English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 13/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
I do not
call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master
is doing; but I have called you friends because I have made known to you
everything that I have heard from my Father
Saint John 15/15-21/:”I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant
does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I
have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not
choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that
will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I
am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. ‘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.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on November 12-13/2021
Hardened hearts, Poor insights, and death of consciences/Elias Bejjani/November
13/2021
Question: "What are some hindrances to a potent prayer life?"/GotQuestions.org/November
12/2021
Aoun Suspects Some Seeking to 'Keep Syrian Refugees in Lebanon'
Aoun-Berri Twitter Argument over Port Probe Solved
U.N. Poverty Envoy Says Lebanon Failing Its People
Mezher Refuses to Appear before Judicial Inspection
Kordahi Says Ready to Resign if KSA Offers 'Guarantees'
Supported by Hezbollah, Kordahi sets conditions for submitting resignation
UN envoy calls Lebanon ‘ failing state’, blames government for woes
Jumblat Says Doesn't Want to Join 'Anti-Hizbullah Front'
Rochdi Says U.N. Provided Fuel to Critical Health and Water Facilities
EU Official in Lebanon to Address Poland-Belarus Border Situation
Turkish FM to Visit Lebanon Tuesday
Lebanese minister in Saudi spat still unwilling to step down
Hezbollah rejects calls for minister to quit over Yemen comments
A void to fill/Nicholas Frakes/Now Lebanon/November 12/2021
Lebanon’s State Ponzi Scheme Seeks Jewish Investors/Tony Badran/The Tablet web
site/November 12/2021
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
November 12-13/2021
In message to Iran, Gulf states, Israel hold first joint sea exercises
Jockeying for premiership divides Shia parties, Sadr could look for army officer
if not Kadhimi
US staying in Syria until ISIS threat eliminated: State Department
Lack of contact from Iran govt ‘astonishing’: UN nuclear watchdog
US, Qatar against normalizing ties with Syria’s Assad regime
World Bank says it is ready to support Morocco
Paris conference on Libya to try to dispel doubts about December elections
World Leaders Bolster Troubled Libya ahead of Key Election
Russia Sends Paratroopers to Belarus for Drills near Poland
Pakistan Hosts U.S., Russia, China for Talks on Afghanistan
Calls Mount for Israel to Free Palestinians on Hunger Strike
Gaza Doctor Seeks Apology from Israel for Daughters' Deaths
Bomb Hits Mosque in Afghanistan, Wounds at Least 15
Canada temporarily withdraws non-essential personnel from Canadian embassy in
Haiti
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC
English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
November 12-13/2021
Erdoğan's Quest for a New Sharia-Based Alliance/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone
Institute/November 12/2021
Could UAE Opening to Syria Mark Major Shift for Region?/Seth J. Frantzman/The
Jerusalem Post/November 12/2021
Dispelling lies about the Sudanese army/Ali Sarraf/The Arab Weekly/November
12/2021
The May 2021 Israel-Hamas war was a stress test for normalization/Jonathan
Schanzer/Al Arabiya/November 12/2021
Iranian aggression in the Gulf must be deterred/Luke Coffey/Arab News/November
12, 2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on November 12-13/2021
Hardened hearts, Poor insights, and death of consciences
Elias Bejjani/November 13/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/104083/elias-bejjani-hardened-hearts-poor-insights-and-death-of-consciences/
"Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not
might see; and that they which see might be made blind.” (John 09/39)
Undoubtedly, our beloved occupied Lebanon has been going through extremely harsh
and difficult times for several years.
Sadly, the great and bright Lebanon has been by force replaced by
everything that is not Lebanese, because of the hegemony and occupation imposed
by the terrorist Iranian Armed proxy, Hezbollah.
The savage and cancerous Iranian occupation has hit badly all sets of norms,
values, faith and the basic foundations of patriotism.
In bid to cajole and appease the occupier, many Lebanese individuals and groups chose to be blind in both heart and
insight.
What actually is disastrous the most, lies in the fact that many Lebanese are not able any
more to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong.
Therefore, they live in a complete cognitive darkness, far from God and His
teachings.
They fell into the traps of sin, and became enemies of their own sacred
homeland, Lebanon. They sided with the Iranian occupier and abandoned their
fellow citizens who are impoverished, persecuted and tortured.
As a result of this terrifying “faith abandonment,” many of our people, leaders,
and political parties have become role models to every thing that is shame,
surrender, and
corruption.
Self inflicted atrocities in thinking and acts are no longer confined to the
majority of the corrupted leaders, who sold themselves to the demons of
occupation because of selfishness and greed, but are also prevalent among large
segments of our citizens.
In the same frames of defamation and obscenity of standards, we find that many
free Lebanese people and true believers in sovereignty, freedoms, identity, and the
deeply rooted history of Lebanon are subjected to unfair official and judicial harassment and
persecution.
This sad reality exposes the shame of many politicians, and the so-called leaders
who replicate the evil acts of those who bet on the clothes of Christ and shared
them after His crucifixion .
However, despite all sorts of abandonment, disbelief and denial, the free
and the faithful among our people and leaders, although they are few, will
ultimately
leaven the dough of the whole nation, and return it to where it was, and to where
it should be..
Those free and patriotic Lebanese citizens, and despite all the harassments that
befall them, shall continue to resist stubbornly, relying on God's will, who
made Lebanon His temple and blessed it with dozens of saints.
It remains, that currently the rudder of the ship of our mother country,
Lebanon is held and controlled by wicked shepherds, leaders, politicians and officials
who not wise, blind and not insightful.
Lebanon's corrupted Leaders, officials and politicians have fallen
into the devil's temptations because of their lack of faith, hope greediness,
and accordingly put our sacred Lebanon into all kinds of dangers, hazards and
difficulties.
In summary, when a blind person leads another blind person, both will definitely fall into
the pit . Therefore, what is required of our people, for the sake of their
salvation and the salvation of our country, is that they do not put their support
behind
blind leaders with hardened hearts, poor insights, and death of consciences, and the same time stand tall
to say No to all kinds of earthly
temptations.
Question: "What are some hindrances to a potent prayer life?"
GotQuestions.org/November 12/2021
Answer: The most obvious hindrance to a potent
prayer life is the presence of unconfessed sins in the heart of the one who is
praying. Because our God is holy, there is a barrier that exists between Him and
us when we come to Him with unconfessed sin in our lives. “But your iniquities
have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so
that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). David concurred, knowing from experience
that God is far from those who try to hide their sin: “If I had cherished sin in
my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18).
The Bible refers to several areas of sin that are hindrances to effective
prayer. First, when we are living according to the flesh, rather than in the
Spirit, our desire to pray and our ability to effectively communicate with God
are hindered. Although we receive a new nature when we are born again, that new
nature still resides in our old flesh, and that old “tent” is corrupt and
sinful. The flesh can gain control of our actions, attitudes, and motives unless
we are diligent to “put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13) and be led
by the Spirit in a right relationship with God. Only then will we be able to
pray in close communion with Him. One way living in the flesh manifests itself
is in selfishness, another hindrance to effective prayer. When our prayers are
selfishly motivated, when we ask God for what we want rather than for what He
wants, our motives hinder our prayers. “This is the confidence we have in
approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1
John 5:14). Asking according to God’s will is the same as asking in submission
to whatever His will may be, whether or not we know what that will is. As in all
things, Jesus is to be our example in prayer. He always prayed in the will of
His Father: “Yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Selfish prayers
are always those that are intended to gratify our own selfish desires, and we
should not expect God to respond to such prayers. “When you ask, you do not
receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on
your pleasures” (James 4:3). Living according to selfish, fleshly desires will
also hinder our prayers because it produces a hardness of heart toward others.
If we are indifferent to the needs of others, we can expect God to be
indifferent to our needs. When we go to God in prayer, our first concern should
be His will. The second should be the needs of others. This stems from the
understanding that we are to consider others better than ourselves and be
concerned about their interests over and above our own (Philippians 2:3-4).
A major hindrance to effective prayer is a spirit of unforgiveness toward
others. When we refuse to forgive others, a root of bitterness grows up in our
hearts and chokes our prayers. How can we expect God to pour out His blessings
upon us undeserving sinners if we harbor hatred and bitterness toward others?
This principle is beautifully illustrated in the parable of the unforgiving
servant in Matthew 18:23-35. This story teaches that God has forgiven us a debt
that is beyond measure (our sin), and He expects us to forgive others as we have
been forgiven. To refuse to do so will hinder our prayers.
Another major hindrance to effective prayer is unbelief and doubt. This does not
mean, as some suggest, that because we come to God convinced that He will grant
our requests, He is somehow obligated to do so. Praying without doubt means
praying in the secure belief and understanding of God’s character, nature, and
motives. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who
comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly
seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). When we come to God in prayer, doubting His character,
purpose, and promises, we insult Him terribly. Our confidence must be in His
ability to grant any request that is in accordance with His will and purpose for
our lives. We must pray with the understanding that whatever He purposes is the
best possible scenario. “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt,
because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a
double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6-7).
Finally, discord in the home is a definite obstacle to prayer. Peter
specifically mentions this as a hindrance to the prayers of a husband whose
attitude toward his wife is less than godly. “Husbands, in the same way be
considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the
weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that
nothing will hinder your prayers” (1 Peter 3:7). Where there is a serious
conflict in family relationships and the head of the household is not
demonstrating the attitudes Peter mentions, the husband’s prayer communication
with God is hindered. Likewise, wives are to follow the biblical principles of
submission to their husbands’ headship if their own prayers are not to be
hindered (Ephesians 5:22-24).
Fortunately, all these prayer hindrances can be dealt with at once by coming to
God in prayers of confession and repentance. We are assured in 1 John 1:9 that
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins
and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Once we have done that, we enjoy a
clear and open channel of communication with God, and our prayers will not only
be heard and answered, but we will also be filled with a deep sense of joy.
Aoun Suspects Some Seeking to 'Keep Syrian Refugees in
Lebanon'
Naharnet/November 12/2021
President Michel Aoun on Friday told a visiting EU official that Lebanon has
“suspicions” that some forces are seeking to “keep” Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
“Lebanon hosts more than 1.5 million displaced Syrians and around 500,000
Palestinian refugees, and this hosting has left numerous repercussions on the
Lebanese economy and aggravated the financial, social, educational and health
crises it is facing,” Aoun told European Commission Vice-President Margaritis
Schinas. “Lebanon, which is taking measures to prevent illegal migration from
its territory, hopes it will be treated reciprocally by world nations,
especially European countries, because it can no longer bear further burdens,”
the President added.“The international community’s continued disregard for the
Lebanese calls seeking to facilitate the return of displaced Syrians to their
country has started to create suspicions that some are seeking to keep them in
Lebanon, which is something that the Lebanese cannot accept due to its negative
impact on the demographic situation that is based on balance between the various
Lebanese components,” Aoun went on to say.
Aoun-Berri Twitter Argument over Port Probe Solved
Naharnet/November 12/2021
A heated argument between President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih
Berri on Twitter was solved due to high-level talks in the past 24 hours, al-Joumhouria
newspaper said Friday.
Aoun said in a tweet Wednesday that “innocents do not fear the judiciary,” and
“those who put themselves in the accusation position mustn't blame those who
think badly of them.”Berri swiftly responded, saying that “the judiciary should
not be the judiciary of those in power,” while Hizbullah refrained from
commenting. The Cabinet has failed to hold a single session since Hizbullah and
Amal said they will boycott Cabinet meetings until it takes a clear stand on
demands to replace port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar.
U.N. Poverty Envoy Says Lebanon Failing Its People
Agence France Presse/November 12/2021
The Lebanese government is failing its people, the U.N. envoy on extreme poverty
Olivier De Schutter said Friday, warning that the country is on course to
becoming a failed state. "Lebanon is not a failed state yet, but it is a failing
state, with a government failing its population," he told a press conference in
Beirut at the end of a 12-day visit to Lebanon. "I saw scenes in Lebanon that I
never imagined I would see in a middle income country," he said. Lebanon's
fragile government, formed in September to stem the country's worst-ever
financial crash, has yet to take serious action to stop its downward spiral.
Around 80 percent of Lebanon's population is estimated to be living under the
poverty line, as defined by international organizations. After having fully
lifted subsidies on fuel, the authorities are now gradually reducing them on
medicine and flour. The Lebanese pound has lost 90 percent of its value against
the dollar on the black market. A long-promised ration card program to assist
the country's poorest has yet to materialize, with the cash-strapped government
struggling to secure World Bank funding. "While the population is trying to
survive day-to-day, the government wastes precious time," De Schutter said.
"The government's inaction in the face of this unprecedented crisis has
inflicted great misery on the population," he said. The state's total absence
has left many helpless in the face of Lebanon's unprecedented economic meltdown.
The price of essential foodstuffs has almost quadrupled in just one year,
according to latest data from the Lebanese government. Inflation rate averaged
131.9 percent over the first six months of 2021, the World Bank says. Last
month, the Save the Children charity warned: "Children in Lebanon are skipping
many of their meals as parents struggle to afford basic foods."
Report: Mezher Refuses to Appear before Judicial Inspection
Naharnet/November 12/2021
Acting head of the Civil Court of Appeals Judge Habib Mezher has refused to
appear before inspection, al-Anbaa newspaper said. Judicial sources told the
Kuwaiti newspaper, in remarks published Friday, that Mezher “cannot give
information about a case that he was looking into."
The sources added that Mezher also refused to appear before the inspection
commission because the summoning is “selective” and “singled him out among other
judges with similar lawsuits filed against them.”The legal department of “The
People Want Reform of the System” group had filed a disciplinary complaint
against Mezher before the Judicial Inspection Authority, requesting to refer him
to the Disciplinary Commission and to immediately suspend him from work and
suspend his membership in the Higher Judicial Council until a disciplinary
decision is issued. The complaint also requested from the Public Prosecution to
start an immediate judicial investigation with Mezher for the two crimes of
“moral forgery” and “attempt to breach the confidentiality of a criminal
investigation.”Mezher had sparked controversy after he started looking into the
case against Beirut Port Blast lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar, with the
Court of Appeals announcing that he had been “exclusively” tasked with handling
a recusal lawsuit against Court of Appeals judge Nassib Elia. Mezher was later
summoned by Court of Appeals chief Judge Habib Rizkallah who notified him of his
recusal in the case against Bitar, telling him that he “exceeded his
jurisdiction.”The recusal request had been filed by the lawyer Rami Ollaiq of
the Muttahidoun activist group along with Ziad Risha.
Kordahi Says Ready to Resign if KSA Offers 'Guarantees'
Naharnet/November 12/2021
Information Minister George Kordahi announced Friday that he would consider
resigning if Saudi Arabia offers Lebanon “guarantees” on reversing the measures
it has taken since the eruption of the diplomatic row related to his remarks on
the Yemen war.
“I’m not clinging to any ministerial post and I don’t want to challenge anyone
from my position, neither the premier nor the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which I
love,” Kordahi said after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh. “I don’t
know the reason behind this unexpected storm and we’re studying the issue. We
will see the developments and if we obtain the guarantees that I had raised with
(Maronite) Patriarch (Beshara) al-Rahi I will be ready” to submit my
resignation, the Minister added. Lamenting that many Lebanese parties have
“exploited” his issue, Kordahi said there are two opinions in the country. “The
first backs the minister’s resignation and the second supports him, because this
stance reflects dignity, pride and keenness on the country’s sovereignty.”“It’s
not because of me that the government is not convening and I am not the
problem,” the minister added, while noting that he did not discuss the issue of
resignation with Berri.
Supported by Hezbollah, Kordahi sets conditions for
submitting resignation
The Arab Weekly/November 12/2021
BEIRUT--Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi said Friday he would
consider resigning if diplomatic measures taken against his country are dropped.
Kordahi criticised the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen during a
pre-recorded interview that was aired on Lebanese television last month. His
remarks angered Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates,
which responded by recalling their ambassadors from Beirut.
Unspecified guarantees
“I haven’t heard yet of any guarantees, not from domestic nor external powers,
but if these guarantees come in… then I am ready,” Kordahi told reporters when
asked about his possible resignation. “I am not holding on to a ministerial
position … I am not in a position to challenge anyone,” Kordahi said after
meeting Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri. Kordahi did not specify
what guarantees he was seeking but they are thought to be a rollback of the
diplomatic measures taken by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies over his comments.
According to observers, the support of Iran-backed Hezbollah has emboldened
Kordahi to escalate the crisis, setting conditions and acting as if from a
position of power. However, Kordahi’s approach could backfire, with Gulf states
having nothing to lose and possibly planning to escalate their punitive measures
on Lebanon.
In addition to recalling its ambassador, Saudi Arabia banned Lebanese imports
and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave the kingdom. A security source said on
Wednesday that, as a result of the spat, Kuwait would also limit the number of
visas it issues for Lebanese nationals.
Hezbollah’s role
The stand-off, which threatens to plunge Lebanon deeper into economic meltdown,
has created rifts over Kordahi’s resignation, with Lebanon’s powerful Shia
movement Hezbollah opposing such a move. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah rejected on Thursday calls for Kordahi’s resignation, underlining the
slim chances of the crisis easing any time soon. Nasrallah also said Saudi
Arabia faced complete failure in the Yemen war, where he said the fall of the
city of Marib to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement would have big consequences.
He added that Kordahi’s comments were “calm and objective” and the Saudi
reaction exaggerated. Nasrallah also accused Saudi Arabia of seeking a civil war
in Lebanon, and he said that Riyadh had contrived the crisis over the Kordahi
comments as part of “the battle with the resistance.” Riyadh has said Kordahi’s
comments were a symptom of Hezbollah’s dominance of Lebanon. Nasrallah denied
that Hezbollah dominated the country, saying it could not always get its way.
Earlier this month, the Saudi foreign minister said that Hezbollah’s dominance
in Lebanon and not just Kordahi’s comments had prompted the kingdom to take
action. More than 300,000 Lebanese live in Gulf Arab states, providing a key
lifeline for its faltering economy, according to the Gulf Labour Markets and
Migration think-tank. Saudi Arabia is Lebanon’s third-largest export market,
accounting for six percent of the country’s exports in 2020, worth around $217
million, according to Lebanon’s chamber of commerce.
UN envoy calls Lebanon ‘ failing state’, blames government
for woes
The Arab Weekly/November 12/2021
BEIRUT--The Lebanese government is letting down its people, the UN envoy on
extreme poverty Olivier De Schutter said Friday, warning that the country is on
course to becoming a failed state. “Lebanon is not a failed state yet, but it is
a failing state, with a government failing its population,” he told a press
conference in Beirut at the end of a 12-day visit to Lebanon. “I saw scenes in
Lebanon that I never imagined I would see in a middle-income country.”According
to the United Nations, around 80 percent of Lebanon’s population is estimated to
be living beneath the poverty line as defined by international organisations.
The World Bank estimates poverty rates will increase by as much as 28 percent by
the end of 2021 as Lebanon grapples with a financial crisis it has branded as
one of the planet’s worst in more than 150 years. “While the population is
trying to survive day-to-day, the government wastes precious time,” De Schutter
said. “The government’s inaction in the face of this unprecedented crisis has
inflicted great misery on the population,” he said. A foreign currency crunch,
rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the ruling elite, has seen
the Lebanese pound lose 90 percent of its black-market value against the
greenback since the crisis started in 2019. It has prompted banks to deny
depositors access to their dollar savings, forcing many to withdraw their money
in Lebanese pounds at a central bank-set exchange rate, in what experts have
called a de facto haircut.
‘Sleep hungry’
Lebanon’s fragile government, formed in September to stem the country’s
financial crash, has yet to take serious action to stop the downward spiral.
After having fully lifted subsidies on fuel, the authorities are now gradually
reducing them on medicine and flour. A long-promised ration card programme to
assist the country’s poorest has yet to materialise, with the cash-strapped
government struggling to secure World Bank funding. Meanwhile, consumers are
paying at least three times as much as a year ago for bread, grains, vegetables
or meat, according to latest data from the Lebanese government. To fill a
medium-sized vehicle’s tank, Lebanese would now have to pay more than the
monthly minimum wage of 675,000 pounds ($29). Last month, the Save the Children
charity warned: “Children in Lebanon are skipping many of their meals as parents
struggle to afford basic foods.” Among them is 33-year-old Mirna Momneh, a
mother of four who is bracing herself to lose her nine-year-old daughter to a
complicated brain tumour because she cannot afford to buy her medicine, yet
alone food.“Every night, I go to sleep, expecting to wake up to find that my
daughter has passed,” she said. Mirna and her husband, a former taxi driver, are
both unemployed, forcing the family to rely on sporadic handouts from a local
mosque to put scarce food on the table. “Sometimes, we go to sleep hungry,” she
said.
Jumblat Says Doesn't Want to Join 'Anti-Hizbullah Front'
Naharnet/November 12/2021
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has announced that he does not
want to be part of an “anti-Hizbullah front.” “I don’t want to join an anti-Hizbullah
political front. My (recent) stance was spontaneous and a description of a harsh
reality. We are suffocating and we had to scream,” Jumblat said in an interview
with French-language daily L’Orient-Le Jour. Asked about the possibility of
joining such a front, Jumblat said: “I’ve had enough of fronts.”“I’m not
anyone’s man and no one can take me for granted,” Jumblat added. “Some of my
stances are similar to Hizbullah’s stances, and this suits the party, but when
they oppose its interests, you become in its crosshairs,” the PSP leader
lamented. As for Lebanon’s ties with the Gulf countries, Jumblat said: “It is
unacceptable to provoke them and push them to isolate us, because this is
against the national interest.”“The policies that contradict with the national
interest have gone too far,” he added. Commenting on the upcoming parliamentary
elections, Jumblat revealed that he will ally with the Lebanese Forces in Chouf
and Aley because there is not a single “common denominator” with the Free
Patriotic Movement.
As for the relation with ex-PM Saad Hariri, the PSP leader emphasized that the
relation with him is “historic” and cannot be “abandoned.” “It is true that we
have political differences with Saad Hariri, but he and his political dynasty
have a special place in my heart. I have criticized his management of certain
files, but this does not mean that our strategic relation must be damaged as a
result of that,” Jumblat added. The PSP leader also said that he sees “no reason
for optimism in Lebanon or the region,” warning that Lebanon “is losing its
identity and is threatened with vanishing.”
Rochdi Says U.N. Provided Fuel to Critical Health and Water Facilities
Naharnet/November 12/2021
United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Dr Najat Rochdi, said that
from the end of September, and as part of the Emergency Response Plan launched
by humanitarian actors to step up assistance for the most vulnerable populations
affected by the on-going crisis in Lebanon, 3.1 million liters of fuel have been
provided to 515 critical facilities delivering vital services, including over
195 health facilities and 320 water pumping stations so far. Rochdi added that
“this exceptional fuel distribution to healthcare and water facilities across
Lebanon has been ensuring provision of critical health, water and sanitation
services to the most vulnerable populations affected by the ongoing energy
crisis and preserve lifesaving humanitarian activities in all districts.”The
development of this fuel delivery plan has been covering all Lebanese
Governorates, allowing the most vulnerable people affected by the crisis in
Lebanon to continue getting access to functioning health services and to safe
drinking water, Rochdi said. "More than 300 water pumping stations have been
provided with fuel, lessening most vulnerable families’ dependence towards more
expensive alternatives such as bottled or trucked water tankers."
Rochdi went on to say that over the past weeks, "the emergency fuel supply has
been guaranteeing uninterrupted health activities to those most in need."The
provision of emergency fuel has allowed 24 public hospitals to remain open,
supporting more than 887 functional hospital beds, including care for COVID-19
patients, she said.The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon added that "in
parallel, the National AIDS Program / National Tuberculosis Program, as well as
138 Primary Health Care Centres (PHCCs), have been able to maintain essential
health services to serve the most vulnerable at a critical period of
unprecedented rise of demand." "This emergency plan has also ensured the
uninterrupted operation of 12 cold chain sites to safeguard storage of routine
and COVID-19 vaccines and medications for catastrophic illness such as cancer
therapy," Rochdi said. Rochdi thanked the leadership of the World Food Program (WFP)
in Lebanon "working hand in hand with the Health and WASH sectors in handling
the logistics of fuel operations as part of the U.N. coordinated Emergency
Response Plan (ERP)."
This US$383 million humanitarian plan has been launched three months ago to
deliver crucial life-saving humanitarian assistance to most vulnerable Lebanese
and migrants affected by the crisis in Lebanon, in complement to the
humanitarian activities already implemented under the Lebanon Crisis Response
Plan and UNRWA programs, stressed Dr Rochdi. Dr Rochdi also sincerely thanked
donors to OCHA-managed Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF) and the Central Emergency
Response Fund (CERF) pooled funding mechanism "for their generous contributions
to financing critical elements of the collective fuel distribution." "The rapid
mobilization of these financial resources has enabled the humanitarian community
to act swiftly in response to critical humanitarian needs," Rochdi said. "The
unsolved energy crisis in Lebanon unfortunately continues to jeopardize basic
health and water services supply across Lebanon, threatening the life of
thousands of families in Lebanon. I call on the Government of Lebanon to take
its responsibility in ensuring that families in Lebanon have unhindered access
to essential services and in implementing necessary measures to sustainably
address the on-going energy crisis,” Dr Rochdi added.
EU Official in Lebanon to Address Poland-Belarus Border
Situation
Naharnet/November 12/2021
Beirut is the second stop in a series of visits made by European Commission
Vice-President Margaritis Schinas to engage with partner countries, which are
key in helping the European Union to put a stop to the unscrupulous
instrumentalization and weaponization of people by the Lukashenko regime.
"Change is happening," Schinas said, adding that he was in Dubai Thursday and
that he was "impressed by the commitment of authorities of the UAE to work with
us to put an end to these practices." Schinas saluted the decision by the
Turkish Civil Aviation authority to "also limit this type of operations."He said
that he got "assurances" from his interlocutors in Lebanon that "they are also
ready to work with us on this on that respect." "We must build, and we are doing
it, an international coalition against the use of people as political pawns,"
Schinas said. "Let me be very clear about what is happening: people are being
sold a lie by smugglers who fly them to Minsk and create the impression that
they will ensure safe passage to Europe," he added. "This is happening via
partner countries, regional hubs, and this will not be allowed to continue.""We
have already enacted a series of sanctions against the Belarusian regime and
will be reinforcing those with a fifth package that will come into force next
week," Schinas went on to say. He added that "now, we are working side-by-side
with the US and others that these sanctions are effective as of December." "When
it comes to the European Union," Schinas said, "we are working with partners in
the region to make sure that they understand and contribute to our efforts. I
want to thank all of them for their openness and constructive spirit." The
Vice-President announced that the European Commission is also "engaging with
talks with air carriers from third countries that are involved in these
operations" and that "efforts are being dividend.""As President von der Leyen
already underlined, we have at our disposal powerful means, tools and
instruments, to act," Schinas said, adding that he is confident that "we will
not be forced to use it, because, as I was saying earlier, change is already
happening."Schinas thanked Lebanon for the "significant efforts already
undertaken to limit the number of flights to Minsk and to their overall
commitment in the joint-management of refugee challenges in the region." "We are
seeing progress on all fronts," Schinas told a press conference in Lebanon,
adding that he would soon be travelling to Iraq and Turkey.
Turkish FM to Visit Lebanon Tuesday
Naharnet/November 12/2021
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is to visit Lebanon next Tuesday as an
affirmation of Turkey’s support for the Lebanese government, al-Joumhouria
newspaper said Friday. Al-Joumhouria added that Çavuşoğlu, coming from Iran,
will meet with top Lebanese leaders and convey to Prime Minister Najib Miqati an
invitation from Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to travel to Ankara, on
an official visit.Starting Wednesday, Çavuşoğlu will open a number of projects
executed by a Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, Tika, most notably
two solar energy projects in Dbaye and Tripoli, media reports said.
Lebanese minister in Saudi spat still unwilling to step
down
BEIRUT (AP)/November 12/2021
Lebanon’s information minister at the heart of the country’s diplomatic spat
with Saudi Arabia said Friday he would only step down if he received unspecified
guarantees that his resignation would resolve the crisis. Pressure has mounted
on George Kordahi, a former TV game show host, to apologize and step down after
comments criticizing the war in Yemen that a Saudi-led coalition is waging
against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, describing it as “absurd” and an
“aggression” by the kingdom. Kordahi made his comments in August before he took
the ministerial post and Lebanon has said the remarks about Yemen, aired in late
October, do not represent official government views. Saudi Arabia has withdrawn
its ambassador from Beirut and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave the kingdom. It
has also banned Lebanese imports, undermining the small nation’s foreign trade
and depriving it of millions of dollars as it struggles amid the economic
meltdown. Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have also pulled their
top diplomats from Lebanon, deepening the discord. “When there are guarantees, I
am ready,” Kordahi told reporters in Beirut on Friday. Lebanese Prime Minister
Najib Mikati had earlier appealed to Kordahi to do the “right thing,” indicating
he would like him to resign. So far, there have been “no guarantees," Kordahi
also said, without elaborating. He spoke a day after the leader of Lebanon’s
Shiite militant Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, said Lebanon should offer no
concessions to Saudi Arabia, which he accused of fabricating the crisis to
undermines Lebanon’s sovereignty. Saudi officials said the rift is rooted in the
growing influence of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, and Lebanon’s drift further into
Iran’s orbit, the kingdom’s regional archival. Kordahi also said that he has
handed over a message asking for guarantees to Lebanon’s Christian Maronite
Patriarch Cardinal Bishara Rai. But he didn't say what his conditions were.
Kordahi said he and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri discussed Friday government
plans for a new media law, indicating he is carrying on with business as usual.
Many Lebanese fear further punitive steps from Saudi Arabia and its allies in
the region — there are hundreds of thousands of Lebanese living in Gulf Arab
states. Lebanese in the diaspora send millions of dollars in remittances, which
help keep Lebanon afloat as it struggles with an economic meltdown.
Hezbollah rejects calls for minister to quit over Yemen comments
Bloomberg/BEIRUT (Reuters)/November 12/2021
The Hezbollah leader rejected calls for the resignation of a Lebanese minister
who sparked a diplomatic rift with Riyadh by criticising its military
intervention in Yemen, underlining the slim chances of the crisis easing any
time soon. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, also
said Saudi Arabia faced complete failure in the Yemen war, where he said the
fall of the city of Marib to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement would have big
consequences. Saudi Arabia's ties with Lebanon, which have been strained for
years by the growing role of the heavily armed Hezbollah, have hit a new low
since the airing of an interview in which information minister George Kordahi
sided with the Houthis and said Yemen was being subjected to external
aggression. Saudi Arabia has expelled the Lebanese ambassador, recalled its
envoy to Lebanon and banned all Lebanese imports. Several of its Gulf allies
have also expelled Lebanese ambassadors and recalled their own. Nasrallah said
Kordahi's comments were "calm and objective" and the Saudi reaction exaggerated.
Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of seeking a civil war in Lebanon, and he said
that Riyadh had contrived the crisis over the Kordahi comments as part of "the
battle with the resistance". Riyadh has said Kordahi's comments were a symptom
of its dominance of Lebanon. Nasrallah denied that Hezbollah dominated the
country, saying it could not always get its way. Kordahi says the interview was
recorded before he became a minister and has refused to apologise or step down.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called on Kordahi to put the national interest
first, suggesting he wanted him to quit. But he has stopped short of explicitly
demanding his resignation. Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a military
intervention in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed
government.
The Houthis have been advancing in Marib governorate and have vowed to march on
Marib city, the last stronghold in northern Yemen of pro-government troops.
Saudi Arabia says Hezbollah arms, supplies and trains the Houthis. Nasrallah
said Hezbollah had no role in Houthi "victories" in Yemen. "I say to the Saudis,
if you truly want to be rid of the Yemen issue, it is not via putting pressure
on Lebanon or on Hezbollah in Lebanon ... there is one way: accept a ceasefire,
lift the siege and go to political negotiations," he said.
A void to fill
Nicholas Frakes/Now Lebanon/November 12/2021
Turkish flags and pictures of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have appeared in
the Lebanese northern city of Tripoli, but local politicians doubt that Turkey
can fill the gap left by the Gulf States.
A poster depicting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hangs at the end of a
road with the caption praising the president as the defender of Arabs and
Muslims. Photo credit: Nicholas Frakes, NOW.
A poster of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed forcefully at anyone
that happened to be walking by. “May God protect the leader [Erdogan] of the
Arab and Islamic nation,” the poster said.
This poster, like many others in the Zahrieh neighborhood of Tripoli, was put up
by Omar Mrad, 41, and his family. When Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab
Emirates, Kuwait and Yemen announced at the end of October that they ceased
diplomatic and trade relations with Lebanon, Mrad celebrated the announcement.
He sees it as a golden opportunity for Turkey to swoop in and save the day.
“Personally, Saudi Arabia does not represent me,” he explained. “Today when the
person just takes concern in his or her own area, he or she will not consider
other areas, like other countries. This is a type of person you cannot believe
in or depend on them,” he told NOW, hinting at the Gulf countries. Turkish flags
and pictures of President Erdogan are showing up more and more on the streets of
the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli, but while some supporters cheer for
Ankara’s increased involvement as a patron of the Sunni community, local
politicians and analysts doubt that it would have the interest and the resources
to fill the gap left behind by the Gulf states.
Rabih Dandachli, head of the Beirut-based Recode think tank, is skeptical.
“This is the time for them to intervene or show their interest,” Dandachli told
NOW. “But what we see on the ground now, we don’t see any political interest, we
don’t see any intentions to interfere, we don’t see any statements from here or
there, we don’t even see any additional role being played by those
[Turkish-affiliated] NGOs.”
Omar Mrad looks at a Turkish flag he painted on his building. He believes Ankara
should play a bigger role in Lebanon. Photo credit: Nicholas Frakes, NOW.
The red flag of Turkey
According to Mrad, his family has a long history with Turkey, with his great
ancestors immigrating to Turkey, making their fortune and returning to Tripoli,
Lebanon. While he does not currently possess a Turkish passport, he says that he
is working towards gaining citizenship there.
It is this family history with Turkey and the fact that “Turkey is a country
close to Tripoli [historically]” that powers his love for the country and its
leader. Tripoli itself still boasts many monuments and structures, such as the
clock tower in Tal, that were built by the Ottomans when Lebanon was part of the
empire until the end of World War 1.
“Lebanon has the eastern identity and belongs to ancient civilizations,” Abu
Ali, a 41-year-old owner of a kiosk in Tal Square, told NOW.
With Lebanon’s economic crisis crippling the country for the last two years, the
lack of a major role by Turkey in Lebanon infuriated Mrad. He blamed the
country’s politicians for this.
“The politicians call for supporting Lebanon but the politicians refused the
Turkish help,” Mrad exclaimed. “[Erdogan] is a person who is willing to face
everyone in defense of what is right. He made Turkey great again. They do not
need anything from abroad anymore. They are the new China.”
After the diplomatic crisis between Lebanon and the Gulf began following an
interview with Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi from August, prior
to his appointment to the government, that had him claiming that the Iran-backed
Houthis were simply defending themselves against Saudi aggression, Mrad was not
surprised by the Gulf’s response.
“They are just the idea of putting money and investing,” he said. “Today, with
the accusations against Kordahi, they just gave up on Lebanon, and are thinking
of ways in order to kick out Lebanese people.”
Mrad hopes that the lack of support from the Gulf will force the Lebanese
government to accept any help offered by Turkey, especially if it meant that
Turkey’s role in Lebanon would drastically increase.
For Abu Ali, it does not matter where the help comes from as long as it means
that Lebanon is receiving some help that would pull the country, at least
somewhat, out of the economic crisis that the World Bank described as one of the
worst in 150 years. “We as Lebanese, we don’t want problems or war or anything,
we just need help from KSA, USA, Turkey or any country to end this misery that
Hezbollah is causing,” he stated. “We are open and understanding citizens who
accept any country that is willing to help.”He added that an increase in
relations with Turkey could make things more complicated given its history with
Lebanon as an occupying power, and the complicated relationship that Turkey has
with the Gulf.
“The situation is really bad. Turkey is not on good terms with the Gulf
countries; therefore, I don’t know if it can help Lebanon, especially that it
occupied Lebanon in the past.”
But Mrad insists that Turkey should be the one to help Lebanon, and even went a
step further, arguing that it would not necessarily be a bad thing if Turkey
completely took over Lebanon and would actually be in the country’s benefit.
Mrad’s justification for Turkey being the best option for Lebanon has to do not
only with his faith in Erdogan, but also the fact that it allows Lebanese to
enter its borders without requiring a visa, a policy put in place in 2010.
Turkey, he said, is a primary destination for Lebanese seeking job
opportunities. “In my opinion, as a Tripolitan, we wish that Turkey would take
over again,” he said. “Let Turkey take what they want and give us insurance.
Even with everything that has happened in the past, it had to happen in order to
spread Islam. At least, when Turkey was here, they helped build a lot in
Lebanon.”But is the Turkish government interested in replacing the Gulf’s role
in Lebanon?
Mustafa Mrad, Omar's uncle, sits near his family's building, smoking a water
pipe. Mustafa says he was the first one to put up the Turkish flags and posters
in Tripoli. Photo credit: Nicholas Frakes, NOW.
No interest
Following the August 4 Beirut port explosion, Turkey was quick to offer a
helping hand. The Turkish health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said that his country
would send 20 physicians to help treat the wounded.
In addition to that, Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said
that “Turkey has extended a helping hand to Lebanon, which lost most of the
wheat storages in the explosion in Beirut. TIKA [Turkish Cooperation and
Coordination Agency] will deliver about 400 tons of wheat to the Lebanese
authorities.”
TIKA, a government department within the prime minister’s office, is Turkey’s
main arm that provides assistance to developing countries, specifically to
Turkish communities in these countries.
But since the Beirut blast, Turkey has not been very active when it comes to its
involvement in Lebanon, despite efforts by individuals and communities that have
been trying to push for deeper relations between the two countries, especially
after the diplomatic crisis with the Gulf.
“We don’t see that Turkey is serious about filling this gap in Tripoli or in
north Lebanon or in the Sunni areas,” Moustafa Alloush, a former MP for Tripoli,
told NOW.
“For some time, the traditional Turkish community in Tripoli and in north
Lebanon have been trying to build real connections with Turkey, specifically
now.”Both Alloush and Dandachli agree that making a move in Lebanon is not in
the interest of Erdogan, given Turkey’s own economic woes and the upcoming
presidential elections that are threatening to remove Erdogan from power for the
first time in 19 years.
“Erdogan has his own business to take care of. He has an upcoming election that
he needs to win. To me, if he doesn’t win, then that’s an issue and he knows
that,” Dandachli explained.
This does not mean that Erdogan does not have ambitions to expand Turkey’s
influence in the region and beyond. Turkey has been active in Syria, where it
occupies part of the North, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh where Turkey sent Syrian
militias to fight on their behalf. It has also pushed for the past decade to
increase its influence over some Balkan countries, especially Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo.
“Definitely Erdogan has that ambition [of regional expansion],” Alloush said.
“They would love to, but the economic situation which is not as Erdogan is
hoping for and the constraints concerning its capabilities and [the
disagreements with] the international community major powers will prevent Turkey
from being a major player [in Lebanon].”
According to Dandachli, the Saudis themselves might be preventing Turkey from
making any big, decisive move.
“If Turkey came, it would appear that Turkey is coming to inherit them. The
vacancy that the Saudis are leaving, they are not leaving it for someone to
fill,” he stated. “The Gulf does not want to come back to find someone sitting
in their seat.”
Since Turkey is also a predominantly Sunni country, it is likely that the
majority of its focus, if it became involved in Lebanon, would be the Sunni
communities in areas like the north of the country and Sidon, south of Beirut,
where they would be more positively received.
Even in this context, the Gulf states have always taken the lead over Turkey in
terms of influence, with Saudi Arabia playing the largest role when it comes to
Sunni politics in Lebanon, and other Gulf countries, such as the UAE, having far
more social impact on a practical, humanitarian level.
“When you talk about the parliamentary representatives of Sunnis, you will
rarely find someone who is in favor of Turkey,” Dandachli said. “On the other
hand, you will find that all of them fall under the influence of Saudi Arabia
and the Gulf.”
“Turks support local entities in some Turkmen areas and in some historic
heritage [sites] of the Ottomans. But last year, the UAE distributed 80,000
vouchers for Coop [markets in Tripoli]. It will be much higher in impact and
spread than renovating an old Sufi worship place.”
None of this deters Mrad.
Despite the lack of action by Turkey to fill the gap left by the Gulf, he
continues to say that he would fight for Turkey if it came down to it. And even
as Lebanon’s crisis continues to worsen by the day, he remains hopeful that
Erdogan will pull Lebanon out of its deepening hole. “If there comes any war,
and they need support, we will be the first ones fighting in Turkey’s favor,”
Mrad stated.
*Rayanne Tawil contributed translations to this report.
**Nicholas Frakes is a multimedia journalist with @NOW_leb. He tweets
@nicfrakesjourno.
Lebanon’s State Ponzi Scheme Seeks Jewish Investors
Tony Badran/The Tablet web site/November 12/2021
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/lebanon-ponzi-scheme-jewish-money
The reeling regime in Beirut would like some of that magic Jewish money, please.
he Lebanese ambassador to France made news last week when he invited a number of
Jews of Lebanese heritage, who had long since fled that country, for a “family
reunion” at the embassy in Paris. A bewildered and wisely suspicious 70-year-old
woman, who left Lebanon decades ago, asked the ambassador, “Why now?”
Lebanon is “in danger,” the ambassador replied. “All its citizens who belong to
different religious sects must come together to save it.”
Allow me to translate: What we have here is known as the Lebanese swindle.
You might have heard about the country’s two-year-long economic and financial
crisis, the result of a Ponzi scheme that went bust in late 2019, exposing the
bankrupt, dysfunctional country that always lay beneath the glitzy façade of the
Travel + Leisure version of Beirut. This nationally managed scam can be traced
back to the end of the country’s civil war in 1990, when the warlords and
oligarchs launched a campaign to attract the capital of Lebanese expats. These
expats were enticed with a glorified tourism ad campaign promising that they
could take ownership of their country and rebuild it, a fallacy perfectly
calibrated to tug at their heart strings, appeal to their vanity, and suspend
their disbelief. Oh yes, yes: This country run by the Assad crime family, whose
“statesmen” are the very same warlords from the civil war, and where a terrorist
organization continues to wage war against its southern neighbor—this country is
now, at last, a real, normal state. Bring your money, children of Lebanon, park
it in our banks, move your families home, and start businesses here.
The expats bought the dream, and once they’d invested their entire lives in it,
they became accomplices in the perpetuation of the lie. Even non-Lebanese
foreigners followed suit and moved their dollars and euros, even their families,
to Beirut. They all became instrumental in expanding the national Ponzi scheme
from mere false advertising into policy advocacy in Washington, D.C., and
capitals across Europe. And boy did U.S. and European officials buy into the
scam, too. In fact, much of what passes for policymaking on Lebanon in the
United States and Europe is premised on the same emotional and sociological
impulses leveraged by the tourism ad.
Take, for example, comments from the French and British ambassadors in 2018—a
year before the Ponzi scheme was exposed and Lebanon went belly up. French
Ambassador Bruno Foucher reassured the Lebanese that President Emmanuel Macron
would never allow Lebanon to be destabilized, describing the country as a “model
of savoir-vivre.” For his part, the outgoing British ambassador, Hugo Shorter,
using the hashtag #beautifullebanon on Twitter, offered his own contribution:
“Lebanon ... is an exceptional country. There’s no other country like it in the
world that I’m aware of.” Between skiing in the morning and swimming in the
Mediterranean in the afternoon, you see, you don’t even notice the garbage
overflowing in the streets. “There is a complexity here, which is, from a
professional point of view, very stimulating,” Shorter went on. Just make sure
you bring U.S. dollars and deposit them in Lebanon’s exceptional, stimulating
banks.
Shorter’s tourism ad testimony went on, reflecting the Lewis Carroll-like, smoke
and mirrors, mind-altering and reality-warping nature of his host country: “When
I first arrived, I felt it was a bit like looking at a kaleidoscope that was
constantly changing … its complexity is such that there are many different
levels of reality and dynamics that are overlapping.”To a normal person, Shorter’s chronicle of his stint in Lebanon sounds less like
a dreamy adventure than a descent into madness: After the shock of arrival into
what feels like an insane asylum, connections with reality become tenuous and
sanity is lost, replaced by multiple, overlapping realities. Such exciting
complexity!
It might sound like an insult to call Shorter’s description hallucinatory, but
delirium is quite literally what the Lebanese government is selling. The same
week its embassy in Paris reached out to the Lebanese Jews of France, its
minister of tourism unveiled the country’s new official slogan, apparently
designed to gild and embrace his country’s dysfunction: “Lebanon: I love you in
your madness”.“This will be our touristic identity that the world will see,” Minister Walid
Nassar said at a news conference in Beirut. Henceforth it was official:
Lebanon’s identity is madness. Truer words were never spoken.
Henceforth it was official: Lebanon’s identity is madness. Truer words were
never spoken.
Ambassador Shorter might have made a compelling case for the psychedelic
experience of Lebanon, but it’s not for everyone. Take the Saudis, for example.
After riding the Lebanese crazy train for decades, in 2016 the new leadership in
Riyadh decided it was time to get off, eventually leading the Saudi foreign
minister to refer to relations with the Hezbollah-dominated country last week as
“pointless.” Predictably, when a mirror is held up to Lebanon’s politicians and
the previously mentioned expats, they go berserk. The more tightly held the
fantasy, the more severe the collision with reality, leading to psychic
disintegration.
The task, therefore, is to repair the fantasy, to restore the scheme. Which
brings us back to the invitation of the Jews to the embassy in Paris.
In the service of this official makeover, Lebanese oligarchs, as well as the
foreign think tank-journalism-NGO-activist class, have decided to enlist
Lebanon’s Jews. Of course, there is no Jewish community in Lebanon. Lebanese
Jews all live abroad, and most haven’t been in Lebanon for half a century.
Unlike the Muslim and Christian Lebanese expats who were brought back after
1990, no one has any illusions about the Jews returning to (let alone investing
in) Lebanon. Their hoped-for role in the Lebanese con is different, and the
Lebanese ambassador in Paris was not subtle about it: As the holders of
inordinate influence in the West, the all-powerful Jews should be enlisted to
help Lebanon market the latest iteration of its national scam.
To get the underlying premise, consider a scene from Roman Polanski’s 2002 film
The Pianist. A Nazi officer comes to the Warsaw ghetto and explains to the Jews
there that, by being allowed to send someone to the market to buy potatoes and
bread, they were being afforded a great opportunity for making “good business”:
Instead of eating the food, they could sell it! “Isn’t that something where you,
Jews, are good in [sic]? Make money?”
That line might as well have been playing on repeat in the Lebanese ambassador’s
head, because his message to the Lebanese Jews of Paris was essentially the
same: Isn’t there a way for you, omnipotent and shifty creatures, to use your
magical powers to help us get more money and international support?
The other useful role that Jewish presence and support can play is to help
repackage an old Lebanese saw: the cosmopolitan “tolerance” of its mythical
past. Convivencia is always a good draw. The world must save Beirut, the Paris
of the Middle East, the last Levantine city of multicultural coexistence. Look,
we have Jews. We love Jews!
Tellingly, the oligarchs of the Lebanese regime didn’t have to personally
promote this lie; once more, it was the Lebanese “intelligentsia” that marketed
it on the regime’s behalf. The whole episode was so transparently contrived
that, in one amusing instance, the fraudulence was almost too awkward to bear.
When a Lebanese Middle East studies professor in the United States decided to
chip in with a celebratory tweet, applauding the government’s outreach to the
Jews of the Lebanese diaspora and expressing hope that they might one day get
invited “to their spiritual abode, their Beirut Synagogue,” he included two
ostensible pictures of that “Beirut Synagogue” (whose actual name escaped him).
The pictures were, in fact, of the Villa Abdel Kader, a palace with no Jewish
connection whatsoever, located a few streets away.
Less amusing in all this is the role of the U.S. government. It’s not only that
Washington has for years, up to and including the recent financial meltdown,
propped up the myth of a clean and solvent Lebanese banking sector that in
reality serves as Hezbollah’s laundromat. It’s that the U.S. government, like
Lebanese diplomats and Beirut expats, is itself helping market the misleading
tourism ad.
Take Amos Hochstein, the State Department’s senior adviser for global energy
security. Hochstein was sent to Beirut last month to revive maritime border
demarcation talks between Lebanon and Israel. The talks broke down last
December, when the Lebanese, predictably, decided to expand their claims by
several hundred kilometers, so as to include Israeli waters and offshore gas
fields.
In Beirut on Oct. 21, Hochstein gave an interview to an Arabic-language channel,
in which he made a pitch straight from the Lebanese oligarchs’ script:
And look, in 2016, when I was here, had we reached a resolution in 2016, today,
you wouldn’t have any blackouts in Lebanon. The lights would be going on and you
would be paying the cheapest gas prices, because you need, paying consumers,
Lebanese people, would be paying producer prices and you’d likely be exporting.
… What we don’t want is to sit in 2025 and ask the questions, what could have
been? Instead, let’s come back and have this interview in 2025, when gas is
flowing for the first time to Lebanon from its own fields, and when you’re
joining the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean in selling gas into the global
market, and you become a global exporter of a product. That’s, that’s what’s at
stake here. That’s what’s on the table.
Sure, why not? The last block that was explored turned up dry, and you’ve yet to
even begin further exploration, and sure you’re a corrupt, insolvent mess, but
never mind all that. In four years you could not only be done with all your
electricity problems; you could be exporting gas! Washington loves you in your
madness.
At one point, Hochstein’s interviewer punctured his fantasy bubble with a sharp
reality check: Isn’t Hezbollah under U.S. sanctions, she asked? You know, the
terrorist group that runs Lebanon, its “government” and its “institutions”? Much
of Hochstein’s response could’ve been delivered by a Lebanese politician—or
activist:
I see Lebanon as a country. I don’t think of Lebanon as—Hizballah as Lebanon. …
This U.S. administration fully supports Lebanon, supports the progress of
Lebanon, recognizes the opportunity that is Lebanon. ... If we want to make sure
that Lebanese people are traveling and moving back to Lebanon, rather than
moving out of Lebanon, then you have to have hope for people that the situation
will change and that they can build a better life here. That’s the goal of this
administration. We want to support its military and we want to support its
economy as long as it continues to act on the promises that are being made on
all of the reform agenda and the idea of building back—not a new Lebanon, but
bringing back the old one that was such a great place for people to live and to
grow.
Oh, it’ll be fine! Hezbollah? What’ve they got to do with it? Personally, I
don’t see Hezbollah as Lebanon. People can move back and build their lives here.
They can be exporters of gas—just think of all the benefits. Sure, Hezbollah,
with its missiles and army, will be tapping into and directly benefiting from
those funds, but who’s to say? That could even be a good thing. Think of how
much they’d have to lose! Just imagine with me. It could be like the Lebanon of
old. You’ve got PLO-era Lebanon, you’ve got hostage-crisis-era Lebanon, you’ve
got Syrian occupation Lebanon—a kaleidoscope of possibilities, really. Multiple
layers of complex, overlapping realities. Don’t you worry, this administration
fully supports this wonderland, and is content to underwrite its alternate
reality with hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Just put it on the
taxpayer’s tab.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
November 12-13/2021
In message to Iran, Gulf states, Israel hold first joint sea exercises
The Arab Weekly/November 12/2021
MANAMA-The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have launched joint naval exercises
with Israel for the first time, amid tensions with Iran, US and Israeli military
officials said Thursday. The five-day manoeuvres are taking place in the Red
Sea, a year after the two Gulf Arab countries normalised ties with Israel. “It
is exciting to see US forces training with regional partners to enhance our
collective maritime security capabilities,” said Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper,
commander of US Naval Forces Central Command. “Maritime collaboration helps
safeguard freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade, which are essential
to regional security and stability.”The exercises, which began on Wednesday,
include boarding, search and seizure training on the USS Portland, an amphibious
transport dock ship. It is the first publicly announced military cooperation by
the UAE and Bahrain with Israel since they established diplomatic relations in
September last year. The normalisation deals broke with decades of Arab
consensus on no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state without a resolution to
the Palestinian conflict.
Iranian threat
An Israeli military official, who declined to be named, said the drills were
also aimed at keeping shipping lanes safe, including from Israel’s arch-foe
Iran. Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and the United States share concerns about Iran,
which has previously been accused of orchestrating attacks on shipping in the
region. The joint naval exercise “will increase cooperation and the safety of
the sea, not just the Red Sea, because we are dealing with Iranian terror,” the
official said. “This terror has many dimensions as you saw with the Mercer
Street (tanker) a couple of months ago,” he added.
‘Deterrence’
Iran was blamed for a July 29 drone strike on the tanker MT Mercer Street
operated by a London-based firm ultimately owned by Israeli shipping magnate
Eyal Ofer. The strike killed a former British soldier and a Romanian. Iran
denied it was responsible for that attack, or others in the area. The Rea Sea is
linked to the Mediterranean through the strategic Suez Canal and borders Yemen
where a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting alongside government forces
against Iran-backed rebels since 2015. It lies next to the Gulf of Aden, which
saw a rash of attacks on shipping by Somali-based pirates in the first decade of
the 21st century before patrols by navies from around the world largely halted
them. The Israeli military official said the drills would serve as “deterrence”
and also demonstrate “capabilities of defence when needed.”Iran this week
launched its own naval exercises near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a
chokepoint for global oil shipments.
Jockeying for premiership divides Shia parties, Sadr
could look for army officer if not Kadhimi
The Arab Weekly/November 12/2021)
BAGHDAD--Political talks between Shia factions in Iraq have fleshed out two
different trends in the competition for the premiership as well as a readiness
to accept a compromise to overcome the current logjam caused by the results of
the October general election. Although the bloc led by Muqtada al-Sadr won a
clear lead in the Shia districts, which placed it in a comfortable negotiating
position, it failed to garner sufficient seats to allow it to be the dominant
party in the next government. This has prompted other Shia parties to join ranks
as part of the so-called “coordination framework”.
Observers say that the situation that emerged from the 2021 elections is akin to
that in 2010 when the two Shia blocs won by a close margin. As a result of the
October poll, the Sadrist bloc controls 74 seats, while the seats the
“coordination framework” forces control an overall total of some 70 seats. So
far, Sadr has not been able to find a Shia ally within the “coordination
framework” in order to a larger majority, before starting negotiations over
portfolios in the next government with Sunnis and Kurds. However, within the
Sadrist bloc and the “coordination framework,” two trends as well as a possible
compromise have emerged over the premiership candidacy and the distribution of
Shia ministerial portfolios. The Sadrist bloc backs reappointing Mustafa al-Kadhimi,
the current prime minister, to form the new government. If objections to Khadimi
come from the “coordination framework,” which includes representatives of the
Shia militias loyal to Iran and the Rule of Law coalition led by Nuri al-Maliki
and others, the Sadrists would prefer to appoint a senior officer from the Iraqi
army to head the next government. And if this option also fails, Muqtada al-Sadr
will nominate former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to form the new cabinet.
Although Abadi is part of the Shia “coordination framework” forces, he is close
to Sadr, Kadhimi and moderate political forces, but has been forced to
coordinate with pro-Iran factions because of his resounding defeat in recent
elections. Iraqi political writer Masar Abdul Mohsen Radi believes that Sadr
will only choose a political party figure.
Talking to The Arab Weekly, Radi suggested that choosing Haider al-Abadi to form
the next government will undermine Maliki’s political standing. He said,
“Choosing Abadi means destroying Maliki’s presidency of the Dawa Party.” The
“coordination framework” forces prefer to endorse Maliki’s nomination but would
not say so publicly. Instead, it floats names such as that of the current
National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji, Basra Governor Asaad al-Eidani,
former Youth Minister Abdul-Hussein Abtan and MP Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani. The
same names currently circulating within the “coordination framework” have been
been mentioned during various government formation talks since 2014, with none
of them having a serious chance of being chosen. This suggests that they are all
test balloons for media consumption. Sources familiar with the negotiations
indicate that the Sadrist bloc and the “coordination framework” are expected to
postpone the choice of the candidate for prime minister until agreement is
reached on dividing ministries among the different parties within the overall
Shia quota and then choosing each minister. Sources told an Arab Weekly
correspondent in Baghdad that this scenario, which appears to be advancing with
the help of Iranian mediation, will mean granting the Sadrist bloc six
portfolios in the new government and the same number to the “coordination
framework” parties.
The sources say that trying to forge an internal Shia consensus at this stage
may mean, to a large extent, agreeing on Kadhimi, or, to a slightly lesser
degree, choosing Abadi. Analysts say such speculation reflects the magnitude of
the decline in Iranian influence, as Kadhimi and Abadi, both Shia, are
considered allies of the Arab Gulf countries and the United States and are not
acceptable to pro-Iran Shia hard liners. Iraqi political writer Hamid Al-Kafaei
said, “the winning forces should not give up their right to form a government
because such a concession has had dire consequences in 2010 when we ignored
election results and allowed the losing forces to form a government.”According
to sectarian quotas that have become the political norm in Iraq, the position of
prime minister and commander-in-chief of the armed forces belongs the Shia
majority. Kafaei said, “The Iraqi people want change and want a new, efficient,
loyal government that will pull the country out of the abyss and address the
urgent problems that have weakened and disintegrated the country, primarily
confronting the armed militias linked to Iran and stripping them of the official
legitimacy which the former parliament gave them during the era of Haider al-Abadi.
He added, “Kadhimi’s government failed in all the tasks that it was supposed to
address, the first of which is the task of prosecuting the killers of the
demonstrators, fighting corruption, doing justice to the poor and the deprived
and improving services, so renewing its term in office renewal would be a grave
mistake. Abadi’s government had also failed in the past and the country is still
suffering from its failures. Besides, it is not right to bring a loser in the
elections to lead the government.”
US staying in Syria until ISIS threat eliminated: State
Department
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/13 November ,2021
The US said Friday that terrorist groups in Syria were threatening its national
security and that US troops would not withdraw until the threat was eliminated.
“Terrorist groups like ISIS in Syria directly threaten US national security and
the Syrian people. The United States remains committed to the military mission
against ISIS,” a tweet from the State Department read. Conflicting reports have
surfaced in recent months over the commitment of US President Joe Biden to
remain in the Middle East after the colossal, deadly withdrawal from
Afghanistan. But US officials and diplomats have previously told Al Arabiya
English that their troops would remain in Iraq and Syria until their missions
were complete. In Iraq, after coming under increased pressure from Iran-backed
militias and political parties, Washington agreed to end its “combat mission”
and transition to more of a supervisory role. Although US troops are in Iraq at
the invitation of Baghdad, pro-Iran factions are calling on US troops to leave
the country. As for Syria, the US continues its anti-ISIS fight in the northern
part of the country. And on Friday, the State Department put to bed any doubts
that the US was considering withdrawing in the foreseeable future.
“We will maintain our mission in Syria until the threat posed by the terrorist
group is eliminated,” the State Department said.
Lack of contact from Iran govt ‘astonishing’: UN nuclear
watchdog
AFP/12 November ,2021
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said Friday it was “astonishing” that he has
had no contact with the new Iranian government over several important
outstanding issues since it took office. Rafael Grossi, director general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had been hoping to visit Iran before
the next meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors starts on November 22 but made
clear on Friday that he was disappointed that no invitation had yet been
forthcoming. Grossi’s latest comments come as diplomats prepare for
international talks in Vienna to restart later this month on the restoration of
the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. In parallel with those efforts, the IAEA has been
trying to resolve several other issues with Iran, including restrictions on some
of its inspections activities imposed earlier this year.Grossi visited Tehran in
September where he clinched a deal over access to surveillance equipment at
Iran’s nuclear facilities but had hoped to return soon afterwards to have
further discussions with the government of ultraconservative President Ebrahim
Raisi, who took office in August. “I have not had any contact with this
government... that has been there for more than five months,” Grossi told
reporters on Sunday, adding that the only exceptions had been “technical
conversations” with Iran’s new atomic energy chief Mohamed Eslami. “This is
astonishing and I am saying it openly because I’m saying it to them,” Grossi
said. “There’s a long list of things we need to discuss,” he said. Days after
Grossi’s September visit to Tehran, the IAEA complained that contrary to the
agreement struck there it had been denied “indispensable” access to a centrifuge
component manufacturing workshop where it needed to service equipment. Another
long-standing issue between the IAEA and Iran relates to questions the agency
has about the previous presence of nuclear material at undeclared sites in the
country. The agency has said in numerous reports that Iran’s explanations about
the material have not been satisfactory. Discussions on those issues at the
Board of Governors meeting could lead to a resolution critical of Iran. On
November 29, just a week after the start of that meeting, diplomats are due to
convene for the talks on the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of
Action (JCPOA). Those talks have been suspended since June. The JCPOA began
disintegrating in 2018, when the United States unilaterally pulled out under
President Donald Trump and began imposing crippling sanctions on Iran, including
a unilateral ban on its oil exports. In response, Iran began in 2019
disregarding strict curbs on its nuclear activities under the JCPOA. Trump’s
successor Joe Biden says he hopes to return to the agreement but progress
towards reviving the deal has been slow.
US, Qatar against normalizing ties with Syria’s Assad
regime
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/12 November ,2021
The top diplomats from the US and Qatar met in Washington on Friday, saying they
were not considering normalizing relations with Syria’s government for the time
being. “We don’t support normalization, and again, we would emphasize to our
friends and partners to consider the signals that they’re sending,” US Secretary
of State Antony Blinken said during a joint press conference with Qatar’s Deputy
PM and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Thani. Both diplomats were asked
their position after Tuesday’s visit to Damascus by UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh
Abdullah bin Zayed where he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On
Friday, Blinken said he was “concerned about the signals that some of these
visits and engagements” were sending. “And I would simply urge all of our
partners to remember the crimes that the Assad regime has committed and indeed
continues to commit,” he added. For his part, the Qatari FM said normalizing
ties with the Assad regime was not a step Doha was considering “right now.” “We
believe that all the crimes he has committed against his own people, he needs to
be held accountable. But also, we support the political resolution and political
transition over there in a peaceful way with the support of the Security Council
Resolution 2254,” he said. But he stopped short of criticizing the decision by
the UAE to re-engage with the Assad regime. “They are making their decisions
based on their own assessments and their own concern, and this is their
sovereign right. We cannot criticize,” he said. “It will be a wishful thinking
to have all the countries in the regions united when it comes to the issue of
Syria,” he added. But Al-Thani said he hoped countries would be discouraged from
normalizing ties with the Syrian regime “in order not to undermine the misery of
the Syrian people who are – what they are under, what they are living in right
now.”
World Bank says it is ready to support Morocco
The Arab Weekly/November 12/2021
RABAT--The growing momentum of the ongoing economic reforms in Morocco, along
with government’s efforts to quickly pull the country out from the coronavirus
crisis, have encouraged the World Bank to announce its readiness to support the
kingdom in carrying through development plans and creating more jobs. During a
visit to Rabat, vice-president for the MENA region at the World Bank Ferid
Belhaj said on Wednesday that Morocco’s development policies and reforms are an
example for the whole MENA region, thus renewing the international financial
institution’s backing for the kingdom’s policies and reforms. Belhaj, who is on
a visit to Morocco from November 9 to 13, welcomed “the willingness of the new
government and its firm commitment to the implementation of major priority
projects in Morocco.”The new Moroccan government is armed with a comprehensive
economic plan which would likely put the country on a track to improve
indicators including those of business, exports, commercial and industry. Belhaj
voiced the World Bank’s interest in strengthening its support for Morocco’s
economic and social development efforts. He also praised the efforts made within
the framework of the new development model, noting that Morocco is “on the right
track”. Belhaj said the World Bank was willing to provide its support, both
financial and technical, for the various large-scale reforms being undertaken by
the kingdom. He also revealed said that the institution has increased its
financial commitment to Morocco for two years. “We’re at about $1.8 billion,” he
said, noting the World Bank’s intention to continue with that level of
commitment. The World Bank agreed last June to grant Rabat a loan of $ 450
million for the development of financial services technology.
The step is part of the organisation’s contribution toward plans to increase
banking flexibility and achieve effective financial inclusion in Morocco, to
ensure that companies and individuals have smooth access to banks for liquidity
and borrowing. Last December, the World Bank provided a quarter of a billion
dollars to the Green Generation Strategy Programme for Moroccan agriculture, as
part of a joint operation with the French Development Agency, with the aim of
increasing the sector’s profitability, enhancing its sustainability and unifying
the efforts of states around the world to combat climate change.
During a working session with Belhaj, Morocco’s Economy and Finance Minister
Nadia Fettah Alaoui said that the partnership which binds Morocco to the World
Bank Group is “exemplary.” She gave as an example that the Bank’s assistance for
this year has made it possible to finance key sectors of the Moroccan economy,
in particular social services (including education, health, social protection,
human development), the financial sector, agriculture and transport. The
minister invited the World Bank, as part of its continued support for reform
projects initiated by Morocco, to further strengthen its financial backing for
government efforts to contain the fall-out from the coronavirus crisis and to
press on with its development programme. In a report published earlier this
year, World Bank experts predicted that the Moroccan economy would grow by 4.6
percent this year, boosting a previous forecast. The World Bank’s estimates are
almost identical with the expectations of the High Commission for Government
Planning, which is the official statistics authority in Morocco.
Paris conference on Libya to try to dispel doubts about December elections
The Arab Weekly/November 12/2021
PARIS— France is hosting an international conference on Libya on Friday as the
North African country heads into long-awaited elections next month, a vote that
regional and world powers hope will pull the oil-rich nation out of its
decade-old chaos despite threats by potential spoilers and foreign
interferences. The presidential vote on December 24, and legislative elections,
are the core parts of a UN plan to help restore stability, but the calendar has
been under pressure as tensions resume between rival camps. There are also fears
that some of the factions will not recognise the results of the polls,
especially Islamists and “revolutionary” militias, who have threatened not to
accept the outcome of the vote. Success of the election could otherwise mark a
turning point in the history of Libya since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled
the regime of long-time ruler Muammar Gadhafi. Key players attending the meeting
will include US Vice-President Kamala Harris and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi, one of Paris’s closest allies in the Middle East. Harris said Monday
she will take part in the conference “to demonstrate our strong support for the
people of Libya as they plan for elections.”Libya will be represented by Mohamed
al-Menfi, the head of the transitional presidency council that carries out
head-of-state functions ahead of the elections, as well as Prime Minister
Abdelhamid Dbeibah. Libyan media have reported that Dbeibah will be accompanied
by foreign minister Najlah al-Mangoush, despite her suspension by the presidency
council in a move that highlighted tensions between the premier and the
presidency council. The French are trying to put a positive spin on the event.
“The elections are within grasp. There is a strong momentum in Libya for them to
go ahead. The stability of the country is at stake,” said a French presidential
official, who asked not to be identified by name. Earlier this week, Libya
opened registration for election candidates, with speculation mounting over
possible presidential bids by Libyan National Army (LNA) commander, Field
Marshal Khalifa Haftar and Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam, both deeply divisive
figures. A leading contender could also be current Premier Abdulhamid Dbeibah,
if he manages to disentangle the legal complications surrounding his potential
bid as he has not formally announced his candidacy yet. The electoral law
stipulates that any candidate in an official position, should effectively
declare his bid three months before the December vote by leaving office, albeit
temporarily. The scheduling also remains unclear, presidential and parliamentary
elections were both slated for December 24.In early October, parliament then
pushed back the legislative elections until January, though world powers and the
UN want them held simultaneously.
French stakes
Elysee officials have been at pains to present the conference as an
international effort, co-presided by France, Germany, Italy, the United Nations
and Libya itself. But it represents the latest foray into high-stakes
international diplomacy by Macron, who is expected to seek re-election in April
and whose country also takes on the EU presidency in January. In May 2018, a
year into his term in office, Macron also convened the key Libyan leaders for a
conference in Paris where they agreed to hold elections that year. Since then,
France has faced accusations that it has favoured Haftar in the conflict against
the UN-mandated governments in Tripoli.
Paris has rejected the claims.
Macron wants the conference to endorse a plan for the departure of all foreign
forces and mercenaries from Libya, the French presidential official said. Turkey
sent in troops as well as thousands of pro-Ankara mercenaries units from Syria
to shore up the Tripoli government. Observers also accuse Moscow of deploying
mercenaries belonging to the Wagner group, which is allegedly controlled by a
close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a rare visit to Western
Europe amid tensions between Moscow and the West, Russia’s Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov will be attending.
But in a new sign of the tense relations between Ankara and Paris, Turkey is
only sending its deputy foreign minister, Sedat Onal.
Rifts and threats
One prominent absentee is Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was
invited by Paris but is staying away after taking umbrage at comments by Macron
criticising his country’s “political-military system”. The dispute prompted an
unusual expression of contrition from the Elysee, which said it “regretted” the
misunderstandings caused by the remarks. The conference comes less than six
weeks before Libyans are scheduled to cast their ballots in the first round of
the presidential elections on December 24. Parliamentary elections are to take
place nearly two months later, along with a second round of the presidential
vote. The long-awaited vote, however, still faces challenges, including
unresolved issues over election laws and occasional infighting among armed
groups. Other obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the country’s
east and west and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops. The
UN has estimated that there have been at least 20,000 foreign fighters and
mercenaries in Libya over the past few years, including Russians, Syrians,
Turkish, Sudanese, and Chadians. A leading rights group questioned Thursday
whether Libyan authorities can hold free and fair elections. Human Rights Watch
criticised what it said were Libya’s restrictive laws that undermine freedom of
speech and association, as well as the presence of armed groups accused of
intimidating, attacking and detaining journalists and political activists. “The
main questions leaders at the summit should ask are: can Libyan authorities
ensure an environment free of coercion, discrimination, and intimidation of
voters, candidates, and political parties?” it said in a statement. In July, the
UN special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, accused “spoilers” of trying to obstruct
the vote to unify the divided nation. The Security Council has warned that any
individual or group undermining the electoral process could face UN sanctions.
Politicians and warlords in western Libya issued statements this week opposing
holding the vote according to the laws ratified by the country’s parliament.
Khaled al-Meshri, head of Tripoli-based Supreme Council of State, went further
and threatened in televised comments to resort to violence to prevent LNA
commander Khalifa Haftar from taking office if he is elected.
World Leaders Bolster Troubled Libya ahead
of Key Election
Associated Press/November 12/2021
France is hosting an international conference on Libya on Friday as the North
African country heads into long-awaited elections next month, a vote that
regional and world powers hope will pull the oil-rich nation out of its
decade-old chaos. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and several world leaders
will take part in the Paris conference, and are expected to push for
transparent, credible elections. They will also urge the withdrawal of
mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya, as stated in last year's
U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended fighting between rival factions in the
country.
Libya has been engulfed in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising 2011 that toppled
longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The oil-rich country
was for years split between rival governments - one based in the capital,
Tripoli, and the other in the eastern part of the country. Each side is backed
by different foreign powers and militias. Friday's conference is co-chaired by
France, Germany, Italy, Libya, and the United Nations, and attended by
international and regional high-level officials. The participants are expected
to push for an "indisputable and irreversible" election process, a joint
commitment to fight trafficking of people and weapons through Libya. They also
are expected to advocate for tangible efforts withdraw mercenaries and foreign
troops, according to French President Emmanuel Macron's office.
Harris said Monday she will take part in the conference "to demonstrate our
strong support for the people of Libya as they plan for elections." Also
expected to attend are Libyan leaders Mohamed el-Manfi, head of the presidential
council, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush.
The conference comes less than six weeks before Libyans are scheduled to cast
their ballots in the first round of the presidential elections on Dec. 24.
Parliamentary elections are to take place nearly two months later, along with a
second round of the presidential vote.
The long-awaited vote, however, still faces challenges, including unresolved
issues over election laws and occasional infighting among armed groups. Other
obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the country's east and west
and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops. The U.N. has
estimated that there have been at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries
in Libya over the past few years, including Russians, Syrians, Turkish,
Sudanese, and Chadians. A leading rights group questioned Thursday whether
Libyan authorities can hold free and fair elections. Human Rights Watch
criticized what it said were Libya's restrictive laws that undermine freedom of
speech and association, as well as the presence of armed groups accused of
intimidating, attacking and detaining journalists and political activists.
"The main questions leaders at the summit should ask are: can Libyan authorities
ensure an environment free of coercion, discrimination, and intimidation of
voters, candidates, and political parties?" it said in a statement. In July, the
U.N. special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, accused "spoilers" of trying to
obstruct the vote to unify the divided nation. The Security Council has warned
that any individual or group undermining the electoral process could face U.N.
sanctions. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week, "We want to see an
election which the Libyan people can believe in, that is credible, and that is
in line with the past agreements."Politicians and warlords in western Libya
issued statements this week opposing holding the vote according to the laws
ratified by the country's parliament. Khaled al-Meshri, head of Tripoli-based
Supreme Council of State, went further and threatened in televised comments to
resort to violence to prevent powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter, a
potential frontrunner in the presidential race, from taking office if he is
elected. Libya's civil war escalated in 2019, as Hifter, who commands the
self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, launched an offensive to take Tripoli from
armed militias loosely allied with the then U.N.-supported but weak government
in the country's capital. Hifter, who was allied with an east-based
administration, was backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and
France. However, his 14-month campaign and march on Tripoli ultimately failed in
June 2020, after Qatar and Turkey intensified their military support, with the
latter sending mercenaries and troops to help shore up western Libya militias.
Russia Sends Paratroopers to Belarus for Drills near Poland
Associated Press/November 12/2021
Russia sent paratroopers to Belarus Friday in a show of support for its ally
amid the tensions over an influx of migrants on the Belarusian border with
Poland. The Russian Defense Ministry said that as part of joint war games
Russian paratroopers will parachute from heavylift Il-76 transport planes in
Belarus' Grodno region that borders Poland. The Belarusian military said the
exercise involving a battalion of Russian paratroopers was intended to test the
readiness of the allies' rapid response forces due to an "increase of military
activities near the Belarusian border."
It said that as part of the drills, which will also involve Belarusian air
defense assets, helicopter gunships and other forces, troops will practice
targeting enemy scouts and illegal armed formations, along with other tasks.
Earlier this week, Russia sent its nuclear-capable strategic bombers on patrol
missions over Belarus for two straight days. Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador,
Dmitry Polyansky, told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that the
flights came in response to a massive build-up on the Polish-Belarusian border.
Russia has strongly supported Belarus amid a tense standoff this week as
thousands of migrants and refugees, most of them from the Middle East, gathered
on the Belarusian side of the border with Poland in the hope of crossing into
Western Europe.
The European Union has accused Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander
Lukashenko, of encouraging illegal border crossings as a "hybrid attack" to
retaliate against EU sanctions on his government for its crackdown on domestic
protests after Lukashenko's disputed 2020 reelection. Belarus denies the
allegations but has said it will no longer stop refugees and migrants from
trying to enter the EU. The Belarusian Defense Ministry accused Poland on
Thursday of an "unprecedented" military buildup on the border, saying that
migration control did not warrant the concentration of 15,000 troops backed by
tanks, air defense assets and other weapons. Russia and Belarus have a union
agreement envisaging close political and military ties. Lukashenko has stressed
the need to boost military cooperation in the face of what he has described as
aggressive actions by NATO allies.
Pakistan Hosts U.S., Russia, China for Talks on Afghanistan
Associated Press/November 12/2021
Pakistan on Thursday hosted talks with special envoys from the United States,
Russia and China on the path forward for Afghanistan, where a deepening
humanitarian crisis has forced many Afghans to migrate to neighboring countries
since the Taliban takeover in August.
The international community has not recognized the government appointed by the
Taliban. Afghanistan's Taliban-appointed foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi,
did not attend the meeting but later met with the special envoys in Islamabad.
He also met separately with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and
other officials to discuss a range of issues, including how to help Kabul
overcome a deepening economic crisis and avoid a refugee crisis. The meeting
released a joint statement appealing for the international community to urgently
provide humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. It also urged the Taliban to form
an inclusive and representative government that respects the rights of all
Afghans and provides for the equal rights of women and girls to participate in
all aspects of the Afghan society. The statement "welcomed the Taliban's
continued commitment to allow for the safe passage of all who wish to travel to
and from Afghanistan and encouraged rapid progress, with the onset of winter, on
arrangements to establish airports countrywide that can accept commercial air
traffic, which are essential to enable the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian
assistance."It also condemned recent deadly attacks in Afghanistan and asked
"the Taliban to cut ties with all international terrorist groups, dismantle and
eliminate them in a decisive manner, and to deny space to any terrorist
organization operating inside the country."Thursday's gathering in Islamabad
comes weeks after Russia hosted similar talks on Afghanistan, which Washington
did not attend. On Wednesday, India hosted senior security officials from
Russia, Iran and five Central Asian countries to discuss the ramifications of
the Taliban takeover. India's archrival Pakistan and its ally China boycotted
those talks. The Taliban seized power in a blitz offensive that captured the
capital, Kabul, and most of the country on Aug. 15, ahead of the final
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
In his remarks at the meeting, Qureshi expressed concerns that an economic
collapse in Afghanistan would cause broader instability. "All of us have common
concerns related to Afghanistan and also have a shared interest in the country's
peace and stability," he said, and also called for the release of Afghan funds
frozen by the world community. Qureshi urged for an "engagement with the new
Afghan government" to "help consolidate peace and stability, promote sustainable
economic development and help constrict space for terrorist outfits operating
from and within Afghanistan," he said.
"With international funding dried up, it has become difficult to pay even
salaries, let alone pursue development projects," he added. "The common man is
reeling under the effects of a severe drought. Any further downward slide will
severely limit the new administration's capacity to run the government" in
Afghanistan. After the meeting, Qureshi said he had told participants the talks
would be more productive with the Taliban representative in the room. He said
the next meeting of the group was due in Beijing, where the Taliban
representative will be invited.
Pakistan has been urging nations to free Afghanistan's assets abroad to enable
the Taliban to access those funds to avert the deepening crisis. The Taliban-run
administration currently does not have access to the Afghan central bank's $9
billion in reserves, most of which is held by the New York Federal Reserve.
Calls Mount for Israel to Free Palestinians on Hunger
Strike
Associated Press/November 12/2021
Israel has faced growing calls to release five Palestinians who have been on
hunger strike for weeks to protest a controversial policy of holding them
indefinitely without charge, including one who has been fasting for 120 days and
is in severe condition. Israel says the policy, known as "administrative
detention," is needed to detain suspects without disclosing sensitive
intelligence, while the Palestinians and human rights groups say it denies them
due process. Suspects can be held for months or years without seeing the
evidence against them.
Palestinians have been holding rallies across the Israeli-occupied West Bank and
Gaza in solidarity with the hunger strike and to protest against administrative
detention. Prisoners have held a number of hunger strikes in recent years to
protest the policy and to campaign for better prison conditions, but the latest
appears to be among the most serious. The Israeli military did not respond to a
request for comment.
The five Palestinians, ranging in age from 28 to 45, have been on hunger strike
for at least 32 days. A sixth prisoner ended his 113-day hunger strike on
Thursday after being told he will be released in three months, his lawyer said.
Kayed Fasfous, 32, has been on hunger strike for at least 120 days and is
hospitalized in Israel. His weight has dropped from 95 to 45 kilograms (210 to
100 pounds), according to a recent evaluation by Dr. Amit Tirosh, an Israeli
physician, on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. He drinks around 1.5
liters of water a day and takes a few grains of sugar at a time, but stopped
consuming salt because it upset his stomach and is refusing infusions. He has
difficulty speaking, suffers short-term memory loss, hearing difficulty and a
permanent headache, raising concerns of cognitive damage, the report said.
Tirosh said his condition is "life-threatening" and that even if he stops the
hunger strike, he will still need to spend several weeks in the hospital.
Tirosh told The Associated Press that a hunger strikes can cause "severe,
prolonged and irreparable" brain and cognitive damage. Fasfous' detention has
been suspended on health grounds, but Israel has refused his request to be
transferred to a hospital in the occupied West Bank, where he says he would halt
his hunger strike. "The hospital becomes kind of a prison," said Ran Goldstein,
the executive director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. "He is not
arrested anymore, however, he cannot leave Israel." Fasfous would also be
subject to arrest again once he recovers. Israel regularly detains Palestinian
suspects from across the occupied West Bank, including in areas governed by the
internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. Hundreds of Palestinians,
including Fasfous' brother, took part in a demonstration in the West Bank town
of Dhahiriya on Thursday in solidarity with the hunger strikers.
"The only demand of Kayed is freedom," said his brother, Khalid Fasfous. He said
his brother told the family "he will be victorious if he is released or if he is
martyred." An Israeli prison service official said three of the hunger strikers
are in stable condition under 24-hour medical supervision in a prison medical
facility, while another, who has been fasting for 30 days, does not require that
degree of care. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the prison
service does not generally share medical information about prisoners. Miqdad
Qawasmeh, 24, who had been on hunger strike for 113 days, ended his strike early
Thursday after being told he will be released in February, his lawyer, Jawad
Boulos, told The Associated Press. Israel's prison service said it is holding at
least 488 people in administrative detention. Roy Yellin, of the Israeli human
rights group B'Tselem, said administrative detainees are held in "a Kafkaesque
legal reality that Israel has created specifically for Palestinians under which
they are detained for an indefinite period of time without real legal recourse
to prove their innocence." He said administrative detainees are often held on
suspicion that they might carry out an attack, with military judges granting
"rubber-stamp" approval. "Administrative detention is a measure that Israel used
almost exclusively for Palestinians and almost never for Jews," he said, calling
it part of the "apartheid reality" of Israeli rule.
Gaza Doctor Seeks Apology from Israel for Daughters' Deaths
Associated Press/November 12/2021
Izzeldin Abuelaish captured widespread sympathy in Israel when he lost three
daughters and a niece in an Israeli strike during the 2009 war in the Gaza
Strip. Now, the Palestinian doctor is seeking justice in Israel's highest court.
Abuelaish is scheduled to appear before the Supeme Court in Jerusalem on Monday
in hopes of receiving an apology from Israel and compensation for his loss. The
Harvard-educated doctor, a widower who moved to Canada after the tragedy, says
he is hopeful that he will prevail. But after a lower court rejected his case in
2018, he knows he might have traveled 9,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) only to
lose again. In an interview with The Associated Press, Abuelaish said that such
an outcome would only shine a brighter light on the injustice of his family's
pain. Either way, he says, the retelling of the story is a step in itself on the
path toward a legacy of peace for his daughters — of "creating life from death
and killing.""If we have a positive answer from the court, this is a great
success," Abuelaish said. But whatever the legal result, "I am determined we are
not the victims anymore."Abuelaish, 66, was an obstetrician and peace activist
well known in Israel even before the tragedy. He had worked in an Israeli
hospital while living in Gaza. And during the war, launched to end Hamas' rocket
fire on Israeli border towns, he often gave updates to Israeli media in fluent
Hebrew. But on Jan. 16, 2009, live television broadcast a nightmarish, real-time
report from Abuelaish to Israelis watching Channel 10 for news about the war.
"My daughters have been killed," he sobbed into a phone. A journalist listened
at the other end of the line as the audio aired live. The blast from the Israeli
strike took the lives of his daughters Aya, 14, Bessan, 21, and Mayar, 15, as
well as his niece Noor, 17. Footage from the scene shows Abuelaish directing the
evacuation of another daughter, Shatha, 17, who was severely wounded but
survived.
For 13 years, Abuelaish has battled in Israeli courts and the public arena to
deliver justice to his family for what he says was a terrible mistake by the
Israeli army. The government says the law shields the military from liability
for wartime actions. In 2018, a lower court sided with the army. Abuelaish's
appeal to that ruling had been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, until
Monday. There have been bright spots, Abuelaish said. Two weeks ago, he learned
that an expectant Israeli mother had read of his journey and decided to name her
baby Aya — after his own daughter. Abuelaish says he'll meet the girl, now 8
years old, and her family over the weekend. "I am so moved," he said, reading
from the letter a few days before leaving his home in Toronto for Israel this
week. "I didn't know what to do, what to say."That's rare for the widower and
father of five surviving children, who has spoken around the world about the
need for facts, truth and equality — and the cost of hate and war. He's been
clear about what he wants to make of his daughters' legacy. His book is titled
in part, "I Shall Not Hate."Abuelaish's presence in Israel is an accomplishment
in itself. Few Gazans are allowed to enter the country and the success of his
cooperation with friends and colleagues in Israel is even rarer. He has
established the Daughters For Life Foundation to give out scholarships, as it
did on Thursday to two young women at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He
also wants to establish a college for Middle Eastern women, perhaps in Cyprus,
named for the foundation and dedicated to his daughters. On Wednesday in
Jerusalem, he lobbied members of the Knesset to support that project. "My
daughters' names now are written on their graves, in the stone," Abuelaish told
reporters outside Israel's parliament. "I want to see their names written on an
institution that spreads light and hope and wisdom to young women."He hopes for
the validation of Israel's high court on Monday, but the legal outlook is
difficult, one expert said. The Supreme Court will consider whether the lower
court's finding was correct under Israel's tort law.
The court "won't even get to the question of whether the military acted
properly," said Yuval Shany, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute
and a law professor at Hebrew University. In a statement to the AP on Wednesday,
the Israeli Defense Ministry pointed to the lower court ruling that the strike
on the Abuelaish home occurred during a war.
It also reiterated expert testimony that shrapnel retrieved from two bodies was
traced to equipment used by Palestinian militants. That, the ministry said,
supports the contention that the five-story home was thought to have served as a
Hamas position.
Abuelaish vociferously denies that. He is adamant that there were no militants
and no warning until the shells struck. The 2009 conflict was the first of four
wars between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has controlled
Gaza since 2007. The bitter enemies fought their fourth war in May. Still, there
are signs of change in the region — a new diverse coalition of eight parties
took office in Israel in June, with Arabs part of the government for the first
time. Dovish Jewish-led parties are also part of the government. Abuelaish says
he got an empathetic reception this week from lawmakers in Knesset, an
improvement from his last visit to Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid
gave him a hug. "Maybe," said Shany, "this government will be more open than the
previous one to making such a statement" of apology, "just because the
composition is more diverse."
Win or lose in court, Abuelaish has plans afterward — in Gaza. "I want to go to
my daughters grave, to say to them: 'I am here. I didn't give up, I didn't
forget you'," he told reporters in Jerusalem. "Until then ... I am educating for
your justice."
Bomb Hits Mosque in Afghanistan, Wounds at Least 15
Associated Press/November 12/2021
A Taliban provincial spokesman says a bomb exploded in a mosque during Friday
prayers, wounding 15 people in eastern Afghanistan, where Islamic State group
militants have been waging a campaign of violence.
Qari Hanif, the government spokesman for Nangarhar Province, said the bomb
appeared to have been planted inside the mosque in the town of Traili, located
in the mountainous Spin Ghar area outside the provincial capital Jalalabad. IS
militants have been carrying out nearly daily shootings and bombings against
Taliban fighters in the province. IS bombings against mosques in the area have
been much rarer, however, since the region is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. The
group is known for bombing mosques belonging to Afghanistan's Shiite minority
that have killed hundreds of people. Since coming to power in Afghanistan three
months ago, the Taliban have been waging a counterinsurgency campaign, vowing to
put down the threat from IS. IS is an enemy of the Taliban. The two groups share
a hardline interpretation of Islam and over the years engaged in some of the
same violent tactics, such as suicide bombings. However, the Taliban have
focused on seizing control of Afghanistan, while IS adheres to global jihad. On
Wednesday, a spokesman for the Taliban intelligence service told reporters in
Kabul that the agency has arrested close to 600 IS members, including key
figures and financial supporters. The spokesman, Khalil Hamraz, said at least 33
IS members have been killed in gun battles with Taliban security forces.
Canada temporarily withdraws non-essential personnel from
Canadian embassy in Haiti
Essential staff continues to support Canadians in Haiti
November 11, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
Global Affairs Canada today issued the following statement:
“The security situation in Haiti is rapidly deteriorating and is being
exacerbated by ongoing fuel shortages.
“As a result, Global Affairs Canada is temporarily withdrawing non-essential
Canadian employees as well as family members of Canadian embassy staff from
Haiti.
“The safety of Canadians is our highest priority at all times, and to this end
our embassy in Port-au-Prince remains open. Consular officials stand ready to
help Canadians in Haiti who need emergency assistance. They can be reached at
011 (509) 2-812-9000 or by email at PRNCECS@international.gc.ca.
“We continue to advise Canadians to avoid non-essential travel to Haiti and
encourage all Canadians in Haiti to check our Travel Advice and Advisories
webpage regularly and to register with the Registration of Canadians Abroad
service.
“Canadians can also contact Global Affairs Canada’s Emergency Watch and Response
Centre 24/7 at: Phone: 1 613 996 8885
Email: sos@international.gc.ca
SMS: 1-613-686-3658
“As a long-standing friend of the people of Haiti, Canada remains deeply
committed to helping Haiti achieve a more democratic, secure and prosperous
future. Canada will always step up to assist the Haitian people, as we have done
in the past.”
The Latest The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November 12-13/2021
Erdoğan's Quest for a New Sharia-Based Alliance
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/November 12/2021
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Islamist ambitions seem to be seeking
an international role in post-U.S. Afghanistan in alliance with the Taliban,
Qatar, Pakistan and Malaysia. The trouble is, Turkey, among the new sharia
alliance in the making, is the only country with institutional ties to the
Western world.
Biden has weakened himself and his country so badly that the superpower was
reduced to the point of being blackmailed by NATO's only Islamist member.
Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has made it clear: "If the U.S. is to be
in the Middle East, it must cooperate with Turkey."
Afghanistan is not Erdoğan's only pro-sharia ambition after the U.S.
withdrawal... Turkey ramped up its drone attacks on Yazidis in Iraq's Sinjar
district..... "The Turkish drone strikes increasingly threaten to undercut
refugee repatriation inside Iraq and create space for the Islamic State to
regroup, as the most effective Kurdish groups fighting ISIS are Sinjar's
grassroots Kurdish and Yazidi militias," warned Michael Rubin in the Washington
Examiner.
Erdoğan's Islamist, neo-Ottoman ambitions are now taking a pro-sharia turn. That
is bad news for the region to Turkey's south and east. Worse, it is a slow-fuse
time bomb for the West.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Islamist ambitions seem to be seeking
an international role in post-U.S. Afghanistan in alliance with the Taliban,
Qatar, Pakistan and Malaysia. The trouble is, Turkey, among the new sharia
alliance in the making, is the only country with institutional ties to the
Western world. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
U.S. President Joe Biden's lamentable decision to unilaterally withdraw from
Afghanistan is paving the way for the emergence of a new sharia-based alliance,
including NATO member Turkey -- theoretically a Western ally. Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Islamist ambitions appear to be seeking an international
role in post-U.S. Afghanistan in alliance with the Taliban, Qatar, Pakistan and
Malaysia. The trouble is, Turkey, among the new sharia alliance in the making,
is the only country with institutional ties to the West.
Turn now to SADAT, a Turkish military consultancy and training company, though
hardly an ordinary one. There were claims that the Erdoğan government, through
SADAT, sent arms shipments to Syria to help the jihadists. Critics, including
opposition lawmakers, have been inquiring about SADAT's activities, after
suspecting its real mission may be to train official or unofficial paramilitary
forces to fight Erdoğan's multitude of wars, both inside Turkey and without.
SADAT is owned by retired general Adnan Tanrıverdi who was appointed in August
2016 as Erdoğan's chief military advisor, but quit in 2020. In 1996, Tanrıverdi
was forced to resign from the military due to "suspected radical Islamist
activities." In a 2009 speech, Tanrıverdi said:
"To defeat Israel, the country must be forced into defensive warfare, all of its
forces must be engaged and the war must be prolonged.
"What should Turkey do? The resistance units in Gaza should be supported by
anti-tank and low-altitude anti-aircraft weapons.
"Turkey, Iran, Syria, the Iraqi Resistance Organization and Palestine should
form the nucleus of a defense structure. Within this context the formation of an
Islamic rapid reaction force consisting of an amphibious brigade, an armored
brigade and an airborne brigade should be encouraged."
Recently, SADAT advocated the idea of Turkey supporting and helping the Taliban
-- a group it has called a resistance movement -- to establish a sharia state in
Afghanistan. A research piece published on September 13 by Ali Coşar, a retired
colonel and board member of SADAT, advocated that Turkey help the new
Afghanistan run by the Taliban in cooperation with Pakistan, Qatar and Malaysia.
Coşar dismisses the description that the Taliban is a terrorist organization:
"They [the Taliban] are members of a resistance movement that fought against
colonial America for 20 years to take over the government and establish a state
that practices sharia. ..." Just like Ottoman Turks who ruled conquered lands
under sharia law, he reminded his listeners.
Biden has weakened himself and his country so badly that the superpower was
reduced to the point of being blackmailed by NATO's only Islamist member.
Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has made it clear: "If the U.S. is to be
in the Middle East, it must cooperate with Turkey."
Seth J. Frantzman wrote in the Jerusalem Post in August:
"The victors in Kabul will be those who benefit from the Taliban taking power.
They will also be those who benefit or cheer as the U.S. appears humiliated.
"Among those 'winners' are Qatar, Russia, China, Pakistan, Turkey and Iran. This
can be seen in various ways. Most of these countries hosted the Taliban or
tacitly backed them."
Afghanistan is not Erdoğan's only pro-sharia ambition after the U.S. withdrawal.
As the international community focused on the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan,
Turkey ramped up its drone attacks on Yazidis in Iraq's Sinjar district. The
most recent strikes destroyed a medical clinic. Analyst Michael Rubin warned in
the Washington Examiner.:
"The Turkish drone strikes increasingly threaten to undercut refugee
repatriation inside Iraq and create space for the Islamic State to regroup, as
the most effective Kurdish groups fighting ISIS are Sinjar's grassroots Kurdish
and Yazidi militias."
Biden's catastrophic miscalculation in Afghanistan will also have unwanted
repercussions in Syria. In an interview with The Independent, Abu Mohammad al-Joulani,
leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, commented on the
Afghan situation: "The aftermath of the U.S. surprise withdrawal from Kabul will
also have an impact on the Kurds [or, as he put it, 'the US-backed enemies of
the Syrian revolution']."
HTS is a dominant jihadist power in the Idlib "de-escalation zone" in northern
Syria. HTS has never been in direct confrontation with the Kurds. Al-Joulani's
words, however, highlighted his open hostility towards the Kurdish
administration that, as he purports, is only able to control a huge swath of
Syria and maintain relative stability thanks to the US support. As soon as the
last U.S. plane takes off from the Syrian soil, according to al-Joulani, this
Kurdish dream will crumble.
When combined in a simple analytical way, Erdoğan's pro-sharia ambitions and the
terrorist al-Joulani's statements herald a new jihadist proxy army for Ankara
fighting on Syrian soil. The unwritten deal looks too apparent: HTS fighting
Turkey's regional enemies, the Kurds and the Syrian regime, in return for tacit
Turkish support for international recognition as a legitimate entity rather than
as a terrorist one.
Erdoğan's Islamist, neo-Ottoman ambitions are now taking a pro-sharia turn. That
is bad news for the region to Turkey's south and east. Worse, it is a slow-fuse
time bomb for the West.
*Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the
country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is
taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Could UAE Opening to Syria Mark Major Shift for Region?
Seth J. Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/November 12/2021
Syria's President Bashar Assad (right) meets with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh
Abdullah bin Zayed in Damascus in this photo released by Syrian state-run media
on November 9, 2021. (SANA)
The United Arab Emirates foreign minister's meeting with Syrian President Bashar
Assad in Damascus this week is raising eyebrows around the region and in
Washington. The visit is symbolic and important, and could mark a shift in the
region.
The UAE and other countries have made quiet overtures to Damascus for years, and
there is an emerging consensus between the Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and their partners that the time has come to bring Syria and its regime in from
the cold.
France 24 noted that "the visit is widely seen as a sign of regional efforts to
end Assad's diplomatic isolation, as Syria grapples with a spiraling economic
crisis caused by years of conflict and compounded by Western sanctions."
The UAE's official position is that it supports efforts to end the "crisis" in
Syria. This is a reference to more than a decade of conflict in the country.
Syria is divided today. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces control eastern
Syria, Turkey controls parts of northwest and northern Syria, and the regime
controls the rest of the country. Russia plays a role in Damascus and Latakia,
helping the regime; Iran plays a role in Albukamal, T-4 and near the Golan,
where its proxies, such as Hezbollah, threaten Israel.
The UAE wants to see Syria "consolidate stability in the country and meet the
aspirations of the brotherly Syrian people," UAE media reported.
The US is nonplussed. It has tried to isolate the Syrian regime. Up until 2013,
there was a thought that Washington might intervene on behalf of the Syrian
rebels, who became more fractured over time and more extreme. As ISIS took over
part of Syria and committed genocide in 2014, US policy shifted.
Amid the 2015 Iran deal and fight against ISIS, US efforts to remove Assad
ended.
Amid the Iran deal, the US moved to fight ISIS with an international coalition,
and efforts to remove Assad ended. Under the Trump administration, the US
shifted to a closer partnership with Israel on concerns about Iranian
entrenchment in Syria. However, America also was cut out of discussions by the
Russia-backed Astana process. Russia, Turkey and Iran sought to run Syria.
Turkey invaded the country beginning in 2016 and ethnically cleansed Kurds.
Russia helped the Assad regime retake Aleppo in 2016. The US helped the Syrian
Democratic Forces defeat ISIS. In 2019, the Trump administration betrayed its
own SDF partners and enabled a Turkish invasion, but then backtracked on
withdrawing from Syria. Now the situation looks like a frozen conflict.
Images are deceiving, however. In 2018, the regime retook the areas near the
Golan. It has sought to reopen relations with Jordan and possibly even import
fuel from Egypt to help Lebanon meet its energy needs. The US, meanwhile,
maintains sanctions on the regime. Like Iran, an ally of Assad, the regime wants
outreach to China.
The UAE visit is important because the Emirates is a key partner of the US and
also because it has a peace deal with Israel.
State Department spokesman Ned Price: "This administration will not express any
support for efforts to normalize or rehabilitate Bashar Assad, who is a brutal
dictator."
"This administration will not express any support for efforts to normalize or
rehabilitate Bashar Assad, who is a brutal dictator," State Department spokesman
Ned Price told reporters this week.
But the US must say this: It knew the visit was coming.
America is already concerned about its partners in the region. Washington is
estranged from both Cairo and Riyadh on key issues. The US is also angered by a
recent coup in Sudan. The sand in the region appears to be slipping out from
under America's feet. That means that it has problems with most of its
traditional allies and friends. Ankara is now run by an anti-American regime
that buys weapons from Russia and abuses migrants and human rights.
Insofar as there is a pro-US alliance system, it is the one that is made up of
Israel, Greece, Cyprus, the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan. Oman,
Tunisia, Morocco and Kuwait can be seen as important, stable states as well.
Iraq is held hostage by Iran, except for the autonomous Kurdish part. But even
there the Iranians have sent a delegation this week. Turkey has threatened new
invasions of the Kurdish region in Syria and bombs Kurdish areas weekly.
There are now questions about US policy on Syria. On the one hand, America
seemed to indicate that Jordan and Egypt might supply Lebanon with energy via
Damascus. On the other hand, the US may reconsider its role in eastern Syria.
Brett McGurk, architect of American policy with the SDF and a key US official
today, may oppose that.
There are some in the Biden administration who want to go softer on Iran. Others
want to be tough, and the US has put in place new sanctions against Iran's drone
program. But Tehran is also trading oil with Beijing, up until a recent incident
in which Iran stopped a tanker full of its own oil which had returned from
China.
The UAE trip is likely not a trial balloon for the Biden administration.
US comments portray the UAE trip as problematic. That means it's likely not a
trial balloon for the Biden administration. It is worth recalling here that the
Emirates was making overtures to Assad back in December 2018. Syria's
intelligence chief Ali Mamluk has also been meeting with Egyptians since 2016,
with a key visit in December 2018, around the time the UAE signaled a new
opening to Damascus.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Assad in September 2021 and Prime
Minister Naftali Bennett in October. Egypt, Jordan and Syria agreed on an energy
plan in September. Jordan's king received a phone call from Assad on October 3.
It was the first time in a decade the men officially spoke.
Syria also sent one of its ministers to visit Saudi Arabia in May, another first
visit in a decade. It is believed that the Gulf states are now open to new
investment in Syria. They are treading lightly and moving slowly and
pragmatically.
The calculus for the new trend is clear. The UAE and Saudi Arabia want
"stability" in the region. They oppose the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey's regime
is led by the AKP, which has roots in the Brotherhood. Hamas is linked to the
Brotherhood, as are the former regime in Sudan, which was pushed out in 2019,
and the former Morsi regime in Egypt. Qatar is close to Turkey and the
Brotherhood.
The regional rivalry in this context is one in which Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Cairo
see Assad as potentially returning to the Arab League states and being a bulwark
against extremists in Idlib, as well as possibly moving him away from Iran. The
Assad regime is poor and weak and must rely on Iran. The belief is that with a
little support, the regime might adjust its stance slightly.
Israel's position here is complex. The Jewish state has improved relations with
Jordan, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain, key states involved in the Syria initiative.
It had decent relations with moderate rebel groups near the Golan until they
were defeated in 2018 by the Assad regime. Since then, Israel has worked to
prevent Iranian entrenchment in Syria. But Jerusalem also has decent relations
with Moscow and has held talks with Russia about Syria.
While some US voices are soft on Iran, there's a consensus that Assad is a bad
actor.
In the West, this move by the UAE may be seen as controversial. This is because
in some sectors, especially in the US, the Assad regime is seen as a
personification of evil. It is seen by some as worse than Iran, having committed
vile abuses over the years. While there are voices in Washington who want a soft
approach to Iran, there tends to be a consensus that Assad is a bad actor.
Prior to 2011, this was not the case. Those, like former US secretary of state
John Kerry, who opposed Israel's peace with the Gulf wanted to explore better
ties with Tehran and Damascus.
But there is another narrative, one that is common among those who have backed
the Syrian rebels: that the Assad regime must be opposed.
Turkey and Qatar are sometimes seen as key to opposing the regime. As such, this
narrative posits that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are part of an authoritarian
system in the region, seeking to work with fellow authoritarian Assad.
However, Turkey and Qatar are also authoritarian states, so the overall question
is which of these alliance systems one prefers.
The Turkey-Qatar system tends to be close to Hamas, the Taliban and extremist
groups. The Saudi-led system tends to be close to authoritarian regimes that are
ostensibly more secular. The Iranian system backs Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi
militias and other proxies that are eating away at countries.
When the UAE says it wants "stability," it is arguing that the instability
caused by Iran – and by Turkey's role in Idlib in Syria, and with Hamas in Gaza
and in Libya – is the greater threat.
For a Washington that has withdrawn in places like Afghanistan, the question
will be whether the new initiative by the UAE and other pro-American countries
can bring stability or achieve any goals that the US might want to achieve.
What most countries have learned is that as the US takes a back seat in the
region, preferring to concentrate on China, other countries have been left to
take the reins and see what may come next. The UAE is trying to be part of that
process.
For Israel, a key issue will be whether the Iranian threat can be reduced in
Syria as part of this new stability that the Gulf countries think might be
enabled. For this reason, the UAE is working closely with Jordan on discussions
about the region.
The issue is that the Assad regime has in the past pretended it would reduce
Iran's role. It said this before 2011 and even during the conflict. But the
Iranians continue to have a major role in Syria.
*Seth Frantzman is a Ginsburg-Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum
and senior Middle East correspondent at The Jerusalem Post.
Dispelling lies about the Sudanese army
Ali Sarraf/The Arab Weekly/November 12/2021
The idea that the Sudanese army strives to protect the country and ensure its
stability as well as the notion that it is a “national army” are both lies. It
is time they are refuted. It is rather an army with a dark history of abuses,
crimes and acts of discrimination against the Sudanese. There are many cases of
transgressions that amount to war crimes. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is supposed
to be tried for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in The Hague, because
of the behaviour of his forces in Darfur and elsewhere, was in fact directing an
army whose actions matched his personal worldview. War, with all that it meant,
continued for about a decade without a single officer objecting to it. Not one,
including Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan. It is an army of coups. And if its officers
did not find anyone against whom to turn, it would turn against itself. This is
what the country’s historical record since its independence shows. When I tried
to list all items in the record of shame of its successful and failed coup
attempts since 1957, I found there were too many cases to list and gave up
trying. Because of its unquenchable thirst for power, it should be considered a
“political army” and not a military one. This is another lie that does not even
need to be refuted. It has been in power in the country for many more years than
have been the civilians. It ended up transforming political parties into mere
instruments of protest, which it blocked and then suppressed. There is no
civilian political leader in the country who has not been imprisoned and
humiliated by officers directed by others officers.
If Sudan was divided, it was because of the atrocities that the army continued
to commit against the southern Sudanese, until secession became the only
solution. The claim that the army “has preserved the unity of the country” is
hardly credible, because no one is responsible for the dismembering of Sudan but
the army. In order to carry out a coup, the army can come up with any pretext.
Bashir, for example, turned against an elected government, because of high
inflation. Then he increased his remuneration tenfold. Now that Burhan has
returned to exercise his superiority over civilians and to add his name to the
record of disgrace, it is time for the Sudanese to deal with their army
realistically. Which is that, no matter what they do, their army will carry out
another coup, and then another, till forever. It does not matter what kind of
government is in power. Leftist or rightist, socialist or capitalist,
revolutionary or reactionary, religious or non-religious, the army will
eventually turn against it,
Dissolving the army does not seem like a realistic option. Because the army will
turn against any government, even if the entire world unites around it and even
if the country ends up sinking to the depth of hell. Since the army is fond of
politics and craves power and since it believes it has led the country to a safe
harbour in its previous revolutionary experiments in prosperity and progress,
why not give it the opportunity to come to power as a political party, like any
political party? Rather than exclude the military from exercising power, why not
offer them the opportunity to rule by democratic means? Without this option,
Burhan experienced an early bout of depression. He quickly felt tempted to carry
out a coup. But is it possible to convince this army that it can enter the
democratic fray like any political party aspiring to power? if so, the main
proviso should be that it enters elections in peace and exits in peace. It can
rule if it wins but get out of power if it loses. And above everything else, it
should stop hatching coups. This army has an advantage that makes it superior to
political parties. It can be on the left or on the right. It can be socialist or
capitalist. It can be revolutionary or reactionary. It can also be all of the
above at the same time. Driven by an instinctive thirst for power, it can adapt
to any ideology it needs. This is something other parties cannot do. God created
the Sudanese army to carry out coups. All the Sudanese need to do is to set new
rules of the game which do not deprive this great army of its right to assume
power, like other political parties. Sudan obviously has no need to protect the
country against any external threat. It must instead protect itself from its own
army.
The May 2021 Israel-Hamas war was a stress test for
normalization
Jonathan Schanzer/Al Arabiya/November 12/2021
With the signing of the Abraham Accords last year, a rare sense of optimism
washed over the Middle East. Many in Israel believed that these agreements
signaled that the Arab world had given up on the Palestinian cause. Perhaps that
was too optimistic. The decision to normalize relations with Israel meant that
these countries would prioritize developing a working relationship with a nearby
Middle Eastern country. It did not mean that they would renounce Palestinian
nationalism. The Gaza war of May 2021 made that abundantly clear.
During those 11 days of war, the new diplomatic relations between Arab states
and Israel faced a significant test. Nevertheless, as one senior Emirati
official stated during a July briefing I attended, “they did not fail.”
At the onset of the crisis, all four countries – the United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan – criticized Israel. Khartoum rebuked Israeli
responses to Hamas rocket attacks as “coercive action.” Abu Dhabi called on
Israel to “take responsibility for de-escalation” at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where
violence had flared. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI noted that Israeli “violations”
could “fuel tensions.” Bahrain punched the hardest, calling upon the Israeli
government “to stop these rejected provocations against the people of
Jerusalem.”
Gulf states that were widely believed to be considering diplomatic ties with
Israel also weighed in. Saudi Arabia condemned Israel’s “flagrant violations”
during the war and called on Israel to end its “dangerous escalation.” Oman,
which had recently hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018,
also rebuked Israel, stating that the sultanate “salutes the resilience of the
Palestinian people and their legitimate struggle and calls for achieving peace
based on international legitimacy and a two-state solution.”
The visuals of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza certainly elicited a visceral reaction
from many Arab observers. Some Gulf Arab contacts of mine from the Gulf
expressed anger over some of Israel’s social media messaging during the war. In
particular, they found one tweet objectionable because it cited the Quran to
justify Israel’s military response against Hamas.
All of this served to underscore that change does not happen rapidly in the
Middle East. Official change may have come quickly with the signing of the
Abraham Accords. However, attitudes about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
itself were not going to change overnight.
Still, a particularly positive message came out of the United Arab Emirates. Ali
al-Nuaimi, the chairman of the defense affairs, interior, and foreign relations
committee of the UAE federal national council, published an article in Newsweek
after the war. In the piece, he asserted that the “Palestinian people’s rights
and hopes have been hijacked by Hamas to serve an Iranian agenda.” He called
upon the rest of the region to work together to sideline Iran and its proxies.
Bahrain’s foreign minister also had a positive message, which he shared with the
American Jewish Committee in June. “Hopefully, the people of the region can see
the benefits, and, in particular, the Israelis and Palestinians can see the
benefit of the peace,” he said. For Bahrainis, he said, “the most important
benefit is that the values of the Bahrainis are being really recognized. We are
sending the message from a small nation, saying that peace is the way forward.”
He concluded, “We need the international community to convince Iran that it
cannot prosper by trying to subvert and undermine other countries.”
In one troubling sign from Morocco, however, the country’s Islamist prime
minister hosted Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh in Rabat in mid-June. But even
there, one could discern some positive signs. When the prime minister sent a
letter of support to Hamas, the kingdom would not permit him to do so on
official letterhead. Instead, he was forced to use the Islamist Justice and
Development Party’s letterhead. A few short months later, Yair Lapid, Israel’s
new Israeli foreign minister visited the country, where he signed three separate
agreements, and opened full diplomatic ties between the two countries.
For its part, the Sudanese government officially welcomed the end of the war.
During the conflict, the president of Sudan’s transitional Sovereignty Council
asserted that “normalization has nothing to do with Palestinians’ right to
create their own state,” stressing that the Israel-Sudan normalization agreement
represented “a reconciliation with the international community which includes
Israel.” After the war, he also boldly declared that Sudan had ruled out
resuming ties with Iran, noting that his country viewed the Islamic Republic as
a “security threat.”
The war demonstrated that the Palestinian issue is still an emotional one. The
Arab world has decidedly not given up on Palestinian nationalism. At the same
time, the new diplomatic relations between Israel and four Arab states weathered
the storm.
*Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research at Foundation for
Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, DC. He is the
author of the new book Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War
(FDD Press). Follow him on Twitter @JSchanzer.
Iranian aggression in the Gulf must be deterred
Luke Coffey/Arab News/November 12, 2021
The naval branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has had a busy year
so far. At least 11 major maritime incidents in the Gulf since January are
thought to have been the responsibility of the IRGC. These incidents include
hijacking commercial oil tankers and holding their crews hostage, as well as
IRGC speedboats harassing US Navy vessels. For years, Iran has stated that the
US Navy has no business being in the Gulf. Tehran has also repeatedly threatened
to “close the strait,” referring to the strategically important Strait of
Hormuz. In the past few months, there has been a catalog of Iranian aggression
aimed at commercial shipping, in what can best be described as 18th
century-style piracy. Just last month, Iran seized the MV Southys, a
Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker, in the Gulf of Oman. To mark the 42nd anniversary
of the 1979 seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran celebrated its capture of
the vessel by broadcasting footage of the ship on state television.
In early August, armed Iranians boarded the Asphalt Princess, a
Panamanian-flagged civilian ship sailing in international waters in the Gulf of
Oman. And, a few days before the Asphalt Princess was attacked, a suspected
Iranian drone struck a commercial oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire.
This incident, which also took place in international waters, left two people
dead. If it was not for the debacle that was unfolding in Afghanistan at the
same time, it is likely that these two incidents would have garnered far more
international attention.
The last time the international community tried to get serious about maritime
security in the Gulf was during the summer of 2019, after a spate of Iranian
attacks against commercial shipping. At the time, calls for a new international
coalition to deter Iranian aggression were rebuffed by the Europeans, who did
not want to be seen as backing the Trump administration’s maximum pressure
campaign against Tehran.
Two years later, the world needs to wake up to the fact that securing the Strait
of Hormuz and protecting global shipping is an international obligation. Not
only are the issues of international norms and the rule of law at stake, but
there will also be huge economic consequences if the free flow of oil and gas
from the Gulf is restricted or stopped altogether. This is especially true at a
time when some parts of the world are already facing an energy crisis, or at the
very least a spike in prices.
As the world’s premier maritime power, the US must lead new deterrence and
security efforts in the Gulf. Admittedly, there are some American politicians
who dismiss the idea that the US should play any significant role in keeping the
Strait of Hormuz open because the US imports so little oil and gas from the
region. This is a shortsighted view. The US might not depend on Middle Eastern
oil or liquefied natural gas, but the economic consequences of a major
disruption of supplies would ripple around the globe.
The world needs to wake up to the fact that securing the Strait of Hormuz and
protecting global shipping is an international obligation.
For example, Japan, the world’s largest importer of LNG, gets 30 percent of its
gas delivered through the Strait of Hormuz. It also gets 80 percent of its oil
from the Gulf. Imagine the effect on the Japanese economy if these desperately
needed resources were not available. The economic shock waves would be felt
around the world. One thing the Biden administration could do to boost security
in the Gulf is breathe new life into the Middle East Strategic Alliance concept
first proposed by the Trump administration. The idea behind MESA was to improve
burden-sharing between the US and the Gulf states when it comes to security. The
original thinking was that, as MESA’s military capacity grew, this would lead to
better regional security and stability.
Of course, President Joe Biden will be loath to resurrect a proposal that
originated from his predecessor. However, the Biden administration was
originally reluctant to embrace the Abraham Accords but is now supportive of
that Trump-era initiative. While MESA never got off the ground under Donald
Trump, Biden should pick up where he left off.
One of the reasons why maritime security would be a great way to jump-start MESA
is because this is one area of US-Gulf cooperation that has a track record of
success. MESA could build on the existing Combined Maritime Forces already
operational in the region. The CMF is a 34-country coalition of the willing
headquartered in Bahrain that has been conducting various security,
counterterrorism and counterpiracy operations in the Gulf and the wider region
since 2004. Crucially, the CMF already includes the participation of regional
countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. This
cooperation could be formalized as part of MESA.
However, even with a steady drumbeat of Iranian aggression in the Gulf, it is
unlikely that the Biden administration will stand up to Tehran anytime soon. One
of Biden’s top foreign policy objectives is securing a new nuclear deal with
Iran. The desperation coming from the White House to resume the negotiations is
almost palpable. With Iran suggesting that talks might resume this month, the
Biden administration will do nothing to risk upsetting Tehran.
US leadership is essential for deterrence and security to be established in the
Strait of Hormuz, but it cannot do it alone. The free flow of shipping through
the Strait of Hormuz is not only a US strategic priority, but also an
international priority.
With Iran’s new hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi in power, expect IRGC
provocations to increase. It will be far easier to deter Iranian aggression in
the Gulf than it would be to defeat it. The warning lights are flashing. It is
time for action.
• Luke Coffey is Director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign
Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
Twitter: @LukeDCoffey