English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 07/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 17/01-08/:”After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 06-07/2022
Taef Agreement Is A problem, A trap And Not A Solution. Any International Conference For Lebanon Whose Sole Goal To implement This Agreement Is A Definite Recipe For Failure/Elias Bejjani/November 06/2022
Pope says praying for 'beloved' and 'weary' Lebanon
Al-Rahi tells officials and friendly nations that new president is the 'top priority'
Mikati to meet foreign leaders at Egypt climate summit
Scores of Syrian refugees head home from crisis-hit Lebanon
Two Lebanese die due to Sydney floods
Jumblatt from Ain El-Tineh: On the presidential issue, we agreed that there would be no "challenge candidate"
Makhzoumi holds dinner banquet in honor of Ibrahimi, Bukhari: Taif will always be the best guarantee for our country
Qabalan: Lebanon is in dire need for a monetary, financial Taif
Taif Agreement is best solution to Lebanon crisis, Saudi Arabia stands by us: Mikati

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 06-07/2022
Pope ends Bahrain trip with visit to Gulf's oldest church
Deadly crackdown continues in southeastern Iranian province after weeks of unrest
Six killed in Syria’s shelling of tent settlement – war monitor
Russian strikes on Syria’s Idlib province kill 7: monitor
Biden aide held talks with Russian officials amid nuclear tensions - WSJ
Russia's war in Ukraine rages on without a clear end in sight. Here are 6 ways the conflict could play out.
Foreign fighters in Ukraine speak out on their willingness to serve: 'I had to go'
Ukraine lost access to 1,300 Starlink terminals over a funding issue
COP27 summit opens in Egypt as world races against climate clock
Passenger plane crashes into Lake Victoria

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 06-07/2022
A Stunned Iran Averts Strategic Panic/Raghida Dergham/The National/November 06/2022
“You Think You Can Run Away?”: The Persecution of Christians, September 2022/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/November 06/2022
The world must not look away as Iranian militias stand ready to kill protesters/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Arab News/November 06/2022
Algiers summit fails to paper over the cracks in Arab unity/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/November 06/2022
‘Lost generation’ of Syrians in Jordan share bittersweet feelings amid return home/Raed Omari/Arab News/November 06/2022
Biden administration needs a firmer policy against Iranian regime/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 06/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 06-07/2022
Taef Agreement Is A problem, A trap And Not A Solution. Any International Conference For Lebanon Whose Sole Goal To implement This Agreement Is A Definite Recipe For Failure
Elias Bejjani/November 06/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/98875/elias-bejjani-taif-agreement-is-a-problem-a-trap-and-not-a-solution-any-international-conference-for-lebanon-whose-sole-goal-is-to-implement-this-accord-is-a-definite/
The Taef Agreement that came into existence in 1989 during the bloody and Stalinist Syrian occupation era of Lebanon has been from day one extremely ambiguous, inapplicable, a trap and a malice recipe for ongoing governance crises.
This Agreement was not implemented, and will never, ever be, because its main purpose is division and not unity, or a stable formula of governance.
That is why a serious, genuine and fruitful review of this inapplicable agreement that has become an integrated part of the Lebanese constitution is a must by all Lebanese communities after the liberation of the country, and not while it is still under the Iranian terrorist Hezbollah's occupation.
Therefore, any international conference for Lebanon whose sole goal is to implement the Taef Agreement is a national disaster, and a mere recipe for total failure.
In this context, it is a national, sovereign and moral duty and patriotic obligation for all free, sovereign and sincere Lebanese people, either in Lebanon or Diaspora, not to fall in the vicious trap of all those politicians, activists, parties and officials who are malevolently advocating for restricting and limiting the agenda of any International Conference for Lebanon on the heresy of the implementation of this tricky, ambiguous and self defeating Agreement.
Practically, all those leading this inconsistent, and wrong headed advocacy, are either blind to the Agreement's incoherencies, or harbouring anti-Lebanese agendas aimed at aborting the efforts aimed at liberating occupied Lebanon, and reclaiming its self determination, confiscated independence, sovereignty, freedoms and free decision making process.
In conclusion, any international conference that is held for Lebanon must not be based on the implementation of the inapplicable Taef Agreement, but MUST aim on the full implementation of the UN Resolutions addressing Lebanon's occupation and its National Security concerns, which are, the Armistice Agreement with Israel, 1559, 1701 and 1680.
In summary, once Lebanon is again an independent, free. sovereign and democratic country, and after all the UN resolutions are fully implemented, than and only than representatives of all Lebanese communities and under the auspices and umbrella of the UN shall meet under the UN umbrella to reach peacefully a new constitution and governing formula.

Pope says praying for 'beloved' and 'weary' Lebanon
Agence France Presse/November 06/2022
Pope Francis said Sunday he was praying for "suffering peoples of the Middle East", at the end of a Bahrain visit promoting dialogue with Islam. In a final address before boarding a flight to Rome, he also urged congregants to pray "for Ukraine, which is suffering so much," and for an end to the war. He told Lebanese congregants he was praying for "your beloved country, so weary and sorely tried, as well as (for) all peoples suffering in the Middle East."The 85-year-old Argentinian used his four-day visit to Muslim-majority Bahrain to meet both senior Muslim officials and Catholic residents of the Gulf, home to a large migrant laborer community. On Saturday he held an open-air mass for about 30,000 people, many of them moved to tears by the occasion. Bahrain, which established formal ties with the Holy See in 2000, has around 80,000 Catholic residents. Most are workers from the Philippines and other Asian countries.On Sunday, the final morning of the first ever papal visit to the island nation, Francis visited Sacred Heart church in Manama and urged Catholics to be "tireless promoters of dialogue" with other faiths.
Call for unity
"Let us seek to be guardians and builders of unity... in the multi-religious and multi-cultural societies in which we find ourselves," he said, at the Gulf's oldest church which opened in 1939. His words came a day after police briefly detained relatives of Bahraini prisoners on death row who had protested and asked to meet with the pontiff, according to a London-based rights group -- although authorities denied there had been "apprehensions."Rights groups have long cited discrimination, repression and harassment by Bahrain's Sunni Muslim rulers against Shiite opposition figures and activists.
Human Rights Watch has accused Bahraini courts of issuing death sentences based on "manifestly unfair trials."In his first speech, on Thursday, the pontiff had spoken of the "right to life" and the "need to guarantee that right always, including for those being punished, whose lives should not be taken."Finance Minister Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa told AFP that Bahrain had "robust and wide-ranging human rights and criminal justice protections," and that the pope's comment on the death penalty had not singled out Bahrain. This was the pontiff's second trip to the Gulf following a 2019 visit to the United Arab Emirates. He met in Bahrain with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar mosque. He also used the trip to warn that the world was on a "delicate precipice," decrying the "opposing blocs" of East and West -- a veiled reference to the standoff over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "A few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs," he said. The pope, who uses a wheelchair and walking stick due to knee problems, was to leave for Rome at around 1:00 PM (1000 GMT). He was expected to talk to journalists during the flight.

Al-Rahi tells officials and friendly nations that new president is the 'top priority'
Naharnet/November 06/2022
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday addressed Lebanese officials and friendly countries by saying that “there is no priority that comes before the priority of electing a president.”“Let that be clear,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. He accordingly called for the election of a president to “preserve the (Lebanese) entity in the face of those who are seeking other political, partisan, sectarian and personal entities for them, not for Lebanon.”Al-Rahi warned that amid the absence of a president who can sign foreign treaties, it will be impossible to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, implement reforms, take measures regarding the judiciary and administrations, pass urgent legislation or form a new government.

Rahi: President of the Republic is the Master of the Republic
NNA/November 06/2022
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, affirmed, on Sunday, that the President of the Republic is the Master of the Republic and supervises the proper functioning of its institutions. During his Sunday Mass sermon, Al-Rahi recalled his recent visit to Bahrain, where he participated in the dialogue forum in the presence of Pope Francis. The Patriarch said that he looks forward to the progress of dialogue between Christians and Muslims to translate a partnership in humanity and patriotism, especially on Lebanese soil, the land of partnership and love. Rahi added that the road to this partnership passes through the election of a new president of the republic in order to preserve the entity in the face of those who seek political, partisan, sectarian and other personal entities. According to him, the election of the president is the top priority.

Mikati to meet foreign leaders at Egypt climate summit
Naharnet/November 06/2022
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrived Sunday in Egypt to take part in the U.N.'s COP27 climate summit, which will be held over two days in Sharm el-Sheikh. Mikati was accompanied by caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassine and Lebanon’s ambassador to Egypt Ali al-Halabi. Lebanon’s National News Agency said Mikati will address one of the conference’s sessions and will hold a series of meetings with a number of foreign leaders, presidents and officials.

Scores of Syrian refugees head home from crisis-hit Lebanon
Associated Press/November 06/2022
Scores of Syrian refugees have headed home from eastern Lebanon in the second convoy in less than two weeks as Lebanon attempts to organize a mass refugee return to the war-torn country. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the "voluntary return" Saturday included 330 Syrians who left from the eastern Bekaa Valley to Syria's western Qalamoun region. Qalamoun borders Lebanon and years ago witnessed some of the worst fighting of Syria's 11-year conflict. On Oct. 26, some 500 refugees returned to Syria, becoming the first group to return home in more than two years.
After living in Lebanon for years, many Syrian refugees have decided to go back home after being affected by the country's historic three-year economic meltdown that pushed three-quarters of Lebanese into poverty. Since the economic crisis began in late 2019, some Lebanese politicians have blamed the refugees for the crisis. Lebanon has given shelter to more than 1 million Syrian refugees but many claim the number is far higher. The U.N. refugee agency has registered about 825,000 Syrians but stopped counting them in 2015 at the request of Lebanese authorities. Earlier this year, officials touted a plan to return 15,000 refugees a month, which has so far failed to materialize. In 2018, Lebanon began organizing "voluntary return" trips. Syrians would register to go back, then the list would be run by Syrian security officials to see if anyone on it was wanted for arrest or deemed a security threat to Damascus. Those names would be rejected and the original list whittled down to final names. The returnees represent just a tiny fraction of the massive population of refugees who remain in Lebanon as the United Nations maintains that Syria is not safe for mass returns. "The returnees have received guarantees from the Lebanese and Syrian authorities to return," Lebanon's caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar told reporters near the Syrian border on Saturday. He added that the international community should encourage such returns and if not then they "should be neutral in this case."The trips back were halted in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. At that point, some 21,000 refugees had returned to Syria this way, according to Lebanese officials. UNHCR says at least 76,500 Syrian refugees returned voluntarily from Lebanon since 2016, some in government-organized trips and some on their own. Syria's conflict that began in March 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million.

Two Lebanese die due to Sydney floods
NNA/November 06/2022
Sydney - The Lebanese community in Australia was devastated by the loss of the two young men, Ghosn Ghosn and Bob Shaheen, from the town of Kousba in north Lebanon, as a result of the floods in Sydney and its suburbs that have been occurring for quite some time.Today, Shaheen's body was found about 50 km from the scene, several days after his friend Ghosn was found.

Jumblatt from Ain El-Tineh: On the presidential issue, we agreed that there would be no "challenge candidate"
NNA/November 06/2022
House Speaker Nabih Berri met this evening at Ain EL-Tineh Palace with Progressive Socialist Party Chief Walid Jumblatt, where they discussed the general situation in the country and latest political developments. Following the encounter which lasted for three-quarters of an hour, Jumblatt said: "The visit is for continuous communication with a friend, an ally, and with history...Finally, we can congratulate Speaker Berri on his efforts regarding the demarcation process, which took him nearly 9 years, as he told me, which bore fruit, and perhaps the circumstances helped, but he initiated it.”On the presidential election dossier, Jumblatt said “we agreed that there would be no challenging candidate.”Asked whether Speaker Berri has withdrawn the call for dialogue, he said: "Speaker Berri did not withdraw from dialogue...Unfortunately, some parties have retreated, and this is a mistake." Responding to another question, Jumblatt highlighted the need for a president who is able to hold the dialogue and raise issues that were not raised at the time, including administrative decentralization, the abolition of political sectarianism and having a Senate.

Makhzoumi holds dinner banquet in honor of Ibrahimi, Bukhari: Taif will always be the best guarantee for our country
NNA/November 06/2022
Head of the National Dialogue Party, MP Fouad Makhzoumi, hosted a dinner banquet at his home in honor of Algerian Foreign Minister, former UN Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, and Saudi Ambassador Walid Al-Bukhari, in the presence of Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, and Political Advisor Carol Zwein and several prominent figures. Makhzoumi welcomed the attendees, reiterating that the "Taif Agreement is like a constitution for Lebanon, as it put an end to the civil war and rebuilt the state’s institutions,” adding that “it was and will remain the best guarantee for our country and the protector of the National Pact and coexistence."Makhzoumi renewed the call for "the implementation of Taif with all its provisions and the initiation of building a state governed by law, consecrating legitimacy and preserving Lebanon's relationship with its Arab incubator," considering that "any possible amendment comes after implementation and according to sole national need."

Qabalan: Lebanon is in dire need for a monetary, financial Taif
NNA/November 06/2022
Grand Jaafari Mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan, stressed in a statement on Sunday, that “the Taif Agreement is a necessity for a homeland, a state, and the end of a war, paving the way for the Lebanese to have a strong start in political reform, with the ultimate goal being the state of citizenship.”
“The Taif is a rescuing necessity that has its aftermath, and its protection begins and ends with the House of Parliament, but the productivity of Taif needs a qualitative constitutional partnership and a leap of reforms, the first of which is the eradication of political sectarianism, as it is a malignant cancerous disease that destroys the body of the nation,” Qabalan added, stressing that “the continuity of the constitutional facility is the greatest constant of the state’s comprehensive concept of constitutional, service and administrative facility.”“The supreme national interest means a parliamentary presidential settlement, agreement over a president who does not require a miracle,” he said, considering the insistence on vacuum as an “international game” and the warning of economic ruin as an “American propaganda”. “Lebanon is Arab to the extent of its national interests, for no one has guardianship over Lebanon,” Sheikh Qabalan maintained, noting that “the Arab partnership is at its worst, and the end of history is easier than relying on Lebanon's surrender through the Washington lobby, which leads a continuous wave of siege.”He concluded his statement by emphasizing that “Lebanon today is in dire need of a monetary and financial Taif...As for coexistence, it needs no new Taif and the resonant national positions are of no value if they do not contribute to the consolidation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and its constitutional institutions.”

Taif Agreement is best solution to Lebanon crisis, Saudi Arabia stands by us: Mikati
Najia Houssari/Arab News/November 06/2022
France has no intention of reviewing or amending the pact, says Saudi ambassador
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister and the Saudi ambassador in Beirut underlined the importance of the Taif Agreement at a conference on Saturday.
Ambassador Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari organized a forum at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut that brought together over 1,000 political, economic, diplomatic, and academic figures.
It included those who participated in drafting the Taif Agreement, veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, who played an important role in reaching the pact, Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, MPs from the Free Patriotic Movement and presidential candidate Suleiman Franjieh.
Thirty-three years since the signing of the agreement, which ended 15 years of civil war in Lebanon, under Arab and international sponsorship, Saudi Arabia, the main player in reaching the agreement, reaffirmed its keenness on national reconciliation in Lebanon.
The forum was held against the backdrop of a campaign launched against the Taif Agreement by Hezbollah and its ally, the FPM. aretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the forum is proof that Saudi Arabia still stands by Lebanon, and the large attendance shows that everyone agrees that the agreement is still the best one to implement.
Bukhari reiterated the keenness of Saudi Arabia and its leadership on Lebanon’s security, stability, and unity.
“We urgently need to embody the formula of coexistence addressed by the Taif Agreement, i.e. preserving the irrevocable Lebanese entity and conserving Lebanon’s identity and Arab belonging.”
Speaking about the French initiative to hold a national dialogue between the Lebanese parties, Bukhari noted that France, headed by President Emmanuel Macron, stressed that there is no French intention to review the Taif Agreement or amend the constitution.
Meanwhile, Brahimi praised the former Lebanese speaker, Hussein El-Husseini, for his role in reaching the agreement, and former Lebanese President Rene Mouawad, who was elected after the agreement was signed and was assassinated before he could carry out his duties.
He also recalled former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the late Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal “who were the heroes of the Taif Agreement.”
Brahimi said: “The Taif Agreement paved the way for the Lebanese to build their new state. We had pinned hopes on the tripartite committee that was formed to accompany the Taif implementation process, and this was the will of King Fahd bin Abdulaziz and other Arab leaders, but Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait halted the committee’s work.”
Lebanon’s former premier, Fouad Siniora, said: “Electing a president that believes in the Taif Agreement is the most important thing to complement constitutional authorities and this requires good intentions from everyone.”
Walid Jumblatt said that “before looking into amending the Taif Agreement as proposed by some people, we should implement its terms, as well as other annexed terms, and eventually abolish political sectarianism according to a plan included in the agreement,” calling for the formation of a committee for this matter.“All of this is meaningless as long as we don’t elect a president and subsequently form a credible government that implements the necessary reforms leading to economic and financial recovery.”
Priest Boulos Matar, representing the Maronite Patriarchate, said: “Christians and Muslims constitute one nation in the Taif Agreement. In Lebanon, we are brothers in nationalism, Arabism and humanity, so I urge the Lebanese to put their conflicts under the roof of fraternity.
“The political system is subject to change based on a dialogue that should not cease.”
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka said the Taif Agreement is reaffirmed by international resolution 1701 in many clauses. This agreement set a frame to end sectarianism and strengthen peaceful coexistence. It also established a new political system that meets the aspirations of the Lebanese. Efforts should be made to implement the agreement in a way that guarantees the stability of Lebanon.”
Former MP Boutros Harb, who played a role in the Taif Agreement, said: “It is easy to criticize the agreement today but the killing and bombing that Lebanon had witnessed back then weren’t easy. The new formula required everyone’s compromise for Lebanon’s benefit.
Former MP Edmond Rizk said that “the essence of the agreement is a civilized partnership in a free system. There is no coercion in patriotism and the issue is not the text of the agreement.”
Former MP Talal Merhebi said that “many people talk about amending the Taif Agreement without reading it ... there’s no such thing as Troika in the agreement and any meetings held outside Lebanon to turn against the Taif Agreement are a conspiracy against the country.”
Researcher Nizar Younes criticized turning Lebanon into a sectarian quota state through post-Taif practices and by replacing the Arab identity with populist identities.
He said: “If we don’t implement the Taif Agreement, we cannot preserve Lebanon.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 05-06/2022
Pope ends Bahrain trip with visit to Gulf's oldest church
NNA/November 06/2022
Pope Francis departed from Bahrain on Sunday after a four-day trip that culminated with a visit to the Gulf's oldest Catholic church, where he told bishops, priests and nuns to remain united as they ministered to the faithful in the majority Muslim area.The last event was at Sacred Heart church, built in 1939 on land donated by the then-ruler, putting Bahrain on the road to becoming one of the most accommodating countries in the region for non-Muslims. Bahrain has two Catholic churches, including a modern cathedral that is the largest church on the Arabian Peninsula, and has about 160,000 Catholics, most of them foreign workers. Many Catholics also visit from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which bars public worship by non-Muslim. Francis, who suffers from a knee ailment that forced him to use a wheelchair during the trip, told local Catholic leaders to avoid factions, quarrels and gossip. "Worldly divisions, but also ethnic, cultural and ritual differences, cannot injure or compromise the unity of the Spirit," he said. Pope ends Bahrain trip with visit to Gulf's oldest church/By Philip Pullella

Deadly crackdown continues in southeastern Iranian province after weeks of unrest
Arab News/November 06/2022
Deadly crackdown continues in southeastern Iranian province after weeks of unrest
Soldiers fired live ammunition at demonstrators, killing scores in Khash city after Friday prayers
At least 304 protesters have been killed by security forces across Iran since mid-September
QUETTA: A crackdown on protesters in Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan province continued over the weekend, activists and residents said on Sunday, after security forces fired at demonstrators in Khash city amid deadly unrest. Protests have widened across the sprawling border province neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan since a Sept. 30 rally in the regional capital, Zahedan, triggered a violent response from security forces. The bloodshed has spread to other areas and on Friday soldiers fired live ammunition at demonstrators who marched from a key mosque to the governor house building in Khash, 145 km from Zahedan to rally against the Iranian government. The Baloch Activists Campaign said the protesters were chanting “Death to the dictators” and “Death to Basiji” in reference to a volunteer force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that has been involved in quelling the unrest.
Amnesty International reported that 10 people, including children, were killed, and said it was “gravely concerned about further bloodshed amid internet disruptions and reports of authorities bringing more security forces to Khash from Zahedan.” Local activists and a prominent Sunni cleric, Mulvi Abdul Hamid, the imam of the central mosque of Zahedan, said that at least 16 people had been killed. “A number of teenagers and young people who gathered in front of the governorate of Khash city and shouted slogans and started throwing stones were directly targeted by live rounds,” Hamid said in a statement on Saturday.
The incident showed “the depth of oppression and discrimination” in the region, he added. Arab News could not independently verify the death tolls provided by Amnesty, activists and residents, but footage from Khash circulating on social media showed young protesters falling to the ground as troops fired at them. Charred vehicles and smoke rising from buildings were seen in photos shared by Iranian state media, which blamed the damage on “rioters.” Residents in neighboring areas said Khash has since gone into a communication blackout.
“Most of our friends and relatives in Zahedan and Khash were using the internet through VPN, but after Friday, they are unable to connect through VPN as well,” Asif Burhanzai, a resident of Mirjaveh near the Pakistan-Iran border told Arab News, adding that he was unable to contact his relatives in the city.
Mohammed Zia, a trader in Zahedan, said local reports estimated that the death toll in Khash has risen to 25 after Friday’s clashes and the whole city was now on strike. “The situation is very grim for the third day in Khash after the deadly shootings carried out by the Iranian military,” he told Arab News. There is a complete shutdown strike in the entire city against the brutality committed against the innocent and unarmed protesters.”Sistan and Balochistan is home to the long-oppressed Sunni Muslim Baluch ethnic group, a minority in predominantly Shiite Iran. emonstrations started in the province following the alleged rape a 15-year-old-girl Baloch by a police commander in the port city of Chabahar. The violence comes amid countrywide demonstrations over the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iranian morality police. At least 304 people have been killed by security forces since the beginning of the protests in mid-September, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization. “Iran Human Rights has received a high volume of reports of deaths which it continues to investigate with internet disruptions,” the group said in a statement on Saturday. “The actual number of people killed, therefore, is certainly higher.”Deaths have been reported in 22 provinces, with the highest number in Sistan and Balochistan, Mazandaran, Tehran, Kurdistan, and Gilan.

Six killed in Syria’s shelling of tent settlement – war monitor
AP/November 06, 2022
IDLIB, Syria: Syrian government forces shelled a tent settlement housing families displaced by the country’s conflict in the rebel-held northwest early Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding more than a dozen, opposition war monitors said. The shelling is the latest violation of a truce reached between Russia and Turkey in March 2020 that ended a Russian-backed government offensive on Idlib province that is the last major rebel-held stronghold in Syria. he truce has been repeatedly violated over the past two years killing and wounding scores of people. he tent settlement, known as the Maram camp, is just northwest of the provincial capital of Idlib. he Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that government forces fired about 30 rockets toward rebel-held areas, including the Maram camp Sunday morning killing six and wounding 15. It said the dead included two children and one woman. ther opposition activists also reported that six people were killed and more than 30 wounded. The pro-government Sham FM radio station said Syrian government forces shelled positions of the Al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group, the most powerful militant group in Idlib. It said Syrian and Russian warplanes also attacked the areas. yria’s conflict broke out in March 2011 and has since killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million and left large parts of Syria destroyed.

Russian strikes on Syria’s Idlib province kill 7: monitor
AFP/November 06, 2022
TEHRAN: Four Iranian police officers have been killed in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, the scene of other recent deadly violence, official media said. The incident, at a traffic police station on the Iranshahr-Bampour highway, caused the martyrdom of police officers,” regional police chief Major Alireza Sayyad told IRNA news agency, adding that an investigation was underway. ran has been rocked by more than seven weeks of nationwide protests over the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Masha Amini while in the custody of the Tehran morality police. longside that unrest clashes also broke out in Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, sparked by the alleged rape of a local teenage girl by a police chief. n September 30 in Zahedan, the provincial capital, dozens of protesters and six members of the security forces were killed, according to the authorities. overty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan has long been a flashpoint for clashes with rebels from the Baluchi minority, Sunni Muslim extremist groups and drug smuggling gangs.

Biden aide held talks with Russian officials amid nuclear tensions - WSJ
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/Sun, November 6, 2022
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has held undisclosed talks with top Russian officials in hopes of reducing the risk the war in Ukraine spills over or escalates into a nuclear conflict, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The newspaper cited U.S. and allied officials as saying that Sullivan, President Joe Biden's top aide on national security, held confidential conversations in recent months with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Sullivan's counterpart, that were not disclosed publicly. The White House declined to comment on the report, responding to questions about the story only with a statement attributed to National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson: "People claim a lot of things." The Wall Street Journal said the officials did not provide the dates or the number of calls. Few high-level contacts between U.S. and Russian officials have been made public in recent months as Washington has insisted that any talks on ending the war in Ukraine be held between Moscow and Kyiv. The reported conversations took place as the West has accused Moscow of ramping up nuclear rhetoric, most recently by repeatedly accusing Kyiv of planning to use a radioactive "dirty bomb," without offering evidence. Kyiv has denied having such a plan and the United States and other Western nations have said Russia could be planning to orchestrate such an attack itself and use it as a pretext to escalate the conflict. Russia in turn has accused the West of "encouraging provocations." Sullivan traveled to Kyiv on Friday and pledged Washington's "unwavering and unflinching" support for Ukraine.

Russia's war in Ukraine rages on without a clear end in sight. Here are 6 ways the conflict could play out.
Alia Shoaib/Business Insider/November 06 2022
As Russia's war in Ukraine continues, there does not appear to be a clear end in sight.
A military expert said Putin's "in too deep" and is unlikely to withdraw without clear successes.
These are six ways the conflict could play out and what victory might look like for either side.
With Russia's war in Ukraine in its eighth month, there is still no clear end to the carnage in sight. Tens of thousands of soldiers are dead or maimed, entire cities have been reduced to twisted piles of rubble, there have been allegations of torture and atrocities by Russian occupiers, and millions have become refugees. While Russia has occupied swathes of territory in the south and east of the country, Ukraine has put up a stronger fight than anyone expected and often humiliated Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion forces that, on paper, were meant to overwhelm Ukraine in days.
Not only have the Ukrainian defenders fended off a total conquest from Russia, they have also retaken parts of the country by launching well-organized, audacious counter-offensives in the east and south. However, despite the battlefield defeats, Russia still has destructive military capabilities it can call upon. In recent weeks, it has launched a missile and drone blitz of Ukraine's energy infrastructure. While the largest war in Europe since 1945 seems to have entered an attritional phase, there are several ways the conflict could play out.
Cease-fire
If the fighting reaches a stalemate, there could be some negotiated, temporary cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine, according to Seth Jones, the director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, International Security Program. "That would probably not be an end, though, that would be the state of active warfare declining, at least temporarily, and it becomes something closer to a frozen conflict that can heat up or cool down depending on the range of factors," he said. Jones pointed to the two Chechen Wars that took place in the 1990s. Russia negotiated a cease-fire in 1994, which ended the first war, but then restarted another war three years later and ramped up its onslaught. In this scenario, Russia could hope that the US and other Western countries lose interest in the conflict and in supporting Ukraine. "That would eventually change the balance of power in Russia's favor and allow it to reconquer territory the way it ideally wanted to in February," Jones said.
A peace deal
It is possible that the war could end with a peace deal, though a settlement is difficult because of Russia's and Ukraine's different goals and what they both view as their rightful territory. "I think Vladimir Putin is in too deep at the moment. He's committed far too much political and military capital right now to extract himself from the war without very clear successes," Jones said.Jones said that while it is not clear what Putin would accept as a "success," he might settle for Russia taking parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson Oblasts, which he could then frame as his intended goals. The more complicated question is what Ukraine would be willing to give up in any peace deal. Jones said it would be almost "politically suicidal" for any leader in Kyiv to give away any Ukrainian territory.
Russian victory
When it began its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Russia's goal was to take over the country completely.Jones said it is important to note that Ukraine has already achieved a significant victory in preventing Russia from achieving that goal.
"Arguably, at least up to February 2022, the third most powerful military army in the world behind the US and the Chinese was the Russians. So they've already prevented a Russian blitzkrieg operation to take the capital, overthrow the government, and either integrate it into Russia or establish a puppet government," he said. t is unlikely now that Russia would be able to turn the war around entirely and achieve its original aims, but it could accept a "victory" in the form of a peace deal in which it takes more territory than it had before the invasion began.
Russian retreat, Ukrainian victory
As long as Putin is at the country's helm, it would be very unlikely that Russian forces would retreat entirely, Jones said. "In Russia, bad things happen to rulers who lose wars," Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine colonel and CSIS senior advisor, previously told Insider. ut despite Russia's strongman facing discontent at home due to rising war casualties, the partial mobilization of reservists, and an economy damaged by sanctions, he appears to show no signs of backing down. Though the chances of him being overthrown in a coup are perhaps higher than ever, experts have previously said the Russian leader has made his regime "coup-proof" through a culture of distrust among Russia's intelligence agencies. However, a total Russian retreat could be possible if Putin were to be ousted or die. Rumors have also long swirled about his alleged health problems, though US intel and military experts have warned that there is no credible evidence that he is ill. Ukrainians believe outright victory is possible. Svitlana Morenets, a Ukrainian journalist who works for The Spectator news magazine in the UK, spoke on Friday at a debate entitled "Is it time to make a peace in Ukraine."
The plan is not for years of battle but the military defeat of Russia, she said. She highlighted Putin's recent climbdown over the "grain corridor" as an example of Russia's growing weakness.
Long-term war
Not all wars end with a clear victory for one side. Another possibility is that fighting continues to rage on without any cease-fire or settlement, which, according to Jones, could go on for years.It could involve special forces fighting back and forth on contact lines, guerilla action from Ukraine in Russian-controlled territories, and long-range bombardment of Ukrainian territory from Russia or Belarus. n its current phase, the conflict appears to have become a war of attrition. Rather than taking more territory, Russia's objectives in the current stage of war seem to be to weaken Ukraine's resources, economy, and army.
It is unclear which side would be able to hold out for longer, though Russia has experienced significant losses in terms of soldiers and weapons. ccording to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the newly appointed Russian General Sergey Surovikin plans to build a solid line of defense in occupied territories and effectively freeze the war over the winter.
Russia would not seek to begin any new large-scale offensive into Ukrainian territory at this time and would take the time to build back up its fighting capabilities, the think tank said.
Nuclear war and/or NATO intervention
Putin has repeatedly made nuclear threats since he began the invasion of Ukraine and, in September, claimed that it was "not a bluff."Western countries and experts are divided on how seriously to take the threats. ones said that there were big risks involved in using nuclear weapons, especially if they were Putin detonates them in territories he has been claiming are Russian. There would also be a risk of nuclear fallout on Russian territory due to proximity. If Russian forces face a full-scale military rout, Putin could use a battlefield nuclear weapon, but Jones said the risks of using nuclear weapons would likely outweigh any benefits. "There are a lot of risks involved in making that nuclear taboo, politically, diplomatically. What would that spell for Vladimir Putin's regime? I think the US has already communicated pretty forcefully that all bets are off if Russia were to use nuclear weapons," he said. It is unclear whether NATO would get involved in that scenario, Jones said. One senior official previously said that a Russian nuclear strike could trigger a "physical response" from NATO itself. However, Jones said that NATO declaring war on Russia could create a major war that could pull in other countries like China, which is an outcome that the organization likely wants to avoid. To avoid that scenario, NATO would likely first turn to increased sanctions and support Ukraine with weapons.

Foreign fighters in Ukraine speak out on their willingness to serve: 'I had to go'
MARK GUARINO/ABC/November 06, 2022
When Andy Huynh watched the news of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, he started losing sleep. All he could think about was the struggle of the Ukrainian people against an aggressor he felt was violating their sovereignty and opening the world up to a third World War. "All my personal problems didn't feel important anymore … It felt wrong just to sit back and do nothing," he said. "I had to go."The Alabama man was not alone. Two days after the invasion, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for "friends of Ukraine, freedom and democracy" to serve as volunteers in the Ukrainian military. More than 20,000 volunteers from 52 countries responded, many of whom had served in the U.S. Army, British Army, and, like Huynh, the U.S. Marine Corps, according to Ukrainian officials. ABC NewsABC News Foreign fighters in Ukraine speak out on their willingness to serve: 'I had to go'
When Andy Huynh watched the news of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, he started losing sleep. All he could think about was the struggle of the Ukrainian people against an aggressor he felt was violating their sovereignty and opening the world up to a third World War. "All my personal problems didn't feel important anymore … It felt wrong just to sit back and do nothing," he said. "I had to go." The Alabama man was not alone. Two days after the invasion, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for "friends of Ukraine, freedom and democracy" to serve as volunteers in the Ukrainian military. More than 20,000 volunteers from 52 countries responded, many of whom had served in the U.S. Army, British Army, and, like Huynh, the U.S. Marine Corps, according to Ukrainian officials. Their experience is credited by Zelenskyy for bolstering the war effort for Ukraine, especially since NATO countries have rejected sending ground troops in fears of starting their own conflict with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in March that 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East would be joining his country's fight. Tanya Mehra, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for Counterterrorism at The Hague, said the mobilization of foreign fighters on battlefields dates to 1816 and they have played prominent roles in conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and Somalia since the 1980s. The evolution of foreign-born fighters has created distinct classes of fighters, from mercenaries who join conflicts primarily for financial gain, Mehra said, and others who are driven by ideological reasons. Mercenaries, she said, who are outsourced contractors for small governments, tend to be associated to "increases in violence and higher civilian casualties," which can prolong the conflict, whereas foreign fighters become part of the state military, which makes them "accountable for the acts they have committed." Many of those foreign fighters serving in Ukraine tend to be older than your average soldier, and in a stage in their lives where they felt they could help through their years of experience. John Harding, 59, joined the Ukrainian military in 2018, when the country was fighting Russian-backed separatists. As a professional combat medic who served in Syria, the British-born Harding put his experience to use on the battlefield. But he also found he was in demand as a trainer for other medics who had no idea how to apply first aid in a hostile combat environment. "Medics are notorious for getting themselves killed," Harding said. "You may know how to apply a torniquet, but you also need to know how to apply a tourniquet while watching out for snipers."
One American, who did not want to use his name because he is still fighting in Ukraine, said he joined the Ukrainian military in April because he felt "it is important for the world to stand up with the Ukrainians and resist aggression." Having grown up in a military family and a U.S. Air Force veteran himself, the man took leave of his job in IT while living in central Europe to join the fight. Today, he uses his background in engineering systems, cybersecurity and computer networks to operate drones in anti-tank and stinger missions. He said his squad was responsible for taking down a Mil Mi-28 Russian helicopter on July 18. The man said his homemade bombs and grenades are constructed using Coke cans and some of the 60 kilograms of TNT captured during an offensive in September. They take flight via off-the-shelf commercial drones.
The man said that the number of foreign fighters he encounters, the majority of whom were from the U.S., has decreased since the spring. The intensity of the fighting weeded away what he called the "TikTok warriors" who were not prepared for the danger, or length, of the missions. He remains fighting after seven months because of ideological reasons, but also because of the survivor's guilt he felt when two men from his squad -- Huynh and Alex Drueke, also from Alabama -- were captured on June 9 following a firefight.
"I felt I lost my two brothers. They followed me to this unit. I felt very guilty," he said. "Part of the reason I stayed this long is because of them." Huynh and Drueke, a U.S. Army veteran, spent 105 days in captivity, including a month in a Russian "black site," where they endured daily torture. In late September they were released, along with eight other foreign-born volunteer fighters from England and Canada and more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers. Harding was among those men released. He met Huynh and Drueke in a prison cell after having been captured in May when a Ukrainian unit he was with in Mariupol was forced to surrender. The torture he suffered has led to a diagnosis of permanent neurological damage to his hands, along with broken ribs and damage to his sternum. One aftereffect is "more psychological": "I have mood swings which I don't have control of," he said. He now lives close to family in Luton, a town in the southeast of England. The results of ongoing medical treatment will determine his ability to work. "Would I do it again? Knowing what I know, probably not. Would I do it again if I didn't know? Yes, I would," he said. "The only thing I would have done different is I wouldn't have surrendered. I would have fought to the very last round." Like Harding, Drueke and Hyunh also say they have no regrets. Back home in Alabama, they are adjusting to their former lives. Hyunh is engaged and will marry soon, while Drueke is contemplating his next career move. They have bonded, not just with one another, but with Harding and the other men in their unit who are either still in Ukraine or returned home. One day they hope to reunite, either in the U.S. or in England -- or even Ukraine itself to help rebuild. "Honestly, Ukraine has really surprised the world. We did not expect them to be that feisty, that strong, that determined," said Drueke. "They are amazing people."

Ukraine lost access to 1,300 Starlink terminals over a funding issue
Igor Bonifacic/Engadget/November 6. 2022
As recently as October 24th, Ukraine’s military suffered a partial internet outage after 1,300 Starlink terminals went offline due to a funding shortage, reports CNN. The blackout occurred amid ongoing talks between SpaceX and the Department of Defense that continue despite Elon Musk having said his company would continue to foot the bill for the country’s Starlink usage. “Negotiations are very much underway. Everyone in our building knows we’re going to pay them,” a senior Pentagon official told the network, adding that the Defense Department wants to get something in writing “because we worry he’ll change his mind.” In September, SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon, asking the Defense Department to take over paying expenses related to Ukraine’s usage of its Starlink internet service. On October 15th, following public outcry, Musk appeared to backtrack on the decision to ask the US government for assistance. “To hell with it… we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free,” Musk tweeted, later telling The Financial Times the company would do so “indefinitely.”According to CNN, last month’s outage was a “huge problem” for Ukraine’s military. In March, the country purchased the 1,300 terminals from a British company. SpaceX reportedly charged Ukraine $2,500 per month to keep each unit operational. The country eventually couldn’t afford to pay the $3.25 million monthly bill anymore and asked for financial aid from the British Ministry of Defence. After some discussion, the two agreed to prioritize other military expenses. “We support a number of terminals that have a direct tactical utility for Ukraine’s military in repelling Russia’s invasion,” a British official told CNN. “We consider and prioritize all new requests in terms of the impact contributions would have in supporting Ukraine to defend its people against Putin’s deplorable invasion.”Should SpaceX and the US Department of Defense eventually sign an agreement, it’s unclear if the Pentagon will have greater control over Starlink service in Ukraine. The company currently decides where Ukrainian troops can use the terminals.

COP27 summit opens in Egypt as world races against climate clock
Agence France Presse/November 06/2022
The U.N.'s COP27 climate summit kicked off Sunday in Egypt after a year of extreme weather disasters that have fueled calls for wealthy industrialized nations to compensate poorer countries. Just in the past few months, climate-induced catastrophes have killed thousands, displaced millions and cost billions in damages across the world. Massive floods devastated swaths of Pakistan and Nigeria, droughts worsened in Africa and the western United States, cyclones whipped the Caribbean, and unprecedented heatwaves seared three continents. The conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh comes in a fraught year marked by Russia's war on Ukraine, an energy crunch, soaring inflation and the lingering effects from the Covid pandemic. "Whilst I do understand that leaders around the world have faced competing priorities this year, we must be clear: as challenging as our current moment is, inaction is myopic and can only defer climate catastrophe," said Alok Sharma, British president of the previous COP26 as he handed over the chairmanship to Egypt. "How many more wake-up calls does the world -- and world leaders -- actually need," he said at the opening ceremony. The world must slash greenhouse emissions 45 percent by 2030 to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above late-19th-century levels. Warming beyond that threshold, scientists warn, could push Earth toward an unlivable hothouse state. But current trends would see carbon pollution increase 10 percent by the end of the decade and Earth's surface heat up 2.8C, according to findings unveiled last week. Promises made under the 2015 Paris Agreement would, if kept, only shave off a few tenths of a degree.
Money focus
The COP27 summit will focus like never before on money -- a major sticking point that has soured relations between countries that got rich burning fossil fuels and the poorer ones suffering from the worst consequences of climate change. Developing nations have "high expectations" for the creation of a dedicated funding facility to cover "loss and damage," U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said on Friday. "The most vulnerable countries are tired, they are frustrated," Stiell said. "The time to have an open and honest discussion on loss and damage is now." The United States and the European Union -- fearful of creating an open-ended reparations framework -- have dragged their feet and challenged the need for a separate funding stream. U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has called for a "historic pact" to bridge the North-South divide."Our planet is on course for reaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible and forever bake in catastrophic temperature rise," Guterres said recently. "We need to move from tipping points to turning points for hope."
U.S.-China tensions
After the first day of talks, more than 120 world leaders will join the summit on Monday and Tuesday. The most conspicuous no-show will be China's Xi Jinping, whose leadership was renewed last month at a Communist Party Congress. U.S. President Joe Biden has said he will come, but only after legislative elections on Tuesday that could see either or both houses of Congress fall into the hands of Republicans hostile to international action on climate change. Cooperation between the United States and China -- the world's two largest economies and carbon polluters -- has been crucial to rare breakthroughs in the nearly 30-year saga of U.N. climate talks, including the 2015 Paris Agreement. But Sino-U.S. relations have sunk to a 40-year low after a visit to Taiwan by House leader Nancy Pelosi and a U.S. ban on the sale of high-level chip technology to China, leaving the outcome of COP27 in doubt. A meeting between Xi and Biden at the G20 summit in Bali days before the U.N. climate meeting ends, if it happens, could be decisive. One bright spot at COP27 will be the arrival of Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose campaign vowed to protect the Amazon and reverse the extractive policies of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro.

Passenger plane crashes into Lake Victoria
Associated Press/November 06/2022
A small passenger plane crashed Sunday morning into Lake Victoria on approach to an airport in Tanzania. Local authorities said 26 of the 43 people on board the Precision Air flight from the coastal city of Dar es Salaam had been rescued and taken to a hospital after the plane crashed on approach to Bukoba Airport. Precision Air is a Tanzanian airline company. News reports showed photos of the plane mostly submerged in the lake. “We have managed to save quite a number of people,” Kagera province police commander William Mwampaghale told journalists. “When the aircraft was about 100 meters (328 feet) midair, it encountered problems and bad weather. It was raining and the plane plunged into the water. Everything is under control,” he said. Mwampaghale said rescue efforts continued.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 06-07/2022
A Stunned Iran Averts Strategic Panic
Raghida Dergham/The National/November 06/2022
Today the regional picture is incomplete, but it deserves pause to take stock of the many interesting signals it carries in its folds. Ground-breaking movements are being made by Arab Gulf States with major developments in their international relations. At the same time, Iran is getting lost in the repercussions of its crackdown on popular protests and its military partnership in the Ukraine war.
Remarkable developments are taking place in the region, from strategic, economic, and culture and arts summits in Saudi Arabia, to the historic visit by Pope Francis to Bahrain to attend the interfaith conference “The Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence” alongside the Sheikh of Al-Azhar Dr. Ahmed el-Tayeb. This week, the UAE signed a strategic partnership agreement with the United States to invest $100 billion to produce clean energy, strengthen energy security, and push for climate action in the context of the close friendship between Washington and Abu Dhabi.
But one of the most important developments this week is that the United States, Saudi Arabia, and other neighbouring countries put their forces on high alert amid joint intelligence reports indicating Iran is planning imminent attacks on energy facilities in the region, especially in the kingdom. Commenting on the development, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, “We are concerned about the threat…We will not hesitate to act in the defense of our interests and partners in the region.”
What is happening is that Iran is stunned these days by the uprising against the regime’s repression and the moral support Iran’s women have received in international forums. Iran is also stunned because Washington is preparing more sanctions in retaliation against Tehran’s arms supplies sent to Russia for use in the Ukraine war, including possible measures to intercept these shipments.
However, the IRGC is not feeling panic. In Iraq, it is comfortable with Iran’s achievements in securing its interests, including controlling the key levers of government there through Iran loyalists. Meanwhile, the election of Benjamin Netanyahu to return as Israel’s prime minister, could calm Russian-Israeli relations owing to the close personal friendship between Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, which in turn may reflect on Iranian-Israeli relations and relieve the IRGC.
In Bahrain, Pope Francis has been welcomed alongside the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and the chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders at the invitation of King Hamad bin Issa, to attend the Bahrain Forum, with spiritual leaders from various faiths invited to engage in dialogue. The historic visit of the pope to Bahrain, home to the largest Catholic cathedral in the Arabian Gulf region in the city of Awali, has highlighted the importance of strengthening Christian relations with the Muslim world, a crucial pursuit in an era where sectarian tensions and religious extremism are festering across the world.
The separation of religion and state remains one of the biggest challenges in the Middle East, and appears impossible for both the Islamic Republic of Iran and the extremist right in Israel. Both converge when it comes to imposing religion on the state, in the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic respectively. The recent Israeli election confirmed this trend in the former case, while the religious regime in the latter continues to impose until further notice a theocracy that has set the great nation of Iran back by more than half a century.
Benjamin Netanyahu will pursue more extremist policies against the Palestinians, but he will not be able to fully extricate himself from the commitments of the previous government, such as the agreement demarcating maritime borders between Lebanon and Israel. Since the relationship between the Israeli PM-elect and the Russian president was excellent, it may be worth monitoring how Russian-Israel relations will develop under the returning Netanyahu, especially in the context of Ukraine and the implications for Russian-Iranian-Israeli relations.
Iran will not be able, nor does it want, to downgrade its strategic relations with Russia. It is aware that its regional role, especially in Syria, is linked to Russia. Iran will not end its involvement in the Ukraine war alongside Russia, even if it were to incur further US sanctions or if its arms supplies were intercepted by the United States.
Interestingly, the Biden administration has yet to say that the deal to revive the JCPOA is dead, despite US-Iranian tensions triggered primarily by Tehran’s involvement in Ukraine, and secondarily by the regime’s repression of domestic protests. Both publicized messages and those exchanged behind the scenes indicate that either there are differences in the ranks of the Biden administration or there is a distribution of roles within it, in terms of disclosing the true status of the nuclear negotiations. But even in the best-case scenario, the talks are clinically dead and no one dares to breathe life into them now, while Tehran is backing Moscow militarily in Ukraine.
The other interesting thing is the Saudi and US state of alert triggered by intel indicating Iran is planning an imminent attack on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, to divert attention away from developments in the Iranian interior, which Tehran alleges are encouraged by Riyadh through its media coverage. If Tehran risks staging attacks, this would invite a US response, not in the form of war but in the form of stronger US-Saudi and US-Gulf security ties.
It is clear that the Biden administration has decided to contain any further deterioration in its relations with the Arab Gulf states – which have suffered multiple shocks for reasons related to energy, arms sales, and mutual distrust – especially security relations.
At the level of relations with the UAE, a strategic partnership was concluded with the United States, signed by US Envoy for Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein, in the presence of the top US National Security Council official for Middle East policy Brett McGurk, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Al-Jaber, and the UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The partnership carries a lot of significance. Indeed, the two sides stressed “the close strategic alliance between the UAE and the US will contribute to supporting the transition process in the global energy sector and building a more sustainable future,” as Hochstein said.
Last week, during the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, it was clear that the US private sector, led by major investment banks, were less interested in the OPEC+ crisis with Saudi Arabia and more interested in stressing the strong, historic, and strategically important relations between the United States and the kingdom. Moreover, the Biden administration has told Saudi Arabia in its own way that while a political escalation against the kingdom was necessary amid clamouring in Congress for measures against OPEC+, there is no real intention to reassess US-Saudi relations.
Thus, while strategic cooperation between the United States and the Arab Gulf States is being strengthened, Iran is reinforcing its strategic alliance with Russia at the height of the latter’s standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. On the other hand, amid Iran’s repression of its people especially women, the Arab Gulf states are pursuing reforms, developing their social infrastructure, opening up, and encouraging interfaith engagement. Yet these steps, as important as they are, are just a start, requiring a persistent, long march towards radical reform.
All eyes will now be on Iran to see whether it carries out attacks on Saudi Arabia, or whether it is manoeuvring to deliver a message to Washington, hoping the Biden administration would reduce pressure and open the door to returning to the nuclear talks. A source close to decision makers in Iran said that the latter has supplied advanced drones to the Houthis in Yemen, to be used in attacking Saudi ports and oil installations.
Iran is betting that the Biden administration will not be able to provide support to Saudi Arabia shortly before the midterm elections, and that its security options are limited and would come late anyway, only after the attacks have happened. Iran is betting that the US preoccupation with the alarming developments between North and South Korea will tie its hands and prevent it from dealing with another crisis at the same time, and therefore will not be able to take action against Iran.
Iran’s rulers want to deliver a message that they are able to take revenge if their interests are not respected, those being the revival of the nuclear deal and sanctions relief. They also want to divert attention away from what is happening inside Iran, and what better way to do so than military operations against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states? But until that escalation comes, the situation remains the same, its bottom line being: Tehran is stunned, bogged down, and it fears falling into a strategic panic, if things continue along their current trajectory.

قائمة بأحدات اضطهاد المسيحيين في العديد من الدول خلال شهر أيلول/2022..هل تعتقد بأنك قادر على الهرب؟
ريموند إبراهيم/معهد كايتستون/06 تشرين الثاني/2022
“You Think You Can Run Away?”: The Persecution of Christians, September 2022
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/November 06/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113207/%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%85%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d8%b6%d8%b7%d9%87%d8%a7%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a%d9%8a%d9%86-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%af/
[In the video, the 36-year-old mother of three] appears naked, with both of her arms and legs cut off. One of her eyes is clearly gouged out. A severed finger appears sticking out of her mouth, and another appears to be sticking out of her private parts. The Muslim soldiers videotaping their handiwork… can be heard laughing and joking in the background. Video footage similarly showed Azerbaijani soldiers overpowering and forcing down an elderly Armenian man, who cries and implores them for mercy, as they casually carve at his throat with a knife. — Video, September 13, 2022, Azerbaijan/Armenia.
Bashir threatened the Christians: “If you continue insisting that Jesus is the Son of God, then Allah will kill all of you.” — “Bashir,” before drowning five Christians, Morningstar News, September 8, 2022, Uganda.
“There is still no breathing space for Christian communities in southern Kaduna, as terrorists, jihadists, bandits and armed herdsmen have continued to plunder and wreck Christian communities in the southern part of Kaduna” — Statement from the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union on extensive murders, saharareporters.com, September 19, 2022.
On August 10, a group of Muslims murdered five Christian missionaries who were traveling by boat on Uganda’s Lake Kyoga to a region where they hoped to found a new church. Pictured: The Masindi ferry crossing point on Lake Kyoga
The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of September 2022:
The Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Azerbaijan/Armenia: On Sept. 13, Azerbaijan launched drones, artillery, and mortars on several Armenian villages; the bombardment continued for two days. More than 100 Armenian soldiers were killed. Although widely seen as a territorial dispute between (Christian) Armenia and (Muslim) Azerbaijan, jihadist hate has long fueled the conflict. During this most recent assault, for instance, in the words of an Armenian military official, the Azerbaijanis:
“committed atrocities in our combat positions against our servicemen, including women soldiers. I cannot find words to describe how they dismembered a female soldier, cut off her legs, fingers and stripped her naked. This is unheard of cruelty.”
A video of these atrocities, made by the Azerbaijani soldiers themselves shows piles of mutilated and decapitated Armenian soldiers, including the woman in question [Note: I have the video; it has been scrubbed from the Internet]. She appears naked, with both of her arms and legs cut off. One of her eyes is clearly gouged out. A severed finger appears sticking out of her mouth, and another appears to be sticking out of her private parts. The Muslim soldiers videotaping their handiwork, which included several other mutilated and beheaded Armenian men, can be heard laughing and joking in the background.
The murdered woman was identified as “Anush Apetyan, 36, a mother of three children [who] was reportedly captured alive in Jermuk and then raped, tortured and dismembered by Azerbaijani soldiers.” The severing of this woman’s fingers is a sign that jihadist sadism fueled the mutilation. In the Koran, for example, after declaring “I will cast terror into the hearts of infidels,” Allah calls on Muslims to “strike off their heads and strike off their every fingertip” (Koran 8:12; emphasis added).
Sadly, these recent mutilations an aberration. When Azerbaijan attacked Armenia in late 2020, Muslim soldiers “tortured beyond recognition” a mentally disabled Armenian woman by hacking off her ears, hands and feet before finally executing her. Video footage similarly showed Azerbaijani soldiers overpowering and forcing down an elderly Armenian man, who cries and implores them for mercy, as they casually carve at his throat with a knife.
Mozambique: During the night of September 6-7, armed Muslim terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State stormed a Catholic mission compound in Chipene, where they set fire to the church, schools and hospitals. During the chaos, one of the nuns, Maria De Coppi, 83, was shot in the head and killed as she ran towards a burning dormitory to assist the few remaining students hiding there. She had spent 59 years serving the people of Mozambique. Three other Christians were killed during this jihad. Hours before her murder, Sister Maria had called her niece and left a voice message, describing Islamic terror attacks from days earlier:
“Hello, Gabriella, good evening. I just wanted to tell you the situation here is agonizing, it’s not good. It is very tense. Everyone here is fleeing, the people are running away. It is a very, very sad situation. Pray for us, that the Lord protects us and also these people. Goodbye, good night.”
The Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack and said they killed the nun because she had “excessively engaged in spreading Christianity.”
Uganda: Muslims drowned and killed a group of Christians. The Christians, five missionaries and their local guide, were travelling by boat to a region where they hoped to found a new church. While in the vessel, they encountered and began to talk to ten men dressed in Islamic attire. According to Amos, their Christian guide who survived,
“On our way, Tonny Ankunda [one of the missionaries] started preaching to the people on the boat, which resulted in a huge argument between Muslims and the missionaries concerning the Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of the Muslims, identified only as Bashir, threatened the Christians: “If you continue insisting that Jesus is the Son of God, then Allah will kill all of you.” When the Christians continued to debate, including by citing scriptures, Bashir exclaimed: “We are giving you one last minute to stop your blasphemy and to convert by confessing the shahada [Islamic creed], or else your lives are at risk.”
“When the five evangelists refused to renounce Christ, the Muslims seized them and pushed them off the boat one by one, Kyakulaga said. While the lake is only 4 to 5.7 meters deep, they were 200 meters from shore, and all five Christians drowned.”
Amos was released after telling the Muslims that he was not part of the team of five Christians.
In a separate murder in Uganda, a Muslim stepmother poisoned her stepdaughter for becoming a Christian. On Sept. 18, Namata Habiba, 23, attended a church service at the invitation of a friend. There, she put her faith in Christ. On returning home that night, her stepmother inquired as to why she had returned so late. Namata, according to the friend who accompanied her home, confessed the truth, at which point the stepmother stopped talking. She continued preparing supper for the two Christian women and retired for the night. The friend, whose name is withheld for security reasons, refrained from eating, as she was fasting, but Namata ate. Within minutes, she became very ill and began to vomit. Her friend began yelling for the stepmother, but she was nowhere to be found. Due to the ruckus, neighbors came to the house, and helped rush Namata to a local hospital. Despite treatment, she died. A postmortem revealed that she had died by ingesting rat poison. Namata leaves behind a 3-year-old child, whose Muslim father had promised but apparently failed to make Namata his second wife.
Nigeria: Some of the genocidal assaults on the West African nation’s Christian population throughout the month of September, 2022, follow:
On Sept. 1, Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed six Christians in central Nigeria. “Some of the victims were shot, while others were attacked with machetes,” a local said.
On Sunday, Sept. 11, Muslim herdsmen killed a Christian security guard after abducting a pastor and wounding his wife. In the words of an area resident,
“The gunmen stormed the RCC [Regional Church Council] chairman’s residence, at about 10 p.m., shot and wounded the pastor’s wife, and killed one James Ngyang, a member of the church and security church worker, before they forcefully took away the pastor at gunpoint.”
On Sept. 12, the gunmen contacted the pastor’s family and demanded 20 million naira ($46,650) for his release.
On Sunday Sept. 18, Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed three Christians during a raid on a Christian village in Benue state, “after slaughtering at least 22 others in the same area in the past three weeks.”
Three days later, on Sept. 21, more machete-wielding Muslim herdsmen massacred 15 Christians in midnight raids on two Christian villages.
Two days after that, on Sept. 23, Fulani raided six predominantly Christian villages in the same region of Benue state. “These attacks by the herdsmen have left dozens of Christians dead and several more with gunshot injuries and machete attack wounds,” area resident Ukan Kurugh said of this last attack. Similarly, the Rev. Akpen Leva, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Benue State Chapter, added in a press statement that attacks against Christians “have been ceaseless”:
“Armed herdsmen and terrorists have not stopped their unprovoked attacks on Christians in Benue state. These attacks are aimed at killing defenseless Christians and to force them out of their communities.”
In another targeted attack, machete-wielding Muslims hacked to death a 28-year-old Christian man, Samaila Sabo Awudu, who had recently graduated university with a biochemistry degree. According to his brother,
“We were told by some of his colleagues, corps members, that a group of five armed Muslims attacked him when they broke into his residence at the NYSC lodge in Yola and cut him with machetes. He was taken by police officers who went there to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, where he died.”
Before being hacked to death, Samaila was described as a committed churchgoer who had “lived an exemplary life, worthy of emulation,” said a pastor during his eulogy.
On Sept. 17, during an all-night prayer vigil inside the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Suleja, Niger state, Muslim Fulani herdsmen broke in and abducted dozens of Christians, including the pastor. Less than a week earlier, 60 other Christians were abducted from the same denomination in another region of the country. As of the last report, the terrorists had demanded exorbitant ransoms for some of the kidnapped. Responding to these and other attacks, a statement from the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union said,
“There is still no breathing space for Christian communities in southern Kaduna, as terrorists, jihadists, bandits and armed herdsmen have continued to plunder and wreck Christian communities in the southern part of Kaduna state.”
On the evening of Sunday, Sept. 4 gunmen kidnapped dozens of Christians, including Steven Bala, the pastor’s son, who was taking care of a prayer house.
Muslim Attacks on Apostates
Australia: The family of two related Muslim women who had converted to Christianity and fled what police described as an environment of “strict religious and cultural beliefs,” abducted and tortured the women, following a plot that required a “significant effort to orchestrate.” After locating their new residence in Melbourne, the mother, brother, and cousin of one of the women broke in and waited for the women while they were away. Then, according to the Sept. 16 report,
“As the women returned home later that evening, the cousin grabbed one of them from behind, covered her mouth and held a knife to her neck. Another relative grabbed the other woman by the hair, pulled her to the ground and held the other knife to her stomach, allegedly telling her: ‘You bitch, you think you can run away from home? I have a knife in my hand. Don’t move, don’t scream.’ At one point during the ordeal, the cousin allegedly ripped a gold cross necklace from around the neck of one of the women, who had converted from Islam to Christianity. The women were then bound, gagged, forced into the back of a car and driven back to Sydney, their wrists and mouths concealed by coats and face masks. Meanwhile, the father of one of the women drove a truck to Victoria and cleared the home of their belongings.”
Luckily for the kidnapped apostates, their ordeal, which began in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, “ended in western Sydney with police intercepting a car and freeing the women.” Four of their Muslim relatives—three men and one woman whose identities were not revealed—were charged with kidnapping and assault.
Libya: A Libyan court sentenced a young man to death for “apostasy from Islam.” According to the Libyan al-Jumhiriyah channel, the verdict was issued against a man named Diya’ al-Din Bil’awa, who graduated from the College of Information Technology in 2018. Diya’ was also described as a hafiz—one who had memorized the entire Koran—suggesting that he was a member of the Islamic clerical class, making his apostasy all the more scandalous. According to the report, sometime in 2019, Diya’ was asked to retract his apostasy and rejoin the fold of Islam, but he refused to do so. The apostasy law cited in the report was established in Libya’s penal code after the “Arab Spring” overthrow of Muamar Gaddafi, when “We [the U.S.] came, we saw, he died,” to quote then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Kenya: Muslim family members beat a Somali pastor of an underground fellowship, as well as his wife and child, for leaving Islam. Weeks after he had received medical attention, the 33-year-old pastor (name withheld for security) developed a serious infection in his hand, where his father-in-law had beat him with a thorny stick. “This is a curse from Allah—if you return to Islam, then Allah will heal you,” local Muslims later told him. “The thorny stick used to hit part of my hand and shoulder could have been a poisonous one,” he believes, and one doctor has suggested amputation. “At the moment, that part of my hand is numb and the veins are inactive.” Meanwhile:
“All these three weeks while I’ve been sick, they have been pressuring my wife to divorce me and return to Islam. But my wife has stood with me. We really need prayers so that God will miraculously heal me and get me out of the hospital.”
His wife’s loyal perseverance has come at a price: “Two Muslim women stopped me while coming from the market near our house and slapped me and caused some bruises on my face,” she said. “When I screamed, they ran away.” Even the first of their four children, who is 8-years-old, was beaten by boys of Somali descent and received hospital treatment for injuries.
Uganda: A Muslim mob beat and destroyed the home of a Muslim father of four—aged 5, 8, 10, and 12—on learning that he had become a Christian. On Sept 9, Muslims approached the home of 38-year-old Musa Wabwire. Once they had confirmed he had become a Christian, and in Musa’s own words,
“[T]hey all got annoyed and flooded into my home and asked me many questions, which I failed to answer. I only told them to take their money box [he used to serve as the local mosque’s treasurer], and that I be left with Christ, who was enough for me. They became so angry and started beating me up while shouting, ‘Kafir, Kafir [infidel]!'”
According to the report, “When he declined to renounce Christ, they flogged him 40 lashes with sticks.” Musa’s older brother, an imam in a nearby village, ordered the destruction of his home and crops. “My belongings were thrown out in the rain and got all wet,” Musa said. “My brothers said that I should not be killed but instead leave the homestead.”
Separately, a Muslim man beat and abandoned his wife after he learned that she had become Christian. On Sept. 10, Falida Nazziwa, 42, attended an all-night prayer vigil at a local church. She had expected her husband to return late on the following day, but he returned on the morning of Sept. 11—just as the secret convert was returning home from church. According to her,
“In the morning as I went back home, I found my husband very furious on the compound, and he asked about where I slept. I told him the truth that I had gone for an overnight prayer in the church. After hearing the words ‘overnight prayer,’ he just jumped on my neck shouting, ‘Prayers, not in my house,’ and started beating and strangling me while shouting, ‘Allah akbar [Allah is the greatest]! Kafir, kafir [infidel]!'”
Some people who heard her cries rushed to rescue her, and she and her two younger children managed to escape her husband. She received treatment at a medical clinic and has since taken refuge at an undisclosed location.
In yet another incident in Uganda, on Sept.16, Muslims attacked Shadia Namuzungu, a 52-year-old mother, two days after she put her faith in Christ following what she described as a miraculous healing. When an imam confronted her about her healing and conversion, and she told him of her experiences, the “imam was left in disbelief and left without uttering a word,” Shadia said. “But the following day, he returned with six other Muslims. Four of them started to destroy my crops, killed my sheep and began to pull down my house.” Other Muslims beat her with sticks, kicked, and slapped her. They fled when neighbors began to arrive. According to one of her neighbors, “Shadia started to faint. She had deep injuries on her back, both hands, stomach, legs and had swollen eyes.” After being hospitalized for several days she was still unable to walk.
General Muslim Hostility for Christians
Egypt: On Sept. 12, a Cairo appeals court confirmed a five-year prison sentence (with hard labor) for a young Christian man, Marco Guirguis Shehata, charged with “deriding Islam.” The accusation is based on “evidence” found on his smartphone, which Marco had said was stolen at the time. His father, a modest iron smith, in Kena, north of Luxor, and his entire family were reported as being “devastated” by the extremely harsh sentence.
Indonesia: On Sept. 15, a police general currently serving a jail sentence for corruption was handed another criminal conviction, as well as an additional five-and-a-half months prison time, for assaulting a former Muslim cleric who had converted to Christianity. The incident occurred in 2021, when Muhammad Kosman was being detained at the National Police detention facility in Jakarta on the charge of blasphemy. Then, Napoleon entered into his cell with a plastic bag full of human feces and violently smeared it over Muhammad’s face. Napoleon confessed to the incident during his hearing, before adding:
“Anyone can insult me, but not against my Allah, the Quran, the Prophet and my Islamic faith. Therefore, I swear I will take any measured action against anyone who dares to do so.”
Turkey: A young Muslim man claiming to be connected to the ultra-nationalist group made threats of murder to a Protestant church located in Malatya province—the same province where three Christian missionaries were tortured to death in 2007. According to the man, the Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-terror Unit (JITEM) approached him with addresses and photos of church members, and told him “if you kill them, we will give you whatever you want.” According to the Sept. 8 report, they then “gave him a gun and sent him to the church with a friend, but when they saw a little boy playing with a computer inside, they came back.” Although the threat was averted, and the church provided with governmental protection, the report points out that,
“Malatya is notorious for a hideous murder of Christians who belonged to the Salvation Church of which Serin [one of the Christians threatened] is a member. Two Turkish converts from Islam and a German citizen were attacked, tortured and murdered in a publishing house by five ultranationalists assailants on April 18, 2007. The murders became known as the missionary massacres in the Turkish media. After the killings, the publishing house was shut down and some Christians left the city or Turkey.”
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19081/persecution-of-christians-september
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The world must not look away as Iranian militias stand ready to kill protesters
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Arab News/November 06/2022
The Iranian state had hoped it could outlast the protests that began in mid-September following the death of a young woman while in the custody of the morality police. Their bet has not paid off. The protests have only become more numerous and courageous than ever. They are growing, not shrinking.
Iran’s young people, and its women in particular, are beginning to see the contours of a possible new world. They have faced down threats and hundreds of their number have been killed by the authorities — but they remain undaunted.
It appears that Iran’s elderly clerical elite, and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, believe the time has come to become significantly more brutal. This process began with a warning.
Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the IRGC, said last Saturday that it would be the “last day” of what he described as “riots.” Separately, photographs began to circulate of IRGC officers on rooftops in key cities, armed with sniper rifles, ready to pick off “enemies of the state.”
The parallels with the past were unmistakable. What will come next is almost certainly inevitable.
In the past decade, the Iranian regime has deployed snipers, and ordinary thugs, to kill protesters across the Middle East.
It did so at home during the 2009 protests that followed the stolen presidential election that year. It did so again in 2019 when major demonstrations broke out in protest against harsh economic conditions.
And it has done so abroad, most notably in Iraq, where an abashed Iraqi prime minister once had to admit that the snipers who had shot Iraqi youths while they demonstrated in Baghdad and Basra were known to the Iraqi state but were not its own soldiers. They were members of Iranian militias.
What is likely to come next will be awful but it is nothing compared to the courage of the protesters.
New reports reveal the continuum in policy between these incidents to be even more stark. News website Iran International reported that Iran’s Iraqi militias have begun to move into Iran itself, with the intention of helping to suppress the protesting youths. Up to 150 armed men, it said, have flown to Tehran from Baghdad.
It said they are members of Hashd Al-Shaabi, otherwise known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, a network of militias raised to fight Daesh that is dominated by Iranian-controlled, IRGC-led armed groups, and Kataib Hezbollah, an especially prominent and violent Iranian militia inside Iraq. The origins of these militias lie in the regional policy of the IRGC. They are commanded by Iranian officers and employ Iranian regime assets on the battlefield.
The movement of such forces to Iran proper is a potent signal of what is happening: The regime’s foreign assets are being brought in to aid the state that sponsors them and underwrites their history of violence.
These groups have been involved in the repression of protests before. They perfected their cruel tactics in Iraq and Syria. They intimidate those they can scare off and target civil society leaders for assassination.
Many young Iraqis did not imagine they might be murdered when they took to the barricades in Basra and Baghdad in 2020 but the militias had other ideas. Their men are primed to kill dissenters and demonstrators who oppose the Iranian regime’s wider regional policy. Inside Iran, they will not hesitate to do the same at the behest of the supreme leader.
The protests in Iran stand at the edge of a precipice. The regime has begun to see them not as a mere phase but as an existential threat to its survival. It has made the necessary threats; now the violence will come.
This will not be easy to endure. Hundreds of demonstrators have already been killed but more death is sadly on its way. The militiamen are not being deployed in Iran to intimidate; they were likely brought to the country to kill.
The world must understand this before it begins to happen. There will be violence and in the chaos and haze of mass protest it might be easy to ignore or forget it. It will take time for the stories of events to be disentangled and the facts to be established. But we outside of Iran must prepare ourselves to see through the regime’s propaganda and lies.
It is gearing up for significant violence. It is the duty of observers not to look away — and to ensure that when the time comes, Iran’s leaders pay for the crimes they are preparing to commit in what might be a doomed bid to remain in power.
This is what the protesters in Iran are up against: The violent nature of a regime they wish to defy. What is likely to come next will be awful but it is nothing compared to the courage of the protesters. The rest of the world should try to show more of the same.
• Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is the director of special initiatives at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington D.C. and the author of “The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Genocide” (Hurst, 2017). Twitter: @AzeemIbrahim

Algiers summit fails to paper over the cracks in Arab unity
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/November 06/2022
The 31st Arab League summit concluded in Algiers this week in a manner expected of a hopeless gathering strangely touted as a great reunion of the Arab world after a two-year hiatus.
There was little expectation that this year’s convention would defy the odds and become an avenue for decisive or transformative shifts, let alone much-needed bridge-building in an increasingly uncertain, discordant world.
It did manage, however, to slightly elevate Algiers’ status in the region, as a less vulnerable leadership seeks to capitalize on the flurry of attention for its energy resources from Europe given the war in Ukraine.
Algiers’ push to further Arab unity sounds good on paper. However, trying to do so with this summit would buck a decades-long trend of Arab governments using the gathering mostly to outline disagreements rather than seeking common ground and making consequential decisions in pursuit of shared goals. Thus, turning this new attention into assertive foreign policy and a launch pad for forceful interventions remains easier said than done, given widening rifts, worsening tensions, resurgent conflict and instability across the Arab region.
After all, most league members are facing food crises, rampant inflation and shortages, with as many as 141 million people, roughly a quarter of the Arab world’s population, exposed to food insecurity.
Worsening effects of climate change, of which this region suffers disproportionate impacts, are also exacerbating water insecurity in the world’s most arid region.
In other words, only a few Arab states are not teetering on the brink of economic turmoil, widespread unrest or total collapse, unlike those that are still dependent on increasingly costly imports due to a lack of domestic capacities for self-sufficiency, particularly in agriculture and energy production.
Arab leadership does recognize that the spirit of individualism that undergirds Arab cooperation today is hampering efforts to establish comprehensive frameworks, strategies and policies to transform joint dialogue into joint deeds.
Meanwhile, the accelerating climate fight will also add more pressure on those countries already struggling to transition to renewables without contributing further to unemployment or sidelining the private sector, while also drastically shrinking the public sector.
All eyes will be on Tunisia and Egypt as they try to navigate this quandary with some help from the International Monetary Fund.
It is times like these that the Arab League and similar regional conventions or bodies must step up to, for instance, reorganize channels for grain supplies and stocks, redesign energy routes, integrate electricity grids and adopt effective region-wide water resource management practices.
Instead, much of the discourse before and during the gathering centered around Palestine — an unexorcisable core of the league itself, which has tragically devolved into a major obstacle in the furtherance of Arab unity, joint action and steadfast cooperation.
Granted, Algiers did manage to eke out a reconciliation among 14 Palestinian factions last month, a promising start.
In addition, most dignitaries rightly agree that resolving the Palestinian crisis is pivotal to the region. However, there is a sharp divide on exactly how that can be achieved.
On Palestine, this summit kept up with the usual tradition of issuing non-actionable, non-binding statements, and it is unlikely future gatherings will offer anything more than rhetorical support.
Furthermore, the region remains divided on the question of Syria’s return to the league, with Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia pushing for its reinstatement, while other countries remain hesitant, believing it a step too far in Syria’s inevitable rehabilitation. Meanwhile, tensions are brewing between Algeria, the host of the 31st summit, and Egypt, where the Arab League’s headquarters are located, over the crisis in Libya and the strengthening of Algerian-Ethiopian ties.
Algiers moving to reassert itself diplomatically on the African continent is mostly guided by its rivalry with Morocco for continental hegemony.
However, when such moves result in boosting cooperation and engagement with Ethiopia, which is currently mired in a dispute with Cairo concerning the fill rate of the Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile, it risks eroding Egypt-Algeria bilateral ties at an inopportune time. Both Algiers and Cairo will need to coordinate their efforts in Libya in order not to imperil any regional mediation efforts to unify the country’s competing governments, and permanently defuse the powder keg on their borders.
For now, delegates appeared content with merely treading water.
Adopting the Algiers Declaration simply glosses over the region’s crippling divisions, heightened tensions and inevitable dysfunction that neuter repeated calls for joint action to address mounting regional challenges or any efforts to elevate Arab interests in an increasingly multipolar world.
The declaration complements a ministerial conference held in September, where participating foreign ministers could muster only paperweight resolutions on Palestine, Syria, Yemen and Libya, as well as the usual finger-wagging castigations of encroachments by Turkey and Iran in some Arab states.
Precisely what that joint action is, and who will initiate, police and cooperate with it are conversations that will likely never happen — despite the risks posed by geopolitical frictions threatening to unravel the global order, regional fragmentation and mounting domestic woes, all of which imperil long-term Arab security, prosperity and stability.
The withering reality across the Arab world is simply that there is no appetite for or political capital to spend on fostering the naive idealism of a nebulous Arab unity when the realpolitik of pursuing national interests delivers better dividends.
In fact, the league itself is still unsure of whether it intends to be an autonomous entity, disentangled from the squabbles between great powers, or persist with a dated, Cold War-esque mentality that splits the world into two distinct East-West halves and doggedly aligning with one.
Talk of reforms remains just that — talk. Clearly, Arab leadership does recognize that the spirit of individualism that undergirds Arab cooperation today is hampering efforts to establish comprehensive frameworks, strategies and policies to transform joint dialogue into joint deeds. The jury is out on whether the path to reform lies in member states undergoing sociopolitical developments of their own or with the league itself changing with the times, particularly its decision-making processes that often require unanimous consent.
More importantly, merely stressing the importance of joint efforts to safeguard Arab common interests also will not be enough to convince an overwhelming majority of the Arab public of the league’s enduring relevance. To the region’s youth, the league is a relic from an unfamiliar past that has failed to advance joint Arab action over decades or strengthen a united Arab voice on the international stage. It has only ever served to burnish the host nation’s regional credentials, while offering a stage for platforming grievances, choreographed outrage and performative stunts.Dialogue triumphing over discord? Not in our lifetime.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a Senior Fellow and Executive Director of the Ibn Khaldun Strategic Initiative (IKSI) at the Foreign Policy Institute (FPI) of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC and the former Advisor to the Dean of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank Group.

‘Lost generation’ of Syrians in Jordan share bittersweet feelings amid return home
Raed Omari/Arab News/November 06/2022
According to official figures, a total of 3,325 Syrian refugees have returned to their war-torn country from Jordan over the past nine months
AMMAN: Shadi, a Syrian refugee in Jordan, is pleased to have the opportunity to return to his homeland, but is afraid of facing prosecution or conscription upon arrival.
Preferred to be referred to only by his first name, Shadi said that he arrived in Jordan with his family in 2013 during the climax of the civil war in Syria. e now works as a barber at a men’s salon in Amman, where the 26-year-old said that he makes “considerably good money” to provide for his family.
Speaking to Arab News, Shadi said that he “belongs to a lost generation.” e added: “I’m torn between Syria, my roots, and Jordan, where I grew up. I came to Jordan when I was 17 and here is where my life started to take shape.”
Now, against all odds, Shadi said that he wants to return to Syria, but is afraid that he would face military conscription or prosecution if he carries out his plan.
“I really wish I could go back to Syria. We have heard that Damascus, where we came from, is enjoying good stability and normalcy. But all young men who returned, and I know many of them, were forced to enlist in the army or faced prosecution, most of it in form of revenge for leaving the country.”
Shadi said that he could have made it to Germany like thousands of other Syrians, or to Canada through a UNHCR-administrated program, but that he and his family preferred to stay in Jordan.
“Here (in Jordan) we feel more at home.”
According to official figures, a total of 3,325 Syrian refugees have returned to their war-torn country from Jordan over the past nine months. rom 2016 until the end of September this year, a total of 341,500 Syrian refugees have returned to Syria, of whom 64,278 came from Jordan, UNHCR said. The UN refugee agency has announced the return of 38,379 refugees to Syria from Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt in the past nine months. The numbers for returnees to Syria are those that have been verified or monitored by UNHCR and do not reflect the full number of returnees, which may be much higher,” UNHCR said in a statement. ordan says it is providing refuge to about 1.3 million Syrians, including some 670,000 people officially registered with the UNHCR as refugees, making the kingdom the world’s second biggest host of Syrian refugees per capita behind Lebanon. Turkey has accepted 3.6 million Syrian refugees, and Lebanon almost 1 million, according to the organization. Jordan hosts two camps near the Syrian border: Zaatari camp, the largest in the Middle East, as well as Azraq camp. But most Syrians in Jordan live in cities and urban centers, where work in certain industries is lucrative. ast year in Jordan, “a record 62,000 work permits were issued to Syrians,” the UNHCR said, amounting to “the highest annual number since work permits for Syrian refugees were introduced.”Syrian refugees have been allowed to work in several sectors in Jordan since 2016, after donor countries pledged funding and expanded trade facilitation to the kingdom under the Jordan Response Plan for the Syria Crisis (JRP).
Budget deficits
Jordan said that funding for the JRP reached just $235 million, or 10.3 percent of targets, during the first half of 2022. he Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation has said that the JRP’s total funding requirements stand at $2.28 billion. The plan remains largely unfunded, with a $2.04 billion deficit, or 89.7 percent of the total amount of the required financing,” the ministry said in a statement run by Jordan’s official news agency, Petra. he ministry added that $83.4 million went toward supporting Syrian refugees from the $235 million secured from international donors, while about $60 million was provided to host communities. n 2021, $744.4 million, or 30.6 percent of the JRP, was funded, according to the ministry, with a $1.68 billion deficit remaining. NHCR Jordan also said that it was suffering a budget deficit — $24 million — preventing it from carrying out humanitarian programs for Syrian refugees in the kingdom.
The UN relief agency said in a report in August that this year’s lack of funding will affect services for Syrian refugees and also Jordan’s host communities.
It added that only about 42 percent of its financial requirements in Jordan for 2022 had been received until Oct. 25.
In recent remarks to the government-owned Al-Mamlakah TV, UNHCR Jordan spokesperson Mishaal Al-Fayez said that the kingdom has received no funding for the winter assistance program.
He added that the UNHCR needs $46 million to provide 120,000 refugee families in Jordan winter cash assistance, stressing that the organization is in contact with donors to find a way to meet funding needs.
According to a recent UNHCR Jordan Vulnerability Assessment Report, the average Syrian refugee in Jordan owes 343.1 Jordanian dinars ($483) in debt.
In an article carrying a tone of dismay, Jordanian political analyst and economist Issam Qadamani recently criticized the international community and donor countries for “not honoring their pledges and leaving resource-poor host countries, like Jordan and Lebanon, handling the refugee dilemma alone.”
Qadamani said that the international community’s rhetoric on refugees has changed from emphasizing voluntary return to promoting resettlement. The international community has changed course and only talks about resettlement of refugees, and was always weak in financing their costs on host countries,” he warned. ommenting on concerns over demographic changes in host countries, Qadamani said that Lebanon has already launched plans to send Syrian refugees back home despite international pressure. Resettlement of refugees in Jordan is also unacceptable due to the kingdom’s limited resources and economic woes.”With Jordan “receiving only words” from the international community and with assistance from outside the kingdom failing to exceed 10 percent of required funding targets, Qadamani said that Jordan must “put in place plans to send refugees back to Syria in regions enjoying stability.”He added: “And in case the return of refugees is not an option, the international community is required to carry the burdens and take in the refugees, but not in a selective and ‘racist’ manner as it did with the Ukrainians.”

Biden administration needs a firmer policy against Iranian regime
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 06/2022
The Iranian regime has escalated its military adventurism and belligerence in the region. And as long as the Biden administration does not take a firmer stance toward the theocratic establishment, the Islamic Republic’s destructive behavior will only increase.
For instance, the US recently warned that there is concern about Iran posing a threat to Saudi Arabia. The National Security Council pointed out in a statement last week: “We are concerned about the threat picture, and we remain in constant contact through military and intelligence channels with the Saudis. We will not hesitate to act in the defense of our interests and partners in the region.”
It is critical to point out that the Iranian regime often deploys its proxies and militia groups to target other nations. One of Tehran’s staunchest allies, the Houthis, has repeatedly targeted Saudi Arabia. For example, in May last year, the terror group launched an explosive-laden drone toward a military airbase in the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait. It also claimed responsibility for the 2019 attacks on two Aramco plants located in the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry — the world's biggest oil processing facility at Abqaiq, near Dammam, and the country’s second-largest oilfield at Khurais. More than 40 drones and missiles were reportedly launched by the Houthis at Saudi Arabia in February 2021 alone.
The Iranian-backed militia group has also attacked the UAE. In January this year, the Houthis launched a military attack on Abu Dhabi, blowing up three oil tanker trucks and killing three people. The group, which, according to a Yemeni government intelligence report, “works closely” with Al Qaeda and Daesh, also seemingly commits crimes against humanity. It has reportedly killed and injured more than 17,500 civilians since 2015 — and it recruits, injures and kills children.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration has granted a crucial concession to the Houthis despite evidence that the Iranian regime was delivering sophisticated weapons to the group. In January 2021, the White House suspended some of the anti-terrorism sanctions on the Houthis and soon after revoked the designation of the militia as a terrorist group.
This appeasement policy was, of course, a significant victory for the Iranian leaders, but it came at a huge cost for countries such as Saudi Arabia, which is the main target of the Houthis’ rocket and drone attacks. In fact, just two days after removing the Houthis from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the State Department had to call on the Houthis to “immediately cease attacks impacting civilian areas inside Saudi Arabia and to halt any new military offensives inside Yemen.”
The US’ appeasement policy came at a huge cost for countries such as Saudi Arabia.
By removing Iran’s proxy from the terrorist list and cutting off US support to efforts to confront the militia group, the Biden administration emboldened the Iranian regime, which in turn ratcheted up the smuggling and delivery of weapons to the militia.
The UAE this year urged the US administration to reinstate the terrorist designation, but the Biden administration has yet to take strong action. By not redesignating the Houthis as a terrorist organization, the US is allowing the Iranian regime to become more empowered to escalate its threats and increase its influence in other countries in the region through its militia and terror groups. And in the meantime, the Houthis are fortunate to have the Tehran regime as such a powerful ally, since their Iranian backers will not let them run out of ammunition. The sophisticated drones and missiles that the Houthis use most likely come from Iran, which has recognized the terror group as the official government of Yemen.
The Biden administration ought to recognize the fact that, since 1979, the Iranian regime has been perfecting its strategies for infringing on the sovereignty of foreign nations. It exerts influence and interferes in other countries’ domestic affairs in order to advance its political, revolutionary and ideological interests.
In other words, Iran is governed by a revolutionary regime whose Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have prioritized the regime’s fundamentalist ideology over other interests for more than four decades. As a result, soft and appeasement policies are not going to alter the core pillars and revolutionary principles of the Islamic Republic. The political establishment of ruling clerics has always been incompatible with the standards, rules and laws of the international community.
The Biden administration should not view the Iranian regime only through the prism of the nuclear deal and its revival. The US must adopt a firmer policy to counter the regime’s increasing military adventurism, threats to other countries in the region and its destructive behavior at home and abroad.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.