English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 18/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.april18.22.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Great Sunday of the Resurrection
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 16/01-08:”When the sabbath
was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought
spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of
the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to
one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the
tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had
already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man,
dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.But he
said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was
crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they
laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to
Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled
from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing
to anyone, for they were afraid.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on April 17-18/2022
Resurrection: Life, Faith And Death…Halleluiah, Jesus has risen! Indeed
He has risen./Elias Bejjani/ِApril 17/2021
Patriarch Al-Rahi's Homely text in the Easter mass:
Al-Rahi: True Lebanese long for the state with no alternative, yearn for lifting
hands off Lebanon, ceasing politicization of judiciary
Al-Rahi urges end to judiciary 'politicization', warns against changing
'economic identity'
President Aoun participates in Easter Mass in Bkirki
Aoun says same parties who paralyzed Cabinet are obstructing judiciary
Bassil following Easter Mass in Bkirki: His Beatitude expressed the truth which
we share
Lebanese celebrate Easter amid election campaign
Lebanon/Participants at Opposition Electoral Rally Assaulted in Southern Lebanon
Siniora congratulates the Lebanese on Easter, hopes for Lebanon's resurrection
Army units thwart smuggling operation in Akkar, raid homes of shooters at army
force
Health Ministry: 112 new Corona cases, 3 deaths
Finance Minister's Media Office clarifies that "judicial formations decree will
be signed as soon as its basic errors are resolved"
Foreign Affairs Ministry denies circulated news on asking students benefiting
from “Tobacco Department Grant” to receive its value in cash
"Current stage requires us to unite, stand by our people,” says Arslan
Bahia Hariri: We hope that our beloved country will cross its painful path
towards true salvation
Boushkian: Lebanon deserves the sacrifice & will rise with the resurrection of
Christ
"We seek a productive economy," says Hajj Hassan
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on April 17-18/2022
Pope Francis on Easter: For entering
the holy places in Jerusalem freely
Pope Makes Easter Plea for Ukraine Peace, Cites Nuclear Risk
Iran Confirms Centrifuge Workshop Moved to Underground Site
Prices Soar in Iran amid Stalled Nuclear Talks
Iranian Lawmaker: Nuclear Talks Have Not Yet Reached an Agreement on
Surveillance Footage
'Inhuman' situation in Ukraine's Mariupol as Russia claims almost full control
Russia Bears Down on Mariupol, Strikes Other Ukraine Cities
Mariupol Teeters as Ukrainians Defy Surrender-Or-Die Demand
UK Says Russia Committed to Compelling Ukraine to Abandon its Euro-Atlantic
Orientation
Russia says destroyed another military factory outside Kyiv
Russians Flee Putin Regime to Join Ukraine Refugees in Israel
North Korea Tests New Weapons System to Improve 'Tactical Nukes'
Pakistan Says Cross-Border Attacks from Afghanistan Have Increased
Titles For The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 17-18/2022
Imran Khan: A Collateral Victim of Putin/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/April
17/2022
The Cost of New Energy in Europe, but Not in Money/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone
Institute/April 17, 2022
Turkey and US move closer to the same wavelength/Yasar
Yakis/Arab News/April 17, 2022
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 17-18/2022
Resurrection: Life, Faith And
Death…Halleluiah, Jesus has risen! Indeed He has risen.
Elias Bejjani/ِApril 17/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/38553/elias-bejjani-resurrection-life-faith-and-death/
Don’t be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has
risen. He is not here (Mark 16/05)
Do not be afraid, “Don’t be amazed”, with these reassuring and soothing words
The Angel spoke to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. They
had came to the tomb on Sunday morning to mummify and anoint Jesus’ Body as the
Jewish tradition required. They thought death had defeated Jesus and ended His
life as it does to every human being. On their way, they were sadly thinking and
wondering who will roll for them the stone away from the tomb’s entrance so they
can get in and perform the mummifying and anointing process. While halfway from
the tomb, they saw that the enormous stone had been rolled away. When they
entered the tomb they found that Jesus’ body was not there. They found only the
shrouds that His body was wrapped with on His burial after the crucifixion.
Saint Mark’s (16/01-13) Gospel describes thoroughly what has happened with these
three loyal and faithful women: “When the Sabbath was, past Mary Magdalene, Mary
the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint
him. 16:2 Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when
the sun had risen. They were saying among themselves, “Who will roll away the
stone from the door of the tomb for us?” for it was very big. Looking up, they
saw that the stone was rolled back. Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man
sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed. He
said to them, “Don’t be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been
crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him!
But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He goes before you into Galilee. There
you will see him, as he said to you.’” They went out, and fled from the tomb,
for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone;
for they were afraid. Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She
went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. When they
heard that he was alive, and had been seen by her, they disbelieved. After these
things he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their
way into the country. They went away and told it to the rest. They didn’t
believe them, either.”
Lord Jesus who died on the cross, had risen from the dead on the third day just
as He has said while proclaiming His message. He triumphed over death, defeated
the forces of darkness, overcame pain, abolished anguish and brought despair to
an end. He rose from the tomb to be constantly with those faithful to Him
throughout their lives, and to never abandon them. He shall empower forever
those who believe in His message and observe His commandments with the spirit of
truth, knowledge, wisdom and solidarity with His Father, Almighty God.
Christ is the Way, Christ is the Truth, and Christ is the actual eternal life
that we long for. We strongly believe with full conviction that Christ dwells in
His Holy Church, and exists in its Mysteries (Sacraments). He is always present
in the Holy Eucharist that we receive during every mass. Christ at all times is
ready, willing and delighted to help us in our burdens when we call on Him and
ask for His mercy. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and
I will give you rest. 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. 11:30 For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew11:28)
The miracle of resurrection is the cornerstone of our Christian faith. This
pivotal liturgical fact was strongly stressed by Saint Paul in his First Letter
to the Corinthians, (15/12-26): ” Now if Christ is preached, that he has been
raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of
the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been
raised. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your
faith also is in vain. Yes, we are found false witnesses of God, because we
testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up, if it is
so that the dead are not raised. For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has
Christ been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are
still in your sins. Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have
perished. If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most
pitiable. But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first
fruits of those who are asleep. For since death came by man, the resurrection of
the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be
made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who
are Christ’s, at his coming. Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the
Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all
authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under
his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death”.
Through Crucifixion and resurrection, Christ has overcome death, broke its
thorn, and granted us His eternal forgiveness from the original sin. With His
death and resurrection, death in its traditional earthly human concept has been
abolished forever and Sin since then has become the actual death that leads the
sinners to Gahanna into the unquenchable fire.
When our bodies die, we sleep in the hope of resurrection. On Jesus’ return on
the Day of Judgment, the dead will be the first to rise and escort Him. “Behold,
I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will
sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed”,
(Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 15 / 51-52).
Easter Sunday is a holy feast of love, humility, forgiveness, brotherhood,
tolerance and repentance. Religiously we are not to participate in any of these
feast prayers or make any offerings or receive the Holy Communion unless we
replace hatred with love, grudges with forgiveness, rejection of others with
tolerance, arrogance with humility, greed with contentment, deception with
transparency, and evil with righteousness.
If we do not learn how to tame our selfishness, anger, hatred and forgive others
for whatever evil deeds they commit against us and reconcile with them, than we
do not qualify to be called Jesus’ followers. Our prayers will not be heard or
responded to, if we do not practice the grace of forgiveness as did He who was
crucified for our salvation.
“If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that
your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar,
and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer
your gift”. (Matthew 5/23-24).
Meanwhile our true faith in Jesus and in His Sacrifices won’t be complete unless
we adopt in our thinking, deeds and language the pure components of sacrifice,
honesty, truth, self respect, meekness and decency. “Let no corrupt speech
proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for building up as the need may
be, that it may give grace to those who hear. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of
God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness,
wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice. And be
kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in
Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4/29-32)
For our prayers to be looked upon and heard by Almighty God, we are required to
reconcile with ourselves and with all others on whom we have inflicted pain and
injustice, and treated with an evil manner. To please the Lord we are required
to genuinely, heartily and overtly perform all required acts of repentance for
all our mischievous conducts and wrongdoings. Mark 11/24-26: “Therefore I tell
you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received
them, and you shall have them. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have
anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive
you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in
heaven forgive your transgressions”
Almighty God has endowed us with His love talent, (minas) and expects us to
faithfully invest it in helping others who are in need. He expect us to observe
all the teaching of His Bible so that He will reward us on the Day of Judgment
and put us on His Right Side.
On this Holy Day of Resurrection, we must be aware that Jesus’ Holy blood was
shed on the Cross for our sake. Remembrance of His death and resurrection is a
Godly consignment that we are entrusted with. It’s up to us either to honour
this trust or betray it. In regards to what is committed to us, Saint Paul
conveyed to his disciple Timothy the following advice (6/20-21): “Timothy, guard
that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and
oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called; which some professing
have erred concerning the faith”.
Halleluiah! Jesus has risen! Indeed He has risen.
Patriarch Al-Rahi's Homely text in the Easter mass:
Those responsible for the country and the people acting not to remove the stone
from the chest of the Lebanese, but rather to stabilize it.
People of Lebanon look to the state to
redeem them with good governance, good performance, sound national choices and
productive reforms.
NNA/April 17/2022
Patriarch Al-Rahi's Easter Homely Text :
“Who do you see rolling away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” (Mark
16:3)
Mr. President,
1. It is a source of pleasure that, as is customary, you celebrate with us in
this patriarchal seat the Lord’s Passover, which is our Passover. Christ God
died to redeem the sins of every human being born to a woman, and rose to infuse
new life into every believing man and woman.
This paschal passage through death and resurrection has become our Passover, so
that we die to sin and the spirit of evil, and rise to a state of grace;
We die from the state of selfishness, and rise to the state of giving; We die
from striving for self-interest, and rise up to commit to the common good.
We raise with you and with all this congregation this divine liturgy a sacrifice
of thanksgiving to God for the six years with which you will conclude your term
at the head of the Lebanese Republic.
You have experienced that the invisible hand of God leads the ship of the
homeland, especially when strong winds and strong waves were raging and
threatening to sink. The grace from above supports your steadfastness.
2. The women’s question: “Who do you see rolling away the stone for us from the
door of the grave?” (Mark 16:3), “And the stone was large” (Matthew 26:60),
which is a question that our people ask to get out of the crisis they are
experiencing, which is stifling on the economic, financial and living level, as
you feel, Your Excellency.
The Lebanese have the right to move to the era of the Resurrection, and their
short-lived ferocity has extended, and the domination over their reality and
destiny has prolonged, and the process of distorting the beautiful image of
Lebanon has continued.
The believers in Lebanon are living spiritually the resurrection of Christ, but
they do not feel their national resurrection and the restoration of health and
the beautiful time.
Their eyes are fixed on the risen Christ from the grave, but their hearts grieve
greatly when they feel the inability of the authority to treat their aches,
wounds and tragedies.
The Lebanese, for the most part, suffer under the burden of poverty and
destitution, the loss of medicine, social guarantees, job opportunities, the
state's faltering state, the faltering of unity and the aggravation of the
collapse.
In the time of transition from Golgotha to the time of rolling the stone, we
unfortunately see the majority of those working in public affairs and those
responsible for the country and the people acting not to remove the stone from
the chest of the Lebanese, but rather to stabilize it.
3. Just as Christ, who is the Lord our God, redeemed humanity by crucifixion
from sin and placed it on the right path, so the crucified people of Lebanon
look to the state to redeem them with good governance, good performance, sound
national choices and productive reforms.
The Lebanese are waiting for their resurrection from the state and the state,
and they expect officials and those involved in political affairs to put their
country on the path of salvation after these torments that they have not
witnessed before, even in a time of wars, bombing and destruction.
The true Lebanese do not want an alternative to the state, nor do they want a
partner for it. They yearn for the moment when hands are lifted from Lebanon,
hegemony recedes, authoritarianism ends, the politicization of the judiciary and
the administration stops and their obstruction by those in power, duplicity
ends, and the national interest trumps all private and electoral interests.
Mr. President,
4. We are pleased about the emergence of tidings that suggest that the stone
will be rolled away from the homeland and the people: the promise of the visit
of His Holiness Pope Francis to Lebanon next June, which serves as a bridge
between your era and the era of those who will be behind you.
We were pleased with your visit to the Vatican City last March, when you
exchanged concerns and aspirations with His Holiness and his assistants
regarding
Lebanon and its people.
All the Lebanese are satisfied with the fact that the parliamentary elections
will take place on their scheduled date, and your determination regarding them
was steadfast despite the attempts to overthrow them from here and there.
This determination is what you are working with in order to secure the election
of your successor at the head of the republic on its constitutional date.
Everyone appreciates your efforts aimed at approving the general budget,
agreeing on a recovery plan, approving reforms as a necessary path for the
advancement of the country, and drafting a contract with the International
Monetary Fund after making the necessary amendments to it to conform to the
Lebanese reality, so that its recommendations take into account the right of
depositors and the protection of their confidential funds.
The peculiarity of the Lebanese society and its liberal economic system, which
formed the secret of Lebanon’s growth and prosperity; It also takes into account
the protection of the freedom of the Lebanese, and the avoidance of influencing
the investments and financing of export and import and the exchange of
remittances between the resident Lebanon and the expanding Lebanon.
It is not permissible, under the title of saving Lebanon, to change the identity
of its national economic system, which is not subject to any constitutional
settlement or political bargaining.
We are confident that, from your position as the President of the Republic, the
protector of the constitution, and the symbol of the country, you will ensure
all this, in cooperation with the government and Parliament.
In any case, in order for reforms to take their full extent, they need to be
accompanied by the extension of state authority over its entire territory, the
unification of weapons and decision-making, in accordance with Security Council
resolutions, and the adoption of strategic options that strengthen Lebanon's
relations with its Arab surroundings and the democratic world.
As the Gulf states gradually return to Lebanon to contribute to its awakening,
the sovereignty of states and good relations with them must be respected, and
the campaigns against these brother countries should be stopped, especially
since they are campaigns that have nothing to do with Lebanon's interest, but
rather with the interests of foreign countries.
Mr. President,
5. On behalf of my brothers, the metropolitans, the patriarchal family, the
papal ambassador, and this audience of ministers, representatives, officials and
believers, I am pleased to offer you my best congratulations on the feast, with
heartfelt wishes that God bless you with His blessings, so that you reach the
country to the shore of safety, by the grace of the risen Christ.
Christ is risen!”.
Al-Rahi presides over Easter Mass attended by President
Aoun: True Lebanese long for the state with no alternative, yearn for lifting
hands off Lebanon, ceasing politicization of judiciary
NNA/April 17/2022
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, participated this morning in the
Easter Mass held at the “Chapel of the Resurrection” in Bkirki, presided over by
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, and attended by Papal
Ambassador, Monsignor Joseph Spiteri, and a crowd of senior state officials and
prominent dignitaries and believers. In his homily, the Patriarch considered
that this “passing through death and resurrection” has become “our Passover”, so
that we “rise to a state of grace, giving, and committing to common goodness.”
“We raise with you and with all this congregation this divine liturgy, a
sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for the six years with which you are concluding
your mandate at the head of the Lebanese Republic,” al-Rahi said addressing the
President. “You have experienced that the invisible hand of God guides the ship
of the homeland, especially when strong winds and raging waves were threatening
to drown it…So the grace from above supports your persistence and
steadfastness,” he added. “Just as Christ, the Lord our God, redeemed humanity
by crucifixion from sin and placed it on the right path, so the crucified people
of Lebanon look to the state to redeem them with good governance, good
performance, sound national choices and productive reforms…The Lebanese are
waiting for their resurrection from the state and within the state, and they
expect officials and those involved in political affairs to place their country
on the path of salvation after these unprecedented torments which they have not
witnessed before, even in a time of wars, bombing and destruction,” the
Patriarch went on. He stressed that “the true Lebanese do not want an
alternative for the state, nor do they want a partner for it. They yearn for the
moment when hands are lifted off Lebanon, hegemony recedes, authoritarianism
falls, the politicization of the judiciary and the administration stops and
obstruction by influential people ceases, double-standards end, and the national
interest supersedes all private and electoral interests…”
“All this, so that there remains only one republic, one legitimacy, one weapon,
one decision, and a universal Lebanese identity,” the Patriarch underscored.
Al-Rahi welcomed the “emergence of signs that suggest the rolling-away of the
stone covering the homeland and the people”, namely with the anticipated visit
by His Holiness Pope Francis to Lebanon next June, which serves “as a bridge
between President Aoun’s mandate and the era of those who will succeed him,” in
addition to the reassurances that “the parliamentary elections will take place
on their scheduled date,” and “endorsing the general budget, agreeing on the
recovery plan, approving reforms as a necessary path for the advancement of the
country, and formulating a contract with the International Monetary Fund after
making the necessary amendments to it to conform to the Lebanese situation, so
that its recommendations take into account the right of depositors and the
protection of banking secrecy.” “It is not permissible, under the headline of
saving Lebanon, to change the identity of its national economic system, which is
not subject to any constitutional settlement or political bargaining,” al-Rahi
asserted, adding, “We are confident that from your position as the president of
the republic, the protector of the constitution, and the symbol of the country,
will ensure all this, in cooperation with the government and parliament,” he
affirmed, addressing President Aoun.
Al-Rahi urges end to judiciary 'politicization', warns
against changing 'economic identity'
Naharnet/April 17/2022
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called for an end to “the
politicization of the judiciary,” as he warned against changing Lebanon’s
“economic identity.”“The Lebanese do not want an alternative to the state and
they don’t want a partner for it. They are looking forward to a halt to the
politicization of the judiciary and administration,” al-Rahi said in his Easter
sermon. “Duality must end and only one republic, one
legitimacy and one arsenal of weapons should remain,” the patriarch urged,
apparently referring to Hizbullah’s arms. “For reforms to take their course,
they should be accompanied by the state’s extension of its authority over its
entire territory, arms and decisions should be unified in line with the Security
Council resolutions, and the strategic choices that strengthen Lebanon’s ties
with its Arab neighbourhood must be taken,” al-Rahi added. Addressing President
Michel Aoun, who was present at the mass, the patriarch stressed that he does
not accept “a change of Lebanon’s economic identity.”“We are confident that you
will do the utmost to preserve this identity,” al-Rahi went on to say.
President Aoun participates in Easter Mass in Bkirki
President Aoun: “Parliamentary elections will take place on time, and there are
promising positive issues”
President Aoun: “The Pope's visit to Lebanon is a blessing, and it will take
place according to a program. We will not despair of saving Lebanon while we are
alive”
President Aoun: Those obstructing the appointment of the heads of the Courts of
Cassation are known, as well as the obstruction of the investigation into the
Beirut port explosion. Those also stopped the Council of Ministers from
convening”
Patriarch Rahi to President Aoun: “The Lebanese are satisfied with the
parliamentary elections and your determination regarding these elections is firm
despite the attempts to overthrow”
Patriarch Rahi: “We are happy with the emergence of signs suggesting that the
stone will be rolled away from the homeland, and it is not permissible to change
the identity of Lebanon's national economic system”
Patriarch Rahi: “Reforms must be accompanied by the extension of state
authority, the unification of arms and decision-making in addition to adopting
strategic options that strengthen Lebanon’s relations with its Arab surroundings
and the democratic world”
NNA - President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, assured the Lebanese that
parliamentary elections will take place on time, and that preparations are ready
for that.
President Aoun considered that the agreement with the International Monetary
Fund is one of the positive things that happened recently, and "Perhaps its
beginning will mark the beginning of Lebanon's exit from the abyss under which
it is languishing, in addition to the return of the Arab countries to it as well
as its natural sovereignty as it was without making any effort”.
After the retreat he held with the Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Bechara
Boutros Al-Rahi, prior to the pontifical mass that was held in Bkerke this
morning on the occasion of Easter, President Aoun indicated that the visit of
His Holiness Pope Francis to Lebanon is a blessing and will take place according
to a specific program, stressing the continuation of hope for salvation.
“As Christians, we lie under the soil in the hope of resurrection, and we will
not despair while we are alive” President Aoun said.
The President also considered that those obstructing the appointment of the
heads of the courts of cassation are known, as well as those obstructing the
investigation into the explosion of the port of Beirut, and those also stopped
the Council of Ministers.
For his part, Patriarch Al-Rahi affirmed that the true Lebanese do not want an
alternative to the state, and “They do not want the state as a partner”.
The Patriarch also pointed to the satisfaction that the parliamentary elections
took place on their scheduled date and President Aoun’s firm determination to
hold these elections.
“This determination is what you are working with in order to secure the election
of your successor to the President of the Republic on its constitutional
date”Patriarch Rahi said.
“Everyone appreciates your efforts aimed at approving the general budget,
agreeing on a recovery plan, approving reforms as a necessary path for the
country’s advancement, and drafting a contract with the International Monetary
Fund after making the necessary amendments to it to conform to the Lebanese
reality. In this context, however, it is not permissible, under the title of
saving Lebanon, to change the identity of its national economic system, which is
not subject to any constitutional settlement or political bargaining” the
Patriarch continued.
In addition, the Maronite Patriarch considered that in order for reforms to take
their full extent, they need to be accompanied by the extension of state
authority over its entire territory, the unification of weapons and
decision-making, in accordance with Security Council resolutions, and the
adoption of strategic options that strengthen Lebanon's relations with its Arab
surroundings and the democratic world.
Patriarch Rahi also indicated that it is necessary to respect the sovereignty of
states and good relations with them, and to stop the campaigns against these
brotherly countries, especially since they are campaigns that have nothing to do
with the interest of Lebanon, but rather the interests of foreign countries.
Arrival:
President Aoun arrived at the patriarchal edifice at about 9:20 am, where he was
received at the main entrance by Archbishops Khalil Alwan, Peter Karam, Antoine
Awkar and Paul Al-Sayah.
Then everyone moved to the patriarch's office, where President Aoun and
Patriarch Rahi held a retreat that lasted about twenty-five minutes, during
which they presented local developments and the latest developments.
President Aoun's Statement:
After the retreat, President Aoun made the following statement:
“Today we came to celebrate the Day of Resurrection, and of course His Beatitude
the Patriarch Al-Rahi, and we greet all the Lebanese with this holiday, and God
willing, the resurrection of Lebanon will be with the onset of Easter, because
today we live in a difficult tragedy in which problems have accumulated.
I assure you as I assure the Lebanese that the parliamentary elections will take
place and all preparations are ready for that, unless something happens, God
forbid.
The first question that all Lebanese and foreigners ask me is whether elections
will take place, and every time I assure them that it will take place, as I
assure everyone today.
Today positive things have happened, including the agreement with the
International Monetary Fund, whose beginning may mark the beginning of Lebanon's
exit from the abyss under which it is languishing, in addition to the return of
the Arab countries to it and its natural sovereignty as it was without making
any effort, and we wish a happy Easter to all the Lebanese.
Questions & Answers:
In response to a question about finding a solution for expatriate polling
stations, President Aoun answered: “This question is put to Ministers of
Interior and Foreign Affairs responsible for this issue, so far no one has asked
me a problem of this kind”.
About what could obstruct the elections, the President replied: “The elections
are taking place, so why assume that they are not taking place?”.
Asked about the judicial formations related to the heads of the Courts of
Cassation and the statement of the Minister of Finance yesterday, who spoke of a
“fundamental error” in them President Aoun replied: “There is no fundamental
error, rather there is obstruction, and you must know who is obstructing, so let
them stop lying to you”.
About what he says to the families of the martyrs of the port of Beirut who
tried to meet him while they do not yet know the truth about who blew up their
city President Aoun replied: “They should go to the judicial obstructionists,
and you all know who the obstructionist is, so who suspended the Council of
Ministers? Why do you ask questions that you know the answer to?”.
Regarding the visit of His Holiness the Pope to Lebanon, the President said: “We
hope that it will be carried out with joy and hope. His Holiness the Pope will
visit Lebanon according to a program that will be implemented, and of course his
visit will be a blessing for Lebanon”.
And whether there is still hope to save the country, President Aoun replied: “As
we celebrate the Day of Resurrection today, no such question is asked, that as
Christians we lie under the soil in the hope of the Resurrection, and we will
not despair while we are still alive”.
Liturgy:
Then President Aoun moved to the Church, where he attended the Easter mass,
which was presided over by Patriarch Al-Rahi and assisted by his general
deputies, Archbishops Alwan, Karam, Awkar and Al-Sayyah.
The Mass was served by the Louaizeh Choir, headed by Father Khalil Rahma.
The mass was attended by: MPs Gibran Bassil, Farid El-Khazen, Shawki Daccache,
Roger Azar, Simon Abi Ramia, former ministers Marwan Charbel and Nada Boustany,
former MPs Naji Gharios, Walid Khoury and Nematullah Abi Nasr, the papal
ambassador to Lebanon, Bishop Joseph Spiteri, director general of the Presidency
of the Republic, Dr. Antoine Choucair, Director General of State Security, Major
General Tony Saliba, Director of Army Intelligence, Brigadier General Tony
Kahwagi, Gendarmerie Commander, Brigadier General Marwan Sleilati, former
President of the Supreme Judicial Council Judge Jean Fahd, President of the
Maronite League, Ambassador Khalil Karam, Director General of Electricité du
Liban Kamal Hayek, Director General of Civil Defense, Brigadier Raymond Khattar,
Director General of the Water Corporation in Beirut and Mount Lebanon Jean
Gibran, President of the Red Cross in Lebanon, Dr. Antoine Zoghbi, Chief Editors
Syndicate, Joseph Al-Qusaifi, Head of the Mount Lebanon Intelligence Bureau,
Colonel Tony Moawad, Commander of the Mount Lebanon region in the Internal
Security Forces Colonel Jihad Al-Asmar and a number of senior officers,
ambassadors, consuls, mayors, senior civil and military officials, judges,
political, economic and social actors, clergymen and a crowd of believers.
After the Holy Gospel, Patriarch Al-Rahi delivered a sermon in which he said:
“Who do you see rolling away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” (Mark
16:3)
Mr. President,
1. It is a source of pleasure that, as is customary, you celebrate with us in
this patriarchal seat the Lord’s Passover, which is our Passover. Christ God
died to redeem the sins of every human being born to a woman, and rose to infuse
new life into every believing man and woman.
This paschal passage through death and resurrection has become our Passover, so
that we die to sin and the spirit of evil, and rise to a state of grace;
We die from the state of selfishness, and rise to the state of giving; We die
from striving for self-interest, and rise up to commit to the common good.
We raise with you and with all this congregation this divine liturgy a sacrifice
of thanksgiving to God for the six years with which you will conclude your term
at the head of the Lebanese Republic.
You have experienced that the invisible hand of God leads the ship of the
homeland, especially when strong winds and strong waves were raging and
threatening to sink. The grace from above supports your steadfastness.
2. The women’s question: “Who do you see rolling away the stone for us from the
door of the grave?” (Mark 16:3), “And the stone was large” (Matthew 26:60),
which is a question that our people ask to get out of the crisis they are
experiencing, which is stifling on the economic, financial and living level, as
you feel, Your Excellency.
The Lebanese have the right to move to the era of the Resurrection, and their
short-lived ferocity has extended, and the domination over their reality and
destiny has prolonged, and the process of distorting the beautiful image of
Lebanon has continued.
The believers in Lebanon are living spiritually the resurrection of Christ, but
they do not feel their national resurrection and the restoration of health and
the beautiful time.
Their eyes are fixed on the risen Christ from the grave, but their hearts grieve
greatly when they feel the inability of the authority to treat their aches,
wounds and tragedies.
The Lebanese, for the most part, suffer under the burden of poverty and
destitution, the loss of medicine, social guarantees, job opportunities, the
state's faltering state, the faltering of unity and the aggravation of the
collapse.
In the time of transition from Golgotha to the time of rolling the stone, we
unfortunately see the majority of those working in public affairs and those
responsible for the country and the people acting not to remove the stone from
the chest of the Lebanese, but rather to stabilize it.
3. Just as Christ, who is the Lord our God, redeemed humanity by crucifixion
from sin and placed it on the right path, so the crucified people of Lebanon
look to the state to redeem them with good governance, good performance, sound
national choices and productive reforms.
The Lebanese are waiting for their resurrection from the state and the state,
and they expect officials and those involved in political affairs to put their
country on the path of salvation after these torments that they have not
witnessed before, even in a time of wars, bombing and destruction.
The true Lebanese do not want an alternative to the state, nor do they want a
partner for it. They yearn for the moment when hands are lifted from Lebanon,
hegemony recedes, authoritarianism ends, the politicization of the judiciary and
the administration stops and their obstruction by those in power, duplicity
ends, and the national interest trumps all private and electoral interests.
Mr. President,
4. We are pleased about the emergence of tidings that suggest that the stone
will be rolled away from the homeland and the people: the promise of the visit
of His Holiness Pope Francis to Lebanon next June, which serves as a bridge
between your era and the era of those who will be behind you.
We were pleased with your visit to the Vatican City last March, when you
exchanged concerns and aspirations with His Holiness and his assistants
regarding
Lebanon and its people.
All the Lebanese are satisfied with the fact that the parliamentary elections
will take place on their scheduled date, and your determination regarding them
was steadfast despite the attempts to overthrow them from here and there.
This determination is what you are working with in order to secure the election
of your successor at the head of the republic on its constitutional date.
Everyone appreciates your efforts aimed at approving the general budget,
agreeing on a recovery plan, approving reforms as a necessary path for the
advancement of the country, and drafting a contract with the International
Monetary Fund after making the necessary amendments to it to conform to the
Lebanese reality, so that its recommendations take into account the right of
depositors and the protection of their confidential funds.
The peculiarity of the Lebanese society and its liberal economic system, which
formed the secret of Lebanon’s growth and prosperity; It also takes into account
the protection of the freedom of the Lebanese, and the avoidance of influencing
the investments and financing of export and import and the exchange of
remittances between the resident Lebanon and the expanding Lebanon.
It is not permissible, under the title of saving Lebanon, to change the identity
of its national economic system, which is not subject to any constitutional
settlement or political bargaining.
We are confident that, from your position as the President of the Republic, the
protector of the constitution, and the symbol of the country, you will ensure
all this, in cooperation with the government and Parliament.
In any case, in order for reforms to take their full extent, they need to be
accompanied by the extension of state authority over its entire territory, the
unification of weapons and decision-making, in accordance with Security Council
resolutions, and the adoption of strategic options that strengthen Lebanon's
relations with its Arab surroundings and the democratic world.
As the Gulf states gradually return to Lebanon to contribute to its awakening,
the sovereignty of states and good relations with them must be respected, and
the campaigns against these brother countries should be stopped, especially
since they are campaigns that have nothing to do with Lebanon's interest, but
rather with the interests of foreign countries.
Mr. President,
5. On behalf of my brothers, the metropolitans, the patriarchal family, the
papal ambassador, and this audience of ministers, representatives, officials and
believers, I am pleased to offer you my best congratulations on the feast, with
heartfelt wishes that God bless you with His blessings, so that you reach the
country to the shore of safety, by the grace of the risen Christ.
Christ is risen!”.
Easter Congratulations:
Finally, President Aoun congratulated Patriarch Rahi and the bishops on the
feast, and left the patriarchal edifice to return to Baabda Palace. ---
(Presidency Information Office)
Aoun says same parties who paralyzed Cabinet are
obstructing judiciary
Naharnet/April 17/2022
President Michel Aoun on Sunday said “those who are obstructing the judiciary
are known,” in response to a question about the stalled port blast
investigation. “The families must go to those who are
obstructing the judiciary and they saw who paralyzed Cabinet,” Aoun added ahead
of Easter Mass in Bkirki, apparently referring to Hizbullah and Amal Movement.
“Today we are in a difficult situation in which problems have accumulated and
I’m living it like you,” the President said separately. Stressing that the
parliamentary elections “will take place,” Aoun lauded “positive” developments
like “the agreement with the International Monetary Fund.”Through this
agreement, “Lebanon is supposed to begin exiting the abyss that is in,” the
President added. “We want the best relations with the Arab countries and the
return of ambassadors to Beirut is an important step in this regard,” Aoun went
on to say.
Bassil following Easter Mass in Bkirki: His Beatitude
expressed the truth which we share
NNA/April 17/2022
Head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Deputy Gebran Bassil, praised the positions
of Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, during Easter Mass this
morning, saying: "His Beatitude expressed the truth, the reality we all live in,
and the aspirations of all the Lebanese, and we share them and agree with most
of what he said." Responding to a question after congratulating the Patriarch
following the Mass service, Bassil considered that it is very unfortunate that
many of the Lebanese, from all sides and directions, do not want the stone to be
rolled off the country and the homeland. “Till this day, they still strike the
Christian human concept of the meaning of resurrection, and this resurrection
means overcoming all injustice, because through love we conquer hatred…This is
the meaning of our religion and this is how we see the truth,” he said.
Lebanese celebrate Easter amid election campaign
Najia Houssari/Arab News/April 17/2022
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun has assured the Lebanese that
parliamentary elections will be held and that all the arrangements are ready, as
people celebrated Easter.
He took part in the Easter Mass, which was led by Maronite Patriarch Bechara
Boutros Al-Rai in Bkerke.
Aoun said he hoped for “the resurrection” of Lebanon.
“We are living through a difficult tragedy in which problems have accumulated. I
am experiencing the same situation you are and what befell you, befell me also.”
The president met Al-Rai before the Mass and then told the media: “We want
better relations with Arab countries, and the return of ambassadors to Beirut is
an important step in this direction.”
BACKGROUND
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi urged people to vote in the upcoming
elections because Lebanon ‘needs a national, sovereign and independent
parliamentary majority.’
He hoped that the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund
would “positively affect” the situation in Lebanon and, speaking about the papal
visit to Lebanon in June, wished “it would bring hope” to the country.
"Today, we live in the hope of the resurrection. As long as we are alive, we
will not allow despair to get the best of us.”
Aoun also addressed the Shiite duo - the Amal movement and Hezbollah without
naming them - and accused them once again of obstructing the work of the
judicial investigation into the Beirut Port explosion.
“They are the same parties obstructing the Cabinet’s work, and you know who they
are. The families of the martyrs should address their demands to them.”
The ministers of Hezbollah and the Amal movement boycotted Cabinet sessions last
October amid their demands to dismiss the investigator into the explosion, Judge
Tarek Bitar.
In mid-January, after paralyzing Bitar’s work and bombarding him with lawsuits,
they started attending sessions again.
During his Easter sermon on Sunday, Al-Rai urged people to vote in the upcoming
elections because Lebanon needed a “national, sovereign, independent”
parliamentary majority that believed in a legitimate state, constitutional
institutions, and the Lebanese army as a single reference for arms and security,
as well as the unity of political and military decisions.
“If the people do not realize the seriousness of the situation and choose the
forces capable of defending Lebanon's entity and identity, and restoring
Lebanon's Arab and international relations, then the people, not the political
system, will bear the responsibility for the great collapse. Lebanon is lucky
that change can still be achieved democratically. The results of the elections
depend on the Lebanese votes. There are no previously determined losers or
winners.
“The greatest danger is misleading the people so that they elect a parliamentary
majority that does not resemble them or meet their ambitions. The people, as
they choose their representatives, should realize that they are also choosing
the next president, and indeed the next republic. The fate of Lebanon depends on
the quality of the parliamentary majority in the new parliament.”
He also addressed Aoun: “The determination to hold the parliamentary elections,
despite attempts to overthrow them, goes in line with securing the election of
your successor. Everyone appreciates your efforts aimed at approving the general
budget and agreeing on the recovery plan.
“The Lebanese do not want an alternative to the state, and they do not want a
partner in the state. They yearn for the moment when foreign hands are lifted
off of Lebanon. They yearn for the national interest to prevail over all
personal and electoral interests. They yearn to have only one republic, one
legitimacy, one weapon, one decision, and a comprehensive Lebanese identity.
“It is not permissible to change the identity of Lebanon’s economic system,
which is not subject to any constitutional settlement or political bargaining.
“Reforms need to be combined with extending the state's authority over its
entire territory and unifying arms, per UN Security Council resolutions. It is
imperative to respect the sovereignty of brotherly countries and stop
campaigning against them.”
Election campaigns intensified during the Easter holiday and the Shiite duo is
seeking to win not only the entire Shiite share in the new parliament but secure
a majority through candidates from other sects allied to them.
On Saturday, individuals affiliated with Hezbollah and the Amal movement
attacked members of the Together for Change electoral list in one of the
southern constituencies supported by the Communist Party, independents, and the
civil movement in Tyre. They tried to prevent the members from reaching a
restaurant in Sarafand to announce their list's electoral program.
Candidate Dr. Hisham Hayek said: “We tried to be in a democratic race and it
turned out that there was no democracy. We went to Sarafand, protected by the
security forces, but we were surprised by organized gangs of young men who
blocked the road and shot at us. How is this a fair competition? Does the
announcement of an electoral program constitute a threat to civil peace?”
Candidate Ali Khalifeh said: “The message they wanted to send through violence
is well received. They will not be tolerant of others’ opinions, ideas, and
programs that are committed to confronting the corrupt authority.”
The Amal movement was quick to deny its connection to the attack, as did its
parliamentary bloc, which condemned what happened and stressed the movement’s
keenness to achieve the electoral process in an “atmosphere of freedom and
democratic competition.”
The electoral list of Hezbollah and the Amal movement in the Baalbek-Hermel
constituency tried to announce its electoral program in a ceremony in the heart
of the historic Baalbek Citadel.
But civil society movements pressured the Minister of Culture Mohammed Mortada
to stop this event due to its violation of the electoral law.
Article 77 states: “Public spaces, governmental departments, universities,
faculties, institutes, public schools, and places of worship are not allowed to
be used to hold electoral meetings or promotion.”
Lebanon/Participants at Opposition Electoral Rally
Assaulted in Southern Lebanon
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
Lebanon continues to prepare for next month's parliamentary elections, with
electoral rallies and events being held daily throughout the country. Tensions
have been high in some region, especially in the South, between the opposition
and traditional powers, notably the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal party.
Partisan supporters reportedly assaulted on Saturday people seeking to
participate at an elections event in the southern Sarafand region. The
opposition "Together towards Change" was holding a rally to unveil its
candidates, who would be running in the second electoral district in the South.
Ahead of the rally, partisan supporters deployed in the area, leading to
tensions that boiled over into shooting at and the assault of the participants,
said activists on social media. The opposition candidates accused members of the
Amal movement of being behind the attack.The movement, headed by parliament
Speaker Nabih Berri, denied the accusation.
Siniora congratulates the Lebanese on Easter, hopes for
Lebanon's resurrection
NNA/April 17/2022
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora expressed his Easter well-wishes to the
Lebanese people in general and Christians who follow the Western calendar in
particular, "in the hope of Lebanon's resurrection from its current flounder
with the help of its sons and all its sects."
Army units thwart smuggling operation in Akkar, raid homes
of shooters at army force
NNA/April 17/2022
Lebanese Army Command - Orientation Directorate issued the following statement
this morning: "On April 16, 2022, while an army force thwarted a smuggling
operation in the Hekr Jenin-Akkar area, it came under fire from unknown persons
from the Syrian side and houses inside the Lebanese territory; thus, the army
unit members were forced to respond to the sources of fire, which led to the
slight injury of the smuggler (A.A.), who was taken to a nearby hospital for
treatment." "As a result, an army force carried out a raid on the houses from
which the shots were fired, arresting several persons suspected of participating
in the shooting, and seizing a 'Kalashnikov' rifle and a quantity of goods
prepared for smuggling," the statement added. Investigations with the detainees
were initiated under the supervision of the concerned judiciary.
Health Ministry: 112 new Corona cases, 3 deaths
NNA/April 17/2022
In its daily report on the COVID-19 developments, the Ministry of Public Health
announced on Saturday the registration of 112 new Coronavirus infections, which
raised the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 1,095,518. The report
added that 3 deaths were registered during the past 24 hours.
Finance Minister's Media Office clarifies that "judicial
formations decree will be signed as soon as its basic errors are resolved"
NNA/April 17/2022
The media office of Finance Minister Youssef Al-Khalil stressed in an issued
statement this evening, that “the Minister of Finance affirms his keen interest
in achieving justice and revealing the full truth in the Beirut Port explosion
dossier,” adding that the provisions of the constitution and the laws in force,
as well as his position, are clear and firm in this regard.
“In this context, it is necessary to clarify to the Lebanese public
opinion that the failure to sign the decree of the Court of Cassation’s judicial
formations is due to the basic errors included that would create a precedent, if
signed, which Lebanon can be spared,” the statement indicated.
“Minister Al-Khalil assures that work is being done to resolve the
obstacles facing the signing of the aforementioned decree, and confirms that he
will sign it as soon as these obstacles are overcome,” the statement concluded.
Foreign Affairs Ministry denies circulated news on asking
students benefiting from “Tobacco Department Grant” to receive its value in cash
NNA/April 17/2022
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants denied in an issued statement this
evening "the news circulating on social media about inviting students benefiting
from the Department of Tobacco Scholarship, to attend to the Ministry's building
to receive the value of their grant in cash," stressing that said news is
“groundless”. “The Ministry affirms that around 542 students have started
receiving the scholarship after the Lebanese embassies began distributing it to
deserving students,” the statement clarified. "The Ministry continues to work on
finding a quick solution, in coordination with the Banque du Liban, to
facilitate the delivery of the amounts owed to students in Russia, Ukraine,
Iran, Cuba and Syria due to the difficulty of money transfers to these five
countries," the statement assured.
"Current stage requires us to unite, stand by our people,”
says Arslan
NNA/April 17/2022
Head of the "Lebanese Democratic Party", MP Talal Arslan, considered that the
Lebanese are facing a “pivotal stage” in their country’s history, noting that
“the acceleration of international and regional developments is a clear
indication of this, whose impact on Lebanon will appear successively."
Arslan explained to a delegation of Druze religious clerics who visited him at
his Khaldeh residence earlier today, "the details of his visit to Moscow and his
meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his deputy, Mikhail
Bogdanov," praising "the Russian role in the region and the historical
relationship that unites them with the Druze Unitarian Sect."
"The current stage requires us to unite in solidarity and stand by our
sheikhs and our people in the mountain and various Lebanese regions,” Arslan
went on, stressing that “the upcoming elections are very important, but the most
important thing is for them to pass quietly and for the stability and security
of the Lebanese mountain to be maintained.”“Civil peace today is above all
deadlines, entitlements and considerations," he asserted.
Bahia Hariri: We hope that our beloved country will cross
its painful path towards true salvation
NNA/April 17/2022
MP Bahia Hariri congratulated, in an issued statement today, "all the Lebanese,
and Christians in particular, on the glorious Easter holiday, an occasion which
despite the difficult circumstances and crises Lebanon is going through, remains
a source of hope that our beloved country will cross the path of pain towards
true salvation.""We ask God Almighty to renew all goodness and wellness for
Lebanon and the Lebanese with better days to come, and that our upcoming
holidays will bring proesperity and stability,” she added.
Boushkian: Lebanon deserves the sacrifice & will rise with
the resurrection of Christ
NNA/April 17/2022
Industry Minister George Boushkian congratulated the Lebanese on the glorious
Easter occasion, hoping for "the rise of Lebanon with the resurrection of
Christ." He stressed that "Lebanon of goodness, holiness and blessings did not
fail its children...For this reason, with our superior capabilities, our
devotion for Lebanon and attachment to it, as well as our determination to
restore the country's previous state of prosperity and brilliance, the Lebanese
have taken the final decision not to abandon the restoration of Lebanon's
recovery, healing its wounds, and untying the chains around it." "Lebanon
deserves our sacrifice, no matter how severe the difficulties, to restore its
role as a beacon of civilization and a culture of dialogue and moderation," the
Minister underscored.
"We seek a productive economy," says Hajj Hassan
NNA/April 17/2022
The "Lebanese Association for Studies and Training" presented, on Sunday, a set
of agricultural equipment to the Agriculture Department in Baalbek, under the
auspices of Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan, and in presence of the
department's head, Dr. Mahmoud Abdallah.
In his word on the occasion, Minister Hajj Hassan welcomed the "good networking
between the public and private sectors", adding, "We are working to activate
such endeavors constantly..." "In order to overcome the crisis, we need an
integrated circle in this sector to reach a productive economy. We call on
international institutions to have the agricultural sector at the top of the
ladder, for it is a priority since food security is the basis for protecting
society and people,” he said. "One of the priorities of the current stage is to
provide what the agricultural engineer and veterinarian needs to be present and
effective among farmers," the Minister went on, valuing the gift provided by the
Lebanese Association for Studies and Training, "which we have not seen for
years," he said. Hajj Hassan pledged that these steps will certainly continue in
light of his belief in the partnership between the public sector, the private
sector and NGOs. "We promise farmers a rewarding sector, and we will not accept
that others plant while we consume,” he asserted.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on April 17-18/2022
Pope Francis on Easter: For entering
the holy places in Jerusalem freely
NNA/April 17/2022
Rome - Pope Francis called from the Vatican today, on the occasion of Easter, to
ensure free entry to the holy sites in Jerusalem, where clashes left dozens of
people injured in recent days in the Al-Aqsa courtyard, as reported by "Agence
France Presse". "I wish that Israelis, Palestinians and all residents of the
Holy City, along with the pilgrims, experience the beauty of peace, live in
brotherhood and enter freely into the holy places, in mutual respect for the
rights of each," he said.
Pope Makes Easter Plea for Ukraine Peace, Cites Nuclear
Risk
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
On what is supposed to be Christianity's most joyful day, Pope Francis made an
anguished Easter Sunday plea for peace in the “senseless” war in Ukraine and in
other armed conflicts raging in the world, and cited the “troubling” risk of
nuclear warfare. “May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by
the violence and destruction of this cruel and senseless war into which it was
dragged,” Francis said, speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter's Square.
The pontiff had just finished celebrating Easter Mass in the square packed by
faithful for the holiday for the first time since the pandemic began in early
2020. Applause erupted from many of the 50,000 people in the square and on a
nearby avenue when he mentioned Ukraine, The Associated Press said. “Please,
please, let us not get used to war,'' Francis pleaded, after denouncing ”the
flexing of muscles while people are suffering." Yet again, the pontiff decried
the war in Ukraine without citing Russian President Vladimir Putin for the
decision to launch the invasion and attack against Ukraine on Feb. 24. “Let us
all commit ourselves to imploring peace, from our balconies and in our
streets,'' Francis said. ”May the leaders of nations hear people's plea for
peace."
In a clear reference to the threat of nuclear warfare, Francis quoted from a
declaration by scientists in 1955: “'Shall we put an end to the human race, or
shall mankind renounce war?'"Francis also drew attention to other wars in the
speech known by its Latin name “Urbi et Orbi” — to the city and to the world.
"May the conflict in Europe also make us more concerned about other situations
of conflict, suffering and sorrow, situations that affect all too many areas of
our world, situations that we cannot overlook and do not want to forget,''
Francis said. Among the conflicts cited by the pope were those in the Middle
East. He exhorted peace and reconciliation for the peoples of Lebanon, Syria and
Iraq.
He also cited Libya as well as Yemen, “which suffers from a conflict forgotten
by all.”Earlier, the pontiff, who has a knee ligament problem, limped badly as
he made his way to an altar set up in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. The altar
was shaded by a canopy against brilliant sunshine. Right after the end of Mass,
Francis shook hands with prelates, then got aboard the white popemobile for a
whirl through the square to greet cheering well-wishers among the rank-and-file
faithful. He waved and patted the head of a baby who was handed to him. His
smiles while greeting the crowd were a rare departure of late for the pope, who
has used many of his appearances in recent weeks to issue somber denunciations
of the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, in London, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin
Welby called for Russia to declare a cease-fire and withdraw from Ukraine. The
leader of the Anglican church said Easter is a time for peace and not “blood and
iron.” Noting that in the Eastern Orthodox church followed by many in Russia and
Ukraine Sunday marks the start of Holy Week — with Easter coming on April 24 —
Welby exhorted Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and commit to talks. In an
unusually blunt political remark, Welby also condemned the British government’s
recent plan to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda as going against God. Warm
weather and the easing of many pandemic restrictions — including what had been
for most of the pandemic in Italy a mandatory outdoor mask requirement — have
seen tourism boom in Rome, with many visitors flooding the city for Holy Week
ceremonies that culminated on Easter. In Spain, believers and secular
enthusiasts flocked back in large numbers to Holy Week processions this week for
the first time since the start of the pandemic after most health restrictions
were lifted.
Iran Confirms Centrifuge Workshop Moved to Underground Site
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
Iran has confirmed it relocated a centrifuge facility to its underground Natanz
nuclear site, state media reported, days after the UN atomic watchdog said it
installed surveillance cameras to monitor the new workshop at Tehran's request.
The late Saturday report by the official IRNA news agency comes as diplomatic
efforts to restore Iran’s tattered nuclear deal appear stalled. The news agency
quoted the spokesman for Iran’s atomic energy organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi,
as saying authorities had moved the operation to a safer place. Iran’s
centrifuge facility in Karaj found itself targeted in what Iran described as a
sabotage attack in June. Natanz itself has twice been targeted in sabotage
attacks amid uncertainty over the nuclear deal, assaults that Iran has blamed on
Israel. "Unfortunately because of a terrorist operation that took place against
Karaj, we were obliged to intensify security measures under which we moved an
important part of the machines and transferred the rest to Natanz and Isfahan,”
said Kamalvandi. Isfahan is the location of another Iranian nuclear facility. On
Thursday, The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it installed
cameras and removed seals from machines at the new workshop in Natanz two days
earlier. Those machines will be used to make centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows,
crucial parts for the devices that spin at very high speeds to enrich uranium
gas. Talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear
deal have stalled. There is concern that Iran could be closer to being able to
construct an atomic weapon if it chose to pursue one. The nuclear deal collapsed
four years ago when former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States and
imposed crushing sanctions on Iran. In the meantime, Iran has vastly expanded
its nuclear work. Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday insisted
negotiations over the deal "are going ahead properly,” even after repeated
comments by American officials that an agreement to restore the accord may not
happen. The nuclear deal saw Iran put advanced centrifuges into storage under
the watch of the IAEA, while keeping its enrichment at 3.67% purity and its
stockpile at only 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of uranium. As of Feb. 19, the IAEA
says Iran’s stockpile of all enriched uranium was nearly 3,200 kilograms (7,055
pounds). Some has been enriched up to 60% purity - a short technical step from
weapons-grade levels of 90%. Meanwhile, Iran has stopped the IAEA from accessing
its surveillance camera footage. Kamalvandi reiterated Iran’s stance that Tehran
will not provide data from the cameras to the UN nuclear agency if a deal is not
concluded. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe Iran had an organized
military nuclear program up until 2003.
Prices Soar in Iran amid Stalled Nuclear Talks
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
Prices in Iran have soared in wake of the stalled nuclear talks in Vienna.
Speaking Wednesday at a cabinet meeting, President Ebrahim Raisi demanded
regulators to look into the recent rise in prices and identify the reasons. He
urged the concerned ministers to address the crisis. The Foreign Ministry had on
Monday confirmed reports that some of Iranian assets, frozen by US sanctions,
would be released soon. The announcement did little to ease market fluctuations.
IRNA had said that $7 billion in frozen funds will be released by South Korea.
It added that a regional official was placing the finishing touches to the
mechanism that would release the funds. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian said a preliminary deal had been reached with a foreign bank
over the funds. A foreign delegation had visited Tehran on Tuesday to follow up
on the agreement. It held talks with the foreign and economy ministries, as well
as officials from the central bank. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price
denied on Thursday the reports over the deal. South Korea was quick to deny that
it was sending any officials to visit Iran to address the issue. In a column on
Friday, Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper, said Iran
must close the Strait of Hormuz to South Korean vessels until Seoul releases the
$7 billion frozen funds. He said countries that abide by American law and impose
sanction on Iran must not be exempt from the "heavy consequences of their ugly
actions."
The claims over the release of the funds were interpreted as an attempt to ease
the new rise in prices of goods in Iran. The rise in prices made headlines
across the country. One newspaper said the issue has become the government's
priority, wondering why the president has been unable to curb the rise. The
government mouthpiece, Iran, said inflation will drop in the coming months. It
added that the reform of the monetary policy and the hike in prices are on the
government's agenda.
Iranian Lawmaker: Nuclear Talks Have Not Yet Reached an
Agreement on Surveillance Footage
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
An Iranian parliament spokesperson affirmed on Friday that Tehran will not hand
over to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) any footage from its
nuclear facilities. They noted that the Vienna talks have not yet reached an
agreement on how international inspectors will access surveillance data.
Iran is starting to operate a new workshop at Natanz that will make parts for
uranium-enriching centrifuges with machines moved there from its now-closed
Karaj facility, the UN nuclear watchdog said in a confidential report on
Thursday seen by Reuters. “On 12 April 2022, the IAEA completed the installation
of the surveillance cameras at this location and then removed the seals from the
machines,” the IAEA said in the report to member states without describing where
at Natanz that location was. “On 13 April 2022, Iran informed the IAEA that the
machines would start operating at the new workshop the same day,” it added,
without saying whether it had verified that the machines had started operating.
In an interview with the “DidbanIran” news website, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini,
the spokesman for Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee,
said that all installed cameras are “within the framework of IAEA laws.”
However, he insisted that the cameras be separated into two groups.
According to Meshkini, there are cameras belonging to the IAEA (according to NPT
laws), and other cameras set to monitor sensitive Iranian activities as
stipulated by the nuclear deal. For Tehran, IAEA inspectors accessing
surveillance footage is contingent on arriving at deal in Vienna, a matter that
stumbled last month due to a Russian obstacle before Iran demanding that its
elite Revolutionary Guards be removed from the list of terrorist organizations.
Before moving the Karaj parts to Natanz, Iran had also told the IAEA it was
moving the Karaj workshop’s activities to another site at Isfahan, and the IAEA
has set up cameras there, according to Reuters. If Isfahan went into operation,
that would be a big increase in Iran’s capacity to produce advanced centrifuge
parts. Meshkini’s statements could be an indication that negotiations did not
address the technical issues related to the IAEA's verification of Iranian
activities.
Washington and Tehran have been trading blame over the failure to reach an
agreement at the Vienna talks. Last week, the Iranian Foreign Ministry expressed
its doubts about the US’ “will” to reach an understanding. “We really don’t know
if we’ll get a deal or not, because the United States hasn’t shown the necessary
will to reach an agreement,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed
Khatibzadeh told reporters. Two days later, Iran’s supreme leader urged Iranian
officials to not tie the country’s affairs to the fate of the negotiations of
the nuclear deal.
“Do not wait for an outcome from the nuclear negotiations when planning … do not
let your work be disrupted by the negotiations,” state media quoted Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei as saying in a meeting with a group of high-ranking
officials. Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister said Wednesday that a
preliminary agreement has been reached on releasing the Iranian assets currently
frozen in a foreign bank due to US sanctions, the official news agency IRNA
reported. Hossein Amir Abdollahian added that a foreign delegation had
negotiated on Tuesday with officials from the Central Bank of Iran and the
Foreign Ministry to make the arrangements. An initial agreement has been
achieved on the timing and method of releasing the assets, the Iranian foreign
minister noted. For its part, the US said any reports about the release of
Iranian funds frozen by third countries are false. In a press briefing on
Thursday, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said US partners have not
released any blocked funds to Iran, nor has the US authorized or approved any
such funds to Iran. Price denied “any breakthrough” in two parallel tracks that
are underway with Iran – one in Vienna for mutual return to full implementation
of the JCPOA, and one on the release of all four US citizens who are unjustly
held in Iran, cautioning everyone about such reports.
'Inhuman' situation in Ukraine's Mariupol as Russia claims
almost full control
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation in Mariupol is
"inhuman" and called on the West to immediately provide heavy weapons, as Russia
claimed it was in control of almost all of the strategic port city and urged its
last defenders to surrender. Moscow said Ukrainian forces in the city must lay
down their arms by Sunday, after weeks of relative calm in the capital Kyiv were
brought to an end by renewed Russian airstrikes.
Austria's chancellor, the first European leader to meet with Vladimir Putin in
person since the invasion began, said he thought the Russian president "believes
he is winning the war" in Ukraine. But in the south, the devastated city of
Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since
Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on February 24.
Moscow officials now say they are in full control there, though Ukrainian
fighters remain holed up in the city's fortress-like steelworks. "The situation
in Mariupol remains as severe as possible. Just inhuman," President Zelensky
said in a video address. "Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who
is there." Ukraine's Minister of Digital
Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said the city was on "the verge of a
humanitarian catastrophe" and warned the country was compiling evidence of
alleged Russian atrocities there. "We will hand everything over to The Hague.
There will be no impunity," he said. Moscow Saturday issued an ultimatum to the
fighters, urging them to lay down their arms by 6:00 am Moscow time (0300 GMT)
and to evacuate the premises before 13:00 pm. But with
the Russian forces closing in, Zelensky issued his own warning.
"The elimination of our troops, of our men (in Mariupol) will put an end
to any negotiations," Zelensky told the Ukrainska Pravda news website.
"We don't negotiate neither our territories nor our people."
'Insidious and ruthless'
In the capital, smoke rose from the Darnyrsky district in the southeast of the
capital after what Moscow said were "high-precision long-range" strikes on an
armaments plant, killing one person and wounding several others.
A heavy police and military presence was deployed around the factory,
which was badly damaged. "Our forces are doing everything possible to protect
us, but the enemy is insidious and ruthless," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
The strike came a day after a similar attack on a plant that produced
Neptune missiles -- the type which, according to Kyiv and Washington, sank
Russia's Black Sea flagship Moskva on Thursday. It was among the first attacks
since Russian forces began withdrawing from that region last month, instead
turning their focus on gaining control of the eastern Donbas region, for years
controlled in part by pro-Russian separatists. Kyiv regional governor Oleksandr
Pavliuk said there were at least two other Russian strikes on the city Friday
and that civilians thinking about returning should "wait for quieter
times".Nevertheless, families and off-duty soldiers were out in the parks of
central Kyiv on Saturday, bringing a semblance of normality to the once bustling
city. "It's the first time we've been back in the city
centre... It's really making me happy to see people out and about," 43-year-old
vet Nataliya Makrieva told AFP. Meanwhile, in Ukraine's second-largest city
Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country, a Russian missile strike on a
residential district killed at least two people on Saturday and wounded 18
others, the public prosecutor's office said. Incoming
fire in the city's center turned an industrial kitchen inside out, pitching
loaves of bread into the street. "The blast was so big that at first we didn't
understand what was happening," 52-year-old volunteer worker Genadiy Vlasov told
AFP. "When the walls started moving we all knew we had to get out." And
Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said three people were killed and
four others critically wounded in a demining operation near the city.
- 'War logic' -
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met Putin on Monday in Moscow, said he
thinks the Russian president believes the war is necessary for his country's
security. "I think he is now in his own war logic," Nehammer said in an
interview with NBC's "Meet the Press", portions of which were released Saturday.
"I think he believes he is winning the war."Adding to tit-for-tat sanctions
imposed since the invasion began, Russia said Saturday it was banning entry to
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and several other top officials.
The foreign ministry accused London of "unprecedented hostile actions",
in particular referring to sanctions on senior Russian officials, and "pumping
the Kyiv regime with lethal weapons". Moscow's new entry blacklist includes
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and Defense
Secretary Ben Wallace. Johnson paid a surprise visit to Kyiv a week earlier, and
was filmed walking through the capital's empty streets with Zelensky. Britain
has been part of an international effort to punish Russia with asset freezes,
travel bans and economic sanctions, while several Western countries have
supplied Ukraine with extensive weaponry. Russia warned the United States this
week of "unpredictable consequences" if it sends its "most sensitive" weapons
systems to Ukraine. Its defense ministry claimed Saturday to have shot down a
Ukrainian transport plane in the Odessa region, carrying weapons supplied by
Western nations. Zelensky meanwhile issued a fresh warning about the possibility
of Russia using nuclear weapons as the conflict wears on -- echoing comments by
CIA director William Burns this week. Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told CNN that Russia would only use nuclear
weapons in the context of the Ukraine conflict if it were facing an "existential
threat".
No way home
Zelensky said Friday that between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been
killed in the conflict, compared to 19,000-20,000 Russian dead.
Moscow has said its losses were far smaller. Russia's apparent new focus
on seizing the eastern Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists control the
Donetsk and Lugansk areas, would allow Moscow to create a land corridor to
occupied Crimea. Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the region to
quickly leave ahead of what is expected to be a large-scale Russian offensive.
In Geneva, the UN refugee agency warned that many of the nearly five
million people who have fled the conflict will not have homes to return to.
Many have gone abroad, with thousands seeking refuge in Israel, according
to the country's immigration ministry figures. Joining them are many Russians,
too, who say they no longer feel safe in their home country under the
increasingly repressive rule of Vladimir Putin. "I lost my country. It was
stolen from me. It was taken by Putin and those KGB thugs," Moscow-born linguist
Olga Romanova told AFP.
Russia Bears Down on Mariupol, Strikes Other Ukraine Cities
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
pocket of resistance Sunday in Mariupol, a southern Ukraine city that has
suffered under siege for six weeks and whose capture would aid Moscow's plans
for a full-scale offensive in the country's east. With the last Ukrainian
fighters in Mariupol refusing to surrender, Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said Russia "is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there.”
He said Ukraine needs more heavy weapons from the West immediately to have any
chance of saving the port city on the Sea of Azov. "Either our partners give
Ukraine all of the necessary heavy weapons, the planes, and without exaggeration
immediately, so we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers on Mariupol and
break the blockade,” he said, "or we do so through negotiations, in which the
role of our partners should be decisive."Earlier, Zelenskyy had told Ukrainian
journalists that the continuing siege of Mariupol, which has come at a horrific
cost to trapped and starving civilians, could scuttle attempts to negotiate an
end to the war. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said Saturday that
Ukrainian forces had been driven out of most of the city and remained only in
the Azovstal steel mill, where tunnels allow the defenders to hide and resist
until they run out of ammunition. The Russians already control what is left of
the city after weeks of bombardment. Striking the steel plant to take the rest
is part of Russia's preparations for the anticipated assault in eastern Ukraine.
Capturing Mariupol would allow Russian forces in the south, which came up
through the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to fully link up with troops in the
Donbas region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland and the focus of the
anticipated offensive. Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Malyar, said
Sunday that Mariupol's defenders have tied up significant Russian forces
besieging the city. She described the city as a "shield defending Ukraine" that
prevents the Russian troops encircling the city from advancing to other areas of
the country. Malyar said that the Russians have continued to hit Mariupol with
airstrikes and appeared to be preparing an amphibious landing to beef up their
forces in the city. Meanwhile, scattered Russian attacks elsewhere in Ukraine
were an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the
whole country remains under threat from an invasion now in its eighth week.
After failing to capture Ukraine's capital and the humiliating loss of the
flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, and Russia's military command vowed to step up
missile strikes on the capital, Kyiv. The Russians said they hit an armored
vehicle plant on Saturday, a day after targeting a missile plant.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Saturday’s strike killed one person and wounded
several. He advised residents who fled the city earlier in the war not to
return. "We’re not ruling out further strikes on the capital," he said. "If you
have the opportunity to stay a little bit longer in the cities where it’s safer,
do it."
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the plant was among
multiple Ukrainian military sites hit with "air-launched high-precision
long-range weapons." The Ukrainian president’s office reported missile strikes
and shelling in eight regions across the country between Friday and Saturday.
The governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine, which has been only
sporadically touched by the war’s violence, reported airstrikes on the region by
Russian Su-35 aircraft that took off from neighboring Belarus.
In Kharkiv in the northeast, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said three people were killed
and 34 wounded Saturday. One explosion believed to have been caused by a missile
sent rescue workers scrambling near an outdoor market. The workers said one
person was killed and at least 18 wounded.
"All the windows, all the furniture, all destroyed. And the door, too,"
recounted stunned resident Valentina Ulianova. The day before, rockets hit a
residential area of Kharkiv, killing a 15-year-old boy, an infant and at least
eight other people in Ukraine's second-largest city, officials said. Nate Mook,
a member of the World Central Kitchen NGO run by celebrity chef José Andrés,
said in a tweet that four workers in Kharkiv were wounded by a strike. Andrés
tweeted that staff members were unnerved but safe. Austrian Chancellor Karl
Nehammer, who met with Vladimir Putin this past week in Moscow - the first
European leader to do so since the invasion began Feb. 24 - said the Russian
president is "in his own war logic" on Ukraine.
In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Nehammer said he thinks Putin
believes he is winning the war and "we have to look in his eyes and we have to
confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine." Nehammer said he told Putin
what he saw during a visit to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where more than 350
bodies have been found along with evidence of killings and torture under Russian
occupation, and "it was not a friendly conversation." Zelenskyy estimated that
2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have died in the war, and about 10,000 have been
wounded. The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said Saturday that at least
200 children have been killed, and more than 360 wounded. Russian forces also
have taken captive some 700 Ukrainian troops and more than 1,000 civilians,
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Saturday. Ukraine holds
about the same number of Russian troops as prisoners and intends to arrange a
swap but is demanding the release of civilians "without any conditions," she
said. Russia's warning of stepped-up attacks on Kyiv came after it accused
Ukraine on Thursday of wounding seven people and damaging about 100 residential
buildings with airstrikes in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine. Ukrainian
officials have not confirmed hitting targets in Russia. Russian Maj. Gen.
Vladimir Frolov, whose troops have been among those besieging Mariupol, was
buried Saturday in St. Petersburg after dying in battle, Gov. Alexander Beglov
said. Ukraine has said several Russian generals and dozens of other high-ranking
officers have been killed in the war.
Mariupol Teeters as Ukrainians Defy Surrender-Or-Die Demand
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
The shattered port city of Mariupol appeared on the brink of falling to the
Russians on Sunday after seven weeks under siege, in what would give Moscow a
crucial success following its failure to storm the Ukrainian capital and the
sinking of its Black Sea flagship. The Russian military estimated that 2,500
Ukrainian fighters were holding out at a hulking steel plant with a warren of
underground passageways in the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol. Moscow set
a midday deadline for their surrender, saying those who laid down their arms
were "guaranteed to keep their lives." But the defenders did not submit, just as
they rejected previous ultimatums. "We will fight absolutely to the end, to the
win, in this war," Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal vowed on ABC's "This
Week." He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible,
"but we do not have intention to surrender."
The capture of Mariupol would free up Russian forces to join an expected all-out
offensive in the coming days for control of the Donbas, the industrial region in
the country’s east where the Kremlin has focused its war aims after abandoning,
for now at least, any attempt to take Kyiv, the capital.
The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have left much of the
city pulverized and killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians' estimate.
A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks
of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a
theater where civilians were taking shelter. An estimated 100,000 remained in
the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water,
heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of some of the
worst suffering of the war. "All those who will continue resistance will be
destroyed," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry's
spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum.
He said intercepted communications indicated there were about 400 foreign
mercenaries along with the Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal steel mill, a claim
that could not be independently verified. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister
Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a "shield defending Ukraine" as Russian
troops prepare for the battle in the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas, where
Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory. In a reminder that no
part of Ukraine is safe, Russian forces carried out missile strikes Sunday near
Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent effort to weaken Ukraine’s military capacity
before the anticipated assault. After the humiliating loss of the flagship of
its Black Sea Fleet last week to what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile
attack, Russia’s military vowed Friday to step up strikes on the capital. The
Kremlin said Sunday that it had attacked an ammunition plant near Kyiv overnight
with precision-guided missiles, the third such strike in as many days. Russia
also claimed to have destroyed Ukrainian air defense radar equipment in the
east, near Sievierodonetsk, as well as several ammunition depots elsewhere.
Explosions were reported overnight in Kramatorsk, the eastern city where rockets
earlier this month killed at least 57 people at a train station crowded with
civilians trying to evacuate ahead of the Russian offensive. A regional official
in eastern Ukraine said at least two people were killed when Russian forces
fired at residential buildings in the town of Zolote, near the front line in the
Donbas.Malyar, the deputy defense minister, said the Russians continued to hit
Mariupol with airstrikes and could be getting ready for an amphibious landing to
beef up their ground forces.
Capturing the city would be Russia's biggest victory after two months of costly
fighting and could help reassure the Russian public amid the worsening economic
situation from Western sanctions. It would allow Russia to secure a land
corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and
deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets. Mariupol's
seizure also would make more troops available for the offensive in the east,
which, if successful, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a vital piece
of the country and a badly needed victory that he could sell to the Russian
people. Tunnels at the sprawling Azovstal steel mill, which covers an area of
more than 11 square kilometers (over 4.2 square miles), have allowed the
defenders to hide and resist. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the
fall of Mariupol could scuttle any attempt at a negotiated peace.
"The destruction of all our guys in Mariupol - what they are doing now - can put
an end to any format of negotiations," Zelenskyy said in an interview with
Ukrainian journalists. In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy called on
the West to send more heavy weapons immediately if there is any chance of saving
the city, adding Russia is "deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is
there." Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met with Putin in Moscow this
week - the first European leader to do so since the invasion Feb. 24 - said the
Russian president is "in his own war logic" on Ukraine.
In an interview on NBC’s "Meet the Press," Nehammer said he thinks Putin
believes he is winning the war, and "we have to look in his eyes and we have to
confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine."Like Mariupol, the northeastern
city of Kharkiv has been a target of attacks since the early days of the
invasion and has seen conditions deteriorate ahead of the eastern offensive.
At least five people were killed and 13 wounded in Russian shelling of Kharkiv,
Ukraine's second-largest city, on Sunday, regional officials said. The barrage
slammed into apartment buildings and left the streets scattered with broken
glass and other debris, including part of at least one rocket. Firefighters and
residents scrambled to douse flames in several apartments. Zelenskyy estimated
that 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have died in the war. Amid the fighting,
Zelenskyy spoke in his nightly address about Ukraine's plans for a memorial "to
remind all generations of our people of the brutal and senseless invasion
Ukraine has been able to fend off." Pope Francis made an anguished Easter Sunday
plea for peace in the "senseless" war in Ukraine. "May there be peace for
war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of this cruel
and senseless war into which it was dragged," Francis said, without mentioning
Putin's decision to invade. "Please, please, let us not get used to war,"
Francis pleaded.
UK Says Russia Committed to Compelling Ukraine to Abandon
its Euro-Atlantic Orientation
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
Russia is committed to compelling Ukraine to abandon its Euro-Atlantic
orientation and asserting its own regional dominance, even as Moscow’s
operational focus has shifted to the east of its neighboring country, British
military intelligence said on Sunday. Russian forces were continuing to redeploy
combat and support equipment from Belarus towards eastern Ukraine, including to
locations close to Kharkiv and Severodonetsk, the UK Ministry of Defense tweeted
in a regular bulletin. Russian artillery continues to strike Ukrainian positions
throughout the east of the country where Russia plans to renew its offensive
activity, the bulletin added. Reuters could not
immediately verify the report.
Russia says destroyed another military factory outside Kyiv
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
Russia's defense ministry said Sunday it struck a military plant outside Kyiv,
as Moscow intensifies its attacks on the Ukrainian capital. "During the night,
high-precision, air-launched missiles destroyed an ammunitions factory near the
settlement of Brovary, Kyiv region," the ministry said in a statement on
Telegram.
The mayor of Brovary Igor Sapozhko said that "some infrastructure objects were
hit" in the early hours of Sunday morning. An AFP journalist in Brovary did not
witness any signs of destruction, smoke or fire. In recent days, Russia has
carried out several attacks on military plants in and outside Kyiv. Last month,
Russia said it was withdrawing troops from northern Ukraine -- including from
around the capital -- to focus on gaining control of the eastern Donbas region.
Russians Flee Putin Regime to Join Ukraine Refugees in
Israel
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
The moment Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Russian filmmakers Anna
Shishova-Bogolyubova and Dmitry Bogolyubov knew they had to leave Moscow. "We
were the next on the list," the couple told AFP in their borrowed flat in
Rehovot, a quiet Israeli city 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Tel Aviv.
Once you're on the list of alleged "foreign agents", you face a life of
"self-censorship or, sooner or later, prison", said Bogolyubov, who directed the
German-financed 2019 documentary "Town of Glory". The film portrays President
Vladimir Putin's use of references related to the fight against Nazi Germany to
establish his authority in Russian villages, AFP said. As its international
isolation has deepened, Moscow has come to view all movies made with foreign
financing with suspicion, including documentaries, and the couple said theirs
was no exception. "Over the past few years, we felt threatened. In the past few
months in particular, people were spying on us and taking photographs on our
film sets," Shishova-Bogolyubova said. The couple decided to continue working in
Russia but, taking advantage of their Jewish ancestry, they obtained Israeli
citizenship just in case. Israel's Law of Return gives the right of citizenship
to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, a criterion that tens of
thousands in both Russia and Ukraine meet.
Opposition to war -
Since Russian troops invaded on February 24, nearly 24,000 Ukrainians have fled
to Israel, some but not all taking advantage of the law, according to
immigration ministry figures. They have been joined by around 10,000 Russians,
an Israeli immigration official told AFP. "Most of those are young graduates,
from the urban middle class," the official said, asking not to be identified.
Like the Bogolyubovs, Moscow-born linguist Olga Romanova had prepared for the
day when she no longer felt safe in Russia. She applied for an Israeli passport
after Putin's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. "I always thought
that one day I would join my children in Israel, but it was then that I realized
that things were going wrong in Russia," the 69-year told AFP in her son's house
outside Jerusalem surrounded by photographs of her grandchildren. When the
invasion started on the morning of February 24, "it was proof that I needed to
leave as quickly as possible."The war in Ukraine is incompatible with my way of
thinking and my moral values. It makes me sick," she said, fighting back the
tears.
New home or stopover? -
The wave of immigration from Ukraine and Russia over the past seven weeks is the
largest Israel has seen since the early 1990s when the collapse of the Soviet
Union prompted hundreds of thousands to seek a new life on the shores of the
Mediterranean. "Here, we feel safe and we can sleep peacefully once more," said
Shishova-Bogolyubova. "My four-year-old daughter, who is diabetic, is completely
taken care of. "But we don't know if we will stay -- that depends on our work.
Right now, we just want to live for the moment and recover from our emotions.
Afterwards, we will see."Sergey, a violinist who asked to be referred to by a
pseudonym for fear of retribution, left Moscow for Israel with his pianist wife
and three young children but expects to move on. "I don't know if we'll stay
here. We'll probably go somewhere else," he said. Even for those who qualify for
citizenship, Israel can be a terra incognita for new arrivals and nostalgia for
Russia is never far below the surface. Romanova, the linguist, found space in
her 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of luggage for just two books, one an academic
work, the other a novel by famed Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov which always
accompanies her on her travels. "I lost my country. It was stolen from me. It
was taken by Putin and those KGB thugs," she said wistfully.
North Korea Tests New Weapons System to Improve 'Tactical
Nukes'
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of a new guided weapons system to improve
North Korea's "tactical nukes", state media said Sunday, capping days of
celebrations surrounding the birthday of the country's founding leader. The
launch was the latest in an unprecedented blitz of sanctions-busting
weapons-tests this year, which included firing an intercontinental ballistic
missile at full range for the first time since 2017, AFP said. It also came just
ahead of US-South Korea military training exercises -- which have always
infuriated Pyongyang -- that were due to begin on Monday. The "new-type tactical
guided weapon... is of great significance in drastically improving the firepower
of the frontline long-range artillery units and enhancing the efficiency in the
operation of tactical nukes," the North's official KCNA news agency reported. It
said the test was successful, but did not specify when or where it took place.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected two projectiles fired late
on Saturday, which flew 110 kilometers (68 miles) at an altitude of 25
kilometers, travelling at speeds of around Mach 4. The United States was "aware
of the North Korean statement that they conducted a test of a long range
artillery system", a Pentagon spokesperson said, adding it was monitoring.
Analysts had widely expected Pyongyang could conduct a nuclear test as part of
events to celebrate Friday's anniversary of the 110th birthday of North Korea's
founding leader -- and Kim's grandfather -- Kim Il Sung. Expectations were
heightened because of indications that Pyongyang had restarted work at one of
its known nuclear testing sites. Analysts said the weapon tested over the
weekend appeared to be a new short-range ballistic missile -- but no less
significant. "This is North Korea's first tactical nuclear weapon delivery
system, it would seem," said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace.
"You don't have to be particularly imaginative to put this two and two
together."
- Short-range but significant -
Photos carried by the Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed a grinning Kim --
surrounded by uniformed officials -- applauding as he watched what it said was
the test-firing of the weapon. Kim gave a military research team "important
instructions on further building up the defense capabilities and nuclear combat
forces," according to the KCNA report. Kim had also overseen in Pyongyang a
series of events to celebrate Friday's anniversary, including a huge civilian
parade, mass dance parties, and fireworks -- but no military parade to show off
the regime's new weapons. At a key party congress in January 2021, Kim outlined
a five-year defense development plan, calling for the development of higher
nuclear technology and to make smaller and lighter nuclear weapons for "more
tactical uses." The remarks signaled a return to nuclear testing and Kim's rare
attendance at a launch of a short-range missile -- the first in more than two
years -- suggested "particular significance", according to Panda. North Korea
had paused long-range and nuclear tests while Kim met then-US president Donald
Trump for a bout of doomed diplomacy, which collapsed in 2019. North Korea has
tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006 and touted the success of its last
and most powerful one in 2017 -- a hydrogen bomb with an estimated yield of 250
kilotons. Officials and analysts had widely predicted that North Korea may carry
out its seventh nuclear test in the coming weeks.
Satellite imagery has shown signs of new activity at a tunnel at the Punggye-ri
nuclear testing site, which North Korea said was demolished in 2018 ahead of the
first Trump-Kim summit. "This test of a tactical nuclear delivery system comes
as indicators grow of significant reconstitutive work at North Korea's
Punggye-ri nuclear test site," said Panda. With a new nuclear test, experts say
Pyongyang will seek to miniaturize nuclear warheads to mount on its ICBMs. South
Korean officials have said Pyongyang could still stage a military parade or
carry out a weapons test on or around April 25, the anniversary of the founding
of the Korean People's Army. South Korea and the United States regularly stage
military exercises, but Pyongyang has long protested the drills as a rehearsal
for war. "This training is a defensive command post training using computer
simulation, and there is no real military maneuver training," Seoul's Joint
Chiefs of Staff said Sunday.
Pakistan Says Cross-Border Attacks from Afghanistan Have
Increased
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 17 April, 2022
Pakistan said on Sunday said incidents of its security forces being targeted in
cross-border attacks from Afghanistan had risen significantly, and called on
Taliban authorities to act against militants, a day after purported air strikes
by Pakistan. The incident has increased already simmering tensions between the
neighbors. Taliban authorities on Saturday summoned Pakistan's ambassador in
Kabul on Saturday to protest against the strikes. A local Taliban official and
residents said the strikes were carried out by Pakistani aircraft inside Afghan
airspace. "In the last few days, incidents along Pak-Afghan border have
significantly increased, wherein, Pakistani security forces are being targeted
from across the border," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement on
Sunday. It added the attacks were being carried out "with impunity" and that
Islamabad had repeatedly asked Afghan authorities to act to stop them, but to no
avail.
It said seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in the border area of North
Waziristan on Thursday. North Waziristan borders the eastern Afghan province of
Khost, where the strikes are said to have taken place on Friday. Taliban
authorities say they have controlled cross-border attacks since taking over the
country in August last year. Pakistan's foreign office did not confirm the
strikes, nor addressed if they were carried out by aircraft, which would be the
first time a military incursion is officially confirmed. Pakistan's embassy in
Kabul denied it carried out air strikes.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed concern
on the incident. "UNAMA is deeply concerned by reports of civilian casualties,
including women and children, as a result of airstrikes in Khost & Kunar
provinces," the body said on Twitter, adding it was working to establish the
facts and verify losses. There was no confirmation of the death toll. A local
Taliban official in Khost claimed at least 36 people, including civilians, had
been killed. The Taliban government spokesman released a strongly-worded
statement warning Islamabad of "bad consequences" if there was a repeat. "The
defeat of the United States eight months ago was a good lesson to aggressors who
want to disrespect Afghanistan's territory and freedom," Zabihullah Mujahid
said.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 17-18/2022
Imran Khan: A Collateral Victim of
Putin
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/April 17/2022
The past four years, however, depict Khan's premiership as a tale of faux-pas
and broken promises. He tried to use Pakistan's powerful military elite as a
support base against real or imagined political rivals, not realizing that
embracing a gorilla may include the risk of being crushed by it.
He also picked fights with the religious establishment while adopting a
conciliatory posture towards the Pakistani Taliban, who regard him as no better
than an "infidel".
The fact that the Russian project would require 4,000 kilometer-long pipelines
passing through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, plus
massive investments beyond Pakistan's ability, should have told Khan that what
Putin offered him was a googlie, a cricket term for "cheating". What Khan took
for energy pipelines could exist only in a pipe dream.
Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with then Pakistani Prime
Minister Imran Khan at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 24, 2022. (Photo by
Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Four years ago when Imran Khan emerged as prime minister of Pakistan many saw
him as a breath of fresh air in a political system marked by the stink of
corruption and ineptitude.
In many ways Khan was an outsider. First, unlike his predecessors, he was
neither a Sindhi nor a Punjabi but a Pathan by descent. He did not hail from
either a feudal clan or a family of urban compradors.
Having made a career as brilliant cricketer, nor was he a professional
politician and was thus unsullied by the scandals that formed a good part of
Pakistani political life.
Khan's marriage to a glamour society girl, daughter of a Jewish English
billionaire, also gave him a certain cachet.
Khan was also exceptional because he rose to the top of the greasy pole of
Pakistani politics without a proper political party and thanks to a support base
created through his personal charisma rather than ideology.
So, earlier this week when Khan's premiership ended, it was no surprise that he
became the only Pakistani prime minister to be ousted by the parliament in what
looked like a palace coup.
The past four years, however, depict Khan's premiership as a tale of faux-pas
and broken promises. He tried to use Pakistan's powerful military elite as a
support base against real or imagined political rivals, not realizing that
embracing a gorilla may include the risk of being crushed by it.
He also picked fights with the religious establishment while adopting a
conciliatory posture towards the Pakistani Taliban, who regard him as no better
than an "infidel".
To complicate matters further, Khan cast himself as the godfather of the Afghan
Taliban, thus sabotaging the Pakistani army's strategy of keeping the Afghans on
a tight leash. With the return of the Taliban last August as the force that
controls Kabul, Khan became their self-appointed public relations officer and
played a crucial role in persuading China to unroll the red carpet for Taliban
envoys and loosen the purse strings for them.
That was in contrast with the Pakistani military's insistence that the Afghan
Taliban, before receiving the support they need to consolidate their hold on
Kabul, must first recognize the Durand Line, the frontier traced by the British
between Afghanistan and what was then the Indian Raj.
It is possible that Khan interpreted the military's growing coldness towards him
as part of a broader plot hatched by political rivals and endorsed by the Biden
administration with a nod and a wink.
That interpretation led Khan on a surprising trajectory on search of a new big
power ally, and he thought he had found it in Vladimir Putin's Russia. Thus he
became one of only two foreign heads of government, the other being Azerbaijan's
President Ilham Aliev, to visit Moscow in the wake of Putin's invasion of
Ukraine, a trip that Russian propaganda highlighted as full support for the war.
Khan's musings about "Russia's legitimate security concerns" and implicit
endorsement of Putin's claim that Ukraine is, in fact, part of Russia detached
by "neo-Nazis" and "imperialists" rang alarm bells in Islamabad and beyond.
Putin's narrative about Ukraine sounds very much like the narrative that
pan-Indian nationalists have marketed about Pakistan for years.
According to that narrative, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan,
were chunks of the Indian "motherland" chopped off by British colonialists. The
excuse that Muslims formed a majority of population in both Pakistan and
Bangladesh is unjustified if only because even today there are more Muslims in
India itself than in either of those two countries.
Putin's argument about "Russian security concerns" also echoes that of
pan-Indian nationalists with regard to the portion of the disputed Kashmir
attached to Pakistan.
Having crossed several of the red lines set by the Pakistani military, Khan
further underlined his diplomatic naiveté by claiming that he had reached a deal
with Putin under which Russia would supply Pakistan's energy needs with oil and
gas trunk-lines while offering "friendly prices."
The Russian project would bury the 40-year old accord with Iran to supply gas to
Pakistan.
The fact that the Russian project would require 4,000 kilometer-long pipelines
passing through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, plus
massive investments beyond Pakistan's ability, should have told Khan that what
Putin offered him was a googlie, a cricket term for "cheating". What Khan took
for energy pipelines could exist only in a pipe dream.
To be fair, when Khan went to Moscow, the prospect of Russia emerging from the
war in Ukraine, if not with laurels, at least without losing its feathers,
didn't seem as remote as it does today.
Even then, Khan's Moscow trip looked like a strategic move designed to revise
Pakistan's alliances if not reverse them. The US, which has been pumping in
billions of dollars a year into the Pakistani army's coffers, if not the pockets
of its chiefs, was understandably concerned.
Beijing, too, was upset because for decades it had assumed that Pakistan would
make no major move without consulting its Chinese allies and benefactors.
Khan should have known that in politics, as in cricket, timing is of crucial
importance. Yet in his grand plan for changing alliances, he may have chosen the
worst time to make his move.
After almost four years of economic growth, partly thanks to reforms introduced
by Khan's government, Pakistan has entered what looks like a phase of severe
recession, which most hurts the urban middle and lower classes, Khan's main
sources of support.
Khan's recent ill-advised moves gave the traditional ruling elites of Pakistan,
a coalition of feudal landlords, big merchants, religious "ulema", and military
and security officers the chance to close the parenthesis of reform and
re-organization he had opened and dash the hopes he had aroused. And that is a
loss not only for him as a politician but also for Pakistan as a nation.
Khan's supporters tell us that he does not intend to drop the wicket and simply
walk off the field into a footnote in history. The demonstrations launched in
his support may lend some credibility to that claim. However, the "comeback kid"
scenario that Khan and his coterie close to him are peddling seems unlikely. The
question worth considering now is which part of the traditional ruling elite is
best able to attract at least part of Khan's support base.
Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from
1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications,
published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.
This article was originally published by Asharq al-Awsat and is reprinted by
kind permission of the author.
© 2022 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 Cost of New Energy in Europe, but Not in Money
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/April 17, 2022
"When I left Nantes in 1984, it was tranquility itself, even in the
traditionally more working-class neighborhoods... Today Nantes has become
Lebanonized. And its history is that of France..." — Ivan Rioufol, journalist,
Le Figaro, April 7, 2018.
One might even be forgiven for thinking that Qatar's ultimate goal was to
Islamize Europe. In the words of a television documentary, it is Qatar's "war of
influence".
"[T]he Assalam mosque," Le Figaro recounts, "was built on land sold by the
municipality, benefiting from a 'cultural' contribution of 200,000 euros and a
loan guarantee of 346,800 euros". The city financed its own self-conquest. ...
Russian gas is not free; Qatari gas as well.
The German website Tichys Einblick comments that "instead of Putin's war, we
will finance Islamic terrorism". The unconditional will to shine morally has
harmful consequences -- all because nuclear power is "haram" (forbidden).
As Europe turns from its masochistic energy dependence on Russia, and the
potential blackmail that came with it, will it now fall into the open arms of
other dictatorships that stand ready to pump gas into its markets? (Image
source: iStock)
As Europe turns from its masochistic energy dependence on Russia, and the
potential blackmail that came with it, will it now fall into the open arms of
other dictatorships that stand ready to pump gas into its markets, such as such
as Algeria? Even more dangerous might be a new partnership formed between
Germany and Qatar. They have just agreed on a huge long-term energy partnership
to reduce dependence on Russian gas, according to German Economy Minister Robert
Habeck, who last month visited the Persian Gulf and met with the Emir of Qatar,
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Italy was the first to negotiate with Qatar, a
country that, according to Freedom House, numbers 25 out of 100 on its the
freedom score, only slightly above Russia, at 19.
Qatar is now saying that it stands "in solidarity" with Europe.
Solidarity?
Qatar is an Islamist state where "Islam is the official religion... and Sharia
is the main source of legislation", claims its constitution. Qatar is governed
as an absolute monarchy. Political parties are banned and elections are sham,
and it is illegal to be homosexual. According to Open Doors, there are only 18
states in the world where a Christian is worse off than in Qatar. As for the
billion euros that Qatar has spent on building mosques and Koranic schools in
Europe, perhaps the champions of "progressivism" feel expansively "diverse" with
that. However, even the newspaper of the French left, Libération, has referred
to "Qatar, financier of European Islam".
"Qatar and Turkey are the two main supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology
in the world," Elie Chouraqui told i24NEWS.
"They presented themselves well and proclaimed themselves privileged
interlocutors of the political world which welcomed them with open arms to the
point of entrusting them with the training of imams of France".
At the same time as the economy minister of Germany went to the sheikh to
implore him for more gas, in France the ambassador of Qatar was receiving an
award from the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.
Qatar has been extremely active in France. The emirate graciously financed the
Islamic Center of Villeneuve-d'Ascq and France's first state-funded Muslim faith
school, the Lycée-Collège Averroès. Unfortunately, the Lycée Averroès soon
became the center of a scandal. One of its teachers resigned after writing that
the school was "a hotbed of anti-Semitism and 'promoting Islamism' to pupils".
Qatar, meanwhile, has financed many mosques in France, including the Great
Mosque of Poitiers, which sits in the vicinity of the site of the Battle of
Tours (also known as the Battle of Poitiers), where Charles Martel, ruler of the
Franks, stopped the advancing Muslim army of Abdul al-Rahman in the year 732.
The Assalam mosque in Nantes and the Grand Mosque of Paris are other examples of
Qatari generosity. Qatar, in fact, has been funding many mega-mosques across
Europe. One might even be forgiven for thinking that Qatar's ultimate goal was
to Islamize Europe. In the words of a television documentary, it is Qatar's "war
of influence".
"Woman's month for the city of Nantes, a veiled woman on the streets of the
city. Unacceptable complacency towards Islamism! This is the real threat that
hangs over France!" is how Eric Ciotti, a senior leader of the Les Republicans
party, described the municipal billboards in a large city that he sees as lost
to Islamization.
Nantes is the city of the Dukes of Brittany, steeped in history on the Loire
estuary. Its story is emblematic of how Europe is sinking. Ivan Rioufol wrote in
Le Figaro:
"Having been a journalist in Nantes for a long time, I know this city where I
was born very well. When I left Nantes in 1984, it was tranquility itself, even
in the traditionally more working-class neighborhoods... Immigrants were a
minority... Today Nantes has become Lebanonized. And its history is that of
France...
"The Malakoff mosque... seats 1,200 and has erected a 17-meter minaret. In
addition to this 'cathedral mosque' there are four other mosques in the city,
not to mention those in neighboring communities. This influence of Islam
accompanied the new settlement of the working-class neighborhoods, under the
encouragement of the socialist municipalities".
Today, in Nantes alone, there are ten mosques.
The Assalam Mosque was constructed with Qatari money -- but not only. The
Assalam mosque," Le Figaro recounts, "was built on land sold by the
municipality, benefiting from a 'cultural' contribution of 200,000 euros and a
loan guarantee of 346,800 euros". The city financed its own self-conquest. And
who was the mayor of the city at the time of the financing and the agreement
with Qatar? Jean-Marc Ayrault, mayor of Nantes from 1989 to 2012 and socialist
prime minister of France from 2021 to 2014 ...
Pierre Vermeren , in his book Déni français (French Denial), noted:
"In Nantes, Jean-Marc Ayrault practiced a patronage that led to the construction
of three, four, community mosques distributed among the Muslim Brotherhood,
Morocco and Turkey, as well as a Salafi mosque on the outskirts of his city. He
is accused, like the former mayor of Paris, of violating the religious funding
law. In Bordeaux, Alain Juppé (former prime minister) canceled the Great Mosque
project when it was discovered that the funds came from Qatar and Azerbaijan..."
The magazine L'Incorrect explains how Qatari money is changing the French
landscape.
"When you think of Alsace, you imagine a thousand small flowered villages lost
in the vineyards on the side of the Vosges mountains, whose names give you a
headache. We are (for the moment) in Christian land, as evidenced by the chapels
that line roads and paths. But mosques sprout like mushrooms after the rain,
even in villages with a few thousand inhabitants. This phenomenon reveals a slow
but sure Islamization of this region".
We are in the region where the other capital of the EU, Strasbourg, is located.
"The European capital has among its buildings the most important mosque in
Europe, the center of An-Nour. The largest building of its kind in France, this
center is not just a place of worship, but a cultural and political one, funded
by Qatar".
This is happening not only in France. The Great Mosque of Copenhagen received a
donation of 30 million euros from Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, former Emir of
Qatar, who is also a leading supporter of the Muslims in Belgium. Europe's
Parliament was also asked to investigate Qatari mosques in Kosovo.
Russian gas is not free; Qatari gas as well.
The German website Tichys Einblick comments that "instead of Putin's war, we
will finance Islamic terrorism". The unconditional will to shine morally has
harmful consequences -- all because nuclear power is "haram" (forbidden).
Former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel provided a glimpse of the
relativism that dominates our ruling classes:
"Qatar does not threaten anyone, does not finance terrorist organizations, but
hosts Hamas and the Taliban at the request of the USA (!) in order to be able to
negotiate with them in Doha. Qatar is simply a reliable partner of the West.".
Shortly before his death, Christophe de Margerie, the late head of French oil
giant Total, said: "Anything can be bought, including men, it's just a question
of price".
What is Europe's price?
"This tiny Persian Gulf kingdom is emerging as one of Europe's best hopes for
weaning itself off Russian natural gas, in another sign of how the war in
Ukraine is changing the world's energy relationships", The Wall Street Journal
reported. "Germany, France, Belgium and Italy are in talks with Qatar to buy
liquefied natural gas on a long-term basis, said Qatari and European officials".
The EU last month dropped antitrust investigations into Qatar Petroleum, the
state energy company, clearing the way for the country to pursue more long-term
contracts with Europe.
Le Figaro tells one of these extraordinary evenings in which Qatar supported the
French cultural élite:
"Dozens of guests flocked to Place de l'Étoile... home to the Qatari embassy. In
the rooms with gilded panels with mosaics and frescoes of languid nymphs, His
Excellency Mohamed al-Kuwari awarded cartoonist Jean Plantu and Amirouche Laïdi,
president of the Averroes Club, with the 'Doha Arab Cultural Capital' award. The
ambassador awarded André Miquel (famous Arabist from the Collège de France),
Dominique Baudis (writer), Bernard Noël (art critic) and the poet Adonis. From
former Culture Minister Jack Lang to Nouvel Observateur founder Jean Daniel, a
total of 66 French cultural figures have been decorated by Qatar".
Making fun of the deal with Qatar, the German newspaper Die Welt ironically
proclaimed:
"The relief in Germany is enormous. They are finally no longer dependent on gas
supplies from an autocratically-ruled country that makes life difficult for
homosexuals and does not always take human rights very seriously."
Before the suspicion arises however, that German
environmentalist-progressive-woke circles are throwing their noble principles
overboard, it must be said that Qatar is willing to make major concessions to
the German "Greens". The emirate has promised to install wind turbines in the
desert and to host the next COP26 conference about how to create a "sustainable
world".
*Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and
author.
© 2022 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.
Turkey and US move closer to the same wavelength
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/April 17, 2022
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and FM Mevlut Cavusoglu during a meeting, in Istanbul, Oct.
The Ukrainian crisis has changed several paradigms in international relations.
Turkish-American relations are among them. There was a visible deterioration
between these two NATO allies after Joe Biden’s election as US president.
Congressman Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
on Feb. 4 sent a letter to the State Department urging the Biden administration
not to supply Turkey with F-16 fighter aircraft and modernization kits, due to
its human rights violations and the deployment of the Russian-manufactured S-400
air defense system. Despite cool relations between Biden and Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the State Department responded that the potential sale of
F-16s to Turkey would serve both US and NATO security interests, particularly in
the wake of the Ukrainian crisis.
This change of attitude in the US occurred because of growing awareness about
the positive role that Turkey might play in the Ukrainian crisis. Turkey had
good relations with both Russia and Ukraine and used this position to host two
important meetings with Russia and Ukraine, one in Antalya, the other in
Istanbul. It is now trying to do the same between the Russian and Ukrainian
presidents.
The Euro-Atlantic community woke up, all of a sudden, to the reality that Turkey
might be instrumental in bringing together the two warring sides and contribute
to peace in the region. This reality softened the rigid attitude that the EU —
and more so, NATO — have displayed toward Turkey in recent years. The first
concrete outcome of it is, therefore, the US attitude about the sale of the F-16
fighter aircraft to Turkey.
When Turkey purchased the S-400 air defense system from Russia, both the US
administration and Congress reacted harshly, and Congress imposed sanctions on
Turkey via the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. It did
not stop there. The US expelled Turkey from the F-35 super-fighter project,
which is regarded as the main component of NATO air defense for the next 50
years. About 900 components of the aircraft were being manufactured in Turkish
factories.
Ankara did everything to persuade its US counterparts that these sanctions would
necessarily weaken Turkey’s defense capability with a direct impact on that of
NATO’s. All reasonable explanations by the Turkish military authorities fell on
deaf ears on the US side. The Ukrainian crisis helped to change the US attitude,
but only on the question of the sale of F-16s. There is still no softening in
the US position regarding Turkey’s expulsion from the F-35 project.
On the question of the Russian-manufactured S-400 air defense system, US
negotiators unofficially proposed that Turkey make available this air defense
system to Ukraine. Turkey rejected this proposal because, at the height of the
Syrian crisis, some NATO allies withdrew Patriot missile batteries from Turkey
at a time when it badly needed them. Ankara wants to use the S-400 in case of
need and does not want to be left again exposed to attacks without proper
protection.
Despite the frozen positions on two subjects — the Countering America’s
Adversaries Through Sanctions Act and the S-400 air defense system — there is
now a timid softening on the subject of the purchase of the F-16 fighter
aircraft. Turkey’s demand covers the purchase of 40 F-16s and the upgrading of
the existing ones in Turkey’s inventory. In other words, it is a commitment that
covers a long period and consolidates Turkey’s relations with the Euro-Atlantic
community as a whole. The US will be reassessing the contribution that Turkey
may make to this community.
The Turkish-US negotiations on F-16s look like a breakthrough in the relations
between these two NATO allies, but one swallow does not make a summer.
Another critical issue is the impact of US-Russia relations on Turkey’s Syria
policy. It is unclear how the new political landscape between the US and Russia
will evolve in Syria. The cooperation that the US and Russia used to maintain in
Syria has now been suspended. While Russia is so deeply bogged down in the
Ukrainian quagmire, it cannot be expected to play the same effective role in
Syria.
If the power balance between the US and Russia in Syria tilts toward the US,
Turkey will be affected by this new balance in two ways. One way is weakened
Russian support for the Bashar Assad regime, and Turkey will be happy about
that. However, this support will probably be kept at a level allowing the Syrian
regime to float but not sink. Moscow will keep Turkey at arm’s length and avoid
unnecessarily antagonizing it.
The second effect of the change in the power balance will be the continuation of
the US support for Kurds. Whether the F-16 deal will be sealed or not, the US
support for Kurds is likely to continue one way or another.
The Turkish-US negotiations on F-16s look like a breakthrough in the relations
between these two NATO allies, but one swallow does not make a summer.
*Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the
ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar