English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 27/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
You snakes, you brood of
vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell?
Saint Matthew 23/29-39/24,1-2: “‘Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and
decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, “If we had lived in the days
of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood
of the prophets.” Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants
of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your
ancestors. You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced
to hell? Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you
will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from
town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth,
from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah,
whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you, all
this will come upon this generation. ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills
the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to
gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and
you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate. For I tell you,
you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the
name of the Lord.” ’ As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his
disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. Then he asked
them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be
left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on December 26-27/2021
Pope Urges Dialogue in Lebanon and Other Troubled Nations
President Aoun in a religious interview on the occasion of Christmas: A person
is linked to his society and to the land, and a person without land is...
KSA-Led Coalition Says Hizbullah, Iran Aiding Huthi Strikes
Arab Coalition: Terrorist Hezbollah Responsible for Targeting Civilians in Saudi
Arabia, Yemen
Aoun to Reportedly Voice 'Explosive' Remarks on Monday
Lebanon’s young at risk of domestic violence, abuse
Israel can strike Iran ‘tomorrow’, Hezbollah might hit back: New Air Force chief
How greatly we are in need of peace in our hearts and across Lebanon’s regions,”
asserts Poushkian
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
December 26-27/2021
Another Covid Christmas Brings Anxiety, but Also Optimism
In 2021, Iran Commits Extreme Violations Threatening Revival of 2015 Nuclear
Deal
Iran Says It Seeks to Use Domestic Nuclear Fuel For Power Plant
Iran Christian prisoners get rare 10-day holiday leave
French arrest man over chemical weapons parts in Syria
Saudi-Led Coalition Hits Yemen Rebel Camp in Ramped Up Air War
Archbishop Desmond Tutu dies at 90
Sudan Says 58 Policemen Injured in Protests
Palestinians, Israeli Forces Clash near West Bank Outpost
UNRWA Begins Reconstruction in Gaza After Israeli Aggression
Houthis Release 70% of Al-Qaeda Prisoners
Tunisians Rescue 48 Migrants at Sea
Bodies of 16 killed in Channel Boat Disaster Repatriated to Iraq
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC
English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
December 26-27/2021
Hatred for the Christian Cross/Raymond
Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/December 26, 2021
Fighting Inflation Means Taking On Corporations/Meg Jacobs/The New York
Times/December, 26/2021
A Gas Pipeline Won’t Turn Russia and China Into Buddies/David Fickling/Bloomberg/December,
26/2021
Biden will look to move beyond crisis management in 2022/Kerry Boyd
Anderson/Arab News/December 26/2021
A nuclear Iran would be a new year disaster/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab
News/December 26/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on December 26-27/2021
Pope Urges Dialogue in Lebanon and Other
Troubled Nations
Associated Press/26 December ,2021
Pope Francis prayed Saturday for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, using his
Christmas Day address to urge health care for all, vaccines for the poor and for
dialogue to prevail in resolving the world's conflicts. Amid a record-setting
rise in COVID-19 cases in Italy this week, only a few thousand people flocked to
a rain-soaked St. Peter's Square for Francis' annual "Urbi et Orbi" ("To the
city and the world") Christmas address. Normally, the square would be packed
with tens of thousands of holiday well-wishers. At least they could gather this
year. Italy's 2020 holiday lockdown forced Francis to deliver a televised
address from inside the Apostolic Palace to prevent crowds from forming in the
square. Although Italy this week counted more than 50,000 cases in a single day
for the first time, the government has not ordered another lockdown. The pope's
Christmas Day speech gives him an opportunity to draw a global audience's
attention to conflicts big and small. This year was no different. Francis
lamented ongoing conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, newly flaring tensions in
Ukraine and Ethiopia, and an "unprecedented crisis" in Lebanon. "We have become
so used to them (conflicts) that immense tragedies are now being passed over in
silence; we risk not hearing the cry of pain and distress of so many of our
brothers and sisters," he said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica as Swiss
Guards stood at attention in the square below. Francis warned of the pandemic
tendency to withdraw and isolate, urging instead dialogue to try to resolve the
world conflicts. He prayed in particular for those most affected by the virus,
including women and children who have suffered increased abuse during lockdowns.
"Son of God, comfort the victims of violence against women, which has increased
in this time of pandemic. Offer hope to young children and adolescents suffering
from bullying and abuse," he said. He prayed for "consolation and warmth" for
older adults who are alone, as well as for health care workers who "generously
devote themselves" to caring for the sick. "Grant health to the infirm and
inspire all men and women of good will to seek the best ways possible to
overcome the current health crisis and its effects," he said. "Open hearts to
ensure that necessary medical care - and vaccines in particular - are provided
to those peoples who need them most." Francis delivered his speech hours after
celebrating a "Midnight Mass" service for some 2,000 people, a fraction of the
basilica's capacity. The service actually began at 7:30 p.m., a nod to the
85-year-old pope's endurance and a hold-over from last year, when the service
had to end before Italy's nationwide COVID-19 curfew. For the second day in a
row, Italy on Friday set a daily pandemic record with 50,599 new cases. Another
141 people died, bringing Italy's official death toll in the pandemic to
136,386. With the arrival of the omicron variant in Italy, the Vatican secretary
of state this week imposed a new vaccine mandate on Vatican staff, extending it
to all employees except those who have recovered from COVID-19. Previously, only
employees who dealt with the public directly had to be vaccinated, such as the
staff of the Vatican Museums and the Swiss Guards. Other Vatican employees could
access their offices with regular testing. Now, there is no test-out exemption.
President Aoun in a religious interview on the occasion
of Christmas: A person is linked to his society and to the land, and a person
without land is...
NNA/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, appealed to the Lebanese, on the
eve of Christmas, on OTV, in a religious interview inspired by the spiritual
occasion, in which he spoke with his interlocutors, colleague Abdel Helou,
former Archbishop of Ferzol, Zahle and the Bekaa, for the Melkite Greek Catholic
Archbishop Issam Yohanna Darwish, about religious aspects and his impressions.
The President also spoke about his vision of the Christian faith and how to
apply it in daily life. President Aoun stressed the importance of the great
meanings that Christmas carries and the values of love that Jesus called for,
and the importance of the Virgin Mary and the Bible in consolidating these
values in the daily life of the believer, and facing the difficulties and
problems he faces on a daily basis. In addition, President Aoun calrified that
he gained faith gradually, and that “The entrapment of knowledge" played a role
in this, stating that his faith was reflected in the consolidation of his
attachment to the land and the homeland. “A person is linked to his society and
to the land. A person without a homeland is a refugee, and this strengthens the
connection between man and land” the President said.
President Aoun also considered that Lebanon has citizens of all religions and
brings together multiple civilizations, if coexistence is present peacefully and
based on good deeds and love between individuals and groups, then it constitutes
two models for this.
“This is why I proposed the establishment of the “Academy of Man for Convergence
and Dialogue” that studies civilizations, religions and the accompanying
traditions. I believe that the culture that emerges from that promotes peace
among human beings. So as long as we all acknowledge God as the Creator, why do
we kill and not love one another, because the earth accommodates all human
beings” President Aoun continued. Moreover, President Aoun pointed out that What
the Lebanese suffer from today and live with is the result of the actions of
those who previously exercised responsibility, and these people had to form a
good example for the citizen because they were the front of the Lebanese society
and they are entrusted with the lives of the citizens who suffer today, hence
the right to self-defense. That is, the necessities of life”.
Interview:
At first, Al-Helou recited an introduction inspired by the occasion, then he
began with Bishop Darwish the dialogue with the President. There was a question
about how President Aoun spent Christmas Eve this year, and he explained, "This
holiday for us is the holiday of the family that gathers all its members, old
and young. It is a feast commemorating the birth of the Savior, so the children
rejoice while the adults contemplate the message of salvation to the Lord Christ
from birth to the crucifixion, and this is the path that every Christian must
pass through”.
Asked about how humans understand the partnership between God and man, in which
the Virgin Mary was a cornerstone, President Aoun indicated that “This matter is
one of the secrets, either one believes in it or does not, but it cannot be
explained because the explanation will detract from the value of this secret.
Salvation took place with the participation of the Virgin Mary, who had a
fundamental role”.
Regarding the method of acquiring faith, President Aoun said that he acquired it
gradually, as it was first confined to the Christmas period, and “Then I watched
my mother as she frequently went to church and she explained to me some
religious matters that I was not aware of, and which accompanied me while I was
in the process of growth, so I started thinking about it more and more and I
became attached to this great religious secret, and it accompanied me during my
educational attainment until the period of maturity in which I formed an
independent thinking, and I reviewed the sequence of human development in his
search for the Creator and existence, from the worship of the moon and natural
manifestations down to religions. God is the secret of existence, no one will
realize it, because if we know him, we will become like him”.
President Aoun stated that "the curiosity for knowledge" had a role in his
faith, as the person was searching for the secret of his existence and how the
order of the universe and creation works, and about the God who is outside the
Metaphysique. I was among the children who served the liturgy, whether in the
town or in school, and that I joined the singing choir despite my lack of
distinctive vocal abilities”. In response to a question about the relationship
of young people with God in light of the tumultuous life we live in, President
Aoun saw that the more turbulent life develops, the greater the distance from
God. “Just as religion is one of the foundations of the state, and because
Sharia is the belief in God who imposes justice on humans, the vertical
relationship with God and the other horizontal relationship with humans have
become the laws”.
Concerning the reflection of his faith on the consolidation of his attachment to
the land and the homeland, President Aoun replied: "A person is linked to his
society and to the land. A homeland is a person and a land. A land without a
people is nothing, and a person without a homeland is a refugee. This
strengthens the connection between man and land”.
The Gospel and Acts of Mercy:
Asked if he reads the Bible from time to time, President Aoun said that “The
Bible is not only limited to teaching faith in God, there is the education of
man and the way he behaves with his neighbor. It is a religious education that
can reconcile man with the other and live together, because without this
spiritual relationship that includes members of society, coexistence and love
cannot occur. There is a difference between the commandments of the Old and New
Testaments, and a contradiction at times, especially since the commandments of
the Old Testament contain only a little positives, for example, “I am the Lord
your God. You shall have no god but me.” As for most of them, they bear the
prohibition, such as “Do not swear in the name of God in vain, do not kill, do
not steal”... While the commandments of Christ in the New Testament carry the
positive formula: “You were told not to swear in the name of God in vain, but I
say to you, do not swear in the name of God absolutely, and let your words be
yes yes or no no, and everything more than that is from Satan. Therefore,
positive action is much better than negative action because it contains evidence
of the path that a person should take. Let's go back to the fifth commandment,
which says, "You shall not kill." Well, if a person does not kill, what should
he do? Is it enough not to kill?”.
“Christ says, "Love one another, as I have loved you." This is the direction on
which a person should walk, love. And the seventh commandment says you shall not
steal. Is it enough not to steal? Jesus did not say do not steal, but said to
the young man who asked him what he should do, "Go, sell what you have, give to
the poor, and follow me." So the true commandment is giving, which is the basis
for the relationship with others. As for the eighth commandment, it does not
bear false witness, while Christ said, “I was not born and came to this world
except to bear witness to the truth.” So, witnessing the truth is obligatory,
and not just not bearing false witness. What does it mean for a person not to
testify to the truth? What would he have done? The truth does not appear by
refraining from witnessing the truth. Christianity constitutes the positive, and
its commandments constitute a message and a treaty of peace for the world and
among mankind. In fact, I call it a treaty of non-aggression between the Jews
against each other”.
And whether we can apply these teachings and give mercy to people, President
Aoun said: “Certainly, we can apply these teachings, whether the person is
ordinary or in a position of power. A person can give others opportunities
because mercy is there for him, whatever his position. What is forgiveness and
reduced punishment? They constitute mercy and give the other a chance to repent
the mistake he made”.
President Aoun also stated that he reads books on various topics, including
theological books and the lives of saints, which he described as spiritual
nourishment. The plurality of civilizations and the stability of man:
Regarding his letter to former French President Francois Mitterrand on October
29, 1989, in which he affirmed that Lebanon is more than a country, rather it is
a thought, and his opinion of Lebanon's message today and the possibility of
activating it, President Aoun replied that “Lebanon is a country with citizens
of all religions and brings together multiple civilizations. If coexistence in
it is peaceful and based on good deeds and love between individuals and groups,
then it constitutes a model. That is why I proposed at the United Nations the
establishment of the "Human Academy for Convergence and Dialogue", which would
study civilizations, religions, and accompanying traditions. I believe that the
culture that emerges from that promotes peace among human beings. So as long as
we all acknowledge God as the Creator, why do we kill and not love one another,
although earth accommodates all human beings”.
“I was an officer in the army and fought battles, but the fighting resulted in
deaths and shedding of blood and left sorrow and pain and shedding tears, so why
the war? Those who hate wars the most are those who wage them, and those who
bear their effects, i.e. workers in the Red Cross and ambulances, who know the
meaning of pain, war, death and life” the President added.
Regarding the proposals of the Apostolic Exhortation in 2012, and its focus on
ecumenical dialogue as a march towards Christian unity out of common love for
Christ and the extent of his satisfaction with dialogue between churches, the
President replied: “Christian unity exists. I remember that on one occasion I
was visiting the town of Baneh at the invitation of St. Michael's Day, and I
found 3 churches of this saint close to each other. The first was built for the
Catholics, the second for the Orthodox, and the third for the Maronites, so I
entered the first church, where I found the Gospel, the Crucified and the image
of Saint Michael. The same is true in the second and third churches, so how can
unity be translated without these manifestations? Christians have spread all
over the world, but they emanate from different civilizations and have different
customs and different liturgies, but the basis is the Gospel and belief in
Christ, while the way of worship differs, meaning that the Church is united.
However, as human beings, we “confuse” the unity of the Church, meaning that our
mistakes make each group justify why it differs from others in the faith”.
Concerning what he will say today to Lebanon’s youth in light of the brain drain
crisis, President Aoun affirmed that there is a section of young people who
believe in their future mission, and another section is looking for their
personal future.
“When I said that they are the future of Lebanon, I meant that as a society on
the basis that they will carry change and will build the best in their society,
so the future and the developed will be better than the late” President Aoun
said recalling what was stated in the play "Sawan Mountains" by Rahabnah, when
Mrs. Fairouz said: “Many or little amounts of people, we will continue with
those who remain”.
A person must remain firm and complete what he started, and not run away from
the difficulties he faces on his way” President Aoun said.
The suffering of the Lebanese and dialogue:
Regarding the numerous challenges faced by families in Lebanon, especially the
economic ones and what is related to the future of the youth and the lack of
security, President Aoun affirmed that “The faithful Lebanese family lives and
faces these challenges and adversities with courage, piety, faith, and love.
However, there are those who, under these ordeals, reach the point of unbelief,
due to the absence of justice and the torment they suffer as a result. Each
person expresses his feelings and convictions in his own way. Humans are
distinguished by their different natures, but what the Lebanese suffer from and
live with today is the result of the actions of those who previously exercised
responsibility. Poverty and destitution do not come from nothing, and there are
those who caused these problems and were at the center of responsibility, and we
cannot deny this issue. These people had to set a good example for the citizen
because they were the face of the Lebanese society and they were entrusted with
the lives of the citizens who are suffering today. Hence the entitlement to
self-defense, that is, the necessities of life”.
Regarding the values that combine Christianity and Islam, the President
indicated that “Eastern Christianity does not live except through
Christian-Islamic dialogue, and we always have a desire for dialogue with the
other”.
President Aoun considered that a civil state, in order to be achieved in
Lebanon, needs social and political maturity. We cannot, through the different
laws that exist in Lebanon, be one people. Laws, in all their diversity,
constitute a kind of failure in the development of society, because they carry
with it a derogation of rights, especially those related to the rights of women
and children, and personal status. Differences in laws cannot lead to the union
of two peoples and thus the formation of a civil state”.
Regarding the possibility of the state sponsoring this dialogue in order to be
effective and reach the level of dialogue thought from the leaders to the
people, President Aoun indicated that “The ordinary person, and sometimes the
thinker, does not think about the things that bring him together with the other,
but rather thinks about the differences, and when he thinks about these
differences, he considers himself another human being, and in his words there is
a kind of conformity more than an expression of the truth of what he believes
in”. Concerning the "Human Academy for Convergence and Dialogue" project, and
whether Lebanon could be a permanent center for dialogue between different
religions and races, President Aoun said: "We are building an institution, and
this institution must continue, and we stress the importance of mixing and a
unified view of civilization. Difference in traditions and customs is not but a
result of a certain culture that developed in isolation from the other group,
and when we see that this institution was established for the sake of achieving
the interest of man and for his good, the rapprochement between different
peoples becomes stronger and the language of peace becomes stronger than the
language of war”. The President pointed out that the Damourmunicipality provided
a plot of 100,000 square meters to build this center, but the "Corona" pandemic,
in addition to various developments, delayed the construction work. “This center
will bring together professors and students from different countries, races and
religions, which will allow a person to learn to accept the other without any
effort, and to be loving and free”.
Meditation and prayer:
On the subject of prayer and meditation, President Aoun indicated that he
practices meditation on a daily basis on various topics, starting with his
responsibilities and actions, and ending with philosophical topics and prayer.
The President said "I do not only pray for Lebanon, but I work for it. Its needs
are many and its misfortunes are many and accumulated. Lebanon needs work, and
thank God, I do not complain of fatigue from working for Lebanon”.
President Aoun said that the Virgin Mary is the common aspect between Christians
and Muslims who love her, pray for her, believe in the formation of her person
and consider her a saint.
Regarding his message to the Lebanese on Christmas, President Aoun said: “The
most important message I send to the Lebanese is: "Love each other." It is
certain that change is coming and will happen. This change will be intellectual
and practical, because we have reached what we are as a result of sin, theft,
corruption and failure in the system. This will force a certain change, but this
change needs time, and salvation comes gradually. Lebanon needs 6 or 7 years to
get out of the crisis it is suffering from”.
Prayer:
At the conclusion of the interview, Archbishop Darwishthanked President Aoun for
the meeting, and Mr. Abdo El-Helou, President Aoun and Archbishop Darwishrecited
prayers for Lebanon and the Lebanese to grant them peace and guidance to the
light of divine knowledge, so that they may enjoy the good tidings of the
glorious Christmas. President Aoun said: "I raise my prayers with all the
Lebanese to enjoy a new year in which social justice prevails and peace is
achieved. I wish success and a happy life for all Lebanese”. Then Archbishop
Darwish and Mr. El-Helou presented an icon representing the Holy Trinity dating
back more than 100 years, to President Aoun. ---- PRESIDENCY PRESS OFFICE
KSA-Led Coalition Says Hizbullah, Iran Aiding Huthi
Strikes
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 26 December,
2021
The Saudi-led coalition on Sunday accused Iran and Hizbullah of helping Yemen's
Huthi rebels to launch missiles and drones at the kingdom, where two people were
killed. Since the coalition intervened almost seven years ago to support Yemen's
government, Saudi Arabia has regularly accused Iran of supplying the Huthis with
weapons and Hizbullah of training the insurgents. Tehran denies the charges.
Hizbullah has previously denied sending fighters or weapons to Yemen. The latest
Saudi accusation came as the coalition intensified an aerial bombing campaign
against the Iran-backed Huthis in retaliation for deadly attacks on the kingdom.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told a news conference the Huthis were
"militarizing" Sanaa airport and using it as a "main center for launching
ballistic missiles and drones" towards the kingdom. Malki showed reporters a
video clip which he said depicted "the headquarters of Iranian and Hizbullah
experts at the airport" where, he alleged, "Hizbullah is training the Huthis to
booby-trap and use drones."Malki showed other clips which he said depicted a
Hizbullah member placing explosives in a drone, and a man he identified as a
Hizbullah official telling Huthi members "we must strengthen our ranks."The
footage could not be independently verified. The Arab military coalition led by
Riyadh intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the internationally recognized
government, a year after the Huthis overran the capital Sanaa. Since then, tens
of thousands of people have been killed, in what the United Nations has
described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The Huthis come from the
minority Zaidi Shiite sect of Islam and have their traditional stronghold in
Yemen's mountainous north. Between 2004 and 2010, they fought six wars against
Yemen's then-government and battled Saudi Arabia in 2009-2010 after storming
over the border. The deaths of two people overnight Friday from a rebel missile
strike on the Saudi city of Jazan were the first such deaths in the kingdom in
three years.
Escalation
On Sunday, Malki said the international community must "stop hostile acts by
this terrorist organization," a reference to Hizbullah. Since January 2018 the
Huthis have launched 430 ballistic missiles and 850 drones towards Saudi Arabia,
he said. Sunday evening the coalition announced it had made new strikes near an
air force academy in Sanaa to prevent weapons from being moved. Earlier Sunday
the coalition said it had struck a Huthi rebel camp in Sanaa, destroying weapons
warehouses. On Saturday, the coalition launched what it called a "large-scale"
military operation against the Huthis after the rebel missile strike that hit
Jazan. The coalition raids left three civilians dead, including a child and a
woman, Yemeni medics told AFP. Rights groups have criticized the coalition for
civilian casualties in its years-long aerial bombardment. The coalition
maintains its operations are carried out in accordance with international
humanitarian law, repeatedly urging the Huthis against using civilians as human
shields. Malki also accused Iran's ambassador to Sanaa, who died of Covid-19
last week after his evacuation from Yemen, of "leading the planning of military
operations in Marib" -- the Yemeni government's last stronghold in the north.
The Huthis warned in a statement that they will "face escalation with
escalation."
'Barbaric attack
World powers and the kingdom's Gulf Arab allies condemned the rebels' deadly
strike on Saudi Arabia. "Huthi attacks are perpetuating the conflict, prolonging
the suffering of the Yemeni people, and endangering the Saudi people alongside
more than 70,000 U.S. citizens residing in Saudi Arabia," Washington's embassy
to Riyadh said in a statement. Ludovic Pouille, the French ambassador to Riyadh,
on Twitter offered condolences to families of victims in the "barbaric Huthi
attack." The coalition has intensified its air strikes on Sanaa, including last
week on what it called "military targets" at the airport. United Nations aid
flights were interrupted as a result. The insurgents often launch missiles and
drones into Saudi Arabia aimed at its airports and oil infrastructure. The
U.N.'s World Food Program said it has been "forced" to cut aid to Yemen due to
lack of funds, and warned of a surge in hunger.
Arab Coalition: Terrorist Hezbollah Responsible for
Targeting Civilians in Saudi Arabia, Yemen
Riyadh - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
The Saudi-led Arab coalition revealed on Sunday evidence that proves the
involvement of the Hezbollah militias in Lebanon with the Iran-backed Houthi
militias in Yemen. In a press conference, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki
held Hezbollah responsible for targeting civilians in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and
of using Sanaa International Airport to attack the Kingdom. The coalition
presented photos and videos that showed Hezbollah members training the Houthis
on how to launch drones. Malki said the Houthis have fired 851 drones and 430
ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia. The militias have threatened marine
navigation by planting over 247 naval mines.The terrorist Hezbollah is
responsible for spreading destruction in the region and the world, added Malki.
The party is responsible for targeting civilians in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, he
stated. The Iranian regime sponsors armed groups in the region and is built on
destruction and chaos, he continued. The Houthis have adopted Iran's sectarian
ideology, he went on to say. Moreover, Iran is responsible for spreading
sectarian ideology in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, he charged. The Houthis do not
have the power to independently make decisions and so they cannot be part of the
political solution in Yemen, Malki remarked. The Arab coalition supports all
international efforts to resolve the crisis in Yemen according to the three
references, he stressed. The military operations in Yemen are aimed at restoring
security and stability in Yemen and Operation Decisive Storm and Operation
Restoring Hope were launched at the request of the Yemeni president, he
emphasized. Malki said the war in Yemen is socio-ideological and sectarian as is
the case in Lebanon. The political solution in Yemen is the best solution, but
the Houthis have rejected all United Nations efforts to end the crisis
politically. The Houthis are taking advantage of the de-escalation of fighting
and are mobilizing their forces on several fronts. The coalition, however is
monitoring their actions around the clock, Malki said.
Aoun to Reportedly Voice 'Explosive' Remarks on Monday
Naharnet/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
President Michel Aoun will voice “explosive” remarks in his televised address on
Monday and will tackle all the obstacles that marred his tenure since 2016 until
today, Baabda Palace sources told said. He will cite the obstacles put in his
way by both “allies and rivals” and will “call things by their name,” the
sources told al-Anbaa newspaper in remarks published Sunday. “He will not spare
the Mar Mikhail Agreement from his attack, because he is determined to say
things as they are,” the sources added. “He will reject to be blamed alone for
covering Hizbullah’s arms, because Hizbullah’s arms were present prior to his
return from France, and the March 14 forces dealt with them as a fait accompli
because they have regional links,” the sources said. The sources added that
“Aoun is dismayed by Hizbullah for obstructing the presidential tenure and its
full alignment with his rival Speaker Nabih Berri, who was the only one who
opposed his election as president.”
Lebanon’s young at risk of domestic violence, abuse
Arab News/December 26/2021
BEIRUT: The Lebanese economic crisis is threatening the present and future of
millions of children, according to human rights activists and UN officials. They
risk being exposed to child labor and premature marriage in order to help their
families make ends meet. Many people suffering from extreme poverty have
resorted to forcing their children to work. The children can be spotted in
grocery stores and in front of express shops on roadsides delivering orders to
passersby. During the last week, there were constant fatal or dangerous
incidents involving children as young as six in Lebanon. A six-year-old boy was
killed on Saturday in Baalbek when a hand grenade exploded while he was playing
with other children, some of whom were seriously injured. The children found the
device while they were playing. Weapons are easily carried and used in the
region, due to the presence of militias. Poverty-stricken areas are susceptible
to all kinds of dangers and they are often the only place where children can
play. On the same day, social media platforms were buzzing with pictures and
news of a Syrian refugee in Lebanon who tortured her two daughters at a housing
camp on the outskirts of Muhammarah, on the northern border of Lebanon.
Pictures showed bruises and signs of torture on the bodies of the young girls,
who are both younger than two. While the wife denied abusing the two children
and claimed that she had “fallen on them while she was asleep,” a medical
examination by a physician in a nearby health clinic showed that one of the two
children suffered a dislocated shoulder and bruises on the face, while the other
girl had a fractured pelvis.
The girls’ father turned off his phone, so activists in the area reached out to
the grandfather of the girls. One of them was taken to Halba Governmental
Hospital to undergo surgery, but the parents were unable to bear the costs of
the procedure. An NGO contacted the UNHCR, which in turn followed up the matter
with Lebanese security authorities, and the two girls were transferred to a
UNHCR protection center. If domestic violence and living hardships were not
enough, another incident occurred more than a week ago at a zoo in Lebanon,
which almost led to the death of a child. A boy, aged three, was accompanied by
his brothers and grandfather to a zoo in Nahr Al-Kalb, north of Beirut. They
were wandering between animal cages when the child approached a lioness’ cage,
according to the grandfather. In an instant, the animal struck the boy and began
to bite his body. But the grandfather and another person managed to snatch the
child from the clutches of the lioness.
The child suffered 21 wounds all over his body, including severe gashes.
The child’s father filed a legal complaint against the zoo’s owners due to an
alleged lack of supervision by state agencies. He said that “the principle of
imprisoning animals is rejected, but in case it happens, there are conditions
that must be applied. “The least of these conditions is that the captured lions
do not starve to a point where if they escape from their cages, they will attack
people and cause a massacre.” A report issued by UNICEF on Dec. 17 tackled
violence against children in Lebanon and warned that “at least 1 million
children are at risk of violence as the crisis in Lebanon intensifies.”
It estimated that “one out of two children in Lebanon is at risk of physical,
psychological or sexual violence, at a time when families are struggling to cope
with the worsening crisis in the country.” The report coincided with the visit
of Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against
Children Dr. Najla Mualla Majid to Lebanon. She said: “More than ever, there is
a need to ensure that children are protected from abuse, harm and violence and
that their rights are protected.”Lebanon, which hosts more than 1 million
refugees from Syria, is suffering from an economic crisis described by the World
Bank as “one of the worst crises the world has witnessed in modern times.” More
than 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, and the local currency has
lost 90 percent of its value against the US dollar. UNICEF estimated that “about
1.8 million children — more than 80 percent of children in Lebanon — are now
suffering from multidimensional poverty.” Its report showed that “the number of
child abuse cases and cases dealt with by UNICEF and its partners increased by
nearly 50 percent between October 2020 and October 2021, meaning that assaults
rose from 3,913 to 5,621 cases.”It has become common to see homeless children
roaming the streets of the capital and in various regions to beg, either
prompted by their parents or due to their own hunger and desperation. Many
mothers in poor communities who were approached by local TV stations during
Christmas revealed that their children sleep some days without eating dinner.
Israel can strike Iran ‘tomorrow’, Hezbollah might hit
back: New Air Force chief
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/26 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.”
How greatly we are in need of peace in our hearts and
across Lebanon’s regions,” asserts Poushkian
NNA/26 December ,2021
Minister of Industry, George Poushkian, visited Sunday Maronite Bishop of Zahle
Joseph Mouawad, Greek Orthodox Bishop Anthony al-Souri, and Syriac Orthodox
Bishop Paul Safar, expressing his well-wishes on the occasion of Christmas.
Greeting the people of Zahle, the Bekaa and all the Lebanese, Poushkian said:
"We are so much in need of inner peace in our hearts and throughout
Lebanon…Undoubtedly, our country, which is resilient to crises, will rise again
and recover and our people will overcome adversity and suffering.”He added: “My
visit to the Metropolitan Bishops today gives me hope for the resurrection of
Lebanon, and their contribution to helping society and alleviating its
suffering. The birth of Christ is the birth of love, devotion and sacrifice. We
hope that we will all rally around the national salvation government, to
continue to assume responsibilities and manage the country's affairs with all
seriousness, perseverance and conscientiousness."
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
December 26-27/2021
Another Covid Christmas Brings Anxiety, but
Also Optimism
Associated Press/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
Christmas arrived around the world Saturday amid a surge in Covid-19 infections
that kept many families apart, overwhelmed hospitals and curbed religious
observances as the pandemic was poised to stretch into a third year.
Yet, there were homilies of hope, as vaccines and other treatments become more
available. Pope Francis used his Christmas address to pray for more vaccines to
reach the poorest countries. While wealthy countries have inoculated as much as
90% of their adult populations, 8.9% of Africa's people are fully jabbed, making
it the world's least-vaccinated continent.
Only a few thousand well-wishers turned out for his noontime address and
blessing, but even that was better than last year, when Italy's Christmas
lockdown forced Francis indoors for the annual "Urbi et Orbi" ("To the city and
the world") speech. "Grant health to the infirm and inspire all men and women of
goodwill to seek the best ways possible to overcome the current health crisis
and its effects," Francis said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. "Open
hearts to ensure that necessary medical care — and vaccines in particular — are
provided to those peoples who need them most."
In the United States, many churches canceled in-person services, but for those
that did have in-person worship, clerics reported smaller but significant
attendance. "Our hopes for a normal Christmas have been tempered by omicron this
year … still filled with uncertainties and threats that overshadow us," the Rev.
Ken Boller told his parishioners during midnight Mass at the Church of St.
Francis Xavier in New York City. "Breakthrough used to be a happy word for us,
until it was associated with Covid. And in the midst of it all, we celebrate
Christmas."
The Rev. Alex Karloutsos, of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Church of the
Hamptons in Southampton, New York, said attendance at the Christmas Eve liturgy
was a third less than last year's, with "the reality of the omicron virus
diminishing the crowd, but not the fervor of the faithful present."
St. Patrick's Church in Hubbard, Ohio, held Mass on Christmas Eve in a nearby
high school because of a church fire this year. The Mass drew about 550 people,
said Youngstown Bishop David Bonnar, who presided.
In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II noted another year of pain — particularly
personal after losing her husband, Prince Philip, in April — and urged people to
celebrate with friends and family. "Although it's a time of great happiness and
good cheer for many, Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones,''
the queen said in the prerecorded message broadcast when many British families
were enjoying their traditional Christmas dinner. "This year, especially, I
understand why.''Thousands of people across Britain got a vaccine booster shot
for Christmas as new cases hit another daily record of 122,186. The Good Health
Pharmacy in north London was one of dozens of sites that stayed open Saturday to
administer "jingle jabs" amid a government push to offer booster shots to all
adults by the end of the year.
The head of intensive care at a hospital in Marseille, France, said most
Covid-19 patients over Christmas were unvaccinated, while his staff are
exhausted or can't work because they are infected. "We're sick of this," said
Dr. Julien Carvelli, the ICU chief at La Timone Hospital, as his team spent
another Christmas Eve tending to Covid-19 patients on breathing machines. "We're
afraid we won't have enough space."On the other side of the globe, hundreds of
thousands of people in the Philippines, Asia's largest Roman Catholic nation,
spent Christmas without homes, electricity, or adequate food and water after a
powerful typhoon left at least 375 people dead last week and devastated mostly
central island provinces. Gov. Arthur Yap of hard-hit Bohol province, where more
than 100 people died in the typhoon and about 150,000 houses were damaged or
destroyed, appealed for help. He was happy many Filipinos could celebrate
Christmas more safely after Covid-19 cases dropped, but he pleaded: "Please
don't forget us." At least one American Christmas tradition was revived after
the pandemic drove it online last year: the annual reenactment of George
Washington's daring crossing of the Delaware River in 1776. Reenactors in three
boats completed the crossing in about an hour Saturday. Crowds were in the
hundreds, down from the usual thousands.Covid-19 testing continued unimpeded in
some places, while other sites closed for the day. Lines that in previous days
wrapped around the block at a small testing center in Chicago's Lincoln Square
neighborhood shrank considerably Saturday, when the only customers inside were
Shayna Prihoda and Michael Boundy, whose negative tests freed them to visit
Boundy's parents in Michigan.
"We would have stayed home and quarantined," Boundy said.
Swelling numbers of cases in Florida made tests almost as popular as Christmas
ham. Florida hit a new case record for the second day in a row. Hours before a
testing site opened at Tropical Park in Miami, dozens of cars lined up. To
alleviate demand, county workers had distributed 12,500 at-home test kits Friday
at libraries. Most of New York City's 120 testing sites were closed Saturday, a
day after police were summoned to a Brooklyn neighborhood to quell an angry
crowd that had been expecting to receive free at-home testing kits, only to have
the supply run out.
Chairs went empty at some dinner tables after airlines around the world canceled
hundreds of flights as the omicron variant jumbled schedules and reduced
staffing. Airlines scrapped nearly 6,000 flights globally that had been
scheduled to take off Friday, Saturday or Sunday, with nearly a third involving
U.S. flights, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. At a
reception center for asylum-seekers in Cyprus, Patricia Etoh, a Catholic from
Cameroon, said she did not have any special plans because it just did not feel
like Christmas without her 6-year-old child, whom she had to leave behind.
But she added: "We're grateful, we're alive, and when we're alive, there's
hope."
In 2021, Iran Commits Extreme Violations Threatening
Revival of 2015 Nuclear Deal
London - Adel al-Salmi/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
For Iranians, 2021 started amid rising tensions with the United States that
threatened war breaking out on the first anniversary of the assassination of
General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force
and the mastermind of Iran’s regional strategy.
The year also kicked off during the final days of President Donald Trump in
office. Trump was the architect of the maximum pressure campaign against Iran.
Gradually, Iranian-US tensions were reshaped by changes to the political
equation in Washington and Tehran. The shift began with President Joe Biden
taking over the White House and expressing his willingness to reduce tensions
and restore the 2015 nuclear deal.
A month after taking office, the Biden administration agreed to accept a
European invitation to return to the negotiating table, eased restrictions on
the movement of Iranian diplomats in New York, and asked the UN Security Council
to freeze the previous administration’s move to reimpose international sanctions
on Tehran. It took negotiators 75 days to find a way to kickstart talks in
Vienna. They launched on April 6, with the US participating indirectly, paving
the way for a new marathon of negotiations between Tehran and major countries.
Six rounds of talks, which began on April 6 and ended on June 20, concluded with
a draft agreement that both sides said stood for 70% to 80% percent of the
required understanding.
European mediators and diplomats from China and Russia have created three
separate working groups. Two groups are examining which sanctions Iran wants to
be lifted and the nuclear commitments needed from Tehran. The third group works
on coordinating steps. Throughout discussions, diplomats spoke of “constructive
progress” with cautious optimism. At the end of the third round of negotiations
on May 1, Iran’s then-chief nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, said Tehran
expects US sanctions on oil, banks, and other sectors and on most individuals
and institutions to be lifted based on agreements reached so far at the talks.
In the fourth round, diplomats began talking about the need for a political
decision in the capitals. At the end of the fifth round, on May 25, Araghchi
said that “the differences have reached a point that everyone believes is
solvable.”With no agreement reached, talks were halted on June 20, the day after
the results of the Iranian presidential elections were announced. Iran’s return
to the negotiating table in Vienna was delayed more than 5 months, before it
resumed on November 29, with fundamental changes to its negotiating team,
currently led by Ali Bagheri, one of the most prominent critics of the 2015
nuclear deal. In 2021, Iran continued to ramp up its nuclear deal violations by
enriching uranium to greater purity than permitted, stockpiling more enriched
uranium than allowed, and using more advanced centrifuges. In January, Iran said
it had resumed 20% uranium enrichment, a step away from producing weapons-grade
levels, at Fordow site where activity was banned for 15 years.Early July, Iran
took concrete steps to produce uranium metal. That is a breach of the deal,
which bans all work on uranium metal since it can be used to make the core of a
nuclear bomb. Also, Iran has warned that it could impose restrictions on IAEA
inspectors in the country on February 21 if the US does not lift sanctions,
which would mark the most serious breach of the deal.
Iran Says It Seeks to Use Domestic Nuclear Fuel For Power
Plant
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said that Iran hopes to replace
Russian fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plant with domestic uranium.. "We had
talks with Rosatom and we hope that as part of our cooperation, based on the
plans and contracts we will sign, we will be able to do this and start using
Iranian fuel in the reactor in Bushehr", Mohammad Eslami was quoted Saturday by
Russia's state-owned Sputnik as saying. Asked whether Iran will continue to
enrich uranium beyond 60 percent if the country does not return to the 2015
nuclear deal and sanctions are not lifted, Eslami said "no," noting that the
enrichment levels were related to the needs of the country. "Our targets related
to enriching uranium are meeting our industrial and production needs... and
those of our people," he was quoted as saying. Eslami was speaking ahead of the
resumption on Monday of talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear
deal. The 2015 deal offered Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on
its nuclear program, but was derailed in 2018 when the US unilaterally withdrew
under then president Donald Trump. Other parties to the deal have taken part in
the talks, but the United States has only engaged indirectly. While the US and
its Western allies have repeatedly called on Iran to offer assurances on its
nuclear program, Tehran has insisted sanctions must be lifted first.
Iran Christian prisoners get rare 10-day holiday leave
AFP/26 December ,2021
The head of Iran's judiciary on Sunday granted Christian prisoners 10 days'
liberty to spend the holidays with families, in a rare move towards the minority
community. Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei instructed authorities across the country
to issue the dispensation, according to the judiciary's Mizan Online website.
“The decision is to mark the New Year 2022 and the anniversary of the birth of
Jesus Christ,” the website said. Mizan Online did not say how many Christian
prisoners will benefit from the furlough, or when the 10-day period starts. It
said, however, that inmates convicted for undermining security, organized crime,
abductions, armed robberies and those sentenced to death would be exempted.
According to local media, Christians represent just one percent of Iran's total
population of 83 million, the majority of whom are Shiite Muslims. Most
Christians in Iran are Armenians who celebrate Christmas on January 6, the day
of the Epiphany. Around that time of year, some shops in Tehran and major cities
put up decorations, including Christmas trees while people dressed up as Santa
Claus stand outside stores. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei often
grants amnesty to prisoners or reduces their sentences to mark Muslim holidays.
But it is rare for Iranian authorities to announce such measures concerning
members of the Islamic republic's Christian minority. This year Iranian
President Ebrahim Raisi visited the Tehran home of the family of a Christian
Armenian “martyr” who died in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war on Christmas Eve, the
official IRNA news agency reported.
French arrest man over chemical weapons parts in Syria
AFP/December 26, 2021
PARIS: A French-Syrian man has been detained by French police on suspicion of
supplying components for the manufacture of chemical weapons in Syria through
his shipping company, sources briefed on the case told AFP Sunday. The man, who
was born in 1962 and lives abroad, was arrested Saturday in the south of France
according to one of the sources. He has been held on suspicion of “conspiracy to
commit crimes against humanity, accessory to crimes against humanity and
accessory to war crimes,” a judicial source told AFP. The war in Syria has
killed close to half a million people and spurred the largest conflict-induced
displacement since World War II. Syria denies the use of chemical weapons. It
insists it handed over its weapons stockpiles under a 2013 agreement with the US
and Russia, prompted by a suspected sarin gas attack that killed 1,400 in the
Damascus suburb of Ghouta. But Syria was stripped of its Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voting rights in April after a probe
blamed it for further poison gas attacks.It will remain suspended until it has
fully declared its chemical weapons and weapons-making facilities.
Saudi-Led Coalition Hits Yemen Rebel Camp in Ramped Up Air
War
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Sunday it struck a Huthi rebel
camp in the capital Sanaa, as it intensified an aerial bombing campaign against
the Iran-backed insurgents. The coalition, which backs Yemen's internationally
recognized government against the Huthis in a civil war, said it destroyed
weapons storehouses in the rebel-held capital, according to the official Saudi
Press Agency (SPA). "The operation in Sanaa was an immediate response to an
attempt to transfer weapons from Al-Tashrifat camp in Sanaa," it said in a
statement, adding it "destroyed weapons warehouses."
The coalition is scheduled to hold a news conference on Sunday at which it has
said it will show evidence of involvement by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbullah in
the Yemeni conflict. Saudi Arabia has long accused Iran of supplying the Huthis
with sophisticated weapons and Hizbullah of training the insurgents, charges the
Islamic republic denies. Yemen has been wracked by civil war since 2014 pitting
the government against the Huthis who control much of the north. Tens of
thousands of people have been killed, in what the United Nations has described
as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The coalition launched a "large-scale" military operation against the Huthis on
Saturday, the Saudi authorities said, after missiles fired by the rebels killed
two people in the kingdom, the first such deaths in three years. Those air raids
left dead three civilians, including a child and a woman, Yemeni medics told AFP.
The coalition maintains its operations are carried out in accordance with
international humanitarian law, repeatedly urging the Huthis against using
civilians as human shields. It said it will present during Sunday's news
conference "evidence of involvement of Lebanon's terrorist Hezbollah in Yemen
and use of (Sanaa) airport to target the kingdom", according to SPA.
- 'Barbaric attack' -
The Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al Jaber, charged that the rebels were
using Iranian weapons to target the kingdom, which likens the Huthis to a
Hezbollah-like force in its backyard. "Using an Iranian weapon launched from
Yemen, the Huthi militia killed two civilians... another criminal and terrorist
act," he tweeted Saturday. The Huthi attack was also condemned by the French and
US embassies in Saudi Arabia, as well as the kingdom's Gulf Arab allies. "Huthi
attacks are perpetuating the conflict, prolonging the suffering of the Yemeni
people, and endangering the Saudi people alongside more than 70,000 US citizens
residing in Saudi Arabia," the US embassy said in a statement Saturday. French
ambassador Ludovic Pouille took to Twitter to offer condolences to the families
of the victims of what he called the "barbaric Huthi attack". The coalition has
intensified its air strikes on Sanaa, targeting earlier this week the airport,
whose operations have largely ceased because of a Saudi-led blockade since
August 2016, with exemptions for aid flights. The insurgents often launch
missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia aimed at its airports and oil
infrastructure. The UN estimates Yemen's war will have claimed 377,000 lives by
the end of the year through both direct and indirect impacts. The UN's World
Food Program said it has been "forced" to cut aid to Yemen due to lack of funds,
and warned of a surge in hunger in the country. More than 80 percent of Yemen's
population of about 30 million requires humanitarian assistance.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu dies at 90
CNN/December 26/2021
Desmond Tutu, the first black archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, has passed
away, according to a statement released by South African President Cyril
Ramaphosa on Sunday. He was 90.
He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his efforts to end apartheid, and
played a key role in South Africa's transition from the apartheid era, including
serving as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the direction
of then-President Nelson Mandela.
Sudan Says 58 Policemen Injured in Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
Sudanese authorities said on Sunday that 58 police personnel had been injured
during protests the previous day against military rule, and that tear gas had
been used only to confront attacks on security facilities and vehicles, state TV
reported. The Khartoum security committee's statement added that 114 people had
been arrested and faced prosecution after Saturday's protests, the latest in a
series of rallies against an Oct. 25 coup that upended a transition towards
democratic elections. Medics aligned with the protest movement said earlier that
violence by security forces had caused 178 injuries among demonstrators,
including eight with live bullet wounds. At least 48 people have been killed in
crackdowns on protests against the coup, the medics said, Reuters reported.
Internet and phone communications were disrupted on Saturday, and security
forces fired tear gas as they blocked protesters from reaching the presidential
palace.
Palestinians, Israeli Forces Clash near West Bank
Outpost
Associated Press/December 26/2021
Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians in the West Bank in an area that has
seen a recent uptick in friction, the Israeli military and Palestinian medics
said. The clashes late Saturday were part of days of tension in the area
surrounding a West Bank settlement outpost and a spike in violence elsewhere in
the West Bank and east Jerusalem. During the clashes, the military said,
hundreds of Palestinians threw rocks and burned tires and shots were fired in
the area. The military said forces responded with live fire and "riot dispersal
means," typically tear gas and stun grenades. The military also said shots were
fired from a passing vehicle toward a military post near the West Bank city of
Nablus, which is south of Homesh. It was not clear if the shooting was related
to the clashes. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 10 people were wounded by live
fire. The Palestinian Health Ministry said one of them, a 17-year-old, was
seriously wounded. Dozens of others were wounded by rubber bullets. A soldier
was lightly wounded, the military said. Homesh, in the northern West Bank, was
dismantled as part of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. But in
recent years, Israeli settlers have returned to pray and established an
unauthorized outpost at the site. Last week, at least one Palestinian gunman
opened fire on a car filled with Jewish seminary students next to the outpost.
Yehuda Dimentman, 25, was killed and two others were wounded near Homesh, which
is considered illegal by the Israeli government. On Thursday, thousands of
Jewish nationalists marched to Homesh to mark the end of the mourning period for
Dimentman and on Friday, Israeli forces dismantled structures that settlers had
erected at the outpost. According to Israeli media reports, Jewish settlers were
expected to march again to the outpost on Saturday night, drawing calls on
Palestinian social media for nearby villagers to be on alert. The clashes come
amid an increase in Israeli-Palestinian violence elsewhere in the West Bank and
in east Jerusalem. Earlier this month, an ultra-Orthodox Jew was left seriously
injured after being stabbed by a Palestinian attacker outside the walls of
Jerusalem's Old City. A week before, a Hamas militant opened fire in the Old
City, killing an Israeli man. Both attackers were killed by Israeli forces.
Settler violence against Palestinians has seen a similar increase during the
olive harvest. In mid-November, Jewish settlers attacked a group of Palestinian
farmers with pepper spray and clubs in the farmland surrounding Homesh, injuring
four people. Israel captured east Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967
Mideast war, and the territories are now home to over 700,000 Israel settlers.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements illegal
obstacles to peace. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem and the West Bank as
parts of a future independent state..
UNRWA Begins Reconstruction in Gaza After Israeli Aggression
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East (UNRWA) will start rebuilding houses destroyed in the Gaza Strip and pay
financial compensation to those affected by the latest Israeli aggression. UNRWA
media advisor Adnan Abu Hasna told local al-Aqsa Radio that over the past
period, the UNRWA spent "rental allowance" for six months and will pay for four
others. Israel carried out 11-day aggression on Gaza, and it ended by declaring
a ceasefire on May 21. Abu Hasna also noted there had been no development so far
regarding the issue of those affected by the 2014 war, which lasted 51 days and
left massive destruction at the time. The aggression caused severe destruction
to 1,335 residential institutions, and moderate destruction to around 12,886
houses, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza. UNRWA launched this
operation in coordination with the Ministry of Works in Gaza, responsible for
non-refugees and UNDP, and other UN institutions. Egypt is working with a $500
million grant to build three housing complexes in the Gaza Strip, including the
American School in the north of Gaza, the area of the veterans in al-Karama,
and al-Zahra. Cairo supervised the first phase of the reconstruction process,
which included removing the rubble, with the participation of Egyptian technical
teams. Qatar also provided a $500 million grant, Germany $9 million. Some
donations were provided by international and local countries and institutions,
estimated at nearly $20 million. Officials in Gaza say the first stage of the
reconstruction process is valued at $310 million, while the reconstruction and
development stage is about $3.6 billion. It is noteworthy that the total amount
required for the reconstruction of the Strip, according to the National Plan for
the Reconstruction of Gaza approved at the 2014 Cairo Conference, is about $3.9
billion. Donors pledged nearly $5 billion, including $3.5 billion for the
enclave's reconstruction. Still, the total amount received from pledges amounted
to almost $900 million, representing 26 percent of the general pledges for the
reconstruction process.
Houthis Release 70% of Al-Qaeda Prisoners
Aden – Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
Houthis released 70 percent of al-Qaeda's top members detained in prisons, which
threatens civilians and constitutes a blow to international efforts to combat
terrorism, according to a recent study by the Sanaa Center. The study stated
Houthis released over 400 prisoners in an exchange deal, which contributed to
strengthening the ranks of the extremist organization and helped it overcome the
recruitment crisis. According to the study, the remaining Qaeda detainees are
among the lowest-ranking members in the chain of command. Furthermore, the Qaeda
militant group no longer raids the prisons to release its members after Houthis
responded to their requests, considering the prisoner exchange an excellent way
to secure the freedom of their militants, regardless of international concerns.
The study showed that the militia did not object to any of the names provided by
the Qaeda during negotiations, which only focused on the numbers of the
prisoners. During the talks, Qaeda requested the release of 20 members in
exchange for releasing one Houthi prisoner, who belongs to the Houthi family. In
addition, the organization succeeded in liberating the fourth top leader in its
Egyptian organization, al-Masry Saif al-Adl, detained in Iran since 2003, in
exchange for the release of Iranian diplomat Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, who was
kidnapped in 2012 by al-Qaeda in Yemen. The study quoted al-Qaeda sources as
saying that Nikbakht's release was, in fact, part of a tripartite deal that
included Qaeda, the Houthi authorities, and Iran, in which many Qaeda leaders in
Sanaa were released. In April 2016, the Houthi militia conducted an exchange
with Ansar al-Sharia, Qaeda's local wing in Yemen, to release 100 prisoners. The
organization is classified on the global terrorism list. Last July, the two
groups exchanged four prisoners from both sides. Houthis handed over Qaeda
leaders Aidarous al-Masoudi and Abdullah al-Masoudi, detained in the National
Security Prison since before the coup. Tribal and governmental sources say that
the Houthi militia provided unlimited support to the Qaeda group since its coup
in 2014 by releasing its leaders and members from intelligence prisons in
exchange deals. Researchers believe that the rise of the Houthis has turned
Yemen into a fertile environment for polarization on a sectarian basis. It also
escalated with their calls for resistance on religious grounds. Qaeda took
advantage of the widespread anger and the reaction to the militias' practices
and was able to attract different groups to its ranks.
Tunisians Rescue 48 Migrants at Sea
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
Tunisian coastguards have rescued 48 illegal migrants trying to reach Europe
from neighboring Libya in a makeshift boat, the North African country's Red
Crescent said on Saturday. Red Crescent official Mongi Slim said the migrants --
among them 15 from Mali, 15 Syrians and four Egyptians -- were intercepted and
rescued off Zarzis when their boat broke down. The rescued migrants were taken
to El Ketef port before being transferred to International Organization for
Migration (IOM) premises, AFP quoted Slim as saying. A separate Tunisian defense
ministry statement said the navy had rescued 28 migrants aged between 14 and 33
off Zarzis on Thursday. They had also departed from Libya. The IOM says that
23,000 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014 while
trying to reach Europe -- including nearly 1,700 this year. On Tuesday the IOM
said at least 160 migrants drowned off Libya's coast after their boats sank over
the previous week. The Italian island of Lampedusa is located just 140
kilometers from Tunisian shores.
Bodies of 16 killed in Channel Boat Disaster Repatriated to Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 26 December, 2021
The bodies of 16 people killed when their boat sank in the Channel while trying
to reach England were repatriated early Sunday to Iraqi Kurdistan where their
families were awaiting them, an AFP photographer saw. The plane carrying them
arrived around 2:00 am at Erbil, capital of the autonomous region in northern
Iraq. The remains were transferred to ambulances to transport them to their
hometowns of Darbandikhan, Ranya, Soran and Qadrawa. At least 27 people perished
in the November 24 tragedy, the deadliest disaster since the Channel became a
hub for clandestine migrant crossings from France to England. At the terminal at
Erbil airport, emotional families waited for the arrival of the remains of their
loved ones, some hugging each other or showing photos of their late relatives.
Originally scheduled for Friday, the repatriation had been postponed twice. The
27 victims were mostly men but also included seven women, a 16-year-old and a
seven-year-old child. Besides the 16 Iraqi Kurds, the 26 identified included an
Iranian Kurd, four Afghan men, three Ethiopians, a Somali and an Egyptian. Only
two people were rescued after their inflatable boat capsized, an Iraqi Kurd and
a Sudanese national, according to the French interior ministry. According to the
Iraqi survivor there had been a total of 33 people aboard. French investigators
are still trying to establish a clearer picture of what happened during the
disaster. They have been investigating reports the passengers had telephoned
both French and British emergency services, appealing for help when the vessel
began sinking. The disaster also caused major diplomatic tensions between London
and Paris. Within 48 hours of the accident, French President Emmanuel Macron
accused British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of being "not serious" in his
approach to stopping the crossings. Paris was irked by Johnson's initial
reaction, which was seen as deflecting blame onto France.
The Latest The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on December 26-27/2021
ريموند إبراهيم/معهد كايتستون: كراهية صليب
المسيحيين
Hatred for the Christian Cross
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/December 26, 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/105054/raymond-ibrahim-gatestone-institute-hatred-for-the-christian-cross-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86%d8%af-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%aa/
“Under no circumstances is a human permitted to wear the cross.” Why? “Because
the prophet — peace and blessings on him — commanded the breaking of it [the
cross].” — Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Tarifi, Saudi expert on Islamic law, YouTube,
May 8, 2013.
One Pakistani shoe-seller placed the image of the cross on the soles of his
shoes so that the crucifix could be trampled with every footstep.
Despite being called “people of the book” — a view apologists for Islam tend to
strain — both Christians and Jews are, in the end, also classified as infidels (kuffar;
singular, kafir). Thus Koran 5:51 warns Muslims against “taking the Jews and
Christians as friends and allies … whoever among you takes them for friends and
allies, he is surely one of them”—that is, he too becomes an infidel. Koran 5:73
declares that “Infidels are they who say God is one of three,” a reference to
the Christian Trinity; Koran 5:72 says “Infidels are they who say God is the
Christ, [Jesus] son of Mary”; and Koran 9:30 complains that “the Christians say
the Christ is the son of God … may Allah’s curse be upon them!”
The final word on both Christians and Jews was “revealed” in Koran 9:29: “Fight
those among the People of the Book who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day,
who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not
embrace the religion of truth [Islam], until they pay the jizya [monetary
tribute] with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued.” With
that, their fate was sealed; like all other infidels, Christians and Jews were
to be warred on until “subdued”.
While attacks on people would of course be worse than attacks on inanimate
religious symbols, appeasement, sadly, seems only to encourage these outbursts
of hate.
2014: After Muslims were granted their own section at a cemetery, and allowed to
conduct distinctly Islamic ceremonies, they began to demand that Christian
symbols and crosses in the cemetery were offensive and that they should be
removed or at least covered up during Islamic funerals.
“At this hospital there are members of staff who go to a mosque four times a day
and no one says anything to them. Hindus wear red bracelets on their wrists and
female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre. Yet my small cross around my neck was
deemed so dangerous that I was no longer allowed to do my job.” — Mary Onuoha, a
61 year-old Christian woman who escaped her Nigerian homeland to Britain in 1988
in order to worship freely and was “bullied” out of her London job as a nurse
for refusing to remove her small cross necklace; Daily Mail, October 8, 2021,
United Kingdom.
In Trabzon, Turkey, locals interrupted the burial of a Christian woman — in part
by shouting, “Allahu Akbar!” — at the cemetery of the Santa Maria Catholic
Church on January 18, 2020. On February 14, her grave was found desecrated, its
wooden cross broken and burned. Pictured: The funeral of 60-year-old Italian
Catholic priest Andrea Santoro at Santa Maria on February 6, 2006. Santoro was
shot and murdered at the church by a 16-year-old shouting “Allahu Akbar”. (Photo
by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Muslim Brotherhood members in Egypt mauled a young Christian woman, Mary, to
death after they saw her cross.
Also in Egypt, Ayman, 17, a Christian student, was strangled and beaten to death
by his teacher and fellow students for refusing to obey the teacher’s demand
that he cover his cross. When the school’s principal was informed of the attack,
he ignored it and “continued to sip his tea.”
This year in Egypt, after the headmaster of a school ordered all of the students
to remove any jewelry bearing a cross and the Christians refused, they were
“beaten up by teachers and fellow students, according to a November 21, 2021
report. In another incident, a female teacher “attacked a Christian student,
then encouraged other students to do the same, take his cross pendant from him
and destroy the cross.”
At least these latest rounds of anti-cross rage were not fatal; others have
been.
The Maspero massacre of 2011 saw the Egyptian military massacre dozens of
Christians— some by running them over with armored vehicles. The Muslims had
insisted that a Coptic church be stripped of its domed cross so it would not
resemble a church. The cross “provokes us,” a Muslim elder said. When the
Christians refused, the Muslims destroyed the church. That was what the
Christians had been protesting when the Egyptian military mowed them down.
The reason for this hostility is that the Koran, believed to be the words of
Allah, is riddled with hostility for both Christians and Jews — both of whom are
described as “the worst of creatures” (Koran 98:6). Despite being called “people
of the book”— a view apologists for Islam tend to strain — both Christians and
Jews are, in the end, also classified as infidels (kuffar; singular, kafir).
Thus Koran 5:51 warns Muslims against “taking the Jews and Christians as friends
and allies … whoever among you takes them for friends and allies, he is surely
one of them” — that is, he too becomes an infidel. Koran 5:73 declares that
“Infidels are they who say God is one of three,” a reference to the Christian
Trinity; Koran 5:72 says “Infidels are they who say God is the Christ, [Jesus]
son of Mary”; and Koran 9:30 complains that “the Christians say the Christ is
the son of God … may Allah’s curse be upon them!”
The final word on both Christians and Jews was “revealed” in Koran 9:29:
“Fight those among the People of the Book who do not believe in Allah nor the
Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who
do not embrace the religion of truth [Islam], until they pay the jizya [monetary
tribute] with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued.” With
that, their fate was sealed; like all other infidels, Christians and Jews were
to be warred on until “subdued”.
From here one can begin to understand why the crucifix makes some Muslims react
so violently. Not only is the cross the symbol of Christianity for virtually all
denominations; it also symbolizes the fundamental disagreement between
Christians and Muslims. “The cross,” notes historian Sidney Griffith, ” …
publicly declared those very points of Christian faith which the Koran
[4:157-158], in the Muslim view, explicitly denied: that Christ was the Son of
God and that he died on the cross.” Accordingly, “the cross … often aroused the
disdain of Muslims,” so that from the start of the Muslim conquests of Christian
lands there was an ongoing “campaign to erase the public symbols of
Christianity, especially the previously ubiquitous sign of the cross” (Griffith,
Sidney, The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the
World of Islam, 2010, pp. 14, 144–145)
The campaign repudiating the cross, presumably seen as a form of idolatry,
traces back to the Muslim prophet Muhammad, who reportedly “had such a
repugnance to the form of the cross that he broke everything brought into his
house with its figure upon it,” wrote another historian, William Muir. (The Life
of Mohammad from Original Sources, 1923, p. 200). Muhammad also claimed that at
the end of time, Jesus (“Isa”) himself would make it a point to “break the
cross” (Sahih Bukhari 4:55:657)
There are some modern Muslim clerics, such as Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Tarifi, a
Saudi expert on Islamic law, who said, “Under no circumstances is a human
permitted to wear the cross.” Why? “Because the prophet — peace and blessings on
him — commanded the breaking of it [the cross].”
Islamic history reflects these sentiments. Sheikh al-Tarifi explains that if it
is too difficult to break the cross — for example, if it is a large concrete
statue — Muslims should at least try to disfigure one of its four arms “so that
it no longer resembles a cross.” Historic and numismatic evidence confirms that
the Umayyad caliphate, after it seized the Byzantine treasury in the late
seventh century, ordered that one or two arms of the cross on the coins be
effaced so that the image no longer resemble a crucifix.
Testimonies are endless — from the very earliest Islamic invasions into
Christian Syria and Egypt — of Muslims systematically breaking every crucifix
they encountered. According to Anastasius of Sinai, during the seventh-century
Arab conquests, “the demons name the Saracens [Arabs/Muslims] as their
companions. And it is with reason. The latter are perhaps even worse than the
demons,” for whereas “the demons are frequently much afraid of the mysteries of
Christ,” among which he mentions the cross, “these demons of flesh trample all
that under their feet, mock it, set fire to it, destroy it.” (Hoyland, Robert G.
Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and
Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam, 1997, p. 100-101)
In Portugal, in 1147, Muslims displayed “with much derision the symbol of the
cross. They spat upon it and wiped the feces from their posteriors with it”
(Allen, S. J., ed. 2010. The Crusades: A Reader, 2010, p. 306). Decades earlier
in Jerusalem, Muslims “spat on them [crucifixes] and did not even refrain from
urinating on them in the sight of all” (Rubenstein, Jay, ed., The First Crusade:
A Brief History with Documents, 2015, pp. 143-144) Even the supposedly
“magnanimous” sultan, Saladin, commanded “whoever saw that the outside of a
church was white, to cover it with black dirt” and ordered “the removal of every
cross from atop the dome of every church in the provinces of Egypt.” (Guindy,
Adel. Hikayat al-Ihtilal: wa-Tashih ba’d al-mafahim, 2009, p. 88)
Regrettably, Muslim opinion often appears not to have changed. When responding
to why Muslims “felt a chill whenever they saw a crucifix,” Indonesian cleric
Sheikh Abdul Somad replied: “Because of Satan!” The cross, he said, is “an
element of the devil.” Kuwaiti cleric Othman al-Khamis, in the same vein, issued
a fatwa comparing the Christian crucifix to Satan. He added that crosses can
only be publicly displayed to mock them, such as by depicting them “in an
insulting place such as socks.” One Pakistani shoe-seller placed the image of
the cross on the soles of his shoes so that the crucifix could be trampled with
every footstep.
Lest these views seem aberrant, here below are other accounts from nations apart
from Egypt that show how the crucifix continues allegedly to “provoke” and
“arouse the disdain” of Muslims and even lead to murder. Two other nations —
Pakistan and Turkey — have little to do one another racially, linguistically or
culturally, except they are both Islamic. There follow more examples from the
Islamic world, and finally from Western nations with large Muslim populations.
While attacks on people would of course be worse than attacks on inanimate
religious symbols, appeasement, sadly, seems only to encourage these outbursts
of hate.
Pakistan
2019: Three Muslim men — Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Amjad, and Abdul Majeed —
participated in the murder of two Christian brothers, Javaid and Suleman Masih.
Javaid’s family related:
“The Muslim neighbors did not like our van, which carries a holy cross inside,
to be parked next to their door. They often criticized it…. Naveed, one of the
Muslim family members, was trying to put some scratches on the wind-screen of
[the] van on the incident day. When I tried to stop him, he reacted in anger
stating ‘whenever I step out of my house, I see this hanging stuff (holy cross)
in the van – which I don’t want to see.’ He pointed out the cross in an
insulting way. ‘Therefore, you must remove it,’ he ordered.”
2012: When a Muslim man saw Julie Aftab, a Christian woman, wearing a cross
around her neck, he attacked her, forced battery acid down her throat, and
splashed it on her face — permanently damaging her esophagus, blinding her in
one eye, and causing her to lose both eyelids and most of her teeth.
2020: Muslims ransacked and beat the employees of a Christian barbershop for
displaying a cross and other Christian symbols. Earlier, the Muslims entered the
store and began to abuse the owners for hanging a cross on the front wall. The
Muslims “told us to remove the Christian symbols from the shop because Muslim
customers did not feel comfortable,” a co-owner explained. The next day, more
than a dozen men wielding iron rods attacked the store, and damaged its glass
door, mirrors, shelves, cupboards, and other equipment. “They also beat staff
and looted cash and other expensive stuff from the shop.” Police responded by
arresting one of the owners based on the accusation that by hanging a cross, he
was evangelizing to Muslims.
2020: After receiving complaints and threats from local Muslims, a church
congregation, “With broken hearts,” to quote its pastor, agreed to take down the
cross from their church: “We took this decision for the safety and protection of
Christians in the village…. Muslims threatened that if we don’t remove the
cross, they will ban the prayer services and take the church property.”
2020: An armed Muslim mob shouting “anti-Christian slogans” tried to set fire to
the Trinity Pentecostal Church in Hakeem Pura. Although they ultimately failed,
they managed to destroy at least one part of the church: “Not only was the cross
broken, but our hearts were crushed too,” a Christian eyewitness said.
2019: Several crosses fixed to the tombstones of thirty-eight Christian graves
at a cemetery were viciously desecrated and defaced.
Turkey
2012: A 12-year-old boy wearing a silver cross necklace in class was spit on and
regularly beaten by Muslim teachers and classmates.
2019: Two Muslim men attacked a Christian teenager in the street after they
noticed he was wearing a crucifix around his neck. They initially stopped him
and pulled on his cross-necklace while asking if he “knows what this means?”
When the youth responded, “Yes, I know. I’m a Christian,” they beat him and
fled.
2020: After locals interrupted the burial of a Christian woman with shouts of
“Allahu Akbar!” at the cemetery of the Santa Maria Catholic Church in Trabzon,
when her husband later came to mourn, he found her grave desecrated. The wooden
cross had been broken off and burned. The priest of the church where the woman
had been a member, Father Andrea Santoro, was himself murdered in 2006 when a
16-year-old shouting “Allahu Akbar” shot him in the back of the head while he
was kneeling in prayer.
2019: “A local municipality in Trabzon (northern Turkey) has ruled that
architectural elements of houses which resemble crosses will not be tolerated.”
The report continues:
“This decision follows an investigation which opened last December following
complaints that the balconies of certain villas in the village resembled
crosses. Photos show that houses had two levels and a cross shape divided the
houses into four quadrants. Multiple complaints from primarily local Arab
families led the houses to be destroyed on the basis of their architecture
incorporating the cross…. [T]he situation is not unusual. In other locations,
such as Gaziantep and Ankara, buildings have been renovated so that the cross
shaped architecture is no longer visible.”
2020: A man climbed the fence of a historic Armenian church in Istanbul, yanked
off its metal cross and hurled it to the ground, as captured on surveillance
footage. The man, who looks more like a Westernized “hipster” than a dedicated
Islamist, walks up to and stares at the cross for a while — he even looks at and
strikes a pose for the security camera — before attacking the crucifix.
2020: In Edirne (originally Adrianople, a conquered Greek city), a 50-foot high
cross erected at neighboring Greece’s Holy Monastery of Agia Skepi prompted
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to complain to German Chancellor Angela
Merkel that it was visible.
2019: Before and during a Europa League soccer match against a German team from
Mönchengladbach, Istanbul police removed the soccer fans’ flags and banners
because they had the symbol of a cross, part of the German team’s logo (a coat
of arms with a black cross on a yellow background). The German team and its fans
also reported general harassment from the Muslim authorities for carrying their
customary Christian symbols during their stay in Turkey.
Other Muslim Nations Around the World
Burkina Faso 2019: Muslim terrorists identified and killed Christians wearing
crucifixes. According to the report:
“unidentified armed individuals entered the village of Bani (about six miles
from the town of Bourzanga), looking for Christians… [T]he militants told
everyone to lie down and proceeded to look for Christians by asking for first
names or looking for anyone wearing Christian insignia (like crosses). The
deadly search yielded four men…. They were all wearing crosses…. [W]hen they saw
crosses, the assailants singled them out. All four were taken aside and
executed.”
Maldives 2010: Authorities had to rescue a female Christian teacher after Muslim
“parents threatened to tie and drag her off of the island” for “preaching
Christianity.” Her actual crime was to draw a compass — which was mistakenly
taken for a cross — as part of a geography lesson in class.
2021: Sudan: After a ninth church was torched in Sudan, “They targeted the
church,” said the Rev. Kuwa Shamal of the Sudanese Church of Christ, “because
they do not want to see any sign of the cross in the area.”
2020: Syria: To cries of “Allahu Akbar,” a cross was ripped down from a Greek
Orthodox church in a region “controlled by U.S.-backed militants.”
2020: Armenia: A soldier — it is unclear if he was an Azeri or a jihadi
mercenary from Syria or Iraq — was videotaped triumphantly shouting “Allahu
Akbar!” while standing on an Armenian church chapel where the cross had been
broken off.
Indonesia:
2021: Ten Muslim schoolchildren between the ages of 5 and 12 desecrated a
Christian cemetery by breaking the crosses off a dozen gravestones. The mayor of
Solo laid the blame on the Islamic madrasa the children attend, and its
teachers, “because they are teaching intolerance to their students.”
2019: Several crosses in the Bethesda Christian cemetery were vandalized, broken
and burned, to the point that the cemetery keeper who had worked there for ten
years, said he had “never seen such vandalism.”
2018: Local Muslims sawed off the top of a cross from a deceased Christian’s
tomb and prevented mourners from meeting and saying prayers in the deceased
man’s home.
Malaysia:
2014: A Christian cemetery was desecrated during the night by unknown persons in
the Muslim-majority nation. Several crosses were destroyed, some by the use of
“a heavy tool to do the damage.”
2015: A Muslim mob rioted against a small Protestant church apparently because
of the visible cross atop the building of worship. The cross was removed.
The West
As Islam’s presence continues to grow in the West, particularly Europe, it
should come as no surprise that attacks on crosses and related Christian symbols
(3,000 in 2019) are also on the rise. Although the identity of the vandals is
often unknown or intentionally omitted, European nations that have large Muslim
migrant populations — especially France and Germany, which have the largest —
have been experiencing a disproportionate rise in this form of anti-Christian
violence.
Germany:
2019: While cursing his “pig god,” Muslim migrants beat and repeatedly stabbed a
homeless man in Berlin for displaying a Christian symbol, believed to be a
cross. According to the report,
“Arabic-speaking youths were caught on video assaulting and stabbing a homeless
Berlin man is speculated in the German press to be an anti-Christian motivated
attack [sic]…. After physically attacking the victim, one of the men then drew a
knife and stabbed him several times, leaving him with severe injuries to the
buttocks, thigh, and arm, according to investigators.”
The Arabic words they yelled were translated as “We f*ck your sister, we’ll
finish you!” and “we f *ck your pig-God!” The report adds that this “incident is
not the first in which a migrant-background Christian has been physically
attacked by Arabic-speaking young men for displaying Christian symbols in public
in the German capital. Recently, a 39-year-old had been beaten for wearing a
necklace with a cross on it.”
2014: A Muslim man who checked himself into a hospital for treatment went into a
sudden frenzy because there were “too many crosses on the wall.” He became
physically aggressive and called the nurse a “fascist b*tch.”
2014: After Muslims were granted their own section at a cemetery, and allowed to
conduct distinctly Islamic ceremonies, they began to demand that Christian
symbols and crosses in the cemetery were offensive and that they should be
removed or at least covered up during Islamic funerals.
2016: Following the arrival of another million Muslim migrants in Germany, a
local newspaper in the town of Dülmen said “not a day goes by” without attacks
on crosses and other Christian symbols.
2016: Before Christmas, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, where more than a
million Muslims reside, some 50 public statues of Jesus and other Christian
figures were beheaded and crucifixes broken.
2017: In the Alps and in Bavaria alone, countless crosses on some 200 churches
were attacked and broken: “Police are currently dealing with church desecrations
again and again… The perpetrators are often youthful rioters with a migration
background.”
France:
2014: An enraged Muslim man physically twisted a massive bronze cross with his
bare hands while committing major acts of vandalism in two churches; he also
overturned and broke two altars, destroyed Christian statues, tore down a
tabernacle, smashed in a sacristy door, and broke some stained-glass windows.
2015: Christian crosses and gravestones in a cemetery were damaged and
desecrated by a Muslim man. After being apprehended, he was described as
follows: “The man repeats Muslim prayers over and over, he drools and cannot be
communicated with: his condition has been declared incompatible with preliminary
detention.” He was hospitalized as “mentally unbalanced.”
2019: Vandals plundered and used human excrement to draw a cross on the
Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nimes (smearing fecal matter on churches is not
uncommon in the Muslim world).
2019: More “unknown vandals” desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at
Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, and mangled the arms of a crucified Christ in a
mocking manner.
2020: Unknown persons cut down an iconic iron cross that had stood on the summit
of Pic Saint-Loup since 1911 and was visible for miles.
Italy:
2019: A Muslim migrant in Rome stabbed a Christian man in the throat for wearing
a crucifix around his neck. The assailant, a 37-year-old Moroccan, was accused
of attempted homicide; “religious hate” was cited as an “aggravating factor” in
the crime.
2015: A Muslim schoolboy of African origin beat a 12-year-old Italian girl at a
school evidently because she was wearing a crucifix around her neck. The boy
“punched the girl violently in the back at the entrance to a middle school.” He
later confessed that “he attacked the girl because she was wearing a crucifix,
police sources said.” The boy, who had only started to attend the school
approximately three weeks earlier, began to bully the Christian girl —
“insulting her and picking on her in other ways all because she was wearing the
crucifix” — before he finally assaulted her.
2016: A Muslim migrant invaded an old church in Venice and attacked its large,
300-year-old cross, breaking off one of its arms, while shouting, “All that is
in a church is false!”
2015: After a crucifix was destroyed in close proximity to a populated mosque,
Cinisello Balsamo’s mayor alluded to the identity of the culprit(s) by saying:
“Before we put a show of unity with Muslims, let’s have them begin by respecting
our civilization and our culture.”
While Germany and France have the lion’s share of such attacks (because they
have the lion’s share of Europe’s Muslims), Muslim attacks on or provoked by the
cross occur all throughout Europe, and have even reached the U.S. too:
Sweden 2020: An 11-year-old Swedish boy was called a “pig bastard” and beaten by
a Muslim migrant gang for wearing a cross. The incident occurred in Malmö, which
has a large Muslim population and has also been called the “rape capital” of
Sweden.
USA 2021: Ali Alaheri, a 29-year-old Muslim man, knocked down and destroyed a
large crucifix that had stood for eleven years outside of St. Athanasius Church
in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, N.Y. “It was a terrible morning,” reflected Monsignor
David Cassato. “It was probably the saddest day in my life, to see this
desecration of a cross of Jesus.”
Notably, Western nations have regrettably encouraged this behavior through
appeasement, perhaps either not to be called racists or not to discourage votes.
In Italy, for example, days before the Muslim mentioned above stabbed a
Christian in the throat for wearing a crucifix, a report noted that “crosses on
graves in an Italian cemetery in Pieve di Cento have been covered with black
cloth so as not to offend those who may come from another religion,” a seeming
reference to Muslims, some of whom, as shown, desecrate Christian graves or at
least demand that Western authorities cover up their crosses.
Most recently, in United Kingdom, a 61-year-old Christian woman who escaped her
Nigerian homeland to Britain in 1988 in order to worship freely was pressured
and finally “bullied” out of her London job as a nurse since 2002, for refusing
to remove her small cross necklace. In an interview on October 8, 2021, she
said:
“This has always been an attack on my faith. My cross has been with me for 40
years. It is part of me, and my faith, and it has never caused anyone any harm….
At this hospital there are members of staff who go to a mosque four times a day
and no one says anything to them. Hindus wear red bracelets on their wrists and
female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre. Yet my small cross around my neck was
deemed so dangerous that I was no longer allowed to do my job.”
Western institutions that stand their ground find they are liable to be sued, as
Muslim students at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C.,
were. They sued the university, it appears, because it failed to provide them
with a special place to pray without seeing a cross. In the words of their
lawyer, they were unable to “pray without having to stare up and be looked down
upon by a cross of Jesus…. They do have to pray five times a day and to be
sitting there trying to do Muslim prayers with a big cross looking down … is not
very conductive to their religion.”
**Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again and Sword and Scimitar, is a
Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the
David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle
East Forum.
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Fighting Inflation Means Taking On Corporations
Meg Jacobs/The New York Times/December, 26/2021
Since the Carter administration, monetary policy has been the chief tool
presidents use to curb inflation, which has been on the rise: The Consumer Price
Index rose by 6.8 percent in the year through November — the fastest pace since
1982. The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, has pivoted to a tighter
monetary policy, announcing plans to taper the central bank’s bond purchases and
raise interest rates next year.
Yet inflation doesn’t rise and ebb just because of monetary policy. It’s largely
the result of choices businesses make. And history shows presidents have the
power to stem inflation by taking on corporate power — if they choose.
While Franklin Roosevelt is best known for the New Deal expansion of the social
safety net, he also protected Americans against wartime inflation. During World
War II, his Office of Price Administration imposed price ceilings on three
million businesses and more than eight million goods. The office also put caps
on rents in 14 million dwellings occupied by 45 million residents and issued
ration stamps for goods like meat to manage supply. According to Gallup polls,
more than three-quarters of the public favored extending controls after the war.
When Harry Truman lost a bitter fight in Congress to do just that, there were
consequences. When peace came, Americans eager to spend their stored-up savings
ran headlong into a supply shortage: Manufacturers had yet to convert back from
wartime production.
In the summer of 1946, without controls, the cost of living jumped. In July,
meat prices doubled to 70 cents a pound. In the midterm elections that November,
Democrats lost control of Congress for the first time since 1932.
In 1948, with inflation running at 7.7 percent, Truman condemned the
“do-nothing” Republicans who placed blame for rising prices on newfound union
power. In his re-election campaign that year, he promised to expand the New Deal
and ran hard against corporate power. “The Republicans don’t want any price
control for one simple reason: the higher prices go up, the bigger the profits
for the corporations,” he said that year.
At a campaign stop in Kentucky on October 1948, he lashed out at the National
Association of Manufacturers, a business lobbying group that opposed price
controls, for engaging in a “conspiracy against the American consumer.” He
called Congress into a special summer session to restore price controls, but
that effort failed.
Democrats returned to the polls; automobile workers gave Truman 89 percent of
their vote, helping him secure re-election in a close contest. One key to his
success: doubling down on tough talk against inflation and support for liberal
programs to raise living standards for ordinary Americans.
From the presidencies of Truman through Lyndon Johnson, Democrats stuck to the
program. Like Truman, who went so far as to order a takeover of the nation’s
steel mills when they announced a price hike, John F. Kennedy and Johnson also
publicly reprimanded steel executives for price increases.
They all spoke out against efforts by William McChesney Martin, the Fed
chairman, to raise interest rates. Martin famously asserted his independence and
raised rates anyway; as he saw it, the job of the Federal Reserve was “to take
away the punch bowl just as the party is getting good.” Truman called him a
“traitor.”When inflation struck in the 1970s, Richard Nixon understood the
expectations created by Roosevelt’s Office of Price Administration. As a World
War II-era inspector for the agency, Nixon had been horrified at the thought of
bureaucrats checking up on the pricing decisions of private business, and he
quit. Yet once in the White House, he didn’t hesitate to slap on price controls
in response to the soaring cost of beef and gas.
Milton Friedman, the free-market economist, and other conservatives denounced
Nixon’s response as heavy-handed — a message that his successor Gerald Ford
absorbed. Instead of price controls, Ford distributed “Whip Inflation Now”
buttons and called for budgetary austerity.
As American economic thinking fell under Friedman’s influence, the
Roosevelt-Truman tools lost favor. With inflation reaching double digits in
1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed Paul Volcker to the Federal Reserve to
use monetary policy to fight inflation. When Ronald Reagan came into office, he
endorsed Mr. Volcker’s muscular move to raise interest rates and drive the
economy into recession to fight inflation. Subsequent presidents have largely
stuck to this approach of controlling inflation.
Amid a pandemic, Mr. Biden has shown a willingness to lean hard on corporate
America and embrace New Deal-style tools to lighten inflationary pressures.
Through his supply chain task force, he is working to reverse offshoring and
outsourcing, expand domestic production and help the ports in Los Angeles stay
open round the clock to ease the cargo pileup. His infrastructure bill will
allocate billions to construct and operate coastal ports and inland waterways,
further easing prices.
Mr. Biden has also warned the big four meat processors against anticompetitive
practices that probably contributed to spiking prices, including squeezing out
competitors. His administration has pledged to take more aggressive action on
illegal price fixing and antitrust, while working to bring more transparency to
cattle markets. Higher meat prices are “not just the natural consequences of
supply and demand in a free market — they are also the result of corporate
decisions to take advantage of their market power in an uncompetitive market, to
the detriment of consumers, farmers and ranchers, and our economy,” his economic
advisers Brian Deese, Sameera Fazili and Bharat Ramamurti recently wrote.
Through the Federal Trade Commission, Mr. Biden has called for an investigation
into the prices set by large oil and gas companies and authorized the release of
50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to dampen OPEC’s
ability to raise prices. He also met with the chief executives of Walmart,
Mattel, Food Lion, Kroger and other companies to discuss their plans to overcome
supply-chain problems and keep prices in check for the holidays.
In the coming weeks, Mr. Biden should use his bully pulpit to make clear to
Americans that corporations are padding their profits while working families are
struggling through the pandemic. Almost two-thirds of publicly traded companies
had substantially larger profit margins this year compared to the same period in
2019, before the pandemic. In 2021, close to 100 of them saw their profit
margins go up at least 50 percent relative to 2019, The Wall Street Journal
reported.
Showing working Americans that he gets it will help Mr. Biden demonstrate that
he cares, as the Democratic pollster Joel Benenson told me. “We’re not having an
inflation problem,” he said. “We’re having a corporate greed problem. And the
president should put the blame where it belongs.”
As Mr. Biden leans on big businesses to temper rising prices, he also needs to
push hard for policies that have a much greater impact than fluctuations in gas
or meat prices: His stalled Build Back Better legislation would go a long way to
ease the burden of major expenses. Mr. Biden promised the bill would lower
out-of-pocket costs for child care, care for the elderly, housing, college,
health care and prescription drugs — some of the biggest costs that most
families face.
Like his Democratic predecessors, Mr. Biden needs to get tough.
A Gas Pipeline Won’t Turn Russia and China Into Buddies
David Fickling/Bloomberg/December, 26/2021
Are pipelines built to threaten democracies, or befriend authoritarians? Judging
by the responses to Russia’s two biggest gas export projects, it depends where
you are.
In Europe, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, intended to double Moscow’s direct export
capacity into Germany to 110 billion cubic meters a year, has become caught up
in geopolitical rivalry over eastern Europe. Approval for the project has been
delayed for about six months amid a Russian troop buildup near its border with
Ukraine. The fear of governments in the US and eastern Europe is that pipelines
can exercise a powerful form of leverage. If you cut off a nation’s supplies of
energy — especially in the bitter winter months — you can bring it to its knees
remarkably quickly. The problem for Moscow is they’re hardly precision weapons.
Before the first Nord Stream pipe was built a decade ago, almost all of Russia’s
gas bound for Europe went through Ukraine. That meant it was hard to threaten
Kyiv by turning off the taps without also making enemies of European governments
further down the line. Having separate channels to sell gas to Ukraine and the
European Union means Russia can choose which one it wants to threaten on any
given day.
Have a look at what’s going on in Asia, however, and the picture flips.
Preliminary discussions on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline to send 55 bcm of gas
to China are moving forward rapidly. Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin
discussed the project earlier this month and a feasibility study will be
completed within weeks, according to Putin. The pipe would help both countries
hedge against tensions with the West, the Nikkei Asian Review wrote this month.
While Nord Stream 2 is regarded as a threat to the democratic nations at the
other end, Power of Siberia 2 is presented as something more akin to a marriage
proposal, bringing two leading authoritarian states closer together.
But that’s not quite right. Nations, after all, don’t have permanent friends or
enemies — only permanent interests. Russia’s interests are export revenues, and
whatever leverage it can gain over the nations on its borders. On that front,
China and Europe aren’t all that different.
While Europe’s 541 bcm of gas consumption is substantially more than China’s 331
bcm, the latter figure is expected to rise to 526 bcm by 2030 as Beijing reduces
its dependence on coal-fired power and builds up its domestic chemicals
industry. With both regions producing in the region of 200 bcm domestically at
present, China is counting on output climbing by more than half to prevent it
developing a Europe-style dependence on imported gas.
Looked at from that perspective, the two Power of Siberia pipelines could give
Russia a role in China’s gas imports almost as fundamental as it now has for
Europe. Right now, China barely buys piped gas from Russia, with LNG still
accounting for a bigger share of trade last year while the first line was being
brought to full capacity. Once completed, however, they’d carry a combined 88
bcm, equivalent to 44% of a roughly 200 bcm import sector. That’s not so
different to Europe’s relationship with Moscow, which supplies about 51% of its
imported gas.
That’s reason for both Beijing and Moscow to tread carefully. For all the warm
mood music between Xi and Putin, China and Russia have rarely seen eye-to-eye
for very long. Terrible personal chemistry between Nikita Khrushchev and Mao
Zedong and disputes over the legacy of Stalin contributed to a war along their
northeastern border in the late 1960s and a period of frosty relations that only
ended around the fall of the Soviet Union.
Rival spheres of influence in central Asia — at present, a far more important
source of gas for China than Russia itself — remain an ongoing irritant. The
CR929, a Sino-Russian twin-aisle airliner project to rival the Airbus SE A350
and Boeing Co. 787, is years behind schedule amid disputes between officials
from the two sides. China may ultimately have the stronger hand. By building
Power of Siberia 2, Russia will give itself a substitute market for the gas that
it would otherwise ship to Europe. But Beijing has substitutes too — not least
green hydrogen, where the country’s low-cost wind and solar and vast capacity to
manufacture electrolysers to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen may
give it a substantial advantage. Other countries, such as Qatar and Australia,
will seek a slice of China’s gas market, too.
Russia would dearly love to have the sort of leverage over China that it’s
enjoying over Europe right now. China will do everything it can to resist that
situation.
Biden will look to move beyond crisis management in 2022
Kerry Boyd Anderson/Arab News/December 26/2021
After his inauguration in January, President Joe Biden sought to undo much of
former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. His administration has had some
success in that goal, while also facing hurdles. Biden has also sought to
reframe geopolitics through a lens of democracies and autocracies — partly in
response to China’s rising global influence. He has tried to balance Americans’
desire to project US power abroad with their war fatigue. These factors,
combined with the pandemic, drove much of US foreign policy in the last year.
Biden and his senior officials objected to Trump’s foreign policy for many
reasons, including the Trump administration’s lack of concern about democracy or
human rights and lack of interest in some traditional alliances. The Biden
administration has worked hard in its first year to try to repair relationships
with key allies. For example, European countries were happy to see a friendlier
tone from the White House, an end to some of Trump’s tariffs, and a return to
climate discussions and talks on the Iran nuclear deal.
To some extent, Biden has been successful, with leaders in several countries
expressing relief that Biden replaced Trump and polling that showed a surge in
positive perceptions of the US. However, the Biden administration will not
sacrifice priorities just to keep allies happy; for example, the administration
went ahead with the AUKUS security agreement with Australia and the UK, despite
French indignation.
Another major Democratic Party objection to Trump’s policies centered on climate
change. While Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, Biden quickly
rejoined it. He also attended the COP26 conference on climate change. Biden and
his party have addressed climate change in domestic policy as well.The Iran
nuclear deal is another key policy area where Biden seeks to reverse Trump
policies. Signed in 2015 under the Obama administration, the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action sought to place constraints on Iran’s nuclear program. Trump
withdrew from the multilateral agreement in 2018 and imposed heavy sanctions on
Iran. The Biden team has pursued talks with Iran to return to the deal, though
with little discernible progress so far.
Biden has also worked to partly roll back Trump’s policy toward Israel and the
Palestinians. The Biden administration has expressed support for a two-state
solution and restored economic and humanitarian funding for the Palestinians,
which Trump had cut. However, the Biden administration has done very little to
pursue any peace process, continues to express strong support for Israel, and
has no intention of reversing Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem.
Partners and adversaries know that Trump might be president again in only a few
years, which presents a major complication for Biden’s foreign policy. It is
difficult to persuade the world that the Trump era is an aberration when the
current White House cannot guarantee that Trump will not return to power.
One area of agreement between Biden and Trump is that both wanted the US to
withdraw from the war in Afghanistan. In a deal with the Taliban, the Trump
administration had agreed to pull US forces out of Afghanistan, but it was Biden
who implemented the withdrawal. While it is debatable whether a more peaceful
withdrawal was feasible, the reality is that it looked very messy. As the
Taliban quickly regained ground, chaos ensued in Kabul. The US failed to
evacuate many Afghans who had assisted its operations and now face persecution.
The seemingly haphazard US withdrawal badly undermined perceptions of American
power. NATO allies felt ignored in the process, which complicated Washington’s
efforts to restore relations with Europe. Especially after the Trump
administration’s sudden pullout of many soldiers from northern Syria, which
placed Kurdish allies at risk, the Afghan withdrawal further raised doubts about
the US as a security partner.
More broadly, the withdrawal demonstrated that the US public and its leaders are
tired of the nation-building wars that began with the George W. Bush
administration. Biden also took steps to further reduce the US’ military role in
Iraq. There is little appetite for any type of military activity that is not
clearly, directly related to US security interests. The Biden administration is
well aware of this and has expressed its intention to try to reorient foreign
policy so that it more clearly benefits middle-class Americans. Avoiding
ideological nation-building wars and trying to ensure that foreign policy
benefits US citizens are positive developments. Nonetheless, the reality that
the US wants to avoid military entanglements will lessen its leverage with
countries such as Russia, China and Iran.
Under Biden, intelligence and defense officials have publicly said that China is
one of the top threats facing the US. Polling also identifies it as the top
country of concern for a majority of Americans. Compared to Trump, Biden has
taken a quieter approach toward China, but his policies are clearly designed to
push back against growing Chinese influence. Biden has mostly maintained Trump’s
tariffs and has said that US officials (though not athletes) will boycott
February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. The Biden team has actively worked to
deepen relationships with Indo-Pacific partners who share Washington’s concerns
about China. Managing the pandemic, responding to climate change and relations
with China will remain top foreign policy priorities
The Biden administration sees China as an increasingly assertive economic,
military and political competitor. Washington is keenly aware that Beijing is
working to assert the superiority of its style of autocratic government, in
direct contrast to liberal democracy. Biden’s recent Summit for Democracy served
several purposes for the administration, including building a network of
countries that reject China’s more authoritarian approach.
At the same time, the Biden team does not believe it is possible or desirable to
fully isolate China. Rather, they seek to balance competition with the pragmatic
understanding that the two countries must cooperate on some economic and
environmental issues.
The pandemic has been another priority for the Biden administration, in both
foreign and domestic policy. After taking office, Biden canceled Trump’s
withdrawal from the World Health Organization. While the administration’s
initial focus was on vaccinating Americans, it soon moved to provide vaccines
abroad. The US has now shipped more than 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to
other countries, part of Biden’s pledge to provide more than 1.1 billion doses
through 2022. Washington has also taken additional steps to help boost vaccine
availability globally.
The first year of a presidency often involves crisis management, while
developing foreign policy guidance. In 2022, the administration will hope to
focus more on implementing strategies. For Biden, managing the pandemic,
responding to climate change and relations with China will remain top
priorities. He is likely to continue efforts to reach an agreement with Iran,
but Washington will keep pressure on Tehran unless there is a deal. There are
plans for a second Summit for Democracy.
US presidents establish foreign policy priorities but must adjust as events
unfold beyond their control. Relations with Russia are frosty and now Biden
faces a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine that threatens US interests in
Europe. Moscow understands that Americans are not interested in a new ground
war, but Washington has tools it can use to try to deter Russia — much will
depend on the extent to which Biden is willing to use those tools and if allies
will support him. Obama tried to pivot away from the Middle East to Asia, but
events on the ground in the Middle East complicated those efforts. Biden is now
attempting that same pivot, so far with greater success, but he does not fully
control the outcome.
Terrorist and extremist movements have derailed US foreign policy priorities
before and could do so again, as could many other expected and unexpected
challenges. Issues to watch in 2022 include migration at the southern border,
the global economic recovery, cybersecurity, and North Korea.
**Kerry Boyd Anderson is a writer and political risk consultant with more than
18 years of experience as a professional analyst of international security
issues and Middle East political and business risk. Her previous positions
include deputy director for advisory with Oxford Analytica. Twitter: @KBAresearch
د. ماجد رفي زاده/عرب نيوز: إيران نووية ستكون كارثة العام الجديد
A nuclear Iran would be a new year disaster
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 26/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/105077/dr-majid-rafizadeh-a-nuclear-iran-would-be-a-new-year-disaster-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d9%87-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%86%d9%88%d9%88%d9%8a/
The Iranian regime continues to defy the international community and advance its
nuclear program. As 2022 approaches, the prospect of Iran acquiring a nuclear
weapon remains one of the greatest threats to global security.
Political responses to the threat have been developing for almost two decades,
but a definitive solution remains elusive. In its absence, the crisis has
intensified, with some experts warning that the Tehran regime is only weeks way
from a nuclear weapons “breakout.”
That timetable makes it clear that the international community must view the
issue as a top-line priority when setting policy for the coming year. Western
powers should aim to halt Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons capability
within the first weeks, if not the first days, of the new year.
Of course, this realistically cannot be accomplished via the strategy that the
US, Britain, France, and Germany have doggedly pursued throughout the past year.
Experience demonstrates that negotiations with Tehran can drag out indefinitely,
allowing the regime to advance its malign activities.
Indeed, that is what has been happening with the Iranian nuclear program and the
2015 agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The US pulled out of the deal in 2018, with then President Donald Trump decrying
the agreement as one of history’s worst, and citing Iranian violations of both
its letter and “spirit.” Iran eventually formalized its violations in response,
and the speed with which its nuclear program returned to its pre-2015 status
confirmed that the JCPOA had never really succeeded in lengthening Iran’s
breakout time. A nuclear Iran would drastically change the geopolitical balance
of power and create a catastrophic situation throughout 2022 and beyond. Since
then, the window has grown smaller and smaller. In early 2020, the regime
declared that it will not adhere to any of the restrictions imposed by the JCPOA.
Though it was not clear that the regime had ever been fully compliant in the
first place, its open violations soon led to uranium enrichment reaching a level
of 60 percent. In 2021, the new head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran,
Mohammad Eslami, claimed that the country’s stockpile of uranium enriched to the
earlier high of 20 percent fissile purity had grown to more than 120 kg.
That announcement came at a time when the US, under a new president, was working
with the JCPOA’s European signatories to try to restore the agreement. But
Eslami’s leadership of the AEOI was the result of Iran’s own change of
leadership, which halted the regime’s participation in negotiations among the
signatories in Vienna. Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s hard-line president, kept those
talks in a state of limbo for more than five months and apparently resumed the
negotiations at the end of November only out of concern that Western
interlocutors were preparing to walk away.
The latest round of the Vienna talks confirmed that Iran’s change of tactics is
not a change of strategy. The regime remains committed to delaying the JCPOA
restoration process for as long as possible, during which time it remains free
of the penalties that the deal’s collapse would impose.
At the same time, Iran is still advancing its nuclear activities to an
unprecedented degree, installing new cascades of advanced centrifuges in order
to quickly carry out further enrichment of its large stockpile of 20 percent
enriched uranium and acquire enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear weapon.
The international community’s best strategy to quickly halt Iran’s progress
toward nuclear weapons capability is to not only keep up the pressure on Iran
over the issue but also to link it with the various others, such as human rights
violations, and fully exploit the vulnerability that Tehran is trying to
alleviate by demanding relief and offering nothing in return.
Since the end of 2017, the National Council of Resistance of Iran has made
progress in its efforts to facilitate popular unrest with the aim of
overthrowing the country’s theocratic dictatorship. The regime itself
acknowledged in January 2018 that the opposition group was primarily responsible
for a nationwide uprising at the time. A similar message about the role of the
organized resistance was widely shared during an even larger uprising in
November 2019. Although the scale of public protests declined following the
onset of the global pandemic, demonstrations have again stepped up, especially
in the wake of Raisi’s “election” to the presidency through a process that the
vast majority of Iranian citizens boycotted. Iranian state media is now filled
with constant warnings about the prospect of another uprising.
While the resistance group and other Iranian activist outfits are prepared to
work toward regime change entirely on their own, they have long demanded a
change in Western paradigms regarding Iran policy. Political support for these
groups could go a long way toward intensifying the domestic pressure Iran is now
facing. Ideally, though, dual pressures from both inside Iran and beyond its
borders would finally lead likely to the current regime collapsing, thereby
bringing an end to the years-long nuclear crisis, as well as each of the various
regional and global issues that clearly bear the clerical regime’s fingerprints.
At a minimum, this strategy would compel Iran to reconsider the depth of its
commitment to provocative nuclear activities in the midst of a worsening
economic crisis.
A nuclear Iran would drastically change the geopolitical balance of power and
create a catastrophic situation throughout 2022 and beyond.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political
scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh