English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 27/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.november27.22.htm
News Bulletin Achieves
Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Bible Quotations For today
Mary Visits Elizabeth
Luke 01/39-45: In those days Mary arose and went with
haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of
Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary,
the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and
she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the
fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears,
the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there
would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on November
26-27/2022
Lebanon: Hezbollah Calls for Election
of a President Capable of Leading Dialogue on Arms
Khamenei: We will continue our support for the “resistance” in Lebanon
'Lenghty' vacuum expected despite Paris bid to 'convince Riyadh' with Hezbollah
role
Lebanese-Saudi Arab Youth Gathering calls for wide participation in car rallies
to tour capital following today's Saudi match
"All those working in state, municipal or public institutions are entitled to
salary increases," tweets Abdallah
Geagea: Challenges are difficult
Regular meeting between Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee & Palestinian
Action Committee at Serail: On respecting mechanisms for collecting...
Patriarch Minassian meets with Iranian Ambassador: For electing a president of
the republic to avoid multiplying crises
Nassar inspects Jeita Grotto: Damage caused by falling rain is within cave's
vicinity, not inside
Al-Murtada from Nabu Museum: Beirut, city of light & freedom, a wound that knows
nothing but joy, holds heavy pact with culture of truth
Italian Embassy holds food tasting event in Tripoli, celebrating the
“International Week of Italian Cuisine in the World”
On patrol in Beirut, the crime-busting neighbourhood watchmen of Achrafieh/Jamie
Prentis/The National/November 26/2022
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on November
26-27/2022
Amnesty International lauds UN probe into Iran human rights violations
“Instead, they have sought to destroy evidence of crimes while persecuting
survivors and victims’ relatives.”
Iran Blasts UN Probe into Crackdown on Protesters
Iran rapper arrested over protests risks death penalty: family
Iran’s Khamenei Praises Basij Forces for Confronting ‘Riots’
Russian shelling kills 15 in Kherson as Ukraine battles to restore power
Iraq Stresses Significance of Ties with US
Syrian Kurds Say They Have Stopped Operations against ISIS
US Official Urges ‘De-escalation’ as Türkiye Strikes Syria
Türkiye's Erdogan Vows to Create 'Safe Zone' in Syria
Jordan Thwarts Drug Smuggling Bid Coming from Syria
2nd Israeli, Wounded in Jerusalem Blasts, Dies
Titles For The
Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November
26-27/2022
Is the Biden Administration Colluding with Russia to Allow Iran to Go
Nuclear?/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/November 26, 2022
Who Runs the World? Ants./Farhad Manjoo/The New York Times/November, 26/2022
UK Conservatives look beyond Sunak government/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/November
26/2022
Spanish decision shows tide turning on repatriating ISIS brides/Faisal Al Yafai/The
Arab Weekly/November 26/2022
on November
26-27/2022
Lebanon: Hezbollah Calls for Election of a President Capable of Leading
Dialogue on Arms
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November,
2022
Lebanon’s Hezbollah party called for holding dialogue over its weapons, and for
the election of a president, “who has the ability” to carry out economic rescue
efforts and to discuss the country’s defense strategy with the participation of
all Lebanese components. Seven successive parliamentary sessions have failed to
elect a new president for the crisis-hit nation, in light of deep divisions
among the different political blocs. The tenure of former President Michel Aoun
ended on October 31. The Shiite duo, represented by Hezbollah and the Amal
Movement, are pushing for the nomination of Marada Party leader Sleiman Franjieh,
who is rejected by Hezbollah’s ally, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM). On the
other hand, the Lebanese Forces, the Progressive Socialist Party, the Kataeb and
a number of independent deputies are voting in favor of MP Michel Moawad. Amid
the sharp divergence between the Shiite duo and the FPM over Franjieh’s
nomination, the three parties resorted, over the previous sessions, to cast a
blank vote. Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said on
Friday: “If the Resistance is a point of contention, then refer it to dialogue
and let us bring in a president, who has the ability to conduct rescue work with
the participation of all the Lebanese on the economic file, and who can manage a
dialogue session… to discuss the defense strategy…”Qassem stressed that the
election of a president was necessary to address the economic and social crisis.
"The mandatory way for the start of reforms and for saving Lebanon is the
election of a president,” he said. Meanwhile, Moawad met on Friday with British
Ambassador Hamish Cowell, with whom he discussed the latest developments.
Moawad’s media office said that the talks with Cowell emphasized the need to
respect the constitutional obligations, the first of which is the election of a
new head of state and the implementation of reforms to put the country on the
path of recovery.”
Khamenei: We will continue our support for the
“resistance” in Lebanon
Agencies /November 26 / 2022
The Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ali Khamenei, indicated that “the
volunteer members of the Basij (mobilization) forces sacrificed themselves to
save the people from rioters,” adding, “In Iran, we have millions of officially
organized mobilizations and millions of unorganized ones, and they are active in
society,” explaining that “in In every era, the presence of the mobilization
forces confirms that the Islamic revolution is still renewed. He also saw that
“Iran’s active policy in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq was the result of the failure
of America’s plan in these countries,” stressing that “the Americans targeted
Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Somalia, to strike Iran’s strategic
depth,” explaining that “former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani had The
prominent role in Iran's victory over the American project in the region. He
added, “The mobilization forces faced ISIS, which was created by the enemies and
attacked the holy shrines, and the mobilization forces supported the heroes of
Lebanon and Palestine,” declaring that “we will continue our support for the
resistance forces in the region, Lebanon and Palestine.”In addition, Khamenei
considered that “the nuclear agreement, Israel wants it to prevent Iran from
producing weapons and drones to defend ourselves,” stressing that “when we
implemented our obligations under the nuclear agreement, America did not
implement its obligations.”
'Lenghty' vacuum expected despite Paris bid to 'convince
Riyadh' with Hezbollah role
Naharnet/November 26/2022
The presidential vacuum will be lengthy despite the "intensity" of the French
efforts and attempts by Paris, backed by Washington, Riyadh and some local
forces, to reach a "compromise candidate called Joseph Aoun," al-Akhbar
newspaper reported on Saturday. It added that France is trying to convince
Riyadh that it is "impossible to bypass Hezbollah in the presidential file" and
that "negotiations with it are obligatory regarding any supposed settlement that
Saudi Arabia wants, even if it revolves around the army chief."
Lebanese-Saudi Arab Youth Gathering calls for wide
participation in car rallies to tour capital following today's Saudi match
NNA/November 26/2022
The "Lebanese-Saudi Arabian Youth Gathering - Beirut" called on the fans of the
Saudi Arabian team (the green team) participating in the Qatar World Cup 2022,
to a "widest participation in the car and motorcycle rallies that will tour
various Beirut regions in the direction of the Saudi embassy premises,
immediately after the end of today's match and the green team's declared
victory."This call comes as a largest popular youth celebration and a gift from
the young Lebanese to their fellow Saudi youth members.
"All those working in state, municipal or public institutions are entitled to
salary increases," tweets Abdallah
NNA/November 26/2022
MP Bilal Abdallah tweeted today: “Everyone who works in a state job, in a public
institution, government hospital, municipality, or any government department,
regardless of namings, is entitled to salary increases or allowances, according
to the budget law...."He added: "When we discussed the budget law and approved
it, we confirmed this right in text and in minutes.”
Geagea: Challenges are difficult
NNA/November 26/2022
Head of the “Lebanese Forces” Party, Samir Geagea, affirmed that “the challenges
are difficult and the confrontation is huge," considering that the LF is facing
a group of forces, some of which are non-sovereign and do not want to establish
a state in Lebanon, and others care more about their personal interests in the
context of their work in the state, and traditionalists, who can only cling to
the seats at a time when they are unable to save the country or push it towards
progress. He stressed that "the Lebanese Forces have no problem with any
political group or personality capable of doing anything in order to save the
country." Geagea's remarks came during his reception of a delegation of students
from the "Sagesse" University at LF's headquarters in Maarab.
Regular meeting between Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee & Palestinian
Action Committee at Serail: On respecting mechanisms for collecting...
NNA/November 26/2022
The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, the Joint Palestinian Coalition,
and members of the Lebanese inter-ministerial committee concerned with
addressing Palestinian refugee issues in Lebanon held their recurring meeting at
the Grand Serail on Friday, during which they discussed ways to coordinate and
follow up on shared Lebanese-Palestinian issues, including issues of daily life,
social issues, economic issues, legal issues, and security issues inside the
camps, along with how to cooperate with the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), as well as the issue of electricity
collection in the camps. The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee emphasized
the need to follow up on all the proposed and pending files with the relevant
ministries and to begin processing them imminently. The gathered parties agreed
upon the general rules for Palestinian handling of collecting electrical and
other fees, under the principle of "respect for the sovereignty, stability, and
laws of the Lebanese state, and commitment to everything the state deems
appropriate on fee collections, as applicable to both its citizens and
refugees."
The following points were made:
First, the Joint Palestinian Committee, on behalf of the Palestinian factions,
expressed its readiness to cooperate with any mechanism deemed suitable by the
Government of Lebanon to collect the fees required for the consumption of
electricity in Palestinian camps and gatherings, and to coordinate with the
Ministry of Energy to implement any decision issued thereon. Second, the
Palestinian side in Lebanon unanimously affirmed its commitment to the necessity
of upholding stability and protecting Lebanon’s vital interests, including by
safeguarding foreign investments, and to absolute cooperation with the
Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, which ensures constancy in
Lebanese-Palestinian relations so long as the Palestinian side continues its
commitment to respecting Lebanese sovereignty, laws, and stability across all
aspects. The meeting was attended by the Director-General of Arab Affairs at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ali El-Mawla, the Director-General of
the Ministry of Public Health, Fady Snan, and representatives of the Ministries
of National Defense, Interior and Municipalities, Education and Higher
Education, Social Affairs, as well as of the Military Court and of Lebanese
General Security.
--- Press Release - Office of Communications
Patriarch Minassian meets with Iranian Ambassador: For
electing a president of the republic to avoid multiplying crises
NNA/November 26/2022
Catholicos of Armenian Catholic House of Cilicia, Patriarch Raphael Bedros XXI
Minassian, met today with Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, in the
presence of Beirut Archbishop George Assadourian, former Archbishop of the
Armenian Catholic Diocese of Turkey George Khozomian, Father Aram Saadou
Abrahamian and Public Relations Officer Charbel Bastouri, at the Patriarchate's
headquarters in Beirut. The friendly visit came within the framework of
consolidating relations between the Patriarchate and the Iranian Embassy in
Lebanon. During the one-hour meeting, both sides discussed the relations between
the Republics of Iran and Armenia, and Iran's support to Armenia in the various
challenges it has faced. The Armenian Catholic Church in Iran, its pioneering
role and distinguished presence in the Iranian Republic also topped their
discussions. Additionally, talks touched on the Lebanese national aspect and
"the repercussions of the presidential vacuum on the exacerbated daily living
and economic crises in the absence of a regular government," hoping that "a new
Lebanese President will be elected to avoid the heightened crises."On the
spiritual level, Patriarch Minassian and the Iranian ambassador affirmed that
"Christians and Muslims are one family in these lands, and what unites them is
greater than what separates them."
Nassar inspects Jeita Grotto: Damage caused by falling rain
is within cave's vicinity, not inside
NNA/November 26/2022
Caretaker Minister of Tourism, Walid Nassar, inspected this afternoon the Jeita
Grotto, in wake of the damage caused by the torrential rains. Nassar went into
the cave accompanied by Jeita Mayor Walid Baroud, Cave Investor Nabil Haddad,
and Jeita municipality's engineer. Following the tour, Nassar confirmed that
"the damage is in the vicinity of the cave and the parking spots connected to
it, not inside the cave so there is no fear...”He assured that “this pearl of
tourism in Lebanon is fine, and foreign tourists are currently visiting from
several countries, specifically from Cyprus, Egypt and Iraq, and the movement is
normal.” Nassar continued to indicate that the damage to the cave vicinity
caused by heavy rains is due to the waste left behind by citizens, saying: “I
join the Minister of Public Works and Transport in calling on citizens not to
throw thrash and solid waste from construction workshops on roads, river banks
and sewage channels.” He added that the scarcity of resources in municipalities
to clean-up these areas rather exacerbates the crisis, as they carry a huge
responsibility in terms of monitoring, accountability and anticipating problems.
Al-Murtada from Nabu Museum: Beirut, city of light & freedom, a wound that knows
nothing but joy, holds heavy pact with culture of truth
NNA/November 26/2022
Caretaker Minister of Culture, Judge Muhammad Wissam Al-Murtada, inaugurated
today the Nabu exhibition, "Beirut 1840-1918 - Pictures and Maps", at the Nabu
Museum in the region of El-Herri - North Lebanon. Under the headline, "Let's
remember Beirut as it was, preserve what is left and rise again", the exhibition
opening was attended by Caretaker Tourism and Information Ministers, Walid
Nassar and Ziad Al-Makari, as well as Editors Syndicate Chief Joseph Al-Kosseifi,
President of the Maronite Association Khalil Karam, US Ambassador Dorothy Shea,
founder of the Nabu Museum Jawad Adra, and a number of diplomats, prominent
figures and a popular crowd. In his address on the occasion, Al-Murtada paid
tribute to Beirut, “the lady of light and freedom...the wound that knows nothing
but joy, the morning that sees no sunset, and the human who holds a heavy pact
with thought, creativity, and belonging to goodness and the culture of
truth.”Commending the museum exhibition, the Culture Minister said: “This
heritage documentation achievement should not be limited to images of Beirut
alone. In Tripoli, for example, there are countless architectural treasures,
embracing the ancient, medieval and modern eras, and it is worth having its
heritage preserved in photos...just like other Lebanese cities and villages.
Hence my call to the guardians, and to all those interested in this pioneering
civilized work, especially the municipal councils, to set up exhibitions for the
memory similar to this exhibition, especially for each village or region,
because faces are extinguished, names disappear, places change, and memory
becomes an oblivion...Therefore, if a frame surrounds it and it is attached to a
place...it remains and is passed on through generations."Al-Murtada concluded by
praising the efforts of the exhibition holders for their wonderful work in
portraying images of Beirut City in such a remarkable setting. In turn,
exhibition founder, Jawad Adra, said in his delivered word: "We, at Nabu,
believe that differences of opinion encourage creativity and that without art
and culture there will be neither a lively economy nor a good management of this
country...The devastation that we see at all levels is the result of ignorance,
selfishness and greed...and in culture there is a remedy for that..."Adra
thanked all those who contributed to laying the building blocks to realize the
Nabu dream.
Italian Embassy holds food tasting event in Tripoli,
celebrating the “International Week of Italian Cuisine in the World”
NNA/November 26/2022
Tripoli - Within the framework of the annual week dedicated to Italian cuisine
in the world, the Italian Embassy in Lebanon organized today a food tasting
event celebrating Italian recipes in the city of Tripoli. The activity, which
took place at the “CROP” restaurant, was an opportunity for the attending guests
- mostly Italian-speaking Lebanese who live in the north region - to sample some
of the traditional Italian dishes distinguished by their simple and authentic
ingredients and their ability to create networks of solidarity and mechanisms of
sharing, thus creating an atmosphere of intimacy and joy.
To crown this northern day, par excellence, which the Italian Embassy wished to
dedicate entirely to the city of Tripoli, an exhibition of photographs on
Arab-Norman architecture in Palermo was inaugurated at the premises of “Al Azm
Cultural Center”. In her delivered word on the occasion, Italian Ambassador to
Lebanon, Nicoletta Bombardieri, thanked the embassy’s coordinator in Tripoli,
Mrs. Christina Foti, and the attending guests and members of the Italian Embassy
in Tripoli for ensuring the success of this event, stressing that this is "the
best evidence of Italy's interest and attachment to this city."
She added: "All of Lebanon has gone through very difficult days, especially the
city of Tripoli, so we, as an embassy, have the intention to organize more
activities for the city and its people, by encouraging the establishment of
small companies and businesses between Lebanon and Italy."The Italian Ambassador
continued to emphasize that “although Lebanon is going through very tough times,
we must not forget the culture, which we ought not consider as a luxury for a
few people, but as a need to define our identity, and this is the subject of the
exhibition that we see today at Al Azm Cultural Center - Art House...The images
that you see indicate a succession of many civilizations in Sicily, similar to
the civilizations that followed in Lebanon, and these civilizations left their
mark in Sicily as in Lebanon.”She added: “Here, we witness the Arab architecture
found in Tripoli and in the city of Palermo in Sicily. Therefore, we see
similarities between Italy and Lebanon, and we will seek to strengthen
everything that unites them, and we will be present as in the past, in the
present and in the future.”
تقرير من موقع “ذي ناشيونال” يلقي الأضواء على مبادرة شباب الأشرفية حراستها من
المخلين بالأمن والمعتدين على أهلها
On patrol in Beirut, the crime-busting neighbourhood watchmen of Achrafieh
But organisers reject comparisons with Lebanon Civil War militias who patrolled
districts under pretext of ‘security’
By:Jamie Prentis/The National/November 26/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/113654/we-were-born-in-achrafieh-we-have-lived-in-achrafieh-and-we-will-die-in-achrafieh-%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d8%b0%d9%8a-%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%b4%d9%8a/
Achrafieh, Beirut
Akram Nehme flicks through his phone and stops at CCTV footage from the previous
night showing four people stealing a motorbike in Achrafieh, a largely Christian
and relatively wealthy neighbourhood of east Beirut.
Mr Nehme heads a local organisation called Achrafieh 2020, an NGO funding a
neighbourhood watch scheme to monitor an apparent increase in crime in the area
— a symptom of Lebanon’s economic freefall.
Patrolling Achrafieh with torches and batons, the watchmen illuminate Beirut’s
streets, often dark and lacking electricity, not far from Charles Malek avenue,
built on a civil war fault line, which cuts the capital’s west side from its
east. Achrafieh’s 120 new “guardian angels”, recruited locally, work split
shifts from 6pm to 6am.
The NGO, funded by residents and the Lebanese diaspora, has contracted a
security company to train the watchmen, who are divided into teams of six to
eight people under the supervision of a security company employee. “We consider
ourselves privileged to live in a nice area,” said Mr Nehme, the chairman of
Achrafieh 2020. “Since 2018, the state is on the verge of collapse — Covid, the
[2020 Beirut port] explosion, the economic situation.” The organisation
describes itself as an apolitical, transparent body that seeks to transform
Achrafieh into a better place to live — through cultural, ecological or
humanitarian means.Organisers say the scheme is merely filling a gap left by
Lebanon’s underfunded and overstretched police force. They reject suggestions
that the initiative shares any similarities with militia-operated patrols and
checkpoints that were common during the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War, which
killed about 120,000 people and wrecked the city. During the war, militias from
their respective neighbourhoods and communities patrolled their own areas under
the pretext of security. “People are not feeling safe. Our initiative was a
response to citizen’s requests,” Mr Nehme said. The initiative is backed by the
founder of Achrafieh 2020 and East Beirut MP Nadim Gemayel, who is a member of
the Kataeb Party.
He says in the past couple of years, the community has become more vocal about
the sense of insecurity in the area. One way was to increase the lighting in the
city — not an easy task in a country with barely any state electricity on any
given day. “In parallel, we decided to tackle the fact that there are a lot of
robberies in the region, not just in Achrafieh,” Mr Gemayel said near the top of
the Saint Nicholas stairs that lead up to the Sursock neighbourhood of Achrafieh.
“We decided to tackle it very simply by being complementary to the police, being
an additional layer to the police. It’s not at all a replacement
measure.”Achrafieh’s western tip straddles the old Green Line that effectively
divided Beirut during the war. Few surnames are more synonymous with the Civil
War and Lebanon’s Christian Maronite community than that of Gemayel.
Bachir Gemayel, Nadim’s father, was a highly influential militia leader who
commanded the military wing of the largely Christian Kataeb political party. To
his supporters, he is revered and adored — a protector of the community whose
face still plasters the walls of Achrafieh. But to his detractors, the Kataeb
are synonymous with the massacres of Palestinian and Lebanese Muslims during the
conflict. A huge banner shows Lebanon’s late president elect Bachir Gemayel,
father of Nadim Gemayel, in Beirut’s Sassine Square. He was assassinated in
September 1982. Arthur MacMillan / The National
Nadim Gemayel was only months old when his father was assassinated in 1982,
weeks after being elected president, but before he could take office. He
strongly rejects any idea that the neighbourhood-watch scheme reflects a return
to the past. “It’s not at all similar to the Civil War,” he said. “First, we are
not in a civil war. We’re not in a war situation. Second, we are in complete
co-ordination with the police, the Mukhabarat and all the necessary authorities
that are needed to do our activity. “We’re not here to replace them. We are here
only to create the first layer of contact prior to them intervening. So if they
need 10 minutes to intervene, we’re here to fill in the gaps of the 10 minutes.
So it’s not at all personal militia or a replacement of the state.” Organisers
insist that the watchmen have no powers to ask for people’s documents or what
their names are. They are simply there to “monitor the neighbourhood” and notify
the police, Mr Nehme says.“Unless they catch somebody obviously committing a
crime, the only thing they can do is hold him — not beat him — call the police
and give them to the police,” he says, adding that the batons are for self
defence.
All of those recruited are from Achrafieh.
When asked if he could see why, for some, that could generate controversy, Mr
Gemayel says: “Where do you want me to recruit them from? Does Hezbollah recruit
from Achrafieh?” The Iran-backed political party and armed group is highly
influential in Lebanon and is frequently criticised by Mr Gemayel’s Kataeb Party
and its allies. “We cannot recruit from outside because we’re not paying
transport fees,” he adds. And while Mr Gemayel is vocally supportive of the
initiative, he says his party is not funding it and the scheme is unrelated to
politics. Instead, he says it has even received the support of local MP Nicolas
Sehnaoui from the rival Free Patriotic Movement, a party that is politically
allied with Hezbollah.
‘It’s just a neighbourhood watch’
A short while later, The National caught up with Mr Sehnaoui as he entered an
Achrafieh restaurant. “I think the government is in meltdown mode because of the
economic crisis. And there is a void, a very big void in most of the country,
but especially in the Beirut 1 district,” he says. “So when there is such a big
void, of course people look for solutions to protect themselves, protect their
mothers, their children at night. I think if it’s done in a very professional
manner, away from sectarian politics, security agendas, [and it’s] just a
neighbourhood watch, it could be very useful,” Mr Sehnaoui, a former
telecommunications minister, added. Pressed on any similarities to the times of
the past, he said: “Look, it depends on the way it is done. If it is done in a
sectarian approach or in a political agenda, it can evolve to this. “If it is
done in a neighbourhood, positive and clean state of mind, it cannot evolve to
this. So the answer is in the practice. If it’s practised correctly, it’s very
good and it’s completely away from politics.” For now, the scheme is in its soft
roll-out phase and the organisers are seeking feedback. “We’re addressing a
major problem that is happening in all of Lebanon. We’re tackling it in the best
and most ethical way. I repeat and insist on this point — we’re not here to
control freedom of movement, not at all,” Mr Gemayel said. Organisers insist
there is a zero-tolerance policy — any watchmen abusing their powers will
automatically be fired.“Achrafieh shall always remain the beating heart of
Beirut and a model of culture, beauty and joy of life,” Mr Nehme said.“We were
born in Achrafieh, we have lived in Achrafieh and we will die in Achrafieh.”
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on November
26-27/2022
Amnesty International lauds UN probe into Iran human rights violations
Arab News/November 26, 2022
LONDON: Amnesty International has applauded the establishment of a fact-finding
mission to investigate human rights violations in Iran as “long overdue” given
the “dire situation” in the country.
Responding to Thursday’s announcement from the UN Human Rights Council that the
“landmark” resolution had been passed, Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnes
Callamard said: “The cries of the people in Iran for justice have finally been
heard. It not only enhances international scrutiny of the dire situation, but
puts in place a process to collect, consolidate and preserve crucial evidence
for future prosecutions. She added: “We hope it marks a fundamental shift in the
international community’s approach to tackling the crisis of systematic impunity
that has long fueled crimes under international law and other serious human
rights violations in Iran.”The fact-finding mission comes 73 days on from the
murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s
notorious morality police. Amini’s death ignited a tinderbox of pent-up
frustrations over falling living standards and discrimination against women and
minorities, and has fueled the most widespread protests seen in the country
since the 1979 revolution, with no signs of the protesters backing down. The
fact-finding mission is mandated to “collect, consolidate and analyze evidence
of such violations and preserve evidence, including in view of cooperation, in
any legal proceedings.” Amnesty said as the resolution was being negotiated,
Iranian authorities continued to reject the findings of UN experts and human
rights organizations, and have persisted in widespread use of unlawful lethal
force and sought the death penalty for protesters. Iran has faced repeated
cycles of protests since 2018, all of which have been met with violent
reprisals. “States must now ensure that the mandate is made operational and
sufficiently resourced without delay and call upon the Iranian authorities to
cooperate fully with the mission and allow unhindered access to the country,”
said Callamard. “This vote must also serve as a wake-up call for the Iranian
authorities to immediately end their all-out militarized attack on
demonstrators.” Callamard said Amnesty has “consistently” documented crimes
under international law committed by Iranian authorities against protesters,
including unlawful killings, unwarranted use of lethal force, and mass arbitrary
arrests and detentions. It has also recorded enforced disappearances, torture
and other ill-treatment, and the sentencing of individuals to lengthy prison
terms or death. Amnesty said: “Iranian authorities have ignored repeated calls
by the international community to open criminal investigations into such crimes.
“Instead, they have sought to destroy evidence of crimes
while persecuting survivors and victims’ relatives.”
Iran Blasts UN Probe into Crackdown on Protesters
London - Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
Tehran on Friday condemned the United Nations Human Rights Council decision to
establish an independent investigation into the ongoing deadly violence against
protesters in Iran. Earlier this month, Germany and Iceland submitted a draft
resolution to the Council’s member states urging them to set up a fact-finding
mission to start investing the ongoing human rights violations. The resolution
was put to a vote on Thursday afternoon and was adopted with 25 votes. Six
member states of the Human Rights Council voted against and 16 abstained from
the vote. The vote drew praise from several countries amid an escalatory
security campaign employed by Iranian authorities against protesters. However,
Iran's foreign ministry condemned the UN decision to probe the Iranian
republic's response to unrest following the death of Mahsa Amini.Tehran had
opposed holding the urgent council session on Thursday as requested by Germany
and Iceland. It “totally rejects” the resolution that was adopted to establish a
high-level fact-finding mission, the ministry said in a statement late Thursday.
The foreign ministry also said that Iran had already formed a national
commission of inquiry involving legal experts and independent representatives.
“The formation of any new mechanism to examine the incidents over the past two
months in Iran is useless and represents a violation of the country's national
sovereignty,” it said. Iran “does not recognize the mission,” the ministry
added. Tehran then blamed Germany and other countries which supported the
resolution of making “false and provocative allegations about violating men,
women and children's rights, which Iran denies.”“This resolution was made under
pressure from certain political lobbies that depend on false information spread
by anti-Iranian media,” the foreign ministry charged.
It denounced a “strategic error by Germany and certain Western countries" and
said "this blindness will be detrimental to their interests.”During Thursday's
session, UN rights chief Volker Turk insisted that “the unnecessary and
disproportionate use of force must come to an end.”US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken welcomed the vote. "Today's session leaves no doubt that the HRC's
membership recognizes the gravity of the situation in Iran, and the fact-finding
mission established today will help ensure that those engaged in the ongoing
violent suppression of Iranian people are identified and their actions
documented," he said in a statement. Also, National Security Advisor to
President Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, described the UN vote as a “clear
demonstration of growing international commitment to hold the Iranian regime
accountable for its brutal crackdown against the Iranian people.”
Iran rapper arrested over protests risks death penalty:
family
AFP/November 26, 2022
PARIS: The family of an Iranian rapper detained for supporting protests over
Mahsa Amini’s death said his life was at risk after he went on trial behind
closed doors on Saturday. Iran has intensified a crackdown on the protests
sparked by the September 16 death of Amini after her arrest in Tehran for
allegedly breaching the country’s strict dress code for women. Toomaj Salehi,
well known on Iran’s rap scene, was arrested late last month after denouncing
the regime and showing support for the protests, human rights groups said.
“Dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi had the first day of his so-called ‘trial’ today
in Tehran without a lawyer of his choice,” the New York-based Center for Human
Rights in Iran said on Twitter. His family tweeted that his “life is at serious
risk right now” as he faced charges of “enmity against God” and “corruption on
earth” — sharia-related charges that are capital crimes in the Islamic republic.
Salehi had disappeared at the end of October before appearing in a video
published on November 2 by Iran’s state-run media. The video claimed to show the
first images of Salehi after his arrest. It depicted a tattooed man in a
sleeveless black T-shirt sitting on the ground, wearing a blindfold and looking
bloodied and bruised. The man says: “I am Toomaj Salehi. I said I made a
mistake. I said... that you should run. I didn’t mean you.”Activists condemned
the recording as a forced confession extracted under duress. Salehi is one of a
number of prominent figures to be arrested in a mass crackdown that has seen
dozens of journalists, lawyers, civil society and cultural figures arrested. His
detention came shortly after he gave an interview highly critical of the regime
to the Canadian Broadcasting Cooperation. “You are dealing with a mafia that is
ready to kill the entire nation... in order to keep its power, money and
weapons,” Salehi said in the interview. Iranian state media claim Salehi was
arrested while trying to cross one of the country’s western borders, but his
family have denied this saying he was in the southwestern province of
Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari at the time.
Iran’s Khamenei Praises Basij Forces for Confronting
‘Riots’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Basij militia forces
sacrificed their lives in "riots" sparked by the death in custody of a young
Iranian Kurdish woman in September. The Basij force, affiliated with the
country's Revolutionary Guards, has been at the forefront of the state crackdown
on protests that have spread across the country. "They have sacrificed their
lives to protect people from rioters," Khamenei said in a televised speech.
Authorities have blamed Iran's foreign enemies and their agents for
orchestrating the unrest, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 after
being arrested by the morality police that enforces strict dress
codes in the country. The activist news agency HRANA said as of Friday 448
protesters have been killed, including 63 children. It said 57 members of the
security forces have also been killed, and an estimated 18,170 people arrested.
Russian shelling kills 15 in Kherson as Ukraine battles
to restore power
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson killed 15 civilians,
officials said, as engineers across the country sought to restore heat, water
and power to major cities. Throughout the country, Russian air strikes in recent
weeks have brought Ukraine's energy infrastructure to its knees as winter
approaches and temperatures near freezing, spurring fears of a health crisis and
a further exodus. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than six
million households in the country were still affected by power cuts, two days
after targeted Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The country's
national energy company, Ukrenergo, said late Friday that the grid was still
facing a 30 percent deficit, with its technicians working "around the clock" to
restore power. But it said it expected to increase coverage over the weekend,
boosted by additional nuclear power.
The attack on Kherson, a key southeastern city recently recaptured by Ukrainian
forces, marked the deadliest Russian bombardment in recent days. A total of "15
residents were killed and 35 injured, including one child, as a result of enemy
shelling", city official Galyna Lugova said. Several "private houses and
high-rise buildings" had been damaged, she added. "The Russian invaders opened
fire on a residential area with multiple rocket launchers. A large building
caught fire," said Yarovslav Yanushovich, head of the Kherson military
administration. Earlier Friday, the region's governor said patients in the city
hospital and others from a psychiatric unit had been evacuated because of
"constant Russian shelling."The Kherson city council said it was offering to
evacuate civilians to other regions. The attacks on power stations and other
infrastructure resources throughout Ukraine are Russia's latest attempt to force
Ukrainian capitulation after Moscow's forces failed to topple the government and
capture Kyiv in the war's early stages.
Critical infrastructure
In the capital, where about half of residents were still without power two days
after Russian strikes hammered the country's energy grid, engineers worked to
restore services. "We have to endure this winter, a winter that everyone will
remember," Zelensky said on social media, as UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly
visited to announce a new aid package. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal
told a government meeting, "Almost all Ukraine's critical infrastructure has
been reconnected." Critical infrastructure includes water utilities, heat
generation plants, hospitals and emergency services. But Shmygal said ordinary
consumers continued to face scheduled power cuts across every region of the
country. Ukraine's Western allies have denounced the Russian attacks on energy
infrastructure as a "war crime". The strikes have come in the wake of a string
of military setbacks for Russia on the frontlines. Moscow insists it is
targeting only military-linked infrastructure and has blamed Kyiv for the
blackouts, saying Ukraine can end the suffering by agreeing to Russian demands.
Putin meets mothers
Meanwhile, for the first time since he launched the war in February, Russian
President Vladimir Putin met the mothers of soldiers fighting in Ukraine,
assuring those whose children had been killed that he and Russia's elite "share
this pain.""I want you to know I, personally, and the entire leadership of the
country share this pain," he told them. He said that many reports about the
conflict could not be trusted, describing them as "fake news, deceit and lies."
Russia has introduced legislation that effectively bans public criticism of the
war. Kremlin critics accuse authorities of concealing the real number of dead
and wounded Russian troops. Anger and concern have built across Russia since the
Kremlin announced in September that hundreds of thousands of well-trained and
well-equipped conscripts would be sent to the battlefield to bolster Moscow's
struggling campaign. But chaos ensued, with widespread reports of exempted men
-- including the elderly and infirm -- being dispatched to the front and
conscripts dying after receiving nearly no training, forcing the Kremlin to
concede "mistakes."Putin's meeting with the soldiers' mothers is a sign the
Kremlin takes the growing malaise seriously.
Visiting Kyiv on Friday, Britain's foreign minister announced new aid for
Ukraine, including ambulances and support for victims of sexual violence by
Russian soldiers. "Russia is continuing to try and break Ukrainian resolve
through its brutal attacks on civilians, hospitals and energy infrastructure,"
Cleverly said. "Russia will fail," he said, vowing UK support "will continue for
as long as it takes." Meanwhile, the head of Russian mercenary outfit Wagner,
Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Friday that a former U.S. Marine general and several
British and Finnish fighters were operating with the group in Ukraine. "(Finns)
are fighting in a British battalion (as part of Wagner PMC), which is commanded
by a U.S. citizen, a former general of the Marine Corps," Prigozhin's press
service said he told Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
Iraq Stresses Significance of Ties with US
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stressed on Friday the importance
of his country’s ties with the United States.
Iraq is seeking balanced ties with its regional and international environment in
a way that preserves national sovereignty, he said as he welcomed a US Congress
delegation headed by Senator Mark Takano Iraq is committed to supporting the
stability and security of the region, he added according to a government
statement. Sudani and the American officials discussed bilateral relations
between Baghdad and Washington, the war on terrorism and the Iraqi forces’
crackdown on ISIS remnants. They discussed bolstering relations and the
partnership in line with the strategic agreement, including in combating climate
change and water scarcity. Iraq is struggling with water shortages due to
Türkiye and Iran reducing supplies from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which
are having an impact on its agricultural production and increasing
desertification.
Syrian Kurds Say They Have Stopped Operations against ISIS
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
The commander of the main US-backed Kurdish-led force in Syria said Saturday
they have halted operations against the ISIS group due to Turkish attacks on
northern Syria over the past week. Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces
told reporters that after nearly a week of Turkish airstrikes on northern Syria,
Ankara is now preparing for a ground offensive. He said Türkiye-backed
opposition fighters are getting ready to take part in the operations. Abdi added
that Turkish strikes over the past week have caused severe damage to the
region’s infrastructure. Abdi said Türkiye is taking advantage of the deadly
Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on Kurdish groups. Kurdish
organizations have denied any involvement in the Istanbul attack that killed six
and wounded dozens. Over the past week, Türkiye launched a wave of airstrikes on
suspected Kurdish rebels hiding in neighboring Syria and Iraq in retaliation for
the Istanbul attack. “The forces that work symbolically with the international
coalition in the fight against ISIS are now targets for the Turkish state and
therefore (military) operations have stopped,” Abdi said. “Anti-ISIS operations
have stopped.” His comments came hours after the US military said two rockets
targeted US-led coalition forces at bases in the northeastern Syrian town of
Shaddadeh resulting in no “injuries or damage to the base or coalition
property.” The US military statement said SDF fighters visited the site of the
rocket's origin and found a third unfired rocket. The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, in an early report
about the Friday night rocket attack said “the area has been witnessing attacks
by (ISIS) cells.” It later said that Iran-backed militias “are responsible for
yesterday’s rocket fire.” “Attacks of this kind place coalition forces and the
civilian populace at risk and undermine the hard-earned stability and security
of Syria and the region,” said Col. Joe Buccino, CENTCOM spokesman. The SDF said
in a statement before midnight Friday that as Turkish drones flew over the al-Hol
camp that is home to tens of thousands of mostly wives, widows and children of
ISIS fighters, some ISIS family members attacked security forces and managed to
escape from the sprawling facility. The SDF did not say how many escaped but
that they were later detained. Kurdish authorities operate more than two dozen
detention facilities scattered across northeastern Syria holding about 10,000
ISIS fighters. Among the detainees are some 2,000 foreigners whose home
countries have refused to repatriate them, including about 800 Europeans.
US Official Urges ‘De-escalation’ as Türkiye Strikes Syria
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
A US official in Syria on Friday called for an “immediate de-escalation”
following days of deadly airstrikes and shelling along the Syria-Türkiye border,
saying the actions destabilize the region and undermine the fight against the
ISIS group. Türkiye this week launched a wave of airstrikes on suspected Kurdish
rebels hiding in neighboring Syria and Iraq, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13
bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the Kurdish groups. The groups have
denied involvement in the bombing and say the Turkish strikes have killed
civilians and threatened the anti-ISIS fight. The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that 67 civilians,
gunmen and soldiers, have been killed in Turkish attacks in northern Syria since
the airstrikes began. Nikolas Granger, the US senior representative to
northeastern Syria, said Washington “strongly opposes military action that
further destabilizes the lives of communities and families in Syria and we want
immediate de-escalation.” The developments are “unacceptably dangerous and we
are deeply concerned,” said Granger, who is currently in Syria, and added that
the strikes also endanger US military personnel there. Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan threatened a new land invasion of northern Syria targeting
Kurdish groups. On Friday, he said Türkiye would continue its “struggle against
all kinds of terror inside and outside our borders.” Türkiye and the United
States both consider the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a terror
group for the decades long insurgency and attacks the group has staged within
Türkiye’s borders. But they disagree on the status of the main Kurdish faction
in Syria, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The Syrian Kurdish group has
been a key US ally in the fight against ISIS. Türkiye has carried out three
major incursions into northern Syria since 2016 and its forces still control
part of the country. Kurdish officials in Syria have been warning that any new
Turkish incursion would disrupt the fight against ISIS, which still has sleeper
cells and has carried out deadly attacks in recent months against the Syrian
Kurdish-led opposition forces as well as Syrian government forces. “We take
these threats seriously and prepare to confront any ground attacks,” Siamand
Ali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces told The
Associated Press.
Türkiye's Erdogan Vows to Create 'Safe Zone' in Syria
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday vowed to protect Türkiye’s southern
border with a "safe zone" in Syria after Ankara launched a barrage of air
strikes against Kurdish fighters. Erdogan has long sought to build a "safe zone"
with a depth of 30 kilometers (19 miles) inside Syria and repeatedly threatened
this year to start a new military operation to achieve this goal, AFP reported.
Türkiye’s military has conducted three offensives against Kurdish fighters since
2016 and already captured territory in northern Syria, held by Ankara-backed
Syrian proxies."With the security (zone) we are establishing on the other side
of our border, we are also protecting the rights of millions of women and
children," Erdogan said during a televised speech to mark International Day for
the Elimination of Violence against Women."God willing we will complete this
(zone) along the border from the west to the east as soon as possible," he
added. Following a bombing in Istanbul on November 13 that killed six people and
injured 81, Türkiye launched a series of air strikes across parts of Iraq and
Syria on Sunday, targeting Kurdish groups. Türkiye blamed the bombing on the
Syrian Kurdish YPG group and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK is
designated a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
Kurdish groups deny any involvement in the Istanbul attack. Türkiye says the
Kurdish YPG group is allied with the PKK, which has waged an insurgency against
the Turkish state since 1984. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights, Türkiye launched raids Friday on Hasakeh in northeast Syria, held
by the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), now the Kurds' de facto
army. Erdogan wants the "safe zone" to include the Syrian Kurdish border city of
Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, which was captured by Kurdish YPG forces in
2015 with the support of the United States.
Jordan Thwarts Drug Smuggling Bid Coming from Syria
Amman - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
The Jordanian Armed Forces foiled on Saturday an attempt to smuggle large
quantities of drugs into Jordanian territory coming from Syria, said a military
statement, which Asharq Al-Awsat obtained a copy of. An official military source
in the General Command said that Jordan’s border guards, in coordination with
the security services, detected, without saying when, an armed group of
smugglers illegally crossing the borders from Syrian territory into Jordan.
Quick response patrols were immediately mobilized, opening fire at the
smugglers. One of them was injured while the rest of the gang fled back to
Syria. The source said that 564 hashish packages and 20 thousand Captagon pills,
a Kalashnikov, and some quantities of ammunition were found during the
search.Jordan’s military forces said their efforts will continue to confront any
threat along the country's border and to safeguard the country's security.
2nd Israeli, Wounded in Jerusalem Blasts, Dies
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 26 November, 2022
An Israeli man died Saturday from wounds he sustained in twin blasts that hit
Jerusalem earlier this week, bringing to two the number of dead in the
explosions that Israeli police blamed on Palestinians. Shaare Zedek Medical
Center in Jerusalem announced that Tadesse Teshome Ben Madeh had died. He was
critically wounded in one of the blasts at the city’s bus stops. “The trauma and
intensive care teams of Shaare Zedek fought for his life, but unfortunately his
injury was very fatal,” the hospital said. The first explosion occurred near a
typically crowded bus stop on the edge of the city. The second went off about
half an hour later in Ramot, a settlement in the city’s north. One of the blasts
immediately killed Aryeh Schupak, 15, a dual Israeli-Canadian national who was
heading to a Jewish seminary when the blast went off. The blasts wounded about
18 Israelis, three of them seriously. While Palestinians have carried out
stabbings, car rammings and shootings in recent years, bombing attacks have been
very rare since the end of a Palestinian uprising nearly two decades ago. No
Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem explosions. Tensions
between Israelis and Palestinians have been surging for months, amid nightly
Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank prompted by a spate of deadly attacks
against Israelis that killed 19 people in the spring. More than 130 Palestinians
have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east
Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. The Israeli army
says most of the Palestinians killed have been gunmen. But stone-throwing youths
protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations
have also been killed.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November
26-27/2022
Is the Biden Administration Colluding with Russia to
Allow Iran to Go Nuclear?
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/November 26, 2022
The mullahs are freely expanding their nuclear weapons program, now enriching
uranium to nearly weapons-grade level. Iran is also seeking assistance from its
ally, Russia, to bolster its nuclear program, according to the US intelligence
officials.
Iran has been providing attack drones to Russia that are being used in Ukraine
and is preparing also to deliver ballistic missiles. As a result, it should not
come as a surprise that the Islamic Republic is going to seek something in
return from Russia for these weapons deliveries.
The regime continues to keep the IAEA's cameras at Iran's nuclear facilities
turned off. By doing so, it is effectively preventing the IAEA from monitoring
its nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment.
Iran's regime also refuses to answer the IAEA's questions about uranium
particles found at three of its undeclared nuclear sites.
To what lengths will the Biden administration go to protect Iran's mullahs,
allow them to crush anti-regime protestors, and collude with Russia to help Iran
acquire nuclear weapons capability?
Iran's mullahs are freely expanding their nuclear weapons program, now enriching
uranium to nearly weapons-grade level. Iran is also seeking assistance from its
ally, Russia, to bolster its nuclear program, according to the US intelligence
officials.
It has been nearly a year since nuclear negotiations with Iran stalled; since
then, the Biden administration appears to be sitting idly by watching the ruling
mullahs advance their nuclear weapons program.
The mullahs are freely expanding it, now enriching uranium to nearly
weapons-grade level. Iran is also seeking assistance from its ally, Russia, to
bolster its nuclear program, according to the US intelligence officials.
Kamal Kharrazi, Iran's former foreign minister, pointed to Iran's major advances
in an interview to Al Jazeera:
"It's no secret that we have become a quasi-nuclear state. This is a fact. And
it's no secret that we have the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb... In
the past, and within just a few days, we were able to enrich uranium up to 60%,
and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium."
Iran has been providing attack drones to Russia that are being used in Ukraine
and is preparing also to deliver ballistic missiles. As a result, it should not
come as a surprise that the Islamic Republic is going to seek something in
return from Russia for these weapons deliveries.
The governments of France, Germany and the UK made a joint statement to the
board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this month,
calling the situation "very dangerous," and saying:
"Iran continues its unprecedented nuclear escalation. This raises serious doubts
as to the nature of Iran's nuclear programme, which threatens regional and
international security."
The emboldened and empowered leaders of Iran have been stonewalling the IAEA,
which monitors both the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities and compliance.
The regime continues to keep the IAEA's cameras at Iran's nuclear facilities
turned off. By doing so, it is effectively preventing the IAEA from monitoring
its nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment. This led to a recent
statement by the EU that pointed out:
"For the past years, the EU has repeatedly expressed, and again reiterates
today, its serious concerns at the presence of nuclear material at undeclared
locations in Iran. The EU is deeply concerned that the current location of this
nuclear material and/or of equipment contaminated by nuclear material, which may
still exist in Iran today, is not known to the Agency.
"On many occasions, the EU has called on Iran to provide the IAEA with the
necessary explanations in accordance with the obligations under its
Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement. The Board of Governors adopted two
resolutions, in June 2020 and June 2022, to call on Iran to clarify those
outstanding safeguards issues. At the September 2022 Board Meeting, 56 States
emphasized this call through a Joint Statement. Despite those repeated calls for
action, Iran has yet to take the necessary actions and provide technically
credible explanations."
Iran's regime also refuses to answer the IAEA's questions about uranium
particles found at three of its undeclared nuclear sites. The UK, France and
Germany previously acknowledged the fact that Tehran "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 keeps claiming that its nuclear program is designed for
peaceful purposes. If this true, however, why is the regime refusing to
cooperate with the IAEA and why it has shut off its cameras at the nuclear
facilities?
Evidence, and the words of Iran's officials, not only indicate that the regime
desires to obtain nuclear weapons, but that it could already "produce" a nuclear
bomb today. Based on Israel's 2018 seizure of documents from a "nuclear archive"
in Tehran, the Institute for Science and International Security revealed:
"Iran intended to build five nuclear warheads, each with an explosive yield of
10 kilotons and able to be delivered by ballistic missile... This report
discusses another document available from the archive that provides an early
look at how Iran planned to achieve its goal of designing and manufacturing five
nuclear weapons..."
The Biden administration doubtless understands that if Iran, called by the US
State Department the "world's worst state sponsor of terrorism," becomes
equipped with nuclear weapons, it is likely that its nuclear weapons will fall
into the hands of its proxy and militia groups, and that the Iranian regime will
share its nuclear technology with them. The Iranian regime has already set up
weapons factories abroad and manufactured advanced ballistic missiles and other
weapons in foreign countries, including Syria.
The Biden administration also doubtless understand that other countries in the
region will not just accept such an existential threat and begin a vastly
destabilizing race of their own towards nuclear weapons.
To what lengths will the Biden administration go to protect Iran's mullahs,
allow them to crush anti-regime protestors, and collude with Russia to help Iran
acquire nuclear weapons capability?
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated
scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and
president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has
authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at
Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Who Runs the World? Ants.
Farhad Manjoo/The New York Times/November, 26/2022
In September, scientists at the University of Hong Kong published the most
complete census of ants ever assembled. The numbers are so big as to seem made
up. The study estimated that there are at least 20 quadrillion — that is,
20,000,000,000,000,000 — ants on Earth. That’s about 2.5 million ants for every
human being. And because the study relied on a conservative estimate for ants
that live in trees and did not include subterranean ants, the census is almost
certainly an undercount. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually turns out to be
an order of magnitude higher,” Sabine Nooten, an author of the study, told The
Times. The numbers floored me. Like perhaps every kid, I went through a period
of intense childhood obsession with ants, spending endless summer afternoons in
the backyard observing the mystery and majesty of ant life — how unbelievably
many there were, how elegantly they organized themselves, how terrifically busy
they all seemed. What has always beguiled me about ants is how their
similarities to humanity — they live in societies, they’ve all got jobs, they
endure arduous daily commutes to work — are offset by incomprehensible alienness.
So much of ant life makes no sense to us: There’s the abject selflessness, the
subsuming of the individual to the collective. There’s the absence of any
leadership or coordination, their lives dictated by instinct and algorithm, out
of which emerges collective intelligence. There’s the way they navigate and
communicate through chemical signals, creating road signs from pheromones and
never getting stuck in traffic jams.
But the quadrillion ant census got me thinking about ants in a way I hadn’t
before — as a social species not just remarkably different from our own but one
that is in many ways unquestionably superior.
Ants, I keep thinking, are an example for humanity to emulate. Over tens of
millions of years of evolution, ants have figured out how to become
astonishingly numerous without depleting the world around them. Indeed, just the
opposite is true: Because they provide so many important functions to their
habitats, they are “the little things that run the world,” as the great
sociobiologist and ant enthusiast E.O. Wilson once wrote about ants and other
invertebrates.
It is natural, as a human, to slip into thinking of our species as somehow
special. By many objective measures, though, ants are far more consequential to
life on Earth than we are. Wilson pointed out that if people were to disappear,
little about the world would change for the worse; if ants and other
invertebrates did, nearly everything would suffer. Ants aerate soil, transport
seeds and aid in decomposition; their mounds serve as dense nutrient oases that
are a foundation for a wide range of life. Given their centrality to life on the
planet, not to mention their teeming populations, shouldn’t we think more highly
of ants? They are among the most sophisticated and successful life-forms ever to
crawl the earth. Humans are, of course, smarter and bigger than ants, and in the
past 300,000 years or so of our species’ reign, we have conquered the planet and
commandeered its resources to a degree perhaps unmatched in the history of life.
But compared with those of ants and other social insects — bees, termites and
some wasps — our record is a hilarious blip.
Ants have been around for 140 million years. They are a dominant feature — often
some of the primary ecosystem engineers — of nearly every land-based ecosystem
on Earth. And they are the true inventors of what we think of as several
quintessentially human endeavors.
Ants have been farming for at least 60 million years. Leafcutter ants, for
instance, forage for vegetation, which they use to grow crops of a fungus that
they have domesticated for their exclusive use. Other ants maintain herds of
aphids that feed on the sap of plants; the ants then “milk” the aphids of their
sugar-rich secretions. Ants are also master architects, formidable warriors that
can also maintain peace through strength and even engage in compromise and a
kind of democracy. Ants aren’t always good neighbors. But even when they’re
ecologically destructive, they have much to teach us about cooperation. Over the
past century or so, the Argentine ant, an invasive species that hitched rides
with humans to spread from South America to much of the rest of the world, has
dominated the globe by forming a surprising and perhaps evolutionarily novel
organizational structure — the supercolony.
These are massive colonies of ants in which individuals mix freely among
different nests spread across huge distances. The ants do so because, in their
adaptation to their new lands, they dramatically reduced their aggressiveness,
allowing for much bigger collectives. One supercolony of Argentine ants spans
nearly 4,000 miles from Italy to Spain. It is “the largest cooperative unit ever
recorded,” to quote one study. This sort of social flexibility is a key part of
ants’ success. It’s hard to imagine that in a few million years, humans will
still be among the planet’s dominant life-forms. Ants, though? Their antics are
sure to endure. In a paper published this year, the ecologists Catherine Parr
and Tom Bishop suggested that even climate change, our species’ great stain on
the planet, might not prove a great calamity to ants, whose social structure
will allow them to “ride out environmental changes to a much greater degree than
solitary organisms.”Which, really, is no surprise. Ants were here before us, and
they are likely to long outlast us. They run the place. We’re just visiting.
UK Conservatives look beyond Sunak government
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/November 26/2022
Rishi Sunak this week celebrated the end of his first month as UK prime
minister, yet many of his fellow Conservative MPs are already looking beyond his
time in office to the next leader and the party’s future direction.
Sunak has not had the disastrous start to his leadership that Liz Truss did.
Nevertheless, he has already had one resignation from his top team in the form
of Sir Gavin Williamson, the Cabinet Office minister, while two others — Deputy
Prime Minister Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Suella Braverman — are “on the
rocks.”While it is by no means certain that Labour will win a big majority at
the next election, the odds are growing that the party will emerge with the
largest number of MPs in Westminster. This is encouraging a growing number of
Conservative MPs to announce their imminent retirement from politics, while
others think ahead to being back in opposition for the first time since 2010. At
this early stage, the Conservatives’ future direction remains unclear, but the
odds are high that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson will play a significant
role in the party’s future. While Johnson failed to become prime minister for a
second time last month, his political shadow looms large over Sunak’s
government.
More than a dozen ministers in Sunak’s Cabinet are holdovers from Johnson’s
governments from 2019 to 2022, including a significant number who were in
“political exile” under Truss: Raab, Michael Gove, Oliver Dowden and Ben Wallace
occupy the same roles as in Johnson’s last Cabinet.
Other ministers who served in Johnson’s top team and are now in new Cabinet jobs
include Sunak himself, James Cleverly, Grant Shapps, Gillian Keegan, Therese
Coffey, Steve Barclay, Nadhim Zahawi, Penny Mordaunt, Robert Jenrick and
Braverman.
Moreover, Johnson’s influence extends over Sunak’s government in a deeper way
that was not true of Truss’s. In his first speech as prime minister, Sunak
highlighted Johnson’s “incredible achievements” and insisted that “he will
deliver on the promise of the (2019) manifesto.” Clearly, Sunak sees the
success, or failure, of his government resting to a large degree on realizing
the vision that Johnson espoused at the 2019 election.
While Sunak’s government may not implode in the same way as his predecessor’s,
he has a major political hill to climb, and his plan seems to be to try to last
the course until 2024 before holding a general election. A 2023 ballot cannot be
ruled out, but like previous prime ministers who took over in midterm, he will
want to establish himself before going to the polls.
Rishi Sunak has framed his future success through the lens of the party’s 2019
win, and this could come back to haunt him. Sunak is well aware that he must now
hit the ground running in a perilous political environment where public opinion
is skeptical of his government. The fact that he will probably not enjoy a
“honeymoon” in Downing Street is shown by a YouGov opinion poll last month which
found that 56 percent want an early general election. Sunak knows that no party
in modern political history has won five elections in a row, and he must attempt
to do this in the context of a divided Conservative Party, high inflation,
increasing interest rates, and cuts in government spending. Sunak thus faces a
huge challenge, and in a context where Johnson — and, indeed, the large number
of ministers leaving office last month — could become significant political
thorns in his side. Johnson remains highly popular among Conservative members,
more so than the new prime minister, and it is plausible that he may again seek
the leadership, especially if Sunak is seen to “fail” by party members.
In the past century, four people have served second periods in Downing Street
after losing an election. It absolutely cannot be ruled out that Johnson might
be the fifth to achieve this feat. What makes Johnson’s presence potentially
potent is that he was turfed out of Downing Street not through the loss of a
national ballot but by an internal party vote that may be regretted by
increasing numbers of Conservative members if Sunak underwhelms in office.For
Johnson to have a serious shot at a comeback, it may also be necessary for a
wider slice of Conservative MPs and the electorate as a whole to become less
critical of his legacy from 2019-2022. For instance, an Ipsos survey released
over the summer showed almost half the UK public believes he did a bad job as
prime minister, the worst rating of any postwar leader.Taken together, this is
why Sunak’s prime ministerial inheritance is so potentially politically
poisonous for him. He has framed his future success through the lens of the
party’s 2019 win, and this could come back to haunt him, with Johnson possibly
becoming a key critic.
• Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.
Spanish decision shows tide turning on repatriating ISIS
brides
Faisal Al Yafai/The Arab Weekly/November 26/2022
Bringing back women and children from ISIS camps was always going to be
controversial, but it was the easier half of the problem. For one thing, it was
always clear they could not stay. It is not the job of Syrian or Kurdish
authorities to look after the criminal citizens of the West.
In the murky world of ISIS families, all diplomacy is conducted quietly. On
Monday, the Spanish government quietly admitted it would bring back several
Spanish wives and children of ISIS fighters, before the end of the year.
Newspaper reports placed the number at three women and 13 children, a figure
which, while small, represents a significant change for European countries.
It takes to more than 500 the number of women and children repatriated from
Kurdish-run detention camps in northern Syria this year, the highest number of
foreign nationals ever sent back and a sign that the tide of refusals by
countries abroad, especially European countries, is gradually turning.
The question of what to do with women and children of ISIS fighters has
bedevilled countries across the world since the once-sprawling ISIS territory
was retaken in 2019. There are perhaps 10,000 men and boys held in Kurdish-run
prisons, and another 60,000 women and children in Kurdish camps. The exact
number of Europeans is unknown, but has been estimated at around 1,000. For
years, the focus has been on returning women and children, many of whom were
born in ISIS-controlled territory.
Almost all European countries initially refused to bring back their citizens,
citing a variety of reasons, from lack of access to the camps to security
issues. But in the past 18 months, most have relented and all the major European
countries have taken back at least a handful of their citizens, always women and
children. Spain is only the most recent Western country to do so. In the past
few weeks, France, Britain and Australia have returned citizens. The change
appears to be related to a high profile case brought against France in the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this year.
The French case was watched particularly closely because so many French citizens
joined ISIS, more, in fact, than any other European country. Paris has been very
reluctant to bring back women and children, even orphans, arguing that they
still pose a security risk.
The case at the ECHR was brought on behalf of two women currently in a
Kurdish-run prison camp with their children, and argued the refusal of the
French government to repatriate them amounted to a violation of the women’s
right to enter the territory of their nationality. In mid-September, France lost
the case and agreed to re-examine the files of the two women.
A week later, France suddenly repatriated 15 women and 40 children, one of the
largest mass repatriations by a European country. It is unknown whether the two
women whose cases went to the ECHR were among those returned.
The ECHR decision did not change the legal terrain for European states; it did
not even establish that European citizens had to be returned. All it did was
argue that an independent body ought to examine any such decisions, so that
detainees would not be subject to arbitrary decisions.
But the ECHR decision appears to have influenced European and Western countries
into thinking that legal pathways for stopping their citizens returning are
running out.
The same week as the ECHR decision, Britain quietly brought back a woman and her
child from the same camp. That woman was not the most high profile British
detainee, Shamima Begum. Begum currently has a case before a special immigration
court to reverse a controversial decision to strip her of her citizenship,
rendering her stateless.
The biggest change, however, has come in Australia. Having refused to repatriate
any citizens since 2019, at the end of October, Australia brought back 17
citizens, a decision that caused a media firestorm. Even the families in
Australia heard the decision via the media, such was the secrecy. Yet
Australia’s government may well be about to go further. Media reports suggested
as many as 60 Australians may come home before the end of the year. Given that
media reports had previously put the number of Australians in Kurdish camps at
just 50, that could mean the government will repatriate all its citizens.
Given the secrecy, the government has not addressed whether the ECHR decision
was a factor. Yet for all the legal and political arguments over the
repatriation of Western citizens, the hardest part is yet to come. Bringing back
women and children from ISIS camps was always going to be controversial, but it
was the easier half of the problem. For one thing, it was always clear they
could not stay; it is not the job of Syrian or Kurdish authorities to look after
the criminal citizens of the West.
Moreover, the tools to deal with them already exist. Just this month, an
American woman from Kansas who led an all-female ISIS brigade was sentenced to
20 years in prison. Allison Fluke-Ekren was one of a suspected 300 Americans who
fought for ISIS . She was repatriated and faced trial. Similar trials or
extended periods of surveillance are manageable. No, the real test is yet to
come. Because once the women and children of ISIS fighters have been brought
home, attention will turn to the fighters themselves. The political firestorm
accompanying every single repatriated male of fighting age will be immense.
Politicians may have taken notice of the ECHR decision and sped up the return of
some former ISIS brides. But every Western politician will be keen to delay the
day their husbands are processed as far into the future as possible.