English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 05/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.december05.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 01/67-80: “John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 04-05/2022
Al-Rahi says govt. session may stir sectarian row, endanger security
Al-Rahi: We hope that PM Mikati will address matters as he prepares for a ministerial meeting on Monday
Archbishop Aoudi: It would be better to urge the election of a president and reorganize the work of the institutions instead of convening a session of the caretaker government
Bou Habib, Khoury, Selim, Salam, Hajjar, Fayyad, Nassar, Boushkian & Sharafeddine announce rejection of tomorrow’s cabinet session on...
Nassar: My non-participation in tomorrow's cabinet session stems from my keenness on political stability to ensure tourism steadiness
Salam: I call for withdrawing the invitation to tomorrow's session, otherwise I will not be participating
Aoun urges ministers to take 'unified stance' on 'unconstitutional' govt. session
Mikati slams 'Aounist media' over al-Rahi phone call reports
UN refugee agency chief says help Lebanon's most vulnerable
Beirut Arab Book Fair" kicks off with seminars, book signings at Beirut's Seaside Arena
Displaced Minister: We will not despair and the righteous can save the country from the whales of money & power
Diab says Lebanon at risk, speedy solution a necessity
Qassem says "consensus is what yields a president, US is constantly working to create chaos in Lebanon"
UN refugee agency chief says help Lebanon's most vulnerable
Ukrainian Woman Accused of Helping Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Fund Embezzlement

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 04-05/2022
Protesters Storm Governor’s Office in Southern Syrian City, 2 Killed in Clashes
Iran scraps morality police after months of deadly protests
Iran Executes 4 People Convicted of Cooperating with Israel
Protest-Hit Iran Says Reviewing Mandatory Headscarf Law
Protest-Hit Iran Abolishes Morality Police
Iran Protesters Call For Three-Day Strike from Monday
Iranian State Media: Construction Begins on Nuclear Plant
Ukraine war: Fighting will be at 'reduced tempo for months' US intelligence experts say
Analysis-Saudi prince seeks Mideast leadership, independence with Xi's visit
Third year of Abraham Accords off to a good start - analysis
Israeli president touts business ties on first Bahrain visit
Herzog becomes first Israeli president to visit Bahrain
Blinken Warns Incoming Netanyahu Govt against Settlements, Annexation
Blinken vows US support for Israel despite unease over govt
Israel strikes Gaza after rocket fired from enclave
Oil prices may hit $110 a barrel in 2023 but Russia risk could 'turbocharge' them even higher, BofA says

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 04-05/2022
Please… Get Your Facts Straight/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/December,04/2022
Curbing the Military Appetites of Iran, Turkey, and Israel: French Efforts, American Ambiguity, and Russian Concerns/Raghida Dergham/December 04/2022
Putin's war in Ukraine looks more and more like a failure. Past Russian leaders haven't survived similar mistakes./Joy Neumeyer/Business Insider/December 04/2022
Extreme Danger: "Boring" Election Issues/J. Christian Adams/Gatestone Institute/December 04/2022
UN should fully investigate Iran’s crimes against humanity/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 04, 2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 04-05/2022
Al-Rahi says govt. session may stir sectarian row, endanger security
Naharnet/December 04/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113846/%d9%86%d8%b5-%d8%b9%d8%b8%d8%aa%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d8%b7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%83-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b9%d9%8a-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b7%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%af%d8%a9-16/
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday stressed that the caretaker cabinet is “a cabinet for taking care of people’s affairs, not a cabinet for the agendas of political parties and blocs,” two days after caretaker PM Najib Mikati called for a cabinet meeting amid an ongoing presidential vacuum. “We call on PM Najib Mikati, who has always distanced himself from sharp divisions, to rectify things,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. “The country can do without starting sectarian debates, creating new disputes, subjecting security to threats and triggering an institutional conflict and a disagreement over powers,” al-Rahi warned, addressing Mikati.

Al-Rahi: We hope that PM Mikati will address matters as he prepares for a ministerial meeting on Monday
NNA/December 04/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113846/%d9%86%d8%b5-%d8%b9%d8%b8%d8%aa%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d8%b7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%83-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b9%d9%8a-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b7%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%af%d8%a9-16/
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros Al-Rahi, hoped that Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati would fix things as he prepares for a cabinet meeting on Monday. Al-Rahi’s words came during Sunday Mass, in which he affirmed that the country should be spared opening-up sectarian differences and creating new problems accompanied by destabilizing security, conflicting institutions, and disagreement over authorities. In his sermon, Al-Rahi also reiterated the need for the displaced Syrians to return to their country, especially since the security and political situation has become secure in their land.

Archbishop Aoudi:  It would be better to urge the election of a president and reorganize the work of the institutions instead of convening a session of the caretaker government
LCCC/December 04/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113846/%d9%86%d8%b5-%d8%b9%d8%b8%d8%aa%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d8%b7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%83-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b9%d9%8a-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b7%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%af%d8%a9-16/
In his today's sermon, Bishop Aoudi said: "How is a country run without a head? How are people's affairs handled and the work of constitutional institutions and state administrations organized in the absence of a president and government? Instead of being an anchor, skilled sailors, and a port of salvation for citizens and their salvation from drowning. Instead of holding a session of a caretaker government, and with the need to address the necessary matters, wouldn't it be more appropriate to rush to elect a president and re-organize the work of the office and presidencies? None of them are ready to sacrifice their interests and connections in order to save the country. Aoudi concluded: “ My Lord, you called us today to strive for holiness, not being afraid of what the evil one might cause us of stumbling blocks and pitfalls. May the Lord bless your life my dear Lebanese, sanctify you, and grant you His countless blessings, Amen.

Bou Habib, Khoury, Selim, Salam, Hajjar, Fayyad, Nassar, Boushkian & Sharafeddine announce rejection of tomorrow’s cabinet session on...
NNA/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Caretaker Ministers Abdallah Bou Habib, Henry Khoury, Maurice Selim, Amin Salam, Hector Hajjar, Walid Fayyad, Walid Nassar, George Boushkian and Issam Sharafeddine, issued a joint statement this evening, in which they declared their rejection of tomorrow’s cabinet session and called on the Prime Minister-designate to withdraw his invitation for said session. "The resigned prime minister surprised us by calling to convene a cabinet session with a loose and floundering agenda of 65 to 25 items, while our government is a caretaker government (in the narrow sense of the word) and has not met since it was considered resigned as of last May,” the statement said. The Caretaker Ministers considered that the proposed items on the cabinet’s agenda can be resolved without convening a cabinet, as was previously done in urgent and important issues. They pledged their commitment to respecting and preserving the constitution and not disturbing the constants of national balance. Accordingly, they declared their rejection of convening the Council of Ministers in session from a constitutional and charter standpoint, particularly since Article 64 of the Lebanese Constitution is clear in terms of not permitting a government to exercise its powers when resigned, except in the narrow sense of caretaker business.“We refuse to violate the Constitution, and we do not accept to be partners in striking the National Pact, and we appeal to all fellow ministers to stand together by the Constitution and national unity...and we urge the Prime Minister to withdraw his call so as not to make the situation in the country more difficult,” the Ministers asserted in their statement.

Nassar: My non-participation in tomorrow's cabinet session stems from my keenness on political stability to ensure tourism steadiness
NNA/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Caretaker Minister of Tourism, Walid Nassar, considered that "the current stage in the country requires more awareness and concern for political and security stability,” adding, “I have always called, through my media appearances and the events in which I participated, for securing this stability, which in turn contributes to the stability and prosperity of the tourism sector and protecting it from any turmoil that threatens its livelihood, which would in turn reflect negatively on the national economy.”He added: “Based on this, I have informed Prime Minister Najib Mikati that I will not attend the cabinet session tomorrow, Monday, with my certainty of the PM’s keenness on this stability and managing the stage with his wisdom, awareness and patriotic sense.” Nassar also called for concerted efforts of all Lebanese parties and their cooperation to get out of the crises in the country, and to render this winter season a success at the touristic level in Lebanon.

Salam: I call for withdrawing the invitation to tomorrow's session, otherwise I will not be participating
NNA/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
In an issued statement this afternoon, Caretaker Economy and Trade Minister Amin Salam called for withdrawing the invitation for the cabinet to convene in session tomorrow, Monday, otherwise he will not be partaking in the meeting. Salam stressed his commitment to defending people’s needs and concerns, and never falling short of carrying out his national duties towards the country and the citizen within the framework of respecting the constitution and the law. However, with regards to tomorrow’s session, Salam said: “Since I was not informed of the agenda until 24 hours before the session without any prior deliberation, and since the schedule was amended more than once, the last of which was yesterday evening, with the cancellation of more than 40 items on the agenda without a clear explanation or standard for the emergency circumstances associated with said items, which reflects the lack of seriousness and clarity of this meeting...and after constitutional and legal consultations affirming that the proposed items can be accomplished within the powers of the ministries and the powers of the caretaker government...and based on the fact that there is no legitimacy for any authority that contradicts the Charter of Coexistence...I call for withdrawing the invitation to the session, otherwise I find myself unable to partake in it.” He added: “I call on all those concerned to abide by the constitution and preserve it, and not to interfere with the constants of national balance.""The country has paid a heavy price for its differences and challenges, and everyone promised that we would not slip into a dark tunnel again,” Salam asserted.

Aoun urges ministers to take 'unified stance' on 'unconstitutional' govt. session
Naharnet/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Ex-president Michel Aoun on Sunday said that caretaker PM Najib Mikati's call for a cabinet session has "unveiled the real reasons that made him, throughout five consecutive months, refrain from forming a government."It was his "attempt to monopolize power and impose his will on the Lebanese contrary to the stipulations of the constitution, norms and the National Pact," Aoun added, in a statement distributed by his press office. "His unjustifiable move plunges the country into a precedent that the Lebanese national life has never witnessed, with what it carries of repercussions on political stability in the country,” the ex-president said. He accordingly called on ministers to “take a unified stance that would prevent the violation of the constitution’s stipulations, which clearly define the role of caretaker cabinets, because any (partisan) interpretation in this regard would be a blatant breach of the constant principles that were established by the National Accord Document (Taif Agreement) and enshrined in the constitution’s articles.” Mikati has argued that the caretaker cabinet needs to approve urgent matters, including a decree related to medical services offered to cancer and dialysis patients. Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement has meanwhile repeatedly warned against holding cabinet sessions amid the ongoing presidential vacuum, labeling such a move as an attack on the president’s powers.

Mikati slams 'Aounist media' over al-Rahi phone call reports
Naharnet/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s press office on Sunday denied “what some Aounist media is circulating about a phone call that took place between Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and caretaker PM Najib Mikati following the patriarch’s Sunday Mass sermon.”
“What’s correct is that the premier had called the Maronite patriarch yesterday to consult over the situation, explaining to him the circumstances that necessitated calling for a cabinet session,” the press office said, noting that “the stance that the Aounist media is trying to attribute to the Maronite patriarch is totally baseless,” the press office added. “In his call for a cabinet session tomorrow, Mr. Premier is taking into consideration the patriarch’s concerns and stance and will certainly seek to keep the government away from influences so that it maintains its independence as an executive authority, albeit in cartetaker capacity, as Patriarch al-Rahi has called for in his sermon today,” the press office said. In his sermon, al-Rahi criticized Mikati’s call for the cabinet session and warned that "the country can do without starting sectarian debates, creating new disputes, subjecting security to threats and triggering an institutional conflict and a disagreement over powers." Mikati has argued that the caretaker cabinet needs to approve urgent matters, including a decree related to medical services offered to cancer and dialysis patients. The Free Patriotic Movement has meanwhile repeatedly warned against holding cabinet sessions amid the ongoing presidential vacuum, labeling such a move as an attack on the president’s powers.

UN refugee agency chief says help Lebanon's most vulnerable
Naharnet/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
The United Nations' refugee agency chief has called for sustained support for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and vulnerable Lebanese citizens, three years after the country's economy began collapsing. "We must stand with Lebanon," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said at the end of a three-day visit to Beirut. He urged the international community to help the country as it faces "one of its hardest moments" and hosts "one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world." Since late 2019, Lebanon has been in the throes of an economic crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history, dealing an especially heavy blow to vulnerable communities, including refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled to Lebanon after the country's civil war began in 2011 with the brutal suppression of anti-regime protests. Authorities say Lebanon hosts around two million Syrian refugees, while nearly 830,000 are registered with the U.N. In a statement, Grandi said sustained support for Lebanon was needed "now more than ever... both to support Lebanese in need and the hundreds of thousands of refugees that they have generously hosted for so many years."During his visit, Grandi met with officials including caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati "to discuss how to better support vulnerable Lebanese and refugees," the statement added. Lebanese authorities have long pushed for Syrian refugees to return to their home country, and have made several repatriation efforts they describe as voluntary, but human rights groups have branded the returns as forced. "The government reiterated its urgent appeal for an end to the refugee crisis," Grandi said, adding that UNHCR was working towards this goal "despite the complex and challenging situation." Since the Damascus regime regained control of most of Syria, some host countries have sought to expel refugees from their territories, citing a relative end to hostilities. But rights groups say some refugees have faced prosecution, and reject the idea that refugee returns to Syria are safe.

Beirut Arab Book Fair" kicks off with seminars, book signings at Beirut's Seaside Arena
NNA/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
The activities of the 64th "Beirut Arab International Book Fair", which bears the slogan "I read - Beirut time", kicked off at the Seaside Arena Hall in Beirut’s new waterfront area in its first and second days. Several seminars were held with visible movement of visitors of all ages roaming the various sections of the exhibition, and around twenty book signing activities. The Arab Cultural Club organized a forum entitled "Lebanese Heritage and its Role in Enhancing National Immunity", moderated by Lebanese Poet Henry Zgheib, during which Dr. Antoine Massara and Mr. Suhail Mneimneh spoke in the presence of a crowd of interested figures, led by former PM Fouad Siniora. The delivered words highlighted the need to preserve heritage and safeguard its transmission between generations, particularly in terms of its significant role in enhancing national immunity. In this context, conferees referred to the launching of the “National Day of Beirut Heritage” on November 26th of each year. In a brief word, Siniora expressed his pride in being the son of the Arab Cultural Club, adding, "Beirut deserves this effort from us, because Beirut is the essence of the homeland and in it lies the salvation of the homeland."
Another activity held today was a forum by “Dar Al-Mashreq” to discuss the book entitled: “The Humanization of the Homelands” by Professor Fadi Daou, moderated by Dr. Nayla Tabbara, with MP Mark Daou, former MP Mustafa Alloush and Dr. Wajih Kanso attending. The delivered words touched on understanding humanism and its contribution to facilitating coexistence between different groups, particularly the notion of a nation, a homeland and social contract, and the preservation of the rights of minorities and integrated efforts devoted to citizenship and safeguarding humanity.

Displaced Minister: We will not despair and the righteous can save the country from the whales of money & power
NNA/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Caretaker Minister of the Displaced, Issam Sharafeddine, deemed the situation in Lebanon as “not hopeless” like some are trying to portray, particularly those associated with agendas that have nothing to do with any national or humanitarian sense. “On the contrary, there are many prospects and capabilities to lay the necessary foundations that will advance the national economy and gradually return it to the right track,” he said. “There is no real intention to find radical solutions to the accumulated crises in the country. Rather, this fragile situation is intended to continue because some parties inside and outside the country believe that matters in the region may be in the interest of their well-known political projects, despite knowing that the facts show that their projects have failed, hitting a dead-end,” the Minister asserted. His words came during his meeting today with a delegation from the “Sada4Press” website management, with whom he discussed the latest developments and the measures needed to stop the country’s frightening deterioration at all levels. Referring to the issue of the displaced, Sharafeddine regretted that “the international approach to this dossier takes it to the political realm, although it is a humanitarian file par excellence.”
He added: “If there were pure intentions on part of the donors, we would have managed to secure the safe and voluntary return of more than 75 percent of the displaced gradually and within a well-thought-out organized program."Sharafeddine concluded by hoping that “a new president of the republic will be elected and a new government will be formed, one that enjoys the people's confidence regardless of the number of votes of the deputies....This would restore public order to the institutions and give some hope to the people in this country, who will not despair but will strive to overcome the whales of money and power.”

Diab says Lebanon at risk, speedy solution a necessity
NNA/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Former Prime Minister Hassan Diab received a delegation from the "Sada4press” website who visited him at his Tallet Al-Khayyat residence, with talks touching on the latest developments in the country and Lebanon's tendency towards more complexities instead of finding solutions to the prevailing crises. The delegation valued the former Prime Minister’s efforts to salvage Lebanon, considering that "his government was an irreplaceable opportunity."In turn, Diab stressed that "the path to a solution is to eliminate corruption, especially since the economic and financial policies in force do not bode well," calling on the people to "join hands to restore Lebanon, for it is heading, in its current course, towards collapse."Referring to his government, Diab agreed with the delegation in deeming it a “lost opportunity for Lebanon”, for it was “distinguished by everyone's desire to work hard for Lebanon and adhered to the standards that had been set, as it included twenty technocrat ministers, but political pressure and the disasters that befell Lebanon, namely the Beirut port explosion and the Corona pandemic, among other factors, prevented it from completing its mission.” In regards to the Banque du Liban, Diab noted that “continuing to rely on one governor over a period of twenty-seven years is something that does not happen in the most important countries in the world,” expressing surprise at the insistence of the ruling system to maintain the Central Bank governor despite the grave mistakes he committed in engineering financial policies.

Qassem says "consensus is what yields a president, US is constantly working to create chaos in Lebanon"
NNA/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
The Secretary-General of "Hezbollah", Sheikh Naim Qassem, delivered a speech during his patronage of the coronation ceremony for the wearers of the Zainabiyah abaya, saying that "understanding and cosensus is what produces a president," adding that "priority today is to elect a president of the republic who sponsors a rescue plan for the economy." Qassem accused the United States of creating chaos in the internal Lebanese arena, saying: "America is constantly working to create chaos in Lebanon, besieging it and preventing it from obtaining electricity, and constantly interfering in Lebanon’s affairs and trying to impose policies, presidents and positions that serve the American project."

UN refugee agency chief says help Lebanon's most vulnerable
NNA/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
The United Nations' refugee agency chief has called for sustained support for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and vulnerable Lebanese citizens, three years after the country's economy began collapsing. "We must stand with Lebanon," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said at the end of a three-day visit to Beirut. He urged the international community to help the country as it faces "one of its hardest moments" and hosts "one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world."Since late 2019, Lebanon has been in the throes of an economic crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history, dealing an especially heavy blow to vulnerable communities, including refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled to Lebanon after the country's civil war began in 2011 with the brutal suppression of anti-regime protests. Authorities say Lebanon hosts around two million Syrian refugees, while nearly 830,000 are registered with the U.N. In a statement, Grandi said sustained support for Lebanon was needed "now more than ever... both to support Lebanese in need and the hundreds of thousands of refugees that they have generously hosted for so many years." During his visit, Grandi met with officials including caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati "to discuss how to better support vulnerable Lebanese and refugees," the statement added. Lebanese authorities have long pushed for Syrian refugees to return to their home country, and have made several repatriation efforts they describe as voluntary, but human rights groups have branded the returns as forced. "The government reiterated its urgent appeal for an end to the refugee crisis," Grandi said, adding that UNHCR was working towards this goal "despite the complex and challenging situation."Since the Damascus regime regained control of most of Syria, some host countries have sought to expel refugees from their territories, citing a relative end to hostilities. But rights groups say some refugees have faced prosecution, and reject the idea that refugee returns to Syria are safe. AFP

Ukrainian Woman Accused of Helping Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Fund Embezzlement
Beirut, Paris - Youssef Diab and Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
The French Judiciary indicted a Ukrainian woman, who was said to be close to the governor of Lebanon’s Central Bank, Riad Salameh, as part of its investigation into the latter’s wealth in France.  AFP quoted a French judicial source as confirming that the charges against Ukrainian Anna Kozakova, 46, include “criminal conspiracy,” “laundering in organized gang” and “laundering of aggravated tax fraud”. France, Germany and Luxembourg announced last March that they had frozen 120 million euros of Lebanese assets following an investigation into embezzlement, in a move targeting Salameh and four of his relatives. A number of properties in France suspected of belonging to Salameh were also confiscated, including apartments in the 16th arrondissement, which are among the most expensive in the French capital, and spaces located on the Champs-Elysees Avenue, in addition to bank accounts. French investigators took over the case in July 2021 following complaints filed in April of the same year by the Group of Victims of Fraudulent and Criminal Practices in Lebanon and the French association Sherpa, an NGO that defends victims of economic crimes. Lawyers for the complainants, William Bourdon and Amelie Lefebvre, said the filing of charges was important given Kozakova’s relationship with Salameh. However, they added that this step was only a first stage, noting that the size of the (asset) confiscation measures portended other developments, beyond Salameh’s circle. The French judiciary has not yet brought charges against Salameh, who has repeatedly defended himself, saying that he is was a “scapegoat” for the economic crisis in Lebanon.  Salameh is facing many complaints against him in several countries. Last year, Lebanese authorities opened a case at the request of the Swiss Public Prosecution over whether he and his brother Raja had transferred sums exceeding $300 million. Despite the complaints, summons, investigations, and travel ban issued against him last January, Salameh remains in the position he has held since 1993, making him one of the longest-serving central bank governors in the world.
The man, who has been described for years as being behind the stability of the Lebanese pound, also faces criticism about the monetary policies he adopted for decades, which led to the accumulation of debts. In Beirut, the recent French decision on Kozakova, who is believed to have a relationship with Salameh, did not shock Lebanese authorities. The Lebanese judiciary had previously charged the woman, along with Salameh and his brother with similar crimes, but a judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the file “involved internal and external complications that are impossible to resolve within the legal framework, and through judicial prosecution procedures.” The sources noted that the case “has other dimensions” amid the ongoing political disputes in Lebanon and external interference.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 04-05/2022
Protesters Storm Governor’s Office in Southern Syrian City, 2 Killed in Clashes
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Dozens of demonstrators angry over worsening economic conditions in Syria stormed and ransacked the governor's office in the southern city of Sweida on Sunday, clashing with police, the authorities and witnesses said. Earlier, more than 200 people had gathered around the building in the center of the Druze-majority city, chanting slogans calling for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, they said, amid spiraling prices and economic hardship. "Down with Assad," the crowd chanted. Anti-government protests in state-controlled areas in Syria are not tolerated and rare. Syrian state media said tens of "outlaws" stormed the governor's office and burned files and official papers. The Ministry of Interior said they had also tried to seize the city's police headquarters, and that one policeman was killed in the ensuing clashes. "We will pursue all the outlaws and take all legal measures against anyone who dares to undermine the security and stability of the province," the government statement said. Three witnesses told Reuters the governor was not in the building which was vacated before protesters stormed and ransacked offices. "The governor's office was burnt completely from the inside," said Rayan Maarouf, a civic activist and editor of Suwayda 24, a local website that covers the southern region, who said several people were wounded in the exchange of gunshots. "There was heavy gunfire," Maarouf told Reuters, saying it was not clear from where the shooting came in the heavily policed area. A source in the city hospital said one civilian who was being treated had died from gunshot wounds while another was still in hospital after being shot. Sweida province has been spared the violence seen in other parts of Syria since the start of the over-decade long conflict that began after pro-democracy protests erupted against Assad's family rule were violently crushed by security forces.  Syria is in the throes of a deep economic crisis where a majority of people after a devastating conflict that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions struggle to afford food and basic goods.
Witnesses in Sweida told Reuters that once inside the building, demonstrators brought down pictures of Assad.

Iran scraps morality police after months of deadly protests
AFP/December 04, 2022
The morality police — known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad or “Guidance Patrol” — were established under hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
TEHRAN: Iran has scrapped its morality police after more than two months of protests triggered by the arrest of Mahsa Amini for allegedly violating the country’s strict female dress code, local media said Sunday. Women-led protests, labelled “riots” by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died on September 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran. “Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary” and have been abolished, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
His comment came at a religious conference where he responded to a participant who asked “why the morality police were being shut down,” the report said. The morality police — known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad or “Guidance Patrol” — were established under hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to “spread the culture of modesty and hijab,” the mandatory female head covering.
The units began patrols in 2006.
The announcement of their abolition came a day after Montazeri said that “both parliament and the judiciary are working (on the issue)” of whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be changed. President Ebrahim Raisi said in televised comments Saturday that Iran’s republican and Islamic foundations were constitutionally entrenched “but there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible.”The hijab became mandatory four years after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed monarchy and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. Morality police officers initially issued warnings before starting to crack down and arrest women 15 years ago. The vice squads were usually made up of men in green uniforms and women clad in black chadors, garments that cover their heads and upper bodies. The role of the units evolved, but has always been controversial even among candidates running for the presidency. Clothing norms gradually changed, especially under former moderate president Hassan Rouhani, when it became commonplace to see women in tight jeans with loose, colorful headscarves. But in July this year his successor, the ultra-conservative Raisi, called for the mobilization of “all state institutions to enforce the headscarf law.” Raisi at the time charged that “the enemies of Iran and Islam have targeted the cultural and religious values of society by spreading corruption.” In spite of this, many women continued to bend the rules, letting their headscarves slip onto their shoulders or wearing tight-fitting pants, especially in major cities and towns. Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia also employed morality police to enforce female dress codes and other rules of behavior. Since 2016 the force there has been sidelined in a push by the Sunni Muslim kingdom to shake off its austere image.

Iran Executes 4 People Convicted of Cooperating with Israel
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Iranian authorities executed four people Sunday accused of working for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, the state-run IRNA news agency said. Three others received lengthy prison sentences. IRNA said the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard announced the arrests of a network of people linked to the Israeli agency. It said the members had previous criminal records and tried to disrupt the country's security. Israel and Iran are regional arch-enemies and Iran occasionally announces the detention of people it says are spying for foreign countries, including the United States and Israel. Iran does not recognize Israel and supports anti-Israel armed groups across the region, such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Network members stole and destroyed private and public property and kidnapped individuals and interrogated them, according to the report. It said the alleged spies had weapons and received wages from Mossad in the form of cryptocurrency. IRNA identified the executed prisoners as Hossein Ordoukhanzadeh, Shahin Imani Mahmoudabadi, Milad Ashrafi and Manouchehr Shahbandi. Three other members of the group received sentences of five to 10 years in prison, according to the news agency, but they were not identified., They were arrested and sentenced to death in June on charges of “intelligence cooperation with Israel.” The Revolutionary Court regularly hands out death sentences, although it remains unclear which court charged the four men in June. The Revolutionary Court was established following the 1979 revolution and is known for meting out harsh punishments to those who oppose Iran’s clerical rulers. According to Amnesty International, Iran executed at least 314 people in 2021, more than half the total state executions recorded across the Middle East that year. Iran and Israel have long accused each other of spying. Israel views Iran as its greatest threat and has repeatedly threatened to take military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies it is seeking such weapons and has vowed a harsh response to any Israeli aggression. In January, Israel said it had broken up an Iranian spy ring that recruited Israeli women via social media to photograph sensitive sites, gather intelligence and encourage their sons to join Israeli military intelligence. In July, Iran said it arrested members of an armed group linked to Mossad after they sneaked into Iran from across its western border. In 2020, Iran executed a man convicted of leaking information to the US and Israel about a prominent Revolutionary Guard general who was later killed by a US drone strike in Iraq. Israel also regularly carries out strikes on Iran-allied militant groups in neighboring Syria. Iran has been a main supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad during the country’s 11-year war, sending thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the region to fight alongside his forces. Israeli officials rarely discuss its operations but have said in the past that they will work on preventing Iran’s entrenchment in Syria.

Protest-Hit Iran Says Reviewing Mandatory Headscarf Law
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Iran said Saturday it is reviewing a decades-old law that requires women to cover their heads, as it struggles to quell more than two months of protests linked to the dress code. Protests have swept Iran since the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin arrested by the morality police for allegedly flouting the religious-based law. Demonstrators have burned their head coverings and shouted anti-government slogans. Since Amini's death, a growing number of women have not been observing hijab, particularly in Tehran's fashionable north.
"Both parliament and the judiciary are working (on the issue)" of whether the law needs any changes, Iran's attorney general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said. Quoted by the ISNA news agency, he did not specify what could be modified in the law by the two bodies, which are largely in the hands of conservatives. The review team met on Wednesday with parliament's cultural commission "and will see the results in a week or two", the attorney general said. President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday said Iran's republican and Islamic foundations were constitutionally entrenched. "But there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible," he said in televised comments. The hijab headscarf became obligatory for all women in Iran in April 1983, four years after the revolution that overthrew the US-backed monarchy. It remains a highly sensitive issue in a country where conservatives insist it should be compulsory, while reformists want to leave it up to individual choice.
Hundreds killed
After the hijab law became mandatory, with changing clothing norms it became commonplace to see women in tight jeans and loose, colorful headscarves. But in July this year Raisi, an ultra-conservative, called for mobilization of "all state institutions to enforce the headscarf law".Many women continued to bend the rules, however. In September, Iran's main reformist party called for the mandatory hijab law to be rescinded. The Union of Islamic Iran People Party, formed by relatives of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, on Saturday demanded the authorities "prepare the legal elements paving the way for the cancellation of the mandatory hijab law". The opposition group is also calling for the Islamic republic to "officially announce the end of the activities of the morality police" and "allow peaceful demonstrations", it said in a statement.Iran accuses its sworn enemy the United States and its allies, including Britain, Israel, and Kurdish groups based outside the country, of fomenting the street protests which the government calls "riots". A general in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps this week, for the first time, said more than 300 people have lost their lives in the unrest since Amini's death. Iran's top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, on Saturday said the number of people killed during the protests "exceeds 200". Cited by state news agency IRNA, it said the figure included security officers, civilians and "separatists" as well as "rioters". Oslo-based non-governmental organisation Iran Human Rights on Tuesday said at least 448 people had been "killed by security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests". UN rights chief Volker Turk said last week that 14,000 people, including children, had been arrested in the protest crackdown. The Supreme National Security Council said that in addition to the human toll, the violence had caused damage valued at trillions of rials (millions of dollars).

Protest-Hit Iran Abolishes Morality Police
Asharq Al-Awsat/ December, 04/2022
Iran has scrapped its morality police after more than two months of protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest for allegedly violating the country's strict female dress code, an official said Sunday. Women-led protests, labelled "riots" by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died on September 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran. Demonstrators have burned their mandatory hijab head coverings and shouted anti-government slogans, and a growing number of women have refrained from wearing the hijab, particularly in parts of Tehran. "Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary and have been abolished," Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. His comment came at a religious conference where he responded to a question on "why the morality police were being shut down", the report said. The move represents a rare concession to the protest movement, and authorities have also acknowledged the demoralizing effect of an economic crisis spurred by US sanctions. "The best way to confront the riots is to... pay attention to people's real demands," said the parliament praesidium council spokesman Seyyed Nezamoldin Mousavi, referencing "livelihoods and the economy".
'Culture of modesty'
The news was treated with skepticism by some Iranians on social media, including those who expressed fears its role would be taken over by another unit, as well as others pointing out that intense social pressure remained at home. Since the 1979 revolution that overthrew Iran's US-backed monarchy, authorities have monitored adherence to the strict dress code for women and men. But under hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the morality police -- known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad or "Guidance Patrol" -- was established to "spread the culture of modesty and hijab". The units were set up by Iran's Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, which is today headed by President Ebrahim Raisi. They began their patrols in 2006 to enforce the dress code which also requires women to wear long clothes and forbids shorts, ripped jeans and other clothes deemed immodest.
The announcement of the units' abolition came a day after Montazeri said "both parliament and the judiciary are working" on the issue of whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be changed. Raisi said in televised comments Saturday that Iran's republican and Islamic foundations were constitutionally entrenched "but there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible". The hijab became mandatory in 1983. Morality police officers initially issued warnings before starting to crack down and arrest women 15 years ago. The squads were usually made up of men in green uniforms and women clad in black chadors, garments that cover their heads and upper bodies. The role of the units evolved, but has always been controversial. Clothing norms gradually changed, especially under former moderate president Hassan Rouhani, when it became common to see women in tight jeans and with loose, colorful headscarves. But in July this year his successor, the ultra-conservative Raisi, called for the mobilization of "all state institutions to enforce the headscarf law". Raisi at the time charged that "the enemies of Iran and Islam have targeted the cultural and religious values of society by spreading corruption".
Thousands arrested
In September, the Union of Islamic Iran People Party, the country's main reformist party, called for the hijab law to be rescinded. On Saturday it also called for Iran to publicly shut down the morality police and "allow peaceful demonstrations". Iran accuses its enemy the United States and its allies, including Britain and Israel, and Kurdish groups based outside the country, of fomenting the street protests. More than 300 people have been killed in the unrest, including dozens of security force members, an Iranian general said on Monday. Oslo-based non-government organization Iran Human Rights last week said at least 448 people had been "killed by security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests". Thousands have been arrested, including prominent Iranian actors and footballers.

Iran Protesters Call For Three-Day Strike from Monday
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Protesters in Iran called on Sunday a three-day strike this week as they seek to maintain pressure on authorities over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, with protests planned on the day President Ebrahim Raisi is due to address students in Tehran. Raisi is expected to visit Tehran University on Wednesday, celebrated in Iran as Student Day. To coincide with Student Day, protesters are calling for strikes by merchants and a rally towards Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square, according to individual posts shared on Twitter by accounts unverified by Reuters. They have also called for three days of boycotting any economic activity starting on Monday. Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilization have in past weeks resulted in an escalation in the unrest which has swept the country - some of the biggest anti-government protests since Iran's 1979 revolution. The activist HRANA news agency said 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday, including 64 minors. It said 18,210 demonstrators were arrested and 61 members of the security forces were killed. Iran's Interior Ministry state security council said on Saturday the death toll was 200, according to the judiciary's news agency Mizan. The nationwide protests began after Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, died in the custody of Iran's morality police on Sept. 16, after she was detained for violating the hijab restrictions governing how women dress. Residents posting on social media and newspapers such Shargh daily say there have been fewer sightings of the morality police on the streets in recent weeks as authorities apparently try to avoid provoking more protests. On Saturday, Iran's Public Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was cited by the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency as saying that the morality police had been disbanded. "The same authority which has established this police has shut it down," Montazeri was quoted as saying. Iran's Interior Ministry, which is the authority in charge of the morality police, has yet to comment on the status of the force, which is tasked with monitoring Iranians' clothing and public behavior. Montazeri said the morality police was not under the judiciary's authority, which "continues to monitor behavioral actions at the community level."  Top Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran would not change its mandatory hijab policy, nor the way it enforces this policy.
Executions
State media said four men convicted of cooperating with Israel's spy agency Mossad were executed on Sunday. They had been arrested in June - before the current unrest sweeping the country - following cooperation between the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards, Tasnim news agency reported. Tehran has long accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its soil. Tehran has recently accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of plotting a civil war in Iran. Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that the country's Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence handed out to the four men "for the crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping". Three other people were handed prison sentences of between five and 10 years after being convicted of crimes that included acting against national security, aiding in kidnapping, and possessing illegal weapons, the Mehr news agency said.

Iranian State Media: Construction Begins on Nuclear Plant
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Iran on Saturday began construction on a new nuclear power plant in the country's southwest, Iranian state TV announced, amid tensions with the US.over sweeping sanctions imposed after Washington pulled out of the country’s nuclear deal with world powers. The announcement comes as Iran has been rocked by nationwide protests challenging the theocratic government that began after the death of a young woman in police custody over an allegedly violation of the religious dress code. In a possibly related move, Iran's semi-official IRNA news agency late Saturday quoted a top prosecutor as saying officials had “closed” the morality police force responsible for enforcing the dress code. It gave no details. The new 300-megawatt plant, known as Karoon, will take eight years to build and cost around $2 billion, the country’s state television and radio agency reported. The plant will be located in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province, near its western border with Iraq, it said. The construction site’s inauguration ceremony was attended by Mohammed Eslami, head of Iran’s civilian Atomic Energy Organization, who first unveiled construction plans for Karoon in April. Iran has one nuclear power plant at its southern port of Bushehr that went online in 2011 with help from Russia, but also several underground nuclear facilities. The announcement of Karoon’s construction came less than two weeks after Iran said it had begun producing enriched uranium at 60% purity at the country’s underground Fordo nuclear facility. The move is seen as a significant addition to the country’s nuclear program. Enrichment to 60% purity is one short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Non-proliferation experts have warned in recent months that Iran now has enough 60%-enriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least one nuclear bomb.
The move was condemned by Germany, France and Britain, the three Western European nations that remain in the Iran nuclear deal. Recent attempts to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, have stalled.
Since September, Iran has been roiled by nationwide protests that have come to mark one of the greatest challenges to its theocracy since the chaotic years after its 1979 revolution. The protests were sparked when Mahsa Amini, 22, died in custody Sept. 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police for violating the strict dress code for women. Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beating after she was detained.
In a statement issued by the state-run IRNA news agency Saturday, the country’s national security council announced that some 200 people have been killed during the protests, the body’s first official word on the casualties. Last week, Iranian Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh tallied the death toll at more than 300.
The contradictory tolls are lower than the toll reported by Human Rights Activists in Iran, a US-based organization that has been closely monitoring the protest since the outbreak. In its most recent update, the group says that 469 people have been killed and 18,210 others detained in the protests and the violent security force crackdown that followed. Iranian state media also announced Saturday that the family home of Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian female rock climber who competed abroad with her hair untied, had been demolished. Iran's official judiciary news agency, Mizan, said the destruction of her brother's home was due to its “unauthorized construction and use of land” and that demolition took place months before Rekabi competed. Anti-government activists say it was a targeted demolition.
Rekabi became a symbol of the anti-government movement in October after competing in a rock climbing competition in South Korea without wearing a mandatory headscarf required of female athletes from Iran. In an Instagram post the following day, Rekabi described her not wearing a hijab as “unintentional,” however it remains unclear whether she wrote the post or what condition she was in at the time. Since September, there has been a reported decline in the number of morality police officers across Iranian cities. The group was established in 2005 with the task of arresting people who violate the country's dress code. In a report published late Saturday by IRNA, Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohamed Jafar Montazeri, said the morality police had been “closed.” He provided no further details about the state of the force, or if its closure was widespread and permanent. “The judiciary continues to monitor behavioral actions at the community level,” Montazeri added. The United States unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA — in 2018, under then-President Donald Trump. It reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to start backing away from the deal’s terms. Iran has long denied ever seeking nuclear weapons, insisting its nuclear program is peaceful.

Ukraine war: Fighting will be at 'reduced tempo for months' US intelligence experts say
Sky News/December 4, 2022
US intelligence experts have said they expect a "reduced tempo" in fighting in Ukraine to last several months, with both sides looking to prepare for a counter-offensive after the winter. The Director of National Intelligence said that while this might be the case, there is no evidence of a reduced Ukrainian will to resist and morale hasn't faded, despite persistent Russian attacks on the country's energy infrastructure. Avril Haines told the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California: "We're seeing a kind of a reduced tempo already of the conflict ... and we expect that's likely to be what we see in the coming months". Claims Russia and Belarus 'prepared for peace' - but Ukraine 'unwilling' - war latest. She added that both militaries would be looking to refit and supply for a counter-offensive after the winter, but said there is a "fair amount of scepticism as to whether or not the Russians will be in fact prepared to do that", adding that prospects for Ukraine were more optimistic. Ms Haines said Moscow's aim to destroy Ukraine's critical infrastructure was partly to undermine the will of Ukrainians to resist but added that we are not seeing "any evidence of that being undermined right now". Intense Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy facilities have resulted in emergency blackouts and water and electricity shortages, affecting millions of people across the country. As winter sets in and temperatures drop, Ukrainian officials have appealed to allies to issue monetary and physical aid including generators. Despite significant strategic setbacks for Russia, including Moscow's withdrawal from the southern city of Kherson in November, it is continuing its efforts to dig in for the winter and to continue attacks on other regions. Not clear Putin knows how challenged his forces are Ms Haines said she thought Vladimir Putin had been surprised that his military has not accomplished more in the war. She said: "I do think he is becoming more informed of the challenges that the military faces in Russia. But it's still not clear to us that he has a full picture at this stage of just how challenged they are ... we see shortages of ammunition, for morale, supply issues, logistics, a whole series of concerns that they're facing." In its daily intelligence briefing, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that Moscow is continuing to invest a "large element of their overall military effort and firepower" along the front line near the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. The Ukrainian town has faced Russian attacks since August.

Analysis-Saudi prince seeks Mideast leadership, independence with Xi's visit
RIYADH (Reuters/December 04/2022
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosts China's leader this week at a delicate moment in U.S.-Saudi ties, signalling Riyadh's resolve to navigate a polarised global order regardless of the wishes of its Western allies, analysts said.
The ruler of the oil giant has made a comeback on the world stage following the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which cast a pall over Saudi-U.S. ties, and has been defiant in the face of U.S. ire over the kingdom's energy policy and pressure from Washington to help isolate Russia. In a show of strength as an aspiring leader of the Arab world, Prince Mohammed will also gather rulers from across the Middle East and North Africa for a Chinese-Arab summit during the visit by President Xi Jinping expected to start on Tuesday. "Riyadh is working according to strategic calculations that it must accommodate Beijing, as it is now an indispensable economic partner," said Ayham Kamel, head of Middle East and North Africa at Eurasia Group. Though the United States remains partner of choice for Gulf states reliant on it for their security, Riyadh is charting a foreign policy that serves its national economic transformation as the world pivots away from hydrocarbons, Saudi's lifeblood, the analysts said. "There is certainly a risk that expanding relations with China backfires and lead to a (further) split in the U.S.-Saudi relationship... but MBS is certainly not pursuing this out of spite," Kamel said. Xi's visit comes at a time when U.S.-Saudi ties are at a nadir, uncertainty weighs on global energy markets with the West imposing a price cap on Russian oil and as Washington warily eyes China's growing influence in the Middle East. The Saudi government did not respond to requests for comment on Xi's visit and its agenda. In a sign of irritation with U.S. criticism of Riyadh's human rights record, Prince Mohammed told The Atlantic magazine in March that he did not care whether U.S. President Joe Biden misunderstood things about him, saying Biden should be focusing on America's interests. He also suggested in remarks carried by Saudi state news agency SPA that same month that while Riyadh aimed to boost its ties to Washington it could also choose to reduce "our interests" -- Saudi investments -- in the United States. Saudi Arabia is deepening economies ties to China. It is China's top oil supplier, although fellow OPEC+ producer Russia has increased its Chinese market share with lower-priced fuel. Beijing has also been lobbying for use of its yuan currency in trade instead of the U.S. dollar. Riyadh had previously threatened to ditch some dollar oil trades to confront possible U.S. legislation exposing OPEC members to antitrust lawsuits. U.S.-Saudi ties under Biden's administration, already strained over human rights and the Yemen war in which Riyadh leads a military coalition, have frayed further due to the Ukraine war and OPEC+ oil policy.
FANFARE AND DEALS
Diplomats in the region said Xi would have a lavish reception akin to the one shown then-President Donald Trump when he visited the kingdom in 2017, and in contrast to Biden's awkward visit in July that had aimed to mend ties with Riyadh.
Trump was met by King Salman at the airport amid fanfare while clinching over $100 billion in contracts for U.S. military industry. Biden, who once vowed to make Riyadh "a pariah" over the Khashoggi killing, had downplayed his meetings with Prince Mohammed, to whom he gave a fist-bump rather than a handshake. The Chinese delegation is expected to sign dozens of agreements with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states covering energy, security and investments, diplomats have told Reuters. Prince Mohammed is focused on delivering his Vision 2030 diversification plan to wean the economy off oil by creating new industries, including cars and arms manufacturing as well as logistics, though foreign direct investment has been slow. The kingdom is investing heavily in new infrastructure and megaprojects in tourism and initiatives like the $500 billion NEOM zone, a boon for Chinese construction firms. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have said they would continue to diversify partnerships to serve economic and security interests, despite U.S. reservations about their ties with both Russia and China. Prince Mohammed wants to demonstrate to his own constituency that the kingdom is important to many global powers, said Jonathan Fulton, non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council. "Perhaps he's signalling to the U.S. as well, but...he's more concerned about what people within the kingdom think."
COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP
Biden pledged "consequences" for Riyadh after the OPEC+ output move but Washington has since reiterated its support for the kingdom's security, with U.S. officials stressing the U.S. "comparative advantage" in building integrated defence structures in the Gulf. White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday that Washington wants to make sure that its "strategic" relationship with Riyadh was working "in our best interests". U.S. officials have declined to comment when asked about Saudi-China bilateral relations ahead of Xi's visit. Washington has voiced concern over Gulf Arab use of Chinese 5G technology and Chinese investments in sensitive infrastructure like ports, including in the United Arab Emirates which halted a Chinese port project due to U.S. concern. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are buying Chinese military equipment and a Saudi firm signed a deal with a Chinese company to manufacture armed drones in the kingdom. Saudi analyst Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of Riyadh-based Gulf Research Center, told Saudi TV Asharq News that Arab states wanted to tell Western allies that they have alternatives and their relations are primarily based on economic interests. Though Saudi ties with China appear to be growing "much more quickly" than with the United States, the actual relationships are not comparable, said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East programme at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The relationships with China pale versus those with the United States in terms of both complexity and intimacy," he said.

Third year of Abraham Accords off to a good start - analysis
Jerusalem Post/December 04/2022
The Made for Trade Live event, which showcased Israel-UAE business ties last week, and the UAE National Day celebrations at the UAE Embassy last week illustrate the success of the Accords.
President Isaac Herzog journeyed to Bahrain on Sunday, after which he will travel to the United Arab Emirates. This follows a presidential visit to the UAE earlier this year, meaning that as we enter 2023, the number of important visits and high-level meetings between Israel and Abraham Accords countries is rising. The Made for Trade Live event, which showcased Israel-UAE business ties last week, and the UAE National Day celebrations at the UAE Embassy last week illustrate the success of the Accords. The first year of peace between Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco and Sudan took place amid the ongoing pandemic. In fact, the pandemic provided some of the backdrop for the first flight from the UAE to Israel in May 2020, when a plane landed on a humanitarian mission. A Rafael, Israel Aerospace Industries and Group 42 deal in July 2020 also served as background to the historic Accords. Additionally, Yediot Aharanot published an op-ed by UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba in June 2020.

Israeli president touts business ties on first Bahrain visit
DUBAI (Reuters)/December 4, 2022
Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa met President Isaac Herzog on Sunday in the first visit by an Israeli head of state to the Gulf state since the countries forged ties two years ago and as a right-wing coalition government takes shape in Israel. Herzog, whose post is largely ceremonial, will then visit the United Arab Emirates, which also normalised ties with Israel in U.S.-brokered pacts known as the Abraham Accords and had already hosted the Israeli president. "I have come here with a distinguished delegation of people who lead the business sector in Israel, who are eager to connect and do business with the people of Bahrain," Herzog said according to a statement provided by his office. King Hamad also voiced hope the visit would strengthen bilateral relations, state news agency BNA reported, while stressing Manama's support for "a just, comprehensive and sustainable peace that guarantees legitimate rights of the Palestinian people". The incoming Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu after an election last month looks likely to include far-right politicians who oppose Palestinian statehood and want the Palestinian Authority, which wields limited self-rule in the West Bank, dismantled. It includes ultra-nationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir who was among Israeli officials including Netanyahu attending UAE national day celebrations at the Emirati embassy in Tel Aviv on Thursday. Sunni Muslim-ruled UAE and Bahrain broke with decades of Arab policy when they forged ties, in the absence of Palestinian statehood, with Israel in 2020 under Netanyahu's leadership in deals partly driven by shared concerns over Shi'ite Iran's nuclear and missiles programmes and growing regional sway.

Herzog becomes first Israeli president to visit Bahrain
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived Sunday in Bahrain, the first visit by an Israeli head of state to the small Gulf kingdom since the two countries normalized relations in 2020. Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, was greeted at the airport by Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, according to pictures posted to his Twitter account. He said on Twitter he planned to meet King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, as well as Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, who is crown prince and prime minister. Accompanied by an economic delegation, Herzog said he would discuss "ways to strengthen our economic cooperation" along with climate change and security issues. Herzog said he would then travel to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. In 2020, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco became the first Arab states in decades to normalise relations with Israel, following negotiations spearheaded by the administration of former U.S. president Donald Trump. Israel had earlier reached peace treaties with neighboring Egypt and Jordan. "I call on more states in our region to join this partnership, strengthening the Middle East," Herzog tweeted on Sunday. "The expanding circle of (Middle East) peace is highly important, especially amid threats to global and regional stability. In the face of hate, threats & terror, there is one answer: alliances with friends." Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, then Israel's top diplomat, visited Bahrain in September last year to open the Israeli embassy there. In February of this year, Israel signed a defense agreement with Bahrain and Naftali Bennett became the first Israeli premier to visit the country.

Blinken Warns Incoming Netanyahu Govt against Settlements, Annexation
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 4 December, 2022
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed Sunday to oppose Israeli settlements or annexation in the West Bank, but promised to judge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's incoming government by actions and not personalities. Netanyahu is expected to return to power after sealing a coalition deal with the extreme-right movements including Religious Zionism, which will be given a post in charge of settlements in the occupied West Bank. Speaking to J Street, a progressive pro-Israel US advocacy group, Blinken offered congratulations to the veteran Israeli leader, who has clashed with previous Democratic administrations in Washington."We will gauge the government by the policies it pursues rather than individual personalities," Blinken said. But he said President Joe Biden's administration would work "relentlessly" to preserve a "horizon of hope," however dim, for the creation of a Palestinian state.
"We will also continue to unequivocally oppose any acts that undermine the prospects of a two-state solution including but not limited to settlement expansion, moves toward annexation of the West Bank, disruption to the historic status quo of holy sites, demolitions and evictions, and incitement to violence," Blinken said. Blinken said that the Biden administration will insist on "core democratic principles" including "the equal administration of justice for all citizens of Israel."Religious Zionism's leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is expected to have a key role, is a staunch advocate of Jewish settlements and used to hang in his living room a portrait of Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers at a Hebron mosque in 1994. The November 1 election was Israel's fifth in less than four years and came after the collapse of a motley coalition that tried to keep out the scandal-plagued Netanyahu.

Blinken vows US support for Israel despite unease over govt
WASHINGTON (AP)/December 4, 2022
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. will not shrink from its unwavering support for Israel despite stark differences with Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu and concerns the Biden administration may have about potential members of his incoming right-wing government. Speaking to a left-leaning group that some on the right accuse of being too sympathetic to the Palestinians and Iran, Blinken said the United States will remain a stalwart friend of Israel even as it pursues goals that Netanyahu has opposed, including a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a restoration of the languishing 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The partnership, he said, “has never been stronger than it is today.” Blinken said the Biden administration would engage with Netanyahu’s government based on its policies and not on personalities, including potential senior Cabinet ministers who have expressed vehement anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab views in the past. But, Blinken also warned that the U.S. would object to policies that marginalize the Palestinians or make a two-state resolution more difficult and would be detrimental to Israel's long-term security or future as a Jewish democratic state. “We expect the new Israeli government to continue to work with us to advance our shared values," he said. "We will engage the government by the policies it pursues, rather than individual personalities.”U.S. officials have expressed concerns about the possible positions in Netanyahu's government of at least two right-wing Israeli politicians: Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Ben-Gvir, a lawmaker known for anti-Arab vitriol and provocative stunts, has been offered the job of national security minister, a powerful position that will put him in charge of Israel’s police force. Meanwhile, Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party, which shares anti-Palestinian and anti-gay views, has been offered oversight over the Israeli agency for Palestinian civil affairs. Blinken noted that the U.S.-Israel relationship is seven decades old and the Biden administration would “speak honestly” with the new Israeli government as well as the Palestinians, whose leaders he said must also refrain from raising tensions that endanger a two-state solution. He pointed out that the Biden administration continues to support its predecessor's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and is working to expand former President Donald Trump's “Abraham Accords” that saw several Arab nations normalize relations with Israel. He lauded the recent completion of a maritime border accord between Israel and Lebanon. Blinken’s comments came at the annual conference of J Street, a pro-Israel group that has distinguished itself from the much larger and older American Israel Public Affairs Committee by advancing positions supported by the Democratic party.

Israel strikes Gaza after rocket fired from enclave
Agence France Presse/December 4, 2022
The Israeli air force said it had carried out overnight air strikes against sites of the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired from the Palestinian enclave towards Israeli territory. The Israeli army reported on Saturday evening a rocket had been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, the first in a month. The attack came as one of Gaza's larger armed factions, Islamic Jihad, threatened to retaliate after Israeli troops killed two of its leaders in the West Bank town of Jenin on Thursday. "In response to the rocket fired toward Israeli territory, IDF fighter jets targeted overnight (Sunday) a weapons manufacturing site belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization," the Israeli army said in a statement. The target was a site "where the majority of the organization's rockets in the Gaza Strip are being manufactured", it said. Israel Defense Forces also hit "a Hamas terrorist tunnel in the Southern Gaza Strip", it said. The army said a few hours later it had targeted a Hamas military post in response to fire from the Gaza Strip against Israeli warplanes. The armed wing of Hamas said it used anti-aircraft missiles during Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Security sources in Gaza reported two strikes in the south of the enclave, one against a military training site in Khan Younis and the other in an uninhabited area close to Rafah. The strikes caused no injuries, according to Palestinian medical sources. "The Zionist enemy is extending its aggression against our people by brutally bombarding the Gaza Strip, following its crime yesterday of executing the martyr Ammar Mufleh in Huwara," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said. A surge in bloodshed in the occupied West Bank has sparked international criticism of the Israeli army for its use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians. Criticism has focused on the killing of Ammar Hadi Mufleh, 22, in disputed circumstances in the West Bank town of Huwara, just south of Nablus, on Friday. At least 145 Palestinians and 26 Israelis have been killed in violence in Israel and the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, this year, the heaviest toll since 2015. In August, at least 49 Palestinians, including combatants but also civilians, were killed in three days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007.

Oil prices may hit $110 a barrel in 2023 but Russia risk could 'turbocharge' them even higher, BofA says
Brian Evans/Business Insider/December 4, 2022
Brent crude oil could climb as high as $110 per barrel in 2023, though there are several risks that could add more more pressure on prices, according to a note from Bank of America. Prices for the international oil benchmark averaged around $101 per barrel this year, and BofA sees more of the same next year, predicting an average of $100 and a peak of $110 at the height of the driving season. Brent will generally be lower in the first quarter of 2023, compared to the rest of the year, analysts added. Brent currently trades around $86 per barrel, meaning the high end of BofA's forecast represents an increase of 28%. But BofA analysts also noted several upside risk factors for oil prices next year, namely a price cap on Russian crude. On Friday, European Union officials agreed to set the cap at $60 per barrel. That will take effect on Monday, alongside a ban on Russian oil imports into the EU and related services for cargoes worldwide. Russia has said it won't sell oil to any price-cap participants, and analysts have estimated its oil exports could fall by up to 1 million barrels per day. "At present, we embed Russian total oil production levels of 10 mn b/d in our assumptions for 2023 compared to the 9.59 mn b/d figure provided by the IEA. Any meaningful downward deviation from these figures could turbocharge oil prices higher," the BofA note said. Russia presents the largest upside risk to oil prices, but there are other risks lurking as well, analysts said. In particular, further supply disruptions from OPEC producers like Libya, Nigeria, Iraq or others could "put the oil market on notice." A shortfall of 1 million barrels a day or more could come from a number of producers, especially from OPEC, with BofA estimating that every unexpected swing in supply or demand of 1 million barrels tends to move Brent oil prices by $20-$25 per barrel.
If production falls sharply, "prices would have to rise accordingly as demand would need to adjust lower in the current context of limited spare capacity and inventories," analysts said. Gas-to-oil switching and economic reopening in China from looser zero-COVID restrictions are also bullish factors in favor of oil next year, they added. But a pending recession poses downside risk, BofA warned, noting that the average global recession has led to a decline in demand of 640,000 barrels per day.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 04-05/2022
Please… Get Your Facts Straight
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/December,04/2022
Iran recently issued two ridiculous statements demonstrating that its regime is a fantasy and an illusion. The first was made by the commander of the Navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, in fact he is better a “pirate”, Alireza Tangsiri. The “pirate” says: “We warn the Zionists and the West, especially the regressive states in the region, that our patience has limits. We do not want the blood of innocents to be spilled.” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made the second, more delusional and ridiculous, statement. “How can those who speak of democracy support regimes in the region that have not had a single election.” It seems that Raisi is applying the logic of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who believes that criticizing the “regime” for undermining freedom is itself an “indication of freedom.”
Both statements affirm what Dr. Mohammed Al-Rahimi wrote in his column yesterday. In Iran, he wrote, “there are men with turbans who only know basic political concepts,” adding, “religious clerics in power deny reality to a large extent.”
Regarding Raisi’s statement about elections, the reality is that Iran’s view on elections does not differ much from that of Hassan Nasrallah or Bashar al-Assad. Indeed, as far as they are concerned, elections are exclusion and assassination- monopolizing power with 99 percent support, even if that wreaks havoc on the country. The Mullah regime, their reference point, is no different. It uses the ‘Guardian Council,’ which is effectively a filter, to eliminate whomever it wants, allowing only those whom it wants to run to do so. It also uses something else, which can be considered foundational, which is imprisoning its opponents and putting them under house arrest. The fact is that the Mullah regime is the one that insulted democracy in the region, alienating all rational actors from it. Indeed, the mere emergence of Ayatollah Khomeini on the scene crushed democracy, be it in the Gulf, Iraq, Syria, or even Lebanon. He rendered it a threat to the stability of the region.
It suffices to look at the conditions of Iran itself, in addition to Lebanon and Iraq, since Khomeini came to power. The same applies to Iraq after the American invasion, as well as today and yesterday’s Syria. Of course, it is also true for Lebanon, the worst model of Arab democracy and elections. This brings us to the statements of the “pirate,” who is no admiral. He warned of what he called the “regressive states in the region.” This is a ridiculous claim and an indication that the Mullah regime is deluded and feeds on fantasies. What regressive states is this “pirate” talking about? Is it the countries of the Arab Gulf?
Can’t he see what’s going on around him, contemplate the state of affairs in the Gulf, and compare it to Iran? Does he lack the capacity to compare how the peoples of the Gulf are living and compare it with how the Iranian people or those of the countries occupied by Iran live? Is it possible to compare the lives of Gulf women with those of Iran? Or even that of the youths?Can the economic conditions, development, coexistence, peace and security in the Gulf be compared with those of Iran? Can countries that are open to investment and tourism be compared to a closed and backward regime that takes tourists hostage? Can they be compared to a regime that blows its country up and then accuses ISIS, as the Iranian regime did recently?
What the Mullahs do not discuss openly is their overwhelming desire to end the media coverage. They tried to impose a formula in which there is a choice between the media and stability. That is why the “pirate” is making threats. They want Saudi Arabia, for example, to stop covering the protests in Iran in order to ensure stability.n And so, who is the regressive one? It is certainly the Mullah regime. That is why we say: please get your facts straight. You are the regressive ones, not the countries of the region that you need decades to catch up to.

Curbing the Military Appetites of Iran, Turkey, and Israel: French Efforts, American Ambiguity, and Russian Concerns
Raghida Dergham/December 04/2022
All eyes are now on Iran, Turkey, and Israel, in anticipation of escalations and the possibility of containment, amid rising concerns in the US, Europe, and Russia albeit for different reasons and backdrops.
On Iran, French President Macron is leading European efforts to defuse a possible military confrontation, which has been on the agenda of his talks in Washington this week. There, he has reiterated European concerns the US could be dragged into a military option against Iran, seeking interim arrangements pending the settlement of the nuclear question with Iran and the revival of negotiations.
Regarding Israel, the United States and the Europeans are worried about the incoming extremist Netanyahu government and the implications not just for the Palestinians, but also in terms of the potential military confrontation with Iran, both directly and in proxy arenas led by Syria.
And in Syria, there are Russian concerns over Turkey’s determination to establish a ‘buffer zone’ that requires a military ground operation, which could force Moscow and Tehran to intervene to defend the Assad regime. In turn, this has caused worries in Washington and NATO capitals, which are anxious to maintain the coherence of the alliance – of which Turkey is member – and focus on the Ukrainian priority.
Turkey first: President Erdogan has made clear his country intends to launch a military ground offensive in Syria to create a buffer zone enforced by Turkish forces in Syrian territory, on grounds of Turkish national security and the ‘terrorist’ threat across the border. The Turkish president has escalated his stance to the point that he is now unable to back down, no matter the incentives or threats from Washington and Moscow.
Moscow is in a more critical position than Washington. Indeed, President Putin may find himself dragged into Syria militarily to protect his ally Bashar al-Assad and prevent any appearance of weakness if he were to stand idly by while Syria slips out of his control.
A Russian source well informed of the situation in Syria said that Assad has sent a secret message to Putin asking him to interfere, politically or militarily, to prevent a Turkish incursion. The source said the two leaders would speak by telephone soon to discuss options – which are limited. Indeed, Putin is unable to stop Erdogan given the reduced Russian military footprint in Syria on account of the war in Ukraine. However, Putin may feel he personally and Russia would be humiliated if Turkey succeeds in Syria. He may therefore be forced to intervene militarily if the situation becomes critical. In such a scenario, the Iranian military role may gain additional importance and may need to be expanded in Syria.
The Iranian leadership is ready for any role imposed by developments on the Syrian battlefield, or if called to do so by Russia and the imperatives of keeping Assad in power. Accordingly, Iran is willing to supply the necessary military assistance including additional Iranian forces in Syria, if that’s what it will take to stop Turkey from advancing towards domination in Syria.
Turkey will sooner or later move to impose a buffer zone. The Turkish leadership understands its importance to NATO and is in a position to make good on its threats. Moreover, embarrassing Putin and exposing the poor capabilities of Russian forces is favourable to the Western powers, and could also be another implicit goal of Erdogan, who has an uncordial albeit pragmatic relationship with Putin. The two men are scheduled to speak soon, a conversation that will be closely watched in the United States and Europe.
But the Europeans are worried the situation in Syria could escalate into a full-blown crisis and conflict, not just between Turkey, and Iran and Russia, but also in terms of the Iranian-Israeli confrontation and its implications on various dossiers related to Iran. Indeed, Iran remains of crucial importance to the European powers, which do not trust the confrontational agenda of the Netanyahu government vis-à-vis Iran, which could seek to deliberately drag the United States into the military confrontation.
In his talks with the US president, for these reasons and others, French President Macron sought to secure guarantees the US would not be dragged into military action against Iran for pretexts fabricated by Netanyahu. Macron, like many European and even US leaders, is concerned about possible Netanyahu adventurism in Iran and Palestine.
American voices, including two former senior officials in previous administrations – Aaron David Miller and Former United States Ambassador to Israel Daniel C. Kurtzer – have been demanding President Biden be firm with Netanyahu and his extremist government. In an editorial they penned for the Washington Post, they urged the administration and Arab governments that normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords to stand up to Netanyahu and his racist government, as they plan to build more Israeli settlements, escalate violence against the Palestinians, and alter the facts on the ground in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Sources familiar with the French president’s initiative to Washington said the same concerns were present in his talks in the US capital, as he urged President Biden to be alert of the seriousness of what could happen in Israel-Palestine.
But President Macron’s focus in the region is the Iran dossier. Macron took a European message to Washington saying that any military confrontation with Iran disfavoured European interests, stressing that Europe was not willing to support any military action against Iran, even if US-led, not just Israeli. But such a stance is music to Iran’s ears. For Iran still hopes to drive a wedge between the US and Europe and hopes the latter will be able to revive the nuclear talks and bring the Biden administration back to the table.
One of Macron’s priorities is to revive these talks next year, because returning to negotiations now is impossible. But for there to be any hope to resume talks for a nuclear deal, there are new conditions that need to be met, most notably: First, Iran must suspend its nuclear activities under a rigorous monitoring regime. Second, the issue of Iran’s missiles and drones has to be included in the negotiations, as well as Iran’s regional activities such as supplying weapons to its partners and proxies.
In other words, the French equation is containment of Iran and Israel’s appetite for military confrontation through American guarantees that the US will not carry out military strikes against Iran. This message has two main destinations: Israel, which will back down if it ascertains the US will not support it militarily; and Iran, which will breath a sigh of relief if it also guarantees the US will not conduct strikes on its facilities, despite Israel’s best efforts. The outcome would be to prevent a confrontation for the time being, with an amber light flashed at Israel and Iran to refrain from military escalation, for now.
The purpose of such interim accords would be to get everyone to step back from the brink. President Macron wants to tell Iran first that reviving the nuclear deal remains possible, despite its current state of clinical death because of Iran’s military involvement alongside Russia in the Ukraine war, and the violent crackdown on protests at home. Second, that Europe will not endorse military strikes against Iran on condition that Iran conducts itself responsibly in the nuclear issue. The additional French message to Iran is that France and the European powers can help Iran get rid of sanctions by returning to negotiations and making a deal, but this requires Iranian good conduct to buy time until the talks can resume.
In the region, France wants Iran to commit to calm in Lebanon and avoid further provocations in the Gulf. The security of the Arab Gulf states is now part of new US commitments after the move away from engaging Iran. France wants to later collect from Iran the price for helping move the US away from Israel’s military enthusiasm against Iran. Indeed, Iran is economically important for France, which explains why President Macron wanted President Biden to show an open mind to compromises with Iran. Paris also wants its efforts in Lebanon to succeed, and for this it needs good faith from Iran in return for possible French concessions.
There are two opposing views on the outcomes of President Macron’s visit to Washington. One holds that the visit has succeeded in achieving a result that will relieve Tehran and contain its threats of conducting pre-emptive military attacks on Israel and contain potential Israeli military action against Iran by dissuading the US from participating in it.
But the other view holds that the visit’s ‘success’ on this basis is seen as such in the French imagination only, which is keen to broker deals. This view insists that it would be impossible for President Biden to give President Macron any guarantees the US would not back Israel militarily in a confrontation with Iran. The proponents of this view believe that the recent shift in the administration’s stance on Iran is not shallow but has moved in the direction of supporting the removal of the Iranian regime, regardless of official statements stating the contrary.
Between these opposing views, it is clear that military options are going hand in hand with efforts to revive the talks, and that the language of the carrot and the stick will continue without clarity as to which one is a bluff, and which one is the real deal.
Now, all eyes in the remaining weeks of this year will be anxiously trained on Ukraine, amid the inability of both sides to carry out decisive military offensives. The situation in Syria will also be worrying as a result of the Turkish movements and the Iranian-Israeli standoff there. There is also the constant fear of terrifying developments in the Korean Peninsula.
But if France truly succeeded in precluding US military convergence with Israeli strikes on Iran, this could be a source of some relief. That is, unless Tehran decides to exploit this to make good on its threat to launch a pre-emptive war, which many will see as an Iranian gambit to compensate for its slide into chaos.

Putin's war in Ukraine looks more and more like a failure. Past Russian leaders haven't survived similar mistakes.
Joy Neumeyer/Business Insider/December 04/2022
Putin's war in Ukraine looks more and more like a failure. Past Russian leaders haven't survived similar mistakes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine in February expecting an easy victory.
Instead, Russia's failing war effort has raised doubts about Putin's hold on power.
For now, Putin looks secure, but past Russian leaders have suffered at home for blunders abroad.
Vladimir Putin expected an easy victory in Ukraine, but he has ended up with a fiasco.
Over and over again, demoralized and ill-equipped Russian soldiers have raped, tortured, and looted their way through Ukrainian towns before fleeing in disgrace — often with highly motivated Ukrainian troops close behind them.
In the greatest humiliation yet, Russian forces withdrew from Kherson — the only regional capital that they had captured — just weeks after Putin declared at a triumphant rally on Red Square that the city was "Russian forever."
For now, Putin's rule appears secure. But the experience of past Russian leaders shows how failure at the front can lead to a critical loss of authority at home — sometimes with deadly consequences.
The most extreme scenario is the fate of Tsar Nicholas II.
At the outbreak of World War I, Russia had the largest army in Europe. Over 5 million men — 15% of the population — were mobilized in 1914 alone.
But the autocracy's weak infrastructure, transportation links, and low productivity impaired the war effort: Ammunition ran out by the end of 1914. By the following summer, the Germans had taken huge swathes of Russian-controlled territory and a million Russian soldiers were dead.
The Romanov dynasty's out-of-touch scion — a gentle man who preferred gardening and taking photographs with his family to governing — attempted to improve the situation by taking command of the armed forces himself.
While Russia struggled at the front, food shortages and spiraling inflation created chaos back home. When strikes and street protests broke out in Petrograd (now called St. Petersburg) in February 1917, mutinous soldiers joined the riots.
The tsar, forsaken by his generals and advisors, abdicated on a railroad siding in Pskov in March 1917 and was placed under house arrest with his family a few weeks later.
After the Bolsheviks seized control later that year, Vladimir Lenin signed a separate armistice with Germany.
The tsar and his family were shot and stabbed with bayonets by Bolshevik troops in a Yekaterinburg basement in July 1918, bringing the Romanovs' 300-year reign to an ignominious end.
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was also felled in part by a foreign-policy blunder, though it thankfully resulted in no deaths.
In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane photographed Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba. The resulting confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union put the world on the brink of destruction.
But as Secretary of State Dean Rusk put it, "We've been eyeball to eyeball, and someone just blinked." Soviet ships stopped in the water, and Khrushchev announced that the missiles would be removed.
This international embarrassment weakened Khrushchev's position in the leadership.
He could have stepped down with dignity after his 70th birthday in April 1964, but instead he was forced into retirement later that year by a group of rivals who had the support of the KGB.
Ironically, Khrushchev's removal was made possible by his own desire to reject Stalin's despotism. After leading a limited attempt to democratize the Soviet Union, Khrushchev saw his peaceful overthrow as a sign of his success.
He spent the final years of his life in obscurity, dictating his memoirs outside Moscow.
The last and most ambitious Soviet reformer, Mikhail Gorbachev, presided over a military failure that imperiled his authority — and brought the Soviet Union down with it.
When Gorbachev came into office in 1985, he inherited the Soviet Union's flailing war in Afghanistan, launched in 1979 under the sclerotic Leonid Brezhnev. After an ineffectual troop surge, Gorbachev gave up on trying to improve the situation, and the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989.
The withdrawal signaled to Eastern Bloc countries that Gorbachev was unwilling to use force to preserve the Soviet empire. In 1989, the Berlin Wall crumbled, Poland held free elections, and sovereignty movements arose within Soviet republics—all without any crackdown from Moscow.
Senior military officers viewed Gorbachev as a traitor and tried to overthrow him in August 1991. After the hardliners failed to seize power, the country fell apart.
In December 1991, Gorbachev's rival, Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, presided over the Soviet Union's dissolution at the Belavezha Accords. But Yeltsin soon began a battle against separatism within Russia that nearly unseated him.
Chechnya, a small Muslim republic in the north Caucasus, declared its independence during the Soviet unraveling and refused to sign a union treaty with the Russian Federation.
One of Yeltsin's advisors thought that "a small victorious war" would boost his approval ratings. In late 1994, he decided to invade.
Yeltsin's team was confident that Chechnya would fall with little resistance. Instead, they found themselves in a guerrilla war against a people eager to overthrow their historical oppressor. After a crushing initial defeat, Russian forces engaged in indiscriminate bombings of cities and towns and brutal retaliation against civilians.
Yeltsin's popularity, already suffering amid an economic crisis, plummeted even further as the devastation in Chechnya was aired on TV. He was reelected in 1996 only with the help of widely reported fraud — and assistance from American campaign advisors who were eager to keep Communists from retaking power. At least 80,000 people died in the First Chechen War, including tens of thousands of civilians, before Yeltsin signed a peace treaty in May 1997.
When Yeltsin appointed the little-known FSB chief Vladimir Putin as prime minister in August 1999, Putin immediately took up the cause of avenging Russia's humiliation.
Putin declared that his "historical mission" was to "bang the hell out of those bandits." By the end of his first month in office, he had renewed bombing in Chechnya.
This time, Russia's assault was much more popular—and effective. After being elected president, Putin donned a flight suit to celebrate Russian victory in Grozny, the republic's decimated capital, in March 2000.
In his current "historical mission" to reassert Moscow's control over Ukraine, Putin expected to repeat his rapid success in the Second Chechen War. Instead, like Yeltsin in 1994, he encountered a populace united against an existential threat.
In comparison to past leaders who faced foreign-policy failures, Putin's position currently appears relatively stable. He certainly won't be threatened at the ballot box: His United Russia party already engages in massive electoral fraud.
The recent "partial mobilization" of several hundred thousand men has swept up more people than the 120,000 Soviet troops deployed in Afghanistan at the peak of that war but is still far less than the millions sent to the front during World War I.
While hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled abroad to escape the draft, resistance among conscripts has been limited to isolated incidents of violence at conscription centers and training camps. A new law that makes refusing military service or desertion punishable by up to 10 years in prison has helped ensure compliance.
Kremlin spin doctors blame NATO for arming Ukraine and declare that any setbacks are temporary. With the crime of "discrediting the Russian armed forces" punishable by up to 15 years of jail time, most Russians who oppose the war either keep quiet or emigrate.
Though conditions may change under the continuing impact of Western sanctions, Russia has yet to experience the severe economic turmoil that radicalized the masses during World War I.
Putin has tolerated criticism of the war's failures from hawks like the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who do not target him personally. The mix of forces on the ground — including Prigozhin's Wagner Group mercenaries, Ramzan Kadyrov's Chechen battalions, and regular Russian troops — allows Putin to keep his distance from and deflect personal responsibility for Russia's losses.
It's possible that Putin could be overthrown by disgruntled generals, several of whom have been fired since February. But Russia's prior experience — from the crushed Decembrist uprising against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825 to the drunken August putsch against Gorbachev — suggests that a military takeover would be unlikely to succeed.
In the event of a palace coup, Putin, unlike Khrushchev, wouldn't leave willingly, putting any plotters at enormous risk. However, Putin's grip on power is still far from assured. As more soldiers die, the economy worsens, and discontent festers, the situation in Russia could become combustible.
Nicholas II's downfall shows how the seemingly impossible can suddenly appear inevitable. At the turn of the 20th century, Russia's last tsar was worshiped as a divinely sanctioned autocrat. But when a disastrous war exposed the depths of the Russian empire's dysfunction, he lost support among most of the population and even his closest allies.
Today, Putin's invasion of Ukraine has also revealed crippling problems: ubiquitous corruption that leaves troops without helmets and tanks without fuel; stagnant wages and a low standard of living that lead soldiers to steal everything from canned food to dishwashers; a cynical detachment from politics that dampens protest but also lowers morale; the accumulation of enormous wealth by tycoons who steal resources but do not contribute to effective governance.
Russia's current system is autocratic, but it is also increasingly brittle. Who will be left to defend Putin if his war continues to fail?
*Joy Neumeyer is a journalist and historian of Russia and Eastern Europe.

Extreme Danger: "Boring" Election Issues
J. Christian Adams/Gatestone Institute/December 04/2022
One of the beautiful things about a democratic republic is you agree on the rules in advance. That way, everybody buys into the outcome. It's like a football game. If you were to change the rules in the middle of the game, first half Super Bowl for example, the Los Angeles Rams needed 10 yards for a first down, but in the second half, it went up to 15. That's what happened in the 2020 election, is the rules changed in the middle of the game.
The second thing that happened, and this is the most important. Philanthropy, primarily through the Center for Technology and Civic Life, started pouring money through educational 501(c)3s. The Mark Zuckerberg‑funded C3s poured money into state and local election offices. They would give the state and election office money and say, You now need to enact these policies. In the old days, giving a government official money and telling them what to do with it was called a bribe, right? It was. It was a bribe. If I were to give money to a government official and say, you need to now do this, I would be arrested. But that is what happened all over the country to the tune of almost $600 million, according to 990 filings.
Let me show you Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, the original election budget was $9 million for the city office, according to records from the city council's budget. Center for Technology and Civic Life gift to Philadelphia totaled $12.3 million, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer article on 8/26/20. They massively increased the Philadelphia budget; what did they do with the money?
These newly hired activists went door‑to‑door handing out ballots. Strangely, the ballots had what is called "undervoting" in it. They would vote for president -- and nothing down below. Because after all, there was only one important election to the crowd that was funding all of this. The city employee could not wait around on the front porch to get all those dog catcher and judge races filled in. He would go door to door to door. Also in Philadelphia, they bought radio advertisement. They did a marketing campaign.
[A] county election official... was being told by the government, by the state of Virginia Election Board, "Allow ballots to come in after the election with no postmarks." Think about that. Allow ballots to come in the mail late with no postmarks.
What happened was a full attack on the rule of law. Philanthropy was funding this just as it had with the "Zuckbucks." They were rolling over state procedures to allow ballots to be counted that under the law would not be counted.
Think of the consent of the governed. One of the reasons we agree to election rules in advance is so the loser buys into the result, right? That is why you do not change the rules in the middle of the game. That is why you do not have a billion dollars flood the zone with biased spending by election offices.
There's dark money, and there's darker dark money. What has been happening is, all of these litigation shops such as the New York University Brennan Center, League of Women Voters -- many people are not non‑biased -- all of these litigation shops are being fueled by dark money.
We do not know where Marc Elias is getting his donations. He will not say. He does not have to. He has 60 lawyers -- 60. Do some payroll calculations here. These are not fee-cases that can fuel this. You can look at the disclosures from the party apparatus to Elias. It does not add up to the accounting. Somewhere, someone is funding this.
What Elias is doing is attacking every state election law that is designed to fix what happened in 2020. Every state is under attack. We just filed to be intervenor‑defendants to help Texas, and Georgia, and wherever he goes, but we have only five lawyers. There aren't other groups like us. They have a huge, gigantic army.
My concern is in 2024, not only will 2020 be repeated, but it will get even worse.
President Biden recently proposed $10 billion of your tax dollars, federal money, to flood the zone in elections for structural transformation, turning federal agencies, for example, into turn‑out machines, turning the Justice Department into an even more weaponized tool to help one side and not the other.
What I want to leave you with, is that many have developed this massively well‑funded, philanthropic architecture, of much of which we do not know the funding sources. Are they sovereign? Are they Kellogg's Foundation? Do we even know? Are they Russian? Are they Chinese?
Election operatives have developed this architecture that changes how we run elections. Child voting, foreigners voting, early voting, mail voting.
Mail voting, by the way, is the worst form of voting there is. Let me mention a few mail voting things....We found at the Public Interest Legal Foundation that 158,000 ballots, --158,000 mail ballots in the 2020 election -- came in late and were rejected. 158,000 people lost their vote....We also found that 15 million ballots are unaccounted for. What that means is the government election office mailed out a ballot, and it never came back. Mailed it out. We don't know what happened. 15 million.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin were where the Zuckbucks money was used most effectively and not been banned, and the governor would veto any legislative change. I'm afraid it's going to happen again in those states. Those three are the places that worked, where Zuckerberg made the difference in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs, Detroit, Madison, or Milwaukee. I'm telling you guys the reason Trump lost those states was this private spending in those urban centers through philanthropic money.
There is an effort to disbar all the lawyers. Have you guys seen project 65? Talk about architecture.... Project 65 is another "left‑wing" philanthropic effort. They have no shortage of money. Project 65 was announced a month ago. They're going to go after the law licenses of any lawyers who do anything after the election, to try to have them disbarred.
Their explicit purpose, they say this, is to shrink the talent pool of election lawyers like me to shrink the talent pool of election lawyers, so the next time we don't have soldiers who can go to court. That is literally what they say their purpose is.
One of the reasons we agree to election rules in advance is so the loser buys into the result. That is why you do not change the rules in the middle of the game. That is why you do not have a billion dollars flood the zone with biased spending by election offices.
Some of you may have heard that first New York City and now Washington D.C. passed a law allowing non-citizens to vote in city elections.
When I tell people in the real world about this, they don't understand what I mean at first because it sounds so outlandish because Americans are supposed to be electing American leaders -- not people from the Dominican Republic, or Chinese nationals, and so forth.
We filed a lawsuit. We've got four clients, and we're suing New York City.
You may have heard the Republican Party suing them on some procedural things. We're suing them on the 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment was passed right after the Civil War, and it prohibits racial discrimination.
When these jokers on your New York City council passed this law, they were all talking in terms of race. Let us help this race. Let us hurt that race. We are sick of white faces. A black representative on the council said, "Whoa. Slow down. This is going to hurt us." They didn't care.
There is a bunch of crazy things happening in the election architecture. Some people are trying to fundamentally transform how our elections are run, who is voting.
The reason they have allowed foreigners to vote in New York City elections, here is the important part, is that they are trying to normalize it. They are trying to normalize foreigner voting in the United States.
I thought this was crazy. I was testifying to the House Judiciary Committee about two years ago, and Representative Jeremy Raskin from Maryland said to me, "What's wrong with foreigners voting?"
I thought: Thank goodness it's only Jeremy Raskin in Congress who believes this. One congressman believes in foreigners voting. Wrong. He now has 140 co-sponsors - 140 co-sponsors to allow non‑citizens to vote in federal elections. Now you can start to see the linkage between what goes on in New York City and what goes on in Congress.
Let me move briefly to one other story of normalization, another case we have. Public Interest Legal Foundation, is representing two parents in Maryland challenging a school board that is allowing children to vote. Maryland allows children to vote as young as sixth grade for a government seat on the school board that gets to vote.
The seat is held by a child from the school who gets to vote on all the school board issues. It is part of this broader architecture to normalize things like that, to infantilize elections, and to shift power away from adults and Americans. It is not an accident.
What I want to get across is explaining an architecture that exists where hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars from philanthropies are pouring into what are really "boring" mechanical election issues.
You saw this in 2020. If I had been talking in 2014 about mechanical election issues, you would have said, "What are you talking about?" We hadn't really seen how election planners work. I was at the Justice Department voting section in 2005 and 2010, and saw how these voting issues work. There is a stranglehold by many in this area.
There seemed to be no counter to it. It was all the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, Project Vote, the Brennan Center at NYU. I could go on a list of 50 organizations. It all came to pass in 2020, when you saw how these new plans could work.
Let's talk a bit about 2020. Do you remember the New Black Panther case? That was my case: the New Black Panthers were stalking in front of a polling place in Philadelphia.
The Justice Department, when I was there, we filed a lawsuit and then the inauguration happened and then the case got dismissed. We saw this phenomenon happening where your skin color determines what happens in the outcome. Your politics decide innocence or guilt. We saw this coming years ago.
People say to me, "Was the 2020 election stolen?" Answer, "Yes." But the hard part is how.
There were three main things that made the difference. Number one, suspension of the rules. In other words, because of COVID, the laws we agreed to ahead of time to run an election were suspended.
One of the beautiful things about a democratic republic is you agree on the rules in advance. That way, everybody buys into the outcome. It's like a football game. If you were to change the rules in the middle of the game, first half Super Bowl for example, the Los Angeles Rams needed 10 yards for a first down, but in the second half, it went up to 15. That's what happened in the 2020 election, is the rules changed in the middle of the game.
The second thing that happened, and this is the most important. Philanthropy, primarily through the Center for Technology and Civic Life, started pouring money through 501(c)3s. The Mark Zuckerberg‑funded C3s, poured money into state and local election offices. They would give the state and election office money and say, you now need to enact these policies. In the old days, giving a government official money and telling them what to do with it was called a bribe, right? It was. It was a bribe. If I were to give money to a government official and say, you need to now do this, I would be arrested. But that is what happened all over the country to the tune of almost $600 million, according to 990 filings.
Let me show you Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, the original election budget was $9 million for the city office, according to the city council's budget. Center for Technology and Civic Life gave Philadelphia $10 million. They massively increased the Philadelphia budget; what did they do with the money?
First of all, they upped their staff. They hired lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of new city employees. Now, where did they hire them from? Activist organizations on the ground in Philadelphia, like the Committee of Seventy and other groups. Some became deputized city employees.
Number two: They went door‑to‑door collecting the new‑fangled mail ballots, or bringing their ballots with them. Now, they were allowed to do that because they were city employees. In other words, regular people cannot touch someone's ballot in Pennsylvania --unless you are a government official.
These newly hired activists went door‑to‑door handing out ballots. Strangely, the ballots had what is called "undervoting" in it. They would vote for president -- and nothing down below. Because after all, there was only one important election to the crowd that was funding all of this. The city employee could not wait around on the front porch to get all those dog catcher and judge races filled in. He would go door to door to door. Also in Philadelphia, they bought radio advertisement. They did a marketing campaign.
Any of you with any amount of marketing experience knows if you spend all your money on one certain type of radio station, you get a certain kind of result. Get-out-the-vote campaigns on radio stations -- but they weren't on all the stations, the country stations. They were targeted, where they bought ads.
It was a targeted marketing campaign to crank up the vote, and it wasn't just Philadelphia. It was Philadelphia, Detroit, Pittsburg, Flint, Madison, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Maricopa County, Fulton County, Georgia, Atlanta. You get the picture now how this was working? It was like election operatives suddenly had a billion dollars for a ground game, that had never existed before.
All of this was deployed to crank up turnout. That is why in places like Detroit...Look at the numbers. You can see that Trump in inner‑city Detroit went up a whole bunch from the previous election. Trump got his numbers up across Michigan.
Guess what was happening in Detroit and Flint. The numbers were going up even higher because with all of this private money the spigot was turned open as wide as it would go.
The last element, the third big thing was vote‑by‑mail litigation. Our organization involved in about 10 or 11 cases playing defense. Do not change the rules. You cannot do that. Reed versus Virginia Board of Elections was one of the cases.
We represented a county election official who was being told by the government, by the state of Virginia Election Board, "Allow ballots to come in after the election with no postmarks." Think about that. Allow ballots to come in the mail late with no postmarks.
Guess what the Virginia law said. The Virginia law said, "If they come in late..." -- that, by the way, had been enacted the year before: ballots could come in late in Virginia, but they had to have a postmark. Here you have the chief election official of Virginia saying, "Ignore the law. Don't worry about the postmark," literally in written guidance.
This was not word of mouth. This was literally in written guidance, "Ignore the law." We found a client, Reed. He was an election official in the Shenandoah Valley. His argument was, "I need to enforce the law correctly." I have standing. We sued the state board of elections. We won. We got an injunction against breaking the law.
That one story I just told you is the exception, not the rule of what happened in 2020. What happened was a full attack on the rule of law. Philanthropy was funding this just as it had with the "Zuckbucks." They were rolling over state procedures to allow ballots to be counted that under the law would not be counted.
Those are the three things, number one, Zuckbucks," number two, the wave of lawlessness as far as not following the law, and three, litigation. That is what happened in 2020. Was the election stolen? Yes. That is how it was stolen.
All of you are probably wondering what is going to happen next.
You should see what is going on in law schools. That is a whole other topic. The problem is that in most places the laws broke down. What's going to happen in 2024?
Think of the consent of the governed. One of the reasons we agree to election rules in advance is so the loser buys into the result, right? That is why you do not change the rules in the middle of the game. That is why you do not have a billion dollars flood the zone with biased spending by election offices.
What's going to happen in 2024? I have some good news and bad news. First of all, there is an enormous amount of dark money that is pouring in to the coming elections just as it did before.
I have a piece, that talks a lot about dark money, and what the history of it is, and why it actually has a pedigree in American history that is actually noble -- but is being used improperly.
There is dark money, and there is darker dark money. What has been happening is all of these litigation shops such as the New York University Brennan Center, League of Women Voters -- many people are not non‑biased -- all of these litigation shops are being fueled by dark money.
We do not know where Marc Elias is getting his donations. He will not say. He does not have to. He has 60 lawyers -- 60. Do some payroll calculations here. These are not fee-cases that can fuel this. You can look at the disclosures from the party apparatus to Elias. It does not add up to the accounting. Somewhere, someone is funding this.
What Elias is doing is attacking every state election law that is designed to fix what happened in 2020. Every state is under attack. We just filed to be intervenor‑defendants to help Texas, and Georgia, and wherever he goes, but we have only five lawyers. There aren't other groups like us. They have a huge, gigantic army.
My concern is in 2024, not only will 2020 be repeated, but it will get even worse.
President Biden recently proposed $10 billion of your tax dollars, federal money, to flood the zone in elections for structural transformation, turning federal agencies, for example, into turn‑out machines, turning the Justice Department into an even more weaponized tool to help one side and not the other.
Will it pass? We have something to look at for a model. When COVID broke in 2020, they did the same thing, and Nancy Pelosi proposed $1 billion to do what I'm talking about. Zuckerberg was not enough. They needed another billion dollars in 2020.
Senator Mitch McConnell was able to slow it down, but they still got $400 million in 2020 to engage in this sort of transformative architecture. Federal tax money went to states to do the sorts of things that Zuckerberg money was doing, so they worked hand‑in‑hand.
Will the $10 billion become $4 billion? Will it become $1billion?? Will the Congress dig in and not let it pass at all? I don't know the answer to that.
What I want to leave you with, is that many have developed this massively well‑funded, philanthropic architecture, of much of which we do not know the funding sources. Are they sovereign? Are they Kellogg's Foundation? Do we even know? Are they Russian? Are they Chinese?
Election operatives have developed this architecture that changes how we run elections. Child voting, foreigners voting, early voting, mail voting. Mail voting, by the way, is the worst form of voting there is. Let me mention a few mail voting things.
The post office sets a goal for mail voting: the success rate to deliver ballots. They have their own internal goal. It is 95 percent success, a five percent failure.
We found at the Public Interest Legal Foundation that 158,000 ballots, --158,000 mail ballots in the 2020 election -- came in late and were rejected. 150,000 people lost their vote. They filled the ballot out, mailed it in, and the post office got it late to the destination.
Who are those 150,000? No one has looked at that. We also found that 15 million ballots are unaccounted for. What that means is the government election office mailed out a ballot, and it never came back. Mailed it out. We don't know what happened. 15 million.
We got this through federal data. It wasn't a crystal ball we looked at. There is an election assistance commission. It is a federal agency that collects this data and puts it in a spreadsheet that nobody can read. We have some fellows in our firm that can read them. It is extremely complicated, but we just tallied it up, and it was 15 million lost ballots.
In Nevada, they went to complete, total, vote‑by‑mail. They did it first without legislation in the primaries. They just said, "Ok, we're going to go vote‑by‑mail." Then they automatically mailed ballots to everybody on the list. That is in the 2020 primaries in Nevada.
We have photographs of ballots piled up in apartment complexes. In fact, I went to Nevada with a film crew, and we videotaped looking for the voters, vacant lots, mines, abandoned mines in Pahrump. That was actually quite fun.
Casinos, head shops, liquor stores, these were places we visited where somebody was registered to vote. We have a camera crew. You can see the video if you Google PILF Nevada mail ballots. It's actually funny at times, but nobody finds it funny when you see all these fake voters.
Mail is the worst way to run an election, and many are getting ready to do it again. Patterson, New Jersey, they had a mail‑ballot election, remember, and they had to do it all over again because of voter fraud. This was in 2020. They had two Patterson elections because the first one was a failure.
I will leave you with the story of Susie Wood. Susie Wood was a witness in a case that I tried in Jackson, Mississippi when I was in the US Justice Department. We proved that people were having their ballots voted by third parties. Susie Wood was one of the people who had someone else vote for them.
What would happen in Mississippi is the activists would follow the postman. They would drive down the road behind the post office, and they would snatch ballots out of mailboxes, and they would knock on the door of the voter.
They'd say, "Hi, Susie. I've got your ballot here. Would you like help voting it?" They would go inside Susie kitchen. I would be happy to send the transcript to anybody interested from this trial.
They go into Susie Wood's kitchen, and all of the activists would mark the ballot for Susie. They would vote for her. She wasn't telling them who to vote for. The whole reason this was possible because it was mail. You did not have an election official in the precinct watching over this. It was a mail-in-ballot.
We were doing the trial in Jackson, Mississippi, and Susie was on the stand and it was so preposterous, her testimony. The judge stopped the trial. Those of you who are lawyers know, judges don't often ask questions of a witness.
The judge said, "Hold on here. Miss, I want to ask you a question. You can read and write, can't you?" She said, "Yes." He said, "Well, why on earth were you allowing someone else to vote for you?" Susie Woods said, "Well, Your Honor. She always knows the best person to vote for."
She gave up a right to vote in her kitchen to somebody who "knows the best person to vote for." That is what mail-in-balloting does.
* * *
Question: Are we actually going to have foreigners voting?
Adams: We fought a lawsuit, as I told you, on behalf of Deroy Murdock, Phyllis Coachman who's a 300‑year Black American, like her family's been over 300 years. She says, "We all know how they got here, but I'm an American and foreigners should not be voting. We are going to fight this to the death in court."
Whenever you enact a law of the racial intent under the 15th amendment, it's like a nuclear bomb. It's blown up. I won a case in Guam because only CHamorus were allowed to vote in an election. CHamorus, you see, that's race.
You absolutely can't do it in America. It was part of the Civil War amendments. I'm confident we're going to beat New York City and it's going to blow that law, and you aren't going to have to have that here.
Q: There are states now that have passed a law saying you're not allowed to give private money to election officials, the Zuckerberg issue. Is that going to spread? Are there other states considering it?
Adams: People didn't know what to do. They thought it was just per se illegal. Why is it illegal? Everyone here could give your estate to the government. It would be stupid, but you can. That is what Zuckerberg did because he understands the architecture I was trying to describe to you all.
Now you ask about the new laws? Right after that, I wrote the first statute for Arizona, for Representative Jake Hoffman in Arizona, to ban Zuckerberg. I wrote one for Representative Smith in South Carolina, and Representative Ranson in Virginia. All three of these people I know and so I wrote a law to ban this.
The Arizona one passed, the South Carolina one in a Republican legislature died, and the one in Virginia died in committee in a Democrat‑controlled legislature. The other states started getting involved, Texas, Florida passed one.
When Florida passed one, Palm Beach County still have a half a million dollars. They couldn't take any more, but they were sitting on the nest egg from the previous time...I thought they're going to use it against DeSantis.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin were where the Zuckbucks money was used most effectively and not been banned, and the governor would veto any legislative change. I'm afraid it's going to happen again in those states. Those three are the places that worked, where Zuckerberg made the difference in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs, Detroit, Madison, or Milwaukee. I'm telling you guys the reason Trump lost those states was this private spending in those urban centers through philanthropic money.
Adams: Some billionaires are donors to us, but not very many. Look, we have a crisis in philanthropy. Many do not like the founding principles of our country -- the institutions of democracy: one-man, one-vote; individual rights as opposed to group rights, freedom of expression ...it is against their religion. They have an organizing principle: and they do this on other topics. They hate Israel. They hate America. They hate institutions that have built the country. I could go down the list.
They have been mobilized with their different, twisted worldview for the last 30 years, to organize philanthropy against these institutions. We're just getting a late start. Look, a few other people and I, we were the only people writing about this 12 years ago, about these issues about election process. We may be the only people writing about it. We are like a voice in the wilderness, "Watch out. They're controlling the architecture of how the mechanics of our elections work." We saw it coming in redistricting....
There are maybe 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 foundations that keep the country afloat, that allow us to confront these efforts to take down our Constitution. Bradley, Art Pope, Scaife Foundation....I'll give you a direct example. Florida passed a law on a referendum to allow felons to vote again if they paid back the restitution. If you stole money from someone and went to prison, you lost your right to vote until you got out of prison and pay back your victim.
Florida passed a law that said they get the right to vote after they pay back the restitution. The Florida legislature enacted what's called enabling legislation. How does this work in the real world? You got to pay back your victim.
The ACLU sued and said, "Oh my gosh, that's a poll tax. You can't expect them to pay their victim back. That's a poll tax. That's Jim Crow." We filed briefs in the case saying it's not a poll tax. Required conditions to get the vote back, give the victim their money back."
Federal court ruled against it. There are so many people who have ruled in favor of felons. It went to the 11th circuit, which is in Atlanta. It's a federal court that oversees south Florida and the Koch Foundation funded briefing to help the felons. My friends did it. I'm friends with these guys. Ilya Shapiro at Cato and someone from American for Prosperity, AFP. They talked about libertarian principles and so forth.
I went out and I researched Murray Rothbard on restitution. Murray Rothbard is s a big libertarian thinker, he has written about restitution. Libertarians love Murray Rothbard. He is one of their apostles of the movement.
We filed a brief against Cato and AFP on the restitution issue. All we did was cite libertarian theory on restitution to counter them. The point is Koch is funding the opposite of this, and every meeting we go to where Koch people are there, they raise skeptical questions like, "Are you really sure that there's any voter fraud?" They're stuck on something I can't understand.
Koch does great work in other areas. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying they're evil or any of that nonsense the Left says, but in this particular area they're behind the times.
I do have something good to say actually. I'm only trying to be candid. I'm not trying to be alarmist. Good news, Virginia, people are awake. There's a whole citizen mobilization that has occurred in the last year and a half .
We are filing litigation in advance as we did before the Virginia election to get them to follow the law. We're just about to release a study in New Jersey, which was also a close election in 2020. e details. We're finding people registered in New Jersey six times, simultaneous, identical registrations.
In Pennsylvania, I found a guy named RaShawn Slade in Swissvale. I always have to talk about RaShawn Slade. He had seven active registrations at one address in Swissvale, PA, RaShawn Slade. He did it all within two weeks. All of these registrations were from third‑party, please fill out your registration.
When I was in the Pittsburg election office talking with the Allegheny County officials, they said, "We knew about him." We told the state about RaShawn Slade being registered seven times, and we wanted to take six of them off the rolls, and the State of Pennsylvania, the secretary of state said, "If you do that, you'll disenfranchise him." This is state election official.
We're finding stuff like this all over the country, these little stories.
They didn't take him off. We had to find him, and we sued Pennsylvania in 2020 for all of the problems on the voter rolls, and they settled, and they fixed this.
Q : I'm curious if the net effect of winning these lawsuits is a deterrent for them doing it again and again or it just constantly is just whack‑a‑mole. And Zuckerberg, what does he want? Why is he doing this?
Adams: I like both of those questions. Let me answer the first one. I don't know if it's whack‑a‑mole or a success yet. I do know that some places are starting to get the message.
North Carolina, we sued. We got a $200,000 fee award from Harris County, Texas over an alien voting document case. The judge was mad. It was like you guys should have given them what they wanted. There are things that make me think it's not whack‑a‑mole, but yet we're always going to Michigan. I haven't figured that one out yet. We'll see.
Zuckerberg is like this was like a big donation to the church or synagogue, the church or synagogue of enfranchisement. There's a whole pseudo theology around this. The sacred right to vote, that's not an accidental term. Many people really believe we need to fix things in election offices so people aren't disenfranchised with this newfangled mail voting.
The way for us to do that is to help them buy new printers, new mail processing, tell people it's safe to vote on Hispanic radio, help people go door to door to make sure that they don't have any problems in casting their ballots
That's a term that many on the Left use to elevate anything that is a barrier to the ballot. They hate voter registration. They don't think you should register. They literally do that. I tell people that. They do in states. You just walk up to the polls and vote in North Dakota. There is no registration.
Having to vote where you live is another thing that is a barrier to the franchise. You should be able to go to any precinct in New York and cast your ballot. They believe that. I'm telling you I used to work with these people in the Justice Department. I wrote a whole book about it called "Injustice: ‑‑ Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department."
It was a New York Times Best Seller 10 years ago. I still get a royalty.
These people truly believe this stuff. I used to work with them. I tell stories in the book about its messianic almost to them. This is the purpose of their life is to knock down any Right‑wing Nazi barrier to the ballot. I know it seems hard to believe they believe it, but they do.
Q: In terms of illegal people voting, non‑citizens, whatever. I think in Maryland that's gone on for some time, in some town, or city, or something like that, so there is a precedent, right? The question is, this is the first time it's been such a huge number.
Adams: It was about 2008, and those cities you're talking about in Maryland, Takoma Park ‑‑ help me ‑‑ Kensington, all the kooky interring suburbs allow aliens to vote in local elections per Maryland law. I was with the Justice Department. I was a Justice Department GS‑15 lawyer, and I said, "I don't like this. This can't be good. This is going to disenfranchise black voters."
I started an investigation at DOJ with the approval of the section chief of the voting section. This has never been in the media. I didn't write about it in my book. It's pure inside. My theory was, under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, that when you allow foreign Hispanics to vote in primary elections, you will hurt black candidates.
That was my theory. That's how Section 2 works. You have to show causality. The first thing you do when you have an investigation of voting rights cases, you have to get records. You have to get the voting results.
I called up Takoma Park, I called up Kensington, all of the places that, "Could you send me your voting results from these primaries?" Which I got. I said, "So, how do you keep the rolls separate for your federal elections?" They said, "Oh, we have a separate voter roll book." I said, "Oh, how convenient for me."
I said, "How many people have registered to vote in your special immigrant, alien, voting roll book?" They said, "Two or three." I was like there goes my case. I will never prove causality that blacks are losing, because only two or three of them are even coming to vote.
Under the Voting Rights Act, you have to have real causality. It cannot be imaginary, "I don't like this." It has to be honest-to-goodness causality. Nobody is using it in Maryland.
I said, "Oh, my gosh. This is a bad thing." Guess what happens? New York City happens. Finally, my theory that I've worked on the DOJ in 2008 had a real causality issue because there are going to be Black council members in New York City. They're going to lose their elections because foreigners are voting. We're going to show it, and so has Deroy's standing.
The 15th Amendment is a beautiful thing. It's simple in language and effect. That is actually what the Supreme Court said about it. Either you violated the 15th amendment or you didn't. All it takes to prove that you violated it is you talked in racial terms when you passed it. That is what I did in Guam on summary judgment.
They wanted a CHamoru‑only vote. Anytime anyone said it shouldn't be CHamoru‑only, it should allow Whites, they said, "We don't want Whites' voting. We only want CHamorus voting." I got summary judgment on that case. It went to the Ninth Circuit twice, and we won both times.. I worked on it with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. It was a nine‑year legal fight in Guam.
They insist on being called Black, by the way. Deroy is very insistent on that. If any of you are a little shivery of that term, that's what Deroy Murdock wants me to say. Any Black in New York City has standing to challenge this law. That's the story.
Q: If Donald Trump is not running in '24, let's say. Do you have a sense that Republicans would fight harder then to come back? What is the resistance, if it's not about him?
Adams: I think that if he wasn't on the ballot, some of the zeal in this space would be lost. In other words, for good or real, he keeps fueling this. The zeal on the Republican side would be lost.
The architecture that I describe to you, the Left‑wing philanthropic architecture, was not a Donald Trump event. They have been doing this for 15 years. They all happened after the loss in the 2004 election.
After the loss in the 2004 election where Kerry had enjoyed a lot of hard dollar, 527 benefit. Reportable hard dollar and reportable soft money and failed, the Left said, "Wait a minute. This doesn't work. We need a new architecture."
They started building up data capabilities through something called Catalyst, which is a whole another topic. It's a data mothership. They built up Catalyst. They started building up infrastructure like the Brennan Center, Deimos, Project Vote. All of these groups.
It pre‑dated Trump, but Trump was the first candidate ever to confront them on this stuff. They flipped out and lost their minds.
More groups started showing up, like the ones I talked about earlier with Zuckerberg. It's a little of both. They were there before Trump, but when Trump came they amped up their game.
Q: When you say the election was stolen, usually that means to people that something criminal had been done. Would you say that the election was really not stolen from a criminal point of view, but it was really because the other side has the lawyers, outstudied and out-maneuvered the situation? Or was here anything criminal?
The reason that's important is because how to prevent that in the future, if it was criminal, you go one way. The Justice Department is the law enforcement. But if everybody was outmaneuvered, outlawyered and outspent, the reaction is to try to outspend and outlawyer the other side.
Adams: You have just asked a question related to the last 16 months of my life that keeps me awake at night. Part of the problem is, and you nailed right into the semantics of it. Is it stolen? Is it something else?
We spend so much our energy at PILF trying to up everybody's game to understand this architecture. I don't know this for sure. We built a database ‑‑ I do know that for sure ‑‑ of every voter roll in the country. No one else has done this. It's cost us a lot of money.
I'm able to tell you who voted in multiple states. I'm able to tell you people who voted twice. I'm able to tell you who voted after they were dead like Judith Presto in Pennsylvania, the photo of her gravestone. Her husband was arrested after we reported this.
I will tell you straight up that there were not more criminal votes that cost Trump the election. It did not happen. They are smarter than that. Why would they build an architecture that relies on crime if they can build one that relies on really smart legal stuff that no one's thought of?
It's a story of innovation across the ages. It's somebody adapted better to the environment. Somebody thought up new ideas that no one had ever thought about. Dick Morris did this in '96..
They came up with soft money in '96 with Clinton. Get all these people to donate to funds and then forget about hard money. They are very good at adapting. I can't explain why we're not. We're the entrepreneurs, aren't we? They're the ones who live off the trough. Why are they so good at figuring out new mechanisms?
They adapted, and here's how they did it.
They saw a vulnerability, an opening, that is not illegal, to flood the zone with resources. Just like any war throughout history is about. How do you move treasure into a vulnerability of your enemies? They figured it out in a way that left the two top lawyers of the Trump campaign dumbfounded. They didn't even understand what I'm talking about. I'll never forget it.
We're at the Greenbrier when this conversation happened. It took me about 20 minutes to even get them on track to what was happening. It was like saying that you saw a ship with 10 wings and eyeballs. It was like the scene from the "2001‑Space Odyssey" with the bone or the monkey. They just didn't understand. They were so beyond our thoughts.
That is, unfortunately, what the Left is very good at because, after all, they've been doing this on the world stage since 1917. They've been finding vulnerabilities in the West to transform what we're all about. They're just very good at that way.
Q: At the hierarchy of the RNC or maybe with some of unspent Trump money, is there a SWAT team anywhere where state-by-state smart people, those Trump lawyers, etc., are saying, "This is what we did wrong last time. Let's work with this Republican legislature. Let's get rid of mail‑in voting here because there's a window where we might be able to win this venue to get rid of mail‑in voting, etc." Is there any such effort?
Adams: In places where mail‑in voting exists, you're going to have a very hard time politically to do that. You certainly can't do it with a lawsuit. Oh, wait. Yes, you can. I forgot. We just sued Delaware a few months ago.
Public Interest Legal Foundation is representing another election official, and Delaware has mail voting and permanent absentee mail voting, which means you get on a permanent list and they mail your ballot for 50 years. We're finding people on the list who were dead. We sued on behalf of election official.
Jane Brady is my co‑counsel. She used to be the Attorney General of Delaware, and she's a judge. We're attacking Delaware mail voting because it's not constitutional in their constitution. Other than that, one nice little glimmer of hope, it is hard to undo mail voting. People like it.
There are people on the Republican side like, "Don't fool with mail voting. Our side uses it." I'm like, "OK." We put up with a lot of that early on in 2020. Oh, my. Now it's coming all back to me. I would get these nasty emails from Republicans saying, "Stop criticizing mail voting. Our side relies on it."
We used it the way we always did, which is so-so, and the other side turned it into a campaign Juggernaut. Is anybody doing anything? That micro‑story about Delaware, macro‑story about the country.
Every Friday at nine o'clock, what you call a SWAT team, lawyers and activists and smart people gather on a call every single Friday at nine o'clock to talk through this. We are much more organized now. We have a whole citizen army that is on the ground. The groups like Tea Party Patriots, just to name one of them, are involved with.
Virginia coalitions that were active in the Virginia lawsuits, so yes, we're adapting ourselves. That's not to say that the GOP establishment is fully on board. There's some division. We're not the best image in some places.
The elections are overlooked forward. There is an effort to disbar all the lawyers. Have you guys seen project 65? Talk about architecture.... Project 65 is another Left‑wing philanthropic effort. They have no shortage of money. Project 65 was announced a month ago. They're going to go after the law licenses of any lawyers who do anything after the election, to try to have them disbarred.
Their explicit purpose, they say this, is to shrink the talent pool of election lawyers like me to shrink the talent pool of election lawyers, so the next time we don't have soldiers who can go to court. That is literally what they say their purpose is. You've probably seen this.
Republicans have faith that we have better ideas. We have policies that work. We don't feel the need to cheat. I think that's actually legitimate. That is what most people think on our side of the aisle, right? The problem is, it isn't enough because they don't have their ideas, they don't have their successes. They do have to cheat and we have to be there to counter them.
It's depressing after Hillary lost, it seems to me it was that election we thought Republicans has gotten in the game. They figured out the election issues. They figured out the mechanics. I don't know how it happened in four years, but we just lost our way. It's very depressing.
Q: There was a study that came out, John Lott, which showed that on the mail‑in ballot, the results were not right. This was a peer‑reviewed study. It's the first...What happens then? If people really become convinced that there was skullduggery enough in Fulton County, for example, to change George's outcome, what happens? What do we do about that?
Adams: I haven't read John Lott's study. He and I talked about a year ago. I knew he was going to go down this road. I can talk about that. My understanding is that he is taking mail voting turnout deltas, in other words, more delta, and matching it up in counties where there are allegations of voter fraud. Now, that's a very clumsy match. What is an allegation of voter fraud?
There was a case in Michigan where, right after the election, all these people said, "Oh my gosh. Look at all these dead people who voted."
What did they cite for this evidence? Not the database that we had been working on for years and buying the Social Security Death Index and everything else to pour into it to get credible results. They were looking at the voter rolls, and these people who voted on the voter rolls had a birth date of 1900. My gosh, they must be dead!
Then they would file a lawsuit based on this. Now, we knew enough from our experience that those are placeholders, often from Y2K. It's all over the country. We call it bad hygiene.
There was a conversion of the database in 2000 that required certain registrations to have a date of birth in the file, but they just stuck 1900 in because it was easy.
These are placeholders. These are not real 120‑year‑old people. But yet, they went to court saying they were real 120‑year‑old people who had to be dead. I could tell you story after story after story of that kind of incredible, in the classic sense of the word, litigation.
We're suing Michigan. We're suing Illinois. We're suing Maine. We're suing Colorado. We're suing Alaska. We're suing Louisiana. I know I'm forgetting states. We're suing Pennsylvania. We have active litigation in these places to try to stop this from happening.
We've won cases in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Michigan...I'm sorry. Pennsylvania. Not Michigan. We're still in active litigation. North Carolina. Virginia. It's just a constant war with...
Q: Is there a plan though how to win in November of 2024, despite what the other side might be planning to do?
Adams: We meet every Friday morning to discuss the architecture. We collaborate and say, "This is somewhere you could do something." We're going to sue Minnesota for something.
Oh, I've got to tell you one quick Civil Rights Commission story. I'm a presidential appointee on the US Commission on Civil Rights. I told you guys that I'll be the last Trump appointee. We had a hearing in Puerto Rico two months ago. I'd never been to Puerto Rico.
I got there and you wouldn't believe at the testimony like, "Oh, we do not need to have a power grid. Everybody needs windmills and solar panels on their house paid for by FEMA." It was like, I was in a crazy show and I left Puerto Rico saying, I told my wife this when I get home, "That place can never be a state."
**J. Christian Adams is President of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, the nation's only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. He served in the Voting Section of the United States Department of Justice and currently serves as a commissioner appointed by President Trump on the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
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UN should fully investigate Iran’s crimes against humanity
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 04, 2022
It has become clear that the Iranian regime will not stop, or even deescalate, its brutal crackdown on and oppression of its citizens until formidable and concrete action is taken by the UN.
Since protests erupted around the country in September, at least 488 people, including 60 children and 29 women, have been killed by the Iranian security forces, according to the Iranian Human Rights group. The majority of those killed by the regime are reportedly minorities from the Kurdistan and Sistan and Balochistan provinces. In addition, thousands of protesters have been arrested and, for many of those, their fate is unknown. Some of the regime’s authorities are advocating in favor of death sentences for protesters. The actual number of deaths is likely even higher, with Iranian Human Rights pointing out that the 488 figure is a minimum and only includes cases it has verified.
The UN has the responsibility to act in such a crisis. In spite of the fact that the Iranian leaders do not seem to give much significance to the UN and its resolutions, any action taken by the organization to hold the regime accountable will be a blow to Tehran’s officials and their global image and prestige.
This is why, after the UN Human Rights Council last month held a session concerning Iran’s brutal crackdown, Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of the High Council for Human Rights and deputy head of the Iranian judiciary, lashed out. He said: “While our rights are being violated through the imposition of unilateral coercive measures and the hosting of groups that have claimed 17,000 of our lives, holding a special session of the Human Rights Council on Iran is a treacherous act.”In addition, the head of the Iranian parliament’s human rights commission, Zohreh Alahian, said: “The resolution of the special meeting of the Human Rights Council is interference in the internal affairs of the system.”
The UN Human Rights Council decided at its meeting to launch an official fact-finding mission into Iran’s crackdown on protesters and human rights violations. Although this move was long overdue, it is a step in the right direction. Of the 47-member council, 25 nations voted in favor of the resolution and only six opposed it.The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk accurately said: “It pains me to see what is happening in the country. The images of children killed. Of women beaten in the streets. Of people sentenced to death. We have seen waves of protests over the past years, calling for justice, equality, dignity, and respect for human rights. They have been met with violence and repression. The unnecessary and disproportionate use of force must come to an end. The old methods and the fortress mentality of those who wield power simply don’t work. In fact, they only aggravate the situation. We are now in a full-fledged human rights crisis.”
In the next phase, the international community ought to reveal to the world the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran and how the regime is committing crimes against humanity.
The UN must also pressure the Iranian regime to cooperate with the Human Rights Council investigation. This includes allowing investigators to enter Iran, interview people and witness the situation on the ground. In addition, Iranian regime officials should not be allowed to be a member of any UN committee that deals with respecting and protecting human rights.
It is very likely that the Iranian leaders will decline to cooperate with the fact-finding mission. The regime’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani has already told reporters that his government will have “no form of cooperation with this political committee, which has been framed as a fact-finding committee.” This means the Iranian leaders do not want the world to see the gravity of their crackdown and egregious human rights violations. Any action taken to hold the regime accountable will be a blow to Tehran’s officials and their global image and prestige.
If the Islamic Republic refuses to work with the UN Human Rights Council, its case ought to be immediately referred to the UN Security Council. This would be a significant warning to the regime due to the fact that the UNSC can trigger the rule of “responsibility to protect.” This embodies “a political commitment to end the worst forms of violence and persecution. It seeks to narrow the gap between member states’ preexisting obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and the reality faced by populations at risk of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” The responsibility to protect has so far been invoked in more than 80 UNSC resolutions. The UN must fulfill its role as an international protector of human rights and investigate the situation in Iran in order to reveal the gravity of the crimes against humanity committed by the Iranian regime and to hold the Iranian leaders accountable.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh