English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For March 19/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.march19.22.htm
News
Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Bible Quotations For today
I pray therefore that you may not lose
heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory
Letter to the Ephesians 03/01-13/:”This is the reason that I
Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles for surely you
have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for
you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in
a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of
the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to
humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same
body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this
gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was
given to me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the
saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the
boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the
mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the
church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the
rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the
eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we
have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. I pray
therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your
glory.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese
Related News & Editorials published on March 18-19/2022
St. Joseph's Day/Elias Bejjani
Michel Mecattaf Passed away As a Result Of sudden and Massive Hear Attack
Wronecka Briefs Security Council on Implementation of Resolution 1701
IMF to Send Team to Lebanon This Month
Kyiv Says Russia Picked 1,000 Volunteers from 'Army of Assad and Hizbullah'
Hezbollah denies sending fighters to Ukraine in support of
Russian invasion
Aoun, Berri, Miqati Ask U.S. to Continue Sea Border Demarcation Efforts
Lebanese banks plan strike in response to judicial orders
Banks to Stage 2-Day Strike, Cabinet to Hold Emergency Meeting
Lebanon central bank governor’s brother denies claims
Lebanon PM Says Some Judges Stoking Tension Within Country
Lebanon Ranked Second-Least Happy Country in the World
Miqati Slams 'Populist' Measures against Banks, Asks Oueidat to Intervene
NAHNOO, UNIC Launch Campaign for Regulating Lebanese Crafts Sector
Myanmar Approves Sale of Telenor Subsidiary to Miqati's M1
Lebanon’s upcoming elections: Hezbollah opponents vow to
end its ‘domination’
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on March 18-19/2022
UAE leaders receive Syrian President Assad
Israel Urges U.S. Not to Drop Iran Guards from Terror List
Fears grow over possible removal of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard from US terror
list
McKenzie: Iran Remains the Greatest Threat to Region's Security
General voices concern for US troops as Iran-Israel
attacks increase
US Vet Jailed in Iran Sues for $1 Billion, Alleges Torture
Report: At Least 280 People Executed in Iran in 2021
Battleground Ukraine: Day 23 of Russia's Invasion
Xi Speaks Out against 'Conflict' in Call with Biden on Russia
Russian Strikes Hit Outskirts of Ukrainian Capital and Lviv
Putin shared with Turkey's president his demands for Ukraine
Russia arrests military chief with invasion of Ukraine stalling
Putin echoes Stalin in 'very, very scary' speech
The Covert War Between Israel and Iran Rises to the Surface
Kremlin tells Biden: U.S. has no right to lecture Russia on war crimes
GCC to Invite All Yemeni Sides for Extensive Talks In Riyadh
Sudan Group Says 187 Wounded in Latest Anti-coup Protests
From Syria to Ukraine Border: Refugee Aids War Victims
Four Rockets Target Iraq’s Balad Airbase
European Union Insists on Its Three ‘Noes’ in Syria
Titles For The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on March 18-19/2022
Question: "If Jesus is our atonement,
why did He die at Passover instead of the Day of Atonement?"/GotQuestions.org/March
18/2022
Biden's EIKO Sanctions Concession Is a Gift to the Ayatollahs/Emanuele
Ottolenghi/The National Interest/March 18/2022
Putin Likely to Make Nuclear Threats If War Drags, U.S. Says/Anthony Capaccio/Bloomberg/March
18/2022
The US Must Reestablish Deterrence/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/March 18,
2022
‘Report: 2,300 Christian Churches Desecrated; Violence Coincides with Arrival of
Thousands of Muslim Migrants’/Raymond Ibrahim/March 18, 2022
Putin’s War: The Next Phase/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 18/2022
China at the Center of Tensions and Polarization/Nabil Amr/Asharq Al-Awsat/March
18/2022
After Ukraine, the Arab world faces new realities/Khemaies Jhinaoui/The Arab
Weekly/March 18/2022
Biden needs to wake up to the menace of Iran/Luke Coffey/Arab News/March 18,
2022
Biden’s political comeback much less than meets the eye/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab
News/March 18, 2022
on March 18-19/2022
St. Joseph's Dayعيد ما يوسف البتول
Elias Bejjani
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/63277/%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b5%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%a8%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%aa%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d9%88%d9%88%d8%ac/
The feast day of St. Joseph is celebrated annually on March 19/Our Bejjani
family has proudly carried this name generation after generation for centuries
and still we do. May God and His angles safeguard our caring and loving son
Youssef, and our grandson Joseph, who both carry this blessed name.
It is worth mentioning that St. Joseph's Day is a Maronite - Roman Catholic
feast day that commemorates the life of St. Joseph, the step-father of Jesus and
husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
People with very strong religious convictions among which are the Lebanese
Maronites celebrate St. Joseph's Day on March 19 and believe that this day is
St. Joseph's birthday too.Back home, in Lebanon St. Joseph is considered the
Family Saint and looked upon as a family and hardworking father role model
because of the great role that Almighty God had assigned him to carry. His duty
was to raise Jesus Christ and take care of Virgin Mary. God has chose him to
look after His begotten son and Virgin Marry. He fulfilled his Godly assignment
with love, passion and devotion.
May Al Mighty God bless all those that carry this name.
Michel Mecattaf Passed away As a Result Of sudden and
Massive Hear Attack
LCCC/March 18/2022
The well know patriot, sovereign, and General Manager of Mecattaf Holding Group
Michel Mecattaf ,has passed away today as a result of a heart attack at the age
53, .Our genuine prayers goes for the rest of his soul in the heavenily mansions
alongside the righteous where there is no pain or sadness, but endless happiness
and peace. We offer his beloved family, friends and supporters our condolences
and heartily feeling of passion. May his soul rest in peace
Wronecka Briefs Security Council on Implementation of
Resolution 1701
Naharnet/Friday, 18 March, 2022
The U.N. Security Council has held closed consultations on the report of U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the implementation of Security Council
Resolution 1701 (2006) and the situation in Lebanon. The Council was briefed by
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka and Under-Secretary-General
for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix. The Special Coordinator welcomed the
continued strong support of the Security Council for Lebanon as it "wrestles
with crisis and towards a path of reforms, and on the need to preserve the
stability between Lebanon and Israel," a statement issued by her office said.
The Special Coordinator briefed on the ongoing preparations for parliamentary
elections in Lebanon that are due on 15 May, while stressing the need for
"reliability and predictability, particularly with regards to finalizing the
elections budget, the legislative framework and the functionality of the
Supervisory Commission for Elections.""The Lebanese voters need and deserve
certainty and the ability to make their voices heard," the Special Coordinator
said, hoping that women in particular would participate actively in the
elections both as voters and candidates. Noting with concern the continued
socio-economic decline, the suffering of the Lebanese people, and the steady
erosion of the public sector, the Special Coordinator reiterated the urgency of
implementing tangible reforms. She emphasized the importance of "an equitable
and credible economic and financial vision, sound fiscal management, tangible
electricity sector reforms, an IMF agreement, an independent judiciary, as well
as good governance and anti-corruption measures."Urging full adherence to
Security Council Resolution 1701 in all its provisions, the Special Coordinator
underlined "the fragility of the relative calm between Lebanon and Israel."
The Special Coordinator also encouraged the Council's Member States to continue
extending their support to the Lebanese Armed Forces and all state security
institutions, noting in particular the impact of the crisis and their role in
providing security and stability during the upcoming electoral period. Moreover,
Wronecka reiterated the U.N.'s calls for an impartial, thorough, and transparent
investigation into the 4 August 2020 Beirut port explosion to "achieve truth and
justice for the victims."The Special Coordinator reaffirmed that the United
Nations stands by Lebanon and its people.
IMF to Send Team to Lebanon This Month
Agence France Presse/Friday, 18 March, 2022
The IMF will send staff to Lebanon and Tunisia this month to further discussions
on new financial aid programs for the countries, a fund spokesman said Thursday.
The tw governments have been seeking support for their troubled economies for
months but have yet to reach agreements with the Washington-based crisis lender.
Talks with Lebanon on aid to address the severe financial challenges are
"progressing well," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters. But "extensive work
is needed, he said. "Lebanon's challenges are deep and complex they will require
time and commitment."In 2020, Lebanon defaulted on its sovereign debt for the
first time in its history. The IMF launched negotiations last month on a program
to help pull the Middle Eastern country out of its economic crisis, which has
seen the currency collapse, inflation hit triple-digit levels and poverty climb.
Kyiv Says Russia Picked 1,000 Volunteers from 'Army of
Assad and Hizbullah'
Naharnet/Friday, 18 March, 2022
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has alleged that the Russian
army has chosen around 1,000 volunteers from what it called “the so-called army
of Bashar al-Assad and Hizbullah.”“The Command of the Armed Forces of the
Russian Federation continues to take measures to make up for the loss of
personnel at the expense of foreigners. According to available information, the
Russian occupiers have already picked up close to 1,000 volunteers from the
so-called army of Bashar al-Assad and Hizbullah,” the General Staff said in an
English-language Facebook post. “The main requirement for foreign fighters is
the experience of fighting in the city. At the same time, according to available
information, the above-mentioned militants do not intend to take part in
hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, but to use ‘business trips’ as
opportunities to get to European countries,” the General Staff added. On
Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russia had drawn up lists
of 40,000 fighters from Syrian army and allied militias to be put on standby for
deployment in Ukraine. The Kremlin said earlier that volunteers, including from
Syria, were welcome to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.
The Observatory and activists said Russian officers, in coordination with the
Syrian military and allied militia, had set up registration offices in
regime-held areas.
"More than 40,000 Syrians have registered to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine
so far," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the UK-based monitor. Russian
officers deployed as part of the force Moscow sent to Syria in 2015 to support
Damascus had approved 22,000 of them, Abdel Rahman said. Those fighters are
either combatants drawn from the army or pro-regime militias who have experience
in street warfare and received Russian training. In a country where soldiers
earn between $15 and $35 per month, Russia has promised them a salary of $1,100
to fight in Ukraine, the Observatory reported. They are also entitled to $7,700
in compensation for injuries and their families to $16,500 if they are killed in
combat. Another 18,000 men had registered with Syria's ruling Baath party and
would be screened by the Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor
with links to the Kremlin, the monitor said.
Misinformation about Syrian recruits in Ukraine has been spreading online.
Earlier this month, pictures were shared of a Syrian soldier they said had died
in Ukraine, but it later appeared he had been killed in his homeland in 2015.
The Observatory said it had no confirmed reports yet of any Syrian recruits
leaving for Ukraine. Abdel Rahman said Russia had drawn Syrian army recruits
from the 25th Special Mission Forces Division, once better known as the "Tiger
Forces", and from the Russian-run 5th Division. Fighters from the Palestinian
Liwaa al-Quds group and the Baath party's military branch had also enlisted. A
Syrian government representative denied the recruitment drive. "Until now no
names have been written down, no soldiers registered in any centers nor has
anyone traveled to Russia to fight in Ukraine," Omar Rahmoun of the National
Reconciliation Committee told AFP. Syrian mercenaries have already fought on
opposing sides of foreign conflicts, in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh. A Syrian
soldier told the activist group this month that he enlisted to fight in Ukraine
because he could not find a job after his military service. "The situation is
extremely dire. There is no electricity, heating, or household gas," he said,
adding he had registered at an air force intelligence office near Damascus.
Regime-allied forces opened recruitment centres in the eastern towns of Al-Mayadeen
and Deir Ezzor, according to Omar Abu Layla, who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media
outlet. "Wagner started the whole thing in Deir Ezzor; only dozens have
registered so far," he said.
Hezbollah denies sending fighters to Ukraine in support
of Russian invasion
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/18 March ,2022
Lebanon’s Hezbollah denied on Friday that any of its fighters were supporting
the Russian military inside of Ukraine after Kyiv accused the Iran-backed group
and Syria of sending mercenaries to support Moscow’s invasion. “No one from
Hezbollah, no fighter or military expert, went to this arena or any of the
arenas of these wars,” the group’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, said in
televised remarks.General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine released a
statement on Friday saying that around 1,000 Syrian mercenaries and Hezbollah
fighters were recruited to fight in Ukraine. In recent days, Russian President
Vladimir Putin announced an initiative to allow “volunteers” from the Middle
East to join Russian forces invading Ukraine. Hezbollah has fighters and experts
fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria and others in Yemen to support the
Houthis. Hezbollah also has strong ties and is believed to have experts and
advisors helping the Iranian proxies and militias inside Iraq.
Aoun, Berri, Miqati Ask U.S. to Continue Sea Border
Demarcation Efforts
Naharnet/Friday, 18 March, 2022
oun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Miqati held a meeting Friday
at the Baabda Palace to discuss the latest U.S. proposal regarding the
demarcation of the maritime border with Israel. The proposal had been submitted
to Lebanon during a recent visit to the country by U.S. energy envoy Amos
Hochstein. “The meeting tackled the results reached by the technical committee
that studied Hochstein’s proposal, which comprised representatives of the
Presidency, the Premiership, the Army Command (Hydrography Dept.) and the
Lebanese Petrol Administration,” the Presidency said in a statement. “The
conferees discussed the observations and inquiries regarding the proposal with
the aim of reaching a unified stance that guarantees Lebanon’s rights and full
sovereignty over its maritime borders,” the Presidency added. It said the
conferees accordingly decided to call on the Unites States to “continue its
efforts for the resumption of the sea border demarcation talks, according to the
framework agreement and in a manner that would preserve Lebanon’s highest
interest and stability in the region.”The conferees also emphasized that the
file is “national par excellence” and should be “kept away from polarization and
futile bickering.”
Lebanese banks plan strike in response to judicial
orders
Reuters, Beirut/18 March ,2022
Lebanese banks plan a two-day strike next week in protest at judicial actions
that targeted seven major lenders, a standoff that risks more instability for a
country mired in crisis since 2019. The banking association said the strike was
a warning against what it called “the arbitrariness of some judicial decisions”
- a reference to orders that have frozen the assets of seven banks since March
14 and banned six of their executives from travel. Prime Minister Najib Mikati
said actions taken by some judges were heightening tensions and he had asked the
public prosecutor to “take appropriate measures.”
Lebanon’s banks have been paralyzed since the financial system collapsed in 2019
under the weight of huge public debts caused by decades of state corruption and
waste, locking depositors out of their savings. It is Lebanon’s most
destabilizing crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
“We are facing a very, very dangerous phase in the Lebanese crisis,” said Nabil
Boumonsef, deputy editor at Annahar newspaper, adding that a protracted bank
closure risked social unrest as salaries could not be withdrawn. Judge Ghada
Aoun has frozen the assets of six of the banks as she probes transactions
between them and the central bank.
The seventh, Fransabank, had its assets frozen by another judge who ruled in
favor of a man who had brought a case demanding the bank reopen his account and
pay out his deposit in cash. Fransabank said on Thursday the order meant it
could not dispense cash, including the salaries of public sector employees, as
its vaults had been sealed.Lebanon’s failure to pass a capital control law since
the crisis began has left it to banks to impose informal controls that have
treated depositors unequally. Banks say they have been calling for such a law.
In a separate move on Thursday, Ghada Aoun also ordered the arrest of Raja
Salameh, the brother of central bank governor Riad Salameh, on a charge of
“complicity in illicit enrichment” in a case a judicial source said also
involved the governor. A lawyer for Raja Salameh declined to comment on the case
on Friday, while the office of Riad Salameh’s lawyer said he was not available
for comment.
‘Protecting the perpetrators’
In his statement, Mikati, a supporter of Riad Salameh, did not specify which
judicial actions he was criticizing. But he said “the course of action taken by
some judges was “pushing toward ominous tensions, and there are attempts to use
this tension in election campaigns,” referring to a May 15 parliamentary
election. “This is a dangerous matter.” Critics of Judge Aoun accuse her of
working according to the political agenda of President Michel Aoun, who
appointed her as public prosecutor for Mount Lebanon. She denies this, saying
that she is implementing the law.
In a tweet, Judge Aoun said it was regrettable to hear “unacceptable attacks on
the judiciary when some are not pleased by this or that prosecution,” adding:
“God forbid that the goal is to protect the perpetrators.”Aoun and his political
movement, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), are at odds with Mikati and several
other major Lebanese parties over Salameh, whose three-decade tenure as governor
has faced increased scrutiny since the economy collapsed. The FPM has called for
Salameh’s removal, while Mikati has shown support for the central bank chief
even as he has faced embezzlement probes at home and abroad. Salameh faces
investigations in Lebanon and at least five European countries including
Switzerland over allegations of money laundering and embezzlement of hundreds of
millions of dollars at the central bank - investigations in which his younger
brother Raja is also implicated. Salameh has denied any wrongdoing. He has
described the accusations against him as politically motivated.
Banks to Stage 2-Day Strike, Cabinet to Hold Emergency
Meeting
Naharnet/Friday, 18 March, 2022
The Association of Banks in Lebanon confirmed Friday evening that all Lebanese
banks will stage a two-day strike on Monday and Tuesday in protest at the latest
judicial measures against the country's biggest banks. "This is a first step
aimed at cautioning and raising awareness about the dangerousness of the current
situations," ABL said in a statement, demanding "the rectification of the
current irregularity, the issuance of the capital control law as soon as
possible, and the approval and implementation of a recovery plan." The
Association "reserves its right to take other stops that might be necessary to
preserve the national economy and the higher Lebanese interest," it warned,
cautioning that "Lebanese banks can no longer tolerate the arbitrary decisions
that are targeting them." "Are those concerned aware of the disastrous
repercussions that the taken arbitrary measures have towards foreign supervisory
bodies and correspondent banks?" ABL asked, warning that the moves might lead to
"a full collapse, not only of banks and deposits, but also of the national
economy and the ability to fund importation, especially that related to
medicines, foodstuffs, fuel and other vital goods."The Association also charged
that "some judicial and administrative decisions lack the least requirements of
legal justification and public interest and might be based on populism and an
inclination to postpone proper solutions.""This is cautionary strike against
injustice, so that those concerned stop evading their responsibilities and
pinning them on banks," ABL warned. The development comes after judicial orders
were issued for the freezing of the assets of seven banks in three separate
lawsuits since March 14. Prime Minister Najib Miqati meanwhile announced,
following talks in Baabda with President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri,
that Cabinet will hold an emergency session at 10am Saturday to discuss the
issue of the standoff between the judiciary and the banks. Mount Lebanon
Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun on Thursday froze the assets of local lender
Creditbank, her latest such move against local banks. On Monday, she froze the
assets of five of Lebanon's largest banks and those of their board of directors
as she investigates possible transfers of billions of dollars aboard. In
January, Aoun also imposed a travel ban on Lebanon's central bank governor after
a corruption lawsuit accused him of embezzlement and dereliction of duty during
the crisis. Lebanese banks have imposed informal capital controls since the
economic crisis began. Since then, people do not have full access to their
savings and those who withdraw cash from U.S. dollar accounts get an exchange
rate far lower than that on the black market.
Lebanon central bank governor’s brother denies claims
Arab News/March 18, 2022
Lawyer for Lebanon’s Raja Salameh, brother of Central Bank governor, says
evidence in case against him is “media speculation without any
evidence“-statement. Allegations of illicit enrichment and money laundering
against Raja Salameh are absolutely unfounded, lawyer says in statement.
Lebanon PM Says Some Judges Stoking Tension Within Country
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that the course of action
taken by some judges was heightening tensions in the country and "this is a
dangerous matter". Mikati said he and Justice Minister Henry Khoury had agreed
to ask the country's public prosecutor to take "appropriate measures on this
(issue)", according to a statement from Mikati's office, without specifying
exactly which issue, Reuters reported. The statement made reference to judicial
investigations into the banking sector, including attempts to restore
depositors' rights
Lebanon Ranked Second-Least Happy Country in the World
Agence France Presse/March 18/2022
Finland has been named the world's happiest country for the fifth year running,
in an annual U.N.-sponsored index that ranked Afghanistan as the unhappiest,
closely followed by Lebanon. The latest list was completed before the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia recorded the biggest boosts in
wellbeing. The largest falls in the World Happiness table, released on Friday,
came in Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan.Lebanon, which is facing economic
meltdown, fell to second from last on the index of 146 countries, just below
Zimbabwe.War-scared Afghanistan, already bottom of the table last year, saw its
humanitarian crisis deepen since the Taliban returned to power last August
following the pull-out of U.S.-led troops. "This (index) presents a stark
reminder of the material and immaterial damage that war does to its many
victims," co-author Jan-Emmanuel De Neve said. The World Happiness Report, now
in its 10th year, is based on people's own assessment of their happiness, as
well as economic and social data. It assigns a happiness score on a scale of
zero to 10, based on an average of data over a three-year period. Northern
Europeans once again dominated the top spots -- with the Danes second to the
Finns, followed by the Icelandic, the Swiss and the Dutch.The United States rose
three places to 16th, one ahead of Britain. France climbed to 20th, its highest
ranking yet.
'Take heed'
As well as a personal sense of wellbeing, based on Gallup polls in each country,
the happiness score takes account of GDP, social support, personal freedom and
levels of corruption.This year the authors also used data from social media to
compare people's emotions before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. They found
"strong increases in anxiety and sadness" in 18 countries but a fall in feelings
of anger. "The lesson of the World Happiness Report over the years is that
social support, generosity to one another and honesty in government are crucial
for wellbeing," report co-author Jeffrey Sachs wrote.
"World leaders should take heed."On Helsinki's market square on Friday, next to
the still frozen Baltic Sea, Jukka Viitasaari said he was not surprised that
Finns describe themselves as happy. "Many things are undeniably good here --
beautiful nature, we're well governed, lots of things are in order," the
business owner told AFP. The country of vast forests and lakes is also known for
its well-functioning public services, ubiquitous saunas, widespread trust in
authority and low levels of crime and inequality. Nonetheless, the report raised
some eyebrows when it first placed Finland at the top of its listings in 2018.
Many of the Nordic country's 5.5 million people describe themselves as taciturn
and prone to melancholy, and admit to eyeing public displays of joyfulness with
suspicion. "Someone from outside needed to tell us that we had it good compared
to lots of other places," Viitasaari said. "But after five years of coming top
(of the rankings) we're getting used to it!"
Miqati Slams 'Populist' Measures against Banks, Asks
Oueidat to Intervene
Naharnet/March 18/2022
Prime Minister Najib Miqati held a meeting Friday at the Grand Serail with
Justice Minister Henri Khoury, amid unprecedented measures by some judges
against a number of commercial banks. “Keenness on the judiciary’s independence
and non-interference in judicial affairs must be equal to the keenness on the
stability of the situations in the country on all levels, especially financial
stability,” Miqati said during the meeting. “The judiciary has the right to
investigate any financial or banking file, especially that the recovery of bank
depositors’ rights is the priority and main principle in all the negotiations
that we’re conducting with the IMF and all relevant authorities, but the use of
populist and police-state methods in the course of investigations harms the
judiciary first as well as the entire banking sector,” the premier added.
Warning that some judges are “stirring tensions that might have dire
consequences,” Miqati charged that “there are attempts to exploit these tensions
in the electoral campaigns.” He accordingly called on judicial authorities to
“rectify” the course, as he described the banking sector as “one of the economic
pillars in Lebanon that will play a key role in the recovery process.”Miqati
also agreed with Khoury to ask State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat to “take the
appropriate measures in this file.”
NAHNOO, UNIC Launch Campaign for Regulating Lebanese Crafts
Sector
Naharnet/March 18/2022
NAHNOO, a Lebanese non-governmental organization, launched Friday in
collaboration with the U.N. Information Center in Beirut (UNIC Beirut), a
campaign titled “Our Crafts, Our Identity,” to advocate for the ratification of
a law that organizes and develops the crafts sector in Lebanon in line with the
market needs.The campaign will be promoted on social media and local TV
stations. It aims at advocating for a legal framework for the Lebanese crafts
sector to ensure much-needed economic, social, and cultural protection for
craftsmen and craftswomen. It also falls within the framework of the 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that Lebanon is working on achieving,
particularly SDGs 8 and 9 on promoting decent work, sustainable
industrialization and innovation. "This sector is a key pillar of Lebanon's
identity in view of its connection to the country’s intangible cultural heritage
inherited from past generations. However, it is currently confronting
multifaceted challenges, including imports competition and increase in raw
material prices, in addition to the fact that crafts are not provided with 'Made
in Lebanon' original certificates, and are not documented as cultural assets,
leading to the loss of many," UNIC said in a statement."This is in addition to
the reliance of craftspeople on the tourism sector that was affected by the
multiple crises hitting the country," it added.
Comprising of civil society organizations, crafts syndicates/cooperatives and
crafts practitioners, the campaign’s team drafted a law proposal that defines
and sets criteria for craftsmanship, and prescribes social, cultural, and
economic protection for individuals engaged in this sector.
The draft law was recently presented to the Lebanese Parliament with the aim to
develop a common vision and a unified framework to safeguard and develop this
sector. Through its campaign, the NGO calls for the codification of 20 crafts
practiced by Lebanese men and women. These crafts do not only contribute to
reviving the economy, but also help in reducing unemployment by providing job
opportunities for both individuals and households living in remote areas.
According to a study by NAHNOO, at least 1,500 Lebanese households rely nowadays
on revenues generated by the crafts sector.
In this context, Mohammed Ayyoub, the President of NAHNOO, said this law aims to
protect a key segment of the Lebanese population, one whose work is directly
linked to Lebanon’s identity and economy, both of which are at stake. Ayyoub
added that the law is the first step by NAHNOO to help preserve the country’s
identity and economy. For her part, UNIC Beirut Director, Margo Helou, praised
the collaboration between UNIC and NAHNOO, saying it comes in line with the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals focusing on promoting sustained,
inclusive and sustainable economic growth, decent work for all, sustainable
industrialization and fostering innovation. Helou stressed the importance of
organizing this sector “in order to protect it and invest in it in the
future.”In turn, the head of the Artistic Craftsmen Syndicate, Hassan Wehbi,
described the law as a milestone for all craftsmen and craftswomen, saying it
would elevate craftsmanship and provide economic, social, health and cultural
guarantees to all craftspeople. In 2007, Lebanon ratified UNESCO’s Convention
for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage which aims at
safeguarding this heritage and strengthening the sense of belonging to a
society. However, the ratification of the said convention will not be enough.
More efforts should be exerted towards protecting this heritage, notably through
legislation, effective policies for recognizing and enrolling craftspeople in
the social security system, setting professional criteria, and supporting these
people as is the case with people who work in other sectors.
Myanmar Approves Sale of Telenor Subsidiary to Miqati's M1
Agence France Presse/March 18/2022
Myanmar's junta has approved the sale of Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor's
Myanmar subsidiary to Lebanese conglomerate M1 Group, both companies said on
Friday, in a move activist groups warn could put sensitive customer data in the
hands of Myanmar's military. The Southeast Asian nation has been in chaos since
a coup last year sparked huge protests and a bloody military crackdown on
dissent, sending its economy into freefall. In July, Telenor announced that it
planned to sell its subsidiary Telenor Myanmar and later cited junta demands
that it install monitoring equipment on the network as a reason for leaving the
country. After months of stalled negotiations, on Friday Telenor and M1 -- which
is helmed by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati -- both said the sale had been
approved by junta authorities. "M1 Group has been informed that the Myanmar
Investment Commission has approved Telenor Group's application for the sale of
Telenor Myanmar to Investcom PTE Ltd, an M1 Group affiliate," M1 said in a
statement. A separate statement from Telenor said the sale had been given "final
regulatory approval." M1 will partner with local consortium Shwe Byain Phyu to
take ownership of the new entity, according to the group's statement. Founded in
1996, Shwe Byain Phyu started out distributing petroleum products for the
then-military government, and employs more than 2,000 people in Myanmar. It has
interests in petroleum trading, manufacturing, commodities trading and marine
products, according to its website, which lists no previous telecoms experience.
"Sanctions screening from external consultants has assured Telenor that Shwe
Byain Phyu and its owners are not subject to any current international
sanctions," the Norwegian firm said in a statement.
'Mitigate harm'
Last year 474 civil society groups in Myanmar called Telenor's decision to pull
out irresponsible, saying it had not sufficiently considered the impact on human
rights. Activist groups say any new owner could comply with future requests from
the junta to provide cellphone data of dissidents protesting against the putsch
that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year. "There are still many
things Telenor can do to mitigate harm," said Joseph Wilde-Ramsing, senior
researcher at SOMO, a Netherlands-based non-profit that conducts research and
advocacy on corporations. "If they won't take any steps to minimize the data
transfer, they can still do things like set up a fund to help victims, remediate
some of the harms they are going to be contributing to with the sale."More than
1,600 people have been killed by security forces and over 11,000 arrested since
the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
Lebanon’s upcoming elections: Hezbollah opponents vow to
end its ‘domination’
Hussein Dakroub, Al Arabiya English/18 March ,2022
Lebanon’s upcoming parliamentary vote is being anxiously awaited by most of the
Lebanese and the international community hoping that its outcome would bring an
overdue political change and provide solutions to the country’s multiple crises,
including the worst economic meltdown in decades.
The elections, slated to take place on May 15, have been billed by leaders on
both sides of the political spectrum as “crucial” and “decisive” because the
next Parliament will elect a new president to succeed President Michel Aoun
whose six-year tenure expires by the end of October.
This year’s elections are different from previous ones because of a
hotly-contested battle among rival parties seeking to gain a majority in
Parliament that would enable them to have a final say in choosing a new head of
state.
The elections also come as Lebanon is wrestling with a financial downturn,
caused by decades of corruption and mismanagement, and a crashing currency that
has lost more than 90 percent of its value since 2019, putting more than half of
the 6 million Lebanese population below the poverty line and causing prices of
food, supplies and basic commodities to skyrocket.
The economic crisis was aggravated by the grave consequences of the massive
August 4 explosion in 2020 that pulverized Beirut’s port, destroyed half of the
capital, killed more than 200 people, injured thousands, left 300,000 people
homeless and caused billions of dollars in material damage.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA)
estimates the crisis has so far propelled 78 percent of the population into
poverty. The World Bank has described Lebanon’s financial and economic crisis as
among the worst in the world in 150 years.
This year’s elections will be the first since hundreds of thousands of Lebanese
took to the streets in an unprecedented nationwide uprising on October 17, 2019,
protesting the deteriorating economic conditions, endemic corruption and waste
of public funds. The protesters from various sects and provinces demanded the
government’s resignation, the ouster of the entrenched political elite, holding
early elections and implementing a string of key reforms to fix the crumbling
economy.
In a move reflecting growing Arab and foreign concern with the elections, senior
officials from the US, France and the Arab League who visited Beirut recently
have underlined the importance for the polls to be held on time in a transparent
and free manner without any delay.
Confrontation vote between Hezbollah, opponents
Still, the vote is being touted as a fierce confrontation between the Lebanese
extremist organization Hezbollah and its opponents who see the elections as an
opportunity to end what they call the Iranian-backed Shia party’s “domination”
of the country’s political decision-making and “Iran’s occupation” of Lebanon
through its powerful proxy.
Earlier this year, former MP Fares Souaid, an outspoken Maronite critic of
Hezbollah who is running in the elections in the Jbeil-Kesrwan district,
established “a national council for ending Iranian occupation” of Lebanon. The
council includes Muslim and Christian politicians, academics and key figures of
civil society opposed to Hezbollah’s influence.
“There are two opposing camps jockeying to gain the majority in the next
Parliament: One camp is led by the Lebanese Forces party and its allies to
confront Hezbollah’s influence and its dominance of the country’s
decision-making, and another camp is led by Hezbollah and its allies that will
fight to retain the majority they currently hold in Parliament, defend the
group’s arms arsenal and prevent attempts to normalize ties with Israel,” a
political source familiar with the matter told Al Arabiya English.
Although the elections are two months away, serious campaigning has yet to begin
by rival parties, including anti-government candidates from civil society groups
and the so-called “change forces” that emerged since the October 2019 uprising
who will vie to win seats in the 128-member Parliament.
Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces party, which has the second largest
Christian bloc in Parliament and is an arch foe of Hezbollah, has already named
the party’s 15 candidates in various electoral districts under the slogan of
“confronting” Hezbollah to regain the country’s sovereignty.
“Every vote counts. This election is [designed] to confront Hezbollah,” the
Lebanese Forces leader told supporters recently.
Hezbollah’s opponents from both Christian and Muslim parties have accused the
heavily armed group of running a mini-state within the Lebanese state. They
contend that Hezbollah’s insistence on retaining its arms arsenal, its
involvement in the 11-year-old Syrian war and its interference in other regional
conflicts ran contrary to the country’s sovereignty.
Hezbollah, designated by the US and Gulf Arab states a “terrorist” organization,
has staunchly rejected local and foreign calls, including UN Security Council
resolutions, to disarm, arguing that its weapons are needed to defend Lebanon
against a possible Israeli attack.
Geagea and other Hezbollah adversaries hope to overturn the majority won by the
group and its allies, including the Free Patriotic Movement founded by Aoun, and
the Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in 2018.
Geagea has repeatedly blamed Aoun and his son-in-law, MP Gebran Bassil, head of
the Free Patriotic Movement – which has the largest Christian bloc in Parliament
– and Hezbollah for the economic collapse. He argued that a solution to the
economic crisis begins with defeating the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah
in the ballot boxes.
According to an associate professor of political science at the Lebanese
American University, “The elections will involve many battles.”
“It will be fierce against Hezbollah in few districts, but in general Hezbollah
and its allies will sweep the majority of districts as the opponents are engaged
in fragmenting internal side battles,” Dr. Imad Salamey told Al Arabiya English.
“The elections will most probably present new independent faces, with seats
drawn from those that were previously controlled by [former Prime Minister Saad]
Hariri’s Future Movement. But it is highly unlikely that existing political and
sectarian elites will be implicated,” Salamey said. “After all the electoral
system is customized to reproduce the same political regime along its ruling
elites. Mostly the Sunni seats will be up for grabs, favoring elites attached to
the Syrian regime.”
Citing Iranian influence in Lebanon – a reference to Hezbollah’s growing
influence – among other reasons, Hariri declared on January 24 he was stepping
away from the political life and would not run in the parliamentary elections.
His move plunged Lebanon into further political turmoil and threw into disarray
the Sunni community which his family has dominated for 30 years. Three times
prime minister, Hariri also called on his Future Movement not to field any
candidates in the elections.
In a move seen aimed at filling the vacuum left by Hariri’s withdrawal, his
elder brother, Bahaa Hariri declared he was entering Lebanese politics, saying
he would join a battle “to take back the country” and follow in the footsteps of
his slain father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He also vowed to end
Hezbollah’s sway in Lebanon.
“Through partnership and solidarity, we will enter the battle to take back the
country and the sovereignty of the country from its occupiers,” said Bahaa, in a
recorded message a few days after Hariri’s withdrawal in an apparent reference
to Hezbollah of which he is a fierce critic.
Bahaa’s media advisor previously told Al Arabiya English that the elder Hariri
would not run personally. “He will be supporting lists of candidates all over
Lebanon under Sawa Li Lubnan (together for Lebanon),” Jerry Maher, the advisor,
said.
Political analyst Kassem Kassir said there are several camps standing against
Hezbollah in the electoral battle.
“There are several camps contesting the elections. The first camp is the
Lebanese Forces, the second camp is the Kataeb Party, the third camp is the
civil society forces, the fourth camp is the Islamic forces and the remaining
forces of the Future Movement. This is in addition to Hezbollah’s camp and its
allies,” Kassir told Al Arabiya English. “But the forces opposed to Hezbollah
are not united.”
Kassir said expectations indicate that the “change groups and the opposition
forces” will not succeed in gaining a majority in Parliament because of their
splits and differences. “Even if they succeed in gaining a majority, they will
not be able to govern the country alone. In this case, we will be facing a new
balance of forces with no party being able to govern the country alone,” he
added.
Analysts said the Lebanese Forces party is widely expected to make gains in the
elections, while its main Christian rival, the Free Patriotic Movement, a
Hezbollah ally, is expected to lose seats.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has accused the US of interfering in the
upcoming elections through its ambassador in Beirut. He said in a televised
speech last month US Ambassador Dorothy Shea was meeting with several Lebanese
politicians opposed to Hezbollah to discuss the elections and electoral lists.
Shea did not comment on Nasrallah’s accusation, but she recently told Reuters,
“The international community is unanimous that the elections must be held on
time in a fair and transparent manner. There's no wiggle room.”
The UN Security Council has also “underlined the importance of holding free,
fair, transparent and inclusive elections as scheduled on May 15, 2022.”
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 18-19/2022
UAE leaders receive Syrian President
Assad
Arab News/March 18, 2022
Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed on Friday welcomed Syrian
President Bashar Assad in the UAE, saying he hoped his visit will be the
beginning of good, peace and stability for Syria and the entire region, state
news agency WAM reported. The meeting, which took place at Al-Shati Palace, came
within the framework of the common concern to continue consultation and
coordination between the two countries on various issues, WAM also said. Sheikh
Mohammed was briefed by the Syrian leader on the latest developments in his
country, WAM said, adding that they also discussed contributing consolidating of
security, stability and peace in the Arab and the Middle East region. “During
the meeting, the two sides discussed a number of issues of common concern,
emphasizing the preserving the territorial integrity of Syria and the withdrawal
of foreign forces, in addition to political and humanitarian support for Syria
and its people to reach a peaceful solution to all the challenges it faces,” the
WAM report added. Sheikh Mohammed said that Syria is a fundamental pillar of
Arab security, and that the UAE is keen to strengthen bilateral cooperation to
achieve the aspirations of Syrian stability and development. They also exchanged
views and the two countries’ positions on all regional and international issues
and developments of common interest, before he was seen off at Al-Bateen Airport
by the Abu Dhabi crown prince. Meanwhile, the UAE Vice President and Prime
Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid also met with Assad to
discuss Syria and other Arab issues, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid “affirmed the
UAE’s keenness to discover new paths of constructive cooperation with Syria, and
to monitor opportunities through which various aspects of cooperation can be
pushed forward to achieve the interests of the two peoples.
Israel Urges U.S. Not to Drop Iran Guards from Terror
List
Agence France Presse/March 18/2022
Israel on Friday appealed to the United States not to remove Iran's
Revolutionary Guards from its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations as
part of a revived nuclear deal. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "is a
terrorist organization that has murdered thousands of people, including
Americans," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said
in a joint statement. "We refuse to believe that the United States would remove
its designation as a terrorist organization," they said. The statement comes
after the United States on Wednesday said Washington and Tehran were close to
agreement on restoring the 2015 nuclear accord. "We are close to a possible
deal, but we're not there yet," said State Department spokesman Ned Price. "We
do think the remaining issues can be bridged."Sources close to the talks said
outstanding issues included Tehran's demands for Washington to delist the
Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group. The United States designated the
Guards as a "foreign terrorist organization" under then-president Donald Trump
in April 2019. It came the year after Trump unilaterally withdrew the United
States from the nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action. The JCPOA gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its
nuclear program. It was seen by world powers as the best way to stop Iran from
building a nuclear bomb -– a goal it has always denied. But the deal started to
unravel in 2018 when Trump withdrew from it before imposing tough economic
sanctions on the Islamic republic. Tehran retaliated by rolling back on its own
commitments, including nuclear enrichment. Direct talks to revive the pact have
been ongoing for weeks in Vienna between Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany
and Russia, with the United States participating indirectly. Israel considers
its arch-foe Iran an "existential threat" and the two countries have been at
loggerheads since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed
shah. Iran is also a close ally of Lebanon's Shiite movement Hizbullah which has
fought Israel and is accused by the Jewish state of being behind a string of
anti-Israeli attacks, including the 1992 bombing of Israel's embassy in
Argentina that killed 29 people. Iran is also a backer of the Palestinian cause,
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Huthi rebels fighting the internationally
recognized government in Yemen. "The fight against terrorism is a global one, a
shared mission of the entire world," Bennett and Lapid said in the joint
statement.
Fears grow over possible removal of Iran’s Revolutionary
Guard from US terror list
Arab News/March 18, 2022
Concerns grew on Friday that the US planned to remove the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps from its blacklist of terrorist organizations as part of a revived
nuclear deal with Iran. The IRGC has been subject to US sanctions since 2007 as
part of the US Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, and in 2017 it became
the first national military to be designated by the US as a Foreign Terrorist
Organization.“The IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing
and implementing its global terrorist campaign,” President Donald Trump said at
the time. The Revolutionary Guards control a business empire in Iran, as well as
military and intelligence forces responsible for terrorist attacks throughout
the world. Analysts now believe the US plans to remove the terrorist designation
in return for Iranian assurances about reining in the IRGC. It is thought to be
the last and most troublesome issue in wider indirect talks on reviving the 2015
nuclear deal. Such a move would be fiercely opposed by the Gulf states, and
Israel made its concern known in a joint statement on Friday by Prime Minister
Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. “The attempt to delist the IRGC
as a terrorist organization is an insult to their victims and would ignore
documented reality supported by unequivocal evidence,” they said. “We find it
hard to believe that the IRGC’s designation as a terrorist organization will be
removed in exchange for a promise not to harm Americans. The US will not abandon
its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists.”
McKenzie: Iran Remains the Greatest Threat
to Region's Security
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 18/2022
The commander of the US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, has said that
Iran remains the greatest threat to the security of the Central Region. Speaking
at a hearing held by the Senate Armed Services Committee, McKenzie explained
that the greatest single day-to-day threat to regional security and stability
remains Iran, which challenges the United States and its allies by pursuing
regional hegemony and breaching its Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
commitments. McKenzie accused Iran of posing a conventional threat to partner
nations while facilitating and conducting coercive and malign activities. "Over
the past year, Iran used these weapons to attack and seize merchant vessels in
the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, and northern Arabian Sea," said McKenzie.
"Iran continues to violate sanctions and embargos, proliferate weapons to its
network of proxies and affiliates, terrorize mariners, and seize shipping in
international waters," he added. Regarding Iran's activities in Yemen, the
commander said Houthis are the least restrained and most destabilizing Iranian
affiliates in the region. He said Houthis have raised the stakes further by
using the same high-end Iranian weapons to target US partners. "Over the past
year, Iran has continued to provide Houthi forces with advanced conventional
weapons (UASs, theater ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned surface
vehicles) and related technology. The proliferation of small and medium-sized
UASs and sophisticated ballistic and cruise missiles to the Houthis presents the
most complex and consequential threat to US, partner, and allied
forces."Speaking at the same hearing, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Policy Sasha Baker also affirmed that Iran continues to play a destabilizing
role in the region through its development and proliferation of short and medium
range ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial systems. She stressed that the
Department of Defense fully supports both the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia in the defense of their territory and people.Baker said Saudi Arabia
remains a central pillar of our regional counterterrorism efforts. "The Saudis
are an important partner for cooperation in promoting regional stability,
security, and countering Iranian influence," she noted.
General voices concern for US troops as Iran-Israel
attacks increase
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/19 March ,2022
The outgoing head of the US Central Command said Friday that he was concerned
about the increasing attacks between Israel and Iran “because many times our
forces are at risk.”“I think it’s obvious that Israel is going to take steps to
defend itself when it’s confronted with Iranian actions. And of course, Iran is
dedicated to the destruction of Israel,” CENTCOM chief Gen. Frank McKenzie said
during a video call with reporters. He added: “I do worry about these exchanges
between Iran and Israel because many times our forces are at risk, whether in
Iraq or in Syria. So that, in fact, does concern me as we watch this series of
exchanges.”Last week, the most recent incident occurred when Iran claimed an
attack on a residence in Iraq’s Erbil, claiming the target to be an Israeli
intelligence compound. The Erbil government denied that there were any Israeli
sites in its territory. The IRGC said they were retaliating for an Israeli air
strike that killed two of its members in Syria and a drone attack allegedly
launched from Erbil. Gen. McKenzie noted several attacks by Iran and its proxies
targeting US forces in Syria and Iraq over the last six months. “The Iranians
have believed that they can undertake a certain level of kinetic action against
us,” he said but pointing out that US casualties have been avoided. “Had US
casualties occurred, I think we might be in a very different place right
now.”The top US military commander for the Middle East will be replaced in the
next few weeks as he steps into retirement, but looking back, he said Iran was
the number one problem he faced during his three-year term. “There were other
problems, other huge problems, but the headquarters as a whole… focused on the
Iranian problem and everything attended to that,” he said.
Gen. McKenzie voiced support for an Iran nuclear deal because taking Iran’s
nuclear option “off the table has to contribute to regional security.”
Nevertheless, he noted this wouldn’t solve the other problems of Iran, including
its ballistic missile program and its support for proxies. “And we need to
recognize that. That’s a separate problem,” he said. “We’re going to need to be
able to address those, preferably through negotiations, but also through
deterrence,” Gen. McKenzie said.
US Vet Jailed in Iran Sues for $1 Billion, Alleges Torture
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
A US Navy veteran who was jailed in Iran for nearly two years sued the Iranian
government on Thursday for $1 billion, alleging that he was kidnapped, held
hostage and tortured. The federal lawsuit describes in unsparing detail the
“prolonged and continuous" abuse that Michael White says he suffered behind
bars, including being beaten and punched, whipped on his feet, deprived of food
and drink, and pressured to falsely confess that he was a spy for the US
government, The Associated Press said. “Mr. White endured this trauma for nearly
two years, never knowing if or when he would be released and reunited with his
family, repeatedly promised that his conditions would improve soon, only to be
crushed psychologically when they did not,” the lawsuit states. The allegations
in the complaint mirror the claims made by White in a 156-page manuscript that
he wrote behind bars and that was later obtained by The Associated Press.The
31-page complaint traces White's travel to Iran, saying he was lured there in
the summer of 2018 by a woman he considered his girlfriend so that he could be
kidnapped by Iranian government agents and put in prison. He was charged with
insulting Iran's Supreme Leader and cooperating with the US government against
Iran — charges the lawsuit says were fabricated — and sentenced without a trial
to 10 years in prison. The suit also alleges that White's imprisonment was an
effort by Iran to extract concessions from the Trump administration and to
“manufacture additional leverage for diplomacy" in the aftermath of Iran's
withdrawal in 2018 from a landmark nuclear deal with the US Diplomats are
currently trying to salvage a deal that would bring Iran back into compliance
with limits on its nuclear program. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in
Washington, D.C. Besides White, other plaintiffs include his mother and two
brothers. It was not immediately clear if Iran planned to formally respond to
the complaint, or if it had a lawyer who might enter an appearance in the case.
If Iran does not respond to the allegations, a judge could enter a default
judgment on White's behalf, enabling White to collect damages from a fund set up
for victims of acts of state-sponsored terrorism. The State Department arranged
for his release in June 2020, flying him back to the US as part of a deal that
spared additional prison time for an American-Iranian doctor convicted in the US
of sanctions violations. White later made a videotaped appearance at that
summer's Republican National Convention in a segment with former President
Donald Trump and other hostages and detainees freed during the Trump
administration.
Report: At Least 280 People Executed in Iran in 2021
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
Iran executed at least 280 people last year, according to figures published on
Thursday by the UN special rapporteur on Iran. Presenting a report to the UN
Human Rights Council, Javaid Rehman said the number of executions for charges
related to narcotics laws had risen. “In 2021, at least 280 individuals,
including at least 10 women, were executed,” he said, AFP reported. He said he
had also been informed that three “child offenders” -- the term the United
Nations uses for a person under the age of 18 at the time of conviction -- had
been executed in 2021. The number of women being executed had also risen,
according to the report. The report said more than 80 of the executions,
including that of a woman and at least four Afghans, were for drugs offences,
compared to 25 in 2020. Rehman observed that last year saw an increase in
executions of people from minority communities, with over 40 Baluch and over 50
Kurds put to death. In his report, the special rapporteur, who has been denied
access to Iran, indicated that he had continued to receive consistent
information on the use of confessions obtained by torture as evidence in cases
carrying the death penalty. Rehman also condemned “lethal and excessive force”
against peaceful gatherings over access to water and the impact of water
shortages on daily life. And he condemned the practice of “attempting to silence
those who call for accountability.”“There are many cases of harassment and
threats against families of victims and others calling for justice... In some
cases, individuals are subjected to criminal prosecution simply for having
called for justice,” he said. Rehman added that he was also concerned by the
number deaths in detention in obscure circumstances into which there had been no
inquiry. Between January 1 and December 1, 2021, at least 11 Kurdish prisoners
died in prison in circumstances that were not clear, according to the report.
Battleground Ukraine: Day 23 of Russia's Invasion
Agence France Presse/Friday, 18 March, 2022
On the 23rd day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Friday, Moscow's forces were
still encircling four major cities but were making only minimal progress in
their advance. Western sources said the Russian troops were struggling with
logistical supply problems and their failure to control Ukraine's airspace,
while Ukrainian forces were hitting back with counterattacks of their own. Here
is a summary of the situation on the ground, based on statements from both
sides, Western defense and intelligence sources and international organizations.
The east
The major northeastern city of Kharkiv is encircled but Russian troops have
failed to take it, instead subjecting the center of the city to heavy
bombardments from the air and artillery. Russian strikes demolished the
six-story building of a higher-education institution in Kharkiv, killing one
person and leaving another trapped in the wreckage. The city of Sumy further to
the north and close to the Russian border is also encircled.
Kyiv and the north
Kyiv remains under Ukrainian control despite heavy bombardments, but observers
say Russian forces are still seeking to advance towards the capital. The UK
defense ministry said that Ukrainian forces' resistance was continuing to
frustrate Russian attempts to encircle the city and the Russian advance had
overall made "minimal progress" this week. Authorities in Kyiv said one person
was killed early Friday when a downed Russian rocket struck a residential
building in the capital's northern suburbs. Elsewhere in the north, Ukrainian
forces remained in control of the encircled town of Chernigiv, as the Russians
try to regroup and rearm.
The south
The besieged port city of Mariupol, seen as a key Russian target to link up the
annexed Crimea and separatist-controlled Donbas regions, remains encircled and
subject to heavy Russian shelling. Rescue workers have been searching
desperately for any survivors buried beneath the rubble of a bombed-out theatre,
amid fears that hundreds may be trapped. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants
are believed to remain in the city, with no running water or heating and food
running short. Russian forces earlier in the campaign took the city of Kherson
just north of Crimea, the only major city they have captured so far. Although
Russian forces are trying to push west along Ukraine's Black Sea coast towards
Odessa, they have so far failed to encircle the city of Mykolayiv which stands
in the way. The U.S. defense department said while there was continued Russian
naval activity in the northern Black Sea off the coast of Odessa, there was no
"imminent sign" of an amphibious assault on the city.
The west and center
The west of Ukraine is still well away from the frontline but there have been
deadly air strikes by Russia against targets in the region.
Russian missiles struck in the early morning near the airport in the western
city of Lviv which has become a hub for refugees as well as diplomats and
journalists. Russian strikes are meanwhile continuing against the central city
of Dnipro, seen as a possible point for Russian forces moving from the south and
east to join together.
Casualties
According to the office for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 780
civilians have been killed in Ukraine, including 58 children. Moscow has given
no toll for casualties among its armed forces in recent days. Ukraine says over
14,000 Russian soldiers have been killed. Western sources generally give a lower
figure but still numbering several thousand. President Volodymyr Zelensky said
last weekend around 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed.
Refugees
The U.N. says more than 3.27 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the
Russian invasion, with almost two million of them heading to neighboring Poland.
Millions more are believed to be internally displaced or unable to move.
Xi Speaks Out against 'Conflict' in Call with Biden on
Russia
Agence France Presse/Friday, 18 March, 2022
Chinese leader Xi Jinping said war is "in no one's interest" during a phone call
Friday with Joe Biden in which the U.S. president aimed to pressure Beijing into
joining Western condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The 1:50 hour-long
phone call ended at 10:53 am in Washington (1453 GMT), the White House said.
State broadcaster CCTV reported Xi saying during the call that "state-to-state
relations cannot go to the stage of military hostilities."China and the United
States should "shoulder international responsibilities," Xi was quoted as
saying, as well as declaring that "peace and security are the most valued
treasures of the international community." It was not immediately clear if Xi
made any direct criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin's onslaught
against Ukraine or expressed willingness to assist the U.S.-led pressure
campaign on the Kremlin. In their first call since November, Biden hoped to
persuade Xi to at least give up any idea of bailing out Russia. China should
"understand that their future is with the United States, with Europe, with other
developed and developing countries around the world. Their future is not to
stand with Vladimir Putin," Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told CNN
earlier Friday.
So far Beijing has refused to condemn its fellow authoritarian ally, and
Washington fears China could deliver financial and military support for Russia,
transforming an already explosive transatlantic standoff into a global dispute.
If that happened, not only could Beijing help Putin to weather sanctions and
continue his war, but Western governments would face the painful decision of how
to strike back at the world's second biggest economy, likely prompting turmoil
on international markets. The White House was tight-lipped on whether Biden
would threaten China with economic sanctions during his call, but some sort of
response was on the table. Biden "will make clear that China will bear
responsibility for any actions it takes to support Russia's aggression and we
will not hesitate to impose costs," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said ahead
of the call.
Blinken urged China to use its "leverage" on Moscow.
China 'balancing priorities' -
The Biden-Xi call came after U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and
Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party's chief diplomat, held what the White
House called a "substantial" seven hour meeting in Rome this week. Against a
backdrop of already intense US-Chinese tensions over Taiwan and trade disputes,
the ability or failure of Biden and Xi to come to an understanding on the
unfolding mayhem in Europe will reverberate widely. Xi and Putin symbolically
sealed their close partnership when they met at the February Winter Olympics in
Beijing -- just before Putin launched his onslaught on Ukraine.
Since then, Beijing has stood out by refusing to join international outcry over
the invasion, while taking the Russian line in blaming the United States and
NATO for European tensions. Chinese authorities even refuse to refer to the
invasion as a "war," again in keeping with Kremlin talking points. But China has
also tried to remain somewhat ambiguous, declaring support for Ukraine's
sovereignty. Brookings Institution fellow Ryan Hass, a former advisor on China
to president Barack Obama, said Beijing has to sort through its clashing
priorities.Despite the coziness with Moscow, China -- the world's biggest
exporter -- is tightly bound to the U.S. and other Western economies. It also
wants to play a leadership role in the world. "China's and Russia's interests
are not in alignment. Putin is an arsonist of the international system and
President Xi sees himself as an architect for remaking and improving the
international system," Hass said.
"President Xi is trying to balance competing priorities. He really places a lot
of value in China's partnership with Russia but at the same time he does not
want to undermine China's relations in the West."
Russian Strikes Hit Outskirts of Ukrainian Capital and
Lviv
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
Russian forces pressed their assault on Ukrainian cities Friday, with new
missile strikes and shelling on the capital Kyiv and the outskirts of the
western city of Lviv, as world leaders pushed for an investigation of the
Kremlin’s repeated attacks on civilian targets, including schools, hospitals and
residential areas.
The early morning barrage of missiles on the outskirts of Lviv was the closest
strike yet to the center of the city, which has become a crossroads for people
fleeing from other parts of Ukraine and for others entering to deliver aid or
fight.
Black smoke billowed for hours after the explosions, which hit a facility for
repairing military aircraft near the city’s international airport, only six
kilometers (four miles) from the center. One person was wounded, the regional
governor, Maksym Kozytskyy, said. Multiple blasts hit in quick succession around
6 a.m., shaking nearby buildings, witnesses said. The missiles were launched
from the Black Sea, but the Ukrainian air force's western command said it had
shot down two of six missile in the volley. A bus repair facility was also
damaged, Lviv's mayor Andriy Sadovyi said.
Lviv lies not far from the Polish border and well behind the front lines, but it
and the surrounding area have not been spared Russia's attacks. In the worst,
nearly three dozen people were killed last weekend in a strike on a training
facility near the city. Lviv's population has swelled by some 200,000 as people
from elsewhere in Ukraine have sought shelter there.
Early morning barrages also hit a residential building in the Podil neighborhood
of Kyiv, killing at least one person, according to emergency services, who said
98 people were evacuated from the building. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said 19
were wounded in the shelling.
Two others were killed when strikes hit residential and administrative buildings
in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, according to the regional governor, Pavlo
Kyrylenko.
In city after city around Ukraine, hospitals, schools and buildings where people
sought safety have been attacked. Rescue workers searched for survivors in the
ruins of a theater that served as a shelter when it was blown apart by a Russian
airstrike in the besieged southern city of Mariupol Wednesday. In Kharkiv, a
massive fire raged through a local market after shelling Thursday. One
firefighter was killed and another injured when new shelling hit as emergency
workers fought the blaze, emergency services said.
The World Health Organization said it has verified 43 attacks on hospitals and
health facilities, with 12 people killed and 34 injured. US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken said Thursday that American officials were evaluating potential
war crimes and that if the intentional targeting of civilians by Russia is
confirmed, there will be “massive consequences.”The United Nations political
chief, Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo, also called for an investigation
into civilian casualties, reminding the UN Security Council that international
humanitarian law bans direct attacks on civilians. She said many of the daily
attacks battering Ukrainian cities “are reportedly indiscriminate" and involve
the use of “explosive weapons with a wide impact area.” DiCarlo said the
devastation in Mariupol and Kharkiv ”raises grave fears about the fate of
millions of residents of Kyiv and other cities facing intensifying attacks.”
About 35,000 civilians left Mariupol over the previous two days, Kirilenko said
Friday.
Hundreds of civilians were said to have taken shelter in a grand, columned
theater in the city's center when it was hit Wednesday by a Russian airstrike.
On Friday, their fate was still uncertain, with conflicting reports on whether
anyone had emerged from the rubble. Communications are disrupted across the city
and movement is difficult because of shelling and fighting. “We hope and we
think that some people who stayed in the shelter under the theater could
survive," Petro Andrushchenko, an official with the mayor’s office, told The
Associated Press Thursday. He said the building had a relatively modern basement
bomb shelter designed to withstand airstrikes. Other officials said earlier that
some people had gotten out. Video and photos provided by the Ukrainian military
showed the at least three-story building had been reduced to a roofless shell,
with some exterior walls collapsed. Satellite imagery on Monday from Maxar
Technologies showed huge white letters on the pavement outside the theater
spelling out “CHILDREN” in Russian — “DETI” — to alert warplanes to the
vulnerable people hiding inside. Russia's military denied bombing the theater or
anyplace else in Mariupol on Wednesday.
In Chernihiv, at least 53 people were brought to morgues over 24 hours, killed
amid heavy Russian air attacks and ground fire, the local governor, Viacheslav
Chaus, told Ukrainian TV Thursday.
Ukraine's emergency services said a mother, father and three of their children,
including 3-year-old twins, were killed when a Chernihiv hostel was shelled.
Civilians were hiding in basements and shelters across the embattled city of
280,000.
“The city has never known such nightmarish, colossal losses and destruction,”
Chaus said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said early Friday he was
thankful to President Joe Biden for additional military aid, but he would not
get into specifics about the new package, saying he did not want Russia to know
what to expect. He said when the invasion began on Feb. 24, Russia expected to
find Ukraine much as it did in 2014, when Russia seized Crimea without a fight
and backed separatists as they took control of the eastern Donbas region.
Instead, he said, Ukraine had much stronger defenses than expected, and Russia
"didn’t know what we had for defense or how we prepared to meet the blow.”
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven leading
economies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of conducting an “unprovoked
and shameful war,” and called on Russia to comply with the International Court
of Justice’s order to stop its attack and withdraw its forces. Both Ukraine and
Russia this week reported some progress in negotiations. Zelenskyy said he would
not reveal Ukraine's negotiating tactics. “Working more in silence than on
television, radio or on Facebook,” Zelenskyy said. “I consider it the right
way.”Putin spoke by phone Friday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who urged
the Russian president to agree to an immediate cease-fire and called for an
improvement to the humanitarian situation, a spokesman for Scholz said. In a
statement about the call, the Kremlin said Putin told the German chancellor that
Ukraine had “unrealistic proposals” and was dragging out negotiations. The
Kremlin also said it was evacuating civilians, and accused Ukraine of committing
war crimes by shelling cities in the east. While details of Thursday's talks
were unknown, an official in Zelenskyy’s office told the AP that on Wednesday,
the main subject discussed was whether Russian troops would remain in separatist
regions in eastern Ukraine after the war and where the borders would be. The
official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks,
said Ukraine was insisting on the inclusion of one or more Western nuclear
powers in the negotiations and on legally binding security guarantees for
Ukraine. In exchange, the official said, Ukraine was ready to discuss a neutral
military status. Russia has demanded that NATO pledge never to admit Ukraine to
the alliance or station forces there. The fighting has led more than 3 million
people to flee Ukraine, the UN estimates. The death toll remains unknown, though
Ukraine has said thousands of civilians have died.
Putin shared with Turkey's president his demands for
Ukraine
Catherine Garcia/The Week/March 18/2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
on Thursday to share his demands for Ukraine, and a close adviser to Erdogan
said he believes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be open to some of
them.Erdogan has been in contact with Russian and Ukrainian officials throughout
the invasion of Ukraine. Ibrahim Kalin, an adviser to Erdogan and his spokesman,
listened in on the call with Putin, and spoke with BBC News world affairs editor
John Simpson about what they discussed. Kalin said Putin sounded clear and
concise during the conversation, and had two categories of demands. Ukraine
could meet the first four rather easily, Kalin said. Ukraine would have to stay
neutral and not apply to NATO, Kalin stated, and would have to undergo a
disarmament process and protect the Russian language in the country. Ukraine
would also have to agree to go through "de-Nazification."Zelensky is Jewish and
had several relatives die in the Holocaust. Asking for the government to go
through "de-Nazification" is "deeply offensive" to Zelensky, Simpson wrote, "but
the Turkish side believes it will be easy enough for Mr. Zelensky to accept.
Perhaps it will be enough for Ukraine to condemn all forms of neo-Nazism and
promise to clamp down on them."Kalin was much more vague when describing the
more contentious demands, only saying they involved separatist areas of eastern
Ukraine and Crimea. The assumption, Simpson wrote, is that Putin will say
Ukraine must give up the territory held by separatists and formally accept that
Crimea, which was illegally annexed in 2014, is officially part of Russia. Putin
told Erdogan that when discussing these demands, he will want to hold an
in-person meeting with Zelensky, Kalin said. The Ukrainian president has already
stated he is ready and waiting to have a face-to-face discussion with Putin.
Russia arrests military chief with invasion of Ukraine
stalling
Matt Mathers/Independent/March 18/2022
One of Vladimir Putin's top military chiefs was reportedly arrested this week as
the Russian president moved to "purify" his ranks of apparent traitors. General
Roman Gavrilov, the deputy head of the national guard, was arrested in a
reported purge of military and intelligence chiefs by the FSB state security
service, according to sources cited by Bellingcat, the investigative journalism
group. Russian forces have come up against stiff Ukrainian resistance since
Moscow launched the invasion on 24 February. The US claims that at least 7,000
Russian troops have been killed so far. Ukraine president’s Volodymyr Zelensky
said earlier this week his forces had suffered an estimated 1,300 casualties.
The losses and slow pace of the invasion are said to have angered Mr Putin, who
lashed out at "traitors" this week in televised remarks. "Russian people are
able to distinguish between true patriots and scum and traitors, and simply spit
them out like a fly that flew into their mouths," he told an online meeting of
his cabinet. "I am convinced that a natural and necessary self-purification of
society will strengthen our country," he added. James Heappey, the UK Armed
Forces minister, said Mr Putin's language was "fanatical" and "hugely
dangerous"."There's a desperation that might make him consider a course of
action we would view as very dangerous indeed," Mr Heappey told The Telegraph on
Thursday. "I'm deeply concerned about where his state of mind is at and how
desperate he may become." Developments with the Kremlin were evidence of "real
discord" at the top of Russia's high command, he added. Russia expanded its
missile strikes to Lviv in the west of Ukraine as British intelligence suggested
Mr Putin's invasion had made only "minimal progress" this week. Speaking to
broadcasters on Friday morning, Mr Heappey said early morning attack on the city
that has swelled with people sheltering from elsewhere in Ukraine showed Russia
was broadening its strikes. Andriy Sadovyi, Lviv’s mayor, said several missiles
hit a facility for repairing military planes near the city's international
airport and also damaged a bus repair site.
Shelling around the capital of Kyiv also continued as the number of refugees
estimated to have fled exceeded 3.4 million.
Putin echoes Stalin in 'very, very scary' speech
Alexander Nazaryan/Yahoo News/March 18/2022
WASHINGTON — The speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin made on Wednesday
bore the hallmarks of unapologetic authoritarianism, Russia experts and
observers said. “We are well post-1934,” said Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of
international relations at the New School in New York City, referencing the year
when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin began his murderous purge. Putin is an
unabashed admirer of Stalin and has worked — successfully, in Russia — to
rehabilitate his image, which suffered for years after a posthumous denunciation
in 1956 by Khrushcheva’s great-grandfather Nikita Khrushchev, then the Soviet
leader. In his unsettling remarks, Putin lashed out at “national traitors” he
blamed for undermining the war he launched against Ukraine. “Putin really wants
to take Russia back to Stalin days,” Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center
for European Policy Analysis, wrote on Twitter. “He has always emulated Stalin,
and this speech is definitely angrier and stronger than previous
speeches.”President Biden said on Wednesday that Putin is a “war criminal,” and
the rhetoric the Russian leader used was strikingly similar to the language that
authoritarians have deployed to demonize, persecute and kill ethnic minorities
and political opposition groups. Even as Western efforts at diplomacy continue,
the Kremlin remains in the grip of profound geopolitical grievance, which could
make a peace settlement difficult. Putin said true Russians would “always be
able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors,” presumably a
reference to Russians who have protested his invasion of Ukraine in Moscow and
St. Petersburg. Thousands with the means to do so have left Russia, which is
facing widespread cultural and economic isolation. Russia “will simply spit them
out like an insect in their mouth, spit them onto the pavement,” Putin said of
Russian “fifth columnists” with Western sympathies. “This is very, very scary,”
American investor Bill Browder, who has become a nemesis of Putin's after
exposing corruption in the Kremlin, said on Twitter. “The language is
unbelievable.”
Putin clearly sees Russia as the victim, denouncing the “economic blitzkrieg” of
Western sanctions in his remarks, a reference to Adolf Hitler’s favored mode of
sudden, overwhelming attack. “I want to be as direct as possible: hostile
geopolitical designs lie behind the hypocritical talk and recent actions by the
so-called collective West,” he said, according to an English-language transcript
of his speech provided by the Kremlin. “They have no use — simply no use — for a
strong and sovereign Russia, and they will not forgive us for our independent
policy or for standing up for our national interests.”
Putin has maintained that he needed to invade Ukraine to “de-Nazify” and
“demilitarize” the country, but he also fears that the Western sphere of
influence is increasingly close to Russia’s borders. The event on Wednesday was
billed by the Kremlin as a discussion between Putin and regional leaders about
“socioeconomic support.” It was a brief section of Putin’s comments from his
introduction, however, that caught the attention of social media users, with
millions having viewed a short clip in which he caustically pointed his finger
at Russians who have grown rich during his tenure but are now abandoning the
country as it becomes an international pariah. Putin faces a large monitor with
the images of numerous people at a video meeting. “I do not in the least condemn
those who have villas in Miami or the French Riviera, who cannot make do without
foie gras, oysters or ‘gender freedom,’ as they call it. That is not the
problem, not at all,” Putin said, referencing the elevated standard of living
that Russians have enjoyed since he stabilized the economy after a chaotic
period of unfettered capitalism in the 1990s.He also played on long-standing
Russian feelings of inferiority relative to the West, reminding supposedly
disloyal critics of his Ukrainian campaign that they would never be allowed into
“the superior caste, the superior race” of Western society. The West, he
suggested, sees Russians not as equals but as “expendable raw material” to be
exploited. The speech left Lautman of the Center for European Policy Analysis
stunned. “Everyone soon will be fifth columnists as Putin gets more enraged,”
she told Yahoo News in a text message. “There will be a purge from his agencies,
military, and everyday citizens. It was really such a dark speech.”
The Covert War Between Israel and Iran Rises to the
Surface
Jonathan Schanzer/Mosaic/March 18/2022
Iran’s missile attack last weekend sheds light on America’s role in the
escalating conflict that Israel refers to as the “war between wars.”
Excerpt
On Sunday, in the early morning hours, Iran launched approximately twelve Fatah
110 ballistic missiles from the environs of Tabriz toward the U.S. consulate in
Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. No casualties were reported, although there was some
physical damage to the area. According to a statement by the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the attack was intended to strike the
“Strategic Center of Zionist Conspiracy and Evil”—apparently shorthand for
supposed Israeli assets in northern Iraq. The Israeli officials I spoke to about
the strike appeared genuinely perplexed about what the IRGC hoped to hit.
However, the New York Times quoted an unnamed senior U.S. official who said that
the building hit in Erbil also served as an Israeli training facility, even
though Kurdish officials deny this. But regardless of whether there is a secret
Israeli base in northern Iraq, or whether Iranian operatives sincerely believe
there to be one, the attack was undoubtedly an attempt to exact retribution for
recent Israeli successes in a shadow war that has until now tilted heavily in
Jerusalem’s favor. It may also have been intended to deliver a message to
Washington: if you don’t stop Israel from targeting our assets, we’ll ratchet up
our direct attacks against you.The most recent reason for Iran to retaliate
against Israeli targets was a March 7 airstrike in Syria that killed two IRGC
colonels, along with two Syrian fighters—reportedly the seventh such airstrike
against Iranian assets in Syria this year. Saeed Khatibzadeh, a spokesman for
the Iranian foreign ministry, vowed revenge, stating that Israel would “pay for
this crime.”*Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the United
States Department of the Treasury, is senior vice president for research at the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is author of the new book Gaza
Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War (FDD Press). Follow him on
Twitter @JSchanzer. FDD is a nonpartisan research institute focusing on national
security and foreign policy.
Kremlin tells Biden: U.S. has no right to lecture Russia on
war crimes
Reuters/March 18/2022
The Kremlin said on Wednesday Joe Biden's claim that President Vladimir Putin
was a "war criminal" for invading Ukraine was an unforgivable remark by the
leader of a country which had killed civilians in conflicts across the world.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands, displaced more than 3 million
and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States,
the world's two biggest nuclear powers. In an exchange with a reporter on
Wednesday, Biden said, "Oh I think he is a war criminal," after initially
responding with a "no" to a question about whether he was ready to call Putin
that.
"Our president is a very wise, prescient and cultured international figure and
head of the Russian Federation, our head of state," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said when asked about Biden's remark. "Such statements by Mr Biden are
absolutely impermissible, unacceptable and unforgivable," Peskov said. "The main
thing is that the head of a state which has for many years bombed people across
the world... the president of such a country has no right to make such
statements."
Peskov said the United States had bombed defeated Japan in 1945, destroying the
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered six days later, ending World
War Two.
Around 200,000 people were killed instantly by the bombs and many more died from
radiation sickness.
MIGHT OF RUSSIA
Russia warned the United States on Thursday that Moscow had the might to put the
world's pre-eminent superpower in its place and accused the West of stoking a
wild Russophobic plot to tear Russia apart. Dmitry Medvedev, who served as
president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia's Security
Council, said the United States had stoked "disgusting" Russophobia in an
attempt to force Russia to its knees. "It will not work - Russia has the might
to put all of our brash enemies in their place," Medvedev said. Since Russia
invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the United States and its European and Asian allies
have slapped sanctions on Russian leaders, companies and businessmen, cutting
off Russia from much of the world economy. Putin says that what he calls the
special military operation in Ukraine was necessary because the United States
was using Ukraine to threaten Russia, and Russia had to defend against the
"genocide" of Russian-speaking people by Kyiv. Ukraine says it is fighting for
its existence and that Putin's claims of genocide are nonsense. The West says
claims it wants to rip Russia apart are fiction. Ukrainian Defence Minister
Oleksii Reznikov told European Union lawmakers on Wednesday that they should
recognise Putin as a war criminal. Russia says that despite sanctions it can
fare well without what it casts as a deceitful and decadent West and that it
will develop ties with other powers such as China.
GCC to Invite All Yemeni Sides for Extensive Talks In
Riyadh
Riyadh - Abdulhadi Habtor/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
The Gulf Cooperation Council announced that it will host intra-Yemeni
consultations at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Riyadh, from
March 29 to April 7. GCC Secretary General Dr. Nayef Al-Hajraf told a press
conference in Riyadh on Thursday that the consultations are aimed at uniting
ranks, bridging the rift between the conflicting sides, supporting legitimacy
and strengthening state institutions. “Invitations to the Yemen talks will be
sent to everyone and they will be held with whoever attends,” Al-Hajraf said.
“The GCC will host the talks between Yemeni factions to resolve the crisis. We
urge all Yemeni parties to cease fire and start peace talks.”The GCC
secretary-general expressed hope that all parties would respond to the
initiative, stressing that after seven years of conflict, resolving the crisis
“is up to the Yemenis.”Al-Hajraf said the talks would focus on six axes,
starting with the military and security, which includes the general principles
for a ceasefire and the fight against terrorism. The consultations will also
tackle the political process and the creation of an adequate environment to
achieve a comprehensive, just and sustainable political solution, the GCC
official noted. Other axes will focus on strengthening state institutions,
launching administrative reforms, and combating corruption, opening humanitarian
channels, adopting urgent measures to stop the collapse of the Yemeni currency
and achieve stability and recovery of basic services and direct support from
donors, and finally, social recovery, which includes procedures and steps to
restore social cohesion. “We have to be optimistic and realistic; when all
components agree on a future road map, then we can talk with the international
community, the GCC states and the key actors in this file with a unified voice.
Invitations will be sent to about 500 people from all sides,” Al-Hajraf
underlined.
Sudan Group Says 187 Wounded in Latest Anti-coup Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
Nearly 200 people have been wounded in the latest protests to erupt in the
Sudanese capital over deteriorating economic conditions following a military
take-over, a doctor’s union said Friday. The Sudan’s Doctors Committee issued a
statement saying that 187 people were wounded in clashes with police in Khartoum
on Thursday, 70 of whom were likely struck by rubber bullets. Three of the
wounded were shot in either the head or chest and are currently in intensive
care, it added. Riot police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters
who had sought to reach the Republican Palace, seat of the military government.
Videos posted on social media showed police firing tear gas, according to The
Associated Press. Thursday’s marches were the latest in near-daily street
protests since the military took over on Oct. 25, removing a civilian-led
transitional government. Since then, at least 87 people have been killed and
thousands wounded in a bloody crackdown on protesters, according to the doctor’s
union.
From Syria to Ukraine Border: Refugee Aids War Victims
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
When 28-year-old Syrian Omar Alshakal saw the exodus of desperate people fleeing
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he knew first hand what they were going through --
and starting thinking of ways to help. "As a person who came from a war I
completely understand how people are scared and fleeing, trying to be safe," he
told AFP, shivering in his jacket and grey beanie in the freezing temperatures
at the Siret border crossing between Ukraine and Romania. "I try to make sure I
can help as many people as I can and give them hope for the future," he says.
The stocky, bearded Alshakal spent periods in detention in Syria, along with
countless others who joined protests against the dictatorship of President
Bashar al-Assad, AFP said. Then, he says, in 2013 he was injured by an explosion
close to the car in which he was trying to get injured people to hospital. After
making his way to Turkey to seek medical care, in 2014 he decided with two
friends to undertake an arduous swim across to Greek territory, the gateway to
the EU where he dreamt of starting a new life. Following a brief stay in Germany
he returned to Greece in order to help others fleeing and in 2017 founded the
Refugee4Refugees association on the island of Lesbos.
Children in tears
Last month, moved by the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine, he decided to
head to Siret, where 130,000 people have crossed the border since February 24,
overwhelmingly women and children. "I remember the first time at the border I
saw a small girl screaming 'Daddy' and crying," he remembers. Many able-bodied
men have remained in Ukraine to fight the Russian forces. His association rented
a small hotel a couple of kilometers from the border where they could house
between 50 and 100 refugees. An annex of the building has already been filled
with piles of food and hygiene supplies, Alshakal says, while unloading a truck
carrying humanitarian aid along with other volunteers. The wooden skeleton of an
extension to the site stands nearby, with the hope that this can expand
capacity.
'One family'
The site is staffed by around 10 of Alshakal's colleagues from around the world,
and the organization is trying to find more people who can join the effort.
Alshakal says he wants to make those fleeing "feel like we are one family". "We
are together for the happiness and for the sadness," he adds.
Having a Syrian passport means travelling isn't always as smooth as it might be.
On his way into Romania he says he was stopped and questioned by the police
about what he planned to do there. As for his own future, he says: "My life is
back home, next to my family and my friends". "I am dreaming of going back but
don't see it happening now," he adds. Waiting for him in Syria are his parents,
a brother and sister whom he hasn't seen in almost 12 years. For now he takes
things day by day. "Today I hope no one will need help and everyone will be
safe, this is my dream."
Four Rockets Target Iraq’s Balad Airbase
Baghdad – Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
The Iraqi Security Media Cell said on Thursday that four rockets fell in open
areas in Balad Airbase, leaving no damage or casualties. The media cell stated
that the authorities will hunt down the perpetrators of this “cowardly terrorist
act”, reassuring Iraqi citizens that “the acts of criminal terrorist gangs will
not pass unless the perpetrators are put behind bars and under the judgment of
the law.”Balad Airbase houses Iraqi F-16, L-159, and T-6 fighter jets. It also
includes facilities, equipment, and integrated spare parts to maintain these
combat aircraft. No group has claimed responsibility, but armed groups, that
some Iraqi officials say are backed by Iran, have claimed similar incidents in
the past. Authorities will hunt down the perpetrators of this “cowardly
terrorist act,” the cell affirmed, reassuring Iraqi citizens that “gangs that do
not want stability for Iraq” will be held accountable. Security sources revealed
that the rockets were fired from towns in the vicinity of Tigris river in Khalis
district, some 50 kilometers north of Baghdad. They pointed out that the rockets
targeted the headquarters of the US company, Sallyport, which houses foreign
contractors affiliated with Lockheed Martin company. Iraqi forces thwarted an
attack by three drones targeting the Balad Airbase on January 15. Three drones
approached the southern perimeter of the Balad Airbase, some 90 km north of
Baghdad, prompting the Iraqi forces to open fire on the drones and forcing them
to flee the scene.
European Union Insists on Its Three ‘Noes’ in Syria
Damascus - London – Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 March, 2022
The European Union has reconfirmed rejection to normalization with the Syrian
regime, to reconstruction and to lifting of sanctions until a political solution
in line with UN Security Council resolution 2254 is firmly underway. “Yesterday
marked 11 years since the beginning of the tragic and bloody conflict in Syria,”
said High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy, Josep Borrell. “Unfortunately, the conflict continues still today, and
the humanitarian needs are at their highest with 14.6 million Syrian people in
need of assistance inside and outside of the country. Syrian refugees constitute
the largest displacement crisis in the world with 5.7 million registered
refugees. Another 6.9 million Syrian nationals are displaced within Syria.”He
went on saying that “the Syrian people remain a priority for the European Union.
The international community must keep up the search for a durable and
comprehensible political solution in Syria, and the European Union remains fully
committed to this goal.” “At their meeting with UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen
at the Foreign Affairs Council on 24 January, EU Foreign Ministers restated
their unity and reconfirmed the EU’s position: no normalization with the Syrian
regime, no reconstruction and no lifting of sanctions until a political solution
in line with UN Security Council resolution 2254 is firmly underway. At the same
time, the European Union continues to support the efforts of UN Special Envoy
Pedersen, including his “steps-for-steps” approach, and remains committed to the
unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian state.” Borrell noted
that on 10 May, “the European Union will co-chair with the UN a sixth Brussels
Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the region, with the
participation of governments, international organizations and Syrian civil
society.”The European Union and its Member States remain the largest provider of
international aid and deliver humanitarian, stabilization, and resilience
assistance inside Syria and in neighboring countries. Last year the EU as a
whole pledged €3.7 billion in total for 2021 and beyond. Since 2011, the EU and
its Member States have mobilized over €25 billion for the conflict in Syria,
according to Borrell. “Eleven years have passed on the US-backed terrorist
aggression on Syria that mainly aimed to obstruct its economic development, shed
blood of Syrian youths and destroy its achievements and infrastructure,” SANA
reported, citing Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. On
Wednesday, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States of
America released a joint statement on the occasion of the 11-year anniversary of
the beginning of the Syrian conflict. “It is past time for the regime and its
enablers, including Russia and Iran, to halt their ruthless attack on the Syrian
people,” the statement read.“The coincidence of this year’s anniversary with the
appalling Russian aggression against Ukraine” they said, “highlights Russia’s
brutal and destructive behavior in both conflicts.” “We do not support efforts
to normalize relations with the Assad regime and will not normalize relations
ourselves, nor lift sanctions or fund reconstruction until there is irreversible
progress towards a political solution. We encourage all parties, especially the
Syrian regime, to participate in the March 21 meeting of the Constitutional
Committee in good faith and call for the Committee to deliver on its mandate.”
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 18-19/2022
Question: "If Jesus is our atonement, why
did He die at Passover instead of the Day of Atonement?"
GotQuestions.org/March 18/2022
Answer: Every one of the Old Testament sacrifices typified Christ. The Passover,
or paschal, sacrifice was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God.
The paschal lamb was to be a male, without spot and blemish, and not a bone was
to be broken. Jesus fulfilled this picture perfectly. As the Israelites applied
the blood of the sacrifice in faith, so we today apply the spotless blood of
Christ to the “doorposts” of our hearts. In all these ways, “Christ our Passover
has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
An objection sometimes arises that the paschal sacrifice was not considered an
atonement; rather, atonement was provided for the Jews via the sacrifices on Yom
Kippur (the Day of Atonement). Ergo, so the objection goes, Jesus, who was
killed at Passover and who is called “our Passover” in the New Testament, could
not have been an atonement for sin.
There are two ways to counter this objection. The first is simply to show how
Jesus also fulfilled the symbolism of Yom Kippur. Jesus bore our sins in His own
body (1 Peter 2:24) and tasted death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9). In doing so, He
offered a better sacrifice than those of Yom Kippur—better because Christ’s
sacrifice was permanent and voluntary and did not just cover sin but removed it
altogether (Hebrews 9:8-14).
The second counter is to point out that Jewish tradition did indeed view the
Passover sacrifice as being expiatory; that is, the lamb removed sin from God’s
view. The Passover lamb died under God’s outpoured wrath, thus covering over the
sins of the one offering it. Here’s what Rashi, a well-respected medieval Jewish
commentator, has to say: “I see the Paschal blood and propitiate you. . . . I
mercifully take pity on you by means of the Paschal blood and the blood of
circumcision, and I propitiate your souls” (Ex. R. 15, 35b, 35a).
During the tenth and final plague in Egypt, the Passover sacrifice literally
saved individuals from death (Exodus 12:23). On the basis of the redemptive
offering of the Passover blood, the firstborn lived. Again, Rashi comments: “It
is as if a king said to his sons: ‘Know you that I judge persons on capital
charges and condemn them. Give me therefore a present, so that in case you are
brought before my judgment seat I may set aside the indictments against you.’ So
God said to Israel: ‘I am now concerned with death penalties, but I will tell
you how I will have pity on you and for the sake of the Passover blood and the
circumcision blood I will atone for you’” (Ex. R. 15.12, on Exodus 12.10).
The Passover lambs brought atonement to the believing Jewish households on that
signal night of judgment and redemption. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra also links the
Passover with atonement: “The mark of blood was designed as an atonement for
those within the house who partook of the paschal offering, and was also a sign
for the destroying angel to pass by the house” (Soncino Chumash, pg. 388).
When John the Baptist saw Christ, he pointed to Him and said, “Look, the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus is the “Passover
lamb” in that He was silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7) and in His death
bore the wrath of God, preserved the lives of all who trust Him, and gave
freedom to the former slaves of sin.
Biden's EIKO Sanctions Concession Is a Gift to the
Ayatollahs
Emanuele Ottolenghi/The National Interest/March 18/2022
Lifting sanctions on EIKO will not advance Joe Biden’s purported goal of a
nuclear détente with Tehran.
Upon taking office, the Biden administration committed to “putting human rights
at the center of U.S. foreign policy” and defined “combatting corruption as a
core U.S. national security interest.” Yet, as part of its impending deal with
Iran, the administration will lift sanctions on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and
his $100 billion corporate empire-cum-slush fund known as EIKO, which stands for
Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order. Thanks to the extraordinary power it wields
as Khamenei’s economic arm, EIKO is essentially an extortion racket that has
seized a dominant position in Iran’s economy through corruption, arbitrary
confiscation of private property, denial of due process, and preferential access
to investment and bidding contracts. Under Khamenei’s direct control, EIKO is
also tax-exempt and completely opaque. It enables him to fund every pet project
he wishes and shake down ordinary Iranians to replenish its coffers.Lifting
sanctions on EIKO does not advance Joe Biden’s purported goal of a nuclear
détente with Tehran. The move would simply be a payoff to the supreme leader to
secure his approval of a new nuclear deal.
The Obama administration sanctioned EIKO in June 2013, along with thirty-seven
subsidiaries in Iran and overseas, which the Treasury Department’s top
counterterrorism official described as “a shadowy network of off-the-books front
companies” whose job is to “hide billions of dollars of corporate profits at the
expense of the Iranian people.” Nonetheless, as part of the 2015 nuclear deal,
formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the United
States delisted EIKO. Then, as now, the move had nothing to do with nuclear
issues. It was a reward for the supreme leader.
EIKO is an immense conglomerate that a 2013 Reuters investigation valued at
almost $100 billion. More than half of this wealth, by Reuters’ estimates,
consists of real estate often acquired illegally through arbitrary confiscation
and judicial arm twisting at the expense of dissidents, religious minorities
like the Baha’is, and Iranians residing abroad. Given that Reuters’ assessment
drew from land, real estate, and stock exchange values as old as 2008, EIKO may
be worth much more once sanctions are lifted and, more importantly, will
generate significantly more revenue than it already does.
As my colleagues Behnam Ben Taleblu and Saeed Ghasseminejad noted in 2017, “EIKO
has become a vehicle for Khamenei to receive huge sums of money without any
oversight, solidifying his grip on the country’s byzantine power structure atop
which he sits.” This corruption, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was
responsible for delays in the acquisition and distribution of life-saving
personal protection equipment (PPE) for Iran’s civilian population. EIKO was
also reportedly hoarding PPE to profit from its citizens’ misery.
EIKO’s companies occupy virtually every sector of Iran’s economy, ranging from
real estate and energy to wealth management funds, insurance, and
pharmaceuticals, making it a formidable competitor for foreign bids and
contracts. Foreign companies returning to Iran’s market will soon discover that
their business ventures all have the supreme leader as a silent partner; their
investments will have to compromise with the corruption he supervises. And the
revenue they generate may end up facilitating the covert advancement of nuclear
weapons.
As the Treasury Department made clear in its 2013 sanctions announcement, EIKO
was engaged in “assisting the Iranian government’s circumvention of U.S. and
international sanctions.” The announcement followed the revelation in April 2013
that EIKO controlled factories in Europe that gave Iran access to sensitive
dual-use nuclear technology.
Sanctions relief for EIKO, and for all its previously sanctioned subsidiaries
and officials, will also increase the supreme leader’s access to discretionary
funds used to support terrorism and spread Iranian propaganda.
As my colleagues Eric Lorber and Matthew Zweig noted in 2019, the executive
order under which EIKO is currently sanctioned (E.O. 13876) has nothing to do
with nuclear issues. The order targets “actions of the Government of Iran and
Iranian-backed proxies, particularly those taken to destabilize the Middle East,
promote international terrorism, and advance Iran’s ballistic missile program,
and Iran’s irresponsible and provocative actions in and over international
waters, including the targeting of United States military assets and civilian
vessels.”
Removing EIKO from the sanctions list on the pretext of nuclear détente follows
no clear logic. At least in theory, the impending deal will impose meaningful
restraints on Iran’s nuclear program, thus removing the need to sanction its
components. But the deal will have no provision to restrain corruption or
judicial abuse. On the contrary, EIKO will be able to act with impunity abroad
much like it already does at home.
The new Iran deal will make EIKO—a lead culprit in the clerical regime’s
corruption, plunder of state resources, human rights abuses, terrorism, and
regional adventurism—much richer than ever before. This is Biden’s gift to the
ayatollahs. It is the price of negotiations built around the hope that Tehran
will be grateful for Biden’s commitment to diplomacy rather than eager to
exploit it to the hilt.
*Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, a non-partisan research institute in Washington DC focusing on
national security and foreign policy. Follow him on Twitter @eottolenghi.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/bidens-eiko-sanctions-concession-gift-ayatollahs-201258
Putin Likely to Make Nuclear Threats If War Drags, U.S.
Says
Anthony Capaccio/Bloomberg/March 18/2022
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-17/putin-is-likely-to-make-nuclear-threats-if-war-drags-u-s-says?srnd=politics-vp&sref=TP1pJeIF
President Vladimir Putin can be expected to brandish threats to use nuclear
weapons against the West if stiff Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s invasion
continues, draining conventional manpower and equipment, according to a new
assessment by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency. “Protracted occupation
of parts of Ukrainian territory threatens to sap Russian military manpower and
reduce their modernized weapons arsenal, while consequent economic sanctions
will probably throw Russia into prolonged economic depression and diplomatic
isolation,” Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency, said in its new 67-page summary of worldwide threats.
The combination of Ukraine’s defiance and economic sanctions will threaten
Russia’s “ability to produce modern precision-guided munitions,” Berrier said in
testimony submitted to the House Armed Services Committee for a hearing on
Thursday.
“As this war and its consequences slowly weaken Russian conventional strength,”
Berrier added, “Russia likely will increasingly rely on its nuclear deterrent to
signal the West and project strength to its internal and external audiences.”
The Pentagon agency’s grim appraisal of the war’s broader stakes comes on the
eve of a call between President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping. Even
as U.S. officials struggle to discern China’s position on the war, Biden will
seek Xi’s help ratcheting up pressure on Moscow to end it. Putin already has
announced that he’s put Russia’s nuclear arsenal on a state of higher alert. The
Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately return a request for comment on
the Defense Intelligence Agency report.
Unlike a report on global threats issued by multiple intelligence agencies last
week with findings that predated the Russian invasion, the new report reflects
information as of Tuesday.
A senior Pentagon official told reporters Thursday that the invasion is largely
stalled, with Russia relying so far on more than 1,000 long-range missile
strikes into Ukraine.
“U.S. efforts to undermine Russia’s goals in Ukraine, combined with its
perception that the United States is a nation in decline, could prompt Russia to
engage in more aggressive actions not only in Ukraine itself, but also more
broadly in its perceived confrontation with the West,” Berrier said.A key
motivation for the invasion, he said, is Russia’s determination “to restore a
sphere of influence over Ukraine and the other states of the former Soviet
Union.”
He added that “despite greater than anticipated resistance from Ukraine and
relatively high losses in the initial phases of the conflict, Moscow appears
determined to press forward by using more lethal capabilities until the
Ukrainian government is willing to come to terms favorable to Moscow.”
Earlier: U.S. Spy Chiefs Reject Russia’s Claims of Ukraine Bioweapons
Putin’s Order
Berrier said Putin’s order in February putting Russia’s nuclear forces on
“special combat duty” refers to “heightened preparations designed to ensure a
quick transition to higher alert status should the situation call for it.”In
addition to seeking to intimidate Russia’s adversaries, he said, it reflects
“Moscow’s doctrinal views on the use of tactical, non-strategic nuclear weapons
to compel an adversary” into pursuing negotiations “that may result in
termination of the conflict on terms favorable to Russia, or deter the entry of
other participants when Russian offensive progress of its conventional forces
looks like it might be reversed or the conflict becomes protracted.”
On conventional forces, Berrier said Russia’s setbacks so far in Ukraine call
into question Putin’s boasts about his military’s ability to deter or defeat
threats with “fifth-generation fighters, state-of-the-art air and coastal
defense missile systems, new surface vessels and submarines, advanced tanks,
modernized artillery, and improved military command and control and logistics.”
(Updates with Biden-Xi call, comments on Putin’s nuclear alert, starting in
fifth paragraph.)
The US Must Reestablish Deterrence
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/March 18, 2022
The complacency with which the Biden administration has come to view military
threats, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as a thing of the past has led to
a misguided prioritization of issues such as climate change as the biggest
threat facing the US. This misguided focus has come at the expense of a
realistic definition of what the US's vital national interests are and should be
in the face of actual national security threats.
Over the past two decades, US leadership has waned, especially as it has
retreated from the Middle East and Europe -- where its military presence has
been reduced from 400,000 troops in the 1950s to just around 60,000 troops
today. US credibility has been compromised, as its reputation for adhering to US
commitments -- failing to prevent the crossing of red lines in Syria and the
Afghanistan debacle, to mention just two examples -- has been wrecked.
Rebuilding deterrence will require a massive political and military recommitment
to vital national interests. Those will require a policy reorientation that
acknowledges that the US is the primary Western force in a world with global
military threats from a variety of bad actors -- China, Russia, Iran and North
Korea primary among them.
"How many times do you have to make this point that if you don't have more
resources, you get political leadership that makes the case to the American
people that we face threats on multiple fronts and if we want to defend our way
of life as we know it and our interests around the world, protect our allies,
not as acts of charity but because it benefits us, then you do it. And if you
can't do it, you can't be a world power anymore..." — Former National Security
Advisor, Ambassador John R. Bolton, Ronald Reagan Institute, February 24, 2022.
The complacency with which the Biden administration has come to view military
threats, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as a thing of the past has led to
a misguided prioritization of issues such as climate change as the biggest
threat facing the US.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has proven, sadly, that US deterrence lies in
tatters.
While Russia's invasion represents an absolute low point thus far, US deterrence
has been eroding for years. The cause is failed policies and ill-defined
national interests, which bad actors such as Russia, China and Iran have clearly
been noting.
They saw, in 2013, President Barack Obama demonstrating that a "red line" by the
US in Syria meant nothing, and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could get
away with killing 1,400 civilians with chemical weapons. They saw that Russia
could invade Georgia and annex Crimea, while China could seize Hong Kong -- and
the US let them, with no negative consequences, not even a side effect.
They also saw, in August 2021, that US President Joe Biden was willing to
surrender Afghanistan to terrorists in sandals, abandon a US ally and give its
citizens and people, who had loyally worked with the US for 20 years, over to
murderous chaos.
It is this constant erosion of US deterrence -- the impression that the US is
all talk and no action and can no longer be trusted as a global force -- which
arguably led Russian President Vladimir Putin to calculate that he would be able
to invade Ukraine without paying much of a price.
The task ahead for the US is how to prevent the Putins, Xi Jinpings and
Khameneis of the world to become even further emboldened to try their hand at
advancing their territorial ambitions on the Baltics, the countries of Northern
Europe, Eastern Europe, Taiwan, the South China Sea and the Middle East. The US
needs to reestablish the necessary deterrence in the face of military threats
that the US -- and the West in general -- has come complacently to believe to be
outdated and irrelevant, mere relics from the Cold War.
There are two things, primarily, that the US needs to do to deter bad actors and
reassure allies that it is a force with which one can and must reckon: Focus on
vital US national interests and massively recommit to the national security of
the US and its allies. At the moment, as the historian Bernard Lewis often said,
"America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend."
Vital national interests
The complacency with which the Biden administration has come to view military
threats, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as a thing of the past has led to
a misguided prioritization of issues such as climate change as the biggest
threat facing the US. This misguided focus has come at the expense of a
realistic definition of what the US's vital national interests are and should be
in the face of actual national security threats.
More than two decades ago, in July 2000, the Commission on America's National
Interests, with Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs,
the Nixon Center, and RAND, produced a report, "What are America's National
Interests?" (also known as the Belfer Report), which listed US national
interests as "conditions that are strictly necessary to safeguard and enhance
Americans' survival and well-being in a free and secure nation".
The Belfer Report listed five areas, primary among them the prevention,
deterrence and reduction of the threat of attacks on the US or its military
forces abroad, and ensuring the survival of US allies and their active
cooperation with the US in shaping an international system in which we can
thrive. More than 20 years later, as China and Russia seek to extend their
spheres of influence, these two paramount interests are not being properly
upheld by the US, which has been retreating from vital regions and deterrent
military expenditures.
Focusing all US efforts in the Indo-Pacific to safeguard against China's
territorial designs on the South China Sea ignores the fact that China's growing
influence and power is global. In the Middle East, for instance, in the growing
absence of the US, which, under Biden, has deprioritized the region while
increasingly accommodating Iran, China is now the ascending power, investing
heavily in and making agreements with practically all Middle Eastern countries,
including close US allies such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The
Chinese Communist Party has been filling in the growing vacuum that the US is
leaving behind and propping up Iran, with a 25-year strategic agreement.
The Belfer report concluded:
"Instrumentally, these vital interests will be enhanced and protected by
promoting singular US leadership, military and intelligence capabilities,
credibility (including a reputation for adherence to clear US commitments and
even-handedness in dealing with other states), and strengthening critical
international institutions-- particularly the US alliance system around the
world."
Meanwhile, the exact opposite has occurred: Over the past two decades, US
leadership has waned, especially as it has retreated from the Middle East and
Europe -- where its military presence has been reduced from 400,000 troops in
the 1950s to just around 60,000 troops today. US credibility has been
compromised, as its reputation for adhering to US commitments -- failing to
prevent the crossing of red lines in Syria and the Afghanistan debacle, to
mention just two examples -- has been wrecked.
A massive recommitment to international security and US allies
Rebuilding deterrence will require a massive political and military recommitment
to vital national interests. Those will require a policy reorientation that
acknowledges that the US is the primary Western force in a world with global
military threats from a variety of bad actors -- China, Russia, Iran and North
Korea primary among them. Safeguarding a world with an international system in
which the US can thrive, therefore, requires that the US reengage globally,
instead of pursuing a policy according to which threats can be isolated, as with
China, to the Indo-Pacific, and entire regions such as Africa and South America,
be ignored as irrelevant to US national security.
The Biden administration, or whatever administration follows it, would do well
to acknowledge that China threatens the entire planet and that it cannot be
contained by simply concentrating efforts in the Far East. Russia's threat to
Ukraine is also not isolated, but could extend to Moldova, the Baltic states,
Finland, Sweden and beyond. Iran's threat to the Middle East -- nuclear and
through its terrorist proxies -- and its quest for hegemony cannot be solved
through Biden's habitual accommodation and restraint, but on the contrary,
requires robust deterrence.
There are a multitude of security challenges in the world that impinge on the
national security of the US and its allies. The US, if it is to remain a global
force, will have to recommit its efforts to confronting those challenges. These
new threats means doubling down on strengthening US military and intelligence
capabilities -- especially in the face of a technologically ascendant China that
is extremely focused on its military modernization and in unseating the US as
the primary global power. America will also have to prioritize regions that the
US, under Biden, mistakenly assumes that it can leave behind, such as the Middle
East."The argument that because we are pressed by China, which I have described
as the existential threat to the West in the 21st century, we have to give up
focus elsewhere, is simply wrong," Former National Security Advisor, Ambassador
John R. Bolton, recently said at the Reagan Institute.
"And it's not to say that at any given moment in time your resources are
fixed... because that is a view that ignores history. On December 7, 1941 at the
end of the day our resources were fixed and a lot lower... How many times do you
have to make this point that if you don't have more resources, you get political
leadership that makes the case to the American people that we face threats on
multiple fronts and if we want to defend our way of life as we know it and our
interests around the world, protect our allies, not as acts of charity but
because it benefits us, then you do it. And if you can't do it, you can't be a
world power anymore... If you're going to play on the world stage, play on the
world stage."
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished
Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 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.
‘Report: 2,300 Christian Churches Desecrated; Violence
Coincides with Arrival of Thousands of Muslim Migrants’
Raymond Ibrahim/March 18, 2022
The following was written by WND:
A column at the Gatestone Institute by Raymond Ibrahim, a distinguished senior
fellow at Gatestone and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center,
is decrying the 2,300 Christian churches that have been vandalized in Greece.
The details, Ibrahim confirms, come from the nation’s Ministry of Education and
Religious Affairs, which notated 2,339 incidents of church desecrations in
Greece between 2015 and 2020.
That’s during a time when Greece was being flooded with “migrants from the
Islamic world,” he reported.
According to the Greek City Times, “There appears to be a correlation between
the increase in illegal migration and the incidents of attacks on Greek Orthodox
religious churches and religious spaces during the five year period which
occurred during the peak of the migration crisis.”
In 2020 alone, there were “385 incidents against Christian churches and
buildings, including ‘vandalism, burglary, theft, sacrilege, necromancy,
robbery, placement of explosive devices and other desecrations,'” the report
said.
While few incidents have made the headlines in English-language reporting, one
egregious case came last year when “Muslim migrants entered into and utterly
desecrated a small church. Proud of their handiwork, they videotaped portions of
the incident and uploaded it on TikTok. It shows a topless migrant dancing to
rap music as he walks towards and inside the church. The next clip shows the
aftermath: devastation inside the church, with smashed icons and the altar
overthrown.”
The year before, “Muslim migrants ransacked and transformed a church into their
personal toilet. This public restroom was once the St. Catherine Church in Moria,
a small town on the island of Lesvos, which was flooded with migrants who
arrived via Turkey,” the report said.
That report said, “As a deeply religious society, these attacks on churches are
shocking to the Greek people and calls to question whether these illegal
immigrants seeking a new life in Europe are willing to integrate and conform to
the norms and values of their new countries.”
In fact, residents there no longer feel safe, the report said.
In another attack, “in 2016, the Church of All Saints in Kallithea near Athens
was set aflame by ‘Arabic speakers’ — historically conscious Greeks see a
continuum in the Islamic targeting of their churches.”
The pattern is a common one for Muslims moving into a nation, the report said.
“We should remember that Greece spent 400 years under Turkish Islamic rule and
that the fight for freedom was bloody. With that in mind it is even more
dramatic seeing these images of fighting age migrants desecrating Greek holy
places and having no respect for the country they are allegedly seeking refuge
in,” the Times continued.
Ibrahim explained it was in 1453 that Muslims attacked and destroyed “countless
Greek churches, including Hagia Sophia.”
One historian explained Muslim ruler Suleiman Pasha ravaged the faith.
“‘Where there were bells, Suleiman broke them up and cast them into fires. Thus,
in place of bells there were now muezzins.’ Cleansed of all Christian ‘filth,’
Gallipoli became, as a later Ottoman bey boasted, ‘the Muslim throat that gulps
down every Christian nation—that chokes and destroys the
The attacks, Ibrahim wrote, are not just happening in Greece, either. “All
around Western Europe, churches are under attack. This is especially true of the
two countries home to Europe’s largest Muslim populations: Germany and France.”
In one region in Germany alone, 200 churches were vandalized, with crosses
broken, the report said.
“Before Christmas, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, where more than a
million Muslim migrants reside, some 50 public statues of Jesus and other
Christian figures were beheaded and crucifixes broken,” Ibrahim explained.
In France, an average of two Christian churches a day are vandalized.
Ibrahim noted one thing is clear: “Greece has become the latest exemplar of
‘Islam’s Rule of Numbers’ — a rule which posits that the more Muslims grow in
numbers, the more practices intrinsic to Islam grow with them, in this instance,
the desecration of Christian churches.”
Putin’s War: The Next Phase
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 18/2022
As it heads for its second month, like other wars in history, the war in Ukraine
seems to be finding the rhythm and tempo that determines its cruising speed at
least for some time.
One thing that all wars have in common is that, after an initial shock-and-awe
period, they are factored in as part of the broader picture of life. As wars
vary widely in terms of length it is hard to know when that factoring-in starts.
The 30-year war and the 100-year wars in Europe didn’t become part of the
broader picture of European existence with the same cadence.
What all wars have in common is that, once they have reached their cruising
speed, they revert to being what they originally were: a form of communication
or, in fact, the continuation of politics by other means. As actual fighting
becomes part of a multifaceted reality, the quest for a way to end the war
begins to loom as the central issue. Wars are aimed at replacing a status quo
regarded as undesirable by one or both adversaries by a new one acceptable by
the winning side and tolerable by the loser.
In a sense, the Ukraine war started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea by
Russia and its fomenting of secession in Donetsk and Luhansk. The latest upsurge
in fighting shows that both Vladimir Putin who started the war and successive
authorities in Kyiv failed to tackle the political core issues that caused the
conflict.After last month’s invasion, the conflict has drawn in a wider circle
of powers involved, albeit vicariously, among them the European Union and the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Beyond them, almost all members of
the United Nations are also involved if only because, in one way or another,
they have to take sides. So far, the European Union and NATO have opted for what
amounts to knee-jerk reaction to show that they are doing something without
deciding what it is they are actually facing.
The Ukraine problem, if one might label it thus, is an evil twin. One part of it
concerns what to do about Putin and his (mis-)reading of the world. The other
part is about Russia and the challenge of finding its proper place in a global
system of which it has become part with a paradoxical mixture of reluctance and
temptation.
The Putin part of the twin is obviously transient.
Regardless of what happens in this war Putin’s historic timespan is bound to be
shorter than Russia as a nation-state.
Yet, both EU and NATO seem to equate Russia, an abiding reality, with Putin, an
epiphenomenon that can be waited out.
What the EU and NATO seem to have ignored is that Putin, though still popular,
does not represent the evolving long-term reality that is post-Soviet Russia. I
am not even sure that the 300 or so “oligarchs” cast as Putin’s support-base
would be prepared to follow him all the way if they felt he is on the losing
side.
Seizing the assets of the oligarchs makes good news copy. But I doubt if it will
sway Putin away from his adversarial trajectory. In any case, if the oligarchs’
assets were produced by corruption if not actual theft, why did Western
democracies welcome them as legitimate “investment”? And, if they were legit to
start with, why seize them when the Western legal system excludes guilt by
association?
The sanctions that punish wide sections of the Russian people could turn out to
be equally counter-productive. Millions of Russians work in the part of the
economy that has been integrated into the global system. French companies claim
to have created over a million direct or indirect Russian jobs. Large numbers of
Russians live in EU countries as well as the US and Canada. France is home to
over 40,000 Russian permanent residents and, before the war, hosted over a
million Russian tourists each year. According to EU estimates over 250,000
Russians have personal accounts in Western banks.
In the past three weeks thousands of Russians, among them businessmen,
academics, and intellectuals, have left their country while anti-war protests
have taken place in dozens of towns and cities across the federation.
Both the EU and NATO would do well to try and de-couple Putin and the Russian
people through information, public diplomacy, and carefully targeted sanctions.
It is important to show that Western democracies are not after excluding Russia
from its proper place in the concert of nations and that it is Putin’s misguided
policy that is leading them to global pariah status. Despite occasional
outbursts of Slavophilia, the Russian people have often aspired after a proper
place as a European nation. The current course taken by NATO and EU gives the
wrong impression that the choice facing Russians is between asserting their
power by force as Putin wants and being denied a top table seat by Western
powers.
The Western democracies also need to foster a dialogue with those nations that
are tempted to use Putin’s adventurism in the service of their own unresolved
conflict with the West.
China’s attempt at hedging its bets is shortsighted and could end up adding
further complication to an already tangled web. There is also an urgent need for
active diplomacy with India, Brazil, and two dozen “developing nations” in
Africa and Asia that feel schadenfreude about “big powers” going for each
other’s jugular.
More importantly, however, even if Putin has burned all his bridges, the Western
democracies should be prepared to suggest a bridge if and when he understands
that he could push no further.
The temptation to let Putin dig an even deeper hole for himself may be hard to
resist. But the aim is to end this senseless war, not to humiliate Putin,
history will do that. Apart from China at least half a dozen other nations could
help foster a dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow as the first step away from an
even bigger tragedy. It is now clear that the Ukraine war cannot end as Putin
dreamt. Putin could create a second Syria where after six years of unbridled
violence he has ended up in control of five percent of the territory in a
country where half the population was driven out of their homes.
No matter how this war ends the issue of how to fit Russia into the
international order would have to be tackled. Right now, however, there are few
signs that Western policymakers are preparing for that immense task.
China at the Center of Tensions and Polarization
Nabil Amr/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 18/2022
Observers of the course of the Chinese policy know that the leaders of this
giant country avoid confrontation in any situation, unless it's forced upon
them.
That happened when former US President Donald Trump put countering China at the
heart of his foreign policy objectives. Nonetheless, the requisites for becoming
a superpower safeguarding and developing its interests around the globe have
compelled its leaders to establish a political school of their own. It is
founded not only on not appearing hostile but also lurking behind conflict
areas, seeking to seize opportunities for advancing Chinese interests.
The merits of this policy have been demonstrated during the Russian-Ukrainian
war, and its spread around the globe, as China has interests in all six
continents. starting from its exports of Qurans and Ramadan lanterns to many
Islamic nations, to beyond flooding the global markets with consumer products-
though of relatively low quality- but with prices no country in the world can
compete.
On the margins of this military conflict, the West’s godfather, the US, is
seeking to convince China to take a neutral position by pointing to its disputes
with its Russian ally, and the “Rome meeting” was not the last of those
attempts. Talks did not end with the seven-hour meeting, while US statements on
China supplying arms to Russia and its concern about the Sino-Russian
relationship are nothing but attempts to apply pressure that are more akin to
attempts to appeal to China than provoke tensions, at least for now.
The US is this war’s godfather from a distance. It might have more reservations
in this regard than Europe. It also doesn't exclude China from its analyses and
assessments of how to achieve its central goal of ending the war, and ward off
the specter of its expansion east or west. Indeed, who is better placed than
China to play an effective role in achieving this goal or bringing it closer?
Europe continues to make overtures to China after its attempts to appease the
Russian bear had failed to prevent Russia from barging into the continent,
igniting a war whose ramifications are being first and foremost affecting
exporters of energy and food. The world’s eyes have inevitably turned to the
Gulf states, where energy production is highly advanced. These countries have
anticipated and prepared for wars, conflicts, and competition through a policy
of opening up to all those who, opening up to, had been forbidden during the
Cold War because of the polarization created by the Cold War.
These countries will not throw away the ties they have built with China in
various fields. Their relations are not a bonus; they are central to the
discussion. The Saudi invitation extended to the Chinese President was timed
deliberately, as was the interval for making it. If the visit is made after the
Holy month of Ramadan, then the initial fog created by the war would have
cleared up. Until it is heeded, the invitation sends a message: “You are on our
mind.”
All the leading players in the Ukrainian war are seeking a “Chinese bride’s
hand" in marriage. All the suitors want to couple with this immense “bride” to
advance their agendas, be they compatible or conflicting with those of China.
And so far, China has been playing coy, lurking, and monitoring. Its biggest
fear is being forced to directly and explicitly pick sides, which would involve
taking heavy losses whichever way the decision takes. No one, not even Chinese
leaders themselves, knows for sure how long they can continue to avoid picking
sides.
Military progress in the war proceeds at a slow pace, no party close to a
decisive victory, and China is at the center of this polarization, with all the
big players in making the political and economic decisions vying for its
support. So long as that is the case, China, which is secretly unsettled by the
war and afraid of having to pay some of its cost as its economic stature
relative to the rest of the world, including Europe and America, continues to
grow, has no choice but to take its traditional choice, which it shares with
those in a similar position: mediation.
It may be too early to tell when its position will crystalize, but this is the
choice China is most likely to make.
After Ukraine, the Arab world faces new realities
Khemaies Jhinaoui/The Arab Weekly/March 18/2022
The Middle East and North Africa will not be immune from the shockwaves of
Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West.
The rapid evolution of the conflict, with its military, economic and
humanitarian manifestations, has caught the world by surprise. It was even more
so in Arab countries, which were fundamentally ill-prepared to deal with any
contingencies challenging their own precarious balance.
In many regards, if no remedial and preventive actions are taken, the Ukraine
conflict could very much exacerbate the region’s already volatile and
complicated situation.
This is especially the case in the economic field.
Many of the MENA countries had been already struggling to curtail the financial
fallout of the pandemic now find themselves dealing with a new and unprecedented
economic crisis.
The prospect of sharp hikes in energy and wheat prices as well as the possible
disruption of food supplies will, in various degrees, affect countries in the
region. For the more vulnerable of the MENA countries, the situation could even
lead to a new wave of social unrest reminiscent of the violent uprisings that
shook the Arab world during the last decade.
Food security in the region is also at risk. Economically-challenged countries
in MENA, such as Syria, Tunisia, Lebanon and Yemen, are exposed to the adverse
impact of food and grain price hikes and shortages. But the poorer segments of
all the region’s populations stand to lose even more than others.
Most Arab countries are major importers of food staples. Egypt is the world
largest wheat importer with 80% of its supplies coming from Russia and Ukraine.
Lebanon imports 60% of its wheat from Ukraine. Tunisia was already witnessing
food price rises and supply disruption even before the start of war. The country
imports 50% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
The other obvious economic implication of the war for the MENA region is its
impact on the energy market. Oil and gas producing countries, such as Algeria,
Libya and the Arab Gulf states, are likely to benefit from the surge of energy
prices as they will most probably be called upon to step in the vacuum left by
Russia after EU and US sanctions. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, or
even Libya, do have the capacity to pump more oil. They are likely, however, to
maintain a delicate geostrategic balance when determining their policy on oil
and gas prices and output.
A number of other Arab countries including Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco, are net
energy importers. They will need to find ways to assume the burden of financing
unexpected heavy fuel bills in the future. Energy price hikes will push up
inflation rates and potentially ratchet up social tensions.
Politically, changes are likely to affect the wider picture of relations with
Europe and the US. The region, already coping with Washington’s geostrategic
disengagement, may need to prepare for a diminishing European interest in
Euro-Med partnerships, as European attention turns to consolidating strategic
alliances within the continent itself. This new focus is likely to mean greater
military and economic expenditures will be allocated to help with reconstruction
in Eastern Europe. Fewer resources are therefore likely to be available for
regional development projects and North-South integration.
This shift could also mean that the attention Europeans give their neighbours
south of the Mediterranean will be self-servingly limited to combating illegal
immigration and terrorism. The drive for reform, political or economic, will be
put on the back-burner. Countries amid democratic transitions could be left to
grapple with their own turbulent processes as their regional partners are busy
with other priorities elsewhere.
But the West’s need for more oil and gas output is also likely to give Middle
East and North African exporters more leverage and relieve them from European
and US pressures for reform.
It is quite difficult to imagine a scenario in which the war in Ukraine will not
adversely affect international efforts to resolve conflicts in the region. The
war in Ukraine is surely going to increase instability of the MENA region rather
than advance the agenda for peace.
A war in the heart of Europe risks relegating MENA conflicts to the back-burner.
Multilateral institutions, especially the UN Security Council, already deeply
divided on how to solve regional conflicts, particularly in Libya, Syria and
Yemen, could find themselves unable to contribute to conflict settlement. Wars
in Libya, Syria and Yemen could be left to local and sub-regional protagonists
to handle.
Russia’s role in the region is also likely to change. Instability in the Middle
East will be bigger problem for Europe than it is for Russia. With the exception
of Syria and Iran, where Moscow has vested strategic interests, Russia could
play the role of spoiler rather than an active peace builder, especially if it
feels its vital interests to be in jeopardy. Moscow’s most recent obstructive
move during the Iran deal talks offers an indication of what to expect from a
Russia under Western siege.
The rapidly deteriorating relations between Russia and the West will have their
own impact on multilateral efforts to deal with various ongoing conflicts across
the region. It will certainly widen the chasm within the UN Security Council,
making it difficult if not impossible to reach any consensus among the P5 on
possible settlement of crises in the MENA region.
It may be too soon to fully assess the real impact of the war on Arab-West
relations and Euro-Med cooperation in particular. But there might be reason for
hope. The current situation could offer an opportunity for leaders from the two
shores of the Mediterranean, once a truce is in effect, to reflect together on
the shortcomings of the past process and to explore new ways of cooperation in
renewable energy, green economy and near sourcing.
For Arab countries, it is time to reassess and recalibrate all past calculations
so as to adjust to unfolding changes. Pan-Arab regional institutions should be
keener on closer cooperation amidst the current crisis. Having failed to
coordinate their efforts to meet the challenge of the pandemic, they may not
have now the luxury of ignoring the disastrous impact of the Ukraine war on
their food security and their own stability at home.
Biden needs to wake up to the menace of Iran
Luke Coffey/Arab News/March 18, 2022
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last week fired 12 ballistic missiles at
the US Consulate and military base in Irbil, northern Iraq. The missiles were
probably launched from Iranian territory, although this has not been publicly
confirmed.
Although the attack is a serious escalation in Iran’s reckless behavior it is
really nothing new. According to US Central Command: “Iran’s ballistic missile
force is the most formidable in the region.” It is no secret that Tehran has
been supplying its proxy forces across the region with advanced missiles and
drones.
This latest strike is a continuation of a pattern of Iranian-backed proxies
firing ballistic missiles at important targets throughout the Middle East, most
notably in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and sometimes in Iraq.
The date and time of the latest attack is also probably no coincidence. It took
place the night of March 11, the birthday of former IRGC commander Qassem
Soleimani. Some observers on social media pointed out that it occurred at 1:20
a.m., which is approximately the time Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike
in January 2020.
There is also the Ukrainian angle to consider. It is no secret that Russia and
Iran enjoy a close relationship. For years, Moscow has provided diplomatic top
cover for Tehran at the UN Secretary Council and in talks over Iran’s nuclear
program. The Kremlin and the Iranian regime work hand in glove in Syria, too.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced that 16,000 fighters from
Syria will soon join the Russian military operation in Ukraine. If this is
accurate, it is likely that these forces will be Iranian-backed groups. They
will probably travel to Russia via Iran and the Caspian Sea due to restrictions
placed on Russian warships and military aircraft by other countries in the
region.
Also, there has been a lot of discussion about the possibility of the US
providing Ukraine with more advanced air defense systems. There is no better way
to prevent this from happening, or at least make it more difficult, than
increasing the ballistic-missile threat to US interests in the Middle East.
Russia knows this and probably welcomed, if not encouraged, recent Iranian
attacks.
Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that Iran may have launched this attack
against the US at the behest of Russia as a form of “horizontal escalation” in
response to American support for Ukraine.
But perhaps most importantly, this recent attack occurred after a year of
weakness displayed by the Biden administration toward Iran. Just look at the
number of attacks against the US by Tehran and its proxies since Biden entered
the White House.
In February 2021, Iranian proxies fired rockets at a section of Irbil
International Airport that housed a US military base. Two people were killed and
eight wounded. A couple of months later, in April, a drone attack damaged a
building at the airport.
Iran’s latest attack on US targets show it’s high time Biden said ‘enough is
enough.’
Last October, US and Syrian opposition forces were targeted by a drone attack on
Al-Tanf base in southeastern Syria. Again Iran was accused of being behind the
assault. At least five drones armed with bombs attacked both the US side of the
base and the side housing Syrian opposition fighters. Luckily, there were no
casualties. According to US officials, Tehran provided the drones and gave the
green light for the attack but it was not launched from inside Iran.
In January, Houthi missiles targeted Al-Dhafra airbase in the UAE, where
Emirati, American and French soldiers are based. The US used its Patriot missile
defense system to shoot down two missiles. It was the first time they had been
deployed in combat since 2003.
And what has been the American response to this yearlong campaign by Iran and
its proxies to target US forces in the Middle East? Nothing.
Iranian leaders know that the Biden administration is desperate for a new
nuclear deal. For months, their negotiators have been leading on the US by
pretending that an agreement is just around the corner. Meanwhile, they are
using Washington’s desperation for a deal to squeeze out every last possible
concession.
Since the Biden administration wants a deal at almost any cost, Tehran has
assessed, correctly, that it is likely to turn a blind eye to Iran’s malign
activities across the region.
Even with the talks with Iran in Vienna now on life support as a result of the
breakdown in relations between the US and Russia over Ukraine, the White House
has shown no sign of halting the negotiations.
Until Iran and its proxies are met with force they will continue to attack
civilian, commercial and US military targets across the region. The first thing
the Biden administration needs to do is scrap the talks with Iran about its
nuclear program and revert to the Trump administration’s campaign of maximum
pressure against Tehran.
The second thing the US must do is use military force to strike Iran and its
proxies in a lethal but proportional manner. Drone strikes against American
troops and missile attacks against their bases cannot go unanswered.
Until Iran is met with decisiveness it will continue its reign of terror. This
threat is not going away. One year into his presidency, Joe Biden needs to wake
up to the challenge and threat posed by Iran.
*Luke Coffey is the director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign
Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @LukeDCoffey
Biden’s political comeback much less than meets the eye
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab News/March 18, 2022
Washington insiders read polls like the rest of the country looks at baseball
scores: Relentlessly, daily, obsessively. A politician’s “numbers” are akin to
understanding his political health. A basic rule of thumb is that any president
with an approval rating over 60 percent can tell Congress what to do and be
pretty sure to get what he wants, so great is his sway with the public. On the
other hand, a president with a rating below 40 percent must spend his time
trying to squelch rumors that he is dead.
So, on its surface, it is notable that President Joe Biden’s recent numbers tell
of his survival from a near-death political experience. Following months of
intraparty Democratic bickering, the White House’s signature “Build Back Better”
initiative — a multitrillion-dollar bill stuffed with progressive wish-list
items like universal preschool and free community college — fell victim to both
Senate moderates (such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of
Arizona) and the alarming resurrection of inflation. In the wake of this
ignominious defeat, Biden had only a 40 percent approval rating in
RealClearPolitics’ aggregation of presidential polls. The president found
himself on the cliff-edge of continuing relevance.
Recently, however, things have begun to look up politically for the White House,
as Biden’s numbers have slowly but clearly edged upward to about 43 percent
approval; far from great, but trending away from the writing off of his
presidency. Two seminal factors explain the marginal improvement: The abatement
of COVID-19 and the advent of the Ukraine war.
In the case of the first, after two grim years of lockdown, death and economic
stultification, at last things seem to be returning to something approaching
normal, with the children back in school (if still too often masked, in defiance
of “the science”), parents back at work and commerce picking up. The fourth
quarter of 2021 saw US gross domestic product increase 0.5 percent, 1.7 percent
quarter-on-quarter, and the American economy enjoy its best year as a whole
since 1984, growing at a robust 5.7 percent. While these impressive numbers are
contextually a reaction to the deep dive the US economy took just before as a
result of the pandemic, they do signal a very welcome return to economic
normality.
At the same time, the Biden of old has reemerged as a result of the Ukraine
crisis. Measured, moderate and clear-spoken, the president has made it obvious
that, while he supports the hard-pressed Zelensky government in Kyiv, he is
sensibly not prepared to risk widening the conflict by adopting a dangerous
no-fly zone over Ukraine. Following his lead, and despite Volodymyr Zelensky’s
impassioned pleas, NATO has unanimously followed suit.
Biden’s pro-Ukrainian tilt, then, has its limits. While genuine, it is secondary
for the president to containing a possible escalation of the war. Beyond being
strategically reasonable, Biden’s position is where most Americans are regarding
the conflict. The war has reminded US voters of the “safe pair of hands” they
thought they were electing in the first place, before the Biden White House came
to be hijacked by the left wing of the Democratic Party.
A three-point ‘bounce’ in the polls hardly amounts to a sea change in how the
American public views the president.
But it is far too early for White House staffers to be quaffing champagne
regarding Biden’s political comeback, as a number of overexcitable commentators
have done. For one thing, a three-point “bounce,” while better than a drop,
hardly amounts to a sea change in how the American public views the president. A
March 15 Wall Street Journal poll confirms this. Only 29 percent of US voters
think the president will run for reelection, with a dominant 52 percent
believing Biden will call it quits after only one term in office.
If Biden were to run and win again, he would be 82 at the time of his second
inauguration, by far the oldest man to have held the most demanding job in the
world. Given his increasingly stiff gait, often rambling answers to questions
and abject forgetfulness, it is unkind but true to note the president has lost a
step over the past few years. The world seems dangerous, complicated and
demanding. A large majority of the American people do not think Biden is up to a
second term.
Beyond the personal, one issue above all has reared its ugly head, stifling the
prospects for Biden’s comeback. As this column has long worried about, it is now
increasingly clear that the beast of inflation — long cowed by the resolute
actions of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and President Ronald
Reagan — has slipped its restraints. Inflation increased to an eye-popping 7.9
percent year-on-year in February, the highest level in fully 40 years. Food,
rent and fuel costs were dangerously climbing even before the Russian war has
made an energy price shock a reality.
As the world looks increasingly like the dreary 1970s — stuck in a stagflation
of low growth, high inflation and decreased living standards — Biden is sure to
be blamed for this, just as Jimmy Carter was in 1980. Biden’s uptick in the
polls is a blip, not a salvation. Instead, longer-range forces are bearing down
on the White House, making it likely that, one way or the other, Biden is merely
a one-term president.
*John C. Hulsman is the president and managing partner of John C. Hulsman
Enterprises, a prominent global political risk consulting firm. He is also a
senior columnist for City AM, the newspaper of the City of London. He can be
contacted via johnhulsman.substack.com.