Washington's envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk, said late Wednesday after a meeting in Jordan, using an alternative acronym for ISIS. The militant group swept across Syria and Iraq the same year, declaring a cross-border "caliphate" in territory roughly the size of Britain, attracting thousands of foreign fighters. But several military offensives, including those backed by the US-led coalition, have since seen ISIS lose most areas it once controlled. "More than 7.5 million people have now been liberated from ISIS," McGurk said in a statement, adding that the group's finances are now "at their lowest levels to date". With the militants' dreams of statehood lying in tatters following the battlefield defeats, Western attention is increasingly pivoting to trying to block foreign fighters from returning home to carry out attacks. McGurk insisted that flows of foreign ISIS fighters into Syria have "nearly stopped", and that militants are increasingly being picked up as they cross borders. "We are enhancing cooperation and border security, aviation security, law enforcement, financial sanctions, counter-messaging, and intelligence sharing to prevent ISIS from carrying out attacks in our homelands," he said.

Japan, US Stage Naval Drill amid N. Korea Tension
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 16/17/Japan and the United States launched a joint naval drill Thursday in a show of force aimed at North Korea, whose nuclear ambitions dominated US President Donald Trump's recent Asia trip. The 10-day exercise, joined by some 14,000 US servicemen, aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem, USS Chafee and USS Mustin, among others, "will take place in waters surrounding Okinawa" in southern Japan, the US navy said in a statement. North Korea, which has stoked regional tensions with nuclear and missile tests in recent months, has repeatedly denounced such military drills as rehearsals for invasion and sometimes conducts its own military manoeuvres in response. The annual drill "is designed to increase the defensive readiness and interoperability of Japanese and American forces through training in air and sea operations," the US navy said. It comes after three US aircraft carriers, including the USS Ronald Reagan, held rare joint drills in the western Pacific, joined separately by Japanese navy and South Korean warships over the weekend. Those drills were slammed by North Korea's Ambassador Ja Song Nam, who said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week that the current situation was "the worst ever" around the Korean peninsula. The first such deployment of three US carriers since 2007 "is making it impossible to predict when nuclear war breaks out due to the US nuclear war equipment" taking up a "strike posture," wrote the ambassador. North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test this year and test-fired a series of advanced missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles. On Wednesday, Trump vowed a global campaign of "maximum pressure" on North Korea, warning Pyongyang will not subject the world to "nuclear blackmail". Defending an almost two week trip to Asia that was long on pomp but -- critics say -- short on achievements, Trump said he had successfully galvanised opposition to North Korean proliferation. As the drill kicked off, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met the commander of the US Pacific fleet, Harry Harris, and urged "close coordination" between Tokyo and Washington to "enhance deterrence" amid the North Korea threat.

Canada launches global effort to help UN peacekeepers‎ prevent recruitment and use of child soldiers
November 15, 2017 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Global Affairs Canada
Today, 245 million children worldwide live in countries and territories affected by armed conflicts. Conflict disproportionately affects thousands of girls and boys, who are forced to serve as soldiers in situations of armed conflict.
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence; and the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, along with Lieutenant-General (Retired) Roméo Dallaire, today announced the launch of the Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers, on the margins of the 2017 United Nations Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Vancouver Principles are a set of political commitments endorsed by UN member states that enhance the ability of personnel in UN peacekeeping operations to:
take a more assertive approach to preventing child recruitment;
strengthen the identification of early warning signs;
establish reporting on abuses and grave violations against children in armed conflict;
encourage the inclusion of child protection mandates in peacekeeping operations; and
provide psychological support for peacekeepers who face child soldiers.
Canada commends all endorsing states for their commitment to protect children in the context of peacekeeping operations and for their efforts to ensure that all children have safe spaces to learn and grow.
In support of these efforts, Canada’s Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs) is providing $1.25 million for a joint project of UNICEF and the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative.
Quotes
“When it comes to girls and boys affected by conflict, we cannot accept the status quo. Canada is raising the bar, and it is thanks to Canadian leadership in peace operations that 55 countries are today signing on to the Vancouver Principles to end the use of child soldiers in regions where peacekeeping missions operate. These common-sense steps aim to prevent the use of children as tools of war and ensure their protection in situations of armed conflict. We will work together with our partners on implementation and encourage other member states to join this global effort.”
- Hon. Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P., Minister of Foreign Affairs
“Preventing the recruitment and use of child soldiers must gain momentum and remain a strategic priority. Operationalizing the Vancouver Principles means being proactive, committed and diligent in ensuring children remain children, not instruments of warfare. Canada is eager to work with like-minded countries and to share best practices, beginning with training and education in peacekeeping operations. We applaud those countries that have endorsed the Vancouver Principles and welcome all member states to join us in this effort.”
- Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence
“Eliminating all violations against children in all settings, including in situations of armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies, is a priority for Canada. Canada recognizes the need and firmly supports efforts to prevent the unlawful recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, as well as to rehabilitate and reintegrate children who have been recruited and involved in hostilities.”
- Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie
“Without the necessary tools and tactics to face the recruitment and use of child soldiers, peacekeepers will under-react, overreact or not react at all. The Vancouver Principles ensure that UN member states prioritize the prevention of the recruitment and use of child soldiers in regions where peacekeeping missions operate. Through a prevention-oriented approach, we can ensure we put children’s rights up front and, ultimately, make the use of children as weapons of war unthinkable.”
- Lieutenant-General (Retired) Roméo Dallaire, founder of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative
Quick Facts
The Vancouver Principles were developed by the Government of Canada, in partnership with the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative and in consultation with the United Nations.
In 2007, the Paris Principles were established and endorsed by Canada. They lay out detailed guidelines for protecting children from recruitment and for providing assistance to those already involved with armed groups or forces to support their release and reintegration.
In 2017, Canada endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, which calls on states to protect schools and universities from military use during armed conflict.
In 2015, the Kigali Principles were established as a set of commitments on how to better protect civilians in peacekeeping operations. Canada endorsed the Kigali Principles in 2016.
Related Products
Canada bolsters peacekeeping and civilian protection measures
Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers
Associated Links
Children and armed conflict
Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative
2017 UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial conference
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Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 16-17/17
IDF Chief Of Staff: Israel Willing To Share Intellligence With Saudis Media: 'Ready to Share Intel on Iran/Israeli Military Chief Gives Unprecedented Interview to Saudi Media: 'Ready to Share Intel on Iran
مقابلة مع موقع إيلاف السعودي غير مسبوقة مع رئيس الأركان الإسرائيلي الذي أكد استعداد بلاده للتعاون المخابراتي مع السعودية بما يتعلق بإيران
Israeli Military Chief Gives Unprecedented Interview to Saudi Media: 'Ready to Share Intel on Iran
Amos Harel /Haaretz/November 16/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=60353
Israel and Saudi Arabia are in full agreement about Iran's intentions, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot tells Elaph, noting the two states have never fought each other
In an unprecedented move, a Saudi newspaper published an interview on Thursday with the Israeli military chief, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot. It marks the first time any senior Israel Defense Forces officer, let alone the chief of staff, has been interviewed by a media organization in Saudi Arabia, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel. 
In the interview to the Saudi online newspaper Elaph, Eisenkot called Iran the "real and largest threat to the region." He said Israel and Saudi Arabia are in complete agreement about Iran's intentions.
He also noted that Israel and Saudi Arabia have never fought each other.
Eisenkot said that Israel's security situation has never been better. He said that was why it is "highly regarded by the moderate countries in the region."
Israel's military chief accused Iran of trying to destabilize the region by building weapons factories and supplying advanced arms to guerilla and terrorist organizations across the Middle East.
"Iran seeks to take control of the Middle East, creating a Shi'ite crescent from Lebanon to Iran and then from the [Persian] Gulf to the Red Sea.
Eisenkot said Israel has no intention of initiating an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. "We see Iranian attempts at bringing about an escalation, but I don't see a high chance for this at the moment."
The interview follows the news that broke two weeks ago of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s tumultuous resignation, and the wave of arrests of Saudi princes, ministers and businessmen – along with direct public threats by Saudi Arabia, and Israel aimed at Iran and Hezbollah.
Eisenkot also commented on the Middle East policies of the American and Russian governments. He said he welcomed U.S President Donald Trump’s announcement that it is necessary to put an end to the Iranian ballistic missile program and Iran’s growing hold in Syria and Iraq.
 “I view it as hope for the region,” he said. 
“With President Trump. there is an opportunity to build a new international coalition in the region. We need to carry out a large and inclusive strategic plan to stop the Iranian danger. We are willing to exchange information with moderate Arab countries, including intelligence information in order to deal with Iran,” added Eisenkot.
As to whether Israel has already shared such information with Saudi Arabia, Eisenkot said: “We are willing to share information if there is a need.   We have many shared interests between us.” 
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.823163?utm_content=%2Fisrael-news%2F1.823163&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_campaign=newsletter-breaking-news

IDF Chief Of Staff: Israel Willing To Share Intellligence With Saudis
Jerusalem Post/November 16/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=60353
Israel is willing to share intelligence with Saudi Arabia to confront Iran, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot stated in an interview with Saudi’s Elaph newspaper.
“We are ready to exchange experiences with Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab countries and share intelligence information to confront Iran,” Eisenkot said in a rare interview with the London-based Saudi-owned newspaper, adding that “there are many shared interests between us and Saudi Arabia.”
“Under US President Donald Trump there is an opportunity to form a new international alliance in the region. We need to carry out a large, comprehensive strategic plan to stop the Iranian threat,” Eisenkot said.
According to the Chief of Staff, the expansion of Iranian influence across the Middle East is a major concern to both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
"The Iranian plan is to control the Middle East through two Shi'ite crescents,” Eisenkot told Elaph. “The first is from Iran through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon and the second across the Gulf from Bahrain to Yemen to the Red Sea. We must stop that from happening.”
Eisenkot, who met with military leaders from around the globe at the second annual conference of the chiefs of staff in Washington in October, told Elaph that what he heard from the Saudi representative about Iranian expansion was “identical” to Israeli concerns.
“This is what should be prevented in the region,” he said, adding that “In this matter there is complete agreement between us and Saudi Arabia.”
While Tehran’s nuclear program has been temporarily frozen, there is no doubt about the country’s intention to acquire nuclear capabilities. Tehran is not only providing arms to terror groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, but is transferring expertise, building weapons factories, supplying advanced weapons and investing huge sums into various militias.
In September a senior IDF officer stated that the Islamic Republic provides $60-70 million to Hamas in the Gaza Strip in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars for their militias in Syria and Iraq and Houthi rebels in Yemen fighting pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition.
Tehran has also increased its financial support for its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, to $800 million a year, a dramatic boost from the $200 million provided in the past.
Trump: Saudi Arabia has a “very positive” feeling toward Israel
According to IDF assessments, while Hezbollah has increased its military capabilities due to its fighting in Syria, the group has spread its troops across the entire Middle East and is hurting financially.
“I see Hezbollah beginning to feel financial pressure. We are also seeing a drop in support for Hezbollah and that is reverberating on the streets where we have seen demonstrations in Dahiya. That’s something we have not seen before,” he said referring to Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut.
Hezbollah, one of the most prominent terror organizations in the world, has become bogged down fighting in Syria for President Bashar Assad. Of its approximately 22,000 fighters, about 7,000 are fighting for the Assad regime and 2,000 more have been killed in the four years the group has spent in Syria.
Last week Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of having appealed to Israel to launch an attack against the group in Lebanon, offering the Jewish State “billions of dollars” to do so.
On Wednesday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was quoted by Press TV as saying that “It is very reprehensible and shameful for a Muslim country in the region to beg the Zionist regime [of Israel] to bomb the people of Lebanon.”
“It is unprecedented in history for a Muslim country to take such measures, and this indicates the immaturity of the individuals, who have come to power in those countries,” Rouhani added.
Eisenkot told Elaph that while Israel has no intention to initiate a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Jerusalem will not accept any strategic threats the Iranian-backed terror group might pose to it, he said.
The Chief of Staff stated that he is hopeful about Trump declaring the need to stop Iran’s missile program and the entrenchment of its troops and militias in Syria and Iraq.
“Our demand is that Iran, Hezbollah and other Iranian militias leave Syria. We have said publicly that we will not accept the Iranian position in Syria in general, and especially their position west of the Damascus-Suwayda road. We will not allow any Iranian presence.”

France: Escalating Muslim Anti-Semitism
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/November 16/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11298/france-muslim-antisemitism
"My mother said that Arabs are born to hate Jews." — Abdelghani Merah (brother of Mohamed Merah, a French Muslim terrorist who murdered seven people), speaking on French television.
"I heard with my own ears, Mohamed Merah's mother saying: "in our religion it is permitted to kill Jewish children." — Mohamed Sifaoui, journalist and director of a documentary on the Merah family, on Canal+ TV.
Incidentally, while Abdelkader Merah's trial was underway, the headstone of Ilan Halimi -- a Jew tortured to death in 2006 -- was desecrated and broken. By whom? Guess.
In France, any public mention of Muslim anti-Semitism can lead you to court. In February 2017, the scholar Georges Bensoussan was sued for "incitement to racial hatred" because he mentioned in a radio debate how vastly widespread anti-Semitism is among French Muslim families.
Now, however, two types of Muslim anti-Semitism are being highlighted by the media. These two types could be called "hard anti-Semitism" and "soft anti-Semitism".
Hard Muslim anti-Semitism is the anti-Semitism of murderers. Soft Muslim anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism of "anti-Zionists" and harrassers of various stripes.
The recently concluded trial of terrorist Abdelkader Merah is a clear and pathetic illustration of hard Muslim anti-Semitism. Abdelkader Merah is the brother of Mohamed Merah, a French Muslim extremist who murdered seven people, including three Jewish children and their teacher at a Jewish school, in Toulouse. Mohamed Merah was killed in a shoot-out with police on March 22, 2012. Abdelkader Merah, Mohamed's brother, was on trial during the past few weeks. He was accused of being a member of a terrorist organization and to have closely monitored his brother during his murder spree. Abdelkader's trial ended on November 2, 2017; he was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Abdelkader's Merah's trial illustrated the atmosphere in a Muslim family where hatred for Jews was like a bond in the family culture. L'Express writes:
"A sinister little music hovers above all this tragedy: visceral anti-Semitism. In their indictment, investigating judges noted that Abdelkader Merah approved the 'chosen targets' of his brother, including 'the Jews, against whom he seemed to be angry'. In the absence of love and attention, the Merah couple indeed fed their children with the hatred of Jews."
Abdelghani Merah, Abdelkader's brother, is the only member of the family who succeeded in climbing out of his family's culture of hate: hatred of France, hatred of Jews, hatred of everyone who is not Muslim. "My mother said that Arabs are born to hate Jews" Abdelghani said on television.
Mohamed Sifaoui, journalist and director of a documentary on the Merah family, testified on Canal+ television, "I heard with my own ears, Mohamed Merah's mother saying: 'in our religion it is permitted to kill Jewish children'". Sifaoui added:
"I have heard this mother saying 'Mohamed (Merah) killed children? Never mind, in our religion the prophet encouraged the killing of Jews. Jews are our enemies'. She said this clearly, I was there listening."
Mohamed Sifaoui, journalist and director of a documentary on the Merah family, testified on Canal+ television, "I heard with my own ears, Mohamed Merah's mother saying: 'in our religion it is permitted to kill Jewish children'". (Image source: Canal+ video screenshot)
Since 2006, 14 French Jews were murdered by hardline anti-Semitic Muslims.
Soft Muslim anti-Semitism is illustrated by Tariq Ramadan's rape cases. Ramadan is an Islamic scholar, the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Almost as if a continuation of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Ramadan was suddenly accused by two Muslim women of having raped them. Henda Ayari, the first woman who accused Ramadan, broke with Salafism after the January 2015 Islamist terror attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in which most of its editors, writers and cartoonists were murdered. Ayari then published a book, I Chose to be Free, to tell her story and denounce Saudi Salafism as a totalitarian ideology.
In her book, Ayari wrote that she was raped, but did not name her rapist. Interviewed on Sud Radio, she said,
"I did not write this book to denounce Tariq Ramadan. This book is my story and a sharing of my journey. I wanted to give a message of hope, tell other women that you can have a false start in your life and live despite everything with will and determination..."
The Harvey Weinstein story had a considerable influence on her.
"One morning... I sat in front of my computer and told myself that I, too, wanted to 'expose my pig' -- on Twitter many women denounce sexual harassment under the hashtag #BalanceTonPorc ('ExposeYourPig'). Why do others do it and not me? I had to do it, it was stronger than me.... I wrote on Facebook the name of my attacker, and a few minutes later there were hundreds of shares and, unfortunately for me, hundreds of insults and threats. A few days later, I even regretted my gesture. I left home with the fear in my stomach telling me that I was going to be attacked in front of my house."
Immediately after Ayari filed a complaint against Ramadan, her Facebook page was harassed by thousands of Muslims who accused her to be part of a "Zionist plot" or to be a "Zionist whore".
Even Le Monde, which cannot even be suspected of being an "Islamophobic" newspaper, was in shock:
"Many commentators asked her 'how much' she was paid to attack Ramadan. Many contributors were saying that she was leading a plot to kill [Ramadan] and, through him, to murder the whole of Islam... Behind this supposed 'plot,' many commentators said they were able to see the hand of 'Zionists' or, more openly, 'Jews'. Anti-Semitism permeates some of these messages virulently..."
Naem Bestandji,a secular feminist, wrote on his blog:
"Henda Ayari is accused of financing Israeli politics by donating 5% of the sale price of her book to the association 'Europe Israel'. Fake news: Amazon is giving 5% to any website that is encouraging sales through Amazon, including on its Europe-Israel website. Fake news flourished in the Islamist sphere. Another fake news item was that Ayari was to be defended by a Jewish lawyer who was a supporter of Israel. She is accused of being a 'Zionist agent' and working with 'Mossad agents' to destroy Muslims."
Both hard and soft Muslim anti-Semitism corrode the life of thousands of Jew people in France. According to the Office of Protection of the Jewish Community, in France, 335 anti-Semitic attacks were committed in 2016. One out of every three racist crimes committed in France in 2016 was against Jews -- who make up less than 1% of the population -- according to data under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior.
Some say that anti-Semitic crimes could be worse. But every Jewish school, synagogue, and Jewish institution in France is closely protected by the police and the army.
Of course, not all Muslims in France threaten or attack Jews. The overwhelming majority of the attackers, however, are Muslim. The consequence of this situation, every year, is that thousands of Jewish people are fleeing France, mainly to Israel, Canada, the UK and the US. According to Le Figaro:
"From 2012 to 2014, nearly 20,000 French Jews made their "aliyah", the Hebrew term for the "going up" to Israel. In 2015, 7,000 Jews left France for Israel, and only 5,000 in 2016, cooled by the difficulties of integrating inside the Jewish State. Figures remain high and reflect a climate of concern."
An even bigger "internal displacement" is discretely taking place inside France. French Jews are leaving their homes in the suburbs with large Muslim populations, for different homes in a safer areas -- in Paris for the wealthiest, or in a less-exposed suburb for the others.
Sammy Gozlan, president of the National Office of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, said:
"60,000 of the 350,000 Jews who live in Paris and its area have moved in the last decade. Some Jewish communities in the suburbs have been completely deserted. Synagogues in Saint-Denis, La Courneuve, Peyrefitte, Stains, Villepinte, Aulnay, Bagnolet, Blanc-Mesnil are about to close. A large number of Jews left because they felt insecure and after multiple incidents of harassment, pressure and physical assault".
Incidentally, while Abdelkader Merah's trial was underway, the memorial headstone of Ilan Halimi -- a Jew tortured to death in 2006 -- was desecrated and broken. By whom? Guess.
Yves Mamou, author and journalist, based in France, worked for two decades as a journalist for Le Monde. Yves Mamou is finishing a book about "Collaborators and Useful Idiots of Islamism in France," to be published in 2018.
© 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.

Welcome Home Jihadis!
Khadija Khan/Gatestone Institute/November 16/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11349/welcome-home-jihadis
After a humiliating defeat in Syria and Iraq, thousands of European jihadis are set to return home. Western governments seem set to roll out the red-carpet for them as if they were heroes rather than turncoats.
The UK has launched an integration program, Operation Constrain, for its homecoming jihadis to provide them with assistance in finding a job and living a "normal" life.
Such theatrics, however, are not expected to deter determined terrorists, unless the authorities are equally determined with brutal honesty to see what is being said extremist mosques and seminaries and know their sources of funding.
When a minister from the Gulf warns European countries that their mosques or imams should be licensed, you know you have a problem on your hands.
While France and Germany marked memorial days for the 2015 Paris and 2016 Berlin terrorist attacks, many Islamists seem to remain undeterred. The October 31 terror attack in New York and the arrest of three suspected ISIS militants in Germany are merely reminders of how determined many Islamists are to rattle the foundations of modern civilization and move their plans forward inch by inch.
As ISIS retreats in Syria and Iraq, its adherents show up in the West as "inspired" home-grown or would-be terrorists. Anyone believing that these homecoming terrorists were merely hostages of ISIS or were only given air-guns is misinformed.
So many terrorist attacks this year have made people in the West doubt the ability of governments to counter terrorist aggression. Some political leaders, such as London's Mayor Sadiq Khan, have said that people will just have to get used to terror attacks -- a response the public might understandably find less than satisfactory.
Meanwhile, President Trump's tweet after the October 31 attack in New York -- "We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!" -- resurfaced skepticism about how terrorism is being handled.
The Soufan Center, a US-based think tank, reported that some 5,000 ISIS recruits were likely to return in European Union states alone. So far around 1,200 jihadists have arrived in their home countries; the United Kingdom, with 425 returnees, had the most.
Germany and France have received 300 and 271 ISIS fighters respectively.
Only seven out of 129 ISIS jihadis from United States went back home after an embarrassing end to their violent expedition.
Governments may finally be forced to address security issues at home. Pandering to extremists has taken enough of a toll.
German authorities, for instance, immediately shut down the extremist mosque which had colluded with Berlin's terrorist attacker, Anis Amri, from last year, but that was still "too little too late".
According to German domestic intelligence agency, Bundestamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), 24,400 Islamists including roughly 10,000 Salafists are currently in the country.
There have been demands by members of the ruling Christian Democratic Party for compulsory measures, such as the sermons of imams to be only in German, and restricting the position of imams to those who have studied in Germany. So far, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her like-minded colleagues have rejected the idea.
Similar demands were also raised by local politicians across Europe.
After a humiliating defeat in Syria and Iraq, thousands of European jihadis are set to return home; Western governments seem set to roll out the red-carpet for them as if they were heroes rather than turncoats.
The lower house of the French Parliament recently passed an anti-terrorism law that allows the search, seizure and house arrest of suspected terrorists without judicial review.
Meanwhile, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb stated that because of homecoming ISIS fighters, the terror threat in France remains "very high".
The UK has launched an integration program, Operation Constrain, for its homecoming jihadists to provide them with assistance in finding a job and living a "normal" life.
Similarly, in Sweden, authorities, perhaps hoping that a humane welcome might bring about deradicalization, seem keen to introduce a program to reintegrate ISIS fighters and other extremists by giving them housing, employment, education and financial support.
Such theatrics, however, are not expected to deter determined terrorists, unless the authorities are equally determined with brutal honesty to see what is said in extremist mosques and seminaries, and know their sources of funding.
If Western governments permit jihadists to return, there are likely to be more terrorist attacks. What is important, as the Gulf minister warned, is knowing what is being said in mosques that could potentially bring harm to the community. There also still needs to be a more serious job of explaining to newcomers, and even Westerners, what is valuable about the principles of the West. These include free speech, equal justice under law, the rejection of cruel and unusual punishment, fact-based reality, separation of church and state, and an independent judiciary, to name just a few. Finally, it is crucial to retain these values, instead of promoting and reinforcing the values of others.
*Khadija Khan is a Pakistani journalist and commentator, currently based in Germany.
© 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.

Concern In Jordan Over Pro-Iranian Forces On Border
By: Z. Harel/MEMRI/November 16, 2017
The achievements of the Syrian regime and its allies in southern Syria in recent months have sparked growing concern in Jordan about the increasing presence of pro-Iranian forces on the Syria-Jordan border. Jordan's King 'Abdallah II expressed this concern in September this year: "We take a keen interest in the developments in southern Syria, and defending our northern border against the terror organizations and foreign militias is a top priority for us... We are ready and able to respond forcefully to any escalation that could threaten us, whether on the part of ISIS or any foreign group fighting in Syria." [1] Jordan's apprehensions regarding Iran's expansion in the region are nothing new. King 'Abdallah warned as early as 2004 about the emergence of a "Shi'ite Crescent" – a territorial continuum stretching from Iran through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon.
In an attempt to prevent the consolidation of these forces' presence on the Jordanian border, in the recent months Jordan and the U.S. held intensive talks with Russia, an ally of the Syrian regime, to delineate a de-escalation zone in southern Syria like those formed as part of the Astana talks sponsored by Russia, Iran and Turkey. In July 2017, an agreement for a ceasefire in southern Syria was signed in Amman under the aegis of Jordan, the U.S. and Russia. This led, in November 8, 2017, to the signing of a memorandum of principles by the three countries on the establishment of a de-escalation zone in southern Syria.
It appears, however, that this memorandum of principles has failed to quell Jordan's fears. The details of the memorandum have not been fully disclosed,[2] but intense disagreements reportedly emerged between the signatory states in the days following its signing, especially regarding the presence of the pro-Iranian forces. The Jordanian daily Al-Ghad reported that, "in the new memorandum of principles, the Syrian parties – [namely] the regime and opposition in southern Syria, [both] pledged to clear the territories under their control of foreign organizations and militias."[3] But Russian officials, headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, stated that Russia had not signed any clause requiring the Iran-affiliated forces to leave Syria.[4]
Moreover, in the recent days Arab and foreign media reported that Iran is indeed consolidating its presence in southern Syria. According to these reports, Brigade 313, a force that was established in the Izra area, 30 km from the Jordanian border, comprises Syrian fighters but is directly subordinate to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).[5] It has also been reported that Iran has established a military base in the Al-Kiswa area, 13 km south of Damascus.[6]
In light of these developments, articles recently published in the Jordanian press expressed apprehension over the Iranian presence in southern Syria, and even called to prevent it by military means. Some advised not to count on the memorandum of principles and on the de-escalation zone it establishes. An article in the government daily Al-Rai harshly criticized the U.S. for not acting to prevent Iran's expansion in the region.
The following are excerpts from these articles:
Faisal Malkawi, a senior member of the Al-Rai editorial board, warned about the Iranian expansion in the region and the emergence of a territorial continuum from Iran to the Mediterranean through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. He also criticized America's failure to prevent this development, writing: "The puzzling fact is that the U.S. under Donald Trump, which proclaims [the adoption of] a radical strategy vis-à-vis Iran, its nuclear program and its interference in the region, is in practice doing nothing about the Iranian expansion. This is especially [grave] in light of the imminent completion of the land route from Tehran to Beirut. This route passes through American influence zones and close to U.S. bases in northeastern Syria. The Americans and their allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces, also have troops and bases east of Deir Al-Zor and in Al-Tanaf, while [only] kilometers away, within their line of sight, IRGC and Hizbullah militia forces [recently] entered the Syrian city of Al-Bukamal and held public celebrations there... The Iranian presence on the Syria-Iraq border allows Tehran to complete its land route and defend it militarily and strategically as an influence and interference zone that will be part of any future solution..."[7]
Former Information Minister Al-Qallab: We Must Not Allow Militias On Our Border, Even At Cost Of Military Action
In his column in the government daily Al-Rai, former Jordanian information minister Saleh Al-Qallab called on Jordan to be very cautious despite the signing of the memorandum of principles on the de-escalation zone in southern Syria, and to continue insisting on the withdrawal of the Iranian forces from Syria, even if this requires military action against them: "Having heard provocative statements from Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader, who was visiting Iranian forces and the militias under their command in Aleppo,[8] and since those who closely monitor the Syrian arena have revealed that Iran has a military base south of Damascus, [a base] that faces Jordan, rather than the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, we must think very carefully before applauding the Russian and American decision to establish a de-escalation zone in southwestern Syria...
"We must not fall asleep or start ululating in joy over this agreement, whose details are not yet fully known and which is still [nothing but] ink on paper... We must not rest on our laurels, for we have heard the statements of [Iranian President] Hassan Rohani, [Khamenei's advisor] Ali Akbar Velayati and [Hizbullah secretary-general] Hassan Nasrallah. Before celebrating the promise to establish a [quiet] front in southwestern Syria, we must insist on the condition that the Iranians leave our sister state [Syria], starting with the removal of [their forces] from our northern border. We must not tolerate any militia close to the border, even if this obligates us [to deploy] the Arab Jordanian army. What is happening in Syria is a game between nations. This is a dirty game, [so] we must not believe anyone's [promises regarding the removal of the Iranian forces] until we see it with our own eyes."[9]
Base being constructed by Iran in Al-Kiswa, south of Damascus (image: bbc.com, November 10, 2017)
Al-Dustour Board Chairman: Iran's Presence On Our Border – An Intolerable Strategic Threat
Muhammad Daoudia, board chairman of the Al-Dustour daily, wrote under the title "The Iranian Threat to Jordan": "Various Iranian leaders declare that their country is expanding and establishing itself in several Arab capitals – Baghdad, Sanaa, Beirut and Damascus – and this comes on top of the courtship between Iran and Hamas and Iran's insistence on encroaching on our northern border. Senior Iranian military commanders and representatives of Iranian militias in the region have made public statements aimed at Jordan, sometimes intended to threaten it and sometimes to pressure it. [The former] commander of the Iranian Basij, General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, said that his Basij would maintain a presence in Jordan, just as it does in Lebanon and Palestine. Shi'ite fighters are streaming into Syria by the thousand, from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, under the command of [Iranian] General Qassem Soleimani and with the support of the IRGC and [its] Qods Force...
"From our perspective, the sectarian [i.e., Shi'ite] militias under Iran's command are approaching our border from the north, taking the place of the ISIS terror organization and working to gain a foothold on this front, thus posing an ever-increasing security challenge for us. This will cause us to confront Iran along our 350-km border with Syria...
"Iran has begun to lay the foundations for a military industry in Syria and Lebanon, including facilities for manufacturing long-range missiles...[10]
"Iran's conduct has prompted us to treat this 'Iranian neighbor' as a strategic threat that cannot be accepted, forcing [us] to take the necessary measures to maintain security and stability on our border [and safeguard it] against any threat and any presence of the sectarian militias commanded by Iran..."[11]
Jordanian Researcher: The Establishment Of Brigade 313 And The Atmosphere In The Region Require Reassessment Of Our Position And Preparations For The Future
Muhammad Abu Rumman, a researcher at the Center of Strategic Studies in the University of Jordan, wrote in his column in Al-Ghad: "Despite the signing last Wednesday [November 8] of a de-escalation agreement in southern Syria... –[an agreement] intended to reinforce the July [2017] Amman agreement between the U.S. and Russia – the situation is apparently not so simple, considering that regional developments have turned the entire situation on its head...
"The new surprise [that occurred] during the preparations for the de-escalation agreement in southern Syria was the founding of local militias in Deraa (Brigade 313), which according to the Syrian opposition are sectarian in character, as well as militias in Izra which are fully supported by Iran's IRGC and are modeled on local sectarian militias previously established in Iraq and Syria.
"This move involves considerable cunning on the part of the Iranians, for these militias are local and are somewhat removed from the Jordanian border, yet they were established for a more important [goal] in the next phase, namely bringing the sectarian conflict into the southern parts [of Syria] and securing Iran a foothold [there], as well as tools for confronting other elements... Such an Iranian move was probably not part of Jordan's and America's considerations and analyses...
"True, Jordan's balanced and rational position amid this poisoned regional atmosphere is met with approval by a large portion of the Jordanian public, which fears that the region may slide into an [even] worse phase. Nevertheless, this position may exact a higher price [in the future]..."[12]
Al-Dustour Article: The Establishment Of Brigade 313 On The Jordanian Border Is Jordan's And Iran's Last Tango
'Oraib Al-Rantawi, director of the Center for Political Studies in Amman, wrote in his Al-Dustour column, under the title "Jordan's and Iran's Last Tango": "Relations between countries are like a tango. They require two parties, and cannot develop unilaterally... Over the years, and perhaps throughout the last four decades, Jordan's relations with Iran were based on two main criteria, from the Jordanian perspective: first, on whether Jordan's relations with the Gulf [states] were [characterized by] crisis or by normalization, and second, [on the state of] the relations between Tehran and Washington. As a matter of principle, Jordan cannot disregard her two main allies, Washington and Riyadh...
"Every time Jordan wanted to convey a message of good will to Iran, it was met with a cold shoulder and with a blow. Amman's and Tehran's last tango occurred last night, when a Lebanese friend of mine asked me about Brigade 313 of [Iran's] Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is [reportedly] being formed in southern Syria and is headquartered in the town of Izra in the Deraa Governorate... This is happening even though Tehran – one of the guarantors in the track of the Astana talks [on Syria] – is well aware of the Jordanian position which firmly demands that the 'sectarian militias' [i.e., the Iranian forces and their affiliated Shi'ite militias] maintain a buffer zone between themselves and the Syria-Jordan border. Moreover, these reports arrive when the region is on the brink of the abyss, and it takes only a small push or some accidental unfortunate incident to [make it] slide to the bottom..."[13]
Former Information Minister Al-Ma'aita: Every Country Will Have To Defend Itself Against Iran's Expansion Plan, Like It Did Against ISIS
Former Jordanian information minister Samih al-Ma'aita wrote in the Jordanian e-daily Amon News: "Jordan understands Iran's moves and mentality very well, and [realizes] that Iran yearns to repeat what it has [already] done in Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain and Iraq in additional [Arab] capitals...
"Jordan, which is inclined to oppose the Iranian expansion plan, yearns [to see] a deterrent Arab diplomacy vis-à-vis this plan. In any case, it seems that the Iranian-Arab issue will be the next [pressing] issue, now that ISIS has declined [in importance]. Perhaps each country will have to defend itself, as was the case with ISIS and the danger it posed, until something [finally] causes Iran to understand that it is part of the region rather than its master."[14]
* Z. Harel is a research fellow at MEMRI.
[1] Al-Ghad (Jordan), September 13, 2017.
[2] Several maps of the de-escalation zone in southern Syria have appeared in the media, but they do not appear to be the official maps, which have not been released.
[3] Al-Ghad (Jordan), November 11, 2017.
[4] Facebook.com/Russianmilitaryinsyria, November 14, 2017.
[5] The establishment of such forces is a well-known Iranian tactic. See MEMRI reports: Inquiry & Analysis No. 1241, In Syria, High Rate Of Draft Dodging Triggers Intensive Military Recruitment Efforts By Syrian Regime, April 25, 2016; Inquiry & Analysis No. 1242, Syria Regime Establishing Popular Armed Militias Modeled On Iranian Basij, April 25, 2016.
[6] Bbc.com, November 10, 2017.
[7] Al-Rai (Jordan), November 16, 2017.
[8] During his Aleppo visit, Velayati said: "[Our] resistance front will begin in Iran, pass through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and reach Palestine." Aksalser.com, November 8, 2017.
[9] Al-Rai (Jordan), November 14, 2017.
[10] For reports by a Syrian opposition website on a facility for manufacturing Iranian long-range Fateh 110 missiles near Hama, Syria, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7004, Further Reporting By Syrian Opposition Website On Long-Range Missile Facility Near Baniyas: It Is Making Iranian Fateh-110 Missiles, July 11, 2017. About Iranian long-range missile facilities in Lebanon, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6828, Kuwaiti Daily: Missile, Arms Factories Built By IRGC In Lebanon Have Recently Been Handed Over To Hizbullah, March 14, 2017.
[11] Al-Dustour (Iran), November 8, 2017.
[12] Al-Ghad (Jordan), November 13, 2017.
[13] Al-Dustour (Jordan), November 10, 2017.
[14] Ammonnews.net, November 8, 2017.

Duma Speaker Volodin: 'It Is Unacceptable To Romanticize Revolution'
MEMRI/November 16, 2017
On the eve of the Russian Revolution's centenary, Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who formerly headed the presidential administration's internal policy department, warned against new revolutions. During the meeting of the XXI World Russian People's Council, devoted to the theme "Russia in the XXI century: historical experience and prospects," Volodin added that it is unacceptable to romanticize revolutions and glorify individuals, who toppled legitimate governments.
The event was opened by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who stated that Russian society should learn from its "mistakes" and remain united, avoiding the trap of fomenting new political revolutions as in 1917. The Patriarch explicitly singled out the color revolutions for opprobrium, as they have become a "technological concept", defining the "change of power by force" and justifying the "violation of the Constitution" and "norms of international law."[1]
According to a survey on how Russians assess the October coup performed by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the majority of Russians have mixed feelings about the 1917 Revolution. The institute's findings show that 32% of the respondents could not make up their minds regarding the events of 1917. Another 29% felt that the coup had caused the country good and harm in equal measure. 21% of the citizens saw positive changes after the revolution. 19% of the respondents believed that the Bolshevik coup had caused the country more harm than good. With regards to its significance, the October coup was treated by Russians on an equal footing with the abolition of serfdom in 1861. The former was seen as an element of national pride by 6% of the respondents, the latter -- by 7%. The majority of those interviewed (76%) called the victory in the Second World War the most important event in the country's history.[2]
Following are excerpts from Volodin's speech and the reactions to it:
During the meeting of the XXI World Russian People's Council, Volodin enumerated five main values that should drive the Russian society:
"We have to learn to appreciate and defend the existing living arrangements. We have to understand how our core values are expressed in this way of life: family, faith, unity, Fatherland. And of course justice. The lack of justice may lead to a schism and give rise to the revolutionary activities of the marginalized –and eventually, the lack of justice may ruin the foundations of statehood, which might seem immutable."
Volodin: Changes In Society Should Not Occur Through Revolutions
In his speech, Volodin warned that viewing revolutions in romantic colors posed a danger:
"It is unacceptable to romanticize revolutions and glorify individuals, who toppled legitimate governments, , condemning their people to senseless suffering.
"The highest mission of the authorities is to strive for consensus on the major issues and seek social compromises on contentious issues, solve them and not allow [these issues] to deteriorate into serious problems.
"The main lesson in this tragic history of revolutionary upheavals is that the much needed creative and constructive development of society occurs not via revolution, but via social consolidation and the freedom of self-realization for every person".
Volodin: Revolutionary Upheavals Are Negatively Evaluated By Our Society
Volodin also added: "Our country has chosen a creative and a peaceful path of development. Revolutionary upheavals, including those taking place in neighboring countries, are negatively evaluated by [our] society, while definitely they do not serve as an example for emulation". Therefore, concluded Volodin, the Russians should develop "evolutionarily" based simultaneously on national traditions and modern democratic institutions.
Russian Journalist Shevchenko: 'What Is A Legal Power In Russian History? The Power Of The People Or The Power Of Tyrants?'
Russian journalist, Maxim Shevchenko, who generally supports the Kremlin, wrote a reply to Volodin, criticizing him for delegitimizing the Russian revolution:
"Volodin said: 'It is unacceptable to romanticize revolutions and glorify individuals, who toppled legitimate governments, condemning their people to senseless suffering. For the majority of citizens the revolutionary spirit became synonymous with bias, criminality and backwardness'.
"Was the Russian Provisional Government legitimate, Vyacheslav Vladimirovich [Volodin]? What law was it founded on? Was it legitimate by the virtue of recognition by Britain and France...? Do you also see in that way your own power [authority] which started with mindless 1991 and the bloody 1993 [when Yeltsin used force to break the deadlock with the Duma]? If the authority of the revolutionary February Provisional Government, according to Volodin, is illegal, then wouldn't an uprising to topple the illegal government be legal? …
"What is a legal power in Russian history? The power of the people or the power of tyrants? Which one is it forbidden to topple?"
(Facebook.com/shevchenko.maxim.leonardovich, November 1, 2017)
Russian Journalist Zhelenin: The Government Exploits Centenary To Demonize Political Change
Also commenting on Volodin's speech, Russian journalist Aleksandr Zhelenin writing for the Rosbalt news agency, accused the government of exploiting the centenary to prove its infallibility in internal and external policy.
"What does [Volodin's term] 'legal governments' mean? An upheaval against authorities, that destroy the citizens' freedoms and rights and kills them, is considered just in democratic society and hence legal."
"As for us, we get it that 'to romanticize revolutions and glorify individuals, who toppled legitimate governments,' is a bad thing. Instead, to romanticize imperialist, predatory wars - in which millions of people are being sent to the slaughter to defend the interests of a handful of wealthy and powerful people – that is the easiest thing to do. How beautiful is this new, topsy-turvy world…"
(Rosbalt.ru, November 2, 2017)
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7177, At The Opening Of Russia's Wall Of Grief, Patriarch Kirill Criticizes The Bolshevik Revolution On Its 100th Anniversary And Warns Against Fomenting New Revolutions, November 13, 2017.
[2] Politsovet.ru, October 24, 2017.