English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 01/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.december01.22.htm
News Bulletin Achieves
Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Bible Quotations For today
My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when
you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and
chastises every child whom he accepts. Therefore lift your drooping hands and
strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what
is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed
Letter to the Hebrews 12/01-13/:”Since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight
and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race
that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,
who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne
of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so
that you may not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have
not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the
exhortation that addresses you as children ‘My child, do not regard lightly the
discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord
disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.’
Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for
what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that
discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his
children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected
them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits
and live?For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he
disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now,
discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it
yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make
straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint,
but rather be healed.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on November 30
- December 01/2022
Berri schedules parliament session to discuss proposal to press charges
in telecom file
Al-Rahi meets Arab Ambassadors in Italy
Depositor storms Credit Libanais in Chhîm to treat wife with cancer
Depositors upset as joint committees discuss capital control
Bou Saab: Capital control law on right track
Mouawad on capital control: Ruling class evading accountability, depositors
paying price
Berri to 'provide cover' for cabinet session called for by Mikati
Geagea says dialogue with Hezbollah is 'waste of time'
Two containers go up in flames at Beirut port
Politicians deprive Lebanese of 'simple pleasure of watching World Cup'
Countries including Lebanon agree concrete change to end sexual violence in
conflict
Trial underway in 2016 Ivory Coast attack that killed 19, including Lebanese
US-Iran meme: 'First time they play outside Lebanon'
Mikati receives invitation to attend Arab-Chinese summit in Riyadh
Italian participation in the Technology and Know-How Exchange Workshop in the
field of restoration and reconstruction in Beirut from November 30 to...
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on November 30 -
December 01/2022
Iran Sentences 4 People to Death for ‘Cooperating’ with Israeli
Intelligence
Iran sentences four people to death for 'cooperating' with Israeli intelligence
-Mehr news agency
Danish TV presenter ‘detained by Qatari Police for filming
Russia says it will focus on building nuclear arms infrastructure in 2023
The EU is looking at seizing $330 billion in frozen Russian assets and investing
them — with any profits going to Ukraine
Olena Zelenska: Russian troops raped four-year-old girl in Ukraine
Ukraine says Russia must withdraw from Zaporizhzhia plant for protection plan to
succeed
Ukraine Welcomes Arms Offers, No Word on Patriot Missiles
Türkiye: More Steps Needed for Nod to Nordic States’ NATO Bid
Russian, Chinese Bombers Fly Joint Patrols over Pacific
Ukraine says tightening security at embassies after Spain letter bomb
Russia should use advanced weapons in Ukraine, Shoigu says
Israel's Ben-Gvir squabbles with military chief about ethics
Macron kicks off US state visit, with trade dispute looming
Titles For The
Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November 30
- December 01/2022
Biden Rewards Palestinians for Terrorism, Incitement/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone
Institute/November 30, 2022
Seven US Betrayals of Kurds within a Century… Will It Fail Them Again in Syria?/Ibrahim
Hamidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 30/2022
Who Will Respond to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/November,
30/2022
Us… As Iran’s Living Space/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 30/2022
Possibility of a Military Operation and a Handshake in Syria/Omer Onhon/Asharq
Al-Awsat/November, 30/2022
The Tenacity of Young Iranians in the Protest Movement/Haleh Esfandiari/The
Washington Institute/November 30/2022
America not to blame for Europe’s problems/Dr. Amal Mudallali/Arab News/November
30/2022
on November 30
- December 01/2022
Berri schedules parliament session to discuss
proposal to press charges in telecom file
NNA/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
House Speaker Nabih Berri has scheduled a session for the parliament to look
into a proposal to press charges in the telecom file for 11:00 am on Wednesday,
December 7.
Al-Rahi meets Arab Ambassadors in Italy
NNA/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, met at the residence of
Lebanese Ambassador to Italy, Mira Daher, the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, Bahrain, the Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, and
Iraq accredited to Italy, in an acquaintance visit, in the presence of The
Patriarchal Delegate to the Holy See and President of the Maronite Pontifical
Institute in Rome, Bishop John Rafik Al-Warsha, and the curator of the Priestly
Institute, Joseph Sfeir. The atmosphere of the meeting was described as
friendly.
Depositor storms Credit Libanais in Chhîm to treat wife
with cancer
Naharnet/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
A depositor stormed Wednesday a bank in the town of Chhîm to retrieve his
savings in order to fund his wife’s cancer treatment. Depositor Walid Hajjar
walked into the Credit Libanais Bank with his family, poured about gasoline and
threatened to set the bank on fire if he did not get his money out. Lebanon’s
cash-strapped banks have imposed strict limits on withdrawals of foreign
currency since 2019, tying up the savings of millions of people, leaving no
other choice for Lebanese bank depositors but to take matters into their own
hands. Several groups advocating and protesting for Lebanese depositors have
emerged since 2019, and in the past months, many depositors with or without a
weapon have stormed banks demanding funds from their locked savings account. The
majority needed their money for urgent medical bills, and were hailed by some
Lebanese as heroes. The standoff and public sympathy for those taking matters
into their own hands to get their savings has exposed the depths of people’s
despair in Lebanon’s economic crisis, which has pulled over three-quarters of
the country’s population into poverty, unable to cope with skyrocketing food,
electricity, and gasoline prices. Meanwhile, Lebanese officials struggle to
implement structural reforms for an economic recovery plan approved by the
International Monetary Fund to unlock billions of dollars in loans and aid to
make the country viable again.
Depositors upset as joint committees discuss capital
control
Naharnet/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Joint parliamentary committees convened again on Wednesday to resume the
discussion of a capital control draft law. The committees had convened Tuesday,
as depositors and activists rallied near Parliament to protest the law. The
Lebanese Depositors Association slammed Wednesday the capital control law,
accusing it of violating the constitution. It considered that the law is unfair
as it was not preceded by a law that ensures retrieving the money that Lebanese
politicians and people in power had transferred overseas. "It is not acceptable
that a politician could transfer his savings while the Lebanese people are being
humiliated at the banks," the association said in a statement. Since October
2019, banks have been imposing informal capital controls, barring depositors
from reaching into their dollar accounts, as well as stopping transfers, amid a
severe financial crisis. The capital control law will impose official
restrictions on transfers and withdrawals. "Banks have been for three years
unfairly imposing an informal capital control and the law today is legalizing
the banks' violations against the depositors," the statement said. The adoption
of a capital control law is one of the reforms requested by the International
Monetary Fund to financially help crisis-hit Lebanon. MPs from different
political parties have long said they will defend the depositors' rights. "Our
aim is to protect the depositors' savings and to stop the overseas transfers,"
Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad said Tuesday after a session that discussed the law in
parliament.
Bou Saab: Capital control law on right track
Naharnet/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
The capital control draft law that is being discussed by the joint parliamentary
committees is on the “right track,” Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said on
Wednesday. “We have discussed the draft clause by clause and it needs drastic
amendments in many points,” Bou Saab said after a committees session.
“The discussion is on the right track and today the third article related to the
committee that will oversee the implementation of the law nearly consumed all
the time,” Bou Saab added. He clarified that the two pending items are “defining
the new funds and the lawsuits filed against the banks.” “I do not agree that
the capital control law is against depositors’ rights and I will continue my
main objective, which is carrying on with the discussions until the law is
finalized by the joint committees,” Bou Saab went on to say. He also noted that
“a significant number of MPs have demanded that the law be returned to the
government, refusing any discussion, as others consider that it’s too late while
a third group want discussions with the necessary amendments.”
Mouawad on capital control: Ruling class evading
accountability, depositors paying price
Naharnet/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Lawmaker and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad slammed Wednesday a capital
control draft law after joint parliamentary sessions resumed discussing it.
Mouawad said that the law will make the depositors bear the burden of the
financial crisis. "They are trying to escape accountability and make the
depositors bear the burden and pay the price," Mouawad said in a press
conference after the capital control session. Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab had
reportedly said that some MPs do not want to pass nor discuss the law. "We are
not against the law in principle but approving it before restructuring the
banking system means writing off the depositors’ savings," Mouawad said. The
lawmaker went on to say that there is "a clear plan aiming at writing off the
depositors' savings in order to finance the ruling class," and that the capital
control law is legalizing the "lollar" -- depositors' dollars stuck in the
Lebanese banks. The Lebanese Depositors Association had also earlier on
Wednesday slammed the law, considering that politicians and people in power had
transferred their money out of the country but now the Lebanese people are being
humiliated at the banks. Mouawad backed this idea, saying that the Lebanese
politicians did what they did and now the depositors will pay the price. He also
criticized the state budget, which he said would further exasperate the
collapse. Mouawad said he had signed an appeal along with nine other MPs before
the Constitutional Council against the 2022 state budget law.
Berri to 'provide cover' for cabinet session called for by
Mikati
Naharnet/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will provide cover for any call for a cabinet
session that caretaker PM Najib Mikati may make, informed sources said.
“Necessities permit the forbidden and if preserving (sectarian) balances is
necessary, protecting people’s health is a duty,” the sources told al-Joumhouria
newspaper in remarks published Wednesday. Media reports have said that Mikati
intends to call for a cabinet session to approve a decree for dispensing overdue
payments to hospitals. Mikati might call for the session next week, MTV reported
on Tuesday. Following talks with Mikati that tackled the issue of hospitals,
caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad had said that “there is a problem
regarding the increase that occurred to the Health Ministry’s hospitalization
budget, seeing as it is necessary to issue a decree… to be able to implement the
increases on fees.”“Due to the absence of cabinet sessions, this decree was not
issued, and accordingly the Finance Ministry informed us that it is not possible
to pay these overdue fees, which threatens the continuity of hospitalization
services,” Abiad added.The cabinet has not convened since the expiry of Michel
Aoun’s presidential term on October 31. The Free Patriotic Movement has
meanwhile warned against convening the caretaker cabinet amid a presidential
vacuum.
Geagea says dialogue with Hezbollah is 'waste of time'
Naharnet/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has blamed Hezbollah and its allies for the
crises that are gripping the country, noting that dialogue with them is of no
use. “We cannot exit the crisis through talking to those who caused it,” Geagea
said in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat newspaper published Wednesday.
“Reaching an understanding with Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement would
be impossible, seeing as we have witnessed their practices and we know their
truth,” the LF leader added. Noting that Hezbollah “has a major project that is
rooted in religion, history and geography,” Geagea said the Iran-backed party
“wants dialogue to be able to impose its conditions.” “That’s why we won’t
engage in dialogue with them, because dialogue with them is a waste of time
whereas we cannot waste a single minute,” the LF leader added. Moreover, Geagea
said that the LF is not clinging to its presidential candidate MP Michel Mouawad
nor Mouawad himself is clinging to his own nomination “if there is a convincing
alternative who enjoys the same needed qualifications and can win more votes.”
Two containers go up in flames at Beirut port
Naharnet/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Two containers went up in flames on Wednesday at the blast-hit Port of Beirut.
State-run National News Agency said the containers had car parts and furniture
in them. The fire was eventually extinguished by the port’s Civil Defense
platoon and the Beirut Fire Brigade. “The blaze has been brought under control
and cooling operations continue to prevent any re-eruption of the flames,” NNA
added. A blaze at one of the port's hangars in August 2020 had caused one of the
most powerful explosions in history after hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate
caught fire. The blast killed more than 220 people and injured around 7,000.
Politicians deprive Lebanese of 'simple pleasure of
watching World Cup'
Agence France Presse/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Football fans looking for a respite from Lebanon's crushing economic crisis have
found a challenge in simply watching the World Cup after the bankrupt state
failed to pay for broadcasting rights. "No football this year," said Jean Bassil
angrily, flicking through channels on his old-fashioned television screen.
"They have deprived me of the only fun thing amid all this bad news," the
58-year-old told AFP at his small phone accessories shop in Jounieh, north of
the capital Beirut. Lebanon has been gripped by an economic crisis that the
World Bank dubbed one of the worst in modern history. Since late 2019, the local
currency has lost more than 95 percent of its market value, and poverty rates
have climbed to cover most of the population. Right until the start of the World
Cup on November 20, Lebanese had hoped the matches would be broadcast free on
public network Tele Liban, as was the case during the 2018 tournament. But the
caretaker cabinet has never approved the $5 million expense. This has left many
football fans with little choice but to watch the tournament in cafes, or via
bootleg streaming services on their phones -- though many complain Lebanon's
sluggish internet has made this difficult.
'All we can afford'
"After these three years, we Lebanese feel we need this fun," said Samer Idriss,
an 18-year-old student, at a cafe-restaurant in Dekwaneh, east of Beirut. The
flags of teams such as Brazil, Argentina and Germany dot the streets of towns
and cities across Lebanon. But amid the country's overall gloomy outlook, even
the usual football fever seems somewhat toned down. "We try to have fun... as
much as our economic situation allows," said Idriss, wearing a Brazil jersey and
brandishing the South American country's flag. Lebanon's economic meltdown came
in tandem with the coronavirus pandemic and a devastating explosion at the
Beirut port in 2020 that killed more than 200 people and ravaged swathes of the
capital. The struggling state is now unable to deliver more than an hour or two
of mains electricity a day, and the cost of a full tank of petrol now far
exceeds the minimum monthly wage. Idriss said he paid 250,000 Lebanese pounds
(around six dollars) to watch a recent World Cup game, but some venues may ask
for up to double that amount. Others crowd pavements around informal streetside
cafes whose generator-powered televisions light up roads plunged into darkness.
"We're watching at a cafe... It's all we can afford," said Zein Nasreddine, who
works for a security company, at a venue in Beirut's southern suburbs. For
Tuesday night's highly anticipated Iran-United States game, a crowd watched at
an outdoor cafe in that area -- a stronghold of Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed
Hezbollah -- some smoking shisha or waving Iranian flags. Those who prefer to
stay home and can afford it have instead started splitting the cost of cable
television subscriptions, but even that is a luxury for many. Sharbel Ghoussoub,
35, said he and his sister had shared the $90 for a subscription. "They have
even managed to deprive the Lebanese of the simple pleasure of watching the
World Cup for free," he complained.
Countries including Lebanon agree concrete change to end
sexual violence in conflict
Naharnet/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
More than 50 countries, including Lebanon, and the U.N. agreed urgent action to
end sexual violence in conflict at the UK-hosted PSVI Conference this week,
signing up to a new declaration, the British embassy in Lebanon said. The
countries agreed to take action to address triggers such as gender inequality,
remove the stigma faced by victims, and make sure national laws are in place to
prosecute perpetrators. Around 40 countries, including Colombia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Japan have also gone further, and set out national commitments
on the practical steps they will take to tackle these crimes and make a
difference on the ground. For example, Nigeria has committed to champion the
Murad Code, a UK-backed code of conduct to ensure that the experiences of
survivors of sexual violence in conflict are documented ethically and
effectively. The United States has committed $10 million over 2 years to support
civil society organizations to document sexual violence in conflict in line with
the Murad Code. U.S. President Joe Biden has also issued a memorandum setting
out Washington’s intention to promote accountability for conflict-related sexual
violence, including through economic sanctions, visa restrictions, and
additional measures and authorities. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of
Ukraine, reports of sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers against
civilians escalated. In addition, assessments conducted in Moldova, Poland, and
Romania revealed high risks of organized trafficking and sexual exploitation and
abuse of women and children. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said:
“Rape in war violates international values as severely as the use of chemical
weapons. We must hold perpetrators to account and deliver justice for those
affected.” “By signing this declaration, we are clear that sexual violence in
conflict is a line that should never be crossed. Now is the time to take real
action globally to end this horrific crime,” he added. When opening the
conference, the Foreign Secretary announced a 3-year strategy to tackle sexual
violence in conflict which will be backed by up to £12.5 million of new funding.
Minister of State at the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office and the Prime
Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict,
Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, said: “In the last 10 years, we have come a
long way, but we know that much more must be done, both to help survivors and to
prevent others from suffering such violence. Rape, torture, sexual violence is
real, it is happening today. It is a shocking reality of our world in 2022.”
“Our aim is to make a long-lasting, tangible change in the lives of survivors,
while preventing others from going through similar horrific ordeals in the
future. We owe it to the courageous survivors who are an inspiration to us all,”
he added. Representatives from around 40 countries attended the 2-day conference
in London, which brought the international community together to take action to
end these horrific crimes. The conference heard from survivors whose moving
testimony demonstrated how sexual violence in war and conflict can shatter
lives.
Trial underway in 2016 Ivory Coast attack that killed 19,
including Lebanese
Agence France Presse/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Eighteen people have gone on trial in Ivory Coast accused of involvement in one
of West Africa's bloodiest jihadist attacks -- a machine-gun assault on a beach
resort in 2016 that left 19 dead, including one Lebanese. But only four of the
18 will be physically present for the long-awaited proceedings in Abidjan, Ivory
Coast's economic hub. The others are either on the run or being held in Mali,
said Aude Rimailho, a lawyer for civilian plaintiffs. On March 13, 2016, three
men wielding assault rifles attacked Grand-Bassam, a tourist complex 40
kilometers (25 miles) east of Abidjan popular with foreigners. In an operation
echoing a jihadist massacre the previous year in Tunisia, they stormed the beach
and then attacked several hotels and restaurants. The 45-minute bloodbath ended
when the three were shot dead by Ivorian security forces. Al-Qaeda's North
African affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed
responsibility the same day. It said the attack was in response to anti-jihadist
operations in the Sahel by France and its allies, and targeted Ivory Coast for
having handed over AQIM militants to Mali.
Terrorism, murder charges
Several dozen people were arrested, including three suspected accomplices of the
dead attackers, who were detained in Mali.
The charges against the 18 include acts of terrorism, murder, attempted murder,
criminal concealment, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition "and
complicity in these deeds," Public Prosecutor Richard Adou said last week.
Nineteen people were killed -- nine Ivorians, four French citizens, a Lebanese,
a German, a Macedonian, a Malian, a Nigerian and a person who could not be
identified. Thirty-three people of various nationalities were wounded. Rimailho,
representing French plaintiffs, said those on trial were "small fry" and
cautioned against seeing the proceedings as a chance for closure. "The people
who planned the operation are in Mali," she said. The prospects of seeing them
on trial there are clouded by "the chill between France and Mali," she said,
referring to a breakdown in relations between Paris and the Malian ruling junta.
Mali is the epicenter of a decade-long jihadist revolt that has shaken the Sahel,
claiming thousands of lives and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their
homes. The attack on Grand-Bassam was the first and deadliest in a string of
sporadic attacks on countries lying on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, south of
the Sahel. In January 2017, members of France's Barkhane anti-jihadist force
captured a key suspect, Mimi Ould Baba Ould Cheikh. He is described by Ivory
Coast investigators as one of the instigators of the Grand-Bassam attack and by
Burkina Faso as the "operation leader" in an assault on the Burkinabe capital
Ouagadougou in January 2016 that claimed 30 lives.
US-Iran meme: 'First time they play outside Lebanon'
Associated Press/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
The U.S. team's victory over Iran at the World Cup on Tuesday was closely
watched across the Middle East, where the two nations have been engaged in a
cold war for over four decades and where many blame one or both for the region's
woes. Critics of Iran say it has fomented war and unrest across the Arab world
by supporting powerful armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the
Palestinian territories. Supporters view it as the leader of an "axis of
resistance" against what they see as U.S. imperialism, corrupt Arab rulers and
Israel's oppression of the Palestinians. The divide is especially intense in
Lebanon and Iraq, where heavily armed Iran-backed political factions vie for
political influence with opponents more oriented toward the West. In those
countries, many believe Iran or the U.S. are due for comeuppance — even if only
on the pitch. A meme widely circulated ahead of Tuesday's match between the U.S.
and Iran jokingly referred to it as "the first time they will play outside of
Lebanon." Another Twitter user joked that whoever wins the group stage "takes
Iraq." The Iran-backed Hezbollah was the only armed group to keep its weapons
after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. It says its arms are needed to defend the
country from Israel and blames Lebanon's economic crisis in part on U.S.
sanctions. Opponents decry Hezbollah as an "Iranian occupation," while many
Lebanese accuse both the U.S. and Iran of meddling in their internal affairs. In
Iraq, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion led to years of intense violence and sectarian
strife, and Iran-backed political factions and militias largely filled the
vacuum. While U.S. forces and Iran-backed militias found themselves on the same
side against the Islamic State extremist group, they have traded fire on several
occasions since its defeat. Both Lebanon and Iraq have had to contend with years
of political gridlock, with the main dividing line running between Iran's allies
and opponents. Interviews with soccer fans in Beirut and Baghdad revealed mixed
emotions about the match.
In Beirut's southern suburbs, young men draped in Iranian flags gathered in a
cafe hung with a "Death to America" flag to watch the match. "We are against
America in football, politics and everything else," Ali Nehme said. "God is with
Lebanon and Iran."Across the city on the seafront promenade, Beirut resident
Aline Noueyhed said, "Of course I'm not with Iran after all the disasters they
made. Definitely, I'm with America." She added, however, that the U.S. also was
"not 100% helping us." The post-game reaction in the streets of Beirut after the
U.S. defeated Iran 1-0, eliminating it from the tournament and advancing to the
knockout round, was far more subdued than after the previous day's win by Brazil
— a fan favorite in Lebanon — over Switzerland. In this year's matchup,
allegiances have been scrambled by the nationwide protests gripping Iran, with
some Iranians openly rooting against their own team. The players declined to
sing along to their national anthem ahead of their opening match, in what was
seen as an expression of sympathy for the protests, but reversed course and sang
ahead of their next one. In some neighborhoods of Tehran, people chanted "Death
to the dictator!" after the match, even though it was past midnight local time.
Danyel Reiche, a visiting associate professor at Georgetown University Qatar who
has researched the politics of sports, said World Cup fandom is not necessarily
an indicator of political affiliation, even in countries with deep divisions.
Local sports in Lebanon are "highly politicized," with all the major basketball
and soccer clubs having political and sectarian affiliations, he said. But when
it comes to the World Cup — where Lebanon has never qualified to play — fans
latch on to any number of teams. That's true across the region, where fans
sporting Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo jerseys can be found from Gaza to
Afghanistan. "This is one of the few spheres where people have the liberty and
freedom to choose a country that they simply like and not the country where they
think there's an obligation for them to be affiliated with it," Reiche said.
Mikati receives invitation to attend Arab-Chinese summit in
Riyadh
NNA/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Wednesday received Saudi Ambassador
to Lebanon, Waleed Bukhari, who handed him an invitation from King Salman bin
Abdulaziz to attend the Arab-Chinese summit, to be held in Riyadh on December
9.Following the meeting, Bukhari said that he discussed with Mikati the
bilateral relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. "I stressed the importance
of moving forward with the government's reform program and the roadmap set by
the International Monetary Fund," said the diplomat.
Italian participation in the Technology and Know-How
Exchange Workshop in the field of restoration and reconstruction in Beirut from
November 30 to...
NNA/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
The Office of the Italian Trade Agency in Beirut, organized today, under the
patronage of the Embassy of Italy and in cooperation with Assorestauro - Italian
Association for Architecture, Art and Urban Restoration - a Workshop on
technology and Know-how Exchange in the field of restoration and reconstruction
at the headquarters of "Rebirth Beirut" in Gemmayze, at the heart of Beirut that
was largely damaged by the Aug 4 explosion. The venue for carrying out the works
of the event was chosen precisely because it is representative of a heritage
civil building that has been completely restored and returned to the city to
preserve its history and culture. The initiative includes visits to restoration
and construction sites in the capital, in addition to a technical Seminar
organized by Alba (Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts). The event planned by ICE
Beirut office as a hub for consolidating relations between companies and
business associations of the two countries, is part of a broader spectrum of
activities in the restoration field involving various actors from both the
public and private sectors.
In the opening, Claudio Pasqualucci, the Director of ITA Beirut outlined the
strategic phases of the project, introduced the speakers and presented the next
edition of the International Restoration Exhibition to be held in Ferrara from
May 10 to 12, 2023, which will feature for the first time, exhibiting companies
from Lebanon. Afterwards, within the core of her speech, H.E. Ambassador
Nicoletta Bombardiere highlighted the importance of Italian intervention in the
restoration sector in Lebanon, reminding of the various restoration projects and
works already executed and those to be implemented in the country. Then, Mr.
Gaby Ferneine, founder of Rebirth Beirut established in Beirut in 2020, took the
floor and described Rebirth Beirut's activities to support sustainable urban
development in Beirut and the ongoing projects undertaken to highlight Beirut as
a capital of culture and prosperity. Italian institutional speakers at the event
included delegates from AICS (Italian Agency for Development Cooperation),
Assorestauro (Italian Association for Architecture, Art, and Urban Restoration),
and Ferrara Fair. In addition to Rebirth Beirut, Lebanese institutional speakers
represented by the Lebanese Contractors Syndicate, Beirut Order of Engineers and
Architects, UN Habitat, RDCL (Lebanese Business Leaders Association) and Beirut
Heritage Initiative, were present at the event. In the session dedicated to
business matching, the nine participating Italian companies (Associazione SOS
Archivi, Bonifica Spa, Fibre Net Spa, Fima Engineering Srl, Hydea S.p.A, Lucente
International Lawyers, Saciarkeo, Syremont Monument Management Spa, Vetreria
d'Arte Gamberini) were presented to an audience of about 100 local business
people, completing a total of 180 B2B meetings with their local counterparts in
attendance. In parallel to the works, Director Pasqualucci underlined that the
initiative confirmed the potential offered by the Lebanese market to Italian
companies and showed how after years of complex economic and social crisis,
Lebanon is witnessing some signs of recovery supported, above all, by private
initiatives. He also highlighted the importance of deepening synergies in a
field in which cooperation between the two countries is particularly intense
among both institutional and private partners.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on November 30
- December 01/2022
Iran Sentences 4 People to Death for
‘Cooperating’ with Israeli Intelligence
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Four people were sentenced to death on Wednesday by Iran's judiciary for
allegedly cooperating with the Israeli intelligence service and committing
kidnappings, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. Tehran has long
accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its soil. It has
lately accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of plotting a civil war
in the country, now gripped by some of the biggest anti-government protests
since its 1979 revolution. Mehr named the four accused and, referring to Israel,
said they were "sentenced to death for the crime of cooperating with the
intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping". It added: "With
guidance from the Zionist intelligence service, this network of thugs was
stealing and destroying private and public property, kidnapping people, and
obtaining fake confessions." Mehr said the accused had been arrested by the
Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence. Three other people were
handed prison sentences of between five and 10 years for allegedly committing
crimes such as acting against national security, aiding in kidnapping, and
possessing illegal weapons, it said.
Iran sentences four people to death for 'cooperating' with Israeli intelligence
-Mehr news agency
DUBAI (Reuters)/Wed, November 30, 2022
Four people were sentenced to death on Wednesday by Iran's judiciary for
allegedly cooperating with the Israeli intelligence service and committing
kidnappings, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. The Islamic Republic
has long accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its
soil. Tehran has lately accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of
plotting a civil war in the country, now gripped by some of the biggest
anti-government protests since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Mehr named the four
accused and, referring to Israel, said they were "sentenced to death for the
crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and
for kidnapping". It added: "With guidance from the Zionist intelligence service,
this network of thugs was stealing and destroying private and public property,
kidnapping people, and obtaining fake confessions."Mehr said the accused had
been arrested by the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence.
Three other people were handed prison sentences of between five and 10 years for
allegedly committing crimes such as acting against national security, aiding in
kidnapping, and possessing illegal weapons, it said.
Danish TV presenter ‘detained by Qatari Police for
filming
The Independent/Wed, November 30, 2022
A Danish reporter covering the World Cup in Qatar said he was detained by police
after filming Iranians allegedly being attacked by supporters of the country’s
regime. Rasmus Tantholdt, of Danish network TV2, was attending Iran’s final
group game against the US on Tuesday when he filmed Iranian fans clashing over
the ongoing women’s rights protests in the country at the Al Thumama Stadium in
Doha. Some football fans who showed up in T-shirts with “Women, Life, Freedom”
written on them as a message for support for the ongoing protests, were
allegedly beaten up by a group of men after Iran lost the game, bringing an end
to their tournament. Mr Tantholdt, who recorded videos of the incident, tweeted
late at night on Tuesday: “So now I’m detained by Qatari Police for filming
Iranians who were attacked by pro-government Iranians.”He later tweeted again,
saying he was released after being asked to “delete my pictures which I
refused”. One of the videos shared by him on social media showed two people in
T-shirts supporting the mass protests, who alleged they were attacked and left
with injuries. The two could be heard demanding safe passage outside the venue
as security officials tried to intervene. “They attacked us!” one person in the
video can be heard saying. Other videos showed men holding Iranian flags being
stopped by the police, with one showing a family with two children also caught
in the middle of the skirmish. The journalist, however, has not shared any
further information about his alleged detention. The incident comes amid rising
concerns over media curbs during the ongoing World Cup in the Guld country. In
an earlier incident, the Danish journalist was also interrupted by security
staff who threatened to break his camera. The mass unrest in Iran occurred after
the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini earlier this year. Amini was arrested
for wearing her hijab too loosely, according to the Iran government, and was
detained for “inappropriate attire”.She later died in police custody under
suspicious circumstances.
Russia says it will focus on building nuclear arms
infrastructure in 2023
(Reuters)/November 30, 2022
Russia will pay special attention to building infrastructure for its nuclear
forces in 2023, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday. Shoigu said in
televised comments that the Russia would also work to improve the combat
capabilities of its missile forces and that facilities were being built to
accommodate new missile systems. Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear
weapons in the world, with close to 6,000 warheads. President Vladimir Putin has
placed territory seized by Russia in Ukraine under Moscow's nuclear umbrella,
warning that he is ready to defend Russia's "territorial integrity" by all
available means. The United States says it has warned Russia over the
consequences of any use of nuclear weapons. Russia and the United States were
due to hold talks in Cairo this week on their existing New START treaty, which
limits the number of warheads each can deploy. But Moscow pulled out on the eve
of the meeting, accusing the United States of toxic anti-Russian behaviour and
trying to manipulate the treaty to its advantage.
The EU is looking at seizing $330 billion in frozen
Russian assets and investing them — with any profits going to Ukraine
George Glover/Business Insider/November 30, 2022
The European Union proposed on Wednesday a move to seize and reinvest Russian
assets. The trading bloc plans to give any profits from such investments to
Ukraine. It has already blocked around $330 billion in Russian money, president
Ursula von der Leyen said. The European Union is looking at seizing and
reinvesting frozen Russian assets – and then using the profits made on any
trades to help to rebuild war-torn Ukraine. European Commission president Ursula
von der Leyen said Wednesday that the trading bloc had already blocked about 319
billion euros ($330 billion) that could be reinvested.
"We have the means to make Russia pay," she said in a statement. "We have
blocked 300 billion euros of the Russian central bank reserves and we have
frozen 19 billion euros of Russian oligarchs' money.""In the short term, we
could create, with our partners, a structure to manage these funds and invest
them," von der Leyen added. "We would then use the proceeds for
Ukraine."Russia's ongoing war has caused around 600 billion euros worth of
damage to Ukraine since February, according to the European Commission. Ukraine
has previously called on the trading bloc to use confiscated Russian money to
fund the country's rebuilding efforts. Prime minister Denys Shmyhal said in
October that the trading bloc could eventually be able to seize and reinvest
around $500 billion in frozen assets. EU member states have echoed those calls
to use Russian money to help Ukraine. "There is a huge pot of gold to be taken
and dedicated for Ukraine's reconstruction, which are the assets of the Russian
Federation and Russian oligarchs," Poland prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said
last month. Earlier this year, Russia had said that any move to seize its assets
would be "outright theft".
President von der Leyen also backed the United Nations' proposal to establish a
special court to prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine. "Russia must pay for
its horrific crimes, including for its crime of aggression against a sovereign
state," she said. "This is why, while continuing to support the International
Criminal Court, we are proposing to set up a specialized court, backed by the
United Nations, to investigate and prosecute Russia's crime of aggression."
Olena Zelenska: Russian troops raped four-year-old
girl in Ukraine
Andy Wells/Yahoo News/November 30, 2022
Russian troops are using violence against women as a weapon of war with rape
victims as young as four and as old as 85, according to Ukraine’s first lady
Olena Zelenska. In a speech to MPs and peers on Tuesday evening, Zelenska – the
wife of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – accused Russian forces of sexual
violence and rape during the months-long Ukraine crisis, which is now heading
into a long winter. She said the youngest known victim was among the “thousands”
of such crimes and said the UK must become a “world leader” in securing justice.
Zelenska said: “We do not know how many boys and girls and women and men became
the victims of torture and violence brought by the Russian occupiers. “But it’s
important to understand that Russia brought the systematic violence… “We have
documented thousands of crimes including sexual violence. “The youngest girl who
was raped by the Russian occupiers was four years old. The oldest survivor was
85.”Standing in front of both a Union and Ukrainian flag, she added: “Justice
like victory is not possible without allies.”Zelenska argued that the
International Criminal Court (ICC) does not have the legal force to punish
Moscow for its invasion.
Through a translator, she said: “We need to start the special tribunal against
the crime of aggression of Russia against Ukraine, which will enhance the work
of the ICC and not weaken it.”Stirring up comparisons between the Ukraine crisis
and the Second World War, she went on: “We need to unite the world community
just as it happened in January 1942 to support the special tribunal against the
aggression of Russia against Ukraine. “I’m asking you a small favour to become
the world leader in the justice efforts. “I believe that London can give this
decisive impetus so that the world can become better, fairer, thanks to
you.”House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle introduced Zelenska by saying it
was parliamentarians’ duty to “keep the world awake” to the horrors of Russia’s
invasion as he praised her “bravery”. Former prime minister Boris Johnson, who
had offered vocal support to Ukraine during his premiership, attended the speech
alongside Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed
Davey. Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt was also in attendance,
alongside MPs from across all parties. After her speech, Zelenska toured an
exhibition in Portcullis House detailing alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine
alongside Hoyle, who called the images “shocking, distressing and appalling”. It
came after she visited Downing Street and met prime minister Rishi Sunak’s wife,
Akshata Murthy, on Monday.
Foreign secretary James Cleverly is at a gathering of Nato foreign ministers in
Romania this week, which will discuss how to continue support for Ukraine
throughout the cold winter months.
Ukraine says Russia must withdraw from Zaporizhzhia
plant for protection plan to succeed
BUCHAREST (Reuters)/Wed, November 30, 2022
Russia must withdraw its heavy weapons and military personnel from the
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant if the U.N. atomic watchdog's efforts to create
a protection zone are to succeed, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said
on Wednesday. Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
has been shuttling between Russia and Ukraine for several months to secure a
deal between the two parties to create a protection zone around the
Russian-controlled plant to prevent a nuclear disaster. Kuleba met Grossi in
Bucharest on Tuesday on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial meeting just days
after meeting a Russian delegation in Istanbul. "We both agreed that
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has to be protected and to achieve that Russia
has to withdraw its heavy weapons and military personnel from the station,"
Kuleba said. "We will be considering ways on how to achieve this goal and Rafael
will be doing shuttle diplomacy between Kyiv and Moscow on this."Russia and
Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling at the plant in recent months that
has damaged buildings and knocked out power lines supplying the plant that are
crucial to cooling the six reactors' fuel and avoiding a nuclear meltdown.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's
state-run nuclear energy agency, to seize the plant's assets and transfer its
Ukrainian staff to a new Russian legal entity. Kyiv said that move amounts to
theft. A European diplomatic source said the establishment of such a protection
zone had been complicated since Ukraine retook the strategic city of Kherson.
"We want to create a protective zone, but are also facing Ukraine’s legitimate
desire to recover its territory including this power plant which is even more
important strategically because of Ukraine’s electricity needs since the
Russians have bombarded its infrastructure," the source said. "So we don’t want
to put in a system that would make Russian occupation legitimate."
Ukraine Welcomes Arms Offers, No Word on Patriot
Missiles
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Ukraine’s foreign minister said Wednesday that NATO diplomats have given him a
“number of new commitments” on arming his nation, but declined to say whether
that included promises of badly wanted Patriot missile batteries. Dmytro Kuleba
spoke at a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Bucharest, Romania. Equipping
Ukraine with arms and equipment to rebuild its battered electricity grid to
survive winter under Russian bombardment has been a top issue. At the gathering,
“we heard a number of commitments, new commitments, from various NATO members
with regard to providing Ukraine with more defensive weapons and energy
equipment,” Kuleba told reporters. Kuleba had declared Tuesday that Ukraine most
needs Patriots and electrical transformers, to cope with what NATO says is a
targeted Russian barrage of missile strikes aiming to cripple Ukraine’s energy
transmission grid as it moves into winter. Ukraine is seeking US-made Patriot
missile batteries or other air defense systems that are more advanced than those
it has gotten so far from the United States and other allies to block Russian
airstrikes. Kuleba did not respond to repeated questions from a reporter ahead
of a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Wednesday about whether
he had gotten any commitments on Patriots. “What is very clear to me … is that
support remains strong, resolute, determined” on the behalf of NATO foreign
ministers to continue supporting Ukraine with weapons and other aid, Blinken
said.
Türkiye: More Steps Needed for Nod to Nordic States’ NATO
Bid
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Sweden and Finland have made some progress in meeting Ankara's security concerns
but still need to undertake “concrete steps” to win Türkiye’s approval for their
NATO membership bids, the Turkish foreign minister said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg underlined that “it is time
to welcome them as full-fledged members of the alliance.” The military alliance
is eager to add the two Nordic nations to its ranks. Sweden and Finland
abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for
membership in the alliance after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February,
amid concerns that Russia might target them next. Türkiye, which has accused the
Nordic countries of ignoring threats to Türkiye from Kurdish militants and other
groups that it considers as terrorists, has not endorsed their accession. The
parliaments of Türkiye and Hungary have yet to ratify their applications. The 28
other NATO states have already done so. Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu met with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts in the sidelines of a
NATO meeting in Bucharest on Tuesday.
“These two countries have taken some steps to fulfill their obligations. We do
not ignore the steps that were taken,” Cavusoglu told Turkish journalists on
Wednesday. “However, there is no concrete development yet on some issues such as
the extradition (of suspects wanted by Türkiye) and the freezing of terrorist
assets.”“We reminded (them) that in the end, it’s the Turkish people and the
Turkish parliament that needs to be convinced,” he said. The minister of Sweden
and Finland sounded more upbeat. Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told
Sweden broadcaster SVT that “progress was being made” regarding NATO membership,
and that he would soon travel to Türkiye. “Further discussions await there with
my Turkish foreign minister colleague. I am also looking forward to having the
opportunity to make reconciliations,” Billström said. Finnish Foreign Minister
Pekka Haavisto told Finnish media that the discussions took place in a
constructive, matter-of-fact spirit. “We’ve received confirmation (from Türkiye)
that the conditions for Finland have also been fulfilled in many ways as
previously agreed,” Haavisto told the Finnish public broadcaster YLE in comments
published Wednesday.
Cavusoglu also said Sweden’s new government was more “sincere” and “determined
than the previous government” in meeting Türkiye’s security demands and had made
some legislative changes. “We still need to see their implementation. Some laws
will come into force with the new year,” Cavusoglu said.
Russian, Chinese Bombers Fly Joint Patrols over Pacific
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
Russian and Chinese strategic bombers on Wednesday flew a joint patrol over the
western Pacific in a show of increasingly close defense ties between the two
countries. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Tu-95 bombers of the
Russian air force and the Chinese H-6K bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and
the East China Sea during an eight-hour mission. As part of the drills, the
Russian bombers for the first time landed in China and the Chinese bombers flew
to an air base in Russia, the ministry said in a statement. It noted that the
joint patrols weren't directed against any other country.
The exercise follows a series of joint drills intended to showcase a growing
military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing as they both face tensions with
the United States. In September, Beijing sent more than 2,000 troops along with
more than 300 military vehicles, 21 combat aircraft and three warships to take
part in a sweeping joint exercise with Russia. The maneuvers marked the first
time that China has sent forces from three branches of its military to take part
in a single Russian drill, in what was described as a show of the breadth and
depth of China-Russia military cooperation and mutual trust.
Defense cooperation between Moscow and Beijing has grown stronger since Russian
President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. China has
pointedly refused to criticize Russia’s actions, blaming the US and NATO for
provoking Moscow, and has blasted the punishing sanctions imposed on Moscow.
Russia, in turn, has strongly backed China amid the tensions with the US that
followed a visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ukraine says tightening security at embassies after
Spain letter bomb
Agence France Presse /Wed, November 30, 2022
Ukraine said Wednesday it will strengthen security at all the country's
embassies after an employee of the embassy in Madrid was injured when a letter
bomb blew up. "Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba instructed to strengthen the
security of all Ukrainian embassies," Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesperson
Oleg Nikolenko said on social media in English.
Russia should use advanced weapons in Ukraine, Shoigu
says
MOSCOW (Reuters) /Wed, November 30, 2022
Russia's defence minister said on Wednesday that the armed forces should use new
advanced weapons systems in the conflict in Ukraine."It is necessary to continue
the modernisation and creation of promising systems with their subsequent use
during the special military operation," Sergei Shoigu said at a defence ministry
meeting of senior generals. Shoigu, one of President Vladimir Putin's closest
allies, did not specify which advanced weapons should be used, though he said he
wanted to discuss with the generals new ways of improving artillery and missile
attacks.
"New ways of using them in combat are being tested," Shoigu said, without giving
specifics. In Ukraine, Shoigu said, counter-battery fire was being improved by
using long-range rocket systems such as Tornado-S and high-power "Malka"
artillery systems. "This makes it possible to effectively hit foreign rocket and
artillery systems," Shoigu said. His comments were shown on state television.
The conflict in Ukraine, likely the deadliest in Europe since World War Two, has
killed tens of thousands on both sides and raised fears of a much broader
conflict between the U.S.-led NATO alliance and Russia.
Israel's Ben-Gvir squabbles with military chief
about ethics
JERUSALEM (Reuters)/Wed, November 30, 2022
An Israeli far-right politician set to take a key security post in Benjamin
Netanyahu's emerging government traded barbs on Wednesday with the military
chief over the jailing of a soldier who had taunted leftist activists in the
occupied West Bank. Ultra-nationalist Jewish Power leader Itamar Ben-Gvir
criticized the 10-day confinement handed down to a soldier who was filmed on
Friday warning pro-Palestinian activists in the flashpoint city of Hebron: "Ben-Gvir
will sort this place out."Ben-Gvir, to whom Netanyahu has promised the post of
national security minister, with expanded powers over police in the West Bank,
said on Twitter on Tuesday that the sentence was too harsh and weakened
soldiers' resolve. He also appeared in a video together with the soldier's
father, demanding that the army review the punishment and drawing apparent
criticism from Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi. "We will not allow intervention by
any politician, left or right, in commanders' decisions, nor use of the military
to promote a political agenda," Kohavi told the soldier's battalion and brigade
commanders in a telephone call, the military said on Twitter. In his turn, Ben-Gvir,
also on Twitter, accused Kohavi of making inappropriate political statements and
said he had no intention of intervening in the commanders' punitive measures but
demanded a change in policy. The criticism drew rebuke from Israeli leaders.
President Isaac Herzog at a memorial service said moral debates were important
but that "We must not drag the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) into the political
field." Netanyahu called on Twitter for Israel's conscript military to be "left
out of any political argument". On Friday, his Likud party said it had reached
agreements on cabinet posts with the Jewish Power after a Nov. 1 saw the joint
list of far-right factions soar to third place in parliament. The ascent of Ben-Gvir,
a West Bank settler whose record includes 2007 convictions for incitement
against Arabs and support for a Jewish militant group on the Israeli and U.S.
terrorist watchlists, has stirred concern at home and abroad. Ben-Gvir, a
lawyer, says his positions have become more moderate. They include expulsion for
those he deems terrorists or traitors - rather than all Arabs - and looser
open-fire regulations for troops facing Palestinian unrest.
Macron kicks off US state visit, with trade dispute
looming
Agence France Presse/Wed, November 30, 2022
French President Emmanuel Macron was set to meet President Joe Biden on
Wednesday, at the start of a state visit highlighting the countries' strategic
ties but also fears of a transatlantic trade war. Macron and his wife Brigitte
arrived late Tuesday for a two-day stay in Washington, before finishing up
Friday with a trip to the once-French city of New Orleans in Louisiana. Largely
due to Covid disruptions, this is the first formal state visit to the White
House during the Biden presidency. U.S. officials said the choice of France for
the honor reflects their historic links and also the crucial role played by
Paris, within the European Union, in the alliance confronting Russia over
Ukraine. All the stops are being pulled out for Macron, starting Wednesday with
him visiting Arlington National Cemetery, then discussing space cooperation with
Vice President Kamala Harris at NASA headquarters in Washington. The first day
will round off with a private dinner for Biden, Macron and their wives. The core
of the visit will be Thursday, including a White House military honor guard,
Oval Office talks, a joint press conference and a banquet where
Grammy-award-winning American musician Jon Batiste will perform. Compared to
Macron's edgy experience as the guest of Donald Trump in 2018, this trip will be
a carefully choreographed display of transatlantic friendship. The diplomatic
furor that erupted last year when Australia canceled a deal for French
submarines and instead signed up for U.S. nuclear submarines is now buried.
- Trade war? -
But tensions are rising over trade as Europeans nervously watch the rollout of
Biden's signature green industry policy -- the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA.
This is set to pump billions of dollars into climate-friendly technologies, with
strong backing for American-made products. A similar effort is being put into
microchip manufacturing. Europeans fear an unfair U.S. advantage in the sectors
just as they are reeling from the economic consequences of the Ukraine war and
Western attempts to end reliance on Russian energy supplies. Talk in Europe is
now increasingly on whether the bloc should respond with its own subsidies and
championing of homegrown products, effectively starting a trade war. Another
gripe in Europe is the high cost of U.S. liquid natural gas exports -- which
have surged to try and replace canceled Russian deliveries. White House National
Security Council spokesman John Kirby struck a cautious note, telling French
reporters that "right now we're in the mode of listening and making sure we
understand concerns by our European partners."Kirby went out of his way to
praise Macron, referring to his "experience and wisdom."
- Strategizing on China, Ukraine -
The breadth of Macron's entourage -- including the foreign, defense and finance
ministers, as well as business leaders and astronauts -- illustrates the
importance Paris has put on the visit. At the White House, however, a senior
official said the main goal is to nurture the "personal relationship, the
alliance relationship" with France -- and between Biden and Macron. That more
modest-sounding goal will include improving coordination on helping Ukraine to
repel Russia and the even more vexing question of how to manage the rise of the
Chinese superpower. "We are not allies on the same page," one adviser to Macron
told AFP, forecasting "challenging" talks with Biden. Despite his strong support
for Kyiv, Macron's insistence on continuing to maintain dialogue with Russian
President Vladimir Putin has irked American diplomats. The China question --
with Washington pursuing a more hawkish tone and EU powers trying to find a
middle ground -- is unlikely to see much progress. "Europe has since 2018 its
own, unique strategy for relations with China," tweeted French embassy spokesman
Pascal Confavreux in Washington. A senior U.S. official said even if their
approaches to China were "not identical," they should be at least "speaking from
a common script."
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November 30
- December 01/2022
Biden Rewards Palestinians for Terrorism, Incitement
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/November 30, 2022
The Biden administration's recent decision to upgrade its relations with the
Palestinian Authority (PA) is yet another sign of how the US is rewarding the
Palestinians, as they are the Iranian regime, for their ongoing toxic incitement
and terrorism against Israel.
It is the first time the US has created a position at the State Department that
is solely responsible for Palestinian affairs.
The decision coincided with two bomb attacks in Jerusalem, in which a
16-year-old Jewish boy was killed and 14 other people wounded.
The Palestinian Authority, in fact, offers stipends to the terrorists and their
families as part of its "Pay-for-Slay" program -- which serves as an incentive,
especially in an area that is not wealthy, for its citizens to continue their
violence.
Several Palestinian groups issued separate statements lauding the Jerusalem
bombings as "heroic operations" and calling for the murder of more Jews.
Abbas has never called on the terror groups to halt their attacks.
One would have expected the Biden administration to demand that the Palestinian
leadership dismantle the terror groups operating under its auspices in the West
Bank.
One would have expected the Biden administration to demand that the Palestinian
Authority halt the monthly payments for terrorism to the terrorists and their
families.
One would have expected the Biden administration to pressure the Palestinians to
return to the negotiating table with Israel and abandon their long-time policy
of rejecting all offers without even proposing a counteroffer.
The Biden administration, which resumed financial aid to the Palestinians --
without any conditions attached -- has chosen to ignore the Palestinian
leadership's role in encouraging violence, hate and efforts to eliminate Israel,
and to erect, in its place, yet another Islamic state.
The payments to the terrorists and their families successfully encourage many
Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israelis: they know that they or their
families will be added to the Palestinian Authority's payroll.
The Biden administration is dead wrong if it thinks that upgrading its relations
with the Palestinian Authority will have a moderating effect on the Palestinians
or prompt them to improve their policies toward Israel. On the contrary, the
move is likely to increase the Palestinian leaders' intransigence because now
they feel that the US is on their side, notwithstanding their incitement and
support for terrorism.
By upgrading US-Palestinian relations, the Biden administration is also sending
a message to these Arab countries that it stands behind the Palestinians'
rejection of normalization and peace between the Arabs and Israel.
The Biden administration has anyway done nothing to support the Abraham Accords
or try to get more Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, on board. Instead,
the Biden administration has done everything in its power to antagonize
America's traditional allies in the Arab world, first and foremost Saudi Arabia.
The Biden administration's policy of appeasement of the mullahs in Iran has
already alienated some Arabs, especially the Gulf states.
The Biden administration's recent decision to upgrade its relations with the
Palestinian Authority (PA) is yet another sign of how the US is rewarding the
Palestinians, as they are the Iranian regime, for their ongoing toxic incitement
and terrorism against Israel.
The decision sends a message to the PA and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, that
the Biden administration does not care if the Palestinians continue to glorify
and embrace terrorists who murder and wound Jews and others.
A senior US State Department official was quoted as saying the Biden
administration notified Congress that it has appointed Hady Amr as a new
"special representative for Palestinian affairs."
The move is an upgrade in US-Palestinian relations. It is the first time the US
has created a position at the State Department that is solely responsible for
Palestinian affairs.
The decision coincided with two bomb attacks in Jerusalem, in which a
16-year-old Jewish boy was killed and 14 other people wounded.
It also came hours after Palestinian gunmen snatched the body of Tiran Pero, an
17-year-old Israeli Druze, from a hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin. Pero
was taken to the hospital after being critically injured in a car accident near
Jenin. His family said that the gunmen who stormed the hospital disconnected
Pero from the life support machines while he was still alive. The gunmen held
his body for more than 24 hours before handing it over to the Palestinian
Authority.
The PA has not condemned the twin bombings in Jerusalem. In fact, its leaders
stopped denouncing terror attacks against Israel a long time ago. Instead,
Palestinian leaders often praise terrorists who murder Jews as "heroes" and
"martyrs."
They, in fact, offer stipends to the terrorists and their families as part of
the PA's "Pay-for-Slay" program -- which serves as an incentive, especially in
an area that is not wealthy, for its citizens to continue their violence.
The Biden administration's decision to upgrade US-Palestinian relations also
came as Palestinians were celebrating the Jerusalem terror attacks by handing
out sweets and praising the terrorists. Some of the celebrations took place in
areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, which did not take any measures
to stop this practice -- one that has been taking place after almost every
terror attack against Israel.
Several Palestinian groups issued separate statements lauding the Jerusalem
bombings as "heroic operations" and calling for the murder of more Jews. Two of
the groups, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) are part of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is headed by Mahmoud Abbas. The
Palestinian Authority president did not criticize these groups for praising the
terror attacks.
The abduction of the Israeli-Druze teenager took place in Jenin, a city which is
under the exclusive control of Abbas's security forces. In the past few years,
Jenin has become a hub for various terror groups responsible for a series of
attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. These groups have been able to
operate freely in Jenin thanks to the Palestinian Authority's failure or
unwillingness to crack down on terrorism.
One of the terror groups, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is openly affiliated with
the ruling Fatah faction headed by Mahmoud Abbas. This group continues to claim
responsibility for shooting attacks against Israelis in the West Bank. Abbas has
never called on the terror groups to halt their attacks.
One would have expected the Biden administration to demand that the Palestinian
leadership dismantle the terror groups operating under its auspices in the West
Bank.
One would have expected the Biden administration to demand that the Palestinian
leadership stop its massive campaign to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews
through mosques, the media and official speeches.
One would have expected the Biden administration to demand that the Palestinian
Authority halt the monthly payments for terrorism to the terrorists and their
families.
Moreover, one would have expected the Biden administration to pressure the
Palestinians to return to the negotiating table with Israel and abandon their
long-time policy of rejecting all offers without even proposing a counteroffer.
The Biden administration, which resumed financial aid to the Palestinians --
without any conditions attached -- has chosen to ignore the Palestinian
leadership's role in encouraging violence, hate and efforts to eliminate Israel,
and to erect, in its place, yet another Islamic state.
The payments to the terrorists and their families successfully encourage many
Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israelis: they know that they or their
families will be added to the Palestinian Authority's payroll. The daily
incitement against Israel by the PA and its leaders is what prompts young men
and women to carry a knife to go out to stab the first Jew they meet.
The Biden administration is dead wrong if it thinks that upgrading its relations
with the Palestinian Authority will have a moderating effect on the Palestinians
or prompt them to improve their policies toward Israel. On the contrary, the
move is likely to increase the Palestinian leaders' intransigence because now
they feel that the US is on their side, notwithstanding their incitement and
support for terrorism.
The policies of the Biden administration do not bode well for the future of any
peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Biden administration is also ignoring the fact that Palestinian leaders were
the first to condemn the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab countries
– the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
By upgrading US-Palestinian relations, the Biden administration is also sending
a message to these Arab countries that it stands behind the Palestinians'
rejection of normalization and peace between the Arabs and Israel.
The Biden administration has anyway done nothing to support the Abraham Accords
or try to get more Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, on board. Instead,
the Biden administration has done everything in its power to antagonize
America's traditional allies in the Arab world, first and foremost Saudi Arabia.
The Biden administration's policy of appeasement of the mullahs in Iran has
already alienated some Arabs, especially the Gulf states.
Some of these Arab countries have turned their back on the Palestinians,
accusing them of being ungrateful and biting the hand that fed them for decades.
Because of their rhetorical attacks on the Arabs who signed peace treaties with
Israel, the Palestinians have lost the financial and political support of
several Arab countries, especially the wealthy Gulf states.
While the Arabs have finally woken up to the fact that the Palestinians are
dead-set on continuing their jihad (holy war) to eliminate Israel, the Biden
team is rushing to embrace Mahmoud Abbas and his associates, who have rejected
every peace offer made to them by Israeli leaders over the past two decades, and
who continue to push their people to bathe in Jewish blood.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 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.
Seven US Betrayals of Kurds within a Century… Will It Fail
Them Again in Syria?
Ibrahim Hamidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 30/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113731/%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d8%ad%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a07-%d8%ae%d9%8a%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%83%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d9%84%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%83%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%af/
If the reaction to Turkish incursions or continued aerial bombardment against
Kurdish targets in northern Syria does not meet Kurdish expectations and
demands, it wouldn’t be the first time Kurds are betrayed by the US or the West.
In the past century, the global and regional balance of power has changed. The
Ottoman Empire collapsed, France and Britain retreated in the world and the Arab
region, and US influence grew.
However, four issues remained “fixed,” namely:
First, 40 million Kurds continue to dream of establishing landlocked independent
entities or administrations in the four countries in which they live: Türkiye,
Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Second, these four countries, despite the many differences between them, have
found consensus on coordinating against the Kurds. Third, major or regional
powers have long used Kurds as a tool in their struggles against each other, and
to achieve certain goals. For example, the US-led International Coalition has
used the Kurds as an essential component in the war against ISIS. Fourth, US
administrations changed, but the betrayals were repeated. Kurdish leaderships
changed in different geographical areas, and the wounds of those betrayals
remained.
Disappointments and stings
Here is a reminder of seven Kurdish disappointments and Western-American stings
over a hundred years:
1 - After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and its defeat in World War I, the
Treaty of Sevres in 1920 allocated space for the Kurds in Türkiye to establish
autonomy over a region outside Syria, Iraq and Iran. After Ankara's opposition,
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s rise to power and with Washington’s support, the Kurds
got a first taste of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which opened the door for
Paris and London to share the Fertile Crescent in Syria and Iraq, and the
promises of the Treaty of Sevres went unheeded. The region promised to Kurds by
the great powers in eastern Anatolia, had finally gone to the fledgling Republic
of Türkiye. As is the case with the US, Britain flirted with Ataturk by saying
that it preferred the relationship with Ankara at the expense of supporting the
Kurdish “Republic of Ararat.” This led to a large exodus of Kurds from southern
Türkiye to neighboring countries, especially northeastern Syria.
Later, Baathist Damascus often used the issue of immigration in its rhetoric
against the Kurds and repeatedly said: “They are not Syrians.”
2 - After decades of Kurdish revolution and immigration in Türkiye, the US
supported Iraqi Kurds against the regime of Abd al-Karim Qasim after he came to
power in 1958, and then supported the coup that overthrew him in February 1963.
The new Baathist regime in Iraq took a tough stance on the Kurds. When Iraqi
Baathists grew closer to the Soviet Union, Washington cooperated with Tehran,
which was ruled at that time by the Shah, in arming and supporting the Kurds
with the aim of destabilizing the situation in Iraq. The support to the Kurds
was repeated in the 70’s, not with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state, but
rather to create unrest inside Iraq to impede any Syrian-Iraqi rapprochement
after the signing of the Camp David Accords and Egypt’s exit from the Arab
equation. According to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, military
support for the Kurds was never aimed at championing the Kurds as much as it
aimed at weakening Baghdad’s rule. The Pike Committee’s report to the US
Congress included details like Kissinger’s statement and an assertion that “this
policy was not transferred to our clients (the Kurds), whom we encouraged to
continue fighting.”Later, the US sponsored an agreement between Saddam Hussein,
who represented President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and the Shah of Iran in December
1975. Tehran then abandoned its support for the Iraqi Kurds, with the blessing
of the administration of the new US President Gerald Ford.
3 - Iraqi Kurds were subjected to more than one blow by the US in the 1980s and
90s. The administration of President Roland Reagan was silent on Baghdad's use
of chemical weapons in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Blows of the 1990s
As for the George H. W. Bush administration, it encouraged the Iraqis to move
against Baghdad after the Gulf War in 1991, and then abandoned them. Bush
himself called on the Iraqi army and the Iraqi people to take matters into their
own hands, to force the Saddam Hussein to step down, but he did not do much when
the Shiites in southern Iraq and the Kurds near the borders of Syria rose up.
However, the US imposed an air embargo that allowed the Kurds to flourish in the
second half of the 90s. This rise of Kurds was met with Syrian-Turkish-Iranian
coordination to prevent its transformation into a Kurdish “microstate” on the
borders that would inspire fellow Kurdish countrymen in Syria, Türkiye and Iran.
4 - After the events of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush ordered the
invasion of Iraq. There was coordination with the Kurds and their political
leaders, and they became among the main winners from the change of the Iraqi
regime. Their gains were further reinforced when the US relied on them in the
war against ISIS. In 2017, the former president of the Kurdistan region, Masoud
Barzani, wanted to benefit from the support of the US-led International
Coalition by taking a step in establishing a Kurdish entity, so he wanted to
organize a referendum for self-determination and independence for the region.
The shock or betrayal came when the US clearly declared its reservations about
this step.
5 - After the change in Iraq in 2003 and the emergence of the Kurds, the
aspirations of the Syrian Kurds revived and they rose up in March 2004, but
their movement did not receive any Western backing. Years earlier, when Türkiye
mobilized its army on the borders of Syria in 1998 and demanded the expulsion of
the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, from
Damascus. Washington and its allies supported Ankara’s position, knowing that
the PKK is on Western terrorist lists. Ocalan left Syria, and the PKK were
subjected to strikes by security coordination between Damascus and Ankara. This
was until the eruption of protests in Syria in 2011, when Damascus decided to
facilitate the emergence of the role of the Kurds against other Syrian
opposition.
Plan backfires
6 - Damascus’ plan to use the Kurds backfired. The Kurds became strong and
Damascus weakened.
The US joined the Kurds in the fight against ISIS, which expanded after 2014,
and provided them with military support and air cover. The US relied mainly on
the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers an extension
of the PKK. After ISIS was defeated by the Kurds and the International
Coalition, an umbrella was formed that allowed the Kurds to establish a
self-administration and a military force that would soon control a quarter of
Syria and most of strategic resources found in the country’s northeast. The
emergence of this entity called “Rojava” worried Ankara, Damascus and Tehran.
Türkiye shifted its priorities in Syria, from “toppling the regime” to expanding
in Syrian territory. It concluded settlements with Russia in 2016, 2018 and 2019
that focused on taking apart the Kurdish entity in northern Syria and preventing
its access to Mediterranean waters. This happened with Russian support and under
US silence. But the new betrayal happened later.
7 - At the end of 2019, former US President Donald Trump suddenly decided to
withdraw his forces from the borders of Syria and Türkiye. The Kurds considered
this decision a betrayal by the US as it allowed a rapid Turkish incursion and
shook the pillars of the Rojava, its forces, and its war against ISIS.
After marathon negotiations, US-Turkish and Russian-Turkish agreements were
concluded. Ankara obtained commitments from the two major powers to have the YPG
withdraw 30 km from borders. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is currently
saying that Washington and Moscow did not abide by the 2019 agreements.
Consequently, he escalated drone strikes against “Kurdish targets.”
Erdogan is currently betting on the strength of his position due to the Ukraine
war and Washington and Moscow’s need for him. This will help him launch a new
operation against Syrian Kurds.
Features of a new US “betrayal” are looming on the horizon. The US did not stop
Türkiye from launching drone strikes, nor did it stop the heavy aerial
bombardment.
The Kurds are betting on ISIS, or on the West’s interest in preventing the
terror organization’s resurgence. The Kurds say that a war against them will
make them give up fighting ISIS.
There are those who are threatening to open up the Al-Hol camp, which is often
referred to as ISIS’ mini-state, to push the US to move in favor of the Kurds.
As for the Russians, they are conveying demands from Ankara to the Kurds in
Qamishli.
These demands include the withdrawal of the YPG from the main cities and border
areas in northern Syria and welcoming the deployment of Syrian state
institutions and border guards.
Damascus, for its part, is relieved by the US betrayals, Russian stabs, and the
Turkish strikes.
Although Damascus cannot openly welcome all this and is most likely to issue a
statement condemning “Turkish aggression,” the Syrian capital is pleased at
heart with what the Kurds are facing.
The least that could happen from these aggressions and betrayals is that Kurds
will be forced to the “bitter” negotiating table from a weak position. The
Kurds’ road to Damascus is paved with disappointments and setbacks.
Who Will Respond to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 30/2022
As protests in Iran continue, the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, recently
elaborated on the strategy of “exporting the revolution,” saying that the
“revolution does indeed now extend from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon” and that
“the US was defeated in these three countries.”
He also discussed an “American plan” to bring down six countries- Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Somalia- with the aim of “eliminating Iran’s strategic
depth in the region.” These statements deserve our attention.
From Iran, Farideh Moradkhani, the niece of the Supreme Leader, took the reins
in responding to her uncle’s statements, releasing a short video in which she
calls his authorities “a criminal and a child-killing regime” and asks foreign
governments to cut ties with Tehran.
Of course, citizens across Iran had responded earlier in protests that had left
the Mullah regime in a difficult position. The regime is contradicting itself
and has nothing to boast of now, according to its Supreme Leader, besides its
foreign expansion, which has been disastrous for the entire region and led to
the imposition of sanctions on Iran.
The question now is: who among the officials of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, and
even Libya (this is one of the few times Khamenei has discussed Iran’s role in
Libya) will rebuke his statements? Is there an international commment on that
now? And which groups does Iran support in Libya?
As for the Arab countries that Khamenei has bragged about expanding to, and
exporting the revolution to them, whom among their officials will repudiate the
Supreme Leader’s claims, asserting that their country should be independent and
that he rejects Iranian expansion, or rather occupation?
What is remarkable about Khamenei’s statements is that he did not mention Yemen.
There are two explanations for this: either Khamenei does not want to accept
responsibility for the crimes of the Houthi terrorists his regime supports and
thus wants to avoid reprisal from international powers. It would be an attempt
to make Yemen about only Saudi Arabia, just as the leftist Arab media is doing.
The second potential explanation is that Khamenei wants to leave the door to a
new round of negotiations with Saudi Arabia open despite the fact Khamenei’s
regime is not an honest negotiator. It does not respect international laws or
the rights of its neighbors either, as it is demonstrating in Iraq.
It is also worth noting that Khamenei recently stressed that negotiating with
the US is useless and achieves nothing. This means that the regime is unwilling
and unable to reform. It can only survive by maintaining its extremism.
All of this makes evident that the Mullah regime is in a tight spot. It has
nothing new to offer. As far as it is concerned, the clock stopped ticking since
it expanded- more specifically, the moment the US invaded Kuwait. It can neither
take progress nor take a step back. It cannot even survive.
More important than these changes is that the regime has been rejected by the
Iranian people themselves, as have the countries that the revolution “has
expanded to.” Indeed, the Shiites of Iraq and Lebanon have expressed their
opposition to his regime, and his statements embarrass them more than anything
else.
And so we ask: who among the officials of countries will respond to Khamenei’s
explicit endorsement of his country’s occupation of Lebanon and destruction of
Iraq?
Us… As Iran’s Living Space
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 30/2022
Among the few virtues of Iran’s rulers is that they are fond of explaining
matters that may seem contentious or obscure, clarifying issues that could be
interpreted in contradictory ways.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei made a contribution in this regard through a
statement he gave a few days ago. “The Americans have decided to paralyze
neighboring countries, the Islamic Republic’s strategic depth, before deciding
on the aggression against Iran.” He then added that “the Americans said: these
six states have to be brought down, Iraq, Syria- Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and
Somalia- before attacking Iran... But Iran has succeeded in Iraq, Syria and
Lebanon, which led to a defeat of the US in these countries.”
Of course, the US did not say the things Khamenei attributed to it, engaging in
a habit we have grown accustomed to in our part of the world. However, this
defamation does not make his words, which triggered a lot of uproar and even
more commentary, any less significant. Indeed, we, the people of these
countries, “the Islamic Republic’s strategic depth,” are thus obligated to
shield Iran from the arrows supposedly aimed at it with our chests.
The most dangerous aspect of this rhetoric is that it establishes a hierarchical
system like that which Stalin had implicitly built when he imposed his
domination on the countries that came to be known as the “socialist bloc”: there
is the country that is an end, a first class country, and there are the
countries that are means, third and fourth class countries. There is a state
that is the heart and head and states that are belts and helmets.
This assumption is reinforced by a history of positions and statements founded
on the same premise: General Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps, has said that “officials in Iran had not expected the
speed at which Islamic revolution would spread beyond its borders, extending
from Iraq to Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan.” The
Iranian President’s Special Advisor for Ethnic Minorities Affairs Ali Younesi
has made his own revelation, calling Iraq “the capital of Iran’s new empire.”
The commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, for his part, has noted
that “Iran continues its conquest of the countries in the region (...) it began
by controlling Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine and is now expanding its
influence in the other countries.” Haidar Moslehi, who was intelligence minister
during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s term, has stressed that “Iran does indeed control
four Arab capitals”...
Such statements, when they are made by officials, including the Supreme Leader,
suggest that the Iranian regime does not hold back, in moments of impulsiveness,
enthusiasm, or apprehension, from sharing what are supposed to be “state
secrets.” The current moment, because of the revolution that the regime has
failed to quell, is one of apprehension.
Nonetheless, the “secret” that Iran is not shy about revealing can only remind
us of the concept of “living space-” Lebensraum in the original German. The term
was not coined by Hitler but by Friedrich Ratzel, a German geographer and
ethnographer who died in 1904, when Hitler was fifteen. Ratzel developed this
concept three years before he passed away- at a time when some Germans, having
seen their country’s industrial revolution come a long way, had become obsessed
with competing with Britain for foreign markets and expansion.
The idea that mesmerized Ratzel and many other Germans was that Germany should
be self-sufficient in terms of territory and resources. As for the assumption
that this idea is founded on, it is that they were in a constant state of war
and that all is fair in war. It was built on a Social Darwinist vision of the
world that implies a hierarchical system between states in which those that are
less fit for purpose serve those that are more fit and worthy of life.
With the Nazis, “living space” became a strategic element in their theory that
was simultaneously racist and expansionist. The expansion eastward and the
Germinification of Russia were thus compared to the American expansion westward
and Americanizing that West. This “living space” also played a role in
justifying the Holocaust, which targeted “parasitic races that are not worthy of
life and are sucking the blood of the German nation.”
Of course, with the Iranian regime, we are not faced with that kind of
elaborativeness and coherence, nor with similar scientism lavishing false
justifications.
However, we are dealing with a hierarchical and belligerent regime that demeans
us and turns us into tools to serve it, just as it is turning our countries into
arenas and our peoples into resistance movements. That is, turning us into
functions that leave no room for building national communities and developing a
shared life together.
The mother of all problems is that this is not Iranian occupation; it is much
worse than that. Tehran does not have to send its armies, as it makes use of
domestic cleavages and adeptly exploits the alarmed vigilance of small
identities and their rivalries. And so, it finds, among the residents of those
countries, people like the Syrian Bashar al-Assad, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the
Yemeni Ansar Allah, and the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces to take on this
task that looks down on and threatens us all, them including, seeing us little
more than a living space for Iran.
Possibility of a Military Operation and a Handshake in
Syria
Omer Onhon/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 30/2022
The Turkish army may be preparing for a new round of land operations in the
north of Syria. The Minister of Defense and his General Staff are seen in
photographs in full camouflage gear either in the operation room in Ankara or
along the Syrian border.
Türkiye is concerned that YPG (Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units) may
carve out a state in Syria next to its borders, that it can launch terror
attacks and stir up all kinds of trouble. Türkiye wants the YPG preferably to
disappear altogether or go as far away from its borders as possible.
The last Turkish land operation into Syria was in 2019. Türkiye conducted the
operation and secured an area between the towns of Tel Abyad and Rasulayn
(so-called Operation Peace Spring area).
The US and Russia were opposed to the operation. As a result of an intense
diplomatic process, Türkiye concluded separate agreements with the two countries
and claiming all objectives achieved, ended the operation.
Looking at these agreements, one may conclude that they were in Türkiye’s favor.
The joint statement with the US and the memorandum with Russia referred to
establishing a secure zone as Türkiye has requested. (The zone which Türkiye
wants to establish along its 911 kilometers of border with Syria is around 30
kilometers in depth from the borderline, which roughly coincides with the M4
motorway). Both agreements included references to YPG laying down its arms and
withdrawing from all areas within this zone. All YPG elements and their weapons
were to be removed from the towns of Manbij and Tal Rifat.
The 2019 agreements have been only partially implemented and the YPG is still
very much present with its weapons in Manbij, Tal Rifat, Tal Tamr and Ayn Issa.
Since last May, President Erdogan has been talking about a new military
operation into northern Syria to complete the unfinished business.
The terror attack in Istanbul on November 13 gave Türkiye a good reason to
strike YPG and drive it off. Five days after the attack, Türkiye began picking
YPG/PKK targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq with jets, drones, missiles
and artillery.
Whether this is a “from a distance punitive operation” without a land component
or the first stage of a wider operation where the second stage is the Turkish
army going into Syria to capture the areas held by YPG remains to be seen.
President Erdogan seems keen to move forward with his plans of going into Syria.
But what will happen in the coming days and to what extent, will also depend on
the international environment and circumstances.
The Syria policy of the United States is obscure and difficult to understand.
The US line is: “our priority in Syria is ISIS”. The US repeats this line as if
this issue is a stand alone one, detached from everything else.
In Syria, the United States has partnered with the YPG. It has trained the YPG
and provided it with military hardware including sophisticated anti-tank
weapons. YPG has grown into an entity running around 25 per cent or more of
Syria.
The major source of its finances comes from oil fields in the areas under its
control.
The United States, again, is not at ease with the idea of a Turkish land
operation. It fears that it will distract the YPG and hamper the fight against
ISIS. It also sights the threat posed to its soldiers in the area.
But then, there is an ongoing war in Ukraine, there is a revolt in Iran,
Caucasus is fragile, radicalism is an ever present threat and Türkiye is in the
middle of all that. Relations between Türkiye and the United States are strained
as they are and the US should not want to further alienate Türkiye.
As to the other two main actors in Syria; Türkiye has become an important
element in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and in its foreign policy in a number
of ways. Russia would not wish to have unnecessary problems with Türkiye in this
conjuncture.
Iran is also occupied with social unrest at home and would like to keep its
western neighbor at bay.
But despite these serious distractions, even with less visibility and perhaps
weight, Russia and Iran continue to be very much present in Syria. They are
still able to have an influence on the way things develop.
Up until recently, Türkiye was concerned with who controlled Syria and it was
against Assad. Now, what concerns Türkiye most, seems to be Syria’s territorial
integrity rather than who controls it.
President Erdogan is becoming more vocal in his wish of re-establishing
relations with Assad. Only a few days ago, he said “if relations have improved
with Egypt, the same thing may happen with Syria. In politics there is no such
thing as not speaking to each other!!”
He was referring to his handshake with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt
on the inauguration day of the World Cup in Doha last week. President Erdogan
has fiercely opposed and spoken against President Sisi since his takeover of
power in 2013. Now, as strange as it may seem, he has left all these behind.
President Erdogan seems enthusiastic to go ahead with making peace with Assad.
The upcoming elections in Turkey in the first half of next year stimulates the
government to pursue a deal with Assad. If it turns out to be possible, the
government would be able to claim another major diplomatic success. It would
also claim to have paved the way for the return of Syrians in Türkiye who have
become a major domestic policy issue.
Assad on the other hand appears to be less enthusiastic for a deal. But with the
right incentives, I do not think that he would say no to neutralizing the
pressure exerted by Erdogan, whom he regards as one of the major reasons for his
troubles.
On another note, Assad may regard the Turkish operations in northern Syria as
violation of Syria’s territorial integrity but he shouldn't be unhappy with
Türkiye and YPG fighting each other. By his standards, any sort of political and
military harm to Türkiye would be most welcome. He would be equally content with
any damage inflicted on the YPG which has ambitions in terms of carving out of
Syria an entity for itself.
A number of Syrian soldiers are reported to have been killed as a result of most
recent Turkish bombings. Assad would not lose sleep over such an incident and it
would not hinder prospects of a potential Erdogan-Assad rapprochement. But a
number of other issues, such as what becomes of the opposition and the armed
groups could.
The Tenacity of Young Iranians in the Protest Movement
Haleh Esfandiari/The Washington Institute/November
30/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113734/haleh-esfandiari-the-washington-institute-the-tenacity-of-young-iranians-in-the-protest-movement-%d9%87%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87-%d8%a7%d8%b3%d9%81%d9%86%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%85/
Despite the regime's crackdown, Iranian protestors are showing unprecedented
resilience and unity in their demands, making the international community's next
steps even more crucial.
Once again, Iranians have come out into the streets to protest against their
government, its policies, and its leaders. Once again they face a regime that
has proved itself tone-deaf to widespread public discontent—responding instead
with brutality, arrests, mass trials, and executions. But this recent wave of
protests has proved different. The regime is being confronted by its own
children—a generation of young women and men who seek not just reform, not just
an easing of controls, but a regime change.
The protest movement was triggered when 22-year old Mahsa Amini died while in
police custody, beaten to death by the morality police on September 16 because
the form of her hijab was not to their liking. Protests quickly erupted
immediately after her death, and they are now in their third month.
The problem of the mandatory hijab has been haunting Iranian women since the
early days of the Islamic revolution. For over forty years, the leadership of
the Islamic Republic has been obsessed with women’s hair, make up, and dress. In
many respects, the regime acts as if it has one mission—to subjugate and repress
women and to treat them as second-class citizens, denying them their rights and
equality under the law. To ensure the success of this mission, the regime has
unleashed the morality police on the masses, teaching them to ‘behave.’ But now
the Iranian women—especially younger women—are fighting back. Mahsa’s death
became the breaking point of mounting anger and frustration.
Iranian women were soon joined in their protests by young men, university
students, high schoolers, and even elementary school children. University of
Tehran students have traditionally played an important role in political
protests, as they did in the 1951-1953 oil nationalization movement and the
movement that led to the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Under the Islamic Republic,
these students were at the forefront in protests during the presidency of
Mohammad Khatami in 1999, and in the national protests over the allegedly rigged
presidential elections in 2009. During the current uprising, university campuses
have been similarly in turmoil as well. At Sharif University in Tehran, for
example, and at several other campuses across the country, students have engaged
in sit-down strikes and as a consequence have suffered attacks with tear gas and
live ammunition.
What started as a feminist protest movement is turning into an all-out uprising
which some, including French President Emmanuel Macron, are calling a
revolution. The leading slogans of the protesters have remained “Women, Life,
Liberty,” and “death to the dictator”—the latter directed at Iran’s Supreme
Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Even the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of
the Islamic Republic, has not been spared the wrath of the demonstrators.
Schoolchildren have torn down pictures of both Khamenei and Khomeini. Khomeini’s
home in the town of Khomein in central Iran, which was turned into a museum in
his honor, was set on fire on November 17.
Facing—and clearly fearing—a widespread uprising, the regime has reached for its
usual arsenal of weapons: fearful threats, sending the riot police and the Basij
paramilitary forces into the streets, universities, and schools, and directing
the security forces to use extreme means, including live ammunition, to disperse
the demonstrators and quell protests. The regime has also decided to present a
solid front to the protesters.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi have declared
their unstinting support for the security forces. Khamenei even said that the
security forces have been unjustly treated. Both have blamed Israel, the United
States, and other foreign agents and their local ‘lackeys’ for the protests.
While crowd control has so far been left to the riot police and the Basij, the
commanders of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have threatened the protesters to
go home or face their contingents. There was not a single dissenting voice when
227 of the 290 deputies in Iran’s parliament called on the judiciary to punish
the demonstrators with the harshest possible penalties.
The results of this decision to respond to peaceful protests by brute force?
According to human rights organizations, 15,000 protestors have been arrested so
far, and they face charges and probably mass trials. Over 326 people have been
killed, among them more than 40 children and 27 or more women. Still, this mass
brutality has not succeeded in frightening the people off the streets. On the
contrary, protestors have their own message for the regime: we are here to stay,
we want regime change, we want an end to the Islamic Republic.
Much of this tenacity is driven by the fact that the younger generation and the
Iranian people in general have had enough. They are tired of a corrupt regime
that has impoverished the country. They are tired of the dire economic
situation, rising inflation, the high cost of living, and the huge gap between
the haves and the have-nots. They are tired of political repression, a muzzled
press, and rigged elections. They are tired of interference by the state in
their private lives. They are tired of sanctions and isolation from the rest of
the world.
Rather than intimidating the young, the security forces’ brutality, beatings,
arrests, and killings, and the physical abuse and rapes taking place in prisons
seems to have only strengthened the determination of this younger generation to
continue. The regime is facing a youth—women and men—who are educated, savvy,
and connected through social media to the rest of the world.
Notably, over the past few months Iran’s ‘Gen Z’ has won the respect of workers,
technocrats, teachers, shopkeepers, and employees in both the public and private
sectors. On different occasions, oil refinery workers in the south, shopkeepers
in Tehran and other cities, and merchants in bazaars across the country have
staged one-day strikes in sympathy with the protesters scattered across Iran,
with particularly intense and sustained opposition to the regime in the regions
of Iranian Kurdistan and Sistan and Baluchistan.
Another striking feature of these protests is that, for the first time, the
previously-divided members of the Iranian diaspora across four continents have
in large numbers echoed the demands of the ‘young revolutionaries’ in Iran. The
diaspora has taken on the role of passing on messages from inside Iran to the
outside world: that the young women and men who came out into the streets of
Iranian cities, some paying dearly with their lives, would like to live in a
modern society with democratic values, connected to the outside world and no
longer treated as pariahs.
The United States, European nations, and other countries and international
organizations can support this movement in a number of ways. They have already
made clear their support for the Iranian people and they have condemned the use
of force by the Islamic regime. They have also demanded an immediate end to the
killings, arrests, and imprisonments of the protestors.
Moving forward, these international entities can now start to delegitimize any
mass trials and call for an end to death sentences. The international community
should put pressure on relevant international organizations to take seriously
their mandate of looking into violations of the demonstrators’ human rights,
including the killing and arrest of schoolchildren and university students. They
should insist that the Iranian government not block Iranians’ access to social
media and the internet. European countries with diplomatic representation and
relations with Iran must let the government know that there can be no ‘business
as usual’ as long as the violation of human rights and repression continues.
**Haleh Esfandiari
Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is a Distinguished Public Policy Fellow and the former and
founding Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars. She has written numerous books and articles on Iranian
politics, gender dynamics, nuclear policies, and more, and she has won several
awards for her work.
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/tenacity-young-iranians-protest-movement
America not to blame for Europe’s problems
Dr. Amal Mudallali/Arab News/November 30/2022
The weather forecast predicts a not-so-frosty winter for Europe. But the
transatlantic relationship is already threatened with deep freeze if the
disputes over high gas prices and trade are not resolved in the same spirit of
solidarity that Europe and the US have exhibited since the Russian invasion of
Ukraine.
Winter is here. Temperatures are falling in Europe and the thermometer has
already recorded zero degrees in Poland this week. The anxious Europeans are
fretting over a winter that will leave them not only shivering from cold, but
boiling in anger and frustration with their American ally over the gas heating
bill.
When President Joe Biden was elected, Europe was elated to have a president in
the White House who values the European-American relationship. He assured them
“America is back,” to sighs of relief in Europe’s capitals. But today, two years
on and with a major war in their backyard, the Europeans are asking, “is the US
still our ally or not?” It is the Ukraine war again and its consequences that
are testing the relationship.
The Europeans are accusing the US of charging high gas prices, four times higher
than on this side of the Atlantic, they say. They see this as profiteering at
the expense of Europe at a very vulnerable moment in its history. The American
newspaper Politico quoted a “furious” European official dumping on the US: “The
country that is most profiting from this war is the US because they are selling
more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons.” He
warned that “America needs to realize that public opinion is shifting in many EU
countries.”
Leading German and French officials have also weighed in, with French President
Emmanuel Macron quoted as saying the high American prices were “unfriendly.” The
Germans have suggested Washington had shown a retreat from the solidarity it
showed at the beginning of the war in Ukraine. A German MEP described a
“creeping crisis of trust on trade issues.” The unity among the transatlantic
allies seems shaky for the first time since the beginning of the war. Both sides
worry that this is not the message they should be sending to Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
The unity among the transatlantic allies seems shaky for the first time since
the beginning of the war in Ukraine
After Russian gas stopped flowing into European storage tanks, a torrent of
American gas started arriving on ships to help the Europeans offset the worst
energy crisis they have faced since the Second World War and strengthen their
stand as they help Ukraine in its war with Russia. The US gas replenished
gas-starved Europe and filled its storage tanks to prepare for winter, helping
countries diversify and free themselves of dependency on Russian gas. This led
EU nations to reduce the overall share of Russian natural gas imports to the
bloc from 40 percent before the invasion to about 7 percent now, according to
The Associated Press.
Some Europeans acknowledge that and give the US credit for replacing the Russian
gas, but the skyrocketing prices have changed people’s attitude.
The White House denied US responsibility for the high gas prices, with a
National Security Council spokesman saying: “The rise in gas prices in Europe is
caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s energy war against Europe,
period.”
American officials and experts point to energy market dynamics as the reason for
the rise in gas prices and insist this is not the result of any intentional US
policy or action.
The Europeans and the Americans sound like two ships passing in the night, each
accusing the other of not understanding them. The Europeans complain that the US
does not understand what they are going through and does not consult with them.
Experts in America express astonishment at the Europeans, saying they “do not
understand how the energy market works in the US.” One expert was more blunt,
saying that the “US is not a charitable organization” and it needs to sell its
gas according to what the market dictates. He pointed to the fact that there are
middlemen, reselling by companies in Europe and other factors that affect the
price, not government policy.
But the problem is bigger than the price of natural gas, it goes deeper to the
heart and health of the transatlantic relationship. Europeans are worried about
what they call America’s new economic nationalism, protectionism and trade and
economic policies. They are worried that America will push them out of the
global market with its new economic policies.
What changed everything and is worrying to the Europeans is America’s new
Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed in August. This act, Biden’s
biggest achievement as he seeks to tame inflation and boost the green economy,
has become Europe’s nightmare. It contains hundreds of billions of dollars in
industrial subsidies, especially support for green industries and manufacturing.
The EU’s trade ministers, during their last meeting, called the act
“discriminatory.” Other Europeans have said it distorts competition, likened it
to “China’s economic isolationism,” and threatened to retaliate.
This is shaping up to be Europe’s winter of discontent. It is facing a war, an
energy crisis and now the prospect of a trade war with the US, while its leaders
are divided over their energy policies.
Officials in Europe say the combination of high gas prices and the new American
subsidies are threatening European industries and making them uncompetitive.
Some companies are already either shipping operations to the US or relocating
entirely and hoping to benefit from the subsidies, leading to fears of “mass
deindustrialization,” as The Economist described it. The German chemical
manufacturing giant BASF was reported as saying that it would be “permanently”
downsizing in Europe, giving the high energy prices as the principal reason. The
Wall Street Journal also reported that Tesla “is pausing its plans to make
battery cells in Germany as it looks at qualifying for tax credits under the
Inflation Reduction Act.”
There are efforts to contain the crisis and the EU-US Trade and Technology
Council will meet on Dec. 5, raising hopes that the two sides can iron out their
differences, especially to allay Europe’s fears of what it calls “unfair”
competition. The Europeans want to at least be treated like Canada and Mexico
and benefit under the new act.
The problem for Europe, however, is within the continent and not across the
Atlantic. The Europeans are divided, with the last meeting of EU energy
ministers revealing deep and “almost irreconcilable” divisions, according to AP.
The ministers were trying to agree on a price cap for gas but their “heated”
discussions led to more divisions. They are slated to meet again in December,
but if they do not do the heavy lifting before the meeting to bridge the gap in
their positions, the energy crisis might turn into a political one.
Europe is at a critical juncture in its history and in its relationship with the
US. The longer it remains bogged down in the protracted war between Ukraine and
Russia, the deeper its problems will become. Only a peaceful end to this
conflict, and soon, can give the Europeans a chance to recover and put their
economies and lives on a better trajectory than the one they are on now. Blaming
the US will not solve Europe’s problems. The US is doing what is in its
interests.
*Dr. Amal Mudallali is a consultant on global issues. She is a former Lebanese
ambassador to the UN.