English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 16/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.august16.22.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Consider the lilies, how they grow:
they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was
not clothed like one of these
Luke 12/22-31: “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I
tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body,
what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor
barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And
can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you
are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you,
even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into
the oven, how much more will he clothe you you of little faith! And do not keep
striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep
worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things,
and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and
these things will be given to you as well.”
Titels
For English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News
& Editorials published on August 15-16/2022
Egypt's Church Fire Disaster. Prayers and Condolences/Elias Bejjani/August
14/2022
Report: Talks to resolve al-Hajj case 'on track'
Lebanon condemns attack on Syria, to file complaint to Security Council
Sharafeddine meets Syrian ministers over refugees repatriation
Despite Everything: International legal conference held in Beirut
Geagea wants 'confrontational' President to challenge Bassil, Hezbollah
Lebanon denounces the use of its airspace to bomb Syria
Patriarch Says Neutrality Saves Lebanon, Partiality Destroys It
Minister: Syria Ready to Repatriate Refugees from Lebanon
Location of 1st Ship to Leave Ukraine Carrying Grain Unknown
Syriac Maronite Church Stands Firm Against Hezbollah/Richard Ghazal/Newsweek/August
15/2022
Titles For LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on August 15-16/2022
Egyptians Mourn 41 Killed in Cairo Coptic Church Fire
Israeli Strikes Hit Iranian Targets Near Russia’s Mediterranean Bases
Israel Says It Blocked 'Attack Tunnel' from Gaza Strip
US: Drone Attack Targets US Base in Syria, No Casualties
Israeli Police Kill Palestinian in East Jerusalem Raid
Israel Axes Abraham Accords Conference after Concerned Arab Countries Decline
Invite
Iran Will Respond to EU’s Nuclear Text by Midnight on Monday, Says Foreign
Minister
Iranian Hardliners Demand Vice President’s Dismissal
Iran Denies Involvement but Justifies Salman Rushdie Attack
Iran Puts on Trial Reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh
Russian Shells Slam into Eastern Ukraine; 3 Dead, 20 Hurt
Putin Vows to Expand Arms Trade with Russia’s Allies
Russian Gas Flows to Europe Stable
US Congress Members Meet Taiwan Leader amid China Anger
A Year Since Takeover, EU Slams Taliban’s Women, Girls’ Rights Violations
Taliban Mark Turbulent First Year in Power
Japan PM Promises to Never Again Wage War, Ministers Visit Controversial Shrine
UN Resuming Talks on High-seas Treaty amid Growing Concerns
Yemen Stresses Role of Consultations and Reconciliation Commission in Backing
Presidential Council
Sudan Raises State of Alert to Face Torrents, Heavy Rain
Titles For The
Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on August 15-16/2022
Audio Link From FDD/Connecting the Dots from Tehran to Gaza
Rushdie attack reveals — again — true nature of Iranian regime/Jonathan Schanzer/The
Hill/August 15/2022
Time to Sanction the Kremlin’s Ministry of Truth/Emanuele Ottolenghi and Ivana
Stradner/The Despatch/August 15/2022
FAQ: Iran’s Demand to Close the UN Nuclear Watchdog’s Investigation/Andrea
Stricker/FDD/August 15/2022
After Rushdie, Can A Decadent West Truly Defend Free Speech?/Y. Carmon and
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/August 15/2022
Iran's Proxy War Against Israel Caused by Biden's Weakness/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/August 15/2022
The Taliban a year on: imposing misery, exporting instability/Baria Alamuddin/Arab
News/August 15/2022
Looking for Legitimacy: Taliban Diplomacy Since the Fall of Kabul/Aaron Y. Zelin/Washington
Institute/August 15/2022
The Rushdie Attack and Iran’s Deceptive “Fatwas”/Mehdi Khalaji/The Washington
Institute/August 15/ 2022
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 15-16/2022
Egypt's Church
Fire Disaster. Prayers and Condolences
Elias Bejjani/August 14/2022
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I
will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD
be praised.” (Job 01:21)
We pray with reverence, asking asking, Our Father,
Almighty God for eternal rest in peace for the souls of the
Egyptian Church fire victims, for the quick
healing of the injured, for the Holy Spirit to strengthen the faith and hope of
their families, and to grant them the heavenly gifts
of patience and solace.
Report: Talks to resolve al-Hajj case 'on track'
Naharnet/August 15, 2022
A settlement to return to Archbishop Mussa al-Hajj his confiscated passport and
phone has been reached, according to a report by al-Akhbar newspaper.Al-Akhbar
said Monday that, in return, authorities would keep the bags of cash and
medicine and the church would stop the political escalation in order to resolve
the conflict calmly. While the Maronite church insists that Christian religious
figures must be allowed to cross Lebanon's southern border and enter Israel,
some political parties have suggested that archbishops could from now on travel
to Israel through Jordan, the report said. Al-Hajj had been questioned for 12
hours last month upon his return from Israel with large quantities of medicines,
foodstuffs and canned goods, in addition to $460,000. A military court summoned
him for further questioning, but he ignored the summons amid a strong support
from Christian leaders.
Lebanon condemns attack on Syria, to file complaint to
Security Council
Naharnet/August 15, 2022
The Foreign Ministry denounced Monday the latest Israeli attack on the coastal
region of Syria. It condemned the Israeli violation of Lebanon's airspace to
fire missiles on the neighboring war-torn country. "We will file a complaint to
the United Nations Security Council against the ongoing Israeli violations," the
ministry said. Israel had launched a missile attack on western and central Syria
Sunday night, killing three soldiers and wounding three others.
Sharafeddine meets Syrian ministers over refugees
repatriation
Naharnet/August 15, 2022
Caretaker Minister of the Displaced Issam Sharafeddine arrived Monday in Syria
to discuss with Syrian authorities the repatriation of the Syrians refugees.
Accompanied by a Lebanese delegation, Sharafeddine met with Syrian officials
including the Minister of Interior and Local Administration and Environment
Minister Hussein Makhlouf. The two sides discussed a plan aiming at returning
the Syrian refugees to their country in "a safe and dignified" way.
Makhlouf said after the meeting that "Syria's doors are open for the refugees'
return" and that the state is ready to provide them with everything they need,
from transportation to hospitalization and education. "Syrian authorities will
secure water and electricity to the liberated areas and will provide shelters
for those whose homes have not been rebuilt yet," Makhlouf added. Sharafeddine
had earlier announced that Lebanon is working on a plan to repatriate 15,000
Syrian refugees to Syria every month. He said that shelters will be established
to receive the displaced in their villages in Syria, while the UNHCR and rights
groups considered that the repatriation to Syria would be unsafe.
Despite Everything: International legal conference held in
Beirut
Naharnet/August 15, 2022
The Lebanon Law Review and the German NGO Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Rule of Law
Program have organized an international legal conference in Beirut to discuss
the digitization in the fight against corruption and the digitization of law in
practical business practices. More than 200 participants, including members of
Parliament, international experts, and local experts have attended the
conference, Lebanon Law Review said in a statement. Below is the full text of
the statement as received by naharnet:
"Despite everything, an international legal conference titled 'The Digitization
& Future of Law' was held at the Lancaster Plaza in Beirut on Friday, August 12,
2022. The conference was organized by the Lebanon Law Review in collaboration
with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Rule of Law Program. The conference was attended
by various international and local experts, including members of parliaments,
politicians, professionals, and academics. The overall turnout of the conference
was 200+ high-caliber attendees. The main purpose of the conference was to
encourage and support those that believe in solving current problems, believe in
the rule of law, and those that are willing to work for it now more than ever.
Participants included Member of Parliament Dr. Ghada Ayoub, Member of Parliament
Razi El Hajj, Dr. Anatoli Van Der Krans, the Director of European Relations at
Berstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, Mr. Rizwan Mughal, Partner at Mezzle
Law, Dr. Dany Ghsoub, Chairperson at the Notre Dame University, Mr. Assaad
Thebian, Executive Director of Gherbal Initiative, and Mr. Maximilian Steinbeis,
Founder and Chief Editor of the Verfassungsblog. The conference was divided into
2 panels, with the first panel discussing the digitization in the fight against
corruption, while the second panel discussed the digitization of law in
practical business practices and the future of law in light of LegalTech,
blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). The first
panel was made up of Mr. Maximilian Steinbeis, Dr. Dany Ghsoub, and Mr. Assaad
Thebian, while the second panel was made up of Dr. Anatoli Van Der Krans and Mr.
Rizwan Mughal. The conference was officiated by MP Dr. Ghada Ayoub, Mr. Philipp
Bremer Director of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Rule of Law Programme MENA, and
Mr. Antoine Kanaan, the Editor in Chief of the Lebanon Law Review and the
Director of HAQQ."
Geagea wants 'confrontational' President to challenge
Bassil, Hezbollah
Naharnet/August 15, 2022
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Monday that the next president must be
"confrontational". "We want a confrontational president," Geagea said in a press
conference, adding that recovery can not be achieved, unless a president who
would challenge the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah is elected. Geagea
said that he refuses any understanding with the so-called Axis of Defiance, and
that he does not agree with his "friend" Progressive Socialist Party leader
Walid Jumblat who considered dialogue with Hezbollah as essential. "We do not
agree with his approach regarding the Presidency," Geagea said, adding that "Jumblat
is not and has never been is the bosom of Hezbollah or any other party."Geagea
went on to say that the MPs or parties that will prevent the opposition from
electing a new sovereign president, would be traitors as they would be
contributing to keeping things "as they are today."
Lebanon denounces the use of its airspace to bomb Syria
Najia Houssari/Arab News/August 15, 2022
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday condemned “the recent
Israeli attack on Syria, and the Israeli enemy’s use of the Lebanese airspace to
bomb Syrian territory.”The previous evening, the Syrian Arab News Agency
reported: “Israeli planes bombed sites in the Damascus countryside and the
coastal governorate of Tartus, via the Lebanese airspace.”The Lebanese Foreign
Ministry warned of “the consequences of this aggressive behavior and the
continuous violation of Lebanese sovereignty in a flagrant breach of
international law and treaties.” It added that it “will file a complaint to the
(UN) Security Council.” Aug. 12 marked the 16th anniversary of the approval of
UN Resolution 1701, which was designed to end hostilities following Israeli
aggression against Lebanon in 2006. Marking the anniversary, Fouad Siniora, who
was Lebanon’s prime minister at the time, said: “Resolution 1701 protected
Lebanon and settled the issue of sovereignty in the south in favor of the
Lebanese state in the face of the aggressions and ambitions of the Israeli
enemy. “The implementation of Resolution 1701, 16 years ago, stopped the Israeli
aggression against Lebanon, preceded by the unanimous decision adopted by the
Lebanese Cabinet based on the National Accord document, the constitution and the
seven points document regarding the deployment of the Lebanese army in the
entire south, after being prohibited from doing so for more than 30
years.”Siniora added that the Resolution 1701 “confirmed Resolution 1559 in
preventing illegal weapons on Lebanese soil, and Resolution 1680 calling for the
demarcation of the borders of Lebanon.”
He recalled the great support his country had received at the time from the Gulf
Cooperation Council, led by Saudi Arabia, to help rebuild in record time the
infrastructure and public facilities that had been destroyed by Israel. Siniora
also accused Hezbollah, without explicitly naming the group, of “seeking to
cause more trouble for the Lebanese and the state, including implicating Lebanon
in military confrontations and risks that Lebanon cannot confront or bear.” The
condemnation by Lebanese authorities of Sunday’s Israeli attack coincided with
visit to Syria on Monday by Issam Sharafeddine, the Lebanese caretaker minister
of the displaced. He was leading a ministry delegation in discussions with
Syrian authorities about the repatriation of refugees who have been living in
Lebanon since the beginning of the civil war. He met a number of Syrian
officials, including Minister of Local Administration and Environment Hussein
Makhlouf and Interior Minister Mohammed Khalid Al-Rahmoun. The two sides
reportedly discussed a plan for the return of Syrian refugees to their home
country in “a safe and dignified” way. Makhlouf said: “Syria’s doors are open
for the refugees’ return and the state is ready to provide them with everything
they need, from transportation to hospitalization and education. Syrian
authorities will secure water and electricity to the liberated areas and will
provide shelters for those whose homes have not been rebuilt yet.”Authorities in
Lebanon want 15,000 Syrian refugees to return home each month, a target that
will require the cooperation of the Syrian government. The Lebanese government
estimates there are about 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, including
880,000 who are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, along with others who have entered the country, legally or illegally,
to work. The Lebanese government has complained about the “weak” financial aid
provided by the UN in comparison to the country’s needs in light of the severe
economic crisis it has been grappling with for more than three years.
Patriarch Says Neutrality Saves Lebanon, Partiality
Destroys It
Beirut /Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai said that Lebanon needs to remain
"neutral" from regional developments, noting how that largely impacts the
country’s coexistence. In remarks during his Sunday sermon, Rai urged the
candidates for the position of the presidency to seek to declare Lebanon’s
neutrality in order to gain the trust of Lebanese, and the trust of the Arab and
International communities. “It is not possible for Lebanon to live its identity,
nature, and mission if it does not restore its active impartiality, which is at
the core of its constitutional entity,” said Rahi during the sermon. He added
that neutrality saves Lebanon from involving itself in the struggles and wars of
others, and eliminates contentious issues among the Lebanese. “If the new
candidates for the presidency were serious to seek the declaration of Lebanon’s
neutrality, they would gain the trust of the Lebanese and that of the Arab and
International communities," said Rai. "The people need a president who will pull
Lebanon out of conflicts; not to renew his stay there.”President Michel Aoun's
six-year term ends on Oct. 31. Rai emphasized that the candidate for the
presidency must have a serious vision to solve Lebanon’s multiple crises, and
announce a clear position regarding Lebanon’s fateful issues. The candidates
must declare “their national priorities for economic and monetary advancement,
must declare the path to follow to restore Lebanon’s entity and prevent its
fragmentation…how to restore Lebanon’s role in its Arab, regional and global
surroundings,” said the senior Christian cleric. At this critical stage the
country is witnessing, “it is not permissible to hear the names of candidates
without knowing their actual vision for the country. Enough surprises,” he
added. He noted that an experienced president who is well acquainted with public
affairs and sovereign positions must be elected within the constitutional
period. Furthermore, Rai said the necessary financial and economic reforms must
be quickly implemented in order to save Lebanon and restore the Lebanese banking
system to its normal cycle.
Minister: Syria Ready to Repatriate Refugees from
Lebanon
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
A Syrian Cabinet minister said Monday that Syrian refugees in neighboring
Lebanon can start returning home, where he said they will get all the help they
need from authorities. Tiny Lebanon is home to 1 million Syrian refugees who
fled war in their country after the conflict began in March 2011. The large
number of refugees in the small Mediterranean nation makes it one of the highest
per capita host countries of refugees in the world. Minister of Local
Administration Hussein Makhlouf made his comments during a meeting in Syria's
capital Damascus with Issam Sharafeddine, Lebanon’s caretaker minister of the
displaced. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and rights groups oppose
involuntary repatriation to Syria and say the practice risks endangering the
returning refugees. “The doors are open for the return of Syrian refugees,”
Makhlouf said, adding that the state is ready to assist returnees and give them
all that they need. Makhlouf said that includes shelters for those whose homes
were destroyed during the conflict that killed hundreds of thousands and
displaced half the pre-war population of 23 million. More than 5 million Syrians
are refugees, most of them in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. Few Syrian refugees
have returned home since President Bashar Assad’s forces got much of the country
under their control over the past few years with the help of allies Russia and
Iran. The calls for the return of Syrian refugees to their country have
increased in Lebanon since the small nation’s economic meltdown began. The
downturn has left three-quarters of Lebanese living in poverty. For Syrians,
living conditions have become worse since the economic crisis began in October
2019. Over the past year, hundreds of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians have
migrated from Lebanon by boats to Europe seeking better living conditions.
Sharafeddine told The Associated Press last month that Lebanon hopes to start
repatriating 15,000 Syrian refugees every month in the near future.
Location of 1st Ship to Leave Ukraine Carrying Grain
Unknown
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
The first grain ship to leave Ukraine under a wartime deal has had its cargo
resold several times and there is now no information about its location and
cargo destination, the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut said Monday. The Sierra
Leone-flagged ship Razoni, which left Odesa on Aug. 1, and moved through the
Black Sea carrying Ukrainian corn, later passed inspection in Turkey. It was
initially heading for Lebanon with 26,000 metric tons of corn for chicken feed.
The corn’s buyer in Lebanon later refused to accept the cargo, since it was
delivered much later than agreed. The Razoni hasn’t had its tracker on for the
last three days and it appeared off the east coast of the Mediterranean island
of Cyprus at last transmission. It was not clear if the Razoni had its tracker
off because it was heading to a port in Syria, a strong ally of Russia that
Ukraine had accused of importing grain stolen from Ukraine. Syria is also under
Western sanctions because of the 11-year conflict there that has killed hundreds
of thousands. Syrian port officials could not be immediately reached for
comment. “Our task has been to reopen seaports for grain cargo and it has been
done,” Ukraine’s embassy in Beirut said in a statement in English, adding that
to date, 16 vessels have left Ukraine carrying more than 450,000 tons of
agricultural products since a breakthrough agreement was brokered by Turkey and
the United Nations with Russia and Ukraine. The embassy said the Razoni was the
first vessel that left Ukraine under the agreement and later successfully passed
inspection in Istanbul before moving toward its destination. “We don’t have any
information about (the) position of the vessel and cargo destination,” it said.
“We have also information that cargo has been resold a few times after that.”The
embassy said: “We are not responsible for (the) vessel and cargo, especially
when it left Ukraine, moreover after vessel’s departure from foreign port.” The
Black Sea region is dubbed the world’s breadbasket, with Ukraine and Russia key
global suppliers of wheat, corn, barley and sunflower oil that millions of
impoverished people in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia rely on for
survival. An estimated 20 million tons of grain — most of it said to be destined
for livestock — has been stuck in Ukraine since the start of the 6-month-old
war.
Syriac Maronite Church Stands Firm Against Hezbollah |
Opinion
Richard Ghazal/Newsweek/August 15/2022
Lebanon, one of the few remaining vestiges of Christianity in the Middle East,
now remains firmly under the thumb of Iran through its proxy Hezbollah.
It wasn't always this way. The late Pope John Paul II famously referred to
Lebanon as a "message of fraternity—East and West." The important role played by
the Catholic Church—particularly the Syriac Maronite Church—ensured that Lebanon
remained buoyant through centuries marked by war, genocide and mass Christian
exodus.
Following the Armenian genocide, which claimed the lives of nearly 3 million
Christians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the late Maronite Patriarch Elias
Howayek successfully lobbied the European powers for Lebanon's recognition as a
refuge for the free exercise of religion. In recent decades, the late Patriarch
Nasrallah Sfeir led the healing of a nation torn along sectarian lines after the
devastating 15-year Lebanese Civil War.
Maronite patriarchs have served through the centuries as the elder statesmen and
custodians of one of the last examples of vibrant pluralism and democracy in the
Middle East. While voices critical of Hezbollah have come and gone with the
political tide, the Maronite Patriarchate has consistently been the voice for
Lebanese neutrality, sovereignty and security. The current Patriarch Moran Mor
Bechara Boutros Rai continues this tradition as he fights to keep Lebanon from
becoming an Iranian vassal state.
Of course, standing against Hezbollah isn't without risk. Patriarch Rai has
bravely assumed that risk for the good of his Christian flock, and for all
freedom-loving Lebanese. For his willingness to stand for truth, this man of God
is faced with daily death threats.
In a Sunday morning homily in August 2021, Patriarch Rai called on the Lebanese
Armed Forces to strictly enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 for the
disarmament of Hezbollah. This call was in response to Hezbollah's firing of
rockets into Israel from a populated civilian village in southern Lebanon, not
far from the place believed to be the location of Christ's first miracle at Cana.
Hezbollah's launching of rockets into Israel is a common modus intended to
plunge Lebanon into another kinetic war with Israel. Hezbollah has thrived for
over four decades due only to its raison d'être as the supposed guarantor of
Lebanon's defense against Israel. To remain relevant, Hezbollah needs war.
While Hezbollah benefits from the vacuum created by lawlessness and foreign
dependence, Christians in Lebanon—and the greater Middle East—thrive in
societies characterized by the rule of law and independent sovereignty.
Patriarch Rai asserted in his homily, "It's unacceptable that a single,
illegitimate party can decide between war and peace outside of the legitimate,
constitutional framework." In response to this admonishment, the patriarch was
subjected to death threats, featuring the mock execution of effigies, vowing
imminent violence against the Christian leader.
Intimidation and naked threats against Christian clergy in Lebanon have
increased markedly in recent years. And what's more worrisome, they've become
increasingly sophisticated, and now leverage the power of a corrupt government.
In July 2022, Lebanese authorities seized and detained Maronite Archbishop Mousa
El-Hajj upon his return from pastoral duties in Israel. Humanitarian aid in his
possession, intended for Lebanese civilians, was confiscated. He was brought
before a military judge—a known Hezbollah sympathizer—for interrogation.
Lebanese citizens are banned from travelling to Israel. However, the law makes a
narrow exemption for clergy whose duties necessitate such travel. Archbishop
El-Hajj serves the Holy Land, and travels between Lebanon and Israel regularly
in the course of his duties. This arrest was not a matter of law enforcement.
The facts and circumstances clearly indicate a malign political motive. His
arrest occurred in flagrant contempt of his pastoral duty, and further threaten
Lebanon's tradition of religious freedom.
Lebanese border and port security are controlled by Hezbollah. The weaponization
of state institutions, and the detention of Archbishop El-Hajj, is part of a
broad and overt Iranian campaign to intimidate Christians and other critics of
Hezbollah's political coercion.
As a result of the patriarch's condemnation of the unjust government action, and
his renewed opposition to Hezbollah's coercion over the Lebanese state, he
continues to receive a steady salvo of threats from various sources, which share
a single origin: Iran.
Such government-backed actions against Christian leaders demonstrate Iran's
strongarm control over the Lebanese government, and its malign intention to
solidify Lebanon as a satellite state.
If the Biden administration is serious about regional stability and human
rights, it must strongly censure and sanction the Lebanese agencies and
officials responsible for such acts of persecution. If Lebanon doesn't take
human rights seriously, the administration and Congress should scrutinize, and
discontinue, future aid to the Lebanese government.
Lebanese civilians, irrespective of religious confession, are victims of an
ongoing humanitarian crisis brought on by endemic social and governmental
corruption. With the Lebanese economic disaster ranking among the worst
financial crises in modern history, the imposition of sanctions, or the
discontinuation of aid, would make a historically grim situation even worse;
this is one of many challenges facing Lebanon's government.
Under the thumb of Iran, Lebanon's message of coexistence between East and West,
as envisioned by Pope John Paul II, faces serious threat. Lebanon's fate will
dictate the fate of Christians throughout the greater Middle East.
Patriarch Rai's firm stance is a testament to Christian conviction and
demonstrates his vision for a peaceful Lebanon. His steadfast condemnation of
evil, while within evil's ugly reach, is a modern-day profile in courage.
*Richard Ghazal is executive director at In Defense of
Christians. He is a retired U.S. Air Force judge advocate and intelligence
officer.
https://www.newsweek.com/syriac-maronite-church-stands-firm-against-hezbollah-opinion-1732333
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on August 15-16/2022
Egyptians mourn 41 killed in Cairo
Coptic church fire
AFP/August 15, 2022
CAIRO: Funerals were held in two Cairo churches Sunday evening for 41 victims of
a fire that ripped through a Coptic Christian church during mass, forcing
worshippers to jump out of windows. The blaze, blamed on an electrical fault,
hit the Abu Sifin church in densely populated Imbaba, a working class district
west of the Nile River, part of Giza governorate in greater Cairo. Hundreds
gathered to pay their respects in and around the two Giza churches where
clergymen prayed for the victims, according to AFP correspondents. Pallbearers
pushed through crowds of weeping mourners who reached for the coffins, including
that of a priest at the church, Father Abdel-Messih Bekhit. The Egyptian Coptic
Church and the health ministry reported 41 dead and 14 injured in the blaze
before emergency services brought it under control. Witnesses to the fire Sunday
morning described people rushing into the multi-story house of worship to save
those trapped, but the rescuers were soon overwhelmed by heat and deadly smoke.
Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East, making up at least
10 million of Egypt’s 103 million Muslim-majority population.
“Everyone was carrying kids out of the building,” said Ahmed Reda Baioumy, who
lives next to the church. “But the fire was getting bigger and you could only go
in once or you would asphyxiate.”Another witness, Sayed Tawfik, told AFP that
“some threw themselves out of windows to escape the fire.” He pointed to a car
bearing dents “left by a person who is now lying in the hospital with a broken
arm and back.”A resident of the area, Mina Masry, said emergency services were
slow in responding. Ambulances took “over an hour to arrive” and fire trucks
“nearly an hour, though their station is five minutes away.”
“If the ambulances had come on time, they could have rescued people,” Masry
added. A statement from the public prosecutor’s office indicated that
asphyxiation caused the deaths, as there were “no visible injuries.”The interior
ministry said “forensic evidence revealed that the blaze broke out in an
air-conditioning unit on the second floor of the church building” which also
houses social services. Father Farid Fahmy, of another nearby church, told AFP a
short circuit caused the fire.
“The power was out and they were using a generator,” he said. “When the power
came back, it caused an overload.” In the morning, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi
said on his Facebook page that he had “mobilized all state services” in
response. He later said he had “presented his condolences by phone” to Pope
Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church. He also directed the Armed
Forces Engineering Authority to “take over the reconstruction and renovation” of
the church, the presidency said in a statement. Christian communities often
complain that reconstruction of churches after devastating fires is marked by
long delays and bureaucratic hurdles. Giza’s governor ordered “urgent aid of
50,000 pounds (around $2,600) for the families of the deceased and 10,000 pounds
for the injured.” The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s foremost Muslim
institution, expressed his condolences for “the tragic accident” and affirmed
“the readiness of Al-Azhar hospitals to receive the injured.” A statement from
the office of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered his “deepest
condolences” to the families of the victims. Accidental fires are not uncommon
in the sprawling megalopolis of Cairo, where millions live in informal
settlements.
Baioumy, the neighbor, told AFP that firefighters were hampered by the church’s
location “on a very narrow street.” Egypt, with its often dilapidated and poorly
maintained infrastructure, has suffered several deadly fires in recent years.
The Coptic minority has endured attacks and complained of discrimination in the
north African country, the Arab world’s most populous. Copts have been targeted
in deadly attacks by Islamist militants, particularly after El-Sisi overthrew
former Islamist president Muhammad Mursi in 2013, with churches, schools and
homes burnt down. Copts also complain they have been left out of key state
positions and they have deplored restrictive legislation for the construction
and renovation of churches. El-Sisi, the first Egyptian president to attend the
Coptic Christmas mass every year, in February appointed the first ever Coptic
judge to head the Supreme Constitutional Court, the country’s highest.
Israeli Strikes Hit Iranian Targets Near Russia’s
Mediterranean Bases
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Israel hit Iranian targets in a series of strikes on Sunday near the ancestral
home region of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and close to Russia's main
Syrian bases on the Mediterranean coast, regional intelligence and Syrian
military sources said. The Syrian army earlier said three servicemen were killed
and three were wounded in two simultaneous Israeli attacks south of the province
of Tartous, and another on the capital of Damascus. It gave no details of the
specific locations.
The strikes on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus hit outposts run by
Lebanon's pro-Iranian Hezbollah group, two Syrian military defectors familiar
with the region said. A Syrian army officer in the Tartus coastal region told
Reuters on condition of anonymity an Iranian base near the village of Abu Afsa,
south of the port city was targeted alongside an air defense and radar station
nearby. Israel has staged hundreds of strikes against alleged Iranian targets in
recent years, but has mostly avoided hitting the coastal provinces where
Russia's main military assets are concentrated. The latest strikes are part of
an escalation of what has been a low-intensity conflict whose goal was to slow
down Iran's growing entrenchment in Syria, Israeli and regional military experts
say. The strikes were close to the Russian navy's only Mediterranean base in the
port of Tartous where Russian warships are docked, while Moscow's major Hmeimim
air base is also in nearby Latakia province. Russia's intervention alongside
Iran helped turn the tide in favor of Assad in an over decade old conflict. The
coastal areas are inhabited mainly by Assad's minority Alawite sect that
dominates the higher echelons of power in the security force and army. Russian
forces in Syria regularly turn a blind eye to Israeli air strikes against
suspected Iranian-sponsored deployments and arms transfers. But tensions have
mounted between Israel and Russia over the former's condemnation of the Ukraine
war and the latter's scrutiny of a Jewish emigration agency. Israel last month
said its military jets came under Russian anti-aircraft fire over Syria in May
but they missed their target, describing the confrontation as a "one-off
incident Syria blamed Israel for major strikes on its main international airport
in Damascus last June that heavily damaged runways and forced a halt for several
weeks to flights. Israeli defense officials say the civilian airport has been
used regularly by Iran to transport weapons and militias.
Israel Says It Blocked 'Attack Tunnel' from Gaza Strip
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Israel's military said on Monday it blocked a tunnel dug by the Gaza's ruling
group Hamas that was meant as a passageway for militants from the enclave into
Israel. Palestinian gunmen used tunnels to blindside Israeli forces during a
2014 Gaza war. Israel has since been developing detection technologies and
constructed an underground concrete barrier with sensors to foil attempts to dig
across the border. The military has exposed several tunnels in recent years. The
latest tunnel had been "neutralized" a year ago but was being restored with two
routes that led toward Israel, though they did not pass the underground barrier,
a military statement said. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the group had "the
right to use all means to reinforce and develop its capabilities" and that the
Israeli announcement presented "false achievements" to the public. The
announcement came about a week after a flare-up in cross-border violence, during
which Israeli forces bombarded Palestinian targets and Islamic Jihad militants
fired hundreds of rockets towards Israel. Israel focused its three-day operation
on Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed militant group, while avoiding a direct
confrontation with the larger and more powerful Hamas that has governed coastal
Gaza since 2007. "We were aware of this tunnel but we waited for this
(operation) to be over before we acted," an Israeli military spokesman told
Reuters. He said it was a "non-kinetic operation," meaning Israel flooded the
tunnel, which ran deep underground. It was a "pretty advanced tunnel" which
would have been intended to move gunmen or fighters into Israel to attack
Israelis, the spokesman said.
US: Drone Attack Targets US Base in Syria, No Casualties
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
An attack with drones hit a compound run by American troops and US-backed Syrian
opposition fighters in eastern Syria on Monday, the US military said, adding
that there were no casualties or damage. The military said the attack took place
in the vicinity of al-Tanf base near where the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq
meet. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. US and coalition
troops are based at al-Tanf to train Syrian forces on patrols to counter
militants from the ISIS group. The base is also located on a road serving as a
vital link for Iranian-backed forces, stretching from Tehran all the way to
Lebanon. The military statement said coalition troops in coordination with
opposition fighters — known as Maghaweir al-Thowra — “responded to an attack by
multiple unmanned aerial systems in the vicinity of al-Tanf Garrison" on Monday
morning. It said the troops successfully engaged one of the drones preventing
its impact while a second one detonated within the opposition forces' compound,
“resulting in zero casualties or reported damage.” The other attempted drone
strikes were not successful, it added. Maj. Gen. John Brennan, the commander of
Combined Joint Task Force, condemned the drone strike. “Such attacks put the
lives of innocent Syrian civilians at risk and undermine the significant efforts
by our Partner Forces to maintain the lasting defeat of ISIS,” he said. The
attack occurred hours after Israeli airstrikes on western and central Syria
killed three soldiers, wounded three others and caused material damage. A Syrian
opposition war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,
said the Israeli strikes hit Syrian army positions where Iran-backed fighters
are based. Drone attacks on al-Tanf have been rare. In October last year, US
officials said they believe Iran was behind a drone attack that month in al-Tanf
saying at the time that they believe that the attacks involved as many as five
drones laden with explosive charges. It said the drones hit both the US side of
al-Tanf garrison and the side where Syrian opposition forces stay. The October
attacks came days after an Israeli airstrike on central Syria.
Israeli Police Kill Palestinian in East Jerusalem Raid
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man who attempted to stab officers
during a raid in east Jerusalem on Monday, police said. The officers were
conducting a search for illegal weapons in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of
Kafr Aqab, the police said. When officers approached the home, the man, armed
with a knife, tried to stab them. They fired on the suspect and he was later
pronounced dead, police said. Palestinian media identified the man as Mohammed
al-Shaham, The Associated Press said. The incident came a day after a
Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus outside Jerusalem’s Old City, wounding
eight, among them US citizens. The US State Department condemned the Jerusalem
attack late on Sunday, and said at least five of the victims were American
citizens. “We remain in close contact with our Israeli partners and stand firmly
with them in the face of this attack,” said State Department spokesman Ned
Price. The Jerusalem violence followed a tense week between Israel and
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that was
reached last week ended three days of fighting between Israel and Palestinians
in Gaza that saw at least 49 Palestinians, including 17 children and 14
fighters, killed. A day after the cease-fire halted the worst round of Gaza
fighting in more than a year, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian fighters
and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the city
of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
Israel Axes Abraham Accords Conference after Concerned
Arab Countries Decline Invite
Tel Aviv - Nazir Magally/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Israel canceled a conference to mark the two-year anniversary of its signing of
the Abraham Accords to normalize ties with four Arab countries after their
diplomats voiced concerns it could be exploited for political gains as Tel Aviv
prepares to hold elections. Israel’s Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Freige,
whose ministry co-initiated the event with the United Arab Emirates, said he
respects the decision. He added that the government will cancel the conference
since it is pointless to be held for Israelis alone. “It is with great sadness
that we are forced to postpone the conference marking the two-year anniversary
of the Abraham Accords due to election exigencies, and in order to not drag our
partners into the campaign,” Freige said, adding that the ministry is now
working to hold an alternative summit after the elections. The government began
promoting the event, which was scheduled to be held on September 12, before the
Knesset was dissolved. It contacted the relevant countries, namely the UAE,
Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, with plans for the conference to be held at the
level of foreign ministers. Asharq Al-Awsat learned that the conference agenda
would have tackled a number of civilian domains that could have helped expand
and develop the Accords. They included the possibility of opening a land
commercial route through Israel (or from it) to the Gulf states by expanding and
developing the infrastructure at the border crossings, such as the Sheikh
Hussein Bridge on the Jordan River Crossing, and the main roads and converting
them to international roads. In addition, participants were going to discuss
advancing the implementation of regional projects to resolve structural problems
in the Gaza Strip, in partnership with Egypt, Israel and the Gulf states, as
well as the energy food and water crisis caused by the war on Ukraine.
Opening of a Moroccan embassy in Israel in the presence of Moroccan Foreign
Minister Nasser Bourita and expanding the agreements to include other Arab and
Islamic countries were also on the agenda. Freige said there were plans to
deepen and expand initiatives in education and culture to support peace,
confront extremism, and promote the values of tolerance, freedom of worship, and
coexistence in the fields of art, sports, cinema and others. “This is the basis
of peace among peoples, not only between states and governments,” he stressed,
noting that it is more important to develop personal relations between peoples
since governments change but peoples remain. The Accords were announced on
August 13, 2020 under the term of then-US President Donald Trump, who said they
were the product of lengthy discussions between Israel, the UAE and the United
States.
Iran Will Respond to EU’s Nuclear Text by Midnight on
Monday, Says Foreign Minister
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Iran will respond to the European Union's "final" text by midnight on Monday,
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said, calling on the United
States to show flexibility to resolve three remaining issues to save a 2015
nuclear pact. "We do not want to reach a deal that after 40 days, two months or
three months fails to be materialized on the ground .... we have told them that
our red lines should be respected," he said. "Specifically, there are three
issues .... If these three issues are resolved, we can reach an agreement. But
failure to revive the pact, would not be end of the world." Amirabdollahian said
the coming days were very important. "We will need more talks if Washington does
not show flexibility for resolving the remaining issues ... Like Washington, we
have our own plan B if the talks fail," he said. The EU, as coordinator of
Iran's nuclear talks with world powers, said last week it had put forward a
"final" text following four days of indirect talks between US and Iranian
officials in Vienna. Washington has said it is ready to quickly reach an
agreement to restore the deal on the basis of the EU proposals. Iranian
officials said last week that they would convey their "additional views and
considerations" to the EU.
Iranian Hardliners Demand Vice President’s Dismissal
London - Tehran- Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Iran’s ultraconservatives are seeking to bring down Vice President Mohammad
Mokhber, given their constant feeling of vulnerability and threat due to the
government's economic failures. The economic failure of President Ebrahim
Raisi’s government has become clear to most Iranians, including the
ultraconservatives or hardliners who fully backed him a year ago when he took
office. Mokhber is Raisi’s economic czar who can be easily blamed for a 54%
inflation rate and exacerbating poverty along with their political implications.
The reformist daily Arman Meli published a report on Saturday noting that a
demand to dismiss Mokhber is a message finally addressed by the conservative
camp to Raisi. According to the daily, this group of Iranian conservatives are
determined to prove that Raisi’s administration is inefficient. The paper wrote
that some Iranian conservatives wanted a hardliner politician as vice President
last year, but Raisi chose to work with Mokhber, who was a key official in the
business conglomerates operating under the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. One
year after his appointment as vice president, it is still not quite clear
whether it was Raisi who asked Mokhber to join his cabinet or Khamenei, who was
aware that Raisi did not have any executive experience and wanted Mokhber to
make up for the president’s shortcomings. The report mentioned that some
hardliners, such as Javad Karimi Qoddousi, said he wished to tell Raisi that
Mokhber lacks the capabilities required to assume this post and that remaining
in this position will incur the government more losses. They also mentioned the
discord between Mokhber and the other members of Raisi’s economic team,
particularly Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaei, as another
reason for his dismissal. Iran International news website said a big gaffe by
Mokber last week led to a lot of public ridicule. A lookalike of American actor
Johnny Depp showed up at a religious mourning ceremony, so Mokhber tweeted
praising Depp for taking part in a Shiite religious event. When social media
users and politicians reminded him that the person was only a lookalike of the
US actor, Mokhber's office claimed that his tweet was somehow fabricated. All
these could be more meaningful with a report by the reformist Shargh newspaper
that went viral on Saturday. The report by its Editor-in-Chief Ahmad Gholami
said that “Raisi’s administration is a continuation of the government of
populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and that it will inevitably sink in the
same quagmire that Ahmadinejad's administration faced.” Gholami argued that both
Ahmadinejad and Raisi started their terms of office by promising they would
change everything, but Ahmadinejad gradually failed as economic conditions
worsened in the early 2010s with UN sanctions. He expected Raisi’s
administration to suffer the same fate. However, to be fair and on the safe
side, Gholami observed that Raisi is shouldering a heavier burden of all sorts
of economic problems that have accumulated during his predecessors’ ruling
periods, noting that it is highly unlikely that he could find a way out as all
roads ahead inevitably lead to the same quagmire. According to Iran
International, the economic crisis did not start with Raisi. Iran’s situation
quickly deteriorated when the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal in
2018 and imposed crippling sanctions on the regime. The website stressed that
the same thing happened when the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iran for
pursuing a dangerous nuclear program. However, Raisi’s government is being
blamed for a high degree of inefficiency, lack of planning and highly
questionable appointments.
Iran Denies Involvement but Justifies Salman Rushdie Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
An Iranian government official denied on Monday that Tehran was involved in the
assault on author Salman Rushdie, though he justified the stabbing in remarks
that represented Tehran's first public comments on the attack. The comments by
Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, came more than two
days after the attack on Rushdie in New York. The writer has now been taken off
a ventilator and is “on the road to recovery,” according to his agent. However,
Iran has denied carrying out other operations abroad targeting dissidents in the
years since the country's 1979 revolution, despite prosecutors and Western
governments attributing such attacks back to Tehran. And while Iran hasn't
focused on the writer in recent years, a decades-old fatwa demanding his killing
still stands. “Regarding the attack against Salman Rushdie in America, we don’t
consider anyone deserving reproach, blame or even condemnation, except for
(Rushdie) himself and his supporters,” Kanaani said. “In this regard, no one can
blame Iran,” he added. “We believe that the insults made and the support he
received was an insult against followers of all religions.” Rushdie, 75, was
stabbed Friday while attending an event in western New York. He suffered a
damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, his agent Andrew Wylie
said. Rushdie was likely to lose the injured eye. His assailant, 24-year-old
Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the attack through
his lawyer. Rushdie has for more than 30 years faced death threats for “The
Satanic Verses.” Iran's late Supreme Leader Khomeini had issued a fatwa, or
Islamic edict, demanding his death. A semiofficial Iranian foundation had put up
a bounty of over $3 million for the author, though it has yet to offer any
comment on the attack. Police in New York have offered no motive yet for the
attack, though District Attorney Jason Schmidt alluded to the bounty on Rushdie
in arguing against bail during a hearing Saturday. “Even if this court were to
set a million dollars bail, we stand a risk that bail could be met,” Schmidt
said. Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun
in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, according to the village's mayor.
Flags of the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah, along with
portraits of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, hang across the village. Israel also
has bombarded Hezbollah positions near there in the past.
In his remarks Monday, Kanaani added that Iran did not “have any other
information more than what the American media has reported.” He also implied
that Rushdie brought the attack on himself. “Salman Rushdie exposed himself to
popular anger and fury through insulting the sacredness of Islam and crossing
the red lines of over 1.5 billion Muslims and also red lines of followers of all
divine religions,” Kanaani said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while not directly blaming Tehran for the
attack on Rushdie, made a point to mention Iran in a statement early Monday
praising the writer's efforts in supporting freedom of expression and religion.
“Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for
generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on
his life,” Blinken said. “This is despicable.” Khomeini, in poor health in the
last year of his life after the grinding, stalemated 1980s Iran-Iraq war had
decimated the country’s economy, issued the fatwa on Rushdie in 1989. The edict
came amid a violent uproar in the Muslim world over the novel, which some viewed
as blasphemous. While fatwas can be revised or revoked, Iran’s current Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei — who took over after Khomeini — has never done so. As
recently as February 2017, Khamenei said: “The decree is as Imam Khomeini
issued.”Since 1979, Iran has targeted dissidents abroad in attacks. Tensions
with the West — particularly the United States — have spiked since
then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled America out of Iran's nuclear
deal with world powers in 2018. A Trump-ordered drone strike killed a top
Iranian Revolutionary Guard general in 2020, further fueling those tensions.
Last week, the US charged a Guard member in absentia for allegedly plotting to
kill one-time Trump adviser and Iran hawk John Bolton. Former US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo and an aide are under 24-hour security over alleged threats
from Iran. Meanwhile, US prosecutors say Iran tried to kidnap in 2021 an Iranian
opposition activist and writer living in New York. In recent days, a man with an
assault rifle was arrested near her home. Other denials from the Foreign
Ministry have included Tehran's transfer of weapons to Yemen's Houthi militias
amid that country's long war. Independent experts, Western nations and UN
experts have traced weapon components back to Iran.
Iran Puts on Trial Reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Iran has put on trial the reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh, who was
previously jailed and arrested again last month accused of undermining state
security, local media reported. The 65-year-old -- who last year made an
unsuccessful bid for the presidency as a reformist and "political prisoner for
seven years" -- went on trial in Tehran on Saturday, said the judicial
authority's news agency Mizan Online. "Mostafa Tajzadeh's hearing was held at
Branch 15 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court" before judge Abolghassem Salavati, it
said. Tajzadeh had served as deputy interior minister during the 1997-2005
tenure of reformist former president Mohammad Khatami. He was arrested in 2009
during protests disputing the re-election of then president Mahmud Ahmadinejad,
which was contested by an opposition backing unsuccessful reformist candidates
Mehdi Karoubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi. Tajzadeh was convicted the following year
of harming national security and propaganda against the state, and released in
2016 after serving his sentence. Since his release, Tajzadeh has often called on
authorities to free Mousavi and Karoubi, who have been under house arrest for
more than a decade over the protests. He submitted his candidacy in May 2021,
having long campaigned for democratic and "structural changes" in Iran. He was
again arrested on July 8 this year at his home and also faces accusations of
"publishing lies to disturb public opinion", the Mehr news agency has reported.
According to Mizan, Tajzadeh in court faced "three counts, including conspiracy
against national security". The defendant declined to speak in court, the report
added. His lawyer, Houshang Pourbabai, was quoted as telling the reformist
newspaper Etemad that "three days ago, I went to Evin prison to meet my client
with the permission of the court". "My client refused to meet me because he
could not talk to me face to face," he said, adding that Tajzadeh had also
announced that he "would not appear in court". Etemad quoted Tajzadeh's wife as
saying the activist "was forced to appear in court against his will". Mizan said
that, "given Tajzadeh's refusal to answer questions, the judge announced that he
would give his verdict within the legal time limit".
Russian Shells Slam into Eastern Ukraine; 3 Dead, 20
Hurt
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
At least three Ukrainian civilians have been killed and 20 others wounded in the
latest artillery barrages from the Russian military, Ukrainian officials said
Monday. The eastern region of Donetsk, one of the two provinces making up the
country’s industrial heartland of Donbas that has been the focus of a Russian
offensive, has faced the most intense shelling. Regional officials said at least
three people died and another 13 were wounded by Russian shelling that hit
numerous towns and villages in the Donetsk region during the last 24 hours. The
barrage has damaged dozens of residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
In the country’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, seven civilians were wounded in
the latest Russian shelling that hit residential buildings and an area near a
bus stop early Monday. Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Synyehubov said the wounded included an
80-year-old woman. The Russian forces also struck several other regions of
Ukraine with rockets and artillery. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen.
Igor Konashenkov said Monday that Russian warplanes have struck Ukrainian army
positions in the southern Kherson region and in the Donetsk region. He added
that the Russian air force also hit a facility in the Kharkiv region, killing at
least 100 and wounding 50 “mercenaries” from Poland and Germany. His claims
couldn't be independently verified. Speaking at the opening of an arms show
outside Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the military's actions
in Ukraine, declaring that it “fights for Russia ... and fulfilling all the
tasks that were set, liberating the Donbas step by step.” He also vowed to
expand arms sales to Russian allies, whom he praised for continuing to offer
firm support to Moscow in the face of Western pressure. For their part, the
Ukrainian military claimed to have destroyed more than 10 Russian warehouses
with ammunition and military equipment in the past week.
Putin Vows to Expand Arms Trade with Russia’s Allies
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday vowed to expand military cooperation
with the country’s allies, noting that Moscow is ready to offer them its most
advanced weapons. Speaking at the opening of an annual arms show outside Moscow
that caters to foreign customers, Putin said that Russia’s arms exports play an
important role in the development of a “multipolar word,” the term used by the
Kremlin to describe its efforts to offset what it perceives as US global
domination. Putin hailed the Russian military’s action in Ukraine, which has
triggered massive Western sanctions, and thanked Moscow’s allies for their
support. “We highly appreciate that we have many allies, partners and people who
share our thinking on various continents,” he said. Putin, whose invasion of
Ukraine has been widely condemned as a breach of international law, said leaders
of Moscow's allies “choose a sovereign, independent course of development and
want to collectively solve the issues of global and regional security on the
basis of international law, shared responsibility and mutual interests, thus
contributing to upholding multipolar world.” Putin didn’t name any country in
particular, but noted that “Russia sincerely values its historically strong,
friendly and trusting relations with countries of Latin America, Asia and
Africa.”“We are ready to offer our allies and partners the most advanced types
of weapons: from firearms, armor and artillery to warplanes and drones,” the
Russian leader said.
Russian Gas Flows to Europe Stable
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Russian gas flows to Europe via some major pipeline routes were steady on Monday
morning, operator data showed. Physical flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline
from Russia to Germany were at 14,554,412 kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h) at
0800-0900 CET, similar to the previous 24 hours, The Associated Press said.
Russia cut flows on the pipeline to only 20% of capacity on July 27, citing
maintenance work. Eastbound gas flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Poland
from Germany were also stable, data from operator Gascade showed. Exit flows at
the Mallnow metering point on the German border were 2,520,133 kWh/h, little
changed from midnight. Nominations for Russian gas flows into Slovakia from
Ukraine via the Velke Kapusany border point were around 36.4 million cubic
meters (mcm) per day, little changed from the previous day, data from the
Ukrainian system operator showed.
Russia's Gazprom said it would ship 41.9 mcm of gas to Europe through Ukraine
via the Sudzha entry point on Monday, down from 40.9 mcm on Sunday.
US Congress Members Meet Taiwan Leader amid China Anger
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen met Monday with a delegation of US Congress
members in a further sign of support among American lawmakers for the
self-governing island that China claims as its own territory. Taiwanese media
showed the delegation arriving for the talks, but details of the meeting were
not immediately released. It comes less than two weeks after US House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which prompted days of threatening military
exercises by China, including the firing of missiles over the island and into
the Taiwan Strait.
China has also sent warplanes and navy ships across the waterway's median, which
has long been a buffer between the sides that separated amid civil war in 1949.
China regards formal contacts between US politicians and the island's government
as support for its independence from Beijing. China says it wants to use
peaceful means to bring Taiwan under its control, but its recent saber rattling
has emphasized its military threat. The five-member delegation is led by
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and is to meet with other government
and private sector representatives. Reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and
investments in Taiwan's crucial semiconductor industry are expected to be key
topics of discussion. The other members of the delegation are Republican Rep.
Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a delegate from American Samoa, and Democrats
John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal from California and Don Beyer from Virginia. A
senior White House official on Asia policy said last week that China had used
Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to launch an intensified pressure campaign against
Taiwan, jeopardizing peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the
broader region. “China has overreacted, and its actions continue to be
provocative, destabilizing, and unprecedented,” Kurt Campbell, a deputy
assistant to President Joe Biden, said on a call with reporters. “It has sought
to disregard the centerline between the PRC and Taiwan, which has been respected
by both sides for more than 60 years as a stabilizing feature,” he said, using
the acronym for the country’s full name, the People’s Republic of China. China
accuses the US of encouraging independence forces in Taiwan through its sale of
military equipment to the island and engaging with its officials. The US says it
does not support independence for Taiwan but that its differences with China
should be resolved by peaceful means. China’s ruling Communist Party has long
said that it favors Taiwan joining China peacefully but that it will not rule
out force if necessary. The two split in 1949 during a civil war in which the
Communists took control of China and the losing Nationalists retreated to the
island of Taiwan. Campbell, speaking on Friday, said the US would send warships
and planes through the Taiwan Strait in the next few weeks and is developing a
roadmap for trade talks with Taiwan that he said the US intends to announce in
the coming days.
A Year Since Takeover, EU Slams Taliban’s Women, Girls’
Rights Violations
Brussels - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
A spokesperson for the European Union slammed Sunday violations by Taliban
against the rights of Afghan women and girls. "The Taliban have failed to
establish an inclusive political system, thereby denying the aspirations of the
Afghan people," stated Nabila Massrali, spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy. Monday marks the first anniversary of the movement’s return to
power in Afghanistan, following a turbulent year that saw women's rights crushed
and a humanitarian crisis worsen. No country has recognized Taliban’s rule in
Afghanistan. Women participated in protests to denounce restrictions on their
rights to education, work and freedom of movement. On Saturday, Taliban fighters
beat women protesters and fired into the air as they violently dispersed a rare
rally in the Afghan capital. About 40 women -- chanting "bread, work and
freedom" -- marched in front of the education ministry building in Kabul, before
the fighters dispersed them by firing their guns into the air. The EU further
denounced the institutionalized and systemic abuse of the population’s economic,
social, cultural, civil and political rights, "including ethnic and religious
groups and in particular Hazaras and the Shiite population." It reiterated its
commitment to the Afghan people and to stability, prosperity and sustainable
peace in Afghanistan and the region. The EU called on the "de facto"
authorities, for the sake of the Afghan people, to repeal legislation and
discontinue policies violating Afghanistan’s human rights obligations.
Afghanistan must not remain a safe haven for terrorists, nor a threat to
international security, the statement stressed. Exactly a year ago, the hardline
Taliban captured Kabul after their nationwide lightning offensive against
government forces ended 20 years of US-led military intervention. The heaving
wards of a ramshackle clinic in southern Afghanistan are just one sign of the
catastrophic humanitarian crisis that has gripped the war-ravaged country since
the Taliban returned to power a year ago. Last month, the Musa Qala District
Hospital in Helmand province was forced to shut its doors to all except those
suffering from suspected cholera. The infirmary was soon jammed with listless
patients, intravenous drips needled into their wrists as they recuperated on
rusting gurneys. Though the clinic lacks facilities to test for cholera, about
550 patients presented themselves within days, showing symptoms of a disease
caused by a lack of basic sanitation needs: clean drinking water and an adequate
sewerage system. "It's very difficult," hospital chief Ehsanullah Rodi, run
ragged on just five hours of sleep a night since the influx began, told AFP. "We
haven't seen this last year, or another year."
Poverty in the country -- felt most keenly in Afghanistan's south -- has been
driven to desperate new levels, exacerbated by drought and inflation since
Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "Since the Emirate (Taliban) came into power, we
can't even find cooking oil," said one woman, perched on a hospital cot next to
her malnourished six-month-old grandson in Lashkar Gah, Helmand's provincial
capital.
Taliban Mark Turbulent First Year in Power
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
The Taliban marked the first anniversary of their return to power in Afghanistan
with a national holiday Monday, following a turbulent year that saw women's
rights crushed and a humanitarian crisis worsen. Exactly a year ago, the
hardline Taliban captured Kabul after their nationwide lightning offensive
against government forces ended 20 years of US-led military intervention. "We
fulfilled the obligation of jihad and liberated our country," said Niamatullah
Hekmat, a fighter who entered Kabul on August 15 last year just hours after
then-president Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
A chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces continued until August 31, with tens of
thousands of people rushing to Kabul's airport hoping to be evacuated on any
flight out of Afghanistan. Images of crowds storming the airport, climbing atop
aircraft -- and some clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it
rolled down the runway -- aired on news bulletins around the world. Authorities
have so far not announced any official celebrations to mark the anniversary, but
state television said it would air special programs. Taliban fighters, however,
expressed happiness that their movement was now in power -- even as aid agencies
say that half the country's 38 million people face extreme poverty. "The time
when we entered Kabul, and when the Americans left, those were moments of joy,"
said Hekmat, now a member of the special forces guarding the presidential
palace.
'Life has lost its meaning'
But for ordinary Afghans -- especially women -- the return of the Taliban has
only increased hardships. Initially, the Taliban promised a softer version of
their own harsh Islamist rule that characterized their first stint in power from
1996 to 2001.
But many restrictions have been imposed on women to comply with the movement's
own austere vision of Islam. Tens of thousands of girls have been shut out of
secondary schools, while women have been barred from returning to many
government jobs. And in May, they were ordered to fully cover up in public,
ideally with an all-encompassing burqa. "From the day they have come, life has
lost its meaning," said Ogai Amail, a resident of Kabul. "Everything has been
snatched from us, they have entered even our personal space," she said. On
Saturday, the Taliban fighters beat women protesters and fired guns into the air
to disperse their rally in Kabul. While Afghans acknowledge a decline in
violence since the Taliban seized power, the humanitarian crisis has left many
helpless. "People coming to our shops are complaining so much of high prices
that we shopkeepers have started hating ourselves," said Noor Mohammad, a
shopkeeper from Kandahar, the de facto power center of the Taliban. For Taliban
fighters, however, the joy of victory overshadows the current economic crisis.
"We might be poor, we might be facing hardships, but the white flag of Islam
will now fly high forever in Afghanistan", said a fighter guarding a public park
in Kabul.
Japan PM Promises to Never Again Wage War, Ministers Visit
Controversial Shrine
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Japan's premier Fumio Kishida vowed to never again wage war on the anniversary
of Japan's World War Two surrender while members of his cabinet visited a
controversial shrine to mark the date, annoying South Korea and likely also
irking China. With the Yasukuni Shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's past
militarism, Tokyo's ties with China are already particularly strained this year
after Beijing conducted unprecedented military exercises around Taiwan following
the visit there by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this
month. During the drills, several missiles fell in waters inside Japan's
Exclusive Economic Zone. The anniversary commemoration's links to Yasukuni, a
site that honors 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an
Allied tribunal, as well as war dead, saw Kishida face a tricky balancing act on
Monday. On the dovish side of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP), his task was to avoid irking international neighbors and partners while
still keeping the more right-wing members of the party happy - particularly
after the killing of former premier Shinzo Abe last month. Kishida sent an
offering to the central Tokyo shrine without visiting, Kyodo news agency
reported. He also sent offerings to Yasukuni during festivals last year and this
spring. "We will never again repeat the horrors of war. I will continue to live
up to this determined oath," Kishida told a secular gathering elsewhere in
Tokyo, also attended by Emperor Naruhito. "In a world where conflicts are still
unabated, Japan is a proactive leader in peace," he said. In South Korea,
official reaction was swift, with officials expressed "deep disappointment" and
regret. "The Korean government is urging Japan's responsible people to face
history and show humble reflection and genuine reflection on the past through
action," a spokesperson for South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a
statement. Beijing made no official comment pending a routine briefing at the
country's foreign affairs ministry later on Monday.
‘Issue for Japanese people’
In downtown Tokyo, people of all ages packed the shrine to pay respects despite
the sultry heat. At noon, they bowed their heads for a moment of silence as
cicadas buzzed. "People from various countries may say things, but this is an
issue of the Japanese people, so Japanese people need to decide themselves,"
said Yukie Takahashi, a 60-year-old office worker. "It's a day to worship, to
look back on the past, reflect on it, and pray." Among those visiting the shrine
were, as usual, a small but vocal group of right-wing activists, some dressed in
military uniforms and bearing flags. In a separate gesture, doves were released
at the shrine as a symbol of peace. Footage on broadcaster NHK showed the shrine
being visited early on Monday by several cabinet ministers, including Economic
Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, along with Koichi Hagiuda, the head of the
LDP's policy research council and a key Abe ally. "It is natural for any country
to pay respect to those who gave their lives for their country," chief cabinet
secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said earlier on Monday. "Japan will continue to
strengthen its relations with its neighbors, including China and South Korea." A
group of lawmakers that normally visit en masse on Aug. 15 said last week they
would not do so due to a recent surge in coronavirus cases. Abe was the last
prime minister in recent memory to visit Yasukuni while in office, in 2013 - a
visit that outraged both China and South Korea and even drew a rebuke from its
close ally the United States. The United States and Japan have become staunch
security allies in the decades since the war's end, but its legacy still haunts
East Asia. Koreans, who mark the date as National Liberation Day, resent Japan's
1910-1945 colonization of the peninsula, while China has bitter memories of
imperial troops' invasion and occupation of parts of the country from
1931-1945.Kishida has pledged to substantially increase Japan's defense budget,
citing the increasingly tense regional security environment, but made no mention
in a recent speech of one of Abe's dreams - revising the country's pacifist
constitution - although he has spoken of it before.
UN Resuming Talks on High-seas Treaty amid Growing Concerns
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
After four inconclusive sessions, UN member states on Monday resume talks aimed
at finally completing a treaty to protect the world's high seas, a vital yet
fragile resource that covers nearly half the planet. A host of NGOs and affected
countries say the pact is urgently needed to improve environmental stewardship
over the vast, yet largely unregulated, area as it faces growing challenges, AFP
said. But the Covid-19 pandemic slowed negotiations for two years, and a session
in March that was supposed to have been conclusive made progress but ran out of
time. The new round of talks opening Monday is set to run through August 26 at
United Nations headquarters in New York. Whether it will really be the last
round remains uncertain, according to those close to the talks. Negotiators are
"cautiously optimistic," said a source with the High Ambition Coalition, which
groups some 50 countries led by the European Union.
The source told AFP that participants need to find a compromise between two
"grand ideas": protecting the environment and regulating human activities on the
one hand, while also guarding freedoms on the high seas. The high seas begin at
the border of nations' exclusive economic zones (EEZs), which by international
law reach no more than 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from each country's
coast, and are under no state's jurisdiction. Even if the high seas represent
more than 60 percent of the oceans -- and nearly half the planet -- they have
long been largely ignored in favor of coastal zones, with protections extended
only to a few vulnerable species. Only one percent of the high seas enjoys legal
protection. Yet, scientists have proved the importance of protecting oceanic
ecosystems in their entirety. They produce half the oxygen humans breathe and
help limit global warming by absorbing much of the carbon dioxide emitted by
human activity. They are seriously at risk, however, from the continuing rise in
levels of carbon dioxide (which intensifies warming and makes ocean waters more
acid), pollution and overfishing.
A global 'compass'
That adds to the urgency of finally completing the global pact on the
"Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond
National Jurisdiction," say NGOs and the High Ambition Coalition. "This treaty
is of major importance," said Julien Rochette, a researcher with the Institute
for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), "because it is
going to provide a framework -- a compass -- for the principles and rules
guiding the entire international community in managing this common space." But
the latest treaty draft still fails to resolve several thorny issues or to
choose among diverse and contending options, such as the conditions for creating
so-called Marine Protected Areas. To James Hanson of Greenpeace, the future
Conference of Parties (or COP, a decision-making body which includes all
signatory states) must have the power to "create these Marine Protected Areas
without having to defer to the existing bodies." Yet questions about cooperation
with regional maritime organizations (such as over fishing rights) must yet be
decided. Also unresolved, Rochette told AFP, is whether the COP could ban
certain activities on the high seas if a mandated environmental-impact study
proves unfavorable, or whether a state could simply go ahead. Another sensitive
issue involves the allocation of potential profits from developing genetic
resources in the high seas, where pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetic
companies hope to find miracle drugs, products or cures.
Such costly research at sea is largely the prerogative of the rich, but
developing countries do not want to be left out of potential windfall profits
drawn from marine resources that belong to no one. It remains unclear whether
there has been substantial movement by key parties since the last round of
talks, said Rochette. He said those pressing hardest for agreement on this issue
include the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and developing countries,
while the strongest opposition comes from Russia and from countries concerned
about fishing rights, including Iceland and Japan.
Yemen Stresses Role of Consultations and Reconciliation
Commission in Backing Presidential Council
Aden - Waddah al-Jalil/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi stressed the
importance of the Consultations and Reconciliation Commission in supporting the
council. Official sources said al-Alimi and PLC member Aidarous al-Zubaidi met
with head of the commission, Mohammed al-Ghaithi and his deputies Abdul Malik
al-Mikhlafi, Sakhr al-Wajeeh, Jameela Ali Raja and Akram al-Aamiri in Aden on
Sunday. Talks focused on activating the role of the commission in supporting the
PLC and efforts to consolidate the current national consensus, unity of ranks
and desired partnership on all levels, reported the state news agency Saba. They
covered the developments in Yemen and the needed efforts to garner all forces
and national components to achieve the goal of restoring the state, peace and
stability. The sources said the head of the commission stressed his support for
the decisions taken by the council, the reforms tied to the transitional process
and commitment to national, regional and international agreements. The 50-member
commission was formed as part of the PLC and it represents all segments of
Yemeni society. Prior to meeting with the commission, al-Alimi had met with the
parliament speaker, lawmakers and the heads of various parliamentary committees
to brief them on the PLC’s work since its formation in April. Al-Alimi stressed
the council’s determination to fulfill all the demands of the transitional
period and confront all challenges and obstacles, stressing the priority to
bolster security and stability in Aden and liberated provinces. He underscored
the commitment to reforming services and institutional sectors. He hailed the
role played by the Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates, rejecting any offense to it. The coalition should be praised and
respected for the sacrifices it has made for Yemen, he stated. The meeting
between al-Alimi and the parliament also tackled efforts to hold legislative
sessions in the interim capital Aden. The parliament had last convened in Aden
in April to swear in the PLC. Prior to that, the legislature had last met in
Saiyoun city in Hadhramaut three years ago. Efforts are underway for parliament
to convene in Aden as part of the measures to activate the role of
constitutional institutions so that they can support the PLC and government in
confronting the Iran-backed Houthi militias. Al-Alimi revealed that al-Zubaidi
has been appointed as head of the higher financial resources committee that
oversees all revenues generated at state ports and land, air and border
crossings and from oil and other resources. Moreover, he criticized internal
disputes between the military and security and national forces, saying they
should overcome their differences and aim their weapons at the common enemy, the
Houthis.
Sudan Raises State of Alert to Face Torrents, Heavy Rain
Khartoum - Mohammed Amin Yassin/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 August, 2022
Head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah
al-Burhan pledged Sunday to provide support for all those affected by the floods
and heavy rains. He made the remarks in a speech on Sunday in the northern city
of Shendi, on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of the establishment of the
Sudanese armed forces. “A total of 52 people have been killed and 25 others
wounded due to torrential rains and floods since the beginning of the fall
season,” SUNA reported on Saturday, quoting Abdel Jalil Abdelreheem, spokesman
for Sudan’s National Council for Civil Defense. The country recorded eight new
death cases in Kassala State, east of the country, as a result of the seasonal
flooding of the Gash River, which originates from the Ethiopian plateau. Last
week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
estimated that around 38,000 people across East African country had been
affected by rains and floods since the start of the rainy season in May,
according to reports received by the government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC).
Reports indicated that about 9,000 houses were completely or partially destroyed
in nine states, in addition to 140 health facilities and water sources. Official
statistics by the Civil Defense Forces stated that about 6,000 houses were
destroyed, in addition to the significant damage to health and educational
facilities. The areas hardest hit include the River Nile, Kordofan, South Darfur
and large areas of the Gezira State. Rapporteur of the Supreme Council of Beja
Opticals in eastern Sudan, Abdullah Obchard, said the flooding of Gash River
isolated more than 20 areas in the east for more than a month. He told Asharq
Al-Awsat that residents of these areas are facing difficult humanitarian
conditions after the humanitarian organizations' failure to access their areas.
“We monitored the death of four people who drowned, while deaths and injuries
are being confirmed due to people’s houses collapsing,” Obchard said, noting the
death of large numbers of livestock. The Council appealed to the government in
Khartoum and to the UN organizations and agencies to provide urgent assistance
to save those affected by the river’s flooding. It issued a statement calling
for urgent intervention to relieve the afflicted and provide the necessary aid.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on August 15-16/2022
Audio Link From FDD/Connecting the
Dots from Tehran to Gaza
August 15/2022
https://www.fdd.org/podcasts/2022/08/12/connecting-the-dots-from-tehran-to-gaza/
Clifford D. May
Founder & President
Mark Dubowitz
Chief Executive
Jonathan Schanzer
Senior Vice President for Research
About
Israel’s latest armed conflict was with a group that calls itself Islamic Jihad,
or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ.
It’s supported, armed, and trained by the rulers of the Islamic Republic of
Iran.
To learn more about this American-designated terrorist organization, how badly
it was set back by the missiles of August, and what Iran’s rulers might do to
build it back better, host Cliff May is joined by FDD Chief Executive Mark
Dubowitz, who was in Israel during the three-day battle, and by FDD Senior Vice
President for Research Jonathan Schanzer. Jon, who is also the author of Gaza
Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel, and Eleven Days of War, closely monitors reporting
on the conflict in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.
جوناثان شانزر/ذا هيل /الهجوم الإرهابي الذي تعرض له سلمان رشدي يفضح مرى أخرى
حقيقة وطبيعة النظام الإيراني الملالوي
Rushdie attack reveals — again — true nature of Iranian regime
Jonathan Schanzer/The Hill/August 15/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/111269/jonathan-schanzer-the-hill-rushdie-attack-reveals-again-true-nature-of-iranian-regime%d8%ac%d9%88%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%ab%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%b4%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%b2%d8%b1-%d8%b0%d8%a7-%d9%87/
On Feb. 14, 1989, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, condemning author Salman Rushdie to
death for blasphemy. Rushdie had recently penned the book “The Satanic Verses,”
which depicted Rushdie’s interpretation of the life of the prophet Mohammed,
including an episode in which the prophet was unable to distinguish between
revelation and the influence of Satan.
More than three decades later, on Aug. 12, 2022, Rushdie was stabbed in the neck
by New Jersey resident Hadi Matar, who reportedly was “sympathetic to Shia
extremism.” The attack came amidst a flurry of other thwarted plots by the
Islamic Republic against former U.S. officials and Iranian dissidents. While
some may have seen it as ancient history, the Khomeini fatwa clearly still
reverberates today.
In 1989, Khomeini sentenced Rushdie to death. On Tehran radio, the Supreme
leader stated: “I would like to inform all intrepid Muslims in the world that
the author of the book Satanic Verses, which has been compiled, printed, and
published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur’an, and those
publishers who were aware of its contents, are sentenced to death. I call on all
zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, where they find them.”
In essence, Khomeini pitted Islam against the West. The following day was a
national day of mourning in Iran. Crowds poured into the streets, stoned the
British Embassy, and chanted “Death to Britain” repeatedly. A $2.8 million
bounty was put on Rushdie’s head.
Three days later, American booksellers B. Dalton, Waldenbooks and Barnes & Noble
decided not to stock Rushdie’s book, while the book’s publisher, Viking/Penguin,
closed its offices amidst bomb threats to install a new security system.
On the fourth day, Rushdie made the following statement: “As author of The
Satanic Verses, I recognize that Muslims in many parts of the world are
genuinely distressed by the publication of my novel. I profoundly regret the
distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam. Living
as we do in a world of many faiths, this experience has served to remind us that
we must all be conscious of the sensibilities of others.”
Ignoring the apology, Khomeini repeated his death edict the next day. On Feb.
20, the International Rushdie Defense Committee was founded in London by
writers, booksellers, journalists and human rights groups who decried Iranian
“armed censorship.” The day after that, the European Community withdrew their
heads of mission from Tehran. Iran responded in kind. The Iranian parliament
soon voted to sever all relations with the UK, where law had recently been
passed condemning Khomeini for incitement, and another calling for Rushdie’s
safety.
Elsewhere around the world, hell broke loose. Violent demonstrations, bomb
threats, and clashes were reported in India, Germany, Thailand, Pakistan,
Turkey, Australia, France, and beyond. Here in the United States, firebombs
caused damage in two California bookstores. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution
condemning the threats against Rushdie and his publishers, affirming its
commitment to “protect the right of any person to write, publish, sell, buy and
read books without fear of intimidation or violence.”
Violence continued through the spring of 1989. Muslims in Belgium were gunned
down after speaking out against the fatwa on television. London bookstores were
firebombed for carrying The Satanic Verses, amidst a spate of other clashes and
demonstrations. Norwegian bookstores were set afire after releasing a
translation of Rushdie’s book. A bookshop in Sydney was also firebombed.
That August, an adherent to Khomeini’s ideology accidentally blew himself up in
his London hotel room. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon deemed him “the
first martyr… who died while preparing to attack the apostate, Salman Rushdie.”
While Khomeini died on June 3 that year, his fatwa forced Rushdie into hiding
for many years to follow. In fact, the continuity of enforcement of Khomeini’s
edict cast a bright light on the Islamic Republic’s violent and intolerant
ideology. It was one thing for this repressive regime to clamp down on the free
speech of its own citizens. It was quite another to try and curtail the free
expression of intellectuals beyond its borders.
The Iranian regime’s radical ideology has not changed in the intervening years.
If anything, it has hardened.
Intermittent attempts by Western governments to probe for signs of moderation
have failed. This is the case even today. The attack on Rushdie comes amidst
desperate diplomatic efforts in Vienna to encourage the regime to curb its
dangerous nuclear ambitions. The regime has responded not only with this attack,
but also several other plots targeting former U.S. government officials, such as
former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo, and Iranian dissidents, such as journalist Masih Alinejad.
Doctors say that Rushdie will likely lose an eye. The nerves in his arm were
severed. And his liver was damaged. Authorities are now working to determine
whether the Islamic Republic ordered this attack, or whether it was merely
inspired by the Khomeini edict.
Still the right decision to leave Afghanistan — yet still no accountability
Inflation Reduction Act: Deploy, deploy, deploy!
In truth, this is a distinction without much difference. The illiberal and
repressive regime in Iran unleashed chaos back in 1989. It continues to do so
today. Whether ordered directly or inspired, these attacks on American soil must
be met with resolve by our elected leaders.
This is not the time to yield billions of dollars in sanctions relief to the
regime. This is the time for policies that isolate the Islamic Republic, along
with warnings that violence against former officials, intellectuals and
dissidents will not stand.
*Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of
the Treasury, is senior vice president at Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3601503-rushdie-attack-reveals-again-true-nature-of-iranian-regime/
Time to Sanction the Kremlin’s Ministry of Truth
Emanuele Ottolenghi and Ivana Stradner/The Despatch/August 15/2022
When media platforms obey their paymasters’ orders to become complicit in their
crimes, they are no longer media.
Last March, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced sanctions against Russian
intelligence-directed media outlets. While blocking outlets with clear ties to
intelligence services was a step in the right direction, these sanctions did not
address Russia’s more globally popular streaming services: Russia’s state-owned
channels, RT and Sputnik. While most social media platforms and TV providers
have either demonetized or blocked RT’s content, it is still accessible through
a simple google search. Without government sanctions, RT will continue to find
loopholes to circumvent censorship. Therefore, the Biden administration has the
authority to and must target these disinformation sources with sanctions.
The basis for U.S. sanctions: Not speech.
Americans are understandably proud of the unfettered access to information that
the Constitution’s First Amendment rights protect. But U.S. sanctions against
Russia’s propaganda machine are not the kind of censorship that First Amendment
jurisprudence was developed to prevent. Neither RT nor Sputnik News would be
shut down—they operate from Russia—nor are their journalists in danger of being
silenced, detained, or prosecuted—other than by their own employer, if they do
not toe the party line. Indeed, none of them face the kind of harassment,
arrest, or threats to their lives that Russian dissidents and journalists
critical of the Putin regime have routinely suffered for years.
The basis for sanctioning RT and Sputnik is that, rather than providing
independent news coverage and analysis, these stations have been designed by the
Kremlin to control the information space and discredit opposing views by
fabricating pretexts that justify Russia’s aggression and by systematically
obfuscating and denying the truth. Indeed, RT’s editor-in-chief once said that
“The weapon of information … is used in critical moments and war is always a
critical moment. … [Information] is a weapon like any other.” Russia’s
state-owned media are integral to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and
its global efforts to destabilize democracies through disinformation campaigns.
The Kremlin’s current manipulation ecosystem is determined to cover up the worst
war crimes seen in Europe since Bosnia and, arguably, World War II, including
mass executions and mass deportations; state-sanctioned looting and the
systematic rape of civilians; widespread, documented torture and murder of
prisoners of war; the wanton destruction of cultural heritage; and the
indiscriminate targeting of civilian infrastructure. Kremlin disinformation also
aims to orchestrate an echo chamber of Western-based influencers—journalists,
NGOs, and politicians—who can amplify the Kremlin’s party line among their
audiences, discredit opponents of Russia’s actions, and influence their domestic
politics in Russia’s favor.
Yet apart from the March sanctions toward minor Russian outlets, the United
States has taken no further action to fight back Russian propaganda, effectively
enabling its spread. Top U.S. TV streaming providers like DirecTV, Sling TV,
Dish, and YouTube have banned RT and Sputnik’s streaming services. However, RT’s
live news is still available on its website through a Google search. RT’s and
Sputnik’s content is also still accessible through its official accounts and
those of its reporters on U.S.-based social media platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter.
There is already a solid track record of the U.S. Treasury Department
sanctioning TV channels backed by terrorist organizations and rogue regimes that
seek to not just to spread their propaganda but also incite violence and recruit
followers for violent activities. These include Hezbollah’s Al Manar and Al Nour
TV, Hamas’ Al Aqsa Television, Iran’s state television, IRIB, Venezuela’s
Globovision Tele and its Miami namesake subsidiary, Lebanon’s Lana TV, the
Occupied Crimea-based News Front, and the Bosnian Serb channel Alternativna
Televizija. In all these cases, the sanctioned channels directly engaged in
human rights violations, corruption, terrorist recruitment, or intelligence
gathering (with intelligence agents posing as correspondents). Furthermore, in
all above cases, the news they broadcasted was not free speech; it was the
rhetoric of their paymasters’ party line.
Therefore, in the Treasury’s decisions to censor these outlets, neither their
political slant nor their impact on U.S. audiences was relevant. Rather, the
rationale for sanctions was that these platforms engaged in activities that had
nothing to do with press freedom—incitement of and material support for acts of
terrorism in Al Manar’s, Al Nour’s, and Al Aqsa’s cases; gross human rights
violations in the case of Iran’s state television; violation of the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act in the case of Globovision; material support for a
criminal and corrupt regime, in Lana TV’s case; and propaganda directly
controlled by its corrupt owner, in Alternativna Televizija’s case.
These precedents make it abundantly clear that our First Amendment pieties are
not absolute: When media platforms obey their paymasters’ orders to become
complicit in their crimes, they are no longer media. They are accessories to
illicit conduct—in the case of Russian state media, accessories to war crimes,
mass atrocities, and, potentially, genocide.
In addition to the Treasury’s strong precedent of sanctioning violent and
corrupt news outlets, the White House has clear authority to combat Russian
state media like RT and Sputnik News. One such legal basis is Executive Order
14024, which President Biden signed on April 15, 2021. Executive Order 14024’s
aim is to “block property” with respect to “specified harmful foreign activities
of the Government of the Russian Federation.” These include “extraterritorial
activities targeting dissidents or journalists,” efforts “to undermine security
in countries and regions important to United States national security,” and the
violation of “well-established principles of international law, including
respect for the territorial integrity of states.”
As Marshall Billingslea—the former assistant secretary for terrorist financing
in the Treasury Department and current senior fellow at the Hudson
Institute—told us, “Russian state media are instrumentalities of the Russian
state.” Russian media uphold a totalitarian dictatorship that stifles freedom of
speech, prosecutes and persecutes dissidents, and is now engaged in an
unprovoked war of conquest and annihilation against a peaceful neighbor.
Thus, insofar as RT and Sputnik are accessories to the kind of harmful
activities that President Biden specifically named in E.O. 14024, they are
legitimate targets for U.S. sanctions.
Russia’s Ministry of Truth.
There is ample evidence that Russia’s state-owned media outlets are Kremlin
policy tools, not news platforms. They enable Russia’s denial of its own
well-documented war crimes to gather credibility in a cross-section of foreign
media.
A key component of the Kremlin’s disinformation strategy is targeting global
audiences. In addition to broadcasting in Russian, state media channels such as
RT and Sputnik produce content in more than 30 languages such as Arabic,
Chinese, English, French, German, and Spanish. Through these networks, the
Kremlin weaponizes news to deny facts and control or distort the global
information space. Recently, Russia has spread disinformation claiming Western
sanctions are to blame for the global grain shortage caused by the war in
Ukraine; Russia has targeted countries in Africa and the Middle East, where the
grain shortages have had the worst impact. In an interview with RT Arabic,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed the West was hurting these
regions to get them to partake in “anti-Russia” sanctions. By eroding the
integrity of open debate, the Kremlin can amplify a self-serving narrative of
victimhood, engage in whataboutism on a global scale, fabricate falsehoods to
discredit the Kremlin’s adversaries, and generally lie about anything
antithetical to Russia’s goals.
Why should we care about Russia’s propaganda machine? While the West views
information as a space to protect freedoms, Russia sees it as a space to control
narratives and silence opposition. As Russian Minister of Defense, Sergey Shoigu,
declared in 2021, “information has become a weapon.” Weaponizing
state-controlled media is integral to Russia’s new 2021 National Security
Strategy (NSS), which devotes an entire section to information security.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union used psychological manipulation as part of
a political warfare toolkit referred to as “active measures.” The Kremlin has
adapted Soviet era “active measures” to the modern world by making use of new
technologies and social media platforms. Russia’s NSS does not acknowledge the
use of information operations offensively. However, a close read of the Russian
Ministry of Defense definition of information warfare refers to the offensive
purpose of information operations. It defines information war as the
confrontation “between two or more States in the information space with the goal
of inflicting damage to information systems, processes, and resources, as well
as to critically important structures; undermining political, economic, and
social systems; carrying out mass psychological campaigns … in order to
destabilize society and the government.”
Despite Shoigu recently blaming the West for establishing propaganda centers in
Eastern Europe, Russia’s new NSS emphasizes expanding cooperation with foreign
powers on information security. Indeed, in May, Russian Security Council Deputy
Secretary Oleg Khramov announced that Russia plans to conclude agreements on
ensuring information security with Azerbaijan, Serbia, and Tajikistan.
Outwardly, Russian state media appears legitimate, with newscasts, talk shows,
sophisticated productions, reporters, and correspondents. However, as Josep
Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and
security policy, said, outlets like RT and Sputnik “are not independent media,
they are assets, they are weapons, in the Kremlin’s manipulation ecosystem.”
Even President Putin confirmed that, although he envisioned RT as a channel that
should “provide an unbiased coverage of the events,” “the channel is funded by
the government, so it cannot help but reflect the Russian government’s official
position on the events in our country and in the rest of the world, one way or
another.”
The Kremlin’s Ministry of Truth is succeeding.
Wikipedia entries cite hundreds of Russian state media as authoritative sources,
guaranteeing millions of daily views for stories that inevitably spin the
Kremlin way. Russian disinformation dominates Google News results for important
Ukraine-related topics. Kremlin-concocted conspiracy theories range from claims
that nonexistent U.S.-sponsored bioweapons labs in Ukraine are responsible for
the monkeypox outbreak to claims that the U.S. plans to use drones in Ukraine
that will spray poison on Russian troops. These stories have spread rapidly
through Russian media outlets such as RT and Sputnik and reached millions of
Americans through media platforms such as Fox News, poisoning our public
discourse.
Moscow’s propaganda has been similarly successful in achieving amplification in
the West through infiltrating conspiracy-prone groups, such as anti-vaccine
groups and QAnon circles. Just two weeks ago, on July 29, the U.S. Department of
Justice indicted Aleksandr Viktorvich Ionov, a Russian operative working with
the FSB, for acts including paying U.S. political groups to protest the domestic
media’s censorship of Russian propaganda supporting the war in Ukraine.
RT and Sputnik do not only engage in disinformation but also in cyber
operations. For example, in 2020, Sputnik’s Spanish-language website hosted
malware files linked to stories about the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which were
posted on Twitter.
There is also considerable evidence that Russian state media companies RT and
Sputnik have significant relationships with Julian Assange and Wikileaks. For
example, the U.S. intelligence community assessed that Russia’s military
intelligence organization relayed leaked DNC documents to Wikileaks in 2016.
U.S. intelligence also confirmed that RT’s leaders visited Assange in Ecuador’s
embassy in 2013, one year after RT announced that it would broadcast a talk show
hosted by Assange.
This is relevant because Russia’s military considers both “cybersecurity” and
“information operations” under the umbrella of “information security.”
In short, Russian state-owned media are nothing but an echo-chamber for their
employer: the Kremlin.
The U.S. should follow its allies.
RT and Sputnik have already been blocked in Canada, Great Britain, and across
the European Union. After ordering the removal of Russian state-owned media from
search results, the EU also imposed sanctions on RT and Sputnik in March. In
May, the EU took more steps in defending European digital space and banned
additional Kremlin-backed media platforms, such as RTR Planeta, Russia 24 and TV
Centre. While Russia recently appealed these sanctions, the EU has remained
steadfast.
The U.S. should take Russia’s information assault as seriously as its Western
allies. Were the U.S. to pass sanctions, the consequences would be significant,
both at home and abroad. RT and Sputnik News would continue to broadcast from
their Moscow studios. However, U.S.-based social media companies could block
their accounts, severely limiting global access to their content. And U.S.
secondary sanctions—which extend the impact of U.S. sanctions beyond the U.S.
jurisdiction—would discourage the financial sector from transacting payments
linked to the two networks, including salaries for journalists, running costs
for newsrooms, stringers, equipment rental and the like. While Russia’s foreign
language outlets would remain available elsewhere outside of Western countries,
U.S. sanctions would severely degrade the distribution channels available to
Russia.
Russia, in short, can be denied one of its most powerful weapons: the power to
lie about its crimes and manipulate global audiences under the protection of
free speech. All the U.S. needs is the will to act.
**Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, a non-partisan research foundation based in Washington D.C. Follow
him on Twitter @eottolenghi. Ivana Stradner is an advisor to FDD’s Barish Center
for Media Integrity where her research focuses on Russia’s information warfare.
She tweets at @ivanastradner.
FAQ: Iran’s Demand to Close the UN Nuclear Watchdog’s
Investigation
Andrea Stricker/FDD/August 15/2022
Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program Deputy Director and Research Fellow
What is Iran now demanding as a precondition for it to rejoin the 2015 nuclear
accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)?
At a new round of talks last week between Iran and six world powers (the United
States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China, collectively
known as the “P5+1”), the clerical regime demanded the closure of a probe by the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into Iranian nuclear activities that
may violate the binding Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). As a party to
the NPT, the Islamic Republic has signed a safeguards agreement with the IAEA,
requiring Tehran to declare all sites where it produces or uses nuclear
material. In 2019 and 2020, the IAEA detected man-made uranium particles at
three sites Iran had not previously disclosed. Tehran has continually obstructed
IAEA efforts to determine the source of this undeclared material and the
activities that led to its production.
Did world powers close a previous IAEA probe into the “possible military
dimensions,” or “PMD,” of Iran’s nuclear program?
The IAEA previously investigated potential military aspects of Tehran’s nuclear
program following international exposure of clandestine nuclear sites and
activities in Iran. In essence, the agency investigated whether the Islamic
Republic researched or sought to build atomic weapons as part of its nuclear
program. In July 2015, under the terms of the JCPOA, the P5+1 instructed the
IAEA to provide a “final” PMD assessment by December 2015 summarizing the
agency’s conclusions to date about Iran’s nuclear weapons-related activities.
In theory, Iran had an obligation to cooperate and provide truthful answers to
the agency, but the P5+1 signaled they would ensure the closure of the
investigation regardless of whether Tehran cooperated. Knowing it would not be
held accountable, Iran failed to cooperate. The IAEA issued a report casting
doubt both on Tehran’s responses to its inquiries and on the peacefulness of the
regime’s nuclear program. Nevertheless, the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors
voted to remove the matter from the agency’s active investigations. This
supposed resolution of the PMD issue enabled the P5+1 to proceed with
implementing the JCPOA, which went into effect in January 2016.
Iranian officials are now asking the P5+1 to shut their eyes once again, but to
new evidence that Iran had or maintains a nuclear weapons program, which the
regime denies categorically.
What is the IAEA investigating today?
In 2018, Israeli intelligence seized a set of Iranian files from a Tehran
warehouse, proving beyond any doubt that the regime had a nuclear weapons
program up until 2003. This “nuclear archive” contained new photographic
evidence and information about nuclear weapon production facilities, associated
equipment, plans, personnel, and technical progress. The archive also contained
memoranda by senior Iranian officials showing that in 2003, the regime plotted
to downsize and better hide its efforts while continuing to pursue the
capability to make atomic weapons.
Israel provided the archive materials to the IAEA, which deemed them to be
authentic. In 2019 and 2020, the IAEA requested access to three Iranian sites
where it believed nuclear material had been present, based on evidence from the
archive. The IAEA also sought information and explanations about a fourth site.
Tehran had an obligation to cooperate with this probe pursuant to its NPT
safeguards agreement but instead obstructed IAEA access to the sites and sought
to sanitize them and hide evidence.
Nevertheless, when IAEA inspectors ultimately visited three of the undeclared
sites, they detected man-made uranium particles. (Iran had razed the fourth site
years ago, but the IAEA visited another, related site). The IAEA reported in May
2022 that “for more than two years,” Tehran “has not provided explanations that
are technically credible” to account for the presence of this uranium, nor has
Iran explained its activities at any of the sites. This led the IAEA Board of
Governors to censure Tehran in June 2020 and June 2022 and call on it to
cooperate immediately.
What is the IAEA’s mandate in Iran?
The IAEA is an independent agency charged with overseeing the peacefulness of
atomic programs worldwide. As a party to the NPT, Iran has agreed to implement
agency safeguards against military uses of its nuclear capabilities. This means
that the IAEA can seek access to sites in Iran and investigate Tehran’s failure
to abide by its safeguards agreement, including the regime’s refusal to declare
facilities and activities relevant to atomic weapons or nuclear material
production or use.
Iran’s NPT obligations precede and are entirely separate from the JCPOA.
Therefore, the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA does not reduce Iran’s NPT
obligations in any way, shape, or form. Tehran accepts its NPT obligations in
principle, even if refuses to honor them in practice.
What happens if world powers pressure the IAEA to close its inquiry?
The IAEA’s Board of Governors, composed of representatives of 35 member states,
set a new precedent in 2015 by pressuring the agency to close its inquiry into
Iran’s nuclear weapons activities even though inspectors had not completed their
work. The board chose to do so even though the information reported by
inspectors indicated that Iran failed to provide full and truthful answers to
their questions. (See Question 2.)
As part of negotiations aimed at restoring the JCPOA, Washington and its
European allies are working to resolve the disagreement about the agency’s
latest probe by offering to end it if Iran credibly accounts for the origins of
the man-made uranium particles inspectors found in 2019 and 2020. (See Question
3.)
A proposal reportedly put forth by the European Union would close the matter via
a Board of Governors resolution if Iran “duly addressed” the outstanding issues.
If Tehran did so, the P5+1 would submit an IAEA resolution “removing the need
for the Board’s consideration of these issues” and deem it “no longer necessary”
for “the [IAEA] Director General to report on those issues,” effectively halting
the probe.
If Iran’s cooperation were inadequate but the P5+1 sought to close the probe
regardless, the IAEA’s director general, Rafael Grossi, would be in a tough
position. Grossi has said he will not submit to political demands to end his
agency’s investigation, and could push back against P5+1 efforts to undercut the
IAEA’s mandate. Nevertheless, the Board of Governors sets policy, and Grossi
would be in an untenable position should he flout the board’s demands.
Resignation may be his only possible recourse. However, Grossi has hinted that
he favors restoring the JCPOA because it would provide temporary limits and
enhanced monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities, and may state that he had no
choice but to comply with the board’s decision.
What would closing the IAEA investigation mean for Iran’s ability to build
atomic weapons? What else could world powers do to stop Tehran?
Tehran’s demand that world powers close the IAEA probe is a concerning indicator
that the regime seeks to maintain clandestine atomic weapons activities to
preserve and further Iran’s “readiness” to build nuclear weapons. Since 2003,
evidence has steadily emerged that Tehran never halted its atomic weapons
program. If the IAEA Board of Governors shuts down the investigation, the United
States and its allies will never learn how close Iran came to building a nuclear
weapon. Nor will they know how much of that capability Tehran retains and may be
developing further.
With no investigation to hold it accountable, Iran could preserve or expand its
nuclear weapons knowledge while feigning compliance with a revived JCPOA. Thus,
by waiting patiently for the JCPOA’s restrictions to expire, the Islamic
Republic could emerge with both the know-how and fissile material it needs to
make nuclear weapons. By 2027, the agreement would allow Tehran to have a vastly
expanded advanced centrifuge program for uranium enrichment. By 2030, Iran could
earn some $1 trillion in revenue from sanctions relief. The result may be a
regime that is technically unstoppable should it choose to make nuclear weapons,
backed by an economy that is highly fortified against Western attempts to change
its calculus or inflict penalties.
World powers should address the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program today
rather than permitting the threat to metastasize. They should prioritize the
IAEA’s investigation, end talks on restoring the JCPOA, snap back UN Security
Council sanctions on Iran, exert massive economic pressure on Tehran, and
restore a credible threat of military deterrence while seeking a stronger and
more permanent diplomatic solution than that provided by the JCPOA.
After Rushdie, Can A Decadent West Truly Defend Free
Speech?
Y. Carmon and Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/August 15/2022
It has been a busy summer for the Islamic Republic of Iran, amid reports that
Iran is very close to a nuclear bomb and that the West is very close to a
nuclear deal with the regime in Tehran.[1] After months of speculation that the
Biden administration intended to remove the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), the Biden
Department of Justice indicted a member of the IRGC with plotting to kill former
National Security Advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.[2]
There was also a new plot targeting prominent regime critic Masih Alinejad in
Brooklyn with assassination (in 2021 the U.S. government revealed the foiling of
an elaborate plot to kidnap her and smuggle her to Iran by way of Venezuela).
And on August 12, an American citizen of Lebanese Shia origin (whose Facebook
page was filled with images and praise for the Iranian regime and its leaders)
attempted to assassinate visiting British writer Salman Rushdie, the subject of
a notorious 1989 fatwa (Islamic legal ruling) by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
calling for Rushdie's killing on charges of blasphemy. Unlike Iran's famous
nuclear fatwa, the ruling on Rushdi actually does exist.[3]
It is early days, but this couldn't have happened at a worse time for
Washington. The administration has spent much of the past two years easing up
pressure on Iran in pursuit of a new nuclear deal. Lax sanctions enforcement
netted Iran at least an additional $17 billion in 2021-2022, a rise of 77%
compared to the previous year.[4] The Biden administration also offered carrots
to Iran's proxies in Yemen and Lebanon, removing the former from the U.S.
terrorism list while beguiling the latter with the possibility of newfound
wealth from offshore natural gas fields.
Initial reaction by the Biden administration to the Rushdie assassination
attempt was muted. Nothing at first from the State Department (over 48 hours
after the attack, and unlike Sullivan and Biden, Secretary of State Blinken
issued a statement that even mentioned Iran[5]). The first statement by a senior
official, National Security Advisor Sullivan on the night of the attack, was
interesting – no mention of Iran or the fatwa or Islamism, just that the attack
was "appalling."[6] President Biden's statement a day after the attack praised
the victim but said nothing of the attacker or his possible motivation, and
noted that Rushdie "stands for essential, universal ideals. Truth. Courage.
Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear. These are the building
blocks of any free and open society."[7]
In contrast, French President Emmanuel Macron's statement came a day earlier and
was a bit sharper, describing Rushdie as an embodiment of "the fight against
obscurantism" and the victim of a "cowardly attack by the forces of hatred and
barbarism" (some on the right in France still criticized Macron for not using
the words 'radical Islamism"[8]). U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also
responded strongly the day of the attack – in contrast to the elderly Biden.
Of course, all three officials – Macron, Johnson and Biden – lead governments
working feverishly towards an agreement that would shower Iran, the fons et
origo mali[9] of the attack on Rushdie, with tens of billions of dollars in cash
(up to $131 billion) in order to slow down its progress towards acquiring a
nuclear bomb.[10] Human rights advocates like Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights were
immediately silent on the attack (although when the Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling
was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human
Rights condemned it immediately).[11]
In terms of the volume of online of praise for the attack, much of it came from
Pakistan, where blasphemy laws are a frequent political bludgeon used by
Islamists. It came also from Lebanon and, of course, from Iran itself, where
official media was giddy with praise for it.[12] Iran's official Fars News
Agency published an interview with a theology professor at Tehran's Shahed
University clarifying that the killing of Salman Rushdie would not be terrorism
but a completely legal execution of an apostate.[13]
The West, and the U.S., face several challenges in their response to this and
other recent outrages, whether it was carried out by an Iran-inspired "lone
wolf" or indirectly through Iran or one of its proxies like Hizbullah. The first
challenge is the ongoing attempt to bribe Iran not to go nuclear right away. To
reward Iran now is to reward those cheering on the assassination attempt, who
are also calling for it to succeed and who assassinate free voices in the region
such as the Lebanese Lokman Slim and Iraqi Hisham Al-Hashemi. It is to reward
Iran for restraint on nukes while simultaneously funding improvements on
ballistic missiles and drones and death squads and terror operations in the
West.
The second challenge is even greater, if that were possible, than the risks and
rewards of a new JCPOA nuclear deal. It is an internal challenge tied to a West,
especially a U.S., which seems to have lost its way when it comes the "truth and
ability to share ideas without fear" called for in Biden's statement on Rushdie.
Freedom of expression in the U.S. and in the West in general is decaying,
compared even to when Khomeini issued his fatwa over 30 years ago.[14] Cancel
culture has seen people lose their livelihoods because of unpopular speech or
unwelcomed remarks, or even certain gestures.[15] A 2021 poll found that 80% of
American college students self-censor what they say, at least part of the time.
A third – 33% – believed that it was acceptable to use force to shut down
certain types of speech on campus.[16]
The U.S. government and the big social media companies seem to share a belief
that certain types of speech – on COVID-19, on politics, on gender – need to
strictly policed, and that the "wrong" people who spread "misinformation" should
be silenced (while Iran's Supreme Leader has a Twitter account while former
President Trump was silenced on Twitter, to broad acclaim by liberal
voices[17]). All too often, it seems that freedom of speech is, in practice,
regarded as a "right-wing" cause rather than a national one.[18] And as the free
speech consensus declines among Americans, new arrivals from overseas may only
accelerate that decline.[19]
This deterioration in the space given to "offensive speech" means that the lines
have been blurred. Some religions and some ethnicities seem to merit greater
protection and respect than others. The U.S. is still more free than Western
European countries, but the trend throughout the West is towards greater
scrutiny, control, and punishment over offensive or unpopular speech.[20] The
list of "phobias" needing to be combated seems to inexorably grow longer.
Western rhetoric on freedom can still shine brightly in the aftermath of the
Rushdie attack. But in the wake of Charlie Hebdo and Samuel Paty and so many
other cases, it is the voices of critics and mockers and reformers that are
eventually being silenced in the West, and over time we will all self-censor in
our societies just like those American college students.[21] As for Muslim
reformers and heterodox thinkers in the West, the attack will have an inevitable
chilling effect, while Iran's Salafi and Islamist rivals will take heart and
seek to garner the same attention.
The best revenge for the attack on Salman Rushdie is to make sure that there is
more rather than less free speech in the West. This requires brave Western
leaders willing to go against the prevailing tide. Unfortunately, the trajectory
– from the university campus to social media platforms to government to the
corporate boardroom – has all been going in the wrong direction for some time
now.
*Yigal Carmon is President of MEMRI; Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of
MEMRI.
[1] Twitter.com/AlArabiya/status/1558516403799572481, August 13, 2022.
[2] Washingtonpost.com/business/energy/bolton-plot-should-be-a-warning-on-iran-nuclear-talks/2022/08/11/65a76cc2-19de-11ed-b998-b2ab68f58468_story.html,
August 11, 2022.
[3] MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 9983, Fatwa By Iranian Grand Ayatollah: There Is
No Ban On Acquiring Knowledge And Practical Capability To Produce A Nuclear
Bomb; Iranian Politician: "When We Began Our Nuclear Activity, Our Goal Was
Indeed To Build A Bomb," April 29, 2022.
[4] Unitedagainstnucleariran.com/blog/july-2022-iran-tanker-tracking, August 1,
2022.
[5] State.gov/the-attack-against-salman-rushdie, August 14, 2022.
[6] Twitter.com/JakeSullivan46/status/1558271499915632642, August 12, 2022.
[7] Whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/13/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-the-attack-on-salman-rushdie,
August 13, 2022.
[8] Twitter.com/GilbertCollard/status/1558370021990051840, August 12, 2022.
[9] Oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195369380.001.0001/acref-9780195369380-e-793.
[10] Fdd.org/analysis/2022/03/09/new-nuclear-deal-tehran-131-billion-foreign-assets,
March 9, 2022.
[11] Ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/06/bachelet-us-ruling-dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization,
June 24, 2022.
[12] MEMRI JTTM report Supporters Of Hizbullah And Iran-Backed Shi'ite Militias
On Twitter And Telegram Praise Attack On Salman Rushdie, August 14, 2022.
[13] Twitter.com/arash_tehran/status/1558434409363243009, August 13, 2022.
[14] Newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/ayatollah-khomeini-never-read-salman-rushdies-book,
August 14, 2022.
[15] Nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-over-alleged-racist-gesture-says-he-was-cracking-knuckles/2347414,
June 15, 2020.
[16] Reports.collegepulse.com/hubfs/2021_SpeechRankings_Report.pdf, 2021.
[17] Wsj.com/articles/biden-and-twitter-censorship-alex-berenson-covid-vaccines-white-house-social-media-11660335186,
August 12, 2022.
[18] Intellectualtakeout.org/2018/05/since-when-is-free-speech-a-right-wing-idea,
May 1, 2018.
[19] MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10109, Shi'ite Children In Houston, Texas Pledge
To Be The Soldiers Of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: Salute, Commander! We
Make An Oath To Be Your Martyrs!, August 1, 2022.
[20] Bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-59727118, December 20, 2021.
[21] MEMRi Special Dispatch No. 9026, Egyptian Writer Living In Germany:
Pluralistic Europe, Which Renounced Religious Wars, Is Now Surrendering To The
'Monster' Of Extremist Political Islam, November 12, 2020.
Iran's Proxy War Against Israel Caused by Biden's Weakness
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/August 15/2022
"The US has started packing its bags to leave the Middle East. It is no longer
able to impose maximum pressure on us." — Major General Hossein Salami,
commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, August 4, 2022.
Like their patrons in Tehran, these proxies are all staunchly committed to the
destruction of Israel and the killing of as many Jews as possible. PIJ continues
to threaten and attack Israel, while Hezbollah and the Houthis are doing their
utmost to destabilize security and stability in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and
the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.
In a clear warning to the Biden administration, the Arabs are stressing that the
Americans are mistaken to think that Iran will change its dangerous policies and
actions once it reaches a new nuclear deal with the US and the other world
powers, including the European Union.
"Today, Lebanon is not suffering from war as much as it is suffering from
Iranian occupation through Hezbollah, which threatens the collapse of the
country as a whole. We are facing an Iranian political fantasy from which the
region has gained nothing but devastation and destruction, whether in Gaza,
Lebanon, or Syria, as well as Yemen and Iraq." — Tareq al-Hamid, former
editor-in-chief of the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat; aawast.com, August 7, 2022.
"Western countries continue to bet on Iran's so-called moderation and demand
that it change its behavior, reduce its regional influence, and abandon its
ballistic missile program. This is an impossible task, regardless of any deal
presented to Tehran. Hostility to America is one of the foundations of the
Islamic Revolution. Spreading the Islamic Revolution in the region is the task
of the Islamic Republic. Iran's strength is not only with weapons, the
Revolutionary Guards, and the army, but also with influence in the region.
Iran's destabilizing behavior in the region is the highest priority in Iranian
policy-making." — Rafik Khoury, veteran Lebanese journalist,
independentarabia.com, July 27, 2022.
"These armed groups are working in Iran's interests. In return, they are
rewarded [with weapons and money] for serving Iranian interests." — Dr. Jassim
Khalfan, Emirati political analyst, posts.com, August 7, 2022.
"The [Palestinian] groups just provide services to those who pay them. Wars by
proxy and working for external agendas have destroyed the Arab world and many
countries...." — Dr. Talal Al-Sharif, former member of Jordan's Parliament,
amad.ps, August 8, 2022.
At this point, one has to ask if the Biden administration is negotiating with
Iran and offering it billions of dollars simply not to attack Israel until
President Joe Biden's term is over in another two-to-six years.
Once again, the Biden administration's irresolution has only served to embolden
the terrorists and their masters in Tehran, as well as the Russians and the
Chinese Communist Party.
Arab political analysts see this month's fighting between Israel and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as part of the Iranian mullahs' ongoing efforts to increase
their influence in the Middle East by arming and funding Islamist terrorist
groups in the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Pictured: PIJ gunmen in Rafah,
in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 8, 2022.
The recent war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
organization in the Gaza Strip should be seen, according to several Arab
political analysts and authors, in the context of Tehran's mullahs' attempts to
force the Biden administration to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. By
unleashing Islamic Jihad against Israel, the mullahs are apparently trying to
tell the Biden Administration, "You see what we are capable of doing? We have a
number of militias and armed groups that could attack Israel and Arab countries.
Hurry up and give us (Iran) everything we want before it is too late. Remove the
Revolutionary Guard from the list of foreign terrorists. Give us billions of
dollars or else we will continue to attack America's Arab and Israeli friends.
Hurry up and sign a new nuclear deal with us or else we will be angry at the US
and we will continue to attack Israel and kill Jews."
They see the three-day fighting between Israel and PIJ as part of the mullahs'
ongoing efforts to increase their influence in the Middle East by arming and
funding Islamist terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
These efforts, of course, also aim to advance the Iranian regime's plans to
eliminate Israel. It is no coincidence that Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhala
was in Tehran while his men were firing hundreds of rockets at Israel.
Before and during the visit, Iran's leaders continued to publicly voice their
intention and desire to destroy Israel and kill Jews. That is because the
Iranians see the US under the Biden administration as incapable of confronting
their dangerous schemes. As Major General Hossein Salami, commander of Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on August 4: "The US has started
packing its bags to leave the Middle East. It is no longer able to impose
maximum pressure on us."
PIJ, the second-largest terror group in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, is not
different than Iran's other proxies in the Middle East, especially Lebanon's
Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi militia, when it comes to threatening Israel and
America's Arab friends.
Like their patrons in Tehran, these proxies are all staunchly committed to the
destruction of Israel and the killing of as many Jews as possible. PIJ continues
to threaten and attack Israel, while Hezbollah and the Houthis are doing their
utmost to destabilize security and stability in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and
the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.
In a clear warning to the Biden administration, the Arabs are stressing that the
Americans are mistaken to think that Iran will change its dangerous policies and
actions once it reaches a new nuclear deal with the US and the other world
powers, including the European Union. The Arabs, in addition, are saying that
the time has come for the international community to make Iran pay for its
continued support for Islamist terrorist groups and intervention in the internal
affairs of a number of Arab countries.
"The [Israel-PIJ] war is neither the first nor the last, but it proves once
again that Iran is exploiting Gaza, as it is exploiting Lebanon, in order to
strengthen Tehran's negotiating cards with the West," wrote Saudi author Tareq
al-Hamid, a former editor-in-chief of the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat
newspaper:
"Today, Lebanon is not suffering from war as much as it is suffering from
Iranian occupation through Hezbollah, which threatens the collapse of the
country as a whole. We are facing an Iranian political fantasy from which the
region has gained nothing but devastation and destruction, whether in Gaza,
Lebanon, or Syria, as well as Yemen and Iraq.
"This situation will not change, and this [Iranian] fantasy will not end until
Iran pays a real price for all its crimes in our region."
Veteran Lebanese journalist Rafik Khoury wrote that the West is "afflicted with
an incurable disease in dealing with Iran: an addiction to weakness and an
illusion of naivete."
Noting that the mullahs are determined to pursue their plans to achieve nuclear
weapons, Khoury criticized the US, France, Britain and Germany for continuing to
delude themselves into believing that a new nuclear deal would stop the mullahs.
"The [nuclear] bomb is a fait accompli, and the illusions of preventing it by
fulfilling Tehran's demands are reminiscent of the Russian proverb: 'It is too
late to wish someone good health while you are going to his funeral'...
"Indeed, Western countries continue to bet on Iran's so-called moderation and
demand that it change its behavior, reduce its regional influence, and abandon
its ballistic missile program. This is an impossible task, regardless of any
deal presented to Tehran. Hostility to America is one of the foundations of the
Islamic Revolution. Spreading the Islamic Revolution in the region is the task
of the Islamic Republic. Iran's strength is not only with weapons, the
Revolutionary Guards, and the army, but also with influence in the region.
Iran's destabilizing behavior in the region is the highest priority in Iranian
policy-making."
Saudi academic Turki Al-Hamad wrote that the Arabs have lost interest in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, mainly because the Palestinians are allowing
themselves to be manipulated and used by the mullahs in Tehran.
Al-Hamad also warned the Biden administration that the mullahs were trying to
escalate tensions in the Middle East as part of an attempt to extract
concessions from the Americans and the Western powers at the nuclear talks in
Vienna.
"[Palestinian Islamic Jihad] is an extremist Islamic organization subject in its
actions to Iranian orders through which Tehran seeks political gains in the
Vienna nuclear talks," Al-Hamad cautioned. "The mullahs are seeking to turn the
conflict [with Israel] into a card in their hands."
The mullahs are apparently trying to tell the Biden administration: "Look what
our proxies are capable of doing to Israel and your Arab allies. If you (the
Biden administration) don't surrender to Iran, we will continue to threaten the
security and stability of Israel and the entire Middle East."
Another Lebanese writer, Elias Al-Zoghbi, wrote that he, too, agreed that one of
the main reasons that Iran's mullahs were supporting Islamic Jihad during the
fighting was because they want to shift attention toward the nuclear talks in
Vienna. Iran, he added, wanted to use the war in the Gaza Strip as another card
in the negotiations in Vienna with the Biden administration and the other
Western powers.
Emirati political analyst Dr. Jassim Khalfan pointed out that the Palestinian
armed groups were "selling their services to others," reference to the mullahs
in Tehran.
"These armed groups are working in Iran's interests," Khalfan said.
"In return, they are rewarded [with weapons and money] for serving Iranian
interests. The armed factions monopolize the [Palestinian] issue and oppress the
people of Gaza under the slogan of resisting the [Israeli] occupation."
Dr. Talal Al-Sharif, a former Jordanian parliament member, described the last
round of fighting between Israel and PIJ as a "proxy war."
"This is not resistance; These are proxy wars," al-Sharif wrote, referring to
the terrorist attacks carried out by PIJ and other Palestinian groups against
Israel.
"The [Palestinian] groups just provide services to those who pay them. Wars by
proxy and working for external agendas have destroyed the Arab world and many
countries, the first of which is the Palestinian issue. Islamist groups linked
externally and with agendas managed by others ultimately lead to non-Palestinian
agendas. The Islamists have corrupted the [Palestinian] national project and
destroyed the Palestinian cause."
Lebanese journalist Rafik Khoury commented in another article:
"If the problem of Israel and the West is the mullahs' possession of nuclear
weapons, then the problem of the Arabs, besides the bomb, is Iranian penetration
in societies, demographic change, and political and military hegemony directly
and through its militia proxies over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza... But
America's broad calculations often seem narrow. The Biden administration acts as
if the US has the ability to make mistakes and come out with the lowest price."
The Biden administration needs to understand that any concessions to the mullahs
will pose a critical threat to US interests around the world and harm America's
allies and friends in the Middle East. This is an important message that the
Arabs are sending to the Biden administration after the resumption of the
nuclear talks in Vienna. Iran would not have dared stand behind PIJ and
encourage it to attack Israel had it not sensed indecision on the part of the
Biden administration.
At this point, one has to ask if the Biden administration is negotiating with
Iran and offering it billions of dollars simply not to attack Israel until
President Joe Biden's term is over in another two-to-six years.
Once again, the Biden administration's irresolution has only served to embolden
the terrorists and their masters in Tehran, as well as the Russians and the
Chinese Communist Party.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
The Taliban a year on: imposing misery, exporting
instability
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/August 15/2022
During their first year in power the Taliban have presided over one of the
fastest declines of any nation in history. Not only have about 90 percent of
Afghans been dragged to the brink of starvation, but the female half of the
population have also been entirely robbed of their future, including any
prospects for higher education or employment.
Child mortality is soaring, and the economy is in freefall. Neighboring
countries report a surge in opium smuggling, along with systematic efforts to
export extremism and instability.
A large part of the blame goes to successive US administrations for creating the
conditions in which this great leap backwards became inevitable. In the Trump
administration’s notorious deal with the Taliban, it was obvious that these
militants were experienced liars who wouldn’t lift a finger to abide by their
promises. Unwilling to retain a couple of thousand soldiers in support of the
democratically elected government, Trump’s successor Joe Biden instead pulled
the plug, crippling the system’s ability to defend itself.
The Taliban had barely established themselves in power before they had settled
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri in one of the most desirable areas of Kabul
under the protection of the Haqqani clan — personified by Interior Minister
Sirajuddin Haqqani, one of the FBI’s most wanted men.
At a time when many Muslim states are making rapid progress in women’s
empowerment (witness Saudi Arabia’s 65 percent growth in female employment in
just two years), Afghan women face a campaign to erase them from public life.
Videos are circulated of women protesting against the loss of all their rights
only to be beaten back by brutal Taliban foot soldiers. Female activists are
detained and tortured. Women report being regularly beaten on trips to market,
sometimes for wearing “inappropriate” clothing, sometimes just for smiling or
talking loudly. Numerous figures deemed ill disposed to the new regime have
simply disappeared.
Cancelling their pledge to allow girls’ secondary education was perhaps the most
spectacularly cruel gesture of Taliban rule, as thousands of distraught girls
were left standing outside school gates that had literally been slammed in their
faces. Some girls deliberately failed their primary examinations to remain in
education an extra year. Teachers have risked their lives to set up networks of
secret schools, along with hidden underground rooms where girls can hide when
the Taliban come visiting.
Highly educated women in senior government positions were summarily fired. In
sectors such as female healthcare and primary teaching, where female employees
are essential, the education ban makes the collapse of these sectors in the near
future inevitable, especially as all those who can are determined to flee.
Sportswomen, musicians, artists, writers, intellectuals — at a stroke
Afghanistan has lost an entire generation of talent. Witness Baroness Kennedy’s
laudable campaign to assist dozens of female Afghan judges and other
professionals in resettling overseas.
At a time when many Muslim states are making rapid progress in women’s
empowerment (witness Saudi Arabia’s 65 percent growth in female employment in
just two years), Afghan women face a campaign to erase them from public life.
A book by Chief Justice Mawlawi Haqqani articulating the Taliban’s governing
ideology declares: “The enemies of Islam — infidels and hypocrites — have
realized that corrupting women is one of the most important methods of
destroying the family.” The book emphasises that women must “stay out of sight”
in their homes, and should stay out of politics because they “cannot make big
decisions or form coherent opinions.” Posters were put up declaring that
uncovered women “look like animals.”
Daesh in Afghanistan is a monster of the Taliban’s own creation, its ranks flush
with dissatisfied Taliban members. Any sense of security in Kabul has been
shattered by a succession of Daesh attacks, including mass casualty strikes
against public servants, Shiites and non-Muslims. Daesh propaganda relentlessly
attacks the Taliban for minor “hypocritical” compromises on its hard-line
values.
With the full spectrum of terrorist groups making Afghanistan their base of
operations, the stage is set for the Taliban themselves to be pushed in even
more ideologically extreme directions.
Afghanistan has fundamentally changed in the two decades since the Taliban were
last in power. A population that had grown accustomed to education, global
connections and material comforts is for now tolerating the new regime, but this
is already changing as illiterate Taliban appointees demonstrate their inability
and lack of interest in doing anything to alleviate the universal suffering of
the populace.
As one local observer noted: “These are traditional rural forces … instead of
integrating themselves, they want the cities integrated to them. They want us to
look like them.”
Meanwhile the increasing assertiveness of armed groups opposed to the Taliban,
and growing infighting within Taliban ranks, hint at a relapse back to low-level
conflict. The US’s use of drones against those who pose a threat, and the
readiness of neighboring states to intervene in order to contain the
regionalised chaos, undermine the Taliban’s pretentions to be protecting
national sovereignty. Regular skirmishes on the Iran-Afghan border illustrate
Tehran’s predicament in dealing with a fellow pariah regime with somewhat
different ideological leanings.
The war in Ukraine was a gift to the Taliban, distracting global attention
during a critical period. However, the world must not turn its back.
Increasingly sophisticated and comprehensive vehicles for delivering aid must be
devised, while grappling with the fact that Afghanistan will be a long-standing
worldwide exporter of terrorism, narcotics and instability. With 45 percent of
Afghans aged under 14, the nation furthermore faces a demographic timebomb.
Western powers spent two decades in Afghanistan, claiming that their occupying
presence was necessary to protect women’s rights, ensure stability and
democracy, stimulate economic development, and combat extremism. The past year
of Taliban misrule demonstrates the absolute urgency for the international
community to discover new methods to demonstrate its continuing commitment to
securing these principles.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.
Looking for Legitimacy: Taliban Diplomacy Since the Fall of
Kabul
Aaron Y. Zelin/Washington Institute/August 15/2022
The group’s international profile has risen substantially with help from China,
Turkey, and other states, but Western leaders should curtail their engagement so
long as Kabul keeps gaslighting them about its al-Qaeda ties.
When the Taliban first ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, only Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates recognized its “Islamic Emirate.” Yet while
no country has officially recognized the new government established after the
group recaptured Kabul one year ago, the Taliban is far less isolated today than
it was during its first iteration. In March, for example, Turkish foreign
minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for international recognition of the Islamic
Emirate, while his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov argued that it should be
granted a seat at the United Nations. Just how extensive is this diplomatic
momentum? And how might it be affected by the July 31 targeted killing of
al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was reportedly being sheltered in Kabul
by Taliban interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani?
Open imageiconInfographic illustrating the Taliban's diplomatic meetings in
2021-22.
Who Is Meeting with the Taliban?
Unlike the prior two decades, when the Taliban’s power derived from its
insurgency and armed forces, the group is now making greater use of a key
instrument of state: diplomacy. This is a natural continuation of the
negotiating skills it garnered while working out its 2020 peace and withdrawal
agreement with U.S. officials during meetings in Qatar.
Similar to other states, the Islamic Emirate has regularly promoted its meetings
with foreign officials over the past year, using official government and media
websites and Twitter accounts. As of August 12, it had publicly announced 378
diplomatic meetings with at least 35 countries, or 440 meetings if one includes
each country’s mutual presence at a multilateral event. These encounters covered
a wide range of issues, including humanitarian aid, governance assistance,
economic opportunities, industrial investment, and religious exchanges. In other
words, despite not being de jure recognized, the Taliban is de facto
recognized—its Islamic Emirate has been steadily acknowledged via numerous
noncommittal acts.
Of the 440 engagements, 153 (35%) were held with Middle Eastern states—the
highest proportion of any regional bloc. Moreover, Western engagement with the
Taliban has generally taken place at multilateral events, while states from
other regions have favored bilateral meetings. This trend highlights the
continued Western discomfort with the group beyond international forums focused
primarily on humanitarian aid.
In contrast, China has met with Taliban officials more often than any other
country, illustrating how the Islamic Emirate’s return has a great-power
competition angle that transcends the West’s focus on potential counterterrorism
ramifications. Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other Chinese officials have been
careful to emphasize their policy of non-interference in Afghanistan. On March
24, Wang planted a commemorative tree at the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry compound
“in hopes of a prosperous Afghanistan.” Since then, much of Beijing’s engagement
has been related to business opportunities through the Afghanistan-China
Business Association, an organization whose mission reportedly focuses on
helping Chinese companies invest in Afghan industries (e.g., antiquities
preservation, coal and copper mining, infrastructure, oil and gas extraction,
slaughterhouses) while bringing Afghanistan into the Belt and Road Initiative.
Two of the largest projects signed thus far are the development of an industrial
park in eastern Nangarhar province and a 20 percent stake agreement between the
firm Oxus and the Afghanistan Oil and Gas State Company to extract oil from the
Qashqari site in northern Sar-e-Pol province.
Notably, this warming relationship has been accompanied by shifts in some of
Kabul’s rhetoric toward the United States. For example, Taliban officials such
as Abdul Wahid Rayan, director-general of the state-run Bakhtar News Agency,
have been increasingly parroting Chinese disinformation about America.
Where and How Often Are They Meeting?
Although most of the Taliban’s diplomatic meetings have taken place in Kabul,
the second most-used venue has been Doha, Qatar, where Western nations can
engage the group more comfortably without granting it as much legitimacy as
going to Afghanistan would. Yet more direct Western engagement has occurred as
well. In January, for instance, Norway hosted Taliban Foreign Ministry officials
in Oslo, which created opportunities for greater international dialogue.
Afterward, Norway reopened its embassy in Kabul, officials from the Swiss
National Bank visited Afghanistan’s central bank, the Taliban’s minister of
mines and petroleum hosted representatives from a British company to discuss
business opportunities, and the minister of energy and water hosted officials
from a Swedish company.
Taliban engagement has expanded even further over the past few months, likely
due to multilateral events such as the Antalya Diplomatic Forum in early March,
the Tunxi Neighboring Countries Meeting in late March, and the Tashkent
International Conference in late July. Such meetings enabled the group to
cultivate relations with states that they may not have engaged with before while
deepening relations with those they already met. The pace of engagements seems
to have slowed somewhat this month, perhaps due to Zawahiri’s death and the
resultant fallout, or because of the Taliban’s preoccupation with planning
celebrations for the anniversary of its takeover.
Recent embassy activity has been noteworthy as well. Sixteen countries have
reopened their embassies in Kabul since the Taliban takeover: China, the
European Union, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway,
Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates,
and Uzbekistan. Other countries such as Germany and Malaysia have hinted at
reopening their embassies soon. Likewise, the Taliban has reestablished Afghan
embassies in eight countries: China, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan. Despite the gap between
countries willing to reopen embassies in Afghanistan versus those willing to
grant the Taliban a diplomatic presence in their own territory, the overall
trend is telling: the group is much less isolated than it was in the late 1990s,
even if official recognition is not coming as quickly as its leaders would like.
Ramifications
Going forward, the Taliban will likely continue expanding its diplomatic reach
and international legitimacy, with China at the forefront of the latter effort.
Yet the group’s profile in the West will remain limited so long as it persists
with threatening actions—namely, harboring al-Qaeda leaders and then gaslighting
foreign officials about the fact that it is still doing so despite pledging it
would stop. Washington may need to rethink its approach to both fighting
al-Qaeda and engaging the Taliban given the latter’s reported ties to Zawahiri.
U.S. officials should also consider pushing other nations to stall, cancel, or
lessen their engagement with the group in order to sap some of the legitimacy it
has gained in the past year. Humanitarian aid should be continued, of course.
Yet behind the facade of improved public relations, the Taliban’s response to
Zawahiri’s death and its months-long effort to curb freedoms in Afghanistan make
clear that old habits die hard.
*Aaron Y. Zelin is the Richard Borow Fellow at The Washington Institute and
founder of the website Jihadology.net.
The Rushdie Attack and Iran’s Deceptive “Fatwas”
Mehdi Khalaji/The Washington Institute/August 15/ 2022
Whether or not Tehran is proven to be involved, the incident holds significant
implications for the regime's international diplomacy and terrorist activity—not
to mention its claims about the applicability of Khamenei’s “nuclear fatwa.”
The August 12 assassination attempt against Salman Rushdie reveals a great deal
about the Iranian regime’s current mindset, particularly when one takes a close
look at Tehran’s initial response. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior
officials have remained largely silent about the attack so far, while Foreign
Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani denied any Iranian involvement during a press
conference earlier today. At the same time, however, multiple regime-affiliated
media outlets—and Kanaani himself to a certain extent—have explicitly praised
the attack and expressed admiration for its perpetrator, Hadi Matar, portraying
him as a true follower of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini.
On August 14, Kayhan newspaper—owned by Khamenei and run by his representative
Hossein Shariatmadari—addressed the issue in an article headlined “Salman
Rushdie Trapped in Divine Revenge: Trump and Pompeo Are Next Targets.” The story
goes on to suggest that the attack on “the apostate author...who insulted the
prophet of Islam” should be regarded as an Iranian response to the Trump
administration’s targeted killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
general Qasem Soleimani in January 2020. The article then offered the following
threat: “We should not remain passive and commit miscalculation...The response
to animosity cannot be wishful thinking, passiveness, and flexibility...The
attack on Salman Rushdie proves that getting revenge against criminals on U.S.
territory is not difficult, and from now on Trump and [his former secretary of
state Mike] Pompeo will find themselves under more serious threat.”
Similarly, the official government newspaper Iran claimed that “the big message”
of Matar’s attack is clear—Muslims still hold great “love in their hearts for
the prophet of Islam,” and not even the passage of many years has diminished
their anger at “insults and mockeries” from Europe and the wider West. According
to the article, the perpetrator who “implemented” Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa calling
for Rushdie’s death was “a twenty-four years young Muslim,” representing “a new
phenomenon that reveals how faith in divine orders is still alive and well in
the heart of the modern world.” (The question of whether this edict was truly a
fatwa is discussed at length in the next section.)
The same day, the headline “The Unseen Arrow” appeared in Javan, a newspaper
affiliated with the IRGC (with “unseen” implying “divine” in this context). This
story likewise praised Matar as “a young Muslim who was not born until after
Rushdie published The Satanic Verses” but nevertheless sought revenge for
Rushdie’s “crime.”
For its part, Jam-e Jam—the official newspaper of Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting (IRIB), an increasingly influential agency under Khamenei’s direct
supervision—published a front-page article titled “The Satan’s Eyes Are
Blinded.” The story then proudly supported the attack, claiming, “In reality,
the act of terror against Rushdie after thirty-three years proves that the power
of the Truth to get revenge on Untruth transcends time and place.”
Khomeini’s “Fatwa”
The late ayatollah’s infamous 1989 order to murder Rushdie and his publishers
has long held essential ideological value for the regime, especially as a symbol
of its self-claimed leadership over the Muslim umma (community) and the success
of its pan-Islamic agenda. At the time it was issued, however, the government of
President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani desperately needed to establish economic
relations with Europe in order to reconstruct its economy following the
devastating war with Iraq. Thus, when Khomeini died just months after issuing
the fatwa, the regime sought a deceptive formulation that would enable it to
normalize relations with parts of the West without submitting to international
demands for repealing the fatwa.
Upon succeeding Khomeini, Supreme Leader Khamenei and Rafsanjani agreed on how
to resolve the dilemma: by claiming that there was a distinction between
Khomeini as a marja (source of emulation) who issues fatwas for his religious
followers, and Khomeini as head of the Iranian government. Using this
formulation, Tehran could claim to Europe that the Rushdie fatwa was not
necessarily the state’s official position, and that the government had no
intention of implementing it—even though the state still refused to publicly
reject the edict, government propaganda organs continued promoting it, and
Khamenei kept reiterating it as the new de facto head of state (in fact, one of
his affiliated foundations, Panzdahom-e Khordad, increased the bounty on
Rushdie’s head to $3.3 million in 2011).
This disingenuous argument was largely effective—Rafsanjani succeeded in
resuming relations with Europe, while Khamenei’s public remarks kept the fatwa
alive in subsequent years. In one speech, for example, he declared, “It’s been a
long time since [the fatwa was issued]. That ignorant [Rushdie] and his ignorant
followers suppose that it is over! Not at all. There is no end for this issue.”
In other speeches he made clear that the fatwa was “unchangeable.”
This supposed immutability—and, indeed, the origins of the fatwa
itself—illustrate the regime’s deceitful use of Rushdie as an ideological pawn.
The entire saga also casts a glaring light on Tehran’s willingness to exploit
religious sentiment and law for political purposes, including in the nuclear
realm.
For one thing, it is a matter of consensus among Muslim jurists (including Shia)
that fatwas can be changed under specific conditions. Khamenei’s insistence that
the Rushdie order has “no end” is therefore false even on basic religious terms.
Second, several factors indicate that Khomeini’s fatwa was not technically a
fatwa:
It is the only fatwa for which there is no proof that he wrote it down as a
formal religious order; it was only announced by state radio.
There is no religious or juridical basis for such a fatwa in the history of
Islamic jurisprudence, as explained by prominent mujtahids (jurists) such as
Mehdi Haeri Yazdi in his book Philosophy and Government (Hekmat va Hokoumat)
Khomeini was unable to read English, Rushdie’s book had not been translated into
Persian at the time, and the Supreme Leader was never known to read novels of
any kind regardless, so he could not have issued the “fatwa” as a carefully
considered religious response to an offensive text; rather, it was simply a
political decision he made in service of his ideological objectives, and
Khamenei has perpetuated it for the same reasons.
Third, Shia jurists also agree that a Muslim cannot follow a dead mujtahid
unless he was a follower before the jurist’s demise. Hadi Matar is obviously far
too young to have followed Khomeini during his time, so he should not be
religiously authorized to implement a fatwa issued by the late leader.
These points reverberate far beyond Rushdie’s personal safety, especially when
one recalls that the regime has spent years trumpeting another key fatwa:
Khamenei’s edict prohibiting the production or use of nuclear weapons. Iran’s
past and present nuclear negotiators have often insisted that the regime is a
religious republic ruled by the Supreme Leader as the chief Shia jurist, so his
fatwas are therefore the main basis for Iranian decisionmaking on major policy
issues. Yet by demanding that the international community regard Khamenei’s
fatwa as a reliable guarantee of Tehran’s supposed uninterest in militarizing
its nuclear program, the regime completely contradicts its insistence that the
Rushdie fatwa is not state policy.
Terrorism and Totalitarianism
Years’ worth of statements by the Supreme Leader and other Iranian officials
show how they take pride in portraying the regime as a totalitarian government
with a pan-Islamic agenda. Khamenei is almost never mentioned in state media
without the sobriquet “the leader of the Muslim world.” And according to the
Islamic Republic’s official rhetoric, the power that enables this
all-encompassing leadership is the “power to terrorize and destroy.” For
instance, the regime’s “regional power” is often expressed in terms of Iran’s
supposed power to annihilate Israel. Likewise, “Victory by Terror” is the
explicit leading strategy that Khamenei has repeatedly spelled out.
Tehran’s latest rhetoric about Rushdie reflects the same mindset, insisting to
listeners that the regime is fully capable of threatening its American, Muslim,
or Iranian opponents even on U.S. territory. Khamenei still perceives America as
his enemy par excellence, so he is keen on convincing Americans that their
personal security is at risk—one of many ways in which he seeks to counter and
soften U.S. policies aimed at curtailing Iran’s destabilizing regional strategy.
In his view, globalizing such terror (increasingly with the help of foreign
operatives) is necessary in order to prove that his regime is the real
“superpower” in the fight against the West. Policymakers should be careful not
to forget the apocalyptic mindset that undergirds much of this rhetoric, whether
one is talking about assassination attempts against lone activists, provocative
regional military strikes, or, most important of all, nuclear brinkmanship.
*Mehdi Khalaji is the Libitzky Family Fellow at The Washington Institute.