English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 06/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 21/33-46/:”‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.”But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.”So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 05-06/2021
Fifteen months/Dylan Collins/ AFP/Now Lebanon/November 05/2021
Bitar's Fate at Stake as Judge 'Opposed to Him' Handles Recusal Suit
Appeals Court Says Judge Mezher Tasked with Elia's Suit, Not Bitar's
Beirut Port Blast Investigator Forced to Suspend Probe for Third Time
Mikati Raises Ceiling on His Positions to Resolve Crisis with Gulf States
Miqati to Move to 'Plan B', Might Step Down
Franjieh, Hizbullah Stand Ground against Miqati’s Bid to Sack Kordahi
Baabda Sources: Aoun, Miqati Agree on Need to Resolve KSA Row
French FM Urges Calm, Says Lebanon Needs Gulf’s Support
Lebanon hopes ‘crazy love’ will draw tourists amid crisis
Lebanon and the Gulf... Remarks on the Crisis’ Wall/Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 05/2021
A Friendly Divorce with Hezbollah/Dr. Toufic Hindi/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 05/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 05-06/2021
Pfizer Says Covid Pill 89% Effective against Severe Disease
Iraqi Security Forces Clash with Pro-Iran Protesters in Baghdad
Sudan talks making progress, civilian government said to be ‘imminent’
Tunisia Seeks EU's Support as it Faces 'Exceptional Circumstances'
UN Rights Chief Calls for Sudan Military to Step Back
UN Envoy: Military Escalation in Yemen Undermines Peace Efforts
Libya to Open Door for Presidential, Parliamentary Elections Candidacy on Sunday
West Concerned About Algeria’s Decision to Stop Gas Supply to Europe
Hamas 'Guardian' Law Keeps Gaza Woman from Studying Abroad
Shtayyeh Requests European Action to Salvage Two-State Solution
Family of Slain Sudan Protester Vows to Resist Coup
Egypt's FM, UN Envoy Discuss in Cairo Latest Palestinian Developments
Libya Coastguard Says 280 Migrants Stopped
Canada/Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Development on release of investigation report on atrocities in the Tigray region in Ethiopia

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 05-06/2021
New Team and New Fears in Tehran/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 05/2021
Pakistan: The Anti-American "Ally"/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 05/2021
Reporting on Muslim Persecution of Christians Offends Facebook’s ‘Standards’/Raymond Ibrahim/November 05/2021
China's Weaponization of Space/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/November 05/2021
Iraq, a rich nation where people go hungry/Farouk Youssef/The Arab Weekly/November 05/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 05-06/2021
Fifteen months
Dylan Collins/ AFP/Now Lebanon/November 05/2021
Families of Beirut blast victims hold new demonstration in support of the judge who leads the probe, as the investigation is suspended again after a new Court of Appeal judge admits complaint against Tarek Bitar.
Activists and relatives of victims of the Beirut port explosion demonstrate on September 29, 2021 outside the Lebanese capital's Justice Palace to protest the suspension of the investigation into the August 4, 2020 port explosion.. Photo: Anwar Amro, AFP.
Cecile Roukoz, who lost her brother in the August 4, 2020 blast that left over 200 dead and over 7,000 wounded, marched on Thursday evening together with about 50 other family members of other victims to demand justice. The families of those who perished in the blast that destroyed the port of Beirut and damaged large parts of the city center gathered to hold a vigil in the memory of their relatives and to voice their support for the head of the blast investigation, judge Tarek Bitar, who has been under political pressure in the past months. A few hundred meters away, another smaller group of families help another vigil, but without voicing support for Bitar. The Beirut blast investigation was suspended on Thursday over a lawsuit filed by former public works minister Youssef Fenianos, whom he has summoned in for investigation. 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.
“When there’s this big of an attack on a person and all of the defendants are politicians fighting him like this it means they don’t like it and they are scared of him. We want to tell him that we have a lot of trust in him and we’re waiting for him to put out his indictment,” Roukoz told AFP.
The total number of lawsuits filed against Bitar now stands at 15, according to judicial sources who spoke to AFP. The suspension of the probe comes as the Court of Appeals accepted on Thursday the case submitted against Bitar, in which Fenianos requests his removal. An initial lawsuit submitted by Amal MPs Ghazi Zeaiter and Ali Hassan Khalil, also suspects in the probe, was rejected by a judge in September. However, they filed another lawsuit to suspend the Court of Appeal judge that rejected their complaint. Fenianos’ complaint was admitted by a new judge.
The additional pressure on the probe comes amid a campaign led by Hezbollah demanding Bitar’s replacement over allegations of “bias” that have been widely dismissed by rights groups and families of blast victims. The Shiite group’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 Mikati on Thursday condemned attempts to force his government to intervene in judicial affairs, in a thinly veiled criticism of Hezbollah. “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,” Mikati 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 peacetime tragedy. Bitar’s predecessor, Fadi Sawan, 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.
The families of the victims, a group that has been very vocal in support of Bitar during the past months, has also been split by political developments. Following the clashes in Tayyouneh on October 14, which left 7 dead and 32 wounded after armed clashes broke out during a protest by Hezbollah and Amal against Bitar and his probe, one of the spokespeople for the victims’ families, Ibrahim Hotteit, announced on social media that he resigns. Despite concerns that he was pressured into it, Hotteit explained that he holds Bitar responsible for the bloodshed on October 14. Some families of the victims joined his position. However, the large majority of those affected by the explosion and the families of the victims have announced that they continue to support Bitar.

Bitar's Fate at Stake as Judge 'Opposed to Him' Handles Recusal Suit
Naharnet/November 05/2021 
The confrontation between Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar and those whom he has charged appears to have entered a critical phase, media reports said on Friday. “Court of Cassation head Judge Suheil Abboud has lost control of the course of things after he managed them for months, when he used to influence the decisions of judges chosen by him to head courts looking into recusal requests. Those judges belonged to a certain sect and were under his authority,” al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted judicial officials as saying. “After the new recusal request against Bitar was filed through Court of Appeals head Judge Habib Mezher, a Higher Judicial Council member known for his opposition to Bitar’s course, Abboud has lost control of the Bitar battle and of the possibility to control its course, and things are leaning towards (Bitar’s) permanent removal from the port file,” the officials added. The lawsuit’s referral to Mezher “would not have happened had it not been for the interference of certain sides and the emergence of major political developments that forced the referral of the lawsuit to a judge whose orientations and opposition to Bitar’s work are known,” judicial sources told al-Joumhouria.
“It seems that political pressures have reached the highest extent and the course of the successive lawsuits and urgent decisions against Bitar are not in his interest and are taking a near-certain course toward his recusal,” the daily added. The Court of Appeals had on Thursday accepted a lawsuit by filed by ex-minister Youssef Fenianos, a defendant in the case. The lawsuit requests Bitar’s removal. That automatically suspends the investigation until a decision is reached. 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. The court this time 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 Beirut-based right group Legal Agenda warned that the court's request to see the full content of the investigation violates the secrecy of the probe. The group also said the head of the court's known opinions critical of Bitar may constitute bias.

Appeals Court Says Judge Mezher Tasked with Elia's Suit, Not Bitar's
Naharnet/November 05/2021
The Court of Appeals on Friday stressed that Judge Habib Mezher has not been tasked with looking into the recusal lawsuit against Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar, noting that Mezher has instead been exclusively tasked with ruling on a recusal lawsuit filed against Court of Appeals judge Nassib Elia, a memo obtained by al-Jadeed TV showed. The lawyers of the blast’s foreign victims meanwhile submitted a request to the court asking its chief Judge Habib Rizkallah to separate the file of Bitar’s recusal from the file of Elia’s recusal “after it turned out that there is not any assignment for Judge Habib Mezher to look into the file related to Judge Bitar.”“Accordingly, the decision that Mezher made on November 4 is illegal,” the lawyers added. Bitar's probe was suspended on Thursday after Mezher notified him of a lawsuit filed against him by ex-minister Youssef Fenianos. 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. Mezher also asked Bitar to hand over the details of the case to enable the court to review the lawsuit, according to a copy of the decision seen by The Associated Press.
The Beirut-based rights group Legal Agenda warned that Mezher's request to see the full content of the investigation violates the secrecy of the probe. The group also said that Mezher's known opinions critical of Bitar may constitute bias. According to media reports, Mezher is close to Hizbullah and the Amal Movement, which both have called for Bitar's removal and launched a fierce campaign against him over alleged selectivity in his summonings.

Beirut Port Blast Investigator Forced to Suspend Probe for Third Time
Asharq Al-Awsat//Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
The Lebanese 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. The latest comes amid a campaign led by Lebanese Hezbollah demanding Bitar's replacement over allegations of "bias" that have been widely dismissed by rights groups and families of blast victims. The group'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 Mikati on Thursday condemned attempts to force his government to intervene in judicial affairs, in a thinly veiled criticism of Hezbollah. "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," Mikati 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 Sawan, 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.

Mikati Raises Ceiling on His Positions to Resolve Crisis with Gulf States
Beirut - Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati threw the ball into the court of “Hezbollah” and the “Marada Movement” by raising the ceiling on his positions and renewing the call for the resignation of Information Minister George Kordahi. Mikati reaffirmed his determination to deal with the issue of relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Gulf states according to sound rules. “Whoever thinks that disruption is the solution is wrong,” stressed the premier while pointing out to unruly elitism the government was exposed to from within. Mikati also voiced his rejection of ministers intervening in the work of the country’s justice system. Beirut-based TV station al-Mayadeen quoted Kordahi as saying that he will neither resign nor go back on his controversial position. This has opened the possibility of dismissing Kordahi to discussion. On Thursday, intensified meetings were held among Lebanese officials to try and find a solution for the crisis with Gulf states. Mikati, for his part, met with both President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Also, Berri met with Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. “I placed His Excellency (Aoun) in the atmosphere that surrounded my visit to Glasgow and my meetings with various international bodies. I discussed with him ways to get out of the current crisis with Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, and we agreed on a road map,” said Mikati after meeting with the president. Sources familiar with the meetings told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the options are now known, and they include either Kordahi’s resignation or dismissal. “There will be no cabinet session before this matter is resolved,” the same sources 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,” said Mikati. “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,” he added.

Miqati to Move to 'Plan B', Might Step Down
Naharnet/November 05/2021    
Prime Minister Najib Miqati might soon move to “plan B” should the governmental paralysis continue, seeing as the impasse further complicates the solutions for the country’s unprecedented financial and economic collapse, a ministerial source said. “He might resort to the option of resignation and his moves will start next week,” the source told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published Friday. Political sources meanwhile expected a worsening of the diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, amid a continued failure by the country’s leaders, especially Miqati and President Michel Aoun, to find an exit.
The sources said Aoun and Miqati failed to agree on a solution in their meeting on Thursday after the President “rejected the option of sacking Information Minister George Kordahi to avoid its negative repercussions on his relation with Hizbullah.”Miqati instead openly called on Kordahi to voluntarily submit his resignation in order to “pacify the atmosphere and later launch contacts with the officials in the Gulf countries to discuss means to resolve the crisis,” the sources added.

Franjieh, Hizbullah Stand Ground against Miqati’s Bid to Sack Kordahi
Naharnet/November 05/2021   
Prime Minister Najib Miqati has started contacts with the main political parties to convince them with the resignation or sacking of Minister of Information George Kordahi and with seeking mediations with Riyadh, al-Akhbar newspaper said Friday. Miqati wants to make a Cabinet statement that opens the way for Arab and foreign mediations between Lebanon and Riyadh. Reducing the tension with the Gulf will help Lebanon with the negotiations to receive financial aid, Miqati reportedly said. Miqati’s plan is to convince Kordahi to resign through a “Christian initiative.” If the latter insists on his stance, a Cabinet session will discuss his dismissal, al-Akhbar said. The prime minister contacted Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and communicated through mediators with leader of the Marada Movement Suleiman Franjieh. Franjieh insisted on his anti-resignation stance, al-Akhbar said. Kordahi was nominated by the Marada Movement. Franjieh and Hizbullah have both rejected calls for his dismissal since the start of the Lebanon-Gulf row. Moreover, Miqati asked Hussein Khalil, political assistant to Hizbullah’s Secretary General, for help in addressing the crisis. Khalil answered that Riyadh is responsible for the crisis and that KSA wants more than Kordahi’s resignation. The newspaper added that Miqati tried to convince Hizbullah and Amal to vote for or against Kordahi’s resignation in a Cabinet session. Hizbullah refused that the matter be put to a vote. The Shiite group's representatives in government had said they will boycott cabinet meetings until it takes a clear stand on demands to replace lead investigator in Beirut port blast Judge Tarek Bitar. Since then, the Cabinet has failed to hold a single session. Miqati in a statement Thursday condemned attempts to force his government to intervene in judicial affairs, in a thinly veiled criticism of Hizbullah. He urged Kordahi to step down, saying his resignation would be "a priority," and adding that “no Lebanese party can control the country on its own.”After Miqati’s statement, sources close to Kordahi said that “he will not resign” and that “his stance has not changed.”

Baabda Sources: Aoun, Miqati Agree on Need to Resolve KSA Row
Naharnet/November 05/2021  
President Michel Aoun has agreed with Prime Minister Najib Miqati on “the need to contain the repercussions of the Gulf’s crisis with Lebanon,” Presidency sources said. “They agreed on the need to take initiative to rectify the relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a number of Arab Gulf countries,” the sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper in remarks published Friday. “This initiative is based on two key points: the first is based on the information minister himself taking initiative to resign without wasting further time, to prevent certain parties and forces from aggravating the tensions between Lebanon and the Gulf Cooperation Council member states,” the sources added. The second point stressed the need for Cabinet to convene without any delay “after the developments surpassed the issue of the stance on investigative judge Tarek Bitar, and after it has been proved that there is no solution for any objection against his investigations or performance except through the judiciary itself,” the sources went on to say.

French FM Urges Calm, Says Lebanon Needs Gulf’s Support
Naharnet/November 05/2021 
The French Foreign Ministry affirmed Friday that it is communicating with all the parties who are concerned with “the recent row between Lebanon and the Arab countries.”French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian urged all parties and Lebanese officials to “promote calm and dialogue for the benefit of the Lebanese and the stability of Lebanon,” stressing that it is “crucial for the region.”Le Drian said that “separating Lebanon from the regional crises has an essential importance.”
“Lebanon must be able to rely on its regional partners to get their support in implementing reforms,” Le Drian added.

Lebanon hopes ‘crazy love’ will draw tourists amid crisis
The Arab Weekly/November 05/2021
BEIRUT--Lebanon’s tourism minister unveiled a new slogan for the crisis-swept country on Thursday which aims to portray the precariousness of life there as a point of pride, roughly translating to “I love you in your madness”. Lebanon is suffering a financial and economic meltdown which the World Bank has labelled as one of the deepest depressions of modern history, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and a massive explosion at Beirut’s port which destroyed large parts of the city and killed more than 215 people. “This will be our touristic identity that the world will see,” Tourism Minister Walid Nassar said at a news conference with other senior ministers in Beirut. The slogan was developed cost-free for Lebanon by Dubai-based advertising company TBWA, he said. TBWA Chief Creative Officer Walid Kanaan said it was “near-impossible” to find ways to market a country in the grip of multi-layered economic and political crises, but that he had found inspiration in Lebanon’s people. “This is our country, a crazy country, crazy in its nightlife, crazy in its food and generosity. And no matter how crazy the situation in Lebanon is, we can only say, ‘We love you in your madness,’” Kanaan said, unveiling the slogan. Originally a lyric in a song by Lebanese star singer Fairuz released before the outbreak of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war, the new catchphrase will be displayed on planes of Lebanon’s national carrier Middle East Airlines and used in social media campaigns, Kanaan said.The official English translation will be “A crazy love.” Tourism, historically a major component of Lebanon’s economy, has dramatically declined since late 2019. Some two million tourists visited the country in 2018, according to a former tourism minister, while media reports citing official figures suggest that numbers fell to a few hundred thousand in 2020. Thousands of employees in the country’s food, beverage and hotel industry have been laid off and hundreds of hotels and restaurants have closed, industry representatives have said. The slogan received immediate pushback from Prime Minister Najib Mikati. “If the ministers allows, ‘in your madness we love you’, Lebanon is not mad, maybe the way it was managed led to that,” the three-time prime minister said. Responding to Mikati’s comments, Nassar told Reuters the slogan was “bold, because Lebanese go to the extremes a lot.”“We are extreme in everything,” he said.” In love, in hate, in patriotism. We take everything to the extreme.”

Lebanon and the Gulf... Remarks on the Crisis’ Wall
Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 05/2021
The majority of Lebanese politicians running the country are professional procrastinators. They are incredibly skilled at pushing dates and delaying stances and solutions. They behave on the basis that this profession grants them the ability to steer their public and private affairs, playing devious tricks to defend their gains and exploiting what remains of the bare minimum needed for the state to operate. The approach of equivocation, buying time and procrastination was adopted with every tragedy that the political class has faced, from the October insurgency to the explosion at the port, as well as the economic crisis and government failures. This approach also shaped how they managed the diplomatic crisis with the Gulf states, which, despite being unprecedented in the history of Lebanese Gulf relations in terms of the dangers it poses, did not compel the country’s officials to rise to the occasion.
The crisis that followed the statement by Information Minister George Kordahi has practically done away with the official Lebanese policy of trying to outsmart others. That is true for all the parties in power, who are split between those who decided to adopt and support the statements and those who opted to distance themselves from them. The political class dealt with Kordahi as though he were the reason for the crisis to avoid admitting that it is the result of a systematic policy that has imposed on Lebanon an alignment that undermines the requisites for the entity, state, belonging, and economy to endure. That has split the crisis into two levels. The first is external, with the crisis in Lebanon’s relations with the Gulf states; as for the second, it is one of internal dynamics between domestic communities.
The dangers of this division for the national fabric haunt the faction that senses victory. Even with its triumphalism peaking, the Aoun-Hezbollah duo’s government sought the help of Washington’s mediation to contain the crisis that followed Kordahi’s statements. The support, though limited, granted by Washington for a government that embodies the zenith of Lebanon’s alignment with the Iranian axis has been remarkable. Of course, that does not conform with Hezbollah’s hostile rhetoric about an American conspiracy and a siege being imposed on Lebanon. Even this US mediation, though, as the President’s foreign minister admitted, has failed. This political class has not understood that Western interests with the Gulf states are too significant for Lebanon to undermine them. It is as though they have forgotten that those states do not see undermining their national security interests as a viable option.
Another paradox of the Western support for the Hezbollah Aoun duo is that Paris, which was behind the government settlement and, in a way, went along with the official game of procrastination, has seen its initiative blow in the wind. Neither is the government able to convene, because of the port explosion investigation, nor is it able to endure, because of the Gulf stance on Kordahi, nor is its prime minister capable of convincing those he represents of the need to stay in office in light of that stance, nor are those who made concessions that undermined his position, role and government capable of convincing those they represent of the need to facilitate his task. Mikati is surrounded by speculators who are not interested in giving him any chance to allow his government to succeed.
The fact of the matter is that the crisis is deeper than Kordahi’s statements and goes beyond them; it is tied to the nature of Lebanon, its future, and how its position and inclination are determined. That was clear for the Saudi foreign minister’s statements on the nature of the crisis in relations with Lebanon, which puts the government’s international sponsor that created the government settlement, facing difficult challenges. Either the government is kept regardless of the costs at the international and domestic levels, or failure is declared. That equation will be settled more by internal dynamics than the international cards that could be played. Thus, the main party concerned, the Gulf states, chose to distance themselves after Lebanon failed to do so.
And so… it seems that the Lebanese state’s crisis with the Gulf states has hit a brick wall that is difficult to climb over in the near and medium term. It seems as though this wall, like the Berlin Wall before it, requires major domestic and international shits to fall, and conditions at this moment in time are not suitable for such shits. We will have to wait a long time to see them crystallize, and that was clear from the tweet posted on Wednesday evening by Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Beirut, Waleed Bukhari, which demonstrate the Saudis’ “Gramscian” approach to dealing with Lebanon.

A Friendly Divorce with Hezbollah
Dr. Toufic Hindi/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 05/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/103863/%d8%af-%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%81%d9%8a%d9%82-%d9%87%d9%86%d8%af%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%82-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%a8%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d9%87/
That is the conclusion I had reached with my comrade and companion, Dr. Mohamad Chatah, before he was assassinated. I openly expressed this “dangerous” opinion in a dialogue moderated by Marcel Ghanem on LBCI the day before my dear friend Mohamad was buried.
But what does a friendly divorce with Hezbollah mean? At the time, it became clear to Mohamad (but it had been clear to me since 2005) that being part of governments that include Hezbollah and discussing a “defense strategy” with it are of no use. Indeed, it gives the party the cover of Lebanese legitimacy for free while the party does what it wants without taking the others’ opinion into consideration, thereby pushing Lebanon in the direction of becoming a province of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
A friendly divorce with Hezbollah also implied leaving it alone responsible for its actions and launching an inclusive, peaceful and sovereignist movement that calls for liberating Lebanon from the Iranian occupation imposed through Hezbollah (though we should keep in mind that the party is an integral part of the Islamic Republic of Iran) and implementing the segments of UN Resolution 1559 regarding militias handing in their weapons.
The March 14 alliance had refused to have the United Nations implement this Resolution in 2005, arguing that this would endanger national unity and that the Lebanese would manage to achieve this themselves through calm dialogue with Hezbollah (roundtable on a defense strategy that led to the War of 2006 and Hezbollah disregarding the Baabda Declaration when it was issued on 11-6-2012).
This approach taken by March 14 spoke to its main components’ thirst for power after they had been deprived of it following the 2005 elections and the formation of the Quadripartite Agreement (Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party, and the Future Movement) as well as some of those who had taken part in Qornet Shahwan.
During the eulogy he gave on the day Mohamad was buried, former Prime Minister Fouad Saniora announced that positions would change after the assassination. However, shortly before the burial and during the funeral, he warned me that my discourse was dangerous. I replied that I had been speaking what the deceased had been on the deceased’s mind and that I felt that I owed it to him to launch a new phase after his assassination.
Nevertheless, a totally opposite stance was taken by the Future Movement, appointing Tammam Salam prime minister and amazing us with its theory of managing the dispute with Hezbollah by appointing radical ministers (here I am referring to Nohad Mashnouk and Ashraf Rifi), as well as another ridiculous theory of dissociation.
This theory brought us Najib Mikati’s second government (a March 8 government) after Hezbollah and its subordinates theatrically toppled Saad Hariri’s government on January 12, 2011, and Hariri went into voluntary exile. That was a new occasion for returning to power by acquiescing to Hezbollah once again instead of learning their lesson and not making excuses about the need to follow a “realistic” policy on the party. They chose to refrain from taking a stance to save Lebanon from the worst.
Worst of all, the crumbling components of the March 14 alliance went even further, electing Michel Aoun, Hezbollah’s primary Christian ally, president of the republic under the pretext that the presidential vacuum had been hurting the country. In truth, however, it was lust for power that compelled this decision. As a result, Saad Hariri formed two governments, the second of which collapsed with his decision to resign and evade responsibility on October 29, 2019, following the October 17 revolution. The weakened components of the March 14 alliance gave in to a proportional electoral law that granted Hezbollah a parliamentary majority in 2018, with Iran describing the Lebanese parliament as a parliament of resistance.
The truth is that since then, Hezbollah has controlled the country’s three constitutional institutions (presidency, parliament and the government), as well as controlling other state institutions and dominating the rotten, murderous and corrupt political class in all its components, as they are all playing under the statelet’s authoritarian rules.
It is not surprising that things have gotten so bad in Lebanon, and it is not surprising to see the Gulf states rise up against this state of affairs in Lebanon, as it undermines their strategic interests.
The solution is forming a broad, credible sovereignist alliance for peaceful change that works to save the country from Iranian occupation and the disastrous political class deeply entrenched in Lebanon’s socio-political structure, opening the door to a phase of recovery in which sovereignist youths can change Lebanon and lead it to the shores of security, stability, and sustainable prosperity.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 05-06/2021
Pfizer Says Covid Pill 89% Effective against Severe Disease
Agence France Presse/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Pfizer said Friday that a clinical trial of its pill to treat Covid-19 had shown it is highly effective. Pfizer's is the second anti-Covid pill after that of Merck, which is actually an influenza medicine rebranded to fight the coronavirus. Pfizer's has been created specifically to fight Covid. The Pfizer drug called Paxlovid achieved an 89 percent reduction in risk of hospitalization or death among adult patients with Covid who are at high risk of progressing to severe illness, the US company said. The results from the middle-to-late stage clinical trial were so strong that Pfizer will stop recruiting new people for the trial, the company said. It will submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible as part of its "rolling submission" for Emergency Use Authorization. "Today's news is a real game-changer in the global efforts to halt the devastation of this pandemic," said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. "These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved or authorized by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of Covid-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of 10 hospitalizations," he added.
The main analysis of the data looked at numbers from 1,219 adults in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
The search for a pill -
Several companies are working on so-called oral antivirals, which would mimic what the drug Tamiflu does for influenza and prevent the disease from progressing to severe. Pfizer started developing its drug in March 2020.Britain on Thursday became the first country to approve an anti-Covid pill, as it greenlit the use of Merck's antiviral drug called molnupiravir to treat patients suffering from mild to moderate coronavirus. Pfizer's product is known as a "protease inhibitor" and has been shown in lab testing to jam up the virus' replication machinery. If it works in real life, it will likely only be effective at the early stages of infection. By the time Covid progresses to severe disease, the virus has largely stopped replicating and patients suffer from an overactive immune response. A simple pill to treat the coronavirus has been sought since the start of the pandemic. Until now, Covid therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies and Gilead's remdesivir -- authorized for use in the EU under the name Veklury -- have been administered intravenously. Molnupiravir was initially developed as an inhibitor of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus -- two other important acute respiratory infections -- by a team at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Britain, which has been one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, announced on October 20 that it had ordered 480,000 doses of molnupiravir.

Iraqi Security Forces Clash with Pro-Iran Protesters in Baghdad
Agence France Presse/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Hundreds of supporters of pro-Iran groups clashed with security forces in Iraq's capital Friday, expressing their fury over last month's election result, AFP journalists and a security source said. Demonstrators from groups loyal to the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network threw projectiles and "blocked... access to the (high-security) Green Zone" on three sides, before they were pushed back by police who fired in the air, a security source said, requesting anonymity. The Hashed's political arm saw its share of parliamentary seats decline substantially in October's election, which the group's supporters have denounced as "fraud."

Sudan talks making progress, civilian government said to be ‘imminent’
The Arab Weekly/November 05/2021
KHARTOUM--As international pressure mounted to restore Sudan’s democratic transition, talks between Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok seem to be making tangible progress and the announcement of a civilian government is said to be “imminent”. Sudan could set up a new 14-member sovereign council soon in a first step by the military towards forming new transitional institutions. Sudan’s army chief agreed in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday on the need to accelerate the formation of a government, his office said.
“The two parties agreed on the need to maintain the path of the democratic transition, the need to complete the structures of the transitional government and to speed up the formation of the government,” Burhan’s office said after the call. Burhan, on Thursday, ordered the release of four civilian ministers detained since he led a military coup last month. The army chief, Sudan’s de facto leader since the 2019 ouster of autocratic president Omar al-Bashir, last week dissolved the government, detained the civilian leadership, including Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and declared a state of emergency. “We are considering all internal and external initiatives to serve the national interest,” Burhan’s media adviser Taher Abouhaga said. “The government formation is imminent.”Hours later, Sudan TV said Burhan had ordered the release of four officials: Hashem Hassabalrasoul, Ali Geddo, Hamza Baloul and Youssef Adam. Hassabalrasoul is telecommunications minister, Geddo heads the trade ministry, Baloul is information minister and Adam holds the youth and sports portfolio. It was not immediately clear when the ministers will be released. The decision came shortly after a phone call between Burhan and UN head Antonio Guterres, who personally appealed to the military chief to restore the democratic transition. Guterres encouraged “all efforts towards resolving the political crisis in Sudan and urgently restoring the constitutional order and Sudan’s transitional process”, a United Nations statement said.
‘Government of technocrats ‘
On Wednesday, Burhan met the African Union envoy for the Horn of Africa Olusegun Obasanjo and said that “a government of technocrats was about to be appointed”, state news agency SUNA said. The AU suspended Sudan after the coup. Western nations have called for Hamdok’s reinstatement, while Arab powerhouses such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates urged the civilian-led transition to be restored. Tut Gatluak, South Sudanese presidential adviser and head of a mediation delegation, said the order to free the ministers came after separate meetings with both Burhan and Hamdok, who remains under effective house arrest. “We agreed that detainees would be released in batches,” Gatluak said. “We called for all detainees to be released.” Key figures have remained in detention including sovereign council member Mohamed al-Fekki, Hamdok’s advisor Yasser Arman and minister of cabinet affairs Khalid Omar Youssef. Sudan has since August 2019 been ruled by a joint civilian-military council as part of the now derailed transition to full civilian rule. Deepening splits and long-simmering tensions between the military and civilians have marred the transition. Gatluak said negotiations were ongoing to form a government. “Burhan has no problem with Hamdok returning to his position of prime minister, but he doesn’t want the situation to go back as before October 25,” the day of the coup, Gatlauk said. “Hamdok remains the first nominee for the head of cabinet, but that’s in case he agrees,” he added. But Hamdok “wants the situation to go back as it was before October 25”, he said. Burhan, a veteran general who served under Bashir’s three-decades-long rule, insisted the army takeover was “not a coup” but a move “to rectify the course of the transition”. The army’s power grab sparked days of mass protest in cities across Sudan, with at least a dozen people killed as heavily-armed security forces opened fire, according to medics. On Thursday, small gatherings of protesters rallied in neighbourhoods around Khartoum chanting “Down with military rule.”

Tunisia Seeks EU's Support as it Faces 'Exceptional Circumstances'
Tunis - Mongi Saidani/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Tunisia's Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi reiterated the importance of the European partner adopting a comprehensive view of the Tunisian experience, taking into account the various economic, social, and regional factors that the country is going through. During his meeting with EU Ambassador to Tunisia Marcus Cornaro, Jerandi said that his country adheres to the democratic option and is on a reform path that establishes true democracy. Jerandi is confident that the European Union will continue to support Tunisia during these exceptional circumstances. The European Parliament adopted a resolution concerning the situation in Tunisia, which called for a return to the democratic path. But the political parties defending President Kais Saied's choices believe recent developments were "course correction and not a setback. However, other components described what the President did as a "coup" against the democratic path. Saied invoked emergency powers under Article 80 of the constitution to sack Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, freeze parliament, lift the immunity of parliament members and make himself prosecutor general. Meanwhile, Saied asserted to the European partners that Tunisia "will remain safe," and those working in the dark will not be able to achieve their goals. Saied, accompanied by Prime Minister Naglaa Boden and Interior Minister Tawfiq Sharaf El-Din, inspected a tunnel discovered in the vicinity of the French ambassador's residence in Tunis. On Wednesday, the Interior Minister announced that an anti-terrorism raid uncovered a tunnel being dug in the vicinity of the French ambassador's residence from a house frequented by a known extremist. It said anti-terror officials are investigating the incident, without providing additional information. Meanwhile, the Tunisian Human Rights League president, Jamal Musallam, called upon the four organizations that sponsored the 2013 national dialogue to propose a new national dialogue initiative. Musallam said Tunisia is going through political instabilities that may impact the entire democratic path. In a statement on the sidelines of a conference, Musallam said the new initiative's goal is to find a solution for the current situation within the framework of a dialogue that leads to actual reconciliation among the various components of Tunisian society. Notably, Saied previously announced he was ready to launch a "wide national dialogue," with the participation of the youth as a starting point for changing the governing system in Tunisia, revising the constitution, and amending the electoral law.

UN Rights Chief Calls for Sudan Military to Step Back
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
The top UN human rights official on Friday called for Sudan's military leaders to step back following a coup last week in remarks delivered at an emergency session on the situation in the country at the human rights council in Geneva. High Commissioner of Human Rights Michelle Bachelet described the Oct. 25 military takeover as "deeply disturbing" and called for an end to the deadly use of force by the armed forces as well as military police and intelligence elements which she said had so far killed at least 13 civilians, reported Reuters."I urge Sudan's military leaders, and their backers, to step back in order to allow the country to return to the path of progress towards institutional and legal reforms," she aid at the council.

UN Envoy: Military Escalation in Yemen Undermines Peace Efforts
Riyadh - Abdulhadi Habtor/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, has called for supporting UN efforts to find a negotiable settlement to the conflict in Yemen, warning that military escalation undermines peace efforts in the war-torn nation. Grundberg, after concluding a visit to Tehran, expressed his serious concern over the escalating military activities in Yemen, which are causing significant civilian casualties, including children, and are undermining peace efforts. He underscored the urgent need for de-escalation in all of Yemen, including Marib. He further discussed the need to address the deteriorating humanitarian and economic situation in Yemen, and the importance of ensuring freedom of movement of people and goods into and throughout the country. “A peaceful and stable Yemen will benefit the region. I intend to work with the countries in the region to help Yemen reach a peaceful end to the conflict,” Grundberg said.
Grundberg’s comments coincide with the arrival of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, to the Middle East. Lenderking will meet with senior Yemeni and regional officials to discuss ways to stop the Houthi attacks on Marib and civilians. “US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking will return to the Middle East on November 4 for continued conversations with the Republic of Yemen Government, Yemeni civil society representatives, senior regional government officials, and other international partners,” a State Department media note said. “The Special Envoy and his team remain focused on the need for the Houthis to stop their offensive on Marib and repeated attacks against civilian areas, which are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis,” it added. “Special Envoy Lenderking will also continue to stress the US government’s commitment to working with the international community to press the parties to implement critical economic reforms, secure regular imports and distribution of fuel, and resume commercial flights to Sanaa airport,” concluded the statement.

Libya to Open Door for Presidential, Parliamentary Elections Candidacy on Sunday
Cairo - Khalid Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Libya's High National Elections Commission (HNEC) is preparing to officially kickstart the registration of candidates for the presidential and parliamentary elections next Sunday. At the same time, the joint military committee is preparing to negotiate with Turkey and Russia on the simultaneous withdrawal of mercenaries from Libyan territory. Head of HNEC, Emad Al-Din Al-Sayeh, informed local Libyan media that the country would be one electoral district in which all candidates for the presidential elections will compete. The winner is the one who gets 50% + 1 of the votes during the first round.
A second round will be held if no candidate secures the needed votes. As for parliamentary elections, Al-Sayeh said they would be based on the individual system, where the country is divided into 75 districts, and the candidate with the most votes wins over their district. Adding more ambiguity to the controversy between the House of Representatives and the state over the presidential and parliamentary elections laws, Al-Sayeh confirmed that the state had responded to technical amendments requested by the HNEC.The HNEC had announced that it would provide a comprehensive briefing on the developments of the electoral process in a press conference on Sunday. In other news, Libya’s High Council of State expressed concerns over plans to hold a presidential election without having a constitution to regulate the country’s affairs. The council’s chairperson, Khalid Al-Mishri, told reporters in Tripoli that the move might lead to a “possible coup in Libya.”Al-Mishri added that the council was refusing to allow “dual nationals and military personnel to run for president,” accusing Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar of “attempting to take part in the elections by cheating.”The Tobruk government in the east is not a “legislative body,” Al-Mishri explained, adding that it was “dissolved by a decision of the Constitutional Commission.”

West Concerned About Algeria’s Decision to Stop Gas Supply to Europe
Rabat - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
The Chairman of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Maghreb countries (DMAG), Andrea Cozzolino, said that the Algerian decision to stop gas supply to Europe via the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME) is a source of serious concern. “This supply agreement, broken by Algeria, does not only concern Morocco, but also the European Union," said Cozzolino, noting that whatever the reasons for such a decision, the use of gas supply as a means of pressure is not an appropriate solution. "This is especially true in the current period of high energy price pressure," he explained, stressing that European citizens are the ones who "risk paying the price."The DMAG chief called on the Algerian government to reconsider this decision and to resume the path of dialogue. "I also call on the European External Action Service and the European Commission to engage in a diplomatic initiative to encourage the Algerian authorities to reconsider their decision," Cozzolino added. Last week, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced his country’s decision to stop natural gas exports to Spain through Morocco. The GME pipeline linking Algeria and Spain by sea, guarantees an annual supply of around 12 billion cubic meters of gas. The Algerian decision has raised a great number of reactions from politicians and members of the European Parliament (MEP) who see it as blackmail against Europe. MEP Dominique Riquet said that by targeting Morocco, Algeria has "reached Europe at a particularly inopportune time," noting that, "this closure will ultimately affect the revenues of Algeria."Also in this regard, MEPs Antonio Tajani, former President of the European Parliament, and Massimiliano Salini, sent a written letter to EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Josep Borrell to question him about this Algerian unilateral decision, which endangers the strategic interests of Europe.

Hamas 'Guardian' Law Keeps Gaza Woman from Studying Abroad
Associated Press/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Afaf al-Najar had found a way out of Gaza.
The 19-year-old won a scholarship to study communications in Turkey, secured all the necessary travel documents and even paid $500 to skip the long lines at the Rafah crossing with Egypt. But when she arrived at the border on Sept. 21 she was turned back — not by Israel or Egypt, which have imposed a 14-year blockade on the Gaza Strip — but because of a male guardianship law enacted by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the territory. "I honestly broke down," she said, describing the moment border officials removed her luggage from the bus. "My eyes started pouring, I could not even stand up. They had to bring a chair for me... I felt my dream is being robbed." Travel in and out of Gaza, a coastal territory that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians, has been severely restricted since 2007, when Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces. Israel, which has fought four wars with Hamas, most recently in May, says the blockade is needed to keep the militants from rearming. Critics view it as a form of collective punishment. Hamas has repeatedly demanded the lifting of the blockade. But in February, an Islamic court run by Hamas issued a notice saying that unaccompanied women must get permission from a male "guardian" — a husband, relative, or even a son — to travel outside the territory. After a backlash led by human rights groups, Hamas authorities amended the ruling to drop the requirement. Instead, it said that a male relative can petition a court to prevent a woman from traveling if it would result in "absolute harm." Women cannot prevent men from traveling. Hamas has only taken sporadic steps over the years to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on already conservative Gaza, and even then has usually backed down in the face of criticism. It does not share the extreme ideology of more radical factions such as the Islamic State group. But the amended law has remained in effect. Al-Najar's father filed a petition, and the court prevented her from traveling so that it could consider it. She lives with her mother, who is separated from her father, and says he cut off all contact with her in May. He could not be reached for comment. Hamas officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group that is deeply critical of the blockade, called on Hamas to lift its restrictions. "Hamas's authorities should lift the travel ban on Afaf al-Najar and the Supreme Judicial Council should withdraw its notice, so that women in Gaza can travel without discriminatory restrictions," it said. After being turned back at the border, al-Najar appealed to a number of local human rights groups, but said they appeared reluctant to assist her, fearing reprisal from Hamas. Eventually, she filed a petition against the ban. Her father failed to show up at the first hearing, causing it to be postponed. Before it adjourned, the judge asked her why she was going abroad and suggested she could just as easily study in one of Gaza's universities. Al-Najar, who speaks fluent English and teaches the language, aspires to be a journalist. She says a multi-cultural country like Turkey provides opportunities that don't exist in Gaza, which is largely cut off from the outside world. The hearing was postponed a second time because her father's attorney was sick. It was postponed a third time on Wednesday because his new lawyer said he needed time to study the case.
The scholarship's validity was extended until the end of the year, but if al-Najar does not make it to Turkey by then, she will lose it.
But she's not giving up.
"I realized no one is going to help me but myself, and I realized that I have to be strong now to fight for my rights," she said. "Instead of crying in my room and letting myself down, I decided to fight. I chose to fight for the first time in my life."

Shtayyeh Requests European Action to Salvage Two-State Solution
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh Thursday called on European countries to take concrete action to preserve the eroding two-state solution. During a meeting with Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney, in Amman, Shtayyeh underscored the need for Europe to act to preserve the constantly eroding two-state solution, given the persistent Israeli colonial-settlement construction and intensifying acts of violations and “settler terrorism” against the Palestinian people. The Palestinian PM reiterated the need for Europe to take a politically rewarding step and to exert pressure on Israel to halt colonial-settlement construction, daily intrusions on holy sites in Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from Jerusalem, and lift the 14-year siege on the Gaza Strip.His comments came after the Israeli forces on Thursday demolished a mosque in the town of Duma, south of the occupied West Bank town of Nablus. Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors colonial settlements in the northern West Bank, told WAFA news agency that Israeli forces brought a bulldozer to the town and tore down a mosque, which has been attended by worshipers for the past two years. He added that the occupation forces also demolished agricultural roads in the southern part of the town. The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs slammed the mosque demolition as a clear act of aggression against Muslim holy sites and an act of provocation against Muslim sentiments. Supreme Sharia judge of the Palestinian Authority Dr. Mahmoud al-Habash said the demolition represented a flagrant aggression against the Islamic religion, the Islamic faith, and the feelings of Muslims all over the world. Also, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the “open war of occupation against the Palestinian national and humanitarian presence in Area C.”For its part, the Islamic Jihad movement said there is no way or means that can deter aggression and confront these crimes, except confrontation and resistance in all forms. The demolition of the mosque came one day after Israeli forces demolished several houses in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Family of Slain Sudan Protester Vows to Resist Coup
Asharq Al-Awsat/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Mohammed Abdel Sallam was shot in the chest not far from his home in Sudan's capital, where his mother was waiting for him. He had gone out to protest after hearing that there had been a military coup, the country's civilian leaders had been arrested and the government dissolved. His brother carried him to a nearby hospital where he died from his injuries several days later, surrounded by family. He was 20 years old, and just one of more than a dozen protesters who have been killed since last week. More than 200 also have been injured. On Oct. 25, the commander of Sudan's Armed Forces Abdel Fattah Burhan initiated the coup, also seizing power of state news and cutting communications across the country. The grab has been widely condemned by the United States and the West, and came more than two years after a popular uprising ended years of isolation and repression under an autocrat leader. The takeover that day was the reverse of Abdel Sallam’s aspirations for Sudan. Mido, as he was known to family and friends, had also taken part in the 2019 mass protest movement that led to the ouster of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir. He spent months at a sit-in calling for democracy. His mother said he had felt compelled to take to the streets in dissent again, The Associated Press reported. “They chased them till they got here, right next the house here,” said Mahasen Abdullah Abuelgasim from her home where neighbors are still paying their condolences. “The person who shot him wanted to kill him.”The ensuing protests have brought tens of thousands of people to the streets, chanting against the coup and calling on each other to remain nonviolent in their tactics. They have faced beatings, rubber bullets and live ammunition fired by security forces, according to activists. Sudan's interior ministry has repeatedly denied firing on peaceful protesters, and said that some of its forces have also been injured by gunfire. On the same day that Abdel Sallam was shot, three other protesters were also killed. In total, a doctors' union affiliated with the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, the major force behind the 2019 protests, said that some 15 people have died after being shot by security forces during demonstrations. More than 280 others have been injured. At first, Abuelgasim says she was scared for her other children to continue protesting while her son was dying in the hospital, but that feeling quickly dissipated when he died. Now, she wants to protest as well. Anwar Abdel Sallam, Mido's older brother, carried him bleeding to the hospital. He has promised to carry on until the country is as his little brother would have wanted. “Those who died before us, we are not more precious than them,” he said.

Egypt's FM, UN Envoy Discuss in Cairo Latest Palestinian Developments
Cairo - Walid Abdulrahman/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland met with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry Thursday in Cairo to discuss the latest developments on the Palestinian cause and efforts to push forward the peace process. “Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry asserted during his meeting with Wennesland the importance exerting efforts to provide an appropriate climate to restore negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides,” said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Hafez. Shoukry also underlined the need for a real will to work on coordinating with the regional and international sides concerned to push forward the peace process based on the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. For his part, Wennesland hailed Egypt’s efforts in supporting peace efforts as well as Egypt’s initiative to reconstruct the Gaza Strip. According to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, the two officials also agreed on the importance of continuing communication and coordination in the upcoming period. In a separate meeting, Wennesland held talks with Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and the two discussed the latest developments in the occupied territories, the situation in Palestine and Israel, and the dangers of the absence of a settlement path. “During the meeting, Aboul Gheit expressed his deep concern over the rise of Israeli violations in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including the increasing settlement expansion and the Israeli government’s announcements of plans to build thousands of housing units in the occupied territories, as well as the rise of settlers’ attacks and the policy of home demolitions,” an AL official source said. The source added that Aboul Gheit listened to the UN envoy’s assessment of the situation, including the ongoing deterioration of the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, and the major economic difficulties that the Palestinian Authority is facing in the West Bank.

Libya Coastguard Says 280 Migrants Stopped
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 5 November, 2021
Libya's coastguard said Thursday it had stopped 280 migrants crammed on five boats, as they attempted the dangerous sea journey across the Mediterranean in a bid to reach Europe. "A Libyan coastguard patrol boat rescued 280 migrants of various African nationalities" on Tuesday, it said in a statement.
The migrants, found on four wooden boats and an inflatable dinghy, were taken to Libya's western port of Zuwara, near the Tunisian border. They were handed over to the interior ministry for repatriation, AFP quoted it as saying. Libya has become a key route for migrants seeking to reach Europe. The European Union has for several years supported Libyan forces to try to stem migration, despite often grim conditions in the Libyan detention centers where those picked up are sent to.Rights groups regularly criticize conditions in the centers. In early October, Libyan authorities arrested some 5,000 mostly African migrants in events that also saw one migrant killed and 15 wounded, according to the UN. Several days later, guards at a detention center in the capital Tripoli shot dead six migrants, the International Organization of Migration said, while some 2,000 more escaped. The UN's migration agency and Libyan authorities on Wednesday repatriated 91 migrants to Niger in a rare humanitarian flight -- the second since such trips were suspended two years ago. Many thousands of migrants remain stranded in Libya. "European states, whose support enables Libyan authorities to prevent people from reaching European shores, should scale up humanitarian evacuations," Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Canada/Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Development on release of investigation report on atrocities in the Tigray region in Ethiopia
November 5, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, today issued the following statement:
“Canada is deeply concerned by the findings outlined in the joint report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on their investigation into human rights violations resulting from the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia. We commend the transparent and impartial work that the OHCHR and EHRC carried out under challenging circumstances.
“This report was published on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the beginning of this conflict and a day after the Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency (SoE). Canada is gravely concerned by the expansion of combat operations to Amhara and Afar regions of Ethiopia by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The Government of Ethiopia’s announcement of an SoE confers significant authority to the government, and includes clauses that have the potential to escalate the conflict. These developments are extremely concerning, and Canada calls on all parties to exercise restraint and uphold human rights.
“The scale and consistency of the targeted violence being perpetrated against civilians by all parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia is appalling, deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable. The findings of this report highlight significant and serious abuses and violations of human rights, as well as humanitarian and refugee law, and finds all parties to the conflict to be implicated. It also indicates that some of these violations may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“Canada acknowledges the OHCHR-EHRC findings and calls on all parties to the conflict to take immediate action to implement the recommendations set out in the report. This report calls upon the Government of Ethiopia and the TPLF, and all other parties to the conflict, to uphold their obligations under international law to ensure the protection, safety and security of civilians and allow for rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access.
“Canada will work together with partners and allies to support efforts toward justice and accountability for those affected by the conflict, and to support ongoing efforts to resolve this grave human rights and humanitarian crisis.
“We reiterate our call for an immediate cessation of hostilities. Efforts toward a mediated political solution and an inclusive national dialogue are urgently needed.”

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 05-06/2021
New Team and New Fears in Tehran
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 05/2021
What do you do when you want to do something and yet you feel embarrassed about doing it?
This is the question that the “Supreme Guide” of the Islamic Republic in Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei faced this week as he wondered how to deal with one of his annual rituals celebrating the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran and the holding of American diplomats as hostages on November 4, 1979.
During the eight-year tenure of the “New York Boys” under President Hassan Rouhani, the ritual had shed some of its harsher aspects and eventually been reduced to a symbolic gathering at the site of the former US embassy and the shooting of some footage for state-owned television.
In the past two years many of the highlights of the annual ritual had faded into oblivion.
The annual “A World without America” symposium, attended for decades by professional anti-Americans from all over the world including the US itself, was scripted out of the program.
The usual suspects such as Louis Farrakhan, Oliver Stone, Sean Penn and other self-loathing Americans were no longer invited to make the pilgrimage to Tehran. Nor were Iranian readers graced with another translation of Noam Chomsky’s latest hate-America rants.
The conference on creating an entirely “black” state in Mississippi in southern US was also shelved.
Also gone was “The End of Israel” seminar that brought together Holocaust-deniers from across the globe and its accompanying international anti-Semitic cartoons exhibition.
Although the “New York Boys” included dozens of “students” who had raided the embassy and held the hostages, by the end of 2020, some observers expected the whole ritual to be sent to the archives.
However, with “New York Boys” kicked into the shadows, at least for now, the “new revolutionary team” under President Dr. Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi was expected to revive the ritual in its full blood-curdling splendor.
Surprisingly, however, not only this has not happened, but the new team seems to have opted for further lowering the profile of the annual ritual.
This is partly done by trying to attach other labels to the November 4 events that were supposed to mark “the humiliation of the American Great Satan”.
One new label for the events is “the anniversary of the sending into exile of Imam Khomeini” in 1964, even though that happened a calendar day later. Another label now added is “the day the Shah massacred primary and secondary school children” in 1976, although no such thing ever happened.
It is clear that the “new revolutionary team” is as anxious to tone down the regime’s rabid anti-Americanism as were the “New York Boys”.
The question is: why?
After all the “new revolutionary team” built its narrative partly on the claim that the “New York Boys” had abandoned Khomeini’s jihad against “The Great Satan” in exchange for empty promises by President Barack Obama.
One explanation, offered by some apologists of the “new revolutionary team”, including the daily Kayhan, is that the “Great Satan” has already been massively weakened and, as illustrated by cut-and-run in Afghanistan is already on the run.
Major-General Hussein Salami, chief of the Revolutionary Guard and keynote speaker in this year’s ceremonies, even claims that the US has already lost its global leadership position while a trio made of China, Russia and Iran is emerging as the new arbiter of human destiny.
According to Ayatollah Taeb, the IRGC’s politico-religious commissar, the US is now like a dead donkey that needs not be flogged.
However, this type of braggadocio from the Khomeinist elites often hides their fears.
In this context the first fear is that the Biden administration may not be as keen on undoing former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy that, according to an Islamic Plan Organization report in Tehran, has driven the Islamic Republic to the edge of bankruptcy.
Another fear is that Biden, even if he wanted, may not be able to undo enough of the sanctions to let the Islamic Republic bounce back. After all, removing most of the sanctions would require approval by the US Congress, something that Biden cannot take for granted. And, yet, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Khatib-Zadeh says Iran will not recommit to its promises in the Obama “nuke deal” unless the US “first removes all sanctions.”
Another fear is that Biden may give Israel the green light for “limited but decisive action” against Iran’s nuclear sites.
Such action would force the regime to cross a red line it has observed for four decades by responding in a meaningful way to military action against it.
In 1988 Khomeini refused to cross that line to respond to a massive attack by the US on IRGC’s positions in its southern waters. For the past five years, Khamenei has refused to respond to countless Israeli attacks on Iranian positions in Syria that have claimed the lives of over 5,000 Iranian military and their Afghan, Iraqi, Syrian, Pakistani and Lebanese mercenaries.
However, a direct attack on nuclear installations won’t be easy to hide. Not responding would be a sign of strategic weakness and could encourage a fresh wave of domestic rebellion. Responding, on the other hand, could lead to a full-scale war for which the Islamic Republic is far from prepared.
Yet another fear is that the “Great Satan” may have recruited the Taliban in Afghanistan for the purpose of opening a new front against the Islamic Republic in the east. In 1995-6 Khamenei backed out of a confrontation with the Taliban, despite the fact that they had brutally executed a number of Iranian diplomats and journalists, for fear of “walking into that swamp”. Despite recent deadly attacks on Shiite mosques in Afghanistan, he has also refused to say a harsh word against the Taliban.
The Khomeinist regime has always been “strong” in picking low-hanging fruits as in Lebanon and Yemen or where it can play Robin to a strong Batman as is the case in Syria under Russian leadership.
Having said all that, at the risk of being accused of optimism, the regime’s decision to tone down the “embassy raid ritual” may have more mundane reasons.
For the first time none of the “students” involved in that criminal show holds a key position in the regime. Also, the soberer heads in the regime may have realized that crude anti-Americanism has brought them nothing but diplomatic isolation, economic decline and a repulsive image.
What Biden does next could prove decisive. If he surrenders too easily he will re-energize Tehran’s old demons. If, on the other hand, he opts for empty huffing and puffing he may miss a chance to help those who strive for regime change in Tehran.

Pakistan: The Anti-American "Ally"
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 05/2021
In an interview aired in the US in June 2021, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan will deny US use of its territory for "over-the-horizon" surveillance of possible terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Now, there are negotiations for the US to use Pakistan's airspace for military operations in Afghanistan, but is this really an ally on which the United States can count?
Pakistan helped bankroll and arm the largely Pashtun Taliban terrorist movement, and Pakistani anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines were prevalent in Afghanistan. Often, Taliban fighters were extended refuge in sites established by the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents. Islamabad's pro-Taliban stance could also be seen in ISI's construction of logistical re-supply depots and training camps for Taliban fighters. Moreover, on occasion. Pakistani military officers, provided direct military support to the Taliban.
At times, it seemed as if Musharraf was Pakistan's face for the Americans, while other generals continued supporting
In the months before 9/11, it became clear that US counterterrorist policy was focused on the eventual takedown of the Taliban's and Al Qaeda's ever-widening support for jihadi terrorists. It was then that the ISI cold-shouldered Washington by sponsoring huge pro-Taliban rallies in Pakistan's main cities of Peshawar and Lahore. Even then, it proved difficult for CIA field officers and Station Chiefs to fully shut down their ties to their old ISI counterparts. Reportedly, the CIA Station Chief in Islamabad caustically objected to the US decision to assist anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan, because, the officer stated, it would infuriate the ISI.
Pakistan ultimately may pay dearly for enabling Afghanistan's Taliban. The group consists of diverse movements, such as the so-called Pakistani Taliban (Tehrek-e-Taliban) , a coalition of at least ten terrorist organizations dedicated to overthrowing Pakistan's regime. Its recruits include former Taliban members from Afghanistan who had assessed that their former organization was too indulgent of infidels.
Pakistan has not really been an ally of the West for decades. It was Islamabad that gave Osama bin Laden asylum until he was brought to justice by US Special Operations forces in 2011. Now, the Pakistan's government seems to have positioned the country into China's sphere of influence.
Pakistan, once presumed an ally of the US, has been willfully responsible for the slaughter of many US and NATO troops by having massively assisted enemy jihadists in Afghanistan. And in an interview aired in June, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan will deny US use of its territory for "over-the-horizon" surveillance of possible terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Pictured: Khan in 2019.
Pakistan, once presumed an ally of the US, has been willfully responsible for the slaughter of many US and NATO troops by having massively assisted enemy jihadists in Afghanistan. Throughout the 20-year presence of US forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence operations have included the recruiting, training and arming of the largely ethnic Pashtun Taliban.
Now that the Taliban have returned to power in Kabul, it appears that US-Pakistan diplomatic ties are worsening. The Pakistani government rejects any alleged US effort to shift the blame to Pakistan for the failure of US policy in Afghanistan. Islamabad has denounced an initiative drafted by 22 US Republican Senators to sanction Pakistan for its long-term assistance to the Taliban. US diplomats first want to see if the Taliban respects its promises to establish a tolerant and inclusive regime. Recent talks between US and Pakistani officials in Islamabad revealed other points of disagreement. The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs is urging the US to release Afghanistan's billions of dollars of frozen assets to the Taliban regime while Washington wants Pakistan to press its Taliban contacts to construct a more ethnically and gender diverse governmental leadership. In an interview aired in the US in June 2021, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan will deny US use of its territory for "over-the-horizon" surveillance of possible terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Now, there are negotiations for the US to use Pakistan's airspace for military operations in Afghanistan, but is this really an ally on which the United States can count?
There are in Pakistan 14 million Pashtuns, ethnically indistinguishable from the millions of Pashtuns who make up about 42% of Afghanistan's population. Significantly, the Pashtun in Pakistan are contiguous to the eastern provinces of Afghanistan. Although the two countries are separated by mountains, familiar passes serve as corridors for the Pashtun and facilitate cross-border migration for purposes both military and economic. These are the same passes that had a negative impact upon US and NATO troops in their pursuit of Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters, who crossed national borders to flee, rest, rearm, and return again to resume their fight. The Pakistani regime's close ties to the Afghan Taliban, as well as the network of ethnic kinship between the overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtun population on both sides of the border, has rendered the US and NATO mission difficult from the start. Pakistan helped bankroll and arm the largely Pashtun Taliban terrorist movement, and Pakistani anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines have been prevalent in Afghanistan. Taliban fighters were often extended refuge.
Despite misleading US diplomatic rhetoric counting Pakistan as an ally, apparently three-quarters of Pakistanis look upon the US unfavorably, purportedly a consequence of Washington's tilt toward Pakistan's hated arch-rival, India.
The Taliban and several other Afghanistan-based jihadi groups are also linked to Pakistan through their Islamist political party counterparts there. Many Afghan Taliban have also long maintained direct links to Pakistan's largest religious party, Jamiat-e-Islami. In addition, Pakistan's religious political parties had previously maintained ties with anti-Soviet Afghan mujahedin groups during Moscow's occupation of the country from 1980 to 1988.
It was in this period of Soviet occupation that the CIA and the ISI coordinated the Afghan mujahedeen's resistance against Soviet troops. It was the CIA's work with Pakistan's ISI in this war of anti-Soviet resistance that helped to develop the ISI into the formidable Pakistani intelligence outfit it is at present.
After the Al-Qaeda/Taliban terror bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, however, a serious cleavage in intelligence cooperation between the US and Pakistan followed. The attacks prompted President Bill Clinton to launch scores of Cruise Missiles at eight Al-Qaeda/Taliban training camps in Afghanistan, where the ISI was sponsoring terrorist groups in Kashmir who were fighting to "liberate" the Muslims there from Indian rule. After the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence officers oversaw a massive program of military assistance from Pakistan's army to the Taliban.
Pakistani assistance and Arab Gulf State financial aid were also invaluable in helping the Taliban to launch their military campaigns in Afghanistan in 1994, until they were able to come to power in Kabul in 1996. During these years, only three states extended diplomatic recognition to the Taliban regime: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The ISI's principal objective behind its pro-Taliban policy initiative has evidently been to ensure that Afghanistan remained in Pakistan's sphere of influence. Pakistani military leaders still appear to view Afghanistan as a deep territorial reserve -- further "strategic depth" -- in the eventuality of a war with India. Alternatively, Taliban terrorists were employed by Pakistan's ISI to target any investment projects by New Delhi in Afghanistan. To that end, the ISI created a small terrorist organization, Harkat al-Ansar, specifically to execute terrorist missions against Indian targets, such as an Indian commercial jet A300 airbus jet that was hijacked in 1999 and flown to the Taliban-controlled city of Kandahar. US intelligence agencies were, it appears, fully aware of the ISI's training and military aid to other Kashmir-based terrorist groups such as Harakat Mujahedeen and Harakat-Jehad-Islami.
Three of Pakistan's Army generals who successfully staged a coup against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999, thereby installing the regime of Pervez Musharraf, apparently all had deep ties to the ISI and were zealous supporters of the Afghan Taliban. One of the coup-plotters, General Mahmoud Ahmad, was subsequently named ISI director. Another leader of the coup, General Mohammad Aziz, became a (now former) ISI director. The third, General Muzaffar Osmani, also appears, to have been a key supporter of a future Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. At times, it seemed as if Musharraf was Pakistan's face for the Americans, while other generals continued supporting Islamic terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their support included Pakistan's grant of sanctuary to the top circle of Taliban leaders in the capital city of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, Quetta, and the protected residence of the Taliban's supreme commander Mullah Omar.
The ISI appears to be more influential in determining Pakistan's foreign policy in Afghanistan than any other institution in Pakistan's government including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Pakistan, as it is home to many Central Asian Islamic terrorist groups, also plays a role in supporting Jihadist militancy in Central Asia. After the USSR's disintegration, the ISI began fomenting rebellions in the newly independent states of Central Asia, particularly in Uzbekistan. The ISI generously endowed the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) while extending protection to the now-deceased IMU chief Tahir Yuldashev in Peshawar, Pakistan. The ISI especially targeted Uzbekistan's Fergana Valley region while assisting Central Asia Jihadi groups. The Fergana Valley would be an important prize for Pakistani-based terrorist groups due to its proximity to the other Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Recognizing this geopolitical reality, Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush authorized counter-terrorist training of Uzbek soldiers in this area by the Fifth US Special Forces Group of Green Berets.
In the months before 9/11, it became clear that US counterterrorist policy was focused on the eventual takedown of the Taliban's and Al Qaeda's ever-widening support for jihadi terrorists. It was then that the ISI cold-shouldered Washington by sponsoring huge pro-Taliban rallies in Pakistan's main cities of Peshawar and Lahore. Even then, it proved difficult for CIA field officers and Station Chiefs to fully shut down their ties to their old ISI counterparts. Reportedly, the CIA Station Chief in Islamabad caustically objected to the US decision to assist anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan, because, the officer stated, it would infuriate the ISI.
The most lethal anti-US terrorist group supported by Pakistan's ISI is the infamous North Waziristan-based Haqqani network. The ISI originally forged its close ties to the Haqqanis during the anti-Soviet war of resistance when the network's chief, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was the senior Eastern Pashtun Commander with the Taliban. The Haqqani group, now led by Jalaluddin's son, Sarajuddin Haqqani, is now the Taliban government's Minister of Interior and leading the hunt for any Afghans who cooperated with Western forces there. He is also partially responsible for protecting and expanding Pakistan's interests in Afghanistan. The Haqqani gang for decades has conducted suicide attacks against US and Indian targets. Consequently, the US placed a $5 million bounty on Sarajuddin Haqqani's head. Thanks to protection provided by Pakistani intelligence agents, neither Haqqani, father or son, has ever been apprehended.
While the ISI acts with impunity, it is important to note that some wealthy Pakistanis, private individuals, also contribute large sums of money to the Taliban. As early as the Autumn of 2001, Pakistan's current Prime Minister Imran Khan was an open supporter of the Taliban as well as an anti-US provocateur. After the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan praised in early August, Khan, consistent with his pro-Taliban stance, publicly praised the Taliban for its victory.
Pakistan ultimately may pay dearly for enabling Afghanistan's Taliban. The group consists of diverse movements, such as the so-called Pakistani Taliban (Tehrek-e-Taliban) , a coalition of at least ten terrorist organizations dedicated to overthrowing Pakistan's regime. Its recruits include former Taliban members from Afghanistan who had assessed that their former organization was too indulgent of infidels. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Prime Minister Khan, perhaps worried that he had helped produce a "Frankenstein monster," met with Pakistan's Tehrek-e-Taliban representatives in an apparent attempt to establish amicable relations. Pakistan has not really been an ally of the West for decades. It was Islamabad that gave Osama bin Laden asylum until he was brought to justice by US Special Operations forces in 2011. Now, the Pakistan's government seems to have positioned the country into China's sphere of influence. As the journalist Caroline Glick noted, after 9/11, as the Taliban was the brainchild of Pakistani ISI Jihadists, "Pakistan should have been the first domino to fall."
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 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.

Reporting on Muslim Persecution of Christians Offends Facebook’s ‘Standards’
Raymond Ibrahim/November 05/2021
Reporting on the horrific persecution Christian minorities experience in the Muslim word is a “punishable” offense for Facebook, as that topic falls beneath the social media giant’s “standards.”
That’s what I was told when I logged onto my Facebook account a few days ago. A box popped up saying, “This post goes against our Community Standards,” followed by, “Only you can see this post because it goes against our standards,” with a link to the “offensive” post. I was then locked out for 24 hours.
The problematic article in question, which I published online and shared on Facebook back on Feb. 15, 2021—a full eight months ago—is titled “New Film Commemorates 21 Coptic Christian Martyrs.” In it, I discussed how an Arabic-language film was being made about the 21 Egyptian Christians savagely slaughtered by the Islamic State in Libya in 2015.
To be sure, I’m familiar with and a regular recipient of Facebook’s other tactics—especially “shadow banning”: making my posts appear live on my end, though no one or only a few can actually see them. I only know this because I’ve gotten so many messages over the years from Facebook users saying, “How come you haven’t posted anything in months,” even though I upload some 3-4 posts every week. Others regularly message me saying things like, “Facebook has disconnected the ‘Share’ button on the top menu of your page” (from a 10/27/31 message).
So what is it about that particular article that caused it to be banned—again, eight months after it first appeared on Facebook—and me “punished”? If it’s the accompanying picture, which is hardly that graphic, Facebook could’ve done what it has done to other articles of mine: keep the post but remove the image. Aside from mentioning the movie, that article recaps the execution of 2015, quotes some family members’ views on the forthcoming film, and closes by mentioning how a memorial for the 21 Christian martyrs was erected in the Egyptian village of Al Our, whence several of them hailed.
The following excerpt from that article is the only thing I can think of that might have especially vexed Facebook (even though it’s 100% true):
It’s worth recalling that, at the time of their abduction and subsequent butchery, Western media were largely absent. Indeed, before the video appeared, the BBC had falsely reported that the majority of those now slaughtered Copts were “released.” (Such downplaying of Muslim persecution of Christians is not uncommon for the BBC.)
Around the same time that article got taken down from Facebook, on Oct. 15, 2021, the following comment appeared under another much more recent article on my website—one also about the Muslim persecution of Christians in Egypt:
I shared this article on Facebook and Facebook took it down saying it violated “Community Standards” with no further explanation given.
That article, titled “Coptic Christian Building Abruptly Demolished in Egypt,” merely summarized the findings of an Arabic language report about how Christian minorities in one Egyptian village, because they were banned from having a church, decided to build a community hall to hold their weddings and funerals in. As even that was deemed offensive to Muslim sensibilities, the authorities suddenly came, tore it down and beat and arrested the Christians. Everything about that account is also 100% true.
So what about it does not meet Facebook’s “standards”?
The only conclusion is that, not content with shadow banning articles on the brutal persecution Christians suffer at the hands of Muslims, Facebook is now openly and more aggressively outright banning them.
Moreover, there is reason to believe that Facebook’s actions are at least partially motivated by foreign entities. Seeing that the two articles that got “flagged” both dealt with the persecution of Egyptian Christians—Copts—I contacted Coptic Solidarity, to see if they’ve had similar experiences. Its director, Lindsay Vessey, wrote back saying,
Numerous countries, including Egypt, employ large cyber teams to flag content critical of their leader/government meaning that discussion of human rights violations in countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Egypt can be blocked, with repercussions to the account owner. Facebook needs to hire individuals who not only have the language skills to review posts, but who can maintain professional neutrality and distinguish between abusive content, and legitimate criticism of human rights abuses. My colleague, Faith McDonnell, who is a titan in the realm of religious freedom advocacy, had her Facebook account shut-down without warning, merely for posting an image of the Coptic martyrs on the beach in Libya. Her account was only reinstated after substantial negative publicity towards Facebook.
Facebook, it’s worth adding, is hardly the only one among “Big Tech” to suppress information on the Muslim persecution of Christians: Youtube censored my Prager U video on that exact topic; it also once “punished” me for sharing a video that the Islamic State made of its members destroying crosses and desecrating churches in Syria and Iraq—even though that video was not “graphic” (it depicted buildings and crosses, inanimate objects) and was going viral in the Arab world. As for Google, where once its search results for Islam-related topics would yield many of my articles on the first page, they now tend to be invisible, buried under a mountain of irrelevant if not fake information.
All of this is a reminder as to why an alternative—which may be coming soon courtesy the world’s most banned man from social media and search engines, Donald Trump—is desperately needed: one of his companies recently announced its plan “to create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the ‘Big Tech’ companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America.”
No one can doubt this, just as no one—except those who profit from suppressing the truth—can want such wanton censorship of much-needed information to continue.

China's Weaponization of Space
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/November 05/2021
Space satellites have become strategic assets and therefore valuable military targets.
"Beijing is working to match or exceed US capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership." — 2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
China's 2015 defense white paper had already formally designated space as a new domain of warfare. Also in 2015, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) established the Strategic Support Force (SSF), which brought together outer space, electromagnetic space and cyberspace under one command, indicating "the PLA's prioritization of these critical areas of warfare."
"The PLA continues to acquire and develop a range of...technologies, including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as expanding space surveillance capabilities, which can monitor objects in space within their field of view and enable counterspace actions." — U.S. Department of Defense, Annual Report to Congress, 2020.
Communist China, according to China Daily, has vowed to become the world's leading space power by 2045.
"The space battlefield is not science fiction and anti-satellite weapons are going to be a reality in future armed conflicts, Shaw said." — SpaceNews, reporting on a talk given by Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command on August 23, 2021.
Communist China, according to China Daily, has vowed to become the world's leading space power by 2045. In 2019, China landed its Chang'e-4 lunar probe on the far side of the moon (pictured), something that had never been done before.
"China has moved aggressively to weaponize space..." These were the words of U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall at the 36th Space Symposium on August 24.
"Both conventional deterrence and conventional operations depend on access to communications, intelligence, and other services provided by space-based systems. As a result, our strategic competitors have pursued and fielded a number of weapons systems in space designed to defeat or destroy America's space-based military weapons systems and our ability to project power."
Space has become crucial: so much of what happens there now affects life on earth. There are more than 3,000 active satellites orbiting earth today and their services have become indispensable. Among these are US military-operated GPS satellites for positioning, navigation and timing, serving both military and civilian needs -- think Uber, Lyft, Waze, grocery delivery services -- and earth monitoring, including weather and communications, to name just a few. Space satellites have become strategic assets and therefore valuable military targets. "It is impossible to overstate the importance of space-based systems to national security," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said.
According to the 2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, released in April:
"Beijing is working to match or exceed US capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership... Counterspace operations will be integral to potential military campaigns by the PLA [People's Liberation Army], and China has counterspace weapons capabilities intended to target US and allied satellites. Beijing continues to train its military space elements and field new destructive and nondestructive ground- and space-based antisatellite (ASAT) weapons."
In 2007, China conducted its first test of an anti-satellite missile, destroying one of its own weather satellites, creating the second-largest collection of space debris in history.
China's 2015 defense white paper had already formally designated space as a new domain of warfare. Also in 2015, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) established the Strategic Support Force (SSF), which brought together outer space, electromagnetic space and cyberspace under one command, indicating "the PLA's prioritization of these critical areas of warfare."
The Pentagon wrote in its 2020 report about Communist China's military capabilities:
"The PLA continues to acquire and develop a range of counterspace capabilities and related technologies, including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as expanding space surveillance capabilities, which can monitor objects in space within their field of view and enable counterspace actions..
"The PRC is developing electronic warfare capabilities such as satellite jammers; offensive cyber capabilities; and directed-energy weapons... China has an operational ground-based Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile intended to target low-Earth orbit satellites, and China probably intends to pursue additional ASAT weapons capable of destroying satellites up to geosynchronous Earth orbit. China is employing more sophisticated satellite operations and is probably testing dual-use technologies in space that could be applied to counterspace missions."
"There is strong evidence indicating that China has a sustained effort to develop a broad range of counterspace capabilities" the Secure World Foundation, a non-profit focused on space, wrote in a report it published in April, "Global Counterspace Capabilities: An Open Source Assessment."
"In 2015, China re-organized its space and counterspace forces, as part of a larger military re-organization, and placed them in a new major force structure that also has control over electronic warfare and cyber. That said, it is uncertain whether China would fully utilize its offensive counterspace capabilities in a future conflict or whether the goal is to use them as a deterrent..."
Communist China has vowed to become the world's leading space power by 2045: "China will become an all-round world-leading country in space equipment and technology. By then, it will be able to carry out man-computer coordinated space exploration on a large scale," wrote the China Daily in 2017.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission wrote in its 2019 Annual Report to Congress:
"Beijing has specific plans not merely to explore space, but to industrially dominate the space.... Beijing uses its space program to advance its terrestrial geopolitical objectives, including cultivating customers for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)... China's promotion of... the Beidou global navigation system under its 'Space Silk Road' is deepening participants' reliance on China for space-based services,"
In 2019, China landed its Chang'e-4 lunar probe on the far side of the moon, something that had never been done before. September 28 marked 1,000 days since it landed with a rover, which continues to explore the moon today. China also plans to build a joint science base on the moon with Russia, the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). China's lunar ambitions are also raising concerns about "what that kind of activity could yield in terms of future capacity to act and potentially wage war in space" according to a recent article in Air Force Magazine.
Writing about a talk given by Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, at the recent 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, SpaceNews reported: "The space battlefield is not science fiction and anti-satellite weapons are going to be a reality in future armed conflicts, Shaw said."
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is 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.

Iraq, a rich nation where people go hungry
The Arab Weekly/November 05/2021
When the international embargo was imposed on Iraq in 1990 after the occupation of Kuwait, its aim was to put international pressure on the regime by starving the Iraqi people. This unannounced measure was revealed by the dire realities of the time. However, the regime was able to achieve a great breakthrough through the introduction of rationing. Without that introduction, living conditions would have deteriorated in record time and the regime would not have been able to withstand thirteen difficult years of pressure until it was overthrown after the US invasion, which paved the way for the emergence of a different sort of Iraq. Before 2003, the state was characterised by discipline. Integrity was also a quality that could not be taken lightly. The rationing plan succeeded in saving many groups of Iraqis from falling into the abyss of abject hunger. If things had continued to be managed with discipline and austerity, the living conditions of these same groups of Iraqis, supposedly protected by the rationing cards, would not have sunk to the bottom of the poverty line, as a result of the gratuitous behaviour of the state as led by the president’s entourage and relatives. What is of interest here is that Iraq had gone through harsh circumstances in the past where its people escaped starvation, thanks to sound patriotic thinking and disciplined behaviour, even after the state’s financial resources were reduced to zero.
Compared to that complex period, what is happening today in Iraq seems like a form of madness. It is shocking that the International Food Programme has declared Iraq a hunger-stricken country. But the strange paradox is that at the time it was besieged, Iraq did not go hungry; while now, a rich Iraq sees it people falling into the throes of hunger. There is no better indication than this, that Iraq is now a failed state. It is ironic that the Iraqi government disagreed with the World Food Programme about the definition of poverty and whether that definition means that the percentage of hungry people in Iraq has increased or decreased. As international organisations rely on official documents, the report of the World Food Programme was very shocking. It indicated that more than 30 percent of Iraqis live below the poverty line, while 40 percent or more of the population are poor.
From the point of view of the Iraqi government, which does not deny these figures, poverty is varied and in some of its manifestations will not inevitably lead to hunger. Considering Iraq to be a country most of whose population is threatened by hunger, is a reality that is likely to strike a raw political nerve, which the rulers of Iraq will not be able to easily dismiss. Reality does not lie. There are Iraqis today looking for food in the dumpsters. That is an undeniable fact. It is not the creation of some hostile or sick mind. The issue is not related to the definition of the many types of poverty, but rather goes beyond that to the stage of sub-poverty.
The report of the World Food Programme confirms that Iraq is among the seven most hunger-stricken countries in the world. At the same time, Iraq boasts a financial surplus of $16 billion. A catastrophic paradox that is hard to believe. However, what Iraq witnessed after 2003, in terms of humanitarian disasters, puts this contradiction into the context of a state that was shattered and engulfed in corruption. A third of Iraqis are hungry because there is whole class of new rich who found a way to seize the bulk of Iraq’s money. The rest of Iraqi funds is distributed in the form of salaries that keep the employees in the dizzying search for solutions amid generalised corruption that is socially-normalised, culturally-accepted and religiously endorsed by cheap fatwas. In light of the sectarian tensions that Iraq is experiencing, the number of hungry people is not expected to decrease, but will inevitably rise. This does not constitute an obstacle to the advocates of reform who defend a democracy where they seek the votes of the hungry, without heeding the crushing storm that these votes could eventually unleash on them. Iraq is a hungry country. This is a tragic sentence. But it could be the tragedy that paves the way for salvation.