English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 11/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.
Luke 12/01-05: “Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered in thousands, so that they trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more.But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

Titels For English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 10-11/2022
Aoun chairs meeting on Syrian refugees
Aoun: Major progress in border talks, corruption battle must continue
Aoun rejects decree to raise customs dollar
Report: Bassil to meet al-Rahi over Archbishop al-Hajj
Finance committee approves law amendments of $150M World Bank loan
New buyer sought for grain shipment after Lebanese buyer canceled order
Report: Jumblat to meet Safa in bid to join 'winning team'
Report: Azour tops al-Rahi's presidential candidates list
Lebanon risks plunge into darkness as govt races for fuel deal
The solution for Lebanon has to come from outside/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/August 10, 2022

Titles For LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 10-11/2022
US uncovers Iran ‘plot’ to kill ex-White House official John Bolton
Daesh threat grows despite leadership losses, UN warns
Israel-Gaza truce shines light on Palestinian hunger striker
Iran scoffs at claims Russia-launched satellite for 'spying'
Iraq launches Mosul airport reconstruction
New campus femicide sparks outrage in Egypt
Former Twitter worker convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia
Police kill knife-wielding man at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport
Ukraine says 9 Russian warplanes destroyed in Crimea blasts
Up to 50 missing after migrant boat sinks off Greece

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 10-11/2022
The ‘forever war’ against the West ...America wins a battle against al Qaeda, Israel against Islamic Jihad/Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/August 10/ 2022
U.S. and Iran Weighing ‘Final’ E.U. Offer on Nuclear Deal/Michael Crowley, Steven Erlanger and Farnaz Fassihi/The New York Times/August. 10/2022
Senior Pakistani Taliban leader reportedly killed in Afghanistan/Bill Roggio/ FDD's Long War Journal/August 10/ 2022
Russia sent Steven Seagal to occupied Ukraine to spread propaganda, part of his role as a Kremlin spokesman/Mia Jankowicz/Business Insider/Wed, August 10/2022
America's Strategic Oil Reserves/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./August 10/2022
China and Russia—With Help from Biden—Attack the Dollar/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute./August 10, 2022
Climate Change: The Latest Excuse for Slaughtering Christians/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./August 10, 2022
Iran’s poison pills holding the Middle East back/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/August 10, 2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 10-11/2022
Aoun chairs meeting on Syrian refugees
Naharnet/August 10/2022
President Michel Aoun, caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar, and Maj. General Abbas Ibrahim met Wednesday in Baabda to discuss the Syrian Refugees repatriation. Also on Wednesday, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anbaa reported that Syria is dissatisfied with a statement by Bou Habib that accused the Syrian regime of not wanting to return the refugees to their homeland. "They are sending money to their country," Bou Habib had said. The daily added that, according to Damascus sources, Syria has expressed its willingness to cooperate with Lebanon in this matter.

Aoun: Major progress in border talks, corruption battle must continue
Naharnet/August 10/2022
President Michel Aoun on Wednesday stressed that Lebanon is “clinging to its rights to its waters and natural resources.”“It has made major progress in the negotiations to demarcate the southern maritime border, which will continue in order to reach an agreement under the sponsorship of the U.N. and with the mediation of the United States,” Aoun said. Separately, the President said “the battle against corruption must continue in parallel with the forensic audit into the central bank’s accounts, because there is a group that has looted this country and impoverished its people.”
“It is unacceptable to leave it without accountability and punishment, and the pillars of this group are protecting each other and at the same time obstructing every reformist process,” Aoun went on to say.

Aoun rejects decree to raise customs dollar
Naharnet/August 10/2022
President Michel Aoun has refused to sign a decree that would increase the customs fees, media reports said Wednesday. The so-called customs dollar will determine the LBP to USD exchange rate that will be used to calculate customs on imports.
The current rate is 1,500 Lebanese Lira to 1 dollar. A decree signed by the Prime Minister-designate and the Minister of Finance would increase the exchange rate from LBP 1,500 to more than 26,000, if signed by Aoun. Aoun refused to sign the decree, saying that the customs dollar must be increased gradually and not in an abrupt way and that it will impact Lebanese families who wouldn't be able to purchase many items included in the decree, MTV said.

Report: Bassil to meet al-Rahi over Archbishop al-Hajj
Naharnet/August 10/2022
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi will meet Free Patriotic Movement head Jebran Bassil to find a solution regarding Archbishop Mussa al-Hajj's case, MTV said Wednesday. According to the channel, Bassil had sent delegates to Bkerke to prepare for his visit. MTV added that an agreement is being prepared to find a new way that would allow al-Hajj to carry out his mission. Al-Hajj was detained and summoned last month by a military court after a visit to his parish in Israel. Security forces seized "large quantities of medicines, foodstuffs and canned goods, in addition to $460,000" when he re-entered Lebanon." The arrest drew angry reactions from Christian leaders and was condemned by the council of Maronite bishops. Many Lebanese rely on remittances from family abroad to weather a crushing economic crisis that began in 2019, but transporting products or money from Israel to Lebanon is illegal.

Finance committee approves law amendments of $150M World Bank loan
Naharnet/August 10/2022
The Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday approved amendments to the law related to the $150 World Bank loan aimed at buying wheat, the National News Agency said. The approval of two articles was however postponed until Thursday’s session, NNA added. “The questions of the MPs were clarified and answered and a final framework for implementation has been laid out under the approved law. Most importantly, we have provided Lebanon with a quantity of wheat that is sufficient for nearly nine months while preserving the price of bread,” caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam said after the meeting. “This is the most important thing to me and the rest is details – how we pay, how we coordinate and how the central bank pays, all of these issues were discussed and agreed today by the committee,” he added.

New buyer sought for grain shipment after Lebanese buyer canceled order
Agence France Presse/August 10/2022
A new buyer is being sought for the first grain shipment to leave Ukraine under a hard-won deal with Russia after the original Lebanese buyer cancelled its order, the Ukrainian embassy said.The Sierra Leone-flagged vessel Razoni left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on August 1 carrying 26,000 tons of maize and had been expected to dock in the Lebanese port of Tripoli at the weekend. But now the keenly anticipated shipment is looking for a buyer after the shipping agent agreed to a request to cancel the original order in the light of the long delay in delivery. A five-month delay after Russia's invasion of Ukraine "prompted the buyer and the shipping agent to reach agreement on the cancellation of the order," the Ukraine embassy said in a statement late Tuesday. The agent is now studying alternative bids for the maize before deciding on its destination, the embassy added. The Razoni is currently anchored off the Turkish port of Mersin, according to the Marine Traffic website. Another ship docked in Turkey Monday with a cargo of 12,000 tons of Ukrainian maize, becoming the first to reach its destination under the deal with Russia brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. The agreement lifted a Russian blockade of Ukraine's ports and established safe corridors through the naval mines laid by Kyiv to ward off any amphibious assault by Moscow on its coast. Ukraine said Monday it was "optimistic" that the millions of tons of wheat and other grain that had been trapped in its silos and ports could now be exported, in a major boost for world food supplies.

Report: Jumblat to meet Safa in bid to join 'winning team'
Naharnet/August 10/2022
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat will meet with Hezbollah coordination official Wafiq Safa by the end of the week, MTV said Wednesday. It quoted a source close to the PSP as saying that "Jumblat has read the situation well and has chosen to be with the winning team." "The next settlement will result in a winner and a loser," the source told MTV. Jumblat had said in an interview that dialogue with Hezbollah is essential, and that he will meet with Hezbollah representatives in the coming days. Jumblat's positioning is crucial as the latest parliamentary election has yielded a polarized and fractured parliament that denied any single bloc a clear-cut majority. Thus, the Democratic Gathering Bloc MPs can play a decisive role in choosing the next President. The relation between Jumblat and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea is currently stagnant, according to MTV, specially after Jumblat's latest statements.

Report: Azour tops al-Rahi's presidential candidates list
Naharnet/August 10/2022
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has started thinking of potential candidates for the presidential election, Kuwait’s al-Rai newspaper reported on Tuesday. Al-Rahi’s choices will be based on “the president’s personality and the neutral characteristics he has proposed,” the daily said. “Al-Rahi was clinging to two names: ex-ministers Ziad Baroud and Roger Dib. Following a round of consultations, he later added the name of ex-minister (and current International Monetary Fund official) Jihad Azour, who has topped his choices,” the newspaper added.

Lebanon risks plunge into darkness as govt races for fuel deal
Najia Houssari/Arab News/August 10, 2022
UN spokesman calls on Nasrallah to halt ‘incitement,’ threats
BEIRUT: Lebanon could plunge into total darkness by the end of August if an agreement with Iraq to supply Electricite du Liban with fuel is allowed to expire.
With fuel stocks falling to critically low levels, the Lebanese government is looking for ways to avert a major power crisis. Fears of an energy shortfall grew on Tuesday amid threats by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
“Hezbollah is ready for war if the Israeli side decides to start drilling for gas in the Karish field on Sept. 1, in the event that no agreement is reached between Lebanon and Tel Aviv during the remaining few weeks,” he said.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric called on Nasrallah to avoid incitement and adding fuel to the fire in the region. Lebanon’s last shipment of oil from Iraq in July was insufficient, EDL said, adding that it was “barely 28,000 metric tons.”It said: “We are prioritizing vital facilities in Lebanon, namely the airport, the port, water pumps, sewage systems and basic state headquarters.” EDL also warned of low production capacity, which will reach a maximum of 250 megawatts within days. “This will negatively affect the stability of the network, which sometimes exposes it to blackouts that may be repeated several times per day, despite the exceptional efforts to stabilize the electrical network as much as possible.”The Ministry of Energy, under the government of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, has been actively searching for an alternative to Iraqi oil, focusing on Algeria and Iran as potential sources. Nasrallah suggested in July accepting an Iranian donation of fuel to address the crisis, provided that it reaches Lebanese and not Syrian ports, adding: “This, however, requires an official Lebanese decision.”
Caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad said: “The Iraqi side is positive regarding the fuel file, and we are counting on extending the agreement between Lebanon and Iraq. The Iraqis did not refuse to extend the agreement, but rather wished to reexamine it before reaching a solution in the next few days.” Fayyad said that an Iraqi delegation will visit Lebanon to discuss several issues. “We are seeking a great understanding with the Iraqi government,” he said. Iraq was reportedly hesitant to extend the contract over concerns that Lebanon could fail to pay for the imported fuel in the future. Speaking on the potential Iranian donation, and if sanctions would prevent Beirut accepting it, Fayyad said that Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani stressed Tehran’s readiness to offer free fuel to Lebanon.
“The Iranian donation would help Lebanon to cross this difficult stage, and the ministry has sent the Iranian side the specifications of the required fuel. The Iranian side requested that a team be formed to discuss this donation, and we are waiting for Mikati’s word to proceed,” Fayyad said. Mikati’s media office said: “Amani has voiced his country’s readiness to provide the donation of fuel. Mikati thanked Iran for the offer and requested follow-up on this issue with the Ministry of Energy to ensure the technical specifications of the fuel. No official steps have been taken in this regard.” Some analysts have warned that Iranian fuel is incompatible with Lebanon’s power plants, and that the donated fuel would need to be swapped with a third country for domestic use. According to an informed source, the Ministry of Energy is seeking to meet with Algerian energy companies to reach an agreement to supply fuel on concessional terms, but progress has stalled. The process of importing Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity is still stumbling as a result of the World Bank’s delay in approving a loan to finance the project, owing to Lebanon’s failure in implementing conditions of the deal.

The solution for Lebanon has to come from outside
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/August 10, 2022
Two years ago, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian addressed Lebanon’s leaders with the words: “Help us to help you.” This is the recurring theme that is still heard today in Western and Arab capitals — the Lebanese have to get their act together in order for the international community to help them. They need to agree among themselves and realize that either they reform or the country is going into an abyss.
However, Lebanon’s politicians do not seem to be agreeing among themselves. Therefore, a comprehensive solution has to come from outside and be forced on the politicians by the international community; otherwise the country is doomed. Everyone seems to be sitting and waiting. But waiting for a solution is like waiting for Godot; no political party will make any initiative, because there is no initiative that can save the country and also allow the existing political parties to win or at least preserve the gains they have accumulated over the years. In Beirut, there is a very strange mood. People are either numb or in denial, or maybe both. They are looking to adapt to scarcity while trying to make the best of what they have. There has been a small rebound in the economy during the summer because of the inflow of expatriates. Hence, the perception is one of restaurants being full and malls crowded with shoppers. But the reality is that half of the country’s government departments are not functioning and the other half might follow suit in the next few months.
In the meantime, the international community is insisting on the International Monetary Fund giving a $3 billion loan to the country over five years. Although there has been no real audit of the central bank, having talked to specialists, they estimate that about $20 billion has been wasted on subsidies in the last two and a half years. They also estimate that Lebanon has about $10 billion left and, once that is gone, there will be nothing more to spend and the country will be officially broke. That would mean the state disintegrating, as there will be no funds to pay the salaries of public servants, the police and the army.
But no one seems to be acknowledging the grim reality that, in a few months, the country will be broke. So far, half of the government’s departments are dysfunctional. Badly paid employees are not going to their offices. Even renewing a passport today can take more than a year if one applies online and does not have help from someone influential inside the general security service.
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi has repeatedly asked for an international conference to decide the fate of Lebanon along the lines of the Taif Agreement because the Lebanese cannot agree among themselves. He has been attacked by many who argue that Lebanon is a sovereign nation and should decide its own fate. But he has been proven right. The Lebanese politicians cannot find a solution to save the country as they are more worried about preserving their privileges. The forces of change did not prove able to bring about much change. Ironically, studies by the Arab Barometer have found that 90 percent of the Lebanese are not happy with the existing sectarian system and 90 percent think the political class is corrupt, but in the May elections 90 percent of voters backed the same sectarian political leaders. Hence, change — if it is to take place — will happen very slowly, but Lebanon cannot afford to wait. In addition to the prospect of bankruptcy, Lebanon faces the prospects of both an internal conflict and external confrontation.
Internally, amid the dire economic conditions, hate speech against Syrian refugees has reached an unprecedented pitch. However, the refugees cannot go back to Syria, as Bashar Assad does not want them, and they cannot go to Europe, as the West can no longer absorb them. Tensions have soared and a small incident could trigger a confrontation that might not be easily contained. The Lebanese politicians cannot find a solution to save the country as they are more worried about preserving their privileges. Externally, Israel is very worried about Hezbollah’s arsenal of precision-guided weapons. It will be a matter of time and of intelligence gathering before Israel decides whether to strike Hezbollah’s weapons warehouses, which would lead to an all-out war. Lebanon today has many decisions to make: The presidency, the premiership, the IMF package and the maritime demarcation with Israel. The international community cannot wait for Lebanese politicians to do what is best for their country; nor can they expect the Lebanese people, who are struggling to secure the minimum of electricity, water, fuel and bread for their daily survival, to organize and uproot the regime. The solution has to come from outside — it has to be comprehensive, and it should be coupled with coercive measures to pressure the Lebanese politicians to apply it. The package should include a solution, as well as the sanctions stick. Two years ago, Le Drian warned that Lebanon was at risk of disappearing. If the international community does not act quickly and the country is left to its corrupt politicians, it will only be a matter of time before this prophecy becomes a reality.
*Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese NGO focused on Track II.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 10-11/2022
US uncovers Iran ‘plot’ to kill ex-White House official John Bolton
Agencies/August 10/2022
Justice Department says it uncovered an Iranian plot to kill the former White House national security adviser
It announced charges against a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department said Wednesday it had uncovered an Iranian plot to kill former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton, and announced charges against a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Justice Department said 45-year-old Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, had offered to pay an individual in the US $300,000 to kill Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN. The Justice Department said that plan was likely set in retaliation for the US killing of top Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.
Prosecutors say the scheme unfolded more than a year after Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force and an architect of Tehran’s proxy wars in the Middle East, was killed in a targeted airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport in January 2020. After the strike, Bolton, who by then had left his White House post, tweeted, “Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran.”
The allegation came as Iran weighs a proposed agreement in Vienna talks to revive the 2015 agreement that aims to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. For months Tehran has held up the deal, demanding that the US remove its official designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a sponsor of terrorism. “This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on US soil and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt every one of these efforts,” said US Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen. According to the charges, Poursafi tried to arrange Bolton’s murder beginning in October 2021, when he contacted online an unidentified person in the US, first saying he wanted to commission photographs of Bolton. Poursafi provided the person with Bolton’s office address, including the name and contact information for someone who worked in the office, and took screenshots of surveillance photographs of Bolton’s office, the affidavit says. He offered $250,000, which was then negotiated up to $300,000. “Poursafi added that he had an additional ‘job,’ for which he would pay $1 million,” the Justice Department said.
But that second person, court documents say, was a confidential source for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The ostensible assassin stalled, waiting for an initial payment, but only in late April did Poursafi send money, paying a total of $100 in cryptocurrency. Poursafi was charged with the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, which brings up to 10 years in prison, and with providing and attempting to provide material support to a transnational murder plot, which carries a 15-year sentence.In his own statement, Bolton thanked the FBI and Justice Department for their work in developing the case and the Secret Service for providing protection.
“While much cannot be said publicly right now, one point is indisputable: Iran’s rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States,” he said. He urged President Joe Biden to not restore the nuclear agreement. Bolton, one of the leading “hawks” of the US foreign policy establishment and a strong critic of Iran, was national security adviser in the White House of president Donald Trump from April 2018 to September 2019.
In the administration of president George Bush, he was ambassador to the UN from 2005-2006.
He was strongly opposed to the 2015 agreement between Tehran and major powers to limit its nuclear program, and supported the Trump administration’s unilateral pullout from the pact in May 2018. The court documents indicated Bolton was aware of the plot and cooperated with investigators, allowing photographs of himself outside his Washington office to be sent to Poursafi. Over the months Poursafi discussed the plot with his US contact, he disclosed that it related to Tehran’s desire for revenge for the US killing of Soleimani. Since that strike on Soleimani Tehran has vowed to extract revenge, and US officials have said that the country had been looking to kill one or more US officials. Another official believed on Tehran’s target list was Mike Pompeo, who was secretary of state at the time of the assassination of Soleimani, and before that director of the Central Intelligence Agency.At the time Pompeo said Soleimani had been plotting large scale attacks on US targets like embassies. (With AFP and AP)

Daesh threat grows despite leadership losses, UN warns
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/August 10/2022
Although it has suffered territorial losses, the terror group has adapted its structure and continues to thrive amid regional instability and social-economic inequality
The UN’s counterterrorism chief repeated calls for nations to repatriate their citizens from detention camps in Syria to prevent children from being indoctrinated by extremists
NEW YORK: Despite territorial defeats and leadership losses, the threat posed by Daesh has been rising since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to persist, underlining the importance of implementing non-military measures to counter terrorism, the UN said on Tuesday.
Daesh affiliates continue to exploit conflicts and social inequalities to incite unrest and plan terrorist attacks, the organization added. Pandemic-related restrictions and the shift to the digital space have provided the group with opportunities to intensify its recruitment efforts and attract more funding, and for the past year it has increasingly been using drones in attacks, as seen in northern Iraq. Vladimir Voronkov, the under-secretary-general for counter-terrorism and head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, told the Security Council that Daesh’s upward trend has been possible in part as a result of the group’s adoption of a decentralized internal structure based around a “general directorate of provinces” and associated “offices.” These are designed to manage and finance terrorist operations around the globe, from central, southern and western Africa to Europe and Afghanistan, and make it clear that the terror group has long-term goals and aspirations, he added. “Better understanding and continued monitoring of this structure are indispensable for countering and preventing the threat posed by Daesh,” Voronkov said.
He was speaking during a meeting of the Security Council to discuss the UN secretary-general’s 15th report on the threat posed by Daesh to international peace and security. It states that this threat remains particularly high in conflict zones. However it warns that it might soon spread to more stable areas where the extremist group and its affiliates are trying to “incite fear and project strength” as they constantly work to exploit “security gaps and conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism to recruit and to organize and execute complex attacks.”The situation, the report adds, is further exacerbated by the downturn in the global economy and rising inflation, together with the measures adopted by governments to address them. “Resolving the conflicts in which Daesh and its Al-Qaeda forebear thrive is necessary for creating the conditions to bring about their defeat,” said Voronkov. “But if we are to rid ourselves of this scourge, we must also address the vulnerabilities, social grievances and inequality exploited by the group in the first place, as well as promoting and protecting human rights and the rule of law.”
In Iraq and Syria, Daesh retains its ability to organize complex operations, such as the Jan. 20 attack on Ghwaryan prison in Al-Hasakah, Syria. Voronkov said that up to 10,000 fighters are operating in the area along the border between the two countries, from which the group in April launched a global campaign to avenge senior leaders killed during counterterrorism operations. Daesh has suffered significant losses among its leadership in both countries, including the death of Maher Al-Agal, the group’s leader in Syria, who was killed by the US military. Despite these losses, however, the UN report notes that there has been “no significant change of direction for the group or its operations” in Iraq and Syria.
Voronkov also once again highlighted the issue of suspected Daesh fighters from other countries who are being held in detention in northeastern Syria, as well as women and children associated with them, whose circumstances have “further deteriorated.” Dozens of assassinations have been carried out in camps and prisons, he said, and there have been reports of increased violence and killings in Al-Hawl camp. About 30,000 children being held in northeastern Syria are under the age of 12 and at risk of indoctrination by Daesh, including its “Cubs of the Caliphate” program, according to the UN.
Voronkov emphasized the importance of the voluntary repatriation, prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration of these fighters, and the women and children associated with them, by the authorities in their home countries. He expressed deep concern about the “limited progress” that has been achieved on this front.“Tens of thousands of individuals, including more than 27,000 children from Iraq and some 60 other countries (who) did not choose to be there (remain) deprived of basic rights and are at a very real risk of radicalization and recruitment,” Voronkov told council members. “It is imperative that member states urgently consider the long-lasting implications of not taking prompt action to address this dangerous situation.”The secretary-general’s report also estimated that Daesh controls $25 million in funds and has the ability to funnel money to its affiliates worldwide. “The diversity of sources, both licit and illicit, that are used by Daesh to finance terrorist activities and exert control over affiliated groups and fighters underlines the importance of sustained efforts to counter the financing of terrorism,” Voronkov added.

Israel-Gaza truce shines light on Palestinian hunger striker
Associated Press/August 10/2022
A Palestinian hunger striker who his family says has refused food for the past 160 days and is wasting away in an Israeli jailhouse infirmary has suddenly been thrust into the center of efforts to firm up a Gaza cease-fire. Khalil Awawdeh is in the spotlight because the Islamic Jihad group sought his release as part of Egyptian-brokered talks that ended three days of fighting between the Gaza-based militants and Israel over the weekend. In an attempt to win the militants' agreement to halt their fire, Egypt had assured them it would also try to win the release of their West Bank leader and of Awawdeh. The 40-year-old father of four girls, gaunt and weakened, is protesting his detention without charge or trial by Israel. He is one of dozens of prisoners who have staged hunger strikes in Israeli prisons. Prospects for his release are uncertain. But his case highlights the plight of hundreds of Palestinians who are being held by Israel under a system that critics say denies them the right to due process. Israel can hold so-called administrative detainees indefinitely, without showing them the alleged evidence against them or taking them to trial in military courts. Many turn to hunger strikes as a last recourse to bring attention to their situation. Awawdeh's lawyer, Ahlam Haddad, said her client is "moving between life and death" and that it makes no sense to keep him in detention. "He looks like a pile of bones," she said. "How much of a threat can he be?" His family says he not eaten for 160 days, and has only been drinking water, except for a 10-day period when he also received vitamin injections. Israel is currently holding some 4,400 Palestinians, including militants who have carried out deadly attacks, as well as people arrested at protests or for throwing stones. Around 670 Palestinians are now being held in administrative detention, a number that jumped in March as Israel began near-nightly arrest raids in the West Bank following a spate of deadly attacks against Israelis.
Awawdeh hails from a small town in the southern West Bank and worked as a driver. In his current condition, he uses a wheelchair, and is showing memory loss and speech difficulties. Haddad said he was arrested in December, accused by Israel of being a member of a militant group, a charge she said he denies. Dawood Shihab, an Islamic Jihad official, said the group demanded his release as part of the truce talks because it supported his struggle for freedom, not because he is a member. "This is a matter that continues to be a disgrace to all of humanity," he said, referring to the hunger strike and detention. Haddad said she doesn't know why Islamic Jihad chose to include him in the cease-fire deal, along with a senior West Bank commander Israel arrested last week. She is currently appealing his detention in court. The arrest of the commander had sparked the weekend fighting, with Israeli launching what it said were preemptive airstrikes at Gaza and Islamic Jihad firing hundreds of rockets at Israel. Dozens of Palestinians were killed during the fighting. The Israeli Shin Bet security agency did not respond to a request for comment. Israel says administrative detention is needed to prevent attacks or to keep dangerous suspects locked up without sharing evidence that could endanger valuable intelligence sources. Israel says it provides due process and largely imprisons those who threaten its security, though a small number are held for petty crimes. Palestinians and human rights groups say the system is designed to quash opposition and maintain permanent control over millions of Palestinians while denying them basic rights. Prisoners like Awawdeh have looked to hunger strikes as their only means to protest their detentions. Dozens of prisoners have staved off food for weeks to draw attention to their detention without trial or charges.
"The tools detainees have to challenge the unjustness of detention are very few. Hunger strikes are an exceptional measure, a tool for the weakest people who have no other way of advocating for themselves," said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked, an Israeli human rights group, who said Israel had turned its system of incarceration of Palestinians into an "assembly line."Lengthy hunger strikes draw international attention and stoke protests in the occupied Palestinian territories, putting pressure on Israel to meet the prisoners' demands. Amid that pressure, Israel has at times acceded to hunger strikers' demands. As hunger strikers' health deteriorates, they are transferred to Israeli hospitals under guard. They drink water, and medics encourage them to take vitamins, but many refuse. Haddad said she is hoping to convince a judge that Awawdeh's condition is so life-threatening that he must be released. She said a prison doctor has so far disputed that diagnosis. No Palestinian in Israeli detention has died as a result of hunger strikes, but doctors say prolonged vitamin deficiency can cause permanent brain damage. In Awawdeh's home in the occupied West Bank town of Idna, his family was anxiously following the latest cease-fire developments, now that his fate was suddenly linked to international diplomacy. Awawdeh's wife Dalal told The Associated Press that her husband's release as a result of such efforts would be "a victory for the entire Palestinian cause."

Iran scoffs at claims Russia-launched satellite for 'spying'
Agence France Presse/August 10/2022
Iran dismissed as "childish" Wednesday claims by the United States that an Iranian satellite launched by Russia is intended for spying. The satellite, called Khayyam, was launched into space on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Russian-controlled Baikonur Cosmodrome in neighboring Kazakhstan on Tuesday. Responding to the launch, Washington said Russia's growing cooperation with Iran should be viewed as a "profound threat". "We are aware of reports that Russia launched a satellite with significant spying capabilities on Iran's behalf," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. The head of Iran's Space Agency, Hassan Salarieh, told reporters Wednesday that the spying allegation was "basically childish". "Sometimes, some comments are made to incite tensions; saying that we want to spy with the Khayyam satellite... is basically childish," he said. "The Khayyam satellite is entirely designed and built to meet the needs of the country in crisis and urban management, natural resources, mines, agriculture and so on." Ahead of the launch, there was speculation that Russia might borrow Iran's satellite temporarily to boost its surveillance of military targets in Ukraine. Last week, The Washington Post quoted anonymous Western intelligence officials as saying that Russia "plans to use the satellite for several months or longer" to assist its war effort before allowing Iran to take control. Iran's space agency stressed on Sunday that it would control the satellite "from day one" in an apparent reaction to the Post's report. The purpose of Khayyam is to "monitor the country's borders", enhance agricultural productivity and monitor water resources and natural disasters, according to the space agency. Khayyam is not the first Iranian satellite that Russia has put into space. In 2005, Iran's Sina-1 satellite was deployed from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Iran insists its space program is for civilian and defense purposes only, and does not breach the 2015 nuclear deal, or any other international agreement. Western governments worry that satellite launch systems incorporate technologies interchangeable with those used in ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, something Iran has always denied wanting to build. Iran successfully put its first military satellite into orbit in April 2020, drawing a sharp rebuke from the United States.

Iraq launches Mosul airport reconstruction
Agence France Presse/August 10/2022
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi on Wednesday inaugurated the reconstruction of Mosul international airport, still in disrepair five years after the battle that expelled the Islamic State group from the city. Entire sectors of the northern metropolis have remained in ruins since the July 2017 recapture of Mosul by Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led multinational coalition. The airport, which was heavily damaged in the battle, has been disused since the jihadists seized Mosul and adjacent areas in 2014. Kadhemi, in an official ceremony at the airport on the southern outskirts of Mosul, laid the foundation stone for its renovation. Airport director Haider Ali told AFP that the reconstruction has been assigned to two Turkish companies and is expected to take 24 months. Despite the slow pace of reconstruction, the city of 1.5 million inhabitants has regained a semblance of normality: shops have reopened, traffic jams are back and international agencies have been funding restoration projects for historic sites.
But huge challenges remain.
At the end of 2021, the Red Cross estimated that 35 percent of west Mosul residents and less than 15 percent in east Mosul, which bore the brunt of the fighting, have enough water to meet their daily needs. Kadhemi, quoted in a statement issued by his office, said that "huge efforts" were being made to rebuild the city. In January, a provincial official spoke of a $266-million budget for major reconstruction projects, notably in the health, education and transport sectors for 2021-2022, according to the state news agency INA.

New campus femicide sparks outrage in Egypt
Agence France Presse/August 10/2022
Egypt detained a male student Wednesday on suspicion of murdering a female student who allegedly rejected his advances, after the second such campus femicide in two months, prosecutors said. The suspect, from Zagazig, 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Cairo, stands accused of killing his victim, identified only by her first name Salma, by "repeatedly stabbing her with a knife", a prosecution statement said. Murder carries the death penalty in Egypt and the country sentenced more people to death last year than any other, according to human rights group Amnesty International. It was third highest in the number of executions carried out. The latest killing revived memories of the June murder of student Nayera Ashraf, stabbed to death in front of her university in Mansoura, 150 kilometers north of Cairo. After convicting and sentencing to death her killer, Mohamed Adel, the court called for changes to the law to allow executions to be broadcast live as a deterrent to others. Capital punishment in Egypt is rarely carried out in public or broadcast. In a rare exception, state television broadcast the execution of three men in 1998 who had murdered a woman and her two children in their Cairo home.
- Routine violence -
There was widespread outrage on social media over the latest killing but some users suggested the victim was at fault for befriending a male student. "Salma was murdered simply for being born a woman in a misogynous society," one user said. "So long as there are sympathizers out there who make excuses for the perpetrators of these crimes, they will continue," said another in response to a user who criticized the victim. Conservative interpretations of Islam in Egypt have contributed to severely limiting women's rights. Women report being targeted by routine violence with little legal redress. Nearly eight million Egyptian women were victims of violence committed by their partners or relatives, or by strangers in public spaces, according to a United Nations survey conducted in 2015. High-profile femicides have triggered widespread anger in Egypt in recent months. In June, the murder of television presenter Shaimaa Gamal stirred controversy in the North African country. Her husband, a senior judicial official, was arrested following a tip-off from an accomplice who confessed to taking part in the crime, according to the prosecution. In March, a teenager was sentenced to five years in prison over the suicide of a schoolgirl after images of her were shared online.

Former Twitter worker convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia
Associated Press/August 10/2022
A former Twitter employee has been convicted of failing to register as an agent for Saudi Arabia and other charges after accessing private data on users critical of the kingdom's government in a spy case that spanned from Silicon Valley to the Middle East. Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen and former media partnership manager for Twitter's Middle East region, was charged in 2019 with acting as an agent of Saudi Arabia without registering with the U.S. government. A jury found him guilty on six counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. The jury acquitted him on another five charges involving wire fraud. The case marked the first time the kingdom, long linked to the U.S. through its massive oil reserves and regional security arrangements, has been accused of spying in America. A 2019 FBI complaint alleged that Abouammo and Saudi citizen Ali Alzabarah, who worked as an engineer at Twitter, used their positions to access confidential Twitter data about users, their email addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses, the latter of which be used to identify a user's location. A third man named in the complaint, Saudi citizen Ahmed Al-Mutairi, was alleged to have worked with the Saudi royal family as an intermediary. The U.S. complaint alleged that user data of over 6,000 Twitter accounts was accessed, including at least 33 usernames for which Saudi law enforcement had submitted emergency disclosure requests to Twitter. Abouammo was arrested in November 2019 and released on bond. He had pleaded not guilty. The FBI still lists Al-Mutairi and Alzabarah as wanted. Abouammo's attorneys and Twitter didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Police kill knife-wielding man at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport
Agence France Presse/August 10/2022
Police officers shot and killed a man who brandished a knife at the Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris on Wednesday, police and airport sources said. "Officers neutralized a threatening individual in possession of a knife at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport," the Paris police department said on its Twitter account. An airport source said the incident occurred at the busy Terminal 2F at around 8:20 am (0620 GMT), when "a homeless man started bothering security agents and border police were called in to remove him". Initially the man left while yelling curses but he soon returned and brought out a knife, when one of the officers fired his weapon. An AFP photographer who witnessed the scene said "a large person of color brandished something that looked like a knife at the police". "He was ordered to stop but kept advancing toward them, and an officer fired a single shot."The man was quickly put on a stretcher and evacuated, the photographer said. Security forces have been on high alert for terrorist attacks since a wave of jihadist killings that have killed more than 250 people since 2015, often by so-called "lone wolves" who often target police.

Ukraine says 9 Russian warplanes destroyed in Crimea blasts
Associated Press/August 10/2022
Ukraine's air force said Wednesday that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed in massive explosions at an air base in Crimea amid speculation they were the result of a Ukrainian attack that would represent a significant escalation in the war. Russia denied any aircraft were damaged in Tuesday's blasts — or that any attack took place. Ukrainian officials have stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility for the explosions, while poking fun at Russia's explanation that munitions at the Saki air base caught fire and blew up and also underscoring the importance of the peninsula that Moscow annexed eight years ago.
In his nightly video address several hours after the blasts, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to retake the peninsula, saying that "this Russian war against Ukraine and against all of free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea — its liberation."On Wednesday, Russian authorities sought to downplay the blasts, saying all hotels and beaches were unaffected on the peninsula, which is a popular tourist destination for many Russians. The explosions, which killed one person and wounded 13, sent tourists fleeing in panic as plumes of smoke towered over the nearby coastline. They knocked out windows and caused other damage in some apartment buildings. Russian warplanes have used Saki to strike areas in Ukraine's south on short notice, and Ukrainian social networks were abuzz with speculation that Ukrainian-fired long-range missiles hit the base.
Officials in Moscow have long warned Ukraine that any attack on Crimea would trigger massive retaliation, including strikes on "decision-making centers" in Kyiv. A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, who is more outspoken than other officials, cryptically said Tuesday that the blasts were caused either by a Ukrainian-made long-range weapon or were the work of guerrillas operating in Crimea. The base on the Black Sea peninsula that dangles off southern Ukraine is at least 200 kilometers (some 125 miles) away from the closest Ukrainian position — out of the range of the missiles supplied by the U.S. for use in the HIMARS systems.
The Ukrainian military has successfully used those missiles, with a range of 80 kilometers (50 miles), to target ammunition and fuel depots, strategic bridges and other key targets in Russia-occupied territories. HIMARS could also fire longer-range rockets, with a range of up to 300 kilometers (about 185 miles), that Ukraine has asked for. But U.S. authorities have refrained from providing them thus far, fearing that it could provoke Russia and widen the conflict. But the explosions in Saki raised speculation on social media that Ukraine
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said that the Ukrainian forces could have struck the Russian air base with a Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile that has a range of about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) and could have been adapted for use against ground targets and could be fired from Ukrainian positions near Mykolaiv northwest of Crimea.The Ukrainian military also might have used Western-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missiles that can also be used against ground targets and have a range of about 300 kilometers (about 185 miles), he said."Official Kyiv has kept mum about it, but unofficially the military acknowledges that it was a Ukrainian strike," Zhdanov said.
If Ukrainian forces were, in fact, responsible for the blasts, it would be the first known major attack on a Russian military site in Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. A smaller explosion last month at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol was blamed on Ukrainian saboteurs using a makeshift drone. During the war, Russia has reported numerous fires and explosions at munitions storage sites on its territory near the Ukrainian border, blaming some of them on Ukrainian strikes. Ukrainian authorities have mostly remained silent about the incidents. Meanwhile, Russian shelling hit areas across Ukraine on Tuesday night into Wednesday, including the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, where 13 people were killed and 11 others were wounded, according to the region's governor Valentyn Reznichenko. Reznichenko said the Russian forces fired at the city of Marganets and a nearby village. Dozens of residential buildings, two schools and several administrative buildings were damaged by the shelling. "It was a terrible night," Reznichenko said. "It's very hard to take bodies from under debris. We are facing a cruel enemy who engage in daily terror against our cities and villages."The Russian forces also continued shelling the nearby city of Nikopol across the Dnieper River from the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the power station, Europe's biggest nuclear plant, stoking international fears of a catastrophe.

Up to 50 missing after migrant boat sinks off Greece
Agencies/August 10/2022
An air and sea rescue operation was underway Wednesday after around 50 people went missing when a migrant boat sank in the Aegean Sea, the Greek coastguard said. The vessel foundered at dawn off the islands of Karpathos and Rhodes after setting sail on Tuesday from Antalya, southern Turkey, heading for Italy. "According to the statements of 29 rescued people, there were 80 people on the boat, so up to 50 people are missing," a coastguard press office official told AFP. The rescue effort, ordered by merchant shipping minister Yannis Plakiotakis, according to a coastguard statement, included four vessels already sailing in the southern Aegean, two coastguard patrol boats and a Greek air force helicopter. However, strong winds of up to 50 kilometres per hour (30 mph) were hampering the operation, coastguard spokesperson Nikos Kokalas told Skai radio. "Many of those shipwrecked were not wearing life-jackets," Kokolas said. Although boat appears to have been trying to get to Italy, Greece is often the country of choice for migrants fleeing Africa and the Middle East to try to reach a better life in the European Union. Thousands come to Greece via Turkey over the narrow and perilous sea crossing separating the traditional enemies. Sixty-four people have perished in the eastern Mediterranean since January, the International Organization for Migration says.Eight people died off the Greek island of Mykonos on June 19 when 108 more were rescued, according to the UN migration body. The Greek coastguard on Sunday said 122migrants were rescued near Rhodes after their vessel ran into trouble after sailing from Turkey. Athens says migrant arrival numbers have climbed this year and accuses Ankara of not doing enough to stop smugglers from eys. Turkey pledged under a 2016 dealsending them across the border -- often in flimsy boats that make for dangerous journ to cut migrant numbers leaving its shores in return for financial aid from the European Union.At the end of June, the EU urged Ankara to halt "violent and illegal expulsions" from its territory. Charity groups and media accuse Athens of illegally turning back migrants, a charge Greece's conservative Greek government has denied.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 10-11/2022
The ‘forever war’ against the West ...America wins a battle against al Qaeda, Israel against Islamic Jihad
Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/August 10/ 2022
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/aug/9/the-forever-war-against-the-west/
Just under a year ago, President Biden asked, “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone?”
Just over a week ago, he provided an answer. On his order, two missiles from a Hellfire drone targeted Ayman al-Zawahiri, the 71-year-old emir of al Qaeda, who was taking his morning tea on the balcony of a well-appointed home in an exclusive Kabul neighborhood.
Al-Zawahiri had come in from the cold, as it were. He’d been hiding out in remote locations since 2011 when SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda’s founder and first leader. Despite the isolation, he achieved goals: Al-Qaeda today controls more territory than ever, with branches in the Indo-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
After last August’s shambolic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s subsequent takeover, he had evidently come to believe he could return to the capital to work in comfort and safety. It was a fatal mistake.
The house in which al-Zawahiri resided is owed by Sirajuddin Haqqani, one of two Taliban deputy emirs. In February of 2020, The New York Times gave him space for an op-ed (without, by the way, sparking fury from the paper’s staff as occurred when Sen. Tom Cotton was afforded the same privilege) in which he asserted: “Reports about foreign groups in Afghanistan are politically motivated exaggerations by the warmongering players on all sides of the war.”
Taliban negotiators later promised not to cooperate with al Qaeda or other groups “threatening the security of the United States and its allies.” Former President Donald Trump and Mr. Biden apparently believed them. That, too, was a fatal mistake.
Eliminating terrorist leaders is useful. But those waging what they regard as a 1,400-year-old jihad against infidels, heretics and apostates tend to be tenacious. The phrase “forever war” doesn’t daunt them. It inspires them.
The rulers of China and Russia also are waging a kind of war against the West. Neo-isolationists — they prefer to be called “restrainers” — will argue that we can’t deal with all these threats simultaneously. But to survive in the jungle, you must defend yourself, not just against lions. The crocodiles can eat you, too.
Israelis have come to terms with this reality. Iran’s rulers threaten them with genocide, as does Hezbollah, Tehran’s Lebanon-based proxy. Against these and other enemies, Israelis fight both wars and “wars between wars.”
They’ve tried other approaches. In 2005, they withdrew from Gaza, which they’d seized from Egypt in the defensive war of 1967. Their hope was that Palestinians would transform the territory into Dubai on the Mediterranean. Instead, Hamas waged a civil war against the Palestinian Authority, decisively taking power in 2007.
Hamas does not invite PA President Mahmoud Abbas to visit. But it does tolerate another rival:
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is fully funded, armed and guided by Iran’s rulers. (Though Hamas also receives weapons and cash from Tehran, it maintains a bit more independence.)
Following an 11-day conflagration with Hamas last May, the Israelis have been attempting to make life easier for Gazans. That has meant assisting efforts to rebuild infrastructure and provide more reliable electricity. Up to 14,000 Gazans have been permitted to enter Israel to work for higher wages than they could command at home. Hamas leaders, thinking strategically, have not been uncooperative.
PIJ, however, cannot abide even temporary detente. Israeli intelligence learned that the group was preparing terrorist attacks not only from Gaza but also from the northern West Bank, where PIJ fighters have been gradually displacing the security forces of the PA and clashing with the Israeli Defense Forces, which have been responding to a wave of terrorist attacks that have claimed 19 Israeli lives since March. Knowing PIJ’s intentions, the Israelis decided it was necessary to do what they could to degrade its capabilities.
On Monday, the IDF arrested the PIJ leader in the West Bank, Bassem al-Saadi. On Friday, the IDF launched a precision airstrike in Gaza, killing PIJ Northern Gaza Division commander Taysir al-Jabari. On Saturday, the IDF killed PIJ Southern Gaza Division commander Khaled Mansour and several other senior PIJ officials.
PIJ fired more than a thousand missiles at Israeli cities and towns. Many fell short, killing Palestinians, including four children in Jabalya in southern Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Other missiles were destroyed by the Iron Dome system. On Monday, with Egypt acting as broker, a ceasefire was announced.
PIJ leader Ziyad al-Nakhaleh spent the weekend in Tehran meeting with Ibrahim Raisi, the president of the Islamic Republic. What are they planning to do next? Your guess is as good as mine, though perhaps not as good as the Mossad’s.
Israelis today are at peace with more of their neighbors than ever before. Though they are always willing to participate in “peace talks,” they understand the Reaganesque doctrine that peace is achieved through strength. And strength must be demonstrated — repeatedly and consistently.
Al Qaeda and PIJ have been hit hard. But neither organization will be “gone” anytime soon.
Al Qaeda will soon have a new emir. The front-runner appears to be Saif al-Adel, a 62-year-old former Egyptian special forces colonel, a longtime al Qaeda leader who has been living in Iran as the regime’s guest.
As for PIJ, I’d guess Iran’s rulers will want to build their proxy back better. That will be expensive, but the Biden administration has been offering those rulers hundreds of billions of dollars they can use to support whichever terrorist/jihadi organizations they like. All that’s asked of them in return is a promise to slow-walk their nuclear weapons development program. To believe such a promise would be a fatal mistake.
• Clifford D. May is the founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a columnist for The Washington Times.

U.S. and Iran Weighing ‘Final’ E.U. Offer on Nuclear Deal
Michael Crowley, Steven Erlanger and Farnaz Fassihi/The New York Times/August. 10/2022
Tehran has dropped a key demand that stalled the talks for months, but it now has a new one.
Seventeen months after the United States and Iran began negotiating a possible return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal abandoned by President Donald J. Trump, the European Union has presented a “final” proposal for the two sides to consider before the talks collapse for good, Western officials said.
The negotiations have carried on through many pauses, crises and threatened conclusions, and it is far from certain that the latest proposal represents a final chapter. But U.S. and E.U. officials say their patience has worn paper thin, as Iran steadily expands its nuclear program.
“What can be negotiated has been negotiated, and it’s now in a final text,” the E.U. foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles, said Monday on Twitter.
U.S. officials have long warned that time is running out to reach an agreement. A State Department spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, said the United States was “ready to quickly conclude a deal” and that the E.U. proposal was “the only possible basis” for it.
U.S. officials are skeptical that Iran is prepared to roll back its program in exchange for relief from sanctions that have weakened its economy. But some analysts say the sides have inched closer than had been expected.
In a notable shift, Iran has retreated from two key demands. One is an insistence that the United States remove Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps from its official list of foreign terrorist organizations, according to people briefed on the negotiations and two Iranians familiar with the talks.
That demand became one of the final roadblocks to restoring the deal after President Biden refused to overturn the guards corps’ terrorist designation, issued in 2019 by Mr. Trump.
The other is an insistence that the Biden administration provide guarantees that a future president will not withdraw from the deal even if Iran upholds its commitments, as Mr. Trump did in 2018. The Iranians have come to accept that such a promise is not possible, according to the two Iranians.
“We are closer than we have been since the deal was all but done last May, before the talks suspended for the Iranian elections,” said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear policy expert who consulted closely with the Obama administration during talks to strike the original nuclear deal. “Bottom line: It could happen.”
Such a breakthrough would provide Mr. Biden with a foreign policy achievement as he heads into midterm elections in the fall, though some European officials say the American president may be wary of political criticism over renewing an Obama-era agreement that Republicans almost uniformly denounce and that even some key Democrats opposed in its original form.
Understand the Iran Nuclear Deal
Card 1 of 6
A critical stage. Despite recent threats and harsh words, the U.S. and Iran appear on the cusp of restoring the 2015 accord that limited Iran’s nuclear program, though important sticking points remain. Here’s a look at how we got here:
The 2015 deal. Iran and a group of six nations led by the U.S. reached a historic accord in 2015 to significantly limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting sanctions. The agreement was President Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement.
The U.S. abandons the deal. President Donald J. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the accord in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions against Iran in hopes of forcing Tehran to renegotiate. Iran responded in part by enriching uranium significantly beyond the limits in the agreement.
A path back to an accord. President Biden vowed to bring the U.S. back into the deal, and talks in Vienna created a road map for that effort, though challenges have remained: Iran wants the U.S. to lift sanctions first, while the U.S. wants Iran to return to compliance first.
A new setback. On March 11, a European Union official said that talks on reviving the deal had paused following the invasion. Russia, a signatory to the accord, tried to use final approval of the deal as leverage to soften sanctions imposed because of the war.
Another try. In July, negotiators from the United States and Iran arrived in Vienna for one more attempt at restoring the deal. But before the negotiations began Iran, which has continued to advance its technical knowledge and stockpile of highly enriched uranium, announced that it now has the technical ability to produce a nuclear warhead.
Another factor is a fresh Iranian demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, drop a three-year investigation into unexplained man-made uranium at various Iranian research sites, including some that Tehran refuses to let I.A.E.A. inspectors visit. Iran vehemently denied that it had military intentions for enriched uranium.
“This is their style: moving toward an agreement but at the moment of agreement saying, ‘There’s just one more thing,’” Mr. Cirincione said.
The agency identified traces of uranium particles based on information uncovered in 2018, when Israeli agents stole thousands of documents and CDs about Iran’s nuclear program from a Tehran warehouse.
The stolen documents indicated that Iran had a military nuclear program until at least 2003, when the United States believes it ended. Israel remains unconvinced that it was shut down.
Iran has made dropping the investigation key to its approval of the nuclear deal, even though the I.A.E.A. is not a signatory to it and was not engaged in the negotiations.
The agency’s secretary general, Rafael M. Grossi, has also said that it would be difficult for the agency to restore with full confidence an assessment of where Iran is on enrichment because the country has banned the agency from replacing full memory cards and cameras for months, as part of its own effort to pressure the negotiators.
“Just like in 2015, it is very hard to delink Iran’s past from its future,” said Ellie Geranmayeh of the European Council on Foreign Relations, who tracks the negotiations.
“Iran wants to close the I.A.E.A. investigations into its past as part of reviving the J.C.P.O.A.,” she added, using the abbreviation for the original agreement. “The West is not willing to drop the investigation.”
Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group, said that “what Iran gets wrong is that it can’t wish away the U.N. inspections doing their job.”
“What it needs to do is to come clean once and for all,” Mr. Vaez said. “The parties managed to resolve several issues, which is a positive development. But the fact that there is a single disagreement left doesn’t guarantee success.”
Even if finally signed, the new deal would take months to enact. Critics noted that even if Iran agreed to the enrichment limits in the original deal, the country has enough knowledge to build a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so, making it a “threshold state.”
Iran also does not accept that the current 35-page proposed agreement is a closing bid. Nour News, a news media outlet for the Supreme National Security Council, said on Tuesday that “naturally the Islamic Republic of Iran does not accept the current text as the final text.”
After Mr. Biden refused in the spring to lift the U.S. designation on the guard corps, Iran installed new advanced centrifuges in places deep underground and enriched uranium to 60 percent, which is close to weapons grade and not needed for any civilian use.
In Iran, many analysts doubt that a deal is within reach. Iran’s conservative government faces internal divisions, and hard-line factions distrust the West. Making key concessions also risks political backlash. Some conservative lawmakers have said any agreement that leaves the guards corps designated as a terrorist group is unacceptable.
But if Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declines the current Western offer, Iran would probably not abandon the talks. Iran sees itself as holding leverage over a West eager for a deal that would bring more Iranian oil into a global economy strained by high energy prices, analysts said. But Ayatollah Khamenei is also eager to remove constricting sanctions.
Mr. Vaez said that if this attempt at an agreement fails, the West will have to start pondering more limited alternatives.
“They are then likely to explore alternative options, like an interim deal, against the backdrop of an intensified race of sanctions versus centrifuges,” Mr. Vaez said.
*Fears Grow Over Iran’s Nuclear Program as Tehran Digs a New Tunnel Network
June 16, 2022
*Michael Crowley is a diplomatic correspondent in the Washington bureau. He joined The Times in 2019 as a White House correspondent in the Trump administration and has filed from dozens of countries. @michaelcrowley
*Steven Erlanger is the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe, based in Brussels. He previously reported from London, Paris, Jerusalem, Berlin, Prague, Moscow and Bangkok. @StevenErlanger
*Farnaz Fassihi is a reporter for The New York Times based in New York. Previously she was a senior writer and war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 17 years based in the Middle East. @farnazfassihi
*A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 10, 2022, Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Final’ Nuclear Deal on Table for Iran and U.S. to Weigh.

Senior Pakistani Taliban leader reportedly killed in Afghanistan
Bill Roggio/ FDD's Long War Journal/August 10/ 2022 |
Omar Khalid Khurasani, a virulent senior leader of a dangerous faction of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, was reportedly killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Pakistan on Aug. 6. A spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan confirmed his death, though he has previously also been reportedly killed twice before.
Khurasani, who is believed to have given sanctuary to Ayman al Zawahiri in the past, has called for global jihad, attacks on the U.S. and openly celebrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S.
Khurasani and two of his deputies, known as Hafiz Dawlat and Mufti Hassan, were killed in a roadside bombing in the Bermal district in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika. To this point, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed Khurasani.
Khurasani’s presence in Bermal should come as no surprise as it is a stronghold of the Haqqani Network, the powerful Afghan Taliban subgroup whose leader Sirajuddin Haqqani is one of two deputy Taliban emirs as well as the country’s interior minister. Sirajuddin was sheltering Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri when he was killed in Kabul on July 30, 2022.
Top foreign terror leaders have sheltered in Bermal in the past. In late July 2015, the U.S. killed Abu Khalil al Sudani, a senior al Qaeda leader who took direction from Ayman al Zawahiri, in a raid on an Al Qaeda training camp in Bermal. Sudani had a hand in al Qaeda’s external operations network, which plots attacks against the U.S. and the West.
The raid on the Bermal camp gave the US information on the existence of two other Al Qaeda training camps in the Shorabak district in Kandahar province. More than 150 Al Qaeda operatives and fighters were killed in the subsequent raids on the Al Qaeda camps in Shorabak in October 2015.
A veteran Pakistani Taliban leader
Khurasani took control of the Mohmand tribal agency in Pakistan’s Khyber Paktunkhkwa after defeating a rival terrorist group and soon became the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan’s forces there. He led the charge to seize control of the tribal agency and held it for five years before the Pakistani military drove his fighters underground or across the border into Afghanistan.
He was considered one of the Pakistani Taliban’s most effective and powerful commanders in the tribal areas. Khurasani was known to maintain close ties to Al Qaeda, including the aforementioned safe haven he was believed to provide for Zawahiri.
Khurasani was also allied with Qari Zia Rahman, the dual-hatted Taliban and Al Qaeda leader who operates in Pakistan’s tribal agencies of Mohmand and Bajaur, as well as in Afghanistan’s provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. Rahman eluded U.S. efforts to kill him for over a decade. Rahman has established and operated suicide training camps used to indoctrinate and train female bombers. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda, Taliban create female suicide cells in Pakistan and Afghanistan]. In Aug. 2011, Khurasani claimed credit for a female suicide attack in Peshawar.
Khurasani has been active in the Taliban’s propaganda machine since the death of Osama bin Laden, and has been vocal in his support of Al Qaeda. In mid-May 2011, Khurasani vowed revenge on Pakistani and US forces just two weeks after the US raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad that resulted in his death.
“We will take revenge of Osama’s killing from the Pakistani government, its security forces, the Pakistani ISI, the CIA and the Americans, they are now on our hit list,” Khurasani said. “Osama bin Laden has given us the ideology of Islam and Jihad, by his death we are not scattered but it has given us more strength to continue his mission.”
In June 2011, Khurasani said the Taliban have been behind a spate of attacks in Pakistan, and he again threatened the U.S.
“Our war against America is continuing inside and outside of Pakistan. When we launch attacks, it will prove that we can hit American targets outside Pakistan,” Khurasani said.
In the same interview, Khurasani said that Ayman al Zawahiri is Al Qaeda’s “chief and supreme leader.” He stated this more than one week before Zawahiri was officially declared emir of Al Qaeda.
In March 2012, Khurasani released a propaganda tape in which he said the Taliban seek to overthrow the Pakistani government, impose sharia, or Islamic law, seize the country’s nuclear weapons, and wage jihad until “the Caliphate is established across the world.” [See LWJ report, Taliban commander wants Pakistan’s nukes, global Islamic caliphate.]
Khurasani initially gained prominence during the summer of 2007, when he took over a famous shrine in Mohmand and renamed it the Red Mosque in honor of the radical mosque in Islamabad whose followers had attempted to impose sharia in the capital.
The Mohmand Taliban took control of the tribal agency after the Pakistani government negotiated a peace agreement with the extremists at the end of May 2008. The deal required the Taliban to renounce attacks on the Pakistani government and security forces. The Taliban said they would maintain a ban on the activities of nongovernmental organizations in the region but agreed not to attack women in the workplace as long as they wore veils. Both sides exchanged prisoners.
The Taliban promptly established a parallel government in Mohmand. Sharia courts were formed, and orders were given for women to wear the veil in public. So-called “criminals” were rounded up and judged in sharia courts. Women were ordered to have a male escort at all times and were prevented from working on farms. The Taliban also kidnapped members of a polio vaccination team.
In July 2008, Khurasani became the dominant Taliban commander in Mohmand after defeating the Shah Sahib group, a rival pro-Taliban terror group with ties to the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Pakistani military claimed it killed Khurasani in Jan. 2009, but the Taliban denied the report, and he resurfaced many times. Khurasani was also reported to have been killed in 2017, but he again emerged to deny the news of his death.
The Pakistani government placed a $123,000 bounty on Khurasani’s head in 2009.
Formation of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar
Khurasani split from the Movement of the Taliban in Aug. 2014 due to a leadership dispute and formed Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, but the two groups nominally reunited in March 2015. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has operated with a large degree of autonomy and issues its own statements on attacks and other matters.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has claimed credit for multiple attacks inside Pakistan. In one of its most callous and deadly attacks, a Jamaat-ul-Ahrar suicide bomber detonated at the entrance of a park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Easter Day in 2016. At least 72 people, mostly women and children, were killed and more than 300 were wounded in the blast. The group’s spokesman explicitly stated that “the target was Christians.”
The terrorist group has also targeted the U.S. consulate in Peshawar and polio vaccination teams in Karachi. In Aug. 2016, the US State Department added Jamaat-ul-Ahrar to the list of global terrorists organizations. State also issued a reward of $3 million for information leading tot he capture and prosecution of Khurasani.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has promoted its activities on social media. In Feb. 2017, it flaunted its training camps and prominently featured Khurasani as well as its suicide assault team.
*Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD’s Long War Journal. Follow him on Twitter @billroggio. FDD is a nonpartisan research organization focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

Russia sent Steven Seagal to occupied Ukraine to spread propaganda, part of his role as a Kremlin spokesman
Mia Jankowicz/Business Insider/Wed, August 10, 2022
Steven Seagal visited the site of a destroyed Ukrainian prison, per Russian media.
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of hitting the site, where more than 50 POWs died in late July. Segal advanced the Kremlin's claims that it was struck by US-provided HIMARS artillery. Steven Seagal visited a destroyed prison in Russian-occupied Ukraine on Tuesday, where he repeated Kremlin talking points in his role as an official spokesman. Footage broadcast by Russian state media showed the actor in the wreckage of a building identified as the Olenivka prison in Donetsk, where in late July more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in disputed circumstances.
While Russia accuses Ukraine of hitting the center with US-provided HIMARS artillery, Ukraine blamed it on Russian shelling — in either case, a war crime.
Seagal was there to promote the Russian side, in his capacity as a special representative of Russia's foreign ministry, tasked with US-Russian relations. Seagal, a longtime admirer of Russia and President Vladimir Putin, was given that title in 2018.
"This is where HIMARS hit," said Seagal, according TVZvezda. He went on to suggest that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the hit because one of the soldiers had begun accusing him of war crimes, the outlet reported.
He claimed that the damage on the building "definitely looks like a rocket," the outlet reported. "If you look at the burning and other details, of course it's not a bomb."
Pro-Kremlin Russian TV host Vladimir Solovyov also claimed that Seagal "personally examined" fragments of HIMARS rockets purportedly found there.
Despite Seagal being given access to the site, the International Red Cross Committee seeking to help victims of the attack has not yet been allowed to visit, according to The Moscow Times. On August 3, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced that he would launch a fact-finding mission, on the request of both Russia and Ukraine, to understand what happened there, according to Ukrinform.
While the footage of Seagal has not been fully authenticated, a BBC image of the site published soon after it was struck is a close visual match with the site Seagal was filmed on. Ukrainian outlet The Odessa Journal also reported the visit. Seagal, a long-time pro-Russia figure, is filming a documentary about the war in the region, according to a post from Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader in the Donetsk region who is helping Russia attack Ukraine.

America's Strategic Oil Reserves
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./August 10/2022
Why is President Joe Biden depleting America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve just when the US should be enlarging it? Why does the Biden administration seem as if it is trying to weaken America just at a time when China is becoming increasingly more aggressive? Pictured: Gasoline prices listed in Los Angeles, California on July 19, 2022.
The Biden administration in April sanctioned the sale of our nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the highest bidder. They have done so under the logic that putting more oil on the global market at a time when Russia has an energy stranglehold on Europe could force down the pump price of gasoline.
One could ask, as Congressional mid-term elections loom, and the price of gas soared to five dollars a gallon, has the White House made a strategic energy decision based on politics rather than on what is in the best security interests of our nation -- because the country that is among the high bidders for our oil reserves is China.
This is the China that has obliterated Tibet.
This is the China that practices slavery, torture in internment camps, forced labor, child labor and organ-harvesting on live detainees.
This is the China that has choked democracy in Hong Kong.
This is the China that threatens the freedom of 23 million Taiwanese.
This is the China that has sought to cripple an Australian military plane flying over international waters.
This is the China that has fired missiles into Japan's exclusive economic zone and tried to blind US pilots with laser beams.
This is the China that is cornering the market in rare earth minerals, such as cobalt, needed to make electric batteries, stealing US technology and buying up US farmland, some near a military base.
This is the China that has bought land just 12 miles from a North Dakota US Military base, "the backbone of all US military communication." .
This is the China that has allied itself with fellow aggressor nations, Russia and Iran.
This is a China that has just launched an aircraft supercarrier that equals those of the United States, and to make a point to the world, named it Fujian for the province that borders the Taiwan straits.
One can only wonder where the fuel will come from that will power its turbine engines as this massive carrier conducts operations that threaten the security of our Asian allies while confronting America's historic role in the Pacific.
The Biden Administration, instead of selling our oil, should be stockpiling our strategic petroleum reserves as if they were preparing for battle: the reality is we are in the midst of an undeclared conflict. It pits the future of freedom and democracy against a regime that openly has every intention of confronting the United States in Asia and elsewhere.
Why, then, is President Joe Biden depleting America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve just when the US should be enlarging it? Why does the Biden administration seem as if it is trying to weaken America just at a time when China is becoming increasingly more aggressive?
*Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
© 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.

China and Russia—With Help from Biden—Attack the Dollar
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute./August 10, 2022
Russia and China have launched another attempt to develop a "new global reserve currency." In other words, they are again attacking the dollar.
There is only one country that can dethrone the dollar, and it is not a BRICS nation. It is the United States. President Joe Biden is China's and Russia's biggest ally in "dedollarizing" the world.
Russia's ruble, although showing surprising strength of late, is tied to a country in long-term—and seemingly irreversible—decline. Moreover, the Russian Federation, thanks to its aggression and barbarism in Ukraine, is cementing its role as a pariah.
Who wants to hold a weak Chinese currency that is racing toward the edge of the cliff?
Furthermore, Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, believes in "absolute" control of every aspect of society. The idea of free convertibility, therefore, is almost certainly anathema to him. So until China completely abandons its model of economic development and removes Xi as ruler, the renminbi cannot dethrone the dollar. The Chinese failure to make their currency widely acceptable means, as a practical matter, the BRICS currency will never get off the ground.
What are the attributes of a global reserve currency? It must be stable, it must be underpinned by a large and strong economy, it must be freely convertible, and it must be used widely.
Americans should not remain overconfident. The only reason the greenback is still the world's reserve currency is because there is no practical alternative. China and Russia, however, are busy trying to figure out how to engineer a replacement.
Russia and China have launched another attempt to develop a "new global reserve currency." In other words, they are again attacking the dollar. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden looks as if he is trying to kill the dollar. In Beijing and Moscow, they cannot believe their good fortune. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in Beijing on February 4, 2022.
"The issue of creating an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of our countries is being worked out," said Vladimir Putin in June, at a meeting of the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa—grouping.
Russia and China have launched another attempt to develop a "new global reserve currency." In other words, they are again attacking the dollar.
A "coordinated global challenge taking place to the U.S. dollar... would be the biggest news story in decades," writes "Tyler Durden," the pseudonym for in-house staffers at the ZeroHedge site. Durden is "stunned that nobody seems to care that arguably the largest shift on the global macroeconomic playing field over the last half century may be taking place."
Hold the "shift" language. There's only one country that can dethrone the dollar, and it's not a BRICS nation. It's the United States. President Joe Biden is China's and Russia's biggest ally in "dedollarizing" the world.
The BRICS currencies are weak. Russia's ruble, although showing surprising strength of late, is tied to a country in long-term—and seemingly irreversible—decline. Moreover, the Russian Federation, thanks to its aggression and barbarism in Ukraine, is cementing its role as a pariah.
South Africa is a country going into reverse. Brazil, where a leftist is leading in the polls ahead of October's presidential election, is also not bound for economic glory. India, certainly large and arguably headed for riches, is just not ready for economic or financial leadership.
The success of the BRICS reserve currency, therefore, depends on the Chinese renminbi.
Many are optimistic about the "redback," as some now call it. David Goldman, for instance, talks about China "Sino-forming" the Global South and argues that renminbi usage will grow as a result.
Beijing touted the increase of usage of its currency in May, when the yuan, as Chinese money is informally known, accounted for 2.15% of global currency payments, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, better known as SWIFT. That made it the world's fifth most-active currency.
Yes, May usage was up. In April, the comparable figure was 0.01% lower.
The overall trend is negative, however. The renminbi accounted for 3.2% of global transactions in January, making it the fourth most-used currency. In prior periods, the yuan was even more widely used.
There's a reason the renminbi is an international pipsqueak. What China especially lacks is the most important attribute for reserve currency status: free convertibility into other currencies.
Chinese leaders have consistently failed to make their money freely convertible. Before the Asian financial crisis of 1997, they promised to do so by the turn of the century. In January 2011, Yi Gang, then chief of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, promised China would make the renminbi convertible on the capital account—in other words, allowing the free repatriation of investment capital—in five years.
At the end of 2015, it was widely believed the Communist Party's Fifth Plenum would announce the abolition of all capital controls by 2020, the end of the country's 13th Five-Year Plan. The Party failed to make that promise, however. China is no closer to free convertibility now.
There have been, during the course of decades, small liberalizations in China, but the advances have often been formally reversed or not implemented. Beijing, for instance, in 2015 stopped outbound transfers of cash that were permitted by Chinese law, a move to reduce capital flight.
China under Communist Party rule cannot allow free convertibility. Beijing's economic model is dependent on cheap cash for state enterprises and state banks, which means the central bank severely depresses interest rates on deposits. If depositors had a choice, they would chase higher returns outside China. The country could not withstand the resulting stampede of cash leaving.
At the moment, cash is desperately trying to leave. The debt crisis—Beijing has accumulated debt in an amount equal to, say, 350% of gross domestic product—looks as if it will take China down. Evergrande Group and many other large property developers are defaulting on obligations; homeowners across the country are participating in the "mortgage boycott," refusing to pay banks on loans for apartments; suppliers to property developers are similarly refusing to pay bank loans; and banks are unable to honor deposits so depositors are protesting in the streets. As a result, foreign investors are withdrawing money from the bond markets, which are imploding. July marked the sixth straight month that money exited the country's bond markets. Who wants to hold a weak Chinese currency that is racing toward the edge of the cliff?
Furthermore, Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, believes in "absolute" control of every aspect of society. The idea of free convertibility, therefore, is almost certainly anathema to him. So until China completely abandons its model of economic development and removes Xi as ruler, the renminbi cannot dethrone the dollar. The Chinese failure to make their currency widely acceptable means, as a practical matter, the BRICS currency will never get off the ground.
The Russians and Chinese have been wanting to attack the dollar for decades, but now, despite everything, they see a real opportunity to succeed.
What are the attributes of a global reserve currency? It must be stable, it must be underpinned by a large and strong economy, it must be freely convertible, and it must be used widely.
Biden's policies undermine these attributes of the American currency. His insane spending plans will eventually weaken the dollar and therefore undercut its attractiveness as a store of value. That spending is made possible by issuing debt. America's national debt is now a staggering $30.64 trillion and climbing fast. Eventually, investors will turn their back on an ailing dollar. No one wants to keep their wealth in a currency constantly losing value.
Moreover, Biden has already pushed the American economy into two quarters of negative growth, a "recession," and his policies seem designed to continue and deepen the downturn.
Also, his imposition of dollar sanctions on Russia undercut one of the main advantages of the greenback: its near-universal acceptance and usability for transactions. As a result, the Chinese and Russians are trying to trade with each other in renminbi. Furthermore, the Chinese are working to get Saudi Arabia to accept the redback in payment of oil.
Meanwhile, Biden looks as if he is trying to kill the dollar. In Beijing and Moscow, they cannot believe their good fortune. An American president is undermining what Tucker Carlson correctly calls a "core American interest": maintaining the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency.
Americans should not remain overconfident. The only reason the greenback is still the world's reserve currency is because there is no practical alternative. China and Russia, however, are busy trying to figure out how to engineer a replacement. That is why they are at this moment pushing for a BRICS currency.
*Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.
© 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.

Climate Change: The Latest Excuse for Slaughtering Christians
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./August 10, 2022
"And it is striking how quickly politicians and commentators trot out the same discredited banal narrative that the drivers for such carnage are climate change and lack of resources. They say that the causes are 'complicated,' with hardly a mention of the Jihadist ideology that is behind the endless atrocities of ISIS and Boko Haram. And then they say that everyone [Christian and Muslim] suffers and there is a sort of equivalence with victims coming from varied religious backgrounds. They should tell that to the families whose loved ones are targeted, day in and day out, and see what sort of response they receive." — Lord Alton of Liverpool, June12, 2022.
"[T]he shocking murders in a church in #Nigeria are attributable to Ideology, Insecurity and Impunity - along with indifference by the Buhari Government. Nor can climate change be blamed for executions, abductions and murders." — Lord Alton, Twitter, June 6, 2022.
"[P]oliticians need to be more honest about what drives the carnage." — Lord Alton, June 12, 2022.
Pictured: The bloodstained floor of St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria, after the murder of 50 Christians there, on June 5, 2022.
Politicians have found a new straw man: climate change. There are certainly many things we can gradually do not to pollute or wreck our planet, but blaming it for the pervasive slaughter of Christians by Muslims in northern Africa is not one of them. It seems, sadly, that what drives the persecution of Christians there, and elsewhere, is doctrine, not climate change.
On June 5, 2022, Muslims massacred 50 Christians inside a Nigerian church on Pentecost Sunday (one of many examples of Nigerian Christians massacred while worshipping in their churches).
Two days later, Ireland's President Michael Higgins issued a statement linking the Nigerian church massacre to -- climate change. "The neglect of food security issues in Africa, for so long has brought us to a point of crisis that is now having internal and regional effects based on struggles, ways of life themselves," he wrote, implying that food shortages caused by the climate are what cause murder.
If you look at all four paragraphs of Higgins' statement on the Nigerian church attack, you will see that he (and those like him) have no explanation as to how climate change causes religious persecution. Apparently "food shortages" cause Muslims shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the greatest") to bomb churches and murder Christians? It seems possibly a way to shift focus off what they might not want people thinking about -- Muslims killing Christians -- to what they might want them thinking about, climate change; and they possibly bank on the fact that most people do not read or think too critically, and may well go along with whatever sounds comfortable.
Nowhere does Higgins' statement acknowledge, much less condemn, Islamic radicalization and terrorism in the region. Both, however, are what led to the Pentecost Sunday church massacre.
Although unreported by the so-called "mainstream media," the Christians of Nigeria are, according to several NGOs (such as here and here) in fact being purged in a genocide. According to an August 2021 report, since the Islamic insurgency began in earnest in July 2009, more than 60,000 Christians have either been murdered during raids or abducted, never to be seen again. During this same timeframe, approximately 20,000 churches and Christian schools were torched and destroyed by extremist Muslims shouting "Allahu Akbar". In 2021, Muslims murdered at least 4,650 Nigerian Christians seemingly for their faith, and nearly 900 in just the first three months of this year.
Instead of remotely acknowledging any of these disturbing statistics, Ireland's president "condemned" those who "attempt to scapegoat [Muslim] pastoral peoples who are among the foremost victims of the consequences of climate change." This is a reference to the Fulani, Muslim herdsmen apparently motivated by jihadist ideology to raid and butcher Christians on what seems to be a daily basis. As this report indicates, in Nigeria, one Christian is killed every two hours -- most of them at the hands of Fulani.
On June 10, Bishop Jude Ayodeji Arogundade, of the Christian diocese where the Nigerian Christians were slaughtered, responded to Higgins' assertions that climate change is responsible -- as well as to the Irish president's obscene portrayal of the Fulani as victims no less than the Christians they slaughter:
"While thanking the Honorable Mr. Higgins for joining others to condemn the attack and offering his sympathy to the victims, his reasons for this gruesome massacre are incorrect and far-fetched.... To suggest or make a connection between victims of terror and consequences of climate change is not only misleading but also exactly rubbing salt to the injuries of all who have suffered terrorism in Nigeria. The victims of terrorism are of another category to which nothing can be compared! It is very clear to anyone who has been closely following the events in Nigeria over the past years that the underpinning issues of terror attacks, banditry, and unabated onslaught in Nigeria and in the Sahel Region and climate change have nothing in common.... [A]lluding to some form of politics of climate change in our present situation is completely inappropriate.... Terrorists are on free loose slaughtering, massacring, injuring, and installing terror in different parts of Nigeria since over 8 years not because of any reasonable thing but because they are evil—period."
Equally vocal in his condemnation of those who try to shift the focus of Islamic terrorism onto climate change was the human rights champion Lord David Alton of Liverpool. On June 12, he wrote:
[P]oliticians need to be more honest about what drives the carnage.... Every life lost [during the Pentecost Sunday church attack] represented tragic heartbreak for individual families. ... It is striking how little interest mainstream media have had in detailing their stories. Individual lives lost in Nigeria should be no less newsworthy than in any other part of the world. And it is striking how quickly politicians and commentators trot out the same discredited banal narrative that the drivers for such carnage are climate change and lack of resources. They say that the causes are 'complicated,' with hardly a mention of the Jihadist ideology that is behind the endless atrocities of ISIS and Boko Haram. And then they say that everyone [Christian and Muslim] suffers and there is a sort of equivalence with victims coming from varied religious backgrounds. They should tell that to the families whose loved ones are targeted, day in and day out, and see what sort of response they receive."
Without naming any religion, Alton accurately but diplomatically concluded by writing:
"It's high time the world woke up to the unpalatable truth that the same malign force that has murdered and maimed its way through community after community continues to brutally murder Nigerian people and has been able to do so with impunity."
Alton wrote on Twitter on June 6:
"I told @UKParliament that the shocking murders in a church in #Nigeria are attributable to Ideology, Insecurity and Impunity - along with indifference by the Buhari Government. Nor can climate change be blamed for executions, abductions and murders."
It is also revealing that when condemning a nearly identical terrorist attack to the Pentecost Sunday murder of 50 Nigerian Christians—namely, the 2019 Christchurch massacre, when an Australian man killed 51 Muslims in New Zealand—the president of Ireland said nothing about climate change. Rather, he highlighted the true cause for both attacks -- religion. After saying that the mosque attacks "appalled people all over the world," Higgins continued:
"There can be no justification for acts of violence and discrimination based on religion or beliefs ... Freedom of religious expression is a cornerstone of any functioning democracy and those rights must be guaranteed for all citizens."
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in December 2022, has also tried to divert attention from religiously-motivated terrorism toward climate change. "Climate change... is an aggravating factor for instability, conflict and terrorism," he said. If there were no hurricanes, there would be less terrorism?
These, then, are the lengths to which some people are willing to go. They either ignorantly or mendaciously exploit the human suffering of Christians and others by trying to deflect attention from the radicalization (such as here, here and here), violence (here, here , here and here) and terrorism (here, here and here) advocated by extremist Muslims and turning it toward their particular pet projects, in this instance, climate change.
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 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.

Iran’s poison pills holding the Middle East back
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/August 10, 2022
When the episode of Elon Musk potentially taking over Twitter started, the public learned of a business expression: The poison pill. The poison pill is what the Twitter management and shareholders were looking to use to avoid a takeover. In brief, it allows the shareholders and management of a company to avoid being ousted by another firm, even if they perform poorly. It basically lets existing shareholders buy more shares at a discount compared to the new investor and, hence, makes him pay a hefty price to achieve his goals. The poison pill keeps the company in the same hands, but makes it lose value.
This concept also exists in politics. Indeed, the Iranian regime has put poison pills all over the Middle East. The simple difference is that, for Iran, the poison pill is a militia. All over the Middle East and in each and every country it is involved in, the regime in Tehran has placed these poison pills. These pills have one message: We will set the country on fire if our interests are compromised. And so, it essentially made all these countries lose value, just to allow Tehran to control and extract exactly what it wants for its own interests.
I use an analogy relating to business because, with the Iranian regime, this is all it is: A trade. Forget the religious slogans and anti-Western indignation, in reality it is about pushing forward its expansionist policy with total disregard and disrespect for other countries’ populations. The militias are the poison pills that keep destroying and burning the values and core fabric of wonderful countries. In each and every place they have been able to place them, decay has followed.
This is why the nations negotiating a new nuclear deal with Iran should force the removal of these poison pills. There cannot be a successful nuclear deal while Iranian-sponsored militias destabilize an entire region. Or while the Iranian regime continues to develop missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. This has to be part of the deal. It is not just about the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps being kept on or removed from a list, it is about the Iranian regime changing its course and its behavior.
The justification for these poison pills is simply a lie. The regime has declared itself to be the defender of the oppressed in the Middle East. Yet, in reality, it has become the oppressor. The militias in Iraq have harmed the entire country and are responsible for the deaths of too many to recount. In Lebanon, it is the same; Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will accuse any critical voice of being a traitor and a spy. In Yemen, it is even worse. These poison pills, which claim to protect the oppressed, are in fact racist and fascist recipes.
Despite these disasters, not once have the leaders in Tehran questioned or reevaluated their role. Not for a single second have they looked backed and analyzed what their poison pill policies have achieved. In fact, they have looked on the rest of the Middle East with disdain; as if the children of Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Syria were mere pawns to be sacrificed; justifiable deaths for the greater good.
But what greater good? In all the countries where they have taken control, all they have done is spread hatred, doubt and hunger. And so maybe this is what the regime considers to be the greater good — bringing chaos and ruination to the region.
Nevertheless, just like in business, this is a tremendous lost opportunity, especially as the world transforms and shifts toward multipolarity. The Middle East can benefit greatly from the growing divide between East and West. This demands, as a prerequisite, peaceful and respectful relations between neighbors and an end to the interference in other countries’ domestic affairs. This demands greater maturity and transparency from the regime in Tehran. And this can only start with the removal of all poison pills in the region. This can only happen with a new strategy in Tehran — a new way to ensure better lives for the entire region.
I have little hope of this happening. But I do not think it is a mistake for regional countries to try and communicate with Tehran and discuss a transformation of relations. No one holds an absolute right and consensus is needed. Still, it would be a grave mistake for a new nuclear deal to be agreed that only encompasses technical points, such as centrifuges and the level of uranium enrichment. In the end, it is about politics and behavior, not about the nuclear deal.
In all the countries where Tehran’s militias have taken control, all they have done is spread hatred, doubt and hunger.
The nuclear problem exists because the regime in Tehran pursued the weaponization of its nuclear program while meddling and interfering in other countries’ affairs. And so any new nuclear deal will not reach any of its declared objectives unless Tehran stops its expansionist policies.
Our region cannot and will not be defined by a single confession or ethnicity looking to rule over others, whether Arab, Persian or Ottoman. We are much more than that. We are the original melting pot that made the US the great nation it is today. This diversity is our wealth. From Central Asia to the Atlantic, generosity defines us, not poison pills. The time for the Middle East to rise and experience its renaissance is now.
*Khaled Abou Zahr is CEO of Eurabia, a media and tech company. He is also the editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.