English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 23/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.december23.21.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.
Saint John 08/25-30/:”They said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.’ They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.’ As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 22-23/2021
Corona - Ministry of Health: 1922 new cases, 15 deaths
Israel can strike Iran ‘tomorrow’, Hezbollah might hit back: New Air Force chief
U.N. Chief Warns Lebanon's Cabinet Paralysis May Dampen Support
Aoun Says Cabinet Boycott 'Unacceptable', Miqati Warns against 'Worsening Rift'
Defense Council Extends General Mobilization, to Act on Smuggling, Exchange Rate Apps
Jumblat Lauds Constitutional Council’s Ruling, Says FPM ‘Has Failed’
Berri Says Won’t Comment on Bassil Words ‘Whatever He Says’
Strong Lebanon MPs submit request to Berri to hold accountability session for government
FPM MP Questions Alliance with Hizbullah
Lebanon-Based U.S. Diplomat Held in Turkey for Selling 'Fake Passport'
Higher Defense Council extends general mobilization period in Lebanon
Pfizer pill becomes first US-authorized home COVID-19 treatment
Activist Claude A Hillar Hajjar's Letter To UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres
LIC Delegation Holds Crucial Meetings at the UN
UN Chief’s Lebanon visit was all talk and no action/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/December 22/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 22-23/2021
US Special Envoy for Iran warns of 'escalating crisis' if talks fail to revive Iran nuclear deal
US diplomat: Iran using nuclear expansion for more leverage won't work
US, Israel commit to ensuring Iran never gets nuclear weapon
Bennett, Sullivan meet to develop ‘common strategy’ on Iran, security
White House Adviser Seeks Common Iran Strategy with Israel
Bashagha jockeys for key role in new Libya transition after postponement of election
Libya Parliament Says 'Impossible' to Hold Presidential Vote

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 22-23/2021
Biden's Legacy: A Nuclear Iran/Biden's Legacy: A Nuclear Iran
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/December 22/2021
The Palestinian School of Terrorism/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/December 22/2021
Iran Looks East: Building Ties with China/James Phillips/The Heritage Foundation//December 22/2021
Recalibrating the Egyptian-Saudi relationship/Mohamed Abulfadl/The Arab Weekly/December 22/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 22-23/2021
Corona - Ministry of Health: 1922 new cases, 15 deaths
NNA/22 December ,2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced 1922 new coronavirus infection cases, which raises the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 705477. 15 deaths have been recorded.

Israel can strike Iran ‘tomorrow’, Hezbollah might hit back: New Air Force chief
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/22 December ,2021
Israel has the capability to carry out a successful strike on Iran’s nuclear sites as early as “tomorrow”, the incoming Air Force chief said on Wednesday. “Israel could successfully strike Iran's nuclear program tomorrow, if necessary,” said Major General Tomer Bar, who will command Israel’s air force in April, according to the Jerusalem Post. “I have to assume it will happen in my time, and my shoulders already understand the weight of the responsibility,” he added. He stressed that Israel can successfully destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities: “There is no way that we will operate there, one thousand kilometers from here, and I will return home without being able to say ‘I completed the mission.’”Currently, tensions are high over whether or not the Vienna talks to revive the abandoned 2015 Iran nuclear deal would succeed. The US has long been saying that if diplomacy failed with Iran, it was willing to turn to “plan B”, without specifying details. Meanwhile, Washington-ally Israel has grown impatient and has repeatedly announced it is preparing for a military strike on Iranian nuclear targets.
Hezbollah war
Bar believes that should Israel strike Iran, Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Shia militia Hezbollah will attack Tel Aviv. “I have to assume that he [Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah] will automatically be all in. Thirty years he has waited for this order and there is no way that he will not be there and with the highest intensity,” Bar said. “We have to be prepared for this.”Bar stressed that a potential third war with Lebanon would result in Israel’s victory. “Even Hezbollah... does not know how to imagine our power,” he said. “Maybe they will try to bring in special forces or shoot at the home front, but we are no longer on this scale. We want a clear victory this time, in a shorter time and with fewer losses.”

U.N. Chief Warns Lebanon's Cabinet Paralysis May Dampen Support
Associated Press/December 22, 2021
The U.N. chief has warned that the international community is unlikely to come forth with much-needed support for Lebanon amid its persistent government paralysis and as the country struggles through a "very dramatic" crisis. Antonio Guterres' remarks came at the end of his three-day visit during which he repeatedly urged Lebanon's political leadership to work together to resolve the economic and financial crisis. He also met with members of civil society groups and the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. The crisis has pushed more than three quarters of Lebanon's population of 6 million into poverty; the national currency is in perpetual collapse while the Lebanese blame the political leadership for years of corruption and mismanagement. Guterres said several initiatives were in the works to help Lebanon deal with the crisis, including holding an international conference, but that the government's paralysis bodes ill for international support. "The international community will probably ... not be responding as we need to respond if they see the country paralyzed and if they do not see a number of clear reforms in relation to the economic, social and the political life of the country, guaranteeing that the Lebanese institutions are putting the country on the right track," Guterres told reporters. Lebanon's Cabinet has not met since mid-October amid a disagreement over the course of a domestic probe into the massive August 2020 explosion in Beirut's port that killed over 200 and injured thousands. Powerful political groups accuse the judge leading the investigation of bias and demand he be removed.Prime Minister Najib Miqati insists the probe is in the hands of the judiciary and refuses to interfere. Miqati himself came to office after a deadlock that lasted over a year as politicians haggled over the distribution of power within the Cabinet. Lebanon's political system is based on a delicately balanced sectarian power-sharing agreement that often holds decision-making hostage to backroom deals. The current paralysis has also impacted negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a much needed recovery plan.
The international community has declined to offer help until Lebanon's government implements major reforms. Humanitarian aid has been dispersed to deal with worsening living conditions while the government struggles with empty coffers, dwindling foreign reserves and revenues, and an increasingly desperate population. Guterres called for an independent and impartial investigation into the port explosion, saying the people "deserve answers." Three U.N. staffers lost family members in the blast, including two children. Asked if he would call for an international probe, Guterres said that if an impartial and fully independent Lebanese investigation can not be guaranteed, then "I believe it would be important for the international community to act."Lebanon's government has previously dismissed an international probe, calling it a waste of resources and time.

Aoun Says Cabinet Boycott 'Unacceptable', Miqati Warns against 'Worsening Rift'
Naharnet/December 22, 2021
President Michel Aoun on Wednesday said the boycott of Cabinet sessions by Hizbullah and the Amal Movement is “unacceptable,” noting that any objections should be addressed through institutions. “Cabinet must convene and I’m not obliged to alone sign any resolution,” Aoun said at a Higher Defense Council meeting. “No signature can replace Cabinet amid the presence of a government enjoying full constitutional powers,” the President added. Prime Minister Najib Miqati for his part said that, “like the president,” he is “keen on Cabinet’s meetings,” but warned that “those in charge of this country are obliged to work on reconciling viewpoints instead of worsening the rift.” “There is fear that calling for a Cabinet session would lead to a rift which we must cooperate to avoid,” he added.“We’re all negatively affected by its failure to convene and we hope to be soon able to call for a meeting aimed at addressing the urgent issues,” Miqati went on to say.

Defense Council Extends General Mobilization, to Act on Smuggling, Exchange Rate Apps
Naharnet/December 22, 2021
The Higher Defense Council on Wednesday decided to extend the so-called Covid-19 state of general mobilization until March 31. The Council also asked military and security agencies to maintain full preparedness to “secure a safe holidays period.”It also took decisions related to smuggling through legal and illegal border crossings, the production and trade of drugs, the work of dollar exchange rate apps, and the monitoring of the prices of commodities.The meeting, which was held in Baabda, was preceded by bilateral talks between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

Jumblat Lauds Constitutional Council’s Ruling, Says FPM ‘Has Failed’
Naharnet/December 22, 2021
Head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblat lauded the Constitutional Council’s ruling, saying that it is a failure for the Free Patriotic Movement. "The FPM has failed, especially in its hope to restrict the voting of expatriates,” Jumblat said in a press interview. “This is the most important achievement,” he added. Jumblat praised the Constitutional Council’s judges, saying they were “independent and impartial, far from any pressure and political interference.”The Constitutional Council’s failed Tuesday to issue a ruling on an appeal filed by the FPM against the electoral law’s amendments. The amendments bring forward the date of the elections and suspend the introduction of six seats dedicated for expats.

Berri Says Won’t Comment on Bassil Words ‘Whatever He Says’
Naharnet/December 22, 2021
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he won’t comment on Jebran Bassil’s speech “whatever he says.”Berri told Nidaa al-Watan newspaper, in remarks published Wednesday, that the Constitutional Council decision was made, and that “we should abide by it.”Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil had lashed out, in a televised speech Tuesday, at Hizbullah and Amal Movement over the Constitutional Council’s failure to issue a ruling on an appeal filed by his bloc against the electoral law’s amendments. Bassil also claimed having received a phone call and a proposal prior to the Constitutional Council’s decision, asking the FPM to accept voting in parliament in favor of the formation of the Higher Council for the Trial of Presidents and Ministers, in return for the Constitutional Council accepting his bloc’s appeal. He said that he refused the “bargain.”“A clear political decision was led by the Shiite duo in the Constitutional Council, which will have political consequences,” Bassil decried.

Strong Lebanon MPs submit request to Berri to hold accountability session for government
NNA/December 22, 2021  
The Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc deputies submitted a request to the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, to hold an "accountability session for the government in accordance with Article 137 of the by-laws, for its refraining from meeting and not exercising its role in limiting the collapse and addressing the aggravating crises, which increases the suffering of citizens."The request was signed by Representatives: Gebran Bassil, Edgar Maalouf, Salim Khoury, Salim Aoun, Simon Abi Ramia, Mario Aoun, George Atallah, Farid Al-Boustani, Antoine Bano, and Cesar Abi Khalil.

FPM MP Questions Alliance with Hizbullah
Naharnet/December 22, 2021
Free Patriotic Movement MP Mario Aoun told the VDL (93.3) radio that his bloc did not expect the Constitutional Council’s ruling, considering it a “flop.” He added that his bloc has asked Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri for an urgent session to “debrief the government about many things including the Constitutional Council’s decision.”“The ruling placed the FPM alone against all the political forces in the country,” Aoun said. “The (electoral) law was approved by all political forces in 2017,” Aoun stated, claiming that what has happened comes from certain “hostile backgrounds against the FPM.”Aoun went on to say that “doubts may arise relating to the strategic alliance” between the FPM and Hizbullah. "Things can be resolved,” he added. “We are looking for understandings not for disagreements."

Lebanon-Based U.S. Diplomat Held in Turkey for Selling 'Fake Passport'
Associated Press/December 22, 2021
Turkish authorities have arrested an American diplomat working for the U.S. Consulate in Lebanon for allegedly providing a fake passport to a Syrian national, Turkey's state-run news agency reported on Wednesday.
The Anadolu Agency said the suspect, identified by his initials D.J.K., was detained at Istanbul Airport on Nov. 11, and was later formally arrested on suspicion of selling the forged passport to the Syrian national for $10,000.
Anadolu said the Syrian was detained for questioning after he attempted to travel to Germany on the false passport, which was in D.J.K.'s name. Police later determined through an examination of security camera footage, that D.J.K. gave him the passport at the airport and the two also exchanged clothes. Police also seized an envelope containing $10,000 from the diplomat, the report said.The American was jailed while the Syrian was released pending possible proceedings for falsifying documents, Anadolu reported. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara would not comment on the report. There was also no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

Higher Defense Council extends general mobilization period in Lebanon
Najia Houssari/Arab News/December 22, 2021
BEIRUT: Following a meeting chaired by President Michel Aoun on Wednesday, Lebanon’s Supreme Defense Council has decided to extend the current general mobilization period until the end of March 2022. It also announced measures to open the borders with Syria for vaccinated residents or those testing negative for COVID-19. The council asked all military and security services to “ensure security over the holidays, so the Lebanese can enjoy some stability despite the difficult circumstances.”It added: “We have taken security decisions related to smuggling operations at the legitimate and illegal crossings, as well as drug production and trafficking, exchange-rate platforms, and we will be monitoring consumer prices.”During the meeting, council members discussed “the Syrian authorities opening the borders for vaccinated Lebanese, or those with a negative PCR test,” and the council asked the Lebanese General Security to take similar measures in coordination with the Ministry of Health. The Secretary-General of the Supreme Defense Council Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Al-Asmar said the council had discussed the situation of the wheat silos at the Beirut port, which were severely damaged during the explosion on Aug. 4, 2020. He explained that the council had insisted on the need to expedite measures to prevent the silos from completely falling apart.
“The council requested the ministries of economy and public works and the council for development and reconstruction to address the issue,” he said. Statements by the Lebanese army commander Gen. Joseph Aoun published on Wednesday by the army’s National Defense Magazine revealed the difficult conditions the country’s military is facing. Gen. Aoun warned that “sedition is just around the corner, but we will nip it in the bud.”“Soldiers need to realize that they are facing a sacred mission; the civil war in 1975 was a bitter experience and we will not allow history to repeat itself. Never again shall we allow militias to take over nor will we live under the mercy of armed gangs and terrorism,” he stated.
Addressing his soldiers directly in the article, Aoun said: “In whose hands are we leaving our homeland? Chaos? Civil war? The sacrifices and efforts you are making have prevented Lebanon from collapsing, despite the many developments since October 2019. We faced protests, the pandemic, the Beirut port blast, and devastating economic conditions. But we managed to preserve civil peace thanks to the confidence of our people and the international community, and this encouraged many to help us.”The general also addressed reports about the number of soldiers deserting and others applying for resignation. “The rumors exaggerate the numbers,” he said. “Many soldiers who left have rejoined the army’s ranks after they discovered that the benefits provided by the army could not be found in any other job.”
He called on officers “to educate the soldiers so that they do not rush into making decisions they will regret.”Gen. Aoun touched on the repercussions of Lebanon’s financial collapse on the armed forces, saying: “The major concern has become transportation. I am well aware of all the pressures and challenges you are experiencing, including the protest movements, the fuel and medicine crises, raids, clashes and many others, and you have wisely and patiently taken on every one of these challenges. “I do not expect the economic crisis to end soon and we could be facing worse scenarios,” he added. “We are not the reason behind the crisis, nor are we the solution. We are simply doing our duty toward our homeland, and we will be present wherever we are needed. Our duty is to help the state find solutions by providing security and stability. We have overcome many difficulties in the past and we will overcome this crisis as well. We will weather this storm until it ends.”Gen. Aoun noted: “The army has bought buses and vans, and they will be in service soon, which will solve the problem of transportation for many soldiers.”He revealed that 68 percent of soldiers have received two vaccine doses so far, and stressed “the need to vaccinate the rest. Soldiers who refused to take the vaccine would have to cover their own medical costs should they contract COVID-19, he added. Gen. Aoun also commented on the rumors about “discrimination in the distribution of aid within the military institution,” calling on soldiers “not to pay any attention to such claims, for the army is for everyone and against all those who violate security.”The army has requested food aid from Arab and foreign armies.“Donors are facing legal and constitutional obstacles, but efforts are being exerted to find solutions to secure this aid for the army,” the general stressed.

Pfizer pill becomes first US-authorized home COVID-19 treatment
The Associated Press/22 December ,2021
US health regulators on Wednesday authorized the first pill against COVID-19, a Pfizer drug that Americans will be able to take at home to head off the worst effects of the virus. The long-awaited milestone comes as US cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all rising and health officials warn of a tsunami of new infections from the omicron variant that could overwhelm hospitals. The drug, Paxlovid, is a faster, cheaper way to treat early COVID-19 infections, though initial supplies will be extremely limited. All of the previously authorized drugs against the disease require an IV or an injection.
An antiviral pill from Merck also is expected to soon win authorization. But Pfizer's drug is all but certain to be the preferred option because of its mild side effects and superior effectiveness, including a nearly 90 percent reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.
For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page. “The efficacy is high, the side effects are low and it’s oral. It checks all the boxes,” said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic. “You’re looking at a 90 percent decreased risk of hospitalization and death in a high-risk group — that’s stunning.”The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's drug for adults and children ages 12 and older with a positive COVID-19 test and early symptoms who face the highest risks of hospitalization. That includes older people and those with conditions like obesity and heart disease. Children eligible for the drug must weigh at least 88 pounds (40 kilograms). The pills from both Pfizer and Merck are expected to be effective against omicron because they don’t target the spike protein where most of the variant’s worrisome mutations reside. Pfizer currently has 180,000 treatment courses available worldwide, with roughly 60,000 to 70,000 allocated to the US Federal health officials are expected to ration early shipments to the hardest hit parts of the country. Pfizer said the small supply is due to the manufacturing time — currently about nine months. The company says it can halve production time next year. The US government has agreed to purchase enough Paxlovid to treat 10 million people. Pfizer says it's on track to produce 80 million courses globally next year, under contracts with the UK, Australia and other nations. Health experts agree that vaccination remains the best way to protect against COVID-19. But with roughly 40 million American adults still unvaccinated, effective drugs will be critical to blunting the current and future waves of infection. The US is now reporting more than 140,000 new infections daily and federal officials warn that the omicron variant could send case counts soaring. Omicron has already whipped across the country to become the dominant strain, federal officials confirmed earlier this week. Against that backdrop, experts warn that Paxlovid's initial impact could be limited. For more than a year, biotech-engineered antibody drugs have been the go-to treatments for COVID-19. But they are expensive, hard to produce and require an injection or infusion, typically given at a hospital or clinic. Also, laboratory testing suggests the two leading antibody drugs used in the US aren't effective against omicron.
Pfizer’s pill comes with its own challenges.
Patients will need a positive COVID-19 test to get a prescription. And Paxlovid has only proven effective if given within five days of symptoms appearing. With testing supplies stretched, experts worry it may be unrealistic for patients to self-diagnose, get tested, see a physician and pick up a prescription within that narrow window. “If you go outside that window of time I fully expect the effectiveness of this drug is going to fall,” said Andrew Pekosz, a Johns Hopkins University virologist. The FDA based its decision on company results from a 2,250-patient trial that showed the pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89 percent when given to people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 within three days of symptoms. Less than 1 percent of patients taking the drug were hospitalized and none died at the end of the 30-day study period, compared with 6.5 percent of patients hospitalized in the group getting a dummy pill, which included nine deaths. Pfizer’s drug is part of a decades-old family of antiviral drugs known as protease inhibitors, which revolutionized the treatment of HIV and hepatitis C. The drugs block a key enzyme which viruses need to multiply in the human body. The US will pay about $500 for each course of Pfizer's treatment, which consists of three pills taken twice a day for five days. Two of the pills are Paxlovid and the third is a different antiviral that helps boost levels of the main drug in the body.

رسالة الناشطة كلود حجار للأمين العام للأمم المتحدة
Activist Claude A Hillar Hajjar's Letter To UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres
December 22/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/104969/%d8%b1%d8%b3%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%b4%d8%b7%d8%a9-%d9%83%d9%84%d9%88%d8%af-%d8%ad%d8%ac%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%84%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%85-%d9%84/
As a founding member of the UN, the Free people of Lebanon call on the President of the UN Security Council, Antonio Guterres, present here in Lebanon and on every member of the Security Council and URGE them to take immediate action to ensure the protection of the Lebanese people and the safety of Judge Bitar from Hezbollah Terrorist attacks and permanent DEATH THREATS.
Lebanon is under TOTAL IRANIAN OCCUPATION!!
Lebanon is UNDER ATTACK!!
Hezbollah, the Iranian Terrorist Org. & Drug Cartel in Lebanon, should be dismantled & disarmed under Chapter 7, Art. 43...48 of the UN Charter and Lebanon’s Permanent Neutrality should be then proclaimed and adopted!
It is then and only then, that Free and Fair Elections under the UN’s aegis can take root.
Since 2004, the UN Security Council failed to fully implement the UN Resolutions 1559 - 1680 - 1701... and that, have brought us to where we are today:
Lebanon under attack and the Lebanese held HOSTAGES for the last 21 years!!!!
Mr. Guterres, you never went beyond condemnation, nor did your predecessors. What are we supposed to do with it?
Are we supposed to count our deaths or our hostages, our wounded or homes in ruin again and again or wait for the next chemical explosion to pulverize this time Beirut Airport or other cities, like the port of Beirut and half of the capital?
Are we supposed to wait 16 more years to implement all the resolutions or to wait for the NATO to finish his Nuclear Deals with Iran, before you intervene??
Your duty, Mr. Guterres, is not to do politics but to make sure that all UN Security Council Resolutions regarding Lebanon are fully implemented.
Instead, you came to Lebanon, just like your French colleague Emmanuel Macron, to make sure that the Syrian/Iranian Puppet Government of Lebanon will keep it under control and “calm”,
nothing else!
Mr. Guterres, before the whole world and from now on, for not intervening, you and every member of the Security Council will be held accountable for every disaster, every more fallen victim in Lebanon.
Long live a Free, Neutral & Sovereign Lebanon
Yours Truly
Claude A Hillar Hajjar

LIC Delegation Holds Crucial Meetings at the UN
December 22, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: joanna@theresolute.group
Washington, D.C. - A delegation from the Lebanese Information Center (LIC) led by President Dr. Joseph Gebeily held a series of meetings with United Nations officials in New York just days ahead of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to Lebanon.
The LIC delegation, which included the head of the Office of United Nations Relations Mr. Augustus Sleiman, Dr. Melanie Raffoul, and Mr. Fadi Farhat, met with the office of the UN Secretariat-General, the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The LIC members also met with the missions of the United States and France, permanent members of the UN Security Council.
During its meetings, the delegation submitted a position paper on the situation in Lebanon, which stressed that the drastic deterioration of humanitarian conditions over the last year is the result of the irresponsible policies of the mafia-militia ruling class. It is imperative that a new authority is produced through parliamentary elections, and that UN members ensure these elections are free, fair, and truly representative of the will of the people.
The LIC delegation stressed the importance of implementing international resolutions pertaining to Lebanon, especially UNSCRs 1559, 1680 and 1701 - and to secure the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Lebanese nation. In this context, the delegation highlighted the threat posed by Hezbollah’s weapons to the Lebanese people and the wider region. In the last few months alone, Hezbollah has targeted the Lebanese state, its institutions, and its people by incapacitating the cabinet, intimidating judges, threatening political parties, and terrorizing entire cities.
Iran is continuing to send military materiel to their proxy militias in Lebanon. This malign interference violates Lebanon’s laws and international resolutions, and undermines Lebanon’s sovereignty and security – as well as regional peace and stability. The LIC delegation emphasized the need to fully control the Lebanese-Syrian border to prevent the smuggling of contraband, weapons, and illicit material. UNIFIL must be empowered in its operations in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah’s aggression hinders UNIFIL from fulfilling its mandate.
The LIC called on the friends of Lebanon to continue providing aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and to initiate the long-awaited salary assistance program for military personnel, who have continued to bravely perform their duties despite the devastating impact the devaluation of the nation’s currency had on their wages. Finally, the delegation stressed the need to support the work of the investigating judge in the Beirut port explosion and ensure that it continues without interference, obstruction, or threats.
Throughout the meetings, UN officials reiterated their commitment to the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Lebanon and the implementation of UNSCRs 1559 and 1701; as well as the need to dissolve all militias, extend the Lebanese State’s authority over the entire territory, control its border, and respect UNIFIL’s mission in southern Lebanon. The delegation also expressed their steady support to Lebanon’s people and its security institutions, primarily the LAF.
The UN diplomats blamed the inaction of Lebanese officials and their crisis of governance for aggravating the pain of Lebanon’s people. They stressed that those in charge must carry out long overdue structural reforms and protect the independence of the judiciary. They emphasized that humanitarian assistance alone is only a temporary fix that will not solve the crisis, and that a change in leadership may be necessary to pull Lebanon out of its predicament. In that respect, the UN is determined to see timely, free, fair, and transparent parliamentary elections in Lebanon, and is ready to provide the needed assistance to monitor the electoral process.
###
The Lebanese Information Center in the U.S. is the largest grassroots organization of Americans of Lebanese descent, committed to building a free, sovereign, and democratic Lebanon for the good of the Lebanese people and in the interest of the United States of America.

مكرم رباح: زيارة الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة للبنان كانت كلام بكلام ودون أفعال
UN Chief’s Lebanon visit was all talk and no action
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/December 22/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/104978/makram-rabah-un-chiefs-lebanon-visit-was-all-talk-and-no-action-%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%b1%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%ad-%d8%b2%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%a7/
For UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres his four-day trip to Lebanon was one last chance to save this small nation from its never-ending descent into chaos, but the conclusion of his Lebanese sojourn will have the opposite effect. As the head of the UN’s trip to Lebanon, many of his activities ended up as simple public relations stunts. They only empowered the ruling establishment who are responsible for the country’s abysmal predicament.
To add insult to injury, Guterres visited the site of the Beirut port explosion to honor its fallen victims but still called for unity between the Lebanese political leaders. He made it a point to meet with the heads of state and many others who stand accused of this terrible crime and the ongoing impeding investigation.
Guterres is not a novice in the affairs of the Lebanese political system. Through his previous position as the High Commissioner for Refugees he had visited Lebanon several times and was fully aware of that his recent calls for reform and solidarity fell on deaf ears.
While Guterres was making his imperial tour of Lebanon, blocking the busy rainy streets of Beirut in the process, the political elite were negotiating a new deal that would thwart the efforts of uncovering what the cause of the Beirut port blast was, and discover those responsible. This was a catastrophic incident that killed hundreds of innocent people and destroyed a city once the envy of many.
While the UN chief asked for timely and transparent parliamentary elections slated for next spring and empower the judiciary and the state to continue its investigation, the speaker of the parliament Nabih Berri along with President Michael Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil were trying to cut a deal. They were negotiating a proposition that included postponing the elections and foiling the intensive port investigation. The Aoun-Berri horse-trade dictated that both sides agreed to see the constitutional council revoke the parliament’s decision to allow expatriates voting rights for the entire 128 members. This would instead be limited to vote for six seats each representing one of the continents instead. In return the concerned parties would sanction the removal of the special investigator into the port blast Tarek Bitar. This would be accompanied by the removal of several senior members of the judiciary and security officials, along with the governor of the central bank.
The first demand to remove the special investigator is one that has led Hezbollah and its allies to boycott the Mikati cabinet until Bitar is removed. If this were to happen the fix would be in and the investigation’s conclusions would help draw attention away from the terrorist group as a guilty party involved in the blast.Yet at the same time neither Berri nor Hezbollah wanted to empower Gebran Bassil whose aspiration to become Lebanon’s next president is matched only by his unlimited corruption which earned him a designation on the US Treasury’s sanctions list.
Despite all of these talks the deal fell through as Prime Minister Najib Mikati refused to go along with this preposterous scheme. This was not because of its immorality but because it would have had dire repercussions for his own standing in the country, and in front of his main patron French President Emmanuel Macron.
As a result, the constitutional council refrained from issuing a decision on the matter claiming that it had failed to meet after its quorum was not met because those members answering to Amal and Hezbollah failed to show up. Given the wheeling-dealing Lebanese political culture and the elite that operate it, the head of the UN and his empty promises of reform and support for the people means nothing when its only to the ruling establishment’s benefit. The UN chief needs to practice what he preaches and stop being gullible. The worst perception of his role in Lebanon is one of a willing accomplice to the crimes being perpetuated against the people and refugees in the country. Guterres’s visit should have been properly spent reminding the world that Lebanon is a country under occupation by Hezbollah and supported by Iran and a political elite that will stop at nothing to stay in power.
Above all, ethically Guterres should have called out the same heads of the Lebanese state he met from what was a PR stunt. What remains of any semblance of Lebanon’s statehood is in the dirt, but little was expected from a person being paid to normalize the abnormal.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 22-23/2021
US Special Envoy for Iran warns of 'escalating crisis' if talks fail to revive Iran nuclear deal
US diplomat: Iran using nuclear expansion for more leverage won't work
Adam Pourahmadi/CNN/December 22, 2021
The time left to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is running out and raising the risk of an "escalating crisis," the United States Special Envoy for Iran, Rob Malley, told CNN's Becky Anderson on Tuesday.
"At some point in the not-so-distant future, we will have to conclude that the JCPOA is no more, and we'd have to negotiate a wholly new different deal, and of course we'd go through a period of escalating crisis," Malley, who is indirectly negotiating with Iran a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the agreement.On Friday, the seventh round of nuclear talks between Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA ended in Vienna with little visible movement toward a new agreement. It is unclear when talks might resume, but, Malley said, "we hope relatively soon."Malley also said Iran is nearing the capability to develop a nuclear weapon in the near future. "If they continue at their current pace, we have some weeks left but not much more than that, at which point, I think, the conclusion will be that there's no deal to be revived," he said. Iranian officials insist on the immediate removal of all sanctions before reversing any of its nuclear progress. The Biden administration is prepared to present a "sequence of steps" with Iran to return to nuclear compliance, but cannot bind a future US president to the deal. "We are prepared with a system where both sides will know who is going to do what, when, and we're prepared to negotiate that," Malley told Anderson. The Biden administration has sought a return to mutual compliance to the 2015 deal but is "preparing for a world in which there is no return" to the landmark agreement, a senior State Department official acknowledged earlier this month. US and European officials have expressed strong concerns that Iran has not made "serious" proposals to return to adherence to the deal, which deteriorated after the US abandoned the pact under President Donald Trump. "It seems very clear (Iran) is trying to build leverage by expanding their nuclear program and hoping to use that leverage to get a better deal," Malley said on "Connect the World." "It won't work," Malley said. 'If they try to build more leverage, No. 1 they will not get a better deal because what we say we're prepared to do is what was negotiated five years ago, (and) secondly their strategy is going to backfire if that is their approach," he added. European negotiators warned last week that the benefits of the 2015 nuclear deal will be lost in "weeks" rather than "months" after a pause in the Vienna nuclear talks was announced on Friday, representatives from Germany, France and Britain, known as the E3, said. The E3 called the pause in the seventh round of talks "disappointing" after Iran's chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani decided to return to Tehran for consultations. Bagheri Kani said that the talks would resume in a "few days," according to Iranian state media.
*CNN's Mostafa Salem and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

US, Israel commit to ensuring Iran never gets nuclear weapon
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/22 December ,2021
Top US and Israeli officials reiterated their commitment to ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon during a meeting on Wednesday. “The delegations discussed the need to confront all aspects of the threat posed by Iran, including its nuclear program, destabilizing activities in the region, and support for terrorist proxy groups,” a statement from the White House. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan led the US delegation during a meeting in Israel with his counterpart, Eyal Hulata. Sullivan is in the region where he will also stop Palestine to boost US-Palestinian ties. Biden security aide Sullivan says US, Israel need joint strategy amid Iran diplomacy. Biden security aide Sullivan says US, Israel need joint strategy amid Iran diplomacy. But his meetings in Israel focused on Iran and the “grave threat” it poses to the region. The White House said that Sullivan updated officials in Israel on the latest developments in Vienna, where US and Iranian officials are engaged in indirect talks over the now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal. “The officials affirmed that the United States and Israel are aligned in their determination to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon,” the White House said. On Tuesday, US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley said there were only “some weeks left” before there would no longer be a purpose in trying to revive the 2015 deal.

Bennett, Sullivan meet to develop ‘common strategy’ on Iran, security
The Jerusalem Post/December 22/2021
“When Israel and the United States stand together, we stand stronger, and that’s the spirit with which I’m here today," said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
Israel and the US are working on a common strategy for their security and interests, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem on Wednesday, at a key time in world powers’ nuclear talks with Iran.
The negotiations in Vienna were at the top of the agenda for the meeting, as well as one between Sullivan and Israeli National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata.
Bennett expressed appreciation for Sullivan visiting so close to the holidays and wished a merry Christmas and happy New Year to him and US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
Sullivan said that his arrival right before Christmas highlighted that at a “critical juncture for both of our countries on a major set of security issues. It’s important that we sit together and develop a common strategy, a common outlook, and find a way forward that fundamentally secures your country’s interests and mine. And we believe those interests, like the values upon which our countries are built, are deeply shared and deeply felt.”
That shared strategy will be the focus of the fourth meeting of the Strategic Consultative Group, co-chaired by Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart Hulata, and including officials from the Defense Ministry and US Department of Defense, and the Foreign Ministry and US State Department, as well as both countries’ intelligence communities. Sullivan also thanked Bennett for showing his support for Biden and the US while he was in Washington in August, when the US suffered a major terrorist attack in Afghanistan. Bennett’s meeting with Biden was delayed for a day and his trip to the US was extended to allow the administration deal with the attack.“That moment – I think like this moment we’re in now – just reflects the extent to which, when Israel and the United States stand together, we stand stronger, and that’s the spirit with which I’m here today,” Sullivan stated.
The strong relationship between Israel and the US, and between Bennett’s government and the Biden administration allows them to “talk openly and candidly about all the shared challenges that we’re facing,” the prime minister said.
“These days are pretty important,” Bennett said. “What happens in Vienna has profound ramifications for the stability of the Middle East and the security of Israel for the upcoming years. And that’s why it’s such a timely meeting.”
The negotiations in Vienna between Iran and world powers for Tehran and Washington to return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal went on hiatus last week, and are not expected to return until next week at the earliest.
During the talks, Iran presented a draft agreement reversing all progress in earlier rounds of talks in April-June of this year, leading the European parties to the talks – Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3 – to express frustration at the process and say time is running out for Iran to return to the JCPOA.
On Tuesday night, President Isaac Herzog warned Sullivan that Iran is using the negotiations to buy time as it works on a nuclear weapon.
“The president underscored the need to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, at any price,” a spokesperson at the President’s Residence said.
Herzog described the Middle East as divided into “a coalition of Israel and Arab states pursuing peace, resisting Iran, and working toward a better world for their citizens, and Iran’s coalition of terror with its proxies, which seeks to destabilize the region.”
The president said he was concerned “with Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons under the cover of the negotiations in Vienna.”
Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog and US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, both of whom are new to their posts, attended the meetings with Herzog and Bennett.
Sullivan also met with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz in the Knesset. Gantz said world and regional powers must show Iran that it is running out of time.
“Iran is playing for time, and it is the shared responsibility of us, the powers and states of the region to turn over the hourglass and show the heads of the Iranian regime that playing for time will go badly for them,” Gantz said at an Israel Air Force graduation ceremony. “The correct way to do this is being discussed with our partners on this very day.”
Gantz said that Israel is not seeking war and has always worked responsibly with allies like the US, and will continue to do so when facing the Iranian threat to the world.
A senior Biden administration official said ahead of Sullivan’s visit, “The US and Israel are totally aligned in our determination to ensure Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon, and we’ve had a very active dialogue about our approach on that.
“We share with our Israeli partners a deep concern about the advancements in Iran’s nuclear program... following the previous administration’s withdrawal from the JCPOA without much thought or plan as to what would come next, and we’ve just seen this dramatic acceleration of Iran’s nuclear program since then,” he added. US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley made remarks similar to Herzog’s in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.
“It seems very clear [Iran] is trying to build leverage by expanding their nuclear program and hoping to use that leverage to get a better deal. It won’t work,” Malley said. “If they try to build more leverage, number one, they will not get a better deal because what we say we’re prepared to do is what was negotiated five years ago. Secondly, their strategy is going to backfire if that is their approach.”Malley said there were only “some weeks left but not much more than that” for the JCPOA to be revived.
“At some point in the not-so-distant future, we will have to conclude that the JCPOA is no more, and we’d have to negotiate a wholly new different deal, and of course we’d go through a period of escalating crisis,” Malley told CNN.
The US is prepared to agree to a “sequence of steps” for a return to compliance with the JCPOA, Malley added, however, Biden cannot legally commit future presidents to the deal, as the Iranians demand.

White House Adviser Seeks Common Iran Strategy with Israel
Associated Press/December 22/2021
The United States and Israel need a "common strategy" as world powers negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran, the White House's national security adviser said Wednesday. Jake Sullivan spoke ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other Israeli security officials in Jerusalem. He said the meeting came at a "critical juncture for both of our countries on a major set of security issues."World powers and Iran renewed negotiations in Vienna last month to restore an agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program. Negotiations took a pause last week to allow Iran's negotiator to return to Tehran for consultations. Bennett said that "what happens in Vienna has profound ramifications for the stability of the Middle East and the security of Israel for the upcoming years." The original deal, struck in 2015, offered Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. The agreement unraveled after the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran. Since then, Iran has resumed its nuclear program, enriching uranium and operating centrifuges beyond the limits of the deal. Israel has been critical of the attempts to reach a new deal with Iran, saying the international community is giving in to "nuclear blackmail." It says any new agreement must make improvements over the original deal, and that the talks must be accompanied by a "credible" threat by the U.S. to use military force against Iran if necessary. Israel considers Iran its regional arch-enemy, and says it will take any steps needed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. On Wednesday, Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth published an interview with the incoming Israeli Air Force commander, who said Israel was capable of attacking Iran tomorrow and destroying its nuclear facilities. "There is no situation in which we operate there and I don't come home and say, 'I carried out the mission,'" Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said.

Bashagha jockeys for key role in new Libya transition after postponement of election
The Arab Weekly/December 22/2021
Analysts speculate that Bashagha could be the next premier while Haftar heads the presidency council.
TRIPOLI - Former Libyan Interior Minister and presidential candidate, Fathi Bashagha, has returned to the forefront of the political scene in the country, with reports of likely postponement of the presidential elections and the formation of a new government that could be headed by Bashagha himself.
After meeting UN Secretary-General advisor, Stephanie Williams, Fathi Bashagha, visited the city of Benghazi, for the first time since the divisions began in Libya. In addition to meeting the former Deputy President of the Presidency Council Ahmed Maetig, he held talks with a number of presidential candidates from the eastern region led by the commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, former Libyan ambassador to the UAE Aref Al-Nayed and former National Congress member Al-Sharif Al-Wafi.
Bashagha said that the meeting came "at the kind invitation of the presidential candidate, Khalifa Haftar." He added that the meeting aimed "to unify national efforts so as to deal with the challenges that our beloved country is going through and to uphold the will of the 2.5 million Libyan voters who are waiting to know the set date for the presidential and parliamentary elections."
He pointed out that the meeting ended with agreement that “the unifying national interest is above all considerations and also that national reconciliation is an overriding national objective that cannot be reversed,” stressing “the continuation of coordination, communication and expansion of the framework of this national initiative in order to unify the positions of Libyans and respect their will.”The visit reinforced the impression of ongoing preparations to announce a sixth transitional phase in Libya in which Haftar could head the presidency council, while Bashagha leads the government.
Bashagha was among Libyan politicians who were most keen on holding the elections on their scheduled date of December 24. But he is said to have recently realised that holding the ballot on time had become impossible. This prompted him to put out a statement emphasising the need to avoid any political vacuum after December 24, which is also the date when the term in office of the government of Abdulhamid Dbeibah is supposed to end.
On Monday, US Ambassador Richard Norland hinted, during his meeting with Prime Minister Dbeibah, at the possibility that a new executive authority could be formed soon and stressed that candidates for presidential elections should relinquish their official positions before entering any electoral campaigns. Observers considered that this statement reflected an emerging US veto on Dbeibah, who appears to have failed to gain the confidence of the West because of his close ties to Turkey and Russia.
The western region, including the capital, Tripoli, has witnessed, in recent days, a militia build-up that has raised internal and international concern about the prospects of violence.
Libya experts do not rule out the possibility that the current premier could resort to force and refuse to hand over power to any new government, especially after officials in his administration asserted that they would only transfer power to an "elected government".
Bashagha, whose political fortunes have risen during the past few years, allowing him to grab the limelight from former Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, has maintained close relations with key US players. Experts say that the Americans' confidence in him stems from his pragmatism compared to the inflexible and contentious attitude of other Libyan politicians, including Dbeibah, who insist on prolonging the political strife, a stance rejected by Washington.
Bashagha has recently stayed away from conflict and controversy, instead establishing contacts with all political protagonists in Libya. In addition to his overture to Haftar, he continued to coordinate with Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh, even after the defeat of their joint bid for power during the last Political Dialogue Forum sessions in Geneva and Tunis.
Internationally, Bashagha has tried to portray himself as the leader of the opposition to the Dbeibah government. The current premier was relatively successful in boosting his support base inside Libya, but failed to win international backing. Analysts noted that Dbeibah was the only Libyan prime minister, since 2011, who was not able to meet the US president nor his national security adviser. Nor was he able to win over the French and Germans who had pushed for the Berlin 2 conference as part of efforts to hold elections in Libya.
Bashagha also succeeded in winning the Egyptians’ confidence and reaching out to all regional countries, including Turkey, which he recently visited to meet its Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, after the Turks seemed to understand the pivotal role Bashagha was likely to play in the Libyan political equation.
According to many Libyans, Bashagha has now become the leading candidate from the western region after Dbeibah's popularity began to sink despite his use of public office to appease the population through bonuses and grants. His reputation has further eroded following reports of his alleged forgery of academic diplomas, the delay in the printing of school textbooks and the recurrent power outages. At the same time, Bashagha managed to gain the confidence of a number of candidates in the western region. He tirelessly pursued contacts with all political groups, including supporters of the former regime and the General Command of the army. Analysts believe that whether the elections are held or postponed, there is near unanimity that Bashagha has positioned himself as the choice of necessity in the next stage of Libya's history, in the front row of key political figures.

Libya Parliament Says 'Impossible' to Hold Presidential Vote
Associated Press/December 22/2021
A Libyan parliamentary committee said Wednesday that it has become "impossible" to hold a long-awaited presidential election in two days as scheduled, in a major blow to international efforts to end a decade of chaos in the oil-rich country.
It was the first official statement that the vote would not happen on Friday, although it had been widely expected amid mounting challenges and calls for a delay. For nearly a year, the election was the lynchpin of international efforts to bring peace to Libya, and many have warned that either scenario — holding the vote on time or postponing it — could be a destabilizing setback. In a letter to Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh, lawmaker al-Hadi al-Sagheir, head of the committee tasked to follow the electoral process, said the group found "it is impossible to hold the election as scheduled on Dec. 24." He did not specify whether another date had been set for the voting, or if it had been cancelled altogether.The country's election commission disbanded electoral committees late Tuesday, and it never named a final list of candidates as it was supposed to. It handed responsibility for the vote over to the parliament. Dozens of lawmakers have called on Libyans to take to the streets in protest over the failure of holding the election as planned. Later Wednesday, the election commission proposed a new date for the first round of the presidential election — Jan. 24. It called on parliament to address the challenges that led to failure to hold the vote as planned on Friday. Around hundred candidates had put themselves forward, including several high profile individuals who had been were banned from the race — including the son of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
Al-Sagheir said his committee reached its conclusion after "reviewing technical, security and judicial reports." He urged Saleh, who suspended his duties to join the presidential race, to return to his job so he could "mobilize efforts" to and help "re-draw a roadmap" to revive the political process.
The vote had faced many challenges, including disputes over the laws governing the elections and occasional infighting among armed groups. Other obstacles include a long-running rift between the country's east and west, and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops in the North African country. Libya plunged into turmoil after the 2011 uprising and split between rival governments — one in the east, backed by military commander Khalifa Hifter, and another U.N.-supported administration in the capital Tripoli, in the west. Each side is supported by a variety of militias and foreign powers.
In April 2019, Hifter and his forces, backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, launched an offensive to try and capture Tripoli. His campaign collapsed after Turkey stepped up its military support of the U.N.-supported government with hundreds of troops and thousands of Syrian mercenaries.
The October 2020 cease-fire led to the formation of a transitional government with elections scheduled for Dec. 24. The fate of that government is now unclear, as the Parliamentary committee said the government's mandate ends on Dec. 24.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 22-23/2021
د. ماجد رفي زاده/ معهد جيتستون: إرث بايدن: إيران نووية
Biden's Legacy: A Nuclear Iran
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/December 22/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/104973/majid-rafizadeh-gatestone-institute-bidens-legacy-a-nuclear-iran-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d9%87-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b3%d8%aa/
The Iranian regime is currently advancing its nuclear program at a rapid pace, spinning centrifuges and enriching uranium at a high level, all while the international community has no access to monitor the regime's nuclear activities to check how far away the Iranian government is from obtaining nuclear weapons.
While the Iranian leaders claim that the country's nuclear program is designed for civilian purposes....[a] joint statement issued by the UK, France and Germany acknowledged that the Iranian regime "has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon."
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is completely silent as the Iranian regime disregards and refuses to answer the IAEA's questions about three undeclared clandestine nuclear sites in Iran.
All the Biden administration has done so far is to appease a regime that chants "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," and that is determined to push the US out of the Middle East.
Iran -- one of only four state sponsors of terrorism, according to the US Department of State, as well as a leading violator of human rights -- is also committed to uprooting and replacing Israel and seizing all the oil in the Middle East from Syria to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.
So, we are just to sit back and watch the predatory, terrorist regime of Iran, which has already begun taking over the entire Middle East, become nuclear state and wreck the Middle East -- under the Biden administration's watch.
The Iranian regime is currently advancing its nuclear program at a rapid pace, spinning centrifuges and enriching uranium at a high level, all while the international community has no access to monitor the regime's nuclear activities to check how far away the Iranian government is from obtaining nuclear weapons. Pictured: A uranium conversion facility just outside the city of Isfahan, Iran, used as part of Iran's uranium enrichment process. (Photo by Getty Images)
The Biden administration seems to have no clear agenda on how to stop the Iranian regime from going nuclear. It has been almost a year and seven rounds of negotiations, but nothing has come out of these talks except that the ruling mullahs of Iran keep advancing their nuclear program, with Russia backing them.
The Iranian regime is playing with the Biden administration, most likely dragging out the negotiations -- and accelerating its enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade -- to buy time to become a nuclear state.
The Iranian regime, in fact, now has enough enriched uranium to produce weapons-grade uranium. The Institute for Science and International Security released a report on November 19 2021 that analyses and outlines the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) latest report on Iran's nuclear activities. According to the Institute for Science and International Security:
"Iran has enough enriched uranium hexafluoride (UF6) in the form of near 20 and 60 percent enriched uranium to produce enough weapon-grade uranium (WGU), taken here as 25 kilograms (kg), for a single nuclear weapon in as little as three weeks. It could do so without using any of its stock of uranium enriched up to 5 percent as feedstock. The growth of Iran's stocks of near 20 and 60 percent enriched uranium has dangerously reduced breakout timelines".
In addition, the day after reaching an agreement to extend the monitoring mechanism of the IAEA by reinstalling surveillance cameras, the Iranian regime announced on December 15 that it will not allow the IAEA to see images from the surveillance cameras. "In other words, the agency will not have any access to the information before sanctions are lifted," the Iranian regime's state news agency IRNA said, quoting Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The Iranian regime is currently advancing its nuclear program at a rapid pace, spinning centrifuges and enriching uranium at a high level, all while the international community has no access to monitor the regime's nuclear activities to check how far away the Iranian government is from obtaining nuclear weapons.
While the Iranian leaders claim that the country's nuclear program is designed for civilian purposes, for instance developing fuel for research reactors, the production of enriched uranium metal is a crucial step toward building nuclear weapons. A joint statement issued by the UK, France and Germany acknowledged that the Iranian regime "has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon." Moreover, the Iranian regime's nuclear file has been filled with clandestine nuclear sites and activities -- another indication that the Islamic Republic is intends to become a nuclear weapons state.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is completely silent as the Iranian regime disregards and refuses to answer the IAEA's questions about three undeclared clandestine nuclear sites in Iran. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi recently warned:
"The lack of progress in clarifying the agency's questions concerning the correctness and completeness of Iran's safeguards declarations seriously affects the ability of the agency to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. For objectivity's sake, I should say that the Iranian government has reiterated its will to engage and to cooperate and to provide answers, but they haven't done that so far. So I hope this may change, but as we speak, we haven't had any concrete progress."
All the Biden administration has done so far is to appease a regime that chants "Death to America," "Death to Israel," and that is determined to push the US out of the Middle East.
Iran -- one of only four state sponsors of terrorism, according to the US Department of State, as well as a leading violator of human rights -- is also committed to uprooting and replacing Israel and seizing all the oil in the Middle East from Syria to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.
The Biden administration has so far lifted a series of sanctions on the Iranian regime. On July 2, sanctions against three Iranians were also lifted under Executive Order 13382. These individuals had also been sanctioned by the previous US administration for their involvement in advancing Iran's ballistic missile program. Moreover, on June 10, the Biden administration removed sanctions on three former Iranian government officials and two Iranian companies involved in the country's oil industry.
So, we are just to sit back and watch the predatory, terrorist regime of Iran, which has already begun taking over the entire Middle East, become nuclear state and wreck the Middle East -- under the Biden administration's watch.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Palestinian School of Terrorism
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/December 22/2021
The young terrorists have been brainwashed by Palestinian leaders and "scholars" spewing hate against Israel and Jews on a daily basis.
In addition, they are being assured that anyone who dies while carrying out a terrorist attack against Jews is a "martyr" whose place in heaven is guaranteed.
IMPACT-se found that Palestinian leaders have failed to fulfill their promise to Western donors to change the textbooks. The study showed, in fact, that the newly published textbooks were even more radical than previous ones.
"There is a systematic insertion [in Palestinian textbooks] of violence, martyrdom and jihad across all grades and subjects. Extreme nationalism and Islamist ideologies are widespread throughout the curriculum, including science and math textbooks. The possibility of peace with Israel is rejected." — Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), May 2021.
The textbooks demonize Israel, and the Jews are maligned and presented as a rival of the prophet of Islam. "In short, there is no encouragement towards coexistence throughout the entire curriculum," according to the study.
This is the poison that is being injected into the hearts and minds of Palestinians at the very moment that the Biden administration continues to talk about funding the Palestinian Authority and the need to revive the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Biden administration is prattling on about peace and a "two-state solution" while Palestinian leaders are doing their utmost to prepare the next generation to stick more knives into Jews.
A Palestinian teacher and three school children were directly involved in the recent spate of terror attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The young terrorists have been brainwashed by Palestinian leaders and "scholars" spewing hate against Israel and Jews on a daily basis. (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch)
A Palestinian teacher and three school children were directly involved in the recent spate of terror attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank. This came as little surprise to those familiar with the ongoing hate and incitement against Israel in Palestinian schools and textbooks, as well as in the media, mosques and university campuses.
On November 21, Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a 42-year-old high school teacher from Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, shot and killed Eli Kay, a 26-year-old immigrant from South Africa. The shooting attack took place in the Old City of Jerusalem. Four other people were injured before the terrorist was shot dead by police.
Abu Shkhaydam was an Islamic studies teacher at Al-Rashidiyeh Boys' School in east Jerusalem. That the school is run by (Israel's) Municipality of Jerusalem did not bother the terrorist, who was later described as a member of Hamas.
Abu Shkhaydam had no problem receiving a salary from an Israeli municipality while he continued to spew hatred against Israel in his capacity as a "preacher" and "scholar" in various mosques in Jerusalem.
Last year, Abu Shkhaydam said during a Friday prayer sermon that "Jewish and Christian masters of heresy" are part of an effort to fight against Islamic shari'a law and spread injustice. He also said that the Jews and Christians and other opponents of shari'a law are led by the devil and financed by "filthy money" from "those Bedouins" in the United Arab Emirates.
In a will he reportedly left behind, Abu Shkhaydam revealed that he had been planning the terror attack for a long time: "I write these words with great joy; I end years of hard work with a meeting with God." The terrorist said that he chose this path to please God and reach heaven. He also claimed that the terrorist attack was designed to defend the al-Aqsa Mosque.
When terrorists such as Abu Shkhaydam talk about the need to defend the mosque in Jerusalem, they are referring to peaceful and routine visits by Jews to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
Contrary to claims by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Palestinian groups, the Jews visiting the site do not set foot in the al-Aqsa Mosque. The Jewish visitors are forced to tour the compound of the Temple Mount under police protection because of threats by Palestinians, who continue to deny Jewish history or links to Jerusalem.
Palestinian leaders and jihadis such as Abu Shkhaydam have long been depicting the Jewish tours as violent "incursions" of the al-Aqsa Mosque, which, needless to say, is a total lie and blood libel.
Abu Shkhaydam and Palestinian leaders did not miss an opportunity or any platform to spread the libel. The terrorist used every available podium in the mosques to incite violence against non-Muslims, particularly Jews and Christians.
As a teacher and mosque preacher, Abu Shkhaydam undoubtedly transmitted his poison to many Palestinians, especially the children he taught at school and those who attended his Friday sermons.
It is no wonder, then, that Palestinian teenagers grab knives or guns and set out to murder Jews in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The young terrorists have been brainwashed by Palestinian leaders and "scholars" spewing hate against Israel and Jews on a daily basis.
The young terrorists are told by their leaders that Jews are "defiling" Islamic holy sites and that it is their duty to defend the al-Aqsa Mosque.
In addition, they are being assured that anyone who dies while carrying out a terrorist attack against Jews is a "martyr" whose place in heaven is guaranteed.
Earlier this month, a 14-year-old Palestinian school girl stabbed and wounded a Jewish woman who was on her way to drop her children at school. The incident took place in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The girl fled to her school, located only a few hundred meters away. She was arrested by the Israeli police shortly after.
Textbooks based on the curriculum of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Education and found in the girl's bag demonstrated the amount of wild incitement against the Israel Defense Forces and Jewish settlers, as well as the glorification of "martyrs." The textbooks are based on the curriculum of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Education.
For example, on page 61 of the Arabic Language Study Book there is a reading comprehension exercise that contains a story describing the burning with Molotov cocktails of an Israeli bus belonging to the Psagot settlement near Ramallah.
The purported attempt to burn Jewish passengers alive is proudly described in the book as a "barbecue party."
The Social Sciences book found in the girl's bag states that "armed resistance is a natural and legitimate right intended to oppose occupation." The book features photos from the massacres the Arabs committed against Jews in the city of Hebron in 1929.
According to the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), Palestinian textbooks "remain openly antisemitic and continue to encourage violence, jihad (holy war) and martyrdom while peace is still not taught as preferable or even possible."
The study by IMPACT-se found that Palestinian leaders have failed to fulfill their promise to Western donors to change the textbooks. The study showed, in fact, that the newly published textbooks were even more radical than previous ones.
"There is a systematic insertion of violence, martyrdom and jihad across all grades and subjects," the study concluded.
"Extreme nationalism and Islamist ideologies are widespread throughout the curriculum, including science and math textbooks. The possibility of peace with Israel is rejected. Any historical Jewish presence in the modern-day territories of Israel and the Palestinian Authority is entirely omitted from the textbooks. Jewish history and heritage are represented as falsified; Jewish holy places are represented as Muslim areas usurped by Zionists."
An eleventh-grade Palestinian history textbook implies that Jews control the world. In other textbooks, Jews are characterized as sinful liars and fraudsters who are understood to the "enemies of Islam in all times and places." An Islamic education chapter clearly teaches that Jews are corrupt and are doomed to destruction as their "corruption of the land was and will be the cause of their annihilation."
The study also found that Jews and Israel are vilified to a greater extent than in previous curricula and that antisemitism is more prevalent throughout. Israel is mostly described as the "Zionist Occupation." The textbooks demonize Israel, and the Jews are maligned and presented as a rival of the prophet of Islam. "In short, there is no encouragement towards coexistence throughout the entire curriculum," according to the study.
This is precisely the rhetoric that encourages school children to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews. Those who turn a blind eye to this bloody incitement and antisemitism are actually giving a green light to the terrorists to continue their murderous jihad against Jews.
This is the poison that is being injected into the hearts and minds of Palestinians at the very moment that the Biden administration continues to talk about funding the Palestinian Authority and the need to revive the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Biden administration is prattling on about peace and a "two-state solution" while Palestinian leaders are doing their utmost to prepare the next generation to stick more knives into Jews.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
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Iran Looks East: Building Ties with China
James Phillips/The Heritage Foundation//December 22/2021
Iran’s theocratic dictatorship, locked into a confrontation with the United States and many other states by its nuclear weapons ambitions and Islamist ideology, is drifting into China’s orbit. The Iran–China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement signed in Tehran in March 2021, and Iran’s admission to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)—the multilateral Eurasian diplomatic forum led by China and Russia—in September, underscore the expansion of political, economic, and strategic ties between Iran and China. These evolving ties have strengthened Iran’s ability to resist sanctions, eased its isolation, and aided its efforts to achieve regional hegemony. Iran needs China more than China needs Iran. Washington should exploit this asymmetry by driving up the costs to Beijing of close ties to Iran, reducing its economic benefits, and curtailing the potential benefits to Tehran of close ties to China.
Iran’s Deepening Ties with China
Iran and China, led by two authoritarian regimes hostile to the United States and Western values, have elevated their partnership in recent months. The two signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement on March 27, 2021, that marked a new phase of bilateral relations. Although the full text of the agreement remains secret, China is slated to expand its involvement in a wide range of Iran’s economic sectors, including the oil and gas industries, banking, telecommunications, public transportation, and port infrastructure. China will secure Iran’s participation in its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to establish contiguous land and maritime trade routes from China across Eurasia. Beijing will also reportedly receive heavy discounts on imported Iranian oil for 25 years. Although press reports based on a draft of the agreement leaked by Iranian officials project massive Chinese investment of $400 billion over 25 years,1
Farnaz Fassihi and Steven Lee Myers, “China, with $400 Billion Iran Deal, Could Deepen Influence in Mideast,” The New York Times, March 27, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/27/world/middleeast/china-iran-deal.html (accessed December 17, 2021).
this unrealistic total is unlikely to be realized, even if U.S. sanctions are lifted. China’s investment in Iran amounted to less than $5 billion between 2005 and 2020.
A much stronger concern focuses on the potential military and strategic aspects of the agreement, which remain secret. But the leaked document proposed enhanced bilateral military cooperation, including joint training, military exercises, intelligence sharing, weapons research and development, and defense production. Although the economic dividends of the agreement boost the Tehran regime’s short-term ability to withstand U.S. economic sanctions, maintain its power, and push its nuclear defiance to the limits, the potential long-term infusion of Chinese military arms and technology could greatly boost Iran’s efforts to establish regional hegemony.
It therefore is not surprising that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi proclaimed soon after he assumed office in August that promoting cooperation with China was one of his top foreign policy priorities. Notably, Raisi’s first foreign trip was to the September SCO summit in Tajikistan, at which Iran was admitted as a member. Raisi underscored Iran’s “look to the East” policy by choosing to attend that summit rather than the United Nations General Assembly opening.
Raisi hopes that SCO membership will help to shield Iran from U.S. sanctions, break Iran out of its isolation, and boost foreign trade. Although the SCO is the world’s largest regional organization in terms of geographic scope and population, it is unlikely to offer Tehran much help in circumventing U.S. sanctions. Most SCO members harbor their own misgivings about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and would be deterred by the threat of U.S. secondary sanctions.
While Iran seeks to cultivate China as a strategic ally to offset American power, China historically has avoided a formal alliance with Iran in part due to a fear of aggravating the United States and Arab states threatened by Iran. Beijing has signed several comprehensive strategic agreements with Arab states and does not want to be perceived as forcing those states to choose between China and the United States. Although Iran, endowed with the world’s fourth-largest crude oil reserves, looms large as a potential source of Chinese oil imports, China currently imports more oil from Arab states than from Iran, and conducts more trade with them.
U.S. Policy: Constrain Iran to Deter China from Building Closer Strategic Ties
The Biden Administration must closely monitor the evolving Sino–Iranian ties and work with allies to mitigate the dangers of this geopolitical alignment. Close cooperation with U.S. allies is necessary to enhance U.S. leverage over both China and Iran and help to constrain, if not to preclude, a full-blown Sino–Iranian alliance.2
James Phillips, “United States Should Derail Prospects for an Iran–China Alliance,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 3541, October 6, 2020, https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/BG3541.pdf.
In the past, Beijing has refrained from forming a close alliance with Iran due to its concern over provoking a backlash from the United States and the many countries threatened by Iran. Washington should discourage the formation of closer Sino–Iranian strategic ties by reinforcing Beijing’s concerns on both fronts. The goal should be to maximize the political, economic, and foreign policy costs and risks to Beijing of its support for Iran’s hostile agenda.
U.S. Policy Recommendations
In order to discourage deeper ties between Iran and China, the Biden Administration should:
Escalate sanctions on Iran. The Biden Administration unwisely rejected the Trump Administration’s maximum-pressure sanctions strategy and has relaxed its enforcement of many sanctions. This complacent and self-defeating policy has reduced U.S. diplomatic leverage over Iran, diminished the prospects for a satisfactory outcome in the nuclear negotiations, encouraged a surge in illicit Iranian oil exports to China, and lowered the barriers to greater Sino–Iranian cooperation. A return to the maximum-pressure sanctions policy would not only increase the prospects of a satisfactory nuclear agreement with Tehran, but would diminish the perceived benefits for China of trade with Iran by reducing Iran’s ability to pay for Chinese imports and increasing the risk that the current Iranian regime will be overthrown by Iran’s longsuffering people. Ramping up sanctions would also undermine Tehran’s capacity to fund its military buildup and finance its network of proxy militias and terrorist groups.
Press China to minimize its support for a rogue Iranian regime that sponsors regional instability that threatens China’s national interests. Beijing has been sensitive to American concerns about its ties with Iran in the past and has reduced its engagement with Iran under U.S. pressure. Washington should privately warn Beijing against trying to rescue an increasingly unpopular regime that may succumb to a domestic political backlash. Washington should stress that Iran’s destabilizing influence in the region threatens Chinese economic and trade interests. Unless Beijing encourages Tehran to compromise on its nuclear program and end its proxy attacks against the U.S. and its regional allies, Iran will remain on a collision course with the U.S. that could undermine Chinese economic interests in the region and disrupt regional oil exports.
Warn Beijing that its energy security is being undermined by Iran’s aggressive behavior. China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest oil importer in 2017 and imports more than 10 million barrels of oil per day, about 75 percent of its oil supplies. Approximately 52 percent of Chinese oil imports come from the Middle East, with more than 40 percent originating in the Gulf. China would be one of the biggest losers if Iran resumes its covert attacks on Saudi, or other Arab, oil infrastructure. In the event of a war or prolonged crisis, China would be one of the oil importers that sustains the most economic damage.
Enforce sanctions on China’s imports of Iranian oil. After President Joe Biden’s election, Chinese imports of Iranian oil soared to as much as 1 million barrels per day in December 2020, before declining to 550,000 barrels per day from January through August 2021, and rising again to nearly 800,000 barrels per day from August through October. The Biden Administration may mistakenly see its non-enforcement of sanctions against these illicit imports of Iranian oil as a tacit gesture of goodwill to both Tehran and Beijing, but goodwill matters little to these regimes. Washington should apply fresh sanctions targeting the shipping networks and Chinese companies that facilitate this oil trade. China’s economic future depends much more on stable economic relations with the United States than on its much smaller trade with Iran. Washington should warn Beijing that its sanctions busting will be considered a hostile action that will harm its relationship with the United States.
Work with allies to undercut Chinese support for Iran. The Biden Administration should boost the costs and risks to Beijing of closer ties with Tehran not only in terms of Sino–American relations but also in terms of China’s relations with states threatened by Iran, particularly the Gulf Arab states and Israel, whose concerns about Iran were a factor in the forging of the 2020 Abraham Accords. The U.S. State Department should encourage key countries, such as Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to make it clear to Beijing that if it bolsters its strategic ties with Iran, it will pay a high price in terms of relations with Iran’s regional adversaries. China currently has a much bigger economic and trade relationship with these countries than with Iran, and that imbalance is likely to grow further due to U.S. Iran sanctions.
Time for a Pivot on U.S. Iran Policy
While Iran has trumpeted its growing ties with China as a game changer, it is clear that Beijing takes a much more cautious and realistic approach to this evolving relationship. Iran needs China more than China needs Iran. The United States should exploit this asymmetry by raising the costs and risks of Beijing’s growing ties to the unpopular and corrupt rulers of Iran while reducing the potential benefits. Sanctions must be a key part of this strategy. The Biden Administration should end its self-defeating policy of eagerly seeking to revive the flawed 2015 nuclear deal by relaxing pressure on Iran and return to a maximum-pressure approach. Such a pivot on sanctions would not only enhance the chances for a satisfactory outcome of nuclear negotiations with Iran, but would reduce China’s economic incentives for building closer ties with Iran.
*James Phillips is Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy, of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, at The Heritage Foundation.

Recalibrating the Egyptian-Saudi relationship
Mohamed Abulfadl/The Arab Weekly/December 22/2021
Unless discussion addresses the smallest details that separate the two countries, the mechanism of political consultation will not represent a useful addition towards strengthening the alliance between Cairo and Riyadh.
Observers have read the many words of mutual appreciation exchanged between Egypt and Saudi Arabia since the official announcement of the launch of the political consultation mechanism between the two countries on the eve of the Gulf summit held in Riyadh, on December 14.
It was understood that the mechanism was set up to maximise common interests between both countries.
Understandings between Riyadh and Cairo are mostly based on willingness to avoid conflict and a strategic desire to maintain a minimum level of cooperation and coordination. Sharp disruption of the harmony between both could upset the delicate balance that the two parties have maintained for many years.
There is a number of complications that quietly underlie the relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and which no one wants to discuss openly. There may be talks taking place behind closed doors, where issues are broached diplomatically. But either way, such discussions cannot of themselves overcome the issues of concern.
Among these issues is the gap in the political leadership at the Arab and regional levels. Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia enjoy characteristics that qualify them to play a leadership role. In the face of the historical, demographic and military weight of Egypt, there is Riyadh's Islamic and economic weight as well as the scope of its ambitious. This has created a form of wariness about determining who leads whom. This point is not openly discussed but it remains one of the obstacles to reaching a high level of understanding between both countries.
The creation of the political consultation mechanism implicitly answers that mystery question (who leads whom?) and promotes the search for a solution. The idea of ​​consultation itself suggests equality or parity between the two sides.
The Iranian dilemma is one of the major questions kept under wraps in the relationship between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Each country manages its relationship with Tehran in a different way. If Riyadh came close to politically clashing with Tehran, Cairo did not find sufficient reasons to do likewise. Nevertheless, Egypt takes into account the considerations that drive Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in general as it maintains a cold relationship with Tehran. But it does not see the benefit of clashing with Iran, even if it rejects its interference in some Arab countries. At the height of Riyadh’s disputes with Tehran, Egypt made sure not to burn its bridges with Iran. This included Cairo avoiding taking a stand on Hezbollah or denouncing its behaviour in Lebanon, contrary to the Saudi position.
Saudi Arabia’s dialogue sessions with Iran, some episodes of which have been recently revealed, vindicates Egypt’s attitude towards Tehran.. The sea of ​​politics is in an ever-changing motion and may force any party to lower its hostility towards others. No one could have imagined that reconciliation could take place with Qatar or a rapprochement could occur with Turkey.
Experience led Egypt never to close the road back, even in times of the hottest rivalry. The fluid nature of regional conflicts supports this line of thinking. Maintaining parallel lines in relations between countries reduces the cost of conflict and tensions for these countries.
What would have happened if Egypt had been tempted to toe Riyadh's line and entrench itself in enmity with Iran years ago and had later been surprised by Saudi Arabia’s entering into dialogue with Tehran? The United States, which slams Iran day and night, has embarked upon talks with Iran to resolve some of their contentious issues. Cairo has become convinced of the need to settle problems peacefully and to seek diplomatic solutions.
Saudi Arabia’s policy of eliminating regional problems brings Riyadh closer to the Egyptian approach. This provides a good environment for the success of the consultation mechanism.
The crisis with Iran is intertwined with various Arab issues, which involve Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Riyadh was also at odds with Cairo on Yemen, after Egypt failed to answer the Saudi call to join the war there, directly. A lack of understanding between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and inability to address any such issues could be a problem for both countries
The success of Egyptian-Gulf relations in general requires abandoning extreme caution and hyper-sensitivity. It requires abandoning the policy of the ostrich, that of burying one's head in the sand. The moment will come when disclosure will reveal all the facts. For now, the silent talk, as the people of Sudan say, between Egypt and Saudi Arabia is almost deafening. Unless discussion addresses the smallest details that separate the two countries, the mechanism of political consultation will not represent a useful addition towards the strengthening of the alliance between Cairo and Riyadh.