English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 14/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Verses telling the Story of Zechariah the Priest & His Wife Elizabeth, John the Papist’s Parents
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke01/01-25/:”Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed. In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years. Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. Now at the time of the incense-offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.’The angel replied, ‘I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.’ Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. When his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, ‘This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.’”
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 13-14/2021
Hardened hearts, Poor insights, and death of consciences/Elias Bejjani/November 13/2021
Hezbollah Armed Militiamen Spotted In Oyoun Al-Siman region
Probe launched after video shows emaciated patients tied to filthy beds in Lebanese healthcare center/Najia Houssari/Arab News
Cyprus to Probe How Migrant Boat from Lebanon Slipped Away
Health Ministry: 1133 New Corona Cases & Six deaths
Frem introduces "Project Watan” To Byblos citizens
FPM: We are concerned about the continued disruption of the council of ministers
Jumblat: To Releae The Cabinet, Reformulate Relations With Arab Brothrens
Okais: Hezbollah is not an enemy, but a political opponent
From bust to boom: Lebanese fashion houses spy unlikely opportunity amid economic crisis/Gareth Browne/Kaslik, Lebanon/The National

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 13-14/2021
Israeli Couple Arrested in Turkey on Espionage Charges
Turkey Says Blaming It for Belarus Border Crisis 'Misguided'
Air Force Official Says U.S. to Maintain Presence in Mideast
US hid an airstrike that killed 70 women, children in Syria in 2019: Report
Pro-Iran Hashed groups press ahead with protests in Iraq
Drought, water conflict spark farmers’ protests in Iran’s Isfahan
Sudanese rally against army tightening grip on power; 5 dead
Burhan faces criticism from West, risk of isolation after appointment of new ruling council
Paris conference threatens spoilers of Libya election with sanctions
Qatar provides US with diplomatic bridge to Taliban
Jordan dam reserves at all-time low as water crisis looms
Arab Coalition: 186 Houthis killed in 42 attacks in Sirwah and al-Bayda
Anti-Houthi forces move out from Hodeidah

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 13-14/2021
Human Rights Violations: European Union Gives Iran’s Mullahs Full Impunity/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Gatestone Institute/November 13/2021
Rewriting Syria’s constitution has failed. Time for plan B/Faisal Al Yafai/The Arab Weekly/November 13/2021
Attempt on PM Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s life shows destructive effect of pro-Iran factions on Iraqi state/Paul IddonArab News/November 13/2021
A new kind of security for the Middle East/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/November 13/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 13-14/2021
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.

Hezbollah Armed Militiamen Spotted In Oyoun Al-Siman region
Agencies/November 13/2021
Hezbollah armed militiamen in black clothes carried out a massive spread in the outskirts of Oyoun Al-Siman, and set up a checkpoint one kilometer from the Lebanese army’s checkpoint on the old junction road leading to Zahle (Qaddumiya). Citizens in the area said that Hezbollah men installed surveillance cameras in the place, and stopped some cars, without knowing the background of the this unexplained challenge. Radio "Free Lebanon" indicated that Hezbollah had intensified its presence with military vehicles during the night in the outskirts of Oyoun Al-Siman and Aqoura. These Hezbollah challenges that come after the bloody events of Tayouneh,  aroused the serious concern by the citizens in the region. Former MP Fares Saeed told Al-Seyassah Kuwaiti Newspaper that , “The news about the presence of Hezbollah elements in the outskirts of Al-Aqoura and the outskirts of Oyoun Al-Siman is well-known and old. All the slopes of Mount Lebanon, from Bcharre to Jezzine, are areas under the control of Hezbollah, and this is known by the Lebanese army and the people, just as Lebanon is under the control of the party. And a member of the “Strong Republic” bloc, Representative Shawqi Daccache, tweeted, via Twitter, writing: “We put the news of the spread of Hezbollah members in the outskirts of Oyoun al-Siman, and the installation of cameras, and the establishment of a checkpoint in the custody of the Lebanese army, and we ask it to verify the matter and take appropriate measures.” He added, "We remind Hezbollah that the road to Syria and Iran, does not and will not pass through Ayoun al-Saiman, just as the Palestine road did not pass through Jounieh." Subsequently, the mayor of the town of Kafr Debian, Waseem Muhanna, explained in a statement, “The pictures circulated that they are military checkpoints for Hezbollah members on the Baalbek-Kafr Debian road, are for the opening ceremony of an artesian water well in the outskirts of Hadath Baalbek.”

Probe launched after video shows emaciated patients tied to filthy beds in Lebanese healthcare center
Najia Houssari/Arab News/November 13/2021
BEIRUT: Lebanese health officials have launched an investigation after video images reportedly filmed by a doctor showed emaciated patients tied to filthy beds in a city healthcare center.
The footage documented by the Wataawanou Association charity, sparked public outrage when broadcast on news channels on Friday.
It highlighted poor conditions in rooms and corridors at the Santa Maria Healthcare Center in Byblos that caters for 55 male and 15 female patients with neurological and mental illnesses.
Shots showed skeletal-looking patients sitting or lying on dirty beds, unable to speak, and some with their hands strapped to the bed. Pots with spoiled food and loaves of moldy bread were seen in a kitchen, and other images appeared to depict unhygienic bathrooms.
After the video went viral, Lebanese Health Minister Dr. Firas Abiad and Minister of Social Affairs Hector Hajjar visited the center on Saturday to inspect the premises along with a team of experts from the World Health Organization’s office in Lebanon. “An investigation has been opened to hold those responsible accountable and define the reasons why the center reached such a deteriorating state without informing the ministry, which has a duty to ensure that its patients are treated in good conditions,” Abiad said.
The ministry has arranged for the Santa Maria patients to be moved to other facilities pending the completion of a clean-up operation there.
A similar health scandal was exposed in February 2019 at Al-Fanar Hospital in Al-Msayleh, in southern Lebanon. Again, patients were transferred to other health centers, including the one at Byblos which received 38 people out of around 90.
Following the airing of the latest footage, officials at Santa Maria Healthcare Center reportedly attempted a swift clean up and prevented journalists from entering the premises.
Abiad told Arab News: “Despite the attempt to clean up, what we have seen shows great neglect and the extent to which the economic crisis in Lebanon has affected the center.”
Lebanon is in the midst of an economic and financial meltdown which has left 55 percent of the country’s population below the poverty line.
“All social welfare centers in the world are facing problems, but many reasons have led us here in Lebanon,” Abiad added. “The patients’ families do not check on them. They leave them in the centers and forget about them. If one family had complained, we would have acted.
“In addition, the health observers affiliated with our ministry are no longer doing their job. The health observer who is supposed to visit the center said that the cost of coming here from Beirut has become equivalent to half of his monthly salary.“The Ministry of Health pays the center 24,000 Lebanese pounds ($15.88) per day on behalf of each patient it hosts, but this amount is no longer worth anything. “The director of the center told me that the state is no longer pumping water in the region because of the lack of diesel in the stations, and he has to buy water himself, which is extremely costly, so it is natural for cleaning services to worsen and consequently the patients’ hygiene,” the minister said. However, he pointed out that none of these issues justified the situation at the healthcare center.
Abiad noted that there were around 50 other centers in Lebanon offering similar services, and that the ministry had distributed 2,000 cards to patients this year allowing them access to the facilities.
“Thousands of others already have this card while other patients have been placed in such centers by their families who cannot provide them with the required health services,” he said. Santa Maria Healthcare Center director, Joseph Harb, said he had “not received the fees the center is due since the beginning of 2021, amounting to 900 million Lebanese pounds, which constitutes a major obstacle to securing water, fuel, and food.”
Abiad added: “These centers have not received their dues because of the delay in contracts awaiting transfer of credits for payment. The unpaid dues are calculated based on the official rate, that is 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, while the costs these centers have to endure are very high. This also applies to first-class hospitals and associations, which causes a major problem. “The healthcare system in Lebanon is unfair. The severe economic crisis has further revealed its flaws and disadvantages,” he said.

Cyprus to Probe How Migrant Boat from Lebanon Slipped Away
Associated Press/November 13/2021
Cyprus police have suspended one officer and 11 constables after launching an investigation into how a boat loaded with migrants gave them the slip and continued its journey to Italy after docking at a local harbor. Police said in a statement Friday that the boat carrying 61 people was intercepted early Wednesday off the Mediterranean island's southern coast and escorted to port in the resort town of Paphos. The boat had initially set sail from Tripoli, Lebanon, and was headed to Italy, but had to stop in Cyprus due to choppy seas. Police said the migrants expressed a wish to continue their trip to Italy and that none had applied for asylum in Cyprus. But the boat resumed its journey westward on Thursday evening without apparently anyone noticing. Once the alarm was raised, police patrol boats gave chase and caught up with the boat, but its occupants rejected police overtures to turn back. Police said they continued to escort the boat until it reached 52 nautical miles (60 miles, 96 km) from Cyprus' coastline. Police said two separate reports into the incident indicated that there were grounds for a disciplinary investigation against the dozen members of the police.

Health Ministry: 1133 New Corona Cases & Six deaths
NNA/November 13/2021
In its daily report on the COVID-19 developments, the Ministry of Public Health announced on Saturday the registration of 1133 new infections with the Coronavirus, which raised the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 651,788.The report added that 6 deaths were also recorded during the past 24 hours.

Frem introduces "Project Watan” To Byblos citizens
NNA/November 13/2021
Chairman of the Executive Council of "Project Watan”, resigned MP Neemat Frem, gathered today around five hundred people from the city of Byblos and its towns with the aim of introducing them to “Project Watan” and the path of rebuilding Lebanon on solid foundations.
Addressing the audience that included mayors and dignitaries from the region, particularly members of the young generation, Frem called for "absolute faith in the change we want and in victory in the path that must be determined according to a clear vision to achieve this victory."
"Lebanon was born to continue in the image of the open, developed Lebanese who dreams of a prosperous Lebanon," said Frem, warning against "surrendering to the policies they are trying to impose on us and which will take us back to the Middle Ages."He continued to stress "the importance of fighting the current war with the weapon of reason, thought, knowledge, prosperity and keeping pace with development," calling for having confidence in achieving victory by: i) defining goals and working towards them with basic determination and organization; ii) rebelling against the status quo and imposing the vision of a modern, prosperous and developed homeland that resembles the human being and secures all the necessities of life; iii) reaching change through the elections and what follows at all levels; iv) adhering to Lebanon’s Arab identity and diversity in its message, content and options; v) ensuring absolute independence of the judiciary. "We are forbidden to despair, and together we will turn anger, pain and fear into a project that we will invest in rebuilding the new Lebanon," pledged Frem before the attendees.

FPM: We are concerned about the continued disruption of the council of ministers
NNA/November 13/2021
In an issued statement following its periodic electronic meeting on Saturday, chaired by MP Gebran Bassil, the Free Patriotic Movement expressed its great concern towards the continued disruption of the Council of Ministers’ work without any convincing reason and the government paralysis amidst the dramatic outbreak of the economic and social crisis. “Social priority is higher at this stage, thus it has become a duty to rectify what is happening and show a high sense of national and humanitarian responsibility,” the statement said, warning against “exploiting the political crisis to aggravate the economic, financial and security situation in order to achieve foreign agendas,” and calling on the Parliament to question the government about the reasons behind its failing to convene. At the social level, FPM renewed its call on the government to "launch the financing card as a basis for the social safety net and to determine the reasons for the delay and those responsible for it." It also called on the Parliament to hold an urgent session to pass a bill to support the social safety net, and consequently to release the funds from the World Bank which tens of thousands of the most underprivileged families are waiting for, in parallel with approving the bill for social assistance for employees submitted by the “Strong Lebanon” Parliamentary Bloc. At the judiciary level, the Movement highlighted the need for launching a wide and comprehensive reform workshop within the judicial institution to restore its dignity and the confidence and appreciation of the Lebanese, “who are rightfully awaiting the results of the investigation into the crime of the port explosion and the Tayouneh sedition incidents, in preparation for fair trials."

Jumblat: To Releae The Cabinet, Reformulate Relations With Arab Brothrens
NNA/November 13/2021
Head of the Democratic Gathering, MP Taymour Jumblatt, underlined "the necessity of getting out of the state of stagnation and the current government's obstruction, by addressing the impasse with the Arab brothers, and reformulating and activating the relationship with the Gulf brethrens on the basis of confirming Lebanon's Arab identity and affiliation and preserving the common interests between us."Jumblatt's words came during his meeting at Al-Mukhtara Palace with a number of civil, social and municipal delegations this morning.
The MP stressed the need to "liberate the government from political pressures, so that it can proceed with addressing the daily living, social, economic, health and educational concerns and demands, and to manage the related crises in the required manner...in addition to alleviating the Lebanese people's anxiety and eliminating their worries, fears and burdens."

Okais: Hezbollah is not an enemy, but a political opponent
NNA/November 13/2021
MP George Okais called on President Michel Aoun and PM Najib Mikati, to "impose the resignation of Minister George Kordahi as a goodwill gesture towards Saudi Arabia," expressing his fear over the escalatory steps that it might take and their impact on Lebanon. He considered that Hezbollah is not an “enemy” but rather an “opponent” in politics and renders Lebanon a negotiating card in the hands of Iran, pointing out that Hezbollah is in control of Lebanon and this is a fact.

From bust to boom: Lebanese fashion houses spy unlikely opportunity amid economic crisis
Gareth Browne/Kaslik, Lebanon/The National/November 13/2021
Falling manufacturing costs driving return of Lebanon's luxury fashion houses
In a factory overlooking the Mediterranean coast, a petite model glances over her shoulder as a camera shutter clicks away. After holding her pose for a moment, a team of designers rushes in to fix the swimsuit she is wearing, brushing off the faintest blemishes. Scenes like this were once common in the Lebanese capital. But the five-star hotels have closed and the high-rise apartments that straddle Beirut’s Corniche no longer provide the backdrop for music videos. Lebanon’s glamorous past life barely exists outside of memories. As a punishing economic crisis continues to push people into poverty, a handful of businesses are trying to get ahead of the curve. Amid the turmoil, Lebanon has become a very cheap place to manufacture luxury clothing. “You will be astonished how many factories are opening now in Lebanon,” says Elie Hourani, CEO of Diamony Group, one of the country’s biggest fashion houses. “The trade deficit for years was $17 billion or $18bn. Now, it’s down to $10bn or $11bn. Within two or three years, there will be no deficit,” he says.
The godfather of Lebanese lingerie
If you were to label one man the godfather of Lebanon’s lingerie industry, it would be Mr Hourani. “I started selling lingerie by mistake,” he jokes, recalling how he bought a discounted batch of lingerie at the height of the country’s fifteen-year civil war, and then found himself in the fashion business. “I did a law degree in 1977, but there was war and no law back then,” he says, with a wry smile. Within a few years, he was sponsoring the annual Miss Lebanon beauty pageant. Diamony manufactured the winners’ tiara — the brand name was, quite literally, stitched on to the country’s fashion scene. The financial crisis is forcing the country to wean itself off an unhealthy reliance on imports and become more independent. As the economy has collapsed, foreign goods have become unaffordable. Major brands from Coca Cola to Victoria's Secret are abandoning the market, but there is also opportunity. For years, Diamony Group has imported fashion brands to Lebanon, now, it is producing for them. In 2017, Mr Hourani’s daughter Carol founded Room 24, a high-end fashion label with outlets in London and Rome. She began producing lingerie, loungewear and swimwear from a factory in Italy, but rising production costs forced a rethink and, in the summer of 2019, just months before popular protests erupted, they moved production to Lebanon. “Economically, as a business, it just made sense,” she says.
“It is super beneficial to the economy to create something locally, which we can export, it's good for the reputation of the country, you are supporting the local economy by supporting local families.”With the backing of her father, she opened a factory in Kaslik, from which they can now produce up to 3,000 garments a month — and plans to produce for other brands are also in the works. The swimsuits retail online for anything upwards of $200, and with exports flying out to more than 15 countries across Europe and to the US — the demand for Lebanese lingerie is booming.
A new workforce
They are training hundreds of seamstresses in Lebanon, developing a whole new workforce. All their operators are women, and salaries are raised every month to address the lira’s continuing devaluation. Beyond the cheap manufacturing costs, there are other factors enticing businesses to set up shop here. There are no customs fees on imports of goods and machinery for industry. One company recently brought in $6 million dollars worth of pasta-making machinery for a factory in Jbeil. Significant challenges remain, however. As the fuel crisis peaked in the summer, staff were often unable to make it to work. Meanwhile, with the banking sector largely insolvent, those who need to pay for imports must have a bank account abroad. Exporting or importing without one is practically impossible. Recent weeks have further demonstrated just how precarious exporting from Lebanon can be. Last month Saudi Arabia banned all imports from Lebanon following comments by Information Minister George Kordahi. Fortunately, the country’s lingerie exports are not entirely reliant on the market in the kingdom, yet the threat to any business is obvious. Exporting lingerie will not solve Lebanon’s economic crisis, but for Carol, a future of manufacturing is imperative for the country. “We need to come to terms with the situation. We are not a service economy any more. We cannot rely on tourism any more,” she said. “We need to pivot to a manufacturing-exports economy. That, I think, is the only way out of this mess.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 13-14/2021
Israeli Couple Arrested in Turkey on Espionage Charges
Associated Press/November 13/2021
An Israeli married couple were arrested for espionage late Friday after taking photographs of the Turkish president's residence in Istanbul, Turkey's official news agency said. Anadolu Agency said a Turkish national was also arrested. Police detained them after a tip off from an employee working in the Camlica radio and television tower on the Asian side of Istanbul. The employee claimed they were taking photographs of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's nearby home from the tower's restaurant earlier this week. They were formally arrested pending trial for "political and military espionage" by an Istanbul court. In a statement issued late Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid denied the couple work for an "Israeli agency." He said his department has been in regular contact with the pair and is trying to organize their release. Israeli newspaper Haaretz identified the couple as Natalie and Mordi Oknin. Citing their lawyer, it said they were taking photographs of the Ottoman-era Dolmabahce Palace while taking a ferry. Parts of Dolmabahce, located on the city's European side, are used as a presidential working office.

Turkey Says Blaming It for Belarus Border Crisis 'Misguided'
Agence France Presse/November 13/2021
Blaming Turkey or its national airline for the humanitarian crisis at the Polish border with Belarus is "misguided," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top foreign policy adviser told AFP on Saturday. "Travelers are going to Belarus and from there to Lithuania, Poland and other EU countries. Blaming Turkey for that, or Turkish Airlines, is simply so misguided, misplaced," Ibrahim Kalin said in an interview.

Air Force Official Says U.S. to Maintain Presence in Mideast
Associated Press/November 13/2021
The top U.S. Air Force general in the Mideast said Saturday that American airmen would continue to be stationed in the region even as military planners consider competition with China and Russia as Washington's next major challenge.Speaking to journalists ahead of the Dubai Airshow, Lt. Gen. Gregory Guillot acknowledged that presence "could adjust" after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August. The U.S. Air Force operates a major base in nearby Qatar, which oversaw operations in Afghanistan, as well as Iraq and Syria. "But I don't see any scenario where the United States does not have an important role," Guillot said. Guillot's comments come as tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S. after years of confrontations following then-President Donald Trump's decision to unilaterally withdraw America from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. Israel meanwhile is suspected of launching a series of attacks targeting Iran's atomic program. As talks over the deal remain stalled, Iran elected a hard-line protege of the country's supreme leader as president and has itself seized vessels at sea and is suspected of launching drone attacks.
Guillot several times declined to directly attribute recent drone attacks in the region to Iran, though he acknowledged the rising number of such assaults in the region. "The collaborative defense of multiple countries, you know, in the region is going to be our key to detecting those and staying one step ahead of the threat as it evolves," he said after appearing at the Dubai International Air Chiefs' Conference. Russia is expected to display its Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate fighter jet at the Dubai Airshow this week. It's a direct competitor to the American F-35 fighter, which the United Arab Emirates has been trying to buy since diplomatically recognizing Israel last year. That sale has slowed under President Joe Biden's administration. Asked about the Checkmate, Guillot said he hoped that U.S. allies and partners would use equipment that would be "interoperable" with the American military. He said buying the Russia fighter "absolutely" would affect that.During his presentation, Guillot displayed a graphic that included the Israeli flag among others in the region. The American military now considers Israel as falling under U.S. Central Command due to the recent recognition deals. Bahrain and the UAE just conducted a joint drill with the U.S. Navy and Israel in the Red Sea.Guillot said air drills with Israel and those nations could happen as well.

US hid an airstrike that killed 70 women, children in Syria in 2019: Report
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/13 November ,2021
The US military hid an airstrike in which it bombed a large crowd of women and children in Syria’s Baghuz town, killing dozens, during the last days of the battle against ISIS in 2019, the New York Times reported on Saturday. On March 18, 2019, an American F-15E attack jet dropped a 500-pound bomb on the crowd huddled against a river bank, killing dozens. As survivors tried to scramble away, the jet dropped a 2,000 pound bomb, then another killing most of them. An analyst at the US military’s Combined Air Operations Center at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar typed on a secure chat system: “We jet dropped on 50 women and children.”An initial assessment of the strike revealed that the death toll amount to 70. The New York Times reported that “the Baghuz strike was one of the largest civilian casualty incidents of the war against ISIS, but it has never been publicly acknowledged by the US military”. “A legal officer flagged the strike as a possible war crime that required an investigation. But at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike. The death toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized and classified. US-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site. And top leaders were not notified,” NYT said. “Leadership just seemed so set on burying this. No one wanted anything to do with it,” said Gene Tate, an evaluator who worked on the case for the inspector general’s office. The NYT investigation found that bombing had been called in by a classified American special operations unit, Task Force 9, which was in charge of ground operations in Syria.
“The task force operated in such secrecy that at times it did not inform even its own military partners of its actions,” NYT reported. This week, the US Central Command acknowledged that the strike killed 80 people, but said it was “justified”. It said “the bombs killed 16 fighters and four civilians. As for the other 60 people killed, it was not clear that they were civilians, in part because women and children in ISIS sometimes took up arms.”The NYT said its investigation of the Baghuz strike showed that the special operations task force skirted rules meant to protect civilians and the troops rarely faced repercussions when they caused civilian deaths. CIA officers working in Syria alleged that in about 10 incidents, the task force hit targets knowing civilians would be killed, and raised concerns with the Department of Defense inspector general. The inspector general investigated and determined that all the strikes were legal.
Staff in the operations center in Qatar also became concerned with task force strikes and Air Force lawyers starting tracking the self-defense justifications the task force used to call the strikes then comparing them with drone footage. They found that “the task force was adding details that would legally justify a strike, such as seeing a man with a gun, even when those details were not visible in the footage”.

Pro-Iran Hashed groups press ahead with protests in Iraq
The Arab Weekly/November 13/2021
Some 2,000 supporters of Iraq’s pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi network protested Friday in Baghdad against alleged fraud at last month’s parliamentary polls, a week after similar rallies turned violent. The demonstration comes days after Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, whom Hashed supporters accuse of “complicity” in the alleged fraud, escaped unhurt from an unclaimed drone attack on his residence in Baghdad’s Green Zone. Hashed supporters gathered on Friday near one of the entrances to the Green Zone chanting slogans against Kadhimi and “death to America,” correspondents said. The faced off against security forces deployed to prevent them from storming the highly protected area, which is also home to the electoral commission, government offices and the US embassy. Several dozen pro-Hashed protesters had set up camp at the same location last Friday after violent clashes with police that left one protester dead, according to a security source. One of the Hashed factions said two demonstrators were killed. Political tensions have soared in Iraq over the results of the October 10 elections. Kadhimi’s office described Sunday’s attack as a “failed assassination attempt.”Preliminary results saw the Conquest (Fatah) Alliance, the political arm of the Hashed, suffer a substantial decline in its parliamentary seats, winning 15 of the 329 seats in parliament — down from the 48 it held previously. The big winner this time, with more than 70 seats according to the initial count, was the movement of Moqtada Sadr, a Shia preacher who campaigned as a nationalist and critic of Iran. Hashed leaders have rejected the results as a “scam”, though Iraq’s electoral commission said Monday that a manual vote recount in some polling stations where complaints were filed by pro-Iran groups did not show any “fraud”.Final results are expected in the coming days.The preliminary results suggest the Hashed will nonetheless remain a considerable political force in parliament through its alliances and the support of some independent candidates.

Drought, water conflict spark farmers’ protests in Iran’s Isfahan
The Arab Weekly/November 13/2021-
Hundreds of farmers rallied in Iran’s central city of Isfahan to decry the drying up of its river and the impact of drought, state media reported on Friday. Images broadcast on state television showed several hundred people gathered in the dry bed of the Zayandeh Rood river, which cuts through the city. “A large number of farmers have gathered here to have their voices heard by the authorities,” a state television journalist said from the rally. Farmers were demonstrating “against the drying out of the Zayandeh Rood river”, another reporter said, as farmers chanted in the background. Apart from brief periods, the river, crossed by a historic bridge that is a major tourist attraction, has been dry since 2000. Isfahan residents have been protesting for years over the diversion of its waters to neighbouring Yazd province. Last month, the Fars news agency said protesters had damaged infrastructure east of Isfahan to prevent the water being diverted. On Thursday, President Ebrahim Raisi met with representatives from the provinces of Isfahan, Yazd and Semnan and promised to resolve water issues. He said that a committee and a working group would be formed with the aim of rehabilitating the river and resolving related problems, according to the presidency website. Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian told another group of protesting farmers on Friday that the government would “take fairness into consideration in water distribution”. With a population of around two million, Isfahan is Iran’s third largest city and a magnet for tourists due to its heritage sites. In July, deadly protests broke out in the southwestern province of Khuzestan after drought led to widespread water shortages.

Sudanese rally against army tightening grip on power; 5 dead
Reuters/November 13, 2021
KHARTOUM: Sudanese security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas on Saturday to disperse protesters denouncing the military’s tightening grip on the country, killing at least five and wounding several, activists said. The violence came as thousands of pro-democracy protesters yet again took to the streets across Sudan to rally against the military’s takeover last month. The coup has drawn international criticism and massive protests in the streets of the capital of Khartoum and elsewhere in the country. Security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protesters in different locations Saturday. At least five protesters were killed in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman, including four from gunshots and one from a tear gas canister, according to the Sudan Doctors Committee. Several others were wounded, including with gunshots, it said. The rallies, called by the pro-democracy movement, came two days after coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan reappointed himself head of the Sovereign Council, Sudan’s interim governing body. Thursday’s move angered the pro-democracy alliance and frustrated the United States and other countries that have urged the generals to reverse their coup.
“For me, this is an illegitimate council and this was a unilateral decision that was taken by Burhan alone,” said protester Wigdan Abbas, a 45-year-old health care worker. “It was a decision by one person ... without consulting the coalition for freedom and change.”
The Sudanese military seized power Oct. 25, dissolving the transitional government and arresting dozens of officials and politicians. The takeover upended a fragile planned transition to democratic rule, more than two years after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar Al-Bashir and his Islamist government. Saturday’s protests were called by the Sudanese Professionals Association and the so-called Resistance Committees. Both groups were primary forces behind the uprising against Al-Bashir in April 2019. Other political parties and movements joined the call. The Sudan Doctors Committee is also part of the pro-democracy movement. The movement has opposed the return to the power-sharing deal that established the deposed transitional government late in 2019 and demand a full handover to civilians to lead the transition to democracy.
Earlier Saturday, protesters gathered in Khartoum neighborhoods waved Sudanese flags and posters of deposed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who has been under house arrest since the coup. They also chanted “civilian, civilian,” a reference to their main demand that the generals hand over power to civilians. Later, the demonstrators regrouped in Khartoum and barricaded at least one major street with stones and burning tires. There were also protests in other Sudanese cities and towns. “The youth ... will not give up and will not stop this revolution until we achieve the goals of the revolution,” said Mohammed Ahmed, a 28-year-old university student.
Hamza Baloul, the information minister in the deposed government, took part in Saturday’s rallies following his release from detention earlier this month. There should be “no negotiations with the coup leaders,” he told the protesters in Khartoum. “The Sudanese people insist on a civilian government ... the civilian state (government) is our option and we will fight for it.”The demonstrations took place amid tight security. Authorities had closed off bridges over the Nile River linking Khartoum’s neighborhoods. Troops and paramilitary forces also sealed off the area around the military headquarters, where thousands of protesters set up camp in April 2019, forcing the military to remove Al-Bashir. The UN envoy in Sudan, Volker Perthes, urged security forces to “exercise utmost restraint” and called for demonstrators to “maintain the principle of peaceful protest.” Since the Oct. 25 takeover, at least 17 anti-coup protesters have been killed due to excessive force used by the country’s security forces, according to Sudanese doctors and the United Nations. That tally includes the protesters killed on Saturday. Ongoing mediation efforts are seeking a way out of the crisis. Perthes said he held “good discussions” Friday with representatives of the protest movement in Khartoum, civil society activists and Mohammed Hassan Al-Taishi, a civilian member of the council dissolved in the coup. Nasredeen Abdulbari, justice minister of the deposed government, also took part.

Burhan faces criticism from West, risk of isolation after appointment of new ruling council
The Arab Weekly/November 13/2021
The United States and other Western powers expressed grave concern on Friday at the appointment of a new Sudanese ruling council by the general who led last month’s coup, saying it complicated efforts to restore a transition to democracy. The United States, Britain, Norway, the European Union and Switzerland also urged the Sudanese security forces to respect the right to free speech “without fear of violence or detention” ahead of protests set for Saturday by critics of the army’s move. Sudan’s Khartoum state said it would close all but three bridges across the river Nile at midnight ahead of the demonstrations on Saturday, Sudan TV reported, announcing what is a routine move to tighten security before rallies.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was sworn in on Thursday as head of the new Sovereign Council, which replaces the power-sharing body he dissolved last month in a takeover that derailed Sudan’s transition to civilian rule. The head of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, was sworn in as his deputy. The army’s move undermined its commitment to uphold transitional arrangements requiring civilians on the council to be nominated by the Forces for Freedom and Change, a coalition that had been sharing power with the army since 2019, a joint statement by the United States and the other countries said. It “complicates efforts to put Sudan’s democratic transition back on track”, they said, adding the move was “in violation” of an accord setting out the transition. “We strongly urge against further escalatory steps.”French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter overnight that events in Sudan were very worrying. “We demand the immediate freeing of all those who embody the spirit and hope of the Sudanese revolution, which must not be betrayed,” he wrote. Abdalla Hamdok, the prime minister ousted in the October 25 coup, remains under house arrest. Hamdok has demanded the release of top civilians and a return to the transition that began after the removal of veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Risk of isolation
Western donors which supported Sudan’s transition have frozen aid in response to the October 25 takeover. Earlier, Volker Perthes, the U.N. special representative for Sudan who has been involved in mediation to try to resolve the latest crisis, said the unilateral decision “makes it increasingly difficult to return to the constitutional order”.Referring to Saturday’s planned demonstrations, Perthes also called on the security forces to exercise utmost restraint and respect the right to peaceful assembly and free expression.
Burhan becomes the latest in a long line of military coup leaders who have ruled Sudan for most of its history since independence from Britain in 1956. His leadership could now face isolation as it tightens its grip, challenged by opposition from a determined protest movement and cut off from cooperation by Western states that had invested in a democratic transition, analysts and diplomats say. Critics say Burhan’s actions reflect disregard for street protests and civilian politicians, as well as a pragmatic recognition that his junta lacks a political base inside Sudan. In response to criticism, Burhan has said the army had no choice but to sideline politicians whom he accused of inciting Sudanese against the military. He denied accusations by rights groups that the army was responsible for killing protesters and insisted its takeover, including the removal of civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, was not a coup. “What the country is going through now is a real threat and danger to the dreams of the youth and the hopes of the nation,” he said after seizing power, promising to hold elections in July 2023 and hand over to an elected civilian government then. Ahead of naming the new ruling council, which excludes the civilian coalition that had been sharing power with the military, Burhan began to draw on officials who served for decades under Bashir for key posts in the state bureaucracy. Security forces shot dead three people during the last big protest against the takeover on October 31. In total, 15 protesters have been killed since the coup.

Paris conference threatens spoilers of Libya election with sanctions
The Arab Weekly/November 13/2021
World powers will push for sanctions against anyone who disrupts Libya’s electoral process and political transition, they agreed at a conference on Friday in Paris. The meeting, which included the leaders of France, Libya, Germany, Italy and Egypt, as well as the US vice president, was to cement backing for the planned vote next month and efforts to remove foreign forces. In a statement, participants expressed their support to holding “free, fair, inclusive and credible presidential and parliamentary elections” on December 24. “We reiterate our commitment to the success of the Libyan political process,” they said and added they “reject all foreign interferences in Libyan affairs.” “This is only a start, Turkey and Russia must withdraw without delay their mercenaries,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. Libya’s interim leaders, Mohammad Younes al-Menfi, head of the presidential council and Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, co-presided over the conference with France Italy and Germany. Dbeibah stressed the importance of putting in place “real guarantees of the acceptance of the results of these elections, and for there to be penalties for those who obstruct or refuse these results.” Menfi, said, “There is a consensus on holding the election on December 24”.
The elections are envisaged as a key moment in a UN-backed peace process to end a decade of violent chaos that has drawn in regional powers and undermined North African stability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against long time ruler Muammar Gadhafi. The votes for a new president and parliament are still in doubt with six weeks to go amid disputes between rival eastern and western Libyan factions and political bodies over the rules underpinning the electoral schedule and who can run. The wrangling threatens to unravel the wider political process, which also includes efforts to unify long-divided state institutions and to pull out foreign mercenaries who remain entrenched along frontlines despite a ceasefire.
Powers in Paris said “that individuals or entities, inside or outside of Libya, who might attempt to obstruct, undermine, manipulate or falsify the electoral process and the political transition” could face sanctions. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a video message to the conference warned that “any party that deliberately undermines or sabotages peace must be held accountable.”The UN Security Council has previously agreed sanctions against Libyan political figures for their role in the conflict. However there are questions over Russia’s backing for positions agreed in Paris.
Amid disputes over the polling date, the powers said they backed a vote “starting on December 24” with the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections to be announced simultaneously. The UN roadmap had called initially for both votes to be held on December 24.
All candidates The foreign powers want what they call an inclusive election – likely meaning one that would allow all potential candidates to run, including divisive figures seen as unacceptable in large swathes of Libya, as well as serving officials. Italy’s Draghi called for an electoral law to be passed urgently to ensure that the election process is fair. “There needs to be an electoral law that … must be passed in the next few days because it’s urgent if you are going to hold elections on Dec. 24th,” he said at a news conference. Paris initially wanted the leaders of Russia and Turkey to attend. Turkey, which fears France wants to accelerate the departure of Turkish forces from Libya, has joined Moscow in sending lower level representatives. Ankara voiced reservations over language in the final statement regarding the departure of foreign forces. Turkey, which has dispatched thousands of mercenaries along with army troops to th North African country, has claimed there is a difference between the presence of its troops in Libya that were invited by a UN-recognised government and those imported by other factions. The former Tripoli government had support from Turkish regular forces in Libya as advisers, and from allied Syrian fighters, the Turkish government has said. Diplomats have said Turkey was unlikely to act before there were departures from the east.
Mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group are also entrenched alongside the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA).

Qatar provides US with diplomatic bridge to Taliban
The Arab Weekly/November 13/2021
Qatar agreed to represent the United States in Taliban-run Afghanistan following the closure of the American Embassy in Kabul and withdrawal of all US forces from the country in late August. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Qatari counterpart, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, announced Friday that Qatar will serve as the US “protecting power” in Afghanistan. The announcement is a clear indication the Biden administration doesn’t intend to re-open the embassy anytime soon after bringing America’s longest-running war to an end after 20 years.
Blinken, meanwhile, said the US has offered the opportunity to leave Afghanistan to all American citizens it has identified as remaining in the country who wish to depart and have appropriate travel documents. He and al-Thani also signed an agreement formalising Qatar’s role as a main transit hub for evacuees. The protecting power agreement means Qatar will set up a US “interests section” within its own embassy in Kabul to handle consular services for American citizens in Afghanistan, deal with routine official communications between Washington and the Taliban government, and assume responsibility for the protection of now-vacated US diplomatic facilities there. Shortly after the deal was signed, al-Thani said that Qatar took its obligations seriously and would add staff to its Kabul embassy to handle the increased workload. “Given the Afghan situation, it isn’t going to be an easy job,” he said. “The situation in Afghanistan overall is a complicated situation. So definitely, there are a lot of complicated issues that need to be worked out and need to be settled.”The US has numerous protecting power arrangements in countries where it does not have a diplomatic presence. Those notably include Switzerland in Iran, Sweden in North Korea and the Czech Republic in Syria.
Qatar has been a key player in discussions between the Taliban and the United States for many years. It hosted months of US-Taliban peace talks and has since been critical to the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan. Roughly half the people who have left the country have transited through Qatar. On the evacuation of American citizens and US green card holders from Afghanistan, Blinken said that all of those who had expressed interest in leaving and had proper documentation had been given the opportunity to depart. “As of November 10, all US citizens who have requested assistance from the United States government to depart and who we’ve identified as being prepared to depart, having the necessary travel documents, have been offered an opportunity to do so,” he said.
There was no way to independently confirm this and the administration has been heavily criticised for the chaotic nature of the withdrawal. It has also been accused of leaving thousands of Americans, green card holders, their families and at-risk Afghans behind. Several hundred Americans are reported to still be in Afghanistan, though not all have indicated they want to leave, Biden administration officials have said. Friday’s agreement formalising Qatar as the main transit hub for those fleeing Afghanistan is intended to regularise the standards for the arrival and processing of evacuees as they make their way to other destinations, al-Thani said. “We need to make sure that’s regulated and governed and properly,” he said. “It’s very important for us to do the proper vetting and security processes in order to ensure that we don’t end up with the wrong people in our countries.” But some humanitarian groups have complained that stringent entry requirements in transit countries like Qatar put the most at-risk Afghans in further peril as they are unable to get proper travel documentation from Taliban authorities. Al-Thani said Qatar would continue to facilitate evacuations through charter flights on its state-run Qatar Airways. “We will continue to be an instrument of peace and stability in the region,” he said.

Jordan dam reserves at all-time low as water crisis looms
Arab News/November 13/2021
AMMAN: Amid a delay in rainfall, Jordan’s major dams are either completely empty or facing critically low water levels, putting the country on the verge of an unprecedented drought crisis should dry weather conditions persist. Of the kingdom’s 14 major dams, three are now empty, according to officials, who said that emergency plans are being put in place to save farmers in the fertile Jordan Valley, known as the food basket of Jordan. In recent remarks to Arab News, Omar Salameh, spokesperson of the water ministry, said that the Waleh, Mujib and Tanour dams in the southern desert regions have dried up due to crippling drought. Salameh added that the King Talal and Wadi El Arab dams in the north are not yet empty, but are reporting critically low water levels. “All in all, all the country’s dams have reached their lowest water levels due to extremely dry seasons over the past two years,” he said. The official explained that the 2020-2021 rain season — from December to May — was “very low” and brought 60 percent less rainfall than the annual average.
“This coupled with high temperatures and high demand on water has led to all the consequences we are having now.”However, citing data from the Jordan Meteorological Department, the official said that the delay in rainfall is “not exceptional” and that “it’s still too early to declare an emergency water situation.”In a recent report, the JMD said that delayed rainfall is expected as a result of climate change, adding that rainfall in autumn makes up less than 20 percent of the total wet season. Salameh said that the ministry has put in place short and long-term plans to address a possible dry season. With low water storage in dams meaning less water to be portioned out to farmers, Minister of Agriculture Khaled Hneifat announced that farmers in the Jordan Valley are now permitted to drill wells to access groundwater for irrigation — a practice that was previously prohibited in the country. During a recent meeting with the Lower House’s water and agriculture committee, Secretary General of the Water Authority of Jordan Bashar Bataineh said that Jordan’s water deficit in 2021 stands at 40 million cubic meters, of which half is in Amman, the densely populated capital of about 4 million people. Head of the Jordan Valley Farmers’ Union Adnan Khaddam blamed the government for the “risky” water situation, adding that it “stood idly by and took no action.”Khaddam was quoted in local media outlets as saying that the King Talal Dam, the largest in the kingdom, has reached “dangerously low levels.”
He added: “The dam covers 80 percent of the water needs of farmers in the Jordan Valley, but the available quantity in the dam is very low,” he said, warning of serious drought if rain does not arrive.
National conveyor project
Jordan, classified as the world’s second most water-scarce country, announced the launch of the Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance National Project (AAWDC), described as “the largest water generation scheme to be implemented in the history of the kingdom.”
During a meeting with lawmakers, Bataineh of Jordan’s Water Authority said that the megaproject will “ensure the country’s water stability until 2040.”The water ministry announced that the AAWDC, once completed, will generate 130 million cubic meters of water each year.
Launching the project’s first phase in February 2020, the government said that the AAWDC will be implemented on a build-operate-transfer basis and will provide a sustainable water resource for future generations in all parts of the kingdom. The government said at the time that the strategic scheme is part of the Jordan’s efforts to adapt to climate change, dwindling water resources and population growth.
Additional water from Israel
On Oct. 12, Jordan signed an agreement with Israel to purchase an additional 50 million cubic meters of water outside the framework of the peace agreement and what it stipulates in regard to water quantities. The additional water Israel will provide will come from the Sea of Galilee. The water ministry issued a statement at the time, quoting an unnamed source who said that the agreement was signed following a meeting in Amman of technical committees from both sides. The agreement “was proof that we want good neighborly relations,” Karine Elharrar, Israel’s minister of infrastructure, energy and water resources, told Israeli media. Jordan and Israel in July said that they had reached a deal under which the latter will sell an additional 50 million cubic meters of water annually to the kingdom following a meeting between the foreign ministers of both countries.

Arab Coalition: 186 Houthis killed in 42 attacks in Sirwah and al-Bayda
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/13 November ,2021
At least 186 Houthi militants were killed in 42 separate attacks targeting the Iran-backed militia group in cities west and south of Marib province, the Arab Coalition said in a statement. The Arab Coalition said that it had conducted 42 military operations over the past 24 hours targeting Houthi positions and convoys in Sirwah, west of the city of Marib, and Al-Bayda, south of Marib.In total, that targeted operations included the destruction of 17 military vehicles as well. The Iran-backed Houthis have been focusing their ground attacks on the oil-rich province of Marib since February despite international calls for the dangers threatening the safety and security of thousands of displaced children and women in the province.

Anti-Houthi forces move out from Hodeidah
Arab News/November 13/2021
AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Joint Forces on the country’s western coast announced on Friday a withdrawal from several liberated districts in the province of Hodeidah, including areas in Hodeidah city. The Joint Forces, an umbrella term for three major military units in the country’s western coast, said that it had withdrawn forces from areas in Hodeidah that are included in a truce under the UN-brokered Stockholm agreement and would redeploy the withdrawn forces to other areas. “Our religious and patriotic duty prompts us into defending more important fronts where we can exploit insufficient defenses,” the forces said in a statement, claiming that the Stockholm agreement constrained the forces and prevented them from taking control of the city of Hodeidah. “The Joint Forces considered it a mistake to remain surrounded in defensive fortifications barred from fighting by an international decision, while the various fronts require support in all forms, including opening new fronts to reverse Houthi gains.”Local military officers told Arab News by telephone on Saturday that they received orders from commanders on Wednesday to pull out of Hodeidah within 24 hours.
Long convoys of military vehicles carrying fighters and military equipment were seen leaving the districts Al-Houk, Hays, Attuhayta, Bait Al-Fakih, the Kilo16 sector and Sanaa Street in Hodeidah city. The forces built sand barricades and deployed forces along a small coastal area called Al-Hayma, 80 kilometers south of Hodeidah, the officers said.
The Joint Forces are formed of three major military units — the Giants Brigades, National Resistance and Tehama Resistance — that were merged under the supervision of the Arab coalition in July 2019. The forces managed to repel Houthi advances in Hodeidah province and largely committed to the agreement despite having the power to liberate the remaining Houthi-held areas in Hodeidah. Shortly after the departure of the Joint Forces, the Houthis stormed cities and villages in Hodeidah as their leaders in Sanaa announced the seizure of province. Under the Stockholm agreement in late 2018, the Yemeni government, whose forces reached the outskirts of Hodeidah city after a successful military offensive, agreed to stop attacking Hodeidah in exchange for the Houthi handover of the city’s seaport to neutral Yemeni forces that were not involved in the war under the aegis of the UN.
At the same time, the government the Executive Unit for IDP Camps said that at least 1874 people have been forced into fleeing their homes in Hays, Attuhayta and Bait Al-Fakih into safer places outside Hodeidah since Thursday when the Joint Forces began moving troops out of the province.
“The number is expected to increase. This huge number of displaced people are in urgent need of intervention by humanitarian partners,” the government body said in a statement. The Yemeni government said in a statement carried by the official news agency that it was not alerted ahead of time about the withdrawal of forces from Hodeidah.The UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement also said that it was not informed in advance about the withdrawal. “We are liaising with the parties to establish the facts on the ground and call on them to ensure the safety and security of civilians in and around those areas where shifts in front lines have taken place,” the UN mission said on Twitter.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 13-14/2021
د. ماجد رافيزادا/معهد كايتستون: الإتحاد الأوروبي يتعامى عن كل انتهاكات النظام الإيراني لحقوق الإنسان ويمنحه حصانة كاملة
Human Rights Violations: European Union Gives Iran’s Mullahs Full Impunity
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Gatestone Institute/November 13/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/104093/dr-majid-rafizadeh-gatestone-institute-human-rights-violations-european-union-gives-irans-mullahs-full-impunity-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a7/
To execute political prisoners, Iran’s judiciary accuses defendants of vaguely defined charges labeled as “national security crimes.” These “crimes” include moharebeh (“enmity against God”), ifsad fil arz (“sowing corruption on Earth”), and baghi (“armed rebellion”).
It is not only the number of executions that is appalling, but also the nature of some of them. Executions have involved minor children, women and individuals from ethnic and religious minority groups. Although Iran has ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government has made no effort to alter the country’s Islamic Penal Code, which allows girls as young as nine to be executed.
In addition, children, women and men are routinely tortured during interrogations and behind bars. They are forced to confess. They are denied access to lawyers and due process. They are denied family visits and medical care.
The ruling mullahs of Iran refuse to halt their executions and human rights violations, or to reform their repressive system, because they feel no pressure from the usually moralizing European Union. So they act with full impunity. The informed silence of the EU therefore makes it a willing accessory to their crimes.
It is beyond repulsive that the EU — the same EU that incessantly lectures the world about human rights — not only ignores the Iranian regime’s unspeakable human violations, but that it also happily continues to do “business as usual” with the leaders of Iran’s cruel and inhuman regime.
European Union special envoy Enrique Mora, despite the Iranian regime’s horrendous and brutal human rights abuses, traveled to Iran in October and discussed “mutual interests” with Iran’s leaders. Meanwhile, Iran’s regime has been executing people “at an alarming rate”, and, according to a recent report by Amnesty International, was “the top executioner in the Middle East” last year. Pictured: Mora attends the swearing in ceremony of Iran’s newly elected President in Tehran on August 5, 2021. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The European Union, which endlessly and hypocritically lectures the international community on human rights, is turning a blind eye on the Iranian regime’s expanding human rights violations.
EU special envoy Enrique Mora, despite the Iranian regime’s horrendous and brutal human rights abuses, traveled to Iran in October and discussed “mutual interests” with Iran’s leaders. Meanwhile, Iran’s regime has been executing people “at an alarming rate”, and, according to a recent report by Amnesty International, was “the top executioner in the Middle East” last year.
The EU has been cuddling the repressive rulers of Iran, even as the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran recently warned:
“There are extensive, vague and arbitrary grounds in Iran for imposing the death sentence, which quickly can turn this punishment into a political tool. In addition, the structural flaws of the justice system are so deep and at odds with the notion of rule of law that one can barely speak of a justice system. The entrenched flaws in law and in the administration of the death penalty in Iran mean that most, if not all, executions are an arbitrary deprivation of life.”
The suppression and execution of political prisoners and those who protest against the ruling mullahs of Iran has been on the rise. According to Human Rights Watch’s “World Report 2021,” the Iranian regime is one of the leading “implementers of the death penalty”.
To execute political prisoners, Iran’s judiciary accuses defendants of vaguely defined charges labeled as “national security crimes.” These “crimes” include moharebeh (“enmity against God”), ifsad fil arz (“sowing corruption on Earth”), and baghi (“armed rebellion”).
It is not only the number of executions that is appalling, but also the nature of some of them. Executions have involved minor children, women and individuals from ethnic and religious minority groups. Although Iran has ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government has made no effort to alter the country’s Islamic Penal Code, which allows girls as young as nine to be executed.
In addition, children, women and men are routinely tortured during interrogations and behind bars. They are forced to confess. They are denied access to lawyers and due process. They are denied family visits and medical care. According to Amnesty International:
“Away from public view, Iranian security officials routinely subject men, women and children behind bars to torture or other ill-treatment, particularly when undergoing interrogations in detention centres run by the ministry of intelligence, the Revolutionary Guards, and the investigation unit of Iran’s police (Agahi).”
Iran’s regime, presumably to spread fear among those who criticize and oppose the ruling mullahs, has for decades resorted to punishments of torture and death. Torture is administered both physically and psychologically. According to Amnesty International:
“… victims were frequently hooded or blindfolded; punched, kicked and flogged; beaten with sticks, rubber hosepipes, knives, batons and cables; suspended or forced into holding painful stress positions for prolonged periods; deprived of sufficient food and potable water; placed in prolonged solitary confinement, sometimes for weeks or even months; and denied medical care for injuries sustained during the protests or as a result of torture.”
The ruling mullahs of Iran refuse to halt their executions and human rights violations, or to reform their repressive system, because they feel no pressure from the usually moralizing European Union. So they act with full impunity. The informed silence of the EU therefore makes it a willing accessory to their crimes.
The European powers do not only fail to hold Iran’s regime accountable for its pervasive human rights violations; they also do business with the ruling mullahs. From January-July 2021, the EU’s trade with Iran brought hundreds of millions of dollars to the regime. The Financial Tribune reports:
“Germany remained the top trading partner of Iran during the seven months under review, as the two countries exchanged €1.01 billion worth of goods. Italy came next with €347.96 million worth of trade with Iran…. The Netherlands with €264.48 million (down 9.23%), Spain with €178.33 million (up 9.25%) and Belgium with €140.14 million (up 6.79%) were Iran’s other major European trading partners. Estonia registered the highest growth of 709.52% in trade with Iran during the seven months under review. Malta with 471.77%, Romania with 284.86% and Croatia with 169.12% came next.”
It is beyond repulsive that the EU — the same EU that incessantly lectures the world about human rights — not only ignores the Iranian regime’s unspeakable human violations, but that it also happily continues to do “business as usual” with the leaders of Iran’s cruel and inhuman regime.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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Rewriting Syria’s constitution has failed. Time for plan B
Faisal Al Yafai/The Arab Weekly/November 13/2021
The UN’s special envoy for Syria scarcely needed to appear before reporters recently to call the latest round of negotiations on a new Syrian constitution “a big disappointment.” What else, barely five months after Bashar Assad won an election, could they be?
The interminable talking shop that the process has become has rumbled on for years; years in which representatives from the regime, the opposition and civil society have met intermittently and practically pointlessly. “We lack a proper understanding on how to move that process forward,” Geir Pederson, the UN envoy, said on Friday.
What has moved forward are the Syrian regime’s plans to win the civil war. Now, almost in control of the whole country and with no genuine possibility of regime change or even reform, it is time to admit the constitutional talks have not worked and should be scrapped. The fig leaf of reform is a failure. It is time for Plan B. While the Geneva process and its delegates have talked intermittently, Assad, backed by Russia, has fought relentlessly. The whole purpose of rewriting the constitution, according to the UN Security Council’s Resolution 2254, which forms the basis of the talks, was to pave the way for free and fair elections under that constitution. That made sense in 2015, when the resolution was passed, because Assad had just won an election the previous year and it seemed possible he may agree to an amended constitution in the future to end the fighting.
But much has changed since then, in particular the intervention by Russia on the regime side, which happened that year. Now, having won another election and essentially in control of the country, there is no possibility the regime will accept any constitutional amendments. Does the UN intend to keep talking until the next election in 2028? All the talks do now is provide a fig leaf for the regime to claim it is seriously participating in negotiations. That fig leaf should be stripped away.
Instead, the same delegations should be given a more tightly-defined remit for negotiations, focused, especially, on political prisoners; on maintaining rights and protections for refugees who return and on the status of Idlib, the only province beyond regime control.
Those are three policy areas that, if the regime were willing to accept limited reform, could make a big difference to Syrians inside the country by offering information on where their family members held as prisoners are and help those refugees who want to find a way to return home but are concerned about arbitrary arrest by the regime.
Critics will say that scrapping the constitutional talks de facto accepts the victory of the regime and removes the pressure for regime change. But that pressure has faded, and not merely because of gains by the armies of Assad. A maximal approach to negotiations may have worked when it seemed as if the United States might remain involved. But since April, the Biden administration has signaled it will treat America’s chief legal weapon, the Caesar Act, very differently to the Trump era. The 2019 law allows Washington to impose sweeping sanctions on those who work with the Assad regime. The Trump administration used the Caesar Act multiple times; since the Biden administration came in, it has not been used once. That reversal has allowed Arab allies to begin formulating their own policy on Syria, with the tacit understanding that the US will look the other way. The phone call at the start of October between King Abdullah of Jordan and Assad, the first in ten years, was called the beginning of the return of Assad to the Arab fold.
But in fact the April reopening of the border between the two countries was a test run, to see if Jordanian companies would risk being sanctioned by the US for dealing with Syria. In September, days before the phone call from King Abdullah, the border was fully reopened. It followed another trial balloon from another US Arab ally, when Egypt agreed to export natural gas to Lebanon, via Syria. Taken together, it is clear that Joe Biden has taken a “see no evil” approach to Syria, allowing Arab allies to go their own way and restart relations. This is the inevitable result of Biden’s focus on domestic issues, the so-called “building back boring” policy that prioritises economic issues over far-flung political disputes. The scramble for Damascus is real. Against that backdrop, for the UN and western governments to bury their collective heads in the sand and continue purposeless negotiations is to stand by as the world changes around them. Pretending the regime can still be forced to accept a new constitution or that it is concerned by external condemnation of its unfree and unfair elections is pointless. There will be no transition from the Assad regime, and there will be no new constitution. Perhaps, in 2015, that was a plausible, if challenging, outcome. But in 2021, it is mere fantasy. There are, instead, real political successes that could be achieved, ones that could take hundreds of thousands, perhaps more, of Syrians out of the refugee camps and back into their homes; the kinds of imperfect, even grubby compromises that are hard to justify, but which could make real contributions to the lives of millions. A Plan B that would take all the institutional backing of the UN and redirect it towards a politics that, while certainly not pretty, perhaps would have a chance at change.

Attempt on PM Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s life shows destructive effect of pro-Iran factions on Iraqi state
Paul IddonArab News/November 13/2021
IRBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan:In the early hours of Nov. 7, three quadcopter drones armed with explosives detonated inside the grounds of the official residence of Iraq’s prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, injuring seven members of his security detail.
Al-Kadhimi, who escaped with only light injuries, promptly released a statement appealing for calm. The question as to who was behind the attack, however, remained unanswered and open to speculation.
Topping the list of likely conspirators are fighters affiliated with Iraq’s vast network of Iran-backed Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi militias, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Established in 2014 during the war against Daesh, these groups have since morphed into something of a fifth column within the Iraqi state, officially absorbed into the state security apparatus, but largely operating under their own chain of command.
They have carried out similar drone attacks in recent months, targeting US troops stationed in Iraq and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region with the aim of forcing their withdrawal.
If Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi was indeed responsible for the attempt on Al-Kadhimi’s life, it raises the question: Did Iran sanction the attack?
Kyle Orton, an independent Middle East analyst, believes the identity of the culprit or culprits behind the attack on Al-Kadhimi’s residence is murky by design, giving the Iran-backed militias the luxury of plausible deniability.
“Iran’s militia network, especially in Iraq over the last few years, has worked to create various splinter groups to claim responsibility for some of their more politically sensitive attacks,” Orton told Arab News.
“It isn’t clear whether these groups actually exist beyond social media — at most, they are cells answerable to preexisting Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-run militias.”
The IRGC and its extraterritorial Quds Force exert tight control over their Iraqi militia proxies, their personnel, training, finances and access to weaponry, including explosive-laden drones, and demand total ideological loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Such a brazen attack “does not proceed if Tehran does not want it to,” said Orton. “Again, exactly how this came about — whether it was an order from IRGC Quds Force leader Esmail Qaani or a Qaani non-veto of a militia initiative — we will probably never know.”
Then there is the question of whether the militias actually intended to assassinate Al-Kadhimi or simply wanted to intimidate him and send a message.
In May 2020, militiamen encircled Al-Kadhimi’s residence in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in an apparent attempt to apply pressure on him. That was most likely because Al-Kadhimi has consistently sought to strengthen Iraqi state institutions, curtail the power of these militias, and restore genuine Iraqi sovereignty since he assumed office.
Orton, however, has little doubt the attackers were out to kill Al-Kadhimi on Nov. 7. “There has been a lot of analysis suggesting that this was a warning to Al-Kadhimi, rather than an attempt to assassinate him, but this strikes me as too clever by half,” he told Arab News.
If Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi was indeed responsible for the attempt on Al-Kadhimi’s life, it raises the question: Did Iran sanction the attack?
“Al-Kadhimi was injured in the attack and it strains credulity to believe that the IRGC agents who did this had calculated it to injure seven of his bodyguards and wound the prime minister, but kill nobody.”
The timing of the attack was also hardly coincidental. In October, Iraq held parliamentary elections, which had been a core demand of the popular grassroots protest movement that began in October 2019 against rampant corruption, unemployment and Iranian influence.
Several of Tehran’s consulates and missions across the country were torched by Iraq’s young protesters, who have increasingly come to view Iran as a foreign occupying power. Iran-backed militias responded by killing hundreds of demonstrators.
The protest movement nevertheless succeeded in forcing then-prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to step down, clearing the way for new elections. However, the Oct. 10 ballot saw the country’s lowest ever turnout at just 41 percent.
Iran-backed political factions fared poorly. The Fatah Alliance won a paltry 17 seats, a substantial loss compared to the 48 they secured in 2018. Al-Sadr’s alliance, Sayirun, meanwhile, increased its share, taking 73 of the parliament’s 329 seats.
Given the desire of Al-Sadr and his supporters to reduce foreign influence in Iraq, the result came as a blow to Iran’s regional strategy. Insisting that the election had been rigged, militia supporters came out in strength to demand a manual recount.
Qais Al-Khazali, leader of the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl Al-Haq militia, joined the protests against the result the night before the drone attack on the prime minister’s residence, during which he accused Al-Kadhimi of orchestrating the “fraudulent” election results.
“The timing is surely related to the aftermath of the election,” said Orton. “The attacks on people close to Al-Kadhimi, particularly senior officers, a number of whom were murdered, began months ago, when the militias could see Al-Kadhimi forging a coalition against them ahead of the elections.”

A new kind of security for the Middle East
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/November 13/2021
In the past decade alone, the Arab world has undergone several major transformational shifts with varying ramifications for regional peace and long-term stability.
Opportunities for long-term peace remain plentiful even as stabilizing actors such as the US exit the region in the coming decade, and there has been a revision of widely held perceptions of what constitutes long-term security in the Middle East and North Africa, and the basis of enduring regional stability.
The Arab world is in an era where, increasingly, Arabs and Arabs alone will have to define and forge their own “peace,” with little intervention from far-off powers too distracted by domestic woes or pivoting to other foreign policy priorities. However, to come close to attaining such an elusive future, the region must confront several challenges posed by sub-state groups, transnational ideologies, governance failures, violent extremism, and disillusioned people — especially youth.
Contrary to established convention, most of the ongoing transformations originated from within the region itself, instead of the usual spillover from great power adventurism’s knack for failed interventions. This almost organic surge toward fashioning an enduring regional peace is a strange phenomenon, and it is challenging to project what the results will look like over the coming years. Moreover, these recent developments are confounding discourse tethered to aging perceptions of what constitutes long-term Arab peace.
A decade ago, the uprisings in 2011 toppled once unassailable regimes, and conventional wisdom had many expecting a catastrophic domino effect with the potential to destabilize the entire region. Similarly, the chaotic landscape after Daesh’s defeat also left vast power vacuums that destabilizing actors were all too happy to fill via sub-state or non-state proxies with varying ideological orientations hostile to traditional state structures. Yet again, there was no shortage of analyses and punditry angling for forceful interventions to prevent a resurgence of more violent iterations of Daesh or further metastasis of its offshoots.
Additionally, even after the Trump administration’s misguided retreat from Syria —the first real sign of US disinterest-turned-policy — neither Syria nor northern Iraq descended into the prolonged chaos reminiscent of the short-lived Daesh era. Instead, the MENA region becoming less of a priority for Washington appears to have ignited a scramble for normalization and rapprochement among the unlikeliest of actors. After all, the growing likelihood of a total US departure has contributed to the region’s changing power dynamics and substantially altered each country’s threat perceptions without the guardrails provided by what was once an enduring US military presence across the region.
In reality, America’s exit has had at least two parallel effects on present-day realignments in the MENA region. First, among the relatively stable Arab states, a dominant foreign player’s prospective or actual departure became a catalyst for transactional utilitarian ties built on a convergence of interests and shared threats. Alternatively, in the more volatile zones prone to or already enmeshed in protracted conflicts, US disinterest created power vacuums now divvied up among geopolitical rivals with limited ability to shape regional dynamics but great power to halt post-conflict transitions and settlements.
In parts of the MENA region that sought reconciliation ahead of a US exit, there is almost a cynical implication that the world’s greatest promoter of stability, peace, and democracy had become a significant roadblock to the visible signs of relative Arab cohesion seen today. However, the validity of that is up for a debate that far exceeds the scope of this writing.
Elsewhere, an almost universal distaste for Middle East interventions among Western democracies has arguably emboldened harmful actors. This disinterest has left avenues for resurgent extremist groups or spawned armed non-state actors not threatened by unenforced red lines, sanctions, and the growing preference for non-kinetic counterinsurgency strategies.
As a result, while transformations and reconciliations in the Arab world are trending toward the positive —declining conflict and enduring stability — numerous threats persist that could unravel tenuous conciliatory processes and derail long-term regional peace.
However, others would argue against assertions that the Arab world mostly took to solving its own security and development challenges spurred by the growing prospect of America’s departure. In their view, the foundations of the “new order” establishing itself today lie in the geostrategic disruptions of the Arab Spring and its numerous iterations.
The Arab world is in an era where, increasingly, Arabs and Arabs alone will have to define and forge their own “peace,” with little intervention from far-off powers too distracted by domestic woes or pivoting to other foreign policy priorities.
A decade ago, tumultuous uprisings not only undermined the region’s traditional dominant players such asEgypt, Algeria, Syria, and Iraq. It also benefited emergent regional players — the Gulf states, which are rapidly evolving from the drivers of regional development to the near-global hubs they are today.
It is implausible that the Arab world’s once-dominant actors will ever recapture the spotlight or regain the wherewithal to shape regional dynamics. On the contrary, they face a plurality of domestic challenges exacerbated by the pandemic and the need to prepare their economies for the 21st century by, for example, rationalizing public expenditures without ripping up decades-old social contracts.
In addition, interventions are exceedingly costly and ill advised, even as a tactic to distract citizens enraged by state failure, poor governance, corruption, and political gridlock. Thus, as more Arab nations look inward to resolve domestic challenges, there is a growing appreciation of a foreign policy based on converging interests and the need to deter shared threats. It is a massive departure from waging costly competitions or engaging in misguided interventions for influence with all the risk and no reward.
Unfortunately, any discussion of MENA realignments focusing on security and stability tends to be projected against a background of US-China-Russia geopolitical rivalry, relegating organic trends to mere runaway offshoots of grander ambitions elsewhere. Most literature on Arab world de-escalation is rife with threats or warnings of how other non-US powers will wade in, sparking a new era of escalations and possibly open conflict.
So far, however, the reality is different.
China remains attached to a limited, transactional engagement prioritizing trade, investment, and development over open-ended or divisive interventions. On the other hand, Russia is limiting its encroachment in areas where it already had historical ties, making it easier to establish strategic footholds. Moscow does not appear to want to become an influential player with as vast a reach as the US. Instead, interventions in Syria and Libya point to tamer ambitions of being an unavoidable actor with just enough leverage to influence domestic affairs in Moscow’s favor, rather than lay an overbearing hand over most of the MENA region.
As a result, the calculus in most Arab world capitals has since shifted from piggybacking ambitions of far-off powers in favor of regional dialogue and de-escalation. For now, normalization is still in its infancy, with most progress hinging on, for instance, whether the Vienna talks on Iran’s return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal will resume and come to a favorable conclusion.
The same applies to the resolution of eastern Mediterranean tensions, not excluding dealing with some of the roadblocks to Libya’s post-conflict transition. In addition, progress now depends on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s diplomatic offensive to improve strained ties with Cairo and Riyadh. Lastly, in Syria, regime change is no longer a realistic objective since Arab states have gradually normalized relations with Damascus since 2018. This year alone, discussions are underway regarding the conditions for rehabilitating the Assad regime in the region.
Moreover, exhaustion with intra-Palestinian rivalry and further consolidation of the Abraham Accords have relegated the relevance of the Palestinian question to broader Arab world cohesion. It remains to be seen how deep or wide-reaching this de-escalation trend will go toward fostering more regional dialogue, managing conflicts better, and building inclusive, cooperative frameworks for security, trade, and development. Hopefully, the desire to create enduring paths away from endless conflicts might result in a MENA region free of nuclear weapons and other divisive influences.
Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell