English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For 04 August/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.august04.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
Woe to you Pharisees! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11/47-51/:"Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, "I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute", so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation.”

Titels For English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 03-04 August/2022
Hezbollah the Terrorist organization is totally responsible for the Beirut Port Explosion, and justice will not be achieved before Lebanon is liberated from it's occupation./Elias Bejjani/August 04/2022
UN experts, NGOs urge int'l probe into Beirut port blast
ISG urges truth and justice for families of port victims, Lebanese people
Port cordoned off amid signs that new silos collapse is imminent
Mikati hits back at FPM, blames 'president's entourage' for govt. delay
FPM urges for resuming port blast probe, passing reform laws
First ship with Ukraine grain cleared to sail on to Lebanon
Ukraine urges Lebanon to block Syrian ship from leaving
Qassem: We'll be victorious in recovering our water, oil and gas rights
Bou Habib says demarcation negotiations in 'advanced' and 'technical' stages
Berri supports national dialogue in Iraq
Geagea: We will oppose the election of a March 8 President
IOM, UNODC raise awareness against trafficking in persons
Tarek Khalifé, the chairman of Creditbank, was released
Why survivors of 2020 Beirut port blast have lost faith in Lebanese-led inquiry
Beirut port explosion investigation remains shackled two years on/Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/August 03/2022
Two Years and no Answer Yet: The Missing Terrorist Dot and the Arcanes of a Massacre/
Charles Elias Chartouni/August 03/2022
Beirut blast: lack of justice compounds grief for families of victims/Jamie Prentis/The National/August 03/2022
Even the candidate favoured to be Lebanon's next president faces obstacles/Michael Young/The National/August 03/2022
Why the U.S. should stop subsidizing Tehran’s proxy Lebanon/Clifford D. May/Washington Times/August 03/2022

Titles For Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 03-04 August/2022
Iran says sending team to resume nuclear talks in Vienna
U.N. chief criticizes 'grotesque greed' of oil companies
Iraq's Sadr demands new polls as political crisis escalates
We have nothing': Iraqi protesters voice anger, hope
UN nuclear chief: Ukraine nuclear plant is `out of control'
'Good words' not enough, IAEA hopes for transparency from Iran
Iran destroys Bahai homes in new escalation: NGO
Iran's Raisi plans to address UN in New York despite US sanctions
UN calls for ‘urgent’ solutions to Iraq political crisis
US approves massive arms sale to Saudi, UAE to counter Iran

Titles For LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 03-04 August/2022
Biden should encourage Iran nuclear defections/Michael Rubin/Washington Examiner/August 03/2022
America needs a new approach to Iran/Lawrence J. Haas/The Hill/August 03/2022
Iraq’s Two Coups—And How the U.S. Should Respond/Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/August 03/2022
Palestinians Commit Suicide as Their Leaders Live in Hotels and Villas/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/August 03/2022
Is Israel warming up for a nuclear showdown with Iran?/Shalom Lipner/The National/August 03/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 03-04 August/2022
Hezbollah the Terrorist organization is totally responsible for the Beirut Port Explosion, and justice will not be achieved before Lebanon is liberated from it's occupation.
Elias Bejjani/August 04/2022
حزب الله الإرهابي هو المسؤول عن تفجير مرفأ بيروت، والعدالة لن تتحقق قبل تحرير لبنان من رجس احتلاله
Prophet Isaiah 33/01: "Woe to you, destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, betrayer, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed".
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/101087/elias-bejjani-hezbollah-the-terrorist-organization-is-totally-responsible-for-the-beirut-port-explosion-and-justice-will-not-be-achieved-before-lebanon-is-liberated-from-its-occupation/
In reality and practically, justice in Lebanon will remain a mirage and a dream while Lebanon is still occupied by the Iranian Hezbollah, and governed by a bunch of local puppets and Trojans.
Sadly, justice in our beloved occupied Lebanon is currently far from reach, and even impossible, whether in regards to the Beirut Port explosion horrible crime, or the assassinations of dozens of sovereigns, patriotic and free Lebanese figures.
Justice in the occupied Lebanon is currently ignored, muzzled, marginalized and down trodden, and will not be achieved in any way before the country is liberated from the occupation, domination, hegemony, barbarism and the Mafiosi of the Iranian terrorist organization, Hezbollah.
In this Trojan framework that Hezbollah is enforcing, all that is circulated in the media about judicial investigations into the Beirut Port Explosion crime in particular, revolves only around ignoring the real perpetrator, and on distracting the Lebanese people with names of political and security officials who are charged on mere negligence basis. The occupier, Hezbollah who has been since 2005 in complete control of Beirut's airport and port, brought the shipment of ammonium nitrate to Lebanon in full partnership and co-operation with the Syrian Criminal Assad Regime.
Hezbollah stored the ammonium nitrate in the Beirut Port, used it inside and outside Lebanon in terrorism explosions, and transported most of it to Syria, where Assad regime transformed it into bombing barrels of death and destruction. Due to the fact that Hezbollah is an "assassination machine "and an Iranian terrorist organization that occupies and terrorizes the Lebanese, all the Lebanese security officials and politicians, including and foremost, the President, House Speaker, PM, ministers, MP'S and all high ranging government employees would not have dared to utter a word about the ammonium shipment, even if they were aware of it. This enforced silence would be either because of fear for their lives, or due to their treason affiliation with Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the terrorist Hezbollah, and through its ruling puppets and officials in all positions continues viciously to distract the judicial investigation, and the peoples' focus from the truth, that actually and plainly points towards its sole criminal role in exploding Beirut's Port on August 04, 2020.
Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah has been openly and loudly threatening the Lebanese judiciary, and questioning its credibility, in a replicate to his evil role with the Special Tribunal For Lebanon (STL), that was investigating the assassination of the late PM, Rafik Al Hariri.
In summary, Hezbollah, which occupies Lebanon and controls its rulers, officials and political parties' without even one exception, is fully accountable for the Beirut Port Explosion crime, and accordingly justice will not be fully achieved before the liberation of Lebanon, and before charging, arresting and before putting on all it's leaders on trial. And until the day of liberation comes, this Terrorist and criminal armed militia, will continue to systematically and viciously to devour our beloved Lebanon, The Land Of The Holy Cedars, piece by piece, intimidating its people and assassinating its patriotic leaders.

UN experts, NGOs urge int'l probe into Beirut port blast
Agence France Presse/August 03/2022
United Nations experts and top NGOs urged the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday to launch an international investigation into the deadly Beirut port blast, on the eve of its two-year anniversary. The August 4, 2020 mega-blast killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, after a stockpile of haphazardly stored ammonium nitrate fertilizer caught fire at the port. Relatives of blast victims have pressed for justice and accountability for two years but the local probe has been paused since December due to political pressure. "This tragedy marked one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in recent memory, yet the world has done nothing to find out why it happened," the six U.N. experts said. "On the second anniversary of the blast, we are disheartened that people in Lebanon still await justice, and we call for an international investigation to be initiated without delay."The blast shocked a population already reeling from an unprecedented economic crisis, and is widely blamed on the negligence and mismanagement of Lebanese authorities. The lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar, who was chasing after some of Lebanon's top brass, has been barred from proceeding after politicians he summoned for questioning filed a series of lawsuits against him. The victims' families have appealed to the international community to set up an independent investigation under the Human Rights Council in Geneva. They hope such an inquiry would give them the answers that Lebanese authorities have failed to provide, said the experts, who do not speak for the U.N. but report their findings to it. The explosion and its aftermath have brought into focus systemic problems of negligent governance and widespread corruption, the experts said. The next Human Rights Council session starts on September 13. The Council "should pass a resolution... to create an impartial fact-finding mission into the Beirut port explosion," said 11 local and international NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. "It is now, more than ever, clear that the domestic investigation cannot deliver justice," the NGOs said in a joint statement. Lawmakers of the Lebanese Forces party also pressed the U.N. on Wednesday to launch an international probe.

ISG urges truth and justice for families of port victims, Lebanese people
Naharnet/August 03/2022
On the second anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, members of the International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) have expressed their solidarity with Lebanon and its people, particularly with the families of the victims and “all those whose lives were affected by that event that shook Lebanon and the world.”“We remember the more than 200 dead, and the many thousands who were injured, lost homes or employment, and who suffered trauma,” the ISG said in a statement. The members of the ISG noted with concern “the lack of progress so far in the judicial proceedings” and called on the Lebanese authorities to “do everything possible to unblock any hurdles to the completion of an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation.” “The families of the victims and the Lebanese people deserve truth and justice without further delay,” the ISG stressed. It said that following through on the judicial process is “a necessary element to restoring the credibility of Lebanon’s state institutions, the implementation of the rule of law and proper accountability, and to ending impunity.”“The members of the ISG expect the Lebanese Parliament to adopt the necessary legislation, in line with international standards, to strengthen the independence of the judiciary,” the ISG urged. Observing with :deep concern” the severe impact of the economic crisis on all segments of Lebanese society, the members of the ISG reiterated their call on the Lebanese authorities to “form a government that can implement meaningful reforms and finalize an agreement with the IMF by honoring Lebanon’s commitments and enacting the requisite laws.” They also emphasized the importance of timely presidential elections. Finally, the ISG vowed that it “continues to stand by Lebanon and its people.” The International Support Group has brought together the U.N. and the governments of China, France, Germany, Italy, Russian, the UK and the U.S., together with the EU and the Arab League. It was launched in September 2013 to help mobilize support and assistance for Lebanon’s stability, sovereignty and state institutions.

Port cordoned off amid signs that new silos collapse is imminent
Naharnet/August 03/2022
Security forces on Wednesday cordoned off Beirut’s port and employees were asked to leave as the sensors installed in the northern part of the blast-silos sent signals indicating that a fresh collapse is imminent. “The inclination rate surged in a significant way over the past minutes,” al-Jadeed TV reported. A small section of the massive grain silos collapsed in a huge cloud of dust on Sunday after a weekslong fire, triggered by grains that had fermented and ignited in the summer heat. The 50 year-old, 48 meter tall silos had withstood the force of the explosion two years ago, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the blast that killed over 200 people, injured more than 6,000 and badly damaged entire neighborhoods. In July, a fire broke out in the northern block of the silos due to the fermenting grains. Firefighters and Lebanese Army soldiers were unable to put it out and it smoldered for weeks, a nasty smell spreading around. The environment and health ministries last week issued instructions to residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.
The fire and the dramatic sight of the partially blackened silo revived memories and in some cases, the trauma for the survivors of the gigantic explosion that tore through the port on Aug. 4, 2020. Many rushed to close windows and return indoors after the collapse on Sunday. When the fermenting grains ignited earlier in July, Lebanese firefighters and army soldiers had tried to put out the fire, but officials and experts told them to stop, fearing the additional moisture from the water would worsen the situation. The Interior Ministry said over a week later that the fire had spread, after reaching some electric cables nearby.
Last April, the Lebanese government decided to demolish the silos, but suspended the decision following protests from families of the blast's victims and survivors. They contend that the silos may contain evidence useful for the judicial probe, and that it should stand as a memorial for the tragic incident.
The Beirut Port blast was one of the largest explosions in Lebanon's troubled history. It took place less than a year after an uprising rocked Lebanon, with hundreds of thousands protesting the country's entrenched sectarian political parties. The blast also precipitated Lebanon's economic crisis, costing billions of dollars in damages and destroying thousands of tons of grain. Three-quarters of the population now lives in poverty. The silos, barely standing, have since become an iconic structure in the heart of the devastated port, surrounded to this day by crushed vehicles and warehouses, and piles of debris. The security cordon on Wednesday comes on the eve of the second anniversary of August 4, 2020 explosion. The Lebanese probe has revealed that senior government and security officials knew about the dangerous material stored at the port, though no officials have been convicted thus far. The implicated officials subsequently brought legal challenges against the judge leading the probe, which has left the investigation suspended since December.

Mikati hits back at FPM, blames 'president's entourage' for govt. delay
Naharnet/August 03/2022
Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Wednesday snapped back at the Free Patriotic Movement, and blamed “the interference of the president’s entourage” among other things for the failure to form a new government. “The FPM keeps stirring quarrels and reversing facts on the brink of the end of the presidential tenure, in a clear attempt to deviate attention from the failure that characterized the past years in all fields,” Mikati’s press office said in a statement. It also accused the FPM of seeking to “justify its failure in the many files it was in charge of, most importantly the electricity file.”As for the delay in the government formation, Mikati’s office reminded that the PM-designate “had visited the president a day after the end of the parliamentary consultations, submitting to him a cabinet line-up in line with his constitutional powers and in the manner he saw appropriate, before beginning to discuss it with His Excellency the President.”“But the deliberate leaking of the line-up to the press, and the subsequent interference of the president’s entourage and their insults against the premiership’s position and the PM-designate in person have become known facts, and the FPM’s statement cannot cover up for them,” the press office added. Responding to an accusation that Mikati is “obstructing the implementation of the electricity plan,” the press office said the current energy minister should be asked about the matter, noting that “he was the one who demanded that the plan’s file be dropped from the agenda of the cabinet session and he has not returned with it until now.”

FPM urges for resuming port blast probe, passing reform laws
Naharnet/August 03/2022
The Free Patriotic Movement slammed Wednesday, in a statement, the obstruction of the Beirut blast probe by some politicians and judges and by the supreme court of Lebanon. The statement also blamed Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati for failing to form a new cabinet, obstructing reforms and not taking the required steps to activate the investigation. The FPM expressed its support to the families of the victims and promised that the group will do everything it can to reveal the truth and punish the culprits. It also lauded the President and the resistance for their role in the border demarcation negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. On another note, the statement called Parliament to issue the four reform laws as soon as possible in order to sign a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund, and urged for holding the presidential elections on time. "The FPM is committed to holding the presidential elections on time," the statement said, adding that the next president must most importantly be able to "represent the people."

First ship with Ukraine grain cleared to sail on to Lebanon
Naharnet/August 03/2022
The first grain ship to depart Ukraine under a wartime deal entered the Bosporus Strait on the way to Lebanon after its cargo was checked and approved Wednesday, Turkish and Ukrainian authorities said. An inspection team spent about 90 minutes conducting checks aboard the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, which was carrying Ukrainian corn and anchored off Istanbul, Turkey's defense ministry said. The team included officials from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, the parties to the agreement struck last month to create safe shipping corridors for exporting Ukraine's agricultural products as Russia's invasion of its neighbor continues. Pictures tweeted by the Turkish Ministry of National Defense showed an inspector reaching into the Razoni's open hold and touching the grain. The Razoni's horn rang out as the inspectors left the ship. The detailed mechanics of the inspection were not explained.
The Razoni, which the United Nations says is carrying 26,527 tons of corn, set sail Monday from Odesa on Ukraine's Black Sea coast. From Istanbul, it is on a voyage to cross the Bosporus Strait, a 19-mile scenic waterway connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, before sailing on to Lebanon, its final destination. The inspectors, some wearing white helmets, headed out to the Razoni in two boats, escorted by the Turkish coast guard. Turkish media said there were about 20 inspectors. The checks are intended to ensure that outbound cargo vessels are bearing only grain, fertilizer or related food items and not any other commodities, and that inbound ships are not carrying weapons. Ukraine's Ministry of Infrastructure confirmed the Razoni had passed the inspection. It said 17 other vessels "are loaded and are awaiting permission to leave" Ukrainian ports. Some 27 vessels have been waiting in three Ukrainian ports with cargo and signed contracts, ready to go, according to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric. There was no word about then those ships might set sail, although more are expected to depart Ukraine in the coming days. Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements with Turkey and the United Nations on July 22 to end a wartime standoff that threatened food security around the globe. However, the ongoing war and mistrust between Kyiv and Moscow have threatened to derail the deal, which is due to expire after 120 days. An estimated 20 million tons of grain have been stuck in Ukraine since the start of the 6-month-old war. The U.N.-brokered agreement provided for the establishment of safe corridors through the mined waters outside Ukraine's ports. Most of the grain stuck in Ukraine is to feed livestock, according to David Laborde, an expert at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. Only 6 million tons is wheat, and just half of that is for human consumption, Laborde said. He said the Razoni is loaded with chicken feed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the resumption of grain exports would reduce Russia's ability to extract concessions from the West. "They are losing one of the opportunities to terrorize the world," he said in his nightly video address late Tuesday. Russia's war against Ukraine has also disrupted energy supplies in western Europe, with Moscow drastically cutting how much it sends amid fears it could stop sending any at all.

Ukraine urges Lebanon to block Syrian ship from leaving
Associated Press/August 03/2022
Ukraine's ambassador to Lebanon on Wednesday insisted a Syrian ship docked at a Lebanese port is carrying stolen Ukrainian grain and urged Lebanon to block the vessel from leaving. The claim comes just days before the tiny cash-strapped country receives Ukraine's first grain shipment since Russia's invasion began over five months ago. The Syrian-flagged Laodicea has been anchored at the port of Tripoli since it arrived last Thursday, carrying 10,000 tons of wheat flour and barley. Ukraine says the grain was stolen by Russia. Ukrainian Ambassador to Lebanon Ihor Ostash urged Lebanon not to allow the vessel to leave the port. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the ship in 2015 for its affiliation with the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, a close political and military ally to Moscow. A senior Lebanese customs official said Friday that Ukraine's claims that the ship contained stolen goods were untrue and that the vessel's papers appeared in order following an inspection. Lebanon, already in the throes of a crippling economic and political crisis, has found itself entangled in the fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine. A judge on Monday ordered the Laodicea not to set sail for 72 hours, following a request from Kyiv. However, Lebanon's prosecutor general the following day decided the ship could set sail.
The Laodicea is now free to go once those 72 hours pass but that would anger Ukraine. Russia's diplomatic mission in Lebanon praised the move, accusing Ukraine of lying about the cargo and trying to damage relations between Moscow and Beirut. Ostash at a news conference Wednesday presented documents and mapping of the Laodicea's journey and cargo. He said that evidence from Kyiv's security agencies and judiciary indicates the vessel contained stolen goods."Of course it's important to understand that we would like to go via legal procedures to ... provide all possible evidences and proofs of the Ukrainian side," Ostash said. He presented a photo of what appears to be the Laodicea being loaded with the cargo in the Russia-annexed Crimea peninsula. The ongoing fuss over the Laodicea comes as the first grain ship carrying 26,000 tons of Ukrainian corn aboard the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni entered Turkey's Bosporus Strait en route to the Tripoli port in Lebanon. It's the first grain ship heading from the war-torn country since Russia's invasion in late February. A Lebanese official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the ship is expected to take about four days to arrive in Lebanon from Istanbul after it was searched. After presenting Kyiv's latest evidence about the Laodicea, Ostash turned to the Razoni, which he said unlike the Syrian ship carried "in a legal way, not stolen, original Ukrainian grain." Lebanon condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, which angered Moscow and its allies in Beirut. Ostash praised Lebanon again for taking this position. The shipments come at a time when Lebanon is suffering from a food security crisis, with soaring food inflation, wheat shortages and breadlines. Three-quarters of its population lives in poverty.

Qassem: We'll be victorious in recovering our water, oil and gas rights
Naharnet/August 03/2022
Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has noted that “today the Lebanese state is interested in the issue of recovering the water, oil and gas rights” and this is “a good scene.” “The harmony present among the top leaders of the Lebanese state in favor of the unified stance on demarcation and on obtaining the Lebanese rights is a positive factor,” Qassem said in during a Ashura ceremony. He also called on Lebanese officials to “work on two courses: the course of the demarcation and its related issues, and the course of some social, economic and governmental solutions, in addition to the issue of the state budget, which needs extraordinary attention.”As for demarcation negotiations, Qassem said “everyone must be confident that Israel has no choice, because we have a right and because our state is benefiting from the strength of the army-people-resistance trio.”“We always work to regain our land and rights, and the same as we triumphed in July 2006, we will triumph, God willing, in recovering our water, oil and gas rights,” Hezbollah number two added.

Bou Habib says demarcation negotiations in 'advanced' and 'technical' stages
Naharnet/August 03/2022
The indirect negotiations with Israel over sea border demarcation have entered a “very advanced stage” and the technical details are now being tackled, caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has said. Speaking to al-Joumhouria newspaper, Bou Habib said he asked U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein upon the latter’s arrival in his office about the rest of the members of his time, after he noticed that two members were missing. “The missing members are now taking part with the Lebanese technical team in drafting the agreements that we reached in the Baabda Palace meeting,” Bou Habib quoted Hochstein as answering. “I must carry what we agreed on to Israel as soon as possible, because time is very important and there are aspects that we must accurately calculate and take into consideration,” Hochstein added, according to Bou Habib. Sources following up on the negotiations meanwhile told al-Joumhouria that “what Hochstein carried from Beirut is very precious” and that “he believes that what will come after this visit will be different than what preceded it.”

Berri supports national dialogue in Iraq
Naharnet/August 03/2022
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri expressed Wednesday his support for a national dialogue initiative suggested by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Thousands of Iraqi protesters have been occupying the parliament in Baghdad's Green Zone for the past five days. The mass sit-in is led by followers of powerful Shiite Muslim preacher and political kingmaker Moqtada Sadr, who is facing off against a rival, Iran-backed Shiite faction called the Coordination Framework. Berri, in his statement, urged all Iraqis to respond to the PM's invitation for dialogue and wished stability for Iraq. He also called for dialogue in Lebanon to resolve all disagreements.

Geagea: We will oppose the election of a March 8 President
Naharnet /August 03/2022
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Wednesday that the next President should be sovereign and reformist, refusing a President from the March 8 Alliance or a consensual President. "We will oppose with all our strength the election of a President from the March 8 Alliance," Geagea said in a press conference as he accused the so-called Axis of Defiance of being the root cause of the crisis. He considered that mismanagement, corruption and the dominance of Hezbollah on the country's strategic decisions are the main factors that contributed to the current crisis. "Hezbollah has allied with the most corrupted parties to secure an internal cover for its illegal presence," Geagea said, slamming both Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement. He added that if a President backed by the Axis of Defiance gets elected, Lebanon will be isolated and will lose all investments and international and Arab support. Geagea also refused "a consensual President" that would "extend the hell we are living in to six more years."He concluded his speech by urging all the opposition MPs to coordinate in order to agree on a President's name.

IOM, UNODC raise awareness against trafficking in persons
Naharnet/August 03/2022
Marking the World Day against Trafficking in Persons (TiP) 2022, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) together with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Lebanon organized awareness raising sessions on trafficking in persons for more than 150 migrants from various communities. The sessions were organized in collaboration w ith Caritas Lebanon and Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), L'Union Pour La Protection de L'Enfance Au Liban (UPEL) and KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation. IOM and UNODC said in a statement Wednesday that "the initiative provided an opportunity to recognize the plight of human trafficking victims and promote and protect their rights." "Lebanon is currently enduring severe crisis episodes, which makes it crucial for victims to seek help," stressed Judge Henry Khoury, Minister of Justice. "To achieve that, capacity-building and resources should be enhanced in order to use technology as a game changer to end human trafficking.""Raising awareness about human trafficking provides an important foundation for individuals, first responders, law enforcement entities, service providers, and others to recognize the indicators of human trafficking and how to prevent it and respond adequately," IOM and UNODC said. The sessions – jointly conducted by the different partners – discussed the topics of sexual exploitation, the sponsorship system and trafficking for forced labor – including child labor- in addition to an overview of smuggling and trafficking in the context of irregular migration. They were also followed by the distribution of dignity kits that contain key essential supplies to help women and girls maintain proper hygiene. "Whatever its nature, the crime of human trafficking remains one of the most heinous crimes. Its perpetrators deserve the most severe penalties, and its victims require protection and assistance to enable them to reintegrate into society," said Claudine Aoun, President of the National Commission for Lebanese Women's Affairs. IOM and UNODC considered trafficking in persons as a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. "Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims," they said in their joint statement. They added that the World Day against Trafficking in Persons was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution A/RES/68/192. on the 30th of July 2013. "Such a day is necessary, as declared in the resolution, to 'raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights'."The Activity is part of projects funded by Switzerland, Cyprus, and the Netherlands, the statement said.

Tarek Khalifé, the chairman of Creditbank, was released
Megaphone /August 03, 2022
Tarek Khalifé, the chairman of Creditbank, was released on Wednesday in exchange for a fine of LBP 1.8 billion, paid with the consent of the plaintiff. Security forces arrested Khalifé two days ago upon his arrival at Rafic Hariri International Airport, based on a search and investigation notice issued against him.
The notice came after Khalifé refrained from appearing before the judiciary twice, for a complaint filed against him by lawyer Nada Abousleiman Etyemezian, who holds preferential shares in the bank Khalifé manages. She accompanied her complaint with a comment that she "won't hesitate to claim the rights that were deliberately stolen from her and her children." In response to the news of the arrest, the bank issued a clarification statement in which it called the complaint "wrong, malicious and arbitrary, with no factual basis or legal justification," without explaining why Khalifé refused to appear before the court.
A decision was previously issued last March to freeze Khalifé's assets and ban him from traveling, after he didn't appear in court.

Why survivors of 2020 Beirut port blast have lost faith in Lebanese-led inquiry
Arab News/August 03, 2022
DUBAI: Two years ago, on Aug. 4, 2020, Ghassan Hasrouty walked into his office at the port of Beirut where he had worked a steady job for the past 38 years. He would not return home that day. At 6:07 p.m. local time, hundreds of tons of hazardously stored ammonium nitrate ignited in Warehouse 12 where Hasrouty was working. He and several of his colleagues were killed instantly. The third biggest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded in history devastated the port and a whole district of the Lebanese capital. At least 220 people were killed, more than 7,000 wounded, and a city already in the throes of economic and political crisis was left paralyzed under a mushroom cloud of pink smoke. “The investigation of the port explosion will be transparent. Take five days, and any officials involved will be held accountable,” Mohammed Fahmi, Lebanon’s interior minister at the time, said after the blast. And yet, two years on, as families still reel from the loss of their homes, businesses and loved ones, the official Lebanese state’s investigation remains stagnant. On July 31, part of the port’s now grimly iconic grain silos collapsed, sending a cloud of dust over the capital, reviving traumatic memories of the blast.
The Lebanese Cabinet recently approved plans for the controlled demolition of the silos, which were badly damaged but miraculously survived the 2020 blast, having sustained much of its force. The decision has sparked outrage among Beirut residents and victims’ support groups who have called for the silos to be preserved until a full and proper investigation into the blast is concluded. Many place the blame for the blast and its aftermath on corruption and mismanagement within the Lebanese government.
With a status quo originating from the days of the 1975 to 1990 civil war, which has rendered those in power effectively untouchable, the inquiry has descended into little more than a finger-pointing match as it moves from one presiding judge to the next.
With that, politicians have effectively ensured the complete impunity of officials who have long been wanted for questioning, arrest and prosecution. Officials potentially implicated in the blast have filed more than 25 requests demanding the dismissal of Judge Tarek Bitar and others involved in overseeing the inquiry. Judge Bitar had charged four former senior officials with intentional negligence resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people in the explosion. In response, some of the suspects have filed legal complaints against the judge, which led to the near-total suspension of the investigation in December 2021.
Two of these officials, Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zaaiter, were just reelected as members of parliament.“After seeing how the officials reacted after the blast, I know the path for justice is going to be long. Two years in, all the corrupt state is doing is just blocking investigations and escaping justice,” Tatiana Hasrouty, Ghassan’s daughter, told Arab News. “This corruption is well rooted and was on full display when the director general of the Internal Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Imad Othman, was observed in the presence of Ghazi Zaaiter and Ali Hassan Khalil — two men he was supposed to be issuing arrest warrants against but did nothing instead,” she said. “My father deserves better than this, and we, as his family, as Lebanese citizens, and as those affected by the blast, deserve to know who did this to us and why. I would not want it to happen to anyone. Nobody deserves to live through this kind of pain.”

Beirut port explosion investigation remains shackled two years on
Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/August 03, 2022
In bankrupt Lebanon — a country where people struggle to buy bread and find it nearly impossible to withdraw their savings; a place that has long lived with a justice deficiency — all it takes is one disbelieving look to see how low a country needs to go before its ruling elites wake up and try to find solutions to the mounting challenges faced by the state and its citizens. Or, simply, they are not interested.
Thursday marks two years since the country suffered the explosion that destroyed the port and parts of the city of Beirut. It is considered to be one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has ever seen, killing more than 200 people and injuring 6,000. As a reminder of the tragedy, parts of the semi-destroyed grain silos collapsed on Sunday, engulfing the Lebanese capital in yet another cloud of dust. This happened after a fire was apparently ignited in the fermenting grain due to the excruciating summer heat, with the authorities having given up trying to put out the blaze after weeks of unsuccessful attempts.
Like everything else in Lebanon, the investigation launched to understand what happened with the explosion and who was responsible for the huge ammonium nitrate stock and its storage has been blocked by the country’s de facto political powers. From the beginning, many believed it was an Israeli strike on some Hezbollah weapons dump, using a key installation like the port as a cover. Others believed the ammonium nitrate was stored by unknown entities for explosive manufacturing purposes, maybe on behalf of a third party outside Lebanon. Some even blame the Lebanese government’s years-long corruption and mismanagement for the tragedy, but the lock on power of the current ruling elite has ensured the few so-called suspects are untouchable.
The blast, which caused a pressure wave that shattered everything in its path, left many people determined to seek justice. But accountability is hard to come by in Lebanon, with the political elite closing ranks and thwarting all investigation efforts by a quasi-independent judiciary. An initial investigation found that the ammonium nitrate had been shipped to Lebanon in 2013 and stored improperly at a port warehouse in plain sight of all official and nonofficial security apparatuses active in the country.
However, political interference disrupted the investigation and the second investigating judge Tarek Bitar’s efforts to charge former senior government and security officials with intentional killing and negligence was blocked pending a Court of Cassation ruling after three former Cabinet ministers filed legal challenges. But the Court of Cassation cannot rule until a number of vacancies are filled. These appointments, endorsed by the justice minister, are still awaiting the approval of the finance minister, who is close to parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri.
Lebanon is no stranger to administrative manipulation, interference, direct or indirect intimidation and even the assassination of those straying away from the narrative and/or the guidelines filtered through the system by the de facto ruling class to serve their agendas. Its history is, unfortunately, littered with assassinations and bombings.Since 2005 — and apart from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which against all odds ruled to indict members of Hezbollah for the assassination of the late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a verdict rejected by the pro-Iranian group — many instances of political violence sit unresolved and gathering dust on the shelves of the Lebanese justice system.
Dozens have been assassinated, including lawmakers, journalists, activists and members of the security services. One example is the 2008 car bomb that killed Wissam Eid, a police intelligence officer investigating the Hariri assassination. His boss, Wissam Al-Hassan, was also killed in a car bomb in 2012, possibly as a result of his arrest of a pro-Syrian former Lebanese minister who was transporting bombs from Syria in the boot of his car.
The list is long, but to some extent everyone in Lebanon knows very well the elephant in the room responsible for these acts of violence.
The lack of justice compounds the pain of the relatives of the Beirut port blast victims, who, like most Lebanese, feel let down and abandoned not only by the government and the legal system, but also by public apathy, as the Lebanese have turned their attention to dealing with the fallout from the unprecedented economic crisis that has hit the country.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, there were large protests and sit-ins demanding justice, but public fervor quickly waned as people were absorbed by their day-to-day survival efforts. Other events were also seen as tools to curtail the investigation, including the deadly gun battles that erupted in central Beirut last year between Hezbollah supporters protesting against Bitar and some Christian factions. These raised fears that pressing on with the investigation would risk pushing Lebanon back into another round of sectarian violence, if not war.
The grain silos at Beirut port were a sign of Lebanon’s progress and development when they were built, but they are now likely to bear witness, like many other landmarks in Beirut, to the further erosion of the state and the failure of its justice system to hold to account those committing the most heinous of crimes against this small country and its people. The lock on power of the current ruling elite has ensured the few so-called suspects are untouchable.At night in Beirut, orange flames can still be seen at the base of the northern silos, glowing eerily in the darkness and reminding everyone that the investigation that was supposed to answer key questions about who owned the ammonium nitrate, how it entered the port, who authorized its storage and how the explosion was triggered has been hampered. The Beirut port explosion inquiry seems likely to join Lebanon’s list of open investigations that have been muzzled by the same forces that have long disrupted the country’s attempts to free its sovereignty from the shackles of conflictive, disruptive and often destructive regional geostrategic projects that have been pushed on it and its people.
*Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist, media consultant and trainer with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.

مقالة لشارل الياس شرتوني تتناول جريمة تفجير المرفأ بعد مرور سنتين، مع استمرار تجهيل المجرمين وما يلف المذبحة من غموض متعمد
Two Years and no Answer Yet: The Missing Terrorist Dot and the Arcanes of a Massacre
Charles Elias Chartouni/August 03/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/110969/charles-elias-chartouni-two-years-and-no-answer-yet-the-missing-terrorist-dot-and-the-arcanes-of-a-massacre-%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%84%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7/
Unsurprisingly, the proto-nuclear explosion at the Beirut Harbor (August 4, 2020) is still an undeciphered riddle: no identifiable actors, no legal scenarios, no culprits, no moral and legal accountability, no reconstruction scenarios, and worse the absence of a tangible course to address the uncouth mysteries and identify the unknown puppeteers. The Lebanese government, in the totality of its institutions, bears the responsibility of this intentional crime whose infrastructure, actors and complicities are well established, and goals quite distinctive: the upending of the urban and ecological dynamics of Eastern Beirut, as a prelude to an overall subversion strategy which aims at changing the national and political dynamics of an agonizing liberal democracy, which failed to uphold its credentials, amidst the upheavals of a failed autocratic, oligarchic and Totalitarian-proned Arab and Islamic modernity, and an imploding Middle East.The forensic and legal quandaries are the downside of a bankrupted Republic.
It's no coincidence that the internationalization of the forensic investigation was initially dismissed by the oligarchic coalition, whose cronies are directly involved at every single step of the meticulously mounted crime (the landing of a ship with no legal and safety credentials, the longevity of the storage, the deficient security mesures, the rotating criminal managers and their clashing agendas, the absence of clear chain of command and subservience to Hezbollah’s mandates and symetric controls, and the criminal omissions which kept the deferring game run indefinitely its course...,.). The forestalling of the investigative and legal proceedings was initiated from the first hours, when the subservient government acquiesced to Hezbollah blatant obstructionism, rejection of international investigation, tampering with the crime scene, overruling of the respective judges, and control of the spurious judicial course, through the nomination of a lackey judge and the instrumentalization of the whole judiciary.
The political nature of this crime, far from being an ancillary investigation element, should be retained as one of the framing predicates of this carefully planned crime.The obstruction of justice is part of the overall landscape of an orchestrated unraveling plan targeting the rationales of Statehood and civil concord in our country. The moral apathy and psychotic callousness of the criminal oligarchy is no hazard, it's part of the plot. There are no words of consolation to redeem the brutality and horrors of a premeditated crime, and there is no political horizon for justice to take place. We should stop fooling ourselves and start considering political and legal alternatives. Shiite fascism and its political accomplices are adamantly pursuing their design, and nothing is to be expected along the beaten tracks of a long dead Republic. It's about time to change not only the course but the whole narrative, Justice lies somewhere else.

تقرير بالصور يلقي الأضواء على جريمة تفجير المرفأ
Beirut blast: lack of justice compounds grief for families of victims
Jamie Prentis/The National/August 03/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/110952/beirut-blast-lack-of-justice-compounds-grief-for-families-of-victims-%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%82%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d8%b6%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%89-%d8%ac%d8%b1/
Two years after the fatal port explosion, a judicial investigation has stalled and accountability remains a distant prospect
Almost two years ago, Mireille Khoury was at her home in Beirut with her children Elias and Nour when an explosion at the city’s port ripped through the Lebanese capital.
The walls of the house collapsed, leaving Ms Khoury and Nour with long-lasting injuries. Elias, who was 15 and an aspiring musician, fell into a coma before succumbing to his injuries two weeks later.
Since that day, Ms Khoury has had to endure living with the grief of losing her son ― but with no answers as to why or how a huge stock of ammonium nitrate was left in storage at the port for years. The stock eventually caught fire and caused the explosion.
More than 215 people died in the August 4 blast, which is regarded as a damning symptom of decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon’s ruling elite.
“My daughter has injuries and scars that she will carry all her life. This is not to mention the trauma, and not to mention the loss of her brother,” Ms Khoury told The National, days before the second anniversary of the explosion.
Two years on, there has been no justice for the victims.
An investigation led by judge Tarek Bitar stalled and has been on hold for eight months. Among those charged in connection with the investigation are two sitting MPs, but they have refused to attend interrogation hearings. Hassan Diab, who was prime minister at the time of the explosion, has also been charged with negligence.
Mr Bitar, who also charged several top security officials in the matter and is the second judge to take on the case, has repeatedly been impeded by legal challenges from former Cabinet ministers.
The complete absence of accountability has only exacerbated the trauma felt.
“In addition to the grief, the loss and all that we went through … I mean, I don’t know how I am still able to talk to you in this way,” Ms Khoury said.
“There is also the issue of this injustice. It triggers inside you a very strong feeling of bitterness, and a feeling of injustice and feeling of frustration, but on a different scale. It’s like a scale that you’ve never encountered in your life.
“You sometimes feel injustice in life, you sometimes feel bitter. But this is a scale [that] you can never imagine, because the tragedy is out of this world.”
Lebanon is in the middle of an economic collapse that first became apparent in 2019, and has been described by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history.
The explosion, the economic downturn, Covid-19 and the fall-out from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have individually and collectively ensured miserable living conditions for much of Lebanon’s population.
A large proportion of the population has been plunged into poverty, the local currency has lost more than 90 per cent of its value, and there are widespread shortages in basic supplies such as medicine, water, bread and electricity. Mariana Fodoulian, who lost her 29-year-old sister Gaia in the blast, said it was “cruel” to see MPs in parliament voting on laws when they had been charged in connection with the investigation.
“For me, the government is killing us every day, the government is stopping justice every day. They are fighting against their population,” she said.
“I don’t know how governments can kill the population and then also stop the investigation into it.”
Ms Khoury bemoaned the fact the authorities “were supposed to care about us and to care about the safety of the country”.
Beirut’s port, where the ammonium nitrate was held, is close to the city and residential areas. “They didn’t care to inform anyone, they didn’t care to take any precautions. They didn’t even warn us. I wouldn’t have lived there,” Ms Khoury said.
“They kept it for seven years, half the years of the life of my son. They are denying [us] justice.” She said that there was a 20 minute period after the fire started on August 4 ― but before the explosion occurred ― when the authorities could have evacuated nearby properties.
“No one cared to warn the people. This is a double crime. If they had evacuated the area, many people would still be alive.”
Some MPs have suggested the Supreme Council, a 15-member body comprised of eight judges and seven MPs , should be the sole body prosecuting politicians charged in connection with the blast. The council has a mandate to prosecute politicians — but no MP has yet been tried by the council, despite it having existed for decades.
Critics believe it is an attempt by those accused of responsibility for the blast to evade justice.
Speaking ahead of the anniversary, a number of NGOs collectively called for the creation of a UN Human Rights Council-mandated international fact-finding mission, with it “now, more than ever, clear that the domestic investigation cannot deliver justice”.
“As the Lebanese authorities continue to brazenly obstruct and delay the domestic investigation into the port explosion, an international investigation is the only way forward to ensure that justice is delivered,” said Diana Semaan, acting deputy director at Amnesty International. “The Lebanese authorities tragically failed to protect the lives of its people killed in the port explosion and since then they have stood against victims in their fight for justice.”
Even if those responsible are held accountable and justice is found, it will never replace what was lost.
“There will never be justice equivalent to what was lost, no way,” Ms Khoury said.
“But at least there should be some sort of accountability. Such a horrendous thing … it cannot just pass unnoticed.”.”

Even the candidate favoured to be Lebanon's next president faces obstacles
مايكل يانغ/ذي ناشيونال: حتى المرشح المفضل لدى عون وحزب الله للرئاسة يواجه عوائق
Michael Young/The National/August 03/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/110956/michael-young-even-the-candidate-favoured-to-be-lebanons-next-president-faces-obstacles-%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%8a%d9%83%d9%84-%d9%8a%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%ba-%d8%ad%d8%aa%d9%89-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b1%d9%91/
Lebanon’s politicians have started to think seriously about the country’s upcoming presidential election. President Michel Aoun’s term ends on October 31, and constitutionally parliament must vote for a successor within a two-month timeframe before that deadline. While it is unclear who will succeed Mr Aoun, or even whether an election will be held on time if the country’s different political forces fail to agree on a candidate, it is fairly certain the president will leave office. Doubts had arisen months ago, when Mr Aoun vowed that he would not leave office if it meant a presidential vacuum would follow.
This was seen as a manoeuvre that would allow Mr Aoun to place his son-in-law Gebran Bassil in office. The idea was that an expected deadlock over any alternative candidate would permit Mr Aoun to impose Mr Bassil’s election as a way out of the impasse. That idea went nowhere among Lebanon’s political forces, however, so it is likely Mr Aoun will go on time.
Even Mr Bassil’s presidential ambitions have apparently been put on the backburner, amid signs that his major ally, Hezbollah, will not back his candidacy this time. While the party favours Mr Bassil, trying to force such a toxic figure on the country would cause much opposition, notably from Hezbollah’s leading ally, parliament speaker Nabih Berri. It could also mobilise Mr Bassil’s many opponents to boycott the election, preventing a quorum.
In April, during Ramadan, Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah invited Mr Bassil and Suleiman Franjieh, another of its Maronite Christian allies, to an iftar. Mr Nasrallah sought to reconcile the two rivals in the run-up to the presidential election.
What emerged from the gathering was an interpretation that Mr Nasrallah had somehow made it clear to Mr Bassil that Hezbollah would back Mr Franjieh for the presidency this year, and would push for Mr Bassil’s election in the future. While there was no evidence for this, Mr Bassil’s attitude changed in the weeks that followed. In July, in an interview carried by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station, he declared he could “either be president or a maker of presidents,” admitting implicitly that he might not now seek office himself.
The interview followed a meeting between a Franjieh ally, Farid Haykal Al Khazen, and Mr Bassil, which many observers read as being tied to negotiations over Mr Bassil’s electoral support for Mr Franjieh. For Mr Bassil to back a Franjieh candidacy, he would probably seek to impose demands on him that would include naming a new central bank governor, a new army commander, perhaps several key ministers, and other concessions.
Mr Franjieh has no intention of being at Mr Bassil’s mercy, but nor can he spurn him, as he needs the endorsement of a large Christian bloc in parliament. Mr Bassil’s chief rival, Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces, who heads a large bloc of his own, is not likely to go with Mr Franjieh, who is close to the Syrian regime that Mr Geagea opposes.
Already, Mr Bassil has raised the ante on Mr Franjieh, pointing out that he sees no particular reason to endorse a Franjieh presidency. This could be brinkmanship as the two men negotiate, but it also indicates that Mr Bassil is not happy with the situation. It is entirely conceivable that Hezbollah told Mr Bassil nothing specific about its intentions towards the presidency, but kept things so vague that Mr Bassil understood the party would not promote his candidacy. If so, then how far can he go to squeeze what he wants out of Mr Franjieh, if he knows that Hezbollah ultimately desires his election as president?
Lebanon's gas has become an extension of Iranian interests
In other words, if Mr Bassil wants an assurance that Hezbollah will back his own presidency down the road, he may not be able to deny Mr Franjieh a victory. To preserve his ties with Hezbollah, Mr Bassil may be compelled to ask his bloc to vote for Mr Franjieh, whether all his demands are met or not. Hezbollah benefits from rivalry among its Christian allies, because this allows it to act as the ultimate power broker.
There has also been speculation that parliament might seek a compromise candidate, one who benefits from international confidence and who could be a domestic unifier. The name of a former finance minister, Jihad Azour, an official at the International Monetary Fund, has been mentioned. However, at a time when several Arab countries are moving closer to Israel, it remains to be seen whether Hezbollah would be willing to go along with a middle-of-the-road candidate rather than someone they trust. Mr Franjieh fits the bill on that front, and Hezbollah even seems to have the votes to bring him to office. But with countries such as France and Saudi Arabia having influence in Lebanon, Iran may choose to co-operate with them. It is too early to predict outcomes, but regional realities suggest Hezbollah will not want to allow a long vacuum in the country, as it needs a president in place if there is a conflict with Israel or one involving Iran. So, Lebanon, the country of perennial, destructive voids, may yet have a new head of state by year’s end.

كليفورد .دي. ماي / واشنطن تايمز: لهذه الأسباب مطلوب من أميركا وقف دعم لبنان الذراع الإيرانية
Why the U.S. should stop subsidizing Tehran’s proxy Lebanon
Clifford D. May/Washington Times/August 03/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/110959/clifford-d-may-washington-times-why-the-u-s-should-stop-subsidizing-tehrans-proxy-lebanon%d9%83%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%81%d9%88%d8%b1%d8%af-%d8%af%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%8a-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%88/
Lebanon was once a noble experiment. When the age of European imperialism ended, most Arab and Muslim lands became dictatorships where ethnic and religious minorities — Christians, Jews, Kurds, Druze, Baha’i, Yezidis and others — enjoyed no rights or freedoms.
The Lebanese attempted to find a better way — a modus vivendi among its peoples.
In 1943, an unwritten agreement known as the National Pact established Lebanon as a “multiconfessional” state. Its president was to be a Maronite Christian, its prime minister a Sunni, its speaker of the Parliament a Shia, its deputy speaker Greek Orthodox.
We might consider this an early model of what is now called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” — an attempt to create a government that, one might say, “looked like Lebanon.”
The experiment failed. Tensions among Lebanon’s communities worsened, leading to a brutal civil war in 1975. Then came the Syrian occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005, and a war against Israel that ran from 1982 to 2000.
Still, this experimental state endured, aspiring to become, in the words of the late, great Lebanese-born scholar, Fouad Ajami, “a land of enlightenment and commerce.” Its capital, Beirut, was hailed as the Paris of the Middle East, a city where journalists and spies drank good wine, dined on fine cuisine, pursued romance, and conspired in multiple tongues.
Then, the revolutionaries who took power in Iran in 1979 provided funds and training to a Shia militia that called itself Hezbollah, “The Party of God.” In 1983, Hezbollah suicide-bombed barracks housing U.S. and French peacekeepers, killing more than 300.
Hezbollah today is the most heavily armed terrorist group in the world. In 2006, the cleric who leads it, Hassan Nasrallah, presented Lebanon with “the ‘gift’ of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped across an international frontier,” as Ajami wrote at the time. “Nasrallah never let the Lebanese government in on his venture,” which led to another war with Israel.
For the damage that conflict inflicted on Lebanon, Hezbollah paid no price. On the contrary, Hezbollah increasingly seized control of the state.
Not just coincidentally, Lebanon today is failing — mired in debt, its currency debased, and unable to provide its citizens with such basic services as reliable electricity and garbage removal.
The U.S. has been trying to help. For the past 15 years, the strategy of both Republican and Democratic administrations has been to fund, train, and equip the Lebanese Armed Forces so that “they could serve as an institutional counterweight to Hezbollah,” as a senior State Department official testified a year ago this month.
The strategy failed. That’s the stark conclusion of a new report by David Kilcullen, an internationally respected military theorist, policy adviser (including to Gen. David Petraeus and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice), author and diplomat, currently a professor at Arizona State University and CEO and President of Cordillera Applications Group, who serves on the board of advisers at the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Based on extensive analysis, he concludes that the $2.5 billion in security assistance the United States has provided the LAF since 2006 has clearly not achieved the State Department’s goals: “to strengthen Lebanon’s sovereignty, secure its borders, counter internal threats, and disrupt terrorist facilitation.”
Mr. Kilcullen explains, “The argument for strengthening the LAF rests in part on the assumption that the LAF is in competition with Hezbollah for prestige and influence. In fact, the two are conjoined at the highest levels because Hezbollah’s influence over Lebanon’s civilian authorities is so extensive.”
He adds, “The terror group has effective veto power over the choice of prime minister and the actions of the Lebanese Cabinet. Hezbollah’s coalition holds a majority in parliament, and its allies serve as president and speaker.”
As if that were not enough, the LAF has “demonstrated a clear pattern of covering for Hezbollah infiltration, hampering UN efforts to monitor Lebanon’s southern border, and blocking” the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon from even investigating Hezbollah activities that violate international law or endanger the Lebanese state.
Among those activities: The digging of tunnels from Lebanon into Israel for the purpose of infiltrating terrorists or other combatants, and the emplacement of more than 130,000 missiles, including as many as 500 with precision-guidance systems capable of overwhelming Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system.
Hezbollah locates such missiles in, under or near homes, schools, mosques and hospitals, confident that the “international community” will blame Israel for the carnage that results.
“In the final analysis,” Mr. Kilcullen writes, “the theory on which enhanced U.S. assistance was based — strengthening a non-sectarian Lebanese state to compete for influence with Hezbollah — is no longer valid, if it ever was.”
He advises the Biden administration to “revisit the framework of U.S. support for the LAF, which a different administration conceived under radically different circumstances.”
His specific recommendations include conditioning future aid on more rigorous and skeptical monitoring of the LAF’s relations with Hezbollah and Hezbollah-linked organizations, and “maintaining or increasing sanctions on Iranian sponsorship of Hezbollah.”
Importantly, he does not favor a complete break. While recommending a revision of aid policies, he sees some utility in maintaining “U.S. military-to-military engagement with the LAF” to provide “insight into Lebanese decision-making and access to influential leaders.”
But the current U.S. approach — apparently driven by inertia and a reluctance to admit that American taxpayers have received no return on their investments — turns out to have been counterproductive.
For all intents and purposes, Lebanon is now Tehran’s imperial possession. That’s a failure. We should acknowledge it and consider alternative policies. In the meantime, it makes no sense to continue aiding and abetting Iran’s rulers and contributing to Lebanon’s pitiful decline.
• Clifford D. May is the founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a columnist for The Washington Times.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/aug/2/why-the-us-should-stop-subsidizing-tehrans-proxy-l/

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 03-04 August/2022
Iran says sending team to resume nuclear talks in Vienna
Agence France Presse/August 03/2022
Iran said Wednesday it was sending a delegation to Vienna to resume talks to revive the frayed 2015 agreement on its nuclear program that have been at a standstill since March. "As part of the policy of lifting cruel sanctions against our country, Iran's negotiating team led by Ali Bagheri, the Islamic republic's chief negotiator, will leave for Vienna in a few hours," foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.

U.N. chief criticizes 'grotesque greed' of oil companies
Associated Press/August 03/2022
The United Nations chief sharply criticized the "grotesque greed" of oil and gas companies on Wednesday for making record profits from the energy crisis on the back of the world's poorest people, "while destroying our only home."Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was "immoral" that the largest energy companies in the first quarter of the year made combined profits of close to $100 billion. He urged all governments to tax these excessive profits "and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times."Guterres urged people everywhere to send a message to the fossil fuel industry and their financiers that "this grotesque greed is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people, while destroying our only home." The secretary-general spoke at the news conference launching a report by the Global Crisis Response Group he set up to tackle the triple interconnected crises of food, energy and finance which have especially hit countries trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and deal with the devastating impact of the war in Ukraine. The group has already presented recommendations on food and finance and Guterres said he believes "we are making some progress" in those areas, especially on food. The report released Wednesday focuses on the energy crisis, and the secretary-general said it aims to achieve the equivalent of the grain deal he first proposed to the Russian and Ukrainian presidents to enable Ukrainian grain to be shipped from Russian-blockaded ports on the Black Sea to world markets in desperate need of food supplies. The first ship to leave Ukraine was headed to Lebanon Wednesday after a three-hour inspection in Turkish waters. In another key recommendation, the group urges richer developed countries, especially, to conserve energy and promote public transport "and nature-based solutions." Guterres said new technologies including storage for batteries "should become public goods," and governments must scale up and diversify supply chains for raw materials and renewable energy technologies. The group also recommends scaling up private and multilateral finance for "the green energy transition." And it backed the International Energy Agency's goal of increasing investments in renewable energy by a factor of seven to meet the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to "net zero" by 2050 to help curb man-made climate change. "Every country is part of this energy crisis, and all countries are paying attention to what others are doing," Guterres said. "There is no place for hypocrisy."He said many developing countries living with severe impacts of the climate crisis including storms, wildfires, floods and drought don't lack a reason to invest in renewable energy but they need "concrete, workable options" -- and he said developed countries urging them to invest in renewables aren't providing enough social, technical or financial support. Guterres criticized some of the same developed countries for introducing universal subsidies at gasoline pumps and reopening coal plants, saying it's difficult to justify these actions even on a temporary basis. He said any subsidies and reopening of coal plants "must be strictly time-bound and targeted" to ease the energy burden on the poor and promote the transition to renewables.

Iraq's Sadr demands new polls as political crisis escalates
Agence France Presse/August 03/2022
Powerful Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, whose bloc won the most seats in Iraq's elections last year, demanded Wednesday that parliament be dissolved and new national polls be called. Nearly 10 months on from the last elections, the country still has no government, new prime minister or new president, due to repeated squabbles between factions over forming a coalition. In the latest political turmoil to strike the oil-rich but war-scarred nation, Sadr called for a "revolutionary and peaceful process, then early democratic elections after a dissolution of parliament". His televised speech came as calls for dialogue intensify after his supporters occupied parliament for a fifth consecutive day, in protest at a nomination for prime minister by a rival Shiite faction, the Iran-backed Coordination Framework. However, parliament can only be dissolved by a majority vote, according to the constitution. Such a vote can take place at the request of a third of lawmakers, or by the prime minster with the president's agreement. "I am certain that the majority of the population is exasperated by the ruling class in its entirety, including some (politicians) belonging to my movement", Sadr said. "From now on there will be no more old-guard politicians, whatever their affiliation," he added. Sadr's bloc emerged from elections in October as the biggest faction, but it was still far short of a majority. In June, his 73 lawmakers quit, ostensibly in a bid to break the political logjam. Sadr, who once led an anti-US militia and who has millions of devoted followers, noted also that he had "no interest" in negotiating with his rivals.
'Risk of escalation'
Along with their sit-in, the cleric's supporters have set up an encampment outside parliament with tents and food stalls, and Sadr on Wednesday called on them to continue. "The revolutionaries and protesters participating in the sit-in must stay and continue their camp until the demands are realized," he said. In multi-confessional and multi-ethnic Iraq, government formation has involved complex negotiations since a 2003 US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. The resignation of Sadr's lawmakers led to the pro-Iran bloc becoming the largest in parliament, but still there was no agreement on new top posts.
The Sadrist camp was outraged by the Coordination Framework last week nominating former minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime minister. The Coordination Framework is a grouping that includes former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, a long-standing foe of Sadr, and the Hashed al-Shaabi, a former paramilitary network now integrated into the security forces. Outgoing prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi has called for a "national dialogue" in a bid to bring all sides together to talk, and on Wednesday he spoke with President Barham Saleh. Both men stressed the importance of "guaranteeing security and stability" in the country, according to the Iraqi News Agency. Sadr's foe Maliki said late Wednesday "serious dialogue giving hope for resolving differences... begins with respect for constitutional institutions." Thousands of Coordination Framework supporters have held counter-protests in Baghdad against the occupation of parliament. "Don't believe the rumors that I don't want dialogue," Sadr said on Wednesday. "But we have already tried and experienced dialogue with them," he added. "It has brought nothing to us and to the nation -- only ruin and corruption." Earlier on Wednesday, the United Nations mission in Iraq called on leaders to "prioritize (the) national interest" and end the long-running power struggle. "Meaningful dialogue among all Iraqi parties is now more urgent than ever, as recent events have demonstrated the rapid risk of escalation in this tense political climate," the UN mission warned. French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke with political leaders on Wednesday, saying that "dialogue and consultation" was the only way out of the crisis.

We have nothing': Iraqi protesters voice anger, hope
Agence France Presse/August 03/2022
Thousands of Iraqi protesters have occupied the parliament in Baghdad's Green Zone for the past five days, the latest political turmoil to strike the war-scarred country. The mass sit-in is led by followers of powerful Shiite Muslim preacher and political kingmaker Moqtada Sadr, who is facing off against a rival, Iran-backed Shiite faction called the Coordination Framework. The at times carnival-like protests have seen demonstrators repeat the Sadrist rhetoric but also express anger at a dysfunctional political system, poor public services and the weak economy of the oil-rich but corruption-plagued country. Nearly two decades after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, and 10 months on from the latest elections, the impasse has left Iraq without a new prime minister or president.AFP spoke to four of the demonstrators, several of whom did not want to be fully identified, about why they have joined the mass protest camp.
The school teacher
Ali Mohammed Oklah, 43, left behind his wife and three children to drive for four hours from Iraq's mostly Shiite south to the legislature in the usually ultra-secure Green Zone government district. "I'm rebelling to free my country from the fangs of the corrupt," said the Islamic studies high school teacher, who also wants Iraq to adopt a new constitution and a presidential system. He spoke proudly of his movement -- "we the Sadrists" -- and its previous breaches of the Green Zone, prime minister's office and legislative chamber. "I've joined them all and I'm proud of it," he said, stressing the "revolutionary ideology" of the camp around firebrand cleric Sadr who once led an anti-U.S. militia and who has millions of devoted followers. Oklah acknowledged "the difficulty of the struggle for reform" in Iraq. But he stressed his conviction that Sadr enjoys "divine protection" and commands a "loyal popular base, which is like the arm with which he strikes at the dens of the corrupt".
The mother of seven -
Leaning back in a chair inside the legislative chamber, Umm Ali, 47, has come to demonstrate with her husband, brothers and nephews. She vowed they would stay "until the Sayyed tells us to withdraw," using the honorary title of Sadr, whose black turban marks him as a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. A portrait of Moqtada sat in the lap of the mother of six girls and one boy. "He is the only one with integrity," said the woman, who lives in Baghdad's working-class Sadr City district, named after the preacher's late father who was a revered cleric. Her goal, she said, is to "recover the country. The whole country has been stolen."She said her husband has been disabled since he was wounded in a 2009 bombing in Baghdad. "He was a civil servant, he was just getting out of work," she said. "Since then we have received no compensation." She said her son started working after primary school to help feed the family. "There is no work for young people," she said. "Even those with higher degrees become porters or day labourers. Is this what they deserve?"
The tuk-tuk driver -
Wearing shorts, flip-flops and sunglasses, Rassul Achour, 20, has used his three-wheeled motorcycle taxi to shuttle protesters in the blistering summer heat. He charges only about 30 U.S. cents for the tuk-tuk ride and says "it's symbolic, just for the petrol".On a normal day his tuk-tuk earns him just over $10, just enough to scrape by with his wife and their one-year-old daughter. Life is a struggle he said, with daily power cuts, potholed streets and a night-time tuk-tuk ban that makes his job harder. Pointing to other young protesters, he said: "All these young people don't have jobs. We want jobs."Achour said he would be ready for any job, even with the military: "Let them give me a job and send me anywhere, even to the border with Syria."
The political activist
Computer engineer Mustafa, 29, who studies French in his spare time, said he doesn't belong to the Sadrist camp but came to protest anyway. His primary allegiance is with the broad anti-government protest movement that exploded onto Iraq's streets in late 2019 but petered out amid a bloody crackdown and the Covid pandemic. Mustafa recalled that Sadrists had also rallied back then: "Half of the demonstrators were Sadr supporters, they had their tents and his portraits." Now he has come daily to the parliament protest, hoping it will "change the reality" of Iraq. He vented his anger at the ruling class he blames for Iraq's many unresolved woes. "They have millions and billions, they have air conditioning, houses, villas abroad," he said. "And we have nothing at all."

UN nuclear chief: Ukraine nuclear plant is `out of control'
UNITED NATIONS (AP)/August 03/2022
The U.N. nuclear chief warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control” and issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that the situation is getting more perilous every day at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, soon after their Feb. 24. invasion of Ukraine.
“Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, he said. “What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.”
Grossi cited many violations of the plant’s safety, adding that it is “in a place where active war is ongoing,” near Russian-controlled territory.
The physical integrity of the plant hasn’t been respected, he said, citing shelling at the beginning of the war when it was taken over and continuing information from Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of attacks at Zaporizhzhia.
There is “a paradoxical situation” in which the plant is controlled by Russia, but its Ukrainian staff continues to run its nuclear operations, leading to inevitable moments of friction and alleged violence, he said. While the IAEA has some contacts with staff, they are “faulty” and “patchy,” he said.
Grossi said the supply chain of equipment and spare parts has been interrupted, “so we are not sure the plant is getting all it needs.” The IAEA also needs to perform very important inspections to ensure that nuclear material is being safeguarded, “and there is a lot of nuclear material there to be inspected,” he said.
“When you put this together, you have a catalog of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility,” Grossi said. “And this is why I have been insisting from day one that we have to be able to go there to perform this safety and security evaluation, to do the repairs and to assist as we already did in Chernobyl.”
The Russian capture of Zaporizhzhia renewed fears that the largest of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors could be damaged, setting off another emergency like the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, which happened about 110 kilometers (65 miles) north of the capital Kyiv.
Russian forces occupied the heavily contaminated site soon after the invasion but handed control back to the Ukrainians at the end of March. Grossi visited Chernobyl on April 27 and tweeted that the level of safety was “like a `red light’ blinking.” But he said Tuesday that the IAEA set up “an assistance mission” at Chernobyl at that time “that has been very, very successful so far.”The IAEA needs to go to Zaporizhzhia, as it did to Chernobyl, to ascertain the facts of what is actually happening there, to carry out repairs and inspections, and “to prevent a nuclear accident from happening,” Grossi said.
The IAEA chief said he and his team need protection to get to the plant and the urgent cooperation of Russia and Ukraine.
Each side wants this international mission to go from different sites, which is understandable in light of territorial integrity and political considerations, he said, but there’s something more urgent and that is getting the IAEA team to Zaporizhzhia.
“The IAEA, by its presence, will be a deterrent to any act of violence against this nuclear power plant,” Grossi said. “So I’m pleading as an international civil servant, as the head of an international organization, I’m pleading to both sides to let this mission proceed.”
Grossi was in New York to deliver a keynote speech at Monday’s opening of the long-delayed high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually achieving a nuclear-free world.
In the interview, the IAEA chief also spoke about efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that the Trump administration abandoned in 2018 and the Biden administration has been working to renew.
Grossi said there is “an ongoing effort to try to go for yet another meeting or round to explore possibilities to come to an agreement.” He said he heard the meeting “could be soon.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the NPT review conference on Monday that Iran “has either been unwilling or unable” to accept a deal to return to the 2015 agreement aimed at reining in its nuclear program. Grossi said “there are important differences among the negotiating parties” and important verification issues related to past activities that Iran needs to address. “It’s not impossible, it’s complex,” he said. If the nuclear agreement, known as the JCPOA, is not extended, he said some IAEA inspections will continue. But the JCPOA provides for additional transparency and inspections “which I deem as extremely important, very necessary, because of the breadth and depth of the nuclear program in Iran,” he said.
Grossi stressed that cooperating with the IAEA, answering its questions, allowing its inspectors to go wherever they need to be, is essential for Iran to build trust and confidence. “Promises and good words will not do,” he said.
On another issue, Grossi said last September's deal in which the United States and Britain will provide Australia with nuclear reactors to power its submarines requires an agreement with the IAEA to ensure that the amount of nuclear material in the vessel when it leaves port is there when it returns. He said Australia hasn’t decided what type of vessel it will be getting, so while there have been preparatory talks, substantive talks can’t begin. Because it’s a military vessel, Grossi said, “there are lots of confidential and protection of information measures that need to be embedded into any such agreement, so it’s very complex technologically."

'Good words' not enough, IAEA hopes for transparency from Iran
UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters)/August 03/2022
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday "good words" from Iran are not enough to satisfy international inspectors and he hopes Tehran is ready to be transparent about its nuclear program, which was "moving ahead very, very fast". International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi spoke when asked about the IAEA's role in monitoring any revival of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers under which it curbed its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief. Iran and the United States have so far failed to resurrect the deal and Grossi said Iran must grant IAEA inspectors access "commensurate to the size" of its uranium enrichment program if the agency is to credibly assure that it is peaceful. ""When it comes to nuclear, good words will not do it. What you need to do is to be transparent and compliant and work with us. We are ready and I hope they will be as well," Grossi told reporters at the United Nations.
"They have a very ambitious nuclear program that needs to be verified in the appropriate way. The program is moving ahead very, very fast and not only ahead, but sideways as well, because it's growing in ambition and in capacity."Then-U.S. President Donald Trump reneged on the nuclear deal in 2018, restoring harsh U.S. sanctions designed to squeeze Iran's oil exports and prompting Tehran to start abandoning the agreement's nuclear limits about a year later. On Monday, Iran's nuclear energy organisation chief said it had the technical capability to produce an atomic bomb but no intention of doing so.

Iran destroys Bahai homes in new escalation: NGO
AFP/August 04, 2022
PARIS: Iranian authorities have destroyed half a dozen homes belonging to Bahais in a new phase of an crackdown that has shaken the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, an NGO has said. Bahai representatives said 13 community members, including several prominent figures, had already been arrested in raids on Sunday following dozens of arrests over the last two months. Bahais have been subjected to harassment ever since the inception in 1979 of the Islamic republic, which recognizes minority non-Muslim faiths including Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism but does not Bahaism.
Iranian officials on Tuesday sealed off the village of Roshankouh in the northern Mazandaran province and completely destroyed six Bahai homes as well as confiscating 20 hectares of land, Diane Alai, a Bahai International Community representative to the UN, said. Video footage posted on social media showed the residents of Roshankouh, which is known to have a strong Bahai presence, standing aghast in front of the wreckage of their homes. The BIC said in a statement that heavy earthmoving equipment was used to demolish the homes and one Bahai resident was arrested. “We ask everyone to raise their voice and call for these dreadful acts of blatant persecution to be immediately stopped,” said Alai. She denounced a “step-by-step plan” by the Iranian authorities of “first blatant lies and hate speech, then raids and arrests, and today land grabs, occupations and the destruction of homes.”Bahais have repeatedly complained in the past of seizures of land and property. The authorities have sometimes claimed they were owned by organizations now prohibited in Iran but the Bahais countered that the assets were subsequently transferred to state-controlled foundations. Thirteen Bahais on Sunday were arrested in raids on the homes and businesses of 52 Bahais across Iran, with the Iranian Intelligence Ministry leveling accusations of spying for Israel that the Bahais dismissed as preposterous. With concern growing over the crackdown, the US State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom on Tuesday said the US “urges Iran to halt its ongoing oppression of the Bahai community and honor its international obligations to respect the right of all Iranians to freedom of religion or belief.”

Iran's Raisi plans to address UN in New York despite US sanctions
Tehran (AFP) /August 03/2022
Iran's ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi plans to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly next month despite US sanctions against him, the government's spokesman said on Tuesday. "The preliminary planning has been done for the president's attendance at the UN General Assembly session," Ali Bahadori-Jahromi told a weekly press briefing. Raisi, who has been under US sanctions since November 2019 for "complicity in serious human rights violations", missed last year's General Assembly because of the Covid-19 pandemic. A pre-recorded video of his address was played to the meeting instead. When Washington added his name to its blacklist of Iranian officials, Raisi was still judiciary chief. He became president in June 2021. Washington accuses him of playing a leading role in mass executions of detained leftists in 1988 while he was chief prosector of the Tehran revolutionary court. Raisi has denied the allegations on two occasions -- in 2018 and 2020 -- insisting he played no role in the executions, although he lauded an order he said was handed down by the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to proceed with the purge. The General Assembly opens in New York on September 13.

UN calls for ‘urgent’ solutions to Iraq political crisis
AFP/August 04, 2022
BAGHDAD: The UN mission in Iraq called on leaders on Wednesday to put their country first and end a long-running political power struggle, as tensions soar in the war-scarred nation. Nearly 10 months on from elections, the oil-rich country still has no government and no new prime minister or president. “We appeal to all actors to commit, actively engage and agree on solutions without delay,” the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said in a statement. “Leaders must prioritize (the) national interest,” it said. On Wednesday, followers of powerful Shiite preacher and political kingmaker Muqtada Al-Sadr continued a mass sit-in at parliament for a fifth day. The Sadr bloc opposes a nomination for prime minister by the Coordination Framework, a rival, Iran-backed Shiite faction. Outgoing Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has called for a “national dialogue” in a bid to bring all sides together to talk, and on Wednesday spoke with President Barham Saleh. Both men stressed the importance of “guaranteeing security and stability” in the country, according to the Iraqi News Agency. “Meaningful dialogue among all Iraqi parties is now more urgent than ever, as recent events have demonstrated the rapid risk of escalation in this tense political climate,” the UN mission warned. On Tuesday, a top Sadrist official gave followers 72 hours to shift their protests from the main meeting halls of parliament to the entrance of the building and a surrounding encampment. “Iraq is facing an extensive list of outstanding domestic issues: It is in desperate need of economic reform, effective public service delivery as well as a federal budget — to name a few,” the UN added. “Hence, it is past time for political stakeholders to assume their responsibilities and act in the national interest.”Iraq is the second largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and derives 90 percent of federal revenue from oil. But it has still not adopted its budget for 2022. In June, parliament passed an emergency finance bill, to ensure gas supplies and buy grain for “food security.”

US approves massive arms sale to Saudi, UAE to counter Iran
Associated Press/August 04, 2022
The Biden administration has approved two massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to help them defend against Iran. The more than $5 billion in missile defense and related sales follow President Joe Biden's visit to the Middle East last month, during which he met with numerous regional leaders in Saudi Arabia. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been hit in recent months with rocket attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement in Yemen. Although Tuesday's approvals are for defensive weapons, they may be questioned by lawmakers who had supported Biden's decision last year to cut Saudi Arabia and the UAE off from major purchases of offensive U.S. arms because of their involvement in the war in Yemen. The new sales include $3 billion for Patriot missiles for Saudi Arabia specifically designed to protect itself from rocket attacks by the Houthis, and $2.2 billion for high-altitude missile defense for the UAE. "The proposed sale will improve the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's capability to meet current and future threats by replenishing its dwindling stock of PATRIOT GEM-T missiles," the State Department said in its notice informing Congress of the sale. "These missiles are used to defend the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's borders against persistent Houthi cross-border unmanned aerial system and ballistic missile attacks on civilian sites and critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia," the department said. For UAE, the department said the sale would "support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of an important regional partner. The UAE is a vital U.S. partner for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East." Early in his administration Biden had pledged to cut off or cut back weapons sales to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE because of their actions in Yemen.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 03-04 August/2022
Biden should encourage Iran nuclear defections
*Michael Rubin/Washington Examiner/August 03/2022
Visiting Israel last month, President Joe Biden signed the "Jerusalem Declaration" promising to "use all elements of its national power" to deny Iran a nuclear weapon. Biden’s strategy, however, appears little more than sanctions relief. Even the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps now mock his appeals for diplomacy.Biden is right that bombing is no solution. While it can degrade Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, it cannot eliminate the knowledge Iranian scientists have accumulated over decades of developing ballistic missiles, enriching uranium, and, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, experimenting with warhead design. To send bombers and cruise missiles against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would only delay Iran’s program, not eliminate it. To kick the can down the road absent any real policy to change the regime or eliminate Iran’s nuclear program into perpetuity is an abuse of blood and treasure.
Still, other options exist beyond bombing.
If the problem that bombing cannot resolve is the knowledge of Iranian nuclear scientists, then the solution must address them directly. There are two main ways to address the nuclear scientist question. In recent years, Israel (presumably) has chosen one way: blowing up missile laboratories, magnet bombs attached to cars, and even using remote control machine gun nests to eliminate scientists. Such attacks will continue: Iran’s adversaries repeatedly demonstrate superior intelligence-gathering, while the regime’s internal security is sloppy and permissive.
There are other ways to remove scientists from the battlefield, however. Just as the U.S. granted asylum and, in some cases, new identities to Nazi Germany’s scientists after World War II, so too should the White House encourage the defection of Iranian scientists today. Many may be willing to consider the idea. After all, they have witnessed friends and colleagues die as part of the shadow war. While some scientists may be ideologues loyal to the regime, many others may simply be nationalists who would hope for a better future for Iran once freed from the yoke of the ayatollahs.
Many proponents of engagement argue that the Revolutionary Guards are not monolithic. This is true. Some Iranians are true believers, but many others join for the privileges. Those with a passion for cutting-edge science have few other outlets. The Iranian regime certainly is worried about its people fleeing and providing information to foreign intelligence services. This is why the Revolutionary Guards’ internal intelligence division now requires all current and former Iranian officials to gain its permission prior to international travel. It will be both hard, demoralizing, and counterproductive for the regime to keep scientists locked up, and it would be dangerous for the regime to concentrate potential targets for those who want to eliminate them.
Many Iranians value the occasional shopping trip or vacation in Dubai. Religious Iranians chose to go on pilgrimage to Shiite shrine cities such as Najaf and Karbala. Dissidents and prisoners on furlough often hire Kurdish guides to evade border guards and help them across mountain passes into Iraqi Kurdistan or Turkey. The FBI offers bounties for the capture of terrorists. If Biden values smart diplomacy, his aides might draw up a list of Iranian nuclear and missile scientists who can expect relocation, reward, and meaningful work should they present themselves to any U.S. embassy or consulate. To broadcast such a list would have a dual purpose: Those named may consider it an offer they cannot refuse. They could leave or die. Such rewards would cost the Treasury a fraction of what military action or inaction leading to a nuclear Iran would. Given the talent of Iranian scientists, it might also enhance U.S. interests. It is time for a coherent Iran strategy that extends past endless talk or the threat of war.
*Michael Rubin ( @mrubin1971 ) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/biden-should-encourage-iran-nuclear-defections

America needs a new approach to Iran
Lawrence J. Haas/The Hill/August 03/2022
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken speaks during a meeting with Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Non-Nuclear Weapons States Parties in the United Nations General Assembly, Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. The U.S. has sanctioned a United Arab Emirates-based firm and several Asian companies for facilitating the illicit sale of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil for shipment to East Asia.
Iran announced plans in recent days to build a new research reactor at its Isfahan nuclear site and more nuclear sites around the country, while the International Atomic Energy Agency’s top official said that Iran’s nuclear program was “galloping along,” with more uranium enriched at close to weapons-grade purity.
Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials acknowledged that the 2015 global nuclear deal with Iran, which the United States and its European allies have been trying to resurrect, is dead for the foreseeable future because Washington and Tehran remained deadlocked over key particulars.
None of this is surprising. The nuclear deal, from which President Trump withdrew the United States in 2018, was increasingly looking like a geopolitical relic — that is, a priority to which the West clung stubbornly even as developments on the ground made the deal seem outdated, if not irrelevant.
Consider the parallels with the “Middle East peace process,” which Western leaders pursued for decades. It was predicated on a broad consensus in foreign policy circles that Israeli-Palestinian peace was the prerequisite for wider Arab-Israeli peace. While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued to rage, however, Israel inked peace agreements with a growing number of individual Arab states.
Similarly, the nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — was predicated on constraints on Iran’s nuclear activities, international inspections to monitor its compliance, and sanctions relief for Tehran. As the West pursued negotiations since March 2021 to revive the deal, however, Tehran dragged out the talks, advanced its nuclear program well beyond the deal’s limits, and made it harder for inspectors to do their monitoring.
The question, of course, is what the United States should do now about Iran and its nuclear program?
That is no minor issue, for a new U.S. approach is important not only to address the Iranian challenge but also to send a strong signal of U.S. resolve to (1) a revanchist Russia that has undermined longstanding global norms by seeking to conquer Ukraine and (2) an aggressive China that is threating Taiwan while challenging the United States more broadly in the Pacific.
A new U.S. strategy for Iran should do at least the following:
First, restore a credible U.S. threat of force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Yes, every president since George W. Bush has vowed that Washington will consider military action if all else fails. But, with Washington so intent to revive a nuclear deal that expires in the coming years and that has a weak inspection regime to begin with, do Iran’s mullahs believe it?
What might convince them? As Johns Hopkins’ Michael Mandelbaum suggests, a combination of U.S. military drills that are clear dress rehearsals for a U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, U.S. delivery to Israel of bunker-busting bombs that can destroy Iran’s deep underground sites, and U.S. military responses to growing Iranian provocations against its interests in the region might give Tehran some pause.
Second, maintain U.S. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear and other activities.
Just as President Obama offered sanctions relief to convince Tehran to ink the nuclear deal, President Biden offered economic incentives to convince Tehran to rejoin it. In a post-JCPOA word, Biden and his team might be inclined to offer some economic goodies to ease U.S.-Iranian tensions in the short term and seek rapprochement with Tehran over the long term.
That wouldn’t be wise. Iran’s regime remains congenitally hostile to Washington and, while advancing its nuclear program, is expanding its conventional, asymmetric, cyber, and other capabilities and striking out — itself or through proxies — more aggressively against Israel and Sunni Arab states. Economic goodies won’t moderate this regime as it seeks hegemony in the region and more influence in other regions, and it should continue to pay the pay for its malevolent activities.
Third, build stronger ties to Iran’s people.
The effects of sanctions trickle through an economy so, theoretically, U.S. sanctions could turn Iran’s long-suffering people against the United States. The good news is that Iran’s people in great numbers have looked to America with admiration and for support as they confront a deeply unpopular regime.
But U.S. public diplomacy with Iran’s people, from which its future leaders presumably will come, has long proved problematic. The Voice of America and other U.S.-sponsored media outlets, for instance, need to do better reaching Iranians where they are (on TV, radio, and social media), explaining U.S. policy, and highlighting the differences between U.S. freedom and Iranian authoritarianism.
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Globally, the stakes of a new U.S. strategy for Iran could hardly be higher. For years, China, Russia, and Iran have grown closer in an anti-U.S. coalition. Of late, Iran is reportedly giving Russia hundreds of drones for its war effort in Ukraine and supplying it with aircraft parts and equipment. Iran also is trading more with China and working to join the BRICS alliance of China, Russia, India Brazil, and South Africa.
At this critical moment, Washington needs a post-JCPOA strategy that will force all three powers to take notice.
*Lawrence J. Haas, senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, is the author of “The Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America’s Empire,” from Potomac Books.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3583996-america-needs-a-new-approach-to-iran/

Iraq’s Two Coups—And How the U.S. Should Respond
Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/August 03/2022
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/iraqs-two-coups-and-how-us-should-respond
Iran’s allies in Iraq mounted a judicial coup at the start of this year. Now, Moqtada al-Sadr is trying to place the system under his control through mob action. U.S.-led friends of Iraq should care about both these developments, not just the most recent one.
With Moqtada al-Sadr’s supporters occupying Iraq’s parliament and camped out in the International Zone, Baghdad’s government center, there is a body of opinion that Iraq is experiencing a kind of coup or, as Moqtada calls it, a “revolution.” Viewed against the backdrop of recent months, however, his actions should be seen as a response to the subversion of the judiciary by the losers in the October 2021 election that Sadr’s bloc won in order to negate the result of the elections. This judicial coup–achieved by gaining control over the supposedly independent Federal Supreme Court–saw one arm of Iraq’s government subordinated to a foreign power. Now Moqtada is doing something similar, albeit via mob action: negating another arm of government, the legislature. How should the United States and her friends view this mess and what actions might best serve U.S. interests and U.S. ideals?
A tale of two coups
In Iraq’s parliamentary system, the members of parliament (MPs) appoint the speaker, president, and prime minister, in that order. Under normal circumstances, it takes a simple majority of the 329 MPs (i.e., 165 seats) to elect the speaker and ratify the prime minister and his cabinet, while a two-thirds majority (218 seats) is required in the first effort to elect a president, though the threshold drops to 165 seats if a first-round victory is not possible. In the October 2021 elections, assessed to be fair by both the Iraqi Higher Electoral Commission and the United Nations, Moqtada al-Sadr's Sairoon list won the largest number of seats (73 seats) and tried to build a mold-breaking cross-sectarian and multi-ethnic coalition that would have the requisite 165 seats and would push the Iran-backed Coordination Framework coalition into opposition.
In response, the Coordination Framework has tried to overthrow the election results multiple times—first through legal means, then paramilitary attacks on the IZ, and ultimately an assassination attempt on Iraq’s caretaker prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi that November. When all their efforts failed and the election results were certified on December 27, 2021, the Coalition Framework moved to Plan B. This consisted of a judicial coup masterminded by Nouri al-Maliki, the former premier, who had cultivated key members of the judiciary since he groomed and elevated them through the ranks during his long tenure as prime minister.
The current judicial coup involved instructing the Supreme Judicial Court’s head Judge Faiq Zaydan to facilitate a flurry of rulings in his subordinate Supreme Federal Court (FSC), which rolled out in quick succession early in 2022. Most importantly, the FSC effectively removed the option of appointing a president by simple majority if the effort to achieve a two-thirds majority failed. In so doing, the Coordination Framework effectively overthrew Moqtada al-Sadr’s effort to form a majority government of 165 seats without them. In essence, this decision moved the goalposts as the ball was about to cross the goal line. The FSC also suddenly activated a ten-year old case against Kurdistan’s independent oil exports in order to punish and intimidate some Kurds for taking part in the effort to form a majority government.
In frustration, Moqtada al-Sadr resigned all 73 MPs of the Sairoon coalition from parliament, ceding the majority back to the Coordination Framework and its partners (though not the all-important two-thirds majority). He signaled that he felt the system was rigged and that he would now act to change it. The Coordination Framework prepared to try to form a government–seeming just able to scrape together two-thirds of MPs after many seats reallocated from Moqtada’s resigned members.
To prevent this, Moqtada’s followers seized the parliamentary chamber in Baghdad, as well as back-up locations elsewhere. The Iraqi government did not risk killing protestors to stop these incursions—much as Iraq’s government (under then premier Haider al-Abadi, now a partner of the Coordination Framework) did not stop Moqtada’s supporters from ransacking the parliament in 2016. The Coordination Framework parties view the government’s meek reaction as a kind of endorsement of Moqtada’s actions, and thus characterize it as a coup.
Two wrongs don’t make a stable government
Though the senior leadership of the United States might be focused on great power competition and domestic issues, the U.S. intelligence community and diplomatic corps, plus our allies and partners, know a great deal about the daily movements, conversations, and bank accounts of key Iraqi leaders. Therefore, the United States knows exactly how the the Coordination Framework undertook a judicial coup in early 2022, in partnership with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force general Esmail Qaani and the head of the Supreme Judicial Council Judge Faiq Zaydan. The three men met at Nouri al-Maliki’s house in January 2022, whereupon Zaydan was given instructions by Maliki and the Iranian general.
It is completely counter to the spirit and the word of the Iraqi Constitution for the country’s judiciary to be ordered to undermine the results of an election and intimidate the majority bloc. That is a foreign–backed judicial coup and should not be accepted by the Iraqi people or ignored by the international community, as it has largely been so far–in public, at least. The Coordination Framework has played its hand quietly and smartly, undertaking its illegal and unconstitutional actions in the realm where only classified intelligence could detect it. If the United States wants, it could release evidence of these efforts, either openly or discreetly and indirectly.
Nor should the United States simply stand by and say nothing about the occupation of a major state institution by the Sadrists. Here an indirect approach might be smart. The United States cannot directly intervene: Washington did not even lift a finger to help Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi as the militia trucks of Coordination Framework member Kataib Hezbollah (in parliament as the Hoquq list) surrounded the prime minister’s residence in June 2020 in a direct threat against him. Instead, the United States would be better served by simply passing Moqtada and the Iraqi people the proof they need to bring down the corrupt judicial leadership in Iraq, and the other officials who have conspired with the Coordination Framework to release protestor-killers from jail or who have enriched themselves at Iraq’s expense.
A new judicial leadership might be able to take action, and this might convince Moqtada to loosen his grip on parliament. New elections would probably follow, given that the judiciary took numerous actions in early 2022 to shape the ultimate outcome of the election in ways that favored the Coordination Framework.
In other words, the United States should care about Iraq’s two attempted coups this year, and a good place to start might be helping Iraqis to right the wrong of the stolen election and the intimidation heaped upon the Iraqi Kurds for exercising their right to join a majority government. Unless the FSC rulings are reversed, the Coordination Framework may have done permanent damage to Iraq’s ability to form a government and create an impasse that will reemerge every single term there are elections and a two-thirds majority is now required. Nor did the Coordination Framework hesitate to risk taking half a million barrels of oil off the world market and plunging five million inhabitants of the Kurdistan Region into economic crisis through its courtroom (alongside rocket and drone) attacks on Kurdistan oil sales.
These are grossly destabilizing actions that can probably only be reversed if the basis of the rulings–improper judicial interactions with Coordination Framework leaders like Nouri al-Maliki and IRGC Qods Force general Esmail Qaani–are brought to light. At this stage, with the abyss gaping right in front of Iraq and its partners, there is a need for rapid, unconventional policy thinking that sends a sign to Moqtada al-Sadr that there is more than one way to fix the current impasse and that the wrong of the stolen election can be righted without a second coup.
*Michael Knights is the Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute and cofounder of its Militia Spotlight platform.

Palestinians Commit Suicide as Their Leaders Live in Hotels and Villas
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/August 03/2022
Many residents of the Gaza Strip undoubtedly regret the day they voted for Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election.
The last protest, which took place in 2017 under the slogan "We Want to Live!", was brutally crushed by Hamas's security forces and armed militias.
"In all countries of the world, you pay taxes for the services that the state provides you, except for us. In return, there are no hospitals, no education, no electricity, no water, no public utilities, not even rodent control." — Khalil Talmas, Gaza Strip resident, Facebook, July 27, 2022.
"'We Want to Live!'... is a cry of pain from the depths of a crushed and exhausted Palestinian people. It is a cry against taxes, extortion, repression and corruption." — Anas Al-Jazzar, Twitter, July 28, 2022.
Other Palestinians said that the current protest was directed not only against Hamas, but also against the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank....
These Palestinians pointed out the corrupt leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and their family members are leading comfortable lives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in five-star hotels and big villas in Qatar and Turkey, while most people were living in poverty and unemployment and misery.
"So the [Hamas] leaders' families, their children, grandchildren do not believe in their own [political and military] project, and although they can live in Gaza in the utmost luxury, they choose to leave it for the hotels and villas of Doha and Istanbul. They left the hungry people of Gaza to live in poverty, deprivation and hunger." — Mohammed Nashwan, Gaza Strip resident, alarab.co.uk, July 21, 2022.
[T]hese voices offer a glimmer of hope that the Palestinians are finally beginning to realize that their corrupt and incompetent leaders -- whether in the Palestinian Authority or Hamas -- are continuing to lead them from one disaster to another, while depriving them of the international aid that is rightly theirs and denying them a decent life.
Since the Islamist Hamas group seized control of the Gaza Strip 15 years ago, residents have been reminded on a daily basis of the failure of the Iranian-backed group to provide them with decent living conditions. Pictured: A man shops for second-hand clothes at a market in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 29, 2022.
It has been 15 years since the Islamist Hamas group seized control of the Gaza Strip, home to some two million Palestinians. Since then, the residents of the Gaza Strip have been reminded on a daily basis of the failure of the Iranian-backed group to provide them with decent living conditions.
Instead, the repressive governance of the Hamas leaders only brings the Palestinians in Gaza more misery.
The situation in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has become so bad that an increasing number of young people have been committing suicide by self-immolation, throwing themselves from rooftops, swallowing large amounts of medicine and hanging.
Many residents of the Gaza Strip undoubtedly regret the day they voted for Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election.
Many residents also undoubtedly regret the day they supported the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, a process during which the Islamist group killed dozens of members of their rivals in the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
To express their discontent with Hamas and its failed governance, Palestinians have in the past launched protests, both on the streets and through social media, demanding an end to the economic and humanitarian crisis that has plagued them since the Islamist group seized control of the Gaza Strip.
The last protest, which took place in 2017 under the slogan "We Want to Live!", was brutally crushed by Hamas's security forces and militias.
Recently, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip decided to resume their protests against Hamas. The decision came after a spate of violent crime and suicide cases.
In one instance, a Hamas security officer, Jibril Karmout, shot dead his father-in-law and sister-in-law, and wounded 15 others, because of a "family feud."
Human rights organizations have documented 49 cases of homicide and suicides since the beginning of this year.
Just last week, an unemployed 25-year-old man from Shati Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip died days after pouring gasoline on himself and setting himself on fire. The man, who was later identified as Husni Abu Arabiya, was unable to provide for his pregnant wife and his parents, who all lived in the same house, according to Palestinian sources. His mother was injured when she tried to put out the fire.
"My son set himself on fire because of debts," Abu Arabiya's father said. "He did not have a home or a job. He set himself on fire because of poverty and hunger."
Abu Arabiya's sister said that the family lived in a rented house and was unable to pay the rent for the past seven months. "I appeal to the Palestinian governments of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to save the rest of the family," his sister said .
Earlier, Mohammed Abu Al-Rish, a blind man from the Gaza Strip, also committed suicide the same way.
Abu Al-Rish, 36, set himself on fire in front of a bank in the neighborhood of Al-Nasr in Gaza City to protest against the refusal of the Hamas government to provide him with social welfare assistance. Sources in the Gaza Strip said that he lost his sight after Hamas leaders encouraged him and other Palestinians to head toward the border with Israel a few years ago and engage in violent attacks against Israeli soldiers.
On the same day, 22-year-old Ahmed Siam also killed himself by pouring gasoline on himself and setting himself on fire.
Days earlier, another 30-year-old man committed suicide by hanging at his home.
"In all countries of the world, you pay taxes for the services that the state provides you, except for us," complained Khalil Talmas, a resident of the Gaza Strip. "In return, there are no hospitals, no education, no electricity, no water, no public utilities, not even rodent control."
Another Palestinian, Anas Al-Jazzar, wrote that the term "We Want to Live!" really means that Palestinians do not want to die. "It is a cry of pain from the depths of a crushed and exhausted Palestinian people," Al-Jazzar explained. "It is a cry against taxes, extortion, repression and corruption."
Other Palestinians said that the current protest was directed not only against Hamas, but also against the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank that has been imposing sanctions on the Gaza Strip in the past few years as part of an effort to undermine the Hamas regime there.
These Palestinians pointed out the corrupt leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and their family members are leading comfortable lives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in five-star hotels and big villas in Qatar and Turkey, while most people under their rule are living in poverty and unemployment and misery.
Recently, residents of the Gaza Strip were surprised to hear that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his family have moved to Turkey. Haniyeh had been living in Qatar for the past few years after he left the Gaza Strip.
Now, it seems he decided to move to Turkey because he apparently feels more safe and relaxed under the regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
What surprised many Palestinians was that Haniyeh managed to get all his family members out of the Gaza Strip while most Palestinians still cannot leave: Egypt, which has a shared border with the Gaza Strip, will not allow them to cross the border. Several senior Hamas leaders, however, have in recent years left the Gaza Strip together with their families in search of better lives in Arab and Muslim countries.
Mohammed Nashwan, a Gaza Strip resident, expressed outrage over the move by the Haniyeh family to relocate to Turkey.
"So the [Hamas] leaders' families, their children, grandchildren do not believe in their own [political and military] project, and although they can live in Gaza in the utmost luxury, they choose to leave it for the hotels and villas of Doha and Istanbul... They left the hungry people of Gaza to live in poverty, deprivation and hunger."
Addressing the Hamas leaders, Nashwan added:
"If your children do not believe in your project, do you want people to believe in it? Do you want them to believe in it while they see you living the life of kings outside the country? Do you want them to believe in your project while their children are dying in the sea by drowning and in the forests in search of a decent life while your children have their own investments and real estate?"
The latest campaign against Hamas is unlikely to remove the ruthless and oppressive Islamists from power, at least not in the foreseeable future. Hamas will most probably again use brutal force to suppress the voices demanding dignity and an end to corruption.
Yet these voices offer a glimmer of hope that the Palestinians are finally beginning to realize that their corrupt and incompetent leaders -- whether in the Palestinian Authority or Hamas -- are continuing to lead them from one disaster to another, while depriving them of the international aid that is rightly theirs and denying them a decent life.
It remains to be seen whether the renewed Palestinian unrest in Gaza against the rapacious Palestinian leaders will attract any notice from the international community -- or if more young Gazans need to set themselves on fire before the Hamas-created desperation in the Gaza Strip becomes a story worth covering.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Is Israel warming up for a nuclear showdown with Iran?
Shalom Lipner/The National/August 03/2022
Air force strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, with or without America's approval, cannot be ruled out
Israel's parliament dissolved itself on June 30, ushering the way for Yair Lapid to replace Naftali Bennett as the country's Prime Minister on the next day. Elections have been scheduled for November 1, but recent precedents suggest that many long months might yet pass before lawmakers manage to form a stable, new coalition. The political upheaval has not diverted the focus of Israeli leaders from the challenge posed by Iran, however, where the goalposts are moving significantly.
The original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was decidedly controversial within the Israeli policy establishment. Critics highlighted the deal's sunset clauses on restrictions to Iran's nuclear development and its silence with regard to other elements of Iranian belligerence. Those who voiced support for the agreement pointed, on the other hand, to the benefits of its interim checks on Iranian ambitions and to the necessity of avoiding open confrontation with Israel's primary ally in Washington. The 2018 withdrawal of then US president Donald Trump from the JCPOA eclipsed that debate when his "maximum pressure" campaign – whether because of its shortcomings or owing to its premature demise – witnessed a threatening surge in Iran's enrichment of uranium.
In July 2021, Mr Bennett, only a few weeks after assuming the premiership, accused his predecessor of falling asleep at the wheel. "Never in the history of the state of Israel," he lambasted Benjamin Netanyahu, "has there been someone who has spoken so much and done so little on Iran." Later that year, it was disclosed that, in 2019, Mr Netanyahu had twice denied the Israel Defence Forces funding requests for contingency planning vis-a-vis Iran – underscoring what Mr Bennett had referred to earlier as the "gap between the high rhetoric and the neglect that occurred".
The Bennett government devised its "Octopus Strategy" to strike directly in Iran, and not only at its proxies. Since the beginning of 2022, assaults on Iran's drone fleet near Kermanshah, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran and the nation's steel industry have all been attributed to Israel. Iran's trumpeted captures – whether genuine or contrived – of Israeli agents within its borders have reinforced the impression that the Mossad has penetrated the country thoroughly.
A new reality may soon be upon us
US President Joe Biden's visit to Israel brought matters to a head. On July 14, Mr Biden reiterated his belief that "diplomacy is the best way" to ensure that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. (In the Jerusalem Declaration, which he and Mr Lapid signed that afternoon, Mr Biden pledged that the US "is prepared to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome".) Mr Lapid, speaking alongside Mr Biden, had already telegraphed his scepticism. "Diplomacy will not stop them," the Prime Minister declared just before Mr Biden spoke. "The only way to stop them is to put a credible military threat on the table."
An apparent issue is Israel's preference for a more rigorous, "longer and stronger" Iran bargain than the one which the US is currently offering. Defence Minister Benny Gantz said as much on June 27, when he clarified that "Israel does not oppose a nuclear deal in itself; it opposes a bad deal". Two days after Mr Biden departed from Israel, Mr Lapid explained to Israel's cabinet that “we want the basis [for the negotiations with Iran] to be a credible military threat", but don't "necessarily agree on this with the Americans".
That difference of opinion may be moot. Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign affairs and security policy chief, proclaimed in the Financial Times on July 26 that "the space for additional significant compromises [with Iran] has been exhausted". The US is no less pessimistic about the way forward. Brett McGurk, the White House co-ordinator for the Mena region, has reportedly scored the chances of resuscitating the JCPOA as "highly unlikely". State Department negotiator Rob Malley has gone even further, pronouncing the deal "dead". In October 2021, Mr Malley, foreshadowing the current impasse, concluded that "at some point, the JCPOA will have been so eroded because Iran will have made advances that cannot be reversed, in which case we can’t be talking – you can’t revive a dead corpse".
A new reality may soon be upon us. According to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, "this summer, Iran will turn into a de-facto threshold nuclear state", at which point it will be virtually impossible to detect Tehran's march to nuclear weaponisation. Israel, if Mr Barak's assessment is accurate, is approaching a moment of decision.
Can the EU save the Iran nuclear deal?
The nuclear deal requires tricky manoeuvres of Iran and Israel
Why Israel has dropped its 'nuclear option' in tackling Iran
Mr Lapid is covering his flanks. He remains tightly co-ordinated with the Biden administration, with which he attests to maintaining "an open discussion about what is the best way to deal" with the Iranian theatre, while also asserting Israel's "right to act freely on the subject". Operationally, Israel's inclusion in the US Central Command's area of responsibility, together with the consolidation of the Abraham Accords, has facilitated the emergence of the Middle East Air Defence alliance to deter aggressive Iranian behaviours.
The big question, though, is whether Israel would employ kinetic force to prevent Iran from a nuclear breakout. Asked last month about Israel's ability to confront Iran, Mr Gantz replied ominously that "we are able to seriously harm and delay the nuclear [programme]". His words came on the heels of Mr Biden's latest reaffirmation, in the Jerusalem Declaration, of America's "steadfast commitment to preserve and strengthen Israel’s capability to deter its enemies and to defend itself by itself against any threat or combination of threats".
Would Mr Lapid despatch Israel's air force to attack Iranian nuclear sites, with or without the blessing of the US? The answer can't be known with any certainty, but what is known is that, if Israel did embark upon such a mission, it wouldn't be the first time.
In 2007, facing the imminent possibility of an active nuclear reactor across its frontier with Syria, Israel mobilised to obliterate the facility. By then president George W Bush's telling of the episode, "prime minister [Ehud] Olmert hadn’t asked [me] for a green light, and I hadn’t given one. He had done what he believed was necessary to protect Israel".
Today's circumstances are, to be sure, not identical to those of 15 years ago. But if Israel's leaders should perceive – now or ever in the future – that there's absolutely no time left on the clock to make any other play, an encore would not be entirely surprising.
*Shalom Lipner is a non-resident senior fellow of the Middle East programme at the Atlantic Council. From 1990 to 2016, he served seven consecutive Israeli premiers at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem

أربع مقالات باللغة الإنكليزية من المفيد الإطلاع عليها لشارل شرتوني ومايكل يانغ وكليفورد مي وجيمي نرنتز
A Must Read Four English pieces Written by:Jamie Prentis/Michael Young/Clifford D. May/Charles Elias Chartouni
تقرير بالصور يلقي الأضواء على جريمة تفجير المرفأ
Beirut blast: lack of justice compounds grief for families of victims
Jamie Prentis/The National/August 03/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/110952/beirut-blast-lack-of-justice-compounds-grief-for-families-of-victims-%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%82%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d8%b6%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%89-%d8%ac%d8%b1/

مايكل يانغ/ذي ناشيونال: حتى المرشح المفضل لدى عون وحزب الله للرئاسة يواجه عوائق
Even the candidate favoured to be Lebanon's next president faces obstacles
Michael Young/The National/August 03/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/110956/michael-young-even-the-candidate-favoured-to-be-lebanons-next-president-faces-obstacles-%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%8a%d9%83%d9%84-%d9%8a%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%ba-%d8%ad%d8%aa%d9%89-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b1%d9%91/

مقالة لشارل الياس شرتوني تتناول جريمة تفجير المرفأ بعد مرور سنتين، مع استمرار تجهيل المجرمين وما يلف المذبحة من غموض متعمد
Two Years and no Answer Yet: The Missing Terrorist Dot and the Arcanes of a Massacre
Charles Elias Chartouni/August 03/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/110969/charles-elias-chartouni-two-years-and-no-answer-yet-the-missing-terrorist-dot-and-the-arcanes-of-a-massacre-%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%84%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7/

كليفورد .دي. ماي / واشنطن تايمز: لهذه الأسباب مطلوب من أميركا وقف دعم لبنان الذراع الإيرانية
Why the U.S. should stop subsidizing Tehran’s proxy Lebanon
Clifford D. May/Washington Times/August 03/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/110959/clifford-d-may-washington-times-why-the-u-s-should-stop-subsidizing-tehrans-proxy-lebanon%d9%83%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%81%d9%88%d8%b1%d8%af-%d8%af%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%8a-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%88/