Detailed
Lebanese & Lebanese Related LCCC English New Bulletin For November 07/2018
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias
Bejjani
To Read The Detailed English
News Bulletin For November 07/2018 Click on the Link below
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Bible
Quotations
Faith
by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Letter of James 02/14-26: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you
say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother
or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in
peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily
needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is
dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your
faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe
that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you
want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith without works is barren?
Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son
Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and
faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was
fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness’, and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person
is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the
prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent
them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is also dead."
نشرات اخبار عربية وانكليزية مطولة ومفصلة يومية على موقعنا الألكتروني على
الرابط التالي
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Daily Lebanese/Arabic - English news bulletins on our LCCC web site.Click on
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Titles For The Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials
from miscellaneous sources published on November 06-07/18
Disputes between Lebanese President, Hezbollah ‘Tactical, Not
Strategic’/Paula Astih/ Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 06/18
News Analysis: Analysts differ on how U.S. sanctions on Iran influence
Lebanon's economy/Shi Yinglun/Xinhua/November 06/18
How the Iran Sanctions Are Threatening the Lebanese Government
Formation/Daily Star/November05/18
What Swift Is and Why It Matters in the US-Iran Spat/Al Jazeera/Tuesday 06th
November 2018
Canada Upholds Allah/Muhammad’s Ban on Adoption/Raymond Ibrahim/PJ
Media/November 06/18
The Three Stances Nations Have Taken on Khashoggi/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq
Al Awsat/November 06/18
The Stock Market Bandwagon Is Filling Up Quickly/Robert
Burgess/Bloomberg/November 06/18
Germany: Merkel Throws in the Towel/Stefan Frank/Gatestone
Institute/November 06, 2018
A Month of Multiculturalism in Britain: October 2018/Soeren Kern/Gatestone
Institute/November 06, 2018
The grace of Jamal Khashoggi’s sons/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/November
06/18/
Russia gambles on Taliban peace talks/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/November
06/18/
Israeli Minister Elkin: Syrian S-300s will be attacked if Israeli military
or commercial planes hit'/DebkaFile/November 06/18
U.S.-Saudi Security Cooperation (Part 2): Restricting Operational Support in
Yemen/Michael Knights and Lt. Col. August Pfluger, USAF/The Washington
Institute/November 06/18
Qatar’s architect of a new life for Gazans/Simon Henderson /The
Hill/November 06/ 18
Titles
For The Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on November 06-07/18
Aoun tackles government formation updates, educational affairs with
Baabda visitors
Berri welcomes French Ambassador, Economic and Social Council
Report: Aoun, Hizbullah ‘Discuss’ Sunni Hurdle
Strong Lebanon Bloc Says 'Not a Party' to Govt. Standoff, Urges Quick
Solution
Disputes between Lebanese President, Hezbollah ‘Tactical, Not Strategic’
Lebanon: Hariri Has Not ‘Retreated’ to France as Govt. Formation Stalls
Hezbollah Strongly Interfering in Iraq’s Govt. Crisis
Mustaqbal Hails Aoun's 'Great Sense of National Responsibility'
Senior UK Defense Adviser Vows 'Continued Support, Friendship with Lebanese
Army'
AUB Selected for WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award
Private Generator Owners Announce Two-Hour Temporary Shutdown
Offshore Drilling for Oil and Gas Begins in 2019, Says Andari
Finance Ministry: U.S. Sanctions on Iran Have No Direct Effect on Lebanon
Guidanian Apologizes after Saying Egypt is a 'Dirty Place'
Bukhari meets Lebanese Saudi Business Council
Kanaan after bloc meeting: Dialogue remains basis for resolving disputes
Baarini visits Kuwaiti ambassador: Lebanon proud of its relations with Arab
brethrens
Lebanon: Health Card Endorsed by Finance Committee, to be Approved by
Parliament
Lebanon Overcomes Power Shortage Crisis
News Analysis: Analysts differ on how U.S. sanctions on Iran influence
Lebanon's economy
How the Iran Sanctions Are Threatening the Lebanese Government Formation
Lebanon Central Bank Says Debt Threat Growing amid Political Vacuum
Row Renews Between Generator Owners and Economy Minister
Ardo: Kataeb Delegation's Visit to Russia 'Very Successful'
What Swift Is and Why It Matters in the US-Iran Spat
Titles For The Latest LCCC
Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on November 06-07/18
Americans Start Voting in Midterm Verdict on Trump Rule
Russia Sets ‘Mechanisms’ to Confront US Sanctions on Iran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Airforce Stage Large-Scale Wargames
Erdogan Says Joint US-Kurdish Patrols Near Syria Border Unacceptable
Sisi Says Egypt Will Defend Gulf in Case of Direct Threat
Israel Lawmakers to Debate Death Penalty for Palestinian 'Terrorists'
Algeria Frees Senior Generals Detained in Corruption Sweep
UN Report: Mass Graves of ISIS Victims Discovered in Iraq
Europe Warns Tax Cuts Could Weaken Palestinian Authority
6 Far-Right Suspects Held in 'Violence' Plot against Macron
King Tours Saudi as Khashoggi Crisis Rages Abroad
Qatar Warns of 'Long-Lasting' Impact of Gulf Crisis
French Parliament Debates Brexit Bill
Palestinian Shot Trying to Stab Israel Cops with Scissors
Iraq Parliament Holds Off Vote on Key Ministers
The Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on
November 06-07/18
Aoun tackles
government formation updates, educational affairs with Baabda visitors
Tue 06 Nov 2018/NNA - The Baabda Palace witnessed this
Tuesday a series of meetings that dwelled on the developments related to the
formation of the government, in addition to talks on political, diplomatic
and educational affairs. Politically, President of the Republic General
Michel Aoun welcomed caretaker Minister of State for Planning Affairs,
Michel Pharaon, with talks touching on the current political updates and the
course of forming a new government, after the meeting held by minister
Pharaon with PM-designate Saad Hariri, commissioned by the Patriarch of the
Melkite Catholic, Youssef Abssi. Pharaon said that he discussed with
President Aoun "the issue of Roman Catholics representation in the
government after circulating information about the existence of a
complication which may appear later in the formation stages around the
portfolios assigned to Catholic ministers." The minister uttered "full
confidence in the Presidents of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, and
PM-designate Saad Hariri and others tasked to reach formulas that will
prevent any unfairness against the Catholic community or others.""I have
been assured by His Excellency the President, and before him the
Premier-designate on the keenness to respect the national reconciliation
document and its implications, including the rights of communities," he
said. President Aoun also met, in the presence of MP Elias Bou Saab, with
Metropolitan of Beirut for the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elias Audi, and
held a round of talks with him on the current political developments and the
process of forming the government, in addition to matters related to the
Greek Orthodox community. After the meeting, Audi said "I wished His
Excellency the President, at the beginning of his third year in office,
health and long life to pursue his efforts for the good of Lebanon and its
stability, for growth and prosperity and for the course of fighting
corruption, so as to bring back hope to the homeland and its sons. We
expressed our sorrow over the constant complications faced by the
government. We hope that a government will be born soon to take the country
out of its stalemate and save the citizens from the prevailing despair. We
wished upon the President to give the best representation to the Orthodox
within the cabinet, and that their rights in the administration be preserved
as long as we are a State that adopts sectarianism in recruitment.""I have
raised with the President the project of setting up a crematorium in
Karantina, and the risks of doubling the pollution levels in Beirut as is
the case in Jounieh, which would negatively affect the health of citizens,"
he added. Educationally, President Aoun welcomed, in the presence of
caretaker Minister of Justice Salim Jreissati and the Ambassador of France,
Bruno Foucher, Head of the French secular mission, Francois Perret, Director
General of the Mission, Jean-Christophe Debre, and representative of the
mission in Lebanon Andre Daouk. During the meeting, Perret tackled the role
played by "the French secular mission schools in Lebanon for over 110 years
ago," this underlining "the attachment to Lebanon and its pioneering role."
President Aoun praised the work of the French secular mission and its
educational ramifications spread across Lebanon, stressing "help in
overcoming the difficulties that may impede its educational role."The Baabda
Palace also witnessed a meeting between President Aoun and Lebanon's
Ambassador to Algeria, Mohammad Mahmoud Hassan, with talks dwelling on
Lebanese-Algerian relations.
Berri welcomes French Ambassador, Economic and Social Council
Tue 06 Nov 2018/NNA - Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, received this
Tuesday in Ain Al-Tineh a delegation of the Bureau of the Economic and
Social Council, under the chairmanship of its President Charles Arbid who
briefed him on the workshop held at the Economic and Social Council. "It is
imperative to speed up the government formation process," he said in the
wake of the meeting. "We also discussed with Speaker Berri the work of the
parliamentary committees and the need to cooperate with them and help in
socio-economic matters, especially in the technical issues," Arbid added,
noting that "the economic reality is difficult and delicate but we always
Lebanese never lose hope."On a different note, Berri welcomed the French
Ambassador to Lebanon, Bruno Foucher, accompanied by Head of the French
secular mission, Francois Perret, Director General of the Mission,
Jean-Christophe Debre, and representative of the mission in Lebanon Andre
Daouk.
Report: Aoun,
Hizbullah ‘Discuss’ Sunni Hurdle
November 06/18/Discussions about the government formation
process and the “Sunni representation obstacle” were reportedly held between
President Michel Aoun and Hizbullah party, the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily said
on Tuesday. Hizbullah insists on allocating a ministerial seat for a Sunni
MP of March 8 camp, and refuses to submit the names of its ministers to
PM-designate Saad Hariri in order to form the government. The representation
of said MPs of March 8 -the newest obstacle hampering the formation of
Lebanon’s government- still obstructs the mission of PM-designate Saad
Hariri, who is currently in Paris. President Michel Aoun is following up on
the “Sunni obstacle”, said the daily, but well-informed sources close to
Baabda said discussions to ease the hurdle “have not yet produced tangible
results.” They also said “contacts were held between Aoun and Hizbullah,”
without disclosing the content; and between the President and Hariri, and
Speaker Nabih Berri on that matter. Meanwhile, sources of al-Mustaqbal
Movement (of the Premier) said Hariri is taking his time in Paris to follow
on the formation issue. Mustaqbal MP Mohammed Hajjar said the “adamant
stances to give a Cabinet seat for said MPs is an invitation to not form the
government.”“For us, the government will be complete when Hizbullah decides
to submit the names of its ministers,” to Hariri, he added. Hariri has been
in Paris on a private visit since Thursday according to his office. His
departure after a last-minute hurdle delayed the formation of his
long-awaited government has raised speculation that the PM-designate has
left the country in protest at the current situation. The new cabinet was on
the verge of formation last Monday after the Lebanese Forces accepted the
portfolios that were assigned to it but a row over the representation of
pro-Hizbullah Sunni MPs surfaced. Hizbullah has backed the MPs' demand and
refrained from providing Hariri with the names of its own ministers in a bid
to press him to accept giving a seat to the aforementioned Sunni grouping.
Hariri has reportedly announced that he'd rather step down than give the MPs
a seat from his own ministerial share.
Strong Lebanon Bloc Says 'Not a Party' to Govt. Standoff, Urges Quick
Solution
Naharnet/November 06/18/The Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc
noted Tuesday that it is “a bridge among all components” and not a “party”
to the current standoff over the new government. “From the very beginning,
we considered that the government issue is essential and necessary
regardless of disputes and obstacles,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the
bloc’s weekly meeting. “From the beginning, we have called for relying on
the results of the parliamentary elections and setting a unified standard to
form the government, because there are major requirements and challenges,”
Kanaan added.
“The bloc considers dialogue to be the main foundation for overcoming
hurdles, and preserving the National Pact and the various Lebanese
components is essential for preserving domestic stability. It also believes
that any victory that the Lebanese might seek can only be achieved through
solidarity between them,” the MP went on to say. Referring to the standoff
over the issue of representing pro-Hizbullah Sunni MPs in the new
government, Kanaan stressed that the bloc “is a bridge among all components”
and not a party to the current crisis. Accordingly, Kanaan said the bloc
calls for a “quick solution that preserves the principles and values that we
have all agreed on,” noting that “preserving state institutions is a win for
all Lebanese.”“The prestige of the state and its institutions is not
confined to a certain party. We are facing a critical period at all levels
internationally, regionally, economically and developmentally,” Kanaan
warned. The government was on the verge of formation on October 29 after the
Lebanese Forces accepted the portfolios that were assigned to it but a
last-minute hurdle over the representation of the aforementioned MPs
surfaced. Hizbullah insisted that the six Sunni MPs should be given a seat
in the government, refraining from providing Prime Minister-designate Saad
Hariri with the names of its own ministers in a bid to press him. President
Michel Aoun -- a Hizbullah ally and the FPM founder -- threw his support
behind Hariri and rejected the demand during a TV interview, slamming the
“use of delay as a political tactic” and insisting that the aforementioned
MPs are “individuals and not a bloc.”
Disputes between Lebanese President, Hezbollah ‘Tactical, Not Strategic’
Paula Astih/ Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 06/18
The dispute that had recently erupted between the Free Patriotic Movement
(FPM), founded by Lebanese President Michel Aoun, and the Hezbollah party
has sparked speculation that their 12-year alliance was close to crumbling.
The most recent dispute centers on the party’s insistence on naming Sunni
candidates from its March 8 bloc to the new government in opposition to Aoun,
who is adamant that the Sunni candidates be independent figures. The
most contentious issue that threatens relations between the two allies is
the ongoing political dispute and fractious ties between the FPM and Speaker
Nabih Berri. Whenever differences emerge between Berri and the FPM,
Hezbollah often sides with the former in order to preserve Shiite unity in
Lebanon. The party has repeatedly said that it prioritizes this unity, as
demonstrated ahead of the May parliamentary elections. Prior to the polls, a
crisis had erupted between Berri and FPM chief and caretaker Foreign
Minister Jebran Bassil when the latter described the speaker as a “thug.”
The tensions between the two sides almost escalated into clashes. Hezbollah
did not hesitate at the time in declaring its clear solidarity with its
Shiite ally against its Christian one.
Moreover, many observers questioned at the time how Hezbollah and the FPM
ran rival electoral lists in various Lebanese regions during the polls. They
two allies alleged that their electoral interests forced them to field such
lists.
In addition, the FPM and Hezbollah have long differed over the extension of
parliament’s term. The FPM has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the
extension, while the party advocated it. Political disputes and security
concerns twice forced parliament to extend its term, once in 2013 and again
in 2014. The thorniest issue between the two allies is that of Lebanese who
fled to Israel following its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. The
FPM has supported settling their legal status, while the party has not,
despite making many concessions in this file, said research specialist
Mohammad Chamseddine of Information International.
These include reducing sentences against those who turn themselves in. If
the unreduced sentences are imposed, then suspects would be tried for
collaborating with the enemy and given harsh punishments. Chamseddine told
Asharq Al-Awsat that the majority of disputes between Aoun and Hezbollah
will remain “tactical, not strategic” as long as they stay in agreement on
the “role of the resistance and the need to maintain it.”The party is keen
to preserve its ties with Aoun because he is the only figure capable of
offering it “major Christian cover” that its other Christian allies, such as
Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, cannot. Once a new government is
formed, Aoun is expected to propose the issue of the national defense
strategy back on the dialogue table in Lebanon. Hezbollah does not seem too
eager to address this issue, which has often been a source of dispute with
its opponents given their objection to its weapons arsenal and its
usurpation of the state’s war and peace decision-making power. Head of
Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad was quick to voice his
skepticism over Aoun’s intention to address the defense strategy. “The
resistance is a key factor in Lebanon’s defense strategy. It has played a
planning and administrative role to that end,” he added. “This resistance,
which has been embraced by our national people,” does not need texts to
dictate its duties and it will remain a necessity as long as Israeli and
terrorist threats exist, he declared. Chamseddine doubted that the defense
strategy will spark a new dispute between Hezbollah and the FPM. “As long as
Aoun maintains his support for the resistance’s defense role, then no
tensions should emerge during the discussions,” he explained. In fact,
Aoun’s proposal could act as a favor to Hezbollah whereby the defense
strategy could offer official and political cover for its contentious role
in Lebanon, he said.
Lebanon: Hariri Has Not ‘Retreated’ to France as Govt.
Formation Stalls
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/Efforts to
form a new Lebanese government after months of negotiations remained
obstructed Monday by the dispute over Sunni representation, with no
breakthrough in sight and amid claims that Prime Minister-designate Saad
Hariri had “retreated” to France. MP Bahia Hariri denied the allegations,
explaining that he can take all the time he needs to form his government.
Last Thursday, Hariri traveled to Paris without offering any details about
the latest developments related to the cabinet formation process. Local MTV
television said he will remain in Paris to attend the World War I
commemorations scheduled for November 11. The channel quoted sources from
the Presidential Palace as saying that no breakthrough was made in regard to
solving the Sunni dispute. “There are no developments in regard to the
government formation process. Things remain at a standstill,” the sources
said. The issue of Sunni representation erupted in recent weeks with
Hezbollah insisting on appointing these ministers from its March 8 bloc.
However, President Michel Aoun said last week the independent Sunni
deputies, who demand a ministerial portfolio, “do not form a bloc,” backing
Hariri’s stance. Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called Monday
for facilitating the cabinet formation process, instead of placing obstacles
and hurdles. “We all stand in solidarity with the President and we want all
parties to support his position,” he said after holding talks with Aoun. He
added that solutions should not take place at the expense of Lebanon, unity
and internal balance. The patriarch also underlined the dire need to support
Aoun and Hariri’s efforts to form a cabinet. Separately, Speaker Nabih Berri
called on Monday parliament to convene in a legislative session on November
12 and 13.
Hezbollah Strongly Interfering in Iraq’s Govt. Crisis
Baghdad - Hamza Mustafa/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/The
Lebanese Hezbollah party has been interfering in internal political affairs
in Iraq, especially recent government formation efforts. Iraqi sources told
Asharq Al-Awsat that the party’s official in charge of Iraqi affairs,
Mohammed Kawtharani had informed Shiite leaderships in Baghdad of the need
to support Falih al-Fayyad’s bid to become interior minister after head of
the Sairoon bloc, Moqtada al-Sadr, had vetoed his appointment. “Kawtharani,
with the support of Iranian and Russian high ranking leaderships, informed
Shiite forces in Iraq about the need to appoint Fayyad as interior
minister,” the sources said, highlighting the official’s close ties with
Syrian regime head Bashar Assad. Leaderships from the Binaa coalition have
already informed Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of their support for
Fayyad’s nomination, as well as Qusay al-Suhail’s appointment as justice
minister. Fayyad is a member of the Binaa coalition. The Coalition also
informed the PM it would not allow the Sairoon bloc to interfere and
obstruct the appointment of those two figures at the mentioned ministries.
Abdul Mahdi announced last week that he will occupy key cabinet posts left
unfilled by parliament’s vote Thursday on the government lineup. Iraqi
deputies had failed to vote on key ministries, including the defense and
interior portfolios, forcing him to step in as caretaker minister.
Separately, former Minister of Interior and current MP Mohammed Salem Al-Ghabban
from the Fatah Alliance, led by Badr Organization founder Hadi Al-Ameri,
told Asharq Al-Awsat that his bloc insists on supporting Fayyad for the
interior ministry post. He added that there are no legal justifications for
some parties to veto Fayyad’s nomination.
Mustaqbal Hails Aoun's 'Great Sense of National Responsibility'
Naharnet/November 06/18/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday applauded
the latest stance voiced by President Michel Aoun over the issue of
representing the pro-Hizbullah Sunni MPs in the new government. “The bloc
welcomed the president’s stance which rejected this crippling demand,” it
said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. “His stance reflects a
great sense of national responsibility and keenness on the formation of the
government as soon as possible in order to confront the impending threats to
the Lebanese and their economy and safety,” the bloc added. “The approach
through which President Aoun and Prime Minister-designate (Saad) Hariri are
facing this obstruction is a sound approach, seeing as it is not right to
group together MPs belonging to separate blocs which are already represented
in the government,” Mustaqbal went on to say. It also noted that all parties
“had known from the very beginning that such a crippling demand would be
faced by a categorical and decisive rejection from the PM-designate and from
large segments of the Lebanese and their political blocs.”The government was
on the verge of formation on October 29 after the Lebanese Forces accepted
the portfolios that were assigned to it but a last-minute hurdle over the
representation of the aforementioned MPs surfaced. Hizbullah insisted that
the six Sunni MPs should be given a seat in the government, refraining from
providing Hariri with the names of its own ministers in a bid to press him.
Aoun threw his support behind Hariri and rejected the demand during a TV
interview, slamming the “use of delay as a political tactic” and insisting
that the aforementioned MPs are “individuals and not a bloc.”
Senior UK Defense Adviser Vows 'Continued Support,
Friendship with Lebanese Army'
Naharnet/November 06/18/Lieutenant General Sir John Lorimer, the UK's
Defense Senior Adviser on the Middle East, has ended a two-day visit to
Lebanon, the British embassy said on Tuesday. During the visit he held
meetings with President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri, General Security
chief Abbas Ibrahim and Army Commander General Joseph Aoun. This is General
Lorimer’s third visit to Lebanon since November 2017. Lorimer also addressed
a dinner for graduates of UK military academies and institutions hosted by
the Defense Attaché Lieutenant Colonel Alex Hilton. He also visited the Land
Border Regiment Training Center at Rayak Airbase, and then met the Commander
of 3rd Land Border Regiment at one of the surveillance towers overlooking
the Lebanese- Syrian border, where he saw first-hand how the UK support is
helping Lebanon keep its border safe and maintain stability of the country,”
the embassy said. At the end of his visit, General Lorimer said: “It is a
great pleasure to be back in Lebanon. It is a testament of the strong and
long-standing relationship with the Lebanese Armed Forces. My visit was an
opportunity to see how current and future support to the Lebanese Armed
Forces will reinforce Lebanon’s stability and the LAF’s vital role as the
legitimate defender of Lebanon.”"I was impressed to learn that we have
helped to train 10,000 Lebanese soldiers and that the Army continues to
develop its capability to completely secure the Syrian border. This is a
remarkable achievement in such a short time," he added. Benjamin Wastnage,
the British Chargé D’affaires, said: “We are delighted to have General Sir
John Lorimer back in Lebanon, as a demonstration of our continued support to
the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) – which every day, across the country,
bravely and professionally defends Lebanon.”“In this volatile region, it is
the LAF that provides for Lebanon’s security, stability and prosperity. And
I am proud that the UK continues to be one of the LAF’s largest and most
impactful donors, and that the UK’s relationship with the LAF continues to
strengthen,” he added.
AUB Selected for WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award
Associated Press/Naharnet/November 06/18/Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS),
the leading data research platform and business intelligence tool for
corporate, academic and government institutions worldwide, has announced the
American University of Beirut as the EMEA region winner of the WRDS-SSRN
Innovation Award. A part of the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania, WRDS provides global corporations, universities and regulatory
agencies the thought leadership, data access and insights needed to enable
impactful research. The award was created through a unique collaboration
with SSRN and Elsevier to honor emerging business schools. “Together, WRDS
and SSRN elevate the visibility, impact and credibility of an institution’s
research,” a press release said. The award was presented to Dr. Steve Harvey
during the AACSB EMEA Conference in Paris. “I am very pleased to present the
WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award to the American University of Beirut,” said
Robert Zarazowski, Managing Director of WRDS. “Supporting and advancing
research is at the heart of what we do at WRDS, and it is wonderful to be
able to honor the American University of Beirut for its commitment to growth
and innovation in academic research,” he added. "We are thrilled with this
recognition as a school committed to high-quality research with reach and
impact,” said Dr. Steve Harvey, Dean of Suliman S. Olayan School of
Business. “It will serve to energize us even more to continue our focus on
bringing actionable knowledge to the fore."Gregg Gordon, Managing Director
of SSRN, added: “Congratulations to the American University of Beirut for
this achievement. SSRN is excited to continue to partner with WRDS and
provide greater visibility to business schools, like American University of
Beirut through this innovation award and the WRDS Research Paper Series on
SSRN.”Three universities are selected annually from across North America,
Europe and Asia Pacific regions.
Private Generator Owners Announce Two-Hour Temporary
Shutdown
Naharnet/November 06/18/Private generator owners announced a two-hour
shutdown on Tuesday in protest to what they called “campaigns against
them.”They said during a press conference that generators will be shutdown
between 5:00 and 7:00 PM in protest to “unfair pricing” set by the Energy
Ministry. In a bid to organize the already illegal sector, the Ministry had
instructed them to install meters to charge subscribers based on electricity
usage. “We demand the Ministry of Energy to develop a clear scientific study
of the kilowatt and announce it to the public,” they said.
Offshore Drilling for Oil and Gas Begins in 2019, Says
Andari
Naharnet/November 06/18/Banque Du Liban's second vice-governor Saad Andari
announced during a conference that Lebanon expects to start exploratory
offshore drilling for oil and gas by the end of 2019, LBCI news said on
Tuesday. The exploration will take between three to four years, and will be
conducted by a consortium led by French oil giant Total, Andari said.
Lebanon signed in February a deal with an international consortium to start
exploratory offshore drilling for oil and gas in what the country hopes will
help boost its struggling economy. The three oil companies, Italy's Eni,
France's Total and Russia's Novatek, have bid for two of Lebanon's 10
offshore blocks, to determine whether oil and gas exist.
Finance Ministry: U.S. Sanctions on Iran Have No Direct
Effect on Lebanon
Naharnet/November 06/18/The Ministry of Finance confirmed there was no
direct effect on Lebanon as the result of sanctions imposed by the United
States on Iran, “because the banking and financial system in Lebanon comply
with the international rules,” al-Joumhouria daily reported in Tuesday.
Lebanon “has for a while taken all needed measures dismissing any urgent
threat,” added the sources who spoke on condition on anonymity. However,
they raised “concerns of the absence of the executive authority shall things
touch the red line,” they said, referring to the delay in the government
formation. “Lebanon needs to cover its expenses by the end of the year.
Since expenditures are increasing and revenues are limited, Lebanon as usual
will be needing loans. But, who will lend us in these circumstances and
foggy political situation?” they asked. Last week the U.S. began restoring
sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which
President Donald Trump withdrew from in May. The administration says the
renewed sanctions are meant to pressure Tehran to halt its alleged support
for international terrorism, its military activity in the Middle East and
its ballistic missile programs. Iran has been backing Hizbullah financially
and militarily since the group was established after Israel’s 1982 invasion
of Lebanon.
Guidanian Apologizes after Saying Egypt is a 'Dirty Place'
Naharnet/November 06/18/Caretaker Tourism Minister Avedis Guidanian on
Monday apologized to Egypt after describing the Arab country as a “dirty
place.”“In an interview with Lebanon's The Daily Star newspaper, I talked
about the media's role in highlighting tourism's decent image, giving an
example about the Arab Republic of Egypt,” Guidanian said in a statement.
“It contained a phrase resulting from an unintended expression, that's why I
extend my deepest apology to the Arab Republic of Egypt and its presidency,
government and people, stressing the depth of the relation with Egypt and
wishing prosperity for this dear country,” the minister added. In the
interview, Guidanian had made a comparison between Lebanon's image and that
of Egypt in the media. “We love to say in the media that Lebanon is covered
in trash, that the sea is polluted and that it’s the most expensive tourist
destination in the world – well, you’ve ruined Lebanon’s image,” Guidanian
told The Daily Star. “I mean look at Egypt is there a place dirtier than it?
People are louder than us, there is more traffic than here – people live in
graves, OK? But there is tourism, because they know how to sell that
country,” he added.
Bukhari meets Lebanese Saudi Business Council
Tue 06 Nov 2018/NNA - Saudi Minister Plenipotentiary Charge d'Affaire, Walid
Bukhari, on Tuesday welcomed at the Embassy headquarters a delegation of the
Lebanese-Saudi Business Council. The delegation included head of the
Economic Committees, Mohamed Choucair, Council President Raouf Abu Zaki, and
other economic magnates. The meeting also took place in the presence of
Embassy Economic Advisor Marwan al-Saleh. As per a statement by the
Lebanese-Saudi Business Council, it said the purpose of the visit was to
express solidarity with the Kingdom and to underscore the importannce of its
supportive role to Lebanon. Bukhari appreciated the solidarity initiative,
announcing a qualitative leap in economic relations between the two
countries after the formation of the Lebanese governmment, as per Council
statement. The statement said discussions touched on 21 bilateral agreements
between Lebanon and the Kingdom, pending government formation.
Kanaan after bloc meeting: Dialogue remains basis for resolving disputes
Tue 06 Nov 2018/NNA - "Strong Lebanon" bloc held its weekly meeting at the "Tayyar
Center" in Sin El Fil, presided over by Free Patriotic Movement head,
Caretaker Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil. Speaking in the wake of the
meeting, MP Ibrahim Kanaan said the bloc has always regarded the government
formation issue as essential and indispensable, regardless of the
disagreements, and in view of the challenges ahead. Kanaan brought to
attention that the bloc has always called for forming the next cabinet on
the basis of the outcome of recent legislative elections. The Lawmaker said
"the bloc considers that dialogue remains the basis for resolving snags."
"Preserving the Charter and the various Lebanese components is essential in
maintaining internal stability," Kanaan said. Kanaan stressed the paramount
importance of solidarity among the Lebanese, noting that the bloc has always
sought to be a "bridge" amongst all components of society, under the ceiling
of the Constitution and national institutions. The bloc stressed the dire
need to uphold national constants and principles and to preserve
constitutional institutions. Meanwhile, the bloc welcomed the endorsement of
the health card, deeming it as a national accomplishment. The bloc also
hoped that the health card will be endorsed by the Parliament's General
Assembly.
Baarini visits Kuwaiti ambassador: Lebanon proud of its
relations with Arab brethrens
Tue 06 Nov 2018/NNA - "Future" bloc MP Walid Baarini, on Tuesday visited
Kuwait's Ambassador to Lebanon, Abdel Aal Kinaï, at the Embassy, on top of a
delegation from northern Akkar and Minieh. MP Baarini hailed the historic
brotherly relations between Lebanon and Kuwait, expressing appreciation of
Kuwait's relentless support to Lebanon. The MP said Lebanon is proud of its
ties with its Arab brothers who spare no effort in supporting the nation.
Baarini also heaped praise on the efforts undertaken by the Kuwaiti
Ambassador in furthering ties between the two countries. The Lawmaker
extended an invitation to Ambassador Aal Kinaï to visit North Lebanon and
Akkar. For his part, Aal Kinaï affirmed his country's keenness to support
Lebanon's security and stability.
Lebanon: Health Card Endorsed by Finance
Committee, to be Approved by Parliament
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November,
2018/Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee approved on Monday the
remaining items of the law proposal on the health card, which would provide
health coverage for all the Lebanese people. The draft-law would be referred
to Parliament for approval. The head of the committee, MP Ibrahim Kenaan,
said following Monday’s meeting: “The biometric card will include the health
history of every citizen, which would save a lot of money and will be
sponsored by the Ministry of Health, with the possibility to cover all the
segments of the Lebanese people in the future.”“The health card is now in
the hands of Parliament, and I hope it will be one of the legislation
priorities because it affects every Lebanese and every home,” he added. He
emphasized that squandering in the health sector was the result of “politics
and chaos.” “We want the health card project to be the first medical and
national project approved by Parliament,” he stressed. Parliamentary
committees have been studying for several years the health card bill, which
provides health coverage for all the Lebanese. The project was initiated by
the ministry of health in 2010.
Lebanon Overcomes Power Shortage Crisis
Beirut- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/Lebanese authorities ended
a crisis that was likely to affect the electricity sector with the
announcement of the Minister of Energy and Water in the caretaker
government, Cesar Abi Khalil, that Algerian tanker ships would unload fuel
following contacts made by the Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri with
Algerian officials. Fears of a power crisis emerged last week, after two
electricity plants stopped producing energy as a result of fuel shortage due
to lack of funding, inability to spend additional funds without Parliament’s
approval, and the absence of a government. Hariri’s press office reported
that the premier-designate contacted President Michel Aoun from Paris,
informing him that he agreed with Algerian officials to unload two ships for
Electricite du Liban (EDL) and that he would maintain his contacts to find a
lasting solution for the problem in the coming days. Following his meeting
with Aoun on Monday, Abi Khalil said: “I have notified President Michel Aoun
that the power barges will start supplying fuel as of today, and there will
be no electricity cuts.”“The President appreciated the Algerian position and
contacted Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri, who in turn, highly
valued the initiative of Sonatrach company,” Abi Khalil said. Before the
crisis was resolved, the energy minister attributed the problem to the
refusal of Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil to implement a decree signed
by Aoun, Hariri, Abi Khalil and himself, arguing that his decision comes in
line with the provisions of the Budget Law, which prohibits the disbursement
of any amounts except by a law issued by Parliament. Lebanese officials were
working to resolve the crisis by asking the Algerian company to accept
receiving the price of fuel within 90 days, exceeding the international
economic practice to pay the price of fuel within 30 days after delivery.
News Analysis: Analysts differ on how U.S. sanctions on
Iran influence Lebanon's economy
Shi Yinglun/Xinhua/November 06/18
BEIRUT, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- With the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on Iran's oil,
transportation and banking sectors, Lebanese analysts expressed on Tuesday
divergent views on how the sanctions would influence Hezbollah and the
Lebanese economy.
"I do not think that these sanctions will have a major impact on Hezbollah
or the Lebanese economy," Hilal Kashan, chair of the Political Studies
Department at the American University of Beirut, told Xinhua. Khashan said
that Hezbollah does not rely on Iranian financial assistance as it used to
in the past. The U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial
Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, announced a few months ago that Iran provides
upwards of 700 U.S. million dollars a year to Hezbollah. Khashan believes
that Hezbollah still gets some of its funds from Iran but it succeeded
during the past years in identifying its own sources of funding. He
explained that there are many companies in Lebanon and abroad owned by
Hezbollah but operating under independent names. Khashan also noted that
Hezbollah members use cash without bank accounts. According to Kashan, U.S.
sanctions against Iran will not have any impact on the Lebanese economy.
"The Americans understand very well that the Lebanese government is helpless
and that Hezbollah is stronger than the national army. They are well aware
that Hezbollah can overthrow the cabinet. So it does not make sense for them
to jeopardize the entirety of Lebanon for Hezbollah," he said. Khashan does
not think that Iran will be crippled because of these sanctions. "The
sanctions on Iran will gravely impact the Iranian economy but I do not think
this will cripple Iran," he said, adding that the U.S. has exempted eight
countries from the sanctions, some of which are major oil importers of Iran.
Lebanese Political Analyst Walid Mubarak reiterated Kashan's views by saying
that Iran can maneuver around these sanctions because it has a past
experience on how to deal with them. According to Mubarak, Hezbollah has
been dealing with such sanctions for a very long time as well. "The
political party relies on cash while avoiding to deal with the Lebanese
banking system," he said. However, Mubarak said that Hezbollah may be
impacted in an indirect way. "Its support base could be affected because the
U.S. is putting sanctions on companies and individuals that are in support
of Hezbollah, which will impact the Lebanese economy," he added. He
explained that individuals and companies dealing with Hezbollah will have
their funds frozen in banks. "It will create a psychological environment
which could lead to lack of confidence in Lebanese banking system and
possible capital outflows," he said. Another impact, according to Mubarak,
could be on the social services offered by Hezbollah such as hospitalization
and the compensations paid for families of the martyrs. Sami Nader, director
of Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs in Lebanon, said that Hezbollah's
support base will be impacted by the new sanctions. "The sanctions are
saying that no one can deal with a company dealing with Iran. This is how
they broadened the scopes of the sanctions," he said, adding that any
supplier of a company that supports Hezbollah will be hit this time. Nader
believes that the new sanctions will increase the level of economic risks in
Lebanon. "Lebanon needs to send positive signals to the international
community that reforms will be implemented and investments as well as
tourists will return to the country," he said. However, he added that these
sanctions are going in the opposite direction by reducing the level of trust
in the Lebanese economy. "We already have very high interest rates because
of the monetary situation we are going through, which is a direct
consequence of our financial distress and economic downturn," he said.
How the Iran Sanctions Are Threatening the Lebanese Government Formation
Daily Star/November05/18
Hezbollah escalated its position on the issue of representing Sunni
lawmakers not affiliated with the Future Movement over the weekend, to the
extent of ruling out the formation of a new government without naming one of
them as a minister.
he remarks by Hezbollah’s deputy head Sheikh Naim Qassem threaten to prolong
the Cabinet formation crisis, now in its sixth month, as President Michel
Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri have strongly rejected a
demand by the six so-called “independent” Sunni lawmakers to be represented
in the new government. However, the sudden toughening of Hezbollah’s stance
on the representation of those Sunni MPs coincided with U.S. President
Donald Trump’s reimposition of all U.S. sanctions on Iran that had been
lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, raising questions about the
Iranian-backed party’s escalatory move and giving rise to speculation that
Hezbollah might have acted at Tehran’s behest.
“With the American-Iranian confrontation at its peak following the
imposition of new tough U.S. sanctions, Iran, which wields great influence
in Lebanon through Hezbollah, might have asked its powerful ally to respond
to the sanctions by acting to delay the Cabinet formation as a message to
regional and foreign countries that are keen on Lebanon’s stability,” a
political source close to the formation process told The Daily Star. As the
Cabinet formation remains at a stalemate over the issue of representing the
independent Sunni MPs, French President Emmanuel Macron is sending a special
envoy to Lebanon to urge Lebanese leaders on the need to speed up the
government formation, the state-run Tele Liban television reported. Aurelien
Lechevallier, Macron’s adviser for diplomatic affairs, is set to arrive in
Beirut Monday on a visit during which he will meet with senior Lebanese
officials, it said.
The French envoy will also underline the importance of the new government to
assume its responsibility toward the implementation of reforms and
recommendations adopted at the CEDRE conference, it added. Macron, whose
country hosted the CEDRE conference in April to shore up Lebanon’s ailing
economy, is scheduled to visit Beirut in February. The CEDRE conference
raised over $11 billion in grants and soft loans pledged by countries and
international organizations to finance investment and infrastructure
projects in Lebanon.
Lebanon pledged at the conference to carry out structural reforms to
revitalize the sluggish economy. However, the implementation of the reforms
remains depended on the formation of a new government. Consultations on the
Cabinet formation were at a standstill Sunday as Hariri did not return to
Beirut over the weekend from a private visit to France as was widely
expected. Hariri will travel again later to France in order to participate
in the Paris Peace Forum, which will run from Nov. 11-13, a source close to
the premier-designate told The Daily Star. Sources close to Hariri’s Future
Movement reiterated his staunch opposition to the representation of the
independent Sunni MPs in the new government
Al-Jadeed TV quoted the sources as saying that Hariri had accepted
allocating the Health Ministry to Hezbollah “despite international threats
of sanctions” on Lebanon. “We accepted retaining the Public Works Ministry
with the Marada Movement despite the president’s opposition. What else does
the party [Hezbollah] want?” the sources said. “Changing the current balance
of power through the representation of [independent] Sunni MPs [in the
Cabinet] is rejected and Hariri will not do it,” the sources said. But
Hezbollah’s deputy chief said the next government would not be complete if
the Sunni MPs outside the Future Movement were not represented. Qassem said
the issue of the MPs’ representation was not raised recently, as claimed by
Hezbollah’s critics, but had been there from the start of the Cabinet
formation process, along with the problems of the Druze and Lebanese Forces’
representation, which have both been resolved. “The independent Sunnis
represent a large segment of people and are therefore entitled to be
represented by a minister,” Qassem said in a speech in Beirut’s southern
suburbs Saturday. “Hezbollah confirms that it supports the formation of the
government as soon as possible. But the solution is in the hands of the
prime minister. This matter can be solved with little understanding and
modesty,” Qassem said. “We stress the formation of a national unity
government. But this government will not be complete unless the independent
Sunni [MPs] are represented on the basis that everyone has been
represented.”
Speaker Nabih Berri Sunday renewed his support for the representation of the
independent Sunni MPs. Visitors at the speaker’s Ain al-Tineh residence
quoted Berri as saying he had advised Hariri on the need to represent those
six Sunni MPs, even from the prime minister-designate’s share.
who denied reports that he was mediating to find a solution to the problem
of representing the MPs, said he was waiting for Hariri’s return to Beirut
to see what he can do about the matter.
“This issue is at least more than 5 months old. Everyone knows that,
including those who were surprised by it,” he said. Berri praised a
statement issued by the Higher Islamic Council after its meeting Saturday
chaired by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian that, he said, was
“balanced” and rejected attempts to inflame Sunni-Shiite tensions over
Hezbollah’s support for the six Sunni MPs. “I am confident that no one will
succeed in straining this [Sunni-Shiite] relationship. “Sunni-Shiite strife
happened in the whole world, but not in Lebanon. It did not happen and will
not happen,” Berri said.
Hezbollah has refused to hand Hariri the names of its three candidates for
the new Cabinet. In response, Hariri has stood firm on his refusal to cede a
seat from the Future Movement’s share in Cabinet to those Sunni
parliamentarians who are demanding to be represented in the government.
Aoun has backed Hariri’s position on the issue, saying in a televised
interview last week that the six Sunni lawmakers did not have a right to
representation because they were not part of a single parliamentary
Lebanon Central Bank Says Debt Threat Growing amid
Political Vacuum
Reuters/Tuesday 06th November 2018/Lebanon is failing to take steps to cut
its huge deficit and national debt as its leaders struggle to form a
government, the second vice-governor of its central bank said on Tuesday.
“Fiscal consolidation is not in the offing as we had hoped,” Saad Andary
told a conference in Abu Dhabi, adding that the political stalemate had
stalled the process. Infighting has hampered efforts by prime
minister-designate Saad al-Hariri to form a national unity administration,
leaving a vacuum at the top. Lebanon’s budget deficit is running at around
10 percent of GDP. A World Bank report said last week national debt was
expected to rise on “an unsustainable path” towards 155 percent of GDP by
the end of 2018. In April, international donors meeting in Paris pledged
more than $11 billion of investment, but they want evidence of economic
reforms first. At that meeting Hariri promised to reduce the deficit by 5
percent over five years. Lebanon, with limited resources, cannot depend on
agriculture and industry to grow its economy and needed a knowledge-based
economy with investments in areas such as information technology, Andari
said. The economy is growing in the range of 1-3 percent, but is burdened
with 1.5 million Syrian refugees, with little international help, he said.
“This is creating tensions in the labour market. We are witnessing growing
unemployment among basically the Lebanese,” he said. He also said Lebanon
was expected to start gas exploration by the end of 2019, which will take
three to four years, through a consortium led by French oil giant Total. In
May, Lebanese authorities approved an exploration plan submitted by a
consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
Row Renews Between Generator Owners and Economy Minister
Kataeb.org/Tuesday 06th November 2018/The Committee of Generator Owners on
Tuesday carried out a two-hour shutdown to protest against the government's
ongoing campaign to install meters, and against what they deemed as the
"mistreatment” of owners who have not complied yet to this measure. The
government ordered that private generate owners would start installing
meters, thus allowing subscribers to pay based on the energy they consume
rather than a flat rate as previously adopted. In a press conference, the
committee called on the Energy Ministry to conduct a scientific study that
determines the kilowatt-hour pricing. “We are protesting the mistreatment of
the generator owners. Last week, they called in around 50 generator owners
and held an investigation with them as to why they had not installed the
meters,” Jad Nahle, a spokesperson for the committee, told The Daily Star
newspaper.
Shortly after, caretaker Economy Minister Raed Khoury assured that there is
no backing down on the decision to install meters nationwide, saying that
there is no option other than applying the laws. "I am surprised that an
illegal committee declares that it won't abide by the laws. The general
prosecutor will be taking the necessary measures regarding that," Khoury
told LBCI. “We are not seeking to make you lose, but you have to forget
about the megabucks and the exorbitant profits you used to get previously.
The judicial authority is ready to help the security forces enforce this
decision," he stated. Khoury advised the owners of the generators to not opt
for any escalatory steps, warning that this will lead to a big co
confrontation "that no one wishes to happen."
Ardo: Kataeb Delegation's Visit to Russia 'Very
Successful'
Kataeb.org/Tuesday 06th November 2018/Kataeb politburo member Fadi Ardo
described the recent visit carried out by the party delegation to Russia as
"very successful", saying that talks focused on the latest developments in
Lebanon as Russian officials voiced commitment to helping the country
overcome the manifold challenges facing it. A Kataeb delegation, that
visited Moscow last week upon an invitation to take part in the Russia's
National Unity Day, held a series of high-level meetings during which it
discussed the latest developments in the Middle East. The delegation, headed
by Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel, included the party's Deputy-President Salim
Sayegh, MP Elias Hankache, former MP Fady Haber, politburo member Fadi Ardo
and Gemayel's adviser Charles Saba. Speaking to the Kataeb website, Ardo
pointed out that the Syrian refugee crisis was on top of the topics
discussed during the talks with Russian officials, as both sides agreed on
the need to address this issue in order to lift this burder off Lebanon
which has been enduring massive repercussions over the past years. "We
sensed the Russian officials' insistence on pursuing this matter. However,
the West is required to provide funds as per Russia's proposal to secure
financial support to the refugees even after they return to Syria in a bid
to motivate them to go back to their homeland," he explained. Ardo also
noted that meetings had also focused on the presence of Christians in the
Middle East, adding that Russian officials made it clear that Lebanon's
Christians must remain strong given the influence that their role has on
their co-religionists in the region. "It is imperative that Christians stay
put in their land because they [Russian] will not allow their elimination
from the Middle East,” he said. “Unfortunately, some wish to uproot the
Kataeb party from Lebanon's political life, while an 80-year-old party won’t
simply vanish; it is firmly entrenched in Lebanon’s history. Hadn't it been
for the Kataeb, Lebanon wouldn’t have survived,” Ardo affirmed.
What Swift Is and Why It Matters in the US-Iran Spat
Al Jazeera/Tuesday 06th November 2018
The Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communications
(SWIFT) financial messaging service announced on Wednesday it was suspending
access for some Iranian banks "in the interest of the stability and
integrity of the wider global financial system".
The move came after the United States reimposed oil and financial sanctions
against Iran, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to
curb its alleged missile and nuclear programmes.
Last week, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters that SWIFT
could get slapped with sanctions if it provides services to Iranian banks
blacklisted by Washington.
What is SWIFT?
A Belgian-based messaging platform that facilitates cross-border payments.
The member-owned cooperative connects more than 11,000 banks, financial
institutions and corporations in more than 200 countries and territories
around the world.
What is it not?
It's not a bank, it doesn't hold money or manage it. It neither initiate
transfers nor clears or settles payments.
Why is SWIFT important?
Think of SWIFT as the central nervous system of international financial
transactions. The messaging platform enables financial institutions to send,
receive and track information about financial transactions in a secure and
standardised way that facilitates the smooth flow of funds across borders.
What happens to a country when its banks get cut off from SWIFT?
It can be crippled financially because money transfer information can't be
forwarded to its banks.
When a country's banks are cut off from SWIFT, it can't pay for imports and
can't receive payment for exports.
What happened to Iran when it was cut off from SWIFT in 2012?
In March 2012, SWIFT agreed to not forward messages to any Iranian bank or
individual that had been blacklisted by the EU.
As a result, Iran's oil exports plunged from around 2.5 million bpd in 2011
to around one million bpd by 2014.
The 2012 SWIFT ban was widely seen as instrumental in bringing Iran to the
negotiating table which led to the 2015 Iran-nuclear deal.
When Iranian banks were reconnected to SWIFT following the 2015 Iran-nuclear
deal, oil exports increased again.
How often are countries kicked out of SWIFT?
Rarely. SWIFT cut off a handful of North Korean banks last year.
Does SWIFT have to do what the US wants?
No. It describes itself as "a neutral global cooperative".
But there could be consequences if it resists US pressure to cut off Iran
again. Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, a think-tank, argued in this blog that in 2012, Congress
authorised any president to impose sanctions on SWIFT's board of directors
(which includes executives from some of the world's biggest banks) if it
refused to disconnect Iranian banks blacklisted by Washington.
The Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News
published
on
November 06-07/18
Americans Start Voting
in Midterm Verdict on Trump Rule
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 06/18/Americans
started voting Tuesday in critical midterm elections that mark the first
major voter test of Donald Trump's controversial presidency, with control of
Congress at stake. About three quarters of the 50 states in the east and
center of the country were already voting as polls began opening at 6:00 am
(1100 GMT) for the day-long ballot. Republicans were keenly aware that
losing their majority will hamstring his political agenda over the next two
years. At stake are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats
in the 100-member Senate, 36 governor's posts and seats in state
legislatures across the country. For almost two years, Trump's
rule-breaking, sometimes chaotic administration has enjoyed a largely free
hand from the twin Republican-controlled chambers, but the midterms could
finally see his wings clipped. According to nearly all pollsters, the
Democrats have a good chance of winning the House, while the Republicans are
likely to retain the Senate. But with turnout a key unknown factor and
pollsters still unsure about the effect of Trump's maverick style on voters,
both parties admit that they may be in for nasty surprises. After a campaign
in which Trump was accused of race-baiting with repeated and unsubstantiated
references to an "invasion" of undocumented immigrants bent on rape and
murder, left-right divisions in America could not be deeper. "It's a
consequential election," said Yorgo Koutsogiogasi, 64, who was among 17
people ready to cast ballots at a downtown Chicago polling station when
doors opened at 6:00 am. "Divisiveness in the country is really tearing the
country apart," said the Greek immigrant, a company CEO. First in line was a
retiree, Jerry, who did not want to give his last name and said he was
voting for the first time in midterm elections. "The Dems are insane," he
said. "I heard Democrats want to give illegals the right to vote."AFP
reporters saw a steady flow of early voters at the Brooklyn Museum polling
station in New York, and many voters at a station in Arlington, Virginia.
U.S. television networks showed lines of voters at stations elsewhere,
following high turnout by those who voted ahead of election day itself.
Although not on the ballot, Trump made himself the focus of the entire
contest, jetting around the country to hold rallies -- in three states on
Monday alone. Trump declared "the Republican agenda is the American dream"
and at his final event, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, he called on supporters
to seize their "righteous destiny as Americans."Democrats saw the election
in equally historic terms. Voters will "define the future, not just of
Texas, but of this country, not just of this generation but every generation
that follows," said Democrat Beto O'Rourke, a former punk band member
challenging Senator Ted Cruz in traditionally deep-Republican Texas.
Hot economy, hot rhetoric
At every rally, Trump has vowed to his supporters that they will "win, win,
win." But as he touched down in Indiana on Monday, even Trump conceded that
the House may slip from his party's grasp. "We'll just have to work a little
bit differently," he told reporters when asked how he'd live with a
Democrat-controlled lower chamber. The party of a first-term president tends
to lose congressional seats in off-year elections. However, a healthy
economy favors the incumbent, so Trump may yet defy the historical pattern.
New figures on the eve of the polls confirmed that job growth is soaring and
Trump gives himself credit for the "hottest economy on Earth." But to the
dismay of some Republicans he has often pivoted away from that message in
the final week of campaigning to emphasize a hardline crackdown against
undocumented immigrants. Trump has sent thousands of soldiers to the Mexican
border, suggested that migrants who throw stones at law enforcement officers
should be shot, and made wild claims about the Democrats planning to turn
the country into a crime-and-drugs black hole. Stirring fear of foreigners
and trumpeting American nationalism worked for the real estate billionaire
in his 2016 election victory against the Democrats' establishment candidate
Hillary Clinton. But the angry tone has also turned off swaths of Americans.
Bernie Sanders, the leftist populist who some feel would have had a better
chance than Clinton to take on Trump in 2016, lashed out Monday at the
president, calling him a "pathological liar." "He is a sexist, a racist, a
homophobe, a xenophobe and a religious bigot. He is trying to do what we
have never seen in the modern history of this country, to do what he is
doing right now, to gain votes by trying to divide the American people up
based on where we came from," Sanders said on SiriusXM Progress radio.
Trump's ultra-loyal white base laps up his colorful style, often cheering
and chanting as he makes jaw-dropping insults against opponents and
factually erroneous claims. However, even some Republicans became jittery
after a Florida man and ardent Trump supporter was charged with sending
homemade bombs to more than a dozen senior Democrats and other high profile
opponents of Trump. Days later, a gunman walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue
and shot 11 worshipers dead. He had allegedly lashed out online against Jews
he accused of transporting Central American "invaders" into the United
States -- in language that echoed Trump's attacks on impoverished migrants
coming through Mexico.
Russia Sets ‘Mechanisms’ to Confront US
Sanctions on Iran
Moscow - Raed Jaber/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/Russia has
taken steps to counter the repercussions of US sanctions on Iran and
reiterated its unwillingness to comply with Washington’s measures, which it
described as "illegitimate."The US restored sanctions lifted under a 2015
nuclear deal and added 300 new designations in Iran’s oil, shipping,
insurance and banking sectors. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said
that Washington will suffer as well, with the Russian oil sector expected to
make gains due to restrictions on Iranian exports. Speaking at conference
during his visit to China, Medvedev said that the United States introduced
sanctions against other countries to suppress global competition, adding
that Washington imposes all kinds of “restrictions, duties on China, the
European Union and our country, Russia. Ultimately, I am sure that the US
economy will also suffer from it.”Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry
stated that by unveiling new sanctions against Iran, the US is dealing
another powerful blow to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
"A new round of anti-Iran sanctions announced by Washington is aimed at
undermining the consistent efforts by the parties to the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA) to preserve that deal," the ministry said in a
statement on its website. It added that Washington’s policy aimed at
“scrapping international legal nuclear nonproliferation and arms control
tools. This triggers profound disappointment and growing concern.”Meanwhile,
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Russia is constantly
protecting the interests of its companies, including in the situation around
the US sanctions on Iran. Peskov did not disclose the nature of the
measures, but asserted that “steps to protect the interests of Russian
companies not only in this country [Iran], but everywhere else are taken
constantly, on a permanent basis.”Russian sources pointed out that among the
measures set by Moscow to bypass US sanctions, is to facilitate the transfer
part of Iranian oil to Russian ports, for re-export via Russia. Media
circles revealed a few days ago details of a Russian-Iranian agreement which
was approved during a summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hassan
Rouhani in Istanbul recently. The agreement explains the mechanisms for the
transfer of crude oil from Iran to Russian refineries across the Caspian
Sea, to be re-exported later as part of Russian oil orders. Media leaks
confirmed some of this data, pointing out that the Russian-Iranian
agreements included establishing a coalition with Russian oil companies to
develop four oil fields. The source did not rule out the possibility of
transferring production of these fields to Russian ports for re-export
later. According to media outlets, European countries seeking to maintain
the nuclear agreement with Iran are ready to support the proposed mechanism.
Russian experts felt that the new US sanctions package will be very
beneficial to the Russian economy, especially in terms of “strengthening
Russia 's positions in the international oil markets”, according to the
professor of Department of International Relations at the Diplomatic Academy
of the Foreign, Vladimir Ovatkov. He explained that the expansion of energy
supply is profitable for Russia, even if the resources provided were from a
third country. A geopolitical reality has arisen, linked to the fact that
Russia has a great interest in strengthening security, including economic
security, in the Russia-Turkey-Iran triangle, the professor went on to say.
However, Russian sources pointed that Moscow has other measures within the
framework of a comprehensive policy to address the new situation. Russian
Energy Minister Alexander Novak revealed details of Moscow's measures to
counter the wave of sanctions on Iran's oil sector and said Moscow should
continue its work to promote "mechanisms to ensure continued cooperation
between Moscow and Tehran." Novak further added that Russia seeks to
“continue developing” its trading of Iranian oil under an oil-for-goods
scheme. “We already live in the conditions of sanctions. We do not recognize
the sanctions introduced unilaterally without the United Nations, we
consider those methods illegal per se," the minister said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Airforce Stage Large-Scale
Wargames
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/Air defense units of the
Iranian army and the Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) staged a major joint
military exercise on Monday, while the country’s Telecommunications Ministry
announced the thwarting of a serious cyberattack. The military drill took
place in vast areas in the country’s north, center and west, over a field
that is at least half a million square kilometers in size, the German news
agency (DPA) reported.The defense exercise includes forces from the Khatam
al-Anbia Air Defense Base, the IRGC Aerospace Force and squadrons from the
Air Force, Tasnim News Agency reported. Tasnim also said that the drill saw
the firing of upgraded version of US surface-to-air missiles acquired by
Iran before the 1979 revolution.The drill involved tactics to employ command
and control systems to detect, track and intercept hostile targets,
conducting air defense operations in electronic warfare, using passive
aerial detection systems as well as air-based defense gear, including manned
and unmanned aircraft and countering anti-radiation and cruise missiles. The
wargames were staged despite Iranian President Hasan Rouhani ruling out
chances of a military confrontation with the United States. Separately,
Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi accused Israel of
launching a new cyber-attack on Iran's telecommunications network and
promised to resort to legal action. "The Zionist regime (Israel), with its
record of using cyber weapons, such as Stuxnet computer virus, launched a
cyber attack on Iran on Monday to harm its communication infrastructures,"
Azari-Jahromi said. Last week, an Iranian official revealed that Tehran had
detected a new generation of Stuxnet worms, which was used to target the
country's nuclear program more than a decade ago. "Thanks to our vigilant
technical teams, it failed," he said on Twitter. Iran would take legal
action against Israel at international bodies, he added, without giving
details. His deputy Hamid Fattahi said more details would be revealed in the
coming days, Tasnim reported. Stuxnet, which is widely believed to have been
developed by the United States and Israel, was discovered in 2010 after it
was used to attack a uranium enrichment facility at Iran's Natanz
underground nuclear site. In 2013, researchers at Symantec Corp uncovered a
version of the Stuxnet that was used to attack the Iranian nuclear program
in November 2007. Tehran agreed under a 2015 deal with world powers to curb
the program but President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of it in
May, with Israel's backing. Washington fully restored sanctions on Tehran on
Monday.
Erdogan Says Joint US-Kurdish Patrols Near Syria Border Unacceptable
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/Turkey's President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said Tuesday that joint US-Kurdish patrols just over the Turkish
border with Syria were unacceptable and he expected US President Donald
Trump to stop them. Erdogan, set to meet Trump in Paris this weekend, told
reporters he would discuss the patrols that he said were being carried out
inside Syria by the United States and allied "Kurdish Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF)," Reuters reported. "I believe when we speak with Trump, they
will probably stop this process," he said. US has backed and armed the "SDF,"
describing them as allies in the fight against ISIS. Joint patrols started
last week in northern Syria with the aim of averting clashes between Turkey
and Washington's Kurdish allies. However, according to Reuters, Ankara
pressed on with a new offensive nearby on the Kurdish forces. Erdogan last
week vowed to crush Syrian Kurdish fighters east of the Euphrates, where
some 2,000 US forces stand alongside the "SDF."
Sisi Says Egypt Will Defend Gulf in Case of Direct Threat
Cairo- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi said the army will come to the defense of Gulf Arabs if they
face any direct threats, a pro-government newspaper said on Tuesday. Youm7
newspaper also quoted Sisi as saying in response to a question on US
sanctions on Iran: “Instability affects us all and any state that has
instability affects all of us.” “Our Arab peoples must remain aware and have
true consciousness of what the region is going through,” Youm7 quoted Sisi
as saying. “We stand by our brothers in the Gulf wholeheartedly and if Gulf
security is directly threatened by anyone, the Egyptian people, even before
their leadership, will not accept that and will mobilize forces to protect
their brethren.”
Israel Lawmakers to Debate Death Penalty for Palestinian 'Terrorists'
Tel Aviv- Asharq Al-Awsat/November 06/18/Israel's parliament will renew
debate next week on a bill that would make it easier to sentence Palestinian
attackers to death, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday while
vowing to have it passed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given the
go-ahead for the controversial bill that allows the imposition of the death
penalty for Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis. Speaking in a
meeting with coalition party heads on Sunday, Netanyahu said there was
nothing preventing the bill from being advanced in the Knesset (Israel's
parliament). He said opposition from Israel's internal security service Shin
Bet and Israeli army should not prevent lawmakers from advancing the motion.
The legislation has been heavily endorsed by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's
hard-line defense minister, and was part of an earlier coalition agreement
with Netanyahu's Likud party. "After over three years of a stubborn
struggle, the death penalty for terrorists law will finally be brought to
the law committee next Wednesday (November 14), and then for its first
reading in the Knesset plenum," Lieberman said on Twitter. "We won't relent
or stop until completing the mission." The bill, which passed a preliminary
vote by the full parliament in January, would ease the requirements military
courts in the occupied West Bank must meet to sentence Palestinians
convicted of "terrorist" crimes to death. As the law stands now, a panel of
three military judges must unanimously approve any death penalty in military
courts. The new bill, planned by members of Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu
party at his behest, would change the requirement to a majority instead of
unanimity. Israel has not carried out any executions since 1962, when Nazi
war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged. Israel abolished the use of capital
punishment for murder in civil courts in 1954, though it can still in theory
be applied for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, treason and
crimes against the Jewish people. A law to sentence "terrorists" to death
was one of Lieberman's election promises in 2015. Israeli elections are
expected to be called in the coming months and politicians have been ramping
up campaign rhetoric.
Algeria Frees Senior Generals Detained in Corruption
Sweep
Algeria- Boualam Ghimrasah/Asharq Al Awsat/November 06/18 Algeria’s
prosecutors freed six senior generals detained two weeks ago over charges of
corruption and wrongdoing. The six are only a few of a large sweep, by
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, that sacked dozens of officials. The former
commander of the National Gendarmerie, Maj. Gen. Manad Nuba, former
commander of the 1st Military Region Major General Habib Shantouf, former
commander of the second district Major Saeed Bay, former commander of the
Fourth Military Region Major General Abdul Razzaq Sharif, and the Director
of Finance of the Ministry of Defense Major, General Bujmaa Budwar, have
walked out of military detention, a judiciary source told Asharq Al Awsat. A
martial law amendment allows military suspects to undergo litigation “on two
phases,” just similar to civil courts, the source added. In another scope,
thousands of educational institutions in Algeria received “strict”
instructions from Education Minister Nouria Benghabrit-Remaoun forbidding
female educators and state employees from wearing the niqab to their
respective workplaces. This comes 15 days after the Ministry of the Interior
ordered a niqab ban to be implemented by all civil servants. Education
sector officials and employees are obliged to follow instructions issued on
the civil servant workplace dress code, an official statement said without
directly noting that niqabs aren’t allowed anymore. Benghabrit-Remaoun
stressed that she is keen on implementing rules and requirements needed to
ensure security in the workplace, which call for the swift identification of
public servants. No official statistics exist for the number of women
wearing the niqab in the education sector, but it goes without saying only a
few female civil servants in Algeria wear the religious head and face cover.
Religious headdresses and niqabs are more popular in local areas known for
their conservative character.
UN Report: Mass Graves of ISIS Victims Discovered in Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/More than 200 mass graves have
been uncovered in Iraq in areas formerly controlled by ISIS terrorist group,
according to a new report released by the United Nations on Tuesday. The
graves containing up to 12,000 victims include women, children, elderly and
disabled, as well as members of Iraq's armed forces and police. According to
the UN, this could hold vital evidence of war crimes. The United Nations in
Iraq (UNAMI) and its human rights office said they had documented a total of
202 mass graves in parts of western and northern Iraq held by ISIS between
2014 and 2017. More sites could be found in the coming period, the report
warned, calling on Iraqi authorities to properly preserve and excavate them
to provide closure for victims' families. "The mass grave sites documented
in our report are a testament to harrowing human loss, profound suffering
and shocking cruelty," said the UN's representative in Iraq, Jan Kubis.
"Determining the circumstances surrounding the significant loss of life will
be an important step in the mourning process for families and their journey
to secure their rights to truth and justice," he added. ISIS overran swathes
of Iraq in 2014, executing fighters and civilians en masse and using other
forms of repression to seize and keep territory in the country's north and
west, AFP reported.
Europe Warns Tax Cuts Could Weaken Palestinian Authority
Ramallah - Kifah Zboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 6 November, 2018/The United
Nations and the European Union have rejected Israeli plans to deduct funds
from Palestinian tax revenues, which Israel usually collects for the
Palestinian Authority (PA) in exchange for an agreed rate. UN Middle East
envoy Nickolay Mladenov and European officials have warned Israel that the
PA could collapse if Israel implemented plans to deduct salaries, based on
the “terrorists’ salaries deduction law”, which was recently approved by the
Israeli Knesset. In letters addressed to the Israeli political leadership,
Mladenov and EU officials said that the implementation of any cuts would
lead to a point of collapse and even undermine Palestinian institutions due
to the deteriorating economic situation in the Palestinian territories in
light of the PA’s fiscal deficit, in parallel with the intention of some
donor countries to discontinue the provision of grants. The warnings came
following an Israeli decision to deduct the value of the money paid by the
Authority to the families of “prisoners and martyrs”. The secretary general
of the PLO’s executive committee, Saeb Erekat, said that Israel had informed
the PA of transferring funds from tax revenues for the Gaza Strip, if the
Authority did not fully transfer the previous allocations to the sector.
“Cutting off US aid to the Palestinian Authority and talking about
humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, in addition to other measures, are only
aimed at pushing for the separation of the West Bank from Gaza,” Erekat said
during a conference in Ramallah. He accused the current Israeli government,
headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, of seeking to replace the two-state solution
by “the principle of the two systems based on the Apartheid regime through
the enactment of racist laws in the Knesset.”
6 Far-Right Suspects Held in 'Violence' Plot against
Macron
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 06/18/Six people, linked to the
far-right, were detained on Tuesday in connection with a "violent" plot
against French President Emmanuel Macron, officials said. The six, who were
not identified, were picked up by anti-terrorism units in the eastern French
regions of Moselle and Isere and the northern region of Ile-et-Vilaine,
officials added. The arrests followed reports of a possible plot involving
"violent action" aimed at the president, a source close to the investigation
said. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into a "criminal terrorist
association," a judicial source said. "This investigation is looking into a
plot, vague and ill-defined at this stage, involving violent action against
the president of the republic," another official said. In July 2017, a
23-year-old far-right extremist was charged with plotting to assassinate
Macron at France's Bastille Day military parade which the French leader
attended with U.S. President Donald Trump. The man, arrested at home, told
investigators he wanted to kill Macron at the July 14 national day parade in
Paris, along with "Muslims, Jews, blacks and homosexuals."Three kitchen
knives were found in his car and analysis of his computer found that he had
conducted internet searches as part of his plot.
King Tours Saudi as Khashoggi Crisis Rages Abroad
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 06/18/Saudi King Salman embarked on
an unprecedented domestic tour on Tuesday, an official said, as the country
grapples with an international crisis over the murder of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi. The 82-year-old monarch arrived in the central province of Qassim,
an official close to his entourage told AFP, as he started what Saudi media
said was a tour of "several regions" in the kingdom. The king was also set
to visit the northern region of Hail, in his first such tour since he
ascended to the most powerful throne in the Middle East in 2015, the
pro-government Sabq newspaper reported. In Qassim, the king would launch
health, education and infrastructure projects as well as check on "the
conditions of citizens and get acquainted with their needs", Saudi Gazette
newspaper said. The tour comes as Saudi Arabia faces growing international
outrage over Khashoggi's murder on October 2 in its consulate in Istanbul.
After first insisting Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed, Saudi
authorities said he was killed in an argument that degenerated into a brawl
before finally accepting what Turkey had said virtually from the start --
that he was killed in a premeditated hit.
It is widely seen as the worst diplomatic crisis facing the kingdom since
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. The murder
has tainted the global image of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- the
king's 33-year-old son and heir apparent -- even though the kingdom strongly
denies he was involved. Saudi rulers appear to be shoring up support
domestically, including within the royal family, following the crisis. King
Salman last month ordered the resumption of annual bonus payments to all
government workers from the beginning of next year. The bonuses had been
suspended under austerity measures in 2016 amid low oil prices. In recent
weeks, Saudi nationalists have sought to rally around the prince with
adulatory poems and songs on social media as local officials dismiss the
Khashoggi crisis as a Western conspiracy.
Qatar Warns of 'Long-Lasting' Impact of Gulf Crisis
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 06/18/Qatar's ruler said Tuesday
"crises pass" but warned of "long-lasting" scars from an acrimonious
diplomatic dispute that has seen Doha isolated by Saudi Arabia and its
allies for more than a year. In an annual address to the nation, Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani pointedly called on other Gulf states to respect
Qatar's sovereignty and not "interfere" in other countries' affairs.
"History teaches us that crises pass, but their mismanagement may leave
behind long-lasting effects," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said. Once
allies, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have imposed a
near-total embargo on Qatar since June 2017 over allegations the emirate
supports radical Islamist groups and seeks closer ties with Riyadh's
arch-rival Tehran. Qatar denies the charges, accusing its neighbors of
seeking regime change. The emir said the crisis had exposed the weaknesses
of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the regional political bloc of which
the rival countries are members. "It's truly regrettable that the
continuation of the Gulf crisis revealed the failure of the GCC to achieve
its objectives and meet the aspirations of our Gulf people." He said Qatar
had suffered no economic damage from the boycott and predicted it would
retain its position as the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural
gas. "Our oil and gas exports have not been affected by the blockade," he
said. "The state has been keen on fulfilling all its obligations under the
existing contracts and has signed several long-term contracts, the latest of
which was with Petro China." The crisis has thrown into the spotlight
Qatar's preparations for the 2022 World Cup, which have been plagued with
allegations of labour rights violations. Sheikh Tamim said maintaining the
huge expenditures necessary to host international football's showpiece
tournament was "not easy" but the government had done so despite the hit
state revenues had taken from the sharp fall in world energy prices from
2014. Qatar has previously said it is spending around $500 million a week to
prepare for 2022. Sheikh Tamim, who has been in power since 2013, also had a
warning for the population, saying that the country's astonishing wealth
must be matched by ethics and morality. "The high standard of living of the
citizen must be accompanied by a development of values," he said. If this
does not happen, a "state of social corruption" could emerge.
French Parliament Debates Brexit Bill
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 06/18/French lawmakers began debating
a bill Tuesday dealing with the fallout from Brexit, which would empower the
government to issue emergency decrees if needed after Britain leaves the
European Union next year. France and other EU countries have begun planning
for Britain crashing out of the EU on March 29 with no deal as negotiations
between Brussels and London appear stuck. This would leave a number of key
issues in limbo, including the future of Britons living in Europe and EU
citizens living in Britain. The French bill is being considered by the upper
house Senate, before it goes to the chamber of deputies. "The bill is only a
first stage in preparing for Brexit," said Jean Bizet, chair of the French
Senate's Brexit committee. Some 300,000 French people live in Britain, while
at least 150,000 British citizens reside in France, raising concerns for
their future residency status. The bill will seek to protect French citizens
returning from Britain from possible problems over pension rights or having
their diplomas recognized in the EU. The movement of trade is also key,
especially at Channel ports and through the Channel tunnel. Some 30,000
French companies export to Britain, according to the French finance
ministry, with goods worth some 31 billion euros ($35.5 billion) in 2017.
France has already begun recruiting extra customs agents to be deployed in
Channel ports post-Brexit, and businesses have been warned to prepare for
the sudden imposition of trade barriers if the two sides fail to reach a
deal.Ladislas Poniatowski, a conservative overseeing the Senate committee's
Brexit report, stressed the government was not being given "a blank check"
despite the fact it could be allowed to issue emergency decrees. The
committee has already amended the government's original bill, including to
add a clause on protecting French and British citizens' employment rights in
both countries. Rights groups representing Britons living in Europe and EU
citizens in Britain formed a human chain outside Downing Street on Monday,
demanding the government guarantee their status in a no-deal scenario.
Palestinian Shot Trying to Stab Israel Cops with
Scissors
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 06/18/A Palestinian woman tried to
stab Israeli officers with scissors in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday
before being shot and wounded, police said, the second such incident in as
many days. "Female terrorist attempted to stab border police officers at the
petrol station near Mishor Adumim," a desert area east of Jerusalem,
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. "Female terrorist neutralised at the scene.
No injuries to officers," he said in a statement. A separate police
statement identified her as a 37-year-old Palestinian from Yata, a town
south of Hebron in the southern West Bank. Police had been alerted to the
scene after a civilian reported she was acting in a suspicious way at a
falafel shop in the gas station complex and located her, the statement said.
After calling on her to stop, she pulled out scissors from her bag and ran
at the officers while yelling in Arabic, it said. She was shot in the leg
and moderately wounded, police said, noting she had also been in possession
of a knife. A wave of mainly lone-wolf Palestinian attacks against Israelis
broke out in 2015. The number of attacks has decreased since, but still
occur sporadically. On Monday, a Palestinian man tried to stab Israeli
civilians and a soldier at a gas station near Hebron before being shot and
lightly wounded by a soldier. On October 22, a Palestinian was shot dead
when attempting to stab soldiers in Hebron.
Iraq Parliament Holds Off Vote on Key Ministers
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 06/18/Iraq's parliament convened on
Tuesday without lining up a vote on who would head several key ministries,
including defense and the interior, several months after polling. On October
25, lawmakers gave their stamp of approval to 14 of the country's 22
ministries, with the finance, foreign affairs and oil ministers named. Due
to deep divisions, the remaining eight portfolios were not put to a vote at
the time, and parliament announced it would reconvene on November 6. But as
lawmakers gathered for Tuesday's session in Baghdad's Green Zone, a copy of
their agenda distributed to AFP did not include a vote of confidence on the
empty posts. Instead, they were to discuss the 2019 budget, form
parliamentary committees and address the mysterious deaths of thousands of
fish in the Euphrates. No new date was announced for a vote of confidence.
In Iraq, major political decisions are typically taken by consensus after
drawn-out negotiations among different coalitions jockeying for power. Those
rivalries are widely blamed for the delay in completing the ministerial
lineup. The interior and defense portfolios, key ministries in Iraq which
has just emerged from a three-year fight against the Islamic State group,
are being temporarily headed by Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi. Some
parliamentarians have insisted that nominated ministers be vetted by Iraq's
"debaathification" council, to ensure none were members of ousted dictator
Saddam Hussein's ruling party. Iraq held elections in May for the 329-member
parliament, which has selected Barham Saleh as president. The new government
faces an immense task in rebuilding a country ravaged by the war against IS,
fierce sectarian infighting and the U.S.-led 2003 invasion. It will also
have to deal with the scourges of corruption, power shortages and decaying
public services. Iraq is governed by a power-sharing arrangement which
reserves the post of prime minister for a Shiite Muslim, parliament speaker
for a Sunni, and the presidency for a Kurd.
The Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published on
November 06-07/18
Canada Upholds Allah/Muhammad’s Ban on Adoption
Raymond Ibrahim/PJ Media/November 06/18
Many in the West were shocked to learn that, in recently ruling that
criticism of Muhammad is tantamount to incitement to hatred and thus not
protected free speech, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had
effectively adopted Islamic Sharia’s ban on free speech — a formerly prized
and zealously guarded Western right.
The greater shock, however, is not that the ECHR ruled in compliance with
Sharia, but that many Western nations intentionally uphold Sharia
stipulations that contradict one-time Western values — even as most of their
citizenry have no clue.
Take, for instance, a Canadian law which — in accordance with Sharia —
essentially banned the adoption of children from Muslim nations.
As last week’s CBC report explained, back in 2013 “Canada banned adoptions
from Pakistan without warning”: Canada quietly extended the same restriction
to virtually all Muslim countries. The reason: According to the federal
government, adoptions aren’t permissible under Shariah law …
Documents obtained through access to information legislation reveal the
extent to which Canadian officials were delving into the particulars of
Shariah law and in the process, bringing adoptions from Muslim countries to
a near-halt.
Indeed, documents from 2013 indicate that Canadian federal officials had
become preoccupied with the question of adoption in the context and
according to the intricacies of Islamic law. “It is reasonable to assume,”
reads one from June 2013, “that … a change in the child’s parentage is
strictly prohibited under Shariah law.” “In the Islamic view,” it continues,
“the child does not become a true child of the ‘adoptive’ parents.”
Accordingly, per the report:
Canadian officials have been restricting adoptions from various Muslim
countries on an ad hoc basis for at least a decade — saying those countries
don’t allow adoption and citing Shariah law.
The reason Sharia bans adoption revolves around Muhammad.
In the Koran, when the prophet once went to visit his adopted son Zayd bin
al-Haritha in his tent, Muhammad’s eyes fell upon Zayd’s unveiled wife,
Zaynab, whom Muhammad had earlier pressured into marrying his adopted son.
(Koran 33:36 — which commands Muslims always to obey Allah/Muhammad without
objection — was “revealed” in this context.)
Muhammad was instantly enamored by the sight of his scantily clad
daughter-in-law. It was not long before Zayd realized that the prophet
desired his wife. So he humbly offered to divorce her; but Muhammad, knowing
how bad it would appear to his followers if he added his own son’s wife to
his already burgeoning harem, refused.
But then Muhammad received another “revelation” (Koran 33:36-42): Allah
ordered him to marry Zaynab. This was the Islamic deity’s will all along —
to expose the problems with adoption.
Allah further chastised Muhammad; of all people surely a prophet should
concern himself only with Allah’s will, not other people’s opinions.
Finally, to guard Muhammad from the stigma of marrying and copulating with
whom was considered his daughter, Allah abolished the traditional notion of
adoption (see also Koran 33:4), thereby allowing men to have the ex-wives of
their one-time but no longer adopted sons.
Needless to say, of all the impieties attributed to Muhammad in Islamic
scriptures — and these are not a few — nothing so underscored his imposture
among non-Muslims as much as this Zayd/Zaynab affair.
Virtually every Christian polemic against Islam from the Seventh Century on
cites it, if not highlights it. For instance, in his exchange with Caliph
Omar II in 718, Byzantine emperor Leo III cited it in the context of how
Muhammad always imputed his carnal behavior to God. Wrote Leo:
Nor do I wish to pass over in silence the abominable authorization given you
[Muslims] by your legislator [Muhammad] to have with your wives a commerce
that he has compared, I am ashamed to say, to the tilling of fields [e.g.,
Koran 2:223]. As a consequence of this license, a goodly number of you have
contracted the habit of multiplying their commerce [sex] with women, as if
it were a question of tilling fields. Nor can I forget the chastity of your
Prophet and the manner full of artifice whereby he succeeded in seducing the
woman Zaynab.
Of all these abominations the worst is that of accusing God of being the
originator of all these filthy acts, which fact has doubtless been the cause
of the introduction among your compatriots of this disgusting law [treating
women as “tilling fields”]. Is there indeed a worse blasphemy than that of
alleging that God is the cause of all this evil? (Sword and Scimitar, p.63.)
Here, then, is a reminder of just how far Western civilization has abandoned
its rational and humanistic roots in order to appease irrational and inhuman
practices. Thanks to entrenched relativism and “multiculturalism,” Western
ethics are now deemed no better than — maybe not even as good as — Sharia.
Gone are men like British General Charles Napier (b. 1853): When Indian
priests insisted on the custom of sati — burning the widows of deceased
Hindu men with them — he responded by saying: “My nation has also a custom.
When men burn women alive we hang them.”
Whereas once the Zaynab episode and its fruits — including an inhuman and
irrational ban on adoption — epitomized all that was wrong with Islam in
Western eyes, today it is on its way to epitomizing all that is wrong with
the West itself.
The
Three Stances Nations Have Taken on Khashoggi
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/November 06/18
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of
the UAE, came to Riyadh and sat in the front row at the Future Investment
Initiative conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh, even when no high-ranking
or senior guests were yet present.
Actually, he cut his vacation short and joined the conference in response to
the boycott calls that were heard in international news agencies. He even
agreed to participate in the discussions and not just attend the conference,
which extended over three days. Many political figures also joined the
conference to show their support for the Saudi leadership.
In major crises, neutrality is also a position.
Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi also took a firm stand in support of
Riyadh. He directly warned Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Ennahdha
Party in Tunisia, after the latter’s alleged statement endorsing Qatar and
Turkey in their media war against Saudi Arabia, waged over the killing of
our late colleague Jamal Khashoggi. “We regard what happened to Khashoggi as
quite terrible, but it is not acceptable to exploit it in order to undermine
Saudi Arabia and its stability, as this would affect the stability of the
entire Arab world,” Essebsi said. For Saudi Arabia, this is an “existential
war,” and stances are measured accordingly. Indeed, there have been three
types of stance: The first is taken by adversaries, led by Qatar and Turkey,
who seek to politicize the crime and exploit it to overthrow, or at least
undermine, the Saudi regime.
The second is taken by the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and others,
who have sided with Riyadh against Qatar and Turkey. For instance, the Emir
of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah quickly made the position of his country clear in a
special meeting held with members of the National Assembly. He told them
that he was supporting Saudi Arabia in this crisis, and that “Kuwait would
not hesitate to stand by its big sister Saudi Arabia in good and bad times,
because the coming phase is difficult and its repercussions will not exclude
any country in the region.” Kuwait itself had faced chaotic and hostile
Qatari activity back in March 2015. As for the third stance, it is taken by
neutral governments that have not adopted clear-cut positions, preferring
instead to follow the developments from a distance.
At the international level, the Russian and Chinese stances were clear: They
rejected the politicization of Khashoggi’s death. The two countries showed
enough signs to confirm their positions. The US, on the other hand, became a
media battleground, mainly with positions against Saudi Arabia. However, the
US administration has cautiously dealt with the issue, confirming its
special relationship with the Riyadh government and announcing the ongoing
calls between the two countries. But, at the same time, it did not want to
turn the Saudi crisis into an internal US crisis given the heated midterm
elections campaign. Despite all the pressures, President Donald Trump was
clear in distinguishing between the higher interests of the US in its
relations with Riyadh and dealing with the crime itself. His position is
extremely important because it has thwarted Qatar and Turkey’s attempts to
escalate the issue.
There remain two more important and influential countries in the region:
Iran and Israel. They dealt with this issue in different ways.
Iran, which considers itself an outspoken opponent of Saudi Arabia, kept a
neutral position for two weeks, hinting that it would be ready to support
Saudi Arabia if Riyadh made the first move. However, when Iran saw that
Washington stood by Saudi Arabia, it waged a media war against the latter.
As for Israel, it considered that this single issue was being
over-exploited, given the bad record of many countries in the region
regarding such issues. Israel has, thus, warned that continued escalation
may threaten the stability of the already troubled region, saying that,
despite its disagreements with Saudi Arabia, the current attack on the
latter was unacceptable. This means that Israel’s scope is no longer limited
to the conflict over Palestine, as it has become an important regional
player in all issues.
Most policymakers are aware about the need to draw a line between the
heinous crime and the regional conflict; since the crime will not last but
the dispute will. The higher interests of countries must not be sold cheaply
just because Turkey and Qatar have decided to exacerbate the crisis.
Hence, after the midterm elections in the US finish, and because Turkey is
now reaching the end of its “game of leaks” that lasted for a whole month,
the crime will return to its natural place, i.e., the judiciary, while
politicians return to their other business.
The Stock Market Bandwagon Is Filling Up Quickly
Robert Burgess/Bloomberg/November 06/18
The US stock market as measured by the MSCI USA Index just posted its best
two-day performance since February, rising 1.58 percent Tuesday and 1.13
percent Wednesday. What’s notable is that the gains, in the wake of a nasty
sell-off that left equities on the cusp of a correction, aren’t coming with
the usual caution from prominent Wall Street strategists about “dead cat
bounces.” Instead, they are expressing a remarkable sense of enthusiasm.
First, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s all-world analyst Marko “Gandalf” Kolanovic
issued a report Tuesday talking up the possibility that the October “rolling
bear market” turns into a “rolling squeeze higher” into the end of the year.
Then on Wednesday, Fundstrat Global Advisors’ Tom Lee — another analyst
known for making exceptionally timely calls — went even further. He wrote in
a research note that “the potential for a violent upside rally is
substantial.” While a big part of Kolanovic’s thesis focused on fundamentals
such as a likely surge in stock buybacks by companies, Lee honed in on the
technicals. The percentage of stocks in the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 that
are above their 50- and 200-day moving averages is “unusually low,” and that
has often signaled a bottom when it has happened outside of a bear market
but in a correction, reports Bloomberg News’s Kriti Gupta. As Lee points
out, returns over the following three and six months — when the markets have
become as “oversold” as they are now — have averaged 13 percent and 19
percent, with positive gains in eight of nine cases. Cynics might say that
now would be the perfect time to sell given such unbridled optimism among
strategists.
But there are signs that all those who wanted to sell have already done so.
State Street Global Markets came out Wednesday with its monthly index of
global institutional investor confidence. The measure has some authority
because unlike survey-based gauges, it uses actual trades and covers 15
percent of the world’s tradeable assets. For October, the index dropped to
84.4, the lowest in almost six years. The index has been this low in only
two other periods in the history of the series going back to 1998 — late
2012 and late 2008, and each time stocks went on to rally. Who wants to play
those odds?
CHINA TO THE RESCUE. MAYBE.
I would be remiss to talk about the good feelings that have suddenly
permeated equities markets not only in the US but globally without
mentioning China’s role. As the world’s second-largest economy, significant
fiscal and monetary announcements there tend to ripple through global
markets. There have been countless times in the past few years when China’s
stock and bond markets looked to be in freefall only for the authorities to
announce plans to stimulate the economy, bolstering risk assets worldwide.
Well, it just so happens that on Wednesday a statement from a Politburo
meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping said that the nation’s economic
situation is changing, that downward pressure is increasing, and that the
government needs to take timely steps to counter all this.
Germany: Merkel Throws in the Towel
Stefan Frank/Gatestone Institute/November 06, 2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13238/germany-merkel-resignation
It was the policy of unchecked mass-immigration against which Chancellor
Angela Merkel's party finally revolted.
The race to succeed Merkel as the party's chair is wide open, and these
days, being a Merkel confidante is a liability rather than an asset.
The next party leader's sole role will be to share the blame for any new
election defeats, starting with the elections to the European Parliament in
June 2019 -- unless he distinguishes himself from Merkel and presents a set
of convincing ideas for Germany's future.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on October 29, 2018, announced her
resignation, a day after her party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), suffered
yet another crushing election defeat. Pictured: Merkel leaves after a press
conference at a retreat of the CDU leadership on November 5, 2018 in Berlin,
Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on October 29, 2018, announced her
resignation, a day after her party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), suffered
yet another crushing election defeat. Merkel said she would step down as
leader of her party in December and would not seek re-election in 2021.
In the state election in Hesse, Germany's two biggest parties received their
worst results in more than half a century. The CDU dropped from 38% to 27%,
the Social-Democrats (SPD) from 30% to less than 20%. Both parties continue
a losing streak that shows no sign of reversal. Rather, the downturn seems
to be accelerating. In last year's general elections, Merkel's party and its
ally, the Social Democrats, recorded their worst results up to then in the
history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Throughout much of Germany's
postwar history, the CDU and SPD each used to achieve about 40% of the
votes. In last autumn's general elections, the CDU and SPD combined barely
managed to surpass the 50% threshold to form a government. Recent polls see
them combined at barely 40% (24% for the CDU and 15% for the SPD).
"The time has come to open a new chapter," Merkel said. In a letter to the
party, Merkel admitted mistakes that her government may have made "in recent
weeks and months". According to Merkel, the voters did not acknowledge the
current government's "decent" achievements due to the latter's wrong "work
culture" that "doesn't meet" Merkel's "personal standards" -- apparently
referring to the public feud between her and the CDU's Bavarian sister-party
CSU over immigration policy.
Merkel went on to say, "For the rest of the election period, I'm ready to
continue to work as Chancellor," meaning that she will step down as
chancellor in 2021 at the latest, or maybe a bit earlier, if there is a
chance to enthrone her protégée, CDU general secretary Annegret
Kramp-Karrenbauer, before the next elections.
Kramp-Karrenbauer's success, however, is far from guaranteed. The race to
succeed Merkel as the party's chair is wide open, and these days, being a
Merkel confidante is a liability rather than an asset. For months, pundits
in Germany and abroad had speculated about the "end of the Merkel era", even
more so after she had lost a key supporter in a party rebellion earlier this
year. On September 25, in a surprising vote among members of the CDU and CSU
parties, Merkel's longtime ally Volker Kauder was ousted after 13 years as
parliamentary group leader of the combined faction.
The day Kauder lost, every political observer in Germany knew that the end
of Merkel's chancellorship was close.
Ever since Merkel took office in 2005, Kauder had chaired the party caucus
and pushed the party's MPs to rubber stamp all of Merkel's ideas, many of
which were contrary to what the party used to stand for: the sudden nuclear
phase-out after the tsunami in Japan in March 2011 (only months after
Merkel's government had passed a law for a lifetime extension of Germany's
nuclear power plants); Greece's bailouts, and especially opening Germany's
borders to more than a million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle
East in 2015.
Kauder had been known as someone who suppressed internal debates, even if he
had to resort to threats and outbursts of fury to silence dissenters. When,
in August 2015, 60 MPs of the CDU/CSU voted against yet another Greek
bailout (the third one), Kauder shocked his party fellows by saying that the
nay-sayers could no longer be trusted with any important parliamentary
committees. "I couldn't believe what the chairman of my caucus had said",
Detlef Seif, a CDU MP told a newspaper.
Christian-Democrat MP Andreas Mattfeldt wrote on Facebook, "I sincerely hope
that the CDU caucus won't follow such statements!"
In November 2015, Christian Democrat MP Andreas Mattfeldt addressed a
parliamentary session regarding the unchecked mass-immigration that had
begun in September, saying:
"The biggest challenge -- and I think we have to be careful not to
overstretch ourselves – is dealing with the refugee movement... This is the
first time I have the impression that we as state authority have lost
control in the refugee crisis. We have lost control, perhaps because we are
afraid of discussing unpopular facts and of making sure that that this
country's capacity to take in refugees is not exceeded. Rejections must not
be a taboo."
Germany's biggest newspaper, Bild, described Kauder's reaction: "Volker
Kauder couldn't sit on his chair anymore. He walked through the ranks like a
captive tiger in his cage, supposedly to make sure that nobody applauded."
When Mattfeldt had finished, Kauder yelled at him: "You should be ashamed of
yourself!"
While Merkel is known for never attacking anyone -- not even during election
campaigns -- she used aides like Kauder to bring the party into line and
quell dissent. Kauder was also among the main proponents of the open-borders
policy. In April 2015, he suggested that Germany could take in up to 16
million migrants: "In Kurdistan, there are five million residents with one
million refugees. We in Germany can absorb considerably more refugees."
Only weeks ago, Merkel had insisted that she would run again for the
position of party chair at the CDU congress on December 6, 2018.
At that time, only three outsiders, none of whom enjoyed the backing of a
regional association, dared to challenge Merkel. Their candidacies were
ridiculed; one of Germany's public broadcasters ran the headline "Revolt of
the dwarves". While none of these candidates was expected to have a chance
against Merkel, it would have been entirely possible that, given that the
vote is secret, the delegates would have punished Merkel with a weak result
-- a humiliation she has now avoided by not seeking re-election.
Now that Merkel is out of the way, many party bigwigs are expected to throw
their hats into the ring: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (who would probably
emulate Merkel's policies and government style); the more conservative
Minister of Health Jens Spahn, and possibly Friedrich Merz, a former
chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary caucus. Merz announced in 2009 that he
would "take a break from politics," and has not held any office for 14
years.
Whoever succeeds Merkel as party chair will not inherit any real political
power. According to Germany's constitution, it is the Chancellor who
"determines the general guidelines of government policy". So the next party
leader's sole role will be to share the blame for any new election defeats,
starting with the elections to the European Parliament in June 2019 --
unless he distinguishes himself from Merkel and presents a set of convincing
ideas for Germany's future. It would be a boon for the party and the country
if the new leader were not one of those who have been silently following
Merkel's path for more than 13 years.
*Stefan Frank is a journalist and author based in Germany.
© 2018 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here
do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone
Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be
reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of
Gatestone Institute.
A Month of Multiculturalism in Britain: October 2018
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/November 06, 2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13259/britain-multiculturalism-october
There were 140 new cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Birmingham
between April and June 2018.
"There remains a huge problem with professionals viewing forced marriage as
a cultural issue rather than a crime. Many aren't even aware there is a
law." — Jasvinder Sanghera, attacking the government's failure to tackle the
problem of forced marriages.
The Ministry of Justice blocked plans for an academic study into why
prisoners convert to Islam and how it can lead to radicalization. "They will
have been concerned about what this proposed project will discover," a
source said.
A leaked letter showed that Britain's Home Secretary Sajid Javid agreed to
hand evidence on two British jihadis to American authorities for a federal
prosecution, but without assurances that the death penalty would not be
used. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
October 1. So-called "cutters" are being flown into Britain to perform
female genital mutilation (FGM) on young girls, according to The
Independent. "The practicing community talk together, saying, 'My girl needs
to be cut,' and pay the cutters to come into the UK and cut the girls here,"
said Hoda Ali, an FGM activist who works in West London. She added: "The
reality is we need to open our eyes. We don't need to think just about
faraway countries because right now we have girls who are in their late
teens or even early twenties who were cut in this country. They are British
girls who were born here and they were cut here."
October 2. Women and girls who are coerced into marriage by their families
will be allowed to give evidence in secret so they can object to their
foreign spouses' visas without fear of repercussions, according to legal
changes announced by Home Secretary Sajid Javid. The changes come two months
after The Times revealed that the Home Office was issuing visas to known
abusers in forced marriage cases.
October 3. Zakaria Mohammed, a 21-year-old drug dealer from Aston,
Birmingham, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after admitting to charges
of modern slavery. Mohammed groomed his victims — a 14-year-old girl and two
runaway 15-year-old boys — before making them sell class-A drugs from
squalid flats a hundred miles from their homes. The teens, who were
transported from Birmingham to Lincoln to work as "expendable workhorses" in
drug dens, were found by police in a drug-infested apartment in Lincoln. The
Telegraph reported it was the first time in British legal history that a
drug-dealer has been convicted for breaching the Modern Slavery Act by
trafficking children.
October 4. Rahman Ullah, a 38-year-old father of two from Croydon, was
sentenced to 14 months in prison for beating his estranged wife and
live-streaming the battering to relatives in Pakistan. Ullah, wielding a
kitchen knife, made stabbing motions at his wife and boasted to his
relatives: "I'm going to kill her today." Ullah initially told police that
his wife was the aggressor.
October 5. Ten baby girls, all of whom were less than a year old, underwent
female genital mutilation in Birmingham between April and June 2018,
according to the Birmingham Mail, citing official statistics. The data also
revealed that 15 children aged between one and four were reported as FGM
victims. In total, there were 140 new cases of FGM in the city in those
three months. Most victims were between five and nine.
October 6. A report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
found that one-third (33%) of Britons surveyed believed that efforts to
provide equal opportunities to Muslim immigrants had gone "too far." The
report, the first of an annual "barometer" testing public opinion, also
found that 22% of Britons had negative views of Muslims.
October 7. The outgoing head of Karma Nirvana, a charity that supports
victims of honor-based abuse, launched a scathing attack on the government's
failure to tackle forced marriage. She said she feels "let down by the lack
of leadership" and warned that more children will suffer as a result.
Jasvinder Sanghera, who announced she was stepping down as head of Karma
Nirvana after 25 years, said that working with the government to address the
issue had at times been like "pushing a rock up a hill." She added:
"The government has not done enough to raise awareness and mainstream the
issue so there remains a huge problem with professionals viewing forced
marriage as a cultural issue rather than a crime. Many aren't even aware
there is a law."
October 8. A leaked letter showed that Home Secretary Sajid Javid agreed to
hand evidence on two British jihadis to American authorities for a federal
prosecution, but without assurances that the death penalty would not be
used. El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, allegedly members of a jihadi
cell dubbed "The ISIS Beatles" and who beheaded a series of hostages in
Syria, have been the subject of a legal dispute between Britain and the US
since being captured in January 2018. Edward Fitzgerald QC, a lawyer for
Elsheikh's mother, argued at the Administrative Court in London that Javid
wrongly exposed the suspects to the risk of an "inhuman" punishment."
Lawyers for Javid countered that there is no prohibition on providing legal
assistance to another country where it may result in proceedings leading to
the death penalty. "This group [the ISIS Beatles] is associated with some of
the gravest offenses perpetrated against civilians in Syria during the
conflict," James Eadie QC told the court. "These beheadings are notorious
globally, all but one having been filmed and posted on the internet."
October 9. Teachers should look out for girls who have difficulty walking,
sitting and standing, or who request to be excused from physical education
lessons, according to a new guide on spotting signs of female genital
mutilation (FGM). Schools should also be aware of girls who have a prolonged
absence from school, noticeable behavioral changes after these absences, or
girls speaking about being on holiday to their country of origin or another
country where the practice is prevalent. The indicators were published by
Islington Council and the Manor Gardens Welfare Trust as part of a risk
assessment tool to help teachers to identify and evaluate the damage done by
FGM. The 12-page workbook takes teachers through the signs that a child may
be at risk, that FGM may have already taken place, and what educators should
do if such a situation arises.
October 10. The British Army launched an investigation after an anti-Islamization
activist known as Tommy Robinson posted a photo of himself with a group of
young soldiers. The photo appeared to have been taken at a highway rest
stop, and Robinson had described the group as "young recruits." Robinson
wrote on Facebook, "A moment like this makes it all worthwhile. Today I met
real British heroes." An Army spokeswoman said, "Far-right ideology is
completely at odds with the values and ethos of the armed forces. The armed
forces have robust measures in place to ensure those exhibiting extremist
views are neither tolerated nor permitted to serve." Robinson said that he
had met the soldiers by chance and they should not be "left hung out to dry"
for having their photo taken with him.
October 11. The retailer Marks & Spencer sparked a row after including
hijabs — head coverings worn by some Muslim women — in its school uniform
section. The company's social media pages were flooded with angry messages
and dozens of disgruntled customers said they would not use the store until
the black headscarves removed from the stock. The founder of the Quilliam
Foundation, Maajid Nawaz, said that M&S had reverted to "medievalism" by
including a child-size hijab in the school-wear category.
October 13. A 29-year-old Somali, whose deportation from Britain was halted
after airline passengers staged a mutiny and demanded his release, was
exposed as a convicted gang rapist being deported because of his crime.
Officials escorting Yaqub Ahmed on a flight from Heathrow to Turkey on
October 9 were forced to abandon his deportation when around a dozen
holidaymakers who felt sorry for him angrily intervened shortly before
take-off. At one stage a traveler complained, "They're separating him from
his family," while others chanted "take him off the plane." It later emerged
that Ahmed and three other youths had gang-raped a 16-year-old in London's
Leicester Square in August 2007. Ahmed served only half of a 9-year
sentence. When a video of the protest was published by MailOnline, hundreds
of readers expressed their outrage. One wrote, "The police should have been
called and all the passengers who were interfering should have been arrested
and removed from the plane." Another reader wrote, "Now it will cost a lot
more to fly the man back on a private charter! Well done silly interfering,
self-seeking, do-gooding idiots!"
October 14. Belal Ahmed, 24, and Mizad Miah, 24, both from Tower Hamlets,
were sentenced to a combined 24 years in prison for spiking a 21-year-old
woman's drink with MDMA (ecstasy), raping her after she became unconscious,
and then dumping her at the side of the road in her underwear. Both men were
arrested at Gatwick Airport in November 2017 when they returned to Britain
after vacationing together in Morocco.
October 15. The Ministry of Justice blocked plans for an academic study into
why prisoners convert to Islam and how it can lead to radicalization,
according to The Times. Supporters of the three-year project said they were
dismayed by the decision and believe the prison service did not want
outsiders studying such a sensitive topic. "The corporate culture of the
service is defensive, and they will have been concerned about what this
proposed project will discover," a source said. The number of Muslim
prisoners in jails in England and Wales has more than doubled in recent
years, rising from 5,500 in 2002 to 12,894 this year, according to The
Times, citing official data.
October 17. Lancashire County Council decisively voted to stop supplying
halal (permitted according to Sharia law) meat from unstunned animals to
area schools as of 2019. The decision — 49 to 23 with nine abstentions —
will affect 12,000 Muslim pupils in the 27 schools in Blackburn, Nelson,
Burnley, Rawtenstall, Hyndburn and Preston. The Chief Executive of the
Lancashire Council of Mosques, Abdul Hamid Qureshi, said he was considering
calling for Muslim pupils to boycott school meals.
October 18. A Tesco worker sued the supermarket chain for harassment and
racial discrimination after a colleague "broke wind in his face." Atif
Masood, 42, a customer assistant at a branch in Thornton Heath, demanded
£20,000 (€23,000; $26,000) — claiming that passing wind amounts to
"bullying." In legal papers submitted to a London employment tribunal,
Masood claimed there was "too much racism" in the Thornton Heath store, and
felt he was discriminated against by colleagues because he was a Pakistani
Muslim.
October 19. The Islamist firebrand preacher Anjem Choudary, described as
Britain's "most dangerous extremist," was released from prison after serving
only half of the five-and-a-half-year sentence he received in 2016 for
pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. Prison authorities could not
prevent his release: under British sentencing guidelines, prisoners — even
those who are still a risk to the public — automatically become eligible for
release under license (parole) after serving half their terms.
October 20. Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, a 51-year-old Muslim cleric who
runs Britain's largest network of Sharia courts, was questioned over
allegations that he had raped children. West Midlands Police are
investigating claims that Siddiqi raped two Dutch women in the 1980s and
1990s. The women claim they were sexually abused from the ages of 11 and 12
until they turned 16. They were sent to Britain by their parents to be
educated by Sheikh Siddiqi's father, a respected Muslim scholar. Siddiqi is
the head of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, an Islamic legal service in
England that operates a string of controversial Sharia law courts which
critics say discriminate against women. He has denied the claims, which
first appeared in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, saying they are part of
a campaign to discredit his family.
October 23. Nearly 2,000 young people in Britain, the vast majority of them
girls, were wed before the age of 18 between 2010 and 2015, according to
Thomson Reuters Foundation, citing official data. Child marriage — defined
internationally as marriage under 18 — remains legal in Britain. In England,
Wales and Northern Ireland, teenagers can wed at 16 with parental consent.
In Scotland, they do not need consent, according to Thomson Reuters. British
parliamentarian Pauline Latham, who introduced a bill to raise the marriage
age to 18, said it was "crazy" that Britain still allowed child marriage
when it was spending £39 million (€44 million; $51 million) over five years
to support efforts to end it in developing countries.
October 24. An Islamic school teaching that only Muslims and animals were
saved on Noah's Ark was the first to be successfully prosecuted for
operating illegally. The Al-Istiqamah Learning Centre in West London
marketed itself as a study center where home-educated children could attend
part-time classes, but government inspectors found that almost 60 children
of compulsory school age were regularly attending the center during school
hours. The case was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service after the
center failed to respond to a government warning notice. The Chief Inspector
of Schools, Amanda Spielman, said that the verdict sent an important message
to other unregistered schools, some of which she said deny children a proper
education and leave them at risk of radicalization. Photographs posted on
the school's website identified Noah as a prophet of Allah.
October 25. A Muslim family complained about the use of pork gelatin in
three vaccines used by the National Health Service, according to the BBC.
Porcine gelatin is derived from pigs and used in vaccines against flu,
shingles, measles, mumps and rubella. A spokesperson for Public Health
England said the gelatin is used as a stabilizer and developing an
alternative "may never happen." A parent who contacted the BBC said he was
"offended" by the use of porcine gelatin in a nasal flu vaccine. He said
that his wife was told about the ingredient by a doctor when she took their
children to be vaccinated. She refused the vaccine because of their
religion. The Muslim Council of Britain said the vaccines are not permitted
in Islam unless lives are at risk and there are no alternatives. "There
should be more work towards an alternative," said Dr. Shuja Shafi, the
chairman of the council's research and documentation committee. "We should
be trying to find a long-term solution. The needs of the people must be
met."
October 26. The diocese of Oxford defended a decision by the University of
Oxford to invite an imam to deliver the University Sermon at the end of a
eucharist on October 21. A spokesman for the diocese said that inviting Imam
Monawar Hussain to preach at the university church of St. Mary the Virgin,
Oxford, was "a good piece of interfaith engagement." The spokesman said that
the diocese had received a dozen complaints about the invitation but added,
"If we had had 100 complaints we would have stood by the university's
decision." A blog post by Adrian Hilton on his Archbishop Cranmer site noted
that as a Muslim, Hussain would not believe in Jesus's death on a cross or
in his resurrection. "By inviting an imam to preach not just a sermon, but a
eucharistic sermon, it is hard to understand how this glorifies the
crucified Son of God," he wrote. The Bishop of Buckingham, Alan Wilson,
rejected the objections: "Hussain's work has been fundamental in deepening
our understanding of Islam and combating the threat of terrorism in this
country. He is promoting a charitable and wise interpretation of Islam."
October 27. Forty-three percent of Britons believe that Western liberal
society can never be compatible with Islam, according to a ComRes "Islamophobia"
poll. Two-fifths (43%) of the population would be concerned if a mosque was
built in their neighborhood or if a family member married a Muslim. One in
five (22%) would be concerned if a Muslim family moved next door and 3 in 10
(30%) would object to their child visiting a mosque.
October 28. As many as 80 jihadi brides and their children, who were
detained in Syria since the fall of the Islamic State, are expected
imminently to return to Britain, according to The Times, which also reported
that the British Home Office has started issuing them British passports.
October 29. Seven men were found guilty of grooming and raping young girls,
including one who was sexually abused by "at least 100 Asian men" before the
age of 16, and another who was gang-raped in a forest and threatened with
being abandoned there. Sheffield Crown Court heard how the men — Mohammed
Imran Ali Akhtar, 37, Asif Ali, 33, Tanweer Ali, 37, Salah Ahmed El-Hakam,
39, Nabeel Kurshid, 35, Iqlak Yousaf, 34, and a seventh man, who was not
named for legal reasons — targeted and exploited the girls before subjecting
them to acts of a "degrading and violent nature." The girls were abused over
a seven-year period in Rotherham. The case was the first major prosecution
arising out of Operation Stovewood, the National Crime Agency's inquiry into
historical child sexual exploitation in the South Yorkshire town which has
identified more than 1,500 victims. The inquiry will cost British taxpayers
more than £90 million (€102 million; $117 million) by 2024, the date to
which current planning extends, although few people think it will be
completed by then.
October 30. Mohammed Ghani, a 65-year-old former imam in West Yorkshire who
sexually assaulted a young child over a period of seven years, had his
sentence increased. In August, Leeds Crown Court sentenced Ghani to two
years in prison, but his sentence was increased after it was referred to the
Court of Appeal by the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC MP, under the
Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme. The Court of Appeal increased Ghani's
sentence to five years in prison. Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor
General said: "Ghani abused his position of authority and subjected a
vulnerable child to a campaign of sexual assaults. I hope that the Court of
Appeal's decision today brings the victim and their family some comfort."
October 31. Anjem Choudary was ordered to attend Britain's first compulsory
deradicalization program, according to The Times. Choudary, who was released
from prison on October 19, halfway through his sentence for supporting the
Islamic State, was ordered to attend the Desistance and Disengagement
Program (DDP) as part of his probation. The course, which requires him to
receive mentoring and theological "advice," is the government's latest
attempt to combat the heightened jihadist threat. Convicted jihadis are
being freed from prison at a rate of one a week. More than 40% of those
found guilty of terrorism offenses in the past decade, according to The
Times, will be eligible for release by the end of 2018.
*Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 2018 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here
do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone
Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be
reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of
Gatestone Institute.
The grace of Jamal Khashoggi’s sons
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/November 06/18/
In direct and clear words during their interview with CNN, the sons of Jamal
Khashoggi obstructed the path of those who want to exploit their father’s
death and use it as a tool to achieve partisan and political interests,
which the late Jamal and his family have nothing to do with. Truth be told,
Jamal did not mean much to the majority of those who spoke about his murder
as they actually sought to use the case to harm Saudi Arabia and what it
represents, to avenge or to show their grudge or express their hatred or to
try and embarrass political opponents here and there.
Salaheddine Khashoggi, the oldest son of Jamal, may he rest in peace,
clearly and transparently said: “The King has stressed that everybody
involved will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that. This will
happen. Otherwise Saudi wouldn't have started an internal investigation.”The
interview with Jamal’s sons Salaheddine and Abdullah, who were the closest
to the late Jamal, in Washington came as a slap to those who wanted to use
the case to harm Saudi Arabia’s reputation and stability by exploiting
Jamal’s murder without really caring for what really happened and without
respecting the family’s feelings and wishes.
Saudi Arabia has taken a clear stance towards the murder of Khashoggi and it
was expressed by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as they
said those involved will be punished and justice will be served. The
authorities in the Kingdom have actually begun working towards this.
However, Saudi Arabia’s enemies overlooked these serious and practical
measures as they want the Khashoggi case to remain an open wound that they
can make gains through. This is something that the political command will
decisively and strongly stand against.
With such grace, patriotism and loyalty, the sons of late Jamal silenced
those who are exploiting their father’s death. Salaheddine and Abdullah
confirmed in their interview with CNN that they have faith in Saudi justice
and that the judiciary will professionally perform its task, especially that
the highest authority in the Kingdom, King Salman, told Salaheddine when he
met him that those who murdered his father will stand before justice, a
justice that will only be clear and transparent.
Salah voiced his disappointment of attempts to make gains using his father’s
case and said: “I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to
claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a
political way that we totally don't agree with.” He refused to stand by
those exploiting his father’s blood. When the interviewer asked him if he
trusts the Saudi political command’s promises, he clearly answered: “Yes”;
hence, blocking the path of those who are trying to fish in troubled waters
and who want evil for Saudi Arabia and its people.
These attempts which many are making under the pretext of “justice for
Jamal” have been a concern for Jamal’s family as it sees how this negatively
influences the public opinion and how it takes a path that deviates from
justice and turns into a card that countries and foreign parties seek to use
to pressure Saudi Arabia and to achieve political, security and economic
gains without caring what really happened to Jamal as they have their own
preplanned agenda and goals that they seek to serve.
Within the same context, Salaheddine thinks: “Public opinion is important...
but my fear is that it's being over politicized. People are throwing out
analysis that may direct us away from the truth.” These politicized analyses
are mostly not spontaneous but deliberate and they want to direct their
arrows at the Kingdom to harm it, delay the journey of its renaissance and
abort Vision 2030 set by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – a vision that
does not only specialize in Saudi Arabia’s renaissance but also plans during
the next 30 years to create a different Middle East, which can be the “new
Europe” as the crown prince said few days ago. Several countries and parties
whom it’s not in their interest to see Saudi Arabia as an advanced strong
state with a productive economy and a giving and open society stand against
this change.
Salaheddine said in the interview that he and his family plan to return to
Saudi Arabia so he can resume his work in the banking sector in Jeddah, and
this means that he believes in Saudi Arabia as his first and final homeland
– a homeland that reassures him and that he wants his family to grow up in.
He completely refused illogical explanations and rumors circulated on social
media especially those that followed his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman and he voiced his surprise of what some media outlets promoted
noting that analyses which negatively addressed his meeting with the king
and the crown prince were “just baseless claims.”
Abdullah, Jamal’s other son, also said he was upset by the restless media
and the stories and information circulating without taking the family’s
feelings into consideration. He said: “At the same time, we're looking at
the media and the misinformation. There's a lot of ups and downs,” in
reference to the fairytales that defy logic that were promoted by regional
and global media outlets without validating their accuracy, while
intentionally ignoring journalism’s professional standards.
All what Khashoggi’s family wishes is that Jamal rests in peace and that he
listens to its voice and its patriotic stance that rejects any foreign
interference. His family has put its trust in the Saudi judiciary and
rejected any attempts to politicize the case.
With such grace, patriotism and loyalty, the sons of late Jamal silenced
those who are exploiting their father’s death to harm their country or to
make personal gains. So will those who want to harm Saudi Arabia’s
reputation and stability keep silent in compliance with the family’s wishes
or will they not respect the latter and resume their destructive projects
which will break before the Saudi people’s pride that embraces the sky like
the Tuwaiq Mountain and that is strong and steadfast by standing by their
leadership – unlike what those screaming had hoped for as they were hoping
that the crisis will cause a rift between the Saudis and their King Salman
and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman but their arrows have backfired against
them.
Russia gambles on Taliban peace talks
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/November 06/18/
Pakistani cleric, Maulana Sami ul-Haq, also known as the “father of the
Taliban” was killed and buried on Friday in Pakistan after an attack for
which no one has yet claimed responsibility. Haq was the founder of the
Haqqani madrassa network where many of the leaders of the Taliban were
educated – including the group’s founder – Mullah Omar. The Afghan Taliban
were swift to issue a statement saying that his death “was a serious loss to
the whole Muslim world”. Haq in his latter days seemed to have concluded
that the remaining Taliban leadership should enter peace negotiations with
the Afghan government believing that a power sharing agreement is possible –
a position the Taliban leaders seemed to have accepted.
Seventeen years since the US and its allies entered the Afghan arena to
remove the scrounge of the Taliban, neither side seems to be anywhere near
what can be termed a decisive victory.
Despite the US now being on its third president and having tested various
strategies under a series of highly capable generals, the Taliban continues
to remain a formidable and resilient foe.
The Trump administration having come to the inevitable realization that the
war can drag on indefinitely, appointed the highly experienced diplomat
Zalmay Khalilzad as the Presidential Special Envoy to Afghanistan with the
explicit task of “injecting new energy into the stalled peace process”. Any
political settlement settlement with the Taliban may have unpalatable
results. The Taliban’s often brutal form of conservative justice shocks the
liberal sensibilities of the western electorates paying for the war.
Bringing them into the political process will mean conceding that where, for
example, young brides wed older men, US troops are not the right means to
change those customs and attitudes. Despite the US now being on its third
president and having tested various strategies under a series of highly
capable generals, the Taliban continues to remain a formidable and resilient
foe
Unpalatable results
The answer to this is that we are getting these unpalatable results already
- we have the worst of both worlds. President Karzai recognised this and
made these kinds of concessions to bolster his legitimacy. Witness the law
passed before the election allowing Shiite men to deny their wives
sustenance if they do not satisfy their husbands, and which requires women
to get permission from their husbands to work. These helped to shore up his
power, but did not substantially neutralise the Taliban’s desire to fight by
bringing them into the political process.
The pro is that bringing the Taliban into the political process will mean
setting up a thoroughgoing participative process. One of the problems with
the electoral system we implemented was that traditional power brokers such
as warlords had such a central role in ensuring support for the candidates.
For example, the government paid insurgent leaders in exchange for their
agreement not to attack voters or polling stations, according to the former
head of Afghanistan’s Intelligence service, Amrullah Saleh.
Nobody expected an advanced democratic process. But we can reasonably expect
that next time, votes are a better representation of opinion on the ground,
rather than who has been bought to ‘deliver’ a particular province or area
for a candidate.
Expressed in debate
This will require that the differences over how Afghanistan is governed be
expressed in debate, rather than merely fought over, and this is the real
advantage of bringing ex-militants into the process as much as possible.
This process will necessarily start with negotiating with some people who
the US has been fighting. That will not be easy to accept.
Moreover, earlier this week, a US government report confirmed that not only
has the Afghan and US government campaign against the Taliban stalled but it
is in fact gone into reverse with the Taliban making significant territorial
gains along with increasing casualties amongst Afghan security forces.
However, not to be outdone, and emboldened with it’s success in Syria and
the wider Middle East, Russia now sees an opportunity to reassert its
influence and showcase itself as a responsible global power.
Putin as the new power broker in the Middle East wants to succeed where the
US has failed. Moscow has offered to host a peace conference on Afghanistan
later this week with both the Afghan government and Taliban in attendance.
Also invited are delegations from the US, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and
some of the Central European states making this a truly global affair.
Putin’s belief seems to be that all sides are so suspicious, weary and tired
of the conflict that they will clutch onto any possibility of ending the war
even if brokered by Russia.
Russia will then cement its position as a serious geopolitical power broker
with Putin being hailed as the champion who brought one of the longest and
deadliest wars of modern times to an end. And who knows, maybe even the
Nobel Committee would take notice.
Israeli Minister Elkin: Syrian S-300s will be attacked
if Israeli military or commercial planes hit'
وزير شؤون القدس والبيئة الإسرائيلي يقول بأن بلاده ستضرب نظام اس 300 في سوريا
في حال تعرض للطائرات الإسرائيلية
DebkaFile/November 06/18
Israel warned publicly for the first time that its air force would strike
Syria’s S-300 air defense weapons supplied by Russia and Russian personnel
could be in jeopardy.
On Monday, Nov. 6, Ze’ev Elkin, minister for Jerusalem affairs and the
environment said that Israel will attack Syria’s new Russian S-300 air
defense systems if they are used against Israeli jets, Addressing Russian
media in a rare briefing, Elkin, who is co-chair of the Russia-Israel
Intergovernmental Commission, criticized Moscow, saying: “We consider the
very fact of shipping S-300 to Syria a big mistake. The Syrian military are
not always capable of correctly using the hardware transferred to them. In
case of improper operation, civilian aircrafts may be harmed,” he said.
The minister, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, made these remarks
after a month during which Israel refrained from air strikes over Syria and
Russia had begun installing the first S-300s with Syrian operational teams.
“The Syrians, if they ever want to, might use [these systems] to down an
Israeli military or commercial plane over Israeli territory,” Elkin said:
“Considering the mess that is going on in the Syrian Army, shipping S-300s
might lead to destabilization of the situation.” Pointing again at Moscow,
the Israeli minister went on to say: “By shipping these kinds of weapons to
Syrians, Russia bears partial responsibility for their use,” Elkin went on
to warn: “Usually, Israel reacts to attacks on its territory and its
aircraft not through international demarches, but with practical actions.
Actions would undoubtedly take place, should [an attack] occur, against the
launchers used to attack Israeli territory or Israeli planes.”
“I hope greatly that there would be no Russian military specialists [at
S-300 sites],” he continued. “Israel has for all these years been doing
everything it can to make sure Russian military personnel are not harmed.
The Iranians have repeatedly used the Russian military as a living shield
and conducted arms relocation operations under the cover of the Russian
military presence.”
Elkin claimed that, according to Israeli intelligence, the Iranian military
has attempted to use Russian military bases for arms shipment operations.
“We have good enough intelligence regarding Iranian actions, and we know how
to warn our Russian colleagues about such attempts in time.”
A response from Moscow will no doubt be coming for the first direct
criticism by an Israeli minister of Russian actions in Syria.
U.S.-Saudi Security
Cooperation (Part 2): Restricting Operational Support in Yemen
Michael Knights and Lt. Col. August Pfluger, USAF/The Washington
Institute/November 06/ 18
The United States should keep training and advising Saudi forces if they
meet certain conditions, but it should end refueling support to Saudi
aircraft operating near Yemen.
This PolicyWatch is the second in a two-part series on potential adjustments
to the bilateral security relationship. Part 1 offered recommendations on
delaying and conditioning arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis
laid out a sequence for ending hostilities in Yemen: the Houthi rebels are
expected to cease border and missile attacks, after which the Saudi-led
coalition is to halt high-risk airstrikes in populated areas, thus laying
the ground for peace talks. Yet if the hoped-for talks wind up failing (as
the previous round did earlier this year in Geneva when the Houthis refused
to attend), Washington will likely intensify its scrutiny of U.S.
operational support to the Saudi war effort. Since the conflict began in
2015, Congress has debated whether to end support activities such as
refueling coalition aircraft and providing advise/assist functions in Saudi
Arabia. Yet discussion of these missions often loses sight of their limited
scale and, in the case of advisory support, their crucial defensive and
diplomatic value.
U.S. TRAINING SUPPORT
Saudi operations in Yemen are evolving. The air war is slowing down and
becoming more selective, with air-dropped weapon releases declining from
nearly 200 per day in the early weeks of the war to less than 10 per day in
2018. On the ground, however, the Saudi military presence inside Yemen has
expanded from well under 1,000 troops at the beginning of this year to
around 3,000 today, comprising elements of six brigades from the Saudi
Arabian National Guard (SANG) and Royal Saudi Land Forces.
Although the U.S. military plays a very minor role in directly supporting
operations in Yemen, the Saudi war effort draws indirectly on the large U.S.
training missions and contractor support services that keep the kingdom’s
armed forces operating. These programs, which are fully funded by the Saudi
government, include:
The U.S. Military Training Mission. Operating continuously since the 1950s,
the 200-strong USMTM is based in Riyadh and works directly with each branch
of the Defense Ministry, fulfilling the crucial role of processing U.S.
Foreign Military Sales from concept through delivery. This mission has never
been withdrawn from the country during any crisis, even when the United
States removed its air operations headquarters from Prince Sultan Air Base
in 2002.
OPM-SANG. Another few hundred U.S. military personnel and contractors
oversee the U.S. Army’s Office of the Program Manager-Saudi Arabian National
Guard (OPM-SANG). This mission has operated continuously since 1973 to
organize, equip, and train SANG, a multi-brigade collection of armored
infantry, helicopters, and artillery that has become the kingdom’s
second-largest land force.
MoI-MAG. In 2008, the U.S. Army set up a smaller Ministry of
Interior-Military Assistance Group to help the Saudis develop critical
infrastructure security capabilities and build out their Facilities Security
Forces, Special Security Forces, Border Guards, and General Security
Aviation Command. This training mission contributes to protecting the
world’s largest energy installations, fighting terrorism, and developing the
Border Guards, the force that has suffered the highest casualties in the
Yemen war due to Houthi raids into Saudi Arabia.
OPERATIONAL SUPPORT
On June 8, the Trump administration acknowledged that U.S. forces “have
continued to provide military advice and limited information, logistics, and
other support to regional forces combating the Houthi insurgency in Yemen,”
though he made clear that this was “a non-combat role.” This support
includes:
Advice on lawful targeting. On February 27, the Pentagon informed Congress
that a small number of U.S. personnel were providing “advice regarding
compliance with the law of armed conflict and best practices for reducing
the risk of civilian casualties.” Secretary Mattis confirmed this point on
October 30, describing how legal and weapons advisors are working to improve
the capabilities of Gulf coalition forces so that “they are not killing
innocent people.”
Border and missile defense assistance. On April 17, Assistant Defense
Secretary for International Security Affairs Robert Karem told Congress that
“roughly 50” U.S. personnel had been deployed to Saudi Arabia to advise “on
Houthi ballistic missile threats to the kingdom.” Media outlets have
reported that U.S. personnel are also helping Saudi border forces reduce
their casualties from Houthi roadside bombs.
REFUELING SUPPORT
The latest statistics from U.S. Central Command suggest that American forces
are supporting the Saudi air campaign in Yemen with an average of 101
refueling sorties per month, or around 3 per day. In military terminology,
this means that approximately 400,000 pounds of daily “offload” is available
to Saudi aircraft involved in fighter missions, command and control,
intelligence, and reconnaissance. The kingdom pays for the fuel and can call
for deliveries as part of the bilateral Acquisition and Cross-Servicing
Agreement, which gives the United States various logistical and access
rights as well.
In total, fuel deliveries to Saudi aircraft amount to less than 5 percent of
the U.S. Air Force’s daily deliveries in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
Moreover, Secretary Mattis recently noted that the USAF provides less than
20 percent of the fuel consumed in daily Saudi air operations over
Yemen—more than 80 percent is provided by the Royal Saudi Air Force’s
thirteen large air refueling platforms.
In other words, if Washington reduces or cancels this refueling support, it
would have minimal effect on Saudi operations inside Yemen—with one
important exception. In general, the kingdom’s air force operates relatively
close to Saudi airfields, thereby reducing the overall offload requirement
for air-to-air refueling. Defensive operations on the border would not be
affected because they are undertaken at a range of 150 nautical miles from
the main airbase at Khamis Mushait. Yet a refueling cutoff could complicate
Saudi operations deeper inside Yemen, such as opportunistic airstrikes in
Sana, Saada, and other urban locales that present a high risk of civilian
casualties. On October 30, Secretary Pompeo stated that coalition airstrikes
“must cease in all populated areas in Yemen,” suggesting that a cutoff might
be a useful way of signaling Riyadh and shaping Saudi operations.
POLICY OPTIONS
If the latest push for peace talks falls apart, U.S. officials may seek to
distance America even further from the Yemen war via punitive measures
against Riyadh. Yet while some of these potential measures are reversible
options that offer a good means of signaling displeasure, others would
damage Saudi Arabia’s legitimate defensive efforts and may prove difficult
to reverse. Policymakers should be realistic about the minimal role that
U.S. forces actually play in directly supporting the war. Going forward,
Washington should limit itself to the following steps:
Continue military training missions. USMTM, OPM-SANG, and MoI-MAG are vital
sources of U.S. influence and access in Saudi Arabia and are highly valued
by both governments. Although this makes them very powerful cards to play,
it also underlines how going too far could undo half a century’s worth of
defense diplomacy. These missions will never be a foolproof way of
preventing Riyadh from acting on its own perceived interests, but they have
served as a vital channel of high-level dialogue through dozens of
revolutions, wars, and energy crises.
Continue advise-and-assist support to defensive missions. According to
Washington Institute data obtained from research along the Saudi-Yemeni
frontier, the kingdom has suffered hundreds of fatalities each year from
attacks on its Border Guards and missile strikes on southern Saudi towns.
The United States should continue helping the Saudis defend their territory,
including through increased defensive aid to hard-hit border units.
Keep advising Saudi forces on lawful targeting. Critics correctly argue that
Saudi Arabia is not amending its targeting policies fast enough despite U.S.
advice, but that does not mean giving up is the correct solution. Preventing
additional civilian casualties is the most important contribution Washington
can make, and this effort should not be politicized. To put more pressure on
Riyadh without rescinding advisory support on targeting policy, the United
States should condition future training and advise/assist efforts on Saudi
forces halting their airstrikes against Houthi leadership targets and
high-risk populated areas.
Stop refueling aircraft near Yemen. Although U.S. refueling support is not
critical to the overall Saudi air campaign, withholding it from aircraft
operating near the border might force Riyadh to reduce the number of
emerging targets it attacks in Sana and Saada, where airstrikes have caused
the worst civilian death tolls.
Michael Knights, a senior fellow with The Washington Institute, visited
Yemen and the Gulf coalition states four times this year to observe military
operations on multiple fronts. Lt. Col. August Pfluger, USAF, is a military
fellow at the Institute.
Qatar’s architect of a new life for Gazans
Simon Henderson /The Hill/November 06/ 18
The Gulf state of Qatar is often accused of providing the cement that the
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas uses to build attack tunnels in the Gaza
Strip against Israel. The Qatari businessman who runs his country’s
humanitarian support operation for Palestinians is straightforward in his
response to the accusation: “This is b*******.”
Sitting in his rather rundown office in the headquarters of his construction
company on a ring road in Doha, Mohammed Al Emadi initially is reluctant to
speak to me, fearing that I shall twist his words, an experience he says he
has suffered when meeting journalists. After a short interrogation he allows
me to take notes in the hour-long conversation.
From his point of view, Ambassador Al Emadi has a good story to tell. The
diplomatic title comes from his days in the Qatari foreign service. He
started his career in 1983 as an architect in the projects department of the
Doha municipality, but shifted to the foreign ministry when his boss — the
now-retired policy meister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, known
simply as HBJ — became foreign minister.
Al Emadi left in the 1990s to become head of Qatar Telecoms for more than
two years but then joined the contracting group established by his father 50
years ago. Since 2012, he has combined running the family construction
company with spending more than $700 million of Qatar’s huge natural gas
revenues on Gaza reconstruction.
He reels off the statistics: 110 projects, 4,800 apartments, roads
(including a 28-km highway between Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and Gaza
City), a hospital. He is particularly proud of Hamad City (named for the
former emir of Qatar, the father of the current ruler, Emir Tamim). It has
2,300 housing units, each 120 square meters, each costing $48,000, including
infrastructure. Al Emadi says his costs are 30 percent less than anyone
else’s and the quality is 70 percent better. Glossy official reports of the
Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gaza Reconstruction Committee back up his
claims.
How did he do it? Al Emadi is a natural raconteur and an inveterate
name-dropper. Every two or three months he has flown to the Jordanian
capital, Amman, and then driven into Israel. He stays in hotels in Gaza, Tel
Aviv, Herzliya or Jerusalem. The Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem is “the best.”
An old friend is “General Mordechai,” the former Coordinator of Government
Activities in the Territories (COGAT). He speaks of the trust he has built
with Israeli officials. But he also is trusted by the Palestinians, who are
open with him. When Al Emadi set up an office in Gaza, Hamas leader Khaled
Meshaal, who lives in exile in Qatar, told him not to employ Hamas people
(“They only know how to fight”).
His view of the politics of Gaza is candid: Hamas is not popular; it is
doing nothing for the people. Only 35 percent support Hamas. Another 35
percent support Fatah, the more secular rival Palestinian group led by
President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
He avoided any negative comments about Israel or its politicians. The
Qatari-Israel relationship dates to the 1990s and is complicated. An Israeli
team wearing Israeli insignia competed along with 77 other countries at the
48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships held in Doha last week, but the
world’s media concentrated its coverage on the judo competition in Abu
Dhabi, the capital of Qatar’s regional rival, the United Arab Emirates,
where Israel won two gold medals.
Qatar’s construction work in the Gaza Strip ended last year. The money being
spent now is for “quietness” — $60 million for fuel for the power plant,
other money for salaries. Gaza needs 550 MW of electricity. Its own power
plant produces 50 MW; 120 MW comes from Israel, and 28 MW from Egypt,
although the latter is not dependable, he says. The net result is that no
one in Gaza gets more than eight hours a day. By increasing the number of
turbines in the power plant, he hopes to double that.
Last Friday, three days after our interview, no violent clashes were
reported on the border even though, a week earlier, full-scale war had been
in prospect. A ceasefire deal, perhaps brokered by Egypt, is being mooted. I
asked Al Emadi what his prescription was, reminding him that as an architect
he was trained to find solutions. He smiled and said he had an idea that he
discussed with “Jared” — Kushner, that is, President Trump’s son-in-law —
who was “in my house here in Doha.” And he met Jason Greenblatt, the
president’s special representative for international negotiations.
And what is his idea? He smiled, but refused to say. Whatever it is, it is
sorely needed by Gazans and the region.
**Simon Henderson is the Baker Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program
on Gulf and Energy Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.