English LCCC Newsbulletin For Le

English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 12/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory
Letter to the Ephesians 03/01-13/:”This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 11-12/2021
Miqati Lauds Gulf's 'Confirmation of Support' for Lebanon
Authorities Seize Captagon Shipments in Lebanon, Syria
UNRWA Head Visits Lebanon amid Deteriorating Living Conditions of Palestine Refugees
Beirut blast investigator demands arrest of former minister
Blast at south Lebanon Palestinian camp tied to Hamas weapons depot
Lebanon: Hamas Arms Depot Blast at Palestinian Camp Leaves Casualties

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 11-12/2021
US leads new crunch talks on Iranian nuclear deal
Tehran is serious in nuclear talks: Iran’s President Raisi
Blinken Meets with European Counterparts to Discuss Iran Deal
Raisi Says Iran Serious in Nuclear Talks with World Powers
Iran warns of ‘heavy price’ after report of US-Israeli military drill plans
US, Iran Differ over Tehran’s Frozen Assets
Man wrongly detained over Khashoggi speaks of treatment by French security forces
Turkey's Erdogan says social media a ‘threat to democracy’
Turkey Refuses to Take in More Syrian Refugees
ExxonMobil, Qatar sign Cyprus gas deal despite Turkish threats
Palestinians vote in local elections as anger simmers in West Bank
Egypt to Host International Conference on Combating Corruption
Palestinians in West Bank Villages Hold Municipal Polls
Israeli Newspaper Discloses Unknown Massacres Since Palestinian Nakba
EU to Impose Sanctions on Russian Military Contractor Wagner Group, Official Says
UK Says West Will Counter 'Aggressors' as G7 Ministers, Allies Meet
China Brands U.S. Democracy 'Weapon of Mass Destruction'
Canada/Minister Joly speaks with EU High Representative/Vice President Josep Borrell

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 11-12/2021
Erdogan and Hamas: A natural partnership/Jonathan Spyer/The Jerusalem Post/December 11/2021
Vienna… Deadlock and Widening Opportunity/Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 11/2021
The Iran Nuclear Deal: Biden Administration's Fatal Mistakes/Majid Rafizadeh/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 11/2021
Belligerence in Vienna could return to haunt Iran/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/The Arab Weekly/December 11/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 11-12/2021
Miqati Lauds Gulf's 'Confirmation of Support' for Lebanon
Naharnet/December 11/2021
Prime Minister Najib Miqati announced Saturday in a tweet that he lauds the latest Gulf tour of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
"I also laud the continuous efforts to strengthen the ties of cooperation and coordination among the Gulf Cooperation Council states, and all Arab states, including Lebanon," Miqati added. "I laud the firm confirmation during the tour of the support for Lebanon and the Lebanese," the premier went on to say, noting that Lebanon will be "a launchpad for the welfare of the Arab countries."

Authorities Seize Captagon Shipments in Lebanon, Syria
Agence France Presse/December 11/2021
Security forces in Lebanon and Syria said Saturday that they had seized two separate shipments of the banned stimulant captagon, the latest in a string of similar busts. Lebanon's Internal Security Forces said it "thwarted an attempt to smuggle four million captagon pills" hidden in a coffee shipment destined for Saudi Arabia via Jordan. The pills were confiscated following raids this week on a storage facility in Bir Hassan, a neighborhood near Beirut's southern suburbs, the ISF said on Twitter. It said it arrested two men behind the operation, including one who was trying to flee the country through Beirut's airport. A video it posted online showed a man ripping open a bag of coffee stuffed with narcotic pills. In a separate operation, Syrian authorities seized "hundreds of thousands" of captagon pills in the southern province of Daraa, the official SANA news agency said, citing a security source. "The drugs were to be smuggled abroad via the Jordan border," SANA said, without specifying the intended destination. It said some arrests were made amid ongoing attempts to clamp down on remaining members of the smuggling network. Captagon was one of the brand names for the amphetamine-type stimulant fenethylline and continues to be manufactured, mostly in Lebanon and Syria, for illegal recreational use, mostly in Saudi Arabia.According to an EU-funded report by the Center for Operational Analysis and Research, "captagon exports from Syria reached a market value of at least $3.46 billion" in 2020. In July last year, Italy seized a record 14-ton haul of the drug -- or 84 million pills -- that had arrived from Syria.

UNRWA Head Visits Lebanon amid Deteriorating Living Conditions of Palestine Refugees
Naharnet/December 11/2021
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Phillippe Lazzarini, just ended a three-day visit in Lebanon where he met with UNRWA staff and refugees in Bourj al-Barajneh camp near Beirut. Lazzarini’s visit comes amid an unprecedented economic and financial crisis that is plunging the country deep into poverty. "These events have a profound impact on Palestine refugees who are among the poorest segment of the society," UNRWA said in a statement. "For decades they have faced restrictions on access to the labor market and property ownership," it added. “Refugees I met are utterly desperate and struggle to cover their basic needs,” said Lazzarini. “I met young graduates whose only hope for a better future is to emigrate. They know the prices of each migration route. I met parents who have nightmares about how they will afford to buy milk and diapers for their children the next day. The social fabric within the community is imploding, divorces are on the rise, as is gender-based violence. UNRWA staff are also encountering anger and resentment,” he added. "Today, I am raising the alarm and calling on the international community to ensure adequate support for UNRWA to ensure that those refugees continue receiving much needed assistance and have a dignified life,” he continued. At the UNRWA Yarmouk School in the camp, Lazzarini met with representatives of the school parliament, the school parents’ association and school staff. All talked about the difficult conditions and challenges children face to continue their education. Many are dropping out of schools as they cannot afford transportation or have to help their families make a living. In January, UNRWA will launch an emergency appeal for Lebanon to alleviate the humanitarian impact of the situation in Lebanon on Palestine refugees. Cash assistance will remain a priority. Lazzarini’s visit also included meetings with Prime Minister Najib Miqati, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Director of General Security, the Chair of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee, the Palestinian Ambassador and representatives of Palestinian factions. He also met with NGOs working in the refugee camps. All shared the concern about the deteriorating situation in the camps and committed to support the Agency to sustain all services and alleviate the human suffering in the camps.

Beirut blast investigator demands arrest of former minister
The Arab Weekly/December 11/2021
The director-general of the interior security forces, Emad Osman, had refused an earlier request for Khalil’s arrest.
The Lebanese judge charged with investigating the Beirut port blast demanded Friday the immediate arrest of a former minister who has refused to appear before court, a judicial source said. The investigation into the massive explosion at Beirut port on August 4, 2020, resumed Wednesday after a two-month hiatus caused by multiple lawsuits seen as seeking to hamper the work of judge Tarek Bitar. The judiciary rejected the lawsuits against the judge — filed primarily by senior political figures who have been targeted in his investigation — allowing Bitar to resume his work. His first task was to submit to the top prosecutor an arrest warrant against former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, the judicial source said on condition of anonymity. Bitar demanded the “immediate” arrest of Khalil, who is considered the right-hand man of parliament speaker Nabih Berri who heads the Shia Amal movement. The director-general of the interior security forces, Emad Osman, had refused an earlier request for the arrest of Khalil citing an article of the constitution. “The refusal of a security apparatus to implement an arrest warrant constitutes a dangerous precedent that goes against the decisions of the judicial authority,” the source said. In a country where political leaders determine judicial appointments, including in top courts, there is little room for the judiciary to work against Lebanon’s ruling elite. Bitar’s determination to question senior officials over the blast has earned him the respect of the victims’ families — and the enmity of the political elite, particularly the Shiite alliance of Hezbollah and Amal. Deadly clashes broke out in October after the two Shiite parties called for his removal as head of the probe. The two parties have since prevented the Lebanese cabinet from meeting in a bid to force Bitar’s removal. The 2020 blast killed 215 people and injured more than 6,500 others, destroying much of the Beirut port and devastating entire neighbourhoods of the capital. The explosion was caused by a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the port for years, prompting accusations of gross negligence on the part of the authorities.

Blast at south Lebanon Palestinian camp tied to Hamas weapons depot
The Arab Weekly/December 11/2021
The NNA reported that the blast emanated from a Hamas weapons depot in the Burj al-Shemali camp and a judge had ordered security forces to launch an investigation. A large explosion rocked a Palestinian camp in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre on Friday night, injuring about a dozen people, according to rescue workers on scene and a Palestinian source inside the camp. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported an unspecified number of deaths, but local media and civil defence workers on the scene said there had been no fatalities. A security source also said fatalities had not been recorded. The NNA reported that the blast emanated from a Hamas weapons depot in the Burj al-Shemali camp and a judge had ordered security forces to launch an investigation. A number of armed Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Fatah Movement, hold effective control over roughly a dozen Palestinian camps in the country, which Lebanese authorities by custom do not enter. Shehab News Agency, seen as close to Hamas, quoted a Palestinian source as saying the explosion was caused by the ignition of oxygen canisters stored for use in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The security source said the fire had since been brought under control. Hamas has not officially commented. The area surrounding the blast had been evacuated and rescue crews had deployed, the Palestinian source said. Videos from the scene shared by local media show a number of small bright red flashes above the southern city, followed by a large explosion and the sound of glass breaking.

Lebanon: Hamas Arms Depot Blast at Palestinian Camp Leaves Casualties
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
Arms stored for the Palestinian Hamas group exploded in a refugee camp in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre on Friday night, killing and wounding a number of people, the state-run National News Agency said. NNA reported an unspecified number of deaths at the Burj al-Shemali camp, but local media and civil defense workers on scene said there had been no fatalities. A security source also said fatalities had not been recorded. The news agency said the blast emanated from a Hamas weapons depot and a judge had ordered security forces to launch an investigation. Lebanon hosts tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees, most of whom live in the country's 12 camps. Unofficially, they are said to number as many as half a million. A number of armed Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Fatah Movement, hold effective control over the camps, which Lebanese authorities by custom do not enter. Shehab News Agency, seen as close to Hamas, quoted a Palestinian source as saying the explosion was caused by the ignition of oxygen canisters stored for use in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The security source said the fire had since been brought under control. The area surrounding the blast had been evacuated and rescue crews had deployed, the Palestinian source said. Videos from the scene shared by local media show a number of small bright red flashes above the southern city, followed by a large explosion and the sound of glass breaking.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 11-12/2021
US leads new crunch talks on Iranian nuclear deal
Reuters/December 11/2021
JEDDAH: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken led crunch talks with European foreign ministers on Saturday aimed at charting a way forward in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. The new talks came amid a three-day meeting of G7 foreign ministers in the northern English city of Liverpool that is expected to result in a joint call for Tehran to curb its nuclear ambitions and grasp the opportunity of the continuing negotiations in Vienna.
World powers and Iran resumed those negotiations last week, with the aim of reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the original 2015 deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. That deal collapsed in 2018 when the US pulled out, and Iran began enriching uranium beyond the limits imposed by the JCPOA. A European source said negotiators were working from texts discussed five months ago, while Iranian officials said they were sticking to a tough stance from last week. The indirect US-Iranian talks, in which diplomats from France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China shuttle between them because Tehran refuses direct contact with Washington, aim to get both sides to resume full compliance with the accord. “Secretary Blinken had a productive meeting with his counterparts from Germany, France and the UK in Liverpool. They discussed the JCPOA talks and our way forward,” the State Department said on Saturday. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi insisted on Saturday that Tehran wanted to revive the deal in the negotiations in the Austrian capital. “The fact that we presented the text of Iran’s proposal to the negotiating parties shows that we are serious in the talks, and if the other side is also serious about the removal of sanctions, we will achieve a good agreement. We are definitely after a good agreement,” Raisi said. Iran’s top negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, said Tehran was standing firm on the position it laid out last week, when the talks broke off. “Drafts we proposed last week are being discussed now in meetings with other parties,” he said. European and US officials accused Iran of making new demands and of reneging on compromises worked out earlier this year. Iran has also responded to reports that US and Israeli defense chiefs were discussing military exercises to prepare for a worst-case scenario to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails and if their nations’ leaders requested it. “Providing conditions for military commanders to test Iranian missiles with real targets will cost the aggressors a heavy price,” a senior Iranian military official warned.

Tehran is serious in nuclear talks: Iran’s President Raisi
Reuters/11 December ,2021
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that Tehran was serious in its nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna, the official IRNA news agency reported. “We are serious in the negotiations and if the other side is also serious about the removal of the sanctions, we will achieve a good agreement. We are definitely after a good agreement,” IRNA quoted Raisi as saying

Blinken Meets with European Counterparts to Discuss Iran Deal
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday held a "productive" meeting with counterparts from Britain, Germany and France, including a discussion of the Iran nuclear deal, a State Department spokesperson said on Saturday.
"Secretary Blinken had a productive meeting with his E3 counterparts from Germany, France, and the UK in Liverpool yesterday. They discussed the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) talks and our way forward,” the spokesperson said. The meeting took place in the northern English city of Liverpool on the eve of a G7 foreign ministers' meeting which is expected to result in a joint call for Iran to moderate its nuclear program and grasp the opportunity of talks in Vienna. Talks between Iran and world powers over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal resumed in Vienna on Thursday. Under the original deal that then-US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, Iran limited its nuclear program in return for relief from US, European Union and UN sanctions. A year after Trump's reimposition of sanctions on Iran, Tehran began to gradually violate nuclear limits of the agreement. Iran wants all sanctions to be lifted. A European source, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested on Friday that Iran had agreed to continue the Vienna talks from where they left off in June. Iranian officials denied this.

Raisi Says Iran Serious in Nuclear Talks with World Powers
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that Tehran was serious in its nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna, the official IRNA news agency reported. Indirect US-Iranian talks to revive a 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed on Thursday in the Austrian capital. Diplomats from France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China shuttle between the two sides because Tehran refuses direct contact with Washington. A European source, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested on Friday that Iran had agreed to continue talks from where they left off in June. Iranian officials denied this, Reuters reported.
Under the original deal that then-US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, Iran limited its nuclear program in return for relief from US, European Union and UN sanctions. "The fact that we presented the text of Iran's proposal to the negotiating parties shows that we are serious in the talks, and if the other side is also serious about the removal of sanctions, we will achieve a good agreement. We are definitely after a good agreement," IRNA quoted Raisi as saying. A year after Trump's reimposition of sanctions on Iran, Tehran began to gradually violate nuclear limits of the agreement. Iran wants all sanctions to be lifted. Iran's top negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, told Reuters on Friday that Tehran was standing firm on the position it laid out last week, when the talks broke off. European and US officials accused Iran of making new demands and of reneging on compromises worked out earlier this year. Asked whether new draft proposals that Iran had put forward last week were being discussed, Bagheri Kani said: "Yes, the drafts we proposed last week are being discussed now in meetings with other parties." A senior European Union official said on Friday the talks were moving forward and that various key matters were still open for a deal on a final text.

Iran warns of ‘heavy price’ after report of US-Israeli military drill plans
Reuters/11 December ,2021
A top Iranian military official warned on Saturday of a “heavy price” for aggressors, state media said, after a report of US and Israeli plans for possible military drills to prepare for strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites if diplomacy fails. “Providing conditions for military commanders to test Iranian missiles with real targets will cost the aggressors a heavy price,” Nournews, affiliated with Iran’s top security body, said on Twitter, citing an unnamed military official. A senior US official told Reuters on Thursday that US and Israeli defense chiefs were expected to discuss possible military exercises that would prepare for a worst-case scenario to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities should diplomacy fail and if their nations’ leaders request it.

US, Iran Differ over Tehran’s Frozen Assets
London - Adil al-Salmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
Tehran accused the US administration of waging a “psychological war,” a day after Washington denied releasing $3.5 billion of Iran’s frozen funds abroad. “The United States has not released any money to Iran. Any such report to the contrary is incorrect,” State Department spokesman Ned Price affirmed.
“We also understand that our partners have not transferred frozen funds to Iran, not even South Korea,” he stressed. “And of course, the US has not authorized or approved any such frozen transfers to Iran. All of our current sanctions remain in effect. They will remain in effect until and unless we’re able to reach a diplomatic agreement,” in Vienna. Price’s remarks, which coincide with a new round of talks in the Austrian capital, are part of a “psychological war” against Iran, state TV quoted an informed source as saying. These remarks “will not affect what has actually happened,” the source added. One of the countries will soon release the frozen assets under the sanctions imposed by Donald Trump’s administration on Iranian oil sales, deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said on Thursday. He added that $3.5 billion of Iranian assets have been released, noting that the government had requested other countries to release larger numbers “Fruitful negotiations were held in this regard,” Safari confirmed, while declining to reveal the amount discussed. In mid-November, the Central Bank said one billion dollars from the released funds would be allotted for the import of “essential goods.”Meanwhile, the Iranian rial currency dipped last week but remained above historic lows after news that talks with world powers to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord may have run into difficulties. The US dollar was selling for as much as 302,200 rials on the unofficial market on Saturday, up from 294,000 on Friday. In October 2020, the rial hit a record low of about 320,000 to a dollar as a drop in oil prices deepened the economic crisis in the country already reeling under US sanctions and the highest COVID-19 death toll in the Middle East.

Man wrongly detained over Khashoggi speaks of treatment by French security forces
Al Arabiya English/11 December ,2021
A man wrongly imprisoned in connection to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has described his treatment at the hands of French security forces. Saudi citizen Khaled al-Otaibi spoke about the “filthy” conditions he was held in after being arrested at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on Tuesday. “They detained me in a filthy room of which the walls were stained with blood, where I could neither take rest nor sleep,” al-Otaibi told Saudi newspaper Okaz. Soon after al-Otaibi’s arrest, the Saudi embassy issued a statement saying that it was a case of mistaken identity. Al-Otaibi shares the name of a man listed in a UN-commissioned report as having been involved in Khashoggi’s killing. He said that after he was detained, he asked authorities to allow him to contact the Saudi embassy, but he was not successful. “However,” he said, “I managed to contact my friend, who in turn called the embassy, which responded directly, as its staff members were looking for me.”Al-Otaibi managed to retrieve his mobile phone and eventually received a call from the embassy. Saudi Arabia’s ambassador and other embassy officials came to the holding center immediately, but security officials did not allow him to meet them, he said.
Speaking about his treatment at the hand of security forces, he said: “They did not even give me any opportunity to speak, and all their answers were in French. “Later, an Arabic-speaking female lawyer explained to me that I was detained in connection with a murder case.”He said that security men laughed at him and mocked him when he was detained. “When they had shown me a photograph of a person and asked about him, I replied that I did not know anything about him. The person in the picture was not me, and that his name was different from that of mine,” he told Okaz.Prosecutors said checks had shown that an arrest warrant issued by Turkey did not apply to the man. Earlier, a police source said he had been detained when a scan of his passport triggered an alert. With Reuters.

Turkey's Erdogan says social media a ‘threat to democracy’
The Associated Press/11 December ,2021
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described social media Saturday as one of the main threats to democracy.
Erdogan's government plans to pursue legislation to criminalize spreading fake news and disinformation online, but critics say the proposed changes would tighten restrictions on free speech. “Social media, which was described as a symbol of freedom when it first appeared, has turned into one of the main sources of threat to today’s democracy,” Erdogan said in a video message to a government-organized communications conference in Istanbul. He added: “We try to protect our people, especially the vulnerable sections of our society, against lies and disinformation without violating our citizens’ right to receive accurate and impartial information.” Turkey passed a law last year requiring social media platforms that have more than 1 million users to maintain a legal representative and store data in the country. Major social media companies, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, have since established offices in Turkey. The new legislation would make the dissemination of “disinformation” and “fake news” criminal offenses punishable by up to five years in prison, according to pro-government media reports. It also would establish a social media regulator. Most of Turkey’s major media companies are under the control of the government, leaving social media as an important outlet for dissenting voices. Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net report, published in September, characterized Turkey as “not free,” noting the removal of content critical of the government and the prosecution of people posting “undesirable” commentary on social media.

Turkey Refuses to Take in More Syrian Refugees
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazek/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he refuses for his country to be used as a haven for refugees that the West fears to host. He accused the international community of failing the humanitarian crisis test in Syria, saying western countries have been inhumane and racist in dealing with refugees. Moreover, he said the West, under the pretext of combating the ISIS terrorist group, offered support to the People's Protection Units (YPG), the largest group in the Kurdish Syrian Defense Forces (SDF). The West has not met the pledges made to Turkey, alleged Erdogan. It has not taken any steps towards the millions of refugees in northern Syria, he added, referring to US support to the SDF that is angering Turkey. "Our country already hosts some 5 million refugees, including 3.7 million Syrians, it can't handle a new migrant wave", warned Erdogan. He denounced western countries, deeming them as partners in crimes that have killed one million Syrians and displaced around 16 million others. Turkey often uses refugees as bargaining chips with the European Union, with which it signed an agreement in 2016 on illegal immigration through which it agreed to receive 6 billion euros to support Syrian refugees. Ankara, however, believes the amount is not enough and is demanding more and is making more demands related to its membership in the EU and exempting its residents from the Schengen visa. Meanwhile, Turkish forces shelled the village of Tokhar Saghir north of Manbij city in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. The attack is part of the ongoing clashes between Turkish forces and its allied factions with Kurdish units, the Afrin Liberation Front, and other groups affiliated with the SDF and Syrian regime.

ExxonMobil, Qatar sign Cyprus gas deal despite Turkish threats
The Arab Weekly/December 11/2021
It is the second gas exploration contract that the consortium has signed for Block 5 in the island's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
US giant ExxonMobil and Qatar Energy signed a contract Friday for oil and gas exploration and production-sharing off the divided island of Cyprus despite Turkey's opposition to the deal. Cypriot Energy Minister Natasa Pilides, Varnavas Theodosiou, CEO of ExxonMobil Cyprus, and Ali al-Mana, director of Qatar Energy's International Upstream and Exploration, signed the contract in Nicosia. It is the second gas exploration contract that the consortium has signed for Block 5 in the island's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). In February 2019, the consortium discovered a huge natural gas reserve off Cyprus in Block 10, the island's largest find to date, holding an estimated five to eight trillion cubic feet. The consortium plans to drill an appraisal well on Block 10 in late December, with results expected by the end of February. Oil and gas drilling off Cyprus has been interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Despite the increasingly difficult working environment for the global oil and gas industry, today we are taking a decisive step towards enhancing our mutually beneficial partnership," Pilides said at Friday's signing ceremony. Asked about Turkey's negative reaction to the licensing of Block 5, Pilides said: "We proceed based on international law and the Law of the Sea; this has always been our principle." "Fieldwork on Block 5 will begin in the second half of 2022," she said. Turkey has threatened to prevent ExxonMobil's search for oil and gas off Cyprus after Nicosia awarded it the rights to Block 5. Last week, the Turkish foreign ministry said a sector of the licensed area violates Turkey's continental shelf in the eastern Mediterranean. "Turkey will never allow any foreign country, company or ship to engage in hydrocarbon exploration activities in its maritime jurisdictions," the ministry said.
"Ankara would "defend" its rights and those of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," it said. The breakaway TRNC, recognised only by Ankara, lays claim to energy resources discovered off its coast, insisting the island's natural resources belong to both communities. The eastern Mediterranean has become an energy hot spot, with significant natural gas finds for Cyprus, Israel and Egypt. Ankara was accused of "gunboat diplomacy" in February 2018 when the Turkish navy prevented a ship leased by Italy's ENI from reaching its drilling target in Cyprus's Block 3. The European Commission has urged Turkey to de-escalate and vowed to defend the interests of member states Greece and Cyprus. Turkey was widely condemned for sending its own drillships into Cypriot waters for energy exploration, with the EU slapping sanctions on Ankara. In the first half of 2022, ENI and France's Total are expected to drill in their licensed blocks. Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third in 1974 in response to a Greek-engineered coup aiming to annex the island. Nicosia has pushed ahead with offshore energy exploration despite the collapse in 2017 of UN-brokered talks to end the country's decades-long division.

Palestinians vote in local elections as anger simmers in West Bank
The Arab Weekly/December 11/2021
Abbas drew widespread anger in April when he cancelled legislative and presidential elections.
Palestinians held municipal elections in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday in a rare democratic exercise and amid rising anger with President Mahmoud Abbas after he cancelled planned legislative and presidential votes earlier this year.More than 400,000 Palestinians were eligible to cast ballots for representatives in 154 village councils in the West Bank, where Abbas’ Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule. Municipal votes are typically held every four or five years.Municipal elections are not being held in Gaza, whose Islamist rulers Hamas are boycotting the vote amid a rift with Abbas’ Fatah party. The 86-year-old president postponed municipal votes in major West Bank cities, such as Ramallah, that could have been seen as a referendum on Abbas’ rule. “These elections cannot be an alternative to legislative elections,” said Ahmad Issa, 23, outside a polling station in the West Bank village of Bir Nabala, adding that a legislative vote could offer “a horizon for the youth” and lead to reforms. In the village of Beit Kahil, women and men lined up outside a polling station, some in facemasks to protect against COVID-19. Once inside, they placed voting papers in envelopes and dropped them into ballot boxes, dipping their fingers in ink as they left in a move to prevent people from voting twice. Abbas, whose support has sagged in opinion polls, drew widespread anger in April when he cancelled legislative and presidential elections scheduled for the summer, citing Israeli curbs on Palestinian voting in East Jerusalem.
Abbas’ rivals, including Hamas, accused him of using the Jerusalem voting dispute as an excuse to cancel elections that polls showed he and his party would lose to the Islamist group. Abbas, who has ruled by decree for over a decade, denies this. A spokesman for Hamas, which boycotted previous municipal elections in 2012 and 2017, said the group “refuses to participate in partial elections that are tailored to Fatah, and conducted by the Palestinian Authority,” calling on Abbas to reschedule the cancelled summer votes.
Hamas has enjoyed a surge in popularity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since fighting an 11-day war with Israel in May. The group won student council elections this year at several top West Bank universities, an important barometer of support. The Palestinians seek statehood in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognised internationally, and peace talks between the two sides broke down in 2014. Hamas won the Palestinians’ last legislative election in 2006. That victory laid the ground for a political rupture. Hamas seized Gaza after fighting a short civil war there with Fatah in 2007 and has ruled the coastal enclave ever since.

Egypt to Host International Conference on Combating Corruption
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
Egypt is scheduled to host the ninth session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC/COSP9) in Sharm El Sheikh from 13 December to 17, 2021. The conference is considered one of the most important international conferences that brings together member states, parliamentarians, international, regional and non-governmental organizations, civil society and the private sector, to discuss anti-corruption matters. It will review the UN Convention against Corruption, which is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument. According to Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA), participants will discuss means to prevent and reduce corruption, enhance international cooperation to better confront all forms of corruption, and discuss the ways to recover from the pandemic and to move forward following the first UN General Assembly special session against corruption (UNGASS) that was was held in June. The conference will touch on various relevant topics, including preventing corruption through education, and through women’s role in promoting integrity, the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, anti-corruption efforts in Africa, the Arab Anti-Corruption and Integrity Network, and the challenges and opportunities offered by ICTs and digitalization to fight corruption and the urban governance initiatives intended to reduce corruption. Cairo had stressed during its participation in the General Assembly’s special session in June on the importance of bolstering international and regional cooperation in the field of building human, technical and technological capacities to pursue corruption crimes. Egypt said its participation in the special session’s activities reflect “keenness on strengthening efforts to combat corruption being a harmful scourge that undermines efforts to achieve development,” the foreign ministry had stated.

Palestinians in West Bank Villages Hold Municipal Polls
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
Palestinians in villages of the Israeli-occupied West Bank voted in municipal polls Saturday, amid a boycott by the main opposition Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, in protest at the indefinite postponement of a general election. No legislative or presidential election has been held in the Palestinian territories for 15 years, while the last municipal vote -- also boycotted by Hamas -- took place in 2017. Of the 367 villages in the West Bank, 60 had no candidates standing and another 162 had a single list, leaving only 154 villages actually voting on Saturday. The spokesman for the Palestinian Central Elections Commission, Fareed Taam Allah, told AFP that polling stations had opened in all villages scheduled to hold votes on Saturday. Polling stations are open until 7:00 pm, with some 405,000 people eligible to vote, according to the elections committee. The municipal vote -- the first of two stages, with cities and towns due to vote in March 2022 -- is widely considered as inconsequential, with most candidates running as independents and Hamas not taking part. They are "politically unimportant because they are taking place in villages and not the big cities" yet, and are "futile" in the absence of Hamas, according to political analyst Jihad Harb. The armed group, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is boycotting the vote in protest at president Mahmud Abbas's indefinite postponement of parliamentary and presidential elections that had been scheduled for earlier this year. Hamas had been poised to sweep the parliamentary election scheduled for May, which was widely seen as the real reason for Abbas's 11th-hour postponement of the poll, citing Israel's refusal to allow voting in annexed east Jerusalem. Abbas's presidential term was supposed to end in 2009. Hamas and Fatah, a secular party led by 86-year-old Abbas, have been at loggerheads since 2007 when the Movement seized Gaza after a week of deadly clashes.

Israeli Newspaper Discloses Unknown Massacres Since Palestinian Nakba
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
An Israeli newspaper has recently published new testimonies and documents about unknown massacres committed during the Palestinian Nakba. Nakba refers to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Zionist gangs from their homes in historical Palestine in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel. Haaretz and the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research have revealed the details of three massacres committed by Israeli forces in the villages of Reineh, Meron and al-Burj. The report is based on the letters of soldiers, unpublished contemporary memoirs, minutes of political party meetings and other historical records. According to the newspaper, testimonies continue to pile up, documents are revealed and gradually a broader picture emerges of the acts of murder committed by Israeli troops during the War of Independence. Israel’s leaders knew in real time about the blood-drenched events that accompanied the conquest of the Arab villages, it stressed, pointing to Deir Yassin massacre, which was carried out in April. The massacre was aimed at intimidating the Palestinians and pushing them to leave, it added, noting that it was not the only massacre and that other massacres, no less horrific and cruel, were carried out in other villages. The report included several examples of the recently unveiled massacres, including that carried out in the Galilean village of Reineh, near Nazareth, which was occupied in July 1948 and in which 14 Palestinians were killed. The victims were charged with being smugglers and then killed in minutes, the Israeli archive revealed. Testimonies also disclosed a massacre carried out in al-Burj, a Palestinian town occupied by Israel in July 1948 some 15km to the east of Ramle. Today, the Modiin settlement stands in its place. According to a document found in the Yad Yaari Archive, four elderly remained in the village after its capture. Three of them were detained in a house, which Israelis torched, burning their bodies. When the fourth elderly returned, he was told that the three others had been sent to the hospital in Ramallah. Apparently he didn’t believe the story, and a few hours later he too was put to death with four bullets. Further atrocities against Palestinians were revealed in a document written by Shmuel Mikunis, a communist member of the Provisional State Council, which became the Knesset, asking for clarification from Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion about acts committed by Irgun militias. These included the killing of 35 Palestinians after they raised a white flag, the arrest of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, who were made to dig a pit, pushed into it, then shot to death, the rape of a girl by Irgun members and the killing of 13 or 14 Palestinian children who were playing with grenades. Nearly 120,000 Palestinians, including the elderly, women and children decided to stay in the northern area, however, following Israel’s massacres only 30,000 Palestinians were left.

EU to Impose Sanctions on Russian Military Contractor Wagner Group, Official Says
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
The European Union will impose sanctions on Russian private military contractor Wagner Group on Monday, as well as on three entities and seven or eight individuals, a senior EU official said, after France pressed for punitive measures citing human rights abuses. Over a dozen people with ties to the Wagner Group have previously told Reuters it has carried out clandestine combat missions on the Kremlin's behalf in Ukraine, Libya and Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December 2018 that Russian private military contractors had the right to work and pursue their interests anywhere in the world as long as they did not break Russian law. In January 2020, Putin said the Wagner Group, whose members are mostly ex-service personnel, neither represented the Russia state nor were paid by the Russian state. Moscow has repeatedly told the EU that sanctions on its citizens were akin to meddling in Russia's domestic affairs and would face retaliation. "Wagner is active in Syria, Libya, in Ukraine and the individual (sanctions) are related to gross violations of human rights in different countries," the EU senior official said. Two diplomats said the sanctions would be approved by EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday and published in the bloc's official journal. Since the Wagner Group has no direct links with the EU, the addition of the three other entities and individuals aims to have an impact by hitting companies working with the mercenaries, diplomats said. Reuters reported in September that Mali's military junta was in discussions about deploying the Wagner Group in Mali, which France says is not acceptable because it has its own troops in the region. French officials say the junta is turning to Wagner as part of efforts to cling to power beyond a transition period due to end after the Feb. 27 presidential and legislative elections. Two diplomats said Mali also faces EU sanctions and that a legal framework for such measures would be agreed on Monday, although no names would be decided by then.

UK Says West Will Counter 'Aggressors' as G7 Ministers, Allies Meet
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Saturday vowed the West and its allies will "take a stand against aggressors who seek to undermine liberty" as she hosts a G7 ministerial summit. The two-day gathering in Liverpool, northwest England, of foreign and development ministers from the group of wealthy countries -- the last in-person meeting of Britain's year-long G7 presidency -- comes amid rising global tensions. Russia's build-up of troops on Ukraine's border will top the agenda, alongside discussions on confronting China, limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions and addressing the crisis in military-ruled Myanmar, according to officials. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken jetted in on Friday, holding talks on the sidelines of the summit with Truss and Germany's new foreign minister Annalena Baerbock. Blinken will fly out to southeast Asia next week on a visit designed to highlight the region's importance in Washington's strategy of standing up to China.
Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will join the summit for the first time ever on Sunday, in a session earmarked for wide-ranging talks including on Covid vaccines, finance and gender equality. Korea, Australia, South Africa and India will also participate as Britain's chosen G7 "guests", with many attendees taking part virtually due to the pandemic and emergence of the Omicron variant. "This weekend the world's most influential democracies will take a stand against aggressors who seek to undermine liberty and send a clear message that we are a united front," Truss said ahead of the summit. "I want G7 countries to deepen ties in areas like trade, investment, technology and security so we can defend and advance freedom and democracy across the world.
"I will be pushing that point over the next few days."
'Alternative' to adversaries -
Truss, who replaced predecessor Dominic Raab as Britain's top diplomat in September, delivered her first major foreign policy address Wednesday as crises loom around the world. She warned Moscow it would be "a strategic mistake" to invade Ukraine, following growing concerns over a big Russian troop build-up on the border. That echoed comments delivered by US President Joe Biden to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a virtual summit the previous day. Meanwhile, responding to Beijing's increasing international assertiveness and alleged widespread domestic rights abuses has dominated Britain's G7 presidency. Biden pushed at a June leaders' summit for a stronger collective stance towards both China and Russia, and this week saw Washington, London and Canberra announce diplomatic boycotts of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Truss has said the West needs to work towards ending the "strategic dependence" of a growing number of low- and middle-income countries on its adversaries, in various areas from energy to technology. At the summit she will push attendees to provide them with more finance for infrastructure and technology projects, according to the foreign office.
G7 countries and their allies must offer "an alternative to unsustainable debt from non-market economies" like China, it said. Truss will unveil a UK-led initiative -- the Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator -- to boost collaboration investing in Africa's "most fragile markets" and help develop "a pipeline of investable opportunities". "It will help the G7 to meet its commitment to invest over $80 billion into the private sector in Africa over the next five years to support sustainable economic recovery and growth," the foreign office added.

China Brands U.S. Democracy 'Weapon of Mass Destruction'
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 11 December, 2021
China branded U.S. democracy a "weapon of mass destruction" on Saturday, following the U.S.-organized Summit for Democracy which aimed to shore up like-minded allies in the face of autocratic regimes. China was left out of the two-day virtual summit -- along with countries including Russia and Hungary -- and responded by angrily accusing U.S. President Joe Biden of stoking Cold War-era ideological divides. "'Democracy' has long become a 'weapon of mass destruction' used by the U.S. to interfere in other countries," a foreign ministry spokesperson said in an online statement, which also accused the U.S. of having "instigated 'color revolutions'" overseas. The ministry also claimed the summit was organised by the U.S. to "draw lines of ideological prejudice, instrumentalize and weaponize democracy... (and) incite division and confrontation." Instead, Beijing vowed to "resolutely resist and oppose all kinds of pseudo-democracies". Ahead of the summit, China ramped up a propaganda blitz criticising U.S. democracy as corrupt and a failure. Instead, it touted its own version of "whole-process people's democracy" in a white paper released last week that aimed to shore up legitimacy for the ruling Communist Party, which has become increasingly authoritarian under President Xi Jinping. While the U.S. has repeatedly denied there will be another Cold War with China, tensions between the world's two largest economies have spiralled in recent years over issues including trade and technological competition, human rights, Xinjiang and Taiwan. The U.S. Treasury on Friday sanctioned two high-level Chinese officials for human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region and placed Chinese AI surveillance firm SenseTime on a blacklist for its facial recognition technology targeting the Uyghur minority. Taiwan, a democratic self-ruling island that is claimed by China, was invited to the U.S. summit in a clear snub to its larger neighbor. But Beijing got a boost in the middle of Biden's summit when Nicaragua dropped its previous diplomatic alliance with Taiwan, saying it only recognised China.

Canada/Minister Joly speaks with EU High Representative/Vice President Josep Borrell
December 11, 2021 - Liverpool, United Kingdom - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today spoke with Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission, on the margins of the G7 Summit of Foreign and Development Ministers.
Minister Joly and High Representative Borrell exchanged views on their shared G7 priorities. They spoke about the economic and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, as well as coordinated responses to Russia’s military buildup in and around Ukraine, and situations in Ethiopia, Iran, and Venezuela.
Minister Joly and High Representative Borrell discussed Canada-EU collaboration and deepening bilateral engagement.
They agreed that the Canada-EU partnership is invaluable in addressing the greatest challenges of the present time, such as authoritarianism and climate change.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 11-12/2021
جوناثان سباير/ جيروزاليم بوست: أردوغان وحماس: شراكة طبيعية
يبدو أن تركيا تسمح ضمنيًا لحماس بتوجيه حملتها العنيفة في الضفة الغربية من الأراضي التركية.
Erdogan and Hamas: A natural partnership
Jonathan Spyer/The Jerusalem Post/December 11/2021
Turkey appears to be tacitly permitting Hamas to direct its campaign of violence in the West Bank, from Turkish soil.
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/104715/jonathan-spyer-the-jerusalem-post-erdogan-and-hamas-a-natural-partnership-%d8%ac%d9%88%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%ab%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%b3%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b2%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a/
At a conference in Istanbul last week, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh expressed his gratitude for the role that Turkey is playing in the advancement of the Palestinian cause. “From the land of the beloved Turkey, which is always etched in the conscience of our [Muslim] ummah [nation],” Haniyeh told conference participants, according to the Turkish news agency Anadolu. “We feel proud to participate in this conference.”
The conference, which took place under the title “The Vanguards of Jerusalem hold its Sword,” brought together 400 officials, lawmakers and activists, hailing from 40 countries, according to Anadolu.
The Hamas leader went on to outline and analyze what he described as “three important changes that surround us at the level of the [Palestinian] cause, the region and the ummah.”
The three changes listed by the Hamas leader are of interest because they reflect the current view of the region held by the regional alliance, of which Hamas is a part, both in terms of its aspirations and in terms of its concerns. This is the alliance of states and movements adhering broadly to the conservative Sunni political Islamist outlook of the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to Haniyeh, the three significant changes that have taken place are: firstly, the outcome of the May clashes with Israel, which the movement depicts as a success for itself in that it returned the issue of Jerusalem to regional focus. Secondly, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Haniyeh described as weakening the US and its allies in the region, and thirdly, the Istanbul conference itself, which he depicted as representing part of a reaction to the process of normalization with Israel being pursued by some Arab countries.
Haniyeh called for “setting a complete plan to topple the normalization which took the shape of military and security alliance with some Arab countries.” He concluded that, “We must not allow normalization to spread in the body of our ummah.”
The location where the Hamas leader gave his speech is as significant as its content. Increasing evidence is emerging that Hamas is seeking to foment a new confrontation with Israel. The focus of this effort is the West Bank, not the movement’s de facto sovereign fiefdom in the Gaza Strip.
This effort, it appears, is being directed from Turkey. The Istanbul conference last week was the visible and declarative element of a broader reality in which Ankara is actively promoting the political efforts of Hamas, as the movement seeks to emerge as the leading force among the Palestinians. Alongside this overt promotion, Turkey appears to be tacitly permitting Hamas to direct its campaign of violence in the West Bank, from Turkish soil.
Israeli media reported after the murder of Eliyahu Kay in Jerusalem last month that the killer, Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, had traveled to Turkey on a number of occasions in the months preceding the attack. Security officials quoted in Israeli media said Abu Shkhaydam met with senior Hamas operatives in Turkey in the course of these visits. A report on KAN quoted Israeli security officials as contending that Abu Shkhaydam received his instructions for his attack from these Hamas figures in Turkey.
Similarly, the 50-man Hamas network in the West Bank, which was exposed and neutralized by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in late November was, again according to security officials quoted in Israeli media, managed by senior Hamas operatives Saleh al-Arouri and Zakaria Najib. Both men are residents of Turkey, where Hamas continues to maintain an overt presence.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid repeated calls after the revealing of the Hamas network for the closure of the movement’s offices in Istanbul. The high-profile conference held last week in Istanbul, which included the participation of senior Turkish officials, was presumably Ankara’s response to this request.
Available evidence suggests that Turkish involvement with Hamas does not consist only of allowing the movement to domicile itself and plan actions from Turkish soil. Rather, on a number of occasions in recent years, indications of Turkish state and quasi-state agencies offering direct assistance to the movement have emerged.
The state-run Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), which maintains offices in Jerusalem and Gaza, is one organization whose officials have been found to have close links to Hamas. In 2017, Muhammad Murtaja, who headed TIKA’s Gaza office, was arrested by the Israeli authorities and accused of diverting aid money to Hamas’s “military wing.” He was sentenced to nine years in jail in 2018.
In Gaza, TIKA overtly carries out numerous joint activities with the Hamas authorities. The organization is also active in propagation of Muslim Brotherhood ideology, and in charity work in Jerusalem.
The footprints of the SADAT International Defense Consultancy company have also been detected in the West Bank in recent years. SADAT, the only private military company permitted to organize in Turkey, was founded by Brig.-Gen. Adnan Tanriverdi, in 2012. Tanriverdi, who had been removed from the army because of his Islamist beliefs, served as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s military adviser from 2016-2019. Tanriverdi presided over the purge of Kemalist offices from the Turkish military after the “coup” attempt in 2016. SADAT was the agency that recruited, trained and financed Syrian Sunni Arab rebels into Turkish-supported formations from 2012. While organizationally very different, SADAT plays an analogous role to that performed by the IRGC’s Quds Force in the Iranian context.
Tanriverdi left his official position in 2019, but remains close to Erdogan and his administration.
In January 2018, the Israeli authorities arrested a Turkish citizen, law lecturer Cemil Tekeli, on suspicion of assisting in the transfer of money and materiel to Hamas. It became clear in his interrogation that Tekeli was linked to SADAT and was an associate of Tanriverdi. The Shin Bet investigation found that Tekeli and his associate, an Israeli-Arab, had been recruited by one Zaher Jabarin, a Hamas member resident in Turkey who reports directly to Saleh al-Arouri.
These glimpses, along with the more visible activities noted above, point to a deep and systematic project of support for Hamas by Turkey. The connection is a natural one.
Hamas is dependent on Iranian support for the maintenance of its Gaza fiefdom. The domestic rocket and missile-making knowhow that the movement utilizes in its periodic clashes with Israel is the product of the Iranian link. But this alliance is not entirely comfortable for Hamas. It is notable that when for a moment the Arab Spring appeared to be heralding the establishment of Sunni Islamist regimes in a number of Arab countries, Hamas rapidly quit its domicile in Damascus and sought to ally with this emergent trend. This turned out to be a mirage, and Hamas was forced to return to its former Iranian allies as a supplicant. But meanwhile, alongside this problematic partnership, Hamas appears to have built a far more comfortable and apparently no less extensive connection to its fellow Sunni Islamists in Ankara. As a result, Turkey is now the preferred location for Hamas’s propaganda gatherings. It is also, according to the available evidence, the site for the planning of the terror campaign in the West Bank, which the movement is currently energetically seeking to activate.

Vienna… Deadlock and Widening Opportunity
Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 11/2021
The consensus among the foreign ministers of the European troika taking part in the nuclear deal negotiations in Vienna (France, Britain and Germany) is that the second phase of the seventh round of negotiations, which resumed Thursday, is the last chance for Tehran to return to compliance with the nuclear deal.
Nonetheless, in the negotiating business, especially when such statements are made by diplomats, these warnings cannot be labeled as anything but a tactic to ramp up the pressure on the other side. In negotiations that are so consequential for international security and stability, no round can be considered the last chance, even if the statements were issued by the military leadership, as these types of negotiations often draw out, with delays and even procrastination common. Finding an opening that goes through the wall of negotiations may take a lot of time, even if losing this time is no longer in the interest of any of the parties. However, despite hinting at a dead end, US Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinkin’s latest interview with the Wall Street Journal, in which he used more acute rhetoric, asking Tehran to adopt a different approach in the negotiations and warning of a stalemate and that “the runway is short,” also included criticism of his country’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal. He also sent Tehran an important message when he said that US officials continue to believe that “the best way, the most effective way, to resolve the nuclear challenge posed by Iran is through diplomacy and through a return to mutual compliance with the so-called JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal.”
Despite the United States’ laxity, Tehran has not found its way back to mutual compliance. In the previous round, the gap between the main sides (Tehran and Washington) was huge. The former wants Washington to immediately lift the sanctions that the Trump administration had imposed in 2018. As for the latter, it wants Tehran to return to compliance with the 2015 deal. However, both sides are clinging to the hindrances preventing these steps from being taken. The way Washington sees it, the Biden administration cannot lift all sanctions before putting the decision to Congress, and that takes time Tehran cannot tolerate. As for Tehran, it is not ready to return to compliance unless it receives legal and international assurances that the US administration will not pull out of the deal. Thus, it seems that Tehran is in a negotiating position in which it is searching for guarantees that maintain the agreement and mechanisms that ensure sanctions are lifted all at once. So far, though, it has not found out how to ensure that it gets what it wants, and it has not given the other side the concessions needed to convince it to grant it those guarantees.
The predicament facing the Iranian delegation returning to Vienna is that it left its country as the national currency dropped 6 percent in value following the failure of the first phase of the seventh round of negotiations. Also, Tehran’s regional or international options are currently closed off. The changed regional circumstances begin with the battle in Marib, as the legitimate Yemeni government has succeeded in going from defense to attack, leaving Iran without the outcomes it had been counting on in Marib, which has left it losing a card it could have played to apply pressure and defend its regional influence.
It is also facing the threat of the situation in Iraq slipping totally out of its control, with the threat of intra-Shiite conflict ever-present since Iran’s Iraqi subordinates lost the latest Iraqi parliamentary elections. As for Lebanon, which is usually used to apply pressure in two directions: The first is stability in the Mediterranean basin, and the second is Lebanon’s borders with the Israeli entity, where domestic Lebanese circumstances have turned Hezbollah into a disruptive force that cannot be used to apply pressure on the other negotiators.
Regarding Syria, agreements with Moscow have limited its impact on the negotiations in Vienna. Though the negotiations are on the nuclear issue, that means Tehran cannot swap its regional influence for concessions.

The Iran Nuclear Deal: Biden Administration's Fatal Mistakes
Majid Rafizadeh/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 11/2021
[T]he Biden administration's objective is not to halt Iran's deeply flawed nuclear program permanently -- the biggest flaw being that in a few years Iran is permitted in its "sunset period" to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes -- but just to limit Iran's program for a period of time while removing the sanctions that hurt it economically.
The Biden administration has suggested a new sunset period of 25 years -- assuming the Iranian regime does not lower it to 10 or 5 years. This will allow the Islamic Republic to resume enriching uranium at any level they desire, spin as many advanced centrifuges as they want, make its reactors fully operational, build new heavy water reactors, produce as much fuel as they desire for the reactors, and maintain higher uranium enrichment capability with no restriction after the period of the agreement.
All that is really needed is for Iran to stop enriching uranium. Totally. No enriched uranium, no nukes. But the realistic chances of Iran complying with anything even resembling that are less than zero.
[T]he Biden administration is also planning to lift the remaining sanctions against Iran's regime on the first day of agreement -- before Iran has even complied with anything. Washington will then have no actual leverage against the regime.
This is the same dangerous mistake that the Obama administration made.... All four rounds of UN sanctions that were putting pressure on Iran -- which had taken decades and a significant amount of political capital to put in place -- were lifted on day one.
Finally, the Biden administration has not so much as mentioned curbing Iran's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program. A report by Iran's... Afkar News... stated: "The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe."
Why would the Biden administration want to propose a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime that will only empower and embolden the malign actions of the ruling mullahs?
The Biden administration, in an attempt to revive the nuclear deal, is continuing to forge ahead by negotiating with the government of Ebrahim Raisi (pictured), known -- for his crimes against humanity and his involvement in a massacre of nearly 30,000 political prisoners -- as the "Butcher of Tehran."
The Biden administration, in an attempt to revive the nuclear deal, is continuing to forge ahead by negotiating with the government of Ebrahim Raisi, known -- for his crimes against humanity and his involvement in a massacre of nearly 30,000 political prisoners -- as the "Butcher of Tehran."
First of all, the Biden administration's objective is not to halt Iran's deeply flawed nuclear program permanently -- the biggest flaw being that in a few years, Iran is permitted in its "sunset period" to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes -- but just to limit Iran's program for a period of time while removing the sanctions that hurt it economically.
The Biden administration has suggested a new sunset period of 25 years -- assuming the Iranian regime does not lower it to 10 or 5 years. This will allow the Islamic Republic to resume enriching uranium at any level they desire, spin as many advanced centrifuges as they want, make its reactors fully operational, build new heavy water reactors, produce as much fuel as they desire for the reactors, and maintain higher uranium enrichment capability with no restriction after the period of the agreement. All that is really needed is for Iran to stop enriching uranium. Totally. No enriched uranium, no nukes. But the realistic chances of Iran complying with anything even resembling that are less than zero.
In short, the sunset period terms will most likely ensure that after the pause detailed in any agreement, Iran will be a nuclear state. It is also pretty safe to assume, from Iran's track record, that during any agreement, Iran will covertly violate the rules.
Technologically speaking, after Iran becomes a nuclear threshold state, it is just a matter of weeks to convert the materials into weapons grade material.
In addition, after having lifted some of the sanctions, the Biden administration is also planning to lift the remaining sanctions against Iran's regime on the first day of agreement -- before Iran has even complied with anything. Washington will then effectively have no actual leverage against the regime. Iran will immediately join the international community, increase its oil sales and trade, and the ruling clerics will ensure their hold on power, eliminating at least the economic danger that accompanies massive domestic unrest and threatens even further the mullahs' repressive hold on power.
This is the same dangerous mistake that the Obama administration made. In 2015, the Iranian regime received an extremely favorable deal from the "P5+1": China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus Germany. All four rounds of UN sanctions that were putting pressure on Iran -- which had taken decades and a significant amount of political capital to put in place -- were lifted on day one.
If all sanctions again are lifted immediately upon the revival of the nuclear deal, and Iran later decides to breach the terms of the nuclear deal, the West will no longer find a consensus in the UN Security Council to reimpose sanctions on Iran: China and Russia will vote no. This scenario already took place in 2020. When the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that Iran was violating all restrictions of the nuclear pact, the US could not get the backing of Russia and China, or even the consent of the EU3 (France, the UK and Germany), to reimpose sanctions on Iran.
Finally, the Biden administration has not so much as mentioned curbing Iran's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program. Iran's ICBM program is linked to the regime's nuclear program. A report by Iran's state-controlled Afkar News, with the headline "American soil is now within the range of Iranian bombs," stated:
"The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe."
The report also boasted about the damage the Iranian regime could inflict on the US:
"By sending a military satellite into space, Iran now has shown that it can target all American territory; the Iranian parliament had previously warned that an electromagnetic nuclear attack on the United States would likely kill 90 percent of Americans."
The international community also witnessed how the Iranian regime expanded and launched more ballistic missiles after the 2015 nuclear deal despite the UN Security Council resolution that states:
"Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology, and that States shall take all necessary measures to prevent the transfer of technology or technical assistance to Iran related to such activities."
Why would the Biden administration want to propose a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime that will only empower and embolden the malign actions of the ruling mullahs?
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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Belligerence in Vienna could return to haunt Iran
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/The Arab Weekly/December 11/2021
Biden might not be able to hold back the percolating anger in Washington and allied capitals against Iran’s arrogance and destabilising behaviour.
To the rest of the world, the most recent round of nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna was the seventh since Joe Biden was elected US president last year. To the new Iranian government, however, it might as well have been the first as Tehran reset whatever agreements the previous delegation had already reached.
Since the last talks six months ago, Iran had installed a new government overseen by a hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi. The change was reflected in the Iranian approach to the talks. As chief Iranian negotiator Ali Baghiri put it: “Changes should be made to the form and content of negotiations.” It appears the new Iranian position has shifted from “moderate” to“radical,” and now looks closer to the thinking of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The talks are intended to reboot the 2015 agreement with world powers for Iran to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for removing sanctions. But the deal has been on life support since Donald Trump withdrew from the US in May 2018.
True to form, Tehran choreographed the latest discussions to fit its narrative of defiance. The first day of negotiations on Monday was chosen to “celebrate” the 11th anniversary of the “martyrdom” of scientist Majid Shahrayar, one of the founding fathers of the Iranian nuclear programme who was killed in a car bomb in Tehran. On the second day of talks, Iran announced “nuclear advances” at its Fordow facility.
Also true to form and as a matter of policy, Iran held talks with P4+1, that is representatives of the four permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, France, China and Russia, in addition to Germany. America’s Robert Malley, the representative of the fifth country in the P5 group, was instructed to sit alone in a separate room next to where nuclear talks were being held.
Khamenei has been carefully crafting an image that depicts America, rather than Iran, as an isolated country. Khamenei has also been experimenting with what he believes to be a plausible foreign policy: peel Europe away from the United States.
Next up were the Iranian demands. Whereas the previous government signalled its readiness for “mutual compliance,” Iran’s new rulers have parted ways with the old policy and gone as far as shooting down all variations of such settlement. On the second day in Vienna, Iranian officials made it public that they were neither interested in “mutual compliance” nor in “less for less,” the name given to the interim agreement, the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), the predecessor of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was signed in 2015 and endorsed at the UN Security Council in 2016 under Resolution 2231.
The new Iranian government did not come to Vienna to discuss any past deals, but to present its demand: the suspension of unilateral US sanctions on Iran. After Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, sanctions that had been suspended under the JCPOA were restored. But Trump went further and added dozens of sanctions of his own, mainly targeting Tehran’s money laundering and sponsorship of terrorism. Iran wants the suspension of all US sanctions that Trump imposed.
Technically, Trump’s terror-related sanctions did not violate the nuclear deal, but Tehran seems to feel powerful enough to force the US to humiliatingly roll back everything Trump. Biden has already said that America’s return to the nuclear deal does not include the suspension of any non-nuclear sanctions.
The new Iran team went even further. Tehran now says that it will not settle for a deal that was approved by the UN Security Council alone. Instead, the Iranian regime wants “guarantees” that, should the JCPOA be restored or replaced, America will not repeat its 2018 withdrawal.
In the US, cementing an international treaty requires Congressional approval, a tall order. Without legislation, no president can guarantee how his successors will handle any international promises. This is, after all, a democracy, where successive governments endorse different and at times contradictory policies.
Iran has come back to the nuclear talks with bigger demands than ever. Iranian pundits reasoned that Biden and his Democratic Party are suffering in the polls and that a breakthrough nuclear agreement with Iran would improve his position in next year’s midterm elections. But that might prove to be a misreading of the US political landscape. Humiliating Biden in nuclear talks further weakens him with Americans and proves that his policy of appeasing Tehran failed, necessitating a US escalation instead.
Khamenei might not be as maximalist as he now looks in Vienna. The Islamist regime has been known for its love of eleventh-hour deals. Iranian delegations think that playing on the edge is in their favour, that the closer Biden gets to his re-election time in November 2024, the better deal Tehran will get.
Tehran should not be so sure. Biden might not be able to hold back the percolating anger in Washington and allied capitals against Iran’s arrogance and destabilising behaviour, particularly towards Arab Gulf allies. The longer the nuclear talks drag on, the bigger the case for the last resort option: shine the B52s and fly them with bunker busters over Iranian nuclear facilities. As the famous Arab poem goes: "When you see the lion’s teeth, don’t assume that the lion is smiling." Iran should not confuse Washington’s patience with weakness.