LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 30/2018
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Pompeo After Meeting Netanyahu: If Iran Nuclear Deal Can't Be Fixed, It Will Be Nixed
بومبيو بعد لقاء نتنياهو: إذا كان لا يمكن إصلاح الصفقة النووية الإيرانية ، فسوف يتم رفضها ومعارضتها
Noa Landau and Jack Khoury/Haaretz/April 29/2018
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64240
Secretary of state: U.S. still committed to Israeli-Palestinian peace deal
Netanyahu: Greatest global threat is Islamic radicals with nukes
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said following a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday that the United States will cancel the Iran nuclear deal if it is not fixed.
Speaking to reporters following the meeting, which took place at the Israeli military's headquarters in Tel Aviv, Pompeo said the U.S. stands with Israel against Iran. "We remain deeply concerned about Iran's dangerous escalation of threats toward Israel and the region," Pompeo said, adding that the U.S. supports Israel's right to defend itself.
Pompeo called the deal signed between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program "very flawed" and said U.S. President Donald Trump has "directed the administration to try and fix it, and if we can’t fix it, he’s going to withdraw from the deal.
According to Pompeo, strong ties with allies like Israel are "critical to our efforts to counter Iran’s destabilizing and malign activity throughout the Middle East, and indeed throughout the world." Pompeo said Washington is also focusing on "non-nuclear threats" posed by the Islamic Republic, such as its missile systems, support for Hezbollah, its fighters in Syria and its assistance to Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pompeo said "the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem remain subject to negotiations between the parties." He added that Washington remains "committed to achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace that offers a brighter future for both Israel and the Palestinians."
Washington is "incredibly proud" to open the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on May 14th, Pompeo said, noting that "by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the seat of its government, we’re recognizing reality."
He also raised the question of Syria, saying that America's main goals are to defeat ISIS, prevent the use of chemical weapons and obtain a diplomatic agreement to end the country's years-long civil war.
Pompeo kicked off his statement by saying that "it is a great honor to be here on my first trip as Secretary of State.... I haven’t been to my office yet." Pompeo was sworn in as secretary of state on April 26, nearly a month after Trump announced he had nominated the former CIA director to replace Rex Tillerson.
Speaking before Pompeo, Netanyahu told reporters that the greatest global threat is "the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons, and specifically the attempt of Iran to acquire nuclear weapons." Netanyahu said Iran's "aggression has grown many-fold since the signing of the nuclear deal" and expressed his appreciation for Washington's position on the topic.
"If people thought that Iran’s aggression would be moderated as a result of signing the deal, the opposite has happened, and Iran is trying to gobble up one country after the other. Iran must be stopped," Netanyahu said.
Describing Trump's decision to transfer the embassy to Jerusalem as "bold," Netanyahu said the move "has prompted other countries, quite a few now, who are planning to move their embassy to Jerusalem as well." Netanyahu called Pompeo "a true friend of Israel, a true friend of the Jewish people" and said Washington's decision to include Israel on Pompeo's first trip as secretary of state is "symbolic of our friendship, which is getting even deeper and stronger."
The meeting was held less than two weeks before the May 12 deadline for Trump to decide whether to re-impose sanctions against Iran that were removed as part of the deal on its nuclear program. The audience included, among others, U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
According to a Palestinian official, Pompeo did not seek meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas or any Palestinian officials during his visit to Israel. Nabil Shaath, an Abbas aide, told Haaretz no one in Pomeo's bureau petitioned a meeting with the Palestinian president, and added that "even if there was such a petition, the official Palestinian stance remains unchanged, and it is not to meet."
Pompeo, a former CIA director, is thought to be a key supporter of the Netanyahu government's politics, and he holds hawkish views on Iran. His appointment was seen as a step toward a tougher American policy regarding Tehran, with U.S. President Donald Trump recently vowing to cancel the Iran nuclear deal if significant changes are not made.
Earlier Sunday, ahead of the government cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu brought up his meeting with Pomepo, saying: "Today we will welcome U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a true friend of Israel. I think that it is important that he is coming to Israel as part of his first visit outside the U.S. as Secretary of State."
The premier added that relations between Israel and the U.S. "are stronger than ever and I would like to take this opportunity to again to thank President Trump for the decision to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem, which will take place in a few days. At the time, I said there would be other countries to join this move and I can tell you these things are indeed happening."
Prior to landing in Israel, Pompeo met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and other officials in Riyadh. Pompeo reassured the kingdom that the U.S. would abandon the nuclear deal unless there is an agreement in talks with European partners to improve it to make sure the Islamic Republic never possesses a nuclear weapons
"Iran destabilizes this entire region," Pompeo said in a joint press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. "It supports proxy militias and terrorist groups. It is an arms dealer to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. It supports the murderous Assad regime (in Syria) as well."
Pompeo also addressed the rift between some Gulf countries and Qatar: "Gulf unity is necessary and we need to achieve it."
Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, cut off travel and trade ties with Qatar last June, accusing it of supporting terrorism and arch-rival Iran on the other side of the Gulf.
Doha has denied the accusations and has said its three fellow Gulf countries aim to curtail its sovereignty. For its part, Iran denies supporting terrorism or having sought to develop nuclear weapons.
On Friday at a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, the first stop on his trip, Pompeo repeated Trump's pledge to withdraw from the Iran deal unless it is significantly strengthened. He said the U.S. was "unlikely" to stay in if that was not done.
"Absent a substantial fix, absent overcoming the shortcomings, the flaws of the deal, he is unlikely to stay in that deal past this May," Pompeo said.
*AP contributed to this report.

Lebanese Shiites, too prominent to be monopolized by anyone
شيعة لبنان أكبر من أن يحتكرهم أحد!
Hassan Al Mustafa//Al Arabiya/April 29/18/
Despite the violent civil war and armed sectarian conflict, Lebanon’s society has remained open to plurality, diversity, tolerance and individual freedom. You won’t find a religious sect that has isolated itself in this small Mediterranean country. Everyone, without exception, exudes political, social and intellectual vitality that makes plurality a major feature of the country.
Shiite diversity of political views
It’s true that leaders of sects are still present and continue to use rhetoric to mobilize people against each other; however this exhortation is only used to serve certain vested interests, usually during elections or in times of disputes over economic matters. The aim is to achieve goals within the framework of “political quotas” which is actually the “golden” rule for administrative and financial corruption.
Shiites in Lebanon are part of this diversity and they cannot be dealt with as one deaf bloc that follows just one leader without questioning where he is taking the community and what kind of future plan he has for it. Historically speaking, many Shiites have been active in leftist and nationalist struggle movements in the mid-20th century. The most prominent ideologues of leftist thought were Shiites like the late Hussein Mroueh and Mahdi Amal. Shiites are now also at the forefront of secular intellectuals and writers who believe in the importance of deconstructing extremist speeches – fields which intellectuals like Ali Harb have written about. Thanks to his views, Ali Harb — who is influenced by French philosophy — is considered as one of the most prominent Arab intellectuals with a deconstructionist approach.
The religious movement itself also included references and intellectuals who created cultural diversity that developed an atmosphere of discussion and debate, which was not common in traditional Shiite circles. Sayyed Hani Fahs and Sayyed Mohammed Hassan al-Amin were two examples of the politically open religious figures who believed in the civil state and reconciled with “secularism” and who were not afraid of the “other” but believed in its significance for self-fulfillment. There are many other Shiite models as well. Some are characterized by their deep intellect and political maturity and some are not as mature - however, all of them definitely contribute to diversity that enriches Lebanon and the society. Today, Shiites in Lebanon are part of this entity. They present themselves as citizens and not as followers of a certain sect. They believe in the state as the reference and in the importance of working to remove sectarianism from political life and reduce the extent of sectarian tensions which are caused by conflicts among political parties.
An intolerable invective
This awareness that has been building must not be suppressed or pictured as a reflection of familial or personal interests or as if this elite is a bunch of mercenaries and egoists who sold themselves at the embassies’ auctions!
The term “the Shiite of the embassy” is nothing more than an invective that is so vile that it ill behooves those who use it against those who disagree with them. It’s a phrase that’s used as a weapon to execute rivals and distort their political history.
Opportunists are present in every movement, sect and group but projecting anyone who disagrees with Hezbollah and the Amal Movement as traitors and agents of Washington and people who receive bribes and stab their people in the back is an obvious lie.
This civil vitality in Lebanese Shiite circles must be strengthened and dealt with in a mature way to establish a public opinion that does not have sectarian biases and so individuals can present themselves as Lebanese citizens while overcoming the narrow identities of any religion or sect.


شيعة لبنان أكبر من أن يحتكرهم أحد!
حسن المصطفى
الرياض/27 نيسان/18
لبنان كمجتمع، رغم ما شهده من حرب أهلية عنيفة، والنزاعات الطائفية المسلحة، التي انعكست كثقافة في عقول ونفوس الكثيرين، إلا أنه بقي مساحة للتعدد والاختلاف وقبول الآخر، وبيئة للحريات الفردية.
لن تجد في هذا البلد المتوسطي الصغير طائفة دينية منغلقة على نفسها، الجميع دون استثناء يتميزون بحيوية فكرية وسياسية ومجتمعية، تجعل التعدد سمة رئيسة لا يمكن تجاوزها.
صحيح أن زعماء الطوائف لا يزال لهم حضورهم، ويستخدمون لغة أقلوية لشد العصب، وحشد الجمهور ضد الآخر، إلا أنها مجرد خطاب نفعي، يستخدم في اللحظات الانتخابية، أو المواجهات السياسية ذات الطابع الاقتصادي، التي يراد الانتفاع منها، ضمن مبدأ «المحاصصة السياسية»، وهي القاعدة «الذهبية» للفساد المالي والإداري!
المسلمون الشيعة في لبنان هم جزء من هذا التنوع، الذي لا يمكن التعامل معه بوصفه كتلة واحدة صماء، تسير خلف زعيم واحد، منقادة له، غير متسائلة إلى أين يأخذها، أو أي مشروع مستقبلي يرسمه لها؟! تاريخياً، شكل الكثير من الشيعة خزاناً للحركات اليسارية في منتصف القرن الميلادي المنصرم، وكانوا كوادر فاعلة في حركات النضال الوطني، وشكلت أسماء مهمة منهم أبرز المنظرين للفكر اليساري، مثل الراحلين حسين مروة ومهدي عامل. كما أنهم الآن في طليعة الكتاب والمثقفين العلمانيين، المؤمنين بأهمية تفكيك الخطابات المتطرفة، وتجاوز التراث، وهي الحقول التي كتب فيها مثقف مثل علي حرب، يعتبر في أطروحاته من أبرز المفكرين العرب ذي النزعة التفكيكية، والمتأثر بالفلسفة الفرنسية.
التيار الديني هو الآخر اشتمل على مرجعيات ومثقفين، شكلوا تنوعاً ثقافياً، عمل على خلق جو من النقاشات والجدل، لم تكن معتادة في الأوساط الشيعية التقليدية.
السيدان هاني فحص، ومحمد حسن الأمين، شكلا هما بدورهما مثالاً على عالم الدين المنفتح سياسياً، المؤمن بالدولة المدنية، المتصالح مع «العلمانية»، وغير المتوجس من الآخر، بل المؤمن بضرورته لاكتمال الذات.
أسماء كثيرة في الساحة الشيعية الآن، بعضها يتسم بالعمق الفكري والنضج السياسي، والآخرون ربما يكونون على قدر أقل من الوعي، إلا أنهم بالتأكيد يشكلون تنوعاً يثري لبنان الدولة أولاً، ومجتمعهم المحلي ثانياً.
الشيعة في لبنان اليوم هم جزء من الكيان، يقدمون أنفسهم بوصفهم مواطنين أولاً، وليس بصفتهم أتباع مذهب معين، يؤمنون بمرجعية الدولة، وأهمية العمل على نزع الطائفية من الحياة السياسية، وتخفيف حدة الاحتقانات المذهبية التي سببتها النزاعات بين الفرقاء السياسيين.
هذا الوعي المتشكل يجب ألا يقمع، أو يصور وكأنه انعكاس لمصالح ذاتية أو أسرية، وكأن هذه النخبة ليست إلا حفنة من المرتزقة والأنانيين الذين باعوا أنفسهم في مزاد السفارات!
«شيعة السفارة»، ليس إلا مجرد توصيف قدحي، لا يليق بأن يشهره أصحابه في وجه المختلفين معهم، هي مقولة بمثابة سلاح يمارس لإعدام الخصوم، وتشويه تاريخهم السياسي.
الانتهازيون موجودون في كل تيار، وطائفة، وجماعة. ولكن أن يتم تصوير كل من اختلف مع حزب الله وحركة أمل بأنهم خائنون، وعملاء لواشنطن، ويتلقون الرشاوى، ويطعنون أهلهم في الظهر، فذلك كذب بواح. هذه الحيوية المدنية في الأوساط اللبنانية الشيعية يجب تعزيزها، والتعامل معها بوعي؛ لتأسيس رأي عام غير منحاز مذهبياً، لكي يقدم الفرد نفسه بوصفه لبنانياً وفقط، متجاوزاً الهويات الضيقة لأي دين أو طائفة انتمت.

Iraq: Not a functioning state, but we think it is!
Adnan Hussein/Al Arabiya/April 29/18/
“Do we have a state in the first place?” I concluded a column earlier this week with this question that has been asked for 15 years, and it seems it is going to be asked for perhaps another 15 years. Political Islam groups have governed Iraq for all this time and despite their failure, they’ve been clinging on to authority.
No traffic laws
Yes, we do not have a state in Iraq but it just looks like a state to us. There is no country in the world, even an underdeveloped one, which does not, for example, have a traffic law. It is in our “state” that you do not see any sign of traffic laws on the streets, squares and highways. Car drivers, motorcycle riders and pedestrians do not abide by the traffic law. The traffic police also does not abide by it or work to impose it. Even the traffic lights lack a functional system! Let’s put the traffic law aside. Here is a story about our “new” Iraq that documents and proves that Islamist groups, after ruling for 15 years, have not been able to establish a state and will never do. A university lecturer of repute, whom I do now know personally but whose colleagues all speak well of her competence, was fired because she was absent from work for a few days at a time when people were being killed during the peak of the sectarian violence.
She and her family had been threatened to be killed based on their sect, so she decided to stay home out of fear the threat will be carried out. She later returned to her job, “theoretically,” based on a ministerial order that directed returning those who were forcibly displaced to their jobs. However, the dean of the college refused to execute the order. The prestigious academic was thus fired and she has now joined the unemployed force, whose number is increasing. There are thousands of other stories that resemble this one which I may not have brought up if I hadn’t checked the recent report of the Iraqi parliamentary center of the Madarik foundation for studying the mechanisms of conceptual promotion. The report reveals a huge political scandal. It’s huge because it seriously violates the internal system of parliament which states that if a member remains absent for over a third of the sessions of the council, his/her membership would be terminated and h/she would be replaced by another person. The report indicates that in the first legislative term of the fourth year of the third electoral cycle, between 4/7/2017 and 27/11/2017, there were 15 deputies from various blocs with the percentage of their absenteeism ranging between 35% and 88%!
Undermining people’s interests
The presidency of the parliament which is made up of Speaker Salim al-Jabouri and his two deputies Humam Hamoudi and Aram Sheikh Mohammed perjured their oaths and did not commit to the internal system. These 15 MPs continued to enjoy full authority and privileges, including being absent without being held accountable, as if they had been doing their duties and responsibilities to the fullest! Of course they were not held accountable because there are political and non-political interests the presidency members and their blocs which put their own interests before the country’s and the people’s interests.
A distinguished university lecturer who had to be absent for a few days against her will and due to sectarian killings was fired while 15 MPs who were absent for so many times were rewarded and saluted!
Did I not say we do not have a state, but it looks like one to us!

The new UN envoy’s almost impossible mission with the Houthis
Mashari Althaydi/Al Arabiya/April 29/18/
Does the new UN special envoy have a plan for Yemen that differs from that of his predecessors’? Asharq Al-Awsat has learnt from high-ranking sources that the most important features of the new plan of UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths includes “withdrawing arms and planning a transitional phase that includes Houthi participation in the government and ends with elections.”These general points for the new plan on which the new peace envoy is working on falls within the general context of the political solution that’s based on relevant international resolutions, the Gulf initiative or the Yemeni national dialogue. The Houthis and Saleh’s party were present in Yemeni national dialogue discussions. Perhaps some people, including myself, denounce the idea that Houthis should have any place in Yemen’s political future and believe this group should not be engaged with at all as its ideology must only be dealt on par with that of Nazis and other fascist movements following World War II: via prohibition and prosecution.
Any apparent Houthi flexibility seeking talks is merely a ruse for gaining time
This is a fair and rational request that takes into consideration protecting Yemen’s future on the long term. However, if we are to realistically look at the matter, disarming the group and depriving it of its military capabilities will turn it into a toothless tiger. More importantly, the group’s legitimacy, according to its followers, is linked to the permanence of war and the sanctification of divine weapons within the efforts of the “Hashemite Quranic march.”
I think the Houthis’ core remains inflexible and does not accept dialogue or else it would immediately break. Just like his predecessor, the Mauritanian Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed eventually realized, British envoy Griffiths will also come to realize that he’s chasing a Houthi smokescreen.
Any apparent Houthi flexibility seeking political talks instead of resorting to the language of weapons and to the threats of Abdulmalik al-Houthi, Abu Ali al-Hakeem or their new prime minister, the extremely dreamy Mahdi al-Mashat is a tactical flexibility that is only meant to gain time. The Houthis’ doctrine is aggressive and is based on gobbling up others and is certainly invasive – anything else is mere talk.
As the foreigners say, we tell Mr. Griffiths: “Good luck!”