English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 18/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 05/27-37/:”‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. ‘It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.”But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 17-18/2022
Aoun Accuses 'Sides' of Launching 'Systematic Campaigns' against Him
Lebanese Welcome Victorious Basketball Team in Rare Scene of Joy
$33 Million to be Invested by French Giant in Beirut Port's Container Terminal
Berri Categorically Rejects Any Attempt to Delay Polls, Says Keen on Arab Ties
Kanaan Says State Budget will be Referred to Parliament Next Week
Fayyad Holds 'Fruitful' Talks with Miqati after Latest Clash
Embassies Strongly Warn Lebanese Officials over Latest Tensions
Divisions in Lebanon over Othman, Salameh Questioning
Amid Lebanon's crises, Hezbollah chief boasts of drone, missile manufacture
Lebanon awards CMA CGM contract for Beirut port container terminal: Minister
Young Lebanese may be leaderless but they have a dream/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/February 17/2022

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 17-18/2022
Israel accused of striking Syria hours after Assad met Russian Defense Mininster.
Iran nuclear deal draft puts prisoners, enrichment, cash first, oil comes later
Australia to List Hamas and U.S. Far-Right Group as Terrorists
Biden: Threat of Russian Invasion of Ukraine Very High, May Happen within Days
Russia Says Will be 'Forced to Respond' if No U.S. Security Guarantees
Ukraine and Rebel Region Trade Shelling Allegations
Moe, Kenney, 16 U.S. governors sign letter calling for Trudeau, Biden to end vaccination mandate for truckers
Syrian Helicopter Crash-Lands, Leaving 2 Crew Members Dead
Crisis Looms in Syria Camps, Jails Holding Foreign Nationals
Group Alleges U.S. Firm's Tanker Illicitly Traded Iran Oil
In Qatar, Barzani discusses Kurdistan’s “huge gas potential”
Erdogan's neutrality in Libyan premiership showdown ominous for Dbeibah

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 17-18/2022
The Houthi crisis is creating an Emirati-Israeli opportunity/
Hussain Abdul-Hussain and David May/Al Arabiya/February 17/ 2022
The Palestinian Leaders' Five-Star Jihad/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./February 17, 2022
Why is no one talking about Iran digging a new unbombable nuke facility? - analysis/Yanah Jeremy/Jerusalem Post/February 17/2022
Reality Honks Back ...About those truckers/N.S. Lyons/The Upheaval/February 17/2022/AFP/The Arab Weekly/February 17/2022
World must stand up to Iran over its extraterritorial assassinations/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/February 17/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 17-18/2022
Aoun Accuses 'Sides' of Launching 'Systematic Campaigns' against Him
Naharnet/February 17/2022
President Michel Aoun said Thursday that systematic campaigns have been launched against him, for wanting a forensic audit. Aoun accused "sides and parties that have benefited from the wrong practices in running the state and its institutions, the Central Bank particularly," of launching these campaigns. "They are the ones rebelling against me," Aoun stated, adding that "they are using medias to mislead the public opinion."Aoun claimed that he has been insisting on conducting a forensic audit for the sake of the Lebanese depositors and not for personal considerations.

Lebanese Welcome Victorious Basketball Team in Rare Scene of Joy
Naharnet/February 17/2022
The Lebanese basketball team arrived Thursday at Beirut's Airport from the United Arab Emirates, after winning the Arab Basketball Championship for the first time. Lebanon had defeated Tunisia Wednesday night in the 24th Arab National Basketball Championship at Al-Nasr Club Hall in Dubai.
The Lebanese team secured a 72-69 win yesterday after having defeated Somalia on Tuesday by 15 points. Cheering crowds welcomed the triumphant team at the airport with music and chants, while the players danced with the trophy in their hands. Lebanon's victory is a rare occasion for Lebanese to celebrate, amid an unprecedented economic crisis.

$33 Million to be Invested by French Giant in Beirut Port's Container Terminal
Naharnet/February 17/2022
French shipping giant CMA CGM on Thursday won a 10-year contract beginning in March to run the container terminal at Beirut port, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamiyeh said. CMA CGM -- the third largest shipping company in the world -- will take over Lebanon's biggest port a year and a half after the deadly explosion that killed more than 200 people and destroyed large parts of the capital. "An agreement has been reached to sign a contract to manage, operate and maintain the container terminal at Beirut's port with CMA CGM," Hamiyeh told reporters in Beirut. The contract will provide the cash-strapped state "tens of millions of dollars" every year, he said, adding that authorities chose the French company over its UAE-based competitor Gulftainer because it offered a better rate and more favorable conditions. CMA CGM said it was launching a $33 million "ambitious investment plan to renovate and modernize" the container terminal, where its vessels already accounted for more than half of the traffic. As part of the plan, the company will upgrade equipment, build a new hangar for maintenance and storage, and improve sustainability and digital performance at the container terminal. The company's French-Lebanese CEO Rodolphe Saade said his firm was looking to develop a "high-performance" container terminal that could renew Lebanon's trade ties. Lebanon launched the tender in November. The previous contract, held by the Beirut Container Terminal Consortium (BCTC) initially expired in March 2020, but was later extended. The container terminal accounts for roughly 85 percent of the Beirut port's traffic, the ministry of public works and transportation said. It was functional within a week of the August 2020 port blast, and 10 of its 16 cranes were still operating last November. Saade visited Beirut with French President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of the blast, and offered a plan to reconstruct the entire Beirut port in less than three years. His company, which manages several investment portfolios in Lebanon, also operates the container terminal at the Tripoli port, the country's second largest. Lebanese authorities are counting on international contracts for hard currency, two years into an economic crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times.

Berri Categorically Rejects Any Attempt to Delay Polls, Says Keen on Arab Ties
Naharnet/February 17/2022
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Thursday that he categorically rejects any postponement of the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for May 15. “Lebanon is keen on holding the elections with full transparency and away from any pressures, and it categorically rejects any attempt to postpone them," Berri said in a speech at the 32nd session of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union in Cairo.The Speaker also stressed “Lebanon’s keenness on building the best relations with its Arab brothers, all Arabs, on the rules of mutual respect for the independence and sovereignty of nations and their security and stability.”

Kanaan Says State Budget will be Referred to Parliament Next Week
Naharnet/February 17/2022 
The 2022 state budget will be referred next week to Parliament, Head of the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan revealed. Kaanan said that the minister of finance has assured that the budget hasn't been referred yet to Parliament, and will be sent next week, after the signing of the decrees. Thus, the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee has approved a draft law for extra-budgetary spending, based on the 2020 state budget, Kanaan said.

Fayyad Holds 'Fruitful' Talks with Miqati after Latest Clash
Naharnet/February 17/2022  
Energy Minister Walid Fayyad announced Thursday that he held a “fruitful” meeting with Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail, after the latest Cabinet session witnessed a heated exchange between them that reportedly prompted Miqati to tell Fayyad to “shut up.”
“The meeting with Mr. Premier was fruitful and we continued in it the discussion of the plan aiming to revive the electricity sector,” Fayyad said after the talks, noting that the media reports about the latest Cabinet session “took issues in another direction” and that Miqati “lauded the nature of the plan that we presented.”“We discussed the creation of a regulatory commission and the need that parliament pledge to look into the gaps that are present in Law 462,” the minister went on to say.

Embassies Strongly Warn Lebanese Officials over Latest Tensions
Naharnet/February 17/2022  
The political tensions of the past few days have triggered the concern of the foreign diplomatic missions in Lebanon, prompting them to strongly warn some officials to preserve domestic stability and refrain from any steps that might increase its fragility, media reports said on Thursday.
The embassies also reminded of their “red line” regarding the need to hold the parliamentary elections on time, threatening that the parties that will obstruct the vote will face severe consequences, al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted “credible sources” as saying. The foreign diplomats also asked about the motives behind the latest developments related to Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and wondered whether this matter would benefit Lebanon at a time it is preparing for holding negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, the sources added.

Divisions in Lebanon over Othman, Salameh Questioning
Naharnet/February 17/2022  
Al-Mustaqbal bloc head MP Bahia Hariri slammed, in a phone call with Prime Minister Najib Miqati, the lawsuit against Internal Security Force chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman, al-Sharq newspaper said. The daily said Thursday that Miqati also rejected the behavior of Judge Ghada Aoun. He accused Aoun of "slandering" Othman, the daily said, affirming to Hariri that Othman had carried out all his duties in coordination with him and with the Interior Minister. The Prime Minister said he will personally follow up on the issue with the Minister of Justice and the Public Prosecutor, the newspaper added.
For her part, Hariri said that al-Mustaqbal bloc might ask for a parliamentary session to debrief the Minister of Justice about Aoun's "perpetrations."Aoun had sued on Wednesday Othman after accusing him of preventing security forces from bringing in for questioning the central bank governor Riad Salameh. The move by Aoun came a day after she said that a police force prevented members of State Security, an intelligence agency, from bringing Salameh from his home for questioning. A force from State Security went to Salameh's home and office to bring him in for questioning and no one answered when they knocked on the door. Aoun said she then told the force to break in after Salameh failed to show up for questioning for a fourth time. At that point, she said, members of the Internal Security Forces, or police, warned State Security agents that they cannot go in by force otherwise “there will be a confrontation.”
Aoun said Tuesday that she then sent a formal letter to Othman, asking for an explanation regarding the incident. She said fighting authorities and preventing the implementation of a judicial order as Othman did, is an offense. It was not immediately clear if Othman will show up for questioning next week. Salameh, who is accused of corruption and dereliction of duty, is being sued by an anti-corruption group. He is also being investigated in several countries including Switzerland, Luxembourg and France for potential money laundering and embezzlement. The division between Internal Security Forces and State Security mirrors the rivalry between the country’s politicians.
Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi denied there were divisions within the two security agencies, saying they are both carrying out their duties, according to the state-run National News Agency. Othman is considered close to former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who quit politics last month, and was a main opponent of President Michel Aoun, who backs the head of State Security. Judge Aoun has also been blamed of being close to the president. Although both have the same family name, the judge and the president are not related. Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil said Wednesday that the FPM had always been against Salameh's policies but did not have the required majority to replace him in the past. He demanded a political decision in Cabinet to replace Salameh, regardless of what happens in the judiciary. Many hold Salameh partly responsible for the financial crisis, blaming him for policies that only drove national debt up and caused the currency to tumble. But Salameh, who has been in the post for nearly three decades, still enjoys backing from most politicians, including the country’s prime minister. Al-Mustaqbal Movement for instance and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat were against Judge Aoun's decision.Al-Joumhouria newspaper even said that a political leader warned that the arrest of Salameh “in a confrontational way might lead to a civil war.”

Amid Lebanon's crises, Hezbollah chief boasts of drone, missile manufacture
The Arab Weekly/February 17/20222.
Nasrallah said: “We have started manufacturing drones in Lebanon a long time ago. Those who want to buy can fill out an application.”The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah boasted Wednesday that his pro-Iranian militant group has been manufacturing military drones in Lebanon and has the technology to turn thousands of missiles in their possession into precision-guided munitions. Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah has been working on improving its military capabilities, revealing that last summer, its fighters had conducted the largest training exercise since the group was formed in 1982.
Nasrallah’s comments came in a televised speech during an annual ceremony marking the anniversary of the killing of some of the Iran-backed group's top political and military leaders. “We have the capabilities to transfer missiles that we possess in the thousands into precision-guided missiles,” Nasrallah said. The comment appeared to suggest that repeated Israeli airstrikes over the past years meant to prevent the group from acquiring just such weaponry have not in fact succeeded. He added: “We have started manufacturing drones in Lebanon a long time ago. Those who want to buy can fill out an application.”
Hezbollah has sent drones in the past over Israel and some of them were shot down. The group, which fought a month-long inconclusive war with Israel in 2006, has been fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in that country’s decades-old civil war. Israel has, over the years, staged hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled Syria, which borders Lebanon. But it rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. Israeli officials have accepted, however, that the Israeli military is targeting bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Hezbollah. Israel says it is going after posts and arms shipments believed to be bound for the groups.It insists that the Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line, justifying its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria.

Lebanon awards CMA CGM contract for Beirut port container terminal: Minister
Reuters/17 February ,2022
Shipping group CMA CGM said on Thursday it will invest $33 million as part of a 10-year contract it won to operate the container terminal at Lebanon’s Beirut port. The contract award was announced earlier on Thursday by Lebanon’s public works and transport minister following a tender process.
A huge explosion at the port in 2020 killed more than 200 people and damaged entire neighborhoods, deepening Lebanon’s worst political and economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. “The contract includes $33 mln that will be paid by CMA CGM to develop the work inside the port,” the minister said, without revealing more details about the contract terms. CMA CGM is controlled by the French-Lebanese Saade family and the group joined French President Emmanuel Macron in relief efforts in Beirut following the explosion.

Young Lebanese may be leaderless but they have a dream
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/February 17, 2022
On Feb. 14 every year, Lebanon is reminded of the brutality of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime. This date marks the anniversary of the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri. It is a date, like so many in the country’s history, that is tainted with blood and terror. The Syrian regime and its heirs only kill those that embolden the idea of a united country. These attempts to destroy have been there from the start, with the assassination in 1951 of Lebanon’s first prime minister after independence, Riad Al-Solh. This was an augury of things to come for the unique country of the cedar.
Lebanon’s millennials and Generation Zers have only known political chaos and continuous deconstruction. They are born with the mission and goal of emigration. They live with the frustration of having an excellent knowledge of the geopolitical game board but being unable to change anything about it. They no longer believe in any leader. The country’s confessional political system might force them to align with their tribe, but they do not trust them. They have also seen the idea of Lebanon being diluted year after year and they know that all political messages are nothing but empty promises. As empty as their fridges.
This is why I often wonder, when looking at images of young Lebanese holding flags and protesting: What is the Lebanon they dream of? What does Lebanon mean for them today? Can a movement that is leaderless admire or believe in a leader, dead or alive? These movements are leaderless and yet dream of the same things. Today, due to the harsh conditions, it might only be basic needs such as security, electricity and healthcare, but deep down it is a proud Lebanon they want.
It is interesting that this happens in Lebanon while the world is witnessing a technological revolution that has decentralization as its leader. The new Web3 concept that revolves around blockchain promotes community decision-making as a business model. The world’s new entrepreneurs are looking at decentralized networks to give data ownership back to the community, while taking it from traditional web companies such as Facebook and Google. Could a leaderless movement do the same in Lebanese politics and give people back their pride? In both cases, I believe they will resort to leadership, but maybe masquerading as community decision-making. Lebanon has been fortunate to see many great political leaders rise. However, the Syrian regime and its heirs killed each and every one that had the vision and ability to unite the country across religious boundaries. The killings do not discriminate according to religion, they simply target those capable of making their dream for the country a reality. They were people who, at the geopolitical crossroads of history, were capable of making Lebanon real; meaning they had to be killed. Unfortunately, I also see how today’s politicians have, for short-term and cheap political gain, reduced and diluted the legacies of our great Lebanese leaders. On the 17th anniversary of Hariri’s assassination, his legacy and what he dreamed of for Lebanon have trickled down from a vision and a role for Lebanon to the narrow pursuit of a status quo to avoid clashes and an economic recovery program. Whether we agreed with his political vision or not, Hariri wanted to empower the Lebanese toward freedom and prosperity. It was about finding a role and place for the country; building a strong foundation from which the people could fly toward innovation and lead by their courage. Unfortunately, his assassination brought an end to this vision, just as great men before him faced the same fate.
Lebanon today needs a new vision and a new spirit that empowers its population to leap forward. It is time to preserve all these legacies. It is time to let Hariri rest in peace. He and his peers have done enough for Lebanon. The visions and dreams of previous leaders should no longer be used in political arguments. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is symbolic of this situation. After many years and a billion-dollar budget, “international justice” had to collapse for the sake of “stability” and maintaining the status quo in the country. From Day 1, any Gen Zer could have told each and every political expert how this would end and that Hezbollah would not let justice be done. The tribunal did not even shake the group or its patrons. What it did is remind the Lebanese and the rest of the world of Lebanon’s power structure — a country where the victims are forced to renounce justice to ease the will of the guilty.
Lebanon today needs a new vision and a new spirit that empowers its population to leap forward. It needs a complete overhaul of its political system and political leadership. It needs a new leadership that comes from the youth. Yes, Hezbollah will still block any actions that aim to rebuild a new, prosperous Lebanon or that offer much-needed sovereignty. However, even if it takes another decade, things will change and therefore it is important to keep opposing Hezbollah’s actions. And, as long as Lebanon’s youths still dream of change and know the true value of their country, then nothing will be lost. The decentralized and leaderless opposition could be a great way forward.
*Khaled Abou Zahr is CEO of Eurabia, a media and tech company. He is also the editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 17-18/2022
Israel accused of striking Syria hours after Assad met Russian Defense Mininster.
Anna Ahronheim/Jerusalem Post/February 17/2022
There were no reports of any Syrian anti-aircraft missiles launched against the alleged Israeli attack. Israel struck several targets near the Syrian capital of Damascus overnight, hours after Russia’s Defense Minister met with President Bashar Assad. The Syrian Defense Ministry said that several targets in the town of Zakia were hit at around 11:35 PM with several surface-to-surface missiles launched from the Israeli Golan Heights, causing material damage but no deaths or injuries. There were no reports of any Syrian anti-aircraft missiles launched against the alleged Israeli attack. It was the second time in two weeks that Israel is accused of carrying out attacks in the Damascus area. Last week SANA reported that air defenses were activated against an Israeli attack near the capital. At least one penetrated Israeli airspace and set off incoming rocket alert sirens in the town of Umm el Fahm and other towns in the northern West Bank. The rocket exploded in the air, with shrapnel falling in the area of Jenin. In response to the anti-aircraft missiles, the Israeli Air Force struck a number of surface-to-air missile batteries belonging to the Syrian military, including the one which fired towards the jets. One soldier was killed and five others were wounded. Israel has been striking targets in the war-torn country for close to a decade through its war-between-wars (MABAM) campaign against Iranian entrenchment and weapons smuggling to Hezbollah, with hundreds of airstrikes in Syria.
While Israel is usually accused of airstrikes, it has now been accused of using surface-to-surface non-line-of-sight missiles to strike Iranian targets outside Damascus as well as rarely used sniper fire against operatives along the Israeli-Syrian border on the Golan Heights.
Israel does not comment on most alleged strikes, but it has been accused of carrying them out close to the border such as around the Syrian capital as well as deep inside Syrian territory, including in northern Syria near the Turkish border and the Al-Bukamal region near the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The strikes come a day after Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Syria where he met with Assad and discussed “military-technical cooperation as part of the joint fight against international terrorism” as well as Russian humanitarian assistance to Syrians, his office said.
Russia intervened in the Syrian conflict in September 2015 on the side of Assad; Moscow is seen as the main power to speak with when Israel wants to carry out strikes in the country. Shoygu also visited Hmeimim airbase, which serves as Russia’s main base in the country amid a large-scale military drill over the Mediterranean where Russia deployed to the airbase MiG-31K fighter jets with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles that can reportedly hit targets up to 2,000 kilometers away and long-range Tupolev TU-22M strategic bombers. The aircraft will take part in naval drills in the eastern Mediterranean that involve at least 15 warships and 30 aircraft at a time where tensions remain high between the West and Russia over the stand-off with Ukraine.

Iran nuclear deal draft puts prisoners, enrichment, cash first, oil comes later
Reuters/17 February ,2022
A US-Iranian deal taking shape to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers lays out phases of mutual steps to bring both sides back into full compliance, and the first does not include waivers on oil sanctions, diplomats say. Envoys from Iran, Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany, the European Union and United States are still negotiating details of the draft accord amid Western warnings that time is running out before the original deal becomes obsolete. Delegates say much of the text is settled but some thorny issues remain. The broad objective is to return to the original bargain of lifting sanctions against Iran, including ones that have slashed its crucial oil sales, in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities that extend the time it would need to produce enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb if it chose to. Iran has breached many of those restrictions and pushed well beyond them in response to the US withdrawal from the deal in 2018 and its reimposition of sanctions under then-President Donald Trump. While the 2015 deal capped uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent fissile purity, Iran is now enriching to up to 60 percent, close to weapons grade. Iran insists its aims are wholly peaceful and that it wants to master nuclear technology for civil uses. But Western powers say no other state has enriched to such a high level without developing nuclear weapons and Iran’s advances since the US walkout mean the 2015 deal will soon be totally hollowed out. The draft text of the agreement, which is more than 20 pages long, stipulates a sequence of steps to be implemented once it has been approved by the remaining parties to the deal, starting with a phase including Iran suspending enrichment above 5 percent purity, three diplomats familiar with negotiations said. The text also alludes to other measures that diplomats say include unfreezing about $7 billion in Iranian funds stuck in South Korean banks under US sanctions, as well as the release of Western prisoners held in Iran, which US lead negotiator Robert Malley has suggested is a requirement for a deal. Only once that initial wave of measures has been taken and confirmed would the main phase of sanctions-lifting begin, culminating in what many diplomats call Re-Implementation Day - a nod to the original deal’s Implementation Day, when the last nuclear and sanctions-related measures fell into place.The duration of these phases has not yet been agreed, and the text includes an X for the number of days between the milestone days such as Re-Implementation Day, diplomats say. Various officials have estimated the time from an agreement until Re-Implementation Day at between one and three months. Iran will return to core nuclear limits like the 3.67 percent cap on enrichment purity, diplomats said.
Oil waivers
As in the original deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the new agreement entails the United States granting waivers to sanctions on Iran’s lifeblood oil sector rather than lifting them outright. That requires renewing the waivers every few months. “On oil exports, under the deal, (former US President Barack) Obama and Trump used to issue 90- to 120-day waivers and renewed them consistently until Trump stopped after exiting the pact. Those waivers have been agreed to be issued again,” a Middle Eastern diplomat briefed on the talks said. Diplomats involved in the talks, which began 10 months ago, have said it remains unclear whether an agreement will indeed be reached, citing the now hackneyed principle that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday Iran must decide within a matter of days whether to take the leap, and other officials have said the next couple of days will be crucial. Stubborn issues that remain include Iran’s demand that the United States guarantee it will not withdraw again. Western officials say this is impossible to give an iron-clad assurance on given the difficulty in binding future governments.
The Middle Eastern diplomat and an Iranian official indicated, however, that Tehran was prepared to accept a lesser measure - that in the event of a US violation of the pact, Iran would be allowed to enrich to up to 60 percent purity again. The Islamic Republic and Western powers have previously clashed over whether the US withdrawal gave Iran the right to breach the deal under the original text, as Tehran did, as well as over what constitutes a breach. The lifting of some particularly sensitive sanctions could also require Iranian and US officials to meet directly, several diplomats have said. Iran has so far refused face-to-face meetings. Any such move would happen at the end of negotiations, the Iranian and Middle Eastern officials said.

Australia to List Hamas and U.S. Far-Right Group as Terrorists
Associated Press/February 17/2022
Australia on Thursday said it had added the U.S.-based far-right extremist group National Socialist Order and planned to add the entirety of the Palestinian group Hamas to its list of outlawed terrorist organizations as concerns rise about radicalized children. The National Socialist Order, formerly known as Atomwaffen Division, joins Islamist groups Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and Hurras al-Din in being added to the list, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said. Hamas' military wing, Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has been listed as a terrorist organization since 2003. The National Socialist Order, which advocates a global "race war" and the collapse of democratic societies, joined the list on Thursday, bringing the number of outlawed groups to 28. The two Islamist groups, both active in the Syrian civil war, will be listed in April. Andrews has written to state governments to finalize the listing of Hamas as soon as possible. "The views of Hamas and the violent extremist groups listed today are deeply disturbing, and there is no place in Australia for such views," Andrews said. "It's vital that our laws target not only terrorist acts and terrorists, but also the organizations that plan, finance and carry out these acts," she added. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett congratulated his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison for the Hamas decision. "I thank my friend, Australian P.M. Scott Morrison, for acting on this issue after the conversation we had on this important matter. It is another important step in the global fight against terror," Bennett said in a statement. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also thanked Australian Ambassador to Israel Paul Griffiths for what he described as a "significant step" in Israel's international effort to curtail terrorist organizations. Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said the Hamas listing made clear Australia's "absolute rejection of hatred and terrorism." "There is absolutely no doubt that Hamas in its entirety meets the definition of terrorist organization," Leibler said in a statement, adding that the decision aligns Australia with the United States, European Union, Britain and Canada.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, a national coalition of Australians who support Palestinian rights, disagreed with Hamas' political wing being designated a terrorist organization.
"The government has failed in its duty of searching for a peaceful solution and has shown it applies one set of rules to Palestine and another to Israel," Network President Bishop George Browning said. The designation does nothing to advance the cause of peace and will only create more suffering for the 2 million people currently living under a 15-year Israeli blockade, the Network said in a statement. The National Socialist Order is only the third far-right group to be designated by Australia as a terrorist organization. The Base, a neo-Nazi white supremacist group formed in the United States in 2018, was listed in December and the British-based Sonnenkrieg Division was listed in August. Mike Burgess, director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation's main domestic spy agency, said last week that pandemic restrictions in Australia had sent online radicalization "into overdrive" in recent years as isolated people spent more time online. The proportion of new counter-terrorism investigations involving minors had increased from to less than 3% to 15% in only a few years, Burgess said in his annual threat assessment. At the end of 2021, minors represented more than half of the spy agency's priority counter-terrorism investigations, he said.

Biden: Threat of Russian Invasion of Ukraine Very High, May Happen within Days
Agence France Presse/February 17/2022
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine was "very high" and could take place within days, despite Moscow's claim to be pulling troops from the border. The threat is "very high, because they have not moved any of their troops out. They've moved more troops in," Biden told reporters at the White House. "We have reason to believe they're engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in.""Every indication we have is that they're prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine," he said. "My sense is it will happen in the next several days."
Biden said he had not yet read a new, written response from Russian President Vladimir Putin to U.S. proposals for a diplomatic way out of the impasse. Russia's military has surrounded much of Ukraine's borders as part of a bid to overturn the country's Western-orientated policies, including the long-term goal of joining NATO. Biden said there is still "a diplomatic path" and that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would "lay out what that path is" in a speech at the United Nations on Thursday.
However, Biden said "I've no plans to call to Putin."

Russia Says Will be 'Forced to Respond' if No U.S. Security Guarantees
Agence France Presse/February 17/2022
Russia announced Thursday it could respond militarily if Washington does not meet its security demands and said it wanted all U.S. troops out of Eastern and Central Europe. "In the absence of will on the American side to negotiate firm and legally binding guarantees on our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including with military-technical measures," the foreign ministry said. The statement is the latest in a back-and-forth between Russia and the West that started in December when Moscow put forward sweeping security demands to Washington and NATO.
The United States handed back a response rejecting key Russian demands, including a ban on Ukraine joining NATO and clauses limiting Western influence in Eastern Europe and former Soviet states. In its formal follow up Thursday Russia also said it insists "on the withdrawal of all U.S. armed forces in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Baltics."Thursday's statement comes as the United States and its allies say Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine and Moscow-annexed Crimea, raising concerns of a possible attack. In the document, Russia also said that it has no plans to invade Ukraine, contradicting US claims that an attack could come at any moment. "There is no 'Russian invasion' of Ukraine, which the United States and its allies have been announcing officially since last fall, and it is not planned," the foreign ministry said in a public statement. U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said the threat of a Russian invasion was "very high," even though Moscow in recent days has announced several troop drawdowns from Ukraine and Crimea. Moscow this week announced that it was moving back some troops from Ukraine's border but Western leaders have said there is no evidence of a drawdown.

Ukraine and Rebel Region Trade Shelling Allegations
Agence France Presse/February 17/2022
Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern district of Lugansk traded allegations of an escalation in fighting on Thursday, after the US claimed Moscow was seeking a pretext to invade. Ukraine has been in conflict with pro-Moscow rebels in the east of the country since 2014, in a war that has cost thousands of lives, but the latest reports risk intensifying fears of Russian intervention. The Ukrainian military's command center in the east alleged that Russian-backed forces had, "with special cynicism," fired heavy artillery at the village of Stanytsia-Luganska. "The shells hit a kindergarten," it said.
"According to preliminary data two civilians were injured. Public infrastructure was also damaged. Half of the settlement was left without electricity." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba did not mention any injuries but condemned the alleged shelling. "We call on all partners to swiftly condemn this severe violation of (the) Minsk agreements by Russia amid an already tense security situation," he said. The Minsk agreements are international ceasefire accords agreed in 2014 and 2015, aimed at halting the war. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter he had informed the EU's chief diplomat, Charles Michel, about the "provocative shelling."The Ukrainian army recorded what it said were 29 breaches of the ceasefire overnight, 27 of them using heavy weapons banned by the Minsk agreements, and more than double the recent average number of attacks. Photographs on the command centre's Facebook account showed civilians sheltering in a cellar and a kindergarten playroom with rubble strewn on the floor and a shell hole in the wall. Separately, Russian news agencies reported that the pro-Moscow separatist force in Lugansk had accused Ukraine of escalating fighting. "Over the past 24 hours, the situation on the line of contact has escalated significantly," Yan Leshchenko, head of the People's Militia in the self-declared Lugansk republic, told reporters. "The enemy, on the direct orders of the Kyiv military-political leadership, is making attempts to escalate the conflict."In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the allegation of a Ukrainian escalation as "disturbing." "This is a matter of very deep concern," he said. "We hope that our opponents from Western capitals, from Washington, from NATO, will use all their influence to warn the Kyiv authorities against further escalation."Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia has deployed a huge potential invasion force on Ukraine's borders. U.S. intelligence has accused Moscow of seeking to create a pretext by faking an atrocity. NATO says more than 100,000 Russian forces are on the border. Moscow insists it is seeking a diplomatic route to resolve its security concerns and roll back the West's influence in eastern Europe.

Moe, Kenney, 16 U.S. governors sign letter calling for Trudeau, Biden to end vaccination mandate for truckers
Yahoo/February 17/2022
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and 16 U.S. Governors have signed a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden calling on the leaders to exempt truck drivers from vaccination and quarantine policies at the Canada-U.S. border.
The letter was sent Wednesday morning.
"We are writing to request that you immediately reinstate the vaccine and quarantine exemptions available to cross-border truck drivers. We understand the vital importance of vaccines in the fight against COVID-19 and continue to encourage eligible individuals to get vaccinated," it said.
The letter was signed by 16 U.S. Republican governors, some from border states like Montana, North Dakota and Alaska, some from southern states like Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama.
The letter said the decision to end the exemption for truck drivers on Jan. 15 came at the worst time. The policy requires truck drivers to be fully vaccinated or face two-week quarantine and pre-arrival molecular test for COVID-19 before crossing into Canada. The U.S. requires truckers to be vaccinated. The Canadian Trucking Alliance has said the vast majority of truck drivers are vaccinated and the rate mirrors that of the general public, which Health Canada pegs at 83 per cent.
In the letter, the leaders say the policy has had "demonstrably negative impacts on the North American supply chain, cost of living, and access to essential products.""Transportation associations have informed us that the lack of exemptions will force thousands of drivers out of the trucking industry, which is already facing a significant workforce shortage," the letter said.
"The trucker vax mandate has no credible public health benefit, but has caused predictable disruption," Kenney wrote on Twitter.
Moe shared the letter on social media.
"With North America facing supply chain constraints, these measures are ultimately unnecessary and will place significant pressure on Canadian and American families," Moe's post said. The letter did not mention the protest in Ottawa or various border blockades in different provinces, where organizers have highlighted their opposition to vaccination mandates, including the one affecting truck drivers. This week, border blockades in Windsor, Ont. and Coutts, Alta. were cleared by police. On Wednesday morning police cleared a blockade at Emerson, Man. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has said $48 million in trade was lost each day that the Coutts border was closed. The blockade began on Jan. 29. The RCMP made 13 arrests in connection with the Coutts blockade, including four people who are charged with conspiring to murder RCMP officers. More than 25 people were arrested on Sunday in Windsor as police moved in to clear the blockade which brought traffic on the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit to a standstill for nearly a week.
The director of the University of Windsor's Cross Border Institute, Bill Anderson, said between $3 billion and $6 billion in goods didn't cross the border in the last week.
Moe calls Emergencies Act 'overstep' by feds
On Monday, the federal government announced it was implementing the Emergencies Act to bring an end to any illegal protests or blockades. The act applies to the entire country. Moe said earlier this week the act should only apply in provinces that request it. On Wednesday morning during a media availability, Moe said the Emergencies Act was "not necessary and an overstep" by Ottawa. Moe said mandates "are at the core" of protest movements across the country. He said the federal government should lay out its plans for Canadians on how public health measures would be lifted, doing that would "de-escalate" the situation in Ottawa and elsewhere. The majority of public health mandates are implemented provincially. Besides the mandate affecting truck drivers, federal government employees were required to be vaccinated, as were passengers on rail and air. Moe said Ottawa police have the necessary tools to deal with the protest in the city and should not require the Emergencies Act. Police estimated Tuesday there were 360 protest vehicles still in Ottawa, down from about 420 one week before and 400 going into last weekend. Around 150 protesters are staying the night near Wellington Street.
While many protesters have flocked to Ottawa to voice their opposition to vaccine mandates, others have said their goal is to force the dissolution of the elected federal government or to create a logistical nightmare that forces the federal government to repeal all mandates. Saskatchewan's own State of Emergency has not been lifted. Moe said Wednesday that it is necessary because it allows the Saskatchewan Health Authority to divert resources to respond to COVID-19. Moe said it will be lifted when that is no longer needed. Moe said he was not sure when asked if protesters in Ottawa would leave once federal mandates were lifted.

Syrian Helicopter Crash-Lands, Leaving 2 Crew Members Dead
Associated Press/February 17/2022
A Syrian military helicopter crash-landed in a rugged mountainous area during a training mission in the country's northwest on Thursday, leaving two of the five crew members dead. State media quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the helicopter faced technical problems while flying over the coastal province of Latakia and crash-landed in a mountainous area. The official said two crew members were killed while three survived, and provided no detail on their condition. A photo of the helicopter released by state news agency SANA showed its charred remains. Syria's conflict began in March 2011 and has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million. Syrian government forces now control much of the country with the help of Russia and Iran, the main backers of President Bashar Assad. U.S. and Turkish troops have a presence in the country's north and east.

Crisis Looms in Syria Camps, Jails Holding Foreign Nationals
Associated Press/February 17/2022
It was night when Zakia Kachar heard the sounds of footsteps approach her tent in a detention camp for foreigners affiliated with Islamic State group extremists. With rocks in their hands, the wives of IS fighters had come for her. She fled with her children to another area of the Roj Camp in northeast Syria. "They wanted to kill me," she said. Earlier that day, the dual Serbian-German national had fought back in an altercation with a camp resident disapproving of her wearing makeup. The woman had bitten her, and Kachar slapped her in defense. Such clashes between hard-line IS supporters and those who have fallen away from the group's extreme ideology are exacerbating security challenges for the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, which runs Roj and other camps for IS detainees. The SDF had spearheaded the fight against IS, driving the militants from their last sliver of territory in 2019. Three years later, tens of thousands of foreign IS supporters remain in SDF-run camps and detention centers, with their home countries largely unwilling to repatriate them. The foreigners had come to Syria from around the world, some with their children in tow, to join Islamic State's so-called "caliphate."
The SDF now points to the lockups—crammed with restless detainees, some with a history of violence— as a chief source of instability across the region they control. A deadly prison attack in the Gweiran neighborhood in the town of Hassakeh last month sharpened the focus on the foreigners' uncertain futures and the limits of their Kurdish captors to supervise them. The assault killed 121 security personnel and took authorities nearly two weeks to contain. Stretched thin amid an economic crisis and rising threats from IS sleeper cells, the Kurdish-led administration is renewing calls for countries to repatriate their citizens. "We are struggling," said Mazloum Abdi, the region's top security chief and commander of the SDF.
NO WAY OUT
In Roj camp, home to some 2,500 women and children, a tune popular among youth in North America resonates. For a few minutes, the melody cuts through the din of daily life, overpowering the sounds of U.N.-emblazoned tents flapping in the wind and children playing. The music—a soulful song called "Later" by Somali-Canadian singer A'maal Nuux—came from the tent of Hoda Muthana, an Alabama native whose Supreme Court appeal to return to the U.S. with her 4-year-old child was denied last month. The lyrics describe the sisterhood of women on a long commute to visit their partners serving time in prison. Her neighbor is Shamima Begum, a British-born woman stripped of her U.K. citizenship in a case that drew international attention and raised questions about the moral responsibilities of countries toward IS members. Their days are marked by monotony. Mothers cook, clean and wait for word on their repatriation appeals.
Several women in the camp in Hassakeh province removed the black garb of IS wives, instead wearing jeans, baseball caps and makeup forbidden during IS's brutal rule. They are kept separate from their hardline neighbors who frequently attack them. Tents, made of flammable cotton canvas, have been burned down to sow chaos. Neither Serbia nor Germany has given Kachar any indication they would be willing to repatriate her or her five children, ages six to 16. Kurdish authorities said up to 200 security personnel have been added to maintain Roj Camp since the Gweiran prison attack.
"Our security forces are present, but the problem is the ideology of some of the women," said one official in Roj, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press. Kachar's daughter was only 11 when they followed her husband to Syria from Stuttgart, Germany in 2015. "I want to go home, it is enough. My children need a normal life," she said.
'A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY'
It is al-Hol Camp, many times larger than Roj with 56,000 refugees and displaced people, where security is the most dire and humanitarian needs most acute. There is no law and order and women there have been killed just for removing their niqab, the veil worn by conservative Muslim women, security officials said. Most, though not all, non-Arab foreigners are housed in an annex of al-Hol. The United Nations says there are 8,213, of whom two-thirds are minors. Another 30,000 are Iraqi nationals. Kurdish security officials and non-governmental organizations present in the camp said security began deteriorating in March 2021 with targeted killings of camp community leaders. Many reported increased cases of extortion, blackmail and death threats toward security and NGO workers. Kurdish authorities say the camp is a breeding ground for IS, with active sleeper cells. Aid workers attributed the growing criminal activity to desperation arising from widespread poverty, stigma and limited freedom of movement. Recent violence spurred by the smuggling of weapons and other illicit activity has also raised questions over the complicity of SDF authorities. Abdi, the SDF commander, acknowledged there were some incidents of corruption. "Some trucks for example, are supposed to be water trucks but they are smuggling out human beings. And of course, if they can take out humans, they can bring in weapons," he said. The SDF has been in talks with international NGOs over new security arrangements for al-Hol that would divide the camp into sections, limit movement between areas, and erect fences, checkpoints and watchtowers. Many aid workers fear this would turn the camp into a de facto prison for women and children. To decrease the pressure on al-Hol, at least 300 families were recently transferred to Roj Camp. Another 150 families are expected this year. "It has caused us more issues because these women are encouraging others to be radical like them," the Roj camp official said. Some countries are taking their nationals back, gradually. The Netherlands and Sweden recently repatriated several women.
Abrar Muhammed, 36, a detainee and former IS logistics manager, believes his wife may have been among them. The Swedish citizen was informed in passing by a prison guard, he said. Muhammed hasn't seen his wife since January 2019, when he fled the IS ranks and was detained at an SDF checkpoint, months before the fall of the group's last territorial foothold, the village of Baghouz in northeastern Syria. He has been jailed in one of the 27 detention centers across northeast Syria ever since. "I want to go back, face justice in Sweden," Muhammed told The Associated Press in a facility in Hassakeh. "In a country with laws." Abdi said the international community has to take some responsibility for the prisons and camps. "It's not just our problem, we share the burden. This is our demand."

Group Alleges U.S. Firm's Tanker Illicitly Traded Iran Oil
Associated Press/February 17/ 2022
A tanker owned by a Los Angeles-based private equity firm likely took part in the illicit trade of Iranian crude oil at sea despite American sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic amid the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers, an advocacy group alleges. The firm said Thursday it is cooperating with U.S. government investigators. The group United Against Nuclear Iran raised its allegations in a letter dated Tuesday to Oaktree Capital Management, which holds assets worth over $160 billion. Satellite images and maritime tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press correspond to the group's identification of the vessels allegedly involved and showed them side-by-side off the coast of Singapore on Saturday. The alleged oil transfer comes as world powers and Iran negotiate in Vienna over restoring the nuclear deal. That accord saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions — including those targeting its crucial oil sales. But Iran even under American sanctions claims to be selling billions of dollars more of crude than before, likely buoyed by energy prices rising to their highest point in years amid the ongoing Ukraine crisis. That makes the sales even more lucrative and increases the challenge of enforcing sanctions if the Vienna talks collapse. In a statement to the AP, Oaktree subsidiary Fleetscape — which owns the oil tanker Suez Rajan — said it is "committed to using best practices in its operations and complying with U.S. sanctions laws."
"We take any allegation of non-compliance very seriously and are cooperating fully with the U.S. authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter," Fleetscape said. The company did not elaborate. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Treasury, which investigates and enforces sanctions, declined to comment. Satellite-tracking data from MarineTraffic.com analyzed by the AP showed the Marshall Island-flagged Suez Rajan in the South China Sea off the northeast of Singapore on Saturday. That data also shows the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Virgo in the same area. Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC of that area obtained by the AP appear to show the ships alongside each other. At sea, oil tankers can funnel crude between each other in a ship-to-ship transfer that typically sees boats in a similar position.
In separate Planet Labs satellite images from Jan. 16, the Virgo appears to be loading crude oil from Iran's Khargh Island, its main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf. Tracking data separately shows the vessel near Khargh around that time before heading to Singapore.
United Nations records show the Virgo's owners as a company called Kondinave SA, based in Piraeus, Greece. An employee who answered the phone referred questions to an email account that did not immediately respond. Iran's mission to the United Nations also did not respond to a request for comment. Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers saw it regain the ability to sell oil openly on the international market. But in 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed American sanctions. That slammed the door on much of Iran's lucrative crude oil trade, a major engine for its economy and its government. But in recent months, Iranian officials have been suggesting they've been able to sell crude oil anyway around American sanctions. The Central Bank of Iran issued statistics at the start of February suggesting it made $18.6 billion in oil sales in the first half of this Persian year, as opposed to $8.5 billion the same period last year, according to the state-run IRAN newspaper. Much of that oil is believed to be heading to China, some through similar ship-to-ship transfers that United Against Nuclear Iran believes took place with the Suez Raja this week. Venezuela also has received Iranian tankers to its ports. Iran is "dependent on the international shipping industry for imports of sensitive technology and industrial goods as well as oil and petrochemical exports needed to fund" its nuclear program, the New York-based United Against Nuclear Iran said in its letter to Oaktree Capital.
The U.S. government also has said Iranian oil sales revenue funds the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, an expeditionary unit believed to be working abroad in countries like Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen to back Iranian-allied militias.

In Qatar, Barzani discusses Kurdistan’s “huge gas potential”
The Arab Weekly/February 17/2022
The Prime Minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan region Masrour Barzani said on Wednesday that he explored Kurdistan’s “huge gas potential” in a meeting with Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad al-Kaabi. Teams from both governments also discussed energy investment, renewables, and regional energy cooperation, Barzani said on Twitter. In Doha, Barzani also met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. In a statement, the Kurdish Government said that the two leaders discussed the latest developments in Iraq, especially efforts to form the new government, and ways to strengthen the relations between Qatar, Iraq, and the Kurdistan region, especially in the fields of trade and investment. The two sides stressed the necessity of “coordination and cooperation on issues of common interests.”Barzni’s visit came as Iraq’s prime minister on Tuesday discussed bilateral relations in a phone call with the Qatari emir.In the phone call between Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Sheikh Tamim, both sides discussed “bilateral relations between the two countries, and other issues of common interest,” according to a statement from Kadhimi’s office on Wednesday. During the call, both sides emphasised the need to "strengthen joint cooperation between Iraq and Qatar at various levels, in a manner that achieves the interests of the peoples of both countries,” the statement added. According to a statement from Barzani’s office, the aim of the trip is “to talk about bolstering bilateral relations, especially in terms of trade exchange, investment, energy and agriculture,” adding that the visit follows an official invitation by the Emir of Qatar. On the first day of his visit, Barzani visited the Qatar Foundation, which he said he was impressed with due to their “capacity to bridge cultural heritage with modernity,” in a tweet. Doha, which will host the 2022 football World Cup, has maintained and improved its relations with Iraq and the semiautonomous Kurdistan Region, even discussing a free trade agreement with Baghdad earlier this year. Qatar reopened its Baghdad embassy in 2015 for the first time since the Gulf War (1990-91) when several regional and world powers suspended diplomatic relations. Its national carrier, Qatar Airways, began operating direct flights to Erbil and Baghdad in 2012.

Erdogan's neutrality in Libyan premiership showdown ominous for Dbeibah
AFP/The Arab Weekly/February 17/20222.
Political analysts drew ominous signals for interim Prime Ministry Abdulhamid Dbeibah's chances of staying in power in Libya from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's expression of neutrality in the ongoing competition for premiership between Dbeibah and former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha.
They believe Erdogan's statement, Wednesday, carries implicit support for the formation of a new government under Bashagha and further increases Dbeibah’s isolation.The latter's refusal to hand over power has received no regional nor international backing to make up for lost ground at home. This, experts say, indicates that the issue of Dbeibah’s departure from office is just a matter of time. Erdogan told reporters on his return flight from Dubai, Wednesday, "Fathi Bashagha announced his candidacy. Our ties with Fathi Bashagha are good. On the other hand, (ties) are also good with Dbeibah".
He added that "The important thing is who the Libyan people choose and how". He also said an assassination attempt on Dbeibah last week was "saddening". Erdogan’s statements confirm recent speculation that Bashagha has managed in recent months, during an unannounced visit to Ankara, to gain Turkey’s neutrality on the power struggle in Libya. Abdulhamid Dbeibah and his billionaire son-in-law, Ali Dbeibah, maintain strong relations with Turkey. The prime minister has signed many agreements with Turkish companies since coming to power. Analysts believe, however, that Ankara will seek to exploit the calm that prevails in the wider region to cultivate closer relations with forces in the eastern part of Libya. This could bolster its position against Greece in the context of the battle for gas in the eastern Mediterranean. On Monday, Russia announced its support for the parliament's decision to form a new government. Russian backing for the decision reflects a measure of success on Bashagha’s part in overcoming his own reservations about Moscow. Moscow was preceded by Egypt in expressing similar support, while the United States, the West and Turkey have maintained their neutrality. Fathi Bashagha has nurtured good relations with the West, especially Washington. More than a year ago, he was able to restore his relationship with Paris. The position of Great Britain is not yet clear. At the end of December, Bashagha accused London of "supporting a corrupt government" after it announced its rejection of any change of government in Tripoli. Bashagha has focused on the widening corruption scandals besmirching the reputation of the Dbeibah administration, after arrest warrants were issued for three cabinet members: the minister of education, the minister of health and the minister of culture. Dbeibah’s rivals accuse him of falsifying his academic degrees.
Military role
Turkey provided military support and training to the earlier Libyan Government of National Accord led by Fayez Sarraj, in which Bashagha served as interior minister. It helped that government to repel a months-long attack on the capital, Tripoli, waged by the Libyan National Army (LNA) troops led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Ankara still maintains Syrian soldiers and mercenaries on the ground in Libya and has built itself an airbase at Watiya. Turkey's position could help settle the Dbeibah-Bashagha clash and prevent the formation of two governments in Tripoli.
Last week, the Libyan parliament's spokesman announced that Bashagha was named the new interim prime minister but Dbeibah said he did not recognise attempts to remove him from office and would not step down. Some analysts say Dbeibah could be manoeuvring to obtain more guarantees that he would not be prosecuted after his exit from power. The two main political bodies, the House of Representatives and the State Council, support changing the government, but the State Council, which is perceived as a political front for the Muslim Brotherhood, seems to be trying to play a greater role in this transition. Its head, Khaled al-Meshri, said on Wednesday, that parliament’s decision to assign a new prime minister before there had been an official session of the Supreme Council “is an improper measure that does not help build bridges of confidence between the two chambers.”Meshri did not however voice any substantial qualms about the choice of Bashagha, despite speculation in the Dbeibah camp that the State Council was backing the interim prime minister's push to stay in power. Sources in Tripoli said Meshri was invoking procedural reservations about the process while hedging his bets about the ultimate endgame. Last Saturday he had appeared to transcend the country’s usual east-west divide and distance himself from the current interim prime minister. Last year, after parliament had passed a vote of no confidence in Dbeibah, Meshri had underlined the UN-brokered arrangement whereby the interim premier’s terms ended “at the latest on December 24, 2021”, which was when elections were supposed to have been held.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 17-18/2022
The Houthi crisis is creating an Emirati-Israeli opportunity
Hussain Abdul-Hussain and David May/Al Arabiya/February 17/ 2022
Houthi attacks on the United Arab Emirates proved what many have known for a long time, that Arab solidarity is an imaginary concept. In Beirut, Hezbollah cheered on the strikes. In Gaza, Hamas politburo member Mahmoud al-Zahar said the attacks were as blessed as “liberating Palestine from the Israeli occupation.” And in Baghdad, the pro-Iran group Alwiyat al-Waad al-Haq gave the Houthis a hand by launching explosive drones at Abu Dhabi.
When it came to the attacks on the UAE, the strongest regional displays of support came from Israel. Israeli gestures of solidarity helped solidify Emirati-Israeli ties, which have been growing since the declaration of peace between them in the Abraham Accords of 2020.
The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen launched a drone attack on an Emirati port on January 17 that killed three people and blew up several fuel tankers. One week later, Emirati and US forces intercepted two Houthi missiles launched at the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi. The Houthis attacked the UAE again on January 31. Following the initial attack this past month, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sent a letter to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, offering “heartfelt condolences.” Bennett further stated, “Israel is committed to working closely with you in the ongoing battle against extremist forces in the region, and we will continue to partner with you to defeat our common enemies.” Bennett also spoke with the Crown Prince and tweeted, “Israel stands with the UAE. I stand with Mohammed bin Zayed. The world should stand against terror.”
Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid, President Isaac Herzog, Israeli Ambassador to the UAE Amir Hayek, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), and several members of Knesset echoed Bennett’s condemnations of the Houthi attacks and condolences for the Emiratis. Lapid also called for Israel to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization, while Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel “will be happy to cooperate” with the UAE to bolster its defenses. Meanwhile, Israeli-Druze MFA digital diplomacy officer Lorena Khateeb shared her support in English and Arabic.
Beyond government declarations, individual Israelis deplored the Houthi attacks and affirmed their support for the UAE.
Despite security warnings, Herzog traveled to the UAE in late January, becoming the first Israeli president to visit the country. Israeli defense officials reportedly visited the UAE to discuss defense and intelligence assistance in the wake of the Houthi attacks. And Israel’s Channel 13 reported that Israel is planning to advance the sale of missile defense systems, possibly including Israel’s famed Iron Dome, to the UAE. For his part, Prime Minister Bennett “ordered the Israeli security establishment to provide their counterparts in the UAE with any assistance” to prevent future attacks.
Further solidifying Israeli-Emirati ties, Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai traveled to the Emirates on February 6 to promote security cooperation between the two countries. Around the same time, Israel hosted a delegation from the UAE’s Federal National Council. Ram Ben Barak, head of the Knesset’s foreign and defense committee, met with the visiting delegation and called them “neighbors and brothers.” Beyond the defense portfolio, the UAE and Israel signed cooperation agreements in healthcare and tourism on February 8.
The UAE reciprocated Israel’s torrent of well-wishing. After meeting Herzog late last month, Mohamed bin Zayed said they discussed their “common view of the threats to regional stability and peace, particularly those posed by militias and terrorist forces,” and the UAE and Israel’s “shared understanding of the importance of taking a firm stance against them.”
Thanks to the Houthi attacks, the UAE seems to be taking its partnership with Israel to a new level, where the two governments actively cooperate in countering pro-Iran militias throughout the region.
Every crisis presents an opportunity. Both the UAE and Israel have found themselves the targets of Iranian-sponsored drone and rocket attacks. Israel’s expressions of solidarity and offers of aid in the wake of Houthi attacks on the UAE will further cement the budding Israeli-Emirati alliance. The bonds enhanced during this crisis may lead to mutual recognition in the UAE and Israel that the two countries do not just face shared threats but may have a shared destiny.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where David May is a senior research analyst. Follow them on Twitter @hahussain and @DavidSamuelMay. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

The Palestinian Leaders' Five-Star Jihad
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./February 17, 2022
Hamas leaders are not sitting among their people in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. It is easier and safer for them to call on the Palestinians to send their children to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel while they are relaxing in the comfort of their hotel rooms, villas and gyms in the Qatari capital of Doha. The Hamas leaders are not going to send their own sons and daughters to engage in the jihad against Israel.
The Iranian-backed Hamas and PIJ are the two largest groups in the Gaza Strip. Instead of investing their resources and efforts in improving the living conditions of their people, the Hamas and PIJ leaders have brought on them one disaster after the other. They have brought war and destruction on the people of the Gaza Strip by firing thousands of rockets towards Israel, forcing Israel to fire back to defend itself.
Instead of building schools and hospitals, the Hamas and PIJ leaders have chosen to invest tens of millions of dollars in a network of tunnels along Gaza's border with Israel, to attack and kill Jews.
The leaders of Hamas and PIJ left scorched earth behind them and chose to lead luxurious lives in Doha, Istanbul and Beirut. Strangely, however, instead of hiding their faces in shame, they are calling from their gyms, jets, and jacuzzis for the Palestinians to pursue the fight against Israel.
Some Palestinians, it seems, refuse to be duped by the deception of the Hamas and PIJ leaders. These Palestinians have finally realized that their leaders care only about their personal interest and the well-being of their families and are enjoying the good life in Doha and Istanbul.
Above all, the Palestinians need to boot out the thieves who masquerade as their leaders, the butchers responsible for the deaths of the young men and women in the Hamas-incited jihad against Israel. The Palestinians will never move forward with their lives as long as their leaders are relaxing in hot tubs in Qatar and Turkey while sending them orders to bathe themselves in yet more Jewish blood.
Hamas leaders are not sitting among their people in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. It is easier and safer for them to call on the Palestinians to send their children to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel while they relax in the comfort of their hotel rooms, villas and gyms in Qatar. The Hamas leaders are not going to send their own sons and daughters to engage in the jihad against Israel. Pictured: Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal (left) and Ismail Haniyeh share some laughs on December 7, 2012.
The leaders of the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are continuing to urge Palestinians to take to the streets to engage in the jihad (holy war) against Israel.
These leaders are telling the Palestinians that those who are killed while carrying out attacks against Israel will be considered "heroes" and "martyrs." They are also telling them that the Palestinians must continue the jihad "until the liberation of Palestine," a euphemism for the elimination of Israel.
These are the messages that were recently sent to the Palestinians by Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh. Mashaal and Haniyeh are sending the messages from their five-star hotels and luxurious villas in Qatar.
Hamas leaders are not sitting among their people in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. It is easier and safer for them to call on the Palestinians to send their children to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel while they are relaxing in the comfort of their hotel rooms, villas and gyms in the Qatari capital of Doha. The Hamas leaders are not going to send their own sons and daughters to engage in the jihad against Israel.
In the past, Arab journalists have criticized and ridiculed the Hamas leaders for choosing to live in luxury hotels in Qatar instead of being amongst their people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Ahmed Musa, an Egyptian journalist, presented a photo of Mashaal working out in Qatar, and reminded the Hamas leader that "the jihad is in Gaza." Musa challenged the Hamas leader:
"If you're a man and a hero, get on the first plane tomorrow and enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing. Your followers in Gaza will greet you."
A report published last month by the Ynet news website revealed that at least eight senior leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) left the Gaza Strip over the past two years in favor of the good life abroad.
The first to leave was Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, who left this home in the Shati refugee camp in favor of luxury hotels in Qatar. Haniyeh justified his departure due to his candidacy for the overall leadership of Hamas. Although the Hamas internal elections ended several months ago, Haniyeh has not returned to the Gaza Strip. Instead, he put pressure on the Egyptian authorities to allow his wife and children to leave the Gaza Strip so that they could join him in the wealthy Gulf state.
Another senior Hamas figure who left the Gaza Strip is Khalil al-Hayya, who until recently served as deputy head of the terrorist group in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave. Al-Hayya decided to leave for Qatar after he was appointed as head of the Hamas bureau that manages the group's relations with Arab and Islamic countries.
Salah Bardaweel, Sami Abu Zuhri, Fathi Hammad and Taher a-Nunu, also senior and veteran Hamas officials, have also left the Gaza Strip together with their families. They are shuttling between Qatar, Lebanon, Turkey and other Arab and Islamic countries.
In addition to the Hamas leaders, senior representatives of Palestinian Islamic Jihad have left the Gaza Strip. They include Nafez Azzam and Mohammed al-Hindi, who are spending their time in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.
It is not clear if these Hamas and PIJ leaders are planning to return to their homes in the Gaza Strip. In fact, there is good reason to believe that these spoiled leaders are not in a hurry to return to Gaza, where two million Palestinian residents continue to live in harsh economic conditions, where unemployment is estimated at more than 50% and, where the rate of poverty is extremely high.
The Iranian-backed Hamas and PIJ are the two largest groups in the Gaza Strip. Instead of investing their resources and efforts in improving the living conditions of their people, the Hamas and PIJ leaders have brought on them one disaster after the other. They have brought war and destruction on the people of the Gaza Strip by firing thousands of rockets towards Israel, forcing Israel to fire back to defend itself.
Instead of building schools and hospitals, the Hamas and PIJ leaders have chosen to invest tens of millions of dollars in a network of tunnels along Gaza's border with Israel, to attack and kill Jews.
The leaders of Hamas and PIJ left scorched earth behind them and chose to lead luxurious lives in Doha, Istanbul and Beirut. Strangely, however, instead of hiding their faces in shame, they are calling from their gyms, private jets and jacuzzis for the Palestinians to pursue the fight against Israel.
Just last week, from Qatar, Mashaal renewed the call to the Palestinians to continue sacrificing their children in the jihad against Israel. Mashaal boasted that the number of terrorist attacks against Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem doubled in 2021 compared to 2020.
"The upcoming phase will witness an accumulation of the resistance and the development of its capabilities," Mashaal said. When Hamas talks about "resistance," it is referring to the use of various terrorist attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings, rocket launchings, stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. "We want everyone to be involved in the growing resistance."
Everyone, of course, expect the children of Mashaal, Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders who are now enjoying the life in a number of Arab and Islamic countries while the Palestinians they left behind in the Gaza Strip struggle to feed their children. Some have become real beggars who are now knocking on Israel's door for help.
Thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are applying to work in Israel. The rate of unemployment in the Gaza Strip exceeded 50% in 2021, according to Maher al-Taba'a, director of Gaza's Chamber of Commerce. The unemployment rate has soared to even 78% among graduates aged between 20 to 29 years who have a certificate with an intermediate diploma or a bachelor's degree, he added.
Some Palestinians, it seems, refuse to be duped by the deception of the Hamas and PIJ leaders. These Palestinians have finally realized that their leaders care only about their personal interest and the well-being of their families and are enjoying the good life in Doha and Istanbul.
This is encouraging news, which shows that there are Palestinians who are fed up with the corruption of their leaders and their five-star jihad from luxury hotels around the world. Recently, these Palestinians took to social media to launch a campaign called "They (Hamas) Hijacked Gaza." For now, this campaign has enlisted only a limited number of people.
Unless more Palestinians join such campaigns and start speaking out against the corruption of their leaders, there is zero chance that their lives will improve -- not even if the international community continues to shower hundreds of millions of dollars on them.
Above all, the Palestinians need to boot out the thieves who masquerade as their leaders, the butchers responsible for the deaths of the young men and women in the Hamas-incited jihad against Israel. The Palestinians will never move forward with their lives as long as their leaders are relaxing in hot tubs in Qatar and Turkey while sending them orders to bathe themselves in yet more Jewish blood.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
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Why is no one talking about Iran digging a new unbombable nuke facility? - analysis
Yanah Jeremy/Jerusalem Post/February 17/2022
The facility in Natanz is built deep under a massive mountain, making it extremely difficult for the IDF to ever bomb it.
Iran is developing a new nuclear threat that could be a game-changer – and which will continue to proceed regardless of whether there is a nuclear deal or not.
It is a problem that almost no one is talking about, in an area called Natanz where the Mossad allegedly blew up two different nuclear facilities in July 2020 and April 2021 respectively.
The new enormous nuclear threat is a new underground facility Iran is digging and building in the Natanz area which goes so deep under a mountain so large that it will leave the Fordow facility in the dust in terms of how difficult it would be for the IDF to strike it.
In a report, Institute for Science and International Security president David Albright wrote, “Fordow is already viewed as so deeply buried that it would be difficult to destroy via aerial attack. The new Natanz site may be even harder to destroy.”
Why no one is talking about it – other than Albright – is probably a mix of it being an issue that may not fully mature until 2023 and that there are few good options for addressing.
The main mountain harboring the new Natanz tunnel complex is called Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La and has a height of 1608 meters above sea level, he said.
In comparison, the mountain harboring the Fordow centrifuge enrichment plant, called Kūh-e Dāgh Ghū’ī, is about 960 meters tall.
The report said that this makes the Natanz mountain about 650 meters or well over 50% taller, potentially providing even greater protection to any facility built underneath it.
For around 13 years, military strategists have debated and pulled their hair out over whether Israel’s vaunted air force has weaponry that could go deep enough underground to destroy Fordow.
If Israel cannot destroy Fordow, then it substantially reduces the potential for success by any Israeli use of force against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Albright is saying in no uncertain terms that the new facility being built in the Natanz area will be 50% harder to destroy than Fordow, which Jerusalem might be unable to destroy.
According to the report, the underground facility is also huge.
This means that the largest segments of Tehran’s nuclear programs may eventually move to this site.
“A Western intelligence official recently stated that there is strong reason to believe that an enrichment plant is being built at the Natanz underground site, and reiterated the claim in a follow-up conversation,” wrote Albright.
Continuing, he said, “The Institute was not able to independently confirm this, but a small, advanced centrifuge enrichment plant is certainly the most worrisome possibility.”
Albright wrote that, “A relatively small number of advanced IR-6 centrifuges, say 1,000, would be enough to create a more powerful enrichment plant, providing a doubling of the enrichment output compared to Fordow and requiring about one-third of the floor area of Fordow’s main hall.”
In turn, this could mean that the vast majority of Iran’s nuclear program could become untouchable by any airstrike.
The construction of the new underground complex has been an Iranian priority, following the two previous sabotage operations.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the then-head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) stated in April 2021, “We are working 24/7 to move all our sensitive halls into the heart of the mountain near Natanz.”
However, more than a year-and-a-half after the July 2020 sabotage, the replacement facility remains undone. Salehi had also said they hoped the halls “will be ready by next year so we can move these facilities to them.”
However, even now it is unknown if the new site will be ready for operation before 2023.
Once the Islamic Republic does have it up and running though, the report suggested that Iran could jump back up from assembling hundreds of new advanced centrifuges per year to thousands.
Until the new facility is built, Albright said that Tehran is “depending on ad hoc aboveground centrifuge capabilities limited to the assembly of hundreds of advanced centrifuges per year,” with the sabotage operations setting back “Iran’s centrifuge program significantly.”
All of this is true despite Iran’s success at operating enough advanced centrifuges to enrich enough uranium for multiple potential nuclear weapons – if it decides to enrich up further to weaponized levels.
In terms of the status of the construction, satellite images throughout 2021 show extensive excavation activities, with spoil piles growing steadily, said the report.
As of November 2021, the report said that, “the area remains a major construction zone, excavation appears ongoing, and the overall tunnel facility does not appear finished. Construction materials visibly stored along the graded roads may indicate ongoing tunnel lining efforts or that Iran has begun to outfit the interior in parts of the tunnel complex.”
“Two tunnel entrance areas, one west and one east of a large mountain, with three likely tunnel portals have been identified in commercial satellite imagery, as well as a construction staging area and probable future above-ground support site,” said the report.
Albright wrote that, “near the Western tunnel portal, there is road grading, perhaps for a second Western portal, or the genesis of an access route to the top of the mountain to allow the construction of a ventilation shaft/system on the top of the mountain.”
He recommended that, “Efforts should be made to dissuade Iran from finishing this facility, or… to at least disrupt its procurements of needed equipment and raw materials,” since otherwise, the facility could “reconstitute Iran’s ability to deploy thousands of advanced centrifuges each year, once again complicating any effort to lengthen its breakout or sneak-out timelines in a nuclear agreement.”

Reality Honks Back ...About those truckers…
N.S. Lyons/The Upheaval/February 17/2022
Like many, I have spent the last couple of weeks a bit entranced by the trucker protests happening in Canada (and now around the world, from Paris to Wellington). I initially tried to document here every twist and turn of the Freedom Convoy drama, but found it nearly impossible. Events continue to unfold very quickly. As I write this, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has just invoked the Emergencies Act (i.e. martial law), allowing him to suspend civil liberties and basically do whatever he wants (more on that later) to crush the protests. So they may soon be quelled. Or perhaps not. No one can yet say precisely how all this may end.
But in any case news and commentary detailing the protests can now be found everywhere, so I’m just going to assume you already have a familiarity with what’s happening, as I want to try to distill a few more unique thoughts on why I find these protests so striking.
Specifically, why all this seems like such a perfect reflection of the Reality War. In that essay, I noted how from the perspective of those with the most wealth and power, as well as the technocratic managers and the intelligentsia (our “priestly class, keepers of the Gnosis [Knowledge]”), digital technology and global networks seem to have created “an unprecedented opportunity for Theory to wrest control from recalcitrant nature, for liquid narrative to triumph over mundanely static reality, and for all the corrupt traditional bonds of the world to be severed, its atoms reconfigured in a more correct and desirable manner.”
In this mostly subconscious vision of “Luxury Gnosticism,” the “middle and lower classes can then be sold dispossession and disembodiment as liberation, while those as yet ‘essential’ working classes who still cling distastefully to the physical world can mostly be ignored until the day they can be successfully automated out of existence.”
I also quoted a passage from the late Christopher Lasch’s book The Revolt of the Elites that is worth repeating here:
The thinking classes are fatally removed from the physical side of life… Their only relation to productive labor is that of consumers. They have no experience of making anything substantial or enduring. They live in a world of abstractions and images, a simulated world that consists of computerized models of reality – “hyperreality,” as it’s been called – as distinguished from the palatable, immediate, physical reality inhabited by ordinary men and women. Their belief in “social construction of reality” – the central dogma of postmodernist thought – reflects the experience of living in an artificial environment from which everything that resists human control (unavoidably, everything familiar and reassuring as well) has been rigorously excluded. Control has become their obsession. In their drive to insulate themselves against risk and contingency – against the unpredictable hazards that afflict human life – the thinking classes have seceded not just from the common world around them but from reality itself.
So let’s consider this using the protests as a lens, and vice versa.

Syria's opposition is worse than the Assad regime
AFP/The Arab Weekly/February 17/2022
Eleven years have passed since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. Syrians have only two choices in Syria, one bad, the other worse.
The Syrian regime represents the bad option while the Syrian opposition represents what's worse. At best, the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition are two sides of the same coin. The most prominent figures in the Syrian opposition are either former supporters of the Assad regime or belong to political Islam and more precisely, to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood organisation, which is backed by Erdogan's Turkey and Tamim's Qatar. Thus, the Syrian regime and its opponents share the same values ​​and same culture. They have both been instilled with the same proclivity towards tyranny, exclusion and glorification of the one party, one sect and one nationalism system. Throughout the Syrian crisis, the Syrian opposition has adopted policies and agendas that are similar to those of the Assad regime, if not worse. Since the first bullet was fired in the Syrian internal conflict in 2011, the armed Syrian opposition has tried to drag populated areas into a maelstrom of armed confrontation with the ruthless Assad regime.
Its aim and only hope was to provoke Western military intervention in order to overthrow the Assad regime and seize power.
After all of its failed attempts to persuade the West to intervene militarily and overthrow the Assad, the Syrian political and armed opposition turned to Turkey and prodded it to invade and occupy many parts of the north and north-east. This continues from 2016 until today. The Syrian opposition loyal to Turkey and Qatar describes the Turkish-occupied areas as liberated. The pro-Ankara and Doha factions, much like the Assad regime, thrive on physically eliminating their opponents. They have introduced mass demographic changes in the city of Afrin where they expelled its original Kurdish inhabitants and settled Arabs and Turkmen in their place.
At the behest of Ankara, the armed factions have changed the names of the cities and towns occupied by Turkey, especially Kurdish ones. They carried out a policy of systematic Arabisation and Turkification. The Turkish language became an official language in schools and universities in those occupied areas. The Turkish lira became the dominant currency in commercial and financial transactions in all the Syrian territories occupied by Turkey.
Consequently, all these areas became, for all practical and administrative purposes, a part of Turkey. Ankara intends to include them in Turkey's map. Moreover, under the pretext of fighting PKK elements, Turkey does not ever intend to leave the occupied parts of Iraq's Kurdistan region.
The Syrian opposition, especially the "National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces" backed by Ankara and Doha, has adopted an extremist Arabist and sectarian narrative. The coalition has always insisted on giving Syria a purely Arab and Islamic character in conformity with its own vision. Its approach represents a blatant threat to other non-Arab and non-Muslim components and ignores their existence and roles. Even worse, the opposition coalition is striving to reproduce the Syrian central regime model, painted in Muslim Brotherhood hues. The coalition does not hide its abhorrence for federalism or de-centralisation in any future Syria. It keeps on repeating the same Baathist mantra of preserving national unity. Dozens of extremist armed factions affiliated with the Syrian opposition have merged. They include the Islamic State (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra, which has changed its name to Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (Al-Qaeda branch). These extremist groups have fought dozens of battles against each other for control and the implementation of Turkish and Qatari agendas. Thousands of their members became guns for hire under the direct supervision of Turkish intelligence to serve Turkey's agendas and interests in Syria and the entire region. On that basis, these mercenaries were dispatched to Libya, Azerbaijan, Venezuela and elsewhere.
According to the classification by the Assad regime, the Syrian opposition is divided into many platforms; the Istanbul platform, the Moscow platform, the Cairo platform and the “national” opposition platform at home. Each platform represents the agendas and interests of the state sponsoring it.
Unfortunately, more than a decade after the outbreak of the Syrian internal conflict, which has caused hundreds of thousands of dead and millions of internally and externally displaced persons and after dozens of Syrian cities, towns and villages were reduced to rubble, only two options remain for Syrians. The bad option is the Assad regime, which has sold Syria to Russia and Iran in exchange for staying in power. A worse option is that of the predominantly Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated opposition, which implements Turkish and Qatari agendas in Syria.

World must stand up to Iran over its extraterritorial assassinations
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/February 17/2022
One of the core strategies of the Iranian regime is carrying out assassinations abroad to advance its revolutionary ideals and parochial interests.
For example, Turkish and Israeli intelligence forces recently cooperated and were able to foil an assassination attempt on Istanbul-based Israeli businessman Yair Geller. It was reported last week that an Iranian cell, which consisted of nine individuals and was run by Iran-based intelligence officer Yassin Tahermkandi and his Turkish counterpart Saleh Mushtag Bhighus, had targeted Geller, who supplies machinery for the automotive, aerospace and medical industries.
This is not the first time the Iranian regime has attempted to carry out an assassination in Turkey. In fact, Turkey has become an important hub for Tehran to target foreign citizens or dissidents. The Turkish authorities last year detained Mohammed Reza Naderzadeh, an employee at the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul, for his role in the killing of critic Masoud Molavi Vardanjani in November 2019. The accused allegedly forged travel documents for Ali Esfandiari, who orchestrated the assassination.
The regime reportedly targeted Vardanjani due to his social media campaign, which was aimed at exposing corruption in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds Force and the theocratic establishment. He had defected after serving as an intelligence officer for the Iranian government and wrote on social media: “I will root out the corrupt mafia commanders… Pray that they don’t kill me before I do this.”
In 2017, Saeed Karimian, a British television executive who founded Gem TV, which runs 17 Persian-language channels, was shot dead in Istanbul. Before his killing, he was convicted in absentia in Iran for spreading propaganda against the regime.
Such assassination orders likely come from the very top of the theocratic establishment. As a senior US official pointed out: “Given Iran’s history of targeted assassinations of Iranian dissidents and the methods used in Turkey, the United States government believes that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security was directly involved in Vardanjani’s killing.”
The Iranian regime also targets foreign political leaders and diplomats whom it opposes. It is known to have “target packages” containing information on foreign citizens or residents who are human rights defenders, critics of the Iranian leaders, political activists or dissidents. Some of the regime’s targets are politicians or diplomats from those countries that Iran views as rivals. For instance, in a well-known case, two Iranian nationals were convicted in the US of plotting to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir at a restaurant in Washington in 2011.
Tehran’s assassination attempts can also be traced to Europe. Regime diplomat Assadollah Assadi was last year sentenced to 20 years in jail in Belgium over his role in a 2018 terrorist plot. Assadi delivered explosive material to his accomplices with the aim of bombing an Iranian opposition rally in Paris, which I attended. Had the plot not been discovered at the very last minute, hundreds of people could have been killed, including international dignitaries and many European parliamentarians.
Countries such as Turkey should expel Iranian ‘diplomats’ and intelligence agents, who may be plotting further terrorist attacks.
Another agent of the regime, Mohammed Davoudzadeh Loloei, was in 2020 sentenced to prison by a Danish court for being an accessory to the attempted murder of one or more opponents of the Iranian regime.
In order to halt the regime’s assassinations, the international community must hold the regime accountable for its terror activities. Countries such as Turkey should adopt firm policies and even pass legislation to allow them to expel Iranian “diplomats” and intelligence agents, who may be plotting further terrorist attacks. They should also consider closing down Iranian embassies until Tehran halts its terror activities. And, most importantly, they need to designate the IRGC and its proxies as terrorist organizations.
Any country that appeases the Iranian regime is making itself more vulnerable to its terror activities and assassinations. Since the establishment of the regime in 1979, it has been the modus operandi of the Iranian regime to use the territories of countries it has good relationships with to export its revolutionary principles and assassinate foreign citizens, human rights defenders and dissidents. When a foreign government pursues appeasement policies toward Tehran, it opens the door for the regime to exploit it and pursue its hard-line agenda inside that country’s borders.
The latest developments clearly show that Ankara’s close relationship with the regime has emboldened and empowered Tehran to plot assassinations on Turkish soil.
The Tehran regime must be held accountable for its frequent assassination plots on foreign soil, which ought to be considered a blatant breach of state sovereignty.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh