English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 16/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.november16.22.htm
News Bulletin Achieves
Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Bible Quotations For today
I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have come to call not the
righteous but sinners
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint
Matthew 09/09-13/:”As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew
sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and
followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and
sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw
this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors
and sinners?’But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need
of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, “I desire
mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on November
15-16/2022
UNIFIL urges proactive action, accountability to maintain stability along
the Blue Line
Berri to start talks with local parties after call for dialogue failed
Total to launch sea exploration after Lebanon-Israel deal
Presidential election saga: Franjieh's chances after Nasrallah's speech
32 opposition MPs meet in parliament, stress priority of electing president
Bassil slams 'farce' as capital control debate protracts
Lebanon to use SDR funds for emergency electricity plan
MSF Lebanon starts cholera vaccination amid threat of full-blown spread
AUB 1st in MENA region, among top 140 in the world in QS WUR for sustainability
Lebanon to raise exchange rate for taxes, fees and customs duties
Lebanon's prime minister endorses Sleiman Frangieh for presidency
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on November
15-16/2022
US targets production, transfer of Iranian drones to Russia in new sanctions
Iran Votes to Execute Protesters, Says Rebels Need 'Hard Lesson'
Iranians strike to mark 2019 protests in fresh rebuff to ruling clerics
Shops in Iran, Including Grand Bazaar, Close over Protests
German Minister Targets Iran in Appeal to Abolish Death Penalty
Calls for Civil Disobedience in Iran
Iran Hunger Striker Back in Prison after Hospital Treatment
US Navy: 70 tons of missile fuel from Iran to Yemen seized
Renewed Iranian Strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan Leave Casualties
Kremlin says Zelenskiy's 'no Minsk 3' comment confirms Kyiv's unwillingness to
negotiate
Russian missiles cross into Poland during strike on Ukraine
Missile strikes pound cities across Ukraine
'They didn't expect us to fight back': How one street in Ukraine survived
Turkiye makes more arrests in connection with deadly bombing
Three Israelis killed in West Bank attack, Palestinian shot dead
Israel PM says FBI won't quiz troops over journalist's death
Saudi crown prince courts Asia amid row with Washington
Titles For The
Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November
15-16/2022
The Unspoken Genocide of Christians in Nigeria/Raymond Ibrahim/November
15/2022
Iranian National Renaissance is Coming/Camelia Entekhabifard/Asharq Al
Awsat/November, 15/2022
America Undermines Human Rights the Most/Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/November,
15/2022
Rejuvenated Biden now needs to reset foreign policy goals/Osama Al-Sharif/Arab
News/November 15, 2022
How an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal threatens Iran/Nikola Mikovic/The Arab
Weekly/November 15/2022
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on November
15-16/2022
UNIFIL urges proactive action, accountability to
maintain stability along the Blue Line
Naharnet/November 15/2022
Chairing a regular Tripartite meeting at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura,
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," Lázaro said.
Welcoming recent messages of de-escalation along the Blue Line, Lázaro urged the
senior officials from the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israeli Army in the room
to ensure these words are backed up by concrete action.
"I urge you to prevent any activities that could jeopardize 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
behavior on your respective sides and being seen to hold perpetrators to
account.”
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 U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006) and
subsequent resolutions, UNIFIL said in a statement. It added that 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," the statement concluded.
Berri to start talks with local parties after call for
dialogue failed
Naharnet/November 15/2022
Speaker Nabih Berri will activate in the coming days his contacts with local
parties concerning the election of a new president, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper
said. In remarks published Tuesday, the daily said that Berri who had warned of
vacuum, is also betting on positive foreign efforts to expedite the election of
a new president. "Some have crossed the limits of national responsibility by
refusing Berri's call for dialogue," a source close to the speaker told Asharq
al-Awsat. The source added that a president must be elected in order to benefit
from the demarcation achievement, the gas exploration and the agreement with the
International Monetary Fund. French oil giant Total said on Tuesday that it will
soon launch exploration activities in search for gas in the Mediterranean Sea
off Lebanon’s coast.
Total to launch sea exploration after Lebanon-Israel deal
Associated Press/November 15/2022
French oil giant Total said Tuesday it would soon launch exploration activities
in search for gas in the Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon's coast, following last
month's Lebanon-Israel deal on their maritime border. According to a statement,
TotalEnergies and its partner, Italy's ENI, signed with Israel a so-called
"Framework Agreement" to implement the U.S.-mediated border agreement reached
last month. Lebanon and Israel have been formally at war since Israel's creation
in 1948. The border deal envisages that the disputed
waters would be divided along a line straddling the "Qana" natural gas field in
the Mediterranean. Total said gas production would be based on the Lebanese
side, in the so-called Block 9, but Israel would be compensated for gas
extracted from its side of the line, under a separately signed deal between
Total and Israel. The company's statement said
TotalEnergies would have 60% stake in the operation and ENI the rest.
"TotalEnergies, as the operator of block 9, is proud to be associated
with the peaceful definition of a maritime border between Israel and Lebanon,"
said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné. "By bringing our expertise in offshore
exploration, we will respond to the request of both countries to assess the
materiality of hydrocarbon resources and production potential in this area,"
Pouyanné added. The exploration was expected to start next year. Cash-strapped
Lebanon hopes that future gas discoveries will help the small Mideast nation
pull itself out of the worst economic and financial crisis in the country's
modern history. Lebanese officials have said the maritime border agreement does
not represent any form of normalization of relations between the two countries.
Lebanon approved licenses in 2017 for an international consortium including
Total, ENI and Russia's Novatek to move forward with offshore oil and gas
development for two of the 10 blocks in the Mediterranean.Novatek recently
withdrew and Lebanese officials, including Energy Minister Walid Fayad, have
said that Qatar is interested in filling that gap. Lebanon has since reached out
to Syria and Cyprus to start direct negotiations over its northern and western
maritime border with them as well.
Presidential election saga: Franjieh's chances after
Nasrallah's speech
Naharnet/November 15/2022
Parliament will fail again to elect a president on Thursday, al-Akhbar newspaper
said Tuesday. The daily reported that unless Hezbollah succeeds in convincing
the Free Patriotic Movement to back the group's candidate Suleiman Franjieh, the
election sessions will lead to the same results and Hezbollah will not vote for
Franjieh. Even though FPM chief Jebran Bassil is clear about his position
regarding Franjieh's candidacy, there is still a possibility that he changes his
mind, al-Akhbar said. Thus, Hezbollah will continue its negotiations in order to
give its candidate a Christian support or at least to secure the needed quorum
to the session during which Hezbollah will vote for Franjieh, even if the FPM
decides to attend without voting.
Franjieh's chances
According to al-Akhbar, Speaker Nabih Berri will try to convince Progressive
Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat of voting for Franjieh instead of MP Michel
Mouawad who is currently backed by the PSP, while Hezbollah continues its
negotiations with Bassil. France, the daily said, will not veto Franjieh, and
Saudi Arabia as well might accept him. "It is not without significance that
Franjieh was in the front seats during the Taif conference organized by the
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, while Mouawad, backed by KSA, was in the back
seats," al-Akhbar added. The daily went on to say that Paris has sensed that
Bkerki, the FPM, Berri, Jumblat and Hezbollah are leaning toward electing a
president close to Hezbollah in return for a prime minister close to the West
and to Saudi Arabia. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib
Mikati had voiced on Monday his support for Franjieh, days after Hezbollah chief
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah openly announced that his party wants a new president
for Lebanon who “would reassure the resistance.”
32 opposition MPs meet in parliament, stress priority of
electing president
Naharnet/November 15/2022
Nineteen MPs representing 32 Kataeb Party, independent and change lawmakers on
Tuesday met in parliament and stressed that the “ultimate priority” is for the
“immediate” election of a new president. A statement said the legislators
discussed “the mechanism of exiting the intractable political crisis which has
plunged the country into the inferno of presidential vacuum, amid a dire
economic and social situation accompanied by a total paralysis of the various
state institutions and administrations in this critical period of Lebanon’s
history.”The conferees accordingly emphasized that “the ultimate priority is for
breaking the wall of obstruction and heading immediately to elect a president,
as a gateway for restoring the regularity of institutions, implementing the
constitution and rescuing the country.” Commenting on Speaker Nabih Berri’s
inclination to call for a controversial legislative session amid the current
presidential vacuum, the MPs warned of “the threat of holding legislative
sessions that would contribute to normalizing the presidential vacuum.”They also
agree to form a follow-up committee to up the level of coordination and prepare
for the coming period.
Bassil slams 'farce' as capital control debate protracts
Naharnet/November 15/2022
"What happened today is a farce," Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil said
Tuesday about a joint parliamentary session that discussed a capital control
law. "The session showed that there is no will to pass the law," Bassil went on
to say. He added that some banks are making "selective" transfers overseas
because the capital control law hasn't been approved yet.
"There is a deliberate will not to the adopt the law, for the interest of
the banks, the Central Bank and some influential people," Bassil decried. Deputy
Speaker Elias Bou Saab disagreed with Bassil, saying that the session was
productive. "The discussion was long and serious," Bou Saab said. "We completed
six clauses of the law."The capital control talks will resume next week, he
added. The adoption of a capital control law is one of
the reforms requested by the International Monetary Fund to financially help
crisis-hit Lebanon, but some MPs consider it unfair to the depositors. Hezbollah
MP Ali Fayyad said that it is possible to make drastic amendments to the law and
that his bloc will defend the depositors' rights. Lebanese Forces MP Georges
Adwan also said that his bloc will defend the depositors' right, as he voiced
support for the capital control law. Since October 2019, banks have been
imposing informal capital controls, barring depositors from reaching into their
dollar accounts, as well as stopping transfers, amid a severe financial crisis.
Lebanon to use SDR funds for emergency electricity plan
Naharnet/November 15/2022
The first phase of Lebanon’s emergency electricity plan, which will provide 8-10
hours of daily power supply in return for a tariff hike, is expected to move
forward without obstacles after a recent solution was found, a media report said
on Tuesday. Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said the
solution was found by caretaker PM Najib Mikati “in coordination and cooperation
with Speaker Nabih Berri, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and caretaker
Finance Minister Youssef Khalil.” “The solution does
not require passing through parliament and thus avoids the opposition forces’
rejection to hold any legislative session” amid the current presidential vacuum,
the daily said. The opposition has argued that according to the constitution,
any parliament meeting should be exclusively dedicated to the election of a new
president. According to information obtained by Asharq
al-Awsat, the solution calls for resorting to what’s left of the funds received
by Lebanon from the International Monetary Fund under the Special Drawing Rights
program. Only $300 million remain from the initial
amount of $1.135 billion and will be used to launch the plan, the newspaper
explained. Speaking to Asharq al-Awsat, ministerial
sources said “this sum can only fund two months of the plan” and accordingly “it
has been agreed to collect bills according to the new tariff in order to provide
the central bank with funds for purchasing dollars that will be used to finance
the additional four months of the plan.”Mikati has meanwhile said that he will
coordinate with caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad to ensure strictness in
the issue of collecting bills, noting that only around 60% of citizens have been
paying their bills. “According to the new plan, power supply will be cut off for
those do not pay their bills whoever they may be,” Asharq al-Awsat quoted Mikati
as telling a number of MPs.
MSF Lebanon starts cholera vaccination amid threat of
full-blown spread
Naharnet/November 15/2022
Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is contributing to the
national vaccination campaign against cholera launched by the Lebanese Ministry
of Public Health’s by vaccinating people in Arsal, Akkar, Tripoli and
Baalbek-Hermel in the north and northeast of Lebanon where most cholera cases
are registered in the country, a statement said.“600,000 cholera vaccines
received by Lebanon, as first phase procurement, are to be administered in
coordination with various international and local actors,” MSF said in a
statement.
“MSF has started vaccinating since five days and, so far, we have managed to
vaccinate 6,677 people,” says Marcelo Fernandez, MSF Head of Mission in Lebanon.
“Our teams are going from door to door in all neighborhoods, visiting homes,
shops, and camps actively seeking out people to get vaccinated and to raise
awareness on the importance of vaccination of a rapidly spread disease,” he
added. Since Lebanon recorded its first cholera case in almost three decades on
October 6, 18 people have died as a result of the disease, with the number of
confirmed and suspected cases rising to 3,395 as of 14 November 2022. MSF’s
vaccination efforts are targeting Lebanese and refugees living in poor and/or
overcrowded areas in the country, conditions that put people at heightened risk
of contracting infectious diseases. “To be able to effectively curb the
outbreak, it is crucial to enhance cholera prevention measures, of which
vaccination is one of the critical elements,” explains Marcelo Fernandez.
“However, if no meaningful actions are taken to ensure people have proper access
to safe drinking water and sanitation services in the country, we can expect
cholera and/or other waterborne infectious diseases to resurface regularly in
Lebanon,” adds Fernandez. In addition to administering cholera vaccines, MSF is
also providing patient care. In the Bekaa’s Bar Elias and Arsal MSF is running
two cholera treatment centers with a total capacity of seventy beds. In Tripoli,
north of Lebanon, and Arsal, oral rehydration points are being set up for people
who do not require hospitalization. Five medical kits were procured by MSF to
treat up to 3,125 cholera patients.MSF is also providing technical training to
Lebanese health workers on the treatment of cholera patients, mobilized teams to
raise awareness about the disease and distributed hygiene kits to help people
maintain essential household and personal hygiene in the Bekaa Valley, north,
and northeast of Lebanon (Bar Elias, Akkar, Baalbek-Hermel, and Arsal).
AUB 1st in MENA region, among top 140 in the world in QS
WUR for sustainability
Naharnet/November 15/2022
The American University of Beirut was ranked 1st in the MENA region in
sustainability and tied with Princeton University at the 140th place globally in
the QS World University Rankings (WUR): Sustainability 2023, the university said
in a statement Tuesday.In its first edition, the QS Sustainability Rankings were
announced by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university ranking agency. The
rankings looked at 700 of the world’s top universities that were deemed eligible
and compared them against environmental and social sustainability metrics, to
see which universities are doing the most to tackle major environmental, social,
and governance (ESG) challenges. "The American University of Beirut was the only
university in Lebanon to be ranked and number one in the MENA Region," the
statement said. The ranking was designed to reflect performance across all the
16 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), classified into two
categories—Environmental Impact and Social Impact—with a clear focus on outward
impact. The American University of Beirut tied for
#117 in the Environmental Impact category and for #230 in the Social Impact
category. While its strongest performance lenses (the indicators making up the
categories) came under the Environmental Impact category: the Sustainable
Education lens (tied for #19) and the Sustainable Institutions lens (#53).
"The high score that the American University of Beirut achieved in
sustainable education, particularly in environmental sciences and development
studies, was due to the fact that it promotes a sustainable environment through
teaching and research while disseminating public policies and acting on social
justice. "In addition to considering the impact of
institutions from an environmental, social, and governance perspective, and from
the research done on SDGs, the QS methodology includes institutional, survey,
evidence, and country-level indicators. Other indicators include the
identification of alumni that have gone on to make an impact in tackling
environmental and social challenges, the presence of publicly-available policies
that support social and environmental initiatives, and the measure of academic
freedom. In addition, knowledge exchange progress of institutions in
less-developed nations to model against established research partners was taken
into consideration," AUB said.
Lebanon to raise exchange rate for taxes, fees and customs
duties
Nada Atallah/The National/November 15/2022
Finance minister tells 'The National' he hopes the measure will generate revenue
amid an unprecedented economic crisis
Cash-strapped Lebanon is hoping to fill state coffers by raising the exchange
rate for taxes, fees and customs duties, Caretaker Finance Minister Youssef
Khalil told The National, as the country reels from three years of economic
collapse. Lebanon will abandon the official rate of
1,507 pounds to the US dollar and introduce a combination of higher exchange
mechanisms in accordance with the currency’s market value.
Government revenue has shrunk dramatically, with the Lebanese pound’s
market rate value sinking to about 40,000 to the dollar.
A number of official exchange rates have sprung up since Lebanon’s
economy collapsed in 2019 and unifying them is one of the main reforms demanded
by international lenders for Beirut to access billions of dollars in loans.
“We do not have any other choice,” Mr Khalil said. "The fiscal situation
has become unsustainable: we collect at the official rate but we spend at the
parallel one." Taxes and fees will be paid based on
the flexible rate set by Sayrafa, an official platform managed by the Central
Bank, currently trading at about 30 000. The change comes as part of the 2022
budget voted in September by Parliament, which should be applied on Tuesday
after weeks of delay.
“Tax policies will be adjusted to limit the impact on vulnerable households,” Mr
Khalil said. Customs duties will be calculated based on another rate of 15,000
per dollar. The minister said the switch, which should take place in
mid-December, was expected to benefit public finances greatly.
A step towards unifying exchange rates? Mr Khalil said
the move was a crucial step towards the reforms demanded by the International
Monetary Fund to unlock $3 billion of loans to ease the country’s economic woes.
These include the unification of Lebanon's multiple exchange rates.
“It is the end of the 1,507.5 rate area and the beginning of a new one,” he
said. However, experts say that instead of unifying exchange rates, the ministry
is simply adding a new exchange rate to the list. “For now, there is no
unification of the multiple rates but rather the introduction of new ones”, said
Sibylle Rizk, director of public policies at advocacy group Kulluna Irada.
She added that in the absence of any comprehensive reform agenda, the
increase in customs duties was only going to increase prices as most of the
Lebanese people depend on imports for their daily consumption. “We need an
overall budgetary strategy to restore the public finances’ sustainability
through tax reforms and a considered allocation of public spending,” she said.
In September, the IMF said Lebanon was making “very slow” progress to implement
reforms it had pledged to enact under a preliminary agreement signed in April.
Parliament still needs to pass several crucial reforms to activate the deal.
This includes a law on capital controls, as banks have been introducing informal
restrictions on withdrawals and overseas transfers, as well as a restructuring
strategy to revive the sector. The sweeping reforms come at a time when Lebanon
is facing major leadership problems because the country is without a president
and has been ruled by a caretaker government with limited powers since May.
Lebanon's prime minister endorses Sleiman Frangieh for
presidency
Nada Homsi/The National/November 15/2022
The issue of the presidency has been a fraught one, with a total of five
electoral sessions called since September, none of which have resulted in a
winning candidate. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister
— and de facto leader, in the absence of an official head of state — endorsed
Sleiman Frangieh’s candidacy for president on Monday.
The endorsement comes amid widespread worries over Lebanon's leadership vacuum
as the struggling nation hurtles through its third week without a president.
In an Al Jazeera interview, Mr Mikati said that a future president must
be “acceptable for all parties and not considered as posing a challenge to
anyone.”“It’s well known that I have a special friendship with Mr Frangieh and
that we have a historical relationship,” he told the Arabic channel. “But I will
leave it up to parliament to choose who they will elect.” Mr Frangieh is the
leader of the Marada movement, a Hezbollah-allied Christian political party. The
issue of the presidency has been a fraught one for the months leading up to the
end of ex-president Michel Aoun’s term and following it. A total of five
electoral sessions have been called since September, none of which have
presented a winning candidate. Blank votes have repeatedly outnumbered the
candidate with the most votes — independent MP Michel Moawad — who is seen as
the choice of the anti-Hezbollah bloc. Mr Frangieh has yet to announce his
official candidacy, but is believed to have the capability to garner consensus
on both sides of the polarised parliament. Lebanon has no formal method of
presenting presidential nominees. Rather, names are usually agreed following
backdoor consultations between major political parties and blocs. Prime Minister
Mikati’s endorsement of Mr Frangieh is an indication of his increasing support.
It remains to be seen whether other Sunni leaders will follow suit with similar
endorsements. The head of the Hezbollah group’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammad
Raad, announced last week that his party has a preferred candidate in mind for
the presidency. It is widely believed the Iran-backed party supports Mr
Frangieh.Historically, the election of a president has often been a drawn-out
affair — as with Mr Aoun, who became head of state following a prolonged
presidential vacuum of two-and-a-half years, and whose term ended without
consensus over his successor.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on November
15-16/2022
US targets production, transfer of
Iranian drones to Russia in new sanctions
Reuters/November 15, 2022
WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on companies it
accused of being involved in the production of or transfer to Russia of Iranian
drones that have been used in attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
The US Treasury Department in a statement said it imposed sanctions on the
Shahed Aviation Industries Research Center, accusing it of being responsible for
the design and production of Shahed-series drones being used by Russian forces
in Ukraine, as well as other companies. Russia has
managed to procure drones from Iran that have been used to attack cities and
power infrastructure in Ukraine. Iranian military entities and industries are
already under heavy US sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear development program.
“As we have demonstrated repeatedly, the United States is determined to
sanction people and companies, no matter where they are located, that support
Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said
in the statement. “Today’s action exposes and holds
accountable companies and individuals that have enabled Russia’s use of
Iranian-built UAVs to brutalize Ukrainian civilians,” she said, using the
acronym for unmanned aerial vehicle. Private military company Wagner group,
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, and Qods Aviation
Industries — already under US sanctions — were also designated by the State
Department in Tuesday’s move, the Treasury said.
Iran Votes to Execute Protesters, Says Rebels Need 'Hard
Lesson'
Newsweek/November 15/2022
https://www.newsweek.com/iran-votes-execute-protesters-says-rebels-need-hard-lesson-1757931
After numerous calls for harsh punishments in recent days, the Iranian
parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of the death penalty for
protesters.
Iran has been experiencing unprecedented levels of protests and civil unrest
since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16. The 22-year-old Kurdish woman
was arrested by the country's "morality police" for supposedly wearing an
"improper" form of hijab during a visit to Tehran and allegedly beaten severely
while in custody. The beatings are believed to have led to her death from a
fatal head injury, but Iranian authorities have denied the accusation.
In the wake of Amini's death, there have been large-scale nationwide protests
the likes of which Iran has not seen in decades. Female protesters have notably
taken to burning their hijabs and cutting their hair in public in defiance of
the rules imposed by Iran's Islamic government, under the leadership of
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Iranian lawmakers have, in recent days, called for strict
punishments for the protesters who have been arrested. On Monday, CNN reported
that a letter signed by 227 members of the Iranian parliament urged that the
protesters be given harsh punishment that "would serve as a good lesson in the
shortest possible time."Above, a shot of Iranians protesting in the wake of the
death of Mahsa Amini. The Iranian parliament recently voted in favor of
execution for protestors.
"Now, the public, even protesters who are not supportive of riots, demand from
the judiciary and security institutions to deal with the few people who have
caused disturbances in a firm, deterrent, and legal manner," Iranian government
spokesman Masoud Setayeshi said, according to Reuters.
On Tuesday, parliament did just that, voting to impose the death penalty on all
protesters in custody as a "hard lesson" for all rebels. The majority in favor
of the penalty was considerable, 227 out of the 290 total members, matching the
number of lawmakers who signed the letter.
It is unclear if and when the executions will be carried out, but the task will
potentially be significant. As of Thursday, CNN reported, about 14,000 people
had been arrested in connection with the recent protests. On Tuesday, Carnegie
Endowment fellow Karim Sadjadpour said the number was nearing 15,000. It is also
unclear how many of these arrests will lead to punishable charges."In the last 8
weeks Iran's regime has killed over 300 protestors, imprisoned nearly 15,000,
and threatened to execute hundreds more, yet Iran's women persist," Sadjadpour
wrote in a tweet. "Today female university students removed their forced hejab
and chant, 'I am a free woman.'"Several prominent figures in Iran are calling
for a response from foreign governments. "Outrageous! After killing 100s of
protesters on the streets & a violent crackdown, 227 MPs in Iran called the
protesters "Mohareb" & asked the judiciary to issue "retribution" sentences
[execution]," journalist Omid Memarian tweeted on Sunday. "The world should
respond. Dangerous!"In response to the parliament vote, activist and journalist
Masih Alinejad tweeted: "227 members of the 290-seat Parliament in Iran have
called on the Judiciary to issue death sentences for people arrested during the
ongoing uprising. They want to execute innocent protesters who chanted Woman
Life Freedom. The world must stop this act of terror."
Newsweek reached out to the Iranian government for comment.
Iranians strike to mark 2019 protests in fresh rebuff to
ruling clerics
DUBAI (Reuters)/Reuters/November 15, 2022
Iranians went on strike in several cities on Tuesday to commemorate the 2019
protests over fuel prices, a display of dissent that was crushed by security
forces in the bloodiest crackdown in the history of the Islamic Republic.
The move will add to pressure on Iran's clerical rulers, who have been
battling two months of nationwide protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old
Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police.
In 2019, Reuters reported 1,500 people were killed in that wave of unrest
which began over fuel price hikes but quickly turned political. Iranian
authorities dismissed that death toll. In the latest
protests, the rights activist HRANA news agency said 344 people have been
killed, including 52 minors. It also reported 40 members of the security forces
being killed, in addition to 15,820 people being arrested.
The demonstrations have turned into a legitimacy crisis for the clerical
establishment, which took power after the 1979 revolution toppled Shah Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi, a secular monarch allied with the West.
Up to 19 of the thousands of people arrested face charges which carry the death
penalty in the cities of Tehran and nearby Karaj, according to state media
reports.
Support for the protest movement is pouring in from lawyers, students, doctors,
actors and athletes seeking a new political order. Famous retired footballer Ali
Daei said on Instagram that he refused FIFA's invitation to attend the World Cup
in Qatar. "In these difficult days when most of us are
unwell, I have given a negative response to FIFA's invitation and prefer to stay
alongside my compatriots and share my condolences to families who have recently
lost their loved ones," Daei said. Iran, which said
Amini's death was due to pre-existing conditions, has accused its enemies,
including the United States, of fomenting the unrest to destabilise the country.
Amini's death, after her arrest for allegedly flouting Iran's strict
dress code imposed on women, has drawn international criticism. On Monday, the
European Union imposed additional sanctions over the crackdown on protests and
French President Emmanuel Macron characterised the unrest as a revolution.
Iran and the United States have been trying for months to salvage
Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that Washington exited in 2018,
before reimposing tough sanctions. But the protest
crackdown and the sale of drones to Russia have turned the United States' focus
away from reviving the pact, Washington's special envoy for Iran Robert Malley
said. Videos shared on social media showed strikes and
gatherings in several cities and towns. Footage shared by the widely-followed
activist 1500tasvir Twitter account showed closed shops at Tehran's Grand
Bazaar. One video, unverifiable by Reuters, showed shopkeepers chanting :"This
is a bloody year when (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei shall be
overthrown."Bazaar merchants are traditionally the biggest financial ally of the
clerical establishment. Tasvir1500 shared a video of a street in Tehran's
western neighbourhood of Shahrak Gharb, showing people running down a street
after several gunshots could be heard. In the southern city of Marvdasht, social
media accounts reported that security forces fired teargas and shot pellet
bullets to disperse protesters. Iranian human rights group Hengaw also reported
mass strikes in several Kurdish-populated cities of northern and northwestern
Iran, adding that universities in these locations had also gone on strike. The
Azad University of Karaj near Tehran did the same, with 1500tasvir sharing a
video of the university's empty corridors. The account also showed a video of
people at a metro shouting "death to the dictator", a slogan referring to
Khamenei. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the videos. In the
central city of Isfahan, steel workers joined the strike. 1500 Tasvir said the
workers were using the slogan "enough with promises, our table is empty."
Shops in Iran, Including Grand Bazaar, Close over
Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 15 November, 2022
Iranian shops in Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar and elsewhere across the country
closed their doors Tuesday amid protests gripping the nation, as two prominent
football stars also announced they would not be attending the upcoming World Cup
over the demonstrations. The shop closures came amid calls for a three-day
national strike to mark earlier protests in 2019 against Iran's theocracy that
ended in a violent crackdown by authorities. However, this round of
demonstrations after the September death of a 22-year-old woman earlier detained
by the country's morality police have continued despite activists recording at
least 344 deaths and 15,820 arrests so far. The
protests have seen prominent former players Ali Daei and Javad Nekounam both say
they've declined a FIFA invitation to attend the World Cup in Qatar, where Iran
will play. Shuttered storefronts could be seen across Tehran, Iran's capital, on
Tuesday. Several shops did remain open, however, as a heavy security presence
could be seen on the streets. In the Grand Bazaar, the beating heart of Tehran
for hundreds of years that long has served as a political bellwether for Persian
dynasties, store fronts were closed as a lone woman and a man pushing a cart
walked among its narrow alleyways. A stray cat nibbled at trash down one of its
silent warrens. Videos taken earlier Tuesday showed crowds gathered outside of
the closed shops, some shouting: “This year is a year of blood.” Other online
videos purported to show shops closed elsewhere in the country as well, with
some scattered demonstrations taking place. Like the
other protests after the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini, the demonstrations
appeared largely leaderless. A call on social media had gone out demanding a
national strike not to buy or sell anything to mark the 2019 protests in Iran
that followed a hike in government-subsidized gasoline prices that activists say
saw at least 321 people killed in a subsequent crackdown.
Strikes may increasingly put pressure on the Iranian government, which so
far has dismissed the demonstrators' demands as a foreign plot by its enemies as
opposed to an outpouring of public frustration. The US Navy said Tuesday it
intercepted 70 tons of a missile fuel component on a ship heading from Iran to
Yemen, where the country's Houthi militias have repeatedly targeted Saudi Arabia
with ballistic missile fire.
Widening the demonstrations into strikes and boycotts could further raise
pressure on Iran's government, which already has seen its economy suffer under
international sanctions after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world
powers. So far though, it has yet to affect production in its crucial oil and
natural gas industry. The UN human rights office separately called on Iran’s
government to immediately release thousands of people who have been detained for
participating in peaceful protests. Iran's theocracy
has been trying to solidify its support amid the demonstrations, holding rallies
to mark the Nov. 4, 1979, takeover and subsequent hostage crisis at the US
Embassy in Tehran. It's also focused on Iran's upcoming appearance at the World
Cup in Qatar. A prominent billboard in Tehran's Vali Asr Square typically used
by hard-liners shows Iran's team heading into a match, apparently supported by
warriors of its Persian past. But two prominent former stars have said they
won't go to the matches in Qatar. Ali Daei, a top international goalscorer and
Iranian team captain, said he declined to go when his country was
“grief-stricken.” “I want to be with my compatriots and express sympathy with
all those who have lost loved ones,” the former center-forward said. Javad
Nekounam, another star, similarly has declined to go to the World Cup, Iran's
semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.
German Minister Targets Iran in Appeal to Abolish Death Penalty
Asharq Al-Awsat/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 15 November, 2022
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock singled out Iran for using the death
penalty to suppress members of the opposition at a conference on Tuesday which
aimed to outlaw the punishment around the world. Speaking at the World Congress
against the Death Penalty, with delegations from about 90 countries in Berlin,
Baerbock said execution was used especially by authoritarian regimes. "We are
experiencing this again in Iran, where a death sentence has now been pronounced
against a person who has done nothing other than stand up for their liberal and
civil rights," she said. Baerbock expressed dismay at reports that Iran had
issued the sentence against a person who had joined protests prompted by the
death in custody on Sept. 16 of Mahsa Amini, detained by Iran's morality policy
for wearing "inappropriate attire". "We have no doubt about what we think of the
regime's brutal repression against its own people," said Baerbock, a day after
the EU imposed further sanctions on Iran's leaders. Iran's judiciary on Sunday
said one person had been sentenced to death for "waging war against God", which
is punishable by death in Iran, for setting fire to a government building. It
said he could appeal against the verdict.
The goal of the conference was to outlaw the death penalty worldwide, still used
in 55 countries, said Baerbock, who also criticized China for executions. She
welcomed steps by Sierra Leone, Zambia and Liberia who either have or are moving
towards outlawing the death penalty.
Calls for Civil Disobedience in Iran
London, Tehran/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 15 November, 2022
Demonstrations were renewed in several Iranian cities with increasing pressure
on authorities to release the detainees amid calls for civil disobedience.
Protesters called for extensive participation to commemorate the mid-Nov 2019
protests, and schoolgirls made a "national appeal" to gather and participate in
the three-days marches starting Tuesday. Students of several universities
continued their two-month protest movement, with several strikes at the Sharif
University of Technology, the Tehran University of Art, and Al-Zahra University.
Students carried on with their protest and demanded the release of their
detained colleagues and political prisoners. A video circulated on social media
showed a march at Qazvin University in support of activist Hossein Ronaghi,
whose health has deteriorated in Evin Prison. Hasan, Ronaghi's brother, said
Hussien was transferred to Dey General Hospital. He called on Iranians to gather
in front of the hospital to prevent security forces from moving him back to
prison. Ronaghi has been on a hunger strike since his arrest on Sept. 24 during
the protests fueled by Mahsa Amini's death. On Monday,
the Iranian judiciary said that Ronaghi was taken to hospital and his health was
"stable," denying claims that he had been physically injured before the
hospitalization. "Ronaghi's general state of health is
stable, and he will soon be released from the hospital," according to AFP,
citing the Iranian judiciary website, Mizan. The website noted that authorities
decided to send him to a hospital outside the prison to avoid any possible
deterioration in his clinical condition and for him to receive additional
treatment. Later, Mizan published a photo of Ronaghi's meeting with his mother
at the hospital. Reports said that the authorities allowed his parents to enter
the hospital to visit him and check his condition. The family reported that
Ronaghi's kidneys had developed hydronephrosis due to the hunger strike and that
he could not walk because his leg was broken during detention. According to his
brother, Ronaghi also began refusing water on Saturday in protest of the
authorities' refusal to release him for treatment.
The activist has previously published articles in newspapers, including the Wall
Street Journal, criticizing the human rights situation in Iran. The Oslo-based
Iran Human Rights Organization expressed concern over reports of Ronaghi's
deteriorating health. Director of the organization Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said
that Ronaghi's life was in great danger, adding that Iranian officials,
especially Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, bear the responsibility for the safety
of detainees.
Video also emerged on social media showing the moment Mehdi Hazrati, 17, was
shot by security forces in Karaj during a march on Nov. 03 when mourners were
paying tribute to Hadis Najafi at the cemetery to mark 40 days after she was
killed in the city.
The head of the judiciary in Alborz described the incident as "suspicious,"
noting that the security personnel at the scene were not carrying firearms.
Meanwhile, an Iranian official in Khorasan announced the death of a Basij
security force member during the unrest. The French Press Agency said that the
Basij member was shot by "rioters and anti-revolutionary elements" while he
checked their identification cards in Mashhad. Iranian
authorities have adopted various tactics to quell the protests, which have
become one of the country's most significant challenges since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
Security forces used live ammunition, tear gas, and paintballs.
Iran accused the Western countries of orchestrating the protest. The UK,
Canada, the EU, and the US imposed sanctions on Tehran over its human rights
violations. The activist HRANA news agency said 341 protesters had been killed
in the unrest, including 52 minors. Thirty-nine members of the security forces
had also been killed, while nearly 15,820 have been detained in 140 cities, it
said. Meanwhile, the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade
Associations (CCITTA) called for an expansion of strikes and civil disobedience,
calling on citizens to refrain from paying water, electricity, and gas bills.
The committee criticized 43 years of "self-punishment" imposed by the
authority and blamed it for the "artificial inflation."The statement noted that
70 percent of the Iranian people live below the poverty line.
Iran Hunger Striker Back in Prison after Hospital Treatment
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 15 November, 2022
Prominent Iranian dissident Hossein Ronaghi has been taken back to prison after
receiving hospital treatment following more than 50 days on hunger strike, the
judiciary said Tuesday. "He has been discharged from
hospital after being examined by doctors and has returned to prison," the
judicary's Mizan Online news website reported. Ronaghi is one of dozens of
prominent rights activists, journalists and lawyers arrested in a crackdown on
protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini, following her arrest by
the morality police, according to rights groups based outside Iran. A Wall
Street Journal contributor, Ronaghi, 37, has for years been one of the most
fearless critics of the Iranian republic still living in the country. The hunger
strike he launched after his incarceration in Tehran's notorious Evin prison
following his arrest on September 24 had raised fears for his health as his
family said he was suffering from a pre-existing kidney condition. Mizan Online
had reported that Monday that Ronaghi was in a "stable" condition and ready to
be discharged from hospital. His family also said his health was good after a
visit by his parents on Monday. The authorities have rejected reports that
Ronaghi had been physically injured prior to hospitalization, or that his heart
had stopped and he had required resuscitation on arrival. The United States has
raised concern over his case. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on
Monday that the "torture and mistreatment of political prisoners like Mr Ronaghi
must cease."
US Navy: 70 tons of missile fuel from Iran to Yemen seized
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/November 15, 2022
The U.S. Navy said Tuesday it found 70 tons of a missile fuel component hidden
among bags of fertilizer aboard a ship bound to Yemen from Iran, the first-such
seizure in that country's yearslong war as a cease-fire there has broken down.
The Navy said the amount of ammonium perchlorate discovered could fuel more than
a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles, the same weapons Yemen's Iranian-backed
Houthi rebels have used to target both forces allied to the country's
internationally recognized government and the Saudi-led coalition that supports
them. The apparent rearming effort comes as Iran has threatened Saudi Arabia,
the United States and other nations over the monthslong protests calling for the
overthrow the Islamic Republic's theocracy. Tehran blames foreign powers —
rather than its own frustrated population — for fomenting the protests, which
have seen at least 344 people killed and 15,820 people arrested amid a widening
crackdown on dissent there.The Houthis could not be immediately reached for
comment. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. “This type of shipment and just the massive volume of
explosive material is a serious concern because it is destabilizing,” Cmdr.
Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet, told The
Associated Press. “The unlawful transport of weapons from Iran to Yemen leads to
instability and violence.”
The U.S. Coast Guard ship USCGC John Scheuerman and guided-missile destroyer USS
The Sullivans stopped a traditional wooden sailing vessel known as a dhow in the
Gulf of Oman on Nov. 8, the Navy said. During a weeklong search, sailors
discovered bags of ammonium perchlorate hidden inside of what initially appeared
to be a shipment of 100 tons of urea. Urea, a
fertilizer, also can be used to manufacture explosives.
The dhow was so weighted down by the shipment that it posed a hazard to
nearby shipping in the Gulf of Oman, a route that leads from the Strait of
Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, out to the Indian Ocean. The Navy
ended up sinking the ship with much of the material still on board due to the
danger, Hawkins said. The Sullivans handed over the four Yemeni crew members to
the country's internationally recognized government on Tuesday. Asked how the
Navy knew to stop the ship, Hawkins only said the Navy knew through "multiple
means" that the vessel carried the fuel and that it came from Iran bound for
Yemen. He declined to elaborate. “Given the fact it
was on a route usually used to smuggle illicit weapons and drugs from Iran to
Yemen really tells you what you need to know,” Hawkins said. “It clearly wasn’t
intended for good.”The Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014
and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led
coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side
of Yemen’s exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting has
pushed the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine.
A United Nations arms embargo has prohibited weapons transfers to the
Houthis since 2014. Despite that, Iran long has been transferring rifles,
rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and other weaponry to the Houthis via dhow
shipments. Though Iran denies arming the Houthis, independent experts, Western
nations and U.N. experts have traced components seized abroad detained vessels
back to Iran. A six-month cease-fire in Yemen's war, the longest of the
conflict, expired in October despite diplomatic efforts to renew it. That's led
to fears the war could again escalate. More than 150,000 people have been killed
in Yemen during the fighting, including over 14,500 civilians.
Renewed Iranian Strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan Leave
Casualties
Baghdad - Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 15 November, 2022
One person was killed and at least 8 others were wounded on Monday when Iranian
rockets and drones hit the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish parties in the
autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. An Iranian military source confirmed
that "Iran has carried out attacks with drones and missiles targeting the
headquarters of terrorist parties in the northern region of Iraq," said Iran's
Fars News Agency, managed by the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran has been hit by
almost two months of protests since the death of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa
Amini, 22, after she was arrested by the country's morality police for allegedly
breaching the strict dress code for women. Tehran previously launched attacks
that killed more than a dozen people in Iraq's Kurdistan region in late
September, after accusing Kurdish armed groups based there of stoking the wave
of unrest.
Monday's attacks 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. Tariq al-Haidari, mayor of Koysanjaq, told
AFP that "five Iranian missiles targeted a building used by the Kurdistan
Democratic Party of Iran". "One person is dead and eight wounded," said the
health ministry in Iraqi Kurdistan. Other strikes hit
elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Four drone strikes" targeted bases of the Iranian
Communist Party and the Iranian Kurdish nationalist group Komala in the Zrgoiz
region, said Atta Seqzi, one of the leaders of Komala. The UN mission in Iraq
condemned the renewed Iranian missile and drone attacks, which it said “violate
Iraqi sovereignty.”“Iraq should not be used as an arena to settle scores and its
territorial integrity must be respected. Dialogue between Iraq and Iran over
mutual security concerns is the only way forward,” said UNAMI. The US Consulate
in Erbil also condemned the attack on Iraqi Kurdistan. It called on Iran “to
stop attacking its neighbor and the people of Iraq,” and condemned the violation
of Iraqi sovereignty.
Kremlin says Zelenskiy's 'no Minsk 3' comment confirms
Kyiv's unwillingness to negotiate
LONDON (Reuters)/November 15, 2022
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Volodymyr Zelenskiy's
statement that there will be no "Minsk 3" deal to end the fighting in Ukraine
confirms that Kyiv is not interested in holding peace talks with Moscow, the RIA
Novosti news agency reported. Speaking via video link to the G20 summit in Bali,
the Ukrainian president on Tuesday ruled out a third "Minsk agreement", a
reference to two failed ceasefire deals between Kyiv and Moscow over the status
of the eastern Donbas region. "We will not allow Russia to wait, build up its
forces, and then start a new series of terror and global destabilisation. There
will be no Minsk 3, which Russia will violate immediately after the agreement,"
Zelenskiy said. Asked on Tuesday whether the statement confirms that Kyiv is
unwilling to negotiate with Russia, Peskov told the state-run RIA Novosti news
agency: "Absolutely."Peace talks between the two sides have been scant in recent
months, following a breakdown of early attempts to broker a ceasefire in
Istanbul during the first weeks of the war. Germany and France brokered the
first Minsk agreements - signed in 2014 and 2015 - for ceasefires in eastern
Ukraine amid a war between Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv. Both sides
accused each other of violating the deal.
Russian missiles cross into Poland during strike on
Ukraine
AP/November 15, 2022
KYIV: A Russian missile barrage on the Ukrainian power grid sent the war
spilling over into neighboring countries Tuesday, hitting NATO member Poland and
cutting electricity to much of Moldova. It was Russia’s biggest barrage yet, and
some of the missiles crossed into Poland, where two people were killed,
according to a US official. It marked the first time in the war that Russian
weapons have come down on a NATO country. Polish
government spokesman Piotr Mueller did not immediately confirm the information
from a senior US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitive nature of the situation. But Mueller said top leaders
were holding an emergency meeting due to a “crisis situation.”
Polish media reported that two people died Tuesday afternoon after a
projectile struck an area where grain was drying in Przewodów, a Polish village
near the border with Ukraine.
Neighboring Moldova was also affected. It reported massive power outages after
the strikes knocked out a key power line that supplies the small nation, an
official said. Zelensky said Russia fired at least 85
missiles, most of them aimed at the country’s power facilities, and blacked out
many cities.
“We’re working, will restore everything. We will survive everything,” the
president vowed. His energy minister said the attack was “the most massive”
bombardment of power facilities in the nearly 9-month-old Russian invasion,
striking both power generation and transmission systems.
The minister, Herman Haluschenko, described the missile strikes as “another
attempt at terrorist revenge” after military and diplomatic setbacks for the
Kremlin. He accused Russia of “trying to cause maximum damage to our energy
system on the eve of winter.”
The aerial assault, which resulted in at least one death in a residential
building in the capital, Kyiv, followed days of euphoria in Ukraine sparked by
one of its biggest military successes — the retaking last week of the southern
city of Kherson.
The power grid was already battered by previous attacks that destroyed an
estimated 40 percent of the country’s energy infrastructure.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the retreat from Kherson
since his troops pulled out in the face of a Ukrainian offensive. But the
stunning scale of Tuesday’s strikes spoke volumes and hinted at anger in the
Kremlin. By striking targets in the late afternoon,
not long before dusk began to fall, the Russian military forced rescue workers
to labor in the dark and gave repair crews scant time to assess the damage by
daylight. More than a dozen regions — among them Lviv
in the west, Kharkiv in the northeast and others in between — reported strikes
or efforts by their air defenses to shoot missiles down. At least a dozen
regions reported power outages, affecting cities that together have millions of
people. Almost half of the Kyiv region lost power, authorities said. Ukrainian
Railways announced nationwide train delays.
Zelensky warned that more strikes were possible and urged people to stay safe
and seek shelter.
“Most of the hits were recorded in the center and in the north of the country.
In the capital, the situation is very difficult,” said a senior official, Kyrylo
Tymoshenko.
He said a total of 15 energy targets were damaged and claimed that 70 missiles
were shot down. A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said Russia used X-101 and X-555
cruise missiles. As city after city reported attacks,
Tymoshenko urged Ukrainians to “hang in there.”
With its battlefield losses mounting, Russia has increasingly resorted to
targeting Ukraine’s power grid, seemingly hoping to turn the approach of winter
into a weapon by leaving people in the cold and dark.
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities found a body in one of three
residential buildings that were struck in the capital, where emergency blackouts
were also announced by power provider DTEK. Video
published by a presidential aide showed a five-story, apparently residential
building in Kyiv on fire, with flames licking through apartments. Klitschko said
air defense units also shot down some missiles.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra took to a bomb shelter in Kyiv after
meeting his Ukrainian counterpart and, from his place of safety, described the
bombardment as “an enormous motivation to keep standing shoulder-to-shoulder”
with Ukraine.
“There can be only one answer, and that is: Keep going. Keep supporting Ukraine,
keep delivering weapons, keep working on accountability, keep working on
humanitarian aid,” he said. Ukraine had seen a period
of comparative calm since previous waves of drone and missile attacks several
weeks ago.
The strikes came as authorities were already working furiously to get Kherson
back on its feet and beginning to investigate alleged Russian abuses there and
in the surrounding area. The southern city is without
power and water, and the head of the UN human rights office’s monitoring mission
in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, on Tuesday decried a “dire humanitarian situation”
there. Speaking from Kyiv, Bogner said her teams are looking to travel to
Kherson to try to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of forced disappearances
and arbitrary detention.The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Igor
Klymenko, said authorities are to start investigating reports from Kherson
residents that Russian forces set up at least three alleged torture sites in
now-liberated parts of the wider Kherson region and that “our people may have
been detained and tortured there.”
The retaking of Kherson dealt another stinging blow to the Kremlin. Zelensky
likened the recapture to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War II,
saying both were watershed events on the road to eventual victory.
But large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine remain under Russian control,
and fighting continues. Zelensky warned of possible
more grim news ahead.
“Everywhere, when we liberate our land, we see one thing — Russia leaves behind
torture chambers and mass burials. … How many mass graves are there in the
territory that still remains under the control of Russia?” Zelensky asked.
Missile strikes pound cities across Ukraine
Agence France Presse/November 15, 2022
Missile strikes hit cities across Ukraine on Tuesday and prompted mass power
outages, a few days after a humiliating Russian retreat in the nation's south
and in the middle of the G20 summit. The fresh bombardment, which officials said
struck residential buildings in Kyiv, trespassed on days of Ukrainian jubilation
over the recapture of the key city of Kherson. Lviv in
the west and Kharkiv in the east were also attacked on Tuesday, authorities
said, but there were no immediate information on possible casualties. Kyiv mayor
Vitali Klitschko announced the attack following reports that air raid sirens
were sounding across all Ukraine's regions, saying at least half of Kyiv's
residents were without power. "According to preliminary information, two
residential buildings were hit in the Pechersk district," he said adding
"several missiles were shot down... by air defense systems.
The deputy head of the president's office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said the
missiles had been fired by Russian forces. He
distributed footage of the apparent scene of the attacks, showing a blaze at a
Soviet-era, five-story residential building. "The
danger has not passed. Stay in shelters," he added in the statement online. The
attacks came after Russian appointed officials in Nova Kakhovka said they were
exiting the important southern city, blaming artillery fire from Kyiv forces,
which have been reclaiming swathes of the south after a Russian retreat.
Their announcement comes one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky visited the recently liberated regional capital of the Kherson region
and announced "the beginning of the end of the war". Zelensky told the G20
summit in Bali on Tuesday "now is the time" to end the war. "I am convinced now
is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped," he said
via video link, according to a speech obtained by AFP. "It will save thousands
of lives." Ukraine forces since September have been pushing deeper into the
south and Russia announced last week a full withdrawal from the regional capital
of the southern Kherson region, allowing Ukraine to enter. "Employees of the
state administration of Nova Kakhovka, as well as state and municipal
institutions have left the city and were relocated to safe locations in the
region," the Moscow-installed authorities said on Telegram. The Russian-backed
officials said after Moscow's pull-out from Kherson city, Nova Kakhovka came
under "indiscriminate fire" and "life in the city is unsafe." They also claimed
"thousands of residents" had followed their recommendation to leave to "save
themselves", saying Kyiv's forces will seek "revenge on collaborators."
The authorities claimed that this did not mean that the city was "abandoned" and
that "crews of municipal workers" were working to ensure the "functioning of
energy and water supply systems."
Key dam in 'dangerous' state
Nova Kakhovka sits on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, now a natural
dividing line between Ukraine's forces that retook Kherson city on the west side
and Russia's forces on the opposing bank. It is also home to the Kakhovka
hydroelectric dam which was captured in the beginning of the invasion because of
its strategic importance supplying the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula. The
Russian-controlled dam is a particular focus now after Zelensky accused Russian
troops of planning to blow it up to trigger a devastating flood. Any problem
with the dam would cause water supply problems for Crimea, which has been under
Russian control since 2014 and which Ukraine hopes to recapture. Russia forces
said last week that a Ukrainian strike had damaged the dam. The
Russian-appointed head of the occupied part of the Kherson region, Vladimir
Saldo, said Tuesday the dam was no longer operating. "Today, the turbines do not
produce electricity, and there is no need for this," he said on state-run
television channel Rossiya-24, according to Russian agencies. "The situation is
more dangerous -- not with electricity generation -- but with the dam itself,
which, in the event of an explosion, would flood a fairly large area."The loss
of Kherson was the latest in a string of setbacks for the Kremlin, which invaded
Ukraine on February 24 hoping for a lightning takeover that would topple the
government in days. NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg nonetheless
cautioned that Ukraine was facing difficult months ahead and said that Russia's
military capability should not be underestimated.
'They didn't expect us to fight back': How one street in
Ukraine survived
Laura King/Los Angeles Times/November 15, 2022
The smell of bodies decomposing under rubble no longer hangs in the air. The
land mine-clearers have come and gone. School is back in session, though classes
are curtailed by power cuts. The hair salon is open.
But Raisa Yakovenko, a 61-year-old pensioner, still jumps at the thump of a
refrigerator door shutting — a faint echo of the Russian bombs that damaged her
apartment and ravaged this community in the opening days of the nearly
9-month-old war in Ukraine."My troubles are not so serious," she said. "You can
live without windows."The town of Borodyanka was among the invasion’s first
casualties, becoming a choke point for Russian convoys rolling southeast toward
the capital, Kyiv, about 35 miles away. Its 14,000 residents paid a heavy price
for their resistance: Scorched, wrecked buildings sit alongside structures left
untouched, as if a tornado tore through town. “They
didn’t expect us to fight back,” said Roman Rudnychenko, 57, who works for the
town as its lead architect.Now, nearly seven months after Russian troops ended a
brief but brutal occupation, Borodyanka has come to symbolize a certain defiant
resiliency, though one that is sorely tested at
times. Visiting foreign dignitaries regularly trek up from Kyiv to gaze upon —
and be photographed in front of — the blackened tower blocks. This week, the
British street artist known as Banksy unveiled a signature stencil-style mural
on the side of a heavily damaged apartment building, depicting a gymnast doing a
handstand atop a pile of rubble. “Borodyanka,
Ukraine,” read the caption on the artist’s Instagram account.
Many locals, though, are somewhat weary of their plucky image. Only a
little over half the town’s population has come back, and many of their homes
are uninhabitable. With winter bearing down, townspeople and local authorities
are racing to carry out repairs to make the cold months survivable.
In a sense, Borodyanka is Ukraine writ small. As more and more territory
in the south and northeast is recaptured by Ukrainian forces, the receding tide
of occupation leaves behind a landscape of battered cities, towns and villages.
The latest of those is the strategic southern city of Kherson, which
Russian troops abandoned last week, smashing vital infrastructure as they went.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, rapturously received by local people when he
visited Kherson on Monday, hailed its residents as heroes and pledged to restore
essential services as soon as possible.
But across the country, rebuilding is a fraught, quandary-filled endeavor.
With nationwide reconstruction costs already estimated at a staggering $350
billion, and nearly one-third of the country’s 44 million people displaced
inside Ukraine or having fled abroad, Ukrainians grapple with constant, harsh
reassessments: Stay or go? Rebuild, or start fresh elsewhere? Cling to memories,
or put them aside? “We’re part of a historic process,”
said Rudnychenko, the architect. “But we don’t know yet how the story ends.”
A street with the simple name of Tsentralna — Central — cuts a straight
line through Borodyanka, bisecting neighborhoods of modest wood or brick homes
that give way to forests and fields. It’s lined with large apartment buildings,
many dating back to the Soviet era, punctuated by small businesses, the post
office and the police station.Even in its prewar heyday, the street might have
appeared unprepossessing to outsiders. But for Olga Drabei, 34, who lived her
entire life at Tsentralna 306, her third-floor
flat represents “everything — my entire childhood, marriage, motherhood, all
that is dear to me.” More than eight months after
bombing shook the building in early March, the 50-unit block has been deemed
structurally sound, but is still without electricity or running water. Blasts
blew out dozens of windows; fire left stairwells charred. Some residents gave up
hopes of returning before winter, sealing up doorways with giant squiggles of
foam insulation. Drabei and her husband, together with
their 7-year-old son, hope to move back in soon from cramped temporary quarters
nearby. But her parents and 89-year-old grandmother, who lived with them before
the war, may not rejoin them. War’s upheaval has already been too much.
On a dank day last week, Drabei showed visitors around the apartment’s
chilly, jumbled rooms. The television and most appliances had been looted. Her
son had already outgrown a small child’s bed left behind in a corner. The once
carefully tended garden behind the building was a tangle of weeds and bare tree
branches. “We’re lucky — we’re alive, and we have a
place to return to,” Drabei said. “Life will come back to our town. It will just
be different than before.”
Just down the street, at Tsentralna 367, Yakovenko, the pensioner, lives alone
with her kitten, Javelinka — named after the antitank missiles that helped
Ukrainian forces blunt the Russian offensive aimed at Kyiv. The damage to her
building happened when missiles slammed into a military recruitment office
across the street in early March, nearly flattening it, along with the adjoining
greengrocer’s and pharmacy.
Unexpected noises still make her nervous, she said, but stroking Javelinka helps
her calm down.
With her window blown out, Yakovenko made do with plastic and cardboard
coverings all spring and summer, until the state paid to install new glass. She
was still waiting for a door to replace the one that was blasted off its hinges.
She counted herself lucky. Along with virtually everyone on Tsentralna, she knew
the story of Ivan Simoroz, a young police officer who once lived on the street.
On Feb. 26, two days after the Russian invasion began, the 26-year-old
was on duty at the station when his family home was bombed. His wife, mother,
father, brother and grandmother were killed outright; his month-old baby
daughter, Polina, died a short time later in the hospital.
“The sadness is so large sometimes,” Yakovenko said.
On the building’s ground floor, a 73-year-old named Halyna waved from her window
at departing visitors. She cracked it open to explain that her own apartment
down the street was destroyed, so she was renting a unit here, one that was cold
but largely intact.
“I’m fine,” she said. “I have two blankets!”By cruel coincidence, nearly all the
Borodyanka men mobilized for military service are deployed at the scene of a
particularly brutal ongoing battle, in and near the town of Bakhmut, hundreds of
miles away on the eastern front lines.
One day last week, the body of fallen soldier Oleksii Kozlenko, 32, arrived
home. As the funeral procession moved up Tsentralna, a group of women who had
gathered to receive aid packages from the municipality turned and knelt down as
the coffin passed.
“Every day, it seems that we bury someone,” said Rudnychenko, the architect.
Farther down Tsentralna, at the Flower Cafe — which sells plants and
bouquets as well as food — proprietress Tetiana Lytvynenko, 33, was serving up
paninis and coffee. Business was a bit slow, she said.
The cafe sits opposite the much-photographed pair of nine-story buildings with
blackened facades, just across the street from the Banksy mural on an adjoining
building. Lytvynenko said it was understandable that outsiders would come to see
these things; even she is sometimes shocked by the sight of the sooty, hulking
husks where so many of her customers once lived. A
cafe with pictures of food painted on its side across from buildings with
facades blackened by missile strikes. Tetiana
Lytvynenko's Flower Cafe is back in business in Borodyanka. It sits opposite a
much-photographed pair of nine-story buildings with blackened facades, and
Lytvynenko said it was understandable that outsiders would come to see them. "I
just wish more of them would order some food!" she said. “When people come to
see, I just wish more of them would order some food!” she said.
The small, bright cafe that she and her husband ran for a decade was badly
bomb-damaged, but because it’s a modular kiosk, it wasn’t too difficult to
replace. That wasn’t the case with their nearby apartment. While sheltering
outside Borodyanka with their young son, the couple spotted the smoking ruins of
their building in news footage. “At first, we were shocked and crying, but we’ve
passed that phase,” she said. “Now we just laugh.”
Turkiye makes more arrests in connection with deadly
bombing
AP/November 15, 2022
ISTANBUL: Turkish police have apprehended more suspects in connection with the
bomb attack on a bustling pedestrian avenue in Istanbul that killed six people
and wounded several dozen others, bringing the number of people in custody to
50, Turkiye’s justice minister said Tuesday.
Sunday’s explosion targeted Istiklal Avenue — a popular thoroughfare lined with
shops and restaurants — and was a stark reminder of bombings in Turkish cities
between 2015 and 2017 that crushed the public’s sense of security.
Turkish authorities blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party, or PKK, as well as Syrian Kurdish groups affiliated with it. The Kurdish
militants groups have, however, denied involvement. A senior official said on
Tuesday that Turkiye plans to pursue targets in northern Syria after it
completes a cross-border operation against PKK militants in Iraq. Threats posed
by Kurdish militants or Daesh on Turkiye are unacceptable, the official said,
adding Ankara will clear threats along its southern border “one way or
another.”Turkiye has conducted three incursions in northern Syria against the
Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it says is a wing of the PKK. The PKK is
deemed a terrorist group by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Major crackdown
Police carried out raids in Istanbul several hours after the blast and detained
47 people, including a Syrian woman who is suspected of leaving a TNT-laden bomb
at Istiklal. Police said the woman, identified as Ahlam Albashir, had crossed
into Turkiye from Syria illegally and has admitted to carrying out the attack.
On Tuesday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the number of suspects in custody
has increased to 50, but did not provide details. “Turkiye continues with its
fight against terrorism with determination,” the independent T24 news website
quoted the minister as saying. “No terrorist organization will succeed in any
kind of plot against Turkiye.”Around 80 people were hospitalized following the
attack, of whom at least 57 have been discharged. Six of the wounded were in
intensive care and two of them were in serious condition, officials said. The
six killed in the blast were members of three families and included two girls
aged 9 and 15. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK,
has fought an armed insurgency in Turkiye since 1984. The conflict has killed
tens of thousands of people since then. Ankara and Washington both consider the
PKK a terrorist group, but disagree on the status of the Syrian Kurdish groups,
which have been allied with the US in the fight against the Daesh group in
Syria. Turkiye has been infuriated by US support for the Kurdish militia in
Syria, and on Monday, Turkiye’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said he rejects
messages of condolences from the United States.
Three
Israelis killed in West Bank attack, Palestinian shot dead
Agencies/November 15, 2022
Three Israelis were killed Tuesday in an attack in the
occupied West Bank, with the Palestinian perpetrator shot dead, Israeli and
Palestinian officials said. The latest surge in
violence comes hours before Israel swears in its new parliament, with far-right
lawmakers poised to be members of the cabinet vowing a crackdown on Palestinian
violence. "Following the initial report regarding a stabbing attack near the
Ariel Industrial Zone, a terrorist arrived at the entrance gate of the zone and
stabbed civilians in the area," a statement from the army said. "Other civilians
were stabbed at a nearby gas station. The terrorist fled the scene and was
neutralized afterwards," the statement said. The Palestinian health ministry
issued a statement about a man shot dead by Israeli forces at the site, without
providing further details. According to Israeli media, the perpetrator escaped
the scene in a car, driving against traffic and ramming into a vehicle, before
escaping by foot. Israeli emergency medical service Magen David Adom said two
people were pronounced dead, a 35-year-old man due to a stab wound at the Ariel
industrial zone, and a 50-year-old on a nearby highway as the result of a car
accident. Three other people with stab wounds, one critical and two seriously
wounded, were being taken from the industrial zone to a hospital in Petah
Tikvah, MDA said. Another man who was stabbed on the
highway was taken to the same hospital in serious condition, according to MDA.
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid sent his condolences to the
bereaved families, and said that while security forces have managed to dismantle
large militant infrastructures, "we have to fight this battle every day
anew."The November 1 election saw Lapid and his allies lose the majority to form
a coalition, with former premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his partners securing 64
seats of the 120-member parliament. Betzalel Smotrich, head of the far-right
Religious Zionism party, which is set to become a key partner in the coalition
Netanyahu is putting together, said Tuesday's attack was a "painful reminder to
the most urgent topic on our table.""We must bring back security to all
Israelis," he wrote on Twitter. Violence in the West Bank has soared since
March, as Israel has launched near daily raids in response to series of deadly
attacks on Israelis. On Monday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager
near Ramallah after the car she was travelling in sped towards soldiers. Israel
has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Israel PM says FBI won't quiz troops over journalist's
death
Agence France Presse/November 15, 2022
Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Tuesday Israeli soldiers "will not be
interrogated" by the FBI over the killing in May of Palestinian-American Al
Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Israeli
"soldiers will not be interrogated by the FBI or any other foreign body or
state, friendly as it may be," Lapid said in a tweet, after reports that the FBI
has launched a probe into the killing.
Saudi crown prince courts Asia amid row with Washington
Agence France Presse/November 15, 2022
Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince has embarked on a multi-stop Asian tour,
shoring up the Gulf nation's ties with its biggest energy market and signaling
growing independence from Washington amid a bitter row over oil supply.
Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's 37-year-old de facto ruler, left
Monday for the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
The official Saudi Press Agency said the trip would include "a number of Asian
countries", though officials have not yet confirmed details of the itinerary.
A likely stop is South Korea, where local media report the crown prince
will meet business leaders. He is then expected to attend the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum, starting Friday in Bangkok. The trip comes as Riyadh
feuds with Washington over the OPEC+ oil cartel's October decision to cut
production by two million barrels per day. Amid spiraling inflation and high
energy prices, the White House worked hard to prevent cuts in oil production. In
July, U.S. President Joe Biden visited Jeddah, reversing a 2019 pledge to make
Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over its human rights abuses, notably the 2018 killing
of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. The U.S. blasted OPEC+'s cuts as
akin to "aligning with Russia" in the Ukraine war, and warned of unspecified
"consequences". Though both Biden and Prince Mohammed are in Bali for the G20
summit, the White House says the president has no plans for a bilateral meeting.
Despite announcing record profits from oil sales in recent months, Saudi
officials vigorously defend their policies as driven purely by economics. The
standoff has done little to curb speculation about the kingdom's shift away from
its longtime security and energy partner. Prince Mohammed's latest trip makes
that shift seem even more plausible, said Umar Karim, an expert on Saudi
politics at the University of Birmingham. "This is a trip to further instill
coordination with energy markets in Asia, but also to show to the wider Western
world, and essentially to the United States, that Saudi Arabia is not lacking in
options in terms of partnerships," he said.
Energy ties
Sealed at the end of World War II, Saudi-U.S. ties are often described as an
oil-for-security arrangement. Yet for the past decade Saudi crude's top export
markets have been in Asia: China, Japan, South Korea and India. Saudi officials
therefore began placing special emphasis on cultivating ties in the region well
before Prince Mohammed became heir to the throne five years ago, explained Aziz
Alghashian, an analyst of Saudi foreign policy. "But what I would say is the
market- and economic-driven foreign policy of Saudi Arabia now has amplified
this and expedited these kinds of trips and this focus on Asia," he said.
Prince Mohammed's meetings with Asian leaders are likely to touch on a number of
initiatives to facilitate further exports to the region, including possible
refinery and storage facility projects, said Kaho Yu, an Asia energy specialist
at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. "It is not just about buying the
oil from Saudi Arabia. It is more about trying to expand cooperation along the
supply chain," he said. Saudi Arabia could also partner with Asian countries on
crude alternatives. On Monday, energy giant Saudi Aramco and Indonesia's
state-owned company Pertamina announced plans to explore "collaboration across
the hydrogen and ammonia" sectors. The timing of energy talks with Asian
partners is key, coming just weeks before the next OPEC+ meeting on December 4,
which will likely put global disputes over energy supplies back in the
headlines.
Nobody's 'sidekick' -
Prince Mohammed's Asia tour also precedes a trip to Saudi Arabia by Chinese
President Xi Jinping planned for December.
Though no date is confirmed, Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan
said last month the kingdom was "finalizing preparations" for talks with Xi that
would also involve other Arab countries. Developing stronger ties with China
sends the strongest possible signal of Riyadh's move to balance its relations
with global powers, pursuing a "Saudi first" oriented foreign policy. "They are
still very much reliant on the U.S. when it comes to security, but they are
showing that they are exploring other strategic relations, maybe gradually
trying to become less dependent on the U.S.," said Torbjorn Soltvedt of Verisk
Maplecroft. "I think it's very important for the Saudis to project that they are
not taking sides in this," said Karim, of the University of Birmingham. "The
current trend in Saudi foreign policy is that of a player on its own, not some
sort of a lackey or a sidekick of a bigger power."
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November
15-16/2022
ريموند إبراهيم: الإبادة الجماعية غير المعلنة للمسيحيين في نيجيريا
The Unspoken Genocide of Christians in Nigeria
Raymond Ibrahim/November 15/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113378/raymond-ibrahimthe-unspoken-genocide-of-christians-in-nigeria-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86%d8%af-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84/
Did you know that, all throughout sub-Saharan Africa—in Nigeria, Mozambique, the
Central African Republic, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo—Muslims have
for many years been terrorizing and slaughtering Christians?
Nor is there any hope on the horizon: problems that cannot be honestly addressed
are doomed to persist in perpetuity.
Enter the so-called “mainstream media.” As far as they are concerned, the
persecution of Christians in Africa is a byproduct of economic and territorial
grievances.
One report, titled, “How poverty and corruption fuel terrorism across Africa,”
is emblematic. After citing an incident where “jihadis” connected to the Islamic
State slaughtered dozens, it insists that such terrorist attacks, which “are on
the rise across the African continent,” are “a consequence of poverty, domestic
grievances new and old…”
This has been the mainstream media’s argument, and they’re sticking to it — no
matter all the mountains of contradictory evidence.
Take the little-known genocide of Christians in Nigeria. According to an August
2021 report, since the Islamic insurgency began in earnest in July 2009, more
than 60,000 Christians have either been murdered during raids or abducted, never
to be seen again. During this same timeframe, approximately 20,000 churches and
Christian schools were torched and destroyed by “Allahu Akbar” screaming
Muslims.
According to the World Watch List’s latest reporting, 79 percent of all
Christians killed for their faith were killed in Nigeria, for a total of 4,650.
Who, exactly, is behind this travesty? Two groups, primarily. First is Boko
Haram, Nigeria’s premier terrorist organization, whose full name means “Sunnis
for [Islamic] Propagation and Jihad.” “Boko Haram,” their nickname, means
“Western education is a sin” (not “we kill because we’re poor”). Their stated
goal is the establishment of a pure sharia state and the brutal subjugation or
slaughter of Nigeria’s Christians.
The other group, which has in recent years terrorized and slaughtered even more
Christians than Boko Haram is the Fulani—Muslim herdsmen who regularly raid the
villages of and slaughter Christians. They, too, are acting on jihadist
teachings and hate for Christians.
Considering that, on average, 13 Christians are slaughtered every day for their
faith in Nigeria, it is almost pointless to list any particular incidents. Those
interested in following this tragedy can consult my “Muslim Persecution of
Christians” series, where I collate the main instances of persecution that
surface every month around the world. Needless to say, when it comes to the
slaughter of Christians, Nigeria dominates. Here are just some of those that
occurred for the month of September 2022:
Sept. 1: Muslim Fulani herdsmen hacked to death with machetes six Christians.
Sept. 11: Muslims murdered a Christian while abducting a pastor and wounding his
wife.
Sept. 18: Muslim Fulani killed three Christians during a raid on a Christian
village, “after slaughtering at least 22 others in the same area in the past
three weeks.”
Sept. 21: More machete-wielding Muslim herdsmen massacred 15 Christians in
midnight raids on two Christian villages.
Sept. 23: Muslim Fulani raided six predominantly Christian villages in the same
region of Benue state. “These attacks by the herdsmen have left dozens of
Christians dead and several more with gunshot injuries and machete attack
wounds,” an area resident said.
Sept. 17: During an all-night prayer vigil inside a church, Muslim Fulani broke
in and abducted dozens of Christians. Less than one week earlier, 60 other
Christians were abducted from the same denomination in another region of the
country.
Sept. 4: Gunmen kidnapped dozens of Christians from church, including the
pastor’s son.
Responding to these and other attacks, a recent statement from the Southern
Kaduna Peoples Union said,
There is still no breathing space for Christian communities … as terrorists,
jihadists, bandits and armed herdsmen have continued to plunder and wreck
Christian communities…
The atrocities are, indeed, nonstop. Most recently, according to an Oct. 27
report, along with slaughtering 15 more Christians—mostly women and children, as
they slept during the night—Muslim Fulani also, and quite sadistically, cut off
the breast of a Christian woman.
Despite all this, the American “mainstream” remains committed to describing the
jihad in Nigeria as a byproduct of “inequality” and “poverty,” to quote Bill
Clinton, as he once explained what was “fueling all this stuff” (the “stuff”
being a reference to the genocide of Christians in Nigeria).
In their quest to blame anything and everything but reality, even climate change
has been added to the mainstream arsenal of reasons fueling the jihad on
Christians. After Muslim Fulani massacred some 50 Christians as they peacefully
worshipped inside their church on Pentecost Sunday (Jun. 5, 2022), the president
of Ireland, Michael Higgins, issued a statement making precisely such an absurd
claim.
But as one Nigerian nun, Sister Monica Chikwe, once observed, “It’s tough to
tell Nigerian Christians this isn’t a religious conflict since what they see are
Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting ‘Allahu Akbar!’ and screaming
‘Death to Christians.’” Or as the Christian Association of Nigeria once asked,
“How can it be a [secular or economic] clash when one group [Muslims] is
persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying, and the other group
[Christians] is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship
destroyed?”
Perhaps worst of all has been the Biden administration’s response. In 2020,
Trump placed Nigeria on the State Department’s list of Countries of Particular
Concern—that is, nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious
freedom. Under Biden, however, the State Department removed Nigeria—this nation
where one Christian is killed every two hours—from the list.
Needless to say, many observers slammed the State Department for this unexpected
move. As Sean Nelson, Legal Counsel for Global Religious Freedom for ADF
International, noted:
Outcry over the State Department’s removal of Country of Particular Concern
status for Nigeria’s religious freedom violations is entirely warranted. No
explanations have been given that could justify this decision. If anything, the
situation in Nigeria has grown worse over the last year. Thousands of
Christians, as well as Muslims who oppose the goals of terrorist and militia
groups, are targeted, killed, and kidnapped, and the government is simply
unwilling to stop these atrocities. … Removing Country of Particular Concern
status for Nigeria will only embolden the increasingly authoritarian government
there.
Incidentally and to his credit, along with placing Nigeria on the list, Trump
once forthrightly asked the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari—whom many
Nigerian officials insist Obama helped bring to power—“Why are you killing
Christians?”
At any rate, such is the current state of affairs: a jihad of genocidal
proportions has been declared on the Christian population of Nigeria—and has
since spilled over into several other sub-Saharan nations—even as American media
and government present Nigeria’s problems in purely economic terms that defy
reality.
The inability to accept the straightforward facts; the inability to factor
ideological or existential motives, seeing only material motives (money, land,
etc.); the almost instinctive conclusion that Muslim violence is proof positive
of a legitimate grievance—all of these are so ingrained in the predominant
paradigm, from the mainstream media to mainstream politicians, and all of these
are poisoning Western civilization from within, and eroding its influence and
capacity to act from without.
It also means that, for most American media and politicians, black lives do not
matter—at least not when they’re Christian, and being terminated by Muslims.
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2022/11/15/the-unspoken-genocide-of-christians-in-nigeria/
Iranian National Renaissance is Coming
Camelia Entekhabifard/Asharq Al Awsat/November, 15/2022
Hossein Ronaghi’s life is endangered. Elham Afkari is in hunger strike. Dozens
and hundreds of Iranians, well-known and unknown, are in detention, solitary
confinement or hunger strikes. In the eight weeks that have passed, hundreds of
Iranians have been killed with straight hits while demonstrating; shockingly,
some were mere bystanders. The Iranian uprising started eight weeks ago. Unlike
what the Islamic Republic regime and the foreign states expected, people of Iran
have not gone back home despite murders, arrests and threats of execution
against those arrested. The Iranians have decided to put an end to this dark
government of fear, threats and intimidation. They want the reluctant West to
join them.
Forty-four years ago, the West decided to change the government in Iran. They
silently guided the Islamic Revolution of Iran. A conspiracy took shape against
the nation and country of Iran which started with Ayatollah Khomeini’s migration
to France from Iraq. This transition made his connection with religious
revolutionary students in the US and Europe easier and thus the central core of
planning for the downfall of the Pahlavi regime was formed.
BBC Persian’s radio station broadcast statements by Khomeini and anti-government
calls for demonstrations. European radio stations were united in their support
for Khomeini. The Western ambassadors in Tehran told the late Shah that it was
time for him to leave Iran. The fate of the Iranian nation was decided in those
days by the US, England and France. But today it is being decided by the Iranian
nation and that’s why the West, with much delay and reluctance, is slowly
joining this massive movement.
The persistence of Iranian presence on the streets and people’s exposition of
the crimes of the government against unarmed protesters helped to open the
Élysée Palace to Iranian human rights activists on Friday. Previously, American
statesmen had met with Iranian political and human rights activists in
Washington DC and now it was Europe’s turn to make a move.
Eight weeks have passed and the European Union, after assessing the situation,
has decided that the tide is turning in favor of the Iranian nation.
In Iran, the criminal rulers believe that, like previous counts of repression,
people will go home after the regime beats up protesting women and men on
streets and forces the arrestees to confession. But this time people didn’t go
home. They didn’t flee the country in fear of the regime. Those who had been
forced to leave their homeland became a voice for fighters inside the country.
Iranians won’t leave their country this time. It is the unwanted and oppressive
regime that needs to go.
Previous protests were on specific topics: election results, rise in petrol
prices, poverty, cost of living, administrative corruption, air pollution,
rivers and lakes going dry, unjust executions and lack of a normal life for
citizens. But the current uprising combines hundreds of national demands. The
main thing people want today is to not have a government whose statesmen don’t
look like Iranians, don’t talk like Iranians, don’t act like Iranians and don’t
believe in Iranian beliefs and traditions.
The ruling clique is Iranian but it’s a minority that doesn’t look like the
majority. For 40 years, it has survived with crimes and hostage-taking. Its
programs of brainwashing of children started at the outset of the revolution and
failed. They then went on an anti-Iranian agenda, fighting the honors of this
country and opposing all that was related to Iran and Iranians. They started by
destroying and banning music, dance, poetry, songs and beauty which is a big
part of the Iranian heritage. They then went on to destroy cultural heritage,
environment and works of history and art. To overcome a freedom-loving people
with identity and history, they had to destroy their background. But the
historical memory of Iranians remained. This very historical memory became the
biggest enemy of this criminal clique.
We can now see signs of the downfall of the regime all over Iran: From the music
that Khodanoor was dancing with to the cries of the little Bavan who called for
his mother. Now the voice of Khodanoor and the cries of Bavan and the tears of
Siavash’s mother have been heard all over Iran; by those very people who saw
what happened to Mahsa Amini and rose up. Iran opened its arms to all its
offspring. Love spreads from one corner of Iran to everywhere.
Forty-three years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini and his associates repressed and
executed opponents and freedom-lovers to establish a government of dictatorship
and terror.
In November 2022, Iranians will remember not only those killed in the last eight
weeks but all those Iranians who were executed, killed or disappeared unjustly,
just because they were patriots. Iranians seek justice for all those killed:
from those executed in the dark days of the revolution and years after to all
the victims of the past 43 years.
The arms we have opened for each other are based on the miracle of the name of
Iran and a nation that’s a cradle of civilization for humanity. We are one
family who have stood with each other in a historical conjuncture to defend our
territory, home, honor and nation. They killed our daughter and we rose up for
her blood; and now everybody in this house has come to defend the rights of
women as a nation and to restore national sovereignty.
In these days, I look at the history of Iran more than ever, especially the
events of the 1979 revolution. It is relevant for me to now quote a few lines
from the will of the late Shah; lines that are all too relevant to recent events
and show his care and his wisdom. “We should remember that the pages of the
history of our homeland have recorded many ups and downs,” the Shah wrote in his
will, “But just like the invasion by Alexander, the aggression by the Mongols,
the sedition by the Afghans and multiple invasions by the alien forces were not
able to put out the light of Iran’s ancient culture and civilization, I am sure
that the burning flames of this civilization and culture will overcome this
depressing darkness with their glow and a national renaissance will register the
honor of the present generation in Iran’s glorious history. I leave the fate of
my country to the constitution. This constitution is a valuable legacy, given to
the nation by the constitutional revolution. Its safeguard and respecting of its
principles — which are the foundations for the territorial integrity of our
nation and the independence of our homeland and also the basis for national
sovereignty based on historical peoplehood and religious beliefs of the people
of the land — is a national obligation for all Iranians. I urge my son to
safeguard it.”
America Undermines Human Rights the Most
Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/November, 15/2022
Because of the degree to which the United States’ behavior on human rights is
politicized, it often seems like no other country has dealt more blows to this
matter. It does so firstly through its excessive moralistic and public emphasis
on the issue. Secondly, it makes too many deals with violators of human rights
and is obliged to overlook violations because of its many complex interests.
These two excesses- that is, the moralistic and idealistic stringency (sometimes
disingenuous) of successive American administrations and cold hard pragmatism,
even towards “evildoers-” undermine the credibility of human rights advocacy
more than anything else. Let us admit that the United States is the beacon of
freedom in the world, regardless of the valid criticism of the American liberal
project’s pitfalls or the crises facing democracies around the world today.
It seems that human rights, at least as it is now being discussed, is a
political issue before being a question of rights. I discuss it here as a matter
that is first and foremost political. As for the occasion that compelled me to
write about it, it is the discrepancy I saw in the way that two leaders were
treated at the COP 27 Climate Change Conference. National Security Advisor Jake
Sullivan said “intensive consultations” regarding human rights were held between
his president Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Sharm
El-Sheikh. Meanwhile, the cameras at COP 27 recorded former US Special Envoy for
Climate and former Secretary of State John Kerry and Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro shaking hands, making jokes, and having a laugh.
Mr. Maduro is on the worst US lists. He is accused of an array of crimes that
have pushed America to offer up to 15 million dollars to anyone with information
that could help capture him. The “unplanned interaction” between the two men, as
the US State Department put it, was undoubtedly more than a coincidence. This is
clear once we account for the fact that the White House has sent all kinds of
messages to Venezuela in its attempt to turn the page between Washington and
Caracas.
We are looking at an exemplary case in point of how the US compromises at the
expense of human rights to further its political interests. Venezuela impacts
two critical items on the agenda of the White House. Firstly, the White House
wants Venezuelan oil sold on global markets after loosening the sanctions
imposed on Madura in light of the global energy crisis. Secondly, it wants to
reboot Venezuela's economy in order to contain the mass exodus from the country,
as most of the 700,000 people fleeing Venezuela on average each year end up in
America!
We are looking at two contradictions then, as well as remarkable leniency and
appeasement. The fates and rights of those Washington accuses Maduro of having
killed, imprisoned, or displaced are met with laughter!
Here, an obvious question comes to mind.
Where are the zealots excited about inflated human rights bubbles being blown
here and there in the Arab world? What have they said and done about Mahsa
Amini’s right to life, not just freedom of speech, since the young woman was
murdered by the morality police in Iran, igniting the ongoing popular revolt?
What did we hear from Congress, the White House, and the agencies of the
American administrations more broadly regarding Masih Alinejad, the young
Iranian woman whom the IRGC followed to the window of her apartment in New York?
In fact, Mrs. Alinejad has been informed that the FBI would stop protecting her
because of rising costs, and no human rights organization was recruited to
advocate her human rights or raise awareness about what she has gone through.
All of this can be placed under the category of undermining the question of
human rights to achieve political ends. This is done either through playing up
some matters or systematically overlooking documented violations. These
decisions always end up undermining the credibility of the noble goal of
advocating human rights. It also pushes the targeted governments to double down,
especially since the enemies of stability immediately pounce on the opportunity
to exploit this issue in order to further their own agendas.
The opportunism with which human rights are addressed internationally are a gift
to all the enemies of stability in our region. This explains the skepticism with
which this matter is addressed, not as a question of rights, but of national
security. The Muslim Brotherhood's 11/11 went by peacefully. But the future is
less certain. It is a long battle. In it, Washington
has taken clashing with allies lightly because it is reassured of the strength
of its relationships with them. Meanwhile, it takes overlooking the actions of
its adversaries lightly when it wants to win them over.
The first victim of this behavior is the progress it seeks, whether genuinely or
not, regarding human rights.
Rejuvenated Biden now needs to reset foreign policy goals
Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/November 15, 2022
At the end of day, there was no red wave sweeping the polls in the US midterm
elections. Against the odds and almost all polls, the Democrats were able to
retain the Senate, while giving the Republicans a paper-thin majority in the
House. President Joe Biden was elated — as he should be. Voters shied away from
the populist candidates of the Republican Party’s far right and almost all those
that Donald Trump endorsed were defeated.
Pundits on both sides of the political divide will now scramble to figure out
exactly what happened. The Republican Party will resume its journey of
soul-searching that started when Trump incited his followers to storm the US
Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to annul the presidential election result. The
fallout from that raid — a botched coup to be exact — proved disastrous for the
outgoing president and his loyalists.
For the Democrats, the midterms were a pivotal triumph, not only for a divided
party and for a president whose popularity had dipped to historic levels, but
for American democracy, which is what mattered the most for a growing number of
voters.
For the rest of the world, there will be a moment of reflection. A red wave
would have put America on a new trajectory, especially where foreign policy is
concerned. No one really knows what this would have meant for Russia, Europe,
China and the Middle East. It may have paved the way for a Trump comeback in
2024, with all the unpredictable consequences of his political resurrection.
Now, two more years of the Biden White House may mean more of the same — or they
could deliver a major reset that might de-escalate tensions across the board in
the midst of a very volatile world.
Two more years of Biden may not be good news for all outside the US. But what is
clear for now is that Biden will not be a lame duck president as he goes into
the second half of his first term. He and his national security team will need
to rethink their foreign policy objectives. That may have started already with
this week’s meeting between Biden and China’s Xi Jinping in Bali, Indonesia,
where the two men agreed, in principle, to work out their differences and avoid
confrontation.
What is clear for now is that Biden will not be a lame duck president as he goes
into the second half of his first term
There are also other foreign policy areas where Biden and his team need to
rethink, recalibrate and refocus. Certainly, in the Middle East, the Biden
administration must revisit its hasty reproach of Saudi Arabia’s embrace of
foreign policy goals that serve its interests and those of its partners in
organizations such as OPEC+. The Middle East is changing fast and countries are
building alliances and partnerships that fulfill the interests of the region,
which has paid a high price in the past due to the unilateral and self-serving
interests of Washington lobbies and think tanks.
One area where the Biden White House needs to take a bold stand is the
Israel-Palestine issue. With Benjamin Netanyahu on the verge of putting together
the most extreme government in the history of Israel, with openly supremacist
ministers on board, the time has come for the US administration to put an end to
the carnage in the West Bank and the illegal usurpation of Palestinian lands.
Sticking to backing the two-state solution is no longer enough. Normalizing an
apartheid state in the making is something that threatens to topple
international law and conventions.
The reset should also include US policy toward the Iran nuclear deal and the
fact that Tehran’s regional agenda is a source of instability in countries like
Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and beyond. The policy review should also cover the US
military presence in eastern Syria and the need to revive a political settlement
to end the Syrian crisis. Washington should stop looking at regional crises from
a perspective of profit and loss and more as a responsibility to contain and
resolve.
And when it comes to the war in Ukraine, which has had rampant ramifications for
the rest of the world, the time has come to seek a political settlement and open
a path for dialogue. The stakes are too high for a long, open-ended conflict;
one that threatens to divide Europe and trigger new conflicts in Central Asia.
The Biden administration will have to devise an alternative strategy that will
spare world economies a major recession, avoid global energy shortages, curb
inflation and stave off hunger in vulnerable countries. But most of all it must
avert a nuclear showdown that would spell disaster for all.
Despite controversial views of America under Biden among both friends and foes,
the US remains a world leader and an influential country that can make a
difference. Biden needs to reset most of his foreign policy goals, starting with
America’s allies. The results of the midterm elections mean that he can still
pursue a vibrant and innovative foreign policy that should lead to
de-escalation, while opening the way for breakthroughs in new conflicts as well
as old ones.
*Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.
Twitter: @plato010
How an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal threatens Iran
Nikola Mikovic/The Arab Weekly/November 15/2022
Last month, as protests spread across Iran, the military’s Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) was focused on another, less obvious threat to the regime: a
potential peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
As part of large-scale military exercises, the IRGC practiced, reportedly for
the first time, using temporary bridges to cross the Aras River, which separates
Iran from Azerbaijan and Armenia. The show of military force, officially routine
drills, was a symbolic message to Baku that Tehran will not accept changes in
this border region.But why is Iran so concerned that a potential peace agreement
between the two arch-enemies might lead to such an outcome? And how could tweaks
on a map challenge Iranian power?
As part of the 2020 Russian-brokered ceasefire that effectively ended the 44-day
war between the two countries, which was fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh
region, Armenia agreed to the construction of a transport link between western
Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan exclave, which is surrounded by Armenian and
Iranian territory and shares a small border with Turkey. The deal was meant to
ensure unimpeded movement of citizens, vehicles and goods between the two
Azerbaijani areas.
Control over transport links for this corridor would be guaranteed by the
Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia, which is one reason why the transit
link remains a point of contention. Armenia fears that the Nakhchivan corridor
could impact its sovereignty and in turn, affect its border with Iran.
Azerbaijan, as the clear winner of the 44-day war, is pushing for implementation
of the Moscow deal and wants Armenia to build road and rail links along its
border with Iran, with no passport or customs controls.
Tehran, for its part, is aware that the Nakhchivan corridor would connect
mainland Azerbaijan not only with its exclave, but also with its ally, Turkey,
Iran’s regional rival.
Indeed, if the Nakhchivan corridor is built, it will give Turkey a new land
route to the South Caucasus, which the Turkish leadership would likely use to
strengthen its presence in the energy-rich region. Turkey would even gain a
faster route to Central Asian markets, a sizable geopolitical victory for
Ankara, giving it a transportation springboard to implement some of its
ambitious pan-Turkic goals.All of these developments could weaken Iran’s
position in the region. Not only would the link end Azerbaijan’s dependence on
Iran for transit, it would also eliminate the Islamic Republic’s monopoly on
transit services in the South Caucasus. The transport corridor would also hand
control over the distribution of water resources in the Aras River basin to
Baku.Security is the final reason why Iranian authorities fear the Nakhchivan
link: if built as proposed, it could be used by Iran’s foes for military
purposes.
Azerbaijan, despite being majority Shia, has strong military ties with Israel,
Iran’s arch-enemy. It is an open secret that the Israeli military would look to
use Azerbaijan’s territory in the event of a major war with Iran. The last thing
Tehran wants is to see an Azerbaijan-Armenia peace deal pave the way for
Israel’s expanded presence.
Taken together, the Islamic Republic seems intent on preventing construction of
the transit corridor through Armenian territory.
Following Tehran’s military exercises in the Aras, Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian opened the Islamic Republic’s consulate general in Kapan, in
southern Armenia’s Syunik province, a strategically-important area through which
the Nakhchivan corridor would pass. It was another signal to Azerbaijan that
Iran sees itself as an unavoidable actor in the South Caucasus. Iran is also
considering selling weapons, particularly Shahed-136 drones, to Armenia.
Tehran is not coy about its intentions. In a video aired on state
television a few days after its military exercises, the Azeri-language
broadcaster, Sahar TV, warned Azerbaijan that “anyone who looks at Iran the
wrong way must be destroyed.” While Iranian officials later sought to downplay
the rhetoric, emphasising “friendly and brotherly relations” between the two
countries, it is hard not to view recent events as an escalation.
Azerbaijan has been equally combative; recent articles published in media close
to the government supported the secession of Iranian provinces where ethnic
Azerbaijanis make up a majority of the population. Given this development, it is
conceivable that the IRGC’s military exercises near the Azerbaijani border,
which were held amid protests in Azeri-dominated parts of Iran, were actually
meant for a domestic audience. One thing is certain:
current relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are neither friendly nor
brotherly. While Azerbaijan is a secular state, Shia faith seems to be the only
thing that the two countries share. Baku and Tehran have different allies,
different priorities and different geopolitical goals.
Thus, if Azerbaijan eventually succeeds in building its section of the
Russia-supported Nakhchivan corridor, Iran will be the second biggest loser of
the 2020 war.
**Nikola Mikovic is a political analyst in Serbia. His work focuses mostly on
the foreign policies of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, with special attention on
energy and “pipeline politics.”