English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 01/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him
Letter to the Hebrews 12/01-13/:”Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children ‘My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.’ Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live?For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 31-November 01/2021
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman discusses Lebanese diplomatic rift with GCC leaders
UAE instructs citizens in Lebanon to return home amid ongoing crisis
KSA Slams Iran 'Dominance' as Qatar, Oman Urge Calm with Lebanon
Saudi FM calls for Lebanese system to be freed from ‘Hezbollah’s domination’
Saudi FM: No crisis with Lebanon, but rather crisis in Lebanon due to Iran's proxies
Saudi-Iran 'Proxy Wars' Play Out in Embattled Lebanon
Al-Rahi Urges Aoun, Miqati to 'Take Decisive Step' to Defuse Gulf Row
Kordahi Says His Resignation is 'Out of the Question'
Israel’s army launches week-long simulation of full-scale war with Hezbollah

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 31-November 01/2021
We Must Attack Iran Now,’ Insists Israeli Lawmaker
US will respond to Iran’s actions, ‘price’ to pay for nuclear talks failure: Biden
American B-1B bomber flies over Mideast amid Iran tensions
U.S. says it is in talks with allies on getting Iran to agree to nuclear deal
Saudi FM says Palestinian state before Israel normalization
Three Rockets Hit near Baghdad Green Zone
Iran Suspects Israel and U.S. behind Fuel Cyber Attack
Saudi-Iran 'Proxy Wars' Play Out in Embattled Lebanon
Sudanese Anti-Coup Protesters Barricade Streets
Thousands march in Sudan against coup, UN works to facilitate civilian-military dialogue

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 31-November 01/2021
The EU's Dangerous Policy Towards Iran's Mullahs/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/October 30/2021
France: Can this Journalist Become President and Save France?/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/October 31, 2021
Visions of Destruction and Construction in the Iranian and Gulf Strategies/Raghida Dergham/October 31, 2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 31-November 01/2021
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman discusses Lebanese diplomatic rift with GCC leaders
Reem Krimly, Al Arabiya English/31 October ,2021
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Sunday thanked Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al Sabah for the measures their countries took in the diplomatic rift with Lebanon, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. This came in a phone call the Saudi king held with Bahrain’s King and Kuwait’s Emir, according to SPA. During the call, King Salman “expressed his appreciation for the measures taken by Kuwait towards the statement made by the Lebanese Minister of Information, which reflects the solidarity of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries,” SPA reported. Bahrain’s King Hamad “reiterated the depth of relations” between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and the cohesion of the GCC states. For his part, the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf said: “The measures taken by Kuwait affirm the unity of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.”Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries expelled Lebanese envoys in a diplomatic spat, following critical comments about the Arab Coalition military intervention in Yemen by Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi.

UAE instructs citizens in Lebanon to return home amid ongoing crisis
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/31 October ,2021
The UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed its citizens in Lebanon to return home amid the ongoing Gulf-Lebanese crisis. “In light of current events and based on the decision to ban UAE citizens from traveling to Lebanon and the decision to recall UAE diplomats from Lebanon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on all citizens present in Lebanon to return to the UAE as soon as possible,” the ministry said in a statement. Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi sparked a diplomatic crisis with Gulf countries because of his comments on Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s involvement in the Yemen war. Kordahi said on Sunday resigning was “out of the question”, insisting that his comments were his personal views made before he became a cabinet member.Saudi Arabia expelled Lebanon’s envoy from the country and banned all Lebanese imports. Bahrain and Kuwait followed suit, and the UAE withdrew its diplomats from Beirut.

KSA Slams Iran 'Dominance' as Qatar, Oman Urge Calm with Lebanon
Agence France Presse/October 31, 2021
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has blamed his country’s row with Lebanon on Hizbullah and Iran's "dominance" over Lebanese politics. "There is no crisis with Lebanon but a crisis in Lebanon because of Iranian dominance," he told Al-Arabiya television, adding: "Hizbullah's dominance of the political system in Lebanon worries us." The kingdom, which wields strong influence over many of the smaller Gulf states, has stepped back from its former ally Lebanon in recent years, angered by the influence of Hizbullah. Qatar -- which in January this year repaired a rift of its own with Saudi Arabia -- and fellow GCC member Oman meanwhile urged restraint and dialogue between Lebanon and the Gulf countries. "The (Qatari) foreign ministry calls on the Lebanese government to take the necessary measures... urgently and decisively, to calm the situation and to mend the rift," it said.
Oman said all parties should strive "to work to avoid an escalation, and address differences through dialogue."The row has been sparked by a Lebanese minister's criticism of the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen. It has seen Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain expel Lebanese envoys and recall their own ambassadors. The UAE has meanwhile withdrawn its diplomats from Beirut while Riyadh has also banned all Lebanese imports. In his remarks -- recorded in August before becoming minister but aired on Monday -- Information Minister George Kordahi called Yemen's seven-year war "futile" and said it was "time for it to end."He said Yemen's Huthi rebels were "defending themselves... against an external aggression," adding that "homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed" by the Saudi-led coalition. The Huthis are backed by Saudi arch-rival Iran, which has significant influence in Lebanon, where it backs the powerful Hizbullah.

Saudi FM calls for Lebanese system to be freed from ‘Hezbollah’s domination’
The Arab Weekly/October 31/2021
DUBAI--Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Saturday the latest crisis with Lebanon has its origins in a Lebanese political setup that reinforces the dominance of the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group and continues to allow endemic instability. Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf countries expelled Lebanese envoys in a diplomatic spat that risks adding to Lebanon’s economic crisis, following critical comments about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen by Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi. “I think the issue is far broader than the current situation,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told Reuters. “I think it’s important that the government in Lebanon or the Lebanese establishment forges a path forward that frees Lebanon from the current political construct, which reinforces the dominance of Hezbollah.”He said this setup “is weakening state institutions within Lebanon, in a way that makes Lebanon continue to process in a direction against the interests of the people of Lebanon.” The row has triggered calls by some Lebanese politicians for the resignation of Kordahi, who has refused to resign or apologise for comments where he described the Saudi-led campaign against Iran-backed Houthis as an “aggression”. “We have no opinion about the government in Lebanon. We have no opinion as to whether it stays or goes, this is up to the Lebanese people,” the minister, speaking from Rome where he was attending the G20 summit, said. Kordahi has been publicly backed by Hezbollah.
“Exploratory vein”
Saudi Arabia has shunned Lebanon for years because of the strong influence in state affairs of Shia militant group Hezbollah, which it accuses of sending fighters to Yemen and Syria and of promoting Iran’s regional agenda. Iran and Saudi Arabia, the leading Shia and Sunni Muslim powers in the Middle East, have been rivals for years but they launched a series of talks this year hoping to defuse tensions. “We’ve had four rounds of talks so far. The talks are cordial but remain in an exploratory vein. We continue to hope that they will produce tangible progress … but so far, we have not made sufficient progress to be optimistic,” Prince Faisal said. Asked if there will be another round of talks, the minister said nothing had been scheduled, “but we are open to continue”. As part of efforts to ease tensions, Teheran and Riyadh have engaged on how to end the seven-year conflict in Yemen, where tens of thousands have been killed and millions are at risk of starvation. The war has also strained relations between Riyadh and its traditional ally Washington, as US President Joe Biden has said that ending the war his top foreign policy priority but has yet to find ways to pressure the Houthis to accept a peace settlement. The Biden administration decision after its inauguration last January to halt “offensive” arms shipments to Riyadh ha sent the “wrong signal” to the Houthis and disappointed the Saudis, Gulf analysts say. “So I would disagree with that characterisation (of strained relations). I think when it comes to Yemen, we with the US are on the same page, we both support a comprehensive ceasefire, we both support a political process to resolve the conflict,” Prince Faisal said. “I think it’s clear that the kingdom is committed to a ceasefire and it’s up to the Houthis to decide to sign on for that and we would not tie any discussions about our defensive capabilities to a ceasefire.”

Saudi FM: No crisis with Lebanon, but rather crisis in Lebanon due to Iran's proxies
Ismaeel Naar, Hussein Kneiber and Omar Elkatouri, Al Arabiya English/31 October ,2021
Prince Faisal bin Farhan said there is no crisis with Lebanon but rather a crisis in the country due to the hegemony of Iran’s proxies, the Kingdom’s foreign minister told Al Arabiya on the sidelines of the G20 summit. “The problem is even bigger. The problem in Lebanon is the continued Hezbollah dominance of the political system, and the continued inability of governments, political officials and political leaders in Lebanon to take a way out of this crisis and from this tunneled crisis,” he told Al Arabiya. “The crisis there is not a crisis between us and Lebanon to some extent. There is a crisis in Lebanon with the dominance of Iran's proxies over the scene, and this is what concerns us, and this is what makes it useless to deal with Lebanon, and I do not think for the Gulf states and the task now is that the leaders in Lebanon wake up and seek a way out to bring Lebanon back to its place in the Arab world and this is available and they are able if God wills it,” Prince Faisal added. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries expelled Lebanese envoys in a diplomatic spat that risks adding to Lebanon’s economic crisis, following critical comments about the Arab Coalition military intervention in Yemen by Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi. On Yemen, Prince Faisal said the Kingdom is committed to its initiative on bringing a comprehensive ceasefire and then a political dialogue, but said the Iran-backed Houthi militia posed a roadblock toward achieving a lasting peace deal. “The Kingdom is committed to what it has put forward. We want to reach a comprehensive cease-fire immediately and then move on to political dialogue. Unfortunately, the Houthis are still relying on a military solution. The Houthis are still showing or presenting their narrow interests and those of regional parties' over Yemen's interest,” he said.
The foreign minister also spoke during his interview with Al Arabiya’s Hussein Kneiber on the Kingdom’s policies regarding the Palestinian conflict. “It has never changed. What is important now is the return of talks between the Palestinians and Israel to see a realistic and real path to the achievement of comprehensive peace, including a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Without this, we will not have real stability in the region. This is our priority now,” he said.

Saudi-Iran 'Proxy Wars' Play Out in Embattled Lebanon
Agence France Presse/October 31/2021
Financially crippled Lebanon finds itself in a new tug-of-war between regional kingpins Saudi Arabia and Iran after Riyadh and other wealthy Gulf states expelled the Lebanese envoy, analysts say. The crisis erupted Friday when Saudi Arabia gave Lebanon's ambassador 48 hours to leave the country, recalled its envoy from Beirut and suspended all imports from Lebanon. The Saudi foreign ministry said the measures were taken after "insulting" remarks made by a Lebanese minister on the Yemen war, but also due to the influence of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbullah. The group, it said, controls Lebanese ports and "hijacks" the government's decision-making in Beirut. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait were quick to follow suit. The crisis is a fresh blow to Lebanon, a country in financial and political turmoil where a fragile government is struggling to secure international aid, namely from wealthy Arab neighbors. But remarks by Information Minister George Kordahi, in an interview recorded back in August aired on Monday, slamming the Saudi-led military intervention against Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen, undermined these efforts. Kordahi said the Huthis were "defending themselves... against an external aggression," sparking angry rebukes from Saudi Arabia and its allies and calls in Lebanon for his resignation. Analyst Karim Bitar said Kordahi's remarks were just a trigger for a looming geopolitical showdown. The escalation "has very little to do with what this mediocre minister of information said... (and) everything to do with the Saudi-Iranian tug-of-war that has been ongoing for the past few years."
'Battlefields' -
"Kordahi was only a pretext for something that was long in the making," he said. Lebanon is "one of the battlefields between Iran and Saudi Arabia" along with Syria, Yemen and Iraq, where the two regional rivals support opposing sides, Bitar added. Riyadh's move also reflects the kingdom's determination to push Lebanon "to take a harsher line on Hizbullah," he said. Hizbullah wields considerable influence in Lebanon, where it holds seats in parliament, and has been designated as a "terrorist" group by Saudi Arabia and much of the West. Prime Minister Najib Miqati has said he "regrets" the Saudi decision, and urged Riyadh to reconsider its move. He did not explicitly call for Kordahi's resignation, but said he did not speak in the name of the government. He urged the minister to "take into consideration Lebanon's national interest... in order to appease ties with Gulf countries." Kordahi was nominated by the Marada Movement, a party allied to Hizbullah and led by Maronite leader Suleiman Franjieh. The minister has refused to apologize -- as both Hizbullah and Franjieh rejected calls for his dismissal. With Lebanon in the grip of an economic and financial crisis -- seen by the World Bank as one of the world's worst since the 1850s -- the diplomatic row becomes all the more damaging.
'Paying the price' -
It comes as Sunni kingpin Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have been holding talks for months to ease tensions after a five-year rift. The arch-rivals broke diplomatic ties in 2016 after protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic republic following the kingdom's execution of a revered Shiite cleric. Bitar said the latest crisis is also linked to these negotiations between Riyadh and Tehran, with Lebanon "paying the price.""When two elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers and Lebanon for the umpteenth time in its history is the grass that is suffering when these proxy wars become more intense," he said. Lebanon's diplomatic fallout with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait also comes at a critical time for the small country. Miqati's fragile government has not met for three weeks amid a campaign spearheaded by Hizbullah to remove a judge investigating last year's devastating blast at Beirut port, accusing him of political bias. "Lebanon needs a cabinet and gains nothing by shooting itself in the foot as it finds itself in the midst of a regional clash," said Michael Young, an analyst with the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center. "Since the Saudis regard Lebanon as an Iranian card, they feel it makes sense to behave toward the country" in its current manner, he added on Twitter. But he warned that "by isolating Lebanon, they will only ensure that Iran and its local proxies tighten their control" over the country.

Al-Rahi Urges Aoun, Miqati to 'Take Decisive Step' to Defuse Gulf Row
Naharnet/October 31, 2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday noted that “the crisis with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in particular and the Arab Gulf nations in general has multiple and accumulating reasons.”“It can harm the interest of Lebanon and the interests of the Lebanese,” al-Rahi warned in his Sunday Mass sermon.“That’s why we are looking forward for the President (Michel Aoun), Premier (Najib Miqati) and everyone concerned with the issue to take a decisive step to defuse the crisis that might blow up the Lebanese-Gulf relations,” the patriarch urged. He noted that he is calling for this “decisive stance in defense of Lebanon and the Lebanese who live inside the country and abroad.”Separately, al-Rahi said the judiciary must continue its investigations into the port blast case and the Ain al-Remmaneh incidents “without any bargaining between the two cases and without any bartering, settlement, politicization or sectarianization.”

Kordahi Says His Resignation is 'Out of the Question'
Naharnet/October 31, 2021
Information Minister George Kordahi on Sunday stressed that he will not resign despite the growing diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. In remarks to al-Jadeed television, Kordahi emphasized that such a move is "out of the question." The crisis erupted Friday when Saudi Arabia gave Lebanon's ambassador 48 hours to leave the country, recalled its envoy from Beirut and suspended all imports from Lebanon. The Saudi foreign ministry said the measures were taken after "insulting" remarks made by Kordahi on the Yemen war, but also due to the influence of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbullah. The group, it said, controls Lebanese ports and "hijacks" the government's decision-making in Beirut. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait were quick to follow suit. In an interview recorded back in August and aired on Monday, Kordahi slammed the Saudi-led military intervention against Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen. The interview was recorded around a month before he became minister. Kordahi said the Huthis were "defending themselves... against an external aggression," sparking angry rebukes from Saudi Arabia and its allies and calls in Lebanon for his resignation.
The minister met with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Saturday and media reports said the patriarch “advised him to resign.

Israel’s army launches week-long simulation of full-scale war with Hezbollah
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/31 October ,2021
Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) and the defense ministry’s National Emergency Management Authority launched on Sunday a week-long exercise simulating a full-scale war with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, Israeli media reported. The military drill will simulate a conflict in which Hezbollah may utilize “100,000 rockets and missiles of different ranges, as well as a smaller but still significant quantity of precision-guided missiles, which have emerged as a potentially major issue for Israel,” the Times of Israel reported. Israeli military officials assessed that Hezbollah’s military capabilities are the “second most serious threat” facing Israel, after an Iranian nuclear weapon. Israel has long viewed the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon as an enemy. Lebanon and Israel are still in a formal state of war and have long contested their land and maritime borders. Israel has also carried out hundreds of air strikes in neighboring Syria in recent years against suspected Iranian military deployments or arms transfers to Hezbollah. “What concerns me as the chief of staff of the Home Front Command: One is the issue of precision-guided munitions and the effect that they will have on our ability to function and on things in the world of incoming fire alerts,” said Brig. Gen. Itzik Bar, chief of staff of the IDF Home Front Command. “The second is the rate of fire and Hezbollah’s ability to conduct truly massive rocket barrages at specific geographic areas — I’ll use the phrase ‘demolishing the front line’ — directed fire at the communities near the border,” he added. The IDF’s atomic-biological-chemical unit will simulate responses to both “intentional chemical weapons attacks along the border, as well as toxic chemical spills from missiles striking Israeli factories.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 31-November 01/2021
We Must Attack Iran Now,’ Insists Israeli Lawmaker
Israeli jets spotted escorting heavy American bombers across the Middle East in clear message to the Islamic Republic
Ryan Jones/Israel Today/October 31, 2021
Tzachi Hanegbi says that Israel needs to attack Iran, and it needs to do so by the end of this year.
Hanegbi is a former cabinet minister and prominent lawmaker with the opposition Likud party. And he insists that Israel’s words need to translate to action in regards to stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Should the US, Europe and other world powers fail in a last ditch effort to convince Iran to return to the negotiating table, Hanegbi said that the current Israeli government would have the backing of the Likud-led opposition to launch a preemptive military strike on the Islamic Republic. “Iran is an existential threat. We give full backing to this government if the decision is made to strike. We are approaching the crossroads of a decision on the Iranian issue,” said Hanegbi at a cultural event over the weekend. “If there is no agreement between Iran and the world powers, we should attack Iran by the end of 2021.”When Israel Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken earlier this month, he noted that Iran would soon become a nuclear threshold state. Israel, he stressed, could not tolerate that outcome. Blinken and other top US officials since then have moved closer to the Israeli position, though without explicitly threatening military action. Israel, on the other hand, has been open about its plans to attack Iran should the Islamic Republic’s defiant nuclear program move forward. A week after Lapid’s return to Israel, his government approved a special budget of 5 billion shekels for a potential attack on Iran. See: War Alert? Israel Approves Budget for Iran Airstrikes. In closely related news, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday tweeted photos and footage of Israeli fighter jets escorting an American heavy bomber across the Middle East. Israel called the flight a demonstration of continued close cooperation between the allies, and it was seen as a clear message to Iran that Israel and the US are ramping up preparation for a joint military operation.

US will respond to Iran’s actions, ‘price’ to pay for nuclear talks failure: Biden
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/31 October ,2021
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday the US will “respond” to actions Iran has taken against American interests, including drone strikes. “With regards to the issue of how we’re going to respond to their [Iran’s] actions against interest of the US, whether they are drone strikes or anything else, is we’re going to respond. We will continue to respond,” Biden told reporters in a press conference after the G20 summit in Rome. American forces and contractors in Iraq and Syria have been regularly targeted by missile and drone attacks which have been claimed by groups that the US have described as smokescreens for well-known Iran-backed armed militias in the region. Biden’s statements comes the US-Iran talks over reviving the nuclear deal have stalled for months since the election of President Ebrahim Raisi in June. Washington has repeatedly expressed that its patience was wearing thin and that should diplomacy with Tehran fail, it was prepared to pursue other options. Bide stressed that should Iran fail to return to the nuclear deal, Tehran would face a “price to pay economically”, signaling Washington’s preparedness to impose further sanctions on the Iranian regime. Talks over reviving the abandoned 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which former US President Donlad Trump withdrew from in 2018, are scheduled to resume late November. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Sunday that if the US was serious about returning to the nuclear accord, Biden should issue an “executive order” to rejoin the pact and that there was no need for negotiations in the first place.

American B-1B bomber flies over Mideast amid Iran tensions
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/ October 31, 2021
The U.S. Air Force said Sunday it flew a B-1B strategic bomber over key maritime chokepoints in the Mideast with allies including Israel amid ongoing tensions with Iran as its nuclear deal with world powers remains in tatters.
The B-1B Lancer bomber flew Saturday over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes. It also flew over the Red Sea, its narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Egypt's Suez Canal.
The Strait of Hormuz has been the scene of attacks on shipping blamed on Iran in recent years, while the Red Sea has seen similar assaults amid an ongoing shadow war between Tehran and Israel. The Islamic Republic has denied being involved in the attacks, though it has promised to take revenge on Israel for a series of attacks targeting its nuclear program. Fighter jets from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia flew alongside the bomber. Iranian state media did not immediately acknowledge the flyover. Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The flyover comes after a pattern of such flights by nuclear-capable B-52 bombers since the Trump administration as a show of force to Iran. Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew America from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Tehran agree to drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. In the time since, Iran has abandoned all the limits of the deal and drastically reduced the ability of international inspectors to keep watch over their program. While Iran insists its program is peaceful, the U.S. intelligence agencies, Western inspectors and others say Tehran had a structured military nuclear weapons program through the end of 2003. President Joe Biden has said he's willing to re-enter the nuclear deal, but talks in Vienna have stalled as a hard-line protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took over as president. Biden sending a B1-B bomber into the region allows him to send “a clear message of reassurance” to regional allies, as the U.S. Air Force's Central Command put it on Twitter. But it doesn't involved a nuclear-capable bomber. The B-1B came from the 37th Bomb Squadron based at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

U.S. says it is in talks with allies on getting Iran to agree to nuclear deal
Reuters/October 31, 2021
The United States was "absolutely in lock step" with Britain, Germany and France on getting Iran back into a nuclear deal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday, but he added it was unclear if Tehran was willing to rejoin the talks in a "meaningful way."Blinken's remarks in an interview with CNN on Sunday come a day after the United States, Germany, France and Britain urged Iran to resume compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal in order to "avoid a dangerous escalation."The accord, under which Iran curtailed nuclear work seen as a risk of developing nuclear weapons in exchange for a lifting of global sanctions, unraveled in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States, prompting Tehran to breach limits on uranium enrichment set by the pact. "It really depends on whether Iran is serious about doing that," Blinken said on Iran rejoining the nuclear talks. "All of our countries, working by the way with Russia and China, believe strongly that that would be the best path forward," he added. The nuclear deal is not the only point of contention between Iran and the United States. On Friday, the United States issued a fresh round of Iran-related sanctions tied to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps drone program that it said threatened regional stability. President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the United States will "respond" to actions Iran has taken against Washington's interests, including drone strikes. Leaders of the United States, Britain, France and Germany, hoping to persuade Tehran to stop enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels, said on Saturday they wanted a negotiated solution. "But we do not yet know whether Iran is willing to come back to engage in a meaningful way," Blinken said on Sunday. "But if it isn't, if it won't, then we are looking together at all of the options necessary to deal with this problem." Iran's foreign minister said separately on Sunday that if the United States was serious about rejoining Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Biden could just issue an "executive order," the state-owned Iran newspaper reported. "It is enough for Biden to issue an executive order tomorrow and they (U.S.) announce they are rejoining the pact from the point where his predecessor left the deal," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said. "If there is a serious will in Washington to return to the deal, there is no need for all these negotiations at all." Talks between Iran and world powers aimed at salvaging the deal, which started in April, are slated to resume at the end of November, the Islamic Republic's top nuclear negotiator said on Wednesday.

Saudi FM says Palestinian state before Israel normalization
Ynetnews/ i24NEWS/October 31/2021
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud says no change in Riyadh's position toward establishing diplomatic ties with Jewish state despite Biden administration's efforts to advance the process
A Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital is a prerequisite for Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel, the Gulf country's foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said in an interview with Saudi news channel Al-Hadath. Although supportive of the Abraham Accords that established diplomatic ties between Israel and four Arab countries, the kingdom has maintained that a resolution to the Palestinian issue must happen before joining the pact. Saudi Arabia has recently made positive moves toward the Jewish state, including allowing the use of its airspace for commercial flights from Tel Aviv to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, significantly shortening travel time between the two countries. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords with Israel at a White House ceremony in September 2020. Morocco and Sudan later followed suit. In an interview last year with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Faisal said that normalization with Israel would take place eventually, "but we also need to have a Palestinian state and we need to have a Palestinian and Israeli peace plan."Despite the comments by Saudi Arabia's top diplomat, it was reported that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is discussing Israel normalization with the Saudis. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan reportedly raised the issue last month in Riyadh during a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). The report stated that MBS did not immediately reject the proposal to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, listing the steps needed to make the move, including improving the relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Other countries mentioned as possible candidates to next join the Abraham Accords include Comoros, Tunisia, Oman, Qatar and Malaysia, although Qatar's foreign minister earlier this month ruled out establishing diplomatic ties with Israel as long as the "occupation of Arab lands" continues.

Three Rockets Hit near Baghdad Green Zone
Agence France Presse/October 31, 2021
Three rockets on Sunday hit a Baghdad neighborhood near the high-security Green Zone where the U.S. embassy is located without causing any casualties, an Iraqi security official said. "Three Katyusha rockets fell in the Mansur district of Baghdad," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. The rockets struck near a Red Crescent hospital, a bank and the district's water management department, the source added. The so far unclaimed attack, the first to target the Green Zone since two rockets fired on July 29, comes as authorities conduct a recount of votes cast in an October 10 parliamentary election. Preliminary results show the Conquest Alliance, the political arm of the Hashed al-Shaabi network of pro-Iranian militias, lost ground in the election. Hashed leaders have vehemently contested the results and several hundred of their supporters staged a sit-in on an avenue leading to the Green Zone this month in protest. The powerful network is fiercely opposed to the U.S. presence in Iraq. Its leaders have repeatedly praised the rocket and drone attacks in recent months that have targeted Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops, without claiming responsibility. Some 2,500 U.S. troops are still deployed in Iraq. They will officially limit themselves to an "advisory" role to the Iraqi security forces from 2022. The Green Zone also houses Iraqi government buildings.

Iran Suspects Israel and U.S. behind Fuel Cyber Attack
Agence France Presse/October 31, 2021
An Iranian general has said Israel and the United States were likely to have been behind a cyber attack that interrupted the distribution of fuel at service stations. Tuesday's attack "technically" resembles two previous incidents whose perpetrators "were unquestionably our enemies, namely the United States and the Zionist regime," the Revolutionary Guards' Gholamreza Jalali said. "We have analyzed two incidents, the railway accident and the Shahid Rajaei port accident, and we found that they were similar," Jalali, who heads a civil defense unit responsible for cyber activity, told state television late Saturday. In July, Iran's transportation ministry said a "cyber disruption" had affected its computer systems and website, according to Fars news agency. And in May last year, the Washington Post reported that Israel carried out a cyber attack on the Iranian port of Shahid Rajaei in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic route for global oil shipments. Tuesday's cyber attack caused traffic jams on major arteries in Tehran, where long queues at petrol stations disrupted the flow of traffic. The oil ministry later took service stations offline so that petrol could be distributed manually, according to the authorities. President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday accused the perpetrators of trying to turn Iran's people against the leadership of the Islamic republic. Around 3,200 of the country's 4,300 service stations have since been reconnected to the central distribution system, the National Oil Products Distribution Company said, quoted Saturday by state news agency IRNA. Other stations also provide fuel for motorists, but at unsubsidized rates that make it twice as expensive at around five Euro cents (5-6 US cents) per liter, the news agency reported. In a country where petrol flows freely at what are some of the lowest prices in the world, motorists need digital cards issued by the authorities. The cards entitle holders to a monthly amount of petrol at a subsidized rate and, once the quota has been used up, to buy more expensive at the market rate. Since 2010, when Iran's nuclear program was hit by the Stuxnet computer virus, Iran and its arch-foes Israel and the United States have regularly accused each other of cyber attacks.

Saudi-Iran 'Proxy Wars' Play Out in Embattled Lebanon
Agence France Presse/October 31, 2021
Financially crippled Lebanon finds itself in a new tug-of-war between regional kingpins Saudi Arabia and Iran after Riyadh and other wealthy Gulf states expelled the Lebanese envoy, analysts say. The crisis erupted Friday when Saudi Arabia gave Lebanon's ambassador 48 hours to leave the country, recalled its envoy from Beirut and suspended all imports from Lebanon. The Saudi foreign ministry said the measures were taken after "insulting" remarks made by a Lebanese minister on the Yemen war, but also due to the influence of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbullah.
The group, it said, controls Lebanese ports and "hijacks" the overnment's decision-making in Beirut. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait were quick to follow suit. The crisis is a fresh blow to Lebanon, a country in financial and political turmoil where a fragile government is struggling to secure international aid, namely from wealthy Arab neighbors. But remarks by Information Minister George Kordahi, in an interview recorded back in August aired on Monday, slamming the Saudi-led military intervention against Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen, undermined these efforts. Kordahi said the Huthis were "defending themselves... against an external aggression," sparking angry rebukes from Saudi Arabia and its allies and calls in Lebanon for his resignation. Analyst Karim Bitar said Kordahi's remarks were just a trigger for a looming geopolitical showdown. The escalation "has very little to do with what this mediocre minister of information said... (and) everything to do with the Saudi-Iranian tug-of-war that has been ongoing for the past few years."
'Battlefields'
"Kordahi was only a pretext for something that was long in the making," he said. Lebanon is "one of the battlefields between Iran and Saudi Arabia" along with Syria, Yemen and Iraq, where the two regional rivals support opposing sides, Bitar added. Riyadh's move also reflects the kingdom's determination to push Lebanon "to take a harsher line on Hizbullah," he said. Hizbullah wields considerable influence in Lebanon, where it holds seats in parliament, and has been designated as a "terrorist" group by Saudi Arabia and much of the West. Prime Minister Najib Miqati has said he "regrets" the Saudi decision, and urged Riyadh to reconsider its move. He did not explicitly call for Kordahi's resignation, but said he did not speak in the name of the government. He urged the minister to "take into consideration Lebanon's national interest... in order to appease ties with Gulf countries."Kordahi was nominated by the Marada Movement, a party allied to Hizbullah and led by Maronite leader Suleiman Franjieh. The minister has refused to apologize -- as both Hizbullah and Franjieh rejected calls for his dismissal. With Lebanon in the grip of an economic and financial crisis -- seen by the World Bank as one of the world's worst since the 1850s -- the diplomatic row becomes all the more damaging.
'Paying the price'
It comes as Sunni kingpin Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have been holding talks for months to ease tensions after a five-year rift. The arch-rivals broke diplomatic ties in 2016 after protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic republic following the kingdom's execution of a revered Shiite cleric. Bitar said the latest crisis is also linked to these negotiations between Riyadh and Tehran, with Lebanon "paying the price." "When two elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers and Lebanon for the umpteenth time in its history is the grass that is suffering when these proxy wars become more intense," he said.
Lebanon's diplomatic fallout with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait also comes at a critical time for the small country. Miqati's fragile government has not met for three weeks amid a campaign spearheaded by Hizbullah to remove a judge investigating last year's devastating blast at Beirut port, accusing him of political bias. "Lebanon needs a cabinet and gains nothing by shooting itself in the foot as it finds itself in the midst of a regional clash," said Michael Young, an analyst with the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center. "Since the Saudis regard Lebanon as an Iranian card, they feel it makes sense to behave toward the country" in its current manner, he added on Twitter. But he warned that "by isolating Lebanon, they will only ensure that Iran and its local proxies tighten their control" over the country.

Sudanese Anti-Coup Protesters Barricade Streets
Agence France Presse/October 31, 2021
Sudanese anti-coup protesters on Sunday manned barricades in Khartoum a day after a deadly crackdown on mass rallies, as a defiant civil disobedience campaign against the military takeover entered its seventh day. Tens of thousands turned out across the country for Saturday's demonstrations, marching against the army's October 25 power grab, when top General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency and detained Sudan's civilian leadership. The move sparked a chorus of international condemnation, with world powers demanding a swift return to civilian rule and calls for the military to show "restraint" against protesters. At least three people were shot dead and more than 100 people wounded during Saturday's demonstrations, according to medics, who reported those killed had bullet wounds in their head, chest or stomach. It takes the death toll since protests began to at least 11. Police forces denied the killings, or using live bullets. "No, no, to military rule," protesters carrying Sudanese flags chanted as they marched around the capital and other cities, as forces fired tear gas to break them up. More than 100 people were also wounded on Saturday, some suffering breathing difficulties from tear gas, the independent Central Committee of Sudan's Doctors said. Sudan had been ruled since August 2019 by a joint civilian-military council, alongside Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's government, as part of the now derailed transition to full civilian rule.
Soldiers on the streets
Hamdok and other top leaders have been under military guard since then, either in detention or effective house arrest.
US President Joe Biden has called the coup a "grave setback", while the African Union has suspended Sudan's membership for the "unconstitutional" takeover. The World Bank and the United States froze aid, a move that will hit hard in a country already mired in a dire economic crisis. But Burhan -- who became de facto leader after hardline ex-president Omar al-Bashir was ousted in 2019 following huge youth-led protests -- has insisted the military takeover was "not a coup." Instead, Burhan says he wants to "rectify the course of the Sudanese transition."Demonstrations on Saturday rocked many cities across Sudan, including in the eastern states of Gedaref and Kassala, as well as in North Kordofan and White Nile, witnesses and AFP correspondents said. As night fell Saturday, many protests in Khartoum and the capital's twin city of Omdurman thinned out. But on Sunday morning protesters were back on the streets, again using rocks and tires to block roads. Shops remain largely shut in Khartoum, where many government employees are refusing to work as part of a nationwide protest campaign. Soldiers from the army and the much-feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces were seen on many streets in Khartoum and Omdurman.
Security forces have set up random checkpoints on the streets, frisking passers-by and randomly searching cars. Phone lines, which were largely down on Saturday, were back apart from intermittent disruptions. But internet access has remained cut off since the army's takeover.
Sudan has enjoyed only rare democratic interludes since independence in 1956 and spent decades riven by civil war. Burhan was a general under Bashir's three decades of iron-fisted rule, and analysts said the coup aimed to maintain the army's traditional control over the northeast African country.

Thousands march in Sudan against coup, UN works to facilitate civilian-military dialogue
The Arab Weekly/October 31/2021
KHARTOUM--The UN secretary general urged Sudan’s generals on Sunday to reverse their takeover of the country, a day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the largest pro-democracy protest since last week’s coup. Tens of thousands of Sudaneses marched across the country calling for civilian rule, from Khartoum to the eastern regions of Gedaref and Kassala and the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, as well as central North Kordofan state and southern White Nile state. Antonio Guterres said the generals should “take heed” of Saturday’s protests. “Time to go back to the legitimate constitutional arrangements,” he said in a tweet. He was referring to a power-sharing deal that established joint military-civilian rule following the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019. Meanwhile, the UN mission for Sudan is working to facilitate dialogue between the military and civilian leaders. A Sudanese military official said that a UN-supported national committee began separate meetings last week with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Burhan to find common ground. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan also called for “a Sudanese dialogue that brings together all parties”, and said Saturday that Sudan’s security was “of paramount importance” to the Gulf kingdom. Guterres expressed concern about violence against protesters on Saturday, calling for perpetrators to be held accountable. At least three people were shot dead when security forces opened fire on protesters in Omdurman, a city adjacent to the capital of Khartoum. A doctors’ union also said more than 110 people were injured by live rounds, tear gas and beatings in Omdurman and elsewhere in the country. With Saturday’s deaths, the overall number of people killed since Monday’s coup rose to 12, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Committee and activists. More than 280 others were injured over the past week. The coup came after weeks of growing tensions between the military and civilians, and the generals had repeatedly called for dissolving the transitional government. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Buhran, who led the coup, has said the takeover was necessary to prevent a civil war, citing what he said were growing divisions among political groups. However, the takeover came less than a month before he was to have handed some power to a civilian. He also claimed that the transition to democracy would continue, saying he would install a new technocrat government soon, with the aim of holding elections in July 2023. But the pro-democracy movement in Sudan fears the military has no intention of easing its grip, and will appoint politicians it can control.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 31-November 01/2021
The EU's Dangerous Policy Towards Iran's Mullahs
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/October 30/2021
 http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/103782/103782/
 The EU also made many concessions to Iran, such as agreeing to include in the nuclear deal sunset clauses enabling the mullahs soon to have as many nuclear weapons as they like.
 Meanwhile, the EU, which never stops moralizing to other countries about how they should be conducting themselves, has turned a blind eye to credible reports regarding Iran's continually violating the nuclear deal as well as pursuing clandestine nuclear activities. By February 2016, Iran had already exceeded its threshold for heavy water for the second time.
 At the same time, when it comes to terrorism, members of the EU have been among the main targets of Iran's terrorist plots. The Iranian regime has been implicated in a series of assassinations, seizing European hostages and other hostile acts across Europe....
 The EU might also do well to see how Iran's military adventurism in the region has escalated -- and will continue to escalate unless it is stopped.
 If Iran acquires nuclear capability, it will no longer even have to use terrorism or hostage-taking -- or even its new bombs -- to blackmail Europe: the mere threat of using one should be sufficient.
 Will the EU please wake up in time and alter its dangerous policy towards Iran?
 The EU also made many concessions to Iran, such as agreeing to include in the nuclear deal sunset clauses enabling the mullahs soon to have as many nuclear weapons as they like. (Image source: iStock)
 For almost six years since the 2015 "nuclear deal," the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was reached, the European Union has been appeasing Iran's ruling mullahs. What the EU fails to see is that that its soft policy towards the mullahs has been a total disaster and dangerous.
 Right after the "nuclear deal" was reached -- which by the way the Iranian regime never signed -- the EU, alongside the Obama administration, lifted nearly all its economic sanctions. It was a gift that helped the Iranian regime to reintegrate into the global financial system. The EU also made many concessions to Iran, such as agreeing to include in the nuclear deal sunset clauses enabling the mullahs soon to have as many nuclear weapons as they like.
 Germany and France appeared to be among the first in a hurry to rekindle business with the ruling mullahs of Iran. Right after the half-signed nuclear deal, the Western half, Germany's former Economic Minister and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, together with a business delegation from Siemens, Linde, Mercedes and Volkswagen, visited Iran, and many large European companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Eni began their plans to do business with Iran. Since then, as nearly 30 Iranian banks reconnected to SWIFT, trade between the EU and Iran has increased almost 43%.
 Meanwhile, the EU, which never stops moralizing to other countries about how they should be conducting themselves, has turned a blind eye to credible reports regarding Iran's continually violating the nuclear deal as well as pursuing clandestine nuclear activities. By February 2016, Iran had already exceeded its threshold for heavy water for the second time. A year after the nuclear deal, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, revealed in its annual report that the Iranian government has pursued a "clandestine" path during the nuclear agreement to obtain illicit nuclear technology and equipment from German companies "at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level." The intelligence report also stated that "it is safe to expect that Iran will continue its intensive procurement activities in Germany using clandestine methods to achieve its objectives."
 After that, the US, one of the key players in the nuclear deal, withdrew from it under the Trump administration and re-imposed sanctions. The EU, however, Washington's old transatlantic ally, parted ways with its Western partner in favor of the mullahs. The EU declined to re-impose sanctions on Iran, then set about keeping business with it alive. Three European governments -- Germany, France and the UK -- created a mechanism, the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), based in Paris and designed primarily to circumvent US sanctions. "We're making clear," Germany's former Foreign Minister Heiko Maas admitted, "that we didn't just talk about keeping the nuclear deal with Iran alive, but now we're creating a possibility to conduct business transactions."
 What has been the outcome of the EU's appeasement of the mullahs of Iran? Business for Europe. Iran's leaders, in the meantime, are now closer than ever to obtaining nuclear weapons. The theocratic establishment is presently close to having enough enriched uranium to refine and build at least one nuclear bomb, requiring only about 1000 kg of uranium enriched at just 5%.
 At the same time, when it comes to terrorism, members of the EU have been among the main targets of Iran's terrorist plots. The Iranian regime has been implicated in a series of assassinations, seizing European hostages and other hostile acts across Europe, some successful, others not, that have been traced back to Tehran. European officials were able to foil a terrorist attack targeting a large "Free Iran" convention in Paris, that was attended in June 2018 by many high-level speakers, including former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird. In 2020, in Belgium, one of Iran's active diplomats, the Iranian Assadollah Assadi, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for trying to plant a bomb.
 The EU might also do well to see how Iran's military adventurism in the Middle East has escalated -- and will continue to escalate unless it is stopped. Since the EU began appeasing the Iranian regime, the region has witnessed more Houthi rocket attacks at civilian targets in Saudi Arabia, the deployment of thousands of Hezbollah foot soldiers in Syria, and the bombardment of Israel by Iranian-funded Hamas rockets.
 Are profit and business really more important to the EU than stopping what the US Department of State refers to as the "world's worst state sponsor of terrorism" from having nuclear weapons? Does the EU continue to appease the mullahs because it believes that an emboldened and nuclear-armed Iran is not going to be a threat to the EU, but only to other countries in the region such as Israel and Saudi Arabia? Since 2015, the EU has met the ruling mullahs of Iran with appeasement, kindness and flexibility every step of the way. This has only empowered the Iranian regime and brought it closer to becoming a nuclear state. The EU might recall what Winston Churchill famously warned against: "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear -- I fear greatly -- the storm will not pass."
 If Iran acquires nuclear capability, it will no longer even have to use terrorism or hostage-taking -- or even its new bombs -- to blackmail Europe: the mere threat of using one should be sufficient.
 Will the EU please wake up in time and alter its dangerous policy towards Iran?
 *Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
 © 2021 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.

France: Can this Journalist Become President and Save France?
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/October 31, 2021
Zemmour... tells the leaders of The Republicans that his proposals are exactly those included in their party's program from 1990... close the borders, suspend immigration, provide social benefits only for the French, and fight the increasing Islamization of the country. He tells Macron that "opening up to diversity" leads to the dissolution of France. Zemmour notes that he does not want to shrink the country, but save it from destruction and will not refuse to see what Islam is and what it can do. He frequently quotes the Algerian author Boualem Sansal, that Islamic neighborhoods in France are "budding Islamic republics". He tells those who say he is a far-right Jew that he is just a conservative attached to the French republic and to all the values ​​that made France great. He states that he is a French Jew, proud of his name, and that those who murdered Jews in France in recent years were not Jews. He rejects the charge of being an apologist for the anti-Semitic Vichy regime by pointing out that what he says about French Jews during WWII was laid out in a book, Vichy and The Holocaust: An Inquiry on a French Paradox, by Rabbi, Alain Michel, who works for the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel. Zemmour stresses that he does not defend the Vichy regime at all, does not say that the Vichy regime "protected" French Jews, but only cites historical facts -- and asks those who criticize him on this point if they think Rabbi Alain Michel is an anti-Semite.
When asked about the Jews murdered by an Islamic terrorist at a Jewish school in Toulouse, Zemmour says that he does not blame their families for having them buried in Israel, that he does not think their families behaved like "foreigners." He simply notes a fact: that they think that above all they are Jews, which is the right of every Jew. He says that the concept of a "great replacement" of Western Christendom by Islam is not a conspiracy theory but a reality: that demographic data show that in many places throughout history, there is documentation of people who have replaced other people after they have imported a civilization that does not have the same values as theirs. He adds that this is not an idea shared only by white nationalists, but by all those who read history and live in areas that are changing rapidly.
France is in an extremely serious situation today. There are more than 700 "no-go zones" (Zones Urbaines Sensibles) ruled by ethnic gangs and radical imams. The police can only intervene in these zones through commando operations. A new kind of disturbance, defined by sociologists as "gratuitous violence" -- violence practiced for the pleasure of injuring and killing -- has been spreading. Hundreds of assaults take place every day; police reports show that the majority of them are committed by "suburban youths"....
A recent survey showed that 14% of young people in France aged 18-30 approved of the motives of the motives of [schoolteacher Samuel] Paty's murderer. A poll conducted in November 2020 showed that 57% of Muslims in France aged 18-25 consider Sharia law to be superior to the laws of the republic.... Entire French towns are now predominantly Muslim: Roubaix, Trappes, Sevran, Aubervilliers.... Each year, 400,000 immigrants legally arrive in France, mostly from the Muslim world. In addition, each year, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, also mostly from the Muslim world, are added to that number.... the newcomers are young, and their birthrate is far higher than that of non-Muslims. A population change is taking place.... If the change continues at the present rate, France could be a predominantly Muslim country around 2050.
Zemmour is also the only presidential candidate who has dared to say that the Palestinian people were invented -- a statement long ago affirmed by former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat -- and that Israel is a nation state that, like all states, has the right to defend itself and fight for its survival.
When Zemmour's supporters are questioned at a public meeting, they unanimously say that he is the only one telling the truth: that a "great replacement" is clearly taking place and could cause France as they know it -- proud of its secularism, Judeo-Christian values and individual liberty -- to "die".
When Éric Zemmour's supporters are questioned at a public meeting, they unanimously say that he is the only one telling the truth: that a "great replacement" is clearly taking place and could cause France as they know it -- proud of its secularism, Judeo-Christian values and individual liberty -- to "die". Pictured: Zemmour in Budapest, Hungary on September 24, 2021.
September 16. Éric Zemmour's new book, France Has Not Yet Said Her Last Word, immediately book becomes a bestseller. Two of his previous books, The French Suicide and A Five-Year Term for Nothing: Chronicles of the War of Civilizations, sold more than 500,000 copies, a high number for non-fiction in France. He is an exception. All authors who write of immigration and Islam without political correctness have been ostracized by the media for years. Not Zemmour. Each time he was fired by radio and television stations, another one hired him. As the last politically incorrect talk show host, his audience consists of people weary of political correctness. He has been dragged into court countless times and ordered to pay high fines, presumably to force him to be quiet. He has paid the fines but would not be quiet.
His earlier books, extremely pessimistic about the future of France, concluded that the country was dying, and unnervingly fast. The cause of death would be the population change resulting from uncontrolled immigration and the ensuing Islamization of the country. Islam, at war with Western civilization for thirteen centuries, he wrote, is incompatible with it. The Muslim population living in France, he went on, does not assimilate, but instead creates extremist enclaves in French territory from which non-Muslims are driven out; and now France finds itself colonized by Islam. French political leaders, he added, practice willful blindness, refusing to see what happens, and slip into submission. The situation, he concluded, is irreversible.
His new book breaks with his former pessimism and shows a willingness to fight. His publisher would not publish the book, so Zemmour published it himself. The book's release was accompanied by a poster campaign from a group, "Friends of Éric Zemmour," created a few weeks earlier. The posters show his face along with the words, "Zemmour President". Zemmour is not even officially a candidate for president of the French Republic - yet. Nonetheless, he acts as if he were on the campaign trail. He has been holding public meetings in large cities and attracting thousands of supporters who seem happy to pay 20 euros ($23) to attend.
On September 13, his television program on CNews was canceled after an institution responsible for regulating audiovisual media in France, the CSA (Superior Audiovisual Council), said that it was "impossible for a presumed presidential candidate to have a television show". Immediately, Zemmour was invited on virtually every radio and television station. In early September, polls credited him with 5%-7% of the 2022 election vote. Recent polls show that, in the first round, he could get 16%-18% of the vote, thereby placing him, in the second round, head-to-head with France's current president, Emmanuel Macron. Never in the history of the Fifth Republic has a presumed presidential candidate had such a dramatic rise to power.
The leaders of The Republicans, France's leading moderate right-wing political party, can see that many of their voters are considering voting for Zemmour, so they still have not chosen a presidential candidate. When they saw that Zemmour had every chance of receiving more votes than anyone else in the party, without even participating in the primary election, they announced that votes for Zemmour would not be counted. The president of the National Rally Party, Marine Le Pen, also can see that many of her voters are turning toward Zemmour. President Macron, for his part, until recently probably assumed that in the second round he would be facing Marine Le Pen, and could again use the fear of "fascism" and the "defense of the republic" by reminding the public that she is the daughter of an unreconstructed anti-Semite, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and therefore get easily re-elected.
Macron now seems visibly anxious and has begun to attack Zemmour's positions by saying that France must be "open to diversity" and that "the identity of France was never built on shrinking the country ". His advisers know it is not possible to accuse Zemmour of anti-Semitism: he is a Jew. French Jews supporting Macron now describe Zemmour as a far-right Jew betraying the values of Judaism. Zemmour has said that the Vichy regime saved French Jews during World War II by preventing them from being sent to the death camps, so some have accused him of defending the Vichy regime and its collaboration with the Nazis. Supporters of Macron and others say that Zemmour is a "racist" and a "fascist". Articles steeped in hatred are published daily in the mainstream media, and journalists who interview him on radio and television always say, before asking him questions , that he is a dangerous man. Some commentators have described him as an "infectious agent" and as a "virus more harmful than the Wuhan coronavirus".
The defamation poured out against him has even appeared in the international press. An article on October 24 in the Wall Street Journal states that Zemmour "has drawn inspiration from former President Donald Trump, is harnessing his celebrity to explore a run for president". It adds that Zemmour "defended the leaders of Vichy France, the regime that collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II", and that
"Mr. Zemmour said that they protected French Jews while handing over foreign-born Jews to the Germans in a necessary compromise to occupation... Mr. Zemmour wrote that families of the children killed in 2012 at a Jewish school near Toulouse were behaving like foreigners for burying their children in Israel".
The newspaper added that Zemmour "has embraced a view held by white nationalists called the 'Great Replacement,' which contends that global elites are conspiring to bring non-European immigrants".
Never has a presumptive French presidential candidate been attacked so unanimously, so viciously and with so much savagery. To find similar attacks, it would be necessary to go back to the 1930s, and at the time the attacks came only from an anti-Semitic far-right press.
Zemmour responds to all criticisms and defamatory remarks. He tells the leaders of The Republicans that his proposals are exactly those included in their party's program from 1990, when, as the Rally for the Republic (RPR), it proposed to close the borders, suspend immigration, provide social benefits only for the French, and to fight the increasing Islamization of the country. He adds that The Republicans betrayed their own party by renouncing its old program.
Zemmour tells Marine Le Pen that she cannot win and she knows it, and Macron that "opening up to diversity" leads to the dissolution of France. He notes that he does not want to shrink the country, but to save it from destruction and that he will not refuse to see what Islam is or can do. He frequently quotes the Algerian author Boualem Sansal, who writes that Islamic neighborhoods in France are "budding Islamic republics". Zemmour tells those who say he is a far-right Jew that he is just a conservative attached to the French republic and all the values ​​that made France great. He states that he is a French Jew, proud of his name, and that those who murdered Jews in France in recent years were not Jews. He says he rejects the charge of being an apologist for the anti-Semitic Vichy regime, and points out that what he says about French Jews during WWII was laid out in a book, Vichy and The Holocaust: An Inquiry on a French Paradox, by Rabbi Alain Michel, who works for the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel. Zemmour stresses that he does not defend the Vichy regime at all, does not say that the Vichy regime "protected" French Jews, but only cites historical facts -- and asks those who criticize him on this point if they think Rabbi Alain Michel is an anti-Semite.
Zemmour reminds those who call him a racist and a fascist that Islam is not a race, and that fascists are the enemies of democracies, while he is trying to save democracy. He adds that those who call him a "virus" remind him of those who called Jews "vermin" in the 1930s; that anti-Semites already decades ago called Jews "vermin," and that calling Jews "vermin" led to horrific consequences.
Zemmour says that he thinks that Donald Trump did great things for the United States -- he is one of the rare French journalists not to spit on Trump -- and that he, Zemmour, would have preferred not to think about running for president, but saw no one else likely to defeat Macron, and therefore has no choice.
When asked about the Jews murdered by an Islamic terrorist at a Jewish school in Toulouse, Zemmour says that he does not blame their families for having them buried in Israel, that he does not think their families behaved like "foreigners." He simply notes a fact: that they think that above all they are Jews, which is the right of every Jew. He says that the concept of a "great replacement" of Western Christendom by Islam is not a conspiracy theory but a reality: that demographic data show that in many places throughout history, there is documentation of people who have replaced other people after they have imported a civilization that does not have the same values as theirs. He adds that this is not an idea shared only by white nationalists, but by all those who read history and live in areas that are changing rapidly.
So far, only one French politician has agreed to debate with Zemmour: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise ("France Unsubmitted"), a far-left party that includes former members of the French Communist Party. The other political leaders treat Zemmour with contempt. If he becomes a presidential candidate, and if he continues to attract a large number of voters, they will not be able to avoid debating him. They know him well, for thirty years, as a journalist and political commentator. He also knows them well -- and is a formidable debater.
Zemmour's presumed candidacy, his success, and the fury it provokes among politicians and journalists seem symptoms of the state of the country today. France is in an extremely serious situation. There are now more than 700 "no-go zones" (Zones Urbaines Sensibles), ruled by ethnic gangs and radical imams. The police can only intervene in these zones through commando operations. A new kind of disturbance, defined by sociologists as "gratuitous violence" -- violence practiced for the pleasure of injuring and killing -- has been spreading. Hundreds of assaults take place every day; police reports show that the majority of them are committed by "suburban youths" and that their victims are Caucasians. In many high schools and colleges, teachers have long since given up even mentioning the Holocaust. Since the beheading of high-school teacher Samuel Paty, who was advocating free speech, they have also given up talking about secularism. When, on October 17, 2021, a year after Paty was murdered, the French government organized a commemoration in all French schools, many violent incidents, unfortunately initiated by Muslim students, took place. A recent survey showed that 14% of young people in France aged 18-30 approved of the motives of Paty's murderer. A poll conducted in November 2020 showed that 57% of Muslims in France aged 18-25 consider Sharia law to be superior to the laws of the republic (in 2016, the figure was 47%).
Entire French towns are now predominantly Muslim: Roubaix, Trappes, Sevran, Aubervilliers. The department of Seine-Saint-Denis will very soon be predominantly Muslim. Marseille, the second-largest city in France, is 40% Muslim and will likely be a majority Muslim city in less than a decade. The population of Lyon, the third-largest city in France, is one-third Muslim.
Each year, 400,000 immigrants legally arrive in France, mostly from the Muslim world. Also each year, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, also mostly from the Muslim world, are added to that number. Hardly any of them are deported. The French population is aging; the newcomers are young, and their birthrate is far higher than that of non-Muslims. A population change is taking place. The September issue of the French monthly magazine Causeur published a detailed investigation of the subject, titled "Smile, You Are Replaced!" It disclosed that while native French women have a fertility rate of 1.9 children, women coming from Algeria have a fertility rate of 3.6 children; from Tunisia, 3.5 children, and from Morocco, 3.4 children. If the change continues at the present rate, France could be a predominantly Muslim country around 2050.
President Macron has not done anything to stop or lessen the flow of Muslim immigration into France or to act against the change in population. He has often said that he wants to fight Islamism -- and always adding that Islamism is an ideology unrelated to Islam. He only once said that "Islam is a religion that is in crisis today, all over the world", without giving a clear explanation of what he meant. Most French Muslim organizations immediately reacted by saying that he had insulted Islam. Demonstrations were launched in several Muslim countries: Turkey, Lebanon, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian flew to Cairo to apologize to Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar Mosque, and emphatically to underscore France's deep respect for Islam.
Macron said in November 2020 that a law to fight "Islamic separatism" would quickly be passed. A law was indeed passed in August 2021, but it does not include the words Islam or Islamism. It is called a "law confirming respect for the principles of the Republic". It speaks of a "separatist dynamic which aims at division" and says that public services should respect secularism, that civil servants should be protected from threats, and that Islamic organizations should disclose their sources of funding. It prohibits polygamy and home schooling.
However, the public services were already supposed to respect secularism; civil servants were already supposed to be protected by the French state, and Islamic organizations were already supposed to reveal their sources of funding. Polygamy was already banned in France, but it exists nevertheless; several thousand French Muslims today are polygamous. Home schooling is practiced by many non-Muslims. The law offers no way to counter the Islamization of France and radical Islam. Two or three radical mosques were closed for a few months, but each year, dozens more mosques open up. Imams calling for jihad continue to preach. Most are French citizens and cannot be expelled. Islamic bookstores continue to sell anti-Semitic books banned in other bookshops. The expression "Islamic separatism" is now used by all political leaders -- including Marine Le Pen -- and by all French journalists when they speak of "no-go zones."
"The Islamists do not want to separate," Middle East scholar Bernard Rougier states in his book The Conquered Territories of Islamism, "they want to submit and conquer". Zemmour is the only journalist not excluded from the mainstream media for speaking like Rougier, and the only presumptive presidential candidate who reminds everyone that all the Jews murdered in France over more than a decade have been killed by Islamic anti-Semites. Zemmour is also the only presidential candidate who has dared to say that the Palestinian people were invented -- a statement long ago affirmed by former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat -- and that Israel is a nation state that, like all states, has the right to defend itself and fight for its survival.
Polls show that the French population is extremely pessimistic about the future of France, and extremely dissatisfied with the current political parties. When French regional elections were held in June, they saw an unprecedented abstention rate for France of 66.7%.
When Zemmour's supporters are questioned at a public meeting, they unanimously say that he is the only one telling the truth: that a "great replacement" is clearly taking place and could cause France as they know it -- proud of its secularism, Judeo-Christian values and individual liberty -- to "die". They almost all add that they think the France of the Enlightenment actually could "die" and that the 2022 presidential election is probably the last chance to save the republic.
The Muslim electorate, increasing in importance in France, is -- no surprise there -- hostile to him. Zemmour says Muslims need to accept criticism of Islam. However, Muslims do not, and Islamic intolerance of free speech is rapidly gaining ground in France. When a teenage girl named Mila made negative comments about Islam on social media, she received so many death threats that she had to go into hiding and still fears for her life.
In spite of articles saying that "Zemmour causes discomfort among French Jews," a large number of them seem set on voting for him: they apparently view the possibility of continuing to live in an increasingly Islamized France as compromised. They have already fled from the Islamized neighborhoods and cities en masse. Nevertheless, the main French Jewish institutions seem to be blind to the danger to French Jews represented by Islamic anti-Semitism. They continue unconditionally to support Macron. "No Jewish vote should go to potential candidate Éric Zemmour", said the president of the Representative Council of the Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), Francis Kalifat. "The ideas of Zemmour can only inspire disgust," he added. He had never used such harsh words for French politicians who supported Palestinian terrorist organizations. Ten years ago, the then-president of CRIF, Richard Prasquier, also warmly received the Palestinians' current leader, Mahmoud Abbas, not exactly known to be pro-Jewish, in Paris.
If Zemmour decides to become a presidential candidate, he will need to do so soon, and undoubtedly knows that being elected will be difficult. He has no support from any political party or any political leader. Attacks against him by the mainstream media will not just continue but intensify.
The French, Zemmour often says, do not want France to "die". The coming weeks will show if he is right.
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
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Visions of Destruction and Construction in the Iranian and Gulf Strategies
Raghida Dergham/October 31, 2021
Strategic visions are intersecting with negotiations, threats, and diktats adopted by the Iranian leadership as it seeks to consolidate its regional position and international relations. At the same time, the Iranian regime is exhibiting a combination of anxiety, tension, and triumphalism. While Iran’s neighbors are racing against the future, drawing strategies for economic growth, tourism, investment, and coherent domestic change as they seek to exit the wars they have been implicated in, and launch regional dialogue such as Saudi-Iranian talks, Iran’s proud priority is its nuclear program and expansionist vision, an ideological, strategic, and tactical priority that forms the raison d’etre of the regime in Tehran. This explains why Iran’s rulers are left furious when elections in a country like Iraq produce results undesirable to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – given Iraq’s crucial status in Iran’s regional expansionist project. Likewise, Iran’s leaders will never allow Lebanon to fall outside the control of its executive partner Hezbollah, because Lebanon is an indispensable instrument in Iran’s strategy vis-à-vis Israel, whether to escalate (even if just verbally) or de-escalate. After all, Syria has been taken off Iran’s hands and can no longer serve as a front with Israel, thanks to a Russian and American decision. This has been a source of great chagrin to Iran, not because Iran is serious about launching a military battle with Israel – which would be by proxy anyway – but because Iran and Hezbollah’s huge military investments in Syria cannot be leveraged to use the latter as a front in the Iranian strategy. Rather, Syria has been leveraged primarily to further Russia’s strategy. As a result, Lebanon’s importance to the Iranian project has risen dramatically, and domesticating this country and confiscating its sovereignty has become a strategic objective of Iran. Yet the US, Europe, Russia, China, and the Arab nations have chosen not to comprehend the implications of this, for different reasons, amid full collusion or ignorance shown by Lebanon’s corrupt ruling cabal. The fate of Lebanon in the equation of nuclear negotiations and regional dialogues has thus become far more complicated than the fate of Yemen, for example, given the priority of the latter in the Saudi-Iranian accords should they come to fruition. But what then are the features of the emerging grand strategy of the major regional powers, led by Saudi Arabia and Iran? And what are the prospects for destruction and construction in the capitals of these powers and the capitals of their satellite nations, like Beirut, Baghdad, and Damascus?
First, it is crucial to understand the emerging strategic vision of the Islamic Republic, as conveyed by informed sources familiar with the outlines set out by the ruling establishment in Iran following the elections and years of sanctions and isolation.
Here, “Iran for Iran” is the broad title of a revival project sought after by Iran’s rulers, whereby a new Iran is envisaged as a major military power backed by multilayered instruments of influence. The basis of this vision is enhancing Iranian identity domestically and developing it abroad so that Iran becomes a respected power wielding influence far beyond the reverberations of regional and international crises. This vision however clashes with the domestic policies that the Iranian regime often deploys against the Iranian people, who are divided into two parts: One that is angry because of their living conditions as compared against those of other peoples, especially in the Gulf neighborhood where Saudis, Emiratis, and Qataris have come to reap the fruits of their countries’ resources to develop and invest in a free, high-tech future; and another that feels proud of their nation’s nuclear capabilities and ideological defiance of the West. It is the latter’s aspirations for Persian revivalism that the rulers of Iran want to capitalize on, if only to contain it and divert it away from challenging the ruling theocratical doctrine.
At the level of foreign policy, the ruling establishment in Iran perceives its interests as crucially dependent on Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq – in this order – remaining part of a pro-Iranian ecosystem. The rulers of Iran want to mobilize these countries’ political parties, movements, and groups, legal systems, force units, and mass media, and to ensure a presence inside their governments to guarantee loyalty in their ranks to Iran’s national and security interests. From the Iranian strategic point of view, this ecosystem must ensure stability, by having the pro-Iranian ecosystem ready to withstand foreign pressures, overcome local obstacles, and sustain a long-term national pro-Iranian domestication to serve stability in the Iranian sense.
According to the Iranian strategic vision, constructing this ecosystem is Iran’s responsibility and must use all channels and instruments, patiently and persistently, with inducements here and threats there, and by empowering local loyalist forces. Iran is determined to never relinquish under any circumstances the trinity of its regional project: Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Whether there is a setback here, or a victory there, the strategic decision is to ‘stabilize’ Lebanon in the framework of Iranian dominance as a priority, followed by Iraq and Syria, all three of which countries are assigned a tailored strategy set forth by the IRGC.
Israel also has its own strategy. In the view of the Iranian leadership, Israel must remain an enemy to mobilize Arab emotional support and justify Iran’s presence in the anti-Israel camp. Iran wants to also work with European countries to partially isolate Israel leveraging their positions vis-à-vis the Palestinian issue. As Iran’s relations with Europe become warmer and deeper, Tehran believes it may be able to influence European policies on Israel, through nuclear inducements – the magic wand to enchant Europe.
The cyber war being waged by Israel on Iran may not come out to the public, in the sense that either Iran or Israel would admit it, as this would mean escalating to direct military confrontation. Neither Iran nor Israel wants that, and both prefer proxy wars using Arab territories.
The second priority in the Iranian foreign policy strategy, after Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, is the Gulf region. The first mission for Iran is to protect its presence there and control strategically the Gulf’s vital routes. Iran’s vision for the region is based on seeking mutual dependence with the Gulf countries instead of open confrontations, by creating facts on the ground that preclude any measures being taken against Iran. Iran is also still seeking a new security structure in the Gulf but understands the difficulty of establishing it especially in light of Iran’s own conditions. Therefore, Iran’s rulers are currently considering a strategy to launch a process that would make their positions stronger.
Iran’s rulers understand well that their country is not yet a global player, but they want Iran to be a global influencer. In the meantime, Iran’s rulers believe regional infiltration is more important. Therefore, they believe it will be crucial to produce a positive impression of a new Iran that adopts a quiet strategy of ‘soft control’, while building a comprehensive mechanism for influence. In their view, this requires expanding the circle of friends to include moderates, and not just hardline friends like Russia and China, to propel Iran’s strategy forward.
The good news is that Iran’s new vision and strategy is not full of explicit threats, yet the Iranian policy vis-à-vis countries like Lebanon and Iraq are anything but ‘soft’. Rather, it is a policy of full subjugation of these two countries to use them in the Iranian security belt.
Perhaps opening a new chapter with Saudi Arabia will lead to new accords on Yemen, where the war is being fueled by the IRGC and Hezbollah, the Lebanese party that sees itself as Iranian ammunition. The Saudi-Iranian talks are dominated by military and security priorities. Yet the talks are crucial for the Gulf as well as Yemen, and perhaps later Lebanon, if only the likes of its Information Minister George Kordahi stop publicizing naïve politics, show a sense of patriotism, and resign – at least out of respect for Lebanese expats eking out a living in the Gulf. His remarks in defense of the Houthis in Yemen, who threaten Saudi national security, expose his ignorance not just about the war in Yemen but also of the writing on the wall when it comes to regional and international negotiations. Perhaps the best thing he can do is resign, so that his career does not end up a disposable commodity of unpatriotic consumption.
Regional and international bargaining is at a peak these days, from the Vienna talks seeking to revive the nuclear deal with Iran, to regional negotiations, amid a tug of war between lenience and intransigence. For now, the fate of the polarization and the outcome remain unknown.
But what is happening in the Arab Gulf states suggest their leaders are resolved not to be stuck in yesterday’s politics and confrontations. The major development projects for the Saudi capital Riyadh, unveiled during the Future Investment Initiative conference, and those of Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, are but two examples of the strategic priorities of these powerhouse nations, who have achieved something worthy of pause by adopting a policy of economic and technological growth seeking to spread confidence and wellbeing among their citizens.
By contrast, the misery felt in Beirut, Baghdad, and Damascus is but proof of the failure of the Iranian doctrine, which has left Iran stuck in time if not taken it back four decades in the past. But Tehran’s rulers do not care about the happiness of the Iranian people in Iran’s magnificent cities, or the happiness of people in Baghdad, Beirut, and Damascus. Still, one can only hope that the new strategy being developed in Iran will prompt them to peek at the breathtaking development of their neighbors. After all, nuclear weapons will not restore Iran’s magnificence, and destruction can never be a sustainable policy.