English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 31/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.december31.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 01/01-18/:”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.We have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 30-31/2022/
Video-Text: Resolutions For the new year of 2023/Elias Bejjani/January 01/2023
French defense minister to visit Lebanon, not Macron
Two Hezbollah members killed in Syria's Aleppo
Gunfire hits al-Jadeed building in 3rd attack in 4 days
'War of signatures' erupts between Mikati, FPM
Mikati says to perform his 'duties' despite 'obstructions'
Ibrahim to launch presidential talks after holidays
Nasrallah televised address canceled due to flu infection
Report: Berri to throw weight behind Franjieh's nomination in 2023
Mikati: We hope the new year would be a prelude to Lebanon’s exit from crisis
2022: A year of missed opportunities in Lebanon
Lebanon's former president and Speaker in new war of words
Lebanon’s ‘Soldiers Of The Lord’ – A Triumph Of Image Over Reality
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/December 30, 2022

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 30-31/2022/
Who is leading Israel's new hardline government?
Iran holds military drill near strategic Strait of Hormuz
Iranian man's death in France shakes distressed diaspora
Ukraine Latest: Xi, Putin Hail Ties; Zelenskiy’s Air Defense Vow
Moscow's exiled chief rabbi says Jews could be scapegoated for hardships caused by the war in Ukraine and should leave while they can
In east Ukraine, farmers won't leave their animals
Ukraine says repelled Russia drone attack at night
Ten oil field workers killed in Syria attack
Libya PM takes risky bet on US goodwill from Lockerbie handover

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 30-31/2022/
The Iran Nuclear Deal – Has the West Learned Anything?/Y. Carmon/MEMRI/December 30/2022
Turkish 'Progress': Six-Year-Old Girl Married by Her Sheik Father/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/December 30, 2022
A New Beginning in Syria in 2023/Omer Onhon/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 30/2022
Iran: A Model or a Warning?/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 30/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 30-31/2022/
Video-Text: Resolutions For the new year of 2023
Elias Bejjani/January 01/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/81879/elias-bejjani-resolutions-for-the-new-year-of-2020/
How healthy and fruitful would it be if each and every one of us is fully ready to welcome the new year of 2022 with a clear conscience and a joyful reconciliation with himself/herself, as well and with all others, especially those who are the beloved ones, e.g, parents, family members, friends, etc.
How self gratifying would be for any faithful and wise person to enter the new year of 2022 and he/she is completely free from all past heavy and worrying loads of hostility, hatred, enmities, grudges, strives and jealousy.
And because our life is very short on this mortal-perishable earthly world.
And due to the fact that, Our Heavenly Father, Almighty God may at any moment take back His Gift of life from any one of us.
Because of all these solid facts and realities, we are ought to leave behind all the 2021 hardships, pains and disappointments with no regrets at all.
We are ought to happily welcome and enter the 2022 new year with a totally empty page of our lives….ready for a new start.
Hopefully, every wise, loving, caring and faithful person would feel better in striving to begin this new year of 2022 with love, forgiveness, faith, hope, extended hands, open heart, and self-confidence.
I wish every one a Happy, Happy new Year that hopefully will carry with it all that is love, forgiveness, faith, hope, extended hands, open hearts, and self-confidence.
(The Above Piece Was First published on 01 January/2021)

Video-Text: Resolutions For the new year of 2023
Elias Bejjani/January 01/2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sejWSwGy7ZU

French defense minister to visit Lebanon, not Macron
Naharnet/December 30, 2022
At a time the Lebanese were expecting French President Emmanuel Macron to visit the country, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu will arrive in Beirut in the coming hours, a media report said.
While in Lebanon Lecornu will spend New Year’s Eve with the French troops and will inspect some French sites and projects in the country, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday. He is also scheduled to meet with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim and Army Commander General Joseph Aoun. Moreover, he will hold meetings at the French Embassy, seeing as he “knows Lebanon well, has many friendships and has visited Beirut several times,” the daily said. The French minister is also carrying a verbal message from Macron that “stresses the firm French stances, including the call for speeding up the election of a president and forming a new government with the necessary qualifications to continue the financial, administrative, customs and energy reforms,” the newspaper added.

Two Hezbollah members killed in Syria's Aleppo
Naharnet/December 30, 2022
A Hezbollah commander and his bodyguard, both Lebanese, were killed when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants targeted their military vehicle with a guided missile in Aleppo’s western countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday. The attack also killed a Syrian national. The Observatory noted that the casualties were Hezbollah’s first fatalities in Syria this year. Around 2,000 Hezbollah fighters, including senior commanders, have been killed in the Syrian war since the Iran-backed group openly intervened on the side of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in 2012.

Gunfire hits al-Jadeed building in 3rd attack in 4 days
Naharnet/December 30, 2022
Gunshots hit al-Jadeed TV’s building overnight in Beirut’s Cola area, in the third attack against the TV network in four days. “Heavy gunfire was heard in the channel’s vicinity and security forces guarding the building since several days said it was hit by several gunshots,” al-Jadeed said. “The perpetrator fired directly at the building, causing material damage,” the TV network added. Al-Jadeed Public Relations Director Ibrahim al-Halabi meanwhile said that security forces are working on identifying the culprits and that the network “will respond through the journalistic and judicial tracks.”
“The attackers are sending a message in various directions despite the presence of security forces,” Halabi said. “What’s happening will increase tensions but it will not lead to any result,” Halabi added, noting that “what’s happening is not a reaction” against a recent comedy sketch aired on al-Jadeed. Some viewers deemed the aforementioned sketch to be insulting to “southern women,” as the sketch’s actress, Joanna Karaki, argued that a curtailed version of the sketch was distributed on social media for malicious purposes.

'War of signatures' erupts between Mikati, FPM
Naharnet/December 30, 2022
A fresh war of words has broken out between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Free Patriotic Movement over signatures related to governmental decrees. In a statement issued overnight, the FPM accused Mikati of “staging an act of forgery and using forgery in the issuance of unconstitutional and illegal decrees that contravene the National Pact,” charging that the premier has forged the signatures of the ministers of social affairs and defense on two decrees. “Lebanon has never witnessed in its history such a fraudulent approach and it does not befit the position of the premiership, not to mention that it subjects its culprits to legal prosecution. What’s more dangerous is that it violates the National Pact, the constitution and the law at the hands of those who are supposed to protect them,” the FPM added. Mikati was swift to hit back, stressing that the FPM’s accusations are “totally baseless” and insisting that caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar had signed one of the decrees in question and that he “did not express any objection or unacceptance of the decree’s content.”“He has even rushed to implement its content,” Mikati added. As for the decree related to the Defense Ministry, the FPM said that caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim had sent the premiership a draft decree carrying his signature and containing a blank space for “the signatures of the 24 ministers,” accusing Mikati of issuing “another version of the decree” that carried the signatures of “the premier (several times!) and the ministers of finance, defense and interior.”Mikati, however, clarified that “the issued decree was the same one sent and signed by the Defense Minister” and that the premier and the ministers of finance and interior added their signatures to it before it was issued without the signatures of the rest of ministers, “seeing as the constitution does not stipulate the mandatory signatures of all ministers.”And accusing the FPM of insisting on “obstructing the work of institutions,” Mikati lamented that the Movement is now “settling political and non-political scores with the military and security institutions.” The FPM has repeatedly warned against holding any caretaker cabinet session amid the ongoing presidential vacuum, arguing that any decree issued during the presidential void would require the signatures of all ministers.

Mikati says to perform his 'duties' despite 'obstructions'
Naharnet/December 30, 2022
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday pledged to continue carrying out his “duties” despite any “obstructions or difficulties.”“We hope the new year will be the start of Lebanon’s exit from the stifling crisis it is going through,” Mikati said, during an end-of-the-year meeting with the premiership’s employees. “We won’t give up hope in Lebanon’s revival and the restoration of normalcy,” the premier added.

Ibrahim to launch presidential talks after holidays
Naharnet/December 30, 2022
General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim will hold meetings over the presidential crisis after the holidays, a media report said on Thursday. “He will not be carrying any initiative but will rather try to bridge differences and reach a common vision,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported, adding that his contacts “will involve all parties without exception in light of his good ties with everyone.”Ibrahim has put Speaker Nabih Berri in the picture of what he intends to do, the daily added. “Ibrahim’s move stems from his keenness on speeding up the election of a president in order to halt the bleeding in the country and prevent collapse in all institutions,” ad-Diyar said.

Nasrallah televised address canceled due to flu infection
Naharnet/December 30, 2022
A televised speech by Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah scheduled for Friday evening has been postponed for “health reasons,” Hezbollah’s media relations department said. It added that Nasrallah has a flu infection, which would “prevent him from speaking in a regular and normal manner,” noting that he is “receiving the appropriate treatment” and will speak Tuesday at 6pm at a Hezbollah rally commemorating slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and slain Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Report: Berri to throw weight behind Franjieh's nomination in 2023
Naharnet/December 30, 2022
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called in front of his visitors for sidelining Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil in the presidential file and “moving to Plan B,” a media report said on Friday. “Plan B is based on seriously promoting the presidential nomination of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh with the beginning of the new year,” informed sources told ad-Diyar newspaper. “He is trying to convince Hezbollah with the matter so that paralysis does not continue,” the sources added. Berri had informed Bassil in their recent meeting that he was “not willing to launch discussions over a third candidate that Bassil is trying to promote as a settlement candidate” and that his stance is “coordinated with Hezbollah,” the sources went on to say.

Mikati: We hope the new year would be a prelude to Lebanon’s exit from crisis
NNA/December 30, 2022
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Friday expressed hope that the new year would be the beginning of Lebanon's exit from the suffocating crisis that it endures. Welcoming the Grand Serail’s staff marking the end-of-year celebrations, Mikati said, “Lebanon has gone through many difficulties and tough conditions throughout its history, but it has always risen with the cooperation and presence of unknown soldiers like you, who work in silence despite the difficult conditions." “We will not give up hope for Lebanon's recovery, and we will continue to fulfill our duties. We will not be stopped by obstacles and difficulties,” Mikati concluded.

2022: A year of missed opportunities in Lebanon
Najia Houssari/Arab News/December 30, 2022
LEBANON: Lebanese celebrating New Year’s Eve are looking back on a period that deepened the political and economic crisis in the country, with 2022 being described as a year of missed opportunities.
In January, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri retreated, along with the Future Movement, from political life. “There is no room for any positive opportunity in Lebanon in light of Iranian influence, international confusion and national division,” Hariri had said.
One of the repercussions of Hariri’s move was a gap in the Sunni representation in Parliament, resulting in a minimal role for the branch within national politics. At the end of January, the Cabinet headed by Najib Mikati regained its ability to convene. This came after Hezbollah and the Amal movement returned to join the government once they ensured that their powerful street movement had succeeded in paralyzing the work of the judicial investigator in the Beirut port explosion.
BACKGROUND
The term of former president Michel Aoun ended on Oct. 30 after six years of disputes. Parliament has since failed to elect a new president despite holding 10 voting sessions. The government failed to seize the opportunity to implement a recovery plan agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund, despite having the authority and ability to execute decrees and draft laws. Most of the required reforms, especially those related to resolving the financial crisis, have yet to be enacted. The Cabinet had to approve the bank restructuring strategy, amend the laws on banking secrecy, detect and investigate financial crimes, recover assets and conduct a special audit into the foreign assets of the Banque du Liban. However, Parliament only approved the amended 2022 budget and the BDL initiated procedures to unify exchange rates. The Mikati government’s sole achievement was holding parliamentary elections in May. Many counted on the elections to end the hegemony of Hezbollah and its allies through a surge in votes from expatriates. The elections did carry a glimmer of hope for change through the arrival of 13 new independent MPs from the 2019 protest movement. However, the Change bloc quickly stumbled and its MPs were left divided. Parliament later failed to elect a new president. The smuggling of goods, fuel, medicine and wheat across the border with Syria surged in 2022, as well as illegal human trafficking to Europe on what became known as the “death boats.” The biggest such tragedy of the year came on April 23 when a boat capsized, leading to 22 deaths, including children. Mikati was designated to form a new government following the parliamentary elections, but was unable to reach a breakthrough following political differences between Hezbollah and its opponents.
Amid all of these failures, Lebanon signed a maritime border demarcation agreement with Israel on Oct. 27 through US mediator Amos Hochstein. Lebanon and Israel divided the disputed areas with Hezbollah’s approval. In August, a wave of bank raids began. Employees and clients were taken hostage by depositors, whose savings were seized three years ago.
Among those who raided banks was a female MP in Lebanese Parliament, a young woman an elderly woman and several serving soldiers. They demanded their savings in order to pay hospital bills, educate their children or treat relatives suffering from cancer.
The worsening financial crisis forced the military and security services to wait for aid from allied countries. The judiciary went on strike for the very first time to protest the decline in judge salaries. The strike continued until the end of the year and led to the paralysis of the Public Prosecution Office and the inability of security services to make arrests. It represented a new stage in the collapse of state institutions.
Armed conflicts broke out in Hezbollah-dominated areas, with the party rebuffed from its attempts to use Christian lands in the southern border town of Rmeish to set up party facilities. Public criticism of Hezbollah grew, especially following the death of an Irish peacekeeper after his UNIFIL vehicle was shot at in the southern town of Al-Aqabiya. The party announced that the suspect in the shooting had been handed over to security services, although it denied ordering the attack. New taxes were imposed on telephone and Internet services, and on state electricity, which had been completely cut off. People took to the streets to protest declining wages as a result of inflation. The black market exchange rate was 25,000 Lebanese pounds/USD in January but now stands at 50,000. Corruption files were opened in official sectors, including the BDL, Land Registry and Car Registration Authority, leading to dozens of arrests. The term of former president Michel Aoun ended on Oct. 30 after six years of disputes. Parliament has since failed to elect a new president despite holding 10 voting sessions. Hezbollah and its allies cast blank votes or disrupted activities because officials did not approve of the available candidates.
In December, a political row erupted between two allies, the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah, after ministers took part in a Cabinet session that the FPM deemed illegal. The repercussions of the dispute are ongoing and could affect Hezbollah’s choice of presidential candidate. The probe into the Beirut port explosion is still suspended, obstruction of justice is ongoing, and more than 1 million Syrian refugees remain in Lebanon. The country succeeded in attracting more than 1 million tourists in 2022, mainly during the summer season.
The Lebanese public rejoiced at dance group The Mayyas being crowned winners of US talent show “America’s Got Talent.” The win gave people in the country a much-needed dose of patriotism at a time when many remain skeptical of Lebanon’s future.

Lebanon's former president and Speaker in new war of words
Michel Aoun and Nabih Berri each accuse the other of political obstruction
Jamie Prentis/The National/December 30/2022
Lebanon’s former president Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri are embroiled in a new war of words, with each accusing the other of obstructionist policies. Mr Aoun, an 89-year-old former army general whose presidential term finished at the end of October, said in an interview this week that Mr Berri was one of the key obstructers during his six years in office. “All that I know is that Speaker Berri was against my election as president and he obstructed 18 files that I was working on,” he told the OTV channel, which is close to the Free Patriotic Movement political party founded by Mr Aoun and now led by his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil. In response, Mr Berri said: “You did not need anyone to obstruct you, seeing as you promised us hell and fully fulfilled your promise.”Mr Berri, 84, heads the Amal Movement, a major political party, and has served as Speaker for three decades. “Seventy-four laws were issued without being implemented,” Mr Berri said. The Lebanese parliament approves laws and then they are signed off before being implemented. A source close to Mr Berri confirmed to The National that he was referring to the requirement for the president to sign off on laws passed by parliament before they can be implemented. The Amal Movement was a powerful militia during the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War, when Mr Aoun served as the army commander.
In Lebanon’s confessional power sharing system, the president is a Maronite Christian, the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim, and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim. Parliament is deeply fractured, with no bloc able to claim a majority after elections earlier this year. The house has met 10 times to elect a new president but has so far failed, with no clear consensus candidate yet to emerge. And while the cabinet is supposed to take on presidential powers in the event of a vacuum — as has happened many times before — Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s cabinet is in caretaker mode and its powers are therefore severely diminished. Mr Aoun and Mr Mikati were at loggerheads for months over the make-up of Lebanon's cabinet, and failed to reach agreement before the former stepped down as head of state. In an interview with The National in October, Mr Bassil — who has also clashed with Mr Berri — said Mr Mikati “has no right to impose on the president a government of his own, that has no confidence from the parliament, that is not in alignment with the last parliamentary elections”. The governance vacuum is increasing fears of further political paralysis and that reforms needed to secure a bail-out from the International Monetary Fund will not be implemented. Lebanon's economic collapse has been described by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history, with much of the population pushed into poverty. The financial crisis is being blamed on decades of mismanagement and corruption by Lebanon’s elite. The local currency has lost more than 95 per cent of its value, inflation is rampant and there are widespread shortages of electricity, clean water, medicines and other basic essentials.

البرتو فرنندس من موقع ميمري: “جنود الرب” في لبنان – انتصار الصورة على الواقع
Lebanon’s ‘Soldiers Of The Lord’ – A Triumph Of Image Over Reality
Alberto M. Fernandez*/MEMRI/December 30, 2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/114565/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%aa%d9%88-%d9%81%d8%b1%d9%86%d9%86%d8%af%d8%b3-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d9%85%d9%8a%d9%85%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d8%ac%d9%86%d9%88%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a8/
The images are arresting and irresistible. Muscle-bound, tattooed men dressed in black, some of them heavily bearded, and carrying “regressive” religious symbols that provoke. But they are not Muslims but Christians – the symbols are crosses and rosaries – living in a Christian neighborhood in Beirut. As one commentator wrote, “taking the cross as a slogan, and the sacred Christian texts as a constitution,” they call themselves Junud al-Rabb (“the Soldiers of the Lord”), with a white shield with a red cross and cross-marked angel’s wings before an open Bible.
Although some point to an origin in 2019 and the group itself claims it began in early 2020, they burst on the public scene only this summer when they defaced some PRIDE Week propaganda in the staunchly Catholic Beirut neighborhood of Achrafieh, one of the most emblematic zones of the Christian resistance against foreign rule in Lebanon. Achrafieh’s main square features a statue of the beloved Maronite Catholic saint Mar Charbel overlooked by a banner of slain Lebanese Forces/Kataeb leader and President-Elect Bashir Gemayel, assassinated there by Syrian Intelligence in 1982. Not far from the same square, in 2012, Lebanese General Wissam Al-Hassan, a Sunni Muslim and key intelligence figure, was assassinated by Hezbollah. Parts of Achrafieh were heavily damaged in the August 2020 Beirut Port Explosion.
Looking at news and commentary in Arabic about the group since this summer and continuing into December 2022, you would think that the Soldiers of the Lord was some sort of major organization.[1] And yet the largest number you can see in any of their photographs seems to be about 50 men. They may have sympathizers elsewhere (some accounts mention a presence in Zahle and Jal El Dib) but it still seems to be mostly limited to one neighborhood. Their social media presence is relatively larger, but still quite modest.[2] Sociologically, one can see in examining their publicity disparate elements somewhat akin to New York City’s Guardian Angels, the Proud Boys, motorcycle gangs, drug rehab and reformed criminal support networks, bodybuilding gym rats and sports fans. They are, as far as media coverage is concerned, unarmed and there are no photos of them carrying weapons of any sort. One rare, relatively sympathetic account describes the group’s members as “a group of young people from Achrafieh, specifically from some of its poor and very poor neighborhoods, with ages ranging from twenty to forty-five years of age on average.” As far as religion, the group includes Maronites, other Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Assyrian Christians and Armenians.[3]
One prominent supporter on Twitter, George Nasrallah, describes himself as part of the “Christian Right”[4] and the group’s official YouTube channel[5] features a brief clip from a recent Donald Trump speech (subtitled in Arabic) lamenting that in today’s educational system (in the U.S.) “school prayer is banned but drag shows are absolutely allowed, you can’t teach the Bible but you can teach children that men can get pregnant and that kindergarteners are allowed to pick their own gender.”[6]
But, aside from that one Trump clip, the rest of the group’s YouTube channel is locally focused, with 31 videos and 17 short reels highlighting Christian themes, bible verses, and the need for repentance, in addition to videos show them walking the streets of the neighborhood in groups of 10 or 20, bearing a cross and praying. One video alone features the idealized image of the group’s leader, Joseph “Zozo” Mansour.[7]
The politics of Junud Al-Rabb may be objectionable to some but not so unusual given the specific Lebanese Christian context from which the group springs. In so far as political allegiance is concerned, they clearly lean toward the Lebanese Forces party and against the FPM, the rival Lebanese Christian party led by Gibran Bassil and his senescent father-in-law Michel Aoun. They are surely anti-Hezbollah. But cultural and social issues loom larger than political or sectarian ones. They are, of course, virulently opposed to the aggressive LGTBQ+ agenda, opposed to abortion and also against civil marriage in Lebanon, an issue which they believe would open the door to same-sex marriage in Lebanon. Although they are aggressively “Christian” in their persona, the group features on their YouTube channel a TikTok video from a Sunni Muslim in Tripoli sympathetic to some of the group’s social and political agenda.[8] On the other hand, one concerned Sunni Muslim woman asked on Twitter, “Question for the [Maronite] Patriarch, are the Soldiers of the Lord a militia or angels sent from God?”[9]
One of the more bizarre charges against the group is that it is somehow the Christian “counterpart” to Lebanese Hezbollah. The charge comes in two flavors. First it comes from secular or progressive Lebanese, very much in sync with the dominant ideology of the West, finding the group objectionable – seeing them as “Christian fundamentalists like Hezbollah and Iran are fundamentalists.” There seems to be a social, class element here at work as well, of looking down at people of lower social status who act as if they actually may believe in Christianity as a religion, including all its moral tenets.
The second comparison to Hezbollah seems to come from pro-Hezbollah sources who deliberately exaggerate the power of this group. One account compared Soldiers of the Lord to “extremist groups” supposedly employed by the United States in Afghanistan against the Soviets, in Syria against Assad, to the Islamic State and “what is currently happening in Ukraine through Neo-Nazi groups.”[10] In this pro-Hezbollah accounting, the group could wind up being employed – by the Americans – in sectarian violence against neighboring Muslim (Shia actually) areas with an aim to bring about the breakup of Lebanon into self-governing religious “cantons.” Yet even this source places the group’s strength as between 100 to 300 individuals. Kawalees magazine also claims that the group is funded by prominent Lebanese businessmen “known for their close relations with the Americans” Nabil Sehnaoui and his son Antoun Sehnaoui (a charge the latter has vociferously denied in writing and threatened legal action against those that make the accusation).[11] The idea, of course, that the U.S. government would have any connection with the group is insane. The American Embassy is more likely to fund Gay Pride Week in Lebanon than to support the Soldiers of the Lord.
Of greater concern is the charge from this pro-Hezbollah outlet that Junud Al-Rabb was involved indirectly in the dangerous clash on October 15, 2021, at Tayouneh when Shia demonstrators (and gunmen) were shot at by unknown attackers, killing six Hezbollah and Amal members. Hezbollah claims, without any real evidence, that the attackers were from the Lebanese Forces from the neighboring Christian neighborhood of Ain Al-Rummaneh. The pro-Hezbollah crowd’s claim that Junud al-Rabb were also involved is that they “painted Christian religious slogans and crosses” in Muslim neighborhoods before the attack. This seems an even more far-fetched claim.
Another hostile media outlet, this one Aounist, describes the group as: “reportedly hostile to everything that is not religious, against the secular, leftist and communist, as well as opposed to Palestinian refugees and displaced Syrians… and the Aounists! They also reject civil marriage, homosexuality and abortion, and fight the drug trade as “the work of the devil,” including individuals with a history of drug use. The mobilization is based on the glorification of the Crusades, and they attach their social media posts to Bible quotes about people’s relationship with God and how they should be His soldiers on earth to defend their holy sites.”[12]
One Lebanese political contact has, I think correctly, downplayed the group’s importance, noting that they’re “only a marginal thing. There is no training program, the main members are older and many of them are former drug addicts.” The source noted, however, that some of them are former fighters from the Lebanese Forces but from decades ago. The idea that this particular tiny group, among so many others, including a Hezbollah with its own battle-tested army and 100,000 rockets, would somehow tilt the balance in Lebanon toward a new sectarian conflict seems ludicrous.
Any group that can be decried by both enlightened progressives and by Hezbollah propagandists has my sympathy. And one is particularly sympathetic to any working-class grassroots movement, no matter how modest or insignificant (or how murky their funding is), that pushes against the Western-style sexual revolution being imposed on the world. Most of the Arabic-language media coverage of the group is negative, whether from BBC and France24 or from Islamist or Aounist media outlets. Despite the expansive and incendiary rhetoric about the group, hard facts – as opposed to wild or unsubstantiated claims – can confirm only a handful of substantial actions: their June 2022 “vandalizing” of a rainbow flag flower display in Achrafieh;[13] their October 2022 demonstration against a pro-Michel Aoun judge; their campaign against an exhibit of colorful women’s statues (supposedly pro-LGBT but actually for World Breast Cancer Day) set up in Sassine Square by artist Mirna Maalouf in October 2022;[14] according to Lebanese parliament member Paula Yacoubian, the group may have acted as vigilantes in preventing a robbery in Achrafieh in December 2022, a claim denied by Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces;[15] and a December 2022 confrontation with Muslim bikers celebrating Morocco’s World Cup victories that seemed to have included religious slogans and sectarian rhetoric on both sides.
Aside from the last item, which did not result in any real violence, these are issues unlikely to increase sectarian tensions in a Lebanon already prostrate by an unparalleled avalanche of economic, political, and social crises. Certainly, part of the appeal of this tiny group and similar efforts at creating neighborhood watch or self-defense groups is due to the steadily diminishing Lebanese state.[16] People are being left to fend for themselves. Depending on one’s views on certain social or cultural issues, the Soldiers of the Lord may be very good or very bad, but the rhetoric about them seems, so far, wildly overblown. The rhetoric about the group is far more provocative than the group itself.
[1] Youtube.com/watch?v=p8zyEh-dMto, December 28, 2022.
[2] Beirutobserver.com/2022/12/2750401, December 23, 2022.
[3] Lebanonfiles.com/articles/%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%85%d8%ae%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%a9/%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%83%d9%84-%d9%85%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%aa%d8%b7%d8%b1%d9%91%d9%81%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a3%d9%85-%d9%82%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b5-%d8%b9%d8%ab%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%86%d8%ad%d9%86/
[4] Twitter.com/GoergeNasrallah, accessed December 30, 2022.
[5] Youtube.com/@-soldiersofgod4092, accessed December 30, 2022.
[6] Youtube.com/shorts/jy_bFCHSJbM, December 23, 2022.
[7] Youtube.com/watch?v=JybB-oFltVc, 2022.
[8] Youtube.com/watch?v=20ruB546KMk&t=35s, December 25, 2022.
[9] Twitter.com/ZAbouderhamein/status/1604920798954881068, December 19, 2022.
[10] Kawalees.net/?p=158949, December 27, 2022.
[11] Lebanon24.com/news/lebanon/1022648/%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A3%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%B5%D8%AD%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%8A-%D9%84%D8%A7-%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7, December 23, 2022.
[12] Tayyar.org/News/Lebanon/511808, December 3, 2022.
[13] Youtube.com/watch?v=HgRawRURSb4, 2022.
[14] Daraj.media/100052, November 3, 2022.
[15] Youtube.com/watch?v=QzMUdcnMCPQ, December 23, 2022.
[16] Reuters.com/world/middle-east/beirut-neighbourhood-watch-echoes-troubled-past-2022-11-27, November 28, 2022.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 30-31/2022/
Who is leading Israel's new hardline government?
Holly Johnston/The National/December 30/2022
Longtime Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu is back as Prime Minister, officially inaugurating his government on Thursday after a divisive election campaign and previous failed attempts to cobble together a cabinet.
Several thousand demonstrators stood outside the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on Thursday, with some saying “we don't want fascists” in parliament. A protest took place in Tel Aviv later in the day.
Mr Netanyahu was hoisted back to power in November on the back of an alliance of ultra-right and religious parties that now make up Israel's most right-wing government yet, threatening to push the Palestinian-Israeli conflict into deeper crisis.
Mr Netanyahu's Likud party dominates the largely male government, with women only holding five of the 30 ministries.
Several ministers will serve in more than one position, rotating halfway through the government's four-year term.
Here is a rundown of some of the biggest kingmakers in Israel's new cabinet.
Benjamin Netanyahu — Prime Minister
Israel's longest-serving prime minister, Mr Netanyahu previously served as head of government for 12 years and has now begun his sixth term in office.
As head of the conservative Likud party and a staunch opponent of Palestinian statehood, he has pledged place West Bank settlements, the expansion of the Abraham Accords and confronting Iran at the centre of government policy.
He still faces criminal proceedings for alleged corruption.
Mr Netanyahu has played down widespread concerns over the far-right nature of his new government, pledging a “liberal-right government”, with electricity permitted on Shabbat after rumours that his Ultra-Orthodox allies would introduce new measures irked Israel's largely secular population.
His predecessor, Yair Lapid, has used Twitter to issue a message to Mr Netanyahu.
“Try not to ruin the country,” Mr Lapid said.
Itamar Ben-Gvir — National Security Minister
Mr Ben-Gvir is perhaps the most talked-about new minister, notorious for his ultra-far-right views and anti-Palestinian rhetoric. The head of Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), Mr Ben-Gvir commands a large hardline fan base and lives in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.
He will assume control of Israel's police force as National Security Minister, and is to enjoy unprecedented powers after the Knesset passed a law that expanded his power earlier this week.
Under the new rules, Mr Ben-Gvir is now in charge of the country's police force and can direct general police and investigation policy.
He was previously a member of the banned Kahanist extremist group and was barred from the Knesset in 2007 for inciting racism.
Bezalel Smotrich — Finance Minister
Head of the Religious Zionist party, Mr Smotrich was a key figure in propelling Mr Netanyahu back to power, and formed an alliance with Mr Ben-Gvir before the elections.
He will serve as Finance Minister and also serve in the Defence Ministry, assuming control for policies in the occupied West Bank.
The far-right leader is a known opponent of Palestinian statehood and grew up in West Bank settlements, where he still lives today.
Aryeh Deri — Interior Minister/Health Minister
Mr Deri is a founder of the Ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a key member of Mr Netanyahu's coalition.
Born in Morocco, he is a veteran politician and, at the age of 29, became Israel's youngest interior minister, before stints as finance minister, minister of the development of the Negev and Galilee and minister of religious affairs.
He has previously been jailed for bribery and was forced to quit politics in January after being convicted of tax offences. On Tuesday, a special law was passed allowing him to return to office, permitting politicians with criminal convictions who do not have to serve prison time to become ministers.
He will head both the interior and health ministries before taking control of the Finance Ministry from Mr Smotrich in two years.
Eli Cohen — Foreign Minister
The Likud politician and former intelligence chief with lead Israel's Foreign Ministry before rotating with colleague Yisrael Katz.
Mr Cohen was a key architect of the Abraham Accords and in January 2021 he became the first Israeli minister to visit Sudan.
Yoav Galant — Defence Minister
A former army general and immigration minister, Mr Galant oversaw the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and is a staunch ally of Mr Netanyahu and advocate of Israeli settlements.
He entered politics as a member of Kulanu party before switching to Likud in 2019.
Ofir Sofer — Aliyah and Integration Minister
The Immigration Ministry has been given to the Religious Zionism party and may prove crucial to Israel's future relationship with the Jewish diaspora.
Under the Law of Return, any Jewish person or their spouse is eligible to move to Israel and claim automatic citizenship, known as “Aliyah”. This also applies to those who convert to Judaism and people with a Jewish grandparent, including their spouses.
The government is expected to make significant changes to the law, banning non-Orthodox converts from claiming Aliyah, a move expected to cause a particular rift with the US and its large community of largely Reform Jews, a liberal strand of Judaism, many of whom move to Israel.
It has also considered barring prospective immigrants from claiming the right to return through a Jewish grandparent, a route which has allowed hundreds of thousands of people to enter Israel from the former Soviet Union.
Religious Zionism has repeatedly called for the “grandparent clause” to be repealed, arguing many of the arrivals from Russia and Ukraine have Jewish heritage but are practising Christians.
However, various reports suggest the move will be blocked due to Likud's popularity among Russian-speaking Israelis.
Other ministers
National Missions: Orit Strook (Religious Zionist)
Intelligence: Gila Gamliel (Likud)
Heritage: Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit)
Education: Haim Biton (Shas)
Housing: Yitzhak Goldknopf (United Torah Judaism)
Diaspora and Social Equality: Amichai Chikli (Likud)
Energy: Yisrael Katz (Likud)
Strategic Affairs: Ron Dermer (Likud)
Religious Services: Michael Malkieli (Shas)
Transport: Miri Regev (Likud)

Iran holds military drill near strategic Strait of Hormuz
Associated Press/December 30, 2022
Iran's military on Friday kicked off its annual drill in the coastal area of the Gulf of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, state TV reported, even as the authorities continue their crackdown on anti-government protests that have been underway for over three months. The strait is located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and is crucial to global energy supplies, with about a fifth of all oil traded at sea passing through it. The TV report said commandos and airborne infantry would participate in the wargames, dubbed "Zolfaghar-1401," along with drones, fighter jets, helicopters, military transport aircraft and submarines. Iran's military is to fire missiles and air defense systems as well, it added. The maneuvers are aimed at "improving readiness in confronting foreign threats and any possible invasion," the TV said. Iran regularly holds such drills to improve its defensive power and test weapons. Since mid-September, Iran has been shaken by anti-government protests. They were ignited by the death of a woman who was detained by the country's morality police. The demonstrations rapidly escalated into calls for an end to more than four decades of the country's clerical rule.

Iranian man's death in France shakes distressed diaspora
ARNO PEDRAM/AP/December 30, 2022
When a 38-year-old man anguished over the protests in Iran took his own life in the French city of Lyon, fellow members of the Iranian diaspora felt his pain.
Three months into the anti-government protests, Iranians abroad are going through a spectrum of emotions. Activists and counselors hope Mohammad Moradi’s desperate act this week inspires others to reach out for help and to raise awareness of what is happening in Iran. In videos in Farsi and French recorded before his death, Moradi criticized Iran’s leadership and called for solidarity from Western governments against it. The recordings featured him saying, “When you see this video, I will be dead.” The Iranian Kurdish man arrived in France in 2019 with his wife and was pursuing a PhD in history. His death Monday resonated near and far. Other Iranians in the Lyon region, activists and friends brought flowers and candles to the site where he died in what police were investigating as an an apparent suicide. Many members of the Iranian diaspora have experienced distress since the unprecedented protests began, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody in September. Police had detained Amini for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women. “Mohammad Moradi is the image of all of us, what we live today, as the Iranian diaspora across the world,” Hengameh Yahyazadeh, the lead organizer of solidarity protests against Iran's clerics in the French city of Toulouse, told The Associated Press. Moradi's Instagram profile tells of a person interested in literature, poetry and politics. Like many Iranians abroad, he took to Instagram to relay messages criticizing the Islamic Republic’s clerical rule, chronicling his participation in demonstrations in Lyon, and expressing his indignation at the treatment of protesters in Iran. .The feeling is widespread. “Some days I wake up and I’m scared,” Yahyazadeh said. “I have a dozen friends in Iranian prisons, I’m scared of knowing how I will face the possible news that one of my friends was executed.”Since the start of the protests, at least 507 protesters have been killed and more than 18,500 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists, a group in Iran that has closely monitored the unrest.
Iranian authorities have not released figures for those killed or arrested. A dozen people are also facing the death penalty for their involvement in the protests.
Hanaë El Bakkali, a psychotherapist who heads a France-based organization that works with migrants, says the news from back home has caused many Iranians in the diaspora to experience “decompensation,” a psychological state that results from being unable to process stressful events.
“When important events are happening back home, it reactivates past trauma, it pressurizes parts that are buried, that one thought they left on the side but actually didn’t,” El Bakkali told the AP. “People relive what they experienced back home through flashbacks. They can have nightmares, looping thoughts, trouble sleeping, memory issues, anxious and depressive symptoms, and might harm themselves.”As a result, those who become militant abroad “advocate with a deteriorated psychological state,” El Bakkali said. A prominent Iranian Kurdish activist in London, Halaleh Taheri, hopes Moradi’s death will encourage those experiencing distress to come together and to get involved politically. “His name is with all of the people lost in the revolution,” said Taheri, who took part in the 1979 revolution against the shah of Iran and then fought against the Islamist clerics’ rule before she had to go into exile. She is the founder of MEWS, a London-based charity advocating for the rights of women from the Middle East in the U.K. “I am hoping that in the future, instead of sacrificing blood and ourselves and our life, we just fight against the Islamic Republic by helping each other, uniting, showing solidarity, working in groups, in networks, raising awareness about Iran,” Taheri said. “The country needs us as well,” she said. “We all know that there’s so much pain in our country, and we want to be part of this release. That’s why we are out in the streets.”
*Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Lyon contributed reporting. *This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, please call 988 in the U.S. or contact 988lifeline.org. Helplines in other countries can be found on befrienders.org.

Ukraine Latest: Xi, Putin Hail Ties; Zelenskiy’s Air Defense Vow
Bloomberg News/December 30, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping hailed deepening ties between Russia and China in talks Friday, despite signs that Beijing is impatient with the wider political and economic impact of Russia’s struggling invasion of Ukraine. Russia would seek to strengthen military cooperation with China, with relations between the two countries at their “best in history,” Putin said in the video call, the first since the leaders met in person in September. China stands ready to expand their “strategic partnership,” Xi said. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed to reinforce his nation’s air defenses in the new year.
Key Developments
Putin, Xi Hold Talks as Russia Struggles With War in Ukraine
Biden Signs $1.7 Trillion Funding Bill That Includes Ukraine Aid
US Considers Sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine
Russia to Raise Yuan Share in Wealth Fund to 60%, Gold to 40%
Why the US Is Giving a Patriot System to Ukraine: QuickTake
On the Ground
Ukraine’s defenses shot down all of the fourth wave of drones sent over the past day, with a district administrative building sustaining damage in Kyiv, according to local authorities and Ukraine’s military command in the east. It was part of one of the most intense missile and drone attacks of the war. Russian shelling killed two people and wounded two more in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office. The president said the toughest fighting is taking place near Bakhmut and Soledar, and he expects more attacks before New Year’s eve.
Zelenskiy said in his evening address that Ukraine will further bolster its air defenses in the new year as Russia continues to pound its electrical grid and cities with missiles and armed drones.
“This year we didn’t just save our air defense, we made it the strongest ever,” he said. “But in the new year Ukraine’s air defense will become even stronger and more efficient.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s air defense could become the most powerful in Europe, which he said would help the defense of the continent as well as his nation.
Ukraine got 5,000 diesel generators this month and expects to get about 8,000 more next month, though the nation’s needs are much bigger, given repeated Russia’s air attacks on its energy infrastructure, according to the Infrastructure Ministry.
The overall number of generators imported so far this year is near 500,000, according to Ukraine’s government.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, lost connection to the backup power line due to shelling, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said on Twitter.
The power plant is receiving offsite electricity from the last external line, IAEA said. Ukraine’s three other nuclear plants are restoring previous electricity production levels after Thursday’s missile attacks, according to the statement.
Russian forces killed 120 people in Kyiv in 52 air raids against Ukraine’s capital since the start of the war, the city’s military administration said on Telegram. Almost 500 people were wounded and 600 buildings damaged, it said.
The city’s residents spent nearly a combined one month sheltering during more than 600 air raid alerts.
Financial losses suffered by Ukraine’s agriculture industry may rise to $40 billion this year due to Russia’s invasion, Deputy Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskiy said on television.
Chinese state television reported that Xi told Putin Beijing would continue to play a constructive role in seeking to resolve the Ukraine “crisis,” though the road to peace talks won’t be smooth.
Beijing has refused to publicly condemn the invasion or even to call it a war, instead accusing the US of provoking Russia by pushing to expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Putin said in his end-of-year video call with Xi that Russia and China’s strategic partnership is a “stabilizing factor” against rising geopolitical tensions, and Russia would seek to strengthen military cooperation with China. Xi said China is ready to expand their “strategic partnership.”
Putin has grown increasingly dependent on China for political and economic support, turning to its neighbor as a buyer for oil redirected away from European markets as well as for imports. While Xi has refused to publicly condemn the war, Beijing has shown some impatience with the wider political and economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US said Biden and Xi chastised the Kremlin for loose talk of nuclear war over Ukraine when they held talks at the Group of 20 summit in November.
Ukraine is fixing the relatively minor damage to its energy system cause by Russia’s missile and drone attacks over the past day, Ukrainian energy operator Ukrenergo said Friday in a Facebook statement. Operations are resuming at the planned level, it said.
The nation is still experiencing power shortages, particularly in the southern and eastern regions, because of previous repeated attacks. “Consumption limits have been established for all areas,” Ukrenergo said. “Exceeding the shortages leads to emergency shutdowns.”
DTEK, a private supplier of electricity to Ukraine’s cities, said in its Telegram channel that it stabilized supplies to Kyiv.
Russia’s Finance Ministry doubled the amount of Chinese yuan and gold it can hold in the national wealth fund, with much of its savings frozen by international sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.
The potential share of yuan was raised to 60% of the National Wellbeing Fund and gold to 40% to make investments in the National Wellbeing fund “more flexible,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Friday. The ministry said its accounts in British pounds and Japanese yen at the central bank have been set at zero. Belarus is looking into whether a Ukrainian missile entered its airspace Thursday by mistake or as an intentional provocation from Kyiv’s troops, Air Force commander Kirill Kazantsev said in a video statement on the Defense Ministry Telegram channel.
Ukraine Defense Ministry said Thursday that it’s ready to investigate the incident. Without directly confirming of denying it launched the anti-aircraft guided missile that was shot down over southern Belarus, the ministry said Russia may have deliberately laid the trajectory for its cruise missiles to provoke an interception in Belarusian airspace.
The incident said is a “matter of concern” for Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on a daily conference call with reporters. Once Putin realizes he can’t subdue Ukraine, there could be a “negotiated peaceful solution ensuring that Ukraine prevails as an independent democratic state,” Stoltenberg said in the DPA interview. Recent Ukrainian attacks on military targets in Russia are legitimate as “every country has the right to defend itself,” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization head said. Biden signed the measure after Republicans who will have control of the House in January vowed to subject the administration’s support for Ukraine to greater oversight. The fresh assistance to the government in Kyiv adds to the $65 billion the US has already appropriated this year in response to Russia’s invasion and follows an address in person to Congress earlier this month by Zelenskiy.
Aliona Verbytska, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said Russia had confirmed that it was holding more than 3,000 prisoners of war. She said 15,000 people were missing, many of them civilians. Verbytska, in her capacity as ombudsperson for the rights of Ukrainian soldiers, underscored the discrepancy between the number of confirmed POWs and the number still missing. “We do not know what happened to them. Whether they are also Russian prisoners of war, have been taken from Russian-occupied territories or possibly killed,” Verbytska said. She assailed what she called the “very poor” cooperation of Russian agencies, with regards to dealing with prisoners of war.

Moscow's exiled chief rabbi says Jews could be scapegoated for hardships caused by the war in Ukraine and should leave while they can
Sophia Ankel/Business Insider/December 30, 2022
The chief rabbi of Moscow left Russia earlier this year in protest over its invasion of Ukraine. Pinchas Goldschmidt told The Guardian that Jews should leave Russia while they can. He warned that Russia is seeing a rise in antisemitism and is becoming "a new kind of Soviet Union."Moscow's exiled chief rabbi told The Guardian that Jews should leave Russia while they can, adding that the country is "going back to a new kind of Soviet Union."Pinchas Goldschmidt told The Guardian in an interview published on Friday that he worries the Jewish population will become a scapegoat for the hardship caused by war.
"When we look back over Russian history, whenever the political system was in danger you saw the government trying to redirect the anger and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish community," he told the outlet. He added that today "we're seeing rising antisemitism while Russia is going back to a new kind of Soviet Union, and step by step the iron curtain is coming down again.""This is why I believe the best option for Russian Jews is to leave," he said.
Goldschmidt resigned from his post as Moscow's chief rabbi earlier this year, after refusing to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
As of June, he was living in Jerusalem and taking care of his ailing father, The Guardian reported at the time. After leaving the country, Goldschmidt said in a statement that he was leaving the Russian Jewish community "in distress," according to The Times of Israel.
According to the estimates of Hebrew University in 2016, Russia is home to 179,500 Jews. Economic sanctions imposed by the EU, US, and other Western countries have pushed the Russian economy into recession and pushed out even more people. International companies have exited Russia en masse, while much of its currency has been frozen since the start of the war. After launching the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Putin said that he was aiming for the "demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine." There is no evidence of genocide happening in Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country's democratically-elected president, is Jewish.

In east Ukraine, farmers won't leave their animals
Reuters/December 30, 2022
STORY: Here in Yampil, a frontline village in east Ukraine recaptured by Ukrainian forces at the end of September after months under Russian occupation, buildings lie in ruins. Most people have left. But not farmers Yevhennia and Ivan, who say they could not bear to abandon their rabbits, ducks, chickens and pigeons. Ivan: "We've always kept rabbits. But when the missiles started falling down, in the morning I saw 15 of them on the ground, blood coming from their noses. It's the stress toll."Ukrainian authorities have come with leaflets urging remaining residents to leave. Yevhennia says she and Ivan aren't going anywhere. "We have been working with poultry since we were children. Since we lived with mother and went to school. We grew poultry since childhood. This love grew with us up until our older years. This is what we do, and we can't live without our chickens, our rabbits. So we try to do as much as we can physically manage. Nearby in the village, a blasted stable strewn with animal bones is a monument to the dark fate of some animals in a war zone. Private owners had collected a menagerie of exotic and wild animals there.Residents say the animals died, ran away or were killed during the months of Russian occupation.

Ukraine says repelled Russia drone attack at night
Agence France Presse/December 30, 2022
Ukraine said Friday it repelled a night-time drone attack from Russia, a day after Moscow launched a new wave of missile strikes in the run-up to New Year celebrations. The attacks came 10 months into President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, with Russian strikes targeting the energy grid, leaving millions in the cold in the middle of winter. Ukraine's air force said on Friday morning that Russia's overnight assault was made with "Iranian-made kamikaze drones". A total of 16 drones were launched from the southeastern and northern directions and they were "all" destroyed by Ukraine's air defence, it said. The presidency said Ukraine "withstood" the new drone attacks, which targeted infrastructure. In the capital Kyiv, city authorities announced an air alert shortly after 2:00 am local time. Mayor Vitali Klitschko later said seven drones had targeted the capital. Two were shot down "on approach" and five over the city. There were no casualties, but falling debris damaged windows in two buildings in southwestern Kyiv, he added. One of the drones hit a four-storey administrative building, starting a fire that was later extinguished, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office.
Barrage of missiles
The drone attack came after a barrage of Russian missiles battered Ukraine on Thursday morning, with blasts reported across the vast country, from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to Lviv in the west near the Polish border. Ukraine's army said Russia had launched several dozen cruise missiles, the majority of which had been shot down. Russia's defence ministry said Friday it had carried out a "massive strike" the day earlier on military command and energy facilities. "All assigned targets were reached," according to the ministry. Tymoshenko said four civilians were killed and eight received injuries on Thursday. On Friday, three people were killed by Russian shelling, he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said most regions were left without power following Thursday's attack. Ukraine's energy operator said Friday the damage had a "much smaller impact" on the power grid than "the enemy expected" and the power deficit was back to the levels before Thursday's attack. But "the situation in the southern and eastern regions is still difficult," Ukrenergo added. Russia has faced international condemnation and an onslaught of unprecedented sanctions over its war in Ukraine.
The growing international isolation has forced Putin to seek closer political and economic cooperation with nations in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Putin speaks to Xi
A pariah in the West since the start of the assault on Ukraine, Putin on Friday spoke by video link with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, calling him a "dear friend" and hailing the two countries' efforts to counter Western "pressure". Putin also said he was keen to ramp up military cooperation. "We aim to strengthen cooperation between the armed forces of Russia and China," Putin told Xi, a week after the two countries conducted naval drills in the East China Sea. Putin also hailed the efforts of Moscow and Beijing to counter "unprecedented Western pressure and provocations" and said he expected Xi to arrive in Moscow for a state visit next spring. Putin has also relied on the backing of Belarus's long-serving president Alexander Lukashenko, who allowed Russian troops to use his country as a launchpad for the offensive. In a first, Minsk on Thursday said its forces had downed a Ukrainian air defence missile in the western Brest region that borders Poland and Ukraine, raising fears of a spillover of the conflict. The authorities in Minsk summoned Ukraine's ambassador to protest the incident. The Belarusian defence ministry said Friday it was considering the possibility that the incident was a "deliberate provocation" by Ukrainian forces. The Kremlin said Friday the incident caused "extreme concern" in Minsk and Moscow. Kyiv has suggested it might have been part of a Russian ploy to try to draw Belarus into the conflict.

Ten oil field workers killed in Syria attack
Agence France Presse/December 30, 2022
An attack in eastern Syria killed 10 oil field workers, state news agency SANA reported on Friday, a day after Syrian Kurdish-led forces announced an offensive against jihadists. In addition to the nearly dozen dead, "two others have been wounded in a terrorist attack that targeted three buses transporting workers from al-Taim oil field in Deir Ezzor" province, SANA reported. It did not provide any information on the nature of the attack in the Kurdish-held area or who may be behind it, but a British-based war monitor said "cells of the Islamic State group" carried out the assault near the oil field.
"The attack began with explosive devices that went off as the buses drove by, and then the group's militants shot at them," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP. On Thursday the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said they had begun an offensive against Islamic State (IS) group fighters, following an earlier jihadist assault on a prison in Raqa, northwest of the attack on the bus. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the offensive, dubbed "Operation al-Jazeera Thunderbolt", aimed to "eliminate" IS fighters from areas that had been "the source of the recent terrorist attacks." The SDF said it was carrying out the operation alongside the U.S.-backed coalition, although there was no immediate confirmation from the international force that they were taking part. The SDF statement said that in addition to the thwarted Raqa attack, IS fighters had recently carried out eight assaults in the Deir Ezzor area, Hasakeh and the Al-Hol camp for displaced people, which houses family members of IS militants. On Monday, six Kurdish fighters were killed when IS militants attacked the complex in Raqa, the jihadist group's former de facto capital in Syria, in a bid to free fellow militants imprisoned there. Referring to recent Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, the SDF said IS was trying to "take advantage" of the situation by "carrying out more terrorist attacks."After a meteoric rise in Iraq and Syria in 2014, IS saw its so-called caliphate collapse, but fighters remain.
Supported by an international anti-jihadist coalition led by the United States, the SDF spearheaded the fight against IS in Syria and drove the group from its last stronghold in the country in 2019. IS continues to claim attacks in Iraq and Syria, and the SDF regularly launches operations against the jihadists.
IS said Monday's attack on Raqa aimed to avenge "Muslim prisoners" and female relatives of jihadists living in Al-Hol camp. This was the most significant jihadist attack on a prison since IS fighters launched their biggest assault in years in January, when they attacked the Ghwayran prison in the Kurdish-controlled city of Hasakeh.

Libya PM takes risky bet on US goodwill from Lockerbie handover
Agence France Presse/December 30/2022 |
Libya's Tripoli-based leadership is facing a public backlash for handing Washington a suspect in the deadly 1988 Lockerbie attack, but is betting that the resulting U.S. goodwill can strengthen its hand against rivals. The attack on a Pan Am jet over Scotland killed 270 people, the deadliest-ever terror attack in Britain, which took place when Libya was under the rule of dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Earlier this month, alleged former intelligence agent Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir al-Marimi appeared in a U.S. court on accusations he made the bomb used in the attack.
He could face life in prison if convicted of "destruction of an aircraft resulting in death" and two other related charges. Masud's handover sparked a backlash against the government of Abdulhamid Dbeibah, which controls the west of the conflict-wracked country but is challenged by a rival authority and forces loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east. Dbeibah has faced bitter criticism from political rivals, rights groups and relatives of Libyan detainees who fear being handed over themselves. Khaled al-Montasser, a professor of international relations at Tripoli University, said Dbeibah "will probably not stop at extraditing one suspect -- others will inevitably follow". Dbeibah, after admitting that the handover had taken place, said he had acted "with full respect for Libyan sovereignty".
He also denied rumours he was planning to hand over Abdallah Senoussi, who was Kadhafi's intelligence chief at the time of the attack. "Senoussi will not be handed to the United States, he's in his prison in Tripoli," Dbeibah told Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya. Only one person has been convicted for the bombing, which killed all 259 people on the jumbo jet, including 190 Americans, and 11 people on the ground. The Libyan state had considered the case closed since 2003, after Gadhafi's regime officially acknowledged its responsibility for the attack, paid $2.7 billion in compensation and handed over two Libyan suspects. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah were charged with the bombing and tried by a Scottish court in the Netherlands. Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001 while Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi died in Libya in 2012, always maintaining his innocence. But while a 2008 deal put an end to financial claims for compensation, "Washington never closes criminal cases" concerning its citizens, Montasser said. He said the Biden administration was reviving the Lockerbie affair to "put pressure on Libya's political leaders". "No Libyan authority could have refused" to hand over Masud, he said. Libyan analyst Abdallah al-Rayes suspected Dbeibah had done a "political deal" with Washington with an eye to gaining its support to face down eastern rivals. "Libyan leaders are hoping to repair their image" in the eyes of Washington and strengthen their position as possible elections approach in 2023, he said.
He added that Dbeibah's public justifications for the handover were "not convincing" and had put his administration on the back foot. "It's seen as having done the bidding of a foreign country," he said. Tripoli however needs international goodwill in order to get favours in return, according to analyst Jalel Harchaoui.
"These aren't clear and firm transactions, but the seduction campaign led by the Dbeibah family is certainly real," Harchaoui said. "Dbeibah, whose popularity in Libya has been waning with time, has noticed that some foreign states are coming to terms with his continued existence from month to month."
The U.S. embassy in Tripoli tweeted last week that Masud's "transfer... to U.S. custody to stand trial on charges related to the bombing of Pan Am 103 was lawful and conducted in cooperation with Libyan authorities". It insisted it was not re-opening the 2008 deal which had put an end to legal pursuit of financial compensation in U.S. courts. However, the deal in "no way restricts our law enforcement cooperation or has any bearing on criminal charges against those responsible for the attack," the embassy said.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 30-31/2022/
The Iran Nuclear Deal – Has the West Learned Anything?
Y. Carmon/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 443/December 30/2022 |
President Biden recently said that the Iran nuclear deal is dead. On the other hand, the Iranians – for example Hossein Taeb, an advisor to IRGC commander Hossein Salami – claim that the U.S. is begging to come back to the negotiations, and is acting hypocritically by sending contradicting messages. So who is telling the truth?
According to Arab and Iranian media – and in contrast to all earlier rumors that the nuclear deal had fallen through – the nuclear negotiations are still alive, and have recently even intensified. For instance, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, French President Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrel met at the December 20 Baghdad II summit in Jordan, and all sides reported that progress is being made in the negotiations. The Iranian media reports also indicate that the U.S. wants to limit Iran's regional expansion and to reach a deal regarding its ballistic missiles, which pose a threat to the security of both Israel and some of its Arab neighbors. These two issues – regional expansion and missiles – were absent from the original JCPOA, and it is reasonable that the U.S. would indeed include them in the negotiations. Indeed, this may indicate that the U.S. is not giving up the demands, to which Iran will never agree.
Another indication that the negotiations have intensified is the recent letter reportedly sent by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Oman’s leader Haitham bin Tariq about the deal.[1] Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian has also spoken optimistically about this letter. It should be noted that President Obama had also used Oman as a go-between when he agreed, breaking all precedents, to Iran's enriching uranium.
If indeed the U.S. is still involved in the negotiations, despite President Biden's informal statement that the deal was dead, then the Biden administration is doing precisely what President Obama did with Oman in 2015, when he secretly approved – in writing – of Iran's uranium enrichment efforts, breaking a years-long taboo on uranium enrichment by non-superpower countries.
In considering the possible renewal of the nuclear deal, the U.S. and the Europeans need to take several issues into account.
Iran is desperate to advance the deal, particularly in light of its ongoing economic crisis and after 100 days of antiregime protests. It therefore may use deception so that the U.S. and the Europeans will keep making concessions in the the negotiations.
Will the West recall that all of Obama’s promises that Iran’s nuclear activities would be monitored everywhere and at all times were not kept, and will not be kept in the future either?
Will they realize that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei's alleged fatwa banning nuclear weapons – that no one has ever seen or even asked to see – is a sheer lie?[2] Have they not heard Iran’s representatives openly discussing Iran’s technical ability to produce a nuclear bomb and justifying producing it?
Will they realize that Iran is lying to their face, such as with its brazen claim that it did not sell drones to Russia?
Will they remember that the U.S. itself has no clue as to the location of 8.5 tons of enriched uranium meant to be transferred out of Iran in 2015 in the framework of the original JCPOA? According to Ambassador Stephen Mull, the Obama administration's State Department lead coordinator on Iran, in testimony at a February 11, 2016 hearing before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Washington has lost track of this enriched uranium.[3]
Will they take into consideration the fact that the Iranians have already enriched uranium to 60% – a level appropriate for use in nuclear submarines? Are they really under the impression that Iran’s nuclear program is for civilian purposes, as the Iranians claim, and that the 60%-enriched uranium will be used for shipping tomatoes, potatoes, and Iranian pistachios in nuclear-powered submarines?
Will they re-read the original JCPOA and notice that Section T explicitly permits the Iranians, under certain conditions, to detonate experimental nuclear devices, in stark contradiction of the supposed purpose of the agreement to prevent Iran from acquiring nukes?
If a new deal is reached, will they agree to Iran transferring all of its enriched uranium to Russia, against which the West has been fighting for nearly a year?
The entire issue of the nuclear deal is one big absurdity. Yet on the other hand, Europe is in desperate need of cheaper oil, and the European countries have seen widespread antigovernment demonstrations and could use some quiet. Biden's Democratic administration, for its part, also needs Europe to continue backing the war in Ukraine, and it needs political momentum – which a new nuclear deal, even one based on lies, could give it – ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
If a new nuclear agreement is reached, there is little doubt that Israel, whose very existence would be threatened by Iranian nukes, would take military action and bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel’s new-old prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was just sworn in again, said in his Knesset speech prior to the approval of his cabinet yesterday that thwarting Iran's aim to develop nuclear weapons is his number one priority. The structure of his government indicates that he will face no internal dissent in this matter. Moreover, even outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz – known to be very moderate – told a graduating class of fighter pilots two days ago that one of their missions might be to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.[4]
*Yigal Carmon is President of MEMRI.
[1] ISNA (Iran), December 12, 2022.
[2] MEMRI Daily Brief 433, Khamenei's 'Nuclear Fatwa,' Once Again,November 29, 2022.
[3] See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 1463, The Farce Of Iran's Breach Of Limit On Enriched Uranium: U.S. Never Had, Nor Does It Have Today, Any Clue Where The 8.5 Tons Of Enriched Uranium Ostensibly Shipped Out Of Iran In 2015 Are; Moreover, Russia Provided Iran With 200 Tons Of Yellowcake, July 2, 2019.
[4] Reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-minister-sees-possible-attack-iran-two-or-three-years-2022-12-28, December 28, 2022.

Turkish 'Progress': Six-Year-Old Girl Married by Her Sheik Father
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/December 30, 2022
On November 25, protestors gathered in several provinces to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. They were met with a heavy police presence and violent crackdown.
This is a picture of Turkish "progress" between 1934 and 2022.
Before Erdogan came to power, civil marriage was compulsory in Turkey, and conducting a religious marriage before the civil one was punishable by a prison sentence. Under Erdogan, Turkish courts legalized religious marriages and reduced the legal age of consent for sex to 12 years of age.
Against this backdrop, even Turkey was shocked at news that a prominent Islamic sheik, the leader of a religious order fiercely devoted to Erdogan, had married off his six-year-old daughter to a 29-year-old disciple. Six! The girl had been forced into sex and became a mother at 14. She complained to the prosecutor's office, but Erdogan's authorities apparently did not want to bother the sheik.
Hey, West! Time to get to know your NATO partner.
In Turkey, a prominent Islamic sheik, the leader of a religious order fiercely devoted to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, married off his six-year-old daughter to a 29-year-old disciple. The girl had been forced into sex and became a mother at 14. She complained to the prosecutor's office, but Erdogan's authorities apparently did not want to bother the sheik. (Image source: iStock)
No doubt, Turkey is more secular and modern than Afghanistan and Iran. But that is not good enough news for Turkish girls and women.
A total of 327 women were murdered by their husbands, ex-husbands, fiancés and partners, between January 1 and November 11, 2022, according to the Turkish Federation of Women's Association. The Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should be proud.
Although they are now "ex-allies," Erdogan, when he was the prime minister of Turkey in 2007, elected as president his long-time, staunchest ally at the time, Abdullah Gul, a fellow Islamist. Gul reportedly married his wife, Hayrunnisa, when he was 30 years old and she was 14.
The marriage of underage girls and women is part of Islamist culture, including in Turkey.
In March 2021, under pressure from pious Muslims, Erdogan announced that Turkey was pulling out of the "Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence," effective July 1, 2021. The accord is better known as the Istanbul Convention after Turkey's biggest city where, in 2011, it received signatures, including Erdogan's.
"Turkey's decision to ditch a landmark international treaty to tackle violence against women and girls, could significantly set back efforts to tackle the problem," said Reem Alsalem, a senior UN-appointed independent rights expert.
Officially, around one out of four women in Turkey has suffered physical or sexual abuse from their partners, according to latest available government data from a 2014 survey, said Alsalem in a statement. There are also likely "hundreds of femicides" every year, she added, pointing to serious underreporting of the issue, owing to a lack of confidence in protection mechanisms, widespread impunity and gender-related bias and discrimination.
This is the gloomy background in a country where women won the right to vote in national elections in 1934, ten years before French women. In 1935, 18 women became Turkish MPs, or 4.6% of the parliament.
That was secular Turkey.
Today, in Turkey, the driving force is political Islam. On November 25, protestors gathered in several provinces to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. They were met with a heavy police presence and violent crackdown. Several women were detained in the protests, including 20 journalists. "We are not allowed to leave the [police] blockade," journalist Sultan Eylem Keleş wrote in a tweet.
This is a picture of Turkish "progress" between 1934 and 2022.
It is only the tip of the iceberg. As Erdogan's political Islam has poisoned the uneducated masses' freedom over the past two decades, families have turned "medieval" in their social life. The prominent Turkish columnist Yilmaz Ozdil compiled a list of crimes committed in Erdogan's Turkey in just the past few years:
An 11-year-old girl, who had been married by an imam, gave birth: Bolu province.
A 12-year-old girl gave birth under a fake ID that showed her age as 18: Gaziantep province.
A 12-year-old girl gave birth: Izmir province.
A girl named Kader, or "fate in English." She did not have good fate. She was forcibly married at 12, became a mother at 13 and committed suicide at 14: Siirt province.
A girl was married, at 13, to a 40-year-old man. She ran away after severe violence from the husband. Her family rejected her. At 17 she, with her three children, had no place to live: Ordu province.
A 15-year-old girl was forcibly married. She took refuge at a police station: Sakarya province.
A notary public was caught endorsing the illegal marriage of a 14-year-old girl: Tekirdag province.
A 12-year-old girl, who was forcibly married, appeared to be four months pregnant: Tokat province:
A 16-year-old girl who had been married off by her family committed suicide by throwing herself under the train: Adana province.
A 16-year-old married girl jumped from the seventh floor of a building: Konya province.
There was a case of a girl of 14 being forcibly married to a man of 70, father of five and grandfather of nine.
The Kanuni Sultan Suleyman Hospital in Istanbul reported to have received 115 pregnant girls under 15 in just five months. The hospital said it admits 500 pregnant girls in one year.
Before Erdogan came to power, civil marriage was compulsory in Turkey, and conducting a religious marriage before the civil one was punishable by a prison sentence. Under Erdogan, Turkish courts legalized religious marriages and reduced the legal age of consent for sex to 12 years of age.
Against this backdrop, even Turkey was shocked at news that a prominent Islamic sheik, the leader of a religious order fiercely devoted to Erdogan, had married off his six-year-old daughter to a 29-year-old disciple. Six! The girl had been forced into sex and became a mother at 14. She complained to the prosecutor's office, but Erdogan's authorities apparently did not want to bother the sheik. As she became an adult, she collected evidence of abuse, made it public, and only then the judiciary took action. Initially the court decided to try the suspects without detention, but under huge public pressure, the court detained both the father and husband. The father, in a statement, said that he was answerable only to Allah, not to a court.
Hey, West! Time to get to know your NATO partner. Erdogan's Minister of Family and Social Services, Derya Yanık (a woman), claimed that violence against women and child abuse are not the subject of politics because they are "human nature issues and can be seen in every society."
What is the link between these criminal acts and Erdogan's government? First, the sheik who married off his six-year-old daughter heads a foundation linked to the influential radical Islamist Ismailaga community. Second, the Ismailaga community is one of many that fall under the umbrella of the Naqshbandi-Khalidi order, a branch of Sunni Islam of which Erdogan is said to have been a follower. Third, the funeral of the Ismailaga sect's longtime leader earlier this year was attended by Erdogan and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
There are civilized and medieval worlds in the 21st century -- and there are medieval leaders dressed in suits and ties who pretend to belong to the civilized world.
*Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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A New Beginning in Syria in 2023?
Omer Onhon/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 30/2022
The Syrian crisis has moved to a new phase in 2022, as I emphasized in previous Syria-related articles, and we can expect even more in 2023.
In this regard, relations with Türkiye are particularly noteworthy.
Back in the first half of the year, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that the intelligence organizations of Türkiye and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime were engaged in talks. Since then, things have gained pace.
Most recently, Erdogan shared the idea of holding a trilateral summit between himself, Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said that this summit should be preceded by meetings of Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs.
The war in Ukraine has brought about an even more enhanced and diversified kind of working relationship between Türkiye and Russia.
Russia wants Türkiye and Assad to make up. Türkiye appears to have gladly accepted Russia to take the steering wheel and navigate.
On December 28, the Ministers of Defense of Russia, Sergei Shoigu, Türkiye, Hulusi Akar, and Syria, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, met in Moscow. Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan was also present. This was the first meeting of its sort in 11 years.
At this point, let’s take a brief look at Syria.
Assad, who was elected president for a fourth term during last year's elections, controls around just over half of the country. It is his representative who holds the country seat at the United Nations. Despite these, in the eyes of millions of Syrians, Assad is no more than a brutal dictator and the major cause of destruction in Syria. Many in the international community are of the same opinion.
The Syrian economy has been deteriorating since 2011. Out of its pre-war population of 23 million, more than 7 million Syrians have fled their country. Around 7-8 million are internally displaced people (IDPs). According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 14.6 million people are in need of aid, 90 percent live below the poverty line and 80 percent are assessed to be food insecure.
The Syrian pound has diminished to a valueless piece of paper. Electricity and fuel are scarce. Syrian people are up against a real risk of further human tragedies, including famine and pandemic.
Among the main reasons for the 2011 uprising in Syria were widespread corruption and monopoly of the regime over the country’s economic wealth. This situation remains and is even worse today.
Syria needs every drop of its oil to overcome its economic difficulties. But its much-needed natural resources are controlled by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a non-state actor, which uses oil revenues to finance its military and administrative operations.
The Astana trio of Russia, Türkiye and Iran have been shaping Syria for the last few years.
Assad owes remaining in power largely to Russia and Iran. Even though Russia is now occupied in the war in Ukraine and Iran is facing a serious challenge at home, neither country has abandoned its position of influence in Syria.
Türkiye has in recent times engaged (and succeeded to a large extent) to normalize relations with a number of countries in the region with whom ties were sour.
It has now turned to Syria for normalization.
The issues of YPG and return of refugees, both problems with roots in Syria, have direct implications on Türkiye. These issues have become even more important with upcoming elections where Erdogan will be in need of every vote. Many Turks, including staunch government supporters, have criticized Erdogan for his policies in Syria.
Under these circumstances, the Turkish government has opted for a very serious policy shift, from “not with Assad” to “not without Assad”. If Erdogan is able to talk to Assad and attain anything which can be regarded as an achievement, he will claim another major diplomatic success.
Nobody knows what tomorrow may bring but as of today, the losers of the process appear to be the US, Iran and the YPG.
The US has long said that its priority in Syria is to defeat ISIS and to make sure that it stays down. The local partner of the US in its fight against ISIS is the YPG, which is considered a terror organization by Türkiye and regarded by Syrians as a threat to their national unity.
Regarding the American position on Assad, apparently, it does not like him. The “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act” is in effect. Just recently, the US included “combatting the Syrian regime's trade of captagon” in the defense spending law signed by President Joe Biden.
As recently as a few days ago, in response to a question by a Turkish journalist, the US State Department Press Office said: “The US will not upgrade its diplomatic relations with the Assad regime and does not support other countries upgrading their relations. The US urges states in the region to consider carefully the atrocities inflicted by the Assad regime on the Syrian people over the last decade. The US believes that stability in Syria and the greater region can be achieved through a political process that represents the will of all Syrians.”
In any event, despite all the above, I do not doubt that if the US thought it would serve its interests, it would not refrain from engaging Assad.
Türkiye has been very uncomfortable with the presence of the YPG and American support that it receives. The least that Türkiye wants is to push back the YPG at least 30 kilometers from its borders and create a secure zone there.
In order to achieve its objectives, Türkiye has been signaling a new military operation for some time now. The US, which has invested a lot in its local partner the YPG, does not want its investment to be harmed. Albeit for different reasons, Russia also does not want a Turkish operation.
Under these circumstances, Türkiye seems to be willing to reach a solution through talking instead of fighting.
The meeting of the defense minsters in Moscow was an outcome of all these considerations and developments.
Iran was absent from the meeting but it is still very much present in Syria. The Iranians and their proxies have deployed along the Iraq-Syria border, Deir Ezzor province and Abu Kamal border area. These are also areas where ISIS cells operate. They are also among the most targeted by Israel.
Iran would not let go without collecting the dividend of its support to the Assad regime. The position that it will take regarding Türkiye-Assad talks under Russia’s auspices remains to be seen.
Back to talks between the Turks and the Syrians, I expect Syria to request Türkiye to withdraw from its territories (Idlib and so-called operation areas) and stop supporting armed groups.
Türkiye in return would insist on pushing the YPG away from the border. The replacement of the YPG militia by the regime soldiers along the borders would hopefully to lead to the weakening of the YPG and American presence. This would work well both for the Turks and the Assad regime.
What happens with the YPG and what will be the place of the Kurds in the future of Syria will need an answer. At some point I would expect the YPG to be also involved somewhere in the general framework of talks and negotiations which would mean including the Americans as well.
Türkiye would be very keen to agree on a roadmap for the return of Syrians to their homeland, but this may be very complicated on a number of accounts.
There are many topics and subtopics to discuss and so many problems to solve.
For example, among major problems to be dealt with is what happens with the Syrian National Army and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Will the regime guarantee their safety? Will there be an amnesty by the regime? Will Türkiye be willing to become a lifelong host to Syrian opposition fighters who refuse to live under Assad rule?
We should bear in mind that all that will take place in a very troubled country located in a very troubled neighborhood where everything can turn out to be related, even if they are unrelated.
The trilateral meeting of the ministers of defense of Türkiye, Syria and Russia was not the end but the beginning of a very difficult process entailing many problems, which have accumulated over the past 11 years.

Iran: A Model or a Warning?
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/December, 30/2022
Have you wondered why so many Iranians have been marching against the Islamic Republic for more than three months?
Here are two answers:
1- “The current disturbances are caused because the American Great Satan is envious of the achievements of our Islamic Revolution,” says Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
2- “Today, the Islamic Republic is the world’s number one power. The outside world is not informed enough about our mind-boggling achievements,” says Friday Prayer Leader for Tehran Ayatollah Kazem Sadiqi.
Well, what are those achievements the world doesn’t know about?
There is no doubt that since the Khomeinist sect seized power some 43 years ago, Iran has undergone dramatic changes.
In 1977, on the eve of the revolution, Iran had a population of 38 million. The number today is approaching 88 million. In 1977, there were an estimated 35,000 Iranians living abroad. That number today is estimated at around 8 million.
In the decade that preceded the revolution, Iran experienced an annual economic growth rate averaging 7 percent. In the past four decades, however, that rate has averaged at around 3.5 percent. In the past decade the rate has been almost zero. According to Iranian official statistics Iran’s growth domestic product (GDP) per head has shrunk by 40 percent.
In the two decades preceding the revolution, the inflation rate in Iran was around 2.2 per annum. Since the revolution it has hovered around 20 percent, running at around 45 percent in 2022. In 1977, Iran’s foreign trade was spread among 72 nations. By 1990 80 percent of Iran’s foreign trade was with 23 countries. In 2022 over 56 percent of Iran’s trade was with only three countries: Iraq, the UAE and China.
Since the revolution the percentage of Iranians living below “absolute poverty” has increased from 7 percent in 1977 to 18.4 percent in 2022. At the same time the gap between the rich and the poor has widened. The rich have become 14 times richer than the poor compared to around 10 times in 2000.
The nation’s labor market has plunged from one crisis to another. The mullahs “suspended” the pre-revolution Labor Code, claiming they would introduce a new Islamic one which they have so far failed to do. As a result, some 60 percent of those in work lack standard unemployment and health insurance cover. Unemployment rate, estimated at around 4 percent in 1977 had risen to 12.5 percent in 2021, according to official figures. Unemployment rate for young men, however, was around 22 percent and for young women over 30 percent.
In the past four decades the number of people attending higher education has risen from one million in 1977 to over 2.1 million, an impressive jump but, in fact, stagnation when we remember that Iran’s population has more than doubled.
Also impressive is the fact that women represent more than 50 percent of those attending higher education. Yet, the figure becomes less impressive when we see that women’s active participation in national economy is one-fifth that of men with comparable education.
There are several areas in which the Iran is world number one.
According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) with over 150,000 highly-educated Iranians choosing exile each year, it is number one in the brain drain league.
It is also number-one, relative to population, in the number of executions each year.
Iran also claims top spots in the number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience and foreign hostages.
Moreover, Iran is the only state to have been labeled “a sponsor of international terrorism” by more than 40 countries.
Apart from South Africa under Apartheid, Iran is also alone among UN member-state to be formally expelled from one of its committees.
According to Transparency International, Iran is one of the most corrupt regimes in the world, ranking 150 among 180 nations.
While life expectancy rose from 62 years in 1977 to 78.6 in 2021, Iran’s birth-rate has fallen from 6.24 percent to 2.15 percent with an accelerating trend that, according to official studies, could lead to a shrinking population by 2030.
Iran is also world number one in age difference between the general population and those running the government. While average age of Iranians was 31 in 2021, average age of rulers, those holding the top 5,000 civilian and military offices, works out at over 60.
The ruling elite, mainly consisting of Shiite clerics and military-security apparatchiki, is also less educated than the average urban Iranians.
Iranians are keenly aware of the fact that their ruling elite do not resemble them.
Compared with a snapshot of high officials meeting the “Supreme Guide”, a snapshot of Iranians in any of the nation’s 900 or so towns and cities would show sharp differences in appearance, clothing, body language and, if sound is added, even vocabulary and accents.
The sense of alienation is further strengthened by the fact that the average Iranian reads more books, sees more films, listens to more and more varied music, is more technologically literate, is far less religious, and enjoys art and culture more than the ruling elite.
More importantly, perhaps, the ruling elite consist largely of a network of around 200 families with clerical, military-security and bazaar backgrounds.
It may be that there is no other country where the ruling elite, a caste apart, is so unlike the people it dominates by force and propaganda.
A controversial study by a Tehran University professor also claims that the average IQ of the ruling elite is lower than that of average Iranians.
While there are many Iranians who achieve international distinction in art, literature, cinema, media, sciences and business, none of the top members of the ruling elite could offer a comparable resume.
Their military chiefs never won any battle, their politicians never solved any problems and their diplomats never turned a foe into a friend.
Interestingly, or rather sadly, the middle and lower echelons of this bizarre regime include many men and women with higher education, expertise and intellectual integrity who are systematically shut out of decision-making.
Ayatollah Khamenei believes or pretends that his regime is a model for “all nations”. The many Iranians now in open rebellion believe that it is a curse for their nation and a warning to others.