English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 19/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
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http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.november19.21.htm
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Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Bible Quotations For today
Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never
see death
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 08/51-55: “Very truly, I
tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.’The Jews said to him, ‘Now
we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you
say, “Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.”Are you greater than our
father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?’ Jesus
answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who
glorifies me, he of whom you say, “He is our God”, though you do not know him.
But I know him; if I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like
you. But I do know him and I keep his word.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on November 18-19/2021
All Earthly Riches Remain On Earth/Elias Bejjani/November 17/2021
Kuwait detains 18 suspected of financing Lebanon's Hezbollah - media
Saudi pressure on Lebanon proves more painful with Kuwait also taking action
Russia to send Lebanon satellite images from day of port blast
Reports: Shiite Duo Blame Judge Suhail Abboud for Judiciary's Crisis
Court of Cassation Fails to Take Decision on Port Lawsuits
Miqati Calls for Cabinet to Re-Convene ASAP
Lebanese cry in pharmacies after subsidies on medicine are lifted/Najia Houssari/Arab
News/November 18, 2021
Lebanon Imposes Curbs for Belarus-Bound Air Passengers
PSP Delegation Met Hariri in UAE
Collard from Tripoli: UK Will Continue to be a Friend to the People of Lebanon,
and Its Most Vulnerable
Study Shows Mental Health Toll Surged in Lebanon, 18 Other Countries
#2022: From the Ring bridge to the polls/Dana Hourany/Now Lebanon/November
18/2021
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
November 18-19/2021
US, Gulf states close ranks, accuse Iran of causing ‘nuclear crisis’
High-level UAE delegation to visit Iran soon as Abu Dhabi seeks ‘de-escalation’
Iran-Backed Hackers Accused of Targeting Critical U.S. Sectors
Defense Minister's cleaner charged with spying for Iran
Iraq Shiite leader Sadr cautions vote ‘losers’
Palestinian Kids Lined Up for Photo in Israeli Raid
G7 Foreign Ministers’ statement on Belarus
Bloodshed in Khartoum as pressures, mediations yield no progress
Police Disperse Sudan Protesters after Deadliest Day since Coup
Will Libya’s Election Commission take the risk of rejecting presidential bids of
Haftar, Seif al-Islam?
Bashagha, Saleh announce bids for Libya’s presidency
UAE sets eyes on bolstering defence industry to reduce imports
Turkey set to expand offshore drilling fleet, despite tensions with neighbours
UN security council calls on Houthis to end US embassy raid, release hostages
FDA report finds all-cause mortality higher among vaccinated
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC
English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
November 18-19/2021
A Sign That Iran Is Still Pursuing Nukes/Behnam Ben Taleblu/FDD/November
18/2021
Dealing with the peril of the Brotherhood/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab
Weekly/November 18/2021
Iran will seek more concessions when nuclear talks resume/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/The
Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
Macron delivers a message of hope on war-torn Libya/Khaled Abou Zahr/The Arab
Weekly/November 18/2021
Violent flare-up a reminder of need for long-term Azeri-Armenian peace/Luke
Coffey/The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on November 18-19/2021
All Earthly Riches Remain On Earth/الياس بجاني: كل
ثروات الأرض تبقى عليها
Elias Bejjani/November 17/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/14935/elias-bejjaniall-earthly-riches-remain-on-earth%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%a8%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d9%83%d9%84-%d8%ab%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d8%b1%d8%b6-%d8%aa%d8%a8/
In a bid for us to live in peace, harmony, love,
actual faithو and true transparency, we are always strongly required to keep
remembering seriously, with great gratitude and sincerity, that all what we have
and own, including our lives, are generous gifts from Almighty God.
At the same time, we are ought to keep in mind, that we have a holy and Godly
obligation to share these gifts with others, especially with those who are in
need of what we have.
If every one of us commits himself to this great concept of love and sharing
,and frees himself from selfishness, hatred and grudges, then there will be no
wars, and no one shall be left hungry, isolated, persecuted, sad, abandoned or
downtrodden.
We need to be always fully aware that our life on this mortal earth is so short,
so transient, and so unpredictable.
Due to the solid fact that we do not know when Almighty God will decide to
reclaim back our soul (our life), we are supposed to be always ready to face Him
on the Day Of Judgment with our deeds, and our deeply rooted faith.
Not even one individual, no matter rich or poor, strong or weak, sick or
healthy, righteous or evil, educated or illiterate, white or black, young or
elderly, that has left this mortal world was able to carry with him any earthly
riches.
When we pass away, we can only and only carry with us our deeds. Based on these
deeds, be good or bad, and not on the earthly riches we will face the Day of
Judgment.
Definitely it is our choice to either hold on to the earthly riches, or to the
good deeds, and accordingly carry the consequences.
Accordingly the choice for the eternity fate, be in Hell or Heaven is in our
hands. Let us be wise and take the right choice before it is too late.
In conclusion all earthly riches remain on the earth, and we only carry with us
our deeds for the Day of Judgment
Kuwait detains 18 suspected of financing Lebanon's
Hezbollah - media
Reuters/November 18/2021
Prosecutors in Kuwait have detained 18 people suspected of financing Lebanon's
powerful Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah, the newspapers Al-Qabas and Al-Rai
reported on Thursday.
Al Qabas said the prosecution ordered the detainees to be held at the central
prison for 21 days while investigations continue into alleged "membership in a
prohibited party, money laundering and spying".
The Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for
comment. Gulf Arab states in 2016 designated Iran-allied Hezbollah a terrorist
oganisation. Lebanon is facing a diplomatic crisis as Gulf states become
increasingly dismayed by Hezbollah's expanding influence over Lebanese politics.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain last month expelled Lebanese diplomats and
recalled their own envoys following a minister's critical comments about the
Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. Riyadh banned all imports from
Lebanon. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the measures were driven not just
by the comments by information minister George Kordahi, made before a new
cabinet was formed, but rather by Riyadh's objections to the "domination" of
Hezbollah.
Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran have been locked for decades in proxy
conflicts across the region. Kuwait has long maintained balanced ties between
its larger neighbours, but in 2016 it convicted a group of Shi'ite Kuwaitis for
spying for Iran and Hezbollah, accusing Tehran at the time of seeking to
destablise it. Iran had denied any connection. Earlier this month, several of
those convicted in that case were released under a pardon issued by Kuwait's
ruling emir under an amnesty aimed at defusing a domestic deadlock between the
government and opposition lawmakers. read more
Saudi pressure on Lebanon proves more painful with
Kuwait also taking action
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
KUWAIT CITY--Kuwait continues to up its punitive measures against Lebanese
nationals on its soil in a way that shows that this escalation is directly
backed by Saudi Arabia. The kingdom, informed sources told The Arab Weekly,
wants the Lebanese political class to realise that their coordination with the
Shia Hezbollah movement will carry a heavy cost. Saudi Arabia, the sources
added, will increase pressure and is ready to deal painful blows in its
diplomatic crisis with Lebanon, starting with punitive measures taken by Kuwait,
which hosts a Lebanese community of more than 50,000.
Kuwaiti newspapers Al-Qabas and Al-Rai reported on Thursday that prosecutors in
the country have detained 18 people suspected of financing Lebanon’s Hezbollah
group. Al-Qabas said the prosecutor ordered the detainees to be held at the
central prison for 21 days while investigations continue into alleged
“membership in a prohibited party, money-laundering and spying.” Local media
reports also said that Kuwait had asked 100 residents and their families to
leave the country because of their links with Hezbollah. Most of these asked to
leave, the reports noted, are of Lebanese nationality, with some of them hailing
from Iran and Iraq. Informed Kuwaiti sources also said that the targeted group
is limited, with all individuals known to the Kuwaiti security apparatus. The
next move, however, will include another list of those linked to Hezbollah’s
support networks, based on discoveries by Kuwaiti security probes carried out in
full coordination with the Gulf security services, particularly those of Saudi
Arabia.A Kuwaiti source told The Arab Weekly that the next phase will be marked
by stiffer restrictions on the activities of Hezbollah sympathisers. The source
added that Kuwait is serious about dismantling the support networks of the
Lebanese Shia group, whether in the form of direct donations or funds
transferred by charities that succeeded in deceiving Kuwaitis, especially from
the Shia sect, using religious and humanitarian campaigning to cover up
Hezbollah’s secret agenda.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Kuwait is not acting
unilaterally but is coordinating the next steps directly with Saudi Arabia. The
recent Kuwaiti moves show that Saudi Arabia is not alone in its efforts to
counter Hezbollah’s influence, with informed sources saying that most Gulf
countries are ready to respond positively to Riyadh’s action proposals. Kuwait
is viewed as a centre of gravity for funds that are transferred to Hezbollah
from the Gulf countries, as there are about 50,000 Lebanese workers in Kuwait
alone. They send huge sums to their families in Lebanon, which is currently
mired in economic hardship. Some of these funds, sources said, go to financing
Hezbollah, its activities and its foreign military operations. Local reports
indicated that Kuwait will resort to additional moves in a series of measures,
including setting fees on remittances to Lebanon, as well as stopping the
movement of supplies and exports to the country. The reports noted that the
moves made by Kuwait are part of a broader Gulf campaign to pressure Lebanon
into considering the difficult equation at hand: to be on the side of Hezbollah
and Iran, or to fight for its own interests and preserve the privileges obtained
by its workers in the Gulf region. The Kuwaiti punitive measures come after the
recent dismantling of a cell in Kuwait working for the Lebanese Hezbollah group
to collect funds and donations, in addition to recruiting young people to fight
in Iran’s proxy wars. The preliminary investigation of a number of defendants
revealed that they had transferred large sums of money to Hezbollah over the
course of 30 years, claiming to support and sponsor orphans in Lebanon.
Russia to send Lebanon satellite images from day of port
blast
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
MOSCOW--Russia’s space agency Roscosmos will send Lebanon the satellite images
it has for Beirut’s port before and after a huge explosion rocked it last year,
its head Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Wednesday. In October, Lebanese
President Michel Aoun asked Russia for the satellite images from August 4, 2020,
when the blast killed more than 215 people, injured thousands and destroyed
swathes of the Lebanese capital. The probe still continues. “I signed a paper
today enclosing quite detailed imagery in response to a request from the
Lebanese leadership,” Rogozin said. The blast was one of the world’s largest
non-nuclear explosions and the country’s worst peace-time disaster as it slips
into political and economic meltdown. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
will discuss relations between the two countries with his Lebanese counterpart,
Abdallah Bou Habib in Moscow on November 22, the Russian ministry said in
Wednesday. In early November, the Lebanese judge leading investigations into the
Beirut port blast was forced to stop work over a lawsuit filed by an ex-minister
he had summoned for interrogation. Tarek Bitar was informed of a “lawsuit
submitted by former public works minister Youssef Fenianos … which forced him to
pause the probe until a ruling is issued”, a court official said. It is the
third time that Bitar has had to suspend his probe in the face of lawsuits filed
by former ministers suspected of negligence over the August 2020 explosion. The
total number of lawsuits filed against Bitar now stands at 15, according to
judicial sources. Human rights groups and victims’ relatives fear the repeated
suspensions are a prelude to Bitar’s removal, which would further derail the
official inquiry into Lebanon’s worst peace-time tragedy. Bitar’s predecessor,
Fadi Sawan, was forced to suspend his probe for the same reason before he was
finally removed in February, in a move widely condemned as political
interference.
Reports: Shiite Duo Blame Judge Suhail Abboud for
Judiciary's Crisis
Naharnet/November 18/2021
Amal and Hizbullah’s sources have faulted Higher Judicial Council head Suheil
Abboud for a perceived Christian-Muslim judicial split, al-Joumhouria newspaper
said. Sources of the Shiite duo told al-Joumhouria, in remarks published
Thursday, that Amal and Hizbullah are standing their ground against port blast
lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar, adding that the main problem is Abboud. The
sources said that the judiciary has split into "Muslim and Christian judges,"
because of Abboud’s practices. “In the darkest days of (civil) war the judiciary
remained unified, and during Abboud’s tenure the judiciary witnessed its worst
split,” the sources said. They went on to ask “where President Michel Aoun and
Prime Minister Najib Miqati are in the face of these dangerous practices.”
The sources also denied that Miqati has talked to the Shiite duo about any
progress in finding a solution regarding the Gulf row and Bitar's standoff. The
general assembly of the Court of Cassation headed by Abboud will convene today,
Thursday, the sources said, adding that they don’t think that the court will
take a decision concerning Bitar’s dismissal or the lawsuits filed against the
state.
Court of Cassation Fails to Take Decision on Port Lawsuits
Naharnet/November 18/2021
The Court of Cassation’s general assembly on Thursday finished a meeting on two
lawsuits filed against the state in the port case without taking any decision,
the National News Agency said. The meeting, presided over by Court chief Judge
Suheil Abboud, tackled two lawsuits filed by ex-ministers who are charged in the
case. Al-Jadeed television meanwhile said the meeting witnessed “some tension”
and that the lawsuits had bene filed by ex-PM Hassan Diab and former interior
minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq. The meeting had been described as crucial regarding
the fate of lead investigative judge Tarek Bitar.
A political dispute over Bitar’s performance has paralyzed the government since
October 14, with Hizbullah and the Amal Movement pushing for his removal.
Miqati Calls for Cabinet to Re-Convene ASAP
Naharnet/November 18/2021
Prime Minsiter Najib Miqati stressed Wednesday the necessity of resuming Cabinet
sessions and of making the required steps to solve the recent row with the Gulf
states. He said that contacts are being made to find a solution based on
constitutional and legal foundations, adding that ministerial meetings and
workshops are being held in order to facilitate administrative work and put
things on the right track. “Only dialogue can solve disagreements,” Miqati said.
The prime minister considered that all parties should cooperate to achieve an
economic recovery. “It is a national responsibility,” he said. He added that
collaboration is key to maintain security and political stability.
Lebanese cry in pharmacies after subsidies on medicine
are lifted
Najia Houssari/Arab News/November 18, 2021
BEIRUT: Lebanese people have been left sobbing in pharmacies after medicine
subsidies were lifted, as one lawmaker warned that people with chronic health
conditions were being put at risk. The new price list for subsidized and
unsubsidized medicines was published by the Ministry of Health a few days ago
and showed a frightening rise in prices, some by 830 percent. Only medicines to
treat cancer and other incurable diseases are still subsidized, at the official
exchange rate of LBP1,500 to the US dollar. Subsidies were lifted amid a decline
in the Central Bank’s hard currency reserves due to the country’s economic and
financial crises. The head of Lebanon's parliamentary health committee, MP Assem
Araji, called on Prime Minister Najib Mikati to “personally intervene with the
Central Bank to increase subsidies for medicines for chronic diseases.”Some
pharmacy bills now cost more than a month's salary.
Charbel, a pharmacist in Beirut, told Arab News: “People are beyond shocked.
They come to the pharmacy and ask about the price of the medicine before buying
it, and many end up leaving empty-handed.” Some had even cried right in front of
Charbel.
It was especially upsetting when a father asked about the price of baby formula,
only to learn that he could not afford it.
“For months, baby formula could not be found in pharmacies,” Charbel said.
“After subsidies were lifted, importers began distributing them to pharmacies
again, but a box that used to cost LBP12,000 is now priced at LBP93,000.”MP
Faisal Al-Sayegh confessed on social media: “We do not know how to answer
people's painful questions.”Araji warned that patients with diabetes, blood
pressure, heart and nerve diseases were at great risk. He told Arab News: “We
will try to ask officials to increase the subsidy rate for chronic disease
medicines from 35 percent to 45 percent so that people can afford them, and take
strict measures to stop smuggling and illegally storing drugs. But we may not
succeed. I was a doctor before I became an MP and my colleagues and I feel
ashamed whenever we want to prescribe medicines to our patients because we know
they cannot afford them. Even generic drugs are too expensive now. “It's a
shame that the cost of hospitalization is now 10 times more expensive as a
result of the increasing costs of medical materials and medicines. In light of
what is happening, the patient has no choice but to go to clinics and charities
that receive donated medicines from abroad.”
He stressed the need to increase appeals to international institutions to supply
such clinics with medicines. Lifting subsidies on more medicines may completely
topple drug security and threaten social security. A pharmacist in a prestigious
residential neighborhood in Beirut told Arab News: “I need to hire an employee
whose only job would be to keep an eye on customers. Every day, we see customers
trying to steal medicine or any other product available on the shelves. We had
never seen such a phenomenon before.” The Internal Security Forces has been
issuing reports about the rise in the number of thefts. Information
International, a Beirut-based research firm, published a study this week based
on those reports. It said that, with the increasing severity of Lebanon’s
economic and social collapse, those with money had become a target for those who
did not have or no longer had anything. The study also revealed that, during the
first 10 months of 2021 and compared to the same period in 2019, murders
increased by 101 percent and the number of cars stolen increased by 212 percent.
It said 1,097 cars were stolen in 2021, with 351 cars stolen during the same
period in 2019.Thefts increased by 265.6 percent during the first 10 months of
2021, compared to the same period in 2019. There were 503 thefts recorded during
October, compared to 411 thefts in September.
Lebanon Imposes Curbs for Belarus-Bound Air Passengers
Agence France Presse/November 18/2021
Lebanon has said that only foreigners with Belarusian residency permits would be
allowed to fly from Beirut to the ex-Soviet country, amid a migrant crisis on
its border with Poland. "Many Arab and foreign travelers have recently arrived
in Belarus from Beirut via flights of various airlines," including Belarus's
state-run Belavia airline, the transport ministry's directorate general of civil
aviation said. "It was later discovered that the purpose of their travel was to
move to the border with Poland" and enter European Union territories, "in
cooperation with smuggling networks", it said in a statement.
All airlines operating from Beirut must limit passengers departing on direct or
indirect flights to Belarus to Belarusian citizens, Lebanese citizens holding
visas or residency permits for Belarus, and "Arabs and foreigners having
residency permits in Belarus".It said the measures were effective immediately
until further notice. Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, are
staying on the Belarus-Poland border in what the West says is a crisis
engineered by Minsk to try to divide the EU and hit back against sanctions.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his main ally, Russian President
Vladimir Putin, have rejected the accusations and criticized the EU for not
taking in the migrants.Turkish Airlines has banned Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis
from flying to Belarus via Turkey, while private Syrian carrier Cham Wings
Airlines said it was halting flights to Minsk. Belarus's Belavia airline has
also said that Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis and Afghans are banned from flights from
the United Arab Emirates, while Iraq is planning a repatriation flight from
Belarus on Thursday for at least 200 its nationals stuck on the border.An
official from Beirut airport had previously told AFP that authorities started
preventing Iraqis departing en route to Belarus "around a month ago". The number
of flights between Beirut and Minsk has also been cut back recently.
PSP Delegation Met Hariri in UAE
Naharnet/November 18/2021
A Progressive Socialist Party delegation led by MP Taymour Jumblat and MP Wael
Abu Faour has met with al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri in the
United Arab Emirates, al-Jadeed television reported.
PSP sources meanwhile told al-Jadeed that the talks were “comprehensive” and
that several topics were discussed. PSP general secretary Zafer Nasser for his
part told al-Jadeed in an interview that “the relation with ex-PM Saad Hariri is
a political relation that is not limited to the parliamentary elections.”
Collard from Tripoli: UK Will Continue to be a Friend to
the People of Lebanon, and Its Most Vulnerable
Naharnet/November 18/2021
On his first visit over two-days to Lebanon’s second largest city, British
Ambassador to Lebanon Ian Collard toured UK-funded projects in Tripoli and
surrounding areas and met city officials, as well as the embassy’s project
partners and beneficiaries.
In his messages to the citizens of Tripoli, Ambassador Collard reaffirmed the
UK’s “ongoing support to the people of Lebanon in the fields of education,
security and development, including to the most vulnerable, to refugees and to
Lebanon’s youth,” the embassy said in a statement.
He reiterated his continuing call on Lebanon’s leaders to “put the country’s
interests above all, to fulfil their reform promises, and to translate ambitions
into actions.”Collard also heard from Mayor Riad Yamaq about the challenges
facing Tripoli’s youth, the impact of the economic crisis and local authorities’
responses. Together the Ambassador and the Mayor chaired a roundtable with
beneficiaries from the Lebanon Host Communities Support Program (LHSP) –
including owners of small and medium sized businesses – and heard from them
about the impact of the economic crisis and how UK aid has helped during the
recent challenging period by responding to some of their urgent needs. Since
2014 the UK’s investment in North and Akkar Governorates reached over $14
million, implemented through the LHSP in partnership with UNDP and the Ministry
of Social Affairs.
Ambassador Collard also met NGO MARCH Lebanon’s youth groups who briefed him on
how the UK’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) has helped transform
their futures to become “agents of change,” delivering community service
projects through skills training, professional capacity building and
psycho-social support.
Collard also visited the 12 Brigade Training Facility that MARCH Lebanon’s youth
helped to build as a joint civilian-military cooperation activity. Under the
UK’s support to the No Lost Generation Initiative with UNICEF, the Ambassador
visited Ajyal Arab Center run by War Child Holland– a non-formal education
Community Center – in Minnieh, and joined an early childhood education class
with the most vulnerable boys and girls. He also heard from staff and teachers
how the center has succeeded in continuously holding education sessions over the
past two years despite Lebanon’s many challenges. UK aid – under this program –
has also supported boys at risk of child labor and girls of early marriage and
Gender Based Violence.
Following his meeting with Toufic Dabboussi, President of the Chamber of
Commerce, Agriculture and Industry of Tripoli and North Lebanon, Collard chaired
a roundtable discussion with members of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who
shared their stories about the impact of the economy, politics and security on
Tripoli’s youth. The UK-led British Council project with CSOs is aimed at
increasing resilience by strengthening engagement in local communities through
youth-led social and collective actions at community and personal levels,
contributing to stability and security.
Colonel Youssef Darwich, Commander of the North Lebanon region, briefed
Ambassador Collard on the security situation and challenges in Northern Lebanon.
The British delegation received a presentation on the progress in establishing
the North Lebanon Command and Control Centre, through the UK CSSF-funded British
Policing Support Program. The center will contribute to the expansion of the
ISF’s role in the north for more effective and responsive operational planning,
including community safety. UK support to ISF since 2011 has reached over $50
million.
Collard also attended a service at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
cemetery in Tripoli and laid a wreath in honor of the 87 Commonwealth soldiers
and airmen who lost their lives during the 1941 campaign in Syria and Lebanon.
He also paid respects at the memorial to the 358 British sailors who lost their
lives on board the Royal Navy ship HMS Victoria, which sank off the coast of
Tripoli in 1893. The wreck is a protected war grave and the final resting place
of 352 of the ship’s company, while the remains of six shipmates were recovered
and laid to rest in the cemetery. There are also 12 Polish and Greek war graves
within the cemetery. In Batroun, Collard hosted a roundtable with women
activists and facilitators from across the country, part of the UK’s partnership
with U.N. Women’s program to support the journey of women activists and
peacebuilders, including fair access to the country’s political arena.
At the end of his visit Ambassador Collard said: “I am pleased to be in Tripoli
only four months after arriving in Lebanon. Although Tripoli is bearing much of
the pressure of the Lebanese socio-economic crisis, it was heartening to see how
UK aid is supporting the people of the city and its surrounding areas. One of
the most rewarding elements of being a diplomat is the opportunity to talk to
ordinary people about the realities of their lives. So today, I heard from
business owners about the challenges they face in the struggle to keep their
businesses alive; and I heard from the city’s youth about their concerns,
aspirations and hopes for a better Lebanon, as well as their frustrations and
difficulties. These are voices that deserve – and need – to be listened to.”He
added: “The UK will continue to be a friend to the people of Lebanon, and
particularly its most vulnerable, including refugees. We are proud of our
support in Tripoli and Lebanon: from education, to humanitarian relief, to
economic support and strengthening security. But these efforts cannot be a
substitute for serious political and economic reform. Lebanon’s fantastic
potential lies in its people, in their hard work, their creativity and their
ambition. Only through real political and economic change can Lebanon unleash
its greatness, and achieve the better future Lebanon’s people deserve. The UK
stands ready to help.”
Study Shows Mental Health Toll Surged in Lebanon, 18
Other Countries
Associated Press/November 18/2021
Fears of infection. Loneliness. Worries about physical health.
As the coronavirus spread across borders early in the pandemic, calls to global
helplines showed a striking similarity in the toll on mental health — from
Lebanon to China, Finland to Slovenia. An analysis of 8 million calls to
helplines in 19 countries, published in Nature, reveals a collective response to
unprecedented, uncertain times. Callers' worries centered on fears of infection,
loneliness and physical health. Calls about relationship issues, economic
problems and suicide-related issues were generally less prevalent than before
the pandemic. The Swiss and German researchers looked at helplines in Lebanon,
14 European countries, the United States, China, Hong Kong and Israel. They
included suicide-prevention hot lines and ones providing crisis counseling. "We
were struck by how similar the broad evolution of helpline call patterns looked
across nations,'' said Marius Brulhart, a University of Lausanne economics
professor and the study's lead author. Pooling country-specific data during the
pandemic's first 12 weeks in 2020, the researchers found that call volumes
peaked at six weeks, rising 35% above calls during the same period in 2019.
Strict lockdown and social distancing measures were linked with more calls due
to fear, loneliness and suicidal thinking or behavior. Analyzing helpline data
is "an incredibly creative way to assess mental health in the pandemic'' in an
array of countries, she said. Concerns raised in the calls echo results from
surveys showing the pandemic's toll on mental health, said Judith Bass, of Johns
Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. "The idea that fear was part of the
early manifestations both makes research sense but also logical sense,'' Bass
said. The virus "was an unknown that nobody had experienced before.''
#2022: From the Ring bridge to the polls
Dana Hourany/Now Lebanon/November 18/2021
For a first of a series of profiles of emerging Lebanese politicians, Dana
Hourany sat with Minteshreen’s recording secretary Samer Makarem to talk about
his political path and plans for the future.
Samer Makarem, Minteshreen recording secretary, has taken parts in all protests
movements in Lebanon, starting with the Cedar Revolution in
One of Samer Makarem’s earliest political memories of Lebanon was the attempted
assassination of MP and former journalist Marwan Hamadeh in 2004. It happened
right next to his school, in Ras Beirut. He was then 14 and had just moved back
from Saudi Arabia, where he grew up.
Several assassinations and attempted assassinations ensued. Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a car explosion on February 14, 2005.
The same year, after Hariri’s assassination, Makarem joined the Democratic Left
Movement founded by anti-Syrian occupation journalist Samir Kassir. Kassir was
also killed on June 2.
Makarem was only a teen when the Cedar Revolution began and hundreds of
thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut to protest against the Syrian
occupation. But he says it helped crystallize who he wanted to be and what he
wanted to fight for.
“The demands [we had] then are still valid. As a 15-year-old going down to the
streets, waving the Lebanese flag, a sense of pride was instilled in me. I saw a
vision of a country we strived to build,” Makarem said.
Samer Makarem, now 31, says he leads a double life. Half of the time he’s
managing director of ClapClap, a creative studio in Beirut.
The other half is spent on one of Lebanon’s newest youth-led political
movements, Minteshreen, getting ready for the 2022 elections.
The street that brought them together
At first, he says, they were just protesters. In October 2019, when thousands of
Lebanese took to the streets to protest against the political system that they
saw responsible for the country’s financial crash, Makarem and his friends were
among them. They used to meet on the Ring bridge in downtown Beirut.
“They used to call us the “Ring group”,” Makarem told NOW. “Day after day we
started seeing the same faces and we saw that we shared the same ideas and same
future prospects. We started going to our friend’s house to grab a beer and talk
about politics.”
Several talks and beers later, protesters who had met on the street became
friends and they founded “Minteshreen” – Arabic for “From October” and “spread
out” from Lebanon and the diaspora. It was not a political party at first, but a
street movement that strived for change, like most other groups formed during
the October 17 uprising. They would organize talks, sit-ins, and protests.
Makarem says they did not like the idea of becoming a political party. “Party”
had been used in Lebanon for decades in correlation with the old civil-war era
sectarian factions. They didn’t want to be part of that.
Then the COVID pandemic broke out and Lebanon went into a series of lockdowns.
Lockdowns meant no more street movements. But that gave them time to think more
about what they wanted to do in the future, and what they could do to help
during the COVID crisis.
“We started to discuss how we wanted to define ourselves and what we could offer
at the time. So we set up Baytna Baytak, a civil initiative that helped nurses
and doctors find places to stay when the pandemic broke,” Makarem explained.
“Happy hour politician”
By then, Makarem had already garnered some experience in civil society
movements. He had officially joined the youth section of the Democratic Left
Movement in 2008. In 2008, he participated in student elections in the American
University of Beirut, where he studied marketing and business management.
Makarem graduated college in 2011. In 2013, he participated in the Take Back
Parliament movement when activists crowd-sourced to build an electoral platform
that was the ideal political agenda they would like to see candidates run with.
In 2015, he took to the streets again during the “YouStink” movement. Thousands
of Lebanese protested against corruption during a trash crisis in the Lebanese
capital when deadlocks and strikes in the waste collection industry lead to
garbage piling in streets across the country for months. Protesters called for
transparency and the demise of the patron-client system that was dominating
Lebanese politics and infrastructure.
A year later, at 26, Makrem volunteered with Beirut Madinati, an independent
political movement that participated in the municipal elections and won seats in
the municipality council. The 2018 elections, when independents lost
dramatically in favor of the established sectarian parties, were a huge blow for
his hopes, Makarem explains.
He says he planned to avoid politics. But he could not stay away in October
2019, as the streets were filled with people demanding accountability and a
change of what they called “regime” – the sectarian patronage system that had
depleted the state of all resources.
Makarem says he put his 2018 disappointment behind him and joined the protests.
He became a “happy hour politician”, as the Minteshreen group members called
themselves as a joke. They would meet in the afternoon and sit and discuss
political plans, how to develop the movement.
Makarem became the recording secretary of the movement – he was responsible for
all operations, things moving on time, budgeting and managing the scope of the
team and future projects.
In June 2020, the group decided to move into an organized political movement.
“It wasn’t a top priority of ours, but then August 4 [Beirut blast] happened,”
he said. “We lost our friends and our places of work and hangout. Then August 8
happened, where we were almost massacred for protesting [against the
government]. We realized that there was no room for a mere street movement,”
Makarem explained.
In response to the August 4 explosion, Minteshreen set up Basecamp, a
grass-roots initiative to help support the Beirut residents affected by the
blast that killed over 200, wounded 7,000 and left an estimated 300,000 people
with damaged homes, many even homeless.
“We would spend half the day working with Basecamp and the other half would be
spent at our friend’s house writing our political program, mapping out what
every party said in the past and what they failed to achieve, what ideas we
wanted to suggest….”
The group also elected an executive committee of seven people. The Executive
Committee splits its tasks between political positions development, outreach to
other groups, fundraising and resources, with the hope of being able to have
members commit to Minteshreen full time.
They also elected technical committees that were a blend of experts and
passionate members in various fields such as environment, youth & universities,
civil rights, social and more.
According to Makarem, their program was crafted by researching and collecting
data from people on the ground and developing new angles to solving policy
problems. The work was finalized by consulting many experts. Their political
program prioritizes economic reforms, employment programs and social justice,
security, and sovereignty.
They aim to help save the country’s collapsing economy by mapping out the
unemployment rate, fixing the budget deficit, creating emergency helping plans
for the worst affected etc… But in order for any reforms to be implemented,
sovereignty is needed, he said.
The Minteshreen group during a trash cleanup in 2019. Photo: Courtesy of Samer
Makarem.
Lebanon first
“It’s hard to start working when you can’t control the borders for example and
all the smuggling that is going on,” Makarem pointed out.
In his view, Lebanon was never an example of an independent strong state as it
was always ruled by a foreign power, from the Syrians, Palestinians, French and
Ottomans. For the 31-year-old politician, the current crisis offered an
opportunity for a big impact that might yield results in the future.
He says Minteshreen wanted to remove the image of Lebanon as a space for
international conflicts. They neither wanted to be a space for Iran nor for the
US, he pointed out. Lebanon needs a strong defense and security system that
centers the weapons of defense within one institution, the national army, he
added. This means disarming the Shiite Iran-backed party Hezbollah, the biggest
and strongest political player in the country, without alienating the Shiite
electorate the party caters to.
“We need to watch how we address the Shiite Hezbollah supporters so that they
don’t feel threatened. We need to show them the example of a state they can
believe in. A strong one they can rely on,” Makarem explained.
Determined to stay
Makarem asserted that the group will definitely take part in the next
parliamentary elections and will field candidates. However, on a personal level,
the young politician was unsure about his own participation in the March 2022
elections. “If duty calls and the party or opposition forces see my candidacy
fit, I will answer the responsibility.”
But he said he aspires to join the municipal elections.
“Municipalities have financial independence, you work directly with the people
and you have this sense of closeness. You can also do a lot of projects on a
smaller level and hear the feedback directly from the people,” Makarem
explained. This would gain him experience for future parliamentary elections.
Minteshreen is not yet a registered political party either. The movement applied
for registration at the Ministry of Interior, but it has not yet been approved.
Without being registered as a political organization, it cannot have a bank
account and cannot receive funds.
But Makarem says that whether they participate or not in the 2022 elections,
Minteshreen will not stop there.
“You feel like you’re working for something bigger than yourself, and it’s not
just career aspirations. I have a chance to fight for four million people,
something that I might not be alive to see but might pave the way for future
generations to finish the job.”Minteshreen, he says, lost some members over the
past months, as many sought job opportunities abroad. Many took their fight with
them and formed active diaspora committees.
But Makarem said that he is not willing to give up and move to a different
country. “There’s something I can’t explain that pulls me to Lebanon. It’s not
over yet for me here, I want to see it to the very end,” he said.
Dana Hourany is a multimedia journalist with @NOW_leb. She is on Instagram @danahourany.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
November 18-19/2021
US, Gulf states close ranks, accuse Iran of causing ‘nuclear crisis’
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
WASHINGTON--The United States and its Arab allies in the Gulf accused Iran
Wednesday of causing a nuclear crisis and destabilising the Middle East with
ballistic missiles and drones. The warning came in a joint statement issued
after a meeting of the US and Gulf Cooperation Council working group on Iran,
which was held in Saudi Arabia. “All participants urged the new Iranian
administration to seize the current diplomatic opportunity” stemming from the
resumption of talks in Vienna aimed at salvaging the Iranian nuclear accord, and
“prevent conflict and crisis,” the statement said. These indirect talks between
the US and Iran were suspended after Iran elected a new president in June and
are now scheduled to resume late this month. They are aimed at resurrecting the
2015 multinational accord aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear
weapons. The US under then president Donald Trump pulled out of the accord in
2018, and in response Iran has abandoned many of the commitments it made under
that agreement to curb its nuclear program. “Iran has taken steps for which it
has no civilian need but that would be important to a nuclear weapons programme,”
said the statement from representatives of the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. These countries also condemned what
they called “a range of aggressive and dangerous Iranian policies including the
proliferation and direct use of advanced ballistic missiles” and drones. “Iran’s
support to armed militias across the region and its ballistic missile program
pose a clear threat to regional security and stability,” the statement said.
Some Gulf countries such as Qatar and Oman are often seen as channels for the US
to communicate with Iran. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy fiercely opposed to
Iran, has also recently undertaken a quiet but noticeable dialogue with its
neighbour under the auspices of Iraq. These Gulf countries “briefed” Washington
on “their efforts to build effective diplomatic channels with Iran” in order to
ease tensions, albeit with the support of American military dissuasion. “The US
and GCC member states stressed that these diplomatic efforts will not succeed if
Iran continues to provoke a nuclear crisis,” the statement concluded.
High-level UAE delegation to visit Iran soon as Abu
Dhabi seeks ‘de-escalation’
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
DUBAI--A top delegation from the United Arab Emirates will visit Tehran soon as
the Gulf state works to de-escalate tensions with Iran, senior Iranian and Gulf
officials told Reuters on Wednesday. A Gulf official said a high-level
delegation is expected to visit Teheran soon but they declined to confirm
whether UAE’s top national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan
would lead the visit. Sheikh Tahnoon is a brother of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Zayed and chairman of state investor ADQ. A senior Iranian official
confirmed an Emirati official would visit soon but declined to give more
details. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the UAE president, said on Monday
that his country was “taking steps to de-escalate tensions with Iran as part of
a policy choice towards diplomacy and away from confrontation.” Gargash said the
UAE remained deeply concerned about Iran’s behaviour in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and
Lebanon. Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, are closely watching talks between
global powers and Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear pact. They believe the deal was
flawed for not addressing Iran’s missile programme and the destabilising
activities of Tehran’s regional proxies
Iran-Backed Hackers Accused of Targeting Critical U.S. Sectors
Associated Press/November 18/2021
Hackers linked to the Iranian government have been targeting a "broad range of
victims" inside the United States, including by deploying ransomware, according
to an advisory issued Wednesday by American, British and Australian officials.
The advisory says that in recent months, Iran has exploited computer
vulnerabilities exposed by hackers before they can be fixed and targeted
entities in the transportation, health care and public health sectors. The
attackers leveraged the initial hack for additional operations, such as data
exfiltration, ransomware and extortion, according to the advisory. The group has
used the same Microsoft Exchange vulnerability in Australia, officials say. The
warning is notable because even though ransomware attacks remain prevalent in
the U.S., most of the significant ones in the past year have been attributed to
Russia-based criminal hacker gangs rather than Iranian hackers. Government
officials aren't the only ones noticing the Iranian activity: Tech giant
Microsoft announced Tuesday that it had seen six different groups in Iran
deploying ransomware since last year. Microsoft said one of the groups spends
significant time and energy trying to build rapport with their intended victims
before targeting them with spear-phishing campaigns. The group uses fake
conference invitations or interview requests and frequently masquerade as
officials at think tanks in Washington, D.C., as a cover, Microsoft said. Once
rapport is built and a malicious link is sent, the Iranians are extra pushy at
trying to get their victims to click on it, said James Elliott, a member of the
Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center. "These guys are the biggest pain in the
rear. Every two hours they're sending an email," Elliott said at the Cyberwarcon
cybersecurity conference Tuesday. Earlier this year Facebook announced it had
found Iranian hackers using "sophisticated fake online personas" to build trust
with targets and get them to click on malicious links and often posed as
recruiters of defense and aerospace companies. Researchers at the Crowdstrike
cybersecurity firm said they and competitors began seeing this type of Iranian
activity last year. The Iranian ransomware attacks, unlike those sponsored by
North Korea's government, are not designed to generate revenue so much as for
espionage, to sow disinformation, to harass and embarrass foes — Israel, chief
among them —and to essentially wear down their targets, Crowdstrike researchers
said at the Cyberwarcon event. "While these operations will use ransom notes and
dedicated leak sites demanding hard cryptocurrency, we're really not seeing any
viable effort at actual currency generation," Crowdstrike global threat analysis
director Katie Blankenship said. Crowdstrike considers Iran to be the
trendsetter in this novel "low form" of cyberattack, which typically involves
paralyzing a network with ransomware, stealing information and then leaking it
online. The researchers call the method "lock and leak." It is less visible,
less costly and "provides more room for deniability," Blankenship said.
Defense Minister's cleaner charged with spying for Iran
Arutz Sheva Staff/November 18/2021
Omri Goren, a cleaner in Benny Gantz's home, reached out to Iranian source via
social media, offering to "assist him."A cleaner who worked in the home of Defense Minister Benny Gantz has been
arrested on suspicion of attempting to spy for Iran.
In the course of his interrogation, it emerged that the cleaner, one Omri Goren,
used social media networks to reach out to an official associated with the
Iranian regime, offering to assist him in various ways and explaining that he
was able to do so due to his access to Defense Minister Gantz. Among the
suggestions Goren made to his Iranian contact was that he could be provided with
malware that he would introduce into Gantz’s personal computer.
“This plan was thwarted due to the swift arrest of Goren which prevented him
from actualizing his plans,” the Shabak said in a statement. “During Goren’s
interrogation, it also emerged that in order to prove his ability to do what he
suggested and his serious intent, he photographed various items in various
locations in the home of the Minister, which he sent to the aforementioned
agent, including photographs of the Minister’s computers.”The Shabak also noted that due to various security procedures and measures taken
in the Minister’s home, Goren was not exposed to classified materials, and
accordingly there were no such materials transferred from him to the parties
with whom he was in contact.
The investigation is being conducted with the full knowledge of Minister Gantz,
and Goren has now been officially charged with espionage.
Although no damage occurred in this specific instance, the Shabak now intends to
conduct an intensive investigation in order to reassess the various related
issues, in order to prevent any future similar instances from occurring.
Iraq Shiite leader Sadr cautions vote ‘losers’
AFP/November 18, 2021
NAJAF, IRAQ: Influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, the big winner in initial
results from Iraq’s election last month, on Thursday called on the “losers” not
to disturb the war-scarred country’s democratic process. His appeal came after
weeks of tensions that peaked in early November when an explosives-laden drone
hit the residence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi, in what his office
called an assassination attempt. Final results of the October 10 legislative
ballot have still not been announced. But the Conquest (Fatah) Alliance, the
political arm of the pro-Iran Hashed Al-Shaabi, suffered a decline in seats from
48 to around 15, leading it to denounce the outcome as “fraud.”The Hashed is a
paramilitary network now integrated into the regular forces. Sadr, who
campaigned as a nationalist and critic of Iran, was the big winner with more
than 70 of the 329 seats, according to the initial count. At a press conference,
he addressed “political forces who consider themselves the losers of these
elections” and said their defeat “should not open a path to the ruin of Iraq’s
democratic process.” What they are doing, he added, “will only accentuate the
people’s rejection of you.”No group claimed responsibility for the drone attack
in which Kadhemi was unhurt.It occurred two days after security forces clashed
with supporters of Iran-backed parties near the high-security Green Zone, where
Kadhemi lives.Despite their electoral losses, the Hashed will remain a political
force as the country’s myriad of factions engage in marathon negotiations to
form alliances and name a new prime minister. Sadr, however, reiterated the
necessity of forming a majority government, saying: “Our options, as an
individual or entity, are either as a majority government or opposition.” Since
the election Sadr, who once led a militia against American and Iraqi government
forces, has repeatedly said that the future prime minister should be from his
party. Experts say he could try to build a parliamentary majority by allying
with groups outside of the Shiite community. The new government, elected in a
ballot with record-low turnout, will take power in a country mired in corruption
and economic crisis.
Palestinian Kids Lined Up for Photo in Israeli Raid
Associated Press/November 18/2021
A video has emerged showing an Israeli soldier lining up school-aged Palestinian
children and photographing them in a nighttime raid on their home. The video
shines a light on the military's tactics in the occupied West Bank, which
activists say violate Palestinian rights. The video was released Wednesday by
the Israeli rights group B'tselem and shows soldiers in a Palestinian home after
dark. The Palestinian adults are seen gathering up the children from the home —
some of them appearing to have been roused from sleep — and ushering them onto a
balcony. A girl is seen crying, and a woman comforts her by saying "it's just
routine."The soldier raises his phone to take a picture of the children — many
of them grade-schoolers and younger — and implores them to "say cheese."The
incident caught on camera, which according to B'tselem and the military took
place in the West Bank city of Hebron in September, was filmed by a B'tselem
activist. She is heard challenging the soldier: "they are kids. You like when
soldiers come and take pictures of your kids?"The video comes after a recent
report by former Israeli soldiers and the Washington Post described an effort by
Israeli soldiers to gather photos of Palestinians in the West Bank for use in
surveillance technology that could assist the military to identify lawbreakers.
Critics say the initiative is an intimidation tactic and violates privacy rights
of Palestinians.
"It seems that for the military, all Palestinians, including school-age
children, are potential offenders. At any time, it is permissible to wake them
up at night, enter their homes and subject them to a lineup," B'tselem wrote in
a statement.
The military said the soldiers arrived to the house in Hebron after Palestinians
were seen throwing stones from it at a nearby settlement. The soldiers entered
the home to identify the stone throwers, according to the military. "While the
soldiers were in the suspects' home, minors were photographed by the officer at
the scene in order to identify the stone throwers. The officers' actions at the
scene diverted from standard protocol," the military said, adding that a soldier
was "reprimanded for his wrongful actions."The military's statement did not
explain why the minors needed to be photographed in order to be identified nor
which action diverted from protocol. The military declined to answer further
questions, including about the surveillance technology mentioned in the
Washington Post. A post on the Israeli military's website from June, which
refers to the surveillance technology in passing, says it was working to
increase soldiers' use of technology in the West Bank to help apprehend
Palestinian outlaws. "We have advanced technology, smart cameras with
sophisticated analytics, sensors, that can alert in real time about a suspicious
activity and the movement of a suspect," battalion commander Uriel Malka is
quoted as saying. "The goal was that all combatants and commanders in the field
will know how to operate these systems in the best way.
In another development, international rights group Amnesty accused a British
heavy machinery company of allowing its diggers and excavators to end up in the
hands of clients who use them to demolish Palestinian homes and construct
settlements in the West Bank. The group said J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited's
equipment is sold to an Israeli intermediary, who then sells it onward to
customers that include the Israeli Defense Ministry. Amnesty said use of a
middleman doesn't absolve it of ensuring its equipment is not used to violate
human rights. "JCB's failure to conduct proper human rights due diligence on the
end use of its products represents a failure to respect human rights," the group
said in its Thursday report. The company is among more than 100 businesses
listed in a U.N. database of companies that operate in Israel's West Bank
settlements. The company could not immediately be reached for comment on the
Amnesty report. The international community overwhelmingly considers the
settlements, built on occupied land claimed by the Palestinians for a future
state, to be illegal. Israel rejects such claims, citing the land's strategic
and religious significance, and says the matter should be resolved in
negotiations.
G7 Foreign Ministers’ statement on Belarus
November 18, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
“We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the
United Kingdom and the United States of America, and the High Representative of
the European Union, condemn the Belarusian regime’s orchestration of irregular
migration across its borders. These callous acts are putting peoples’ lives at
risk. We are united in our solidarity with Poland, as well as with Lithuania and
Latvia, which have been targeted by this provocative use of irregular migration
as a hybrid tactic.
“We call on the regime to cease immediately its aggressive and exploitative
campaign in order to prevent further deaths and suffering. International
organizations need to be provided with immediate and unhindered access to
deliver humanitarian assistance. The actions of the Belarusian regime are an
attempt to deflect attention from its ongoing disregard for international law,
fundamental freedoms and human rights, including those of its own people.
“We commend the actions of the European Union, which is working closely with
countries of origin and transit to put an end to the actions of the Lukashenko
regime. We will continue to work together to hold those responsible to account
and to support civil society and human rights in Belarus.
Bloodshed in Khartoum as pressures, mediations yield no
progress
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
KHARTOUM--Sudanese security forces fired teargas Thursday at anti-coup
protesters who had stayed on the streets of northern Khartoum a day after 15
people were killed, witnesses said. Dozens of demonstrators manned makeshift
barricades built the previous day in the capital’s northern districts in protest
against last month’s widely-condemned military takeover. Thousands took to the
streets on Wednesday in Khartoum and other cities but were met by the deadliest
crackdown since the coup. At least 15 people, mostly from northern Khartoum,
were killed on Wednesday alone, according to medics, raising the death toll of
protesters to 39 in recent weeks. Magdy Mohamed Osman, a researcher with Human
Rights Watch in Sudan, said the developments show the military has taken “their
power grab” to a new level. He added that security forces have employed “extreme
levels of brutality” against the protesters, including attacking health care
facilities. Wednesday’s demonstrations were organised despite a near-total
shutdown of internet services and disruption of telephone lines across Sudan.
“We condemn violence towards peaceful protestors and call for the respect and
protection of human rights in Sudan,” said the US State Department’s Bureau of
African Affairs on Twitter. Top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s de facto
leader since the April 2019 ouster of president Omar al-Bashir, detained the
civilian leadership and declared a state of emergency on October 25.
The October 25 move upended Sudan’s fragile transition to full civilian rule,
drawing wide international condemnation and a flurry of punitive measures and
aid cuts. But international pressures and denunciations of the crackdown have
not changed much in the situation in Sudan where the military authorities seem
intent on imposing a post-coup fait accompli or clinching a settlement on their
own terms. Burhan insists the military’s move “was not a coup” but a step to
“rectify the course of the transition” to civilian rule.
US pressures
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee said in a tweet:
“I am saddened by reports of violence and loss of life today in Sudan. We
condemn violence towards peaceful protesters and call for the respect and
protection of human rights in Sudan.” Phee had met Hamdok during a visit to
Khartoum on Tuesday where they discussed ways to restore Sudan’s democratic
transition. Speaking in Kenya, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “We
back (the Sudanese people’s) call to restore Sudan’s democratic transition,”
adding that the country had been on a path towards stability and that he was
“engaged intensely” in the matter. Despite pressure from Western states, which
have suspended economic assistance, efforts at mediation have stalled, with
Burhan moving to cement control with help from Bashir-era veterans. A
pro-military minister in Sudan said time was running out for the country’s
deposed prime minister to agree to take a post in the military-led government.
“The country cannot wait forever, so if he doesn’t take the job, then someone
else will definitely take it,” Gibreil Ibrahim, the finance minister of the
deposed government, told The Associated Press late Tuesday.
Speaking from his office in Khartoum, Ibrahim said calls by some pro-democracy
groups, the United States and its western allies to return the pre-coup
transitional government are “unrealistic.”Negotiations have focused on
convincing Hamdok to lead a technocratic cabinet that runs day-to-day affairs,
he said. By Thursday morning, phone lines had been restored but internet
services remained largely cut. Bridges connecting the capital with its
neighbouring cities reopened and traffic again flowed through many streets in
Khartoum. Security forces were seen removing makeshift barricades of bricks and
rocks from some streets in eastern and northern Khartoum.
Police Disperse Sudan Protesters after Deadliest Day
since Coup
Agence France Presse/November 18/2021
Street clashes again shook Sudan's capital Thursday a day after security forces
shot dead 15 protesters in the bloodiest day since the military's October 25
takeover. Police fired tear gas to disperse dozens of anti-coup protesters who
had stayed on the streets of north Khartoum overnight, braving an intensifying
crackdown that has drawn international condemnation, witnesses said. Police tore
down makeshift barricades the protesters had erected the previous day. Top
general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan -- Sudan's de facto leader since the April 2019
ouster of longtime president Omar al-Bashir -- detained the civilian leadership
and declared a state of emergency on October 25. The move upended Sudan's
fragile transition to full civilian rule, drawing international condemnation and
a flurry of punitive measures and aid cuts. "We condemn violence towards
peaceful protesters and call for the respect and protection of human rights in
Sudan," the US State Department's Bureau of African Affairs said on Twitter.
Burhan insists the military's move "was not a coup" but a step to "rectify the
course of the transition" to civilian rule. Thousands took to the streets on
Wednesday in Khartoum and other cities but were met by the deadliest crackdown
since the coup. At least 15 people were killed, most of them in north Khartoum,
medics said, raising the toll since the coup to 39. Police said they had
recorded only one death among protesters in north Khartoum. Another 30 had
suffered breathing difficulties from tear gas inhalation. They said they had
fired no live rounds and used only "minimum force", even as 89 officers were
wounded, some of them critically.
Phones, internet cut
The latest demonstrations were organized despite a near-total shutdown of
internet services and the disruption of telephone lines across Sudan. By
Thursday morning, phone lines had been restored but internet services remained
largely cut. Bridges connecting Khartoum with its neighboring cities reopened
and traffic returned to many of the capital's streets. AFP correspondents
saw security forces removing makeshift barricades from some streets in north and
east Khartoum. Last week, Burhan formed a new Sovereign Council, the highest
transitional authority, with himself as chief and military figures and ex-rebel
leaders keeping their posts. He replaced members from the Forces for Freedom and
Change, Sudan's main civilian bloc, with little-known figures. The FFC is
umbrella alliance that spearheaded the protests which led to the ouster of
president Omar al-Bashir in 2019, and its mainstream faction has supported the
anti-coup protests of recent weeks. Since the coup, Burhan has removed clauses
referring to the FFC from the 2019 power-sharing deal between the military and
the civilians from the bloc. This week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for
African Affairs Molly Phee met with the generals and the ousted civilian
government in a bid to broker a way out of the crisis. Phee has called for the
reinstatement of ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who is effectively under
house arrest. Burhan has vowed to hold the planned elections in 2023,
reiterating to Phee on Tuesday that his actions aimed to "correct the trajectory
of the revolution."
Will Libya’s Election Commission take the risk of
rejecting presidential bids of Haftar, Seif al-Islam?
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
TRIPOLI--Libyan political analysts have warned against the Libyan High National
Elections Commission (HNEC) bowing to pressures from Islamist groups in the
country and taking steps to prevent Seif al-Islam Gadhafi and Libyan National
Army (LNA) Commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar from running for president.
The analysts said that stopping Haftar and Gadhafi from running will inject
political momentum into their campaigns, especially for LNA commander, whose
chances had waned as his popularity suffered a serious blow following his
military defeat last year during the battle for Tripoli. Haftar has also been
blamed for mismanagement of the situation in eastern region, especially at the
security level. Swirling rumours about corruption have also dented his image as
a charismatic leader who could save Cyrenaica from terrorism and extremist
groups. Analysts have strong doubts about the possibility of Seif al-Islam’s
winning the election despite indications of popular acceptance of his bid mainly
due to the perceived failures of the revolution. The analysts advise allowing
him to take part in the race, based on the assumption that if he wins, it will
be the will of the Libyans and if he fails that will end his political
ambitions. Preventing him from running, they say, will only boost his political
fortunes after years of isolation. Libya experts concur with such cautionary
assessments and cite the example of Tunisia where political figures such as
former President Moncef Marzouki and Ahmed Najib Chebbi, were cut down to size
after their resounding defeat in the 2019 elections.
The HNEC put out a statement on Wednesday, in which it hinted at the possibility
of preventing Haftar and Seif al-Islam from running and the prospect of throwing
the ball in the court of the judiciary.The commission said that receiving a
candidate’s application does not necessarily mean that it has been accepted. It
added in an explanatory statement that, at this stage, it is only receiving
applications, which will be referred to the General Administration to verify
that all the papers are complete. Some may be then transferred to the competent
authorities to consider whether they are valid or not. It stated that, after
verification and scrutiny of the applications, it will publish the preliminary
lists of the candidates who have fulfilled all the necessary conditions. That
will open the door for appeals and examination of the applications by the
relevant courts, over a period of 12 days.
The commission indicated that when the appeals stage is complete, it will
publish the final lists, which will include the names of the approved
candidates, who will be cleared to take part in the ballot.
The requests by the International Criminal Court for his extradition, could be
sufficient to ban Seif al-Islam from running. As for Haftar, the issues of his
US citizenship and alleged abuses during the battles waged by the LNA,
especially during the battle for Tripoli with the discovery of mass graves in
Tarhuna, may constitute enough ammunition to remove him from the race. Haftar’s
candidacy sparked angry reactions in western regions of Libya. Dozens protested
on Tuesday and attacked HNEC branches in a number of cities. On Wednesday, the
US ambassador and envoy to Libya, Richard Norland, met HNEC Chairman Emad Al-Sayeh
, at the commission’s headquarters and later met a high-ranking Libyan
delegation at the Mitiga air base. Leaked information said Norland proposed
submitting the bids to the judiciary. Observers say that with Dbeibah still
unable to run, removing Haftar and Saif al-Islam from the race, would leave the
door open for former interior minister Fathi Bashagha, who is seen as US
favourite, or to some other, less well-known candidate. Fathi Bashagha has yet
to put in his candidate papers to the HNEC, but he is expected to do so in the
coming days, as he was the first to announce his intention to run and started an
early election campaign with a European tour.
Bashagha, Saleh announce bids for Libya’s
presidency
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
TRIPOLI--Libya’s former interior minister Fathi Bashagha and Parliament Speaker
Aguila Saleh announced their candidacies for Libya’s presidential election set
for December 24. Bashagha’s move Thursday follows similar announcements by two
controversial figures from the east and south of the war-torn country, Libyan
National Army (LNA) commander, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and Seif al-Islam
Gadhafi, the son of former long-time ruler Muammar Gadhafi, who filed his papers
in the southern city of Sebha. The speaker of Libya’s eastern-based House of
Representatives had announced Wednesday he would run for president.Bashagha, a
59-year-old former fighter pilot who had publicly announced he would run months
before registrations opened, has put “security and economic reform” at the heart
of his pitch. He gained national prominence as interior minister from 2018 to
2021, leading a campaign to reduce the influence of Libya’s powerful militias
and integrate them into the armed forces. He survived an assassination attempt
near Tripoli days before leaving the post. In an interview last October, he
stressed that “security goes hand-in-hand with economic reform”. He was beaten
in a February vote to head up an interim government, with Abdulhamid Dbeibah
taking the job. Aguila Saleh said Wednesday on television that, “Public voting
is the only source of legitimacy for any authority”. Saleh was sanctioned by
both the United States and European Union after he refused to recognise the
UN-backed Government of National Accord. The sanctions were lifted early this
year as the peace process developed, including the establishment of a new unity
government and the road to elections.Disputes persist over the election rules,
including who should be eligible, the schedule and the vote’s legal basis, less
than six weeks before it is due to take place, raising doubts over whether it
will happen. The only law produced by the parliament for holding the election is
one Saleh issued in September, which critics said was done without a full vote
or proper quorum. The critics said key provisions seem designed to let Saleh and
his eastern ally Haftar run without risk of losing their positions if they
failed to win. Defenders of the law say it was properly passed through
parliament and accuse its critics of trying to delay or derail Libya’s first
election since 2014. That vote, which created the House of Representatives to
oversee the transition to an as-yet unwritten constitution, was quickly
overshadowed by Libya’s division between eastern and western factions.
UAE sets eyes on bolstering defence industry to reduce imports
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
DUBAI--Drones, guided missiles, simulators: the United Arab Emirates is on the
offensive to develop its defence industry in a bid to wean itself off dependence
on imports. Khalid Al-Breiki heads one of five clusters of the Emirati defence
consortium EDGE, formed two years ago and bringing together 25 Emirati arms
firms in a bid to develop “national capacities.” According to him, the Abu
Dhabi-based defence consortium is an indicator of the “maturity of our industry
in the UAE.” EDGE became the first Middle Eastern company to rank among the top
25 military firms in the world last year, with gross sales of over $5 billion,
according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “We realised
that we needed to bring our capabilities under one roof to focus on what we want
to manufacture and service in the country, and now we can go global with that,”
Breiki said. “We have a start-up mentality, but with an economy of scale.”The
group has 13,000 employees “from all over the world”, but it wants to hire more
UAE citizens, with a focus on striking agreements with universities in the
country or abroad. Its targets align with a country-wide “Emiratisation”
strategy that has seen the authorities push for more local hires in an oil-rich
Gulf country, where the foreign population outnumbers citizens at almost nine to
one. At the Dubai Airshow, the huge display erected by EDGE boasts several
home-made products, from guided missiles to cybersecurity systems. The group’s
contracts have multiplied recently, nearly all of them with the UAE government.
Particularly lucrative deals have included the maintenance of military jets,
worth almost $4 billion, as well as providing guided munitions at $880
million.Cooperation with foreign partners Like neighbouring Saudi Arabia and
Qatar, the UAE is among the world’s top arms importers and is seeking to
diversify its economy. In the defence industry, this occurs through “offsets,”
which require defence manufacturers to invest in countries that import equipment
from them. “We have 20 products done under the ‘Made in the UAE’ initiative and
13 new products announced this year,” Breiki said.
“There is an inspiration to have an indigenous capability, however we haven’t
matured enough that we can do it without partners.” EDGE has signed multiple
deals with foreign partners, including US firms Lockheed Martin and Raytheon
along with Brazil’s Embraer, Breiki said, adding that they are also part of the
“Airbus ecosystem.” He added that the company has set up “strategic
partnerships” with certain firms “where they buy from us and sell for us.”
The establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel last year has opened up
new opportunities for partnerships with Israeli defence firms, which this year
made their first appearance at the Dubai Airshow.
“We’re discussing with them, we’re signing contracts with them,” Breiki said,
adding: “We’re in line with our government.” On Sunday, Israeli weapons giant
Elbit, known for its sophisticated unmanned aerial systems, announced the
creation of a UAE subsidiary that seeks to “lead the transfer of technologies to
local partners.”
High-quality productsEDGE, which has so far signed about 20 contracts for
defence and munitions, hopes to expand its foothold on the international scene.
One of its companies specialised in precision engineering for aerospace, EPI,
already exports more than 60 per cent of its production.
“Export is important, not only on the economic side,” but also to demonstrate
the quality of Emirati products abroad, Breiki said.“We have this criterion: If
we have a good product, we should be able to sell it abroad.”
Turkey set to expand offshore drilling fleet, despite
tensions with neighbours
The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
ANKARA, Turkey— Turkey is acquiring a new drilling ship to search for natural
gas in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, the country’s president announced
Wednesday, amid unresolved tensions with Greece and Cyprus over Ankara’s
offshore energy exploration.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told legislators from his ruling party that
Turkey is expanding its fleet of drilling vessels to four, describing the new
ship as a high-tech vessel. Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Twitter that
the ship would be capable of drilling at a depth of some 3,600 metres. Last
year, Turkey’s offshore energy exploration efforts raised tensions with Greece
and Cyprus. Warships from Greece and Turkey shadowed each other in the Aegean
Sea after Turkish search vessels and drill ships prospected for hydrocarbons in
waters where Greece and Cyprus claim exclusive economic rights. Ankara rejects
those claims, saying they infringe on the rights of Turkey and of Turkish
Cypriots on the divided island of Cyprus. Turkey has announced that it has found
around 540 billion cubic metres of natural gas in the Black Sea. The government
says it plans to extract and use the gas by 2023, reducing its dependence on
energy imports. Ankara’s maritime ambitions are resented by its Greek and
Cypriot neighbours and have constituted subjects for friction with other
Mediterranean nations such as Egypt and France.
UN security council calls on Houthis to end US embassy
raid, release hostages
Arab News/November 19, 2021
Iran-backed militia’s breach came after permanent members of security council
concluded visit to the region and condemned Houthi tactics. US State Department
has already vowed to intensify “diplomatic efforts to secure the release” of
staff
NEW YORK: The UN Security Council condemned “in the strongest terms” the Houthis’
ongoing breach of the former US embassy compound in Sanaa, calling on the
Iran-backed militia to immediately withdraw their militants from the premises
and release the detainees. The US had issued similar calls to the Houthis last
week after the rebels stormed the compound that formerly hosted the US embassy
in the Yemen capital and took hostage an unspecified number of Yemenis working
at the premises. The embassy raid came on the heels of a visit by a mission
representing the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, the
UK, France, Russia, and China). During the visit, they voiced support to the
Yemeni government and criticized the Houthis, condemning their attacks on Saudi
Arabia and the ongoing Marib offensive. The US State Department has vowed to
intensify its “diplomatic efforts to secure the release of our staff and the
vacating of our compound, including through our international partners.”The US
transferred its embassy to Riyadh in 2015 at the onset of the civil war in
Yemen. Security council members specifically called for the protection of a
diplomatic mission that has been temporarily recalled, “together with its
property and archives.”In a statement, the council “recalled the fundamental
principles enshrined in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and
the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations notably the prohibition against
the intrusion into the diplomatic property as well as the inviolability of the
premises of the mission and their immunity from search, requisition, attachment
or execution.”
FDA report finds all-cause mortality higher among vaccinated
David Rosenberg/Arutz Sheva/Nov 17 , 2021
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317091?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
FDA report shows Pfizer's clinical trials found 24% higher all-cause mortality
rate among the vaccinated compared to placebo group.
The clinical trials of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine found that the all-cause
mortality rate of the vaccinated group was higher than that of the control
group, months after the trials were launched, according to a recently released
FDA report.
According to the report, which was released by the US Food and Drug
Administration to provide background information on its August 2021 decision to
grant full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine after offering
limited emergency authorization of use in last December, six months after the
vaccine’s clinical trial began, the total number of deaths reported in the
vaccinated group was nearly one-quarter higher than the number of deaths in the
placebo group.
Just under 22,000 participants were included in each group, with half receiving
the coronavirus vaccine, and half receiving a saline solution injection.
The initial results of the clinical trials suggested a high-level of efficacy
for the vaccine in preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19, an in particular,
serious illness from COVID – but lacked significant data on all-cause mortality,
due to the short time-frame and small number of total deaths.
A follow-up assessment of participants completed on March 13th of this year
looked at the overall health outcomes of the trial participants, six months
after they received either the COVID vaccine or the saline solution injection.
While Pfizer in July released partial data on the outcomes from the six-month
assessment ending March 13th, the new FDA report includes more comprehensive
data, and shows a significantly higher number of all-cause fatalities among the
vaccinated cohort.
The Pfizer report in late July of this year showed effectively equal all-cause
fatality rates between the vaccine and placebo cohorts six months after the
tests were conducted, 15 deaths among the nearly 22,000 vaccine recipients,
versus 14 deaths among the nearly 22,000 placebo recipients.
Most of the total 29 deaths in both groups were not related to the coronavirus;
of the deaths in both groups, three fatalities were listed as being related to
the virus; two in the placebo group and one in the vaccinated group.
The FDA report, however, revealed a larger number of deaths by all causes in
both groups, with 17 deaths among the control group and 21 in the vaccinated
cohort.
The relative difference in all-cause deaths between the two cohorts amounts to
23.5%, though the absolute number of deaths was small – 38 total for all
participants in the trial.
However, the FDA justifying its August 2021 approval for the vaccine did not
find a link between the vaccine and increased mortality risk, noting that the
majority of side-effects, and all common side effects (any reported by more than
10% of recipients) were mild, ranging from fatigue and headache to muscle pain,
chills, joint pain, fever, and swelling.
The total number of serious adverse events reported among the placebo and
vaccine group were comparable, with 103 events reported among the vaccine group
and 117 among the control group, though a break-down and comparison of serious
adverse events was not provided.
The FDA report also said that during its initial assessment of the vaccine, no
notable patterns linking the vaccine in a 'causal relationship' to specific
adverse outcomes were found.
However, the report did say that following the issuance of the emergency use
authorization in December 2020, a number of cases of rare heart conditions,
including myocarditis and pericarditis, were reported following vaccination,
leading the FDA and CDC to identify "serious risks for myocarditis and
pericarditis following administration of" the Pfizer vaccine. The risk factor
appears to be higher in males under 40, the report added, with boys ages 12 to
17 being especially at risk.
The Latest The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November 18-19/2021
A Sign That Iran Is Still Pursuing Nukes
Behnam Ben Taleblu/FDD/November 18/2021
Iranian media have reported on the identity of the new head of the Islamic
Republic’s nuclear research institute.
Personnel is policy, even in nuclear weapons programs that purport not to exist.
On November 13, Iranian media outlets revealed the name of the new director of
the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, an entity known by its
Persian-language acronym, “SPND.” Created in 2011 to support Tehran’s
restructured nuclear weapons quest, SPND was led by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi,
the Islamic Republic’s foremost military-nuclear scientist, from its founding
until his death last November. The continued existence, operation, and staffing
of SPND is a testament to Tehran’s ongoing interest in at least a nuclear
weapons option, if not an actual weapon.
The name of SPND’s new chief, Reza Mozaffarinia, was not trumpeted in a formal
press release, but rather relayed in passing amid a story unrelated to Iran’s
nuclear program first detected by open-source analysts. The reason for the
lackluster press is understandable. Mozaffarinia’s predecessor was targeted and
killed last November in what many assume to be an Israeli attempt to stymie
Tehran’s nuclear weapons efforts. In the years leading up to his death,
Fakhrizadeh’s name appeared in International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
reports, books, articles, and even the atomic archive that Israel exposed in
2018, all of which put Fakhrizadeh at the nexus of Iran’s nuclear and military
aspirations.
At the time of this writing, it is unknown how soon after Fakhirzadeh’s death
Mozaffarinia assumed his new role. This September for example, the Iranian press
announced a new deputy minister of defense, Brig. Gen. Seyyed Mehdi Farahi. Some
outlets reported that Gen. Farahi formerly served as the head of SPND, while
others allege that he held the title of SPND chief while serving as deputy
defense minister. In both instances, no timeline was offered, making it unclear
whether the conflation in Farahi’s résumé is the result of a disinformation
operation or reporting mistake. What is clear today however, is that several
Iranian media outlets report Mozaffarinia as the chief of SPND. Accordingly,
Mozaffarinia’s background is worth understanding. As Western powers again pin
their hopes on resurrecting the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Mozaffarinia’s service
in a string of sanctioned entities tied to Iran’s military and nuclear programs
still in operation remains cause for concern.
Mozaffarinia follows in Fakhirzadeh’s footsteps in more ways than one. Both were
sanctioned under U.S. counterproliferation authorities and both were connected
to Iran’s defense-industrial and research complex, specifically Iran’s Ministry
of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and Malek Ashtar University (MUT).
According to the U.S. State Department, which sanctioned SPND under the same
counterproliferation authorities in 2014, “SPND took over some of the activities
related to Iran’s undeclared nuclear program” that were formerly overseen by a
panoply of entities including but not limited to MUT.
MUT is no ordinary university. Created in 1986 amid the Iran-Iraq War
(1980-1988) as a joint act between the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Council of the
Cultural Revolution and Ministry of Higher Education, MUT’s engineering and
aerospace programs have produced or supported scholarship relevant to Iran’s
missile program as well as hosted dozens of conferences on dual-use topics over
the years. MUT was identified by older U.N. Security Council Resolutions on Iran
as subordinate to another entity in MODAFL and subject to sanctions.
Iran’s MODAFL, which was established in 1989 pursuant to a postwar restructuring
of the defense ministry, oversees a broad swath of subsidiary firms engaged in
the procurement, production, and proliferation of systems, components, and
technologies with specific military applications. MODAFL subsidiaries include a
host of internationally sanctioned firms such as Aerospace Industries
Organization (AIO), which is tasked with producing ballistic missiles and
overseeing fronts and sanctioned subcontractors that meet the needs of Iran’s
missile supply-chain. According to the Treasury Department, AIO and MUT even
developed a “missile training program” together in 2003.
MUT and MODAFL were separately sanctioned by the Treasury Department for their
support for Iranian proliferation programs, but MODAFL was again designated in
2019 under U.S. counterterrorism authorities for material support to terror
groups like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF). In past
interviews where he is cited as dean of MUT, Mozaffarinia affirmed that one of
the main goals of the university was engaging in the “production of emerging and
defensive technologies.”
When Mozaffarinia was designated by the U.S. in 2013, Treasury specifically
noted his “significant contributions to Iran’s missile program” and leadership
positions as dean of MUT and deputy defense minister at MODAFL. From 2018 to
2020, Mozaffarinia appears in the Persian-language press as MODAFL’s deputy for
industrial and research affairs, and on several instances as a “commander.” In
fact, a 2018 press report reveals Mozaffarinia’s military rank as second
brigadier general, a rank used by both Iran’s national military, the Artesh, as
well as the IRGC. As MODAFL deputy, Mozaffarinia retained his rank and was often
quoted in stories hailing new weapons systems, making Iranian research and
development efforts more self-sufficient, as well as participating in defense
expositions. Just this May for example, Mozaffarinia partook in a signing
ceremony between MODAFL and the Artesh aimed at increasing the Artesh’s drone
capabilities.
This combined military and scientific background is expected to serve
Mozaffarinia well at SPND, just as it did Fakhrizadeh. While SPND also purports
to engage in non-military scientific endeavors ranging from agricultural
projects to combating the coronavirus, it’s critical to remember that
Washington’s assessment about the entity’s connection to Tehran’s nuclear and
military programs has not changed. This had held true even amid the partisan
turbulence that gripped the Iran nuclear issue in D.C. in the past decade.
SPND was sanctioned in 2014 by the Obama administration between the interim (JPOA,
achieved in 2013) and final (JCPOA, achieved in 2015) nuclear deals, likely
indicating that the entity was still active and too big to be ignored or swept
under the rug as a concession to Iran amid negotiations. In 2019, the Trump
administration affirmed SPND’s role in Iran’s nuclear and defense programs and
revealed that the entity had an estimated staff of 1,500. It further noted the
“continued proliferation-sensitive research and experiments” of SPND scientists
and “SPND’s use of subsidiary organizations, front companies, and procurement
agents to acquire dual-use items from third-country suppliers.”
The former administration even designated a total of 31 persons and entities
linked to SPND. These individuals and firms offer SPND a broad array of dual-use
scientific expertise that included, but not limited to, radiation studies,
semiconductor research, electromagnetics, pulse power research, and explosive
and shock research. The sanctions were intended as a warning to the next
generation of regime-aligned scientists in Tehran who face “reputational and
financial risk[s]…by working for Iran’s nuclear program.”
With negotiations between Iran and the remaining members of the JCPOA set to
reconvene in Vienna on November 29 and a fresh invitation for the IAEA director
general to come to Tehran ahead of another Board of Governors meeting where Iran
risks censure for its mounting nuclear violations and impediment of the IAEA
mission, focusing on a personnel change may appear as missing the forest through
the trees. But such an assessment would be incorrect. After the death of
Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s then-defense minister promised that government employees
would continue Fakhrizadeh’s path and that SPND would receive greater financial
support. Personnel changes that include the promotion of men like Mozaffarinia,
whose résumé parallels Fakhrizadeh’s, are a way for Tehran to signal its
priorities today.
Moreover, Iran’s nuclear negotiating strategy, thwarting of IAEA surveillance,
failure to disclose past activities and properly explain undeclared nuclear
material, as well as the continued existence, staffing, and funding of SPND
should serve as a warning to the U.S. of the flaws of its JCPOA-centric approach
to Iran policy. The JCPOA did absolutely nothing to thwart the activities of
SPND and its research staff. The newly discovered chief of SPND should therefore
serve as another warning to the Biden administration about the urgency with
which to recalibrate and reconsider its approach to Iran.
*Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute
focusing on national security and foreign policy.
Dealing with the peril of the Brotherhood
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
The fact that Seif al-Islam Gadhafi is running for president in Libya will not
make a difference. What would make a difference is the ability of any successful
presidential candidate to ensure a minimum level of long-term stability in this
country. It is ironic that there could be nostalgia for the days of Muammar
Gadhafi and his “Jamahiriya”. His regime succeeded only in transforming a
country which had all the ingredients for success, into a failed state.
Libya has since sunk further into state failure in every sense of the word,
after it became clear that the Muslim Brotherhood, which operates under several
fronts, could not build a state. The Brotherhood took advantage of the “Arab
spring” to provoke destruction in Libya and create a power vacuum there.
The Brotherhood only proved that it simply cannot play a constructive role
anywhere. Someone like Seif al-Islam now offers a glimmer of hope for a segment
of Libyans who fear that they could wake up one day and find that their country
is gone, the country to which they belong and in which they yearn to live in
safety. There can be no future for Libya as long at the Muslim Brotherhood
insists on taking power at any cost, even if it means seeking the assistance of
Syrian and non-Syrian mercenaries brought in by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan.
The Muslim Brotherhood wreaks havoc in any country in which it secures a
foothold. More than ten years after the fall of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
regime in Tunisia, the misbehaviour of the Muslim Brotherhood, operating under
the banner of the Ennahda movement led by Rached Ghannouchi, has pushed
Tunisia’s to the brink. Tunisian President Kais Saied has only tried to salvage
what could be salvaged in Tunisia and restore life to state institutions built
by Habib Bourguiba and maintained, even if in relative terms, by Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali.
It is ironic that Tunisians are also nostalgic for the Ben Ali era. He
contributed to the expansion of the middle class and to the transformation of
Tunisia into a prosperous country despite the flaws of his long rule, especially
the encroachment of his wife, Laila Trabelsi and her family into Tunisian power
politics.
Instead of ensuring the success of the Tunisian experience after the “Jasmine
Revolution” and the departure of Ben Ali, the Muslim Brotherhood sought the
destruction of state institutions by imposing their supporters in official
positions. Ghannouchi and the rest of the Brotherhood did not care to keep
Tunisia prosperous and weed out the negative aspects of the Ben Ali rule.
Instead, they compounded those negatives several times over.
The Brotherhood has an unquenchable thirst for power. Yemen remains a glaring
example of this impulse. Everything that the Brotherhood, which operates in
Yemen under the name of al-Islah Party, has done there has been in the service
of the Houthis. The Muslim Brotherhood took advantage of the “Arab spring” to
remove Ali Abdullah Saleh. It is clear that the former president, whom the
Houthis (Ansar Allah group) insisted on killing, made major mistakes in the last
few years of his rule. But what also cannot be ignored is that the old united
Yemen came to an end when Saleh was pushed from power in February 2012.The
Muslim Brotherhood used Abed Rabbo Mansour to cause further mayhem until the
Houthis simply seized control of Sana’a on September 21, 2014. Now, they are
expanding in all directions as they aim to create a political entity that
revolves within the Iranian orbit.
The experiences of Libya, Tunisia and Yemen lead one to wonder what would have
happened if the Muslim Brotherhood had remained in power in Egypt? Fortunately,
Egypt got rid of the Brotherhood early.
Indeed, Egypt has recovered and turned into a country that works. All figures
point to real improvement in all aspects. Most important of all, Egypt is even
in a position to reject the diktat of an American administration that does not
understand the Middle East, nor the danger of the Iranian expansionist project
for the entire region and least of all the nature of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The region appears to have two options. Either to fall in the trap of the
Brotherhood and its subversive project, or to resist them … as was the case in
Egypt, which recovered after getting rid of their rule and shedding the backward
model which they wanted to impose upon the country.
Iran will seek more concessions when nuclear talks resume
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
After months of stalling and avoiding nuclear talks, the Iranian regime has
finally agreed to resume negotiations with the P5+1 world powers this month in
an apparent attempt to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear
deal. What strategy will the Iranian regime employ in the Vienna talks?
The Iranian leaders have stated that their preferred date to return to the
negotiating table is Nov. 29. But why did they ultimately agree to resume talks
and why did they choose this exact date?
Firstly, the Iranian leaders were most likely concerned that, if they kept
buying time and postponing the nuclear talks, Israel’s patience would run out
and it would strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. Such a move would significantly
set Iran’s nuclear program back and wipe out years of work.
It was alarming for the Iranian leaders when it was reported last month that the
Israeli government had approved a budget of nearly $1.5 billion to be used for
attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in case Tehran did not resume the
negotiations and if a deal could not be quickly reached to curb the Iranian
regime’s nuclear program. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz made the case for
this budget, stating: “We see that Iran is advancing toward the level of
enrichment that would allow it, when it wished, to become a threshold state —
and we are making every effort to prevent that.”
The Iranian leaders are also cognizant of the fact that Israel possesses the
military capabilities to launch a sophisticated attack on its nuclear
facilities. Furthermore, Tehran could not retaliate by attacking Israel
directly, because such an assault would drag the US, Israel’s ally, into the
conflict, meaning it would be considered political suicide for the ruling
clerics in Iran. The regime is also not in a position to get engaged in a direct
war with another power because of its financial woes and the widespread domestic
discontent. Any war could trigger another uprising inside Iran, which would make
the regime extremely vulnerable, as it would be targeted from both abroad and
inside the country.
The regime wants to show that it has made significant advances in its nuclear
program in order to gain the upper hand at the negotiating table.
Secondly, the regime most likely chose this exact date to resume the nuclear
talks because it comes a few days after the UN watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency, will be releasing its report on the Iranian government’s
nuclear activities and compliance with the nuclear deal. The report is likely to
raise concerns about Iran’s violations and dangerous nuclear advancements. But
the Iranian leaders will hope the world powers will disregard the report in
order not to scuttle the JCPOA talks.
In addition, the regime wants to show that it has made significant advances in
its nuclear program ahead of the talks in Vienna in order to gain the upper hand
at the negotiating table and obtain more concessions. It has been gradually
accelerating its enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade levels. This escalation
has caused concern among some American and European leaders. Iran first began
increasing uranium enrichment to 20 percent in January. On Jan. 9, the Iranian
parliament passed a law requiring the government to expel IAEA inspectors unless
US sanctions were lifted. In April, the regime raised its uranium enrichment
level to 60 percent, edging it closer to weapons-grade. Three months later, the
regime began producing enriched uranium metal. A joint statement issued by the
UK, France and Germany at the time agreed that the Iranian regime “has no
credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are a key
step in the development of a nuclear weapon.”The Iranian regime wants the US to
remove all the sanctions that were imposed on it by the Trump administration.
However, many of those sanctions are not linked to Iran’s nuclear program;
instead they are related to the regime’s terrorist activities and human rights
violations. Iran also does not want to talk about its ballistic missile program,
which is a core pillar of its nuclear program.
It is ironic that the Iranian regime wants the nuclear talks to lead to the
lifting of non-nuclear sanctions, in addition to the nuclear sanctions, but it
does not want to discuss its ballistic missile activities or destructive foreign
policy.
We can expect the regime’s nuclear defiance to continue because the Iranian
leaders want to pressure the West into giving it more concessions.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh
Macron delivers a message of hope on war-torn Libya
Khaled Abou Zahr/The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
In the first months of his presidency in 2017, French leader Emmanuel Macron
hosted bitter Libyan rivals Fayez Al-Sarraj, then-prime minister of the
Tripoli-based government, and Khalifa Haftar, the military commander who
controls the east of the country.
The meeting proved an early foreign policy success for the French president
after the two opponents agreed to a ceasefire and the organization of elections.
Similar French initiatives and efforts failed to yield the same results in
Lebanon, where the national leaders agreed to keep the country in despair.
As the French president’s first term enters its final months ahead of next
year’s presidential election, much has changed, yet the fundamentals in Libya
remain the same.
In Lebanon as in Libya, Macron is clearly accepting France’s responsibility. In
Lebanon, it is an emotional one, while in Libya it is the fallout from the
NATO-led military intervention in 2011. One might disagree on many points of his
presidency, but nevertheless there is a courageous desire to be honest and
transparent when it comes to these files.The French president has always
indicated that, when it comes to Libya, it is an “inheritance war” and that he
was opposed to the military intervention. He has nevertheless accepted France’s
responsibility and abided by the “you break it, you own it” rule. And so, last
week, France hosted an international conference on Libya with more than 30
leaders and diplomats. The declared objective was to support and encourage
peaceful and transparent presidential elections planned for Dec. 24, followed by
a legislative vote. Will Macron have the time before the end of this first
mandate to pick up on his early wins in 2017 and bring stability to the war-torn
country?
Despite all the efforts and bandwidth deployed by the French foreign policy on
Lebanon, which for a time seemed like the sole focus of the French president, it
now seems clear that a resolution or positive outcome is highly unlikely. As a
result, Libya is more worthy of the president’s attention in the coming months,
especially if greater alignment between European and regional actors allows for
a deepening of stability. Moreover, Libya is strategically more important than
Lebanon for France and, indeed, Europe, not only in order to control the migrant
influx from Africa, but also for its energetic diversification and as a key to
the geopolitical stability of the entire Mediterranean region. A win in Libya
would be a much bigger achievement for Macron’s foreign policy vision. The
latest conference has revealed a more neutral approach by European countries in
order to let the Libyan stakeholders make their own decisions.
The conference, which focused on the elections, as well as a gradual departure
of foreign fighters, ended in a cautious success. Candidates from various sides
of the political spectrum are moving forward with the submission of their
candidacy papers. Questions remain about the candidacy of Abdelhamid Dbeibah,
the interim prime minister, who has become a powerful figure for the West and
who previously pledged not to participate.
Dbeibah’s post-conference declarations indicated a wish to participate, as he
called on the “people to decide for him” and heavily criticized current election
laws that forbid him from taking part. His participation will require either an
amendment to the law or a postponement of the poll until three months after he
relinquishes his current public duties. Despite the importance of the
legislative elections, any obstruction to his participation could lead to the
results being rejected and the country lurching back to instability.The US,
which seems to be taking a back seat in this case, has highlighted the
importance of elections. Yet even more important is a broad consensus on the
country’s affairs between the forces of east and west. This also requires an
agreement between regional and international actors. In that sense, it seems
clear that the situation in Libya was aggravated by divisions in the European
camp between France and Italy.
Among the accusations was that Italy was supporting the west, while France was
backing the east in order to advance their own interests. The latest conference
has revealed a more neutral approach by European countries in order to let the
Libyan stakeholders make their own decisions. In that sense, there is something
to be learned from the operations of the Libyan central bank.
A change in regional alignments could also prove beneficial for a resolution of
the Libyan conflict. With the support of France, Arab countries have taken an
active approach in reducing tensions between Turkey and Russia, starting in
Syria, and this could also be positive in Libya.
An encouraging step — the repatriation of 300 foreign fighters who support
Haftar — was also announced at the conference by Macron. However, the French
leader insisted that this was only a beginning, and that both Turkey and Russia
needed to withdraw their military forces, which threaten the stability of the
entire region. It is now noticeably clear for all that, when countries fall
apart, chaos empowers non-state actors, with dangerous consequences for
everybody. France understands that a breakthrough in Libya will encompass a
regional and global understanding. It is also clear to Macron that this could
hold the key to his re-election, as well as France’s leadership in a more
unified EU foreign policy strategy. A nascent overarching strategy is helping to
shape the new realities of the Middle East.
*Khaled Abou Zahr is CEO of Eurabia, a media and tech company. He is also the
editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.
Violent flare-up a reminder of need for long-term
Azeri-Armenian peace
Luke Coffey/The Arab Weekly/November 18/2021
The one-year anniversary of the end of the Second Karabakh War between Armenia
and Azerbaijan passed last week. After much indifference, dithering and
disinterest from the international community, Russia finally brokered a November
2020 ceasefire agreement that stopped the fighting. The end result saw Baku
liberating much of its land previously occupied by Armenia, the establishment of
a small Russian peacekeeping force in the region, and a fragile situation along
the Azerbaijani-Armenian border.
Since the ceasefire, much of this border has not been demarcated. So, it is not
surprising that, earlier this week, renewed fighting broke out along the border.
Although official details are scarce, media reports suggest that several
soldiers from each side were killed, with many more wounded, in intense
clashes.It is not clear who instigated this most recent round of fighting.
Renewed fighting would probably mean a bigger Russian peacekeeping presence in
the region. As one of its client states, a bigger Russian presence would benefit
Armenia.
Ever since last year’s war, Armenia has wanted to drag Russia into the fighting
on its behalf. Many Armenians were left disappointed during the Second Karabakh
War when the Collective Security Treaty Organization failed to intervene on
their behalf. The CSTO is an intergovernmental security organization led by
Russia. Armenia is a member and Azerbaijan is not. Despite Armenian pressure,
the CSTO remained out of last year’s war. Since the fighting was taking place
inside the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, the organization
said it had no obligation to assist Armenia. Now that Armenia claims its
territory has been attacked during the recent clashes, it has requested CSTO
assistance once again.
It is equally unclear what motivation Azerbaijan would have for a resumption of
hostilities with Armenia right now. It is not in Baku’s interest to have the
Russian peacekeeping force on its territory any longer than needed. More clashes
along the undefined border give Moscow further justification to maintain its
peacekeeping force in Azerbaijan.
The last thing that the region needs is a new breakout of major fighting between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Also, most of Baku’s military objectives, namely the return of occupied regions
to its control, was achieved during the war last year. Since the end of
hostilities, Azerbaijan has focused on rebuilding and repopulating its newly
liberated territory. It is also trying to attract international investors to the
region. Obviously, any breakout of hostilities could complicate, if not derail,
these efforts.
Azerbaijan also has a significant security dilemma on its southern border with
Iran, which makes it unlikely to want to increase military tensions with Armenia
right now. The relationship between Azerbaijan and Iran has become fraught in
recent years. Tehran has criticized Baku’s good relations with Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran’s cozy relationship with Armenia is a constant source of concern
for Azerbaijan. Last month, Iran conducted large-scale and provocative military
exercises along its border with Azerbaijan, in a section that was under Armenian
occupation until last year. These maneuvers rattled policymakers in Baku. In
addition to properly delineating the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, there are two
other areas of contention from the agreement that need to be addressed urgently
if there is ever going to be an enduring peace.
The first issue is the establishment of the Zangezur corridor. For years, Baku
has been desperate to have a direct land connection with its Nakhchivan enclave.
Due to the frozen conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia prevented Azerbaijan
from using its land or airspace to reach Nakhchivan. However, according to
Article 9 of last year’s ceasefire agreement: “All economic and transport
connections in the region shall be unblocked. The Republic of Armenia shall
guarantee the security of transport connections between the western regions of
the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.” A year
later, no progress has been made on this issue and this has irked Baku.
Another issue that continues to be a big problem pertains to Article 4 of the
ceasefire agreement. This states that Russian peacekeeping forces will be
deployed to a rump section of Nagorno-Karabakh where a small Armenian minority
resides, “concurrently with the withdrawal of the Armenian troops.” While
Russian peacekeepers have arrived in the region, not all Armenian and
Armenian-backed forces have withdrawn. Baku is reasonably frustrated with the
lack of progress to implement this aspect of the peace agreement.
This border flare-up between Azerbaijan and Armenia is one more geopolitical
challenge the broader European region is currently facing. There is a crippling
political crisis in Georgia over the ongoing detention and treatment of former
President Mikheil Saakashvili. Belarus has created a migrant crisis on the
border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Eastern Europe is facing a major
energy crisis as winter approaches. Last week, Europe reported almost 2 million
COVID-19 cases. Unbelievably, this is the most cases in a single week in Europe
since the pandemic started. The last thing that the region needs is a new
breakout of major fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The warning lights
are flashing. The South Caucasus is on the brink of even more blood being shed.
But with renewed diplomatic energy, conflict can be avoided. In the past,
Armenians and Azeris traded with each other and lived peacefully together. Now
is the time for the international community to build an enduring peace between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.
• Luke Coffey is Director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign
Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
Twitter: @LukeDCoffey