English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For 03 August/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.august03.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it
Luke 11/42-46: “‘But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practised, without neglecting the others.Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honour in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the market-places. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.’One of the lawyers answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.’ And he said, ‘Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.”

Titels For English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 02-03 August/2022
Aoun tells ALECSO delegation coordination between Arab countries in cultural field essential, tackles outcome of Hochstein talks with Bou Habib,...
Berri meets Director-General of Arab Educational and Scientific Organization, Ambassadors of Canada and Finland, IMF’s Azour
Hochstein meets Lapid in unannounced visit to Israel
Berri senses 'seriousness' in negotiations, Hochstein to return within two weeks
Bou Saab says unified stance 'strong factor' in negotiations
Former minister Michel Samaha, was released from jail today
Lebanon prosecutor allows departure of ship accused by Ukraine of stealing grain
Raad: We want our full rights and our bet is on the resistance
First Ukraine grain ship, bound for Lebanon, reaches Turkish coast
Bad weather slows Ukrainian grain ship bound for Lebanon
Greece charges 5 with smuggling 96 migrants from Lebanon
Applications for UK's Chevening Scholarship Scheme for Master's Degrees are now open
History is unmerciful. Actually it is cruel and harsh./Jean-Marie Kassab/August/2022
Supervisory commission for elections takes measures against violators
Port Blast impunity reigns supreme/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/August 02/2022

Titles For Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 02-03 August/2022
Pelosi defies China threats and lands in Taiwan
China vows 'targeted military actions' in response to Pelosi Taiwan visit
Taiwan reports 21 Chinese warplane incursions as Pelosi visits
Iran’s nuclear activities loom over high-level UN summit
Death from above, printed at home: Ukrainians deploy DIY weapons against Russian troops
What's at stake for Ukraine in the Battle of Kherson
Russia declares Ukrainian military unit a terrorist group
Followers of cleric told to withdraw from Iraq’s parliament

Titles For LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 02-03 August/2022
Jaffa: When Outnumbered Christian Warriors Defeated Muslim Hordes/Raymond Ibrahim/August 02/022
U.N. Names Day to Fight ‘Islamophobia’ but Ignores Thousands of Dead Christians/Raymond Ibrahim/August 02/022
Iran possible nuclear blackmail is a menace - analysis/Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/August 02/2022
Iraq on the cusp of anarchy as Tehran’s grip falters/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/August 02/2022
The Maliki Leaks: The Shadow Culture of Politics in Iraq/Sardar Aziz/The Washington Insitute/August 02/202
The U.S. Role in Iraq’s Political Crisis: Guidelines for More Effective Engagement/Bilal Wahab/The Washington Insitute/August 02/202

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 02-03 August/2022
Aoun tells ALECSO delegation coordination between Arab countries in cultural field essential, tackles outcome of Hochstein talks with Bou Habib,...
NNA/August 02, 2022
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, met Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Abdullah Bou Habib, today at Baabda Palace.
Local, regional and international developments, were addressed in addition to and the talks held with the American mediator in the indirect negotiations for the demarcation of the southern maritime borders, Mr. Amos Hochstein, and the data available on the contacts made by the American mediator to move the file of indirect negotiations, which are supposed to be completed demarcation of boundaries.
Director General of the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Science:
President Aoun received the Director General of the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Science ALECSO Dr. Mohamed Ould Ammar, in the presence of the Minister of Culture, Judge Mohamed Wissam Mortada.
Dr. Ammar was accompanied by the coordinator of cultural projects in the organization, Mr. Abdel Hadi Al-Ghamari.
The meeting aimed to inform the President of the organization’s activities in general and in Lebanon in particular.
Dr. Ammar indicated that the organization was the first to support Lebanon during the crisis it went through by organizing meetings that dealt with several fields, during which the organization’s experience in the field of education and science was put at the disposal of those responsible for this file in Lebanon.
Ammar also pointed out that preparations are underway to celebrate in the year 2024 the city of Tripoli as the capital of Arab culture, in cooperation with the Lebanese National Committee.
For his part, Minister Mortada talked about the existing coordination with the ALECSO organization, which includes Arab countries and whose energies Lebanon benefits from to preserve the archaeological heritage and all that has positive repercussions on cultural identity.
President Aoun had welcomed Dr. Ammar, wishing him success in his efforts to enhance educational, cultural and scientific cooperation with Lebanon and the Arab countries.
The President also congratulated Dr. Ammar on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of the founding of the organization, which is on the 25th of last July.
In addition, President Aoun pointed out that coordination between Arab countries in the Arab cultural field is important, especially since cultural work pays a heavy price as a result of the many crises that the world and the countries of the Arab region are going through, including wars, conflicts, tragedies, displacement, social crises and other negative repercussions on the march of advancement and the path of achieving development goals.
Finally, the President stressed the need for capabilities to enhance the role of culture and education in societies as a result of severe economic crises and their repercussions on the younger generations.
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received the credentials of five new ambassadors accredited to Lebanon.
Ambassadors are: Uruguayan Ambassador, Carlos GITTO, Ambassador of Kazakhstan, Rasoul Gumali, Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Hamish Cowell CMG, Iranian Ambassador, Mojtaba Amani Hamedani, and the Ambassador of Turkmenistan, Muhammetgeldi AYAZOV.
The official ceremonies to present the credentials took place, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abdullah Bou Habib, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Hani Shmeitli, the Director General of Protocols at the Presidency of the Republic, Dr. Nabil Shedid, and the Deputy Director of Protocols at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Consul Salam Al-Ashkar.
Upon the ambassadors’ arrival to the Presidential Palace, the army’s music played the anthem of the country represented by each ambassador, and flags were hoisted on the mast of the Presidential Palace alongside the Lebanese flag.
Then, each ambassador saluted the flag and entered the salon of October 22 amid two rows of spears, and from there to the ambassadors’ salon to present his credentials to President Aoun, and to introduce himself and the members of the diplomatic mission.
Upon leaving, the army’s music played the Lebanese national anthem.
During the ceremony, ambassadors conveyed to President Aoun the greetings of their country’s presidents and leaders, and stressed the need to work on everything that would strengthen bilateral relations between their countries and Lebanon.
For his part, the President conveyed his greetings to the ambassadors to the leaders and heads of their countries, stressing Lebanon’s keenness to strengthen relations with their brotherly and friendly countries for the benefit of Lebanon, their countries, their people and the Lebanese.
President Aoun also wished the new ambassadors success in their new duties.
Biographies:
Ambassador of Eastern Uruguay, Carlos GITTO:
-Holds a doctorate in diplomatic sciences and a bachelor’s degree in law and political science.
-Conducted training courses for diplomats.
-Fluctuated in several administrative positions, especially in the Ministries of Labor and Social Affairs, and then Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
-Appointed second secretary of his country's embassy in Ottawa from 1995-2000, Canada, before he was appointed from 2003-2004 as a counselor at Uruguay’s embassy in Washington, DC.
-Appointed between 2011-2017 as Minister and Deputy Head of his country’s mission in Argentina, before he was appointed as Director of the European Affairs Office at his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2018-2021.
-Worked on the establishment of the joint health committee on the borders between his country and Brazil, and also served as the coordinator of the joint committee between his country and Brazil for strategic planning and fruitful integration.
-Worked on the development of a number of cultural projects.
-In 2016, he completed 30 years of public service within the framework of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, as well as at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his country.
Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Rasul Gumali:
-Born in 1971.
-Fluctuated in several administrative positions, where he was appointed between 1996-1998 as Third Secretary and then Second Secretary at the Blah Embassy in Egypt.
-In 1999, he was appointed head of a unit in the Bilateral Cooperation Department of his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
-Appointed between 1999-2000, head of the media office of his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before he was appointed between 2000-2002, media official for his country’s prime minister, and head of the information office of the prime minister.
- Appointed from 2004-2005, as Consul General of his country in the United Arab Emirates.
-Worked as a publisher of an educational magazine in the Kazakh language from 2010-2011, and since 2008 until today he has been a publisher of the Exclusive Studies magazine.
Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Hamish Cowell CMG:
-Fluctuated in several administrative positions, as he began his work as an assistant in the Iran-Iraq and the Middle East Department, in his country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 1987-1988.
-Appointed second secretary at his country’s embassy in Colombo from 1989-1992, then appointed deputy head of his country’s mission and first political secretary to his country’s embassy in Tehran from 1992-1994.
-Appointed from 1996-1999, as Head of the Political and Economic Department of his country's embassy in Cairo.
-Appointed in the year 2000, at the head of the British government, before working as an assistant researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies from 2000-2001.
-From 2005-2009, he worked as first secretary, and then head of the international policies department of his country’s embassy in Paris.
-Appointed from 2013-2017, his country’s ambassador to Tunisia.
-Appointed from 2017-2021, his country’s ambassador to Muscat.
Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mojtaba Amani Hamedani:
-Holds a Master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Tehran in 2018.
-Fluent in Arabic, and conversant in English.
-Fluctuated in several administrative positions, as he was appointed Deputy Director of the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1992-1994.
-Appointed as an expert in the Middle East and North Africa Department in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994-1995.
-Appointed deputy head of his country’s mission in Cairo from 1995-1999.
-Appointed as an expert at the Center for Political and International Studies in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1999-2006.
-Worked as an assistant director general for the Center for Political and International Studies in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2006-2009.
-Appointed head of his country’s mission in Cairo from 2009-2014.
-Worked at the Center for Political and International Studies in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2014 until his appointment as his country’s ambassador to Lebanon.
Ambassador of Turkmenistan Muhammetgeldi AYAZOV:
- Born in 1979.
-Worked in a private tourism promotion company from 2001-2010.
-Fluctuated in public administrative positions, as he was appointed as a third secretary in the International Organizations Department of his country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 2010-2012.
-Appointed second secretary, then first secretary, and then consul in his country’s embassy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from 2012-2016.
- Appointed from2017-2018, Head of the Protocol and Diplomacy Department in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
-From 2018 until today, he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of his country to Armenia.—Presidency Press Office

Berri meets Director-General of Arab Educational and Scientific Organization, Ambassadors of Canada and Finland, IMF’s Azour
NNA/August 02, 2022
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday welcomed at his Ain al-Tineh residence Director-General of the Arab Educational and Scientific Organization, Mohammad Ammar, in the presence of Caretaker Minister of Culture, Judge Mohammad Wissam El-Mortada.
Ammar briefed Berri on the organization's work programs and cooperation agreements with Lebanon’s Ministry of Culture.
Berri then welcomed Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon, Chantal Chastenay, who paid him a farewell visit marking the end of her diplomatic mission as her country's ambassador to Lebanon. The visit had also been an occasion to discuss the general situation, as well as bilateral relations between the two countries.
Speaker Berri also met with Finnish Ambassador to Lebanon, Tarja Fernandez, who paid him a farewell visit marking the end of her diplomatic mission in Lebanon.
Later in the afternoon, Berri had an audience with Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund, former Minister Dr. Jihad Azour, with whom he discussed the general situation, especially the financial and economic situation.

Hochstein meets Lapid in unannounced visit to Israel
Naharnet/August 02, 2022
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid after leaving Beirut on Monday, Lapid's office said Tuesday. Hochstein's unannounced visit to Israel followed an "important" meeting in Baabda with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, over the maritime border demarcation with Israel. Hochstein said after the meeting that he was optimistic. He added that progress has been made and that gaps have been narrowed. Hochstein will also meet Israeli officials in the Energy Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council, Israeli media reports said. Hochstein had arrived in Beirut Sunday to push talks to resolve a bitter maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel that had escalated in early June, after Israel moved a production vessel to the Karish offshore field, which is partly claimed by Lebanon. The move prompted Beirut to call for the resumption of U.S.-mediated negotiations on the demarcation dispute.

Berri senses 'seriousness' in negotiations, Hochstein to return within two weeks
Naharnet/August 02, 2022 
U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein did not carry a specific proposal but a number of proposed solutions that he discussed with the Lebanese leaders on Monday, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said. Berri told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, that the Lebanese leaders have sensed this time "seriousness in the negotiations."He added that Hochstein will return within two weeks to Lebanon with Israeli answers.Berri said he has informed the envoy that Lebanon is keen on the maritime border demarcation as an obligatory path for reaching solutions, refusing proposals submitted by Israel that suggested sharing the resources in a way that satisfies both parties.

Bou Saab says unified stance 'strong factor' in negotiations
Naharnet/August 03/2022
Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab negated Tuesday a zigzag line in the border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel. "The zigzag line has not been proposed," Bou Saab told LBCI in an interview, adding that Lebanon is holding onto its blocs and would not accept partnership with Israel nor sharing its resources. "Who said we would accept a zigzag line," he asked. Media reports had mentioned a zigzag line that would grant Israel an additional maritime area in return for the Qana field that would be given to Lebanon. "We were keen on preventing leaked information in order to make the negotiations succeed," Bou Saab said, adding that the President, the PM-designate and the Speaker were unanimous about the demarcation file and that they have been coordinating together. "This is a strong factor for the negotiations," he affirmed. Bou Saab revealed that the awaited solution will be close to what Lebanon wants.
U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein had arrived in Beirut on Sunday and met with the three Lebanese leaders on Monday. He is scheduled to return to Lebanon with an Israeli answer within two weeks.

Former minister Michel Samaha, was released from jail today
Megaphone/August 03/2022
Sakhr Hachem, the lawyer of former minister Michel Samaha, announced that his client was released from jail today after completing his 13-year sentence (as Lebanon’s prison year is nine months long) for the crime of transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon and planning to use them for terrorist acts and the assassination of political figures who pose a threat to the Syrian regime. Hachem said that Samaha is in good health, “he went home and is currently having lunch.” He stressed that his client is stripped of his civil rights: he is excluded from all jobs, public service and salaries he receives from the state, he cannot be hired in the administration of any sect or syndicate, he cannot run or vote in elections, and cannot own any media outlet or publish in it. Samaha, along with the head of the Syrian National Security Bureau Ali Mamlouk, was convicted for transporting explosions and plotting to carry out acts of sabotage in Lebanon that undermine civil peace. He was caught red-handed on August 9, 2012 through videos and recordings that show him transporting explosives from the trunk of his car, which were leaked by Milad Kfoury, an informant for the ISF’s Information Branch. In the videos, Samaha spoke at length of the areas and the people who should be targeted, as he ate cactus fruit (or prickly pear), which is usually harvested between July and August.

Lebanon prosecutor allows departure of ship accused by Ukraine of stealing grain
AFP/August 02, 2022
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s top prosecutor Tuesday cleared a Syrian-flagged ship for release after it was seized over allegations by Kyiv’s embassy in Beirut that it carried flour and barley stolen from Ukraine, an official said. Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat allowed the Laodicea, which docked in the northern port city of Tripoli last week, to set sail after investigations failed to prove it carried stolen goods, a judicial official told AFP. “Preliminary investigations... did not reveal the existence of a criminal offense, or that the goods were stolen,” the official said on condition of anonymity. Ukraine’s embassy in Lebanon had claimed that the grain aboard the ship was loaded from a region occupied by Russian forces and said it presented Lebanese authorities with proof that the merchandise was stolen. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Moscow’s forces of ransacking its grain warehouses since Russia invaded the country in late February. On Saturday, Oueidat ordered the vessel’s seizure and instructed police to investigate. The prosecutor found that the grain aboard the vessel belonged to a Syrian merchant, the judicial official said. “The Syrian national whose name is on the shipment from Ukraine came in for investigation and presented the papers and documents that prove his ownership,” the official said on Tuesday. Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, has this week tentatively resumed grain exports following a UN-backed deal. A Sierra Leone-registered ship, Razoni, set sail from Odessa port for Lebanon Monday under an accord brokered by Turkey and the United Nations that seeks to release millions of tons of trapped Ukrainian produce to world markets and curb a global food crisis. The Marine Traffic website showed the vessel — which is carrying 26,000 tons of maize — off the coast of Bulgaria by 0900 GMT on Tuesday.
Lebanon, which is struggling with one of the world’s worst financial crises, is facing a particularly acute bread shortage.

Raad: We want our full rights and our bet is on the resistance
Naharnet/August 02, 2022
The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, announced Tuesday that Hezbollah’s stance on the sea border demarcation file with Israel is “clear and obvious.”“We want our full rights in our waters, borders, exclusive economic zone, gas and oil, and we want the embargo to be lifted off the companies that we bring to explore in our territory and extract our gas,” Raad said. “Our bet is on the resistance and its arms in preserving our rights and sovereignty,” Raad added. He also said that the U.S. “rushed to secure the interests of the Israelis and Europeans at the expense of our interest and national sovereignty” after “the gas crisis erupted in Europe.”His remarks come a day after U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein held talks in Beirut with Lebanon’s top officials after which he announced that he is optimistic that an agreement can be reached. Hezbollah has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that it might resort to military options if Israel begins producing gas in September without an agreement with Lebanon.

First Ukraine grain ship, bound for Lebanon, reaches Turkish coast
Agence France Presse/August 02, 2022
The first official shipment of Ukrainian grain since Russia's invasion reached Turkish territorial waters on Tuesday near the entrance to the Bosphorus Strait, according to an AFP team on site. The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni is due to be inspected Wednesday near Istanbul by a team that includes Russian and Ukrainian officials before delivering its cargo of 26,000 tons of maize to Tripoli, Lebanon. "The inspection of the ship by the joint inspection team will begin (Wednesday) morning," the Turkish defense ministry said. The delivery, which set off from the Black Sea port of Odessa on Monday, is the first under a UN-backed deal brokered with the help of Turkey last month. But Western-backed leaders in Kyiv accuse Russia of stealing Ukrainian grain in territories seized by Kremlin forces since their February invasion and then shipping it abroad.

Bad weather slows Ukrainian grain ship bound for Lebanon
Associated Press/August 02, 2022
The first cargo ship to leave Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor more than five months ago has run into bad weather in the Black Sea and is set to arrive later than scheduled in Istanbul, a Turkish official said Tuesday. The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, which set sail from the Ukrainian port of Odesa on Monday, is now expected to reach Istanbul early Wednesday, according to Rear Admiral Ozcan Altunbulak, a coordinator at the joint center established to oversee the grain shipments. Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. officials are to inspect the ship after it anchors in Istanbul. The inspections are part of a U.N.- and Turkish-brokered deal to shift Ukrainian grain stockpiles to foreign markets and alleviate a mounting global food crisis. Altunbulak said "preparations and planning" are continuing for other ships expected to leave Ukraine's ports, but he did not provide details. As part of the July 22 agreement on shipments, which include Russian grain and fertilizer, safe corridors through the mined waters outside Ukraine's ports were established. The situation in the Black Sea remains tense, however, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged international partners to keep a close eye on Moscow's compliance with the deal. More ships are expected to leave from Ukraine's ports through the safe corridors. At Odesa, 16 more vessels, all blocked since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, were waiting their turn, with others to follow, Ukrainian authorities say.
The more than 26,000 tons of corn on board the Razoni, destined for Lebanon, will make barely a dent in what the World Bank last week called "rising food insecurity" across the world. "Record high food prices have triggered a global crisis that will drive millions more into extreme poverty," its latest food security update said, blaming the war in Ukraine, global supply chain problems and the COVID-19 pandemic. But the restart of shipments from Ukraine and Russia, which are major world suppliers of wheat, barley, corn and sunflower oil, raised hopes that the situation could improve. The fertile Black Sea region has long been known as the breadbasket of Europe. The shipping developments came against a backdrop of continued fighting, especially in southern and eastern Ukraine. Moscow's forces stuck to their familiar pattern of bombarding areas they don't hold, with Ukrainian officials reporting that the Russian shelling killed at least three civilians in eastern areas overnight. In the Donetsk region at the forefront of the Russian offensive, the bombardments targeted towns and villages, especially Bakhmut which has taken the brunt of recent shelling.
Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenlo said that "the Russians are leveling Bakhmut with a massive barrage from the ground and from the air.""The shelling of Bakhmut is continuing around the clock, leaving civilians little chance to survive," Kyrylenko said in televised remarks.
The United States said it was sending an additional $550 million worth of military aid to Kyiv. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a tweet late Monday that the package included 75,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and more ammunition for the American-built HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, which have given Ukrainian forces an advantage on the battlefield.

Greece charges 5 with smuggling 96 migrants from Lebanon
Associated Press/August 02, 2022
Five people were arrested on a Greek island Tuesday and charged with trying to smuggle nearly a hundred migrants into Europe on an unsafe vessel last week, using what appears to be a new direct sea route from crisis-afflicted Lebanon to Italy. It was the second such incident in about a month involving a boat departing Lebanon. The more common sea route for asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa seeking a better life in Europe is from Turkey to Greece or Italy. But it has become less used amid increased vigilance by Greek and European Union border agencies. Greece's coast guard said Tuesday that the suspected smugglers were detained from among 101 people on the motor yacht found drifting last Thursday 75 miles southeast of Greece's southeastern Aegean island of Karpathos. It said the suspects included nationals of Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. The migrants, including 40 children and 19 women, were taken to a camp for asylum seekers."Due to the high number of passengers and the poor health conditions, the vessel was unseaworthy," the coast guard said in a statement Tuesday. It said the migrants - whose nationalities were not made public - had paid between $6,500-8,000 each to be taken to Italy. On June 28, 166 migrants on an unseaworthy fishing boat that had left Lebanon for Italy were rescued off Karpathos. Greece's coast guard charged six people on board with migrant smuggling in that case. According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, in the first half of this year only about 2% of migrants arriving in Italy by sea had left from Lebanon, compared to 55% from Libya and 21% from Turkey.
But the UNHCR said last week that's a significant increase from previous years.

Applications for UK's Chevening Scholarship Scheme for Master's Degrees are now open
Naharnet/August 02, 2022
The British Embassy Beirut has announced that applications for the UK Government’s flagship Chevening Scholarships program opened on August 2.Applicants should apply online via www.chevening.org/apply by 1 Nov 2022. The scholarship offers full financial support for scholars to study for any eligible master’s degree at any UK university whilst also gaining access to a wide range of exclusive academic, professional, and cultural experiences. For eligibility and criteria, visit https://www.chevening.org/scholarships/who-can-apply/ “Chevening Scholarships are awarded to potential future leaders and individuals from all backgrounds who can demonstrate strong leadership and networking skills. They should have the commitment and skills required to create positive change in their respective field and/or community, and to show how a master’s degree from a UK university would help them achieve that upon their return to their home country,” the embassy said in a statement. Lebanese citizens (and Palestinians residing in Lebanon) are eligible to apply under the Lebanon scheme in any subject area. The Lebanon scheme also includes the ‘Rebecca Dykes Chevening Scholarship’ which is offered every year to a woman who wishes to pursue a master’s in an area related to Gender Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Development and Human Rights and Refugee and Migration Studies or other similar fields.For the second consecutive year, the Chevening Siren Associates Scholarship will offer one scholarship to a Lebanese national (or Palestinian national who would be normally resident in Lebanon) and be located there at the time of making an application to an individual who wishes to pursue a master’s in Governance, International Development, Human Rights or Public Financial Management/ Administration at one of the UK’s top 20 universities. “Since the program was created in 1983, there are over 50,000 Chevening Alumni worldwide. Many of whom have become leaders and innovators, breaking boundaries across a variety of professional fields. There are more than 1,500 scholarships on offer globally for the 2023/2024 academic year, demonstrating the UK’s ongoing commitment towards developing the leaders of tomorrow,” the embassy said. The Chevening Alumni Association in Lebanon consists over 200 alumni members. For eligibility and criteria visit www.chevening.org/scholarships. You can also contact the British Embassy’s Chevening Officer abir.breir@fcdo.gov.uk

History is unmerciful. Actually it is cruel and harsh.
Jean-Marie Kassab/August/2022
If Nasrallah says he is mandated by God, then I can easily say that I am the John the Baptist resurrected. Just like him, I have been preaching in the desert and nobody was or is listening: They just went on fiercely into the parliamentary elections, and failed. The same scenario applies for the presidential elections. Fiasco after fiasco after fiasco. Nasrallah's declaration is insane. I for once agree with Marx when he said “Religion is the opiate of the masses”. I say that because many many people do and will believe Nasrallah and abide by his rules, eyes wide shut. Nothing new under the sun…
The problem resides in those who supposedly stand against Iran and its Hezbollah, and this is why I feel like John the Baptist. Iran is implementing its own interests and cannot be blamed for that. The question remains: Are the so-called sovereignty seekers acting for the best of the country?
What about the commoners? These people follow their leaders blindfolded. They don’t see that all their leaders are amassing money, dressing up for festivities, shaking stupid hands and enjoying the reaps of their leadership.Summer will end soon, and so will the few dollars spent by the visitors. Then what? The summer of 2022 is the hottest: It could witness the total control of Iran over the country. The diabolical Berry will be the unique head of the State with a crippled non-existing government and no one seated at Baabda, or eventually a marionette once more. I will say no more, my throat is dry and the desert is an inferno. History is unmerciful. Actually it is cruel and harsh. The circa 60 % of those who did not vote should say their word, now.

Supervisory commission for elections takes measures against violators
Naharnet/August/2022
The Supervisory Commission for Elections said Tuesday in a statement that "some media outlets have been referred to the Publications Courts for violations, including defamation, slander, opinion polls, hate speech and the breach of electoral silence." It added that it had also referred complaints to the public prosecutors in Lebanon. The complaints included bribery, obstruction of the electoral process, and other criminal offenses.The commission also said it had submitted referrals to the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities to impose fines on the candidates and lists for every day of delay in providing comprehensive accounting data.

Port Blast impunity reigns supreme
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/August 02/2022
Two years after the apocalyptic Beirut Port explosion, which destroyed half of the Lebanese capital, the deep scars and trauma of the people and its physical destruction of the buildings still lingers. For the city’s inhabitants, especially those who have lost their loved ones, the destroyed grain silos at the port are a continuous reminder of the failure of the Lebanese establishment. It went out of its way to prevent the judiciary from conducting an effective and transparent investigation to finally reveal who was responsible for this calamity. Rather than pursuing justice, the Lebanese state insists on leveling the grain silos. For the past few weeks, they have been smoldering from the fermentation of the grains not correctly handled after the blast. While the silos have no economic significance, many victims’ families and the broader public believe this structure should stay as a symbol of fighting impunity and pursuing justice.
Since the onset of the investigation, the Lebanese political class protected by Hezbollah and its Iranian weapons has refused to cooperate with the judiciary. Many former and current officials and ministers have refused subpoenas to appear before the inquiry judge. Tarek Bitar, the second judge to take over the investigation, reached a dead end after Hezbollah led a full-out attack against him, accusing him of bias and going as far as to threaten his life. Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, openly accused Bitar of politicizing the investigation, branding the whole investigation as one which is masterminding by the enemies of Hezbollah, mainly Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Nasrallah’s verbal assault translated into a violent demonstration that turned into a fire fight in the vicinity of the Palace of Justice. Supporters of Hezbollah tried to storm the nearby Christian neighborhood of Ain El Remmaneh, only to be confronted by the Lebanese army and local people. It resulted in the death of seven and the literal suspension of the investigation into the port blast. The political establishment’s insolence went further as the minister of finance, a crony of the Shia Amal Movement, refused to sign the decree, which puts judiciary appointments to allow the resumption of the port investigation to stall.
The sequence of events has underscored the refusal of the Lebanese political elite to take any responsibility for the governance and economic collapse of the country. It has failed to allow justice to be served on any level. The failure to reach conclusive results on the port investigations and the hundreds of political crimes committed over the last two decades, including that of Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim, do not rest in the absence of resources of the Lebanese judiciary. It rests on a conscious decision not to allow for accountability to become the norm.
As it stands, the various Lebanese and regional investigative reports have concluded that it was not a simple case of criminal negligence but that the cargo ship which unloaded the tons of ammonium nitrate had a direct connection with the Assad regime. It left Hezbollah to be its custodian in the port of Beirut.
Two years since the tragedy, the families of the victims of the port explosion have been left alone to demand justice. Rather than going onto the streets to demand justice, the Lebanese are busy fighting each other for bread in front of the bakeries or pleading with their immigrant relatives to wire them money. This act speaks volumes of the culture of impunity that rules over Lebanon and its people. It is both tragic and educational for generations to come.
The Lebanese, through their dangerous negligence and lack of accountability towards justice and fighting impunity, have allowed the Lebanese political elite to turn into a fire-breathing monster that, like the mythical Greek chimera, has many heads and feasts on the innocent.
Lebanon will never fully recover from its ongoing collapse as long as justice is not a pillar of the state. While people might care about feeding their families, an economic recovery hinges on their ability to slay the many illusions within and rise and demand a normal country, whatever that might mean.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 02-03 August/2022
Pelosi defies China threats and lands in Taiwan
Agence France Presse/August 02, 2022
United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday evening, defying a string of increasingly stark warnings and threats from China that have sent tensions between the world's two superpowers soaring.
Pelosi, second in line to the presidency, is the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years and Beijing has made clear that it regards her presence as a major provocation, setting the region on edge. Live broadcasts showed the 82-year-old lawmaker, who flew on a US military aircraft, being greeted at Taipei's Songshan Airport by foreign minister Joseph Wu. "Our delegation's visit to Taiwan honors America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant Democracy," Pelosi's official Twitter account tweeted moments after she arrived. She added her visit "in no way contradicts" US policy towards Taiwan and Beijing. Pelosi is currently on a tour of Asia and while neither she nor her office confirmed the Taipei visit, multiple U.S. and Taiwanese media outlets reported it was on the cards -- triggering days of building anger from Beijing. The People's Liberation Army said it was on "high alert" and would "launch a series of targeted military actions in response" to the visit. "Those who play with fire will perish by it," Beijing's foreign ministry added.
- No need for 'crisis' -
China considers self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to one day seize the island, by force if necessary. It tries to keep Taiwan isolated on the world stage and opposes countries having official exchanges with Taipei. In a call with U.S. President Joe Biden last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Washington against "playing with fire" on Taiwan. While the Biden administration is understood to be opposed to a Taiwan stop, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Pelosi was entitled to go where she pleased. "There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with longstanding U.S. policies into some sort of crisis," he told reporters.The last House Speaker to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997.Kirby reiterated that U.S. policy was unchanged toward Taiwan. This means support for its self-ruling government, while diplomatically recognizing Beijing over Taipei and opposing a formal independence declaration by Taiwan or a forceful takeover by China. Moscow said it was "absolutely in solidarity with China", calling the prospect of a Pelosi visit "pure provocation". China has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has been accused of providing diplomatic cover for the Kremlin by blasting Western sanctions and arms sales to Kyiv. As Pelosi's plane neared Taipei Chinese state media said advanced Su-35 fighter jets were crossing the Taiwan Strait. The brief report had no details on timing or precise location of the crossing. Taiwan's military later released a statement denying that any Su-35s had crossed the Taiwan Strait.
All eyes on Taiwan -
Pelosi left Kuala Lumpur Tuesday after meeting Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri and Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah. So many people were tracking the U.S. military plane ferrying her on FlightRadar that the website said some users experienced outages.The plane took a circuitous route that studiously avoided the South China Sea -- which Beijing claims -- before heading up the east coast of the Philippines. Press access around Pelosi has been tightly restricted and limited to a handful or short statements confirming meetings with officials. Her itinerary includes stops in South Korea and Japan -- but the prospect of a Taiwan trip had dominated attention. Before her arrival, Taipei's government had stayed silent on whether she would visit even as local media published reports showing her presence was all but guaranteed. The capital's famous Taipei 101 skyscraper was illuminated with the words "Speaker Pelosi... Thank You" on Tuesday night before her plane arrived.
- 'Seek to punish Taiwan' -
Taiwan's 23 million people have long lived with the possibility of an invasion, but that threat has intensified under Xi, China's most assertive ruler in a generation. "Beijing shouldn't get to decide who can visit Taiwan or how the U.S. should interact with Taiwan," Wang Ting-yu, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, told AFP ahead of the visit. "I think China's open intimidation is counter-effective."Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia program at the U.S.-based German Marshall Fund think tank, said the probability of Beijing choosing war was "low".  "But the probability that... (China) will take a series of military, economic, and diplomatic actions to show strength & resolve is not insignificant," she wrote on Twitter. Taipei's Council of Agriculture on Tuesday said China had suspended the import of some Taiwanese goods, including some fishery products, tea, and honey. The council said China cited regulatory breaches. Pelosi's potential visit has been proceeded by a flurry of military activity across the region that highlights how combustible the issue of Taiwan is.
Last week both Taiwan and China held live fire drills.

China vows 'targeted military actions' in response to Pelosi Taiwan visit
Agence France Presse/August 02, 2022
China's military vowed Tuesday to launch "targeted military actions" in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, as tensions flare between Washington and Beijing. "The Chinese People's Liberation Army is on high alert and will launch a series of targeted military operations to counter this, resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely thwart external interference and 'Taiwan independence' separatist attempts," defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian said in a statement condemning the visit.

Taiwan reports 21 Chinese warplane incursions as Pelosi visits
Agence France Presse/August 02, 2022
More than 20 Chinese military planes flew into Taiwan's air defense zone on Tuesday, officials in Taipei said, as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began her controversial visit to the self-ruled island that Beijing considers its territory. The island's defense ministry said in a statement on Twitter: "21 PLA aircraft ... entered #Taiwan's southwest ADIZ on August 2, 2022," referring to the air defense identification zone.The ADIZ is not the same as Taiwan's territorial airspace but includes a far greater area that overlaps with part of China's own air defense identification zone and even includes some of the mainland.

Iran’s nuclear activities loom over high-level UN summit
Arab News/August 02/ 2022
NEW YORK: The US continues to believe that a mutual return to compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal offers the best hope of “making sure we are putting Iran’s nuclear program back in a box and averting any kind of crisis,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
Blinken delivered his remarks at a press conference, attended by Arab News, at the UN headquarters in New York, where he led a 60-strong delegation to help kick off high-level nuclear discussions over the coming month.
He said that the US has agreed to an EU proposal, drafted “after many, many months of discussions, negotiations and conversations,” adding that it remains to be seen whether Iran will follow suit.
“We remain prepared to move forward on the basis of what has been agreed. It’s still unclear whether Iran is prepared to do that,” Blinken said. His comments came shortly after the US slapped a new round of oil and petrochemical sanctions on Tehran and follows claims by Iran’s atomic energy chief, Mohammad Eslami, that Tehran has the ability to build a nuclear weapon, “but does not plan to do so.”State parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons gather every five years in New York to review the agreement’s operation and the implementation of its provisions: Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, destroying the existing nuclear arsenal in order to eventually achieve a nuclear weapon free world, and promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the conference with a warning that it is taking place at a critical juncture for world peace and security, “as humanity is in danger of forgetting the lessons forged in the terrifying fires of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”Geopolitical tensions are reaching new highs, Guterres said, while states “are seeking false security in stockpiling and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on doomsday weapons that have no place on our planet.” The last Review conference was in 2015 and the current conference was supposed to have taken place in 2020, but was delayed by the pandemic.
With its membership of 191 countries — including five nuclear weapon states, China, Russia, France, the US and UK — the NPT is the most wide-ranging multilateral arms control agreement. It came into force in 1970 and has been a cornerstone of the global non-proliferation regime. The Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was agreed after the 2015 review conference so it has never been discussed by state parties before.
Gustavo Zlauvinen, president of the 10th Review Conference of the NPT, told Arab News that he believes the US and other state parties will raise concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear programs, referring to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency report which revealed “inconsistencies and a host of other issues (which) cast a shadow on (Iran’s nuclear) program and have (raised) questions about whether that program is truly for peaceful purposes or not.”
Zlauvinen said that he expects Iran to defend its program as a peaceful one.
“And then the question will be how much the US and others will push for this issue to be included or not in any outcome document.”
He added: “I believe that the more progress we may have in the talks in Vienna regarding the JCPOA, the less the level of discussions in the review conference will be. But if there is no progress on those talks, there will probably be more debate here.”Speaking on behalf of the Arab Group, Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s minister of foreign affairs, said that Arab states view the NPT regime as highly important, and acknowledge the IAEA as the only agency with a mandate to verify incidents related to the peaceful use of nuclear material. He told world ambassadors and ministers that the treaty was based on a deal that called on nuclear states to eliminate their atomic weapons and on all other nations to commit to not producing such weapons. “Nuclear weapons states have not complied. The Arab world has concerns about that,” said Safadi, urging those states to adopt transparency regarding their nuclear arsenals.
He called for the creation of binding instruments to reassure non-nuclear states of international safeguards against the use of atomic weapons.
Safadi also evoked the clear ban on nuclear technology transfers to states that are not party to the treaty, singling out Israel, one of four countries that have not joined the agreement, along with Pakistan, India and South Sudan.
The 1995 Review conference ended with a decision to create a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
Safadi said that the “Middle East has enough troubles already to deal with (without) any new form of crisis or the entry of nuclear weapons to our nations.”
Jordan “fully commits to the NPT,” he added. But Safadi said that the goal of achieving a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East goes hand in hand with the resolution of all Middle Eastern issues, including the Palestinian struggle, the war in Syria, the Yemeni conflict and the tensions in Libya. “These are real impediments, mutually reinforced. Without mutual resolution (of them all) we will continue to see the Middle East struggling,” he said.

Death from above, printed at home: Ukrainians deploy DIY weapons against Russian troops
Michael Weiss and James Rushton/Associated Press and Associated Press/August 02/ 2022
KYIV — If any of them survived, they probably regret leaving the sunroof open.
The three Russian soldiers, filmed from a weaponized Ukrainian drone from above, scramble into what looked like a worn-down sedan somewhere near the city of Kharkiv. Their position had already been struck earlier by another drone and they were trying to evacuate an injured comrade. Just then, a small metal projectile about the size of a soda can descends on them. It has been outfitted with an incongruous white fin. It sails through the air, slipping right through the aperture in the car’s roof, detonating on impact. One soldier is still able-bodied enough to sprint away, although the same can’t be said for his co-passengers. As smoke billows from the top, the vehicle careers out of control, grinding to a stop. The drone’s camera footage shows a Russian soldier through the sunroof. Another is crawling on the ground. Though the concussive force of the blast didn’t kill these men instantly, the numerous lacerations caused by the mortar’s shrapnel may yet prove deadly. “We have thousands of volunteers in Ukraine hoping to say ‘hi’ to Russian occupiers in this way,” Yuri Vlasyuk said admiringly of his own team’s work. The soft-spoken 46-year-old explained to Yahoo News at a cafe in Kyiv that the white fin on the bomb, which gave it enough aerodynamic stability to perfectly meet its target, was 3D-printed by a Ukrainian civilian at home. Although it was dropped by an operator of Ukraine’s 92 Mechanized Brigade, the manufacturer received his own digital trophy.
“The volunteers that print these for the drones get a video showing them being put to good use,” Vlasyuk said with a grin. He then pulled up other videos posted to Facebook and Twitter showing grenades and mortars with 3D-printed fins hitting columns of unsuspecting Russian troops, as well as ones displaying Ukrainian hands packing their metal tubes with nails.
Vlasyuk self-effacingly described himself as a “just a guy who knows some cool people.” In reality, his cohort is an organic network of tinkerers — engineers, electricians, programmers and 3D printers — who’ve been helping their military wage a grassroots campaign against Russian invaders.
Some of the yield of their collaborative activity has wound up arming Aerorozvidka, the innovative Ukrainian drone warfare and reconnaissance unit founded in 2014 and now works cheek-by-jowl with the Ukrainian army. Its fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, remote-operated birds of prey, silently stalks Russian tanks at night and played a major role in halting an invading convoy that snaked toward Kyiv at the start of the war. Aerorozvidka has seen an incredible return on investment. A $10,000 drone purchasable on Amazon can drop a $10 grenade from above and destroy a modern Russian tank worth millions. When the group needed someone with a background in machine learning, they reached out to Vlasyuk, a central figure in the Ukrainian arm of the “maker movement,” an international subculture of tinkerers, artisans and hobbyists.
Started in San Francisco in 2007, the movement brings together participants with a variety of technical skills to build, modify and experiment. The events rapidly expanded across the United States and were seen as an effective way to promote the adoption of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills among young people. A “Maker Faire” was even held at the White House in 2014. In 2015, a year after Russia’s illegal seizure of Crimea, Vlasyuk, a reseller of Apple computers, hosted a series of maker events in Kyiv after seeing what others in their cohort were doing in foreign cities. They rapidly grew in popularity and by 2018, his events had 250 makers and over 7,000 attendees. Vlasyuk sees his events as a way of introducing people of different backgrounds to one another over a common interest. “We wanted to get people interested in physical engineering, and not just programming.” He had a paternal motive too. “It was something for me and my son to do together that wasn't sitting on his iPad, playing computer games or watching videos on YouTube,” he said.
Initially Vlasyuk didn’t think his Maker Faire would be a success. “I was happy to just lose a small amount of money,” he said. But it caught the eye of Intel, the California-based semiconductor giant that operated a plant in Kyiv. Before long, Vlasyuk had an American corporate partner.
Ukraine has a strong engineering heritage.
The Antonov Design Bureau factory in Kyiv built the world's largest aircraft, the Mriya cargo plane, which was destroyed during the battle for Hostomel air base at the start of the war. The Kharkiv Tractor Plant built tens of thousands of armored vehicles for the Soviet Union. “Igor Sikorsky was Ukrainian!” Vlasyuk proclaimed, referring to the Kyiv-born aviator who founded an eponymous aircraft manufacturing company now owned by Lockheed Martin. Normalcy for every Ukrainian ended Feb. 24, the day the Russians came. Almost immediately Vlasyuk started getting requests for electro welding machines, 3D printers and other DIY tools as the entirety of Ukrainian society rallied to defend the country. Among the first crowdsourced defenses were “Czech hedgehogs,” antitank barriers that became ubiquitous in Kyiv throughout the siege and consisted of metal girders welded together in crosshatch fashion.
In Closer, one of Kyiv’s largest nightclubs built inside a converted ribbon factory, makers from Hacklab — another Kyiv-based collective of tinkerers — welded tire spikes on the dance floor. The spikes are hollow such that when they puncture a tire, it deflates instantly rather than slowly as it would with a solid object puncturing it. Some of the air raid sirens that now sound several times a day were also produced there. In Odessa, they started producing fuel-efficient mobile heaters, which double as stoves, to keep soldiers at the front warm and fed.
“They were far more efficient than just an oil drum filled with wood,” Vlasyuk said, showing Yahoo News a picture of a man standing proudly in front three rows of what look like metal coffee grinders. Vlasyuk’s pop-up corps of engineers soon became a veritable RadioShack. They made power banks from dozens of electronic cigarettes that could be used to charge night-vision goggles. One model of what he called a “steampunk” generator, of which only one was ever made, has mains and USB drives intended for car auto cigarette lighters, all encased in a wooden box once used for storing ammunition.
The "steampunk" power box, with a variety of outputs at a variety of different voltages and amperages. (Provided to Yahoo News by Yuri Vlasyuk) Volunteers even manufactured accumulators, rechargeable batteries, for the NLAW antitank missiles supplied by the United Kingdom and other Western countries. Ukraine is now a graveyard for hundreds of Russian tanks. “Some of these weapons had been in storage for a while and the accumulators didn’t work that well,” Vlasyuk said. “But we couldn’t afford to not be able to use the NLAWs, so we made our own batteries for them.”
With nearly 1 million men under arms, and conscription in place for every military-age male, virtually everyone in Ukraine has a family member or a friend in the armed forces. When the war started, one of Vlasyuk’s makers had just finished 3D-printing a giant gold Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton for a new (and now unopened) casino in Odessa.
The 3D printer, whom Vlasyuk asked Yahoo News not to identify, currently makes rubber suspension bushes for Humvees, critical components for shock absorption. “He can print in a few minutes parts that would take weeks to arrive from Europe or America,” Vlasyuk said. The widespread adoption of this tech workaround could massively simplify Ukraine’s logistics, allowing the military to more easily maintain the disparate selection of armored vehicles that Ukraine’s Western partners have supplied. The United States has sent Ukraine hundreds of loitering munitions, from Switchblade 300s to the bespoke Phoenix Ghost. These quantities, however, aren’t sufficient for waging a multifront war, especially if the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive for Kherson, the strategically vital southern city under Russian occupation, is to prove successful. Vlasyuk’s network has begun manufacturing its own homemade kamikaze drones. “We have more than 100 projects ongoing,” he said. Meanwhile, he’s been trying to keep his own Apple resale business afloat. It hasn’t been easy. As someone who relies heavily on imported goods priced in dollars, he has seen his income suffer from an unfavorable exchange rate and the suspension of air and sea import routes. Another burden has been living without his family for six months; Vlasyuk’s wife and his two boys moved to Germany on Feb. 28, four days after the war started. The older one is 14 and is going through an “awkward” teenage phase; he might benefit from the constant presence of a father. The younger one is 9 and doing well in school; he already speaks German fluently. As for his wife, Vlasyuk said, “We do video calls, but it’s not the same.” After the war, Vlasyuk hopes to work with Ukrainian veterans, introduce them to his other maker Faire contacts and help them deal with posttraumatic stress disorder by giving them new practical skills. “There will be a lot of veterans,” he said.

What's at stake for Ukraine in the Battle of Kherson
Grayson Quay, Weekend editor/The Week/August 02/2022
Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive to re-take Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine. Victory could turn the tide of the war. Defeat could force Ukraine to give up large swaths of territory. Here's everything you need to know:
What is the state of Ukraine's southern counteroffensive?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Saturday that a Ukrainian counteroffensive was underway in Kherson Oblast, seeking to roll back Russian forces from a region they've controlled for nearly five months.
The regional capital city of Kherson, a river port with a pre-war population of around 300,000, fell to the invaders less than a week after the invasion began. Since then, Kherson has been the site of intense partisan activity, including the distribution of anti-Russian flyers and repeated bombings of a Russian-held airbase. Zelensky said Saturday that his country's forces were advancing "step by step" into the region, after a month of shelling to soften up Russian positions. According to regional military governor Dmytro Butrii, since the early weeks of the war, Ukrainian forces have liberated 44 towns and villages along the Kherson Oblast border.As Ukrainian troops advance on Kherson, they are also working to cut the defenders' supply lines, striking bridges and Russian ammunition depots. On Tuesday, Ukraine used a U.S.-made HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) to damage the critical Antonivskiy Bridge — which spans the Dnipro River — badly enough to prevent Russia from moving vehicles across it.
Will Russia put up a fight?
Russia is likely to offer stiff resistance. The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War cites social media footage that appeared to show Russian forces setting up fortifications along the P47 highway, which connects Kherson City with Kahkovka, some 50 miles to the east. These defenses will help Russia hold the western bank of the Dnipro — where Kherson City is located — and hinder Ukrainian forces who might attempt to cross the river and encircle the city from the southeast.
Serhiy Khlan, a former aide to Kherson Oblast's Ukrainian regional governor, said earlier this month that Russian forces in the city were "preparing for urban warfare." Oleksiy Danilov, a member of Ukraine's National Security Council, reported last week that Russia was conducting "a very powerful movement of their troops" to shore up the southern front. Russian military analyst Vladislav Shurygin told Newsweek that occupying forces will fight to the last man. "Kherson is going to be under Russian control. The only question is, will the city remain functioning and intact ... or will we see something similar to the battle for Mariupol?" he said, referring to Russia's bloody, months-long siege of the port city in southeastern Ukraine.
This offensive is seen as a major risk for Ukraine. The New York Times reported that the decision to go on the attack "created debate among Western officials and some analysts about whether Ukraine was ready for such a big effort." The Daily Beast noted that "failing in Kherson would be a devastating loss for Ukraine" and that this "make-or-break offensive" could "hinge on western aid supplies, which Ukrainian officials say can't come fast enough."
What about Russia's plans to annex Kherson?
Ukrainian forces are racing against the clock. Intelligence suggests that rigged referendums on whether to join with Russia will be held in occupied areas sometime in September. Occupying forces are already working to impose Russian culture on Kherson, replacing Ukraine's currency with the ruble, bringing in Russian television and internet services, holding a "We Are Together With Russia" forum with local collaborators at Kherson State University, and erecting billboards that declare "We are one people."
Once Russia has completed the de jure annexation of its conquered lands, re-taking them will become a risky endeavor. Russian military doctrine allows for the use of nuclear weapons to defend "the existence of the state," even against conventional attacks.
Retired Army Col. Douglas MacGregor, a frequent critic of Zelensky and of American support for Ukraine, argued in The American Conservative earlier this month that Ukraine cannot hope to reclaim territory and that they're likely to lose even more. "The future of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions along with the Donbas is decided. Moscow is also likely to secure Kharkov and Odesa, two cities that are historically Russian and Russian-speaking, as well as the territory that adjoins them," he wrote. MacGregor predicts that "[t]hese operations will extend the conflict through the summer" and that a negotiated settlement could then be reached. Unless, that is, Zelensky "consent[s] to the Biden program for perpetual conflict with Russia."
If MacGregor is correct and Russia does take Odesa, they'll almost certainly be able to secure a land bridge connecting Russia with Crimea and Crimea with the Russian-occupied separatist Romanian region of Transnistria, a war goal Russia has hinted at several times.
Others are more optimistic. "We can say that the Kherson region will definitely be liberated by September, and all the occupiers' plans will fail," Khlan said. Ukraine's government has not announced an official timeline for retaking the city.
What's happening on the eastern front? Ukraine's defensive lines have solidified since the fall of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk earlier this month, but Russia is still conducting offensive operations against the well-defended cities of Bakhmut and Donetsk, the regional capital. Russian forces also launched a ground assault near Izyum and are positioned to threaten Siversk and Slovyansk, though these latter two cities appear to have been deprioritized. The ISW continues to categorize the eastern front as Russia's "main effort" and suggests that Russia could "be intending to gain as much ground in Donetsk Oblast as possible before planned referenda in September."Even if Russia is unable to make significant territorial gains, it can still wreak havoc by shelling towns and villages behind Ukrainian lines. Mounting civilian casualties and the destruction of critical infrastructure needed to generate electricity and heat people's homes during the coming winter prompted Zelensky to order a mandatory evacuation of parts of Donetsk Oblast on Saturday. The order could displace as many as 200,000 people, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

Russia declares Ukrainian military unit a terrorist group
Associated Press/August 02/022
The Russian Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Ukraine’s Azov Regiment a terrorist organization banned in Russia, a designation that fuels the Kremlin's narrative of the war in Ukraine and that may expose Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Moscow to terrorism charges. Azov, which played a key part in the defense of the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, has been repeatedly portrayed by Russian officials and state media as a Nazi formation allegedly committing atrocities against Ukraine’s civilians.Russian state media have repeatedly shown what is claimed to be Nazi insignias, literature and tattoos associated with Azov, but no evidence has surfaced to back up the assertions about their treatment of civilians. The Azov Regiment is a unit within Ukraine’s National Guard. It grew out of a group called the Azov Battalion, formed in 2014 as one of many volunteer brigades that rose to bolster Ukraine’s underfunded and questionably led military in the fight against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Azov Battalion drew its initial fighters from far-right circles and elicited criticism for some of its tactics. Its current members rejected accusations of nationalism and radicalism. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office filed a motion to designate the regiment as a terrorist organization in May. Azov in an online statement Tuesday dismissed the Supreme Court’s ruling, accusing Russia of “looking for new excuses and explanations for its war crimes.” Azov urged the U.S. and other countries to declare Russia a “terrorist state.”“Russia has been proving this status for many years with its daily actions,” the statement said. Scores of Azov fighters are being held captive by Moscow. The Russian authorities have opened multiple criminal cases against them, accusing them of killing civilians. Last week, dozens of Ukrainian POWs were killed in an explosion at a barracks at a penal colony in Olenivka, an eastern town controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Moscow and Kyiv have have traded blame for the strike, with Kyiv saying Russia blew up the barracks to cover up torture against the POWs.

Followers of cleric told to withdraw from Iraq’s parliament
AP/August 02, 2022
BAGHDAD: Followers of an influential Shiite cleric camped out inside the Iraqi parliament building for a fourth straight day were instructed Tuesday to leave the building but maintain their protest outside. In a tweet, a representative of cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr told the hundreds of loyalists to leave the parliament building in the capital of Baghdad within 72 hours. They were told to move their protest outside its premises but to remain inside the Green Zone, which houses Iraq’s government buildings and foreign embassies. The sit-in was in its fourth day Tuesday. Al-Sadr and his party were winners in the October parliamentary elections but were unable to muster a majority of support to form a government. His followers stormed the parliament Saturday at his command to prevent the Iran-backed Coordination Framework alliance from voting in a new government after naming Mohamed Al-Sudani as candidate for prime minister. Tuesday’s move is a de-escalation on Al-Sadr’s part but far from a disbanding of the protests. It comes a day after his rivals in the Framework alliance staged a protest that many feared would lead to street battles between loyalists of the rival Shiite factions. The protesters withdrew on orders from Qais Al-Khazali, a leading member of the Framework. Al-Sadr’s “vizier,” or high-ranking political adviser, is known on Twitter as Salah Mohamed a-Iraqi. He instructed the protesters not to leave until their demands were met. Al-Iraqi’s true identity is not known and many speculate it is Al-Sadr himself.
By moving the protest camp to another area of the Green Zone, Al-Sadr keeps open the possibility of a drawn-out sit-in. Shiite officials said Monday the Framework had offered Al-Sadr a proposal to withdraw from the parliament building. In return, the parliament building would remain closed to lawmakers. The proposal came after fissures appeared within the alliance over how to respond to Al-Sadr’s sit-in, with some urging for restraint and others for escalation. Iran has been working behind the scenes to maintain unity in the alliance and prevent escalation with Al-Sadr, the officials said. Al-Sadr’s followers have been camped out inside the parliament building in the heavily fortified Green Zone since thousands stormed the building on Saturday, demanding reforms and denouncing the Iran-backed alliance. Al-Sadr’s representatives have called on supporters in Iraqi provinces to protest in their cities and towns in support of the parliament sit-in. Al-Sadr’s followers were also instructed to hold mass prayers Friday at the Victory Arch, a monument also located inside the district.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 02-03 August/2022
Jaffa: When Outnumbered Christian Warriors Defeated Muslim Hordes
Raymond Ibrahim/August 02/022
Nineteenth century illustration of Richard storming the shores of Jaffa
Today in history, a small band of Christian warriors defeated a massive horde of Muslims.
On July 27, 1192, Saladin, the great sultan-hero of Islam, surrounded and besieged the tiny Christian-held town of Jaffa. According to contemporary chronicles, the Muslims numbered as much as 20,000 and “covered the face of the earth like locusts.”
Messengers were instantly dispatched to King Richard I, who was then in Acre, preparing to sail back to England. Before the battered and bruised men had finished relaying their message, “With God as my guide,” Richard declared, “I will set out to do what I can,” and instantly disembarked on his fleet with slightly over 2,000 fighters. Jaffa, meanwhile, was fighting for its life. According to Saladin’s court historian, Baha’ al-Din, who was present, after one of its walls collapsed, all the Muslims rushed into the city, “and there was not an enemy heart that did not tremble and shake.” Even so, the Christians “were more fierce and determined in the fight and more eager for and devoted to death.”When the main gate was finally battered down and an adjoining wall collapsed from the bombardment, a “cloud of dust and smoke went up and darkened the sky.” Once it cleared, the Muslims saw that “spear-points had replaced the walls and lances had blocked the breach.” Only death would release the crusaders of their charge to defend Jaffa. Due to the great masses of rushing Muslims, the garrison was eventually driven to and holed up in the citadel, even as the sackers turned their attention to Jaffa’s civilian populace: “Alas for the pitiful slaughter of the sick!” recalls a chronicler. “They lay weakly on couches everywhere in the houses of the city; the Turks tortured them to death in horrible ways.”
Richard’s fleets finally arrived on the evening of July 31, but did not disembark. As Baha’ al-Din explains, the crusaders “saw the town crammed with the Muslims’ banners and men and they feared that the citadel might have already been taken. The sea prevented their hearing the shouts that came from everywhere and the great commotion and cries of ‘There is no god but Allah’ and ‘Allahu Akbar.’”To make matters worse, “When the Turks saw the king’s galleys and ships approaching, masses of them ran on to the shore,” writes a chronicler, “raining down spears, javelins, darts and arrows densely so that they would have nowhere free to land. The shore was seething, so covered with crowds of the enemy that there was no empty space left.”
Then, on the morning of August 1, a fighting priest took his chances: he jumped out of the citadel’s window, into the sea, and swam to the fleets. On learning that, although the “Saracens had taken the castle and were rounding up the Christians as prisoners,” a remnant of the garrison was still holding out, Richard exclaimed that, “If it so please God … we should die here with our brothers.”
Without donning his full armor, and in the words of the chroniclers, the king “armed himself with his hauberk, hung his shield at his neck and took a Danish axe in his hand.” With his crossbow in the other hand—and crying “death only to those who do not advance!”—he hurled himself into the water “and forced himself powerfully on to dry land,” all while firing his crossbow at the wild throng assembled along the shore and swiping incoming arrows away with his axe. Instantly, the rest of the crusaders followed their king; they hurled themselves into the water and “boldly attacked the Turks who obstinately opposed them on the shore.” Before long, and “at the sight of the king,” whom the Muslims dreaded from earlier encounters, none of them “dare[d] approach him.” Rather, they fled down the shore. A chronicle has the rest:
Brandishing his bared sword, the king followed in such hot pursuit that none of them had time to defend themselves. They fled from his weighty blows. In the same way the king’s comrades constantly assailed the fugitives, driving them on, crushing, rending, beheading and tossing them about until all the Turks had been violently expelled from the shore and left it empty…. The king fell on them with unsheathed sword, pursued them, beheaded and slew them. They fled before him, falling back in dense crowds to his right and left.
Once Richard, drenched in Muslim blood, became visible to Saladin’s entourage, “a horrible howl went up,” even as Turkic arrows rained on the Christians. Undeterred, their berserker king continued to “cut to pieces all he met without distinction” in his mad dash to Saladin, prompting the sultan to dash “like a frightened hare… [H]e put spur to horse and fled before King Richard, not wishing to be seen by him…. The king and his fellow-knights steadfastly pursued him, continually slaying and unhorsing … for more than two miles.”
It was a disorderly retreat and rout of the most ignoble kind; and it was the most humiliating defeat the great Saladin, who died months after, ever suffered.
Indeed, due to his exploits at Jaffa and elsewhere, it is the name of Richard Lionheart that, in the popular Muslim consciousness, most personifies the archetypal crusader enemy till this very day—a testimony to the havoc he wrought singlehandedly.
*This article was excerpted from Raymond Ibrahim’s new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, which has a complete chapter on King Richard.

U.N. Names Day to Fight ‘Islamophobia’ but Ignores Thousands of Dead Christians
Raymond Ibrahim/August 02/022
The following article by Bob Unruh first appeared on WND.
The United Nations recently named a special day to fight “Islamophobia,” based on a lone attacker’s murders of 51 at two New Zealand mosques, while at the same time ignoring the thousands of Christians who have been killed by Islamists.
And author Raymond Ibrahim, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, wonders why.
It was the decision by the United Nations to mark March 15 as its “international day to combat Islamophobia” that drew the rebuke from Ibrahim.
The action was taken because of the March 15, 2019, mass shootings at the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand by a lone gunman that left 51 dead.
The attacker, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, from Australia, was described in media reports as a white supremacist.
Ibrahim pointed out the atrocity was “widely condemned throughout the West – and rightfully so.”
But he raised a “critically important question.”
That would be, “If one non-Muslim attack on a mosque is enough for the U.N. to institutionalize a special day for Islam, what about the countless, often worse, Muslim attacks on non-Muslim places of worship? Why have they not elicited a similar response from the U.N.?”
He listed “some” of the “fatal Muslim attacks on Christian churches” in recent years:
In Sri Lanka on Eastern Sunday in 2019, Muslim terrorists bombed three churches and more, killing 359.
In Nigeria on Easter Sunday in 2014, Islamic terrorists burned a packed church, killing the 150 inside.
In Pakistan in 2016, as Easter Sunday services closed, Islamic terrorists bombed a park where Christians gathered, killing 70 mostly women and children.
In Iraq in 2011, “Islamic terrorists stormed a church in Baghdad during worship and opened fire indiscriminately before detonating their suicide vests. Nearly 60 Christians — including women, children, and babies — were killed.”
In Nigeria in 2012, Easter Sunday, more than 50 died when Muslims exploded bombs near two packed churches.
In Egypt in 2017, Palm Sunday, “Muslims bombed two packed churches; at least 45 were killed, more than 100 wounded.”
He also cited Muslim attacks on Christians in Indonesia where 13 were killed in 2018, in the Philippines where 20 were killed in a bombing, in Indonesia where 18 were killed in a bombing, in Pakistan where 14 were killed by Muslim suicide bombers, and more.
The “dismissal” of the tragedies ignores places like Nigeria, “where Christians are being purged hourly in a Muslim-produced genocide,” he said.
One recent report noted “Muslims have eliminated 60,000 Christians between just 2009 and 2021,” and “destroyed or torched 17,500 churches and 2,000 Christian schools,” he explained.
“Muslims have massacred hundreds of Christians, not even including the thousands of Christians and other Western people massacred in non-church attacks, including 9/11, London’s 7/7/2005 transit system attacks, Paris’s Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan Theater attack, Barcelona’s Las Ramblas attack, Nice’s July 14 attack, Toulouse’s Jewish school attack, Berlin’s Winter Market and Copenhagen’s terror attacks, to name just a few,” he said.
“Therefore, the original question: If one non-Muslim attack on a mosque, which claimed 51 Muslim lives, was enough for the U.N. to establish an ‘international day to combat Islamophobia,’ why have so many Muslim attacks on churches, which have claimed thousands of Christian lives, not been enough for the U.N. to establish an “international day to combat Christianophobia”?
He pointed out that the New Zealand mosque attack was “an aberration — evidenced by its singularity.” But he said, “Muslim attacks on churches are extremely common, not only now but throughout history.”
He said the attackers of Christians are bound together by their religion.
“Muslim attacks on churches seem to have an ideological source, are systemic, and therefore an actual, ongoing problem that the international community needs to highlight and ameliorate,” he said.

Iran possible nuclear blackmail is a menace - analysis
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/August 02/2022
Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, said that reaching a deal with Tehran was now “highly unlikely.” Iran has the technical capability to produce an atomic bomb, but it does not intend to do so, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami said Monday. He was speaking to a reporter from Fars News Agency, the Iranian media channel that is considered close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His comments emphasized that the AEOI was in regular contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Therefore, the comments, although they seem to present some kind of new bragging on behalf of the Islamic Republic, are ostensibly couched in terms of compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran says. “In order to return to the JCPOA, [the West] is resuming the false accusations that...originate from the hypocrites and the Zionist regime” Atomic Energy Organization of Iran head Mohammad Eslami
Under the terms of the so-called Iran deal, “Iran would limit its capacity and accept strict monitoring of its nuclear activities,” Eslami said. Iran has shifted its policy since the US left the deal, openly enriching more uranium to higher levels. It continues to work on its long-range missiles and on satellite launch vehicles, technology that could potentially enable a nuclear weapon to be launched from a missile. Eslami’s point, however, was that Tehran has been at the receiving end of “false accusations.”
“After withdrawing from the JCPOA, the Western side, in order to return to the JCPOA, is resuming the false accusations that were raised in the past,” he said. “These accusations originate from the hypocrites and the Zionist regime, and they have been expressing these false issues for about 20 years.”
Eslami said Iran turned off cameras monitoring its nuclear operations in response to these accusations. This seems a bizarre response to claims of “false” accusations. If they are false, why turn off the cameras?
“If there is a will on the other side to return to the JCPOA, they should not make such false accusations,” he said. “And if they do not want to return to the JCPOA, they should not take up the time of the parties.”
Eslami’s comments come in the context of other ones by senior Biden administration officials.
Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, said reaching a deal with Tehran was now “highly unlikely,” according to Axios. There is some interplay in the administration between this viewpoint and that of US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley. Overall, though, the administration keeps saying the window is closing.
IRAN KEEPS playing for time. The Biden administration remains committed to not letting Tehran have nuclear weapons, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. Nevertheless, Iran says it already can make nuclear weapons, but it won’t go the full distance.
Iran Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Bagheri Kani recently tweeted: “We work closely with our JCPOA partners, in particular the Coordinator, to give another chance to the US to demonstrate good faith & act responsibly. As Iran, we stand ready to conclude the negotiations in a short order, should the other side be ready to do the same.”
Prof. Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies, responded to the announcement by the AEOI chief that Tehran is now capable of producing an atomic bomb. “This is another provocative action on the part of Iran and is testimony to the limp-wristed policy of the West and the complete absence of deterrence,” he said. “The statement by the AEOI strengthens the imperative for Israel to defend itself; in the current situation, there is no alternative to Israeli action to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat.”
First of all, this will require a strike on Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, to create deterrence, Inbar said. “Following that, Israel should prepare for continued action against the Iranian nuclear threat,” he added.
Meanwhile, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Kamal Kharazi, said Iran has the technical capabilities to build a nuclear bomb, but it has not decided to make one. “It is no secret that we have the technical capabilities to manufacture a nuclear bomb, but we have not decided to do so,” he said. Kharazi, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, made the comments to Al Jazeera. The “Zionist regime” was behind the “false” rumors, he emphasized.
Last week, Khamenei’s office tweeted: “The Western powers are a mafia. The reality of this power is a mafia. At the top of this mafia stand the prominent Zionist merchants, and the politicians obey them. The US is their showcase, and they’re spread out everywhere.”
Beyond these comments are threats that were made on a video linked to the IRGC, which appeared on Telegram several days ago. It asked: “When will Iran’s sleeping nuclear warheads awaken?” It concluded that the nuclear weapons could appear at any time, “if the US or the Zionist regime make any stupid mistakes.”
THE VIDEO said there is secret enrichment taking place at Fordow, allowing Iran to make weapons quickly if need be. What it actually means is that Tehran has enough highly enriched uranium to break out and have enough material to build a nuclear bomb. But how many, and has Iran ever even built one?
It’s worth recalling that the massive program the US had in the 1940s to build a nuclear bomb still took time to perfect the devices to deliver it.
The Telegram video said Iran has ballistic missiles capable of “turning New York into hellish ruins.” This sounds like the usual boasting and threats. Although Iran is improving its missiles, it would be hard for them to reach the United States.
Of more substance appears to be other comments by Eslami, arguing that the Iranian parliament’s energy committee should create a comprehensive road map and laws for the nuclear industry so that the “nuclear development process is not damaged by the change of administrations,” according to the website Iran International.
Overall, it’s worth recalling that in May, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Iran was just a “few weeks” from having enough fissile material for a bomb. It was installing 1,000 advanced centrifuges at Natanz as well, he indicated. In June, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said Iran was only a few weeks away from having a “significant quantity of enriched uranium.”
Malley also said Iran had enough uranium to make a nuclear bomb within “a matter of weeks.” “It would be something we would know, we would see, and to which we would react quite forcefully, as you could imagine,” he told NPR. France said in July there were only a few weeks left to revive the nuclear deal.
The “weeks” and “months” time frame has been a key talking point for years. In February, McGurk and Malley both seemed to confirm a two-month time frame, according to Politico. A House Democrat was reported to have confirmed the “weeks” breakout time. Iran was also “weeks” away from a bomb in April. But these time frames only refer to the “breakout period” for the Islamic Republic to have enough material for a nuclear weapon. Material must be put into a device.
However, for those worried about Iran’s nuclear program, the real concern is that once it has enough material, it can blackmail the region, and any attempt to neutralize the material could be dangerous. This is why the time frame may not change over the months – because Tehran is also on the verge of producing enough material. Iran’s narrative is that it can build an actual weapon, but it keeps holding the region hostage by claiming that it needs to be blackmailed not to.

Iraq on the cusp of anarchy as Tehran’s grip falters
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/August 02/2022
Iraqis are terrified that renewed internecine Shiite strife could plunge the country into all-out war. Both sides have hundreds of thousands of militia fighters and supporters at their disposal. Neither appears motivated to back down. “The fire of dissention will burn us all,” warned Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.
On one side is corruption personified; former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and his Iran-backed paramilitary allies from Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi. They suffered a crippling defeat in last year’s elections, but nevertheless have sought to hijack the political process and impose their choices, trying to use paramilitary muscle and Iranian leverage to dominate and exploit Iraq in perpetuity.
On the other side is cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, who has again demonstrated his ability to mobilize millions of supporters. Sadr is a problematic figure, having inaugurated the post-2003 era of sectarian paramilitary anarchy through his Mahdi Army, which at that time had few reservations about accepting Iranian support, and which gave birth to many of the worst Hashd factions. In fact, it was Maliki in 2008 who bloodily crushed the Mahdi Army.
As Sadr re-established himself as an Iraqi nationalist bulwark against Iranian interference, Tehran-backed paramilitaries and the Sadrists evolved into bitter rivals, giving rise to assassinations and bloody clashes.
With Sadrist protesters now committed to remaining inside the parliament building indefinitely, the confrontation is set to escalate. Sources within the pro-Iran Coordination Framework initially called upon paramilitary supporters to flood out on to the streets in counter-demonstrations – a scenario that would have triggered bloodshed, and potentially all-out conflict.
Although later statements backed away from this call, Maliki-linked hardliners appear inclined to resort to force, while remaining unwilling to compromise on their determination to nominate a prime minister from their ideological camp. The Hashd understands only the language of force, having murdered about 600 demonstrators during the 2019 unrest, so many fear it is only a matter of time before they seek to brutally end the Sadrist uprising. Maliki’s bizarre appearance wielding a machinegun unambiguously signals his eagerness to use naked force.
The Coordination Framework stands to lose significantly if it allows the Sadrists to regain the initiative. The Framework initially benefitted beyond their wildest dreams from Sadr’s withdrawal from parliament, apparently offering them the freedom to dictate the composition of the incoming government.
If they meekly allow Sadr to trigger new elections, their current unpopularity among Shiite voters risks consigning them to political irrelevance, and would jeopardize their ability to protect their generous slice of the state budget from which the salaries of their vast paramilitary forces are paid.
One leading protagonist isn’t even Iraqi: Esmail Qaani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force — an institution designed for overseas sedition and terrorism — has been holding meetings in Baghdad aimed at strengthening the hand of Iran’s paramilitary puppets in the Coordination Framework. Dozens of Iraqis are already in hospital amid the latest unrest, but Tehran doesn’t care how many lives are lost — Shiite or Sunni — in pursuit of its agenda, just as uncountable numbers have been harvested in the service of Iranian supremacy in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.
Secularists, Sunnis, Christians and Kurds should seize the moment to press demands for reforms and a governing system that represents them. Impoverished citizens have a right to demand why, despite Iraq’s bountiful oil wealth, their corrupt and incompetent leaders can’t provide reliable electricity or water for drinking and irrigation.
Sadr is most comfortable acting from a position of opposition, flooding Baghdad with supporters or denouncing his “corrupt” rivals. He previously wreaked havoc by storming the Green Zone in 2016, demanding reforms that were then being blocked by factions loyal to Maliki. In 2019, Sadr initially joined the protest movement, but then reversed his position and deployed paramilitary thugs to shut down protests —hence the reluctance so far of activists from other ideological camps to join the Sadrists this time.
But beyond his desire to outmaneuver Maliki and the Hashd, does Sadr have a coherent idea of what his endgame is? And is he capable of bringing Sunnis, Kurds and progressives on board with his aspirations for reforming Iraq’s dysfunctional and clientelist political system?
In both Iraq and Lebanon, the sectarian-based system has produced immense corruption and perpetual deadlock, as factions engage in months of self-interested brinkmanship. Attempts to create cross-sectarian parties have come close to success, particularly in 2010 where Ayad Allawi’s Iraqiyyah won more seats than Maliki, the incumbent, but was thwarted by determined Iranian efforts to ensure that their stooges prevailed.
Internal Shiite tensions worsened after the leak of audio recordings in which Maliki denounced Sadr as an “ignorant, hateful Zionist,” and dismissed his pro-Iran paramilitary allies as “cowards.” Maliki’s comments, deemed as constituting “death threats” and “incitement to civil war,” are now under investigation by Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council.
Pro-Iran factions enjoy negligible popular support, yet they constitute the 150,000-strong and lavishly funded Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition, and will not relinquish their position without a fight. Through his Peace Companies militia, Sadr could easily mobilize upwards of 50,000 fighters, so internecine Shiite bloodshed is all too conceivable. Loyalties of large segments of the army and security forces are conflicted, after decades of a Hashd-dominated Interior Ministry flooding the security apparatus with personnel from militias like Badr and with Badr commander Hadi Al-Amiri wielding de facto control over parts of the military, so the outbreak of conflict could lead to Shiite elements of the armed forces splintering along factional lines.
Can Sadr be trusted, and will he remain committed to his stated principles? All that matters at this juncture is that this current standoff is between nationalists who desire a sovereign Iraq and sectarian radicals doing Tehran’s bidding. What cannot be allowed are attempts by vested interests to enforce a continuation of the failed status quo. Secularists, Sunnis, Christians and Kurds should seize the moment to press demands for reforms and a governing system that represents them. Impoverished citizens have a right to demand why, despite Iraq’s bountiful oil wealth, their corrupt and incompetent leaders can’t provide reliable electricity or water for drinking and irrigation.
The Coordination Framework represents a minuscule faction within a faction. They can and must be swept aside. But this will happen only if Iraqis across sectarian divides speak with one voice in demanding their rights to a democratic, prosperous and sovereign future.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

The Maliki Leaks: The Shadow Culture of Politics in Iraq
Sardar Aziz/The Washington Insitute/August 02/202
The Maliki audio leaks highlight the inherent fragility of Iraqi politicians while offering an insight into the dynastic politics of Iraq.
The audio leaks attributed to former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki—an attribution he continues to deny—brought the inaccessible world of Iraq’s ruling elite’s private conversations into the public. According to Ali Fadhil, the U.S. based blogger responsible for the leaks, these leaks allow a window into a type of event is not uncommon. Given what is known about Iraqi politics, the leak is merely the tip of the iceberg, and we can treat it as a newly visible aspect of a shadow phenomenon. Ali likewise vows there is more to come.
The leaks have many aspects: the inter-Shia rivalry, politics of personality, connection to other states (Iran), armed confrontation, and more. However, the circumstance and setting of the audio files also provides insight into the challenges facing Iraqi politics. In order to understand the mindset, psyche, and inner world of the current Iraqi elite, it is important to pay attention to these conversations and meetings, despite their quixotic style. In many ways, the content of these leaks better reflects the interior psyche of the political sphere than public rhetoric, as well as the hidden yet real, desire of the person involved.
The style of meeting depicted in the leak is called "گعدة" (ga’adah) in Iraqi colloquial dialect, and is understood as an informal, semi-private meeting. These are very common events within Iraqi society, especially among politicians. The ga’adah also distinguishes itself from politics in the public sphere in a number of ways. Iraqi politicians' exclusive gatherings are not private gatherings as such. While they might happen in a private sphere, such as someone’s home, the invitees are likely to include people outside ones’ family circle, including bodyguards, close party members or faction affiliates, admirers, and other guests. Hence, the events are neither private nor fully public. They can be defined as hybrid spaces of defined political performance, where politicians and their circles gather to exercise speech and action (power).
The intended purpose and format of the ga’adah might vary from planning (or conspiring) over politics and business to entertaining. However, the main feature primarily remains the same, i.e., a major goal of the event is massaging the ego of the primary person (usually male) of interest. The manner in which he is served and addressed by others in attendance, laced with admiration and praise, adds to the centrality of that figure and indicate his desire to be treated as such. This crafted social bubble likewise insulates political leaders from accountability and criticism, presenting them as rulers rather than public servants. Such imagery has deep roots, upholding the old tradition of owning rather than serving a positionof leadership.
Within this crafted environment, the discussions that take place differ from formal, calculated political speeches. One of the reasons for the candor exhibited in these small-circle conversations is the alienated nature of (empty) political speech for public consumption. No political personality can open up candidly to the public in the country. However, especially in the last decade, the majority of the public's disenchantment with politicians has made it extremely difficult for them to enjoy participating in any public activity using the empty rhetoric that characterized earlier public politics. In contrast, the human relations among the participants of the ga’adah could be seen as a form of figuration, a "dynamic networks of people bonded through mutual dependencies over space and time” or, as Norbert Elias, who coined the term put it, "a structure of mutually orientated and dependent people. . . the network of interdependencies formed by individuals."Apart from being part of the region's tradition of power consolidation, one reason these political figures are involved in such activities is their mediocrity. Most Iraqi political figures lack political experience, knowledge, or confidence. Within Iraqi politics, such realities can find expression with phrases like "politicians by chance," (سياسيو الصدفة).
For instance, Nouri al Maliki, as former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad tells in his memoir, was an unknown figure on the Iraqi political scene until “one morning, Jeff Beals walked into his office with another folder of profiles and asked 'What about Nouri al-Maliki?’”
After that, they arranged a meeting in parliament and ensured Maliki’s rise to power. In other words, Maliki was not a well-known or influential figure by any rate, yet he became a viable option when Iran and the United States were looking for a middle ground figure, a game that frequently went wrong.
The nature of these gatherings and conversations highlight the inherent fragility of the Iraqi politicians. They consequently focus on cementing their power by crushing criticism or opposing views, and on creating barriers between themselves and the public. Their world is primarily shaped by internal fighting; such is the case of Maliki and Muqtada al-Sadr. Conspiracy theories become justifications for cemented worldviews, and fragile, reactionary, and narcissistic features are the main characteristics of political discourse.
The ways in which these needs manifest is in many ways Quixotic. The maintenance of a circle that can help realize these needs relies on the flow of money and collectivistic distribution. This can be heard in Maliki’s conversations from the leaked recordings, where guests demand financial support to materialize their idea of having armed groups in every province in Iraq.
What these confessions also reveal is the unwillingness of the current elites to hand over power to others. This lust for power is the main reason for their dependency on kinships, networks of relatives, and tribes–all tied together by the same thread of nepotism that is cultivated by the objective of power consolidation. Maliki’s infamous phrase, ‘we won’t give it,’ is symbolic of this idea. In a small gathering in 2013, after someone chanted for Maliki and mentioned that they wouldn't give it to them, Maliki makes the now-famous statement, "Is there anyone who can take it [power] from us until we give it to him?"—a sentiment shortened and memorialized in Iraqis’ collective political consciousness. This shift to kinship politics is widespread in Iraq and is having a negative impact on the country's democratic future. All these features and desires are compatible with the current trend of anti-democratic age of strongmen.
In the bigger picture, the leaked audios can help explain why dynastic politics have come to dominate the main government institutions of Iraq. These exclusive institutions hinder the path of development. The small circle meetings are a sort of institution that serve and protect a particular personality rather than the country and its interests. It is important for Iraqis and outside observers alike to know the understand nature of these circles and the influence they exercise over political decisions, as their influence will have to be addressed if Iraqi politics hopes to reform. Overall, these meetings are a demonstration of how culture and traditions can continue to be an impediment to any form of modernization.

The U.S. Role in Iraq’s Political Crisis: Guidelines for More Effective Engagement
Bilal Wahab/The Washington Insitute/August 02/202
Disengaging after last year’s election was a costly miscalculation, but Washington can still meet its goals in Iraq by diving into the fray and prioritizing the system over individual political preferences.
Ahead of his recent meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi at the Jeddah Security and Development Summit, President Biden hailed Iraq as a “platform for diplomacy” despite its ongoing “political gridlock.” The president is right on both counts—Baghdad has been hosting talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia even as it continues to struggle with forming a government nearly a year after the October 2021 election. Yet this characterization omits Washington’s own role in the political crisis, namely, its failure to actively foster a cross-sectarian, multiethnic government that protects Iraq’s sovereignty, steers the country away from Iran’s orbit, and preserves core energy and security interests.
From Election Optimism to Disengagement
The Biden administration’s previous achievements in Iraq should not be discounted. For one, Iraq is no longer a major theater to vent out U.S.-Iran tensions (though Tehran may regard this as only a tactical pause). Moreover, the administration worked with various partners and an empowered UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) to help Baghdad fulfill its promise to move forward with an early election—a pledge that Kadhimi’s caretaker government made in the wake of the 2019 protests that forced the resignation of his predecessor’s militia-infested government. Last October’s vote compounded the defeat of Iran-backed militias operating under a thin veneer of party structure.
Yet instead of advancing this welcome course correction, the Biden administration disengaged post-election. Today, Iraqi parties have yet to form a new government, and current trendlines are running against U.S. goals. Cross-sectarian governance persists but is increasingly overshadowed by deep divisions within and between Shia, Kurdish, and Sunni parties. And as the politicians jockey for power, the Iraqi people continue to suffer the consequences of persistent corruption and poor services.
The lead jockey since October has been the mercurial Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who was able to win a plurality due to a combination of voter apathy sapping turnout and more liberal factions splitting their votes by challenging each other’s candidates in the same districts. Lacking the requisite magnanimity in victory, he quickly spooked his rivals and gave them a reason to unite against him. The resultant “Coordination Framework” led by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki became an umbrella group for Shia parties that opposed Sadr’s dominance. Even so, many U.S. observers believed that with the right Kurdish and Sunni partners moderating his populist impulses, Sadr could still give Iraqis a serious shot at a new government more accountable to them than to Tehran.
To get there, however, more nudging and directing was needed from Washington, which had put aside past bad blood with Sadr to quietly welcome his victory. Yet the Biden administration feared being seen as intervening in the government formation process and therefore counted on the agency of Iraqi actors, many of whom quickly reverted to myopic, self-serving politics. Long gone were the days when Washington would micromanage the horse trading that followed Iraqi elections. Yet in leaving them behind, the Biden administration repeated a common U.S. error in Iraq: underestimating its leverage and leaving the playing field open to actors who do not share its vision. A look back at the past year of U.S. neglect shows where things went off the rails and how Washington’s friends in Iraq became part of the problem.
Political Impasse
One of the White House’s main miscalculations was putting too little pressure on Kadhimi to weed out corruption and reverse unsustainable policies that inflate the public sector and stymie economic diversity. Once his ambition for a second term was whetted, he sought to maintain the status quo in order to avoid antagonizing malign political blocs whose support he needed. As a result, the militias who killed and maimed thousands of protesters are even stronger today and continue to attack government and energy infrastructure. Direct attacks by Iran and Turkey have ramped up as well. Unable to stand up to the militias or deliver reforms, the Iraqi state has further weakened under Kadhimi’s watch.
Sunni Arab parties have faltered as well. They got their act together early with help from Turkey and successfully lobbied for Mohammed al-Halbousi to become speaker of parliament. Once secure in that post, however, Halbousi saw little incentive to push Shia and Kurdish factions on choosing the next president and prime minister.
The president is traditionally a Kurd, but the two main Kurdish parties have yet to agree on a candidate. Instead of uniting to maximize their leverage over national energy rights, revenues, and security, they split across the two opposing Shia camps—Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani sided with Sadr in the hope of stripping the presidency from his rival Barham Salih. Although reuniting the Kurds would not be sufficient to bridge the deep divisions in Baghdad, their discord has made them the face of the political gridlock. Yet Washington has failed to use its significant leverage with them, including $240 million in annual direct aid.
While Sadr stalled after the election, his rivals regrouped and refocused. Deploying their influence network inside the state, they began shifting the locus of power, jolting the long-dormant Federal Supreme Court into a series of crucial rulings—most notably, giving parliamentary minorities veto power over the choice of president and upending the legal foundation of Kurdistan’s oil and gas sector. They also blocked Kadhimi’s caretaker government from passing new budgets, enabling militias in the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) to maintain their current annual windfall of $2.7 billion.
In response, Sadr withdrew his parliamentary bloc and abandoned his Sunni and Kurdish political partners. On July 27, he had his supporters storm and occupy parliament and call for a revolution, warning that he can play spoiler as well.
Policy Implications
Due in part to U.S. inaction, the losers of last year’s election have managed to methodically undo the results. Sadr’s ongoing power play in the halls of parliament could either prolong the impasse or backfire, enabling the rival Coalition Framework to march ahead on forming its own government with help from Sadr’s abandoned partners, Barzani and Halbousi.
It is therefore past time for Washington to engage more directly rather than relying exclusively on its capable ambassador in Baghdad. In addition to leaning harder on U.S. partners and potentially opening communications with Sadr, the Biden administration should reach out to other actors. Most any engagement is worth considering so long as it does not bestow legitimacy on unaccountable militias.
For instance, in nominating a candidate for prime minister, the Coordination Framework did not field someone clearly unacceptable to Washington (e.g., Maliki or Hadi al-Ameri), but instead chose Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, a former minister close to Maliki but not known for corruption or thuggery. If the Framework is poised to form the next government, U.S. officials may be able to affect its behavior by leveraging its need for international legitimacy.
Relatedly, Washington should support Kurdistan Regional Government president Nechirvan Barzani’s proposal to host rival Shia factions for dialogue in Erbil. With buy-in from Salih—as president of the federal government, a post that can prove pivotal in times of crisis when all other institutions are tainted by mistrust and partisanship—the Kurds could present a united face and play a potent moderating role in Baghdad.
These possibilities point to a broader realization about U.S. policy in Iraq: prioritizing any individual politician over the system is doomed to failure. The country has suffered equally under ruthless and toothless prime ministers, and many of its top players are now stepping away from the accountability of public office in favor of offstage puppet mastery. Not so long ago, the militias were bombing Kadhimi’s residence, but since the election they have been able to coopt him without firing a shot at him. Washington would be wise to focus more on the game, even as it keeps an eye on the players.
This approach is especially advisable today because the grievances of the protesters who erupted in 2019 have not disappeared. Various Iraqi factions are attempting to distract them with measures such as anti-normalization laws against Israel or nationalistic militia attacks on Turkish forces and foreign oil firms, but this will not dispel the underlying discontent. Should their frustration with the country’s economic and environmental problems boil over again, they may target the entire system this time, not just the prime minister.
Accordingly, Washington must not be bashful in voicing support for the Iraqi people. A more activist approach starts with pushing politicians to form a clean, capable government that is accountable to its citizens and focused on ending the country’s isolation. In particular, efforts to connect Iraq with the Gulf Cooperation Council states should be expedited, from electricity grid links to banking relationships that help reduce money laundering and capital flight. If Iraq is to become a reliable oil exporter and develop its own natural gas supplies rather than import them from Iran, it will need to start attracting rather than repelling investors. Iraqis still count on the United States to nudge their nascent democracy toward jobs, prosperity, and services. They have already spoken at the ballot box, and it is high time the United States heeds their call.
*Bilal Wahab is the Wagner Fellow at The Washington Institute.