English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 13/2020
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 12-13/2021
Bahrain condemns Beirut hosting press conference for ‘hostile personnel’
PM Mikati’s office confirms rejection of using Lebanon a platform to offend and insult the Kingdom of Bahrain,
Al-Rahi Warns Govt. 'Obstructors' May Later Seek to Block Elections
Aude Blasts Those Trying to Protect 'Criminals' in Port Blast Case
Four killed in shooting at Palestinian camp in Lebanon, Hamas says
Fayyad in Paris for Talks on Energy, Electricity, Water
Paris to Seek Cabinet Revival as FPM MP Slams Shiite Duo
Geagea Urges State to Explain What Happened in al-Bourj al-Shamali
Jumblatt says 'Hezbollah strongly responsible, one way or another, for what is happening'
On the Conditions of Some Lebanese Political Forces/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 12/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 12-13/2021
83 Dead in 'One of Largest' Tornado Outbreaks in U.S. History
Israeli PM Bennett to Make Historic Visit to UAE
Israel to Remove Security Detail for Netanyahu Family
Iran sees progress at nuclear talks, Britain says Vienna negotiations ‘last chance’
US House Committee Passes 'Stop Iranian Drones' Act
Israel, Morocco Celebrate One Year of Normalization
Abbas Wants Negotiations with Israel to Begin with Border Demarcation
Israel Forces Family to Demolish its House in Jerusalem
Turkish Lira Collapse Piles Misery on Northern Syria
IHCHR Report: 5 Million Orphaned Children in Iraq
Saudi Crown Prince’s Gulf Tour: A New Start for Cooperation
G7 Foreign Ministers’ Statement on Russia and Ukraine
Doubts grow over Libyan election as candidate list is withheld

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 12-13/2021
Is the Biden Administration at War with Israel?/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute./December 12, 2021
Erdogan hopes to salvage relations with the Gulf to save Turkey’s economy/Aykan Erdemir and Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Al Arabiya/December 12/2021
Joe Biden’s growing foreign policy quandary/Maria Maalouf/Arab News/December 13, 2021
Iran hard-liners want major concessions from the West/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 13, 2021
No one knows Putin’s endgame in Ukraine/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/December 13, 2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 12-13/2021
Bahrain condemns Beirut hosting press conference for ‘hostile personnel’
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/12 December ,2021
Bahrain’s foreign ministry has denounced Lebanon for hosting a press conference for individuals it described as “hostile personnel” on terror lists with the purpose of “broadcasting and promoting abusive and malicious allegations against the Kingdom of Bahrain.”“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its deep regret and denunciation that the Lebanese capital Beirut hosted a press conference for hostile personnel designated on supporting and sponsoring terrorism lists, with the purpose of broadcasting and promoting abusive and malicious allegations against the Kingdom of Bahrain,” the ministry said in a statement. Bahrain’s foreign ministry said it had submitted a “strong formal protest” to the Lebanese government regarding the recent move. The Ministry added that an official note verbale of protest was sent to the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States in this regard, containing the Kingdom of Bahrain's denunciation of this unfriendly step by the Lebanese side. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the Lebanese government to prevent such reprehensible practices that aim to offend the Kingdom of Bahrain, and are inconsistent with the most basic diplomatic norms and the brotherly relations between the two people,” the ministry added. In October, Bahrain asked the Lebanese ambassador to its kingdom to leave within the next 48 hours, against the background of a series of unacceptable and offensive statements and stances issued by Lebanese officials recently.

PM Mikati’s office confirms rejection of using Lebanon a platform to offend and insult the Kingdom of Bahrain,
NNA – Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s media office issued a statement this evening, in which it indicated that the Prime Minister was informed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Abdallah Bou Habib, of the content of the letter addressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which included an official objection against the holding of a press conference in Beirut in which offenses were made against the Kingdom. The statement indicated PM Mikati has urgently referred the letter to the concerned authorities, requesting an immediate investigation into what happened in order to prevent its recurrence, and to take the appropriate measures in accordance with the laws in force. “The Prime Minister strongly condemns any offense against the Kingdom of Bahrain, its leadership and people, and refuses to interfere in its internal affairs, and to insult it in any way,” the statement underscored. “His Excellency also affirms his refusal that Lebanon be used as a platform to offend and insult the Kingdom of Bahrain, just as he refuses to offend the brotherly Arab countries, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council countries,” the statement emphasized. The statement concluded by stressing PM Mikati’s “keenness on maintaining the strong historical relations between Lebanon and the Kingdom of Bahrain, and confirms that what links them is deeper than a mishap that does not express the opinion of the largest segment of the Lebanese people, who harbor all affinity, devotion and respect for Bahrain."

Al-Rahi Warns Govt. 'Obstructors' May Later Seek to Block Elections
Naharnet/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lashed out at “those who are using their political influence to obstruct Cabinet meetings and the course of the judicial investigation into the port blast disaster.”“We cannot accept a government that paralyzes itself. Are obstructors testing what the reactions would be should they later decided to block parliamentary and presidential elections?” al-Rahi wondered in his Sunday Mass sermon. “How can there be proper governance without a judiciary that is independent from politics and sectarianism?” the patriarch asked. He added: “We categorically reject the obstruction of Cabinet meetings contrary to the constitution… and for unpatriotic and suspicious objectives that are against the interest of the state and the people.”

Aude Blasts Those Trying to Protect 'Criminals' in Port Blast Case
Naharnet/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut Elias Aude on Sunday slammed the parties who are attempting to “conceal the truth and the criminals” in the Beirut port blast case, at a mass marking the 16th anniversary of the assassination of Gebran Tueni. “It is no longer acceptable for the government to remain paralyzed in its decisions and actions nor to remain subject to a political minority that acts as the ruling majority,” Aude quoted Tueni as saying prior to his assassination. “As if Gebran was speaking about what’s happening today,” he added. “Tueni said in 2005 that the unveiling of the truth would mean that criminals, whoever they may be and wherever they may be, would no longer enjoy protection, but we were surprised by many crimes, topped by the capital’s explosion, and we were not surprised by the attempt to conceal the truth and the criminals,” the Metropolitan went on to say. Lamenting that “we’ve become used to hearing about such issues because this approach has deepened in Lebanon,” Aude decried that “the absence of holding any culprit accountable has led us to this lawlessness and to insulting the judiciary and judges and evading justice.”

Four killed in shooting at Palestinian camp in Lebanon, Hamas says
Reuters/December 13, 2021
The shootings took place during the funeral of a Hamas supporter who was killed in an explosion on Friday night in the camp
GAZA: Four people were killed and others were injured in a shooting on Sunday in the Palestinian camp of Burj Al-Shemali in Lebanon, two officials of the Palestinian group Hamas told Reuters, and they blamed rival movement Fatah for the bloodshed. The shootings took place during the funeral of a Hamas supporter who was killed in an explosion on Friday night in the camp in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. “Fatah gunmen deliberately opened fire against people taking part in the funeral march,” one Hamas official said, asking not to be named. There was no immediate response from the office of the Palestinian ambassador in Lebanon to a Reuters request for comment about the Hamas allegation. Fatah controls the Palestinian Authority that exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian Authority officials in the West Bank, contacted for comment by Reuters, said they were checking the reports. Earlier on Sunday, Lebanese state media said two people were killed and seven were injured in a dispute that erupted in the Burj Al-Shemali camp. Hamas said in a statement on Saturday that the blast on Friday night was caused by an electrical fault.

Fayyad in Paris for Talks on Energy, Electricity, Water
Naharnet/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Energy Minister Walid Fayyad traveled Sunday to Paris on an official visit during which he will meet with top officials in the energy, electricity and water sectors, state-run National News Agency reported. “He will also meet with a number of officials at French electricity company EDF, the French Development Agency (AFD), which is funding several water and sewage projects, and the Total (Energies) firm, which is working on (offshore oil and gas) blocks 4 and 9,” NNA added. With the officials of TotalEnergies, Fayyad will discuss “the issue of the second round of licensing for oil and gas exploration in the Exclusive Economic Zone,” the agency said.

Paris to Seek Cabinet Revival as FPM MP Slams Shiite Duo
Naharnet/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
France is exerting efforts to resolve the obstacles that are preventing Cabinet from convening and French presidential envoy Pierre Duquesne is expected to arrive in Beirut in the coming hours, media reports said. MP Asaad Dergham of the Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc meanwhile told the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal that Duquesne’s visit comes as “continuation of the French initiative aimed at helping Lebanon overcome its crises,” hailing “the strenuous efforts that French President Emmanuel Macron is making in this regard.”As for the reasons that are still preventing Cabinet from convening, Dergham blamed that on “the Shiite duo’s unjustified obstinacy.”Asked about the standoff over Judge Tarek Bitar’s probe into the Beirut port blast, the lawmaker said: “The judge should issue his ruling, seeing as it is unacceptable to paralyze the country whenever the judge wants to carry out his missions.”“The biggest loser is the Lebanese people, because it seems that the duo has its own judicial, economic and social system,” Dergham lamented.

Geagea Urges State to Explain What Happened in al-Bourj al-Shamali
Naharnet/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Sunday called on the defense and interior ministries to explain the circumstances of Friday’s explosions at the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Bourj al-Shamali. “We want the official and complete account of events for the blast that went off Friday at the al-Bourj al-Shamali camp in the city of Tyre so that we react accordingly,” Geagea said in a tweet. The Palestinian Hamas group said Saturday that the explosions were caused by an electrical short-circuit in a storage area for oxygen bottles used to treat coronavirus patients. Later in the day however, a Lebanese security official told The Associated Press news agency that the explosion in the camp was clearly ammunition -- not oxygen bottles. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency had reported late Friday that arms stored for Hamas exploded Friday in the camp, killing and injuring a number of people. Hamas in a statement Saturday described the explosions as an "incident" adding that a fire in the camp caused limited damage. In a later statement, the group said that one of its members, Hamza Chahine, was killed. It called on its supporters to take part in his funeral on Sunday afternoon at a mosque in the camp. Hamas said the oxygen bottles and containers of detergents stored at the camp were to be distributed as part of its aid work in the camp.
"Hamas condemns the misleading media campaign and the spread of false news that accompanied the incident," the militant group said in its statement. It added that reports about the cause of the blast and the "deaths of dozens" are baseless. Immediately after the blasts, Lebanese troops deployed around the camp and briefly prevented people from entering or leaving. NNA said the state prosecutor in southern Lebanon has asked security agencies and arms experts to inspect the Hamas “arms storage” site inside the camp.

Jumblatt says 'Hezbollah strongly responsible, one way or another, for what is happening'
NNA/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Progressive Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, said Sunday that Hezbollah is greatly to blame, one way or the other, for what is happening in Lebanon. In an interview with the Saudi newspaper “Al-Bilad”, he said, "Hezbollah, or Iran in the end, directly and through Hezbollah and its allies at home, took Lebanon to a different position, which contradicts with the essence of its existence and its original concept…Unfortunately, Lebanon has become completely opposite to Arabism and outside its space, but this is the regional reality today and it will not last.”Commenting on the decisions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states, Jumblatt said that they are "rightful reactions to Lebanon's entry into a non-Arab axis,” adding, “Unfortunately, Lebanon was plunged through the ambiguous speeches and actions of some politicians who are loyal to Iran into a non-Arab axis, thus compulsively forcing the Arabs to impose the siege on Lebanon.”"There is a group that is loyal to Iran, but this group does not include all the Lebanese, for the majority is not affiliated to Iran, so I hope the Saudi Kingdom and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council would understand this situation,” Jumblatt underlined. At the governmental level, the PSP Chief stressed the “need to begin with reform according to the program and agenda set and supervised by international institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund, and the first step must be that the cabinet convenes." He expressed fear that the country would slip into the unknown, and that Lebanon would head towards further economic, political, social and daily-living deterioration; hence, Jumblatt reiterated the need to allow the cabinet to convene to tend to the many issues at stake.

On the Conditions of Some Lebanese Political Forces
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
If elections are held in Lebanon, a crisis of identity could burst into Lebanese political life, or what is left of it. However, even if those elections are not held, the outcome would likely not be very different. At least three political forces are facing this crisis: the Aounists, Harirists, and Berrists, or according to their party names: the Free Patriotic Movement, the Future Movement, and the Amal Movement.
These days, the members of these partisan environments, especially the first two, are likely pondering: who are we? It is also likely that they are doing so frequently, with a sense of urgency, and perhaps nervously.
For various reasons and until further notice, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Forces, and the Progressive Socialist Party will not face this kind of crisis. These three forces, to varying degrees, are firmly rooted in their doctrine. They have their challenges, but identity crises are not among them.
On the other hand, the first commonality between the Aounists, Harirists, and Berrists is that they are all products of political projects that have reached their maximum limits and ended up with less than minimal results: With the Aounists, their leader, the general, became president with a personal history of brimming with pain, exile and political bargaining, but also puffed-up promises. But at the end of the day, it came to be the most feeble and costly presidency in this country's modern history.
With the Harirists, a change of the scale of Rafic Hariri's assassination and the subsequent succession of his son Saad, who occupied the prime ministerial position on several occasions, ended up with a riddle: Will Saad run for elections or not? Will he continue to be a politician, or will he retire from politics? As for the Berrists, whose leader, Nabih Berri, succeeded in turning parliament into his fiefdom and consolidating his dominion over its speakership, they are looking for an heir while groaning under the weight of their inability to speak their mind and the difficulties making alliances and choosing enemies that are facing their movement.
Regardless of the individuals who have represented the three political projects and their weaknesses or shortcomings, it remains fitting to question the projects themselves and the role that the nature of these projects played in leaving them with such feeble representation.
Aounism shifted the Christian stance, or that of most Christians, on local, Arab, and international politics alike. Harirism did something similar to the Sunnis, or most of them. As for the Berrism, despite its alignments decided "in the final analysis," it remains indecisive: On the one hand, it inherited the many hesitations of its founder, Imam Musa al-Sadr. On the other hand, it has come to lose its confidence in the future, as its wait for the death of Hezbollah that never came has been long. Deadly despair is at its door.
Facing this Berrist indecisiveness that does not establish any dynamism or hold firmly decide on any direction, the superficiality of Aounist and Haririst shifts leave the former like a summer cloud and the latter an unfinished spring.
Aounism has not, at the core, adopted the idea of "resistance" and allying with the Assad regime and Khamenei's Iran, let alone the struggle against "imperialism and Zionism." As for the Sunni environment, which had rallied around Harirism and no longer saw in Nasser- or any other Nasser- its leader and in the Palestinian resistance- or any other resistance- its army, it continues to wonder what it has become, or the meaning of what it has come to be?
On the other hand, for well-established sectarian reasons, these two forces did not turn into representatives of a cross-sectarian bourgeoisie, nor was that prospect proposed in the first place. That also applies to Berrism, which now faces competition from Hezbollah over representing the Shiite bourgeoisie itself after the latter managed, more by crook than hook, to generate a new segment of that bourgeoisie and bring another to its side.
The most important point remains that when Aounism has no special relationship with "the West" and the head of its party is sanctioned by the US, it resembles Harirism when it has no special relationship ties it to "the Arabs." That is, the contemporary duo of Aoun and Hariri is the total opposite of that of Beshara El-Khoury and Riyad al-Solh, which has often been presented as requisite for Lebanese independence. As for Barrism, it has to ask for permission from its stronger sectarian sister before addressing any steely matters, domestic and foreign. Indeed, the extraordinary challenge that Hezbollah has come to present to the Lebanese formula as a whole exacerbates these shortcomings and brings them to the fore: nothing is left to the Aounists but the crumbs of authority and Hezbollah could surprise them with a war that nibbles on those crumbs. As for the Harrists, who lost out to Hezbollah, their only option is to court it in the hope that it will grant them similar crumbs. Meanwhile, the Berrists are constantly threatened with losing their ability to maintain the share of the crumbs left to them.
It is no coincidence then that every conversation about Hariri boils down to speculation about his money and temperament and that talk about Gebran Basil swings from the prospect of his rise to the presidency to that of his failure to win his parliamentary seat in the next elections. As for Amal, the fate of the movement as a whole hangs in the balance, while an array of obscure and cloudy projections on who will succeed Berri are being floated.
What alternative political landscape could emerge? Answering this question now is difficult, but it is nonetheless a luring question for at least one reason: finding out who will face the scorn of the Lebanese in the future!

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 12-13/2021
83 Dead in 'One of Largest' Tornado Outbreaks in U.S. History
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Rescuers were desperately searching for survivors early Sunday after dozens of devastating tornadoes tore through six U.S. states, leaving at least 83 people dead, dozens missing and towns in ruin. President Joe Biden called the wave of tornadoes, including one that travelled more than 200 miles, "one of the largest" storm outbreaks in American history. "It's a tragedy," a shaken Biden, who pledged support for the affected states, said in televised comments. "And we still don't know how many lives are lost and the full extent of the damage." Scores of search and rescue officials were helping stunned citizens across the U.S. heartland sift through the rubble of their homes and businesses overnight. More than 70 people are believed to have been killed in Kentucky alone, many of them workers at a candle factory, while at least six died in an Amazon warehouse in Illinois where they were on the night shift processing orders ahead of Christmas. "This event is the worst, most devastating, most deadly tornado event in Kentucky's history," said state governor Andy Beshear, adding he fears "we will have lost more than 100 people." "The devastation is unlike anything I have seen in my life, and I have trouble putting it into words," he told reporters. Beshear has declared a state of emergency. The tornado that smashed through Kentucky had rumbled along the ground for over 200 miles (320 kilometers), Beshear said, one of the longest on record. The longest a US tornado has ever tracked along the ground was a 219-mile storm in Missouri in 1925. It claimed 695 lives.
'Like a bomb'
The western Kentucky town of Mayfield was reduced to "matchsticks," its mayor Kathy O'Nan told CNN. The small town of 10,000 people was described as "ground zero" by officials, and appeared post-apocalyptic: city blocks leveled; historic homes and buildings beaten down to their slabs; tree trunks stripped of their branches; cars overturned in fields. Some Christmas decorations could still be seen by the side of the road. Beshear said there were 110 people working at the candle factory when the storm hit, causing the roof to collapse. Forty people have been rescued, but it would be "a miracle if anybody else is found alive," he said. CNN played a heart-rending plea posted on Facebook by a factory employee. "We are trapped, please, y'all, get us some help," a woman says, her voice quavering as a co-worker can be heard moaning in the background. "We are at the candle factory in Mayfield... Please, y'all. Pray for us."The woman, Kyanna Parsons-Perez, was rescued after being pinned under a water fountain. "It looks like a bomb has exploded," 31-year-old Mayfield resident Alex Goodman told AFP. David Norseworthy, a 69-year-old builder in Mayfield, said the storm blew off his roof and front porch while the family hid in a shelter. "We never had anything like that here," he told AFP. In one demonstration of the storms' power on Saturday, when winds derailed a 27-car train near Earlington, Kentucky, one car was blown 75 yards up a hill and another landed on a house. No one was hurt.
'Pretty much destroyed
Reports put the total number of tornadoes across the region at around 30. At least 13 people were killed in other storm-hit states, including at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, bringing the total toll to 83. In Arkansas, at least one person died when a tornado "pretty much destroyed" a nursing home in Monette, a county official said. Another person died elsewhere in the state. Four people died in Tennessee, while one died in Missouri. Tornadoes also touched down in Mississippi. Biden said he planned to travel to the affected areas. He said that while the impact of climate change on these particular storms was not yet clear, "we all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming, everything." More than half a million homes in several states were left without power, according to PowerOutage.com.
Amazon workers trapped -
One of the tornadoes hit the Amazon warehouse in the southern Illinois city of Edwardsville, with around 100 workers believed to have been trapped inside. "We identified 45 personnel who made it out of the building safely, one who had to be airlifted to a regional hospital for treatment, and six fatalities," Edwardsville fire chief James Whiteford told reporters. But he said the operation had turned from rescue to focus "only on recovery," fueling fears the toll could yet rise. Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said he was "heartbroken" at the deaths, tweeting: "Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and loved ones."

Israeli PM Bennett to Make Historic Visit to UAE
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Israel's Naftali Bennett heads to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, his office said, in the first official visit by a premier of Israel since they established diplomatic ties last year. Bennett on Monday meets Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan to discuss "deepening the ties between Israel and the UAE, especially economic and regional issues," Bennett's office said. "This is the first official visit by an Israeli prime minister to the UAE," it added in a statement. The UAE last year became the third majority Arab nation to establish full diplomatic with Israel, after its neighbors Egypt and Jordan.  Bahrain and Morocco then followed as part of a series of deals brokered by former U.S. president Donald Trump. Sudan also agreed to normalize ties with Israel under the pacts known as the Abraham Accords, but full relations have not yet materialized. The Abraham Accords were negotiated by Bennett's predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the deals would offer Israel new regional allies against its arch foe Iran and bolster its diplomatic efforts to stop the Islamic republic from acquiring nuclear weapons. Bennett's visit comes as Iran and world powers have resumed negotiations on the frayed 2015 nuclear deal that offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Iran says its nuclear program is civilian in nature.
Iran 'nuclear blackmail'
Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal in 2018 and stepped up sanctions against Iran. Talks in Vienna now aim to bring the United States back into the deal and return Iran to full compliance with its commitments. Bennett has called for the Vienna talks to be halted, accusing Tehran of "nuclear blackmail" and charging that it will use any revenue from sanctions relief to bolster a military arsenal that can harm Israel. UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al-Nahyan visited Iran earlier this month. The trip was the first of its kind since relations between the two countries were downgraded in 2016. Since the Abraham Accords were signed, Israel and UAE have inked a series of deals on economic and trade cooperation. In November, Israeli weapons maker Elbit Systems launched a new venture in the UAE, after Emirati and Israeli air force commanders visited each other's nations. The Abraham Accords were strongly condemned by the Palestinians as they broke with decades of Arab League consensus against recognizing Israel until it signed a peace establishing a Palestinian state with a capital in east Jerusalem. While Bennett is the first Israel prime minister to visit UAE, his Foreign Minister Yair Lapid made a landmark visit there in June, opening an embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate in Dubai, while the UAE established an embassy in Tel Aviv.

Israel to Remove Security Detail for Netanyahu Family
Associated Press/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
An Israeli parliamentary committee voted Sunday to stop providing personal security for former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife and adult sons, six months after the longtime leader was ousted from power.
The decision, which goes into effect Monday, came despite pleas from Netanyahu that his family is regularly subjected to threats on their lives. Netanyahu was unseated from the prime minister's office in June after a constellation of political parties united in their opposition to him succeeded in forming a government without his long-ruling Likud party. The one-time leader, who served as prime minister for 12 consecutive years, is now the opposition leader and continues to have a state-issued security detail. Under standard procedures, security and a chauffeured vehicle are granted to the family of a former prime minister for the first six months after he leaves office. But in January, at Netanyahu's insistence, that limit was extended by a ministerial committee to one year. On Sunday, the same ministerial committee adopted a recommendation from the Shin Bet security service to reduce the period back to six months. It said there were no imminent threats to Netanyahu's wife or children. Netanyahu's sons Yair and Avner, and wife Sara, will lose their security detail on Monday. "When the Shin Bet, Israel Police, and the Mossad say that there is no threat to the Netanyahu family, the decision is easy," Public Security Minister Omer Barlev tweeted following the vote. "I am counting on the Shin Bet and police that if there is such a threat, it will be uncovered and dealt with."Netanyahu criticized the anticipated decision as political in a Facebook video released Friday, saying there were regular threats made against the lives of his family and that "the writing is on the wall." He called on members of the committee, which included security officials, not to "abandon the security of my wife and children."

Iran sees progress at nuclear talks, Britain says Vienna negotiations ‘last chance’
AFP/13 December ,2021
Iran's chief negotiator on Sunday reported progress on an agenda for talks with global powers over its nuclear program, as Britain said the Vienna negotiations were Tehran's “last chance”.
Talks restarted on Thursday to try to revive the 2015 deal between Iran and other nations, which the United States withdrew from under Donald Trump in 2018. US President Joe Biden has said he is ready to return to the agreement but US officials have accused Iran of backsliding on progress made at talks earlier this year and playing for time. Iranian officials maintain they are serious about committing to the talks. “The two parties are at the point of agreeing on the matters which should be on the agenda,” Tehran's chief negotiator Ali Bagheri told the official IRNA news agency.
“It's a positive and important evolution since, at the start, they weren't even in agreement on the issues to negotiate.” His comments came as the G7 said Sunday that time was running out for Iran to agree on a deal. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, from G7 host Britain, said the Vienna talks were the Islamic republic's “last chance to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution”. Her comments were the first time a signatory to the original deal has given an ultimatum for the talks. The 2015 agreement aimed to prevent Iran from developing an atomic bomb, a goal Tehran has always denied. The deal ensured sanctions relief in return for tight curbs on Iran's nuclear program, which was put under extensive UN monitoring. According to Bagheri, the new administration in power in Iran since June, led by ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi, has raised additional points to those negotiated by its reformist predecessors. Iran wants a lifting of all US sanctions imposed after Trump's withdrawal but Biden's administration has said it will only negotiate measures taken by Trump over the nuclear program, not steps imposed over other concerns such as human rights. Tehran has presented two texts at the talks, one on the sanctions and the other on its nuclear activity. “With the other parties we jointly recap (the points to discuss) in order that the differences can be resolved and the agenda established in a definitive framework,” Bagheri said.

US House Committee Passes 'Stop Iranian Drones' Act
Washington - Muath Alamri/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bipartisan bill that would ban the supply, sale, or transfer of military drones to or from Iran under US law. The bill promises to punish those who deal with the Iranian regime in the drones' program under the US Sanctions on conventional weapons.
The Stop Iranian Drones Act (SIDA) is supposed to be put before the House of Representatives for a vote before it is presented to the Senate and becomes an effective law for the US administration. In late November, the bill was introduced by a group of Republicans and Democrats, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks. The lawmakers behind the proposed legislation say it clarifies that US sanctions on Iran's conventional weapons program under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) include the supply, sale, or transfer to or from Iran of drones, which can be used in attacks against the US or its allies. Rep Meeks pointed out that the "deadly drones in the hands of the world's greatest exporter of terrorism, Iran, jeopardizes the security of the United States and regional peace." He asserted that the recent Iranian drone attacks on US troops, commercial shipping vessels, and against regional partners, along with the export of drone technology to conflict zones, pose a dire threat. The Democratic representative stressed that the bill sends a strong signal to the international community that support for the Iranian drone program will not be tolerated by the US government. In October, the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Iranian members working within a network of companies and individuals who supported Iran's drone programs. The US Treasury Department issued sanctions against a pair of companies and a handful of individuals for supporting unmanned systems for the Revolutionary Guard Corps and its al-Qods Force. Among those sanctioned are Brig. Gen. Saeed Aghajani and top IRGC official Abdallah Mehrabi. The department said that IRGC-Quds Force provided "lethal support" to Tehran's drone program. It said they helped spread Iranian drones to "Hezbollah, Hamas, Kata'ib Hizballah, the Houthis, and to Ethiopia.""Iran's proliferation of UAVs across the region threatens international peace and stability. Iran and its proxy militants have used UAVs to attack US forces, our partners, and international shipping," added the department.
"The Treasury will continue to hold Iran accountable for its irresponsible and violent acts." Ranking Member Michael McCaul warned that Iran's UAV proliferation threatens the US and its allies throughout the Middle East. McCaul said that "these attacks are intolerable" whether Iran launches the attack, the Houthis, Iran-backed militia groups, or any other Iran-sponsored entities. "The people of the Middle East, including Americans living there, cannot live in freedom, stability, or prosperity under assault by Iran's drones," said Rep McCaul. The steps taken by the lawmakers come as the United States and Iran conduct their indirect negotiations in Vienna, aiming for a return to the 2015 nuclear deal. Republicans in the US Congress intensified their moves against the steps taken by the Biden administration towards Iran, demanding a more assertive and aggressive role in dealing with the Iranian regime.

Israel, Morocco Celebrate One Year of Normalization
Ramallah/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Israel and Morocco marked one year since the renewal of ties between the countries as part of the Abraham Accords, signed in December 2020, through a tripartite agreement with the US. The two embassies hosted a joint event at the Watergate Hotel alongside members of Congress, representatives of Jewish organizations. Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog said that “for Israel, and for me, this is not just another agreement in a series of Israeli-Arab agreements.” “This new chapter in our special relationship goes much deeper than aligned geopolitical interests.” He indicated that “together, we can advance our shared vision for a peaceful, thriving and stable region. I strongly believe that the relations between us, as well as the relations between Jews and Muslims at large, could make a significant contribution in this respect.” Moroccan Ambassador to the US Princess Lalla Joumala said that under the stewardship of King Mohammed VI, a bold step was taken a year ago to “re-establish diplomatic ties with Israel and open a new chapter in our bilateral relations.” She said that “this normalization between our two countries was the natural evolution of an already rich, multifaceted and longstanding relationship marked by the deep attachment of the kingdom to its Moroccan Jewish community.”Before the normalization agreement, Tel Aviv and Rabat did not have full relations, and the two sides had diplomatic offices instead of embassies. The two countries also reopened their respective liaison offices after Morocco halted ties with Israel at the outset of the Second Intifada in 2000. Morocco is home to the largest Jewish community in North Africa, with a population of 3,000. About 700,000 Jews of Moroccan origin live in Israel.

Abbas Wants Negotiations with Israel to Begin with Border Demarcation
Ramallah - Kifah Zboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suggested to the United States, Egypt, Jordan, and other parties that the negotiations with Israeli parties begin with “border demarcation,” a well-informed Palestinian source told Asharq Al-Awsat. The source added that President Abbas would present his suggestions to the Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, during their meeting next week in Ramallah. The president will inform Gantz that confidence-building measures and support for the Palestinian Authority (PA) are in no way a substitute for political negotiations, warning that he will resort to measures if the Israeli government does not engage in such talks. The Palestinian source confirmed that Abbas would inform Gantz that the plan he launched at the UN would be implemented if the current Israeli government insisted on following a path away from political negotiations. In September, Abbas launched an initiative during which he gave Israel has one year to withdraw from the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, threatening to withdraw recognition of Israel. The Central Council, the highest Palestinian legislative body, will discuss various options if it holds its upcoming meeting at the beginning of next month.
Abbas will meet Gantz next week, accompanied by the Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej. Frej said he believes that the meeting aims to strengthen the PA and calm tensions amid a wave of attacks. The meeting, which will be Gantz and Abbas’ second meeting, is also expected to address security and economic cooperation. In a meeting that aimed to break the deadlock in relations, Abbas first met with Gantz in late August at the presidential headquarters in the central West Bank. After the meeting, Israel authorized permits to work in Israel for an additional 15,000 Palestinian workers. It allowed the Palestinian territories to get 4G cellular service. It also agreed to grant tens of thousands of Palestinians the right to family reunification. But Gantz ignored requests to return the bodies of dozens of Palestinians held by Israel, stop storming Palestinian areas classified as A, work to stop settler violence in the West Bank, and reformulate the Paris Agreements regulating economic relations between the two parties. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that his government strongly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and that state-like entities do not succeed. Bennett also believes that no one in the region believes it is possible to go to a peace negotiation process. Sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that regional countries, along with the US administration, sent messages to Abbas stating that the current situation does not allow the launch of a political process due to the composition of the current Israeli government. As a result, Abbas decided to present an initiative based on launching negotiations or escalation. “I had a conversation this week with Gantz… and I believe in the coming days there will be an interesting meeting,” Frej told Channel 12 news. Asked if he meant another meeting between the defense minister and Abbas, Frej said the two may “meet again.” The meeting would likely deal with proposals for security and economic cooperation aimed at helping the PA govern in the West Bank and weakening the rival Hamas group. Abbas is trying to push a political solution forward, and for that, he visited Russia, Jordan, Qatar, and other countries. Abbas also requested meetings with Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. However, it was not clear if Lapid would respond to the Egyptian request to meet Abbas and join Gantz on his visit to Ramallah. Bennett has refused to meet with Abbas so far, considering that it is useless in the current circumstances.

Israel Forces Family to Demolish its House in Jerusalem
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Israeli occupation authorities forced a Palestinian family in the Silwan neighborhood to demolish the building where it lives to avoid paying unreasonable demolition fees to the Israeli municipality, WAFA news agency reported. The Nassar family, who live in the Wadi Qaddum neighborhood in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, were forced to demolish their building, which consists of three apartments, after being pressed to do so by the Israeli municipality under the pretext that it was built without a permit. Jawad Nassar, the owner of one of the apartments, said he, his brother, and his nephew had no option but to demolish the building themselves to avoid paying unreasonable demolition costs to the Israeli municipality in the event it carried out the demolition. He added that the family decided to stay in their land and live in a tent. “We will not leave the place no matter what happens,” he stressed.
Nassar is not the first Palestinian to be forced to demolish his house in Jerusalem on the pretext of building without a permit. Palestinians often build their homes without a permit because getting one is very difficult as the right-wing mayor and city council attempt to keep the city’s Palestinian population at a bare minimum while multiplying its Jewish residents by approving the construction of thousands of new housing units in Jewish settlements.

Turkish Lira Collapse Piles Misery on Northern Syria
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Mohammed al-Debek, a schoolteacher in northern Syria, is on strike: the currency devaluation in neighboring Turkey has slashed the value of his salary by two-thirds. His town of Al-Bab lies in a northern area of war-torn Syria that in recent years has turned into a de facto Turkish protectorate. Because the Turkish lira is now the main currency in the area, its recent nose-dive has heaped further pain on the people living there. "My salary in 2017 was worth 160 dollars, but today it is worth 50 dollars, a fraction of its value," the 33-year-old told AFP outside the washed-out yellow walls of his school. "It's barely enough to pay the rent." Ankara does not only have military control of the border region, but most of the products available on the markets and even the mobile phone operator are also Turkish. Areas of northern Syria run by Turkish-backed opposition groups switched to the lira as the main currency last year, replacing the massively devalued Syrian pound. The lira has lost 45 percent of its value against the dollar this year alone and Debek's purchasing power has plummeted, as has everybody else's in the region. "After the collapse of the lira, I was forced to look for a second job after school," AFP quoted him as saying. His new afternoon job in a bookshop earns him another $40 but that still leaves him short of the $200 he says he needs to make ends meet. Turkey directly administers several districts of northern Syria and, to seal its presence in the area, has invested heavily in education, health and other sectors. The region's economic fate is inextricably tied to Turkey's and the lira's sharp fall in recent weeks piled more misery on an enclave whose inhabitants are already scarred by war. A recent UN report on the humanitarian situation cited estimates that "97 percent of the population, even those that are in employment, are living in extreme poverty". Inflation is soaring just as fast as it is in neighboring Turkey, with basic food items such as bread selling at record prices and purchasing power at its lowest ever. And when the price of a bag of flatbread stops rising, locals say, the amount of bread inside goes down. mAhmed Abu Obeida, an official with the region's chamber of commerce who also owns a company importing food products from Turkey, acknowledged that consumption had slumped. "The demand for basic materials has decreased, and the citizens in general cannot afford basic things such as their daily needs in food, medicine and heating," he told AFP. Hanaa al-Yasbu, a 36-year-old woman who was widowed in an airstrike five years ago and has since been living in a camp for war-displaced people, is one of them. She usually earns around 20 Turkish lira a day by harvesting wheat and potatoes, enough to keep her five children warm and fed. With her daily income now worth just a dollar and a half, Hanaa has to venture into the countryside to find firewood. "I dream that I have about 50 lira a day to buy food for my children to feed them, so they do not sleep hungry," she said.

IHCHR Report: 5 Million Orphaned Children in Iraq
Baghdad - Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) released its recent report on the unfortunate situation in Iraq regarding the overall conditions of the population. The Commission announced that five million children are orphaned in Iraq, about five percent of the total orphans in the world. The report also indicated that there were one million child laborers, 45,000 children without identification documents, including children with ISIS-affiliated parents, and 4.5 million children whose families are below the poverty line. IHCHR received 5,000 domestic violence complaints, according to the report. IHCHR official Ali al-Bayati told Asharq Al-Awsat that the report based its number on various indicators from international and local organizations. The number of orphans was based on UNICEF figures. The rest of the indicators were based on the statistics of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and UN agencies or complaints received by the Commission. The Commission also recorded a poverty rate of 25 percent of the total population, including the Kurdistan Region, and an unemployment rate of nearly 14 percent. In addition, 596 civilians were killed as a result of the violence.
Since 2014, 8,000 persons have been reported missing in Iraq. The Commission indicated that the Iraqi authorities did not conduct the necessary investigations to reveal their fate or help their families. The Commission also reported the arrest of ten activists and journalists and received 900 complaints related to torture and ill-treatment in prisons without the authorities conducting an investigation. The country needs 3.5 million housing units to overcome its housing crisis and 8,000 schools to adequately address students' needs, and the overall dropout rate from learning institutions was 73 percent in 2021. In addition, there are about 4000 slums inhabited by about half a million families, most of which are concentrated in Baghdad. In 2021, 175 people died due to the COVID-19 hospital fires in Baghdad and Nasiriyah, the report added. There have also been 2,152 reported fatalities in traffic accidents during the same period, given the lack of developed roads across Iraq and the increasingly unplanned import of cars which significantly increased traffic accidents.

Saudi Crown Prince’s Gulf Tour: A New Start for Cooperation
Riyadh - Shahd al-Amro/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 12 December, 2021
Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, is gearing up to host the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) summit next Tuesday. The summit’s final communique will likely fall in line with the positions that were launched in the Gulf tour of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi Crown Prince's tour, which kickstarted in Muscat and ended in Kuwait, has worked to consolidate Gulf views regarding regional and international matters. It also reaffirmed Saudi keenness to preserve unity within the GCC and expand strategic partnerships. The final statements on the five stops of the tour confirmed the common points agreed upon by the leaders of the six countries to enhance the security and stability of the Gulf region, develop their economies, and achieve Gulf visions. For years, Saudi Arabia has been keen to establish and strengthen bilateral, regional councils in the Gulf region. This chiefly aimed to develop bilateral relations and raise the level of cooperation in all fields, according to regular and sustainable institutional work in the political, economic, security, military, investment, developmental and cultural fields. The five concluding statements on the Crown Prince’s tour emphasized the importance of the joint coordination councils with Saudi Arabia. Muscat had praised the Saudi-Omani Coordination Council for expanding the scope of bilateral relations and achieving integration in all fields to serve the interests of the two countries. It is noteworthy that the Saudi-Omani Coordination Council was established during Sultan Haitham bin Tariq’s visit to Saudi Arabia in July 2021. The sixth meeting of the Saudi-Qatari Coordination Council was co-chaired by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have signed several key agreements following talks held between King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the Saudi Crown Prince. The agreements were based on the outcomes of the second Saudi-Bahraini Coordination Council meeting.

G7 Foreign Ministers’ Statement on Russia and Ukraine
Statement from the Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union: We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union, are united in our condemnation of Russia’s military build-up and aggressive rhetoric towards Ukraine. We call on Russia to de-escalate, pursue diplomatic channels, and abide by its international commitments on transparency of military activities as President Biden did in his call with President Putin on 7 December. We reconfirm our support for the efforts of France and Germany in the Normandy Format to achieve full implementation of the Minsk Agreements in order to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Any use of force to change borders is strictly prohibited under international law. Russia should be in no doubt that further military aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and severe cost in response. We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of any sovereign state to determine its own future. We commend Ukraine’s posture of restraint.
We will intensify our cooperation on our common and comprehensive response.

Doubts grow over Libyan election as candidate list is withheld
The Arab Weekly./December 12, 2021
Significant delays could increase the risk of derailing the whole political process in Libya.
Libya's election commission on Saturday delayed publication of a final list of candidates for a presidential election scheduled in less than two weeks. It is just the latest twist in a UN-led effort targeting December 24 presidential polls intended to help the oil-rich North African country move past a decade of violence. Concerns emerged in recent weeks over escalation by the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated politicians against holding the ballot on time, after a Libyan court ruled that Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, a son of slain long time ruler Muammar Gadhafi, can compete in upcoming presidential elections.
Observers believe that the Muslim Brotherhood has been manoeuvring to postpone the votes for fear of losing its political clout, especially in the light of the decline of Islamists’ popularity in the North African country. Parliament member Saleh Fahima called on political actors to stop tampering with the elections, saying in a Facebook post, “When you confiscate the judgment of the majority and impede the realisation of their wishes in exercising their democratic right, that means that you have abandoned the peaceful expression of your opinion and entered the process of trying to subject the opinions of others to yours.”Fahima stressed that the elections are not a goal in themselves, but rather a means to reach political stability, adding, "Whoever accepts democracy as a way to rule and a way to reach power, must accept its results."This came a time when attitudes were seen as changing as to holding the presidential elections on time, with a radical shift in the position of Libya’s parliament, the House of Representatives (HoR). In fact, the HoR, which had earlier been pressing for the vote to be held on time, is now moving toward postponement. During a closed session on Tuesday, members reportedly discussed the developments of the electoral process.
The candidacies of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi and Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah have confused the calculations of the House of Representatives, which is close to Haftar, who is also running for the presidency. The process has been undermined by bitter divisions over the legal basis for the elections, their dates, and who should be allowed to run, with a string of controversial figures stepping forward. Analyst Jalel Harchaoui of the Global Initiative think-tank said the "inevitable" consequence of the latest procedural delay was the postponement of polling day. The first round of the presidential election "cannot take place on December 24 because the candidates have the right to two weeks of official campaigning after the publication of the definitive list," Harchaoui said. The election commission did not give a new date for issuing the list.Rules governing the ballot -which would be the first time a Libyan head of state is chosen by universal suffrage - say the commission should publish the list of candidates two weeks after final court rulings and appeals related to candidacies. On December 2 a Libyan court reinstated Seif al-Islam Gadhafi as a candidate. A day earlier, an appeals court in Tripoli rejected petitions against the candidacy of interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who heads the Tripoli-based unity government established in March and charged with leading the country to presidential and legislative elections. Another main contender is east-based Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
'Emerging challenges
The coordinator of the UN mission in Libya, Raisedon Zenenga, met with elections commission chief Emad al-Sayeh on Saturday to discuss the "current state and trajectory of the electoral process," the UN mission said. He commended the commission for the progress it had made on technical preparations but "stressed the importance of addressing emerging political and technical challenges that could disrupt progress". Libya descended into chaos with the NATO-backed 2011 revolt that overthrew and killed Gadhafi. A year of relative peace followed an October 2020 ceasefire between warring eastern and western camps, but analysts have warned that violence could easily flare again surrounding the elections. A statement on the election commission's website said it must still adopt a series of judicial and legal measures "before proceeding to the publication of the definitive list of candidates and the start of their electoral campaign". It added that the success of the electoral process cannot be borne solely by the elections commission "since the results will cast a shadow over the present and future of the country". The commission said it is being careful not to limit its role to implementing the law, but ensuring that its functions extend to "correct interpretation of the law." It is saying that it can't publish the list because it anticipates a judicial challenge that could shake the eligibility process, according to Harchaoui. While most Libyan and foreign figures involved in the process have continued to publicly call for the election to go ahead on schedule, politicians, analysts and diplomats all say in private that this would be very hard to achieve. Significant delays could increase the risk of derailing the wider peace process in Libya, though a disputed election conducted without clear agreement on rules or eligible candidates also poses immediate dangers to stability.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 12-13/2021
"Is the Biden Administration at War with Israel?"
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute./December 12, 2021
"The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]. If that is all they wanted, they could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah -- where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem." — Eugene Kontorovitch, professor, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia School of Law, Israel Hayom, December 5, 2021.
The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations states that "a consular post may be established in the territory of the receiving State only with that State's consent". In other words, reopening the consulate may be done only with the consent of the Israeli government.
All this cannot be dissociated from the general hostile attitude of the Biden administration towards Israel from the moment it came to power.
Earlier in March, an internal memo from the US State Department was leaked to The National, a daily newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The National reported that "The Biden administration memo recommends voicing US principles on achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace under a two-state solution framework 'based on the 1967 lines'".
The author of the memo is Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and Press and Public Diplomacy in the Biden administration, and also in charge of US negotiations with Israel and Palestinian organizations. It is hard to imagine that Amr was chosen as an "honest broker". Amr has a long history of anti-Israeli activities.
Amr also is the lead author of a report published by the Brookings Institution in December 2018 in which some proposals are made that could be regarded as disturbing. The report says that the United States must "reconnect" with Hamas, a fundamentalist terrorist group; seek "to create a Palestinian unity government integrating Hamas", and "compel Israel to make major concessions", even if it may "endanger Israel". The report never defines Hamas as a terrorist group, and never says that Hamas's goal is to destroy Israel. The report adds, "should Israel prove uncooperative with American efforts, the United States could signal it will move ahead anyway."
The behavior of the Biden administration towards Israel is all the more worrying in that at the same time, it places itself in a weak position regarding negotiations with Iran and seems ready to make a deal with the mullahs' regime at any price, in a resolution that has already been called "less for less", or, worse, "less for more".
An Israeli diplomatic service briefing recently announced the Biden administration is ready to accept a deal with Iran that includes only two elements: the removal of all international sanctions still imposed on Iran, and Iran's pledge to stop enriching uranium, which would mean that Iran's nuclear program would remain intact and that Iran's regional destabilization actions, including its threats against Israel, could continue.
Two days before the current negotiations began, chief Iranian Army spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said to the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) that Israel's annihilation is his country's "greatest ideal before us and the greatest goal we pursue."
Iran claims, truthfully or not, that it already has enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear warhead on short notice. On November 8, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, announced that Iran will only agree to sign a deal with the US if all sanctions are unconditionally lifted. "Either we agree on everything, or we agree on nothing," he said.
The US Biden Administration seems.... at a time finally of peace, deliberately acting to destabilize not only Israel's new coalition government but, more importantly, the entire region. The United States seems once again to be igniting, on the heels of its failure in Afghanistan, yet a second, unnecessary disruption, with all the carnage, global damage and pandemonium that will result. Those two historic upheavals will be the legacies of the Biden Administration. If Biden is looking for yet another disaster to notch on his belt, this is it.
"The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem." — Professor Eugene Kontorovitch, Antonin Scalia School of Law, George Mason University. According to Dore Gold, formerly both Israel's Ambassador to the UN and Foreign Ministry Director-General, "The opening of the consulate on Agron Road in the west of the city will not only undermine Israeli sovereignty in the capital, it will also result in a serious withdrawal from the status Israel achieved in West Jerusalem prior to 1967." Pictured: The former US Consulate on Agron Road in Jerusalem, Israel, photographed in 2009.
On May 2018, when the United States Embassy in Jerusalem was inaugurated on the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel's founding, the US consulate in Jerusalem became useless and quickly shut its gates. Now, in 2021, the current US Biden administration wants to reopen the consulate, "for the Palestinians", Arabs ruled by the Palestinian Authority.
Seeing this proposal as a threat to Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declined the request.
"A U.S. consulate in Jerusalem to a foreign body", wrote the noted attorney and former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and "clearly runs afoul of American law" because of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, passed overwhelmingly by both the U.S. House and Senate.
"With the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, there was no basis for a consulate to exist. The Jerusalem embassy provides consular services on a non-discriminatory basis to all Israelis and Palestinians — equal treatment for Jews, Christians and Muslims. The consulate thus became obsolete and a waste of taxpayer dollars. I know of no other country where the United States maintains an embassy and a consulate in the same city."
"The US Embassy in Jerusalem," asserts Eugene Kontorovitch, a professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia School of Law, "already provides consular services to the Palestinians."
"It is unheard of to have an independent consulate in the same city where a country has an embassy. The point of creating a separate consulate is to undermine former US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem... The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]. If that is all they wanted, they could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah -- where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem."
The consulate is not in the eastern part of the city, emphasized Dore Gold, formerly both Israel's Ambassador to the UN and Foreign Ministry Director-General. Reopening it would not only be signal "the desire to divide Jerusalem", he said, but constitute "an attempt to call into question Israel's sovereignty over the entire city". "The opening of the consulate on Agron Road in the west of the city will not only undermine Israeli sovereignty in the capital, it will also result in a serious withdrawal from the status Israel achieved in West Jerusalem prior to 1967." The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations states that "a consular post may be established in the territory of the receiving State only with that State's consent". In other words, reopening the consulate may be done only with the consent of the Israeli government.
Nevertheless, it seems that the Biden administration is considering taking lawless unilateral action once again, this time by placing a new sign on the consulate, and getting ready to trigger a diplomatic crisis between Israel and the United States. Aware that such a diktat could lead to a fall of the coalition government currently in power in Israel, the Biden administration is now trying to seduce the Israeli government by making offers to it. To suggest in exchange the creation of economic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, however, is ridiculous: economic ties already exist between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Talking about the introduction of limited visa exemptions to Israeli tourists is no better: to imagine that an Israeli government could consider calling into question of the sovereignty of Israel over its own capital in exchange for visa exemptions is, in fact, an insult.
It appears, however, that the Biden administration, whatever the consequences, does not intend to give up on its destabilizing project.
All this cannot be dissociated from the general hostile attitude of the Biden administration towards Israel from the moment it came to power.
As early as January 26, less than a week after Joe Biden was sworn in, acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Mills announced that the Biden administration supported "the Palestinian people's legitimate aspirations for a state of their own and to live with dignity and security".
On April 7, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken published a statement declaring that the United States will "restart U.S. economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people". He added:
"This includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacebuilding programs through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and $150 million in humanitarian assistance for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)".
The problem is that this US assistance will not go to the "Palestinian people", but to the Palestinian Authority -- which will doubtless use a significant portion of it to finance more terrorism. The PA still continues to finance terrorism, through a program often nicknamed "pay for slay". On May 10, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America published a text explaining that "By Renewing Palestinian Aid, America Is Funding Terrorism".
Part of the US aid money will go to Gaza, hence to Hamas, still officially designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department. Blinken, bizarrely, seems to see no contradiction between helping an entity governed by a terrorist organization and contributing to its purported "peacebuilding programs". UNWRA, despite effectively being an employment agency for Hamas terrorists, will thereby again receive US assistance. Many of its premises serve as arms depots for Hamas, but apparently that inconvenient fact has been set aside.
When, in May, the leaders of Hamas, apparently certain that there would be no American reaction, raised tensions in Jerusalem, incited riots on the Temple Mount, and launched a massive missile attack on Israel, the Biden administration for two days did not say a word. On May 13, answering a journalist, Biden simply said, "Israel has a right to defend itself". The next day, he added, "Palestinians -- including in Gaza -- and Israelis equally deserve to live in dignity, safety and security". He did not condemn Hamas, which, by firing on densely populated civilian areas, was committing a war crime; instead, he disingenuously put Hamas and Israel on an equal footing, with no distinction between the aggressor and the victim of that aggression.
On May 17, Biden asked Israel's Prime Minister not to "destabilize the region", as if it were Israel that had been guilty of initiating the violence and had no right to defend itself. Hamas and Biden both asked for a cease-fire; however, on May 20, as soon as one was in place, Biden, while quickly reaffirming that Israel did have a right to defend itself, immediately promised to "provide rapid humanitarian assistance and to marshal international support for the people of Gaza and the Gaza reconstruction efforts" -- without ever mentioning the damage suffered by Israel. Since then, the guideline followed by the Biden administration towards Israel appears not to have changed.
On October 22, when the Israeli government accurately designated six Palestinian NGOs affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as "accessories to a terrorist organization", US State Department Spokesman Ned Price immediately charged that the State Department had not been informed: "We are currently engaging our Israeli partners for more information regarding the basis for these designations. It is, to the best of our knowledge, accurate that we did not receive a specific heads-up about any forthcoming designations". The State Department, it turns out, had been informed. Not only had it received the necessary information, but the Israeli government had expressed its readiness to provide any missing information.
The State Department appeared to be trying to ignore that the six NGOs designated by the Israeli government as affiliated with the terrorist group, PFLP -- Addameer, Al Haq, Bisan Center, the Samidoun Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Network, Defense for Children International Palestine, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees -- had been engaging in suspicious activities, described in detail by NGO Monitor. Addameer, for instance, has been supporting Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for terrorism. Al Haq is defined by NGO monitor "a leader in anti-Israel lawfare" and "BDS campaigns". The Bisan Center aims to "enhance Palestinian's resilience" -- a word used by Palestinian organizations as a synonym for "resistance", a euphemism for killing Israelis -- for the Samidoun Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Network, which works to free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. Defense for Children International Palestine and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees raise funds internationally and use them to finance PFLP activities. If information was missing, the State Department could easily have requested it; instead, it chose to create a public incident.
On October 27, Israel approved the construction of 1,300 new housing units in settlements in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank (of the Jordan River). Price delivered an extremely harsh condemnation of Israel:
"We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution". The proposed housing units, however, are to be built inside of settlements that already exist.
What does seem "completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm" are the negative comments against Israel made by the Biden administration. Indeed, they have been leading to increasingly more violent remarks from the Palestinian leadership, who doubtless see themselves as newly empowered by the US. Prospects for a two-state solution always have been -- and still are -- totally absent from the speeches of Palestinian leaders. Israel has offered the Palestinians many chances for two-state solutions and for peace; they have always been always rebuffed outright, without even a counter-offer. Now, prospects for a two-state solution are also totally absent from Israel's new leaders. On September 24, in his prerecorded address to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 16th year of his four-year term, falsely accused Israel of "apartheid" and "ethnic cleansing". He added:
"Circumstances on the ground will inevitably impose equal and full political rights for all on the land of historical Palestine, within one state". The Biden administration keeps repeating that it wants a "two-state solution", but there are signs that it may want more. On November 9, the Biden administration did not reject a UN resolution called "Assistance to Palestine Refugees". Instead, it voted to abstain. The text, among other things, says that "Palestine refugees are entitled to their property and income derived from it." Almost all of the people designated by the UN as "Palestine refugees" have never owned property in Israel and are not real refugees: they were born outside Israel and have never set foot in Israel. On January 14, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote a tweet saying: "it's estimated <200,000 Arabs displaced in 1948 are still alive and most others are not refugees by any rational criteria".
The Biden administration, by abstaining, is therefore confirming a lie. "The resolution comes up every three years," wrote the journalist Yaakov Lappin. "The U.S. abstaining was a marked departure in policy -- all previous American administrations except the Obama administration have voted against this resolution." Earlier in March, an internal memo from the US State Department was leaked to The National, a daily newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. "The Biden administration memo recommends voicing US principles on achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace under a two-state solution framework 'based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps and agreements on security and refugees'".
The author of the memo is Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and Press and Public Diplomacy in the Biden administration, and also in charge of US negotiations with Israel and Palestinian organizations. It is hard to imagine that Amr was chosen as an "honest broker".
Amr has a long history of anti-Israeli activities. On January 31, 2002, he published in Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper an article in which he said that he was "inspired by the intifada." Four months later, on May 8, 2002, he published in the same newspaper an article describing Israel as "occupied Palestine", accusing the Israeli government of "ethnic cleansing" and defining Israel's supporters in the US of being "pro-ethnic-cleansing activists".
Amr also is the lead author of a report published by the Brookings Institution in December 2018 in which some proposals are made that could be regarded as disturbing. The report says that the United States must "reconnect" with Hamas, a fundamentalist terrorist group; seek "to create a Palestinian unity government integrating Hamas", and "compel Israel to make major concessions", even if it may "endanger Israel". The report never defines Hamas as a terrorist group, and never says that Hamas's goal is to destroy Israel. The report adds "should Israel prove uncooperative with American efforts, the United States could signal it will move ahead anyway." The report proposes allowing the Palestinians to develop a "greater portion of West Bank Area C under full Israeli control" -- meaning a decrease in the territories of Judea and Samaria under Israeli control without the agreed-upon negotiations to determine any outcome. The report also supports the idea that a territorial decrease and a net weakening of Israel are necessary to achieve peace. Everything the Biden administration does in Israel today seems to be drawn from that report, including the idea of reopening the U.S Consulate in Jerusalem "for the Palestinians".
The behavior of the Biden administration towards Israel is all the more worrying in that it places itself in a weak position with Iran regarding negotiations and seems ready to make a deal with the mullahs' regime at any price in a resolution that has already been called "less for less", or, worse, "less for more".
The Biden administration, by backing two openly genocidal enemies of Israel, Hamas and Iran, appears committed to destroying the only reliable democracy in the Middle East.
On February 19, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price announced that the United States was ready to "discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran's nuclear program". He did not mention the multiple violations by Iran's mullahs of the 2015 nuclear deal. Not one member of the Biden administration criticized Iran's support for Hamas when Hamas attacked Israel in May.
In June, Iran, well before resuming negotiations on November 29, chose to replace President Hassan Rouhani with Ebrahim Raisi, "the butcher of Tehran", reportedly a criminal and fanatic. Iranian diplomats are not meeting directly with American negotiators, and only want to speak to European diplomats who act as intermediaries. The Biden administration agreed to that humiliating position.
Iran's then Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif posted a tweet on April 2, 2021, stating the goal of the mullah's regime: "removal of all sanctions". "No Iran-US meeting. Unnecessary", he added dryly: the Biden administration's team are not even in the room.
Two days before the current negotiations began, chief Iranian Army spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said to the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) that Israel's annihilation is his country's "greatest ideal before us and the greatest goal we pursue."
An Israeli diplomatic service briefing recently announced that the Biden administration is ready to accept a deal with Iran that includes only two elements: the removal of all international sanctions still imposed on Iran, and Iran's pledge to stop enriching uranium, which would mean that Iran's nuclear program would remain intact and that Iran's regional destabilization actions, including its threats against Israel, could continue.
Iran claims, truthfully or not, that it already has enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear warhead on short notice. On November 8, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh declared that Iran will only agree to sign a deal with the US if all sanctions are unconditionally lifted. "We either agree with everything or disagree with nothing," he said.
On September 27, 2021, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that "Israel is ready to act alone if necessary". The Biden Administration seems, therefore, at a time finally of peace, deliberately acting to destabilize not only Israel's new coalition government but, more importantly, the entire region. The U.S. seems once again to be igniting, on the heels of its failure in Afghanistan, a second, unnecessary disruption, with all the carnage, global damage and pandemonium that will result. Sadly, it looks as if the legacy of the Biden Administration will be those two historic upheavals. If Biden is looking for yet another disaster to notch on his belt, this is it.
"Is the Biden administration at war with Israel?" asks Martin Sherman, founder and CEO of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
"Undermining the stability and safety of the only reliable democracy in the Middle East," wrote a physician, Dr. Shmuel Katz, "will... empower the enemies of good". Israel, according to the journalist Caroline Glick, is strong enough to defeat its enemies. But, she warns, "Israel's security establishment needs to wake up from its American delusion. America does not have Israel's back. Only Israel has Israel's back".
On September 30, Hamas, assuming that it now has the full support of the United States, organized a conference in Gaza City to "prepare the future administration of a Palestinian state", scheduled to take power after the destruction of Israel. The conference defined what would be the fate of the Jews who would survive the war . The Jewish soldiers still alive, those at the conference decided, would all be killed. Non-combatant Jews would be allowed to leave "Palestine", but educated and economically useful Jews would have to remain, enslaved, and become third-class "tolerated" residents, knows as dhimmis, so that their skills could be used for building the new Palestinian state. Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, repeated that "the full liberation of Palestine from the sea to the river" is "at the heart of Hamas's strategic vision."
Did the Biden Administration even notice?
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
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Erdogan hopes to salvage relations with the Gulf to save Turkey’s economy
Aykan Erdemir and Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Al Arabiya/December 12/2021
In a bid to shore up Turkey’s flailing economy and rescue its nosediving currency, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Doha on Monday in the hope that his Qatari allies can provide much-needed funds to help ease Turkey’s financial woes.
While in Doha, a financial bailout was not Erdogan’s only ask. According to news reports, the Turkish president hoped that his Qatari allies could arrange for him a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help repair ties with Saudi Arabia. The meeting between the two leaders did not happen, but Turkish officials hope it will take place soon. Erdogan said he plans to mend ties with his adversaries, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in addition to Egypt and Bahrain. Regional vendettas, especially Erdogan’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, have hurt Turkey’s foreign relations and trade. The Turkish president has also vocally attacked the Abraham Accords for peace between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain, despite Turkey itself maintaining ties with Israel and has been trying to increase its bilateral trade with Jerusalem.
Relations between Ankara and Riyadh suffered further in the aftermath of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in Istanbul in 2018. Turkish exports to the Saudi market, the region’s biggest, hit an all-time low this year. Ankara’s diplomatic spats with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have also reduced Saudi and Emirati foreign direct investment (FDI).
Turkey’s economy has come under unprecedented strain over the last few years, as Erdogan’s unorthodox policy of fighting inflation by lowering interest rates has wreaked havoc in the markets. Since 2018, Turkey’s central bank has burnt through some $140 billion of its reserves through back-door hard currency sales in an attempt to maintain the lira’s value. By doing so, the bank depleted its foreign currency reserves and eroded its ability to continue such a policy. This week, the lira fell to an all-time low of 14 to the dollar, losing nearly half of its value this year alone.
Erdogan was late to respond to Turkey’s diplomatic and economic problems and probably reasoned that with Qatar alone, another one of the oil-rich Gulf emirates, his unorthodox economic views could work, and that he could get away with his “zero friends” policy. But Erdogan was proven wrong.
Qatar is rich but too small to bail Turkey out on its own. Cutting interest rates on the Turkish lira and pumping liquidity into the markets to boost growth prompted local and global investors to dump the lira, causing its depreciation and double-digit inflation.
Erdogan might have hoped that cutting interest rates would cause limited devaluation, but the lira continues to be in freefall. This economic reality has forced the Turkish president to rethink his foreign and security policies, especially in the run up to a challenging presidential and parliamentary election in 2023. Erdogan’s popularity, moreover, has hit an all-time low this year. Having lost his strangle hold on Istanbul to the opposition in the 2019 municipal elections, Erdogan wants to avoid a repeat of that embarrassing defeat.
The Turkish president has made some progress toward patching things up with former enemies. Last month, he received the UAE’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in Ankara, and is scheduled to visit Abu Dhabi in February. He hopes to take the next step by meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But should Gulf countries turn a new page and throw the Turkish president a lifeline?
Perhaps Saudi Arabia and the UAE are better advised to wait until the 2023 elections. Following an increasingly likely opposition victory, Gulf countries can then help restore Turkey’s economy as Ankara reorients back to where it once stood: an integral part of NATO and a steadfast ally of the West.
The more Turkey distances itself away from Islamic extremism, the more America, its Gulf allies, and Israel will invest in the Turkish economy and work on restoring its trade ties and once-cordial diplomatic relations. Erdogan, reneged on past pledges of “strengthening relations with all Gulf countries.”
There is no guarantee that he will correct his course or not go back to his notorious policies once the Gulf has bailed him out in the run up to his make-or-break elections.

Joe Biden’s growing foreign policy quandary
Maria Maalouf/Arab News/December 13, 2021
As US President Joe Biden nears 11 months in the White House, two views have emerged of his administration’s foreign policy.
The first emphasizes his vision to draw the attention of the world to the new challenges facing humankind, such as cybersecurity and the protection of the environment. The second is to bring an end to many of the old problems he inherited from his predecessors, such as the conflict in Syria, the dispute between Russia and Ukraine, and other regional disputes.
According to the many statements issued by members of Biden’s foreign policy team, the focus on these two tracks of diplomacy will help America formulate foreign policies that can help it stand up to the growing power of China, which is undermining US influence all over the world. So far, Biden has not been able to deliver on the foreign policy tasks that he defined as being the priority.
As Politico magazine stated last week: “The new president’s team has doggedly tried to push forth with its agenda: Biden has made a pair of trips to Europe to strengthen ties with allies and pledge cooperation to combat climate change. On Monday, the White House announced a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Olympics as a protest to human rights abuses in China. And the president on Thursday launches a two-day Summit for Democracy meant to rally free nations, which has already drawn the ire of Beijing.”
There are many mistakes the Biden administration has made that have hampered its chances of foreign policy successes.
First, Biden introduced his two foreign policy goals as being conflicting. Instead, he should have established a link between them. For instance, if he is interested in raising global awareness about the safeguarding of the environment, he should do so alongside China. The exclusion of the most populous nation in the world throws doubts on efforts to protect the environment, since China emits more carbon dioxide than any other country on the planet.
Biden sounds as though he is incapable of solving the many old and new problems in world politics. For example, he has not been able to shake off accusations that he could have prevented the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan. And he has not persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin to end cyberattacks by Russian hackers.
Moreover, Biden gives the impression that he is not capable of dealing with Iran as far as its nuclear program is concerned. He has to conclude the ongoing negotiations with Tehran in a satisfactory way. Otherwise, nations around the world will perceive American foreign policy as being too hesitant to confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which could be harmful to the national security of many Arab countries, especially those in the Gulf. A good nuclear deal with Iran could boost the credibility of the Biden administration and help it overcome a thorny issue. This would allow it to devote more time and resources to target new US foreign policy goals.
On the environment, he must do more than gather up a few good suggestions. There is a need to motivate more countries to do more to tackle climate change. Currently, not enough nations are committed to protecting the environment.
There are many mistakes the Biden administration has made that have hampered its chances of foreign policy successes. There also has to be a candid admission that there are many problems that are difficult to resolve. The gravity of this theme should spur other nations not to back away from cooperation with the US in order to settle such matters. This approach to foreign policy can avoid aggravating these disputes.
Certainly, it is impossible for the US to solve the world’s problems alone. The Biden administration must realize that there are limitations on what it can accomplish with its foreign policy. Worldwide problems tend to last longer than a single US presidential administration.
Importantly, Biden should not demand that every country abide by its concept of democracy. Nations apply the principles of democracy in different ways according to their historical conditions and contemporary circumstances.
The Biden administration should work gradually and methodically to change the situations surrounding many of these old and new foreign policy dilemmas, whether by stopping the damage Hezbollah is doing to Lebanon and Syria or drafting regional and bilateral treaties that can make it obligatory for nations to thwart cyberattacks against other states.
Finally, the Biden administration must ensure there is an incentive for other countries to join America in its challenge to China. What can they gain from the standoff between Washington and Beijing?
Biden already has a very tough task in terms of US foreign policy. And if the Democrats lose their majority in the two houses of Congress in the legislative elections next November, Biden will probably not be able to pass any new laws related to America’s foreign policy challenges.
*Maria Maalouf is a Lebanese journalist, broadcaster, publisher, and writer. She holds an MA in Political Sociology from the University of Lyon. Twitter: @bilarakib

Iran hard-liners want major concessions from the West
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 13, 2021
The administration of former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was on the verge of reviving the nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, until Ebrahim Raisi came to power and altered the regime’s policy. Under the so-called moderate administration of Rouhani, six rounds of nuclear talks were concluded between Tehran and the P5+1: The UK, France, Russia, China, the US, plus Germany. Rouhani’s technocrat team members, including former foreign minister Javad Zarif, were experienced at reaching an agreement with the West; they knew the nuts and bolts of the nuclear deal as they spent all their political capital between 2013-2105 negotiating with the world powers, finally achieving the JCPOA.  If Rouhani had remained in power for another year, the Islamic Republic would probably have revived the 2015 nuclear deal and had sanctions against its establishment lifted. According to the European officials, almost 80 percent of the draft to reach a deal with Iran was completed in June 2021 under the Rouhani administration. But as a hard-liner, Raisi wants a new deal that will bring more concessions from the US and the EU3 (Germany, France and the UK). During Rouhani’s tenure, hard-liners repeatedly criticized his administration for failing to gain more concessions in the negotiations. As a result, Raisi’s government has proposed sweeping changes to the draft of the nuclear negotiations.
What concessions are the hard-liners, led by Raisi, really seeking?
First, Raisi’s team wants almost all the US sanctions against the Islamic Republic to be lifted in a verifiable manner, and Tehran to be compensated for the damages. However, many of those sanctions are not linked to Iran’s nuclear program and, instead, are related to the regime’s terrorist activities and human rights violations.In summary, to score a political victory for hard-liners, Raisi’s regime is seeking to obtain major and unprecedented concessions from the West. For example, the designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization is a critical issue for Tehran. The IRGC is responsible for maintaining the regime’s revolutionary ideals. These objectives are achieved domestically through several methods, including cracking down on and silencing opposition to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s rule; repression of dissidents; suppressing freedom of speech, press and assembly; and the imprisonment and torture of opponents through the revolutionary courts.
In addition, the IRGC’s hand can be seen in many conflicts, specifically through its elite branch the Quds Force. The IRGC can be regarded as the force behind many militia and terror groups in the region. In Syria, the IRGC and Quds Force have employed various acts of terror to keep Bashar Assad in power and to build permanent military bases. In Yemen, it is inconceivable that the Houthis could have developed the military capability and obtained the advanced weapons they possess without the help of the IRGC and the Quds Force. Several of the ballistic missiles that were fired at Saudi Arabia by the militia were reportedly designed by Iran. Second, the regime wants the negotiations to focus only on the lifting of sanctions for now. Once the curbs are lifted, the Islamic Republic is then ready to discuss what limits to accept on its nuclear program. But the problem with such a demand is that once the US removes sanctions against the theocratic establishment, Washington will lose any leverage it had for the next round of talks. Raisi’s regime also does not want to discuss Tehran’s ballistic missile program, a core pillar of its nuclear ambitions. Third, the Raisi administration is trying to get a full guarantee that no party to the deal will withdraw from the agreement in the future. But governments in the US, France, Germany and the UK change with elections and cannot give any guarantees to the Iranian regime on what the policy of the next leadership will be concerning the nuclear deal. Furthermore, what if the regime begins violating the agreement? There should be an option for other parties to pull out of the pact and reimpose sanctions.
Raisi’s administration is acting in such an uncompromising manner because it believes it has the upper hand in the negotiations due to the rapid advance of its nuclear program. The regime first began enriching uranium to 20 percent, then raised the level to 60 percent, edging it closer to weapons-grade levels.
Later, Tehran began producing enriched uranium metal. According to a joint statement by the UK, France and Germany, Iran “has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are key steps in the development of a nuclear weapon.”
In summary, to score a political victory for hard-liners, Raisi’s regime is seeking to obtain major and unprecedented concessions from the West.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

No one knows Putin’s endgame in Ukraine
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/December 13, 2021
A tug-of-war is in full swing between Russia and Ukraine on the one hand and the US and Russia on the other.
Russia has massed up to 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border, a large concentration that cannot easily be explained as a routine military movement. Russia may be doing this to dissuade NATO from putting pressure on it, or it may be planning a surprise attack changing several paradigms in Ukraine, or both. The conflict has several dimensions, but two are particularly important. One is NATO’s unwavering commitment to make Ukraine a member of the alliance. After having raised this issue on countless occasions, it may not be easy for NATO to step back now. If Ukraine joined NATO, it wouldconsiderably change the power balance in the Black Sea, which is the only sea in the world whose international status had been meticulously tied to strict rules by the Montreux Convention of 1936. The convention was negotiated on the assumption that the Soviet navy would remain indefinitely the largest in the Black Sea, and refers to “the strongest fleet in that sea at the date of the signature” of the convention. It is clear that the country referred to is the now defunct Soviet Union. Without opening a debate on whether Russia should be considered the successor of the entire Soviet Union, it is valid to ask how the criterion of the “strongest fleet” should be interpreted, and whether military installations in Crimea should be considered Russian or Ukrainian. If Ukraine joined NATO, the balance of naval force in the Black Sea would tilt toward the alliance. The second dimension of the current tension is the situation in the self-declared “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, which are inhabited predominantly by Russian-speaking Ukrainians. But the Ukrainian crisis has far reaching implications that go beyond Donetsk and Luhansk. This question was raised in the phone conversation last week between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s ultimate aim is not clear, but Ukraine has every reason to suspect the worst.
The White House and the Kremlin emphasized different issues from those talks. Washington fears Russianmilitary activities may be a prelude to an invasion, so Biden restated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and said that if Russia invaded Ukraine, the US would respond with devastating economic measures. Russia, meanwhile, tried to secure a firm guarantee that Ukraine would be excluded frommembership of NATO. NATO and Russia each accuse each other of being provocative, but the truth may be somewhere in the middle and tough negotiations may be needed to meet in the middle ground. One of the NATO’s success in its seven decades of existence is that its resolve has never been tested on the battlefield, so we do not know if its prestige would be bruised if it engaged in a full-blown military confrontation with Russia. It is worth remembering that the Soviet Union was dismembered partly as a result of NATO’s efforts in the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions meetings without firing a shot.
Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 was opposed by many countries, although none took military action to halt it. But if the same scenario were repeated in Donetsk and Luhansk, the reaction of the international community might be different. It might again not go as far as military action, but more countries could join economic sanctions against Russia. On the other hand, the UN Security Council cannot impose sanctions on Russia because of Moscow’s veto, so they would not be binding for the international community, and many countries would be reluctant to resort to sanctions because they would not wish to provoke Russia unnecessarily. Russia’s ultimate aim is not clear, but Ukraine has every reason to suspect the worst. NATO, in turn, complains of the unpredictability of what Russia may do in Ukraine. What the Soviet Union did in 1956 in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and more recently what the Russian Federation did in 2008 in two autonomous regions of Georgia–South Ossetia and Abkhazia and lastly in Crimea are not forgotten. So there is no shortage of examples of Russia’s resorting to faits accomplis, and it has the means to do so again. The question,therefore, is whether a full conflagration can be avoided before the worst comes to the worst.
• Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling AK Party.