English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 15/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.november15.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed.
Letter to the Romans 02/01-08: "You have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, ‘We know that God’s judgement on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.’ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury."

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 14-15/2022
Berri's bloc, Qabalan criticize al-Rahi's call for int'l conference
UNIFIL Head Urges Proactive Action and Accountability to Maintain Stability along the Blue Line
Mikati hopes Franjieh will become president
Oueidat refers Judge Aoun to cassation court as she requests his recusal
Independent MPs to meet Tuesday over 'unconstitutional' legislative sessions
Bou Saab says capital control law shouldn't be 'put in the drawer'
British Embassy commemorates 'Remembrance Day' in honor of Armed Forces members
Lawyer says Saddam relative extradited by Lebanon has no role in IS killings
Berri welcomes UNIFIL Commander, Head of Public Procurement Authority
British Embassy commemorates ‘Remembrance Day’ in honour of Armed Forces members
Lebanese judiciary charges judge with ‘inciting sectarian strife’
Presidential Vacuum Persists in Lebanon
Rahi Calls on the United Nations to 'Save Lebanon'
Lebanese Official: The Lebanese Must Divorce Hizbullah, Stop Sharing The Homeland With It
Press Release/Lebanese American Coordinating Committee

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 14-15/2022
EU, UK target senior Iran officials over protest crackdown
Macron vows tougher Iran sanctions amid protests crackdown
EU should punish Iranians aiding Russia, Sweden says
Iran strikes dissident sites in Iraqi Kurdistan, two dead - officials
Iran Stuck between Domestic Turmoil, Isolation Abroad
Iran Condemns Germany, France Ahead of EU Sanctions
Iranian Narcotics… Another Facet of Houthis’ War against Yemenis
Zelensky calls liberation of Kherson 'beginning of the end'
Ukraine president accuses Russia of 'atrocities' in Kherson
Ukraine war, tensions with China loom over big Bali summit
Analysis-Why stop now? Ukraine seen pressing advantage after Kherson victory
China wants Putin to stop threatening nuclear war over Ukraine, according to the White House
US sanctions non-Russians linked to military suppliers
Turkey detains 1, suspects Kurdish militants behind bombing
Türkiye Rejects US Condolences over Blast
Türkiye Detains Syrian Suspected Bomber, Accuses Kurdish Group of Istanbul Attack
Palestinian Official: Netanyahu's Govt Reflects Israel's Extremism, Racism
Sudan's Burhan Again Warns Islamists against Exploiting Army
Indonesian officials: Russia's Lavrov treated at hospital
Biden, Xi seek to 'manage our differences' in meeting
Egypt calls reports of surveillance at COP27 'ludicrous'

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 14-15/2022
Iran’s terror drone pipeline to Moscow/Emanuele Ottolenghi/Al Arabiya/Novermber 14/2022
The War in Ukraine Will End, and That’s When We’ll See the True Tensions in Europe/Ivan Krastev/The New York Times/November, 14/2022
Iran antagonizes neighbors to distract from its failings/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/November 14/2022
Iran’s theocrats ridiculed as barriers of fear collapse/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/November 14/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 14-15/2022
Berri's bloc, Qabalan criticize al-Rahi's call for int'l conference
Naharnet/November 14/2022
An international conference “must be the last solution” for Lebanon, sources from Speaker Nabih Berri’s parliamentary bloc said, responding to remarks by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi. “The main problem in the presidential elections is inter-Christian,” the sources added, in remarks to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper published Monday. “Can Bkirki or any other Lebanese sides play a consensual role and at least unify the vision and standards before resorting to outside forces, especially that the juncture concerns Christians in the first place?” the sources said. Grand Jaafarite Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan for his part said that “a salvation, sovereign solution passes exclusively through parliament and not through any international conference.” Al-Rahi had called for the conference on Sunday, saying his call comes in light of “parliament’s miserable failure to elect a new president for the republic.”

UNIFIL Head Urges Proactive Action and Accountability to Maintain Stability along the Blue Line
NNA/November 14/2022
Chairing a regular Tripartite meeting at a UN position in Ras al-Naqoura today, UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Aroldo Lázaro congratulated Lebanese and Israeli army representatives on the recent and historic maritime agreement. It demonstrates that seemingly intractable differences can be resolved. Welcoming recent messages of de-escalation along the Blue Line, Major General Lázaro urged the senior officials from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the room to ensure these words are backed up by concrete action. “I urge you to prevent any activities that could jeopardise the cessation of hostilities,” he said. “In line with the expectations of the Security Council, there needs to be action to proactively prevent violations and provocative behaviour on your respective sides and being seen to hold perpetrators to account.” Major General Lázaro thanked the parties for their goodwill and cooperation in facilitating the annual olive harvest in fields that are bisected by the Blue Line. He encouraged the parties to explore similar local arrangements to help reduce tensions. During the meeting, discussions also focused on the situation along the Blue Line, air and ground violations, and other issues within the scope of UNIFIL’s mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006) and subsequent resolutions. Since the end of the 2006 war in south Lebanon, regular Tripartite meetings have been held under UNIFIL’s auspices as an essential conflict-management and confidence-building mechanism. Today’s was the 158th such meeting. Through its liaison and coordination mechanisms, UNIFIL remains the only forum through which Lebanese and Israeli armies officially meet.

Mikati hopes Franjieh will become president
Naharnet/November 14/2022
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday voiced support for the presidential bid of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, who enjoys the backing of Hezbollah and some of its allies. “I have a historic relation with Suleiman Franjieh and I hope he will become president,” Mikati said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television. “A new president must be immediately elected for the sake of the regularity of political work,” the premier added. He pointed out that the new president must be “acceptable by everyone” and must not be “a provocative president for anyone.” Noting that Lebanon is not under a “U.S. siege,” Mikati said he will officially “talk to Washington to inquire whether Lebanon will be subject to U.S. sanctions should it accept the Iranian oil grant.”And reiterating that the official dollar exchange rate will be gradually raised throughout the coming months, the premier said that “a part of the crisis we are suffering from is the result of the deterioration of Lebanon’s relation with the Arab countries.”

Oueidat refers Judge Aoun to cassation court as she requests his recusal
Naharnet/November 14/2022
State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat on Monday referred Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun to the general commission of the Court of Cassation after she failed to appear before him over a libel complaint filed by Speaker Nabih Berri and his wife Randa.According to state-run National News Agency, Oueidat charged Aoun with “stirring sectarian sentiments, inciting conflict among the elements of the nation, libel, slander and abuse of power,” referring a copy of the lawsuit to the judicial inspection commission. Aoun for her part submitted a request for recusing Oueidat to the general commission of the Court of Cassation, arguing that there is rivalry between her and the state prosecutor. Speaking to al-Jadeed TV, Berri’s lawyer Ali Rahal said the public prosecution charged Aoun with all the offenses that were alleged by the Speaker and his wife. And speaking to MTV, Rahal said “the lawsuit is legal and there is insistence on carrying out with it until the end, seeing that there are dignities.”“We will not back down,” he added. Berri had filed the lawsuit after Aoun published a list of names of Lebanese officials who allegedly have frozen accounts in Switzerland, citing WikiLeaks as a source. She captioned the list with a call for the mentioned politicians to lift secrecy off their accounts, "for the sake of transparency.""I do not know how true this information is, but why don't they disclose their accounts in the Swiss banks," Aoun said. The name of Berri comes fourth in the list with $6.4 billion, in addition to an account for his wife Randa Berri worth $5.7 billion and another for his son Abdallah Berri worth $2 billion.

Independent MPs to meet Tuesday over 'unconstitutional' legislative sessions
Naharnet/November 14/2022
Opposition, independent and Change MPs are meeting Tuesday, ahead of a parliamentary session that will be held Thursday for the election of a new president. The aim of the meeting is to unify the blocs' position in case Speaker Nabih Berri calls for a legislative session before the election of a president, local media reports said on Monday. Twenty-seven MPs had met two weeks ago at the headquarters of the Kataeb Party in Saifi to discuss the stalled presidential election and Berri’s call for a session aimed at discussing the letter of ex-president Michel Aoun. It was Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel and independent presidential candidate Michel Mouawad who brought together the twenty-seven MPs, including Mouawad's Tajaddod bloc MPs, some of the Change MPs, the majority-Sunni National Moderation bloc and other independent MPs. Al-Akhbar newspaper said that the meeting tomorrow will gather around 40 MPs, including the aforementioned 27 MPs, and other independent MPs and that the Lebanese Forces will again not be present at the meeting.

Bou Saab says capital control law shouldn't be 'put in the drawer'
Naharnet/November 14/2022
Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab on Monday charged that “some banks are still transferring money” to abroad based on some clients’ “favoritism and ties to bank owners.”“Capital control prevents selectivity,” Bou Saab added, after a meeting for the joint parliamentary committees.
“Seriousness will begin tomorrow at 10:30 am,” Bou Saab went on to say, referring to a joint parliamentary committees session to which Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has been invited. The session was adjourned last week due to Salameh’s failure to show up. “I do not accept to be a partner in hiding laws in drawers and let MPs shoulder the responsibility of their decision,” Bou Saab said, stressing the need to “approve the capital control law and hold banks responsible.” He added: “We are working on the depositor’s interest and we are preserving it… Whenever we reach the capital control article in the sessions of the joint committees, the discussion gets obstructed.” MP Alain Aoun meanwhile said in a radio interview that “legislation can continue without the presence of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh.”“The capital control fate is not hinging on his attendance or absence,” he added.

British Embassy commemorates 'Remembrance Day' in honor of Armed Forces members
Naharnet/November 14/2022
On Saturday 12 November, the British Embassy held a service at Beirut Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery to commemorate Remembrance Day. This is an annual event held in honor of people from all nations who have been killed or injured in conflicts around the world. The date of November 11 marks the end of the First World War in 1918 and around the world there will have been similar acts of remembrance over this weekend. The British Ambassador, Hamish Cowell, was joined in giving a reading by the American Ambassador, Dorothy Shea, the German Deputy Head of Mission, Katharina Lack and the French Defense Attaché, Colonel Gregory Medina. Ambassadors and official representatives laid wreaths on the memorial. A two minutes’ silence was held at the end of the service. The Beirut Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery is the final resting place of round 1,200 members of the Commonwealth forces killed during the First and Second World Wars, most of whom were from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. The war graves are supervised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The service was conducted by Archdeacon Imad Zoorob, Rector of All Saints Anglican Episcopal Church. Also in attendance was the British Defense Attaché, Lt. Col. Lee Saunders, representatives of the Lebanese Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, and the Director General of the General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim. Ambassadors, diplomats and military attachés of U.S., European and Commonwealth countries were also present. On Friday 11 November, another service was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Tripoli. Ambassador Hamish Cowell laid a wreath. The Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Tripoli contains the graves of 87 Commonwealth soldiers and airmen who lost their lives during the 1941 campaign in Syria and Lebanon. There are also 12 Polish and Greek war graves and seven non-war naval burials. The Ambassador also paid respects at the memorial to the 358 British sailors who lost their lives on board the Royal Navy ship HMS Victoria, which sank off the coast of Tripoli in 1893. The wreck is a protected war grave and the final resting place of 352 of the ship’s company, while the remains of six shipmates were recovered and laid to rest in the cemetery.

Lawyer says Saddam relative extradited by Lebanon has no role in IS killings
Associated Press/November 14/2022
The late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's great-nephew has no links with the Islamic State group but was sent back to Iraq as part of a political deal with Lebanese authorities, his lawyer said. Bushra al-Khalil told The Associated Press that her client, Abdullah Yasser Sabaawi, was living in Yemen in June 2014, when IS fighters massacred hundreds of Iraqi troops in central Iraq. She said Lebanese authorities handed over Abdullah to Iraq on Friday despite the fact that he had been registered as a refugee in Lebanon and denies any link with the 2014 massacre. IS captured an estimated 1,700 Iraqi soldiers after seizing Saddam's hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base just outside the northern city. IS later posted graphic images of gunmen shooting the men dead after forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch. Abdullah is the grandson of Saddam's half-brother Sabaawi Ibrahim who was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court in 2009 and remained in prison until he died of cancer four years later. Abdullah's father, Yasser, is in prison in Iraq, al-Khalil said. Lawyer Al-Khalil, who defended Saddam during his trial in Baghdad before he was hanged in December 2006, said Abdullah left Iraq in 2003 at the age of eight following the U.S.-led invasion and moved to Yemen where he was given Yemeni citizenship after his family was stripped off its Iraqi nationality. She added that the first time Abdullah left Yemen was in late September 2014, three months after the killings, moving to Jordan. She said the young man moved to Lebanon in 2019 and asked for political asylum hoping to get resettled in Britain to marry an Iraqi woman. Al-Khalil said Abdullah was detained several months ago and was questioned by authorities who found no proof against him being a criminal. Al-Khalil said that she had given Lebanese authorities all the documents proving that Abdullah had not left Yemen until September 2014 where he was a university student at the time. "The handover was part of a deal" between Lebanese and Iraqi officials, al-Khalil said adding that since Abdullah is a Yemeni citizen he was not supposed to be handed over to Iraq. Al-Khalil said she studied Abdullah's case and found that what was used as evidence against him were claims by two people who said they saw him in videos released by IS militants taking part in the killings. "My conscience would not allow me to defend a person who took part in a massacre," al-Khalil said, adding that had he been a criminal she would have refused to defend him. Iraq's new Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani issued a statement Saturday praising Iraq's police for repatriating Abdullah "and bringing him before the justice of the Iraqi judiciary to get his just punishment." It added that Abdullah "was indicted for his participation in the murder of our innocent martyrs from the Speicher base in 2014." Al-Khalil said she last saw Abdullah in late October at a detention center and quoted him as telling her "I am ready to do anything but I don't want to be handed over" to Iraq. She said that the handover took place during the political vacuum in the country with no president elected and a government with no full powers running affairs in Lebanon. Asked if she fears he could be executed in Iraq, al-Khalil said "of course." Iraqi forces arrested scores of men allegedly linked to the massacre after retaking Tikrit in 2015. Since then dozens of men were condemned to death and executed.

Berri welcomes UNIFIL Commander, Head of Public Procurement Authority
NNA/November 14/2022
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Monday received at the Second Presidency in Ain El-Tineh the UNIFIL Commander, Major General Aroldo Lazaro,, with an accompanying delegation. Speaker Berri later received Head of Public Procurement Authority, Dr. Jean Ellieh.

British Embassy commemorates ‘Remembrance Day’ in honour of Armed Forces members
NNA/November 14/2022
On Saturday 12 November, the British Embassy held a service at Beirut Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery to commemorate Remembrance Day. This is an annual event held in honour of people from all nations who have been killed or injured in conflicts around the world. The date of 11 November marks the end of the First World War in 1918 and around the world there will have been similar acts of remembrance over this weekend. The British Ambassador, Hamish Cowell, was joined in giving a reading by the American Ambassador, Dorothy Shea, the German Deputy Head of Mission, Katharina Lack and the French Defence Attaché, Colonel Gregory Medina.  Ambassadors and official representatives laid wreaths on the memorial. A two minutes’ silence was held at the end of the service. The Beirut Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery is the final resting place of round 1,200 members of the Commonwealth forces killed during the First and Second World Wars, most of whom were from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. The war graves are supervised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The service was conducted by Archdeacon Imad Zoorob, Rector of All Saints Anglican Episcopal Church. Also in attendance was the British Defence Attaché, Lt. Col. Lee Saunders, representatives of the Lebanese Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, and the Director General of the General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim. Ambassadors, diplomats and military attachés of US, European and Commonwealth countries were also present. On Friday 11 November, another service was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Tripoli. Ambassador Hamish Cowell laid a wreath. The Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Tripoli contains the graves of 87 Commonwealth soldiers and airmen who lost their lives during the 1941 campaign in Syria and Lebanon. There are also 12 Polish and Greek war graves and seven non-war naval burials. The Ambassador also paid respects at the memorial to the 358 British sailors who lost their lives on board the Royal Navy ship HMS Victoria, which sank off the coast of Tripoli in 1893. The wreck is a protected war grave and the final resting place of 352 of the ship’s company, while the remains of six shipmates were recovered and laid to rest in the cemetery. -- UK Embassy Lebanon

Lebanese judiciary charges judge with ‘inciting sectarian strife’
Najia Houssari/Arab News/November 14, 2022
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s prosecutor general Judge Ghassan Oueidat charged Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun on Monday with “spreading false news, violating job duties, inciting sectarian strife, inciting conflict between the nation’s components, humiliation, slander and abuse of power.”
It is the first allegation of its kind made by the judiciary against a member of the judicial body in Lebanon. Aoun’s opponents accuse her of showing bias in favor of the Free Patriotic Movement and former president Michel Aoun, and following the faction’s orders to prosecute Banque du Liban Gov. Riad Salameh and officials in the banking sector on corruption charges. The lawsuit filed by Oueidat comes two weeks after the end of former president Michel Aoun’s term. The controversial judge posted a photo on Twitter last week of a list of politicians, businessmen and banking figures including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, his wife Randa Berri and former prime minister Fouad Siniora. She claimed that the figures smuggled tens of billions of dollars combined into Swiss bank accounts. She captioned the photo: “I do not know how valid this information is, but why don’t the people whose names appear on this list reveal their accounts with Swiss banks for the sake of transparency only?”The list did not include the name of any individual in the faction to which she is affiliated — the FPM.
Aoun’s tweet provoked angry reactions, with activists revealing that the list had previously been published by WikiLeaks but did not contain factual information.Activists accused Aoun of undermining the legal profession by publishing information without fact-checking.
Aoun deleted the post the same day, tweeting: “I did not accuse anyone. The list had been shared in the media; I was not the first to post about it. “In any case, if any public prosecution receives this information, it is its duty to open an investigation. No investigation was conducted in this regard, although everyone knows that many did transfer money abroad, regardless of the amounts.”Aoun’s initial tweet, however, prompted Berri and his wife to file a legal complaint against the judge. Oueidat listened to the testimony of Berri’s attorney, Ali Rahal, who reiterated his complaint against Aoun.
But Aoun did not appear before Oueidat and quickly filed a complaint against him before the Civil Court of Cassation. Oueidat referred a copy of the claim to the Judicial Inspection Board. A judicial source told Arab News: “This procedure means that the Judicial Inspection Board is the one who is trying Aoun and may expand the investigation, but the board is now paralyzed in light of the dispute over the appointment of its members between the Supreme Judicial Council and the government.”
The judicial source added that it is the first time that a charge of this kind has been made against a judge, noting that many judges have previously been charged with violating their job duties and were referred to the Judicial Inspection Board and the Disciplinary Council for investigation.
Aoun’s legal representative, Pascal Fahd, said: “Judge Aoun did appear before Oueidat but submitted a complaint because there was a conflict of interest with Oueidat, in addition to his lack of jurisdiction in this case.”Berri’s attorney said: “The lawsuit is legal, and we are determined to proceed with it. She offended their dignity and we will not back down. Her failure to appear before Oueidat is proof that she is guilty.”Former general prosecutor Hatem Madi said that like all judges, Aoun enjoys immunity, with only Lebanon’s prosecutor general able to override it, after which they can take appropriate action. “If he refers her to the Judicial Inspection Board, she can still have immunity, but the prosecution against Aoun means lifting her immunity,” said Madi.
Investigation and prosecution procedures are carried out in accordance with Article 344 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, added Madi. Former prime minister Fouad Siniora said that Aoun’s tweet deserves ridicule because it was “absolutely absurd.”He added: “However, this was not an isolated incident, but rather a part of a political agenda that uses the judiciary as a tool for personal interest, which I have been subject to before and it only made me stronger.”Siniora said that Aoun “has become known for such actions, and the judiciary’s silence in this regard has become a sinister scandal.”He added that President Aoun’s term had ended but his “shameful interventions” were sure to follow, especially in light of Judge Aoun’s actions. Siniora stressed: “I will not defend myself against a frivolous, fabricated accusation.” In 2019, Judge Aoun accused caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati of profiting from illegal gains against the backdrop of a subsidized loan scandal that was intended to allow Lebanese citizens to buy homes. The accusation was also leveled against Mikati’s son and brother, as well as Bank Audi.
Aoun was subjected to disciplinary measures at the time by Oueidat, who requested Lebanon’s security services to stop referring cases to her. In 2019, Aoun issued a decision to arrest Hoda Salloum, a director in the Road Traffic Department, on corruption charges. The accusations were also aimed at former MP Hadi Hobeich. Backed by FPM supporters, Aoun stormed the offices of Mecattaf Holding Group to press charges relating to the transfer of funds abroad. She has been removed from overseeing several prominent cases due to lawsuits, but in some cases refused to comply and continued working.
This year, Aoun accused BDL Gov. Salameh of job negligence and breach of trust.

Presidential Vacuum Persists in Lebanon
FDD/Novermber 14/2022
Latest Developments
The term of Lebanese President Michel Aoun ended last week, but the country’s parliament has so far failed to elect a successor. The presidential vacuum, which compounds Lebanon’s political and economic problems, persists because Iranian proxy Hezbollah, the dominant political force in Lebanon, has yet to choose a president from among its two main Christian allies: Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, and Suleiman Franjieh, a grandson of Lebanon’s fifth president, also named Suleiman Franjieh. Hezbollah fears that favoring one means losing the support of the other.
Expert Analysis
“Lebanon has four living former presidents and half a dozen former prime ministers, but only one actual ruler: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. The statelet of Hezbollah now dominates the failing state of Lebanon, replicating the Iranian model where a supreme leader and his militia control the country, rendering popular elections irrelevant.”
– Hussain Abdul-Hussain, FDD Research Fellow
Why the Presidential Vacuum?
Hezbollah is a state-within-a-state that has its own institutions, budget, and army. Its self-sufficiency has partially shielded its partisans from the ongoing Lebanese economic crisis but has not been enough to retain the support of key parliamentary allies, including Shiite Speaker Nabih Berri and a slew of lesser factions, such as the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood and the followers of Druze Chief Talal Arslan.
In this context, because Hezbollah seeks to retain as many allies as possible, it has refrained from voicing a preference regarding Aoun’s successor. Thus, the parliament is now stuck in gridlock, with some members supporting Bassil, others Franjieh; neither has received the two-thirds majority support necessary for a quorum. The two candidates do not hold significantly different policy views and would both support Hezbollah’s agenda.
A Weak Interim Prime Minister
Without a sitting president, the interim prime minister, Najib Mikati, has become the acting chief executive. In an acting capacity, the prime minister and his cabinet cannot stop or mitigate Lebanon’s economic freefall. For example, they cannot implement any of the reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as a prerequisite for receiving economic rescue packages.
U.S. Policy on Lebanon
Over the past decade, U.S. policy on Lebanon has been one of crisis management. America has been bankrolling the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to prevent a complete collapse of law and order. For example, Washington has supplied the LAF navy with boats to preempt a flood of refugees out of the country. The United States has also been funding the World Food Program and other humanitarian programs to ensure that the Lebanese — as well as refugees from Syria and elsewhere who reside in Lebanon — receive the minimum required daily sustenance.
A complete collapse of the Lebanese government not only would spill over across the Mediterranean to Europe, sending it refugees and narcotics, but would also make it harder for Hezbollah to control an impoverished and restive nation. This means that by subsidizing the LAF, which ultimately answers to Hezbollah, America has made it easier for the pro-Iran militia to maintain its iron grip over the country.

Rahi Calls on the United Nations to 'Save Lebanon'
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 14 November, 2022
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi urged to the United Nations to save Lebanon by holding an international conference – a call that was supported by country’s opposition parties and rejected by Shiites. “Faced with Parliament’s drastic failure to elect a new president of the republic, with the five sessions being a farcical drama...and the failure of all internal dialogues...we find no solution except to call for an international conference to renew the guarantee of the independent Lebanese entity, the democratic system and the state’s exclusive control over its lands, based on the constitution and then on all international resolutions pertaining to Lebanon,” the Patriarch said during the Sunday mass in Bkerki. He continued: “Any delay in adopting this constitutional and international solution would drag the country into non-peaceful dangers that no party can withstand.” Rahi’s call was endorsed by Hezbollah’s opponents. A letter signed by the Meeting of Our Lady of the Mountain, the National Gathering, and the National Initiative Movement, expressed support to the patriarch’s positions and called on Bkerki to establish a national front to defend the country’s “legitimacy, positive neutrality, the international conference for Taif and the constitution, and the resolutions of international legitimacy.”On the other hand, Rahi’s sermon prompted a response from the Development and Liberation bloc, which is headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Sources from the bloc told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The main problem in the presidential elections is between the Christians themselves.”“Can Bkerki or any other Lebanese side play a consensual role or at least unify the vision and criteria… especially since the presidential elections… concern the Christians in the first place?” They asked.
For his part, Jaafari Mufti Ahmed Qabalan warned that an international conference would harm Lebanon’s sovereignty. “The interest of Christians and Muslims is to agree on a national president through Parliament and implement a project for a strong state, national partnership and effective constitutional institutions, away from international stances that consider Lebanon… an arena for settlements,” he stated.

Lebanese Official: The Lebanese Must Divorce Hizbullah, Stop Sharing The Homeland With It
MEMRI/November 14, 2022
Charles Jabbour, head of the media and communications department of Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces party, known for its opposition to Hizbullah, comes out against this organization in an article published recently in the daily Al-Jumhouriyya, which is affiliated with his party. In the article he calls on the Lebanese to "divorce" Hizbullah, namely to divide Lebanon into two states. Jabbour explains that Hizbullah does not believe in coexistence, and is trying to force all Lebanese to adopt its ideology and mentality, whose essence is death. Hence, just as a husband and wife are sometimes compelled to divorce when life together becomes intolerable, groups within a state also have to separate if reality proves that they have no common ground and cannot coexist. Condemning the Lebanese culture that sanctifies coexistence, he states that it would be a mistake and even a "sin" to continue sharing the homeland.
Jabbour adds that Hizbullah is not likely to agree to a "divorce" and will probably try to prevent this by force, out of a desire to take over all of Lebanon. He therefore calls on the anti-Hizbullah camp in the country to formulate a new plan for dealing with this organization and to present it with two options: either agree to a divorce, or surrender its arms and accept the agreed-upon sources of authority: the Taif Agreement, the Arab League and the UN resolutions.
The following are translated excerpts from his article:[1]
"All monotheistic religions recognize divorce. Some make it easy and some make it hard, in order to keep couples from divorcing over every hurdle or disagreement, but all of them welcome divorce when it is absolutely necessary. Nobody can force their partner to stay with them, since partnership for life has its own roots and requirements, and if life becomes an intolerable hell, divorce is the [right] solution and option, and [in fact] a very urgent necessity. After all, marriage is not an end in itself. It is meant to enable a happy life together, so it is not an [irreversible] fate. Every person can and should determine his own fate, since life is short, and we are born to live and enjoy life, not to repress ourselves, for any reason.
"What is true of marriage between individuals also applies to a nation, which must organize its life in the framework of a state with a constitution and laws that protect [people's] rights, provide stability and ensure prosperity. It is not in any way true that nations were created to quarrel and struggle [just] because there are [groups] that have adopted ideologies whose essence is death. [These groups] have the right to adopt beliefs that conform to their perceptions, but they do not have the right to impose their way of life and their mentality on others.
"One of the fundamental, essential and built-in problems in Lebanon is the sanctifying of [the ideal of] coexistence [between the various sects], which has been elevated from a human status to a divine one. This is not just a mistake but a sin…
"There is a group in Lebanon [i.e., Hizbullah]… that does not believe in coexistence but [nevertheless] pretends to, waiting for circumstances that will allow it to eliminate coexistence in favor of its sectarian or religious plan. This plan begins with proposing to [endorse] democracy and [the rule of] the majority, but does not end [even] with a call to Islamize [Lebanon] based on the method of [Iran's] Rule of the Jurisprudent…
"Who said that this coexistence is a fate the Lebanese must accept… and that, if they separate, they will surely die? The basic aspiration of every citizen is to live in security, stability, prosperity and peace, not [necessarily] to live together. If the people and groups that comprise a state and live in the same area agree to live together and share a state, a vision, and [a set of] values and goals, the experiment can perhaps continue and be successful. But if the different cultural groups are not harmonious and cannot agree on basic assumptions and norms, they must turn immediately to [the option of] divorce, separation and division. In is unclear why different groups, each of which wishes to impose its own priorities, agenda and culture on the other, should insist on living together.
"Divorce used to be regarded as shameful in some of our societies, but today it is no longer so, out of a belief that individuals choose to divorce when this is [the only way] to achieve the loftiest goals in life, namely freedom, peace, calm and stability. Divorce between the Lebanese [sectors] must no longer be considered shameful, especially since the first group to benefit from our life together [i.e., Hizbullah] is one that wishes to change the identity of the country and refuses to agree with the rest of the Lebanese on the common ground that connects them, the gist of which is state, partnership, equality and liberty.
"Therefore, Hizbullah must commit to the constitution and surrender its weapons, otherwise there must be a divorce, since the one who currently benefits from the existing situation is Hizbullah itself, which is implementing its plan bit by bit, biding its time. For who is able to take its weapons away from it? Nobody! Is anyone willing to bet on [Hizbullah] being a Lebanese [organization, rather than an Iranian one]? That is a hopeless bet, which was already tried in 2005, and we are still suffering the negative repercussions of that experiment, which caused the Lebanese to miss a historic opportunity to implement the Taif Agreement. Does anybody think Hizbullah will surrender its arms of its own free will?... That too is a great delusion. All that is left for us is to count on external developments, but who says these developments will [really] happen, in the near or distant future?
"We must of course distinguish between the necessity of divorcing Hizbullah and the actual ability to achieve this goal. Because Hizbullah will never agree to a divorce, since such a move will require it to relinquish territory it regards as its own and which it is acting to change over time as part of its sectarian [i.e., Shi'ite] plan. One of Hizbullah's goals is to take over all of Lebanon and to continue controlling the country's decision-making… In fact, a Hizbullah official said explicitly that [the organization] would start world war III to prevent the partition [of Lebanon]. But whoever opposes partition should accept the terms of a pluralistic society – especially considering that [Hizbullah's] plan [i.e., the plan of exporting the Iranian Rule of the Jurisprudent to Lebanon] is no longer accepted in the country that exports it, i.e., Iran. Does it make sense to export something that the Iranian people [themselves] are acting to eliminate, and when this plan is at odds, in its form and its content, to the character of Lebanese society?
"Divorce requires first of all to shatter the taboo which regards coexistence as a sacred [ideal] that must be upheld, and start spreading [the idea] of divorce in public. The traditional way of dealing with Hizbullah has run its course. It has been tried since 2005 and has yielded no results… Divorce also requires the emergence of a political power balance that will push in that direction, for it is not enough to call for a divorce and to declare this in public, in the face of a partner that insists on imposing unity by force and on his own terms…
"The great problem in our confrontation with Hizbullah is not just that it is armed whereas the rival camp is not. [The problem] also stems from the fact that the camp opposing [Hizbullah continues to] adopt a traditional stance. Only if this camp adopts an untraditional stance will we be able to end the crisis by presenting Hizbullah with two options: either divorce, or a return to the agreed-upon Lebanese sources of authority: the Taif Agreement, the Arab League and UN resolutions.
"Perhaps what the Lebanese want more than anything else is for Lebanon to remain whole and united. But Hizbullah's insistence on holding on to its weapons, its role, and its sectarian [i.e., Shi'ite] plan, and its insistence that decisions regarding Lebanon's [fate] should continue to be taken in Tehran, require adopting a new method, for reality has shown that the current method does not achieve the desired results…
"The Lebanese people is not without abilities. It is capable of deciding its own fate. Divorce is not a religious transgression and certainly not a national one, but rather a necessary and unavoidable option when reality proves that it is no longer possible to live together. The real sin is agreeing to live in a homeland where Hizbullah is suspending the constitution, abolishing justice, undermining the principle of equality, usurping the decision-making of the state and transforming human life from an absolute value in the universe into a tool for [bringing] death."
[1] Al-Jumhouriyya (Lebanon), October 25, 2022.

Press Release/Lebanese American Coordinating Committee
LACC Press Release
Electing a Sovereign Reformist President is a Priority
Efforts were made with the US Administration to save Lebanon
Lebanese American Coordinating Committee
4201 Cathedral Ave NW, # 815 E. Washington, DC 20016
Electing a Sovereign Reformist President is a Priority
Efforts were made with the US Administration to save Lebanon
As part of its continuous efforts to support the Lebanese cause, in the United States of America, and following a visit by a delegation from the Lebanese-American Coordinating Committee (LACC) in Washington, during which it met officials in the US State Department, Congress and the Senate, to discuss the challenges facing Lebanon on the constitutional, sovereign, financial, economic and social levels, and at the forefront of which the need to elect a President of the Lebanese Republic, the Lebanese-American Coordinating Committee (LACC) affirms the following:
The obligation of the Lebanese Parliament to assume its national moral responsibility in electing a new President of the Lebanese Republic, a sovereign reformist president, who, in cooperation with the legislative and executive authorities, launches the process of implementing the constitution, restoring state sovereignty and implementing the structural reforms that are needed, while reinstating trust with the Arab world and the internal community, implementing resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701 and keeping Lebanon safe from the policy of axes.
The importance of considering that the election of a new, sovereign, reformist President of the Republic is a foundational gateway to stopping the coup against the constitution, the violation of sovereignty, and dragging Lebanon into regional axes that jeopardize its national security and the Human Security of its people, just as it contradicts its Arab, international, civilized, and multicultural identity, living together, freedom and human rights.
The priority of being aware of any attempts to override the priority of electing a President of the Republic by disrupting the electoral process, as well as obstructing the formation of a reform Government, and refusing to throw Lebanon into a vacancy that will generate a debate about the Constitution and the regime, while the main issue is based on the coup of the Constitution and the reform of the system which were included in the Taëf Accord, in implementation of Public Policies and good governance, through which Lebanon contributes to building regional and international security and peace, and maintains its stability.
Inviting the Sovereign Reformist, change-oriented sovereign forces to agree on a candidate who is aware of the seriousness of the stage and its challenges, and embarks on the process of saving the entity and restoring the state, bearing in mind that the Lebanese expatriates are involved in the election of a sovereign reformist president who does not comprise the Lebanese identity and carries the Lebanese cause in his mind, heart and behavior.
The Lebanese-American Coordinating Committee (LACC) commends the letter sent by members of Congress in the US-Lebanese Friendship Committee to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, in which they refused to turn the ruling system of Lebanon into a failed state, while affirming their keenness on this democratic model in the Middle East, pledges to the Lebanese people, residents and expatriates, to continue the struggle to serve the Lebanese Cause.
LACC - Media office
Washington 11/07/2022
LACC Member Organizations:
Assembly for Lebanon (AFL)
Lebanese American Renaissance Partnership (LARP)
Lebanese Information Center (LIC)
Our New Lebanon (ONL)
Shields of United Lebanon (SOUL
World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU)
Lebanese World Advisory Organizations:
Civic Influence Hub (CIH)
Advisory Committee:
Abbas Dahouk, Col.(Ret.) US Army
Hanin Ghaddar
Wajih Kanso, Ph.D
Philip Salem, M.D.
Stephen Stanton, Barrister
Thomas Abraham

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 14-15/2022
EU, UK target senior Iran officials over protest crackdown
BRUSSELS (AP)/November 14, 2022
The European Union and Britain on Monday imposed sanctions on two Iranian ministers and several senior police and military officials, including members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, over their alleged roles in the security crackdown against massive anti-government protests. Iranian women — and some men  have been protesting the government’s severe restrictions on their daily life since late September after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. “The EU strongly condemns the unacceptable violent crackdown of protesters. We stand with the Iranian people and support their right to protest peacefully and voice their demands and views freely,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after the bloc’s foreign ministers endorsed the sanctions. The move will see asset freezes and travel bans imposed on 29 Iranian officials, including Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who the EU says is “responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran” due to police actions during the protests. The EU also targeted Iranian state television broadcaster Press TV, saying it was “responsible for producing and broadcasting the forced confessions of detainees.”In what appeared to be a coordinated move, Britain also said Iranian Communications Minister Issa Zarepour and several local law enforcement and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials would face similar restrictions in the U.K. for their roles in the protest crackdown. Zarepour and the head of Iran’s Cyber Police, Vahid Mohammad Naser Majid, were targeted “for shutting down the internet in Iran, including disabling Whatsapp and Instagram, and banning the use of the Google Play app and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs),” a statement said. It noted that 22 other Iranian political and security officials were also listed in the U.K. over the “brutal violence aimed at protesters.”The EU called on Iran to end the violence, free those detained, allow a free flow of information, including via the internet, and demanded an independent investigation into Amini’s death. It’s the second raft of sanctions the 27-nation bloc has imposed on Iran over the protests. In a broadcast earlier Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the women of Iran for making their voices heard. “Women in Iran fight this fight with exceptional courage under the threat to their lives and the lives of their loved ones,” Macron told public radio FranceInter.
Their rebellion against the cleric-led state has “burst the ideological bubble” that Tehran has been sending to the world, Macron said, namely that Iranians don’t want Western values and that women there “were somehow happy to live in this constant state of obstruction.”His comments were recorded after his meeting Friday in Paris with four activists campaigning for Iranian women’s rights from exile. Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani blasted Macron for meeting with the activists, who included two U.S.-based Iranian dissidents, Masih Alinejad and Ladan Boroumand. Kanaani on Monday warned Macron that supporting Iranian dissidents “whose true nature is known by the Iranian people” is a “wrong, short-sighted policy” that could endanger France’s “long-term interests” in the region.

Macron vows tougher Iran sanctions amid protests crackdown
PARIS (AP)/ November 14, 2022
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday the West should step up sanctions against Iran by targeting government officials who are part of the violent crackdown on protesters demanding women's rights in the Islamic Republic. Iranian women — and some men — have been protesting the government’s severe restrictions on their daily life since late September after the death of a 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Tens of thousands of people across France and Europe have marched in solidarity protests with rebelling Iranians, demanding freedom for women and an end to the compulsory headscarf. French music and film stars, including two Oscar-winning actors, Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche, filmed themselves chopping off locks of their hair in support of protesters in Iran. “Women in Iran fight this fight with exceptional courage under the threat to their lives and the lives of their loved ones,” Macron told public radio FranceInter in a broadcast Monday. Their rebellion against the cleric-led state has “burst the ideological bubble” that Tehran has been sending to the world, Macron said, namely that Iranians don’t want Western values and that women there “were somehow happy to live in this constant state of obstruction.”The ongoing protests of young Iranians born after the 1979 toppling of the monarchy who have only lived in the Shiite cleric-led state has proven them wrong, Macron said. “The grandchildren of the (Islamic) revolution are leading a revolution against that revolution,” Macron said. He added that the West needs to support them in their struggle, including by toughening European sanctions targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “I am in favor of a strong diplomatic reaction and sanctions on the regime’s personalities who are in responsible for the repression of this revolution,” Macron said. His comments were recorded after his meeting Friday in Paris with four activists campaigning for Iranian women’s rights from exile. Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani blasted Macron for meeting with the activists, who included two U.S.-based Iranian dissidents, Masih Alinejad and Ladan Boroumand. Kanaani on Monday warned Macron that supporting Iranian dissidents “whose true nature is known by the Iranian people” is a “wrong, short-sighted policy" that could endanger France's “long-term interests” in the region.

EU should punish Iranians aiding Russia, Sweden says
BRUSSELS (Reuters)/November 14, 2022
The European Union should punish any Iranians it can establish have provided drones or missiles to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine, over and above the sanctions imposed for Tehran's crackdown on protesters, Sweden said on Monday. "I think that if we can find the culprits there definitely should be sanctions," Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billstrom told Reuters in an interview. "Those who help Russia in its aggression against Ukraine may have to be punished in one way or another. And sanctions is the only way as I can see it to punish people who are responsible for this," he said after a meeting with his EU counterparts. EU states have already agreed to freeze the assets of three individuals and one entity responsible for drone deliveries. The ministers slapped fresh sanctions on Iranian individuals and organisations on Monday for what the bloc says has been widespread use of force against peaceful protesters. Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police custody two months ago. Tehran has blamed its foreign enemies and their agents for the unrest. Billstrom said the additional EU sanctions were justified because the situation had deteriorated and "the amount of violence directed against people in the streets is terrifying". French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier that the crackdown by Iran's leaders would make it harder to reach agreement on reviving a 2015 deal that would give Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme. Billstrom said he believed there was "still room for manoeuvre" over the nuclear deal but said there could be no trade-off between human rights and striking a deal with Tehran.

Iran strikes dissident sites in Iraqi Kurdistan, two dead - officials
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters)/November 14, 2022
-At least two people were killed and 10 were wounded on Monday when rockets and drones hit the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish parties in the autonomous Kurdish region of neighbouring Iraq, local officials and security sources said. Iran's semi-official Fars news said the country's Revolutionary Guards had attacked the bases of "terrorist groups" in the Kurdish region of Iraq with missiles and drones. Local officials and security sources said the attacks had struck targets near Erbil and Sulaimaniya. A hospital official in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Koye told Reuters that two people were killed and at least 10 wounded in the attacks. The Revolutionary Guards have attacked Iranian Kurdish militant opposition bases in Iraq's Kurdish region since the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 triggered nationwide unrest. Iran has accused Iraq-based Kurdish militants of fomenting the unrest and threatened strikes against armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents. In an attack by the Guards in September, 13 people were killed and 58 were wounded near Erbil and Sulaimaniya. Kurdish security sources said drones struck two bases of Iranian Kurdish dissidents near Erbil and Sulaimaniya, adding that two people were killed and several were wounded in rocket attacks on Koye. A media and public relation official with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), an exiled Iranian Kurdish opposition party, told Reuters two of its fighters were killed in attacks on four of its offices. The PDKI's headquarters in Koye was one of the offices attacked, he said. An Iranian Kurdish rights group said on Twitter the Guards struck a base of the Komala Party in Sulaimaniya with six drones and a base of the DPKI near Erbil with four missiles. In September, Iran's Guards issued a statement saying such operations would continue as long as the bases of "terrorist groups" were not removed and as long as regional authorities "do not act according to their commitments."

Iran Stuck between Domestic Turmoil, Isolation Abroad
London, Tehran – Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 14 November, 2022
The regime in Iran is not only dealing with widespread turmoil at home but also is facing isolation abroad. Its oppressive crackdown on protesters has led to around 339 deaths since 22-year-old Kurdish Mahsa Amini died in police custody last September, according to human rights groups.
While demonstrators continue to employ various tactics to push onward with their anti-regime protests, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sent a delegation headed by Ali Haj Akbari to the Baluchistan province, where over 120 individuals were shot dead by security forces. Besides being a representative of Khamenei, Akbari is also Tehran’s Friday sermon preacher. Government media reported that Akbari was carrying a proposal for a “special initiative” to help resolve problems in the southeastern province. He also relayed Khamenei’s “sadness and condolences” for those killed in the unrest. Meanwhile, the Iranian government issued a critical response to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had used his weekly video podcast to express support both for protesters in Iran and for further EU sanctions against the regime in Tehran. Scholz's “provocative, interfering and undiplomatic” comments would cause “damage over the long term,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Sunday. Kanaani also criticized a recent meeting between the French president and opponents of the Iranian regime, describing Emmanuel Macron's comments after the encounter as “regrettable and shameful.”President Macron met four prominent Iranian dissidents on Friday. One of the four women is the daughter of an Iranian who was shot dead by security forces in the western city of Kermanshah. The meeting with the four women took place as protests continued in Iran following the death of Amini. Friday’s meeting between Macron and the dissidents was “a flagrant violation of France's international responsibilities in the fight against terrorism and violence,” said Kanaani. During the meeting, Macron praised the dissidents for the “revolution” they are leading and stressed that France has “respect and appreciation” for what they are doing.

Iran Condemns Germany, France Ahead of EU Sanctions
Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 14 November, 2022
European Union foreign ministers are due to impose more sanctions on Iran on Monday, while Tehran condemned France and Germany for their positions on the Iranian protests. The Iranian Foreign Ministry described German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's pledge to intensify pressure on Tehran as "provocative, interfering, and undiplomatic."Scholz had spoken about the protests sweeping Iran and announced his support for imposing new EU sanctions on Iran. At one point, he addressed the Iranian government directly, asking: "What kind of government does it make you if you shoot at your own citizens? Those who act in such a way must expect us to push back."Meanwhile, German police announced that a man attacked Iranians in Berlin at a protest in support of women's freedom and democracy in their homeland. On Saturday night, the police said a 26-year-old man destroyed banners and threatened some Iranian activists with a knife. No one was injured, and the man was arrested, police added. The German State Protection Office, which handles terrorist attacks, was involved due to suspicions that the attack was politically motivated. Commenting on the German positions, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that some human rights claimants had forgotten their dark record against the "dignified and resistant people of Iran" while offering blind and inhumane support for the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam and maintaining the unjust US sanctions after its withdrawal from the nuclear agreement.
Kanaani noted that "they are also keeping silent vis-a-vis the ISIS terror acts, the latest of which is the terrorist group's attack on Shah Cheragh Shrine."
He noted that Germany presented itself as a human rights defender by evading its international responsibility to respect the right of state sovereignty while harboring anti-Iran terrorist and separatist groups and adopting a selective and "double standard approach towards the crimes committed by the child-killing Zionist entity."The spokesman reiterated that Iran had a long list of human rights demands from the German authorities, so Berlin had to be responsibly transparent regarding its past. Kanaani called on German officials to restore rationality to the mutual ties and prevent more turmoil, adding that "respect for common interests was the only way for lasting cooperation."Tehran also criticized French President Emmanuel Macron, who received four Iranian activists, including the daughter of one of the victims of the recent protests, describing his statement as "regrettable and shameful."During the meeting on the sidelines of a Paris Peace Forum, Macron emphasized France's respect and admiration in the context of the revolution they are leading. Macron received a delegation of four Iranian women: Masih Alinejad, a New York-based Iranian activist who encourages Iranian women to protest against the obligatory headscarf, Shima Babaei, who campaigned for justice for her disappeared father, Ladan Boroumand, the co-founder of Washington-based rights group Abdurrahman Boroumand Center, and Roya Piraei whose mother Minoo Majidi was killed by security forces at the start of the protest crackdown. After the meeting, Macron told a conference in Paris of his "respect and admiration in the context of the revolution they are leading."Referring to Alinejad, Kanaani said it was "surprising that the president of a country that stands for freedom would degrade himself by meeting" her, alleging that she had "tried to spread hate and carry out violent and terrorist acts in Iran and against Iran's foreign diplomatic missions." Alinejad wrote on Twitter: "In my bilateral meeting with the French President, I said what's happening in Iran is a revolution. France can be the first country to recognize it. Instead of Islamic Republic (officials), meet opposition figures in future and prepare EU to accept a secular Iran."

Iranian Narcotics… Another Facet of Houthis’ War against Yemenis
Aden - Waddah Aljaleel/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 14 November, 2022
Six weeks after the US Navy intercepted an Iranian drug smuggling ship off the coast of Oman, the Yemeni Navy seized another Iranian vessel loaded with narcotics off the coast of Socotra Island. The shipment is believed to have been bound for Houthi militias in Yemen. Similar arrests this year and in previous years suggest that Iranian-Houthi investment in drugs is only growing, especially that the ship seized by the Yemeni forces was transporting a significant quantity of illicit drugs. In September, the US Central Command seized an Iranian ship carrying drugs worth around $20 million during a patrol in the Gulf of Oman. According to security sources quoted by the official “Saba” news agency, security services in Yemen’s eastern Al-Mahra Governorate conducted investigations with three Yemeni sailors who were rescued by the US Navy after their boat was burnt at sea in late October. The probes led to the discovery of the Iranian vessel loaded with narcotics, which was later seized and confiscated in Socotra Governorate. A judicial source in the Houthi-run capital, Sanaa, revealed that the number of drug-related cases have declined in areas run by militias despite an increase in the illicit trade over the past few years. The source, who requested anonymity, suggested that the decrease in prosecution is related to Houthis themselves facilitating drug smuggling and trade. The Iran-backed group is likely benefiting from narcotics being run in Yemen. Many dealers and users are released before being referred to prosecution, a fact which suggests Houthis are concluding suspicious deals with drug lords, the source told Asharq Al-Awsat. New types of narcotics are spread in Houthi-controlled areas and are now sold in the markets openly. Yemenis accuse Houthis of selling and promoting drugs to benefit from their financial revenues on the one hand, and to corrupt the generations of society on the other hand.

Zelensky calls liberation of Kherson 'beginning of the end'
Associated Press/November 14/2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a triumphant visit to the newly liberated city of Kherson on Monday, hailing the Russian withdrawal as the "beginning of the end of the war" but also acknowledging the heavy price Ukrainian soldiers are paying in their grinding effort to push back the invading force.
The retaking of Kherson was one of Ukraine's biggest successes in nearly nine months since the invasion. It served another stinging blow to the Kremlin and could become a springboard for further advances into occupied territory. Zelensky walked the streets of the city Monday, just hours after warning in his nightly video address of booby traps and mines left behind by the Russians before their retreat. "This is the beginning of the end of the war," he said. "We are step by step coming to all the temporarily occupied territories."The end of Russia's occupation of the city has sparked days of celebration — but also exposed a humanitarian emergency, with residents living without power and water and short of food and medicines. Russia still controls about 70% of the wider Kherson region. Zelensky has previously appeared unexpectedly in other front-line areas at crucial junctures of the war and his latest visit was both laden with symbolism and the common touch — clearly aimed at boosting the morale of both soldiers and civilians alike. In video published by a presidential aide, a visibly moved Zelensky stood with his right hand on his heart and sang the national anthem, as troops saluted and stood to attention and soldier steadily hauled the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag up a flagpole. Other footage showed Zelensky waving to residents who saluted him from an apartment window and yelled: "Glory to Ukraine!" The reply — "Glory to the heroes!" — came back from Zelensky's group, made up of soldiers and others.
The president also distributed medals to Ukrainian soldiers in a central square and posed for selfies with them. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday refused to comment on Zelensky's visit to Kherson, saying only that "you know that it is the territory of the Russian Federation." The Kremlin illegally annexed the Kherson region and three others earlier this year. After the Russian retreat, Ukrainian authorities say they are finding evidence of torture and other atrocities. In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelensky said without giving details that "investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes, and the bodies of both civilians and military personnel have been found." "In the Kherson region, the Russian army left behind the same atrocities as in other regions of our country," he said. "We will find and bring to justice every murderer. Without a doubt."
Residents said departing Russian troops plundered the city, carting away loot as they withdrew last week. They also wrecked key infrastructure before retreating across the wide Dnieper River to its east bank. One Ukrainian official described the situation in Kherson as "a humanitarian catastrophe." Reconnecting the electricity supply is the priority, with gas supplies already assured, Kherson regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said. The Russian pullout marked a triumphant milestone in Ukraine's pushback against Moscow's invasion almost nine months ago. In the past two months, Ukraine's military claimed to have retaken dozens of towns and villages north of the city of Kherson.

Ukraine president accuses Russia of 'atrocities' in Kherson
Associated Press/November 14/2022
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is accusing Russian forces of having committed "the same atrocities as in other regions of our country" before they were forced to pull out from the strategic southern city of Kherson and its surrounds.
In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelensky said without details that "investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes, and the bodies of both civilians and military personnel have been found." "In the Kherson region, the Russian army left behind the same atrocities as in other regions of our country," he said. "We will find and bring to justice every murderer. Without a doubt." The end of Russia's eight-month occupation of Kherson city has sparked days of celebration but also exposed a humanitarian emergency, with residents living without power and water and short of food and medicines. Russia still controls about 70% of the wider Kherson region. Zelensky said Russian soldiers who were left behind when their military commanders abandoned the city last week are being detained. He also spoke, again without details, of the "neutralization of saboteurs."Ukrainian police have called on residents to help identify people who collaborated with Russian forces. Zelensky urged people in the liberated zone to also be alert for booby traps, saying: "Please, do not forget that the situation in the Kherson region is still very dangerous. First of all, there are mines. Unfortunately, one of our sappers was killed, and four others were injured while clearing mines."And he promised that essential services will be restored. "We are doing everything to restore normal technical capabilities for electricity and water supply as soon as possible," he said. "We will bring back transport and post. Let's bring back an ambulance and normal medicine. Of course, the restoration of the work of authorities, the police, and some private companies are already beginning." Residents said departing Russian troops plundered the city, carting away loot as they withdrew last week. They also wrecked key infrastructure before retreating across the wide Dnieper River to its east bank. One Ukrainian official described the situation in Kherson as "a humanitarian catastrophe." Reconnecting the electricity supply is the priority, with gas supplies already assured, Kherson regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said. The Russian pullout marked a triumphant milestone in Ukraine's pushback against Moscow's invasion almost nine months ago. In the past two months, Ukraine's military claimed to have retaken dozens of towns and villages north of the city of Kherson. Ukraine's retaking of Kherson was the latest in a series of battlefield embarrassments for the Kremlin. It came some six weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the Kherson region and three other provinces in southern and eastern Ukraine — in breach of international law — and declared them Russian territory.

Ukraine war, tensions with China loom over big Bali summit
Associated Press/November 14/2022
A showdown between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin isn't happening, but fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and growing tensions between China and the West will be at the fore when leaders of the world's biggest economies gather in tropical Bali this week. The Group of 20 members begin talks on the Indonesian resort island Tuesday under the hopeful theme of "recover together, recover stronger." While Putin is staying away, Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and get to know new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italy's Giorgia Meloni. The summit's official priorities of health, sustainable energy and digital transformation are likely to be overshadowed by fears of a sputtering global economy and geopolitical tensions centered on the war in Ukraine. The nearly 9-month-old conflict has disrupted trade in oil, natural gas and grain, and shifted much of the summit's focus to food and energy security. The U.S. and allies in Europe and Asia, meanwhile, increasingly are squaring off against a more assertive China, leaving emerging G-20 economies like India, Brazil and host Indonesia to walk a tightrope between bigger powers.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has tried to bridge rifts within the G-20 over the war in Ukraine. Widodo, also known as Jokowi, became the first Asian leader since the invasion to visit both Russia and Ukraine in the summer.
He invited President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, not a G-20 member, to join the summit. Zelenskyy is expected to participate online. "One of the priorities for Jokowi is to ease the tension of war and geopolitical risk," said Bhima Yudhistira, director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. Last year's G-20 summit in Rome was the first in-person gathering of members since the pandemic, though the leaders of Russia and China didn't attend.
This year's event is bracketed by the United Nations climate conference in Egypt and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Cambodia, which Biden and some other G-20 leaders are attending, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Thailand right afterward.
The American president vowed to work with Southeast Asian nations on Saturday, saying "we're going to build a better future that we all want to see" in a region where China is working to grow its influence. On Sunday, Biden huddled with the leaders of Japan and South Korea to discuss China and the threat from North Korea.
One question hanging over the Bali summit is whether Russia will agree to extend the U.N. Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is up for renewal Nov. 19. The July deal allowed major global grain producer Ukraine to resume exports from ports that had been largely blocked for months because of the war. Russia briefly pulled out of the deal late last month only to rejoin it days later.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday called for more pressure on Russia to extend the deal, saying Moscow must "stop playing hunger games with the world."
As leaders contend with conflicts and geopolitical tensions, they face the risk that efforts to tame inflation will extinguish post-pandemic recoveries or cause debilitating financial crises.
The war's repercussions are being felt from the remotest villages of Asia and Africa to the most modern industries. It has amplified disruptions to energy supplies, shipping and food security, pushing prices sharply higher and complicating efforts to stabilize the world economy after the upheavals of the pandemic. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is urging the G-20 to provide financial help for the developing world. "My priority in Bali will be to speak up for countries in the Global South that have been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency, and now face crises in food, energy and finance — exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and crushing debt," Guterres said.
The International Monetary Fund is forecasting 2.7% global growth in 2023, while private sector economists' estimates are as low as 1.5%, down from about 3% this year, the slowest growth since the oil crisis of the early 1980s.
China has remained somewhat insulated from soaring inflation, mainly because it is struggling to reverse an economic slump that is weighing on global growth.The Chinese economy, the world's second largest, grew at a 3.9% pace in the latest quarter. But economists say activity is slowing under the pressure of pandemic controls, a crackdown on technology companies and a downturn in the real estate sector. Forecasters have cut estimates of China's annual economic growth to as low as 3%. That would be less than half of last year's 8.1% and the second lowest in decades.
Chinese President Xi will be coming to the summit emboldened by his appointment to an unusual third term as party chairman, making him China's strongest leader in decades. It's only his second foreign trip since early 2020, following a visit to Central Asia where he met Putin in September.
Biden and Xi will hold their first in-person meeting since Biden became president in January 2021 on the event's sidelines Monday. The U.S. is at odds with China over a host of issues, including human rights, technology and the future of the self-ruled island of Taiwan. The U.S. sees China as its biggest global competitor, and that rivalry is only likely to grow as Beijing seeks to expand its influence in the years to come.
The European Union is also reassessing its relationship with China as it seeks to reduce its trade dependency on the country.
Biden said he plans to talk with Xi about topics including Taiwan, trade policies and Beijing's relationship with Russia.
"What I want to do ... is lay out what each of our red lines are," Biden said last week. Many developing economies are caught between fighting inflation and trying to nurse along recoveries from the pandemic. Host Indonesia's economy grew at a 5.7% pace in the last quarter, one of the fastest among G-20 nations. But growth among resource exporters like Indonesia is forecast to cool as falling prices for oil, coal and other commodities end windfalls from the past year's price boom. At a time when many countries are struggling to afford imports of oil, gas and food while also meeting debt repayments, pressure is building on those most vulnerable to climate change to double down on shifting to more sustainable energy supplies. In Bali, the talks are also expected to focus on finding ways to hasten the transition away from coal and other fossil fuels. The G-20 was founded in 1999 originally as a forum to address economic challenges. It includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. Spain holds a permanent guest seat.
Some observers of the bloc, like Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center, question whether the G-20 can even function as geopolitical rifts grow. "I'm skeptical that it can survive long-term in its current format," he said in a briefing last week. That makes things especially tough on host Indonesia. "This is not the G-20 they signed up for," Lipsky said. "The last thing they wanted was to be in the middle of this geopolitical fight, this war in Europe, and be the crossroads of it. But that's where they are."

Analysis-Why stop now? Ukraine seen pressing advantage after Kherson victory
Jonathan Landay and Tom Balmforth/KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters)/November 14/2022
After recapturing Kherson from Russian forces and assured of unstinting U.S. support, Ukraine is well positioned to push its advantage in the war rather than accept frozen frontlines through winter, some military analysts said. The strategic and symbolic victory comes as fierce fighting continues further north along more than 1,000 km of front lines, a reminder that even with the vast Dnipro River now separating the enemies around Kherson, other objectives remain in play. "Ukraine has the initiative and momentum and is dictating to the Russians where and when the next fight will be," said Philip Ingram, a former senior British military intelligence officer.That could include refocusing the offensive closer to Bakhmut in the industry-heavy eastern region of Donbas, where Russia has itself been trying to break through for months. "The winter will slow things but not stop them - the Ukrainians will be well prepared to keep fighting through the winter, the Russians will be less well prepared to survive the winter cold," he said. Mile after mile of abandoned trenches along the road to the southern port city of Kherson spoke of the miserable living conditions some Russian forces had to endure on the right bank of Kherson before their retreat. Reuters witnessed trenches that were narrow, muddy and often exposed to the elements, in contrast to the wooden-floored trenches of the Ukrainians, some equipped with internet and flat-screen TVs. "Whatever (the Ukrainians) do, it will be carefully planned, kept secret and will likely be extremely well executed," Ingram added. Retired U.S. General Ben Hodges said there would be no need for Ukraine to rush across the Dnipro while it secures Kherson on the right (west) bank and pulls up artillery to bear down on Russian forces defending the approaches to annexed Crimea. Some residents in Kherson, meanwhile, are concerned about the risk of Russian shelling of the city once its forces regroup further east. According to Hodges, Russians concentrated in the south could be exposed to a thrust from Ukraine's other wing, driving down from the direction of Kharkiv towards the devastated city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. "They (the Russians) will have trenches, but it is wide open terrain (in the south), easy to target Russians there," he said. "This Kherson fire support base becomes the anchor to support further manoeuvre by the left flank as it fights its way ... towards Mariupol, Berdyansk, and Melitopol."
TALKS OR NO TALKS?
Ukrainian forces reached the centre of Kherson on Friday after forcing a stunning Russian retreat from the only regional capital they had captured and one they declared to be a part of Russia.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Friday that the United States would continue to support Ukraine militarily "to put Ukraine in the best possible position on the battlefield" and would not seek to tell it what to do. "This whole notion, I think, in the Western press of 'When is Ukraine going to negotiate?' misses the underlying fundamentals, which is that Russia continues ... to make these outlandish claims about annexed Russian territory," he said. He was referring to recent reports quoting officials suggesting Moscow's recent setbacks on the battlefield could provide Ukraine an opportunity to consider negotiating with Russia from a position of strength. America's top general, Mark Milley, when asked about the prospects for diplomacy at an event last week, noted that the early refusal to negotiate in World War One compounded human suffering and led to millions more casualties.
"So when there's an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved ... seize the moment," Milley told the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in Kherson on Monday that Ukraine was ready for peace, but only on its terms that would restore all occupied territory: "You see our strong army. We are step by step coming through our country, through the temporarily occupied territories."On Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said it was Ukraine's decision what conditions it can accept to end the war. "It is for Ukraine to decide what kind of terms are acceptable. It is for us to support them," he said during a joint news conference with Dutch government officials in the Hague. "We should not make the mistake of underestimating Russia ... They still control large parts of Ukraine ... What we should do is strengthen Ukraine's hand," Stoltenberg added.

China wants Putin to stop threatening nuclear war over Ukraine, according to the White House
Mattathias Schwartz/Business Insider/November 14, 2022
President Biden of the US and Chairman Xi of China met for more than three hours on Monday morning. The two leaders opposed the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened, according to the White House's account. On Taiwan, the two leaders reiterated their existing positions and said they sought to avoid military conflict. As Vladimir Putin's threat of nuclear conflict continued to hang over the invasion of Ukraine, the American and Chinese leaders met for more than three hours Monday morning on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, and apparently did what they could to encourage some Russian restraint. The discussion between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden was private, but much can be gleaned from readouts published by the White House, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Biden's press conference following the meeting. Most notable was Xi's "agreement" with Biden that "a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won," a view that "underscored" the two leaders' "opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine," according to the White House's account of the meeting. Xi reportedly took the same position on Russia's nuclear threats during a meeting with the German chancellor earlier this month. But for him to again call out the nuclear blackmail of President Vladimir Putin — who has referenced the 1945 US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and threatened to use Russia's nukes in Ukraine — carries particular significance in a meeting with Biden.
The Chinese readout of the Xi-Biden meeting was more vague when it came to Russia and Ukraine. It noted that China was "highly concerned" and that "confrontations between major countries must be avoided." It did not call on Russia to withdraw from its unprovoked invasion, instead calling for negotiations. Despite worries early on by Western countries that the so-called "no-limits friendship" between Xi and Putin meant that China would take Russia's side in the Ukraine conflict, China has taken a more neutral line. On Taiwan, the US and China publicly reiterated their pre-existing positions. China took a hard line against an independent Taiwan while the US criticized China for "coercive and increasingly aggressive actions." In his press conference, Biden said that he and Xi were "candid and clear with one another" and that "there need not be a new Cold War." US officials have recently claimed that China has accelerated its preparations to potentially seize Taiwan by force. In his remarks, Biden turned down the heat. "I do not think there's any eminent attempt by the part of China to invade Taiwan," he said. The high-level meeting came on the same day as a US-Russia discussion to try to reduce the chances the Ukraine war could escalate. In Turkey, CIA Director William Burns met with his Russian counterpart and warned against Russia using nukes or other terror weapons in its arsenal against Ukraine.

US sanctions non-Russians linked to military suppliers
WASHINGTON (AP)/November 14, 2022
The U.S. said Monday it was imposing sanctions on a list of people and firms around the globe that it alleged are involved in supporting Russia's military as it wages war on Ukraine. Unlike recent packages of sanctions imposed on Russia-based firms and people, the latest financial and diplomatic penalties are aimed at a range of entities including French real estate companies, a group of Swiss nationals and a Taiwanese microelectronic component purchaser. They are all accused of being financial facilitators or enablers of Russia's military supply chain, which U.S. officials committed to disrupting after the invasion of Ukraine began in February. “Businesses worldwide are advised to do their due diligence in order to avoid being targeted for sanctions," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. He said the U.S. “will continue to crack down on Russia’s attempts to evade international sanctions to fund its war machine.”The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the State Department designated 14 people, 28 entities and eight aircraft identified as being part of a transnational network that procures technology meant to build up Russia's military.Additionally, family members of U.S.-sanctioned Russian elite Suleiman Kerimov were targeted for sanctions, as well as Russian businessman and investor Murat Aliev, a former executive at a Kerimov investment firm, and seven related companies. “Together with our broad coalition of partners, we will continue to use our sanctions and export controls to weaken Russia’s military on the battlefield and cut into the revenue Putin is using to fund his brutal invasion,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. In October, Treasury, Commerce and National Intelligence officials met with representatives from finance ministries from 33 countries to discuss the impact of international sanctions and export controls on Russia’s critical defense supply chains. At that meeting, information from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Russia had lost more than 6,000 pieces of equipment since the beginning of the war and was turning to Iran and North Korea for supplies. Russia last week retreated from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which ended Russia’s eight-month occupation of the city. The Biden administration also in October announced a round of criminal charges and sanctions related to a complicated scheme to procure military technologies from U.S. manufacturers and illegally supply them to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Some of the equipment was recovered on battlefields in Ukraine, the Justice Department said, and other nuclear proliferation technology was intercepted in Latvia before it could be shipped to Russia.

Turkey detains 1, suspects Kurdish militants behind bombing
Associated Press/November 14/2022
Police have detained a suspect who is believed to have planted the bomb that exploded on a bustling pedestrian avenue in Istanbul, Turkey's interior minister said Monday, adding that initial findings indicate that Kurdish militants were responsible for the deadly attack. Six people were killed and several dozen others were wounded in Sunday's explosion on Istiklal Avenue, a popular thoroughfare lined with shops and restaurants that leads to the iconic Taksim Square. "A little while ago, the person who left the bomb was detained by our Istanbul Police Department teams," the Anadolu Agency quoted Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu as saying. He did not identify the suspect but said 21 other people were also detained for questioning. Sunday's explosion was a shocking reminder of the anxiety and safety concerns that stalked the Turkish population during years when such attacks were common. The country was hit by a string of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017, some by the Islamic State group, others by Kurdish militants who seek increased autonomy or independence. The minister said evidence obtained pointed to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and to the Syrian Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, which Turkey says is the Syrian extension of the outlawed militant group. He said the attack would be avenged. "We know what message those who carried out this action want to give us. We got this message," Soylu said. "Don't worry, we will pay them back heavily in return." Soylu also blamed the United States, saying a condolence message from the White House was akin to a "killer being first to show up at a crime scene." Turkey has been infuriated by U.S. support for Syrian Kurdish groups. He said security forces believe that instructions for the attack came from Kobani, the majority Kurdish city in northern Syria that borders Turkey. In its condolence message, the White House said it strongly condemned the "act of violence" in Istanbul, adding: "We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our NATO ally (Turkey) in countering terrorism."Turkish television broadcast footage purporting to show the main suspect being detained at a house where she was allegedly hiding. The woman is seen lying face down on a carpet, being handcuffed from behind. The suspect, wearing a purple hoodie and black pants, is later seen being escorted to what appears to be a police interrogation center. Police searching the house also seized large amounts of cash, gold items and a gun, according to the footage. Soylu said of the 81 people who were hospitalized, 50 were discharged. Five of the wounded were in intensive care and two of them were in life-threatening condition, he said. The six who were killed in the blast were members of three families and included a 15-year-old and a 9-year-old.
Istiklal Avenue was reopened to pedestrian traffic at 6 a.m. on Monday after police concluded inspections at the scene. People began leaving carnations at the site of the blast. Mecid Bal, a 63-year-old kiosk owner said his son was caught up in the blast and called him from the scene.
"Dad, there are dead and wounded lying on the ground. I was crushed when I stood up" to run, Bal quoted him as saying. Restaurant worker Emrah Aydinoglu said he was talking on the phone when he heard the explosion. "I looked out of the window and saw people running," the 22-year-old said. "People were lying on the ground, already visible from the corner of the street (I was in). They were trying to call (for help), whether it was an ambulance or the police. All of them were shrieking and crying."
The PKK has fought an insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.
Ankara and Washington consider the PKK a terrorist group but they diverge on the issue of the Syrian Kurdish groups, which have fought against the Islamic State group in Syria. In recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led a broad crackdown on the militants as well as on Kurdish lawmakers and activists. Amid skyrocketing inflation and other economic troubles, Erdogan's anti-terrorism campaign is a key rallying point for him ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections next year. Following the attacks between 2015 and 2017 that left more than 500 civilians and security personnel dead, Turkey launched cross-border military operations into Syria and northern Iraq against Kurdish militants, while also cracking down on Kurdish politicians, journalists and activists at home. "In nearly six years, we have not experienced a serious terrorist incident like the one we experienced yesterday evening in Istanbul. We are ashamed in front of our nation in this regard," Soylu said. On Sunday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told pro-government broadcaster A Haber that investigators were focusing on a woman who sat on a bench by the scene of the blast for about 40 minutes. The explosion took place just minutes after she left. Turkey's media watchdog imposed restrictions on reporting on Sunday's explosion — a move that bans the use of close-up videos and photos of the blast and its aftermath. The Supreme Council of Radio and Television has imposed similar bans in the past, following both attacks and accidents. Access to Twitter and other social media sites was also restricted on Sunday.

Türkiye Rejects US Condolences over Blast
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 14 November, 2022
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on Monday said that Türkiye rejected the condolences message from the US embassy following the deadly explosion in Istanbul that killed six people and left tens wounded. “We have received the message, but we will not accept and are rejecting condolences from the US embassy,” Soylu told journalists, as quoted by the Russian RTarabic. “We know who supports terrorism in north Syria, and we know the message they want to deliver to Türkiye through this bombing,” he added. Soylu also blamed the United States, saying a condolence message from the White House was akin to “a killer being first to show up at a crime scene.”Türkiye has been infuriated by US support for Syrian Kurdish groups. The Turkish official pointed the finger at Syria-based Kurdish YPG group as the people behind the bombing attack, claiming that “the terror plot came from Ayn al-Arab” – the district in northern Syria where the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani is located. The bombing killed six people and wounded 81 others in the popular shopping street of Istiklal Avenue on Sunday shortly after 4:00 pm (1300 GMT). There has been no claim of responsibility.

Türkiye Detains Syrian Suspected Bomber, Accuses Kurdish Group of Istanbul Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 14 November, 2022
Türkiye on Monday accused the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of carrying out a deadly bomb attack in Istanbul, saying a Syrian woman was in custody suspected of planting the device. The bombing killed six people and wounded 81 others in the popular shopping street of Istiklal Avenue on Sunday shortly after 4:00 pm (1300 GMT). There has been no claim of responsibility. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the bombing a "vile attack" that had the "smell of terror".A nine-year old girl and her father, as well as a 15-year-old girl and her mother were among those killed in the attack.
Istanbul police said Monday that 46 people had been detained in total. Erdogan's government accused the PKK of carrying out the explosion shortly before the president landed in the Indonesian resort island of Bali for the G20 summit. Police footage shared with Turkish media showed a young woman in a purple sweatshirt being apprehended in an Istanbul flat. "The person who planted the bomb has been arrested," interior minister Suleyman Soylu said in a statement broadcast by the official Anadolu news agency early Monday.
'Order from Kobane'
Turkish police quoted by private NTV television, said the chief suspect is a Syrian woman working for Kurdish militants. "According to our findings, the PKK terrorist organization is responsible," Soylu said. "We believe that the order for the attack was given from Kobane," he said, referring to a city in Syria near the Turkish border. NTV shared an image taken from a surveillance camera, showing a young woman dressed in trousers and wearing a loose black scarf running away in the crowd, referred to as the bomber.

Palestinian Official: Netanyahu's Govt Reflects Israel's Extremism, Racism
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 14 November, 2022
A Palestinian official criticized Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu's assignment to form a new government in Israel after winning the recent parliamentary elections. Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Ahmed Majdalani, told the official Palestinian radio that the next cabinet headed by Netanyahu reflects "the transformation of Israeli society towards extremism and racism."Majdalani said the Israeli government would include "right-wing fascist members," and that its political vision and program did not reference the two-state solution as the acceptable international solution based on international legitimacy resolutions. He stated that the PLO Executive Committee would meet in Ramallah on Tuesday, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to discuss mechanisms for managing the relationship with the new government in Israel. The upcoming Israeli government "requires a new Palestinian vision and a different policy" he added, in light of its agenda on the Palestinian cause and its expression of extremism and racism.Earlier, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry called on the international community to refuse to deal with the far-right ministers appointed by Netanyahu's government to protect democracy and the two-state solution.

Sudan's Burhan Again Warns Islamists against Exploiting Army
Khartoum - Mohammed Amin Yassin/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 14 November, 2022
Chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in Sudan, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, issued on Sunday a strong warning to politicians not to interfere in the affairs of the army. “Anyone who interferes in the affairs of the armed forces will be considered our enemy. We will cut off his tongue and hand,” Al-Burhan warned. The Commander-in-Chief then repeated the strong warnings he addressed last week to the Islamists of ousted President Omar al-Bashir, but this time, referred to their relationship with the armed forces. “We warned the Islamists because they are trying to infiltrate the army. We tell them: Go away, you will not be able to rule through the army,” he said. Addressing high-ranking officers during his visit to Al-Markhayat Operational Base in Omdurman, Al-Burhan asserted he will not allow any party to work on infiltrate the armed forces. “The army will remain a unified, independent national institution whose concern is the homeland and the preservation of its security and people,” he said. “We will not allow any of them to exploit the Armed Forces to gain power, whether those parties are Islamists, communists, Baathists or others,” he stressed. Regarding the political settlement mediated by the international tripartite mechanism, he admitted the presence of understandings with the opposition Freedom and Change forces, for the benefit of Sudan, stressing that there is no bilateral settlement with any party. Al-Burhan added that the army received the draft transitional constitution proposed by the country's Bar Association and made some observations on it. The General had described leaders of the “Freedom and Change” as patriots, saying that they promised to work for the benefit of Sudan, and not to return to power. Commenting on the next government’s lineup, Al-Burhan stressed it must only include independent figures. “We want a civilian government that is guarded by the people and the army,” he noted. Also, Burhan said the Army does not want unilateral solutions but a civil rule guarded by the armed forces. At the level of foreign affairs, the Commander-in-Chief said he seeks to establish balanced and mutually beneficial relations with regional and neighboring countries, away from tension.

Indonesian officials: Russia's Lavrov treated at hospital
Associated Press/November 14/2022
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was taken to the hospital because of a health concern following his arrival for the Group of 20 summit in Bali, multiple Indonesian authorities said Monday. Russia denied that he had been hospitalized.
Russia's top diplomat arrived on the resort island the previous evening to take part in the meeting of the world's leading economies, which begins Tuesday. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova later denied that Lavrov had been hospitalized, calling it "the highest level of fakes." She did not address whether he had received medical treatment.
She posted a video of Lavrov, looking healthy in a T-shirt and shorts, in which he was asked to comment on the report.
"They've been writing about our president for 10 years that he's fallen ill. It's a game that is not new in politics," Lavrov says in the video. Russia's state news agency Tass separately cited Lavrov as saying, "I'm in the hotel, reading materials for the summit tomorrow." Lavrov is the highest-ranking Russian official at the G-20 meeting, which U.S. President Joe Biden, China's Xi Jinping and other leaders are attending. Four Indonesian government and medical officials told The Associated Press that Lavrov was treated at the Sanglah Hospital in the provincial capital, Denpasar. All of the officials declined to be identified as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Two of the people said Lavrov had been treated for a heart condition. The hospital, Bali's biggest, did not immediately comment. Russian President Vladimir Putin's attendance at the G-20 had been uncertain until last week, when officials confirmed he would not come and that Russia would be represented by Lavrov instead. Fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine is expected to be among the issues discussed at the two-day G-20 meeting, which brings together officials from countries representing more than 80% of the world's economic output.
Biden and Xi were meeting separately ahead of the summit in their first in-person talks since the U.S. president took office.

Biden, Xi seek to 'manage our differences' in meeting
Associated Press/November 14/2022
President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping opened their first in-person meeting Monday since the U.S. president took office nearly two years ago, aiming to "manage" differences between the superpowers as they compete for global influence amid increasing economic and security tensions.
Xi and Biden greeted each other with a handshake at a luxury resort hotel in Indonesia, where they are attending the Group of 20 summit of large economies, before they sat down for what was expected to be a conversation lasting several hours.
"As the leaders of our two nations, we share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation," Biden said to open the meeting. Xi called on Biden to "chart the right course" and "elevate the relationship" between China and the U.S. He said he was ready for a "candid and in-depth exchange of views" with Biden. Both men entered the highly anticipated meeting with bolstered political standing at home. Democrats triumphantly held onto control of the U.S. Senate, with a chance to boost their ranks by one in a runoff election in Georgia next month, while Xi was awarded a third five-year term in October by the Communist Party's national congress, a break with tradition.
"We have very little misunderstanding," Biden told reporters in Cambodia on Sunday, where he participated in a gathering of southeast Asian nations before leaving for Indonesia. "We just got to figure out where the red lines are and ... what are the most important things to each of us going into the next two years."
Biden added: "His circumstance has changed, to state the obvious, at home." The president said of his own situation: "I know I'm coming in stronger."
White House aides have repeatedly sought to play down any notion of conflict between the two nations and have emphasized that they believe the countries can work in tandem on shared challenges such as climate change and health security.
But relations have grown more strained under successive American administrations, as economic, trade, human rights and security differences have come to the fore.
As president, Biden has repeatedly taken China to task for human rights abuses against the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities, crackdowns on democracy activists in Hong Kong, coercive trade practices, military provocations against self-ruled Taiwan and differences over Russia's prosecution of its war against Ukraine. Chinese officials have largely refrained from public criticism of Russia's war, although Beijing has avoided direct support, such as supplying arms.
Taiwan has emerged as one of the most contentious issues between Washington and Beijing. Multiple times in his presidency, Biden has said the U.S. would defend the island — which China has eyed for eventual unification — in case of a Beijing-led invasion. But administration officials have stressed each time that the U.S.'s "One China" policy has not changed. That policy recognizes the government in Beijing while allowing for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei, and its posture of "strategic ambiguity" over whether it would respond militarily if the island were attacked.
Tensions flared even higher when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., visited Taiwan in August, prompting China to retaliate with military drills and the firing of ballistic missiles into nearby waters. The Biden administration also blocked exports of advanced computer chips to China last month — a national security move that bolsters U.S. competition against Beijing. Chinese officials quickly condemned the restrictions.
And though the two men have held five phone or video calls during Biden's presidency, White House officials say those encounters are no substitute for Biden being able to meet Xi in person. That task is all the more important after Xi strengthened his grip on power through the party congress, as lower-level Chinese officials have been unable or unwilling to speak for their leader. Before the meeting, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning had said China was committed to peaceful coexistence but would firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests. "It is important that the U.S. work together with China to properly manage differences, advance mutually beneficial cooperation, avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation, and bring China-U.S. relations back to the right track of sound and steady development," she said at a daily briefing in Beijing.
Xi has stayed close to home throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic, where he has enforced a "zero-COVID" policy with mass lockdowns that have roiled global supply chains.
He made his first trip outside China since start of the pandemic in September with a stop in Kazakhstan and then onto Uzbekistan to participate in the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Putin and other leaders of the Central Asian security group.
White House officials and their Chinese counterparts have spent weeks negotiating details of the meeting, which was held at Xi's hotel with translators providing simultaneous interpretation through headsets. U.S. officials were eager to see how Xi approaches the Biden sit-down after consolidating his position as the unquestioned leader of the state, saying they would wait to assess whether that made him more or less likely to seek out areas of cooperation with the U.S. Biden and Xi each brought small delegations into the discussion. U.S. officials expected Xi would bring newly elevated government officials and expressed hope that it could lead to more substantive engagements down the line. Before meeting with Xi, Biden held talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the G-20 host, to announce a range of new development initiatives for the archipelago nation, including investments in climate, security, and education.
Many of Biden's conversations and engagements during a three-country tour — which took him to Egypt and Cambodia before he landed on the island of Bali on Sunday — were, by design, preparing him to meet Xi. The two men have a history that dates to their service as their country's vice president. The U.S. president has emphasized that he knows Xi well and wants to use the meeting to better understand where they stand. Biden has tucked references to his conversations with Xi into his remarks as he traveled around the U.S. before the Nov. 8 elections, using the Chinese leader's preference for autocratic governance to make his own case to voters for why democracy should prevail. The president's view was somewhat validated on the global stage, as White House aides said several world leaders approached Biden during his time in Cambodia — where he was meeting with Asian allies to reassure them of the U.S. commitment to the region in the face of China's assertive actions — to tell him they watched the outcome of the midterm elections closely and that the results were a triumph for democracy.

Egypt calls reports of surveillance at COP27 'ludicrous'
Associated Press/November 14/2022
A senior Egyptian diplomat has dismissed as "ludicrous" Monday reports that his country's police have been conducting surveillance of participants at this year's U.N. climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh. The United Nations said Sunday that it was investigating allegations of misconduct by Egyptian police officers who were part of the force providing security to the global body at the venue. Germany had raised concerns after attendees at events hosted by the country were photographed and filmed. But Wael Aboulmagd, a veteran diplomat who heads the Egyptian delegation, said he had not received any direct complaints from Germany. "I've seen reports in the media," he told reporters. "They're rather vague, imprecise, inaccurate."Germany's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it was in contact with Egyptian authorities about the incidents at its pavilion. "It seems ludicrous because that's an open event," Aboulmagd said, referring to a panel last week at the German pavilion at which the sister of a jailed Egyptian pro-democracy activist, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, spoke. "Why would any untoward surveillance exist in an open event?" He suggested the issue was being raised to divert attention from the substantive topics being discussed at the climate talks. "We're tired of these apparently intentional distractions from climate issues, excessive focus on unfounded allegations," said Abouldmagd. The United Nations has confirmed that some of the security officers working in the part of the venue designated as United Nations territory come from the host country, Egypt, citing the "scale and complexity of providing security at a large scale event" such as the COP27 climate talks. It said that U.N. security "has been made aware of allegations of the Code of Conduct violations and is investigating these reports."Egypt's hosting of the international summit has trained a spotlight on its human rights record. The government has engaged in a widespread crackdown on dissent in recent years, detaining some 60,000 people, many without trial, according to a 2019 tally by Human Rights Watch.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 14-15/2022
Iran’s terror drone pipeline to Moscow
Emanuele Ottolenghi/Al Arabiya/Novermber 14/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113349/emanuele-ottolenghi-al-arabiya-irans-terror-drone-pipeline-to-moscow-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%88%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%a3%d9%88%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%ba%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84/
On October 17, Kyiv residents woke up to loud explosions. Russia had just launched a wave of drone attacks on civilian targets across Ukraine, which it carried out with Iranian-made Shahed-136 “suicide drones.” The Ukrainian targets had little military value but spread fear among the population and signaled the potential scale of wanton destruction Russia can still inflict on Ukraine despite Moscow’s battlefield losses.
By airlifting deadly weapons to Russia, Iran has become a willing accomplice in the rape of Ukraine. Yet the supply chain enabling these attacks goes further than flights transferring weapons and personnel. It includes logistics on the ground, production, acquisition of foreign technology, and—potentially—assistance by third parties such as Syria and Venezuela. Sanctioning Iran’s supply chain at each step of the way should be a priority for the US and its allies.
Iran can send weapons to Russia with relative ease—after a decade of equipping Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad with the means to butcher his own people, Tehran has perfected its methods. The supply chain that leads from Iran’s drone factories to Russia’s killing fields in Ukraine is a straightforward cargo airlift that appears to employ the same airlines and aircraft that once flew to Damascus. Iran is also reportedly deploying personnel to Ukrainian occupied territories to help Russian forces operate the drones. Ukrainian official sources recently claimed to have killed 10 Iranian military advisors in Crimea.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iran has run frequent cargo flights to Moscow via Iran Air, Fars Air Qeshm, Puya Air, and Saha Airlines, all linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. According to aviation watcher, Gerjon, as of October 10, Iran has flown at least 62 cargo flights to Russian airports since the beginning of the invasion.
The active and frequent travel to Moscow by Iranian cargo has not escaped notice.
In September of this year, the Biden administration added four Iranian cargo planes to its US Department of Commerce blacklist of aircraft involved in export control violations. Among those aircraft is a Boeing 747 operated by Qeshm Fars Air, which the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned in 2019 for its role supplying Syria-based Iranian forces and their proxies with military equipment. According to Treasury, Qeshm Fars operated regular cargo flights to Damascus “delivering cargo, including weapons shipments” on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ special operations branch, the Quds Force.
Qeshm Fars’ planes have been flying to Russia since the February invasion of Ukraine. Commercially available flight tracking data from the website FlightRadar24 show that the only operational aircraft currently in Qeshm Fars’ fleet, a Boeing 747 with registration number EP-FAA, flew more than 20 times between Tehran and Moscow since Russia’s invasion began on February 22. That same plane only flew twice to Moscow in the six months preceding the invasion). EP-FAA discontinued its flights in early September, likely due to maintenance issues, but flights continued with Saha Airlines’ only aircraft, another Boeing cargo 747, which since August has visited Moscow six times. Alongside these two aircraft, Iranian cargo forays to Moscow since February 24 include 28 flights operated by Puya Air and 12 by Iran Air. These flights may be carrying different types of military supplies, but the Department of Commerce designations in September make it clear their cargo includes drones.
Iran began to supply Russia with its drones since at least this past summer, according to US officials. Evidence obtained from debris of downed drones shows that, in addition to the Shahed-136, Russia is deploying the Mohajer-6, a drone Iran is said to have supplied to Venezuela as well. Venezuela’s state-owned and US-sanctioned airline, Conviasa, recently acquired long-haul aircraft from US sanctioned Iranian carrier, Mahan Air, through a Dubai intermediary. Mahan sold Venezuela four aircraft in the summer of 2021, including a Boeing 747 cargo, currently operated by Conviasa’s subsidiary Emtrasur.
The Emtrasur plane was seized in Argentina in June, where it is currently grounded, subject to a US seizure warrant. Its flight logs, seized during searches conducted by local authorities, show that Emtrasur flew to Moscow at least once during its short-lived operation between February and June 2022. Conviasa also bought passenger aircraft from Mahan—three Airbus 340s. Two of these planes have also routinely flown to Tehran and then Moscow before returning to Caracas. Passenger manifestos for some Conviasa flights operated by this aircraft, which the author obtained from a Venezuelan opposition source, indicate the planes are flying with hardly any passengers, a potential sign that they could be transporting cargo.
Iranian ability to reverse engineer Western technology, including drones, is well-documented. In at least one publicized US court case, Hezbollah proxies procured technology for Hezbollah’s UAV program from US companies. Thanks to these technological acquisitions, Iran has been able to enhance its arms manufacturing industry, which Iran is establishing beyond its borders to support its imperial ambitions. Just last week, media reports indicated that Israel bombed a Syria-based drone factory manned by IRGC and a Hezbollah unit with suspected links to the IRGC’s Quds Force. Last summer, Iran inaugurated a UAV manufacturing facility in Tajikistan where Ababil-2 drones are said to be produced. During a large drone exercise, also last summer, which Russian, Belarusian, and Armenian forces attended alongside their Iranian counterparts, Iranian state media disclosed an underground drone manufacturing facility inside Iran. Iran’s drone threat should be no surprise to Middle Eastern audiences. Not only has Iran transferred its drone technology to its regional proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, which were used to attack civilian infrastructure targets inside Gulf countries. It has also repeatedly tested Israel’s mettle by trying to penetrate its airspace with drones from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. The use of drones for kamikaze attacks, as it happened in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is eerily reminiscent of their recent use in Ukraine. It reminds us that that spreading terror is integral to Iran’s military doctrine, in brazen disregard of the laws of war.
There is much that countries in the region can do to push back. First, and foremost, they should recognize that Ukraine is facing the same threat confronting Israel and Gulf countries. Hitting back at Iran and Russia is therefore imperative. Aircraft participating in the Russia airlift should be banned by regional powers—the Iran Air 747 that routinely flies to Moscow has been also flying into Doha and Dubai lately, for example.
The US too should expand its blacklist of aircraft and move to expand sanctions against those involved in the airlift, extending its designations to Iranian pilots. Sanctions should mirror US efforts to target manufacturers and logistics companies too. These measures cannot prevent Iranian and Russian aircraft from flying the Moscow-Tehran route. But they can exact a heavy price on Iranian and Russian civil aviation operations elsewhere.
Beyond sanctions, Israel and the Gulf countries should step up their diplomatic, humanitarian, and military support for Ukraine. What happens in Ukraine, as both Saudis and Emiratis have learned from recent drone attacks on their own civilian infrastructure, has happened and can happen again in the Middle East.
The use of drones against civilian targets is a war crime. If met with indifference and rewarded with impunity, it will become the standard by which countries like Iran and Russia can bleed their adversaries financially while terrorizing their populations. For the Middle East, whose civilian infrastructure has already been targeted by Iran, this should be a wake-up call to push back before it is too late.
*Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a non-partisan research foundation in Washington D.C. Follow him on Twitter: @eottolenghi.

The War in Ukraine Will End, and That’s When We’ll See the True Tensions in Europe
Ivan Krastev/The New York Times/November, 14/2022
Europe these days reminds me of the early weeks of the pandemic: We are living with a sense that the end of the world is just around the corner. But this time, anxiety over Russia’s nuclear weapons has replaced talk of the virus.
European media is plastered with grim headlines about energy shortages, disruptions and blackouts. Analysts agree that inflation and the escalating cost of living could easily bring millions to the streets in protest. The number of migrants that have come to the European Union this year is already much higher than the number that came from Syria in 2015. And the Kremlin’s war machine will only drive the figures higher as the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure deprives people there of electricity and water.
Vladimir Putin’s winter is nonetheless unlikely to end Europe’s commitment to Ukraine. Allied governments may change, but sanctions will remain in force. Just look to Italy, where the newly elected far-right government has signed on to the European consensus.
A majority of Europeans are morally outraged by Russia’s brutality. And the recent successes of the Ukrainian Army add hope to the outrage. In fact, as the Ukrainians have made advances on the battlefield, support for them is surging. But the most important factor is, in fact, on the other side of the Atlantic. When Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, Mr. Putin’s closest ally in the European Union, recently proclaimed that “hope for peace is named Donald Trump,” he expressed something that all of Mr. Putin’s allies in Europe have realized: Only a change in American policy can change the West’s position on Ukraine. It is America rather than Europe that is the weak link when it comes to sustained support for Kyiv.
But this war will not go on forever. And it’s in the peace, rather than the fighting, that the tensions in Europe will become clear.
There are three distinct camps when it comes to thinking about how this war should end: the realists, the optimists and the revisionists. Representatives from each can be found among politicians and voters in almost all European countries, but they are not equally represented everywhere: In Western and southern Europe the debate is mostly between realists and optimists; in Ukraine and some of the East European countries, it is between optimists and revisionists. Geography and history best explain the differences. West Europeans primarily fear nuclear war. East Europeans fear return of the Russian sphere of influence in their countries in case of Ukraine’s defeat.
The so-called realists believe that Europe’s goal should be that Russia does not win, Ukraine does not lose and the war fails to broaden. Look to the statements of President Emmanuel Macron of France for this view. By this logic, Ukraine should be helped to liberate as much of its territory as possible but a Ukrainian victory must have its limits, because seeking this goal would greatly increase the risk of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons. The most obvious limit, it bears stating, is that Ukraine not go as far as trying to reclaim Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
The realists rightly view the current conflict as more dangerous than the Soviet-American confrontation during the Cold War, because the Cold War was a clash between two forces that both believed that history was on their side. The West now confronts a leader with an apocalyptic mind-set, haunted by the specter of a world without Russia.
The second camp are the optimists. They see the end of war as not just Ukrainian victory but the end of Vladimir Putin. They argue that Russia’s military defeat and the continued effects of sanctions — which will only become more devastating — are clear signs that the Russian president’s time in office is limited, and they support President Volodymyr Zelensky’s unwillingness to negotiate with Mr. Putin. The proponents of this view, including German Greens and most of the East Europeans, argue that only unrestrained support for Ukraine can achieve a lasting peace. Russia should not be just stopped but defeated.
Revisionists see the war in Ukraine not as Mr. Putin’s war but as Russians’ war. For them, the only guarantee for peace and stability in Europe after this war ends would be the irreversible weakening of Russia, including the disintegration of the Russian Federation. They argue for supporting separatist movements in the country and keeping Russians far away from Europe regardless of political changes in the country. In their view, the war that started with Mr. Putin’s claim that Ukraine does not exist should end with the final dissolution of the Russian empire. The “End of Russia” strategy is, perhaps not surprisingly, most popular in countries that have suffered under Moscow’s rule in the past: Poland, the Baltic republics and, of course, Ukraine.
Each of these schools of thought has its sensible detractors. Critics of the realist approach rightly insist that realism was already tested in 2015 after Russia invaded eastern Ukraine and it did not work. The magical realists suffer from an excess of optimism that Mr. Putin’s days are numbered. Moreover, the regime change that optimists desire is harder in practice; how, after all, can negotiations proceed based on their desired ends? And revisionists’ appeals to dismantle or disfigure Russia could have the unintended and unwelcome effect of giving Russians reasons to fight in this war, something Mr. Putin has failed to do.
When Russian troops were on the outskirts of Kyiv, the differences between realists, optimists and revisionists were not critical. The only goal was to prevent Ukraine from being overrun and Mr. Putin from winning a victory. But the triumphs of the Ukrainian Army over recent months have brought these differences closer to the center of the European debate. It is the diverging views of how the war should end rather than Mr. Putin’s threats that is the real risk for European unity. We will feel this already in the winter when public pressure to start negotiations with Moscow will increase.
Diverging narratives and visions about the desired end of the war are so emotionally and morally charged that any agreement will be painfully complex. But some common framework for a resolution to the war is urgently needed. Without it, Ukrainians’ fear that they will be betrayed by the West and Mr. Putin’s fear that Russia will be militarily humiliated fuel escalation to extremes.
*Mr. Krastev is a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and the author, most recently, of “Is It Tomorrow Yet? Paradoxes of the Pandemic.”

Iran antagonizes neighbors to distract from its failings
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/November 14/2022
With Iran’s protests about to enter their third month, there has been an increase in the number of violent clashes between protesters and security forces. In response to the regime’s inability to quell the protests and preserve the last semblance of its rapidly eroding legitimacy, it has resorted to peddling conspiracy theories, which have now become wholly unconvincing even to its supporters.
In pursuing this predictable path, the regime has also launched attacks on Iranian-Kurdish opposition positions in northern Iraq. In fact, Iran has antagonized its neighbors one by one, in contradiction to the directives of President Ebrahim Raisi, who had previously spoken about the need to improve the country’s relations with neighboring states.
After failing to persuade Iranians not to watch Iran International, a satellite channel run by dissidents overseas, the regime resorted to accusing Saudi Arabia of supporting and financing the channel, which it accuses of inciting the Iranian public and of being behind and instigating the popular protests. In reality, the Iranian people’s loss of trust in the regime’s state-run media, which has, for years, flagrantly promoted blatantly false claims and falsified the truth, is largely responsible for the high viewership for Iran International and other dissident Persian-language media outlets. It has become clear to the Iranian people that the channels broadcasting from outside the country convey truths about the regime based on direct observations and eyewitness accounts.
Iran’s complex landscape formerly lacked Daesh, but its alleged recent emergence has compounded the complexities. Iran last week announced the capture of a Daesh terror cell responsible for the attack on the Shah Cheragh Shrine in Shiraz, southern Iran. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Intelligence, some 26 terrorists were apprehended, all of whom were non-Iranians from Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
This official narrative, which appears to be implausible at best, raises a number of points. Though terror outfits such as Daesh have members from various countries, they most likely operate within a specific geographical area, as evidenced by their gatherings in some provinces of Syria and Iraq. A complex operation like the one carried out in Shiraz would require the smallest possible number of terror operatives, who would have built strong mutual trust and relations over many years of work and cooperation. If the terrorist attack had been blamed on a Kurdish or Balochi armed group, the Iranian people might have been convinced. However, it is clear that the regime has fabricated an incident to deflect attention from the nationwide protests and to rally the Iranian people around it.
The regime has now placed most of its neighbors on the same blacklist, indirectly blaming them for all of the country’s problems
Iran has been desperately seeking pretexts to antagonize its neighbors, to the point where a state-run newspaper called Iran blamed the UAE for anti-regime slogans chanted by fans following a beach football game between the Emirati and Iranian teams in Dubai. It is obvious that the Iranian accusations and threats against the UAE lack any logic and are nothing more than a desperate attempt to incite nationalist sentiments and turn Iranian public opinion against the UAE, especially given that the slogans chanted against the regime were sung by Iranians living in the UAE.
Perhaps what best refutes the Iranian allegations in this regard and exposes the true goals behind them is that the Iranian beach football team, which the regime sent to represent the country, put it in an awkward position with its refusal to celebrate being crowned despite winning the tournament. This was an expression of solidarity with the protesters in Iran — a gesture widely praised by Iranians inside and outside the country. The refusal to celebrate was a moving expression of solidarity with the ongoing protests in Iran, which erupted following the morality police’s killing of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini at a detention facility in September.
By leveling its latest ludicrous accusations against the UAE, Iran has now placed most of its neighbors on the same blacklist, indirectly blaming them for all of the country’s problems. According to the Iranian regime’s perception, insecurity in Sistan and Balochistan stems from Pakistan’s complacency with the Balochis and its failure to closely monitor their shared border. The same holds true for the Kurds in Iraq. Saudi Arabia has been accused of supporting media outlets that have revealed the truth about what is going on in Iran. Tehran has also added Azerbaijan and Afghanistan to its blacklist under the guise of them exporting terrorists.
This is quite ironic, given that Azerbaijan announced on Nov. 1 that it had detained 19 individuals linked to Iran’s intelligence services who were planning terrorist operations in the country.
Tensions between Tehran and Baku have escalated over the last month in light of a prominent Azeri separatist appearing on television in Azerbaijan and giving interviews on various public networks. He has called for the overthrow of the Iranian regime in the midst of the ongoing nationwide protests. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has added to the tensions by remarking that he would continue efforts to ensure Azeris in Iran will never lose their ties with their historical homeland. In response, Iran summoned Azerbaijan’s envoy to Tehran to lodge a complaint against what it classed as “anti-Iranian” propaganda coming from senior Azeri officials.
It is important to note that Iran cannot expect its neighbors to remain passive while it hurls accusations at them and carries out proactive acts, in this case adopting a pro-Armenian slant and conducting military drills in its northern provinces bordering Azerbaijan.
In a nutshell, the Iranian regime may be able to buy some time through these conspiracy theory-drenched narratives about the ongoing protests, and it may also repress them violently, but it is well aware that the true causes of these protests are primarily internal, with some of them linked directly to its political structure and the interests of the ruling elite surrounding the supreme leader and the IRGC, who cling to power and harness the country’s resources for their personal interests at the expense of societal welfare and progress.
As long as the Iranian regime continues to ignore these causes, exclude voices of reason and hurl accusations at outsiders, nothing will change or improve on the domestic front. There is no doubt that protests will erupt again, possibly on a larger scale than the current and previous waves, not as a result of a new conspiracy but for the same causes and because of decades-old wrong policies and decisions.
• Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is president of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami

بارعة علم الدين/عرب نيوز: السخرية لحّقت برجال الدين في إيران مع انهيار حواجز الخوف
Iran’s theocrats ridiculed as barriers of fear collapse
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/November 14/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113354/113354/
As a symptom of how detested Iran’s mullahs have become, “turban tossing” is a viral trend. Videos showing people creeping up behind clerics and knocking off or stealing their turbans and running away have been viewed millions of times.
One enraged MP warned that turban-tossers were a “conspiracy of devils” who were “playing with the lion’s tail.” Hated turbaned symbols of the regime’s hypocrisy and corruption frequently find themselves failing to get served in markets, or having taxi drivers refusing to stop for them.
Kurdish rapper Saman Yasin is among several figures charged with the capital offence of “waging war against God” for public criticism of the regime and its supreme leader. Could there be any clearer sign that this theocratic regime has lost the plot than these attempts to equate Ayatollah Khamenei with God?
Other musicians, athletes and cultural figures have been rounded up for demonstrating solidarity with protesters. Celebrity chef Mehrshad Shahidi was beaten to death by Revolutionary Guard thugs the day before his 20th birthday. Nevertheless, in a move of breathtaking boldness, actress Taraneh Alidoosti last week appeared in a photo without hijab, brandishing a placard with the protest slogan “Woman, life, freedom.”
Tehran regime authorities have announced another round of public trials for at least 1,000 protesters, including charges that carry the death penalty — a transparent attempting to terrorize citizens back into obedience. A message from 227 MPs demanded that the judiciary deal “decisively with the perpetrators of these crimes”. According to human rights groups, at least 328 people have already been killed and 14,825 arrested. Other estimates are even higher.
Despite such crude measures, nationwide mass protests are still going strong after a full two months; thousands of demonstrators gathered last week to commemorate 40 days since “bloody Friday” in Zahedan, when security forces opened fire and massacred at least 96 people. There are calls for mass demonstrations on Nov. 15 to mark the anniversary of the brutally crushed 2019 uprising.
Yet even as the regime bleeds credibility domestically, it remains hellbent on overseas provocation. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported last week that Iran now has sufficient uranium enriched to 60 percent purity with which to build a nuclear bomb, as well as having disabled surveillance equipment allowing the agency to monitor enrichment activities.
Revolutionary Guards aerospace commander Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh also boasted that Iran had developed a hypersonic missile capable of penetrating all defense systems. Meanwhile, Iranian drones continue to be gratuitously deployed against Ukrainian civilians and power-generating infrastructure. The world continues to passively watch as this terrorist theocracy develops military and nuclear arsenals with which to menace us all.
With the COP27 climate summit taking place in Egypt, attention has been drawn to the fact that Iran is the world’s sixth-highest greenhouse gas emitter and one of the few countries not to have ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement. This matters because mismanagement and climate change have led to many of Iran’s biggest lakes, rivers and underground water sources almost completely drying up. In 2018, the Revolutionary Guards carried out a wave of arrests of Iranian environmental advocates, accusing them of espionage and collaboration with “enemy states.” Several remain in jail.
The regime has scored own goals with ham-fisted attempts to exert force overseas. Demonstrators around Iranian embassies worldwide have been attacked. Iranian journalists in London have received “credible, significant and imminent” threats to their lives, and their relatives inside Iran have suffered crude intimidation. While Iran’s charge d’affaires in London was breezily dismissing such reports as “nonsense,” his denial was somewhat undermined by Mohammad Hosseini, one of Iran’s vice presidents, who brazenly threatened: “We’ll respond wherever necessary, even in other countries — as we did in the case of Iraqi Kurdistan.”
Although the EU is set to widen sanctions, it is inexplicable that there appears to be no consensus on labeling the Revolutionary Guards — the regime’s blunt weapon for crushing internal dissent —a terrorist entity: this despite reports that the Guards were preparing to strike the energy infrastructure of Arab Gulf states in a clumsy attempt to distract attention from domestic chaos.
Nobody expects the regime to collapse tomorrow, but these unusually tenacious and widespread protests demonstrate that the endgame is in sight.
Divisions within the regime on how to handle the unrest are evident for all to see. Hard-line members of the Iranian parliament are calling for maximum force to crush civil disobedience; one of them, ultraconservative Mojtaba Zonnour, declared: “Women who do not cover their hair should be sentenced to 74 lashes.” Other MPs have defended the right to peaceful protest. A statement from Iran’s Reformist bloc was denounced by activists as too late and too feeble, despite drawing fire from regime hard-liners.
These relentless protests are fatally undermining the regime’s legitimacy. Huge numbers of women and students have demonstrated their refusal to continue living under harsh and arbitrary restrictions. Even among demographics that previously tolerated or defended the regime, there has been disquiet over videos of police assaulting women and shooting at protesters.
The preponderance of female demonstrators has also had a demoralizing effect on local police charged with maintaining order. These defiant (and clearly Iranian) women do not look like the “foreign agents, saboteurs and terrorists” that the regime accuses them of being. To impoverished ordinary police officers who are already depressingly familiar with regime corruption, incompetence and inflexibility, these women’s demands may appear legitimate and even admirable.
Nobody expects the regime to collapse tomorrow, but these unusually tenacious and widespread protests demonstrate that the endgame is in sight. At some point, brave Iranians will come out in sufficient numbers to bring this farce to an abrupt end. It isn’t a question of if, but when.
The world must begin preparations now for a post-theocracy era, in readiness for supporting Iranians through a smooth transition. We can’t afford a Libya-style scenario in which regime change means endless civil war and anarchy, or a Syria-style scenario in which an embattled regime murders its way back to a stalemate. Setting out such a vision and demonstrating how it will be materially supported also gives greater momentum and motivation for the evolving uprising, and offers hope to other regional states afflicted by aggressive Iranian meddling.
A post-regime future is inevitable. The world owes it to the courageous and long-suffering Iranian people to support them in acquiring a representative and accountable governing system, and attaining the freedom, prosperity and stability they deserve.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.