English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 27/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus Changes Water Into Wine
John 02/01-11/On the third day a wedding took place at Cana
in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been
invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They
have no more wine.” “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour
has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial
washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.[b] Jesus said to the
servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he
told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They
did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned
into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who
had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said,
“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the
guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” What
Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he
revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on February 26-27/2022
Cana Wedding Miracle/The Forgiveness (Marfaa) Sunday/Elias Bejjani/February
27/2022
With Russia’s Barbaric Invasion of Ukraine, the World Has Returned To The Law of
the jungle and to The Pre-Stone Ages/Elias Bejjani/February 26/2022
Corona - Health Ministry: 2,428 new Corona cases, 11 deaths
Mikati: Lebanon will remain part of the Arab world
Lebanese PM: ‘We insist on neutrality in Arab conflicts’
Rahi presides Mass service in Florence: Lebanon has not ceased nor died, but is
going through a delicate circumstance
Bou Habib after meeting with Mikati: Higher Relief Commission to evacuate
Lebanese nationals in Ukraine
Education and Culture - Al-Halabi: Talks have started with the World Bank to
secure additional incentives for teachers
Bassil Floats Idea of Electing President by Popular Vote
Bassil at the launching conference of the "Civil Lebanon Document Project": Life
together must remain the Lebanese’s choice, not just their destiny
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on February 26-27/2022
Canada hits Putin directly, imposing severe financial sanctions on
Russia's president, other 'architects of barbaric war'
Russia Vetoes U.N. Resolution Deploring 'Aggression' in Ukraine
Zelensky Defiant as Ukraine Troops Repel Russian Attack in Kyiv
Russia-Ukraine latest news: Putin's forces ordered to broaden Ukraine advance
'from all directions'
Russia sees military coordination with Israel on Syria continuing
Zelensky Says Ukraine Has 'Derailed' Russian Attack Plan
This War Will Last,' Warns Macron on Ukraine
France seizes ship suspected of violating sanctions against Russia
Are Middle East countries in a position to help mediate the Ukraine crisis?
US reports ‘significant progress’ on Iran nuclear deal
Iran says ready for ‘immediate’ nuclear deal if Western powers show real will
Titles For The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on February 26-27/2022
How the Ukraine crisis ends/Henry Kissinger/Washington Post/February
26/2022.
Here Is Why Iran's Mullahs Are Excited About Biden's Nuclear Deal/Majid
Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/February 26, 2022
Putin and Rebuilding Russia through Annexation/Rajeh Khoury/Asharq Al Awsat/February,
26/2022
Will Russia Slide into the Ukrainian 'Swamp'?/James Jeffrey/Asharq Al Awsat/February,
26/2022
Has Biden’s Approval Rating Bottomed Out?/Jonathan Bernstein/Bloomberg/February,
26/2022
Is Soviet revival worth a world war?/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab
Weekly/February, 26/2022
Ukraine — a stark reminder of Western unreliability/Faisal J. Abbas/Arab
News/February 26, 2022
What Iran loses by rejecting real peace/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/February 26,
2022
on February 26-27/2022
Cana Wedding Miracle/The Forgiveness (Marfaa)
Sunday
Elias Bejjani/February 27/2022 (From 2012 Archives)
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/83444/elias-bejjani-cana-wedding-miracle-the-forgiveness-marfaa-sunday-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b1%d9%81%d8%b9-%d9%88%d9%85%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b5%d9%88%d9%85/
Lent period starts with the Cana Holy Wedding Miracle and ends with the Holy
Easter Day.
Lent in the Maronite Church rite starts this year on the ASH Monday, February
25/2020.
The Sunday that comes before the beginning of the lent period is called the
raising (أحد المرفع) or forgiveness Sunday (أحد الغفران)
Fasting is a battle of spiritual engagement through which we seek to imitate
Jesus Christ who fought Satan’s temptations while fasting in the wilderness.
He triumphed over Satan, and we faithfully endeavour during the Lent period to
tame and defeat our earthly instincts and make our hearts, conscience and
thinking pure, immaculate and pious
The lent period is a spiritual battle that we chose to fight our own selves and
all its bodily and earthly instinctual pleasures in a bid to abstain from all
acts and thoughts of sin
Lent in principle is a Holy period that is ought to be utilized with God in
genuine contemplation, self humility, repentance, penances, forgiveness, praying
and conciliation with self and others.
Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Jesus Who is the
fountain of all love, forgiveness and mercy.
Lent is a pilgrimage in which Jesus Himself accompanies us through the desert of
our poverty while sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter.
We fastand trust that the Lord is our loving Shepherd.
“Psalm 23:04: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and staff comfort me.”
Lent is ought to strengthen our hope and faith in a bid to fight Satan and to
keep away from his ways of sin and despair.
Praying and contemplation teaches us that Almighty God is there to guard us and
to lead our steps during the entire Lenten period.
Readind the Holy Bible and praying offers us God’s Word with particular
abundance and empowers our souls and minds with His Word.
Mark 13:31: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”
By meditating and internalizing the Word Of God we learn precious and
irreplaceable forms of prayer.
By attentively listening to God, who continues to speak to our hearts, we
nourish the itinerary of faith initiated on the day of our Baptism.
Prayers and fasting allow us to gain a new concept of time and directs our steps
towards horizons of hope and joy that have no limits
When we fast and pray, we find time for God, to understand that his words will
not pass away.
Through fasting and praying we can enter into that intimate communion with Jesus
so that no one shall take from us the faith and hope that does not disappoint.
With Russia’s Barbaric Invasion of Ukraine,
the World Has Returned To The Law of the jungle and to The Pre-Stone Ages
Elias Bejjani/February 26/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/106605/elias-bejjani-with-russias-barbaric-invasion-of-ukraine-the-world-has-returned-t-the-law-of-the-jungle-and-to-the-pre-stone-ages/
What has been happening in Ukraine for the two days is a mere brutal and heinous
crime, that is void of humanity, fear of God, reason, logic, conscience, and all
human rights. It is a crime against humanity in accordance to all standards,
norms and laws.
This brutal crime is openly unfolding, while the world leaders, and the United
Nations, are watching from far away, and not taking any actual action to stop
Russia’s Hitler, and put an end to his viciousness.
All the free world countries, and in particular the European Union’s 27
countries, the United States, and the United Nations, are merely silent, and in
reality they did encourage the invader and have blessed his invasion. They are
watching with shameful cowardice and silence, the most horrific forms of
killing, destruction, displacement, and all kinds of human rights atrocities and
infringement.
The arrogant and paranoid Putin, has used in his barbaric invasion all sorts of
destructive weapons, with the exception of the nuclear one. His main aim is
humiliating, oppressing and subduing the Ukrainian people who are yearning for
freedom and democracy.
The Ukrainian’s crime in Putin’s sick mind is that they thought, yes, just a
thought, of joining the European Union, and the NATO, where there is future,
civilization, democracy, progress, civilization, science and freedoms. Russia’s
Hitler is punishing the Ukrainians’ for their yearning for freedom and For a
decent-peaceful life.He invaded their country to drag them back, and by force,
to the rotten fallen oppressive communism era.
What is scary about all that is happening in Ukraine is that the silence of the
European countries, and the USA, and with them all the countries of the free
world, who did not do anything to defend Ukraine and its people, except with
rhetoric condemning statements void of any practical value.
Sadly, the leaders of all the Free world countries, especially Mr. Biden and his
European counterparts has, publicly assured Russia’s Hitler that they would not
participate in any military actions, which simply means blessing his bloody war,
and giving him bundles of green lights to continue in committing his barbaric
crime.
Shameful, and deplorable is this worldwide silence, through which all leaders
are watching the crime scene and doing nothing. Shame on all countries and their
leaders for their cowardice and abandonment of the people of Ukraine.
The question is, what has happened to the United Nations, where is the respect
for the Charter of the human rights, where is the international peace structure,
where is the freedom of people, where is the principle of self-determination,
and where are the international peace agreements? Unfortunately, all of them are
currently buried in the drawers.
Silence has fell on the world leaders, who shamefully swallowed their tongues
and blessed the invader and hailed his madness, greed and criminality.
With what is happening in Ukraine, we can say freely that in the twenty-first
century the world has returned to the law of the jungle, and to the pre-stone
ages.
Corona - Health Ministry: 2,428 new Corona cases, 11
deaths
NNA/February 26, 2022
In its daily report on the latest COVID-19 developments, the Ministry of Public
Health announced on Saturday the registration of 2,428 new Corona infections,
which raised the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 1,065,307.The
report added that 11 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.
Mikati: Lebanon will remain part of the Arab world
NNA/February 26, 2022
Prime Minister Najib Mikati affirmed that "Lebanon, which was and will remain
part of the Arab world, is experiencing an unprecedented crisis at all levels,
and our government is trying to solve it with all available capabilities,
relying on the support of its Arab brothers and friends in the world."He added:
"We are waiting for our Arab brethrens to understand our reality well, and to
stand by us to spare Lebanon the dangers and help us bear the burdens that have
exceeded our capabilities.” Mikati stressed that Lebanon adopts a policy of
disassociation from any Arab dispute and insists on its implementation, noting
that the loser in every dispute or conflict is the Arab world which has always
been seeking unity. In turn, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States,
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, stressed that the region suffers from stifling crises that
have reflected on its reality, especially on the levels of education and the
decline of scientific research in universities and research centers. Aboul
Gheit underlined that redressing the delay requires increasing the budget for
scientific research, giving the young generation an opportunity, and preparing
it to be able to face the challenges of the current century, allowing it to be
fully equal and compete with other societies. He emphasized that "the city of
Beirut, a beacon of knowledge, spares no effort to support every activity that
enriches joint Arab action in all its fields."Mikati's speech came in the
context of a ceremony honoring the winners of the "Arab Prize for the Best
Doctoral Thesis in Legal and Judicial Sciences in the Arab World", in the
presence of Aboul Gheit, ewhich was held this morning at the Grand Serail.
Lebanese PM: ‘We insist on neutrality in Arab conflicts’
Najia Houssari/Arab News/February 26, 2022
BEIRUT: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit has praised Lebanon as
“a beacon of knowledge that spares no effort in backing every activity that
enriches joint Arab action.”Aboul Gheit was speaking on Saturday at a ceremony
held by the Council of Arab Justice Ministers in Beirut for Arab doctoral thesis
award winners in the field of law and justice. His remarks came after comments
by Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who said at the ceremony: “We expect our
Arab brothers to understand our reality and stand by us to spare Lebanon more
risks and help us bear the burdens that have exceeded our capabilities.
“Lebanon, which was and will remain part of the Arab world, is experiencing an
unprecedented crisis, and our government is trying to solve it with all
available capabilities, relying on the support of its Arab brothers and
international friends,” Mikati added.
“It is unfair to burden Lebanon with more than it can handle,” the prime
minister said. Mikati added: “We are unable to stand in a trench here or on a
front line there. We have thus adopted a neutrality policy when it comes to Arab
conflicts, and we insist on implementing it.”He said that the only loser in any
regional dispute “is our Arab world, which has always been seeking unity.”The
prime minister added that Lebanon’s “bitter experience has taught it that
fighting leads nowhere and everyone comes out a loser.”He said: “The homeland
loses and the people lose. Whoever thinks they can win against their Arab
partner is wrong.“Victory can only be achieved through understanding, looking
after future generations, and charting a future that fulfills their ambitions.”
Aboul Gheit added during his speech that Arab universities are still
experiencing “low rankings worldwide due to their lack of innovation and
seriousness in scientific research, and the dwindling volume of scientific
publications.”
He highlighted the need to “recover from this shortfall by increasing the budget
for scientific research, providing opportunities for the youth, preparing them
to face modern challenges and allowing them access to equal opportunities to
compete with other societies.”
The awards were first proposed during the 35th session of the Council of Arab
Ministers of Justice in 2019, and were promoted by the council’s Arab Center for
Legal and Judicial Research to support scientific research, targeting a category
of Ph.D. holders in law and justice.
Jury representative and former Lebanese justice minister Ibrahim Najjar said:
“It was not easy to choose the best thesis out of hundreds that tackled various
topics from all over the Arab world. This diversity shows that we can be open to
different cultures and adapt to how the world is constantly developing.”
Lebanese Justice Minister Henry Khoury said that the awards, which will take
place every two years, aim to “encourage applied comparative studies that deal
with real issues in Arab law and justice, direct studies toward serving national
needs in these fields, as well as strengthen legal and judicial studies, and
raise institutional awareness in this regard.”Algerian Justice Minister Abdul
Rashid Tabbi, who was present at the ceremony, said: “The interest researchers
from various universities in the Arab world expressed in the award is the
beginning of an Arab scientific rapprochement between the peoples of the Arab
world, and it will pave the way for other such opportunities.”The ceremony
awarded first prize to Amina Kab, second to Mohammed Mohammed Hussein and third
to Safiyan Abdali. Khoury and Tabbi signed two agreements on the sidelines of
the event. The first covers judicial cooperation between Lebanon and Algeria on
penal policies, while the second aims to prosecute convicts and extradite
detainees between the two countries. Tabbi said that the agreements “are the
best mechanism for confronting the evasion of criminal accountability, and by
signing them, we will establish for both our countries a comprehensive framework
that will protect them from criminal threats.”Meanwhile, an Iranian delegation,
led by Culture and Guidance Minister Mahdi Ismaili, arrived in Beirut to
inaugurate “Days of Cultural Dawn” activities in Lebanon. The activities are
scheduled to be held at the Hezbollah-affiliated Resalat Theater in south
Beirut, at the UNESCO Palace in the capital and at the International Center for
Dialogue of Civilizations in Rabweh. They include a musical evening by the
Rudaki National Iranian Orchestra, a craft exhibition, a symposium on cultural
pluralism, a film screening, and poetry and folklore evenings.
Rahi presides Mass service in Florence: Lebanon has not
ceased nor died, but is going through a delicate circumstance
NNA/February 26, 2022
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, presided over a Mass
service on the intention of Lebanon, held today at the Basilica of San Lorenzo
in Florence. In his homily, al-Rahi affirmed that Lebanon is steadfast despite
all circumstances, saying: “Lebanon has not ended nor died, but is going through
a delicate circumstance and needs us today as the sons of this generation.”He
added that prayers are raised to the Lord Almighty “so that we are ready to take
positions of goodness, serenity, peace, justice, brotherhood, freedom, and
human, social and national values... We also pray for Lebanon and the Lebanese
so that they can preserve it and return it to its original splendor and to its
role and message.” Al-Rahi saluted the Italian friends and thanked them for
their constant support and devotion for Lebanon and the Lebanese, saying:
“Together, we pray for Italy's intention to remain prosperous, and for beautiful
Florence to enjoy eternal well-being."After Mass, the Patriarch met with the
Lebanese community members who briefed him on their situation, and the project
to establish a new Maronite parish in Florence.
Bou Habib after meeting with Mikati: Higher Relief
Commission to evacuate Lebanese nationals in Ukraine
NNA/February 26, 2022
Prime Minister Najib Mikati met today with Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Emigrants Abdallah Bou Habib, during which they followed-up on the situation of
the Lebanese in Ukraine. The meeting was attended by the Secretary-General of
the Council of Ministers, Mahmoud Makieh, and the diplomatic advisor to PM
Mikati, Ambassador Boutros Assaker. On emerging, Bou Habib said: "It was decided
to assign the Higher Relief Commission to evacuate Lebanese nationals residing
in Ukraine, who have sought refuge in Poland and Romania, at a date to be
determined later, and according to circumstances and details to be announced in
due time, in consultation with the embassies of Lebanon in Ukraine, Poland and
Romania."He added that since there are no safe paths out of Ukraine at the
moment, the Lebanese who are currently present there are advised to stay in safe
places until things clear up.
"As for the Lebanese who have decided to head to the border crossings at their
responsibility, they are urged to take utmost care and caution in order to
preserve their safety," Bou Habib concluded.
Education and Culture - Al-Halabi: Talks have started with
the World Bank to secure additional incentives for teachers
NNA/February 26, 2022
Minister of Education Abbas al-Halabi revealed that “discussions have begun with
the World Bank mission about three weeks ago, aimed at securing additional
incentives for teachers, contractuals and all workers in the vocational
education field, with the value of these incentives estimated at approximately
$180 at the Sairafa exchange rate. "The Ministry is working during the weekend
to complete the accounting procedures and set the frames of reference in order
to cooperate with an external audit company, to meet the conditions set by the
World Bank to approve the exchange, and it is expected that these requirements
will be completed early next week," al-Halabi said. The Education Minister
indicated that "these incentives are an additional support for the incentive
system that is currently being implemented through a monthly transfer to all
education workers.
Bassil Floats Idea of Electing President by Popular Vote
Naharnet/February 26, 2022
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Saturday suggested that the
Lebanese should elect their president in a popular vote as part of ideas that he
proposed to reform the political system. “It is permissible for us here to
seriously think of electing the president of the republic directly by the people
in two electoral rounds, in order to preserve the post’s special status,
symbolism and its representation of all Lebanese,” Bassil said at a FPM seminar
on civil state. “We in the FPM believe in Lebanon’s unity and that living
together must remain the choice of the Lebanese and not only their fate,” he
added.
“We are convinced that the state’s failure is caused by the bad system and that
the solutions for its crisis lie in reforming it and not in tearing up the
social contract between us,” Bassil went on to say. He accordingly warned all
Lebanese that failure to agree on a viable system would “give foreign forces an
excuse to impose on us what would satisfy them rather than satisfy us.”“We have
been criticized because under the current sectarian system, we have been
unyielding in demanding the rights of the Christians in the state and this is a
truth that we do not deny. We rather hold onto it because we are clinging to
national partnership, whereas others in the past sought to end partnership under
the excuse of securing rights,” Bassil added. He also explain that the FPM’s
ambition is to “move from the rights of sects to the rights of the citizen,”
because it is “a cross-confessional movement in the first place.”
“We aspire to rise above sectarianism all the way to abolishing it and achieving
secularity through complete separations between religions and the state,” Bassil
added.
Bassil at the launching conference of the "Civil Lebanon
Document Project": Life together must remain the Lebanese’s choice, not just
their destiny
NNA/February 26, 2022
Free Patriotic Movement Leader, MP Gebran Bassil, said today at the launching
conference of the "Civil Lebanon Document Project" that "Civil Lebanon is the
way to live together in a successful state, and we believe in Lebanon’s unity
and that life together must remain the Lebanese’s choice, not just their
destiny," adding that the failure of the state is caused by the bad system, and
solutions to its crises lie in reforming it "and not in breaking the social
contract between us." "We have tried everything...from complete exclusion
between 1990 and 2005, to exclusion from authority between 2005 and 2008, to
participation in the authority; the result is that the only solution is to
change the system or develop it, and our country is at a real crossroads, as the
failure of the system has become a source of disintegration, but reforming it
will be a way towards advancement which requires awareness, will, and joint
action," Bassil underscored. "We are a sovereign movement and we do not accept
that the outside decides the future of our country. We warn the Lebanese that
the lack of agreement between us on a successful and viable system will give the
outside an excuse to impose on us what pleases them and secures their interests
instead of our interests," he stressed. The MP considered the recent crisis of
smuggling Lebanese money abroad, refusing to return it, stealing depositors'
money, and refusing to hold the perpetrators accountable are evidence of the
greatest moral decay in Lebanon. Bassil pledged that his party's corcern in the
next Parliament would be about consolidating the civil state by working to
bridge the gaps in the Constitution, completing the implementation and
development of the National Accord Document, approving the expanded
administrative and financial decentralization law, and approving a parliamentary
electoral law according to proportionality in expanded districts.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on
February 26-27/2022
Canada hits Putin directly, imposing severe financial
sanctions on Russia's president, other 'architects of barbaric war'
Elisabetta Bianchini/Yahoo/February 26, 2022
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a third set of sanctions due to
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's "brutal" and "needless" attack on
Ukraine. "The world is witnessing the horrors of President Putin's war of
choice," Trudeau said on Friday. "It is an atrocity for Ukraine's sovereign 40
million innocent citizens and for the world." "President Putin has opened the
darkest chapter yet in his assault on the Ukrainian people but he has made a
grave miscalculation. People around the world, including in the streets of
Moscow and St. Petersburg, are standing against his brutal and unnecessary war.
They are standing with Ukraine, as are all of us." The prime minister announced
Canada will be imposing financial sanctions on Putin and his fellow "architects
of this barbaric war," including his chief of staff and foreign minister Sergei
Lavrov."These men bear the greatest responsibility for the death and destruction
occurring in Ukraine," Trudeau said. Additionally, Canada’s supports the removal
of Russia from the Swift payment system, which allows for the movement of money
across borders. "Excluding Russian banks from Swift would make it even more
difficult for President Putin to finance his brutalities," Trudeau said. "He
cannot expect to overturn and end 75 years of peace with a violent and
unprovoked attack on an innocent neighbour, and still expect to be able to
benefit from the financial system and economic opportunities that, that very
peace has created over the past 75 years." Canada will also levy additional
sanctions on Belarus and its leader for abetting Putin's invasion of Ukraine,
targeting 57 individuals. The prime minister added that the federal government
will match every donation made to the Canadian Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian
Crisis Appeal, up to $10 million. Trudeau recognized that this is "unlikely to
end quickly" and Canada needs to beee "firm and resolved" over "possibly the
long haul."
Russia Vetoes U.N. Resolution Deploring 'Aggression' in
Ukraine
Agence France Presse/February 26, 2022
Russia, as expected, has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that deplored
"in the strongest terms" the country's "aggression" against Ukraine and demanded
the immediate withdrawal of its troops. Eleven of the council's 15 members voted
for the motion, which was co-written by the United States and Albania. China,
India and the United Arab Emirates abstained. The resolution was always doomed
to fail because of Moscow's veto power as a permanent member of the council.
However the debate offered member nations an opportunity to voice condemnation
of President Vladimir Putin's decision to launch a full-scale offensive against
Russia's neighbor. "Let me make one thing clear," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote. "Russia, you can veto this
resolution, but you cannot veto our voices, you cannot veto the truth, you
cannot veto our principles, you cannot veto the Ukrainian people."The wording of
the draft text put before the Security Council was watered down in the hours
before the vote to gain more support. The word "condemns" was replaced by
"deplores" and a reference to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows
members to take military action to restore peace, was deleted. The resolution
reaffirmed the sovereignty of Ukraine and called for Russia to "immediately
cease its use of force against Ukraine." Ultimately, more than 70 countries
co-sponsored the resolution. "Make no mistake, Russia is isolated. It has no
support for the invasion of Ukraine," said Britain's ambassador to the U.N.,
Barbara Woodward. Before the vote, Thomas-Greenfield described Russia's attack
as "so bold, so brazen, that it threatens our international system as we know
it. "We have a solemn obligation to not look away... At the very minimum, we
have an obligation to object," she said. "Vote yes if you believe Russia should
be held to account for its actions. Vote no or abstain if you do not uphold the
charter and align yourselves with the aggressive and unprovoked actions of
Russia."
- Assembly vote -
Moscow's U.N. envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, denounced the resolution as "anti-Russian
and anti-Ukrainian.""It is difficult for us to compete with the U.S. in terms of
the number of invasions carried out. You are in no position to moralize," he
said. Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya led the council chamber in a moment
of silence, asking members to "pray for peace." He also told Nebenzia to "pray
for salvation.""Russia is keen on continuing it's Nazi-style course of action,"
said Kyslytsya, whose speech was widely applauded by members. Earlier, he had
posed with a Ukrainian flag and European ambassadors under Picasso's Guernica
tapestry which hangs outside the entrance to the council chamber. Explaining his
country's abstention, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun referenced NATO expansion,
saying "Russia's legitimate security aspirations should be given attention and
addressed properly." After the vote, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
said: "Soldiers need to return to their barracks.""Leaders need to turn to the
path of dialogue and peace," he pleaded. Russia, which currently holds the
rotating Security Council presidency, will likely face another vote on a similar
resolution before the wider UN General Assembly which is formed of all 193
member countries. Moscow does not have a veto there and the resolution could be
passed by a substantial margin, although it would be non-binding. The General
Assembly held a similar vote in 2014 condemning Russia's seizure of Crimea,
which obtained 100 votes in support.Moscow had earlier vetoed a Security Council
resolution condemning its actions in Crimea. Thirteen countries supported it
with China abstaining.
Zelensky Defiant as Ukraine Troops Repel Russian Attack
in Kyiv
Agence France Presse/February 26/2022
Ukrainian forces repulsed a Russian attack on Kyiv but "sabotage groups"
infiltrated the capital, officials said Saturday as a defiant President
Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Ukraine would never give in. On the third day of an
invasion that Ukraine said has killed 198 civilians including three children,
Russia also brushed off the barrage of Western sanctions and said it had fired
cruise missiles at military targets. Wearing olive green military-style clothing
and looking tired but determined, Zelensky spoke in a video message posted on
his Twitter account. "I am here. We will not lay down any weapons. We will
defend our state, because our weapons are our truth," he said. "Our truth is
that this is our land, our country, our children and we will protect all of
this."Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed a full-scale invasion that has
forced tens of thousands to flee their homes and sparked fears of a wider
conflict in Europe.
"We thought something like this might happen but we were hoping until the end
that it wouldn't," Irina Butyak, a 38-year-old teacher, told AFP as she took
shelter in a basement in Kyiv, where explosions were heard through the night.
"We were hoping that common sense and common decency would prevail. Well, it
didn't," said Butyak, who hoped she would be able to escape soon to western
Ukraine. In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that the world must
brace for a long war. "This crisis will last, this war will last and all the
crises that come with it will have lasting consequences," Macron said, adding:
"We must be prepared".After speaking to Macron, Zelensky tweeted to thank
"partners" for sending weapons and equipment."The anti-war coalition is
working," he said.
Clashes in the capital
AFP reporters in Kyiv heard occasional blasts of what soldiers said were
artillery and Grad missiles being fired in an area northwest of the city center.
There were also loud explosions in the center.Emergency services said a
high-rise apartment block was hit by shelling overnight, posting a picture that
showed a hole covering at least five floors blasted into the side of the
building. Kyiv's mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, said that the building had been hit by
a missile. "The night was difficult, but there are no Russian troops in the
capital," he said. "The enemy is trying to break into the city, in particular
from Gostomel, Zhytomyr, where the aggressors are neutralized," he said,
referring to two settlements to the northwest and west of the city. "Now in Kyiv
there are, unfortunately, sabotage groups, there were several clashes,
shootings," he said. In a northern district of the city, AFP on Friday saw a
dead man in civilian clothes lying sprawled on the pavement as nearby medics
rushed to help another man whose car was crushed by an armored vehicle.
Ukraine's defense ministry said "two enemy targets were shot down" --
identifying them as a Russian SU-25 helicopter and a military bomber -- near the
separatist zone in the east of the country.
A Russian Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane had also been "knocked down" near
Vasylkiv, a town roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of Kyiv, the
ministry added on its official Facebook page. Zelensky's aide Mykhailo Podolyak
said more than 3,500 Russian soldiers had been killed and nearly 200 captured,
without providing evidence.Moscow has yet to report on casualties.
'Point of no return' -
The United States, Canada, Britain and the European Union doled out further
sanctions on Russia on Friday, including against Putin himself and Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russia said the sanctions against the pair were "a
demonstration of the complete impotence of the foreign policy" of the West.
"We have reached the line after which the point of no return begins," Russian
foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Moscow also vetoed a U.N.
Security Council resolution that deplored "in the strongest terms" Russia's
invasion, while China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained.
While sanctions have focused on finances, travel and the economy, there have
also been repercussions in the worlds of culture and sports. In the latest
development, Poland on Saturday said it would refuse to play its 2022 World Cup
play-off against Russia on March 24. But, despite Zelensky calling on Western
allies to expel Moscow from the SWIFT banking transfer system, numerous EU
countries, including Germany, Hungary and Italy, have been reluctant over fears
Russia could cut off gas supplies.
Tens of thousands fleeing
When he announced the assault in a pre-dawn television statement on Thursday,
Putin called it a "special military operation" aimed at defending Russia-backed
separatists in the east. Russia's communications regulator on Saturday told
independent media to remove reports describing it as an "assault, invasion, or
declaration of war."In a statement, Roskomnadzor accused the media outlets of
spreading "unreliable socially significant untrue information" about the
shelling of Ukrainian cities by the Russian army and civilian deaths.The
conflict has rattled eastern members of the EU and the U.S.-led military
alliance NATO which were once dominated by Moscow.
NATO said it was deploying its rapid response forces for the first time to
bolster defenses on its eastern flank. Meanwhile, Poland has been taking in
thousands of Ukrainian refugees who have been arriving by train, in cars and on
foot in the border city of Przemysl.
Polish Deputy Interior Minister Pawel Szefernaker on Saturday said 100,000
people have crossed the border. "From the onset of warfare in Ukraine
through today, along the entire border with Ukraine, 100,000 people have crossed
the border from Ukraine into Poland," Szefernaker told reporters in the border
village of Medyka, southeastern Poland. The UN said more than 50,000 Ukrainians
had fled the country in the past two days, calling for "safe unimpeded access"
for aid operations.About 100,000 people are believed to be internally displaced.
Russia-Ukraine latest news: Putin's forces ordered to
broaden Ukraine advance 'from all directions'
Agencies/Yahoo/February 26/2022
All Russian units in Ukraine have been given the order to resume their offensive
from all directions after a pause on Friday, the country's news agency RIA has
quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying.
Echoing similar comments by the Kremlin, the ministry said Friday's pause had
been made in anticipation of talks between Moscow and Kyiv but the offensive
resumed after Ukraine refused to negotiate.
It came as Chechnya's firebrand leader claimed that Chechan forces have seized a
military facility in Ukraine. Ramzan Kadyrov, the staunch Putin ally who has
been accused of multiple human rights abuses, said that his feared soldiers are
operating in Ukraine but have not sustained any losses. "We don't have a single
casualty, not a scratch," he claimed.
Russia sees military coordination with Israel on Syria
continuing
Dan Williams/JERUSALEM (Reuters/February 26, 2022
Russia sees its military coordination with Israel over Syria continuing, the
Russian embassy said on Saturday, after Moscow signalled displeasure with
Israeli statements about the Ukraine crisis. Following the 2015 Russian
intervention in the Syrian civil war, Israel set up a "deconfliction mechanism"
with the big power to prevent them clashing inadvertently during Israeli strikes
against Iranian deployments and arms transfers in the neighbouring Arab state.
"Our military officials discuss the practical issues of this substantively on a
daily basis. This mechanism has proven to be useful and will continue to work,"
the Russian embassy in Israel said in a statement. But while voicing support for
Israel's security needs, it also reiterated opposition to violations of Syrian
sovereignty. The Israeli military, asked about prospects for continued
coordination with Russia over Syria, said only that its forces "will act when
needed to counter threats, defend the people of Israel and our sovereignty".
Israel, whose main ally is the United States, condemned the Russian invasion of
Ukraine on Thursday as "a serious violation of international order" and has
since remained largely muted on Moscow's actions. In response, Moscow - which
calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" - summoned the Israeli
ambassador for talks. Russia's U.N. mission restated opposition to Israel's
occupation of the Golan Heights. Israel captured the strategic plateau from
Syria in a 1967 war and annexed it, a move that won U.S. recognition in 2019.The
United States said on Thursday that there were no changes in its deconfliction
mechanism with Russia over Syria, though the Ukraine crisis has sent
Washington-Moscow relations spiralling. (Reporting by Dan Williams)
Zelensky Says Ukraine Has 'Derailed' Russian Attack Plan
Agence France Presse/February 26, 2022
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said Ukraine's force had halted the
Kremlin's push to capture Kyiv and oust him and urged Russians to pressure
leader Vladimir Putin to stop the invasion. Speaking in a new video address,
Zelensky accused Moscow of seeking to overthrow him and establish a puppet state
in Ukraine. "We've derailed their plan," the 44-year-old leader said, stressing
that the Ukrainian army was in control of the capital Kyiv and main cities
around it. Zelensky said Russians have deployed "missiles, fighters, drones,
artillery, armored vehicles, saboteurs, and airborne forces" against Ukraine and
have hit "residential areas."Zelensky said Ukrainians had been fighting against
Russians troops in a number of cities including the southern city of Odessa, the
northeastern city of Kharkiv and the capital Kyiv. The western city of Lviv and
other cities in western and central Ukraine have been targeted with air strikes,
he said. Ukraine, Zelensky said, has "already" earned the right to join the
European Union and urged the EU leaders to make that decision. "This will be key
evidence of our country's support," he said. Zelensky also urged Germany and
Hungary to back severing Russia from the SWIFT banking system to punish Moscow
for invading his country. "There is already almost full support from the
EU countries to disconnect Russia from SWIFT. I hope that Germany and Hungary
will have the courage to support this decision," Zelensky said. The Ukrainian
president -- a former comedian who came to power in 2019 -- also thanked
Russians who spoke out against the war and asked them to keep up the pressure on
the Kremlin. "Simply stop those who are lying to you, lying to us, lying to the
entire world," he said. "Thousands of victims. Hundreds of those taken
prisoner," he added. "The sooner you tell your government that the war must
immediately stop, the more of your people will survive."On Thursday, Putin
unleashed a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that has killed 198 civilians,
including three children, according to Kyiv and sparked fears of a greater
conflict in Europe.
This War Will Last,' Warns Macron on Ukraine
Agence France Presse/February 26, 2022
The world must brace for a long war between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow
launched an invasion of its pro-Western neighbour, French President Emmanuel
Macron warned on Saturday. "I can tell you one thing this morning it is that
this war will last," Macron's told France's annual agriculture fair.
"This crisis will last, this war will last and all the crises that come with it
will have lasting consequences," Macron added, warning: "We must be
prepared."Macron cut short his visit to the agriculture fair, usually one of the
main fixtures on the French political calendar, in order to return to dealing
with the crisis triggered by the Russian invasion. "War has returned to Europe,
this was chosen unilaterally by President (Vladimir) Putin, with a tragic
humanitarian situation, a (Ukrainian) people who are resisting and a Europe that
is there and resisting by the side of the Ukrainian people," said Macron. Macron
has again called an emergency defence council of top ministers and military
security officials to discuss the situation in Ukraine which will take place at
1600 GMT, the Elysee said. With the war and sanctions against Russia risking
damage for specific sectors in France, notably the wine industry, Macron vowed a
"plan of resilience" to help them cope.The French leader was a key figure in
efforts to avert conflict, repeatedly speaking to Putin and seeking in vain to
broker a summit between the Russian leader and U.S. President Joe Biden.The war
has also broken out as the clock ticks down to France's presidential elections
in April. Macron, who is expected to seek and win a second term, has left the
official declaration of his candidacy to the last minute, although he must make
a move next week ahead of a March 4 deadline to register.
France seizes ship suspected of violating sanctions
against Russia
AFP/February 26, 2022
LILLE: French naval forces have intercepted in the Channel a cargo vessel loaded
with cars heading for the Baltic port city of Saint Petersburg after the EU
slapped sanctions on Russia, officials said Saturday. The Russian-flagged Baltic
Leader, which had set sail from the French city of Rouen, was escorted to the
port of Boulogne-sur-Mer by French forces, the maritime prefecture told AFP. It
is suspected of belonging to a company targeted by the sanctions. A French
customs patrol vessel backed by a police surveillance ship and a navy patrol
boat stopped the Baltic Leader, said Veronique Magnin of the regional
prefecture. The 127-meter (417-foot) vessel is “strongly suspected of being
linked to Russian interests targeted by sanctions,” she said, adding that while
such a measure was “rare” it is “a sign of “firmness.” The move comes after the
European Union on Thursday adopted unprecedented sanctions against Russian
individuals, companies and other entities to punish Moscow for its invasion of
Ukraine. A spokesperson for the Russian embassy in Paris told the TASS news
agency the boat’s captain had telephoned the embassy, which then contacted the
French authorities to ask for an explanation of the incident.
Are Middle East countries in a position to help mediate
the Ukraine crisis?
Reuters/February 26, 2022
Amid continuing Russian military incursion in Ukraine, speculation has grown
over a potential role that Middle East nations could play in mediating the
conflict. Sources speak of a possible US interest in a UAE and Saudi effort,
while Ukrainians seem to be prodding Israel to get involved diplomatically.
The UAE’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan spoke with US
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Thursday via telephone. The two sides
discussed the importance of building “a strong international response to support
Ukrainian sovereignty through the UN Security Council,” said a US State
Department statement. Analysts said the US sees the UAE as being in a good
position to contribute to appeasing tensions over the Ukraine crisis,
considering its close ties to both Washington and Moscow. Abu Dhabi also holds a
non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
Blinken’s call with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed followed a telephone conversation
that took place on Wednesday between the UAE foreign minister and his Russian
counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Sources said the US is also talking to Saudi Arabia
about a similar diplomatic role in the conflict.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman spoke Wednesday with the Deputy Foreign
Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Waleed El Khereiji. Official statements
said the phone call focused on the Russian military campaign in Ukraine. Beside
their ties to Russia as fellow members in the oil cartel OPEC+, Saudi Arabia and
the UAE have moved away from total strategic alignment on the US and have
established in recent years closer relations with Moscow in various fields,
including military cooperation. In the meanwhile, there have been reports the
Ukrainian president is seeking to involve Israel in mediation efforts over the
crisis. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Israeli Prime Minister Naftali
Bennett on Friday to mediate in the conflict with Russia, according to Ukrainian
ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk. “We have been talking to the Israelis
for at least the last year about a possible intermediary role for Israel,” the
envoy revealed. Korniychuk said Friday’s phone conversation between the leaders
was the fifth time that Zelenskiy had asked Bennett for Israeli mediation. But
Moscow was not apparently interested in Israel’s good offices. “Bennett
reiterated his hope for a speedy end to the fighting, and said that he stands by
the people of Ukraine in these difficult days,” the Israeli prime minister’s
office only said. But Bennett also offered Kyiv humanitarian aid. For the time
being, Israel did not signal an interest in being neutral in the crisis. There
was in fact a noticeable surge in tension between Moscow and Tel Aviv after
Israel condemned the Russian invasion on Thursday as “a serious violation of
international order” and has since remained largely muted on Moscow’s actions.
The Israeli ambassador in Moscow was summoned for talks. “The hope was expressed
that Israel would treat with due understanding the reasons that prompted the
Russian leadership to decide to conduct a special military operation to protect
civilians in Donbass, demilitarize and denazify Ukraine,” the the Russian
embassy in Israel said. With many strategic considerations at stake with Russia
but also a traditionally airtight alliance with the US, Israel is seen as trying
to keep a delicate balance in its positions over the conflict. “While Israel has
to condemn the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, we can’t lose sight of the
fact that we have the Russian army on our northern border,” Michael Oren, a
former Israeli ambassador to Washington, referring to the large Russian presence
in Syria since 2015. “That is a matter of national security.”
US reports ‘significant progress’ on Iran nuclear deal
AP/February 26, 2022
Negotiators have made significant progress in the last week or so on reviving
the 2015 Iran nuclear deal but very tough issues remain, a senior US State
Department official said on Friday. The US official said he hoped Iran’s lead
negotiator would return in the coming days to Vienna, where the talks are taking
place, “with a positive view” but that even if he did, there were still
difficult issues on the table. “There’s been significant progress over the last
week or two,” the US official told reporters on condition that he not be named.
“But at the same time it’s important to note that very serious issues remain.”
As progress is reported, the State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on
Friday that the US will continue to engage with Russia over efforts to prevent
Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even though Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine
had made it a “pariah on the world stage.”Price said US officials would now only
engage with Russia counterparts on issues of “fundamental to our national
security interest.” That includes the talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal
between Iran and world powers, including Russia, Price said. “The fact that
Russia has now invaded Ukraine should not give Iran the green light to develop a
nuclear weapon,” Price added. The broad aim of the talks is to return to the
original 2015 bargain of lifting sanctions against Iran, including those that
have slashed its oil sales, in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear
activities that extend the time Tehran would need to make enough enriched
uranium for an atomic bomb if it chose to. Iran has long denied such an ambition
and has said that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. The US
official said a deal, if one can be reached, would in many ways track the terms
of the original accord on Iran’s levels of uranium enrichment, the stockpile of
enriched uranium it may hold, and the numbers of centrifuges it may operate.
However, he left open the possibility of some modifications to account the
additional sanctions that then-President Donald Trump imposed on Iran after
pulling the United States out of the deal in 2018 and the nuclear advances that
Iran has since made. “We hope that when Iran comes back, it comes back in with a
pre-disposition to try to resolve this quickly,” the official said, saying there
were still disagreements “for which there is not a solution that’s on the
table.”He declined to name the sticking points, and would not be drawn on
whether Washington had persuaded Tehran to agree to follow-on negotiations on
its nuclear program, its development of ballistic missiles or support for
regional proxies. He also said there has not been any deal reached in separate
negotiations about the release of four US citizens whom the United States
believes have been wrongfully detained by Iran.
Iran says ready for ‘immediate’ nuclear deal if Western
powers show real will
Reuters/26 February ,2022
Iran is ready to “immediately conclude” a deal in talks to revive its 2015
nuclear accord with world powers if Western powers show real will, Iranian
Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Saturday. “Seriously reviewing
draft of the agreement ... Our red lines are made clear to Western parties.
Ready to immediately conclude a good deal, should they show real will,”
Amirabdollahian said on Twitter. On Friday, a senior US State Department
official said negotiators had made significant progress in the past week or so
on reviving the deal but very tough issues remained.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
February 26-27/2022
How the Ukraine crisis ends
Henry Kissinger/Washington Post/February 26/2022.
PUBLIC discussion on Ukraine is all about confrontation. But do we know where we
are going? In my life, I have seen four wars begun with great enthusiasm and
public support, all of which we did not know how to end and from three of which
we withdrew unilaterally. The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins.
Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins
the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be
either side’s outpost against the other – it should function as a bridge between
them.
Russia must accept that to try to force Ukraine into a satellite status, and
thereby move Russia’s borders again, would doom Moscow to repeat its history of
self-fulfilling cycles of reciprocal pressures with Europe and the United
States.
The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign
country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian
religion spread from there. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and
their histories were intertwined before then. Some of the most important battles
for Russian freedom, starting with the Battle of Poltava in 1709, were fought on
Ukrainian soil. The Black Sea Fleet – Russia’s means of projecting power in the
Mediterranean – is based by long-term lease in Sevastopol, in Crimea. Even such
famed dissidents as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that
Ukraine was an integral part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia.
The European Union must recognize that its bureaucratic dilatoriness and
subordination of the strategic element to domestic politics in negotiating
Ukraine’s relationship to Europe contributed to turning a negotiation into a
crisis. Foreign policy is the art of establishing priorities.
The Ukrainians are the decisive element. They live in a country with a complex
history and a polyglot composition. The Western part was incorporated into the
Soviet Union in 1939, when Stalin and Hitler divided up the spoils. Crimea, 60
per cent of whose population is Russian, became part of Ukraine only in 1954 ,
when Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian by birth, awarded it as part of the
300th-year celebration of a Russian agreement with the Cossacks. The West is
largely Catholic; the East largely Russian Orthodox. The West speaks Ukrainian;
the East speaks mostly Russian. Any attempt by one wing of Ukraine to dominate
the other – as has been the pattern – would lead eventually to civil war or
breakup. To treat Ukraine as part of an East-West confrontation would scuttle
for decades any prospect to bring Russia and the West – especially Russia and
Europe – into a cooperative international system.
Ukraine has been independent for only 23 years; it had previously been under
some kind of foreign rule since the 14th century. Not surprisingly, its leaders
have not learned the art of compromise, even less of historical perspective. The
politics of post-independence Ukraine clearly demonstrates that the root of the
problem lies in efforts by Ukrainian politicians to impose their will on
recalcitrant parts of the country, first by one faction, then by the other. That
is the essence of the conflict between Viktor Yanukovych and his principal
political rival, Yulia Tymoshenko. They represent the two wings of Ukraine and
have not been willing to share power. A wise U.S. policy toward Ukraine would
seek a way for the two parts of the country to cooperate with each other. We
should seek reconciliation, not the domination of a faction.
Russia and the West, and least of all the various factions in Ukraine, have not
acted on this principle. Each has made the situation worse. Russia would not be
able to impose a military solution without isolating itself at a time when many
of its borders are already precarious. For the West, the demonization of
Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.
Putin should come to realize that, whatever his grievances, a policy of military
impositions would produce another Cold War. For its part, the United States
needs to avoid treating Russia as an aberrant to be patiently taught rules of
conduct established by Washington. Putin is a serious strategist – on the
premises of Russian history. Understanding U.S. values and psychology are not
his strong suits. Nor has understanding Russian history and psychology been a
strong point of U.S. policymakers.
Leaders of all sides should return to examining outcomes, not compete in
posturing. Here is my notion of an outcome compatible with the values and
security interests of all sides:
• Ukraine should have the right to choose freely its economic and political
associations, including with Europe.
• Ukraine should not join NATO, a position I took seven years ago, when it last
came up.
• Ukraine should be free to create any government compatible with the expressed
will of its people. Wise Ukrainian leaders would then opt for a policy of
reconciliation between the various parts of their country. Internationally, they
should pursue a posture comparable to that of Finland.
That nation leaves no doubt about its fierce independence and cooperates with
the West in most fields but carefully avoids institutional hostility toward
Russia.
• It is incompatible with the rules of the existing world order for Russia to
annex Crimea. But it should be possible to put Crimea’s relationship to Ukraine
on a less fraught basis. To that end, Russia would recognize Ukraine’s
sovereignty over Crimea. Ukraine should reinforce Crimea’s autonomy in elections
held in the presence of international observers. The process would include
removing any ambiguities about the status of the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.
These are principles, not prescriptions. People familiar with the region will
know that not all of them will be palatable to all parties. The test is not
absolute satisfaction but balanced dissatisfaction. If some solution based on
these or comparable elements is not achieved, the drift toward confrontation
will accelerate. The time for that will come soon _enough.
• Henry Kissinger was secretary of state from 1973 to 1977.
The article was first published in Washington Post.
Here Is Why Iran's Mullahs Are Excited About Biden's
Nuclear Deal
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/February 26, 2022
That the ruling mullahs are asking the Biden administration for guarantees that
the US will never be able to leave the new nuclear deal, even after President
Joe Biden leaves office, should signal that the mullahs want this deal badly and
set off all sorts of alarms.
It is worth noting that Iran's ballistic missile capability is one of the most
critical pillars of Tehran's national security policy -- the third-most
important program of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), along with
Iran's nuclear program and supporting the country's foreign proxies.
[A] nuclear deal will be a victory for Iran's foreign militias and terror
groups. The 2015 nuclear deal allowed the flow of billions of dollars into the
treasury of Iranian regime, thereby providing the revenues that the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) needed to escalate their military adventurism
in the region. That project included financing, arming and supporting their
militias and terror groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Gaza and Yemen. After the
nuclear agreement, Iran's meddling, interventions in the region, and funding
militia groups immediately escalated.
Iran also increased deliveries of weapons and munitions to its foreign militias,
and the number of ballistic missiles deployed by Iran's proxies rose to an
unprecedented level. When the JCPOA nuclear deal was scuttled in 2018, some of
Iran's authorities publicly announced that they did not have money to pay their
mercenaries abroad.
That the ruling mullahs of Iran seem to be so delighted with what the Biden team
is apparently offering, that Iran even wants assurances from the administration
that the US can never pull out of the deal, should blowtorch the US negotiators
out of the room.
Will the US and the international community reward yet another predatory,
expansionist regime with nuclear capability and billions of dollars and the
ability to have increased oil and missile production?
How much punishment to his legacy is Biden eager to take on?
Iran's ballistic missile capability is one of the most critical pillars of
Tehran's national security policy -- the third-most important program of its
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with the nuclear program and supporting
the country's foreign proxies. (Image source: iStock)
When Iran's regime is ecstatic about a deal, it should send a warning signal to
the US and its allies. That the ruling mullahs are asking the Biden
administration for guarantees that the US will never be able to leave the new
nuclear deal, even after President Joe Biden leaves office, should signal that
the mullahs want this deal badly and set off all sorts of alarms.
A nuclear deal with the Iranian regime is a win for the Islamic Republic. A deal
would have several advantages for Tehran's regime. First, a nuclear deal would
boost Iran's ballistic missile program as it did right after the 2015 deal, when
Tehran promptly accelerated its missile development and tests.
To keep the Islamic Republic in the nuclear deal, the world powers will most
likely be reluctant to hold the theocratic establishment accountable for its
ballistic missile violations. There is a precedent for such an argument. At the
time, the United Nations Security Council disregarded Iran's advances despite
the JCPOA's "restrictions on Iranian ballistic missile activities," which
states:
"Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231 (2015) calls upon Iran not to
undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of
delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile
technology.... these restrictions shall apply until the date eight years after
the JCPOA Adoption Day (18 October 2015) or until the date on which the IAEA
submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier."
It is worth noting that Iran's ballistic missile capability is one of the most
critical pillars of Tehran's national security policy -- the third-most
important program of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), along with
Iran's nuclear program and supporting the country's foreign proxies. Iran,
surpassing Israel, possesses the largest ballistic missile program in the Middle
East. Moreover no country other than Iran developed or acquired long-range
ballistic missiles before obtaining nuclear weapons.
Second, as critical sanctions are removed on the Islamic Republic's energy,
financial, and shipping sectors, a nuclear deal will lift the financial strain
on the Iranian regime. Tehran's most recent economic woes began after the
nuclear deal fell apart under the Trump administration. The regime is reportedly
facing one of the worst budget deficits in its four-decade rule. Iran is running
a deficit of almost a billion USD budget every month. This deficit, in return,
has increased inflation and devalued the Iranian currency (rial) even further.
The Chinese Communist Party, however, is strengthening its ties with the Iranian
regime and helping it violate US sanctions, conveniently without facing any
repercussions from the Biden administration. China is ramping up its oil imports
from Iran in spite of US sanctions, and it recently announced the launch of new
25-year strategic partnership with the Islamic Republic.
With a nuclear deal, however, Tehran will be able to take advantage of its
energy resources. Iran has the second-largest natural gas reserves and the
fourth-largest proven crude oil reserves in the world; the sale of these
resources account for more than 80% of its export revenues.
Third, a nuclear deal will be a victory for Iran's foreign militias and terror
groups. The 2015 nuclear deal allowed the flow of billions of dollars into the
treasury of Iranian regime, thereby providing the revenues that the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) needed to escalate their military adventurism
in the region. That project included financing, arming and supporting their
militias and terror groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Gaza and Yemen. After the
nuclear agreement, Iran's meddling, interventions in the region, and funding
militia groups immediately escalated.
Iran also increased deliveries of weapons and munitions to its foreign militias,
and the number of ballistic missiles deployed by Iran's proxies rose to an
unprecedented level. When the JCPOA nuclear deal was scuttled in 2018, some of
Iran's authorities publicly announced that they did not have money to pay their
mercenaries abroad. In an interview with the state-run Ofogh Television Network,
Parviz Fattah, the head of Iran's Foundation for the Underprivileged (Mostazafan
Foundation) stated:
"I was at the IRGC Cooperative Foundation. Haj Qassem [Soleimani, the IRGC Quds
Force commander killed by a US drone strike] came and told me he did not have
money to pay the salaries of the Fatemiyoun [Afghan mercenaries]. He said that
these are our Afghan brothers, and he asked for help from people like us."
Finally, with a nuclear deal, the regime would gain global legitimacy, making it
even more difficult to hold Iran's leaders accountable for any malign behavior
or terror activity across the world.
Will the US and the international community reward yet another predatory,
expansionist regime with nuclear capability and billions of dollars and the
ability to have increased oil and missile production?
That the ruling mullahs of Iran seem to be so delighted with what the Biden team
is apparently offering, that Iran even wants assurances from the administration
that the US can never pull out of the deal, should blowtorch the US negotiators
out of the room.
How much punishment to his legacy is Biden eager to take on?
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated
scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and
president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has
authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at
Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Putin and Rebuilding Russia through Annexation
Rajeh Khoury/Asharq Al Awsat/February, 26/2022
It is too early to say we are seeing the beginning of World War III, of an
international catastrophe whose consequences no one can foresee, or that the
current crisis will end in the way that Vladimir Putin successfully gobbled up
Crimea in August 2014 after the sanctions imposed by Barack Obama and NATO
countries on Russia.
That battle ended by late November of that year, when Moscow demanded the
lifting of sanctions, promising to end the ban it had imposed on food imports
from the West, while Crimea remained under the new Tsar’s control.
Of course, talk of the outcomes that could impose themselves on the Ukrainian
scene where Putin has taken his latest steps to achieve his goals and ambitions.
He has been working to rebuild the Russian Empire piece by piece, strengthening
Russia’s position by adding the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk, perhaps
Ukraine as a whole as well, to the list of so-called independent states that are
recognized only by Russia, like those in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Transnistria.
At the time of writing, it seems unlikely that the United States and NATO will
opt for military conflict, which would lead to an international catastrophe.
Since Thursday at dawn, the question on the peoples of the world’s minds has
been: “Is this World War III?” While the Western countries were preparing to
hold a meeting to discuss their response on Thursday afternoon, Moscow was
announcing that its forces were bombing Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
In any case, matters were clear before Putin’s lengthy speech last Monday, which
he gave after having massed over 150,000 troops on the border with Ukraine and
50,000 on the border between Belarus, which is under his control, and Ukraine.
Very shortly before the speech, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that
a summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin had
been arranged, which Moscow said it had been in no hurry for, revealing the
Kremlin’s intention to intervene to protect the separatist provinces in Eastern
Ukraine from Kyiv’s hegemony.
Putin critics swiftly reminded us that in March 1938, Germany had made a similar
argument when it laid claim to Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia under the pretext
of protecting the Sudeten Germans there. Just as British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier had, at the time, bowed
to Germany’s demand “to achieve peace,” the West may now do nothing but impose
harsh sanctions on Russia. We are in the nuclear age, and with a man like Putin,
it is not clear how any of these wars will end.
Before his long speech last Monday, Russian television broadcasters showed
practical evidence that Putin, as Western experts have unanimously agreed, is a
leader who has tasked himself with building Russia’s future on the foundations
of its imperial past. When this empire collapsed like a car being scrapped, he
was left with deep scars that he discusses regularly.
The broadcast that preceded his speech was a show of strength that raised
eyebrows around the world. He sat at a massive table, alone, in the middle of an
opulent hall and began posing questions to the senior Russian security
officials, who took turns standing behind a small podium. It looked like they
were being quizzed on the decision to invade Ukraine, with Putin asking Foreign
Intelligence Service Director Sergei Naryshkin: do you propose that we start a
negotiation process or recognize the sovereignty of the separatist republics of
Luhansk and Donetsk? After Naryshkin gave a stammered response, Putin scolded
him: Speak clearly! “I will support the proposal,” the former replied. Putin
then yelled furiously: I will support, or I do support... Yes or no?
Putin delivered his lengthy speech after this encounter. In it, the Russian
President refutes the historical legitimacy of Ukraine’s existence as an
independent state, claims its territory is Russian land and that the country was
created by Bolshevik and communist Russia, and accuses NATO of seeking to turn
the country into a springboard from which to attack Russia and undermine the two
republics in the Donbas.
After he then went on to issue a transparent threat directed at the United
States and NATO, telling them: “We are ready to show you what real
decommunization means for Ukraine,” it became obvious that he had decided to
enter Ukraine, whose people he believes are one with the Russians despite living
in two different countries, a conviction that mirrors how Hafez al-Assad saw
Syria and Lebanon.
Thus, it was not shocking to see Putin announce the invasion of Ukraine on
Thursday, saying he had decided on a special military operation without
discussing the scope of his invasion. “We seek to demilitarize and de-Nazify
Ukraine,” he promised during his announcement, planning to bring those who had
committed a plethora of crimes and are responsible for the bloodshed to court.
However, after what happened in Georgia and Crimea and years of his policy of
shipping away at his neighbor’s territory to re-establish the Russian Empire,
who believes Putin when he says: “Our plans are not to occupy Ukraine, we do not
plan to impose ourselves on anyone” as Kyiv is bombarded by Russian forces?
He did not hesitate to belittle the United States and the 27 Western countries
that makeup NATO either. “Whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats
for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be
immediate and lead to the consequences you have never seen in history.”He did and said all of this as Western continued to slap new sanctions, which
Washington had always said would be very painful and should remind Putin of what
Barack Obama said in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the sanctions
imposed on the Russian economy almost brought it to a halt. Especially worrying
is the fact that these sanctions may hit Russian MPs, Defense Minister Sergei
Shoigu, and even Putin, whose fortune is said to be more than $200 billion,
himself.
After the annexation of Crimea, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said:
“Putin has lost touch with reality... He is in another world.”
As for Philosophie Magazine Editor in Chief Michel Eltchaninoff, he wrote at the
time that a mix of rationality and total insularity shapes his relationship with
reality. Putin, he wrote, had to an extent lost touch with reality in the name
of his paranoid ideology.
“We have always said that he is a pragmatic leader. Will he sacrifice his
pragmatism in the name of his ideology? This is possible, and, in any case, he
seems ready to wage war.”
Will Russia Slide into the Ukrainian 'Swamp'?
James Jeffrey/Asharq Al Awsat/February, 26/2022
The Russian assault on Ukraine must be seen not only as a vicious aggression
against a sovereign state violating international law, but a challenge to the
entire Western-led global security order since World War II. As such this is the
biggest challenge to that order since the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago.
The issue is not so much how much of Ukraine Putin seizes. Taking the whole
country would give Russia a few percentage points more economic and demographic
strength and some geo-strategic advantages, but at more cost in occupation. A
smaller seizure would limit more his gains, but cost less.
Some close to the administration believe that if the Russians attempt to occupy
the entirety of Ukraine, they will be bogged down in an insurgency faced with
resistance from the Ukrainian people, especially if supported by weapons and
other support from NATO countries across the border. That is possible, but with
two major caveats Washington needs to consider. First, Russia effectively beat
down the Syrian opposition between 2015 and 2018 by a mix of extraordinarily
brutal air strikes targeting civilian populations, supporting insurgents along
with very flexible transactional diplomacy with both resistance groups and
foreign supporters to “divide and conquer”. Second, Russia could well retaliate
militarily against NATO states supporting Ukrainian opposition fighters, risking
a general European war between Russia and NATO
But the real risk is not a minor increase in Russian strength, but Russian
success challenging and partially undercutting that international security
order. Thus, in the first instance the reactions of Washington, then of its NATO
allies, and then of most of the rest of the world, are critical. If the world
remains united behind the position the UN Secretary General just bravely took,
and not just inflicts sanctions and diplomatic pain on Russia, but decouples
that state from the international system, similar to its treatment in the Cold
War, then relatively weak Russia will have few options to further challenge the
security order. But this is a big "if" and we will see better once we know how
the world reacts to a likely energy crunch.
Putin acted this way after his more cautious gambits in Georgia 2008 and Ukraine
2014 paid off with almost no pain. He thought the West was too weak and too
dependent on Russian hydrocarbons to respond. The entire international community
thus must either unite to wound him now or have to expend much more risk and
effort against him later, or else, like all of Western and Central Europe,
except Britain, by the summer of 1940, collapse or make common cause with the
aggressor.
In the Middle East, the enormity of the Russian attack, not just on Ukraine, but
on the long-term global security order, is increasingly clear, and puts pressure
on the "hedging" between the US, on the one hand, and Russia and China, on the
other, commonplace by regional states in recent years. Some hedging can still be
seen in reluctance to call out Moscow by some Middle Eastern capitals, but the
dangers to the region of an entire world in limbo are immense.
Thus if the US maintains its so-far smart policies to make Russia pay
economically and diplomatically for its aggression, regional states will
eventually rally behind Washington. Turkey is most impacted by this Russian move
and thus, its reaction is clear and strong. Iran has clearly sided with Russia
and that will have repercussions in the US and particularly Europe. The economic
impact will be a two-edged sword; likely higher energy prices will benefit
hydrocarbons exporters, but badly hurt importers. A possible global economic
downturn stemming from the aggression and the international reaction will hurt
all regional states significantly.
Has Biden’s Approval Rating Bottomed Out?
Jonathan Bernstein/Bloomberg/February, 26/2022
It’s too soon yet to know whether President Joe Biden will get any short-term,
“rally around the flag” boost in his approval rating from the Russian invasion
of Ukraine. But after a very tough six months, it looks like his low numbers
have stabilized for now, and perhaps even recovered a little. My speculation is
that it’s all about the end of the omicron wave of Covid-19.
Let’s go to the numbers. Biden is at 42.1% approval (according to the
always-helpful FiveThirtyEight estimate of the polling average). That’s awful;
it’s the second-worst of any president of the polling era through 401 days in
office, beating only Donald Trump’s even more dismal 39.1%. Still, that’s
something of a rebound for Biden. His lowest end-of-day number was 41.2%, first
achieved on Jan. 26, and he actually spent a couple of days recently tied with
Trump in dead last before improving a bit where Trump, over the same period in
2018, slumped.
We shouldn’t read too much into minor fluctuations. But it’s quite possible that
the pandemic is the driving force behind US public opinion right now. Here’s one
story that’s consistent with the numbers: Biden’s approval rating began falling
soon after cases began to rise in July 2021; they fell steadily until the delta
wave peaked; they plateaued as that wave dissipated; they fell again until
omicron peaked and then leveled off as it ebbed; and they began rising again in
the last week as case counts and hospitalization numbers finally reached fairly
low numbers.
It’s impossible to prove this story; there are simply too many potential causes
(Afghanistan! Inflation! Legislation! And now, Ukraine!) for only one fairly
small effect. But it would also help explain the disproportionately terrible
evaluations people have of the economy. Certainly, one reason people think the
economy is bad is the return of inflation. But with excellent numbers on jobs,
growth and more, the news on inflation alone simply isn’t enough to account for
evaluations this bad. It’s possible that the lousy numbers are capturing unusual
economic circumstances that standard statistical reports don’t account for. My
guess, however, is that the double-whammy of the delta and omicron waves just
has everyone unhappy, and that they’re perceiving everything — the economy, the
president and more — negatively as a result.
Even now, with case counts fewer than one-tenth as high as during omicron’s
peak, the daily average is still a bit above the lowest point in December, and
well above the summer lows. Hospitalization and deaths, which lag behind cases,
are still relatively high; the US just dropped below 2,000 deaths a day, about
four times the rate from July. If it’s true that the pandemic is driving public
opinion, it’s not surprising that any turnaround only started in the past
several weeks or so.
As for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: If there is any effect, positive or
negative, it’s highly unlikely to last long. What should worry Biden is any
spillover effects on the economy. Even if people wind up thinking he’s handling
the situation well, his overall approval will probably be driven far more by the
economy than by how he’s perceived to be dealing with foreign affairs. And even
if lousy ratings are driven by the pandemic and would improve as omicron fades,
that won’t protect Biden if the more traditional measures of the economy turn
negative.
Is Soviet revival worth a world war?
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/February, 26/2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin has the right to aspire to the revival of the
Soviet Union. He would have the right to aspire to that and even more, had the
Soviet Union had something worthy reviving and if it had a model suitable for
export to other countries of the world. Most importantly, does the restoration
of the Soviet Union deserve waging a new war in Europe, which could turn into a
world war? The Russian recognition of the two independent republics in Ukraine,
Luhansk and Donetsk and the launch of the invasion of Ukraine are only
confirmation of how serious Putin is in the pursuit of his previously failed
project. Anyone who has the slightest doubt about this can ask themselves, are
the countries that were under Soviet domination in a better condition today or
not? Most of the countries that were under Soviet hegemony, especially those in
Europe, are in a better condition today. East Germany no longer exists. Germany
is united while living in a new reality, far from what Putin wants. There is no
need to cite other examples of countries that are now liberated from the type of
regime imposed by the Soviet Union.
There is no doubt that Vladimir Putin is a shrewd man who knows how to take
advantage of opportunities, after examining in depth international developments,
including European disintegration. Suffice to examine the case of France and how
it suffers under Emmanuel Macron, who has not realised yet that his country no
longer has any possible claim to greatness. Macron, who is likely to be
re-elected as president of France in about two months, behaves as if his country
is still in its prime, unaware that it has lost all influence even in a place
like Lebanon.
It suffices also to look at what is afflicting Great Britain, where a prime
minister called Boris Johnson is only a shadow of such historic figures as
Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher. It is enough that Germany is in a
transitional phase in the absence of Angela Merkel. But Putin’s best insight is
related to the Biden administration and the person of Joe Biden himself. The US
president is willing to make all necessary concessions in order to avoid any
confrontation of any kind with anybody, including the “Islamic Republic” in
Iran.
The West, led by America, will not be able to stand up to Vladimir Putin in
Ukraine. The man is impulsive and believes that he can restore the position
which the Soviet Union had in the world, unaware that certain realities have
changed even if others have not. What has changed is the weakness of America and
the rise of China, which has become an economic power that is impossible to
ignore. What has not changed is that Russia was never able to achieve any
success beyond its borders. Moreover, Putin has not realised that missiles and
nuclear weapons are one thing, while developing the Russian economy and raising
the standard of living of citizens are another. There is no need to point out
once again that the size of the Russian economy is less than that of Italy,
despite all the natural resources that it enjoys, including oil and gas. Nothing
has changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Vladimir Putin’s
accession to the presidency. All the Kremlin has done in the past few years is
participate in the war that the minority regime in Syria is waging on its own
people. How can a country like Russia ignore the fact that the Syrian regime is
rejected by its people ? It does not care about what will happen to Syria as
long as it has a fixed base on the Mediterranean. Syria is fragmented. But where
is Russia’s interest in the fragmentation of such a country?
Vladimir Putin will win in Ukraine. He will win by points or through small wars
in the Ukrainian interior. This is due to the fact that the parties that stand
against him are weak, especially since they cannot confront him militarily. But
the question that will arise sooner or later is what the Russian president will
do with his victory, or rather, how will he invest in that military victory? Is
it sufficient to reach a settlement that prevents Ukraine from joining the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), for Europe to regain its calm and to
reassure the US administration that it has to accept a deal with Iran that
provides the latter with the money it needs to pursue its expansion project in
the region? Victory in Ukraine is likely whet Putin’s appetite in other
directions inside and outside Europe, but does he have anything to export to the
world other than oppression and the vanquishing of peoples such as Syria’s?
Ukraine — a stark reminder of Western unreliability
Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/February 26, 2022
On Feb. 17, we ran an interview in Arab News with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin
Kurti coinciding with his country’s 14th anniversary of independence.
Throughout the interview, I repeatedly asked whether he still thought the West —
namely the US, NATO and the EU — remained reliable, and whether these entities,
should push come to shove, would stand up for Kosovo or abandon it as they did
in Afghanistan and, as we are now seeing, in Ukraine. Prime Minister Kurti
defended the West and said that he thought America and NATO were there to stay.
Kurti, 47, belongs to the same generation as I do. It is a generation that saw
the US — under the leadership of George H.W. Bush — rush to help liberate Kuwait
in the 1990s with the help of regional allies. Later in the decade, the US —
under Bill Clinton — helped end the Balkan War and halt the Serbian massacres in
Kosovo and Bosnia.
However, in more recent years our generation also saw embarrassing acts by the
same superpower not standing up for its own values or acting upon its own
redlines. We saw that happen in both Syria and Ukraine. Former US President
Barack Obama threatened Syrian dictator Bashar Assad with an imaginary red line
if he used chemical weapons in 2012. There was also a similar threat if Russia
took over Crimea in 2014. On both occasions, the former president and Nobel
Peace Prize winner did absolutely nothing. Today, we are seeing President Joe
Biden follow the same path. Despite the tough talking, he is not really saying
much. You can grin and you can frown but as long as what you are essentially
saying is, “NATO is not sending troops to Ukraine,” then the outcome is the same
as not doing anything.
Ukraine — a democracy which did everything by the book and hoped to join NATO
one day — is paying the price for believing that the US and the West would
protect it if it chose a different orbit from that of its next door neighbor,
Russia.
All this comes as no surprise to us observers in Saudi Arabia or the wider Arab
world. Luckily, we in Saudi Arabia have been investing in our own defense for
decades. We have managed to blunt the majority of the Houthi terrorist attacks
on our cities and civilian airports.
However, what leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of innocent men, women and
children on the receiving end of the Iranian-backed Houthis is that the Biden
administration reversed a Donald Trump-era designation of them as terrorists.
The US will not admit it got it wrong, even when the Houthis continue to brag
about crimes against civilians in the Kingdom and, most recently, in the UAE. To
add insult to injury, America withdrew Patriot missile batteries — which as we
all know is a defensive technology — as the Kingdom’s forces remained on high
alert to defend its people from these indiscriminate terrorist attacks.
Nobody can blame Ukraine for thinking that with friends like these, who needs
enemies? One might argue that the US did nothing to protect Ukraine. Indeed, it
sent military aid and announced sanctions. Well, it also condemned Houthi
attacks against Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but going through the motions is not
the same as doing what is necessary for justice to prevail. As it stands, the
West itself is even torn on whether or not to go all the way when it comes to
sanctions. Economic gains and mutual benefits stand in the way.
Needless to say, prices of oil and gas are already extremely high, and are
likely to go higher, hurting the pockets of ordinary citizens in Europe and
America even more. Of course, the current energy market situation might have
been averted or the blow could have been softened had the Biden administration
worked closely and not behaved like a pariah state toward long-standing allies
and friends.
To go back to the Houthi example, not only would it have cost Washington nothing
to admit its mistake and redesignate the Houthis as terrorists, but the
admission would be in line with America’s own definition and policies against
terrorists. (And in case anyone needs reminding, one of the Houthis’ official
slogans and policies is, “Death to America”.) But of course, perhaps some in the
current administration might prioritize bickering and reversing decisions of
former US President Donald Trump to taking stances that are in line with
longstanding American policies and values. Meanwhile, one cannot help but think
that observers in Moscow must be laughing at recently announced punitive
measures such as barring Russia from competing in the Eurovision Song Contest
2022 or denying St. Petersburg the chance to host a UEFA Champions League final.
Even the more serious measures announced so far such as sanctioning individuals
are all likely to be considered acceptable collateral damage when we take into
consideration what the Russian government thinks it is fighting for.
Let us not forget that while many countries in the world believe Ukraine has
been invaded and disagree with Moscow’s views on the conflict, several observers
believe that — deep inside — Russia has always seen Ukraine as part of its
historical motherland. There is also the official Russian narrative, which is
that the "peace keeping troops" it sent to Ukraine are defending two newly
declared independent republics — Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and Donetsk
People's Republic (DPR) — which officially requested Moscow’s help.
Understandably, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky has expressed his
frustration with his Western allies by saying he has not received the answers he
wanted. He feels — and rightly so — that Ukraine has been left alone to fend for
itself. Indeed, nobody can blame Kiev for thinking that with friends like these,
who needs enemies?
Back to our interview with Kosovo’s PM which I referred to at the beginning,
perhaps the only thing I can now agree with Kurti on is the other part of his
answer to me. Which is that while his country continues to rely on the US and
NATO, it also is working on building its own army in the meantime. That is
obviously a very wise decision for any country depending on the US and Western
powers in general these days.
Faisal J. Abbas is the editor in chief of Arab News. Twitter: @FaisalJAbbas
What Iran loses by rejecting real peace
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/February 26, 2022
What would be at stake if Tehran committed itself to a real peace deal?
No, I am not talking about the mutilated travesty currently on the table between
Iran and world powers, which would merely slow Iran’s nuclear advancements,
while leaving all its other war-making mechanisms in place. I am talking about a
real, far-reaching deal that would put Tehran’s theocratic leaders on a path
toward peace with the region, the wider world — and perhaps even their own
citizens.
Iran’s ayatollahs currently waste billions of dollars bankrolling foreign
militias, along with billions more developing ballistic missiles and nuclear
weapons. A member of the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy commission
estimated that Tehran had lavished $20-30 billion on the Syrian conflict by
2020. Although the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ budgetary allocation was
recently doubled, it is impossible to know how many billions are diverted for
external subversion and warmongering, because about 65 percent of the budget is
channeled through opaque institutions.
Needless to say, such vast expenditure is unaffordable. An increasingly large
proportion of Iran’s population is sliding into abject poverty. Diminishing
living standards and a crumbling health sector allowed the coronavirus pandemic
to rage through the country like a forest fire. Yet, Iran is one of the three
states with the largest oil wealth, and its people should be living at a
standard commensurate with the wealthiest Gulf states.
If the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on overseas war-making, or frozen
abroad, or lost to sanctions was diverted internally and poured like gushing
water from a dam into welfare programs, education, health and national
infrastructure, would the ayatollahs need to live in fear of their citizens
rising against them? Iranian demonstrators consistently chant that the nation’s
wealth must not go to Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Iran and many Arab nations enjoyed excellent relations under the shah. During
the 1990s and early 2000s, Iran, with its independent foreign policy and
anti-Israel rhetoric, was viewed with a degree of admiration in the Arab and
Muslim world. President Mohammad Khatami, an ever-smiling, softly spoken
academic, was nobody’s idea of a threatening dictator. Before the 2003 eruption
of the nuclear issue, some form of normalization with the US seemed achievable.
Of course, much of this was a mirage, and since that time Iran’s leadership has
moved in a decisively belligerent direction, putting the regime on a collision
course with the civilized world.
The regime’s offers to release hostages if given favorable terms on the nuclear
deal illustrate the toxicity of Tehran’s mentality. A deal based on such
premises would say to this criminal regime that “hostage taking works” and
serves as an invitation to go out and abduct as many Westerners as possible
ahead of any future round of brinkmanship.
The most favorable version of this current nuclear deal for Iran would not
eradicate the substantial US sanctions related to the regime’s support for
terrorism — a key step if major banks and corporations are to properly engage
with Iran’s economy. But here is a radical suggestion: What if the ayatollahs
actually stopped supporting terrorism?
What if Tehran renounced terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, which has
completely wrecked Lebanon in all possible ways? Instead of strengthening Iran’s
influence, this has actually caused most Lebanese to hate Iran. Likewise, in
Yemen, Syria and Iraq, malnourished and victimized citizens have suffered
terribly through Iranian interference.
In last week’s article, I discussed the billions of dollars of Iranian
investments buying up Syrian land and properties in the cause of demographic
engineering. Such money is pure wastage: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is
deluded if he believes he can usurp the fundamentally Arab Sunni character of
these central Syrian areas in even a hundred years. In the meantime, Tehran has
dragged these once-proud Arab nations to the brink of failed statehood. For how
much longer can the region tolerate this?
Iran’s ayatollahs waste billions of dollars bankrolling foreign militias, along
with billions more developing ballistic missiles.
Just like Al-Qaeda and Daesh, Iran’s theocratic regime pretends to be acting on
behalf of Muslims, yet in reality these three entities — through sectarian
conflict, proxy wars and terrorism — have been responsible for the wholesale
slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims. Nobody in the Islamic
world would have a problem if Tehran really wanted to act on behalf of Muslim
interests and Muslim unity.
Although the prospect of the ayatollahs embracing peace is a total fantasy, it
bears consideration because it shows how much Iran has turned its back on by
rejecting this path. Too many shadowy figures in the IRGC and elites make
immense fortunes from weapons proliferation, narco-trafficking, corrupt
off-the-books paramilitary budgets and sanctions-busting smuggling operations.
However, there would be vastly more money to go around if these sanctions did
not exist at all.
Reuters calculated that Setad, the economic conglomerate personally controlled
by Khamenei, is worth around $95 billion. Only last week Khamenei defended IRGC
leaders implicated by a leaked recording in a $3 billion embezzlement scandal.
Leaked documents show that in just one 2016 hostage deal involving Qatar, the
late Qassem Soleimani had been earmarked $50 million.
The same Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi militias that brokered this deal have systematically
moved into economic activities, extortion and organized crime. Iraqi Finance
Minister Ali Al-Alawi estimated that around 90 percent of customs revenue due to
the treasury — billions of dollars — was being creamed off by these militias and
their Quds Force handlers via illegal checkpoints and other scams. For Hezbollah
and the Assads there are billions to be made from the global narcotics trade.
In recent weeks, UAE efforts to put out feelers toward dialogue with Iran were
met with strikes by Iranian rockets and drones against Abu Dhabi’s strategic
infrastructure. Iranian foreign policy officials talk in vague terms about
desiring regional cooperation and understanding, but Iran-made missiles keep
falling inside Saudi Arabia. However, recent GCC amelioration of relationships
with Qatar, Turkey and even Israel proves the foreign policy dictum that in
diplomacy there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.
There is no fundamental long-term obstacle to Arab states extending the hand of
friendship to Iran, yet this will never happen while knowing that this hand is
likely to be bitten. The steps that the regime would have to take to quit being
a rogue state and rejoin the civilized community of nations are all too obvious.
However, this criminal, terrorist regime is so deeply invested in its rogue
state status — and, indeed, so proud of being a rogue state — that it appears
unable to conceive of any alternative global role that would allow it to stop
being a menace to its citizens and other nations.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.