English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 12/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.
John 15/18-21: “‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants are not greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”

Question: “What does the Bible say about a Christian serving in the military?”
GotQuestions.org?/Friday, 11 November, 2022
Answer: The Bible contains plenty of information about serving in the military. While many of the Bible’s references to the military are only analogies, several verses directly relate to this question. The Bible does not specifically state whether or not someone should serve in the military. At the same time, Christians can rest assured that being a soldier is highly respected throughout the Scriptures and know that such service is consistent with a biblical worldview. The first example of military service is found in the Old Testament (Genesis 14), when Abraham’s nephew Lot was kidnapped by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and his allies. Abraham rallied to Lot’s aid by gathering 318 trained men of his household and defeating the Elamites. Here we see armed forces engaged in a noble task—rescuing and protecting the innocent.
Late in its history, the nation of Israel developed a standing army. The sense that God was the Divine Warrior and would protect His people regardless of their military strength may have been a reason why Israel was slow to develop an army. The development of a regular standing army in Israel came only after a strong, centralized political system had been developed by Saul, David, and Solomon. Saul was the first to form a permanent army (1 Samuel 13:2; 24:2; 26:2).
What Saul began, David continued. He increased the army, brought in hired troops from other regions who were loyal to him alone (2 Samuel 15:19-22) and turned over the direct leadership of his armies to a commander-in-chief, Joab. Under David, Israel also became more aggressive in its offensive military policies, absorbing neighboring states like Ammon (2 Samuel 11:1; 1 Chronicles 20:1-3). David established a system of rotating troops with twelve groups of 24,000 men serving one month of the year (1 Chronicles 27). Although Solomon’s reign was peaceful, he further expanded the army, adding chariots and horsemen (1 Kings 10:26). The standing army continued (though divided along with the kingdom after the death of Solomon) until 586 B.C., when Israel (Judah) ceased to exist as a political entity. In the New Testament, Jesus marveled when a Roman centurion (an officer in charge of one hundred soldiers) approached Him. The centurion’s response to Jesus indicated his clear understanding of authority, as well as his faith in Jesus (Matthew 8:5-13). Jesus did not denounce his career. Many centurions mentioned in the New Testament are praised as Christians, God-fearers, and men of good character (Matthew 8:5; 27:54; Mark 15:39-45; Luke 7:2; 23:47; Acts 10:1; 21:32; 28:16).
The places and the titles may have changed, but our armed forces should be just as valued as the centurions of the Bible. The position of soldier was highly respected. For example, Paul describes Epaphroditus, a fellow Christian, as a “fellow soldier” (Philippians 2:25). The Bible also uses military terms to describe being strong in the Lord by putting on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), including the tools of the soldier—helmet, shield, and sword.
Yes, the Bible does address serving in the military, directly and indirectly. The Christian men and women who serve their country with character, dignity, and honor can rest assured that the civic duty they perform is condoned and respected by our sovereign God. Those who honorably serve in the military deserve our respect and gratitude.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November11-12/2022
Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops to call for national dialogue in Lebanon
Mikati shelves Iranian fuel grant after 'US warning'
Raad says Hezbollah wants president who 'won't stab resistance in back'
Opposition closes ranks to reject Berri's call for legislative session
'Extreme hardship' looms for displaced this winter in Lebanon, Mideast
Reports: New president to be elected this year
Sayyed Nasrallah: USA Responsible for Lebanon’s Curses-Israeli Aggression, Takfiri Scheme. Economic Siege, Political Chaos
Amid crisis, Hezbollah seeks ally in next Lebanese president

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November11-12/2022
Israel Determined to Strike Iranian Weapons in Syria
Netanyahu to receive mandate to form government Sunday
Iran Hypersonic Missile Claim Raises Nuclear Watchdog Concern
UK summons Iranian diplomat over threats to journalists
Iran accuses West of helping protesters make weapons
Iran Sets up Meeting on IAEA Inquiry as Diplomatic Clash Looms
Countries request U.N. human rights debate on Iran - document
Iranians protest in southeast flashpoint, mark 'Bloody Friday'
Ukraine war's environmental toll to take years to clean up Russia Ukraine War
Russia says it has completed Kherson withdrawal
New damage to major dam near Kherson after Russian retreat -Maxar satellite
Germany's Scholz promises more air defence help to Ukraine
Russia and US to Hold First Nuclear Talks Since Ukraine War
US Election: Trump Tears into Rising Republican Rival DeSantis
Al-Sudani Cancels Security Checks in Iraqi Provinces Liberated from ISIS

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November11-12/2022
Breaking The Crosses' And Other Ills
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 427/November 10.2022
The Dangerous Nexus: Russia and Iran’s Mullahs/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/November 11/2022
Why Australia Is Gearing Up for Possible War With China/Hal Brands/Bloomberg/November, 11/2022
Iran: Looking for a Booted Saviour/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 11/2022
Strong institutions key to ending Iran’s influence in Iraq/Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/November 11, 2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November11-12/2022
Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops to call for national dialogue in Lebanon
Naharnet/Fri, November 11, 2022.
The Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon on Friday announced that it will seek a national dialogue in the country, as it stressed that the election of a president remains the top priority. “There is no priority that is higher than the priority of electing a president and we call on MPs to elect a president immediately,” the Council said in a statement that followed a meeting. “Without a president, there can be no protecting for the constitution, no supervision over the regularity of the work of state institutions, no separation of powers and no exit from the political, economic and financial paralysis, seeing as without a president the state plunges into total paralysis,” the Council warned. It also revealed that it is working on a plan under which a “truth and reconciliation commission” would be appointed to “communicate with all Lebanese religious, political and civilian parties to pave the way for calling for dialogue.”“We call for a real dialogue and reconciliation has become an urgent necessity, because Lebanon is passing through the most dangerous phase of its political, economic, financial and social history,” the Council added.

Mikati shelves Iranian fuel grant after 'US warning'
Naharnet
/Fri, November 11, 2022.
The reports about a U.S. warning against bringing Iranian oil into Lebanon were confirmed after caretaker PM Najib Mikati met with visiting USAID chief Samantha Power in the presence of U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea, ad-Diyar newspaper said on Friday. “During the meeting, Mikati was informed that the U.S. considers all Iranian oil as subject to sanctions, and that’s why he has in principle decided to shelve the grant if there won’t be an exemption from the U.S. Treasury similarly to what’s happening with Iraq,” the daily added. Quoting informed sources, ad-Diyar said Mikati will not focus on the negotiations with Algeria that are aimed at allowing Electricite du Liban to purchase large quantities of fuel that would allow for raising power supply to 10 hours daily. “And as the central bank continues to reject to cover any spending without a law from parliament that would authorize a $300 million loan for EDL, he (Mikati) will meet with Speaker Nabih Berri over the next two days to reach a decision over this point,” the newspaper added.

Raad says Hezbollah wants president who 'won't stab resistance in back'
Naharnet
/Fri, November 11, 2022.
The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, said Thursday that his party wants a new Lebanese president who would not “stab the resistance in its back.”“Let us elect a president. If we want him to protect national sovereignty and preserve his constitutional oath and the interest of the Lebanese, let us agree on a president who would not be a confrontational president,” Raad urged. “We want a president who would not challenge anyone. We want him to know the value of martyrs and the importance of the resistance in preserving Lebanon’s sovereignty and protecting it. His decision must be sovereign and he must not bow to pressures to stab the resistance in its back,” the lawmaker said.

Opposition closes ranks to reject Berri's call for legislative session
Naharnet
/Fri, November 11, 2022.
The opposition parliamentary blocs are mobilizing to confront what they consider a violation of the constitution as Speaker Nabih Berri prepares to call for a legislative session amid a presidential vacuum, a media report said on Friday.
Berri will schedule the session within two weeks, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported. “This has created a constitutional debate between those who consider that the priority today is for the election of a president and those who are talking about the ‘legislation of necessary,’” the daily said. Sources close to Berri meanwhile told the newspaper that “there are important and necessary laws that cannot wait.” “Opposition blocs and MPs, who comprise around 50 lawmakers, are meanwhile intensifying their communication to unify the stance over rejecting the attendance of the legislative session, most notably the Lebanese Forces party and the Kataeb Party,” Asharq al-Awsat said.

'Extreme hardship' looms for displaced this winter in Lebanon, Mideast
Agence France Presse
/Fri, November 11, 2022.
The United Nations Friday cautioned that millions of people displaced by conflicts and persecution in the Middle East risk "extreme hardship" as winter approaches. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said there was a dire need for more funds to support many displaced people at a time when the coming northern hemisphere winter is expected to be "far more challenging than in recent years". The UN agency warned that an estimated 3.4 million Syrians and Iraqis displaced within their conflict-torn countries or in the surrounding region will need "critical assistance to prepare for and cope with winter". "Across the Middle East, many displaced Syrians and Iraqis will have to contend with extreme cold and snowstorms once again," Sarrado said, pointing out that "this will be the 12th consecutive winter in displacement for many". The situation is particularly dire in Lebanon, in the grips of a severe economic crisis, where nine out of 10 Syrian refugees are already living in extreme poverty, UNHCR warned. At the same time, Sarrado warned that there was a significant funding shortfall to address the swelling needs, adding that UNHCR was launching a winter fundraiser to bridge the gaps. The agency, she said, has estimated that it will need $400 million to help displaced people in Ukraine, Afghanistan and the Middle East "meet their most urgent needs during the coldest months of the year".

Reports: New president to be elected this year
Naharnet
/Fri, November 11, 2022.
Despite the total deadlock in the presidential election process, a breakthrough is still possible within two months, informed sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Friday. MP Marwan Hamadeh of the Democratic Gathering bloc also told al-Jadeed TV on Friday that, according to information he has, the presidential election will not be delayed beyond this year. Lebanon's divided parliament on Thursday failed to elect a new president for the fifth time, with the post vacant since the mandate of Michel Aoun expired last month. Aoun's own election in 2016 followed a more than two-year vacancy at the presidential palace as lawmakers made 45 failed attempts to reach consensus on a candidate. But this year's vacancy comes as Lebanon is gripped by an unprecedented financial crisis that has pushed much of the population into poverty since 2019.

Sayyed Nasrallah: USA Responsible for Lebanon’s Curses-Israeli Aggression, Takfiri Scheme. Economic Siege, Political Chaos
Mohammad Salami/Al-Manar English Website
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stressed on Friday that the United States of America is behind all the woes plaguing Lebanon, adding that the Resistance, in cooperation with the patriotic parties, has confronted the US curses. Addressing Hezbollah ceremony marking Martyr’s Day, Sayyed Nasrallah responded to the remarks made the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Asis Affairs, Barbara Leaf, who had described Hezbollah as Lebanon’s curse.
Sayyed Nasrallah recalled that all the Israeli massacres and crimes against the Lebanese were committed under the patronage of the US administration, adding that the Israeli curse was made in USA. The US administration is the curse that has plagued Lebanon, and Hezbollah, in cooperation with the Resistance factions, expelled it, Sayyed Nasrallah said.
The US greed made Washington destroy the Middle East countries, including Iraqi and Afghanistan, through wars and invasions, according to Sayyed Nasrallah who added that USA also sent dozens of thousand of takfiri terrorists to the region.
Hezbollah as well as the Lebanese people and army confronted the terrorist curse and overcame it, Sayyed Nasrallah recalled.
Hezbollah leader emphasized the US administration was beyond the chaos which spread in Lebanon in 2019, adding that the US officials confessed that they trained and prepared the NGOs in order to destabilize the Lebanese state.
Sayyed Nasrallah noted that the anarchy plot in 2019 failed to decompose the state, but that it managed to besiege Lebanon remotely. Washington has prevented all the world countries from helping Lebanon, according to the Resistance Leader who added that the US officials have always warned the Lebanese officials against accepting donations. Will the Lebanese officials accept the Russian power and wheat aids? Sayyed Nasrallah asked. Sayyed Nasrallah pointed out that the US administration has prevented the Lebanese officials from purchasing Iranian fuel oil, adding that it obliged Lebanon to reject an Iranian fuel donation as well. Iran welcomed a Lebanese technical team that visited Tehran to coordinate the fuel donation and approved the required amount, Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding that the Islamic Republic intends to help Lebanon without asking for anything in return.
Regarding the maritime border demarcation, Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed that the US administration facilitated the indirect deal in order to shun a Middle East war and help the Zionist entity, not Lebanon. USA knows the repercussions of a war between Hezbollah and ‘Israel’, so it accepted the demands of the Lebanese state, according to Sayyed Nasrallah, who added that Lebanon reached that indirect deal, thanks to the Resistance power and the international circumstances. Who is preventing Lebanon from importing the Egyptian gas and Jordanian electric power? Sayyed Nasrallah asked. Regionally, Sayyed Nasrallah said the US policy in the Middle East is even more detrimental, highlighting the Caesar Act used in order to starve Syria, adding that the Americans want to defeat Syria via siege after the failure of dozens of thousands of terrorists to reach this end. Sayyed Nasrallah asked, “Who is responsible for all the regional woes, what is going on in Yemen and Iran ?”Sayyed Nasrallah drew the attention of the audience to the fact that Iran has resolutely overcome the US-Israeli-Western conspiracy and even become more powerful.
Sayyed Nasrallah also noted that the US curse is beyond the Palestinian woe as well, highlighting the ongoing aggression of the Israeli enemy on the Palestinians.
Hezbollah Chief called on the Lebanese officials and political parties to confront the US policies, or that the US curse will lead Lebanon to destruction. Sayyed Nasrallah: Hezbollah Wants New President in Lebanon to Be Courageous, Refrain from Backstabbing Resistance
Hezbollah Secretary General indicated that all the Lebanese political parties reject the presidential vacuum, adding, however, filling this vacuum must not be away from the required specifications. Sayyed Nasrallah added that the Lebanese presidency is an important post which concerns all the Lebanese, not just the Christians or the Maronite, calling for more political efforts to reach an agreement in this regard.
Bilateral and trilateral meetings can replace the dialogue session, called for by House speaker Nabih Berri and rejected by some parties, according to Sayyed Nasrallah.
Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that Hezbollah wants the new president must be able to protect the national strengths, led by the Resistance, noting that this is a strategic issue related to that national security. Sayyed Nasrallah added that this Resistance is always under fire, noting that the US remarks confirm this notion and pointing out that the US scheme aims stirring sedition in Lebanon and provoking the Lebanese army to fight Hezbollah.
in light of the shameful US intervention in the Lebanese internal affairs, the Resistance and its supporters have the right, as a large segment of the Lebanese people, to say that they want a courageous president who reassures the resistance, Sayyed Nasrallah said.
Frankly speaking, we want a courageous president who does not shudder and get scared when the US embassy threatens him, Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding that the new president must not be a person who accepts to be bought and sold.
Sayyed Nasrallah recalled the experience of the two former Presidents Emile Lahoud and Michel Aoun who reassured the Resistance and refrained from backstabbing it, adding that all the military achievements of the resistance in 2000, 2006 and 2017 benefited from thus presidential support. Sayyed Nasrallah reiterated that Hezbollah does not need the new president to protect it, adding what is important is that the new president does not back stab the Resistance. Sayyed Nasrallah clarified that President Aoun did not grant Hezbollah any extra influence on the Lebanese state, adding, had Hezbollah been able to rule the government, it would have approved the Iranian fuel donation. Sayyed Nasrallah noted that the other presidential elections are also important, but that the basic requirement of the presidential candidate is reassuring the resistance.
US Midterm Elections
Hezbollah leader indicated that the US elections will not change the strategic policies of the United States based on launching wars, plundering fortunes, and supporting ‘Israel’. All the US governments resort to different tactics, but preserve the same criminal principles, according to Sayyed Nasrallah who added that the United States is responsible for the Israeli crimes and massacres against the Lebanese, Palestinians and all the Arabs. Sayyed Nasrallah pointed out that, in face of the US schemes, the national unity in the region must be sustained in order to protect the resources and fortunes.
Israeli Knesset Elections
Hezbollah leader indicated that the result of the Knesset elections, whcih gave the Right Coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, does not make any difference with respect to Lebanon. Sayyed Nasrallah said, “All Israeli governments since that which was led by Ben-Gurion have been similar. Things will not change despite far-right coalition’s win.” Lebanon will not be affected even if Netanyahu chooses insane figures to be in his government, thanks to the Resistance power, according to Sayyed Nasrallah, who added such a step will just deteriorate strife in the Zionist society. Sayyed Nasrallah also indicated that Netanyahu will not be able to revoke the indirect maritime deal with Lebanon, adding that the Resistance power guarantees Lebanon’s rights in this regard.
Hezbollah Martyr’s Day
Sayyed Nasrallah started his speech by reciting Quranic verses which praise martyrdom, adding that the Resistance Party has chosen November 11 to mark Martyr’s Day because, in 1982, it witnessed the immense martyrdom operation carried out by martyr Ahmad Kassir against the Israeli enemy.
Martyr Kassir’s operation, which destroyed the Israeli military command headquarters in Tyre and killed over 100 Zionist soldiers and officers, immensely shocked the Zionist enemy, Sayyed Nasrallah said. Sayyed Nasrallah said that martyr Kassir’s operation has been the most enormous in face of ‘Israel’ so far, hoping there will be more immense operations against the usurping entity. His eminence underscored that the martyrs’ families played a vital role in their heavy sacrifices by guiding them to the battlefield, just as the case of Karbala.
Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that preserving and appreciating the sacrifices of the martyrs and the families sustains our power, adding that Hezbollah is trying its best to retrieve bodies of martyrs missed in battlefields. Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that Hezbollah has witnessed a phenomenon of having trans-generational martyrdom-grandfather, father, and son, adding that this confirms failure of soft warfare aimed at morally perverting “our young generation”. In this regard, Sayyed Nasrallah cited the scene of the young Resistance fighters who display commitment and enthusiasm in the battlefield, adding that this has surprised the Israeli enemy in Lebanon and Palestine as well.
Sayyed Nasrallah also warned against the plot aimed spreading the moral degeneration enhanced by the telecommunication devices, calling on the families to look after their children.

Amid crisis, Hezbollah seeks ally in next Lebanese president
BEIRUT (AP) /Fri, November 11, 2022.
The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Friday wants the next Lebanese president to be a politician who won’t “betray” the Iran-backed faction and assailed the United States for what he described as an undeclared “siege" on his country. Speaking through a video-link to supporters gathered to mark Hezbollah’s Martyrs Day, a commemoration of the group’s fallen fighters, Hassan Nasrallah did not name a Hezbollah favorite for the post of president. But his remarks indicated the shadowy militant leader plans to exert influence over whoever is elected. Lebanon’s parliament failed to elect a new president in five attempts after the term of President Michel Aoun, a strong ally of Hezbollah, ended on Oct. 31. That left Lebanon in a political vacuum with a caretaker government that does not have full powers as the country is roiling in the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. “We want a president that does not stab the resistance in the back,” Nasrallah said, using a term that has become synonymous with Hezbollah. “We want a president who will reassure the resistance.”The public perception is that Nasrallah's Hezbollah widely backs politician Sleiman Frangieh, a close ally, for the post. Lebanon's Western-backed coalition supports Michel Moawad, a harsh critic of Hezbollah and its stockpile of weapons. In the last round in parliament, Moawad got 44 votes in his favor, far short of a the two-third majority needed in the 128-member legislature. Under Lebanon's power-sharing system in place since after the country's independence from French mandate in 1943, a president has to come from the Maronite Catholic sect; the prime minister is a Sunni and the parliament speaker a Shiite. Hezbollah was the only group allowed to keep its weapons after Lebanon's brutal 1975-90 civil war because it was fighting Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Lebanon. After Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah kept its weapons, saying they were a necessary defense to deter any future attack from Israel. Hezbollah fought Israel to a draw in a 34-day war in the summer of 2006. Israel today considers Hezbollah — designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and Israel — its most serious immediate threat, estimating that the militant group has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at it. Nasrallah also blamed the “American curse" for Lebanon's power shortage, saying Washington's sanctions are preventing Lebanon from receiving free Iranian fuel for its power stations. His speech came on the heels of Wednesday's visit to Lebanon by USAID chief Samantha Power, who announced the U.S. was giving $80.5 million in aid for food assistance and solar-powered water pumping stations in crisis-battered Lebanon. Power also met with Lebanese political leaders to push for a resolution to the political vacuum and for a slate of political and economic reforms required by the International Monetary Fund to clinch a $3 billion aid package to Lebanon.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November11-12/2022
Israel Determined to Strike Iranian Weapons in Syria
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 11 November, 2022
Although the Israeli authorities have neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the bombing in Syria, military sources in Tel Aviv said that the Iranian convoy that was bombed two days ago near the Iraqi-Syrian border “was carrying weapons and ammunition, not just oil, as Tehran claims.”The sources said that Tehran, “which received severe blows in the destruction of arms convoys in several Syrian airports, especially Damascus International Airport, has returned to transport [weapons] by land.”They added that the Iranians “tried to hide these weapons through a civilian convoy, in the hope that Israeli intelligence would not discover them.” According to the sources, the regime of Bashar al-Assad has probably “asked Tehran to stop the transfer of weapons, because the Israeli strikes destroyed most of the Syrian military industries.” But Iran “insists on sending missile warheads to its factories in Syria and Lebanon, in order to ensure the continuation of the missile industry and improve its accuracy,” they remarked. “Tel Aviv insists on sending clear messages to all players on Syrian soil that it will not allow the transfer of weapons in any form. It is trying to carry out its raids in the eastern regions of Syria, before reaching the west, where the Russian army is located. It takes into account that Moscow is angry with Tel Aviv for its stance on the war in Ukraine,” the sources noted. According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, the Israeli military leaders are conducting in-depth deliberations on the possible reaction from Russia, which has so far been silent or just issued political criticism in one out of three or four raids. These leaders have asked the Israeli ministry of Foreign Affairs to assess the Russian position through diplomatic channels, the sources said.

Netanyahu to receive mandate to form government Sunday
Agence France Presse/Friday, 11 November, 2022
Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive an official mandate on Sunday to form a new government, Israel's presidency said, following the completion of consultations with lawmakers. Sixty-four representatives from Israel's 120-seat legislature recommended that President Isaac Herzog appoint Netanyahu, a statement said Friday, adding that the former premier has been summoned "to accept the task of forming the government from the president on Sunday". Netanyahu will have 28 days to form a cabinet, with a 14-day extension available if required. His right-wing Likud party and its allies -- two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and the extreme-right Religious Zionism bloc -- won 64 seats in the Knesset, or parliament, at the November 1 election -- Israel's fifth in less than four years. After a period of unprecedented political gridlock, the result has given the veteran premier the majority to form a stable governing coalition, which may also be the most right-wing in Israeli history. Netanyahu led Israel from 1996 to 1999 and then again from 2009 to 2021 in a record tenure in office. The 73-year-old remains on trial over corruption allegations, which he denies.

Iran Hypersonic Missile Claim Raises Nuclear Watchdog Concern
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 11 November, 2022
An Iranian general claimed Thursday that the Iranian republic had developed a hypersonic missile capable of penetrating all defense systems, raising concerns from the UN nuclear watchdog. Hypersonic missiles, which like traditional ballistic missiles can deliver nuclear weapons, can fly at more than five times the speed of sound. "This hypersonic ballistic missile was developed to counter air defense shields," General Amirali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace unit, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency. "It will be able to breach all the systems of anti-missile defense," he said, adding that he believed it would take decades before a system capable of intercepting it is developed. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi, speaking at a UN climate summit in Egypt, expressed concerns about the announcement. "We see that all these announcements increase the attention, increase the concerns, increase the public attention to the Iranian nuclear program," Grossi told AFP. But he added that he does not see this as "having any influence" on negotiations over the Iranian republic's nuclear program.
The announcement comes after Iran admitted on Saturday that it had sent drones to Russia, but said it had done so before the Ukraine war. The Washington Post reported on October 16 that Iran was preparing to ship missiles to Russia, a report Tehran rejected as "completely false". It also comes at a time protests have rocked Iran since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly flouting the Iranian republic's hijab dress code for women.
Stalled nuclear talks -
Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles fly on a trajectory low in the atmosphere, able to reach targets more quickly. North Korea's test of a hypersonic missile last year sparked concerns about the race to acquire the technology, which is currently led by Russia, followed by China and the United States.
Both Iran and Russia are targeted by stringent sanctions -- Iran after the US unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, and Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February. The two countries have responded to the sanctions by boosting cooperation in key areas to help prop up their economies. Iran on Wednesday hosted Russia's security chief Nikolai Patrushev for talks on subjects that the Russian side said included "the fight against terrorism and extremism" as well as measures to counter Western interference. A hypersonic missile is maneuverable, making it harder to track and defend against. While countries including the United States have developed systems designed to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles, the ability to track and take down a hypersonic missile remains a question. Thursday's announcement comes against a backdrop of stalled talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. The deal Iran reached with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US gave it relief from sanctions in return for guarantees it could not develop an atomic weapon. Iran has always denied wanting a nuclear arsenal. The deal collapsed after the US's unilateral withdrawal in 2018 under then president Donald Trump. The IAEA said Thursday it had seen "no progress" in discussions with Iran over undeclared nuclear material at three sites, a sticking point in the talks aimed at reviving the accord. Iran has been enriching uranium well over the limits laid down in the 2015 deal with world powers, which started to unravel when the United States withdrew from it in 2018.

UK summons Iranian diplomat over threats to journalists
AFP/November 11, 2022
LONDON: Britain on Friday hauled in a senior Iranian diplomat after what it described as death threats against journalists living in the UK, following weeks of anti-regime protests. The move coincided with Melika Balali, 22, an Iranian-born wrestler now based in Scotland, receiving police protection after accusations that she too had been threatened by the Tehran regime. “I have summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires today after journalists working in the UK were subject to immediate threats to life from Iran,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted. “We do not tolerate threats and intimidation from foreign nations toward individuals living in the UK,” he said. Two British-Iranian journalists working in the UK for an independent Farsi-language channel have received “credible” death threats from Iran’s security forces, the channel’s broadcaster said on Monday. Volant Media, the London-based broadcaster of Iran International TV channel, said the pair had received “death threats from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.” The channel has been covering the anti-regime protests in Iran following the death in mid-September of Mahsa Amini for allegedly breaching strict dress rules for women.
Volant Media said London’s Metropolitan Police force had also notified other journalists of threats. The Met refused to comment. But Police Scotland confirmed Friday that it had instituted a “safety plan” to protect Balali, who moved to Scotland a year ago and now represents her adopted country in UK competitions. When she won gold for Scotland at the British Wrestling Championships in June, Balali held up a sign saying “stop forcing hijab” and “I have the right to be a wrestler.” Amini, who was also 22, died in police custody after her arrest for allegedly wearing the hijab “improperly.”
Balali recently shaved her head at a protest in Glasgow, in an act of solidarity with the ongoing protests in Iran over women’s rights. “These threats make me stronger. When I receive threats from the government of Iran I just think my way is right — if I were wrong, why would they threaten me?” the wrestler told BBC Scotland. Iran has warned Britain it will “pay” for what it labelled its actions to destabilize the Islamic republic in the protests sparked by Amini’s death, state media reported Wednesday. Iran says Britain harbors hostile Farsi-language media reporting on the protests. The BBC in turn has accused Tehran of waging a campaign of threats and intimidation against its Persian service.

Iran accuses West of helping protesters make weapons
Agence France Presse/Friday, 11 November, 2022
Iran's top diplomat has accused Western countries of promoting violence in the Islamic republic by helping protesters to make weapons and Molotov cocktails. Street violence has flared across Iran since the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini on September 16, after her arrest for allegedly flouting the country's hijab dress code for women. Dozens of people, mainly demonstrators but also security personnel, have been killed during the demonstrations, which the authorities have dubbed "riots", and hundreds more have been arrested. In a phone call late Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian accused Western governments of "promoting violence and teaching (protesters) to make weapons and Molotov cocktails via social networks and the media". These actions led to the "killing of police officers, and insecurity in Iran, and they even prepared the ground for the terrorist action of the Islamic State" group, he said, quoted on his ministry's website. At least 13 people were killed on October 26 at a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Shiraz, in an attack claimed by the jihadist group. Amir-Abdollahian also criticized Western countries that have been pressing for a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council to be held on Iran's response to the Amini protests. Such a session should instead be held for "governments that propagate violence and terror, not for (Iran), which is the true defender of human rights and has exercised serious restraint regarding the recent riots," he said.

Iran Sets up Meeting on IAEA Inquiry as Diplomatic Clash Looms
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 11 November, 2022
Iran has agreed to a visit by the UN nuclear watchdog this month to start giving answers the agency and its 35-nation board have long called for on the origin of uranium particles found at three sites, an IAEA report on Thursday seen by Reuters said. Iran has yet to provide new material, however, and its offer came before next week's quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors at which diplomats say they expect Western powers to push for a resolution calling on Iran to cooperate, a move that Tehran usually bristles at. Many diplomats see Iran's offer as a thinly veiled attempt to reduce support for another resolution after a similar one was passed in June, though in the absence of tangible progress there is little to suggest Tehran's move would scupper a push to formally criticize it at the board. "(IAEA chief Rafael Grossi) takes note of Iran's proposal to hold a further technical meeting with senior Agency officials in Tehran before the end of the month, but stresses that this meeting should be aimed at effectively clarifying and resolving those issues," one of two confidential IAEA reports on Iran sent to member states on Thursday ahead of the board meeting said. The IAEA "expects to start receiving from Iran technically credible explanations on these issues, including access to locations and material, as well as the taking of samples as appropriate", it added. A senior diplomat said the Vienna-based agency hoped the meeting would be the start of a process leading to answers but concrete progress was also needed at the meeting itself. Grossi told Reuters on Wednesday the meeting would be "in a couple of weeks". The issue has become an obstacle in wider talks to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, since Tehran has demanded a closure of the IAEA's investigation in those talks. The IAEA has said it will not yield to political pressure and its job is to account for all nuclear material. The fact material that has not been accounted for appears to have been present at these sites is therefore an issue it must keep looking into until it is resolved. "You can see the pattern of Iran is always similar. Every board there is something they try to do just before the board. Historically you see a pattern," the senior diplomat said when asked about the planned meeting in Tehran, pointing to previous meetings and offers preceding Board of Governors sessions.
Rumbling on
The 2015 deal restricted Iran's atomic activities in exchange for sanctions relief. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump ordered a US withdrawal from the deal, reimposing US sanctions against Tehran. Iran responded by breaching and going well beyond the deal's restrictions. Iran has recently installed hundreds more advanced centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, at its underground plants at Natanz and Fordow. The move increases the pace at which it can enrich. The 2015 deal only lets Iran produce enriched uranium with more basic, first-generation centrifuges. The other IAEA report, issued on Thursday and also seen by Reuters, showed Iran's stock of enriched uranium had shrunk slightly, decreasing by around 267 kg to an estimated 3,673.7 kg, still far beyond the 202.8 kg allowed by the deal. Its stock of uranium enriched to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, grew by an estimated 6.7 kg to more than 62 kg. That is more than enough, if refined further, for one nuclear bomb. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear technology is solely for civil purposes.

Countries request U.N. human rights debate on Iran - document
GENEVA (Reuters)/Fri, November 11, 2022
Germany and Iceland submitted a request on Friday on behalf of dozens of countries to hold a special session at the U.N. Human Rights Council on the ongoing protests in Iran later this month, a document showed. The request called for the session "to address the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially with respect to women and children," according to the letter signed by the two countries' ambassadors. Anti-government demonstrations began in September after the death of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by morality police for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic's strict dress code imposed on women. They have since grown into a popular revolt and rights groups say hundreds of protesters have been killed in the government crackdown. The government has blamed Amini's death on preexisting medical problems. At least one-third of the U.N. Human Rights Council's voting members supported the proposal, as is required for meetings outside of the body's normal agenda, meaning its convening is a formality. Dozens of others also signed up, the German diplomatic mission in Geneva said, bringing the total number of backers to 44. It did not immediately provide the list.
The letter requested the meeting take place on Nov. 24. Iran has opposed the convening of the meeting in private meetings, diplomats told Reuters. Its diplomatic mission in Geneva did not respond to an emailed response for comment on the planned debate on Friday. The rights council has no legal powers in itself but its debates boost scrutiny of alleged abuses and sometimes the evidence gleaned from its investigations are later used in international court cases.

Iranians protest in southeast flashpoint, mark 'Bloody Friday'
DUBAI (Reuters)/Fri, November 11, 2022
Thousands of Iranians protested in the restive southeast on Friday to mark a Sept. 30 crackdown by security forces known as "Bloody Friday" as the country's clerical rulers battled persistent nationwide unrest. Amnesty International said security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people in September after firing at protesters in Zahedan, capital of flashpoint Sistan-Baluchistan province. Authorities said dissidents had provoked the clashes. A video posted by the widely followed 1500 Tasvir activist Twitter account purported to show thousands marching again in Zahedan on Friday. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the footage. Another video which 1500 Tasvir said was from the town of Khash in the southeast showed protesters trampling and breaking a street sign carrying the name of top general Qassem Soleimani who was assassinated in a U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq. Popular anger ahead of the Sept. 30 shooting was fuelled by allegations of the rape of a local teenage girl by a police officer. Authorities have said the case is being investigated. Anti-government demonstrations also started erupting that month after the death of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by morality police for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic's strict dress code imposed on women. Nationwide demonstrations have since turned into a popular revolt, with people ranging from students to doctors, lawyers, workers and athletes taking part, with fury directed mostly at Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
GRIEVANCES, TRIALS
The government, which has blamed Amini's death on preexisting medical problems, has said the protests are fomented by Iran’s foreign enemies including the United States, and has vowed to reestablish order. It accuses armed separatists of perpetrating violence and seeking to destabilise the Islamic Republic.
Some of the worst unrest has been in areas home to minority ethnic groups with long-standing grievances against the state, including the Sistan-Baluchistan and Kurdish regions. Sistan-Baluchistan, near Iran’s southeastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to a Baluch minority estimated to number up to 2 million people. They have faced discrimination and repression for decades, according to human rights groups. Iran denies that. The region is one of the country’s poorest and has been a hotbed of tension where Iranian security forces have been attacked by Baluch militants. The activist HRANA news agency said 330 protesters had been killed in the unrest as of Thursday, including 50 minors. Thirty-nine members of the security forces had also been killed, while nearly 15,100 people have been arrested, it said. Iran's hardline judiciary will hold public trials of about 1,000 people indicted for unrest in Tehran, a semi-official news agency said on Oct. 31. They were accused of acts of sabotage, assaulting or killing members of the security forces or setting fire to public property.
VIDEOS, SERMONS
In a statement, United Nations human rights experts urged Iranian authorities on Friday to stop indicting people with charges punishable by death for participation, or alleged participation, in peaceful demonstrations. The experts, special rapporteurs, expressed concern that women and girls who have been at the forefront of protests might be particularly targeted. Social media videos purported to be from the town of Saravan in Sistan-Baluchistan showed protesters wearing traditional Baluch robes calling for the death of Khamenei. "Where did the military forces get trained to shoot people? Today it has become clear that people were killed unjustly," Molavi Abdolhamid, Iran's most prominent Sunni cleric and a long-time critic of Iran's Shi'ite leaders, said in his Friday prayer sermon in Zahedan. "Authorities must condemn this crime, and those who ordered (the events of) Bloody Friday and its perpetrators must be brought to trial," Abdolhamid added. It appeared tensions could rise again in Zahedan. State television reported that the ground forces commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, told a gathering of Sunni and Shi'ite tribal elders and religious leaders that clerics had to be careful about what they said.

Ukraine war's environmental toll to take years to clean up Russia Ukraine War
DEMYDIV, Ukraine (AP)/November 11/2022
Olga Lehan's home near the Irpin River was flooded when Ukraine destroyed a dam to prevent Russian forces from storming the capital of Kyiv just days into the wa r. Weeks later, the water from her tap turned brown from pollution. “It was not safe to drink,” she said of the tap water in her village of Demydiv, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) north of Kyiv on the tributary of the Dnieper River. Visibly upset as she walked through her house, the 71-year-old pointed to where the high water in March had made her kitchen moldy, seeped into her well and ruined her garden. Environmental damage from the 8-month-old war with Russia is mounting in more of the country, with experts warning of long-term consequences. Moscow's attacks on fuel depots have released toxins into the air and groundwater, threatening biodiversity, climate stability and the health of the population. Because of the war, more than 6 million Ukrainians have limited or no access to clean water, and more than 280,000 hectares (nearly 692,000 acres) of forests have been destroyed or felled, according to the World Wildlife Fund. It has caused more than $37 billion in environmental damage, according to the Audit Chamber, a nongovernmental group in the country.
“This pollution caused by the war will not go away. It will have to be solved by our descendants, to plant forests, or to clean the polluted rivers,” said Dmytro Averin, an environmental expert with Zoi Environment Network, a non-profit organization based in Switzerland. While the hardest-hit areas are in the more industrial eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where fighting between government troops and pro-Russian separatists has been going on since 2014, he said, the damage has spread elsewhere.
“In addition to combat casualties, war is also hell on people’s health, physically and mentally,” said Rick Steiner, a U.S. environmental scientist who advised Lebanon’s government on environmental issues stemming from a monthlong war in 2006 between that country and Israel. The health impact from contaminated water and exposure to toxins unleashed by conflict “may take years to manifest,” he said. After the flood in Demydiv, residents said their tap water turned cloudy, tasted funny and left a film on pots and pans after cooking. The village was under Moscow's control until April, when Russian troops withdrew after failing to take the capital. Ukrainian authorities then began bringing in fresh water, but the shipments stopped in October when the tanker truck broke down, forcing residents to again drink the dirty water, they said.
“We don’t have another option. We don’t have money to buy bottles,” Iryna Stetcenko told The Associated Press. Her family has diarrhea and she’s concerned about the health of her two teenagers, she said. In May, the government took samples of the water, but the results have not been released, said Vyacheslav Muga, the former acting head of the local government’s water service. The Food Safety and Consumer Protection agency in Kyiv has not yet responded to an AP request for the results.
Reports by other environmental groups, however, have shown the effects of the war. In recent weeks, Russia has targeted key infrastructure like power plants and waterworks. But even in July, the U.N.’s environmental authority already was warning of significant damage to water infrastructure including pumping stations, purification plants and sewage facilities.
A soon-to-be-published paper by the Conflict and Environment Observatory, a British charity, and the Zoi Environment Network, found evidence of pollution at a pond after a Russian missile hit a fuel depot in the town of Kalynivka, about 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) southwest of Kyiv.
The pond, used for recreation as well as a fish farm, showed a high concentration of fuel oil and dead fish on the surface -- apparently from oil that had seeped into the water, A copy of the report was seen by the AP. Nitrogen dioxide, which is released by burning fossil fuels, increased in areas west and southwest of Kyiv, according to an April report from REACH, a humanitarian research initiative that tracks information in areas affected by crisis, disaster and displacement. Direct exposure can cause skin irritation and burns, while chronic exposure can cause respiratory illness and harm vegetation, the report said.
Ukraine's agriculture sector, a key part of its economy, also has been affected. Fires have damaged crops and livestock, burned thousands of hectares of forest and prevented farmers from completing the harvest, said Serhiy Zibtsev, forestry professor at Ukraine’s National University of Life and Environmental Sciences. “The fires are so massive," he said, adding that farmers “lost everything they were harvesting for winter.” The government in Kyiv is providing assistance when it can.In Demydiv and surrounding villages, flood victims were given the equivalent of $540 each, said Liliia Kalashnikova, deputy head of the nearby town of Dymer. She said the government would do everything it could to prevent long-term environmental effects, but she didn't specify how. Governments have an obligation to minimize environmental risks for the population, especially during war, said Doug Weir, research and policy director for the Conflict and Environment Observatory, a U.K.—based monitoring organization. Some Ukrainians have already lot hope. “I feel depressed — there's water all around and under my house," said Demydiv resident Tatiana Samoilenko. “I don't see much changing in the future.”

Russia says it has completed Kherson withdrawal

Reuters/November 11/2022
STORY: In its daily briefing, the ministry said all Russian forces and equipment had been transferred to the left, or eastern, bank of the Dnipro. It said the withdrawal was completed by 0500 Moscow time (0200 GMT) on Friday morning. Reuters could not independently verify those details. Pro-Russian bloggers had reported late on Thursday that Russian forces crossing the river were coming under heavy fire from Ukrainian forces. The ministry said Ukrainian forces had struck Dnipro River crossings five times overnight with U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems. Russia ordered the withdrawal on Wednesday, saying it had concluded that attempts to maintain its position and supply troops, including in the regional capital Kherson, were "futile" in the face of a mounting Ukrainian counteroffensive.

New damage to major dam near Kherson after Russian retreat -Maxar satellite
Reuters/November 11, 2022
Significant new damage to the major Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine can be seen following Russia's withdrawal from nearby Kherson city, U.S. satellite imagery company Maxar said on Friday. Maxar said images taken on Friday showed several bridges that cross the Dnipro river had also been damaged. Ukrainian troops were greeted by joyous residents in the centre of Kherson after Russia abandoned the city. "Satellite images this morning ... reveal significant new damage to several bridges and the Nova Kakhovka dam in the aftermath of the Russian retreat from Kherson across the Dnipro river," Maxar said in a statement. It said sections of the northern extent of the dam and sluice gates had been "deliberately destroyed". Earlier this week Russia accused Ukraine of shelling the dam. Both sides have repeatedly accused each of planning to breach the dam using explosives, which would flood much of the area downstream and would likely cause major destruction around Kherson. It was the only regional capital city that Russia had captured since its forces invaded neighbour Ukraine in late February.

Germany's Scholz promises more air defence help to Ukraine
LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters)/November 11, 2022
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany's priority in its aid to Ukraine should be to help it defend itself from Russian air raids on its cities and to help it rebuild its infrastructure. He added in an interview with RND newspapers on Friday that Europe should prepare to receive more refugees from Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion since Feb. 24. "Russia is bombing Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Russia wants to make sure people in Ukraine can't survive the winter cold," he said in an on-stage interview. "We are currently discussing with many German companies what they can do to counter this destruction." The air defence systems Germany had sent to Ukraine had played a key role in minimising the destruction so far, but Germany would work with partners to send more, he added. Earlier, Scholz agreed in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Germany would continue to send air defence systems. Scholz told the audience that he was convinced that, regardless of the flurry of diplomacy with which Western leaders had tried to avert war in the run-up to Russia's invasion, President Vladimir Putin had long been set on his course. "I'm convinced Putin decided on this war two years ago," he said. "We saw the troop build-up... We hoped it was just threatening gestures, but it wasn't: it was a war long in the planning."

Russia and US to Hold First Nuclear Talks Since Ukraine War

Bloomberg/November 11, 2022
Russia said it will hold talks with the US from late November to early December in Cairo about inspections of atomic weapons sites under the New START treaty, a first step toward reviving broader arms-control talks suspended since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The consultations in the Egyptian capital will last about a week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Friday, according to state news service RIA Novosti. Russia barred US inspectors from its nuclear weapons sites in August, citing visa and travel restrictions for Russians that it said made it impossible for them to reach the US. The two countries had suspended the on-site inspections in March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and were discussing how to restart them safely. The Bilateral Consultative Commission, which handles practical matters on how the New START deal is implemented, last met in Geneva in October 2021. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said earlier this week the BCC will meet in the “near future” but declined to offer details. He said the US was “realistic” about what can be achieved from negotiations with Russia but it was important to make sure the two countries retain the ability to talk to each other. Ryabkov said it’s unlikely an agreement on restarting the inspections can be reached in a matter of days in Cairo, Tass reported. Russia and US to Hold First Nuclear Talks Since Ukraine Invasion. While the US has cut off most contacts with Russia over the invasion, some channels remain. In Moscow, officials have called for a resumption of broader strategic dialogue, including on a possible successor treaty to New START. The US has said that’s not possible until the inspections resume. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday confirmed that the US had had high-level contacts with Russia, while declining to comment on reports that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan recently held secret talks with aides to President Vladimir Putin in an effort to halt the slide toward nuclear escalation. Sullivan himself confirmed communication channels remain open between Moscow and Washington, saying it was “in the interests” of the US to maintain contact with the Kremlin, the BBC reported. Putin and President Joe Biden’s administration extended the New START treaty for five years in 2021, giving the former Cold War rivals time for new talks on strategic security. Putin’s attack on Ukraine in February has sparked a spiral of confrontation, with the US spending billions of dollars on military and financial support for Kyiv. The US has accused Russia of dangerous nuclear saber-rattling.

US Election: Trump Tears into Rising Republican Rival DeSantis
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 11 November, 2022
Ex-US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as the simmering rivalry between the two top Republicans boiled over. Trump belittled his former political apprentice as an "average" governor, lacking in "loyalty", BBC reported. DeSantis, 44, won re-election in a landslide in Tuesday's midterms, sealing his status as the Republican party's brightest rising star. He is widely expected to run for the party's 2024 White House nomination. "Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse [sic] him, he could win," Trump said in a lengthy statement on Thursday. He went on to complain that DeSantis - whom he is nicknaming "Ron DeSanctimonious" - was "playing games" by refusing to rule out a presidential bid. "Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that's really not the right answer," Trump added. The former president is widely expected to announce his own plan for a White House comeback as soon as next week. The race for control of the House of Representatives and Senate went down to the wire. Two days after Americans went to the polls, it remains unclear which party will control the twin chambers of Congress.

Al-Sudani Cancels Security Checks in Iraqi Provinces Liberated from ISIS
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 11 November, 2022
Sources close to the Iraqi government said that the decision of Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani to cancel security permits in areas liberated from the ISIS was aimed at facilitating the affairs of citizens. Al-Sudani canceled the security checks that were imposed on the residents of the western governorates that fell under the control of ISIS from 2014 to 2017. This security procedure was one of the main points of contention between the people of those regions and the previous Iraqi governments. A source close to the Iraqi government assured that security forces have a considerable database about terrorists. “This decision was taken three times before. There are parties that do not implement it for the sake of extortion,” the source said, noting that the government of Sudani “does not deal with the logic of revenge, but its main task is to manage the affairs of citizens in every region of Iraq.”Former deputy of Anbar province, Abdullah Al-Kharbit, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the decision was fair and ensured equality between the Iraqi people.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November11-12/2022
مقالة من موقع ميمري بقلم الكاتب البرتو أم. فرنندس تتناول موجة تكسير الصلبان وازلة الرموز المسيحية في دول الغرب، وممارسات داعش الإسلامية وحكام انظمة دول اسلامية في اضطهاد المسيحيين والأقليات حماية لسطوتهم وسيطرتهم
Breaking The Crosses' And Other Ills
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 427/November 10.2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113287/alberto-m-fernandez-memri-breaking-the-crosses-and-other-ills%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d9%85%d9%8a%d9%85%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d8%a8%d9%82%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7/
Issue 15 of the ISIS English-language magazine Dabiq from 2016 was titled "Breaking the Cross" by the terrorist organization. It was mostly an anti-Christian edition featuring theological arguments expanding on the much more succinct ISIS threat to the West that they would "break your crosses, take your women, and paint the White House black."[1]
The Islamic State's dreams of world conquest turned out to be a pipe dream, although the group is very much alive in the corners of the world and boosts its body count numbers these days mostly by killing African Christian civilians. But the dream of "breaking the crosses" is not limited to jihadists.
In preparation for the recent G-7 meeting in Munster, Germany's Foreign Ministry removed a 482-year-old crucifix from the city's historic town hall where the Peace of Westphalia was signed in 1648.[2] Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a Green Party member of Germany's ruling leftist coalition, regretted that the cross had been removed by her ministry but could not really explain why it happened.
Meanwhile in Spain, the country's ruling leftist (Socialists plus the Communists of Unidas Podemos) and anti-clerical allies are wrestling how or whether to take down the tallest (150-meter or 500 feet) cross in the world, built by the Franco regime in Spain's Valle de los Caidos ("Valley of the Fallen").[3] The complex was finished in 1958. Facing tough political and economic headwinds, the ruling leftist parties are eager to be seen as zealously anti-Franco although the dictator has been dead for almost 50 years.[4]
Elsewhere in Europe, a Tory majority Parliament endorsed a ban on silent prayer too close to abortion clinics[5] while the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled unanimously in favor a topless abortion activist who entered La Madeleine church in Paris and simulated aborting baby Jesus using a bloody calf's liver in front of the main altar just days before Christmas. The tribunal overturned the ruling against the activist and ordered the French state to pay her 9,800 Euros (2,000 for "moral damages" and 7,800 for costs and expenses).[6]
All of these actions in Europe were in the service of the increasingly dominant ideology of the age, not Christianity of course, but a successor faith that elevates as dogma certain views about gender, race, abortion, and immigration and that is often either skeptical if not hostile toward traditional religion and traditional families and the nation state. Most flags, except perhaps the rainbow flag or the Ukrainian one, make the new faith's clerisy uncomfortable.
The partisans of the Islamic State were terrorists and revolutionaries but today much change, radical ideological change included, comes from above and not from below, not from revolutionary regimes or from populist insurrectionists but from entrenched permanent bureaucracies. These bureaucracies, often coupled with powerful NGO networks boosted with government money and a mostly left-leaning social media and academic infrastructure, act as ideological enforcers of the new dogma. Indeed, in Europe these enforcers target governments – Hungary, Poland, and possibly Meloni's Italy – seen as fallen from the pure progressive faith. Farther afield, an increasingly rightist nationalist democracy like Israel also makes them uneasy. These Western enforcers decide what constitute the new sacred cows, the new blasphemies. A Barcelona hate crimes prosecutor just sentenced a Twitter user to 15 months in jail and a 1,600-Euro fine for racist, anti-immigrant tweets.[7]
While the United States is still different than Europe in many ways (certainly on free speech issues), the combination of bureaucracy plus the activist/academic community plus compliant media is also a powerful progressive tool on these shores. It is perhaps not surprising that the French abortion activist at La Madeleine later praised the influence of American "intersectional" Critical Race Theory (CRT) ideologues had on her thinking.[8]
Despite talk about a global confrontation between democracy and authoritarianism, the new orthodoxy being steadily but surely imposed on the West has parallels in, of all places, those authoritarian regimes in the East.
Certainly, in the Arab world, authoritarian regimes have often embraced political Islam or Islamist narratives for their own reasons, enabling Islamist and jihadist action (while at times fighting it). Sudan's leftist dictator Nimeiry turned to Islamism as his popularity waned. Baathist Syria channeled jihadist fighters into Iraq to kill Americans. Baathist Saddam Hussein's late Islam Campaign enabled the education of a pious young man who would become "ISIS Caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. All of this came from above.
While Saudi Arabia was once the chief promoter of Islamism in the region, they have stopped and the slack has been taken up by Qatar and Turkey. Probably almost as dangerous a model is in ostensibly anti-Islamist Egypt. There the national security state zealously pursues the banned Islamist Muslim Brotherhood while allowing other forms of Islamism to flourish. The narratives often seen on Egyptian media, which is deeply penetrated by Egyptian security services, are replete with conspiracy theories, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism.[9] Rather than a refutation of an extreme ideology, they complement and reinforce it. The Egyptian government is zealous in the policing of its own "sacred cows," including the power to prosecute religious blasphemy. These charges fall heaviest on the marginalized: secular or heterodox Muslims, atheists, Shias and, of course, Coptic Christians.
There is indeed in the region Islamist and jihadist grassroots, extremist subversion, and terrorism, but much of the space given to the larger Islamist narrative is provided by regimes, as in Egypt, for their own reasons, the main reason being to stay in power and distract populations from other, less popular, topics. If in democratic Spain, the Socialists would rather talk about long-dead Franco than sky high prices, in Egypt the regime can talk about immorality and blasphemy rather than deal with corruption or inflation. The power to punish "transgressors," whether they are freethinkers in the East or populists, rightists, or Christians in the West, is the ultimate demonstration of entrenched power by ruling elites.
Ironically, despite the fierce competition and incendiary rhetoric we often here about "us and them," the powerful share some characteristics. Whether in dictatorships or in ostensible democracies, raw power is being used from above to enforce conformity among the dissenters.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
[1] Acct.nl/publication/dabiq-issue-15-a-call-to-islamic-states-enemies-as-the-caliphate-crumbles, August 4, 2016.
[2] Msn.com/en-xl/news/other/germanys-foreign-office-removes-historic-cross-for-g7-summit/ar-AA13KaPs, accessed November 10, 2022.
[3] Blogs.publico.es/otrasmiradas/65382/volar-la-cruz-del-valle-de-los-caido-una-imprescindible-iconoclasia-laica,
October 27, 2022.
[4] Actuall.com/historia/la-obsesion-patologica-de-la-izquierda-con-franco, November 11, 2020.
[5] Cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2022/november/uk-bans-prayers-near-abortion-clinics-even-silent-ones-when-did-it-
become-against-the-law-to-pray, November 1, 2022.
[6] Businessinsider.co.za/france-catholic-church-topless-slut-protester-wins-human-rights-case-2022-10?
fbclid=IwAR2UlJWslAwAZaLo8s26C9THMsogY1Qvg0pBLoJkHy8fg3E5fd-sQXP6nuk, October 22, 2022.
[7] Thespainreport.substack.com/p/spanish-supremacist-twitter-user, accessed November 10, 2022.
[8] Cafebabel.com/en/article/eloise-bouton-liberated-after-femen-5ae009e4f723b35a145e5997, accessed November 10, 2022.
[9] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 9844, Egyptian TV Host Muhammad Musa: Freemasonry Aims To Establish A New World Order, Turn Arab States Into Zionist Lebensraum; The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion Contains Plots To Spread Deviant Entertainment, September 16, 2022.

https://www.memri.org/reports/breaking-crosses-and-other-ills

د. ماجد رفي زاده/معهد جيتستون: محور روسيا وملالي إيران الخطير
The Dangerous Nexus: Russia and Iran’s Mullahs
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/November 11/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113290/113290/
The Iranian regime, which has long argued that it is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons… has lately changed its tone and is boasting that it currently has the ability to build a nuclear bomb.
Biden’s new nuclear deal, if reached, will also allow Russia to cash in on a $10 billion contract to further expand Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
Sadly, this still seems to be the legacy that the Biden administration wants to leave: Iran’s predatory regime, the top state sponsor of terrorism, armed with nuclear bombs, and an empowered Russia that does not hesitate to use aggression and military force to invade other countries.
No wonder Biden is being called a “Russian stooge.”
The Iranian regime is now providing weapons and troops to Russia with full impunity. What are the ruling mullahs of Iran getting in return?
First of all, Iran’s theocratic establishment is rushing to cross the nuclear threshold in order to become a nuclear-armed state. Iran wants Russia to help it bolster and speed up its nuclear program. On October 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accurately warned: “In eight months of full-scale war, Russia has used almost 4,500 missiles against us. And their stock of missiles is dwindling. Therefore, Russia went looking for affordable weapons in other countries to continue its terror. It found them in Iran.”
Zelensky added: “I have a question for you – how does Russia pay Iran for this, in your opinion? Is Iran just interested in money? Probably not money at all, but Russian assistance to the Iranian nuclear program. Probably, this is exactly the meaning of their alliance.”
The Iranian regime, which has long argued that it is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons due to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s reported “fatwa” forbidding such an act, has lately changed its tone and is boasting that it currently has the ability to build a nuclear bomb.
In July, Kamal Kharrazi, Iran’s former foreign minister, acknowledged to Al Jazeera: “It’s no secret that we have become a quasi-nuclear state. This is a fact. And it’s no secret that we have the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb… In the past, and within just a few days, we were able to enrich uranium up to 60%, and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium.”
Kharrazi added that “what we want is a Middle East without any nuclear weapons” — most likely meaning that only Iran will hold onto nuclear weapons, but not any other country.
Other Iranian officials have also come out admitting that the regime’s nuclear program was always designed to manufacture nuclear weapons. In April, it was reported that former deputy speaker of the Iranian Parliament Ali Motahari said: “From the very beginning, when we entered the nuclear activity, our goal was to build a bomb and strengthen the deterrent forces but we could not maintain the secrecy of this issue.”
The former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, also acknowledged that his work was part of a “system” designed to develop nuclear weapons. According to a report from November 2021: “The former AEOI head also told IRNA that he worked with [nuclear scientist Mohsen] Fakhrizadeh on ‘nuclear defense.’
“Abbasi claimed that Fakhrizadeh had been targeted by Iran’s enemies for years, but ‘when the country’s all-encompassing growth came concerning satellites, missiles, and nuclear weapons, and [Iran] crossed the various frontiers of knowledge, the issue became more serious for them.'”
The Biden administration’s non-existent leadership has helped the ruling mullahs to buy time in the last two years and speed up their nuclear program, increasing their uranium enrichment from 20% to 60%, conducting uranium metal research, development and production, and adding additional advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges. The emboldened regime of the mullahs even announced that they would not allow the International Atomic Energy to see images of the centrifuges.
Even a joint statement issued by the UK, France and Germany stressed that Tehran “has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon.” Russia and Iran previously worked together to construct several nuclear reactors in Iran and advance the regime’s nuclear technology.
Biden’s new nuclear deal, if reached, will also allow Russia to cash in on a $10 billion contract to further expand Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stunningly made it clear to US lawmakers that the Biden administration will not stand in the way of Russian-Iranian nuclear cooperation and Russia cashing in on the $10 billion contract. State Department spokesman Ned Price repeated the Biden administration’s stance by pointing out: “We, of course, would not sanction Russian participation in nuclear projects that are part of resuming full implementation of the JCPOA”.
Sadly, this still seems to be the legacy that the Biden administration wants to leave: Iran’s predatory regime, the top state sponsor of terrorism, armed with nuclear bombs, and an empowered Russia that does not hesitate to use aggression and military force to invade other countries.
No wonder Biden is being called a “Russian stooge.”
* Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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Why Australia Is Gearing Up for Possible War With China
Hal Brands/Bloomberg/November, 11/2022
Japan is America’s single most important ally, but Australia has historically been its most reliable. Alone among US allies, not just in the Indo-Pacific but globally, Australia has fought in all of America’s major wars since World War I.
As I found during three days in Sydney and Canberra, the prospect of war in the Taiwan Strait is forging Australia, Japan and the US into a latter-day Triple Entente — the pre-World War I coalition that sought to contain Imperial Germany — in the Western Pacific. That comparison is reassuring and disquieting at the same time.
Less than a decade ago, Australia was the poster child for US allies who refused to choose between Washington and Beijing. How times change. In 2017-18, revelations of pervasive Chinese efforts to corrupt Australian politics caused a pivot in public opinion.
In 2020, China punished Australia economically after the Canberra government supported an international inquiry into the origins of Covid-19. Beijing’s expanding influence in the South Pacific has sparked fears of Chinese flotillas threatening Australia’s sea lanes.
Yet what came through most clearly this week, in conversations with Australian analysts and officials, was concern that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan might catastrophically compromise the security of the entire Indo-Pacific. “Australia could not survive in a Chinese-dominated region,” one defense expert told me. It would become “a satrapy,” forced to toe Beijing’s line or suffer the consequences.
This is why, as Michael Green of the US Studies Center in Sydney notes , Australia has in recent years pushed Washington to go faster on issues ranging from curbing the influence of Huawei Technologies Co. to creating one new security grouping, AUKUS, and reinvigorating an older one, the Quad.
The Australian government recently signed a joint declaration with Japan that looks a lot like “alliance-lite.” The two countries pledged to consult and work with each other “on contingencies that may affect our sovereignty and regional security interests.”
It’s a remarkable historical shift: In 1942, Northern Australia feared a Japanese invasion; today, Japanese troops are preparing to train there with the Australian army. And Australia, like Japan, is striving to strengthen its ability to defend itself and the region it inhabits.
Nuclear-capable American B-52 bombers will soon operate out of Northern Australia as part of a larger expansion of the US presence there. AUKUS — the Australia-UK-US security arrangement announced last year — will produce (eventually) nuclear-powered attack submarines and (more quickly) unmanned underwater vehicles and other advanced capabilities.
Based on conversations I’ve had in Washington and Canberra, it also seems likely that Australia may lease one or more US attack submarines until the boats built under the AUKUS deal are ready. Investments in cyberwarfare and intelligence capabilities are increasing as defense spending rises.
Admittedly, the Australian military is small, and the distances to the Taiwan Strait are large. The Australians wouldn’t have huge amounts of firepower to contribute to a Taiwan fight.
But, Australian officials told me, in a conflict where the margin between victory and defeat would be razor-thin, their military would have a critical role. Envision a geographic division of labor — in which Australia uses air power and sea power to secure critical lines of movement through Southeast Asia, while Japan holds Northeast Asia, and the US busts the invasion or blockade of Taiwan itself.
US air power and Marines in a Taiwan conflict would likely operate from Australian bases. Australian space, cyberwarfare and intelligence assets would be crucial. Conceivably, US-made Australian F-35s might fly from American bases in the Western Pacific, or Australian ground forces could help Taiwan repel an invasion (although geography alone makes these more distant possibilities).
Distance isn’t the only dilemma Australia faces. Developing the capabilities currently envisioned, especially attack submarines, will require major spending hikes. Deepening cooperation with allies and partners triggers perennial concerns about Australian sovereignty. Australia would suffer economically in a conflict with China, which accounts for 31% of its trade.
Even so, Australia probably wouldn’t stay on the sidelines. Opinion polling indicates that a plurality of the population favors sending forces to defend Taiwan, so long as the US does, too. The center-left government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refuses to be pinned down on Australia’s intentions, but one recent defense minister deemed it “inconceivable” that Australia wouldn’t be involved.
There is increasingly an assumption here that a war in the Western Pacific would involve a “three-plus-one” coalition — Australia, Japan and the US helping to defend Taiwan. These three countries increasingly resemble the Triple Entente — between France, Russia and Britain — a loose coalition committed to stopping their era’s autocratic challenger, Imperial Germany, from shattering the balance of power.
Yet the Triple Entente failed to prevent World War I, in part because its looseness — there was no formal treaty binding all three members — encouraged German leaders to hope it might fracture in a crisis. There’s a similar challenge before the democracies today.
Australia, Japan and the US all have policies of “strategic ambiguity” regarding Taiwan — they have indicated they won’t let China take the island, but made no formal commitments to its defense. Separate alliances bind the US to Japan and the US to Australia, but there is no trilateral mechanism ensuring that an attack on one would be treated as an attack on all. Nor is there a unified command structure that would be needed for the three powers to fight together effectively.
There are sound reasons for maintaining strategic ambiguity, not least that no one wants to set off a crisis by shifting the status quo in the strait. Yet as World War I reminds us, conflicts have also started when aggressors underestimate the resistance they will eventually face. Australian officials told me they worry that it will be difficult to generate tons of new military capabilities in the next half-decade, so one way to strengthen deterrence is to make as clear as possible that Beijing will face a powerful democratic coalition if it attacks Taiwan. After all, it seems likely that Australia, like Washington and Tokyo, would find it hard to avoid such a fight. One critical question, in Canberra and elsewhere, is how explicitly to make this known in advance.

Iran: Looking for a Booted Saviour
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 11/2022
As Iran enters a third month of popular protests, or a revolutionary uprising as some analysts assert, it seems that the troubled country may be heading for an impasse in which the ruling clique is neither able to calm down the situation nor capable of crushing it as it did on a number of previous occasions.
Taken by surprise by what seems to be a spontaneous upsurge of political energy against a moribund system, the regime’s many opponents both inside and outside Iran have so far failed to canalize that energy towards regime change.
Thus both the regime and its opponents are looking for a deus ex-machina to slide down his celestial chute and cut the Gordian knot with a single blow. In other words they are desperately seeking a pair of boots to kick the mullahs back into their mosques and madrassas while coaxing the rebellious youth back to universities, colleges and primary schools and even kindergartens.
But where could the boots come from?
Those who hope to save the Khomeinist regime and those still nostalgic of the anti-Shah revolt of five decades ago seek the saviour-in-boots in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).Last week over a two-third of the members of the Islamic Majlis, the 290-seat ersatz parliament, passed a revolution inviting the IRGC to step in full force and “cleanse the country” of anti-regime elements.
Several exile groups have even published open letters to IRGC commanders inviting them, in effect, to stage a coup and to "flush the mullahs out of power.”
At the other end of the spectrum, nationalist and self-styled “democratic” personalities and groups hope that the booted deus ex machina will come from the regular national army.
Both aspirations face a number of hurdles.
Those who want an IRGC commander to play Bonaparte ignore the fact that the IRCG is more of a brand, a logo or a franchise than a revolutionary army like the one that Napoleon, with several spectacular victories behind it, headed.
Unlike “revolutionary” armies in pre-Communist China, pre-independence Algeria, or the Vietcong and Pathet Lao in Indochina, the IRGC was created after the victory of the Khomeinist revolution with the clear mission of suppressing dissent rather than fighting foreign armed enemies.
Because it is divided into more than a dozen entities, designed for use in a wide range of activities such as security espionage, black market operations, business ventures, money laundering, and “exporting revolution,” it has never been able to develop a coherent culture let alone an esprit de corps.
Moreover, those wearing the IRGC brand are already in power under different guises. They have over 100 seats on the Islamic Majlis, more than the mullahs and have claimed most of the other plum positions such as provincial governors, diplomats, and more, lucrative ones as heads of huge public sector businesses. IRGC chief Gen. Hassan Salami sits on the executive boards of some 30 conglomerates.
In other words Iran already has a military-security regime that uses a pseud-religious narrative as a cover for what is a very this-worldly and brutal pursuit of power and wealth.
If the mullahs created IRGC to protect their power and privilege, the IRGC, in turn created the Baseej and a dozen other instruments of oppression to protect its own power and wealth.
Those who describe the present regime in Iran as a theocracy are victims of a visual error by not noticing the military cap under the turban.
I know that this might sound outlandish but one may suggest that, rather than being the guardian of the Revolution, the IRGC may has become the principal cause of its loss of legitimacy and eventual downfall. The IRGC cannot deliver Iran form the Khomeinist nightmare because it has been and remains the key instrument pushing us into that nightmare.
So, can the regular army produce the Bonaparte that many seem to seek? My answer is: no. Iranian politics never developed a culture of military coups.
What caused some confusion was the erroneous description of events that led to the emergence of Reza Shah the Great as the architect of a new Iran as a coup d’etat. In 1921 a group of political activists backed by a small number of troops led by Reza Khan marched on Tehran and “persuaded” the then monarch Ahmad Shah to appoint one of their leaders as prime minister.
There was no change in the constitution and Ahmad Shah remained head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces until he himself decided that a comfortable life on the French Riviera was more enjoyable than sitting on the Peacock Throne in Tehran. Reza Khan served as minister of war, prime minister, and finally interim prince, until an elected Constituent Assembly decided to keep the constitutional monarchic system and name him as king.
Some young protesters have been shouting the slogan “Reza Shah, Bless Your Soul” to indicate their hope that history repeats itself by producing a similar “saviour”, at a time that Iran tries to shake off another despotic system.
What they ignore, perhaps, is that Reza Shah was the expression and implementer of the goals of the Constitutional Revolution rather than their architect. Backed by a generation of politicians, intellectuals, clerics, bazaar merchants and military officers, he was able to negotiate a dangerous passage in Iran’s history and lay the foundations of a modern nation-state.
Reza Shah was not a creature of the Iranian army but its creator. Today, as in 1921, the Iranian army, even assuming it has not been turned into a ghost of self under the Khomeinist regime, is more of a character in search of an author rather than an author capable of producing a new Reza Shah.
Whichever way you look it, the present system no longer reflects Iran’s identity as a young nation aspiring after building a normal life and gaining a presence in the modern world, something that neither the turban nor the military cap is able to provide.
Iran doesn’t need a military coup to replace one form of despotism with another. What it needs is a national consensus to restore our constitutional system and its aspirations that produced Reza Shah in the context of national sovereignty and the rule of law.
In other words stop looking for boots and start looking at the path chosen by those on the march towards a better future for Iran.

Strong institutions key to ending Iran’s influence in Iraq
Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/November 11, 2022
Political stability has been a rare commodity in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Though governments have come and gone, the lot of normal Iraqis has only worsened. Public services are in tatters, the economy is as broken as the country’s politics and the proliferation of militias has made security impossible. Iran, long contained by a strong Iraq, filled this vacuum, exacerbating the country’s weaknesses and drawing it away from the Arab world. With the Iranian regime on the back foot at home, many now wonder what the implications will be in Baghdad.
Amid a failing state and violent clashes across the country, new Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani was appointed last month following months of infighting that paralyzed the government of his predecessor, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. Al-Sudani’s appointment comes amid a wider conflict between pro and anti-Iranian factions, which has left members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq unable to form a stable coalition government or elect a new president.
With the coalition led by former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Malki and his Dawa Party seeking to grow its national representation and Muqtada Al-Sadr first insisting he form a majority government, only to then use his militia to scupper the parliamentary process, the country and its political life have been caught between a rock and a hard place.
Iraq’s democracy hangs by a fine thread, with the country’s institutions, security services, judiciary and the media all failing to provide for citizens. The political stalemate of the last year began after protests called for the overhaul of the political system. Chief among the complaints of protesters has been the interference of Iran, which has consistently sought to undermine Iraq’s fragile democracy. It is therefore unsurprising that, despite several invitations, the movement of firebrand cleric Al-Sadr, Al-Sudani’s rival in Iraq’s majority Shiite camp, refused to join the government.
The dysfunction among the Shiite factions in Iraq is representative of a wider problem, which is Iran’s tireless commitment to shaping Iraqi politics. According to London-based think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies: “Iraq continues to pose a threat to Iranian national security, which is why Iran is intent on shaping Iraq’s domestic politics and strategic orientation.”
Two decades of empowering key militia groups and political parties has given Iran an incredible amount of influence in Iraq and leverage over its politics. Though Iran’s relationship with its Iraqi allies is usually one of mentorship as opposed to direct control, Tehran has a broad network of Iraqi political and militant groups. Today, an increasing number of militia members have graduated into mainstream Iraqi politics. This has allowed Iran to ensure that, though Iraqi political life is chaotic, those who become preeminent are friendly to the regime in Tehran.
The dysfunction among the Shiite factions is representative of a wider problem, which is Iran’s tireless commitment to shaping Iraqi politics
Irrespective of the popular movement opposing it at home, Iran’s government remains focused on its proxies in Iraq simply because it remains its largest security concern. Despite Iran’s policy of deliberate public ambiguity in respect of its operations across its western border, it provides material and political support to hundreds of thousands of militiamen, allowing it to have a military footprint in the country while also being able to capitalize on existing domestic rivalries to retain its influence.
The recent arrival of Al-Hashd Al-Sha’abi and Kata’ib Hezbollah — radical Iraqi Shiite paramilitary groups backed by Iran — at Mashhad airport, effectively propping up regime security on Iranian soil, showed the extent to which these groups are under Iran’s control.
This is an extension of Iran’s already well-documented strategy of placing proxy groups in control of key political sites, especially along Iraq’s national borders and the disputed boundaries of the Kurdistan region. Though these militias, alongside the larger Shiite-dominated Al-Hashd Al-Sha’abi, are a byword for Iranian influence in the country, Tehran also has a strong connection to the supposedly anti-Iranian Al-Sadr, the leading Sunni actors and the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s Kurdish rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
The recent Iranian missile attacks on KDP territory in Iraq are in fact a direct result of Iran’s domestic upheaval. As Tehran simultaneously seeks to limit the territory being used by dissident groups and to pressure Iraqi politicians to do its bidding, the recent bombings show domestic pressures are not limiting Iran’s interference in Iraq, but rather increasing it.
Though the schism between Iraq’s Shiite factions is dominated by concerns over power and political ambition, it is also indicative of a wider fatigue with Iranian influence in Iraq. Iranian interference in Iraq is increasingly seen as only reinforcing the situation of a weak state riddled with corruption that is unable to ensure adequate public services provision. Although it may be that Tehran’s distraction over affairs in Iraq weakens a regime that should be focusing on matters at home, it is unlikely Iran will relinquish its control in Iraq willingly.
Political infighting in Iraq can only end with Tehran’s exit and, for that to happen, Iraq’s institutions must be rebuilt and the involvement of foreign actors, including Turkey, the US and the Gulf states, must be kept to a minimum. Only strong Iraqi institutions can recalibrate the country’s politics; weak ones will continue to host menacing foreign actors and the failed state that comes with them.
• Zaid M. Belbagi is a political commentator and an adviser to private clients between London and the GCC. Twitter: @Moulay_Zaid