English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 05/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.november05.21.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today
John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him”.
Saint Matthew 21/28-32/:”‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him”.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 04-05/2021
IMF Says 'Preparatory' Talks with Lebanon Have Started
U.S. Calls for Return of Gulf Relations with Lebanon
Miqati Discusses ‘Crisis’ with Aoun
Reports: Neither Miqati Nor Government Will Resign
Miqati Urges Kordahi to Resign, Hits Out at Hizbullah and Its Allies
Bitar Forced to Suspend Port Blast Probe for 3rd Time
Kordahi 'Won't Resign', Still Awaiting Phone Call from Miqati
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Visits Zahle and West Bekaa
Mikati urges Kordahi to prioritize national interest over populist slogans
Top US military general meets Lebanese Army commander, Pentagon reaffirms support
Hezbollah claims Saudi Arabia ‘waging war’ on Lebanon over Kordahi
Lebanese FM’s leaked remarks show Saudi problem in Beirut to be larger than Kordahi
As Lebanese pound loses 90 pct of value, citizens carry ‘worthless’ stacks of cash
Lebanon’s diplomatic crisis is a self-inflicted wound/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/04 November ,2021
Lebanon cannot be saved while it is controlled by Hezbollah/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/November 04/ 2021
No debate/Ronnie Chatah/Now Lebanon/November 04/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 04-05/2021
US lawmakers call on Biden admin. to designate Muslim Brotherhood as terror group
EU Says Talks on 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal to Resume Nov. 29
A Public Suicide in Iran Spotlights Anguish over Economy
A tale of Iranian naval heroics denied by US amid rising tensions
A self-immolation in southern Iran spotlights sinking economy
Vatican urges peace talks as Palestinian President Abbas meets Pope
Netanyahu’s hopes for a comeback dim as Israel passes budget
Tunisia’s main trade union calls on Saied to clarify political timeline
Rumors swirl over Erdogan’s declining health after G20 hobble
Turkey proxies weaponise water in north Syria to starve, displace
OPEC+ meets under US pressure to boost output
Emirates to Launch Daily Dubai-Tel Aviv Flights
Urgent Efforts to Calm Ethiopia as War Reaches One-Year Mark
Saudi Arabia, UAE call for ‘civilian-led’ government in Sudan

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 04-05/2021
The Palestinian Authority Campaign Against Palestinian NGOs/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/November 04/2021
China Has No Interest in Climate Change/Con Coughlin//Gatestone Institute/November 04/2021
No Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists in the Arab Region/Devdiscourse/November 04/2021
Al Jazeera’s anniversary is no reason to celebrate/Ali al-Saraf/The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
Chasm between Iran regime and the people grows/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 04/ 2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 04-05/2021
IMF Says 'Preparatory' Talks with Lebanon Have Started
Agence France Presse/November 04/2021
The IMF has begun "preparatory" talks with Lebanon on a new aid package after receiving an official request from Beirut, an IMF spokesman said Thursday. That will be a welcome relief to the new government that is trying to stem an economic crisis the World Bank brands as one of the worst since the mid-19th century, and which has caused Lebanon's currency to collapse. "The IMF has received a letter from Prime Minister (Najib) Miqati of Lebanon expressing the authorities' interest in a fund program," said International Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice. "And I can tell you that preparatory technical discussions have started."Lebanon hopes the talks with the Washington-based crisis lender will help unlock billions of dollars in financial aid. After defaulting on its debt in March 2020 for the first time in history, the country started talks with the IMF but they hit a brick wall amid bickering over who should bear the brunt of the losses. Rice said the talks are looking at what steps to take to stabilize the nation's economy. "Clearly, strong policies and reforms are needed to address the really unprecedented economic and social crisis facing Lebanon and the Lebanese people," Rice said. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva met Miqati last week, and said the fund stands "fully ready" to help the struggling nation. Lebanon's currency, the pound, has lost almost 90 percent of its value against the dollar on the black market since 2019, and people's savings are trapped in banks. Inflation has soared, and 78 percent of all Lebanese now live in poverty, according to the U.N.Power cuts are common in the country and basic goods including petrol and medicine have become scarce.

U.S. Calls for Return of Gulf Relations with Lebanon
Agence France Presse/November 04/2021
The United States has called on Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies to restore relations with Lebanon, saying the struggling nation needed international support. "Our position is that diplomatic channels should remain open if we are to seek to improve the humanitarian conditions of the Lebanese people," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. The statement comes a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati on the sidelines of the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow. Blinken said the United States would provide support to Lebanon as it seeks to exit a historic economic crisis and as Miqati struggles to bring political stability after a power vacuum of more than one year. On Friday, Saudi Arabia gave Lebanon's ambassador 48 hours to leave, recalled its envoy from Beirut and suspended all imports from Lebanon.  Kuwait and Bahrain quickly took similar measures and the United Arab Emirates recalled its diplomats from Beirut in solidarity with Riyadh. The Sunni-dominated nations took action in anger at the influence in Lebanon of Hizbullah, the Iranian-backed Shiite movement. Saudi Arabia said it was responding to remarks by Information Minister George Kordahi from August, before he took office. In an interview, Kordahi said that Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who are under withering assault from a Saudi-led coalition, were "defending themselves" against an external aggression." Price said the United States did not have a position on whether Kordahi should stay in his position but voiced understanding for Saudi concerns. "The notion that the Huthis have been anything but a destabilizing force and a force that has inflicted additional hardship on the people of Yemen, that is not an idea that we recognize," Price said.

Miqati Discusses ‘Crisis’ with Aoun
Naharnet/November 04/2021 
President Michel Aoun met Thursday with Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Baabda Palace. Miqati said he discussed with Aoun the current “Lebanese crisis” and added that he will give a speech today in a press conference at the Gand Serail. Miqati briefed Aoun on his meetings in Glasgow with Arab and foreign leaders. On the sidelines of a climate summit in Glasgow, Miqati had met with leaders of the U.S., EU, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt to discuss the Lebanon-Gulf diplomatic row.

Reports: Neither Miqati Nor Government Will Resign
Naharnet/November 04/2021
The governmental impasse is still ongoing but Prime Minister Najib Miqati will not resign, media reports said on Thursday. Moreover, neither the government nor Information Minister George Kordahi intend to step down, LBCI television quoted sources as saying. The sources added that Kordahi will not resign because he and his allies “believe that his resignation was not the reason behind the eruption of the crisis and will not be the key to addressing it.” MTV meanwhile reported that there are political discussions over “resolving the crisis with the Gulf countries and resuming Cabinet meetings.”Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s initiative “might be reactivated,” the TV network added. The initiative calls for parliament to prosecute ex-PM Hassan Diab and three former ministers before the Higher Council for the Trial of Presidents and Ministers and limiting Judge Tarek Bitar’s investigations in the port blast case to administrative and military officials.

Miqati Urges Kordahi to Resign, Hits Out at Hizbullah and Its Allies
Associated Press/November 04/2021
Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Thursday again urged Information Minister George Kordahi to step down over an unprecedented diplomatic rift with Saudi Arabia, saying his resignation would be "a priority." “I reiterate my call for the information minister to put national interest first,” Miqati said in a speech from the Grand Serail, shortly after he met in Baabda with President Michel Aoun. “The information minister's personal stances have plunged Lebanon into the dangerous position of being boycotted by the Gulf countries,” he said. The rift has threatened to destabilize the new government of Miqati, sworn in less than two months ago, and escalate Lebanon's economic tailspin. Miqati said the information minister's resignation would help resolve a crisis with the kingdom and its Gulf Arab allies, and preserve the "depths and good relations with the Arab and Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia." He also had stern words for his partners in government -- Hizbullah and its allies -- who have rejected calls that Kordahi resign. “We're determined to address the file of the relation with Saudi Arabi and the Gulf countries according to proper norms and we won't leave this file to be subject to political bickering and wrangling,” Miqati said. “The government is the normal place for discussing files, away from dictations, and no Lebanese party can control the country on its own,” he added, noting that “mistaken are those who think that obstruction and political escalation are the solution.” “Mistaken are those who consider that they can remove Lebanon from its Arab environment, especially from its ties with Saudi Arabia,” Miqati stressed.
“Mistaken are those who think that they can impose their opinion through the power of obstruction or verbal escalation,” he added. “Mistaken are those who think that they can stage a coup against the constitution and return the country to internal strife and divisions,” the premier went on to say. Miqati also lamented that the government “has been paralyzed from the inside,” criticizing "the approach of unilateralism and obstruction" inside Cabinet. He said that some parties tried to "push the government to interfere in a judicial matter that it has nothing to do with," as he called for "rectifying the excesses of the investigative judge (into the Beirut port blast case), especially as to the issue of the trial of presidents and ministers." The spat was triggered by Kordahi's remarks aired last week about the war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Lebanese officials have said that Kordahi's remarks do not represent official government views.
Riyadh has withdrawn its ambassador from Beirut and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave the kingdom. It has also banned Lebanese imports, undermining the small nation's foreign trade and depriving it of millions of dollars even as it struggles amid an economic meltdown. "The country can't be managed with the language of challenge and obstinacy," said Miqati, who returned to Beirut on Wednesday night from the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. "We must unite behind one word to work on saving our country." He said that all ministers “must abide by ministerial solidarity and the ministerial statement.” As for the next steps, Miqati said: “Decisive meetings are ahead of us before taking a decisive stance on every matter that we are determined to fully address and everyone must help us in this aspired rescue action.”“Let us show unity to protect the Lebanese and the country of the cedars and let us all shun bickering,” he urged. Lebanon has sought French and U.S. mediation with Saudi Arabia. Miqati's message appears to be directed mostly at his government partners from the Iran-allied Hizbullah. Some Hizbullah-allied ministers have threatened a walkout if Kordahi goes. Kordahi was named to the government by the Marada Movement, a Hizbullah-allied party. Hizbullah members have called the Saudi campaign "extortion."The row has tested Miqati's new government, sworn in after more than a year of deadlock among Lebanese politicians over the composition of the government. Kordahi has refused to resign, insisting Yemen's Houthis have the right to defend themselves and saying that he did not mean to offend with his comments, which were recorded before he became minister. Gulf Arab countries have joined Saudi Arabia in pulling out their diplomats from Lebanon, deepening the diplomatic spat.

Bitar Forced to Suspend Port Blast Probe for 3rd Time
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/November 04/2021
The judge leading investigations into last year's Beirut port blast was forced to stop work Thursday over a lawsuit filed by an ex-minister he had summoned for interrogation. Tarek Bitar was informed of a "lawsuit submitted by former public works minister Youssef Fenianos... which forced him to pause the probe until a ruling is issued," a court official told AFP on condition of anonymity. It is the third time that Bitar has had to suspend his probe in the face of lawsuits filed by former ministers suspected of negligence over the August 2020 explosion. The total number of lawsuits filed against Bitar now stands at 15, according to judicial sources. Similar temporary suspensions have plagued the course of the probe over the past weeks but previous cases to remove the judge have been turned down. But in a sign that the suspension may be prolonged, the court asked Bitar to hand over the details of the case to enable it to review the lawsuit, according to a copy of the decision seen by The Associated Press. The latest comes amid a campaign led by Hizbullah demanding Bitar's replacement over allegations of "bias" that have been widely dismissed by rights groups and families of blast victims. Hizbullah's representatives in government have said they will boycott Cabinet meetings until it takes a clear stand on demands to replace Bitar. The Cabinet, as a result, has failed to hold a single session in three weeks. Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Thursday condemned attempts to force his government to intervene in judicial affairs, in a thinly veiled criticism of Hizbullah. "We have tried as much as possible to keep the Beirut blast probe under the purview of the judiciary and we have rejected any kind of (political) interference," Miqati told a news conference. Human rights groups and victims' relatives fear the repeated suspensions are a prelude to Bitar's removal, which would further derail the official inquiry into Lebanon's worst peace-time tragedy. Bitar's predecessor, Fadi Sawwan, was forced to suspend his probe for the same reason before he was finally removed in February, in a move widely condemned as political interference.

Kordahi 'Won't Resign', Still Awaiting Phone Call from Miqati
Naharnet/November 04/2021
Information Minister George Kordahi “will not resign” and “this stance has not changed,” sources close to him said on Thursday, shortly after Prime Minister Najib Miqati reiterated his call for the minister to step down. “Kordahi is waiting for a phone call from the premier, who should invite him to a meeting and brief him on the stances that he heard from the Arab and foreign officials” at the climate summit in Glasgow, the sources added. The minister wants to “know whether resignation has guarantees that such a step would be met by positivity from the Gulf, because any resignation that would not change the Gulf stance on Lebanon would be meaningless,” the sources went on to say.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Visits Zahle and West Bekaa
Naharnet/November 04/2021 
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka on Thursday visited the areas of Zahle and the West Bekaa in eastern Lebanon. She met with local authorities and toured a development project, an educational institution and an informal tented site for Syrian refugees. “The impact of the crisis on the people of the Bekaa, just like in other Lebanese areas, is very serious and requires immediate solutions,” the Special Coordinator said after meeting separately with local authorities in Zahle and in West Bekaa. She welcomed steps taken at the local level to address urgent needs. In Zahle, the Special Coordinator examined a landfill site supported by UNDP with a focus on environmentally-sound waste management. She also visited the Omar Al-Mukhtar Educational Center in Gazze and stressed the key role of youth and education for a sustainable and prosperous future in Lebanon. Representatives from UNHCR briefed the Special Coordinator on the situation of Syrian refugees. They also discussed the assistance extended by the United Nations to refugees and to Lebanese host communities, particularly ahead of the winter season. “Both Lebanese citizens and refugees have been deeply impacted by the crisis in Lebanon. What I heard today was the same desire to live in dignity,” the Special Coordinator said after visiting a Syrian refugee site in Zahle. “Guided by the organization’s principle of leaving no one behind, the United Nations will continue to offer its support to those who need it,” she added. Hoping the Lebanese government resumes its meetings soon, the Special Coordinator underlined the need for urgent reforms, stabilization and long-term plans that serve the "stability and sustainable development of the Bekaa and other regions across Lebanon." She also underlined the importance of next year’s elections for Lebanon’s "democratic practice" and for "giving people a say in selecting their representatives." The Special Coordinator also reiterated the importance of safeguarding stability and social cohesion in Lebanon despite the severe socio-economic crisis.

Mikati urges Kordahi to prioritize national interest over populist slogans
Najia Houssari/Arab News/November 04, 2021
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday again called on Information Minister George Kordahi to resign to avoid further escalation with the Gulf. He urged him to put national interests first and not to “disrupt the government’s work and waste more time.”
Mikati also had stern words on Thursday for his partners in government, Hezbollah and its allies, for exacerbating Lebanon’s diplomatic spat with various Gulf states. He stressed that “the country is not run by defiance, arrogance, raised tones, and threats, but rather a common discourse that unites the Lebanese people so they can work together on saving Lebanon.” Mikati also gave what seemed to be a strongly-worded speech against Hezbollah and its allies. “Anyone who thinks they can impose their opinion by impeding work and verbal escalation is wrong,” said Mikati. “Anyone who thinks they can impose on the Lebanese choices that steer them away from their history, their Arab depth, and their close ties with the Arab countries and the Gulf states, especially with Saudi Arabia, is also wrong.”
Mikati returned on Wednesday from Glasgow, after participating in the COP26 summit, on the sidelines of which he held a series of meetings with international officials regarding the diplomatic and economic crisis between Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
The row was triggered by statements Kordahi made before becoming a minister, in which he offended Saudi Arabia and defended the Houthis in Yemen. Speaking to Al-Mayadeen TV, Kordahi responded to Mikati’s request, saying that he will not resign and that his position has not changed. On Thursday, Mikati met separately with President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and briefed them on the talks he held on the sidelines of COP26. He said that he and Aoun agreed on a roadmap to exit the current crisis with Gulf states.
Mikati noted: “When we formed this government after months of disruption, delay, and missed opportunities, we announced that we are on a quick rescue mission to advance cooperation with international bodies and the International Monetary Fund, in addition to holding parliamentary elections. “We believed that the painful reality that our country is experiencing would push everyone to let go of personal interests, and actively participate in the rescue mission, but this, unfortunately, did not happen.”
Mikati also commented on the Tayouneh incident and the decision of the ministers of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah to boycott the Cabinet until Tarek Bitar, the judge leading the investigation into the Beirut port blast, is removed from his post. He also criticized “the approach of exclusivity and obstruction that the government was subjected to from within.”He added: “One month in, we faced our first challenge as a government, as we were dragged into intervening in a judicial order that we have nothing to do with. “We refused to interfere in the Beirut port blast probe but stressed the need for Bitar to correct his course, especially when it comes to trying presidents and ministers. But that was not enough for some people.”Mikati noted: “We were in the process of finding a way to hold a Cabinet session, but we had to face a more difficult challenge in light of Kordahi’s personal views, which he had expressed before becoming a minister, and Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states decided to cut ties with Lebanon.”
The prime minister said: “The Cabinet is the natural place to discuss all issues of concern to the government, away from dictations, challenges, raised tones and threats. The Cabinet will never be a means to interfere in any matter that does not concern the government, and specifically in the work of the judiciary.”
Mikati called on “all ministers to show solidarity and adhere to the ministerial statement, which set the basic rules for the government’s work and policy. We are determined to deal with the relationship with Saudi Arabia and Gulf states based on sound rules.
“We will not allow political arguments to take over this issue. In this context, I call on Kordahi once again to follow his conscience, assess the circumstances, do what should be done, and prioritize national interest over populist slogans. I am betting on his patriotic sense to evaluate the situation and the interest of the Lebanese citizens and expats.”The prime minister also stressed that “anyone who believes that obstruction is the solution” was misguided. “Everyone must realize that no party unilaterally speaks on behalf of Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” he added.
According to political observers, Mikati received international support during his stay in Glasgow. Political writer Tony Francis told Arab News: “Those whom Mikati met in Glasgow asked him to assume his role as prime minister and that the ball is in his court and he must act. The international community will not accept the resignation of his government.” Francis added: “Mikati’s stances are kind of adventurous, to which Hezbollah and its allies may not respond. Everything depends on what the Iranians want in the region, and they are exploiting all fronts to get what they want. “On the other hand, we see that Iran has agreed to resume the nuclear negotiations in Vienna on Nov. 29. Mikati’s raised tone may be part of the Western response to the Iranians; all of this means that things will remain ambiguous and no solution will be reached before Nov. 29.”

Top US military general meets Lebanese Army commander, Pentagon reaffirms support
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/04 November ,2021
The top US military general met with the Lebanese Armed Forces commander on Thursday, with the Pentagon reaffirming its support for the Lebanese army. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley met with Gen. Joseph Aoun at the Pentagon, Joint Staff Spokesperson Col. Dave Butler said. “Gen. Milley and other DoD [Department of Defense] officials reaffirmed the US Government’s strong support for the Lebanese Armed Forces,” Butler added. Discussions touched on a range of issues, “including shared challenges and ways to increase coordination in areas of mutual interest.”
Pentagon Spokesperson Commander Jessica McNulty also said Aoun met with Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Mara Karlin. “Dr. Karlin commended Gen. Aoun for the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) role in enabling Lebanon’s internal stability, in facilitating humanitarian efforts following the August 2020 Beirut Port Explosion, and in supporting Lebanon’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” McNulty said. The Pentagon official also “praised the LAF’s key role as a widely respected institution, including representation from all of Lebanon’s 18 religious and ethnic groups.”
Talks also touched on the importance of respecting the right of Lebanese people to protest peacefully. The LAF commander is in Washington as part of an annual trip to discuss bilateral ties with US officials and military generals. The US is the biggest supporter of the LAF, providing millions of dollars in aid and assistance per year. Gen. Aoun met with White House officials, State Department officials and members of Congress this week. He is also scheduled to fly to Tampa to meet with US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Gen. Frank McKenzie, according to sources familiar with his trip.The State Department said military aid for Lebanon’s army was essential. “The Lebanese Armed Forces are an important actor in Lebanese society, and we have engaged partners in the region, not to intervene in Lebanon’s internal politics, but in an effort to help the people of Lebanon,” Spokesman Ned Price said during a briefing.

Hezbollah claims Saudi Arabia ‘waging war’ on Lebanon over Kordahi
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/04 November ,2021
Hezbollah claimed on Thursday that Saudi Arabia’s actions in response to Information Minister George Kordahi’s comments were tantamount to “waging war” on Lebanon. “The Saudi reaction… amounts to waging war and [Kordahi’s comment] does not justify hasty measures against Lebanon and its people,” the Iran-backed Shia movement’s parliamentary bloc spokesman, Hassan Ezzeddine, said, as quoted by NBN TV.Kordahi sparked a diplomatic crisis with Gulf countries because of his comments on Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s involvement in the Yemen war. He said the Iran-backed Houthis were “defending themselves… against foreign aggression [by the Arab Coalition]” during an interview aired on August 5. 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 and banned its citizens from traveling to Lebanon. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told Al Arabiya on Sunday that the crisis was bigger than Kordahi’s statements, and that the main crisis is the growing Hezbollah influence in Lebanon’s politics.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati has tried to contain diplomatic fallout early on by rejecting Kordahi’s comments and stressing that they had nothing to do with the government’s policy. Mikati urged Kordahi again on Thursday to prioritize the national interest of Lebanon: “I repeat my call to the Minister of Information to… adopt the stance that needs to be taken and give priority to the national interest.”

Lebanese FM’s leaked remarks show Saudi problem in Beirut to be larger than Kordahi
The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
BEIRUT--Lebanese political analysts said that new leaked comments by Foreign Minister Abdullah Bouhabib have shown that hostility to Saudi Arabia is not confined to one single member of the Lebanese cabinet but is more pervasive than that.
The recent controversial remarks made by Minister of Information George Kordahi, describing Saudi intervention in Yemen as an “aggression”, have been reinforced by comments attributed to the Lebanese foreign minister who expressed scepticism about Saudi aid to Lebanon. Both ministers appear to have in common a stance according to which Saudi Arabia is basically viewed as a source of funding and not much else. The analysts add that the display of inimicable sentiment towards the kingdom, as illustrated by the leaked comments of the foreign minister, which were published by a Saudi newspaper, confirms that the general mood within the Lebanese government, and on the political scene in general, is hostile to Saudi Arabia and is aligned instead with Hezbollah, regardless of whether this attitude is motivated by sympathy with the militant party’s designs or by fear of its clout.
This, they say, sends a negative message to the Saudis compelling them to continue their policy of disengagement towards Lebanon and end to investments there. This policy is likely not to stop at the kingdom and could turn into a general Gulf boycott that Lebanon cannot afford.
In his newly leaked remarks, the minister of foreign affairs asserts that Saudi Arabia spent a lot of money in Lebanon, but not on the Lebanese state. He alleges the Saudi funds were invested for such pruposes as elections, and that “we know nothing about” the relief aid that was provided to Lebanon after 2006, pointing out, on the other hand, that important aid had come from the European Union. Bouhabib asked in a press conference held after Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati travelled to Glasgow to attend the climate summit in Scotland, “If they dismiss Kordahi, what will we reap from the kingdom? Nothing. They will have other demands.”He also pointed out that Saudi Arabia did not call for the resignation or dismissal of former foreign minister Charbel Wahba when he issued statements that angered the Gulf countries.
A few months ago, Wahba, who is affiliated with President Michel Aoun, had defended Hezbollah’s wielding of weapons and accused Gulf states of being behind the coming of ISIS into Syria and Iraq. He also made disparaging references to “Bedouins”, in remarks considered by Gulf officials to be insulting.
Bouhabib expressed his surprise at the decision by Saudi ambassador, Walid al-Bukhari, not to speak to him and contact instead an adviser at the presidential palace. He wondered, “Am I the enemy of Saudi Arabia?”while stressing his willingness to visit the Kingdom any time.
Bouhabib did not support the idea of ​​Kordahi’s resignation, warning that if President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati pushed for the resignation of the information minister, they could cause a political crisis in the government.
Saudi newspaper, Okaz, said that Bouhabib’s statements were made to a group of journalists after the recent diplomatic row with the kingdom. But the foreign minister tried to retract his remarks “asking reporters not publish them.” The foreign minister avoided any reference to his leaked remarks during the press conference he held Wednesday after meeting with President Aoun on relations with Saudi Arabia. He said that Lebanon believes that any problem between “two sister countries”, such as Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, must be resolved through dialogue and coordination, in accordance with the Charter of the Arab League. Lebanese experts say that Bouhabib’s statements shed light on the general attitude of the Lebanese cabinet members, and not just those of the current government. They believe all ministers try to accommodate Hezbollah, whether in private or in public. Unlike Saudi Arabia with which they cultivate a transactional relationship based on need for investments and aid, ministers see Hezbollah the key player who can determine their political future.
Analysts point out that while the influence of Hezbollah and Iran was expanding in Lebanon, Riyadh took its support by the Lebanese for granted, based on its investments, the influx of Saudi tourists and its establishment of media projects. In reality, the Saudi support base, whether within the Sunni community or outside of it was shallow compared to the firmly anchored sectarian support base enjoyed by Hezbollah and Iran. Analysts are also sceptical whether Riyadh’s boycott of Lebanon constitutes a useful option for Saudi Arabia as it will only deepen the void that Iran will be even more eager to fill.''

As Lebanese pound loses 90 pct of value, citizens carry ‘worthless’ stacks of cash
Reuters/04 November ,2021
Restaurant owner Antoine Haddad has been in business for over 35 years but says he is running out of hope as Lebanon struggles with one of the deepest financial crises of modern times. The Lebanese pound lost around 90 percent of its value in the past two years, propelling three quarters of the population into poverty. For Haddad, the difference between this and other crises that Lebanon has experienced, including the 1975-1990 civil war, is that it feels like there is no end in sight. “Previously, you had hope that: ‘tomorrow the war will end, we do this and that and go back to where we were’, but this time there is no hope,” he said. “They (those in power) promised us we would have plenty of money in our hands, and we indeed have a lot of it to play with,” he said sarcastically referring to the growing stacks of banknotes needed for even basic purchases after the currency drop. Haddad, whose small restaurant has been in business since 1984, said he can only buy 10 percent of the olive oil he used to buy with the same money. The government, facing an election in March as it tries to secure an IMF recovery plan, has tripled transport allowance for employees to alleviate some of the pain but most salaries, including the minimum wage, have not been adjusted. Pub-owner Moussa Yaakoub is also taken aback by the amount of cash he needs to run his business. “I have never before held in my hands this amount of money,” he said as he counted some 10 million pounds, worth $6,600 at the pre-crisis rate but now less than $500 at the market rate. That much money used to cover a pub’s operation for months, but now only pays a couple of bills, he said. Grocery store owner Roni Bou Rached has changed the way he stores money in his cash drawer now that smaller notes are used less, and coins are almost non-existent. “I am hesitant how much to carry in my pocket when I leave. I sometimes carry 1 million or 1.5 million ... but I mean, they are worthless,” he said. A single restaurant bill now could amount to sums higher than some workers’ earnings. “God help those who do not have an income or are not able to work around things,” Ali Jaber, a private sector employee, said.

Lebanon’s diplomatic crisis is a self-inflicted wound
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/04 November ,2021
One of Lebanon’s founding myths lies in its special geographic position and the vital role Lebanon played in the formation of many of the Arab Gulf states, which used the talents of the Lebanese to build their countries’ economies, something which in turn generated an unshakable economic and fraternal bond, or so the myth says. This so-called unshakable bond was nowhere to be found over the weekend, as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with the Lebanese state by recalling its ambassador from Beirut and designated the Lebanese ambassador as persona non-grata. A decision which would soon be adopted by the Kingdom of Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, with the latter refraining from expelling the Lebanese ambassador. Ostensibly, this unprecedented diplomatic crisis was triggered by the statements of the current Lebanese Minister of Information George Kordahi, who during a recorded show back in August before he was appointed Minister, spoke in support of the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, framing the war as part of Saudi-UAE aggression against the people of Yemen who were merely defending themselves. Kordahi would further go on to defend Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and fully conform to the rhetoric of the Iranian axis.The Kordahi diplomatic debacle could have been brushed aside as a thoughtless faux pas, had the former game show host contextualized it as such. Instead, Kordahi, endorsed by Lebanon’s own Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, went further, and tried to justify his statement as sovereign, arguing that no country has the right to intervene in the affairs of the government he is a member of, and branding the actions of the Gulf states as blackmail.
If one is to leave the Kordahi diplomatic crisis aside, the Gulf’s reaction was not merely a simple knee jerk brought about by the uncouth remarks of a washout game show host, but rather represents the culmination of a combination of factors beginning with the election of Michael Aoun as President, a feat made possible only through Hezbollah bullying the Lebanese establishment into a political settlement by gun point. A settlement which also allowed the country’s elite to continue to indulge in their corrupt ways.
Aoun’s election was not only a victory to the Iranian axis but it also represented the start of the weaponization of the Lebanese state against the Gulf, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – who were themselves fully engaged in the war in Yemen in a bid to push back attempts by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps to destabilize their region. Pre-Aoun Lebanon was a weak and destabilized country, but it had a few pockets of political resistance, especially President Michael Suliman who always made sure to say the right thing.
Under Aoun, the country was left to the alliance between his son-in-law Gebran Bassil and Saad Hariri, who adopted the narrative that Hezbollah was a regional problem, thus opening the door to deal with it locally as a Lebanese political party. This mindset would have been acceptable if Hezbollah had acted as a Lebanese party, but instead it acted like the strategic consultant for the IRGC, provided training and restructuring to the Houthis, and, more importantly, ran a drug smuggling ring targeted at many of the Gulf states, with the overarching intention of destabilizing internal security.
Many Lebanese who have considered the recent Gulf-Lebanese breakup as overkill seem to have forgotten that the Assad regime and Hezbollah have transformed Syria into a narco-state that manufactures billions of dollars’ worth of the synthetic narcotic Captagon, which Hezbollah in turn ships from Lebanon to various Gulf states. While Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have clearly asked the Lebanese state to counter these drug rings, warning of the economic repercussions which faces Lebanon’s agriculture exports, the Lebanese political elite refrained from even acknowledging the problem.
The Lebanese are too busy focusing on Saudi Arabia’s reaction to notice that the majority of the Gulf states are not far behind, particularly Kuwait. The state of Kuwait, which has often practiced restraint, showed no reservation at all once the crisis started, a move which demonstrates Lebanon’s isolation in a region which is no longer willing to listen to empty excuses.
The Lebanese political elite, including those who claim friendship to the Gulf, have refrained from taking any concrete action. While they have condemned Kordahi, they have yet to ask their representatives in government to tender their resignation, revealing the level of hypocrisy of those who keep asking for Gulf money yet are too afraid to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty against the actions of Hezbollah and their lackeys. Rather than trying to contain the snowballing crisis, Mikati saw it fit to call upon the US Biden administration and French President Macron to try to bully the Gulf into having them back as friends. Other than the fact that neither Biden nor Macron have the political credit to reverse these actions, Mikati and the Lebanese have failed to realize that Lebanon has become the kid with bad hygiene in class which no one wants to invite to their parties.
The ongoing diplomatic crisis will not simply go away if Kordahi or even the Mikati government tenders resignation. Lebanon will never regain its status as the golden child of the region, not only because the region has changed, but rather because the people of Lebanon have been too docile and accepting of leaders who have sold the country to Iran and still expect Gulf support – an unrealistic and delusional belief to say the least.

Lebanon cannot be saved while it is controlled by Hezbollah
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/November 04/ 2021
I have always been puzzled by Lebanese political talk shows. These shows go on for hours and hours, with the same guests — politicians and analysts — discussing the hot topic of the week. In reality, the hot topic is the same, as nothing really changes in the dynamic of Lebanon, and so they end up repeating the same analysis over and over again. They have talked for so long that they have stopped looking at the changes the world around them is going through.
There is a mix of denial, narcissism and nostalgia in Lebanese political media content. Regardless of their political affiliation, all the guests still assume Lebanon is the No. 1 priority of regional, global and world leaders. They keep expecting a miraculous outside intervention to come and end the political deadlock and catastrophic humanitarian situation the country faces. And so, every time world or regional leaders meet, they assume they will be discussing Lebanon as a matter of urgency. It is as if Emmanuel Macron will rush off his plane after landing in Scotland for the COP26 climate change meetings and run to Joe Biden and tell him, out of breath, “we must find a solution for Lebanon.” Even worse is that the Lebanese political media still thinks that France and the US can bring about a solution for the country.
Similarly, when it comes to regional affairs, everything in Lebanon is framed under the optics of regional rivalry. And the media goes on to ask stupid questions, such as will the Gulf states accept so and so for minister? It is all a complete delusion. Today, as relations with the Gulf states are at their worst, the Lebanese media asks why. What has changed?
This requires a two-part answer. The first is that the Gulf states did not change, Lebanon did. Lebanon has become Hezbollah. Full stop. Hence, all its activities toward the Arab neighborhood are malign. It is not necessary to go through these activities once again, as we all know them. The second point is that the world is changing at a fast pace and the Gulf states are focused on their own domestic progress. For the Gulf states, the so-called confrontation with Iran has become obsolete. It weighs nothing. In short, the Houthis’ drones and missiles, which are being intercepted almost daily by the Arab coalition air defenses, do not threaten the future of the Gulf states — but new digital and data competition does. So the Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia, are focusing their resources on this new future.
What most fail to comprehend is that Lebanon has lost its strategic and geopolitical value. After the collapse of the strongmen regimes of the 1980s, followed by years of collapse in Syria, a Lebanese collapse no longer worries the world on a security level. The French president has put forward an initiative for Lebanon, but I am not convinced he is now sure it is achievable, simply because things on the ground look different than in a meeting room in Paris. On the ground, Lebanon is now Hezbollah and there is no way to change this through discussions. Analysts keep repeating that, if Lebanon is abandoned, then it will fall even further into the hands of the Iranians. My answer is: “More than now? How?” Hezbollah already controls everything in the country, including the military, security and politics — what more is there? And did you look at Lebanon’s backyard? Who is in Syria and calling the shots? The Italian military or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps?
And so the other point is that, although Macron’s Lebanese initiative holds a humanitarian view, there is also a will to keep framing the approach through the same old archaic view the Lebanese media still conveys. France, bringing the US along, has a 1980s approach to the balance of power in the region, and it will not work. Moreover, the Gulf Cooperation Council has rejected being solely defined by confrontation with Iran. It has chosen to be defined by what it achieves for the people of the Gulf, not by conflict. It seems some Western analysts and Lebanese media voices have not yet understood this.
On the ground, Lebanon is now Hezbollah and there is no way to change this through discussions.
They still want the region to be deadlocked in the 1980s with extortion and confrontation: A region where progress is forbidden and entertainment outlawed. It is as if they would prefer to see the IRGC model of repression and darkness spread throughout the region, rather than the model of peaceful coexistence and positive exchanges the GCC is focusing on today. It is, nevertheless, something the Lebanese who live and work in the Gulf understand and would like for their own country. Lebanon deserves this positive development. But it is just not possible if Hezbollah is the state. In the same way, any foreign support will be wasted unless Lebanon is free. And so the thought that the Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia, will throw resources out of the window and eternally and continuously bail out Lebanon or any other problem in the region is no longer valid. Lebanon cannot mend relations with others before it mends itself. This means it must stop framing things as regional geopolitical issues and start facing the domestic danger, which is Hezbollah. The latest events have proven that the country is fully under its control. More than regional relations, the Lebanese will soon see their country disappear under this oppression if nothing is done.
*Khaled Abou Zahr is CEO of Eurabia, a media and tech company. He is also the editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.

No debate
Ronnie Chatah/Now Lebanon/November 04/2021
Despite regional powers vying for influence in Lebanon, when it comes to the country’s downfall, Hezbollah takes the cake, Ronnie Chatah writes.
Why is this even a debate?
A ‘tug of war’ between ‘two proxies’ and ‘two elephants’ tearing Lebanon apart. ‘Iran vs. Saudi Arabia’ and their allies on each side, funding political parties and arming respective ‘militias’.‘Polarization’ and ‘division’ taking us back to the civil war. And then, the awkward celebration when each side of the debate calmly explains their positions without shouting or fighting – less on slapstick television shows and more on independent podcasts. As though two sides on equal footing only know how to fight as Lebanon spirals out of control. The endless balancing act that reinterprets facts on the ground and robs nuance from analysis. Armchair and hot air pontification that feed into academic papers, panel discussions among think tank researchers and regular bylines of foreign policy pundits. For the sake of avoiding diatribe (and word count limitation), I will restrict myself to looking at three events over the past three weeks.
October 14
Beginning with October 14’s tragedy in Tayouneh, and the consequences of a Hezbollah-backed propaganda campaign against Judge Tarek Bitar. A planned protest following his relentlessness and insistence on issuing arrest warrants against former ministers, in particular Ali Hassan Khalil. The moment the protest turned into clashes among Hezbollah-led allies and local partisans in Tayouneh and Ain El Remmaneh, comparisons between Lebanese Forces’ supporters and Hezbollah’s foot soldiers emerged. Indeed gunshots were fired, innocents were killed, and it is a terrible reality that weapons are spread throughout Lebanon. This country is a tragic tinder box, but not because ‘heavily-armed militias’ oppose each other. Yet that spin coverage spun faster than the fighting itself.
Samir Geagea, whatever anyone thinks of his politics, is not a warlord today, and the Lebanese Forces is not a militia. What he and that group had been over three decades ago has no resonance with recent events, and any opportunity to equate Hezbollah with its political opponents is incorrect. Yet an insistence that Lebanese Forces snipers shot from rooftops took hold, despite having been proven false (rather, an Amal supporter mistakenly shot at a Lebanese army soldier). But a narrative of a ‘return to civil war’ took hold, flooding the front page of too many news outlets and social media feeds. The story degenerated from Bitar’s perseverance to a return to Christian-Muslim strife.
Establishment
Youssef Fenianos, Nouhad Machnouk, Hassan Diab…their lawyers can file dismissal cases, yearn for Judge Bitar’s removal, time their trips abroad for family visits to overlap with judicial questioning and even sue the state they once headed (let alone a university they partially administered). These individuals are, indeed, stumbling blocks to due process. They regularly abuse their positions of power. And they time lawsuits to parliamentary immunity. Going a step further, Patriarch Bechara al-Rai should not be a politician. Neither should Grand Mufti Abdul Latif Derian, or any religious body’s leadership better at temple protocol and prayer. The Patriarch should not have visited Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri to reportedly try and find consensus over the post-October 14 military court summoning of Samir Geagea to give his testimony. But none of this implies that the ‘establishment’ is the reason the port blast investigation is paralyzed and – in due time – will likely be moved to a military court or stopped altogether. Placing the burden on them placates Hezbollah’s detrimental contribution. There is simply no comparison between Iran’s leverage and the GCC’s diplomatic and economic fallout in Lebanon.
The current Najib Mikati-led cabinet is not convening due to Hezbollah and Amal’s intransigence, condemning the investigation as a US-backed plot mired with conspiracy and making it clear they will resign from the government unless Bitar is removed. Hassan Nasrallah has warned of civil war should the investigation continue unobstructed, and Hezbollah security chief Wafiq Safa threatened Bitar personally. Collateral damage from that group’s subjugation of sovereign institutions cannot be simplified and overlooked. Politicians tentatively circumventing and delaying a probe into Hezbollah’s security matrix (which puts them under the radar by extension) along with the Grand Mufti condemning former prime minister Hassan Diab’s summoning and the Patriarch’s above-mentioned visit all reflect the tail end to injustice rather than the source of impunity. Their agency cannot be compared to Hezbollah’s capabilities.
George Kordahi
To even posit the idea that Lebanon is torn between ‘two proxies’ and ‘two elephants’ following the fallout between Lebanon and GCC states is reflection that is at best, misinformed, and at worst, misleading.
Yes, there are regional powers battling their wars and a decades-long deadly rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran. But when it comes to Lebanon, there is one proxy army, and it is a well-fed elephant. Its Iranian sponsor keeps it alive as Lebanon’s economy dies. Its weapons flow in from across the Syrian border, through Beirut’s airport and port. It sends its fighters to preserve the Assad regime and trains militias in Iraq and Yemen. It assassinates local opponents that confront their prerogative. It avoids a special tribunal’s verdict and refuses an international investigation into the port blast. And it ends October 17’s momentum through violent intimidation. There is simply no comparison between Iran’s leverage and the GCC’s diplomatic and economic fallout in Lebanon. George Kordahi’s choice of words regarding Saudi Arabia’s fighting in Yemen five months prior to his nomination as minister of information is obviously not the only issue at hand. Saudi Arabia may be pushing the Lebanese prime minister to make a choice: either he stays in power and persuades Marada head and Kordahi-backed Samir Frangieh to accept Kordahi’s resignation, or he resigns in opposition. But this type of pressure is limited.
At the time of this writing, Mikati and Kordahi remain in their positions. And without undermining GCC motives in the region, when it comes to Lebanon, their footprint is largely limited, and their moves are reactionary. The fact is the GCC has already abandoned Lebanon, both diplomatically and increasingly economically. Sending ambassadors home and banning imports is an additional step in that direction, and a form of collective punishment. And at the same time, not nearly on par with Iran’s four-decade investment in building Hezbollah. Equating respective repercussions on Lebanon’s sovereignty is, on every level, wrong. Perceived objectivity too often yields deceptive comparison. Warped ideology shifts responsibility from a proxy army to its regime allies and nominal foes. Obfuscation is not scrutiny. And when it comes to Hezbollah’s preeminent role in Lebanon’s downfall, there is no debate.
**Ronnie Chatah hosts The Beirut Banyan podcast, a series of storytelling episodes and long-form conversations that reflect on all that is modern Lebanese history. He also leads the WalkBeirut tour, a four-hour narration of Beirut’s rich and troubled past. He is on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @thebeirutbanyan.
*The opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOW.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 04-05/2021
US lawmakers call on Biden admin. to designate Muslim Brotherhood as terror group
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/04 November ,2021
US lawmakers have reintroduced a bill calling on the State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. “It’s high time we join our allies in the Arab world in formally recognizing the Muslim Brotherhood for what they truly are—a terrorist organization,” Senator Ted Cruz said in a statement. Cruz and Congressman Mario Diaz Balart introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act.Cruz said he was proud to reintroduce the bill urging the Biden administration to make the move, and to “advance our nation’s fight against radical Islamic terrorism.”“We have a duty to hold the Muslim Brotherhood accountable for their role in financing and promoting terrorism across the Middle East,” Cruz said. Diaz-Balart said the Muslim Brotherhood continued to “instigate acts of terrorism and supports other terrorist organizations responsible for horrific acts of violence around the world.”

EU Says Talks on 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal to Resume Nov. 29
Associated Press/November 04/2021
The European Union has announced that talks between world powers and Iran to revive the troubled 2015 Iran nuclear deal will resume in Vienna on Nov. 29. The EU said the meeting of the commission of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will be attended by high-level officials from Iran, China, France, Russia, Germany and Britain. "Participants will continue the discussions on the prospect of a possible return of the United States to the JCPOA and how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the agreement by all sides," a statement said.
The JCPOA was aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear activity in exchange for the lifting of crippling sanctions. The U.S. pulled out of the accord under former President Donald Trump and re-imposed sanctions on Iran. European nations have tried to bring the United States back into the nuclear accord, but their efforts had been frustrated so far by the unwillingness of Tehran's new hardline government to resume formal talks that would include reopening parts of the 2015 deal. President Joe Biden and European leaders criticized Tehran last week for what it saw as accelerated and provocative nuclear steps as Iran continues to enrich uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.

A Public Suicide in Iran Spotlights Anguish over Economy
Associated Press/November 04/2021
Ruhollah Parazideh, a wiry 38-year-old with a thick mustache and hair flecked with gray, was desperate for a job. The father of three in southern Iran walked into a local office of a foundation that helps war veterans and their families, pleading for assistance. Local media reported that Parazideh told officials he would throw himself off their roof if they couldn't help. They tried to reason with him, promising a meager loan, but he left unsatisfied. He soon returned to the gates of the building, poured gasoline over himself, and put a lit match to his neck. He died from his burns two days later, on Oct. 21. Parazideh's suicide in the city of Yasuj shocked many in Iran, and not just because he was the son of Golmohammad Parazideh, a prominent provincial hero of the country's 1980-88 war with Iraq that left hundreds of thousands dead. It put a spotlight on the rising public fury and frustration as Iran's economy sinks, unemployment soars and the price of food skyrockets. His death occurred outside the local office of the Foundation for Martyrs and War-Disabled People, a wealthy and powerful government agency that helps the families of those killed and wounded in Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent wars.
"I was shocked when I heard the news," said Mina Ahmadi, a student at Beheshti University north of Tehran. "I thought that the families of (war) victims enjoyed generous support from the government."
Iran valorizes its war dead from the conflict with Iraq, known in Tehran as the "Sacred Defense," and the foundation plays a big role in that. After the revolution installed the clerically run system, the foundation began providing pensions, loans, housing, education and even some high-ranking government jobs. Following Parazideh's suicide, the foundation fired two of its top provincial officials and demanded the dismissal of the governor's veteran affairs adviser as well as a social worker, lambasting their failure to send the distressed man to a medical facility or others for help, local media reported.
The fallout reached the highest levels of government. Ayatollah Sharfeddin Malakhosseini, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the case a warning that officials should "get rid of unemployment, poverty and the disruption of social ties."In 2014, parliament launched an investigation into one of the main banks affiliated with the foundation for allegedly embezzling $5 million. Its findings were never revealed. The foundation is known to funnel financial support to Islamic militant organizations in the region, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in Gaza, leading the U.S. to sanction it in 2007 for supporting terrorism. Parazideh's suicide was one of several in recent years that appear driven by economic hardships. Self-immolations killed at least two other veterans and injured the wife of a disabled veteran outside branches of the foundation in Tehran, Kermanshah and Qom in recent years.
As the coronavirus pandemic wreaked economic havoc, suicides in Iran increased by over 4%, according to a government study cited by the reformist daily Etemad. For many in the Middle East, the act of self-immolation — the protest used by a fruit vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia that became a catalyst for the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings — evokes broader discontent with economic woes and the lack of opportunity.
"I don't know where we are headed because of poverty," said Reza Hashemi, a literature teacher at a Tehran high school.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump withdrew America from Tehran's landmark nuclear agreement with world powers and brought back sanctions on Iran, pummeling an oil-dependent economy already hobbled by inefficiencies. The pandemic has aggravated the economic despair. About 1 million Iranians have lost their jobs, and unemployment has climbed over 10% — a rate that is nearly twice as big among youths. Capital flight has soared to $30 billion, chasing away foreign investors. Negotiations to revive the atomic accord stalled in the five months since hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi took office, allowing Tehran to press ahead with its nuclear program. On Wednesday, the European Union announced that talks between world powers and Iran on reviving the deal would resume Nov. 29 in Vienna. The announcement stoked modest hopes that the Biden administration can resuscitate the accord.
"It's impossible to hide people's discontent with the economy," said Mohammad Qassim Osmani, an official at the Audit Organization Services, a government watchdog. "The structure of the country is faulty and sick. We need an economic revolution."
Iran's currency, the rial, has shriveled to less than 50% of its value since 2018. Wages haven't grown to make up the loss, and the Labor Ministry reported that over a third of the population lives in extreme poverty. "About 40 million people in the country need immediate and instant help," said lawmaker Hamid Reza Hajbabaei, the head of the parliamentary budget committee, in a televised debate last week — referring to nearly half the population. The deepening poverty goes beyond just numbers, becoming a visible part of daily life. On Tehran's streets, more people are seen searching through garbage for something able to be sold. Children sell trinkets and tissues. Panhandlers beg for change at most intersections — a rare sight a decade ago. Petty theft has surged, testing the already-tough justice system. Last week, a Tehran court sentenced a 45-year-old father of three to 10 months in prison and 40 lashes for pocketing a few packs of peanuts. Gen. Ali Reza Lotfi, Tehran's chief police detective, blamed the economy for the spike in crime, noting that over half of all detainees last year were first-time offenders. It has fallen to Raisi to handle the economic pressures. He frequently repeats campaign promises to create 1 million jobs through construction and tourism projects. But many low-wage workers, bearing the brunt of Iran's crisis, have no hope. Last month, in another case that drew huge attention, a 32-year-old teacher facing crushing debt hanged himself in the southern city of Guerash after a bank rejecting his request for a $200 loan.

A tale of Iranian naval heroics denied by US amid rising tensions
The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
TEHRAN--Iran seized a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman last month and still holds the vessel, US officials said on Wednesday, revealing the latest Iranian provocation in Mideast waters as tensions escalate between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme. A US official said that Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard troops took control of the MV Southys on Oct. 24 at gunpoint. Iranian State TV sought to cast the incident as an act of American aggression against Iran in the Gulf of Oman, with the US Navy detaining a tanker carrying Iranian oil and the Guard freeing it and bringing it back to the Islamic Republic. US officials dismissed Iran’s version of events. Tehran also did not provide details of the ship’s name, nor any explanation of why the Navy might target it. The deluge of Iranian claims came as the Islamic Republic prepared to mark the 42nd anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, which triggered the 444-day hostage crisis and bred decades of acrimony.
Iranian officials heralded the ship’s impoundment as an heroic act, with Raisi lauding the Revolutionary Guard on Twitter. The country’s oil minister, Javad Owji, thanked the Guard for “rescuing the Iranian oil tanker from American pirates.” The status and makeup of the Sothys’ crew wasn’t immediately known. Iran’s seizure of the Southys would be the latest in a string of hijackings and explosions to roil the Gulf of Oman, which sits near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil passes. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they thwarted an attempt by the United States to detain a tanker carrying the Islamic Republic’s oil in the Sea of Oman. “With the timely and authoritative action of the Guards naval forces, the US terrorist Navy’s operation to steal Iranian oil in the Sea of Oman failed,” the elite Guards said in a statement published by Iranian state media. “The tanker carrying Iran’s oil docked at the port of Bandar Abbas on October 25.”While Iranian media identified the seized tanker as “SOTHYS”, the name tanker tracking websites give for a Vietnam-flagged vessel, state TV aired footage showing a red tanker surrounded by about ten speed boats. It also included a recording of what TV said was the encounter between Iranian and US forces.
Iran has repeatedly warned the United States about its military activities in the Gulf, saying that the Guards’ naval forces have increased patrols to also secure the passage of Iranian ships and combat fuel smuggling.
Rising tensions
Giving details of the reported incident, Press TV said the Guards had reacted “promptly” when the Iranian oil tanker was detained in the Sea of Oman. “Members of the Guards naval forces carried out a heliborne operation on the detained tanker’s deck, gained control of the vessel and directed it back toward Iran’s territorial waters,” Press TV reported. Separately, American officials said that several drones, believed to be Iranian, had come close to the US Navy amphibious assault ship Essex in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.
Tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington amid stalled talks on reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, under which Tehran curtailed its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for a lifting of global sanctions. Iran’s top security official Ali Shamkhani said on Wednesday the talks would fail unless US President Joe Biden could guarantee Washington would not renege on the nuclear agreement in the future. The deal has eroded since 2018 when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it and reimposed US sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to breach various limits on uranium enrichment set by the pact. Shamkhani tweeted: “The US president, lacking authority, is not ready to give guarantees. If the current status quo continues, the result of negotiations is clear.”

A self-immolation in southern Iran spotlights sinking economy
The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
TEHRAN, Iran— Ruhollah Parazideh, a wiry 38-year-old with a thick mustache and hair flecked with gray, was desperate for a job. The father of three in southern Iran walked into a local office of a foundation that helps war veterans and their families, pleading for assistance. Local media reported that Parazideh told officials he would throw himself off their roof if they couldn’t help. They tried to reason with him, promising a meager loan, but he left unsatisfied. He soon returned to the gates of the building, poured gasoline over himself, and put a lit match to his neck. He died from his burns two days later, on October 21.
Parazideh’s suicide in the city of Yasuj shocked many in Iran, and not just because he was the son of Golmohammad Parazideh, a prominent provincial hero of the country’s 1980-88 war with Iraq that left hundreds of thousands dead. It put a spotlight on the rising public fury and frustration as Iran’s economy sinks, unemployment soars and the price of food skyrockets. His death occurred outside the local office of the Foundation for Martyrs and War-Disabled People, a wealthy and powerful government agency that helps the families of those killed and wounded in Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent wars.
“I was shocked when I heard the news,” said Mina Ahmadi, a student at Beheshti University north of Tehran. “I thought that the families of (war) victims enjoyed generous support from the government.”
Iran valorises its war dead from the conflict with Iraq, known in Tehran as the “Sacred Defence,” and the foundation plays a big role in that. After the revolution installed the clerically run system, the foundation began providing pensions, loans, housing, education and even some high-ranking government jobs. Following Parazideh’s suicide, the foundation fired two of its top provincial officials and demanded the dismissal of the governor’s veteran affairs adviser as well as a social worker, lambasting their failure to send the distressed man to a medical facility or others for help, local media reported.
The fallout reached the highest levels of government. Ayatollah Sharfeddin Malakhosseini, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the case a warning that officials should “get rid of unemployment, poverty and the disruption of social ties.”In 2014, parliament launched an investigation into one of the main banks affiliated with the foundation for allegedly embezzling $5 million. Its findings were never revealed. The foundation is known to funnel financial support to Islamic militant organisations in the region, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in Gaza, leading the US to sanction it in 2007 for supporting terrorism. Parazideh’s suicide was one of several in recent years that appear driven by economic hardships.
Self-immolations killed at least two other veterans and injured the wife of a disabled veteran outside branches of the foundation in Tehran, Kermanshah and Qom in recent years. As the coronavirus pandemic wreaked economic havoc, suicides in Iran increased by over 4%, according to a government study cited by the reformist daily Etemad.
For many in the Middle East, the act of self-immolation — the protest used by a fruit vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia that became a catalyst for the 2011 “Arab spring” uprisings — evokes broader discontent with economic woes and the lack of opportunity.
“I don’t know where we are headed because of poverty,” said Reza Hashemi, a literature teacher at a Tehran high school. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump withdrew America from Tehran’s landmark nuclear agreement with world powers and brought back sanctions on Iran, pummeling an oil-dependent economy already hobbled by inefficiencies. The pandemic has aggravated the economic despair. About 1 million Iranians have lost their jobs, and unemployment has climbed over 10% — a rate that is nearly twice as big among youths.Capital flight has soared to $30 billion, chasing away foreign investors. Negotiations to revive the atomic accord stalled in the five months since hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi took office, allowing Tehran to press ahead with its nuclear program. On Wednesday, the European Union announced that talks between world powers and Iran on reviving the deal would resume Nov. 29 in Vienna. The announcement stoked modest hopes that the Biden administration can resuscitate the accord.
“It’s impossible to hide people’s discontent with the economy,” said Mohammad Qassim Osmani, an official at the Audit Organisation Services, a government watchdog. “The structure of the country is faulty and sick. We need an economic revolution.”
Iran’s currency, the rial, has shriveled to less than 50% of its value since 2018. Wages haven’t grown to make up the loss, and the Labor Ministry reported that over a third of the population lives in extreme poverty. “About 40 million people in the country need immediate and instant help,” said lawmaker Hamid Reza Hajbabaei, the head of the parliamentary budget committee, in a televised debate last week — referring to nearly half the population. The deepening poverty goes beyond just numbers, becoming a visible part of daily life. On Tehran’s streets, more people are seen searching through garbage for something able to be sold. Children sell trinkets and tissues. Panhandlers beg for change at most intersections — a rare sight a decade ago. Petty theft has surged, testing the already-tough justice system. Last week, a Tehran court sentenced a 45-year-old father of three to 10 months in prison and 40 lashes for pocketing a few packs of peanuts.
Gen. Ali Reza Lotfi, Tehran’s chief police detective, blamed the economy for the spike in crime, noting that over half of all detainees last year were first-time offenders. It has fallen to Raisi to handle the economic pressures. He frequently repeats campaign promises to create 1 million jobs through construction and tourism projects. But many low-wage workers, bearing the brunt of Iran’s crisis, have no hope. Last month, in another case that drew huge attention, a 32-year-old teacher facing crushing debt hanged himself in the southern city of Guerash after a bank rejecting his request for a $200 loan.

Vatican urges peace talks as Palestinian President Abbas meets Pope
AFP/Published: 04 November ,2021
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held a private audience with Pope Francis Thursday and met with top Vatican officials, who emphasized the importance of resuming peace talks with Israel. Abbas, who has met the pontiff several times before, held talks with Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and de facto foreign minister Paul Gallagher on a trip to Rome that also included a meeting with Italian premier Mario Draghi. The Vatican later said, “it was stressed that it is absolutely necessary to reactivate direct dialogue in order to achieve a two-state solution, also with the help of more vigorous effort on the part of the international community.” It “reiterated that Jerusalem must be recognized by all as a place of encounter and not of conflict, and that its status must preserve its identity and universal value as a Holy City for all three Abrahamic religions.”The Israeli coalition led by new hardline nationalist prime minister, Naftali Bennett, has no common position on ending the decades-long Palestinian conflict, complicating any formal diplomatic negotiations. But recent visits to Abbas by three Israeli cabinet ministers indicate both sides are keen to promote stability and improve ties, even if peace talks remain off the table for now.
At the Vatican Thursday, the pope and Abbas exchanged gifts and then held hands as Abbas wished the pope good health and strength going forward, according to footage released by the Vatican. In what Vatican News said was their sixth meeting in the Vatican, Abbas gave the pope a representation in amber of the Grotto of the Nativity, an underground cave in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born. During his trip, Abbas also met with Italian Prime Minister Draghi and the country’s head of state, President Sergio Mattarella. At their meeting Wednesday, Draghi “expressed his support for a prompt resumption of the bilateral dialogue” and “a just, sustainable and negotiated two-state solution,” the prime minister’s office said.

Netanyahu’s hopes for a comeback dim as Israel passes budget
AP/November 05, 2021
TEL AVIV: Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu watched from the sidelines Thursday as the government that toppled him after 12 years in power passed a national budget, dealing a major blow to his hopes of a swift return to the country’s top office. The man whose shadow loomed so large for so long over Israel, whose rule sparked both mass protests and cult-like devotion, has been relegated to the backbenches as opposition leader, far from the levers of power and exposed to serious corruption charges. The first budget to be passed in three years, during which a prolonged period of political gridlock brought four divisive elections, was a stress test for Israel’s fractious coalition government. “It changes the timeframe for him,” said Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist at the left-leaning Haaretz daily and Netanyahu biographer. “It doesn’t mean he’s going to give up. He’s not going to give up. He’s incapable of giving up.”Failure to pass the budget before Nov. 14 would have resulted in the dissolution of the government and snap elections — giving Netanyahu, who is rising in the polls, a chance at redemption. Now that it has passed, the government — established with the goal of ousting Netanyahu — appears to have bought itself some time. Coalition parties are struggling in the polls and none is likely to want to topple the government and trigger new elections, for now. Netanyahu’s best hope is that the coalition, made up of eight ideologically diverse parties, implodes over its own contradictions. Otherwise, his next chance will come when the government rotates its leadership in 2023, bringing the centrist Yair Lapid to power and perhaps giving his nationalist coalition partners a reason to bolt. Aviv Bushinsky, a former Netanyahu aide, said Netanyahu is better off biding his time as opposition leader, a public platform from which he can contest the legal charges and ratchet up support from constituents. “Right now he’s in no hurry. He has nothing to lose,” he said. Addressing parliament on Wednesday, ahead of the budget vote, Netanyahu vowed to carry on.“We will continue to fight this awful government. We will leave no stone unturned, we will look for any way to topple it, to return Israel to the right track,” he said. Netanyahu, a major figure in Israeli politics for the last quarter century, suffered a dramatic downfall earlier this year. He began a 12-year run as prime minister in 2009, after an earlier stint in the 1990s, becoming Israel’s longest serving leader and helping to shape the country. He was ubiquitous on the world stage, preaching against Iran’s nuclear program and the accord with world powers meant to rein it in. He ramped up settlement building in the occupied West Bank, avoided peace talks with the Palestinians and presided over three wars against the Hamas militant group ruling Gaza. He worked hard to convince Israelis that he was a world-class statesman, the only one who could safely guide Israel through its myriad challenges. But under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has traveled to the global climate summit, steered Israel through a fourth COVID-19 wave and passed a budget, that argument has eroded. “Suddenly you don’t need to be Benjamin Netanyahu to be the prime minister of Israel. And that in itself has sort of been a revelation,” Pfeffer said. Netanyahu also used his office to divide Israelis, whipping up nationalists against dovish leftists, Jewish Israelis against Palestinian citizens of Israel and railing against the country’s institutions, especially after he was indicted in three corruption cases. Netanyahu is on trial for fraud, breach of trust and bribery, charges he denies but which clouded his last years in office. Under Israeli law, Netanyahu did not have to step down after being indicted, leaving him a bully pulpit from which he could fight the charges, push to legislate immunity and air his grievances against the media and the judicial system.

Tunisia’s main trade union calls on Saied to clarify political timeline
The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
TUNIS--The Tunisian General Workers’ Union (UGTT) has voiced its concern over what it described as prevailing “ambiguities” over the next steps to be taken by President Kais Saied to usher in a new phase beyond the emergency measures he has taken since late July 25, when he suspended the activities of parliament and dismissed the prime minister. On September 22, he announced that he would be ruling indefinitely by decree. The powerful union specifically requested that Saied set a time limit for the emergency measures currently in effect.
Noureddine Taboubi, the secretary-general of the largest labour organisation in Tunisia, pointed to the union’s “supportive positions for the change that took place on July 25, as reflected in the labour organisation’s statements and those of its leaders.” But he reiterated the union’s call for an “end to ambiguity” and emphasised the need to “clarify the political vision regarding the corrective path and the basic steps (taken by the president) to hasten the end of the exceptional phase.”Taboubi also stressed that “the initiative of online dialogue with young people launched by President Saied is welcome, but the final outcome and the final formulation of proposals related to political and electoral reforms must take place in a participatory manner with national organisations and political parties onboard.”He added that “national dialogue with youth is very important as a mechanism to hear the expectations of this segment of the population and have in mind their deferred dreams, provided that no group of society is excluded from this dialogue and that the union plays the role of an active partner in the process.”Taboubi’s statement came after his meetings in recent days with a number of officials and diplomats, including the US ambassador to Tunisia, Donald Blome. The American envoy gave his support for Tunisia’s democratic experience and stressed the importance of a comprehensive political process that includes civil society and all other parties. In its statement, the Labour Union called on President Saied to work for a quick end to the emergency measures in the country. The union wants a clearer horizon for the realisation of conditions that would ensure stability and to move on with the process of democracy building. Civil organisations, such as the National League for Human Rights and the Economic and Social Rights Forum, have also called on President Saied to issue a clear and comprehensive roadmap towards taking the country out of its current difficult economic and health situation. The Tunisian General Labour Union, which is a key player in the country’s socioeconomic scene, has exerted much influence in the country’s political transition since 2011 and was a member of the Dialogue Quartet which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

Rumors swirl over Erdogan’s declining health after G20 hobble
Arab News/November 04, 2021
LONDON: Allies of the Turkish president have denied that his health is in decline after footage emerged online of him appearing to struggle to walk. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 67, was filmed during Sunday’s G20 Summit in Rome in which he appeared to be unsteady on his feet. The footage fueled speculation that Turkey’s long-time ruler’s health is in decline. In the video, Erdogan is seen walking apparently unsteadily away after a photoshoot, before a number of guards rush to his aid and move a thin rope fence out of his path. His allies have responded furiously to the rumors of his declining health, with his official spokesman Fahrettin Altun tweeting a video showing him walking normally at the G20 Summit. Rumors of Erdogan having cancer, which he denied, have also proliferated over the years after he had growths — polyps — removed from his small intestines in 2011 and 2012. Erdogan, sometimes dubbed the new “sultan” of Turkey, has dominated the country’s politics for nearly two decades, first as prime minister in 2003 then as president in 2014. But Turkey’s declining economy and out-of-control currency inflation appear to be hurting his popularity.
In 2019, his party suffered several defeats in city mayoral elections, even after he had forced a re-run of the polling in Istanbul.

Turkey proxies weaponise water in north Syria to starve, displace
The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
DAMASCUS--Turkish-backed groups in northern Syria have weaponised water by building dams on a river that is a lifeline for communities living downstream in Kurdish-dominated areas, a report alleged Wednesday. New research conducted by Dutch peace-building organisation PAX shows that the Syrian National Army (SNA) built three dams that cut off the vital Khabour river. The SNA is a military group armed and funded by Turkey which is present in an area of northern Syria contiguous to the semi-autonomous northeastern region run by the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces. The militia that forms the SDF’s backbone is considered a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government, whose military presence in northern Syria is at least partly aimed at preventing any resurgence of Kurdish separatism. The PAX research, which includes field work and satellite imagery analysis, found that the SNA’s blocking of a vital river during the region’s driest summer on record was “a clear-cut example of using water as weapon of war.”It said that the building of the dams compounded the effects of a severe drought. “The impact of the extreme heat was magnified by very limited rainfall, which meant agricultural communities had less water than ever at their time of greatest need,” it said. The imagery published by PAX shows the three dams, the first of which was completed on May 22 this year. The Khabour is a 320-kilometre-long tributary of the Euphrates whose source is in Turkey but which runs across much of northeastern Syria and through Hasakeh, one of the main cities in the Kurdish region. The research estimated that thousands of households were deprived of access to water due to the building of the dams, noting that this amounted to a clear violation of international humanitarian law. “This could be a calculated measure employed by the SNA with the intention of starving the civilian population and/or bringing about their forced displacement as a method of warfare,” said PAX. In its recommendations, PAX called on the international community to urge Turkey to ensure that all civilians have access to the Khabour’s water.

OPEC+ meets under US pressure to boost output
The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
LONDON--Major oil producers are expected Thursday to agree to continue raising output moderately despite pressure from the United States and other big consumers to open up the taps much more decisively amid soaring prices. The 13 members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their 10 allies started to gather just after 1300 GMT for their regular monthly meeting via videoconference, according to a source close to the group. The powerful producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia in the so-called OPEC+ grouping are expected to re-affirm a decision in July to modestly step up production after slashing it steeply last year as the pandemic hit global markets. “There is every indication that they will opt to stick with the current plan to step up oil production by 400,000 barrels per day each month,” Carsten Fritsch of Commerzbank said.
With prices for the benchmark WTI contract reaching $85 last week, the highest since 2014, US President Joe Biden appealed on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome over the weekend to OPEC to pump more. “The idea that Russia and Saudi Arabia and other major producers are not going to pump more oil so people can have gasoline to get to and from work, for example, is not right,” he said. Other oil-consuming nations, such as India and Japan, have also called for more output to lower prices. Helima Croft of RBC Capital Markets said she would not rule out Saudi Arabia agreeing to a rise beyond 400,000 barrels per day “given the intensity of the White House pressure and from other key consuming countries like India”.
‘Operating on limit’
OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo last week reiterated “the need to remain cautious and attentive to an ever-evolving market situation,” according to a statement. While higher prices benefit producers in the form of increased revenues — particularly after the lean period of the coronavirus pandemic — there are concerns that they could stifle the fragile economic recovery and thus demand for oil. There have also been question marks recently over the ability of OPEC+ members to drastically boost output. “The consensus amongst investors is that OPEC+ will resist calls to speed up the pace of production increases because lots of the members are already operating on the limit of their production capacity,” Ricardo Evangelista of ActivTrades said. Contrary to the normal trend of OPEC countries exceeding their production quotas, in recent months most member states have stuck to them or in some cases even fallen short. This suggests that the group may not be able to rapidly increase production in the short term despite it having a current theoretical reserve of more than four million bpd in the ground.

Emirates to Launch Daily Dubai-Tel Aviv Flights
Agence France Presse/November 04/2021
Emirates is to start daily flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv on Saturday, the airline announced, in the latest sign of deepening relations since the UAE and Israel normalized ties in September last year. The Dubai-based carrier, one of the largest in the world, said the new service would also link Israel seamlessly with its global route network. Low-cost carrier Flydubai launched the first commercial flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai just a few months after last year's agreement. Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad and Israeli carrier Arkia now also offer regular flights. The UAE's normalization of its relations with Israel, in a deal brokered by then US president Donald Trump's administration, broke with decades of Arab consensus and infuriated the Palestinians and their supporters.

Urgent Efforts to Calm Ethiopia as War Reaches One-Year Mark
Associated Press/November 04/2021
Urgent new efforts to calm Ethiopia's escalating war are unfolding Thursday as a U.S. special envoy visits and the president of neighboring Kenya calls for an immediate cease-fire while the country marks a year of conflict. The lack of dialogue "has been particularly disturbing," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement, as the war that has killed thousands of people and displaced millions since November 2020 threatens to engulf the capital, Addis Ababa. Rival Tigray forces seized key cities in recent days and linked up with another armed group, leading the government of Africa's second most populous country to declare a national state of emergency. The spokesperson for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Billene Seyoum, did not immediately respond Thursday when asked whether he would meet with U.S. special envoy Jeffrey Feltman, who this week insisted that "there are many, many ways to initiate discreet talks."United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said he had spoken with Abiy "to offer my good offices to create the conditions for a dialogue so the fighting stops."But so far, efforts for such discussions have failed. Last week a congressional aide told The Associated Press that "there have been talks of talks with officials, but when it gets to the Abiy level and the senior (Tigray forces) level, the demands are wide, and Abiy doesn't want to talk."
Instead, the prime minister has again called citizens to rise up and "bury" the Tigray forces who long dominated the national government before he came to power. On Wednesday, Facebook said it had removed a post by Abiy with that language, saying it violated policies against inciting violence. It was a rare action against a head of state or government. Kenya's foreign ministry separately said that statements inciting ordinary citizens into the conflict "must be shunned." Kenya also has increased security along its borders amid fears of a wave of Ethiopians fleeing the war as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises spreads. Tigray forces spokesman Getachew Reda in a tweet late Wednesday claimed they had "joined hands" with another armed group, the Oromo Liberation Army, to seize the city of Kemisse even closer to the capital.
"Joint operations will continue in the days and weeks ahead," he said. The claim could not immediately be verified. All sides in the war have committed abuses, a joint U.N. human rights investigation announced Wednesday, while millions of people in the government-blockaded Tigray region are no longer able to receive humanitarian aid. With the new state of emergency's sweeping powers of detention, ethnic Tigrayans in the capital told the AP they were hiding in their homes in fear as authorities carried out house-to-house searches and stopped people on the streets to check identity cards, which everyone must now carry. "Our only hope now is the (Tigray forces)," said one young woman, Rahel, whose husband was detained on Tuesday while going to work as a merchant but has not been charged. "They might not save us, to be honest. I've already given up on my life, but if our families can be saved, I think that's enough." Another Tigrayan in the capital, Yared, said his brother, a businessman, was detained on Monday, and when he went to the police station to visit him he saw dozens of other Tigrayans. "It's crazy, my friends in Addis, non-Tigrayans, are calling me and telling me not to leave the house," Yared said, adding that police came to his house on Wednesday, the latest of several such visits since the war began. "They go through your phone and if you have some material about the Tigray war that would be suggesting supporting the war, they would just detain you," he said. "The past four days have been the worst by far, the scope at which they're detaining people, it's just terrorizing. We don't feel safe in our homes anymore."

Saudi Arabia, UAE call for ‘civilian-led’ government in Sudan
The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
WASHINGTON— Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday joined calls for the immediate restoration of a civilian-led government in Sudan after a military coup in the African nation. A joint statement by the two nations, plus the United States and the United Kingdom, also urged the military to release those detained in connection to the takeover and lift the state of emergency imposed across the country since October 25. “We endorse the international community’s serious concern with the situation in Sudan. We call for the full and immediate restoration of its civilian-led transitional government and institutions,” said a joint statement released by the US State Department. “We encourage the release of all those detained in connection with recent events and the lifting of the state of emergency,” the statement said. The US, the UK, Saudi Arabia and the UAE has also called for “further dialogue about how to restore and uphold a genuine civilian-military partnership for the remainder of the transitional period, pending elections,” in accordance with the 2019 constitution document and a peace deal with rebel groups last year. The United States has led condemnation of the military’s October 25 takeover, which interrupted a fragile transition to democracy in which power was being shared with a civilian government. Washington immediately froze $700 million in economic support that was in the pipeline for Sudan. Sudan has also faced pressure from the African Union, which suspended the country until “the effective restoration of the civilian-led transitional authority.”
Diplomatic push
On Wednesday, Burhan met Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union envoy for the Horn of Africa in Khartoum, to discuss mediation efforts. The Sudanese leader said the military would name a prime minister who will appoint a technocratic cabinet, without mentioning Hamdok as a candidate, according to the state-run SUNA news agency. Volker Perthes, the UN envoy in Sudan, has said Monday that mediation efforts were ongoing “in Khartoum by a host of actors, with both Hamdok and Burhan “are interested … in mediation.” “The contours of an agreement seem within reach, but we cannot speculate when a deal will be reached,” Perthes told a group of journalists in Khartoum Wednesday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone last week to ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday that US diplomats have also spoken to Sudan’s military and “left no ambiguity whatsoever” about demands to restore Hamdok’s government. US officials said that the United Arab Emirates holds particular influence in Sudan and helped persuade top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to release Hamdok from prison to house arrest.
Blinken discussed the Sudan crisis in recent days with his counterparts from both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during a trip to Rome and Glasgow for the Group of 20 and COP26 climate summits. “I think the Emirates share our concern about the stability in Sudan,” Jeffrey Feltman, the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, told reporters Tuesday. “Our analysis is that the stability in Sudan depends on restoring that partnership between the civilians and the military that was part of the transition,” he said. He applauded what he described as restraint from both the military and protesters during nationwide anti-coup protests on Saturday, which the United States had previously feared could be a bloodbath. In the end, three people died. “You saw evidence, I think, of the Sudanese understanding that they need to get themselves out of this crisis by the conduct of the demonstrations,” he said. Hamdok has called for the reinstatement of his government as a way out of the crisis.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 04-05/2021
The Palestinian Authority Campaign Against Palestinian NGOs
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/November 04/2021
The six Palestinian NGOs were classified by Israel as terrorist organizations because of their affiliation with the PLO's Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by both the United States and the European Union.
The PFLP, which has carried out many attacks against Israelis, including civilians, is one of 11 groups that form the PLO, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Each group receives monthly allocations of up to $70,000 from the PLO's unofficial finance ministry.
Yet while Israel has come under attack for its move against the six NGOs, there is almost no mention that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which joined the bandwagon of anti-Israel criticism, has also been targeting Palestinian NGOs for quite some time.
[T]he PA has been targeting hundreds of Palestinian NGOs... as part of an effort to control them and take their funds. Unlike Israel, the PA is not targeting the NGOs because of their affiliation with terrorism. Many of the NGOs have been critical of the PA leadership: that is why Abbas wants to silence them.
Al-Haq, one of the six organizations labeled by Israel as a terrorist organization... pointed out that this was not the first time the PA leadership had targeted Palestinian NGOs.
When Al-Haq complained about the PA decree targeting Palestinian NGOs, the mainstream media in the West, as well as several human rights organizations self-righteously chose to look the other way.... The international community did not demand clarifications from the PA leadership about his "assault" on Palestinian NGOs.
Palestinian legal expert Majed al-Arouri.... said that more than 20,000 Palestinian employees would lose their jobs as a result of the restrictions imposed by the PA on the work of Palestinian NGOs and charitable organizations.
As far as many in the international community are concerned, it is fine if Abbas takes punitive measures against the PFLP, but it is outrageous if Israel does it.
Those who are ignoring Abbas's crackdown on the Palestinian NGOs are depriving the Palestinians of democracy and freedom of speech.
The international community's obsession with Israel... proves that it is more interested in condemning and delegitimizing Israel than improving the status of human rights and democracy under the PA.
Six Palestinian NGOs were recently classified by Israel as terrorist organizations because of their affiliation with the PLO's Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by both the United States and the European Union. Pictured: PFLP terrorists aim their weapons at an effigy depicting then US President Donald Trump in Gaza City, on May 23, 2017.
Israel's recent decision to designate six Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as terrorist organizations sparked a wave of protests and condemnations from many parties around the world, including human rights groups and political activists. Israel is being accused of cracking down on Palestinian civil society organizations not because of their affiliation with a terrorist group, but because of their political activities, which are often not that different.
The six Palestinian NGOs were classified by Israel as terrorist organizations because of their affiliation with the PLO's Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by both the United States and the European Union.
The PFLP is one of 11 groups that forms the PLO, which is headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Each group receives monthly allocations of up to $70,000 from the PLO's unofficial finance ministry, the Palestinian National Fund (PNF), which is responsible for managing financial aid coming from a variety of sources: funds from Arab states, contributions from wealthy Palestinians, and a "liberation tax" levied on Palestinians working in Arab countries.
Yet while Israel has come under attack for its move against the six NGOs, there is almost no mention that the Palestinian Authority (PA) (which joined the bandwagon of anti-Israel criticism) has also been targeting Palestinian NGOs for quite some time.
In fact, the measures taken by the PA against Palestinian NGOs seem far more serious than Israel's decision to label six of them as terrorist organizations.
While the Israeli measure affects only six groups and is related to security matters, the PA has been targeting hundreds of Palestinian NGOs, including charitable groups, as part of an effort to control them and take their funds. Unlike Israel, the PA is not targeting the NGOs because of their affiliation with terrorism. Many of the NGOs have been critical of the PA leadership: that is why Abbas wants to silence them.
The PA measures against the NGOs have been almost entirely ignored by the same people and parties who are now condemning Israel for its decision to designate the PFLP-affiliated groups as terrorist organizations.
Earlier this year, Abbas issued a "presidential decree" that restricts the work of Palestinian civil society organizations. The decree imposes severe restrictions on the activity and finances of Palestinian NGOs, authorizing Palestinian officials to transfer NGO funds to the PA treasury, but with virtually no transparency.
In 2019, the PA froze bank accounts of dozens of Palestinian NGOs in the Gaza Strip. The move was condemned by the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), an umbrella organization for civil society groups.
According to PNGO, the decision to freeze the bank accounts of the NGOs "threatens the services they provide and undermines their role in enhancing the steadfastness of Palestinians." It is important to note that not all Palestinian NGOs are affiliated with terrorist groups, and that is the reason Israel has not taken any measures against them.
Abbas's "presidential decree" essentially subordinates Palestinian NGOs to the PA government, granting it authority to intervene in their activity and budgets.
Palestinian civil society organizations condemned Abbas's decree. They dubbed it a "vicious attack against NGOs." The decree, they said, was "issued within the framework of several ongoing laws-by-decree that are drafted in full secrecy and behind closed doors."
The NGOs and several Palestinian factions added that the PA leadership's decree aims to tighten its grip on the work of civil society and charitable groups and constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights and public freedoms.
They also accused the PA of seeking to undermine the "monitoring role of the NGOs over the performance of the executive authority and their objective to hold this authority accountable for its violations."
Al-Haq, one of the six organizations labeled by Israel as a terrorist organization, lashed out at Abbas's decree regarding NGOs, saying it "finishes off what remains of a Palestinian political system and "demonstrates large-scale flagrant violations of the Palestinian Basic Law and international conventions."
Additionally, Al-Haq said that Abbas's move against Palestinian NGOs "infringes on the pillars of transparency and openness to civil society." Al-Haq pointed out that this was not the first time the PA leadership had targeted Palestinian NGOs.
When Al-Haq complained about the PA decree targeting Palestinian NGOs, the mainstream media in the West, as well as several human rights organizations, self-righteously chose to look the other way.
When Al-Haq and other Palestinian NGOs denounced Israel for classifying them as terrorist organizations, though, many journalists and human rights organizations around the world suddenly woke up and joined the attack on Israel.
When several Palestinian factions called on Abbas to rescind his decree against the charitable and civil society organizations, many in the international community shut their eyes and ears. The international community did not demand "clarifications" from the PA leadership about his "assault" on Palestinian NGOs.
The factions said that Abbas's decree "contradicts public freedoms and undermines the independence of civil society institutions." They further warned that, if implemented, thousands of workers in health, educational, agricultural, human rights and other sectors would lose their jobs.
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights called on Abbas to cancel the decree because it "restricts public freedoms, especially the freedom to form and operate associations, and obstructs their
Palestinian legal expert Majed al-Arouri denounced the decree as a "collective punishment" targeting those who criticize the PA leadership. He said that more than 20,000 Palestinian employees would lose their jobs as a result of the restrictions imposed by the PA on the work of Palestinian NGOs and charitable organizations.
Another Palestinian legal expert, Issam Abdeen, said that Abbas's decree "destroys institutions that have spent years building their national cadres."
There is yet another ironic twist to the story concerning the six Palestinian NGOs declared by Israel as PFLP affiliates. Recently, PFLP officials accused Abbas of halting monthly payments to their organization as part of an attempt to blackmail it and force it to change its policies.
Palestinians believe that the suspension of the payments was taken because of the PFLP's criticism of the PA leadership's policies. The PFLP does not recognize Israel and favors a "one-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- meaning a State of Palestine "from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea," as they put it, in short, all of Israel.
Thus, while Israel is being castigated for targeting PFLP-affiliated organizations, not a word is being said about Abbas's decision to halt payments to the terrorist group. As far as many in the international community are concerned, it is fine if Abbas takes punitive measures against the PFLP, but it is an outrage if Israel does so.
On October 25, Abbas met with representatives of the six NGOs labeled by Israel as terrorist organizations and told them that he stands with them in "carrying out their duty of exposing Israeli crimes."
During the meeting, Abbas stated that Israel has no right to interfere with the work of the NGOs, which operate in accordance with the Palestinian law. This is the same Abbas accused by Palestinian NGOs of obstructing their work.
We are witnessing classic -- and continuous -- cover-up on the part of Abbas and the Palestinian NGOs, whose representatives seem to have forgotten to inform the world about the PA's brutal measures against Palestinian civil society and charitable organizations.
One wonders whether those who are now denouncing Israel will have the decency to call out Abbas for imposing severe and destructive restrictions on Palestinian NGOs in an attempt to silence them and lay his hands on their money.
Those who are ignoring Abbas's crackdown on the Palestinian NGOs are depriving the Palestinians of democracy and freedom of speech. It is no surprise that 71% of the Palestinians in the West Bank believe that they cannot criticize the PA without fear. It is also no surprise that half the Palestinians living under the rule of the PA describe the status of democracy and human rights as very bad. The international community's obsession with Israel -- as demonstrated in its response to the designation of the six NGOs as terrorist groups -- proves that it is more interested in condemning and delegitimizing Israel than improving the status of human rights and democracy under the PA.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
© 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.

China Has No Interest in Climate Change
Con Coughlin//Gatestone Institute/November 04/2021
Beijing remains committed to opening hundreds more coal-fired power plants in the coming years, with the result that China's new coal plants will more than offset all the closures of other coal-fired stations that have taken place in the rest of the world during the past year.
Beijing's unwillingness to make any significant contribution to attempts at the COP26 conference to reduce global emissions has raised legitimate concerns that China is seeking to gain an economic advantage over its Western rivals as they struggle with the challenge of meeting net zero targets.
There is a growing body opinion on both sides of the Atlantic that dramatic reductions in carbon omission could wreak economic havoc for Western economies if the pursuit of "green" economies is pursued at the expense of maintaining energy supplies. In Europe, for example, the race to abandon traditional fossil fuels as a major source of energy has led to increased reliance on energy supplies from Russia through its controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Mr Xi's refusal to engage seriously with the COP26 climate change agenda also makes a mockery of the Biden administration's contention that the best way to improve Beijing's conduct is through deeper diplomatic cooperation.
Beijing's main motivation is to undermine Western capitalism, not support it, which is why he has no intention of supporting the West's ill-considered dash for net zero carbon emissions.
Beijing's unwillingness to make any significant contribution to attempts at the COP26 conference to reduce global emissions has raised legitimate concerns that China is seeking to gain an economic advantage over its Western rivals as they struggle with the challenge of meeting net zero targets. Pictured: National finance leaders pose for a group photograph at the COP26 meeting on November 3, 2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. (Photo by Steve Reigate-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Nothing better summarises Chinese President Xi Jinping's attitude to the West's obsession with tackling climate change than the old Chinese saying, "Hide a knife behind a smile."
As world leaders gathered for the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Western leaders were desperately trying to reach a deal on cutting carbon emissions, which United Nations climate experts claim is a major cause of climate change.
There was no shortage of dire predictions in the run-up to the summit, with John Kerry, President Biden's climate envoy, warning that this is the world's "last best chance" to stop a climate catastrophe and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talking in apocalyptic terms about the world's failure to tackle the issue placing modern civilisation at risk.
But while Western leaders haggled over how quickly they can reach the "net zero" target the UN claims is essential to prevent climate warming reaching catastrophic levels by the end of the century, Mr Xi has been demonstrating a noticeable lack of enthusiasm for the cuts demanded by climate campaigners.
This has prompted concerns among economists that Beijing's reluctance to join the scramble to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030 -- one of the main objectives at COP26 -- will ultimately provide China with a significant economic advantage over its Western rivals.
With the UN issuing countless warnings that the world faces "chaos and conflict" if action is not taken, Mr Xi, whose country is one of the world's highest emitters of carbon dioxide, demonstrated his unwillingness to cooperate with the dash to net zero by declining to attend the Glasgow conference. Instead he agreed to participate in discussions with other world leaders by video conference.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was another prominent non-attendee, although he has cited concerns over Covid restrictions for not travelling to Glasgow, even though his absence will be seen as a yet another serious blow to the summit's prospects of agreeing to, and actually implementing, a carbon reduction programme. Of far greater concern than the non-attendance of the Chinese and Russian presidents, though, was Mr Xi's disappointing response to calls from the UN for it to reduce its emissions.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, has called for China to ensure emissions peak before 2030, thereby helping efforts of keeping global temperature increases to 1.5 percent, a target that was set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
"Humanity's future depends on keeping global temperature increase to 1.5C by 2030," said Mr Guterres, adding that world leaders were "utterly failing to keep this target within reach".
Instead China, which was recently found to emit more greenhouse gases than all countries in the entire developed world combined, has provided a deeply lukewarm response to calls for Beijing to take more drastic action. A report published earlier this year by Rhodium Group found that China's emissions more than tripled over the previous three decades, and had risen to the point where it emitted 27% of the world's greenhouse gases in 2019.
Yet, in its formal submission to the UN prior to the COP26 summit, China made only a small improvement to its emission-cutting plan, prompting one European climate expert to criticise the Chinese plan as "disappointing and a missed opportunity."
Crucially, while the Chinese economy relies heavily for its energy needs on coal-fired power stations, which are widely regarded as a major contributor to global warming, Beijing shows little inclination to develop alternative energy supplies. On the contrary, Beijing remains committed to opening hundreds more coal-fired power plants in the coming years, with the result that China's new coal plants will more than offset all the closures of other coal-fired stations that have taken place in the rest of the world during the past year.
Beijing's National Energy Commission, has defended the need to build more coal-fired power stations, and stressed the importance of regular energy supply, after swathes of the country were recently plunged into darkness by power cuts.
Nevertheless, Beijing's unwillingness to make any significant contribution to attempts at the COP26 conference to reduce global emissions has raised legitimate concerns that China is seeking to gain an economic advantage over its Western rivals as they struggle with the challenge of meeting net zero targets.
There is a growing body opinion on both sides of the Atlantic that dramatic reductions in carbon omission could wreak economic havoc for Western economies if the pursuit of "green" economies is pursued at the expense of maintaining energy supplies. In Europe, for example, the race to abandon traditional fossil fuels as a major source of energy has led to increased reliance on energy supplies from Russia through its controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Mr Xi's refusal to engage seriously with the COP26 climate change agenda also makes a mockery of the Biden administration's contention that the best way to improve Beijing's conduct is through deeper diplomatic cooperation. That certainly seems to be the view of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan following his recent meetings with senior members of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.
As Mr Xi's contemptuous attitude towards COP26 demonstrates only too well, Beijing's main motivation is to undermine Western capitalism, not support it, which is why he has no intention of supporting the West's ill-considered dash for net zero carbon emissions.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 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.

No Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists in the Arab Region
Devdiscourse/November 04/2021
The activities also included questions and answers with journalists and a photo gallery with photos of journalists who lost their lives in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during recent years until 2021.
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/headlines/1794435-brief-evergrande-auto-unit-is-selling-protean-to-ev-maker-bedeo--bloomberg-news
On the eighth anniversary of the International Day to End Impunity (IDEI) for Crimes Against Journalists, on 02 November 2021, a group of local, regional and international human rights organizations held an event entitled "No Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists in the Arab Region" on 02 November 2021 in Beirut. The day was approved by the United Nations General Assembly at its 68th session in 2013.
The activities included a seminar moderated by Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) Executive Director Khalid Ibrahim, in which human rights lawyer Tony Mikhael, a legal advisor at Maharat Foundation, Communication and Information Program Officer at UNESCO's Beirut Office George Awad, President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and IFEX Convenor Nedal Al-Salman, and journalist Abeer Mohsen, of the Yemeni Archive Organization, participated.
The activities also included questions and answers with journalists and a photo gallery with photos of journalists who lost their lives in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during recent years until 2021.
GCHR's Khalid Ibrahim presented a general framework on the situation of impunity for crimes committed against journalists in the Arab region. Ibrahim pointed out that the images of journalists who sacrificed their lives for their profession, which we see prominently in the annual IDEI exhibition, should motivate us to work together, in order to end impunity and prosecute the perpetrators of those crimes.
Ibrahim said, "We must work with each other as civil society organizations, international mechanisms and relevant governments to immediately end impunity in the MENA region, which remains one of the most dangerous areas in the world for journalists."
Maharat's Tony Mikhael said, "The celebration of this occasion comes as ten months have passed since the murder of journalist Lokman Slim, without investigations finding any clues in this crime, amid a blackout and silence by Lebanese officials. Impunity for the killers of journalists in Lebanon is perpetuated by a consistent pattern that has persisted for decades before and after the war, to the murders of Gebran Tueni and Samir Kassir in 2005, and continues to this day."
Mikhael pointed out that since the start of the popular movement in Lebanon in October 2019, dozens of journalists have been subjected to physical abuse and threats to discourage them from covering the protests and documenting violations against opponents, and no investigation has been opened nor have the aggressors been punished despite the participation of the security forces in attacks on journalists. This has been clearly documented by the attacks on journalists and protesters at Al-Helou barracks in early 2020 - the aggressors have not been held accountable, and have been shielded by their superiors, in addition to a political decision by the Ministry of the Interior refusing to hold the perpetrators accountable.
UNESCO's George Awad said: "While murder is the most extreme form of media censorship, journalists are also exposed to countless threats – ranging from kidnapping, torture and other physical attacks to harassment, particularly in the digital sphere. Threats of violence and attacks on journalists, in particular, create a climate of fear among the media, which impedes the free circulation of information, opinions and ideas for all citizens."
Awad pointed out that women journalists in particular are affected by threats and attacks, especially those that take place on the Internet. According to a recent UNESCO discussion paper, "The Chilling: Global trends in online violence against women journalists," 73% of women journalists surveyed said they had experienced threats, intimidation and humiliation online in relation to their work.
In her presentation, Nedal Al-Salman of BCHR and IFEX pointed out that, according to Reporters Without Borders, 50 journalists were killed because of their work around the world in 2020. As for the journalists who were imprisoned around the world because of their work, it reached a record level last year of at least 274 journalists. Many of them were arrested for covering the Covid-19 pandemic, criticizing government policies toward it, or covering political unrest in general. The Arab region had the lion's share of these numbers. Iraq was the second country in the world after Mexico with the number of journalists killed last year. Six journalists were killed in Iraq, three of them in the same way - a bullet in the head while covering the demonstrations, with the killers enjoying impunity so far.
Four Arab countries, including Somalia, Syria, Iraq and South Sudan, ranked the four worst places in the Committee to Protect Journalists' Global Impunity Index for 2021. As for the number of journalists imprisoned in 2020, Egypt and Saudi Arabia ranked third and fourth, respectively, globally.
Abeer Mohsen of the Yemeni Archive Organisation stressed that the international community has a role in bringing efforts together to stop the violations committed against journalists by all sides of the conflict in Yemen.
Mohsen said, "The international community has not provided journalists with anything that prevents violations against them, but has only condemned these violations. Therefore, presumably, there should be firm and severe mechanisms regarding crimes committed against journalists, otherwise, journalists will remain targeted and at risk."After a series of questions and answers between the speakers and the participants, the annual IDEI exhibition was opened, which included pictures of over a dozen journalists from Arab countries who lost their lives due to their professional journalistic work in recent years, including in 2021.

Al Jazeera’s anniversary is no reason to celebrate
Ali al-Saraf/The Arab Weekly/November 04/2021
When a person goes through a violent, painful and hurtful experience and he cannot overcome it, what should he do?
God gave him the ability to forget. This is the best option when dealing with the legacy of Al Jazeera, even though former Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani seems intent on celebrating the TV channel’s 25th anniversary as a media miracle and presenting it as a symbol of sacrifices and martyrs. Al Jazeera was not just a “media project”. It was also a “political project.” Anyone who presents it as just a news platform is just trying to fool people. But for those who have been stung by Al Jazeera’s fire, this talk only opens old wounds and pours salt on them. Sheikh Hamad wanted Al Jazeera to be the face of a project aimed at tearing apart the countries of the region and making them a playground for civil wars and tribal, religious and political conflicts of every kind.
When this project was exposed, Sheikh Hamad was forced to step down. But Al Jazeera did not give up its ploys. Its project lived on.
As an instrument of destruction and chaos, Al Jazeera has already achieved its goals.It will, of course, be said that this author’s words are part of biased slander against Al Jazeera and Qatar. But such claims are rather silly. Nobody can deny that we have never ceased paying the price for Qatar’s investing in extremist parties and terrorist organisations, on the side of its “media project”. We have paid for that with avoidable political failures and unnecessary civil strife. We paid with political chaos, innocent victims and lost time and economic revenue.
Al Jazeera cannot be separated from the subversive project led by Sheikh Hamad. And I claim that some day, he himself and Al Jazeera will be held accountable. The “Qatari Project” promoted by Al Jazeera was behind the victims who fell in the Syrian civil war, the destructive attempts carried out in Egypt, the Brotherhood regime’s failure in Tunisia and the ongoing devastation and strife in Libya. All these abysmal manifestations have a price.
The question is not whether this writer’s words are “prejudicial” to Qatar or Al Jazeera. The correct question is: Why has Qatar been so prejudiced against the rest of us? What have we done? What did Libya do to Qatar to be a victim of a project benefitting terrorist organisations and political gangs? And what did Syria do to Qatar to make it suffer so much prejudice, to the extent that Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad pledged $100 billion to finance armed groups that brought destruction to Syria, even if they could not overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime? And what did Cairo do to Qatar for Doha to use its money to push a country the size of Egypt to the edge of the abyss?
It is absolutely true that Al Jazeera brought out into the open what used to be said in secret. But there is no single idiot in the world who does not know that it did so in order to wash the dirty linen in public as long that served its less-than clean project.
The only merit of the alleged “professionalism” of Al Jazeera is its investment in noise where environments used to be predominantly silent. But its sensationalist programmes were the voice of uncivil and offensive talk, which fuelled the narrative of those who carried real guns and knives to conduct their own type of “dialogue” in street wars.
But that was exactly the goal of the “Qatari Project”.
The philosophy of Al Jazeera was to destroy, to slander and to render the coexistence between different ideas impossible. Its purpose was to fuel notions of destruction, killing, chaos and the inability to agree on anything. Such notions had nothing to do with democracy. Quite the opposite. Democracy is a project of coexistence and construction. It is a project that builds common ground between points and counterpoints. It is not a platform for slander and insults between two opposite viewpoints. It is not a project where satellite TV rivalries evolve into bloody rivalries on the ground. Democracy is about helping reach a reasonable common goal, not to promote an aimless Byzantine struggle.
It did not take long for audiences to discover that Al Jazeera had become an official platform for the Muslim Brotherhood as it sought to take us to strife and disruption and to fuel a mindset of civil wars in every home and neighbourhood.
Qatar has defended the role of Al Jazeera. But to the extent that the destructive project has become its sole project, it became difficult to figure out whether Qatar is Al Jazeera or if Al Jazeera is Qatar.
Sheikh Hamad recruited most of Al Jazeera’s employees whom he hired from BBC TV Arabic, before it closed down.
Instead of applying what they learned in the British Broadcasting Corporation, what did the graduates of this BBC TV do when they came to Aljazeera? They promoted chaos and stirred up feuds as they pretended to be carrying out a “revolution” for the sake of “democracy.”Their revolution had nothing to do with the culture of the BBC, nor for that matter with any culture other than of ignorance and lack of civility. But that was the nature of the “Qatari project”.
Sheikh Hamad came to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Al Jazeera’s founding, while many Arab peoples are still updating the casualty toll from Al Jazeera’s misdeeds. There is nothing to celebrate in Al Jazeera’s shameful record. One can only hope to forget.

Chasm between Iran regime and the people grows
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 04/ 2021
Iran appears set to return to the negotiating table in Vienna this month, but the international community’s patience seems to be growing thin, as the Tehran regime’s nuclear defiance and regional terrorism intensify. At the same time, credible accusations that President Ebrahim Raisi was involved in the massacre of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 are making it harder for other countries to engage and negotiate with Iran.
The regime is dealing with a multitude of crises and challenges. The economy is in shambles, COVID-19 is wreaking havoc, the unemployment rate continues to set new records, and the official inflation rate is above 50 percent. State corruption is also at an all-time high and, to make matters worse, the regime is not easing its astronomical expenditure on its costly nuclear, ballistic missile and drone projects.
These are essential ingredients for massive social unrest — and the regime knows it. It is terrified of a repeat of the 2019 uprisings, which shook the entire country. The theocracy barely survived after conducting an unprecedented killing spree, gunning down at least 1,500 protesters on the streets in the space of a few days.
The recent presidential election farce displayed the growing chasm between the Iranian people and the regime. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei installed Raisi as president and appointed an equally cruel judiciary chief in order to suppress all forms of dissent and opposition to his increasingly fragile rule.
For his part, Raisi has formed a Cabinet full of members of the security apparatus, the Quds Force and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, offering yet another indication that the regime is afraid of any further uprisings.
But the regime’s crises are so deep-rooted that the wisdom of such policies is highly questionable. The sheer force of the socioeconomic and political disasters created by the theocracy seem capable of inducing its downfall. Almost every sector of society is out in force with a growing list of demands and grievances, which the regime cannot address.
Moreover, there are rapidly mounting calls for Raisi’s international prosecution. It is believed that, in 1988, Raisi was one of the four members of the so-called “Death Commission” that ordered the execution of more than 30,000 political opponents, the majority of whom were members of the main oppositional group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The UN’s top official in charge of investigating human rights violations has, on several occasions, referred to the need for an international inquiry into Raisi’s role in the heinous massacre. The 1988 killings have been described as a crime against humanity and even genocide by respected human rights experts and lawyers.
As Tehran’s threats grow, the international community cannot sit silent. There are a number of immediate measures that can be adopted.
First of all, the EU and the US should focus the spotlight on the Iranian president’s human rights violations, particularly his role in the 1988 massacre and the suppression of protesters in November 2019.
Second, these international parties must practically pursue the prosecution of Raisi. The evidence is there, but the political will is missing.
This is becoming crystal clear to thousands of lawmakers and human rights activists on both sides of the Atlantic. A Free Iran summit was held in Washington last week to discuss Raisi’s involvement in the 1988 massacre and to call on governments to pursue his immediate prosecution. NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi joined a stellar roster of former senior government officials, including ex-Vice President Mike Pence, in addressing the summit.
“Regime change in Iran, by the Iranian people and their resistance, is inevitable and nothing can prevent it. It is time for the world to recognize this fact as well. The people of Iran expect governments, including the US and the European governments, to revise their policy on Iran and side with the Iranian people,” the dissident leader said.
The sheer force of the socioeconomic and political disasters created by the theocracy seem capable of inducing its downfall.
The conference took place in the wake of the G20 summit and was attended by about 1,000 members of the Iranian American community. In his speech, Pence highlighted an important point, which can be the foundation for the third step that the international community can take. “One of the biggest lies the ruling regime has sold the world is that there is no alternative to the status quo. But there is an alternative; a well-organized, fully prepared, perfectly qualified and popularly supported alternative,” Pence said, referring to the NCRI.
This statement carries enormous political significance. It is not enough to pressure the ruling regime; one must also be clear-eyed about feasible alternatives. Opposition to the theocracy should not be ignored.
In conclusion, the Iranian people are rejecting the regime in their droves. The international community must align with this historically significant movement. As the regime’s political and strategic capital continues to deplete, the world must learn to stand with the Iranian people sooner rather than later.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh